CALENDAR

Once again weather played havoc for the start of day two at the Gulf Western Oil Super Thunder and continued off and on for the afternoon before the skies cleared and a full action-packed schedule of racing followed.

The stars of the day were the Top Fuel Funny Cars, the quickest accelerating cars in motorsport these 10,000 horsepower beasts turned up the heat for Super Thunder. Basically, the same engine combination as a Top Fuel Dragster but with a shorter wheelbase and a carbon fibre body making them wider and harder to control.

“400 Thunder is excited to be able to bring back Top Fuel Funny Car Racing. It has such a rich history, and we are really looking forward to the field growing and providing a fresh and exciting opportunity to provide more excitement at every event for the fans” said the General Manager of 400 Thunder Steve Bettes.

“With the bracket running the full quarter mile at each event, it promises to provide that ground shaking, loud, flame throwing action we have come to love.”

“The air was much cooler tonight and the track had really come around, people came out to see the Funny Cars break the four second barrier.”

With low runs on the board and the first paired pass for both drivers in the Nitro Funny Cars, saw Adam Murrihy in the Nitro Freak Top Fuel Funny Car quicker to the 60 foot but then smoke the tires with Morice McMillin in the Aeroflow Top Fuel Funny Car taking the first win at 5.02 at 312 miles per hour.

Following the pass, Crew Chief Brandon Gosbell said, “that was a real treat for the crowd and really looking forward to seeing how fast we can actually go.”

“People don’t see the hours put in behind the scenes and how many people are involved to get the car to the start line, over 500 km an hour that’s just the icing on the cake. But we aren’t done yet, just you wait.”

Both Top Fuel Funny Cars raced to the track conditions, with a second run seeing McMillin going after it with a 5.01 win run and header flames standing tall. Following side by side burnouts, the third pass resulted in a win from McMillin pedaling the car to the finish line with some tire shake, after Murrihy had the lead at 330ft before an explosion slow the car down.

Pro Mod also turned it up with a huge field in only their second season of racing. The bracket has a bit of a cult following with the old school racers with the blowers versus the new school racers with the turbos.  Runner up rookie Rob Harrington is one to watch as he is really backing up the talk in his blown commodore, with Zoran Gajic up from Sydney taking the win for the Gulf Western Oils Super thunder event.

Pro Slammer saw the first ever Christmas Tree win from Russ Pavey with Rob Taylor clipping the timing blocks over the finish line. Pavey did everything he needed to do to put the car down the track during today’s racing to make it to the finals, the car was finally behaving this weekend and in a rare sequence of events was able to put the win on the board while still near the start line.  

Pro Alcohol had a solid field but the biggest surprise of the night was Gary Phillips not in the finals after taking home a small forest of Christmas Trees over the years. Instead, we saw a head-to-head final between Justin Walshe in the altered and veteran and number 1 qualifier Steve Reed in the Funny Car, with Walshe taking the win at 5.66 seconds at 247 mph after a bumpy ride from Reed.

Event Results

Pro Categories

Pro Alcohol
Winner: Justin Walshe
Runner Up: Steven Reed

Pro Mod
Winner: Zoran Gajic
Runner Up: Rob Harrington

Pro Slammer
Winner: Russ Pavey
Runner Up: Rob Taylor

Sportsman Categories

Junior Dragster
Winner: Sienna Nunn
Runner Up: Jessie Linder

Real Street
Winner: Cooper Leahy
Runner Up: Cody Leahy

Super Street
Winner: Josh Fletcher
Runner Up: Mark Rossow

Pro Radial
Winner: Jaidyn Seng
Runner Up: Sini Sveiger

Top Sportsman
Winner: David Gauldie
Runner Up: Simon Isherwood

Performance Bike
Winner: Chris Collin
Runner Up: Ken Collin

Super Comp
Winner: Adrian Vella
Runner Up: Mike Bailey

Modified
Winner: Jason Vanderlinde
Runner Up: Gavin List

Modified Bike
Winner: Tammy Goldthorpe
Runner Up: Sean Ricketts

Super Sedan
Winner: Patrick Barron
Runner Up: Mitchell Bauer

Supercharged Outlaws
Winner: Josh Fletcher
Runner Up: Fiona Reed

The countdown is also now officially on until four massive days of high adrenaline racing at the 2022 Gulf Western Oils Winternationals. As the biggest event of the year and the largest drag racing event held outside of North America it is the event not to be missed. For more information or to pre-purchase tickets visit www.willowbankraceway.com.au

If you missed the action you can watch a highlights package on Monday night on Fox Sports.

For further information, please contact manager@400thunder.com.au.