Now back to Van Daal’s report:

The Premiar Hire-sponsored Top Fuel dragster of Peter Xiberras had its best outing ever, reaching the final of the bracket in just a little over two years of competing. This saw the former Supercharged Outlaws driver take the lead in early qualifying with a 5.52 when most of the other teams were just trying to get to the other end.

Terry Sainty

In competition Xiberras opened his account with a round-one win over Terry Sainty. After a very even leave the Premiar Hire fueler started to pull away as the Sainty engine found the going tough. This was reflected in a 4.714 to 6.938 quarter mile times. Round two saw Xiberras take a consistent 4.726/316.45 mph solo.

Under the rules of this three-round format, the two winners with the lowest ETs in the first two frames went into the final and this saw the Xiberras face Mark Mariani for the gold Xmas tree. Xiberras took the lead off the line by almost a half a tenth and the two were neck and neck until Mariani experienced tire shake. While he got off and on the gas Xiberras had gone into the lead … well, that is until the engine shut down and Mariani caught and passed him before he lost a blower belt. However Xiberras didn’t have enough momentum to coast to victory in a 6.619 to 5.901 loss.