Forty-one year old Super Sedan racer Darren Doeblien may have been drag racing almost as long as his son has been alive, yet he is perfectly confident leaving the big calls to 14 year old Brandon when it comes to his racing, and it is paying off.
Brandon is Doeblien’s ‘crew chief’ with one of his big responsibilities being calling the ‘Dial In’ for his dad – the estimated Elapsed Time that sportsman racers of a Dial Your Own format nominate before they run, and to which they need to race on or under to win an event.
Calling the wrong ‘Dial In’ can be catastrophic for a racer’s result, however so far Brandon has been proving himself accomplished at the task of calling the numbers, with his decisions seeing his Dad pull through for big event wins, including at the recent Nitro Championships in Sydney.
Now, Brandon and his dad are Warwick bound for round two of the Queensland Street Car Magazine Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series, which will hit Warwick Raceway on Saturday May 14.
“I got into racing through my brother twelve years ago, I caught the bug once he let me have a go of his car when he was doing street meets, and I have been in it pretty much ever since,” said Doeblien, who races a 2007 BF Falcon supported by Hoskins Site Steel, Exotic Exhausts, Rare Spares Ipswich, Lockyer Engine Reconditions and Ipswich and Districts Welding.
“I competed in the first Eighth Mile Series when it was held last year and was runner-up for the season, and for round one in Willowbank I was runner-up there too.
“Last weekend I was able to take a win in the Super Sedan class at the Nitro Championships which is one of the major events on the Aussie drag racing calendar, which was just awesome.
“What is particularly great about it is that my son Brandon is the one calling the shots when it comes to my Dial In time, and for the final I wanted to put in a different time to what we ended up running but he convinced me that his idea was the better one – and he was right!
“If we had used my dial in we probably wouldn’t have made it to the win, and almost the same thing happened at my last major event win also at Sydney back in 2009 at the Australian Nationals when he was just 12 years old.
“He certainly has a knack for it, and hopefully we can convert our recent winning result into a win in the Eighth Mile Series, we have had plenty of runner-up results so we are really concentrating on making this round our first winning round!”
Joining Doeblien and his fellow JP Racing Super Sedan racers on track at Warwick Raceway will be competitors from the RD Williams Excavator Parts Modified, John William Auto Sales Super Street, QLD Numberplate Group Modified Bike, Diamond T Products Junior Dragster and FG Loy & Sons Earthmoving Classic classes.
The Queensland Street Car Magazine Eighth Mile Series will include three rounds of racing plus a Grand Finale, hosted by each track on a rotational basis year by year.
Following this weekend’s opening round at Willowbank Raceway, round two will head to Warwick Dragway on the 14th of May, before round three takes place at Benaraby Dragway on the 9th of July. The Grand Finale will then take place at Ironbark Raceway on the 24th of September 2011.
Special winner and runner-up trophies will be available for each bracket at each round, with the Grand Finale to see a special winner trophy plus $750 prizemoney awarded to the highest point score of each bracket, and a special runner-up trophy and $250 prize money to go to the second highest point scorer of each bracket.
For more information on the 2011 Queensland Street Car Magazine Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series, including details on how to enter and race rules, visit http://www.willowbankraceway.com.au/
2011 Queensland Street Car Magazine Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series Calendar:
Round One – Willowbank Raceway – 26 February, 2011
Round Two – Warwick Dragway – 14 May, 2011
Round Three – Benaraby Dragway – 9 July, 2011
Grand Final – Ironbark Raceway – 24 September, 2011
Racing Categories:
FG LOY & SONS EARTHMOVING CLASSIC
RD WILIAMS EXCAVATOR PARTS MODIFIED
JP RACING SUPER SEDAN
JOHN WILLIAM AUTO SALES SUPER STREET
QUEENSLAND NAMEPLATE GROUP MODIFIED BIKE
DIAMOND T PRODUCTS JUNIOR DRAGSTER