Nitro VooDoo Racing Coverage in Dragster Australia
(Issue 859 13 July 2012)
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Voodoo Domination Just Scary

Chris Matheson’s “Nitro Voodoo’’ team became only the third in history to have claimed three consecutive Top Bike Australian championships.

Matheson matched the efforts of Bill Curry (1992-94) and Ian Ashelford (2001-03) but few teams throughout the years would have produced such a dominant stats sheet as the Queenslander.

While acknowledging that the bike is by far the quickest and fastest in the eliminator, getting these tricky engines and their clutch/fuel combinations to work every time is still quite an art and Matheson’s skilled team tuned him to a clean sweep of all events in the 2011-12 season. Only once did Matheson not achieve the TQ/low ET/win treble and only missed out on the top speed twice. The Winternationals was his third consecutive clean sweep of TQ/low ET/top speed/win points. This massive dominance meant he had won the championship well before the Winternationals and ended up 275.5 points ahead of second-placed Chris Porter.

Matheson has an amazing win rate of more than 95 percent in a three-year career.

During the event, the team struggled with a clutch gremlin, but Matheson still ran four 6.2sec passes, a 6.3 in the semi and a 6.157 in the final at 224mph.

And still, Australia’s first motorcycle five remains as a fascinating “guess-when’’ game. – Lex Swayn

PHOTO BY MAL BURGESS/BLACKTRACK.COM.AU

With his third straight ANDRA Pro Series Top Bike Championship wrapped up Chris Matheson and his Nitro Voodoo team have shown a dominations that we haven’t seen for quite some time especially from someone who entered the sport as an unknown and stepped onto a nitro burning 5-second/240 + mph motorcycle. Matheson has joined such great names as Bill Curry and Ian Ashelford as an elite group who have won three titles on the trot.

But for the Queensland property developer, the Winternationals was back to business with a class win still up for the taking, and just maybe the first five-second ET for a scooter in Australia. Matheson understands that small steps usually lead to bigger ones and the bike that he rides for six-seconds at a time certainly has the potential to break that barrier. Willowbank is his home track, he has walked the track on many occasions and it’s also where he has run his quickest times and set records at.

After his win at the Nitro Champs in Sydney Matheson walked away untouchable by his nearest competitor. This then freed up the program to try and some run some big numbers which hopefully might include a 5-second ET. The pre-event hype was on.

With a number of key riders sitting it out this season and with Mark Drew sending his Harley over to the US for few events this year it his hope that for next season we will see the return of some competition to the bracket and the kind of numbers that we had three years ago.

Joining Matho on this occasion was – Graeme Morell and Phil Parker from Victoria and locals Gavin Spann and nitro Harley riders Nev Smith and Chris Porter. The latter has certainly stepped up and in fact has become Matheson’s biggest archrival throughout the season. The Fraser Motorcycle Racing Harley has the package to run well into the low sixes and Matho knew it too.

The first qualifying session saw Matheson open up a two-second gap between his number one 6.29 at 194 mph and Morell’s 8.31 at 170 mph. Porter filled third place with an 8.47 and Parker had a planned early 330 feet shut-off to check out their new fuel system. The Noodle Box bike of Spanner also had some issues when he went nowhere on the green (later traced to a fault with the supercharger) and Smith had a bit of a fright when the brake lever broke in his hand after his burnout so he punched a couple of buttons that killed the engine and popped the chute. He managed to pull up on the track and jump the wall as Parker was in the other lane.

The second and final qualifier for Saturday saw most of the pack make improvements with the Web Cam/Red Line Oil bike going 1.09 at the 60 and 6.235 at 206.7 mph over the quarter. The crew had some concerns that the bike was not hooking up quicker in the 60 foot department and was soft in the middle. Spannerman made a huge leap in the confidence stakes. They had found that the problem with a sheared keyway in the blower and tried their best with a makeshift repair.

The result was a 1.08 60 foot 7.30 ET at a half-track shut off that rekindled the fire and passion again. That was a new PB for the Noodle Box team and they were hoping to crack into the sixes. It moved him into second spot on the ladder. Porter went 8.077 and was still having clutch issues, Morell lowered his previous time to 8.23 at 169 mph while Parker and Smith both had more problems. For Smith he had his barrel valve move and increase the rpm from idle 2400 to 4000 and was not able to pull up from his burnout so he coasted through. In the meantime Parker (who was running a very rich mixture) was sitting on the line for about a minute and when the track was clear some fuel had puddled out of the pipes and on
the hit it spun the tyre. Ahhh don’t you just love NITRO!

Sunday continued with another two shots. Matheson lined up against Porter for the third time and put down a slightly quicker pass. The 60 foot time was 1.08 and a 6.228 at 203 flat. Porter was still struggling with a 1.25 at the 60 but the ET produced a 7.41/184 pass from the Frasers M/C Harley. Morell was consistent with an 8.29, Pirate Nev broke a starter button and went nowhere while Parker had intentions of going 600 feet but went 1000 and killed an engine with two rods out on an 8.85 at just 120 mph pass.

For the final qualifier Matheson went 6.275 for no improvement but his speed of 216.76 sure was heading in the right direction. His dancing partner – Porter went 1.22 at the 60 but his 7.026 at 183 was enough to move up into second place and move Spann into third. Spann and Morell lined up. Spann said the bike was on a march but because he had staged funny the bike went towards the centerline so he coasted to an 8.13 at 138 mph. Morell also had some handling issues with his Harley kissing some cones in the deep end. Smith had another try but with too much clutch she spun the tyre hard with a 4.915 at the 60 so she was all over. Parker was busy in the pits replacing engines.

For the first round of eliminations all the players were still in the pits. First pair out was Matheson and Smith. On the green Smith was out the gate first with a 0.2 reaction and followed by Matho’s 0.287 but the Harley had left the line in second gear. The result was a win light to the Web Cam/Red Line Oil bike with a 6.29 at 209.14 to a 7.113 at 162 mph. Porter faced off with Parker and this race would determine who would finish the points in second and third place. The game plan for Parker was to see who would be ahead or behind as to how long he would keep the throttle open. As it was Porter ran his quickest pass of the weekend with a 7.06 at 199.52 to a 9.33 ET from the Parker Pumps Puma at just 92 mph. Final pair had Spann up against Morell. The Harley grabbed the holeshot but was not able to reel in a 7.25 ET– 147 mph with his 8.25 at 164.33. Spann said his bike felt like a Taxi and was very soft.

The semi finals saw Matheson with the bye, recording a 6.381 at 211.76. The rider was going a little deeper in the run but still shutting off before the stripe. The other pairing was between Porter and Spanner (PICTURED above) . The Noodle Box entry knew they would have to run a six to beat Porter but they were too aggressive and it broke a belt. The result was a 1.07 at the 60 for Spann and a 12 second ET to a 9.15 from the Harley.

So once again we had Matheson and Porter in the final. The Fraser M/C Harley was slowly making quicker passes and while his 6.993 at 199.94 was his best of the weekend it was no match to a Low ET 6.157 at Top Speed 224.43. It was a PB speed for Matheson and another win giving him two Gold Christmas trees for the weekend.

As always, we would like to thank our Sponsors & Supporters:
WebCam, Red Line Oils, RB Performance, Rocket Industries, CRC Industries, PDS Graphics, Kitten Car Care Products, GT Radiators & Machining, Hi-Side Leathers, PR Factory Store and special thanks to Larry “Spiderman” McBride & Steve McBride.

Nitro Voodoo Website: www.nitrovoodoo.com.au