{"id":7258,"date":"2025-11-08T22:16:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T22:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=7258"},"modified":"2025-11-08T22:23:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T22:23:29","slug":"xpro-xpertise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=7258","title":{"rendered":"\u201cXPRO \u2018Xpertise!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Australia\u2019s XPRO Nitro FC Division completes it\u2019s 2024-25 NDRC wrap around season campaign<\/em>\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In what was billed as a one-day NDRC spectacular full of nitro mayhem \u2014 the Nitro Nationals presented by PW Brakes and Racer Industries at Sydney Dragway well and truly delivered on November 8th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In hot and sultry conditions, the final season rounds of the 2024\/2025 NDRC Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car Championships took to the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In XPRO Nitro Funny Car \u2014 it was points leader and New Zealander Morice McMillin who locked down the title early in the day, but it was his young Aeroflow Racing team-mates Josh Leahy and Damon Paton who went all the way to the A-Final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paton top qualifying and winning two races before running into trouble in the final (7.773138.51kph), while Leahy book-ended his season with the victory after a super clean pass (4.018\/482.48kph), also claiming the runner-up honours in the title chase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ZZD31940-_1_-e1762639866784.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"286\" src=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ZZD31940-_1_-e1762639866784.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7252\"\/><\/a><figcaption>With his victory at Sydney&#8217;s season final round &#8211; <strong>Josh Leahy<\/strong> clinched a 2nd place finish in final XPRO FC points.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>On their way to the final, Leahy had faced off against Walshe (4.376\/336.62kph v 4.962\/258.50kph) in round one and his boss McMillin (4.055\/501.37kph v 5.095\/239.00kph) in round two, while Paton \u2013 who before this event had only one race win to his name and had never been to a final \u2013 was on a charge from the get go, top qualifying before bettering McMillin in round one (4.201\/487.13kph v 4.280\/384.05kph) and Walshe (4.448\/371.50kph v 4.535\/383.78kph) in round two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McMillin and Walshe faced off in the B-Final, with McMillin (4.441\/320.82kph) taking the win while Walshe (4.677\/283.21kph) had a cylinder cut out after a strong start to the run and then slapped the wall halfway down the track. While his racing machine bore witness marks to the contact, Walshe himself was unharmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFrom today\u2019s point of view, I am super proud of Damon and super proud of Josh, they both deserved to be in that final. Where Josh has grown from where he was at the start of the season to the way he is driving now is really great and the advances Damon has already made with his few meetings is really great too,\u201d McMillin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am so proud for the boys to get the championship. It was not the day we wanted and it is hard when you have won four in a row to come and lose two runs in a row, it hits a bit harder, so we were disappointed with that but stoked with the championship \u2013 we will come back next year and get it done again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ZZD32651-_1_-e1762639840856.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"309\" src=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ZZD32651-_1_-e1762639840856.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7253\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ZZD32976-e1762639813740.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" src=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ZZD32976-e1762639813740.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7254\"\/><\/a><figcaption><strong>Morice McMillin<\/strong> &#8212; driving this special edition &#8220;Aussie Bandit&#8221; Firebird &#8212; <em>in tribute to team owners Graeme and Wendy Cowin<\/em> &#8212; clinched the 2024\/25 NDRC XPRO Nitro FC title <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The NDRC\u2019s XPRO Nitro FC class campaigners will now take a bit of a sabbatical \u2014 returning to action with its 2026 season schedule opener at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland &#8211; coming Jan 24\/25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Posted by Amanda Salmon &#8211; Jigsaw Communications&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Photos by Grant Stephens&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/NFCC_210x151.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"210\" height=\"151\" src=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/NFCC_210x151.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7213\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australia\u2019s XPRO Nitro FC Division completes it\u2019s 2024-25 NDRC wrap around season campaign\u2026. In what was billed as a one-day NDRC spectacular full of nitro mayhem \u2014 the Nitro Nationals presented by PW Brakes and Racer Industries at Sydney Dragway well and truly delivered on November 8th. In hot and sultry conditions, the final season [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[173,9],"tags":[53,180,205,179],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7258"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7263,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7258\/revisions\/7263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}