NEWS

JUDD CONFIDENT BUT RATES BRAY HARDEST TO BEAT

Robin Judd in his first full season of doing the circuit will attempt to win his first Australian Top Doorslammer Championship title at the 2000 Konica Winternationals to be held at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland on June 9 -11.

If he wins it will be the first time a Group One National Drag Racing title has been held by a West Australian. It will also bring to an end the dominance of Victor Bray in Top Doorslammer who has won all four titles since the bracket's inception. This is the Final of the 8 Round series which saw the awesome 200+ mile per hour sedans travel to all the major tracks around the country. Between Judd and the title are point leaders Dave Koop(SA) and Victor Bray(QLD). This is the closest series ever and he must finish at least one position ahead of both Koop and Bray during elimination's to win the title.

Judd rates Bray the toughest to beat, he said "Dave has been very consistent this season but Victor's the one you can never underestimate. He is the godfather of the bracket and has the experience - one minute he looks beat then pulls something out of nowhere. Unlike most racers he experiments a lot, forever trying to go quicker and faster. In doing so he sacrifices consistency".

After winning Round 7 of the series last meeting and resetting the national record at Willowbank Raceway in April, Judd is being touted as the 'in form' racer and favorite for the event. Bray has been quoted saying "After the way he won the last event, Robin deserves to start favorite." In dragracing (in particular Top Doorslammer) there is no such thing as a sure bet. This is a bracket where anything can happen - and does. "You can have the quickest car on the day but you still need luck to go your way", Judd commented. "If we can continue where we left off last meeting I am confident we will do well - I just hope our luck holds out. The track and air conditions should be perfect and it would be great to put in some quick passes - even run another record, but really all we really want to do is win".

The Konica Winternationals is one of the most attended events on the Australian dragracing calendar with spectator attendance's exceeding 40,000 for the three-day event. Top Doorslammer is a crowd favorite. At the close of entries ten teams had nominated. In addition to Judd, Bray and Koop are Queenslanders Andrew Searle, Les Winter, Shane Elcoate and Brett Stevens, Victorians Peter Kapiris and Marcus Chambers and Sydney driver Steve Stanic.

Robin and his crew will fly to Brisbane two days before the event to put the finishing touches to the car. The 'Moonshine Bandit' was left in there in 'cotton wool' after the last meeting in mid April. "We carried out a lot of the servicing before coming home after the last meeting. It enabled us to get a lot of the routine preparation work out of the way, and assess what else had to be done so we could leave the car there. The last few weeks, with no car to work on, has been tough on the guys. They are itching to get back into it" Judd said.

Following the Winternationals a full report will be posted in the Results Page.