Top Fuel and Top Alcohol both add two more championship rounds to their tally when the Santo’s Cranes Super 3 Extreme Drag Race hits Willowbank Raceway in March 29 and 30.
For Top Fuel it marks rounds six and seven of the championship and is the second time they have run the ‘double header’ championship format, following its successful debut at Perth Motorplex in February.
Given the event is a new one, it does not have a previous winner, however last time the Top Fuel dragsters were out at Willowbank Raceway Allan Dobson took the win, driving for the Rapisarda Autosport International team, over Andrew Cowin.
Dobson ran the fourth quickest time of the season, a 4.649 en route to the Winternationals win.
The quick pass showed the Rapisarda team knew Willowbank Raceway well. With three times world champion Larry Dixon coming into the driver’s seat for this event and highly decorated crew chief Lee Beard to provide the tune up, they will be tough to beat.
The Rapisarda Autosport International team is coming from qualifying for three straight NHRA events in the USA, where they currently sit 11th in the standings of the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
Chief rival to Dixon’s chances is likely to be ANDRA points leader Phil Lamattina, driving the Fuchs dragster. Lamattina has now made five consecutive finals and won the last two rounds of the championship. He also holds the quickest time recorded so far this season, a 4.662 at round four of the championship in Perth.
Top Fuel drivers will also be competing for the Louie Rapisarda Top Fuel Trophy, awarded to the team earning the most points across the event. The trophy is in memory of Louie Rapisarda, the son of Top Fuel team owner Santo Rapisarda, who passed away in a racing accident in 1990.
In Top Alcohol, Gary Phillips comes into the event with the championship lead, though fellow Queenslanders Steve Reed and John Cannuli are hot on his heels.
The last time Top Alcohol was at the Ipswich motorsport venue, Reed’s Allstar Batteries/Royal Wolf Funny Car won the event against Jamie Noonan, who was unable to make it to the final after suffering supercharger damage in the semi finals.
Reed has been on a run of form lately, his last five race appearances seeing him having made it to the finals three times and the semi finals twice.
Winner of the last championship round, held in Adelaide, was Wayne Newby, however the JBS Tools Funny Car is still relatively new and he is searching for form on the quarter mile.
The Santo’s Cranes Super 3 Extreme Drag Race utilises the three round format to decide a winner on each day. This is made up of a single compulsory qualifying session, an elimination round and then finals. Finalists are made up of the quickest winners from the elimination round. The two quickest winners go into the final, with the third and fourth quickest running off in a consolation final.
As a double championship round, 60% of standard points are allocating, excepting qualifying points which are allocated at 100%.
Qualifying begins at 5pm on each day, with the elimination round at 7pm and the finals at 9pm.