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September 16 2003, Preseason Update PENNZOIL - QUAKER STATE SPONSORSHIP CONFIRMED Time Warp Racing is pleased to announce that Pennzoil - Quaker State Australia has confirmed they will again sponsor the team for the 2003-2004 drag racing season. This support was announced this week by Oil & Energy Pty Ltd, the key Western Australia distributor for Pennzoil - Quaker State Australia. For further information on Pennzoil - Quaker State products, refer to their website at www.pennzoil.com.au . NITRO EXPRESS Progress over the winter period has not been as good as we had hoped. The new workshop is only just being completed, almost five months later than scheduled, thanks to hold ups with the planning approvals. Therefore the only progress to date on Nitro Express, besides the acquisition of a lot of the key drive line components and spares, is the crack testing of the chassis to determine what needs to be tidied up. Thanks to AMEC and Warwick Leete for there assistance with this. As soon as the workshop is completed (expected in the next few weeks) Nitro Express will be moved into its new location and the chassis work can commence. Realistically, we are now aiming to have the car at the track for the commencement of the 2004-2005 season. FLATHEAD EXPRESS Our No.1 flathead engine is currently out of the car, ready for Bob St Lawrence to give it a quick check over before the start of the season. If everything is ok then we will start to put a bit of boost into the combination and see how the flathead performs. ANNIE’S EXPRESS Annie’s 39 Ford Coupe street/strip hot rod is progressing well, with the new chassis and major panel work completed by Hank Robertson. Paint is the next stage before final assembly. This original steel bodied coupe features a tilt front for easy maintenance and will be powered by an injected 400ci Chev. More information to follow on this car. Annie’s plan is to start racing this at this season’s sportsman events, before working up to the street classes at national events. THE TRAILER The new trailer is now on the road and just needs the final internal “fitting out” to complete it. This trailer has been constructed by Hank Robertson to either transport Nitro Express and all its spare parts or Flathead Express and Annie’s Express at the same time. I am certainly looking forward to another enjoyable season of racing, with Annie (the wife) and Mick and Anna Katarski crewing. Stay tuned for news as we progress. Steven
April 5 2003, Flathead Express News Update The
last three months have been interesting as we have tried to convince the new
Flathead motor to go down the track without blowing head gaskets out. The final
solution of solid copper head gaskets and o-ringed heads seems to have solved
that problem. We finally got though a meeting with the new motor on April 5th.
With the motor set up very conservatively, a best ET of 9.40 was attained which
is the fastest Flathead Express has gone.
I
would like to thank our sponsors Pennzoil – Quaker State Australia and Almos
Systems for their support during the season and I would like to thank my
dedicated crew Annette, Mick and Anna for their tireless support and effort.
Thanks also to Bob St Lawrence for all the engine work, Hank Robertson for
various chassis related work, and Tim for his help in crewing for the last
meeting.
A
busy off-season is expected with the work already started on Nitro Express to
meet the schedule of having it ready for licensing at the test & tune event
at the end of September. Corporate support through team sponsorship will also be
sought over the off-season. Over
the next season, as well as Nitro Express, we will slowly progress the new motor
in Flathead Express to find its true potential and also expect to add a third
street registered car to the racing team.
Steven
& the Crew
December 28 2002, Flathead Express News Update Well, this was the long awaited debut of the new Flathead motor that has been under construction for the last 8 months. This work of art was constructed by Bob St Lawrence and its specifications are included in the Flathead Express \ Specifications page. The main features of the new motor include :
The
first half pass with the new motor was very strong as demonstrated by the
“wheels-up” photo on the Photo page and the fact that it knocked 0.2 second
off its best ever 330 foot time. After taking the slingshot back to the pits and
checking everything, all appeared to be ok for a full run. However, during the
next burnout, there was a small pop which we attributed to excess fuel on the
rear cylinders. When the car launched there was a second pop and the engine was
shutdown immediately. On inspection
back in the pits it was found that the engine had leaned out on cylinders 1
& 2 resulting in blown head gaskets and a large chunk burned out of the
aluminium head between those two cylinders. That was us out for the meeting. It
has become obvious that the fuel system was not up to the mark so we are
currently looking at moving the majority of the fuel nozzles down to the
manifold and changing the pump system to ensure a more even and reliable fuel distribution. We will also tidy
up a number of other small issues that have become evident from the running of
the engine and hope to have it ready to race again toward the end of February.
