Damian Muscat’s monumental return to Top Fuel Motorcycle last season was a hard fought one for the former National Champion despite Muscat not being new to the class, this new blown inline four-cylinder nitro bike sure did get his attention.
Previously a suitor for the Nitro Harleys, Muscat’s return saw him aboard the ex-Sam Wills Top Fuel Motorcycle. The blown four-cylinder was world’s apart in specifications to his former ride and it would be a steep development curve to climb across the season.
Attending the first event was the bike’s former owners, Sam and Keri Wills, along with Todd and Shari Martin from the USA to assist with showing the JTS Transport Nitro Phoenix Fully Blown team the ropes. The bike proved to be very fast off the line early in the piece, with Muscat taking a minute to find his groove on the bike.
Across the first four events the Nitro Phoenix Top Fuel Motorcycle was tracking to half track very respectably, but advancing past this point was an issue and a head-scratcher.
“After hours of brainstorming and pondering the data, the team discovered that the bike wasn’t shifting into high gear and the 44 amp magneto had been slowly advancing, causing the ignition to be out of phase, and create abnormal and erratic spark which ultimately caused major problems to the engine,” said Muscat.
With a few months off before the final race of the year at the Winternationals, the team were working through the issues at their home base before it was decided to test the weekend prior to the Winternationals to see if all the issues were resolved.
Off the trailer at testing the crew, headed up by tuner extraordinaire Brodie Pilkington, gave specific instructions to Muscat for 800 foot pass so the tune up and systems could be checked. Running a stomping 6.267 at 172mph – with the very early shutoff – was sensationally a personal best for the team, giving signs of great potential. Another two strong passes were further complete in testing yielding spectacular 6.015 and 6.004 ETs still with early shutoffs. Despite the great numbers on the board, they came at a cost with a torched engine that ended testing for the weekend.
Working tirelessly, the Nitro Phoenix crew with the assistance of the Jack Brothers, repaired and rebuilt everything ready for the Winternationals the following weekend.
“The event still proved to be an uphill battle for the team,” said Muscat. “But the team dug deep to turn the bike around between rounds having to do engine swaps and or rebuilds between rounds, however the straw that broke our back being a broken blower shaft that we didn’t have a replacement of.
“Best efforts to repair at the track fell a whisker short ending our quest however we managed to do a blistering 6.07 at 215mph in front of the big crowd, and when I say blistering I mean my leg got quite hot from torching the head at 4.1 seconds and staying in the throttle till 5.1 seconds!
“Whilst the Warm Ups and the Winters were extremely challenging, the crew worked there butts off and coming away with a new PB and a string of eye watering low sixes puts us number two in terms of ET over the quarter in Australia to Matho’s 5.92 pass.”
On the eve of the new championship season, the team has been rebuilding the engines, transmissions and blower over the off season along with testing and replacing fuel and ignition components as required to maintain reliability.
“Turning our attention to how and why we had issues and making some minor changes at our first round in the effort to blast down the quarter mile under full power is our focus,” said Muscat. “The bike certainly has the potential and it’s up to us to turn that into reality for our great sponsors and all the supporters. The team will do our best to put in a show.”
The Drag Bike Nationals this Saturday is set to host no end of epic nitro-fuelled two-wheeled action at Dragway at the Bend for the first round of NDRC Top Fuel Motorcycle championship for the 2024/2025 season.
Looking at the championship side of the equation now for the team, Muscat who was still able to achieve a runner up finish to the title last season, will be giving championship a red hot shot.
“The championship is definitely something we will be chasing, and in the meantime, my biggest ambition is to make this motorcycle go as fast as we possibly can,” Muscat said.
“That sometimes comes at the detriment of blowing it up, but we will do our best to get the balance right!
“The fans are all behind us to get into the fives and it is obviously something that we would like to do. Saying it and actually doing it are two different things, but we will certainly be doing our best to go as fast and as quick as possible!”
When it comes to being a place to set a PB, Dragway at The Bend certainly has plenty of history behind it already.
“This is probably the greatest track we have in the country at the moment – we have a lot of good tracks, but this one ticks all the boxes and there are a lot of people that have done PBs on this track,” Muscat said.
“So, it is definitely possibly we could get into the fives this weekend. The track is always fantastic, and the air always seems to be great here no matter what time of year it is.
Certainly, a victory at the Drag Bike Nationals would be the best possible start to Muscat’s title chase on his Nitro Phoenix Top Fuel Motorcycle, and something special indeed.
“To get the win would be great, not only for our sponsors, but also for our fans and our crew,” Muscat said.
“Everyone puts in a great deal of effort not only on race weekends but also in the time between to have the bike ready, and also the transporter ready to travel across the country.
“There is so much that goes into it, so to get the win would be a great reward for all involved,” Muscat added, while thanking JTS Transport, Transit Tyres, Degoey Contractors, C & C Civil and Mining Construction, BL & SG Lake Brick Cartage, Summut Harvesters, FUCHS Lubricants, Great Northern Motorcycle Adventures, Easynet, Whem Equipment Hire, Applied Automotive Engineering, Rocket Industries and Aeroflow for their support.
The Drag Bike Nationals will be held at Dragway at The Bend on Saturday November 9. For event information and also details of other upcoming events, visit https://nationaldragracing.com.au/calendar/
To learn more about the NDRC, visit www.ndrc.tv
