AEROFLOW RACE DIARY

As I mentioned in the last column, this should currently be our winter break, but it never really stops at Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars headquarters. There are always cars to be serviced, events to organize, and jobs to be done. We had a private test day at Sydney Dragway a week ago to test a few new parts and ideas. This time, I was lucky enough that we got to test ‘One Bad Kiwi’. I really enjoy test days, because I can concentrate 100 per cent on the car without any distractions from the event-management side of things. Before being fortunate enough to get to drive for Graeme and Wendy Cowin, putting new parts in my car was about as rare as a New South Wales State of Origin win, so, at this particular test day, I had another one of those Is-this-even-real? moments. Not only were we trying a new camshaft, a new gear ratio, and a new rocker ratio, but we also had a brand-new Littlefield 6-71 blower on the car — this thing hadn’t even spun a rotor in anger before; it was straight out of the box. Even the test days themselves are pinch-yourself moments. For this test day, we took three nitro funny cars and one wheel-stander to test, and that’s literally the entire test — we are it. I will never forget going to Sydney Dragway some eight years ago and just being absolutely blown away by the size of the place, and, on this particular test day, it was just us, with four cars and the whole track to ourselves. It’s honestly just crazy. Anyway, with all these changes, it was always going to be an interesting test session. It’s strange, as we had just got a handle on the last set-up for One Bad Kiwi — grabbing podiums at two of the last three events— yet here we were changing so many things on the car. Yeah, we could have left it as it was, but I reckon that, as a tuner, I will learn twice as much trying to get on top of this combo as well, which to me is what it is all about. By the end of the test, even though we hadn’t got a full pass, we did manage to run our quickest and fastest half-track times (by 6mph) with some very pleasing numbers. But, more important, we learnt a lot, and we tried things that I would never have had the courage to try on race day or without the guidance of Graeme. One really cool aspect of the day that stuck out for me was a bit of a Kiwi moment. There we were, on a Monday afternoon, at Sydney Dragway in the middle of winter. Sitting in One Bad Kiwi there was myself, Clinton Lochhead was on the starter motor, and Mitchell King was on the fuel-starting bottle running the car — all three of us Kiwis. It was pretty cool knowing that we had all come from different parts of New Zealand drag racing, and there we all were playing with nitro. Added to that Kiwi list are Lee Sherwin, who is running the full Queensland Drag Racing Championships in Super Sedan; Trevor Smith, who raced the Winternationals in his Statesman; Rod Harvey, who has done more laps in Aussie than he probably has in New Zealand and is probably the face of New Zealand drag racing with his world-record runs — and let’s not forget his daughter, Shavaun, who has become a superstar in her own right, with many TV appearances on both sides of the Tasman. I reckon for a small country in a minority sport, we are probably punching well above our weight. Long may it continue!

it was just us, with four cars and the whole track to ourselves. It’s honestly just crazy