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Telecel have entered into this new and exciting partnership with the Dragpro Club, who run the sport of drag racing in this country, for the remainder of the 2013 Drag Racing Series which is set to see the sport of drag racing grow and develop, both in terms of popularity and infrastructure and technology.
Red is set to be the colour splashed across the venue in the future as Telecel fill the position as title sponsor.
Susan Zevgolis, the Dragpro Club secretary, said: “We are grateful beyond words to all our sponsors for their generosity and in making this event such a success.
“Telecel, hp Lubes/Castrol, Belts ‘n’ Hoses, RAM Petroleum, Autobusiness Magazine and Turbo Solutions Africa have committed to us for the entire year which is advantageous in terms of forward planning, not forgetting that we enjoy a very good and personal relationship with our sponsors.
“We are also both humbled and delighted by the large numbers of racing fans and spectators who are now supporting drag racing and we thank them and the competitors who ultimately supply the action. We share Telecel’s slogan in urging the public to ‘Go ahead and tell someone’ about drag racing, and the generous support we enjoy from Telecel.”
Sunday’s event saw a crowd of over 2 700 people through the gate and, as usual, the atmosphere by late afternoon was electric as spectators converged along the quarter mile straight for the Eliminations event, cheering for their favourite drivers and vehicles.
As anticipated, the reigning champion, the Blue Subaru WRX Sti driven by Kevin Allmark, did not make it to this event, but its two very close contenders, Alan Cacace in his V8 powered AC Cobra and Z Mussa in his Subaru WRX STI, battled it out for the title of Eliminator Car of the day.
Although a very close result, the title went to Z. Mussa with a fastest time of the day of 12. 159 seconds followed very closely by A. Cacace with a fastest time of the day of 12.347 seconds.
These top cars are now separated by only tenths of seconds and the competition is fierce. Anything could happen at the next event depending on condition, tuning improvement, driving skills on the day, etc.
The Eliminator Motorcycle of the day title went to the very experienced Phil Archenoul on his Suzuki GSXR with a fastest time of 10.560 seconds followed by Shannon Naested on his Kawasaki ZX1400 with a fastest time of 10.972 seconds (an excellent result for his first appearance at a Dragpro event).
There was a very impressive turnout of bikes on Sunday including some drag racing newcomers which was great to see, possibly as a result of the introduction of a third bike class, which has opened up the competitor field. It was a nice change also to the usual field to see the two Toyota MR2s running the Donnybrook quarter mile drag race instead of their usual circuit race. These cars can be seen in action on the same circuit this coming Sunday at Donnybrook.
“The Dragpro Club is very pleased at the moment with the way the Series is going. The sport is going from strength to strength and there is still more we can do in terms of development. We have faced some small challenges which fortunately have not been serious and we have managed to overcome for the most part.
“The Dragpro Club places considerable importance on safety and goes to lengths to ensure that as much can be done to ensure the safety of everyone attending the event. Our specially imported professional timing equipment has performed faultlessly for us throughout the 2012 and 2013 Series so far.
“There are, however, software improvements we are working on to eradicate the delays on the start line caused by having to input vehicles as they register throughout the day. We also have exciting plans in the pipeline to source LED Timing Boards so that spectators can see the times after every run.
Sunday’s event also enjoyed a very good turnout at the Sound Off event run by Venom Customs — a clear indicator that Speed and Sound go very much hand-in-hand.
Online Reporter