Australian nitrous drag bike racer Rob Cassar sent along the following report for his Ballistic Drag Racing team recapping the season.
“The 2022-2023 ADRC season has so far seen us travel from one end of Australia to the other. Both to
the North and West with 26 thousand kms travelled over the year!
There has certainly been some ups and downs with the loss of two engines at the Goldenstates in
November and some tricky trailer malfunctions. The highlights being several PBs the most recent the
6!
We are looking forward to the last round of the ADRC Top Fuel Bike Championship which will be the
championship decider at the Triple Crown in Darwin.
With a lead of 47 points, Benny Stevens is hot on my tail with his 287 points to my 334. I am just
going to go to Darwin doing what I have been doing– being consistent and cutting good lights. I will be
trying for some more 6 second passes and if everything goes to plan it should all fall into place.
That time I ran a 6!
A goal that I set myself a long time ago was to be the first Australian to run a 6 second pass on a
Nitrous bike. Last month in Sydney at the Nitro Champs ADRC round I finally achieved that goal.
I was taking my morning walk on the track and talking to a good friend of ours, Bruce Sauer. We
were bouncing around some ideas and speaking about how we have run quick at some of the 1/8
mile tracks like Portland and Mildura, but just couldn’t get it together on the quarter mile. Bruce asked
what had I changed and I said nothing other than ramping the NOS in quicker. ‘Right’ he said ‘then
let’s bring it in slower like you do at the 1/8 mile tracks and see what happens’. Back at the pits I put a
call into Katie at home and we agreed it was worth a try.
Round 1 we had John Zarra. I had run 7.03 in qualifying and John was testing out a new cylinder
head– if he got things together I would have been toast! We were third pairing and Chris Matheson
was in front of us. I was trying to focus on my own race but was keen to see what Chris was going to
do chasing that elusive 5. I had no idea he was about to change history for Australian Drag Bike
racing and as I sat there I got to witness Chris run his first 5 second pass. I was so happy for him and
whilst I was trying to get ready for my run found myself more emotional about Chris. I said to my crew
to start the bike as I felt like I might cry with joy.
With my emotion under control we fired the bike and I did a burnout and headed into stage with no
idea about what was about to happen for me. I think I rushed and the tree came down and off I went!
With an 0.44 light, the bike felt so smooth and straight. I knew I had laid down a good pass I just
didn’t realise how good it was. 6.94 at 187mph– woohoo!
As the season draws to a close, I would like to say special thanks my wife Katie for being there for the
last 23 years of my racing and thanks to all my crew; my nephew Shaun, the Sobolewskis in Sydney
and our cousins in South Australia.
To all our sponsors who have supported us this season; POWERPLUS Race Fuels, Denso Auto
Parts Australia, Force Wear Group, Ballistic Performance Parts, Shinko Tyres Australia, Lucas Oil
Nolan X-Lite, EK Race Chains, Lectron Carbs Australia, Firecore50, Andrews Automotives, ABS
Moorabin, Cabworx, and Nitrous Express I can’t thank you enough for your continued support.
I was thrilled with my achievement. Now I just want to back it up at the next opportunity.”
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