This car was a sister car to the Tom McEwen ‘57 Chevy. Originally owned by Gerry Moreland the car did a handful of laps with Gary Scelzi at the butterfly after it originally came out of Steve Pleuger’s chassis shop in the late 80s. Andrew had laid down a couple of check out passes before debuting the car at the Sydney NDRA event.

The funny car was joined by the three nostalgia front engined dragsters driven by Norm Longfield, Mark Mariani and Dave Armstrong in a Chicago style three round, all run exhibition bracket. Longfield had the ex-Jim Murphy WW2 car and was the quickest in Australia up to that point recording best times of 6.07 and 229 mph. Mariani had just returned from the NHRA World Finals and was rearing to go in Steve Turner’s “Black Widow” FED while Dave Armstrong was the newest of the bunch with his Donovan powered car.

In the first round Cowin faced Mariani and both did copious burnouts to block out the startline. On the leave both left on lazy lights but Cowin was straight and true with the quickest nostalgia pass ever – a 6.037/227.11 while Mariani recorded a 6.649/218.51 pass. The second pairing saw an even bigger gap when Longfield’s 6.13/229.13 more than covered a second best 8.05.

After the first round the Turner/Mariani combo found they had bent some valves and upon warming it up had a fuel leak that took a while to fix. They towed around to face Norm Longfield but on the burnout oil poured on to the track from a couple of holes in the pan. A rod bolt had broken and the car was parked for the rest of the day. Longfield’s JP1 powered car took a single in exactly 6.211 seconds.

Cowin faced Dave Armstrong in the other duel with the later grabbing a half a second off the line. Unfortunately the Donovan was no match for the fleeing flopper and what looked to be Australia’s first nostalgia five was instead an oh so close 6.000/234.49 that turned back an 8.325. This then saw Cowin and Longfield dukeing it out for the final.

With the sun lower in the sky the two quickest nostalgia cars in Australia did side by side burnouts. Still coming to grips with the ’57 Chevy, Cowin was again second off the line but with the cooler air the flopper recorded Australia’s first five second pass – a stunning 5.898. It also recorded the country’s best ever speed – a superb 241.02. Longfield recorded a 7.07 in defeat after losing a blower belt. Dave Armstrong then soloed for his best time – an improving 7.649/185.51.