Harris scores title, Xiberras wins finale

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: June 18, 2023

The 2022/23 Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship finished with a bang in Darwin, with Peter Xiberras winning the finale, but Damien Harris being crowned champion.

There was plenty of hype surrounding the Nitro Up North season finale at Hidden Valley Raceway, with a three-way title fight on the cards.

Harris entered with a 65-point advantage over both Xiberras and Phil Read and progression into the A Final was enough to secure title glory for the Rapisarda Autosport International team.

Xiberras laid the first blow by topping qualifying as the only driver to get into “the threes”.

The fight for second was decided in the second round where the PremiAir Racing driver knocked Read out with a 4.025 second pass at 290 miles per hour.

This ensured the Nitro Up North honours went down to Xiberras and Harris, who faced off in the Darwin finale for a second straight season.

Whilst last year Harris won the event and Xiberras achieved title success, the roles were reversed.

This time the PremiAir Racing driver finished the year with victory after edging out Harris in the final showdown.

It was Xiberras’ second win of the year alongside the success at Sydney earlier in the year.

Despite being disappointed of failing to defend the Stan Sanity Cup, Xiberras said he hopes the result can provide a big boost ahead of the new National Drag Racing Championship in October.

“We are so happy to get the Nitro Up North victory,” he said.

“We came here knowing we needed a lot to fall our way to win the title, but full of confidence of giving it our absolute best shot.

“This is our second win of the season, and we could not be happier to be ending the 2022/2023 season on a high.

“Of course, we would have loved to also claim the Stan Sainty Cup, but we are full of momentum and vigour following this event win.

“We are more than ready to carry that into the new season when we start our championship pursuit.

“It is our intention to get that third title, and we won’t be giving up anytime soon.

“In the meantime, let us say congratulations to Damien Harris and the Rapisardas on a very well deserved win, and a heartfelt thank you to each and every member of our team.”

Teams will take a breath before a new era of drag racing begins at The Bend on October 21-22.

Sunday

Race 14 (35 laps): 12.20-13.18

Race 15 (35 laps): 15.55-16.53

Download the full Supercars Darwin Round 5 Event Guide with track stats and facts and a full event schedule, plus our extensive driver profiles HERE

For more of the latest motorsport news, pick up the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.

PODCAST: The latest episode of the Auto Action RevLimiter podcast is out now!

In the latest podcast we discuss this weekends Darwin Supercars preview & news, F1 Canada preview, Winton ARG and LeMans 24Hour wrap-up.

Recent Stories

array (
  0 => 
  WP_Term::__set_state(array(
     'term_id' => 2957,
     'name' => 'Drag Racing',
     'slug' => 'drag-racing',
     'term_group' => 0,
     'term_taxonomy_id' => 2957,
     'taxonomy' => 'category',
     'description' => '',
     'parent' => 6,
     'count' => 74,
     'filter' => 'raw',
     'cat_ID' => 2957,
     'category_count' => 74,
     'category_description' => '',
     'cat_name' => 'Drag Racing',
     'category_nicename' => 'drag-racing',
     'category_parent' => 6,
  )),
  1 => 
  WP_Term::__set_state(array(
     'term_id' => 11,
     'name' => 'Latest News',
     'slug' => 'latest-news',
     'term_group' => 0,
     'term_taxonomy_id' => 11,
     'taxonomy' => 'category',
     'description' => '',
     'parent' => 0,
     'count' => 10971,
     'filter' => 'raw',
     'cat_ID' => 11,
     'category_count' => 10971,
     'category_description' => '',
     'cat_name' => 'Latest News',
     'category_nicename' => 'latest-news',
     'category_parent' => 0,
  )),
  2 => 
  WP_Term::__set_state(array(
     'term_id' => 2029,
     'name' => 'ZZZ-Email',
     'slug' => 'email',
     'term_group' => 0,
     'term_taxonomy_id' => 2029,
     'taxonomy' => 'category',
     'description' => '',
     'parent' => 2031,
     'count' => 2379,
     'filter' => 'raw',
     'cat_ID' => 2029,
     'category_count' => 2379,
     'category_description' => '',
     'cat_name' => 'ZZZ-Email',
     'category_nicename' => 'email',
     'category_parent' => 2031,
  )),
  3 => 
  WP_Term::__set_state(array(
     'term_id' => 2031,
     'name' => 'ZZZ-RSSFeeds',
     'slug' => 'zzz-rssfeeds',
     'term_group' => 0,
     'term_taxonomy_id' => 2031,
     'taxonomy' => 'category',
     'description' => '',
     'parent' => 0,
     'count' => 1777,
     'filter' => 'raw',
     'cat_ID' => 2031,
     'category_count' => 1777,
     'category_description' => '',
     'cat_name' => 'ZZZ-RSSFeeds',
     'category_nicename' => 'zzz-rssfeeds',
     'category_parent' => 0,
  )),
)