Since taking the win at the season ending Winternationals, the off season was productive but time consuming and before Reed knew it, the Nationals were fast approaching and time had run out to do some much needed testing prior to last weekend at Sydney Dragway.
Eleven Top Alcohol funnycar and dragsters fronted to compete for the prestigious gold Christmas tree win. All three qualifying sessions were scheduled for Saturday and fortunately rain only delayed qualifying for very brief moments and all sessions for group one were able to be completed.
Session one was on the conservative side so the team could test all the changes and a 5.84 ET gave them the bench mark to step it up and improve for the following sessions.
Changes had been made and Steve puts the funnycar down for a respectable 5.79 ET after a big drive job breaking the blower belt at the end of the run causing minimal damage to the Allstar Batteries funnycar. The final qualifier was yet another improvement with a 5.67 well and truly putting Reed’s funnycar into the eight car field in third position.
Eliminations and the funnycar team proved to be unbeatable and gave Steve the perfect birthday present of the winner’s gold Christmas tree.
Firstly he knocked down fellow funnycar John Cannuli with a get out of jail free 5.6 after a brief snooze at the lights, second battering came to Steven Ham when he was shut down with a leak on the line but Reed even with a solo ran a 5.6 second pass. Fellow Queenslander Jon Sting in his dragster put on a great fight but Reed’s 5.66 ET was unbeatable in the finals.
“You can’t start the championship season any better than a win with a very consistent car, team and driver. Thank you and congratulations to the team and for the sponsors continued support, we look forward to bringing you more success throughout this season,” said Reed.
“Apologies to all the Reed Racing fans in Western Australia we won’t be appearing in Perth for round two of the championship season.”
