Bray Semi -Tough At The Bank, Able Runs PB & TBR Team Report
Ipswich, Qld (August 9, 2009) Matt Able made one of the best passes of the first qualifying session with a new personal best 5.981 @241.89. A solid pass, saw him in the number one spot, unfortunately, it was short lived when he was bumped back to second. Came the start of the third and final qualifying session, Ben Bray was still on the out-side of the field but that all changed in 5.920 sec at 249 MPH.
After the dust settled Ben qualified third and Matt in sixth which meant the TBR stable mates were unfortunate meeting each other in the first round. On paper it was Ben’s race, but this is drag racing and anything can and does happen. Both TBR cars sounded tough on the line, Matt had a little look at the wall half track and slowed down, Ben had it all the way from the hole shot, with a 5.969 @ 247.29 for the win, to Matts 7.261 @ 127.87. This pass backed up Ben’s 249mph pass from qualifying and national speed record was back in his hands.
In the semi-final Ben’s 6.010/244.12 was not good enough for the eventual event winner, Maurice Fabietti’s 5.953/249.12. Unfortunately Maurice’s 249.12MPh backed up his 250.51 1st round pass and the National record was now in his hands.
It was a sad end to a great event when in the final John Zappia crossed into Maurice Fabiettie’s lane and stabbed the wall and it was a big crunch, the car was air-borne and sailed over the wall. The biggest accident at Willowbank for some time. Zappia is okay. Unfortunately Zap rat’s most winning car over the last few years is very second hand.
Victor Bray 1957 Chevy “Top Doorslammer qualifying has become an event in its self now. We had 15 cars giving it all for the 8 spots on Sunday eliminations. 6 of the 8 ran into the 5 secs and from this, 2 of the 6 were TBR cars at the end of the 1st day. I could not have asked for anything more. Race day could have started better in the match up’s but I guess the up side of that is we new that one spot in the semis was going to be ours. As for the finals, congratulations to Maurice. I hope Zap can get his car repaired in time for Sydney.”
Ben Bray Monaro CV8Z “After loosing the semi-final I was a bit disappointed, because we have made some advances with the Castrol EDGE Monaro. I feel we are very close to running with old Zap, but I did hold the nationals speed record for 2 hours and 20mins. Then with what happened in the final I thought may-be this is one final I did not want to be in after all! We still have some refining to do with the configuration in my car so fingers crossed when Sydney rolls around we have a very fast consistent car”.
Mat Abel 1957 Chevy “I did well to run another 5sec pass in the Karcher 57 Chevy this week-end, and this has given me plenty of confidence for the season ahead. I might have one of the oldest cars in the field but boy the old girl still leaves the line very hard. We are doing some more testing before Sydney, which is great because seat time is what I need. I am 8th in the championship and there are some very seasoned drivers behind me so all in all I have had a great start to my second season”.
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