Curtain falls on 2015 season at Fuchs Winternationals

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The final action packed day of the Fuchs Winternationals brought down the curtain on the 2015 ANDRA Championship Drag Racing season in front of a capacity crowd at Willowbank Raceway.

It was a Rapisarda Autosport International type of day as they had the monopoly on the Winternationals with all three cars passing go to reach the semi finals and set up an all RAI Top Fuel final.

By negotiating the first rund, RAI wrapped up their first championship since Steve Read last won for the team in 2002 but the question was just which driver would be crowned champion.

Damien Harris was eliminated by US star Cory McClenathan in the semis, meaning Wayne Newby could steal the championship in his first season in a Top Fuel dragster if he could win the final and set either top speed or low ET.

It wasn’t to be for Newby as McClenathan took the win in a fireball handing the championship to Harris and a second ANDRA Gold Christmas Tree for the weekend to team owner Santo Rapisarda.

“This is just so unbelievable, I have one of these on my mantle at home and now I have one to sit right next to it,” said McClenathan, who won the 2011 Nationals event in Sydney with RAI.

“This is really cool to do this at the Fuchs Winternationals, I know it is a points deal for everyone and I didn’t want to disrupt that so whoever won, won – but I did not come out here to be second place.

“Santo calls me, he expects me to come out here and stand on the gas and not let off and that’s what we did. We hurt some parts doing it, we had one good run today and you’ve gotta have a bit of luck in drag racing.

“Thanks to Santo’s Cranes, Rapisarda Autosports, to Santino and Santo Junior who do a great job on their cars. Lee Beard did a fantastic job for me and all the guys over there – it’s a team thing not one guy as they say but thank you to all and to Santo Rapisarda – this is in memory for Louie, and I am just so glad to have brought it home.”

John Cannuli needed to reach the final to win his first ever Top Alcohol championship but his challenge literally went up in flames when a fuel line came loose sending fire through the cockpit of his funny car toward the finish line. Jamie Noonan drove around Cannuli for the win, who wrestled with the car to stop safely.

That run also confirmed Noonan had backed up his earlier 5.504 ET with a 5.519 second pass securing a new Top Alcohol dragster national record while resetting the speed record to 260.91 mph.

His victory handed an emotional Gary Phillips, looking on from the stands, his 17th Top Alcohol championship.

“That was a great weekend,” said Noonan. “In qualifying we couldn’t get down the track, we just had to back it down that much to try and win the race and it all worked out to plan and it was a really good effort.

“Twice in two years I missed out on the final, there was rain on one and broke on the other so to finally get it is a great feeling.

“We actually hurt the motor in elimination one and we knew we had to put a rack of rods and pistons in it after E2 and the boys worked an awesome effort they put a full set of rods and pistons in after E2 and we finally got the win.”

John Zappia, eight-time Top Doorslammer champion coming into the weekend, confirmed his status as one of the greatest racers in ANDRA Drag Racing history. The last to achieve a similar feat was Gary Phillips who won seven straight Top Alcohol championships between 1995-2001.

Zappia celebrated number eight by resetting the national elapsed time record to 5.693 seconds in a final win over Ben Bray who impressed in his return to drag racing after a horror smash almost exactly one year ago.

“New national record and a perfect season,” said Zappia. “Man this is just unbelievable, the Fuchs Striker Monaro just flew all weekend, we had tyre shake every run except the final, we took a gamble, thought we were going the wrong way, let’s just try something cause whatever we did on the second run didn’t work, it went back to a 5.91.

“We know Ben can run a 5.91 we know he can cut lights so we thought let’s try something we haven’t tried, we threw it at it, it took it, I punched second gear, didn’t have to lift, first full throttle pass of the weekend and I told everyone if I could hold it flat it would run a 60 and it went a 69er.

“This is for Craig Pedley from Striker Crushing, thanks for 10 awesome years, it has been fantastic Craig – this win is for you – tearing up.”

Mark Drew notched his second successive Top Fuel Motorcycle championship without even twisting the throttle when Chris Porter shut down at the line in round one allowing Chris Matheson to take a solo win.

Drew celebrated by reaching the final in a defeat of Matheson and collecting his second ANDRA Gold Tree of the day with a win over visiting American Darian Guillory who had earlier laid down one of the quickest nitrous motorcycle passes ever in round one.

