To finish first, first you have to finish. Darren Morgan finished first in the 2010/’11 Top Fuel Champs and never missed a pass.

1. FRIENDS & FAMILY
SUPERCHARGER
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SHOESTRING BUDGET
TOP FUEL CHAMPS
STORY JUSTIN LAW
PHOTOS SIMON DAVIDSON
CAPTAIN
S E N S I B L E
To finish first, first you have to finish. Darren
Morgan finished first in the 2010/’11 Top Fuel
Champs and never missed a pass
100 street machine

2. SUPER SEDANS
WITH Saturday evening showers turning into solid overnight rain, the plug
was pulled on the 44th Castrol Edge Winternationals and the event was
rescheduled for July. Even so, there was plenty of action before the rain
came, including the first-ever six-second Pro Street pass (see page 134).
Here are a few of the highlights:
GREAT to see a former SM cover car (May ’09) in action. New owner
Trevor Cooper from Bundaberg has rejigged the car and hit the track. “It’s
now running a 400ci, 8/71-blown and injected SBC by Tremaniac Racing,”
he says. “It ran an 8.04@165mph at the Winters Warm-up, so we should
see a seven out of it soon. We’re looking forward to running in Pro Street.”
WHEN we first saw this tonner, it was running a tough nitrous-equipped
LS1. Colin McGill owns it these days, and has fitted a Mick Atholwood
427ci LSX with an 8/71 and Birdcatcher injection!
T
HE Darren Morgan Racing rail coasted about exactly the right time for us to fail, so as per usual “We work off each other, we’re still the best of
to the line after a clutch problem in first I’d bitten off more than I could chew and we’ve been friends,” he says. “When I was in Queensland, before
qualifying at the washed-out Winternationals struggling just to be there, let alone take it up to them.” lining up in the stage I rang him to see where the hell
last month. It didn’t matter because getting And yet DMR is now the number-one Top Fuel team he was, ’cause I missed him,” he laughs.
the green light gave Darren the handful of in the country. His success, he says, has come from Cowin took him to the US in 1995, where he got
points he needed to clinch the ANDRA Top Fuel title, being meticulous and imbuing the people around him to see the NHRA big boys up close. He learned that
and he was more interested in improving the car. with that same attention to detail. professionalism can beat money when he helped get
It was a rare chance for him to feel like he could the Cowin rail to runner-up in the US Nationals, and
Our success is the
give Ben Patterson his head with some development dominate Australian drag racing through the late 90s. ALAN ‘Bundy’ Lucas is giving his SMOTY-winning HQ Monaro a birthday
ideas. At 21, Ben’s the youngest crew chief to spanner A keen interest in mechanics inherited from his but in the meantime he’s teamed up with his brother, Mark Smith, to put
a professional Top Fuel outfit. people around us. father and grandfather found its outlet through his this 900hp Rehr Morrison-powered HK on the track, complete with the
HQ’s famous plates.
The performance
Morgan usually sticks to his doctrine of racing well burning passion for drag racing and it was paying off.
within the team’s abilities — a doctrine that has made “My grandfather was the first A-grade mechanic in
him more consistent than any other Top Fuel racer in
the four years DMR has been on the track.
isn’t just on Mildura and was a doctor of mechanical engineering,”
Morgan says. “We used to hang out in his workshop,
“Instead of going the fastest we could, we just do the track which was all dirty and shit, but I learned stuff.” Above: From left: Will, Natalie,
what we know we can do,” he says. “I’m pretty sure What he learned was how to build hot engines and Darren, Rory and Caitlyn
we’ve never missed a pass that’s been available to us.” “I guess I’m a bit anal,” he says. “Cowin always tells soon joined in the cat-and-mouse games with the local
Left: Darren hauls a lot of
While there’s some pride in that, the reality is he me off for using that word.” cops. It was Mildura and that’s what you do in Mildura. spares to each meeting,
can’t afford to break things. As a privateer without the ‘Cowin’ is legendary racer Graeme, the bloke who “I had a Monaro with a big-block Chev in it but the including 3-4 complete
backing enjoyed by other major teams, he can’t just buy spotted potential in the young kid back in the early 90s cops didn’t think that was a good idea,” he says. “Then I engines, eight pairs of heads,
eight piston and rod racks,
new bits if something goes bang. after he bought the eight-second big-block altered that had an LJ with a nitrous small-block but the cops said four blowers, eight clutch
“We put ourselves in a corner,” he says of his decision Darren had built and raced. Even today, Morgan seeks that wasn’t a good idea either.” packs, six parachutes and
to go out on his own in 2007. “The global recession was Graeme’s advice and support. He found solace on the racetrack, putting the Torrie heaps more AFTER stacking his Mustang at last year’s Winters, Neil Murphy had the
stunning car back and running hard. This time Darryl Woods handled the
steering as Neil was away on Defence Force duties. Best time with the
102 street machine new set-up so far is a 6.90@205mph.

