Sheehan wins pedal fest to take home points
Mark Sheehan would go on to win the event in a pedal fest with Phil Lamattina (Photo courtesy ANDRA)Race report by Dave Hunter.
When a close race occurs in the final round of an event, you could say it's the ultimate way a drag race should end. But an even more chaotic and eagerly awaited outcome could be a pair of pedalling Top Fuel dragsters struggling for traction. In the final of Top Fuel, Mark Sheehan kept his dragster ahead at the most important part of the track to stop the Lamattina team from taking their first victory of the season.
Although quality far outshone quantity in Top Fuel entries, it was a show that was always set to impress, the art of throwing such a powerful and ill-tempered dragster down the strip without things going kaboom in a big way. The three qualifiers were split with two on Friday evening and one at the typical 6pm round 1 starting slot on Saturday. Therefore, the 8pm session would be the first of the go hard or go home mantra.
To think there wasn't much more than 2 tenths separating all four cars at the end of all three sessions is an amazing achievement. Darren Morgan looked set to add to the 2012/2013 tally with a 4.750 leading the table. Local crowd favourite Allan Dobson (who balances firefighting with a fine example of flame throwing when at the wheel of Santo's dragster) clocked up 4.768. Phil Lamattina was only a blink of an eye away, 4.893 his best. And Mark Sheehan plugged away and kept the others on their toes with a 5.028 still enough of a threat to everyone else.
To prove drag racing's reputation for 50-50 chances in every eliminator, it was Darren Morgan who would be bundled out by Mark Sheehan, Morgan losing to a mechanical woe on the hit of the loud pedal while Sheehan ran away to a 4.858 at 260.11mph. So could Allan Dobson make it an all-WA final? The reaction to Lamattina's run was only two thousandths off, but the Dobbo express derailed and he had to watch on as Phil Lamattina filed his time-card away with a 4.662 @ 324.90mph pass.
Sheehan and Lamattina in the final would make for exciting viewing in the end, with both cars barely keeping the candles on long enough to light up a smoke (stay healthy, kids). But somehow it was Sheehan who just kept ahead of a quick recovering Lamattina to take the win. Now those races are the ones that are remembered so well.
Top Bike would see a lot of dramas with bikes dropping out faster than flies after a spray of Pea Beau. Mark Drew put in a 6.603 to lead the ladder, Chris Porter only a couple of tenths behind to keep the pressure on, Terry Burnett only mustering up a 7.842 on his Overkill and Graham Morell further behind with a 9.130. Chris Matheson, who travels a fair way to get to the WA round, found a major issue and never got a chance to even see the strip from the perspective of a Top Biker.
Mark Drew may have had the quickest laps the night before, but he found things would not go his way for the first round, Graeme Morell just keeping the pointy end of his bike ahead in the right spot for the win; an 8.547 beating an 8.846. And then it turned out having a 6 second bike was not good for luck with Chris Porter, running almost 2 seconds over his qualifying time which was easy pickings for Terry Burnett's 7.076. And Burnett added to the bracket-like look of his results page with a 7.078 in the final defeating Graeme Morell for the top prize.
Photos courtesy Gardner Broz
Comp Bike would see a brand new name take the wi...oh, it was actually Neil Anderson. Again. But he had to chase down Sean Arthur first to make it another one for the B/SB brigade. He could build a new apartment block with all the trophies amassed by now.
Junior Dragster Rookies got their chance to shine at last and it was Alanah Cope's win as her opponent Tyson Liddiard turned on the crimson bulb of doom.
In Junior Dragster's older and wiser brigade (stop laughing at the back), Matthew Matulovich would be taking the bigger trophy home with him, Georgie Gerritsen having an unusual resting of the eyes at the lights.
Two tough opponents in Modified's final would have been hard to call, but the only thing seperating victor Cameron Turner and runner-up Damion Le-Cocq was Le-Cocq's own breakout of the dial-in.
Ian McColl would find a similar fate in his campaign closer, finding just a little bit too much in his drive to lose to Paul McNamara in Modified Bike.
Gregory James didn't have a lot to do for his B-Final win in Outlaws, but Craig Allison would pop in a beaut of a package for the A-Final win, 33 thousandths of a second winning out against Stuart Moresby.
In Super Sedan, Christine May - but Christine didn't. Only 2 thousandths of a second and her night would end with 2nd against the man with all the Js in the name, Jay Jeffreys.
And talking of Jeffreys, the J key gets worn out even more as I mention Scott Jeffreys' Super Street win courtesy of a Roger Moorhouse ET calculation error.
Daniel Gregorini knows life isn't easy being green, but it certainly felt a lot better after a 5.978 from the AA/AP trimmed Camaro took away the Top Comp B-Final from the HQ T/D of John Zappia, who appears to be creating a new stage show called "Doorslammers On Ice". Well, he's had the practice recently. And that left Alistair McClure with the enviable task of taking out the A-Final on his own, Rob Pilkington having a rare issue that left him in pit lane for the night.
Videos courtesy Gardner Broz
As usual, I'll end the article with a "Dave's Save of the Day" pick. Steve Derrick had a few moments once again in the VK Outlaw, certainly no tangerine dream just yet. Lindsay Wood had some fun wrestling control of his Modified Bike during qualifying burnouts. But this round it must go to the Greene Machine pilot Matt Treasure. Debuting a new bit of kit with the Monte Carlo topping off the combo, a solid half track run ended with a popped fuel tank. Luckily not catching aflame, it seemed a very straight run that could have generated an interesting ET had it continued. Not a save in the traditional sense, but still a dramatic way to disturb the mellow yellow machine.