“The chassis is our championship winning car (pictured above) and the new mechanical combination is as good as our current car,” Lamattina said. “We haven’t brought out another car to make the numbers, we’ve brought another car to run the numbers.”

The second car will be driven by experienced Top Fuel pilot Luke Shepherd, who was originally to drive at the event with Peter Xibberas’ PremiAir team until Xibberas was called away for business.

“Luke’s been around and knows the ropes, hopefully he and the crew enjoy the experience of racing with our team and our way of going drag racing,” Lamattina said.

Lamattina and Shepherd will be joined by Queensland’s Steve Read and Victoria’s Darren Morgan this Saturday.