3. through its paces before satisfying a desire for open- He tried to find a major sponsor but with the because the competition is to get the engine back
wheelers with the altered, into which he shoehorned economic climate as bad as it was, there was just together. And you’ve got to have the parts in the trailer
the engine from his Monaro. There was no question no-one willing to invest. What he did have, however, perfect — we’ve got a spare rear end in there that we
about where he was heading. was plenty of skilled mechanics in Mildura happy to lay bolt on and it works, we’ve got eight sets of racks and
“Drag racing is just about making horsepower and their spanners at his feet for no pay. heads in the cupboard that we swap out every pass.
that’s a heap of fun,” Darren says. “No other sport “Our success is the people around us,” he says of “Attention to detail is the secret, it’s the heart and
shakes the ground — 2.5 on the Richter scale, 8000hp. his dedicated team. “The performance isn’t just on the soul. If you go in half-arsed about it, that’s what you’re
There’s no other motorsport that comes close.” track, it’s the whole picture.” going to have.”
The workmanship in that altered (Morgan built the He’s done it now, taken his crew to the top against
LS7, chassis and gearbox) was his ticket. As well as
Cowin, others were sitting up and taking notice. Attention to detail is the odds, and he gets satisfaction from that.
“We copped a lot of shit at the start, that we’d never
Among them were the Lamattina brothers, who put the heart and soul. do any good from Mildura, but I reckon we had every ET
If you go in half-
him to work on their Capri before Darren — whose star and mph record in the championship within 12 months.
was shining brightly — decided in 2004 it was time to “Every job is the signature of its creator,” he adds.
get back behind the wheel.
Cowin wanted him back in the States but the
arsed, that’s what “Mine is to have the fastest and best-looking car, the
best crew — it’s all an expression of you.”
Lamattinas wanted him to stay on the Capri and to you’re going to have There’s more to achieve, a dynasty to build much like
keep him they agreed to let Darren build a rail and the Cowins, and like them, his family is right in there
have the team run it under their auspices. He promptly “You have to have a good crew. They’re just about with him. His wife of 24 years, Natalie, runs the back
reeled off the quickest-ever licensing pass (4.85sec) to send you on a 300 mile an hour ride, so if they want end of the business, daughter Caitlyn, 16, takes care
and won the ’04/’05 Top Fuel title. you dead that’d be pretty easy to achieve!” he laughs. of merchandise and marketing, son Will, 15, is learning
Then the opportunity came along to create his own “They’ve got an hour to get everything right, so the tools (he and Caitlyn are both Junior Dragster pilots
team, Darren Morgan Racing. they’ve got to have it perfect every time. They have to too), and Rory, 9, is always there, absorbing.
“A group of people around Mildura wanted me to sync with each other. “I went to a parent/teacher night and Rory was
do it and came up with a bit of money,” he says. “It was “I’ve seen it before where the clutch guy is having a asked what he wanted to do. He said: ‘Be a Nitro Funny
about a third of what we needed but we did it.” competition with the other guy and that doesn’t work, Car driver.’ I didn’t even know he thought about it.” s
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