Calder revival – John Taverna Classic report

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The revival of ANDRA Drag Racing at Calder Park is officially underway with the running of the inaugural John Taverna Classic, the first event in a Victorian State Championship series.

It has been a long time since any organised series has been run at the suburban Melbourne venue, and thanks to the tireless effort fromthe likes of Peter Pisalidis that greater Melbourne racers now have the chance to race regularly close to home.
Yes there is plenty or work still to do, but the track needs racer and spectator support as this is surely the last shot for the venue to become a permanent fixture on the drag racing landscape.

The John Taverna Classic featured a Pro Stock Showdown as a headliner backed by the regular array of ANDRA Sportsman classes. Results are still a bit sketchy and hopefully this will improve as well as time goes on, but here is what we can report on.

Six Pro Stock cars were on the grounds, the highlight was seeing Victorian drag racing icon Hugo Digianvincenzo behind the wheel in competition with Mike Busetti’s GXP.

An eight second pass was Hugo’s best striking traction problems off the line on most passes.

Nino Cavallo ran a best of 7.20 in a tight qualifying round pairing against Bill Kotsias’ 7.16.

Traction problems also plagued Ian Brown.

The Avenger of Richard Caval struck tyre spinning issues on all attempts.

Kotsias’ 7.16 in qualifying held up as low ET in the event, he would feature in the final against a returning Jason Hedges.

Hedges clocked a solid 7.17 in the qualifying round, in the final traction troubles hit both racers, Hedges recovered the best to take the win with a 8.96.

Super Comp was reasonably well populated with Victorian heavy hitters.

Darren Parker was gifted in the first round when Daniel Camilleri red lit the DD/GA Pontiac out of contention, but the GXP driver still touched up the B/APA 7.88 index with a 7.76. After a bye into the semi’s Parker was stopped by Shane Baxter’s CC/AA altered.

Playing Competition musical chairs, Craig Geddes found himself a in a mint B/DA dragster at this event. The dragster racer eliminated Les Heintz’s GTO in round one with a sub index 7.53 (7.62), but could not repeat in round two being ousted my Mick Simic’s A/MSA Camaro.

We have not seen too much of Simic’s Camaro on the national circuit, but he certainly can run the numbers when it counts finding himself in the final.

Baxter cracked a six second pass smashing the 7.32 index in his first round match up with Wayne Cartledge before then taking out the top qualifier in Anthony Rodriques’ Cougar. A back off win against Parker in the semi left a face off with Simic’s Camaro for the event win. A 7.21 on the hammered 7.16 CC/AA index held off Simic’s 9.31 (9.50) due to a tardy reaction time from Simic.

A small Supercharged Outlaws field left a final between John Brunner’s gorgeous Monaro and Micheal Braggs ’37 coupe.

A off pace final saw Braggs collect the trophy with a 8.85 (7.83 DI) against Brunner’s 8.42 (7.20).

The twin turbo Muzzy of Steve Athans topped the Super Sedan timing sheets.

David Yanko reached the semis where he broke out George Hatzi’s tough 9.102 on a 9.10 dial.

Hatzi’s wheelstanding Charger had a shot in the final with a 9.13 (9.10DI) if it was not for a -.003 cherry left dangling on the tree.

Rob Taylor’s gorgeous Camaro had a solo to the final after putting Andrew Chessels and Andrew Johnstone on the trailer in earlier rounds. The red light from Hatzi made for a very easy final win.

We do not have much in the way of results for Modifed, we can tell you Leanne Braggs was in the final against Craig Baker.

Baker smashed out a perfect reaction in the final and coupled that with a 8.709 on a 8.70 dial in to defeat Braggs altered’s 7.56 (7.52 DI).

In Modified Bike Brendan Sanders moved through to the final courtesy of a solo.

Rob Cassar and Shane Walked went head to head in the other semi, Walker’s 9.78 (9.65) ending up to easily account for the 9.85 (7.90) from Cassar.

Walker earned the final win with a big holeshot and he needed it with Sanders running 11.15 (11.14) to the Destroyers 9.72 (9.65).

Post by Andy Pearce.

As you would expect Super Gas has a solid number of runners, but racing was marred by the accident of Dave McDonell. Experienced racer McDonell had his Skyline make a big move towards the centreline at half track, on catching the move quickly to avoid opponent Matt Forbes the car tipped on its side and went from a long slide into the braking area. Apart from soreness McDonell was unharmed with the car suffering extensive cosmetic damage.

Bruno Romeo was the number one qualifier but went out in round two against Colin Griffin.

Griffin met Forbes in the semi final, a 9.94 from the roadster turned out to be a easy win over a slowing Griffin.

On the other side of the ladder, Adrian McGrotty went to the final on a bye after defeating Debrinant and DeRose in the earlier rounds.

Dropping a .007 light in the final set Forbes up and a 9.908 at the stripe finished it over a breaking out McGrotty.

The XY of Anthony Barbara snuck home after giving up a slight start line advantage in the Super Street final with a 11.29 (11.27) over Chris Naughton’s Corty’s 11.25 (11.18).