Drag racing came to the fore over the past weekend as the second round of the MSA Drags was battled out at the East London Grand Prix track.
Competitors and spectators turned out in their numbers to see some of the quickest cars in the city compete in the sprint event.
“The turnout was great. We were very pleased with the amount of competitors as well as spectators,” said race organiser and competitor Bets Radloff.
“There were 35 competitors in total, so the crowd was really treated with cars ranging from Supercars to Sportscars to purposely built drag cars.”
There were many quick racers on the day but in the end the quickest driver of the day went to Gordon Nicholson in his Nissan Skyline GTR 35, with him managing the fastest time of 10.850 seconds.
Lance Casoojee, with a time of 11.485 seconds, and Nathan Marillier with 11.486 seconds were the next fastest efforts of the day.
There were a number of close races as well on the day, with cars involved in some tight racing out on the course.
“There were a few nice close battles between Bruce Thomas in his Golf 1 against Wade Wright in his Toyota Tazz,” said Radloff.
“Bruce managed a 13.635 sec and Wade a 13.690 sec, so literally splits apart.
“Same goes for the battle between Ruan Olivier with a 13.047 sec and Nicholas Nel with a 13.070 sec, while myself and Trevor Wiltshire also had a very close battle with myself getting a 13.750 sec and Trevor a 13.780 sec.
“Lance Casoojee also managed a personal best at 11.485 sec and Nathan Marillier a 11.486 sec, and although these two were in separate classes it was nice to see what Lance’s M3 did against Nathan’s M5.”
Radloff said that the event ran smoothly, while all the drivers taking part had more than enough runs to make sure that their times were backed up.
She also commented that although the wind was a bit cold, the fact that it was a tailwind helped out the competitors a little.
The next drags event at the track is scheduled for June 4.
“We are hoping to have another good event,” said Radloff.
“We have a surprise up our sleeve, but this will only be revealed closer to the event.”