PIRANHA IS OUR PASSION

Race Reports

Benarby Raceway Supercharged Outlaws Shootout 24th November 2012

It all started as an idea between Gavin List & Nathan to have an event that we could have some fun at but also so that a regional raceway could run an event and make a profit and provide a win-win situation for both racers and the track.

We put together 10 Supercharged Outlaws, with some reserves. The plan was always that it would be hard to get through without some of the normal attrition associated with supercharged cars. Trying to work off the successful 1/8th Mile Slamfest model that was so successful at Benaraby with sub 4 second times proving that the track is second-to-none we would run over the 1/8th mile.

Additional problems faced are that regional tracks just don’t have enough money for clean-up equipment so unfortunately just prior to the 6pm start a car oiled down all the way to the return road which subsequently put the start back 1.5 hours. He didn’t realise that the transmission line had come off and the car probably reacted as bad as it normally does as it still had plenty of power. You wouldn’t think that such a little car could have that much automatic transmission oil in it. The young lad, however, had the strength of character to get on the broom and help clean up and I can tell you he copped a fair bit of flak so I commend him for that.

Speaking of the main show – we cannot thank the following people enough. Matty & John McKnight with the 53 Studebaker, Luke Marsden in the Monte Carlo Funny Car came along with Chris Van’Thof and the Hof brought the ‘B’ Double which is quite an impressive sight. The only thing wrong with the Hof is that I don’t think he realises that it is a Supercharged Outlaws Car and not a super sedan because he just wants to lap it over and over again. If you had 10 rounds of racing, the Hof would want to be in all 10. We had both the Piranha cars there with Nathan in the Lexus Hotrod and Zac in the FED after his comeback at the Winternationals, which didn’t go quite to plan as we didn’t get a chance to run at the warm-ups and all 3 attempts to qualify had some small issues. It was good though for Zac to get some runs on the board and get his confidence back. Wayne Hargreaves in his Fabietti Race Engines equipped Commodore, Russell Mackay in the 63 Corvette, Steven Wheatley from Rockhampton in his Camaro, Dave Wallace in the 69 Ford Mustang with Sainty power and Kerry Jackson from Bundaberg in the crowd favourite Torana Hatchback.

After the compulsory qualifier at 4pm the field was set with Matthew McKnight number 1 with a 4.57, Russell Mackay had a drama with his Lenco which stayed in 1st gear for the entire trip and made it necessary for him to do some repairs. This brought Ryan Van Dyk from Mackay into the field. Now here’s a story. We started up with 10 cars and 3 reserves but before we even got to race we had lost the turbo car of John Findlater as his new 3 speed transmission was held up in Customs and the Cortina of Mike Jenkins with a mechanical failure. After Russell’s troubles in the qualifier, we had to talk Ryan into dropping out of comp and into the Outlaws show. Ryan was driving the ex Russell Schaffer car that is now owned by Grant Fraser and they were on there way back from the Nationals. As he had already completed the Ken Lowe Drag Race School Grant told Ryan he could licence in the car on the Friday night at the off street meet at Benaraby. Unfortunately there was a road accident that delayed them for 5 hours and they did not make it in time to run on Friday night. Ryan licensed on Saturday and Grant said that he may as well run the whole meeting.

The format was simple, we had 10 cars running a compulsory qualifier at 4pm, then 3 rounds at 6pm, 7.30pm and 9pm. Unfortunately though with the oil down the schedule blew out however the basic format stayed the same. When a car dropped out we inserted one of the reserves. We ran the show on a handicap pro-tree which led to some terrible lights but that added to the overall show. Once they get used to the format they will end up cutting some better lights. Nathan cut the best light of the night being .064 in the third round. Not naming any names, but some of the shockers were .443, .492 and there were heaps of .17 and .2 lights.

After two rounds we had four cars sitting on 2 wins, Ryan Van Dyk, Chris Van’Thof, Nathan Peirano & Dave Wallace and the winner would be the driver with the most wins. In the event a count back was required it would be whoever ran closest to there dial in in the 3rd round. First up Nathan defeated Kerry Jackson with a 4.91 on a 4.85 dial in, then Dave Wallace was defeated by Luke Marsden ruling him out of the running, Zac defeated a repaired Russell Mackay and then it all came down to Ryan Van Dyk and Chris “The Hof” Van’Thof to see who would win and if they would run closer to there dial in than Nathan. Well what a race as The Hof blasted to a 4.653 on a 4.630 only to be outdone by Ryan with a 4.790 on a 4.790.

All in all a very successful event for the racers and Benaraby Dragway. We can’t wait to do it all again in 2013 at Benaraby Raceway and hopefully some other tracks.

25 - OUTLAWS Race Start: November 24, 2012

Order For Qualifying after 1 10 Entries

Psn Entry # Rnd Driver Vehicle E T S p e e d

1. 2 1 6 6 1 M. MCKNIGHT 4.57942 162.45

2. 1 8 4 1 L. MARSDEN 4.59100 160.14

3. 3 9 5 5 0 C. VAN'THOF 0.00000 0.00

4. 4 4 5 2 1 Z. PEIRANO 4.84796 143.31

5. 8 6 9 2 R. VAN DYK 9.03423 83.92

6. 2 2 3 1 1 W. HARGREAVES 4.99099 140.62

7. 1 4 5 2 1 N. PEIRANO 1927 FORD ROADSTER 5.12696 136.78

8. 1 7 9 7 1 S. WHEATLEY 5.24158 125.70

9. 5 0 4 1 1 D. WALLACE 5.25924 148.03

10. 4 4 8 9 1 K. JACKSON 5.26749 135.95