Husband-and-wife team Cory and Katrina Read are revved up to hit Dragway at the Bend for the Aeroflow Sportsman Spring Nationals, 18-20 October.
The pair are both entered in the Street Machine Sportsman Spring Nationals event on Friday 18 October. Then Cory will be backing up over the weekend to compete in the 2023/2024 Aeroflow National Sportsman Grand Final.
We first met Cory and Katrina at Drag Challenge in 2016. Cory had swapped the Windsor in his XF S-Pack for an LS1, using a Tuff Mounts kit. That controversial but effective combo became a DC regular.
By the time Drag Challenge 2019 rocked around, Cory had swapped the LS1 for an LS3 with a BorgWarner S475 turbo, and was running eights on standard suspension.
The XF entered DC folklore that year when the bonnet flew off at Mildura, smashing both the windscreen and the roof. A bunch of racers and the local windscreen guy all chipped in to get the XF back on the road, enabling Cory to finish the event and claim the Hard Luck award.
More recently, Cory’s wife Katrina has been racing the XF in aspo form, with a stock-bottom-end LS3. She entered Drag Challenge 2022-’23, where she finished runner-up in the Outlaw Aspirated class.
“That was her first event racing the car, and she was instantly hooked!” says Cory. “She’s now currently leading in the ANDRA Sportsman series, and was top qualifier at Desert Nationals.”
In 2022, Cory took ownership of his 1992 Pontiac Firebird Pro Stock car, originally built by Wayne Rowe. “It was built in around 1991 for Gerry Parente and Peter Schaffer as a black Camaro for Pro Stock,” he says. “Then it was owned by Steve Norman and ran Super Stock, and changed to a Pontiac.”
Cory purchased the Pontiac in early 2022, stealing the engine from the XF for it and throwing nitrous on. “It was a big change going from a radial tyre to the big slick; basically wherever the car points is where it’s going!” he laughs.
So far, the Pontiac has run a best of 7.75@176mph, with the South Australian scoring several runner-up spots at tracks all over the country. “We did Mildura a lot, obviously The Bend, Perth, Darwin, Alice Springs,” says Cory. “I’ve kept in touch with the previous owners, and they were stoked when it went sevens.”
For the upcoming Spring Nationals 2024 at The Bend, Cory has switched the two LS3 motors between the cars. “The built LS3 is back in the XF, because we know it’ll run 10.00 aspirated all day, and that’s bang-on what Katrina needs for Super Street,” he says.
“I’ve taken the stock-bottom-end LS3 for the Pontiac for this event. I’m building a smaller-stroke engine that’ll be blown, but that won’t be ready ’til next year. We should still be able to run 8.20-8.30; people were amazed we ran sevens with a hydraulic-roller LS!”
Cory will be duking it out in the Top Sportsman class, a dial-in bracket for cars running between 8.49 and 5.80. “It’s for any door car, so it should be good fun,” he says.
You can catch both Cory and Katrina in action at Spring Nationals 2024 at Dragway at The Bend, 18-20 October. Grab your spectator tickets here.
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