2016 WILLOWBANK RACEWAY WINTERNATIONALS - EVENT NOTEBOOK
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WHO'S YOUR WINNER? - When it comes to racing in Australia, three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon is quite accomplished.
For Dixon, the success has come naturally.
For instance on his very first run at Willowbank Raceway, a top notch drag racing complex located 45 minutes southwest of Brisbane, the naturally talented driver had quite the introduction to thunder while Down Under. An axle broke on the 300-inch wheelbase Rapisarda Autosport dragster he was piloting, causing the car to lose a wheel and do a complete 360-degree turn without as much as a brush with either retaining wall.
This kind of a stunt takes real driving talent, as Dixon proudly proclaims with a jestful smile.
Dixon, along with accomplished tuner Lee Beard returned two qualifying sessions later, with the same car and completed Australia's quickest run, a 4.503 elapsed time, a mark which stands today.
“Fans come up and ask me about that incident and the record run, and always I ask, 'do you remember who won that race?" Dixon said. "They’re like, 'no I don’t."
"I’m like exactly. So we put on a show, and we have a great story with it."
On Sunday, 14 hours ahead of the action at the NHRA Summernationals in Englishtown, NJ., Dixon once again gave the passionate Aussie drag racing fans a show they'll remember. He also left them with a firm impression OF who won the race.
As the sun was starting to rise over Old Bridge Township Raceway Park back in the United States, Dixon thundered to an engine-flaming victory at the City Of Ipswitch Australian Winternationals over Aussie fan favorite Wayne Newby. Winning the largest drag race outside of North America was a win the decorated drag racing veteran needed if only to balance recent hardships.
“Really, the last year of my life, with cancer and a broken back and then losing my ride; everything that’s happened, days like today makes all that pain go away,” admitted Dixon.
And for Dixon to miss Englishtown, a race he's won six times in his career, traveling the world to drive again had to be something special.
"This is the first time since 1986 that I haven’t been at the Englishtown event, so this is a big deal race," said Dixon, who hashtagged the race as the #BigGoDownUnder on his Tweets. "I’m fortunate to be here, honored to be driving for Sano Rapisarda."
Australian drag fans quickly embraced Dixon, even anointing him with rock star status.
“We both have accents, and when you talk about the Australian drag racing fans, they're hardcore," Dixon explained. "They have a passion for drag racing. People that you see here, want to be here, and they want to see a show, and they want to see some great runs and be entertained. That’s the common bond we have.
"I’ve talked to a lot of them here that I’ve talked to at Gainesville, Indy, Pomona; they come up here. They’re hardcore. They want to see racing. They’re hungry for it. To be able to catch up and see that passion, it carries over, and wherever you can fire up nitromethane, you’re going to find a passionate fan.”
Speaking of passionate, Dixon doesn't mince words when he expresses his love for racing quarter-mile. This weekend's event was only the second time he's been able to race to the 1320-foot mark since the NHRA for safety reasons limited the nitro cars to 1000-feet back in 2008.
“Well, if anyone knows me, they know I love quarter-mile," Dixon said. "I don’t have that opportunity in the States, so you have to go where they do it. Having this opportunity to race down here and do quarter-mile, it’s right. It’s what we’re supposed to be doing.”
He's even willing to miss an hour or five, of beauty sleep in regulating his body clock for the experience.
“I’ve been fortunate this time working on my time zone, sleep and such," Dixon explained. "I flew in on Tuesday; I got three hours of sleep. Wednesday it was six hours of sleep. Thursday it was seven hours. I’m not going to whine about it. I could be sitting at home, so this is a good thing, and I’m definitely not going to complain about it.”
Those who know Dixon understand the cockpit of a Top Fuel dragster is his home, wherever it might require him to be.
“When you sit in the car having the opportunity to drive a Top Fuel car and just being around these cars, literally my entire life; just sitting in the car for a warm-up, it still gives me goosebumps," Dixon said. "I love the class, I love the sport, and just very thankful that I’m getting another chance.”
