NITRO NIRVANA

Words by Jon Van Daal
Photos by Jon Van Daal and Fred Dwyer

The past year has not been a good one for Australia’s Western Sydney International Dragway which has not had a major meeting that hasn’t been affected by rain, in fact it was this time last year that the track was able to finish a meeting on time. This year’s Nitro Champs was to see three beautiful sunny days, eighteen new ANDRA records but the global financial crisis may have been the reason for the small crowds as Jon Van Daal recounts.

After some real upsets and some awesome racing the final of Top Fuel pitched the Rocket/Wicked Quick Car of Darren Morgan against the Uplift Cranes digger driven by Alan Dobson. Dobson had been the giant killer dropping series leader Phil Lamattina with a 4.67 in the first round and receiving a bye in the semis when his team mate, Mark Mariani couldn’t return. Morgan had used a 4.84/284 to dispatch Mark Shepherd in round one and then Martin Stamatis in the semis in a great race 4.64/308 to the Westralian’s 4.78. Here it was Dobson who took a solid 0.42 to .101 reaction time lead off the line, however his engine started to eat itself and he was passed by the quicker Morgan whose 4.85/295.46 was more than enough to hold back a 5.09.

It was hard to believe that at the USA versus Australia event in late December that Darren Morgan saw his Rocket/Wicked Quick dragster lose a wheel and have a massive shunt that totalled the beautiful black dragster. With tough opponents like current champ Phil Read, his team mate Martin Stamatis and points leader, Phil Lamattina having solid seasons no one even counted on Morgan to come back so strong, let alone be in the final opposite Alan Dobson. “What an amazing weekend,” a jubilant Morgan stated in a post-race interview. “This is such a great result for our team. Every single one of our guys has worked so hard lately. This win is for all of them.”

This was the boom that was almost heard around the world. As can be seen in “Flaming" Fred Dwyer’s amazing photo, the car’s motor was literally ripped apart in a giant fireball. In the foreground there is a large portion of the supercharger flying through the air, while on a video of the crash, one entire rotor assembly was caught spinning, hit the wall near the car and then skimmed across the track to hit the opposite barrier. Luckily no one was injured in these nitro pyrotechnics.