MORE TRAVELS WITH BOB

Turning the last corner of the driveway at Ken's every morning was always eagerly anticipated, as we wondered what the new day would bring. There was a never-ending variety of visitors and projects, ranging from tour buses full of Kiwi (New Zealand) tourists, to work for the amusement rides at the nearby Warner Brothers Movie World. In the parking lot today we've got somebody's "ute" being fitted for a hoodscoop addition. And off to one side, my Falcon with some strange numbering on the side window.

The Falcon still bore the remnants of Saturday night's bracket racing adventure at Willowbank. Hey, what Hertz doesn't know won't hurt them, right? Seriously, I didn't abuse the car.... too much. Just idled it through the water, spun the tyres hard enough to dry them, put the trans in drive, staged and floored it. The dial-in (16.25) isn't much, but remember, it's only a straight six under the bonnet. With only two time trials at 4pm and 6pm and a four hour wait until the first round of eliminations, the dial-in was pretty much a wild guess.

By the time we rolled out for first round at well past 10pm, the air had gotten considerably better, the track was stickier and the Falcon broke out... by a ton, running 16.09. Compounding the embarassment was the margin I had on my opponent at the finish line; about two hundred feet. I'd left with a decent light (.534), while the other guy was in a coma with a .712 reaction. If I'd bothered to look in the side mirror to see where he was, or had the radio turned up loud enough to hear the reaction times, or looked up at the scoreboards to see the numbers...

Anyways, back to work at Ken's. First order of business each day was to bribe the "guard" to gain entrance. Usually, a pineapple lump or two or almost anything you might happen to be eating was sufficient. Dippy isn't too particular. Then, Tom went off to the back of the shop for more grinding on the cylinder heads and I went to work in the trailer, either on the computer or helping Ken and Dave do the maintenance on the Drag Race School car. Or to help shift something on or off the jig or whatever else needed to be done.

At any given time, there are usually four to six race cars in the shop, in various stages of completion. Dragsters, altereds, doorslammers, you name it and they've done it. Today we've got Dave's dragster on the chassis jig. It's a car with quite a bit of history behind it, as it was originally built by American craftsman Don Long in the early 1980's and was driven to Low ET at the 1982 Winternationals by Australian Jim Read. Since then it's gone through a number of owners and now is being lengthened and tidied up for Modified or Top Comp racing at Willowbank.

Besides chassis construction, Ken's shop turns out a myriad of race car parts and pieces for the do-it-yourself mob. Everything from small-block Chevy front covers to fuel system parts to diff housings. And almost any other part you can think of for an open-wheel drag car. Without all the machines at his disposal, especially the CNC mill, none of this would be possible.

Steadily gaining momentum over the last year is Ken's latest project, the  Drag Race School,  which requires much in the way of preparation for the Modified dragster on a regular basis. At last count, the car has made over 360 passes in its first 15 months. The unbroken reliability record it hold's wouldn't be possible without regular teardowns and replacement of worn-out parts. Stuff doesn't break on this car... it just wears out.

Some days are busier than others though and sometimes we can actually get away for a quick parts run down to Rolf's "Cheapa Auto Spares" in Oxenford. Other times we make "field trips" to Willowbank -- working on someone's race car more often than not -- and on one of those trips got to witness history in the making. The scoreboard pic shows Victor Bray's short-lived "world record" for Pro Mod - Top Doorslammer cars, turned at the Winter Finals in July.

This last pic shows the Drag Race School car at the Surfers Paradise Drag Racing Association "swamp" meet at Carrara. We had to be there at 6:00 AM (on a Sunday - what day of rest?) and setup for a display that was the centrepiece of the show. (A course at the school was the door prize). Due to heavy rain earlier in the week, the all-grass site quickly became a quaqmire for the truck, trailer and race car, hence the title "swamp" meet. Next year guys, try for some venue with bitumen, eh?

Turn to the next page to see what this trip was really all about. The big day when the dragster arrives is finally here. It's taken way too long and caused far too many dramas, but all that is water under the bridge now. The car is here and now it's time to really get to work.