It was a double celebration for Phil Lamattina who took out the first round of the two round Australian Top Fuel Championship at the Perth Motorplex under the new Maximum Exposure format being implemented this weekend for the first time.
Not only did the Mildura carrot farmer take his first Final round win of the season (and since 2010), he inherited the lead of the ANDRA Top Fuel Championship.
The Fuchs driver defeated the returning Damien Harris in the Best Tractor Parts machine.
In a brilliant final held in cooler conditions than the heat that was the order of the day in qualifying, Lamattina got over the line in a 4.73 second run to Harris’ 4.77 time.
“It’s great for the championship for us to take the points lead, the car is pretty strong so we will see what we can do tomorrow,” he said. “The strategy was always to put a tune up in it that would work and go from A to B; the car is just on song.
Former leader, Darren Morgan in the K-Trans car continued his difficult run at the Kwinana Beach complex, having Lamattina defeat him in their round matchup.
The other driver to make it into the B-Final was last round winner Mark Sheehan, who topped qualifying with a 5.12 second run. Morgan didn’t score a run during the B-Final, leaving Sheehan to take third placing.
Allan Dobson had a poor run, his car being pushed away from the line when the car was shut down before he had a chance to run.
A full reset happens now ahead of tonight’s second round of the weekend, which gets underway at 6pm tonight at the Perth Motorplex.
