Winternationals

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Winternationals, Willowbank Raceway, Brisbane, Australia 9, 10 & 11 June 2006 Six Kiwi bike entrants for the Winternationals this year, Athol Williams (Top Bike), Barry Sproule (Screamin' Eagle), Ian Hilder (Modified Bike), Geoff Bond (Screamin' Eagle), Ray Pratt (Screamin' Eagle and Modified Bike), and Trevor Fallows (Screamin' Eagle). There was of course a seventh kiwi entrant, being the ex Hays Racing Harley rider Ross Buchanan who also entered in two divisions (Screamin' Eagle & Modified Bike), and who now resides in Brisbane.
First bike Qualifying round on Friday was Modified bike, sponsored by Muzzy's Pro Kawasaki, with the first pairing up at 9.57am. Mod bike is super competitive, with many an experienced Aussie entered. A total field of 66 bikes in this bracket alone, which is unrestricted on numbers in the field.

	First Kiwi (that I knew anyway) up was Brisbane's Ross Buchanan, on board a Suzuki Hyabusa. Ross recorded a clean 10.127 @ 138mph.
# 4745 Ross Buchanan A/MB
At Pairing number 38, was Ian Hilder on his Suzuki Rice Rocket A/Modified Bike. But before he was moved forward to commence Burnout, his engine died, due to an electrical fault. This is the Winters, and there is no such thing as restarting (not that doing so would have meant it would keep going for the run), so he pushed back and that was qualifier # 1 over for Ian!
Further down the list at pairing # 24, was Ray Pratt on his A/MB Harley-Davidson Destroyer. Ray recorded a 10.270 @ 140mph for his first pass, not his best ET but the MPH is pretty good.
That was all the Kiwis in Mod Bike, but there is an Aussie well worth a mention, and that is Leonard Azzopardi, on board his AA/MB, a Turbo charged Suzuki Hyabusa, with extended swingarm and no wheelie bars! Leonard went out and cracked down a stout 8.044 ET, was doing 149mph at half track, and wait for this.....181mph at the quarter!!! Must be a fun ride Leonard! No surprise that after qualifying session 1, Leonard was #1 qualifier. Another non wheelie barred but naturally aspirated Hyabusa was that of Marty Searle, who recorded a pass of 8.962 @149pmh in qualifying....Marty is pictured here, bike # 864.

Next bike field up was Morgan & Wacker sponsored Screamin' Eagle. 22 screamers fronted for qualifying session # 1, which started at 1.40pm.
	Trevor Fellows from Upper Hutt was first of our Kiwis up in pairing number 6, on his H-D SS96. Trevor qualified with a 12.054 @ 114mph, a little slower than his best in New Zealand.
# 5053 Trevor Fallows

	Right out behind in pairing # 7, was Ray Pratt on his twin cam 124 CI Harley (which has been dubbed "the Mother Ship" by Ray's fellow Kiwi contestants), and Hamilton's Barry Sproule. Ray slapped down a nice 10.844 run @ 127mph, against Barry's 11.045 @ 117mph.
# 934 Ray Pratt


	#5055 Barry Sproule launching in Round 1

Right behind Ray in pairing # 8, was Geoff Bond, on board a borrowed H-D with an 84CI S&S engine. Geoff rode an unknown bike through to a 12.529 @ 113mph.

# 5071 Geoff Bond
Last out in Pairing # 11, was Brisbane's Ross Buchanan on his Buell 1200. Ross banged out a 12.426 @ 114mph.
	# 5745 Ross Buchanan's Screamin Eagle Buell

Round 2 of Muzzy's Pro Kawasaki Modified Bike commenced at 2.57pm. First Kiwi up was Ian Hilder on his Suzuki A/MB. Engine still running after the burnout, Ian was looking forward to his first pass on Willowbank since his 0.399 red light in Round 1 of Mod Bike in 1999. But it wasn't to be, after what can only be described as a sleep-in reaction time of 1.254 seconds, as soon as he dumped the launch button, nothing happened. Ian initially thought the gearbox had locked, but a friendly tap on the shoulder from Willowbank start line staff pointed to the problem.... the drive was lying on the track, and round 2 qualifier over for Ian. Many thanks to Bob Castle for a quick ride from North Brisbane to half way toward the Gold Coast to collect a new chain before 5pm. When the chain broke it damaged the shifter ram, thanks again to Bob Castle who just happened to have a brand new one sitting at home.

