5. My Christmas list is getting longer and longer

This week is going to be a big week for me I am seeing the nurse at the local doctors for a once over and to get my Blood Pressure checked, like most guys of a certain age I do suffer from Hyper tension which I will say is well controlled and if I get the OK then the keep fit and lose weight regime starts.

I have been in touch with the  "Wild-Bunch" via their Chairman "Crazy" Chris Hartnell, these guys run a class of drag racing machinery for nostalgia looking cars and altered's which I have been advised is a good place to start my racing career.

I may now have a car and a transporter but I still need a race suit and helmet and fire proof boots and gloves, yes Motorsport is dangerous these things are not cheap nor should they be seeing that my life will depend on them so I have put them on my Christmas wish list,

This list of mine is growing at an alarming rate, the fire suit is now on the list along with tools, generator, jacks, axle stands LOL but the funny thing is I have been given a guys name who deals with made to measure fire suits for DS Race-wear by both Ian Turburville and the secretary of the Wild-Bunch who I am told is a former owner of the car that I now own when it was called "RamraiderII" wonder if I will get a discount????? I think he had something to do with he building of the car as well I will find out later when I contact him.

RamRaider II

As it is at the moment

As you can see there has been a few detail changes over the years, now the other thing I am looking into is a name for the car, It was once called Ramraider Ian ran it as Young Blood as his daughter drove it , my brother thinks we should call her "Heaven's Toy" Heaven being my surname of course, but I'm not sure about that my wife came up with an idea for a name that so far everyone...apart from my brother likes and I have yet to have any negative comments about and that is.........

"Tight Fit"

4. Reality check

One of the things I decided to do once I had made the decision to go racing was to get fit, we all need an incentive to do things from time to time and mine is simple I have to be able to get in and out of the car without getting stuck, and I will admit that after stopping smoking  a few years ago I have let myself go a bit, so instead of walking the dogs today I jogged a bit, I say a bit as I didn't manage to get all the way round our usual route in fact I didn't even manage to get to the bottom of our road, I am now sitting at this PC with an aching back and knee support on and an ice pack on my ankle, so not only am I not fit and overweight but my body is falling apart as well, good job I have a few months to sort this out before the 2014 season starts...god this going to be painful, but worth it as my wife keeps telling me.

The whole idea of buying Young Blood was to have a bit of fun and do something that I have dreamed of doing for many many years and I still can't believe it. What an incredible sport this is where someone of my age can go racing and could end up lining up against not just a youngster of 18 but a female, there are not many sports in the world where women can compete on level terms with the men  and such an age range too...bloody brilliant, I can't wait.

I have spent the last day trying to source a few bits and bobs I will need and I have sent mails off to the Wild Bunch. I have also noticed that I am now officially famous as my name has appeared in the hollowed news page of EURODRAGSTER.COM...thanks Tog.

So I have learned to date that....

1. I am old wish I was 35 instead of 55
2, I am unfit and overweight
3. It is going to hurt if not kill me to get fit and trim but going to do it
4. You never have enough money or time.
5. Best I start doing the lottery again and find a time machine
6. Everyone in this sport seems to be helpful and friendly.

Of course the longer term plan is...... in a couple of years time to hand over the driving of the dragster to my step daughter Emily who is only 16 at the moment and still at 6 form college and well? you never know!

In the meantime there is still loads to do and sort out, Turbo is being an absolute diamond and is getting the truck MOT'd for me so will be able to pick everything up in the not too distant future he also serviced the car for me.............

3. Motorsport can be dangerous!!!

It was only last week when I decided to get in touch with Ian about buying the car from him, seems like a long time ago now, I knew he was racing at SANTAPOD RACEWAY last weekend at the National Finals so I arranged to go and see him, I wanted my brother to come with me but he was working on the Saturday so we went on the Sunday instead, which was good for two reasons, the first being it was a glorious day the sun came out it was warm if not hot at times, the other reason why Sunday was a good day was it meant we missed a nasty crash. In all the years I have been going to watch drag racing the one thing I hate to see is a crash, it means someone's hard earned money and sometimes years of work are destroyed in seconds and of course even worse, the drivers can get hurt and injured. Thankfully these accidents are not a common event, I have found a YouTube video of the crash if you are of a squeamish nature don't watch.




The driver in question is Graham Ellis who has been a race car driver for many years even his son and daughter race drag cars, Graham's car was a reproduction Plymouth Superbird running with a 3000 plus brake Horsepower twin turbo engine in the Pro Mod Class capable of running low 6 seconds passes at well over 220 mph, and to make matters even worse the car had already been sold to help finance Graham's new car.

