Geoff Gradden hustled to a new personal best time at the Summernats Slam at Sydney Dragway last weekend.
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It had been more than a year since Gradden had raced his Sigra Saratoga, but that gave him 12 months to study the data and think about how the car could be improved.
Gradden began qualifying with a few gremlins to sort out.
“The day did not start out well,” he said. “In Qualifier #1 the motor would not rev cleanly during the burnout and was dropping cylinders intermittently. It came good after backing up, but as a result I had a brain fade and launched the car in third gear and completely destroyed the clutch pack.
“With competition rounds starting soon after, we missed round one replacing the clutch and so were out of the point score for the day.”
The event used an all-run format which allowed Gradden to return for round two and blast to his first personal best.
“We laid down a 5.76 second and then in round three we backed it up and lowered the PB to 5.74, despite carrying the front wheels for over 150 feet and needing a pedal to get the car away from the centreline.
“It was also our first time over 200mph to half track and the first time over 250mph at full track.
“It’s a great result and the credit goes to the Sigra crew – Mick, David, Tim, Mitch, Waldo and Bill, for putting in a 16 hour day and going home on their last legs.
“Thank you Sydney Dragway, your new track is awesome, and congratulations to Mark Hinchelwood driving for Fabietti Racing on winning the event.”
