Bitter Sweet Season End For Reed Racing With Second And Third In National Championship Friday, 12 June 2009

A near capacity crowd crammed into Willowbank Raceway last week weekend (4th-7th June) to witness one of the most spectacular Australian Drag Racing events in history at the 42nd Winternationals and finale of the 2008/2009 ANDRA Championship Drag Racing series.

In the professional Top Alcohol category, a three way battle had emerged for the National Title with husband and wife Reed Racing team members Steven and Debbie Reed, and fellow Queenslander Gary Philips all vying for the honour.

Steven Reed became the first high profile casualty of the event when he smoked the tyres on the start line of in his quarter-final matchup leaving the door slightly ajar for Debbie and Phillips.

Debbie was the stand out of the bracket leading from the first run at the event before eventually Top Qualifying with a 5.601 second run, setting her up well for the Elimination Rounds and a shot at becoming the first female in history to win an Australian Drag Racing Group One Championship.

She cruised through her quarter-final match up before taking out fellow Championship contender Phillips in her semi-final in what was one of the quickest side by side passes ever in the Top Alcohol bracket.

Needing to win the event though to re-write the Australian Drag Racing record books, Debbie faced off against Aaron Hambridge in the much anticipated final.

She appeared to have it won when Hambridge jumped the start leaving a red light, however cheers turned tears as Debbies 3500 horsepower dragster stood up on its rear wheels at around the 330ft mark making contact with the wall and disqualifying her from the race. This handed the Winternationals win to Hambridge and the Championship to Phillips.

I am absolutely heartbroken, Debbie said.

I would really love to come back next season and fight for it, to have it over again.

Unfortunately at the moment though, as much as I want to keep going with our current funding situation it just isnt looking possible without a corporate partner, but you never know and I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Entering the Winternationals on top of the table after leading the entire season, Steven Reed was equally disappointed at not being able to go on and take the title, however was able to see the huge accomplishments that the Reed Racing team had made throughout the year.

The team really had the Championship on our mind this season so it is a bit hard to see past the disappointment of not winning at the moment, but to have both of cars inside the top 3 is a huge achievement that we should all be proud of, Steven said.

We had dreams of a one-two in the Championship and two-three result isnt too far off, especially when there was only 25 points separating the top three.

Overall it has been our best ever year for the team finishing with 6 Final Round appearances, including 3 wins and 3 runner-up results

"I would like to thank Willowbank Raceway for providing and excellent race track and facility over the weekend, and to all of Reed Racing sponsors for their support of the team. I also want to give a big thank you to the fans and of course our crew for all of their hard work.

The Reed Racing teams Winternationals performance can be seen this Sunday 14th June on One HD television, with a prime time repeat of the show at 8:30pm on Friday the 19th June.