As we gear up for the rescheduled Round 4 of the 2024 NSW Championship at Sydney Dragway this weekend, let’s take a moment to recap the action from Round 3 of hard-fought local sportsman series.
Starting with Top Sportsman, Joe Gattellari took home his second straight win in unusual circumstances with a solo run. Gattellari had no opponent due to Leo Georgis not being able to fire his Flying Carrot Escort ahead of his semi-final solo pass – a broken wire was later found as the culprit.
The heads up craziness from Extreme Bike came down to Ryan Franks claiming back to back event wins. Franks bested Darren Foley in the final with a 7.59 to Foley’s off pace pass.
The Performance Bike riders have rallied together to assemble a field for competition to bring the bracket back for local competition. Wally Hosta on his little B/SB Suzuki lit the win light up in the final against Brian Alvisio’s C/AB Kawasaki to take first bragging rights of the series.
It will be another arm-wrestle in Modified this season for the title. George Bukureshliev was again the bridesmaid to the victor for the third straight time this season, as Rocco Romano snatched the win with a super-tight 7.281 (7.28DI) in his dragster. Bukureshliev’s 7.899 (7.89DI) was valiant, but highlighting how tough the bracket is, consolation though see’s the FED racer leading the championship.
Larry Etcell had his old school 300ZX on song to conquer Super Sedan, it proved to be a popular win for the veteran racer with it being a while between winning drinks. We think 2021 was the last Track Championship event win for Etcell and as fate would have it, that win was also over Joe Zammit in the final, the win this time was made easier courtesy of a Zammit red light.
No one has yet been able to stop Sean Ricketts in Modified Bike this season, Ricketts rode to his third straight event win, this time downing Lorenzo Capogna in the final.
A big Super Street field was whittled down to Adam Bowers and Brett Stuchbury in the final. Bower’s HQ went one step better than his runner-up finish at the previous round, this time taking home the winner’s trophy on the back of a 10.117 ( 10.11DI) lap.
Joe Catanzariti was on the better end of a double breakout final in Super Gas. Catanzariti’s 9.889 was closer to the 9.90 index than Luke Romeo’s 9.845 to nab his second straight event win and championship lead.
Into the Junior classes and Charlotte Liefting pipped Piper Bennett in the battle of the ladies for the Junior Dragster event win. While in Junior Drag Bike Joshua Bertenshaw made it another win for the year defeating Lincon Delios in the final.
And finally the Street classes saw Jack Matosevic fight it out with Bill Hatzi in the Street Fighter final. Hatzi ending up breaking out trying to stay ahead of Matosevic’s 14.196 (14.19DI) pass. Daniel Bertenshaw made it a family double in the bike brackets with a win against a cherry picking Mick Withers in the Street Bike final.
Boosted Outlaws and Super Comp were on the event card, but could not front with enough racers unfortunately for competition.
The next round of the series is the postponed round four that has been rescheduled to July 13.
