Steve Harker Gainesville wrap up

Steve Harker Starts Strong at Gatornationals

GAINESVILLE, Fl. - Aussie NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Steve Harker posted a quarterfinal finish during this past weekend's ACDelco Gatornationals at the famed Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Fla. Harker posted a career best speed in his quarterfinal matchup with eventual runner-up Paul Gill, but redlighted on the starting line, handing the automatic win to Gill.

Harker has showed impressive consistency in his past two race event starts for Division 4 including a semi-final finish in Houston, TX. and a runner-up at No Problem Raceway. This weekend was the teams first National Event appearance for the 2007 season and Harker continued his consistency placing the '06 Chevy Monte Carlo solidly into the number 5 position with a 5.587 second pass at 257.83 mph.

"We are just starting to get a handle on the cars tune-up and have found our combination for Divisional tracks" comments Steve "This weekend we were able to repeat the cars performance but we were looking to push our times down into the consistent low 5.50's.

First round of eliminations paired Harker with former Top Alcohol Funny Car Champion, Bob Newberry who qualified his Monte Carlo in the 12th position giving Harker lane choice for the run. Newberry was out of the gate first but Harker had him covered by the 150ft mark and drove away for the win laying down a 5.623 second at 256.70 mph run defeating Newberry's slower 5.700 seconds at 257.53 mph pass.

Harker then lined up against Paul Gill for the second round of competition, Harker again had lane choice and showed true sportsmanship waiting for late arrival, Gill and his team to pull to the starting line. Harker and Gill both went into pre-stage pulling their rmp's high and Harker pulled into full stage first when Harker's car rolled the beams causing a red light and auto disqualification handing Gill the win. Harker still blasted his car down the quarter mile with a 5.635 second lap at 259.06 mph.

"We chased the 60ft times all weekend and a small clutch problem was finally diagnosed at a post race tear down as holding the cars performance back" said Harker "We ran a personal best Mph in loosing to Paul Gill in the second round and overall we were happy with the teams performance."

The Harker Motorsports team aims to contend all rounds of the Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and ten National events in 2007 following a similar schedule to Steve's daughter Kate competing in Top Alcohol Dragster.

The team also welcomes a new addition, Diana Harker who is the identical twin sister of Top Alcohol Dragster driver, Kate Harker to crew member status. Diana will be filling a crew position on the Alcohol Funny Car as occupied by her sister last year and is looking forward to returning to the Gainesville track in April to attend Frank Hawley's Top Alcohol School.

The next race event for the Harker Motorsports team will be round three of the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at Memphis Motorsports Park across March 23-25. For more information on this event please visit www.nhra.com

For more information on Steve please visit www.harkermotorsport.com
For more information on Kate & Diana visit www.kdhracing.com

Contact: Kate Harker / Harker Motorsport

Email: kate@harkermotorsport.com