Donna Collins
Drag racing took centre stage at the Tony Rust Raceway last Saturday, when 52 entries floored it up the ‘quarter mile’ drag strip during a cross boarder event which welcomed six of Cape Town’s fastest cars on the scene.
The ‘Street Outlaw Nam vs SA’ drag event formed part of the seventh round of the National Drag Racing championships, and recorded blistering times. The pressure was on for competitors to step up their times as there are only two more national drag events left before the 2017 winner is crowned.
Drag racing kicked off at 12:00 with some tyre squealing practise, followed by a full afternoon of serious two by two dicing which ended in a cloud of exhaust fumes before sunset. A large turnout of action seekers turned up at the track to enjoy and cheer on the competitors, in what has become a fast growing motorsport past time.
The event was organised by the Outlaw Motor Club. The club chairperson Lukas Shahangwapo described the event as a great day with a big crowd, despite the clashing activities such as the Windhoek Show and Walvis Bay Fish Eagle Rally on the same week-end.
The driver who clocked the fastest time of the day was Michael Van Zyl behind the wheel of a Golf 7R in 11.118 seconds. Hot on his bumper scoring the second fastest time of 11.511 seconds was another ace dragster Devaal Theunissen, driving a sky-blue Toyota Levin.
Commenting on the day one of the organisers Daniel Tjongarero said it was well attended, and went down as one of the most memorable events of the season with great camaraderie and spirit between the Nam drivers and the visiting SA guys.
“The resurgence of drag racing is here to stay, because you can tell by the increased entries we’ve seen over this past year,” said Tjongarero. “By taking the cars off the streets, and providing designated drag strips where safety, control, accurate timing system, and organised championship series promote the sport under the Namibian Motorsport Federation (NMSF), is a winning recipe,” he said.
He commended the Windhoek Motor Club for their support in hosting a series of night events at the Tony Rust Track for the guys who can’t contain their “need for speed”. Currently there are four drag racing clubs around the country.
The final two national events are being held at the Okahandja Airstrip, with the “Speed & Sound” event being hosted by Rehoboth Motor Club on 28 October, followed by the last one of the season on 2 December.