Eighteen year old drag racer, Ben Bray scored his third consecutive event win in his Castrol Chevrolet last night at round five of the Australian Top Doorslammer Championship to tighten his grip on the 2003 series. With just one round to go at the Willowbank Winternationals on June 8th Ben holds a 52 point lead over his famous father Victor with defending title holder Peter Kapiris a further two points in arrears.
The event was originally scheduled for the Anzac Day weekend in April but rain intervened after qualifying was completed and final elimination racing was postponed until last night. The three week delay played into the Bray’s hands as they were originally slated to race each other in the first round. The withdrawal of Perth’s Robin Judd saw the field re seeded putting the father and son duo on opposite sides of the elimination ladder. Both won their first round races with Ben defeating Andrew Searle and Victor accounting for Sydney’s Maurice Fabietti. Fortunes were mixed for the team in the semi finals when Ben defeated Kym Petterwood but Victor red lighted, handing the win to Peter Kapiris. In the final it was Kapiris who left the start line too soon with Ben claiming the easy win.
Elated to have achieved the hatrick Ben said after the event, “Three wins in a row is fantastic. My car was great today. It’s the oldest car in the field and not usually the fastest but we’ve really been aiming for consistency and everything worked perfectly for us. We were able to go marginally quicker than we did in qualifying and ended up with the three fastest passes of the day while most people went backwards. We had the clutch setup working right where we wanted it and every call Dad made on the fuel system tune up was spot on. I would of liked to have raced him in the final but redlights happen to everybody. We’re still one and two in the points and with luck that’s the way we’ll finish the championship after the Winternationals.”
While being disappointed with his own red light, team leader Victor Bray was extremely proud of his son’s three-peat. “Three in a row’s hard to do, particularly these day’s when the class has got so competitive. Our whole Castrol team is working really well. Ben’s done a good job tonight. I’m just dirty I didn’t do mine. If I’d beaten Peter in the semi-final the championship would be over now but that’s life. We’ll just have to make sure we get things right at the Winternationals next month. Our goal since day one has been a one-two finish and nothing’s changed.”
The final round of the championship will be held at the Willowbank Winternationals on June 6th to 8th .
Australian Top Doorslammer Championship points after five rounds
1 Ben Bray 1957 Chev 480
2 Victor Bray 1957 Chev 428
3 Peter Kapiris Studebaker 426
4 Gary Phillips Studebaker 313
5 Brett Stevens Studebaker 275
6 Grant O'Rourke Monaro 215
7 Robin Judd Studebaker 235
8 Maurice Fabietti VX Monaro 190
9 Wayne Keys VX Monaro 160
10 Marcus Chambers Holden 150
11 John Zappia HQ Monaro 60
12 David Koop 1955 Chev 70
13 Andrew Searle '56 Customline 80
14 Les Winter 1955 Chev 20
15 Kym Petterwood 1963 Corvette 40
16 Rob Broadbent Statesman 20
