Ralph's DYO Win

Reproduced from the June 27, 1980 (Issue 35) of Dragster Australia.

CALDER WINTER DYO

June 8 1980

An additional 10 entrants came to the second winter Calder Street Meet, making a total of 91 cars and bikes. The racing was once more pretty fierce, with the usual few breakouts, and even saw a "protest" DYO car entered by Stual McColl, a VW 1500 dialled in at 22.72, but a first round 22.69 put paid to any chances he might have had.

Bracket 3, 15.00 and over.

With 41 entries you had to be good to get to the final, but Ralph Smith drove his immaculate Chevy van with 350 Chev power all the way through on a dial-in of 16.70. An opening 17.21 defeat over John O'Keefes 428 Ford was followed by a 16.78 win at the expense of Rob Morrow's Triumph TR6 sporty. Good to see it here. A 16.85 over Steve Dowdle's Ford in the third round saw Smith facing the tree against Kevin Fayle in the quarter final. Fayle's 308 Monaro had notched up wins of 15.22, 15.49 and 14.76 in the third on a 15.01 dial-in. His third round opponent Joe Logiusto had broken out by more though, and Fayle was in against Smith's van. The latter got the start and lit out for the traps, but Fayle was close behind so Smith didn't back off, resulting in a break-out of 0.25 seconds but Fayle had gone 0.29 under and Smith breathed easy.

John Brian had dialled his 327 Monaro in at 15.75 and ran 15.84, 15.83 and 15.90 before beating Les Parker's 327 Chev in the quarter final with a 15.88. John Morgan was lucky and byed his 1750 cc Datsun in 18.12 seconds. The semi-final saw Smith taking a well earned bye, while Morgan ran a beautiful 0.06 over 16.96 to snatch defeat from Brian's Monaro, which ran under its 15.75 dial-in with a 15.64 for the lose. So two relatively slow cars, a four cylinder Datsun and an eight cylinder Chev van were in the final. The Datsun took a two tenths start but his 0.26 over 17.16 timeslip was surpassed by Ralph Smith's 0.09 over winning 16.79 pass.

I was presented with a pewter beer mug for my efforts.

Send any additions or corrections to: Ralph Smith
Updated 30/10/03

Top of page