With the October meeting a washout, December 7th was the opening event for the Ballarat drag racing season. It was great to see a lot of first time competitors out to test there vehicles over the Ballarat Dragway 1/8 mile.

(2/1/2004 - Please note: Mick Cleary was incorrectly recorded as the winner of A Bracket. The win went to Ray Hanford and the report has been updated to reflect this. Apologies to Ray Handford and family.)

Top 16
16 cars assembled for the first round of competition with Mick Cleary leading the way with a 6.55 from his Chev powered Torana. After two rounds of racing the semi final macthups were between Mick Cleary and Graeme Stevens and James Fitzgibon up against Ray Handford. In the first semi Mick Cleary took the win over the Graeme Steven's 57 chev with a snooze on the line from Stevens and then a break out. In the second semi Ray Handford's VN SS Commodore took the win over the 'Humpy' of James Fitzgibon. The final was won and lost on the start line with Mick Cleary red lighting and the win going to Ray Handford.

Quick 16
Simon Williams top qualified in the Quick 16 bracket with an 8.52 from his 351 Cleveland powered Cortina. The semi finals saw Williams take the win over the VL Commodore of Scott Cleary and the 202 powered Torana of Graham Collet beat the Commodore of Kym Hutcheson to the stripe. The final went to Collet after Williams could not make up the half a second handicap difference.

Street
12 cars qualified for the Street bracket with Gavin Gracie top qualifying with a 9.67 with his 308 powered HQ Monaro. In an all Commodore final it was the VN of Shaun Patten taking the win over the VS of Jason Lindsay.

Street Bikes
The guys from RPM Motorcycles put on a great show for the crowd with eight bikes on hand running in a round robin format. At the end of the day it was Leigh McKenzie who took home the winners trophy. And to complete the race meeting a number of the bike guys decided it would be a good time to put on a burnout competition with some tyre frying action. The boys smoked the entire start line in and ended the event with a satisfying pop when the rear tyres cried enough.

Best Burnout
The best burnout award went to Ray Hanford on the day in his VN SS Commodore.

The next BDRC event will be held on Sunday February 1st.

Kym Oberauer
B.D.R.C