Another Great Weekends Racing.

Hi all,

Team SJ Crushing had a great time in Narrogin.
Glen was working so could not bring the 45 car out to play, but Annette and I were able to make the trip in our Rolls Canardly truck and trailer combination, and given we have to go over the scarp/darling range there was plenty of the canardly, for those unfamiliar with this term, it means "rolls down one hill, can hardly get up the other", it was a slow trip up and back.

Annette continues to get faster, she has the car moving down the straights and is slowly getting the pace up into the turns, it was getting harder and harder to get by each race.
Annette had a 5th in the first heat a sixth in the second heat a sixth in the third heat and finished up rof in the feature, meaning she is near the top of the club points, we will soon have that changed.

My night was a bit better than last time out, I ran a second, a spin and come from the back fourth, then another second with a third place in the feature, we were running the leaders down in the feature but getting past them would have been an issue, I was a little out on the turn 1 entry and could not get it right.
In the feature I was introduced to the "bike track basher" who will from now on be known as BT. He crumpled my top wing with a radical inside maneuver that was never going to stick.

Well enough about me, now for the rest of the nights action.
Heat one was a fast affair with most of the fast locals up against BT.
BT was quicker on this occasion to record a solid win over Tony Bilman and Glen Carstairs.
Heat 2 was a stop start affair, soon into the racing Ian Dhu took a Kwinana outside line to be sucked into the wall, on the restart Stacey Chisolm tried to perfect the Dhu move and also got sucked into the wall.
Heat 2 was won by Chris Ackland with yours truly second and Mike Armstrong in third.
Heat 3 saw the locals take out first and second, Bilman from Carstairs with Shane (casual) Webster taking out third, Shane is still dialing in his loaner engines fuel system, but is getting quicker rapidly.
Heat four was more of the same with Chris Ackland winning over Dhuy who had replaced all the damaged bits and was keen to be in the mix, with Mike Armstrong taking third.
Heat 5 saw the Carstairs boy arrive at the pointy end for the first time this meeting with the old fella Bilman taking second over casual Webster in third.
Heat 6 and the Ackland team again stormed to the front to win ahead of me with Dhuy taking out third.

So to the feature we went, the top 6 were inverted for the start, which I loved because those local yokels were all behind me.
Starting positions were, Armstrong, Casual Webster, Rolls canardly Crabbe, Carstairs, old fella Bilman and Ackland, not sure about the rest of the line up though, sorry about that.
At the drop of the green flag Armstrong shot away with Casual on the outside with me behind, we worked hard to get by casual and just after that the smooth Ackland rounded me up and set after Armstrong, Mike Armstrong was holding a nice line but got a bit wide coming off turn two so I went by, at this stage one of the locals was starting to work me over putting his car inside and outside but we held him at bay, coming off turn four I noticed BT coming off the infield trying to get past and we had a slight moment of contact, as I drove hard away from BT I noticed a low purple satellite orbiting just above my car, the orange and red lights flicked on together then the oranges stayed on and the satellite landed and was shown the big round rump that always says "Go to the rear" lucky really as all that orbiting must have made him dizzy.
Well this all got sorted and unlucky for local yokel Carstairs as he was put back behind me and he had to work me over again, which he did successfully a couple of laps later and he held on for a solid second with Mr 100% Smooth Ackland taking the win, I finished third but was really getting the car hooked up and just starting to come on.

There were many highlights of the night but before we talk about those I would like to thank Narrogin Speedway Club on behalf of all the limited drivers, the track could have been prepared differently to suit us but it was not our night, we were there to support other divisions and we had a ball, it was a balls out night with lots of good clean racing and all passes were hard earned, even passing the back markers like "Cannon fodder Crabbe" was hard.
So to the highlights;
Hard to go past Mr Smooth here, no matter where he started from he got to the front, well done Chris.
Glen Carstairs and Tony Bilman also went really well and will be hard to beat at home, we would like to see you guys on the road this year, it was good to see Glen back after last years set backs.
Casual is slowly getting that motor sorted and put in his second best career drive, he was fast but needs that smoothness thing.
Michael Armstrong again was quick and is always at the front.
Bam Bam Maskel is starting to pick up some traffic craft and once this comes he will improve quickly.
Ian "outside line" Dhu put in some good races after repairing his car.
BT knows the shortest path is the quickest, but not for satellites as they crash into earth if shortcuts are taken.
Crabbe senior found some right rear bite and loved it, still cannot get this fuel thing right though.
The Chisolm's had a bit of an ordinary night but will get quicker this year.
And as we said already Annette is improving at a very fast rate.



