The first chance to blow away New Year cobwebs at Sydney Dragway for racers came in the form of a Full Throttle Friday, the event was a little subdued entry wise but still packed plenty of pedal to metal action.

History was made at Round 1 of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series in Portland last weekend as Stuart McBain became the first ever championship round winner in Top Sportsman. Fuchs South Coast Raceway was the first to debut the new ANDRA Championship Drag Racing bracket Top Sportsman encompassing some of the quickest sedans in the country utilising normally aspirated engines and engines with power adders under the dial your own handicap system in Group Three. Eight such vehicles descended on Portland in regional Victoria to contest the first ever national championship round with McBain emerging victorious in the final over Brett Henley. McBain turned on the win light in a dramatic final running a 5.257 over the eighth mile on a 5.23 dial in to lift the first ever ANDRA Christmas Tree for the class while his opponent triggered the red by just 0.006 seconds. “Winning the first Top Sportsman event was pretty special mainly because of the little bit of history that we created but also because it was the start of the new deal with Summit,” said McBain. “I was very excited for my crew guys and myself to be a part of that. Any win is good but that was just a bit sweeter than most.” Seeing an opportunity to potentially make a run at the newly created championship, McBain felt the only thing he had to lose was the additional cost of upgrading his licence. “The opportunity was there to have go at it, so I just thought why not,” he said. “I think the bracket will get a lot stronger once the fast cars that are in Sydney and Brisbane come out to play.” “The main difference for me will be that I will be the slower car a lot of the time now. I am usually in the pointy end of the field doing the chasing so now I will be getting chased a lot and I will have to adjust to that. Rather quickly I hope. “There are already a few people stepping up their operations just for this. It will definitely grow as time goes on. The Fowlers and Neil Constantinou will be right in the thick of things soon so they will be worth watching. “With the short season this year it presents a unique opportunity to make a run for the championship so we will go to Adelaide in March and try and gather up some more points and see how it plays out for us.” The next round of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series takes place at Perth Motorplex on January 30-13 as part of the 44th Westernationals. The Series then visits Adelaide International Raceway March 14-15. {fcomment}

The third issue of Drag News Magazine is now available! Start with coverage of the opening round of the ANDRA season at Perth Motorplex, including interviews with John Zappia, Maurice Fabietti, Chris Matheson, Mark Drew and Craig Glassby. Then we get in depth as Top Fuel crew chief Bruce Read tells it like it is on where he thinks the sport is at. We profile Naomi Lightowler, the now confident Super Gas racer who came from a very scared Junior Dragster driver. A great story. The Welch family talk about their long history in the sport and then we chat to the new ‘queen of the kids’ out west, jet dragster driver Rhiannon Allison. Add a Q&A with Courtney Force, our Quarter Reporter and Shutter Speed sections, plus a controversial Mr Yes and Mr No discussing Group Two and you have a whole bunch of drag racing reading to get into. 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}

Lucas Oil’s Matt Forbes has kicked off his Australian Super Gas title defence with a win on the weekend at the opening round of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series at Fuchs South Coast Raceway in Portland, Victoria. 

Gary Halpin was on the verge of achieving his first seven second pass last Friday night at Sydney Dragway when it all went to hell for the little Datsun coupe.

Two years ago, Reece Fish and Fish Family Racing ventured into the field of Top Fuel Dragster racing. Fish, who still holds New Zealand’s fastest street legal record, purchased the Bob Shepherd rail out of Australia and woke the sleeping drag racing fans from days of yonder. Suddenly, New Zealand drag racing fans had something new to get excited about.

A cold and wet morning greeted Fuchs South Coast Raceway for day two of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series opener but that didn’t stop the team of volunteers from having the track race ready by the scheduled 10am start.

Jeff Wilson has been having a tough time trying to tame his Corvette Top Doorslammer, check out what happened at the first Full Throttle Friday of the new year at Sydney Dragway.

The season opening of the newly crowned Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series kicked off on Saturday at Fuchs South Coast Raceway with competitor entries of over 135 fighting for championship points.

Chris Matheson took out the opening round of the ANDRA Top Fuel Motorcycle Championship at Perth Motorplex on Saturday night and drew inspiration from a unique source.

The Australian Modified Bike championship went down to the wire last season as David Carroll emerged victorious with his first ever national title in the face of competition from Edgell Mallis, Joe Khoury and Shane Walker.

The Development Application for SA Motorsport Park at Tailem Bend which features a international standard drag strip is before council with full plans available for viewing online.

Jasmine Ryan won two from three championship rounds contested on the national stage in 2014 going close to stealing the Modified championship on the final day of the season at Sydney Dragway. 

Competition dragster pilot Craig Geddes was agonisingly close to winning the national championship last November but engine trouble, bad luck and a rampaging Alistair McClure put an end to his hopes.