On the eve of drag racing utopia in NSW, the NDRC Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs is about to explode into action at Sydney Dragway. As a teaser for this weekend a test and tune held on Wednesday gave racers a last minute opportunity to fine tune ahead of the next round on the National Drag Racing Championship.
While much of the test session was racers being reserved in full quarter mile hits, some great numbers and personal bests were hit, particularly in the Top Doorslammer which shaping up as the class to watch this weekend with 17 entries.
Some of the standout performers included Daniel Gregorini, who has not been without his fair share of recent dramas, knocking out a 5.63 to put the West Aussie back at the sharp end of the field. New personal bests went to Rob Harrington on his first trip to Sydney with his Top Doorslammer, the Winternationals winner hammering a 5.80, and Emilio Spinozzi with a 5.70. Brody Davies also stepped up with his first full pass as he completed his licensing ahead of this weekend.
There were a few less fortunate in testing. Lisa Gregorini was on PB pace but torched a head and ended up in the sand with only one chute; the Camaro will be ready to rock come the weekend. A returning Tony DeFelice gave the wall a slap in the shutdown area when the Camaro misbehaved under braking after a strong 5.73 shot.
Pro Stock racing in pink this weekend for the McGrath Foundation and memory of Hayley Turns – a much loved and missed member of the Pro Stock and Drag News Magazine families – had a number of cars hit the track. Most were shy of the full quarter mile pull with Rob Dekert the only one punching hard with a couple of 198mph charges. Nino Cavallo and Rick Chilton shook down their rebuilt Dodges after incidents, while Omar Sedmak and Ray Oxley made their first passes with new rides.
Wasn’t a lot of action out of the other Professional categories. Jeremy Martin dropped a new 5.90 PB from his VB Commodore with the blown combination, seriously impressive from a car that was originally his streeter. Steve Carpenter also laid down some laps in his new Top Alcohol dragster.
