Grudge racing has hit the south with the King of the Hill event bringing the ‘lights out’ treatment to Victoria’s Calder Park.
Competition class honours went to Steve Athans (above, image courtesy Hayley Turns/Outlaw Images), who defeated former AFL footballer Barry Hall in the final round.
“Barry got counted out on the tree and went red so it was a bit of a shemozzle for the final,” he said. “I think he tried to hold me out but this thing spools up straight away. I saw the red light and got on the chip and it was all over.”
Athans said he enjoyed the atmosphere of the event and believes the concept will prove popular in Victoria.
“I had a ball. I won the first King of the Hill trophy some 30 years ago with an HB Torana. It is something different, it was a good meeting with a good atmosphere, a lot of spectators. Being the first one hopefully the next one will be bigger.”
Hall’s big Holden ute was performing at its best in the early stages of the track but he admitted that he got caught out on the tree.
“The final was just my lack of knowledge about the seven second rule. I had no idea!” he said. “(I) was playing games with the turbo car next to me and didn’t that backfire. Won’t happen again though.”
Meanwhile Sharban’s Capri defeated Michael Brody’s Torana in the Street final. Sharban originally had no plans to race at the event.
“It took us two and a half hours in traffic so we missed the first practice session and really had no idea what to expect of the track for our first run,” he said. “We played with the nitrous controller and fed the gas in slow for the first run, then on the second run we fed it in hard and stood the car up. We turned it back down to just have fun and it paid off.”
Not everyone was so luck to go home with a trophy, as Rohan Hutson’s 1955 Chev went on to its roof as it crossed the finish line. Backfiring the supercharger caused a chain reaction of events as the blower belt took out a radiator hose, spraying fluid under the rear tyres.
“We ran a PB of 8.6/153 mph but then something let go in the engine and threw me into the wall at full noise at the end of the track,” he said. “I’m fine, not a scratch, (which) comes to show how safe roll cages are and how important a safety harness is.
For more from the interviews with the participants of King of the Hill, make sure to catch the next issue of Drag News Magazine.
The guys from Fullboost have put a great video together from the night, check it out below.
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