Opponents eat dust during Matuba Battalion Drags

Members of Northern Natal Motorsport (NNMS) once again left their opponents trailing and eating dust during the Matuba Battalion Drags last weekend.

Five of the club’s racers participated, including world record holder Faizel Cassim.

Racing his familiar red Golf 6 R, Mr Cassim and his wife Razia, comfortably took the first and second spots in the four-cylinder all wheel drive stock turbo class they competed in.

Mrs Cassim also claimed the second fastest woman racer of the day award.

Club member, Marsh Padayachee, creamed the competition as well in the four-cylinder all wheel big turbo using his Mistubishi Lancer Evo 9 to do the job in 10.9 seconds.

Claiming second place in their respective classes, were brothers Yusuf and Abdullah Cotwal who raced using a Mercedes C63 AMG, and BMW 136I, with times of 11.8 and 12 seconds respectively on the 400m sprint.

The Cassims managed a flat 11.7 seconds in all their runs, and while this was faster than the rest of the cars in their division, it was still 0.5 seconds shy of the world record.

“The wind was quite strong during the races, and it was a direct headwind that pushed against the car, making it harder to go fast, but I won’t make any excuses, I could’ve been faster,” admitted Mr Cassim.

Mr Cassim believes legal drag racing is one of the best sports when the public can have immense fun driving excessively fast, but in a safe environment.

He described the feeling of racing in as the purest adrenaline rush around, and the bonds forged on the racetrack with various drivers and teams were like those of family.

In his bid to continuously put Newcastle’s racers on the map, he called on racers who were not associated with any club, to join the one on their doorstep.

“Some of the best cars from around the country were at the event to settle matters, because there has been no racing on the coasts for the past five months. We are glad we could show them just how capable we are. Join the club, and you can too.”