// ISSUE 41
Wayne Newby’s Top Fuel Title // Ryan Learmonth Simon Richard’s Supercharged Outlaws Camaro Chris Diggles // Shane Tucker // Stig Olsson Gulf Western Oil Winternationals // Nitro Up North
EDITORIAL Group Two is at a cross roads. IHRA Australia recently announced that Competition and Super Stock will be merged at 400 Thunder Sportsman Series events next season. This is something ANDRA has been doing regularly when they have small fields. But the numbers are plain to see: Group Two just isn’t what it once was. I’d like to start by saying I love watching Group Two. The unique nature of the vehicles is what appeals to me; there are so many solutions to going fast. Every race car and bike has a story and a level of innovation that is not found in a lot of other brackets. ‘Cookie-cutter’ is not a term you often hear applied to Group Two fields. Contrary to opinion, there’s not less cars and bikes being built in Australian drag racing. They’re just being built to compete in categories other than Group Two, and increasingly outside of traditional championship brackets altogether. Take a look at the Extreme Bike guys, who are adding fresh, low seven-second machines with almost every event – these are the people who used to race in Competition Bike. There have been constant changes to the handicapping system to appease racers and promote more even competition, but the fact of the matter is not everybody can be a winner. I have to admit to being more than a little confused about all the different indexing systems now in play, and I spend a significant portion of each day embedded in Australian drag racing. What chance does your average spectator have, or even a racer in Group Three looking to step up? When it comes to sportsman racing, I have said before we shouldn’t care too much about the spectator, because it has to be participant driven. However too much confusion will drive the participants away as well. Group Two definitely has an image problem. They’re the nerds of drag racing – highly accomplished but out of place with the zeitgeist. Again, I love watching Group Two, but I am a drag racing tragic and I saw how great national index racing could be. But the fact is the world, and drag racing, have moved on. There is little social media attention when a national record is broken, but a wild radial tyre run with the front wheels up gets all kinds of views. You might think that is irrelevant, but ego is a large reason why people race and they will choose brackets based on their budget and how much they like to stroke that ego. I’d like to think that branding or marketing is a way to help Group Two, but any kind of handicapped racing will always be a difficult sell. There was once a time when Group Two was considered an important stepping stone to professional competition, but that is no longer the case and there are several reasons why. Firstly, there are so many more options now for competition outside of the traditional championship classes. People are building eighth-mile radial cars by the truckload right now, dwarfing any growth in Group Two. This is heads-up racing on a budget and racers love it, and I believe many of the racers now investing in radial cars are the type of people who would have gone Group Two racing in the past.
4 | DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE
Secondly, knowledge is no longer simply accumulated by racing. The internet made it significantly easier to learn about drag racing, without ever having to make a run down the track. Sure there is no substitute for experience, but you can get one heck of a head start with the right Googling. The ease of communication now available means you are better off going straight to where you want to race, rather than taking a long path by way of Group Two. Merging Competition and Super Stock does come with some headaches, not the least of which is closing speeds. While closing speed accidents are extremely rare, the odds are increased when two vehicles with a high difference of speed are combined. The quickest car Competition currently allows is a Top/Pro Alcohol Funny Car, capable of 5.3 second times and 270mph top end speeds. The slowest record in Super Stock is for C/MS, at a 10.05/134mph. I can imagine there would be a few nerves on both sides if that match up were to ever occur. One aspect of Group Two rarely spoken about is the amount of time that goes into tech for the brackets. There is a lot of resources given to ensuring fair competition, for a relatively small amount of racers. Is this a fair or reasonable commitment for ANDRA or the IHRA, or would time be better spent on different issues, like safety of all vehicles or initiatives to increase the number of racers in Group Three? The question is where to from here? We don’t want to lose any racers, especially those who have invested significant amounts to compete in Group Two. A combination bracket is probably a wise thing for the future, but I predict we could see the faster Comp classes fall, simply because the large capacity blown alcohol cars have Pro Alcohol to step into and it would solve the closing speed issues. From here, maybe we need to start thinking about heads-up sportsman opportunities if we truly want to have stepping stone classes. ANDRA should have added a radial class to its sportsman series a long time ago (even more in recent years given the series attends a bundle of eighth mile tracks), which would have greatly increased the visibility and relevance of the series. Perhaps there’s room for a heads-up doorslammer or dragster class for racers who don’t want to race in the fully fledged pro series – maybe capturing a selection of current race cars. This would give a significant feeder category for the pro ranks (and make no mistake, Pro Slammer needs that right now with its recent car counts). This is assuming ANDRA even wants stepping stones anymore, given Group Two is its current championship peak. We need to consider whether or not the resources Group Two takes, from the time of the sanctioning bodies to the prizemoney of the tracks, could be better allocated to areas of the sport that will support new growth. Group Two needs a solution, but rather than question how to save it, we first must answer: should it be saved? - Luke Nieuwhof
STAND WITH THE DRAG RACING INDUSTRY Drag News Magazine is rebooting its business listings. Rather than one page with all the listings, we will be running small ads throughout the magazine, sized like this FuelTech one. These ads are supremely affordable at just $300 for the year (eight issues), including a print subscription valued at $90. Or for $600 we will include your business’ logo in our email blasts, reaching over 4000 people. Email advertising@dragnews.com.au to take up the offer and support your industry’s magazine.
