For Darren Morgan Racing, today's Santo's Cranes Super 3 Extreme Drag Race represents a great opportunity to regain the lead in the ANDRA Top Fuel Championship.

"Getting the car from A to B under power is what we need to do," said crew chief Ben Patterson. "With the cooler weather we are very confident the car will perform well. "

"The car's ready, the team's ready and Darren is excited to get back behind the wheel after top qualifying at the previous Championship round in Perth."

The competition will be tough this weekend but Darren Morgan Racing is up for the challenge. "Not only do we have the strong local competitors," said Darren, "but NHRA Top Fuel Champion Larry Dixon will also be here to take on the Aussies."

For many, Easter conjures up thoughts of brightly coloured Easter eggs and chocolate.

At this weekend's Santo's Cranes Super 3 event at Willowbank Raceway, QLD, Brisbane's Steve Read is chasing another bright object - the win light.

For 'The Pom' and his opposition, it won't come easy - there's an NHRA Top Fuel champion amongst the field ready to take the Australian teams to task.

It's not every week that you get to interview a 3 time NHRA Top Fuel Champion.

So this was my lucky week when I got the opportunity to have a chat with Larry Dixon, who will be making a much anticipated appearance at this week's Santo's Cranes Super 3 Extreme Drag Race at Willowbank Raceway.

Star struck much? While I'd like to say that I was very professional during our interview I did let out a girlie giggle now and then.

Brownsburg Indiana based Dixon met Santo Rapisarda initially as part of a business relationship, with Santo renting some space from Dixon for his US based Top Fuel operation. Nicknamed "Nitro Alley", Brownsburg is the home for many of the NHRA's top nitro teams.

Top Fuel and Top Alcohol both add two more championship rounds to their tally when the Santo's Cranes Super 3 Extreme Drag Race hits Willowbank Raceway in March 29 and 30.

For Top Fuel it marks rounds six and seven of the championship and is the second time they have run the 'double header' championship format, following its successful debut at Perth Motorplex in February.

Given the event is a new one, it does not have a previous winner, however last time the Top Fuel dragsters were out at Willowbank Raceway Allan Dobson took the win, driving for the Rapisarda Autosport International team, over Andrew Cowin.

Dobson ran the fourth quickest time of the season, a 4.649 en route to the Winternationals win.

The quick pass showed the Rapisarda team knew Willowbank Raceway well. With three times world champion Larry Dixon coming into the driver's seat for this event and highly decorated crew chief Lee Beard to provide the tune up, they will be tough to beat.

Queensland Top Alcohol driver Steven Reed says he may sacrifice the single compulsory qualifying sessions of the Santo's Cranes Super 3 Extreme Drag Race at Willowbank Raceway in order to find a path to quicker times.

Reed believes the Allstar Batteries/Royal Wolf team has the parts and equipment needed to run into the elusive 5.4 second zone, but needs to find the knowledge to get there and the only way to do that is to test out some theories.

"I'd normally be saying that we will be trying to "5.60" the field to death, but we need to figure out how to go fast," he said. "To do that we have to try some things but we don't know whether that will mean we lose our consistency.

Following a positive outing at Portland's Slamfest for Wishes event last month, in which Darwin's Scott White reset the (660ft) track record for motorcycles, the mood in the camp was positive for the Summer Speedfest at Adelaide International Raceway a week later. This event featured round two of the ANDRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championships.

South Coast Raceway – Portland, Victoria

"This was our first time at Portland and what a great little eighth mile regional track it is although the bend in the breaking area was something that I had never experienced before, said White.