A REAL BIG DEAL - Winning is, and always will be a big deal for decorated crew chief Lee Beard.
Sunday's victory via driver Larry Dixon at the City of Ipswitch Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway, the final stop on the inaugural Thunder 400 tour, ranks high amongst Beard's many accomplishments. He is now the tuner of record for back to back wins at the largest drag race held outside of North America.
"When you’re in the twilight of your career, everything is very important because you never know if it’s going to be your last one," said Beard, whose victory with Dixon marked the 13th different in his career he's won with.
Beard gave Dixon a fierce race car, and a 4.52 elapsed time, which stood the challenge of the weekend. He also gave him a winning race car opposite of newly crowned Thunder 400 Top Fuel champion Damien Harris and series runner-up Wayne Newby in the final round.
"It’s great for us coming out here with low E.T. with that 4.52," Beard explained We tried our best to run in the 40’s; we had some runs going, and it looked like it was going to do it, but something went wrong."
"We were trying to get it up and going a little bit sooner and see if we could have put that magical .40 to be the first car outside of the United States to run a 4.40 in a quarter-mile; that would have been a real milestone for us. I think the people of Australia really want to see that. It’s so cool to race quarter-mile; shame on what happened to us in America where we race only 1,000 feet because drag racing, what I grew up with as a kid and most of my career was quarter-mile racing. That’s what we do here, and I really love that.”
Where does Beard go from here?
"We’re going to Disneyland," Dixon interjected. "Just going to take us 24 hrs to get there.”
MORE ACTION THAN BARGAINED FOR - Before the Pro Alcohol finalists at the City of Ipswitch Winternationals fired their cars, there was a feeling that something spectacular would transpire. Dramatic would be a weak description of the final round between newly christened 19-time series champion Gary Phillips and robust challenger John Cannuli.
Phillips was the king of speed and Cannuli the master of elapsed time. The final round was to be another battle in a rivalry which appears to be ratcheting in intensity with each meeting.
Cannuli put .024 on Phillips out of the gate and appeared to be on a strong run with the front wheels in the air. As Cannuli's car traveled, it also drifted out of his lane and across the centerline where it impacted Phillips.
Neither driver was injured and exited their respective cars before safety crews arrived.
"That was not the way I wanted to end my day," said Phillips. "That could have been worse; we could have totaled the car or something worse. It was a bit of a bummer for a perfect weekend."
The weekend was indeed a good one for Phillips, as he clinched the championship after winning the second round by beating Wayne Price and also becoming the first driver in Australian drag racing history to exceed 270 miles per hour in an Alcohol Funny Car.
"That will likely be my last milestone," said Philips, who broke his previous mark of 269.83. "It was an outstanding experience, and the car even went 217 and some change to the half-track. It was getting it.
"I think we made a pretty big statement with that run."
Cannuli made a few strong statements of his own over the course of the weekend, starting on Friday with a 5.358 elapsed time for a new series record.
The Brisbane-based Cannuli came to the starting line with every intention of proving he had the strongest car. When the car left the line, it appeared very aggressive
"It left the line like it normally does and it carried the wheels a little further than it usually does, saw the shift light, punched my shift and didn't realize I was out of the groove and into his lane," Cannuli explained. "Then I felt something hit me and I pulled the chutes and tried to keep it off of the walls."
Cannuli said before this weekend's race the team had gone through his Funny Car extensively and adjusted the set-up to calm the car down a bit. He added the car had more and the 5.35 came on a run where he was off of the throttle early.
Cannuli came to the starting line intent to make a statement he intends to be a solid contender for seasons to come.
"100 percent ... we've lost two years in a row. We lost this first IHRA championship [and it was] to this guy again," said Cannuli. "Couple of rounds with the massive fireball last year, and then this year. We will be back again bigger and stronger next season."
