WILD AT HEART
WELL, something I never thought would happen has happened: a Pro Slammer racing on a radial tyre. No, not my ’57 Chev, but Benny’s Corvette that he drove at the Kenda Radial Riot meet at Willowbank Raceway, where he also made history with the first 200mph radial pass in Australia. Ben ran a 3.96@201.19mph, then backed it up with a 3.95@201.76mph.
Ben’s been interested in radial racing for some time, and there’s been a lot of friendly argy-bargy on social media from the radial guys who have been into him about coming over to play with the big boys. The truth is he only wanted to prove to his mates that you could run a Pro Slammer on a radial tyre and go from A to B.
Ben was planning to race his Toyota Solara at the meeting; however, a couple of weeks earlier at the Jamboree he went into the sand and did some damage to the car. So, he asked me if he could convert the ’Vette to run on radials. I said: “Well, it’s your car and if that’s what you want to do, go ahead.” I should have asked more questions, because a couple of days later when I walked over to see what they were doing they already had a lot of the car cut up.
There were quite a few modifications needed, and Ben did a lot of homework and set about making it happen. I was keeping an eye on what was happening and sticking my nose in when I thought I could help. Ben got a lot of assistance and advice from the guys in the radial class, and they all get along well. We also talked to Frankie Taylor, who raced with Team Bray a couple of seasons ago and has a lot of experience with radial racing.
If a car has been built specifically for radial racing, then weight distribution is factored into the construction. But if you run a Pro Slammer in radial guise, there are some significant problems in getting the weight where you want it to be. You need heaps more downforce on the tyres to stop them from spinning, as well as a lot more load, and you have to make changes to the length of travel in the shocks. Ben also had to make modifications to the chassis and the tunnel to stop the tailshaft hitting the loop.
After all the mods were done to the Corvette, we took it out to Willowbank. Ben did a couple of runs, looked at the data, then made a few changes to the shocks and how the rear end was working. On the day he went 177, 185,
AT THE KENDA RADIAL RIOT, BENNY’S CORVETTE MADE HISTORY WITH THE FIRST 200MPH RADIAL PASS IN AUSTRALIA. HE ONLY WANTED TO PROVE TO HIS MATES THAT YOU COULD RUN A PRO SLAMMER ON A RADIAL TYRE
192, 196, 198, and then out popped the 201mph. Bingo.
I gotta say, radial tyres are impressive. They are about 30 inches high, have little tread – only a couple of grooves cut in them – and are around 14½ inches wide, unlike a Slammer slick that’s 36 inches high and 17 inches wide.
The trick with making the radial tyre work is getting the track preparation right. The guys behind the Kenda Radial Riot, Scott
Harker and Justin Simpson, went out of their way to make sure the track was perfect, flying in a couple of radial track prep gurus from America. How those guys went about preparing the track was unbelievable. Usually in Australia when we get bits of loose rubber on the track, they get a broom and sweep it off, leaving bare patches. However, when these guys sweep the track, they save all the bits of rubber. They melt the rubber, and then – get this – they’ve got a tool like a flat spade they made themselves that pushes the rubber back into the track where there are gaps or bald patches. They were doing it between rounds right up until the cars started racing. Amazing to watch.
Another thing I noticed at the meeting was a couple of cars being tuned remotely from America. There’s a guy sitting at his computer somewhere in the middle of the night in the US. He gets all the data sent to him from the car after each run, and then he decides what changes to the set-up are needed and sends the data back to the team at Willowbank, who then make the changes. I suppose it’s less expensive than flying a tuner out here for the weekend.
I’m always surprised at the lengths some people go to get a competitive advantage, but that passion is what I love about drag racing.
On the day, some people came up and asked if my ’57 Chevy could run on radials sometime in the future. It wouldn’t take much to adapt the rear end. In Pro Slammer, one of the significant challenges to overcome (because of the swing-arm rear suspension I run) is that the Chev throws the tyre really hard into the ground. In theory, that should be an advantage on a radial tyre. I’ve only raced against Ben in Pro Slammer, but maybe one day we could go up against each other on radials.
Nice to see Ben Patterson has returned from Europe to work alongside Tim Adams tuning the Top Fuel car of Peter Xiberras for the 400 Thunder series. Ben is really clued up. You’ve gotta be to have won three ANDRA championships with Darren Morgan, then land a gig as co-crew chief for Anita Mäkelä, who won this year’s FIA European Top Fuel title. Ben’s been working with NHRA teams for about five or six seasons and will bring a heap experience to the Premiair team. With a fuel car, I reckon two pairs of eyes are better than one when it comes to making tuning decisions. The Xiberras team have a brand-new car from Morgan Lucas Racing, and with Ben on board, they just might give the Rapisarda Autosport International team a run for their money this season