Times for Bracket Bonanza at Melbourne Raceway, Sun 31st August 2025
BRACKET BONANZA
Track records are made to be broken and that’s what Pro Competition drag racer and British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Mark Flavell did at the Bracket Bonanza, not once but twice.
With the teams Mustang II Cobra bodied Funny Car sounding meaner than it’s ever done before Mark pushed the boundaries of the cars 426ci blown Hemi to its limit’s mid-afternoon to the tune of 4.742s to dismiss his established 4.84s record set around this time last year. But like all good things the absolute best came in the Pro Comp final. Matched against Marcin Szwed’s ‘Pacemaker’ Pontiac Firebird the nostalgia inspired Mustang sounded sweet and strong, and if there was mail to be hauled this was it – 4.679s at 160.52 mph. Well done Mark. All that blood, sweat and toil has certainly paid off to become Melbourne Raceway’s quickest accelerating piston powered vehicle. What’s next – 4.5s…!
Five competitive bikes contested the sixth round of the 660 Championships. Rob Kneeshaw’s GSX Suzuki got a lucky dog bye in the first round before coming up against Damien Hope’s Hayabusa in the semi’s and Pete Slater’s Hayabusa. Slater arrived in the final having taken out Dave Knight’s GSX in round 1 followed by a bye into the final where, having dialled-in a 5.68 ran a 5.867 to Rob’s 7.079 (6.78 dial).
The 660 Scooter final came down to a duel between past master Eric Cope and Green Light Scooter teamster Jamie Lawn. Running in a new GLS combo, at the finishing stripe both Jamie and Eric broke out of their respective dial-in times, 8.976s on a 9.20 dial to Eric’s 7.838s on a 7.90 dial so Eric broke out the least.
Friends in play and friends on track, the 660 Juniors final gave us another encounter between Alfie Barraclough and winner Toby Jackson. Dialling in a 10.41 gave Toby just enough to trip the win timer first in 10.514s to Alfie’s closing 10.815s. The 660 Junior Sprint Car eliminations produced a final between the ‘Shorter Mixer’ Halfscale Junior Dragster driven by Dexter Wilson against the 250 Honda Drag Kart of Jude Elliott. With the 460cc former Harry Redshaw winning dragster dialled in with a 9.02 14 year old Dexter mashed the loud pedal to stay ahead at the stripe in 9.251s covering Jude’s 10.954s.
With just two rounds to go 660 Car points leader Pete Lane didn’t want to make the journey home without a win. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen having drawn Bob Molden’s ‘White Noise’ 427ci Peugeot 205 in the opening round. In fact Bob ran through the field to get to the final by taking out Pete’s blown Firebird, the LS turbo powered Ford 100e of Mark Betts, and then himself by going red ( -0.046 RT) to hand the win over to a very surprised Phil Thompson whose CBR Honda Blackbird powered Land Rover inspired kit car had a bye in the opening round before being gifted a win against Shaun Rounthaite’s Sierra P100 Pick Up truck who went red in the semis. Phil’s best time of the eliminations was an 8.158s.
The final of the No Mercy Bike Shootout featured the former Superstock ZX10R of Carl Mountford and GSXR of Phil Thomlinson. Carl started his afternoon with a lucky dog bye, a tight encounter with brother Simon before a close semi-final against Ashley Hodgson’s GSXR. On Phil’s side of the ladder his afternoon started with wins against Max Thornton, the Honda VTR of Pat Brookes, and Damien Hope’s Hayabusa. The eventual win went to Carl’s Kawasaki with a 6.341s to 6.626/116.50 mph.
No Mercy Scooters eventually ended up in a dog fight against the Motec boys, Mike Pacey and Stephen Holt. A couple of breakouts also played its part in proceedings to knock both Eric Cope and Stuart McVicker out of eliminations. In the end it was Stephen’s Lambretta GP taking the win with a 8.230 against an 8.00 dial over Mike’s rapid Rotax with an 8.839 on an 8.67 dial.
The two No Mercy Junior races were a virtual replay of the 660 finals but this time it was young Alfie who took the win light over Toby K2 Benelli, 10.807 on a 10.77 dial to 10.472 on a 10.46 dial. With Dexter Wilson’s ‘Shorter Mixer 2’ dragster out after a breakout 8.92 on a 9.02 dial, this left the way open for Jake Little’s Dragster to face the Honda Kart of Jude Elliott who eventually took the win in 10. 953s to Jake’s 11.207s.
Colin Fallows picked up more points towards the Race Legends Championship after former car racer Bob Hancox pulled a red on his 750 Suzuki GSXR by a wide margin to leave Colin’s Kawasaki to run a clear 8.006s.
The final bike class to run was the 6.00 Bracket Class where Chris Hodgson’s naturally aspirated 1300 Hayabusa came up against Maxine Taylor’s BMW 1000RR in the final. With wins against the Katana of Chris Jacobs, and Phil Thomlinson, Hodgson pulled the pin in the final with a 6.017s to Maxine’s rapid 6.179s.
Rounds 9 and 10 for the National Street Car Challenge produced another fine win for the Phil Winstanley’s Chevy V8 powered ’56 Morris Minor although he had to wait a whole 12 hours until Sunday morning (due to rain late Saturday afternoon) to take the win from the 100e of Jamie Hughes, 6.318s to 7.135s. With seventeen cars contesting round 9 this was added by a further 4 for Sunday’s round which again gave us a Phil Winstanley showdown but this time it was MK2 Cortina of veteran class racer James Murray to give Phil a sound thrashing. The Mad Professor Ian Walley drew Phil in the first round, both put on a side-by-side 6 second street car show, 6.108s to the Cortina’s 6.551s. With wins over Scott Presland, some chap called Bye, and then Grace Sleath, Phil again saved the best till last in another do or die 6 second shootout which in effect was won on the start line with reaction times of .066 RT against the Cortina’s .412 RT. As the Minor picked up its skirts and ran an all-out nitrous assisted 6.618s to James’ quicker 6.486s.
The final car class with the first championship of the season on the line was American Super Stock with a stellar 16 car field with several visitors from the Nostalgia Super Stock series. Qualifying nearest to dial in gave Tyler Smith the top spot having run three thousandths close to the Mustang’s 7.363 on a 7.36 dial. Tyler also posted a reaction time of .007 as well on this pass. In fact, once dialled into the track every driver quickly picked up on the track’s characteristics and how to set their cars run against their dial in times. The final eventually fell to previous round winner Jared Heathcote and Dave Billadeau. With dial in’s established Jared knew what he had to do to maintain the Nova’s head start by dialling in 8.05 to Dave’s 6.38. Registering the quicker RT (.028 to .058) Jared was off and away but as Dave’s Duster started to reel in the Nova it took a breakout against Jared to decide the win, 6.395s to 7.963s. Well done Dave, great win on your return to Melbourne Raceway. Once all the points had been processed with the seasons best 4 to count it was announced that Tyler Smith had done enough to be crowned 2025 American Super Stock Revival Champion with 310 pts followed by Craig Elliott (299) and Jared Heathcote in third with 290 pts.
Words by Jerry Cookson
#straightliners #melbourne raceway #dragracing #motorsport
| Times | Download |
| No Mercy | Download |
| Bike Eliminations | Download |
| Six Sixty | Download |
| Car Eliminations | Download |
| NSCC Saturday | Download |
| NSCC Sunday | Download |
| American Super Stock List of Runs | Download |
| American Superstock Best Times | Download |
| American Super Stock Eliminations | Download |
| American Super Stock Points | Download |