Second Kiwi up was Ross Buchanan on his A/MB Hyabusa. Ross ran 10.091 @ 142mph this time around, in pairing # 16.

Up at Pairing # 28 was Ray Pratt on his Destroyer. Ray ran an improving 10.046, @ 137mph.
	# 5051 Ray Pratt's Destroyer
No surprise that the best run of the round was Leonard Azzopardi on his turboed 'busa, running 8.150 @ 177mph!

Another point to note....in this round A/MB # 3391, an immaculately presented 1100 Suzuki Katana based drag bike, ridden by Aussie Shane Brown, ran a nice 8.962 @ 143mph. This is the same drag bike that Bob Castle built back in 1981 (after he crashed it when it was only 9 weeks old) and rode in the original Trans-Tasman Challenge in NZ in February 1993. It looks a helluva lot better now than it did when you had it Bob!

Round 2 of Morgan & Wacker Screamin' Eagle commenced at 4.15pm. Trevor Fellows ran in the left lane in pairing # 3. Trevor ran a great 11.764 @ 115mph on this run, his best ET ever. However, Trevor's reaction time of 1.791 seconds o this run was not his best work though, but Ian Hilder was pleased he was no longer the sleepiest Kiwi at the lights.

Straight up after Trevor was Geoff Bon in pairing #4. Geoff sent the bog H-D down the track in 12.69 seconds @ 110mph.

Pairing # 5 saw Ross Buchanan out in the right lane on the Buell. Ross ran a much improved 11.790 @ 114mph. Ross was up against our Barry Sproule in this run, being the victor by a fair ol' distance with a 11.068 @ 110mph, a fair bit sloweer thn Barry has run on this bike in NZ.

Last Kiwi out in pairing # 11 was Ray Pratt on the big orange H-D. Ray ran a better 10.707 @ 128, ensuring his #1 qualifier status remained intact. Now, it is fair to say that the Willowbank Raceway commentators gave Ray plenty of air time, more on that later.

Queensland Times Sponsored Pro-Stock Bike had no Kiwis contending, but what a competitive field this one is! Ten riders fronted at 8.28pm for this first and what would prove to be only qualifying session, looking for a spot in the top 8. And if you were only running high 7.90s, you were on the outside looking in, with your bike parked back in the trailer. Daniel Peatey took #1 spot with his 7.405 @ 180mph run. Andrew Badcock took #2 spot with a 7.511 @ 171mph in his run against Daniel. For the rest of the results for Pro-Stock bike, go to www.willowbank-raceway.com.au/liveresults/winternationals2006/psb.htm
	Daniel Peatey

Morgan & Wacker TOP BIKE! Wasn't this the one to watch, with our very own Athol Williams from Pokeno contending in Australia for the first time. Athol with crew chief Roger Bloor had been in Australia doing test runs on the 4 valve Suzuki the weekend before the Winters, and as you already know that testing went very well indeed. But this is tough competition at Australia's biggest meeting (and indeed the biggest drag race meeting anywhere in the world outside of North America. How was it going to go? The first pair burned out for qualifier # 1 at 8.37pm, with Mark Ashelford's Nitro HD from Western Australia up against Dennis Grant's HD. Mark carded a 7.252 @ 179mph, against Dennis' 11.320 @ a slowing 82mph.
	# 5049 Athol Williams

Second Pair up were Phil Parker on his Turbo & Nitrous assisted Suzuki, against Jack Daniels Racing's Troy McLean on his Nitro Harley. Troy took it with 7.897 @ 180, slow by Troy's standards, with Phil recording a 9.382 @ 143mph. Third pair out was Kim Stevens on his 172 CI Nitro Harley, against Brett Stevens, also on a 172 CI Nitro Harley. This was one helluva race, with Brett taking it to Kim, with a 6.527 @ 209mph, to Kim's losing 6.623 @ 210mph!

