As an additional supercharged sweetener for the ANDRA Top Doorslammer and Top Alcohol action at the Pro Showdown this Friday and Saturday at Perth Motorplex – Walkinshaw Performance Formula Tech Dyno Centre has offered a $500 Top Qualifier FAST Time incentive to both categories.

The Nieuwhof Family Racing team and their 60foot Kawasaki will be looking for two wins in a row come this weekend’s Pro Showdown at Perth Motorplex after victory last time out at the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship round.

A last minute change in the ANDRA Top Alcohol calendar has inspired last season’s runner-up Steve Ham to load the transporter and head west to Perth for this weekend’s opening round of the championship.

In part two of his epic editorial, Ken Lowe looks for answers on why racers fall in, or out, of love with the sport. The answers are perhaps more with in themselves than from others.   Let’s start with what I asked earlier, where do new racers come from? I know how I got started, or should I say when the ‘infection’ began, because for me it is truly is a disease – not that I have sought a cure. I am quite happy with my disease and the association of all my diseased friends. Many years ago I saw a sign on the back of a dragster trailer with a skull and crossbones on it with the instructions that this vehicle contains a disease for which there is no cure. As normal, the humour was the truth in the story. I grew up at a time in history when for us the car was several things. It was freedom, an escape, a way to get out and interact with others of my age, be with my friends, it was social. For many of us it was a status symbol, a test bench, a tool that rewarded our egos with a sense of accomplishment. Is it relevant to me? Is motor racing, car racing and drag racing in particular still relevant today? That is part of my concern. Does it do the same things it did forty years ago? I think maybe not. It is common knowledge that life today is radically different than it was forty years ago. The internet has changed everything. The fact that I can write this and post it for all to see is testament to the reach of the internet. Between Facebook, all the social network stuff and video games are we not all becoming a little isolated in our togetherness? Is today the car just a form of transportation where for many of us in the past it was an extension of our personalities? Can I afford it? I grew at a time when in the 1960s some race tracks would have qualified fields of 64 Top Fuel cars. That was possible back then because it was affordable. All racers ran what they could buy at the wrecking yards because that is where all the parts came from. There were very few aftermarket parts available other than the basics. Clutch management was your left leg, the ignition systems of the day were marginal at best and if you can’t light it you can’t burn it. This means anyone could win. The first thing that happened was better tires, better tires made the front engine dragster obsolete, the rear engine dragster was perfected and then in 1977 Keith Black made the first aluminium block. At first it would appear having a block that was repairable was a good thing but it let racers lean on the parts harder, made the cars quicker finding more weak components for which the aftermarket was happy to produce more robust replacements and so the spiral goes. Each step gradually increased the cost of going racing to the point where there could be less than 64 competing Top Fuel cars in the world. I guess more to the point I have to ask is motor racing, and again drag racing in particular, still relevant to society today. What is the spark that ignites the idea for someone to start racing? The second part of the unasked question is what keeps the racer coming back to the race track. If he is winning all the races, sure he will keep coming back but that just does not happen and even if someone is on a “streak of wins” it never lasts. What keeps a racer coming back year after year, decade after decade? Or what make them quit? In my fifty years of drag racing I cannot count the number of people that have taken up the challenge of drag racing and raced for one race, one season or with just one car for a few years. Why? Once, while I was tuner and crew chief on Danny Townsend’s Funny Car, a new crewman commented to me that he wanted to save up his money to build a race car and go racing. I had to point out to him that it was NOT a pile of money that he needed but a stream of money. The pool of money needed to be replenished at a rate at least as quick as it drained. Most quit because of money or more precisely the lack of money. One must fully understand their budget limits, overreach and you will fail. One answer is that most new racers all enter the race ‘business’ thinking that the biggest expenditure of time and money is the initial construction and assembly of the race car and getting the truck and trailer (or transport) organised. Sadly I must inform that this is not the case in general. Some racers don’t quit as much as they just park their cars. Officially they are still racers, with a race car, but they stopped taking it to the race track. There are often a few reasons for this, but the one that needs to be addressed here is if the racer does not take their car to the track because of something the local race track is or is not doing. Do I want money, or respect? As mentioned earlier, no one actually races for money, if they did no one would race, because you always spend more money than you earn. Today, If you race you do so for – here it is again – respect. Respect comes in different forms. Respect is taking home a bit more money than it cost to finish the day. If the amount you get for winning the day’s racing is substantially less than what it cost to get there on the day, that is no respect. If you lose first round you kind of

Mark Belleri and Marty Dack sat down with Perth Motorplex’s video team to preview the Pro Showdown round this weekend at Perth Motorplex, the opening of the ANDRA Drag Racing Series for Top Doorslammer and Top Alcohol. Do you think either of these guys is a chance at the first ANDRA silver Christmas tree trophy for Top Doorslammer? Leave your comment below! {fcomment}

After sitting out last season Jason Hedges Racing has regrouped with a new car and new sponsors, preparing for a 2014 Pro Stock comeback.

