The second NDRC season launched in thunderous style at Dragway At The Bend for the Spring Nationals with a nitro double-header featuring Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car combined with Top Doorslammer to start their chase for the title, as the venue showed its teeth as a record eater.
TOP FUEL POLAR OPPOSITES – Oh how circumstance can change. At this corresponding event 12 months earlier that launched the new National Drag Racing Championship, the Atlantic Oils Rapisarda Autosport International team ravaged the opposition with a record setting clean sweep of the event, a one-two finish that setup Damien Harris’ championship winning campaign. Meanwhile Hydraulink Jim Read Racing had a diabolical start to the season with Phil Read struggling to record a lap as the team battled a gremlins with a completely new engine setup.
By the end of this year’s event it was Phil Read triumphant with not only an event win, but a new Australian ET Record, and the Rapisarda team were battered and bruised after a series of very expensive engine detonations.
NO FLUKE – “This has been 12 months in the making since I went to America and worked over there and came back with a whole new plan,” Crew Chief Bruce Read said.
“This result is a testament to my guys sticking with me and having faith in me that we would eventually get it right.”
The Hydraulink Jim Read Racing had bounced back after a literal season from hell battling their new engine program that culminated in the team losing four engines in four passes at the Winternationals, so you could excuse some pundits claiming the team’s record smashing 3.725 in qualifying was a fluke. However, as the rest of the event showed that was not the case, just the result of hard work and persistence over the off season paying off – even if a pesky throttle stop issue in the burnout issue tried to mess with the program.
Watch the wheels up fight Read had to keep the JRR fueller in it’s lane on the record breaking pass.
Read’s 3.79 in round against Harris in the much warmer conditions vindicated the team’s turnaround as legit. A belt tossing 3.83 against Kyle Putland in round two sent Read into the final versus Wayne Newby where ‘Black Mamba’ uncoiled a 3.762 for the victory.
RAPISARDA RUINS – Backing up from such a dominating season it was shock to see the Atlantic Oils Rapisarda Autosport International team truck home a large pile of shrapnel after experiencing three huge engine detonations – the final one concluding the defending champion’s event early.
While Newby did qualify solidly with a 3.79, Harris side of the pits were left to rebuild the chassis after a valve dropping boomer that took out a tyre leaving the champion sliding to a grinding halt in the braking area on three wheels. Race day saw Newby grenade an engine after the stripe despite winning over Putland with a 3.84 in round one, and after an mammoth overnight rebuild and chassis check, Harris had another monumental detonation as he surpassed halftrack leading to the team to retire the car for the rest of the event to assess what was going wrong.
Despite the carnage Newby still bagged an A-Final runners up finish and no doubt the team will be back and charging hard for the win at Willowbank when the series heads there next in January.
Top Fuel Gallery
UNDERDOGS ON TOP – Josh Leahy in only his third Nitro Funny Car event emotionally held up the NDRC Golden Christmas Tree at the end of the Spring Nationals after his victory over Adam Murrihy, where the Nitro Freak team also reached their first NDRC Funny Car final. Defending champion Justin Walshe and Aeroflow Nitro Funny Car Team Principle Morice McMillin had to settle for a B-Final showdown for their season campaign beginnings.
QUICK STUDY – This season Leahy was promoted to the seat of the iconic Rocket Industries sponsored Mustang vacated by Brandon Gosbell in the off season. Third generation racer Leahy is no stranger to nitro, running Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars for many years, but since stepping into the cockpit of a big show funny car the learning curve has never been steeper. “I am trying to get my head up with the car at the moment, it’s amazing how much these cars humble you – they are so fast,” said Leahy after a graze with the wall during qualifying.
Leahy qualified second with a respectable 4.13, a ET he repeated in round one to build confidence, the task made easier with opponent Justin Walshe shut down with a leak. Round two was a repeat match up, this time Walshe threw down and Leahy had to drive around a holeshot to win with a 4.07 against a 4.17. The A Final, and Leahy brought it home against Murrihy with personal best 4.069 for a tear-filled victory.
“I just can’t thank Graeme Cowin, Wendy Cowin and Morice enough for giving me this opportunity, it is just unreal to even think I am here doing this today!” beamed Leahy.
DAVID VS GOLIATH – That’s how is feels for the Murrihy and the Nitro Freak team following their first ever Nitro Funny Car final. Last season was full of trials and tribulations, stepping up with former Aeroflow Nitro Funny Car chassis the team fought hard for consistency while having to overcome adversity of repairs from a number of funny car body damaging incidents.
