Drag News Magazine Issue Four

P O RT L A N D P R O F I L E S - M A R C L E A K E ' S T O R A N A - M E N TA L B E N Z

I S S U E F O U R F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 5

LUKE SMITH THE FUTURE OF SYDNEY DRAGWAY

GREG GOWER EXPLAINS METHANOL

BILL GOONAN'S ROUGH ROAD

WESTERNATS COVERAGE

IAN READ: EMERGENCY ROOM TO WINNER'S CIRCLE

DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE STAFF

CONTENTS 4 - Editorial

Editor: Luke Nieuwhof (luke@dragnews.com.au) Content: Luke Nieuwhof, Grant Stephens, Rob Sparkes Photography: cacklingpipes.com (grant@cacklingpipes.com), Luke Nieuwhof Design: Luke Nieuwhof Accounts: Rob Sparkes

6 - Shutter Speed

FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHERS

42 - Tracksmith

Joe Maday 0468 413 124 maday@mail2joseph.com Dave Reid 0412 686 478 sales@dragphotos.com.au Lee Davis 0425 886 072 photorequest@ westernautopics.com.au

WANT TO SEND US CONTENT? press@dragnews.com.au

10 - Wonders of the west: Westernationals coverage from Perth Motorplex 32 - Stories from the sportsmen

Grant Stephens catches up with some of the first round leaders.

Interview with Sydney Dragway general manager Luke Smith.

48 - Rough road racer Bill Goonan's long way to the top - Top Doorslammer, that is.

54 - From emergency room to winner's circle Ian Read's amazing recovery from a road accident to become Westernationals champion.

58 - Turbo converts The Leake family were once famous for Pro Stock, but now it is Pro Street where they are making their mark.

ADVERTISING

64 - Bad ass Benz Some things just should not be.

advertising@dragnews.com.au Or call Rob Sparkes on +61418411684

68 - Tech article: Masters of methanol

WANT THE LATEST?

We go through the basics of methanol fuel systems and who better to explain than world record tuner Greg Gower?

www.dragnews.com.au is Australia's most popular drag racing website and carriers all the up to date news you need on Australian drag racing.

74 - Quarter Reporter

LEGAL

78 - Mr Yes and Mr No

All content is copyright to Drag News Australia Pty Ltd and may not be reproduced in any form without express written permission.

IHRA rumours, the approaching Top Fuel season, QDRC results and changes ahead for some Sydney Dragway events.

Does Nitro Funny Car need a championship in Australia?

79 - Business Directory

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EDITORIAL Part One Rumours swirled this month of plans by some tracks to abandon ANDRA and move to an IHRA sanction, fuelled by an article in Auto Action.

Quoting an anonymous source (aren't they always?) who claimed everything from the death of the sport to Victor Bray not being able to find a sponsor landed at the feet of ANDRA, the article certainly fanned some flames on social media.

Staying open to new ideas is always vital for any sport to remain relevant and changing sanctioning body is not necessarily something in and of itself that we should disregard outright - provided the right case can be made for it.

Given nothing formal has been seen this whole discussion is premature, but it is absolutely necessary to make sure any major change is done for the right reasons. If the popular response on social media was any indication, most of the problems people wanted fixed by a change in sanctioning body would not be fixed by that at all.

It's like cutting off your leg to fix your broken arm – we'd be in for a long recovery from the damage and at the end of the day the problems would still remain.

Some people have employed the 'anything must be better than ANDRA' argument, but to that point it is necessary to remind, sometimes it is better the devil you know.

Again, if a compelling case is made for a sanctioning body change then we should be all for it, but the people who are pushing for this change need to set those reasons out very clearly. It can't just be a list of problems with ANDRA, it has to be a list of how those problems would be fixed by not being with ANDRA. ANDRA is not the boogeyman, it is a racer organisation, and it is at its best when members are engaged with it and contributing to it. Sitting back and waiting for others to make changes has long been a problem in Australian drag racing – as has quickly opposing those changes when somebody dares

to make them.

Certainly be critical of ANDRA, it is your right as a member, but also ensure you are doing your part to make drag racing strong as a sport.

Part Two An idea to get new people involved in the sport.

That was my starting brief for this editorial, before this whole IHRA thing kicked off.

Anyways, I don't think this is actually my idea at all. Like all good ideas, I have stolen it.

Lots of other motorsports have day licences available for all kinds of levels of racing, is it time we do something similar for drag racing?

Of course, I'm not suggesting you should just be able to pay $50 and go for a skid in a fuel car. But if your mate has a nine second rail and you want to give it a shot to see if you like it, why not?

So long as the medical was completed, why not charge a small amount for a day licence which allows you to make solo passes and perhaps take steps that will count towards getting your ANDRA licence endorsed eventually?

The current situation is that you are looking at an investment of some $500 or so by the time you pay for a medical, a licence and your entry to race at an event, just to see if you may or may not like something.

A day licence could be the hook to get more people into the race cars or bikes of their friends or families and see if they enjoy it. If they do, they will probably then pay for a full licence and get more involved. At the moment the barrier to entry means we will never know for a lot of people.?

Luke Nieuwhof Editor

SHUTTER

SPEED 6

Damien Harris and Rapisarda Autosport International have been spending time at Sydney Dragway recently testing a new six plate clutch - with mixed results.

ISO 1000, 1/4000sec, F5.6, Canon EOS-1DX at 200mm.

Image: cacklingpipes.com

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SHUTTER

SPEED 8

Perth is spoiled with its summer sunsets and they look no better than when there is a Top Doorslammer qualifying session underneath. Pino Priolo adds some clouds of his own.

ISO 800, 1/500sec, F4.5, Canon 7D at 10mm. Image: Luke Nieuwhof

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WONDERS OF THE WEST The 44th annual Westernationals shifted from its regular date on the Labor Day public holiday in Western Australia to a late January date this year, primarily to appease Top Doorslammer racers who vehemently opposed the running of a Westernationals without the category.

As a result the event ran Friday to Saturday and things were a little more compressed than most were used to in the schedule.

Certainly the brakes are on the Western Australian economy at the moment and it could be seen in the field sizes, down from the massive 300 totals that were seen in the late 2000s.

But those that did present for the event were given some awesome racing at a great venue, with a surface that couldn't be faulted.

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"Points wise the news is all Zappia – the rest of the field is left with some serious work to do."

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Top Doorslammer A 'back to basics' approach yielded immediate dividends for Victoria's Peter Kapiris in the second round of the ANDRA Top Doorslammer Championship as he top qualified with a 5.877.

By Kapiris' own admission, the team being in test mode at the opening round of the championship did them no favours, so by going back to what they knew, Kapiris would enter race day with much more confidence.

Opening round winner and record breaker John Zappia managed a best of a pedalling 5.892 to put himself into second place, with tyre shake afflicting the Fuchs/Striker Monaro throughout qualifying.

Daniel Gregorini was confident ahead of the event that he had found some more 'oomph' in the Scratch n Match Motorsport Camaro and a 5.920 backed up with a 5.951 and a 5.986 during the other two qualifying sessions ensured his race day package would be more than competitive.

Maurice Fabietti rounded out the top half of the field with a 5.924 with the early pace of the Holden Trade Club Monaro particularly strong.

A high number of oil downs from the bracket meant that only two sessions of qualifying were able to be run on the Friday night of the event, with the third carried over to 11am on the Saturday morning.

Mark Belleri was the one to benefit most from that turn of events, going from outside of the field to number five spot with a 5.943 in the daylight.

Marty Dack's 5.974 at night and 5.977 in the day session showed he would have something to work in all conditions and would start the game from sixth spot, while Wayne Keys was another racer to use the daylight to his advantage with a 5.976 pass.

Pino Priolo was the holder of the bump spot with a last ditch 6.045 and it would just survive a late challenge from Grant O'Rourke, who blew a burst panel on his last qualifying pass in a frustrating moment for the Queensland given he went 3.95 to half track.

Stuart Bishop again missed the field with a 6.118 pass in a continuation of a shocking start to the season for last year's championship runner up.

Mark Chapman was in PB territory with a 6.145 but also missed the eight, as did Murray O'Connor, Pat Carbone, Ryan Moresby, Shane Catalano, Paul Cannuli, Owen Ducker and Steve Aldridge.

Eliminations would thankfully progress far smoother than qualifying. Fabietti opened things up with a 5.901 victory against Belleri who needed an early pedal and couldn't make up the distance. Gregorini pulled off a holeshot win against Dack, the slower 5.955 defeating a 5.947 thanks to Dack's sleepy .401 reaction time. Keys rattled early and allowed Zappia to rattle off a 5.863/251.39 win, at that point the quickest run of the weekend. The round closed with Kapiris using a soft launching 5.921 to get around Pino Priolo's troubled 8.059.

In the semi finals Fabietti was aiming to get through to his second straight final round while Kapiris was just thankful he finally had a consistent race car. A second holeshot victory for the night came with Kapiris' 5.887 defeating Fabietti's much quicker 5.820 thanks to a .093 to .324 advantage on the tree.

Gregorini put six hundredths on Zappia at the tree but unlike Kapiris was unable to keep stuck to the track, going up in smoke early and watching Zappia go through with a quick 5.776/252.10 which would stand as low ET of the event.

The two arch rivals of the 2013 ANDRA Top Doorslammer Championship were thus rematched. Kapiris took a small lead on the hit with a .117 to .140 advantage from the tree, but Zappia quickly clawed it back with a mind blowing .959 60 foot time.

From there Kapiris put in the power though and had recovered the lead by half track with an epic 206mph speed. The legs were with Zappia through the finish line though and a 5.784 just snuck by a 5.814 in one of the most thrilling Top Doorslammer finals ever seen.

Points wise the news is all Zappia – the rest of the field is left with some serious work to do in what remains of a short season.

Clockwise from opposite page: John Zappia earned win number two of the season, the only mark on his perfect record being number two qualifier instead of number one. Shane Catalano and team await qualifying. Daniel Gregorini showed consistency in qualifying but was caught out by the left lane in the semi finals.

Maurice Fabietti paid the price for a slow reaction time.

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Top Alcohol The opening round of the ANDRA Top Alcohol season was arguably one of the best of recent years. By the end of the event there would be new national records at both ends, a new world record and some awesome side by side racing. You best read on to find out more!

Gary Phillips didn't wait to unleash, slamming down a first session 5.479/260.86 which would hold for the remainder of qualifying. The team had data from Darwin's hot and humid Top Alcohol rounds which they were able to use with the Lucas Oils Funny Car to suit the similar conditions at Perth.

John Cannuli was getting down the track each time in the Dudu Funny Car and had the best consistency of

Centre spread: Gary Phillips executed a series of impressive 5.4s and a win at the opening round of the championship.

Bottom row from left: Craig Glassby hit a world record 5.410 in the semi finals. Aaron Deery didn't have the pace the team was chasing. Rob Ambruosi got to play on race day when Stephen Del Caro withdrew. Rob Pilkington reached the semi finals with consistent 5.6s. John Cannuli became a member of the 5.4 second club.

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all the competitors over three sessions, with a 5.584 his quickest and a 5.669 his slowest.

Craig Glassby had some nervous times, sitting outside the field until a final session 5.584. His earlier passes included one crossing the centre line and another carrying the front end so far it needed a pedal to come back down to earth.

Rob Pilkington rounded out the top half of the field with a 5.618, taking back the steering wheel of the Alutech Chev Monnte Carlo from son Brodie who has been making some laps this season.

Pilkington would face a happy Debbie O'Rourke in round one, with Australia's quickest active female racer carding a 5.651 personal best in the second session of qualifying.

Aaron Deery was another racer coming back to the seat after letting someone else have a steer, in his case crew member Kendrick Pool.

Deery's 5.931 wasn't quite as quick as the team was after in the Kendall dragster.

Anthony Begley recorded a 5.947 from his now silver Ford Mustang and Stephen Del Caro went 6.451 to complete the eight.

Unfortunately Del Caro had engine damage after his only qualifying pass and would miss race day, allowing Victorian Rob Ambruosi to play in the first round despite only having a best of a 6.940.

Shane Weston was perhaps the most disappointed of all contenders.

After having a supremely consistent race car for the WA domestic season, a

transmission failure in the very first qualifying pass ruled him out for the rest of the event in the 'Endangered Species' dragster.

Whatever Glassby and the Valvoline/Alkypro team learned during qualifying, they were able to apply it big time for the first round with a 5.455 personal best to smash Deery's 6.416 out of the park. The big 265.48 speed from Glassy also impressed. Phillips wasn't going to let Glassby have the limelight for long, returning fire with a 5.440/264.70 defeat of Ambruosi, who laid down a 6.075 – his best pass of the weekend. Cannuli showed there was more room in the Five Forty Club yet, cracking a 5.496 to down Begley's 5.907. That left just Pilkington to run 'only' a 5.690 to get by O'Rourke's shaking

7.206.

Cannuli and Glassby was the first pairing of the semi finals and arguably the one everyone wanted to see most as two 5.4 cars went side by side. Cannuli got the upper hand on the tree with a .059 to .077 advantage, but Glassby rocketed past by the 60 foot beams with a blazing .918 short time. Glassby was never halted from there and clocked an incredible 5.410/266.27, the quickest methanol-fuelled funny car pass in the world (one thousandth of a second ahead of the legendary Frank Manzo). Who would have thought a 5.545/260.11 from Cannuli could have been made to look slow! Phillips swung for the fences himself with a 5.430/266.27 victory against Pilkington's 5.627.

But remarkably he would not have

lane choice!

There is a perception at the moment at Perth Motorplex that the right hand lane is the one to use. Glassby would certainly prove that to an extent as the finals race began. His amazing .903 60 foot time had him out on Phillips, but when Glassby began to head out of the groove he needed to get out of the throttle and knew the race was over. Phillips stayed stuck and with a 5.435 at top speed of the event, 267.85, would go back home to Queensland with the ANDRA gold Christmas tree and the Top Alcohol points lead.

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SLAMMERS AND ALKY WRAP PERTH SWING Perth is now but a memory for Top Doorslammer and Top Alcohol teams as the championship moves on around the country.

Top Doorslammer championship leader John Zappia is looking forward to the challenge of finding consistency and attempting an unprecedented eighth straight title.

“I thought 5.80s was the limit, but now we have made a big leap and I don't know if there is much more to leap after this,” he said. “There is probably a 5.65 in the car on a perfect run.

“We are that close to being able to run flat 5.70s or 5.69s consistently, but I don't know how long it will take to happen.

It could take 18 months to make it happen.

“I knew they (Peter Kapiris' team) were going to step up (for the final). Craig from Striker Crushing (one of Zappia's sponsors) called me up and said you're on fire, just leave it alone, don't touch it - and that's exactly what we did.

“Now we go to Adelaide, it might be a tricky track but we have always had the advantage there,” he said. “And we are real excited to go Sydney and Willowbank.”

Zappia will be spending his time between events helping with some drag racing demonstrations at the Clipsal 500.

For Peter Kapiris (pictured below), a change in philosophy secured him top qualifying position – with the team deciding to leave testing to times outside of events.

“We've got the old mojo back,” Kapiris said. “Going back to what we know will get us down the track, even if it doesn't

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move our times ahead.