"We were going to run a 5.33 [on that pass], and knew it had it in it."
Phillips said running hard for championships is the only way he knows to race.
"Winning championships is why Lucas Oil has been with me for 20 years," said Phillips. "This is what keeps me driven, winning championships. You have to keep on slugging away.
"I come out here and race to win championships, and that's it. I'm a black and white kind of guy."
UNDER THE RADAR - Mark Belleri, behind the wheel of Maurice Fabietti's supercharged Holden, flew under the radar for most of the weekend, racing in the shadows of the higher-profile drivers John Zappia and Ben Bray. He didn't mind the lack of hype, though he ran strong throughout eliminations recording lane choice in the semi-final round over Bray courtesy of a 5.830 to beat Grant O'Rourke.
"It's best to race that way," Belleri said. "Everyone was looking for Zappia or Benny to win, and we went out there, did our thing and came up with the win. I ran my first 5.7-second run when it counted the most."
Belleri's 5.796 was more than enough to cover Bray's 5.86.
"It is a great feeling, to win the Winternationals. Maurice had the tune-up. All I had to do is drive it. Winning is the best feeling ever. The crew did a great job all weekend."
NOT HIS WEEKEND - John Zappia has a storied history while racing at Willowbank Raceway.
The veteran driver has won five races and qualified No. 8 times at the track located in Ipswitch, 40 minutes southwest of Brisbane.
With his storied history at the track, Zappia can positively proclaim this weekend's City of Ipswitch Winternationals was his worst experience. By the time he had concluded qualifying, Zappia was already down to his last engine.
Zappia critically injured his primary powerplant to start the day but went to No. 1 in the qualifying list. He wounded the primary back-up engine in the Q-2 session yet still went quicker than anyone else.
Down to this third and final engine, he sustained some repairable damage in the final qualifying session yet still managed low for the session.
Zappia then exploded the supercharger in the first round but still won. The ten-time Pro Slammer champion scored a victory over arch-rival Victor Bray in the only run all weekend where his engine didn't sustain damage.
"We were pushing the envelope and trying some new equipment," admitted Zappia.
So in his semi-final race against Ben Bray, Zappia backed the engine down a bit to what was a safe tune-up. He hit the throttle for the burnout and immediately snapped a brand new blower belt.
In some aspects, Zappia might have won by losing.
"That probably saved me an engine," Zappia said. "I really need to go back to square one to see what is going on here. Computer dropped out on some sensors we really need, so we were running blind in a sense."
Zappia will have little time to solve his issues, as three weeks later he will have to start it all over again.
He'll have a 48-hour drive to think about it, and hopes the truck fares a lot better than the doorslammer.
FINDING GRACE - Remember Grace Howell? She's the former Super Stock Eliminator racer who once drove a Pro Stock
Mustang from Jim Cunningham.
The former South Carolinian is now an Australian, driving 400-inch Pro Stock under the name Grace Porter. She is
now married to longtime Australian Pro Stock racer Scott Porter.
Porter raced this weekend at the Winternationals, qualifying No. 6 and taking out championship contender Tyronne
Tremayne in the opening round.
"I love racing down here because it is a lot of fun," Porter said. "Getting to race with my family is special, they
have this car working great. I've been fortunate enough to experience many things in life and this is just one of
many."
Porter said she wouldn't mind racing the new style of electronic fuel injected Pro Stocks someday but right now
she's having too much fun to stop what she's doing presently.
"You will see us back in the United States soon," Porter confirmed. "We just may take a break and you never know we
might come back there and bring out the Super Stockers and have fun."
PAVEY RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL - Pro Slammer racer Russell Pavey wanted to make an impact at the City of Ipswitch Winternationals. The kind he ended up with at Willowbank Raceway wasn't what he envisioned.
