67. Dragstalgia 2015

It's been a quite a year for Slimline Racing we have attended a couple of meetings and one RWYB and we were still having trouble setting the engine up, at the Nostalgia Drags we found the fuel pump was completely toast and had probably been playing up doe some time. We had dared hoped that fitting a new pump would solve all our problems, but no! this is drag racing after all and if it was that easy everyone would be doing it.....

The story of Slimline Racing's Dragstalgia 2015

I set off at my usual time when racing which is far too early for any me but I try to get across the Dartford Crossing before they start charging at 6am, I got to the truck in Bedford a couple of hours later transferred all the stuff across to the truck that I needed, then it was off up the road to the Pod.

Dragstalgia for me is the biggest event of the year, even if I was competing in MSA events it would still be the biggest event of the year for me. After finding my pit spot I set up camp as best I could on my own, couldn't get the car out as that takes at least two people maybe three sometimes....

At least I had managed to set out our boundaries, there were so many cars entered space was at a premium, I set up between our good friends the Stones's and one of our European visitors Christian Frei and team  and then waited for the rest of the crew to turn up.

We got the car out and Steve set about fitting the new fuel pump and getting all the fuel lines cleaned through and dry, and then cleaning the tank out as it been back for some welding, fill the car up with fuel and fire her up...no no no..she wouldn't? much head scratching later and Dave realised the direction of rotations was back to front so...change the face plate round and try again...she lit up straight away. A few minutes fettling with pills and springs and then tow down for a run,into the water, hit the throttle sit back and wait for the violence that comes with a methanol burning V8 on full chat....but!! nothing she just conked out on the line, re-fired and tried again but no..so we towed her back to the pits feeling a little down and bewildered.

In the meantime Lorni had set off for the Pod but she encountered two accidents on the way so she took tot he A roads and 6 and half hours later arrived hot and bothered and not in the best of moods along with a cracked windscreen, to say she wasn't happy is an understatement.

We had a bit of a fiddle but not different..time for a change and go for a drink and chill for a bit. Saturday came round far too fast, Steve decided that we were simply running out of fuel at the top end of the rev range so we put the larger nozzles in and changed the pills yet again for more fuel...fatten her up.

This time we managed to get her off the line and up the track but very slowly only 17 seconds.back to the pits and more head scratching....

Steve checked the back lash all the fuel lines timing etc etc..everything was perfect apart from...as soon as the revs hit around 6000 she died, fuel starvation..electrical we were stumped?? we had a lot of help and advice as usual from all the Wild Bunchers for which we are always very grateful. I think at this point even Steve had given up the will to live.

What Steve did find was a leaky barrel valve and he thought that maybe the leak was enough to drop the pressure and close the poppet valve shutting the fuel down so..off came the stacks and the all the fuel lines and then the barrel valve, many thanks to Sam Freeman's team for the seal and all their help and advice during the weekend.

While fitting the seal Steve realised there was something else amiss what he found..well didn't whether to laugh or dam well cry

What had happened was the valve operating arm had slipped round and the valve was now opening and closing at the wrong point. Steve rectified all the problems but to set up the barrel valve correctly we need a leak down tester, we keep borrowing Bob Hawkins gear but he was having problems of his own th is weekend and we had already borrowed it once, so we had a word with Darryl and used his but Steve was still not sure if what he was doing was right or not or if he was reading the gauges correctly,So he sat down with his phone and a wee while later had it all set up without having to use a leak down tester at all!!!!

So Sunday morning's job was put all the original pills and nozzles back as we now had a car running so rich we could empty a swimming pool in 30 seconds, this was done just in time for the first call, we fired her up first and yeeeaaa we had full revs again but the engine wasn't running right yet, we didn't have the time to get down to final set up so we towed down anyway knowing that we wont be making a decent run but! we should at least get off the line????

We were up against Mark Couslell who always runs hard so I knew we weren't going to be gving him much of a race but I willt ry..so into the water and burnout..yaaa we got a little smoke this time and she kept running albeit very rich apparently the car soaked Lorni in methanol who was standing behind trying to video the run....

So I let Mark go (OK I was so busy watching him I forgot to watch the lights) I hit the throttle and she pulled..covered me in fuel but she pulled I short shifted. not wanting to do any damage and just let her go through the lights at around 120mph in 11 seconds..not brilliant but a 5 second improvement on the day before, so must be going in the right direction.

 So back to the pits and more fettling Steve spent a few hours..we had this time due to the weather, it had decided to rain rather heavily for an hour. I jumped back in the car on jacks and after a lot of tweaking and swearing as Steve managed to snap a throttle turn buckle. I would like to thank Wayne Colliver and team..

 for helping us out with that problem.. so back in the car again and this time it sounded absolutely bloody awesome..evil even we had full revs the fuelling looked to be dead on......

...we were so looking forward tot he next run but! we then noticed that some of the teams weren't just packing but were leaving, while we had been very busy we had't heard a tannoy message informing everyone that the powers to be had called the meeting to a close because of the weather..god I was angry and I have to admit so were a few other racers it was early and I am dam sure if it was an MSA event or FIA event they would have cleared and dried the track but there you go what can we do...this years Dragstalgia didn't turn out to be the successful event for us that we wanted it to be but at least we sorted out a lot of issues so now it is down to tuning only..I hope. So we packed up and went home ready at lest for the next run at Shaky the following weekend....bring it on!!!!

Congratulations to all the racers that managed yet again a hat-full of personal bests and Andy Stones..well just you wait pal I will get you next time LOL..well done mate that was an awesome run. And to anyone whose photo's I have used thank you very much..Ingrid Chesworth, and my son Phill who turned up with his new better half..it was about time I met her..next time I hope we will have more time to chat.