Bring on Bunbury.

Crabby

Narrogin here we come.

Good evening all,

Well it's that time again and cars are being prepped for the trip to Narrogin.

This meeting last year I took out the Limited Feature Race at Narrogin, this year it looks a lot harder.
There are the local hotshots, Carstairs and Billman plus some I do not know, sorry, then there are the traveling hotshots, Gavin, Dhuy, Yours truly and Annette if you ask her.
I am sure there will be more than I have mentioned so come on out to Narrogin and watch some great racing.
We had 15 cars nominated but I believe we may lose a couple due to the usual speedway politics, wish this sort of thing was gone from our sport but it never seems to go away, enough about that though.

We have Annette's car all prepped and shiny ready to put on the truck, my car still needs a bit more work, we fired it up last night and fuel leaked from every new hose we had put on it, made for an interesting ride whilst trying to do up hoses by hand as I drove the car running back into the workshop, I had methanol in the eyes and a cab full of it, but we soon had the hoses done up properly this time and set about setting fuel pressures, by the end it was a crisp and angry sounding engine, amazing really.

Our gear that was ordered for the Kris Coyle Speedweek trip has left the USA this week and in the container we have almost 250 rear tires, when they arrive we will sell a few cheap to members of the 320 and limited club.

We still have the 358 for sale that is in the car in the container, the car is sold to a Northwester who shall remain nameless, but if the car is half as good as we believe it will be a weapon up there.

There is also a short motor in the container that is for sale, anyone interested should drop me an email and I can organize the details of the short motor to be sent to you, also the 358 details if you are interested, the 358 does not come with the injection though as we want to keep that for a special project we have in our shop.

Hope to see you all in Narrogin.

Crabby

Limited Sprintcars, being supported by the commercial community.

Hi all

Just want to say thanks to the Bunbury branch of Blackwoods.

They have donated 2 tool boxes complete with tools for prizes this season.

A chest with tools for the Club Champion, Dhuy wants this along with me, Gavin, and most of the club.

Also a wall mounted tool chest for the winner of the Krikke Boys night.

There is more of the same but it is still unofficial at this stage.

Great to see our club being supported.

Look out for the newsletter that will be out this week, it would be one of the best club newsletters in the country, thanks to Shane Webster at 88deg for the great work.

Catch you

Crabby

Shed stuff.

Hi all,

Well today was shed day and with 3 cars in the wash que it was going to be a long day.
I turned up at 8:30am and Glen was already there, pressure washer in hand and going for it, amazing how some form can make you keen.
Glen is on the pace and with some help in the set up department he will be hard to beat.
Todd and Gavin Davis also appear to be fired up for a big season, Todd has already been on the fence literally this season.
Dhuy looks quicker and I think there will be any one of 10 or so of us pushing hard for the wins this year.
My blog Saturday morning said Dhuy was in Wattos car, they tell me it was Dhuy's car, and his picture in sprintcar world certainly shows him in a xxx.
Well in the shed today we got onto our favorite subject for discussion, Fuel Systems.
Despite numerous fit outs and changes we cannot stop my engine flooding at anything under full revs, so we got to the chat, 3 cars, each with a different way to get the fuel delivery right.
So we analyzed each system discussing fuel pumps, fuel line sizes, high speed pressure regulators, low speed pill canisters etc.
Then like a bolt from the blue it struck us, the pressure regulator on my engine is on the far end of the fuel log, this meant the carby feed pipes are on the high pressure side, then the fuel pressure is dropped and on the return to the tank is also the pressure gauge, the set up is as per the Barry Grant book but it is all that's different to the other cars, so after washing and removing all the power steering fluid it was off with the fuel system and we modified it the same as Annette's.
The next interesting topic for discussion was my chassis, Gavin and Glen reckon it is a Murphy, David Graham told me it was a J&J, we looked at all the bits and pipework and they almost had me convinced, however Jarrad says he saw the car come from Luche and it was purple when it got to the Graham teams workshop, so a J&J it is.

