New drag racers fast, not furious

The death of Fast And Furious star Paul Walker once again threw the whole street racing underworld into the spotlight. But the real fast car culture is a long way from the movies.

He sports a pair of geeky thin-rimmed glasses. His Ikea wardrobe is bulging from a collection of nerdy IT-styled polo shirts. His beard is well-groomed; his hands wonderfully soft. He is as clean cut as any Sunday school teacher.

But Ben McNeil is not the guy you pull up beside at the traffic lights and rev your little tricked Commodore SS engine at. Firstly, he knows better. He'll just let you plant your foot and scream away at the sight of green and bring yourself to the attention of the constabulary.
Secondly, he would give you a flogging - if he wanted to.

The 26-year-old tech-head is part of something rather odd happening at the now-booming Sydney Dragway, amid the usual plume of acrid smoke, wafts of nitrous oxide, and vehicles frequently sideways. Nothing odd about the souped-up streetworthy cars toeing the rubber-littered start line - those four-cylinder pocket rockets inspired by the Fast And Furious film franchise, the supercharged Commodores, the batty old Datsuns decked out with a rocking new block.

Kind of looks like a typical suburban drag race event. But check under the helmets. Among the 200 blokes about to send their cars hurtling down the quarter-mile strip on Wednesday night are high-school teachers,successful entrepreneurs, corporates, and cashed-up IT professionals. In this world of drag racing, vilified as a bogan's paradise, McNeil is a stereotype smasher.

This is his first run in his Toyota 86 at Race 4 Real, a race and burnout meet at Eastern Creek that gives any rev-head a chance to test out their wheels. All you need is a helmet. And trousers.

This is a popular weekly event that saves lives, according to the dragway's CEO Graham Elliot - giving those with a need for speed a chance to legally blow off some steam and race their mates, away from the perils of a suburban street or parking lot.

This is the first meet back at the track since exalted Fast And Furious actor Paul Walker died in a fiery crash in California. He is a venerable topic of conversation on this night, but not a reason to slow down - even for this self-professed, calculated nerd.

'I'm in IT, isn't that obvious? But I've always been into cars," McNeil said. 'Motorbikes and cars are all my colleagues think about. Funnily enough, this is my daily car.

'I have a track car. It's a Subaru Liberty. I'm kind of doing it backwards, given I've got a two-door sports car as my daily and a four-door family car as the track car." His mate Andy Chisholm enticed him to give his 'daily car" a squirt on the drag strip.

Chisholm is another stereotype smasher, he being a boys high-school English teacher. His Mitsubishi Evo that he usually races next door on the Eastern Creek circuit has been running 13 seconds on this night, keeping the WRX drivers on their toes. Suffice to say, he sometimes struggles to keep his classroom on topic. "They quite approve of my hobby," he said.

He also struggles with straight lines, given that his red rocket should be running 12 seconds, and is, well, not. 'I do circuit racing mainly.
Driving in a straight line, it's hard, man," he laughed. "Give me some corners." While most of the 200 drivers are just trying to beat their personal best times and entertain the crowd, James Cannavo is trying to stay on the ground.

Tucked away in the shiny cockpit of his Nissan Skyline, this Denham Court small-business owner has what every lad who forked out $55 to race tonight wants - a 10-second car, the expensive quest of a burgeoning breed who watched Fast And Furious on the big screen and had a moment.
Actually, Cannavo's Skyline is not a 10-second car. It's a 9-second car: one of the fastest roadworthy vehicles in Australia. It even has a parachute.

"I built the engine myself. It has well over 1100 horsepower at the tyres. In the stages of developing this car, I've probably left behind $130k. It is well worth it," he said. He doesn't use nitrous oxide, or NOS, the famed gas glorified in the Hollywood blockbuster. Says it's cheating.

Tonight there are eight cars sucking in NOS, giving their four-wheeled weapons some added poke when the foot is flat. Daniel Dona, a Parramatta real estate agent, is another novice attempting his maiden run on the drag strip.

Dressed in a hipster cardigan, he stands beside his $70,000 WRX STi and admits to being wonderfully addicted. He hasn't even raced yet, but has a 'long list of parts ready to go ... Just waiting for the bank account to respond accordingly".

Therefore he can't afford any speeding tickets. "You just can't get away with street racing anymore, there are so many more cops patrolling, so we just come down here to give it a squirt and get it out of our systems," he said.

Not all cars here are the latest high-powered models loaded with all the tricks in the box. That's the beauty of nights like this. It's a great leveller, on the social scale.

Menai brothers Josh and Michael Lawrie are the backyard tinkerers; two 20-something lads as genuine and earnest as they come. It's the relationships forged under the bonnet that brings them back week after week. It's not all about speed.

"You can go and buy a piece of crap car and build it up with your friends and then race it. You build bonds, you build friendships and you are helping each other out on mate's rates," Josh said.

Case in point, on the issue of mate's rates: When Josh is not sending his Commodore SS down the straight track, he is sideways in the rough-and-tumble world of drift racing. It kind of helps that brother Michael is a panel beater.

Michael drives a less-than-polished 1984 Corolla which he spent six days gutting and dropping a twin cam 4AGE engine under the hood. He says there is more satisfaction building something special yourself, rather than getting the latest rocket off the showroom floor. Down the line is Jose Rovira, a 43-year-old father of two racing his Mazda 3 turbo. He turns up "to keep myself occupied" - and to teach his son a lesson.