Aussie Bracket Racer

Winternationals 2026 done and dusted, and I ended up runner-up in Super Street.

After seven rounds of racing, I found myself in the final as one of the last two cars standing from a field of more than 70 entries. Unfortunately I came up just short in the final, but for my first crack at Super Street I’m really happy with the result.

It wasn’t without a bit of drama either. Right before the final we found a leak and had to thrash around in the pits to get it sorted in time to make the call.

One of the biggest positives from the weekend was continuing to get a better handle on the weather station and building a stronger database for the car. We’ve been able to predict the car a lot more accurately lately, and it’s starting to show.

That flowed through to the driver’s seat as well. Across the last six rounds my reaction times were .060, .086, .068, .066, .066 and .089 — a spread of just .029. They were still around .030 slower than where I want them to be, but the consistency was there, which gives me something to work with moving forward if I can get the car reacting a touch quicker.

This result also marks a pretty cool milestone for me — six Winternationals finals in six different categories, with four wins along the way.

Of course I would have loved to bring home the gold tree, but after my first weekend racing in Super Street it’s hard not to be happy with how it all went. The hunger is definitely there to come back and finish one spot better next time.

A huge thank you to my sponsors:
• Nitz Hydraulic Services
• Novus Autoglass Rockhampton
• Bit On Industries
• Coochie HydroGreen

And a massive thank you to my family and friends who helped out throughout the weekend and continue to support what we do. Racing at this level is never a one-person job, and I couldn’t do it without you all.

Round 2 of eliminations done and dusted, and we’re still rolling!

Woke up this morning to a completely different weather setup compared to yesterday, but the trusty old weather station came through with the goods once again, predicting a 10.025. We dialled accordingly and the car ran a 10.026 for the win. I gave it a tap on the brakes up top as I wasn’t catching my opponent anyway, with him breaking out down track.

A funny twist to the round was lining up against Tony Harrington, who only just rebuilt my transmission. I guess that goes to show he builds a pretty solid transmission, because it got me straight through to the next round!

Managed a .060 reaction time, which I’m pretty happy with, and we’re in a good place heading into tomorrow’s third round of racing. As it stands, the current seeding sheet has us getting the bye run through to the fourth round.

Making it through to Sunday at the Winternationals is always a great feeling, and I’m excited to still be in the fight. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going and see what tomorrow brings.

Well, I managed to hang onto the Top Qualifier position after briefly losing it for a few minutes during Q3, then grabbing it back with a 10.06 pass.

We had first round of eliminations this afternoon and got the win, running a 10.092 on a 10.07 dial-in. Unfortunately I missed the tree with a .151 reaction time, but luck was on my side with my opponent going red.

The car continues to do its job and has been super predictable all weekend. Onto Round 2 of eliminations tomorrow morning. Hopefully I can tidy up the reaction times and let the car keep doing what it’s been doing.

Thanks to everyone following along and supporting us. Fingers crossed for a good day tomorrow!

First qualifier done and dusted here at the Winternationals, and we’re off to a solid start with a 10.096 @ 135mph and a .049 light.

After the last meeting at Benaraby, I got the car up on the hoist and found the front brakes were nearly locked up. Once they were rebuilt and working properly again, I was a little worried we might end up a touch too quick for Super Street. To be safe, I pulled a bit of power out before heading to Willowbank.

So to run that number first hit out, I’m pretty happy with where we’re at.

We’ll roll back up for the second qualifier later this arvo and see if we can keep it in the window.

If you’re sitting at home and want to follow along, Willowbank has a free live stream running on YouTube, so jump on and have a watch!

I’ve had a bit of an urge lately to change things up this year, and started thinking about switching to Super Street for the upcoming Winternationals. After competing in an online practice tree league on all three trees recently and actually doing alright hitting the bottom bulb, I figured it was time to give it a proper go.

So at Benaraby on the weekend, I bolted the mufflers on and turned the delay box off. The plan was simple — if I was terrible at it, I’d switch the box back on for Winters and stick with Super Sedan.

First hit, the weather station predicted a 10.145. Straight off the trailer I went .077 and dead-on 10.145, so I was pretty happy with that. Q2 I tried to back it up and went .032 with a 10.161, then Q3 another .077 and a 10.167.

First round, the other driver rolled the beams which gave me the chance to back out and reset before leaving with an .056 light, but the car ran way off with a 10.27. It was my first run in the right lane and the car does occasionally throw a random number at me, so I didn’t read too much into it at the time.

Second round, I left the dial at 10.12 thinking it would go back to what it had been running in qualifying. I went .045 on the tree, got up top, rode the brakes and rolled through for a 10.260. The run completion showed it was on a 10.237 anyway, so it was still slower than expected.

For round three, I dialled it up to a 10.22. I knew I needed to be sharp on the tree because the car was unpredictable, and lining up against a 10.0 car I figured the only real chance was to grab the hole shot and hopefully hang a wheel on him at the stripe. I let go… and straight away saw red. Heartbreaker too — just -.003. Race over before it started. To make it sting a little more, the car went 10.148 — right back where it had been all through qualifying.

Overall though, I was pretty happy with the lights, ranging from -.003 to .077 green, so I’ve decided I’m going to stick with the Super Street plan for the Winternats and do something different this year. Hopefully I can go right over the car beforehand and find whatever caused those two passes where it slowed up.

Thanks to for the photo 📷

See you at the Winters!

Rockynats 06 run and done. Qualified with a 6.99—pretty much wrung its neck to get there. Felt like that was the ceiling without some parts upgrades or a little more horsepower to be able to compete with some of the 6.50 cars, so we had a crack at a few changes… safe to say they didn’t do us any favours off the line.

Out in the second round of eliminations, which stings a bit, but we definitely learnt a few things to take into next year.

Highlight of the weekend was lining up against Dave Casey’s Suzuki with Alan Cornick driving and watching it hike the front next to me—wild bit of kit. Had me looking a bit too much if I’m honest 🤣 might explain the little wander toward the centreline… or maybe the nitrous ramp was a little aggressive.

Such a great event, and I only have to tow down the road which is pretty cool.

Big thanks to Novus Autoglass for sorting the windscreen in the days leading up to the event after the damage from last event, and Brodie from for jumping back on board and putting in a solid effort over the weekend getting the car turned around between passes as well as Ben Gregg for helping out with pushing the big rig around.

Also appreciate the ongoing support from Nitz Hydraulic Services and Coochie HydroGreen Lawn Services.

Not 100% sure when we’ll be back out next, but Winternats in June is locked in as always 👊

Got the big rig out with its ass draggin lower than ever for some Rockynats testing this arve…only for it to be called off for some reason 🤔
Few laps of the CBD and a few photo opportunities now that it’s looking all pretty with some fresh paint 😍
Got my drags slot at 3:30pm tomorrow, hoping to get a bit closer to running some mid 6’s

Well doesn’t look like I’ll be cracking any 6.40’s today…got a converter/transmission that doesn’t want to play ball after the warm up. Driving home now, get it sorted for Rockynats in a couple months. Tough gig this racing can be sometimes 🤣