The semis saw Phillips step up to the plate and take out a second best Stevens in a battle of the Studebakers - 6.04/237.35 to a 6.21/232.15 as both fought shake and direction changes as they shimmied down track. On the other side of the ladder Stanic faced Zappia and while Stanic took a tenth and a half at the tree his instant tyre smoke negated the advantage. Zappia picked up where he had left off the previous round and a 6.020/240.29 was all over a second best 6.77.So to the final it certainly went into Australian drag racing folk lore as both Phillips and Zappia had run low, low six zeros in the semis.

Phillips generally doesn't cut killer lights but his 0.96 was way better than Zap's .210 and Zappia had to handle the fact that the front end of the car seemed to float all the way until the 1000 foot mark. One thing that Zap never seems to do is give up and this was the case as both cars went down the track and as they passed through the finish line beams it was Zappia who clicked the win light with that stunning 5.96/241.97 pass. Phillips's 6.09 would probably have been good on any other day but not in the presence of such greatness.

The other Pro brackets saw some awesome performances - especially in Pro Stock Bike, which had a number of riders of the ten bike contenders recording personal bests. Daniel Peaty and Neville Langley on their Suzukis were the class of the field top qualifying one and two respectively in a side by side race which would be the quickest side by side pass ever down under - 7.34 to 7.35. They both made their way to the final frame where the result was identical with Peaty getting the nod, 7.33 to 7.40.

Pro Stock car (the Aussie version of Pro Stock is very similar to NHRA C/A rules with weight breaks linked to a 400 cub small blocks being the flavour de jour) also saw some great runs. Going into the race the Andropolis/Sideris Dodge was the only car into the 7.2s but in qualifying Dave Rogan's Olds Cutlass joined him with a 7.288 to top qualify. While the Dodge ran the quickest ever time in the first round with a 7.23 in the second round sounding very rough it was shutdown after firing. Rogan ran a 7.26 in the first stanza and benefiting from Andropolis's problems took an easy solo 7.66 to face first time finalist Shane Tucker in a Pontiac Grand Am. Tucker had run a string of 7.4s and obviously wasn't up to the barrage of twenties that Rogan was running.

Anyway he tried a more aggressive approach on a semi final solo but ended up getting out of shape. In the final he managed to pick up a few hundredths off the line but a second best 7.80 was never going to head Rogan (right) who cranked out a personal best of 7.25/187.86.

Top Alcohol down under is a combination of altereds, dragsters and funny cars running different engine/weight breaks to come up with an equitable combination. Top qualifier was Wayne Newby's dragster with a 5.61 but the Sydney driver red lighted to Ben Bray in the first frame. Like a large number of entrants in the bracket Bray wasn't having much luck getting down the track and made the field by the skin of his teeth with a 6.46 from his funny car.

Bray only needed a 6.09 after Newby's cherry and went through to the final with a 5.75 to 5.98 for opponent Mark Brew in his Deno's Cranes flopper. Brew had run a stellar 5.64/259.36 run in the first round to eclipse both ends of the record but had no answer for Bray in his next race. Dean Oakey was earning his place in the final after running 5.76 and 5.67 laps and gained lane choice. While he was the favourite on paper a hole-shot by Bray the younger and his best of the meet 5.70/249.12 easily covered Oakey's 5.73/242 mph.

Daniel Peaty has been the biker of the moment and it was no different at the East Coast Nationals, where he dominated both qualifying and eliminations with a barrage of 7.3-second times. His 7.33/181.40 was more than enough to take the bracket win over Neville Langley back on a 7.41.