Words and photos by Jon Van Daal - 12/20/2007

It is hard to believe that for over fifty years promoters have been bringing out American teams to race in Australia. Drag Fest in 1966 firstly showed the local fans what Top Fuel dragsters were all about and since then a combination of funny cars, wheel-standers and more fuel dragsters have graced our shores. Everyone from Don Garlits to “Wild Bill” Shrewsberry to John Force have come down under and shown the Aussie fans what it is all about – earlier this month Top Fuel drivers Cory McClenathan and Mike Dunn came to Western Sydney International Dragway to take on Australia’s best.

In the years since the track opened an American tour has been part of the annual fare with Dunn driving for Santo Rapisarda in 2004 and winning the event. After tours by Scott Kalitta and transplanted Aussie, Dave Grubnic, Dunn was back again to try and win another Aussie event. Joining him was Cory McClenathan who was teamed up again with the car he last raced in 1999. McClenathan was singing the praises of the track and the staff or WSID and he didn’t disappoint as he made it all the way to the final.

Martin Stamatis only just squeaked past teammate, Phil Read in qualifying – 4.684 to 4.686 for the top spot. Despite such a great start to the event, in the first round his car couldn’t engage gears after the burnout and had to let opponent, Mark Mariani go it alone much to the despair of the Westralian.

The event was held in one of Sydney’s wettest patches in twenty years, with two of the three events in the last month being rained out. It was raining when I left home on Saturday morning and coastal showers on and off all day had a big impact on the crowds even though it never rained at the event all day. No doubt Xmas shopping and office get-togethers also impacted on the spectator count a couple of weeks out from Xmas with the Sunday count also way down on expected numbers. A severe thunderstorm on Sunday afternoon dumped giant hailstones and driving rain on a scattering crowd and trashed yours truly’s car. Despite the carnage, eliminations resumed some ninety minutes later and the event was wrapped up later that evening.