History has been made at the Riverbend Nationals with the packed Dragway at The Bend crowd witnessing the quickest and fastest ever Top Fuel pass in Australian history during qualifying today ahead of Sunday’s racing for the National Drag Racing Championship (NDRC).
Damien Harris ran an incredible 3.683-second pass at 534.23kph over the 1000ft distance in the Rapisarda Autosport International Dragster in the second of two qualifying sessions for the Top Fuel bracket held on Saturday.
Harris’ performance was just one of a number of impressive passes laying the groundwork for another record-breaking Riverbend Nationals weekend, with five three-second and four 500kph+ NDRC Top Fuel passes already recorded before racing begins on Sunday.
XPRO Nitro Funny Car, Top Doorslammer, and Top Fuel Motorcycle qualifying competitors also had the crowd on its feet at Dragway at The Bend, alongside the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship.
As the sun set on an action-packed day of qualifying, Damien Harris (Top Fuel), Josh Leahy (XPRO Nitro Funny Car), Russell Taylor (Top Doorslammer), and Damian Muscat (Top Fuel Motorcycle) had all top qualified in the group one ranks and will lead their fields into race day.
Harris’ incredible Top Fuel effort was delivered as part of a side-by-side Q2 pass with teammate Wayne Newby and saw him secure the top qualifier’s spot while Newby’s 3.7388 second 524.56kph full candle run alongside Harris saw him easily take the second qualifier position.
Phil Read, who until today had held the Top Fuel ET record after setting it at Dragway at The Bend’s Spring Nationals in October last year, also broke through the three-second barrier to run a very strong 3.791s/521.54kph to claim the third-quickest time of the day.
Top Fuel rookie racer and West Aussie Kyle Putland (4.420s/308.17kph) was fourth quickest, ahead of a newly-returned Phil Lamattina in fifth (6.921s/161.32kph) – the Victorian only recently getting back behind the wheel at last month’s Westernationals after nearly eight months away from drag racing.
“It’s something we’ve been chasing for a while, so it’s awesome,” Harris said.
“I can’t thank the Rapisarda family, Atlantic Oil, Santo Jr., and all my guys enough. They’ve really worked hard between Perth and here to get the car in this spot and make the most of the conditions here at The Bend.
“The car had me pinned all the way. I had a very good feeling it was going to run into the sixties and 330s. I climbed out of the car and asked an official, and he had no clue. I said, ‘Could you please ask someone on your two-way?’ and yeah, it was awesome.
“I’m really happy for Wayne, too. We had two Rapisarda cars running side by side, which is just the dream. I’m just over the moon,” concluded Harris in his trademark reserved style.
In XPRO Nitro Funny Car, Josh Leahy’s 3.993-second 511.62kph run in the first qualifying session was good enough to hand the Rocket Industries Ford Mustang racer the top qualifying honours and also marked the Spring Nationals winner’s first time in ‘the threes.’
US star Tommy Johnson Jr, who is filling in for reigning champ Justin Walshe who cannot compete this weekend due to illness, put his best foot forward with a 4.015 second 501.90kph run in the second session to secure the second-quickest time in Q2.
Meanwhile, Damon Paton was third-quickest (4.087s/490.62kph) – a laudable result given Paton is making his debut this weekend – with Morice McMillin fourth (4.808s/263.35kph).
It was an emotional moment for Leahy when he realised his time at the end of the run.
“The day went really smoothly to be honest, and the guys have been amazing. They know what they are doing, and they have been so smooth at getting everything done,” Leahy said.
“The car’s been really good to us, and in hindsight, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it ran a three, and we are all ecstatic that it did what it did.
“It was just one of those moments where it was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I did it.’ Going through the finish line, I knew it was a special run because it just felt faster than I’d ever gone before.
“I just started laughing so hard, and once they said it was a three-second pass, I started to tear up. That’s how special it was to me. It was my first three-second and unreal to do it just off the trailer.”
In Top Doorslammer, Q1 might not have gone the way of Russell Taylor, but he made up for lost time in Q2 with a 5.609s/416.04kph to rocket to the top of the time sheets, where he stayed.
