When we last caught up with Nick Reiri, he’d just run the fastest pass of the event at the 2019 4&Rotary Nationals drag day with a 7.65 @ 170mph. At the time, he told us that even with his then new personal best, the team had been chasing boost issues in fourth and fifth gear and that once those were sorted we should expect the car to drop into the low sevens.
Well, as of the Auckland Invasion at Masterton Motorplex on 15–16 February, Nick’s fulfilled his prophecy. He ran the car to a 7.37 @ 183mph, resetting not only his own PB but also the car’s overall PB and Stu Lawton’s PB.
Nick puts the achievement down to always learning with the car, making small changes in the rear end, eliminating clutch slip, and improving fuel flow. Stu Lawton was also on board for the entire weekend, which Nick says was critical to his achieving the feat.
“We were down on the first part of the track. We’ve previously done better 60-foots, in the 1.06s, and been deeper in the 3.0s at the 330-foot mark … but for the first time the car held more than 35psi in fourth and fifth gear,” explains Nick. “We saw 41–44psi throughout the whole pass, except off the start line, [and that was] thanks to Stu on the tune. That gave us an extra 13mph in the top end that we’ve never seen before, so I’m confident it will go better and that we’ve finally gotten on top of the car.”
The car’s next outing will be at the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car meeting at Masterton Motorplex on 21–21 March, where Nick hopes to push deeper into the seven-second bracket.
