BenBray
aka The Kid
Ben Bray was bought up on the family tomato farm just north of Brisbane in Queensland, although a typical farming upbringing in his early years having Victor Bray for a father and spending most weekends at Drag Strips, growing tomatoes was probably an unlikely future for young Benny. As a farm boy all things mechanical and the need to repair them were a part of daily life. Then at the age of 10 Ben wanted to go junior dragster racing and pestered his Mum and Dad until he did just that.
A series of junior dragsters followed and by the age of 12 Ben was handling all the engine building and modifications to his dragsters with an inkling of things to come in that he wanted Dads advice but wanted to do it all "HIS" way. Some success was seen during these years including Ben's most memorable win at Canberra Dragway where Ben won the junior dragster nationals against almost 50 of Australia's best JD teams. The junior dragster program taught Ben about the importance of reaction times and start line procedure and the experience of doing hundreds of passes over those years and being his own crew chief seemed to have set him a good base for his future racing.
At the age of 17 junior dragster racers must give up their license and look towards their future without their much loved dragsters. When Ben knew this was coming he had already been his Dad's crew chief on the Doorslammer for a couple of years handling not only the between round maintenance but had become the main clutch man both in maintenance and calling the shots on setup. Ben "COLLECTED" many parts over the last year or so of his junior racing career as the team was updating he would claim the parts telling his Dad he needed the parts for "HIS "Doorslammer and had quite a collection of race parts with about half the parts required to put an engine and gearbox combination together. At about this time the team's customline Doorslammer was returned to the team after being on loan to Lucky Belleri and Ben automatically claimed the race car as his.
Victor thought it was "NICE" that Benny had taken an interest in driving a Doorslammer and figured it would probably happen sometime in the next year or so. Just how wrong can one guy be?? Over the next couple of months Ben worked hard on the old man to give up enough parts so he could have his Doorslammer ready for his licensing as soon as he was 17. Victor added to Ben's collection of parts and gave him the use of the customline and shortly Ben had his own Doorslammer and was ready to go racing. Victor and Marie had reservations about all this happening so fast but there was no stopping young Benny and he got all the support he needed from them. At this stage Victor thought it was nice that Ben had got this far so soon but continually kept reminding him how hard it was going to be just to qualify so don't get your hopes up too high.
So Ben goes through the licensing procedure for a group 1 Top Doorslammer license and gets it with the quickest licensing pass ever and entered the next event in a DYO class to get some experience. Ben actually made the field in supercharged outlaws and was eliminated in the first round but had a ball in the process. The first major event Ben entered was the Australian Nationals, an event his father had won only once the year before after 16 years of trying. Victor and Marie were still concerned about Ben running a Doorslammer and were tentative about him jumping in the deep end at such a big event.
Victor had qualified for every event he had ever fronted for in his Doorslammer and it just so happened at this particular race Victor broke his streak and didn't qualify for the first time in his career. However the family name was still on the qualifying sheets as #8 read Ben Bray for the first time ever. And what a fairy-tale race meet he had making his way through eliminations and actually winning the Australian Nationals making him the youngest winner ever of a national championship event anywhere in the world at 17 years and 2 months. Over the remainder of the season Ben had limited success but little did the other Doorslammer teams or his Dad for that matter realize that Ben's early success was just a sign of things to come.
The following season Ben updated to his Dad's "OLD" race car
and during licensing for the 57 Chevy ran again the quickest licensing
pass ever with a 6.17 second ET. Ben also secured Supercheap Autos as
his major sponsor and in the 2002/2003 season became the Australian National
Top Doorslammer Champion which set a new benchmark making him the youngest
ever winner of a professional national Drag Racing championship anywhere
in the world. The following season (2004) Ben finished 2nd in the championship
after two DNF's with mechanical breakages which didn't allow him to finish
either event.
Ben went on to win the 2004/2005 championship in Top Doorslammer then
in 2005/2006 season Ben set his sights on the Top Alcohol Funny car class.
He again set new precedents in Australian Drag racing by winning the National
Championship and resetting the TA/FC record to a 5.52 sec @ 259 mph which
has only ever been beaten by 1/1000th of a second.
In November 2006 Ben was involved in a serious workplace accident which
saw him unable to compete for several months. Castrol, who had been Team
Bray's major sponsor for many years focused on Ben's ability for the next
several years with limited success due mainly to Ben's slow recovery from
the back injury he received in the accident. Tyre shake, restricted movement
when strapped in a race car and climbing in and out of the funny car became
difficult so Ben dropped the funny car and continued to race the Doorslammer.
Ben still wasn't able to slow down and although he wasn't able to run
the funny car wanted to compete where ever he could in the sport. Ben
has another love and that is his beloved Datsun. Ben needed somewhere
to compete that didn't stress his back getting in and out of. He purchased
an unfinished Datsun Ute drag car project and added the Ben Bray touch
to it with a turbo charged SR20 engine among numerous modifications. MR
1200 as it to become known won several events and ended up carding a best
of 7.9 seconds @ 178 mph. All Ben wanted from the Datto was a 7 second
time card so once he had that in hand he is now concentrating on his next
Datsun project that is a 1200 coupe with a much more potent ' all billet'
SR 20 engine fitted. Ben has had to do most of the research himself and
knows he has plenty of track time in front of him before he reaches the
goals he has set for this one.
Ben also drove for other teams in the PRO FX category with much success.
He drove the GAS motor sport Toyota Scion for a season ending up winning
the championship and followed by other drives for teams at various events.
Ben still has the drive to win more national championships at his age
the opportunities can still present themselves and if Ben's past history
in Drag racing is anything to go one he will grab them with both hands.
A major change in Team Bray for 2011 racing season and beyond is the departure
of long time major sponsor Castrol. Team Bray enjoys continued product
support from Castrol but their marketing focus has changed and all at
Team Bray wish them well.
The big news is that SIDCHROME, manufacturer of Australia's favourite
mechanics tool has become the major sponsor of Team Bray into the future.
SIDCHROME has been sponsoring Team Bray for well over 10 years by supplying
their great products to the team and from now on whenever you see a Team
Bray Race car, crew member or transporter you will see the iconic logo
of SIDCHROME tools across the
years of....YA CANNA HAND A MAN A GRANDER SPANNER.
