Jim Denaro - Meeting Report We headed north up the New England Highway on Thursday evening. This would be the first trip to Willowbank with the new car and trailer. After giving the tow car a service before we left, I can tell you that platinum spark plugs don't work with LPG. I had a severe back fire at the end of the expressway near Newcastle which blew the air box to bits, fixed with some racer tape we continued on with the journey. Once at the track and with our pit area set up it was time to relax and prepare for our first qualifier on Saturday.

After a good nights sleep, we had all morning to get the Cortina ready for its first qualifier. I put a little extra in the delay box as the LED lights on the tree make you see the light a little quicker. Our first qualifier was at 1:12pm, I was still able to pull a red light even with the extra in the delay box, going -.013. The track felt good, with the car running 9.818 @ 137.33 mph very similar to what the car ran last time out in Sydney. With a rain delay in the afternoon our second qualifier was at 4:17pm. I missed the light which didn't help as I forgot to put extra in the box anyway. The car ran perfect running 9.815 @ 137.55 all good for day one. Our third qualifier had been postponed until Sunday morning.

Another sunny day in Queensland. We were up first thing in the morning, and what a waste of time the third qualifier was. My air bottle was empty and I only had enough air in the bottle to do the burnout. I had to abort the run, in which I was not too thrilled about. Eliminations Round 1: With all Super Sedans put in the appropriate lanes and filling 4 lanes across, the order was to be fast lane then slow lane followed by fast land and slow lane. The problem was that they were pulling the wrong vehicles from each lane, and running fast cars against fast cars, followed by slow cars against slow cars. The officials were told this before the first pair went down the track, but they continued this for the entire round. Enough racers had kicked up a stink and this got many racers angry. As with anything like this the winners from each round were happy and wanted to continue. But there was enough uproar over it, that the meeting director had no other alternative but to re-run the entire round, which did not make everyone happy. BUT RULES ARE RULES. This whole debacle could of been avoided before any cars went down the track. With all that done and dusted, it was time to go again, we had over a 2 hour wait in the lanes, so I was ready to go again. Eliminations Round 1 re-run: I dialled 9.80 to my opponents 9.56. I left with .007 light to his .037 having a .030 advantage I was able to roll off the throttle to take the win and move into the second round. Eliminations Round 2: 4:49pm and still focused, I was pumped for round 2. I left my dial in at 9.80 to my opponents 8.25. This round was much the same as the first. I left with a .005 to a .040 having a .035 advantage. running 9.838 at only 129.64 to take the win and advance into  round 3. Eliminations Round 3: If we all thought that the debacle this morning was over, then think again. With this the second round of seeding, they could not even get this right. The wrong person getting the bye run, racers paired against the wrong person, yet this was discussed at the top of the staging lanes, yet nothing was done about it. We will continue. 5:55pm and I was up against Jasmine Fowler in her Big Block powered C10 Chevy Truck. Again I left my dial in at 9.80 (this weather station is perfect) Jasmine would dial in 8.61. Jasmine left with the start line advantage .010 to my .021. I kept my boot in it for the whole 1320ft and got the win light running 9.808 to Jasmine's 8.634. Eliminations 1/4 Final: 7:10pm and we were ready to go again, this time I was up against Ricky Stefan's in his HX Holden. I dialled in 9.80 again to Ricky's 9.43. He got the start line advantage leaving with .013 to my .021. Thinking that I had enough to take the win, I rolled off the throttle at the strip running 9.832. while Ricky took the win light by only a few feet running 9.434 on his 9.43. That's close. That was it for the day. We had a great weekend of racing with the Cortina, I would like to thank my crew of Adam Gardener, and a special mention to Darlene Stanton for being the tow car driver.

Tim Nielsen - Meeting Report After we arrived and set up our pit area, we were all ready for the next 2 days of good weather and some good racing. Since the last meeting we decided that the electric fuel pump had to go, and replaced with a mechanical pump (supplied by Race Pumps USA). With the event getting underway at lunch time on Saturday, we pulled into the staging lanes just after 1:00pm, we were caught out with the quickness of the staging lanes and went into the first qualifier with the engine not at the required temperatures, which netted us with a 8.584 @ 154.10 mph, but we were happy with the fuel system which worked perfectly. After going over everything back in the pits, we were ready for our second qualifier at 4:27pm. Things were a little behind in the afternoon as we had an hour delay due to an afternoon shower. With things back on track it was decided before we had our second qualifier that our third qualifier would be re-scheduled first thing on Sunday morning. Our second qualifier saw us run 8.544 @ 156.32 mph, which is what we expected. With the first day of qualifying out of the way, we had to do some work on my reaction times, as the LED light on the tree make you react a lot quicker. I would need to put a lot in the delay box, as to stop me from red lighting.

With the sun shining as we hit the staging lanes at 8:30am and the delay box adjusted, we were ready for our third qualifier. The conditions were a little better than yesterday and the track was near perfect. We ran 8.548 @ 155.35 mph, which saw us in good shape. I finally got away with a green light and only had to adjust the delay box a little. Eliminations Round 1: With the first round seeded, I was up against Graeme Frawley. Graeme had dialled 8.00 in his Big Block powered Altered which is normally run by Jordan Radford. While I dialled in 8.54. I left with an .030 light to Graeme's .086, with the light being the difference at the stripe. I ran 8.551 to Graeme's 7.96 Break Out. With the team excited about the win, we still had a lot of racing to go. Eliminations Round 2: Round 2 saw us up against Kelly Corbet in her Big Block powered Dragster. Kelly would dial 7.54 to my 8.55. With a little fine tuning on the delay box, I was ready for Round 2. I got away with a .004 to Kelly's .025, so things were looking good for the top end of the track. I kept looking and looking, but there was no sign of her. I rolled off the throttle at the timing boards and bang there she was. I didn't hear her at all (Bloody Mufflers) before I could do anything about it she hit the stripe before me. Running 7.541 on here 7.54 dial in. I had backed off way to much running 8.61 at only 146 mph. LESSON LEARNT.

All in all it was a great race meeting, the dragster running consistent and the fuel system working perfectly. Thank to my crew of Cassandra and Dylan Richardson, and a special mention to Kathleen Davis for running the tow car and destroying the back tyre.

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