Sorry lads, another exciting race report. This weekend just gone was the Warwick Six Banger Nats. This was the fifth one I've been to and while I don't consider myself to be a trophy hunter this event is a special one due to the founder of the event, Mark Stewart being killed in a freak work accident in 2012. The event was carried on by his wife and son, with Norm doing a tribute run in Mark's car, Panic, each year. It's a very knarly six cylinder powered altered, well known for big wheel stands. I headed up to Queensland, alone, on Friday for the 690 klm (430 mile) trip. That's a 9 hour run but I enjoy the trip through the country. Saturday is a bracket racing day but I chose to only do the qualifying runs and save the car for the Six banger event on Sunday. The first couple of runs the car felt doughy but I put it down to the dust in the air and the altitude. After 3 runs at 9.7, 9.4 and 9.78 I thought ,bugger it, I'll alter the timing. Gave it a bit of advance and ran a couple of 8.8s and the engine sounded better. I was happy to pack it in and enjoy helping others race. Sunday the wind was not too bad so we were ready to go at 10.am. There were 4 HAMBsters in attendance. John, Steve, Jackson and myself plus Benny who gives a hand to anyone who needs it. Us HAMBsters get put in Stick Shift bracket but as long as we're racing we don't care. We lined up for qualifying and on my first run I was out of the blocks and away..............sort of. Benny towed me back and we diagnosed a shattered clutch pressure plate. Mind you, a lot of swearing occurred first as last year I did one run and took all the crank gear off. Luckily I had thrown an old clutch pressure plate in so the thrash was on. At this point I only wanted to finish the day. With the help of John's trailer ramps as a workshop, me and Benny underneath and Steve and my mate Dennis up top handing spanners we got it done with about ten minutes to spare. Run one was against Steve. He ran 8.68 on his 8.78 dial and I ran 8.86 on a 8.2 dial for the win. Run two was against a Torana sedan with me taking the win. Run 3 was against John. We normally try not to race each other but some times it's luck of the draw. John ran a 9.47 on his 9.23 and I ran 9.17 for the win. That gave me 3 wins so it was a nervous wait to see who was in the final. My name was called out and I was ecstatic to be in the final but more so because young Jackson in the other Holden Grey motor HAMBster was in it too. The result was..... Because of the layout at Warwick you don't know the winner until you get your timeslip but due to all the congratulations I was getting on the return road I assumed it was me. What a buzz and I couldn't get the smile off my face. To blow a clutch up and then take out the final was pretty cool. Without the help of the others it wouldn't of happened.
Sorry about the lack of race videos but the camera was playing up and it was a low priority to fix. I did get it working for the final.
Congrats spanners on your well earned race win. The engine sounded STRONG. One of these days I will figure out how to post videos on here, I have a few of our little 4cyl car.
I probably do it the convoluted way which involves cropping the videos from the car camera, shifting them over to the desktop and then downloading to You Tube. I keep YouTube open as I do the race reports and then shift them to the race report. Once again from the top........nah, you get it. Oldsixrodder has what seems like a simpler way but I'm too much of an old fart to learn new ways. One thing I forgot to mention regarding the weekend. As I was driving back to the pits after the final, the oil pressure dropped to nothing and the oil light came on. On inspection back at home I found the delivery pipe from the oil pump had come undone, again. Same issue as back in April. This time I put a bit more pudding into tightening the connector which is steel into brass so have been reluctant to overtighten previously. Oil pressure back to normal. Here's a photo of the Six Banger stick shift trophy. The crew chief reckons it's a bit ugly but I say it's just right.
The trophy is cool. Especially relevant that there is a clutch disc on it. Congratulations on the win and keep producing videos.
