"VAN" (Sports Desk - 03.05.2026) :: After an action-packed Saturday at Sydney Dragway, expectations are sky high for what is set to be a truly scintillating Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs race day at Sydney Dragway tomorrow.
Hosting more than 300 racers, including all eight pro brackets for the only time in 2026 at Sydney Dragway, this weekend boasts one of the biggest fields in Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs’ history.
BLAHST Top Fuel, XPRO Nitro Funny Car, Top Doorslammer, Top Fuel Motorcycle, Pro Alcohol, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle, and Pro Mod each laid down two qualifying passes today, while more than 225 Aeroflow Sportsman Series competitors got into racing after completing their qualifying on Friday evening.
After signalling his intent in Friday testing with a PB 3.712 at 531.83kph (the Australian record is 3.683/534kph), Wayne Newby overcame clutch issues and resulting tyre shake in Q1 to rocket into the Top Qualifier position in Q2 with a 3.72 at 528kph - one of four three-second/500kph+ passes set by the BLAHST Top Fuel racers today.
Alongside Newby in Q2, Harris - who had been sitting in the top position thanks to his 3.767/475.70kph run in Q1 - shut off early in the second session and had to settle for second behind his team mate.
In the pass prior, Phil Lamattina and Shane Olive lined up alongside each other in Q2, with Lamattina unable to better his Q1 3.823/521.74kph effort, while ‘Sholive’ enjoyed his second celebration of the day, backing up his Q1 PB of 3.810 (at 525.6kph) with an even better 3.794 in Q2 at 527.83kph.
Steve Read and Kyle Putland round out the qualifying order, with both racers electing to run in Q1 only, for a 4.074 and 4.198 respectively.
“We were swinging for it!” said Newby.
“After running the ‘seventy’ yesterday, Santino was really trying to run a ‘sixty.’ It didn’t quite get there, but we got away with what we did and got the Top Qualifier, so everyone is happy and Santo is in a good mood.
“It has been a very good day and we have had a killer crowd here once again. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s racing. I think we can expect more low seventies, and hopefully high sixties. We will try our best while trying to make sure we win the event and start catching up in the points,” he added, while sending a shout-out to Steve and Susanne from Atlantic Oils, and to Santo, Santino, Santo Jnr, and the rest of the Rapisarda Autosport International team.
The XPRO Nitro Funny Cars were also bringing the 11,000hp thrills to Sydney Dragway today, with defending national and event champ Morice McMillin topping Q1 with a 3.933 pass at 523.51kph; a position he went on to maintain despite getting out of shape while on a march in Q2 alongside Damon Paton, who was unable to improve on his Q1 time where he encountered clutch system issues (4.209/489.75kph).
Josh Leahy was another to fare better in Q1, where he came close to his PB with a blistering 3.955 seconds at 511.07kph even though he was only on seven cylinders for the majority of the run. In Q2, he was alongside Justin Walshe, who is hunting his first-ever three-second pass this weekend with commemorative T-shirts already at the ready. Sadly for Walshe, he will have to wait at least one more day to don the merch, just missing out with a 4.040 pass at 482.89kph to move to third on the qualifying ladder in Q2 – bettering his Q1 5.411, where he smoked the tyres at the 300ft mark.
“It was a good day. I think we were only like three or four thousandths off the national record, and only like half a mile per hour, so that is great!” McMillin said.
“My teammate, Josh, is only a couple of hundredths behind me, so it will be a very good day tomorrow I think. We tried a bit hard in the last one and smoked the tyre at the half-track, but all signs are pointing to even quicker runs today, so we are very excited to get out there.
“And what a crowd today – oh my god! It was amazing, and it was amazing seeing ‘I love my Aeroflow team’ signs out there, too. It is so great to have that support. It was awesome also to have Graeme and Wendy at the track with us yesterday – hopefully we can bring them home the big trophy tomorrow.”
In Top Doorslammer, Jeremy Callagan was a true force to be reckoned with, laying down a near PB with a 5.663 second pass at 413.19kph to be the top qualifier at the conclusion of Q1 before completely smashing the marker with a 5.623 at 415.24kph to maintain the lead position ahead of Sunday’s race day.
While John Zappia was nipping at his heels in Q1 (5.687/40.89kph), he was bumped down to third on the order in Q2 by Daniel Gregorini, who powered down the track (5.678/408.14kph) before sadly running into trouble in the braking area. Thankfully he was able to exit the car and walk away ready to join his wife, Lisa Gregorini, on the startline for her Q2 run, with the team now in a race against time to try and be ready to return to the track for Sunday’s racing. It is an exceptionally tight field, with defending champ Russell Taylor (5.687) fourth quickest ahead of Emilio Spinozzi (5.730), Brodie Zappia (5.757), Lisa Gregorini (5.773), Ronnie Palumbo (4.783), Frank Taylor (5.834), Rob Harrington (5.846), and Peter Lovering (5.986). Brody Davies (6.062), Jack Danaher (6.102), Salim Matta (6.74), Shane Catalano (6.301) and Tony Defilce (17.010) round out the field.