Last Pair out at 8.45pm was the fastest bike in Australia, Jay Upton, up against New Zealand's Athol Williams on the Nitro Suzuki. Prior to this run, Athol's best was a 6.79 @ 210mph, a run he did just 6 days beforehand. The light comes down, and Jay launches first wit a 0.498 reaction, but goes up in smoke. Athol is slow out of the blocks with a 0.934 reaction, but is where the slow part ends, he records a 1.113 60 foot to Jay's 1.697, 4.494 & 171.36mph at half track and is now 1.5 seconds ahead of Jay. Athol pedals it once here, but still goes through for a Personal Best ET of 6.776 @ 213.17mph! Jay records a slowing 8,266 @ 193.97. Are Athol and the team rapt? You bet, and so is every kiwi in the crowd. The commentators are impressed, they have just seen the Kiwi from Pokeno fly, on a very straight run! What's it like stopping from 213mph Athol?

That was it for bikes and Friday Qualifying. Unfortunately, Saturday dawned wet in Brisbane, and it was no better at Willowbank (which believe it or not has the lowest annual rainfall in all of Queensland). Drizzle and heavy rain on was the order of Saturday, and every time track crews got the track and braking area dry, the rain would start again. Just before 4.30pm, a heavy shower dumped on the track, and officials announced that there would be no racing that evening, and qualifying positions would be as they were after Friday qualifying. Willowbank made the call that for fields that were open, ie, had no limited to number of competitors in eliminations, that every entrant would be allowed to compete in eliminations regardless of whether they had qualified or not, something that made a nervous Ian Hilder was very pleased to hear. All he had to do now was dream up a dial-in number......at this point he had made no passes from which to gauge his bike's performance. But at least he was in the field. Athol Williams had a small challenge to think about for round 1 in Top Bike.....Athol's 6.776 put him at #3 qualifier, and number 3 races # 6......Jay Upton! Now, Jay and Athol are good mates off the track, but this was a loser go home situation, Athol and the team had their work cut out for them if they were gonna make round 2.

