A huge crowd packed into Adelaide International Raceway for the Saturday night Easter show and eager fans were treated to some of the very best racing ever held at the iconic South Australian venue as a part of the Aeroflow nitro funny car show.
The ten nitro funny cars fought it out for wins over the three round format, keeping the capacity crowd on the edge of their seats up until the very last run of the night.
Two jet funny cars, as well as the crowd-favourite wheelstanders complemented the nitro cars in a funny car extravaganza.
But it was the nitro cars that put on the performances of the night with side-by-side passes from start to finish.
The winner on the night was Nitro Express driven by Sydney-sider Rick Gauci. The black ’57 Chev was able to consistently put down fast passes and Gauci’s scintillating final round pass got him the win over returning South Australian, Peter Leahy.
Both Peter and brother Greg Leahy were competing in nitro funny cars in the event, Peter in a replica of the ‘Skrimper’ funny car that his father once raced at Adelaide, a full 40 years before. The runner-up position was an emotional result for Leahy, on the day where his late father would have been celebrating his 70th birthday.
Making the trip from the family’s base in Queensland, Leahy was excited to be back. “Runner up! What a great day of racing, it’s an emotional one but to everyone involved, thank you so much, I couldn’t do it without you! I remember running around this place when I was 10 years old. Greg was a few years older, so he has some great memories of this place too, it is an honour to be able to do this here today!”
Rounding out the podium was another New South Welshman, Shane Olive. The driver of the LA Hooker made his quickest and fastest run at the end of the night to storm into third place.
“We put a more aggressive tune-up into the car for round two and it was just a little too much, we refined that for the final round and that was right on the money. The boys did a great job and it was fantastic to race in front of this great crowd!”
The Adelaide event was promoted in conjunction with Rino D’Alfonso of Racing Onn.
D’Alfonso’s decision to add a post race concert by Angry Anderson of Rose Tattoo also proved to be a winner.
D’Alfonso explained, “Wow! What an awesome day of racing! A huge crowd, such an incredible vibe, jet cars, the SA Track Championship, what more can I say – it was one of the best we have had – EVER!
“After a crazy day of racing, we then sat back and got to listen to an Australian rock legend in Angry Anderson!
“I can’t say enough – to the officials, competitors, Graeme Cowin, Mark Hunt, Darren Di Filippo and the entire Racing Onn crew – thank you. I think we have raised the bar – but wait for next year!”
The series now heads north for Saturday May 16 at Mackay’s Palmyra Dragway.
