Land Speed Legends
Conversations with men & women who make land speed racing legendary!
Land Speed Legends
THE LEGENDARY ANDREW SINCLAIR: From Offshore Powerboat Racing in New Zealand to Land Speed Racing at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Andrew Transforms a Valiant Charger into a Racing Marvel and Explores the Highs and Lows of Land Speed Racing
Ever wondered what it takes to transition from the waves of offshore powerboat racing to the straight-line adrenaline rush of land speed racing? Join us as we chat with Andrew Sinclair, a racing enthusiast from New Zealand, whose narrative is a tapestry woven with the threads of his father's legacy, personal perseverance, and a love for speed. From exhilarating beach buggy rides to powerboat triumphs, Andrew's journey into racing is nothing short of inspiring. You'll hear about his family's racing traditions and how economic hurdles shaped, but never extinguished, his unyielding passion for the sport.
Andrew's story takes us deeper into the world of racing when he shares how a serendipitous meeting at a powerboat event led to new endeavors on the track. His adventure unfolds with thrilling tales from the Bonneville Salt Flats, where the mystique of land speed racing captivated his imagination. Andrew and his team embarked on an ambitious project to transform a beloved Valiant Charger into a racing marvel, tackling the challenges of car fabrication and navigating unexpected detours like the global pandemic. As they faced each obstacle, the spirit of teamwork and community within the racing world shone brightly.
Our conversation not only explores the technical intricacies and logistical feats involved in racing but also delves into the camaraderie and resilience of Andrew's team. From the meticulous process of transporting a racing car across oceans to the trials on the track, Andrew's experiences reveal the highs and lows of their racing endeavors, including a dramatic 250 mph spin and a triumphant return to the speedway. This episode is a profound look at the passion and dedication that drives motorsport enthusiasts to push the boundaries of what's possible, bringing home lessons on perseverance and the power of dreams.
Welcome to Landspeed Legends, a podcast talking to the men, the women, the legends that make land speed racing great. Discover the stories of these ordinary people whose passion for land speed racing has made them legendary. And now here's your host the Bonneville Belle, the High Boy, honey, the salt princess, alison Volk-Dean.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay, so we were talking about we had the legendary Andrew Sinclair, who wants to be called a land speed learner, not a land speed legend. But I was saying it's pretty legendary to come all the way from New Zealand to race at the Bonneville Salt Flats and it takes a lot of work. But you were telling me you first started racing in the beginning when you started kind of like 18, not with land speed racing but with some other types of racing. So what was that?
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah. So thanks, alison, for giving me this opportunity, and I am a learner for giving me this opportunity and I am a learner. My journey with racing started, obviously with lots of people, with my dad, and he had raced in the late 60s and early 70s, firstly in offshore powerboat racing in New Zealand and then moved on to circuit racing with an outboard-powered hydroplane. In actual fact, he was the first one to successfully go 100 mile an hour with an outboard in New Zealand. A guy did it about five minutes before him and flipped as he went through the end of the kilo run. Um, so dad did it successfully, um, and so, yeah, so so from that we uh I think I was about, yeah, 18 and you know you're getting a bit bored and you're sort of playing with cars and you're and you're doing stuff. We we built a beach buggy and then we had another VW car, so we used to swap engines out and hot them up and went to the drag strip a couple of times with it and just sort of fun stuff.
Allison Volk Dean:Now, when you say beach buggy, what do you mean by that? Volt-tweak and power fiberglass body?
Andrew Sinclair:Okay, and so we cut to about and Dad was still friends with a few of the guys he'd raced offshore powerboats with and I sort of come home one night and said, look, we've got to do something here. You know like we're all getting itchy feet and business was good at the time. So yeah, we convinced Dad to buy a boat and we started Offshore Powerboat Racing seriously again. It was about 1983, and we raced really continually probably the family for another 10 years.
Andrew Sinclair:I went into a boat with Dad, then I had a boat myself, then my brother got a boat and Dad got a bigger boat and you know a bit like land speed, how everyone gets a car and stuff Went to the world champs in 88 in Sweden, two-liter, and the European champs on that same trip, two-liter. Not my boat, I was crewing for another guy. So yeah, we had sort of 10 good years as a family and different. You know, I was involved in the club and the committee and that sort of thing and running events and stuff like that. So we were the 1.3 litre champs twice, the 2 litre champ once and the 6 litre champ once.
Allison Volk Dean:Wow. Now, what kind of speeds are those when they're, what kind of speeds are those when they're so?
Andrew Sinclair:my little 1.3 was a little 65 Yamaha and I think, I did about 60 mile an hour on a really good day, up to the six-liter boat, we were doing just on 100 mile an hour racing.
Allison Volk Dean:Is that drag boat racing?
Andrew Sinclair:No, no, this is where you start out in the ocean and you head off and you might do three laps for a 100-mile race. Oh, okay, and the spectators never see you and you're out and it could be flat, calm conditions, or it could be 20-foot waves, you know sort of deal.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, wow.
Andrew Sinclair:So yeah, we used to wreck some gear A bit like land speed actually. We used to break a lot of components. But then, yeah, had dad had that with bigger engines on and for a couple of years and running the, we had the world champs down in new zealand so we had a number of american boats come over um and he run that. That boat averaged 100 mile an hour in one race so he was probably running 120 sort of thing. So that's the sort of speeds we were doing.
Allison Volk Dean:So, yeah, not like they do now, but um yeah, but that's still, and it's kind of almost like maybe like racing, kind of like fit out on the water type thing.
Andrew Sinclair:For sure, I was six foot three before I started racing. Oh, that's funny.
Allison Volk Dean:And so you guys were doing that like in 88, you said right, yeah, that's when you kind of….
Andrew Sinclair:Through to sort of early 90s. Yeah, I mean what happens with us? We were in the construction industry back home and it's very up and down, it's so lumpy, and so we sort of go. We have a few good years, 10 good years, and we race and then the economy turns to custard and we have to just pull our horns in and just stop and just work, you know, and to make enough money again. So that's sort of how we've run on these cycles. But of course you have family as well, you know, when you start having kids and that sort of stuff, and so it's hard to do everything at the time.
Andrew Sinclair:Oh yeah, so, yeah. So we didn't actually start back again, so we had a sort of a 10-year break in early 2000s, about 2002, started getting itchy feet again, work had come right, we'd got through all the bad periods, the GFCs and what have you, and so, yeah, we went to Lake Taupo, which is our biggest lake in New Zealand, and actually Mandy's brother was racing, as my wife and her brother was racing a car, and so obviously all the cars we run New Zealand and Australian cars was a smattering of American. So he was running an XA Falcon. Oh, sorry, no, that was the XE, sorry, xe Falcon in that time. And there was an offshore powerboat race at the lake at the same time. So we went down for the weekend and we got right. Are we going to go back to boat racing or are we going to go car racing?
Allison Volk Dean:Big decisions? Yeah, it was actually.
