Alright all you Oztralian HAMBster pilots, get your arses into gear and support the 2016 Cruisin Nostalgia series. First one is at Willowbank on 27th February, second one 14th August at Willowbank and the final in Sydney 10th/11th September. This is supposed to be a point score series so who knows, if you do good at them you might get bragging rights and a trophy. What I like about it is if a few of us travel to Queensland, some of them might come to Sydney. Lets face it, the Nostalgia scene has gone a bit limp lately so this could be the kick up the bum it needs. I've probably gone on record saying that Willowbank isn't my favourite drag strip, but I'm prepared to suck it up and support it for the sake of the Nostalgias, HAMBsters in particular. There might even be a chance for a stand alone bracket at Willowbank for HA/GRs instead of lumping us in with the Hotrods. Mind you, I don't care who I race but a bit of seeding goes on which sees HAMBsters racing each other and therefore eliminating ourselves and leaving the Hotrods to run the final. Anyhow, dust 'em off, juice them up, change the oil and hopefully see youse there. Lets face it, it's a casual 10 hour drive for me to get there so how hard can it be for others.
Damn! That's the weekend before I get back to Australia. I will definitely be at the August event. I will have to find you and pick your brains as I am building a grey powered one also
Totally want to Spanner but it's to short notice for us but count us in for August. Wish they released this earlier and we would have made it
The day has been run and won. Unfortunately only 3 of us entered, Barry and John from Queensland and me from New South Wales. No matter, enjoying the day was the name of the game, so we did. Nigel was there with his Hillman Gasser but only ran a couple of times and then put it back on the trailer, suffering lack of oil pressure. Numbers were down across all brackets, probably because of the short notice of the event. Breakages were high as well, with one bracket ending with only one competitor. My day started badly with an official not letting me run because I didn't have the run sticker attached. I wasn't given one when I got then wrist band. A huge thank you to Matt and Benny, who are Barry's crew members, for taking up the high level negotiations with the official as I was strapped in the car. Matt quietly pleading my case and Benny all for throwing the official over the fence. Cool heads prevailed and after grabbing another passing official, I was allowed to run. First run was the bye run with a very sick sounding engine. Second run, even worse. I started to wonder if the 800 kilometer (500 miles) drive was worth it. Back to the pits, change distributor, no better, change plugs, no better. Got Matt to look at the SU slides as I revved it. Front one not moving. As they were calling us up to the staging lanes we're pulling the carby apart. Matt then noticed that the linkage wasn't moving. He hastily put a hose clamp and split pin on the linkage and away I went.
First run 16.999, second run 18.609. Third run 14.490. Now we're cookin'. Me and John in this one. Nice and close. After running the Chicago shootout format, we had 2 wins each, which after a count back had me and Barry in the A final and John with a solo for B final. This is John with a 14.2 dial. The A final was run at 2 minutes to 11 pm, way past my bedtime. Here's one for lovers of cars that go a little bit quicker. By the time we got back to our accommodation it was 1.05am, back up at 6.00am for the 8hour drive home. Was it worth it? Blood oath! Good racing, good weather and good mates. Thanks once again to the boys for their help. Remember, they were Barry's crew and helped me beat him. The crew chief/wife enjoyed it to.
I was going to do a report of the first round at Sydney held on the 13th February but have lost the videos in the computer somewhere. The final was between Jeff and his dad, Joe, with Jeff winning. We had to bolt after my last run as my wife was getting intense stomach pains so didn't get the final film. She was laid up for almost a week with a virus.
Thanks for update, got back to Australia 2 days after event otherwise I would have been there. Dying to get a close look at you car.
No worries. We'll be back up there in August hopefully. With a few more cars as well (hint, hint). Thanks for the kind words regarding the videos.
Always good to catch up Pete, no major problem with the little Hillman, just a bit of oil surge, away from the pickup, so I think I've got that sorted now, just need more power.
I must also say, the commorardery between all of these guys is amazing, where else can you get your competition fixing your car, great fun.
This is a short video of the staging lanes. The Hillman in the centre is Nigel's. Sorry about the washed out colour as we were reformatting the camera after putting a new card in it.
I truly enjoy these vids ...... and that linkage cobble. There's something about "soldiering on" that just turns my crank.
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