Holden Drag Nationals Todd Foley Proves That Drag Racers Make The Best Event Promoters

There’s no denying that Todd Foley came from a car-mad household, and despite the best efforts of his well-intentioned father, he wound up bitten by the same bug that had fostered an octane obsession in both his Dad and his older brother Luke.

“Dad tried to steer me into sports which worked for a while. I traveled all over the country playing sport while Luke was at home tinkering with cars, but once sports finished for me I was straight into the cars as well!” he recalls.

Luke is perhaps best known for his exploits with V8-powered Holdens, however Todd’s first flirtation with custom cars started with imports. “I had a few turbocharged Corollas!” he laughs, but Todd quickly fell into line and began an affinity with tough, V8-powered street cars.

Todd rose to prominence in the street machining community thanks to his delectable VH Commodore that he built and rebuilt several times, wearing the WPN 383 numberplates before becoming BLO 247 and ultimately LSJUNK. Originally painted in single tone gray and boasting a beating 383-cube Holden V8 heart, Todd changed the colour and went through a few different engine combinations before settling on a 389-cube twin turbo LS.

“I’d been through hell and back with the blue car - I’d crashed it and had to rebuild it, then all the different engine combos and towards the end, it felt like every time we’d take it racing we’d break a different part. Everytime I took it out I was worried about hurting it,” he explains, which ultimately led to him selling the car to finish building his family home. 

“The guy that ended up buying it saw that I’d be open to a swap. He had this green VH with a 355-cube Holden V8 in it so we did a deal,” explains Todd, who steadfastly maintained that the car would only get a new set of wheels and stay largely as it was.

A man of great conviction, he toed this line for a few months before the 355 was out of the VH’s engine bay for a freshen up! 

“I’d always wanted to paint the engine bay because it was letting the rest of the car down, and I’d got a set of CNC-ported heads for the 355. When we pulled it down we noticed some shagged cam bearings so took the opportunity to upgrade it to a roller cam’ and we threw a better stroker crank in it so we could rev it a bit harder,” he explains.

One modification that garnered him plenty of internet fame however was the modified VH SL/E wheels. The dished rear wheels and shortened diff’ give the VH a distinctly tough ‘Foley Brothers’ stance. The wheels measure 15x8in on the rear and 15x4in on the front.

Todd’s previous drag wheels are stored in the shed, awaiting their fitment to his new project. “I’ve always had a soft spot for the second generation Commodores and my mate had a VS Commodore that he gave me! We’ll build a 5.3L LS for it with a modified LT crank that’ll take the capacity out to 351 cubes, then put a Procharger on it. I’ve got a billet manifold with 16 injectors so we’ll run separate methanol and pump fuel systems to do events like Street Machine Drag Challenge,” he rattles off casually. 

As well as building some seriously insane Commodores and competing at events on the Victorian drag racing calendar, Todd has also happily assumed the role of event promoter. He ran his first Holden Drag Nationals at Heathcote Raceway in 2017 and has since gone on to run a Ford-themed event, too.

“At our first event there were between 40-50 cars. They were all Holden V8-powered because that was the scene I was in, but we steadily started adding classes. Then COVID really stuffed our momentum and it was difficult to get things up and running again, but for the last two years we’ve sold out all 230 entrant spots, and had 60 or so people on the waiting list!” he exclaims.

“We really pride ourselves on the work we put into organising a good day’s racing. I’m a racer myself and I’m really invested in the entrant’s and their experience at the event - we want them to have fun and get plenty of runs in, and when they’re not racing we want them to have time to relax and spectate too,” he elaborates. 

Todd’s next event, the Ford vs. Holden Nationals, threatens to be one of the biggest events Heathcote has seen in recent years, and unashamedly plays off the decades-long rivalry between the two brands. “That’ll be November 2023 which I reckon is a great time to go racing!” he beams.