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Xiberras used a holeshot in the final round to cap off a career best weekend with his quicker reacting 3.795 to beat Harris’ 3.793.
With consistency being key to tricky track conditions that were vastly different to the first day, Xiberras was never slower than a 3.84 in his two earlier round wins over Phil Read and Phil Lamattina.
Wayne Newby, who was leading the championship coming into the weekend, had mixed results that saw him drop to second in the title race as his teammate leapfrogged to take the lead.
Shane Olive, making one of only a handful of starts this season driving the Louie Rapisarda tribute livery for Rapisarda Autosport International, beat his teammate and championship hopeful Newby in the second round in what was a huge blow for his title chances with only one round of the series left to run.
Ultimately it was Xiberras who was the victor across both days of racing, with the New South Welshman never in the quickest car but always consistent in the low 3.80’s.
“This is unbelievable, I don’t know what to say, I am a bit gobsmacked actually,” Xiberras said.
“It has just been one of those weekends where things have fallen into place. There have been times where we thought we had blown it and it just comes in.”
“I can’t thank my crew enough – we were here past midnight servicing, there was a little problem we thought with the rear end with the diff and we probably didn’t need to change it, but we did to make sure, so we pulled the diff out and put the spare in and these boys and girls are just amazing individuals and I can’t thank them enough. Without them I wouldn’t be doing this, so kudos to them.”
In Nitro Funny car Justin Walshe took his third win from four finals this season to take the points lead with only the Winternationals left to run.
Entering the event, Walshe and Morice McMillin were tied on points however the latter did not have a weekend to remember, struggling through qualifying with trye shake issues.
McMillin’s first full run of the weekend was against his rookie teammate Josh Leahy who was making his first start in a Nitro Funny Car and quickly found out how the short wheelbase cars can bite.
After both drivers were identical in their reaction times, Leahy’s car made a move to the left when it dropped cylinders and lost downforce on the left-hand side.
With Clutch dust filling the cabin, Leahy lost sight of his position on the racetrack and almost rear-ended McMillin, missing the rear of the Aeroflow mustang by only inches (and tagging McMillin’s parachutes).
Leah’s car then fired back across the track, collecting the right-hand wall with enough force that it would rule him out for the remainder of the event.
It was Walshe and number one qualifier Brandon Gosbell who would do battle in the final round, with Gosbell the only car to dip into the 3 second zone over the weekend.
At the green the advantage went to Walshe, and he was never headed with gosbell’s car faltering at half track as Walshe streaked to a 4.114s win.
“What can I say!” Walshe enthused.
“This is the fourth round of our season, the fourth final for the Harts Paint Supplies team, and we now have three Gold Trees and one silver one!”
“These guys in the blue shirts (gesturing to his team) are just killing it, the way they hold themselves under pressure is just second to none.
Daniel Gregorini took the win in top Doorslammer after Russell Taylor knocked out the centreline blocks resulting in an instant disqualification.
John Zappia struggled through engine dramas throughout the event, having to change an engine after damaging his primary one in the early rounds. He was shut down in the “C” final after an oil leak on the start line.
Gregorini was grateful for the win after having problems early in the run, saying, “That is not too bad…I was like ‘damn’ (having had to get off it), but then next thing I saw timing blocks flying across in front of me, so I was like, ‘yeah we got the win.’ Thank you to all my sponsors and all of my team and Lisa’s team – we got the win in the A-Final and the B-Final, so that is awesome,” Gregorini said.
Pro Stock, Pro Mod and Sportsman racing was called off for the night with Pro Stock and Prop mode to complete their respective finals at the Winternationals a couple of weeks.
The postponement came after a frightening crash for Wollongong based Joe Gauci, the car hitting the wall at around 200 mph and flying into the air before coming to rest upside down having skidded for nearly half a kilometre on his roof.
The NDRC Championship will conclude at the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals at the newly resurfaced Willowbank Raceway in June.
