Athol explained “We were crossing our fingers that the meeting wasn’t going to be destroyed by bad weather, which had been the case with the two previous meetings (Australian Nationals and Summer Nationals). For those of you who don’t know what a “Christmas Tree” is in drag racing terms, it is the golden trophy, depicting the start line lights that ANDRA gives to winners at only three meetings per season, and it is highly sought after by racers.  We wanted to get the whole series,” smiled the affable Kiwi.
 
“The time and dedication of the team members cannot be cannot be thanked enough.  Roger, our crew chief had landed on the previous Saturday, and set the container up.  Trevor landed on the Tuesday from Wellington to assist with getting bits and pieces on the bike ready – the flights out of Wellington are extremely early, so the day was literally 24 hours long and that is nothing out of the ordinary.  The rest of the New Zealand crew arrived on Thursday and last but not least Daniel (our token Aussie) flew down from Brisbane on the Friday morning the 1st May.  Also on this occasion, Steve and Margie Paris arrived from Darwin on the Saturday, and were present in the pits and helping in a big way as they have so often done in the past.  They are considered part of the team and are so enthusiastic, we really wouldn’t want to be without them.  Anyway that’s the team the lead up, - a lot of organisation and dedication just to get there.”
 
“Our first qualifying run was scheduled for 8pm Friday night – it turned out to be 9:15pm and Jay Upton went out first with Craig Bonwick.  For those of you reading this you will probably know the outcome of that run, Jay’s bike headed directly in front of Craig in the left hand lane, tossing Jay off at 194mph and the bike then hit the left wall, with Craig just managing to go between the bike and Jay.  The bike was totally destroyed, and Jay was lucky to get up and walk.  Not a nice sight as you’re waiting to race.”
 
“The track took some time to be cleared but when our turn came round, the result was fantastic for the team, crowd and track after Jay’s devastating incident.  First run of the meeting and we produced an E.T of 6.169 at 238.51 mph, both better than the Australian records!  This was another one of the team’s goals and we were half way to achieving it.”
 
“The next day meant we had three qualifying runs available and we wanted to do them all; 4pm, 6pm and 8pm.  Second qualifying run and first one of the day and we go out and produce a 6.179 at 232.87mph – well that backed up our record breaking ET from the night before and set the mph record at the lower speed just achieved.  Great!  But Aaaargh, I had to get off the brakes to pull the bike away from the wall leaving him not enough room to stop and put the front wheel in the sand trap.  Not what we expected to happen, but nowhere near as bad as Perth when the entire bike ended up in the trap.  A bit of cleaning needed to be done, not too difficult.”
 
“Second run of the day and I had to do a bit of tough riding to keep the bike away from the wall but still kept the peddle down, so to speak, and popped out a 6.176 ET at another 238.51mph – exactly the same as our first qualifying pass – how’s that! Well the records were well and truly stamped by Stud Racing now! Good one!”
 
“Anyway, last qualifying run, and Amanda Shepherd’s top fuel car had blown up big time making a big mess in the right hand lane, so all the top bike field had to run solo passes down the left lane.  By this time the track had gone off and was getting slippery, resulting in our last pass of the day being a 6.25 at 232mph.  Still a reasonable pass, but it seemed just a bit ‘Ho Hum’ after the previous runs.  Never mind.”
 
“Everyone was eager to get back to the pits, to start tinkering, and to get some tucker – it was late (like usual) and there were a few adjustments to be done into the night in servicing the bike. As Jay wasn’t in the elimination line-up, this ticked one thing off our list of goals for elimination day, we knew we had the Championship.  Not exactly how we wanted to take the win, in fact it was a sad way, we weren’t jubilant. Nevertheless, we still had a goal to achieve, that was to win the meeting.”
 
“The next morning arrived with a few things to get done before racing at 11:30am.  The guys were on a mission while Sharon and I went up to collect the ‘Longest Distance Travelled’ award, and Top Qualifier award.  Half an hour later and we were in staging for the quarter final eliminator round.  There were only seven bikes in the field so, as we were number one qualifier, versus number eight qualifier, we had a solo pass.  The bike was started and it didn’t sound quite right.  I proceeded thru the water trough and then remained seated on the bike while the crew pushed him to within a metre of staging. I toe’ed myself into stage, the bike wasn’t sounding right still, so when the tree came down he move forward slightly and then shut it down.  The ANDRA official disqualified our team on the pretext that the bike didn’t go into stage under power – my toes were on the ground.  All bikes stage like that, so a protest was lodged, money paid and the decision was overturned.  In turn a protest in regard to the overturning decision was lodged by another team, and that was disallowed.”
 
“Anyway, the fact is we were still in the running and the crew had to put their thinking caps on for a short while to fix the mechanical problem – not a major.”
 
“The semi final time came round rather quickly and we were out up against Phil Parker. The run was uneventful and ran as expected producing a 6.66 ET at 217mph, not fast but sufficient to gain the win and put us into the final.  We felt all okay.”
“We were looking forward to racing Chris Porter in the final round – they are a great bunch of guys and it was Chris’s first top bike final, he was chuffed.  A Kiwi, against an Aussie, a metric bike against a Harley, like Holden and Ford scenario.  The end result, another win to the Stud Racing team and the fourth Christmas tree trophy for our cabinet! Not bad for a bunch of Kiwi’s who make their own engines, no not assemble them, actually hand make them from billet our own crankshafts, crankcases, barrels, primary drive and auxiliary drives!”
 
FAST FACTS
Number One Qualifier
Top ET (bonus points)
Event Win
Top MPH (bonus points)
Gained the Sydney ET track record
Gained the Sydney mph track record
Gained the National ET record
Gained the National mph record
Became the 15th quickest bike in the world (ET)
Became the 4th fastest bike in the world (mph)
Became the fastest bike outside the USA
Gained 110 points and wrapped up (WON) the Championship with one round to go                    
Have 5 out of a possible 6 track records (Perth, Sydney and Brisbane)
Have 2 out of 2 ANDRA records
Became the first kiwi team to win an ANDRA championship
Became the first international team to win an ANDRA championship
 
Stud Racing Would Like To Thank -
Chris and Virginia Thornton of The Organic Coffee King Pty Ltd

Also Thanks For the Continuing Seasonal Support From -
Stud Welding New Zealand Ltd
Jackson Electrical Ltd
HILTI
APS Tools (Lista)
Gates Racing Ltd
Crystal Colour Graphics Ltd
R B Performance Ltd
Redline Oil
Rocket Industries
AND we would like to welcome on board Mondiale Freight.
          
Crew
Athol Williams - Rider
Roger Bloor - Crew Chief (RBP Performance Ltd)
Bruce McGonnell - Number Two Man
Mike Gearing
Trevor Fellows
Daniel Booby
Sharon Williams
Steve and Margie Paris