Rough-N-Ready Racing produced another solid showing competing at the Kool April Nites at the Redding Dragstrip in Redding, California, last weekend.

The drag racing syndicate, owned by Bermudian Harvey Williams Jr, finished runner-up in the 7.0 Pro class, with driver Chris Bates making his debut behind the wheel of the team’s 1986 Corvette body funny car “Happy Hour”.

The team reached the final where Bates was automatically disqualified for a foul start.

“Chris left early which gave us a foul and lost the race,” Jacqueline Williams, the team crew member, said.

“Essentially, if our driver didn’t red light, we would have won the race with a 7.14 at 194mph compared to our opponent who ran a 7.57 at 172mph.”

Bates might have lost the race, but did enough to land the role as the team’s back-up driver to regular driver Tony Trimp.

“We put Chris, driver of US Mule AA/FA nitro dragsters, into our car to see if he would be our back-up driver in case Tony Trimp wasn’t available,” Williams added.

“He passed with flying colours. With every pass Chris made with us his reaction was the same every time, having a big smile on his face telling the crew that it was awesome.”

The team used the event to test their motor, which had just undergone extensive repair.

“This exhibition race was more of a test and tune session for us,” Williams said. “We had just got our motor back from the machine shop and we found all the problems.”

Rough-N-Ready Racing laid down a marker after winning their class for the fourth consecutive year at last month’s California Independent Funny Car Association Championship season opener at the Sacramento Raceway Park, California.