2 November 2010
From Competition Plus Written by Tracy Renck
Usually qualifying 15th and losing in the second round at a NHRA national event would not invoke a celebration.
Not so with Mark Mariani who couldn't wipe the smile off his face.
Mariani and his Rapisarda Racing team, which is based in Sydney, Australia, were making their NHRA debut at the Las Vegas Nationals which concluded Sunday.
“This was a dream come true to get to come over here and compete in this event and then make it out of the first round,” Mariani said. “This was just an awesome experience.”
Mariana scored one of the biggest upsets of the NHRA season when he beat championship contender Cory McClenathan in the first round. Mariani clocked a solid 3.930 run at 307.44 mph to get past Cory Mac’s 4.312 effort which was plagued by engine problems.
Knocking off a star like Cory Mac, who drives for Don Schumacher Racing, actually wasn’t totally unimaginable for Mariani.
“We would not have come over here (to America) unless we thought we had a shot at it (doing well),” Mariani said. “The main thing was qualifying and then we knew anything could happen on race day and it did. I think Santo (Rapisarda) is pretty happy with what we did. This was just unbelievable. As a kid, I watched my dad drag race and I always watched all these guys here (in America) on TV. I thought it would be great to race in America one day and I thought it might not be achievable. Then, I finally got the opportunity to come over here and I can’t say how important it is to me. It is like getting the call to go the Olympics. This is the big show.”
Santo Rapisarda is Mariani’s team owner, and he just made the decision to come race in America two months ago. Rapisarda operates a major crane business in Australia.
“We shipped our stuff two months ago and it takes a month to get here,” Mariani said. “This was the David Baca operation he used to compete in the NHRA and Santo bought it about a year and a half ago. Santo was thinking about racing at Reading, Pa., then Vegas and Pomona, but we’re not a paid team. All the boys you see here, apart from a couple, do it out of love. They have jobs and they have bills to pay, so being over here (in America) for seven or eight weeks with only four weeks holiday pay was going to be pretty hard. We decided to put our toe in the water for a four-week stint. Everybody was coming over for Vegas and Pomona, and then we will see how it all works out. I think Santo might be thinking about doing something next year, but I can’t really say anything at the moment.”
The 46th Auto Club NHRA Finals are Nov. 11-14 in Pomona, Calif.
Mariani said the car he was driving in Vegas and will pilot in Pomona was the car his teammate Alan Dobson drove in Australia this past season.
“We have four Top Fuel cars and a Funny Car,” Mariani said. “We have only tested the Funny Car. We bought that off of (Don) Prudhomme last year. Funny Car is starting to get a little bit bigger in Australia, but we do not have a class for it right now. Of the four Top Fuel cars we have sitting there, one is an old one, we have two good ones and we have this one (the one he drove in Vegas) which we classify as the best one. Santo has been involved with drag racing pretty much his whole life and the main thing was just getting out here (to America).”
This season, the Rapisarda Racing team is running in memory of Louie Rapisarda, Santo’s son. Louie died on July 22, 1990, after making a time trial run at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland. The engine in his dragster exploded and when oil from the blown engine got on his rear tires, Louie lost control and smashed into the guard rail and died. Louie was only 23.
“It was dream Santo and Louie had all their lives to do (to race in the NHRA),” Mariani said. “Santo is at the point and time now where he can actually do this, so he has decided to give it a shot. Every drag racer wants to race in America.”
Mariani says he’s been racing Top Fuel dragsters in Australia for six years.
“Santo and my dad and Jim Read, basically when I was a kid, they were racing Top Fuel together,” the 34-year-old Mariani said. “Now, in Australia we run about eight races a year, from September to July.”
Despite his team’s amazing debut in Las Vegas, Mariani is keeping things in perspective for Pomona.
“We just need to continue to get experience,” he said. “Getting in the field and winning a round in Las Vegas was fantastic for us and we just need to build on that performance.”