Sheehan Repeats at ANDRA Round Three

Canada’s fellow “commonwealthers” were in action last weekend as the  ANDRA Top Fuel Championship chase continued in far West Australia.   Mark Sheehan emerged a winner for the 2^nd time in his career….

Mark Sheehan won at the Perth Motorplex (located at Kiwana Beach) taking victory in spectacular fashion during round three for the 2012/13 ANDRA Top Fuel championship.  Sheehan’s only other previous TF win had also come at Perth back in January 2012.

After Sheehan defeated Morgan in the opening round he was able to eliminate Phil Lamattina in the final round.   Lamattina remains winless so far this season despite three straight final round appearances driving the Fuchs-sponsored dragster.

The final was a dramatic nitro pedal-fest, with both drivers on and off the throttle as they attempted to get 8000 horsepower to hook up to a cooling race track. Sheehan’s 5.40 just nudged over the finish line ahead of a 5.55 from Lamattina.

The Western Australian driver said he did feel a little guilty about playing the spoiler while disrupting Darren Morgan’s otherwise perfect season.

“A win’s a win and I’m proud for all the guys on my team but I felt genuinely bad about beating Darren,” he said. “However all these guys are serious competitors so it is good to be able to have a win against them.  We’re still waiting to take that ‘solid’ win where we can come out and run some regular 4.60s and really earn it.”

Mark Sheehan continues to emerge as a Top Fuel racing power in the ANDRA

Sheehan did benefit from some imported tuning experience from the U.S.at the event.  John “Bodie” Smith was brought over for the event as a consultant.

“The car hasn’t even got 20 laps on it yet and I’m still learning to drive it,” Mark added. “But every lap is getting better and all the little things are starting to string together so it becomes fast all over.”

With his runner-up Lamattina was able to move well within striking range of Darren Morgan’s championship lead, with just nine points separating the two.  Phil collected some bonus points for low ET and top speed following a 4.66/522.86 kmh pass in the first round.

The second round of the ANDRA Top Bike championship also presented an upset winner as Terry Burnett won his first ever national event.

The Western Australian rider used a 7.07 time in the final to defeat Graeme Morell who was also seeking his first win.  It was just Burnett’s fourth time in competition but putting together a consistent race day package proved critical for the relatively new team.

“We’re totally rapt, we did extremely well by running three 7.0s in a row and be able to repeat that performance is pretty awesome in my eyes,” he said.

Burnett now has plans to pursue some more rounds in the championship.

“I think at this stage we will head toAdelaide after doing some more testing here to get it to where it is competitive and fast enough,” he said.

Terry Burnett won for the first time in ANDRA’s Top Bike category

Photos and Posting by:  Luke Nieuwhof

Event Essentials:   Perth Motorplex (Kiwana Beach WA) Nov. 30^th-Dec. 1^st, 2012