"VAN" (Sports Desk - 07.04.2025) :: The Riverbend Nationals have delivered another fantastic NDRC show to the delight of a packed crowd at Dragway at The Bend, culminating in dramatic finals action this afternoon.
After Saturday’s history-making performances, the enthusiasm for Sunday’s racing was at an all-time high as the fans - which numbered more than 25,000 over the event’s three days - poured into the Tailem Bend facility.
That enthusiasm was repaid time and time again across a huge day of racing, all the way until Wayne Newby (Top Fuel), Morice McMillin (XPRO Nitro Funny Car), Jeremy Callaghan (Top Doorslammer) and Damian Muscat (Top Fuel Motorcycle) hoisted the NDRC Gold Christmas Trees by taking out the A-Final victories in their respective Group 1 brackets.
The quality of the racing is immediately obvious by taking a look at the numbers: over Saturday and Sunday, Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car collectively delivered 10 three-second passes, and eight at over 500kph.
In Top Fuel, while Damien Harris might have been the toast of the town with his incredible quickest and fastest ever outside of the US performance (3.683s/ 534.23kph – just 0.06 shy of the world record) to top qualify last night, it was his Rapisarda Autosport International team-mate and NDRC Top Fuel championship leader Wayne Newby who would take out the event victory at the close of today’s running – his first event victory of the 2024/2025 season.
After a series of blazing performances from the Atlantic Oil sponsored team-mates across the day, it was a dramatic finale for the pair with Harris running into trouble off the hit, losing a burst panel and his chutes while reporting a ‘death rattle’ (10.478/94.24kph) and Newby getting all crossed up after the launch – pedalling hard to ensure he turned on the win light to further bolster his title lead (4.738/447.27kph)
The Rapisarda team was going after it from the very first pass today, with Newby laying down 3.755/523.19kph over Phil Lamattina (3.917/492.68kph), before Harris ran a 3.723/533.80kph effort on a solo to open the ledger in a very promising fashion. Also turning heads in round one was Kyle Putland, who after almost missing the race altogether due to issues in the pits in the lead-up, took an upset win over Phil Read (4.769/247.38kph), who suffered a broken belt, with a massive pedal all across the racing surface for a three-second pass (3.983/399.00kph).
In round two, Lamattina was first out with a solo half-track shut off after getting up on the tyres off the launch and then dropping cylinders (4.327/329.56kph). Newby and Putland were out next with side by side three eighties delighting the crowd (3.801/522.02kph to 3.892/488.87kph), before Harris and Read faced off with another win going Harris’ way despite a half-track shut off (4.170/331.3kph) as his dragster was popping and banging, while Read once again struck trouble off the hit (12.301/122.36kph) with a broken throttle cable.
In the B-Final, Putland was disappointingly shut down on the start line to leave Lamattina to take a solo win (4.181/330.54kph) while Phil Read took a C-Final solo win with a very nice full-track 3.77 second pass which signalled a turnaround from what had been a hugely problematic weekend to that point.
“It was a killer effort by the team, even though we didn’t get to run in the 60s,” said a clearly emotional Newby after taking out the victory.
“To get the race win and take the points lead again into the next race, I can’t thank the team enough.
“I’m so happy for Santo and the team. Hopefully, from here, we can go on to win the championship.”
While Harris was disappointed to lose the A-Final, he was still happy with what he had achieved.
“It has been a great weekend to break those ET and speed records (3.683s/534.23kph) yesterday, so runner-up is great. To have two Rapisarda Autosport International cars in the final, I couldn’t ask for more.”
In XPRO Nitro Funny Car, it was time for Morice McMillin to take two victories in a row, backing up his New Year Nitro win with the A-Final victory at Dragway at The Bend over his team-mate and Spring Nationals winner, Josh Leahy.
While Leahy had been impressing all weekend long to that point with a number of PBs and top qualifying, it was a convincing victory for McMillin, who stormed to the win with a very stout 3.962/522.85kph while Leahy had the candles out early (5.546/206.72kph).
In the B-Final, US star Tommy Johnson Jr took home a B-Final victory with a 4.041/519.56kph pass on his birthday as he filled in for defending champion Justin Walshe (who was unable to compete due to illness). It was a full candles side-by-side run against debutant Damon Paton, who more than made his mark with a great first weekend in the bracket with a 4.124/472.57kph pass.
Earlier in the weekend, round one had seen Leahy ecstatic with another PB with his 3.980/513.14kph over McMillin (6.134/136.97kph) who lost the burst panel before the chutes deployed mid-track. Johnson Jr meanwhile took a win (4.078/476.9kph) over Paton, with the rookie from Mackay jumping early with an aggressive launch that saw the car jump around but go nowhere before his team pushed him back. Jr reported he had been on a good run, but the car ‘nose dove’ hard 100 feet from the finish line.
In round two, Paton (4.276/371.47kph) had drifted towards the wall in a pass against Leahy (4.067/494.2kph) who chalked up another win; while McMillin had to drive it hard after getting out of the groove, impressively laying down a 3.963/514.86kph all the same in his pass behind Johnson Jr, who shook the tyres (5.149/237.97kph).