“Testing in qualifying kicked us in the butt at the last event, so we have decided now to test when we can and if it doesn't work go back to what we know.

“Everyone can run 5.80s on a good day, so you need to be running constant 5.80s and occasionally 5.70s to be in with a shot. 5.90s will get you in the field but are not enough if you want to be a heavy hitter.”

Meanwhile in Top Alcohol, Gary Phillips left Perth Motorplex without the national record for the first time in a long time.

“It's like 5.40s are easy now,” he said. “We were trying to run a 5.30 in the final, it never quite got there, we were trying to get the record back.

“Number one qualifier, win the race; that is a good start to the season and we have something we can work on now.”

Phillips said his focus is now on lowering his times and he doesn't care if it comes at the expense of future wins.

“We're about performances, the winning is a bonus,” he said.

“Lucas (Oil) is about keeping that engine alive and we didn't put a bearing in it at all.”

Phillips was stout early in the event with previous data proving useful.

“We had a Darwin tune up where it went 5.46 so we used that, here the air was a little bit worse but it was pretty close,” he said.

“Did we want to go that fast first run? Probably not. But just as long as we were in the top eight for race day we were happy.”

Competition The Competition field at the Westernationals is normally regarded as one of the toughest in Australia, but with a bit of a drop off in the amount of double letter Comp cars running in WA just eight cars were present for the field.

Russell Ladbrook led the way with a AA/FC 5.812, .528 under the index.

Ladbrook was the only racer to go sub record, though Kyle Putland (A/A 6.789, -.381), Alistair McClure (BB/FCA 6.542, -.348) and Trent Morrison (CC/AA 7.049, -.271) were signalling their intentions to battle for the title.

Ladbrook made a strong pass in round one but his racecraft was off. Opponent Justin Taylor faltered soon after launching and instead of buttoning off

early Ladbrook charged through for a 5.756 on the 6.34 index to do some pretty serious damage to his handicap.

Kirsty Cunningham threw away her chances with a -.007 red light against McClure, while Shane Joyce had a wild pass where the car hooked left and almost took out the 60 foot beam, not to mention his opponent Putland! The race of the round was between Stuart Moresby and Morrison. Moresby put a holeshot on with his AA/G-classed Ford Falcon ute and went 6.530 on the 6.87 index for a win over a 7.071 on a 7.32.

He wasn't so fortunate in the semi final, with troubles shortly after launching that allowed Putland to run out for a 7.07 win, only slightly affecting his 7.17 index. Ladbrook didn't need to be concerned about his index disadvantage

against McClure in the end, with a -.041 red light from Ladbrook seeing the national champion McClure advance, albeit with an index smashing 6.416 on his 6.80.

McClure had a challenge on his hands for the final. Putland had virtually saved all of his index while McClure had all but erased it. The two launched evenly, but soon after Putland's car was struggling, with a lot of clutch dust out the back. McClure never looked back and with a 6.404 took out the Westernationals.

Putland was left to wonder what might have been, later saying that the team had simply missed the clutch set up in the rapidly changing night conditions.

MCCLURE'S BREAK A FAKE Alistair McClure is going to be chasing another national Competition championship with his strong performance at the 44th annual Westernationals changing his plans to take a break.

The BB/FCA pro had only raced one event as part of the local season at Perth Motorplex before the Westernationals.

“After winning the Australian championship I made the decision to scale back my racing a bit this season,” he said.

“We ran one event, purely to test transmission damage from last season and prep for the Westernats.”

McClure wasn't immediately on his game, still dealing with some of the transmission gremlins that have threatened the team's consistency in recent times.

“I found the car to be a little off in qualifying but was happy enough to make the top half of the field, but I knew that that I would need to step up the car's performance for eliminations,” he said. “So the decision was made to swap out transmissions overnight.”

A first round red light from opponent Kirsty Cunningham allowed McClure to take it easy at the top end in the first round, but then some issues were found.

“On returning to the pits we discovered two rocker studs had pulled out of the head and both were directly into the inlet

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port of the head,” he said. “With only an hour until the next round there was no time to remove the head so it was time for some 'Hillbilly Delux'.

“We drilled, tapped and helicoiled both studs with all shavings going right into the inlet port. We bolted it back together with no start up, towed to the lanes and just sent the beast down for a 6.41 at 221mph, just over the national record.

“I guess on start up there was a bit of sparkle in the air.”

The strong pass got McClure into the final, but he had smashed his index and faced Kyle Putland.

“Kyle had saved all of his index and I had hit mine quite hard but I really have a lot of confidence in my car going down any track, any time, in any conditions and running hard,” he said.

“We made a great run with a good .077 light and with Kyle hitting some troubles we sailed on by for the win.

“It was very satisfying to get the win as the crew had worked so hard and we never gave up on getting the car turned around.”

With 150 points in the bag McClure has now decided that he can't not chase for a title again.

“The win was very special due to the points set up with a max of 160 and we pulled 150 for the event,” he said. “We are now totally committed to trying to backup our championship.

“I was really happy with my reaction times and race craft and I feel the bigger the event the better we seem to go.”

Opposite page: Alistair McClure won the Competition final against Kyle Putland when Putland missed the clutch set up.

Clockwise from top: Trent Morrison was unlucky to go down in a close fight with Stuart Moresby in round one.

Russell Ladbrook laid down some seriously tough AA/FC times. Kyle Putland burns out during qualifying.

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Super Stock Nine cars were ready to go for Super Stock and it was South Australian Steve Norman leading the charge through qualifying with a .611 under 8.490 in the C/APA Chev Cobalt. Norman was the only driver under the record in qualifying.

That said, the top seven were all over three tenths under their indexes. Errol Quartermaine sat second with a .497 under 7.853 from the turbocharged Ford Falcon DD/GA, while Jamie Chaisty was third with a .470 under 9.290 in H/MSA with the family's championship winning Holden Commodore. It was great to see Allen Puglia back and a .426 under 7.324 from the A/G Ford Probe showed he had lost little of his competitive edge.

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Norman took a round one solo, while Chaisty eliminated a red lighting Michael Buckley. Shane Kosteszyn also fouled out against Brett Glover with Adrian Geary getting a touch too excited and red lighting against Puglia. Puglia smashed his index though with a 7.25.

Quartermaine closed the round in a close race against Rob Gaikhorst, with Quartermaine's 7.893 on an 8.35 index just getting by an 8.314 on an 8.68 index

by Gaikhorst.

In the quarter finals, Chaisty perhaps showed a few Westernationals nerves as he gave the race away on a red light against Glover. It was fortunate for Glover's RR/API Mazda RX7 as the wastegate failed and the car stalled on launch. Quartermaine had the bye run and simply staged and backed out.

Glover had that bye run in the semi finals taking him through to the deciding round, leaving Quartermaine to fight Puglia. Both were great on the tree, Puglia's .021 edging a .026 from Quartermaine, and a 7.242 from Puglia would take a win on a 7.48 index as well as resetting the national record. With Quartermaine's speed of just 139mph, one wonders if he had a problem or backed off a little too soon trying to save the index.

Glover was seeking a second Westernationals win and he started well in the final with a .058 to .110 advantage off the line. A 7.593 on a 7.82 index would clinch the victory, defeating a 7.253 from Puglia, who was paying the price for his earlier index abuse.

BACK ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW Brett Glover had a real handful of a race car going into the 44th annual Westernationals, so much so that ANDRA needed to have a quiet word in the team's ear and tell them that they would be on solo runs until they could show it would go straight.

“We have been trying a lot of new things with the car this year as we have put a fair bit more power into the car,” he said. “By the end of qualifying we had completed three straight passes and ANDRA then told us we were able to compete at the Westernationals. It is amazing how things can turn around so quickly in this sport.”

The Performance Tested Seals Mazda RX7 team had the talents of Pro Stock crew chief Michael Marriott helping them get through this phase. Glover said they went around in a big circle before eventually coming back to something close to their original settings with a slight change.

“We changed our tyres to the 10.5 and they act lot differently to what we are used to,” Glover said. “We have also tried different four link positions to see what the reaction would be. “We had mixed results with no improvement so we decided to go back to the tyre we know and have had good gains since doing that.

“Michael Marriott has been working really hard with us to get the car sorted out. He suggested that we go back to our original four link setting and add some weight to the car.

The results speak for themselves and the car was the best it has been for a long time.”

Glover said the Westernationals was an event that always drew on everyone's talents.

“Super Stock is a tough class to run in as most of the WA teams are record holders for their class,” he said. “This was our second win at the Westernationals and it just feels very satisfying to be the winner of such a prestigious event.

“Our team works very hard all year and this win is a result of the continued support from all our crew.”

Most event wins need a lucky break somewhere along the line and for Glover that came in a second round confrontation with Jamie Chaisty.

“Lucky for us he red lit as we had a problem with the waste gate and the car didn’t make boost, so when I let the clutch out the car stalled on the start line,” he said. “We got a solo in the next round so we repaired the waste gate but didn’t have enough time to adjust the clutch so we decided to just stage the car for that round.”

Glover explained that while they didn't have all the power they could put into the car, they knew they still had enough to be able to fight.

“Because of the handling problems with the car this season we didn’t have as much power in the car as what we could have had but the car was handling well and was fast enough to be competitive,” he said. “We won the final on a holeshot which is very pleasing as a driver and to do that against such a tough competitor (Allen Puglia) was very rewarding for me.”

Now the team are contemplating a national championship push.

“It is something we are considering at the moment. It is a big commitment and one that we are keen to pursue,” Glover said.

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Competition Bike Like their four wheeled brethren, Competition Bikes were a little thin on the ground than previous years, leaving the result wide open.

Now, if I showed someone the following sequence of letters, numbers and characters, do you think they would understand? B/SB 9.117 -.403 BMW S1000RR. If you understand that you are a true drag racing fan and you now know the top qualifier.

Ross Smith was the danger man in second, an 8.185 in A/AB .315 under his index. Smith changed classes from C/AB as he looked to save the record while still being competitive.

Eliminations opened strangely with the Daniel Natalotto v Ross Green race being run without indexes in place. That resulted in a rerun with Natalotto taking the win with a 9.326 on a 9.52 index.

Phill Paton used a big .036 to .184 holeshot to allow a 9.162 on an 8.90 index to defeat a 7.877 on a 7.75 NB/T index from Wayne McGuinness. Smith's 8.752 was convincing in defeating Todd Johnson's 9.432 on an 8.82 C/AB index, while Michael Holister took advantage with a 9.495 pass on his 8.89 D/AB index when Ryan Learmonth had dramas shifting on his Star Racing Pro Bike, which was in test mode ahead of attending the opening round of the ANDRA season in Adelaide.

Natalotto was upset in the semi finals with an uncharacteristic 10.704 unable to hold a candle to Paton's consistent 9.165. Holister meantime threw away any chance he had with a red light against Smith who wisely rolled off the throttle.

Smith was thus presented with his chance to take a fourth Westernationals title in a row. He took it easy on the start line for the final, knowing the performance advantage he had. And with a solid 8.220 on the 8.50 index, the trophy was going to Smith again, Paton's 9.551 on an 8.90 index valiant but just not enough.

SMITH CONNECTS FOUR Few racers can ever claim to have won four Westernationals in a row, in fact we're struggling to think of any racer who has ever done that.

But Competition Bike rider Ross Smith has had a stranglehold on the event since 2012 and he said it is still a thrill every time he wins one.

“Each of them have got their different values,” he said. “The hardest one I won was the third one with really tight races and we banged up indexes every pass.

“I had a lot of pressure on me this year. I really made it hard for myself index wise as I changed classes to A/AB. I wanted to win the gold Christmas tree for Hank, my crew chief. That was the pressure and it was really sweet handing it to him.”

Smith normally rides in C/AB and the bike was still plenty legal for that class, but he didn't want to risk harm to the national record and so chose to move up to the A/AB class where he was still well capable of going three to four tenths under the index.

Smith believes his Suzuki Hayabusa is the quickest naturally aspirated no bar bike in the country and is hoping that a seven second pass will be possible when he can get some good air conditions.

“In it's current form, all that is left in it is fine tweaking,” he said. “We have got the chassis petty right, we are just waiting for a good track, a good day and good weather.

“It would be really nice to get the seven out. We have gone 8.07 so far, so it is definitely in there. That was with a lazy sixty.”

Certainly Smith asks a lot from the bike, with the DOT tyre

somewhat temperamental on different surface.

“Hank has noticed that it doesn't like it when the track starts cooling off,” he said. “It seems to like the late afternoon track.

We are asking a fair bit of the track on a DOT tyre.

“We pulled a bit of clutch out of it (at the Westernationals) because we were safe index wise so we were making sure we were getting off the line. I can recover fairly well from spin ups.”

While a win is a win, Smith certainly did it the hard way at times, with troubles shifting from first to second gear hampering him across the event.

“I only managed to get the first-second shift once over the weekend, every other one dropped neutral,” he said. “I think it was rider error more so than anything with the bike. In the final I decided to snap the throttle shut to make sure I would get the shift.”

Surprisingly Smith runs without the aid of an air shifter, choosing to use his foot – certainly a unique skill on a low eight second bike without wheelie bars.

“I put a C02 shifter on for the Westerns last year and in Q3 it wouldn't shift third-fourth, so in an absolute panic I threw it off the bike,” he said. “The foot has done me well for the last 20 years. The 1-2 is the one you need to be ready on, from there on it is on autopilot.”

Smith's opponents in Competition Bike are likely to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that he won't go chasing the championship this season.

“I have travelled the last two and a half seasons, I achieved the championship last year which was a big tick in the box,” he said. “The bike hasn't had a proper off season, it needs full bottom end servicing.”

Opposite page: Ross Smith dropped down to A/AB but was still unstoppable in Competition Bike.

From left: Phill Paton came away with a surprise runner up. Ross Green was involved in an unusual rerun with Daniel Natalotto after an index mix up.

Natalotto might have gone home in the semi finals but was still thumbs up after top qualifying.

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Supercharged Outlaws Jack Bowden put his flaming Pontiac Firebird (how appropriate) on the pole for Supercharged Outlaws with a 6.605 effort, holding out a 6.624 from Vince Belladonna and a 6.688 from Jon Ferguson.

Belladonna in particular had a rushed lead up to the event, having to ship his blower away to the USA and get it back all within the space of three weeks.

Unfortunately it would all amount for little with a first round loss.

Bowden had a first round bye and was to face Steven Yozzi in the second round but Yozzi's BMW did not front, leaving Bowden to take an easy path to the semi finals. Donald Freind was on point against Ian Foster with a .032 light and a 7.182 on his 7.18 dial in, while Tracey de Jager was able to cruise down track when Jon Ferguson could not make his pass. Ben Hoar finished up the round with a 6.725 solo on his 6.68 dial in with the big Chevy Nova.

Hoar and Freind matched up for the first of the semi finals. A -.083 red light from Hoar decided it early as Freind's Holden ute stayed consistent with a 7.208. Bowden rolled out of stage and that gave de Jager an instant win as well, using a 7.045 on a 6.99 dial in for good measure in the Ford Thunderbird.

Freind is one of the toughest racers in the WA Supercharged Outlaws bracket and held nothing back against de Jager, AKA the Nitrous Nanna. His .070 to .252 holeshot got things started and with a 7.182 on a 7.16 that was all she wrote against a 7.117 on a 7.00.

