Sydney Nitro Thunder Sigra Race Report

Sydney’s Nitro Thunder May 5th, we lowered our PB to 5.802 seconds for the ¼ mile and backed it up with a 5.805 and a 5.806. Three runs back to back within 0.004 secs is a fantastic result for us.

We were pushing for some mid 5.8 passes after running all 5.9’s in Perth recently, but the car had more in it than expected and with a full crew and no major issues, there was more time to concentrate on tuning and it came together for a bit of a surprise.

A failed shift light saw the car on the rev limiter at the top of second gear for a ¼ of a second and lost Round 1 by 0.032 secs. Our 5.802 would have been a 5.78 or better.

I can’t thank the Sigra Crew, Sydney Dragway, 400Thunder and the team at Sigra Penrith enough. It’s a mid-field finish for our small operation against some very tough and experienced teams. Could have been top 3 without the shift light issue. Also the biggest crowd we have seen in Sydney for over 10 years.

The car is running straight and smoother than it has ever run and looking at the data I can see there is still room to make some gains, so I think we can get a bit quicker yet.

We’ll take a break through the winter months and come back testing in the spring, ready to race around Oct/Nov this year.

Press the play button below for a 2 min race report video.

Sigra Racing at Perth Motorplex, Westernationals 3-4th March

The Sigra team will be racing their Chrysler Saratoga Proslammer at this years 47th Annual Westernationals at the Perth Motorplex for the first time on the 3rd & 4th of March.

After successful testing at Sydney Dragway in January we are expecting to get some fast runs down the track.

For more information about the event visit:

http://www.motorplex.com.au/mactrack-westernationals-march-3-4-2018/

Santo's Summer Thunder at Sydney Dragway on the 19th & 20th January 2018, a very hot weekend! www.sigrail.com

Sydney Dragway Track Championships Race Report, 5.95sec

Saturday test session for the Sigra team at Sydney Dragway Track championships finishing with a 5.95 second run at 241mph.

We made a short youtube clip: https://youtu.be/YF5VTzCTDUA

Next up is May 5th and 6th, Sydney Dragway for the Gulf Western Oil “Nitro Thunder”

Test session for Geoff Gradden and the Sigra Rollingstock Components team at Sydney Dagway March 2017. Onboard for a 5.95 run at 241mph.

Santo's Summer Thunder Race Report

Sydney Santo’s Summer Thunder last weekend was our first tilt at 400 Thunder’s new format.

 1 practice run and 3 rounds of racing, with all cars running, no eliminations and points decided on round wins as well as fastest to slowest times each run. 

Turnaround times were tight and all runs counted for points, so it was an entirely new way of racing, where consistency counts. 

Happily, we ran 6.0 in our midday practice and 6.0 again in both rounds 1 and 2, then 5.9 in round 3, with wins in rounds 2 and 3 and a loss in round 1 due to a red light. This left us 4th in the points for the day – a midfield result and fantastic for us. 

Many thanks to Sydney Dragway, IHRA and 400 Thunder as well as Santo Rapisarda and all other sponsors and officials for a great event and to the 8,000 plus spectators that came on the day.

 Fox Sports will run several TV shows in the next few weeks covering each class of racing.

 We plan to enter the Pro Extreme class at March  25 Sydney Track championships and then prepare for 6th and 7th May Nitro Thunder, also in Sydney.

 DRAG RACING ON SIGRA YOUTUBE CHANNEL

We made a youtube video of our 2014 Australian Nationals win, and ANDRA have kindly allowed us to add some video of the Saratoga from their SBS TV shows.

Sigra video is the first 7 minutes and then 5 more minutes from ANDRA:

Calder Park Race Report

We raced last weekend at Calder Park and the track was shortened at the last minute to 1000ft from the normal 1320ft (¼ Mile), for safety reasons.

This was a 1 day only event, so only 2 chances to qualify. We ran 5.19 to 1000ft straight off the trailer for 2nd fastest in qualifier 1.

Qualifier #2 was no faster and we ended up 3rd qualifier over the 2 rounds – our best ever. Grant O’Rourke was fastest with 5.13.

Sadly, we were eliminated in Round 1 of racing by Mark Belleri, but went home happy with our result and no damage.

All the action should be on Speedweek, SBS HD this Sunday 20th March from 3pm.

