Hydraulink Jim Read Racing will make an immediate return to the Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship next week, following its recent Sydney incident.

Five crew members were hospitalised after a highly-publicised start line explosion last weekend in Round 4 of the season at Sydney Dragway, although all escaped major injury.

Now, it has been announced that the team will contest Round 5 of the campaign at Victoria’s Heathcote Park Raceway on May 21-22, following a thorough examination of its car.

“Obviously after something like that, you go through everything with a fine-tooth comb, so we have taken our time over the last few days to really assess the damage and analyse every inch of the car,” explained crew chief Bruce Read.

“While obviously there is quite a lot of damage, we were very relieved to find that the chassis itself was unaffected.

“The crew is hard at work now to ensure we can replace all the necessary components and have the car fully prepped and ready to roll out again in plenty of time for Round 5 of the Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship.

“Everyone on the team is very excited to waste no time in getting back onto the track, and I am very thankful for the dedication and enthusiasm of our crew who will make this possible.

“Once again, I also want to acknowledge and thank everyone who has taken the time to send messages of support, offer assistance, and generally wish us well since Saturday.

“It has been very uplifting for the team to have everyone behind us like that and we hope we can repay you all with some strong results in Victoria next weekend.”

The competition’s sanctioning body, IHRA Australia, is investigating the incident.