Lawrence Quarter Mile Drags weekend is rapidly approaching. Nick Brook caught up with reigning champion speedster Steve McLay in his classic Corvette.
"Waiting for the lights in first gear, foot on the break, loading up the torque converter ... It’s all down to that moment you release the brake, and measure the pressure on to the accelerator," the veteran drag racer Steve McLay says.
"Cars like mine let you load it up to about 1500rpm without moving. As soon as you release the brake your other foot’s coming down — not flat, what suits for optimal horsepower. It might take 30 to 50m before you’re flat on the pedal, depending on the grip on the track on the day."
In his "young 60s" the Milton businessman’s first event was the Lawrence Quarter Mile Drags "about 10 years ago", in the same 1987 Chevrolet Corvette.
"Back then it was stock standard and ran high 14 seconds. Now it’s got a different engine, gearbox, diff, supercharger and it’s down to very quick times."
A 12-second quarter-mile car is fast by any measure, and last year he took the top time of 11.54s.
"It’s very much a road-going car but it has a lot of horsepower — it’s like a split personality. You can drive nice and easy, but if you start putting your foot flat it becomes a monster."
"People might wonder why do this sport, maybe they think it’s an armchair ride. Well, no.
"The higher power your car, the more you have to work the steering. A rear-wheel-drive by its nature, the back wants to go where the front is, they want to spin around so you have to concentrate to keep the car straight and true, and you have gear changes, and Lawrence uses an exciting piece of road so you are quite busy in that 11-12 second time."
Mr McLay’s machine is a 4-speed automatic but the quarter is over while he’s still in 3rd and the forces are considerable.
A driver shifting from 0kmh-200kmh in a quarter-mile experiences about 0.5G — that’s 1.5 times gravity pushing them back into the seat.
"If you accelerate too hard and break into a bad wheelspin you’ll have to back-off then reaccelerate, and that’s going to cost a lot of time. Getting a very quick take-off with minimal wheelspin is how you make the difference."
Mr McLay said anything could happen on the day and there were plenty of good reasons to go.
"I’ve had a few reliability issues with a tightening supercharger tearing belts apart. I did very well in Oamaru last weekend but to have a good race you’ve still got to finish.
"People come in cars that are impressive in all kinds of ways. They may not be the quickest but enjoy a massive warm-up burnout which is a real crowd-pleaser and that’s what I like about it. It’s exhilarating and social and what everyone has in common [is that] we’re there to have some fun."
