Machine Mad - Rod Benjes

Name: Rod Benjes

Where are you from: Upper Hutt

What is your local BurgerFuel Store? Upper Hutt

Favourite burger on the menu: That’s a tough one as there are so many great burgers but I often go for the Ford Freakout

A bit about yourself (where did you grow up, how did you get into machines, do you do it solo or with mates etc.):

Passion, obsession, addiction and madness are just a few words used to describe my approach to drag racing. It’s hard to describe why I do this as there are so many aspects to it including the amazing people involved, the engineering and technology, the adrenalin, the challenge of building, tuning and driving a race car that is always on the edge of out-of-control, and the thrill of the race. The list goes on.

My passion for drag racing was ignited in my mid-teens growing up in Upper Hutt where the dad of one of my best mates, Stephen Philpott, was a hot rodder. I remember spending hours looking through hot rod mags at his house, seeing the work in progress in the garage and Stephen telling stories of trips to Meremere and Thunderpark Dragway when he was younger. I got my first car in the early 80’s, a ‘73 Holden LJ Torana, and a few of us made our first ever trip to Thunder Park to watch some drag racing. Man, that was cool, I was hooked and wanted to go racing.  

Over the next few years, the Torana went through bunch of changes ending up with a tunnel rammed 355 Chev and my passion for automotive engineering started to develop. I was raised with a DIY approach to everything so with the Torana I wanted to do pretty much everything myself, even if I had to re-do things multiple times to get it right and learn along the way.

I wasn’t alone doing this though, with a really great group of mates who enjoyed the drags and some who also bought or built their own V8’s for cruising and/or racing.

The Torana was pretty quick for a streetcar in the late 80’s, I could drive it from Upper Hutt to Thunderpark in Hastings, run mid 12 second 1/4’s and drive home. Not bad for a stock steel bodied streetcar and a hell of a lot of fun!

Along the way I had the opportunity to join Vince Borowicz’s drag car crew for a few years. I got to help the team finish building Vince’s yellow Agip Holden Caprice Wild Bunch slammer that long time race fans will remember. I already had a passion for door slammer drag cars, but I think being part of NZ’s emerging Wild Bunch scene really cemented that for me. Racing with Vinnie also gave me a chance to travel to other tracks including Champion Dragway in Meremere and Christchurch’s Ruapuna Dragway, meeting more amazing people and deepening my passion for the sport.

I had built and raced a couple other V8 street cars before I concluded that I needed a purpose built drag car. At that point I took a side-step from door cars and built my first chassis for a front engine dragster (FED) with racing partner Ian Lane. I’d built a few roll cages and fabricated all sorts of stuff, but this was the first full drag chassis build. For context here, I was not an engineer or anything like that, I was a computer programmer in these early years working in an office all day so everything I did was self-taught except for a basic welding course. Back then you couldn’t just look up a you tube how-to video, so there was a lot reading and trial and error.

I transitioned to another FED that I had Graeme Berry Race Cars build for me. I raced that in Top Alcohol for several years and by 2008 I had achieved my goal of a 6 second quarter mile pass at 200+mph with a best of 6.67 and 202mph, so I decided it was time to move on from the FED.

That’s when John Dillon and I decided to team up to build our first Top Doorslammer (our 92 Chevy Beretta best known as ‘Childs Play’). John is a long-time friend, growing up together through the Torana days and was just as passionate about drag racing as I am. We also shared a passion for the DIY side of it and had developed many fabrication and automotive skills together over the years on various projects.

Not long after we teamed up, we started DB RaceCars doing chassis building and other fabrication work to help fund our racing program. This was part-time working nights and weekends outside of our day jobs.

While I really enjoy doing everything in-house it’s also essential for us to afford to race at the level we do. When I talk about DIY in racing, I mean everything involved in building a car from scratch, the chassis, body work, interior tin work, engine, transmission and diff, plumbing, wiring etc, pretty much the only thing I don’t really do is paint. If it can be fabricated or repaired, I’ll give it a go. I’ve even repaired the alloy block and heads after blowing the engine once or twice. There is very little that goes out to be done elsewhere.

