Harris on Fire at New Year's Series

Posted: 9th January, 2017

Rapisarda Autosport International star, Damien Harris, claimed victory in the final of the New Year Thunder meeting when his opponent, Peter Xiberras, cut a red light in front of a near capacity crowd at Willowbank Raceway.

Earlier, Harris’s team-mate, Wayne Newby, despite a holeshot, went down to Darren Morgan in the battle for third spot on the podium.

The Harris and Santo Rapisarda Jr. combination stamped their authority on the meeting when they laid down a sparkling pass of 4.77 /408 km/h in the pre-event test session.

In first round of racing it was the RAI duo that thrilled the crowd when they produced the finest side-by-side pass of the day.

Harris snatched the honors with a superb lap of 4.65/466 km/h from Newby, who stopped timers with a classy 4.79/ 404 km/h.

In round two both RAI cars struggled. Harris spun the tyres and tossed a belt just before half-track against Morgan and Xiberras taking the honors over Newby.

This meant Harris and Xiberras, the two top point scorers facing off in the final with Newby and Morgan racing for third and fourth place.

The eagerly anticipated final was an anti-climax with Xiberras jumping the start and handing the easiest of wins to Harris.

“It wasn’t the cleanest of wins,” according to Harris. The car was on a great run until the crankshaft failed and we began to slow. By the time we got to the braking zone the car was really starting to vibrate. From the moment we went out earlier in the day the car ran well all day. Junior and the crew did a fabulous job. It would have been great to see an all Rapisarda final, but it wasn’t to be. I’m very happy to give Santo Rapisarda his first win in 2017.”

According to race winning tuner Santo Rapisarda Jnr. “To come away with the win was a tribute to the crew who rose to the challenge of racing four times on a single day. Damien did a great job and I’m, as always, grateful to my dad for giving me and Santino the opportunity to race. To share our passion with our dad is something very special and close for the Rapisarda family.”

“Our car had some mechanical issues over the day. We haven’t had problems in that area for a long time. As soon as we get back home we will sit down, go over the data and decide what changes we need to make ahead on our next meeting on January 21 at Sydney Dragway.” END