The Batmobile of Peter Kapiris missed the Top 8 when he could only qualify 13th best of 6.24.
So to the final session and Misfud had Fabietti step up and boot him out thanks to his 6.17.1 while Steve Stanic in another ’67 Camaro climbed from seventh to sixth thanks to a 6.072 which saw Stevens swap places with him thanks to his earlier 6.074 time. Victor Bray’s 6.239 from his second qualifier was only good enough for 12th with Lynch and Kapiris (shown) joining seven other non-starters. With so many not making the field the track put on an eight-car consolation bracket.
Come Saturday evening at the bracket opened with a sleep Brijeski getting a .360 light that saw a 5.991 not being enough to round up a fast fleeing Fabietti who improved to a 6.10/237.88.
Brett Stevens dispatched Robin Judd's Studebaker.
Gary Phillips then fell to Ben Bray’s Castrol Oils GTO 6.086 when the Lucus Oils Studebaker lost power at third track. Stevens then gave Judd a driving lesson taking eight hundredths off the lights and a 6.022/243.90 outpaced a second best 6.277.
The last race of the round saw John Zappia’s HQ take on Stanic’s Camaro. The two almost left dead even but as they went down the West Sydney black top Zappia pulled away with a low ET of the bracket 5.951/239.14 turning back a 6.028. Who would have thought that a 6.02 would not be enough to win a doorslammer race! The semis saw two lop sided races when Stevens shook in his race with Zappia leaving a 5.999 to take the win while Ben Bray’s GTO slowed to a 9.63 and was no match for Fabietti who set a PB with a 6.037.
Points leader John Zappia could only manage a runner up when he was hole shotted by Fabietti.
So to the final and Zappia wanted to show who was boss by laying a 1000 foot burnout. Fabietti is never backward in coming forward and went out and did a half track white out of his own. On the green while Zappia’s .127 light wasn’t too bad it was no match for Fabietti’s far superior .79 and at the other end Zappia’s superior 5.958/240.21 shot came up short against Fabietti’s 6.000/240.38 time slip.
In the past Zappia had always made up for a slower light with a better ET but this time around Fabietti had him covered and the startline exploded in excitement as a true blue underdog had beaten the points leader.