Pavey was making a qualifying attempt on Friday in his 1963 Corvette when he encountered severe tire shake. The car made an abrupt left-hand turn and impacted the retaining wall. The momentum of the out of control car carried it up the wall resulting in a flash fire. The car came to a stop, and emergency crews extracted Pavey, where he was transported to the nearby Ipswitch Hospital where he was kept overnight for observation.
Pavey was released on Saturday morning and returned to Willowbank Raceway.
"I'm sore, my neck is hurting some," Pavey revealed. "It only affected the soft tissue, muscle stuff. I was wearing a Hans device and it certainly helped me in this instance."
Pavey said the memory of what happened the day before was fresh in his mind.
"The run was over before it really started," Pavey said. "The car went out a couple hundred feet, and it became apparent something in the rear broke. The car turned hard left and immediately I was staring at the opposite retaining wall head-on. It hit really hard. The car is not so good, but I am okay.
"It's not a nice deal when you look head-on and see the wall. In a situation like that, you just grit your teeth and brace for the worst. At that point, you are just along for the ride."
Pavey explained he prepared for the impact and the anticipated violence.
"When it hit, I was concerned about the big flash of flame. I was concerned the car might end up on fire with the driver's door against the wall."
Pavey is uncertain whether the Corvette is repairable.
"The car is not looking good; I'm thinking it's done. But we will look it over and if we can save it, we will. If not, we will build another car like it."
THE NEW VICTOR BRAY - Victor Bray smiles every time reminds him how he is half the man he used to be. The iconic Australian drag racer understands the statement is not an insult, but merely a reflection of the way returned following a year off of driving.
Bray, while working on a new sponsorship package to return to racing full-time, also shed 140 pounds.
“That’s a lot of weight to lose," Bray admits. "It’s been good. The first few months were a bit hard, but after that, it’s been pretty good. I’m really enjoying it. I enjoy being a lot lighter than I ever was."
Being leaner also has its drawbacks. Bray had to go back 15 years in firesuits to find one to reasonably fit him.
"At least I kept them all, that’s a good thing," Bray added.
"I got lucky because the seat was built into the car, and was a bit tapered so I was able to pull myself a bit tighter into the car. However, when I pulled the parachute, the lack of a rear-end caused me to move forward. We had to add a bit of a lump in the seat."
With the changes in transmission technology, and Bray moving to a torque converter, he made the switch from a hand brake to a foot brake.
"The first run was a bit hairy, as the foot pedal wasn't where I was accustomed to it being," Bray explained. "We fixed that for the second run."
"To be out of the seat for a year, then come back and first run 5.99 makes me feel really confident," Bray said. "I’ve only run a few of 5.90’s in my whole racing career. It’s good to come back and go 5.99 first run, but I let off the throttle at 5.6 seconds. It was probably a bit better than a 5.99.”
SHOOOUT BODES WELL FOR SPORTSMAN RACERS - There's an old age which suggests practice makes for perfection. On Thursday before the Winternationals, the Thunder 400 Series offered sportsman racers a chance at more track time with a special race-within-a-race.
Racers were provided one chance at a perfect pass to get as close to their dial-in as possible. The respective elapsed times were then indexed against their reaction time.
The 400 Thunder Sportsman Shootout gave racers a chance at a massive $11,500prize pool - $3,000 of which was tipped in from Willowbank, and the remaining $8,500 coming from a $50 buy-in from each of the 170 entrants that braved the Sportsman Shootout.
The doorslammer division was led by Super Street racer Lucas Holz in his LS2-powered LC Torana into an eliminator against Colin Boyd, Tony Rogers and Ray Fairfull.
In the open-bodied class, Andrew Sargent paved the way for an all-Modified Elimination Round against Bob Frawley, Nick Galea and Kellie Kidd. Mere thousandths-of-a-second separated the group all the way through Eliminations.
Kidd beat Frawley in the overall final.
Tammy Goldthorpe won the Motorcycle portion while, Garth Spooner won amongst the Junior Dragsters.
