Drag Racing Online: The Magazine

Volume VIII, Issue 6, Page 122


PRO STOCK

In Pro Stock there were ten runners and again it was a one shot roll of the dice for each and every driver. Amazingly the top five cars were all in the 7.20's (Oz Pro Stockers run 400 cube small blocks) with Andrew Stavoulakis in his Escort taking top spot with a 7.237/190.19 but who fell early.

 

The final came down to not just winning the race but also the Australian championship and this saw young Shane Tucker in his Pontiac Grand Am up against the cagey veteran in Dave Rogan in an Oldsmobile. On the green Tucker was out first with a great .419 but his car started to get out of the groove and near the wall which was all that Rogan needed as he sped to a new national record time of 7.213/189.31 to out do a 7.30. Rogan also became the new Australian Pro Stock Champion.

TOP FUEL

Going into the event Darren Morgan and Phil Read were locked in a pitched battle with 558 points each. Six cars made it to the race but only three actually took part in the first session on the Friday night. The first pairing saw Morgan take on Terry Sainty. Both had troubles down track with Sainty having some sort of back fire while Morgan got out of the groove at the 1,000-foot mark and still recorded a 5.05/203.16.

 

The only other car to come out on Friday night was Phil Read (shown) in the ex-Dave Grubnic Strivectin car. The car was on quite a run with a .846 60-foot time and a 270.11 half-track speed before a massive engine explosion saw fire trailing the car at the thousand foot mark. The car slowed to a 4.89/222-mph pass. As we now know there would be no more qualifying passes and the three remaining competitors – Luke and Bob Shepherd and Roy Smith were seeded up against these three.

Darren Morgan ended up smoking the tyres in the first stanza and was out so this gave Read the championships he made his way to the final against Luke Shepherd which was one of the weirdest runs this scribe has seen in thirty six years of observing top fuel dragsters going down Australian drag strips. Phil Read left on Luke Shepherd but went into instant tyre smoke. Shepherd then got to about third track when he started to smoke finally throwing the belt. Seeing this, Read then stabbed the throttle another seven times before finally clicking on the win light.

 

 

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