Hidden Valley Drag Strip gets its official christening this weekend with the two night Macmahon Grand Re-Opening kicking off on Friday.
A host of elite Top Doorslammer teams from across Australia have converged on Darwin to leave there mark on the new multi-million dollar drag strip.
Hidden Valley has never hosted a full eight car field of Doorslammers so this event will go down in history before it even starts.
Flying the Territory flag will be Matt Abel and Scott Maclean, two fiercely competitive team mates. Abel has a personal best of 5.98 seconds at 243mph, but MacLean currently holds the quickest Doorslammer pass at Hidden Valley after his recent test session last month saw an impressive 6.287 second pass at 225mph.
Other teams also in the 5 second club with Abel include Deno Brijeski, Peter Kapiris and current Australian Champion and ANDRA Pro Series record holder, John Zappia, all of whom will be on track this weekend. Only 10 people have ever run a 5 second pass in a Doorslammer.
Also in the official line up are Ivan Skaramuca and Reece Melenewycz as well as the show quality Chevrolet Nova of Frank Mamone.
Mamone’s car is unique in that he competes on a smaller tyre, measuring only 10.5 inches wide. This is sure to make for an interesting ride as he tries to put the horsepower to the ground.
“These teams are coming to Darwin simply because they love drag racing and they want to be one of the first to experience what Darwin now has to offer” said Hidden Valley Drag Racing Association President, Jay Jukes.
“Brett Gillespie and Gary Phillips were also scheduled to travel to Darwin but unfortunately Gillespie hit the wall at the recent Nitro Champs in Sydney and Phillips has had a family emergency that has prevented both teams from making the trip north”.
“At the very last minute we were able to convince WA based Martyn Dack to also enter his BA Falcon based Doorslammer, rounding out the eight car Top Doorslammer field.”
Top Doorslammers are the fastest racing sedans in the world. They are full chassis race cars with large capacity supercharged V8 engines that run on methanol or ethanol fuel and produce approximately 3500hp, more than 10 times the average V8.
Over 75 teams have entered for the event with full fields of all drag racing classes including Outlaws, Super Sedans and Modified Bikes. Local bands Dirty Dan and Bear Essence will be playing Saturday night and there will also be children’s rides for the kids.
Gates open 6pm on Friday with qualifying sessions from 7pm. Saturday sees gates open at 3pm with a final qualifying session from 4-5pm before the official opening at 6pm. Tickets start from only $15 with children under 13 free.
Don’t forget DragNews Australia’s liver coverage from Friday afternoon.
