Well, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. We headed off Tuesday afternoon and only got to Banana before we shredded a tyre, buggered a rim and wrecked another tyre on the trailer. For the first time we had taken two spares and they were all used up within the first hour.

In drag racing you meet a lot of friends and some of our best friends Tony, Raelene, Bob and Sara Buckley live in Dalby and by the time we got there at 10.30 p.m. Bob was ready with mum's commodore and no license. Tony had organised the local Bridgestone tyre store to open up the shop and we put three tyres on and bought another rim. We got up at sparrow fart and headed down the highway with no further troubles on the way down and arrived Wednesday night, pushing it hard to get into Sydney and went out to the track where they were having a wicked Wednesday street meeting. We saw some interesting cars, especially the track burn out champion which happens to be a Suzuki hi jet with a V6 commodore engine and dual rear wheels. He manages to pop all four tyres, amazing thing, slams it from forward to reverse without the blink of an eye. They used him a couple of times during oil downs and stoppages during the process of the meeting.

We spent all day waiting Friday, strapped in ready to do the first time trial and down came the rain. That was the end of us for Friday. The drag racing was over, but the card playing and tom foolery was certainly just beginning. We had one of those absolute great nights that you have at the drag strip with a couple of sherbets and some evil company. The evil company being Evil Emil Lokosius and Bevan Buckby playing cards with Adrien Lang, Andrew Thackeray, Nathan and myself, playing the best of two hands combined with partners, much cheating and at one stage there was no cards left in the middle to give you any new cards and we were only playing five card poker. I think Evil Emil has been watching too much late night TV with Las Vegas card sharks.

Saturday we were as keen as ever and we had the company of Tony Bottacin and the great Romeo Fiacchino and a group out there from Toyota genuine parts. They were quite amazed when we warmed the Toyota Genuine Parts, Real Deal Motor Sports Insurance Plan Lexus Hot Rod up in the pits. We were some what disappointed with a very ordinary 8.81 at 147 MPH as it ran like a pig the whole way. We have not run that slow for a while and we thought it was a plug lead so we made a whole new lead up and fixed some others, second run 8.52 at 147 MPH, still lousy considering we were running very low eights at Palmyra only a month before.

Lionel and also John Payne came to our assistance and we located the problem with the cam drive being worn and the hex socket to the dual fuel pump drive worn out. Many thanks again to fellow supercharged outlaws competitor - John "Hollywood" Simikic from High Performance World and special thanks to Russell Mackay who provided a mobile lathe, i.e.: electric drill and grinder to fit the part.

We all could not do what we do at the drags if we did not have friends chip in an help. Some people need a lot of help at some meetings and others needs little but it is certainly that circus and camaraderie that makes the show. Interestingly enough we have a warrant out for the CrossRoads boys because they have not returned the oil they borrowed off us but no doubt we will catch up with them at the Nationals or at some intersection at some time.

There was a really great bunch of kiwi's there with a front engine rail that came over and borrowed things from a pop rivets to washers. Every one chips in, loans things and hopefully you get them back when you are in trouble. Robert Ambrosi Driver of the Norm Sainty 6 second Top Alcohol Funny Car even had to borrow our wheelie bar wheel, so not only do we have a 5 second garden Hose (see Zap's Rat ) but also a 6 second wheelie bar wheel.

After changing the cap on the magneto and the points box, again thanks there to Darren Bodle (crew member for John Zappia's Zaps Rat) and loaded for bare with 37 degrees timing we went for the final qualifier. Once again Lionel (the Austin Coil) Durrie of Rockhampton (great effort from Lionel), we had the best plug readings ever after that run, even Stuart Clements who has sourced a lot of our parts was over the moon with the reading of all the plugs.

Down side was the car dragged through the staging lights, automatic red light, no time recorded. From our data logger, we have worked out that he was on the throttle for 7.81 seconds, we beat Bevan Buckby to the other end where he ran a 7.68, so at best it certainly was a sub 7.9 second pass and considering our previous best was 7.92 that was our best unrecorded pass ever.

Onto the first round of eliminations against Mal Gower and the evil Austin A40, strong burn out and then all up on the revs for the launch he has released the transbrake button and we have had a gear box problem in low gear and the car has labored with the engine over revving and going nowhere fast to about 100 foot before it was put in top gear and rolled to a stop. The disappointing part is that it is just one of those things that happen. If we had not prepared for the meeting we could punch ourselves out, but the gearbox had done 100 passes and Michael Titmarsh from The Automatic Shop (who does a wonderful job for us), serviced the gear box, not a problem, the converter shop - Jeff Dell split the converter, not a problem, bring it back in 200 passes. I guess that is drag racing.

Thanks again to Michael Titmarsh because he has ordered the parts and he will have us back and going again for next weekend at Palmyra's $14,000 supercharged outlaws spectacular.

Again one of the things you find in drag racing is that you meet people under circumstances and they end up being good friends. We were fortunate enough at the Winter Nationals to pit beside John Zappia and the Zaps Rat crew from Western Australia and we even took their chairs home by mistake but we did return them at this meeting. After Zaps low qualifier 6.08 then 6.10 in doorslammer he had a bit of a problem with a broken conrod. Well the team worked from that moment, all through the night from 5.15 Saturday afternoon to 11.30 Sunday morning, including Gerry, Fast Freddie, Darren, Lumpy, Jim Bob and from the Piranha racing team, Nathan, Zac and Andrew Thackeray. At about 5.30 Sunday morning, the engine block with crank and cam was put back in the car. Then by lunchtime it was ready to roll and reeled of a 6.01 in the first round and in the final he ran the worlds quickest doorslammer pass at 5.967 seconds. I have included part of Zaps publicity at the bottom of this news letter.

To say the party afterwards that night was fun would be an understatement. It was an absolute ball. I think the significance of the achievement sunk into Zap. He truly is a humble champion. His wife and children were there and you could not have wished for a better crew to have such a tremendous worlds first. Jim Bob bloody near crushes you to death when he gives you a cuddle and he kept going on about without the Lexus Piranha's garden hose we would not be there and all they did was borrow the hose off us to flush all the aluminum out of the block.

We were due to leave at 5.00 to head back to Rockhampton but they needed a BBQ so we pulled the BBQ out, had a great night of comradeship and left at midnight instead. Adrien Lang (our IT Computer technician - IT Guru number 1) did the first stint for four hours after some pretty ordinary directions from crew member Bruce's dad for a short cut out of Sydney that turned into a nightmare. I got up at 6.00 a.m. on Monday morning and drove the first four hour stint and then basically it was taking turns between Adrien and Nathan until we were about 56 klms south of Goondawindi when the trailer decided to part company with the truck or near enough, the front hitch broke off, hanging by a thread when Adrien pulled up. He unbuckled what was left of the hitch and proceeded into Goodawini where we were certainly very thankful to Brennan's Welding and Steel Fabrication. Ian Brennan (as busy as his workshop was) allowed Byron to fabricate a new hitch, drive the 56 klms out with the mobile welder and welded it on and once again thanks. If you are ever stuck in Goondawindi call Ian on 0428 712 743.

We eventually got to Miles about 9.30 p.m., had a great time in the restaurant and you would have to ask us privately why we had a great time in a truck stop but it sure was some of the best belly laughs we have had in years. Eventually Nathan drove into home at Frenchville Road at 3.00 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

Thanks to everyone who helped us in any shape or form and if I have left anyone out, my humble apologies.

See you at the drags.

Peter A. Peirano

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