83. Bank holiday mayhem...!

I have already mentioned that because of a lack of funds due to breakages etc and of course lack of crew for certain weekends that we as a team would not be attending all the race meeting this year, In fact I think we have only managed to get to one meeting so far and that was a bit of a disaster due to being rained and snowed on for most of the weekend. In total now we have missed three meetings so I guess we wont be fighting for the championship this year.

Because the weather was looking so good over the bank holiday I had a word with my number 1 son and crew chief Steve and asked him if he fancied coming up to Santa Pod to watch for the first time, he agreed, so on Saturday I met up with him just up the road form the Pod and we watched one of the best race meetings I have ever been to, unfortunately I didn't take my camera with me only my little cam corder.

Anita burning rubber on her first run of the weekend

I was surprised by the number of people at this event on a Saturday, traditionally the first day of qualifying is not well attended but the place was packed to the rafters, it wasn't too long after we set up camp that we could hardly move..good for drag racing though.

While I was there I took Steve round the pits and introduced him to a few of the racers and then went on the hunt for Roy Wilding, Roy was racing this weekend but in his other life he builds nostalgia dragsters and he was the man that built  the axle on our car and I wanted some info from him, Our axle is weeping oil and I wanted to know what seals he used it turns out that he has a packet of the seals we need but he did tell us to look after them as they don't make them anymore...oh!!! While I was there I had a look in the exhibition marque and there in the corner a pair of slingshots and guess what? one of them, John Webster's nitro burning beastie is for sale I had to drag Steve away from that place tout suite! and get him ot have a look at a nostalgia Funny Car instead.

So we watched some great racing in the sunshine we left in the early evening and made out way home, on the way home I get a call from Dave my brother asking me if I was going to take a ride to Shaky the next day? Dave was crewing for some good friends of ours, while waiting for our car to be race ready again. So decision made! up early on Sunday morning, upset the neighbours with the noise from my bike and of we go again.......

Andy Stones with my little bike in the background

So once again in the sunshine I watched some great racing and saw some great cars, a little more laid back than the Pod and a dam sight cheaper,

This drag racing community that I belong to is amazing, we have made some incredible friends in the short time I have been a member, 

This is Jim Tanner and the "Shindigger" Crew in their new team shirts

Our Friend Jim's dragster "Shindigger" blowing us away last year

We all help each other out when we can and some of the guys have been friends for many many years and it is tight knit bunch, so it came as a big shock to learn that one of our group had contracted cancer and that it was so widely spread in his body that it was deemed terminal.

Scottie Durrant is a great guy to know and he has a lovely family something like this should never happen to human being,

Scottie is self employed he runs his own vehicle transportation business he has three children and he is only 42 years old, We know him from being a member of the Wild Bunch and for building and racing along with his wife Georgina his neat little slingshot Tiki Munki.

There is a Facebook page set up for him now Called Support our Scottie which can be found here   

www.facebook.com/Support-Our-Scottie-1104039142952213

On top of this on Saturday all the guys and girls got together for a photo call also in support of Scottie and I also believe there is a fund being set up to try and help the family through as being self employed there is no money being earned at the moment.

Makes me feel proud of our little group, and I am sue that there are plans under way for some fund raising events to help the family out even more.

82. Springspeed nationals

OK so on Thursday 28th I drove to Bedford picked the truck up and then drove another 140 miles to Swindon to pick the car up, as soon as we had the car loaded we took the truck with car in it round the back of an industrial estate and where we fired the car up in the back of the truck, I know not ideal but we needed to know she would run.

So after a night in Swindon a quick bit of shopping then off to Shaky to set up camp, Dave and Lorni were on there way down as well.

So with the car out ready for Saturday and a couple of refreshing drinks we called it a night...but what a night dam it was cold, Dave even got up n the middle of the night and went for a spin in his car just to warm up.

Number one son and crew chief Steve, turned up early in the morning, he wanted to run the car up properly and sort out the timing and mixture before my first licencing attempt.

We seemed to have got a handle on it she sounded great, very angry, we pulled her out ready to go into the pairing lanes, I had to tag on the back of the Wild Bunch as I was doing observed runs, but! there was an accident, one of the motorcycle riders came off her bike although it wasn't fatal it was still a nasty one so it took some time to clear the track again ready for action, but just as the track was cleared....down came the rain and the snow, yes I did say snow...

The weather cleared up but then just as the track was nearly dry..yep down it came again, So the Race Director called it for the day so after all that work and effort we didn't get to make a run, couldn't be helped of course but dam it was so frustrating, but we did get a show of sorts in the afternoon...

Boy did it rain so that was Saturday done, Sunday started bright and sunny after yet another freezing night this time we had ice on the inside of the trucks screen. We fired the car up got her warmed up, this is proving to be a bit of a problem for us, keeping heat in the engine that is, I might just go down the road of oil heaters, anyway after another long delay due to another accident involving another motorcycle we got the call to pull down to the pairing lanes, so I was the last car to run in that particular qualifying session, she fired up I drove her round to the water trough hit the throttle and...big delay and she bogged big time didn't spin the wheels up I took her to the line and again hit the throttle on the green but...bogged again, I took my foot off the peddle and she sped up, obviously something was still not right and of course that run would not be counted towards my licence.

So back in the pits Steve started fettling he richened her up and took some timing out we fired her up then this young guy walked over and started talking to Steve who then started adjusting the barrel valve anyway to cut a long story short I would like to thank Christian from Nick Goods Super Pro team for hearing the car running far to rich and wandering over to help Steve get it right. But...and there is always a but we found we had a leaking crank shaft oil seal, we ran around trying to find the right bits and pieces, thanks Darryl from the Chemical Reaction team,in the end we fitted our old timing cover which had a seal already in place but we missed the second run.

We had some visitors on Sunday Phil my other son and his better half Katie and her three children..looks like the next generation are getting ready to take over.......

Daniel

 Harvey

Aimee

So after a not so cold night on Sunday, Monday dawned a little over cast again we warmed the car up and then we pulled her down for a run, into the burnout  and once again we didn't get the wheels to spin up I was so disappointed I just wanted to back her right up shut her down and get towed back to the pits but Steve motioned me to the line, well she took off like a scalded rat, still not running right mind but we got the wheels up for the first time ever....

I know it doesn't seem like much but believe me after the year we have had that was as good as running a 7 Steve and Dave met me at the first turn off and I had a grin a mile long on my face and so did they, back in the pits and now knowing we are going in the right direction Steve did a little fettling ready for the next run which was going to be a full run with chute to get my licence signed off but we pulled the car out got the call and we made our way to the paring lanes,

But that was as far as we got as once again the weather beat us, but this time we didn't start packing up feeling down oh no we were happy campers for a change.

Brilliant shot thanks to Tog at Eurodragster for this photo

Ok so the weather won on this occasion..what next? well after a long chat with Steve we have decided to take a step back and just get the car to some RWYB's until we are happy with her performance, then we will go back into competition I am desperate to get her running right for Dragstalgia where I hope we can show off the cars real potential, both Steve Dave and myself know what the car is capable of running we have just got to get her there, the Company that Steve works for are not being to helpful with letting Steve have the time off..Holiday.. for some of the meetings this year so a step back looks like the right decision for now.

We still have some work to do on the car, re torque the head gasket, replace the crankshaft oil seal and put the new  not weeping timing cover back on, we need to replace the half shaft seals as well. And we still have a new chute to fit, so its still going to busy here at Slimline Racing.