ROUND 3 of the Australian National Drag Racing Association Top Sportman series went down to the wire at Mildura, with a decidedly Mount Gambier flavour.
The Sunset Strip Nationals saw Limestone Coast driver Jason Arbery win his second round of the season, defeating fellow Mount Gambier racer Glenn Henley in the final.
To add to the “local” flavour, Arbery defeated his chassis builder Brett Henley in the semi-final, before facing Glenn for the round win.
Arbery said it was good to claim the win, even against a mate.
“We are good mates and it is never ideal racing your mates,” he said.
“But in a final, one has to win and one has to be runner-up, so it was pretty cool.”
As is usually the case in drag racing, the final went down to the wire, with both cars dialled in at 5.20 seconds to cover the eighth-mile track.
In the sportsman’s class a driver cannot go faster than their dial in time, which made for a tight final.
“If you are both on your dial, it comes down to reaction time,” Arbery said.
“Whoever puts the best package together at the start and the end is the winner.
“Glenn red lit by 7/1000th of a second, so he managed to hand the win to me.
“He ran a really good race and was right on his dial in, so it was a shame for him.
“I think his package was better than mine.”
Despite the victory, Arbery had to work hard all weekend to stay ahead of the pack.
He headed to the round leading the season points tally, but faced Darren Saliba in the opening run, who defeated him in Round 2 at Alice Springs.
“To face Darren Saliba in the opening round, I had to do everything I could to make it stick,” Arbery said.
“I really didn’t want to go two nil against him.
“But you have to put the pressure aside and throw everything you know at it, then you put it into practice and hope you are right.
“I beat him to the finish by 4/1000th of a second at 130 miles per hour – that’s not much.”
From there he faced Vlado Turic, who managed a perfect reaction time, but Arbery still managed the victory.
“He was a bit off his dial-in, which was unusual for him,” Arbery said.
“He dialled faster than what he actually ran, which left me enough room to get under him.”
From there it was the Henley boys and the rest is now history.
Arbery was philosophical about beating his mates to the line.
“You would always prefer to race your mates in the closing stages of the day,” he said.
“You don’t want to race them in the first round.
“If you are lucky enough with the draw and the qualifying, the way the seeding works, if you don’t race your mates the first or second round, that is really cool.
“After that, everyone throws their best at the race and everyone is out to win.”
The result gave Arbery his maximum 300 points for the season and is now an automatic contender for the championship.
He said that scenario certainly helps in the upcoming rounds.
“I feel fortunate to be in this position,” he said.
“Now I can relax a bit and the pressure is on the other guys who want to max out, but I’m going to do my best to stop them.”
While it also means Arbery does not need to contend the upcoming rounds, he is certainly keen to push harder, especially with two rounds in Portland.
At the end of the day Arbery said he was simply pleased to come away with another round win.
“There was a big field and they are all contenders,” he said.
“There are no slouches and there are no easy races.
“We had to dig deep and earn that one, so it was definitely a happy feeling at the end to take the win.”
