The 5^th Annual New Zealand Scale Drag Nationals (2005)    
Hot Slots Dragstrip Nelson

Twenty six years is a long time in anyone’s language, and that was the last time I lined up on a scale dragstrip to race in NZ (NZHRM Mar 1979 issue).  To put that in perspective, Tom ‘Mongoose’ McEwen had just beaten Don ‘Snake’ Prudhomme at the US Nationals, Gary Beck had ripped a 5.3 second run in TF and some rookie called John Force had come on the scene.

Anyway, about a year ago, Tony Cook, who admits he could sell six-packs at an exclusive brethren meeting, convinced me that I should enter the 2005 Nationals in Nelson on Labour weekend.

Friday was test and tune day along with initial track preparation.

Despite being a work day, several racers turned up.  As racers set up, tuned their cars and made launches or half passes, I realised that things had changed heaps since 1979.  The 16D’s of today run quicker and faster than the old Group 20’s, the PC controlled racing is more accurate than an IRD investigation and I was in the crap up to my two chins. Dave West, from Auckland, completed the track cleaning and careful preparation of the shutdown area.

People made critical selections about which cars they were going to race. Drivers also made the required motor and running gear changes to comply with rules as well as chassis tuning.

The day ended and everyone enjoyed plenty of talk about old hot rods and relived drag events we’d been to. 

At 3am on race day morning we discovered that we had been abducted by aliens because we could not explain where the 5 hours we seemed to be missing went and how Tony’s fridge had mysteriously run out of all alcohol.

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Raceday Saturday began at 9:30am. 

All those who couldn’t come Friday, arrived and commenced their tune and testing.  When I looked around the pits at all the cars, the 26 years really hit home… not a single 36D in sight.  This session saw one of the worst crashes of the weekend with Andrew Gillespie’s ’33 coupe way out of shape at half track and doing end over end acrobatics till the finish line.

It shows that the cars are built tough in Nelson because on the walk back to the staging lanes, he did some manual chassis tuning and then got back to racing again.

Late in the morning all the official stuff was completed - registration, affiliation etc.  The field was set with over 110 cars in attendance.  The youngest racer was Jordan Gillespie at 9yrs and the eldest competitor , well we just call him Uncle Clive. The host club from Nelson was well represented and the largest group, the Christchurch team were very professional wearing uniforms and representatives from Auckland and Wellington. It was a true Nationals - with the number of racers entered, every bracket (except Nitro) would take four rounds of racing to decide each champion. 

■ 2005 Nationals competition started sedately at mid day with concourse judging.  The overall quality of cars was very high, and voting close, so close that a dead heat for first occurred in both Hardbody and Lexan categories.  Another round of voting was needed to determine the winners.

Uncle Clive’s “Army of 1.5” hand painted Dodge Stratus Pro Stock took out best Lexan while Gavin Topp’s “Sox & Martin” Plymouth GTX with plumbed and wired motor won best hardbody.

■ Racing began with Hardbody DYO. This was tuff racing!  People chose dial-in’s to a 1/1000^th of a second and even different dial-in’s for each lane. Consistency was critical, Preston Brunell’s 1965 Vette came through with the win over Gavin Topp’s 1955 Charles Carpenter shoebox Chev in the final.

■ Super Gas came next, a heads up .990s index bracket with a motor restriction (for 2005). The competitors in this field had to build a car to run a specific time and then run consistently.  To say the field was close would be an understatement all running in the .990 to 1.00 sec range.

Clive Hall overcame Gavin Topp 2-nil in the final.

A popular bracket, the motor restriction rule will to be lifted for next year.

■ Hardbody was the first heads up class of the event.  Everyone lined up for scruitineering by Westie and only a couple cars needed minor tweaks (weight etc).  This class is restricted by weight, body, motor type and imagination.  The many and varied ways of car building were a credit to all the racers as the qualifying session some clung to their speed secrets. After 4 rounds Tony Cook’s Fiat Topolino ran .964 to beat Dave West’s 1974 Celica in the final. This was a nationals three-peat for the topolino and Tony says it is officially retired.

■ The last class of the day was Box Stock.  Essentially, with an unmodified PARMA kit car and highly restricted motor rules, this is the motor blueprinters class.  The fact that our National record is quicker than USA, shows there are a few awesome blueprinters in NZ. Very close racing always in this class . Dave West’s “Edge” Dodge Coronet ran .838 to beat Tony Cook’s Mustang in 2-1 races.

