When ANDRA decided to change the format of the Australian Drag Racing Championship series from a June finish to a November finish no-one was ready for the change over that saw the longest ever race to the title in this country’s history. This saw an extremely tough assault on both men and machines that would separate the men from the boys and this produced a number of thrilling marathon contests that in some cases went down to the final round of their respective brackets.
Rookie driver, John Lamattina was racing veteran peddeler, Terry Sainty in their first round match when all hell broke loose. After Sainty smoked the tyres, Lamattina legged it through for a 4.971/229.59 winning pass but left a trail of oil thanks to this massive fire. The engine was rebuilt, but on fire-up they had an ignition issue and in the end they flat ran out of time, allowing Damien Harris to take a solo win in exactly 4.942 seconds.
Both semi-finals saw Lamattina versus Rapisarda Autosport International matches. Both Lamattina cars however were experienced horrific fires with John Lamattina ‘s car being so badly damaged that he couldn’t return.   In his race with Tommy Johnson Junior, Phil Lamattina had a fire that lasted from third track until the car was shut down near the sand pit. As can be seen here Lamattina had a solid fire on board however his 5.147/215.34 was too good for a second best 5.268 from Phil Read.