The car's on display were amazing, with
hours and hours of work going into each and every one of them, from the
custom hot rods and v8's in the hall of fame to the bodykitted, lowered
and tinted icons of the 4 and Rotary scene, there was even something for
the big boys' yes that's right there was a Mack truck with polished
chrome pieces and a fantastic paint job. The show bought together a wide
variety of interests, vehicles and people with their own tastes.
The Rislone Dragster drew a lot of interest at the Smit's Group stand
where the concept of a rail dragster with a Rotary powered engine
sparked a lot of conversation, especially when visitors to the stand
learned that the Rislone Dragster would be running at the drag's the
next day. The 4 & Rotary Drags was held on Sunday 29th Jan, and
started off with a cold and overcast weather, which gradually cleared
up. Charlie Bates had two qualifying runs in the Rislone Rail which
resulted in setting the fastest time in his class, so he ran a bi run in
the first round.
Charlie's second run was against the twin turbo Ford Cortina from
Australia, Charlie staged first and had the turbo spooled up before the
Cortina had fully staged, unfortunately the Cortina moved forward to
soon causing a red light foul, by this stage the race was on with
Charlie finishing ahead of with a 7.2 second run at 296kmh. The fastest
overall time of the meeting, thus putting Charlie and the Rislone
Dragster through to the finals against Kiwi RIP's dragster. The final
race came to a start with Kiwi RIP having a slight lead over Charlie,
who caught him up and passed him by 1/2 track, but ended up loosing
traction over bumps and crossing the centre line, where he had to jump
off the accelerator to get back in line, causing Charlie to cross the
finish line just behind the Kiwi RIP's dragster - a very exciting and
close race.
Make sure you head down to the Fram Autolite Dragway this weekend for
the Drag Combat meeting, where Charlie will be running the Rislone
Dragster again.

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