Team Bray Racing’s Ben Bray is hoping to strike at this weekend’s Sydney Jamboree in the Pro Compact class, following the successful achievement of his goal to run a sub-seven second elapsed time at last weekend’s Santo’s Cranes Super 3 Extreme Drag Race event.

At the beginning of March, the 29 year old, more commonly known for racing in Top Doorslammer, set out on a three-event/three-weekend campaign to run the ‘six’ aboard his Nissan Altima, and take on friend and record-holder Michael Baghdadi at the Sydney Jamboree.

The three-time ANDRA champion set a 6.946 second pass on Saturday evening – making him the third quickest four-cylinder in the country, behind Baghdadi (6.846s) and Dominic Rigoli (6.939s). There is currently only one other racer in Australia who has set a sub-seven second four-cylinder pass (Collin Willshire, 6.987s).

“It has been a crazy few weeks; we had been doing a lot of work on the Sidchrome Nissan Altima, including fitting a new GTX turbo supplied by Garret Turbos, when unfortunately testing at for APSA Pro Street Shootout saw us break a wrist pin, putting us out of the event,” said Bray.

“When the parts arrived last Wednesday, it signalled the start of some very late nights for the team as we tried to get everything back together ready for Friday’s racing at Willowbank Raceway.

“We started the car up for the first time on Friday around lunch-time, and then put her on the truck to go out to the track. Continuing repairs meant we missed the first qualifier, while in the second qualifier I backed off early to be safe, and the third saw our Harmonic balancer shut down at half-track – it just seemed we couldn’t catch a break.

“Saturday was a brand-new day however, seeing us run our PB and the 6.946 second pass – to say I was ecstatic is a bit of an understatement, especially after all that we had been through over the past few days, it was a great pay-off for the entire team.

“Now, I am ready and rearing to get on track for the Sydney Jamboree this weekend – record-holder Michael (Baghdadi) is a friend of mine and I am really looking forward to match-racing with him, my six second pass is only a tenth behind his so it should be a good race.”

Staged over an epic day and night at Sydney Dragway (NSW) on April 6, the Sydney Jamboree is not just a drag racing event; it is one of Australia’s largest high tech automotive lifestyle events. For more information head to www.jamboree.com.au.