CASTROL EDGE WINTERNATS RESULTS
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SUNDAY FINAL RESULTS
Aaron Tremayne was the big winner at the Castrol EDGE Winternationals, taking his fourth straight ANDRA Pro Series Pro Stock Championship at Willowbank
today, despite being knocked out in the semi-finals and finals not taking place due to a freak shower.
Tremayne became the first driver in history to win four successive Pro Stock Championships – which is no mean feat given the Australian Pro Stock ranks are the strongest they’ve ever been and arguably some of the toughest racing in the world.
"It's just fantastic to have wrapped up our fourth title in a row, unbelievable actually," Tremayne said. "Despite winning the Title, we haven't had the best of years so to wrap up the Championship this weekend is a great feeling."
Before the rain came – right before the first final was due to get underway – the racing had been nothing short of stunning in front of a very healthy and appreciative crowd.
The first round of Top Fuel featured a monster matchup between American NHRA star – Cory McClenathan and Darren Morgan. Morgan – whose car was undergoing its first ever run – steamed down the track with a 4.726 lap at 309.34mph (497.83kph) over McClenathan’s 4.903.
The new Australian Champion then knocked out Mark Mariani in the other Rapisarda Racing car with a 4.790 at 300.00mph (482.8kph) versus Mariani’s 4.916. Mariani left with dual four second passes in the event.
The Final was set to be a classic between Morgan and Damien Harris. Harris has been incredible since making his ANDRA Pro Series debut last round. He pedalled around Steve Read in the opening round of competition.
The Jamie Noonan fairytale looked likely to come true in Top Alcohol. The engine builder for Brad Jones Racing in the V8 Supercars top qualified back in June and then had a glorious run into the finals accounting for Rick Gauci and Rob Pilkington.
He was due to line up against Steven Ham who took out Wayne Newby during their semi-final matchup. Newby was declared the Australian Champion during the course of the event also.
Top Doorslammer was going to be a battle between quick time man Peter Kapiris and Mark Belleri. Belleri claimed the massive scalp of John Zappia, who was uncharacteristically untidy in his semi-final run. It wasn’t all bad news for Zappia, who was awarded with the Australian Championship.
Kapiris knocked out Ben Bray and earlier accounted for Russ Pavey. Bray earlier accounted for Gary Phillips.
Tremayne was bumped out of the Pro Stock field by Jason Hedges in the semi-finals, however had done enough just by making it through the second round. Ironically, it was Hedges that knocked out Championship leader coming into the Castrol EDGE Winternationals, Dave Newcombe.
Hedges was due to take on Bill Perdikaris in the final – who took out Monster man, Shane Tucker. Tucker was granted a place in the field by the no show of other competitors and yesterday’s rained off final qualifying.
Chris Matheson’s sensational Top Bike season continued making it through to the Final. He set the lowest elapsed time for the category with a 6.357 second run in round two and was due to meet Troy McLean in the Final. Matheson too was declared Champion.
Pro Stock Motorcycle became the only ANDRA Pro Series category without a confirmed champion by virtue of Andrew Badcock’s qualification for the final.
Badcock was due to take on Glenn Wooster in the final. Earlier, he bumped out Maurice Allen in the first round - his fellow Championship chaser.
A number of Rocket All Stars Series classes still had Championships to be decided, with Willowbank Raceway officials and ANDRA officials tonight meeting to decide how these classes will be determined.
The full list of confirmed ANDRA Australian Champions for 2010-2011 are as follows:
ANDRA Pro Series
Top Fuel - Darren Morgan
Top Alcohol - Wayne Newby
Top Bike - Chris Matheson
Top Doorslammer - John Zappia
Pro Stock - Aaron Tremayne
Rocket All Stars Series
Super Stock - Jim Ioannidis
Competition Bike - Kevin Gummow
Super Compact - Rod Harvey
Modified Bike - Daniel Selki
Super Street - Robert Harrington
Junior Dragster - Jake Donnelly
SATURDAY QUALIFYING - RAIN TAKES CENTER STAGE
The Castrol EDGE Winternationals will resume tomorrow with eliminations for all ANDRA Pro Series and Rocket All Stars Series categories after a frustrating day at Willowbank Raceway.
According to local weather experts around Willowbank, the inclement weather that struck today is expected to clear overnight allowing racing to continue in the morning.
It will begin at 8am with Rocket All Stars Series racing that has already commenced. The ANDRA Pro Series categories will start with eliminations – the fields' being set from the qualifying sessions held at the original June Long Weekend event.
ANDRA Pro Series categories are scheduled to begin at 12pm.
All ticketing from today will be honoured tomorrow. Tickets will also be available for purchase at the gate.
If you're in the States hoping to keep up with the event, live timing from 1320go.com can be found on CompetitionPlus.com and will go live at 8 PM, EST. Brisbane is 12 hours ahead of the Eastern Standard Time zone.
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SUNDAY RESULTS
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FRIDAY QUALIFYING: SPORTSMAN QUALIFYING SETS STAGE FOR RESCHEDULED EVENT
The Castrol EDGE Winternationals has resumed in spectacular fashion today at Willowbank Raceway with today's focus on Sportsman testing and racing
before tomorrow the big guns of the ANDRA Pro Series hit the track.
Today's action hasn't been without drama. The Castrol EDGE Winternationals acts as the Grand Final for national drag racing categories - and two of the fastest femmes in Australian motorsport - Kelly Corbett and Michelle Osborn - were both bundled out of the Modified category.
Corbett (second in the Championship) and Osborn (fourth) are joined on the sidelines by Championship points leader coming into this weekend - Tony Littlewood.
