I love 1980s Pro Stock footage. You have screaming engines that the drivers are willing to rev to the moon, dry hops, burnouts in excess, yet you still have cars that are basically the cars you see on the street with a mailbox of some type on the hood. (Yes, I know I’m over-simplyfing it.) While names like Tony Christian, Bob Glidden and Jerry Eckman battled it out on our shores, in Australia names like Wayne Daley, Hans Van Dyk and Adrian Kelley were hashing it out themselves in Holden Toranas, Ford Falcons and in the case of Daley, a sinister black Thunderbird. The quarter mile times are off of their NHRA counterparts by about a second, but there is a reason: NHRA was running a 500ci (8.2L) engine displacement limit, while the ANDRA has had a 400ci (6.6L) limit. That doesn’t mean that a 10,500 RPM small block wasn’t any less exciting than what was going on in the States, especially when you factor in that ANDRA engines were nowhere near as regulated as NHRA powerplants. The sound of Van Dyk’s Monaro GTS winding up and hopping at the tree is pure drag racing audio porn and is mean as hell!
Fun fact: Tony Wedlock, an early shutout in the yellow Holden Torana, is currently the president of Willowbank Raceway!