Top Sportsman The first running of Top Sportsman in the west saw nine entries take part and all were having plenty of fun, especially doing across the line burnouts. Some people just want to do big skids!

Lorenzo Gullotto top qualified with a 7.987, with the rest of the field in the eights.

Only seven drivers made it to eliminations with Kevin Hort and Ben Peters withdrawing before the first round.

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That first round opened with Goran Kojic going 8.543 on an 8.49 for the win against Logan Muir, while a tight 8.444 on an 8.44 dial in by Brett Illich defeated Yvette Gregg's 8.094 on an 8.05. Jake Lane's 7.994 from the nitrous breathing HG Monaro was his first seven of the weekend but unfortunately a breakout on an 8.02 dial in, Nicholas Puglia taking advantage with his lessoffending 8.365 on an 8.38. Gullotto soloed with a 7.974 on a 7.97 dial in.

Illich jumped the gun in the semi finals with a -.037 red light seeing Gullotto move into the finals, again nailing the dial in with a 7.961 on a 7.96. Puglia also had red light fever, with a big -.139 ending his chances against Kojic who went .007 on the tree.

Thankfully we saw two clean greens in the final. Gullotto had the holeshot with a .037 to a .085 advantage and that afford him some space to just get out of the throttle on the line with a 7.988 on a 7.94 dial in taking out an 8.554 on an 8.49.

Modified Michelle Osborn is a pretty regular top qualifier in Modified and nothing changed at the 44th annual Westernationals with a 7.132 effort seeing her on top. Simon Lekias was next closest with his new motor still proving strong on a 7.372, though the rear wing in place brought his performances back slightly.

An early shock was the second round elimination of points leader Sam Treasure. Treasure had a .017 light and a 7.717 on a 7.69 dial in and still came up short against an incredible .004 and 7.082 on a 7.08 dial in from Osborn in what was arguably the DYO race of the event.

Come the quarter finals Osborn had a chance to ease up when Robyn Butler went red by -.028. An .065 reaction time and 7.345 on a 7.30 dial in by Lekias saw him remain in contention too, defeating Damion Le-Cocq's 8.484 on an 8.34.

Alesha Adamos had the bye run, going through with a 7.797 on a 7.76.

Adamos and Lekias paired off for the semi finals. Both were good on the tree

with Adamos' .011 slightly ahead of Lekias' .015. Lekias took the stripe but with a little too much, a 7.319 break out on a 7.32 dial in giving a safe 7.774 on a 7.76 dial in from Adamos the win.

Osborn got to take a 7.116 bye run.

Somewhat uniquely it was Osborn's second bye run for the night, with Adamos and Lekias having already received a bye run each too.

But come race time and it was all about what you could do with an opponent in the other lane. Adamos got the jump .022 to .040 but in a story of too much stripe a 7.744 on a 7.76 was a break out loss against a 7.150 on a 7.09 dial in, Osborn taking her first ever Modified win.

Super Sedan With the quicker cars now in Top Sportsman, Super Sedan was a case of seeing who could get closest to 8.50.

Terry Diblasi in the Pontiac Transam had that honour, going 8.618 to lead the 38 car field.

We'll skip ahead to the quarter finals where five racers remained. Andy Kahle went .056 in her Holden Torana to Merven Biggs' .082 in the Holden Camira, Kahle's early advantage proving handy as a 9.005 on an 8.99 dial in defeated an 8.899 on an 8.88 dial in.

Shane O'Sullivan red lit with a -.102 which saw South Australian David Yanko move on, running dead on his dial with a 9.140 on a 9.14. Paul Downe had the bye run which he took with a 9.051 on a 9.06 dial in.

Downe and Kahle would contest their semi final while Yanko got the bye run.

Neither Downe nor Kahle had fantastic lights, Downe's .132 still out on a .213, and his 9.095 on a 9.04 dial in defeated her 9.034 on an 8.98 dial in. Yanko ran just a 9.969 on his pass though his half track time matched his quarter final pass to within a thousandth of a second.

It was Sandgroper versus Croweater for the final round. A small .038 to .040 holeshot went to Yanko and when Downe had troubles before half track Yanko was able to take an easy 9.231 win on his 9.14 dial in.

Modified Bike Luke Nieuwhof paced Modified Bike qualifying with an 8.341 run to lead the 26 entries who were in attendance for WA's biggest drag racing event. Mick Day was in his debut event, but that didn't stop him qualifying second with an 8.676 aboard a bike prepared by the Learmonth Pro Stock Motorcycle team.

Nieuwhof was still in contention by the quarter finals up against recent event winner Darrin McDonald and his Kawasaki. McDonald went -.046 to decide things early, with Nieuwhof able to run out for an 8.293 test of the 8.30 dial in. Joe Khoury put a .161 to .225 holeshot on Edgell Mallis in a battle of interstaters, but Mallis' tighter 9.496 on a 9.45 dial in saw him take a win against a 9.575 on a 9.45. Justin Vodanovich was sleepy on the tree with a .242 dial in and that saw Johnny Ireland leap ahead with his .093 light. From there a 10.242 on a 10.15 was an easy victory against a 9.710 on a 9.50 dial in. Ian Read got the bye run, going 10.890 on his 10.20 dial in with some shifter issues.

In the semi finals Nieuwhof got the holeshot on Mallis .089 to .177 but with the Kawasaki ZX10 running like a pig (trust your writer here folks) and only managing an 8.784 on an 8.29 dial in, a 9.638 on a 9.45 dial in from Mallis came away with the win light. Read put a light on Ireland .026 to .154 and a 10.239 on a 10.20 dial in completed the effort against a breaking out 10.154 on a 10.20.

With the ANDRA gold Christmas tree on the line Mallis and Read staged up for the final. Mallis was dozy with a .266 and Read took a massive margin on the tree with a .079. Read's bike bogged and Mallis had some light at the end of the tunnel, but a 9.444 on a 9.45 breakout saw Read's safe 10.402 on a 10.20 pinch the win as the two crossed the finish line handle bar to handlebar.

Be sure to read more on Read's amazing comeback from a road accident in our feature.

Super Street Jayme Smith was perfect in Super Street qualifying with an 11.000 earning her

the top qualifier's medallion, as fellow young gun Ashleigh Wroe followed close behind with an 11.018.

Ashleigh Wroe might have been eliminated in the early rounds but her siblings weren't, as Nicholas and Kirstie matched up in the quarter finals in their bright yellow rides, VP Commodore and Monaro respectively. A -.017 red light from Nicholas was the decider, Kirstie going 11.155 on her 11.10 dial in for the win. Lee Watson put a .008 light on Darren Bakranich's .025 and kept it tight at the finish line too with an 11.341 on an 11.33 dial in to Bakranich's 11.184 on an 11.12. Bernie Ellerby went 11.135 on an 11.12 dial in with his HB Torana but the only problem was a -.010 red light back at the start line that gave Wayne Praetz and his Holden Commodore VT the win.

Watson got the bye run for the semis, which he took with an 11.303. Praetz and Wroe got to duke it out for the other place in the final round. Praetz did himself no favours with a .287 reaction time, seeing Wroe's .110 reacted 11.181 on an 11.12 dial in emerge victorious.

Watson's Beat the Heat Pontiac GTO was in fine form and in his second Westernationals final he was determined to take the trophy. A .034 to .077 holeshot got that started well and combined with an 11.338 on an 11.30 dial in it was enough to defeat an 11.209 on an 11.12 from Wroe's Holden Torana.

a .008 light and an 8.767 on an 8.72 dial in.

Ferguson got the advantage of the bye run in the semi finals, going through for an 8.572 test of his 8.50 dial in. That left Kanters and O'Connor to duke it out.

Kanters was .049 on the tree to O'Connor's .055 but O'Connor came back with an 8.019 on a 7.95 dial in to beat an 8.855 on an 8.75 dial in.

The pressure of the Westernationals final was on but both racers held up well.

Ferguson was much better on the start line with a .038 to .104 advantage straight up. That would be a long way to come back for O'Connor and when Ferguson also ran 8.547 on an 8.53 dial in that would be a mountain too tall to surmount and our Westernationals Junior Dragster champion was decided

.

Keep reading for our Westernationals features!

Junior Dragster Brandon Bowman took home the top qualifying medallion in Junior Dragster, an 8.006 narrowly ahead of an 8.009 from Jasmine Slamar and an 8.024 from another Bowman, Katrina.

Unfortunately for those three competitors there were out of contention by the quarter finals and a new crop of racers were taking the spotlight. More amazing was that only one A/JD remained, with the rest B/JD racers.

Nathan Dixon went -.085 to hand away a win to Bailey Ferguson, while Matthew O'Connor ran a tight 7.967 on a 7.93 dial in to get by Melissa Spadaro's 8.878 on an 8.84. Brendan Kanters had a solo pass but still put in a good package with

Top row from left: Alesha Adamos went to a runner up in Modified after breaking out in the final. Ryan Learmonth was doing testing in Pro Stock Motorcycle trim ahead of the championship opener in Adelaide. Ben Peters looked a chance of top qualifying in Top Sportsman but withdrew before eliminations. Steve Norman's trip from SA proved worthwhile when he top qualified in Super Stock. Greg Gibson turns on a decent smoke show in Supercharged Outlaws.

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OSBORN MAKES FIRST WIN A BIG ONE Michelle Osborn had never won an event before the Westernationals, but she chose to break through in a big way with her first victory coming at WA's biggest drag racing event.

Osborn took out a close race in the final against Alesha Adamos to earn the Modified win and said she needed to double check with track staff who won the race.

“The safety and track crew in the braking area indicated I had won,” she said. “They were cheering and pointing and I looked around to see where Alesha was but I realised they were pointing to me!

“I didn't believe them and was screaming inside my helmet, 'are you sure?'”

Osborn said after two years of struggling with a car that didn't want to behave, she felt relief to finally get the winning monkey off her back and take home one of the iconic ANDRA gold Christmas tree trophies.

“I knew the win wasn't just for my team but for so many people that have helped and supported me over the years,” she said.

“I am so glad to have won (an event) but winning the biggest meeting in Perth is the icing on the cake. Some people try their whole driving careers to win a gold Christmas tree. It is a great achievement.”

During qualifying Osborn and her team worked to rid the car of the dreaded tyre shake.

“I was having trouble getting off the start line which resulted in tyre shake,” she said. “We had made some changes which were either going to work or not and we just had to keep making adjustments to my launch control to find that RPM sweet spot.”

The numbers behind Osborn's runs through race day show a good race car and driver and she said preparation before racing and a touch of luck were what helped take her to the winner's circle.

“I think that it's not only what my team and I had done during the event but the lead up to it as well,” she said. “Drag racing is a huge game of precision but as so many racers say you have to have luck on your side as well. I was lucky, but I was also very happy with my reaction times and dial-ins over the weekend.”

BORING IS GOOD FOR FREIND Don Freind was getting a little sick of dealing with a troublesome Holden ute and was very thankful to have things right in time for the 44th annual Westernationals, where he secured a win in Supercharged Outlaws, his third at WA's big go.

“We floundered for nearly two seasons with what we thought was a tuning problem but turned out to be a suspension issue,” he said. “A lean in the right direction from Michael Marriott got us sorted. I didn't think we would ever win again so it was very sweet.

“I think every racer wants to win a Christmas tree. It is the

third time I have won the Westernats and hoping not the last.”

Freind said while he didn't think it made for an exciting story, a win was a win.

“We had a very good run at the Westernationals with only some routine maintenance to deal with; boring I know, but I got a sleep in during the day,” he said.

The team are planning to head east now to rack up a few extra points and hopefully earn a national championship.

“We intend to travel, I am planning to do the Adelaide meeting in March,” Freind said. “I'll store the car at a mates place in Adelaide with the intention of taking it to Willowbank for the final.”

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GULLOTTO GOES WITH THE FEELING Lorenzo Gullotto made history by becoming the first ever winner of a Top Sportsman bracket in Western Australia, defeating Goran Kojic in the final of the new addition to the Summit Sportsman Series.

Like most in the bracket, Gullotto was enjoying across-the-line burnouts and the close racing the bracket presented.

It now makes for two Westernationals wins for the brothers Gullotto, with Lorenzo's sibling Sam having won in the same car in Super Sedan in the past.

“To win the Westernational as a racer is an awesome feeling and especially doing it at such a young age,” Lorenzo said.

“Some racers wait years to get one of these gold trees and to get one in my second season of racing the Camira is just a wicked feeling.

“But top qualifying and winning the first ever Top Sportsman event in WA is something no one can do again! It's history and DS Racing was apart of it.

“I didn't try to win this just for me, I did it for the team as well.

The hours we worked on the off season and the Christmas holidays to get the cars back together and ready for racing was just massive.”

Gullotto passed Kojic early in the run and was fairly sure he would be safe on the dial, but didn't know for sure until getting out of the car.

“I had a feeling I won while pulling the car up in the braking area, only because I passed Goran around the 1000 foot mark and was out of the throttle with the chute out,” he said. “I was round the corner and just about out of the car when (ANDRA TV presenter) Matt Naulty walked up to the car and asked me to follow him over to the interview area and knew right away that the tree was mine.”

Gullotto explained that he kept things consistent with his

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driving and also made the right changes at the right times as conditions change.

“Consistency is the key on any driving, from starting the car to pulling the chute you have to keep it the same every pass,” he said. “Staging the car is a big deal. You need to try keep your staging exactly the same every pass to keep your reaction times consistent.

“The only tune up changes I made all weekend was two sizes up on the rear fuel jets to richen it up a little and made launch RPM changes through the night as the track came around. But all I can say is you can have the car perfect but without your crew you can't get it done. My crew are awesome and I couldn't ask for any better.”

With a car that was behaving, Gullotto had little to worry about with the Camira.

“There were no hiccups, the car ran on rails all weekend and testing on the Wednesday before definitely help edwith my driving and getting the car dialled in,” he said.

“There was one drama on a fellow racer's behalf, I don't know who, but I was protested on Saturday after the last qualifier pass but ended up keeping the number one spot.”

And of course, positive thinking always plays a role in a race win.

“I spent the whole week leading up to the event with a good feeling I was going to take a tree home with me on Saturday night. I know it might sound cocky but that's how I am,” he said.

With the large surplus of points the Westernationals brings, Gullotto is now considering pursuing the inaugural ANDRA Top Sportsman title.

“I have got intentions to chase the championship but we weren't meant to be running this car this season,” he said. “I have spoken with Mal Bulley about maybe travelling to Adelaide but only if the field is there to run Top Sportsman.”

BEAT THE HEAT ELITE IN STREET It wasn't a drag racing team that won Super Street at the 44th annual Westernationals.

That might seem like an unusual statement, but for the Beat the Heat team and winner Lee Watson, they define their operation differently.

“We are a 100% sponsored, community based anti-street racing program run by off duty officers and likeminded community members,” he said “Our goals are designed at reducing death and serious trauma on WA roads as a result of illegal street racing, by encouraging participation in the sport of drag racing in a safe and controlled environment.

“Our bread and butter are the Whoop Ass Wednesday events that run every Wednesday between September and May. It is at these events that we get to ply our trade and promote our sport and the road safety message that illegal street racing is not drag racing.”

