Darren Morgan keeps hopes up after early exit.

Image courtesy Phil Luyer

Defending Australian Top Fuel champion Darren Morgan bowed out in the opening round of the second event of the ANDRA Pro Series Championship in Perth.

The driver known as the “Mildura Missile” drew Damien Harris in the first round and despite a better reaction time from Morgan, Harris was able to get around him with a 4.833sec pass to Morgan’s 5.573sec.

Although he was eliminated early, Morgan and the team made significant progress that will serve them well at the back end of the championship.

“It was disappointing that we didn’t win – however we can take some huge positives out of the weekend – those being that we’ve made some changes to the car and setup-wise they have solved some issues that we’ve been trying to put our finger on for some time,” he said.

Harris went on to claim victory at the event from Andrew Cowin.

This weekend – Morgan and the DMR Top Fuel Simulator will be in Cairns on behalf of AEG Powertools for a Bunnings Sale Day at Bunnings Cairns. Bunnings is located on the corner of Spence & Fearnley Streets, Bungalow. The team will be performing a startup at the event – allowing Cairns locals to get their nitro fix.

Morgan’s full racing setup will remain in WA for the next two months until the next ANDRA Pro Series championship round at the end of January.

The DMR team welcomed a new partner in Hertz Rental Cars on board for the Perth round and moving forward for the remainder of the 2012 season.