The ultra strong bottom end handled the drama nicely. In
the interim we are fitting the old flathead back in the dragster so we can continue to race
at the Motorplex until the revisions are completed on the new motor.
Steven
& the crew
November 22 2002, News Update Flathead
Express The
first two meetings of the season at the Kwinana Motorplex have gone well with
the flathead not missing a beat. We have been eliminated in round 1 of both
events in very close races with Rick Johns and Pauline Igglesden. Really
enjoyable racing ! The
new motor is almost complete and we are now only waiting on the arrival of the
titanium valves and the aluminium rods. If
these parts arrive as promised by the suppliers, we should have the new motor in
Flathead Express for the 28th of December race meeting. Flathead
Express recently won the “Best Drag Car” trophy at the Kwinana Motor
Spectacular and also appeared at an Oil & Energy (Pennzoil WA distributor)
trade show where the running of the flathead got a great response from those
attending. Nitro
Express Well
it is certainly very hard to keep things secret in drag racing. Yes,
we have purchased Robin Kirby’s Pennzoil Top Fuel Dragster (check out www.topfuel.com.au
for car details), less motor / clutch, and are planning to run Bob St
Lawrence’s famous steel block nitro hemi in it (more information to follow on
this). The
schedule for this is not yet finalised however, at this stage, the rough plan is
to start tuning/testing/licensing at the beginning of next season.
Once we have overcome the challenge of licensing etc we hope to be able
to run the car at the Kwinana Motorplex events two or three times per season. Have
we given up on front engined nostalgia racing ? No way. The ultimate goal (some
years into the future) is to run a front engined nitro dragster, however we are
not going to that type of vehicle without first mastering the art of nitro
engines to the stage where the motor holds together for at least part of the
time. Call me chicken if you like, but I prefer to do this experimentation with
the motor behind me. With Bob St
Lawrence as crew chief, we are all looking forward to an interesting drag racing
future. Don’t
panic flathead lovers, we will still be running Flathead Express at events the
fueler is not competing at. Stay
tuned for more………..
September 29 2002, Motorplex Test & Tune The
plan for the test and tune was to do a couple of runs to blow the cobwebs out
and make sure Flathead Express is ready for a new season.
Over the winter a few things have been tidied up, including a new nodular
iron diff head to give me a bit more protection when the new motor goes in later
in the year.
The
new motor is on schedule and will hopefully be ready for the two day race
meeting at the end of November. We have received the Sainty billet crank and
Crower cam and are currently waiting on a set of custom Ross pistons before
getting a set of rods manufactured. Stay
tuned for more………..
July 31 2002, Pennzoil - Quaker State Sponsorship Confirmed
Time Warp Racing is pleased to announce that Pennzoil - Quaker State Australia has confirmed their sponsorship of the team for the 2002-2003 drag racing season. This support was announced this week by Oil & Energy Pty Ltd, the key Western Australia distributor for Pennzoil - Quaker State Australia. Pennzoil
– Quaker State is the manufacturer of premium oil products, with a range which
covers the full motor and application spectrum, from the family passenger
vehicle, to industrial/agricultural, to supercharged alcohol
racing engines. For further information on Pennzoil - Quaker State
products, refer to their website at www.pennzoil.com.au . Work
is progressing on the new motor, with a new billet crank and other custom parts
due to arrive in the next few weeks. The existing motor is currently being
freshened-up, to act as a back-up for the coming season. Stay tuned for further
information on the new motor and preparations for the next season. April 6 2002, Jet Car Meeting We
got there
!!!!! Thanks to Bob St Lawrence putting in a huge amount of hours, we made it to the final meeting of the season with another 50 year old block. We were not sure how well the car was going to run, however we just did not want to miss this final meeting. The
first qualifying run saw a reasonable ET of
9.82 and from there the dragster gradually improved with a 9.66 for the
second qualifier and 9.57 for the third. We won the first round of our eliminations against Rick Johns in his Altered with a 9.589 and a .483 reaction time. We then won our second round against Rob Woodcock in his rear-engined rail with a 9.520 ET and a reaction time of .495. In this run we set a new AA/MD MPH track record of 141.06mph. In the semi-final against Steve Raven, last year’s and this year’s Modified Eliminator champion, a red light put an end to our dream run. However the dragster did a further improved 9.487, coming close to the best done at the previous meeting. For the winter months we have a development programme to put together a new motor based on the things we have learnt over this season and expect interesting things at the beginning of the next season, starting on the 26th October 2002. Our current engine will become our “spare”. I would like to thank the dedicated Time Warp crew of Annette (my wife), Mick and Anna Katarski ,and the McGuinness and Katarski kids who have worked so hard over this season and have been a big part in making it so much fun. A big thanks also to all the people who have assisted us during the season, especially Bob St Lawrence and Hank Robertson. Finally, I would like to thank all the people who have expressed their support for what we are doing and have given us a huge amount of encouragement. Stay