Andrew Sinclair:But we went to the lake and they were way short on numbers and there wasn't many big boats there and it was a bit of a flop. And we went to the racetrack the road course, what do you call them and it was great the noise, all the V8s and the cars, the type of cars we loved. So it was a no-brainer. So you know, I went out a week later and bought a car and started my car racing journey.
Allison Volk Dean:It was 2002. Now, what did you say? You call it, and what do we call it?
Andrew Sinclair:We call it just a track and I like to call it a track, but you call it a road course.
Allison Volk Dean:Oh, a road course. We obviously don't have any ov's in New Zealand. Yeah, okay, all our tracks are road courses. Okay, okay. So this is like road course racing and this is like in 2002.
Andrew Sinclair:Yep 2002 we started Yep, yep, so yeah. So I bought a car, sort of about six months later my brother bought a car. Probably another six months later we bought a car for Mandy.
Allison Volk Dean:So did you meet Mandy at that race?
Andrew Sinclair:No, so the meeting of my wife was we were powerboat racing and her dad and uncle actually bought an offshore powerboat Previous to that. We didn't find out until after we'd met that as little kids we were down holding our dad's boats in the water because, obviously, circuit boats, you launch the boats and you sit there waiting for your next race to occur. So we were kids holding our dad's boats. You know pretty much at the same time, if I'm not interesting.
Intro:But, anyway.
Andrew Sinclair:so they bought an offshore powerboat and we were racing offshore then and we met at Wellington for the first time at a race. She'd bussed down to be with her dad and uncle and we were there and love at first sight.
Allison Volk Dean:Two racers yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:So, yeah, their family, and obviously you'll see as the story goes on. It's really important because Mandy's family is full into racing as well. They'd race cars and boats previous to that time as well.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, and so her brother was there racing a car, and so you're like okay, alright, so yeah, what are we going to do? So we did it and so that's, and then so her brother was there racing a car, and then so you're like, okay, yep, all right, so so, yeah, what are we gonna do?
Andrew Sinclair:so we did it and so we got into it and, yeah, we sort of jumped in, um, right into it and we had a track day in it with, you know, with two cars in the, in the, in the trailer, and a big warning that came out that we fit five cars under. And we had, we had a whole. At one stage we did have five cars, which was getting to be logistically quite a trick.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:Between all the family members. So yeah, two brothers me, my brother Mandy and my two brother-in-laws, so there's five of us operating out of it.
Allison Volk Dean:And you guys all were driving. Yes, we were all having cars.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, we sort of formed about a third of the class sometimes. But it was great awesome time. That sounds like a blast, yeah, but it was great, awesome time. That sounds like a blast yeah.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, and what kind of car? I mean, what were the cars again that you said?
Andrew Sinclair:So yeah, easiest way, like the most similarity is there was quite a few 69 Mustangs, 69 Camaros at that time, but we had local cars. So we had a General Motors. It was called a Commodore, so we had a few of those a four-door sedan running anywhere from a five-liter to a six-liter engine, depending on what the rules were at the time and what we could afford, and that sort of stuff. And then the Falcon series, the Ford Falcons, which were Australian designed. So right from XA through to XE, that 70s through to mid-80s.
Allison Volk Dean:And is that like the same Commodores and Falcons that we have here? No, it would be different, yeah, quite different Okay.
Andrew Sinclair:So we have a smallish four-door sedan running that size engine, so we're a muscle car. Class is how we define it over there, which we're still running now today.
Allison Volk Dean:And so how long did you guys do that? For which?
Andrew Sinclair:we're still running now today, yeah, and so how long did you guys do that for? So we started in 2002 and we've been racing pretty much full on up until last year, sort of thing. Okay, I haven't run the Commodore because in the meantime I bought a TA2 as well. Just that's another part of the story. So the muscle cars have sort of sat there in the last 12 months, sort of thing, but before then we've run them.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay.
Andrew Sinclair:And sometimes two different classes, one based in Auckland and one based in central New Zealand.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay, and Auckland's a part of New Zealand as well.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, Auckland's our biggest city.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay yeah, just because Auckland's a city.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, it's Oakland with an A, not O-A-K. Okay.
Allison Volk Dean:And that's the only other racing that you guys were doing was, or did you say there was another type in there as well?
Andrew Sinclair:No, no, just the road course racing Okay.
Allison Volk Dean:And then you guys, what got you interested in land speed racing?
Andrew Sinclair:Well, it was probably. You know, we always knew about it because we're petrolheads, you know, but really it was probably the movie you know, 2005, and it was like, wow, we've got to go and see this place, you know.
Allison Volk Dean:And you're talking about the world's fastest Indian, of course. Which he was from New. Zealand.
Andrew Sinclair:Funny aside, I've got a couple of little tin boats, aluminium boats, so we go fishing in and one's called Burt with an E and he was a famous New Zealand guy, but for the wrong reasons. And then the other boat is Burt with a U for Burt Monroe.
Allison Volk Dean:Oh cute.
Andrew Sinclair:Standing family joke. Yeah, for Bette Monroe. Oh, cute Standing family joke. So, yeah. So we first came in 2008 with a group of guys that we were racing road course racing with- Just to check it out, check it out. It was a trip to, yeah, a motorsport trip.
Allison Volk Dean:Like a bucket list trip kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:Huge trip. We drove into Vegas and I think we had Mandy and Lisa's 40th birthday the night before we flew out, so we had about two hours sleep that night, and then we got on the plane and we enjoyed ourselves socially all the way here and all the way to Vegas. So by the time we got to Wendover I think we'd probably had about 10 hours sleep in about four days, but anyway it was great.
Allison Volk Dean:That's a brutal drive too.
Andrew Sinclair:Lucky, we were a lot younger then. So we came up with the guys and we watched the event and just you know, for me personally it was the sound, you know, the sound of those big cube cars coming at you at 7, 8,000 RPM is just like wow, I've got to do this. So I don't know how I can, but I'm going to try and do this.
Allison Volk Dean:So you weren't coming out as like to check it out, to see how to do it, you were just kind of coming to check it out, but then it was like the bug bit you right away. Yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:It's funny. We've got a friend of ours from down the middle of the country and he had this special skill he could stand on because we were all RVs, so he would stand on top of the RV and he would just get the speed within five miles an hour of every run. It was just incredible, it was great. So, yeah, we had a really good time, lots of fun and said, right, we've got to do this.
Allison Volk Dean:And this was 2008. 2008. And did what? Any cars or anything? What meet was it that you came out to? Was it Speed Week?
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, it was Speed Week.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay.
Andrew Sinclair:Yep, and I think we did about three or four days. You know sort of I can't. I also remember whether it was the start or the or the or the last bit, or whatever.
Allison Volk Dean:Where you're at in the. Did any cars stand out into you in particular that you can remember it was cool.
