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We towed from our Central Coast base on the Saturday morning to the sacred piece of asphalt known as Sydney Dragway.... We arrived about lunchtime to help setup the ANFA Pioneer Awards marquee for the Reunion and Awards that night.
Vinnie and the guys had a few adjustments to make and satarted the engine up a few times, and with all being fine packed the camp up to enjoy the nights festivities.
Sunday dawned quite nice, so the team set about erecting Camp Widow and prepping the car for the pre lunch warm-up prior to our first round of racing.
The team had an easy morning as the pressure was not on yet as the car was sitting quietly waiting for its attack on the track.
First up we had a match against another FED, and again this day it was decided to run the car to about 800 feet, then Peter would push the lean out lever then back off a tad after so we could get a reading on the result of that action, as we had only installed the lean out recently, and had an idea which way it would work. Peter did just that, about 950 feet he clicked it and again all was fine after the tow back.
We leaked the engine and #1 Cylinder was down a bit, so it was decided to pull that cylinder and see if there was a problem developing or not. We washed the piston and rod up, checked all over and relapped the valves back into the inserts and all seemed fine. Assembled it all back up, adjusted the clutch a little more and we were good to go.
Towed out for a bye this lap. Peter put the front wheels into the beams and then he was away. About 450-500 feet out the car sat up and just started to haze the tyres at which time Peter was onto it and back off the throttle immediately....coasting through to the bottom end. Towed back for a quick examination before the final.
Again, the engine was just fine, tweaked a few jets here and there for the cylinder temps to meet in a line, just played with the clutch a fraction to get down the track without smoking the hides again. OK, she's all ready to go, let's roll.
Did the ritual burnout, back-up and stage. Green...and Peter was still sitting there a tad as the other car was gone big time, but Peter was quickly making up time and caught the other car just about mid track and took the win.....and we normally watch the car all the way to the braking area but were more intent on getting to the bottom and picking him up. Towards the end of the track on the return road, we noticed it was our car still sitting on the track with the fire truck beside it. Holy help....what happened here?
First thing we checked on pulling up was that there was NO hole in the block or oil in the belly pan.....cool, that looks good. (We had the Portland race in 2 weeks and couldn't afford to do any damage to the engine and for repairs that may be needed...we all work for a living.)
Peter saw flames coming into the cockpit and did not know where they were from.
Peter saw flames coming into the cockpit and did not know where they were from. He waited a sec to see if they would stop, but they kept on a little bit, so he hit the fire bottles to put whatever was alight out. NOPE, no good. Hmmm, we still didn't know what had happened, but knew the car had been on fire, was now not on fire....and the Firies asked us to move it along. We towed off the track to the braking area and still weren't sure what had happened. OK, back to the pit and let's see if we could figure what the problem was.
Up on the stands, body and wheels off.....oops....there's the problem. The residual valve in the brake line had stuck on the whole 1320 feet, as a photographer that was at 1000 feet had a picture of the rear brakes and they were RED HOT like a Formula 1 car. That in turn melted the paint, which had caught alight and the lower half of the body and anything else that was in its way. Hmmm, now there is a little bit of work to do.
So, the master cylinder was sent away and all the other components that were heat affected were massaged. We decided to regather the next weekend (the only weekend in between the Sydney and the Portland event) and put all of the 'well done' pieces back on the car. With that in mind, we decided to service the car right there at the track as we wouldn't have time to do it the next weekend. The entire engine came up beaut. Nothing to replace, it is running like a clock.
So, you will see the pictures enclosed of the weekend, the pictures of the burnt body but pics of a team having fun and doing what they love to do.
So, you will see the pictures enclosed of the weekend, the pictures of the burnt body but pics of a team having fun and doing what they love to do.
We got runner up with that last pass, so the 'Crewman of the Day' award winner was Tommy....a picture also enclosed of him excepting the spoils of the day.
We repaired the car the next weekend and loaded it into the trailer for the trip to Portland, a story also on this in here somewhere.....
Steve and Wendy Turner...
For the event photos, click here to check the Photo Gallery Cruzin Magazine Nostalgia Drags, November 18th, 2012.