“It is a bit of a David and Goliath situation for us here up against the Rocket/Aeroflow team, with three cars they get 15 runs of data out of a weekend, three lots for every pass, and we get five max over a weekend if everything goes to plan,” said Murrihy.
With not being able to test their new engine set up at all the Nitro Freak were in the unenviable position of testing on race day. Qualifying was missed when a air in the clutch system couldn’t be rectified in time for the pass and round one ended in a loss to McMillin because of tyre shake. Crew Chief Brett Ehmer put it all on the line in round two, the Hail Mary shot dropped a 4.09 PB on McMillin and snuck the team into the A-Final. Unfortunately a fluid leak sent the funny car skewing towards the centreline on the pass, but a runner-up result had the team cheering and pumped for the next event.
“We are working closely with the John Force team over in the States – Brett was over there for the Indianapolis round recently and will be heading back over again next month to spend more time with the John Force Team,” Murrihy said.
“So, to have the John Force guys in our corner, and having the amount of data they have to lean on, has been very beneficial to us as we look to be a championship challenger this season.
“They have been super helpful in supporting us – we can pick up the phone at any time for advice and they have also been fantastic to deal with for parts and consumables.
“What it means is we have got the package, the car, the crew – so if the track is right and it is not too hot at Willowbank, I think we should be able to cut some nice times.”
NEW SEASON BLUES – For Walshe and McMillin it was a rough start to the championship. The defending champ not only had to deal with results of new set up changes in qualifying, but also losing a lens from his prescription glasses inside the car. In round one the Harts Funny Car split the dry sump on fire up spewing oil everywhere all-but ending any chance of a A-Final out of the gate, in round two a solid pass was just out-gunned by Leahy and the B Final saw a promising bounce back 4.07 win.
McMillin’s event started off well enough to top qualify the Aeroflow Nitro Funny Car on top with a 4.02, from there, a new chute activation set up caused havoc with the parachutes deploying early on every pass of the All Run Format surely costing victories.
Nitro Funny Car Gallery
RISE OF THE ROOKIES – Last season saw an influx of experienced and inexperienced new talent taking to Top Doorslammer that culminated in Russell Taylor conquering doorslammer veteran John Zappia in a season long duel for the championship. With a year of experience under the belts can the boomers do it again or will the old guard have their revenge, it will be a fascinating fight.
SAME, SAME, BUT DIFFERENT – Same venue, same finalists, different result, that’s how Top Doorslammer panned out compared to last season’s series opening Spring Nationals. Last year’s championship opener was unforgettable, with Ronnie Palumbo and Lisa Gregorini’s controversial final, Palumbo ultimately took the win in a rerun at the next event. Fast forward to this year’s Spring Nationals, and guess what? These two rivals found themselves facing off again in the final.
The ACDelco Monaro team had a thrash after round one when piston met valves during their 5.81 win against Adam Tassone, the hard work rewarded with a PB 5.67 in round two slotting them into a Spring Nationals A Final once again.
The Gregorini team had their own problems with gremlins in the electrical system during qualifying, they were to be exhumed with the Scratch & Match Camaro storming to a 5.72 in round one and a 5.71 in round two. The final – and thankfully both cars fired and staged this time – saw Palumbo pick a cherry off the tree by 8 thou and Lisa Gregorini rocketed to a historic 5.70 win. It was the first win by a woman in Australian Top Doorslammer history and we think the first professional win of any kind by an all-female race team.
“What happened last year played on my mind to begin with, but I just had to push the thought to the side,” said Lisa. “To be honest I was more nervous during the previous two rounds of racing than I was in the final. I just had to think of it as another race and not put too much pressure on myself. As we went through the finish line side-by-side I had no idea I had even won the race because my radio headset wasn’t working. It wasn’t until I got out of the car at the other end and found out Ronnie had red lit that I knew I won.”
ZAP’S LURKING – In his 45th year in drag racing John Zappia will never be counted out on race day. A B Final win, and more importantly for Zappia was scoring more points than last season’s nemesis Taylor, the Dananni Hotshots/FUCHS Monaro team had plenty to smile about. The team rolled into Dragway At The Bend with a new setup that included a new Ty-Drive transmission on the back of zero testing, so the event was a hit and hope excursion.
