More than 23,000 drag racing fans flocked to what has been Sydney’s biggest drag racing show in years at the weekend for the National Drag Racing Championship’s Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs.
On-track were an incredible 75 Group One racers across all eight elite level brackets, giving fans the chance to experience 11,000hp/500kph+ Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Cars, Top Doorslammers, Top Fuel Motorcycles, Pro Alcohol, Pro Stock, FuelTech Pro Mod, and Pro Stock Motorcycle competition all at the one event.
Joining them on-track were 206 Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship competitors across 11 brackets, plus 1531 crew members, all working together to provide an immense drag racing experience for the huge crowd of 23,1185 spectators, racers, crews, sponsors and guests (Friday 3,096, Saturday 12,234, and Sunday 7,855).
As well as incredible racing action, the fans also were treated to some exciting breaking news – the announcement of a brand-new NDRC Nitro Nationals Grand Final event to be held at Sydney Dragway on August 23.
This ultimate showdown will deliver two huge grand finals in one massive day as the flame-throwing Top Fuelers and XPRO Nitro Funny Cars battle it out in edge of your seat, championship deciding chaos. 500 early bird tickets for this event are on sale now to celebrate the announcement – please click here for more info.
When it came to the NDRC Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs racing, the quality of the on-track performances well and truly matched the quality of the above numbers.
Visiting US star Larry Dixon and flying Kiwi Morice McMillin lead the way by taking out the wins in Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car respectively, with Top Fuel heralding its fifth different winner from five events while McMillin celebrated a hat-trick. They defeated Top Fuel championship winner Wayne Newby and defending XPRO Nitro Funny Car champion Justin Walshe in their respective A-Finals.
Top Fuel Motorcycle’s ‘5-second man’, also known as Damian Muscat, again put on another impressive show for the packed crowd at Sydney Dragway to take the A-Final against Ian Ashelford (6.122/358.80kph over 7.410/253.95kph). While he didn’t make it back into the fives on Sunday, it was still an impressive weekend for the Queenslander who dipped into the fives (5.936s/368.36kph) during the first round of racing on Saturday night.
Next up for the NDRC’s major event calendar is the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway (June 5-8) and the abovementioned Nitro Nationals at Sydney Dragway (August 23). For details on these and other upcoming NDRC events, please visit https://nationaldragracing.com.au/calendar/
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