My first was probably in 1989 or thereabouts going to a drag meeting at Whangarei. Videos of which are now surfacing from a club member up that way. One trip I was heading up with my wife (then gf) and I asked the guys if I could lead, as I knew those two lead foots would leave me behind. Actually, one of the guys had the nickname 'Leadfoot Matassa'
They agreed, so we left from the Albany pub in North Auckland to drive a further two hours roughly. And since I was towing the Club BBQ trailer, I didn't want to arrive an hour after them especially if something went wrong. Only minutes in the journey, we were doing around 80mph up the huge incline out of Albany....so I was fairly certain this would be a great trip. Things were going well, and we were cruising a nice 70-75mph on roads in a time when the posted open road limit was around 50mph. Later I was told that the BBQ trailer was just sailing around corners - and sometimes on one wheel ...and bouncing over bridges. The Road Runner was just hauling *** and cruising so well. The trailer had no suspension to speak of, and I was later to see the results of that.
Anyway, we get to the Waipu straights about 45 minutes from our destination, and my wife was happy, we were just having a great ride. I look in the mirror at around 80mph, and I see the two guys behind me side-by-side not far behind. So, I sped up and they stuck with me. I buried my right foot and we launched over the ton, and beyond. I was so intent in creating a gap, that when I looked down at the speedo we were doing around 140mph..... the needle had already gone past the 150 and was at the six-o'clock position. Not only that, but we had left the guys behind for dust.
We eventually arrived at the town and made our way to the local car-wash place. Upon open the chiller compartment in the trailer, it looked like a murder scene inside. There was a plastic milk crate, a tub of margarine and a couple of plastic squeeze bottles of tomato ketchup. The lid had come of the margarine and the contents had oozed through the square holes in the crate like some weird sort of pasta, while the sauce bottles had loosened top, and they had been battered around causing squirting against the sides of the chiller. It was hilarious, but one hellava mess to clean up. Graham and Garry who had been following me were still laughing as well as in awe of how fast I had been going. They both admitted to being fully tapped out for speed and could not keep up with me. I was stoked about that given that I though they would have been faster than that. They both had an idea that they were going max 125mph each while I was pulling away.
The drag meeting went well, and we had a great weekend. The trip home however was telling. Due to a lack of suspension on the aluminium framed trailer, the draw-bar cracked at the trailer box and in the mirror I thought I could see the grille occasionally - even though it was dark outside. I pulled over and saw the carnage......the trailer was still towable, but only at a sedate speed. We wrapped some ropes around as best we could and limed to Graham's house, as he lived close to the place we discovered the breakage.
The following Club meeting was fun ...I was fined by the Club Sheriff for what had happened, but than that was reversed and the guys who built the trailer as volunteers were fined instead. Many modifications were made, and that trailer served the Club well for many years. It even had a personalised plate "BBQ 1"
