12th June 2005 - Event Report: Quickshift Drag Racing, Enniskillen (for Fast & Modified Magazine)

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Event: Quickshift Drag Racing, St Angelo's Airport, Enniskillen, Northern Ireland

Date: Sun 12th June 2005

It’s been talked about for so long over here – the need to have a well run, successful drag racing event run in Ireland to show that it can be done here as well as the likes of Crail in Scotland and Santa Pod in England.  Thankfully the D&H Events team did their homework and with that their preparation leading up to the weekend’s Quickshift Event in Enniskillen was second to none as they brought the Straightliners team in to run the drag racing competition, as well as having hundreds of cars entered into the show and shine competition and piles of trade stands all around the live action arena. 

As you entered the event first off you were met by a vast array of modified metal all entered into the show and shine, which once you made your way through brought you to the sound off competition and then onto the live action arena.

Inside the live action arena you could find Opposite Lock out in their twincam’s, Jason Finn the world champion trial bike rider doing all manner of stunts, Paul Swift following in his fathers footsteps and running Nissan Micra’s around on 2 wheels as well as many other stunts and performances from Ferrari’s and Nisan 200SX’s all provided plenty of smoke for their viewing audience.

An array of trade stands stood between you now and the pits for the main attraction – the drag strip.  200 cars had been pre-entered into the drag competition, some well known, and a number of sleepers thrown in for good measure.  As the drag strip opened up at 10am we were all looking skyward as the clouds were pretty dark, but thankfully a couple of spits throughout the day was all that came down, with the clouds disappearing later in the day to leave us all basking in the sunshine.

The format for the drag racing was very simple, your car was placed into a category depending on the time it could run the quarter mile in.  It didn’t take long for some of the competitors to get into the low 12 second runs, and then as the day progressed it was high to mid 11’s for a number of runners.  Fensport were the guest tuners on the day and had brought along their Corolla which looked pretty much standard as it sat in the pits, but as soon as the lights went green it was clear that this was a seriously tuned car, which managed a 10.88 second run on the day, which was the fastest of all cars on track.

As the end of the day approached it was time to settle the drag racing in a “first past the post” shootout between the top 8 cars.  The top 8 cars featured the Fensport Corolla, 2 Mitsubishi Evo’s, 2 Subaru Impreza’s and 3 Skyline’s.  As the quarter and semi finals were run we came down to the final 2 cars – Neil Sinclair’s Impreza and Fenport’s Corolla.  On paper the Corolla was the fastest car of the pairing, but Neil wasn’t one to give up without a fight and managed to get off the line first as the final green light of the day came along.  Mechanical problems hit the Corolla as they went for a gear which left Neil all alone powering up the strip – now he could have backed off, but that’s not his style, instead he ran not only his fastest run of the day, but also a new personal best with a time of 11.57 @ 123mph.

A great advert for drag racing in Ireland, and nothing but good reports from everyone involved – hopefully it’s the start of more regular drag events over here.

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PREVIOUS JOURNALISM ENTRIES

2005-06-11 - Club GTI Trackday Event Report (Flat 2 The Mat Magazine)

2005-05-22 - Modified Mayhem Show Report (Flat 2 The Mat Magazine)

2005-03-26 - D1 Drifting Dates & Drifting Background Info (Fast & Modified Magazine)

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