CHRYSLER vehicles decended on Warwick from far and wide to support the Mopar Muscle Weekend at the Morgan Park Dragway on the weekend.
Many rolled into town on Friday 6 May and got themselves set up for two days of action amid the picturesque scenery that surrounds the Warwick motorsports precinct.
A procession of cars ranging from modified Barracudas to standard Grandpa spec Valiants cruised into town Saturday morning and put themselves on display in Leslie Park which gave locals the chance to check out the street registered Mopars that would be at the track.
What followed once back at the Morgan Park venue was an afternoon of tyre frying front wheel lifting fun whereby the competitors sorted their cars for Sunday’s bracket racing.
An interesting highlight was watching all the kids get to race off down the track on their bikes and scooters during the mid- afternoon break, for which they received medals at Sunday’s trophy presentations.
Local Mopar racer Joe Riordan took the cash for best reaction time during Saturday’s qualifying and on Sunday that honour went to Nancy Clarke from Jimboomba. The girls only Powder Puff class was hotly contested, with Christine McMahon in a 360 Charger and Kirsten Emberley in a 440 powered Charger dominating.
The very large Street class was won by Phil Benger in a Chrysler Lancer over Steve Kopp in a 265 Hemi Charger.
Superstreet saw Steve Griffith in a 73 Dodge Challenger edge out Greg Wade in a 74 Plymouth Cuda after some close racing with North Qlder’ Ken Willing, while the big gun bracket known as Quick E/T featured the killer 540 blown Hemi Pro Street VG Hardtop of Dave Hillman supported by southside race shop MPP Race Fab, against Gold Coaster Darryl Lovegroves 440 Plymouth Duster. A blistering final saw Hillmans VG experiencing a mechanical issue just as he was about to mow down the Duster on the finish line.
The much sought after Warwick Wildman award went to Brisbane racer Rex Scoles for his long smoking burnouts in his show quality 440 VG Hardtop.
Event hosts the Qld Chrysler Association would like to pass on their thanks and gratitude to the Warwick dragway crew and track operators for providing such a great racetrack, and extend that gratitude to the fine people of Warwick for their hospitality and support of the event. Look for it again around this time next year!
