The opening round of the 2024-2025 Australian drag season will take place at Dragway at The Bend in rural South Australia on October 18-20 against a raft of off-season changes that will impact the short and long-term future of the sport.
The most significant change has been to the ownership structure of the governing body, Out There Productions, the management group responsible for running the sport, under the auspices of promotor Andy Lopes.
In September, Lopes surprised the drag world when he announced the sale of a minority share of OTP to colorful business entrepreneur Adrian Portelli.
The founder of LMCT, an auto-enthusiast rewards club that offers subscription members access to prizes, including luxury homes and cars via monthly draws. Portelli made headlines after he arranged for his McLaren Senna GTR to be craned into his $39 million penthouse.
The sale announcement surprised many team owners and came the week after the 2024-2025 calendar release that will see Group One racing split into two entities.
Top Fuel, Funny Car along with Pro Slammer and Top Motorcycle will race under the NDRC umbrella. While Pro Alcohol, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle and Pro Mod will have three standalone events under the NDRC Pro Drag Racing banner.
Both series will come together for the Sydney Dragway Nitro champs in May and season-closing Winternats in June.
Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Slammer will enjoy live television coverage at all of their events, however, coverage for the Pro Drag Racing series is unclear.
TOP FUEL PREVIEW
The opening round of Top Fuel has attracted only four entries headed by Rapisarda Autosport International duo of reigning champ Damien Harris and runner-up Wayne Newby. RAI has been the benchmark in the category over the last decade and will likely remain so for the 2024-25 season. The final two entries are three-time champ Phil Read and part-timer Kyle Putland.
“There is always a certain amount of excitement around the opening round of any season,” said Harris. “Racing at the Bend is a relatively new experience because we’ve only raced there twice. At the opening round of last season, we were fortunate enough to win the A- final against teammate Wayne Newby. On the second occasion, we finished runner-up to Phil Lamattina. A win this weekend would be the perfect way to get our title defense off to a flying start.”
Missing in action is ‘Carrot King’ Phil Lamattina, who has elected to sit out the opening two rounds of the season, and fellow owner-driver Peter Xiberras who has been concentrating his efforts on his V8 Supercar team and the biggest event of the domestic motorsport calendar, the Bathurst 1000.
DOORSLAMMER PREVIEW
The opening round of Doorslammer has received a major boost with the return of category legend Peter Kapiris who last raced at the opening round of the 2023-2024 season and has been sidelined after breaking a leg in a BMX crash.
A pioneer of the category that grew out of the Wild Bunch series in the mid-1990s, Kapiris has been one of the most successful racers and respected administrative figures in the category over the past three decades.
The meet has attracted 12 entries featuring the ‘awesome foursome’ from Western Australia, lead by the legendary John Zappia celebrating his 45th year racing, husband and wife Daniel and Lisa Gregorini and Russell ‘ice man’ Taylor who burst on the scene last year and posted three wins and three second finishes on his way to winning the title.
“At the end of the day, I am not feeling any pressure,” said Taylor. “For me, I want to go as fast as I can. At the end of the day, I am still learning, so hopefully, I can keep improving this season and go faster than we have previously.”
Sydney-based Ronnie Palumbo and wily team owner-tuner Maurice Fabietti have the talent and experience to step up from a third finish overall in his rookie season and contend for the championship.