“It was so good to race Josh in the final. We were both having a go when you look at our lights. So, I’m just glad we finally figured this new combination out,” McMillin said.
“It's been an awesome weekend, honestly,” Leahy said.
“We may not have won the A-Final, but Team Rocket won this weekend. To go away with two 3-second passes is unreal and not something we were expecting coming into this weekend and I can’t thank my whole team enough.”
Top Doorslammer delivered a result straight out of the story books for Jeremy Callaghan and his crew.
Just a month ago, Callaghan was skating down the Perth Motorplex on his roof after rolling his Camaro.
Today, he hoisted his first NDRC Gold Christmas Tree after taking the A-Final victory with a 5.755/406/68kph run over the defending champ Russell Taylor, who red lit (7.797).
The B-Final was equally entertaining, with Ronnie Palumbo (5.716/404.32kph) and Lisa Gregorini (5.684/406.49kph) – who achieved a number of PBs this weekend – slogging it out down the track to cross the line with a margin of just .037 seconds, with Lisa chasing Palumbo hard down the second half of the track in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to beat him to the line.
The C-Final saw Brodie Zappia take the win over a red-lighting Matt Abel with a 5.938/389.65kph effort, while the D-Final saw John Zappia on a solo run when Peter Lovering couldn’t front due to damage incurred earlier in the day – but that didn’t stop Zap running it out the back door (time not recorded due to timing issue).
What had started as a 14-car field for Top Doorslammer was reduced to 12 on race day with Daniel Gregorini unable to compete due to engine damage sustained yesterday while Andrew Sutton was of course also not taking part due to the heavy damage sustained yesterday when his Corvette went into the nets.
“I can't believe the result here today,” Callaghan enthused.
“It is a complete turnaround from four weeks ago when we were upside down in Perth.
“We’ve gone from the outhouse to the penthouse. I’ve got to thank my sponsors Luci Civil, Prohibition Bottleshop Canberra, and Expresso Room Canberra, and of course my team and my family.”
In Top Fuel Motorcycle, Muscat took the A-Final win with a convincing 6.247/329.37kph pass over Greg Durack’s 8.600 effort at 8.600/261.92kph. The B-Final went the way of Danny Rickard (7.582/252.41kph) in what was a highly entertaining side-by-side pass between him and Corey Buttigieg (7.787/197.21kph), which some called the Top Fuel Motorcycle race of the event, and was dampened by the latter hitting the timing blocks at the finish line. Damian Martini took the C-Final victory with a solo run, running into trouble to trundle down the track for a 64.999 and no speed recorded.
Muscat had started his day with a representative pass straight down the middle (6.186/338.56kph) in round one on a bye while Rickard ran it all the way through in his pass (7.852/258.94kph) against Damian Martini (9.681/136.41kph), who gave the wall a little kiss on his way down the track. Durack meanwhile showed big improvement with a 7.646/290.29kph after struggling with tyre shake and traction in qualifying, while Buttigieg (9.199/164.51kph) in the other lane came whisper close to the wall but managed to stay off it.
In the second round, Muscat and Martini faced off with Muscat taking another with a 6.290/291.28kph effort to Martini’s 8.012/195.37kph, while Buttigieg enjoyed a solo win on a 15 second pass. Durack meanwhile took a win over Rickard, with Rickard pushed back from the line leaving Durack to take a solo 9.293/250.33kph journey down the quarter-mile.
“It’s great to get over here. The crew really thrashed it out last night and in the early hours of this morning to get back out here and put on a big show for these fans,” Muscat said.
“How good is this JTS rocketship today?! We’d love to go a bit faster; we didn’t get there today. Keep an eye on us and we’ll keep chipping away.”
Also on-track this weekend was the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship, with plenty of exciting racing performances laid down across the Dragway at The Bend quarter-mile for these brackets.
When all was said and done, it was the following racers who lifted the NDRC Gold Christmas Tree trophies for their respective brackets: Zayne Condello over Nixon Cannuli (Junior Dragster), Lillian Hagan over Riley Kilvington (Junior Drag Bike), Henry Spicak over Kevin Cooper (Super Street), Craig Geddes over Peter Firriolo (Super Comp), Dave Harrison over Donald Hagan (Modified Bike), Edge Mallis over Cheryl ‘MsVrod’ Beddoes (Competition Bike), Bob Sherry over Greg Angus (Supercharged Outlaws), Adam Ince over Sean Maher (Super Sedan), David Foster over Chris Theo (Top Sportsman) and Adriana Cartledge over Daniel ‘BatDan’ Carranza (Modified).
Next up on the NDRC calendar is the Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs at Sydney on May 2-4, which will be headlined by Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car alongside the full range of group one categories plus the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship.
Then, the biggest event of the year is back with the return of the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway across June 5-8, featuring Top Fuel, XPRO Nitro Funny Car, Top Doorslammer and Top Fuel Motorcycle, plus Pro Alcohol, Pro Stock, FuelTech Pro Mod, Pro Stock Motorcycle, and the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship.
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