Piranha Racing - Supercharged Outlaws

There’s a saying that goes “how does a New Zealander get into small business, the joke being start with a large one first” similar for drag racing. Start with a lot of money and end up with little at the end of the day. One of the most remarkable things for me to hit home was after the Tin Tops. I always led myself to believe that it was a $700 fuel bill down and back for the diesel but with diesel @ $1.60 a litre at the Shell in Nudgee we are now getting close on no change out of $1,200 just to drive down and back, (but that won’t stop us).
It has now got to the point of ridiculous how on earth did diesel, the first product off the refinery line become 20 to 30 cents dearer than unleaded; it just reeks of a rip off!    Heather is of the opinion that I am obsessed with drag racing, and she is probably right I just love it. What I love the most is the friendship; we have made life long friends from all over Australia due to our drag racing.

To say we headed off to the Tin Tops with great expectations would be an under statement, we had a thorough preparation after getting over the disappointing first round loss in Western Australia, and we were still pretty happy with our big win in Sydney. We had a full crew, 8 in the truck plus Zac and Jennah also racing and driving down in the Ford XR6, “Henry’s finest ute”. Again we had great expectations after running 12.8 seconds in Benaraby.

Bernie & Courtney decided to join us in leaving early so we all ended up meeting at the track on Friday morning at 4am. While Bernie & Courtney took the more comfortable option, back to Bernie’s mum’s place for a warm cuppa and a nice bed. We eventually got into the track at 8.30am along with Fowlers from Newcastle and set up camp. We were pretty impressed with the first qualifier late on the Friday night the “Lexus Piranha Toyota Genuine Parts Hot Rod” ripped off 7.647 at a whopping 174.62 mph against our good friend Chris Hollingworth in his big block Holden Ute in what could only be described as fair track conditions. Having trounced Chris 3 zip at Benaraby last year in the City vs. Country Challenge I had great delight in zipping down to the end of the track on the “Toothy Scooter” singing the song “another one bites the dust, another big block bites the dust” all in good humour of course.

Our next qualifier wasn’t till Saturday morning at 11.28am against Shannon Gaddes in the “Junkyard Dog Funny Car”. Now the Piranha chickens and the Junkyard Dog have had a fued going on for quite a while now, a bit like the Dukes of Hazard. The Chickens are always trying to get it over the Dogs, and need I say even though it was only a qualifier it was a big fat .37 red light from the Junkyard Dog, and another big block bites the dust. Not as good a run with some tyre spin just of the line and a pedal but it was still a 7996 @ 172.41mph and we were still pretty pleased with that.

Moving on to our last qualifier which was against the legendary Ben Gatt. Now the whole Gatt crew are just a great bunch of people to be at the drags with, we had a ball in Western Australia even though we were all first round losers. They have been around drag racing for a life time, they have a great crew and they love their drag racing. This is one of the last few meetings that Ben will have in the HQ Holden with the big block; he wants to revert back to his legendary Ford Coupe. This was a bit of a shambles for us there was light rain on the track which held us up, then they let us go only to get to mid track and have the engine zing to 9200 revs. Because it was still raining half way down the track we over powered the track, black tracked and skated down the track, pretty wild moment for Nathan. Thankfully got out of it and went through @ 8.26 doing only 118.86mph.

Willowbank’s write up quotes we are getting out of shape, well when you hit water @ 150mph and start turning the tyres it doesn’t exactly keep you in shape. We were pretty happy to line up against Tom Coonan in the first round and that’s where it all turned from the penthouse to the outhouse. When we went to start the “Real Deal Motor Sports Hot Rod” with the remote starter, we heard a bit of a loud clunk! We didn’t realize till later on back in the pits afterwards what had happened, and what did happen was a bolt and nut on the remote starter had come undone as Brett hit the starter the bolt fell and got jammed in the idler pulley and the belt forced the idler pulley over, whilst we were desperately trying to get the nut undone we were at the same time trying to figure out how can the belt be so loose if we can’t get the nut undone on the idler puller. During this time Tom Coonan did absolutely the right thing, his crew let him do the burnout, back up and desperately trying to hold him up and thanks to Tom because that’s what you call real sportsmanship, he wanted to make a race of it. Eventually Nathan had to do half a burn out backed up at about 80mph jumped it into the stage everything rushed, everything too quick no routine and consequently he dropped a .366 red light. Car ran well 7.69 @ 173.94mph Tom had a very ordinary reaction time of 0.673, it’s the one that got away from us. A half decent reaction time would of won the race but that’s racing.

So we packed up half the stuff and sat back and watched a great nights racing, it was wonderful to see Sean Mifsud win his first Doorslammer title and equally wonderful that Garth McIntyre from Mackay was runner up to Bill Fletcher. Congratulations Bill I think this was probably your first Outlaws win well done, well deserved again they are another wonderful bunch of people racing Outlaws with a well presented car, crew and couldn’t happen to nicer people. Hopefully everybody gets their turn eventually.

We look forward to the Winternationals although it is pretty scary with Chris Loy on 160 points, were sitting back there on equal points with our good friend John Ward and when you see Chris Loy in qualifying the man is a machine. His first qualifier 7.378, his second qualifier 7.377, his third qualifier 7.404, and even though he lost in the first round of the eliminations against Garth McIntyre just breaking out with a 7.366 on a 7.37 dial in you can’t take nothing away from the big fellow from Warwick, that is spectacular consistency in Outlaws racing and he will be hard to beat. The Rocket Allstars Racing Series No1 title is still to be decided at the Winternationals. Be there or be square.

