VWMA - Portland Drags Feb 2008 Presented by VolksWagen Magazine Australia and Southcoast Raceway           Portland Drag Meet     22nd to 24th February 2008 Thanks to the incredible efforts of VWMA supremo, Craig Highes, Australia now has two drag racing events on the annual calendar. One at Warwick in QLD, the other in Portland in Victoria. Although run as separate events, competition points for certain categories aggregate over the two shows, giving drivers plenty of incentive to go to both. A small contingent of Volks Enthusiasts cars had made the trek to Warwick in 2007 and had an absolute ball (see write up in VWMA). So, given the shorter distances between Adelaide and Portland, the club decided to make the Portland drags an official club event and see how many cars they could get there. That proved to be a very worthwhile decision, as you will see from the comments and pics which follow.....   At the 2007 Warwick drags, "Catfish Racing" was borne. This title owes its origins to the distinctly catfish like appearance of Barry's 1959 Ascort. Visitors to Warwick 2007 will remember this car not just for the beautiful shape, but for the sight of its back window leaping from its surrounds as the car lept from the line. If you had suggested to the designers of this very pretty car that 50 years after being built it would be seen fitted with a stinger exhaust and screaming up and down a drag track, they would have called you a lunatic!!!. Catfish racing in turn became the inspiration for the "VEC Race Team". Company president, Jon, took the title to heart and organised stickers for each of the team cars and support vehicles. To help ensure that the Volks Enthusiasts would have a visible presence at the event, the core group of hardened drag racers organised to hire a single, large marquee, which would in turn house the drag cars and tents for their owners: in essence, a combined garage and living quarters. This turned out to be a great move as the weekend turned out to be very windy and the marquee made a great wind break, giving all the other VEC visitors somewhere out of the wind to park their cars and put up their tents.     The original Portland programme had a spot for the local rev heads to compete on Friday evening. So most of those going to the event took Friday off from work to travel to Portland to arrive in time for the first session, and Monday off after the event to travel home. Unfortunately, the wet and windy weather meant that Friday night's programme had to be canceled. The newly formed VEC Racing Team and its avid supporters met up early Friday morning for a relaxed drive to Portland. Such an event would also not be complete without our newly finished Club Kombi. Loose head studs meant the van wouldn't be up to the drive to Portland, so alternative transport was sought. Rob G volunteered to tow the van behind his 4WD and he was joined by Pete T & Simon H. The Kombi was loaded up with gear, club merchandise, flags etc and then loaded on a borrowed tandem trailer for the trip down. It is incredibly rewarding for those who provided input into the van to see it finished - especially to see the admiring looks it gets from the public now it is so distinctively sign-written with the club logo and name. It really is a head turner. Anyone driving any sort of VW or having any identification with the marque is instantly drawn to it. Any time we stopped for fuel or refreshments it provided an instant talking point. Magic!! By the time the Club Kombi crew arrived, most of the VEC contingent were all well and truly set up an having a few celebratory ales at a local watering hole. After unpacking & setting up tents, the Kombi crew decided to take another punt: this time on trying out local Pizza restaurant "Pinos". This proved to be a brilliant decision: great food, no corkage for BYO and really friendly staff. We all woke to a Saturday morning which threatened to bring more of the weather experienced on Friday: strong winds and showers. The wind and showers were certainly a bit of a worry for anyone who had not consumed enough liquid sleeping draft to send them into a deep slumber (the higher the alcohol content the sounder the sleep). Fortunately the showers stayed very scattered and the wind was tolerable. The first organised event for the day was a cruise through Portland, to be followed by a street display on the Portland foreshore. Craig Hughes did an excellent job in marshalling everyone in to readiness and assembling the cars for the parade. The cars even managed to stay together in pretty much one group - something you can do in a country town but not in the city. Country drivers are just so much more forgiving! I hope the locals and visitors to the town enjoyed the display as much as the drivers and passengers did. Given the inclement weather, no-one was ready to give a prediction