Another capacity crowd at Willowbank Raceway has again been treated to record breaking performances from the National Drag Racing Championship (NDRC) racers today as the 2026 Gulf Western Oil Winternationals – the largest championship drag racing event held outside of North America – came to a close.
As part of an action packed day, the huge crowd paid witness to not only winning performances, but also Australia’s fastest Top Fuel Speed (540.45kph – Damien Harris), Australia’s quickest Top Doorslammer ET (again, with Russell Taylor bettering yesterday’s mark to 5.551 seconds), and Australia’s fastest Top Doorslammer Speed (429.35kph – Emilio Spinozzi), as well as no less than 8 three-second passes and 11 set at more than 500kph across BLAHST Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car.
In Pro Stock Bike, consistency was the name of the game for Ryan Learmonth, taking the win over Paul Andrews with a 7.430 second pass at 289.63kph to Andrews’ 8.590/179.76kph effort. Learmonth had earlier dispatched Sam Scerri (7.360/294.89kph v 7.439/297.11kph) in round one and points leader Callam Godeassi in round two (7.401/291.14kph); while Andrews had a round one solo before defeating Locky Ireland in the semis (7.639/291.77kph v 8.005/283.77kph).
In Top Fuel Motorcycle, Neville Smith took the win over John Zahra, with the issues that had plagued Zahra all weekend long continuing in the finale while Smith blazed across the line with flames coming from his bike (7.321). Smith had enjoyed two bye runs in round one and two, while Zahra had defeated a red-lighting Corey Buttigieg in round one before a semis solo.
Also on-track this weekend was a massive contingent of Aeroflow Sportsman Championship racers from all across the country. When all was said and done after four big days of racing, it was Brian Alvisio (Modified Bike, over Johnny Lewis), Zayne Condello (Aeroflow Junior Dragster, over Karl Schulz), Lawrence Raschella (Aeroflow Junior Drag Bike, over Jetayah Chalk), Matt Francis (Super Street, over Ace Edwards), Tony Whyatt (Top Sportsman, over Shaun Doeblien), Mitchell Bauer (Super Sedan, over Alan Hutchen), Daniel ‘BatDan’ Carranza (Modified, over Phil Bellert), Craig Edwards (Performance Bike, over Edge Mallis), Sally Watts (Supercharged Outlaws, over Garry Cameron – who thankfully walked away from a heavy crash in the final), and John Parisi (SuperComp, over Steve Sloan).
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