After a good showing at Mackay two weeks ago for the Butch Sunderland meeting where fellow team Capricorn member Russell Mackay was awarded winner and the Lexus Piranha Real Deal Motorsports Insurance Plan Hot Rod was runner-up, we have headed north for the 2nd of our two Townsville Meetings. A leisurely drive just past Proserpine Friday night till the early hours on Saturday followed by a bit of a sleep beside the road, arrived in Townsville and setup at 11am with plenty of time for the night-time show.

Afternoon qualifier were run by Garth in the TFX powered Monaro, the All Hours Glass Arnolds Advanced Tyres Chevrolet Corvette driven by Russell Mackay, Tim Caswell in "The Tank" Fairlane from Brisbane and Nathan in the Lexus Piranha Real Deal Motorsports Insurance Plan Hot Rod. Into the night the finals between Nathan & Tim. Good run, good side by side burnouts with Nathan picking up the win. Times representative on what everyone gets to race on the day when you are on a marginal track. Unfortunately that's the surface you have got to race on. Certainly they do not have the finances to be up to the Willowbank and WSID tracks but all races compete on the same surface. Whilst we can run a 1.13 60 footer at Mackay and Willowbank, 1.27 was generally the norm for us at Townsville. Leaving off at idle, the track is unable to cope with the transbrake launch. Similarly Russell leaves in 2nd gear. When he did try 1st gear on the last run of the night it just went ape shit.

All in all it was a good night and we look forward to going back two times next year. It is nice to have our name on the trophy. There is a lot of famous wild bunch racers on there. The most numbers would be John Payne. He looks like he has about half a dozen mentions. Garth McIntyre's about three or four. There is a bloke called "Rained Out" that got a mention one year. Timmy Caswell was engraved there in 2003. I even see the Jack brothers on there. Our next meeting will be the Mackay round of the Nostalgia series. We had a phat time at the Willowbank nostalgia meeting so we will try another meeting.

Probably no much can be said for the drive home for Russell. Unfortunately there wasn't quite enough room on the narrow bridge 20 kms south of Townsville on the way home at about 5:30 in the morning. Dropped down off high beam into low beam with a semi coming the other way that crowded him for a bit of room and Russell just caught the side of the bridge. Torn the Chevy from the front to the back taking out a fair chunk of the trailer. All five wheels on that side, 2 on the Chevy and 3 on the trailer were destroyed. With a lot of help from fellow racers, ourselves included and Garth McIntyre, we made a trip to Bunning's in our Pajamas before they were fully opened and we were able to get Russell on the road and follow him home. It was quite different to be able to keep up to Russell. It is something you can't do normally. Ended up with Garth's spare on the front of the Chev. That in itself had to be a bit of a coincidence with Garth having a Chevy truck with about 30 years age difference sharing the same stud pattern.

Our spare of our trailer along with Russell's two spares got him all the way home. It is handy having your insurance broker on the spot with the claims all organized and he will be ready to rock'n'roll as soon as the parts can be source for the Chevy. I must point out that James Bendall, Russell's crew member, it starting to learn some bad habits having being caught going to the ladies toilets at Ilbilbie on the way home. He was even smiling and proud of it when I brought it to his attention.

See you at the drags.

Peter A. Peirano

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