Emilio Spinozzi in his Hitachi sponsored Pontiac GTO pulled a fifth best 7.079 193.10 in qualifying – a solid effort. He faced Peter Ridgeway in the first race of the bracket and after the preliminaries both guy sat in pre-stage for an age – the starter motioned both to move forward but after some more time only Ridgeway did and then the tree was activated and he left on a solo. It was then announced over the PA that both had been disqualified but sanity returned to the situation and the race was rerun with Spinnozi’s 7.048/193.52 getting by a shutting off 8.72.In his quarter final race with Jason Hedges the latter fouled leaving him to run a shutting down 7.539 153.53 but on returning to the pits they found engine damage and were out for their semi-final match with eventual winner, Shane Tucker.

There were 19 cars on the property but after qualifying had finished probably one of the biggest surprises in the top half of the sixteen car field was the second qualifying effort of Chris Soldatos with a stellar 7.062. When you consider the likes of Peter Ridgeway and Lee Bektash were in the bottom half of the field this was a serious effort. Soldatos had Patterson Power on board and actually improved to a 7.034/192.66 in a first round win over fellow Victorian Nino Cavallo. In the next round though a snoozy light and a bracket like 7.034/194.02 was no match for Michael Ali who snatched a tenth off the line allowing his slower 7.098 192.63 through for the win.

 

(ABOVE) The final of Pro Stock Bike was an all Suzuki affair when top qualifier, Ross Lemburg’s Vance & Hines outfit  (far lane) took on fellow North Queenslander, Michael Gilbertson. Lemburg was the class of the field using a 7.259 to round up a hole-shotting Phil Howard on his Kawasaki who’s 7.702 couldn’t keep him at bay. A bracket like 7.262 was more than enough for Lachie Ireland’s similar Suzuki on a 7.520 to put him in the money round. There his 7.241 was low ET of the race and more than enough to turn back Gilbertson who ran into troubles and shut off early to a 12.74 runner up time.

 

 

(LEFT) Recent Australian Nationals winner, Michael Ali looked on course to come up for a repeat win as the old guard such as the Tremaynes fell by the way side. This started with a solid 7.090/191.84 that put him into the top half of the field. A first round 7.077/192.96 with a.010 light was enough to turn back Bill Perdikaris’ Escort on a 7.119 while in the second round a 0.012 bulb and a 7.098/192.63 was never caught by the quicker 7.034 of Chris Soldatos. The semi-finals saw Ali slip from those lights and times and a 0.081 activated 7.170/190.54 was caught and passed by Jason Grima’s 0.099 reacted 7.141/190.57.