Sydney Dragway closed out January with a kind of sedate Test and Tune on a mildly hot day which fortunately saw no incidents and not too much foreign matter deposited on the racing surface.
There was nitro in the air with the Rapisarda Top Fuel dragster piloted by Damien Harris and Sainty machine in the pits.
Harris took two hits at the track but did not advance too far before boiling the hides.
The Sainty bullet was not happy all day refusing to light all the pipes on its attempts.
Johnny Roso has experienced 6.0’s now in his stunning Camaro Top Doorslammer but still is lacking the consistency needed with Top Doorslammer in taming the beast, loves a log smokey burnout though!
We saw a American on Rod Barchet’s new nitrous Top Bike at the Nationals now it was Barchet’s turn to straddle it, his day ended early with a mechanical drive issue.
There was a whole new crop of new licensee’s beginning with Cale Thomas taking the wheel of Roy Thomas’ “Pincer” D/Gas Super Stocker for a few launches.
Matty Evans continued to impress in his Supercharged Outlaw FED with a 7.16 at 196mph as they start to turn the screws harder.
Likewise another new comer Alf Sciacca Jr in the old man’s Lambo turned consistent seven second passes with a best of 7.27 at 191mph for his license.
Loues Consentino is coming to grips with his 2JZ motivated RX7 with a 7.31 at 183mph, sixes will be just around the corner.
Though Joe Signorelli wish the Scion would come to grips with the track, Gas Motorsports are intent on chasing World Records with this car.
Darryl Stephen has stepped it up with a big block to run Top Sportsman this year.
Another racer with no regard for rubber, Dominic Maiolo unscrewed a 7.65 at 147 from the RB26 Skyline.
More RB power with Jim Whitehurst dusting off the VL for some sorting out and is planning full passes at the next outing from the one time record setting VL.
Johnny Briscas with 588 twin turbo boosted cubes between the rails waited for the last run of the day to lay down his best lap of a 6.46 at 217mph.
DOZ08’s needs new plates as Johnny Habib now does sevens. The iconic nitrous Pro Street Torana broke through to the sevens for the first time with a 7.83.
Wheelstand of the day claimed by Simon Adrichem in the old Humpy reliving its heyday.
With Top Sportsman now officially in the rulebook, Fowler Family Racing one of the original proponents for the class returned to the track after a 10 month layoff with quick reacting high six second passes.
Former Junior Dragster racer Danielle MacCaskell was yet another of the new licensee’s, Timic Racing graciously allowing her to license in their Topolino altered before the MacCaskell family dive into Modified with a planned dragster.
More new licensee’s and a new car (as seen in Drag News Magazine), Martin Borg has teamed with cousin Ray Zammit to import a quick Modified dragster, the pair raced quite a few year ago in the old ECR days have had the bug bite again. The dragster has run 7.0’s in the US and unravelled a 7.53 on debut here to license driver Borg.
Photos by Grant Stephens & Michael Wyllie – http://www.cacklingpipes.com
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