While it is true that most championships do not come easy, for Tony Frost, the road to claiming the 2017/2018 Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series Australian Title for the Competition Bike bracket was particularly rocky.

With the support of his fellow racers, friends and family however, he was able to hoist a prestigious ANDRA Gold Christmas Tree at the final round of the season.

At the recent ANDRA Grand Finals, Steve Norman not only took out the SuperComp victory for the final round of the 17/18 Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series, but also the Crow Cams Best Engineered Award.

The recognition of Norman’s D/GA BMW M3 Coupe comes at the end of the car’s debut season, following the retirement of Norman’s 2015 Super Stock championship-winning Chevy Cobalt.

Round One of the 2018/2019 Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series will be hosted by the Hidden Valley Drag Racing Association across the 13^th and 14^th of July, 2018.

The Nitro Up North event will cater for all ANDRA sportsman classes, subject to entry numbers.

Qualifying will be held on the Friday night, with three sessions for all classes, ahead of racing on the Saturday.

Entry for the event is now open online on the Hidden Valley Drag Racing Association website. Entry for all sportsman classes excluding Summit Racing Equipment Junior Dragster is $70.00. Junior Dragster competitors can enter for $20.00.

It may have been over a month since he took out the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series Australian Title for the DENSO Super Street bracket, but South Australian Harry Harris is still buzzing.

“I don’t think it will settle in until the next Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series season starts really,” Harris said.

When he claimed the 2017/2018 Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series Australian Title for the Competition bracket last month, Craig Geddes also made history.

By taking the title, he was the first racer in Australia to claim three back-to-back championships in the Competition class.

When it came time to be presented with his Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series Australian Title last month, larrikin Super Sedan racer Peter Tzokas celebrated by landing a big kiss on the face of ANDRA General Manager Brett Stevens.

The move was met with much amusement from the watching racers and crew, but not surprise, as anyone who knows Tzokas knows he loves to have a laugh.

In only his second full Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series, South Australian Danny Rickard broke through to take the Australian Title honours in the Modified Bike bracket last month.

Rickard had stepped up to a new bike for the 2017/2018 season, racing the ‘Raw’ V-Rod previously owned by close friend Niki Zak – who has been called the fastest and quickest woman in the world on two wheels.

Matt Czerny took out the Australian Title for the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series Modified bracket in late March, and weeks’ later the Victorian racer is still on cloud nine.

“It only started to sink in recently at the Mildura Supercharged Shootout with so many people coming up and congratulating us, and with all the phone calls and messages that flooded in after the Grand Finals,” Czerny grinned.

Following a dominating performance in Super Stock across the 2017/2018 Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series season, Jim Ioannidis and his MRX Racing Commodore claimed the Australian Title for the bracket last month.

“We can comfortably say the 308-powered MRX Racing Holden VS Commodore dominated Super Stock this season,” Ioannidis said.

In his final year racing in the Summit Racing Equipment Junior Dragster bracket, 17-year-old Bradley Bishop was able to secure the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series Australian title.

The racer from Orangeville (NSW) says that two weeks after the final round, the big win is finally sinking in.

Jason Arbery clinched not only an ANDRA Grand Finals victory and the 2017/2018 Summit Racing Equipment Australian Title in the Top Sportsman ranks at the weekend, but he also was awarded the prestigious John Storm Memorial Trophy.

Commissioned in memory of Mr John Storm, the first National Director of ANDRA, the John Storm Memorial Trophy is an annual national award made to the competitor in Group Two, Three or Four who scores the highest total overall points from all rounds of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series, including the final event.

The final round of the 2017/2018 Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series has concluded with celebrations at Adelaide International Raceway with both event and championship winners crowned.

One final day of racing is all that remains for the 2017/2018 Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series, with day one of the Grand Finals at Adelaide International Raceway now complete.

More than 170 sportsman racers took to the track for two rounds of qualifying today, with one final session of qualifying to be held for all of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series classes tomorrow morning ahead of eliminations racing in the afternoon.

Defending Modified Bike champion Bryan Finn could make history this weekend (March 23-24) if he can clinch a third consecutive Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series national title.