Next round for us is the Sydney Nitro Champs, first week of May.

Calder Park Race Results.jpg

Australian Nationals Calder Park Race Report

Calder Park returned to Group 1 drag racing last weekend after many years. The promoter, ANDRA and the Calder park crew did a fantastic job with 280 cars entered and weather threatening all weekend. Thousands of Melbourne drag racing fans turned out on both days and the excitement and interest was the best we’ve seen at any track. It’s clear that Melbourne loves drag racing and we can’t wait to return to Calder.

The Sigra team entered Top Doorslammer and qualified in sixth position with 6.3 seconds at 233mph. Top qualifier was 6.0, and everybody had difficulties getting down the track. Calder has a great new concrete startline, but gets a bit bumpy down the track, making for some nasty moments and also making lane choice the deciding factor in most races.

In Sunday eliminations we touched the wall at about ½ track and lost to a fast 5.99 from Grant O’Rourke, but damage is minor and we come away with another step up in experience and confidence. John Zappia went on to win the event, defeating Peter Kapiris in the final.

Here is a race report and fantastic video from a USA website reporting on the meeting:

http://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/australian-top-doorslammer-racing-from-calder-park-is-our-kind-of-class-big-blowers-and-identifiable-cars/

Scroll down a bit for the video and turn up the volume.

Speedweek on SBS TV should be running a full meeting show in the next couple of weeks or so on Sunday afternoons.

Next race meeting for Sigra is 12th March back at Calder Park.

Sigra Racing at Australian Nationals in Calder Park 23rd & 24th January

This coming weekend, Australia’s most prestigious drag race, the Australian Nationals returns to Calder Park in Melbourne for the first time in 15 years.

Recent track upgrades have again allowed sanctioning for Group 1 drag racing and Sigra’s 1959 Chrysler Saratoga is entered in Top Doorslammer.

It’s our first visit to Calder park to race, so drop by and see us in the pits if you get the chance.

Racing is Saturday and Sunday 23rd and 24th Jan and Group 1 should be in the afternoons and evenings. Race Schedules and pit locations will be posted later in the week.

More information here:

http://calderparkdragracing.com.au/index.php/spectator-info/the-nationals-are-back

2015 FUCHS Winternationals Australian Championship Race Report

The FUCHS Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway in QLD was the Sigra team’s first interstate drag race, We had never before driven or tuned a car at any other drag strip other than our home track in Sydney.

The drag racing event is the largest championship race held outside of North America and it is also the final round of championship racing for the season in Australia. Over 400 cars and bikes were entered for a huge 4 day event. Sigra’s 1959 Chrysler Saratoga was entered in the Top Doorslammer category.

The team were competing in Group 1 amongst all the big names, with 2 days of qualifying, a 19 car field and only the fastest 8 cars to move on into the elimination rounds. We qualified 9th with our fastest run at 6.055 seconds down the ¼ mile track. 6.050 seconds would have put us in the top 8, just 5 one thousanths of a second outside the field.

Even though we did not make the elimination rounds, this was still a great result for us. A lot of experience was gained and a lot of confidence. It’s a fantastic result for our first interstate event. A bit of engine damage was done in our last qualifying run, and a minor rebuild to be done during our off season over winter.

Below are some pictures of the event. And the SBS TV show is here on ANDRA catchup.

Our next event is the East Coast Nationals in Sydney in November, and some possible test dates also in Sydney in September and October.

Sigra Racing at Winternationals 5th June

So we’ve had a couple of test sessions this year, but the Sydney Nitro Champs set down for May were cancelled due to bad weather.

With a race car all ready to go, we decided to enter our first interstate event, the Winternationals at Willowbank in Qld, 5th to 7th June, next weekend.

Details, schedules, pit location etc are here:

http://www.willowbank-raceway.com.au/events/detail.aspx?EventGroupID=93

It’s the biggest drag racing event outside the USA with over 500 entries, and a well oversubscribed field of 19 cars in our class, Top Doorslammer.

After a surprise win at the Australian Nationals in 2014, we have put together a video including some stop motion sequences showing setup and servicing in the pits.

Most of the video comes from our cameras used to help with tuning:

Also, thanks to ANDRA, here is a super slow motion video. Zero to 100km/h in 1.0 seconds: