So as I am freeing here in the UK waiting for completion on my house sale so I can go join my wife in Spain I may as well do another update, seeing as the TV is already halfway to Valencia. We racer types don't just park our race cars up for the winter and put our feet up oh no! There is always lots to do usually bound with trying to go faster. We had a reasonable year this year we got the car back into the 8 second zone and we got some sort of reliability and later in the year with Steve in the hot seat we even won some points!!! and Steve got the car down to 8.7 seconds which was brilliant. But not fast or quick enough oh no.
First things first the team had to return the borrowed flex plate back to its original owner, Mike Oates and here was some investigation required in the drive train so last weekend Steve and Dave and all made the trip on a rather wet weekend up to the storage unit near Bedford.
After a quick call to yours truly for the combination of one of the padlocks they were at it big time and very quickly the body panels were off and all sorts of bit and pieces were laying on the floor of the trailer, now having mentioned the trailer there is not a lot of room in it but some how three guys got the car stripped in that confined space.
In no time the flex plates were swapped over and the axle was lying on the floor, he axle had grown a leak or two and needed some TLC so Steve is going to take it home with him and sort it out.
Then it was off to see a man about a camshaft, the cam shaft we have been running for the last 4 years has a very short duration so time for a better one after some serious Steve type research we now have a longer duration cam and a lighter flex plate which should help no end will be even better once the trans brake is sorted out, which All rewired for us while Steve and Dave ripped the mechanical stuff apart, Some other research b Steve has found that we should be running in the top end of the 7's with our set up but it looks like we need bigger heads we will see in the mean time we should be catching up with Mark the Ball-beaker team depending on how much work they have done over the close season of course...bring it on!!!
I honestly didn't think I would still be in the Country at this time but house sales are intrinsically fickle things so we are now on our second offer on our home, the upshot is I get to attend the 2018 offering of the NSRA's hot Rod Drags which is at Santa Pod raceway for the first time. So once more I was up with the Larks on Friday morning (around 3:30am) and on the road around 5 am trying to get over the Dartford Crossing before they start charging at 6am
On arrival it was time to unload and sort out the trailer, the car needed a little fettling which was carried out by Steve, re-adjusting the back lash and checking the timing, the valve clearances were all over the place and the timing had slipped back to 30 degrees so after sorting that little problem out Steve and I went over to Family Camping to put up his tent which was to be his accommodation for the weekend, this was not easy as one might suspect due to rather windy day. but after just a little swearing and bending of tent pegs we got her up.
We took the car for a couple of runs but to be honest the track was far too cold and even though it had been glued it still wasn't at its best and on both runs Steve spun the tyres up when shifting gear, so apart from some 60 foot numbers it really wasn't worth persevering for the rest of the day so we packed up, tidied up had a few drinks and then went to the entertainment tent to watch a rather decent band, were we had a few more drinks I will admit to being a wee bit tipsy but not as "Broken" as a newest member of the team our wonderful back up girl Diana I don't think I can remember anyone dancing for so long without collapsing!
Saturday morning eventually arrived I was up early and managed to see the sunrise! not something I get to see very often.
After finding some much needed coffee and waiting for an appropriate time to turn on our very noisy generator we noticed that Steve hadn't turned up for work so a walk round to the camping area and a few loud "Mornings" and we were back in business, even with some serious delays and a lot of waiting around in the paring lanes we managed to get 4 runs in which may be a record for us and on top of that Diana turned up on time with seemingly little or no after effects of the night before, a real pro that one. All runs were between 9.3 and 9.1 which isn't bad but nowhere near where we wanted to be so some serious head scratching was called for.
So after another night of merriment race day dawned, now this was to be a day of frustration and joy, first of all my video camera's memory card threw a wobbly so I only managed to save one video of the day and fortunately that was the one when Diana decided to wear a colour matching Basque, but not only that but we had problems before every run, first run the throttle stuck wide open while in the pairing lanes good job the engine wasn't running but what a sight to see Steve and Dave trying to fix the problem while being towed down to the start line, next run we found a dropped cylinder with 15 minutes to go before we were supposed to be towed down fortunately we found the problem and it wasn't as bad as it could have been it was a blocked injector.
During this time the team managed to set fire to a battery charger and get the brake cleaner and petrol muddled up so for the last two runs the car was started on brake cleaner, Second run was against Craig Larman in the Ferret, And as Colin on commentary said "both second generation racers" he then mentioned myself and asked me to stand up and wave in the grandstand hmmm red face moment, Steve pulled to the line staged hit the trans brake and the car lurched forward crossed the beams before the tree ran down I knew instantly what had happened problems with the trans brake again, so no time or speed recorded but he floored it all the same Craig PB'd and Steve stormed after him the car pulled like a train, before that run Steve adjusted the main fuel pil by 0,5 and that made the difference. So now it was all hands to the decks,
We only had 30 mins to turn the car around and also try and sort out yet another trans brake switch as we had burnt out another one, that was three for the weekend. Lee Hartnel to the rescue with a high amp switch which was fitted in super quick time and tested seconds before we were called. This time no problems for Steve the car ran great, the time and speed came up on the boards he had done it..8.7 at 152 mph smiles all round.
