Needless to say with rain interruptions and spectators at a minimum there was a distinct lack of atmosphere which made it hard to get oneself geed up over what should have been a cracker of a race. As such, rather than a blow by blow description of the event I am just going to run over the high points.
VICTORY TO THE VICTOR
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Top Doorslammer legend, Victor Bray has had a purple patch of late what with winning the bracket at the Winternationals in June and then taking the runner up spot to John Zappia a couple of weeks ago in Sydney. In 
qualifying his Castrol '57 Chevy ran a 6.12 at a stunning 245.77 mph but was only second to his son Ben’s 6.05 so he was well set for eliminations.
The first round saw him take on the gorgeous bright yellow ’67 Camaro of Stuart Bishop. Off the line the cagey veteran gave the bracket debutant a lesson in reaction times when his .460 to .642 stole a march on the Camaro driver and when this was added to a 6.25 to 6.45 drubbing he had quite a lead across the finish-line.
Round two saw him take on new championship leader, Peter Kapiris in his “Batmobile” Studebaker as both responded to the crowd with monster side by side burnouts. On the run they virtually left as one but it soon became apparent that Kapiris was having to deal with a bad bout of tyre shake and this saw the black “Bat” car fall behind while Bray steamed to a 6.16 which put paid to a second best 7.32. This came at a price though as the ’57 Chev broke a crank as it crossed the finish-line and this meant that a massive thrash was on the cards to make the final.
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