Shane Olive top qualifies with mammoth near record-setting pass ahead of racing Saturday
The 2026 BLAHST Australian Top Fuel Championship has exploded into action at Mildura’s Sunset Strip this evening, with qualifying for its season opening Twilight Nationals completed ahead of Saturday’s racing at the popular regional drag racing facility.
Today’s huge opening day of the Twilight Nationals marks the latest chapter in a story of community passion, which has seen the National Drag Racing Championship (NDRC), the Sunraysia Drag Racing Association (SDRA), Mildura’s Top Fuel hero Phil Lamattina, and the wider community working together to welcome four 11,000hp Top Fuel machines and more than 130 Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship competitors to the Sunset Strip.
Those efforts have been rewarded immediately, with packed spectator areas and spectacular on-track performances throughout Friday evening. Another large crowd is expected for Saturday’s racing, and fans are encouraged to secure their tickets early at http://bit.ly/TWILIGHTNATS to avoid anticipated queues at the gate.
When it came to the on-track running for BLAHST Top Fuel, Shane Olive signaled his intention to reset the Sunset Strip track record he set here in 2022 and challenge for the victory, blazing through to an impressive 3.296 second pass at 333.31kph in the final Top Fuel pass of the evening. This saw him launch himself into the top qualifier spot by eight tenths of a second and demonstrated his potential to reset his current track record of 3.17 seconds, set in 2022.
Earlier, Olive had been one half of the first BLAHST Top Fuel pairing of the evening, lining up against long-time Top Fuel legend Steve Read, where he had set a 4.165 second pass at 185.36kph after getting off it at half-track, while Read had smoked the tyres on the hit and rolled through for a 9.617.
Before Olive’s Q2 heroics, WA’s Kyle Putland had held the provisional top spot with a panel-loosening 4.042 second run at 304.01kph in Q1 set alongside Lamattina (4.463 at 168.02kph). Putland then lined up beside Olive for the flame-throwing Q2 side-by-side, with a 4.192 second effort seeing him forced to settle for second on the totem.
Lamattina and Read on the other hand both found improvements in Q2. Lamattina delivered a 4.215/186.44kph result to maintain third quickest, while Read – who like Putland is making his Mildura debut this weekend – improved to 9.590/123.54kph as he continued to work on his set-up.
With the BLAHST Top Fuel qualifying order now set, these nitro-burning superstars will return to the Sunset Strip tomorrow (Saturday 28 February) for three rounds of all-run racing, scheduled for 5.00pm (round one), 7.30pm (round two) and 9.55pm (final).
“Heading into that final qualifier, I was not feeling overly confident of securing the top spot, as anyone here could be at the top if they have their game together. We pretty much made it all the way down there, but it spun the tyre just before the finish line and popped the belt off, so it probably could have gone a bit quicker,” Olive said.
“Tomorrow evening, if the conditions are right, it is definitely on the cards that someone could break my track record This car holds it from when we were here in 2022, and we are chipping away at it, so hopefully it can be us.
“This is my first Top Qualifier result as well, so I am pretty stoked with that. To come away number one is great and gives us a bit more confidence heading into race day.
“It was great to see the fans come out in droves. I took a quick glance from the car and couldn’t see a single clear spot on the hill, so that was really great.
“Thank you to BLAHST for coming on board for this race, and to all the crew guys and girls for the work they are putting in.
“Hopefully we can challenge for the win tomorrow. We do not go racing to lose, but at the end of the day it is anyone’s race — if you slip up even a little bit, it can bite you.
“Aaron (crew chief, Aaron Hambridge) is chipping away at the tune-up little by little, the crew is doing a great job, and we will get after it and see what happens tomorrow.”
For the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship racers, three qualifying runs were held today with a fourth and final qualifier for all brackets scheduled to begin at 2.45pm local time, ahead of the start of racing for these competitors from 4.30pm. Finals will be held from 9.15pm.
Currently leading the way for their respective fields are Sammy-Jo Johnson (Super Street), James Barlow (Aeroflow Junior Dragster), Rob Camilleri (Moss Refrigerated Transport Super Sedan), Aliza Harris (Aeroflow Junior Drag Bike), Daniel ‘BatDan’ Carranza (Modified), Dale Marshall (Modified Bike), Michael Obst (Top Sportsman), Edge Mallis (Performance Bike), Craig Geddes (Super Comp), Bruno Matijasevic (Supercharged Outlaws), and Mark Calus (Super Gas).
For Twilight Nationals event information and tickets, go to www.nationaldragracing.com.au/event/twilight-nationals
To learn more about the NDRC, go to www.nationaldragracing.com.au
