DMR SEASON WRAP The Rocket Industries Wicked Quick Top Fuel Team has continued on its strong recent form with a sturdy outing at the 2009 Castrol EDGE Winternationals at Queensland’s Willowbank Raceway on the June long weekend. Setting the pace early with a top qualifying, low elapsed time setting 4.633 second pass in the second qualifying session, Morgan edged out new Australian Champion Phil Lamattina and his 4.639 second pass. In round one, a bye pass courtesy of his top qualifying effort saw Morgan punch out a 4.671 second pass that took low ET of the round. Morgan was then defeated in the semi finals by a strong performing Alan Dobson. Morgan ran into tyre smoke at 200ft and Dobson drove around him with a 4.837 second pass. “We had been chasing issues generating early driveshaft speed all weekend,” said a disappointed Morgan. “In the end we just went too far.” “We have been doing our testing of this new chassis during racing which is always tough” continued Morgan. “We are continually working on the development of a setup that will allow us to go rounds and ultimately put more gold Christmas trees on the mantelpiece.” “We are still yet to see this car do a full quarter mile pass,” beamed a confident Morgan. “I had to shut it off early on both our passes because it was smoking the tyres well before 1000ft” Team DMR has seen its far share of troubles this season which came to a head at the Boxing Day meeting in Sydney. “The crash really set us back,” continued Morgan. “But it really is a credit to our guys and of course our sponsors that we can come to the end of the season and still be in contention for second place in the championship. It is really something that I didn’t think was possible looking forward three meetings ago” “This was a brand new chassis three meetings ago and to have a top qualifier medallion, a runner up trophy and a winner’s trophy in its first three meetings, it is truly amazing.” Over the past three meetings DMR has continued to go from strength to strength. Beginning with testing of their brand new Hadman chassis prior to the ENZED New Years series and continuing through to the Castrol EDGE Winternationals. “We struggled with track conditions at the New Years Series here last time,” said Morgan, “But we were able to adapt and ended up with the runner up trophy” “Those conditions didn’t really allow for development of the car, there were things that we really wanted to try but were unable to” The high point of the season was obviously taking out the Karcher Nitro Champs in Sydney. “The Nitro Champs was a great result for the whole team,” grinned Morgan, “The whole team has been working tirelessly towards that result and they really deserve it.” But the best thing to come from the Nitro Champs was actually finding the cause of the [Insert Quote: Chad Neylon] “signature Morgan mushroom cloud”. “After qualifying at the Nitro Champs we found that the car had been running out of fuel over the finish line causing it to lean out. It has been a problem since swapping to our first new car in December at the Perth round.” Now that the team has ironed out some of the new car bugs Darren and the team are really looking forward to next season. The team, car and our setup are in a really strong position right now and we are really looking forward to next season.” “I really need to thank my wife Natalie, my kids Caitlyn, Will and Rory and the whole DMR team, our sponsors, investors and a special thanks to Lance Larsen in the US.” As Darren Morgan Racing heads into the winter break, confidence has never been higher throughout the entire team and they will be back even tougher than before with the single aim of winning the championship, claimed this year by Phil Lammattina. The new look ANDRA Top Fuel Championship Drag Racing series commences at the Australian Nationals in Sydney in September. You can catch all of the action from the Castrol EDGE Winternationals on ONE HD and TEN, check your local guides for times. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR VALUED SPONSORS: Rocket Industries Wicked Quick Hi Tech Oils Force Tools Shannons Insurance Castle Hill Exhaust Redback Exhausts Pro-ex VACC Fusion Star FM GTS Transport Big Screens Australia Karcher CRC Speed Pro Clevite Fel-Pro Simpson ARP Champion PPG Paint Torque Calibration Services Racefan.com.au Cabac Permatex John Judd Industries LEDA Farm Equipment and Bearings Crow Cams Moroso GSL Electronics Odyssey Batteries High Roller Energy Drink Bluescope Distribution Performance Metals My105.com Forman Sheean Orger Engines Chicago Pneumatics Time Sert Piccadilly Springs water Elgas Domino’s Pizza Forbes Wilson Sunraysia TAFE