Newby slays his Adelaide demons
Wayne Newby confronted the scene of a dramatic crash in April 2012 to come back and win in Top Alcohol at the Aeroflow Summer Speedfest on Sunday.
Ten months ago Newby was left with a written off race car following a 200kmh impact with the safety barriers, but this time he left with the ANDRA trophy and the first win since shifting into his new JBS Tools funny car.
When his car began to spin the tyres in the final, Newby says he had a flashback to his crash.
"It was playing on my mind, especially in the final there when it started spinning the tyres again," he said. "I was nearly to the point where I was going to get off the throttle but you can feel the funny car moving around better than the dragster.
"We've only done four races in it (the new car) so to get its first win is pretty good. There's still a long way to go but we are starting to get there."
Newby defeating Gary Phillips in the final in a 5.10 to 5.81 race, with Phillips aborting his run early after having to get on and off throttle to find traction.
Phillips did leave Adelaide with his points lead still in tact.
In Top Bike Chris Matheson returned to form, winning his second event in a row in Adelaide with a 5.42 run in the final defeating points leader Chris Porter's 6.44.
Porter had to shut off early when he got close to the centre line and Matheson was about to stride away.
"We're chasing Chris (Porter) in the points and catching up fast," Matheson said. "It has been a good weekend to get through on a challenging, hot track.
"We'll have to keep it up so we can catch the other guys and keep pushing on through the season. We got all the points we could this weekend and we still need to get some more."
Maurice Allen took his new Milwaukee Tools Suzuki to the winner's circle for the first time, with a massive holeshot win, defeating Luke Crowley's 7.34 with a 7.55.
"The bike is responding well and we are rapt, we just had to get our heads around working with this temperature this weekend," he said. "Even though we started the weekend off slow we knew we had a strong motor and we were just a bit out on the set up.
"We had a tough draw running Scott White in the first round, Locky Ireland in the second round and Luke Crowley in the final. We had to grind it out."
Allen said the holeshot win was reward for improving his own reaction times. He knew the pain, losing in the first round of the Australian Nationals on a holeshot in November.
"It's a great feeling as a rider and my goal for this weekend was to get the reaction times right," he said.
The Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship saw over 170 racers duking it out for national points with winners including Craig Geddes in Competition, Mario Barbon in Super Stock, Paul Harrison in Competition Bike, Luke Marsden in Supercharged Outlaws, Kenny Stewart in Modified, Steve Fowler in Super Sedan, David Argent in Modified Bike, Joe Jurkovic in Super Street, Brodie Tedesco in Junior Dragster and Kym Oberauer in Super Gas.
The ANDRA Drag Racing Series and Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship now head to Perth for the Westernationals this weekend March 2-3.
