Drag News Australia, in partnership with ANDRA, will be providing live updates from racing this Saturday and Sunday at Perth Motorplex as part of Washpod Nitro Max, featuring ANDRA championship rounds of Top Fuel and Top Fuel Motorcycle.

A Top Fuel dragster, two nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars and two Top Fuel Motorcycles were among the vehicles greeting those few who made their way to the mid week test and tune at Perth Motorplex ahead of Washpod Nitro Max this weekend.

The Australian Top Fuel Championship gets underway at Perth Motorplex this weekend when the ANDRA Drag Racing Series returns for Washpod Nitro Max February 28 – March 2.

After a landmark year ending in championship success in 2014, Lamattina Top Fuel Racing will tackle the 2015 season with a bigger raceshop, updated equipment, two full-time drivers and a promise to ‘go all out for another championship.’

The fourth issue of Drag News Magazine is now available! We have a whole bunch of amazing stories in this issue. Find out about Bill Goonan’s rough road into Top Doorslammer, Modified Bike racer Ian Read’s amazing recovery from a road accident to winning the Westernationals, why the Leake family has gone turbocharged, race coverage from the Westernationals and so much more. We went to the quickest alcohol crew chief in the world, Greg Gower, to give us a low down on methanol fuel systems, while Sydney Dragway general manager Luke Smith tells us about some of his plans for the future. You can view the magazine in the embed below or else click here. To view the full version of the e-magazine costs US$3.99 (about AUD$4.89 this morning) but we reckon the best option is a subscription at US$34.99 (about AUD $42.83 this morning). A subscription means you’ll get 12 issues of Drag News Magazine for less than the cost of nine! Sorry about the US dollar stuff. The magazine software will prompt for payment to view all the pages. This means signing up to an account on Joomag and entering credit card or PayPal details through their secure server. Once you have a log in, you can also download the Joomag app to view the magazine on your phone or tablet. When viewing on a desktop, we recommend clicking the full screen button to get the best experience. You can zoom in by double clicking anywhere on the page and zoom out by double clicking again. *Please note* we are aware of a technical issue where a user who has subscribed or purchased an issue already may be asked to pay again for their subscription or issue. The work around is to make sure you are logged in to joomag.com first and then either click on ‘My Library’ within Joomag or simply come back to the magazine embed on this page. If you do need technical assistance send an email to luke@dragnews.com.au. {fcomment}

Twenty year old Nick Baxter made a spur of the moment decision last month to take his stock 2003 Nissan Navara V6 to Willowbank Raceway for the opening round of the 2015 Street Series, and now heads to this weekend’s round two (Saturday 28 February) as the defending Street Eliminator class winner.

Willowbank Raceway will once again play host to the thunderous roar of flame-throwing Nitro Funny Cars when the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car Show, presented by Donnelly Blasting Services, comes to town on 12 September 2015.

Nitro Harleys are the dominant force in in the ANDRA Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Motorcycle bracket with the majority of competitors Australia wide riding the American chopper.

A special dispensation has been given to allocate Top Fuel teams a test session before the opening round of the ANDRA championship at Perth Motorplex next weekend.

Victoria’s Matt Czerny is eagerly awaiting his Modified dragster hitting the track next season.

Wayne Newby is in rookie territory. That might sound strange for someone who has been drag racing for over two decades, but when it comes to nitro there is always a steep learning curve.

We have not seen Gerry Parente’s name on a Pro Stock entry list since the turn of the century when the South Aussie was campaigning an Oldsmobile Cutlass in the class.

This weekend the first of two Nostalgia Drag Racing events for the year will descend on Willowbank Raceway, with a wide variety of cars, bikes and dragsters set to take to Queensland’s premier drag racing facility this Sunday the 22nd of February.

As the Sydney Dragway competition season edges ever closer the off season testing phase continues with another Full Throttle Friday and some closed session testing thrown in too.

The Willowbank drag racing season fired up with round one of the Queensland Drag Racing Championships on St Valentine’s Day, though a number of delays turned the event into somewhat of a marathon with winners crowned after the strike of midnight.

This Saturday (14 February), nineteen year old Chelsea Leahy will celebrate Valentine’s Day by making her competitive debut in the senior ranks of the Queensland Drag Racing Championship at Willowbank Raceway, as the championship kicks off with its first round of the year.

Porters Racing, along with JB Automotive North Queensland, are excited to announce a joint engine development program with Bob Book of Book Racing Enterprises (BRE), based out of the USA.

Queensland Raceway played host to the popular Powercruise event over the weekend and among the attractions was a big league Street Outlaws contest – where the Donnelly family didn’t bring a knife to a gun fight – but a nuclear weapon!

Sydney Dragway is making some innovative changes to the Atura NSW Track Championship in an effort to make the events even more popular with fans, as well as racers.

Just over a week ago Craig Glassby recorded the quickest ever Top Alcohol Funny Car pass in the world, beating US Top Alcohol legend Frank Manzo’s 5.411 by 1000th of a second in the semi finals of the 44th Westernationals at Perth Motorplex.

GEICO/Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster driver Richie Crampton had quite the wild day at the Circle K NHRA Winternationals on Sunday in Pomona.

One of Australian drag racing’s most exciting events is back on the calendar with Sydney Dragway promising to make the 2015 Nitro Champs one of the best ever held at the Sydney venue.

GEICO/Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster driver Richie Crampton continues to show speed in Pomona, qualifying number two for this weekend’s season-opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals.Crampton, the 2014 Road to the Future Award winner as NHRA’s top rookie, qualified No. 1 in Pomona last November, and Morgan Lucas Racing teammate Morgan Lucas won the race. Crampton’s pass of 3.730 seconds at 328.46 mph was tops of three terrific passes at this event; a fourth was washed out when rain forced NHRA to cancel the final qualifying session. “Perfect way to start the year: three solid runs,” Crampton said. “(Crew chief) Aaron (Brooks is) picking up right where we left off at the NHRA Finals; that car is running great. It’s very exciting to go into race day with that good of a car.” Brooks and Crampton were going to go for the national elapsed-time record in Q4, knowing they were solidly in the field. Alas, rain ended that chance. “We were solidly qualified at No. 2 with a 3.73, and we had nothing to lose but to try and run that first official 3.6-second pass in NHRA history,” Crampton said. “That’s what we were going for, and I’m extremely disappointed that the rain came, but that’s how it works. We’ll just focus on trying to win tomorrow.” Crampton begins his sophomore season against J.R. Todd, who qualified No. 15 with a pass of 3.914 seconds at 242.54 mph. With one full year of racing in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, Crampton carries a lot of confidence into this season. “It’s a night and day difference,” Crampton said. “I come in here on the front foot instead of the back foot. I’m ready to go race and not be intimidated. It’s exciting to be this confident and driving such a fantastic race car. It should equal some round-wins and hopefully a trophy.” {fcomment}

The at times maligned finish line zone at Sydney Dragway is getting a touch up with a new surface going down currently. Here are some pics from Sydney Dragway.

It has be 50 years since the New South Wales Hot Rod Association ran their first drag race and milestone will be celebrated at “The Ultimate Bench Race” in March.

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.