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Brisbane 15th - 17th July 2011 We all turned into weather gurus in the weeks between the ‘Castrol Edge’ Winternationals weekend 10-13th June and the rescheduled rain out re-run on 15-17th July. Constantly watching the weather channel and hoping it would allow us to complete the championship season. No one would believe the 4 beautiful weekends Brisbane had after the first attempt but even more impossible to believe was the forecast for the upcoming re-run, clouds, clouds and more clouds. This forecast had many competitors opt out of returning for the re-run not wanting to risk the time and expense for a second time. However GWM had no choice, we had to return and continue the battle for the championship title. On the Friday Supercharged Outlaws was given a test session after the 5 week break, before heading into the final qualifying session. After qualifying was complete Matt had the altered placed nicely in the field at 11th position with a 7.01 ET. Unfortunately on Friday night we could hear the droplets falling on the pit marquee but hoped we’d rise to a blue sky, this wasn’t the case and Saturday was completely rained out. Restlessness grew as the men tinkered with the altered keen to get on track again. And so on Sunday we could finally hit the staging lanes ready to race. You couldn’t find a more nervous team in the lanes. There was lots of pacing and fingers crossed, we all knew what this one round could do with that gold Christmas tree dangling in front of Matt. Paired up against John Loy’s torana, Matt dialled in with a 7.02 ET. Both cars left with good reactions but disappointingly the altered slowed in clear sunny skies, losing the race with a 7.12 ET. The GWM team were now spectators and kept a very close eye on 3 other teams that could snatch away the championship win. Again rain interrupted racing moments before Supercharged Outlaws were to run the finals. The final pairing was Marsden, who wasn’t a threat to our championship lead and Steven’s, who with a win was in a position to take out the title. Due to the rain Willowbank Raceway officially announced the Winternationals a rainout and would take time to determine how to finalise the 2010/2011 season. Along with some other categories outlaws needed the finals to be run to determine the championship winner. The nervous wait begun............ Finally it was announced that both cars in the final pairing would each get the minimum points for a final, as the ANDRA rule book states. YES this means Matt and Guy Watts have taken out Supercharged Outlaws Australian Number 1 for the 2010/2011 season and narrowly missed out on taking the Willowbank track championship award. A gold Christmas tree, the dream of many drag racers will be presented to Matt at the upcoming presentations in Sydney this September, with celebrations sure to follow. As we are weeks away from heading into the new championship season, we are also taking with us the many highs of the past season and the many new skills picked up on the way. But none of this could have been achieved without the GWM sponsors, family and friends, thank you to all. End of 2010 is already shaping up to be a busy one for the team, kicking off with the NT Titles in Darwin August 21st. Also Round 1 of the Rocket All Stars season @ Sydney Dragway the 9th – 11th September, the very next weekend in Alice Springs 17 – 18th September and followed by an appearance at Port Augusta car show October 22nd. |
