27 Sep RACE REVIEW – DRAG RACE REPORT – 24 SEPTEMBER 2022
SMOKE AND THUNDER AT HERITAGE DAY DRAGSS

Killarney’s Heritage Day Drags on Saturday 24 September provided a feast of thundering engines and tyre-smoking action with no less than 78 entries including three of the quickest OS cars in the country and 14 motorcycles, to the great delight of Wynand van den Berg, who has been racing against himself as the lone motorcycle entry for the past few events.
The fastest time of the day was set by Tolla Daniels’ MK1 Escort ‘Barrascort’, which is powered by a force-fed straight six built at the Ford plant in Barramundi, Australia – hence the name. Not even Van den Berg could match his final effort of 8.79185 seconds at 238,12 km/h. Hermann Mostert from Oudtshoorn struggled all day to get the immense power of his 2JZ-engined Toyota Corolla ‘Poedel’ onto the strip with the car snaking badly in the lower gears. He could manage no better than 8.96934 seconds at 241.46km/h, while Daniels was able to run straight and true with the hammer down all the way.
Third in Class OS and the third of only four cars to go quicker than 10 seconds on the day was rising star Scott Wyness in his Volkswagen Caddy bakkie. His final run took just 9.26898 seconds at 247.51km/h but was followed by an ominous call from the commentators for his team to hitch up the trailer and go fetch the bakkie. Hopefully, the damage, whatever it was, will be remedied in time for the next MSA Drag Racing event on Saturday 15 October.
Topping class OA was Saud Bassa in his Nissan VVL-powered Toyota Conquest ‘Yster VVL’ – notable for its home-made sheet metal aero kit – followed by the Volkswagen Golfs of Juan Davids (12.18353 seconds at 177.50km/h) and Georgio Maneveld (12.32512 seconds and 176,41km/h).
Brian Canterbury won class 6S in his Mazda RX7 (9.69061 seconds at 233.27km/h), way ahead of rookie Fawaz Abrahams’ BMW M3 (11.67576 seconds and 211.73km/h) and the pretty little Toyota Supra of Naeem Logday (13.28457 seconds, 174.52km/h) but Class 6S was much closer, as Devlin Padayachee and his Honda Ballade just broke into the tens with a best effort of 10.79418 seconds at 209.07km/h, followed by the Volkswagen Golf 1’s of Royston Prestage (11.10401 seconds, 214.53km/h) and Keanu Ku (11.22340 seconds, 199.55km/h).
Class 4A was also a Honda benefit, with Iesrafeel Abbas and his Civic (13.14182 seconds, 166.18km/h) narrowly beating the similar Civic of Adam Omar (13.25524 seconds, 166.62km/h) and Wintzel Willemse’s Ballade (13.34475 seconds, 173.87km/h), while Class SL for street cars belonged to Wolfsburg with Shadley Edwards’ Golf 7R posting a solid 12.40272 seconds at 177.05km/h to beat the Golf 7 GTi of Gerson Swarts, well clear of Garth Ally (Toyota Tazz, 15.15339 seconds and 149.22km/h).
Wynand Van den Berg narrowly held on to his title as Leader of the Pack in Class MA, posting a time of 8.85810 seconds at 245.06km/h on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 to beat Heinrich Slamet’s BMW S1000RR (8.91276 seconds, 246.76km/h) by 0.06sec, with Thaakier Abrahams third on another S1000RR after a best effort of 9.00375 seconds at 249.86km/h. Class MC for Street Bikes went to Josh Maart’s Suzuki GSX-R1000A after he ran a 9.64909 seconds pass at 234.31km/h, followed by David Carr (Suzuki GSX-R600, 11.14995 seconds at 211.24km/h), Tohir Allie (Suzuki GSR600, 11.61065 seconds, 190.26km/h) and Carr’s wife Kim (Honda CBR600RR, 11.64326 seconds, 193.58km/h).