Piranha Racing - Supercharged Outlaws

Well we were all lined up in the staging lanes all seated, when they announced that they had made a slight error! They had 2 races in which they should not of had and 1 in which they hadn’t had at all. So they changed it to a split seeded round, which means for the uninitiated fastest cars for half the bracket, line up against the slowest half of the bracket and pair up. You would never guess who we paired with, our best friend John Ward our mate who we catch up with all over the country, something we always desperately try to avoid. But that’s racing!

A better reaction time from Nathan was the difference a .072 against John’s .273, Nathan running through on a 7.595 @ 171.12 mph on a 7.57 dial in.

Round 2: pitted us against another likable character Michael Watkins in the altered, again a better reaction time for Nathan of .108 against .206 for Michael and the win running 7.550 on a 7.55 dial in. Well it doesn’t come much better than that, speed was down a bit @ 168.62mph but as close as it is to winning, it is so close to losing. Michael ran a 7.27 on a 7.24 dial in. The winning margin is so slim, which is why you don’t get to win very often.

Quarter Final: We were against one of Drag Racing’s lovable characters Lyle Gilmore racing the Ford altered, Lyle built this chassis himself, and when we were last in Sydney he crashed it severely. This was Lyle’s first meeting back after taking many months to rebuild the car - a good effort. In this race best reaction time again went to Nathan .064 against Lyle .103 running a 7.523mph on a 7.52 dial in, again 3000ths of a second off his dial in – top race whilst Lyle broke out even with 7.389mph on a 7.40 dial in as you can see by the times it is mega close racing in the Outlaws as is most classes.

Semi Final: We had the fortune of a bye into the final, and after initially thinking we might run it out the back door and test the dial in some wise advice came from other racers and after a team discussion we staged the car, turned it off and pushed it back knowing that the worst we could do would be runner up. With the bye into the final the worst case scenario would be, if we did the run and broke the car we wouldn’t even be able to get into the starters hands at the final and not even been placed as runners up. There was just too much money and prestige at stake for us and our sponsors to risk making those decisions. You got to play the game as our good friend John Ward says and the racer in you wants to run it out the back door and test your dial in but the risk is too great especially with a supercharged vehicle.

Daniel Reed, the reigning No. 1 in Australia had a good race against Chris Loy in the other semi final to meet us in the final. With this being Daniels last meeting in the car as he had already sold the car to a Northern Territory buyer he wanted to go out with a win. We have raced Daniel many of times probably loosing more races than we have won, it was always going to be a good race. Unfortunately an accident in the competition final delayed the race for some period of time the track was pretty much cold. Nathan was turning the tyres in the left hand lane looking down the side to see if Daniel was coming around him but he was not going to lift. Nathan also turned the tyres for the first time he ran off our 7.51 dial in, running a 7.736 a little bit down on speed at 169.44mph but a .098 reaction time against Daniel’s .138 caused Daniel to run a 7.226 on a 7.24 dial in trying to catch Nathan, there by breaking out and handing the win to Nathan in the “Lexus Piranha Real Deal Motor Sports Insurance Toyota Genuine Parts Hot Rod”.

The trophy presentation continued on well after midnight, afterwards it was back to the camp for a feed and a few sherbets, the older ones of us including Crofty (who we just could not of done without) and myself went to bed, the younger contingency partied on till 8.30am. A well deserved victory! We spent the rest of Sunday servicing the car in preparation for the trip to Perth. Our fellow Mornings with Kerrie-Ann channel 9 star Maurice Fabietti was kind enough to let us leave the truck and trailer at their house while we went the Vineyards Hotel, and had a nice feed. We basically fell asleep on the table at the Vineyards before heading off to Ian and Bev Bryants house for a bit of sleep before they got home from the boat racing, a few more sherbets then off to bed at 1.00am up at 4.30am go to the airport fly back home to Rockhampton and off to work to receive a warm welcome from all my diligent and hard working staff

Friday we head to Sydney pick up the truck and drive to Perth hoping to repeat our success. If we never get another Andra Christmas Tree, at least we have got one. Our win was very well received in Rockhampton having prime time television coverage on WIN News, The Morning Bulletin and the support of many local business which has enable us to do what we love, Drag Racing to name just a few of those who have helped us get to the top in no particular order,

Craig & Jane Arnold – Arnolds Advanced Tyres
Des & Debbie Brown – CQ Cabinet Makers
Lionel Durre – Engine Improvements
Michael & Sharon Titmarsh – The Automatic Shop
John & Chris Barnes – Barnseys Truck & Trailer Sales
Tom & Glestelle Bimrose – Bimrose Lubricants

Piranha Racing Summernats 2008 Article.

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FEEDBACK

Nathan and Peter,

Sorry for this taking so long to get to you but intended to send this quite a while ago after you got back from the big trip. It was a great reward to both of you and your team for the effort and pain that you have put in over the last few years. It was also great to see something good come at the track that was also the place of the fire. I think that 3 Gold trees finding their way to Rocky in a short period of time is something that we can all be proud of and shows the quality of racer in the region. Good luck at the Winters I hope that you do well and get the Australian Championship.
James

James O'Sullivan

I was at WSID (first time) on Friday 15th Feb and saw your car. Some kids near by us had a poster so I quickly hurried down to the pits to find you to hopefully gain said poster for my 4 year old son who is not allowed to come to drag racing just yet. Unfortunatley you were in staging for race late in the evening, which explains why I could not locate you guys. If you are feeling very generous my address is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx , otherwise hope to see you next time. Congrats on what I thought was one of the best presented cars on the night. Best Regards, Tim Smith

Peter and Nathan Thanks - we have one very happy little boy. All the best in the racing future.