Andrew Sinclair:Then it was Got Salt, I think was the was the the Leicester.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, that's a great car, yeah yeah. So that was probably the one that that stands out for me the most, and their shirts are great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, still got it.
Andrew Sinclair:Oh, I see, Mandy, she chucks out my good shirts.
Allison Volk Dean:You need to keep them and make quilts out of them. You can make those quilts out of them. No, it's like oh, you'll have to get Frank to get you a new one, so the salt one wasn't going on. That is a great one to stand out. So you get the bug. And Mandy, you were there at this event wasn't you?
Andrew Sinclair:No, no, it was a boys' trip.
Allison Volk Dean:Oh, it was just a boys' trip.
Andrew Sinclair:Boys' trip.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay, okay, okay. So you just had celebrated your guys' birthday.
Andrew Sinclair:Okay.
Allison Volk Dean:And so you come out and it's like, oh man, I've got to do this yeah got to do this.
Andrew Sinclair:And then, of course, we get home and we're still cars at the time and, uh, you know, 2008, 2009, 2010 was shocking. It was, you know, um the economy and back home and so and so we just had to.
Andrew Sinclair:Even even running our road course cars was hard enough and and we probably dropped, you know, didn't do full seasons and stuff like that um, like I said, you know, so, so lumpy our economy. Um, and yeah, it wasn't until sort of about late 2010. We actually had an Australian mate who has since been out here with us at Speedweek and we were drinking red wine one night at a race meeting and says we're going to stop sitting here just talking about this stuff. We've got to actually do it, you know. And so we shook hands and because when we shake hands on something, it's got to be done, no matter how, when or why.
Allison Volk Dean:That's the legendary part of it. Right there, you guys, you executed it.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, shook hands with Paul Stubber, and so we started right and he said, look, I've got a and there'll be some Australian terms here a one tonne, which is a pickup a small pickup, quite a robust little truck.
Andrew Sinclair:He's got one of those. He's got a HQ Monaro sitting there, he can make up all it. He had a whole lot of SB2. He was one of the first ones to run SB2s in New Zealand in our class, and so he had a whole lot of those spare laying around and he said I'm going to build up this car, what are you going to do? And I said, oh, I love my Mopars, I'm a Mopar guy. So what do we have in New Zealand that fits the bill? And so we only have. Back in the 70s they would bring in in kit sets Valiant Chargers into New Zealand Chrysler and they were assembling them in Wellington and then selling them into New Zealand as a family car. So I said, well, that's got to be one of those, you see. So that was how the decision was made to get a Valiant Charger and stick a Hemi in it.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay, so now you weren't looking at classes, you were just looking at cars more, and then how to fit it into. You fit it into class later.
Andrew Sinclair:That's right, it was probably completely back to front, I mean if I was smart.
Intro:I should have looked at records and started working backwards, but we're not that smart.
Andrew Sinclair:So, yeah, we wanted something a cool car, you know and something that reflected New Zealand and something that had some history in New Zealand and stuff like that. So that's where we started.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay, and your Australian friend is Paul.
Andrew Sinclair:Paul Stubber yeah, and that's who came out. Yes, the Speedway yeah, with the rat rod, he finally got it done. He finally got it on the track too.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, it was a fun car. Yeah, okay, so you got the Charger and then what did? So? You decided to build that or to restore that or buy it. Yeah, yeah, you already have one.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, we started hunting and I knew what we were going to do. Our initial thought was this is the whole rookie thing. Right, let's just build the car and then, when I'm finished land speed racing, we can turn it back into a road course car.
Allison Volk Dean:So that's how the journey started. Now he's over here just laughing.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, it morphed it definitely did morph.
Andrew Sinclair:So, yeah, and I didn't want to do that to really because they're quite valuable back home now, you know, like any classic car is, and so I really didn't want to do it to something nice. I thought that would just be sacrilege. So we hunted around for something, ended up getting one for 1500 New Zealand dollars, which is about you know, 800 American at a barn in Taupo. That had been, someone had attacked it with all sorts of things, there was rats living in it. It was. Yeah, it was. It was the perfect starting point. Yeah, just except for the bodywork. They were. They were made at the time. Yeah, just except for the bodywork. They were made at the time. They came out originally with a Slant 6. And so to get them to be competitive for racing in New Zealand back in the day in production racing, they were very light. They were a really light car. So you know better on tyres and better on fuel and stuff like that for the long distance races. So they were quite thin.
Intro:So they didn't age at all. Well, oh yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:So they were quite thin, so they didn't age at all well, oh yeah, so getting guards and stuff like that was a real problem, but anyway, we managed it.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, and then you decided to pick a class from there.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, that was really difficult actually. We sat around with the rule book for lots and lots of times and when you first start reading, it was all the different categories and everything like that. The first thing, like cool, it's got to have a Hemi and want to be 500. So okay, let's put it just under the 500. And so, okay, it's going to be an A car. Then it's going to right what are we doing for chassis? And we did kick around that for ages and ages to look at it. And when I tell people what class I'm in, they go oh boy, you've really jumped in there, haven't you?
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, well, I didn't know what I didn't know did. I no, and so what class did you pick?
Andrew Sinclair:So we're classic blown fuel altered. Yeah, that's tough, but of course we know there's a really good car in that class. That's set a lot of records too.
Allison Volk Dean:And good car in that class that set a lot of records too.
Andrew Sinclair:So uh, and you're running a a yeah, okay, yeah, and who? Who is it that you? It's, the beast has got well, the beast is like he's got all the el mirage records. Yeah, yeah, like it. Yeah, yeah so the less.
Allison Volk Dean:Less like it, not the not the photographer leslie like it yeah yeah, okay, so, yeah, so Leslie Leggett and right, yeah, that's a solid yeah, that's fast car record.
Andrew Sinclair:So yeah, so we started building it okay, well, how did the build go?
Andrew Sinclair:so that was so obviously Mike Anderson pick in the conversation. He'd built. He'd been over in America working IndyCar teams and then Le Mans prototype teams came back to New Zealand to raise his family and he was actually working for a guy I know in terms of the local, our local touring car scene and he'd built a couple, three cars for him, was running his team and then he went out on his own. So his first job when he went on his own after I'd met him, was my first car that I got built for road course racing. Up until then we just bought other people's cars and raced them. So yeah, so Bic built that first Commodore for me and then over time he built quite a few other cars you know hot rods and stuff like that for us and then we're, you know, crew chief the car at race meetings. So yeah, so it was him. I mean, he went to Taupo and picked the car up and started cutting it up straight away.
Andrew Sinclair:So yeah he was the one who has driven the whole fabrication and build of the car.
Allison Volk Dean:And you were working with him when you were like picking the class, yeah, together.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, together.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, yeah, you guys were kind of like looking over it, okay, and then um, and is he your? Is he your engine guy too, is he?
Andrew Sinclair:yeah, yeah, so he builds the engine, yeah, being with us since, yeah, basically we started at 2002, right?
