On one rear wheel and with sparks flying, Brett Stevens heads across the centreline on a wild qualifying run.

After taking a first round win Brett Stevens had a late chute and ended up in the sand trap.

Backing up the Top Fuel bracket was an oversubscribed Top Alcohol bracket (in Australia this is a combination of alky dragsters, altereds and funny cars) with nine cars gunning for the eight spots. Up until the last session the performances mirrored Top Fuel with hit and more often miss as the drivers battled to get their power to the ground. Dean Oakey in his dragster recorded a solid 5.76/245 but most missed.

One of those was Brett Stevens in his Ford Mustang who missed this photog’s rear end by mere inches as he shook his way close to the wall and then ricocheted across the centreline into his opponent’s lane. In fact the start line was no place for the faint-hearted as Debbie Reed’s rear wing delaminated on her first pass with foam and carbon layers filling the air.

In the last session however, Stevens did get his shirt (sic) together recording a stellar 5.640/255.92 which just surpassed Australia’s quickest ever alky flopper time of 5.645 by Mark Brew. Talking of 5.64s two others were recorded with in minutes of Stevens’ run. The very next pass saw Wayne Newby’s dragster run a 5.642 at 244.03 mph while Ben Bray ran a 5.641 at 252.90 mph immediately after that. Lastly Gary Phillips ran a 5.75 to gain fourth spot in the top eight with him facing 5th placed Dean Oakey.

In eliminations the opening frame saw Steve Reed in his Olds Cutlass run a 5.87 and get a free pass into the second round when Newby red lighted by .005 as his car shook off the start-line. Gary Phillips then got out on Oakey in a battle of the alky diggers with his 5.747 leading all the way to a second best 5.758.

Steve Reed’s bride, Debbie, then had a tussle with young Ben Bray in an all Brisbane match-up. Debbie ran her first five this weekend and when she strapped a four hundredths

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leave on Bray the younger it looked like she could cause an upset. However the shark faced flopper soon rounded up the dragster and a 5.84 eased past a second best 5.92.

Lastly the two floppers of Stevens and Brew burned out together. On the green Brew pulled just over a hundredth over his fellow Queenslander who was wiggling his way down track in an attempt to catch him. It didn’t take long as the blue Mustang sailed past him to win with a 5.71 to 5.83 but it was Stevens’ speed which was the worry.

He had run through the second speed light at nearly 255 mph and then had trouble stopping. I was positioned about 400 feet from the end of the track and Stevens sailed passed me without a chute. He soon had them open but still went into the sand trap. The funny (no pun intended) thing was that his car is sponsored by Kitten Polishes, and the sand is commonly called “kitty litter.”