O'Connor eyes best ever finish to season
Murray O'Connor has enjoyed one of his best seasons yet in the ANDRA Top Doorslammer series and he hopes his privateer outfit can continue to be a rival to bigger, more well-funded teams.
This weekend O'Connor will be transporting his 3500 horsepower Ford Falcon to Adelaide International Raceway where he will take part in the penultimate round of the championship – the Lady Daly Hotel Springnationals.
Currently sitting fifth in the points, O'Connor is hopeful he can move into fourth if results go his way and earn his best ever result in the Top Doorslammer category.
"We'd like to upset some of the bigger players, we just want to be a thorn in the side of the well-funded teams and I think we are managing to do that okay at the moment," he said.
A move to a different suspension set up before the season started has since reaped dividends for O'Connor, allowing him to get his horsepower to the track and make regular passes in the 5.8 second zone at speeds approaching 400kmh.
"Performance wise we are moving forward," he said. "When we put the 'four link' suspension in we made huge inroads straight away.
"Most times we have gone to a different track and in a couple of laps we can work out what we need to do with the tune up and settings."
It will be O'Connor's first time at Adelaide and he is looking forward to seeing the unique track, where teams will be running over a 1000 feet (304 metres) racing distance due to the venue's short braking area.
"When we walk the track we will look at where we are at with the suspension and stuff, every track is different every day," he said. "We have done a few of the Slamfest rounds now at regional tracks and that has been good for us to get our heads around something different track surface wise."
Following Adelaide, O'Connor said he will make a decision on whether or not the team heads to Sydney Dragway for the Australian Nationals in November, the final round of the series.
"The Nationals is on the wish list but we will make the decision after Adelaide - if we end up in fourth position we would be hard pressed not to go to Sydney to defend that," he said.
"Mark Belleri is not there this weekend so if we can stay ahead of Ben Bray we will come up to fourth. Considering we didn't run the first event of the championship, fifth position for a self-funded team is reasonably good going."
The Top Doorslammers will be joined in Adelaide by Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle plus a round of the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship.
