The definition of sabotage.

How do you go about successfully sabotaging your own team?
It's quite easy really, you just forget what ratio your spare diff is and fit it up to your mates car and tell him it's a 4.86 when its really a 4.11, then when he struggles all night you just let him know it's not the car it is just he is not driving hard enough, this I fingd works really well and recommend you all try it at least once.

Now he has caught on I need to be even more vigilant around my own car as revenge is no fun when you are the one being targetted.

Went to the open state title, not a bad night but the field could have been a bit higher in number, sounds familiar doesnt it.

It was good to see David Priolo take it out, he has had a run of bad luck while leading a lot of events the last 2 seasons, I spoke to Prino prior to the meeting and asked what motor they had in the car, he replied the good motor but that it was a temperamental thing and they hoped it lasted, they need not have worried about the engine, the left rear was going flat with about 10 laps to go and the car was pushing and hanlding shocking, but credit to David he kept the boot in and got home.
Pino must have leapt over the fence he was in there so quick after David pulled up, it was a great family win, bet they still have headaches.

Catch you.

Mango beer drowns sorrow.

Hi all,

I am in Broome on my way to our site on Koolan Island so I thought I would just put a few words in here.

We had our evening meal at a place called Matso's brewery, it makes the best beer around.

One of their top beers is Monsoonal Blonde, but they only sell it in bottles now, so we have to put up with a Mango Beer, it is fabulous and really has a mango flavour.

Tuesday morning at 6am we fly to Koolan Island, so today first thing we were on the phone before flying to get all our parts ordered to repair both cars, Parr Motorsports had the gear in stock and another call to Maxwill Motor sports and parts were on the way, a quick call to Murphy Race Cars about how much to strip off the car for the chassis repairs and the job was organised.

Now if everything turns up on time we will put the cars back together during the week leading up to the next Fast Friday.

Glen does not get another run until around the state title due to work and family commitments, this also means the budget may get a breather as it has not been a good start to the year.

In summary of what we have used in 2 cars this season.

1 x New motor failure- meeting 1 Me

1 x Old spare motor needed freshening after fuelling it up and dropping compression-meeting 2 Glen

1 x Diff/drive shaft/torque tube-meeting 3 Glen

1 x torque tube/drive shaft/jacobs ladder/top wing side panel-meeting 4 Glen

1 x right rear rim-meeting 4 Me

1 x front axle-meeting 4 Me

1 x front tyre and rim-meeting 4 Me

3 x radius rods-meeting 4 Me

1 x drag link-meeting 4 Me

1 x jacobs ladder-meeting 4 Me

What started out as a good sized budget has shrunk somewhat, bring back the simple life please.

Gavin gave me some driving tips at Kwinana, he took me down to the turn 3 wall and told me I drove like a man with no right foot, I thought for a minute he was going to toss me in the mud.

We had an animated discussion about where you should be turning in to the corner and whilst there I finally worked out why I kept hitting the ruts there, it would appear that where I thought they were 2 thirds of the way through the corner they were actually in the middle of the corner, once I realised that we ran a lot quicker in the feature and managed to get through without all the bouncing and launching into orbit.

Catch you

Hi all,

Well another weekend of racing has come and gone.

I have come to the conclusion that running 2 cars and helping others is a sure way to enjoy all the benefits of sleep deprivation.

We ran fast Friday and Glen had a failure to start for warm ups, on start for heat one I was following him around and saw a whole heap of fluid pour from under the middle of his car, he pulled in and when we looked at it in the pits he had lost the torque tube to the diff and bent the drive shaft, we really need that.

I won heat one and 2 and was almost enjoying the run except for the track was a bit rutted, I felt like an astronaut on occasions thinking I was going to go into orbit.

Mick Doble won the feature we think, I rounded him up going into turn one but the checkered flag may have already been waved, we are just not sure, so we gave the win to Mick as he must have seen the flag because he stayed down under another car as we entered the turn and I went past. Confusing hey.

