Multiple Australian Top Fuel drag race champion, Steve Read, is looking to close out the 2013 (Australian National Drag Racing Association) ANDRA Drag Racing Series by winning his seventh Australian Nationals titles at Sydney Dragway this weekend (Friday-Sunday, November 1-3).
While Brisbane-based Read, who has won four Top Fuel (1996, 2001, 2002 and 2009) and two (1992 and 1995) Top Alcohol Australian Nationals’ titles, can not win this year’s ANDRA Top Fuel championship series – he is currently in third place – another Nationals title is the Read Speed Racing/SuperCharge Batteries team goal.
The Nationals event holds a special significance for Read and the RSR/SuperCharge Batteries team. The 1992 Nationals at Calder Park, Melbourne, was the first event Read raced at in Australia. Competing in Top Alcohol, he top qualified and won the event.
Buoyed by that Nationals success and after winning 21 championships in Europe, Read migrated to Australia from Britain the following year (1993).
“The Nationals at Calder Park is where it all started for me in Australia. We came out to the 1992 Nationals and won Top Alcohol. I came back to Australia to live the following year and have won another five Nationals since,” Read said.
Read has also won two Australian Top Fuel and a Top Alcohol championship series, plus a Summernationals and Winternationals titles.
In March this year, Read won the Super 3 Extreme event at Willowbank Raceway (Brisbane).
However, his last event – the return to ANDRA championship drag racing to Melbourne’s Calder Park on October 19 – did not quiet go to plan when a parts failure during qualifying, resulted in engine damage, preventing Read from having any further involvement in the event.
“Unfortunately, we did not have a spare inlet manifold or supercharger with us at the (Calder) track. We are a small team and it is just not possible to carry a spare of every engine part.
“We now have the engine fixed. The Nationals is a special event, not only for me, but for my wife Heather and the entire RSR/SuperCharge Batteries team. We are ready to go and another Nationals title is very much on the radar,” Read said.