Sunday was upon us, it had rain itself out overnight, and there was no shortage of blue sky on Sunday morning. Eliminations were due to start at 8.00am, due the large number of entrants. First round 1 bike field up was Screamin Eagle at 10.31am. A stiff, directly up-track breeze kept blowing until after sunset, which slowed times down a bit. Barry Sproule was first Kiwi up in pairing # 4. Barry cut a superb 0.467 light at the tree, only to have the Willowbank traction catch him with far too high wheelstand (that is tthis run in the photo of Barry above), necessetating throttle off action to prevent the HD going right over. Unfortunately this was enough to mean Barry's 11.124 @ 120mph wa second place to his oponent, and that was Winternationals racing over for Barry, until next year anyway. Right behind Barry in pairing # 5 was Trevor Fellows. Trevor dialled in at 11.60, and ran closer to his time than his opponent did, but again reaction time told the storey, Trevor's 0.637 light not good enough against his opponent's 0.541 tree. Trevor's last run for the day was a 12.028 @ 105mph. Pair #8 included Geoff Bond. Geoff cut a 0.601 light, but broke out of his 12.40 dial-in with a nice 12.270 @ 109mph pass. Geoff's opponent took the win with a 0.432 reaction (these Aussie regulars all cut pretty good lights) and a 11.848 @ 112mph against a 11.70 dial-in. Geoff was parked in spectator alley for the rest of the day. Pair # 9 just happened to be Ray Pratt up against Ross Buchanan's Buell. Ross cut a 0.703 light against Ray's marginally better 0.673 light. Ray took the win light with a well slow 11.781 @ 95mph (10.70 dial-in - what happened Ray?) to Ross' even worse 13.934 @ 80mph on a 11.72 dial-in. The best of the bad luck went Ray's way. Now, I mentioned before that the Willowbank commentators had plenty to say about Ray's bike. Due it's "somewhat unusual" appearance, which Dave Anderson (Ray's Crew) tells me is entirely intentional, the commentators referred to Ray's bike as "the Grocery Getter", due to the large fibreglass panniers fitted to it. In fact, they referred to the panniers as "lunch boxes". Some lunch boxes - Dave tells me these things weight 9kG each! Grocery Getter indeed.......we just call it the "Mothership"! Anyway, the other thing the commentators had plenty to say about was, Ray was # 1 qualifier in Screamin' Eagle! No mean feat at the Winternationals (this year the biggest drag race meeting in the world, outside North America). Good on ya Ray!
Modified Bike round 1 commenced at 1.03pm. Mod bike was scheduled to have 4 elimination rounds before official opening of the meeting at 3pm, but due to Saturday's rain, the schedule was up the creek but with a paddle, and you just had to make sure you were handy to the staging lanes, as your bracket could be called at any time. Third Mod Bike pair up included Ross Buchanan, who won through to round two with a 10.319 at 137mph. In the sixth pair up was Ian Hilder. Bit of a challenge for Ian in this round, as he had to guess a dial-in, having not made a pass yet. Conservatively dialling in at 8.60, he gave away 1.3 seconds at the start, and got a lucky break, catching his opponent before half track, and pacing him to the finish line to take the win with a casual 9.0 @ 132mph and a ticket to round 2. In Pair 13 was Ray Pratt on his Harley-Davidson Destroyer. Ray dialled in at 9.80, and ran a close 9.820 @ 136mph, but lost this race at the lights, with a 0.628 reaction versus his opponent Darren Sheppard's 0.507 light, putting Ray out for the rest of the day.
	#5047 Ian Hilder A/MB
Screamin Eagle Round 2 commenced at 4.45pm. First pair up was Ray Pratt on the Grocery Getter against Jesse Wacker. Now, groceries are very heavy things, and when they weigh in excess of 300kG like Ray's do, and when you have a 2 odd litres of engine producing 160 odd horsepower & gobbs of torque like Ray's does, clutches take an awful hammering. Unfortunately, the clutch on Ray's Grocery Getter was dragging heavily on the start, causing Ray to red light, withdraw from the race, and the event. Some clutch work coming up for Ray and Dave before travelling to Mackay and Darwin in August. By the end of Round 4, the Winner of Screamin' Eagle was found, and that was Phil Heath on his Harley-Davisdson FXD, running 12.140 @ 113mph on a 11.45 dial-in, aginst his opponent's Breakout 11.437 on a 11.49 dial-in! But that's racing - DragbikeNZ congratulations go to Phil for collecting the gold christmas tree and the title of Winternationals 2006 Screamin' Eagle Champion. Phil had to wait for the glory though, he won his race in round 3 at 10.30pm, and won the final at 12.10am on Monday morning!! It takes a while to get through 606 competitors....
Modified Bike Round 2 commenced at 8.11pm. Ross Buchanan was up in pair # 2. Ross dialled in at 10.15, cut a 0.519 light (against a 0.403 light from his opponent!) and went to take the win with a 10.211 @ 128mph. Ian Hilder was had one run under his belt changed his dial-in to 8.50. Up at 4th pairing out, with the field now culled to only 33 bikes, Ian cut a shocker of a light at 0.790, against his opponent's very sharp 0.456. This was a much harder race for Ian, but the Rice Rocket Suzuki pulled through, catching Kal Carrick's H-D just before the traps, and running a 8.587 @ 141mph and talking the win by just 0.017 of a second. Luck was on Ian's side in this race, with Kal running 11.054 on a 10.60 dial-in.
Modified Bike Round 3 commenced at 9.05pm. Ross Buchanan was out in 2nd pairing, and broke out ever so slightly with a 10.082 @ 140mph, on a 10.10 dial-in, handing the win to his opponent Dave Stevenson who ran 0.412 light/11.070 @ 117mph on a 11.02 dial-in. In Pairing # 8, Ian Hilder remaining dialled in at 8.50, was up against Darren Sheppard's H-D Destroyer, dialled in at 10.10. Darren cut the better light at 0.486 to Ian's 0.502, but Ian was on a better mission this time, doing 1.177 at 60 feet, slower than his best but getting there. Ian took the win with breaking out 8.48 @ 149mph, against Darren's even worse break out 9.916 @ 119mph.
