The East Coast Thunder event was the swan song for Michelle Davies’ 10.5 Torana and what better way for it to go out – though it almost did not happen.
With the Davies team moving to Top Doorslammer/Pro Slammer next season in the ex-Dupond Mustang, it will mean the retirement of their 10.5 Torana animal, and Davies sent the war horse out on a high note with a 6.38 PB on the car’s final ever pass.
But after a engine backfire a week earlier, the team nearly did not make the event, requiring a mad thrash all week only to be dealt more problems in qualifying.
“After the toughest week repairing the car after its fire breathing malfunction last Sunday, we couldn’t get the car to go down the track during qualifying – it even broke a brand new belt in Q3 taking out everything in its path including the belt guard and starter plate, the front brake line, the fuel shut off cable and bracket etc,” said Gareth Davies on Facebook.
“We thought our day was over and out as we’d used all our spares and some from the always helpful Frank Mamone during the week – because this had already happened to us last Sunday. As a grown man I will admit after the week we’d had leading up to the weekend, and the fear of letting Shell down on her last meeting in the car, I had to go for a walk, it really got on top of me and l thought I’d failed.”
“But with the support network around us, our awesome crew, family and friends they convinced me we can do this and give Shell the send off she deserves.”
And what a send off, Davies belted out peronal best eliminations, culminating in a final against Paul Mouhayet in what was one of the races of the event in any category.
Check out the video courtesy of Fast Performance Videos.