It was Watson's second Westernationals final. Three years ago he went red by seven thousandths of a second and he was determined not to do that again.

“I think for me it was mixture of jubilation and relief,” he said.

“Jubilation that we as a team had just won the most prestigious event in WA drag racing and relief as I had made the final in 2012 and blown it by red lighting.

“I was aware that there weren't going to be too many more chances to win a gold Christmas tree.

“I think that I managed to re-focus really well after having an extremely poor reaction time in the second round (0.203) but managing a really lucky win. I then went on to have a couple of really good packages.”

Watson said the significance of the victory was not lost on him.

“I can't speak for other racers, however for me it is the most prestigious event of our calender and therefore the most

significant event to win,” he said.

“I was speaking to fellow racer Tyron Begg after the event and he summed it up perfectly. He said now that you have won the Westernats, people will fall at your feet, you will be a god among men and no matter what, no-one can ever take it away from you.”

During qualifying Watson had some wheel spin issues but the cure was rather simple – new tyres.

“Friday night's qualifier resulted in a huge loss of traction off the line and with the limited horsepower that our car makes we knew that there had to be an issue somewhere,” Watson explained. “We managed to locate the problem – a lack of rubber. A quick visit that evening down to Polly at Custom Mechanics resulted in a new set of slicks fitted and away we went. The rest of the event was relatively trouble free.”

Watson is unlikely to travel to pursue a Super Street championship.

“The national title is not something that is on our radar, we are happy focusing on our local events, especially the Whoop Ass Wednesdays, as they give us a valuable opportunity to get our road safety message across to aspiring racers,” he said.

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FERGUSON STRONG WHEN IT COUNTS Bailey Ferguson sailed through the Westernationals in Junior Dragster – it turns out most of the bad luck must have been on his team mate Dylan Pettigrew's side of the pits.

Ferguson reflected after the event that all his dramas seemed to dry up at just the right time.

“We have been having troubles at every other meeting but at the Westernationals the car just seemed to be running 8.50 to 8.56 all day which made it easy to dial in,” he said.

“There were no troubles my car but not the same for my team mates car - he put a rod through the motor and then had trouble getting the car ready for Sunday.

“When I got the win I couldn't believe I had it. It was was a feeling like no other. I didn't know what to say, I didn't know what to do, it was just amazing.”

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Above: Bailey Ferguson was a happy young man to receive an ANDRA gold Christmas tree from trophy gal Kristina Simich. Photo by Phil Luyer.

PHOTOS BY GRANT FINDLAY/OZWILD.COM.

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STORIES FROM THE SPORTSMEN The Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series is well and truly in motion now – we sent Grant Stephens on assignment to catch up with some of the first inning hitters.

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WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM YOUR FRIENDS Competition, Super Stock and Super Compact were conjoined into a Super Comp bracket at the opening round in Portland.

Reigning Super Compact champion Dominic Rigoli was the one to stand firm in eliminations after coming to terms with his first time on the eighth mile, an average qualifying result and a shortage of crew.

“After winning the 2014 championship it has given me more motivation to try back it up this season,” he said. “As soon as the event schedule came out, Portland being the first meet caught my eye. And I did say this year I would like to visit tracks that I haven't been too.

“Finding out that it is eighth mile made it much more exciting as I have never raced on one before and my car has a lot of acceleration in the first 200 metres. So it was kind of a last minute decision to go as it was early in the year and my crew chief was on holidays, but I managed to put together a crew within a matter of days and organised them to be home on the Sunday night after the meet for work the next day. The only problem with that was going to be if I make the final I will have no crew, but we all laughed that off.”

Qualifying proved to be full of nuisances for Rigoli that prevented the Eclipse from making a competitive run.

“Before the meet it was stressed to me by a few fellow racers to get on the chutes early as the braking area is very short,” he said. “Q1 was going to be the hardest because of the new scenery and not knowing what the car was going to do on the track. The car left the line very hard but I had too much clutch slip and lifted off.

“After prepping the car with a few adjustments for Q2 I thought I was ready to do a full pass and was more confident with the track, but we had a minor issue with a rocker arm in the head which made my second run done with.

“We thought if we don't get Q3 right our weekend is going to be over. Well, the car didn't build enough boost on the line and bogged down. I persisted with the run and when the boost

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came on it was very violent and the car started to skate around, I tried to pull a couple of gears and it threw me into the other lane. Luckily the Commodore I was racing was in front, all I could recall at that moment is that I needed to have my chutes out and was reaching for the lever in a panic. Once the leaver was pulled the next thing I needed to do was steer away from the Commodore as his chute was on my front end.

“When I came to a stop I was so relieved that my car was still in one piece, after experiencing that it put me back to square one so we then prepped the car for eliminations not having the right tune in the car for that track.”

The cosmic forces balanced out the misfortunes of qualifying with some good fortune on race day for Rigoli. With the car still misbehaving in round one his opponent Sam Preece was using the event for testing and was way underweight for his class, so the subsequent disqualification sent Rigoli to the semi final where finally his TRP Eclipse hit record setting numbers.

“Sunday went so fast for us, the car decided to play the game finally and the next thing I knew I was in the final against Pistol Pete (Pisalidis),” he said. “All my crew had to leave so I gathered another crew for the finals. Thanks to Sam Preece and his crew, Rob Camilleri and a friend Tony who was there when we fronted for the finals.

“I was ready to give my little two litre everything it had, once we both came into stage my pedal was on the floor waiting for the green. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a red light flash. I still left on the green and ran the pass for the win which backed up my previous run to take the national CC/SC eighth mile record.

“I was over the moon when I won and straight on the phone to my crew, it almost didn't feel real. We are going to give it our best shot at the championship this year, for me it has only been in the last two years I have started racing competitively. Before that the only thing I was interested in was beating my time and pushing the car to its limit but these days I am finding it more exciting to race to win.”

YOU ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR FIRST The first running of Top Sportsman as part of the ANDRA championship saw Stuart McBain take away the victory and with it his own little bit of history.

South Australian Paul Russo and his gorgeous Chev top qualified and raced McBain in round one, but problems starting the car meant he forfeited the contest to McBain.

Making the most from the gift start to eliminations, McBain went on to defeat a red lighting Brett Henley in the final and claim the trophy.

“Winning the first Top Sportsman event was pretty special mainly because of the little bit of history that we created but also because it was the start of the new deal with Summit,” he said.

“The event went smoothly, the car was great and we had no issues, I was very excited for my crew guys and myself to be a part of that. Any win is good but that was just a bit sweeter than most.”

Top Sportsman is intended as a new home for the vast array of quick force inducted, nitrous and aspirated cars that are rising to prominence across the county. It also gives some existing Super Sedan racers a chance to break away from huge fields

sizes and showcase quick tin top racing.

“The opportunity was there to have go at it, so I just thought why not,” he said. “I think the bracket will get a lot stronger once the fast cars that are in Sydney and Brisbane come out to play.”

A step up in class often means the once big fish becomes the small fish in another pond.

“The main difference for me will be that I will be the slower car a lot of the time now. I am usually in the pointy end of the field doing the chasing so now I will be getting chased a lot and I will have to adjust to that. Rather quickly I hope.

“There are already a few people stepping up their operations just for this. It will definitely grow as time goes on. The Fowlers and Neil Constantinou will be right in the thick of things soon so they will be worth watching.”

A win in this sprint season secures a shot at the championship come the final round at the Winternationals and presents every racer their best chance to chase the title with the least amount of travel.

“We will go to Adelaide in March and try and gather up some more points and see how it plays out for us,” McBain said.

Left: Dominic Rigoli needed to put together a makeshift crew for the final round but it paid off handsomely with a win in Super Comp.

Below: Stuart McBain took an historic win in the first running of Top Sportsman at an ANDRA championship level.

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DAY FAMILY DOUBLE UP Jasmine Ryan (nee Day) wasn't even going to race the opening round of the Summit Sportsman Series, but was certainly glad she did after coming away with the Modified win.

Ryan defeated Chris Farrell in the final, making it an impressive three wins from her last four championship starts.

“There was a great turn out for Modified at the event, with very competitive racers, we all had to be on our toes,” said Ryan. “Originally we were only heading down to support Mum (Doina Day) for the meeting, but my husband Glen and I got excited and decided to enter at the last minute as our wedding anniversary present, so it was a rush to be ready for the meet.

“Mum won our oil for the weekend in the VDRC Presentation night raffle and our new containment device was custom made by Swarf King Engineering the weekend before.”

Ryan owes her run of results to a well prepared car, even when conditions throw a curveball.

"Swarf King Engineering has supplied us with a deadly consistent car, she does the same thing every time, which makes my job a lot easier,” she said. “Due to the weather we did have issues maintaining heat in the engine between rounds, we only have a small fuel tank

Centre: Jasmine Ryan won't be contesting the rest of the season despite taking a win in the opening round of the Summit Sportman Series.

Right: Colin Griffin was powerful in pink - cutting his way through the Super Sedan field as fancied rivals fell in his wake.

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so we had to adjust our routine and warm up between rounds, otherwise we had a successful weekend running some PBs with a fantastic outcome for Mum and I.” Ryan welcomed the new branding on the series.

“It is great that ANDRA and Summit have started rewarding teams with new incentives, like Best Presented Team and Best Overall Package, and we are very proud that we were able to receive Best Presented Team,” she said.

“There is a lot of work that goes into the cars between rounds and it is nice for it to be recognised. The track was fantastic as always and the crew out there work so hard to give us a fantastic race track despite the weather and wind.”

Sadly it does appear the rest of the country's Modified racers will be spared having to face Ryan this season.

“Unfortunately at the moment due to personal reasons we won't be racing any other meets for the season, but we hope to be at all events supporting Mum and Dad in the Supercharged Outlaw car and we hope to be racing again in 2016,” she said.

“It is always exciting to win, but for both of us to win in the same event is just fantastic, and to see how proud Dad is I think is the cherry on top! I hope Mum can keep it up to back up her championship win last season.”

GRIFFIN SMITTEN

As former championship rivals duked it out across the Super Sedan bracket in Portland, Stephen Griffin was quietly going about his business.It was simply a day of doing it by the book in the Holden Torana.

“As the day went I knew if I could win the first round I had a bye in the second round,” he said. “The car and driver were performing fairly consistent and I was quietly confident I could go the distance.”

And the distance he did go, knocking out Jason Arbery's Ford Capri in the final.

“I've been trying a new start line staging procedure which seems to be paying off,” said Griffin. “This is the first event I've won in over two years and first national event in my twenty years of racing.”

Content with the car's performance Griffin will take shot at the number one plate.

“The car is always fairly consistent, it's just about making sure I am as well, so I'll head to Adelaide and Sydney to try and secure another 60 points for the max, then Queensland for the Winters,” he said.

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FORBES STILL IN FORM Super Gas has become the Matt Forbes show so it was no surprise to see 2014 champion raise the first Christmas tree trophy of 2015.

Forbes' run of success in the Super Gas ranks over the past two years has been quite amazing. In a class that produces great drivers and very tight, close racing it is rare to see the drivers consistently going deep into the rounds with the quality of racers across the field.

After winning the 2013 and 2014 Australian Super Gas Championships, Forbes now has his sights set on challenging for the 2015 title.

“The short season will be very much a sprint for all teams,” he said. “I am very well aware that getting some points in the bank nice and early will take a lot of little pressure off as the season unfolds.

“Weather and track conditions were drastically different to testing so we had to adapt, together with the throttle stop we had to really dial the cars in. At the end of qualifying our 6.302 held on for the top spot and I felt really comfortable behind the wheel, hitting the tree well.”

When racing commenced on Sunday the weather had changed again and everyone was looking for that 6.30

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set up.

After defeating Warren Bull in round one, Forbes had an interesting time in his second round bye.

“When we made the transition from concrete to asphalt at 330 feet my car just blew the tyres off,” he said. “I pedalled it and ran a low 6.32. That certainly surprised me as my Corvette is just amazing and although making a lot of power, it has never done this before.”

The semis saw a tough race against former national champ Colin Griffin.

“Colin is a Super Gas veteran, he is very crafty and can lay down amazing packages, he's a very good driver that knows the game,” Forbes said. “He is someone that is highly respected, a great guy and very accomplished racer.

“Very uncharacteristically Colin missed the tree and I hit it pretty good at .011, I chased him down and knew I had to take the stripe. We got there by .007, tighter than I would usually like it but I wasn't going to leave him any room.”

The hitters just kept lining up to take a swing at Forbes, but the final was to be a non-contest unfortunately.

“During his semi final pass Graeme Spencer developed engine trouble,” Forbes said. “I spoke with Graeme and told him I would wait as long as I could so he could get the damage repaired, it was great to see a lot of guys chipping in to help him out, that's what makes this sport what it is. He is a great character and his family and crew guys are terrific people.

“Not only did Graeme have an engine to repair and a final round to worry about, he also had his son Jordan into the final of Junior Dragster. His team did a great job and got the car repaired and into the lanes with enough time to see Jordy win his first ANDRA Christmas tree. Jordy is a good kid, always coming over for a chat at every race meeting and I knew how much this would mean to the Spencer family.

“As I had been chopping the tree down in qualifying and racing, I felt like I had a good shot at winning the race, I left the delay box alone and my goal was to set up honest with a 6.30. I usually throw in a few different looks on the track but today everything was going to plan.”

The final round was far from what either driver expected.

“After our burnouts we rolled up to the beams, Spence went in first and as soon as I got my stage lights lit the

tree flashed and I knew I was in big trouble,” said Forbes.

“It was a quick tree, I was not on the chip and was dead late, I knew it immediately when I let the button go.

Being the much faster car I knew what to look for and was surprised when I was right behind him when the stops came off and thought, 'I am still in this', just at that point I went into hard wheel spin, got back on and spun again and he was moving around in his lane too.

“I knew our times would be bad but I had to get there first, after being out of shape a third time I was able to straighten it up and pass him at the stripe. This was not your average well refined Super Gas final round! I was certainly very fortunate, I got lucky, it's that simple really.”

Forbes now has 100 points in his account and looks forward to racing in Adelaide and Sydney before heading north for the Winternationals in June.

“We should be in contention and just hope to take maximum points into the Winters,” he said. “There are just so many talented Super Gas racers out there and many of them are capable of winning every time they put their helmets on, it's just that tough, I have a lot of respect for our racing group.”

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FROM ACROSS THE BORDER Super Street is the domain of South Australian racers right now with two croweaters reaching the final at Portland after crossing the border.

Bucks down racer Harry Harris brought on the win light over Enzo Clemente.

Harris admitted his driving was not quite there but the trusty Commodore performed exceptionally.

“My reactions where not to my usual expectations, but in round one I hit my dial in perfectly spot on (7.330 on a 7.33),” he said.

"Round three was Joe (Jurkovic), the current Super Street number one, we've run a few passes against each

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other now from Alice Springs to Adelaide, Whyalla, Mildura and Portland. I always enjoy racing Joe and with the added bonus of a semi final bye on offer it was a pass to look forward to.”

Jurkovic was uncharacteristically very late on the lights and even Harris' less than great .07 light had the champion in trouble. At the line Harris landed right on his dial in again forcing a break out from the Jurkovic Mopar. Harris now had a free pass into the final where he would have to challenge Clemente.