tuned for further developments. March 23 2002, Nitro Funny Car Challenge 9.46
!!!!! The major change for this meeting was a new set of heads made by Bob St Lawrence. The first qualifier of the day showed the improvement that the heads gave, with a 9.53 @ 135.54 mph, which was a new personal best. Just to show it was not a fluke, this was followed by another 9.53 in the 2nd qualifier. The third qualifier was a little bit slower with a 9.66, due to an early shift to second as the car started to move toward the wall with the front wheels still off the ground. The first eliminator against Matt Treasure, in his blown big block Chev Altered, started with a reasonable .469 reaction time, but another "wheels up" trip toward the wall resulted in a 10.01 lose as power had to be removed to get the front wheels on the ground, narrowly avoiding connecting with the wall. Our final run of the day was a grudge race against Neil Gannaway in his 350 Chev powered front engined dragster. A .557 reaction time got our dragster off the mark before Neil and our elapsed time of 9.46 @ 134.32 set a new personal best for the car and a new AA/MD track record, to give us a win over Neil's 9.40. As our car went through the beams at the end of the run, a couple of bad detonations occurred, however as the car slowed down the engine still seem to be intact. Under closer inspection it was found the the engine had "leaned out" ,resulting in fatal damage to the block, with cracks between the bores and inlet valve seats in five cylinders. The suspected cause of the lean-out was a manifold air leak. With only 2 weeks to the final race meeting of the season, it is going to be very hard to put another block together in time, however we are going put every effort into getting there. March
13 2002, Street Meeting Time Warp Crew Update : Anna's turn in the Time Warp Camaro. Anna set a new record for the slowest reaction time at 2.53 seconds. Anna also tested the motors maximum rev capacity a couple times until deciding that gear shifting was overrated. Everyone had a lot of fun and laughs. March
6 2002, Street Meeting Time Warp Crew Update : Mick's turn this time, in the Time Warp Camaro. Mick did an impressive 15.42 elapsed time which the best time the Camaro has done so far. Annette still holds the reaction time record at .413. Anna's turn next week. March
2 & 3 2002, Westernationals This meeting was
one of mixed results. We started off
well on Saturday, with the first run being a 9.696 which was very close to where
we finished the meeting before. The next qualifying run was even better, doing
the same as our previous personal best at 9.680 @ 134.32 mph. After that
things went a bit off the track. The final qualifier for the day was a slower
9.937 which was attributed to my foot resting on the brake pedal due to the foot
rest bracket bending. Sunday saw one
more qualifying run with a 9.721 putting us closer to the 9.68 times of the
previous day. Then came the first eliminator, with a very unusual (from my point of view) pairing process where the 19 modified eliminator competitors were paired off by the order in which they turn up in the staging lane. Very odd, and resulted in all sorts of games being played by some competitors. My reaction time for the eliminator was reasonable at .496 (at least it wasn't a red light) but the elapsed time was 9.771 on a 9.68 dial-in, which was not good enough to beat Peter Townsend in his 357 Ford rear-engined dragster. February
27 2002, Street Meeting The Time Warp crew have been given a chance to see what it is like to compete over the ¼ mile, with each of the crew (Annette, Mick & Anna) having the opportunity to compete at a Kwinana Motorplex Wednesday night Street Meeting in the Time Warp Racing 1967 RS Convertible Camaro tow car. Annette got the chance to take it to the 27th February meeting and had a total of eight passes with a best of 15.489. She even managed a .413 reaction time! As I only managed to get a 15.5 out of the Camaro at a street meeting last year, I find this very alarming. Annette enjoyed it so much I have a feeling my driving position in the Time Warp team may be under threat. Stay tuned for more Time Warp crew results. February
9 2002, Truck & Nitro Harley Challenge 9.68
!!!!! For
this meeting we went back to the original setup from the first meeting, with the
addition of a trans brake. The
first qualifier of the day resulted in a new personal best of 9.79 @ 134.12mph
with the interesting feature of a 300mm high wheel-stand launch. Cool ! The
second qualifier was not as good with the driver mucking up the start to record
a 10.60. “These trans brakes take a bit to get use to” was the quote. The
third qualifier was just a bad at 10.50, with a “wheels up” launch finding
the dragster heading towards the wall. The driver’s sense of self-preservation
resulted in the removal of power to bring the front wheels back down so the wall
could be avoided. Also, the transmission did not shift up to second properly due
to a shifter problem. With
the shifter problem resolved, the first eliminator against Rick Johns in his
T-bucket altered resulted our first ever win. The driver and Flathead Express
did everything right, with a .460 reaction time and 9.803 run on a 9.79 dial-in.