Queensland girl racer Kelly Corbett celebrated Australia Day at the weekend’s V 4 and Rotary Nationals by becoming New Zealand’s quickest four cylinder drag racer.

When the opening round of the 2014 JP Racing Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series comes to Warwick Dragway on 8 February 2014, local racer Lyn Stewart won’t just be defending her home turf, but also her 2013 Series championship.  In 2012 the 62 year old Stewart lost her husband of 40 years – beloved local drag racing identity Mark Stewart – to a workplace accident, but the passionate racer has continued her on-track exploits in his honour. “Mark was always a ‘get on with it’ kind of person, and while it has been extremely difficult I know he wouldn’t want me sitting around digging myself a hole, he would want me to be out there having fun and so that is what I am trying to do,” said the Athol resident. “He is the reason I got into racing – I saw him out there and decided I couldn’t let him have all the fun and next thing you know we had set up my ‘little white wagon’ 1978 Gemini and were taking to the track together. Even today he is the reason I still get out there, ‘getting on with living’ as he would have wanted. “Mark really was an amazing and much-loved man, we lived and breathed racing and each other and we loved competing together – when we decided to get into the eighth mile series I never thought I could be good enough for something like this but he encouraged me to enter and insisted we could take it out if we wanted to – when I won the 2013 Series it was certainly bittersweet.” Stewart was one of two local racers alongside Ian Ham who claimed 2013 honours, taking out the title for the Series’ FG Loy & Sons Earthmoving Old School Bracket – one of six race categories contested in the 2013 Series. In 2014, Stewart will move to the Super Street bracket. “I have really enjoyed racing in the Eighth Mile Series as it is really attuned to the type of racing I like to do – where the focus is on going out there and enjoying yourself and on spending a relaxed time with your mates at the race track,” said Stewart. “In 2014 I will be transitioning over to the Super Street bracket which is where I started out racing nine years ago so I am looking forward to getting back to that category and you never know, maybe I can take another Series win! “As long as I can have fun and spend some quality track-time with my friends, it is a successful race day for me as far as I am concerned.” Stewart and the rest of the Super Street bracket will be joined on track by the FG Loy & Sons Earthmoving Eighth Mile Outlaws, RD Williams Excavator Parts Modified, Super Sedan, Queensland Nameplate Group Modified Bike and Junior Dragster categories. Kicking off at Warwick Dragway on 8 February, the series will then head to Willowbank Raceway on 26 April for round two. Benaraby Raceway will then host round three on 1 August before the final round gets going at Ironbark Raceway on 27 September 2014. For more information on the 2014 JP Racing Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series, including information on rules, how to enter and the points system, please visit to www.willowbankraceway.com.au 2014 JP Racing Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series Calendar:Round One – 8 February, 2013: Warwick Dragway, Warwick QLDRound Two – 26 April, 2013: Willowbank Raceway, Willowbank QLD Round Three – 2 August, 2013: Benaraby Raceway, Gladstone QLDFinal Round – 27 September, 2013: Ironbark Raceway, Roma QLD Racing brackets:FG Loy & Sons Earthmoving Eighth Mile Outlaws – new bracket for 2014RD Williams Excavator Parts MODIFIED BRACKETIce Slushee SUPER SEDAN BRACKETQueensland Nameplate Group MODIFIED BIKE BRACKETSUPER STREET BRACKET JUNIOR DRAGSTER BRACKET {fcomment}

Sportsman drag racing’s evolution to a higher percentage of late model factory super cars in Stock and Super Stock classes continues and that movement includes some significant Canadian entries — including Alberta’s Darrell Dietz.

Team Bray Racing will kick off its 2014 ANDRA Top Doorslammer chase this weekend with the opening round of the championship taking place at the Perth Motorplex in Western Australia this Friday and Saturday (31 January – 1 February).

Is there a better way to celebrate Australia Day than to reveal a beautifully wrapped Pro Stocker to the world? Well that’s just what Aussie Shane Tucker has done and the results are simply stunning.

Sydney Dragway’s Race 4 Real off street events have been going from strength to strength with the track investing much time in promoting and enhancing the weekly Wednesday nights for both racers and spectators.

All ANDRA rules submissions for next season proposed by ANDRA members are now available to view online and as usual they will create a hive of discussion between racers.

Steve Reed will make the 4500km trek to Perth with his Allstar Batteries Top Alcohol Funny Car team in a bid to maintain last seasons momentum for a winning start to the 2014 championship.