NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Top Fuel rookie, Terry Sainty and Rapisarda Racing are hoping it will be third time lucky when they compete at this weekend’s Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway, Concord (Charlotte), North Carolina.
Sydney-based Sainty and Rapisarda Racing started their 2011 NHRA US campaign, at the season-opening Winternationals at Pomona, California, in February, where Sainty qualified 17th, missing the 16-car field by just 0.035-seconds.
Then at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the third event on the NHRA Full Throttle tour, Sainty qualified in 18th place, missing the cut by 0.091-seconds.
At this weekend’s (Thursday to Sunday, April 14-17) NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at the zMAX Dragway, Concord (Charlotte), North Carolina, Sainty and Team Rapisarda will be looking to qualify for their first NHRA event for 2011.
“We were not that far away from qualifying at Pomona or Las Vegas, which was disappointing for both the Rapisarda team and me,” Sainty said.
“I guess it will just happen gradually. There has to be a focus on the tune-up and keep moving forward from there.
“At Charlotte, the goal is to qualify and then go some rounds (of racing). I am really looking forward to racing at the four-wide Nationals. Having three other cars go down the track with you will be awesome,” Sainty said.
“It has been a huge effort by (team owner) Santo Rapisarda to fly a team from Australia to the US to race and we would like to reward him (Rapisarda) by qualifying at this event.
“The team did the last two NHRA events last year – Las Vegas and Pomona – and qualified at Vegas, winning the first round (of eliminations). It would be good if we can do that at Charlotte.”
Rapisarda Racing team manager, Santo Rapisarda Jnr, said the team missed the first Las Vegas qualifying session due to an oil leak, which put the team behind for the rest of the qualifying sessions.
“We just ran out of time to fix the problem and get out for qualifying. Then we had a problem with dropping cylinders in the next three sessions,” Rapisarda said.
“We tested at Vegas on the Monday after the event and we may have got on top of the problems.
“We are all looking forward to a much better event and results at Charlotte,” Rapisarda said.
Rapisarda Racing plan to contest at least 12 NHRA Full Throttle events.
Follow the Rapisarda Racing 2011 US tour on the Rapisarda Racing website, www.rapisardaracing.com.au
Image of Fueler| Bruce Biegler | www.Dragracecanada.com
