17 time Nationals winner Jim Read has been inducted in to the CAMS Australian Motorsport Hall Of Fame in a ceremony over the weekend.
The Australian Motorsport Hall Of Fame was started last year to officially recognise personalities and contributors who have defined and shaped motor racing in Australia across all disciplines.
Read is the second drag racer to be inducted with pioneer Ash Marshall the first inducted last year.
Read’s 51 year long career saw him amass 17 Nationals wins, 16 Australian championships amongst his multitude of event titles. He was the first racer in Australia to break the 300mph barrier, and the first to crack into the seven, six and five second zones. Read was also the major proponent in the six year long battle to construct the then named Western Sydney International Dragway.
Jim Read’s name will go into the Hall Of Fame’s class of 2017 along with other well know identities including, Jim Richards, Mark Skaife, Frank Gardner, Kevin Bartlett, Larry Perkins, Troy Corser, Possum Bourne, Neil Bates. and Leigh Adams.
Victorian drag racing veteran Paul Rogers Sr has been honoured on the night, awarded the inaugural Speedcafe.com Spirit of Speed volunteer of the year award, presented by Dunlop.
The Victorian Drag Racing club founding member, Rogers Sr’s fifty plus year involvement with the sport of drag racing, not just as a racer, but as an integral part of the sport from volunteering to his technical input has been deservedly recognised.
