Is it passion or is it obsession?
In the weeks leading up to the Winter Nationals I have lost track of the endless hours we have spent in the shed. Even if some of our crew don’t like me near the tools, I am always still there with them till 1am some mornings watching the endless days run into the next. I could never hope to achieve what I have and enjoy and participate with unbridled enthusiasm without my wife Heather’s support (and signature on the cheque book). Some days are hard as the sleep deprivation starts to kick in and you find yourself nodding off at work.

Why do we do it?
For me it is the unrestrainable passion I have for speed and the adrenalin rush that comes when you or your driver has a great run or wins a final as this is what we strive for. The emotions you experience cannot be bought at Woolworths and the Packer’s cannot put a price on it; for the more passionate you are and the harder you have to work for it, the more intense the feelings are. The adrenalin rush when you win a final lasts a long time, we may have only won one ANDRA Gold Christmas Tree but this winning feeling can be rekindled simply buy reliving the moment in conversation. This is the start of my column for June, in which I started before the Winternationals where we will hopefully be running both Supercharged Outlaws cars being the Lexus Piranha Hot Rod with Nathan driving and if everything goes to plan or other son Zachary will be driving the F.E.D.

Friday evening 29th-May-09 we head off from Rockhampton with both cars on board, Saturday night at Willowbank we will do the Test’n’Tune and Nathan will hopefully license the F.E.D. Sunday we will endeavour to license Zachary and run the first few meetings at least in Modified. Moving on to our dedicated band of workers, firstly my neighbour Alan Croft who sadly for me is heading off for a 4 month caravanning holiday around Australia - Crofty it will be nearly impossible to run without you. Also Craig Wessner, Bernie Bond, Zac, Reece and my best mate Lachlan Tree are just a few who have spent many hours (working) in the shed. Who would ever have thought that to just mount an engine into an existing race car like the F.E.D would take so much work - only someone more intelligent than me would attempt it? You can’t buy anything for it; instead everything has to be painstakingly hand made.

More on our return from the Winter Nationals………..

Winter Nationals Highlights
Paul Shackleton, Damien Harris – 4.98 1st Australian Nitro Funny Car 4 Second Pass, see the Youtube link. A fantastic result for team based in Mackay and Western Australia, well done bring back Nitro Funny Cars as an ANDRA Official Class.

Winter Nationals Lowlights
The lowest part of the meet without a shadow of a doubt was the devastating disqualification by Debbie Reed in the Top Alcohol final; prior to this we were still feeling a bit deflated, sad and sorry for ourselves by yet again coming so close to Australia No. 1. (3 out of 4 years). This year we were two rounds short, 2nd round loss in a double break out and a fantastic race with Pino Priolo ending in us being 56 hundreths’ away from a possible clash with the eventual winner Christine Steffens. Well done to Christine, we will be back again as everyone will next year.

Once the crew saw that red light of Aaron Hambridge two Gold Christmas Trees were in Deb’s hands, then the unthinkable happened. Her vehicle crossed the boundary and launched into the wall – it is a quick trip from the Penthouse to the Outhouse; our own misery was quickly dismissed and no longer relevant. Deb I hope the flowers Piranha Racing sent to you cheered you up, as we all felt your pain and anguish whilst witnessing your dream run unravel so quickly right there in front or our eyes. Again well done and better luck in 2009-2010.

Another Animal joins the Piranha Racing Team
Keen observers would have noticed “Wally the Wombat” on the fuel vent of the new Penguin F.E.D who joins the many other animals including the famous Toyota Lexus Piranha Chook one of which we endeavour to give away after each run if we have enough supplies. Each chook is generally given to a deserving youngster in the grandstand and we appreciate correspondence from any recipients via a photo or email of the chooks at their new abode.

