The four leading Oz Top Fuel teams, Jim Read Racing, PremiAir Racing, Rapisarda Autosport International, and Lamattina Top Fuel Racing, have joined forces to establish their own Australian Top Fuel Championship series.

The six-round series will run from January to June 2022 across four states and territories, with a minimum of six cars per round.

The decision by the team owners to go it alone means Top Fuel will no longer be part of the 400 Thunder Pro Series, the peak body for the category since 2015.  

The six-car entry list will, in all likelihood, feature Australian champions Peter Xiberras, Phil Read, Phil Lamattina and Rachelle Splatt.

Rapisarda Autosport International will possibly revert to a two-car team with NHRA stars Ashley Sanford and Richie Crampton missing due to ongoing restrictions on overseas visitors to Australia.

The big winners emanating from the decision are race-starved fans at the Perth Motorplex Western Australia, Calder Park, Victoria and Hidden Valley in the Northern Territory.

The Motorplex will host a round of the Top Fuel championship for the first time since 2007.  Since then, the venue had sporadically hosted meetings - the most recent when Xiberras and Lamattina match raced at the Westernationals, March 2020. 

Calder Park, the spiritual home for drag racing in Australia, last featured Top Fuel in January 2017 when RAI match raced at the Nationals. The recently released ANDRA calendar included February 5-6 as the date for the 2022 Australian Nationals.

A race calendar that begins with an opening round at Sydney Dragway in January, traveling 540 miles south to Calder Park in February, then 2120 miles cross country to Perth, could establish an “Aussie Swing” similar to the fabled NHRA Western Swing. 

Hidden Valley has previously hosted Top Fuel match racing but never a full round of elimination racing. A date in June, weatherwise similar to Florida in January, would be a popular destination with Southern state teams during winter. 

A bonus would mean the final round could see the sport return to a calendar year season for the first time in over a decade.   

The announcement made no mention of whether ANDRA or IHRA Australia will be the sanctioning body for the series.

The announcement comes at a critical moment as Oz drag racing begins to emerge from Covid- 19.

Critical to the way forward will be the role played by ANDRA, the long-time governing body for the sport and the rival 400 Thunder series run under the auspices of IHRA Australia and how they respond to the challenges.

Since January 2020, there have been only two major events held in Australia. The meeting at Sydney Dragway, in May this year, attracted only three fuel entries. The Winternationals, a month later, drew a similar car count.

RAI has not raced since January 2020. 

Calder Park and the Perth Motorplex, the only two venues confirmed for the new series, are ANDRA sanctioned, while Sydney Dragway and Willowbank Raceway run under IHRA Australia.

The absence of Top Fuel is a major blow for the 400 Thunder series. The elite category has been a crucial component of the 400 Thunder series that came into existence in 2015. 

How 400T and IHRA respond to the loss will be critical to the future of 400 Thunder.

For the first time since the 1990s, Top Fuel could be on the cusp of establishing a truly national series, connecting with a new generation of fans and the possibility of becoming a major player on the Australian motorsport landscape.