Martin Stamatis and Phil Read Top Fuel final May 3 2008 WSID

This is Jim Read Racing team mates Martin Stamatis and Phil Read racing each other at the 2008 Snap On Nitro Champs recently in a spectacular top fuel finals race which was held at the Western Sydney International Dragway held over the May 2 and 3 weekend, 2008. The last two videos includes firstly an onboard camera fitted onto Martin's dragster looking at Phil, and then Phil's camera pointing back towards Martin.

Having lane choice for the final, Martin and Crew Chief Rob Cavagnino chose to use the left hand lane, and after a pair of great burnouts in the cold and tricky conditions, the pair lined up, Phil reacting first with a .129 to Martin's .141. So the chase began, and in what appeared to be a great side by side drag race, it was Martin's dragster that out accelerated Phil who ran a 4.90 @ 302.82 mph to Martin's winning 4.606 @ a huge 323.5 mph.

But then, as the two cars passed the finish line, Phil watched in horror as Martin's car exploded in a shower of fire when the rear tyre exploded and blew the rear wing to oblivion. What followed was a great steering effort by both drivers, Phil commenting that he was ducking and weaving from the debris, while Martin slowed down safely, thanks greatly to his parachutes which kept the car pulled straight, making it easier to handle, and ended up stopping safely in the gravel trap, missing half of the rear end from the incident.

Thankfully, Martin emerged unscathed apart from a twisted ankle after jumping out of the car. He says about the incident: "I guess, it emphasis's the point that motor racing is dangerous, and we've got to thank the designers from past to present, for the safety equipment that they put around us. This just gives us a wake up call that we shouldn't take anything for granted, and we're all alive, and completely uninjured, so, we're fine".

The team have now focused their efforts towards building a replacement vehicle for Martin, and Team Read are now looking forward to the Winternationals Top Fuel round due to be held at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland over the weekend of the 5-8th June, 2008. With Phil having now wrapped up the Championship, Martin now goes to Queensland in second place, 42 points ahead of Darren Morgan.

Team Crew Chief, Bruce Read, added "our guys went over the car on Monday night after Martin's incident, and it is actually a lot worse than we first thought. Thankfully, we had a new chassis sitting there, so we got straight into getting the new car organized. By Tuesday night the new car had already had the fuel tank, lines, engine management, levers and cables now fitted from Martin's current car.

Our amazing team of dedicated crew are already well into the mind numbing task of completely building a new car to go to Willowbank with said Crew Chief Rob Cavagnino! Phil's car is turned around already, and is sitting there now ready to go, so now as we focus on Martin's new ride, we hope to fire it up for the first time in about 2 weeks, if all goes well".

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

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• Martin
• Stamatis
• trye
• explosion
• blow
• up
• Phil
• Read
• Top
• Fuel
• final
• May
• 2008
• WSID