After blowing the tyres off and nearly slapping the wall in the test hit, the team turned it around for qualifying for a respectable third placed 5.71. Round one, and Zappia thundered to a 5.69 win, but pressure can still get to the best and Zappia red lit against Tassone in round two, a race Zap should of won comfortably. The 5.70 ET still snuck the Zap’s Rat Monaro into the B-Final where he saved his best reaction and run for the weekend, a 5.65 on a .024 tree for the win. With the baseline the team look forward to advancing the performance at the Goldenstates.
“That 5.65 felt great, and it showed we’re on the right track. We underestimated the track which kept improving and was very well prepared, producing some tight and record setting runs.” said Zappia. “We’ll analyse the data and see where the improvements can be made and change some ratios around in the B&J transmission to improve our overall performance.”
SO CLOSE BUT SO FAR – Daniel Gregorini qualified the Scratch & Match Camaro with a PB 5.601 to lead the field going into race day, the off-season change to larger rims for more rubber footprint paying dividends immediately, but like in Lisa’s car, electrical gremlins were still and annoyance.
“We are still having electrical issues on the shifting side of the auto-shift, so the 5.601 run short-shifted third gear by over 400rpm, which kills the next gear when we have the lock-up applied. I think there’s a couple of numbers there that would see us get into the 5.5-zone.” said Gregorini.
A change in track temp during a long wait for his first round bye threw out the tune up and the Camaro spun the tyres to a 6.57, despite the win, ETs are all important in the All Run Format and this would ultimately cost Gregorini an A Final.
A 5.66 in round two set up his B Final showdown with Zappia, but a loose oil line saw a skating 5.73 not good enough against the multi-time champion.
“A general rebuild will take place and we will try to resolve our electrical issues in both cars,” Daniel said. “After the Goldenstates my plan is to start making carbon panels so we can try to lose some of the 60 pounds the cars are overweight by. I know there are some one-percenters on Lisa’s car that could result in consistent 5.6s very soon.”
CHAMP CHALLENGED – Russell Taylor’s Top Doorslammer championship defence is off to a rocky start and the West Aussie will need to claw back a points deficit to claim another title. A 5.66 was a strong start in qualifying landing the Camaro in the number two slot, and a thumping 5.602 over Peter Kapiris in round one put the field on notice the all-black Camaro was coming for them. Round two though it all fell apart, a long long wait for Andrew Sutton – who was having trouble finding gears – to stage, only to see the Corvette then double-bulb Taylor before the Camaro jumped through the lights on the two-step. As a result Sutton won the race only to be disqualified for coming up light on the scales. The bad news for Taylor was, because he had rolled the beams and not accepted the tree, he was technically not in the race and could not be awarded a win.
The event hits kept coming, now in the C Final against Kapiris, Taylor slammed down low ET of the event with a near record-setting 5.59 only to be beat by a 5.86 holeshot.
BAT’S BACK – The welcome site of the Kapiris Batmobile Studebaker is once again back on-track after a serious broken leg in an off-track accident derailed last year’s comeback for the popular Victorian.
Despite and excursion into the sand in round two, Kapiris improved steadily across the weekend with a string of fives in encouraging signs for the team for the season ahead.
“I feel like we should be easily running 5.70s but we’ve had a few issues we need to work through and then hopefully I can take this thing on a decent number,” Kapiris said.
Top Doorslammer Gallery
CHAMPIONS CROWNED – The NDRC Season 1 Aeroflow Sportsman Series finally reached it’s conclusion, the two conference championship finally came together at the Spring Nationals after the season was drawn out due to many event cancellations and challenges with venues not being able to hold the scheduled events.
When all was said and done, taking out the event wins and their respective championships were Rob Bergamin over Colin Griffin (Super Gas), Zayne Condello over Seth Jarvis (Junior Dragster), Tex Griffiths over Andrew Waight (Super Street), Sean Ricketts over Dean Jamieson (Modified Bike), Ken Collin over Chris Allen (Competition Bike), Lillian Hagan over Lawrence Raschella (Junior Drag Bike), Sean Maher over Chris Lioulios (Super Sedan), Cory Dyson over Daniel ‘BatDan’ Carranza (Modified), Steve Norman over Kim Fardella (Super Stock), Matt Forbes over Peter Pisalidis (Competition Eliminator), Mike Evans over Mark Hunt (Supercharged Outlaws) and Paul Partridge over David Foster (Top Sportsman).
FULL RESULTS AND WRAP HERE: https://dragnews.com.au/aeroflow-national-sportsman-champions-crowned-at-aeroflow-spring-nationals/
Aeroflow Sportsman Gallery