Modified Bike Round 4, now down to just 8 bikes, started at 11.03pm. Ian Hilder was up against the Kawasaki Z1000 of Steve Jurgenson. Ian Dialled in at 8.45, to Steve's 11.00. Last pair out, Ian's starter batteries a little the worse for wear, cried enough, failing to turn the high compression Suzuki over. This automatically handed the win to Steve, and Ian's night was over. Many thanks go to Trevor Fallows for helping Ian on the Friday, and Bob Castle and Ngaire for helping all weekend. Steve won his race in Round 5 as well, putting him into the Modified Bike Final against Mike Grunwald on a Kawasaki 750. Steve dialled in at 11.05, against Mike's dial-in of 11.25. Steve cut a wicked 0.423 light to Mike's 0.536 light. Mike ran a 11.355 @ 19mph, with Steve breaking out with a 11.024 @ 109mph. DragbikeNZ congratulations go to the Winternationals 2006 Modified Bike Champion, Mike Grunwald!
Prostock Bike and Competition Bike No Kiwis contested these super competitive fields, but DragbikeNZ congratulations also go to the winner of Winternationals 2006 Prostock Bike - Callum Godeassi on his Suzuki, taking out Michael Gilbertson (who broke before staging) with 7.494 @ 180mph pass in the final. and to the winner of Winternationals 2006 Competition Bike - George Vella on his 1327cc Suzuki, who beat Neil Anderson's 998cc Kawasaki in the final.
Now, I have left Top Bike until last, 'cause it's a great storey. The largest part of the Kiwi contingent to go to the Winters this year was the team of Stud Racing from Pokeno. Athol and the team had never run better than 7.51 in NZ, and were looking for their first 6 at the winters. In fact it came at testing the week before, first with a 6.90 and then a 6.79 @ 210mph on 03-June. The team was pumped.
Top Bike qualifying on Friday was great, with Athol running a personal best of 6.77 @ 213 mph, good enough to put him into #3 qualifier and take top bike top mph for the meeting. Kim Stevens ran his Fuel Harley through to 6.62 @ 210mph, but Brett Stevens took #1 spot with a thumping 6.52 @ 209.79mph, the ET being a personal best for Brett. Saturday was.....well, we all know about Saturday....no shortage of bench racing and "true stories" flying around the pits on Saturday!
So, at 4.30pm or so on Saturday afternoon, Willowbank announced that there would be no more qualifying, and that qualifying positions for Sunday would be would be as they were after Friday (Group 3 excepted). This meant Athol was qualified at #3 spot, and would race # 6 - Jay Upton in round 1!!! This was not what the team wanted at all, up against the quickest bike in Australia. However, with the usual Stud Racing never say die attitude, and a whole bunch of "you can do it" from well wishers, the team made final preparations for the race of the lives. What they didnt know at this point was, the race of their lives was not going to be this one..
Top bike round 1 began at 5.14pm. First pair up was Mark Ashelford and Troy McLean , who beat Mark with a 6.526@198.54 mph against Mark's 7.201@189.27mph. Second pair up was Kim Stevens and Phil Parker, Kim had a problem on the start line and handed the win to Phil with a 15.975 @ 46.39mph pass. Third pair up was Jay Upton and Athol Williams, Athol holeshot Jay at the lights to take the win with a 6.775 @ 204.87mph. The team was happy! Last pair out was Dennis Grant against Brett Stevens, Dennis breaking on the line and Brett taking it with a strong 6.609 @ 208.47mph.
Round 2 of Top Bike saw the boy against the boss, and it was the boss's turn to win. Troy ran a tough 6.689 @ 193.00mph, not good enough to beat Brett who took it with another personal best of 6.514 @ 210.42 mph. Second Pair up in round two were Phil Parker and Athol Williams. Phil was all set to fire, and there was no sign of Athol. They had to change heads (on the bike!) after round 1, and had to run the bike the length of the strip from the pits, making it only just in time. Phil didn't get his bike started, but pushed up to the line anyway, hoping for a red light from the Puma Suzuki, but it was not going to happen, Athol taking it easy to record 7.312 @ a lazy 158.31mph.
The Final of Top Bike was held at 9.36pm. Athol Williams and his Stud Racing team had won their way into the final of the biggest meet on the Aussie calendar, and were up against the hard man of Aussie Top Bike racing, Brett "the Boss" Stevens and his Nitro Harley. Brett had showed his metal earlier in the day, as had Athol, but could they repeat those mid 6 second passes again? Brett Fired up, then Athol lit the fuse. Brett's burnout is strong, a fair bit stronger than Athol's, but burnouts dont win races (but they sure are great to watch!). Brett Stages, in goes Athol, and the tree comes down. It's Brett out of the hole first with a 0.530 light, closely followed by Athol's 0.595 tree. Athol is slow out of the blocks though, only going 1.187 to 60', against Brett's 1.115.
11/06/2006 9:36 pm 13Deg,68%H,1019mB,-108RA,(TT)17Deg 5049 Right Lane ATHOL WILLIAMS SUZUKI , 1327 649 Left Lane BRETT STEVENS TOP FUEL HARLEY , 172 #Gp1 RcNo 410 T/B TOP BIKE (L) Left Win M:0.181 NUM CLASS Recrd REACT 60 330 660 MPH 1000 ET MPH 5049 6.38 0.595 1.187 2.945 4.358 174.99 5.573 6.623 210.32 649 6.38 0.530 1.115 2.868 4.254 177.06 5.465 6.507 214.22	Brett makes it to half track in 4.254 seconds @ 177.06mph, Athol close behind with 4.358 seconds at 174.99 mph to the 660' mark, at which point Brett is 0.169 seconds in front. Athol is riding his beast like never before, but so is Brett. They race through the thousand foot mark, only 0.173 of a second between them, but time is running out for our Kiwi, and Brett is showing his metal, and just how fast a big two lung bike full of pop can go, and takes the win with a 6.507 @ 214.22mph (a personal best ET for Brett), 0.181 seconds ahead of Athol who finished with a personal best 6.623 @ 210.32 mph. DragbikeNZ congratulations also go to the winner of the Winternationals 2006 Top Bike title- Brett Stevens!

