RUNNING ON JUST THREE CYLINDERS AND IN THIRD GEAR, VALERIE THOMPSON SMASHES IT WITH A LAZY 328MPH

By contrast, the fastest bike is Richard Assen’s Assentec Special at 227mph, ahead of the turbo Suzuki Hayabusas of longtime DLRA competitors Ken Robinson (222mph) and Paul Powditch (218mph).

And the streamliners? When play resumes after lunch on Tuesday, Marlo Treit fires up Target 550 while Les Davenport dons his race clobber and eases himself into the cramped cockpit. The noise of two blown Hemis fast-idling on the five-mile Track 1 startline is something else, but nothing compared to when they explode into life once the push car has got them up to speed. Unfortunately, ‘explode’ is the operative word, as one engine drops a valve and fills a combustion chamber with shrapnel, but Davenport still records a 293mph pass on the remaining good engine. Only one person has ever gone faster at Lake Gairdner – John Lynch at 301mph in a bellytank in 2005 – and Treit has plenty of spares. They return late on Thursday and this time I head down to the pits, some three miles along the track, to see and hear it in full flight, thinking I may never see anything like it again. Reportedly on just 30 per cent throttle, Davenport goes an incredible 345mph, which looks as fast as it sounds. The pits erupt into applause when they eventually return, hootin’ and hollerin’ and blowin’ their horns as you’d expect.

Target 550 makes one more trip to the startline late on Friday morning. Racing is scheduled to stop at lunchtime to give the DLRA time to prepare for the official World Land Speed Trials starting the next day, but this time the starters are happy to go hungry. Davenport is given the honour of the closing run of Speed Week, but sadly the transmission cries enough very early in the run and their Aussie adventure is over.

Despite the disappointment, Marlo Treit labels the trip a success. “We experienced some mechanical problems, but with Les Davenport guiding it, Target 550 ran 40mph faster than any car has ever run here, and we had the fastest speed for the meet,” he says. “We came home with no one sick, not even sunburnt, and the car can be repaired to run again.”

Meanwhile, Valerie Thompson aborts her first run in the Team 7

01: Triumph and heartbreak in equal measure for Valerie Thompson. After becoming the first motorcyclist and woman to exceed 300mph in Oz with a 328mph run at Speed Week, Valerie had a nasty stack during the subsequent World Speed Trials. Fortunately she was unhurt

02: Wombat Racing acquired this lakester in the States as a roller last year and slotted in an 800hp BBC once home in sunny Mooroopna, Victoria. “It should be good for 200 if we can steer it,” Noel Heenan said at the start of the week. The lakester didn’t miss a beat over 12 runs in four days with three rookie drivers aboard, the best being David Bullock at 214mph

03: It wasn’t a great week for Norm Hardinge in the refurbished Big Knob Racing 1934 roadster. His all-new BBF engine expired at more than 200mph on its first run

04: Race Director’s Pick went to Rob Waters’ 1977 W-series ‘Gold Nugget’ Kenworth. “We built it in our own [truck] workshop from stuff lying around,” Rob says. Build time was five months, and the beast ran a best on debut of 137mph against a 155mph record. One to watch next year for sure

05: Longtime DLRA member Tony Cooke joined the 200mph Club in only his second year racing his lakester. Against his own 180mph record, he ran faster than 200mph on four of seven runs with a best of 202.726mph