After not attending the two Perth rounds we decided to test the race car at Willowbank round 2, this was a good oppotunity to gather quality data as the track would be prepared for nitro cars. When we returned home after our Nationals win in September we were approached by Pro Comp Motorsports to try out their cylinder heads. We took the cylinder heads around to our good friend Colin Lloyd of Headsense fame, when the heads were put up against a set of our stage 3 heads they showed improvement in the overall flow so we were very  keen to try them out.and we are very proud to have Pro Comp Motorsports onboard with Read Speed Racing.

This testing would also allow us to test our repaired carbon fibre injector hat which had just arrived back in Brisbane from Weavetech in Sydney. Those eagle eyed followers of ours may remember that we ran it for the first time on the fateful day of the Spirit crash. The guys at Weavetech have done an amazing job on the repairs to the injector, rear wing and belly pans and we cant thank them enough.

So, the day began with the setting up of the pit in the ever increasing Ipswich heat. It was great to be able to bring another car back into the pits at Willowbank again and say hello to our local followers.

Our first attempt didn’t go down too well. We managed to break our first blower belt in over two years but then again, it had done 3 passes, combined with a fresh seals in the supercharger the strain was too much. Oh well no harm done.

The second pass was more interesting with a .860 60’ time then came the tyre smoke at 1.5 secs slowing down to a 2.23 330’ time. Checking the data back in the pit the graph showed that at the point of the tyres smoking we were 300 rpm higher than we recorded on the 4.68et run in Sydney. It was on a charge.

Although we had only expected to do 2 runs the staff at Willowbank agreed to slot us in later in the evening after the startline had been scraped so a small adjustment was made to the tune up and off we went again.

On the 3^rd pass the car didn’t have its usual ‘feel’ and at the moment I was about to lift the throttle pedal the engine quit and started to vibrate brutally. We suffered a flash fire which was just about out when I stopped in the braking area, the first rate crew at the track met me to finish off the job and this is when I saw the front of the crank hanging out of the block!!!

At this point I should like to say my apologies to the track crew and staff as they were left to clean up the oil down and even though it is only the second time we have done this since having our own team we are sorry to have held up the racing.

Once back in the workshop the damage was plainly obvious. The crank was split into 5 pieces and tore apart the whole of the block leaving the cylinder heads and everything north untouched.

We all learn by our mistakes and our lesson was not to purchase a next to best crank.Heather and I would like to thank our product supporters, Crow Cams, CRC, Aerospec, Energetique, Rohan Milne, Dwayne Riley and of course our hard working crew without whom none of this could happen.

ROLL ON THE SUMMERNATIONALS.

You will find some photos that have been taken showing the extent of the damage. It is something we hope not to encounter again.