Sydney Dragway’s Speed Adict Clothing NSW Championship Series returned from its Winter slumber for the run home to crown track champions.
With over 160 entries the day ran fairly smoothly in fine conditions aside from a pesky wind at times.
To the the day’s results and in Top Sportsman the finalists came from the middle of the championship points pack. Mark Philp made the trek from NSW’s far north-west – in only his second championship appearance this season – well worth it by grabbing the win in the final over Adam Attard. Philp’s VP Commodore took the stripe with a 8.412 (8.36DI), his better reaction held off Attard’s eventual breaking out 8.272 (8.29).
Extreme Bike was punching out some big numbers in the cool Winter air, Brendon Miglionico closed out the all-Hayabusa final against Nitro Funny Car pilot Brandon Gosbell with a 7.16 at a storming 206 clicks to defeat an off pace 8.41.
The Modified championship is heating up, and is currently the tightest contested of all the brackets with five racers within twenty points at the top. Making their mark in a FED attack at round five of the series was CJ Davies and George Bukureshliev, the pair really threw down in the final with Davies nailing a perfect 8.250 on a 8.25 lap. Bukureshliev was only one thou off his dial, albeit too quick, but still tough racing with Davies better reaction bringing on the win light.
Joe Zammit returned to form in Super Sedan, the former track champion had his VL on song going to the final against Ross Bielby’s Cortina. Bielby hits the Race 4 Real street meet events pretty regularly, dialling in the Cortina’s performance. As often is the case in Super Sedan, the racer with holeshot will take the win, and in the final Zammit dropped a .028 to .043 lead at the tree to hold off the Cortina at the stripe with a 9.991 (9.97DI). The win shifts Zammit into third in the points and a great shot at adding another track championship to his collection.
On two-wheels in Modified Bike and Sean Ricketts is no stranger to winning aboard his Kawasaki, and he ticked off another one at this event. Opponent Michael Borg let the race slip after holding three hundredths in his pocket at the tree, but ran it out the backdoor with a breakout handing the win to Rickett’s 9.297 (9.29DI). It was Ricketts second only round of the season, so we won’t be featuring in the pointy end of the championship standings this season.
Mark Hopkins moved to the top of the Super Street championship with a win over the experienced Luke ‘Tex’ Griffiths. The little hatchback Torana of Hopkins made it back to back championship round wins after coming out on top of a double break out final against the big Mopar of Griffiths.
In a small Super Gas field, Joe Catanzariti knocked out his third win of the season with a 9.905 against Luke Romeo’s 9.984, and leads the championship by nearly an uncatchable margin.
Junior Dragster racers have been sharing the wins around, Johnny Luci earned his first win in the class, however it was not the way he would have wanted it with opponent Jake McNamara shut down with a fuel leak, gifting an unopposed race for Luci. The points are tight with seven racers within 30 points, Daniella Axiak has point with a 20 point gap over the chasing pack. Axiak is without a win this season, taking control of the championship on consistency.
After nearly being unbeatable in the previous season, Don Zammit had only one event win this year, all way the back at round one. After a runner-up in round 4, normal programming resumed at round five, with Zammit taking home the winner’s trophy after driving around a holeshot from David Muscat’s Mini Cooper.
On to Street Bike and Angela Hunt went stripe to stripe in front of Brendyn Hack for the win in the final, however a screw up in calculating the finalists in the three round robin format that Street Bike race under, should had seen Robert Gielb in the final against Hack, so we will let management sort the championship points out for that one.
NEWS & NOTES HIT LIST
Blown debuts: Always awesome to hear more blower whine. Gareth Rogers and Travis Connor made their NSW Championship Series debuts behind a pumping supercharger.
Rogers is no stranger to supercharged engines, but normally he is playing with ones pumping nitro as part of the Aeroflow Nitro Funny Car teams. After recently licensing his blown altered that lived life once as part of the Aeroflow Nitro Hot Rod family, Rogers made his series debut running the blown animal in Modified as he continues to clock up more track time. Unfortunately, Rogers saw a round one loss, but a 7.58 on a 7.50 dial was a valiant effort against the championship leader.
While we’ve seen Travis Connor in blown Toranas before, it has been over a decade. Known for having some wild Toranas in the past Connor recently returned with this LJ and has been putting in some laps in Top Sportsman. He certainly hasn’t forgotten how to rip a skid.
Extreme Bike gets more extreme: After recently clocking a new 6.68/216MPH personal best, Leonard Azzopardi tore space and time a new one with a 219MPH pass – just crazy.
Brendan Miglionico also joined the double-ton club on his Hayabusa. After going harrowingly close with a 199mph pass in the penultimate round, Miglionico not only won the final, but hit the shift points to a 206mph lap.
Hard Luck debut: Jake McNamara has taken ownership of his cousin’s (Ryan Pettiford) Junior Dragster and nearly had the perfect racing debut with the new ride.
McNamara qualified first with a perfect 8.000 run, and was preparing to race for the event win before hard luck struck with a fuel leak when firing the car fired up in the final.
Flying Carrot is flying again: After a horror mechanical run over the past couple of years that included 3 engine rebuilds, transmissions freshen ups and two convertors, Leo Georgis has the iconic Ford panel van that has toured dragstrips with its owners for decades back on point. After a successful Winternationals following the car’s latest rebuild, a new pair of shoes were slipped on the Round 5, and the Escort has come to life.
“Finally after a dismal 18 months we attended the track championship meeting after the Winter break and decided to enter in Top Sportsman bracket as we weren’t chasing any points in our normal bracket of Super Sedan,” said Georgis. “We made a couple of minor changes, and a new set of slicks, and wow it looks like we have finally sorted the old girl out. The van was launching hard and carrying the front wheels that it never has done that before. We ended up making it to the semis and broke out with another new PB 8.79, on a 8.82 dial in the car that was faultless all day.
Modified mayhem: The toughest bracket at the moment in Modifed with just 20 points separating the top five racers, and not a rear engine car in sight.
CJ Davies and George Bukureshliev moved into the top five with their FEDs courtesy of reaching the final at this event. After a car swap, moving from the now sold Boss Bullet to the Welch Family’s FED, Allison Stewart still leads the way despite dropping out in round one with the team still ironing out the new steer. Leigh Hartill-Law has joined her as equal points leader in the family’s roadster with a semi-final result, and Kelsey Walford is still in the hunt in her altered.
Father and son moment: Chris ‘Cossie’ Costello with his new Anglia Super Sedan had a moment with his son Brendan and his cool EK in qualifying as the pair squared off against each other for the first time.
For the record Dad schooled with a .001 on the tree and son went -.002 red.
So close: The Winter air produces lets engine more luscious horsepower and there was plenty of personal bests run over the event.
For Adriana MacCaskell, she is chasing a six second ticket, her 598ci BBC dragster dropped a 7.016 at 191mph, lets hope to see a six on the timeboards at the next round on September 16.
If any racer wants to share and news or notes, whether good or bad, personal achievement or just something of interest from the next round of the NSW Championship Series, drop us a PM on Facebook or email press@dragnews.com.au
