Pegasus Bay Drag Racing club hosted some of the top names from throughout New Zealand for the first round of the New Zealand Drag Racing Championship series.

Christchurch local drag racer Steve Batey racing his 1955 Chevy, won in the Top Doorslammer class having prepared at the last minute with a loaned a supercharger. He took the win in the final in one of the most bizarre drag racing finals ever.

Batey had beaten Chris Tynan (Hamilton) in the Semi final and was lined up against defending National Championship winner David Green from Wellington in his Chevy Corvette. Batey had his engine fired up in the staging lanes, it soon became evident that Dave Green had a starting problem, Batey waited patiently giving Green a sporting chance to get started for a side by side race. Eventually Green’s crew called it quits with the starter problem and Batey was waved forward entering his burnout procedure only for his supercharger belt to break and the engine to stall. His crew quickly pushed the car back to be told by officials that he had to stage the car at the starting lights to claim the win. He used the engines starter motor with the car in gear to break the starting lights beams and eased forward breaking the light beam to take the official win. Then in a bizarre move, Green’s crew thought they could push their car to the finish line and win. With the crowd loudly roaring on the spectator bank, Batey’s crew soon caught Green’s Corvette and pushed the 1200kg 1955 Chevy the whole quarter mile collapsing in a heap at the end. Earlier Batey had run a 8.05 second quarter and three 7.95s with a top speed of 280kph to be the most consistent on the day. Chris Tynan in the first round had the fastest run of the day with a 6.908 second quarter mile at 300kph.

In the Top Alcohol class Bryan "Stormin" Norman from Alexandra in his front engined Chevy powered dragster took the win in a very close race over Stratford’s Wayne Curry. Curry used all his skills in a very thrilling ride to keep the Hemi powered T Altered with shorter wheelbase in the one lane, but it was all over as Norman had his nose in front.

Trevor Tynan

Mark Holland