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The Vhodoo team was all reved up for the Grand Opening race meeting. On our first qualifying round where I intended to do a half track pass the car launched hard and then span the tyres and took a hard right turn heading to the wall in the opposite lane.

Luckily Steve Yozzi had not been able to make the run or who knows what might have happened. I don't know if it was good luck or good management that kept the car off the wall but luckily for sponsor B&B Smash there was no panel work or re-paints to be done. After the run a high pressure CO2 line bust and from there the day went down hill. We discovered a crack in the oil pan, quickly pulled it off to do a temporary repair and then found another oil leak at the back of the engine. After cleaning that up we then discovered a problem with the starter motor just a short time before we were meant to go for the compulsory qualifier. The decision was made to call it a day as far a racing was concerned. Many thanks as always to the crew and Scott for helping out with the oil pan repair

We are now looking forward to possibly testing prior to the Golden States event and hopefully get these gremlins ironed out..

Thanks for visiting and supporting the team

Pete

Check out the great pics by Jon Gall (https://www.facebook.com/JonGallPhotography)

The weather Saturday was quite testing but we did manage to do some tuning between showers. The engine was sounding really good but we were struggling to get the idle speed and temps where we wanted them. Rain forced the track staff to call off any further testing so we loaded the car back on the trailer and headed home where some quick checks were done in readiness for Sunday. We all slept with fingers cross for better luck with the weather but that method did not work very well, better that Saturday but still not great. Back at the track we finally discovered that a fitting had come out of the injector hat which affected the idle speed so that was sorted and we were able to go for a run. The plan was to do a launch and run the car to the 60 foot mark but ran closer to 1/4 track getting off the noise pedal just as second gear was grabbed. The launch felt great and a PB time was posted for the 60 foot @ 1.109 seconds. We took the car back to the paddock to run through the data and to check engine vitals out. With all looking really good we got read to go out for a half track pass but the weather gods were not playing nice and the rain started again. Looking forward now to the opening meeting where we will treat the qualifying sessions as test sessions and see how it all goes.

Thanks for visiting our pages and supporting Vhodoo Racing

Pete

Thanks to the power of computers, The Vhodoo Monaro is to be featured in the official Australian Drag Racing Mod of Driving Sim rFactor, Dragfactor! Many thanks to Anthony Birch for creating this!

(By the way, the skin isn't done yet)

We have a New Century aluminium block on order for the new season along with new pistons, con rods and cam shaft. This will lighten the front of the car by approximatley 100 lbs over the cast iron block which will help improve the front to rear weight bias in the race car. With some luck the block will be ready to ship from the USA in a week or two. The cylinder heads have been freshened up and are ready to go. There are a few other off seasons improvements being done to the car but it will be pretty much more of the same with the new engine block. Looking forward to the new season and the opportunity to find out the true potential of this race car.

We have just created a facebook page head on over and like us 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vhodoo-Racing/388292927897635

The newly supercharged Vhodoo Monaro was out for some fun and licencing at the Boxing Day meeting. Unfortunately transmission gremlins got in and the reverse gear clutches burnt out so the car was unable to be backed up after the burnout that was going to lead to the first full track pass.... With the transmission out the next day the call was made to Chris Dimoff at DTM and I was relived when Chris answered the phone. A huge thanks to Chris for repairing the transmission when he was supposed to be on a break and tidying up hisworkshop.... With the car all together again everyone was looking forward to running the car at the Nitro Funny Car Fury event on 6th and 7th of Janurary... Friday night conditions were great and we had the go ahead to try a full track pass if I was comfortable doing so. After a solid burnout I staged the car and was off for the ride of my life, ripping off a 7.64 run at over 180mph... The officials liked it and I was given the go ahead to do the second pass. After doing all the between round maintenance we towed around to the staging lanes. I checked with official Dave to make sure I could run on the back of the Supercharged Outlaw field and he said no problem providing it didn't rain. I thought he was going mad or something as it did not feel like rain but moments later we had the worst downpour we have had at the Motorplex during a meeting and the last few runs of the night were rained out.

Saturday morning was fine and it was also my loving partner Janices birthday (a special one at that) so we gave gifts and birthday kisses and got organised and down to the track. After getting the car started and warmed up we wheeled out for the second full track licencing pass, another good run with a quicker 7.57 et and another tick by the ANDRA steward. Really cool we were now able to go racing. Qualifying came around and after another couple of runs we were all getting quiet excited just being in amongst the Supercharged cars. For the elimination round I came up against Outlaws gun Wayne Batson and was astonished to see the win light come up in my lane at the end of the run. I was even more astonished to find that the run was good enough to be 3rd runner up and into the B final, the car ran 7.40 seconds at almost 193 mph . After discovering some tune up issue we were not to sure what to dial in for the final so we took a stab at a 7.50 dial in only to break out big time with a 7.34 e.t and runner up to Greg James.

It was really a great weekend of racing for the Vhoodo team and I could not help thinking of all the help that we had on the way. Janice for looking after me and keeping me comany while I worked on the car. Irene, John and Wayne at Embleton Engineering for all the machining that they did. Sponsors Genie Exhaust, Engine Protection Equipment and Macquarrie Corp for their assistance. Crew Steve and Clinton Carroll for all the help on race days. My boys the world famous Gardner Broz Nic and Luc for thier help and for the great videos, photos and web site work they do. Chris (Spud) Miller from Fuel Injection Enterprises for the fuel system and magneto. Simon (Gonzo) Travaglini from Allfast Convertors for the convertor. Phil Purser from Final Drive for the diff housing and tailshaft. Alister (Hillbilly Delux) Mclure for his help.

After almost a full tear down of the car to fix a number of minor issues and make some minor changes we are ready to hit the track again on February 11th for the Night of Fire meeting......

check out the video below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tikycRniqXs

have a look at all the old news and catch up on our history click the link below to start viewing

http://www.vhodooracing.com/vhodoonews1.htm

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Better late than never I always say! With the 2010/2011 season completed just over a couple of months ago one could wonder why it has taken so long to get to the important task of the season wrap up report. There is a simple answer, I have been busy planning and working

on a new engine combo for the Vhodoo Racing Monaro. I have a Supercharged 525ci Big Block Chevrolet well underway to replace the old normally aspirated engine. The new motor will mean a move from the Super Sedan category to the popular Supercharged Outlaws Bracket

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2011/2011 season has been a very good season for the Vhodoo Race Team. We pulled off a win and a couple of quarter final appearances and went more rounds of racing than we ever have. The car was seen on the One HD televising of the Western Nationals meeting with the Gardner Broz in car video footage featuring heavily. There was a very nice photo of the car in the Motorplex program and a small article in the West Australian Motoring Section. Another nice photo appeared in Dragster Australia Magazine.

As always I need to thank my Sponsors for their continued support, Genie Exhaust, Hitachi Construction Equipment, Donaldson Australia, Allfast Torque Convertors, Embleton Engineering and Engine Protection Equipment. All of these companies provide the support that greatly helps to keep the dream alive.

Special thanks also to my crew, Steve, Clinton and Fiona. To my boys Nic and Luc for the great video and all the help they give me and to my partner Janice for her support and help.

We are working very hard to get the car to the track for the start of the new season, the engine has been dummied up in the car and it looks awesome. Please keep an eye on the web site for updates and I will also slot a few pics in where I can.

Looking forward to seeing you at the track.

Pete

UPDATE

check out this video of the first start up of the car i hope you enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePjI-NE0owM