Now speaking of the Lexus Toyota Chooks, whilst the Hot Rod was having some chassis adjustment work done by Wayne from Pro-Force, some unscrupulous people rather person with a christian name of Trevor kidnapped the two chooks off the rear wing, by the way thanks to Wayne and his team for the excellent job, Mark Brew for the use of his shed and Trev “Blue Star Towing” the best tow truck owner in Ipswich for taking the vehicle to and from the track at the Winternats. Now as you will see by the photographic evidence the chooks were let loose all over Brisbane; they were frolicking in supermarkets, dicing with death at the Steggles factory, making prank calls in public phone boxes, there was even a sighting at a dirty book store.

These photos were gradually released over the Winternationals by various racers including Dale Clothier (the mad FC Holden driver from Adelaide), members of the Ray Bernard Crew and I even received a photo believe it or not upon picking up a time card at the scrutineering shed. The plot thickens but someone; probably Ray Bernard let the cat out of the bag far too soon as I am led to believe a lot more activities were planned for the chooks that never eventuated.

All in all it was fantastic fun, and it sort of tops last years Winternats when the large blow-up penguin was kidnapped and held hostage on top of a lighting tower by that disastrous crew from Benaraby Raceway. I suppose when you look at the team you can understand why we have animals, a bit like Monty Pythons “The Flying Circus”.

Winter Nationals continued
Well it was Friday night the week before the Winter Nationals, we eventually left Rockhampton 11pm and miles behind schedule. Nathan did an excellent job driving and we finally stopped at the Gympie Matilda at 5.30pm for a few hours sleep. The rest of us slept lightly in the back waiting for the drinks call and in the end Crofty came through waking everyone up, it did not matter how sleep deprived we all were there is always time for a drink. We arrived at Willowbank and set up ready for the TEST N TUNE on the Saturday night 30th May prior to the Winters Warm Up Sunday the 31st May.

Well we eventually got both cars ready in the staging lane Sunday afternoon still hoping to qualify to licence the F.E.D and then licence the driver being No.2 son Zachary, only to have the heavens opened up and we achieved neither - What do you do, go to Plan B. We contacted the magnificent Loy family in Warwick, hired the track on Wednesday, lit up the F.E.D with what we thought was required and enlisted the help of a fellow Western Australian Supercharged Outlaws racer Lindsay Catalano and his mad mate, Moggie. “They often say if you get one Western Australian, you get a second idiot free” (in jest of course). They were great company over the weekend and even helped John Ward out all weekend as he had a shortage of crew for the Winter Nationals. One thing Outlaws racers do, as with all racers is help out when needed. We had a tremendous amount of help on both weekends and may I add it is definitely a lot harder running two cars. My hat goes out to the multi car teams as packing up is now about a four hour ritual. The sooner we get both cars running in Supercharged Outlaws the better; I could not believe how frantic modified racing is. Most of the teams are able start their cars in the staging lanes and drive out, not in our case by the time we pushed the pencil out, pushed it back, got the remote starter hooked up most of the others had already done their burnout and were ready to race. Thanks to Jordon Radford who patiently waited for us in the first round, it is appreciated.

On Saturday of the Test n Tune prior to the Winters Warm Up a fellow racer by the name of Anthony Begley came up to me and frankly I didn’t know him from a jar of Vicks but he needed an angle grinder and as we have a pretty good supply of just about everything we lent one to him. The very next day he bought it back and in conversation we explained how we had a problem and needed to pack up everything to go to Warwick, from that he kindly lent us his transporter. Now here is a guy who has driven all the way from Western Australia, who we only met two days prior and he gives you his truck to make life easier. Anthony’s generosity certainly saved us time and effort and we thank him immensely.

