Grant O’Rourke was one of three Top Doorslammer teams preparing for the ANDRA championship season opener in a pre-event test and tune on Wednesday at Perth Motorplex.
O’Rourke was out in the family’s new Pontiac and made a couple of hits at the track resulting in tyre shake. O’Rourke said the team had put in a couple of runs at Willowbank before coming over.
The Pontiac is something of a departure from the tradition of O’Rourkes in Monaros in Top Doorslammer but should be more than a contender in the category.
Mark Belleri was out trying some new ideas in the Lucky Belleri Racing Camaro. He had tyre shake on the one hit that we saw. Belleri said if the changes didn’t work they would be quite happy to return the consistent car to its previous set up before the weekend.
John Cannuli’s car was at the track but he wasn’t. With work commitments keeping him on the east coast until the weekend Murray O’Connor stepped in to help get the new Camaro run in. The car is ex-Deno Brijeski and will hopefully end the run of bad luck Cannuli has had in recent times with his slammers.
Craig Anderson’s Top Alcohol Altered was set up a lot softer on the start line as the team attempted to get the high horsepower combo down the track.
Wayne McGuiness had his new carburetted nitro Harley out for the first time. The bike will run in the new NB/T Competition Bike class.
Moreno Gullotto was still searching for a consistent way to launch the Toyota Soarer and cope with the huge amounts of horsepower.
Russell Batley had his Toyota Supra back out to continue licensing which he first started back in 2012! He said back then that sevens were the goal and so it remains. The engine had a bit of a misfire though and is still very much in the sorting stages.
Leigh Fallon is in career form in Super Sedan and was out scrubbing in some new tyres as things get serious in the track championship.
Good to see Brett Ghedina back aboard his very quick turbocharged Honda. Mid eights on the day were off the seven second pace this bike has previously shown. EDIT: Darrin McDonald informs us that it is a different engine combination in the Honda at the moment, straight from the wreckers!
The Naylor family were searching for a solution to a Junior Dragster that was playing up in the later part of every run, sounding like the throttle was coming on and off. In the far lane Lachlan Slamar continued to get more runs under the belt.
Images by Luke Nieuwhof.
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