Crowds flock to Benaraby’s All Bikes festival

A record field of 188 racers competed for cash, prizes and trophies until midnight.

Mackay's Peter Johnson lines up to compete in the grudge match section of All Bikes. Peter set the fastest time of the event at 7.994 seconds over the quarter mile at Benaraby Dragway. Picture: Rodney Stevens

CROWDS flocked to Benaraby Dragway yesterday to watch the skill and speed on display at what was the biggest All Bikes festival in recent years.

Organisers were given just 30 days notice by the Australian National Drag Racing Association ANDRA that the event could be held, and worked tirelessly to pull it off.

Cars lined up to fill out their COVID-19 requirement forms before entering the dragway, which was packed with competitors and spectators from all over Queensland and beyond.

Dozens of bikes entered on the day to see entries reach a massive 188 competitors entered, smashing the previous record by 15 entrants.

Competitors lining up for the Super Twins class at All Bikes at Benaraby Dragway. Picture: Rodney Stevens

Central Queensland Drag Racing Association president Mike Gawley said racing didn’t finish until midnight.

“It was the largest All Bikes racers turnout that I am aware of, we had 188 places on the racing field yesterday,” he said.

“We made 946 passes down the track...everybody was professionally handled with Andra stewards watching every move and paramedics on track to deal with any incidents.

“We had Peter Johnson from Mackay who came down and ran a 7.994 second pass.

“He came in as the top qualifier and he was the runner up in the grudge racing to Dane Brandon.

“Dane Brandon took first place in the grudge bracket, taking home $2000 worth of cash and prizes.”

Gladstone's Mark Harris broke into the 9 second times on his Alpha Performance Engines powered Harley Davidson bagger. Picture: Rodney Stevens

Entries were so massive, the database had glitches managing the numbers and times.

All tastes were catered for, from historic bikes to learner approved motorcycles, outlaws, street bikes, super twins, pro mods, junior racers, turbocharged, supercharged and nitrous oxide injected racing machines.

“We had three brackets (racing groups) that had to be split in half so the computer could handle them,” Mr Gawley said.

“We had more mod bikes and street fighters than the computer could handle and then the super twins was literally 50 bikes strong, it was absolutely a smash hit.”

The display of historic bikes at All Bikes attracted a constant stream of interested people. Picture: Rodney Stevens

Nobody left disappointed, Mr Gawley said, with compliments continuing to flow back to the association this morning.

“From 10am until into the night we had a constant flow of people coming through the gate,” he said.

“Everybody loved the food, there was so much variety and some of the food vendors sold out last night, their entire stock was cleaned out.

“The bar handled themselves very professionally, the live Flame Classic Rock band rocked on into the night entertaining people by a big bonfire,” he said.

“There were tip-top attitudes of appreciation from everybody.

“From Emerald, to Gladdy, Rocky, Mackay, Bundy to Brisbane...we had at least 15 racers from Brisbane make the trip to All Bikes and they all cannot say enough about the time that they had.”

Two competitors in the mod bike class line up at All Bikes at Benaraby Dragway. Picture: Rodney Stevens

Lines snaked through the pit area as hungry spectators and entrants queued for a variety of food vendors including Sunrise Rotary Club’s steak burgers, sausage sandwiches and drinks, to pizza, kebabs, nachos, loaded potatoes, chips, hot dogs and Keppel dogs.

“The food vendors were very pleased and people said the service they got was fantastic,” he said.

“Everything went off super positively...out T-shirts sold out in the morning and people were asking where they could get one, but it was first in first served.

“We had so many entrants we didn’t have enough of the spectacular glass etched trophies, so for those who missed out, we are getting those trophies made and delivered to them ASAP.”

For more information on Benaraby Dragway visit their Facebook page.

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