Sydney racers had their first chance to blow off the New Year cobwebs with the first test and tune of the year ahead of this weekend’s Santo’s Summer Thunder event.

In terrible news, Pro Stock Motorcycle racer George Vella lost his life in a workplace accident over the weekend in North Queensland.

Pro Stock competitor Chris Soldatos will compete at South Coast Raceway’s South Coast 660 next weekend in close friend Craig Geddes’ Cavalier.

There were many headlines made in the sport of Australian drag racing across 2017 – we’ve put together a list of the ten biggest news stories from our site based on the hits received.

Australia’s number one Top Bike racer, Chris Matheson, is counting down the days until the Santo’s Summer Thunder round of the Australian 400 Thunder Championship on January 19 and 20 at Sydney Dragway.

John Zappia has returned to the top of the 400 Thunder Pro Slammer series with a textbook performance at Willowbank Raceway’s New Years Thunder event.

We were saddened this week to hear of the passing of Victorian Top Bike staple Phil Parker. Always a smiling presence in the pits, Parker featured on the cover of issue 15 of Drag News Magazine with this feature. We’d like to bring it to you now so you can read his poignant comments on life, death and drag racing.

The heat at New Years Thunder on January 6, 2018 proved no barrier to intense racing action, nor the thousands of spectators who poured through the gates of Willowbank Raceway for one of the biggest one day events in the venue’s recent history.

It is with great sadness we report the passing of Top Fuel Bike racer Phil Parker.