The quiet regional airport in Gunnedah, NSW was transformed into a battleground in September when No Prep Racers Australia rolled into town for Gunfight at Gunnedah. Almost 3000 people came through the gate and 100 racers travelled from as far away as Queensland and Victoria to put on a show at the weekend-long event.

First published in the December 2025 issue of Street Machine

No Prep Racers Australia (NPRA) has built its reputation as an organisation that delivers racing by racers for racers, and the Gunfight at Gunnedah was a perfect showcase of that philosophy.

“The NPRA is a family of racers,” said promoter Johnny Habib. “We are passionate Australians who love fast cars. While we are all mates in the pits, when we get to the startline, it’s game on.”

With the support of his sponsors, Johnny put up more than $22,500 in prize money, so it’s little wonder that racers had their game face on as they rolled into the water box.

The one downer of the weekend came when Daniel Saliba made a lightning-quick pass in his Barra-powered Datsun before it all went south. “After a stellar A-to-B run, I tried to neutralise the car and accidentally slid the shifter into reverse, which instantly locked up the wheels and sent me into an uncontrollable barrel roll,” said Daniel. The good news is that he hobbled away from the spectacular incident with a busted ankle and some bruising.

With Daniel out of the mix, the Small Tyre bracket was up for grabs. Mark Peters drove the wheels off his nitrous small-block LX Torana to beat Chris Sheppard in SIR HJ for the class win, having put down consistent passes all weekend with a PB of 6.39. “Gunfight was an awesome event; we will be back to support the event as racers and the NPRA as sponsors again for sure,” said Mark. “A huge thank you to my wife and family for their dedication and expertise. Without them, competing would not be possible.”

Chris Sheppard and his Warhorse Motorsports team worked hard for their runner-up trophy in SIR HJ, with the turbo LS dropping a valve on the last run on Saturday, destroying a couple of pistons and a cylinder head. The team drove four hours back to Newcastle on Saturday night, built another motor and swapped it in. They then drove back to the track and stuck the car in the beams on Sunday morning. With very little sleep, Chris and the Warhorse crew showed their professionalism and dedication as both racers and as sponsors.

While the Small Tyre bracket was nail-bitingly close, the Big Tyre class saw some of the wildest action. Despite stiff competition throughout the weekend, the class finals were an all-local affair, with Brian Thomas and son Caleb from Tamworth going head-to-head in their Camaros.

Brian is emerging as one of Australia’s most consistent no-prep performers, with his 1200hp, 8/71-blown, 400ci small-block Camaro managing a best of 6.0 on the Gunnedah Airport eighth-mile. “It’s a credit to Johnny and the team that they can deliver such a high calibre of racing to a regional track,” he said. “It’s great to see so many racers come from all over to our local community and support no-prep racing.”

Caleb beat his dad in the final, with his 1968 Camaro packing a similar 400ci small-block set-up. Brian was a little overzealous, jumping the tree and handing his son the win. The pair’s business, Betabar Steelfixing Contractors, are major sponsors of the Gunfight and enthusiastic supporters of the no-prep racing community.

With the Big Tyre and Small Tyre trophies decided, it was time for the Street Gangster class to turn heads with some of the quickest road-registered cars in the country. When Street Machine Drag Challenge legend Alon Vella made the finals in his 1970 Capri, everyone assumed the bottle-fed, 434ci small-block Ford-powered beast would have a cakewalk, but it was not the case. Instead, no-prep virgin Tim Minos from Ulladulla took the win in his immaculately turned-out Barra-powered XD sedan, packing 1130hp at the hubs.

“Getting to Gunnedah was a rollercoaster ride,” said Tim. “I entered, but then the rear end needed repairs and I didn’t think it would be ready in time, so I cancelled my entry and NPRA refunded my entry fees. On Thursday afternoon, the car came back from the fab shop, so I re-entered, packed up the car and drove the eight hours to the track. I’m very glad I made it.”

The 7.5 index bracket gave some of the closest racing of the weekend. Steve Arnold was nervous as he sat in the driver’s seat of his EH Holden waiting for the finals. “The track is daunting, but we have had an awesome weekend; the event has been really well run,” he said. The 420ci Dart small-block was consistent over the two days of racing, but didn’t have what it needed to take home the trophy.

