Quick Qualifying Set Winternationals
Text by Luke Nieuwhof/ANDRA ~ Photo by Dave Reid
Top Fuel saw a remarkable coincidence as USA racer Tommy Johnson Jr
matched Phil Lamattina’s top qualifying time to the thousandth of a
second with a 4.610 second pass, the honours going to Lamattina based on
his higher speed.
For the Avon, Indiana resident, second place was nothing to complain
about as it was the first full powered run he has made in two events.
“I was happy to be able to pull the chutes finally in Australia,” he
said. “I’m glad we’ve found our problem and it went right down the race
track. Now we can tune from that and it gives us a lot of hope going
into tomorrow.”
The Rapisarda Autosport International team would have liked to improve
but a problem with the clutch in the warm up before the final qualifying
session meant they were unable to make it out.
“I told the team to take their time and make sure it is right for
tomorrow,” Johnson Jr explained. “We’re in the show, let’s go out there
and win the event, not just rush to make another run.”
The nine times NHRA event winner said there could be more to come from the dragster.
“That run gave us a great base line to go from; it ran the 4.61 pretty
easy,” he said. “We have a tenth of a second easily we can play with. We
will judge who we are running and work out how hard we need to push it.
“We should be able to outrun everybody but Phil Lamattina will be tough, especially with that big speed he can run.”
John Zappia’s astonishing 5.745 pass in the third qualifying session of
Top Doorslammer set a new mark as the quickest ever run in the category
and also became a new national record as it was backed up by his
earlier 5.753.
“The guys down the end of the track told me they thought it was a 5.75
and that I had backed up the record, but then my team showed up and said
no, it was even quicker – a 5.74 second effort,” he said. “So not only
had I reset the record, I had gone even quicker and set a personal best
for both ET and mile per hour so I was very happy with that.
“When it comes to race day, anything can happen. We have a car that has
just done two back-to-back ‘five-seven’ passes, so now it is time to
just focus on myself and my reaction times and make sure I am ready for
that first round.”
Gary Phillips turned his form around in Top Alcohol by going to the top of the qualifying sheets with a quick 5.522 pass.
Amazingly Phillips said he was out of the throttle a fraction before
the end of the pass, hinting at some more performance in reserve for the
Lucas Oils Funny Car.
“It was on about a 5.48 until I shut down just a little early, he said.
“We then threw everything at it in the last run, trying a lot of stuff
we normally wouldn’t try but it picked the wheels up and shook the tyres
so I gave up the run.”
Phillips is the points leader in Top Alcohol and his championship
stocks rose when second placed Steve Reed missed the cut for the eight
car field.
“It’s sad that Steve Reed didn’t qualify, I feel for him because they
have been hurting some parts and it’s devastating for the team, I hate
seeing stuff like that,” he said.
Top Bike lived up to its wild reputation with the two wheeled nitro
missiles searching for a straight path down the Willowbank strip.
Chris Porter emerged as the leader with a 6.839 sitting him in number
one. Porter explained that to make his nitro-fuelled Harley work, the
team first had to go back to basics.
“We turned it down at first, we’ve got a new fuel system and a new
clutch so we came here with the attitude to start at the bottom and work
our way back up,” he said.
With championship leader Chris Matheson having to miss the event due to
his crash in Sydney a month ago, Porter has the opportunity to take
over the position and make a run for the title.
“I need as many points as I can get this weekend,” he said. “Chris
already has his bike at a roller stage and it will be done in time for
Darwin and then it will be back on.”
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Rhett Lougheed’s first qualifying session
7.122 held on right through to the end, though he did back up a new
national speed record.
Pro Stock saw its first eliminations round held with points leader and
top qualifier Jason Grima progressing, though he will be up against
second placed Wayne Daley in round two.
The Fuchs Winternationals will run to completion tomorrow with eliminations and finals taking place for all categories.
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