Records in danger at Sydney

The final day of the Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs National Drag Racing Championship round is expected to see records fall.

In Top Fuel, an all-three second field blew the huge crowd away across two qualifying performances, including one run that was the fastest ever at Sydney.

Damien Harris has laid the groundwork for another unforgettable Top Fuel showdown on Sunday with the quickest and fastest Australian Top Fuel record holder top qualified with a blistering fast 3.687-second (533.14kph) run in Q2 against Phil Read – just four thousandths and 1.1kph off the national record he set at Dragway at The Bend last month. Meanwhile, Read was off it early, not improving on his Q1 effort.

Harris’s Q2 pass was just one of five 3-second and one of four 500kph+ Top Fuel qualifying runs across the day and the first in ‘the sixties’ at Sydney Dragway.

In Q1, Wayne Newby and Phil Read both set down 3.719-second runs in separate passes, however, Newby’s 528.22kph over Read’s 524.02kph tipped the scales in favour of the Rapisarda Autosport International (RAI) racer initially into the top spot in Q1, before being relegated into the second-quickest position by his team-mate in Q2, with Read taking third-quickest.

Today’s result marks four straight number one qualifying results for Harris.

“The pass didn’t feel as good as I thought it would, it felt like it was a bit of a raggedy pass,” Harris said.

“It ended up being relatively clean in the end, though, and it sets us up well to try and maximise our points this weekend.”

Questioned as to if that meant there was more in it for this weekend, Harris was circumspect.

“Obviously, Junior will try and  we will just see what tomorrow brings.”

Joining Top Fuel in providing 11,000hp thrills to the enthusiastic Sydney crowd were the XPRO Nitro Funny Cars, which after two rounds of qualifying are shaping up for an epic nitro battle.

Morice McMillin struck the first blow, top qualifying with a 4.004 second pass at 518.14kph in Q1 and while he didn’t improve in Q2, it was more than enough to secure the top spot on the qualifying time sheets ahead of tomorrow’s racing.

Kiwi McMillin had lined up against newcomer Damon Paton (6.608/155.33kph) for the second pass which was ugly on both sides of the track, seeing the rookie from Queensland take the win light as they both rolled over the line at the end.

“The 4-0 in the first pass was not too far away from what we were trying to run, so we were trying to go deep into the threes on that last one, but we just missed the set-up,” McMillin said.

“We have a habit of when we don’t do good in qualifying, we do good on race day – so hopefully that last run will mean we can turn it around tomorrow and knock out some threes for the crowd!

“The points are so close, it will be very interesting to see how it all plays out tomorrow ahead of the Winternationals.”

After leading the way in Top Doorslammer qualifying on Friday evening, Russell ‘Ice Man’ Taylor followed through to get the job done today, taking out the Top Qualifier honours before running a 5.594 / 416.66 kph solo in the first racing runs on Saturday.

This blisteringly quick pass was made all the more impressive because it was the second of two back-to-back 5.5-second Top Dooslammer runs to happen, with John Zappia laying down the quickest time of the session, 5.591/412.8kph, just moments before in his run against Peter Kapiris.

In Top Fuel Motorcycle the ‘5-second man’ Damian Muscat got the Sydney crowd on its feet for this bracket’s first racing pass of the night.

The Top Qualifier ran what is quickly becoming one of his signature 5-second passes, clocking a 5.936s/368.36kph solo pass, with Muscat’s clean and tidy run straight down the middle certainly setting the stage for more action on Sunday.

Topping the qualifying time sheets for their respective brackets were Daniel Reed (Pro Alcohol – setting a new Australian speed record along the way at 428.46kph and just .02 off the ET record), Tyronne Tremayne (Pro Stock – just .01s off the current Pro Stock record and only 0.4mph off the speed record), Steve Carlsen (FuelTech Pro Mod) and Jason Lee (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

On-track action also continued for the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship. More than 200 sportsman racers lined up to see who would claim the Top Qualifier honours, with Jake McNamara (Junior Dragster), Lillian Hagan (Junior Drag Bike), Adam Bowers (Super Street), Craig Geddes (Super Comp), Geoffrey Marshall (Modified Bike), Bruno Matijasevic (Supercharged Outlaws), Peter Furlanetto (Super Sedan), Edge Mallis (Performance Bike), Steve Fowler (Top Sportsman), Joe Catanzariti (Super Gas), and Simon Barlow (Modified) taking out this prestigious accolade in their respective brackets.

The Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs will reach its much anticipated conclusion on Sunday, May 4. The Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship will get the party going with semi-final runs from 9.20am.

Image: Cackling Pipes Photography

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