WILD AT HEART
AT THE WINTERNATIONALS, WHEN WAYNE NEWBY AND DAMIEN HARRIS RACED EACH OTHER TO SEE WHO WOULD FACE KELLY BETTES IN THE TOP FUEL FINAL, YOU COULD JUST ABOUT HEAR A PIN DROP
IWANT to begin this month by taking a close look at the way the 2019 Gulf Western Oil Winternationals played out. The most important event on the calendar needs the weather to be good if it’s to be successful. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this year.
I was asked the question: Did I think the atmosphere was as good as it had been in previous years? It wasn’t. Going into the last round of eliminations with the sun going down is what the Winternationals is all about. The track is at its best, and there’s not a spare seat in the place, which gives the meeting a truly special vibe. That didn’t happen this year. Qualifying for the Pro classes was cut from three rounds to one round because of the rain. There were guys like defending champ Steve Reed fighting for the championship in Top Alcohol who didn’t make the cut because on his one and only qualifier he broke a belt. Chris Soldatos, chasing the title in Pro Stock, had one shot at getting in the field and missed out. So on race day they became spectators and got to sit in the grandstand. You need the three qualifiers to allow the cream to rise to the top.
There were times that the weekend schedule could have been managed better. At one stage, we had all the Pro category cars ready and waiting to race. The crowd was there, the weather was fine and then race officials
decided to run 61 Junior Dragsters. Before you get all riled up, that’s not meant to be a criticism of Junior Dragster – far from it.
The other area that needs to be looked at is having a back-up Christmas tree. To sit around for a couple of hours waiting for the Christmas tree to be fixed was simply not good enough and I’m sure the track management agrees.
For Team Bray, the Winternationals produced a mixed bag. I had a health issue and didn’t race. Because of the rain, Ben ended up having only one session. When we started the car on Saturday, we found a problem with the ignition timing. There was little opportunity to resolve the issue and he was lucky to make the field. Ben defeated Emilio Spinozzi in Round One, then lost to Scott Maclean in the semi-finals.
Congratulations to Paul Mouhayet on winning back-to-back Pro Slammer titles. It was a case of the team doing a great job prepping and racing the car.
What did come out of the event is that there’s a whole new breed of racers getting ready to step up next season. Two that showed their hands at the Winternats were Queenslanders Scott Maclean and Steve Ham. Both went to the final, with Steve taking the win. I know Scotty well from when he was the boss of the Hidden Valley Drag Club, and he was only having his second race of the year. He’s a great driver, strong on the lights and lightning quick with his shift points. Steve Ham was a worthy winner of Pro Slammer. He scored low ETS every round and that’s what it takes to win these days. I reckon if you run your eye over the entry list, there are five or six cars capable of winning the 2019-2020 championship. Another driver who will be in contention is Kelvin Lyle. The Western Australian has just taken delivery of a new car to replace his Mustang that was destroyed at Willowbank Raceway earlier this year.
From now until November there will be no 400 Thunder Pro Slammer racing at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway, as Pro Slammer was dropped from the Nitro Up North July meeting– a real bummer. The Nitro Up North meeting also usually included Top Fuel match racing and was a great event for the racers and spectators. Over the years it developed into one of the major motorsport events in the Top End calendar, alongside the Supercars. This year the main event will be the Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars. It won’t be the same from a racing or spectator perspective. No disrespect meant to the Funny Car guys – they put on a great show – but that’s not what the spectators will expect to see.
An unintended consequence is that Alice Springs will not get to see Pro Slammer either. The Darwin and Alice Springs events were
on back-to-back weekends, so it had been economically viable for a lot of the teams to run both meetings, but that won’t be the case now. I love racing at Alice Springs; the race surface is world-class, flat as a tack and with probably the longest braking area in the country.
There’s another issue that up until now I’ve been reluctant to get involved in, and that’s the traditional three-round elimination format versus the all-in format. Before people get all hot and bothered, I believe that whoever runs the best all day will eventually win. The all-in format is there for the public; it’s about putting on a show and keeping sponsors happy. But what can and did happen this year under the all-in format is you can get two wins and miss the final because you didn’t get enough bonus time or speed points. Look at the Winternationals, which ran the traditional elimination format. In Top Fuel, when Rapisarda Autosport International teammates Wayne Newby and Damien Harris raced each other to see who would face Kelly Bettes in the final, you could just about hear a pin drop. Same when Wayne and Kelly raced in the final. The atmosphere was electric, the crowd loved the sudden-death nature of the racing, and I reckon it’s one of the main reasons why people go to the race track to see live racing and not watch it on TV at home.
Another point coming out of the Winternationals is that the Australian Top Fuel teams have almost closed the gap on their NHRA counterparts. On the same weekend, Brittany Force was racing in Kansas and claimed the lowest ET with a 3.69, while in Oz Damien Harris ran a 3.77 to set a new Australian record. Keep in mind that Brittany races 23 times a year, while Damien gets to compete six times. A real thumbs-up for the Rapisarda boys.
Coming up is the Brisbane Jamboree at Willowbank, 24-25 August. Along with the turbo cars, the sixes and the rotaries this year, I expect there to be 10-12 Pro Slammers turning up to race in Pro Mod. For some, it will be an opportunity to get in some testing before the season proper begins in November.
By now, you’ve probably heard that Team Bray is on the hunt for a new sponsor. Our three-year deal with Gulf Western Oil came to an end at the Winternationals. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Gulf Western is a great Australian company and it has been a pleasure racing with them, and all at Team Bray wish them the best into the future. We are busy chasing up new marketing partnerships for the 2019-2020 season. More details on our sponsorship quest as they come to hand.