When it came to ways to celebrate Australia Day 2025, Willowbank Raceway was the place to be at the weekend for the latest round of the NDRC championship, featuring 11,000hp/500+kph Top Fuel Dragsters and XPRO Nitro Funny Cars, as well as the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship, which of course included fast motorcycles.
After qualifying was decided on Saturday, Sunday saw intense battles unfold for the NDRC event-winning Christmas Tree trophy and valuable championship points across all categories to the delight of another packed crowd at Queensland’s premier drag racing facility.
For Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car, both enjoying the second rounds of their 2024/2025 NDRC Championship chases at the January 25/26 event, it was teammate v teammate for both A-Finals, with Damien Harris and Morice McMillin respectively taking out the victories over runners-up, Wayne Newby and Josh Leahy.
The Top Fuel B-Final went the way of Phil Read over Peter Xiberras, while in XPRO Nitro Funny Car Justin Walshe won a delayed solo B-Final following issues for Chris Stipanovich.
In Top Fuel, it was a Winternationals rematch with Rapisarda Autosport International pilots Damien Harris and Wayne Newby again facing off for the A-Final victory.
This time it was the defending champ who took the win over his teammate courtesy of an impressive holeshot, which saw Harris’ 3.806/519.26kph pass beat Newby’s 3.784/522.37kph to the line in a side-by-side battle that had the fans roaring.
While Newby was forced to settle for the runner-up trophy, he also claimed the Low ET and Top Speed points of the meeting and was obviously happy with the result considering how his weekend had started out with a fireball causing a large amount of damage to his canopy car the day before.
It wasn’t the first time that day the pair had lined up and delivered three second/500+kph passes either – with round two bringing a win for Harris (3.818/513.84kph) over Newby (3.880/502.67kph) while the fans stood on their feet.
In round one, Harris had taken an early shut off solo victory courtesy of his Top Qualifier status (5.712/185.01kph) while Newby defeated Xiberras in what was his first pass following the intensive overnight repairs, laying down a 4.035/430.73kph effort.
In the B-Final, Phil Read and Peter Xiberras also turned on an impressive run for the fans following earlier struggles in the day, with Read (3.932/449.24kph) taking the victory over Xiberras (4.212/349.62kph) despite the PremiAir Racing driver looking strong up to the mid track.
Earlier in the day Xiberras endured a red light and electrical issues for a pair of nine second ETs, while Phil Read had taken on Steve Read in round one, with ‘The Pom’ (4.331/406.47kph) pulling off an upset victory over the pedalling Spring Nationals winner (4.495/389.97kph) before being forced to sit out the rest of the meeting due to damage incurred from a fire after the finish line. Jim Read Racing’s Phil Read then enjoyed a solo round two win with a 4.11 second pass at 349.11kph.
“Thank you to the Rapisarda family for all of the support, thank you to Atlantic Oil and Suzanne for all her help, and thank you to Wayne – seven months ago we were here with different colours (trophies), so life is good!” Harris grinned while hoisting his Gold Christmas Tree.
“That was a killer race man!” Newby enthused while clutching his Sliver Christmas Tree. “I could hear him and everything! I couldn’t be happier for Santo and the team, thanks guys and let’s go to the next one!”
In XPRO Nitro Funny Car, the Aeroflow/Rocket Industries teammates of former champ Morice McMillin and rookie Josh Leahy were truly impressive, with the pair delivering a full candles side by side pass which saw both racers in the dark about who had taken the win until informed by commentators after the fact.
It was McMillin who took the win with a 4.040 ET at 448.98kph, narrowly edging out Leahy’s 4.128/437.66kph result.
It wasn’t the first time McMillin and Leahy had faced off on Sunday either, lining up against each other in round one with the pair on top of each other to the half track before Leahy (5.348/221.13kph) threw a belt, with McMillin taking the win (4.174/444/38kph).
There was plenty of drama in the XPRO Nitro Funny Car B-Final. Justin Walshe was shut down and pushed back from the line when his rival, Chris Stipanovich, suffered clutch issues which saw him trundle down the track after his burnout before pulling his chutes and coming to a stop in the braking area. It was a heated racing incident, and an animated Justin Walshe verbally expressed his frustration to the Stipanovich crew after being pushed back to the starting area. Stipanovich was openly apologetic when interviewed in the deep end as to how the situation played out.
Walshe ran his B-Final as a solo after the Top Fuel A Final, burning down the track before getting off it early when losing a belt to throw 4.26/393.37kph up on the boards.
Walshe and Stipanovich had earlier lined up against each other in round one, with Stipanovich pushing back after shaking during the burnout and Walshe taking a solo (5.148/244.18kph) before getting off it with a fuel leak.
In round two Morice (4.107/445.38kph) and Leahey (4.091/446.74kph) both ran solo passes, while Stipanovich and Walshe were no shows following their round one issues.
“I didn’t see nothing!” grinned McMillin after being told he had taken the win.
“The thing was moving around and I was driving the crap out of it. Then I saw Josh come past me in the braking area, and I had no idea who had won it at all. He was flying, and I was just trying to get to the end.
“We have the best team in drag racing, there is no two ways about it, and I am so happy to represent the brand, Rocket and Aeroflow and everyone – thank you so much to everyone, this is a team victory, that is for sure.”
“It is unreal to do this beside my mate, and it is so cool we are out here doing this as a team – we keep saying it, but we really mean it: one team, one dream! I can’t thank everyone enough,” Leahy added.
The event also featured an impressive line-up of Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship racers, who put on plenty of exciting performances to the delight of the fantastic crowd across the two days.
Taking out the event-winning NDRC Christmas Tree trophies in their respective brackets at the close of Sunday’s racing were Josh Fletcher over Troy Hutton (Super Street), Lillian Hagan over James Lowday (Junior Drag Bike), Zayne Condello over Carlos Harvey (Junior Dragster), Wayne Heit over Matthew Barron (Super Sedan), Sean Ricketts over Phil White (Modified Bike), Lucas Holz over Liezel Gouws (Modified), Neil Maxwell over Craig Chapman (Top Sportsman), Walter Hosta over Aaveen Autar (Performance Bike), Bill Fletcher over Peter Leahy (Supercharged Outlaws) and Warren Allen over Nicholas Galea (SuperComp).
Also on-track were the event’s exhibition brackets of Extreme Bike and Real Street, with Nathan Neilson and Dale Samuelsen taking out the wins over Matt Wilson and Paul Neilsen respectively.
The next major event on the NDRC major calendar is on March 1-2 as Perth Motorplex hosts the Westernationals featuring Top Fuel, Top Doorslammer, Top Fuel Motorcycle and Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship. Then, on April 5-6, Dragway at The Bend lights up for the Riverbend Nationals with Top Fuel, XPRO Nitro Funny Car, Top Doorslammer and Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship. The Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs are in Sydney on May 2-4 headlined by Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car and a full range of Group 1 Categories and the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship.
