Wayne Newby has struck back to form in Adelaide by taking a dominant final victory in the ANDRA Drag Racing Series Top Alcohol Championship 10 months after he walked away from a 200kph accident at Adelaide International Raceway.
The Sydney racer wrote off his JBS Tools dragster in the incident, which cost him any chance of winning the Australian Championship. But this time around after just four outings in his new Funny Car, he’s tasted victory.
Newby flew down the Adelaide strip in 5.10 seconds to defeat Garry Phillips, who had a troubled run, peddling his Lucas Oils machine to the finish line.
It wasn’t all bad news for Phillips, who left South Australia with his points lead still in tact.
Newby had a scary moment early in the final, when he felt the wheels start to spin – bringing flashbacks of last year’s crash.
“It was playing on my mind, especially in the final there when it started spinning the tyres again,” he admitted. “I was nearly to the point where I was going to get off the throttle but you can feel the Funny Car moving around better than the dragster.”
Chris Matheson re-asserted his dominance in Top Bike, the Nitro Voodoo machine scorching to a 5.42 second pass taking the win from Chris Porter, who remains at the head of the Championship.
Maurice Allen took the win in Pro Stock Motorcycle aboard his brand new Milwaukee Tools Suzuki, beating home Luke Crowley in the Final. Whilst Crowley set the quickest time, it was Allen’s reaction time that got him the holeshot win.
