Sydney’s Craig Hewitt will be bringing one big, bad Holden Monaro to play at Perth Motorplex for the first time as part of the Drag Racing Grand Opening featuring the APSA Pro Street Shootout this Saturday.
He has heard good things about the air conditions and the track quality at Perth Motorplex and that leads him to think he could have a new personal best coming.
“I’m hoping the air is as good as everyone tells me and we can crack the 6.5 second range, that’s what we are trying to achieve,” he said. “Our quickest so far is a 6.85 and 6.68 is the record – held by a turbo guy – so we would like to better that.”
Hewitt’s Monaro has been particularly aggressive on the startline, with his last event at Willowbank Raceway seeing big top end charges characterised by tyre smoking launches.
“It’s power management, we are slowly working out that we need less to get more,” he said. “Being a new track we have never been too we are not sure how we will go, but we know what we are aiming for.”
Hewitt has long been a dedicated runner in the Pro Street scene, inspired by his friend Mark Hayes who ran a nitrous assisted Holden Torana.
Like Hayes, Hewitt followed the ‘laughing gas’ inspired path with a Holden VL Commodore first before deciding he needed a supercharger to have the mumbo to beat records.
“It was the need to check into the six second zone to keep up with the front runners,” he said. “We went blown to make sure we had enough horsepower with the weight breaks we have, knowing it would be a heavy car.”
Hewitt’s car is an original Holden Monaro CV8Z, a production line car that was never registered. It has an APM-built 501 cubic inch Keith Black with a 14-71 Kobelco supercharger on top. The car retains steel panels and is built to meet the confines of the Pro Street Blown ruleset.
“In Pro Street Blown you can have anything from the firewall back changed, but you have to remain steel body,” he said. “The front chassis rails remain and you can have aftermarket suspension but it has to bolt into the factory position.
“Other than that it is self starting, there’s a standard looking dash and all the engine combos are limited by weight breaks.”
Hewitt is part of the interstate invaders coming to take on the best in the west for the Drag Racing Grand Opening featuring the APSA Pro Street Shootout.
Qualifying begins from 11am with the feature program from 5pm.
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