Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car will spearhead the opening round of the 2024-2025 NDRC season at Dragway The Bend in rural South Australia on 18-20 October.

Top Fuel will have a six-round championship series and will be joined by Funny Car on five occasions. Top Fuel will be the sole Nitro class at the Perth Motorplex Westernationals in March.

Both categories will appear at the premier event on the Aussie calendar, the Winternationals, at Willowbank Raceway in June. This event also doubles as the final round of the 2024-2025 championship.

Top Fuel and Funny Car will race at Dragway at The Bend and Willowbank Raceway twice, but in a surprise move, both will make only a single appearance at Sydney Dragway at the long-standing Nitro Champs meeting in May. The traditional Australia Day event in late January is a notable absentee from the calendar.

The biggest winner on the calendar is Doorslammer, with seven rounds, including five appearances alongside Top Fuel and Funny Car and the opening round. The category has been rewarded for producing an outstanding 2023-2024 season led by champ-elect Russell Taylor, husband and wife Daniel and Lisa Gregorini, veteran John Zappia and the emergence of young gun Ronnie Palumbo.

In a surprise move, the other Group One categories - Pro Alcohol, Pro Stock, Pro Mod and Pro Stock Motorcycle - will race at their own three stand-alone series as well as appear at the Nitro Champs and Winternationals. Former Pro Stock racer Jason Hedges, who joined the NDRC last season, will manage and promote the series.

“Traditionally, drag racing promoters and venues have staged events that feature as many categories at the one event as possible,” according to the NDRC boss, Andy Lopez. "This is simply not sustainable in the current economic environment where fans face the cost of living pressures that mean they must choose between attending drag racing or all the other things they and their families want to do.”

In a note to key stakeholders, the NDRC recently reported that it was facing losses of US$265,000.

The NDRC Sportsman series launched with great fanfare last season under an East Coast and West Coast conference format has been ditched in favor of a more conventional and racer-friendly travel schedule that features 11 rounds Australia-wide leading up to the Grand Final at Willowbank.