at the moment. I’m not overly concerned about
it because I have another couple of cars to drive
- the Top Fuel car and the Jett Racing ute – but
I do intend to get my dragster back on track.
How is the Jett Racing Datsun ute? It’s
just started to run in the sixes.
Yes, its old PB was a seven flat, but at the
Brisbane Jamboree last August, which we won,
I ran a 6.96@195mph. We now want to try
and get that thing running consistent 6.90s and
even dip into the 6.80s.
Still the same motor?
It’s the same motor – turbocharged Mitsubishi
4G63 – and it’s essentially the same set-up;
we’re just tweaking things with the set-up and
the suspension to get down the track smoother
and faster. It’s always had the engine to be
producing these times, it’s just a matter of
getting it to hook and do it.
Your Top Fuel licensing pass at
Willowbank is now in the history books- a 4.66@326mph made you the quickest
and fastest female on Australian soil,
but it was also the quickest and fastest
licensing pass ever. True?
Ever! That was pretty cool. There was a lot
of hype about me being the first female to go
over 300 miles per hour in Australia, but I was
happier about the fact that it was the fastest
licensing pass ever in the country, girl or boy. I
was more focussed on that achievement than
anything else.
That was over the quarter-mile, but since
then we’ve switched to racing 1000-foot,
so your record stands.
I’ll forever have the fastest quarter-mile licensing
pass! But I’m glad I got the chance to run a
little bit of quarter-mile. Running over 1000 feet
doesn’t seem to be a whole lot different – we’re
still getting to the same kinds of speeds, we’re
just doing it a bit earlier and the distance is
shorter by 320 feet.
- a 4.66@326mph made you the quickest
Tell us about the win in Sydney, particularly
that final run, which was another record
pass I believe?
That’s currently the quickest 1000-foot ET, but
because that was our final run we couldn’t back
it up to solidify it as the official record. But it’s
obviously laid down the number, and that was
pretty cool. We threw a lot of things at that.
Aaron Hambridge, the crew chief, he made a lot
of settings changes and really went for broke,
so it was good that it paid off.
You’ve already had a win in your rookie
year; what’s your goal for the season?
We’re gunning for the championship! I mean,
I’m still learning and doing little things in the car
that probably can be improved, but as a team
we are going for the championship. The win
in Sydney put us second in the points behind
Damien Harris, who we beat in the final; now
we’re hopefully going to keep chugging along
and chipping away. sTHE LAMATTINA Top Fuel dragster is adorned with
special ‘My Little Anita #ponypowerforever’ livery in
tribute to eight-year-old Anita Board, who tragically
lost her life while driving a Junior Dragster at the
Perth Motorplex in November last year.
Anita’s parents Ian and Sonja and her elder sister
Zara were at Willowbank for the New Year’s Thunder
event in January, where the new wrap was unveiled,
and Kelly once again had pony power on board when
she won in Sydney a fortnight later.
“Emotionally it hit a lot of us pretty hard,” says
Kelly, herself a former Juniors racer. “I was emotional
during the trophy presentation in Sydney; I wanted
to recognise the family in my speech and it choked
me up.”
Kelly says her main objective with running the
tribute was to help give Anita’s family a positive
experience back at the race track.
“The family was over for the Queensland event and
there were a couple of strange things that occurredthat made us think Anita was there with us,” Kelly
explains. “Somebody spilled a tray of sausage rolls
all through the cockpit of the Top Fuel car! Such a
random thing to happen, but then Anita’s parents told
us that she used to sit in her Junior Dragster while her
dad was working on it and eat sausage rolls! So we
really felt like Anita was there looking over us.”
Kelly, along with the entire drag racing community,
is at a loss to understand how such a tragedy
occurred with the current stringent safety measures
in place.
“The safety was in place; sometimes things just
happen and it’s unexplainable,” she says. “We all
understand there are dangers in our sport, but this
was a one-in-a-million thing. It was a freak accident,
and freak accidents happen in all ranges of sport.
“Hopefully people realise that drag racing is not a
bad thing; it is a great sport for kids to participate in.
What happened was a tragedy, but the sport is not a
bad thing.”THTHTHTHTHTHHH
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