At Gulf Western Oil Nitro Thunder, Geoff Gradden produced a remarkable string of passes that would make any seasoned bracket racer grin.
While not mixing it with the top echelon of the brutally tough Pro Slammer class yet, Sydney’s Geoff Gradden is killing it in the consistency stakes and as they slowly creep up on the performance and they will be a force sooner than later for anyone who mis-steps.
The team lowered their personal best in the ’59 Saratoga at the event to 5.802 seconds and backed that up with a 5.805 and 5.806.
“Three runs back to back within 0.004 secs is a fantastic result for us,” said Gradden.
“We were pushing for some mid 5.8 passes after running all 5.9s in Perth recently, but the car had more in it than expected and with a full crew and no major issues, there was more time to concentrate on tuning and it came together for a bit of a surprise.”
A failed shift light saw the car on the rev limiter at the top of second gear for a quarter of a second longer than it should, resulting in a round one loss by 0.032 secs, on what should have been a high 5.7 second run.
“I can’t thank the Sigra Crew, Sydney Dragway, 400 Thunder and the team at Sigra Penrith enough. It’s a mid-field finish for our small operation against some very tough and experienced teams,” said Gradden.
“Could have been top three without the shift light issue. Also the biggest crowd we have seen in Sydney for over 10 years.
“Our ’59 Chrysler Saratoga is running straight and smoother than it ever has and looking at the data I can see there is still room to make some gains, so I think we can get a bit quicker yet. We’ll take a break through the winter months and come back testing in the spring, ready to race around Oct/Nov this year.”
Check out the team’s video wrap from the event below.
