The Darwin Baseball Association Men’s Grand final was held over the weekend and saw Tracey Village crowned premiers for 2013.
The Grand Final is held as a best of 3 series and saw Tracey Village defeat Nightcliff in both matches – 20 to 14 and 12 to 6.
In other sports across the weekend Palmerston defeated University 80 to 12 in round 17 of the Northern Territory Rugby League competition while Brothers defeated Nightcliff 26 to 14 and Katherine defeated Darwin 54 nil.
And briefly in the NT Polocrosse Association A Grade Litchfield defeated Noonamah 11 - 8, in the B Grade Palmerston defeated Howard Springs 11 – 4 and in C Grade Litchfield Defeated Palmerston 11 – 2.
With just one round left of the Women’s 2013 Darwin Hockey Season, Saint Mary’s have already secured the minor premiership with their 3 to 1 win over Banks at Marrara on Sunday night.
The win also means Saint Marys still remain undefeated in the 2013 season.
In other matches, Waratahs defeated Commerce-PINT 4 to 1 while Nightcliff defeated East Darwin Storm 3 to 1.
Saint Mary’s winning ways also continued in the men’s league with a 10 to nil win over Banks, while Nightcliff defeated Easts 9 to 2 and Waratahs defeated Commerce-PINT 3 nil.
This weekend will mark the final round of the season, followed by finals and members of the public are welcome to attend all games.
Simon Lekias Outlaw Winner
The ANDRA Drag Racing Series presented by the Territory Government and 7mate was not just about the big boys, it was also the first chance for a lot of Territory racers to compete in such a historical event.
While there has been some forms of ANDRA Drag Racing in the 1990’s this was the first time the new ANDRA Drag Racing Series had been hosted at Hidden Valley Drag Strip and the first time both Top Alcohol and Top Bikes categories had ventured to the Top End.
Alongside the Group 1 teams were a host of entrants from Western Australia who travelled in convoy through Alice Springs and up to the Valley.
Simon Lekias made the trip worthwhile, pushing through to the Outlaw finals in his Modified Dragster against local Territorian Todd Knight. Knight was the bridesmaid for the fourth time in a row after finding himself snoozing on the line. Lekias finished with a 7.918 on a 7.87 dialin. All was not lost for Knight though, he is now edging closer to the points leader, Dieter Herrmann who sat out the event, instead crewing on the Top Alcohol Funny Car of Steve Ham.
Top Sportsman also went to the West Aussies with the Modified Dragster of Norm Butler defeating Allan Arthus with a near perfect 8.282 pass on an 8.280 dialin.
The WA contingent vowed to be back even bigger next year.
David Denner and Clive Mainland had an extremely
Steven Ham took his second career win as Gary Phillips wrapped up his 17th ANDRA championship title on a pivotal night of the ANDRA Drag Racing Series at Hidden Valley Drag Strip in Darwin.
Ham’s 5.645 second pass in the final defeated a close but losing 5.732 from John Cannuli and in the process moved to second in the championship, albeit out of reach of Phillips’ points lead.
The win did not come without its share of drama for Ham, with the team enduring a run of gremlins interfering with the 3500 horsepower East Coast Lubes Funny Car.
“A lot of hard work went into it just to get us to the last round here tonight,” he said. “We had no working data logger, no tachometer, oil pressure problems, it was just drama central and we had to put it all out of our minds and just go for it.
“We just had to tune from looking at the spark plugs and what each run looked like on the video camera.”
Ham explained the tropical conditions meant the team needed to ramp up the power in order to keep up with the excellent Hidden Valley track surface.
“We’ve had to really step on the motor a lot to make the power we need to get down the track; it wasn’t making that much power in this humid air,” he said.
Phillips meanwhile enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate his 17th ANDRA title. It was his 16th in Top Alcohol, adding to his single
Queensland’s Gary Phillips set a new track record en route to number one qualifying position in Top Alcohol on day one of the ANDRA Drag Racing Series at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Drag Strip.
The national motorsport spotlight turns on “Crocodile Country” this weekend as the ANDRA Drag Racing Series heads to Darwin’s Hidden Valley Dragway for the first time.
Teams from all corners of the country will converge on the freshly renovated race venue with the hope of being the first to secure their name in the history books with a win and four time Western Australian Top Comp champion Rob Pilkington is keen to get his croc-hunting face on and prove that the his Alutech Funny Car can win outside his home state.
“We’ve won national rounds twice, but on our home soil at the Motorplex, and after the non-result from the Winternationals rain-out in Queensland on our two visits there, the opportunity to travel to the top-end and throw the dice at Hidden Valley with the rest of the teams was too good to ignore," he said.
Pilkington labelled the Darwin round a qualifying nail-biter, predicting that even the heavy hitting championship contenders could get caught out with practically no on-track experience for the majority of the contenders.
“There’s an opportunity in Darwin to be on a relatively level playing field with only two of the racers having local track knowledge in Mark Probst and Scott MacLean," he said. "So those guys will be watched very closely, but apart from that, I think only Gary Phillips has raced there before and won in his Top Doorslammer. It’s going to be very interesting to see how everyone goes about
Alice Springs drag racer Mark Probst will get a chance to compete in the ANDRA Drag Racing Series for the first time in his home state at next weekend’s Top Alcohol championship round at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Drag Strip.
The historic occasion, the first time championship drag racing has been to the top end, will see Probst not only trying to defeat some of the country’s quickest teams but also trying to break his own personal best and see his unique Altered-chassis race car into the five second zone for the first time over the quarter mile race distance.
“The fives are what we are chasing, we are running in Alice Springs this weekend to get some more data,” he said. “We are going to have to be on our toes because people like national champion Gary Phillips and track record holder Scott Maclean are going to be in Darwin and we want to be amongst it.”
