Merchant Family Racing

Merchant Family Racing

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Merchant Family Racing

Photos from Merchant Family Racing's post 16/08/2026

It’s been a very busy few weeks dealing with an issue that first appeared after the change to E85 and an external wastegate.

On every single pass down the track, at almost exactly 5700rpm in 4th gear — around 200km/h — the car would miss a few times, recover, and then continue on. And so began the parts cannon… 😂

We changed the brand and type of spark plugs, replaced all six coil packs, replaced the fuel pump, rewired the fuel pump with ridiculously heavy cable, and finally replaced the factory fuel pressure regulator with a higher-flow aftermarket unit.

None of it fixed the problem.

While I was busy throwing parts at it, Clint at ProFile Autosports + Tuning was doing plenty of work in the background, both on and off the dyno, making changes to the tune and trying to find something that explained what was happening.

I also made around 12 passes with a laptop sitting on the passenger seat, datalogging everything we could think of. The logs told us plenty, except unfortunately the one thing we actually wanted to know. All we could really confirm was that, yep… it was definitely missing at exactly the same point every single run. 🤦‍♂️

Friday night at Test & Tune I made another three passes with three different tunes.

Same result.

Luckily, I’d put the GoPro in the car pointing directly at the wideband air/fuel gauge and fuel pressure gauge.

When I got home Friday night, I was seriously contemplating not even running QDRC the next day. I sat down and went through the footage and finally spotted something we hadn’t been seeing in the logs:

The fuel pressure was dropping at exactly the same moment the car started missing.

💡 Fuel starvation.

Back to the track Saturday morning.

Normally I’d been running the car with around 3/4 of a tank of E85. This time I crammed as much fuel into it as I possibly could — basically until it was almost coming back out of the filler neck.

First qualifier, there wasn’t much point being gentle with it.

As the Kiwis would say, I decided to give it some jandal. 🇳🇿😂

Left in second and it felt strong, although not massively different. The 2–3 shift felt good.

Then came the moment I’d become very familiar with…

4th gear.

It shifted hard at 6500rpm.

And kept pulling.

No miss.

No stumble.

No surge.

Nothing.

It just kept accelerating all the way through the finish line.

10.61 @ 132mph. 🔥🔥🔥

Just 12 hours earlier, the best I could manage was a 10.9 @ 125mph.

To say I was over the moon would be an understatement. At the same time, I was slightly disappointed with myself that I hadn’t picked up the fuel starvation issue earlier. After weeks of chasing ignition, wiring, pumps, regulators and tuning, the answer turned out to be sitting right there in front of us.

It just wanted more fuel in the tank. 😂

I owe a massive thank you to Clint at ProFile Autosports + Tuning for sticking with it and trying everything possible to solve a problem that ultimately had nothing to do with his tune.

Also, a huge thanks to Steven Warren from Rabbit Racing - Real Street, Shane Shane from Grattan Racing 7845, and Tony Rogers for all the help and advice along the way. It’s very much appreciated.

As for QDRC, we finished the day with 1 win from 3 races, and I’ve jumped from 13th to 10th in the standings.

After the last few weeks, I’ll absolutely take that.

10.61 @ 132mph, the car is finally running clean through 4th, and we’re heading in the right direction again.

All in all, a pretty bloody successful weekend. 🏁

Signaco

Real Street Drag Racers Australia
Pool Equipment Brisbane

Monsta Torque

26/07/2026

Yesterday was a full day of racing, starting with a private track hire before rolling straight into the Archer's Street Series.

The private hire was excellent. With only 10 cars sharing the track over two hours, we managed to get plenty of passes in and collect some valuable data on the annoying 4th gear issue that's been driving us (and everyone trying to help us) mad. We've now got a good batch of logs to send to the team at Profile Autosports + Tuning, so hopefully the data points us in the right direction.

Our mates at Rabbit Racing - Real Street were on the trailer before racing began with a transmission that was leaving more oil on the ground than in the pan. Hopefully it will be fixed soon

Then it was time for the Street Series...

We were dialled in at 10.75 against a BT-50 dialled at 17.17, which meant I got the privilege of sitting on the start line for about 6½ seconds watching him disappear into the distance. Apparently 6½ seconds is long enough for me to contemplate life, wonder what's for dinner... and have a quick nap.

By the time I remembered I was actually supposed to be racing, the Christmas tree had long since stopped being interesting and I'd managed a spectacular 0.323 reaction time.

Needless to say, another first-round exit.

We'll keep plugging away. We've got a couple of theories, but rather than pretending we're smarter than we are, we'll leave the final diagnosis to the gurus. Hopefully the logs tell the story and we can finally put this 4th gear gremlin behind us.

The car keeps showing flashes of what it's capable of, so we're not giving up yet. We'll be back once we've got some answers... and next time I'll try to stay awake on the start line.