12 | DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE
No-one can accuse Wayne Newby of being undeserving of a Top Fuel drive. The modest Sydney racer has a drag racing resume that would impress even the hardest of observers, with close enough to three decades of driving, well over two decades of team ownership, and a talent for making the parts he needs to go racing. The Newby family were originally part of New South Wales’ drag boat scene – a thriving community that produced a number of other tough racing families. Wayne’s father David loved the thrill but the risks were high and he didn’t want to lose a son to the sport. With Eastern Creek Raceway opening, the timing was perfect to switch to hard-top drag racing and the Newby family procured a dragster from the USA, getting straight into the deep end of Top Alcohol. “Dad didn’t want me to drive boats because of the danger, so he bought me a drag car,” Wayne said. “I crewed for Stan Tindal in the early days and I learned a lot through him, before we purchased a car from America and got help from a guy named Doc Conroy. I first drove that when I was 17 years old, starting at the old Canberra strip where I got my eighth mile licence. Doc taught me everything he knew about driving, but I had also been around the boats and cars all my life.” Newby has fond memories of his time in Top Alcohol. A number of championships came his way, three of them in fact, and he drove both a dragster and a funny car. “We were competing with the best, Gary Phillips and all the guys like him. We started out hoping we could just qualify but soon we learned we could run with them.” Newby Engineering was founded by Wayne’s grandfather and passed down through the generations, first to David Newby, and then to Wayne. The ability of the family to make their own parts and repairs has enabled them to race at a level they otherwise could not afford – the only cost was time. “We have always made performance parts, machined blocks, looked after superchargers and repaired stuff for people,” Wayne said. “If we had to buy everything, we probably wouldn’t have been able to run where we did. But we could make everything on our cars, from clutches to con-rods, you name it we could make it. And that was how we could afford to do it. There were a lot of hours and late nights but we could have a lot of inventory at hand because we could just make it.”
Nitro dreams Among the teams Newby worked with was Rapisarda Autosport International. Lots of jobs from Australia’s biggest Top Fuel team flowed through the business, and the Rapisarda family wanted Newby to come and give driving a shot; they knew he understood the driving and mechanical roles equally. “They had been hassling me for a long time to come and drive,” Newby said. “My father had retired and I took over running the business, and I thought it would save a bit of time not racing our car. “Santino Rapisarda and Santo Junior were so keen, and when I spoke to them they were so passionate, they liked their cars the way I liked my car. “I’d also done a lot of work for all the Top Fuel teams and driving was one thing I wanted to tick off the bucket list. It has worked out well for all of us.”
DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE | 13
BUDGET
BRAWLER National records aren’t only for the rich, just the brave. By Luke Nieuwhof. Photos by cacklingpipes.com.
18 | DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE
DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE | 19
26 | DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE
PORT
POWER Port Pirie’s Simon Richards brings Pro Mod punch to Supercharged Outlaws. By Luke Nieuwhof. Photos by Hayley Turns.
DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE | 27
36 | DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE
WISE CRACK
The only fresh champion in the 400 Thunder Professional Drag Racing Series was an unexpected contender ready to take advantage of a rare opportunity. By Luke Nieuwhof. Photos by Joe Maday, John Bosher and cacklingpipes.com.
DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE | 37
FIVE HUNDRED
UP FRONT
44 | DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE
Don’t make any Ikea jokes this is one fast Swede. By Luke Nieuwhof.
For sheer drag racing div ersity, it is hard to beat Competition Eliminator – and that goe s for anywhere in the world . While we mostly cover Au stralian racers in Drag Ne ws Magazine, a 500ci Pro Stock-powered front engine dragster cau ght my eye at the Gatornationals ear lier this year. It reminded me of Kyle Putland’s similarly-cubed altered from Perth, a car we featured in our very first issue, but wit h a more international flai r. Stig Olsson hails from Str omstad, Sweden, a small town on the west coast of the country bordering the Atlantic Oc ean . Stromstad might not be recognised as the horsepower capital of Europe, but Olsson attended his first drag race in 1976 and wa s instantly infected by a love for the sport. “I bought my first dragst er later that year,” he said . Joining forces with his brother, Olsson fou nd $2000 to buy a race-r eady rail and the siblings shared the sea t. “In true democratic spi rit we switched
driver every second race, which of course was no t particularly successful.” A third driver did however prove to be a race winner. “In 1978 we put my wif e Bente in the car and she had instant success and won her first race, which was also the firs t drag racing event ever in Norway.” Olsson crew chiefed on som e other cars and gained exp erience in Powerglide transmissions, which would later prove val uable to both his racing and his career. A second family effort saw the team purchase an ex-To p Fuel front engine dragster chassis, wh ere they initially inserted a 331ci Chevy. Seeking more horsepower, Olsson made his first con tact with Neil & Parks Racing, a Kansas-b ased workshop. “I can say that (contactin g them) was one of my sm arter moves,” he said. “Frank and Sco tt Parks have built me som e good cars
DRAG NEWS MAGAZINE | 45