The Fuchs LTFR Top Fuel dragster opened the 2012/13 ANDRA championship season in style with a runner-up trophy and a new track record at Adelaide International Raceway on Saturday.
After topping the qualifying sheets with a 4.33-second pass, Lamattina made his way to the final to face off against last season’s champion, Darren Morgan.
The second LTFR car driven by Luke Shepherd suffered some mechanical gremlins, which restricted the performance for the car across the weekend.
The final match up was a repeat of the final from the last event at Adelaide in April but a Lamattina red light decided the race.
“I’m not sure what happened but you can’t change the result, well done to Darren and his team,” he said.
“We had a great race car here and we take home bonus points for being the quickest car, the track record and the fastest recorded 1000 foot pass in Australia too.
“It was a great event, well done to the Racing Onn crew for battling through and making this a great race meeting, the crowd was huge, we had our new sponsors, Elders Insurance at the track and the teams put on a great show.”
A shiny new livery was also well received by fans.
“The crowd feedback on the new look car was pretty cool, the ‘Chrome Bullet’ is what people were calling it,” Lamattina said. “The car went well and looks good, in Sydney it’s time to get some gold to go with that chrome.”
The ANDRA Drag Racing Series now heads to Sydney Dragway for the Australian Nationals from November 2-4.