Heating Up – NSW Championship Rd 4 event report

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Moving two a single day format round 4 of the NSW Championship followed in quick succession over the previous round before the series goes into a hiatus over the summer.

Lower entry numbers forced the track to move back a single day format for this round of the NSW Championship, again there was not enough numbers to run Top Comp and Super Comp barely made a field. Maybe a solution is to combine these brackets until numbers improve.

Like the previous round there was no feature and the event just ran through the motions on what was a very hot day as summer heat starts to impose itself on Sydney. While low key, the sportsman racing is still as hard as ever deserving the NSW Championship of a higher profile, the track is working towards and we should be seeing the series debut on Speed Channel in the near future.

Top Comp

Geoff Gradden was the only car to enter in Top Comp and was restricted to testing, the Saratoga didn’t want to hook up cleanly on every attempt

Super Comp

The bracket had only three entrants on the grounds and after Steve Dimech wounded the rotary in the Datsun, a straight out final was held between Clint George and Wayne Burns.

George’s B/APA 7.56 in qualifying is of a national standard nearly four tenths under the index, a performance Burn’s rotary powered CC/SM Corolla couldn’t match leading to a cherry taking a shot at the tree in the final.

Smoke belching from Steve Dimech’s rotary ended his day early.

Supercharged Outlaws

Supercharged Outlaws had seven racers attempt qualifying the most of the series, Norm McCormack continued to strangle the rest of the field in the championship with another win over Jeff Penton.

Penton recovering from mechanical woes at the last two events broke out in the final against McCormack’s neat 7.37 (7.35) package.

Outlaws newcomer Arthur Yianitsos had Brett Gillespie wrenching the spanners on his new Capri, after qualifying with a 7.77 and going past Dearne Stephen in round one a off pace run was defeated by Penton in the semi.

Dearne Stephen fell victim to a -.002 red light it round one.

Mal Gower qualified with a 7.11 but the cool black altered shut off early in his first round match up with Penton.

Frank “Mr 10.5” Mamone scorched to a 6.64 at 232MPH in qualifying signalling the black Nova was back. A 6.73 (6.59) in round one was not tight enough though to defeat McCormack’s FED in round one.

 

Darryl Walford qualified with a 6.76, but the Skips funny car finished the third qualifier with a couple of conrods exiting the sump.

Top Sportsman

It was virtual team mates Steve Fowler and Paul Partridge meeting the Top Sportsman final, Fowler’s 7.75 (7.75) on a .015 light shows why he is the national champ, Pardo a former national champion himself left a fraction to early with a -.015 light in the Mustang.

Before the red light Partridge defeated Chris Stevermuer and Dallas Whyte.

Whyte ended with another semi final result.

Father and son faced off in the other semi and no one else but a Fowler has won a Top Sportsman event this season.  Greg’s uncharacteristic .200 light is something he would not be able to get away with, breaking out 6.987 (6.99) trying to catch the Beretta.

Modified

Mark Bool earned his first ever event win defeating another debutant finalist Stephanie Huysmans in Modifed.

Appearing in her first Modified final it is also Huysmans first season in Modified competively, a 9.96 (9.85) was caught by the dragsters 8.33 (8.28)

Track champion Jenny Petrie backed up her two previous runner up finishes with a semi result, though she cost herself a final’s birth with a red light she is still in the chase for another championship tying with Bool for the points lead.

This was not in Peter Brown’s plans, a massive fuel leak off the line caused a edge of the seat moment.

Battle of the hot rods, Alan Rawson’s turbo lexus machine takes on Steve Warren’s more conventional ride.

Craig Davies salute gets him a photo in this report, not his round one red light against Brown.

Super Sedan

Super Sedan saw some upsets which has really mixed up the points with a three way tie for the lead between Joe Zammit, Neil Constantinou and Elise Taylor. The final featured Nationals winner Marco Tolmeo defeating Jim Denaro on a hole shot.

Denaro’s 9.86 (9.85) should have had the victory if it wasn’t for the XY’s .018 light not that Denaro’s .049 was lazy, it does show how tough Super Sedan racing is in Sydney.

Elise Taylor’s ability to make it to the semi finals or better has her equally leading the points, it did take a near perfect 9.42 (9.42 .016RT) package from Tolomeo to trailer Elise’s 10.66 (10.64 .023RT) in the semi.

Denaro laid on a holeshot of his own to take down Mark Harding in second semi.

Neil Constantinou won this round courtesy of Paul Spatino’s cherry, but was stopped in round three by Denaro, the hit in points has the championship wide open.

