Words and photos by Jon Van Daal
5/10/2007
The future of drag racing seems to be coming from the past rather than from the newest recruits rising up from the junior dragster program. As we have seen with the Goodguys Vintage Drag Racing Series, the NHRA Hot Rod Reunions and the wave of nostalgic racecars sweeping Europe, the future seems rooted in the Baby Boomer generation. This has also spread to Australia.
| Robert Heritage’s LC Torana went for a skate when the radiator boiled over and put fluid under the tyres. Heritage was just a passenger on what ended up being a wild weaving run. |
Wayne McGregor is a nostalgia drag racing ringmaster as he tries to run a three-ring acceleration circus. This sees him dividing his time between coordinating his staff, updating racers as well as answering his ever-ringing cell phone. You won’t mistake “Flamin’ Wayne” as his chin is licked by flamed tattoos rising up from his chest. Over the past few years his organization, the CNDRA (Cruzin’ Nostalgia Drag Racing Association) has increased its number of events from one to eleven. The 2006/07 national series starts and finishes in Queensland running from our spring (September) through to winter with the final event being the 2007 Nostalgia Drag Race Series Nationals at Willowbank Raceway on August 10.
I caught up Wayne and his crew at the Sydney Nostalgia Drags when the series returned to Western Sydney International Dragway on Sunday, April 15. “We’ve been very happy with the way that the Nostalgia Series has grown,” McGregor said. “It was a bit rocky when we first started, but we have fantastic support from both the racers and the spectators who come to watch them.”
Every time the CNDRA comes to Sydney it seems to rain and so it was again when late in the day the heavens opened up. Luckily the track seemed to be on the very edge of a massive storm cell and the rain held off long enough for the event to be run and done.
Out on the track there was a heap of retro action as most fields were over subscribed. The brackets varied from Australian Muscle, American Muscle, Hot Rod, Slingshot through to Junior Fuel eliminator. The Gas bracket saw over 40 cars running the Chicago Shootout format - in fact all the top brackets – Slingshot, Junior Fuel and the HAMBster bracket were run in this format.