WILD BUNCH THE RETURN PART 2
In our last issue, you learnt a little about Wild Bunch Wars, brought to you in association with the Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival, met a few of the stars of the show, and found out when and where it’s happening. And what you can expect to see at Masterton Motorplex on 4–5 January as part of the Dragstalgia event is something pretty damn cool, a step back in time, updated and presented to a whole generation of drag racing fans who never got to witness the Wild Bunch first time around. They say that sometimes to move forward you have to take a step or two back; this just may be something that relates perfectly to that philosophy. The sheer amount of interest and commitment from sponsors and racers alike is unprecedented for a ‘new’ class or event that doesn’t involve overseas tourists.
A very basic set of updated rules has been drawn up to keep the class simple and affordable, while the dial-your-own (DYO) format on race day makes it not a flat-out performance-based class as such; it allows everyone as level a playing field as you can get. The DYO range between 6.99 and 7.99 will promote close and exciting racing, along with the inevitable wild, unpredictable antics commonplace in a class with a history as long as the burnouts expected of its competitors.
Body styles are restricted, as are engine combinations, so as not to stray too far from the original class, but to allow for updates in technology to a point without taking it to excess like a modern-day top doorslammer. You won’t see screw blowers, turbo cars, or monster motors, and the body styles will actually resemble the originals from a bygone era, with a bunch of competing cars even retaining the original steel roof and rear quarters.
In the following pages, you will meet some more of the racers and their rides as we build up to the first-ever qualified 16-car field in the sport’s history for a class of this nature.
Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival Wild Bunch Wars is set down as a two-day
