My Ride

My Ride

By Mark Humphrey

Mildura/Vic, Aus. 29^th August 2017. Well what a day! Day 2 of the Sunraysia 1/8 Mile Nostalgia event had the fans queueing up in the credentials van looking to register for the ride of a lifetime. For a small administration fee to cover insurance and an indemnity sign-off, first timers like myself had the opportunity to jump into a full-blown drag car and take a lap. Man, how exciting It was just lining up in the queue knowing that the Haywire 55 Chev passenger seat had my name all over it.

To set the scene, my interest in drag racing started back in the late 80’s at Calder Park where I would take my boys along to watch all the heroes of the era. I was lucky enough to be interested in the sport at the height of the Australian drag racing scene but never ventured any further into the sport other than being a spectator. I have done the V8 Supercar thing at Calder as a driver, done rallyx, driven a clapped out sprintcar at the Derby Speedway and driven exotic supercars on a racetrack in New Zealand, so jumping into Haywire would be a unique experience for me and one I had been looking forward to for weeks.

So, the time had come to buckle up into the passenger seat of Ash Hayley’s 55 Gasser Chev known as “Haywire”. For the record, I’m not a good passenger and I don’t do amusement park rides as they make me ill, so this was going to be interesting to say the least. Having said that, I was so excited to be in the car knowing that I was about to take the ride of a lifetime in a car that let’s face it, wasn’t anything like a Huntsman Customline or a Spud Russell Camaro.

So, with all the safety checks done and a 5-point harness pulled as tight as I could get it, it was time to fire up the 383 small block chev. What a sound, nothing better than listening to a competition small block chev with open exhausts, and sitting on top of one was even better.

We rolled around into the staging lanes where there was a bit of a line up so Ash shut down the 55 giving me time to talk about the Australian Nostalgia Racers and the day in general. After some good interview footage, it was finally time to get rolling as we crept into the burnout box.

At this stage, I was quite calm just waiting to go and it’s wasn’t long before Haywire was revving at 7500rpm pushing the 55 ever so slowly down past the start line as Ash warmed up the rear slicks. What a moment! It was loud, the car was vibrating and the cabin was starting to fill with tyre smoke. Doesn’t get much better than this and I can understand what drives the burnout boys in their competitions. I had the video camera switched on filming indiscriminately as we backed up over the start line. Feeling good at this point trying to catch all the emotion of the occasion as we rolled up to the start line. This was so cool rolling through the start line at full noise, tyres blazing and that unmistakable small block chev sound ringing out through the firewall.

So, the time had come as we crept up to the start line. The starter waited for us to get ready as he held up the green flag. This was going to be a solo pass for Haywire. I wasn’t thinking too much at this stage and was very relaxed sitting in the car waiting to run the 1/8 mile. Ash stopped the car on the start line, adjusted a few things, yelled out to see if I was ready and then proceeded to lift the revs. I thought I knew what was coming and calmly sat in the seat loosely holding the video camera that was strapped to my hand.

Well, how the hell did I get that so wrong! We left the line at maybe 7 or 8000 rpm which instantly threw me back into the seat scaring the crap out of me. The video camera had gone skywards filming the roof and unbeknown to me had shut down due to the extreme grip I had on the camera as I was thinking, well I don’t know what I was thinking at that particular moment. I know what I was thinking a moment later and that was where the hell is this finish line. We only had 200 metres to cover but it seemed like miles. I couldn’t believe the power of the initial launch and the fact that this car was hauling all the way down the strip. Absolutely no wheel spin, just sticking to the track like it was part of the racing surface. I still can’t believe sitting here that this car didn’t break into wheel spin after feeling the pull of the car all the way through the run.

By now my eyes were totally focussed on the timing boards down the way which signalled the end of the 1/8 mile. I have no recollection of what was going on around me and can remember looking at that sign board just hanging for the car to reach it. It seemed like it took forever but in reality, it was just a touch over 6 seconds. We hit the sign board and I thought thank goodness that was over as my heart was racing at a million miles an hour. But no, Ash had the foot buried well past the finish line or at least it seemed that way. I can remember thinking, bloody hell, just pull up as we went deep into the first turn off. Ash jumped on the brakes hard as he aimed for the first exit and it seemed like he wasn’t going to make it. Here I am with stuff racing around in my head as Ash goes deep into the corner sending my brain into panic mode again thinking, we’re not going to make it and a trip into the dirt was on the cards.

