"VAN" (Sports Desk - 07.04.2025) :: A weekend of missed opportunities at Dragway at The Bend for Hydraulink Jim Read Racing has been highlighted by a successful C-Final run to end the Riverbend Nationals on a positive note for the team.
The event’s proceedings had started off well, with driver Phil Read qualifying third quickest with a 3.791 second ET.
Come Sunday however, and it was a race day marred by two dollar parts – in round one, the team was thwarted by a broken blower belt, and in round two, a broken throttle cable.
In the C-Final, which the Reads ran as a solo, it all came together for the team with a full candles 3.770 second pass at 325.64mph to finally a smile to the faces of Phil, crew chief Bruce Read, and the hard working crew.
“It is a case of what could’ve been I guess for us, but we were happy to get at least that final good pass in there,” Phil Read said.
“The last time we were here, it was a dominating performance – we reset the record to be the quickest Top Fuel racers outside of the US, we top qualified, and we won the event.
“This time around, it wasn’t our show, and instead, we endured a weekend of missed opportunities, and saw Harris take over the mantle of quickest (and also fastest) outside the US thanks to his 3.683 in qualifying.
“Even so, that last run was certainly one to have us feeling a whole lot more positive about things.
“It was nice to end the weekend on a strong note and to show the huge crowd here at Dragway at The Bend just what we can do.
“Now, it is all eyes forward to the Nitro Champs at our home track of Sydney Dragway – here’s hoping that we have got all the bad luck out of the way now and we can have a strong run over this back half of the season.”
“It was a tough weekend out, there is no doubt about that, but at all times the support of our crew, our fans, and our sponsors – including our Hydraulink guests we had on track with us this weekend – buoyed our spirits and kept us fighting,” Bruce Read added.
“When you have races mucked up by two dollar part failures, it is really hard to see the positives, but our team dug deep each and every time and allowed us to come out in that C-Final and show what we can do.
“If we could have started the racing from that point, that would have been good, but that isn’t how it works unfortunately,” Bruce laughed.
“Congratulations to the Rapisardas on a great weekend – to Damien on now being the quickest and fastest Top Fuel racer outside of the US and to Wayne on the win.
“It hurts to see our record surpassed, but we will be doing all we can to get it back – there are three-sixes in our car for sure,” Bruce smiled.
Hydraulink Jim Read Racing will next be on-track with the NDRC Top Fuel Championship for the Nitro Champs at Sydney Dragway across May 2-4.
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