“In the semi I took lane two because I hadn't run it all day and was looking to test my dial in, but I screwed up the one-two shift and wasted my bye,” he said.

Harris showed some racing nous just before the final in

not forgetting to check his dial in, avoiding a fate that has befallen many before.

“If there were any nerves they faded away when I rolled through the water. I saw the sign board giving me a dial in of 7.32 which I pulled them up on as I had 7.31 on my window, lucky for me as I ran 7.314,” he said.

“As I turned back on the return road I had no idea who won, I got the time card and the feeling of winning was unexplainable, the satisfaction, relief and knowing I and those who helped me gave it the best and succeeded.”

Harris had high praise for the track and also for the Super Street class.

“I have been to Portland before and they look after all the racers real good, the amenities are top notch and much the same for the volunteers and members,” he said.

“When we go racing we always hope for some good strong racers and cars and that is what we ended up with. Super Street was the second biggest bracket and it is so inviting that I don't want to run another bracket.

“I'm trying to get some funds together to do the Winters but it is not easy on a wage, we will see how things go in March at AIR (Adelaide International Raceway).”

PROBLEM FREE MEANS WINNING GLEE The small field was potentially a great point scoring opportunity for the eight Junior Dragsters on site at the opening round of the Summit Sportsman Series.

For 13 year old Jordan Spencer it was a case of a plan coming together as the second generation racer walked away with the prize.

“My racing was pretty good on the weekend. I had a plan in focusing a lot better compared to other race meetings and my reaction times had improved,” said Jordan.

“We had no problems or issues, just trying to tune the engine so that it runs more consistent ETs.” Spencer's marquee matchup came in the semi finals when he would face the latest Australian champion in Junior Dragster, Toby Austin.

“I raced him in the semi finals, I felt really proud of myself winning against Toby for the first time as he is currently number one in Junior Dragster, a really tough competitor and he always shows great sportsmanship,” said Spencer.

After a red light from Josh Baker in the opposing lane the final win was Spencer's.

“I was feeling really nervous but a bit excited at the same time going into the finals, I never thought I would make it to a final,” he said.

“Both my dad (Graeme Spencer – Super Gas) and I made it to the finals of our classes, Dad had engine problems in the semi however he turned his focus onto me to keep me calm. Dad's crew attended to his car so that he could stage for his final and the Portland track officials allowed dad to get race ready for his final run, as I was in the finals before him and we were both in the staging lanes together. We almost made it a double win final however he came runner up.”

The win was Spencer's first in his racing career.

“This is my third season, I commenced racing Junior Dragster in 2013 and this is my first win and it’s a major win, my first silver Christmas tree is pretty awesome,” he said.

“I have now added to the collection of Christmas trees taking up a special place in our lounge room at home, that makes a total of five. Dad has three golds which includes his 2005/06 Championship and one silver (his 2014 silver championship runner-up). He also has two plaque Christmas trees, so hopefully there’s more wins to come.”

With 100 points in the bank Spencer is scheduled to compete at Adelaide, Sydney and the Winternationals.

“The drive home was far from boring, with a winner and a runner up at one race meeting there was much to celebrate and some extremely happy passengers,” he said.

STORY BY LUKE NIEUWHOF. PHOTOS BY CACKLINGPIPES.COM.

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TRACKSMITH The plan ahead for Australian drag racing's largest and at times most controversial drag racing venue.

Sydney Dragway is one of the busiest and most demanding drag strips in Australia.

It's booked out with events just about every day, not necessarily just drag racing but also things like driver education and trade shows – in fact just about anything that needs a bit of asphalt space.

Now over a decade old, Sydney Dragway is in a plateau stage but there are some plans afoot to take the venue into the next phase of its life.

When general manager Luke Smith joined the venue in August 2014 he no doubt had some idea what he was in for, but it is fortunate he enjoys the varied and at times difficult role.

“It has been a lot of fun,” he said. “It's challenging but also satisfying and rewarding at the same time. There are some moments there that make you think twice about it but that is the same with any job. I like to work with a smile on my face so I am loving it.”

Before coming to Sydney Dragway, Smith spent over 15 years in the insurance industry, with the majority of his time focused on sponsorship, marketing and sales.

Starting with the future Certainly the news of Sydney Dragway has frequently focused on what has already happened, so Drag News Magazine gave Smith the opportunity to discuss the future plans for the venue and what lies in store.

Perhaps slightly unusually, we'll start with the five year plan and work back to the current day.

“Certainly there is a lot of work at play for not just maintenance and upkeep but development of the site to improve the facilities we have and improve the way the venue looks and the way we function and operate,” he said. “We will have new technology and new equipment, new shade areas, I think in five years time it will be the standout drag racing facility in the country.

“We have arguably the best track (surface) in the country, we will also have the best facility in the country.”

Strategically, Sydney Dragway operates on a one year plan, a three year plan and a five year plan. As is par for the course on any large venue these days, diversity is desired by the

management.

“We want event diversity, getting other events that are completely foreign to drag racing like four wheel drive shows or endurocross, events that will be a great use of the facility and attract a different demographic to the Dragway,” Smith said. “It is a win-win where we get to host a really cool event and get the income out of that but also bring new people to the venue and market to them about what we do with our Track Championship, Race 4 Real, Nitro Champs and so on.”

The aforementioned full calendar is a positive sign for the venue in that regard.

“Our problem at the moment is finding available days, our calendar is booked solid,” Smith said. “There are only 15 days where we don't have some kind of booking, every single weekend is booked solid. Our problem is we don't have enough available space and available days, we are looking at developing the site a bit further to accommodate more on site.

“We want to grow the drag racing events and create more excitement and attract more spectators to those events. We will be starting a motorkhana in March, that is a collaboration with CAMS rather than just a car club event. That is going to bring in more revenue.

“We still have the venue hire to the large events like Civenex and the four wheel drive show.

“There is Jamboree, Brashernats, Supernats, APSA, Nitro Funny Cars, we have certainly got a lot of hires on the table and all of those are locked in.”

Building blocks Smith hinted at some infrastructure developments but held his cards close to his chest, only saying that their would be an announcement soon.

“There is certainly some development plans in place to expand our exhibition space area for those type of events,” he said.

“There are plans in place to look at more hard stand areas, more asphalt areas so we can do more activities and dry hires in those areas as well, rather than just be reliant on our pit area. We want to host those kinds of activities in other areas of the venue.”

While its infrastructure has always been generous, and if anything oversized, one area Sydney Dragway has struggled to bat above average in is in corporate support.

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Smith said that situation is on the turn around.

“Since I have been there I have been engaged with three major sponsors, one will come on board in the new financial year, another one we are talking to about sizeable sponsorship and we are just working on the details of that,” he said. “And there is another sponsor that will come on at the start of the new calendar year.

“Those big opportunities are on the table and they look like good prospects, below that we are in negotiations with signage and lower level sponsorship deals as well. We have renewed all existing sponsorships, except we are looking at replacing the Bike Night sponsor.”

In more practical matters, Sydney Dragway has recently resurfaced its top end, fixing some unsettling bumps near the finish line and in the braking area.

“There was a bump or dip towards the finish line and start of the braking area, that has been repaired and resurfaced and is perfectly smooth now,” Smith said.

“It was borderline within tolerance before but now it is perfectly smooth.

“That is another example of how we are improving the venue. I can't think of any other track in the country that has as good a racing surface.”

Placating the passionate The most hardcore audience at Sydney Dragway and indeed some of the hardest to please are those racers who contest the Track Championship rounds.

Sydney Dragway recently announced some incentives

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to try and boost the series including a round with free spectator entry and $1000 prize draws for spectators as well.

“That will be an engagement activity we will run for every round, but the mechanics of entry will change for each round,” Smith said. “It is a fair incentive for spectators to come along.

“We are changing our marketing strategy and being a bit more targeted this year than in previous years.”

Outlaw 10.5 is going to be used as a headlining bracket at each event to try and create a feature that will bring people to the track every round. Smith said the racers had done well to source sponsorship and prizemoney themselves.

“They will be the standout feature at the track championships and will have a $500 buy in and $1000 prizemoney for each round,” he said. “That is something we have worked with them to set up and achieve. I think it will add excitement.”

Smith said he would like to see more categories get together the way Outlaw 10.5 racers have in order to boost their racing.

“The 10.5 class is going to encourage more competitors to get out there,” he said.

“Brackets and clubs have to encourage as many people to come along and compete as possible. We have put the offer out to other clubs as well that if they want to do something like 10.5 and need assistance or advice to attain sponsorship. We are happy to work with all of them and boost them that way.”

Smith said that he does have a proposal waiting for

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approval from the board to look at attracting new competitors into the Track Championship who are not necessarily just friends and families of existing racers but instead completely new to the sport.

With the exception perhaps of Perth Motorplex, most venues just accept that rounds of a local series are unlikely to draw a crowd. Smith is among them, but sees potential for small growth.

“To be honest, it is unlikely (that big crowds will come,” he said. “I would love for it to be happen and get to the space where we could get 2000 spectators at every round, we will have a red hot go at doing that. But the average numbers at the moment show 300-400 spectators on average. I think the most we had (at a Track Championship round) was 600.

“If we can grow off that and get them closer to 1000 or 1500 I think that is achievable. If we have more sponsorship on board and can pump out the marketing a bit and add entertainment we might have the opportunity to grow to over 2000 people.

“When you look at Willowbank and other local rounds, they are averaging low numbers as well. We are doing well compared to other tracks.”

A recent controversy for Sydney Dragway, at least in a small discussion thread on Facebook, was the merging of Wild Bunch with Supercharged Outlaws. Indeed Sydney Dragway's Track Championship is extremely diffuse with a thin spread of competitors over many brackets.

“There was a suggestion we would need to merge Wild Bunch with Supercharged Outlaws,” Smith said. “That is an accurate reflection of what was suggested, based on the lack of competitors.

“There is a lack of numbers in that bracket, there is also a lack of numbers in Supercharged Outlaws. What we were trying to do was merge the competitors to have enough to keep the brackets alive.

“It wasn't a decision, they jumped the gun a bit there. We are keeping that bracket, we have spoken to racers and they have assured us they will work hard to boost numbers and bring in their own additional sponsorship. We are giving them the benefit of the doubt. Next year if numbers remain low we will have to work with those brackets.

Sydney Dragway's off street product has been one of its most successful, with regular sell outs for racers and consistent crowds.

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“There is a bit of joint responsibility and the brackets have to take some of that responsibility on themselves. I would love to have more competitors at every round, whether that means we have 13 brackets or 10 brackets, and have more competitors focused. We will see how this year goes.”

On the subject of controversy, one such decision last year was the change of the long held event title of the Nitro Champs to the X Champs.

It was not a popular decision and has now been turned around.

“There was a lot of interest and a lot of feedback around X Champs and Nitro Champs branding,” Smith said. “It was more in support of going back to the Nitro Champs branding.

“Nitro Champs identifies itself as brand more closely with drag racing more than X Champs does. That decision was inline with the feedback we had received and the consistency and the equity the event already had.”

If there is one area Sydney Dragway has never struggled with it is the off street product, including its Race 4 Real Wednesday night events. These attract larger crowds than Track Championship events and are regularly sold out to racers.

“Race 4 Real is really exciting, it is hugely popular at the venue,” Smith said. “We want to do more with that. There is an event in April where we have our end of month car show, but it will have a racing component as well. It will be like a come and try for those who are apprehensive about running their car on a Wednesday night and include a coaching clinic.

“We can maybe run semi competitive events at Race 4 Real events and perhaps encourage those drivers to come to a Track Championship round.”

So with more than enough going on, what does Luke Smith want his legacy to be from his time at Sydney Dragway?

“I haven't thought about leaving yet,” he laughed. “I would like to see that we have put Sydney Dragway on the map, with all these activities we are doing.

“I would like to see that Sydney Dragway is taken to another level. Not only taking the facility to another level but the sport as well. There are a lot of ideas I have to improve the sport and I have shared those with racers, board members, ANDRA and everyone who is willing to listen.”

“I would like to see that Sydney Dragway is taken to another level. Not only taking the facility to another level but the sport as well.�

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STORY BY GRANT STEPHENS. PHOTOS BY CACKLINGPIPES.COM.

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ROUGH ROAD RACER If there's one thing you can't question with Queensland Top Doorslammer racer Bill Goonan, it's his ability to withstand the hard knocks.

Many racers might have given up after just a fraction of the challenges that have been sent Goonan's way, but to his credit he has persisted in his chase of a drag racing dream.

Little did he know that when he first travelled to Willowbank Raceway with a friend to watch some 'funny cars' it would turn into a passion that would carry on for the next three decades.

“In 1986 a mate of mine invited me to the drags to watch a funny car, my first thought was what the heck is a funny car, are we going to the circus?” Goonan joked. “I attended Willowbank to watch the funny cars and thought wow, what are these things? I have to get me one of those, it was something I had never experienced before.”

Unknowingly to Goonan he had started on the road to becoming a competitor at the highest level in drag racing. That however was still a long way down a very rough road with many an obstacle he would face.

“At the age of 17 my first car was a two door VF Valiant with a 360ci Chrysler tunnel rammed V8 which I started racing at Willowbank,” he said. “Following that was a Chrysler Centura with a 360ci Mopar, then some children came along, not sure how that happened, but unfortunately the racing got put aside for a while.”

Like all good fathers, Goonan provided a solid grounding in drag racing education for his children.

“I took the kids to Willowbank to experience everything from the Tin Tops to Top Fuel,” he said. “This really brought a bond between me and the kids which has then led them all down a path in racing in one form or another. It’s so important to have a good bond with family while pursuing our passions to help them be happy and encourage their own life pursuits.”

With the children growing up it was time for Goonan to once again pursue his own drag racing dream, but the road wasn't going to smooth out anytime soon.

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Sometimes he was riding roughshot of his own accord, other times it was just being dealt a poor hand.

“I came back into racing with a supercharged 331ci Windsor in a Nissan Pintara, which cost me the national debt as the help I had were not well experienced with engine building, but we do what we have to do to race,” he said.

“We struggled with that for about one and a half years and didn’t get to where we planned to be in Supercharged Outlaws due to the car being too heavy and without really knowing what we were doing. So we sold that and bought from John Taverna a satin black, full chassis, two door Holden Camira which we transplanted the blown Windsor into.”

The car ran 8.0 at 170mph with this set up but it still was not quick enough, so Goonan did what he thought was a good idea at the time and went and bought a PSI D blower to sit atop the little Windsor.

That's kind of like bringing a gun to a boost knife fight.

“We thought bugger this and bought a PSI blower for it, this is the same one we run on our Top Doorslammer today,” he said. “Al Farrer built the fuel system and engine for us properly and I remember when we first fired it up Al saying it was the toughest sounding Windsor engine he had ever heard, it sounded like a blown Hemi.

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“We got told by a lot of people, it won’t work, you can’t do it, it will blow up, and naively this only encouraged me more, but we listened in the end and took the blower off. I sold that and the Windsor to a burnout car guy for next to nothing.

“We then bought a big block Chev from WA, put a 14/71 on it and ran 7.3 at almost 200mph, which we ran for a while before I had some personal family challenges and had to take a break for twelve months.”

A change in his life situation offered encouragement for Goonan to take his drag racing career to the elite level, an opportunity he was quick to seize.