Well we have 2 cars ready to go but most of our team are away working for the next few meetings, Annette says she is going to Narrogin, Janette gets to drive the truck, this should be interesting to watch.

For me it is bullet dodging in Nigeria for a week.

So for all who want to race get up to Narrogin and support the club.

See you all at Bunbury on the 6th November.

Crabby

Fast Friday Wrap Up.

Hi all,

Well another season has opened up with our opening night at Kwinana last night.

Some of the cars had new paint schemes in the off season, of note were,
Michael Armstrong's car, black and signed beautifully.
Rob Watsons 10 driven by Ian Dhu, polished like a show car.
Gavin Davis new white and purple scheme looked fabulous.
Shane Maskel also in black with near flouro green sign writing.

We had eleven cars turn up and one was a 320, thanks to Troy Craig for making the effort.

Heat one was a torrid affair, Glen Oliver took it out with Todd Davis second and yours truly third.
Heat two saw Sarah Zemunic off pole shoot away with myself in hot pursuit, after closing up on Sarah going into the back straight and getting ready to work out how to get past my cab filled with lovely blue oil and that was it for me.
Todd Davis won from Gavin Davis.
The feature was on a very slick track with many near spins and some interesting maneuvers.
Todd Davis won, Dhuy second.

Overall nights results were,
Todd Davis first
Ian Dhu second
Annette Crabbe third

Dhuy has been to the Gavin Davis school of overtaking.
Glen needs some slick track tips.
Michael Armstrong needs some throttle control tips and ditto for new driver Shane Maskel.

There were 4 new drivers to our club out there last night and all raced well and held very good lines.
Sarah Z is no stranger to sprint cars, but the other 3 are all new and look to have the speed.

Annette has a head bigger than her car getting a third place trophy on her first night out.

Thanks for coming to all, another great night was had and good luck at Narogin on the 30th October, I will be dodging bullets in Nigeria.

Got to go cleaning cars,

Catch you

Crabby

Well they have awoken again.

Hi all

Guess I got the speedway net boys going again.

First to Mr Blockhead- your old motor has not been slagged, the reference to unleaded motor refers to the fact it's new owners crew filled the tail tank with unleaded fuel one night, horsepower 460 on the dyno, talk to Chev power, new owner never held it flat for a full lap, so my sensitive friend I will bring some concrete pills to Geraldton for you next time we are in town.
As to your mate, my motor was never passed by any of your members, none were at any of the meetings I ran it at, and as said before, skill will always win.

Finally to you knitters "harden up" most race with you because of 3 or 4 members in our club scare them, so what, these guys race wheel to wheel and have never bothered me with their tactics, one of them had a component failure last year causing a crash, other than that they never crashed into anyone, not to dangerous really is it.

Tim, Anthony, Gibbo and possibly Darren could hop in any of your cars and still be at the front, so what does that mean, it is mostly about skill.

By the way "Limiteds race for sheep stations" comes from your executive when we talk about the madness that is 1 strong club versus another not doing as well but close in speed and specs.

Like it or not common specs have to come, that is where the future lies.

We can fight it, we can slag each other, but reality, 15 or so years ago Limiteds changed to sprintcar quick changes, you guys did it 2 to 3 years ago, many years ago Limiteds went to 350 cubic inch, then the 320 club was born, it was from members who did not want to change or were unhappy with the club, now you are going to 350's, are you seeing a pattern here? Possibly we can go back, you can come forward, 1 club, 60 or so registered drivers, starting to sound like 358's in the USA now, they have hundreds of cars.

Well had my say and that's it.

Crabby

Racing for Sheep Stations.

Hi all,

Who are the people in our club who are racing for sheep stations?
I have heard this many times since joining the club, now it is in a national speedway magazine.

