Well same old, same old: It never cease to amaze me how you can put hundreds of hours into a few seconds on the track and it never ceases to amaze me the dedication of our loyal team, especially Nathan and Crofty whom wear the brunt of the work load. Heather & I chip in, Heather along with some assistance usually gets most of the truck ready and I am usually mixing the drinks. However, last night I did do the fuel system on Zac’s F.E.D.

There is a lot to be said about the “good” money working at the mines, unfortunately there is a down side in that you are hardly ever home. Zac is only ever home for 2 days at a time and with a young family and new baby it no doubt takes its toll. Their new addition Jett Peter is the first grandson for “Poppie Pete” and I was besotted with their decision to carry on the name Peter. We have also been blessed with the birth of Emilee Heather being born in February making two new grandchildren in two months and again Heather was thrilled with their decision to include her name.

I survived the nuclear medical test at the Mater Hospital and thank God for Medicare because at $1,200 it is not a cheap exercise.  The test results came back and I am glad to inform you all that you are stuck with me for a while yet.  We finally finished getting both cars ready at 1.30am Friday morning and Friday afternoon Nathan, Raquel, Crofty & myself with Reece following behind in a car headed off in drizzling rain.  Nathan tried to put in a run Friday night but with the last few meetings being rained out there was a lack of rubber on the track.  

Piranha Racing relies on a lot of people who contribute many hours of their free time and one of these dedicated people who we rely heavily on is Ashley Bolt, Ashley wires the Motec.  This young mans dedication and ability never ceases to amaze me.  He turned up at 7.30pm Friday night at Benaraby, worked all the way through until 5.30am Saturday morning then drove back to Rockhampton, all this after working a full day on Friday.  Crofty stayed up with him until 5.30am making coffees to keep him going and I shared a few snoozes with him under the race car with the assistance of “not quite a daddy” Anthony who got me a pillow and a blanket, I have been assured that it was a beautiful sight.  

Saturday the troops arrived, Heather, Marie, Craig and Courtney along with Zac, Bec, Jake and Jett.  We spent a lot of time working on the tune up in Nathan’s car with the B Series PSI which has certainly thrown us some curve balls.  With the help we received from Lionel Durre “Engine Improvements” we are all pretty confident that the Hot Rod is back on track and we are looking forward to the Top Fuel meeting at Willowbank 17th & 18th of April, then onto Sydney for the Nitro Champs from 30th April to 2nd May.

Probably the highlight of this meeting was the run between Nathan & Zac, I may be bias but both the cars looked spectacular under the lights.  They lined up side by side sharing one starter (I can’t say enough bad things about RCD starters) and now the battery pack which is less than 12months old let us down as well.  If it is not one thing it is another.  During the run Zac drifted very close to the centre line and for a moment both Heather & my hearts stopped as we feared for the boys and thought both cars were going to end up being junk.  Thankfully everyone ended up safe and sound.  They ran the Outlaw cars over at Eight Mile due to the wetness of the braking area; it would have been far too dangerous to reach speeds of 170 and 180mph.  The fastest pass of the day was no doubt Russel Mackay’s in the All Hours Glass Sainty powered Corvette, he had the 560 on board and put a cracker pass in before our official qualifier.  Unfortunately a damaged needle roller at the front of the cam put him out for the rest of the meeting.

Wayne Hargreaves had the Fabietti Race Engines powered Commodore on track, Wayne and the whole crew deserve to be congratulated because they didn’t put a foot wrong for the whole meeting.  They did well as the car was very skatey on the track but all his passes consisted of a good strong burnout and he was on and off it constantly trying to search for some traction.  I am sure they were all pleased with the meeting.  

Nathan ran against the lowest horsepower car and that is not being disrespectful to Tanya Wex but it makes it a lot easier to go down an ordinary track if you have less horsepower.  We had taken Nathan’s car back to 25 degrees in the timing from 30 to try and take some power out and tame the cars down.  This meant Nathan left at an idle unlike Willowbank where we  leave at 4,800 revs.   At the end of the day everyone is racing on the same track, no excuses and Tanya was absolutely over the moon with her victory which was well deserved.  As Tanya commented at the trophy presentation “I will probably never race Nathan and the boys again but I enjoyed every moment of it”.

The only disappointing part of the meeting was, when we went to fire Zac up for his final run, the cam belt adjuster came loose, jumped a tooth and now those 32 valves look a bit like spaghetti.  The valve guides had only done one mile in total but they will be fixed in time and be ready for racing at Willowbank for the Top Fuel meeting.

Monday night the 29th March, back in the shed again!  We tore down the F.E.D, got the heads off it and saw that we were quite lucky in one aspect as we only broke one cam and not the four which we originally thought.  It looked quite deceiving because once you see one cam broken it looks like they are all broken.  The three survivors have all gone back to Marvellous Marty at Crow Cams and we have ordered a spare set.  Look forward to seeing everyone at the track once we get everything in order again.       

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

---