Most of the year the small south-west Queensland town of Warwick is a quiet farming and holiday town with the McNevins Gunyah Motel a peaceful place to reside.  But on the weekend of the 27-28th February, the staff were over-run by an excited group of Corvetter's as word of a dress up party leaked out.  Not just any dress up but a "Drag Party!" it felt like a journey into a whole different world!

But first, how did this journey begin?

The theme of this years Presidents Run Weekend was "Triple Drag."  Drag 1 Saturday at Morgan Park Dragway, Drag 2 Saturday night dinner dressed in Drag and Drag 3, the missus Drags us home on Sunday.

Meeting at Macca's Loganholme for a coffee around 8am we were quick to feel the buzz of anticipation as the discussion was not just about vehicle set ups but dress attire for the evening, and not from the women either!  26 Members roared over Tamborine Mountain, loosing the customary half dozen after the first turn, and ended up at Aratula for our morning tea stop.  Meeting up with another 6 there including Kev and Tracy from Performax in a nice new Camaro we decided it was time to get to the track to turn the stories into reality.

Arriving at the Warwick Drag Strip about midday and finding another 6 members waiting for us and another 4 turning up to make 42 in total with about 25 of those competitors.... you could feel the heat was on.  Who can blame a guy for wanting to feel the rush of driving a sports car as it was meant to be driven?  Not us lot, that's for sure!

Neil and I decided to lead them out first, a customary burnout then wait for the lights. One of the greatest feelings you can experience is grabbing the stick, rushing to redline, slamming your left foot mercilessly to the floor, quickly shifting into the next gear, accelerating to redline again and repeating the process until you cross the finish line.  Excellent results from all participants, the C5's and 6's and 1 C4 in an 8 second group and all the rest in the 9's.  Whilst we'll concede leaping tall buildings is a bit iffy, we can state as a fact the Camaro is equivalent to a C4 and a half, as that's where Kev's ET times finished it. Smack in between C4's and C5's.

The other ring in was Brad in his supercharged Monaro with just one goal, turn rubber into smoke and make the resultant cloud literally block the sun.  Don Campbell was plagued with hot tyres and no traction but not only won the fastest C3 time but, also the best reaction time with Keith Hosking 2nd.

Silky proved his C2 to be not only the oldest racer there, but not the slowest either.  Proving that 290 really is the horsepower, not the engine capacity of the old girl! 

The C4 title went to Ron Johnstone along with the fastest ET time as well.

C5 and overall winner was Neil Turner with his controversial tyres (enough said), Dave Kelly 2nd.

Bryan Wharton 1st in the C6 category and runner up overall.

Special mention to the 3 ladies for having a run, Karen, Suzy and special mention to Shelbs for some impressive times.  After 8-10 runs you quickly become addicted to the satisfaction that only comes from rowing your own gears and as Ali & Denise were just starting to really enjoy their champagne it was off to McNevins Motel to put Drag 2 into action. 

"Can it get any better?"

It is said that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," so there's little doubt that a heap of blokes dressed as women were going have a serious night (as per photo's) Keith looked like nanna, Ern was an Hawaiian tart, Brad and Neil were just wrong, Ian was Tina Turner's "done it hard" double, Silky....what can I say but nice shoes, Rob and Karen were the bobbsy twins, Webro looked like Shrek in drag, and some even more conventional costumes out there including some nice efforts from the real ladies.  I think I looked the prettiest, hey Bryan, and I got to take a beautiful grid girl back for the night, hey Ali?

The only serious part of the night was the trophy presentation and seeing Kevin from Performax with hair.  After the Pricilla dancing and model calendar shoot, it started getting ugly, as in uglier than blokes in drag, and worst of all, this all happened amongst friends.  Our 3 course dinner was superb, as was our buffet brekkie the morning after, and it is great to stay at a place that makes you feel so welcome and happy.  That's what the staff at McNevins told us anyway! 

Sunday was Drag 3, we all got dragged home....what a drag!  But not to give up on fun yet, we took the convoy over the mountains from Killarney to Boonah, through creek crossings, over cattle grids, one way mountain trails and through the forests.  Quite a peaceful contrast from the previous day's driving but a time to reflect and have a chuckle over the weekends highlights.

Lunch at Boonah, and home in the rain from there, wash the Tiger Shark and thank him for being loyal and when I got inside, answer the phone calls from lots of members thanking us for the best weekend ever. 

How many ways are there to say something was perfect?  Well, there's flawless, impeccable, faultless, excellent, immaculate, crowning, sublime, or beyond all praise.  To join old members we don't see often with new ones, to see people drive their pride and joys down a drag strip, to wine and dine together and to see the result of people dressing up to make the weekend complete was definitely perfect. 

Ali and I both agree that the real highlight of the weekend was the people...thanks

cheers Peter Turner