Jamie Whincup might not of been hitting the correct numbers during the Bathurst 1000 weekend, but Willowbank Raceway was with a record number of racers turning out for the penultimate round of the 2014 Queensland Drag Racing Championship.
The 143 entrants pleased Willowbank Raceway’s CEO Tony Manson and said the venue’s management was pleased to see the QDRC going from strength to strength.
“This year we have made some changes to how we run this kind of event at the Raceway and the racers have responded enthusiastically, and this has certainly been demonstrated by the amazing support for the weekend’s penultimate round of the season,” said Manson.
“With entry lists like that seen at the weekend combined with the great racing we are used to from these racers, we are expecting the QDRC finale on 15 November to be absolutely fantastic.”
Moving straight into testing on the day and Steve Reed was out in his Top Alcohol Funny Car. Reed has a shot at second place in the National Championship with the final race at the Australian Nationals only a few weeks away, the team made a best early shut off pass of 5.85 at 192.14mph driving through some tyre shake.
Archie Kajewski had a couple of goes at the track in his Factory Extreme Mazda 6, the first run resulted in massive shake, before returning with a 7.04 at 197.10mph.
Now former outright Sport Compact World Record holder Rod Harvey in his Factory Extreme Celica was also out to play but had major issues at the hit on every pass sending the Celica into violent shake and managing a best of a 7.01 at 197.48mph for the day.
Graham Harrison nominated to do test passes for the day in the now twin turbo ex-Dave Tucker Firebird, and laid out a best of a 7.62 with the laundry out way early slowing to just 144.44mph.
Turning up in a brand new Supercharged Outlaws Mustang was Neil Murphy for licensing. After a pedalling teeth rattling first pass, Murphy completed a half pass before finishing with a 7.99 at just 130mph full pass attempt.
Darren Bazarnik was originally nominated in Outlaws for the meet but instead chose to run the test sessions to sort his new car out. The gorgeous little nostalgia style altered ran 7.30 142.94mph off the trailer before bashing out the teams first six with a 6.89 185.61mph.
Long time modified racer Arthur Telford has made the leap into Supercharged Outlaws with a funny car. New car blues struck with Telford unable to achieve a full licensing pass on this day and it appears there is a steep learning curve ahead in taming a blown car.
Andrew Milford turned up to license a tough new looking LC Torana and ticked all the boxes gaining his license with a 8.25 and a 8.23. Half track times giving a hint of the potential predicting the Torana will eventually be a low seven second car once sorted.
QDRC Outlaws runs on a 6.00 minimum and Kate Harker top qualified in the eleven car field with a 6.45 in her funny car. Jake Donnelly’s ’57 Chev flopper on a 6.62 was next followed by Chris Van’thof’s Corvette with a 6.71.
The final two combatants following the round robin format in QDRC Outlaws would be Donnelly, getting there with a victory over Bevin Buckby and the help of a bye, facing him was Van’thof who had wins over Josh Fletcher and Steve Swinscoe. In a tight final Donnelly lit up the win light with a perfect 6.600 on a 6.60 dial over a breakout 6.683 on a 6.69 dal from the Corvette, Van’thof though still holds the points lead over the ’57 driver.
“We qualified second behind Kate Harker with a 6.62 second pass, with the car running consistently through qualifying,” said Donnelly.
“In the first round we raced Bevin Buckby and got the ‘holeshot’ against him to take the win, before the second round was a bye for us where we ran the car out the back door with a 6.61 second pass on a 6.60 second dial-in. We then came up against Chris Van’t Hof in the final in what was a close race, and we ran a perfect 6.600 second pass on a 6.60 dial in – we were pretty happy with that to say the least!
“It is always good to have a win, especially racing against many of these tough competitors that are competing in the QDRC Outlaws bracket, for instance it was a tight race with Chris Van’t Hof and it could have easily gone the other way.
“The final should be a good meet, with the elimination format in play it will be tough, but I can’t wait for it – it will be a great end to an awesome season, I am loving the Outlaws bracket and the introduction of the turbo and nitrous cars and the (removal of the) 6.50 second cut-off which has brought out some fast cars!”
Super Comp had four qualifiers with Greg Leahy on top in his BB/FCA going .47 under for a 6.58, Tony Bellert followed in his A/DA rail with a .38 under 6.96, Justin Walshe’s AA/Altered was .31 under on a 6.08 and Sam Kiprios DD/GA Starlet rounded out the field with a .18 under 8.16. That was as far as Super Comp went for this event due to withdrawals not leaving enough cars to front the racing rounds.
