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ANDRA: Darren Parker: Race like it’s 1999

March 14, 2014 Posted By
DarrenParker_JoeMaday_NitroChamps2013.jpg
Image credit: Joe Maday

This weekend Australian Super Stock Champion Darren Parker will make his first appearance at Adelaide International Raceway since the 1999 Springnationals.

Back then Parker competed in Super Street but now he returns behind the wheel of his Pontiac GXP looking to kick start his Super Stock Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship title defence.

Squaring off against teams from Super Stock and Competition Eliminator in the combined Super Comp category, Parker said he is expecting some fierce competition.

“Craig Geddes and Wayne Cartledge are fast wherever they compete in their dragsters and Daniel Camilleri ran 0.2 seconds under the DD/GA record at Calder Park two weeks ago,” he said. “Any one of the ten drivers is in with a shot.”

“Super Stock is a tough class and when you add the Competition Eliminator guys to form Super Comp at the smaller meetings I would say it is going to be even harder (to repeat as champion).”

“Like all forms of drag racing, to win in Group 2 I’ll need good reaction times combined with smart qualifying and racing. I need to win each round without hurting the index (or record) if possible.”

Parker recently reached the semi-finals of the inaugural John Taverna Classic at Calder Park Raceway. From a .012 reaction time the Pontiac shook the tyres and got loose at half-track allowing Shane Baxter to get the win.

“Shane was also loose in the other lane and drove around me for the win. After seeing his driving job from the other lane, he deserved to win.”

Parker thanked Peter Ridgeway and Arthur Sagiaris of Custom Engines, Paul Rogers Performance Transmissions, Mark Hinchelwood at MotorSport Connections and Speedflow Hose Fittings for their ongoing support as he gets to grips with a new converter and rear shocks during the short turnaround between local and national events.

“I have some new systems on the GXP that I was getting my head around at Calder and I’ll continue working on them through qualifying in Adelaide.”

“Similar to my preparations for Calder last weekend it is going to be about tuning the car to get it down the track and once we get into eliminations, anything can happen.”

Round 4 of the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship commences with qualifying from 5:00pm this Friday at Adelaide International Raceway. The action picks up from 9:00am on Saturday with eliminations set for 3:00pm.

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