By Michael Esposito
THE drag racing season at Calder Park will roar into action on 22-23 January with the Australian Eight-mile Top Doorslammer Championship.
The championship, which is a part of the two-day True Blue event, will feature the country’s leading Top Doorslammer racers and will be the first of three competitions throughout the year that makes up the prestigious Triple Crown.
The second major event is the Labour Day Championship on 12-13 March, and will feature Australia’s richest Pro Stock drag race.
Rounding out the Crown is the Easter Nationals, on 23-24 April, which will include the nation’s fasted drag racing sedans.
A spectator or drag racer who attends one or all three events will win a classic 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, valued at $50,000.
Motor racing legend Bob Jane, who owns Calder Park, said there will be more drag racing events at Calder Park this year than there has been for a decade.
There will be at least two more major drag race events in the last quarter of 2011, with dates yet to be confirmed.
The regular fortnightly off-street drag racing program, where people can race their own road cars legally, will continue this year.
An off-street drag racing school, where people learn the benefits of racing on a drag strip instead of public roads, will also continue.
Calder Park Raceway general manager Ian Macarthur said more than 16 Doorslammer competitors from around Australia are expected to take part in the eight-mile championship this month.
The event will also see two of the world’s fastest six cylinder and rotary-powered cars race in Victoria for the first time when Tony Wedlock, in his turbocharged Toyota Aurion, takes on Rocky Rehayem’s rotary turbocharged Mazda 6 in the Pro FX challenge.
Both vehicles can cover the six-second time zone of the quarter-mile at more than 350 km/h.
All other races at the event will run over the traditional quarter-mile.
Qualifying is on 22 January 22, from noon to 10pm, while racing is on 23 January, from 10am to 5.30pm.
To book tickets, call 9091 0800 or visit www.calderpark.com.au