Allison Volk Dean:right on road course racing, right, right. Oh, so he's yeah, yeah still here now getting old and great, like the rest of us, so was there any real big hang-ups in the build of it?
Andrew Sinclair:He probably only tells me 10% of what I need to do. It's probably, some of those times, better that I concentrate at work, because you know like I say we go through highs and lows in the economy.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, you're focused on it.
Andrew Sinclair:I've got to keep funding it and, to be fair, I'm really good at pulling stuff apart. I'm not so good at putting it back together. So I used to go down there on weekends and stuff and he'd have a list of I call them numbnuts jobs like clean this, take this off, that sort of stuff. So I never really got anything too technical to do. Yeah, but that's okay with me, because you know you've all got strengths and weaknesses and I'll stick to mine, that's right?
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, I think, knowing your place, is a good thing sometimes. Yeah, yeah, so this is 2008, and then?
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, it was 15 when we started building 2015.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay, yeah, 2008 was when you first came out, so 2015 is when you first started, and then you make your first trip out to Bonneville with the car.
Andrew Sinclair:Also in between times, I think we'd I'm just trying to remember we came out in 12, I think as well. We came out for a look, and then we came 17, 18, and 19.
Allison Volk Dean:Oh, so you guys had been coming out, okay.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, but that was like one trip was at the start of the event, our first three or four days, you know, to see what the scrutineering was or the tech was like see what the briefings were like and just trying to learn. And then another event we came right at the end to see what happens at the end yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:Because we were building the car, but we were also making decisions about things and logistics as well, obviously a big part of it. So that was a whole learning thing, obviously walking around talking to people, taking photos of cars and little things, what you can and can't do which has been an interesting journey as well.
Allison Volk Dean:Which makes a lot of sense. Yeah, yeah, it's not like you are just, you know, coming down the road and you know from California, or even from you know anywhere in the States, because you, yeah, you need to know all the details before you get over here.
Andrew Sinclair:We saw, you know, just in the movie how hard it was for Bert. You know like just coming in fresh and cold and all that sort of stuff and not knowing all the stuff. So it's like, well, let's try and minimize, we're going to make mistakes for sure, let's just try and minimize.
Allison Volk Dean:We're going to make mistakes, for sure. Let's just try and minimize, minimize them.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so, yeah. So those were those three trips and in 19, we had the car. We tested the car. It wasn't painted or anything like that, but we tested it at a local airstrip and I had about 10 little. I had a lower set of diff gears in, just so I could. I didn't need a push truck, um, I didn't have my parachutes on or anything like that, so it was just sort of a 400 yard run and then and then slow down and um, about first, I mean, it's the most powerful car I've ever driven in my life, you know so the first half a dozen runs is my eyes were as big as dinner
Andrew Sinclair:plates you know, yeah, I had the shakes and yeah, it was like wow, but by about run number eight or nine, you know, just a just a little short little run, I was like wow, this thing wants to go. I just want to pull another gear. It was such a cool feeling About run number 10, we broke the quick change. But you know, in fairness, it was how we bought the componentry, you know, like the stuff, like the diff, and that we'd bought it in 2015 when we first started. So you know, technology had moved on to 19. And so we found out, yeah, there's an upgraded shaft, you know, for the quick change. So we put that in and then we took the car back, stripped it all back down again, got it all final painted In 2020,. We had a launch of the car, had a whole lot of people around, we had everything booked. We had 70 supporters coming with us big supporters club it was huge had a travel agent just about full time on all the people.
Allison Volk Dean:You had 70 supporters coming with you to the Salt Flats in 2020 oh my gosh.
Andrew Sinclair:So we had our big launch and it was about mid, early February, I think you know, and the world was a great place and we were all excited and it was all going to happen, oh yeah, and then kaboom yeah, yeah, shoot March 2020,. The whole world changed.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, yeah, shoot, Wow. So it got put on hold for a year or two. Three yeah three.
Andrew Sinclair:Which is sort of going back, that's. I bought the. You know we went later travel or anything like that, and so it's like what are we going to do? So I ended up buying a TA2, which is a class it's a Howe chassis from USA here, a standard class that's run all around the world, basically pretty much. So I bought one of those just as an interim measure, which is why I stopped the muscle car racing as well. So, but yeah, so we had to just sit there on our laurels for a couple of three years.
Allison Volk Dean:And so what was it that you bought? I'm sorry, you said.
Andrew Sinclair:It's called a TA2. So you have them here, they race them. So ours is a Howe chassis, which in New Zealand we only have. Howe there's about. I think you have five chassis manufacturers in the US who make the standard chassis for the class.
Allison Volk Dean:But they raced all over the world. So it's just a different type of racing then. No road course still, it's still road course, just a different type of car.
Andrew Sinclair:So it looks like a sort of a current NASCAR sort of in terms of shape, but it's got a four-speed dog box, a winter quick change and we're all running the same LS engines and yeah, so it's a standard. It's in Europe and Asia and America and Australia and New Zealand.
Allison Volk Dean:So you kept yourself busy. Yeah, yeah, kept my hand in in effect?
Andrew Sinclair:Well, I didn't. At the time, none of us knew that we'd ever be travelling again Right right, because obviously we're a tiny little nation at the bottom of the South Pacific, we basically have to fly everywhere we go, so airports were a major problem. So yeah anyway. So we were sitting there ready to go and we got to 2023, we were allowed to travel again, so everything was ready. So here we come, yeah.
Allison Volk Dean:Darn it. So you come out to Bonneville in 2023. But before, oh, and is this okay? So you come, but is this when you met everybody in 2023? Yeah, okay, I want to hear about that, though, really quickly. Okay, in 17.
Andrew Sinclair:So, yeah, we've jumped past that. Yeah, that's all right.
Allison Volk Dean:We can go back, so that's quite a good story too, yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:So in 2017, we were here and I'd been walking the pits all day and you know what it's like when you're and probably dumb Kiwi I was probably in flip-flops and I was knackered. I was really tired at the end of the day and Mandy had been over to the Save the Salt trailer and she'd talked to this lady at the Save the Salt trailer and had convinced her to come to the gala. Obviously, it was the Wednesday of Speed Week, the two-club dinner.
Andrew Sinclair:So she's come back to me and said oh, we're going to this Gala makes it sound way too fancy Okay. Yeah, so we're coming to the gala. I said, no, we're not. No, no, I'm not in the two-club. I haven't done anything yet, I'm not going. And you know what happens when a husband and wife have a disagreement the husband ends up losing.
Allison Volk Dean:I got these tickets. We are going, we are going.
Andrew Sinclair:Okay. So I was actually sort of embarrassed, you know, because just to go there when I don't deserve to be there, sort of deal, anyway. So we walk in the door at the Nugget there, and then I go well, what does this lady look like? And Mandy goes oh, I can't really remember. Well, next thing, this person's up at the very front of the room waving her arms around you see and it was Mel Nish and it was like, oh yeah, okay that's her, yeah, that's her.
