Supercharged Whanganui utes and dragsters humming

Supercharged Whanganui and Waverley utes and dragsters were on fire at two venues over the past 10 days.

The Grant Rivers 500 cubic inch big block supercharged Chev dragster won round three of the National Summer Series in Taupo on December 29 with 29-year-old daughter **Nicole Rivers driving again for the first time in seven years. **

Rivers said he and his team had installed a softer motor than usual to allow Nicole a chance to regain her composure after a seven-year absence from behind the wheel.

"She still qualified No1 in the competition class setting a personal best 7.24 second run at 183mph (294.51kph)," Rivers said. The quickest the Rivers dragster has run is 6.4s, although not with the softer motor they had used for Nicole's return to racing.

"That gave her the best low ET (elapse time) and the fastest mile per hour time. After five races on the day, Nicole ended up winning the competition final. Work commitments have prevented us doing the first two rounds and we probably won't be able to do all of the remaining four rounds, but we will try and get to the next round at Meremere this weekend," Rivers said.

Meanwhile, Whanganui's Dean Scott and Waverley's Johnny Hooper also produced personal bests in the reintroduced Wild Bunch racing division for 1800hp sedans and utes with superchargers at Masterton Motorplex at the weekend as part of the annual "Dragstalgia" event.

This is a class that was very popular three decades ago in this country, only to be overtaken by more powerful, and expensive, types of drag vehicles.

Whanganui Street Drags co-ordinator and former national champion Rivers said Wild Bunch cars, which used to be the pinnacle of the local scene, reach the finish line in around 7.5 seconds - so now that is the level they must achieve for this class.

Rivers' workmate Scott posted a personal best of 7.04s in his new Chevy pickup ute, while Hooper also ran a PB of 8.25s. Scott runs a 1500hp.

"Dean's run equated to 198mph (318.65kph), so we've got his motor humming at the moment. Unfortunately both Dean and Johnny got eliminated on the Sunday and then the finals were rained off anyway," Rivers said.

Iain Hyndman
Whanganui Chronicle 8/1/20