The NSW Championship Series at Sydney Dragway passed its midpoint with the running of round five in very chilly conditions. Despite sunshine all day, the track temp quickly plummeted in the afternoon to below 50F causing some underwear changing moments for those with less down force.
Modified suffered in particular and the final five Modified racers all agreed to pack it up instead of risking them and their machinery following a very skating second round.
We will start with some testing, as wildly publicised already John Lamattina successfully licensed with a 4.74 and will be forming a two car LTFR team with Phil. 
Bill Perdikaris is starting to get where he needs to be in Pro Stock with a 7.04 on a cold track.
Top Comp only had the two entries, Kit Hunter has been pushing his AA/APIA VL to its extremes with crazy torqued up runs. After qualifying with a 7.23 the immaculate VL broke loose in the final collecting the finish line reflectors and turning the car left into the wall and was fortunate not to tip over. Apart from some soreness Kit was fine, the car looking a bit sad will be repaired and back before the end of the year.
Luke Shepherd was the other competitor in Top Comp bringing back his A/AA with some new go fast bits, but couldn’t hook the tyres up on any run including the final which he was awarded due to Hunter’s misadventure.
John Culmone hits his straps in Super Comp in the C/G Pontiac during qualifying smashing the index for a 7.77 (-.765). George Rehayem wasn’t too far behind with another world class 6.50 (-.698) as they look to improve on their own world mark, the run was ugly and had it stuck clean would have been in the 6.30’s. 
In a unfortunate moment Steven Dimech didn’t have the clutch disengage when he hit the pedal during the burnout, the little Dato grabbed and turned him into the wall ruining his day.
After a great 7.31 in qualifying the CC/SM RX3 of Elia Hajjar did not front first round again George Haramis’ AA/SM VL. Dean Cordowiner put the little Starlet through to the semi’s over Dom Rigoli 7.53 (7.70) to a 7.46 (7.66). Like Hajjar, Rehayem also pushed away deeming the conditions to be too cold leaving both Fred Nicastri and Culmone singles.
A lack of traction struck Haramis in the first semi over Nicastri’s 8.99 (9.32) in E/GA and Culmone’s 7.74 (8.54) was just too far under for Cordowiner’s still impressive 7.42 (7.62) in CC/SC.
The final was over early with Nicastri striking the tyres off the line as Culmone powered away.
Top Outlaws had just four entries. 
Despite some interesting moments in the braking area Mike Watkins hit a 7.005 PB and was left with some broken bits.
Not to be outdone Dearne Stephen cranked a 6.77 to be once again quicker than hubby Paul.
In the final Norm McCormack had the FED hanging out all over the place and clicked it early and Jeff Gatt made a solid pass 7.09 (7.01) in the cold to pick up a win, McCormack still has the series lead.
Wild Bunch were running the round robin Chicago Shootout format though only completed two of the three rounds. Steven Greentree picked up his 200mph ticket with two runs in the six second zone over the double tonne, the latter defeating Troy Papadopoulos in round one. 
Benny Gatt took the other match up over Matt Longs Mustang and Lindsay Churchill did not front.
The Lizard showed for second round but was defeated by Gatt, Long put away and bucking Papadopoulos and Greentree tossed a belt on a solo. The points victory for the round was awarded to Gatt over Greentree with Gonzo moving into the points lead.
In Top Sportsman Jason Stares has now trumped the set up of his big block Corvette and top qualified with a 7.59. Scotty Cousins went the other way with the Dato not playing nice on this launch.
Stares consistency continued defeating Andrew Constantinou’s Muzzy with a near perfect package in the first round 7.590 (7.59DI .022 RT) to head to consecutive finals, he would face Kon Michaloudakis and his Capri which already has one round win to his name this season as well.
In a cracking race, Michaloudakis held his 5/1000ths start line advantage to the end for the win, 8.271 (8.25DI .006RT) to Stares 7.611 (7.59DI .011RT).
As mentioned earlier the conditions got the better of the Modified racers and all that were left agreed to be better safe than sorry. Though earlier in the day Andrew Musgrave also earned his double ton stripes in the MSCN turbo altered.
Wayne Penrose debuted his VW powered dragster which improved steadily to tidy nine second passes.
Simon Ardley since bolting on the rear wing has had the little 2JZ dragster singing and into the sevens, Ardley was one of the racers left in eliminations at the culmination of round two along with Alan Rawson, Tim Nielsen, Peter Brown who had the biggest near miss in the previous round and Leon Flack.
In Super Sedan there were no big surprises with most of the championship heavy hitters heading into the later rounds. Marco Tolomeo ended Sean Mahers run in the semi and Jim Denaro put his Cortina through to the final on a solo.
In a Blue Oval final face off both racers left with identical reactions, Denaro broke out at the top end with a 9.79 (9.81) against a winning 9.29 (9.25) from the XY of Tolomeo. Maher will still lead the championship by 5 points over Tolomeo.
With four straight wins Joe Catanzariti is undefeated in Super Gas this season and it looks like the only person who can beat Catanzariti would be himself. This came to fruition when the Kansas Racing Torana left a -.007 red light on the tree serving up a win for John Somoracz.
With the prolific finalist Simmonator out in round two at the hands of Brett Curnow the opportunity to cut into his points lead arose. Regular street meet attendee Wally Hosta put all that practice to great use moving to the final over a red light from Joe Gauci in the semi’s. Curnow’s good form from the Winternationals was continuing with another big scalp in Matthew Hunt who also picked a cherry in the other semi.
The holeshot advantage and tight 9.108 (9.10DI) to Hosta’s Hayabusa forced Curnow to push the destroyer to hard in the final just breaking out with a 9.435 (9.43). Robert Simmonds lead was dented slightly to 30 points over Hunt. 
The top four point scorers filled the semi finals in Super Street, Luke Griffiths was tough against Chris Hensby with a 11.002(11.00) to put the Plymouth through and Brad Smith was too enthusiastic against Peter Tsounias.
Tsounias must of caught the red light bug of Smith pulling a -.019 reaction handing Griffiths his second straight victory.
In Junior Dragster Jack Hazzard had a solo into his first final and Erin Koukides had little chance against a near perfect 8.10 (0.010RT 8.100DI) run from Dominic Leonello. Hazzard was on the end of significant holeshot in the final forcing a slight breakout to the winning Leonello, Jack’s sister Emma leads the points by just 5 over Toby Austin.
Stewart Howle tossed away any chance of win in Street Fighter with a reverse stage, instantly disqualifying the Commodore racer. The benefactor was Ivan Novakovic in a stout little 13 second Mirage, this was Novakovic’s first ever competitive outing moving up from the Race For Real street meets. There is a three way tie in the championship between last start winner Belinda Welch, Greg Robbins and Robert Adams.
The Street Bike final came down to an all Harley showdown, Hayden Smith had the jump at the lights and increased the advantage at the line with a 11.923 (11.82DI) to Bob Axisa’s 10.453 (10.29DI). It was Smith’s second win this season and has him 20 points off the lead setup by Matt Lisles Hyosung.
Finals videos and highlight package by Madman Productions
Photo Gallery by Cacklingpipes.com
