RESULTS – Atura Championship series returns from Winter break

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The Atura Championship for Sydney Dragway’s track championship returned after a Winter lay off for round five of eight, as the chase for class titles really starts to heat up.

On a perfect Winter’s day racing was held up by a string of out of the ordinary oil downs, but the day remained incident free until Jason Wilmen found the catch net testing the Brett Roberts twin turbo Competition dragster. Fortunately Wilmen was uninjured and the dragster while needing some love and tender care, will be back on track soon we are sure.

Onto the racing results and in Top Sportsman Neil Constantinou continued his hot streak with a third straight Atura Championship event win in his Mustang, scalping the field by 50 points and odds on to take yet another track championship. Constantinou’s opponent Mitchell Luke broke out in the final, but it was still an outstanding showing for the newcomer at what we think is his second or third ever competitive outing, especially since bouncing back from the fireball suffered at the Winternationals when a fuel leak causing the spectacular eruption – which you can see in Drag News Magazine #26 – nearly tipped over the S10 ute.

Modified was struck down by a spate of oil downs, an unusual occurrence for the usually reliable bracket. While most of the top ten in points succumbed in the early rounds of eliminations leaving no major upheavals in the points battle, Martin Borg climbed to equal first with Peter Brown by virtue of escaping a brutal of round one. At the end of the night it was one of the series’ extensive travellers in Emma Williams who makes the trek north from Victoria for each round to compete with her dragster, Williams held aloft the winner’s trophy for the first time after defeating a red lighting Rocco Romano in the final.

Nothing separates much of the top ten in Super Sedan in a championship that normally isn’t decided until the last few round of racing. The veteran Robert Chapman turned on the win light with his Torana in the final courtesy of a killer .005 reaction over Super Sedan gun Sean Maher who broke out in chase with his newly purchased HB Torana, that coincidentally used to reside with the Chapman family. The win sits Chapman in third just 10 points shy of joint leaders Ross Bielby and Dave Gruber.

Brendan Miglionico aboard his Suzuki holeshot Lorenzo Capogna in the Modified Bike final, Capogna’s V-Twin broke out by 4 thou in the chase but as a consolation moved into the championship points lead ahead of Robert “Simmonator” Simmonds.

Super Street shook down to a battle between Joel Duggan and David McGlinn. A perfect reaction for McGlinn’s Monaro wasn’t enough however as Duggan’s Torana held McGlinn off at the stripe by just 4 thousandths. Luke Griffith’s went home still the championship leader over Michael Walsh.

It is on like Donkey Kong as they say in Junior Dragster with Bradley Bishop tying up the points lead alongside Joel Burns with a runner up result. James Hazzard pipped Bishop at the post in the final with a cracking 7.978 on a 7.97 to win the round and stay in touch of the championship lead by 30 points.

Don Zammit made his move for the Street Fighter title with a good win over Peter Thompson in the round five final. Both racers are now tied for the championship points lead with David Jennings and Danny Stadelmaier hot on their exhausts just 10 points arrears.

In his first appearance with his Street Bike this season, Arron Bessell cleaned house on his Triumph Daytona, capping the night with a .007 reacting 11.69 on a 11.60 win over Guido Falgiatori’s Hayabusa. Bobbie Jo Simmonds still holds a neat 30 point lead over Falgiatori and the rest of the pack for the Street Bike championship.

There were not enough competitors to allocate full championship points in Top Comp, Pro Extreme, Super Comp, Supercharged Outlaws, Super Gas and HAMBster. Consolation finals were run with the remaining competitors in Supercharged Outlaws with Shaun Leifting taking an all altered final over Jamie Robertson, also in Super Gas with Roy Romeo defeating Joe Catanzariti, and HAMBster with Ezio Cacciotti on top after a three car round robin battle.