“That is really good, the track has been killer all weekend,” said Drew. “In the end we just did enough to win to get through to take the win, and happy days, we have back to back Australian championships, its just great.”

Lee Bektash has set a new standard in Australian Pro Stock and everyone expected him to not only claim the ANDRA Pro Stock championship but also the Fuchs Winternationals.

Bektash took a solo in round one, defeated Tyronne Tremayne in round two, and even though he had the reaction time advantage in the final, Nino Cavallo prevented him from making it a golden double after the event runner up was enough to secure the overall championship for the first time.

Cavallo had run consistent 6.9-second passes all weekend and thoroughly deserved his victory taking out Jodi Racco and Emilio Spinozzi on his way.

“Unbelievable, coming into Pro Stock I didn’t expect to win a meeting to be honest but to win the Winternationals is just unbelievable – out of control,” said Cavallo.

“A thank you to my crew they have done unbelievable this weekend and well done to Lee Bektash but we are real, real happy.

“The crew did a great job, they had three quarters of an hour to get the car done, they have just done great, an unbelievable effort.”

Sensationally Luke Crowley and Glenn Wooster dumped the top two in the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship, Maurice Allen and Scott White, out in the first round. That opened up the title for rookie Ryan Learmonth who defeated Locky Ireland to reach the semis.

With it all to race for, Learmonth stalled just after twisting the throttle and could only watch as fellow rookie Brad Lemberg posted a 7.158 second pass, the quickest run of the weekend to that point, handing Maurice Allen his second championship.

Lemberg went on to lower the ET even further in the final with a stunning 7.146 at 183.19 mph leaving Glenn Wooster to dream of what might have been with a red light.

“It feels awesome, a dream come true, on our rookie meet, I couldn’t be happier at the moment,” said Lemberg.

“We thought it would get a bit better, added a bit of fuel there, and it looks like it paid off. Dad is going to be stoked, sponsors VP Racing Fuel Australia, Pauly and Johnny – they do awesome things for us and have helped us out for a number of years, R and H transport services from Mackay have come on board this year, we are just living the dream at the moment.”

The new ANDRA Championship season begins in just over one month when Top Doorslammer and Top Alcohol visit Hidden Valley Drag Strip in Darwin.

Meanwhile the first ANDRA Championship Drag Racing season under the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series banner is in the books.

Huge crowds, great racing and plenty of action thrilled fans across the four-day extravaganza as ANDRA Gold Christmas Trees were handed out for national championship glory and prestige of the biggest drag racing event outside of the US.

Alistair McClure has secured his second consecutive Competition Eliminator championship with a semi final win over title rival Craig Geddes. The Victorian turned on the red light, allowing McClure to protect his index for the final where it was Wayne Cartledge who lifted the trophy for the Winternationals victory.

Cartledge overcame Louis Galea, Ash Hamblin, Robert Coleman and then two-time champ McClure in the final to wrap up a solid weekend for the veteran.

“We’re absolutely stoked,” said Cartledge. “We struggled for the last season or two, we’ve got a new combination we’re trying in the car and it looks like it’s going to pay off for us.

“There was a lot of heavy hitters here this weekend. We weren’t expecting to come this far this weekend, but we’re absolutely stoked.”

Newly crowned Super Stock champion Steve Norman could only watch after switching on the red light as Rob Nunn secured the Winternationals win for Tremaniac Racing in the final. Nunn’s journey involved wins over Rodney Moore, Jai Schluter and Jim Ioannidis.

“I’ve got to thank The Hose Shed and Tremaniac Racing,” said Nunn. “I didn’t know what to expect, I crashed the car about six weeks ago and we got back just in time for the Winters. Thanks to those guys that helped out financially as well. It still hasn’t sunk in yet.”

The Super Stock championship was decided in round two when Steve Norman made a perfect pass, leaving Brett Glover at the line when his Mazda failed to fire. In doing so Norman built an unassailable lead to wrap up his first ever-national championship.

Just by qualifying, Ross Smith wrapped up his second consecutive Competition Bike championship. He then enjoyed some good fortune with red lights in the other lane to take home his second Gold Tree of the weekend by wining the final over Rob Cassar after eliminating Tony Frost, Andy Roberts and Niki Zakrzewski.