Calmly Ash navigates the corner with I bet plenty of time and we proceeded to go up the slight rise of the return road signalling the end of the run. Well, instantly relief came over me that it was all over and I just started yelling out expletives one after another as Ash turned to me and said, “did you enjoy that”. I can still remember the feeling of relief I had at that moment and the unbelievable moment in my life that I will never forget. No time to think if I liked it as I was just gathering my thoughts when Ash give the accelerator a quick dab which would have lasted no more than a milli-second. Instantly I thought, shit, here we go again! Funny how your mind plays games when the adrenalin is running. Even though it has been a couple of days since then, I can still clearly recall my thoughts of the moment and even thinking we were going again when Ash gave the accelerator a squeeze.

Well, the ride was over as we made our way down the return lane past the spectators and into the pits. Ash backed the 55 into his designated spot and calmly shut down the small block. He took off his helmet, looked at me with a smile and said “how’d you go”. Well my hands were shaking feverishly as I tried to unbuckle my helmet and I can vividly remember breaking out in a cold sweat as I sat in the car. Even though I’m a huge petrol head, I had no idea that drag racing could be so addictive and feeling firsthand the rush I got as we left the line gave me the insight into a drag racers life. This run was in a 55 Gasser and I can still remember one of the first things I said to Ashley as we exited the car, “just imagine what it’s like in a Top Fuel car”. Even now I’m thinking about what it would be like in an Outlaw car and having just come back from the Top End Trek where Tim Stewart and Dave Thornton competed in Supercharged Outlaws, the rush would be so addictive. To go even a step further, our poster boy Wayne Talbot put down a 6.16 pass at just under 240mph over the ¼ mile distance in Alice. Our time would have been slower than that over the 1/8-mile distance. I just can’t comprehend what that feeling would be like in a high-powered drag car. The region has 2 Top Fuel teams being the AEG Powertools team of Darren Morgan and the Lamattina Top Fuel Racing team of the Lamattina family. Impossible to think what Darren Morgan or Kelly Bettes experience when they leave the line with 10,000hp under their foot.

Straight away Ashley offered up another ride which I accepted hesitantly but quickly said I’ll just check the vision. Well as you will see in the clip, I turned the vision off as we launched which should be easy to understand after explaining the ride. Mmmm I said to Ash, no vision, I must have turned it off. Ash just smiled and said, “well that’s it, we’ll just have to go again”.

Ok, so this was all going to happen again but at least this time I knew what to expect. Same procedure as last where we waited in the staging lanes for our turn. This time we would run against another car which I must admit hadn’t registered at all in my brain. I was starting to get anxious again as the car rolled into the burnout box. The trouble was I knew what was coming and what an impact it had on me the first time so there was still some sort of trepidation as we rolled into the water. Ash stood on the gas as we calmly rolled out of the water at 7,000rpm. I knew it would be the burnout, back up, line up and then bang! We would be on our way. Had this all sorted and although I knew the procedure was still peaking a touch. Half way through the burnout Ash pulled up and said “Nah, doing that again”. Well that was it! All of a sudden, my thought pattern went into overdrive! I have no doubt that if I was steering the car the reaction would have been different. It’s just this passenger and theme park thing I talked about earlier.

So, we did another burnout, this time nudging at 8,000rpm as the car laid down a couple of black straps halfway down the 1/8^th. Rolled back with the car full of smoke and that familiar smell of burning rubber. Next, we rolled onto the start line with the starter ready to drop the flag. We had another car in lane 1 but it still hadn’t registered as I was only thinking about getting to that sign board 200 metres down the track. To be honest, I was “shittin bricks” Ash yelled out “ready” as we waited for the flag to drop. This time I had both hands holding onto the video camera with my right thumb firmly strapped into the handle so I wouldn’t squeeze the on-off button. I was definitely anxious as we waited for the flag to drop. The revs went up, the flag dropped and bang the car stuck just like last time. I can remember all this noise and me being pushed back into the seat hard. You can’t believe how tight I pulled the straps this time just for that extra bit of security even though Ash had said the first time out, “make sure there’re tight”. We were hauling arse down the 1/8^th and I can remember once again just wanting to get to that sponsor’s board as my heart was racing big time. My face would have been a picture of terror as the car just kept hauling. Just as we were getting to the end of the run Ash gestured with his hand to look over in the other lane. I swung the video around to capture “Haywire” catching Matt Smart’s Corolla as we crossed the line. Apparently Matt had got the jump on us but we were able to haul him in before the finish line. As I mentioned earlier, the fact that we were racing another car hadn’t registered at all and self-preservation was the only thing running through my head. Up until that point in time my focus had been purely on pointing the camera at the finish line. The ride like last time seemed violent to me with my hands flying around everywhere. The vision shows my left hand that was supposed to be holding the camera steady, floating around in front of the video. I tried so hard to concentrate on keeping my left hand out of the vision but unfortunately my mind was pre-occupied with my self-preservation.

