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Norm Longfield – Quickest & Fastest FED in Australia
Report by Steve Thomas
Aussie front engine dragster history was made at 10.57 am on October 19th, 2008 at WSID when long-time racer Norm Longfield shook up the slingshot brigade by running the quickest et and highest speed for the breed ever seen on an Australian drag strip. Prior to this run the low ET for FEDs was held by West Aussie Steve McGuiness with a 6.455 and the speed honours, at 221.67, went to the late, great Steve Carbone.
Carbone had a long and successful career in the US, including winning the World Champion title, and came to Australia in 1970 as the driver for Larry Huff’s sensational ‘Soapy Sales’, thought by many to be the most beautiful dragster ever to grace an Aussie drag strip. During the tour of Oz Carbone put down numerous passes in the low sevens with speeds in excess of 210 mph, culminating with a fantastic 221.67 at Surfers Paradise on April 25th, the time being ‘only’ 7.31.
On December 2nd, 2006 at Kwinana for the Goldenstate Nationals Steve McGuinness was there in an effort to be the first Aussie slingshot pilot to break into the sixes, especially as the east coast FEDs had the chance to do so at the WSID Cruzin Nostalgia meet the following day. After a couple of frustrating years of trying, McGuinness got it all together and blitzed the Aussie FED record with a superb 6.478 at 207.37 mph. On 17th February, 2007 Steve reset the mark at 6.455.
Coming into WSID’s October Bracket Attack, Norm Longfield had one thing on his mind - to run any time that was quicker than Steve’s best. Norm’s beautiful ‘WW II’ slingshot was yet to make a complete full-powered pass, having previously suffered from mechanical gremlins, tyre shake or just plain getting out of shape on every pass.
After laying down another of his long, thick smokescreens the yellow and black digger rolled in to stage, the 426 JPI cackling beautifully. Even in the bright sunlight, you could make out the flames leaping from the zoomies and you just knew that Norm was on a mission. On the green, the monster launched straight and hard, heading for the traps as straight as an arrow with the big go pedal against the firewall. Everyone knew it was a great run, and waited for the result.
Then the scoreboard lit up – 6.128 at 225.33 mph - the quickest and fastest slingshot ever to cover an Aussie quarter mile, and on the one run. It also marked the first time the car had gone virtually the full 1320 feet under full power, having just started to fade before the finish line. And, as they say, the crowd went wild.
“We were there to finally better Steve’s 6.40s,” a jubilant Norm said. “The speed wasn’t quite so important but we wanted to run at least a 6.40 or dip into the 30s, anything to claim the ET mark. We tipped the can to 88.5 %, as close to 89 as we could get and she ran like a dream. This makes all of the team’s hard work worthwhile and I’m proud of every one of them.”
Incrementals on the run were a 1.080 60-footer, 4.074 at 194.21 mph at half-track and a 5.169 to the 1,000-foot mark.
Norm’s last run of the day saw the car go up in smoke just before the 60-foot mark but he kept the boot in, blazing the hides like it was 1966 and slewing from one side of the lane to the other until the blower let go, sending a piece of shrapnel through the car’s windshield. And Norm’s comment on that pass, while grinning like a Cheshire cat, “At least I kept it in the one lane!”
Looking back through the history of Aussie FED drivers’ best times and speeds, we have the following:
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Peter Dykes, driving the ex-Ash Marshall ‘Scorcher’, ran a fantastic 218.44 in 7.61 seconds on 1st April, 1972, which remained the fastest speed until Norm’s run.
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Alan Hussey ran a best ET of 7.05 on 9th March, 1974, the quickest FED pass until Steve McGuiness’ 6.478, and ran a best speed of 215.82 on 2nd December 197.
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Jim Read ran bests of 7.25 and 215.82 on 13th January, 1973.
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Ron Wanless, driving the ‘highchair’ car, ran a best of 7.29 and 213.76 on 27th June 1971.
Moving on to our current nostalgia racers, on 3rd November, 2007 Steve McGuiness upped his best speed mark to 216.86, Geoff Blake has best figures of 6.744 on 6th July, 2008 and 214.21 mph on 2nd May, 2008, and Roly Leahy ran his 6.924 at 198.59 on 17th August, 2008. Just two weeks prior to Steve’s history-making six, on 22nd November, 2006 Peter Duffy ran through for an oh-so-close 7.025 at 201.34 mph, while the other heavy hitter in FEDs, ‘AA’ Dave Armstrong, has recorded a best of 7.049 on 13th April this year and a best speed of 195.68 on 6th July.
Now, how long before a 5 and a 230…?
Breaking News!!! ‘AA’ Dave has just run new figures of 7.005 at 200.83 mph to join the ranks of Aussie 200 mph FEDs. This was done at the NDRA nostalgia meeting on 7th December, 2008 at WSID.
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