Last weekend Victorian Darren Morgan emerged from the ENZED Australian Top Fuel Championship at Willowbank raceway with a semi final performance after the AEG Powertools dragster was knocked out of eliminations by the fastest run of the year so far.
After a very encouraging qualifying effort the team came up just a little short but the entire DMR outfit were happy with the data that was collected and they plan to step it up at the next round in Sydney later this month.
The weekend got underway in a positive manner for the team as the bright orange and black AEG machine got down the track in Q1 with a strong 4.757 @ 300.53 mph, which gave Darren the number 3 qualifying position. That run would stand as DMR”s qualifier as they failed to improve during the remaining two qualifying passes.
The team underestimated the track conditions in Q2, while Q3 saw a more aggressive tune up in the AEG Top Fuel Dragster, with the end result being a 5.045 @ 249.03 mph. “The car left really well. It was the best 60 ft time for the weekend but it was a bit too much further out and it smoked the tyres and I had to pedal it. We are definitely heading in the right direction.” commented Darren after the run.
The opening round of eliminations saw the AEG dragster line up alongside veteran Western Australian Alan Dobson with Darren illuminating the win light after a strong 4.770 @ 290.94 mph run knocked out Dobson”s 4.931s at 306.60mph.
Unfortunately round two is where DMR”s charge at event glory ended despite a stout 4.701 @ 314.68 mph pass. “The car did exactly as we wanted it just was not fast enough to beat Martin Stamatis and his 4.62. The car and the team performed extremely well throughout the event. The car was very consistent and it went down the track more than any other car (3 out of 5 runs) added Team Owner and Driver Darren Morgan after the event.
“We gathered some very good data that we will use for the final two rounds of the Championship. We are planning to step the car up over the final two rounds and get into that elusive 4.5 second zone”.
Team DMR would like to thank AEG Powertools for coming on board for the first time last weekend along with Sunraysia based Lencia and their ”CRUNCHA” ice blocks. “Having Richard Vandenberg, the Managing Director of Lencia and former Hawthorn AFL Captain at the event was a huge boost to the team and I hope he enjoyed the weekend. It really was a big corporate weekend for us we also had ENZED tours going through our pits all weekend and of course our Victorian American Imports vehicles always attract a great deal of interest”.
DMR now sits in fourth place in the 2009/10 Championship with two rounds remaining. The next event will be the 2010 Nitro Champs in Sydney, which will be staged between the 30th of April and the 2nd of May and will make up Round 6 of the Championship.