on how many cars would attend the display. In the end any concerns turned out to be unjustified: the final tally was over 50 cars (not including a couple in a Kombi Camper who just stumbled on us as they were looking around). The atmosphere at the display was a great indicator of the mood which would prevail the whole week-end. Every one there had a story to tell; many of the Portland locals took the chance to tell us about their VW history; owners, drivers, passengers, passers by, all shared the same joy at looking over the assembled cars. The effort Rob G has put into producing a photo album showing progress with the Club Kombi really paid off too: we could open it up and show people what we started with and the steps taken to get the car to where it is today.       At 11:30 or thereabouts, the crowd started to break up and people headed back to the raceway for the afternoon's qualifying session. The Club Kombi (which ha dbeen used as a wind break the night before) was then parked out front of the VEC Racing Team marquee and the club flags and banners raised. For us non-drivers, the hill was the place to be. As the car owners starte dto do their last minute preparation, we carried chairs and supplies to the hill to secure a good vantage point. The canteen at the track was opened and there was plenty of choice in food and drinks available. Through the afternoon we lost a bit of time to showers, but at leat the strong winds meant that the moisture would dry from the track pretty quickly. The Southcoast Raceway sits on land leased to the club for a peppercorn rental by a local businessman. The land owner helps behind the scenes, provides machinery etc and has made a massive contribution to the track's success. Mind you, that must also be said for the Committe and various helpers. The catering staff,  track marshalls, event manager etc all not only did their jobs well, but did everything they could to help out. What astonished us most about the weekend was how incredibly welcoming the whole crew behind the track were. They all went out of their way to help us out; everything was very well organised and no request seemed too hard to deal with. They proved great company at mealtime and drinks and always took great pleasure in sharing THEIR club's story with us. We may not have the biggest and  fastest drag cars they had seen, but we hoped they could appreciate share some of our passion for the little kaffers. As a relatively new track, many drivers had not experienced its surface before: the high levels of grip certainly meant that changes were necessary to starting style. By the end of the weekend, the amount of transmission failures certainly showed the importance of learning the track. Saturday's session gave drivers as many runs as they needed to shake down their cars those who cocmpleted the most laps probably benefited with better times (and less carnage) during Sunday's competition stage. The VEC Racing Team was expanded at Warwick with a couple of members who had not seen drag strip time before. Ian P from Unique Fabrications brought his Marlin buggy out and Rene F turned up in his Porsche Spyder Replica. Rene has been a regular competitor in circuit racing (including the Classic Adelaide) but had never before tackled the strip. Jon K, who has invested 10 years building his Oval, proved that this car was never intended to be a trailer queen, providing us with some very entertaining driving and runing some very quick times for a car on its first showing. Dave O'C proved too that his car building skills are limitless. His Oval is impeccably turned out but unfortunately fell victim to engine failur eon the bug day. Probably the biggest surprise of the weekend was the performance of Andrew C in his stock Beetle. Andrew drove the car to Portland on Friday (with two passengers), then on Sat morning decided to take the brave step of entering the competition. His first run on the strip was very cautious, but the more runs he made the more his confidence grew. His only dilemma was balancing off the push for a faster strip time against the need to turn around and drive the car home again on Sunday night. he certainly earned his "VEC Racing Team" sticker". Mind you he probably grew tired of the non-stop advice from everyone who has ever driven a car, on how to get down ths strip in the fastest time. It is a credit to him that he kept his cool and was probably the most consistent driver of the weekend - this ws recognised by Craig Hughes who awarded him the "Most Improved" trophy for the event. Don't know what the final tally of laps was, but it was probably a toss up between a grinning Ian P and Andrew C as to who had done the most laps of the circuit. One thing for sure, the smile on each one's face was equally as large. Some competitors suffered breakages during the Saturday session. Some of