Well, we were a bit rusty after 5months; we even got into trouble with the startline officials. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing wrong and in the end it had to be pointed out to us, just showing how rusty we were. I had a chat to Royce afterwards when he came down to our pit and apparently we were standing too close to the Hot Rod on its first qualifier. We didn’t have a clue what was going on, we were watching the revs go up and Nathan was on peak revs waiting for the lights but nothing was happening with the lights. Anyhow it was a lesson learnt - all is well that ends well.

The journey down: Well the mighty “Penguins Palace” the Iveco, she gave us a bit of trouble going down and all I heard was bla bla bla from Nathan, Raquel, Crofty & Macca about new Ivecos, new Volvo air bag suspension, and automatic 500hp – apparently the sky is the limit except for the REAL DEAL cheque book which has a limit. The end result was we never made Friday nights Test n Tune because we ended up about 10klms short of Childers. After we pulled up a few times and tilted the cab which you have to on the Iveco Day Cab to changed a few fuel filters the troops Nathan, Macca, Crofty & Raquel ran out of filters and bypassed the primary lift filter. We ended up arriving at Willowbank when the Test n Tune was nearly over.

The journey home: We nearly made it home but where the BP burnt down just south of Miriam vale Macca pulled over only to discover we had a fuel line leaking. Now with the price of diesel at present the last thing we could afford was to spray the bitumen with it. Nathan & Crofty shortened the line so we could get going again and we will get the Pirtek man out to fit some braided lines to eradicate those problems. We will then change over the primary lift pump fuel filter to a fleet card one with the a water trap and hopefully the Penguins Palace will roll on.

Now the Race Meeting: Heather & Bernie flew down and bought lunch out with them, ably assisted by Lesley Coleman, Bec and Little Bec they set up for lunch while Raquel helped Nathan download data and worked on the tune-up with Crofty on the Hot Rod. Many thanks to Steven Reed who helped us out with some great blower advice especially regarding the spring pressure on the pump saver – thanks Steven, greatly appreciated. In the meantime Craig, Zach & Mark worked on the F.E.D. with Bec packing his chutes as well as cleaning Zac’s visor and driving the tow car. Bec likes to pack Zac’s chutes, as a driver you only give this job to someone you trust as Bec said she would miss out the most If Zac was gone even though she likes when he only throws one chute as it's half the work. The first qualifier for Zac in the F.E.D – 7.31 @ 183.87 mph. That was Zach’s best run for the meeting, with the air getting progressively worse ending up in excess of 4000ft above sea level. During the second round Zac experienced what he refers to as “the wildest ride to date in fed” and I’ve asked Zac to write his own version of events, so this is how it unfolded from the driver’s seat. “I saw my opponents red light and proceeded to test my dial in when nearing the finish line fed went through a patch of oil sliding me straight across the centre line and therefore taking out the speed cone. I wrestled FED to try and get him back into my lane when the bouncing started. Now it was Geoff Blake who told me to never grab the brake a couple of years ago before my first run in fed and it still rings in my ears today. But letting go of the brake when you’re a shy under 300kmh is one hard task but after a few looms at the wall I managed to slow fed down and take a breath. This was my first meeting using a DJ Defender head restraint and it was the best safety investment our team has made helping my head stay attached to my shoulders and stopping my head from tilting backwards. All in all making me safer in the car. It proved a valuable asset on that run.”

Now all this took place in the tail end of a 7.53 @ 176.42 mph run, and we’re mighty thankful for Geoff Blake offering that advice all those years ago and more importantly for Zac taking notice! No disrespect to the older drag racing generation but the thing with the younger drag racers, especially the ones who have come through the junior dragsters, is that they read a lot on the internet and watch clips on YouTube and it seems to sink in. Some of us older people aren’t that educated when it comes to computers and don’t find time to read much and I have always said the best thing that has happened in recent years with Drag racing has been the junior dragster program. After visiting Latrobe in Tasmania for the Super Sedan Speedway Australian Titles and watching the junior sedans in speedway then watching them at Warnervale last year this again will bring back speedway. The program is great for both speedway and drag racing because you bring those juniors through the ranks and they will pester their mum & dad for a modified car at some point. You only have to see in Western Australia the juniors running in competition in AA Dragster were most of our future stars will come from.

