For Immediate Release
20th April, 2010
Read Wins Enzed Top Fuel
Championships
Phil Read claimed victory on
Sunday night at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland, defeating fellow Jim Read
Racing team mate Martin Stamatis in the final of the ENZED Australian Top Fuel
Championships to make it a one-two finish for the Sydney based team.
The win puts Read right back in the hunt for his fourth Australian Top Fuel
title,
with just 40 points separating him from Stamatis the current leader.
A large crowd was on hand during Saturday qualifying, where Phil struggled a
little in the tricky conditions. In the first of three sessions, Phil was forced
to shut down early with a fuel system malfunction that caused the car to go into
violent tyre shake at the quarter track timers. With the problem rectified, the
second session saw Phil set excellent times in the first part of the run before
the Auto One Dragster broke traction with too much horsepower for the conditions
and an another early abort was necessary. The third and final session saw all
drivers struggle in the cool conditions with no respectable times recorded. With
the team working well into Saturday night, a few set up problems were found and
rectified ready for race day Sunday.
In the opening round of eliminations on Sunday, Phil was too strong for the
Santos Cranes outfit of Mark Mariani. Both Cars had traction problems with the
Auto One Dragster taking the win in a on-again off-again peddle contest.
Round two saw Phil up against the Lamattina Team from Mildura. On the green
light, Phil was away first with an .037 second advantage hole shot and powered
away to win comfortable with a great time of 4.77 seconds at over 300mph. The
run was not without incident as a fuel line split at half track spraying nitro
methane all over the windscreen and the driver compartment causing the
windscreen to shatter. The result was extremely limited vision with Phil
explaining afterwards that he drove looking sideways at the wall from half track
mark, to get his bearings and didn’t shut off until he knew he was well past the
finish line.
The Final was an all Jim Read Racing affair with Phil going head to head with
team mate Martin Stamatis, who had been running well all weekend. Martin go the
advantage off the start line but by half track Phil had powered into the lead,
winning with a time of 4.77 seconds to claim victory for his major sponsors;
Auto One, Valvoline, MTU Detroit, McDonalds, Snap on and Wynn’s.
The win was the first for the team since receiving backing from corporate
sponsor McDonalds and wrapped up a great weekend for Jim Read Racing.
Phil Read and Jim Read racing would like to thank the following for a great
Victory
Auto One, Valvoline, MTU Detroit, McDonalds, Wynn’s, Snap-on Tools, Bullet Eye
wear, Hurlcon Pool Equipment, Odyssey Batteries and Goodson USA.
ENZED TOP FUEL CHAMPIONSHIPS AT
WILLOWBANK RACEWAY
FEATURE CATEGORY RESULTS:
PLEASE NOTE: Kilometre per hour figures are approximate
Top Fuel
Round One
Phil Read 5.766s at 190.22 (304.52kmh) def Mark Mariani 14.837s at 53.45mph
(85.52kmh)
Darren Morgan 4.770s at 290.94mph (465.50kmh) def Allan Dobson 4.931s at
306.60mph (490.56kmh)
Martin Stamatis 5.267s at 204.57mph (329.23kmh) def Steve Read (no time
recorded, stopped on track)
Phil Lamattina 9.076s at 82.55mph (132.86kmh) def bye
Semi-Final
Phi Read 4.779s at 301.27mph (484.85kmh) def Phil Lamattina 5.862s at 156.35mph
(251.63kmh)
Martin Stamatis 4.622s at 298.54mph (480.45kmh) def Darren Morgan 4.701s at
314.68mph (506.43kmh)
Final
Phil Read 4.771s at 280.60mph (451.59kmh) def Martin Stamatis 5.798s at
156.70mph (252.18kmh)
For more information: please contact:
Phil Read | M. 0418 402 727
