Clear skies and an outstanding racing surface saw the record books take a hammering at the 47th FUCHS Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway over the Queen’s Birthday weekend.
Twenty-seven track records, 20 national records, several world records and a host of other performance marks were established by racers throughout the various eliminators.
The world records included Rod Harvey’s 237.71mph (382.56km/h) blast in the Factory Xtreme exhibition bracket that made his 3.2-litre Celica the fastest six-cylinder vehicle on the planet, and his 6.197sec time was the second quickest in the world in this category. As well as his Top Doorslammer duties, Ben Bray drove a Nissan Altima in Factory Xtreme and his 6.687 pass at 207.53mph (333.99km/h) scored him the title of quickest four-cylinder sedan in the world running an SR20 motor, third fastest four-cylinder sedan overall in the world, as well as claiming the record as quickest four-cylinder sedan in Australia. The day after establishing that mark, the Altima crashed, injuring Bray, who is recovering at home from back and rib injuries.
A third entry in Factory Xtreme also claimed a world mark, with the R35 GT-R of Mark Jacobsen resetting the record for an RB-powered Nissan to 6.567 at 215.17mph (346.28km/h).
Australian Top Alcohol Champion Gary Phillips drove his Monte Carlo Funny Car to a half-track speed of 214.04mph (344.46km/h), the fastest in the world for this type of vehicle to the 660ft mark. His car’s time of 5.424 for the full quarter mile was the second quickest in the world for a methanol-powered Funny Car.
During the Top Fuel semifinals, Phil Lamattina (327.74mph, or 527.45km/h) and Damien Harris (319.98mph, or 514.96km/h) scored the fastest side-by-side pass outside of North America.
Lamattina’s top qualifying pass of 4.56 elevated him ahead of Phil Read to be the quickest Australian-resident driver and just short of Australia’s quickest quarter-mile time of 4.503 by American Larry Dixon. Another honour achieved by Lamattina during the weekend was in setting the track Top Fuel speed record at 327.98mph. Top Fuel had one of its best outings, with the nitro-gulpers registering 17 four-second passes during the weekend, just shy of the record 19 sub five-second runs at the 2008 Winternationals and there were seven 300mph passes, equalling Willowbank’s previous best performance.
Top Doorslammer ran its second 16-car field and the record for the quickest qualifier in eighth spot was reset by Ben Bray to 5.967. The blown sedans recorded a total of 21 five-second passes for the weekend, a record for an Australian event.
There are plenty of statistics to show how well the Pro Stockers performed in the excellent conditions at the Winternationals. The carburettored sedans twice reset the mark for the quickest side-by-side pass. During qualifying, Emilio Spinozzi (6.975/196.67) and Tyronne Tremayne (7.004/195.85) grabbed the record for both the quickest and fastest Pro Stock side-by-side pass, then in the semifinals, the record for the quickest side-by-side pass was claimed by Aaron Tremayne (6.965) and Lee Bektash (6.961).
In doing so, the two drivers scored the honour of recording Australia’s first all six-second Pro Stock pairing. Earlier, Bektash recorded Australia’s quickest Pro Stock time of 6.950 and Tyronne Tremayne registered the highest speed for the breed at 196.85mph.
American Grace Howell earned her place as the second female Australian Pro Stock driver and also became the quickest and fastest female driver at 7.045/194.21.
In Top Fuel Motorcycle, Mark Drew ran the quickest time and fastest speed for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Australia at 6.372sec and 228.96mph.
The track records set at the Winternationals were:
Top Fuel
327.98mph Phil Lamattina
Top Alcohol Funny Car
5.424 G. Phillips
260.97mph S. Ham
Top Doorslammer
253.33mph J. Zappia
Top Fuel Motorcycle/T
6.372 M. Drew
225.52mph M. Drew
Pro Stock
6.950 L. Bektash
196.85mph T. Tremayne
B/DA
7.108 C. Geddes
BB/AA
6.366 A. McClure
A/A
6.678 K. Putland
BB/GA
7.074 R. Coleman
191.19mph R. Coleman
A/APA
196.50 S. Moran
B/APA
7.397 C. George
185.56mph C. George
A/MP
8.337 K. Magner
RRR/OM
8.393 S. Kreis
171.84mph S. Kreis
C/AB
8.321 R. Smith
162.02mph R. Smith
BB/MD
7.696 C. Hohn
174.62mph C. Hohn
AA/MA
6.713 A. Musgrave
198.06mph A. Musgrave
B/HR
8.757 G. Wardle
149.05mph G. Wardle
By Lex Swayn
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