Déjà-vu for Pilkington Goldenstates Win!

Déjà-vu for Pilkington Goldenstates Win!

With the express mission of repeating last year’s victory, defending Goldenstates Top Alcohol Champion Rob Pilkington claimed his second ANDRA Drag Racing Series victory on Saturday, albeit with a sense of déjà-vu.

“Last year we were elated to win over such a tough field, but it showed us that we could do it, and that our team was better prepared than we gave ourselves credit for, so we went into this year on a mission to go back to back and to the teams credit we achieved the end result. There was certainly a sense of de-ja-vu!” Pilkington said.

The Alutech Funny Car top qualified for the event with a 5.77 second run that earned the team a bye-run in the first round and entry into the semi-final.

Pilkington the disposed of fellow West Australian Brian Robinson to claim a berth in the final against yet another local in Craig Glassby.

However, despite a frantic thrash to service the car between rounds, a disappointed Glassby was unable to make the final, leaving Pilkington to face the quarter mile alone and claim the win with a convincing 5.61 at 412kph.

“I was so disappointed to not race Craig as he’d already run a 5.60 in the first round so it would have been a brilliant match-up. Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome to win a National event for the second year, but there’s a sense of satisfaction that’s missing when it’s a one horse race and also the disappointment that a fellow racer who’s worked as hard as we have narrowly misses out. It’s not the way you want to win but we’ll take it ,” Pilkington said.

In another element of de-ja-vu after the win, Pilkington has already been confronted with the opportunity to continue his winning ways by travelling the national circuit on the hunt for a championship, just like last season.

“We’ve thought long and hard about chasing the national championship, but even though these cars are expensive to run and maintain, they’re not as expensive as the logistics of transporting the car and spares around the country and flying and accommodating the crew. And our major racing partners in Alutech, Force Equipment and CTS Low Loaders are all Perth based companies so there is no gain for them getting exposure in other parts of the nation. If we had a national based sponsor on board, that would change things for sure, but for now, we’ve done the sums and at this stage it’s not on the agenda but you never know as things can change pretty quick in this sport.”

So with the Alutech Funny Car exclusively reserved for domestic competition at this stage, the team have already launched into preparations for their return to the West Australian Top Comp Championship in two weeks time, as part of the ANDRA Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Dragster round at the Perth Motorplex.

“We’re not sure whether we’ll stay in Top Alcohol trim or change back to AA/Funny Car specs for the next meet but come 6.20pm on that Friday night, we’ll be giving it everything regardless!”