Nigel Dixon wasn’t stuffing about, and pushed his Hemi-powered Falcon doorslammer to a 6.438s at 210.37mph in the Top Doorslammer elimination round
Meanwhile, Barry Plumpton’s new toy — a Pro Stock Camaro named ‘The Bullet’ — is proving its potential to be an absolute weapon once Barry and the crew have gotten a handle on this cutting-edge piece of racing weaponry. A 7.65s at a leisurely 128.41mph shows the performance potential just waiting to be unlocked, and Barry’s 0.066-second reaction time is a clear reflection of his experience at the tree.
Gubb’s Racing weren’t messing around, and though the ETs weren’t anywhere near the team’s current best, the speed is right up there — the final elimination round saw Raymond Gubb run the twin-turbo dragster to a 6.088s at 239.65mph! That’s seriously moving!
In the Supercharged Outlaws class, Craig Griffith managed an impressive feat early on in the season, smashing his PB down from 6.92s at 192.68mph to a qualifying pass of 6.859s at 193.79mph — perhaps not a giant leap on paper, but an impressive achievement nonetheless. This car is on point, and rattles off ETs consistently in the high 6.8-second zone.
In Top Street, Fabian Goldbert is getting to grips with his new engine package, running the nitrous-assisted 800-plus-cube mountain from Barry Plumpton’s old Monte Carlo
“A lot to learn regarding Nos no gains at all have to sort the progressive controller out”
It wasn’t just a play date for the big boy machinery, though — in Super Street class, some decent results were being hammered out, with Patrick Heeney running his tough Ford XE Fairmont to an impressive 10.934s at 123.95mph, unfortunately breaking out in the process.
The final ended up with Jamie Connors in his HQ Kingswood against Greg Malcolm’s rapid Corvette, with Greg taking the win with a 11.852s 116.47mph after Jamie got a bit too keen and red-lit.
Up in Super Sedan, a protracted battle between big-hitters saw the final showdown between Falcons — Steve Carlsen’s tough ’64 Falcon up from the lower North Island, versus Dutchie’s later-model BF Falcon. She was always gonna be close, and with Steve running 8.465s at 158.13mph on an 8.42-second dial in, Dutchie’s breakout by the tinest of margins — a 8.605s on an 8.62 dial-in — meant it was extremely close to going his way.
And in Top Alcohol, it was more top-end action, with Chris Johnson rattling off consistent 5.5s at nearly 260mph, and the rebodied Altered of team Alsop staying firmly in the sixes, but clearly on form and hopefully ready to dip back into the fives this season.
A solid day’s racing saw the 2018–18 NZ IHRA National Series wrapped up for the year, and ready to return to the strip at the IHRA Wellington Invasion / Comp Meet 2 over the weekend of January 13–14, 2018.