“This is the first Winternationals tree, we were glad to get it,” said Smith. “Earlier in the day we took out the national championship again, so that’s awesome! I’ve got to thank my wife and my young bloke for their support, without them, none of this would happen.”

Domenic Rigoli had already sewn up the Super Compact title coming in, but unfortunately he couldn’t double up for the weekend as he found himself back on the trailer after round one. It was left to Matt Lisle to take the event win in a solo final after he dispatched Chris Hall, Rod Harvey and Michael Baghdadi earlier in the day.

Daniel Morris took home the first ever Top Sportsman Winternationals trophy when he defeated Tony Agius in the final. Morris defeated Troy Daniel, Harry Somer then Steven Somer to set up his final win.

Steven Fowler is the first ever ANDRA Top Sportsman champion despite a round two loss to Harry Somer. Stuart McBain was ousted in Round 1 and the only other driver who could catch him, Graham Hargrave, eliminated himself at the tree with a red light against Neil Maxwell.

“When we started the year, my crew, my family said we want to be the first ones to win Top Sportsman,” said Fowler. “It’s a bracket we’ve wanted to get up and running for the last three or four years, so we’re absolutely over the moon.”

Supercharged Outlaws was a tight contest all day but Josh Fletcher came away with the event win when newly crowned champion Donald Freind pulled a red light in the final. Fletcher negotiated round wins over Peter Wilson, Wade Wagstaff and top qualifier Adam Murrihy in the semi finals.

Doina Day and Donald Freind faced off in an early championship showdown with Freind coming out on top in a tight match-up. Paul Stephen still harboured title hopes as he lined up in the race immediately after but unfortunately he red lit, handing the championship to Freind at the round two stage.

Rob Harrington got a popular win in Modified, defeating Mark Allan, championship hopeful Kenny Stewart and Modified newcomer Matt Forbes on his way to a final victory against Paul Doeblein.

Despite elimination in Round 1 on Saturday, Michelle Osborn took home the Modified championship when the last remaining challenger, Kenny Stewart made his exit in round three against eventual winner Harrington.

A relieved Andrew Saliba beat out his fellow South Australian, John Kapiris, in the final of Super Sedan following round wins over David Duncombe and Tony Rogers.

David Yanko and Stephen Griffin, one and two in the championship points eliminated themselves with red lights in Round 3 while George Tipoukidis red lit in Round 2. John Kapiris took full advantage to claim his third consecutive championship on the way to a runner-up event finish.

Ace Edwards scored an emotional final round win as he took home the Gold Tree with wins over Jessie Barbeler, Tammy Goldthorpe, Brian Alvisio and newly crowned champion Ian Read in the final.

Joe Khoury and Ian read went round for round all day in their hunt for the Modified Bike championship. In the end Khoury defeated himself with a red light in the quarter final, allowing Read to claim the championship with a win over Karl Pacey in the same round.

Robert Winterburn is the Super Street Winternationals winner for the second year in a row after defeating Mitchell Bauer, Philip Armstrong, Ben Dreyer and finally Daryl Freeman.

South Aussie Enzo Clemente clinched the Super Street championship early in the day when he advanced through round two against Rebekkah List. Fellow croweater Harry Harris fell by the wayside on a red light in the same round, meaning Clemente could not be caught.

Defending Junior Dragster champion Toby Austin, in his last appearance in the category, pushed all the way to win his second championship in a row, but Eden Ward went round for round the entire way. Fittingly, they met in the final with two trophies on the line and it was Ward who triumphed with an 8.089 ET on an 8.07 dial-in from Austin’s 8.010 ET on an 8.00 second dial-in.

David Gauldie was the beneficiary of a .004 red light from Simon Isherwood in the Super Gas final, following early round wins over Dale O’Dwyer, Michael DeRose and Patrick Barron to take home another ANDRA Gold Tree.

Two-time defending Super Gas champ Matt Forbes was a surprise elimination in Round 1 thanks to a red light, leaving Graeme Spencer, Colin Griffin and Michael DeRose to settle the championship. Last man standing was Graeme Spencer with a quarterfinal loss enough to guarantee the number #1.

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