Wsid Nitro Thunder Awaits Gulf Western Racing (9 Top Fuel Cars)

[SpoolMan]

The Nitro Thunder USA Top Fuel Invasion will invade Western Sydney International Dragway (WSID) on December 26 & 27 and Gulf Western Racing hard chargers of Terry Sainty and Bob Shepherd are optimistic about their chances heading into the event.

It has been over 10 years since there has been an American Top Fuel competitor race on Australian soil but for the Nitro Thunder event there will double the dose in the form of Scott Kalitta and Dave Grubnic.

Both Sainty and Shepherd are looking forward to the chance of competing against the two American imports and they firmly believe that this will be a huge boost for the sport in this country.

"Without doubt having two first class American Top Fuel drivers racing here is only going to boost the sports profile in general and that's got to be a good thing," commented Shepherd.

While Sainty, who resides in Oakville (NSW), echoed his team mates views, but believes that they are just another challenge.

"I'm not taking any respect away from the two Americans when I say that they will just be another two rivals in the field," expressed Sainty. "I've just got to focus on the job at hand and not get too worried about whom I am running up against."

For quite a while Shepherd has put a big enthuse on breaking into that 4 second bracket, but for this meeting the veteran is taking his focus away from that.

"I have been tearing my hair out trying to break into the 4 second bracket, but now we will be looking to get some consistency laid down first and foremost," said the Bringelly (NSW) based Shepherd.

Leading up to this event the Shepherd team has been forced to rebuild their car after a mishap last month at WSID during Bob's son, Matt, licence test. Shepherd Jnr was in the process of aiming to get his licence when his throttle jammed wide open and this saw a wild run down the track.

"The damage to the car after Matt's off track excursion was more than we first thought, but our team have worked hard to repair the car and everything is in order for our appearance at WSID," said an upbeat Shepherd.

With a total of nine nominated Top Fuelers and only eight spots into the elimination events both Sainty and Shepherd are aiming to not be that one driver to have a premature exit from the event.

"I cannot remember the last time that we had more than eight Top Fuelers for one event," Shepherd admitted. "I just hope, like the rest of my rivals, that I am not the driver to miss out, but that's just another added challenge to the weekend and we will have three chances to make a go out it."

Meanwhile, Robert Ambruosi is primed for battle in the Norm Sainty owned Gulf Western Oil support Top Alcohol Funny Car.

The Diggers Rest (Victoria) based racer and his Sainty team are awaiting their cam shafts after damaging them during the last meeting at Willowbank Raceway early last month.

"Currently we are awaiting our cam shafts and hopefully they will be ready for WSID, but our worst case scenario is that will be put in some foreign cam shafts," said Ambruosi.

Ambruosi' objective for the weekend is to firstly qualify and then make it past the first round of eliminations.

"I'm pretty confident we can achieve our aims for the meeting and anything after that will simply be the icing on the cake for us," Ambruosi enthused. "I know we are capable of doing well, it all just come down to a bit of luck. Our team is still in the early process of its development, but so far things have been very encouraging for the future."

THX to NMD for the story