Frankie "Madman" Taylor, the veteran doorslammer driver who filled in for the sidelined Victor Bray, finished his 400 Thunder tour in Australia the same way he started it, with a resounding victory.

It was November of 2017 when Taylor joined Team Bray Racing [TBR] to undertake his first race event in Australia, the Texan – formerly the world’s quickest and fastest blown Doorslammer driver over the quarter mile – took on and defeated now-champion Paul Mouhayet in Sydney.

Fast-forward to Taylor’s first visit to the Northern Territory this weekend, and ‘the Madman’ has taken victory in his Gulf Western Oil Top Dog Indestructible Corvette over Team Bray Racing team-mate Ben Bray by 15 thousandths of a second.

“What a brilliant weekend and what a great way to bring my current Down Under tour with Team Bray Racing to a close,” Taylor said.

“We were greeted by great sunny-yet-cold weather and a fantastic group of people both on and off the track who were committed to ensuring the Desert Nationals was a great event," Taylor said.

“The track conditions were a little tricky for us on day one for our first run. While Victor was able to make some good passes with an early shut-off both Ben and I got well out of shape as we pushed the limits in our runs with slippery conditions in the mid to top-end of the track.

“In round two all three of us – Victor, Ben and myself – took out wins which was just fantastic and set-up an all-TBR finale which went all the way down to the wire – what could be better than that?!

“I am so happy to have been able to close out this Aussie tour with a win for TBR, Gulf Western Oil and all of our sponsors and of course, our fans. Thank you to everyone for your support, and I hope to come back sometime and see you all again soon!”

The results of the weekend saw a TBR trifecta, with Taylor the event winner ahead of Ben Bray (second) and Victor Bray (third).

“It has sure been a fantastic event at Alice Springs for all at TBR and what a great ending it has been for this chapter of Frankie’s Aussie story,” Victor Bray said. "As it always is, the Desert Nationals was a great event, and I hope all of the fans had as much fun as we did.”