DAY 2 - MILDURA
THANKS to many competitors (and SM staff) spending Monday night 300km away from Mildura in Swan Hill, Tuesday’s racing kicked off at 4pm. While we’d had hot temperatures leaving Melbourne, Day Two dawned much cooler and with strong winds that kicked up ferocious dust storms across the top of Victoria.
It caused havoc with preparations at Mildura’s eighth-mile Sunset Strip, where blasting winds and swirling dust shut racing down for a spell. The first cars making passes found it hard to hook up off the line, but the track crew worked tirelessly to clean and prep the track.
K&N DYO really started heating up, with drag racing greenhorn Nick Mcneil squeaking into the lead, with his 393ci Clevo-motivated XD Falcon running an 11.332 on Day One to follow up with a 7.286 on Day Two. Once multiplied by 1.555, Nick’s eighth-mile time equated to an 11.329 on the quarter.
Chasing the Adelaide local down was Scott Rowell in an immaculate ’71 Fairlane, also powered by a 393ci Blue Oval V8, sitting just 0.006sec off his dial-in, while DC veteran Steve Grima was nipping at their heels in his turbo LS VK Calais.
Todd Foley and Dominic Pelle stepped up their battle for the lead of Tuff Mounts 235 Blown, with Dominic’s 5.848 not quite enough to stop Todd’s 5.703, taking the lead from Dom by 0.127sec.
Tuff Mounts 235 Aspirated also had a dingdong battle playing out as Nathan Ghosn, Aaron James and Donnie Zurcas all cut laps within a few tenths of each other. Nathan’s Capri held the lead of the small-tyre aspo class by just 0.139sec from Donnie’s Capri, who snuck past Aaron’s Valiant Regal by sixhundredths of a second!
In the XR6 Turbo Developments Six-cylinder class, Chris Palfreyman’s XD Falcon survived an encounter with Skippy on the road leg to Swan Hill on Monday night, though not without some scars to the front end. Chris wasn’t to
BLASTING WINDS AND SWIRLING DUST SHUT RACING DOWN FOR A SPELL. THE FIRST CARS MAKING PASSES FOUND IT HARD TO HOOK UP
KAI MCPHEE EDGED OUT BRENDAN CHERRY FOR THE NIGHT’S BEST TIME, WITH KAI’S TURBO LS COMMODORE RUNNING 5.115
be deterred and blasted a 6.32@116mph on Tuesday night to bring himself within 0.25sec of George Lyras’s TC Cortina, which ran 6.40@99mph to retain the class lead.
Mark Busscher’s super-vocal Tonner retained its lead in Carnage Outlaw Aspirated with a 6.14@109mph, while Alon Vella’s aspirated Capri also built a handy lead in Pacemaker Radial Aspirated with a 5.68@122mph, besting his nearest rival by seven-tenths of a second.
By 9pm, as the ambient temperatures dropped to be brutally cold, the track was red-hot and the lanes were thick with cars all wanting a piece. And the spectators were rewarded with some wildly close racing.
Kai Mcphee edged out Brendan Cherry for the night’s best time, with Kai’s turbo LS Commodore running 5.115@138mph against Cherry’s big-block VL’S 5.117@143mph. They were up against stiff competition from Harry Haig’s big-block HQ going 5.20@130mph, with Luke Foley running 5.22@135mph in his VH Commodore.
Matt Lampard had the LUMPER HZ on a mission, belting out a 5.25@140mph as the clock crept towards the 11:30pm knock-off time. Dan Szabolics did plenty of laps in his awesome twin-turbo fat-block HQ coupe, running a best time right at the end of play with a 5.29@134mph, finishing just ahead of Jason Ruby’s all-paw turbo six-pot Nissan Silvia, which clocked 5.40@134.
The night concluded past midnight, with arctic winds freezing the pits, but that was no deterrent for Kai Mcphee to unleash the ‘Creswick Sausage’ in a nudie run around the pits.