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Dragster Australia Magazine S.A. Tri - Series / March 06
The Dragster Australia Tri-Series finals were held at Whyalla, with a rained out second round most of the points leaders made the trip to compete. With 60 entries the only non running bracket was Super Gas which had problems getting the 4 required entries for a bracket. With weather change and rain forecast it was going to be hard for the late start of racing to be completed. The day started very hot with a north wind but by late afternoon the wind changed direction and the rain clouds came rolling in, with a few minor rain spits it was looking good to get a finish but the sky opened up at the Semis or finals of racing to put a end of racing for the night, a meeting was held and a vote was made to run on the Monday to get a winner with only 3 racers unable to compete due to other commitments.

Mitch Orchison	Paul Walkom	Gary Busch
Modified had 9 entries with Alex VanLeuven damaging the diff of the rail in time trails. Paul Walkom top Qualified on a 5.189 time for the 1/8^th mile with bill Cozier on a 6.111 on the bump. Series point’s leader Mitch Orchison was mid field in the altered. Walkom made his was to the finals by David Blackly sleeping on the line with a 1.24 reaction time (.4 lights) and slowing to a 5.64 on a 5.2 DI for the easy win. Mitch Orchison red lighted his chance away with a .38 RT and Walkom bracking out with a 0.005 under 5.225 run. The other finalist was the Mega Shoot out winner Gary Busch faced Bill Cozier in the first round but a .624 RT sealed Cozier’s fait. Glen Tozer gave Busch a close race with both drivers’ reaction times in the mid .4’s and only .03 of a second separating them at the line. At this point the rain came so the finals on the Monday, Paul Walkom got the better reaction time .446 to a .469 but a 5.484 on a 5.45 DI from Busch was enough to take the win over Walkom’s 5.305 on a 5.23 DI. In the points it was a tie between Orchison and Busch, the winner was who went the most rounds at the final, so Busch was the Series Champion.

Paul Roberts	Reg Robert	Wayne Rowland
Super Sedan had 15 entries with local Graham Shiell top qualifier in the Dodge Challenger with a 6.005 with Greg Cowie’s Pontiac Firebird on the bump with an 8.195. Graham Shell made the finals with a solo first round, next was Lance Larcombe’s HX Holden with a .078 over 5.976 from Shiell, but a red light put Larcombe on the trailer. Then the rain interrupted at the semis. Next day it was Reg Robert’s Holden HQ with a .003 over 6.353 was not helped with a .522 reaction time from Robert’s with Shiell better .472 reaction time helped his .043 over 5.943 time. The other side of the ladder had the series point’s leader Wayne Rowland traveling over from Hamilton Vic, Herman Tosti gave Rowland the bye in the first round to due mechanical problems. Next was Dave Adams Ford Cortina to fall. The Firebird of Cowie was unable to run the next day for the semi run giving Rowland the bye to the finals. Rowland had Shiell covered with a better .475 to a .523 reaction time and all the way to the line but a .008 under 6.282 handing the win to Shiell’s Challenger. Runner up Wayne Rowland walked away with the Series win and the Whyalla Trophy Shop for the best appearing car and crew.

Trevor Case	Anthony Raschella	Darren Kellaway
Super Street had Darren Kellaway XD ford in the top qualifiers position with a 7.034 on a 7.00 cut off. Kellaway having a win at the Western Nationals had an easy bye with Marion Rix in the Corvette breaking on the start line. With an uneven number of competitors giving Kellaway the bye run second round. Kellaway got lucky when Ben Newman had a .009 under 7.391 breakout run. The Semis was a bye run for Kellaway due to Nenad Stolic unable to compete the next day. The other side of the ladder it was Anthony Raschella in the borrowed American Muscle Cars 68 Dodge Charger having an easy win from mark Jackman’s 1.802 reaction time. Bruce Pain in the little 202ci Holden Gemini had a .175 over 7.475 second run to Raschella’s .025 over 7.675 run in the big Dodge. Raschella got the bye to the semis. Jeremy Matters was unable to compete the next day due to commitments. With Raschella and Kellaway both getting byes in the semis both pushed to see what the cold track could take with Kellaway running under the 7.0 index. Raschella tried to make up on a .646 reaction time to run .102 under 7.588 to Kellaway’s .045 over 7.045 for Kellaway to take the meeting and series win, now the triple (Australia number one plate) to come, good luck on that Darren.

Kieran Belamarie	Ian Cameron	Si Heaslip	Mark Tattingham
Modified Bike with eight bikes Chris Bernard was top qualifier with a 6.992 but a 6.976 on a 7.00 dial first round allowed Kieran Belamarie to get to the semis. Matt Walden had a bad run with a 8.655 on a 7.70 wasting a .413 reaction time to allow Belamarie to the finals. Mark Tattingham had Iwo Belamarie first round with a .444 over 8.864 from Iwo not good enough as a .325 over 7.725 from Tattingham. Si Heaslip was the next opponent to fall with a .831 reaction time and a .452 over 7.342 from Heaslip to Tattingham’s .234 over 7.634 times. The finals were held the next day due to the rain with both riders getting poor reaction time in the .7’s and Belamarie running a bit too hard .02 under 7.420 to had the win to Tattingham on a .091 over 7.491 time. The win gave Tattingham the series win for the second time.

Michelle Donnelly		Robert Page	Greg Brown
Junior Dragster had only one car turn up with Michelle Donnelly making solo runs with a best of 12.902 at 47mph on the night. Neil Mellet took out the series win in his last year in the JD. With two cars having runs outside of the brackets with Greg Brown in the Trans Am Funny car running a 5.075 at 108.93mph and Robert Page doing licensing passes in the ex Rob Tucker Oldsmobile Pro-Stock with a best 1.347 60 ft time (did not do a full 1/8 mile run).