“I met my now partner Michelle who always wanted to get involved in drag racing, she told her friends that it would be good to date a professional drag racer. So that's what we became and started looking to buy a car together,” he said.

“We found one on Racing Junk in the USA for sale, a 70.5 Camaro doorslammer, it was a brand new roller that had never been run. This caught our attention so we decided to fly over to check it out in Oklahoma. I landed in LA with my son Daniel and good mate Ray Peacock aka Nookie, we hired a car and went on a road trip for 2300 miles to get to the race car.

Left: A supercharged Camira was Bill Goonan's first ride over 200mph and would seal his addiction to the sport.

Below: Of all things, a blown Windsor-powered Nissan Pintara was Goonan's first choice of serious race car. An odd combination to be sure!

Centre: The debut of Goonan's Camaro came with some runs in Supercharged Outlaws as he and the team got used to running the car.

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“It was love at first sight, I just had that gut feeling that this is the one, it felt right, a bit like when I met Michelle.” (Aww Ed.) “We settled on a cash deal and then drove to Bank of America and withdrew $X from my account. The teller, who was about 97 years old in the shade, just about fell off her chair when we told her the amount. She said 'sorry sir, we don’t have that much cash in our branch.' So we settled for two bank cheques, some cash and her first born child.

“I was so excited so we went back and purchased the car and an open car trailer to tow it back to Peter Leahy’s freight forwarding depot in California. Peter was fantastic, he handled all the logistics and paperwork to get our new baby back home for us.

“Before we returned home we also bought a supercharger, a set of Brad Anderson heads, PSI D Series screw blower, some McAmis parts in Vegas and shipped it all back with the car.”

With everything seemingly going smoothly, Goonan then fell victim to what is a unfortunate consequence of buying parts sight unseen from overseas markets that has inflicted many a racer in Australia.

“Two months later she arrived here in Australia, the only 70.5 Camaro Top Doorslammer in the country,” he said.

“We then bought a short motor from an alcohol racer in Canada. When it arrived we were shocked because it turned out to be a $30,000 pile of scrap metal. It was meant to be in good condition but it was used, abused and broken with a cracked crank and stuffed main caps just to mention a few things.

“I took it to my mates Mark Brew and Ian Ham, they both said it needs a lot of money spent on it and we weren’t prepared to spend another $15,000. So we sold a lot of what was usable off as parts to make just $3000 from it. Mark went on and helped us by putting us in contact with Peter Kapiris to buy one of his spare engines, this is the one we run now.”

Goonan hit the track and for once it seemed as if things were

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on the up. The car performed flawlessly, a 6.09 at 240mph on just the team's fifth ever pass was a dream start.

After a brief stint in Supercharged Outlaws to shake down the car and team, Goonan made the move to Top Doorslammer at the 2013 Australian Nationals, completing the desire to be a professional level drag racer.

But it wasn't long before the drag racing gods decided to test Goonan again. In early 2014 disaster struck when the Camaro's parachutes failed to deploy at a Willowbank event, the car colliding with the tyre wall at high speed.

“Everything was pretty normal until I hit the parachute and didn’t feel them blossom,” said Goonan. “I reached for the 'holy shit hand brake' trying to wash off speed, but by this time I was heading very rapidly toward the sandpit thinking 'this is going to hurt and cost me some money.'

“With very quick thinking I decided to turn the car sideways to wash off speed and minimise damage to the car as I was heading straight toward the tyre wall. I believe this also saved me serious injury, or worse.

“The next thing I remember is hitting the wall and thinking, 'ouch, that hurt.' I was upside down in pitch darkness and I thought to myself, 'am I dead?'

“I then unstrapped and fell to the roof, hitting the gearbox on the way down and thought 'that hurt, I must still be alive.'

“I could hear something leaking. I was dazed and unsure if I could actually get myself out. I looked up in hope the doors would open, trying not to panic, and I eventually got out.

“All this actually occurred in about a ten second timeframe, I thanked my lucky stars for protecting me and then thought, 'that's going to be expensive.'”

The parachute failure was later tracked down to a flat battery. “(The parachutes) are activated by electronic buttons and I didn’t have enough time to reach the manual override,” Goonan said. “I couldn’t holler for a Marshall either at that speed, although I was hollering for some clean underwear.

“The car needed a new front end, new suspension, wheels and tanks. But we discovered that upon return to the track that the car actually drove better!”

Goonan has now experienced both ends of the Top Doorslammer spectrum, as a pilot going fast and being but a passenger in an accident, but the experience of steering one of drag racing's fastest sedans will keep him in the seat for a long time to come.

“Racing a Top Doorslammer feels like being strapped into a sardine can and towed by an FA-18 at Mach 6 from start to finish,” he said.

“Sometimes it's like having your head in a paint mixer from tyre shake, usually the first 100 feet of race track is a blur with the forces but then eventually you can see again.

“It is one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life and I am grateful I have been able to cross it off the bucket list.”

While the raw experience was a motivating factor for getting into Top Doorslammer, Goonan also believes it has an appeal that can help do it on a professional basis.

“While I love the power of the vehicle and the challenge of succeeding in the category, another deciding factor was that Top Doorslammer gets a lot more media exposure than most other categories which makes it very attractive to sponsors,” he said. “We are currently in talks with some unique sponsors that can bring a lot of value to the sport and more importantly to the fans.”

Which leads to what aspirations has Goonan set himself as he continues along this strange drag racing road.

“Our goal is to win championships and run a campaign in the USA within five years,” he said. “Everything is a journey and we are working on a lot of things to bring that to fruition, we want to bring tangible value to the fans as they are the ones who really make it all possible.

“We have growing following on our Facebook page: Bill Goonan Top Doorslammer. We are also currently talking to a few organisations for partnerships to bring something fresh to drag racing, the fans and also to fellow racers, so stay tuned for announcements on that as we move forward.

“And I must thank our new sponsors Mulford Plastics and B & M Custom Trailers. The Camaro doesn’t go down the track without the dedication and passion from our crew, Gary May our crew chief, Brenton “Big Red” Western, Jonesy, Daniel, Stephanie, Shennyn, and Jakob. Also to Ashleigh Dawson for PR and sponsorship negotiations, Jamie from ET Chassis, Craig from SCF Race Cars, Mark Brew, Ian and Steve Ham, Jeff Cutajar from Kapiris Bros Racing and Jamie Noonan. Plus all our fans and the people who have always believed in us and supported directly or indirectly. Big special thanks to Michelle for riding the highs and lows on and off the racetrack, without her it wouldn’t be possible.”

Left: Despite the obstacles along the way, Goonan and his team have persisted in chasing their dream of operating a professional Top Doorslammer team.

Right: Bill's partner Michelle has been an ardent supporter. She said she wanted to date a professional drag racer - and Bill has happily obliged! Bil''s new

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FRO

WI

STORY BY LUKE NIEUWHOF.

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OM EMERGENCY ROOM TO

INNER'S CIRCLE The amazing story of Westernationals Modified Bike winner Ian Read and his fight back from a near fatal accident.

It was July, 2011, and Ian Read was riding along the Kwinana Freeway. It was night and Read had little idea of how much his life was going to change in just the next few instants.

He was sideswiped by a four wheel drive and suddenly was heading for the wire fences that line the freeway at 100kph.

While suitable for arresting a car quickly, these fences are perilous for motorcyclists.

Life is fragile at times like this and fortunately Read escaped damage to the vital parts of his body, but his leg copped a hammering.

“I had all my motorcycle gear on which was a big factor in reducing the injuries,” he said. “I sustained a severely broken leg and I was impaled by my handlebars as well. I basically tore the whole sole of the boot off my right leg.”

Despite the extreme misfortune to have an accident, Read's luck was almost instantly on the upswing.

“I was thankful that there was an off duty Royal Flying Doctor Service doctor in a car travelling behind,” he said. “I was able to get to the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department as quick as possible.”

Read's foot was blue by the time they reached the hospital and amputation was suddenly a scenario which he may have had to confront. But the doctors and surgeons did their amazing work and he was able to remain bipedal.

“I got a couple of screws put into my knee and I had to endure multiple operations and 12 months of not being able to work,” he said. “When I did return to work, it was with the aid of a walking stick.

“I did all the rehab, trying to get better as much as I could. It will never be 100%, I can't run for instance, but I stopped using the walking stick in September 2012.”

Read lost some eight centimetres of bone from his leg and endured a bone graft from his hip to rebuild the structure with the assistance of metal external fixators.

Before the accident, Read was a frequent racer at Perth Motorplex, competing in both state championship and Fast Friday bracket events. His Rev-It Finance Suzuki Hayabusa was well known through the pits and his friendly demeanour was always a welcome sight in the staging lanes.

Following the accident, Read could not be expected to have been in a drag racing frame of mind. He said thoughts of racing did come, but he had to sort it out in a priority list “Drag racing was on my mind, I wanted to be able to get back on a bike,” he said. “But it was certainly something where more importantly I wanted to walk first.

“The determination to get myself better is where you just keep working to get yourself right. I was still happy to go and see my fellow friends race which kept my in hunger for the

Recovery path: A motorcycle accident on a Perth freeway left Ian Read in danger of losing a leg. The rehabilitation was intense but he never gave up.

When he finally returned to the drag strip, it came with an elation never known before.

sport.”

The first time Read returned to the track since his accident was just to watch some racing. With a big metal cage on his leg he was still very much in a recovery stage and he admitted that just watching was enough to make him wonder if he would still have the fortitude.

“There were guys doing wheelies and getting the front wheel up and Jane Wood nee Newbound hit the wall on a wheelie bar bike, so it was still affecting me in that regard,” he said.

“I had people saying you just need to get back on.”

Read eventually did make the decision at the end of 2013 to get back on to a bike and back to the track. With his housemate watching him race, he made an achievement that for most would be mundane but for him was epic – crossing the finish line.

“That very first pass when I crossed the finish line I couldn't believe I had finally done it and gone back across the finish line,” he said. “It was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I wanted to do it again. I was a bit emotional and I was probably yelling for joy that I had actually done it.

“I was still a fair way off where I needed to be, it was a matter of just running under 11 seconds and I was pretty happy to do that. It happened to be a Fast Series event and I happened to cut some lights and going out in the semi finals.

It was interesting to see the reaction of a few of the racers.”

Read said a bit of thought had to go into the return, such as getting his housemate to ride the bike first as it was a new machine and he wanted to be sure if would stop and do what it needed to do.

Read returned to the 'big leagues' not at one of Perth Motorplex's state rounds but instead the Fuchs Springnationals at Adelaide International Raceway.

“Adelaide was on my bucket list as it came back online when I was recovering from my accident,” he said. “It was good to

go to an event without too much pressure and just race.”

Fast forward to the 44th annual Westernationals and Read was getting back into the swing of the state series, enjoying being out there and taking every event as it came.

Qualifying was a 'nightmare', to use Read's words, with his shifter not playing the game in the first session, an issue that was to return in eliminations but fortunately on a solo pass.

“For some reason me and solos don't get along, I like having someone in the other lane. That was a get out of jail pass,” he said.

Read was going rounds. As only a racer knows, there is a strange momentum that builds up across eliminations as race by race you progress. That pace certainly put an emotional toll on Read as he tried to stay focused.

“I was a bit overwhelmed after the semi final, I had to recompose myself for the final,” he said. “Gordon (Crawford) spoke to me and gave me a bit of self belief as did my crew chief Cherie who had been there all weekend. I spoke to Paul (Nieuwhof) prior to my semi final and he said you had to believe you were going to go further.

“Drag racing is never easy, it can change in the blink of an eye.”

For the final round Read was on a good light while opponent Edgell Mallis had a sleep. Favours turned though as Read bogged his bike off the line.

“I think it was maybe more the rider, but from there I had the throttle on the stop all the way to the end, to go through at 145mph there was nothing left in the bike and we were handle bar to handle bar across the line,” he said.

“Edgell broke out by .006.”

With the Motorplex's wall-based win lights still out of action, Read did not know which way the race had gone initially.

Track staff told Mallis that he had won and Read accepted that may have been the result. Shaking hands and riding away, he was left content with reaching the final at the biggest drag racing event in Western Australia, a feat that he would not have imagined possible almost four years previous.

But as Read neared the bridge with the timing card booth and saw people cheering, a realisation began to set in.

“I couldn't believe I had finally got a win,” he said. “That was my first event win in a state round or on the national rounds.

“It was nice to actually be on the winning side of a break out race. Even though the times were slower than I am used to I was pretty consistent over the weekend.

“It was like winning the AFL Grand Final to me. It was really special in getting that win, it makes the hard work worth it. I never thought I would get back to that level.”

With 150 points now in his tally once he travels to another round of the Summit Sportsman Series, Read had made the decision to go for a national championship.

“I thought if I was going to the quarters or something (of the Westernationals) I would go to Queensland, I haven't been since 2010,” he said.

“But now I've committed to Adelaide and booked my flights and am definitely going to Queensland.

“The Modified Bike championships is going to be pretty competitive with a lot of guys travelling.”

From a freeway wreck to a Westernationals winner's circle – that, kids, is how you make a comeback.

TURBO CONVERTS 58

STORY BY GRANT STEPHENS. PHOTOS BY CACKLINGPIPES.COM.

When your father is an Australian Pro Stock champion that terrorised the class for years it is with some expectation you would follow in his footsteps.

Marc Leake has continued the family's legacy in drag racing but with a twist. Like many from the younger generation he has turned to the turbocharger to go fast.

That must sound like sacrilege to his father Bruce.

Marc had been in the world only a few weeks when parents Bruce and Doris introduced him to the track,

setting the tune for the next 30 years of his life.

By the time 2008 arrived Marc had started racing his Holden Maloo ute in Super Street and ran it to a best of 12.5 at 114mph before it was decided to start building a more potent machine. A Holden Torana was the weapon of choice and initially an aspirated big block deal was sourced for motivation. “I bought the Torana as a roller, got a 540 cubic inch big block from Reher Morrison in Texas and took the car up to our friend Joe Gauci of Profab Motorsport Fabrications to make some pipes, install the engine and Powerglide trans,� said Leake.

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“We found the existing roll cage was more for show than anything so Joe proceeded to strip the car down to a bare shell and started again. We got rid of the ladder bar set up and went with a four link as Joe basically built the whole chassis from scratch for me with only a couple of original bars from the previous owner remaining.”

The final touch was a sleek metallic green finish, and no concerns of bad luck.

“The reason behind the green paint job was my wife picked it,” said a bemused Leake. “I was getting the chassis ready for paint and I was struggling to get it done on time. I convinced my wife Kathryn that if she helped me rub back the roll cage I would let her pick the colour.

“So after hours in the shed and a lot of whinging about blisters (from Kathryn) we got it ready for paint. Kathryn held me to the deal we made so we went past the paint shop and she picked out the green."

As is synonymous with the Leake family the end result was a spectacularly turned out race car which ANDRA recognised at the 2012 Nationals with the Best Engineered Award. The car also returned the Theuma and Leake Racing name to the winners circle in the Top Sportsman class at Sydney Dragway, bringing a wave of emotion with it.

“Winning my first meet in the car was something else,” recalled Leake. “The meeting before the win we

didn’t even get the car down the track as we were battling electrical problems all day, so to go out the next meeting and take the win was very exciting.

