Daniel and Lisa Gregorini’s Top Doorslammer season has been far from perfect — they would acknowledge as much — but the turnaround for Scratch & Match Motorsport has begun in earnest thanks to some positive results at the recent East Coast Nationals at Sydney Dragway.
Both the team’s Nitro Champs and Winternationals campaign were almost complete losses, with many of the problems being traced back to failed spark boxes in both of the team’s Camaros.
“We were chasing our tails trying to figure out the problem and it wasn’t until we were back home and overhauled the cars that we found the issue,” Daniel said. “Both cars had replacement boxes fitted and we travelled to Sydney a week early to do some testing.”
Good intentions to be sure, but poor weather meant testing consisted of only one launch for each car. With the weather also constricting the East Coast Nationals schedule to one day, it was straight into racing for the team.
“Qualifying wasn’t even a thing, we went into round one based off current championship points, which was tough on all the teams,” Daniel said.
Daniel opted for a safe baseline tune crafted to work on just about any track surface. That move paid off with a first round 5.73-second pass, earning the win over Peter Lovering and also $1000 cash from Crow Cams for the quickest time of the round.
Lisa joined Daniel in the W-column with a 5.87 pass to defeat Jeremy Callaghan. “The car was skating in the top end and so I lifted early at 1000 feet,” she said.
The second round saw Daniel rack his second win light in a row with a 5.71 to defeat Brody Davies and earn a place in the A Final alongside Emilio Spinozzi. The pass was the second-quickest of the round but a loose fuel line saw a lean condition in the motor, resulting in a burned piston and a backfired supercharger.
Lisa’s car stayed consistent with a 5.81, but unfortunately it was not enough to overcome Brodie Zappia.
The attention of the whole team now went to Daniel’s car as they sought to repair the damage.
“It was a thrash to make the finals and we only had one minute to spare, I have to thank the NDRC and Spinozzi Racing for waiting for us,” he said.
“The manifold was not repairable so we used a spare, but it had a slightly different design and so we didn’t get a good seal on the supercharger.”
When Daniel started his burnout for the A Final, it was clear that the engine would not be safe to run at full speed, and so he made the heartbreaking decision to shut the car down for what would have been a tough matchup against Spinozzi.
“Huge congratulations to Emilio and the team on their back-to-back wins. They seem to be the team to beat right now,” Daniel said.
Lisa lined up in the C Final, where she ended up on a solo as Jeremy Callaghan did not make the line. She lit up the boards with her third five-second pass in a row, a 5.82. “The car was driving right all day as we underpowered and low on driveshaft speed,” she explained.
“Combined with the wind the car was again moving around a lot from half track onwards.”
In a year that has seen plenty of headaches for the team, the East Coast Nationals gave plenty of reasons to celebrate, even if the winner’s trophy did not ultimately land in the Scratch & Match Motorsport pit area.
“We got ourselves back to running consistent A-to-B passes which has been hard of late with weight changes to the cars, failed parachutes, and electrical issues, so as a team we were very happy to have both cars in the A and C finals,” Lisa said.
As far as the overall championship goes, Daniel was circumspect. “We suck,” he laughed. “What’s left for this season will become about building towards next season. We are going to The Bend early to test, where we are aiming on working the fuel system more. Every run we can put on the board now will serve us well in 2027.”
Thanks to our partners
Scratch & Match Autocolour, Oil & Energy Pty Ltd, Kerb Doctor, A Civil Motorsport, Applied Automotive Performance Engines, Rain Smart Irrigation, Dalisa Estate Winery, S&S Industries
Supporting sponsors :
Westcoast Siteworks, Signbiz WA, FuelTech Australia, FuelTech USA, Harness-Tech, RACIN, G-Force Race Cars,Resolution Racing Services Inc, Final Drive Engineering, DMPE INC, Kinetic Engineering
