JP Racing Eighth Mile round 2 and Radial Showdown – report

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Round two of the 2014 JP Racing Eighth Mile Championship was held last weekend at Willowbank Raceway with 140 odd racers from all over Queensland competing in six categories. As an added bonus Kendra Tyres jumped on board with those who like to do things differently on radial tyres.

Headline bracket Eighth Mile Outlaws was won by Willowbank competitor Rodney Hansen driving his blown Chev powered Altered. Hansen won two out of three races in the round robin but it was enough for a finals berth against Warrick Bacynski. Hansen had a quicker reaction on the start line in the final which along with an impressive 4.481 on a 4.48 dial in was enough to earn him the victory.

Runner up in outlaws went to Warrick Bacynski driving this cool green Celica. A slower 0.171 reaction in the final along with a 5.73 on a 5.68 wasn’t enough to defeat the super consistent altered of Hansen in the final.

Sixteen cars fronted up for the first round of Modified making it one of the toughest on the day to win and going home victorious was veteran racer Bob Frawley. The 68 year old showed the younger guys how it’s done with a 0.062 reacted 5.12 on a 5.08 in his final round win over Warwick racer Dennis Glanville.

The final was a battle between a pair of dragsters with the A/MD of Dennis Glanville coming up short in the final round shootout with Bob Frawley’s dragster. Glanville ran an eighth mile 5.26 on his 5.22 dial however a slower .108 reaction meant he crossed the stripe second.

Noel Green and his Super Sedan Torana knocked off some sedan racing heavy hitters on his way to victory including Gary Clarke and both of the Doeblien brothers (Darren in the final). A stellar 0.007 reaction coupled with a 5.96 on a 5.95 was good enough to earn Green the win.

Super Sedan runner up honours went to Darren Doeblien who despite running a 6.10 on a 6.10 in the final was let down by a slower start line leave handing the win to Noel Green with the holeshot.

Prolific motorcycle racer Tammy Goldthorpe went home with the winner’s trophy in Modified Bike. Goldthorpe, coming from behind in the final, had to overcome a significantly slower reaction time to run a 5.88 on a 5.88 stealing the win back off Michael Beaton.

Michael Beaton got away well with four hundredths in the bank on the start line. It wasn’t to be however as Tammy had him rounded him up at the eighth mile finish line, Beaton would have to settle for the runner up spot.

Super Street fielded a massive 36 vehicles in round one making it by far the biggest bracket of the meeting. Neil Tschutura has won plenty of race meeting on his late model Commodore and grabbed another win on this night in the final of Super Street. Neil welded opponent John Darke to the start line with a 0.059 to 0.138 reaction and ran it through in 7.175 to defeat a breaking out Darke.

John Darke and his very well presented Mustang went all the way to the final of Super Street however a slow reaction and a breakout kept Darke from gaining victory.

Alexis Barbeler won three out of three in the round robin ensuring a spot in the final round of Junior Dragster to face up against another three round winner, Caleb Oberg. Alexis would get the win when Caleb had troubles with the car in the final.

Runner up in Junior Dragster went to Caleb Oberg.

Twenty radial warriors made up the field for the Radial Showdown. The cream certainly made its way to the top with two of the heavy hitters to battle out for the winner’s cheque in a class where finding traction is the art form needed for success. Pro Street start Terry Seng in his street driven turbocharged Commodore and another Pro Street regular James Horan in his turbocharged Hilux would dual it out in the final. That final was a great heads up race with Horan eking out a small 0.014 to 0.089 start line advantage, the little Toyota V8 pumped hard powering the Hilux to a 4.937 at 152 mph to defeat a 5.193 from Seng.

Traction was not a issue for Graeme McKinnon, the no bar rule for Outlaw Radial can produce some spectacular results with racers having to balance the act of enough traction.