After qualifying finished and the field was set for race day, Victor came up against his old mate John Zappia. Ben was hoping Bray Senior could stop Zap in his tracks and help Ben bridge the gap in the ANDRA Championship points.

Unfortunately for Ben, part one of the Westernationals wish list would not come true. On the start line Victor moved into the pre-stage beams, brought the revs up and edged into full stage. The car then rolled the beams and moved forward bringing on a very rare red light for the Castrol EDGE 57 Chevy.

"I was very disappointed with that result, Zapp did not make a very good pass at all. He was only able to manage a very unstable 6.215 at 234MPH and that is well below the standard we have all come to expect from John. It was an opportunity to close him down and I missed it. But that is way the cookie crumbled," Victor said.

Ben had no trouble in his first round, putting down a new personal best and very straight 6.024 at 238.21 to defeat Maurice Fabietti 6.345 at 233.90. Ben then lined up against a struggling John Zappia, and managed to bring on the win light with a 6.099 at 234.37 compared to Zapp's 6.20 at 235.68.

The stage was now set for a final against fellow Queenslander Brett Stevens. The second generation drag racer had driven the Castrol EDGE Monaro faultlessly all weekend. Ben fought a hard battle off the line but a gearbox failure on the 1- 2 shift stopped Ben’s forward progress.

"John is still the man to beat but boy, that semi final felt good," said Ben.

"John has run a heap of five second passes and other than this weekend, he has been in every final this year. Not qualifying at the East Coast Nationals at the start of the season really hurt me in the points. I would have won tonight, should have qualified at the East Nationals and could have won when we were here back in December, but you don't get points for woulda, shoulda, coulda".

"Even though we lost the final, we had a great weekends racing, we have ironed out some of the 60 foot shake problem we have been having and making six passes with three of them being 6.0's is not a bad day out. We have six weeks between now and the Tin Top Titles at Willowbank Raceway and Dad has plenty R&D he would like to do. He already has some test days booked at Willowbank. We would like to get both cars right on the minimum weight and if the conditions are right, having the two cars running first five second passes. I'm sure the rest of the Doorslammer field has the same aim, so we'll be looking forward to getting it on," Ben said.

The Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway on June 6th to 8th is the final round of the ANDRA Championship Series and is known for producing excellent conditions conducive to record setting performances.