Likewise contender Joe Zammit’s first round cherry against Denaro was even more devastating removing his championship advantage with just two rounds too run.

Jamie Nicholson and John Kabboura slog it out in the first round.

The Taylor family match up in qualifying with Elise showing dad Gordon how to win races of late.

James Danaskos was in the hot seat when the transmission exploded leaving, well, not much left behind the motor.

Modified Bike

Just like Super Sedan, Modified Bike ended the event with three racers tied in the points, the event went to Michael Borg who is not in the chase downing Joe Khoury in the final.

Khoury in his second final in a row is one of the racers tied for the championship, the final itself saw Borg’s 10.65 (10.45) taking out Khoury’s off pace 10.56 (9.70). The win awarded Borg the Darren Shepherd Memorial Modifed Bike trophy, the event marking two years since the popular racer left us.

Rob Wilkinson’s tied the points lead with his semi final outcome.

Matt Tansley picked up the B/MB track record at 9.70 on his way to the semi finals where he lost to Borg when the Suzuki bunny hopped off the line.

Dad Gary Tansley had the magic of the elf on his side reaching round 2 before that magic ran out with a red light against Khoury. 

Robert Simmonds did not advance past the first round but is still part tryst leading the points.

Wally Hosta went for a impromptu slip and slide when his Kawasaki dumped a bucket of coolant, Hosta was fine and came back to red light in round one.

Locky Ireland travelled up from Victoria for some testing, a 7.39 in qualifying had the track A/MB record shot to bits.

Super Gas

Darryl Stephen was efficient in his win in Super Gas, after running a perfect 9.900 off the trailer, Stephen kept the Probe in the pits until the first round bye. When Roy Romeo went picking cherries in the second round Stephen found himself in the final against Rick Dudek.

Dudek who missed the last round was undefeated to this point in the series, taking out nemesis Joe Catanzariti in the first round and Stivala next before a 10.09 in the final due to a car problem helped Stephen’s 9.96 take the win.

Despite a 9.899 in round one Romeo still advanced when Russell Archer red lit in the RX4, but shanked his own -.011 light against Stephen next round.

Michael Stivala survived round one just when John Somoracz went 1/1000th too quick, but couldn’t surpass Dudek’s Falcon in the semi. 

Super Street

Rob Heather psyched out old street meet sparring partner Michael Walsh who red lit in the Super Street final, it has been a long time between drinks for the now Sydney Dragway official.

Walsh a street meet regular would probably have clocked up as many laps down the Sydney quarter as anyone, despite making a small fortune winning the reaction time money regularly at street meets, the Commodore driver was -.013 too quick in the final.

Chris Hensby maintains a slight lead in the championship with a semi final birth, his HT just edges out Craig Warren’s LJ here in round one.

Brad Smith had a case of the red lights as well picking one in his semi final against Walsh.

Plenty of family rivalry at the track, brothers Richard and David Matosevic face off here.

Junior Dragster

Adriana MacCaskell’s win in Junior Dragster over Jesse Panetta is giving her a solid lead in the championship.

A 8.29 (8.21) from Panetta came up short of MacCaskell’s 8.42 (8.49).

The girls are really dominating the Junior class, Erin Koukides followed up her last event win with a semi final and Emma Hazzard faced off with MacCaskell in the other semi.

Sibling rivalry as Danielle is defeated my Adriana in round one.

Screamin Eagles

Robert Axisa claimed the Darren Shepherd Memorial Screamin’ Eagles trophy for the second year running, defeating Niki Zahrzewski in take two of the final and moving further ahead in the championship points

The final needed two attempts when take one delivered a timing error in Niki’s lane, the rerun had Axisa’s 10.91 (10.49) score the victory over Niki’s 12.37 (12.10)

Scott McBurney earned plenty of style points with this long wheelstand and also a semi final finish.

Street Fighter

Stewart Howle snuck in a grabbed the win in a star studded Street Fighter field over Don Zammit.

Zammit broke out but still will be hard to pin back in the championship.

Corrine Zammit (no relation by the way) made another semi final appearance.

Sports Compact regulars Gary Halpin and Rodney Spannenberg (thumbs up and all) had their daily drivers out for skid while the real race cars have a break.

And finally we have Drag News and Cackling Pipes photography Hayley “Hollywood” Turns, we won’t mention her first round red light, but she did redeem that with a .007 in a grudge run with the help from track starter “Vegas”.

We now go into a hiatus for a number of months over the hot summer season with the NSW Track Championship returning in April next year for the penultimate round.

Video highlights courtesy of Madman Productions

Photos by www.cacklingpipes.com

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