, I did manage a 12.9 @ 104
This was enough to qualify me in 4th even though Liam in the RX7 in the other lane ran 4/100ths quicker, his diff locked up after the finish but before we got to the relief road, so he couldn’t be weighed in and so his time didn’t count. John Stocker ran 13.0.
The pairings for the 1/4 final were a bit strange to say the least and I got paired with 2nd place man Jeff Ludgate who ran a 9.7 @ 149. Jeff had broken his rear diff on Saturday after waiting for 4 hours in the staging lanes due to the weather! We staged at 16.15 and only got to run at 20.15! His diff was fixed overnight after a part was collected from a friend.
This was not the end of it for Jeff though, he developed clutch problems in the final round of qualifying and wouldn’t make the 1/4’s so I effectively got a bye.
Another notable 1/4 final was 1st place man John Hanton in his R35 who had run 9.2 @ 160 against 5th place John Stocker in his 200sx. The R35 was however tripping into safety mode part way up the track as his ecu started seeing a drop in oil pressure on launch. This was one hell of a race. Hanton flew off the line, hit safety mode and Stocker started reeling him in ending with Stocker running 12.0x and Hanton running 12.1x, Hanton pipped Stocker by 8/100ths of a second on reaction time to take the win by 3/1000ths of a second! It was so close, neither driver knew who won until the slips were collected.
The semi finals turned out to be John Hanton with a bye and Liam in the RX7 racing me. Liam ran 11.3 in the 1/4s to beat Dave Greenhaulgh in his 1100 hp Skyline when he missed 2nd.
First up Liam and me, so I rolled up to the start and lit the pre stage lights, my plan being to let him fully stage and then make him wait a while before I fully staged and hopefully unsettle him a bit. No need, he broke in the burn out box! So once again I had a bye.
On the way back down the relief road I was already planning my strategy for the final against John Hanton who would go through as he had a bye in the semi finals. I pulled up to scrutineering to get weighed and the guy said " you won’t have heard this but you have just won" I said “I know the RX broke in the burn out box”, the guy said “no you have just won, John Hanton forgot to stage before trundling up the track and therefore disqualified himself, it just came over the radio”!
Apparently that is 2 fists in one day, the first time someone in the JDS has forgotten to stage and the first time anyone has won in their ‘spare’ car!
So all in all, I didn’t actually get to race ANYONE in the 1/4s, semi’s or final…what a weird weekend, but I’ll take the points, trophy and prize money any day of the week! 
:lol:
Round 1 of the JDS to the GTO!!!
André