Andrew Sinclair:So we go over and that was our introduction to the Nish family.
Allison Volk Dean:Aren't you glad you listened to Mandy? Absolutely, she was 100% correct.
Andrew Sinclair:I will put my hand up now and say it's been the most amazing meeting and meeting of a wonderful group of people that we've ever had in our lives.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, and I think with the two club, I've heard multiple people say that like, oh, I don't deserve to go, and it's really what it is is to recognize the new two club members. That's all that event is really for. It's not even I mean, it's a little bit about the current members, but it's just to recognize new members. I think it's great for people who are interested in racing or yeah, who want to go or you know like are interested in becoming members of the Tube Club, to go see it and see how it is.
Andrew Sinclair:For sure. And the other thing, I find that the history of it too, though, the guys standing around and women in that room who have achieved so much, you know, and their household names in motorsport componentry and that sort of stuff, and you just have access to them, just standing right there and you can.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, it's great. So yeah. So that was our very first meeting and obviously you know Larry I don't think you were at the head table then, but Larry was at the head table so yeah. So, along with the Nushas, we met the Valks, and it's just snowballed from there. It's been an incredible journey.
Allison Volk Dean:Oh, that's so fun, cool. Yes, so yeah. No, in 2017, I wouldn't have been. I was kind of partially helping run. I was probably running the club at the time, like me and Angie were kind of sharing duties and I would have been in charge of that event at that year, so I was probably busy running around.
Allison Volk Dean:Yes, um, okay, so that. So you meet Mel and and so in 20 and and Jeff and and they, they. That's been helpful to know them in terms of when you, you know, just logistically setting Helpful will be the biggest understatement in the world.
Andrew Sinclair:I can't imagine having done what we have done without the help of the niches, especially in the Volks. You know it's been it's just been an incredible journey with the family group and yeah, we talked about it the other day the boys and just imagine if we didn't have the shop and we didn't have that and we didn't have that and we didn't know that and we didn't know that.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, you guys, you got a lot of knowledge just in how things operate there. So, okay, so 2023, it comes around and you guys have it, and, of course, then we get to Speed Week. So 2023,.
Andrew Sinclair:We decided and Jeff said look, speed Week's a really big event. You know, the salt has been a bit of a feed. Why don't you come for World of Speed and World Finals? Let's do that one. So I listened to him, and so we.
Allison Volk Dean:so we came over and and that's right, because we did have a little bit of a, but you were here, right? No, we went for a speed week.
Andrew Sinclair:No, we know we flew just a few days before okay, wheel to speed.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, well, actually. And so we're sitting at home. I think we had our bags packed, ready to go. The crew had already left. They were up and doing a little bit of touristy stuff in denver. Get the call from Jeff. It's cancelled. Oh man, what are we going to do? Like the car was already here sitting in the niche car park, the container, what are we going to do? So it's like, oh, we've just got to do it, yeah, we've just got to come. So we came and did tourist stuff, obviously, went out and stood at knee-deep water at the end of the road and stuff like that, and you know such is life, Stared off into the distance Like so close?
Andrew Sinclair:So then we did touristy stuff for a few weeks and, to be fair, that's been a really cool part of what we've done. You know, we've gone north, south west and, and, um and done some really fun things. I mean, I'd obviously much rather be racing at the salt, but um, we've, we've, we've seen parts of this part of america that we absolutely love. You know, it's been such a lot of fun and we really love small town america and and the and the different sites we can see so yeah so yeah, so that's that was.
Andrew Sinclair:That was a lot of fun. And then, so obviously, the salt started drying out, and then we all started getting keen in between you know, and we actually snuck the car out for a photo shoot on a trailer and just did photos and stuff like that and it was starting to look good.
Andrew Sinclair:You know, the boys were all there ringing up. So right, get the streamliner ready. It's actually it's coming. Good, you know. And where were we? We were in. Were we in Tahoe? In between, we were ready to come back for world finals and guess what?
Allison Volk Dean:Right right again.
Andrew Sinclair:It's cancelled again, so it's like yeah, yeah, Anyway but on the positive side of that we got to do the tourist things and also got to practice the logistics side of stuff and learning. And there was no pressure of the racing because I know what the pressure of racing added this year.
Allison Volk Dean:Oh yeah, Just logistically getting it here, getting it to. Because you use the there's a shop. You just have a shop that you get access to. There's a shop. The niches have a shop that you get access to.
Andrew Sinclair:So we built a 40 foot container because obviously my planning back in 15 is we wanted to come here but also go to Lake Gardiner, which is obviously a whole lot closer to where we live but probably twice as hard logistically to get to, and there's nothing there. So we wanted to be completely self-sufficient. So I didn't want to get to year 8 or 10 of doing this racing and go, gee, I wish I had a better shade, or gee, I wish I had a better system for doing that. So, um, we sort of went in at the front end. So, yeah, so I'm set up in the 40 foot container.
Andrew Sinclair:It's got a kitchen in the front, oh it's rad, the container's rad works really well, you know um, and obviously decent canopy to go under and all that sort of stuff.
Allison Volk Dean:Oh, a canopy that can handle a microburst at the salt flats, which is impressive, yeah it was.
Andrew Sinclair:Actually there was plenty of easy ups who were destroyed and the canopy was still there, so it was really good. So yeah, so that's you know. The logistics of getting that into Nish's and Andy and Jeff have been great, you know. Letting me just put the container in Andy's car park which he continually reminds me about. So yeah, so that was a good learning curve for us in 23, even though it was frustrating.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah yeah, okay. And then that leads us up to this year 2024.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, wow, what a year eh, did you guys?
Allison Volk Dean:go back and make any changes or anything, or just kind of like left it.
Andrew Sinclair:Oh yeah, we had a few. Well, you know, we thought we'd pickled the motor properly and stuff like that and we thought we'd protected it. But the salt is its own thing, isn't it? So we had a little bit of engine damage from salt and stuff. Mandy's writing me a note here.
Allison Volk Dean:You can just say it, Mandy.
Andrew Sinclair:Actually no, the other thing was, yeah, the Nish has put on a barbecue and events, and so two of the biggest things on the car side of things was we had one night or actually BJ was there, so BJ Birkdahl a couple of nights, and then we had Tom Birkland there one night as well. Come in and just stand around the car and just talk about stuff and talk about minimums and rules.
Allison Volk Dean:Oh, like explain it to you guys, kind of.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, well, for me it was just like look, you know, here's the, here's the class record, here's what the fastest car in your chassis class has done. Here's, here's probably where it's heading. If I was going to go that fast in that car, this is what I would do, and so. So between, at separate times, basically both of basically both of them came up with the same safety additions that they would make Well in excess of the rule book, but when they explained stuff to us it was a no-brainer. So, yeah, we did go back and make a number of changes. Safety related to the car.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, that was a fun barbecue too. That was great. Yeah, that was a fun barbecue too. That was great. Yeah, it was good yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:Another example of the hospitality and the welcomeness of the niches?
