I must admit I was extremely impressed with just how far the PremiAir Hire Top Fuel dragster team have come in such a short time. In America there is an event almost every other week to keep on top of tuning whereas down here you can virtually count the opportunities on one hand. In qualifying Xiberras ended up in second with a 4.578 to be just over one hundredth off Dixon’s top qualifying time. Despite being holeshot by his first two opponents – Terry Sainty and Darren Morgan -- his 5.504 and 4.748 times were winners. He then ran his best time of the weekend, a 4.679 against Wayne Newby in the final, however a .335 light and Newby’s 4.651 low ET of the race kept Xiberras from claiming the gold.

As can be seen here Darren Morgan suffered a huge fireball in the first round of Top Fuel against opponent (and former employer) Lammatina Racing with Aaron Hambridge at the butterfly. Both were at around the 800-foot mark when disaster struck. Morgan’s detonation was joined by Hambridge’s engine throwing a blower belt meaning a flaming 5.05 was enough to turn back a slowing 5.29 at only 200.14 mph

Santo Rapisarda again brought out an American shoe to drive one of his cars with Larry Dixon being strapped into the driver’s seat. Dixon started qualifying with a lack-lustre 5.477 lap when the car smoked the tyres from around half track. His second qualifier, a 4.745 ended up being good enough to stay at the top of the leader-board when qualifying had finished. A round one solo saw a fuel fitting come loose on the burnout and he was shut down before he staged. Still he went through to the semis and took on team mate Wayne Newby. Though he grabbed a slight lead off the line, around the 1,000-foot mark the left head started to catch fire allowing Newby’s 4.720 through for the win over a second best 4.928.