With pent-up demand for the sport, Supligen Drag Challenge #4 —hosted by the National Drag Racing Circuit (NDRC) last Sunday at Vernamfield in Clarendon — was action-packed to the very last race.

“The NDRC was happy to have a smooth efficient flow on race day, which saw eliminations starting exactly on time at 2:00 pm and finishing before schedule. Overall, a very good race meet,” Stephen Gunter, NRDC executive member, told

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With 165 racers on show, there was virtually non-stop drag racing as many of the classes were oversubscribed further leading to some several heart-stopping moments as the large crowd waited on baited breath for the race results to pop-up on the timing display. Through eliminations, victory was only gained by narrow margins as drivers tried not to break out of their brackets since the cooler afternoon temperatures meant the cars were faster than in the morning heat for qualifying. Other competitors were pushed to the edge sacrificing their vehicles’ mechanical health to gain precious milliseconds to win.

While the faster classes lacked the numbers, it was more than offset by the expectations of the likes of Nick Manley and his Toyota Supra, and the LueBoyz running two cars out of their camp, the Top 1 Oil Toyota Corolla and Craig Lue’s own personal R35 Nissan GT-R. The two would come to define the meet as the other contender, the Ford Mustang of Adrian McLymont, was unable to make a full run due to mechanical issues. After taking to the line for championship points and then retiring, it was the unthinkable outcome as the two LueBoyz cars lined up side by side as both —the Corolla, a full-fledged race car, and the Nissan, a modified street car, had put in 8-second quarter mile passes earlier in the day.

Their first head-to-head was the very description of anticipation as when they crossed the line, no numbers were to be seen by the crowd.

“The Mystic Mountain 8 final suffered from a timing system error: The system reported no quarter mile, elapsed time or MPH for either lane. All other timing data was intact, except for the finish line date. In that circumstance, the NDRC asked the finalist to rerun the race, to which they both agreed,” Gunter explained.

After the first race, the moral victory could have been given to Lue’s Nissan as it crossed the line first, as the Corolla struggled to stay in a straight line. For the second, the situation was reversed as the Corolla, with a better grasp of its traction limits, made an 8.620 second pass to the GT-R’s 9.980 quarter-mile run.

— Rory Daley