“Theuma and Leake Racing was due for a win and I was over the moon that I achieved this, words cannot describe how I felt. Win or lose we will keep coming back but a W here and there is what it’s all about.”

The Torana ran a best of 8.35 at 159mph with the Powerglide backed 540 cube Reher Morrision donk, but a change was needed to quench Leake's need for speed.

“We raced the car for nearly two seasons and I got the itch to go faster, I have always loved turbo V8s and I knew this was the way I was always going to go.

Besides, superchargers are too noisy,” laughed Leake.

“You cannot beat the tune-ability of a turbo car and to me they have anyway been something I wanted to try my hand at. So I started talking with Joe (Gauci) about what we need to do the car to get it ready for more power.

“I then called another friend, Frank Marchese at Dandy Engines, and we tossed around a few ideas as to which path to take and after much thought and lengthy phone calls the decision was made to buy a ProLine Racing twin turbo big block deal.

“I purchased the engine in parts and entrusted Frank to work his magic and assemble the new 622 cuber for me. The car spent a while at ProFab getting a double frame rail, setting the engine up to suit a new

Above: Marc and the rest of the Leake family's hard work was recognised with the ANDRA Best Engineered Award in 2012. The car has since been rebuilt again and how has a turbocharged powerplant sending it on 200mph charges.

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class, bigger four link, all pipework and manifolds for the engine, new floater diff, new tin work, extra bar work and the list goes on.

"In the meantime, we had a few things that needed a bit of paint touch up, I took the car to Real Steel Group back home in Queanbeyan NSW, one thing led to another and the car ended up black! The Real Steel crew also did a range of custom one off billet parts and smoothed all the fibreglass parts on the body.”

Now sporting a 622ci ProLine Racing/Dandy Engines all aluminium big block Chevy with twin 94mm Precision turbos between the rails Leake was ready to rock. The only question that remained was in what class?

“There isn’t really a class the car will fit into and be competitive, but I really enjoy the heads up racing and Pro Street is where it’s at,” he said.

After discussing various Pro Street directions with Gauci and coming to the conclusion Outlaw 10.5 was just too fast for Leake's car, it was decided the increasingly more popular Radial route was the

Torana's future.

“I have been interested in the small tyre stuff since Dad and I visited America back in 2011 when 10.5 was at its peak. Joe suggested Radial, so I looked into it and it seemed the right way to go,” said Leake.

“It's only getting bigger and bigger here and in the states, there is a lot of tuning and driving required to make a radial car go down the track, so we took it on as bit of a challenge.”

It's a challenge that Leake has been making short work of so far, with the Torana already cracking the double ton on a radial tyre, one of only a couple of cars to achieve the feat in Australia to date.

“With only a few passes under its belt and low boost we have managed 7.29 with a best speed of 201.79mph," said Leake.

"That first 200mph was killer! The car felt nice and strong through the run and when it clicked top gear I knew it was on a pass, I pulled the chutes and straight away thought that had to be it. Dad and my other crew member Russ picked me up in the braking area

and after asking them several times they finally gave me the good news that we cracked a 200mph pass and we then proceeded to back it up twice after that run.”

Used to tuning with screw drivers, Bruce Leake is now receiving an education with the latest electronic tuning technology, but that old school knowledge can still be imparted to new concepts.

“Dad is an old school carby guy but surprisingly enough he has taken a liking to the turbo stuff,” said the younger Leake.

“Dad has been such a big influence in my racing career and he has given me more support and advice than I could ask for. He is always willing to help and will do whatever it takes to see the car go down the track, there is no possible way I could do this stuff without him, he is one of the main reasons we have had success with the car in both builds.

“His racing knowledge is hard to beat, he’s been there and done that with nearly all aspects of racing including doing it all wrong!”

The Torana has become part of the Theuma and Leake Racing family, with the only plan to just keep on improving ETs and enjoy the racing. Down the track though the team see a full chassis deal running a twin turbo billet bullet, but that is all in good time.

Marc Leake would like to thank his wife Kathryn for her continuous support on and off the track, as well as Bruce and crew slave Russ for giving up so much of their time to build the car and get it ready for race day. The team also passed on thanks to Kane for all his help at the track, Frank Marchese for assembling the engine, tuning the engine and always being there with the right advice and ongoing support, Joe and Jonathan Gauci for building such a killer car and their ongoing support at the track and behind the scenes, Enzo from Regional Auto Electrics, Fred from Protrans, Steve and the crew from Real Steel Group and anyone else who has helped him along the way.

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BAD ASS BENZ

STORY BY GRANT STEPHENS. PHOTOS BY CACKLINGPIPES.COM.

There are things that should not be.

A championship winning Mercedes Benz Pro Streeter is one of them.

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One of the fascinations with drag racing is that nearly any style of vehicle can be raced and be competitive. They do not get more unique than Guy Hall's 1969 Mercedes Benz which converts a prestige Euro marque to a methanol snorting hot rod.

Hall has always been a devotee of Mercedes but he first started playing around at the drag strip on a Suzuki GSXR 1100. Family took priority and forced the sale of his bike and the end of his racing until a chance meeting. “[DEBENZ] came about after I met Michael from M&A Mechanical through a mutual friend, he was selling a mild small block Chev and I joked if we could get it engineered in my Mercedes I would buy it from him,” recalled Hall.

“I guess that started it all, that engine went as quick as twelves, then a set of alloy heads and solid cam saw it run tens on pump fuel and a nine with a 150 shot of nitrous.

“When the engine upgrades were happening to the old aspirated engine I took the car to my good mate Luke at

Top: The Mercedes started off life on the drag strip with a naturally aspirated small block but would later move on to bigger and better things.

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Maryborough Smash Repairs to only have the engine bay painted. The car was the original sky blue colour but when I got it back a few weeks later it was fully painted and black, it was stunning and to this day has never even been buffed, still as is straight off the gun.”

Hall raced the Mercedes in Super Street with mixed success but having a lot of fun when the lure of APSA Pro Street racing beckoned.

“With APSA starting to gain momentum I thought it looked like fun and I prefer the heads up style racing, so with the engine sold a new engine build begun,” he said.

Hall kept with the small block theme but now at 427 cubes of Dart block and heads with custom Camtech cam, JE pistons, Oliver rods and all the good stuff to go with an 8-71 blower for forced induction and Modified Street Blown duties.

“There were a few teething issues,” said Hall. “Three converters, two gearboxes and an exploding diff centre, but

we finally ran an 8.99 on my licence pass at my first APSA event, before a big wheelstand later that night ended us with a bent cross member.

“Since then after some weight reduction and help in the transmission and convertor setup from Awesome Engines in the States we have run 8.21 at 167mph weighing 3000 pounds.”

Consistency has proven key in Pro Street racing, often it's not the quickest and fastest that walk away with the title, so Hall has built his engine to be easy on the tools and has shown it has what it takes to win.

“I wanted to try the blown combo at 427 cubes because I liked the idea of a low RPM, low maintenance type of deal, I only rev it to 7000RPM,” he said.

“In 2014 we ran a PB at Benaraby over the eighth, did a QDRC round followed by a charity event organised by a fellow APSA racer which included some street driving, and then finally towed it to Sydney to PB over the quarter with a 8.21 and I hadn’t even changed the plugs.

“That meeting in Sydney also saw us clinch the 2014 season in Modified Street Blown, a very proud moment considering the car is not even in the National Top Ten (for ET).”

Pro Street is certainly where Hall's future lies with his unique machine and plans are underway to step the old girl up for quicker times.

"I love the Pro Street style of racing with its heads up format, the friendly atmosphere on track and around the pits is

awesome,” he said. “In particular the great bunch of guys racing in Modified Street Blown, no sandbagging or start line bullshit, just good fast racing.

"I am fitting a new blower this year to get me a few tenths hopefully. A new engine is going in after the small block runs a seven, it is time for the big block and some real power. It will be different, but still blown of course, it's another bit of hardware from the guys at Awesome Engines as I really want the car to be in the mid seven second zone to keep competitive.”

No doubt a blown Mercedes will always be an attention seeker for better or worse but that's what Hall loves about it.

"People either love or hate the car, but nearly all remember it," he said.

"It’s a great advertising tool for my business, Diesel Australia, and I still get a few old blokes asking if it’s a diesel, which makes me laugh. I have always liked Mercedes, my tow car is a Merc, my wife drives a Merc and I'm building a streeter out of an old '61 Merc at the moment too.”

Hall would not have won the 2014 APSA Modified Street Blown Championship or be where he is today with the car without the efforts of Luke from Maryborough Smash Repairs, Michael at M & A Mechanical, Bill from Awesome Engines, his loyal crew Luke, Drew and Aaron, and last but not least his patient and understanding wife Beth and kids Jed and Luca.

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MASTERS - OF METHANOL You've done your Clutch 101, now it's time for your Masters Degree in methanol. And who better to give you top tips than the tuner of the world's quickest Top Alcohol Funny Car - Greg Gower.

STORY BY LUKE NIEUWHOF.

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In the hierarchy of drag racing fuels it tends to go something like nitro, methanol, petrol.

Nitro's sheer explosiveness and attached oxygen molecules make it attractive but it is an expensive proposition. And of course petrol can run from pump 91 to precision, race-ready mixes.

But why is methanol the middle ground when it comes to high performing motors, especially of the supercharged variety?

Gower said there are several reasons.

“Methanol has a strong cooling effect on the air coming into the engine, so if you can keep the intake temperatures down you can run a lot of compression and a lot of boost,” he said.

“It also carries some oxygen which you don't get with petrol or gasoline, but no where near as much as nitro.

“A secondary effect we get on these blown engines is that some of the excess fuel we use cools the combustion chamber and valves, which also suppresses detonation. Because we run constant flow injection, fuel builds up behind the intake valve when it’s closed. On the Hemi engine, the valves are close together and directly across from one another, so during valve overlap a slug of air moves through the chamber and out the exhaust, and it carries a lot of that fuel buildup with it.

“There is the fact you can run so much cylinder pressure and get away with it. It will just detonate and destroy itself on petrol with high cylinder pressure.

“What drag racers do with alcohol engines is crazy, we run compression ratios in the 10-12:1 ratio area and we are running 50-60 pounds of boost. The guys in the states with the C-rotor PSI superchargers are running 60 psi or more.”

The benefits of methanol aren't just in boosted applications.

Gower said the cooling effect also applies to a naturally aspirated motor.

“As a general rule, methanol makes about 10% more power,”

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he said. “But it depends on the engine combination, it’s often much more than that on a heavily supercharged application.

Methanol engines generally make more torque than a petrol engine and they also make more horsepower because of the cooling effect and the oxygen content.”

To take advantage of the power increases methanol can offer, it does require a much higher volume fuel system. Gower said the ballpark figure is about 2.5 times more fuel than the same motor using petrol.

“If you look at the calorific value, petrol is higher than methanol and that leads some people to say petrol is a better fuel,” he said. “But it doesn't take into account the oxygen in methanol or the cooling effect, the cooling increases the air density in the cylinder.

“One of the other myths is that it is often accepted is that methanol burns slower than petrol and you need more timing.

That is wrong. If you do your homework and look at the flame propagation rate it burns faster than petrol. People get the idea because sometimes engines are so rich they see flames coming out the exhaust.

“To make best use of methanol, a higher compression ratio is advised to take advantage of its cooling effect and high octane.”

Because of the beefed up flow requirements, converting an engine to use methanol means looking at every aspect of your fuel system – not forgetting that you will need a much larger fuel tank and a substantial air vent.

“Everything has to be up to it,” Gower said. “You have to make sure nothing in the system will be affected by methanol because it attacks certain components - they will swell or break down because of methanol. It’s rarely a problem with race components, but for a street/strip car you need to make sure any seals, gaskets or hoses are compatible.”

Another effect of running methanol that a lot of racers will see

is milky oil.

“This is just a build up of methanol in the oil, mainly seen when the engine is rich,” Gower said. “Blown alcohol engines are run rich at idle to control temperatures. Fuel gets past the rings into the sump, and drag engines don’t run hot enough or for long enough to evaporate it out.”

When it comes to tuning a motor using methanol, Gower said it can be a forgiving fuel if you stay on the rich (fat) side.

“You can be 10% rich and the engine will still run fine, but it will start to make more power as you get closer to where it wants to be,” he said. “If you get too lean it can be fairly destructive.

“Because methanol makes more power when rich it is more forgiving than petrol. With a decent blower you can still make good power running rich where it is safe and happy and you are never going to hurt anything.

“The guys that need to be more competitive keep a close eye on it.”

Gower explained some of the physical signs that teams look for in a motor to determine how rich or lean it is running.

“What we look for on the spark plugs is that when you start to make high temperature in the cylinder (an indication of running leaner) it starts to burn the cadmium on the spark plugs; it starts to go white,” he said.

“First you will get a little bit of white, then it will start to spread around the plug and you can get an idea when you are getting close and which cylinders are richer or leaner than others.

“When a cylinder is making a lot of power or you are maybe starting to get some detonation it will spread the upper rod bearings a bit. We measure the spread with a digital vernier, its only thousandths of an inch.

“Finally it’s important not to forget that other factors play a part in all this. The configuration of the fuel system, how the

plugs look, how the engine comes apart and so on are also affected by the clutch, the track, drive ratios, the engine combination (heads, camshaft, compression), ignition timing and more.”

Drag racing is rife with tuning myths and tips that might work for one engine but not another. Gower said that to understand what is happening to your engine on a pass you need to understand how the fuel system works.

“A common mistake is not understanding where the fuel goes, for example how the flow of fuel is affected by boost in the manifold,” he said. “The fuel you flow into your engine is fighting against the boost you have in the manifold and you often end up flowing less fuel than you think you are putting in.

“I’ve seen people tuning with spreadsheets that calculate the orifice areas in the system, but they’re not accurate due to these differential pressures.

“There are also racers that don't use any tuning software or calculations and they tune by methods such as when the air changes by 500 feet you change the pill by a certain number.

That stuff really doesn't work because every fuel system is different. That pill size change on one engine doesn't have the same effect as on a different engine and the flow change is not linear in relation to the pill numbers – that is, the flow change in going from say an 80 to an 85 pill is quite different to going from a 120 to 125 pill, even though both changes are five pill sizes. It’s flow area and pressure that matters. There are a lot of myths like that.”

Better air conditions will result in more power, but the change is less than than that experienced by a petrol-fuelled engine.

“If the tune-up is corrected properly, the fact that methanol cools the air so much means the cars aren't as fussy,” Gower said. “And this is a key to tuning them because the evaporation of methanol changes the air the engine sees.”

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Many teams use software to help them tune their set up and Gower said that not understanding how the software works or not setting it up properly initially is a problem.

It's an issue he has tried to address by developing his own tuning software package - Alky Pro. “I have gone into teams to help them and looking at how their tuning software is set up and it's often not right,” he said. “One of the things I have tried to do with Alky Pro is lay it out very logically so that racers can understand the fuel system better, they can see what everything is doing and if there is something wrong they can pick up on it.

“Good tuning software performs a number of tasks. It will calculate all the flow areas in the fuel system, the differential pressures and the total system pressure. It also calculates the air density based on current ambient conditions (temperature, humidity and barometric pressure) and provides the correct main jet the engine needs under those conditions. Finally it should be able to calculate what the jets or solenoids that many racers use for fuel management are doing at any point on the race track.”

