As Michael Gilbertson started slowing down in the braking area after a round one win he had his rear slick go down. As he approached the end of the track he had no room left and ended up in the sand trap. Despite looking pretty savage he was able to return to take on eventual winner, Peter Cochrane in the semis.
A very small but extremely potent storm approached the track on Saturday afternoon and dumped a large amount of rain on the track which took nearly until dark to dry off – but the show went on.
Steven Ham’s great looking AA/FC classed Pontiac funny car top qualified out of 20 cars in the Competition bracket. His .737 under 5.77 could have nearly qualified in Top Alcohol but in round one his car shook very hard and an off pace 7.14 was never going to cut it.
Phil Otto 385 Ford powered T Bucket was the class of the Competition bracket. After qualifying fifth with a .510 under 7.45 in B/AA he ended up winning the bracket with a 7.35 over a snoozing Ralph Perri and also took out the Australian Championship.
The “Hitman” 36 Chev of Anthony Argentino is certainly unique in a bracket of very unique cars. This supercharged outlaw came all the way over from Perth to be part of one awesome show dialing in with a 7.20. He broke out in the first two rounds but made it to the semis where he went down to eventual runner up Bill Fletcher.