Day one of the Sydney Nationals saw the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship line-up alongside 11,000hp Nitro Funny Cars and leading Pro Alcohol racers in a program that while affected by rain, still provided plenty of great racing entertainment to set the stage for what is expected to be an epic day of racing tomorrow (Saturday 28 October).
To hear about the Nitro Funny Car and Pro Alcohol running, please click here.
At the close of Friday’s running, Lou Carpinato (Modified), Britney Olive (Supercharged Outlaws), Peter Pisalidis (Super Comp) Leo Georgis (Super Sedan), Nathan McKenna (Super Street), Steve Fowler (Top Sportsman) and John Somoracz (Super Gas) had topped the opening qualifiers for their brackets.
Saturday will host further Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship qualifying, before all brackets turn their hands to racing for prestigious NDRC Christmas Tree trophies amidst what is expected to be much more favourable weather conditions.
“We are here this weekend to break a national record and so far, we are on course to do that,” Carpinato said.
“My car sort of shot off to the left a bit so I had to really drive it, but other than that and a bit of tyre shake it went well.
“As long as all goes well tomorrow, we hopefully look forward to breaking that national record and seeing where we can go from there, hopefully we can run some rounds.”
“I am pretty happy with that,” said Georgis.
“There are a lot of quality cars here that can run quicker, but I will take it and hopefully tomorrow we can have better conditions and get it all run and have a great day.
“We made the final in our last meeting (in Top Sportsman) so I am hoping we can keep that going and make the finals this weekend. But as they say, we are racing, and that is the main thing!”
Tomorrow the Nitro Funny Cars, Pro Alcohol and Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship competitors will be joined by those from Pro Stock and FuelTech Pro Mod for more qualifying and then racing, as well as on and off-track entertainment and fireworks to ensure there is no shortage of entertainment at the Eastern Creek facility.
“Despite all that Mother Nature was throwing at us today, the Sydney Dragway track crew never gave up and put in a tireless effort to give us as much on-track running as possible, so I would like to thank them as well as all of the racers who remained in good spirits and gave us their patience as we battled the conditions,” NDRC Co-Founder, Andy Lopez, said.
“We are looking forward to a much better day tomorrow, where I know each and every one of our racers and track and event staff will be pulling out all the stops to make day two of the Sydney Nationals the best it can be.”
With so much entertainment lined up and a much more favourable weather forecast, event organisers are expecting a large crowd and are encouraging fans to purchase their tickets online via ndrc.tv to ensure they don’t miss out.
For more information, visit www.sydneydragway.com.au and www.ndrc.tv