I enjoy the fabrication side of this almost as much as racing which led me towards retiring from the corporate rat race about 6 years back and focussing on race car engineering through DB RaceCars. I’m doing all sorts of mechanical and fabrication work on some of NZ’s quickest and fastest drag cars and loving it.

We had a lot of fun racing the Beretta, upgrading it to be competitive as budget allowed and working through the never-ending learning curve with a 3000+hp drag car. Our initial goal was to be running with the front of the pack which we did but as things progressed our goal changed to focus on running the illusive 5 second Doorslammer pass in NZ. 5 second Doorslammers are common overseas but not in NZ, so this was a dream/goal for many racing in Top Doorslammer.

I drove the Beretta to a best of 6.21 at 229mph (369kph) but unfortunately in Nov 2020 I put the car into the wall, crossed the track and hit the other wall. It wasn’t a bad crash in the scheme of things but did enough damage that we decide the chassis couldn’t be repaired and a bunch of other bits were junk.

It was decision time – stop there or build another car? John and I both had a strong desire to get that 5 second slammer pass so decided we couldn’t give up racing just yet and a new build plan was formed. The Beretta was an awesome drag car, but it was 10 years old which meant that much of the design and technology was out-dated, so our focus was on building a new car with the latest in safety specs and updated performance parts within our budget.

There’s another whole story just in the build but as a result we now have ‘Wyld Stallyn’, a 67 Mustang bodied Top Doorslammer drag car built for the extremes of top level drag racing.

Spec’s

Engine: 3500HP+ methanol burning supercharged 526 Hemi using a TFX alloy block filled with go-fast parts, Noonan X1 cylinder heads, a PSI Super charger and custom mechanical fuel injection system pumping over 17 gallons of fuel per minute into the engine. Ignition and engine control is sorted through a Fueltech ECU and CDI system.

Driveline:  3 disc 10.7” Crower pedal clutch inside a titanium clutch can, 3 speed lenco transmission, 10” gear set inside a Strange Engineering diff head with a custom fabricated chromoly diff housing using Strange Engineering 40 spline floaters and Race Products axels

Interior: It’s all race car – Custom built SFI Spec chromoly chassis and roll cage, Fueltech digital dash, Race Tech seat, Impact racing 7-point harness, DJ Safety fire suppression system, Simpson Racing fresh air system. The firewall and floor under the driver are all sheet chromoly while the sub-floor, tubs and other panelling is carbon fibre.

Exterior: The Mustang body is a light-weight Tim Mcamis (USA) fibreglass unit specifically designed for drag racing. Dion and Aidan Crook wrapped the car with 3M Black Rose and applied all the signage provided by Dzine Signs in Upper Hutt. The windows are 6mm polycarbonate custom made by Upper Hutt Glass and as a unique touch I installed working headlights and tail and brake lights.

Suspension: The front suspension uses Strange Engineering double adjustable struts; the rear has a custom-built chromoly diff housing suspended by Penske double adjustable coil-over shocks.

Wheels/Tyres: Weld wheels all round with 15x4.5” V-series spindle mount on the front and 16x16” Delta Promod wheels on the rear wrapped in 36” tall x 17” wide Goodyear Racing slicks

Stopping power: Reaching speeds of 245mph+ (395kph) the car needs top of the line braking which is sorted with 2 Simpson air-launched parachutes and Strange Engineering Carbon fibre brakes on all four corners.

Anything else you wish to share (fun facts, hours worked/spent on the machine, plans for the future etc.):

With the build complete we started testing in November 2023. As with any new drag car it takes a bit of testing to get the tune up (engine/clutch/suspension etc) to a reasonable baseline to work from and there are so many variables it requires track time to sort things out. With a limited number of race meetings through summer and budget constraints this is a major challenge.