Daryn Schuster gapped the Competition Bike field with a .55 under 8.34 aboard his C/AB Suzuki, nearest rival was Blair Pennington also on a C/AB machine and was .3 under on a 8.59 in the eight bike field. A pair of C/AB bikes made up the final belonging to Daryn Schuster and Andy Roberts. With no refactoring of indexes in the round robin format it made for a index slaughter by the heavy hitting Schuster, winning his way through with a 8.320 (8.90) win over Peter Puznik’s B/AB Hayabusa and a 8.31 (8.90) victory over Brandon Gosbell. Roberts was equally as dominating in wins with a 8.83 (8.90) romping of Paul Pires also putting the sword to Puznik with a 8.77 (8.90). In the final Schuster fired a warning salvo to all competitors entered for the Australian Nationals with a record monstering 8.268 win that is .132 under the National Record, Roberts was valiant but no match with a 8.81 on the 8.90 index.
The Pro Street brigade was out again as a bonus edition to event, with the APSA Grand Finals are approaching rapidly in November. Nikki Hepburn in wild twin turbo big block Gemini was the quickest of the day clocking a 7.46 at 195.45mph.
Justin Wilkinson in his turbo six pot Commodore ran a 8.25 161.25mph during the heat of the day and before unreeling a 8.05 at 169.55mph in the night time air.
Rob Harrington led the 19 car field in Modified with a 7.15 followed by Aaron Burge’s altered with a 7.39 and Kelly Bettes back having a skid in her long skinny car with a 7.47.
The final was set to be and absolute cracker with two of the toughest campaigners in the field to meet up being Rob Harrington and Phil Bellert. Harrington was there courtesy of a round one bye and defeats of Wade Moran and Andrew Pinkstone, Bellert who is not in the track championship picture was looking to play spoiler by beating Matthew Loy, Chris Reid and Rodney McAuley en-route to the final. Harrington’s dragster had the jump at the green reaction time wise and tidy 7.161 on a 7.15 dial at the other end pushed Bellert to a break out. The win sets up Harrington for a shot at the Track Championship, but with four racers within five points, any round loss could prove fatal to their hopes in the final event.
Neil Maxwell’s Super Sedan GTO was well clear of everyone in qualifying, but this is a dial your own class and Maxwell had that sorted as well defeating Darren Doeblien and Steve McKenzie topped off with a third round bye to qualify for the final.
In the other lane was one of Willowbank’s toughest racers in Paul Doeblien, the Falcon ute driver scored wins over Judy Pukis, Tony Gray and Andrew Robinson for the chance to challenge the flying GTO. Maxwell had the better of a pair of lackadaisical reactions .063 to .101 and held the advantage to the stripe with a 9.17 (9.10) to Doeblien’s 7.44 (7.37), however the runner up results see’s Paul tied with his brother Darren for the points lead.
Lucas Holz may of been the quickest in Super Street qualifying with a 11.05 in his LC Torana, the final though was between Mitchell Bauer in his Torana and the Holden Ute of David Olsen. Bauer turned the win light on against Adam Fletcher, Morgan Whiting and Robert Winterburn while Olsen did the same against Carl Grading, Nicholas Smith and Jason Cocking as they beat a path to the final. It was tight leave at the tree with a .064 for the Torana against a .083, across the finish line the ute of Olsen pushed way too hard breaking out with a 12.83 on a 12.90 against a winning 11.91 on a 11.80 for Bauer.
In Modified Bike Craig Edwards was not threatened in qualifying with a 8.05 sheet topping pass in a healthy field of 17 bikes, the final shook out as battle between Paul De Roo on his unique Husqvarna and Ken Collin on the more traditional Suzuki. A .004 light from the Huskie put De Roo in good stead, Collin came back at him with a 9.868 on a 9.86 but it was not enough to surmount the start line disadvantage, De Roo collected the win and the points lead with a holeshot 10.37 (10.24).
Eden Ward led a 14 car Junior Dragster field with a 8.01 but could not reach the final leaving him second in the championship at day’s end. The was final was Tim Barron and Dale Duffy, the latter taking the points on a hole shot win 8.057 (8.04) as Barron tosses away a 8.264 (8.26) with a slow leave, Barron though still leads the championship tally.
Six Super Gas cars lined up and Gary Clarke with a 9.901 was the benchmark after qualifying in the LJ Torrie, the final though was the gargantuan battle between two of the best in the business in David Gauldie and Simon Isherwood. This final would be decided at the tree as well with holeshot leave going to Gauldie while finishing with a 9.916 and trumping Isherwoods 9.903.
“We were very lucky to be in the final because we only had two wins and got it by just 0.001 of a second,” said Gauldie.
“Once we were in the final I knew I had to try very hard to cut a good light, because my last two hadn’t been very good by my standards and I had to keep myself in touch with who was leading at the time.
“This format is great, giving everyone plenty of close racing and it keeps it very close so you have to be on your game every time you go out on the track. Simon and myself have been battling all year and with both of us not getting our way throughout the year it has been a very competitive season.
“It now comes down to the final round, which seems fitting for such a competitive bracket!”
The final round for the 2014 QDRC will hit Willowbank Raceway on Saturday 15 November
{fcomment}
