8 April, 2007

Roma's Ironbark Raceway once again proved that the tracks Easter in the Country Festival drag meeting is its most popular for the year, with a record number of entrants again. 99 competitors took advantage of the holiday break to burn some rubber legally.

Last year the Harley Davidson riders had a big meeting in Sydney and could not attend the Easter in the Country Festival meeting. They were back in numbers this year. There were five brackets for bikes. Three of them being for Harleys only and all of which were sponsored by East Coast Customs.

Russell Grulke, of Grulke Concreting, sponsored the Pre 1980 Motorcycle bracket. Guess who won it? His brother Howard Grulke from Herberton, near Cairns, onboard a 1972 Honda.

Warren Dunn has won the Open Bike bracket at the last two years Easter meetings. He almost repeated that win again, losing the final of the D & R Motorcyles Open Bike to Colin Crane.

The Longest Distance award went to Garth O'Hehir from Melbourne.

Kerry Wilkie completed her ANDRA licence testing on the Sunday. The special thing about that is that Kerry is a paraplegic. Her Cortina is fitted with hand controls and was painted by year 10 art students from the Wilsonton Campus of the Toowoomba State High School. She fittingly received the Encouragement Award.

Winners and runners up received trophies and cash prizes up to $125. The 2006 Easter in the Country meeting was sponsored by the Club Hotel, Taylors Spare Parts, Pumps 'n' Solar, D & R Motorcycles, Betta Electrical, Kimlin's Camping World, Giants Liquor, Repco Auto, Reliance Petroleum, Xtreme Force and South State Fuels (Ampol).

Troy Barrett broke the track record for non supercharged competition cars with a 5.80 pass in his dragster. The time was also the fastest for the day and Troy received the Bob Godfrey Memorial Trophy for Lowest ET of the day.

Chris van'tHof debuted a new car. He broke the track record for non supercharged sedans with a 5.86 pass in his Camaro. Chris says that there are better times in the new car, he just has to get used to driving it. He received the Bob Godfrey Memorial Trophy for Lowest Sedan ET of the day.

The Toowomba drag racers challenged the local Roma racers to a Chicago Shootout. After three rounds of racing, the final was between Danny Johnson from Roma and Norm Self from Toowoomba. Danny took the win to secure the challenge for the Roma team.

The Kimlin's Camping World award for a 0.400 perfect light was once again unclaimed. It was standing at $600 for 2007 and will now jackpot to $700 when competitors return for the 2008 Easter in the Country meeting.

Results, Gallery

Bracket	Winner Runner Up
Taylors Parts Centre Modified	Wayne Wall Shane Seawright
Xtreme Force Super Sedan	Ross Finger Tony Inglis
Chinchilla TV & Electronics Street	Sean Casey Pat O'Neal
D & R Motorcyles Open Bike	Colin Crane Warren Dunn
Grulke Concreting Pre 1980 Motorcycle	Howard Grulke Mike Pembroke
Toowoomba Hillbillies VS Roma Rednecks	Danny Johnson (Roma) Norm Self (Toowoomba)
East Coast Custom - S&S 124 Challenge	Marc Houssenloge Daniel Farmer
East Coast Custom - S&S Pro Gas Series	Barry Wright Steven Fakes
East Coast Custom - Hooker Headers Hot Street Push Rod Series	Craig Houssenloge Daniel Farmer
Quickest Sedan	Bob Godfrey Memorial Trophy Chris van'tHof - 5.86
Lowest ET of the day	Bob Godfrey Memorial Trophy Troy Barrett - 5.80