Over the course of the last half dozen years or so I had worked with such "names" in the sport as Victor and Ben Bray, Peter Kapiris, Ian Cleland, Robin Judd and Murray Anderson, among others, but only by way of the telephone or the Internet. Even though I knew them and their individual histories very well, it was my goal to someday see them in action on their home soil.

That opportunity finally came after I met the man who was instrumental in importing supercharged doorslammer racing to Australia from the U.S. in the first place. He is, of course, the one and only Camp Stanley, a founding member of the original "Wild Bunch" that terrorized the Southern Hemisphere back in the late 1980s.

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The on-the-edge nature of this type of racing was a perfect fit for the adventurous, thrill-seeking Australians, and the popularity of the exhibitions put on by Stanley and his group of barnstorming Yanks eventually led to the creation of the Top Doorslammer class, today the domain of some of the quickest and fastest door cars on the planet. For example, Victor Bray has already piloted his trademark ’57 Chevy to over 245 mph, and his son Ben holds the class record elapsed time of 6.02, so the first legal five-second pass is literally only a few passes away.

These days, Camp serves as crew chief, tuner, bartender and spiritual advisor for the Stanley & Weiss racing team. Formed by Camp, his son John and Axle Weiss, the Hagerstown, Maryland-based team campaigns John’s supercharged (of course) first generation Camaro in the National Street Car Association’s Pro Outlaw class. It was through my association with the organization that I first met Camp and learned of his long-standing working relationship with numerous racers in both Australia and New Zealand.

After finding out that he made regular trips to that part of the world to take in races and help tune the blown Corvette of current NZDRA Top Doorslammer champ David Green, I shamelessly began to bug him about going along on one of his trips "someday."

Low and behold, he agreed, and we set the wheels in motion for a trip to the Snap-On Nitro Champs event at beautiful Western Sydney International Dragway, a spanking new, state-of-the-art facility that rivals anything to be found in North America.

The trip got off to a slightly rocky start when Camp’s flight to meet me in Los Angeles was delayed by 24 hours, but we eventually boarded our Air New Zealand flight to Auckland, and settled in for a 12-hour ride over the Pacific. I have to mention here that the service provided by ANZ was outstanding – real meals, both dinner and breakfast on overnight flights, free drinks and lots of Kiwi wines to sample. It was flying like it should be, something that has all but disappeared in North America.

Upon arrival in Auckland, we jumped on another plane for the one-hour flight to the southern tip of the South Island and the city of Wellington, where the aforementioned David Green picked us up and drove us to his house high in the hills overlooking the city. There, he and his wife Karen took fantastic care of us, treating Camp and I to a great meal at a little Italian bistro, where I met a number of their friends and soaked up some local atmosphere.

While we were at David’s house, I had a chance to take an up-close look at the car that he drove to the Top Doorslammer title, a car which he, as the owner of a metal fabricating business, did much of the construction work on himself. Powered by a 515-inch Rodeck powerplant topped by 14:71 Littlefield blower, the sleek hot rod has logged a best pass of 6.80 at 205 to date. Plans are in the works to step up the program considerably, however, so Green expects to defend his championship next season from an even greater position of power.

The next day we went back to the airport in picturesque Wellington and boarded a plane for Sydney, another three and a half hours away across the Tasman Sea. By this time our group had expanded to three, as David was joining us for the trip to WSID. In reality, we were taking him along to handle the driving duties, as he was a lot more comfortable driving on the left side of the road than I would have been. Camp would have probably been happy to jump behind the wheel of our rented Holden Commodore, but they called his group the "Wild Bunch" for a good reason – enough said.

Making our way to the New South Wales town of St. Marys, we checked into the Park View Motel, which was right behind the Hog’s Breath Café, by the way, and set up our base camp. That night, after negotiating the local back roads and roundabouts for what seemed like hours, we made it to the shop, and then the home, of celebrated Aussie Pro Stock driver Joe Polito, where we enjoyed the hospitality of Joe, his wife Maria and son Tony. Maria prepared an Italian feast for us, and I think we complimented her culinary skills more then adequately by scoffing down most everything in sight.

Later, we did some bench racing with Joe and heard about his plans for his new car, which was on its way from the States. He had recently bought the Ford Escort campaigned by Robert Patrick in IHRA Pro Stock, and was looking forward to setting the car up for Australian National Drag Racing Association competition.