P.S.   If we don’t end up winning I sure hope Chris does, the whole Loy clan are a pleasure to be associated with and besides that they put on a great BBQ. Our last job on the Sunday morning whilst packing up was to load the office, kitchen, cupboards ect for the new starting towing at Benaraby raceway generously donated by the Radford clan. When they turned up with a ex ambulance and a trailer full with what we thought was going to be 2 flat packs we were just amazed at how we were going to fit it in the trailer, but we did and we delivered it at 7.30 that night to Benaraby Race Way job done.

See you at the drags.

Peter A. "The Legend - The Cheque Book" , Heather, Nathan & Zac Peirano.
Piranha Insurance Brokers P/L
"LEXUS PIRANHA SUPERCHARGED OUTLAWS HOT ROD"

CARPENTER FORD SUPERCHARGED OUTLAWS QUALIFYING ROUND ONE
18/04/2008 10:26 pm 15Deg,90%H,1018mB,336RA,(TT)23Deg
1452 Right Lane NATHAN PEIRANO LEXUS HOT ROD , 240CU 4 LITRES
1111 Left Lane CHRIS HOLLINGWORTH HOLDEN UTE VS , 582
#Tst RcNo 149_______Time Trials, Test and Tune (R) Right Win M:1.020
NUM CLASS HCAP REACT 60 330 660 MPH 1000 ET MPH
1452 SC/O 6.50 0.439 1.132 3.143 4.866 141.96 6.366 7.647 174.62 1
1111 SC/S 6.50 0.535 1.692 3.988 5.775 137.20 7.293 8.571 179.14 1
Chris Hollingworth and Nathan Pierano are side by side on the track, the old chickens seem to be tied tight tonight so they won’t be flying the coupe, Pierano is out of there but Hollingsworth has all sorts of trouble trying to get off the start line, lots of tyre shake and going nowhere what so ever.

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CARPENTER FORD SUPERCHARGED OUTLAWS QUALIFYING ROUND TWO

19/04/2008 11:28 am 20Deg,70%H,1018mB,884RA,(TT)32Deg
1452 Right Lane NATHAN PEIRANO LEXUS HOT ROD , 240CU 4 LITRES
1840 Left Lane SHANNON GADDES MUSTANG FUNNY CA , 540
#Tst RcNo 80_______Time Trials, Test and Tune (L) Right Win M:1.097
NUM CLASS HCAP REACT 60 330 660 MPH 1000 ET MPH
1452 SC/O 6.50 0.445 1.294 3.436 5.185 140.10 6.699 7.996 172.41 2
1840 SC/O 6.50 0.370 1.097 2.959 4.511 158.12 5.843 6.974 199.56 2 F
Nathan Pierano and Shannon Gaddes, both unusual looking cars in their own right, are now on the start line, a big red light to Gaddes, and a good pass from Pierano apparently he is going faster due to his weight loss, good on him.

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CARPENTER FORD SUPERCHARGED OUTLAWS QUALIFYING ROUND THREE

19/04/2008 3:25 pm 20Deg,68%H,1016mB,982RA,(TT)30Deg
1452 Right Lane NATHAN PEIRANO LEXUS HOT ROD , 240CU 4 LITRES
456 Left Lane BEN GATT HQ HOLDEN , 600
#Tst RcNo 173_______Time Trials, Test and Tune (L) Right Win M:0.922
NUM CLASS HCAP REACT 60 330 660 MPH 1000 ET MPH
1452 SC/O 6.50 0.410 1.094 3.110 4.847 140.45 6.511 8.266 118.86 3
456 SC/S 6.50 0.356 1.115 3.067 4.700 152.34 6.122 7.398 163.82 2 F
Nathan Pierano, has finally got a handle on the little Chicken Lexus, Ben Gatt in the lane alongside him. Yeah I Know Ford fans it is the Godfather of Ford driving a Holden, Pierano is throwing everything at it but it gets out of shape and he buttons it off. Its another good pass for Gatt although he does have to hang onto it through the bottom end.

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CARPENTER FORD SUPERCHARGED OUTLAWS ELIMINATIONS ROUND ONE

19/04/2008 8:18 pm 16Deg,90%H,1019mB,338RA,(TT)25Deg
444 Right Lane TOM COONAN FORD XR8 , BAE 511
1452 Left Lane NATHAN PEIRANO LEXUS HOT ROD , 240CU 4 LITRES
#Gp3 RcNo 268 ---- SUPERCHARGED (L) Right Win M:0.200
NUM CLASS HCAP REACT 60 330 660 MPH 1000 ET MPH
444 SC/S 6.84 0.673 1.102 2.942 4.445 161.29 5.736 6.834 203.99 B
1452 SC/O 7.59 0.366 1.150 3.183 4.900 142.58 6.405 7.691 173.95 F
Nathan Pierano and Tom Coonan. Coonan will do the chasing, he is into his burnout routine, we are waiting for Pierano, lots of activity around the start up area, he is valiantly trying to get up to the line, he does a very small burnout, and races back to get into stage, the chooks are looking a little nippy out there tonight. But Nathan hands it away with a red light, Coonan breaks out, but Pierano will be heading to the trailer.

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FEEDBACK

Hey Pete,

thanks mate.

Great overview and great reading.

Sounds like you are a pretty happy chappy with the way things are going in the racing world.

Good news mate.

Keep the time low, the speed high and the rest will look after itself. (Sound like the time management plan of an insurance salesman)

Regards,

KEVIN CLELAND

Hi Peter,

You will be pleased to hear that the boys have stuck their laminated posters from you on their bedrooms walls. They are also both taking them to school and pre-school today as their news items.

They are very impressed that Mummy knows someone who races that car.

Thanks again, they were very much appreciated.

Regards,

Samantha Hollman

Hey Peter

Just a quick thanks for my poster, I was really surprised, but I love it!
Now just have to find a good place to put it up somewhere!

Thanks again!!

Jenny Davis