21 September 2010
The end of the 2009/2010 ANDRA Pro Series, didn't end the way that the Jason Hedges Racing team wanted and hence during the offseason, the entire team got to work and all pulled in the one direction. The fruits of their labour were all seen on Sunday during eliminations at the 2010 Fuchs Lubricants Australian Nationals.
The team struggled a little during the qualifying rounds with not being in the 16 car field until the third and final qualifying session. Jason and the team recorded a 7.15 second pass, which was good enough for the 12th position, however prior to this the team’s best for the weekend was a 7.22 elapsed time which was recorded during the first session of qualifying. The bump for the 16 car field was a 7.18 second pass.
Come first round on Sunday the JHR team would face John Barbagallo. Hedges and Barbagallo had met previously before at the 2008 K’A’RCHER Nitro Champs in the final where Hedges took out runner-up status for the event.
Jason got the jump on the start line and was able to hold on for the win light 7.126/191.19 defeated Barbagallo’s 7.239/191.19
“This is definitely the way that we wanted to start the new season. John is a great competitor,” said Hedges.
The next round Jason was set to face off against the MOPAR team of Lee Bektash, however, Lee and the team sustained engine damage during the first round of competition.
“It’s definitely a shame when something like this happens in eliminations or at any stage of an event for that matter. We were looking forward to the matchup,” explained Hedges.
In the meantime Jason recorded a solo 7.136/191.19 to advance to the semi-finals where he would meet Queenslander Dave Newcombe.
Unfortunately the day came to an end for the JHR team when Dave proved to be too quick. Newcombe got a slight jump on the start line and held on for a 7.091/192.63 to defeat Hedges’ 7.126/192.08.
“Despite losing in the semi-finals we had a great weekend with resetting our personal best ET and speed. We have gained some great data this weekend which we believe will help us to make some finer tuning to the car before the next event,” concluded Hedges.
In the final Aaron Tremayne defeated Dave Newcombe to take the first win of the new season.
Jason Hedges Racing would like to take this opportunity to thank sponsors: DecoGlaze® Glass Splashbacks, J&D Custom Cabinetry, Tremaniac Racing and Corfield Media Solutions for their continued support of the team’s racing efforts.