29 Jul RACE REPORT: DRAG RACING – 24 JULY 2021
NEW RECORD AT KILLARNEY MIDWINTER DRAGS

The visual and aural highlight of the Midwinter MSA Drags at Killarney on Saturday 24 July was undoubtedly Ralph Kumbier’s one and only full-tilt boogie run in his monstrous Pro Gas Chev Camaro, but there was another, more important one hidden in the timing sheets of this hugely successful event, which attracted no less than 57 entries.
Kumbier posted a ground-shaking 8.874sec pass at 227.74km/h, the fastest time of the day by any vehicle, two wheels or four, but it was Shaun Zurich’s unexpected 9.387sec run at 226.94km/h that will go into the record books as the new South African benchmark for a naturally aspirated front wheel-drive car.
Those two runs put Kumbier and Zurich at the top of Class OA for unlimited naturally aspirated cars, with Whaleed Manuel third in a very quick little Volkswagen Golf Mk1 at 11.832sec and 181.91km/h.
The premier Class OS for unlimited forced-induction cars was won by Waghied Jappie in his street-legal Nissan GTR R35, with a best effort of 9.543sec at 240.18 – an incredible achievement for a car that arrived at the strip under its own steam. Very close behind were Rudy Roode’s all-wheel drive Volkswagen Golf Mk2, with a 9.690sec pass at 240.17km/h, and Jody van Schoor, who ran 9.772sec and 242.01km/h in his indecently quick Volkswagen Golf Mk1.
The only entry in Class 8S for blown V8’s was Chris Foley’s Lexus-engined Toyota Corolla, which ran a creditable 11.970sec at 191.80km/h, while Class 6S for turbo sixes was also won by a street-car – Muneera Parker’s superb Nissan GTR (10.032sec at 230.14km/h), with her husband Mansoor second in class in a very hot BMW E30, posting an 11.228sec pass at 220.66km/h. Third in class with 11.739sec and 200.85km/h was Winston Mackay in a BMW 335i.
Dewald Oosthuizen topped Class 4S for forced-induction four-cylinder cars in his Volkswagen Golf 6 with a very satisfactory 11.511sec pass at 195.77km/h, well ahead of second-placed Jason James’ Nissan Sabre (12.411sec and 183.81km/h) and Ross Abrahams, third in class with a best effort of 12.933sec at 133.98km/h in his Volkswagen Golf 7R.
Class 4A for old-school naturally aspirated fours attracted only two entries; Moeneeb Parker’s Nissan 1400 bakkie (13.609sec at 168.721km/h) and Isgak Allie in his Ford Escort (13.683sec and 156.95km/h). There were also only two entries in the Street-Legal class, where Rasheed Ho-Kim’s BMW 135i proved too strong at 13.388sec and 167.02km/h for Amir Parker and his Nissan 1400 bakkies, who posted a best run of 16.123sec and 134.51km/h.
Veteran Sharief Reynolds posted only one run on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 before a suspicious engine noise side-lined the 16-year-old Suzuki but that run, at 8.952sec and 244.11km/h, was enough to put him at the top of the Class A bikes, just ahead of Heinrich Slamet’s best effort of 9.115sec at 232.03km/h on a much younger GSX-R1000, and Lenzey Henry, also on a current-generation Suzuki, who posted a 9.334sec pass at 225.92km/h.