Last Sunday nitro filled the air on a glorious day at Sydney Dragway, it was a Graeme Cowin hosted test day for the next crop of Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars and drivers to hit the strip in preparation for November’s extravaganza.
There were five funny cars ready for testing, four from the Cowin stable accompanied by Daniel Schultz in the Schultz Racing Charger, all took three shots at the track leaving a very busy day for crews to familarise themselves with racing procedures.
Unveiled was “The Bandit” Trans Am funny car, from the guise of Smokey and the Bandit it is a stunning looking peice.
Northern Territorian Dan Hodgins will be doing the steering, Hodgins is no stranger to the a funny car as the driver of the “Territory Tremor” AA/FC.
Hodgins was straight down to business with a off the trailer 5.97, the second run spun the tyres on the hit before rounding off the day with triple stabbing 6.5.
The “Harbour City Hustler” was the other of the new additions to the track, running a late model Camaro body. Outlaw Nitro Funny Car can feature any shape shell to increase the appeal for fans and options for competitors.
Chris Stipanovich has proven his worth behind the wheel of a Nitro Funny Car and will be the driver of the sleek purple machine.
Testing was not as successful as they would of liked, the Camaro not wanting to hook up cleanly on any attempt.
New Zealands quickest and fastest drag racer Willy White is behind the butterflies of the “Back To The Future” Plymouth, White has his own Nitro Funny Car back over in the land of the long white cloud.
The team did not manage to achieve a clean pass with shake and smoke hindering each attempt.
The nitro fumes were thick at warm up time!
We have seen the “Dark Horse” Mustang on track before in some shake down runs.
One time Top Doorslammer racer and current Supercharged Outlaw altered pilot with his insane blown roadster, Paul Messineo joined the Outlaw Nitro Funny Car ranks astride “Dark Horse”.
After a tyre shaking then tyre smoking pass, the “Dark Horse” bolted on through for a 5.99 at 248MPH
Schultz Racing used the opportunity to sort some testing out with some new components with Daniel at wheel.
Greg yanks on the pulley in preparation for the warm up. On track the Charger laid down a soft 6.45 but proved difficult to handle hunting the center line and getting crossed up on the other two attempts.
A hell of a site in the pits, funny cars being racked and stacked.
November 23rd and a double digit number of Outlaw Funny Cars will blast into life at Sydney Dragway, featuring Ron Capps in the LA Hooker taking on the best the Southern Hemisphere has to offer.