How dare you race so hard, we need to start looking at some of the new buzz words that the education department use, an example is "deferred success", we could use it in our division this way "I did not lose the state title, I have just deferred winning it".

So there is now a class of sprintcars that you can join and defer your success as long as you like.

Thought I might look up the definition of Racing, it appears to mean "A contest of speed" except where you can go and race and have a contest that means you do not have to speed? In fact I guess we cannot call it a contest either, as a contest has a winner, maybe we can have "synchronised sprintcar racing" we could all just stay in order and roll around, we could do it on bitumen and then we would not have to wash our cars either. What is going on out there I ask.

It appears to me to be an easy thing to define:
To race is to try to win, the prize really does not matter, to race for sheep stations or to race to win for no prize at all, if you race you want to win.
Some of us, and I include myself in this, try to win but do not very often, we care but it is not the end of the world, that is racing for fun as well.

So I think the author of the story really meant " We do not race for sheep stations, and by this I mean there are not very many accidents in our division" and I can see how he has come to this conclusion, I reckon it is because there are so few cars in the division that it is hard for any to tangle up.

Come on guys, We don't race for sheep stations? Take up crocheting and knitting will you.

See you at Kwinana on Friday if you can put the knitting down long enough.

Crabby

1 Week to go, the blood is pumping.

Well another stressful week has come to an end, the weekend is upon us and to the shed we go.

The trusty 45 has had it's usual neglect during the off season and is ready to go, it will appear at Practice this Wednesday for a final hit out before Friday is upon us.
12 needs some work on fuel pressure and idle speed, it needs it's new seat fitted and some final sign writing, then it too is ready.
77 well it is still sitting there looking very neglected, no seat, no panels, no fuel lines, valves still to be adjusted, timing still to be done, what a fiasco, just too much to do and no enthusiasm for the task.
Car 88w is also in our shed, it to looks sad and neglected, no throttle linkages, no radiator, no rocker cover breathers, what is going in this shed?

Hard to believe anything will be ready by Friday, but hey tomorrows another day, we are in the shed from after lunch Saturday and most likely will not surface until late Sunday, cars ready and looking forward to a big season.

Only one person has contacted me to ask about the eye and reflex testing, it was a joke, just wanting to see if anyone could work out who it was, I won't be telling anyone but the info is available on Facebook.

Catch you

Crabby

Driver eye and reflex testing mandatory.

Hi all,

We will be conducting eye and reflex testing at Kwinana on the first fast friday.

It appears when the tests are being conducted by doctors there are some people getting through who really shouldn't.

Martin will be holding the eye charts and I will get to hit everyone with the 4lb reflex hammer.

We apologise in advance if this causes any stress to our drivers but when we cannot see race cars in our way it is one thing, but when we cannot see slow moving people on gophers then we are in serious trouble.

What are we to do with some of you.

Crabby

News from the North- Geraldton first meeting.

Hi Crabby,

We had the first run for the season up here in Geraldton on the weekend.

Five cars turned up these included Andrew Pedlar in his new car, Cale Sotiroff in the Reg Wells Ltd car Robbie Stephens in the Pete Smith Maxim car, a new driver to the limited's in Anthony Gaudio in a ex Pete Smith car and Mick in the trusty old XXX.

The track was fast and very smooth and with the first time running with the transponders we where able to get accurate lap times.

With hot laps came Andrews problems with his car busting the water pump drive belt for no apparent reason, Mick lent him another one only to have that bust in the first heat and his night was done.

The first heat had Mick out of pole, Robbie from 2 Cale from 3 and Anthony of the back, Robbie took the lead and all Mick could do was watch him drive away as he was to tight to be able to mount any sort of challenge. Robbie 1st Mick 2nd Cale 3rd Anthony 4th.

The second heat had Cale on pole Robbie out of 2 Mick out of 3 Anthony of the back again as he did all night. Anthony spun on about lap 6 also bringing Robbie to a halt after getting a handy break over Mick. On the restart after much tussling over position on the restart Robbie was put back to 3rd and the race recommenced with the results being Mick 1st Cale 2nd Robbie 3rd Anthony 4th.

