Triple Challenge Nitro Funny Cars at Sydney Dragway

TRIPLE TREAT

Words and photos by Jon Van Daal

Following two years of the Aeroflow “Nite of Fire” Outlaw Nitro Funny Car event at Sydney Dragway the latest version held last month was called the Aeroflow “Triple Challenge”. This saw the biggest field of nitro burning funny cars ever assembled in Australia (fourteen cars) as well as a three-hour burnout show and all day drift demonstrations in an effort to tempt the public. Amazingly while a good crowd were on hand for the day time burnouts when the fuel floppers came out in the evening alas most had left.

Attracting crowds to events in general and drag racing in particular has been an ongoing problem in the Australian sporting arena over the last couple of years. It’s therefore hats off to the management team at Sydney Dragway and the folks at the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro funny cars for trying to come out with something new and different. This dilemma is explained by the group’s operations manager Steve Bettes. “Getting families out to events is tougher than ever with all of the options that are available today. What our team at Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars believe is that if we put on a compelling and almighty show, we can get them to put down their phones, turn off their TVs and get them out to watch what will be the best thing they have ever seen!” he stated.

The afternoon burnout competition was headed by thirty of the top entries in the field of smoke generation and the assembled crowd just couldn’t get enough of it. Like myself, they quickly found themselves coated in a veil of tiny sticky rubber balls that covered one from hair to hoof - there were plenty there who found themselves leaving the venue with a darker skin shade than they arrived with.

Bettes liked what he saw and said after the spectacle, “To have such high level burnout cars to open the show was just something special. It was a great way to start the nitro show with smoke and fire”. Each driver was awarded points in the first round of competition and after the judges did their sums Peter Grumsa’s ATRISK Ford Falcon just held off GM-Holden Commodore rival, Craig Whiddett’s CUTSIK by a half a point making it one very close battle. “The crowd loved the burnouts and the drifting too, it was really something different for Sydney Dragway as well as for us as a series”, Bettes went on to say.

While the burnouts attracted a good crowd on the hill the nearby Drift Demonstration and the EOY Festival cars saw a large number of spectators getting out and about. When you add that to the people watching the work going on for the nitro cars in the pits, the place was chock a block. One interested spectator was Californian NHRA funny car driver and former US Nationals winner, Gary Densham. Densham, who was accompanied by his Joanne, was on holidays but has had an ongoing love of Australia.

Backing up the funny cars were four “Outlaw” brackets comprising of Street, Modified, Supercharged and the Pro Outlaw brackets. This was a mix and match idea with a lot of cars facing vehicles that weren’t normally in their traditional eliminator. All up there was a very positive vibe from both competitors and the crowds alike so no doubt we may see this again.

Since joining the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car series, Sydney driver, Rick Gauci has become one of the most successful drivers on the flopper circuit. Driving the "Nitro Express" '57 Chevrolet he has often had the quickest and fastest hot rod on the property and nothing was to change at the third Sydney event. In the first round of competition he faced the Donovan powered "The Bandit" Trans Am of Darren Morgan and pipped the former Top Fuel champion off the line by eight hundredths and then pulled away to record a 5.800/252.28 to 6.077 win at a slowing 186.38