That went to Dave ‘Truckie’ Thompson in his 1971 Kingswood ute. Travelling up from Albury-Wodonga with family, Truckie’s 406ci small-block ute sounded the goods, running bang on the bracket with a PB of 7.52 for the weekend. Mick Brody not only built the engine for Truckie, but was also on hand to provide some nerve-calming mentoring over the weekend.

The Dial Your Own (DYO) shoot-out was a traditional Holden vs Ford affair. Seventeen-year-old Mudgee bloke Andy Box turned up to the Gunfight at Gunnedah with his 54-year-old HQ Belmont ute, rocking a 383ci small-block and a Bunnings roller paintjob. The P-plated beast has run a best of 7.75 at Sydney Dragway over the eighth in the past, and went 8.1 at Gunnedah in May, but it was too quick in the DYO final at the Gunfight, crossing the line first but breaking out of his 8.14 dial-in.

The DYO win instead went to Clint Boardman, who ran a 7.70 on a 7.45 dial-in with his 1974 XB ute. Based out of Orange, Clint put down consistent runs all weekend. “The Gunfight at Gunnedah is a great event; no-prep racing really sorts the big cars out,” he said.

There were some sizeable burnouts over the course of the event, too, and Johnny Habib can respect a good powerskid as much as the next guy, so he dipped his hand into his own pocket to put up $500 of cold hard cash for the best burnout of the weekend. Michael Vansteen took home the dosh thanks to his efforts in his 2006 VZ ClubSport skid car, HEDAKE. “We had an epic weekend,” said Michael. “But I learned that she’s definitely not a drag car!”

Gunfight at Gunnedah was a beaut weekend of grassroots drag racing at a cool regional track, and a continuation of the momentum and cult following that NPRA has been building throughout 2025. If it sounds like something you’d like to get involved in, make sure you check them out on the socials or the website and get your backside trackside!

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Anthony Starcic from Precision Coatings was behind the wheel of his 900hp LJ Torana, packing a blown 388ci Chev on methanol. The LJ ran a 6.7sec pass at the Wilby NPRA round, but the team couldn’t get the Torana to play nice with the Gunnedah surface.

2. Martin Stevenson’s Iron Lion-powered Kingswood ute has run well into the 11s over the quarter but hadn’t done any no-prep eighth-mile stuff with the current motor prior to the Gunfight at Gunnedah. Martin was out to beat his previous eighth-mile PB of 8.0.

3. Will Wallace’s NEVAL8 Torana is a fearsome bit of gear, packing 1500hp worth of 14/71-blown small-block. But for Gunnedah, he decided to leave the Torana parked up and instead campaigned this big-block Chevy S10. The little Chevy pick-up did him proud on its first outing, taking him all the way to the semi-finals.

4. Chris Moor from Kempsey ran his KE30 Corolla with a new set-up at Gunnedah. Under the bonnet is a turbo 3RZ, which performed consistently all weekend. Chris had his family in the pits cheering him on. “We had the smallest car at the Gunfight, but we had the largest pit crew,” he laughed.

5. Warhorse Motorsports had a challenging weekend in SIR HJ. “The good motor dropped a valve on Saturday and destroyed a couple of pistons and the heads,” said Warhorse’s Brad Lowe. “We drove back to Newcastle, built another motor and swapped it out Saturday night. Unfortunately, it had a fair bit less power, but it still did well.” It sure did; Chris Sheppard steered the sedan to runner-up in the Small Tyre class.

6. Jake Starcic’s VL Berlina runs a 388ci turbo LSX, and made the journey from Wollongong to race at Gunnedah airport for the first time. The recent NPRA round at Wilby was the maiden outing for the new set-up, and Jake anticipates big results from the refreshed Berlina in the future.

7. Mick Brody raced two cars at the Gunfight. His 422ci small block-powered Gemini coupe (pictured) puts out 810hp and ran through to the semi-finals in the Big Tyre class, while his 800-horse, aspo Chev-powered LJ Torana made the Street Gangster semis.