The third heat came only to see more excitement with Robbie taking the lead again Mick in Second for all of a couple of laps until the right front wheel, stub and part of the axel parted company from the rest of the car coming into turn 1 and Mick took the first tumble of the season. the results are Robbie 1st Cale 2nd Anthony 3rd

The feature had Robbie from pole Cale from 2 Anthony of the back and finished the same way.

The track was fast and smooth all night and a credit to Pete Smith, Jacko and the crew.

The laps scorers are having a few teething problems with running the lap timing system but it is proving to be a good investment with accurate times instead if the old cuckoo clock we had before, and will be sorted out properly for the next meeting. The sprintcars were getting down to low 13 second laps.

Anthony and Cale the two newest drivers to sprintcars in Geraldton are getting faster every time they hit the track. Cale a very successful junior driver and Reg Wells grandson and Anthony a first time driver who got hooked after driving one of Pete Smiths cars at a sponsors day up here, both will be drivers at the pointy end and cars to keep an eye on.

Thanks to Kim Doble for the update.

Now for Moora to give us some info on there first meeting.

Crabby.

Bunbury Practice- a great success.

Hi to all,

Geez it's so good to have things to blog about again.

We were off in Bunbury last night for a practice meeting, the track was hooky and fast, a credit to the Bunbury Car Club, the track preparation was first rate. Thanks guys we had a blast.

So on to the happenings;
Team T Davis was there and had his race face on, I did not actually see him smile after a couple of runs, but I saw someone who knows some of last years woes are past and a look of steely determination that plainly said "bring it on, were ready".
Team Bam Bam were also there and true to their name Bam was what happened, first run a couple of laps in and it was BAM, a good whack to the front right to say "hello Shane, welcome to the club".
Team Crabbe Jr was also out and got her baptism of fire with a quick outside pass on her and then dropping in on her front just to let her know the practice is done- Race Face and Pace time now kid.
A couple of dry cleaners are in for a terrible Monday when Bam Bam's and Annette's suits turn in for dry cleaning, they will be smelling by then.

Team Crabbe Snr had a run in Annette and Gavin's cars as he was not keen on dirtying his own.
Now I must apologize to Kris Coyle here, he drove Annette's car in Tom Price to second, now I know why, I had it flat all the way around Bunbury for all the practice session, it was quick, there is nothing wrong with this motor, but a killer it ain't.
I hoped in the Team G Davis car and had a run as well, it is running the 358 motor Gavin brought out from the USA last year, this motor is not the best 358 in WA, Michael Armstrong has the best one apparently, but I can tell you all now, stop wasting your money on engines, these things go hard.
I will give you a couple of comparisons of engine's I have driven.
Rockas car with a Watson owned Speed Torque motor, big budget engine.
Bombak engine in Glens car, big budget engine.
Ex Shaun Bradford 360, now in Annette's car and much modified to up horsepower, big budget engine.
My 14 deg performance unlimited motor, ridiculously expensive engine.
My first car with Kendrick motor, budget motor though, and most fun to own.
And unfairly Phsyco.

Gavin's motor sits at number 2, it beats the bombak motor in Glen's car because it pulls off the turns as hard but still has more mid straight, Glens pulls hard off the turns but runs out by half the length of the straight.
The performance unlimited motor with 14 deg heads pulls strong, no doubt about it, but it is a lazy motor that will not rev, when it needs a freshen at the end of this season we will most likely just park it up, when you can get the performance you can from those 358's at the price you can get them for all I can say is what I said above, keep your money in the bank, buy one don't build anything else.

It is amazing how something like getting back into a car can lift you, we have had a hectic last few months and it was all I could do to stay awake driving to Bunbury.
After 2 runs I was awake, refreshed and just wanting more.

Guess I did not really rank the motors
1- leave this blank for you all to guess at
2- Gavin's 358
3- Bombak motor in Glen's car
4- Daylight
5- My first 14 deg headed motor
6- A lot more daylight
7- Watto's motor in Rocka's car


"Where for art thou Phsyco", come home soon, I need help just to keep up with these guys.

Just for info Glen is practicing at Kwinana before fast Friday, so if your there come say hello.

Catch you

Crabby