Jay Upton is excited to be headed to Sydney Dragway for Santo’s Summer Thunder, which incorporates the track’s 15th Birthday Bash.
When Sydney Dragway first opened in February 2004, Upton set the first two professional national records at the track, taking a whopping .22 of a second off his own Top Bike record and resetting the speed record.
In May 2004 and again at Sydney Dragway, Upton took a further two tenths of a second off that record with a blistering 6.1 second time in qualifying.
As part of Sydney Dragway’s 15th anniversary celebrations, the top 15 moments of the track’s history were selected, including both quick runs and dramatic moments. A crash in May 2009 that left fans silent was among the moments selected.
“It was a special honour to be selected for one of the 15 best moments at the track, but we wish we could be remembered for spectacular performances rather than that crash which destroyed a brand-new bike and left me with a broken pelvis,” said Upton, who has certainly had a rollercoaster of a time in Top Bike.
Now ready to compete against what looks like being the strongest Top Bike field in some time this Saturday for Santo’s Summer Thunder, Upton is confident that the team is on top of the tyre shake issues that held them the WPA machine back at the East Coast Thunder event in November.
“We feel we were attacking the very tight Sydney surface just too hard,” he said. “After winning in both Darwin and Alice earlier in the year, we were looking forward to better traction in Sydney, but struggled to work out how to manage that traction when we got it.
“We’ll be out to consolidate our position leading the national points chase, but it’s a big event with a lot of history for us, who knows, we might even go really fast.
“NSW is also the home of our sponsors Specialised Equipment Xpress and Gulf Western Oils, so it’s going to be a big day out for the WPA Top Fuel team.”
– Top Fuel Pro Media Release
