First Event in Australia Run at A Thousand Feet

Words by Luke Nieuwhof
Photos by Luke Nieuwhof and Grant Stephens

Darren Morgan, John Cannuli, Chris Matheson and Locky Ireland will go down in history as the winners of the first championship drag racing event over 1000 feet in Australia following an exciting race day April 15th at the Pro Series 1000 in Adelaide.

Top Fuel

Darren Morgan (Luke Nieuwhof photo)

Morgan’s AEG team took the final over Phil Lamattina’s Fuchs dragster with a 4.65 at 409 kmh (254.11 mph) as a strategic approach to gaining data on the new race surface proved successful with the reigning champion taking over the ANDRA Pro Series points lead.

“Leading the championship is always better than being behind,” Morgan said. “We’re on top of this new car now so we should be right for the remaining two rounds.

“In qualifying with some runs I had to let it do what it was going to do so (crew chief) Benny could learn from it. Once we had that figured out Ben knew where to go with it.”

Morgan has a 12.5-point lead over Andrew Cowin, who top qualified and reached the semi finals, with the points leader going into the event, Damien Harris, falling to third.

W: Darren Morgan RT 0.236 ET 4.655 MPH 254.30
RU: Phil Lamattina RT 0.128 ET 6.825 MPH 94.75
Low ET: 4.372 (Andrew Cowin)
Top Speed: 270.67mph (Phil Lamattina)