Well, finally we are going to Dragfest; it could be compared to Chevy Chase in National Lampoons. After five years of trying to get to this one event finally the date does not clash with the Sunstates at Palmyra and we can go.

We headed off after work Thursday with six aboard the Penguins Palace, Nathan, Raquel, Macca, Crofty, Wesener/Avenal and yours truly. We pulled up at midnight at Uncle Neal (The best brother in-law the World) & Kay's place whom we had a couple of midnight drinks with and as always a beautiful breakfast was all part of their generous patronage, bacon & eggs superbly cooked by the Hun. We then arrived in Warwick at 3pm on Friday ready to set up camp when Zach, Bec and Jake turned up and no thanks to the airlines being late, at midnight Heather & Bernie arrived in the rent-a-car.

We did two runs on the Saturday being the compulsory qualifier and probably we should have in hindsight with the Lexus Hot Rod done another one or two. Whilst the F.E.D and Zach are still in a probationary period, the Hot Rod was a bit of a handful leaving at revs and breaking traction in first gear. The final run on Sunday with some more changes and it finally went down the track with no traction problems and a Nathan able to make it to the shift light without wheel spin. Zac on the other hand wasn't having any problems with the F.E.D and ended up with 2 wins a and a close loss but unfortunately Nathan had three losses which instigated the usual banter between the two brothers.

One of the reasons we made the effort to travel to Warwick is the Loy Family, they have been tremendous to us over the years and likewise once at Willowbank we lent John rims and tyres to race against us. He did the right thing and crossed the centre line after doing a thunderous burn out on our tyres but they put a lot back into drag racing and are great people. The facility at Warwick is excellent for a country town and would make a great 1000ft strip, maybe the first 1000ft drag strip in Australia will be at Warwick. We couldn't believe it when John, Jenny, Mattie & Brittney Loy turned up Friday night with 3kg of fresh prawns and assorted nibbles there hospitality was much appreciated so in return I taught Johnnie the lessons in life when it comes to floaters and Bourbon & coke.

The beauty of Dragfest and similarly the Nostalgias is there is no pressure to win, you're not racing for sheep stations and generally there is no money or precious Andra Rocket All Star points. Meaning there is nothing to get all wound up about and you know you are going to get your three runs. It was quite funny when we heard a couple of Super Street competitors complaining that they had been waiting in the staging lanes for an hour and a half, but they had already had six or seven runs prior, I think the average driver got four or five runs. So you certainly get "great bang for buck" when you rock up in the lower classes. The cost of running both the Supercharged Outlaws limits the amount of testing because it is very expensive but you haven't got to run them on kill. We desperately wanted to race anyone of the two Junkyard Dog cars as we have this ongoing saga between the chickens and the dogs. Johno will stir things up by walking around saying "the dogs are having chicken tonight" so I give it back to him in the staging lanes with "the chickens are having dog food to eat". You must always remember we are there to entertain the crowd and Warwick had so many young kids approaching us for posters, with a couple of sly ones who came up two and three times but in one of the photos attached with this newsletter there is a kid who we will never forget. Just the enjoyment that we got out of putting him in the race car and having his photo taken was just beyond belief his excitement was contagious and he lifted all our spirits.

First round when the blown six cylinder beat us: This crew have been racing for years and they were so excited when they beat us, he made the comment "we are usually cannon fodder, we don't usually win many" and he was thanking us - it was definitely a treasured moment. One would hope that we never loose the country meetings and even though there is no class for us the new Eighth Mile Series between Roma, Benaraby, Willowbank and Warwick I am sure will be a fantastic success. With a rotating final round never to be held at Willowbank it will bring some good racing and a reason to go to Ironbark, to go to Warwick and to go to Benaraby to be a series champion. Congratulations Stomper, well done.

The trophy presentation was well done, with a beautiful perpetual trophy on show won by Scott Thompson in memory of his brother Craig, a truly happy ending for the Thompson family. Non delay box, good effort Scott your mum and dad would have been so proud and everyone there gained a great treasured memory, just another great reason to get to Warwick - to try and win the Craig Thompson Memorable trophy. We ended up with three trophies the longest distance travelled, Hard Luck (to Tubby for his three losses) and Chairman's Choice for Zach in the F.E.D.

Then we received a phone call, it was just a surreal type of feeling as during the trophy presentations we were informed that the fires in Rockhampton were encroaching on Crofty's and our houses which are side by side situated at the bottom of the Mt Archer ranges. The Mt Archer Ranges had been burning for several days and they were now water bombing the creek across the road from our houses. So instead of staying the night and celebrating we headed off with Nathan driving until midnight where we reached the little Matilda north of Gympie, we finally made it home at 1pm and were very relieved to see that both houses were still there.

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

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