Drag Racing is one of our favourite forms of motorsport. It has a mix of stock cars, heavily tuned cars, normal bikes, superbikes etc. competing for a surface of 400 metres to answer the question of which car or bike and driver combination is the quickest. The display of tuners putting money where their mouth is and proving to potential customers whether there is any tangible performance advantage is admirable. One of the better-known events which allows for the display of this discipline is The Valley Run and we got to experience it with some of our people for the Winter Edition in 2024.
The two-wheelers are the first to compete and stealing the headlines is surprisingly an electric bike! The Ultraviolette F99 did the quarter-mile run in a blistering 10.712 Seconds! The F99 also did 0-100 kmph in under three seconds and the 0-200 kmph sprint in under 10 seconds. These statistics have given the bragging rights to Ultraviolette as they get to call the F99 “The Fastest Indian Motorcycle. However, there is another record that the brand would like to beat to solidify its status. The goal is to achieve the highest top speed for an Indian Motorcycle! We have already expressed our opinion about the F77 and cannot wait to get our hands on the F99 to experience it further.
There were a host of cool bikes such as Suzuki Hayabusa and GSX-R, and BMW S1000RR (old and new) which performed valiantly. The most memorable incident is the Hayabusa crash which sent chills down our spines. There were a few riders we were vouching for including our friend Atharva Udawant who did a couple of runs on the ZX10R and Super Duke R. A special mention to Shweta Chithrode, the Fastest Indian Female Drag Racer, who did a 10.3 second quarter mile time on a Stage 1 Tuned Hayabusa without a swingarm. It should be noted that she was getting used to it and was a bit nervous going into the run but gave it the best shot! The wheeley category was equally insane as we saw a talented crop getting to experience the drag strip in its dusty glory and try to perform the impossible task of stunting and doing it the quickest.
The car category started and there were some serious beasts in the mix! The show-stealer was undoubtedly the Audi R8 V10 with a Sheepy Racing Twin Turbo Kit which produced 1600hp! It was built by the SR8P crew and this was only the R8’s second official run. The twin turbos with the exhaust sounded like nothing under the floodlights as it zoomed past us and recorded a time of 9.2 seconds! We would’ve loved to see it go against the “Imzilla” GTR which has a quarter-mile time of 9.496 seconds! Interestingly, the GTR suffered mechanical problems which is why it couldn’t compete at the Winter Edition of the Valley Run. Speaking of its owner, Imran Majid, he had his own set of shenanigans as he memorably slid in his heavily modified BMW M2 with magnetic pedals and Pure 800 Turbos. It was quite a show seeing a tennis ball sliding into the other lane and we were fortunate that there was no damage in any case as the car did further runs successfully!
The talk around safety should happen as it was better than before. It needs to be mentioned that there was a truck specially bought to clean the drag strip for better runs and had 2 lanes of barricades but only on one side. It was clear that one lane was simply not secured and had spectators watching and constantly stepping over the tarmac making the task harder of conducting two-lane drag racing. The Porsche Cayenne Safety Car came at least 10 different times and things escalated to such a level that the organisers blocked one lane completely! This made it harder to stick to the schedule and we should mention that Elite Octane needs to get better at sticking to their published schedule. We were well aware that delays are inevitable but it is important to show a level of respect and provide a safe space for all the spectators to watch the show and within the time. We would request Elite Octane to learn from the organisers of the VROOM Drag Meet and the support from the larger community!
The cars we were keeping tabs on included the Audi TT from Vagmaster recorded a time of 10.6 seconds making it the fastest car with a 2.0 Litre 4 Cylinder TSI! The Skoda Octavia VRS from The Mechanix Automotive didn’t get a trophy but recorded a P4 finish in the unrestricted category and recorded the fastest time set by a VRS to date at 11.350 seconds! The Mechanix Automotive were running the M340i which did a 11.9 seconds quarter mile time which is respectful and we would like to congratulate the tuners who have helped us along the journey and wish them the best of luck for their future endeavours.
A special mention needs to go to the parking lot was just as insane as we witnessed a Lightning Mcqueen livery BMW M5, Scissor Door Skoda Rapid and a heavily modified Mahindra Thar that looked like the first-generation Ford Raptor. There were various Aprilia RS457s and Skoda Octavia VRSs which were entertaining us with their exhaust sounds as there were some delays in conducting the races! We hope our Audi A4 3.0 TDI gets the interest of keen-eyed car enthusiasts.
