Mike Bailey did the double at the 2018 Gulf Western Oil Winternationals by winning the event and the 400 Thunder championship in Competition Eliminator.
It was a welcome turn of luck for the team, who had a disastrous 2017 outing at the same event where valves from the number five cylinder ended up in the number six cylinder.
The B/AA began well from the start with a 7.16 in the first session of qualifying to be under the record on a very cold track, improving to a 7.13 in the third qualifying session and finishing up qualified second for the event.
Wins came against Stew Walsh and David Roberts in the early rounds before a semi final bye. That set up a final round against tough Victorian racer Craig Geddes.
“Safe to say it was to be our biggest test of car and driver ever,” Bailey said. “I put on a light (with a .035 to .105 holeshot) and the little white rocket did the rest.”
While the weekend was nearly perfect, Bailey explained how the team were working hard behind the scenes to ensure the car would stick on each run.
“The barometer and corrector weren’t in favour of naturally aspirated cars most of the weekend,” he said. “That made it tough for us and almost every run we were changing jets, startline RPM and wheelie bar height.”
But the reward more than made up for the hard work.
“It is difficult to express the excitement of winning the Winters at home and also the 400 Thunder championship, but safe to say it is ‘fan-bloody-tastic.’
“The real bonus came because I remained calm in the pit and in the car. In the future we will have to improve the early times and work even harder.
“Thanks to the pit crew Leonie, Jake, Luke and Kevvy, the Tremaniacs in the background as always, Blaze and Gav, Freddy for the box, VP Fuels, Danny, Headsenser and Wizard Race Products.”
