Street Machine Australia — June 2017

T

HERE are two guys in the drag racing

world that I really look up to: Jim Read

and Gary Miocevich. I haven’t always

seen eye-to-eye with Jim or Gary over

the years, but I’ve gotta say they have been the

greatest contributors to the sport in Australia.

Between them they built two of the biggest

and best drag facilities in not just Australia

but the world.

Gary was the consummate businessman

and along with his brothers worked really hard

and overcame a lot of difficult situations to

make sure that Western Australia was given

a world-class facility at the Motorplex. Sadly

Gary passed away in 2015.

Jim was recently inducted into the Australian

Motor Sport Hall of Fame, and a more worthy

recipient you would be hard-pressed to find.

It’s great to see that Jim’s contribution to

the sport both on and off the track has been

finally recognised.

Jim is the only Australian member of the

American-based International Drag Racing

Hall of Fame and was also inducted into the

ANDRA Hall of Fame last year. This latest

honour is the icing on the cake. It’s not only

for his career as a racer – in fact, he’s one of

the most prolific racers and winners in the

history of the sport – but for his contribution

in delivering the Eastern Creek facility.

The guy is a legend.

I remember when I was about 12 years old

I had a picture of Jim Read and his Top Fuel

car on my bedroom wall, and I’ve still got the

poster. It’s a bit worn and slightly tattered but

it’s something I really treasure.

In my lifetime, no one has given more to the

sport than Jim Read and Gary Miocevich.

There’s a lot happening now that the

American drag season is up and running, and

I gotta talk about Frank Manzo, Sheik Khalid

Bin Hamad Al Thani and Mike Castellana, who

have taken the Pro Mod scene to a new level.

To me, Mike Castellana is the American

version of our very own Peter Kapiris. He’s a

lovely guy, an astute businessman and a great

driver. He doesn’t need to know all about the

car, he just needs to know how to drive it.

Frank Manzo has been around for ages

• he’s the US version of our Gary Phillips,
  with so many championships he has stopped
  counting – and tunes the Castellana car.
  The car runs around 10 per cent overdrive
  on a Roots 14/71. They ran 5.68@252mph at
  Houston a couple of weeks ago as I write this.
  Can you believe it? You’ve gotta be kidding
  me. Scotty Cannon is an icon of the sport
  and the most prolific winner in Pro Mod, but I
  think in his day, at 50 per cent over on a 14/71,
  the best he ever ran was around a low six-
  second pass. Today, with Castellana driving
  and Manzo tuning, they have taken the sport
  into another world.
  Castellana, Manzo and those guys are
  running clutch cars and dominating, even
  though the sport has become the realm
  of converter cars. It’s the same here in
  Australia, where Zappia is dominating with
  a clutch. But I like the auto transmission and
  I’m going to stick with it, with the hope one
  day of running with these guys at the top end
  of the clutch technology.

WILD AT HEART

VICTOR BRAYVI