The iTEL Community Telco Australian Nationals continued the Castrol Top Doorslammer team’s string of Nationals victories when 18 year old Ben Bray won his second consecutive title at Willowbank Raceway last night. His father Victor Bray won the event in 2001 making it three in a row for the popular duo. Ben’s win and another strong performance by Victor sees the father and son team now placed one and two in the Australian Championship series.
Around 25 thousand spectators attended the iTEL Community Telco Australian Nationals to witness the quickest Top Doorslammer field in history. Presented by radio station River 94.9 the category attracted 13 entries but only the top 8 from qualifying get to contest elimination racing. That eight car field was lead Perth’s Grant O’Rourke at 6.157 seconds and anchored by Gary Phillips in eighth on 6.429.
After qualifying in second position with an elapsed time of 6.214 seconds in very hot and humid conditions, Ben Bray showed his consistency in the opening round of racing with a 6.222 second pass to comfortably defeat Western Australian Robin Judd’s 6.452. The semi final provided the family feud when Ben faced his father Victor. The two Castrol cars wowed the big crowd with huge burnouts before a great race saw Ben go quicker still with a 6.197 win over Victor’s 6.367 second time.
That set up a re run of last year’s Australian Nationals final against Gary Phillips Studebaker producing the same result as Ben drove a great race to take his second Australian Nationals victory. Despite struggling for traction at times and running close to the outside edge of the strip his 6.318 at just 216.45 mph was too strong for Phillip’s 6.383 at a fast closing 230.53 mph.
“Last year was like a dream come true but to do it twice is just unbelievable,” said Ben. “Winning the race against Dad was great but having taken him out I then realized how much pressure was on me for the final. I really had to beat Phillips for our team’s championship position. With things so close now you’ve got to get every point you can and stop others scoring at the same time. We’re one and two in the series now and that’s the way we want to finish but I’d just like to reverse the order so I’m the one in front not Dad.”
Victor Bray was delighted with the result saying “As long as we keep the wins in the family I think it’s great. To be honest I was kind of hoping Ben could do the two in a row but when I drew him in the semi final I wasn’t going to do him any favours. I was trying as hard as I could but we had a couple of little problems all weekend with my car that held us back a bit. Ben drove really well all weekend and thoroughly deserves his win.”
The next round of the Australian Championship will be held at Perth’s Quit Motorplex on March 1st & 2nd before the series returns to Willowbank Raceway for the final two rounds at the Australian Tin Top Titles on April 25th & 26th and the Winternationals on June 6th to 8th.
2002-2003 Australian Top Doorslammer Championship points after 3rounds