Gower’s software takes the calculations a step further, using a methodology developed by US engineer Patrick Hale.

“We know the air entering an alcohol engine is drastically cooled by the injection of methanol,” he said. “In effect, these engines have chemical intercooling, so the air entering the engine is not what we’ve measured in the pits. Patrick’s method calculates the change in air density that occurs, and the result is a more accurate correction factor.”

Knowledge is power, and in drag racing that saying is quite literal. Gower said people should not be afraid to ask others for advice in setting up their fuel system to run methanol as it is a well trodden path.

“The knowledge is available to run it, all the components are available. Just start rich and keep an eye on the engine and plugs,” he said.

“Of course, there is a wide variance between a blown Outlaw car and a Top Alcohol car, there is a big range in between there.

“The TA guys and the AA/FC guys are revving the engines a lot harder, that gets into areas where you have to watch out for fuel pump cavitation. This happens when the gears in the pump are demanding fuel so quickly that the fuel can't fill the cavity created by the gears fast enough, and once the pressure drops below a certain point (the vapour pressure), you get cavitation and it creates a bubble which then collapses immediately. It can affect the flow of the pump at high RPM. You will see a slight drop off in fuel flow on your data. It’s dependent on pump design and a lot of people modify pumps to raise the RPM at which it occurs.”

Fuel pump choice is vital and Gower explained the options available.

“When it comes to fuel pumps, there are two broad classifications, those with cast bodies and those with billet bodies,” he said. “If you’re using a cast body pump, you need to keep the fuel pressure down, because the bodies aren’t rigid enough and they can lose significant flow at high pressures and RPM. “On the other hand, the billet pumps are quite linear up to several hundred pounds of pressure and they’re definitely the best choice. The pump should be flow tested on a good test bench and I believe they must be flowed with methanol.”

Gower said that racers should flow what they race in order to get the most accurate test of their fuel system “Many racers think it’s okay to flow test with water or a flow solvent and then make a correction which they believe gives the same results as flowing with methanol,” he said. “Unfortunately, these liquids don’t have the same physical properties as methanol and it affects the results.

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Top: A flow bench can test your fuel system and be of great assistance to tuning. However, Greg Gower recommends flowing with the fuel you are going to use, not water or flow solvents.

Bottom: Software such as Greg Gower's Alky Pro can help ensure that your methanol-fuelled engine is safe and making power. Knowledge and understanding of your fuel system is key, so to be sure to ask questions Opposite page: Craig Glassby's Top Alcohol Funny Car recently set a new world record for the breed with a 5.410 pass. Gower and Glassby's racing partnership extends back to the days of the Castrol team and Gary Miocevich's AA/FC.

“Viscosity affects the flow of the fluid through the entire system and especially the nozzles and surface tension affects the spray pattern, but the most important property when flowing pumps is the vapour pressure of the liquid.

“Water has a very different vapour pressure to methanol, so you will not see pump cavitation at the same point with water or any other liquid. If you want to know exactly what your fuel pump flows, and whether it cavitates at a certain RPM, it has to be methanol.

“I must add that flow testing with methanol is potentially hazardous and you have to take every precaution against a fire or explosion if you go this way.”

Continuing Gower's pro level tips, he advised against trusting the turbine flow sensors used on many cars.

“I’ve been told they are calibrated with water and after using them for many years on different race cars I’ve found them to be pretty inaccurate,” he said.

“The shape of the graph will be okay, but the actual numbers can be out by quite a bit. In order to trust an on-car turbine flow sensor, it should also be calibrated on a flow bench using methanol.”

At the advanced end of alcohol tuning, such as that kind

required to run a 5.410, there are many tricks that start to get employed. We got Greg to spill just a few of the beans on what people are up to and what has changed since he and the famed Castrol Top Alcohol Funny Car team ran the first alcohol five second pass in Australia in 1993.

“There's a lot of guys putting more injectors into the hat to get as much of a cooling effect as they can,” he said. “And one of the big things these days is fuel management. Guys are running multiple solenoids on the fuel system and they are adjusting how much fuel they’re injecting at different parts of the track. That is where the secrets are.

“Back when we were racing and ran the first five in the 90s we didn't know any of this stuff. It still amazes me we even ran that five. We had a PSI blower with an A or B-rotor, I can’t remember, but it was making about 25 pounds of boost, about half what we are making now. We didn't have the clutches, we didn't have the cylinder heads, we didn't have the knowledge we have now.

“It’d be interesting to know how quick we could have gone back then with good fuel management, but if I could have had one modern item back then, it’d have to be the PSI D-rotor.”

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QUARTER REPORTER

ANDRA ADDRESSES IHRA RUMOURMONGERS

National motorsport magazine Auto Action recently ran an article titled 'ANDRA & IHRA on collision course', sparking rumours of IHRA making a move into Australia.

National motorsport magazine Auto Action recently ran an article titled 'ANDRA & IHRA on collision course', sparking rumours of IHRA making a move into Australia.

An anonymous source was quoted in the article, claiming recent seasons of drag racing had been disasters and criticising ANDRA for calendar changes, but no firm details were given nor any plan for what an IHRA sanction would actually change.

ANDRA CEO Malcolm Bulley responded in ANDRA's Motormail, an e-newsletter sent out to all members.

“The article mentions Willowbank and an anonymous team owner who clearly doesn’t have an understanding of the calendar changes which were called upon at a workshop some three and a half years ago and then changed back due to member and track sentiment,” he said. “The case to return to a financial year was supported by seasonal trends and track

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locations.

“Without any parties acknowledging any negotiations, the written article can only be considered by ANDRA as a speculative, similar to what we have seen in the past. A similar action was tried in New Zealand which saw the sport suffer there for many years.”

Bulley said ANDRA traditionally doesn’t respond to rumours, but the destructive nature of some were doing nothing but 'pushing us back down the hill;.

“After discussions with various parties, no one has acknowledged any negotiations or discussions with another sanctioning body,” he said. “All stakeholders we have spoken to also agree with the ridiculous nature of splitting the sport in Australia after such a disastrous result with similar efforts in other countries.

“While ANDRA is committed to building the sport into a mainstream motorsport for the benefit of all parties, without a committed and unified approach it will just be that much harder. We are always available to listen to any aspect or idea for the betterment of the sport, but we need to ask ourselves if speaking to the media or even privately, 'how will this action help the sport and all my fellow competitors?'”

TOP FUEL READY TO RUMBLE IN PERTH The ANDRA Top Fuel championship opens up at Perth Motorplex with six drivers set to do battle in their nitro-fuelled dragsters on February 28 and March 1.

Coming into the season with renewed vigour is WA's Damien Harris, driver for the Sydney-based Rapisarda Autosport International team.

Harris said more than anything he wants to be able to hand an ANDRA championship trophy to team owner Santo Rapisarda.

“Our focus is purely on points. Winning is what we want but we need to collect as many points as possible every round,” he said.

The Nitro Max event features two individual championship round over two nights, each using one hit qualifying, an elimination round and a final (also known as the three round format), leaving no room for error with the 8,000 horsepower, 500kmh capable dragsters.

“The three round format doesn't give you any time to make mistakes,” he said. “We had an opportunity to come second in the championship last year and some decisions we made through the year weren't really the right ones, so now we are

aiming to maximise our point collection each time.”

Harris has recently spent time in Sydney testing with the team.

“Testing was positive, we made some changes in the clutch system and also the top end of the motor to try and make that a little bit more resilient,” he said. “The motor came apart clean and the clutch changes are really promising.”

Harris will be joined in Perth by a new team mate, with Sydney's Wayne Newby just as keen to push for a championship trophy.

The major difference is experience, with Newby able to count his full passes on one hand.

Newby said the biggest challenge of driving a nitro-fuelled dragster is the speed.

“The first launch I did I could see the 330 feet (100 metre) marker but by the time I had thought about it I was already there,” he said, describing the almost physics-bending acceleration of the dragster.

Before getting into the car to drive for the first time Newby consulted some Top Fuel drivers current and past to get their advice on what he was in for.

“Everyone has been very helpful,” he said. “They all said to be ready for the speed, you're going that much faster – and don't be late on the parachutes.”

Top: Damien Harris says a championship is the only focus for Rapisarda Autosport International this season.

Bottom: Wayne Newby has just a handful of passes under his belt but is backed by the knowledge of an experienced team.

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QUARTER

REPORTER

VALE: GARY MIOCEVICH The drag racing community were saddened on February 1 to hear of the passing of Gary Miocevich.

Gary’s vision, passion and energy are the reason the Perth Motorplex exists today.

Back in the nineties, when it became apparent both drag racing and speedway were at risk of losing their venues, he lobbied for the creation of Perth Motorplex, a state of the art home for motorsport in WA. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and

work with Gary have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Gary leaves behind a motorsport venue that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of the Perth Motorplex.

Miocevich was a fierce drag racer in his own right, having driven everything from supercharegd funny cars to a jet powered truck.

Gary was recognised by ANDRA in their 2014 Hall of Fame inductions and will long be remembered as one of the greatest contributors to drag racing in Australia.

Above: Gary Miocevich made his name as an administrator of the sport in the last two decades, but was also a fierce racer across a variety of vehicles.

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QUARTER

REPORTER

QDRC KICKS OFF 2015 SEASON AT WILLOWBANK The Willowbank drag racing season fired up with round one of the Queensland Drag Racing Championships on Valentine's Day, though a number of delays turned the event into somewhat of a marathon with winners crowned after the strike of midnight.

Again this year racing will be contested over three Chicago shootout style rounds with the best performer meeting in a final.

Rob Nunn was the king of index racing in Super Comp at this event with his B/AP Cobalt (7.250, 7.77 Index), defeating Tony Bellert's A/Dragster (6.999, 7.19IN) in the final.

Super Comp's two wheel equivalent in Comp Bike saw Peter Everett (9.786, 10.26IN) overcome Brandon Gosbell (9.258, 9.19IN) An all blown dragster QDRC Outlaws final pitted a wheelstanding Nathan Pullen against Josh Fletcher, a 7.344 (7.33 Dial In) too tough for Pullen's 6.57 (6.62DI).

Kelly Kidd red lit by just three thousandths in losing the Modified final to Bob Frawley.

In Modified Bike Jeff Sutchliffe went red by even less as he was just one thousandth from perfect, in the other lane

opponent Ken Collin was demonstrating ET perfection with a 9.990 (9.99DI) pass in claiming the trophy.

Two veteran stagers threw down in the Super Sedan final, Tony Whyatt cut a 8.886 (8.87DI) lap and was able to drive around Rick Nielsen's 10.419 (10.38DI).

Lucas Holz chalked another win up for his Torana in Super Street with Mark Petersen bringing the red on in his lane.

A clash of national champions in the Super Gas final was over at the tree with David Gauldie going red against Simon Isherwood.

A red light decided the Junior Dragster final as well with Dylan Leo presenting the win to Caleb Oberg.

In testing a few Top Alcohol cars had a shot. Gary Phillips was on the money off the trailer with his only pass of the day netting a 5.46 at 261mph.

The floppers of Steve Reed and Darren Fry carded bests of 5.64 each.

Peter Zelow is continuing to become accustomed to a blown dragster, and a 6.47 was his best attempt.

With the Sydney Jamboree just around the corner there was a flurry for Factory Extreme testing, Scott Porter's 6.50 at 224 proved to be the best of the bunch, while Collin Willshire was also into the sixes with a 6.89.

Left: Rob Nunn and Josh Fletcher were among the winners of the opening round of the Queensland Drag Racing Championship at Willowbank Raceway. Images by blacktrack.com.au.

NITRO CHAMPS NAME RETURNS, TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP CHANGES FOR SYDNEY Sydney Dragway has changed the branding of its major May event back to the Nitro Champs, making a popular decision to retire the X Champs branding.

Sydney Dragway General Manager Luke Smith confirmed a full line-up of categories including every Australian championship class featuring in the revamped event and importantly, full prizemoney has been guaranteed.

“We are proud to confirm that the venue will be paying 100% prize money payouts for this event,” Smith said. “It’s what we have been aiming for and it’s fantastic for our competitors and great for our venue.”

Also in for some changes is the track championship series.

“We will be offering a $1000 spectator prize as an incentive for spectators to turn up to each round,” Smith said.

“We are also offering $1000 for the first competitor who cuts a perfect .000 light. It’s a cool prize that’s open to all brackets.”

The Outlaw 10.5 class are going to be something of a feature across the season, with the racer group developing a prize money pool that utilises the investment of the bracket’s own sponsors, as well as the racer’s own ‘buy-in’.

“This extra prize money is at no cost to us as a venue, but what it does do is provide a decent incentive for 10.5s to race each round and compete for the championship and that’s exactly the sort of initiative that we want to develop,” Smith said.

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MR YES

Welcome to Mr Yes and Mr No. This month our anonymous contributors debate: should Nitro Funny Cars have championship status?

Now we are talking. Nitro Funny Cars – drag racing's wildest vehicles – deserve a place in our national series. But strangely for someone arguing in the positive, I am going to put a caveat on that.

There is no getting around the fact that Nitro Funny Cars are very limited in number in Australia. So if a national title is brought back I believe it should be a single event, winner takes all type scenario that one track can promote the hell out of. Invite every active Funny Car in the country to take part and see who comes away with the title. I would run not just the big show cars, but also the Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars as well, all heads up. If one of the high five second, but more consistent ONFCs can come away with the win then well done to them. Though there is a performance differential I would say the consistency advantage those cars have could make it a pretty thrilling event to watch.

To have a national title, with an ANDRA Gold Christmas Tree on offer, would be a great reward for the Nitro Funny Car teams who have persevered over the years in delivering a show for the Australian public, paying their licence fees and keeping a fan favourite alive.

Would it really hurt anybody to have this single national championship event as part of the Australian drag racing calendar? If the racers want to travel and race at it, the promoters want to market it and the spectators want to attend it then what do we have to lose?

ANDRA should simply allow tracks to tender for the title race. The track that puts together the best package for racers and fans gets to host the event. It would certainly be a prestigious one to hold. .

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MR NO

Ahh this old chestnut, I knew this one would come up for debate eventually! Sorry race fans, you may not like what I am about to say.

The time of the big show Nitro Funny Car in Australia is long gone. There have been a couple of hold outs but the reality is that there are fewer active big show cars in the country than ever before. On the other hand the Outlaw Nitro Funny Car contingent has really grown and this has really been what people are crying out for.

The problem with the big show cars is that they are very expensive to run and maintain and notoriously unreliable. The Outlaw Nitro Funny Car gives people the chance to run a funny car on nitro but in a way that suits their budget. It could be argued that many teams that have gone into big show cars have done so with less than suitable cash streams behind them.

Australia needs to concentrate on its one national championship nitro car category, being Top Fuel, let the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car Series keep going from strength to strength, and let big show Nitro Funny Car go by the by.

Match racing is what the big show cars have been doing and it is where it should stay. If there were eight cars all tearing up the countryside then I would be forced to reconsider, but the reality is we are down to very few active teams, with no real growth on the horizon.

Australian big show Nitro Funny Car – RIP.

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