ANDRA Nitro Champs at Sydney

SINGLE RUN THEORY

Words and photos by Jon Van Daal

The recent ANDRA Nitro Champs at Sydney Dragway went close to being the best ever event at the venue, none more so than in the Top Doorslammer (Pro Modified) bracket. Nineteen cars were entered for an eight car field but as you exclusively saw on DRO recently the brand new Lucas Oils Camaro of Gary Phillips crashed on a familiarisation pass at a test and tune prior to the event cutting the field to eighteen. It was very close on the qualifying list with the quickest bump spot ever of 6.000.

Australia’s quickest sedan bracket has been limited to eight cars for some time after the racers themselves voted not to go to a sixteen car field. Some racers didn’t want to make an additional run in eliminations while others didn’t think that the final show would be good enough with such a large gap in performance between drivers. Talks have been underway with ANDRA and the Top Doorslammer drivers of late about taking the bracket to sixteen cars like the ANDRA Pro Stock bracket. On the Friday night of the event the Doorslammer drivers met and once further prize money is forth coming then the move to a sixteen car field will happen as multiple Australian Top Doorslammer champion, Victor Bray explained.

“Originally we voted for eight cars because at the time the performance gap between the top cars and those at the bottom of the bracket would not deliver a good show. We now have two cars in the 5.70s, eight in the 5.80s and four more in the fives so the time is right to move up to a sixteen car field. This could happen at the ANDRA Winternationals (in four weeks from when I write this) but obviously the extra funds need to be addressed”, he informed me.

This is where the photo of the Top Doorslammer final should appear however in the end only one car had made it to the final (see below- Ed). Second generation racer, Mark Belleri has been working hard with father Lucky at trying to put their Chev Camaro back into the winners circle. A 5.992 in qualifying put him in the field at fifth and he faced Russell Pavey’s Corvette in round one. After the burnouts Pavey’s car could make it back to the start-line as his clutch pedal had broken and Belleri took a single. Just as well as he recalls. “At half track the engine burned a piston and blew the burst panel out. On returning to the pits we had to replace the piston, sleeve, head and blower parts and came out to face Peter Kapiris”, he revealed. He managed to grab almost three and half tenths on Kapiris off the line and then at the 1000 foot mark he torched the other head but still ran a 5.974 at only 214.45. The engine also burnt away a lot of wiring and fuel lines but he still managed to head Kapiris through the lights. The team were virtually out of parts but with no opponent to face in the final because both Zappia and O’Connor were disqualified, they decided to go for it. “We didn’t run fuel to No. 7 and 8 piston and we took out the spark plugs so they wouldn’t fire and made it to the line on six cylinders, we staged, accepted the green and took the win”, a relieved Belleri added. “If we were to face an opponent then we wouldn’t have come out to contest the final”, he concluded.