I won the night and headed off to the garage to help Glen replace his diff and drive shaft.

Well at 2pm we head out of the shed and refilled all the fuel cans and went home, some sleep and some preparations on Saturday morning and we were headed for Moora, we left Mandurah at 10am.

On arrival in Moora at the track we unloaded my car and stripped it ready for cleaning.

It had around 100kg of mud on it from Kwinana, the clay was tacky at Kwinana due to the rain during the week and it stuck like s$%t to a blanket.

We spent about 2 hours getting it somewhat presentable for the Moora meeting.

We had 7 cars for the meeting, the best this year but still very poor, as a guide the 320's had 11 cars.

Drew 5 for the first heat and 4 for the third with an outside pole for the second heat by reversing the grid.

Finished 4th in the first heat, and lined up alongside Kingy for the second heat, lost the start and followed Kingy for a couple of laps, tried running his line but it did not suit me, then I switched back to a higher line but had no luck eventually having my first ever encounter with the wall, and that was it for me. Special thanks to Darren Francis for helping me get the car off the track and Michael Robertson for also helping me get the spare front end in.

Glen had a similar encounter with the turn one wall during the feature and guess what, he broke the torque tube and bent the drive shaft, lucky we have some experience in fixing that.

The night was a draw with Mick, King and Nathan Chant all on 115 points.

Mick won the feature with all 3 cars within 20m of each other.

So back to the shed we go, 2 cars too repair, more lack of sleep, yippee here we go again.

Robbie Robertson has made the transition from a "shed racer" to a "returned not retired anymore" racer and looked quick by the end of the night, Peter Wodj by default also returns to the racer list, so from here on no more mentions of shed racers will be used to describe these 2 gents.

The new motor sounded crisp and when driven for a couple of hot laps by Michael Robertson went extremely quick.

Welcome back guys.

Looking forward to the 410 state titles next weekend and have already got the new parts on order to fix our cars.

Will I make the 11th and 12th of December, only time will tell.

Catch you

Time for the blog again.

Hi all

Apologies for the tardiness in my blogging, got carried away head down bum up changing motors and working and just plain forgot you all actually do read this.

Narrogin came and went, ran 4th for the club, not too good but ok, led the feature for 17 laps then had Michael Robertson pass me, still first limited home was a good effort.

I have finally overcome the fear of running high and have actually started to like running up there, I even made a few passes around the outside, someone came and asked me who I got mad at to drive around 3 cars so quickly, I was mad because I got put to the rear of field on a restart and was sure that's not where I was during the heat.

Again we lost a motor, this time in Glen's car, just ran out of compression and pumped some oil out of the breather, we took the motor out and replaced it with the spare engine that was doing duty in my car while we repaired the melted one.

We travelled to Bunbury on Saturday night to have another run and to bed in the good motor that had come back from being repaired, I have never seen so many cars in a speedway, there were sedans everywhere.

We had 4 limiteds turn up and a pretend limited show up, also there were 5 320's who refused to race with us, I find it hard to fathom why people refuse to run out of class, surely running against quicker and slower cars teaches us more about race craft.

3 cars lined up in grid form and the other 2 ran off the back.

Shane Webster a new member who we have been helping moved from "Shed Racer" to Racer with some spirited drives, he had a few close moments and got lapped in the first heat after 6 laps, a good first up effort, in the second he held out for 7 laps but had to pull in with a lack of power steering fluid (fitness issues I reckon, when I said this someone reminded me of my first race at Ellenbrook where I didn't breath for 3 laps before near blacking out and pulling in), but it was a great first up effort and Shane put in a couple of quick laps before retiring hurt.

