ASCAR - Pro Street
I made my way out to Willowbank Raceway on the 15th of March for 'March Madness'. It was a normal bracket meeting for most racers, but it included ASCAR's inaugural event for the new mini series. So what is ASCAR? ASCAR is the newest edition to Pro Street drag racing in Australia. Pro Street is based on street cars. Street cars that have different levels of modifications for racing, but a lot of the components that were in the car from standard are kept. The different levels of modification are broken into 3 basic classes: True Street, Modified Street and Pro Street. It is basically the same as the old Queensland Pro Street competitions, which were based on a set of rules decided by a lot of racers over a long period of time. It has been promoted by several organisations over the years, from the Performance Streetcar Magazine sponsored events, through to the Pro Street Nationals run by Craig Thompson and Mark Arblaster, and more recently the revival through the Powercruise Pro Street Shootouts, over the last 4 years. The shootouts will still run as they have in the past, but now there will be ASCAR Top Ten lists based on an update set of rules which are published on the ASCAR website. www.ascar.com,au . These rules will be used for the new Top Ten lists in Pro Street, Modified Street and Drag Radial Classes. Pro Street racing is basically a heads up, pro tree bracket that brings the fastest street cars together to find out who is the fastest. There is a saying among the racers - RUN WHAT YOU BRUNG, AND HOPE YOU BRUNG ENOUGH......I have included a few pics from March Madness, in an effort to describe the different classes to you.
TRUE STREET - True street is just that. A true street car. Basically the only modifications allowed to the car are to make it faster. Just engine mods. Other small modifications are allowed, but basically the only modifications in TRUE STREET are engine mods. There were no True Street Classes running at March Madness, but a previous winner has been Ryan Hodges at the Pro Street Shootouts.
Michael Arnold is pictured here in his Modified Street Blown HT Ute - 400 small block with 8/71 Blower - Best of 8.52. Michael was top qualifier with 8.52 ET and runner-up at March Madness.
MODIFIED STREET BLOWN: Modified Street Blown is for forced induction cars. Forced induction as it Supercharger, Turbo or Nitrous. Modified Street is a modified body and chassis that is modified to suit the extremely modified engine up front (See blower hanging out of bonnet above - lol). There are limitations to how much you can modify the front and rear suspension. Tyre sizes are also limited to 10.5 inches. Some panels may be replaced with fibreglass etc. Full rules lists can be found on the ASCAR website.
MODIFIED STREET UNBLOWN: Modified Street Unblown follows the same rule as above, but with naturally aspirated cars only.
Mark 'Bluey' Arnold is pictured here in his Pro Street Blown HQ Monaro. This was the first outing for Bluey since adding the 8/71 Littlefield Blower to the big HQ. It was still good enough to get into the low 9s on what was basically a test day.
PRO STREET BLOWN: Pro Street Blown is similar to Mod Street, but there are less limitations on chassis, body and suspension and engine. The engine modifications are basically unlimited. The only real engine modification restriction is that only one form of forced induction is allowed. So backing up your turbo with nitrous would be illegal. Other than that it is open season. Another major allowance made for Pro Street is tyre width. They can be of 33 inch diameter and up to 17 inches wide. Three quarter chassis cars are also allowed. Again, full lists of the rules can be found on the ASCAR website.
PRO STREET UNBLOWN: All Pro Street Rules apply as above except for forced induction again. Naturally aspirated only.
Big burnouts, pro trees and heads up racing are always a big part of Pro Street Racing. Bluey and Gup, who won the bracket at March Madness in his HQ, performed side by side here.
Pro Street Racing is one of the most exciting things to happen to drag racing. They are basically cars you see everyday, with a major horsepower injection. Willowbank Raceway have again this year included Pro Street Racing as part of the Tin Tops on the 18th & 19th April 2008. This is one of the biggest race meetings of the year on the drag racing calendar. All of the top classes of racing including Top Doorslammer and Pro Stock, which are 2 of the closest racing classes in Australian drag racing. Add to that some of the fastest street cars (Pro Street) in the country, and you get a drag racing meeting you definately do not want to miss. If you would like any more info about the Tin Tops, visit the Willowbank Raceway site here. If you want to know more about the rules of Pro Street racing and ASCAR, visit the ASCAR website by clicking on either of the logos on this page.
