Multiple Australian Top Fuel drag race champion, Steve Read, will make a return to racing at this weekend’s (Friday to Monday, June 10-13) 45th annual Fuchs Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway, Ipswich, after a 12-month absence.
Despite not racing since last year’s Winternationals, Brisbane-based Read is confident he will be more than competitive and can win his second Winternationals title. Read won Top Fuel at the 2001 Winternationals.
Read, who runs his own transport business, said a hectic business schedule and a lack of marketing partners had kept him out of the sport over the past 12 months.
However, the popular veteran drag racer, affectionately known as ‘The Pom’ after migrating to Australia in 1993 from Britain, has always found time to compete at Australia’s most prestigious drag race event.
In a career spanning 43 years, which has included racing in Britain, Europe, America and Australia, Read has won two Australian Top Fuel Championships, an Australia Top Alcohol Championship and seven Australia Nationals titles, including five in Top Fuel and two in Top Alcohol.
“Because of business commitments and the fact that it is hard to get a serious sponsorship budget needed to run a Top Fuel operation for a full season, I have not raced as much as I would have liked over the past 12 months,” Read said.
“However, the Winternationals is the one event everyone associated with Read Speed Racing (RSR); my wife Heather, race team partner, Dwayne Riley and our dedicated and hard-working crew, really look forward to racing at.
“We (RSR) have a lot of fans who only go to one drag race event every year, the Winternationals. They look forward to seeing us race and we enjoy meeting them each year.”
Read said in order to get to this year’s Winternationals, his volunteer crew has worked every weekend and sometimes two nights a week preparing the Top Fuel car and transporter for the Winternationals.
“The crew has really worked hard getting the car and transporter ready for this event. When we last raced, we had problems with tyre shake. We have put a new clutch system in the car and I am confident we will do well despite the lack of racing.”
