Members from the Melbourne Drag Racing Club (MDRC) recently celebrated the club’s 50th anniversary. The origins of the MDRC began when members of the Scuderia Auto Club, which was involved in all forms of motorsport, wanted to form a club which would solely concentrate on drag racing.
From the halcyon days that followed the USA racers 1966 Dragfest tour of Australia, the MDRC was just one of several drag racing clubs that formed as newfound enthusiasm for the sport boomed. Born in 1974, the club contained numerous current and future stars; Mr Holden standout Bill Barclay, Fuel altered wild man Jim Walton. Gas class standout Chris Sirinotis, Prostock champion Hans Van Dyk. and dragster star Peter Clarke just to mention a few.
Headed up by inspirational first President, Ian “Long Tom” Cooper and ably supported by committee members Barry Clarke, Stan Kofoed, Janine Pound and Graeme Donovan the club was off to a flyer with membership exploding. The club’s first meeting place was a packed out Northcote Pigeon Club Hall, monthly meetings were noisy, enthusiastic, informative and wildly entertaining.
A large percentage of the club’s membership were either racers or crew members, as a result, meetings were always great nights, chock-a-block full of tall tales and true of interstate racing adventures, technical tips and very colourful humour.
Despite very average roads and comparatively basic tow cars, club members often travelled interstate to the Castlereagh Drag Strip in NSW, the new Adelaide International Raceway in South Australia and even as far afield as the Surfers Paradise track for big national meetings. And now, fifty years on, most older members still have many interstate racers as great mates, such is the nature of drag racing.
Through the seventies drag racing in Victoria flourished and by 1977 a new track had opened at Heathcote near Bendigo to complement the already well-established Calder Park venue. The club was very active socially with Christmas parties, cricket and football matches against their arch-rivals, and good mates, the Victorian Drag Racers Club. Plus fancy dress balls and car shows were all part of a very active social calendar.
Club membership numbers were strong through the 70s, steady in the 80s and 90s, but dropped away alarmingly in the new century with the Jane corporations’ closure of both Calder and Adelaide International Raceway leaving the club battling to a crisis point by 2004 with only five paid up members. Thankfully, the club survived and from that point onward has gained traction to be one of the few surviving drag racing clubs left in Melbourne.
The Melbourne Drag Racing Club has counted many great racers amongst its ranks over the last fifty years, far too many to mention here. Just lately teams such as Kenny Stewart and Amanda Ruddle, Colin and Ann Griffin, plus Rob and Katie Cassar, to name just a few, have saluted on the national stage.
The Melbourne Drag Racing Club is now half a century old, a quite remarkable achievement. The club is in good hands with Steve” Mr Supa Gas” Crook as President, Graeme Donovan Secretary and Denis Bolam Treasurer. Numbers may be well down from the club’s peak, but meetings are still noisy, irreverent, chock a block full of dubious humour, tall tales and dodgy information, just like it’s always been. Congratulations to the MDRC, long may it reign.
-Geoff Orrell
-Photos supplied.
