Words and photos by Jon Van Daal

The 2011 drag racing season down under has been one that most Australian fans would rather forget, what with cyclones, floods and other extreme weather wiping out a lot of the ANDRA season thus far. Mother Nature wasn’t done yet as the Nitro Champs at Sydney Dragway was also nearly a victim to the rain, however tenacious track officials, racers and a small band of hardy spectators saw the event shine in the end.

Over 300 teams from all over the country and New Zealand descended on the Sydney track with full fields in most brackets.

The facility itself had seen a change in management and a re-invigorated ethos had swept through the track and it was hoped that the tide would turn with this being the last major event for the current season. Hopes were to be dashed though as on again, off again rain came in off the sea causing many disruptions on the Friday and Saturday of qualifying. It was to be the wettest April in 72 years.

Sunday however, dawned bright and sunny and the event would go into the books as one of hardest fought there since it opened both on and off the track.

TOP FUEL

Westralian driver Damien Harris (near lane) had the throttle cable snap on the green in the final and the top qualifier had to watch the Auto One car of opponent, Phil Read tear off into the distance to record a winning 4.900/291.82 pass. The run was the final pairing after almost a day and a half of qualifying and eliminations had been fitted into race day and despite being run at 8pm Read was able to get down the track and take his first win in quite some time.

The bright yellow fuel dragster of Damien Harris was the only car to make it down the track during qualifying with a 4.813 that was over a second and half in front of his nearest rival. He ran bracket like 4.823 and 4.810 times in the early rounds disposing of messieurs Shepherd and Mariani to make his way to the final. There a broken throttle cable snuffed out the big engine and he was left to roll to a 14.184 defeat – not the kind of finish that he and his team had envisioned.