4 May 2011

Jim Read Racing have come away with a much wanted ANDRA gold Christmas Tree trophy for their efforts after winning Top Fuel at the 2011 Nitro Champs held over the April 29-May 1 weekend. JRR Crew Chief Bruce Read said that he and Brother Phil, and the JRR team would like to dedicate the win to their Father Jim Read who was unable to attend the event.

It was another busy weekend of drag racing at Sydney Dragway, and the weekend started out with the clouds hovering, and after some showers slowed Friday qualifying, only one round of Top Fuel was run, and on the cold track, Phil Read shook the tyres and sat in third position with his 8.15 shut-off.

This season, JRR have been chasing a problem with the car blowing head gaskets, and after shutting off at 4.1 seconds at the recent Willowbank event coasting through with a 4.7, the car sure showed its potential if the head gaskets stayed together.

Well it didn’t take long for the JRR dragster to prove it had the goods when in eliminations the team ran a super-quick 4.61 @ 305mph to defeat Brother-in-law Terry Sainty who coasted to an 8.82.

With Martin Stamatis sitting out and not running, the full attention was on Phil Read, and after advancing to the semi-finals with his previous 4.61, the eyes were on the Black Mamba where it met with Allan Dobson who was driving the Santo Cranes Top Fuel dragster for the weekend.

Both drivers were lightning-quick off the start reacting with .050 for Read and .058 for Dobbo, and another 4.91 for Read took the win for JRR to Dobbo’s tyre-smoking 5.67.

Mean time, progressing through the other side of the field was new-comer Damien Harris who was another car to watch all weekend reeling out a consistent 4.81 to top qualify, and then a 4.82 and a 4.81 to make the Finals where he met with Read and team JRR.

In the Finals, the weather behaved itself, and again it was Read who reacted quicker with a .053 to Harris’ .102, and it was Read all the way to take the win running a 4.90 @ 291.82 mph to Harris’ 14.18.

Phil Read and team JRR now sit in second position in the ANDRA Pro Series points chase, and with one more event left going in to this year’s annual Winternationals, it is going to be another exciting and close end to the season.

Current ANDRA Pro Series points can be found here: https://www.andra.com.au/images/stories/ANDRA/PDF/points/proseriesupdate020511pdf.pdf:

JRR would like to thank their fans for the continued support, and thank their sponsors Auto One, Valvoline, Snap-on, McDonalds, MTU Detroit Diesel, Wynn’s, Odyssey Batteries, Billview, Hurlcon, Goodson USA, Crane Cams, Action Corporate Wear, Kalitta Motorsports, Arturro’s Pizza & Pasta.