Through the 23/24 season we had some success, quickly getting the car into the mid 6’s over 200mph, but we also had our share of challenges along the way with various breakages and fuel system issues torching the engine a couple times, one of which set the car on fire.

While I’ve be driving for decades, going through the finish line at 200+mph on fire was a new experience but I hit the fire suppression system and by the time I stopped the car there was no fire for the safety crew to put out. There was however a ton of damage under the bonnet, so off home to clean and repair.

Back for the next meeting where I ran a PB 230+mph but was late on the chutes and ran off the end of the track into the sand trap. Off home for another bunch of repairs.

The race-break-fix-repeat cycle was becoming a bit too common for us, but I’m committed and persistent so put in countless hours to keep getting back to the track.

Kicking into the 24/25 season I struggled to put the car down the track full throttle with aborted runs and pedalling others (on and off the gas to try and control the car). Even with the pedalling though the ET was getting better and better, 6.30’s then 6.20’s and hitting 240mph.

So, there were some good signs looking at data for various stages of the track, but the big challenge is to go A to B under full power, getting it to all come together for the win.

In Jan 25 at the Wellington Invasion at Napa Dragway, on our last run about 100ft out from the start line the car shook so violently that it broke the wheelie bars and a variety of other components, even the polycarbonate windscreen. Tyre shake is common when the tune up isn’t quite right, but this was more severe than I’d ever seen. Anyway, off home for another thrash to repair and get back to the track.

Three weeks later we are back at Napa Dragway for another go. Over those few weeks I’d had a couple conversations with drag racing Legend Rod Harvey who had been watching what we were doing and offered to give us some guidance to help sort things.

There’s another whole story in how that day went but after some small changes based on Rod’s advice, we ran a 6.10 with an early shut-off. Then a couple more tweaks on the tune up for our last run of the day, and holy crap, it all came together putting down our first full A to B pass clocking a 5.92 at 245.61mph (395kph)!!!

Little old home-built Wyld Stallyn became the first blown doorslammer to run a 5 second pass in NZ and is now the quickest and fastest doorslammer in the country. We were blown away! Needless to say, there was joy, tears and many other emotions. I was buzzing for weeks, and it still makes me smile thinking about it.

Having achieved the 5 second pass our goal is to do it again and work towards consistency with our performance to win races. We were back on track a few weeks at the IHRA nationals to try and repeat the 5 but knew it wouldn’t come easy as track and weather conditions are different every meeting.

We managed to qualify number one with a 6.08 second pass which was a great start. Unfortunately, though the next day we were a bit too aggressive with the tune up and so was I with my driving, putting the car into the wall pretty hard.

With the front smashed up, chassis bent and the last meeting of the season only 3 weeks away most people would call it a season and fix over winter. But nah, this is where the passion and dedication really kicks in. I worked on it most every day for the next 2-1/2 weeks to build a new font chassis, piece the front clip together and repair everything else needed to get back on track. With the help of a few people lending parts we needed and the crew on the job whenever they could we got it sorted and headed back to Napa for one last go.

While we didn’t get another 5, we did manage a messy 6.26 at 233mph, but more importantly we got to test the repairs and apart from some cosmetics we are set to start next season in November. I can’t wait

Looking forward, apart from chasing more 5’s and consistency on NZ tracks we also have Australia in our sights. Racing in Australia is bucket list dream item that I’ll pursue if I can. Watch this space.

As always, racing at this level requires help from a lot of people, so I want to say a huge thanks out to my family for their support, John my racing partner and his partner Nelly, our crew – Jeremy Price and Bill Cliff who have been with us from the start, and Paul Cathro for all his help, and our sponsors who’s support is critical – L.A Wellington Shipping, Dzine Signs Upper Hutt, Powder Surfaces Upper Hutt, Redline Oils NZ, Upper Hutt Glass, Industrial Floor Care, The racing Depot and Childs Play (USA)