those decided to stay the distance but others took the chance to pack up early and head for home to start mending their cars. For others, the break between the end of the session & the start of dinner provided a chance to do some repairs: OK, why not change that clutch & gearbox or replace the transmission mounts. Its amazing what you can do lying on your back on a tarpaulin stretched out on the ground right Craig?? Just to show that even the most experienced drag racers can have problems, imagine how Adam Deb felt when he suffered a high speed blow out on the track. At the end of a super run, Adam looked up to see the end of the track looming large; he hit the brakes, only to have the front left wheel lock up, which caused the tyre to blow. The tyre shredded, taking the headlight with it. Adam managed to pull the car to a halt in a straight line (with underpants and reputation intact), which was an incredible task. It was certainly a huge relief for those of us on the hill who has simply seen his car disappear into a haze of blue smoke! Rumour is that the car will sport an eye patch over the missing headlamp at future events and be renamed the "Pirate".   Saturday evening drivers, crew, helpers and hangers on joined together for dinner in the Club Rooms. We all enjoyed a great feed, with plenty of choice and huge amounts of food. The everning provided a great chance to talk and get to know one another. Once again, copious quantities of the amber (and red) sleeping draught provided protection from the gale force winds and heavy rains of the night. We woke Sunday mroning to a better day: the winds had dropped and the sky was starting to show signs of blue. Southcoast Raceway provided us with a breakfast of bacon and eggs. Once again, plenty of new friendships were formed over breakfast. Once breakfast was over, there was time for a spot of work on the cars, then it was off to the pre-race briefing for the drivers. Cars were grouped in to categories and marshalls appointed for each. The cars would run off against each other in round robin fashion, before facing off for the final prizes. To help kep the crowd interested, a few trade stands were set up and a display area created for the Show and Shine. Of course, the Club Kombi was relocated to the Show and Shine area, where it was parked next to another SA Registered Dove Blue Type 2, this time a 1965 model, lovingly restored by a member of the Volkswagen Club of SA. Being hopeless on detail, I have to rely on you jumping to your copy of VWMA or the VWMA web site ( www.vwma.net.au ) to find details on who win the various trophies for the day. The main task for me is to communicate to you was just how much fun it was. Rod Penrose proved just how amazingly fast his beetle is (even without Turbocharger), Peter Page debuted his very pretty yellow drag beetle, Fabian's "Aussie Inch Pincher" was equally impressive. Personally I loved Craig Hughes' "Rat Bug": it is not showy but demonstrates how good a car you can build on a limited budget. Maybe that sums up what is best about bracket racing and why it has so much appeal. In straight out drag racing, if the challenge is to just go faster and faster, you just spend bigger and bigger sums of money. In bracket racing you decide how much you want to spend, build a car to suit your budget and then try to be as consistent as you can. You have to try as hard as possible to get a good qualifying time: if you hold back and qualify low, you will "break" under competition pressure and set a time faster than your dial in time, which means you lose. The driver who best balances respect for the track, knowledge of their car and driving ability, ends up the winner. (oh sure there's a trophy for the fastest time and that carries plenty of cred, but its not the ONLY trophy). You may ask why there are not more photos of cars on the track: the simple answer is that we were having too much fun watching them to be thinking about taking photos. As people send in track photos they will however be added to the page. All good things have to come to an end, and so it was with Portland. Some of the crowd headed off on Sunday evening but two groups stayed on: one at the track and another in accommodation in Portland. Then, aftre a shared breakfast it was time to pack up and head for home. Most made it back unscathed, however the Club Kombi crew were unfortunate enough to have a tyre blow out near Murray Bridge, meaning a quick roadside stop and a slower pace for the last hour home. As far as the VEC is concerned, the event was a brilliant success. Full marks to Craig Hughes and to the Southcoast Raceway for putting on such a great weekend of racing. And we will definitely be back in 2009 (oh, yeah, many of us will also make the sojourn to Warwick, but that's another story).

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