The big man of Australian drag racing was in fine fettle at the International Top Fuel Challenge firstly taking Cory McClenathan for a spin in his Falcon burnout car and then taking the win in Top Alcohol. This saw the Kitten car initially struggle in qualifying with a best of only 5.88 that was only good for seventh with Aaron Lynch taking top spot with a 5.66. In the first round a extremely close race with current champ, Wayne Newby (5.69 to 5.69) was decided by Brett’s holeshot but I was at the finish-line and I was sure that he had lost such was the closeness of this duel. The semis saw an easier match up with Gary Phillips thanks to a 5.88 getting by a second best 9.55 with final seeing a similar spread of times when finalist Ben Bray had tyre shake at half track and a ten flat trailed Stevens’ 5.81. “The weather and track conditions today really threw everyone a curve ball with the fluctuating temperatures and storms, but we managed to consistently put down solid times pass after pass and it has paid off,” Stevens said after the event.

The entire weekend was a bit of a struggle for Ben Bray in the Armour All Firebird but like Mike Dunn in Top Fuel he managed to eke his way into the final. This started with a fourth qualifying 5.78 that put him up against Steve Reed in the first frame. Reed’s car went silent at half track and Bray’s sub par 5.92 was enough to give him the win. The semis saw him take on John Cannuli who was subbing for Reed’s wife, Debbie, who crashed in qualifying – Cannuli’s 6.61 was no match for Bray’s winning 5.86 time. In the final Bray grabbed nearly four hundredths off the start-line against Brett Stevens but at half track the car got into some bad tyre shake and he has to watch as Stevens lit the win light – 5.81/241.80 to a ten flat for Bray. “I literally had a headache from the tyre shake after qualifying but in the elimination it looked like we had got on top of the problem,” Bray said in a post race release. “Although we took a conservative approach in the final, the old tyre shake came back, I shifted into second early but that didn’t help, so it was back to the pits for some more Nurofen (Tylenol) he went on to say.

Darren Morgan only qualified seventh after problems on each of his runs – a best of 5.10 reflected this. In the first round he was up against Phil Read and both ran into problems off the line. Morgan smoked the tyres first with Read also falling to a lack of traction, however it was Read that recovered first and his 5.42 easily covered the Wicked Quick car’s 6.16 at only 189 mph.

Debbie Reed had the fright of her life when an oil line split as she crossed the finish line in her Top Alcohol dragster. This saw oil get under the tyres and as she pulled the chutes the car went up on its side – sliding on its side to a safe stop deep in the braking area. This saw the front end damaged but Reed was only shaken by the incident.