Second quickest was Lisa Gregorini – who made history here back in October when she and her team became the first all-female team professional drag racing event winners – setting a number of PBs to finish out the night with a best of 5.646 seconds and 398.34kph.
Eleven-time Top Doorslammer champion John Zappia was third-quickest in the 14-car field, setting down a 5.661 second 409.28 kph run in the final qualifying session of the night, ahead of Jeremy Callaghan (5.728s/408.16kph) and Ronnie Palumbo (5.801s/399.84kph).
The Top Doorslammer qualifying also delivered a heart stopping moment for Andrew Sutton in Q2 when the Territorian’s chutes failed to deploy during his run alongside Ronnie Palumbo. Sutton’s Chev Corvette sailed through the gravel and into the safety net, where he was quickly out of the car and waving to the crowd, assisted by Palumbo and the safety crews who were immediately on the scene.
Taylor is happy with today’s result and is looking forward to tomorrow’s racing.
“The first run was a bit of an average one, there was a small mishap with some wiring that wasn’t correct. We sorted it out for Q2, which should have been Q1’s run, so we were a run behind,” Taylor said.
“We tried to have a real swing at it in the third qualifier, but the track was better than us, and we didn’t bring enough to the table. We’ll race smart tomorrow, come back again and have another go.”
In Top Fuel Motorcycle, Damien Muscat continued his strong Dragway at The Bend form, continuing on from when he set the quickest marker on two wheels back in November to top qualify.
While Muscat sat out Q1, he went right to the top of the time sheets in Q2 with a 6.203s/338.02kph run, and it was enough to see him celebrating come the end of the day’s proceedings.
Second quickest was Greg Durack (7.800s/291.50kph), while Danny Rickard (7.903s/259.13kph), Damian Martini (8.296s/206.78kph) and Corey Buttigieg (8.387s/196.11kph) rounded out the qualifying order.
Muscat didn’t let engine gremlins get in his way today, and he’s planning on putting on a good show for the crowd again on Sunday.
“We’ve had a problem where the fuel isn’t returning correctly, so we’re getting too much fuel to the engine. We changed the motor and a few other things to try and get it right, and we did a quick fire up before the last qualifier today, and it was still putting way too much fuel in. We decided we needed to fix it properly so we could put on a really good show tomorrow,” Muscat said.
“The Bend is a great track, and being that we’ve done well here before, we’ve got the data that should put us on the right track. These nitro beasts are sometimes hard to tame, but we’ll do the best we can to put on a good show.”
In the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship ranks, the fight for Gold NDRC Christmas Trees and valuable championship points is well and truly underway. Two days of qualifying for these competitors wrapped up on Saturday afternoon with the following racers claiming Top Qualifier honours in their respective brackets: Madalen Datson (Junior Dragster), Seth Jarvis (Junior Drag Bike), Rohan Hutson (Super Street), Craig Geddes (Super Comp), Dean Jamieson (Modified Bike), Edge Mallis (Competition Bike), Bruno Matijasevic (Supercharged Outlaws), Steve Paech (Super Sedan), Darren Whitford (Top Sportsman) and Simon Barlow (Modified), with the opening rounds of racing for a number of these brackets also taking place across the afternoon and evening.
The Riverbend Nationals at Dragway at The Bend concludes tomorrow (Sunday April 6) with three rounds of All-Run NDRC Top Fuel, XPRO Nitro Funny Car, Top Doorslammer and Top Fuel Motorcycle racing scheduled from 11.00am, with the finals scheduled from 4.00pm local time. Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship eliminations also continue from 10am, with finals scheduled to begin from 5.15pm local time.
Drag racing is always better in person and race fans are encouraged to purchase their tickets online at www.ndrc.tv, but if you can’t get to Dragway at The Bend, you can watch all the action live on 7plus.
For event information, visit www.thebend.com.au/dragway or www.ndrc.tv
For details of other upcoming NDRC events, please visit https://nationaldragracing.com.au/calendar/
To learn more about the NDRC, visit www.ndrc.tv
