Victor Bray wins Goldenstates over old sparring partner ZappiaOld sparring partners Victor Bray and John Zappia matched up again at Perth Motorplex on Saturday night with Bray emerging as the upset winner in round two of the ANDRA Top Doorslammer championship.

It was a night to remember for Bray, with the Queensland-based tomato farmer also running his first ever five second passes, a 5.96 in the semi finals backed up with a 5.95 in the final.

The finals match up of Bray, a six times champion, and Zappia, a five times champion, had the crowd salivating. When Zappia got loose early in his run Bray was able to stretch the legs of the Sidchrome 57 Chev through to the finish line and his first win since September 2006.

"It is great to win again, it feels terrific, it gives everyone an uplift," he said. "It's been tough with the way John Zappia and all the boys have stepped up over the years."

As you might remember, back at the Winter Nationals in June I managed to damage the TRE engine that I bought with the GXP back in 2010. Unfortunately the culprit was the gudgeon pins flexing at high rpm and galling in the piston bores. One piston came apart and the others were all tight in the bores and ready to let go.

After the engine damaging qualifying pass Peter Ridgeway and I were already talking about how to get the car back together again for the start of the season which was the Australian Nationals held last weekend at Sydney Dragway.

After a couple of months of hard work by Peter and Arthur from Custom Engines I brought the new bullet home to be fitted into the GXP mid October.

Less than two weeks after an action-packed outing at Sydney Dragway, Team Bray Racing's Victor and Ben Bray are set to head across the country for the Perth Motorplex's 41st annual Goldenstates this Friday and Saturday (16-17 November).

With a 19 car field battling for just eight spots on race day as the 'Fremantle Doctor' ensures unpredictable conditions, the father and son team will be looking to repeat the achievements of days past at the revered Western Australian facility.

At this same event in 2003, Victor set a world record terminal speed of 245.23 miles per hour (394.57kmh) while in 2004 Ben reset the national elapsed time record of the day at 6.02 seconds before taking victory in an all-Bray final.

Located 43kms west of the border with South Australia, the Victorian town of Casterton can lay claim to a number of historic events. For example, did you know Casterton is the birth place of the Kelpie breed or working dog? Neither did I.

More importantly to drag racing fans though is the fact that every year since 1991, the Casterton and District Drag Racing Club has run Australia's only legal drag race on a public road. This year the club will celebrate 21 years of the Casterton Street Drags with the running of the event this Saturday, the 17th of November 2012.

It all started when a couple of local lads, who were into drag racing, decided to hold a local event rather than having to drive to Melbourne, Adelaide or Heathcote to satisfy their need for speed. So back in 1991 they went looking for options and came up with the idea of closing off one of the local roads.

Since taking the win at the season ending Winternationals, the off season was productive but time consuming and before Reed knew it, the nationals were fast approaching and time had run out to do some much needed testing prior to last weekend at Sydney Dragway.

11 Top Alcohol funnycar & dragsters fronted to compete for the prestigious gold Christmas tree win. All 3 qualifying sessions were scheduled for Saturday and fortunately rain only delayed qualifying for very brief moments and all 3 sessions for group 1 were able to be completed.

After a huge weekend we finally finished the last round and the finals of the JP Racing Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series. A great big thanks goes to the Officials of Warwick Dragway who took up the challenge and got the final result on Sunday following the rain on Friday and Saturday.

This dedication gave us the final result we were chasing. A good few of the Series Finals came down to the last race which is great considering it is held over four rounds. From speaking to our sponsors they all want to come on board for the 2013 series and for this I thank then wholeheartedly. As soon as we have all of the sponsorships in place we will announce the dates for the 2013 Series.