The National Drag Racing Championship (NDRC) brought the ultimate nitro showdown to Willowbank Raceway for the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals at the weekend, with world and national records falling, thrilling head-to-heads for NDRC Gold Christmas Trees, and some pretty big escapes to boot.
Amongst the long list of storylines were two drivers who walked away having made some strong statements on what is the biggest stage of the year: BLAHST Top Fuel’s Shane Olive and XPRO Nitro Funny Car’s Adam Murrihy both powered their way to A-Final appearances, banking personal bests and cementing their status as serious contenders in front of a packed house along the way.
Making his Winternationals debut in Top Fuel machinery, Shane Olive delivered a fairytale weekend for Rapisarda Autosport International (RAI) who not only claimed the A-Final win and runner-up, but new Australian records in ET and speed thanks to drivers Wayne Newby and Damien Harris.
After setting a blistering 3.76-second Personal Best in round one, Olive battled through round two adversity – winning despite a loose fuel line that forced a mid-run shutdown – to set up an all-RAI A-Final against teammate Damien Harris.
In a thrilling pedal fest, neither driver was willing to give up, and while it was Harris who ultimately found the momentum to turn on the win light (6.554/372.47kph), Olive walked away thrilled with the milestone weekend.
“It is still surreal really for me. I only ever dreamt of running a Winters in a fuel car, and to be able to do it is one thing, but to literally get to the final… I never would have thought in a million years that would happen,” Olive said in the days following.
“I treated it (the final) like just another round of racing. The day before, I really got in my own head – I was just thinking, ‘it is the Winters, I need to try as hard as possible,’ and I made so many mistakes it wasn’t funny. But with the help of all the crew and the other guys in the other two RAI cars, they got me out of that mindset, and I put Saturday behind me.
“After the final, I was obviously disappointed that I didn’t win, but it was good to have two Rapisarda cars in the final and just having my name in that (mix) and running a final at the Winters is pretty cool.”
Olive was quick to credit the massive effort behind the scenes that kept him in the fight.
“I want to say a big thank you to Santo, the boys (Santino and Santo Jnr), the whole Rapisarda family, and all of my crew guys and girls, for all of the work that gets put in at the workshop by everyone on all three cars.”
While Olive was celebrating a massive Top Fuel milestone, Northern Territory racer Adam Murrihy was having a similarly spectacular weekend in XPRO Nitro Funny Car.
Murrihy immediately made his presence felt on Saturday, blasting to a 4.08-second PB. From there, the car became a bracket-racing dream, putting down five remarkably consistent 300mph+ passes over the weekend to secure his first-ever A-Final appearance against Josh Leahy.
The resulting final was a flame-throwing, side-by-side spectacle. Leahy took the NDRC Gold Christmas Tree with a 4.030/439.71kph effort over Murrihy’s runner-up 4.248/456.81kph result, but the Territorian was nevertheless incredibly proud of his team’s execution – including a heroic 15-minute differential change before the second round of racing.
“Everything sort of came together,” Murrihy said.
“We went to do a warm-up before round two and the diff was making some gnarly noises, so we had to make quick changes there. I am not sure how the boys got that done in 15 minutes! But the rest of the weekend was fairly seamless; the car was a bracket car.
“The crowd was bang on, we had plenty of people visiting us in the pits, the track was awesome, and the whole weekend just went really, really well. It was quite invigorating really,” he grinned.
“In the final with Josh, I left a bit on the tree there unfortunately and it is pretty hard to drive around Josh’s car on a good day. So, we didn’t get the gold tree, but we will settle for the silver!
“It gives us a bit of momentum. My crew chief, Brett Ehmer, always has the same goal at each event: go out there and put down five representative passes. He ticked all the boxes, and I’m pretty happy for how it all unfolded. It is nice to get a few nice laps in for the driver too; straight ones like that make it feel a bit easier in the car.”
With thanks to The Bolt King, Morgan’s Cranes, Serco, Race Car Engineering, JFR, and Styromax, Murrihy is already looking forward to trying again to add a Gold Tree to his mantle.
“We are going to Sydney, and then Tailem Bend. I missed Sydney’s Nitro Champs in May due to work commitments, so for us, it will be good to get down there and hopefully do more of the same, hunting that Gold Christmas Tree.
“I’ve been a bridesmaid a couple of times, so we are pretty keen to put a Gold NDRC Christmas tree beside all the ones we have from our Supercharged Outlaws days.”
Olive is equally focused on his next round, aiming to maximise his championship position: “Sydney is the next one for me. I just want to try and get as many points as possible and finish the season as high as possible.”
For the details of the NDRC’s upcoming events, visit www.ndrc.tv
