The latest round of the Atura Blacktown Track Championship Series at Sydney Dragway was dogged by fickle Sydney weather but with persistence from the track crew and racers it did reach a conclusion.
With round one washed out pretty much by the end of qualifying everyone was still virtually on an equal points setting. Unfortunately Top Comp, Pro Extreme, Super Comp, Super Gas and Supercharged Outlaws did not have enough racers entered or entered racers were content to just test and no eliminations were had in those brackets.
A new face in Top Sportsman held up the winners trophy for the first time, Anthony Hrvatin has been handed the keys of father Dennis’ “Moby Dick” Fairlane and took the old girl to the stripe for a win. Hrvatin dropped a .003 light on Frank Palumbo and at the other end Palumbo broke out by one thousandth more in the chase.
Modified saw another first time winner at a track championship event in Allison Evans in Geoff Wright’s “Boss Bullet” dragster. Evans defeated interstate racers Jess Turner and current ANDRA champion Shane Wynd enroute to a final against Peter Brown. “Gold Member” the affectionate name given to Brown’s dragster had the start line jump but pushed too hard breaking out by 2 thou at the line against Evan’s safe 8.217 on a 8.20.
Super Sedan had pair of familiar rides facing off in the final for first blood of the season, Michael Little and Jim Denaro finished one-two in the championship last season and the rivalry picked up where it left off. Unfortunately for defending champion Little had a failure in the semi final with the dizzy and a bush fix failed to keep the Torana running after the burnout leaving Denaro to run unchallenged for the win.
Defending Modified Bike champion Robert Simmonds was also battling one of last season’s main challengers in Lorenzo Capogna in the bracket final. A .109 to .169 light to Capogna’s V-Rod had Simmonds Hayabusa go too quick in the top end breaking out with a 8.921 on a 8.95.
In Super Street Michael Walsh nailed a sensational .004 reaction in the final against Tex Griffiths. Walsh had too much experience to give away the race to the hard charging top end of Griffith’s Plymouth Satellite, which consequently broke out trying to make up the holeshot.
Junior Dragster was a battle of the junior titans Joel Burns and Brad Bishop who worked their way to the final in a large field of racers, that had plenty of new faces which was great to see. Burns had Bishop at the tree 0.32 to a .073 but failed to rein in the win with a 8.043 on a 7.98 to Bishop’s winning 8.041 on a 8.03.
Danny Stadelmaier’s far out Street Fighter Falcon powered by “bananas” had morphed into a equally far out Commodore over the off season, but what had not changed was the defending champion’s racing prowess, chalking up the win in the final over Guy Greenland’s Commodore wagon.
For Street Bike Bobbie-Jo Simmonds would go one better than husband Robert in Modified Bike, collecting her first winner’s trophy when opponent Stefan Stivala picked a cherry off the tree.
A red light decided the HAMBster final as well with Peter Grant going red by a bunch handing the event win to Ezio Cacciotti.
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