NITRO NIRVANA

Words and photos by Jon Van Daal

The 2010 Nitro Champs at Sydney (new Western Sydney) Dragway was the first major event since the Australian Nationals eight months ago that hasn’t been affected by rain – the five-year drought is definitely over. Despite cold and threatening skies on the first day the weather did cheer up and by Sunday there was a brilliant fall sky.

The majority of ANDRA national events are held in the warmer months of the year with qualifying during the day and at night. As was the case two weeks earlier at Willowbank the higher horse powered cars had all sorts of problems getting down the track at this event after dark and fortunately no high-speed accidents occurred. For some reason when it comes to the later part of the season the tracks don’t feel that they draw a crowd unless they run at night despite the fact that most other forms of motor racing are run in daylight hours.

The Saturday night crowd was probably the best at the venue for over a year despite the fact that it wasn’t warm and that by about 8 pm the show was over – still the weekend produced some of the best Pro Stock times in a while and the Sunday show was one of the best in a long time and made up for any of short comings in qualifying.