- Three-day crowd of 23,185 enjoys Sydney’s biggest drag racing show in years
- All eight group one categories were on-show, headlined by Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car
- Nitro Nationals Grand Final for Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car announced for Sydney Dragway, August 23.
More than 23,000 drag racing fans flocked to what has been Sydney’s biggest drag racing show in years at the weekend for the National Drag Racing Championship’s Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs.
On-track were an incredible 75 Group One racers across all eight elite level brackets, giving fans the chance to experience 11,000hp/500kph+ Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Cars, Top Doorslammers, Top Fuel Motorcycles, Pro Alcohol, Pro Stock, FuelTech Pro Mod, and Pro Stock Motorcycle competition all at the one event.
Joining them on-track were 206 Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship competitors across 11 brackets, plus 1531 crew members, all working together to provide an immense drag racing experience for the huge crowd of 23,1185 spectators, racers, crews, sponsors and guests (Friday 3,096, Saturday 12,234, and Sunday 7,855).
As well as incredible racing action, the fans also were treated to some exciting breaking news – the announcement of a brand-new NDRC Nitro Nationals Grand Final event to be held at Sydney Dragway on August 23.
This ultimate showdown will deliver two huge grand finals in one massive day as the flame-throwing Top Fuelers and XPRO Nitro Funny Cars battle it out in edge of your seat, championship deciding chaos. 500 early bird tickets for this event are on sale now to celebrate the announcement – please click here for more info.
When it came to the NDRC Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs racing, the quality of the on-track performances well and truly matched the quality of the above numbers.
Visiting US star Larry Dixon and flying Kiwi Morice McMillin lead the way by taking out the wins in Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car respectively, with Top Fuel heralding its fifth different winner from five events while McMillin celebrated a hat-trick. They defeated Top Fuel championship winner Wayne Newby and defending XPRO Nitro Funny Car champion Justin Walshe in their respective A-Finals.
The A-Final for Dixon and Newby – both racing for Rapisarda Autosport International – wasn’t the fastest run of the weekend (4.448 to Newby’s 6.252), but it was truly spectacular with a pedal fest from both experienced drivers drawing gasps from the packed crowd.
“Yeah, that was fun! I hate racing teammates and all that. But it was funny, Wayne came by in the last round and said, ‘take care of things for me,’ and in this round, Damien did the same thing. So, I’m trying, and we got the job done,” grinned Dixon, alluding to the championship aspirations of team-mates and title rivals, Newby and Damien Harris.
When it came to who was quickest and fastest, that honour remained with Newby’s teammate and defending champion, Damien Harris, thanks to his track record breaking 3.687 second/533.14kph run set in Saturday’s qualifying.
Harris claimed the 3rd spot in Sunday’s all-run racing format – which featured six three-second passes and five at more than 500kph – winning the B-Final on a solo when Phil Read was unable to return to the start line following his burnout. Phil Lamattina was the C-Final winner on a bye run, with ‘the Carrot King’ standing up on the tyres for an early finish to his last run of the event.
It was also a tense A-Final for the XPRO Nitro Funny Cars with McMillin keen to get the hat-trick and Walshe looking for his first victory since last year’s Winternationals, but it was ultimately McMillin (3.987/522.14kph – his second three second pass of the day) who took the win over Walshe (4.032kph/492.99kph) following a crowd pleasing side-by-side run with the candles lit all the way.
The B-Final was taken out by Josh Leahy (4.007/511.56kph) in his first time past the box after two separate fuel leaks across race day, taking the win over rookie Damon Paton (4.077/504.90kph), who set a new PB on his run despite shutting off around the 1000ft marker.
“It’s good to get this Sydney hoodoo off the back. We had people from every team working on the car for that round, and one of our guys actually had to shoot off to hospital, so Jamie mate, this is for you,” McMillin said as he held up the NDRC Gold Christmas Tree Trophy after the final run.
“Man, how good is this Boosted rocket. To get back into the threes and get the thing sorted, it’s been a good day for us. We’ll get these other cars sorted out and come the Winters, watch out. Side-by-side and fully lit is what we want for the crowd, and that’s what XRPO Nitro Funny Cars are about.”
In Top Doorslammer, defending champ Russell Taylor went all the way from top qualifying on Saturday to the A-Final win over Lisa Gregorini. Gregorini (7.622/201.73kph) was uncharacteristically slow at the light in the final run, giving Taylor the early advantage. He then ran it down the track (5.647/414.78kph) for a clear win on Sunday afternoon.