The next morning, we headed to WSID for the first day of the Snap-On Nitro Champs event, anxious to finally get there, but unhappy with the fact that we made the 15-minute drive from the motel to the track in a driving rain storm. Once on the grounds, courtesy of credentials and VIP passes arranged for by WSID CEO Jim Read, we were escorted to the office of the man himself. Read is a legendary drag racer in Australia, having both pioneered and dominated Top Fuel competition in the country. Read greeted us warmly and then spent the next hour or so graciously entertaining us between taking calls on a telephone that never quit ringing and dealing with the steady stream of track personnel who appeared at his office door.

Fortunately, the rain eventually moved out of the area and the capable crew at WSID was out on the track with their drying equipment as soon as the last drop fell. As for us, we set out for a tour of the pit area, and since Camp knows just about everyone in Australia, he was soon introducing David and I to a number of the top dogs in the sport, including the husband and wife Top Alcohol team of Steven and Debbie Reed, as well as Top Doorslammer standouts Maurice Fabietti, Lucky Belleri, Steve Stanic, Gary Phillips, Robin Judd and Brett and Kath Stevens. Kath Stevens, who began her own Top Doorslammer career last season, has now recovered from an unfortunate motorcycle accident, but her return to the doorslammer wars may be delayed just a while longer, as she and Brett told us that they are expecting a baby later this year.

We also visited the Top Fuel pits of the Darren Morgan and the Lamattina brothers, Phillip Read and the "Queen of Speed" herself, Rachelle Splatt, who was kicking off her comeback tour after a four-year hiatus from active competition.

We eventually ended up in the expansive pit area of Queensland’s legendary Top Doorslammer competitor, six-time champion Victor Bray, where we were greeted like long-lost friends and immediately made welcome by Victor, his son Ben, wife Maree and the entire Bray crew. Having followed and written about the exploits of Victor and Ben for a number of years, and spoken with both of them on the phone, it was a real pleasure to finally meet them in person. We were invited to hang out with the team for the weekend, and it didn’t take us long to make ourselves at home. The team’s PR man and web guru Richard Smith and I soon joined forces in order to provide fans of Team Bray with full web coverage of news, results and photos from the weekend. As it turned out, we couldn’t have picked a better time to be with the Bray team, but more on that later.

It’s interesting to note here that the pit area at WSID, as it is at all national events in Australia, was heavily populated by large tent-like structures which provide teams with fully enclosed, well-lighted work areas. These structures are rented by the teams and set up prior to each event. From what I saw, they are available in sizes that will accommodate everything from a single car or motorcycle right up to the huge multi-bay units utilized by Team Bray, Brett Stevens and others. It seems to me that this is a far superior set-up than the average open, awning-covered area so many of the teams in the U.S. use.

In any case, considering how dismally the first day of the event had started off, it was all go from Friday afternoon on, with a complete session of qualifying and some very impressive record runs going into the books by the time it was all over. In spite of having to deal with some tricky track conditions, Darren Morgan piloted Gary Scelzi’s former championship winning car to the first leg of a new national Top Fuel elapsed time mark when he tripped the timers in 4.74-seconds at 312.42 mph. In Pro Stock, Jon Andriopoulos became the first driver in the history of the class in Australia to dip into the 7.20s when he paced his Dodge Avenger to a solid run of 7.287, 186.07.

On Saturday, Morgan thrilled the assembled multitudes when he ran an even quicker 4.734, 312.50 to cement the new national E.T. record and claim the No. 1 qualifying spot for Sunday’s elimination rounds. One of the three competitors driving two or more vehicles on the weekend was Gary Phillips, and he proved he was up to the challenge by qualifying his ’53 Studebaker first in Top Doorslammer with a posting of 6.115, 233.84 while also putting his Top Alcohol dragster in the top spot with a best pass of 5.711, 241.45.

Ben Bray also pulled double duty in Sydney, running back and forth between his ’57 Chevy Top Doorslammer ride and his Top Alcohol funny car. He wrapped up the first two days of qualifying as No. 4 in T/A and No. 2 in T/D. For his part, Victor Bray, making his return to the track after minor heart surgery, struggled a bit with the set-up on his new ’57 Chevy, and ended up in the No. 7 position, which unfortunately paired him up with his son in the first round of eliminations.

Steven Reed was another of those making career-best efforts during qualifying, pushing his colorful "Start Ya Bastard" Top Alcohol flopper to a mark of 5.741 at 252.90 mph.

