Piranha Racing - Supercharged Outlaws

Well 170 entries, much promise of a great nights racing, especially with the added benefit of several pro teams testing in pro stock - Dave Newcombe, Tyronne & Aaron Tremayne and Shane Tucker. The Top Alcohol funny car of John Cannuli who recorded a great 5 second run later on in the night and Ben Bray doing a couple of runs in the Castrol Monaro.

Well the country boys fairly took it up to the city boys. Not only did Gavin List in his Torana take out a great win in super street but the Lexus Piranha Real Deal motor sports insurance hot rod went to the final in outlaws. Probably the hardest thing about drag racing is that we have to travel so far and on a normal weekend, people that have jobs that are based in the coal fields of Central Queensland, it is even harder. Special thanks to Brett Schy and to my youngest son Zachary because they travelled 4-5 hours to get back to Rockhampton before we travelled 9 hours to go to Willowbank and likewise when they have to get up at 3.30 p.m. on Monday morning to drive back to work - it is a big effort and it is appreciated. We are lucky that we have 2-3 truck drivers and thanks again to Darren White and Steve McIntosh who along with Nathan, do most of the driving of the transporter.

We could not have achieved what we have this year without the dedication of my neighbour Alan Croft, whilst he competes in modified bike on his Suzuki 600 and learns the craft of drag racing he also does a lot of work on the heads and maintaining the cams.. This time he went two rounds and just the change of the air got him. We look forward to when he steps up onto his hayabusa.

Whilst thanking everyone, again we would have no hope without Lionel Durre from Engine Improvements as he does all the base work on the engine parts and we just try and do the maintenance.

The dreaded problem of whip lash in the cams appears to have bitten us yet again and somehow we have to figure out how to run a support bearing for the left hand inlet cam. After a great qualifying run, 7.850 at 172.28mph, 7.861 at 168.92mph and a 7.818 at 169.30mph, Nathan moved into eliminations, first round, against Les Byth. Now, you could travel the tracks all over the country and you would not find a greater bunch of racers than the Byth family - there is a junior dragster, 2 outlaw dragsters, family and friends at the track - Mum, Dad, brothers, sisters and cousins, there is a whole contingent of them and they enjoy their racing and they are top people. With the weather improving slightly Nathan dialled in at a 7.76 and left with a 0.506 reaction to Les' 0.624 and turned it into a win running a 7.796 at a slowing 155.01 mph. Interestingly the half track speed on this run was 140mph, which is the first time we have run this fast at half track.

In the second round we would then race older brother Dennis Byth, and with the dial in remaining at 7.76 we ran a 7.811 at 163.93mph with a 0.469 reaction time to beat Dennis Byth's 6.48 on a 6.40. After the victory the team were pretty excited to say the least. We had our corporate partner and associated sponsor NTI in the corporate box with Rick Griffin and a whole bunch of lovely ladies from NTI, most of them enjoying the drag racing experience for the first time. If I could recommend anyone that is thinking about getting involved either as a sponsor or as an associated sponsor - it is a great staff bonding and moral boosting outing. Try and think outside the square, it is not just taking your employee to the cricket and football, take 10 of your staff to a corporate box at Willowbank and let them enjoy drag racing. I would suggest that you try some of the smaller meets such as this one as the corporate box is always sold out on the big events such as the Nationals and the Winternats as there is a high demand and there are a lot of people. When you pick a smaller meet you generally get the opportunity to be taken down to the start line whilst your chosen bracket is performing and that is a spot that money just can't buy. Thanks to Steve Bettes, Jeff Rice and all the staff at Willowbank.

Now back to the racing. In the semi final we would be taking on another one of those pesky dragsters in Bill Fletcher who has been very consistent lately and always seems to be in the running in the later rounds. Nathan dropped the dial in down to a 7.74 for this run as the numbers on the previous passes suggested that the 7.76 would have been under threat if he had to drive out the back door. Bill red lights and we get the win with a 0.402 reaction time running a 7.797 at 171.04mph, which would have been hard to beat. Down to the final and we are up against Russell Schafer, multi time track champion. Another monster burnout and contrary to popular opinion the tell tale on the tacho showed the revs at 8400 when it has the rev limiter set at 9000.

With everything sounding good and no warning the burnout ended with a large bang. After an inspection in the pits it appears to be that the cam broke into three pieces first, taking out the blower belt and back firing the manifold, blew both burst panels and all bar one of the blower studs, shattered the manifold into a jig saw puzzle, cracked the front of the body and the windscreen - but that is racing. We will be back.

We dropped the body off at Hans the paint doctor to be repaired, along with the new pit bike and we will pick it up when we return in the next two or three weeks to pick up the newly imported nostalgia front engine top fuel chassis.

Regards

PETER A PEIANO.

PS: Team Mascots - We at the Real Deal Motor sports Insurance - Piranha racing have a number of mascots. We try to add a bit of fun into it and people often ask what are the chickens cable tied to the rear wing for - well they are the famous Toyota chickens. We all have the Toyota camel and the dog in the trailer.

We have a new one now, the Penguin bought about by probably my height/weight proportion distribution and walking style AKA Danny Divido the Penguin in the bat man movies. At a Benaraby meeting earlier this month, the dreaded bikies alias Ken kidnapper Peaty, Ross the hatchet Linburg and others, kidnapped out Penguin mascot, sent ransom notes and wanted to swap it for our new 9 1/2 KVA diesel silent gen set, note diesel not petrol. After Sydney's fire we now prefer diesel as the chosen fuel for generators.

Well the word got out that Mama penguin and the three kids were looking for the father and then the bikes have done it again - they have kidnapped the mother, gaffer taping her eyes, cable tying her arms back and hanging her from their marquee. Whilst they are out racing I have kidnapped the penguin back and we have our large emperor penguin tied to the flag pole of the tow car. The battle goes on as to who will steal what from each team in the future.

SEND IN YOUR FEEDBACK...