Stuart Bishop completed his best ever season in Top Doorslammer in 2014, finishing second in the ANDRA championship – but it ended with a disastrous crash at Sydney Dragway following a transmission failure.
When the slippery transmission fluid got under the wheels of his 3000 horsepower Camaro, Bishop was all but a passenger as the car got into the safety barriers on each side of the track. Plenty of damage was caused but fortunately not to Bishop himself.
“We had to replace lots, basically everything from the firewall forward,” he said. “To me both impacts felt the same and the damage was equal on both sides of the car.
“The engine wasn’t too bad but all the ancillary bits copped a whack.”
The rush has since been on to repair the beautiful car to its former state. Bishop’s crew chief Daniel Reed and fellow Top Doorslammer driver Grant O’Rourke have been working non-stop to ensure that the next version of the Camaro is race ready for the season opener – the Home Group WA Nitro Slam at Perth Motorplex.
“Daniel, Grant, Lightning Composites, even Tim McAmis in the USA sending parts, everyone has done a wonderful job getting it back together,” Bishop said. “We only finished yesterday and have been out testing at Willowbank Raceway, just making sure the car is going straight.”
Bishop is looking forward to returning to Perth Motorplex, the scene of his first ever event win in February, 2014.
“Perth is a beautiful city, we love coming across and there are lots of Top Doorslammers in Perth,” he said. “It’s only fair we come across and participate there given how much they travel, we’ve got the easy job.”
Travelling to Perth does mean one tough challenge however – tackling seven times national champion John Zappia on his home turf.
Bishop said it will be a case of being consistent and using the reaction time advantage his car has with its automatic transmission.
“You can do wonderful, flash passes but consistency is more important,” he said. “The reaction times have played to our advantage in the past. So we don’t have to be the fastest out there, it just comes down to good, consistent racing.”
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