The new championship season for the ANDRA sportsman racers unfortunately met a soggy end but still delivered its fair share of drama, here is our event wrap and gallery.
The tail end of tropical cyclone Christine gave race organisers everything from sunshine to pouring rain in what seemed like two hour intervals between each extreme, and high tail winds were also proving challenging in the braking area for the quicker cars.
Race organisers were going to cancel the last qualifier for all brackets to make up for the lost time due to the rain, they almost got there with only Supercharged Outlaws to run when Mick Mahoney had his devastating crash. The impact damaged the track wall bad enough to suspend racing for the rest of the evening ending qualifying for repairs. Fortunately the track had a few spare wall segments destined to replace the old start line area armour guard rail, so the track crew went to work cutting into place the new wall pieces.
Competition and Super Stock were combined into Super Comp due to entry numbers, Daniel Camilleri owned qualifying with his new DD/GA Pontiac superseding both ends of the national record with a -0.438 under 4.851 at 145 MPH. Craig Geddes swapped out his little altered for a long a skinny dragster, a B/DA classified ride that was -0.277 under with a 4.552 followed by Lyle Gilmore’s CC/AA 4.49 which included a minor coming together in the braking area with Dimos Stefanopoulos. Shane Baxter qualified fourth with a 4.538 (-0.161 CC/AA) but made the highlight reel, hurtling into the South Coast Raceway sand trap following a chute failure, then had the blown altered spectacularly out of shape on his second pass all but rolling over.
Supercharged Outlaws completed one qualifier and were halfway through the second when Mick Mahoney on the shift from first to second gear in his Capri speared across track behind the Ryan Van Dyk driving Grant Fraser’s dragster. The Capri flipped over, hitting the wall square on while upside down with tremendous force just shy of the finish line beams, the car then took a number of nasty twists in the air and came to rest in the braking area. Mahoney climbed out of the car under his own power though spent a short amount of time in hospital under observation before being released. The car suffered extensive body damage but according to Mahoney minimal chassis damage. It was a major blow to the Read Transport team with this car replacing their previous Capri which was destroyed in another accident.
For the record Supercharged Outlaws newcomer Craig Hanley was top qualifier with his Commodore ute with a 4.389 followed by the Corvette of Jack Danaher clocking 4.420 and Doina Day in the third spot with a 4.508.
In Modified it was the altered of Leanne Braggs with a 4.698 leading the field with Cory Dyson in the second spot with a 4.726 in the dragster, Simon Barlow also in a dragster sat in the third spot with a 4.915 when rain claimed the day.
Leading the massive Super Sedan field it was the turbo six cylinder Centura of Andrew Sanders with a 5.039 just ahead of the blown Camira of Mick Cleary at 5.041, the LC Torana of Brett Henley rounded out the top three with a 5.239. Super Sedan was into its first round of eliminations when the rain started to fall, a shock loss was that of current national champion John Kapiris.
In Modified Bike it was the Suzuki GSX-R of Chris Hosken with a 5.435 topping the sheets leading the Suzuki GSX of Nathan Stone with a 5.693 and the third spot going to the Kawasaki of David McGinn with a 5.832.
Chris King landed his Capri in the top slot for Super Street with a 7.010 on the 7.0 limit. Super Street did manage to complete their first round of eliminations with Chris King, Harry Harris, Anton Krajina, Glenn Knight, Joe Jurkovic, Glenn Henley, Mark Jachmann, Malcolm Todd, Kylie Tanner, last year’s winner Scott Cleary and Des Jeffree all picking up first round wins.
Adrian McGrotty just nipped Matt Forbes for Super Gas qualifying honours, the Commodore driver ripped a perfect 6.300 just ahead of the national champ’s 6.302, and another Commodore of Graham Spencer was next with a 6.323 for third.
In Junior Dragster it was Toby Austin in the number one qualifying position with a very close 8.002 on the 8.0 qualifying limit, fellow New South Welshmen Bradley Bishop (8.046) and David Roberts (8.051) filled out the next positions. First round was completed also for the Juniors – winners included Jake Cartledge in his first ever event (apology it was Josh Turner’s first event not Jake, they do both race identical Racecomp Juniors), Toby Austin, David Roberts, Natalie Bishop and Brad Bishop.
The next round of the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship starts on the 10th of January the Perth Motorplex – polar opposite conditions are expected with the mercury to reach the mid 40s!
Review our live coverage link.
Report by Dave Murray/Grant Stephens
Photos by Dave Murray/TADPhotos.com and Jesse Kelly/Dragpix.net.au – check these guys out for your event photos! You can see the full gallery below.
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