Top Doorslammer - Motorplex, Kwinana Beach - Perth WA.
KAPIRIS RUNS WORLD RECORD 6.07!!!.
Victorian Peter Kapiris stunned the huge crowd at the Australian Top Doorslammer Championship Series round one at the Quit Motorplex, Kwinana Beach when he unleashed an outstanding 6.07 second elapsed time in the semi final.
This ET eclipsed the 6.11 time recorded by Amercan Mike Janis in September.
Kapiris started off in fine style at a Wednesday practice day recording a personal best 6.26.
This was followed by a top qualifying 6.19 effort on Friday. The 6.19 became the ANDRA national record when it was backed up by a 6.23 in the final qualifying session.
Kapris' domination of the event became more obvious when he defeated the son of defending champion Victor Bray - teenager Ben Bray with a 6.14 which became the new ANDRA record...but this in no way prepared the crowd for what they were about to witness...an outstanding 6.07 second ET (which was too quick to become a new record) to defeat the champ - Victor Bray in the semi final.
The final promised to be an historic event with the Kapiris camp throwing caution to the wind by going all out for a 5 second pass...the target of 5.99 to be a new National record using the 6.07 to back it up...power was not a problem...traction neither...but put the two together and you have the car going into a power wheelstand at half track that required Kapiris to lift the foot giving the win to the Jack Daniels team of Brett Stevens.
KAPIRIS GRINS - STEVENS WINS AT DOORSLAMMER OPENER
It was smiles all round at the Kwinana Motorplex, south of Perth, last Saturday night after Queensland’s Brett Stevens took his Jack Daniels Studebaker to a win at the first round of the 2001/2002 Australian Top Doorslammer Championship. Runner up Peter Kapiris was not overly concerned after delivering some world class performances in earlier rounds of racing.
Conditions for Saturdays eliminations were ideal, with the top six qualifiers under the 6.50 second mark. Kapiris set the standard with his 6.19 opening shot, followed by Stevens with a 6.24. Gary Phillips put the Lucas Oil Products Studebaker in third spot at 6.45, followed by local Dave Simpson on 6.48 and Queensland’s Victor Bray on 6.50 in the Castrol 57 Chev. Locals Peter Hamilton and Robin Judd slotted into sixth and seventh, with newcomer Ben Bray rounding out the field in his first championship start. The popular Commodore Ute of Perth's Lindsay Murray ended as first alternate.
The first pairing saw local Peter Hamilton through to the next round with a 6.79 to a slowing Gary Phillips 9.93 . Brett Stevens beat Robin Judd with a 6.41 to what appeared to be a burst panel blowing 6.53, and Victor Bray took out Dave Simpson with a 6.37. Kapiris began his march to the final with a National Record setting 6.148 at 222.77 mph, to defeat Ben Bray.
Stevens 6.32 was good enough to take him past Hamilton into the final , while in the other pairing Kapiris unwound an awesome 6.07 to easily better Bray's tyre shaking 11.96.
After a major engine failure in the days prior to the event, Stevens had worked almost up to the last minute to get the Jack Daniels car into the field, and earnt his place in the final round. The Kapiris Bros were certainly the favorites and threw everything at their Melbourne based Studebaker for the last race of the night, which proved to be too much. Stevens' steady 6.46 got him to the finish line in front of Kapiris' wheelstanding 7.30 to take the win.
Round Two of the 2001/2002 Australian Top Doorslammer Championship will be held at Willowbank Raceway, south-west of Brisbane near the city of Ipswich, on January 18th and 19th, as part of the 2002 Australian Nationals.