Thanks to Grattan Racing 7845 for the video. This is an angle very rarely seen by the driver. You can even hear the little dummy spit just before the line.





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Photos from Merchant Family Racing's post 21/07/2026

A long awaited delivery arrived today.

The gold is from the QDRC last October at Willowbank, and the silver from the Real Street Road Trip to the NSW Championship in Sydney in March this year.

It has been 39 years since I first faced the tree at Willowbank as a teenager so it feels pretty good to finally be able to say I have a gold Xmas tree.

Really wish my dad was still around to show him.

Signaco

Pool Equipment Brisbane
Real Street Drag Racers Australia

04/07/2026

QDRC Update

Unbelievably, our day managed to get even worse.

We went into the first round of racing already knowing the car was going to have an issue in 4th gear, so I dialled the car accordingly. Unfortunately, I handed that race away with a sleepy 0.15 reaction time. No big deal—we still had another two races to go.

Then came the second round against Stacey Gauldie .

It seems like we've been trying to race each other forever, but something always gets in the way. Last time the rain arrived before we could race. This time, as we were called forward from the staging lanes, I moved the shifter into Drive... and nothing happened.

I put it back into Park and tried again. That's when I realised there was no resistance at all—the shifter was completely loose.

A common problem with Falcons is the small plastic bush at either end of the shifter cable failing. When it goes, the cable either pops off the transmission lever or, as it did this time, off the shifter itself.

A huge thank you to the other racers who jumped in to help. Thanks to them, we were able to get the car back to the pits and safely onto the trailer.

If you turn the volume up on the video, you can hear exactly what the engine is doing. The run starts in 2nd gear, shifts into 3rd, then 4th. After a few seconds in 4th it has a noticeable hiccup before it clears up and starts pulling again. The data logs show the throttle never moves off wide open the whole run.

The yellow marks on the wall where it shifts into 4th are the half-track marker, and the next yellow mark just after the hiccup is the 1000-foot marker, which gives you an idea of where the problem occurs.

The good news? We think we're closing in on it.

A new fuel pump is on the way, along with a set of new shifter bushes. We'll get everything sorted, bolt it back together, and have another crack soon.

Signaco

Pool Equipment Brisbane
Royal Precision Lubricants

Rabbit Racing - Real Street

Monsta Torque
ProFile Autosports + Tuning

Real Street Drag Racers Australia

04/07/2026

The day is not going to plan.

Our little stumble in 4th gear had gone, it’s now a huge miss and then it recovers.

A quick plug change after the first qualifying run didn’t fix it and I could not find anything else that may cause it.

I have come to the conclusion that the fuel pump is failing. A new pump and some more testing is on the cards.

I am running consistent 10.9 ETs so it hasn’t completely fallen over.

Huge thanks to Clinton from ProFile Autosports + Tuning for taking time this morning to ring and try to diagnose the issue.

Steven Warren
Rabbit Racing - Real Street

Signaco

ProFile Autosports + Tuning
Monsta Torque

Pool Equipment Brisbane

03/07/2026

Heading to Willowbank Raceway | Drag Racing's Finest for the QDRC today. Time to see if
our fuel pump wiring has fixed to issues we were having at the Winternationals.

If you can't get there, check out the live stream on the Overtaking Lane YouTube channel.

Signaco

Pool Equipment Brisbane
Royal Precision Lubricants

Monsta Torque
ProFile Autosports + Tuning

Photos from Merchant Family Racing's post 25/06/2026

A little QDRC prep today.

After tearing our hair out trying to work out what was causing the stumble in 4th gear at the Winternationals, I decided to go back to basics and check the fuel pump wiring.

Turns out the main power cables going in and out of the relay hadn't been crimped properly. As soon as I moved the wiring, the connection came apart.

It's amazing how a simple little issue like that can cause so much frustration and have you chasing all sorts of complicated theories.

The fuel pump wiring has now been rewired properly and tidied up, so hopefully we've found the culprit. While I was there, I upgraded the connection to the pump. The Walbro 525 pumps are known for heavy current draw. I've included a before and after photo.

As an added bonus, when I started the car afterwards, all the smoke stayed inside the wires where it belongs.

We'll find out next weekend at QDRC if we've finally solved the problem. Looking forward to getting back to the track and seeing what the car can do.

Signaco

Real Street Drag Racers Australia

17/06/2026

Our good mate Steven Warren has set up a page for his racing efforts.

Steve always supports us in our endeavours so let's support him. Please visit his page and follow him for updates.

You will probably get to see lots of photos of trophies 🏆 😜

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1NGLRuavkS/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Rabbit Racing - Real Street is now LIVE!!

Two years. Two trophies. One Goal.

Proud to kick off this page by celebrating consecutive Real Street wins at the Winternationals.

That started as a passion has been built through countless hours in the shed, dedication, determination, and the support of family, friends, and fellow racers.

This page will follow the journey, the car, the racing, and everything in between.

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Brisbane, QLD