ROLLER COASTER

s I write this, I have just got home from another Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars event. This one was at Willowbank Raceway in Brisbane. I’ll tell you what, I’m absolutely zonked and just about ready to fall asleep on the couch, but I wanted to write this column while everything is fresh in my mind. I have talked before about the ups and downs and the roller coaster that is my job on race day, and the Willowbank event was certainly no different. I’m sure everyone wants to know about the racing, so we will get straight to, so I gave it a quick peddle and managed to keep it off the wall and still ran a 5.55 at only 247mph. Once I got out of the car, I was ecstatic to have finally beaten the Nitro Express, which had struggled with the track conditions on that particular run and smoked the tyres. This put us back in contention for a podium. Now, the only problem was that I had drawn the second-most-successful car in the series next: the ‘Red Devil’ ’57 Chev — as if the first two rounds hadn’t been hard enough. We’ve had a pretty big battle with the red Chev lately, trading win lights, so this was going to be another tough one. This time, a 5.56 was enough to dispatch the Red Devil and put us in third spot on the podium. I was pleased with the performance of the car, and I was pleased with the third-place trophy, but to have beaten both ’57 Chevs on the same night considering the calibre of drivers and crew on those cars is something I’m very proud of. Yes, the first round cost us — but hey, that’s racing.