Saturday ended with a lovely meal provided by Country Fried Chicken and some grudge racing , between around eight wheelstanders and a half a dozen drag bikes.

Evidently the thirsty aliens had struck again at Uncle Clive’s place Saturday night because the ChCh team of Andrew ( Droid ), Warren and Gavin Topp also experienced some alcohol disappearance.

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Raceday Sunday. 9am start.

■ Held over from the previous night, a new DYO bracket for 2005 was trialed – Exhibition/Nostalgia.  This bought out the oddballs - no restrictions.  There were wheel-standers against top fuel dragsters, replicars and genuine fossils, with performance variance to match 0.6sec to 2.2sec.

Mark Aston’s V12 Allison digger ran 2.15 at 17 mph beat Dave West’s Stone Woods & Cook 1941 Willys coupe in the final. Dave had to wait over ½ sec to start.

By lunchtime several public spectators had turned up so during the break in racing, they got to run against one another with PARMA edge cars (1.3s @ 30mph)

After this the track was prepared by Preston and Dave for the “pro” classes .

■ Pro Stock was up first. Engine builders have fewer restrictions to build the ultimate 16D.  Cars were scrutineered and qualifying showed you need to bring a 0.7 – 0.8 to the track. Only one mishap saw a Warren’s motor needing replacement when a magnet shattered.  You had to be on your start line game to go rounds in this bracket.

      The final was a real Super Chevy Sunday as Tony Cook’s ‘57 Chev saw off Andrew Gillespie’s ’57 Chev with a .770 against a slower .839. TC took the win in two straight runs

■ Pro Mod is the top alcohol of slot car drag racing.  Big motors with high timing, roller bearings everywhere and needing to run a low “6” to be competitive. Qualifying in this bracket saw a mishap of another sort.  While completing a burnout, Dave West’s funny car spat a spark out the back and ignited the track cleaning cloth.  Throwing it to the ground, both racers took turns to get it under control.  Results being a charred cloth and singed legs, all the while the starter, Clive, was still as a statue.  Dave West won 2/0 races in his Mustang Funny Car, running a .651 over Tony Cook’s 1953 Studebaker Pro Mod which ran .691.

Preston made the call that the track was just right for Nitro and suggested the schedule be altered so Top Door Slammer could be run after NITRO so the last index bracket race was run later.

101mph in Scale Quarter Mile

■ Nitro had fewer entries and was a 3 round event. 1 car running 4’s with the remainder running 5’s. Preston’s earlier call had been spot on because during qualifying Tony’s car ran 101mph , a first for NZ Scale Drag Racing .

 Tony was able to back it up with a 99 mph and a handful of 98mph’s. 0 to 160kph in 0.4 seconds!!! @#$% sakes!  This class is a test of nerves on the startline, with ET’s of around half a second, 1/10^th of a second slow on the start line gives a third track head start!   Tony Cook’s Pontiac Starfire F/C cleaned the field with a 2/0 victories .476 & .456 sec win over Prestons Funny Car with .605 in the final. 

■ Top Doorslammer followed after a track clean. Running against three fixed indices (0.59, 0.69 or 0.79) other than needing a sedan or coupe body style, anything goes.  This brought out the top/pro street cars. 4 rounds of fierce racing saw Gavin Topp’s Monte Carlo beat Tania Brunell’s 1957 Chev in the final.

■ Junior DYO was the last bracket of the day with younger competitors facing off in their own DYO bracket.  Jordan Gillespie won the final.

A huge prize giving dinner was supplied by Pizza Hut.

Tony thanked all sponsors, workers and competitors.  WRP racing provided all the major prizes in all brackets, which were presented by Tania. (only Preston got a kiss though)

Following prize giving, some rule clarifications and adjustments were discussed, along with plans for many new cars for next season using the WRP prizes received.

So, my impressions after a 26 year lay off - slot car drags is still really neat and the people who do it are fun!  I’m pleased that my 40yr old car won nostalgia but overall, next year I will have do better on the tree and not end up the red-light bandit (at least this year I had an excuse).

Thanks to event sponsors:  WRP racing, Impress Print, Country Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut.