"VAN" (Sports Desk - 04.05.2025) :: Sunday’s final day of the Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs is set to provide a show of epic proportions to a packed crowd, with Saturday’s performances headlined by Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car well and truly setting the stage for further track and national records to fall.
In Top Fuel, an all-three second field blew the huge crowd away across two qualifying performances, including one incredible pass which was not only whisper close to a new national record but was also the quickest pass ever witnessed at Sydney Dragway.
Top Fuel is on-track this weekend alongside the XPRO Nitro Funny Cars, the Pro Drag Racing Championship, and the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship for the latest event on the National Drag Racing Championship (NDRC) calendar.
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.
RAI wildcard and US-based racer Larry Dixon improved both his ET and speed in Q2 (3.745/467.22kph over 3.777/519.38kph in Q1) while setting a new Australian PB; handing the American the fourth-quickest time. Phil Lamattina also improved in Q2 with a 3.910/306.74 effort (9.702/81.64 in Q1) to ensure an all three second line-up heading into Sunday’s race day.
Today’s result marks four straight number one qualifying results for Harris, with the record-setting racer already looking ahead to what can be improved for tomorrow.
“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.
Justin Walshe (4.267/385.27kph) and Josh Leahy (6.074/173.74kph) both improved on their Q1 runs, 5.087/242.46kph and 6.074/173.74kph respectively, in a pass which followed McMillin and Paton’s outing. Walshe’s Q2 effort was enough to slot him into the second-quickest position, ahead of Leahy in third, and Paton in fourth.
McMillin has his eyes on the threes for tomorrow, and with the championship chase a key area of focus, there is no room for error.
“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, who stepped it off the line (9.909/142.38kph). It was a good day for the Zappia family all around, with Brodie Zappia running a new PB of 5.784s and just shy of the 400kph mark, clocking in at 399.23kph. However, that wasn’t enough to take the win over Emilio Spinozzi (5.744/404.04kph).
Matt Abel made it to half track to take the win light in a solo pass (7.711/193.72kph) when Nasser Matta didn’t show, while Ronnie Palubo took the win over a red-lighting Peter Lovering. Also enjoying wins in the first session were Jeremy Callagahan (5.714/411.40kph) over Geoff Gradden (6.411/372.27kph), Nigel Dion (6.090/386.37kph) over Daniel Gregorini who didn’t make it down the track, and Lisa Gregorini (5.727/364.58kph) over Jack Danaher (6.002/386.85kph).
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.
Greg Durack had a few issues getting off the line in his solo pass, but the Kawasaki came to life at half track to record a 9.339/208.78kph effort. Then it was Ian Ashleford (8.216/205.61kph) against Corey Buttigieg (13.263/113.62kph), with the latter drifting dangerously close to the wall, while Ashleford rolled out of the throttle early to still record the round one win ahead of tomorrow’s conclusion.
For the Pro Drag Racing Championship (PDRC), Pro Alcohol, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle and FuelTech Pro Mod are also doing battle at the Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs this weekend.
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).
From there they were straight into racing, with one round of the all-run format conducted for the PDRC brackets across the afternoon and early evening ahead of further racing yesterday.
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.
Then it was straight into the racing runs for all 11 brackets, with plenty more racing to come from these racers Sunday.
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, before the first rounds of Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car racing kick everything up a notch, scheduled to begin at 11.00am, ahead of round two at 1.40pm and the finals from 4:00pm. Top Doorslammer, Top Fuel Motorcycle and the Pro Drag Racing Championship will also keep the party going throughout the day, with racing for these highly-octane categories from 11.30am.
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