02 Mar RACE REVIEW – Drag RAcing Round1 26 FEBRUARY 2022

MSA DRAGS OFF TO A ROARING START

The 2022 MSA drag Racing season at Killarney got off to a roaring start on Saturday 26 February, with no less than 42 entries in six classes, in scorching late summer weather that saw more than one car leaking coolant on the start line.

But the hot tar provided plenty of grip and the times were impressive, led by Brian Canterbury’s Class 6S 2JZ-powered Mazda RX7, which laid down the fastest time of the day – a thundering 9.55546 second pass at 228.50km/h – midway through the morning session.

Almost as quick was Yaseen Ebrahim’s Nissan GTR R35, which won Class OS with a best effort of 9.69431 seconds and a very impressive exit speed of 238.28km/h.

Class OA was dominated by Shaheed Mugjenkar’s Opel Kadett; at 10.43168 seconds and 227.01km/h he was almost a second quicker than his nearest competitor, Saud Bassa’s unruly Toyota Conquest.

Class 4S belonged to Royston Prestage’s Volkswagen Golf Mk1; his 11.45820 second pass at 202.36km/h was just about a tenth of a second quicker than the similar Golf of Zachary Matthys, who posted a best run of 11.53186 seconds and 200.48km/h.

Wintzel Willemse was impressive in Class 4A; his Honda Ballade recorded a creditable 13.50362 second run at 168.80km/h, while Thauriq Jacobs won the Street Legal Class in his Volkswagen Golf 1 with a best run of 13.45353 seconds at 170.05km/h.  

The wooden spoon award for the most disastrous launch of the day, however, went to Canterbury for his third and final run of the day, as he pulled an enormous wheelie off the line, slewed to the right over the centre line and put the car down hard enough to send part of the timing equipment flying and bash a hole in the sump of the Mazda’s engine.