Sydney racers had their first chance to blow off the New Year cobwebs with the first test and tune of the year ahead of this weekend’s Santo’s Summer Thunder event.

In terrible news, Pro Stock Motorcycle racer George Vella lost his life in a workplace accident over the weekend in North Queensland.

Pro Stock competitor Chris Soldatos will compete at South Coast Raceway’s South Coast 660 next weekend in close friend Craig Geddes’ Cavalier.

There were many headlines made in the sport of Australian drag racing across 2017 – we’ve put together a list of the ten biggest news stories from our site based on the hits received.

Australia’s number one Top Bike racer, Chris Matheson, is counting down the days until the Santo’s Summer Thunder round of the Australian 400 Thunder Championship on January 19 and 20 at Sydney Dragway.

John Zappia has returned to the top of the 400 Thunder Pro Slammer series with a textbook performance at Willowbank Raceway’s New Years Thunder event.

We were saddened this week to hear of the passing of Victorian Top Bike staple Phil Parker. Always a smiling presence in the pits, Parker featured on the cover of issue 15 of Drag News Magazine with this feature. We’d like to bring it to you now so you can read his poignant comments on life, death and drag racing.

The heat at New Years Thunder on January 6, 2018 proved no barrier to intense racing action, nor the thousands of spectators who poured through the gates of Willowbank Raceway for one of the biggest one day events in the venue’s recent history.

It is with great sadness we report the passing of Top Fuel Bike racer Phil Parker.

Peter Xiberras took an emotional win in round two of the 400 Thunder Top Fuel Championship at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland on Saturday night in front of one of the biggest one-day crowds ever seen in Australian drag racing.

Australian drag racing legend, the Big ‘O’ Larry Ormsby has been named Grand Marshal for the New Year’s Thunder event at Willowbank Raceway on Saturday, 6 January 2018.

The nitro sights and sounds of New Years Thunder at Willowbank Raceway this Saturday, January 6 won’t be contained to the ground-shaking Top Fuel dragsters.

Queensland’s newest Top Fuel driver will get to display her skills in front of a Willowbank Raceway home crowd for the first time in competition at News Years Thunder on Saturday, January 6.

There is a new challenger for the 400 Thunder Top Fuel Championship on the scene and Willowbank Raceway’s New Years Thunder event on January 6, 2018 could be the place where he makes his move for the points lead.

When Andrew Katavatis and the Beach Bomb Outlaw Nitro Funny Car thunder down the Perth Motorplex drag strip, you might have seen a very enthusiastic supporter watching from behind and cheering on its driver.

  The Santos Summer meeting has received a major boost with NHRA star Ashley Sanford to race alongside her Rapisarda Autosport International team-mates Damien Harris and Wayne Newby.

Western Australian drag racing fans will get to see a fresh category of racing as part of the Night of Fire at Perth Motorplex on December 30, with the APSA Outlaw Radial class hitting the track.

Bill Farrugia is looking to take the performance that saw him top qualify at the last round of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series and convert that into an event victory at the upcoming South Coast 660 event.

Bubbly, bouncy, high energy – all of these terms have been used to describe Californian Top Fuel drag racing sensation Ashley Sanford.

John Zappia is one of the great record setters of Australian drag racing and one of the great things is most of them have been set in a time of internet video coverage! Let’s go through the list…

High expectations weighed on New South Wales drag racer Paul Mouhayet when he and the Moits Racing team announced they would be moving to compete in the 400 Thunder Professional Drag Racing Series, joining the ultra-competitive Pro Slammer division.

If there is an international driver in motorsport who has been to Australia more than Billings, Montana-based Chuck Haynes, we’d like to find them.

The following has been released by Calder Park Drag Racing today, the 18th of December 2017.

Rising NHRA Top Fuel star Ashley Sanford will return to Australia to drivefor Rapisarda Autosport International at Willowbank Raceway on January 6.

IHRA Australia has announced an expansion with new Melbourne-based Technical and Administration positions.

Calder Park’s long and tumultuous history had another chapter written last week with the 400 Thunder Series making the decision to remove the pro categories from the Australian Nationals.

Going drag racing for the first time can be a hell of a lot of fun and we want to make sure you can avoid some of the pitfalls that newbies get into at the track.

After the loss of the 400 Thunder Australian Professional Drag Racing Series championship round due to be run at Calder Park in January, Sydney Dragway will now host round 4 of the 2017-18 Pro Slammer Championship at the Santo’s Summer Thunder in January 2018.

With tragic passing of Anita Board, it is often hard to pay tribute with words. So around the country racers young and old paid their respects and to honour Anita in a range of personal gestures and gatherings at drag racing venues. We have shown you some of those moments of respect already, however from Sydney Dragway, Madman Productions has put together an emotional video from a day dedicated to Anita.