09 MAY 2012 - Giant steps forward for Newby at Nitro Champs

Giant steps forward for Newby at Nitro Champs
Monday, 7th May 2012

Newby gains experience and good data after round 4 of the ANDRA Pro Series Top Alcohol Championship.

A monumental effort was put in by all of the team to just get the car ready to race for the e vent held at Sydney Dragway on the weekend. With the shortest time between rounds in sometime, the crew had to pull out all the stops to make the event, but make it they did, and with a great deal of enthusiasm.

The new funny car presented well with new paint job and branding, and drew a lot of attention from the media at the event. All eyes were on Wayne to see how he coped with the transition from dragster to funny car and whilst some would say that is a fair step all would agree Wayne took it in his stride.

With only three previous runs in the car, and those only testing and not at race standard, a lot was riding on the three rounds of qualifying on Saturday afternoon. For the first qualifier the car was run with a deliberate soft tune, enabling Wayne a chance to get a feel for both the car and the track. Round 2 being their first real attempt at qualifying was unfortunately undermined when the car  wouldn’t go into top gear leaving the team on the bump spot, and even more determined to make the third qualifier count.

The crew worked hard to turn the car around before round 3, completely rebuilding the gearbox and changing the clutch plates. Problems during fire up resulted in the changing of the coil. Whilst the team had a replacement coil Wayne would like to thank Rick Gauci for the use of his tried and tested one, enabling them to make the third qualifier.

With a fair amount of determination, Wayne ran a solid 5.834 seconds at 230.17 mph to claim his spot in eliminations on Sunday. Round 1 of eliminations put Wayne up against fellow funny car driver, Gary Phillips. As sometimes how these things go, a failed kill switch prevented the car from starting on the line; such a small thing can create such a big issue at a crucial moment. Gary caught a lucky break, having smoked the tyres, however at the Winternationals it will take more than luck to take the tree.

After the event Wayne had this to say “It will still take some seat time before I am fully comfortable with the car, but it is feeling good and I am feeling confident. It is a whole new learning curve for the team, every one of us has to make adjustments, but it is all going well and we got some fantastic data and good results so far”.

Only 58 points separates Wayne from the top spot in the championship, so it is still all out there for the taking at the Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway in June. We know you all wish Wayne the best and we look forward to seeing him race the event.

If you haven’t already joined the JBS/Newby Racing facebook page, now is the perfect time, with Allie promising to keep us all up to date with all that happens at events. “Like” it here.

Wayne Newby would like to  sincerely thank the entire team  and our valued sponsors JBS Tools, Fabre Australia, Smithfield  Diff and Gear, Coldy's Tow & Bullbars, Redline Oils, VP Racing Fuels, Mick's Metal Craft, CRC Industries and Newby Engineering for their continued support, without whom racing would not be possible.