It paves the way for Andrew Loy to come from 60 points behind to take the Rocket All Stars Series Modified Championship. He has to first make the semi-finals on Sunday and win his semi if he is to take the Series win.
The atmosphere around the Willowbank pits is palpable ahead of tomorrow's continuation of qualifying for the ANDRA Pro Series categories, with race teams having travelled from all over Australia.
One man set for action is current top qualifier in Top Alcohol - Jamie Noonan. Noonan - who is the engine builder for V8 Supercar outfit, Brad Jones Racing - stunned the drag racing world back in June when he came out in his first race meeting of any type and sat his Noonan Race Engineering machine in P1.
It has given him confidence ahead of this weekend:
"We’re feeling very confident, actually," Noonan said. "My aim in the first qualifier back in June was just to get off the line and get down the track without tyre shake.
"I didn’t know what a 'quick run' felt like - as I’d never done one in full race conditions, so to come in and be told you're the quickest driver was amazing.
"It's fired me up for this weekend, we're in the field, so now I can just get comfortable and understand what the car is actually doing," he laughed.
The Super Charged Outlaws category is always one of the most popular outside ANDRA Pro Series racing and local driver, Darren Fry is looking to propel himself up the order when qualifying resumes tomorrow.
The Brisbane resident currently sits in 16th position on the bubble. He slammed his Altered down the racetrack in a phenomenal 6.79 second pass today.
Today's time would put him into the top eight on current qualifying form.
"It's coming together nicely, we're working on being in the top half of the field for racing so we have lane choice," Fry said. "It was one of our quickest passes ever. The car feels really good – and the day time running really suits us, so the revised program bodes well for us."
Another to impress in the Super Stock category was Omar Sedmak – setting a testing time of 6.96 seconds at 190.84mph (307.2kph). That time was significantly faster than that being run back in June.
Tomorrow, the heavy hitters of the ANDRA Pro Series hit the circuit for round three and four of qualifying – kicking off at 11:55.
Eliminations for the Rocket All Stars Series Sportsman categories start early from 8:30am.
Eliminations will continue through Sunday with Finals for all categories on Sunday afternoon.
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SATURDAY RESULTS
Jamie Noonan and Darren Morgan are two ANDRA Pro Series racers with big smiles on their faces at the close of day two of Willowbank Raceway’s four-day 
Castrol EDGE Winternationals (June 10-13)– the largest drag racing event held outside of the US.
In front of an exceptional crowd ANDRA Pro Series debutant Noonan blitzed to the top of the Top Alcohol time sheets while Morgan clinched the Top Fuel championship this afternoon by successfully staging for qualifying.
Currently on top of the qualifying ladders for Top Fuel, Top Doorslammer, Top Bike and Pro Stock Motorcycle are Phil Read, Peter Kapiris, Chris Matheson and Michael Gilbertson respectively, while Lee Bektash is currently top qualified in Pro Stock – which is running a 16 car field this weekend - after the third of their four qualifying rounds.
Tomorrow’s on track action will continue from 8.30am with qualifying for all the ANDRA Pro Series brackets from 12 noon before eliminations get underway on Monday’s final day of racing.
Noonan, an engine builder for V8 Supercar outfit Brad Jones Racing, said he was extremely pleased with what is his first ever race meeting at the wheel - not only in drag racing, but in any form of motorsport.
“It is just awesome, both the crew of Noonan Race Engineering boys and I are pretty green, after all the first time I went down a drag strip was last weekend when I got my licence, so its pretty amazing,” said Noonan, who occupies the top spot courtesy of a 5.562 second pass at 247.88mph set in today’s first session.
“We knew the car had it in it but it was more whether I would be able to run strong as a driver and how the crew guys would go, but so far everyone is doing an 
awesome job and we feel that the car has more in it!
“I have been involved in the sport for years, but the time had come where I had enough of just working on everyone else’s cars so I went out and decided to start my own team and have full control – so far its working out pretty well,” grinned Noonan.
In Top Fuel, Morgan (second fastest in the Top Fuel field currently) is a very happy camper after securing his second Top Fuel Championships, which is his first as an owner/driver.
“All these guys are volunteers so to make the championship happen and make it through is pretty neat,” said Morgan.
“We just needed that 20 extra points, we should have done it last meeting but we did it this meeting and now we have got the number one on the car for next season so that is pretty amazing.
“It also means that our own Ben Patterson is officially the youngest Top Fuel Championship winning crew chief in any Top Fuel championship ever held, at the age of 22 years old – so that is pretty neat for Ben.
“He is probably the most hard working team member ever, juggling a Engineering degree at uni which he is doing really well at and putting so much time into the team, he is a good kid!”
While Morgan has clinched the Top Fuel title early, ANDRA Pro Series titles are still up for grabs in Top Alcohol (Wayne Newby currently leading), Top Doorslammer (with the fight coming down to between John Zappia and Mark Belleri, who is in his debut season), Pro Stock (with three time champion Aaron Tremayne fighting Dave Newcombe for the win), Top Bike (Chris Matheson currently leading) and Pro Stock Motorcycle, where the fight is between the reigning champ Andrew Badcock and Sydney racer Maurice Allen.
Those fights as well as the battle for Castrol EDGE Winternationals glory will continue tomorrow, action will step up a gear with the final qualifying of the ANDRA Pro Series brackets plus the first round of eliminations for Pro Stock hitting the track from 12.00pm through to nightfall, plus the first appearances of the Castrol EDGE Speed Comparison.
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SATURDAY FIRST SESSION - PRO
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SPORTSMAN QUALIFYING
