GREGORINI'S START WA SEASON ON HIGH NOTE

The Scratch & Match Motorsport team has begun their season in fine style with an A Final win for Daniel Gregorini and a B Final victory for Lisa Gregorini in an unusual night of Top Doorslammer racing at Perth Motorplex.

With both cars choosing to skip the first qualifying session, the compulsory qualifying session showed that the Perth Motorplex surface is coming around this season. Lisa made a 6.11 pass to qualify second while Daniel aborted his run early.

“We left Adelaide’s tune ups in the car to see what Perth’s surface could hold,” Daniel explained. “We are lucky enough that we have a tyre rotator for track prep now, so Sharpie and the team can really get rubbing and give us killer race tracks. To me by surprise, the track took what both cars offered and it needed way more. Lisa’s pass got away with it whereas my car went into weak shake.”

The elimination round was next on the schedule and what followed was one of the strangest rounds of competition ever seen in the WA Top Doorslammer Championship. John Zappia couldn’t reverse after his burnout in the opening pass of the session, and then the gremlins seemed to catch Lisa’s Camaro.

“We went to fire up the car against Maurice Brennan and the onboard starter wouldn’t crank over,” she said. “I had to tell the crew to get the old spare starter motor to fire up the car. Daniel sent some of his crew over to assist, and by the time we managed to get the car fired up Maurice was already reversed back from his burnout. I rolled through and did a short burnout and backed up as quickly as I could. Unfortunately with everything that had happened, I was distracted and out of routine, and I put a red light on the tree. I have to give a big thanks to Maurice and his crew for being patient and waiting for us to be able to get the car fired up.”

Fortunately Daniel’s run was more successful, as a 5.81/253mph took the win light against Andrew Cole, who popped the burst panel shortly after launching.

“After our rattle in the qualifying round, I chose to get more aggressive with my car earlier in the run then back it down later in the track,” Daniel said. “It went 206mph to the half so it was really ‘on’ early in the run, then we slowed it down from there to work with the racing surface.”

Daniel’s pass secured him an A Final ticket while Lisa would appear in the B Final. With Andrew Cole’s car unable to be fixed in time for the B Final, Lisa took her run alongside John Zappia to give the crowd a good show. A 6.56 pass was the result, earning valuable championship points.

“We decided to make some changes to the car from earlier in the day for the final given that we basically had a free run up our sleeve, so we took the opportunity to get some data.”

Daniel then faced Maurice to decide who would claim the overall Quarter Mile Masters honours, with both racers getting into a pedal-fest for the trophy.

“I went after it early with a 0.951 60 foot time and I tried to ramp all the power in by two seconds to see what the track could really hold. It was just a touch too much and I went into wheel spin on the gear change, but a few pedals got it to the other end to beat my good mate Maurice.”

The focus for both Daniel and Lisa now turns back to the Australian Top Doorslammer Championship, with round two set to take place at the 49th annual Goldenstates Championship this weekend at Perth Motorplex. Much of the attention will be on Lisa as she takes part in the postponed final from the Springnationals which will take place in Q2.

“I can’t wait for the rerun of the final against Ronnie Palumbo,” she said. “Hopefully we can get our first ever event win at home in front of our home crowd!”

Daniel is just as excited to watch the action unfold.

“I can’t wait to keep building points in the championship, it should be a great event with Nitro Funny Cars, Top Bikes and Pro Alcohol along with the sportsman series,” he said. “Getting Lisa through qualifying and the finals re-run from Adelaide is our main goal. Seeing two rookies vying for their first win will be a lot of fun!”