The Ford Guy Ready For Heartland
7/11/2006 - Magilton Racing

A fortnight ago at Geelong’s Avalon Raceway, the Magilton Racing Team encountered a problem with the fuel pump drive, which forced them to pack up early during hotlaps from the season opener. Consequently, ‘The Ford Guy’ himself failed to contest any laps under anger, but come this Saturday night (November 11) that will change when he lets loose on the wide open spaces of Moama’s Heartland Raceway.

The problem that forced the Fontana Automotive / Passlow Ford 26v Maxim out of action in the opening round of the SRA Super Sprint Series was quite simple as crew chief Melissa Magilton explains.

“The cam spud was worn, but we were led to believe it would be good for at least a meeting or two whilst we were waiting for a new one to come from the states, which unfortunately did not make it out in time.

“Everyone in captivity runs a shorter 9/16" and ours is way longer at nearly one and a half inches by 5/8". At Avalon Raceway we pushed off for hot laps and the old one spun and failed and that was it, because we didn’t have a spare of the correct size. We have always carried a new one and a half inches by 9/16", which suited the old motors, but the new motor has a larger thread size so the spare was useless,” said Melissa.

Since Avalon, the team have secured the appropriate sized cam spud plus a spare custom made courtesy of Roy Slater Engineering in Warrnambool. After some fine-tuning with the help of John Vogels, the Fontana Ford is now ready to go racing for season 2006-07.

“A huge thanks must go to Roy Slater for turning up a couple of cam spuds,” said Dave. “John Vogels came out on Saturday morning to set the timing properly whilst the motor was running and to recheck all was still well. We now have the confidence that the Fontana motor is running really well now, we are ready to tackle Heartland Raceway.”

For the second season in succession, Magilton Racing will exclusively utilise the quality Fontana Automotive designed and built engine for competition. This past season, the Magilton Racing outfit received the all-new alloy Ford 372ci motor from Joe Fontana of California in USA.

“The motor we have can do really good things there is no doubting it, we even won a heat at the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic and you need some serious quality mumbo to achieve that, when Premier is hooky ‘n fast,” Dave said.

“Heartland Raceway is one of the bigger tracks we will race on in our schedule and I’m really looking forward to stretching the legs of the Fontana motor and also allow my brain time to react between the turns!

“It’s very exciting for us as a team and also for the loyal army of Ford followers, who we hope can once again get behind us,” encouraged Dave.

This season the Magilton Racing Team will once again focus on some of the local shows – the SRA Super Sprint Series, the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic, the Victorian Championship and a favourite event the Easter Sprintcar Trail. Plans are also in place to head to Western Australia this season.

“We have some plans to head to the west and meet up with our friends Darren and Natalie Allen from WA,” Dave said. “We hope to spend over a week there taking in the Krikke’s Boys race at Bunbury and the King of Wings at the mighty Kwinana track.

“It looks awesome on the telly and I really just want to have a crack at racing on it, so by taking in both shows and with an ounce of luck I should get four nights racing in for my long haul over to the west,” Dave stated enthusiastically.

“Our schedule will deviate a little from previous seasons as our current goal is just to compete hard and fast. We want to get the car on the track as much as possible without too much fuss and hassle. Our main goals are about having fun and enjoying our Sprintcar racing, which I might add is a hobby for us, albeit an expensive one at times and we would hope to achieve the ‘fun’ element this season.

“We feel as though we can achieve some good results along the way this season. It’s all about having confidence and striking a comfortable rhythm for us, if we can get off to a good start this Saturday night at Heartland Raceway it will be a good foundation for the rest of the summer,” Dave said.

Ford fans are encouraged to get behind the Magilton Racing unit, beginning this Saturday night in the second round of the SRA Super Sprint Series at Moama’s Heartland Raceway.

Magilton Racing would like to thank the following sponsors for their support during the 2006-2007 summer of speed:
Passlow Ford of Warrnambool
Fontana Automotive of California U.S.A
Hammonds Paints of Warrnambool
Falk & Co. of Cobden, Timboon and Geelong

Release by Jarryd Stokes
0400 912 581
stokesy24@hotmail.com