By far the most ambitious man on the grounds was Brett "The Boss" Stevens, who not only made qualifying runs in Top Doorslammer, Top Alcohol and Top Bike, but also went out and put on a great smoke show for the fans in his burnout car.

All in all it was a great day of action, and it was a real treat to see all the styles and types of cars unique to Australia, especially since the vast majority of them sported supercharged engines! The Aussies love blower cars, and there were plenty to go around, in full-bodied door cars, dragsters, altereds, roadsters, panel delivery trucks and a few things which defy description. It was a photographer’s paradise.

Oh, and before I forget, there’s something else that makes a trip to a race in Australia well worth the effort – the country is full of beautiful women, and they are everywhere at the track, backing up cars and motorcycles and helping promote event sponsors. What I said about a photographer’s paradise applies here as well!

As for the on-track action, the best was yet to come. The elimination rounds for the pro ranks provided equal shares of great competition and intense drama as the day wore on.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Jason Lee defeated Michael Gilbertson, 7.667, 169.38 to 7.804, 157.04.

The Top Bike category was a wild affair, with Troy Mclean laying down a huge number to defeat Kim Stevens, 6.986, 183.97 to 7.570, 184.82. Despite a first round exit, Brett Stevens nevertheless wrapped up the T/B championship – his first after 15 years of trying. Stevens added the crown to the Top Doorslammer title he won last season.

In Pro Stock action, Jon Andriopoulos wrapped up his dominating weekend at WSID with a final-round victory over Peter Pelekis, 7.356, 185.41 to 7.426, 182.58.

It just kept getting better and better, as Ben Bray put an exclamation point on his second Top Doorslammer championship by winning his 24^th straight round of competition in a victory over No. 1 qualifier Gary Phillips, 6.173, 232.23 to 6.221, 228.04.

The weekend wasn’t over for the young second-generation phenom, however, for as soon as he scrambled out of his ‘slammer he was strapped into his funny car for another final round appearance. This one was arguably the best side-by-side race of the entire weekend, with Bray and Steven Reed welded together for the entire length of the strip. The outcome was in doubt for a brief second until the scoreboards flashed the results – Bray’s 6.784, 239.74 held off Reed’s effort of 6.786, 249.63 and he had his first career Top Alcohol win, and more impressively, the rare "double" in two tough professional categories. Keep in mind that Ben didn’t dominate either class in qualifying, so he won both titles based on his ability to drive the wheels off anything he jumps into.

After the presentation of the winner’s trophies, I asked Ben to recap his weekend:

"We had a lot of drama during both days of qualifying," he said. "We kept getting put in the right lane, and it just wasn’t very good. A lot of our guys disagree with me, but I’m a Group One driver and I’m used to driving on good tracks. I know I can get down a good track, but when the track isn’t good then we have to change the car around because I focus on keeping my consistency in the seat. I drive the car hard always, so when it comes to a bad track we have to soften it up a bit and that just doesn’t suit my driving style.

"Since we had to back the car down for the qualifying here, I struggled a bit to get down the track," he added. "I managed to run a 6.23, which was good enough for the number two spot this weekend, but in this class lately you’d be lucky to get into the top eight with a 23. It was just bad luck that dad qualified seventh, which meant that we had to face each other in the first round of eliminations.

"I’ll have to admit that I was worried about dad being in the other lane in the first round. He’s one of the best drivers in the game, and you can never doubt him because he’s always there. He has had some bad runs lately because he’s still trying to sort out his new car, but he’ll come back. He’s a dark horse sometimes – he comes in and qualifies low then knocks out the top three guys. I hated taking him out in the first round, but it’s a race and we’re both here to win.

"In the semifinals we had Robin Judd, who qualified third and had Les Davenport from the U.S. working as crew chief. Dad said we had to watch him because they were creeping up on the tune-up run after run. In the first round he ran a 6.19 and I ran a 6.13, and in Top Doorslammer there’s not much between that – a light can make all the difference. As it turned out, I had to drive the car all over the lane to get through, but Robin had some problems and I was able to go to the final against Gary Phillips.

"Doorslammer racing has turned into a real game at the starting line, much like Pro Stock. A lot of times it depends on who the most focused driver is and who can stir the other guy up. Gary is one of the best at playing those games – he’s a real psyche artist at the line. In the final, for example, he refused to do the burnout first – he waited for me to do mine first. He does that quite a bit – does his burnout behind you and then backs up real quick trying to make you think he has a problem. I’ve learned to just run my own race – I’ve always done that and I always will. If guys want to play games, let ‘em – they’ll only beat themselves."

