Round one of the Queensland Drag Racing Championships kicked off on February 15, the re-badged Willowbank Track Championship Series featured a smallish field of 125 competitors doing battle for the first round of the new season.
Willowbank Raceway Chief Executive Officer Tony Manson said the name change was designed to appropriately reflect the success these racers strive for across each season.
“Willowbank Raceway’s Track Championship has for years represented a prestigious target for hundreds of local racers year after year,” said Manson.
“As Queensland’s premier drag racing facility we regularly host competitors from all across our great state and so we felt the time was right to introduce a new name to clearly represent these racers and the honour for which they so vigorously compete across the year. As such, our 2014 calendar now reflects what have previously been known as ‘track championship’ rounds as rounds of the Queensland Drag Racing Championships.”
The racers endured what can only be described as stifling conditions as South East Queensland suffered a heat wave. At the end of the day winners were crowned taking the early championship lead, Group Two and Supercharged Outlaws competitors will have their first opportunity to earn points at the next QDRC event on March 15.
First we look at some of the testing on the day.
Archie Kajewski made five shots at the track in the Mazfix Mazda6 with the triple rotor setup. Struggling with shake on earlier passes Archie laid down a 7.017 at 195mph on his last test pass for the day.
Brad McIlroy was another of the Mazfix team taking the opportunity to test ahead of Sydney Jambo. An 8.114 at 164mph was the litte utes best pass on the day.
Brett Morgan was testing his beautiful Rotary powered Austin ute and managed a best of 9.350.
Michael Mitchell also tested this evil looking nitrous bike on both the pro and and full tree. A best of 7.921 at 163mph was had on his first pass.
Venturing back to Brisbane between the two Perth rounds of the Top Doorslammer championship to test the new auto setup, Ben Bray made three test passes with a best of 6.159 238mph.
Daryn Schuster was testing in D/AB trim with a best of 8.374 at 160mph.
Reigning Super Comp champion Chris Hall tested the Mazfix RX7. An 8.83 second pass was the best for the day which came on his first pass after the car bogged down slightly on the line.
Ben Graham was out in his beautiful new RX8 Pro 289 car for some familiarisation passes. A 9.91 at 135mph was the result for the early stages of development with the car.
Licensing at the wheel of this stunning Pontiac funny car was Michael Vaughan. Ken Lowe was assisting on the day and Michael made a few staunch launches.
Before heading into racing all Modified racers and crew along with officials staged a minutes silence on memory of long time Modified racer Athol Jacobsen who was tragically killed recently in a work related accident.
Top qualifying position in Modified went to Ben Diggles with his CC/Modified Dragster, managing a 7.243 despite the horsepower sapping heat.
Coming up trumps in Modified was Matt Loy from Warwick, Loy defeated Jordan Radford, Phil Bellert and Blaze Hansen on his way to the final round where he would meet defending track champion Wade Moran. Loy gained a 0.001 start line advantage and ran an 8.32 on his 8.29 dial in to win the inaugural round of the QDRC for Modified.
Wade Moran ran an 8.17 pass on a 8.12 dial in which along with a slightly slower 0.016 reaction handed Matt Loy the win. Runner up at the first round of the series is however a good start to Moran’s title defence.
Stu Henry topped Super Sedan qualifying with a 7.499 at 192mph from his nitrous snorting big block Capri.
Darren Doeblien fought his way through to the Super Sedan final round tough with three wins from three rounds in the round robin format. It was then an easy win for Darren in the final when opponent Phil Youlten red lighted. Darren ran it out the back still with a 9.842 ET for the win.
Phil Youlten went three from three earn a spot in the final however a -0.009 red light handed the automatic win to Doeblien.
Modified bike was the only two wheeled bracket on offer at round one and topping the heap in qualifying was Craig Edwards aboard his stout Suzuki with an 8.403 second quarter mile at 164mph.
Jason Hammelswang picked up the trophy and the points lead in Modified Bike the easy way with a 9.701 second solo pass from his Yamaha in the final.
Paul De Roo was the missing the runner up when he was not able to front for the final round.
Former Super Gas National Champion Simon Isherwood doubled up at round one of the QDRC by top qualifying in with a 9.93 second pass and then going all the way to the winners circle with a solo victory in the final. Dale O’Dwyer was runner up despite not being able to face the starter for the final round.
As always the boys and girls in Junior Dragster impressed with the quality of racing on the day. Top qualifier was reigning track champion Dylan Leo who smashed out a 8.00 in the heat of the day.
Tim Barron was the winner in Junior Dragster thanks to a far superior 0.027 reaction time in the final and a 8.44 on a 8.39 dial in.
Junior Dragster runner up was Eden Ward who threw it away in the final round with a slower reaction and a breakout to rub salt into the wound.
After a recent run of bad luck on the engine front long time racer Damien Morris recently returned with a new engine combination pushing his trusty Monaro into the 10 second zone. Damien slowed it down enough to top qualify in Super Street with a 11.04 second pass
Local Ipswich racer Andrew Stathis used a significant start line advantage over Daryl Williams to win the final of Super Street in his VL Commodore.
After a year of so off Daryl Williams would have to be happy with a runner up trophy in his come back.
