The fourth and final day of the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals saw another packed crowd enthralled with record-breaking and head-turning performances from the best of the best of Australian NDRC drag racing at Willowbank Raceway.
It was one of the biggest drag racing events in years with huge crowds on both Saturday and Sunday. As well as hosting the traditional competition for highly lauded Winternationals crowns, Sunday’s race-day also saw the 2024/2025 NDRC Top Fuel Motorcycle, Pro Alcohol and Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship seasons come to a close while Top Fuel, XPRO Nitro Funny Car, Top Doorslammer, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle and FuelTech Pro Mod enjoyed the penultimate round of their championship chases.
It was a winning weekend for Damian Muscat in Top Fuel Motorcycle, top qualifying, winning the event, and taking out the Top Fuel Motorcycle Championship in what was the bracket’s season finale – but it was also far from an easy weekend with lots of work required from the rider and crew to make it all possible. Muscat had earlier raced against Corey Buttigieg and Ian Ashelford on his way to the final, while runner-up and last year’s champion, Benny Stevens, had put championship runner-up Greg Durack and team mate Michael Beland on the trailer.
“After Friday’s broken crank and yesterday we torched a motor and basically torched every air line, every fuel line, every oil line, and every electrical component in the bike, the crew spent all night repairing it, going to bed at 3.00am this morning,” Muscat explained.
“We woke up Sunday to a beautiful day of racing and a great crowd in the stands, and we got through the rounds to take the ultimate Winternationals win, and the championship win as well.
“This JTS Transport/Transit Tyres Rocket Ship has been on fire all season, and we have won every event that we have raced at this season, so you have got to be more than happy with that!
“I want to say a big thank you to my crew for their tireless work – crew chief Brodie Pilkington, tuner Morice McMillin, and crew members Aaron Holland, Brad Luff, Jonno Warrell, Roly Parker, Paul Davies, Geoff Dell, and many other people along the way that have helped us. Plus a special thanks to my wife Tracey for putting up with me and supporting my craziness.
“Thank you also to our sponsors, JTS Transport, Transit Tyres, Aeroflow Rocket, Degoey Contractors, C and C Mining and Civil, Easy Net, Great Northern Motorcycle Adventures, BL & SG Lake Brick Cartage, Whem Equipment Hire, Applied Automotive Engineering, FUCHS Lubricants and Sammut Harvesting Hydraulics for all of their continued support, lets see what next year brings!”
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Scott White turned plenty of heads with his win over championship leader Luke Crowley this afternoon. White had earned his place in the final by taking wins from Vanessa Rohdmann in round one and Paul Andrews in round two, while top qualifier Crowley had defeated Tony Frost and Daniel Rabnott on his way to the final battle for the popular two-wheeled bracket.
“Far out! I have been waiting for this for so long. I ran my first Pro Bike meeting here in 1991 and it’s taken all this time to win the Winternationals,” White said.
“It’s amazing that it was against Luke who has helped us out so much, it’s just incredible to win this after 34 years with side by side 7.0’s – we’re back!”
Taking out the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship titles for their respective brackets were Dean Jamieson (Modified Bike, over Sean Ricketts), Lillian Hagan (Junior Drag Bike, over Lawrence Raschella), Luke ‘Tex’ Griffiths (Super Street, over Troy Hutton), David Foster (Top Sportsman, over Vlado Turic), Tony Miskelly (Super Sedan, over Robert Kardum), Cory Dyson (Modified, over Daniel Carranza), Ken Collin (Performance Bike, over Cheryl ‘MsVrod’ Beddoes), Mark Hunt (Supercharged Outlaws, over Kasey McClure), and Pat Firriolo (Super Comp, over Warren Allen).
Also awarded at the end-of-event presentations were the event winners and runners-up, with the following racers taking out the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals accolades: Dale Marshall (Modified Bike, over Geoffrey Marshall), Steve Warren (Real Street, over Paul Neilsen), Karl Schulz (Junior Dragster, over Shavaun Harvey), Cooper Ashelford (Junior Drag Bike, over Jayden Badcock), Lachlan Maccaskell (Super Street, over Ray Ross), Daniel Morris (Top Sportsman, over Tony Whyatt), Paul Doeblien (Super Sedan, over Chevy Taylor), Adriana Cartledge (Modified, over Chelsea Smith), Matt Walker (Extreme Bike, over Nathan Neilson), Pete Farnell (Performance Bike, over Ken Collin), Fiona Reed (Supercharged Outlaws, over Peter Byrne), and Warren Allen (SuperComp, over Craig Geddes).
Stay tuned across the coming week for further Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship reporting from the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals.
There is still more racing to come on NDRC event calendar with Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car to do battle in an epic finale at the Nitro Nationals at Sydney Dragway (23 August) and the Top Doorslammer finale at Nitro Up North at Hidden Valley Raceway (29-30 August). The Spring Nationals at Dragway at The Bend across October 3-5 will then host the final rounds for Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle and FuelTech Pro Mod, while also hosting a race for world records for Top Fuel
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