The 2010 Nitro Champs held at Sydney Dragway will go down as one of the greatest ANDRA Pro Series events to date. After a shaky start to qualifying on Friday the clouds parted and the sun shined bright for two days of some of the best drag racing i have witnessed and from the feedback i have heard i am not the only person that feels this way.
Some of the biggest names in Australian drag racing descended on the world-class Sydney facility for a hard-core weekend of racing and the crews did not disappoint.
As always qualifying was intense with crews working tirelessly to ensure the cars were running to perfection in an effort to lay down the quickest pass possible. As we moved into eliminations each and every crew out there stepped it up 10 fold with numerous upsets, tight finishes and some blindingly fast passes all keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats.
As the classes quickly started to thin out and the final elimination rounds came about things started to get serious. It was a case of now or never for the crews left in the race for a golden tree. Cars and crews were pushed to the limit, some over. We saw big names fall victim to an itchy right foot and hit the throttle too early and a few runs so tight that officials almost needed a third umpire to decide on a winner Hole shot wins are always awe inspiring and are what keeps people like me coming back for more.
Overall from my opinion the 2010 Nitro Champs was an extremely successful event and a big change from the 'wet n wild' Summernationals held earlier in the year. The guys at Sydney Dragway should be commended for putting on such a great show and making it all happen with the event running smoothly with very minimal delays.
Now i know you all came here for the photos and not for my blabbering so here were a few highlights from my days at the track. the full gallery from Sat & Sundays racing is now up on http://www.jngimages.com/ so make sure you check it out.
Ben Bray was really on the ball steering the Scion.
We are starting to see the full potential of that chassis as Benny pushes harder and harder on that 10.5in tyre
Tony Wedlock had a few issues with the Aurion apparently unintentionally inventing a 2 piece crank for the 2JZ
In a David & Goliath effort Frank Cannistra drove his small-tyred RX3 into the final of Pro FX
It just goes to show that drag racing is not all about having the fastest car but having the most consistent
Joe Signorelli charging home in the GAS Motorsports Celica
Zoran Gajic finished on top in the Beemer after taking on Frank in the final
As you may know i am a big fan of cars that can run the numbers while still having that streeter look and Super Sedan is a class that always has my full attention.
Jim Bolovinos is always a high-flyer in Super Sedan giving the media a good look at his undercarriage as often as he can. This event was no exception
Another driver always keen to put on a show is Craig Hewitt in his immaculate 632ci Walkenshaw . Check out an up-coming issue of Extreme Performance magazine for a full feature on Craig's stunning racer
Hows this for a sleeper? Con Pakos has jammed a 408ci V8 into the Mitsu Express van. As you can see by the launch this workhorse really lives up to the name
I am really starting to admire some of the tough American Muscle cars that fill the staging lanes at these big meets and Gavin List's big Chev is one of my favorites. Just look at that thing pick up the wheels. Savage!
Take one light-weight Gemini and add a 400ci Chev and this is what you get. huge wheel-stands and low 9's at the drop of a hat. Looks damn tough too
Shaun Kerkman took out Best Engineered with his awesome tubbed Monaro. The supercharged 406ci coupe was making good use of the wheelie-bars during this 7.9sec pass
Peter Pisalidis AKA 'Pistol Pete' brought out his weapon of a Camaro and tried his hardest to get the power down through those small 10.5in tyres
As you can see the car does manage to get traction at times and when it does it carries the front left wheel to half track before it levels out. Unfortunately Pete was eliminated in the 3rd round but not before laying down a few consistent 7.7sec passes
Rob Campisi twin turbo Mustang is Australia's fastest and quickest turbocharged car with a 6.412@228mph. And there's plenty more where that came from.
Marco Tolomeo's GT loves the camera. You just can't seem to take a bad shot of this car.
Trick & Manswetto Racing's Tristan Triccas had the ride of his lift in the insane 604ci Capri.
Tricky left the line hard before getting a bit out of shape and ending in the other lane. Luckily it was a solo pass
Another personal favorite of mine it Mark Hinchelwood's turbocharged BBC 540 altered. marks an all-round nice guy too but i still think he's mad for squeezing into that tiny drivers seat.
Mark had a few gearbox issues during the event, now by few i mean a lot... However he still managed to limp his way through into the final and even though he was unable to front up for the last race he still took out the runner up spot
Now i love my Rollas so Neil Maxwells KE25 was an instant hit with me. Check out Neil frying those huge tyres
Jim Ioannidis is an extremely fierce Super Stock competitor in his VS Commodore
The ability to lay down consistent mid 9's with the Holden 308 is a great accomplishment. And a love the near stock exterior appearance.
Les Heintz brings the wheels up in his stunning Pontiac GTO
Nick Karantonis' Dodge Avenger is another stunning car competing in Super Stock. Nick made it all the way to Rnd 3 of eliminations but was unfortunately knocked out by eventual class winner Ralph Perri in his Pontiac.
