Round 1 of the series was held at Willowbank on Saturday April 21 where a cool morning soon gave way to a scorching hot day under beautiful blue skies (A nice change in Qld). The pre entry list of 77 competitors blew out over 120 on the day to create a great days racing for all.
Moving into its third season is the JP Racing Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series,the brainchild of long time drag racing supporter John Winterburn.
“It was great to welcome John Payne’s JPRacing as our major sponsor. John has been around as long as I have and understands what we are doing for the Sportsman racers. The idea of giving them the star role in the meeting, guaranteeing them at least six passes and giving them a good time seems to have worked very well,” said Winterburn.
The series will be contested over four rounds at Queensland premier venue Willowbank Raceway, as well as regional facilities Benaraby,Ironbark Raceway and Warwick Dragway.
“As far as the regional tracks go we wanted to give them a new meeting that they could add to their program. We look after all of the entries do the ticketing and promote the meeting and bring in racers that maybe would not have raced at their facilities,” states Winterburn.“The formula works with the series being well supported over the last couple of years,” he said.
Winterburn wanted to thank the hard working Eighth Mile crew consisting of Sue Syrmis, Tracey Fletcher, Gary Sparkes, Phil Davis and Del Davis for making the series possible and running making round one go off like clockwork.
Testing
Leigh Ryan was testing in this Supercharged Outlaws Chevy truck running straight and hard to 4 second passes.
Tony Wedlock bogged down on the startline on both of his attempted passes.
Greg Leahy was out for some test runs in the Competition Eliminator Altered. After being shut down on his first two runs Greg bounded back with a solid pass in the afternoon.
Modified
Kelly Corbett qualified for the final with three wins from three in the round robin. A quicker reacting 4.828 on a 4.80 dial in was enough to defeat Bob Frawley in the final.
Despite consistently running within half a tenth all through racing, Bob Frawley ran off his dial in during the final and therefore having to settle for the runners up trophy.
Andrew Loy grabbed a round one win light over Warren Sichter however two subsequent losses ruled him out of finals contention.
Warren Sichter certainly owns one of the more well-presented modified entries, however 2 losses and a no show during racing wasn’t the result Warren was looking for.
Scott Bettes makes up the other half of the “my free net” team. A poor 0.115 reaction in round one led to a loss to Troy Barrett. Scott fought back hard though to win his next two races against Sichter and Kerry Boyde.
Kerry Boyde had a night to forget with 3 losses.
Super Sedan
Tony Whyatt was victorious in Super Sedan when final round opponent Pete Whitebourne red lighted. A 5.869 on a 5.860 dial in from the Commodore driver would have been hard to bead anyway.
Pete Whitebourne ran a 7.00 and two 6.98’s during the round robin rounds, the consistency paying off with a final round call up. Unfortunately a big cherry on the tree was the result; however Peter wins our “Coolest super sedan vehicle of the day” award.
Peter Baczynski travelled from Roma to race his blown Torana in Super Sedan. A bunch of crowd pleasing 5 second passes and two wins from three made the day fairly successful for Peter.
Gary Dance in his chopped and channelled Charger takes on Chris Van’t Hoff during qualifying.
Bob Mason’s Dodge is a welcome addition to the Super Sedan ranks. Bob had a pretty good day picking up two wins which wasn’t enough for the wheel popping Mopar to qualify for the final.
Old School
Russel l Sticklen was the winner of the Old School bracket over a red lighting Mark Peterson. The Big Fairmont is a bracket machine at the popular Willowbank Street Series so it was no surprise to see Russell grab another trophy.
Mark Peterson red lighted away any chance he had against Sticklen in the final.
”Old School Cool” is Gary Camreon’s big burnouts and wheel popping launches in his Anglia
A blown combo now resides in the FJ Funny Car of Randall Mohr pushing the historic piece of machinery to low fives on the eighth.
Dave Pledge was running in old school in this beautifully presented Monaro. This car would fit nicely into supercharged outlaws. Dave ran a best of 5.07 on the day.
Alan Abra ran a bunch of high seven second passes in this very nice “LS” powered hot rod.
Modifed Bike
Michael Beaton borrowed Simon Stevens’ old bike and took it all the way to the winners circle by defeating Larry Kirk. Beaton cranked out a 0.009 light in the final and was never headed running a 6.856 on his 6.850 dial in.
Larry Kirk got the runner up points in Modified Bike.
Former eighth mile champion Simon Stevens was struggling with a damaged clutch and could not repeat his good form from recent Sydney events which included an emphatic Sydney Jamboree win.
Shane Ball had a couple of wild qualifying passes on his old school modified bike but didn’t front for racing.
Super Street
Guy Henry produced a dominating win in Super Street with a string of impressive performances including a one thousandth package in round two. A 0.000 perfect light along with a 7.021 on a 7.020 dial in is one hell of a package. Well Done Guy.
Jamie Gripske made the final of Super Street but fell victim to the in form Guy Henry.
Ashley Thomson drives this stick shifted BA Falcon is Super Street.
Russel Grulke sure does enjoy pulling a skid in the Super Street Subaru going by the smile on his face.
Daryl Freeman was running his gassed hemi 6 Centura in Super Street but managed only one win.
Junior Dragster
Kiah Curling came out on top in an all-girl final of junior dragster. Kiah getting away with a poor 0.255 reaction in the final, when opponent Dakota Ward broke out.
We bet Dakota Ward wishes she backed off just a tiny bit in the final with a breakout wiping out her massive start line reaction advantage.
Obe Ward making a statement with new signage on his Junior Dragster.
Round 2 of the JP Racing Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series will be at Benaraby Raceway on the 21st July.
Report by Mal Burgess
Photos by www.dragphotos.com.au
