The Alutech/CTS Low Loaders Funny Car of Rob Pilkington made an aggressive return back to the 5.50 second range last Saturday at the Perth Motorplex to trump a star studded thirteen car field and be top qualifiers in Top Comp.
The Oakford based racer hadn’t touched the 5.5 second realm since the opening round of the last season, and to delve back into to the territory of their best times with a 5.59 at 410.3kph (254.95mph) threw even more weight behind the decision to entrust Pilkington’s young-gun son, Brodie with the tuning calls.
“He’s doing a great job, and taking it in his stride. It’s a massive learning curve for him but he’s in good hands with our always hard working crew – Frank, Sean, Steve, Scott, and Monique, who all know their roles and execute them perfectly every time. It’s just a shame the rain came in on the Friday night because the conditions were perfect for us to even go quicker again, but that wasn’t to be unfortunately.”
Qualifying first also netted the team a solo run in the first round, leaving Pilkington with the quarter mile all to himself, and the express purpose of running a solid number to make it to the A-Final.
“We decided to go back to the baseline with a few tweaks to hopefully get back to the 5.50 zone as the field was very tough and making a final is very challenging. The car left beautifully with the wheels high in the air till about 150 feet out but then went into some tyre shake, slowing to a 5.69 which was just enough to scrape through to the B final.”
Despite making a final on all three events this season, arch rival Al McClure was able to take one step further than Pilkington, winning the A-Final and increasing his championship lead to 27.5 points.
“We just can’t afford to let Al get away any further. We’re fast approaching the halfway mark in the season, and we don’t want to be in a situation where we’re under extra pressure to real him in at the end of the season. We’ve got round four coming up on December 28, and even though we have Christmas just three days before, it makes no difference to Brodie, because all he wants for Christmas is to win, so there’s no need to worry about him being distracted!”
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