Dom Lagana set low elapsed time and top speed Saturday at the Santo’s Summer Thunder meeting at Australia’s Sydney Dragway and earned the inaugural “Trackburner” award for the quickest Top Fuel pass.
 
But his 4.62-second blast at 523 kilometers per hour (324.97mph) brought him only a fifth-place finish for event sponsor Santo Rapisarda and Rapisarda Autosport International at the third of six 400 Thunder Series races. However, it did mean that tuner Lee Beard had Lagana running more than a tenth of a second quicker than any of his challengers.
 
Points leader Wayne Newby led the three-car RAI team with a runner-up finish to Darren Morgan in the Top Fuel class. It was a spectacular final round, as Morgan crossed the finish line with his engine ablaze because of a suspected connecting rod failure. Newby-Lagana teammate Damien Harris took third place in this second race with the unique “All-Run, Three-Round” format.
 
“I’ve been racing long enough to know you can’t win them all,” Rapisarda said. “Today wasn’t our day. The day belonged to Darren Morgan, because he produced the goods when it counted.”
 
Lagana said, “The car was trying to run around the 4.60 and 520 km/h mark all day. It was hot out there, and at the end of the day we were finally able to back the car down.”
 
He benefited in his third run from a battery problem that plagued popular “Queen of Speed” Rachelle Splatt, who was making a much-anticipated return after a 10-year hiatus from the sport. 

Splatt is the first woman in the world to clock a 300-mph pass, and she did so in NHRA competition March 6, 1994, at Houston. But this past weekend, she had hoped to become the first woman to break the barrier in Australia.

NHRA crew chief Ron Douglas tuned Splatt’s Ovo Mobile Dragster, and he had pre-race help from Mike Domagala, the experienced NHRA mechanic and owner of Indianapolis-based Premium Motorsports Products. Domagala – who counts the late Chuck Etchells and Don Schumacher, Kenny Bernstein, David Powers, and Mark Pickens as his former bosses – was crew chief Saturday for the 2016 Nitro Champs winner Mark Mariani. His wife and business partner, Michelle Domagala, who had been active in PRO on the NHRA front, helped Mariani in the pit and with public relations.

Top Fuel’s Peter Xiberras was involved in a fiery accident Saturday but was unharmed.

The Pro Slammer final was a Team Bray father-son match-up that broke a head-to-head racing tie between the Gulf Western Oil tandem. Ben Bray defeated his dad with a holeshot victory in 5.838 second pass at 247.79 mph.

“It was just great, being able to beat Dad in an All Bray final,” Ben Bray said. “Dad is going to be hearing about this one for a while.

“Since making our comeback in Gulf Western Oil colors just one event ago, we have been itching to take a win. To see not just one but both of our Slammers in the final in just our second competitive event of the season since putting this campaign together is just fantastic. We can’t thank everyone who supports us enough – the messages have been flowing in thick and fast and it was really great to hear the crowd cheer and catch up with them in the pits.”

Father and son had taken turns beating Andrew Searle and Gary Philips to reach the third-round showdown.

Afterward, Victor Bray said, “Of course I want to win, but if anyone is going to beat me, I am glad it was Benny. It was a deserved win, but rest assured, I will be doing all I can to get the bragging rights back as soon as possible.”

Reigning Pro Alcohol champion Gary Phillips, in his Lucas Oil-sponsored Funny Car, dominated in his category and got past title contender Wayne Price in the final round Saturday.

In Top Bike, Chris Matheson extend his points lead – and wounded his Nitro Harley-Davidson motorcycle – as he defeated Chris Porter.

The next 400 Thunder Series event, the Santo’s Super 3 Extreme Race, will be at Willowbank Raceway, in Queensland, near Brisbane.

The Rapisarda team, with Newby maintaining a seven-point lead on No. 2- seeded Morgan and Harris 40 more points behind in third place, said it will be seeking redemption this weekend at the ANDRA Nationals at Melbourne’s Calder Park Raceway.

Lagana said, “I’m looking forward to running at Calder Park. It’s one of the most historic tracks in the country. I think you will see an improved performance across all three RAI cars. We had some bugs out there in Sydney, and I have no doubt our tuning trio [of crew chiefs] – Santino, [Santo] Junior, and Lee Beard will get on top of the issues. Coming back to running 1,000 foot, instead of the usual quarter-mile distance, should make little if any difference to how the cars will be set up. What it does mean is that reaction times will be critical. Damien and Wayne are two of the best Top Fuel racers in Australia when the lights turn green.
 
“A seven-day turnaround between Sydney and Calder is a challenge, but our plan is to go out there and put on a show for the fans in Victoria,” he said.
 
Lagana is chasing his first Top Fuel victory in Australia, hoping to join such NHRA Top Fuel standouts as Cory McClenathan, Larry Dixon, and Tommy Johnson Jr.