When William Yarwood’s 1993 Toyota Supra isn’t being used for school runs, the 1300-horsepower machine is racing against some of Australia’s best in a grueling test of ability.
Mr Yarwood, a Slacks Creek local, will on 29 October return to compete in the Street Machine Drag Challenge, which has been described as one of the toughest competitions in Australian motorsport.
The event will span five days, with each day requiring hundreds of street-registered cars to race on a variety of drag strips – some days racing hundreds of kilometres.
The challenge tests endurance, reliability and speed.
Last year, Mr Yarwood’s Supra placed first in the Speed Pro Six-Cylinder race, and finished
ninth overall following a difficult season full of mechanical setbacks.
“I broke the diff at the start of last year, and you can’t buy that crown wheel and pinion for the RZ models anymore, so I had to wait three months for a new diff,” he said.
“On the first pass back after that, I broke both axles, and then split a cylinder in the block two weeks before Jamboree. It was not good prep heading into [Drag Challenge].”
Despite the setbacks, the Supra proved one of the most consistent performers of the 2024 event, running 8.54 seconds at 163 miles per hour.
Mr Yarwood is aiming to perform even better this year. He said the key was finding the perfect balance between “streetability” and performance.
“I classify it as a proper street car, because I take my kids to school in it, it has every original Toyota feature like air conditioning, and it gets driven on the street most weeks,” Mr Yarwood said.
“I don’t want to turn it into a full race car, so the challenge is keeping it streetable and still making it quicker.”
The car is more or less part of the Yarwood family, considering Mr Yarwood bought it more than 25 years ago when it was a near-new import with just 30,000km on the clock.
“I paid a fortune for it back then, but it has been worth it.
“The car has done over 100,000 kilometres since, and it still does bulk road miles every year.”
The 10th annual Street Machine Drag Challenge runs from Wednesday 29 October to
Sunday 2 November across South Australia and Victoria.
This year, about 280 street cars will be competing.
Mr Yarwood has a title to defend – the Speed Pro Six-Cylinder class – and a time to beat – 8.54 seconds.
To help, the Supra has been fitted with a larger GTX50 turbocharger, which has lifted output to 1345 horsepower at the wheels
“It’s making more power, and I’m chasing low eights this year,” Mr Yarwood said.
