There is more to our local butcher, Oliver Azzopardi, than meets the eye. When not greeting customers behind the counter in our local supermarket, Oliver is a passionate dragster racer. He has his own team, trailer and professional top fuel dragster. Prior to drag racing, he raced saloon cars and formula cars in Malta. His passion has taken him to the USA, where he has driven and from where he bought his current car. He has also spent a lot of time at Santa Pod in the UK, where he intends to race in 2010 with his own car.

We went to watch him at Hal-Far raceway in Malta and were amazed by the high standard of all the vehicles racing from Astra vans, trucks, saloon cars, drag bikes and dragsters. At the start line, the rear tyres smoked and the noise of the engine was deafening. The lights changed to GO and the front tyres were raised in the air as, like an arrow being shot from a bow, he sped away. The hours of hard work by himself and his team paid off when he won having covered a ¼ mile in just 5.9 seconds. It wasn't his best time though, that was 5.7 seconds and he intends to break it in 2010.