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, they're great people. So you made a few changes that way. So what changes did you make?
Andrew Sinclair:So probably the major one was we put some and that was probably from BJ after Lisa Celio's crash, you know. Oh yeah, that we put some big skid plates up under the front of the car in the air dam. So if we did lose a tyre or get a flat tyre or whatever debris the tyre goes flat the car would actually just drop down onto a couple of skid plates and not the rim. They were built so the rim wouldn't dig in. Okay, yeah, so that was quite a change to the front of the car.
Allison Volk Dean:We made a big so the rim wouldn't dig into the tyre.
Andrew Sinclair:No, the rim wouldn't dig into the salt. So it would actually it would sledge Like a sledge rather than actually digging in and tipping it over. Okay, gotcha, that was major and then a big scatter shield around the supercharger. So if we did lose a supercharger it wouldn't take out all the fuel system and everything. A few other more minor changes to how the window net worked and stuff like that. But everything takes time and money, so yeah. So Bic worked away on the car and we brought it back with those changes.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay, and so you bring it out here for 2024. And how long does it take for it to get over here from the container?
Andrew Sinclair:It's three weeks on the ship, so all the ones that come out of New Zealand run up to Seattle first and then back down to Oakland. Okay, okay, so you come out of Seattle when you get here no it gets unloaded at Oakland and then it gets driven across, not in Oakland, california. Sorry, it's the O and the A.
Allison Volk Dean:So it goes to Oakland and then you have somebody pick it up and bring it here. Okay, so three weeks and a few days.
Andrew Sinclair:Yep, yep. And two day touch wood, the custom cider thing, and all that's been fine, so it's worked really well. So, yeah, a day and a half sort of across to here, and then we get to have a lovely local man called George Montgomery who picks it up for us on a slide trailer and brings it to the race shop.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, so, and then he brings it from Seattle or from Oakland.
Andrew Sinclair:No, Intermountain brings it from Oakland to Salt. Lake City, and then George gets it and brings it to the race shop. Oh, and George brings it from Salt Lake City to the salt, and then salt back to Salt Lake City in between, Okay and then.
Allison Volk Dean:So that's kind of the logistics of how you get it back and forth and then. And so how soon do you guys get out here before the races?
Andrew Sinclair:So we're normally here a couple of three days um you know, before the races.
Andrew Sinclair:So it sort of takes us a couple of days. Well, the first, obviously, when we get it shipped over. It's just got no fluids in it whatsoever, so you know oil, water, anything. So probably the very first time, when later it's probably more of a three-day exercise to be completely ready, and when we break it down at this end that we've just done, it's probably another three-day exercise, but the ones in between when we're just running back and forth to the salt, it's probably only two days of clean. Obviously there's a day of cleaning chucked in, there, isn't there and you guys like it clean.
Allison Volk Dean:That's been amazing, very impressive.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, no matter how much we clean it, we pull it out and do something with it. And there's some more. There's some more salt. The salt grows, yeah, I reckon.
Allison Volk Dean:So you guys get to the salt. What was going through? Tech like the first time.
Andrew Sinclair:That was pretty good actually. I mean, obviously we were lucky. We had, during the build of the car, we had Kiwi Steve, whose parents lived in Napier, which is basically halfway down the country, and he'd fly into Auckland to see his parents and actually on the way past he'd call into Bic's race shop where he was building the car him to see his parents and actually on the way past he'd call him to Bic's race shop where he was building the car.
Andrew Sinclair:So he could just show him what we're doing and how we're doing it. So there was a top official who knew a lot about the car.
Allison Volk Dean:That's nice.
Andrew Sinclair:Bob Ellis was at the time living in Cambridge and he'd pop over a couple of times as well, so we could also get somebody to look at it and say, well, I think you probably should do this or that or whatever. So that whole process was understood by people in the CTA.
Allison Volk Dean:That's really nice. Yeah, lucky.
Andrew Sinclair:So no, tech was fine. It was good Nerve-wracking obviously because you've got people looking at it, probably more for BIC than me. Me, because my answer would be oh gee, I don't know ask Bic.
Andrew Sinclair:Where's such and such. But Bic was good, he in the final assembly took a whole lot of photos, so he's got a file of tech photos basically. So you can't see it now because the seat's in the way or whatever, but here's a picture of it, you know. So the tech guys can be confident that it is in the car and has been done.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, okay Well, did anything kind of surprise you about any of it?
Andrew Sinclair:Or was there anything that was…. Do we get into controversy or?
Allison Volk Dean:not Well, you drive first before you get into controversy, right? Do you set a record before you get into controversy? Or not set a record, but qualify.
Andrew Sinclair:Qualify. The controversy was obviously our rear spillplates during tech.
Allison Volk Dean:Oh, this is during tech During tech.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, they looked at them and they ummed and they ahed and Bic stood there with the rule book with them and obviously all these times you know, we think we're right and they think hard and Bic stood there with the rule book with them and obviously all these times we think we're right and they think they're right. But we passed tech and went through, and this is the rookie learning thing about how this process works. You know, like we don't know what we don't know, so we just carried on as we were.
Allison Volk Dean:But tech's kind of just there to make sure you're safe more than so they say more than anything it gives. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah but that's okay.
Andrew Sinclair:You know, like I, I this journey, I I want to get to a point where I can say that I've been through every, every single life experience out there that we have you know and have to do it.
Andrew Sinclair:I don't want to have anything given to me for free. So this was just part of that journey. So, yeah, did my licenses. That was another learning. I have a GPS Speedo which had been working absolutely perfectly, and so my very first license went out and the Speedo stopped working. So because we hadn't I hadn't sat there and I knew approximately what my RPM should be. You know the first. You know the D license 150,. I was about five grand, you know in third gear.
Andrew Sinclair:So you know I did about that and I was coming one mile an hour over. So but lucky Dallas, your brother, who's been our fantastic push truck driver he's amazing he came with me and we had a talk to Nick and I did everything else right. You know, I pulled the chute the right time, turned out the right way and everything else. So Nick sort of looked at me and frowned at me and says, all right, well, don't do it again. So yeah, the licensing runs were all good, yeah, without any drama. I guess the only drama for us was the queues. You know the amount of competitors and that very first one.
Allison Volk Dean:The lines is what he meant yeah, sorry, no, no, you can say queues. I'm just clarifying. Yeah, kiwi talk.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, especially that first one. It was a bit of a mix-up at the start line and there was about three or four of us who actually got put in our gear and put in the car and we were sitting in there for like three-quarters of an hour and my cool suit had stopped working Another salt gremlin, which we've fixed since, but man, it was hot, I mean we've— it was extremely hot. Yeah, yeah, Talking for us, the Celsius at 47 degrees. I've never been anywhere near that in my life.
