After the Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs, Victorian Rob Dekert has established himself as the new threat in Pro Stock, setting the bar for the class’s unleaded fuel era.
In the eight car field that were competing as an exhibition for this event, qualifying didn’t hint what was about to drop, even with the perfect conditions. For Dekert, who still top qualified with a 6.99, it was a long way off his 6.94 best.
“We were just looking to set small goals for the weekend, and after our last event in January, but the main thing was to getting the car to work better and improve on our 6.94,” said Dekert on his goals for the event.
“The weather for the weekend was amazing and we wanted to take advantage of it as best as we could, qualifying didn’t go as planned even though we top qualified with a 6.99, it wasn’t until we were getting the car ready for Saturday we found a broken spark plug.
With the weather turning to phenomenal on the Saturday, the Pro Stock field started to drop some ET bombs. Nino Cavallo went 6.909/199.17 to kick off the first round, but the round was closed out with a 6.900 from Chris Soldatos against a 6.894/199.40 from Dekert – the quickest Pro Stock side by side pass of the new era.
“The guys did the usual maintenance on the car hoping for a better day, the race day weather was unbelievable, so we didn’t want to waste an opportunity to put a number on the board and were hugely excited at running a 6.89,” said Dekert.
Dekert reached the final against Bruce Leake, and despite frozen track conditions, managed to keep the Unique Racing GXP glued to the Sydney Dragway track surface to raise the ET and MPH bar once again with a 6.88 at 199.43MPH.
“The guys did a great job on the car all weekend long, and after the 6.89 pass we just wanted to try and replicate it,” said Dekert.
“When my Crew Chief Paul ‘Plucka’ Drady told me my numbers in the final, I was over the moon. Paul must have been been excited too, because he never rides the buggy down to pick us up, so to see him come down it had to be good.”
The result was a huge boost for what is a new team in Pro Stock, while still learning their way on how to tune, and what it takes to send these often temperamental 400ci naturally aspirated machines down track successfully.
“We did the same thing we do every meeting but were still learning the car and combinations my guys – and girl – are amazing; Paul, Matt, Simon, Merv, Braydon and Hayley. But it always feels good when you have Ridgeway power between the rails, fuelled by ETS,” said Dekert.
“We would always like to improve, it’s always a learning curve because there’s different parts of the car we can always tweak and improve on.”
With the unexpected accomplishments the team has reached so far in such a short space of time in Pro Stock, Dekert will now focus on the Winternationals with the hope of ticking off another career achievement.
“To come away from the weekend to be the first car since 2015 to run a 6.80 but on unleaded, it was an achievement we didn’t except so soon. While in saying that, it wasn’t a perfect weekend, but it was still a great one, and to finish the event against long time racer Bruce Leake, we’re happy with the outcome,” he said.
“We’re heading to the Winternationals as it has always been a goal of mine to win, we will see what type of weather or track conditions greet us, but as always we want to qualify first.”
“I would like to thank my sponsors; Plucka’s Race Craft, Outlaw Images, ETS Racing Fuels Australia, Ridgeway Motorsport and Unique Body Smash Repairs. Also my crew, Paul, Matt, Simon, Merv, Hayley, my wife Deanne, daughter Aleesha and son Braydon.
