The final of Top Doorslammer between the 518 SPW powered Holden Statesman of Peter Blake (in the far lane) and the GTO cum Monaro of Andrew Sutton. This saw Blake run the quickest non-Hemi time ever in Australia with a winning 6.20 along the way. Here his off pace 6.71 hole-shotted his opponent’s 6.67 when he dropped some valves. For Blake it has been the culmination of a lot of perseverance for the Statesman driver who had a lot of minor issues along the way.
The final of Top Fuel saw the two Read Racing stablemates of Martin Stamatis and Phil Read (far lane) face each other. After qualifying one-two with 4.577 and 4.582 times respectively they were easily the most consistent cars over the course of the weekend. Here Read took a small holeshot off the line but his fading 4.90 was passed by Stanmatis’ 4.606/325.37 when all hell broke loose. As the Fastlane Software car crossed the finishline the right rear slick exploded, taking part of the wing. This saw the car drop down on its right chassis rail and fortunately slid to a safe stop in the sand pit. His only injury was a twisted ankle, which occurred on exiting the car.
Read Racing team drivers Martin Stamatis (above left) and Phil Read returned from their Top Fuel final along the return road. Stamatis had won the stoush but suffered a massive tyre failure that saw his car crash into the sand pit at track’s end. “My safety is a testament to the design of these cars and those that have gone before me”, a rather stunned Stamatis said after the run.
After winning the Australian Top Bike championship last year Perth’s Jay Upton has had nothing but trouble trying to develop a new Honda head combination. As can be seen here the sparks under the bike are a prelude to a massive explosion that took him out in the first round of racing.