Andrew Sinclair:Oh, really, and for sitting in a car. It's an hour in the suit and the helmet oh yeah, it's miserable.
Allison Volk Dean:I was just about done, yeah, yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:And, as we saw through the week, you know, even when locals start falling over from heat stress you know it's hot, it was very hot.
Andrew Sinclair:That was the single type of the car was. It was fine, you know, but just the heat and the lines. So, anyway, it's another part of that journey of having to experience every single part of what's going on. So, yeah, so we got through that and then we started sort of you know, giddy up which it says on the back of the car, started getting into it a bit more and then we started sort of you know giddy up which it says on the back of the car started getting into it a bit more.
Andrew Sinclair:That's true, and yeah. So then well, let's have a look at my note here. We went 240 for my A licence and then on the AA licence I qualified as well, so into impound.
Allison Volk Dean:Oh, you qualified, and what's the record on that?
Andrew Sinclair:So the record we're chasing is 249. 249.
Allison Volk Dean:I think 0.192 by memory Okay, and so you qualify at 250, okay.
Andrew Sinclair:Yep 251,. I think on that one, oh 251, okay, yep, for your AA. Yep, and so into impound for the first time.
Allison Volk Dean:And that's where that little controversy about the rear spill plates comes. That's where people question you.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, it comes back into play so you know, we still believed we were correct, but the officials had another view. So that's fine, that's how the cookie crumbles. So the boys? So we took it out of impound, so back out of impound Back out of impound back under the cover and the boys did an amazing job of a Kiwi number eight wire bodgy job on the wing. It didn't look as good as it could because obviously we had quite a gap between the rear wing and the spool plates now.
Andrew Sinclair:But anyway, that's how it had to be, went back out the next morning and qualified again faster.
Intro:So it was good.
Andrew Sinclair:It was good. I think that was partially the attitude of the driver. Maybe I don't know. So, yeah, back into impound again for the second time. So we were probably looking back.
Allison Volk Dean:I probably didn't appreciate and not the last.
Intro:Yeah not the last either.
Andrew Sinclair:What a great achievement that was. You know, when you're in the middle of it, it's man, it's the hardest place. Temperature, adrenaline. You know it's sucking everything out of you completely.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:So yeah, friday we went for a record run and there's probably three or four reasons, but I just didn't go as quick. I'd been running on course two the whole time over to course one for the Friday and it was a bit rutted and I saw it. I saw the state of the track ahead of me and probably wasn't rolling onto the throttle as well as I should have been because I was seeing what was ahead of me.
Andrew Sinclair:But the car actually went through it really nicely. So in hindsight if I'd have probably turned around and done it again, I would have gone better. But anyway, shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, and you're learning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, linespeed learner, yeah, exactly.
Andrew Sinclair:You got it so yeah, so that was Speed Week.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, so you qualified twice, but you didn't. The first time you got kicked out of impound and then the second time you just didn't get it quite back it up. Yep, so, and those lines are so long you just couldn't get in at least.
Andrew Sinclair:Well, that was a Friday and I think we were probably spent yeah, yeah, we were done by the time you got.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, yeah, so you didn't get Okay, so now you yeah, that you do.
Andrew Sinclair:You just are kind of like and then you know, Right, well, it was that, and my crew had been out in those conditions for that period of time and I just couldn't physically hardly do it myself, let alone make it.
Allison Volk Dean:At the end of that minute, you couldn't even think anymore, you just couldn't even.
Andrew Sinclair:You were just like done.
Intro:Yeah toast.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, okay, so you guys go and you guys fly back to New Zealand.
Andrew Sinclair:Yep, yep. So we flew back home a couple of weeks of work and then we flew back for World of Speed. Okay, by then we had a few little changes to the car that Bic had been obviously all night. He thinks about it and what he can do and a few little tweaks and all that sort of stuff.
Andrew Sinclair:So we played with the car a little bit again and came out at World of Speed. And it was. You know, the car was good. It's funny you start doing things without realizing the impact on other things. You know, and so we were making the car better in one way, but what we didn't know was that we were probably affecting it another way.
Allison Volk Dean:You, because a vh 1972 valiant charger never been 250 miles an hour oh yeah, ever so, yeah, oh, that's so, yeah, yeah, oh, that's cool, I didn't yeah really cool, okay, so, uh, so you, you guys are kind of tweaking it and playing with it, seeing how it changes things. Yeah, you never know where it changes one thing. It's all kind of connected, yep yep, so so I didn't.
Andrew Sinclair:So the first run in world of speed, um, we, we were just under, we're 246, but you know I was okay, right, oh so we, you know, we got a four-day event. We're, we're good to go. Uh, and because we obviously had those timing, the timing light issues with the, with that event yeah so yeah, so there was big queues again, so we only really got one run per day and went out the next day and qualified again. So back into impound and I thought, oh, we're getting pretty good at this impound thing.
Andrew Sinclair:The boys got organised pretty quickly and I sort of, you know, been looking at the data and I knew sort of what I had to do in terms of what my improvements were required. So, yeah, went out the next morning and got into it hard because Larry Lawson, you know the crew chief from Royal Purple Streamliner, he calls me Pussyfoot Come on Pussyfoot.
Intro:What are you doing?
Andrew Sinclair:So I got into it pretty hard and knowing too that you know five mile an hour at the first gear change is five mile an hour all the way through, just about you know it's hard to get it back, so I got into it hard, First to second shift. Kaboom turned my driveshaft into a pretzel. Larry, look what you made me do. Yeah, so that was gutting, but such is life. We've broken lots of stuff in our motorsport careers, so it was just another piece of the componentry to break.
Allison Volk Dean:Okay, and that was World of Speed. You guys got that, gosh. That just seems like that was just yesterday that that happened, so you guys got that. All yeah, so we got it fixed.
Andrew Sinclair:I mean we had to get in line because lots of other people had broken drivetrain componentry on that event too.
Andrew Sinclair:So that's sort of telling you something. The grip was really good and everything. So, yeah, back all the parts and the universals and stuff. And in hindsight, when we looked at it too, we'd hurt the rear output shaft of the gearbox. So we couldn't. Even if we'd had got another drive shaft somewhere, we wouldn't have been able to run again because that gearbox had to come out and new output shaft and stuff like that. But anyway, so Cease at J&M Innovative, another Jeff Nish volunteer, but he put the gearbox back together for us while we were traveling. So we did it. In between those two we did a week and, really lucky, flew into Memphis and caught the edge of that hurricane it wasn't too bad, just rain had a beautiful week, went to the IndyCar race, went to the a week later the Bristol NASCAR race, and got out of there and then, man, look what's happened to the place now.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, man, it's just horrible.
Andrew Sinclair:Terrible, yeah, yeah.
Allison Volk Dean:You guys are lucky.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, really lucky.
