Rob Cassar can’t wait to get riding again in Round 5 of the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship at the Southern Nationals presented by Essendon Chrysler Fiat on April 4-5, 2014.

During Round 1 earlier in the year, Cassar qualified fifth in Modified Bike with a 5.89 at the 660 foot Fuchs Southcoast Raceway in Portland before the rain put an end to what was shaping up to be a promising start to the season.

Since then the Z900 Kawasaki has seen little action as Cassar chose to run his fuel bike in the opening round of the Victorian Championships. But despite qualifying first and reaching the semi-finals, it was far from smooth sailing for the Ballistic Drag Racing Team.

“We top qualified with a 7.93 and an early shut off at 166 mph but we had a few problems as I had not ridden this bike since the Nationals at Sydney Dragway,” said Cassar.

“During the first qualifying run the NOS was not fully activating and the bike was all over the place on an 8.19. We went back to the pits and I thought I had a bad fill in one of my NOS bottles so we went out for Q2 and the same thing happened.”

On that run Cassar destroyed the timing block in the top end. That meant he faced a wild dash five minutes away to his home to repair and weld the exhaust pipe. Within thirty minutes he was back and ready for Q3 posting a 7.93 at 173 mph.

“We had the bye in round one so I ran the bike all the way to an 8.00 at 173 mph. Round two in the quarters we had Chris Hoskins who could not front. In the semis I had Shane Walker. I caught a .045 light but the fuel pump wire came off and that was it.”

Despite not going to plan, Cassar was just happy to be on track but with the national stage looming once again, he has his sights firmly set on the ANDRA Silver Christmas Tree.

“It was great to be racing at our home track again and at the Southern Nationals we’ll be running the Z900 which has only run at the one meeting. We hope to qualify in the top half of the field and take home the Tree.”

The Southern Nationals presented by Essendon Chrysler Fiat featuring Top Doorslammer, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle and Round 5 of the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship will be held April 4-5, 2014 at Calder Park Raceway.

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Image courtesy: T.A.D Photography (www.tadphotos.com)