The threat of rain had Willowbank’s sportsman racers fearing the July 13 event was going to be yet another washout for the South East Queensland venue.
100 racers arrived at the track for the early start only to be delayed due to heavy fog which struck the Ipswich region. Once racing got underway the event progressed flawlessly using the 3 round format (round robin)
Scott Porter was back fine tuning an older setup in his Factory Extreme Nissan. A wheels up 6.39 at 226 MPH was the result.
The beautiful Hilux of Rodney Moore made its 1st full pass. The mechanically injected 2J pushing the Hilux to an 8.65 at 156MPH only on low boost.
Gavin Spann had his fuel bike sounding crisp on this 7.40 second pass.
Luke Crowley ran 2 test passes aboard his Pro Stock Motorcycle. An early 7.695 at 183mph was followed later with an impressive 7.317 at a slowing 170mph
evin Buckby was testing a new Supercharged altered with no representative passes laid down on the day.
Archie Kajewski was another testing for the upcoming Jamboree in the Mazfix Mazda. A number of attempted passes were made including a rattling tyre shaking attempt. Best of the day was a shut off 9 second pass at less than 100mph.
Headline act of the day was Modified Eliminator where Phil Bellert banked the event win. Phil won all 3 of his round robin races defeating Chris Read in the 1st Round. Phil then faced Tony Bellert in both the 2nd and 3rd rounds defeating him both times. Phil won the final after opponent Rob Harrington went red first.
Prolific sportsman racer Rob Harrington was runner up at the event losing out when both drivers went red in the final. Rob currently holds down 2nd spot in the track championship point’s battle.
Although there are no official top qualifiers at Sportsman events, Ben Diggles sat on top of the qualifying sheet as a result of his first 6 second pass, a 6.932 in the FJ20 4 Cylinder powered dragster.
Coming up trumps in an all Doeblien and all Ford Super Sedan final was Darren Doeblien’s BF Falcon Sedan. Darren taking advantage of a stellar 0.002 reaction to put away Brother Paul.
Paul Doeblien qualified for the final after earning 3 round robin wins, however couldn’t recover from a slower 0.055 reaction in the final leaving the win light on in the other lane. It wasn’t all disappointment for Paul however as he holds a 14 point lead over Jason Donnelly in the Super Sedan track championship.
Toowoomba’s Stuart Henry was quickest in qualifying when his Ford Capri Super Sedan ran a Nitrous sniffing 7.213 & 186mph.
Modified Bike was won by Kawasaki rider Phil White aboard a ZX145. Despite losing his second round robin race to Brett Munday,wins over Mick Munday&Dave Rundman ensured he qualified for the final where a 0.087 reacted 9.633 defeated Kevin Cleeve. 
Kevin Cleve won all 3 of his rounds however a slow 0.170 reaction in the final meant enabled opponent Phil White won the winner’s trophy. Kevin still leads the championship on 144 points ahead of Tammy Goldthorpe on 129 points
Daniel Sekli was the quickest qualifier running a7.720 second quarter mile pass on his Kawasaki.
After running too quick in his first qualifier with a 10.986, Guy Henry slowed things down and went all the way to the winners circle. A win over championship leader Blaze Hansen in the rounds was a big scalp and put him in good stead for the final against Mitchell Bauer. An 11.009 in the final was a winner over a red lighting Bauer.
Mitchell Bauer got 3 wins in the round robin courtesy of a breakout and 2 red lights by his competitors. Bauer himself unfortunately red lighted away his chances in the final with a painfully close to perfect -0.001 light.
Junior dragster was won by Eden Ward driving the blue Mopar J/D. Eden defeated Dale Duffy, TeanahLittlewood in the first 2 rounds and then got an easy win in the final when Dylan Leo left before the green.
Dylan Leo managed 3 hard fought wins in the rounds however left too early in the final against Eden Ward. Leo maintains a narrow lead over Dale Duffy in the championship chase.
With only 4 Super Gas racers making the event and a 5 car minimum required to run a bracket the racers simply laid down some runs in readiness for the Bernaraby Rocket All Stars event the week following.
Photos by Blacktrack.com.au