8. Bill Cooper turned heads in his VC Commodore-fronted HQ, rocking a 350ci Chev with a TH400 and 9in diff. The car had run a 7.1sec eighth-mile way back in the 1980s, but Bill hadn’t been in the driver’s seat for nearly 20 years, so he decided to give the big girl a polish and bring her back for racing duties at Gunnedah.

9. Dave Muscat led the rotary charge in the Big Tyre class, with his Mazda R100 rocking a RaceMode Australia-tuned 13B with nearly 800hp, backed by G-Force manual gearbox. With a PB of 6.0 over the eighth-mile at Cootamundra airstrip this year, Dave made a 6.61sec pass at Gunnedah.

10. Tim Wales from Quirindi steered Byron Hiscock’s 318 small block-powered Charger to an 8.47 at Gunfight at Gunnedah. Byron is wheelchair-bound, so he throws the keys to Tim to pilot the Charger at the drags, and still tunes the engine and suspension from home via phone videos.

11. Ryan Gorton’s 2001 Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 rocks a 3.2L stroker and a very large turbo, pushing out 1200 horses at the hubs. This was the first time Ryan had raced the car in no-prep drags, but he ran a new PB of 7.0. He tunes the car himself at his Engineered Tuning workshop in Grafton.

12. Bruce Barnett is a regular at the Gunnedah Airport in his 1964 EH Holden sedan, which runs a 14/71-blown 383ci mill. Bruce bought the car as a wreck more than two decades ago and built it in his home shed for straight-line duties, and its previous best on the Gunnedah eighth-mile is 5.60sec.

13. Dan Campbell travelled 1000km from Hervey Bay, Queensland to be at the Gunfight at Gunnedah in his 1200hp, turbo Barra-powered 1983 XE ute. Dan’s goal was to see if he could beat his 5.3sec PB, and he made it through to the semi-finals.

14. Andy Box’s small-block-powered HQ Belmont ute is one tough P-plate rig! The car has been 7.75 to the eighth at Sydney Dragway, but Andy went fractionally too quick in the DYO final at Gunnedah to break out and land in the runner-up spot.

15. Johnny Habib, the man behind No Prep Racers Australia, worked hard to bring some of the best racers to Gunnedah. With nearly 100 pre-entries, the Gunnedah airport was a hive of high-horsepower energy. In between being a promoter, event manager and commentator, Johnny also raced his LH Torana with a 1450hp, 588ci nitrous big-block, which has run in the sevens at Sydney Dragway. Photo: Jacob Habib.

16. After putting his other Mustang on its roof at the Wilby NPRA round, Steve Athans dusted off his spare car and made the 13-hour trek from Melbourne to Gunnedah. Loaded with a Dandy Engines twin-turbo 520ci big-block, the Muzzy has run 6.50@224mph over the quarter at Heathcote, so it isn’t short on grunt. Unfortunately, the team struggled to get the set-up right at Gunnedah.

17. The immaculate, 632ci Chev-powered Ford Capri of Pat Defrancesco is now running nitrous, but despite winning the Big Tyre class at Wilby this year, Pat couldn’t make it through to the final at Gunnedah, losing the semi-final race to Brian Thomas. “It was the most spectacular race of the day,” said promoter Johnny Habib. “It was side-by-side, and Brian got him by a bumper.”

18. Alan Stevenson’s HB Torana did a maiden run at Gunnedah with a new 400ci methanol small-block set-up. ‘The Bushranger’ has previously run 10.4@127mph in Sydney.

RESULTS:

BRACKET CLASSES

7.5
1st: Dave ‘Truckie’ Thompson – 1971 Kingswood ute
2nd: Steve Arnold – EH Holden

Dial Your Own
1st: Clint Boardman – XB Falcon ute
2nd: Andy Box – HQ Belmont ute

HEADS-UP CLASSES

Street Gangster
1st: Tim Minos – XD Falcon
2nd: Alon Vella – Mk1 Ford Capri

Small Tyre
1st: Mark Peters – LX Torana
2nd: Chris Sheppard – HJ Holden

Big Tyre
1st: Caleb Thomas – 1968 Camaro
2nd: Brian Thomas – 1967 Camaro

Bikes
1st: Shaun Close
2nd: Mark Hodges

Powerskid
Michael Vansteen – VZ ClubSport