Twelve months after making his ANDRA Regional Sportsman Championship debut in Gallagher Modified, Nathaniel Kuchel returns to the Mildura City Council Sunset Nationals a far more confident and capable racer, hopeful that this year’s event at the Davison Ford Sunset Strip will be where his rapid progress starts turning into results.
Still early in his senior career, the 17-year-old has taken on one of the toughest combinations in the category, the Sweet Sensation front-engined dragster: a demanding, old-school machine with none of the modern electronic aids, owned and previously raced by his father, Kingsley Kuchel.
A Junior Dragster racer since the age of eight, Nathaniel stepped into the senior ranks last year and says the difference in his confidence and capability over the past 12 months had been enormous.
“This time last year, I was fresh out of getting my licence and still learning the car, so I just wasn’t in a position to be truly competitive,” Nathaniel said.
“Fast forward to now, and I feel like I am in a completely different place. Even though I have only done a handful of events, I have improved every single time I have been in the car – both in how I feel behind the wheel and in the way I am driving it.
“As far as I am aware, I am also still the youngest competitor from Victoria or South Australia racing in senior fields.
“I am now getting the car much closer to its full potential, and I feel it is only a matter of time before I drive it quicker than Dad did.
“I know I am still learning, but I also know I can be competitive. Even without things like a delay box or shift solenoids, I feel like I can race with the rear-engine guys. If the car does what it needs to do, I think I can definitely go rounds at this event.”
Kingsley said the growth in his son’s driving over the past year had been clear, particularly as the team worked through early reliability issues and continued refining the car.
“When he raced at this event last year, he was very fresh and nowhere near running the car at full capacity,” Kingsley said.
“We had a couple of events earlier this year where the car was plagued with problems, so again he couldn’t show what it was really capable of. Since then, we have done a mountain of work on it, and when we took it to the Nitro Champs in Sydney in May, that was the first time he was able to run the car close to its true potential.”
With that breakthrough now behind them, Kingsley said the Sunset Nationals is shaping as Nathaniel’s best chance yet to show what he can do in ANDRA championship competition.
“This will be the first ANDRA championship round where he goes in genuinely in a position to be much more competitive,” he said.
“If we get everything right, the car should be running close to the mid-five-second zone. I have no doubt that with more seat time, he will eventually go faster in this car than I ever did.”
The step from Junior Dragster to Modified is significant in any car, but Kingsley said making that jump in a front-engined dragster lifted the challenge to another level entirely.
“Front-engined dragsters are a different animal. Half the time they want to go anywhere but straight,” he said.
“He has picked one of the hardest Modified combinations to drive. There is no shift light, no shift solenoid – he has to listen to the engine and make the shift by feel, by sound, by instinct. Almost no one else is doing it like that. He is basically driving the car the way they drove them in the 1960s.”
For Nathaniel, that raw, hands-on experience is part of the appeal.
“It is definitely a big change from a Junior Dragster to a front-engine dragster, but racing since I was eight years old has made the transition a lot smoother than it might have been otherwise,” he said.
“I am still getting used to having the engine out in front of me, but I absolutely love driving it. I am really thankful to Mum and Dad for giving me the chance to race this car, because I have honestly enjoyed it even more than I expected.
“There is something pretty special too about racing a nostalgia-style dragster with no electronic assists. You really have to drive it. That makes it even more satisfying, especially when you are lining up against guys in more modern combinations.”
As for what success looks like this season, Nathaniel’s goals are ambitious but measured.
“I want to keep improving my consistency every time I race, and I would be really proud if I could make a semi-final or a final at an ANDRA championship round this year,” he said.
“Sportsman racing is never easy, no matter what class you are in. But when you start getting closer to the pointy end of race day, it gives you confidence that a breakthrough win is coming,” he concluded, while thanking Atlantic Oils, BL & SG Lake Brick and Paving Cartage Contractor, KHM Installations, Sunset Customs, Mildura Ductmakers and Sheetmetal, Audisound, Kuchel Koncepts DS, Traeger Family, and Box Family for their support.
Nathaniel is also planning to contest the Track Championship at The Bend starting from October to add more valuable seat time, with a top-five finish in that series among his goals.
For Kingsley, the results will come, but the signs are already there.
“It makes me proud watching how he is driving this car,” he said.
“He has impressed a lot of people, not just in our class but across the wider sport. More than anything, he has shown me how mature and talented he is as a racer, and I genuinely believe he has what it takes to win an ANDRA championship round.”
The Mildura City Council Sunset Nationals at the Davison Ford Sunset Strip in Mildura will host ANDRA championship racing for 10 championship brackets across September 18-20. For event information, visit www.sunsetstrip.org.au
For more from ANDRA, visit www.andra.com.au
