Drag racing’s longest running event (49 years) is the Australian Nationals run over 3 days, 31st October to the 2nd November at Sydney Dragway.
Team Sigra Rollingstock Components from Penrith NSW went home as winners of Group 1 “Top Doorslammer”
Top Doorslammers are the fastest category for cars based on road going models, with full suspension, 3 speed gearbox, normal door access etc. Cars race from a standing start for ¼ mile (400 metres) only and complete this distance in under 6 seconds with a terminal speed of up to 250mph (400 km/h). Zero to 100 km/h is typically under 1 second. Engines are 8.5 litre supercharged V8’s making as much as 3,500HP (2500kw) at 10,500rpm, and burning pure Methanol as fuel.
Sigra Rollingstock Components manufactures spare parts and repairs components for the Australian rail industry, and the race car is a 1959 Chrysler Saratoga built by Sigra and their subcontractors using a lot of exotic materials including Chrome Moly steel, Titanium, Aircraft grade aluminium and Carbon Fibre. Sigra’s Mechatronic engineers collect multi channels of data from every race meeting and continually tune and develop the engine and chassis to make power, develop downforce and traction and get the enormous power to the ground without losing control.
Team owner and Driver, Geoff Gradden from the Blue Mountains, says: “We’ve been drag racing for 10 years, and this, our third and fastest car has been under development for 4 years. We qualified in the 8 car field for the first time on Saturday as the 8th and slowest qualifier. On Sunday at elimination rounds, we won against the top qualifier, Peter Kapiris from Victoria, crossing the finish line only seven 100/th’s of a second (0.070 seconds) in front. So we completed the ¼ mile in 5.96 seconds and crossed the line at 246mph (397km/h) - faster than the car has ever gone before. We lined up in the final against Marty Dack from WA and put the car down the track for a 6.03 at 244mph for a comfortable win. We knew we had a race car from testing, but needed all aspects of our preparation to come together, along with a few mistakes from other competitors to be able to do well at this national event. To go home with the winner’s trophy as a first time qualifier and setting personal best times is more than we could have imagined or dreamed of.”
Team Sigra is a part time, low budget group of family and friends. From the Gradden family - Joanne, David, Tim, Lorna, Bob and Megan, as well as long time friends in the crew, Mick Ellis, Alan Brown, Mitch Turner, Bill McDonald and Waldo Goddard.
It takes the whole team countless hours of preparation and planning and flat out all weekend to get the car tuned and serviced between rounds and on race day. Special thanks also go to Maurice Fabietti and Stuart Rowland for their technical help and advice.
http://www.andra.com.au/latest-news/group-1/2424-golden-weekend-at-australian-nationals.html
http://www.sigrail.com/
