January 27th and 28th at Sydney Dragway was an epic event in many ways. Sigra entered our 1959 Chrysler Saratoga in Top Doorslammer and all eyes were on this class as we raced in memory of Sam Fenech and paid tribute to his career and the tragic loss of Sam at the Top Doorslammer round in Queensland earlier in January. RIP Sam - we spent a lot of time over the weekend thinking about Sam, his family, and all our friends from his team at Fabietti racing.
With daytime temperatures exceeding 97F (36C), track temps up to 140F (60C), inside the car over 120F (50C) and water in the air off the scale we had our work cut out for us to make power and get it to the ground. We’re also told it was a full house, it’s the biggest crowd I’ve seen – maybe 15,000 or more, all silent as we paraded the Top Doorslammers on track and staged a track side memorial to Sam a short time before racing on Saturday.
Friday qualifier number 2 was postponed until Saturday morning due to rain, so we had 4 runs on Saturday in the hot and humid conditions. Turnarounds in the pits were short and difficult with quite a few issues not seen before including a CO2 line bursting in the staging lanes just minutes before we were due to run. With me strapped in and unable to help - David Gradden, thanks for your sprint back to the pits to get the parts and crawling into the back of the car behind me to repair the line with only seconds to spare. I’m please to say that we had a couple of 5.9 second runs and a couple of wins over the weekend, qualified 5th and finished in 6th – mid field, and under the circumstances very happy with that. Sigra crew includes Bill, Waldo, Jason and Vince – thanks for your hard work in difficult conditions. Thanks also to the amazing efforts of workers and volunteers at Sydney Dragway.
2023 is a big year for Sigra in many ways. After appointment to the role of General Manager in 2022 (with my transition to Managing Director), David Gradden now also steps up to more hands on responsibility in our part time Drag racing program. We’ll be racing the Saratoga Doorslammer only in Sydney for the foreseeable future, and only at National events, so maybe 2 or 3 more meetings this year, with the next being Nitro Champs in May plus monthly rounds of Extreme Bike for the Hayabusa. I will continue to drive and tune the car and ride the bike, and also continue to oversee all Sigra operations, although David takes responsibility for all day to day management of our growing business, supplying and maintaining Brake, Suspension and Draw gear components to our Rail customers as we celebrate 33 years of Sigra since 1990.
Also took the Hayabusa out for round one of Extreme Bike NSW championships on Feb 11th. Another hot day and a midfield finish. Added more NOS (around 360 Rear Wheel HP now), and as a result had gear shifting issues. I’ll work that one out before the next round, which is Extreme Bike NSW champs round 2 in Sydney, 4th March.
Geoff Gradden