But wait......there's more.....

You see, this is a Kiwi site, so we're signing off with a salute to the Kiwi boy.......the kiwi boy who until August 2005, hadn't touched a drag bike since he retired his old 10 second Z1-900 pro bike way back in 1981, and then goes straight to the top of the pile bike wise, and buys a nitro bike! That Kiwi boy is our man Athol Williams, and mention must be made of his Kiwi crew Sharon Williams, Rachael Williams, Roger Bloor, Mike Gearing, Tony Hannah, Bruce McGonnel, and thanks also to Winternats helper from Aussie Daniel Booby, and everyone at Willowbank that made us Kiwis feel welcome!
And here it is, the best ever pass (so far) by Athol and the Stud Racing Fueller, the fastest this bike has ever gone since being built..

and guess what........it dropped a cylinder at the thousand foot mark on this run..........it's gonna go a lot faster!!
Many thanks go to Mike Ashton Drag Racing Photography www.dragpixs.co.nz for the "on track" photos in this report. For full Winternationals 2006 results, go to http://www.willowbank-raceway.com.au/liveresults/winternationals2006/index.htm

Stud Racing Top Bike 5049 team hard at work between rounds...	Athol and the whole team with Top Bike runner up trophy...
Report written by Ian Hilder 22 June 2006
and finally, some spectators just want a better view......this one spied near the staging lanes...

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