RAPISARDA AUTOSPORT

INTERNATIONAL RETURNING

FOR US NATIONALS

Posted: 1st August, 2017

Rapisarda Autosport International will return to the NHRA Mello Yello series for the 63rd annual U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway, Indianapolis, on August 30-Sept. 4.  
Regular pilot Wayne Newby,will drive for the team with tuning duties shared between Santino Rapisarda and Santo Rapisarda Jnr.

“I’m excited to be returning to race in America,” said team principal Santo Rapisarda.  “The U. S. Nationals is the biggest and most prestigious event on the NHRA calendar. My boys, Santo Jnr and Santino, are looking forward to the challenge of benchmarking their performance against the best in the world and that happens to be at the Indy Nationals. The event is usually over subscribed and we can’t afford to get far ahead of ourselves. First up we want to make the cut.”

The team dominated the 2016-17 domestic season in Australia winning their second consecutive 400 Thunder title. A year long campaign to become the first` team in the country to run in the fabled 4.40 second zone for quarter mile came to fruition in spectacular fashion when team-mates Wayne Newby and Damien Harris shredded the previous best of 4.50 sec set by fellow team-mate Larry Dixon in 2012.
In the final round of the season, the 50th annual Winternationals, Harris etched his name in the history books with a spectacular run of 4.43/335 mph. Newby also dipped under the 4.50 barrier with a classy 4.48/322 mph.

“Our plan is to arrive around a week before the meeting, catch up with friends we have made over the years, get the car and trailer organized and do some testing at the track.  We would have liked to come over earlier and run a couple of NHRA rounds but the family has been very busy with work commitments at home in Sydney. At this stage we are only planning to run at the U.S. Nationals, however, that could all change depending on how the team performs at Indy,” said Rapisarda. END