Brodie Zappia and Matt Abel ran side-by-side in the B-Final with 19-year-old Zappia getting his third straight holeshot win of the weekend (5.801/397.54kph) over Abel (5.758/390.81kph), while Brodie’s uncle and 11-time champ John Zappia took the C-Final win (5.843/398.71kph) with a nice run down the left lane on a solo after Ronnie Palumbo was unable to front due to earlier problems for his Monaro. Nigel Dixon (6.052/396.03kph) also enjoyed a solo in the D-Final when Peter Kapiris was a no-show after damage sustained in the previous run.
“It was a great weekend. I love the venue here at Sydney Dragway and the NDRC always puts on an awesome show,” Taylor said in the deep end after his winning pass while giving a shout out to his crew and sponsors.
Top Fuel Motorcycle’s ‘5-second man’, also known as Damian Muscat, again put on another impressive show for the packed crowd at Sydney Dragway to take the A-Final against Ian Ashelford (6.122/358.80kph over 7.410/253.95kph). While he didn’t make it back into the fives on Sunday, it was still an impressive weekend for the Queenslander who dipped into the fives (5.936s/368.36kph) during the first round of racing on Saturday night.
Greg Durack took the B-Final win over Corey Buttigieg, who had an ugly run near the wall (19.193/47.78kph), while Durack went straight down line, albeit not as quickly as he would have liked (7.601/269.45kph).
“The JTS rocketship is a weapon, and it’s going really good. My crew has it down pat and we’re pumping out some good numbers. You always want to do the fives, and we couldn’t get another one (Sunday), but hey, watch this space,” a very happy Muscat exclaimed after his A-Final winning run.
Pro Alcohol, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle and FuelTech Pro Mod were also chasing championship glory at the NDRC’s Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs this weekend, with these brackets delivering plenty of heart-stopping runs for race fans.
Taking the win in their respective brackets were Daniel Reed (Pro Alcohol), Rob Dekert (Pro Stock), Zoran Gajic (FuelTech Pro Mod) and Jason Lee (Pro Stock Motorcycle), over runners-up Chyene Phillips (Pro Alcohol), Tyronne Tremayne (Pro Stock), and Luke Crowley (Pro Stock Motorcycle). Gajic ran a solo in the Pro Mod A-Final when Steve Carlsen was unable to front.
In the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship, from a field of 206 racers it was Zayne Condello (Junior Dragster), Lillian Hagan (Junior Drag Bike), Luke ‘Tex’ Griffiths (Super Street), Bailey McClure (Super Comp), Dale Marshall (Modified Bike), Davydd Estcourt (Supercharged Outlaws), Chevy Taylor (Super Sedan), Nathan Neilson (Performance Bike), Anthony Whyatt (Top Sportsman), Roy Romeo (Super Gas), and Brooke Rapisarda (Modified) who took home the win in their respective brackets.
Dixon’s win wasn’t the only one for the Rapisarda stable, with Brooke Rapisarda – wife of Santo Jnr – and Jess Turner – girlfriend of Santino – facing off in the Modified final. This face-off resulted in a spirited run down the quarter mile, with Brooke ultimately taking the win.
“Congratulations to Brooke, this is the dream, we had done plenty of first rounds and we wondered when we would get to do a final together. I couldn’t have asked for a better opponent, congratulations,” Jess said.
“I was racing my best friend and my sister in law, I am just glad that we got there, thank you Jess,” said Brooke.
Claiming the runner-up honours were Ben Attard (Junior Dragster), Blake Hagan (Junior Drag Bike), Troy Hutton (Super Street), Craig Geddes (Super Comp), Geoffrey Marshall (Modified Bike), Tim Gruber (Supercharged Outlaws), Jack Moreau (Super Sedan), Aaveen Autar (Performance Bike), Paul Partridge (Top Sportsman), Nicholas Polito (Super Gas), and Jessica Turner (Modified).
“The NDRC Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs has absolutely blown everyone away at the weekend and really demonstrated the resurgence of Drag Racing in Sydney,” NDRC Co-Founder, Andy Lopez, said.
“With every single group one bracket here racing for championship glory plus hundreds of our best sportsman racers and a program designed to provide back to back thrills across all three days, this really was the biggest drag racing event Sydney has seen for many years and something we are exceptionally proud of.
“And to top it all off, we were so thrilled to announce we are coming back in August for another outstanding show, this time for the Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car Grand Finals, the Nitro Nationals, on August 23 – an absolutely unmissable event. We can’t wait to see you all there!”
Next up for the NDRC’s major event calendar is the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway (June 5-8) and the abovementioned Nitro Nationals at Sydney Dragway (August 23). For details on these and other upcoming NDRC events, please visit https://nationaldragracing.com.au/calendar/
To learn more about the NDRC, visit www.ndrc.tv
