Dave Beck (far lane) secured his fifth ACU Pro Stock Bike title and his third championship in a row in emphatic style (low qualifier, low ET 7.238 of the class in the quarter finals and event win with a 7.297), but ‘Voodoo’ Len Paget (near lane) was also having a fairly good weekend on board his GSXR, dipping into the 7.3s with a 7.396 in the semis and a 7.396 to keep Beck honest in the final round match up.

The Velocity Racing Hayabusa of Steve Venables came into the National Finals as favourite for the points title despite the close attentions of Dave Smith. When he qualified on pole (at 7.523/194) and went a couple of rounds in eliminations, Ven nailed a second title to go with his 2005 crown. A brief dart at the 200mph mark wasn’t quite held by the track in the semis, but the final round of eliminations saw an all Ven Racing affair as Graham Balchin ran a fine, but losing 7.64/188, whilst Venables shot to a 7.385/196.40, the best marks of the meeting. A new Barry Henson prepared ride beckons in 2008.

The Shotgun powered 100E of Paula and Stan Atkin took the Super Pro ET eliminator with a string of mid seven second passes in all bar the first round of eliminations. For those of us who were avid devourers of Bret Kepner’s stats blast from the Moroso 5 Day meetings in SS&DI, Barry Giles would definitely have been a recipient of a “look over your shoulder” award as he broke out by 0.06 seconds with Paula stranded on the start line whilst the fire crew dealt with a brief nitrous burp.

We’ve repeatedly mentioned just how tough Pro ET is and a quick glance at the qualifying sheets for the National Finals confirms this, a run better than +0.05 over dial in being required to get into the top ten (of 32) qualifiers after two sessions run in very different conditions. At the end of eliminations, John Morris and his Animal Magic Racing big block motivated Probe was the last man standing with a +0.001 9.841 over Rick McCann’s -0.016 9.794 breakout to complete a season where each event has seen a different winner.