Even though the Hot Rods first qualifier was a bit of a debacle where we got into a bit of trouble for standing too close, it still ran a reasonable number for the weather conditions at the Nostalgia’s. We headed back out for our second run looking to improve on the first but after the hotrod launched Nathan said that he thought it had stalled as he couldn’t hear the engine before it came to life again and Nathan managed to cruise it down the bottom end of the track. Back in the pit Nathan and Crofty worked through the Motec data again with no real reasoning for the last pass. Again we made a few changes and headed back out for the 3rd Qualifier, so far this meeting hadn’t really played out the we wanted for the Hotrod. Nathan launched off idle and cruised through the run recording a 8.31 sec pass so we seemed to be back on track. Prior to the 1st round Steve Reed popped in for a visit. With his wealth of knowledge on Blown Engines he picked up on something that seemed to have maybe been staring us in the face the whole time. Nathan and Crofty corrected the problem and with not much time left sent the hotrod out for the 1st Round. Moral was high, maybe just maybe we’d stumbled across something that had been causing us problems ever since we fitted the new ‘B’ series PSI in January 2010. Burnout was great, Nathan says that it hasn’t got up on the tyres like that in over 12 months, Macca jumped out in front to back him up and noticed fuel coming out of a loose fitting in the front. In the rush to get out we hadn’t double checked the line. We shut the Hot Rod down even before the starter did – safety first. We see a lot of people venting their anger at the starter when they are told to shut it down but he is only doing his job and the end result is he could save your car, save the driver and avoid a serious accident. Maybe we could have nipped up the fuel line but it was a qualifier so it isn’t the end of the earth and even in a run you just can’t afford to take the risk. Disappointing that we didn’t get a pass but still positive that with 2 rounds left we could see some improvement. Round 2 we leaned it out and headed out and layed down a strong 8.20 sec pass. Round 3 we were sure we could make the hotrod run a decent number. Back in the pit Nathan leaned it out some more, only taking baby steps as we’ve been stung before and sure enough we did it – a 7.991 sec pass in bad air and heat. It’s a pity that we didn’t have a couple more passes up our sleeves but we are confident that we our on our way to correcting the fuel issues that have been haunting us for 12 months.

Through all these drama’s we still manage to find time to talk to the people that matter the most – the spectators. We met our 2 biggest fans on the weekend. Raquel was standing beside the Hotrod in the staging lanes after strapping Nathan in and waiting for our last run, Jake and Rocky (approx. 10 or 11) approached the Hotrod to tell her how much they love the car and how Nathan is their favourite racer “ever” !! Raquel introduced the boys to Nathan, who at this time was all geared up and strapped in, both boys were so excited to actually get to talk to a “real” race car driver that they were almost sitting on top of him in his car. Raquel asked if they would like to pop down to our pit after the race and we’d give them some posters to take home! Well, just as she’d asked, upon pulling off the return road and into the pit here they were. Our two biggest fans “ever”, both clapping and cheering on our return. I mean, we were quite proud of ourselves as well, after all we’d just run our best time of the meet – a 7.991, so the applause was very much appreciated! Nathan talked both boys through the in’s and out’s of racing the Hotrod and both Jake and Rocky had their photo’s taken in the driver’s seat. A few autographed posters and the same deal with Zac and both boys were on their way back to mum and dad – or so we thought! 20 mins later we are again blessed with the pleasure of Rocky and Jake’s company, this time the boys were chasing more autographs – from everyone!! Nathan and Zac both signed their hats – inside and out, shirts, backs, mobile phone’s and anything else they could lay their hands on! Rocky loved us so much that he said his mum wouldn’t mind if he invited us all to his birthday party 2 weekends later. Raquel explained to Rocky that we live a fairly long way from Willowbank, over 700 kms – his response “ You mean you’re not coming!”

We very much look forward to seeing Jake and Rocky at the March meeting at Willowbank. They said they’re coming back and bringing friends!!

Overall we were pretty happy with the whole meeting considering both boys had not raced for over 5months. We admit we were a bit rusty and it showed but we will be back for the Top Fuel Meeting in March with vengeance. To all the crew, the drivers, their partners and everyone who helped on the day, thanks very much and a special thanks to our ever increasing fan base out there. Look forward to catching up at the drags in the near future – March Top Fuel Meeting at Willowbank.

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

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