Hi Team,

 Well, we finally got the car going, only for the engine to run a bearing after around 8 laps!  Still however one of the best days of my life.  Spent 1.5 weeks in the Oliver Automotive specialists workshop finishing the car off, you know how it goes with the early starts and the late nights. 

 Arrived to see the bonnet and body painted, Clevo had done this a day after my last week on the coast painting the sucker, so was stoked with how that came out We essentially had the motor in, so only needed to get the

·         driveshaft 

·         gearbox, 

·         clutch, 

·         pressure plate,

·         Bell housing

 flywheel (thanks for sorting that Paul, Mark Walford did a great job, still recovering from the bill!!lol) 

·         mounted the shifter and cables, 

·         built a drive shaft cover

·         build a seat plate cover 

·         and build some pedals 

·         Build a dash, mount the gauges

·         House the computer, 

·         Wire all the electrics up

·         exhaust system 

·         did all the break lines 

·         plumbed up the fuel system, 

·         and find nuts and bolts to hold all this stuff in places since it was all new

 Also put all the manifolds on the engine, the carb, air cleaner, etc, had the usual not enough gasoline to the carb, then too much gasoline, then managed to set the beast idling and getting full throttle.  Thankfully no fire this time, just a couple of decent coughs.

got it fired up (yee har)late on Friday night, then off home. 

 Came back in on Saturday to try and do the finishing jobs, like putting the radiator in etc… then fired it again and discovered we needed to repair the leak in the fuel tank, radiator, and fuel pump that announced themselves on Saturday morning…well, left the fuel pump, and it seemed to sort itself after stripping most of the paint inside the coffin from where it was leaking.

 Had a burn around the back yard, made Ollie get in and have a drive after all his hard work and just about had a heart attack.  He went around a bush, then we heard a loud ting ting tinging noise from the front of the car, he coasted to a stop and we waited while he got it back into first inched forward, still the ting ting ting, stopped , went forward again and still the ting ting.  Went backwards, no ting ting, went backwards a bit more and still no ting ting, then burst out laughing, there was a bl#@dy big rock being pushed along in front of the cow catcher making all the noise! 

 Sighs of relief,  back into the work shop, and its 3oclock before the 4pm kick off.  Managed to weld a couple of bolts on upside down  and drill into the pretty bonnet to mount that sucker, then onto the back of Tazs trailer ( who turned up and saved us, before his arrival it was looking like driving it to the track.)  I can tell you at this stage I was pretty stoked – driving my very own stockcar out of the shed, along the road, and up onto a trailer.  Lol – simple things for simple minds I guess.
  Got to the track,  scrutineered off the trailer, off to the half completed drivers briefing, then straight out into the grand parade.  Geez, I’ve got that stupid grin on the face again remembering. Was told to come in straight after the grand parade onto the scales for another great surprise – 1353kgs, which is 50kgs lighter than the minimum of 1400 – great, she'll be light, and hopefully fast!

 Stockcars were last up in the first round, was running off the back to make sure nothing fell off in the middle of the first lap.  At 3.30 when we drove it we were able to establish which gears were what in the Holden 3 speed, so had written it on the dash to make sure- here's the pattern, raced in 2nd.

                 R

3                              2

                1

 Apparently good for getting out of the wall in hurray!  Managed to get it into first, dumped the clutch and clevo the painter held his brakes on just for me then away we went in the slush.  Fired it into second, got nothing, wrenched it in there again, nothing, softly pushed it too the right, and away we go again.  Good news is it went around the corners fine. There was a tangle, with three cars spun into each other in the first corner, made executive decision to drive round one rather than through it on the first corner…I know I know, could have got the first dent… and was surprised to see none of the cars pulling away, got around the next corner and hey, she's sideways, and running good, bogged down in the tight pit bend, but pulled its way out of it, then woah, bit quick into the corner, get sideways, and she's breaking down again, picks back up, then pit bend breaking down again, but bugger she's not picking up again.
  Did 4 more laps of puttering hoping it would clear, remembered there was a gauge, noticed very little oil pressure, and sanity prevailed.  Coasted into the infield for the last few laps to await a push off.  Stewey came around and since we were on the damp infield he managed to pull 6500 to get us going…unfortunately there was a slight queue at the gate, and I managed to put my first dent into the bumper by piling into Olly while he was waiting to get into the gate.  Sorry mate, I was yelling at you to move in the helmet, unsurprisingly it was unheard.  Got through into the pits, still a big grin, but the gremlins in the motor were knock a knock knocking, so that was my day done.
  Still was unbelievably stoked.  wouldn't have been possible without the hard yakka by Tony and Johnny O, Shano from OAS, Dirty pitching in every day, Stewey, towbar and Harney for the helmet, and of course Taz for turning up with the trailer and lift to the track and back.

Have received another fantastic sponsor, Bryce Steiner emailed me out of the blue and said he would sponsor a motor as he had a strong one in a crashed Vr V6 Series II, so that's awesome, and will get a cam ground for it as well.  Hope to have everything sorted and back together by the South Island title on December the 8th, so if anyone's keen to come to the sunny west coast for the weekend it would be great to see you there.
While the engine is out I'll be lucky enough to get a couple of races in others' cars while I wait to get the engine back in.  Should be fun!

 Will no doubt talk to you all soon. All the best , Hadleigh