YESSSSS!!!! We did it. Got the loan. The money (what's left of it anyway after a quick spending spree) is in the bank and ready to go to work. Tomorrow morning, the phone and fax lines will be working overtime ordering in the crank, rods, lifters, rockers, clutch and mag. Then another few thousand dollars worth of odds and ends and we'll be there. Remember how we used to talk about "nickel and dime" parts? ... well, now those "nickels" and "dimes" are "fiftys" and "hundreds". The price of going fast keeps going up quicker than the speeds, but what can you do other than whatever it takes to try keeping up with the fast guys?!?

By the way, I just remembered one "small" detail: Now that we've got all this "nuclear" stuff, we still have to figure out how to get it down the track. After all the trials and tribulations of the past year trying to put it together, that should be the easy part. Just like the "bleacher bums" are so fond of saying (and saying and saying)... "what could be easier? just stand on it for five seconds and keep it straight". Think it's really that simple? Trust me (for once); Nothing is as easy as it may appear, and driving a Top Alcohol car is definitely NOT easy. Even a "girlie" car like my rear engine dragster is quite a challenge. And finding the tune-up for our wedge head combination will be another big job.

Now that the car is definitely going to be finished, where do we go from there? Well, a two-page article in this weeks' DRAGSTER Australia outlines some very ambitious plans for the Northern Thunder car during the 1999 Aussie racing season. Unfortunately, most of those plans were predicated on getting the car done months ago, and actually having enough money left over to ship it downunder and start running it down there.

Despite today's large infusion of funds, the plans outlined in D.A. are being put on temporary hold. The latest version has us shipping the car down at the end of Feburary, and arriving in early April. This will allow us plenty of time to shake the bugs (and spiders and snakes and wombats) out before the season-ending Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway (Brisbane) in June (1999). It's not the best way to start my downunder "career", by breaking commitments almost as soon as they appear in print, but arriving in Oz with an empty bank account and melted credit cards would be a sure route to disaster. Plus, it's an awfully long way to hitch-hike home from!!!

That's all for now, I've got to get busy spending all that "new" money, so until next time... remember, for all the news that fits (even if we have to invent it)... stay tuned to "What's New" at www.northernthunder.com