Brad Jackson seeking national drag racing glory after Power-ful showing
NABURN speedster Brad Jackson is revving up for his next drag racing outing – the national championship’s round at Shakespeare County raceway.
The May 2 meeting in Stratford upon Avon will hopefully see an extension of the solid form the 18-year-old enjoyed at the season’s opener – the Festival of Power at Northampton’s Santa Pod track.
Helming a more powerful machine, Jackson, saw the first day rained off, so reducing the number of qualifying rounds.
In his opening run, former Fulford School pupil Jackson suffered a severe slide to the right in the machine after it suffered a loss of traction, but the youngster controlled the car superbly to post a 16th place out of the 32 entrants.
In round one, Jackson ousted Roy Wilding, a 38-year-old drag racing veteran, and then sped to a 7.69 second showing to topple Brian Pateman, an experienced Super Comp three-time champion with 13 event wins to his name.
Jackson then set off within 0.04 seconds of the starting light showing to eclipse quarter-final opponent Roy Walker, to set up a semi-final encounter against Scott Hauser, winner of the Super Pro title for the last two years.
Jackson had to be on his game and produced a stunning 0.003 reac tion time, but a mis-dialled time by his dad saw the race go to Hauser.
However, the reaction times over the Santa Pod track of between 0.003 and 0.074 seconds was a superb achievement for driver and back-up team to put them in fine fettle for the May 2 outing.
First published Thursday 23 April 2015 in Sport
