CALENDAR

As we head into the home stretch of the PDRC, it’s time to review the title challengers for each of the four PDRC categories as the Championship picture becomes clearer.

PRO ALCOHOL

Without a doubt, Pro Alcohol is one of the closest categories with the top three only separated by 13 points.

Russell Mills was the form car of the series, setting the early pace with a clean sweep victory at Round one in Sydney. He secured the win over Chris Hargrave, running a string of consistent mid 5.50’s to set the tone.

Unfortunately, the pace of Mill’s unique dragster was short lived after a nasty accident at Dragway at the Bend for round two in February. The Dragster lost a tyre at over 400kph just past the finish line, leaving Mills a passenger as the car hit the wall hard and leaving him with minor injuries that he has fortunately made a full recovery from.

It was a blow for the reigning champion, and despite (in his words) trying to “beg, borrow or Steal” a car for the remainder of the series, he was unable to do so and the accident will rule him out of the final two events at the Nitro Champs and the Winternationals.

Jake Donnelly has been quietly going about his business accumulating points and is effectively now the series leader with Mills sitting out. His buffer, however, is not big as Wayne Price is breathing down his neck only 6 points in arrears.

Price, fresh off a Final Round runner up at the Bend, is having a career best season and like Donnelly is in search of his maiden Championship win.

The outlier in the points is Daniel Reed.

After missing round one of the series due to family commitments, he stormed back into Championship contention after running the table with a mammoth effort in South Australia – Top Qualifying, Winning the event, setting Low ET and re-setting the NDRC Speed record in what was a spectacular return to the series.

Although it will be tough, it’s not impossible for Reed to make up the 41-point differential to first with only two events left in the Pro Alcohol Season.

PRO MOD

Pro Mod has been the biggest mixed bag in terms of results. With two rounds of the Championship run and won, Zoran Gajic is in the box seat with an 86 Point Lead over Round two winner Andrew Sutton.

Gajic had a big day out at the first round of the championship, scoring the Event win over first time finalist (in Pro Mod at least)  Peter Gratz and putting a good lead on the expected main championship contenders Craig Burns (who finished with in the B Final) and Greg Tsakiridis.

Carnage was the theme at Round Two of the series at the Bend. Nasser Matta damaged his beautiful Chevy after violent tyre shake in qualifying and was unable to take part on race day.

Danny Makdessi has always had his legion of fans on the edge of their seat, but unfortunately stepped over the edge with a fiery rollover at the Bend in the popular Valiant – Danny would escape unhurt but the same cannot be said for the car.

Sutton would win round two of the series with a victory over Carl Cox, who debuted his new pro-charged Plymouth Cuda with an almost perfect start to the car’s life down under.

With Sutton sitting out the Nitro Champs, Tsakiridis is going to need a special performance to make up the more than 100 point deficit that he faces from third position. He will also need Gajic to stumble – something that is unlikely given the vast number of runs that Gajic has on his home track, Sydney Dragway.

PRO STOCK

Pro Stock has a somewhat unexpected early season leader in John Barbagallo; not that it was unexpected that he perform well, it was simply the first time that he has committed to racing the full season in a number of years.

He won Round one in Sydney over the reigning champion, Rob Dekert, who will be the first to admit that Sydney was not the teams most complete performance.

Dekert more than made amends for the Sydney “blip” with a  win at Round Two in Adelaide over first time Pro Stock Finalist Mario Polito, assuming the points lead from Barbagallo in the process.

Polito is having a career best season, knocking out personal bests in Adelaide and letting his driving do the talking. Two solid events has Polito sitting in fourth and only two points behind perennial contender Chris Soldatos.

Soldatos sits third after two consecutive B-Final finishes.

Rick Chilton is the “smokey” in the category. His sixth in the standings does not reflect the potential of the front running Dodge that finished runner up in last season’s championship. Look for Chilton to bounce back after a tough couple of events.

PRO BIKE

By his own admission, Luke Crowley’s Championship defence got off to a sluggish start. A runner up at round one left him behind the event winner and former champ Jason Lee in the early season points.

Tony Frost, as always, was Mr. Consistency in Sydney and was rewarded with a B-Final appearance alongside Paul Andrews.

Crowley returned to his devastating best in Adelaide in an ominous sign for the rest of the category. A string of 7.0 second runs and a new NDRC Speed Record saw Crowley take the victory over his teammate Scott White, with Lee dropping back to second place in the points after a C-Final appearance at his home track.

Frost sits third, with Scott White and Paul Andrews rounding out a close Top 5 in the points.

The series moves to the Guld Western Oil Nitro Champs this weekend, before the Winternationals in June and then the PDRC series finale in Adelaide as part of the Springnationals in October.