Harker Goes To Final Round In First Outing For Season

Gainesville, FL March 18, 2009: Harker’s recent three month visit to homeland Australia must have paid off in relaxation and mental preparation for this past weekend’s GatorNationals. The transplant Aussie continued building on last year’s performance with a final round finish.

Steve Harker is not stranger to making the final round in NHRA competition so it was not surprising to see him wheeling the i40, Inc Chevy Monte Carlo down the race track with consistent elapse times and mph’s. Harker qualified with a 5.598 seconds pass at 255.19 mph into the number three qualifying position.

In round one of competition, Harker was to compete against Ray Drew, who unfortunately had problems getting the car into reverse after the burnout. Drew was pushed back to the starting line and was shut down by his crew before he could stage. Harker went on down with a great looking pass, a 5.595 at 257.28 mph pass.

Harker had lane choice of John Anderika in round two. Anderika had starting line advantage over Harker but did not have the power to hold off as Harker chased him down with a 5.609 at 250.64 mph run.

Going into the semi-finals, Harker again had lane choice over competitor, Mick Snyder. Harker left with starting line advantage and his laid down his quickest pass of the weekend, a 5.572 at 257.53mph to take the win and the team into the final round at the GatorNationals.

The finals would see Harker who finished second in the National points championship last year, pair up against current World Champion Frank Manzo. This is the sixth time the duo have meet in the money round and would end with Manzo taking the win. Harker was up in tyre smoke as soon as he left the line.

“We are happy of course with our performance being our first event for the season and having not done any testing before we came to the GatorNationals” comments Harker “You come here to win and Frank is a tough competitor and that’s why he has the number one on the side of his car, we knew we had to throw an aggressive tune-up out there if we wanted to have a chance of winning.”

Harker and his team will head to the O’Reilly Spring Nationals held at Houston Raceway Park across March 27-29.