Queensland’s Crossroads Racing WASH IT Funny Car team owner John Cannuli has bounced back with a much celebrated WIN in Top Alcohol at Sydney Dragway’s NITRO CHAMPS this weekend after a torrid start to 2011.
The past 4 months have been a hard slog for John and his fiancé Kirsten who have been working tirelessly to get their family transport company back up and running after sustaining substantial damage during the Brisbane floods in January
When mother nature inflicted its crippling devastation from Toowoomba down through the Lockyer Valley and into Brisbane, John’s Rocklea depot was right in the path of the floods destruction and it took a huge battering going under 3 metres of water causing extensive damage to trucks, trailers & buildings.
Since the floods, John’s focus has been on rebuilding his business and his first opportunity to get back behind the wheel of his 3500hp Chev Monte Carlo was in March at Willowbank Raceway’s Top Fuel Championships where he went to the final of Competition Eliminator against Craig Geddes E/AA Altered and took home the runners up trophy.
Fast forward a month on and the Crossroads team have made the trip south to Sydney Dragway for one of the toughest events on the ANDRA Pro Series Drag Racing calendar… The Nitro Champs!!
With threatening clouds and wet weather looming, nine Top Alcohol Dragsters and Funny Cars entered for the limited 8 car field and one thing was for sure. One team would miss out on making the main show!
Due to rain stopping qualifying on Saturday night, teams were then faced with just two qualifying passes to find a workable tune up after the schedule had to been amended.
With the first qualifying session held late Saturday afternoon and the second on Sunday morning prior to racing eliminations, the final qualifying order saw Sydneysider Wayne Newby qualify his Dragster quickest with a 5.647 just ahead of John Cannuli’s personal best 5.669 at 255mph (410kph) to secure second spot with third – Paul Madill (5.79), Fourth – Steve Reed (5.799), Fifth – Rick Gauci (5.847), Sixth – Wayne Price (6.33), Seventh – Adam Marchant (6.34) and Steven Ham (9 seconds) rounding out the Top 8 spots. It was the Funny Car of Gary Phillips that was the non-qualifier.
Round One saw John’s WASH IT Monte Carlo paired against the Dragster of West Aussie Adam Marchant but the funny car showed too much pace running away for the win producing Low ET of the event and giving John his quickest Top Alcohol time ever of a 5.598 at 256mph (412kph).
With the Crossroads Racing Team firing on all eight cylinders and getting quicker run after run, their semi final opponent was #6 Qualifier Wayne Price in his Bakers Delight funny car. Quietly confident and wanting to lower their ET even further, the Crossroads crew turned up the wick of their 521ci BAE motor but a quarter of the way into the run a huge bang erupted from underneath the body of the WASH IT funny car causing it to slow but Price had issues of his own and John peddled his wounded FC home for a 6.91 win.
It was found that a faulty nozzle starved the motor of fuel on the run which caused it to backfire resulting in it being unusable as the team looked towards the finals. In an act of extreme generosity, Top Doorslammer racer Deno Brijeski offered the Crossroads team use of one of his engines to help get their car to the finals and after a massive thrash in the pits to transplant the motor by both the Crossroads & Deno’s crew, they made it with minutes to spare.
The final saw JC’s WASH IT funny car sitting in the lanes beside the JBS Dragster of championship leader and top qualifier Wayne Newby and after his 5.72 in the first round and a 5.67 in the semis, it was always going to be a tough race! As the lights flashed green, without hesitation John’s funny car stepped up to the plate and ran straight to the finish line recording a 5.75 / 251mph (403kph) for the WIN beating a troubled Wayne Newby.
John would like to thank all of his sponsors, Deno Brijeski & crew, Rob Tucker Racing, the Duffy family, his Crossroads crew and fiancé Kirsten for helping him to win his first ANDRA Gold Christmas Tree.
Crossroads Racing returns to the track for the ANDRA Pro Series FINAL ROUND at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland on June 10th to 13th for the Castrol Edge Winternationals.
Please support the VALUED SPONSORS of Crossroads Racing
Wash It Australia: www.washit.com.au – Marque Lubricants: www.otechaustralia.com.au
Wheelboyz: www.wheelboyz.com – Images By Daniel Ward: www.danielward.com.au
Telstra Shop Canberra: www.telstra.com.au – Rencool: www.rencool.com.au
Photo|Paul Drady| www.cacklingpipes.com
Release|Jason Bean|LoUdmoUth Promotions – 0414 965 903
