Collin Matiza Sports Editor
ZIMBABWEAN motorsport fans had much to cheer about on Sunday at Donnybrook Raceway in Harare where over 3 500 spectators and 86 competitors turned out in the third event of the 2015 Telecel Drag Racing Series. Spectators were out in full force to view the grudge match between local competitors and veteran South African Drag Racing legend Reg Murray in his Drag prepared Methanol fueled V8 Chevy Chevair.
Murray attended both the 2013 and 2014 Telecel Drag Racing Series events and went home victorious on both occasions with Zimbabweans having no answer to his race-prepared South African built racers. Alan Cacace, Mano Zevgolis and Terry Allberry, all topped better times than the 12,062 seconds posted by the South African visitor, a clear indication of how the local drag racers have improved their performance in the past 12 months. Cacace and Allberry, in their nitrous V8 Cobras, and Zevgolis, in his hp lubes/Castrol Turbo 1600 MR2, all managed to run in the 11-second bracket, with only a few tenths of a second between the three of them.
Close behind Murray were a host of 12-second local vehicles that ranged from Nissan Skylines, supercharged Audis and modified Subarus. Never before has Harare seen so many high performance vehicles on the track.
The motorcycles were also keen to impress with the number of competitors higher than seen at previous events this year..
Les Carlsson came out on top on his 1000cc Suzuki GSXR and had no real competition on the day now that local hero Phil “Archie” Archenoul has moved to the 600CC class on his Bell Tools/Castrol Kawasaki ZX6R.