(^78) themotorhood.com
T
he Perth Motorplex is probably the best
racetrack I have been to in the southern
hemisphere. Now, I’m not talking just about the
track itself but overall. The traction is awesome,
the groove is wide, it’s super sticky, with plenty of
run-off. Driving through the tunnel, you feel as if
you’re driving into a coliseum, and that creates an
awesome atmosphere.
This was our third trip to Perth since we joined the
Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car series. On the
past two trips, we’ve run PBs and won two out of
the three rounds, but
both times we have just
fallen short of making
the podium. It’s been
one of those bitter-sweet
venues. As I said in my
last column, we did
some testing to try to get
the new combination
down the racetrack. We
found a few things after
testing that we thought
had us heading in the
right direction and that
hopefully would get the
car firing on all eight cylinders.
First round, we raced ‘Dark Horse’ driven by
Paul Messineo. We left the start line together,
but, by about quarter-track, I could see the black
Mustang pulling away, and we trailed him all the
way down the racetrack. ‘One Bad Kiwi’ had once
again dropped a cylinder and was running on seven
instead of eight. Not that it was any consolation, but,
on seven cylinders, we still went 397kph (247mph).
I was really disappointed, as we thought we had
found the problem at testing but clearly we hadn’t.
Back in the pits, we made some changes to the
engine, tuned up our dead cylinder, and went back
out there knowing that if Kiwi fired on all eight
it should be fairly fast. Justin Walshe, in the new
‘Terminator’ funny car, was in the other lane. When
we rolled through the tunnel for this round, it was
awesome to see the stands full. At the flash of the
green, I stomped on the accelerator and the Kiwi
finally lit all eight cylinders and went for about 5m
before it just spun the tyres — and really hard, too.
I could see The Terminator driving away, but, after
our recent runs, there was no way I was giving
up on this one. As soon as the car settled down, I
jumped back on the loud pedal and started chasing
Justin down. At half-track, Justin got loose and had
to pedal it; this race was back on. By three-quarter
track, I was less than a car length behind but pulling
the white Camaro in fast. By the time we crossed
the finish line, I got Justin by about a car length.
With the poor start, the ET was not good, but, with
a new best speed of 406kph (252mph), it was clear
that the engine was making the power.
We were struggling to understand why the car
smoked the tyres at the start line. I felt like the
track was very good and the tune-up wasn’t
overly aggressive. We decided to get a new set of
tyres out of the trailer and put them on. I debated
whether we needed to soften the tune-up some
more but felt like it was on the side of caution
already. Knowing that we had to win our run and
set a low ET to have a shot at third on the podium,
I decided to leave it, with the hope that the tyres
would make the difference.
Less than a second into the run, I knew that the
tyres had made a difference; the Kiwi was hauling!
It was going straight, and was frankly a dream
to drive — but, boy, did it have me pinned in my
seat. Going through the
finish line, I knew it had to
be quick, as the parachutes
threw me hard forward into
the seat belts. I do hope the
in-car camera volume wasn’t
working, as I was yelling and
screaming like teenagers on
their last day of school — it
just felt that good. Not only
did we win the round, but we
did it by smashing our old
PB, with a 5.62-second run at
over 408kph (254mph).
After a nervous wait, we
learned that none of the other cars on equal
points could beat our 5.62, giving us the bronze
rocket trophy.
In a way, after the troubles we had been having, it
felt as if we had won the event. It was also a great
reward for my crew, who work so hard on the Kiwi
while I’m running around organizing the event
and tuning another car as well. I gave the trophy
to the boys to take back home to New Zealand, in
recognition of all their hard work. As I write this,
I am yet to hear how the guys got on getting the
bullet-shaped trophy through airport security — it
could have been interesting.
aeroflow Race Diary
WITH MORICE MCMILLIN
THE CHAMPAGNE RAIN
Not only did we win
the round, but we did
it by smashing our old
PB, with a 5.62 second
run at over 408kph
frankie
(Frankie)
#1