US star Mike Janis to race at Nitro Champs
Two times IHRA Pro Modified champion Mike Janis will be a star addition to the Top Doorslammer field at Sydney Dragway's Nitro Champs, coming up from May 3-5.
The Lancaster, New York based racer will be driving for Australian Sean Mifsud, who is currently out of action due to a broken leg he received in a braking area crash in Portland, Victoria.
Janis is competitive by nature and declared that he is not going to come all the way around the world without a shot at the ANDRA gold trophy.
"I can tell you we do not plan on flying over on a plane for over 20 hours without hopes of winning the event," he said. "Our first goal is to have a safe test session and make sure everything is okay."
"Believe it or not the hardest deal is going to be qualifying for the eight-car field. This is such a tough field and if we can qualify for it, that will be a big deal for the first time out with the car. However, you can bet if we get in the show we plan to win."
Janis says the Plymouth Duster-bodied car, owned by Mifsud, has many of the innovations he uses in his own racing operation back in the US.
"This Duster is very capable of setting the ANDRA record," he said. "We have put a lot of time into this new combination. This car utilises our latest Mike Janis Superchargers 16-71 high-helix blower which we have worked extremely hard to make as competitive as the popular "screw type" supercharger that most guys use over there (Australia).
"The (Australian racers) are such great competitors and that's what makes competing so much fun. We are much more restricted with rules in the States which is constantly keeping us on our toes with developing new and exciting technology.
"If we can get this Duster ironed out there's no reason you couldn't see numbers on the scoreboard in the 5.70s at over 250mph (402kmh). We are going to give it our best shot with the very little test time we will have."
Despite his broken leg, Mifsud still wanted to debut his new Duster at the event and so decided Janis, as the car's former owner and builder, was the best credentialed man for the job.
"The doctor has just told me I have another three months at least before he will clear me to drive," Mifsud said.
"Mike and I are great friends, we speak every second day on the phone and so he was the one I wanted in the car. This is all his combo, it has everything he wanted on the car and he puts a lot of his R&D from his own racing into it."
Like Janis, Mifsud hopes the car will push some barriers with its unique traits. As well as the supercharger differences, the car also runs an automatic transmission, which several racers have predicted will be the future of the Top Doorslammer category.
"With the way our rules are structured we get a weight break for using this supercharger and because the car was built light it lends itself to that," he said. "With the technology in the new supercharger we think our top end speed will be matching that of the PSI (supercharger) cars."
The team plan to test for two days in the week leading up to the Nitro Champs.
Janis will be up against some of Australia's best door car racers including Victor Bray, John Zappia, Peter Kapiris, Maurice Fabietti and Gary Phillips.
The Nitro Champs runs from May 3 to 5 and also includes action from Top Fuel, Nitro Funny Cars, Top Alcohol, Pro Stock, Top Bikes, Pro Stock Motorcycles and the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship.
