The last time that Chris Matherson raced at Sydney Dragway his one of a kind 1500 cc McBride Special nitro sickle ended up half way up the hill in the braking area and Matherson was in hospital recovering from his injuries. He has since rebuilt the bike and chose to debut it at the Nationals. This saw the fifteen foot long fueller crank out a top qualifying 6.962 to just be ahead of second placed Gavin Spann’s 6.975. The first round saw the Queenslander take a 14.143 solo pass after the bike had trouble getting off the line. Still the bike had proved itself and would just take some sorting out to ensure that it was back to its former best.

The final of Pro Stock Bike saw the two 1655 cc Vance and Hines powered Suzukis of Maurice Allen and Luke Crowley (near lane) line up against each other. The two had qualified first and second with Crowley’s 7.228 leading Allen’s 7.358 and in all there were only six bikes on the property. With Crowley having a performance advantage over Allen it appeared that the latter would really have to step it up to keep up with his opponent, problem was no one told Crowley who promptly red lighted his chances away. Allen was jubilant and ran a 7.449/175.25 to cement his win as he explained. “We broke the crank in two at Calder two weeks ago, the engine went straight in the bin,” he said. “We weren’t overly confident but we knew we had an engine at least that ran. We wanted to end the season with some representation and do well for Milwaukee Tools. We knew we had consistency and good form. We realised the engine was as good as it needed to be. You need to go out there and have belief in what you’re doing”, he stated.