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The Australian Top Fuel Drag racing Championship will be decided between two of the sport’s heavyweights in Sydney this weekend, as Phil Lamattina faces off against West Aussie veteran Allan Dobson.
There are 33 points separating leader Lamattina and Dobson heading into the Australian Nationals, however the Mildura carrot farmer has never won an event at Sydney Dragway.
After a storming start to the year in 45-plus degrees temperatures in Perth, FUCHS-backed Lamattina has allowed Dobson to sneak back into contention.
Lamattina is taking a meticulous approach to the event, including testing today at the Eastern Creek venue.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit in the first 60 feet,” said Lamattina.
“We don’t want to change the whole process with what we’re doing, we’re very happy with the whole tune up. We just want to see if we can improve the short time, if we can that’s great.
“I think consistency is going to win the day, we don’t want to be rotating the earth with any elapsed times or mile per hour, we just want to get the car from A to B to stay ahead of Dobbo and try take out this Championship.”
Whilst Lamattina already has a Championship on his impressive resume, Dobson is looking to hand a Championship to the Rapisarda Autosport International team – who he’s been racing with the last seven years.
With the knowledge of Lamattina having not won in Sydney and the Rapisarda Autosport International team being based mere kilometres away from Sydney Dragway – Dobson has promised to throw caution to the wind this weekend – as he needs to score points at every stage of the game if he is to win the Championship.
“A glitch in the management systems has been coming up and held us back at in the last race meet and the Winternationals. So we’ve identified that, we’ve rectified it, and bought new parts,” said Dobson.
“This week we really need to top qualify as well. We not only need to make the car a winning car but quick and fast.
“We’ve got to really pull out all the stops here and go all out. Just throw everything at it and hopefully it doesn’t blow before the finish line.”
After Darren Morgan has dominated recent seasons of racing, Lamattina knows that taking the Title will be a big thing for the family operated team.
“I wouldn’t say I’m nervous because at the end of the day I know how to drive the car. I didn’t unlearn that all of a sudden,” Lamattina added.
“I think I’m getting nerves confused with excitement because it’s a big thing, it’s big thing for us as a team and it’s big thing for Dobbo to win it as well.”
A full field of eight Top Fuel cars has entered for the event, while 16 Pro Stock machines have entered.
Qualifying begins at Sydney Dragway on Friday for the Aeroflow Sportsman Series categories. Pro class qualifying takes place on Saturday at 12pm, 3pm and 5:50pm with eliminations beginning at 10:20am Sunday.
