Words and photos by Jon Van Daal

As you may well know the last event on the NHRA drag racing calendar is the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Pomona in mid-November. In Australia the Winternationals is the final stop on the ANDRA trail. Just as the NHRA champions are crowned, ANDRA’s bracket champions receive gold Christmas trees before spending a winter hiatus to regroup before the new racing season. This year’s 43rd running of the ANDRA Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway near Brisbane would go close to being the best ever as JON VAN DAAL explains.

It is hard to believe that Willowbank Raceway is celebrating its 25th silver anniversary. In 1985 a large bunch of volunteers finished building the Queensland track with lots of blood, sweat and tears. Since then a steering committee has been reinvesting any money earned back into the track to ensure that it retains its place as one of Australia’s premier A-grade race tracks.

The Winternationals event was held over the “Queen’s Birthday” weekend. It actually isn’t her birthday but some 500 drivers and riders didn’t care as with a holiday on the Monday, they could return home in time for work. Huge fields in Pro Stock and Top Doorslammer were joined with solid entries in Top Fuel, Top Bike, Top Alcohol, Pro Stock Bike and the sportsman brackets. By the end of racing some 31 new national records were set in 21 different classes and this showed the level of commitment that racers were willing to go to.

As can be seen here the clash between Martin Stamatis (far lane) & Phil Read is already over as Read struck the tyres on the hit – a 4.727/ 283 mph from Stamatis made it official.