Nino Cavallo wasn’t even supposed to be in the Pro Stock field at the recent X-Champs after running a 7.429 to sit outside the field in 17th place. By the end of round 1, he had run low ET of the weekend.
“The first qualifier was quicker to 330 feet than the six second pass,” said Cavallo. “The shift light for fourth came on early so I shifted early and did the same for fifth. After that I lifted.”
“We knew when we looked at the time card we were going to run a six we just had to get our act together.”
Cavallo reached the field under unfortunate circumstances when several competitors were forced to withdraw including Richard Caval who spectacularly flipped his Dodge Avenger at high speed during qualifying on Saturday. Caval would be ok though it goes without saying the car was not.
“In the second qualifier the track temp dropped down to 60 degrees after the clean up from the Richard Cavall accident and it just wheel spun off the hit. At that point we were on the outside of the field, lucky for us some teams pulled out with engine problems.”
That allowed Cavallo to jump up four spots to 13th and take on number two qualifier Tyronne Tremayne in round 1. Tremayne reacted quicker and put down a respectable 7.12 but once Cavallo came out of the blocks he drove around Tremayne to post a 6.99 and advance to round 2.
“We went over some data from the last time we ran in Sydney and from the test day and decided to do a four link change,” explains Cavallo. “It settled the car down through the low gears and went 6.99.”
“It didn’t fill like it was going to be a quick one. It moved around a lot in second and third gear and I thought this is not good but at the same time I could see I was gaining on Tyronne and thought this can’t be too bad.”
“I was pretty happy to beat Tyronne, the Tremayne’s are one of the best Pro teams out there. I got out of the car and said to Tyronne good race and shook his hand and he said; ‘you just ran a six’. I thought he said he ran a six. I go well done and then he said; ‘nah man, you ran a six’.”
“By this time the crew came down screaming and that’s when I got a bit emotional. I was happy for my crew and family that we did it and to see the smile on their faces was unbelievable especially from my family. They love drag racing as much as I do if not more.”
Unfortunately in the second round Cavallo encountered a problem after the burnout when oil dropped out of the catch. He was shut down and the weekend was over.
“(It’s) just one of those things that can catch you out in drag racing. From here we move on to the Winters, if we have good conditions and make the right calls on car set up we should definitely be able to run sixes again but this time we will be hoping for better than 6.99, more like low 6.9s.”
“We will have to see how low she will go. What we would like is the record but in saying that I am sure there will be other teams also running in the sixes and going for the record also. It will be a tough field in Pro Stock like always but hopefully we will be in the mix of things and go a few rounds, that would be great.”
The FUCHS Winternationals will be held across the Queen’s Birthday long weekend (Thursday 5 June to Sunday 8 June 2014), with up to 500 racers expected from all across the country to compete in front of approximately 30,000 spectators across the four days.
For spectators, a range of ticketing options are available including special pre-purchase online-only multi-day event passes. Students and Concession card (age and disability pension only) holders with photo ID gain discounts, while children aged 13 and under gain free entry. For full information, please visit www.willwobankraceway.com.au or click here
Image courtesy: Joe Maday