This happened the day before I went to see Ian about buying his car.....it was close I very nearly pulled out after seeing this, even though the difference between the two cars in terms of performance is immense, how-ever drag racing is relatively safe motor sport and the safety equipment did it's job and even though Graham didn't escape serious injury he is alive but still in hospital at the moment, the latest report published in the font of all European Drag Racing Knowledge that is EURODRAGSTER.COM states that ......

"Graham Ellis update.
25th September: Many thanks to team member Rob Millward who got in touch with an update on the condition of UK Pro Modified racer Graham Ellis, who suffered a serious crash at the UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway last Saturday:

Graham is pretty beaten up as you would expect. He has two black eyes, a broken nose, broken neck although not serious, broken lower back, broken left arm (in a cast) and a broken collar bone on which they are going to operate as it has to support the aditional weight of the cast, and bruised lungs so has an oxygen feed as the lungs can't function fully. He is well-medicated so fairly comfortable all things considered. He should be in a back support by now and hopes that he will be discharged soon, but personally I think it may be another week or so.

I showed Graham footage of the crash and he was surprised how bad it looked. No decision on cause of crash, it all happened so quickly. Graham said "When I realised I couldn't catch it, I thought "This is going to hurt", I remember hitting the wall then the next thing I knew the safety crew were assessing me".

Graham is pretty upbeat about it and already planning his comeback. "

Anyway on with the show I now have a few options about where to park the truck and car thanks again to the Tireless Ian Turburville and I now have a direction to go forward with in terms of learning to drive the car and where to do it, more on that later, now I have more important things to do...walkie s dogs......!!!

2. Start of a new era in my life

I woke up this morning got dressed had a cuppa grabbed the dogs leads and went out for a walk, half way round the park I stopped and the biggest smile you have ever seen spread across my face and I just screamed out.."done it" which shocked the hell out of the dogs and my old dog walking friend Jackie, so I had to explain to her what it was all about.

It is also very emotional for me as it was my father who first took me to Santa Pod in about September or October in 1969 or 1970, my memory is not what it used to be. He was so passionate about the sport and he loved it, unfortunately he passed away at the young age of 56 in 1986 he was a real petrol head and I know he would have loved to have had a go up the strip so this adventure is as much for my father Tony as it is for me. And I know the first time I hit the strip he will be there watching over me.

This racing season is just about over which is good as it gives me some time to sort out a few things like a race fire suit a few tools, jacks etc etc. but one thing I can do is find a name for the car as I really can't call it "Young Blood" with me driving it LOL that would be wishful thinking. so all suggestions gratefully received.

Oh and I found this link on Facebook this morning, can't get enough of watching this car.......




My thanks to Andy Boyce for uploading this, now its time to get my nose to he grindstone and try to start making some money so I can afford to actually race this car, I also have to thank Ian again for all the information on the car and the setup that he sent me this morning.

1. Here we go then

Before I start this blog I need to put this warning up, No material of any sort may be copied or used from this blog  without the permission of the owner, ie ME Also I sometimes don't always tell the truth and maybe I sometimes make the odd story up or change it to make it read better so don't take anything as Gospel

OK so the year of madness starts well maybe more than a year, for 43 years my brother and I have attended drag racing meeting after drag racing meeting standing in glorious sunshine, rain, snow and hail, just over a week ago I decided that maybe it might just be time to have a go at this sport, there is no way on gods green earth I could ever afforded one the top class cars and of course I would never be able to steal enough money to run one either so I had a look on the www.eurodragster.com website where they have a classified section where I found the car that I have now bought.

A few e-mails to BloodLines Racing Team Manager Ian Turburville, and yes that is his name, and I was standing at the Pod on the National finals weekend looking over the car, the car is actually driven by his daughter Laura who is still under 20 years old and is now going to Uni hence the sale.

So after sitting in the car and listening to Ian about how to service it and what it costs to run I had a good idea in my head about running a competitive car in the Super Pro class. next problems where.....where do I keep it? how do I transport it to race meetings? the answer was staring me in the face,,,Ian's 7.5 ton truck which has been converted to a race car transporter /workshop/camper van now Ian was honest enough to inform me that he has never cleaned it and yes it needs tidying up a bit but , it's legal and everything works and it solves many problems...

..so a deal has been done for both the car and transporter, I have my brother helping out and one son at the moment I will get hold of the other boys later on. I still have a few bits and bobs to get and then roll on next year lets go racing....

Here is a video of the car with Laura at the controls for the very last time this was on Sunday 22nd September

I will update his blog as often as anything happens that warrants an update which will probably be very frequently..!!