The recent Nitro Champs gave some Pro Alcohol racers a chance to gain valuable track time and data in a non-championship race setting ahead of the Winternationals, however for Brett White the event panned out as anything but casual in the Fineline Motorsports funny car.
The team entered the Nitro Champs with the intention to step up the performance of their Pro Alcohol Funny Car dubbed ‘Carlos’. With the pristine racing conditions that were presented at Sydney Dragway, the team were armed with a freshened up powerplant, some new ideas, and high hopes.
After their Friday qualifier the team was still happy, a 1000ft shut off run yielded a still impressive 5.74 at just 219MPH – this prepared them for the following race day.
“Saturday was the All-Run format which would provide us with three more runs to race and test,” said White. “First round would have us against Peter Lovering in the Norm Sainty and Mark Holmes funny car, Peter tested recently and their numbers were impressive, so we knew we would have a race on our hands with the confidence to take ‘Carlos’ to the finish line.
“After looking at Friday’s data the mood was good, car got out great and was smooth all the way through low gear with no shake. Carlos pulled all the way to the finish line to record a 5.601 at 261.92MPH – that’s where the fun stopped. We had a nozzle break on number seven cylinder which leaned it out and caused it to burn a piston, this caused the breather line to blow off and oil to escape the valve covers which ignited on the headers. To make matters worse we backfired the blower, and put the burst panels out which also help ignite the fire, fire bottles were activated and the job of getting the car stopped safely was completed. Once, back it the pits we pulled the oil pan and all rods were in good order with no damage to the bottom end.
“We pulled the car completely apart back at the workshop and we were relieved that damage was minimal. Congratulations to Tim Clifton and his team on their win and performance.”
While the team escaped what was more spectacular than damaging, they have chosen discretion is the better part of valour in trying to get ready in time for the Winternationals with the new NDRC now looming.
“Our plan was to attend the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway in June, but we have decided to sit this out as the turnaround will leave us with very little time to get the car ready, finish the spare engine, and repair some minor body damage, said White. “We were looking forward to the trip away, but are looking at the bigger picture with the new NDRC series which we are looking forward to participating in.
“We would also like to thank all that came past to check on us after the run, and to the fans that bought our t shirts. We can’t do this with out our crew who give up so much of their time to do this, thanks to the following people and company’s that help our team out; Wayne Newby at Newby Engineering, VP Race Fuels, Kurt Machut at Western Brakes, Fred at Prestige Smash Repairs, APS, Kevin Fisher, Fabre Australia, Manley Performance, Jeremy Evrist, Brad Anderson Enterprises,
Todd Paton Performance Data Systems. Terry Jackson at IM Composites.”
You can follow Brett White and Fineline Motorsports Team here on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/finelinemotorsports1