The first heat saw me pull away from Glen and Todd and hold on until the flag, the second heat saw Todd and Glen take off from the front row and as I followed I thought Kerry Madsen and Ryan Farrell had joined us, they were wheel to wheel for a lap and a bit before Glen got by on the outside and drove away, the third heat saw me off pole with Todd on the outside, Todd pushed me into the sloppy lower part of the track and I went there like some beginner and as we hit the straight he hooked up and drove away, I followed him about half a straight behind until the flag just holding Glen off.

So each of us had a 1/2/3 for a draw on the night, it was just good fast racing on the new track that just hooks up, I had the car way to tight and could not spin up the engine, I had elected to run lower gearing to keep the motor low in the rev range to run it in but I should have gone a gear change, it was good to get a run with no motor failures and the only damage for the night was 2 wing adjusters that cracked on Glen's car.

So now we go to Fast Friday at "The Plex", Mick Doble is coming down from Geraldton and we are looking forward to upping the pace to stay with him, Mick is certainly setting the pace this year and we are looking forward to getting up to his level, Saturday sees us off to Moora for an official meeting, Martin is talking 14 or more cars, we are looking forward to a run with some serious Limited numbers.

Some Gossip:

• Gavin is back Thursday and we are hoping to get him to have a run with us at Fast Friday, he just needs some understanding from his crew to get his car down to the track for him, Hint Hint JD.
• Todd may come out, we tried twisting his arm but he has a crew with a caravan problem, Hint Hint GD.
• Carolyn has had a motor failure at Geraldton and we hope her team can get it back on the track soon.
• Shane W needs an arm transplant, or some non leaking power steering lines.
• People formerly known as shed racers should make the move back to racers at Moora and we are all hoping they have a great run and a cheap and successful season.
• Glen has found the outside line is ok and none of us are safe anymore.
• Ian Dhu is hoping to be with us this weekend if his staff continue to perform, we are hoping he gets it back on track as we are missing the crabs and prawns and the after race mudslinging, not to mention his dashing good looks and quick wit.
• Some of the Geraldton crew other than Mick are going to be at Moora.
• Anthony King had a run at Moora and looks like he is ready to go.

Well folks, hope we see you all at Moora this Saturday night.

Bye

Narrogin here we come.

Hi all

We are down at the workshop putting the finishing touches to Glen's car.

He loves making work for us, why he wanted to practice and dirty the car is beyond me.

Glen had a good run against some quick 410's with only Kerry Madsen and Todd Wadell getting past him, when he came in a mechanic from one 410 team came over to check out what we were running.

Again we had fuel system gremlins, fuel pressure was off and temp was up, after much debating we replaced the fuel filter and got some pressure back, but still had not enough to be happy with.

We have got the high and low speed bypasses from a fuel injection system and set them at 12psi, hopefully this sorts our dramas out.

Gavin has been called back to South Australia to work on a tank and Anthony King is still sorting his car out, so we will a bit short of cars at Narrogin, still Glen and I will enjoy ourselves.

Keep an eye on the blog site during Saturday night, we will update it as we go keeping all who are interested informed of what's happening.

Catch you.

From shed to street to super 6 division?

Well folks just a few more days and we are off to Narrogin.

Not too many cars, starting to sound familiar isn't it, hopefully soon we will get a field of more than 10 limiteds so we can show these tracks that we can field more than a couple of cars at any one time.

Looks like Watto is going to be a non starter due to 410 commitments, Dhuy is unsure as he is still inundated with fish eating folk who are keeping him chained to the filleting table.

Kim Collins is doubtful but hopeful, and who knows about the rest.

Gavin, Greg Harvey and myself will pick up where we left off at Ellenbrook, should be good hard racing, Glen Oliver is back from the rigs and ready to have a first up hit out, local hot shot Glen Carstairs is running so it should be a good meeting.

The rumour mill is ticking over and I have heard a couple of good stories.

Greg Harvey after years of backing into a drive way finally wore it out and fell through it, just as a limited sprintcar member went past and saw Greg's truck at a very strange angle.

