Luppino King Of The Heap.

Luppino King Of The Heap.

By Mark Humphrey

Benaraby, Qld/Aus. 23^rd August 2015. Dom Luppino was last night the toast of the APSA drag racing fraternity after picking up the win in the prestigious Outlaw Radial bracket. Once considered the underwrite to the Outlaw 10.5 bracket, the Outlaw Radial bracket has taken on a cult like following featuring the cream of Australia’s Pro Street racers .

Things looked grim for round 4 of the series when the official start time had to be pushed back several hours due to persistent rain in the area. With an 11am scheduled start, APSA promoter Peter Pisalidis in consultation with his race director Ray Treasure elected to sit it out and wait for the forecasted wind shift before making any firm decisions. Finally at 2pm the weather had abated enough for track staff to have a go at getting the track ready for what promised to be an exciting day of Pro Street drag racing. The Benaraby track staff went to work on drying out the track while race teams unpack their trailers prepping cars for the hectic day of racing ahead. Finally racing got under way at 3.31pm with organisers dropping 2 of the 3 qualifying runs in order to complete the meeting.  Drivers were faced with one qualifying run before battling it out in a Chicago Shootout format giving both the drivers and fans plenty of racing throughout the afternoon and into the night. The decision by APSA to hold off paid off in the end for all concerned as the racing was nothing short of spectacular. Wheel standing starts were the order of the day with some massive launches keeping the fans well entertained throughout the night. Nathan Peirano was there testing his Outlaw Nitro Funny Car and posted the day’s quickest and fastest pass with a 4.23. at 173.75 mph over the 1/8 mile.

The prestigious Outlaw Radial bracket on paper looked to be a battle between long-time rivals Steve Bezzina and Perry Bullivant with several other drivers in the mix for an upset win. Scott Cortina in a HG Holden was one car that has loads of potential but was still deep in a R&D program with the team looking for some consistency in the car. Dom Luppino was also in this category with his awesome looking Mustang having stacks of potential but like Cortina found it difficult for the stars to align on any given run. Talking to Luppino on the way up from Melbourne, the Mustang driver was looking to drop into the 4.90’s or with a bit of luck into the 80’s. The car which was imported by Luppino from the US last year has the potential to be the fastest pro street car in Australia and a 4.80 pass was certainly achievable with the team looking to go even faster. Things had been tough in recent times for Luppino who had talked about walking away from the car due to the lack of consistency in the car. The team had urged Luppino to take a deep breath and just be patient with the development of the car which in the end was the right call.

The Chicago shootout format produced familiar results in round 1 with Bullivant taking the win over Luppino, Bezzina over Cortina and Cross over Horan. Round 2 saw Luppino pull out a big win over Bezzina with a 4.60 @168mph. Cortina got the job done on Horan while Bullivant picked up the win over Cross. Round 3 had Luppino dropping into the 60’s again with a 4.65 @ 167mph good enough to get the job done on Cortina with Bullivant making it 3 from 3 with a win over Horan. Bezzina found the going tough against Cross with Cross posting his 2^nd win of the format. Bezzina had posted times in the low 4.90’s all day but in somewhat of a surprise finished the day with just 1 win beside his name. The final looked to be a cracker with the ever consistent Bullivant up against the man of the moment in Luppino. Both guys got away clean with just the smallest of margins separating the two at the 60 foot mark. Side by side the pair duelled down the 1/8 with Luppino getting the nod with a 4.83 @ 159mph to Bullivant’s 4.94 @ 148mph. Awesome racing by two class drivers who managed to take over the whole event with side by side racing. So happy was Luppino with his win he drove straight past his pickup crew and proceeded back to the pits with both chutes dragging behind the car. A couple of victory pumps on the throttle indicated how happy Luppino was with the win and I suspect with finally getting some consistency in the car. With the team looking like they have finally got some consistency in the car, fans can now expect to see the Mustang at the pointy end of Outlaw Radial racing as the APSA circus makes its way around Australia.

In another of the marquee APSA brackets being Pro Street Blown, Craig Hewitt went through undefeated to take the win over Queenslander Dave Knightley. Hewitt looked untouchable throughout the event in his blown hemi powered Monaro and posted his best pass of the day in the final after Knightly pulled a big cherry trying to get the edge on Hewitt. Hewitt rolled out an impressive 4.487 @ 166.05mph to easily stamp his authority on the bracket. Like all blown monsters this car is a big head turner and definitely a crowd pleaser where ever he goes.

The motorcycle category boasted the cream of Queensland drag racing with Jason Ellem easily top qualifying with a 7.495 @ 177.31mph. Ellem was the stand out performer of the bracket but found the going tough late in the day. A shifting error during round 1 had Blair Pennington rolling over the top of Ellem to take the win. Ellem was back in stride easily taking his next 2 rounds while Pennington was faultless with 3 from 3. The final between Pennington and Ellem shaped up as being an interesting event with Ellem clearly having the faster bike but losing to Pennington in round 1. Ellem was left on the line by Pennington who powered through the final posting an 8.29 @ 159mph to easily take the win from a rolling Ellem.

Other wins for the day were as follows.

Junior Dragster -Keenan Bugden over Tayla Kelly

True Street – Tony O’Connor over Goodingham

X275 - Terry Seng over Douglas Day

Pro Street Unblown – Chris Stevermue over Daniel List

Modified Street Blown – Ash Mason over Matt McCarthy

Outlaw 10.5 – Drew Pearce

DYO Pro – Clive Olive over Nathan Rose

DYO Street – Acrista Hamilton over George Burton

Extreme – Neil Maxwell over John Findlater.

In the end both fans and officials would have been presently surprised by the show the racers put on.  Benaraby track staff had prepared a cracker of a racing surface that resulted in loads of pb’s for the day, plenty of side by side racing and that familiar trade mark of APSA, spectacular wheel standing launches.

Round 5 of the series heads to Willowbank Raceway on the 2^nd of October. For more details go to http://www.austprostassc.com.au/

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RACE RESULTS courtesy APSA

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