Round 4 Report 2007

HKS Drag Series Round 3 Report JapShow Finale / 12th August 2007

The final round of the 2007 HKS Drag Series saw great action across all 3 classes.

FWD Class

With Guy Chamberlain’s car still out of action after its meeting with the wall at Rotorstock, it was down to Scott Whitelaw to defend his championship lead and CPL Racing’s honour against the charging Paul Jones with the TDi North Civic. Paul clocked an amazing 10.8 the previous week, so looked all set to spoil CPL’s ambitions…

FWD Qualifying

Scott Whitelaw and Paul Jones were a whole second ahead of their nearest rivals, and the terminal speeds told the whole story, with both Scott and Paul running equally huge 137mph terminals. Peter Cattell, Westleigh King and Ian Page followed on, all running low 12’s, but Ian Page running an intriguingly high terminal speed.

FWD Eliminations

Scott took things easy in round one because his excellent qualifying awarded him with a bye-run. Westleigh King took out Peter Cattell by almost half a second and Paul Jones had a nightmare breakdown to see Ian Page run through to the semis. Paul’s championship hopes were over!

The semis put Scott Whitelaw up against Westleigh King, but Scott was able to dispatch Westleigh by a second and a half. Ian Page was rewarded with a bye run after beating the number two qualifier.

The finals saw the slowest qualifier up against the fastest qualifier, and there was no doubt that Ian Page was the underdog in the little 100NX, but drag racing can be decided by a fraction of a second, and the drive to win was definitely there. But in the event, Scott put everything into the car that he could to run an immense 10.691 second quarter, a time Ian simply couldn’t compete with. Scott took a new personal best, a FWD record and the championship!

FWD12 13.575 101.77 Bye		FWD12 11.031 129.01 FWD16 12.606 110.58
FWD17 12.889 109.54 FWD16 12.385 112.27
FWD14 Broke/Abort   FWD13 12.303 120.28		FWD13 15.931 88.40 Bye
Bye     Bye
FWD12 10.691 137.27 FWD13 12.077 122.23		Winner FWD12 - Scott Whitelaw

Street Class

The Street Class had big entries for the finals, and three people looking to take the championship all present and raring to go, and a few new entries too.

Street Qualifying

Three “breakouts” in qualifying saw Kevin Huntley, Jonny McKeon and Chris Impey running 9’s for the first time, but as it was faster than their index of 10.00, all three runs were not counted. Luckily for Chris Impey, he also ran an almost-perfect 10.029 to top the qualifying table, followed up by David Greenhalgh and new-boy George Beavers. Series leader Jonny McKeon’s best non-breakout run was a rather average 11.006, putting him mid-table, and Steve Mann languished at the bottom of the table with a 13.075, clearly not running at his best. 

Street Eliminations

In round one, Chris Impey had an easy run against a broken Steve Mann, but things were not looking too hot for the number one qualifier either, who coasted across the line suffering problems himself. Adrian Smith ran a reasonable 12 but his competitor Ian Worrall broke his driveshafts again to grind to a halt. Mick Begley ran a super 10.2 to knock out fellow Skyline driver David Malcolm, who could only manage a 11.4. Vincent Graham blasted his Evo around David Greenhallgh with an 11.1. Robert McKeon took on his namesake Jonny McKeon, but lost- Jonny running a great 10.5 to Robert’s 11.7. George Beavers proved to be a tough competitor, running a 10.5 to knock out Shane Smith, and Kevin Huntley ran a brilliant 10.8 to eliminate Gary Passingham, who was probably still struggling to see his dashboard through the smoke caused by his awesome burnout.

Round two started with stalling Chris Impey on a bye… but he still failed to get down the track, suggesting terminal problems from the RX7.Adrian Smith was beaten fair and square by a charging Mick Begley who ran yet another 10.2 against Adrian’s 11.4. Vincent Graham was knocked out by an 11.9 from Jonny McKeon to his faltering 14.3. George Beavers stormed to another 10 second run to pip Kevin Huntley to the post, despite Kevin’s massive terminal speed showing he was catching up fast.

