East Coast Nationals from Australia Words and Photos by Ivan Sansom 10/14/04

The opening event of the sophomore season at the Western Sydney International Dragway produced the largest fields in Group One (ANDRA's professional category) seen in Australia in a long time. But for the first time visitor it is the venue itself, fully living up to it's "Wizard" nickname, that first takes the breath away. Thanks to years of intense lobbying of the politicians in New South Wales by notable figures such as Top Fuel veteran Jim Read and former DRO columnist David Cook, the state government agreed to stump up 22 million Australian dollars with the ethos of producing the best facility in the world. Few would argue that this haven't achieved this, and the track represents the new benchmark in 21st Century dragstrips. The three storey fully equipped control tower (hey, you can even take the lift to the media centre!), is fully equipped with race control and corporate hospitality boxes, and also provides some much needed shade from the heat of the Australian sunshine.

The sweeping curves of the stadium style seating (with capacity for 30,000), the main horseshoe being carved out of solid earth mounds intensifying the noise and adding greatly to the overall show, are topped off by another suite of hospitality boxes, whilst the track side 'snakepit' allows for burnout demonstrations and stunt shows during the mercifully minimal down time.

With the likely return of Mike Dunn (following his appearance at the opening event at WSID) to the track later in the year, and something "big" for Top Fuel planned for 2006, the AC Delco East Coast Nationals marked one further step in the heady adventure that is Championship drag racing in New South Wales.

Top Fuel Dragster

The Kings of the Sport are heavily promoted at the Wizard, little surprize there given that Jim Read, a multi-time champion in the

skinny cars, is the CEO of the track. Time constraints have meant the veteran has stepped out of the Auto One backed rail (an ex-MBNA piece that used to propel Cory Mac in the latter days of Joe Gibbs Racing involvement in NHRA competition) and handed over the reins to his son Philip for this season. Despite some stout launches, the second generation driver, tuned by his brother Bruce, lost out in his first round of ANDRA competition.

"Family" is a strong theme in Australian drag racing, and the Shepherd Family from New South Wales supply two of the entries in Top Fuel, both heavily backed by Gulf Western Oils. Bob Shepherd (left) drives the red Gulf Western car and produced consistent low 5 second ETs in qualifying, but he fell to teenage nephew Luke Shepherd (right) in the, errrm, red with a hint of yellow Gulf Western car. Luke eventually made it through to the runner up spot in the seven car field with a similarly consistent set of low five second passes.