“Yesterday has been awesome,” Callaghan said.
“In the first round, the gearbox didn’t shift properly and we went low 5.66 – our previous PB also a six-six – and then we switched over to the other gearbox and it went with five gears to the 5.62 – a brand new PB!
“And, it is the first time we have ever top qualified in Top Doorslammer before. That is a big achievement for our team, especially as there are a lot of cars here running stout numbers.
“As a team, everything is going good. The guys are doing a great job and we had a lot of sponsors show up today to support us, which has been great, including Discount Towing Canberra, Moits Motorcars, and of course, LUCI CIVIL are here with their whole team and family racing – it really doesn’t get any better.
“It has been a great day for us, but I have to say it is a real shame about Daniel; that is not what you want to see, and we wish him all the best for the repair on that car. We are so glad that he is okay.”
After a tricky Q1, which saw only Danny Rickard able to record a time, and a non-representative one at that, the five-strong Top Fuel Motorcycle field had a better outing in Q2. Here, Rickard improved to 7.434 on a solo, but it wasn’t enough to maintain the Top Qualifier position, with Corey Buttigieg throwing up 7.312 on the timing boards despite shutting off at 900ft after getting a little wide. Leonard Azzopardi and Adam Layton also got their names on the board in Q2, with a 8.259 and 11.091 respectively.
In Pro Mod, while it might have been the defending champ Zoran Gajic on top after Q1, in Q2 Robert Campisi vaulted himself from the bottom of the field – where he was after going too quick compared to the 5.80 class index – to the top with a 5.881 second pass.
While Gajic also improved on his Q1 time for a 5.900, it wasn’t enough to outperform Campisi, and he was forced to settle for second on the ladder ahead of Jeremy Martin (5.927), Adam Tassone (5.938), Joseph Murina (5.953), Barry Plumpton (5.974), Steven Smith (6.028), Zack Knezevic (6.035), Craig Hewitt (6.069) and Joe Gauci (6.499).
“We have had an absolutely sensational day. We went out and we went too fast, which we thought we would, but we needed to start somewhere and get some data. The car pulled up great and the data was really good. Then we had to put it in race mode and make sure we qualified as close to that 5.80 as we could. We put the tune up in and it behaved and we qualified number one, so it has been a fantastic day,” Campisi smiled.
“It is shaping up to be a great day tomorrow with some stiff competition and some really good racing. We are in a good position at the moment, and we are all very happy, you can’t beat that!” he added, while thanking Moran Motorsports, Quick Drive Racing, Black Track Performance, and SCF Race Cars.
In Pro Stock – raising funds for the McGrath Foundation this weekend with a special Race in Pink initiative - Aaron Tremayne was a commanding presence, topping Q1 before going on to better his ET in Q2 to ultimately top qualify at 6.886 seconds at 319.16kph. His brother Tyronne Tremayne was not far behind with a 6.912 set in Q1, keeping him ahead of current champ Rob Dekert (6.945), Rick Chilton (6.961) and Nino Cavallo (6.973), who rounded out the top five in the 11-car field ahead of Omar Sedmak, Thomas Leake, Clint George, John Kaboura, Tony Polito, and Ray Oxley.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Lachlan Ireland took the top spot courtesy of his 7.045 second pass at 309.87kph set in Q1, which was enough to keep him ahead of Callam Godeassi (7.120), Tony Frost (7.255), Sam Scerri (7.321), Paul Andrews (7.442), Lachlan Ireland (9.182), and Ryan Learmonth (28.290).
In Pro Alcohol, defending champ Daniel Reed celebrated as the Top Qualifier after his Q1 5.4657 was enough to maintain the top spot in Q2 ahead of Cheyne Phillips, who jumped up from the bottom of the field to second with a 5.474 performance. The next gen racers lead Chris Hargrave (5.633), Brett White (5.727), Cameron Ambesi (6.196), John Cannuli (6.637), and Steven Carpenter (7.001) into race day.
For the Aeroflow Sportsman Championship, today hosted the opening rounds of racing after qualifying concluded on Friday evening, with the following racers heralded as the top qualifiers for their respective brackets last night: Tyler Jarvis (Aeroflow Junior Dragster), Marcus MacDonald (Junior Drag Bike), Sammy-Jo Johnson (Super Street), Jai Schluter (Super Comp), Dean Jamieson (Modified Bike), Britney Olive (Supercharged Outlaws), Luke Doughty (Super Sedan), Edge Mallis (Performance Bike), Darren Whitford (Top Sportsman), and Daniel ‘BatDan’ Carranza (Modified).
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