The second round was run at 8 pm, but the ambient temperature was still nearly 90 degrees, as such it wasn’t hard to figure that less than perfect runs would ensue. Add to that the fact hat the left hand lane had been “nuked” by an engine explosion with an ensuing forty-minute clean up and those with lane choice (Grubnic and Kalitta) both moved from their favoured left hand to the right lane.  Right choice it turned out to be, as both Luke Shepherd and Dave Grubnic struck the tires in their match up. Grubnic got away to a clean holeshot while Shepherd spun the bags off the line. Grubnic got to the 330 mark

ADVERTISEMENT

and then had tyre spin as well. A clever back pedal saw the pink and black car recover and a 5.21 was too good for his opponent’s 10 second retort.

The other race saw both Scott Kalitta take a good lead off the start-line but both he and Darren Morgan both struck the tyres early. Kalitta was the first to recover and his 5.91 was more than enough for the Carrot farmer’s car which was back on a 6.76 - so to the final.

For the crowd and promoters alike it was great to see both the name cars get to the final. Grubnic chose the right hand lane but in reality there was very little difference in the two lanes in the end. Grubnic and Kalitta socked in the start-line with call and answer burnouts but with only a slight breeze the smoke hung heavy over the start-line as the two cars reversed back to the startline.

Once in and staged it was Kalitta who took a slight .086 to.104 hole-shot off the line but at the sixty foot mark Grubnic got it back with .858 to .873 numbers. It seemed Grubnic’s car was really cranked as Kalitta recalled. “I remember being at about the 700 foot mark and he was out there way ahead of me.” Fate was to intervene in the ex-pat’s bid to be the victor on this day as his blower belt failed at the 1000-foot mark.

“I remember the car was really moving and then bang nothing,” Grubnic told the assembled crowd after the run. This gave Kalitta crane car the chance to claw back Grubnic’s lead and as they crossed the line Kalitta won by about a car length. Scott’s 5.788/298 was just enough to catch and pass Grubnic’s second best 5.805/259.66.

“I really wanted to win this race for my fans, for my Aussie fans but it didn’t happen,” a dejected Grubnic added. For Kalitta it was a real thrill to take a win for the last time at the wheel of a top fuel dragster for a while at least with his move to funny cars in 2006. “I would really like to thank everyone for helping me take this win”, he told the large assembled throng. “Everyone has been great – I’d really like to thank all my fans, all the Aussie fans for a great time – I hope to come back again – maybe when it isn’t so hot,” he concluded.

TOP ALCOHOL

The funny car of Ben Bray took on veteran Gary Phillips in his Lucas Oil Products dragster. Despite a good leave Bray could not hold off the dragster and in the end an easy 5.77 covered a second best 6.00.