Rob Pilkington achieved a long held dream on November 19 at Perth Motorplex when he won his first event in the ANDRA Pro Series Top Alcohol division.
The Force Equipment/Alutech Funny Car ran its quickest ever time en route to the final where Pilkington overcame fellow Western Australian Adam Marchant.
The three-times State champion said he was overjoyed to claim the victory.
“This ranks up there with the best nights we’ve ever had in racing,” he said. “To be able to prove ourselves at this high level is such a credit to the team.”
Along with the win came a new personal best time of 5.55sec. The effort ended up earning the team top qualifying position after Gary Phillips had to retire following a braking area crash.
“It’s certainly not the way we wanted to take top qualifying position and I’m glad Gary wasn’t too hurt because that was a big one,” Pilkington said. “I’m sure if he had have made race day he’s the one we would have been lining up against in the final.”
Things didn’t exactly go to plan for the Force Equipment/Alutech team either as the first qualifying session was missed due to a stripped spark plug thread.
The cylinder head was quickly replaced by the team so they could make it to the second session where a 5.80sec put Pilkington into the field. The data from that run helped the improvement in the third session.
“We aimed for 5.5sec and that’s what we got so I was very pleased with the pass,” he said. “But being a racer I just want to move on to the next target and that was a 5.4sec, along with winning the event.”
In the first round the team got a lucky break when an ignition wire came loose shortly after the launch, but fortunately it was on a bye run.
The luck continued into the semi finals where a tyre-smoking pass was enough for the win when opponent Debbie O’Rourke rolled through the staging beams, resulting in disqualification.
For the final against Marchant, Pilkington needed to pedal the car several times to get down the track but it paid off as he crossed the finish line first.
“Gary Phillips often says he’d rather be lucky than good and I think that was the mantra this weekend,” he said. “That said, it was our qualifying pace that put us in the position to take advantage of that luck, so I guess a little of both is the key.”
Rob and Jackie Pilkington would like to thank all of their partners for their continued support and are proud to have them aboard for the accomplishment of this milestone.
“Without our racing partners we would not be able to compete at such a high level and we look forward to continuing to set the benchmark,” he said.
Now all eyes are on this weekend’s ANDRA Pro Series Top Fuel event at Perth Motorplex, encompassing the second round of the WA Top Comp Championship where the team looks forward to resuming its hunt for a fourth series win.
