Ham in the Easter Hunt with New Car

Ham in the Easter Hunt with New Car

Brisbane Funny Car racer Steve Ham is back in the hunt this weekend as he returns to Willowbank Raceway for the Santos Cranes Super 3 Extreme race in the hotly contested ANDRA Top Alcohol Championship.

Recent testing has injected a fresh shot of confidence into the ECL Team, with Ham touting the new Mustang bodied Funny Car as the most comfortable car he’s ever driven.

“This new combination is a dream to drive. It just feels right. From the seating position to the visibility that I didn’t have in the last car, this car was comfortable the minute I sat in it in the workshop, and was even better at full tilt!”

“It’s a new chassis and new body but we’ve retained our engine with the NRE-X1 heads because we know we’re on a good thing there, and the new car will only allow that power plant to perform better. It’s a great combination all round,” he said.

Perth based crew chief, James Rowland was also full of praise for the new advances in the team, with the car leaving so solidly off the line, that it headed skyward on its final pass in testing.

“We had a wild run in the last pass when the wheelie bars broke which gave Steve a good look at the moon that’s for sure. But on a positive note, we learned a lot in testing about coming to terms with hot tracks which has been a real weakness for us, so we came away from the testing session pretty happy.”

Ham’s view from the cockpit of the wheel-standing antics produced a somewhat more sober response once the car returned to terra firma.

“That may have been entertaining for the crew, but that’s the most bizarre view of the strip I’ve ever had, by virtue of the fact that lost sight of the race track! Like James said, I was looking at the constellations momentarily! As hilarious as it is now, all I was thinking was how to save it and get it back to earth.”

Despite the ECL team pushing the envelope in testing, the strategy will be to run a little more on the conservative side for this weekend’s inaugural Santos Cranes Super 3 Extreme race.

“This is a different format to the traditional elimination style drag racing event, where we will only have one shot at qualifying before having to put in our best performance. It’s great for the fans and especially for our sponsors in ECL, Mobil 1 and R.D. Williams, because it guarantees them the optimum exposure. It’s just going to put the pressure on us to make sure we get the car down the track consistently without being easybeats. It’s going to be very interesting to see how everyone else treats it as well,” a speculative Ham said.

The ECL Funny Car will first appear on track at Willowbank Raceway this Friday at 5:25pm with the first round at 7.00pm. Check out www.willowbankraceway.com.au for more details.