Australia’s quickest drag racing sedans, Top Doorslammers, will race at Calder Park on Saturday, November 20.
The Doorslammers will compete at the Spring HorsePower Challenge, which will also see the exciting Pro Stock and Supercharged Outlaw cars race at the event.
Sixteen competitors from around the country will compete in the Australian Eighth-mile Doorslammer Championship round, which is being run in conjunction with the Spring HorsePower Challenge.
While the Doorslammers will race over the eighth-mile, all other categories at the event will run over the traditional quarter-mile.
Four former Australian Top Doorslammer champions are in the 16-car field, including Victor Bray (‘57 Chevrolet Belair), Ben Bray (’05 Holden Monaro CV8Z) and Gary Phillips (‘53 Studebaker), all from Brisbane and Peter Kapiris (’59 Dodge Saratoga) from Melton.
Father and son duo, Victor and Ben Bray are two-time champions, while Phillips has also won 14 Australian Top Alcohol championships.
Other leading Top Doorslammer racers competing in the eighth-mile championship round are Maurice Fabietti (’05 Holden Monaro CV8Z), Sean Mifsud (’41 Willys) and Dennis Brijeski (’67 Chevrolet Camaro) from Sydney, Matt Abel (‘57 Chevrolet Belair) and Scott McLean (‘53 Studebaker) from Darwin and Tony DeFelice (’67 Chevrolet Camaro) from Donvale.
The 16-car field also includes Brett Gillespie (’34 Chevrolet), Stephen Dupond (’48 Ford Coupe), Reece Melenewycz (’69 Ford Mustang), Peter Blake (’95 Holden Statesman) and Phil Glendenning (’05 BF Falcon), all from Sydney.
Kapiris said the last time the Doorslammers raced over the eighth-mile at Calder – January 2009 – the event was a huge success and he is looking forward to again racing in front of his hometown fans.
“Racing over an eighth-mile is different. We have raced over the eighth-mile twice, both times in Victoria, at Calder and Mildura and both events pulled large crowds,” Kapiris said.
Fabietti, a former Melbourne resident, who first started drag racing at Calder in 1982 at the legal off-street events before moving to Sydney in 1992, expects the Calder Doorslammer eighth-mile track record to be broken at the Spring HorsePower Challenge.
At the first Calder eighth-mile event, Phillips recorded the quickest pass 4.021-seconds and ran ran 4.05 in the final to win the event.
“If the track is good, I expect to see 3.9-second passes for the eighth-mile. I have run 3.8-second and 194mph this year,” Fabietti said.
Mifsud also anticipates a large crowd will attend the Spring HorsePower Challenge event.
“I am looking forward to again racing at Calder. Eighth-mile racing is very big in the US, particularly on the Pro Modified tour and the last time we raced over the eighth-mile at Calder drew a large crowd. I expect a lot of people will again go to Calder to see the Doorslammers race,” Mifsud said.
Qualifying for the Spring HorsePower Challenge starts at 8.30am and elimination racing will be from 3pm.
Spectator entry to the event is $40 for all people over 18 years; children 14-17 years, $20; family (2 adults and 2 children), $100; children 14 years and under free.
