AEROFLOW RACE DIARY

The next round on the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car calendar was set for Willowbank Raceway in May. I feel that, from a New Zealand perspective, Willowbank is probably the pinnacle of Australian drag strips. Yes, compared with Sydney and Perth, it’s probably not the most up-to-date facility we race at, but I think the fact that every year hundreds of Kiwis cross the ditch to go to the Winternationals at Willowbank has a lot to do with it. We had 14 nitro funny cars in attendance at the south Queensland facility and a massive field of more than 200 support cars. It was set to be an awesome day. In the week leading up to it, the weather forecast looked 50/50, with some meteorologists saying fine weather all day and some saying up to 70 per cent chance of rain. It was one of those glass-half-full / glass-halfempty situations — who do you believe when the opinions are so different? The morning dawned on a great day, with racing for the support classes kicking off at 8am. We weren’t due out on track until 3pm, for the salute to the crowd. Come 11am, you needed to put sunscreen on as the sun was shining brightly. Unfortunately, though, at about 1pm the rain came and that half-full glass seemed to empty out all over the racetrack. It was what I call ‘painful’ rain, too; it would stop for 20 minutes, and you would think, awesome, let’s get ready; then, just as we’d start to get excited, it would start drizzling again. We did manage to warm up ‘One Bad Kiwi’, but that’s all the nitro we got to burn — still fun, but a bit like going out for dinner and not eating. Unfortunately, rain and drag racing don’t mix, and, until someone either learns to control the weather or builds an indoor drag strip, it’s something we just have to deal with. The Willowbank round was the final of the 2016–2017 season for the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars, and, man, what a season it’s been. There are still days when I pinch myself and think, wow, how cool is what we get to do for a living?! Only 18 months ago, I had never even started a nitro funny car; now, I drive one, tune two of them, and manage a nationwide nitro funny car series. To say it’s been a learning experience and a life change would be a huge understatement, but it’s an experience I wouldn’t change for anything. Results-wise, we won two out of three rounds of racing at four of the five events on the 2016–2017 calendar — not something to sniff at, but, as with anything, you always want that little bit more; and, when you’re racing against cars tuned by Graeme Cowin, if you want that gold trophy, you need every little bit you can get. We have developed a good tune-up for the ‘Kiwi’ car, and we are making more and more consistent runs as I get more experience with tuning nitro and this style of clutch and chassis set-up. I must say a big thank you to Haas New Zealand for its ongoing support; without it, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do as a team. What’s next? Well, we have a massive 2017–2018 calendar, starting August 5 in Cairns. I’m sure most of you know that, in February 2018, we have a trip to New Zealand with eight of our nitro funny cars. This should be a really cool event and hopefully a really big one to showcase not only nitro funny cars but also drag racing to the masses. The event will entail lot of work behind the scenes with cars, transporters, spares, nitro, and oil,

THE CHASSIS AND BODY FOR ‘SPOOKY’ HAVE BEEN REBUILT, AND THE CAR WILL BE BACK ON THE TRACK VERY SOON

and add to that teams, hotels, and rental cars to organize. Fingers crossed, it will all be worth it and that we create an event that will be remembered for a long time. I hope the entire drag racing community will get behind the event and we can push it out to the wider New Zealand public. For now, we’re back at the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars headquarters, where you would think that, with the last event being a rainout, and an 11week break, we would have nothing to do — well, that couldn’t be any more incorrect. We have a pile of work to do to keep things ticking along, from a managerial and workshop point of view. We have a few new cars in the build — I can’t tell you what they are, but they are all very cool and also very different. The chassis and body for ‘Spooky’ have been rebuilt, and the car will be back on the track very soon. Grant Downing flew over and repaired the front of the chassis, and Shane and Tim from the shop repaired the body. I can’t wait to get back into Spooky, as it showed great signs of being a really good car. With what we have learnt in the rebuild, it should be an even better car now. Bring on next season!