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4 & Rotary Nationals
Date: 31/01/12		 go back

The 4 and Rotary Nationals was once again huge, with record breaking numbers of cars and visitors. The car's on display were amazing, with hours and hours of work going into each and every one of them, from the custom hot rods and v8's in the hall of fame to the bodykitted, lowered and tinted icons of the 4 and Rotary scene, there was even something for the big boys' yes that's right there was a Mack truck with polished chrome pieces and a fantastic paint job. The show bought together a wide variety of interests, vehicles and people with their own tastes.

The Rislone Dragster drew a lot of interest at the Smit's Group stand where the concept of a rail dragster with a Rotary powered engine sparked a lot of conversation, especially when visitors to the stand learned that the Rislone Dragster would be running at the drag's the next day. The 4 & Rotary Drags was held on Sunday 29th Jan, and started off with a cold and overcast weather, which gradually cleared up. Charlie Bates had two qualifying runs in the Rislone Rail which resulted in setting the fastest time in his class, so he ran a bi run in the first round.

Charlie's second run was against the twin turbo Ford Cortina from Australia, Charlie staged first and had the turbo spooled up before the Cortina had fully staged, unfortunately the Cortina moved forward to soon causing a red light foul, by this stage the race was on with Charlie finishing ahead of with a 7.2 second run at 296kmh. The fastest overall time of the meeting, thus putting Charlie and the Rislone Dragster through to the finals against Kiwi RIP's dragster. The final race came to a start with Kiwi RIP having a slight lead over Charlie, who caught him up and passed him by 1/2 track, but ended up loosing traction over bumps and crossing the centre line, where he had to jump off the accelerator to get back in line, causing Charlie to cross the finish line just behind the Kiwi RIP's dragster - a very exciting and close race.

Make sure you head down to the Fram Autolite Dragway this weekend for the Drag Combat meeting, where Charlie will be running the Rislone Dragster again.

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