In the semis, Chris Impey was a no-show against Mick Begley, who took it easy with a slow pass. But it was a very exciting and close race between Jonny McKeon and George Beavers in the other semi, with George off the line quicker and Jonny running the better time to give him the win. Both cars well into the 10’s.

The finals saw Skyline vs Skyline, Mick Begley vs Jonny McKeon. As the lights went green, Mick’s dreadful reaction times left him a car length behind Jonny, but his sheer power saw him creeping up on his hard-charging competitor. Mick’s terminal speed tells the tale of his catch-up operation, but it was just enough to give him a hard-fought win in the street class. Finally Mick experienced the reliability needed to run in the toughest of all classes, and Jonny’s consistency at battling through the rounds once again scored him big points: enough to claim the Street Class championship as his own. Exciting stuff.

Street32 20.994 59.59 Street19 Broke/Abort		Street32 Broke/Abort   Bye
Bye     Bye
Street12 12.038 112.46 Street31 Broke/Abort		Street12 11.458 137.66 Street22 10.293 138.06
Street22 10.291 138.91 Street28 11.450 126.05
Street18 12.364 130.34 Street35 11.142 125.59		Street35 14.338 107.44 Street17 11.985 89.79
Street23 11.794 103.67 Street17 10.588 113.05
Street33 10.514 131.22 Street36 11.933 122.23		Street33 10.514 131.22 Street11 11.291 144.58
Street11 10.854 107.92 Street37 11.790 131.93
Street32 Broke/Abort   Street22 24.476 56.33		Street22 10.283 138.92 Street17 10.646 117.48
Street17 10.349 120.29 Street33 10.604 124.66
Winner Street22 - Mick Begley

PRO Class

This class was suffering before the first wheel turned in qualifying, with Tim Webster out with an injury, and Steve Guirey, currently championship leader out with engine damage. Dee Ireland blew a head gasket in practice on Saturday, while Steve Whittaker was running 8.0s, so it looked like his for the taking.

Pro Qualifying

Sure enough Steve Whittaker ran an 8.8 in qualifying to put him top of the table, but the car faltered on every qualifying run, not quite achieving its potential. Leon Green came in a very close second, almost repeating his amazing Rotorstock performance. John Bradshaw managed a 9.3, nearly a second off the car’s potential, and Mark Moseley was going strong in his Skyline with a 9.4. Gary Gooding was unable to get the best from his RX7s engine, the newly built car propping up the bottom of the table.

Eliminations

As number one qualifier, Steve Whittaker had the advantage of a bye run, which he took very carefully, trying not to aggravate his increasing engine problems. John Bradshaw threw it all away in his round one with a red light, made all the more annoying by his competitor Mark Mosley coasting across the line with problems. John’s 9.8 second run counted for nothing! Leon Green didn’t have to work too hard to despatch Gary Gooding, who was starting to get some decent speed out of his RX7, but not enough to beat Leon’s 9.3.

In round two, Steve Whittaker had an easy job against Mark Mosley who was limped home again with problems, but Steve himself was looking increasingly weak as his own engine problems continued. Leaon Green was treated to a bye-run which he competed with an easy 10.2.

In the finals, it was Mk4 Supra against Mk3 Supra, and everyone knew it would be close. Steve Whittaker was not on form, but was not totally crippled either and Leon was strong, still looking capable of 8’s. As the lights went green, Steve made a great launch and was charging hard, but a stutter and a puff of smoke mid-track was enough to let Leon past. Towards the finish line, Steve was back on it and charging 10mph faster than Leon, but Leon got to the finish first to take the win. Phew, what a race! Steve’s finalist position in the Pro class, and top qualifier position scored him enough points to claim the Pro Class championship.

Pro12 11.822 89.44 Bye		Pro12 10.942 130.10 Pro36 23.129 49.90
Pro21 9.872 152.07 Pro36 24.432 34.91
Pro14 9.367 137.63 Pro37 12.902 120.32		Pro14 10.286 117.10 Bye
Bye     Bye
Pro12 9.076 146.12 Pro14 8.896 136.79		Winner Pro14 - Leon Green

Round 3 Points:

The season standings table is on the main 2007 Points page.