When asked about the challenge of running in two professional classes at one national event, Ben said "when it comes to moving between the doorslammer and the funny car at a race, it takes some real sprinting. I have to get back down the track just as fast as I went up it so I can get strapped into the second car before it’s time to roll into staging. At the race this weekend the track gave me a little extra time by running the Pro Stock final in between doorslammer and funny car. That really helped me out because I don’t think I’d have had a hope otherwise.

"There are three of us switching between rides out here right now – besides me, Gary Phillips races his doorslammer and a dragster and Brett Stevens races a doorslammer, a funny car and a bike. It’s pretty hard, and I don’t know how those guys do it since they’re both twice my size and twice my age (laughs).

"There was some pressure to double up and win the funny car title, I have to admit. I’d seen Brett win twice at an event, and Gary has been in two different finals at one meeting, and I remember thinking ‘God, those guys are good.’ It’s hard enough to win one bracket let alone two, so yeah – I wanted to do it. I was pretty stressed by the time I got out of the doorslammer and headed back to the funny car – I didn’t want to hold up the show or anything. When I got there, though, everyone on my crew was relaxed and that helped settle me down. Once the car fired, I was totally ready to go. It’s like that at any race, really – before the first round I’m usually nervous, but once the car fires I’m able to focus on the job I have to do behind the wheel."

Seeing 7,000 horsepower Top Fuel cars run is a real treat for most Australian fans, and the return of Rachelle Splatt to full-time competition at the Nitro Champs was simply icing on the cake. Judging by the great response she received every time her car was pushed to the line, the popular "Queen of Speed" has been greatly missed. The good news for her fans is that with her personal and business life now in order, Splatt is determined to pick up where she left off as one of the best and most competitive Top Fuel drivers in the game. In Sydney, she was taking things one step at a time, easing back into form after her extended hiatus from competition.

Her first shot at the track was a planned 60-foot squirt, and for the duration of the qualifying sessions she and her team predictably struggled a bit to establish a cohesive rhythm. With seven cars on hand, Rachelle was automatically slotted into the last spot on the grid, but mechanical problems prevented her from taking the starting line for the first round of eliminations. She finished the weekend on a high note, however, laying down a string-straight test pass of 5.27, 2.05, shutting it off before the full quarter-mile.

Later, I had a chance to talk to Rachelle about her return to the driver’s seat. She explained that while she had been away from regular competition for four years, she had match-raced for a couple more seasons before hanging up her helmet.

"I’m very glad to get back – it’s been a long time. Even though we had some problems in the early going, as soon as I got the car down the track I realized why I love Top Fuel so much and how much I missed it. The fan reaction to us was great, as it always is, and that really meant a lot.

"As I said, it was a bit of a tough weekend for us – we had to change an engine and had some problems with tire shake and smoking the tires as well. In fact, we experienced just about everything on the negative side that we could. We used up some parts this weekend, for sure, but the good news is that we managed to get down the race track on our last attempt, and that’s a real positive as we head into the last race of the year.

"From here we’ll be getting ready for the Winternationals at Willowbank. We know we can be competitive, so now our big emphasis will be to try and get a sponsor for that race and beyond. Our goal is to find someone who will want to get involved with our team on a full-time basis. Until we get a sponsorship deal we can’t come out and go for it the way we’d like to, so it’s real important for us. We fully intend to race the whole ‘05-‘06 season, and we want to contend for the championship. We are back!"

There was plenty more excitement in the Top Fuel ranks as well, capped off by the dramatic final round on Sunday night. Darren Morgan and Phil Read both did their burnouts, but as Morgan backed up, Read struggled to get his machine into reverse. Once he managed to get backed up, however, he couldn’t get the car out of reverse. As crew chief Glenn Mikres and the rest of the crew, including WSID CEO Jim Read, worked frantically to get the car ready to move into the staging beams, Morgan, who had staged and was waiting patiently for Read, was given the signal to go by the track starter. As he blasted out of sight, pandemonium erupted as Read’s team protested vehemently that they had not been given enough time to stage.

At the time Morgan was credited with the win, but a formal protest was later issued by Read’s team, and on May 18 ANDRA issued a statement which read in part: