The final was a battle of the Reads - Phil looked to have his namesake covered on paper but as we all know it isn’t over until the fat lady (know as a shiela down under) sings. Off the line Phil took the lead (.064 to .095) and looked to be off to an easy lead as his short times were superior but as with Dobson, Phil lost a crank at half track and the ex-Gary Clapshaw “Spirit of Las Vegas” with Steve at the wheel took an easy win – 4.93/252.33 to an ailing 5.767.
After the race a very emotional Steve Read was almost crying as he received his winner’s trophy. “I said to the guys last night – tomorrow we are going three rounds so let's get ready," he told a transfixed group of his peers. At the moment Read is running out of his own pocket albeit with a bit of help from Red Line Oils. While he is not sure if he will go to the next round in Perth (about 3000 miles west of his Brisbane headquarters) he has got his own team off to a good start.
This wildy coloured Ford Escort was top qualifier in Pro Stock but an untimely red light in the final denied him the gold.
Pro Stock was a tremendous bracket and while we run small blocks here rather than big blocks, 13 cars tried for the eight car field with the first eleven being within a tenth and a half of each other. Andrew Stavroulakis top qualified with his wildly painted Ford Escort with a 7.208 to Jon Andriopoulos’ 7.214.
Jon Andriopoulos
These two met in the final with Stavroulakis using 7.212 and 7.206 times to put away Jason Grima and Aaron Tremayne. On the other side of the ladder Andriopoulos taking wins over Shane Tucker and Ian Brown with 7.227 and 7.287 winning times. On paper Stavroulakis had the consistency over his rival but in the final Andriopoulos watched in disbelief as his opponent red lighted by five thousandths. Mind you his low ET of the event 7.19 would have made Stavroulakis’ 7.211 hard to beat.
