CALENDAR

Mills takes his First Pro Alcohol Title

In Pro Alcohol, Russell Mills was the inaugural NDRC champion elect coming into the Winternats weekend and also had his sights set on picking up an event Gold Christmas Tree. However, it would be local racer and championship runner-up, Daniel Reed, who would take the event honours. 

‘Batmobile’ racer Mills made his way through the two elimination rounds against Chirs Hargrave in round one and Gary Phillips in round two to line up in the final against Top Qualifier Reed in the final. 

Local racer Reed took the event win by laying down a new career-best run of 5.395-second 436.34kph over Mills (5.561s/401.80kph) after having earlier taken round victories over John Cannuli in round one and Luke Marsden in round two.

“It has been a big year; it is all volunteer labour to do this,” Mills said.

“Thank you to the Reed family for being such great competitors and to all the Pro Alcohol racers, and thank you to NDRC, IHRA and Willowbank Raceway.

“It has been good close racing this season, pretty much any car on the day could win; I am rapt to come away with the championship. That was the plan, and I would have loved to have gone to even more events, but what we did was great.

“Obviously I would have liked to have won the event today as well, and my car was on a pretty good run – everyone always says that though – but it didn’t do the run I was hoping for. Congratulations to Daniel and his great family on their win.”

For Reed, taking home the Winternats win today was a dream come true.

“The car was on rails all weekend, dad and the crew did a good job to give me a brilliant car which just went better and better every lap we did,” Reed said.

“The track was good and we knew it could handle it, so we just went after it for the final. To win the Winternationals, well it is the Bathurst of drag racing, it is the ultimate, the one everyone wants to win, so to win it today is just every drag racer’s dream.”

Dekert Wins his first Pro Stock #1 While Tremayne Takes Winters Title 

In Pro Stock, Rob Dekert claimed his first NDRC championship win, decided in the nail-biting first elimination round of the weekend. With Rick Chilton knocked out in the first round by Omar Sedmak, all Dekert needed to do was claim victory over John Barbagallo to clinch the championship, which his 6.916-second 304.87kph round one pass more than enough to do.

Heading into the final run of the day, Dekert and Top Qualifier Tyronne Tremayne had been relatively evenly matched, with Dekert running lower ETs and Tremayne quicker on the tree in rounds one and two. Ultimately it would be Tremayne who would claim back-to-back Winternats event victories when both racers red lit on the line, with Dekert being the first to do so.

Earlier in the day, Tremayne had taken wins over Shane Tucker in round one and Sedmak, who red lit in round two.

“I am rapt, over the moon! To win a championship means so much to me, thank you to everyone involved including my crew and my wife Deanne and daughter Aleesha,” Dekert said.

“It was a challenging weekend; we didn’t qualify where we wanted to but we made some changes and today the car was like a bracket car. We would have loved to win the Winters as well, but the championship was our goal.”

Tremayne was absolutely pumped with his Winternats win. 

“I am pretty stoked, that is four wins in a row for me now, the last four meetings I have gone to, have seen me win four times, including two Winternationals as I won here last year as well,” Tremayne said.

“In the final I knew I had to leave on him as his car was just as fast as mine, if not faster, so I was going to push the tree – but he pushed it way more than me! I am over the moon, this is very, very cool.”

Crowley Wins another Pro Bike Championship in Perfect Season

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, it was inaugural NDRC championship-winning racer Luke Crowley who would secure event honours, claiming a rare third consecutive Winternats win. 

As the Top Qualifier, Crowley enjoyed a bye in round one, before a win over Tony Frost in round two. In the final, Crowley took the win with a 7.132-second 305.38kph run over Jason Lee’s 8.015-second 192.75kph effort. Lee earned his way to the final with victories over Paul Andrews and Daniel Rabnott.

“This is just fantastic,” Crowley said, on taking the championship and the Winternats win.

“To win this event three times in a row, well I didn’t think it would happen!

“The last three weeks have been an absolute thrash. The guy working the Motec for me has worked late nights for the last two weeks solid, we have been doing stuff the whole time, and it has been a struggle, but obviously, this makes it all worthwhile.”

Burns Wins Pro Mod Despite First Round Loss

In FuelTech Pro Mod, Top Qualifier Craig Burns went on to take home the first NDRC Pro Mod championship win, even though his Sunday running was cut short when he rolled the beams in round one due to a mechanical failure in his match-up against Daniel Camilleri, who would find himself in the final following this victory and a round two win over Paul Mouhayet.

Zoran Gajic would go on to claim the Winternats event honours with a round one win over Steve Smith and a round two victory over Frank Tarabay, taking the final race win over Camilleri with a 5.894-second 411.31kph run over Camilleri’s 6.242-second 347.94kph drive.

“We are rapt!” Burns said.

“It was a relief at first because we sucked at it today, with a mechanical failure in round one with the trans brake failing, but these things happen.

“We are pumped – we won two meetings out of four, top qualified three times out of the four, and the car has been super consistent.

“Racing against guys who have all the electronic gizmos and so on, to be able to come through with a little bit of an old school deal and run well, it certainly gives us the warm and fuzzy feelings!”

Gajic was happy to bounce back from a difficult Saturday to claim the Winternats victory.

“I am very happy with the win, it was hard work with yesterday being a bit of a disaster with everything breaking, but we got the job done today,” Gajic said.

“Thank you to the crew, without them it wouldn’t have been possible, and I would like to dedicate this win to my crew chief’s late father, Robert Boyd Mundey.