NITRO TIME

to get there and have a look. To be honest, I think his plan the whole time was to keep me anxious. Well, when we arrived, I felt the same as I did when I was five years old and ‘Santa’ (thanks, Dad) had wrapped up a bare junior dragster chassis and put it under the Christmas tree — except that, this time, it was, in my opinion (a completely biased opinion, of course), the most badass nitro funny car in the southern hemisphere! You couldn’t wipe the stupid cheesy grin off my face! When the boys suggested I grab my gear for a quick test fit, I couldn’t run to the car fast enough to get it. After suiting up in what seems to be an ever-increasing amount of safety equipment (the faster you, go the safer you need to be), my grin still stretched from ear to ear. The car was tenfold comfier than my alcohol funny car, and all the controls suited me perfectly. It was about then that the reality hit me: I had to drive this thing tomorrow! After a few practice runs in my mind, we loaded up the cars and went down to Sydney Dragway to set up the Rocket Industries transporter for the next day. When my alarm went off on Sunday morning to wake me to go testing, it was kind of pointless — I had already been up for two hours going through the nitro driving procedures in my head. We headed out to the track, unloaded the car, and got everything ready for the warm-up. As anyone who has stepped up from alcohol cars to nitro will tell you, even the warm-up procedures are different, so we had a lot to learn — not just me as a driver but all of us as a team. Once the warm-up was complete, it was suit on while the team went about all the last-minute checks and settings. As we towed up to the staging lanes, I wasn’t sure if I was excited, nervous, or shit-scared; I think it was a combination of the lot. One thing that I’ve never