Round four of the Queensland Drag Racing Championship at Willowbank Raceway was to be a Group Three only affair. But with 30 Pro Street racers putting their hand up to do some testing runs, it made for a show guaranteed to excite with wheelstanding action.
Covering the Pro Street action first.
Michael Arnold in his turbo HT ute held top spot of the Pro Street brigade running a best of a 7.42 192.08 and then the best paired pass of the day with a 7.51 191.08 alongside Stuart Henry’s Capri.
After experiencing dramas getting the nitrous assisted Capri off the line previously, Henry put in the run of the meet alongside Arnold, besting with a 7.49 187.29 carrying the front wheels high for the first 150ft, shifting mid air in an impressive pass.
Scott Cortina’s is now really hooking up the radial tyred HK Sedan pulling a couple of huge wheelstands and running a best of a 8.05 162.12 for the day.
A Rambler Hornet is not exactly the type of vehicle you usually see at the drag strip but with Pro Street you can expect anything. There was two testing on this occasion with Leo Rothstein’s version running a best of a 8.68 155.99 and Shane Elvin pushing out a 9.63 138.73.
Scott Harker’s HQ also picked the front wheels up high and ran a best of 8.72 155.74 for the day.
Some of the cars running on the day were absolute show quality and the Nova of Shane Pearse was no exception.
Michael Douglas’ Torana with a blown 6 cylinder red motor did not have make a full pass during the day. That though did not stop the little Torrie from winning first prize for the best wheelstand of the day with a bumper scraper in the first round of passes early in the morning.
Guy Hall’s blown all steel Mercedes is high up on the out there scale for odd choices in race cars. The black beast had issues getting down the track but when he did manage a full pass pulled a 8.45 168.67 only to pop the rear windscreen mid track shattering glass all over the track.
Some video highlights.
Jodanna Pullen with a new bullet from BRE ran a off the trailer PB in her B/AP Monaro with a 7.50 at 184mph.
A few Pro FX cars were making some laps as Jamboree approaches, Milos Pavlovic in his Celica was putting in some test passes resulting in loose shut off runs. A exclamation point was put on his day with a brief start line fire which entered the cockpit, the fire was quickly subdued and the driver managed to climb out unijured. 
Archie Kajewski was also out testing his Pro FX Mazda 6 only to suffer major tyre shake on a good deal of his attempts at the track, still managed to pull a best of a 6.83 208.42 though.
Video footage from Pro FX testing.
Kate Harker was also out doing some test passes in her alcohol flopper and managed to get in three passes for the day. The first was a very fat and lazy clutch dragging 6.56 212.86 followed up by a 6.32 221.31 and ending with a half track shut off pass.
Into the racing now, and the QDRC is run on a round robin format.
The Modified bracket had 19 qualified entries and the familar site at the top was of course Rob Harrington’s A/MD with a 7.08 188.36. Tony Bellert’s dragster closely followed with a 7.32 183.57, Bellert slotted into modified with no Super Comp at this meet in the former Athol Jacobsen dragster.
The final had young gun Matthew Loy who knocked over some heavy hitters in his three rounds of racing, defeating Phil Bellert, Kellie Kidd and Rob Harrington. Opposing Loy would be Mark Allan after beating Mitchell Dell, Tony Bellert and Bob Frawley. The race was won and lost at the start line with Allan pulling a .002 cherry leaving Loy to take the win with a 8.26 158.46 on a 8.19 DI with a .065 leave.
Super Sedan had a solid 24 car field and the top qualifier by about a second and a half was Neil Maxwell in his ex-Jason Line Pro Stock Pontiac GTO with a 7.31 187.94.
The final was between two experienced campaigners with Dave Foreman’s Camira beating out Kevin Langridge, Max Carpenter and Allan Woods on the way to final. Facing him was Tony Whyatt’s Commodore who went past Brendan Edyvane, Kevin Langridge and Max Carpenter during the rounds. Whyatt ran a 8.710 152.95 on a 8.70 DI but it meant nothing on a -.013 leave giving Foreman a 8.787 154.49 on a 8.77 instant win.
The Super Street field was also very healthy with 27 entries with Daryl Williams SS ute sitting on top spot with a 11.024 126.89 following qualifying.
After three rounds of racing the event win would be fought out between Jason Cocking’s HG ute after wins over Curtis Grading, Rob Wortel and John Arcidiacono, and Ben Dreyer’s Camaro who defeated Rob price, Morgan Whiting and Robert Winterburn on his road to the final. Again another final was decided on the tree, Dreyer plucked the cherry and broke out just to make sure, handing Cocking a 11.088 on a 11.07 win.
George Vella is usually slotted into Comp Bike on his A/CB but with no Group Two on hand ran in Mod Bike, Vella blitzed the field in qualifying with a 7.59 172.47 over a second quicker than number two spot taken by Shaun Soboll with a 8.69.
Soboll went on to make the final with wins over Shane Ball, a solo in round two then a win over Woggie Williamson in the shootout format. He met Peter Jones who lost to Lachlan Dilley in round one, then defeated Brandon Gosbell and Lachlan Dilley in subsequent rounds making the final on count back. Like a broken record the final was decided by a foul start again. Jones left a age early with a -.146 leave at the tree, Soboll cruised to a easy 8.93 on a 8.88 win.
Super Gas was very light on entries but at the end of qualifying Gary Clarke’s Torana was closest to perfect with a 9.901. With the two finalists ex-Australian champions it was billed to be a good race between Dale O’Dwyer and Simon Isherwood. It turned out to be a cracker as there was finally a clean green start, O’Dwyer getting the nod with a .049 leave 9.922 138.54 taking out a .032 leaving 9.940 144.88.
Dale Duffy headed the Junior Dragster sheets at the end of qualifying with a 8.04 time card. But the final was between Tim Barron who beat Maella Ward first up, then lost to Ali Mundey in round two then came back and defeated Riley Hodgson in the third round. He was met in the final by Winternationals winner Madison McClennan who on her road to the final started off with a first round lose against Zoe Curling then wins against Dale Duffy and Rhys Beauchamp. The red lights were back deciding another final, McClennan would not back her Winternationals result yanking a -.101 red bulb leaving Barron to drive on for a solid 8.40 win on a 8.33 with a .057 leave.
Report by Mark Shields
Photos by Blacktrack.com.au & Dragphotos.com.au
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