Despite battling the odds all weekend at the Westenrationals, you can’t wipe the smiles from the faces of the O’Rourke Motorsport team.

It was tough going between rounds but the team continues to go from strength to strength with Grant O’Rourke sitting fourth in the Top Doorslammer ANDRA Drag Racing Series Championship standings.

“We had no real idea whether we would be able to run fast or not as we had very little testing prior to either the Pro Showdown or Westernationals,” said Debbie O’Rourke. “It was a bit of a gamble, but it paid off and now we’re sitting fourth in the Championship.

“Grant is currently driving back from WA but I know he’s very excited and really looking forward to the next round at Calder Park.”

On Saturday the team experienced the highs and lows of drag racing as O’Rourke posted a personal best 5.97 while breaking an exhaust rocker adjuster through the traps.

Once repaired the second pass was even better and bumping O’Rourke into the top qualifier spot with a 5.96 at only 220mph.

“The retard box quit at five seconds shutting down the power,” explained Debbie. “In the B Final against John Zappia, our electrical problem got worse causing cross fire problems, so Grant got off the throttle early as Zap pulled away.”

“All day Sunday we thrashed to get to the bottom of the electrical gremlins which we just about managed before the first run at 5.30pm, but we dropped a cylinder at the top of second gear and only ran 6.01 putting us in 6th qualifying spot.”

During the Elimination round O’Rourke would taste defeat but Debbie said it was great to see Mark Chapman run a 6.16 to their 6.22.

“We just underestimated the track conditions, it shook, Grant pedalled it but it wasn’t enough.”

“A huge thank you goes to all our crew both in QLD and WA, and our sponsors and supporters who have all made it possible for us to get back into a competitive position in Top Doorslammer.”

Attention now turns to Calder Park for the fourth round of Top Doorslammer in the ANDRA Drag Racing Series on April 4-5.

Image courtesy: Phil Luyer / High Octane Photos