It is with great sadness we report the passing of a pioneer in Australian drag racing, famed blown altered racing legend Jim Reed at age of 86.
Reed sadly passed away yesterday afternoon (August 22) in Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital after struggling with his health for some time.
Reed was a true legend of Australian drag racing, leading the way in blown alcohol racing, which led to the creation of Top Alcohol and in turn created a family racing dynasty.
In 2014 Reed was inducted into the ANDRA Drag Racing Hall of Fame, this is an exert at the time from his induction;
Gentleman Jim is Australia’s equivalent to America’s Don Garlits and Connie Kalitta. He has been modifying and racing cars for sixty-five years and has spawned three generations of drag racers, Jim and Nelma, Steven and Debbie and Daniel and Fiona.
At thirteen, he modified the 1928 Essex he inherited from his father upping the compression for a significant power increase and in 1955 he raced his modified flathead V8 powered 1935 Ford at the Strathpine ex ‘WWII airstrip, running 16 second times over the standing start quarter mile and 100 mph over the flying quarter.
A brief stint in go-carts in the early 1960’s was followed by a return to drag racing at the Lowood airstrip in 1965 with a front engine dragster and 1948 Anglia altered he built himself, both powered by Y-block Ford V8s. In 1966 Reed raced his dragster at the 1966 Dragfest – USA Tour as part of the opening meeting for Surfers Paradise International Raceway and he was a founding member of the Queensland Drag Racing Association (QDRA) alongside fellow enthusiasts. As a result Reed was granted life membership in the late 1980s for services to the club and Queensland drag racing.
By 1968 Reed shortened the dragster to build his first T-bucket altered, and repowering it with a 427 Holman and Moody Ford V8. This led to legendary races against Bob Dunn in his similarly powered vehicle as they tried to beat each other to be the first nine-second altered. After being trumped to the 9-second zone by Graeme Cowin’s blown Chev small block altered, he again repowered his own altered with a blown 392-hemi engine. This rapidly improved times and led to a power race in Competition Eliminator as times tumbled.
The altered wars of the 1970s featured many exciting thrills and memories for the fans and racers, with Reed winning a significant number of meetings, titles and consistently resetting records as the times dropped into the eight second zone.
As new challengers entered the fray, Jim built a new chassis to better handle the rapid rises in horsepower as well as moving to a new Donovan aluminium hemi. He soon began sharing driving duties with son Steven until 1985 when Steve took over as the full time driver for the Reed team.
In the search for quicker times and more spectator appeal Reed decided to buy the Datsun 2402 funny car of visiting American racer Gary Densham. Without the funds or wish to run nitro, Reed continued to run Competition Eliminator in an alcohol funny car.
During the 1980’s a group of the quicker Competition Eliminator racers decided to campaign for a new heads up eliminator featuring blown alcohol powered dragsters, altereds and funny cars. Jim Reed was instrumental in the formation of this new Top Alcohol Eliminator that proved a favourite with racers and fans to this day. Reed Racing have now been competing in Top Alcohol continuously for over twenty-five years with numerous championship victories.
Jim has been at the helm of this team using his tuning, fabrication and innovative skills and during his nearly six decades of racing, Jim has provided tuning advice, engine, supercharging and transmission building services to drag racers Australia wide as well as providing the spectacle that is drag racing through what is now being regarded as the “Golden Years of Drag Racing.”
At the 50th Anniversary of Surfers Raceway in 2016, Jim was honoured again, this time for his 60 years in drag racing, along with the entire Reed Racing family, in recognition and appreciation of their enormous contribution to drag racing. The central display on the day included the “Truckin’ T” Altered of Jim competed in at the first Surfers race.
A lighter moment in more recent times, Jim raced fellow racing legend Jim Walton at the 2022 Winternationals – an event he won three times – on their motorized scooters for $5000 towards charity.
The sport of drag racing has lost a true pioneer, and one that will be remembered forever, we at Drag News Magazine keep all of Jim Reed’s family and friends in our thoughts at this sad time.
