SUNDAY BEST

DOZENS OF INTERSTATE PENTASTARS JOINED A MIGHTY LOCAL TURNOUT AT QUEENSLAND'S WILLOWBANK RACEWAY FOR THE 19TH MOPAR SUNDAY

- IAIN CURRY

MOPARS, Mopars and more Mopars, as far as the eye can see, and not a ring-in to be found. If you love your Chryslers, Plymouths, Dodges, DeSotos, Rams and even Jeeps, Willowbank Raceway’s annual Mopar Sunday is a recommended Queensland pilgrimage.

An event-record 126 drag cars hit Willowbank’s quarter-mile for the 19th running of this laidback drag racing and show extravaganza, while 150 were polished up for the busy show ’n’ shine. “About a quarter of this year’s entrants travelled from NSW, Victoria and South Australia,” said co-organiser Sam Tatton. “Being told people build stuff just for today is really special. People see this as a premier event to be focusing on, and it shows there’s really nothing else like it for Mopars.”

As soon as we arrived, we had our first shock. A familiar ‘whoop-whoop!’ siren from behind was met with fight-or-flight jumps, but blessedly it was just a Dodge Coronet police car adding to the atmosphere.

There was an intriguing mix of old-school and modern metal present, just as organisers Sam and dad Jim like it. “Jim’s into the old-model stuff, but I love seeing the Demons, Trackhawks and Ram TRXs; that’s my thing,” said Sam.

Both were well-represented on the strip. There was a ‘future classic’ Chrysler 300C running nines and a ludicrous, modified twin-turbo Ram 1500 TRX truck – all three tonnes of it with driver on board – running low 11s.