YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST TOP FUEL MEETING!

If you’re a salty old rev head like me and you’ve spent decades walking around car shows, building cars and being thoroughly immersed in the scene then you’ll understand what I mean when I say that sometimes, the automotive aftermarket can lose a bit of its shine.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m never handing in my modified car card, but I’m sure you know what I’m saying. Sometimes, you need to fall in love with cars all over again - remember what made you so passionate about them to begin with.

I make it a point of doing something different whenever my modified car pulse starts to flatline. I actively seek a high-octane thrill in a sector of the car scene I wouldn’t normally turn to or something I’m not exposed to every day, and while I’d classify myself as a casual drag racing enthusiast, nothing gets my heart pumping like Group 1 racing!

I’ll never forget my first time watching Top Fuel Drag Racing. I was sitting in the grandstands at the Perth Motorplex on a balmy Saturday night. In my late teens and having hung around drag racing for a while I thought I was fairly familiar with the process, but watching the Fuellers idle into the water box changed everything.

The idle of the 500-cube Hemi engines isn’t rough or choppy like a cammed V8 street car, or even lumpy like the blown injected burnout cars that we’re all familiar with. The noise these engines make through the zoomie headers is violent and chaotic. It's a warning.

The second warning shot comes as the cars easily melt the giant, iconic Goodyear meats in the burnout, and the violent idle returns as they reverse back and stage. Then, while your guard is down, the idle changes subtly as the crew remove the staging burnout limiters and set the engine to ‘kill’.

Like all good motorsport, it’s over quickly. The cars stage, the ambers drop to green and 11,000hp is transferred to the blacktop. The zoomies are alight with nitro flames and, even from all the way back in the stands, your body is shaken from the inside out. Nothing can compare you for this experience, and it never gets old.

Every Top Fuel race is worth watching, that’s why you’ll catch me trackside at the Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs in May, falling in love with racing again. It’s the biggest field of Nitro vehicles the venue has ever seen, with seven Top Fuellers, six Nitro Funny Cars and a field of Top Fuel Motorcycle entrants, as well as Pro Mod, Pro Stock and a full field of Sportsman classes too.

Read more about the Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs HERE.

Ticket info here.