T
HE East Coast Thunder Nationals
at Sydney Dragway produced a
great result for Team Bray when our
American import, Frankie Taylor, took
the win in Pro Slammer. It’s been a while since
our last win; in fact you need to go back to
Santo’s Summer Thunder earlier this year.
Frankie and I go back over 10 years and to
finally get him to race in Australia had been a
goal of mine for some time. He was going to
run at the Winters this year until I got crook and
we had to cancel. He’s such a diehard racer.
He wasn’t in the fastest car out there; in fact
he only qualified eighth, but he is a world-class
driver and got the job done.
Frankie drove the sister car to Ben’s Corvette,
and some Willowbank test runs were the first
time it had run. We bought the car from Chris
Van’tHof, and it had sat in the workshop at
home for a while. Because I wasn’t racing, we
spoke to Gulf Western and asked them what
they wanted to do. We agreed to bring the car
out for Sydney, where their headquarters are,
so to run a 5.938 and take the win was a prettygood result, and we ran 5.833 in the semis too.
To win first up was fantastic, and a rarity in any
class of racing in this day and age.
The car looked really great and I’ve got to
thank my grandson Jakson for coming up with
the design and artwork. The car was originally
red, but Gulf Western wanted it black and it
came up a treat. Ben did most of the work on
getting the car ready and I helped out where
I could.
Frankie gave us plenty of useful info
regarding some of the problems that we’ve
been having. They are problems they see
day to day in America because they race so
often. Frankie was great with the fans, too,
and I know he wants to come back to race
again. One thing that surprised him was the
number of spectators who came around to our
pits wearing Frankie Taylor shirts, which they
obviously had bought when they were over in
the US watching him race.
Ben did well and it was bad luck that he
broke a belt in the second round against Zap,
but being realistic I don’t think he would havebeaten him, as Zap reset the record on that
run to an amazing 5.60 flat. But we are slowly
creeping up each time we go out there. One
thing is for sure: If you are not learning then
you’re going backwards.
Moits Racing had its second outing in Pro
Slammer and probably didn’t go as good
as the team (or most of us) expected after
laying down some awesome numbers in pre-
race testing. That’s the beauty of the class.
Race day is a totally different beast. That’s
why we decide the winner at race events and
don’t let the keyboard crew chiefs decide
over the internet.
An interesting point that came out of the
event was that a few of the top cars, including
Benny’s and Zap’s, broke belts, and you gotta
ask the question: Why?
The answer is pretty straightforward: power.
Doorslammers are producing around 3000hp
and that is putting massive stress on all parts of
the powertrain. These belts are not designed
for supercharged engines making that much
power. Some of the belts we use are designedPHOTOS JOHN DOIG & JON VAN
DAAL
WILD AT HEART
VICTOR BRAYVIFRANKIE TAYLOR WASN’T IN THE FASTEST CAR OUT THERE; IN FACT
HE ONLY QUALIFIED EIGHTH, BUT HE IS A WORLD-CLASS DRIVER AND
GOT THE JOB DONE