Top Fuel drag race team, Rapisarda Racing and driver, Terry Sainty, will start an odyssey this weekend that will see the Sydney-based team and driver race at two events on two continents in seven days.
Sainty and multiple Australian championship-winning Rapisarda Racing/Titan Cranes team will start their epic journey this Friday and Saturday (March 25-26), racing in round five of the 2010-2011 (Australian National Drag Racing Association) ANDRA Pro Series Top Fuel championship at Willowbank, Ipswich.
Then next weekend (April 1-3), will see Sainty and Team Rapisarda in America, competing in round three of the (National Hot Rod Association) NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Top Fuel championship at Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sainty and Team Rapisarda raced at the NHRA season-opening Winternationals at Pomona, California, in February, where Sainty qualified in 17th place, missing the 16-car field by just 0.035-seconds.
Rapisarda Racing is unlikely to win this season’s ANDRA Top Fuel championship, due to missing round two in Sydney last October.
After racing at the season-opening Australian Nationals at Sydney Dragway in September, Team Rapisarda, with regular team driver Mark Mariani, went to the US for the final two 2010 NHRA events, the 10th annual Las Vegas Nationals in October and the 46th annual NHRA Finals at Pomona in November after earlier shipping one of the team’s Dragsters and transporter to the US.
Mariani and Team Rapisarda qualified 15th, then won their first round elimination at Las Vegas.
However, team principle, Santo Rapisarda, has given Sainty the chance to win the Australian Top Fuel championship.
Rapisarda engaged Sainty to drive for the team at the Perth round (four) after Mariana was unavailable, which meant Sainty has raced in all four rounds to date, competing in the first three rounds in the family-owned Sainty Engineering Top Fuel car. The Sainty team had no plans to race in Perth.
After this weekend’s event, Sainty will continue to drive for Rapisarda Racing in the US, but will be back in the family car for the final two ANDRA Pro Series events, the Nitro Champs at Sydney Dragway in May and Winternationals at Willowbank in June.
Mariani will take over the Rapisarda Racing driving duties for those two ANDRA season-ending events.
Sainty secured the plum US drive when Rapisarda asked him if he would be interested in racing in the US after the Perth round.
“When Santo (Rapisarda) asked me in Perth if I would be interested in driving his car in the US, I was blown away. I never thought in my wildest dreams I would get a chance to race in the US,” Sainty said.
“Santo is a very generous man. Not only am I driving for Santo in the US, he has also given me a chance to compete in all ANDRA championship rounds. I am extremely proud and privileged to drive his car, not only in the US, but in Australia.”
Sainty is currently in third place in the ANDRA Top Fuel championship with 279 points, behind series leader Darren Morgan (374pts) and Andrew Cowin (294pts).
