THAT’S RACING

April 1, 2017 was due to be a really big day in my drag racing career — it didn’t end up being big in the way we wanted it to be, but more on that later. It was the day of the World Fuel Altered Challenge at Meremere Dragway. We had the three Cowin cars there: ‘Psycho’, driven by Justin Walshe, ‘Berzerk’, piloted by Rick Gauci, and ‘Spooky’, which I again had the honour of steering. ‘Rat Trap’ was there from America, driven by the legendary Ron Hope, and, competing alongside me for New Zealand, was Dave Gauld in ‘Nightmare’. ‘Hombre’ wasn’t licensed to run, so Karl Boniface in the ‘Nitro Flashback’ nostalgia funny car joined in, although not eligible to win. There were more nitro cars in this one class than are currently running in New Zealand; it was a really cool deal. The morning dawned super foggy — it was so bad that, standing on the start line, you couldn’t even see the finish line, so it was always going to be a waiting game for the fog to clear. It didn’t seem to dampen spirits, though, as plenty of people were coming up to thank us for bringing the cars over. It was pretty awesome standing there seeing all those fuel altereds lined up in the pits. I dreamed of watching Rat Trap one day, never thinking that we would ever be lining up in the same class. First round, we were up against Karl Boniface. Karl was not technically in our class, but we figured that we may as well run together rather than running two solo passes. As we were the last pairing out, we had the advantage of seeing the other cars go down the racetrack first. Rat Trap and Pyscho were up first, and both slipped and slid down what was a very cold and tractionless racetrack, with Pyscho glancing off the wall at about three-quarter track. Next up, Berzerk took on local Dave Gauld. Dave put his local knowledge to good use. While Rick was all over the place, Dave took the conservative approach; it paid off, as he charged past a sliding Berzerk. Knowing the set-up of both the Cowin cars, we made some small tweaks. Spooky left the line well on what was a very slippery racing surface, spinning the tyres about 300 feet out. I gave it a quick slap on the pedal and it hooked back up. Just after half track, Spooky spun the tyres again. Knowing it was an automatic win, I got off the throttle and rolled through. I was very shocked to hear we were still the lowest ET of the first round. Back in the pits, we got to work on the cars. Spooky was all good, so it was just routine maintenance for our car. Knowing that the dew had ruined the track for the first pass, we decided not to make any major changes to Spooky as we couldn’t really learn much from that first one. For the second round, I had the absolute honour of racing Rat Trap. It was pretty surreal to think we would be lining up against the famous car. About five years ago, crew chief Adam Prestney and I decided that we wanted to chase the dream and build a fuel altered. We started collecting big block Chev parts. Never did we think we would be sitting there in the staging lanes about to race Rat Trap in a Cowinowned fuel altered. Well, I was up on the wheel for this one. As soon as the ambers flashed, Spooky was gone, and, in fuel-altered terms, it was a super straight pass. Knowing the infamous Meremere braking area, I shut off and pulled the

I TRIED TO STEER IT AWAY FROM THE WALL TO AVOID ANY MORE DAMAGE, BUT THE STEERING ARM HAD BROKEN OFF

chutes early. Spooky still ran a 6.20 at only 344kph (214mph), which, again, was a low ET for the round. Man, what a pass and what a feeling! We had just beaten Rat Trap on New Zealand soil in front of our home crowd! Towing back along the return road to the sound of the crowd clapping and cheering was absolutely surreal. Again, Spooky had a clean bill of health, so it was just routine maintenance for the boys. Of the five fuel altereds competing, we were the only car that had two wins from two, which guaranteed us a spot in the final. The other four cars had one win apiece, and the tie-break meant we would face our stablemate, Rick Gauci, in Berzerk, for the World Fuel Altered Challenge title. If you recall my last column, you will know that at our last event with the funny cars, we also faced Rick in the final. Would this be the time to break the duck and beat him? We rolled out to the start line ready to do battle, feeling confident that Spooky could dip into the 6.1s and maybe even sixes if everything stuck. I was ready for this one, as I holeshot Rick at the start line. Now, Rick is one of the best start-line leavers in Australia, so to leave him on the line by 600ths was huge. Spooky felt like it left really strong, but, at about quarter track, it started spinning the tyres. I gave it a quick pedal, which seemed to hook it up again, but then it drifted straight over to the centre line. The problem now was that it was out in the slippery stuff and it started spinning the tyres real fast — no matter how much counter-steering I put in, Spooky just wasn’t following. I got out of the throttle, but, by this time, the rear end had already come around, and I was pointing straight at the wall, with only the two righthand-side wheels on the ground. I had as much counter-steering as I possibly could cranked into the wheel, and it seemed to start coming around. It came round and started pointing straight again, but the momentum had caught the car and now put it up on its two left wheels as it slid towards the wall. Spooky smacked the guard rail pretty hard. When it came back down onto four wheels, I tried to steer it away from the wall to avoid any more damage, but the steering arm had broken off in the impact, so it just rubbed its way along the guard rail. I shut the fuel and the motor off, and came to a grinding halt. It was a moment I don’t even want to remember, but know I will never forget: sitting there, knowing that I had just crashed something so many had worked so hard to finish — something that meant so much to so many people; it’s a feeling I can’t describe, a feeling that still hurts so bad as I sit here writing this column. After I got out and got checked by the medical crew, all I wanted was for my wife and family not to worry and to know that I wasn’t injured. In kind of a weird fate thing, the first person on the scene from our Cowin cars was one of my good mates, one of the guys who helped me get where I am today, Ryan Sheldon, who was helping us out for the weekend. My wife, Monique, met me as I got into the ambulance, and you could see the emotion she had just gone through. In what felt like a really cruel twist, as we drove back to the pits in the ambulance, we could see my mum walking along behind the ambulance, wanting to make sure I was OK. Although we were giving her the OK signal from inside, she couldn’t see it. Back in the pits it was tough. To be honest, I just wanted to go home and hide. However, at the end of the day, this is my job, and I still had not only people who wanted to see me but a container to pack up as well. There were plenty of good wishes, texts, and phone calls to make sure I was OK, which was very humbling. One of the funnier reactions was from my niece, Charli — the member of the family who maybe got the same competitive genes as I did. She came up to me afterwards, gave me a hug, and proceeded to ask, “Uncle Morice, does this mean you don’t win the big trophy?” Physically, I did not have a scratch or sore muscle in my body; I was even able to go team go-karting the next day — and I managed to win, by the way. To me, that really is evidence of the safety features that are built into these cars. I have to thank the rule makers and the guys from the shop, who all played a part in building a safe race car. Spooky is repairable, and we will be back! What’s next? Well, it’s back to the ‘One Bad Kiwi’ funny car — this time at Willowbank Raceway on May 13. Despite what happened, I can’t wait to get back in the seat. It’s nitro fever!