The gorgeous bright yellow “Bumblebee” Camaro of 21-year-old Jake Donnelly certainly stood out in the pits but also on the night as the young driver scored third place for the third time in a row. He opened his account with a round one win over the Darryl Walford’s “Backdraft” with a 5.851 over a sleepy leaving 6.30. In the second round he faced the “Let’s Boogie” Mustang driven by Justin Walshe and again he took the lead off the line and ended up scoring a solid win – 5.841 to a 5.986. In the final pairing he was alongside Rick Gauci when he ran low ET & Top Speed with his 5.575/264.13 taking out Donnelly’s second best 5.703, still he was able to grab a rocket shaped trophy as he told the assembled crowd after the event. “Third place, third podium in a row, I could not do it without my awesome guys and girls - 5.70 at 252.9 mph (407 KPH)!”

One of the hardest chargers on the night was New Zealand driver Morice McMillin who was at the butterfly of the “One Bad Kiwi” Trans Am. This saw him open his account with a 6.07 to 6.19 win over Dan Donnelly in the “Fuchs Flyer”. Round two saw him take on Darren Fry in the similar “Bandit” Trans Am. After leading him off the line a 5.801 was too good for a 6.278 before going down to Shane Olive in the final frame – 5.762 to a close 5.798. McMillin had his wife, Monique, doing the fine tuning as she relates. “This had to be one of the coolest things I have ever done, getting to turn the knob (last adjustments of the engine) before my husband makes his run in a nitro funny car, I was so nervous but so glad I got to do this.”

After recently trying to qualify for the funny car field at the NHRA World Finals at Pomona, California, Perth driver, Anthony Begley drove the “LA Hooker” Plymouth Arrow at Sydney Dragway. While his account opened with a win over Harold Campbell – a 6.071 to a valve dropping 7.748 his reaction time of .338 was almost narcoleptic. Round two saw a return to form though with a .125 reacted 5.976 out doing an 8.739 after a small fire, however he was not able to return for the third frame.