The Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars took advantage of the sunshine in Cairns to put on an impressive show for the massive Queensland crowd that filled Springmount Raceway.
A huge field of support categories kept the crowd entertained until 2pm, when the funny cars performed their unique ‘Salute to the Crowd’ fire-up to launch the nitro portion of the event.
The first round of racing kicked off in style when Rick Gauci, aboard Nitro Express, blasted out a 5.96-second pass to get the win over The Terminator’s 7.298-seconds. Anthony Begley took LA Hooker to a tight win over Morice McMillin’s One Bad Kiwi, whilst the Red Devil’s Shane Olive took a win over a very sideways Stormtrooper.
Local hero Harold Campbell had a close run in is opening round but he couldn’t get the job done against Paul Messineo’s Dark Horse. Josh Leahy took a win over Dan Donnelly in The Avenger with Leahy clocking a stout 6.0-second pass. The other Donnelly brother, Jake, had a bye run but still punched out an impressive 6.323-second pass to round out the opening round action.
The conclusion of the round left Nitro Express, Bumble Bee, Dark Horse, The Bandit, Red Devil and LA Hooker all on the maximum three points.
The second round opened with The Terminator taking a tight win over One Bad Kiwi in a close side-by-side race. Red Devil took the points over Bumble Bee and Nitro Express beat Insanity. Perhaps the race of the round was Anthony Begley’s LA Hooker, who edged out the Dark Horse when Messineo’s Mustang went into wheel spin, giving Begley advantage. The Bandit’s 8.042-second pass wasn’t enough against The Avenger’s 6.456-second pass meaning five cars entered the final round on four points, which made the podium a real possibility for over half the field!
The final round was a closely contested one, thanks to cooler track conditions.
Stormtrooper kicked things off with a solo run with Greg Leahy performing his best run for the night with a 6.300-second pass.
Insanity took a win over One Bad Kiwi but the race between the Bandit and Bumble was super-close with Bandit’s 6.272 just beating Bumble Bee’s 6.288. The Terminator took down The Avenger in a battle of the superheroes.
The podium would be decided on the final two runs of the night. LA Hooker took victory over Dark Horse with a holeshot 6.487-second pass over a 6.361 run, which meant Anthony Begley would finish the night on the maximum nine points.
The final pass saw a barnstorming Nitro Express with a scorching 5.829 ET get the win over Red Devil’s 5.986. Olive still managed to put Red Devil on the podium with LA Hooker and Begley in second and Gauci aboard Nitro Express taking the win.
The series’ next event is also in Queensland, at Brisbane’s Willowbank Raceway.
Next event
28 October, 2017
Willowbank Raceway
Ipswich, QLD