Probst is currently competing with the only active Top Alcohol Altered race car in the country. While most of the field compete in carbon-fibre bodied Funny Cars or long dragsters nicknamed ‘rails’, Probst is taking advantage of a subset of rules that allow for the body to become minimal, with a trade off in aerodynamics for a reduction in weight.
“I always felt a bit claustrophobic with the body on in a Funny Car so some people said to have a crack at an Altered,” he said. “It’s created a fair bit
Opposition Leader Delia Lawrie says the story of one patient escaping the Northern Territory Governments new Mandatory Alcohol Treatment Centres is proof the new policy is flawed and will not work.
Ms Lawrie said even Chief Minister Adam Giles has admitted the program will have a low success rate.
“Adam Giles The Chief Minister says well we think we’ll have a 5% success rate, The Health Minister says well I think about 10%, so they can’t agree amongst themselves on that. So you are dealing with the very high, pointy end of a handful of people, when in fact there are several thousand people out there with a chronic drinking problem, so you’ve still got all the social problems (and) you’ve still got all the crime.”
Last month Attorney General John Elferink admitted he was surprised at the small amount of people to be admitted to the treatment program.
Darwin drag racer Scott Maclean may not have the vast experience of more seasoned drivers in the ANDRA Drag Racing Series, but when it comes to his home track of Hidden Valley Drag Strip, Maclean is going to be the man to beat.
On Saturday night Maclean beat his own track record again with a run of 5.685 at 251.95mph (405.46kph) over the quarter mile, which plays host to its first ever ANDRA championship rounds of Top Alcohol and Top Bike next Friday and Saturday, August 16 and 17.
In a warning shot to the nine other teams who are travelling to the event, Maclean said there is more to come yet from the AllTools Ford Mustang.
“We still haven’t made a lot of runs with this car so now we have got a good baseline for it,” he said. “We’re aiming to be running some 5.5 second passes soon and I don’t think they are far away to be honest.”
Despite its low altitude, Darwin’s Hidden Valley Drag Strip is still located in the very north of Australia and experiences tropical conditions that can rob high performance engines of horsepower.
Maclean says he hopes the data the team has accumulated for Darwin’s unique conditions will give them a head start on other teams but doesn’t doubt that the likes of 15 times ANDRA Top Alcohol champion Gary Phillips will quickly come to grips with Hidden Valley.
“I certainly wouldn’t go in relying on that (a home track advantage) because people
The Darwin Cup was cancelled for the first time in its history yesterday after the tragic death of 26-year-old jockey Simone Montgomerie.
Ms Montgomerie fell from her horse Riahgrand during Race 6 of The Darwin Cup Day yesterday and sustained major injuries as a result of the fall.
She was transported to Royal Darwin Hospital but was announced dead shortly after arriving.
Thoroughbred Racing Northern Territory consulted with fellow jockeys and made the decision to cancel all remaining races for the day including the Darwin Cup.
Ms Montgomerie was the first jockey to be killed in a race fall in Darwin.
A decision on whether or not the Darwin Cup will be rescheduled is expected later today.
Records and person bests were the order of the night at Round 4 of the Track Championship Series at Hidden Valley Drag Strip on Saturday with Scott MacLean piloting his Top Alcohol Funny Car to a new track record.
MacLean started the night with a shattering 5.723 second pass 251.20mph but he didn’t stop there. He went one better running another personal best and resetting the TA/FC ET and MPH records with a 5.685 second run 251.95mph.
“We have been working on the combination all year in preparation for the national ANDRA round in August and it is coming together well” said Scott MacLean.
“We have a good crew and some great local businesses behind us and we look forward to giving the Darwin community a local to barrack for in two weeks’ time.”
Matt Abel also pulled out a new personal best in his 1957 Chev Top Doorslammer, topping out with a 5.866 second pass at 247.16mph. While he was not able to back up the pass for an official record it does make him the quickest Doorslammer to run at Hidden Valley to date.
But back to the Track Championships and it was a mixed affair with at least two finals awarded based on unusual circumstances.
Outlaws had a familiar finals list with Dieter Herrmann set to take on Todd Knight for the third time this year. Herrmann made it 3 wins from 3 finals after Knight jumped the start and red lit. Knight ran a very
A 35-year-old man has died following an assault on Mitchell Street at around 20 to 7 yesterday evening.
It’s alleged an altercation took place between the man and a 19-year-old female which resulted in the man collapsing and requiring urgent medical attention.
He was conveyed to Royal Darwin Hospital but has since died.
The next ANDRA Drag Racing Series event will be a historic occasion when Top Alcohol and Top Bike race for championship points at Hidden Valley Drag Strip for the first time.
The venue went through a $4.6 million upgrade from 2010 to 2011, bringing it to an international standard. The work included a complete resurface of the track as well as the installation of a concrete surface to the 330 feet mark, upgraded safety barriers, a new burnout pad, the installation of Australia’s largest readout (timing) boards and an improved spectator viewing area.
The concrete launch area in particular won awards for its flatness which allows high horsepower vehicles to get all their power down without having to worry about any bumps along the way.
The work at the Federal and NT Government-funded venue has made it an attractive prospect for national championship events and Hidden Valley Drag Racing Association president Jay Jukes said being able to host an ANDRA Drag Racing Series round was a coup for the top end.
“While the venue is a Territory Government asset all drag racing events are still fully club run by a fantastic group of dedicated volunteers and we are lucky to have a very solid member base behind us,” he said.
“The sound of two pro drag racing vehicles at full noise on the start line waiting for that green light will echo through the valley, enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up it
