The preparation and build up to the Australian Nationals at Sydney Dragway over the weekend of 10-12 September started on Monday 7th September with the McDonalds 3 minute guarantee drive thru promotion. As stated in a previous press release we had our spare Top Fuel car prepared in full McDonald’s livery for this promotion at the Wetherill Park store. The day was a great success with a lot of people on hand to see the filming of the promotion.
Comments on the Top Fuel car in full McDonald’s livery were very positive and as I’m a regular visitor to the McDonalds drive thru all over Sydney it was quite a different feeling going into the drive thru in a Top Fuel dragster!!
Our team then headed out to Sydney Dragway to commence setting up the pit area for the opening event of the ANDRA Pro Series for 2010-2011.
On Thursday evening the entire Jim Read Racing team ‘frocked up’ for the ANDRA Awards Presentation night to honour our team mate Martin Stamatis who accepted the Australian National Championship trophy and jacket for his winning efforts in last season’s Pro Series Championship in the Jim Read racing team car. Full credit to Martin, Rob Cavagnino and the entire Billview, Wynn’s Auto one, MTU Detroit team.
Friday FAN qualifying, and anticipation was high as we had totally rebuilt our race car during the off season. The first pass down the race track in the afternoon for the Louie Rapisarda trophy yielded an early shut off 4.72 ET at 279mph when the car started to skate around on the race track due to wheel spin near the finish line.
The second qualifying session in the evening saw no improvement with another early shut down run due to mechanical problems.
Saturday morning qualifying session number 3 and the team was expecting improvement from the Auto One, Valvoline, Wynn’s Car especially after the data gathered from Fridays qualifying showed the car was on a very quick run when I aborted the pass. We weren’t disappointed, qualifying session 3 on Saturday was a stellar pass with Bruce and the crew moving me to the Number 1 qualifying position with a great 4.57 ET at 316 mph, which is well over 500 kph.
This run was justification for all the hard work our team has put in during the off season, it was well deserved too. Qualify session number 4 was in a lot colder conditions and no improvement was made on our earlier time. The atmosphere in our corporate pit area was abuzz with all on hand to celebrate our number 1 qualifying effort with dinner and a few quite drinks for all the attending sponsors, families and crew.
Sunday morning and race day came around quickly, the field was set and I had to meet my brother in law Terry Sainty in the first round of eliminations. With the conditions a little warmer than we had experienced previously over the weekend it was going to be tricky.
With the burnouts complete it was time to race and we both left the start line strong but around the 100 metre mark our car lost traction and spun the tyres which caused me to slow down, meanwhile in the other lane Terry was powering to the win with a 5.16 ET which moved him into the next round.
A well deserved effort and congratulations to the Sainty team.
Not progressing to the next round left me with commentating duties for the crowd and although our team was eliminated early we are off to a great start with our car running within a whisker of the current national record. Thank you to all the fans that came to support our team again, we look forward to seeing you at the next round in Sydney on October 30 and 31st.
To all our great sponsors, Auto one, Valvoline, Wynn’s, McDonalds, Hurlcon, Champion, MTU Detroit and Crane Cams, thank you for your continued support.
Images: Cackling Pipes Photography and Hayley Turns
