AEROFLOW RACE DIARY
I PULLED THE CHUTES BEFORE THE FINISH LINE, BUT NOTHING!
If you have read my last few columns, you would have noticed everything was about testing. Every few weeks we had another couple of cars out to try new things and refine each funny car to make it faster and more reliable in anticipation of our return to the track. Well, now it was time to go racing. I had done more laps in the previous couple of months than I had ever done in such a short period of time, but I was definitely looking forward to doing some actual racing. We had two events booked in a three-week period, both at Sydney Dragway. The first one was a fuel altered match race for which the plan was to take two of the Aeroflow nitro hot rods out for some fun, with the return of the funny cars a couple of weeks later. Now, it’s been a crazy few months getting to drive some iconic cars, but when Graeme asked if I would drive ‘Psycho’ for the match race, that was another level. This was the car that Graeme and Wendy made their name in; it was the car that was sold to start Rocket Industries and in turn Aeroflow Performance; it’s the car that means the most to them in the entire fleet. It’s also basically a shopping trolley with a nitro-burning Hemi in the front, so it certainly has a tendency to be unpredictable — like any fuel altered. So it was fair to say I certainly experienced a mix of emotions and pressure when suiting up in the car for the first time. We were match racing Justin Walshe in Berzerk, and once again the set-up was a bit strange as I was overseeing the tune-up in Berzerk but driving Psycho. So, depending on how you looked at it, either way I was going to win, or I was going to lose.
Suiting up for the first round in Psycho was probably the most nervous I have been getting into a race car for a long time, but, as always, when the motor starts everything goes into autopilot mode. One of the crazy things about Psycho is you are so out in the open with the way the car is designed; when sitting on the line with Graeme doing the final adjustments it feels like you can just reach out and give him a fist pump.
As I staged the car, I remember thinking to myself, Oh well, let’s just see what happens. When I stood on the gas the thing hooked up and left pretty decent. It made a slight sideways move early in the run but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. Once I got to half-track I was like, “OK, this is driving really nice”— but boy it was windy being so exposed. I didn’t realise how much effect the wind would have in trying its hardest to rip my helmet off at 380kph — although now that I write it, it sounds pretty obvious. As I pulled off the track, I didn’t even know who had won because I didn’t see Berzerk until the braking area, but at that point I didn’t really care as I had driven Pyscho! A 6.12-second pass at 380kph was a pretty awesome way to start, but the best part was Justin had gone 6.16 so it was side by side all the way, which is what it’s all about.
The next round followed up with another 6.12 vs 6.16, this time to Justin. The last pass — well, that’s another story in itself. The car left the start line better than the two runs before it; it was PB speed at half-track and PB mph at the finish line. I pulled the chutes before the finish line as I normally would, but nothing! It was like “Oh, this is not good; no chutes have come out”. Let me tell you, it’s probably the most horrible feeling in drag racing. Now, the worst thing you can do is jump too hard on the brakes as it will make these short wheelbase cars bounce, so it’s softly on the brakes, which goes against everything your brain is telling you to do. About halfway down the braking area I felt a chute hit and start slowing me down, but straight away I knew it was only one. I could see the sandpit coming up and knew I still had too much speed to take the corner. It was not a good feeling knowing I was going into the sand — especially in this car. As I got close to the sand, I felt I had washed off enough speed that I would stop before the safety nets. I lined the car up as straight as I could, took a breath, and just concentrated on keeping the car straight. Thankfully, the sand did its job and I came to a safe stop. I jumped out of the car to see one chute wrapped up around the diff and luckily no damage to the car.
As the safety team got to me, the first guy asked “Are you OK?”
My reply was, “Yes, I’m fine, but can someone radio the start line and tell Graeme that the car is OK.” Of course, the safety guys thought I was joking and laughed.
I firmly replied, “Na, seriously, can someone please let him know that the car is not damaged.”
It wasn’t the best ending to the day, but no damage was done so it worked out OK. As we packed up it was pretty surreal knowing I had driven one of the most iconic fuel altereds in the world and definitely in Australia.
Two weeks after that it was funny car time. I was pretty pumped about the event as we had done so much work on all the cars to make them as fast as we could while maintaining reliability. As much as I love funny car racing, the day can be very full on for me looking after a few cars as well as my own. Fortunately, fellow Kiwi Brooke Margetts takes over as event director so I can concentrate on the cars. First round we had the Dark Horse Mustang driven by Paul Messineo — there’s always some good banter with Paul and his boys before any race. I felt we had a good chance of knocking Paul off, and when One Bad Kiwi left well, I thought we were off to a good start. Unfortunately, at half-track I felt the car nose over and it started to sound more like a tractor than a nitro funny car. I couldn’t see Paul but didn’t want to risk any more damage so got off the throttle only to watch the black Mustang drive by, giving us a first round loss.
The big problem was I knew we had hurt the pistons, so we raced back to the pits and the boys started pulling the engine apart. Brandon (driver of King Kong) and Gareth (car chief on Nitro Express) got their crews sorted and came straight over to help my boys replace all eight pistons. While all this was happening, I don’t think I even went over to the car. I ran around getting the other cars sorted for the next round. By the time they were done and I got over to the car, the boys had already replaced the pistons and were putting the car back together. We found a leaking valve, which hopefully was our problem. We fired the engine as the other cars were towing out, so got a quick refuel before joining them in the staging lanes just in time.
It’s a great feeling getting in your car knowing you have trust that the guys have put it back together properly. The only doubt I had was whether I had actually fixed the tune-up mistake from the first round! Well, a 5.40@441kph showed that we had not only fixed it but smashed our PB. The speed was also only 0.2 kph off the all-time record. When we got back to the pits it was very satisfying to see every spark plug come out of the car in excellent condition and to know the boys had a much easier turnaround. It was at this point I got a little excited as I felt I could get this thing into the 5.3-second zone. I put a little bit more of everything into it with the hope we could go that little bit quicker. Racing good mate Brandon in King Kong, it was always going to be fun. When Kiwi left the start line it was like, “Wow, this is fast!” At about quarter-track she decided to drive me over to the wall with a little bit too much wheelspin, but there was no way I was giving up on this one. I wrestled it off the wall, shifted into top gear at halftrack, and it just took off again. At that point I was thinking it was fast, but that maybe I’d lost some time early in the track. When they told me it was a 5.374 run at a whopping 445kph (276.92mph), breaking the speed record, I was absolutely pumped — especially knowing how hard the boys had worked to get the car back out there after my first round mistake. It also gave us third on the podium. For a 413cui, 6–71 supercharged combination with no data logging to go 276mph is pretty awesome, but to get it back to the workshop and have all the parts look brand new is something we are pretty proud of.
What a month of racing it was: to drive Psycho, and then run as fast as we did was pretty awesome — now I just want to go racing again.