Under smoke-filled skies, the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars returned to Willowbank Raceway alongside the Queensland Drag Racing Championship on November 9.
The ten ‘house’ cars of the Aeroflow stable were boosted by the addition of Dan Donnelly’s Avenger and Nathan Peirano’s Time Traveller to deliver one of the best shows the series has seen in terms of raw performance numbers.
Rick Gauci opened the floodgates early with a stunning 5.408 at 264mph from Nitro Express, defeating a 5.56 from Greg Leahy in Stormtrooper. Also on the performance bandwagon were Josh Leahy with a 5.53 out of The Bandit and Dan Donnelly, also with a 5.53. With all but two cars well into the fives it was a stunning first round of racing.
Round two saw the pace ease off as a few more cars overpowered the track. Donnelly had no such concerns, blasting to a 5.44/263mph for his second win light of the night. Also sitting on two wins were Paul Messineo and Greg Leahy. The news wasn’t so good for Peirano, with a broken oil pump drive resulted in a sump and diaper full of aluminium.
Gauci dropped another superb run in round three with a 5.408/265mph, setting himself up well for the podium. Emma Begley racked up her first victory of the night over Jake Donnelly, with Justin Walshe and Morice McMillin also turning on the win lights. The final pairing was between Daniel Donnelly and Messineo, with the gold Rocket trophy on the line for the winner. Messineo left first but Donnelly had the Avenger set to kill and a 5.497/261mph to a 5.64/254mph gave the DBS Motorsport a giant-killing win against Graeme Cowin’s nitro fleet.
The final round of the Queensland Drag Racing Championship saw championships decided and plenty of tough racing from the Willowbank faithful, with a remarkable number of winners doubling up with championships.
David Wilson defeated Arthur Telford in the final of QDRC Outlaws, while the championship went to Bill Fletcher.
Ken Collin’s domination of Comp Bike shows little sign of slowing, as he did the double with an attacking 7.96 win against Reegan Ward’s 8.06 in a heads up final round, and secured the overall points win, adding to his 400 Thunder national title.
Top Sportsman’s Paul Doeblien was another racer to take home two trophies with an 8.62 on an 8.59 dial in combined with a .034 light taking down points rival Denis Ryan in the final.
Modified saw Andrew Pinkstone use a .009 reaction time and a 7.72 on a 7.68 to knock out former national Modified champion (and sometimes Top Fuel driver) Kelly Bettes. The championship went to Mark Allen by just one point over Tony Littlewood, who had a costly red light in the semi finals.
Stop us if the double up sounds familiar by now, but Super Sedan’s Patrick Barron was another driver with multiple successes, winning the event against Noel Green and getting the championship.
Gonna sounds like a broken record here, but Super Street was another bracket with the event winner earning the title. Mitchell Bauer defeated Neil Tschutura in the final following a crucial semi final win against Ian Neilsen in the semi finals which decided the championship result.
Johnny Lewis red lit with a painful -.001 red light in the final of Modified Bike against Alan Annis, who dominated the class all season and took home the championship with the event.
Finally in Junior Dragster, Jake Porter’s exacting 7.993 on a 7.99 defeated Jaidyn Seng in the final, though Seng was able to be content as the winner of the QDRC series overall.
Check out the photos below thanks to Drag Photos, there are more on their website. Remember that photo prints make a great Christmas gift, so get in touch with Dave and see what he can do for you.