Warwick Drag Strip
Magnificent little place, when Nathan did the first burnout in the F.E.D I was standing at about the 60ft mark; it is pretty hard to express but at that point I felt a sensation of pride and achievement at the realization of what was in front of me and it felt good. Those of you, who know me, will know that I am as soft as a marshmallow and at this point I found myself choked up and emotional. If I thought I was choked up then, imagine how I was after Nathan licensed the car and when No.2 son Zachary did that first burnout, he may have been off and on the throttle a fair few times but it was a very emotional moment and fantastic feeling let me tell you. You haven’t got to drive the car; you only have to be involved in the team to feel the endorphins and experience the exhilaration blasting in your brain. I have said it before and will say it again the late great Kerry Packer couldn’t buy what we feel, you can only experience it. It is amazing how quick the trip from the Penthouse to the Outhouse is, for example at Warwick we warmed the car up, Nathan put his suit on and it won’t run, it was running like a chaff cutter. Two hours later, what could it be, we changed things, checked everything and eventually we went back to Chris Loys place and borrowed his pro mag 20 points box, hook it up and Bob’s your Uncle. So from the moment we warmed it up to when we restarted it, the points box has S#*t itself - unbelievable.

The first few passes of the F.E.D’s at Willowbank, especially the last one on Friday night were very memorable and the fact that it leaned out @ 700ft, banged the blower, wrecked another manifold is immaterial. We finally had the car going down the track and a million thanks to everyone involved including the whole Piranha racing team, the machinist - Bernie Bond, Ted Woodford, our engine builder - Lionel Durre, Crofty, Wessner, Lachlan, my sons Nathan & Zac, my wife Heather and the girls Bernie, Courtney, Bec & Raquel, Macca, Whitey, Damo, Lindsay, Moggie and to Jeff Everett who helped at the track.

We tried to fix the F.E.D with a sledge hammer and block of wood but it was leaking too much from the manifold and rather than risk grenading the motor we shut it down and that was the end of the Winter Nationals for the F.E.D but we still finished third in Australia in Supercharged Outlaws. That win in the first round was a good run against Psycho Steve Easton with both drivers performing nearly full track burnouts. To keep our championship hopes alive with an off the throttle 7.66 on a 7.57 dial in, going through at only 155mph and not pulling the chute.

Move onto round #2 and still chasing that Australian No.1 against Western Australian former speedway champion Pino Priolo, as always the Hot Rod is being chased and we never have the lane choice. We had a chat to Pino and his crew the night before and can confirm they are a top group of people and he is a real racer. It was a good race but unfortunately not in our favour, both racers had excellent reaction times with Nathan having .418 and Pino .420. The Hot Rod trucked on down the track clocking an impressive 7.521 @ 168.35mph, breakout on a 7.60 dial in. Double breakout, Pino’s trucked on down with a 6.829 @ 211.06mph on a 6.84, the time to lift was there but it’s a bit hard when you have a 211mph blur blasting past you. With most of the contenders other than Christine Steffens out in the first round, including the leader at that point being Matty Watts, John Ward and Paul Stephens. The second round loss left only two people possible to win this show and in the box seat was Christine Steffens, who had a nervous time waiting for Matty Watts, who has had a fantastic first year.

Being based at Alice Springs incurs a lot more expenses; the cost of travelling alone is bad enough. We sometimes have a whinge at being based in Rockhampton but compared to Alice Springs Rockhampton looks good, you have to take your hat off to them. Guy and Tracy, it is humbling to see people who are as passionate as we are when it comes to drag racing and your dedication to the sport and your sons to provide them with the opportunity to compete in ANDRA Championship drag racing is inspiring. We know we are bias but we think it is the greatest show on earth. Christine went through to pick up both Christmas trees just like John Ward last year, with Matty Watts running a creditable second; we came in third with this being the third time we have been placed in the top three in four years. We will get there one day but even if we don’t we have still got that one ANDRA Gold Christmas Tree and no doubt we will be back in August for the Top Doorslammer Meeting, Nostalgias’ and the Nationals in Sydney. We always welcome visitors, acquaintances both new and old, friends, fans and racers alike to call in and see us at the Piranha Racing Real Deal Motorsports Insurance camp as we like nothing better and see the need to promote our sport.

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

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