Rocket racers rock Nitro Champs
Despite the sportsman numbers being significantly down especially with local racers, many attributing the reason to the increase of the entry fees for this event, the quality and on track action was far from lacking as racers headed into the penultimate round of the Rocket Allstars Racing Series. The brisk cool air coinciding with killer traction resulted in 14 new records along with seven minimums entered into the books and a number of other potential records which missed back ups. Competition – Jeff Clarke The Western Australian giant killer snares first gold Christmas tree. Competition eliminator certainly had its share of variety which makes this bracket always intriguing to watch, whether it’s turbo, blown, nitrous or aspirated, Competition has your poison. Even though there was only a smallish field of 13 entrants, qualifying and racing was eventful and with a Justin Walshe and Phil Otto not in attendance the chance was there for some championship movement. Qualifying had everything, Chris Soldatos made a return and decimated the B/A index to finish on top in qualifying with a 6.93 (-.651), when Soldatos finally makes the jump into Pro Stock he should be right in the mix. Maurice Brennan was one of three sandgropers in Competition to make the trek across the land, and he followed on from his recent record setting Westernats form to qualify second with a sub record 6.107 (-.643), fellow West Aussie Jeff Clarke put down a best of 6.33 (-.414) for third but engine damage saw him miss the rest of qualifying and in doubt for eliminations. Shane Baxter finished in fourth with a 7.115 (-.375) with the wheelstanding CC/DA of Greg Leahy close behind laying down a 6.954 (-.366) best. Mathew Lisle was the first of the turbo cars, his wicked Probe was next with an off the pace for him 6.843 (-.357) while Wayne Cartledge debuted a new A/DA which he quickly sorted to a 7.071 (-.339) and Steve Athans rounded out the top half of the field in the Haddad prepped twin turbo Mustang from Victoria 7.677 (-.303). Jason Maggs had everyone’s eyeballs popping when he rolled out his gorgeous new 2007 Corvette in BB/AP, qualifying in 9th with a 7.006 (-0.303) from the baby 315ci small block, championship contender Graeme Frawley couldn’t improve out of the 10th 7.310 (-.230) spot. Eric Goudswaard’s C/A struggled to 11th 7.536 (.046), Mike Nola wheelstood and shook to a great 6.81 (.062) from the nitrous Firebird, but in the brutal AA/AP class it was only good enough for 12th and Marty Dack, the last of the WA contingent, stepped his Mustang up from Outlaws but was fighting gremlins to record a 7.100 (.125) to round out the field. With the first round of racing occurring in the rapidly dropping temperatures on the Saturday night, upsets were on the cards. Soldatos easily took care of Athans who had been having trouble bring the Mustang up on boost off the line in time but it was Maggs taking out Brennan in the upset of the round after Brennan admitted he had too many launch rev’s and spun the tyres off the line. Next upset saw last qualifier Dack 7.04 (7.10) put away Cartledge’s dragster who rolled to the finish and Nike Nola completed the upset in a nitrous vs turbo battle against a red lighting Lisle. Clarke 6.21 (6.75) had a easy win over Frawley who got very loose, crossing lanes and nudged the wall and Leahy 7.008 (7.32) wrapped up the first round of eliminations putting Goudswaard on the trailer. Clarke had given his index a solid touch up in round one and he gave it another severe bruising in round two running a great sub record 5.90 (6.48) against Dack who ran his best ET of the weekend 6.97 (7.07), Maggs 7.10 (7.12) overcame a fast charging Nola who also recorded his best lap 6.72 (6.75) and the final pairing of the round saw a sub index battle between Soldatos and Leahy, the result was a index bashing win to the flying altered from Victoria 6.93 (7.51) to the dragsters 6.93 (7.16). The semi finals were two solo affairs, Maggs unfortunately had a throttle stick in the burnout and drove it around the bottom end safely to a stop against Clarke who still made a full pull in the Hogs Breath Cafe dragster to a 5.98 and Soldatos just put the altered into stage take the win through to the final. Both racers had given their respective indexes a smashing through eliminations, Clarke had been consistently running under the national record and again in the final Clark lowered the record mark for BB/D a even further to 5.87 on the 6.32 index which was far too good for Soldatos 6.96 (7.26) giving an ecstatic Clarke his first gold christmas tree and a outside chance in the championship. Super Stock – Ralph Perri Perri’s Pontiac takes the Andrew Rowe Memorial title The Super Stock tin tops have been making a resurgence of late and with 19 cars entered, all the championship contenders in the pits and the highly prized Andrew Rowe Memorial trophy on offer, it would ensure a take no prisoners qualifying battle. And qualifying did not disappoint, five cars were under the national record at its conclusion. Steve Norman’s A/GA Firebird bettered the record the furthest by a massive .647 of a second with a 7.38, closely followed by the F/G Camaro of Alex Panagiotidis 8.99 (-.632), Kevin Manger’s A/MP Pontiac 8.59 (-.613), the B/MSA VS Commodore of Jim Ioannidis 9.58 (-.588) and Adamo Spinozzi was the last of the sub record cars in qualifying with the Chevy S-10 ute 7.66 (.-.544). Paul Beauchamp’s B/GA Firebird was poised in 6th 7.73 (-.478) with Nino Cavallo lurking in 7th with a 8.14 (-.473) and Robert Dekert perfectly qualified his striking Cavalier in 8th 8.21 (-.466). The bottom half of the field was packed full of front runners which would guarantee a cracking first round of racing, Ralph Perri 7.16 (-.464), Omar Sedmak 7.17 (-.451), Nick Karantonis
