They used to say Queensland weather was beautiful one day, perfect the next. And so it was on day two of the 2015 Fuchs Winternationals as Group Three and Four qualifying came to a close while Group Two made significant strides toward setting the race day field in the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series.
The crowds filtered through in a steady stream, basking in the sun and taking in the sites and sounds of the best Sportsman racers in the country, and they didn’t leave disappointed.
Adam Murrihy lived up to that tag when he jumped straight to the top of Supercharged Outlaws qualifying in Q2 with the ‘perfect’ Outlaws pass of 6.500, the limit for the category.
The feat was even more impressive after he experienced dramas in Q1 when the front end lifted sending the Altered across the centreline.
The team reset and addressed the issues allowing Murrihy to run his perfect pass and hold off challenges from Christine Steffens, Peter Wilson, Dave Wallace, Luke Marsden, Wade Wagstaff and Jake Donnelly who all entered the 6.50-second zone by the end of Q3.
“We put some more weight in the car to keep the nose down and the car is jumping out of the hole really good now,” said Murrihy.
“We’re feeling a lot better than yesterday. Last year we were in this position where we had two bad qualifiers and had to dump a heap of fuel in to get it down the track on the third pass. It’s good to get the monkey off our back.
“The boys have got the car running sweet so we’ll just roll up to the startline, hit the noise and pedal.”
Top Sportsman’s Mark Harris promised he had more in the 1941 Willy’s Coupe and he lived up to the billing securing the number one qualifier with a 6.490 elapsed time. Stew Walsh and Steven Fowler maintained 2nd and 3rd and championship contender Paul Russo qualified in position 8 while championship leader Stuart McBain will get up and at them from 15th.
“We’ve still got a long way to go in the car, it’s still got a lot more in it yet,” said Harris. “We want to make changes to make it go faster but we know what it’s doing at the moment so we might just have to leave it.
“You’ve always got to watch out for (Steve) Fowler, he’s always on his game but everyone can cut a light and run a number. This is sort of an expensive test and tune for us. We’re having fun, it’s good.”
In Modified Rob Harrington improved on his first qualifier to confirm the top qualifying position with a 7.060 ET from Matt Forbes who put his Super Gas troubles behind him to claim 2nd with a 7.256. Dallas Everett dropped to 3rd as a result of Forbes improvement followed by a trio of women, Jess Turner, Leanne Braggs and championship leader Michelle Osborn. Closest title challenger Chris Farrell starts out of 12th position as he seeks to win the championship in his first season in the bracket.
Brian Hammond improved his ET in Super Sedan from 8.680 to 8.614 to confirm his place as number one qualifier from Andrew Lange who dislodged Andrew Saliba from 2nd to 3rd. Championship hopefuls David Yanko and Stephen Griffin qualified in 22nd and 39th with defending two time champ John Kapiris in 38th.
The 7.429-second pass by Kerry Ellis on Thursday was more than enough to maintain the number one qualifier in Modified Bike as the top 15 remained unchanged. Joint championship leaders Joe Khoury, Edgell Mallis and Ian read qualified 14th, 19th and 34th respectively. Nathan Stone, just 20 points behind the leading trio, qualified 3rd.
Lucas Holz’ 11.008 ET held up to top qualify in Super Street with the Top 10 maintaining the status quo through the final two qualifiers. The trio of South Aussies in the frame for the championship, Harry Harris, Enzo Clemente and John Kapiris qualified 22nd, 24th and 49th ensuring a fierce battle when eliminations begin tomorrow.
Joel Burns leap frogged sixteen places to qualify number one in Junior Dragster ahead of Dylan Everett, Monique Ambruosi, John Fenech and joint championship leaders Toby Austin and Eden Ward. The quickest of the B/JD competitors was Eden’s sister Maella Ward in 22nd while Kyle Magner was the quickest C/JD qualifier in 41st.
Simon Isherwood maintained his top qualifying position in Super Gas by one thousandth of a second from Michael DeRose who jumped into second with a 9.905 followed by Colin Griffin a further one thousandth of a second behind in 3rd. The top four were split by just four-thousandths with championship leader Graeme Spencer in 4th. Surprisingly two-time defending champ Matt Forbes’ woes continued as he qualified 16th.
In other action Super Stock, Competition Bike and Super Compact picked up where they left off on Thursday completing Q2 while Competition saw action for the first time this weekend with a single qualifier of their own.
Super Stock was full of stand out performances with leading title contender Steve Norman, Fred Soleiman, Kym Fardella, Rob Nunn and Brett Glover each going under their respective C/APA, D/GA, D/G, B/AP and RR/API national records.
By the end of Q2 Steve Norman’s effort of 7.885 seconds, one second under the national C/APA record, was too good handing provisional number one to the Croweater with a qualifier to spare.
Defending Competition Bike champion Ross Smith didn’t do his title bid any harm by going under the B/AB minimum for a potential new national record by .09 seconds to take the provisional number one with Q3 to run on Saturday. Blair Pennington is second after he went under the C/AB national record by .04 seconds.
Chris Tait, world record holder for 3RZ powered vehicles, heads Super Compact with a 6.863 to go .48 seconds under his national CC/SC index. Mark Jacobsen and Scott Porter both went .43 seconds under their AA/SC index to take 2nd and 3rd from Mat Lisle and now two-time Super Compact champion Domenic Rigoli who cannot be surpassed in the title race.
Competition Eliminator were able to complete one of the two scheduled qualifiers today and will instead run Q2 and Q3 tomorrow. After one session Tony Bellert leads the field going .47 seconds under his A/DA index followed by a pair of championship chasers in Craig Geddes and Al McClure.
Eliminations for Super Street, Junior Dragster, Modified Bike, Super Sedan, Top Sportsman, Modified, Super Gas and Supercharged Outlaws commence from 8am on Saturday with qualifying for Competition, Super Stock, Competition Bike, and Super Compact continuing from 11:30am.
For results from today’s action please click here.
Images courtesy: dragphotos.com.au