The event would not have been complete without a few passes from Frank Mamone in the Hemi powered Nova
Every pass that this car lays down is just gold from a spectator point of view.
This is a car that gets the crowd on it's feet whenever it comes into stage and there was no better example of this than when frank lined the Nova up against another blisteringly quick 10.5 tyre car, Ben Bray's 2JZ Scion.
To give you an idea of the excitement behind this run i didn't want to put the camera in front of my face. With all eye's set firmly on these two awesome cars both left the line with all they had and flew across the traps to new PB's. A 6.73@212mph for Frank and 6.68@209mph for Ben. Now in a pass this epic it was not about who won, more so how epic these small tyred cars are and what a spectacle they are to watch and if everything goes to plan this pass was just a taste of whats to come for Australian drag racing.
Pro Stock supplied some of the best racing at the event. The consistency of these cars is amazing and so too is the presentation. Just have a look at the Team Mopar car of Lee Bektash.
it doesn't get any sexier than that! The car not only looks a million dollars but hauls arse too!
Rick Chilton's Pontiac is another well presented car.
Aaron Treymayne worked his way through the field to claim his very own Pro Stock golden tree
As i said, the cars were stunning.....
Bill Kotsias warming up the tyres prior to a 7.1@191mph
Shane Tucker pulling away from Denis Whiting in qualifying
This was the first time i had ventured down to the deep end of the track to shoot the cars with their laundry out. Loved every minute of it and can't wait to do it again.
Bikes of all types put on a show during the event. I am slowly starting to get the hang of shooting these 2-wheelers in a way that can capture the excitement rather than having them look like they are sitting static.
Slowly getting the hang of panning. Slowly.....
Nitro Voodo, Crazy!
these pro bike guys really do a lot of work keeping the bike balanced during the run.
Sometimes leaning over similar to circuit racers on corners just to keep the things straight
Luckily for this rider the belt snapped around the 60' mark and not towards the end of the run
Here you can see Ivan Skaramuca taking aim at me in his Corvette Top Doorslammer. Ivan is no stranger to fast cars as he also owns and steers the worlds fastest RX3.
Mark Belleri shows us that Doorslammer's can pull big wheel stands too. Mark got at least another 30cm higher than in this shot but some silly photographer didn't keep his finger on the shutter long enough.....
This image shows you just how low John Zappia's Monaro really is. While this crew member is a pretty big lad it's still a very sleek body
Frank worked his magic and made it to the final in Top Doorslammer
but had to settle for runner up after loosing to Maurice Fabietti's Monaro
Matt Abel had a few up's and down's at the event, literally. In this pass the car did a bit of a hop n skip ending up on it's nose
The car also suffered some major tyre shake in an earlier run resulting in the car lifting the back wheels off the track surface
It's times like this i love off-camera lighting. Stuart Bishop with the foot buried and eye's fixed
The spectacle that is Top Fuel was top notch at the Niro's. You just can't beat the heart stopping noise and the huge header flames these machines produce.
A huge thing for me was i caught my first Top Fuel explosion courtesy of Mark Mariani.
It was good luck to be down the deep end with fellow photog's Kyle Sharp and Joe Maday as the engine let go just as he was coming across the finish line.
Now usually you would be pretty pissed if you just blew up a several thousand dollar engine like this but Mark didn't seem to be fazed at all as the win put him through into the next round
Darren Morgan also suffered some engine issues in the deep end on this run.
The crew got back on the track for a few more runs before being eliminated by Mark in Rnd 2
Although he missed out on running in the final he did walk away as the Louie Rapisarda Tribute top qualifier
Phill Read peddled the Auto1 rail into the final with a blistering 4.69@315mph
As both Phill and Mark strapped in for the final you could just see the concentration of the guys faces
Mark Mariani had his eye's set hard on that gold tree and he was not about to let anything get in his way.
Both drivers left the line hard giving it all they had and also giving me a face full of Nitro in the process. thanks Mark.
before Phill, closely followed by Mark rolled through the traps with engine in flames.
but as the time boards lit up it informed all that this years golden tree winner was Mark Mariani with a 4.975 against Phill's 5.052sec pass
The Marianni/Rapisard crew celebrated and was quickly congratulated by the Auto1 team for what was a great few day's of racing from both teams
Santo Rapisard is seen here enjoying the replay on the big screen
A stellar effort from both drivers that was celebrated by all
With the Niro Champs done and dusted for another year the 2010 Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway are coming up quickly and are sure to live up to it's tag as the biggest drag racing event outside of the US. Unfortunately i am unable to make this years event due to work and other commitments but there is sure to be some great coverage form the other awesome photog's out there.
That's enough dribble from me, make sure you check out the website for the full gallery and please feel free to leave some feedback, good or bad.
Jason
No comments:
Post a Comment