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Bundy Thunder
Bundaberg, Queensland
November 2008
Bundaberg in Queensland once again rang out to the roar of one of the biggest race meetings in the country - Bundy Thunder. And while the event is a big one for Blown Alcohol Displacements and 6litre boats, this year was a big one for the hydros as well with 7 boats in
attendance.
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One of the local favourites, Midnight Miss hit the water for practise on Friday, with a few other boats. The big black Lauterbach hydro checking over the recently fitted blown 427 Chev. It could be assumed that the new engine has enough power, as the team only managed to run on the Friday, due to a propellor shaft that snapped just behind the skeg brace, losing the propellor and cancelling the remainder of the weekend in the process.
A few of the other boats squeezed in a few practise laps on Friday as well, before the new format public Show and Shine in the evening.
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From the Queensland camp, Li’l Shocker hit the water again after a recent refresh of the boat. New paint, slightly new design, as well as some new upholstery all had the little rear seater looking top shelf.
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And speaking of little rear seaters, you might not recognise this boat without a supercharged Chevy V6, but U-Too, previously known as Mr Magoo, the boat now runs a small turbo charged 4 cylinder. See photo over page.
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And while still talking smaller boats, the smallest front seater hydro at Bundy was Little Miss Buzz. The OzLite boat from noth of the border, was pedalled by Glenn Fryer. The original plans had Glenn driving Blue Max for Neil Coddington, but since Midnight Miss was on the trailer for the weekend, Graham Coddington took over the wheel for the big blue bum dragger.
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Speaking of Blue Max, the big Classic Hydro has well and truly finalised its testing of the new powerplant. For those unaware, the boat is now powered by a supercharged Lexus V8. The blower was custom made by Fischer Superchargers in Melbourne. And by all accounts, the change from the old Chev V8 was well worth the effort.
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Two New South Welshman chose to challenge the
Pacific Highway and head north for the big race meeting. And you wouldn’t guess it, but both of them had the same name - Impatient. Paul Vella had the new Impatient at his first circuit race meeting in QLD.
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And recent new owner of the ‘old’ Impatient, Andrew Petty also towed a red Howard Hydro north for his first race meeting, not only in QLD, but his first in the new boat.
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Saturday’s racing began with trouble for the NSW team. Paul Vella’s boat blocked the water pick up and overheated the engine. The boat ended up blowing a head gasket or two on the 5litre Chev. This event sure got the team’s arses into gear, with the major task of stripping the engine down for the rest of the day. The team were even able to sweet talk a local machinist to work into the night to skim the heads. With fortune finally smiling on the team, the boat was back in one piece and ready to race on Sunday.
In Andrew’s steep learning curve of campaigning the new boat, Saturday saw the Holden V8 spit out the oil pressure retaining valve. Some quick work by Andrew and with assistance from Rick Howard got the problem licked. Andrew also found that old habits are hard to forget. It turns out that Andrew was still driving the new boat “like a rear seater”. So some driving tips from the more experienced front seater drivers soon saw Andrew right up the front of the pack. And with the more powerful Impatient in bits in the pit area, this left Andrew to challenge the bigger Blue Max for the chequered flag. Both boats ended up taking turns in taking the black and white flag.
With the two bigger boats out front, the battles raged for minor placings. Li’l Shocker, Li’l Miss Buzz and U-Too all swapped placings throughout the weekend, with the yellow peril of Paul Jackson generally having the longer legs.
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Sunday saw the return of Impatient, as well as one of the better claims of the weekend - all hydros that went out for a race, came back from the race. No tows back in were needed. And let’s not forget the whole idea of being the best show on the water for the crowd.
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All in all the event was very much a success, and with the vow from the organisers that next year will be even bigger, Bundy Thunder is fast become one of ‘the’ races to go to on the race calendar each year.
Photos courtesy of All Race Photography, as well as Neil and Graham Coddington.
See you there next year QLDers. |
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