Very happy to get a result in Sydney on 4th/5th November. Sigra’s 1959 Saratoga and the Sigra crew proved again that they’ve got the goods to mix it up with the fastest sedans in the country.
Friday night was qualifying and racing Saturday. We qualified well, ending up in 3rd spot on Friday evening with a 5.73, and that gave us a good pairing with lane choice for round 1 Saturday.
As a 3 round series, we needed win points in rounds one and two, and also needed to collect enough points for elapsed times to get into the final. Round 1 we won against Craig Hewitt, and round 2 we win again against Craig Burns. Round 2 we also ran a 5.79 to boost the points and landed a spot in the final.
Being in the final at a national event is not something we are used to or prepared for. This was our 3rd only appearance in a final in 12 years of Slammer racing with a win in 2014 and a second in 2020. We’re running Emilio Spinozzi and our two cars will be pretty evenly matched based on recent performance. It’s Emilio’s first Pro Slammer final and we know his team will be setting up to repeat the string of 5.70’s passes he has been running all weekend. As always, you need to decide what the rapidly cooling track will take, how quick you need to go and then try to tune for that without overpowering the track.
This time I chose a bit too much power and rattled the tyres at the top of first gear with the car stepping sideways, a quick pedal and time of 6.0 was not good enough for Spinozzi’s flawless 5.75 and we run second. Well done Emilio, Michael and crew we know how hard you guys have worked these last 5 or 6 years to get the car to this level.
Michael Ryan builds 1/10 scale Nitro powered remote controlled drag cars and he came to see us in the pits with a replica of the Sigra Saratoga. There’s an aluminium chassis, a Nitro motor and some big tyres under that body. Thanks Michael for choosing our car to build.
Thanks Sydney Dragway, 400 Thunder and to RDW Excavator parts the class sponsor. Biggest thanks go to the Sigra crew and to Sigra Rollingstock Components for their support over many years of drag racing. Thanks also to all of our friends that came out to watch us race and drop by in the pits.
Next on the calendar for the Saratoga is Jan 27th/28th in Sydney as part of the Top Fuel Australia series.
I’ll be racing the Hayabusa next Sat 19th November in Extreme bike, Sydney Dragway NSW Championships and have a few spare tickets if anybody is interested in going.