Santo’s Super Thunder was a test of endurance stretching long into the night with the final passes being run after 1am. Top Fuel, Pro Alcohol, Top Bike and Pro Stock headlined the 400 Thunder Pro Series that was backed by the 400 Thunder Sportsman Series in front of a great crowd.
All Pro Series categories were running the points driven no qualifying, three round format.
In Top Fuel Wayne Newby turned around his luck from the New Year’s Series event and faced Darren Morgan in the final, Newby’s 4.75 getting the RAI dragster home over a 5.52 from Morgan who overpowered the track. Run of the night went to Damien Harris and Dom Lagana in the third round, Harris pumping out a low ET 4.55 in the Trackburner to the American’s 4.62.
Jon Sting went under the Pro Alcohol Dragster record with a 5.48, joining John Cannuli, Gary Phillips and Steve Ham who also went into the “forties” during the event. Sting would meet Steven Reed in the final and in strange circumstances no winner has yet been determined when the timing system failed during the run. Sting clearly reached the finishing stripe first over a shaking Reed, and despite reflectors also being dislodged – not the cause of the timing failure – it was clear on footage that this was due to the force of the rushing air around the Sting dragster and not contact. As it stands there is no official result for the final, with the Meeting Director ruling a timing system failure and a rerun should be done. So stay tuned on a final outcome on that one.
Also in Pro Alcohol and Mark Davison had a hard crash in his altered in round two, impacting the wall not far past sixty feet and flipping over. Mark was fine bar a cut finger and sore legs, but the altered looks very sick and sorry.
In Top Bike no one seemed to have consistent handle on their bikes. Matheson faced Porter in the final but kicked the finish line reflectors handing the win to Harley team.
The Pro Stock final was over at the tree with Lee Bektash going red by 16 thou against Aaron Tremayne. Tremayne was easily the form car of the event living in the 7.00 range.
Andrew Lange’s blown Torana took out the popular Pro Radial class. Running heads up over the eighth mile, Lange hit a 5.23 to Brett Benz’s 5.35.
Tony Bellert wrapped up Competition with his A/DA dragster. Bellert’s index was unharmed during eliminations and stuck a solid 7.009 on a 7.35 index in the final against Caan Childs who had a wild moment when his A/DA dragster had a big step out at half track.
Jai Schluter reached the Super Stock final without facing an opponent in the big wheelstanding H/MP Killer Tomata Falcon, but it was Wade Moran who stormed home in his A/APA Monte Carlo with a 7.086 (7.34 In.) to a 9.31 (9.55 In.) from Schluter.
A flash of red ended Reegan Ward’s campaign in the Competition Bike final lighting the win light up for Daryn Schuster.
Josh Fletcher nailed Alf Sciacca Jr to the tree in the Supercharged Outlaws final, and coupled with a 7.378 on a 7.37 from the local dragster racer, the big Lamborghini was no chance of overcoming the deficit.
Steven Fowler was looking ominous in the GXP coming into the final against Daniel Morris’ Statesman. However an unusually tardy light from Fowler in the final was inconsequential when the GXP struck the tyres and Morris chopped the tree down, as he had been doing all event and cruised to the win.
Modified saw plenty of mechanical carnage, and that continued into the final when Andrew Sargent could not present his dragster leaving the Andrew Pinkstone dragster to run a solo pass for the win.
John Kapiris continued his winning ways in Super Sedan defeating Paul Doeblien in the final. It is no wonder when he pounded out a perfect 9.690 run on a 9.60 dial in the final after only going one thou over his dial in during the semi – tough racer.
Tammy Goldthorpe holeshot Ace Edwards in the Modified Bike final, Goldthorpe controlled the race from there with a 9.13 on a 9.08 with Edwards breaking out trying to chase her down.
In a tight Super Street final, Neil Tschutura picked up the W with a 10.939 on a 10.90 driving around David Olsen’s 12.142 on a 12.15 breakout run.
The timing system bug popped up again in the Junior Dragster final with Jett Willshire and Jack Hazzard having to rerun after the first attempt threw up some strange numbers. Unfortunately for Willshire, he went red second time around and Hazzard took a gold tree back to Sydney.
