Meeting Report for Team Capricorn No. 1 Dragster
Nightfire Championships, Willowbank Raceway
April 10 1999

Team Capricorn started the day well, running a personal best elapsed time of 8.245 sec @ 159.29 MPH, first up, in air that our team have been waiting for, for some time now. We thought the air earlier in the year had been holding us back from the performances the car might be able to reach.
Our second and final qualifier went even better, with a personal best of 8.217 sec @ 161.70 MPH, our first 160+ MPH. Our time of 8.21 sec puts us at number 2 on the qualifying list for the meeting.

Round 1 saw us take the win light with a win against the redlighting hot rod of Darren Piddinton.

Round 2 and we went into the burnout area just in time to see the Daniel Stanic driven car of "Lucky" Belleri, crash into the fence in front of us, ensuring a delay in racing while the track staff cleaned up after the accident. Round 2 resumed with us opposite Graeme Frawley. Despite a 0.403 light to a 0.410 light, we lost the race as I had to back off, as I found the track very slippery were Stanic hit the fence. Our ET was 8.378 @ 158.90 MPH, thus ending our night.

We then headed off to the Northern Nationals, in Townsville, as the re-run Queensland Champs were once again washed out on the Anzac Weekend.


Meeting Report For Team Capricorn No. 1 Dragster
Northern Nationals, Townsville Raceway
May 2 1999

Our team travel to the Northern Nationals every year to contest this Championship round of the ADR Series. This year, the event was run on the Sunday, as it would clash with too many other sporting events on Saturday.

There was only a disappointing five (5) starters entered for the event, and come start time this came back to four (4), as one could not fix some problems they had. Our car top qualified on the day with 8.442, 8.350, & 8.255 sec. This small field of four meant that there would be only two rounds of racing.

Round 1 and we met Mike Fitzgerald, and despite Mike running spot on his dial in, we were lucky enough to win with a better reaction time.

Round 2 (Finals) We met the second qualifier, Arthur Telford, in the finals. We managed to pip him at the finish and win this Championship Round. This was the last chance to earn points for the series, and we go into the Winternationals with 120 points, 40 points behind the current Number 1, Anthony Selva from Victoria.


Meeting Report for Team Capricorn No. 1 Dragster
Butch Sutherland Memorial Meeting
Palmyra Dragway, Mackay

This is the meeting we look forward to this time every year in Mackay. The Dragway runs this meeting on a three round shootout, and after the rounds are run, the two highest point scores out of each bracket shoot out for the prizemoney. When the winners are decided, they in turn become eligible to race for the "Butch Sutherland Memorial Trophy". This year we were once again lucky enough to win our "top gun" bracket and go into the run off for this prestigious trophy. To win this, each finalist must select a dial in time and run against this dial in, and be the closest to this, on the safe side of the dial in. We were the lucky ones on the night, and we have now won this trophy four times, 1993, 1997, 1998 and 1999.

Our next meeting is the big one, the three day 1999 Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway at Ipswich on the Queens Birthday Weekend, 11-13 June, 1999.

Meeting Report for Team Capricorn No. 1 Dragster
Winternationals  11/12/13. June 1999

Willowbanks Big One for the year was a trouble free weekend for Team Capricorn No.1.  Even though we only got bumped out in the third round, we always seem to come out feeling as if we accomplished coming close to winning that elusive " AUSTRALIA NO. 1.". This year we only had to win the next couple of rounds and it looked like we had a good chance of doing this.This year it came down to the final round of racing to decide the winner. This being between last years Champion Anthony Selva and Sydneys Alan White, the win going to the latter Alan White.Our
Dragster went a best of  8.241 @ 160.08 M.P.H. at the meeting.

Meeting Report for Team Capricorn No. 1 Dragster
Mackay 26/6/99

This Meeting we entered into the "TOP GUN" Bracket, which consists of the fastest Eight Dragster,'T' Buckets and Sedans. After qualifing finished we were on the top of the field of the eight starters.Team Capricorn won the first and third rounds of the 'Chigago Shootout' Losing the second round after breaking a fuel injection belt at half track.After the count back on points we made it to the final against Dave Rickards who just happened to be our previous meetings final round opponent. This time the tables were turned as Team Capricorn Dragster Red Light it's way into Runner-Up position with a 8.360 @157.75M.P.H..

Our next meeting will be at Willowbank July 17th Winter Finals and Track Championship Finals for 1999.

Meeting Report for Team Capricorn No. 1 Dragster
Winter Finals 17th July 1999 
Willowbank Raceway. 

The Winter Finals at Willowbank usually produces some pretty good air and some fast times,this year was no exception as the relative altitude got down as low as -118 at the end of the night.Team Capricorn had a great days racing as we qualified No.3 in a field of 23. Our first two rounds went our way by our opponents red lighting themselves out of the race. Our third round was against Rodney Moore, the win light coming our way. A bye run in the fourth round gave us a chance to test our dial-in for the final round, an 8.306 on a 8.300  dial-in combined with a 405 reaction time gave us a bit of confidence going into the final against Graeme Frawley. In the final it was all over at the start when Frawley drew a red light ( 382 reaction ) and we drove it through for a 8.270 @ 160.26 m.p.h. for the win. This being the end of the Track Championships for 1999, we can only hope that next year can be a success for our team. Our next meeting will be at Palmyra at Mackay on the 7th August,1999. 

Meeting Report for Team Capricorn No. 1 Dragster
Palmyra Dragway Mackay 7th August,1999. 

This meeting was the usual Shootout Style of racing Palmyra hold. We Top Qualified this event with a 8.391 second pass. We ran three very tough rounds of racing during the night winning all three, putting us in the final against Neville Slatter. In the final it came down to the startline reactions that decided the outcome, and this and the win came Nevilles' way. The margin at the end only 017 of a second,that makes for great racing. We can't complain, three meetings at Palmyra this season and three final rounds. Our next meeting will be 11th September, 1999  back at Mackay.

Regards Dave Ferricks