Mark Belleri comes into Hidden Valley Drag Strip’s Nitro Up North event full of confidence and ready to make an early impact on the ANDRA Top Doorslammer Championship.
Belleri drives the Holden Trade Club Monaro owned by Top Doorslammer veteran Maurice Fabietti, who tunes the car. The Sydney resident recently took victory at the 2016 Winternationals as well as running a personal best time of 5.79sec., a mark that would put him in striking distance of the Hidden Valley track record.
Momentum is a valuable asset to the team in an oversubscribed Top Doorslammer field that will require competitors first to qualify for the eight car field, though Belleri remains cautious of counting his chickens too early.
“It’s always a confidence booster winning the Winters and running a 5.7 in the final, but as everyone knows that was last meeting and everything changes when you go to the next one,” he said.
The last time Belleri raced in Darwin he went for a longer ride than he expected when the parachutes did not release at the conclusion of a qualifying run. Fortunately he was able to use his skills to pull up the Monaro before the sand trap.
“The last event in Darwin was a wild one, I was still coming to terms with where everything was in Maurice’s car and I didn’t pull the chutes enough,” he said. “Thanks to carbon brakes and with a lot of luck the car stayed in one piece.”
As far as this year’s version of Nitro Up North goes, Belleri wants to start well and move on from there.
“The Holden Trade Club team’s goals for Darwin are to first qualify strong and then take each round as it comes,” he said. “As long as I do my job and Maurice does his we should have a fast car.”
The team will have a chance to spend a bit of time in the Northern Territory as they travel to the next round of the ANDRA Top Doorslammer Championship in Alice Springs, though Mark will need to return to his native New South Wales to work in the family smash repair shop.
Twelve teams have already nominated for the Top Doorslammer field in Darwin, with entries closing this Sunday.
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