The team was ecstatic ! The
second eliminator was against Hank Robertson in his beautiful 1934 Ford Coupe.
As Hank built the dragster’s chassis, we knew this would be an interesting
race. Sure enough there was only a few feet difference in the finish, with a
double break out resulting in the win to Hank. However, the good news for us was
the cause of our breakout which was a new personal best of 9.68 sec @ 135.54
mph. We can put up with losing under those circumstances.
I’ve never seen the crew more jubilant over a loss. This is a new Kwinana Motorplex AA/MD track record and is rumored to be the fastest ever flathead 1/4 mile run in Australian history. Yet
again, the crew of Annette, Mick and Anna did a fantastic job in the preparation
of the dragster before the event and ensuring the car was turned around for each
race in record time. Also thanks to Bob, Peter and Brad for their help. 12 January 2002 The major change for this meeting was a higher stall converter to try and improve the launches off the start line. Unfortunately the result was less than spectacular, with the car bogging badly off the line and really not taking off until it had traveled a car length or two. On the positive side, the larger fuel tank we have fitted has solved the problem of not being able to carry enough fuel to warm the engine up to a satisfactory level in the staging lanes. The qualifying runs resulted in 10.134, 9.981 and 9.964 times. In the first eliminator against Rob Woodcock in his rear engined "Hogs Breath Cafe" dragster, a red light thanks to some more questionable driving on my part resulted in a loss even though Rob did a 20 second pass due to a broken accelerator cable. Our time for this run was also a bit slower at 10.052 sec @ 132.54mph after a fuel system change. I will have to be very careful about getting a red light in the eliminations at the next meeting as it is likely I will be stranded at the end of the track with my hard working crew (Annette, Mick and Anna) not bothering to come and tow me back if I do this again in the near future. It is a long way to push the car back to the pits at the Kwinana Motorplex, but I guess I will learn my lesson. Regarding the slower times, we have a long development program ahead of us where we can expect some of the changes to result in a temporary backward step. Our development philosophy is to do only one or two changes per race meeting, enabling us to see the true effect of each change. 29 December
2001 With taller slicks for the second meeting to overcome over-revving problems at the top end, we expected the dragster's performance to be down on the first meeting. The three qualifying and first eliminator runs were all consistently in the 10.00 to 10.05 bracket even with some engine and chassis changes. Unfortunately a run of 10.015 with a dial-in time of 9.8 resulted in a lose in the first eliminator to Johnny Craig. A grudge race later in the night against Steve McGrath in his wild Fiat Topolino resulted in a win with our best time for the day of 9.896 seconds @ 134.52 mph. 1 December
2001 With
its first meeting completed, the Flathead Express has already proven its spectator appeal
in it’s performance, presentation and distinctive “flathead” sound. With a total of 8 runs carried out over the two day meeting, the dragster proved to be a consistent performer with the current configuration. The licensing runs were completed with the minimum of fuss and then it was down to qualifying for the Modified Eliminator. A red light in the first eliminator due to some questionable driving resulted in a loss to Steve Raven, however the opportunity later in the night to have a grudge race against Diane Davenport in her rear engined rail resulted in a best for the weekend of 9.81 seconds @ 135mph. The achievements of this first meeting include :
20 October
2001 The first public appearance of the Flathead Express occurred at the 2001 West Australian Hot Rod and Street Machine State Titles held over the weekend of the 20th and 21st of October at the Burswood Dome in Perth. The display of the dragster with one of its tow cars, a Model A Sedan Delivery Hot Rod, resulted in the following trophies being award to the Time Warp team:
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