27 September 2011

The 2011 Track Championship Series came to a thrilling end on Saturday night at Hidden Valley Drag Strip where the series came down to the final passes of the season.

Going into the start of the final event, the first and second place holders for both Modified Bike and Outlaw brackets were separated by only five points.

Modified Bike championship leader, David Denner, had a shaky start to the evening when he stalled on the line in the first round against second place holder, Heath Costello. Not wanting to surrender, Denner was rewarded when he ran closest to his dialin during the third round providing him with a finals berth in the Chicago shootout format.

Heath Costello had a smoother run through to the finals, defeating Denner, Leith Darrach and Colin Sainsbury as he progressed through the rounds.

It was down to the final pass of the night to sort out the overall 2011 championship winner. Denner was unfortunately off his game, running a 9.425 on an 8.69 dialin, handing a holeshot win to Costello with a 9.267sec pass on a 9.15 dialin. It was enough for Costello to leap frog Denner in the final points tally to take out the Modified Bracket for the 2011 Championship Season.

A similar story unfolded in the Outlaw bracket where fellow team mates, Craig Davis and Dieter Herrmann made it through to the finals to see who would be the winner for both the event and the overall season.  Both opponents ran near perfect to their dialin but unfortunately Herrmann was too eager, red lighting the start to hand the automatic win to Davis and allowing him to jump into the overall points lead for 2011. Herrmann ran a 8.048 on a 7.99 dialin, while the magical 6sec pass still alluded Davis, finishing the night with a 7.058 on a 7.03 dialin. The final run was enough to again reset the Hidden Valley Track Record which now stands at 7.050 for SS/AA.

Junior Dragsters was also another record setting affair with brother and sister, Nathan and Jodie Coles vying for the final prize. Nathan unfortunately red lit, handed the win to his younger sister, Jodie running a 9.384 on a 9.30 dialin.  The win was enough for Jodie to also secure the overall highest point tally of all brackets. She is scheduled to receive the coveted Champion of Champions trophy at the presentation dinner on the 12 November for her efforts.

In other brackets, Bob Czerniawski took out the win in the Street bracket, finishing with a 13.828 on a 13.80 dialin against Michael Finn while Mark Tattingham defeated Dale Smith in Street Bike.

David Voysey took out his first win in Super Street after Troy McGregor red lit. Voysey used the opportunity to push that little bit harder, running 11.118 on an 11.13 dialin while McGregor still ran a solid 12.683 on a 12.60 dialin.

Super Sedan saw an all new finalists list. Neither Daniel Foreman nor Des Groves had been in the finals all year, providing the crowd a traditional Holden vs Ford match up. Groves was unfortunately slow off the start with a 0.370 reaction, giving Foreman’s Holden Torana a holeshot victory. Foreman was unbeatable, running only 0.002 off his dialin with a 9.942 on a 9.94 while Groves finished the night with 10.238 on a 10.20 dialin.

The crowd was also provided with several 6 second passes from the local Doorslammer teams of Matt Abel and Scott MacLean. Abel  taking the fastest pass of the night with a 6.170 at 235.93mph during qualifying, but electrical problems plagued him throughout the night, only allowing a 6.859 at 205.41mph later in the evening against MacLean’s best time of 6.223 at 230.61mph.

All season finalists will be awarded later this year at the 2011 Presentation Dinner to be held on the 12 November.

Photo – Health Costello, 2006 Harley – photo provided by Matt Kemp (Epic Moments)