The retired gents who have rejoined us to race have decided they will join the Super 6 division instead, a good story this one but best left for you all to ask them about it at the track.

Word is Anthony King will be back in action at Narrogin, this will lift the pace to another level.

If you are interested in a non club run then a few of us are racing in Bunbury on the 14th November, let Gavin know if you are interested in running there, but remember the next weekend 20th and 21st November are a double header so it will be a big couple of weeks.

Shane and Glen will be at practice on Wednesday at Kwinana, so if you are bored or just want to catch up come on down and see us there, and stay for a beer afterwards.

Catch you later.

Midweek happenings.

Hi all,

Spent the week forlorn and down in the dumps, 4 melted pistons, 8 burnt exhaust valves and 3 intakes, bore scored and 2 valve seats melted out, other than that the new engine is in good shape.

Fuel and fuel systems are absolutely critical in the sprintcar game.

Of all the limited's the old car (ex Chris Pallentine) has been the most reliable, there has never been a fuel issue, there has never been an engine failure or misfire of any kind, it has the simplest fuel delivery and pressure system of all the cars, this is what I am going to put into the new car and engine when we get it back together.

When we put the spare motor into the new car last Friday night we put the carby off last years engine onto it, when we ran hot laps at Ellenbrook we had issues with the fuel system and pulled out of the first heat, we rejetted the carby (a 750 alcohol holley carby, HP series) with 200 primary and secondary jets, this got the fuel system rich/fat and cooled the engine off, it did not like long laps at just above idle fuelling up and getting up to 220deg, but once opened up a touch it cleared out and dropped temp back to 195deg.

On Monday I pulled the bowls off of the 750 alcohol Demon carby to discover the jetting was 144's all round, how is it that this small jetting made the engine run cooler? I am going to run the engine with the Demon carby at Narrogin and see if it makes the same sort of power that it made with the holley and bigger jets.

We spent Sunday getting Shane's car ready to fire up and fired it at the secret spot, car ran sweet just needs the fuel system fine tuned which we are going to do at Kwinana at practice on 4th November, then we are off to Narrogin for the 7th November.

Shane looks like he will be ready to go by 3rd week of November, here's a challenge can the new guy get on the track before the older gents with the new car? (Names suppressed so as not to cause offence).

There is talk of Bunbury being ready for the 14th November and if this is so there are 7 of us who will head down for a run, not an official meet so we would welcome cars of all divisions if they turn up, the more the merrier.

Dhuy has finished his second Seafood shop in Falcon and it looks like it is going gangbusters, so hopefully he gets time to sort his car ready for Narrogin or soon after.

Rob Watson still has not got a car ready and may not be seen for some time with his commitments on the 410 team, his boy Rib won 2 heats and was looking OK for the feature on Saturday but missed the setup.

Martin has been quite sick and we all hope he gets better quickly, we need his continued enthusiasm to keeping us on track.

The latest news letter is out and is also a credit to Michelle and Martin.

Catch you.

Week 1 of new season "Run And Won"

Hi all,

Well Friday night saw us at "The Plex" for the first Fast Friday of the season.

Of the Limited's (Not an official meet) there was Mick Doble and myself.

We warmed up the engines then sat back and waited for the first heat.

At the start of the first heat we lined up, Mick had a fuel issue and pulled in so I was left to hold the Fort for Ltd's against the other runners, the greens came on and I put my foot down and next thing I knew I had blown past the others and had a clear track in front, first lap down with no hot laps and we had pulled a 16.6 second lap, this engine has got some serious mumbo, however after the second lap we had a fuel blockage of some sort and slowed only to pull out as we were about to get the white flag with some engine issues.

The rest of the night Mick cleaned up but lost the feature after getting caught up behind a couple of slower cars and being run down on the last corner.

