My trusty iPhone rang and the caller ID indicated to me that it was Cory. I concluded that a blog entry was needed and I was right. So here I am, your humble guest blogger. Cory wanted me to update all of his Mac fan base as to what he was up to this week. He’s headed for the land down under!

Yup, Cory’s back in Australia for a 10-day stint driving a Top Fueler for Santo Rapisarda. Santo has been racing in Australia for over 40 years and is the owner of a successful business. His company is called Uplift Crane and it is the largest mobile crane company in Sydney. He has called on our very own Cory McClenathan to pilot his Top Fuel dragster down an Australian quarter-mile.

Cory was pretty excited when he told me about it on the phone. He misses being in the seat and is looking forward to the opportunity to race with Santo. Cory is accompanied by crew chief Tony Shortall on the trip to help with tuning duties on the dragster. I was hoping to get the nod to accompany him on the trip but seeing as how I can’t tune a dragster I’ll have to settle for a trip to Joliet for the upcoming Route 66 Nationals. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Cory will be racing in Chicago, too. How I will continue to type with my fingers crossed will be a slick accomplishment but if it will help get Cory a ride...

One major difference between the NHRA and Australian Top Fuel drag racing is that they still run a full quarter-mile in Australia. When Cory reminded me of that little tidbit I cautioned him to resist the temptation to lift at the 1000-foot. mark! He said that he it’s probably going to feel like the throttle is stuck when he crosses the finish line at the full 1320 feet. As most drag racing fans know, it only takes a fraction of a second to cover the last 320 feet but I’m sure it can feel a lot longer at 330 mph when the driver isn’t used to it.

Before we concluded our call I made Cory promise to send me some pictures from over there when he got the chance. Of course if I was with him he wouldn’t have to worry about taking pictures but I’m not with him, so I’m at his mercy for visual aids! As soon as he sends me some pictures, I promise to pass them on to all of you Mac fans out there. I haven’t been to any races this year yet so I don’t have any recent ones to share with you. So keep your fingers crossed (I’m still typing with mine crossed...) or whatever you can do to conjure a good mojo for Cory. I will keep you updated. In the mean time, if you hear a distant thunder from the land down under, it’s probably the sound of our own Cory Mac puttin’ an Aussie on the trailer!