TAKES TIME TO GET YOUR HEAD AROUND. THEY TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY
girly as some girls out there, but I still do love
to do girly things. Sure, I’m a racer, but I hold
onto the fact that I like to paint my toenails
nice colours.
Were you always fast, even in Juniors?
We weren’t necessarily the fastest cars out
there. We were usually in the top half of the
field, but that wasn’t really important – it was
learning to race and getting accustomed to
bracket racing and dial-ins and all that. It was
the same when I got my Modified dragster – I’d
be up among the quicker cars, but I don’t think
I ever top-qualified.
But all that was grounding for when
you got the chance to drive a Top Fuel
car, whereas somebody like me would
probably shit their pants on the startline!
Yep. When you grow up racing Junior
Dragsters and eventually step up into fastercars as an adult, everything is familiar; the only
thing you have to get used to is the increased
pace. After I finished racing Juniors, it took
me about five years before I could get my
seven-second Modified dragster, and I was
shocked by the speed of it at first. I thought:
‘How am I going to get this to the end? Have
I got the nuts to stay into it?’ The car hit so
hard, it was unbelievable, it shocked me, and
the same thing applies to when I got into a
Top Fuel car. You know everything else about
what you’ve got to do, you’ve seen the Top
Fuellers race heaps of times, you’ve got a
general idea, but to feel that initial hit and the
physical speed the car is going, that takes
time to get your head around. They take your
breath away; I’m pretty sure I don’t take one
breath the entire pass.
Even just standing near them as theytake off is one of the most intense things
on earth.
They are crazy. For someone who has raced
before and done a lot of laps down the track,
the initial hit in a Top Fuel car is not even the
most surprising thing. The most surprising thing
is, after about 300 feet, the clutch locks up and
that’s when the car takes off even more. It’s sort
of like, you take off, and then the car just hits
this point and the acceleration is just beyond;
there’s no words for it.
What’s your PB in the Modified dragster,
and what’s been happening with the car
of late?
I’ve done a 7.37@185mph, but it’s parked in the
shed at the moment, mainly due to time, because
I’m working and travelling and racing. I’ve also
got a few little issues to sort out on the car and I
haven’t had the money. So it’s a shed ornament01: Kelly won her first Top Fuel
‘Christmas Tree’ at the Santo’s
Summer Thunder meeting at Sydney
Dragway in January. Her final run
of 3.83@308mph to beat Damien
Harris of Rapisarda Autosport is the
quickest pass in Australia’s relatively
short history of racing over 1000ft02: Kelly raced Junior Dragsters
from the age of 10, based firstly at
Calder Park in Victoria and then
at Willowbank after the family
moved to Queensland. She enjoyed
some success, including winning
the inaugural National Junior
Championship in 199803: The last person to drive the
Lamattina Top Fuel dragster before
Kelly was Indianapolis-based South
Australian Richie Crampton, who
brought a new car over from the
States and raced it for the Lamattina
team at Sydney in May last year
before handing the reins to KellyMAIN: One of several cars owned by
Collin Willshire of Jett Racing and the
Jamboree events, this Datsun ute is
just about the wildest four-cylinder
you’ll see run the quarter. Powered by
a Mitsubishi 4G63 turbo, Kelly recently
got it into the sixes for the first time,
and now plans to do so on the regJUST as we went to print, Kelly
won her second straight Top Fuel event
in the Lamattina car at Santo’s Super
Thunder at Willowbank on Good Friday.
Running the quickest time in the first
two rounds – [email protected] – Kelly
went on to defeat Peter Xiberras in the
final by a mere 0.17 seconds.
Kelly is now just two points behind
current championship leader Damien
Harris, so the final two rounds of the
series – 4-5 May at Sydney Dragway
and 7-10 June at Willowbank –
will be nail-biters
for sure.Stop Press!