Great tale & vids, as always. I only get to make three meets this year (two already done), and my camera's gone on to a better life, so keep'em coming ...... please. And your pit boss is wrong (I'm safe all the way over here, right?). A trophy like that's better'n a commercially made one any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. I'd gladly kill to get two HAMBsters into a final one day. We're always among a broader class of one sort or another (usually bracket), so always up against slush pumps. The 'Brick's the only HA/GR that's managed to snag class win trophies over here on the left coast, but the Pollyanna in me still has hope. Really love the pit thrash pic. Have always enjoyed the manic panic of those over the years. Actually, those're my own most memorable moments of all of it. Particularly recall rapidly adjusting some slush lifters on a 235 right on out to solid so the valves in that stocker'd stop floating at 4200 (back in my misspent youth). Just for giggles, here're a couple of us replacing the SECOND set of timing sprockets one weekend back in '10, when the car was a middie. A slight piston/valve argument at upper tach ranges kept breaking'em (notched the slugs & "added lightness" to the valve gear when I got home). Had to pop the seat, firewall, and steering wheel to get my ass in there to wrench it, and the steering wheel mount stub was still in my back. At one point the wind & dust got so bad that a couple of the crowd held a blanket up to block it. Fond memories indeed. As I said, I do enjoy the thrashes. Any other thrash pics you'd care to share?
I have watched the vids earlier... just getting round 2 commenting... Thanks for the videos. I have not raced in a few years since the Gooberment closed SpeedWorld out north west of the metro Phoenix AZ area.. I did tow to Tucson raceway a few times. But: Life got in the way, so we sit and watch your videos. The inline - flat head group I raced with kinda fell apart. I forget the reason , If there was one
That's a shame about the group falling apart. It happens. The Sydney group was halved when Steve and Jeff moved to Queensland but that has increased their numbers. I'm lucky that being retired I can do a bit of traveling between states. I'd like the Sydney racers to travel to Queensland for a couple of meetings but as you can imagine they have commitments and vice versa for the Queensland racers. I hope to be racing the weekend after next in Casino, N.S.W. which might be my last meeting for the year. I've depleted my racing budget plus it starts to get a bit warm over here for sitting around in a fire suit.
I noticed a couple of photos on facebook page: Hot Inline Six's and Vintage of Spanners car at the Six Banger race.
Dick, I think you win. That looks like one hell of a pit thrash and a very uncomfortable one at that. Plus doing it twice? Don't you just love it when as soon as crawl into or under the car, the wind picks up to three times the velocity?
I was there for Old6's pit thrash and a couple more as I recall. Fun times in dirt pits that are bonded in our memories.
You certainly do look reasonably comfortable in your thrash pic. I think I may be jealous. Yeah, the only asphalt at Eagle's the strip. Lotsa plowed fields all around that, dust owns the area whenever it feels like it. Wouldn't change it for love nor money. We called the (now gone) Palmdale strip "the Sandbox", due to the sand that blew sideways across the strip from the gravel mining op next door whenever it felt like it there. DNFed several meets over the years from it. One of the "fun" aspects of the new Fontana strip (the "Pit", to us) is a noise control wall they put in to assuage a local. It runs on the left side from staging to the finish line, and also blocks a sometimes cross wind ...... which then hits you in the side as you go through the eyes at speed. I've done a bit of "handling" more'n once there. The real cars have even more "fun" with it, and a couple've wadded'em up from it so far. But no one's been hurt beyond scratches yet, and now days they cut back to 1/8 mile during some meets as a result. All part of the game, and it does make it a bit more "fun" at times. Tends to separate playboys from drivers as well. We also have an 1/8 miler on the Barona indian reservation out behind San Diego (no nickname, just Barona). It's hung on a hillside, and the return road's a really tight 180* left at the end of the shutoff. The sand trap is immediately after that, and a 90' drop immediately after the sand. A few've utilized the sand, but so far no one's made it into the canyon. They keep a "handler" at the top end to push the long cars back for a three point turn when needed. His chair & umbrella's that little black spot at the end of the fence in the crotch of the turn. Does have the coolest return road in captivity though, and the "ticket booth"s midway back to the pits, among the trees in the "park". Just for grins, here's an aerial shot of Barona ......
And, Spanners, as long as we've high jacked your thread anyway ...... here're a couple shots of my favorite; Rocky's meets at Eagle Field.
Feel free to high jack the thread. You are making me jealous with those aerial shots. I'd have to carry extra fuel just to motor around the pits.
The Jalopy Journal
