I often say give a busy man a job and he will get it done because he will find the time. Sometimes I think that must be very true. Heather and I only returned from the Steadfast Annual Conference in New Zealand on Easter Thursday just after lunch, went into the office until 7.00 p.m., went home after getting up at Australian time of 1.00 a.m. in the morning, hit the wall and had to go to sleep while Nathan and Bruce Watts worked on putting the drag car back together after ingesting a screw out of the butterfly at the last Willowbank meeting.

It was not until Friday afternoon at 4.30 p.m. that we finally headed off for the long haul to Townsville. They say life is a journey, it certainly was to Townsville. We turned the truck off at Ilbilbie after fueling up and getting something to eat it would not start, dropped one of the two 12 volt batteries hooked up to power the 24 volt system in the Japanese truck, quick call to Rockhampton, multi metre, diagnosed the problem, stick in a new battery, off we go, ending up about an hour out of Townsville at about 2.00 a.m., half full of fuel, at a 24 hour service station, two attendants, lots of lights, lots of diesel, lots of petrol but no bloody batteries. The other battery had dropped itself so we were stuck at 2.00 a.m. in the morning, tired, had enough and a service station that does not sell batteries. It should not be called a service station, it should be called a café with petrol and diesel.

We dropped down the tail gate of the race car trailer, fired up the gen set, pulled out the battery charger, run it for half an hour on the drive way and got enough charge to start her. Ended up at Townsville Dragway at 3.00 a.m. in the morning and the gate was locked. It was suppose to be dummy locked. Out comes the trusty hack-saw, always remember to cut the link closest to the lock so they just have to move the lock over, never cut the chain in the middle because then they have to buy another lock.

Anyway we hooked up the power, fired up the aircon, which is also dying a slow death and went to sleep. On Saturday afternoon Russell and Melissa turned up with the big Chev, the blue wall of death towing behind on an angle. Air bag problem again, she is coming in crooked. We were very apprehensive as it was our first meeting ever with out either Dave or the Austin Coil of Rockhampton - Lionel Durrie. Lionel does all the maintenance on both team Capricorn cars - The Lexus Hot Rod and Rusell and Melissa`s All Hours Glass 63 split window Sainty powered Corvette. Lionel had family plans over easter in Mackay and we went alone and it was very pleasing to get through the weekend with the help of the three Peirano children, Nathan, Bianca and Zachary.

Nathan is quite good at tuning the car and with a couple of quick phone calls to Lionel we did minor changes. The beauty of wild bunch shows up north is that we are there to put on a show. We are not there to set records, you are never going to set records on some of the reasonable tracks due simply to the loss of traction but the crowd certainly appreciate it.

I doubt if at any Formula One or Gold Coast Indy, the car owners allow people with young children to come over and you lift the little one up and put them inside the car and get mum and dad to take a couple of photo's and they go home stoked, happy and cannot thank you enough. It is just so easy to do, never ever forget that in drag racing every one is allowed in the pits and you just do not get that close to the cars in any other sporting event. Try and get into the super car pits at Bathurst and see if you can put your child into one of the team cars and take a couple of photo's. You have not got a snowflakes chance in hell. We generate such loyal respect from the paying customer because we give them that up close, personal, in your face contact.

At 11.30 p.m. after the meeting was over there was a family standing beside the car, putting all the kids in and taking photo's and mum said - "how do you ever fit in there" and Nathan simply slid into the car and showed her. You just cannot buy at Woolworths the enjoyment on the young children's faces and the parents when they go home with their photo and having had a great night at the drags.

Anyhow, down to racing. Unfortunately only five cars turned up. We probably were fortunate in that we had the least amount of power. The little 4 litre 240 cubic inch's had to first up race against the 500 plus cubic inch big block of Alan Ebdon in the Monoro. Our first and only qualifier pulled an 8.718 at 149 MPH, bearing in mind that we usually run around the 8.1's at 160 MPH, so that was pretty good for us on a very marginal traction. After 100 foot you are now to bitumen and our run against Alan Ebdon produced a fair bit of tyre spin in both lanes, more in Alan's. It is a very ordinary 1.83 second - 60 foot on a .589 reaction time from Nathan. Nice 156.7 MPH, 9.179 and a win.

Not many places in Australia other than the regional tracks where a 240 cubic inch on a heads up start can beat a 540 cubic inch big block but there is a real art in getting the power to the ground. It was Alan's first trip with the blown big block and the very experienced Garth McIntyre with TFX powered Monaro was probably the best at getting power to the ground, run the fastest speed then time of the night I do believe and he has put lots and lots of runs down regional tracks.

Next round we had a bye. Running out the back door and got a nice 8.52 at 159.59 MPH, hooked up a little bit better with a 1.37 second - 60 footer, .527 reaction time.

Our final run of the night was against our fellow Team Capricorn member - Russell Mackay, took a bit of fuel out of the 500 cubic inch sainty and Russell had had a great night so far, two 409 reaction times and in the words of the great Noel Smudgy Smith, after two 409 reactions he has a red light waiting around the corner which ended up quite true. Russell's best run of the weekend but unfortunately it glowed cherry on the tree at about a .355 red light. Three win out of three runs 9.47 at 161.12 MPH with a .664 reaction time.

Of the five wild bunch racers that went to Townsville, the longest distrance travelled was by Tim Caswell and family with the Blown Fairlaine and they stayed on a couple of days to enjoy the sites of Townsville. Tim was plagued all night with a very small oil leak and thankfully the nappy caught it all. Of the three runs, each session he would run last just out of courtesy to the other racers and I am sure everyone appreciated the Holden versus Ford matches with Garth and Tim.

Over all, the equal winners as such on the night were Garth with three from three and, the Lexus Piranha Hot Rod with three from three (one was a bye). All in all it was a good week end. If there are any other wild bunch racers that are willing to go to Townsville, particularly sedans, I suggest they contact Ray or Jean Mobbs - 074779 6879, mobile 0412 780 836, business fax 07 4775 1836, email townsvilledragway@bigpond.com

Russell, Melissa, James and James son headed off probably about 5.30 in the morning but we were a bit more conservative and headed off at 8.30 a.m. We had a nice run back to Rockhampton where we had an enjoyable night with Alan Ebdon staying over for the night on the way back to Brisbane with Ralph Snellman. Well to see Ralph and Zac polish off a bottle of rum over a bar-bar- que, I think that is the comradeship that we all love in drag racing. A lots of other sports have it too and they are the times you can not buy in Woolworths. We had a great night and then had a bar-bar-que breakfast and Ralph and Alan headed off and we worked on the race car and trailer. Having pulled into Rockhampton with the front tyre on the trailer going as we pulled up the driveway. Could not have happened at a better place. It is a lot easier to change with the rattle gun and the air compressor at home than beside the road.

Incidentally, Alan now knows that it is further from Rockhampton to Mackay than what he initially thought and ran out of gas at the Caves about 30 kilometres from Rocky. But at least when you run out of gas and ring RACQ and they ask you where you are, if you look at the sign that says the Caves, you can comfortably tell them where you are.

Next meeting for us will be the Tin Tops on the Anzac Day long weekend 23rd & 24th April at Willowbank.

PETER A PEIRANO.