Variety is the spice of life they say, and the evolution of Roll Drags is just another form of drag racing – while possibly not appeasing all drag racing purists – has seen the new generation of racers take to it in droves.
Roll racing as it has been called elsewhere is not new to this country with circuit tracks running various forms, but running it on a prepped drag strip is for Australia.
The concept is simple, racers perform their normal burnout and stage routine to set the track timers so a winner can be determined. Both cars then keep pace at 50kph rolling up to a second Christmas tree, drivers dropping the hammer on that tree going green – first to the end wins.
The racing is aimed at your high performance street cars in general that usually hit up the local street meets, and removing the normal drag racing -and sometimes complicated on modern cars – launch procedure is less demanding on parts.
Extra atmosphere is provided via a DJ pumping music from the pits as spectators mingle around the many sweet rides.
Po Tung and his Grudge Kings brand was responsible for bringing the format to Sydney Dragway.
“Roll Drags was a concept that I have had since mid last year after seeing it run in the US,” said Tung.
“We brought it to Sydney Dragway as it’s a great facility, and I have a great working relationship with them. They are willing to have a go which is what I am about.”
“First event went well with a sellout 160 cars entered and attracted nearly 2000 people on a very cold winters night, there were some minor teething issues which we will be making changes too for the next event Friday August 4th. The event will be run first Friday of every month and be part of the SD calendar.”
Tung is looking to expand his format to other venues.
“We are working closely with IHRA to fine tune the Roll Drags Rules so we can take it to other tracks in Australia. I also hope we can also adopt the rules to suit ANDRA sanctioned tracks in the future.”
Like Grudge Kings events, pre-event call outs were ripe and a elimination bracket was formed for the super serious machines. The prepped track was hoped to close the gap between RWD cars and the all conquering 4WDs, however this event was still snapped up by the [TKNOVR] GT-R of Ibby Hawshar.
Check out our gallery from the event.
