Newby beats Harris in Sydney showdown

Wayne Newby overcame defending Top Fuel champion Damian Harris in the opening National Drag Racing Championship round of the Sydney doubleheader on Australia Day.

The first Seven Australians and one American came together at Sydney Dragway to do battle for the label of the best under the Southern Cross on Australia Day, and they put on a show with 12 three-second passes with four of those at 500 plus kph.

US star Larry Dixon was the first victim falling foul of electrical issues in the warm up but is expected to return later today.

Phil Lamattina and Peter Xiberras opened the Top Fuel proceedings in round one, with Xiberras taking the win.

Harris then blazed through for a 3.910/500.67kph crowd pleaser to start his victorious night with a bang while his teammate Wayne Newby also overcame Phil Read.

In round 2 Lamattina then trumped Shane Olive while Read and Xiberras went head to heat in a side by side 3s pass where a better reaction time saw the Jim Read Racing driver triumph.

Newby secured his A-Final berth with a 3.831/499.56kph by beating Putland’s 5.466/196.2kph.

Harris then ensured his name was also in the decider after a solo in round 2.

This setup a showdown between defending champion and his teammate in the A-Final.

Both drivers left hard with side-by-side flames to the half-track where Harris ran into trouble and threw the belt, giving Newby the opportunity to drive it through to the end and light up the boards with 3.82 ET at 519.75kph, while Harris was recorded at 4.069/381.29kph.

Newby was thrilled to overcome his Rapisarda teammate and get the win.

“It has been three years (since I won a Gold Christmas Tree) and how good to do it on Australia Day. I have forgotten how to do a speech!” A shocked Newby said.

The B Final was also a spectacle as Lamattina edged out Xiberras with a 3.821/489.21kph pass.

Read was forced to shut off in the C Final allowing Olive to take the win.

Eight Pro Alcohol cars were on show but the A-Final ended up being a rematch of the Sydney Nationals decider with Daniel Reed and Russell Mills facing off.

While Reed red-lit back in October, this time he ran through for an exceptionally close victory (5.52/423.34kph)with a winning margin of just 47 ten thousandths of a second over Mills (5.571/421.61kph) to take his first Pro Alcohol win.

“It was a cracker of a race, and we knew it would be with Russell, he is a tough competitor with a killer combo, but the Nulon Oils/All Star Batteries Funny Car had the goods and got it done today,” said Reed.

Despite showing pace defending Pro Mod champion Craig Burns feel second best to Zoran Gajic in the A Final.

Gajic had it on both ends of the race-track to take the win with a 5.904/416.35kph pass over Burn’s wheel standing 6.14/331.58kph attempt.

“Thank you so very much, this is awesome. I couldn’t be happier,” Gajic said.

“This is just the dream. Craig is such a good racer; he is very consistent.”

Luke Crowley took out Pro Stock Motorcycle with a 7.124/302.59kph pass against Ryan Learmonth (7.317/289.32kph).

Crowley was thrilled having battled all day.

“That is amazing (the ET) for these conditions,” he said. 

“It has been a really tough day and we haven’t really been on top of it, but we have just been sneaking up little bit by little bit and obviously we got the job done.

“It was a great race; I could see Ryan in the corner of my helmet pretty much the whole way so he couldn’t have been too far back!”

Qualifying took place in Top Doorslammer and Pro Stock where Russell Taylor and Chris Soldatos recorded the top times respectively.

Top qualifying in their respective Sportsman’s brackets ahead of racing were Brett O’Connor (Top Sportsman), Daniel ‘BatDan’ Carranza (Modified), Leonard Azzopardi (Extreme Bike), Nathan McKenna (Super Street), Joshua Bertenshaw (Junior Drag Bike), Liam O’Neill (Junior Dragster), Joe Gattellari (Super Sedan), Peter Strudwick (Modified Bike), Darren Hubbard (Supercharged Outlaws), Steve Sloan (SuperComp) and Luke Romeo (Super Gas).

Action resumes at this afternoon from 9.30am at Sydney Dragway for day 2 of the Australia Day Nationals.

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