The Swan Hill Rural City Council has unanimously approved a business case study to redevelop Chisholm Reserve to include a full quarter mile drag strip.

While estimated costs for the full development of the site is $8 million, an election commitment by the Victorian Coalition earmarked $2 million of State Government funds for the project.

For the $2 million to become available, a proposal must be made to Regional Development Victoria including details of additional funding from council, private investment and the Federal Government as required.

The Swan Hill Drag Racing Club Vice President Lucas Woodburn said, "the club has worked long and hard to make this happen and we're all so very happy with the council's unanimous decision. But the hard work doesn't stop here."

Damien Harris will keep his traditional yellow colour scheme on his Best Tractor Parts Top Fuel dragster when he joins Rapisarda Autosport International in just over a fortnight for the Santo's Cranes Super 3 Extreme Drag Race at Willowbank Raceway.

Harris decided to give fans the final say in what colour scheme they wanted to see – choosing between his familiar "Harris Yellow" colours and "Rapisarda Black", the favourite of the Rapisarda family.

Wayne Daley wins Pro Stock at the Westernationals (Photo courtesy Gardner Broz)The very nature of the sport means that every race can literally be a 50/50 chance of winning. Which can be a very fortunate thing when scraping into the bump spot in a tough Top Doorslammer field at the Westernationals. And that pretty much describes how Peter Kapiris' weekend went for the most part.

The qualifying sessions proved to be close, weather conditions keeping times to a reasonable average, rather than the all-out spectacular numbers. Maurice Fabietti headed the ladder after three sessions with his 5.921, followed by John Zappia (5.963). Victor Bray, Andrew Sutton and Daniel Gregorini posted in the  6.00s by various thousandths, whilst Russ Pavey put in a blinder to secure sixth in the '63 Corvette with a 6.01. Ben Bray found some form, making seventh his with a 6.051, while the Saratoga of Kapiris just made it's way into the field with a 6.057.

What an interesting week I had over in Perth at the 42nd Western Nationals! Making it to the Semi Finals, running under the ET and over the mph records in the worst conditions I have ever raced in.

From my last update you may remember I was waiting on a new set of headers to come over from the USA. Not knowing when they were going to be ready I fitted the Gebbler Tri-Y's onto the car before it went in the container and left for Perth. Fortunately the headers arrived on the Tuesday before the Westerns which was also the day I was leaving for Perth as I flew over on Tuesday night to test on the Wednesday at the track T&T.

If Drag Racing isn't fighting against the rain it's a battle against the heat & when the temps hit the high 30's this past weekend, that's exactly what the teams had to do at Adelaide International Raceway.

Top Alcohol had 9 cars enter for a 8 car field going into eliminations.

Qualifying was hot & tough. Steve got the Allstar Batteries funnycar out there clocking a 5.05 ET over the 1000' line. For session 2 & 3 Steve laid down two 4 second passes, 4.96 @ 218mph & 4.92 @ 222mph which at the end of qualifying the Reed team were in position #2.

Round 1 of eliminations paired up NT's Yak against Reed, this time the Reed funnycar took the win lights but no official 1000' time was recorded. They then advanced into round 2 meeting Wayne Newby.

The Santo's Cranes Super 3 Extreme Drag Race at Willowbank Raceway will play host to NHRA royalty later this month when three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon and renowned crew chief Lee Beard jet 'down under' to join the Rapisarda International Autosport team at the 29-30 March event.

After signing with naming rights sponsor Santo Rapisarda's NHRA team earlier this year, it has been confirmed that the pair will appear for the team at Willowbank Raceway's two-day Easter spectacular.

Dixon, the second most successful driver in NHRA history with 62 wins and three championship titles (2002, 2003 and 2010) to his name across an award-laden 18 year driving career (click here for Larry Dixon fact sheet), said he was looking forward to making his mark at Willowbank Raceway this Easter.