Explosive high speed drag-race action
The Tarlton Raceway on the West Rand will host round four of this year's South African Drag Racing championship on Friday.
BLAST OFF: Cars like the Gavin Wilkens Speed&Sound Mustang should top speeds of 280 km/h over Tarlton’s standing start 400-metre track.
Heading up proceedings will be Top Eliminator contestants like Nico van Rensburg (Lethal Weapon Funny Car), Dalmain Hattingh (A-Dragster), Deon Swanepoel (Whiplash A-Dragster) and Werner Conradie (Addiction Funny car). The cars should cover the quarter mile in under seven seconds, with top speeds of over 300 km/h.
The Senior Eliminator cars should be only marginally slower and represent some of the meanest machines in this country.
Current champion Gavin Wilkins (Speed&Sound Mustang) will face drivers like Nico van Rensburg (Adrenalize Ford Thunderbird), Richard Jordaan (Jordaan Nissan Champ), Charles Slater (Monte Carlo), Pieter Lombard (Turbo Rotary Mazda Rustler), Hannes Minnaar (Baby Cress Toyota Corolla) and Maruis Oosthuizen in the Budler BMW.
The 2012 SA champion, Shaun Watson (T-Bucket), will be the man to beat in the Super Competition Eliminator category. Opposition will come from Fanus Pieters (Opel Manta), Mark Slooten (Chev Camaro), Dalmein Perdichizzi (Chev Nova), Russell Slater (C-Dragster), Louwtjie van den Berg (Chevy 11) and Johan van Zyl (Corvette).
The Street Car scene is made up of Super Street and Modified Street categories. Leading the group will be Hannes Strauss (Cobra), Johan Gildenhuys (Cobra) and Steven Sienaert in a BMW.
Suzuki dominates the Superbike category with JJ Strauss, Sharief Reynolds, and Shaun Breedt. In the SB class, veteran rider Peter de la Rey (BMW) will face off against Jerry Lombard (Suzuki) and Bertus Breedt (Suzuki).
Additional entertainment for spectators will be led by a demonstration run of Tarlton’s 400 km/h J34 Westinghouse Jet Dragster driven by Nico van Rensburg. Later in the day Nigel Hopkins will perform in his Cirrus Racing Plane.
FMX Riders will entertain everyone with a crazy aerobatic show, the Rockford Fosgate Car Sound Competition will cater for car sound freaks along with a “Showtime Fanatics” Show and Shine competition.
Tickets cost R100 per adult and R40 for kids between the ages of six and 12. Tarlton offers free parking, take-away food and refreshments from various food outlets at the venue.
Gates open at 7am and racing is scheduled to start at 8am.
For more information contact Nico van Heerden on 011 762 5431 or 083 309 8461 or visit the website at www.tarltonrace.com.
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