This weekend past was TDRA's Gunnedah drags. As those of you who regularly grind your way through my race reports this is a laid back, ego free weekend. Saturday is test 'n' tune, Sunday morning qualifying and after lunch is eliminations. The weather was superb , sunny with hardly a breath of wind. I jump in the driver's seat, hit the starter and.............nothing happened but a hissing sound and flashing idiot lights. Hook up the jump pack and..........still nothing happens. Expletives by the dozen and still nothing. I do the Zen type thing and take a deep breath and engage the brain. After disconnecting the starter motor and then pull the dash panel out to check for wiring issues I put the jump pack straight on the starter and it fired. Long story short, the isolation switch had shit it's self. I could've bridged it and went racing but as it's the emergency engine shutoff and there was an ANDRA official onsite I ducked into town and bought a new one. All up I got 5 runs in on Saturday. 8.756, 8.973, 8.757, 8.745, 8.801. Pretty consistent but not without issues. For some reason I had to readjust the play in the throttle cable after each run as it would be slack when I got back to the pits. I guess I was just mashing it too hard. On 2 runs the pedal got stuck under the pedal stop. Flat change into second and switch off after the finish line.
Sunday was another pearler of a day weather wise. 5 qualifying runs with only one dud run. 8.799, 8.890, 8.953, 8.865 and 9.352. Not bad, but it felt like the engine was not singing like it normally does. It could've been due to falling humidity or driver error or shit fuel but something was off. 1st elimination run was against a Mitsu Evo. I dialed 8.750 against their 9.6. I took the win with a backing off 9.049. Second run was against a Commodore but I snoozed on the line and the engine gremlins stuck their heads up. That was the end of my weekend. 9.111 on a 8.750 dial. All up, a good weekend's racing with no major issues, just piddley ones. Possibly racing at Casino next weekend if I can get on top of the problems. That be all folks.
Pretty cool seeing the old dinosaur smoking a modern day Evo. And I'm talking about the car not you Peter Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
I wind it up like an old watch. Then I wind it some more. Thanks Brendon. I enjoy doing that. Off to Casino this weekend. Hopefully I've cured some of last weekend's issues. I don't do facebook but I've found out through others that some of those that I hosed last time there are not happy with me. Apparently they don't like a 'purpose built dragster' being able to run against street registered cars. It doesn't occur to them that my engine is 70 years old and the driver is nearly as old, and I'm rowing gears. Plus they've got twice or more cubic inches. Stuff 'em! They'll have to earn their money.
Sorry, no Casino drags. I spent the night not sleeping due to constant trips to the dunny and am not up to the 6 hour drive and sleeping on the floor of the trailer. Today whilst tooling around in the shed I renewed my membership in the Idiot Club. Took the centre carby off the spare engine to fix the headers which were too close to the fuel bowl. I wadded some rag and put it in the manifold so no shit got in and you guessed it, forgot to take it out. Couldn't work out why the engine was running rough. Changed plug leads and plugs before realizing the issue. Luckily was able to manually wind the engine over and pull the rag out from around the valves. Engine runs good now, just ask the cranky neighbours.
Just as an add-on re the Gunnedah weekend. There was an example of devotion to your other half that we witnessed. A lady dropped her 'phone down into the portaloo and her hubby retrieved it by hand and without gloves. (I hope you weren't trying to enjoy a meal)
Musta been a plumber... Too bad about missing a race date. You know, I'll bet many of us have "rag" stories in our embarrassing past.
Thank you, for keeping me on strip oxygen 'til I can finally get to our first race of the season. Been a bit of a wet year here 'bouts so far.
I was able to download the results from the last Casino drags and all going well I would've showed 'em the rear end every time. Oh well, that's life. Yes Dick. I've missed your videos. The downside of them is I wish I was over there racing against you. Send some of that rain over here. Sydney has just started water restrictions for the first time in years. I'm 2 hours north but we are on user pays so the Hunter Valley looks after it's water supply. Hopefully racing at Bodangora on 9th June.
The Jalopy Journal