Team Crabbe spent 15 minutes slapping me about the head to convince me to go back to the shed and fit the spare motor, not a good plan according to me, I was all for going to the bar and drowning my sorrows, well they loaded the car and then me and next thing I knew it was 11:30pm and we fired the car up on the street (apologies to all the neighbours), I sent the willing crew home for some sleep, cleaned the car and loaded it up ready for Ellenbrook Saturday.

I made bed at 1:30am Saturday morning and spent the rest of the night restlessly dreaming of how that new motor made some serious power and how we would get it running again before next meeting.

So 7am arrived and up we got ready for the haul to Ellenbrook.

There were 8 cars at Ellenbrook of which 4 were Limited's, a poor showing by our club standards but with the others we had a good field for some racing.

Heat 1 had some hot laps before the green and we had the spare engine to lean so I pulled out of the heat and watched.

For a first up hit out it was some of the closest racing and quickest we have had, Mick Doble who had most of last season off whilst on tour of Aus has come out of holiday mode and was flying, Gavin was quick but somewhat rusty, too much weight on the rear wheels I reckon, and Greg Harvey was looking quick as well.

Of the other cars Michael Robinson was his usual lightening quick self (Ellenbrook specialist this guy).

Not sure how all the heats finished as I was in battle for the last 2 and the feature but I got a 4th and a 3rd in the heats.

The feature race was fast and close, all cars were on the one straightaway and jostling for position, Mick and Michael had a coming together which dropped both of them out, Gavin, Greg and myself battled it out for a few laps before Gavin got clear and drove away leaving me all over Greg's rear but he was to quick and held a good line which left me with only the very outside to go around him, and as we all know that fence scares me just a little so I was left behind Greg and crossed the line in 3rd.

My biggest learning for the weekend was that the motor we purchased off of Steve Bombak is one fast and strong motor, wish I had it in my car last season and not Glen's, it got back up every time you got on and off the gas, no lag just pure grunt, think I might leave it in till after the Narrogin meeting, I reckon after that Glenn will want it back.

The big motor is back at Performance Unlimited, Gary is stripping it and we will have it back together before the "Unofficial" Bunbury meeting on the 14th November, we will sort the fuel system out and I am sure this motor is going to take us right up the pointy end.

Another pleasing part about the Limited club is the camaraderie around the members, it was also a great little get together we were having between races, no sensitive people allowed as jibes were the order of the day, lucky there was no alcohol as the BS would have flown onto the track.

Peter Wodg gave me his list of Shed Racers who need to be mentioned on this blog site, Norbert denied ever inventing the term "Shed Racer" but may have slipped up at the end of the meet and dropped himself in it.

Great day even if we were in the sun for far to long and the best track I have raced on at Ellenbrook.

Thanks to Norbert, Ed and Mick for the help over the weekend and thanks to Mick Doble for the tip on hooking up the rear end, we had a car that if driven better would have finished the feature in the front.

Catch you.

FINALLY WE ARE READY

Well we have fired up the beast, it started straight away and we then checked it all over again.

After 3 weeks of messing around we can say bring on Ellenbrook and Fast Friday.

We took the car to the Motorplex main gate for a photo shoot with Murray Schnaars from KI Group our main sponsor, we took some of last years silver ware to make it look all the more impressive.

I have put a photo on the site for you all to check it out, the car came up looking fabulous, just got to keep it that way now.

Heading off to practice at Kwinana tonight just to watch and catch up for a speedway fix and to get the adrenalin pumping ahead of this coming Friday.

See you all Saturday at Ellenbrook.

Bunbury cancelled on the 24th October.

Hi all,

Bunbury has been cancelled and will be rescheduled, the track resurfacing has not been completed.

It looks like the meeting originally scheduled to be run on the 24th October will be removed from our calendar and not rescheduled.

The first of our cars has left the shop, check out the photos, it still needs the new knerfs and bumpers fitting and they will be completed today.

The second and most important machine is still undergoing fine tuning and completion of some minor items, I will drop some other photos on later this week but will put one on so you can see the beginnings of its rejuvenation.

Catch you later.