FROM 10.1S TO 900HP: ANTHONY BURNS BRINGS HIS R31 BACK FOR ANOTHER DRAG CHALLENGE

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If you’ve been around Drag Challenge for a while, chances are you’ve seen Anthony Burns and one of his cars. The Harcourt local has never missed one since general entries opened, and this year he’s bringing back a familiar face, his burgundy R31 Skyline.

“This Skyline probably wasn’t really built for Drag Challenge, but ended up being built for Drag Challenge,” Anthony says.

It’s a car with plenty of history of its own.

Back in 2023, the Skyline ran a 10.1-second PB. That same year, Anthony experienced both ends of the Drag Challenge spectrum.

The first event finished with a hard-luck award after the diff broke every day.

Then, later that year, he came back and took out fastest manual.

“So we turned it around between those two Drag Challenges,” Anthony says. “It went from being a broken car to being a car that was faster than all the other manual cars.”

He hasn’t raced it since.

Instead, the R31 has spent the last few years off the road getting a serious refresh.

“It’s got new engine, new clutch, tuned by a different tuner,” Anthony says.

The old engine made around 600hp, but the new stroker LS is a much more serious piece, built to suit the turbo and now making about 900hp at the tyres.

Anthony has had plenty of help getting it all together, with Nathan Dawkins from Nathan’s Precision Machining tuning the car and helping him along the way, while Luke Mannix built and assembled the new engine.

There’s also a rebuilt diff, which is probably just as important as the extra power.

“I’ll probably break it every day again,” Anthony laughs.

That pretty much sums up Anthony’s approach to Drag Challenge. He just likes fast street cars and having a crack.

“I’m not a performance shop or anything. I’m just a dude with a wrecking yard. Like, the car’s not anything crazy.”

That attitude has been there since his very first Drag Challenge, when he turned up in an LS-powered XD Falcon wagon that he reckons was probably one of the slowest cars there.

“My car was pretty basic, but it got a lot of attention at the time was L98-powered XD Falcon.”

“So that’s sort of why I got on there. But it was slow and I was the slowest one. But I was just happy to be there.”

He did the event, got hooked and kept coming back.

“I did it and I was like, wow, this is crazy. I’m going to come back and we’ve kept going faster and faster.”

Anthony has watched the event change a lot over the years, too, particularly in the stick shift classes.

“It (the stick shift class) is blowing up,” he says, “a few of us pushed pretty hard for this class, so it’s awesome seeing it gain popularity.

“My skyline may never have gotten put back together if it wasn’t for stick shift becoming a thing.”

For Anthony, that’s part of what makes Drag Challenge so good.

“I love fast street cars. So this is where you see the fastest street cars in the country.”

“It’s also, if you want to be an entrant, where you can actually go and use your fast street car for what it’s built for, rather than just driving around and doing power skids on the street.”

But it’s not just the cars that keep him coming back.

The people are a huge part of it.

“The willingness of people to help each other out that don’t know each other and competing against each other sometimes…”

“No one’s ever too scared to sort of jump in and help someone. They’re generally good people. We’ve helped people. We’ve been helped.”

“That’s the reason I keep coming back, I think. I think it’s just a good family of people.”

This year, Anthony will have his usual crew around him, including his cousin flying down from Queensland and Dan Barbary from Canberra, who has helped crew the car over several years.

Dan has also been busy with his own car, an old Cortina running a BMW diesel, so there’ll be plenty to talk about once the two crews hit the road.
Anthony’s kids have grown up now, too. Last year he did Drag Challenge with his son in the XE ute, but this time around everyone has jobs and their own commitments.

There’s a good chance the next generation will eventually build their own cars, though.

For Anthony, this year’s goal is pretty simple.

“My goal this year officially is to finish.”

And with a rebuilt engine, more power and a car that’s already proven it can be both incredibly quick and incredibly hard on its driveline, there’s only one thing Anthony really needs to do now — get it through the week.

If he can do that, the R31 will have added another chapter to a Drag Challenge story.

Street Machine Drag Challenge, presented by VPW, runs from Tuesday 27 October to Saturday 31 October 2026, starting and finishing at Victorian Motorsports Park. Tickets are on sale now HERE