A strange thing happened when I swung the camera around to capture Matt in the Corolla. A calmness descended upon me and all of a sudden time seemed to stop. No more anxiety or wanting to get to the finish line. As a matter of a fact, sitting here, I can’t recall looking for the finish line on the second run after I swung the video around. Ash even took the first exit in the same manner as the first run and I couldn’t have given a rats. I bet if he stabbed the accelerator a few times going down the return road I would have enjoyed it. How strange it was that a small gesture of looking in the other lane completely changed the focus and the tension that had built up long before the start. I looked down at the video to see the filming light was still on and give a Wuhu to Ashley as we cruised down the return road. I have no doubt that Ash picked up on the fact that I was a lot calmer after the 2^nd run maybe thinking it may have been boring for me. If he was thinking that then he would have been way off as I was peaking right before the start. I just can’t believe how time stopped for me when I swung around with the video. It was like I had all the time in the world and as I sit here now I can’t recall the car hauling over the line with me pushed back in the seat even though I know that to be the case. Strange, but that summed up the moment.

Dave Thornton was over at the pits when I rolled up after the second run and asked how I went. Well I just started going on and said I couldn’t imagine what it would be like steering his altered. His instant reply was “so you want to go out and buy a drag car now” for which I replied “I would if I could afford one”.

I gathered up my film equipment and headed over to the start line to capture more people like me doing the passenger ride thing. Ned Karanovic was busy running passengers in the 57 Chev and even wife Karen had put down 3 laps behind the wheel. Speaking of the Karanovic’s, Nic offered up a ride in the Plymouth Barracuda which I politely declined citing the reason that I had to get on my way. The truth be known, my head was still out there after the “Haywire” experience so a polite no thankyou and apology to Nicolas was easy.

How appropriate that the car I did my first ever run down the drag strip was named “Haywire”. Couldn’t have better described my situation especially on the return road after the first run. I will never forget that minute or so in my life that was simply Haywire. I have tried to bring you into the moment that was my passenger ride and have left nothing out of what has been an unbelievable experience. For drag racers, this story is most likely long forgotten and some race fans getting into a car the first time may not have the same experience but if you ever get the chance to jump into a drag car, do it!

A huge thank you to Kingsley and Lauren Kuchel and all the Sunraysia Drag Racing Association including track prepper Dean James for putting up the event and keeping it safe, the Australian Nostalgia Racers and most of all Ashley Hayley. I’m forever indebted to Ashley for giving me the opportunity to take a run down the drag strip. A time in my life that I will never forget.

If you found my story to be exciting, I suggest that you mark in next August on your calendar as off limits to everything except the Sunraysia Drag Racing Association’s 1/8 Mile Nostalgia event. Not too early to start planning for next year’s event. You can contact Kingsley or Lauren on the Sunraysia Drag Racing Association website for more information.

The sportingscribe bus will be back at Sunset Strip on the 23^rd and 24^th of September for round 3 of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series. There is a Go-Fund Me page happening to raise 10k for the purchase of live streaming equipment. Originally, we were looking at a multi camera set up that required a 40k investment. We are now looking at a more affordable single camera live feed with options. To support the fund, go to the sporting scribe muscle facebook page and click on the link. Thanks to Robert Talbot for his personal contribution on the weekend towards the fund.

The only way I could have made my ride more exciting would be via a live streaming set-up. 

Click on the link to contact the Sunraysia Drag Racing Association: http://www.sunsetstrip.org.au/

Click on the link to contact the Australian Nostalgia Racers: https://www.facebook.com/Australian-Nostalgia-Racers-519506154761088/

Click on the link to support the gofundme campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/andra-drag-racing-live-streaming

MY RIDE - VIDEO EDIT

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