Allison Volk Dean:So we didn't even know, you know like didn't even realize that that sort of stuff could happen up there. Yeah, you don't think about it hitting and affecting right there quite as bad, yeah, but yeah, well, okay, so you get back from your travels, back east, well, southeast, and then it's World Finals. Yep, and what happens during World Finals?
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, so World Finals. The car was really mechanically performing really well, but I was having just such trouble myself at the end of the run, you know, sort of once the sort of car was getting up to about 240. And so the first run, I thought.
Allison Volk Dean:What was happening?
Andrew Sinclair:It would just start like everybody's car does. It would start sort of wandering on me, but it would wander more than and I've only, you know, by this time, I've had 10 runs on the salt. You know I've done 250 like three times and so I'm still learning about. You know everybody's telling me, just follow the car and all that sort of stuff and and I mean I know what it's like in in in terms of a car was was lack of grip and that sort of stuff for my road course racing and that we do a lot of wet racing in New Zealand it's always raining, um, but I sort of, I sort of thought to myself it's, it's, is it me or is it the car? You know, like you, you second guess yourself about, about what it's doing, so run, and it was only 2.35, and it was really quite squirrely and.
Andrew Sinclair:I had to pull the chute because I thought I was going to go around. Then the next run, I went. No, the first one, that's right. What happened I actually? It went sideways on me and I went around the wrong side of the four-mile marker. I got it. It went completely across the track and outside the marker. So I didn't hit the marker, which is good. And then I've come back in and got back on the track, but my run is done, obviously because I haven't gone through the four. So that was that one. And then the next run, I came out. The second run, I came out and man, it just snapped on me real quick, you know like 250. It just and it's crazy to watch the video, and I would have sworn that I went left first, but watching the video, it obviously went right a little bit first, but it just went back back to the left.
Andrew Sinclair:So quickly and so round, I went and joined the famous spinner club you got your spin pen.
Allison Volk Dean:Yes, I did.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but again, that's another part of the journey and another thing to experience. So, yeah, but it spins a long time at 250, doesn't?
Allison Volk Dean:it, oh yeah, even with the shoots out, I can't even imagine.
Andrew Sinclair:So yeah. So then we sat and again, this is where Jeff and the guys come into it, because, like any motorsport thing, it's really easy to do stuff by committee and you've got to be really tough about not doing it by committee because you'll get 10 different opinions on what's going on. So Jeff was really good and sat down with Pick and you know between the two of them, said, okay, look, this is what we think the car is doing, went back through some old data and stuff like that and yeah, okay, all right, I think that's probably right. So made a couple of changes. Yeah, we, obviously we can't do anything um aero wise to the car because of the a the classroom and b the time we have available. Um, so it was all mechanical stuff for the car and um, so I went back out on the next run and qualified again and had my best best ever exit, so speed, um, so that was. That was really pleasing for me as a driver, just to give me confidence that, okay, I know I can actually.
Allison Volk Dean:Came back.
Andrew Sinclair:I can roll the throttle on through that period when I've been sitting there trying to control the car.
Allison Volk Dean:You know, yeah, and what was the speed?
Andrew Sinclair:I qualified at 250, but I went out at exit at 255. Okay, so I knew I was actually still. For the first time I was still accelerating, you know.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:So yeah, and I was also. I was 20 miles an hour down on my earliest speeds because I was still, mentally, I think, trying to look after the drivetrain, you know, and just think I could get it back. But when I sat and looked at it I thought, well, no, I can't get it. It's really hard. I did but I had to work at it. So let's make the job easier for myself and get that 20 mile an hour back again. So I went out the next day on a record run. The track was just beautiful and just got into it 20 mile an hour, up on the two, the two and a quarter and the three. So it was getting there and then, boom, popped the head gasket. Yeah.
Allison Volk Dean:So bugger, oh, shoot, so and then that was kind of the last part of the meet right, that was, that was, that was um um tuesday morning yeah, so she's she's all over. Red rover yep oh, so what did you think? Um, I mean, that is hard because it's you were close to getting that record, getting that red hat, and but, um, that's racing and again.
Andrew Sinclair:I say again it's part of that journey. You've got to deal with the highs and the lows. You've got to deal with officials, you've got to deal with weather, you've got to deal with crew. You've got to everything, and when you do achieve something, it's all more worthwhile.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, yep, absolutely. Well, that's awesome. Anything else that you want to? Anything else, did you get all the things that you wanted to?
Andrew Sinclair:I just I can't reiterate enough the assistance and the friendship from the Nishas and the Valks, you know, bj and OP and Tom Birkland, everybody's so helpful. There's probably people I have failed to mention, but just awesome, just the most awesome group of people that I've ever met in my life, you know.
Allison Volk Dean:And the wonderful assistance from your New Zealand people too that come here your crew that comes here with you.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, I have some great crew that have been in and out. Obviously, I've got Bic, who's built the car and he's a fantastic engineer and everything else, and half the time he doesn't sleep because he's laying there thinking about it at night. I've got great engine builders back in New Zealand Landon Motorsport who build all my motors for all my cars now because they do such a fantastic job. So a couple of mad scientists, Dean and Warren, but they produce a really good engine. So I'm really happy with that and obviously my wife.
Allison Volk Dean:Yes.
Andrew Sinclair:Who is? Yeah, I don't know. You couldn't do it if you didn't have the support of your spouse.
Allison Volk Dean:And she's a racer. She's a racer as well.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah, she raced her own car for a number of years. She had a couple of big crashes, one in particular in Australia. So she's lucky she's still here with us, yeah, but yeah, I mean the support of your wife is just critical, so I couldn't have done it. But yeah, she's genetically from a racing family anyway, so that side of it comes naturally. Her brother, paul, who got us on the 2002 journey he's actually here crewing this weekend as well.
Andrew Sinclair:And Mandy's sister Lisa and her husband Graham. They're just fantastic as well. Just he's a jack of all trades.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:Where I'm a bit rough as guts and I just like wing stuff, you know, and make it up. Graham looks at it and makes sure it's done properly.
Allison Volk Dean:He's analytical? Yeah, he does.
Andrew Sinclair:So as a parachute packing team we're a really good team because I'm rough and ready and he makes sure I do it properly, yeah.
Allison Volk Dean:He a really good team because I'm rough and ready and he's he's make sure I do it properly.
Andrew Sinclair:So yeah he's kind of those still waters run deep. Yeah, well, cool. Well, thank you so much for taking the time. That was a great interview.
Allison Volk Dean:Thanks, alison and we'll see you in uh 2025. Yes, are you guys gonna be back? That was what I was gonna ask absolutely yeah.
Andrew Sinclair:yeah, we're not, we're not done. We've got, you know, our team GSD Okay.
Allison Volk Dean:Yeah, all right, your team is GSD.
Andrew Sinclair:Yeah.
Allison Volk Dean:Which stands for Get Shit. Done, all right, perfect, all right. We'll talk to you guys later, thanks, thanks, thanks for listening to Land Speed Legends.
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