Well, the words 'wet, wet, wet' should have been on the top line of this report, as again we had a washout, our second in three Test days. Mario and Vince again have been through the fuel system, and changing and checking, checking and changing. Lot of time, lot of effort.

Buddy had also flown in from Brisbane for the day, and Tommy had finished off the trick single mag drive and hold down clamp. To say we were looking for a lap or two would be an under statement. It rained the Friday night, and was still sprinkling at 5.30am when I got up to prepare for our 'day'. Humphhhh.

All the guys assembled at the track (we were just about the only team as everybody had stayed in bed) and while still sprinkling, at about 8.30am, the track called the event.

So, we all hopped into the Hyundai vans and went to Mickey Dees for a hearty brekky.

We returned to the track about 10am and the rain had stopped, but the grounds were well wet. We rolled the 'Widow out of the box, set her up on the Buddy Jax, and proceeded to get her ready for a fire up or two.

After an hour or so, the call was made to grab the starter and batteries and let's have a cackle.
She roared into life, and at this stage, I have to bring you up to speed on a few things.

1. We had changed the way we mixed our nitro, and this time, we had right on 90% in the tank.
   
   
2. Our new Eze-Ups had arrived from the States, and we naturally had them up to keep the nuisance rain of all of us....but we did not move the back one when we fired the engine up.......Tommy had the dubious task again (although willingly) of sitting in the seat while we warmed her up.....90%, NO breeze and NO ventilation = NO brains.
   
   
3. Poor old Tommy, and for that matter, the rest of us....we all copped a good dose of the yellow stuff. Tommy couldn't talk for 30 minutes after (a blessing in disguise), his eyes were swollen and he was spluttering. A good experience, I recommended it to everyone. Needless to say, the next start up had the canopy moved.....

So, with Buddy on the RacePak, and Mario and Vince trading pressures on the fuel system, the engine really started to come around. By the last start up, the motor actually sounded superb. You could just about hear each cylinder firing. After 4 start-ups, the call was made to 'box it' and let's get outta here.

It goes without saying that we kept Mario away from the nose while we loaded, and brought the old girl home where she now sits waiting expectantly for another shot at a 'dry' piece of asphalt.

There are a few talks going on at the moment about running the 4 Nitro cars at either the Nostalgia race in November, or the Track Champs in October and early next year.

As soon as we have something firm, we will post it.

All in all, apart from the wet, we all got to hang out again (in the rain) the girls got to stay in their nice warm beds......and we sorted more of the fuel system on the car.

A good day.

More soon, Steve T...

For more pictures see Test 'n Tune - Saturday September 4, 2010 in the Gallery

Our racer handout was leaked to the press over on the Classic Funny Car Board.

Check it out for yourself - way cool.