A pair of Mustang Mach 1s joined Gauci’s ’57 with Justin Walsh (normally seen in a competition eliminator altered) steering the “Lets Boogie” yellow and black pony car. Walsh’s first pass saw a twitchy burnout but this was followed by a straight as a string 6.590/228.42 to line up second behind Gauci. His next pass was an improving 6.140 at a stronger 245.18 but he left the best for last as his awesome 5.600 / 243.15 was less than a hundredth off Gauci’s 5.592 – an excellent way to finish the day.

The third Outlaw Nitro Funny Car “Dark Horse”, a second Mach 1 Mustang, driven by Paul Messino didn’t start the day very well when the black car wouldn’t fire for its first qualifying run thanks to a battery failure. He came back within the hour and ran a solid 6.060/243.19 pass. Next up a 5.969/248.11 was recorded while, like his team mates, an improving 5.886 on the car’s third pass was his best for the day. There were no winners as the three cars were just out for some practice passes.

Second generation driver, Shane Olive was driving what I thought was the best car at the meeting – a replica of the original Cowin & Johns AA/FA ’23 T bucket. Graeme Cowin had the car built to relive his early years in the sport in Australia with a TFX 413 engine replacing the original 392 Hemi. For Olive the car wasn’t a guardrail to guardrail drive with 7.392, 7.239 and 7.173 passes being recorded with a best speed of 202.09 mph.