Street Rodder News Issue No. 11 - October 1997
Street Rodder News Issue No. 11 - October 1997
Stephen's first introduction into street rodding was with twin brother, Daniel, with dad's '48 Wolseley, powered by a 351 Cleveland, which was raced at Castlereagh from 1974 to 1984.
Stephen's first ride in a 'Junior Dragster' was in 1994, at Canberra, and now he has over 200 runs under his belt. To date he has been in 20 finals, with 10 wins. Three of these were; the '96 Nationals, '97 Nitro Champs & '97 Winternationals. Stephen has 1 year left in 'Junior Dragster', and has started work on his hot rod, a '48 Anglia Roadster Ute, which will run 4 cylinder running gear. As this project may take some time to build, Stephen is going to race his dad's nearly completed '35 Tub in 'Super Street', with a new roll bar, and a few more H.P. to run 12.99 sec over the 1/4 mile. This will give them time to work out what to build later on.
Stephen and his dad (Greg Bush) are members of the Junior Drag Racing Assoc. (NSW), and have worked hard with club members to run the first Junior Dragster Titles, which were held on the 27th & 28th October 1997. At the time of this article being written (July) they had over 30 entries from all over Australia, as well as NZ and possibly some from the U.S.A. The racing is over 2 full days, with some 'Group One Pro-Tree Starts', 'Round Robin', and 'Knock Out Rounds'. One Round Robin race will have up to 4 Top Fuel drivers trying 'Dial Your Own' racing.
Junior Drag Racing started in Australia in 1993, about 2 years behind the U.S.A., and now has over 70 license holders aged from 8 to 17 years old. Cars at first ran around 14-15 seconds over the 1/8th mile at 40 mph, and now run as fast as 9.5 seconds at over 65 mph.
As this issue of the newsletter goes to print, the Junior Dragster Nationals are scheduled, so best of luck to Stephen and Greg. Stephen and his father are good examples of keen hot rodders who are involved in more than one aspect of the sport, and are obviously enjoying sharing their common interest. Greg is a long time hot rodder and it looks like Stephen is carrying on the family tradition. Good One Stephen!