Last run of the year and we had managed to achieve what we had set out to do, such a great feeling of achievement but with a lot of help from a lot of people including my Brother Dave, our friend Mike Oates our great back up girl Diana and loads of others including most of The Wild Bunch, as I have already mentioned this was probably my last time at the Pod but what a way to go out thanks to everyone who made it possible it's been a blast. I got home Sunday evening only to be told by Lorni that our second purchasers have now withdrawn their offer..oh well!
Well our first house purchasers had the sale of their place fall through.....etc etc. so I'm still here in sunny England.so what can I do? I know go drag racing! But before that we had a problem to solve, I did mention in the last post that we may have a gearbox problem as we seem to be having trouble with the transbrake and also a small leak. A couple of weeks back Steve went up to the trailer along with Dave and one of Steve's friends an they took the gearbox out which is a big job that requires the back axle to be removed and the under-tray, all in the confines of the trailer so not much room to work in.
Steve took the gearbox apart and found..well lots of problems, the tail piece has a bronze bush in it but for some reason the exit of the tail had elongated gone egg shaped and the bush had broken up and bits had got in everywhere including the pump the front bush wasn't looking too good either.
This was why we were having problems not enough line pressure, replacement parts are not cheap and it was looking like the team would be sitting out the rest of the season then Steve got a call informing him of a complete gearbox for sale that had all the right bits in it, So Steve purchased the item from Paul Marston, I had to collect it for Steve as Paul lived around 35 miles from me a lot nearer to me than Swindon. So as arranged I turned up at Paul's place on a miserable English summers day in Romford, Essex. Gearbox was then transported to my place until Dave picked it up the Thursday before the Redline Rumble.
Dave took the newly acquired Powerglide to the trailer where he and Steve set about installing the box the day before the event.
Once the gearbox was installed another problem reared it's head the drive train was out of alignment when the slicks were turned the prop shaft was turning in an elliptical motion which is what probably caused the initial problem, this was going to take some time to sort out so we were not going to the Rumble, then a little while later I got a call from Steve to let me know that he had managed to shim the gearbox up and that has sorted out the problem and we would be going to the Rumble! Ten minutes after that I got another call telling me that the Flex Plate (fly wheel) was bent and there was nothing we could do about it so we would not be going to the Rumble. Half an hour later another phone call, Steve had phoned Mike Oates our temporary / full time team member who said we could borrow the one from his engine for the time being so we would be going to the Rumble. A little while later Steve rang me to tell me that while putting the transmission shield on he had caught the gearbox inhibitor switch and broken it, this switch stops the engine from being started while in gear, so now we were not going to the Rumble.
I had a little think about it and phoned Steve back and managed to explain to him that we could in fact do without the switch for one meeting if we were careful so we were now defiantly going to the rumble. Thank god all that was sorted but!!!!! he then phoned me back to let me know that the oil pressure gauge wasn't working and nor was the transbrake and that he had just about had enough for the day and wanted to set fire to the car and we were now not going to the Rumble....again. Around about ten to eight passed and he phoned me back to say "Sod it" we were going and he would sort out the wiring at the Pod in the morning so the Rumble was back on and I was getting giddy. I then got another call to let me know that he couldn't get out of the storage depot as all the gates were now locked so I had to make a couple of calls to get him released.
A quick bath and some clothes packed and the alarm set for 4:30am I managed to get to bed for some well earned sleep. We met up at the storage depot to find the place was still locked up at 7:30am so we waited and then more people turned up and the gates were still locked so I phoned Graham the owner who was on Holiday!! he had to give me the codes over the phone so I could open the place up, we got to the Pod a little later than we had hoped for, Mike was already at the gates waiting for us, we unloaded the trailer and the team got to work sorting out the electrical gremlins. They found out the transbrake switch on the steering wheel was broken and so Steve borrowed one from the Brown twins, It was a good job our first run was not till lunchtime.
This was Steve's first meeting as a driver he took to it like he had been doing it all his life, we had four runs booked in for the Wild Bunch on Saturday the first run wasn't brilliant but it was Steve's first full pass in the car it got better from there on in. More fettling from Mike on the fuel system and Steve was getting the hang of it I was getting worried he would break into the 8's straight away and with the lovely Diana backing him up he got close, real close.
Saturdays Runs
We found another small problem, Steve was managing to get the car into Neutral on the burnout and on the run. There is supposed to be a "gate" to stop this but when the gearbox was installed and the linkage adjusted it moved the gear selector position, So on Sunday morning this was solved by Dave and then the backlash was checked and an oil change done and we were ready for the days competition.
Sundays Runs
To say I was impressed or even proud would be an understatement not only did Steve not get beat once but he even managed to pull a red light and his reaction times were more than impressive. beat me hands down, he ended up with a best time of 9.05 seconds on a 9.1 dial in on the last run but he also managed a best of 0.07 reaction time, he only went and finished 4th out of 22 original starters and got a trophy and...another trophy for best reaction time of the event...bloody nora.
Trophy boy
So all of this on his first meeting as a driver on a borrowed flex plate a borrowed transbrake switch no gearbox inhibitor switch, problems with the gear selector and reaching the throttle peddle properly, Two trophy's and unbeaten, that will do to start with!
As usual Dragstalgia is the biggest event of the year for the team and if we could only attend one event per year this would be the one. Every year the event gets bigger and better, and every year we start Dragstalgia with a car in pieces, it's fast becoming a Slimline Racing tradition! This year like many others Dave and I were going to take the trailer up to the Pod and set up camp Thursday afternoon, but first I had to go to Finedon and pick up our repaired head, I told you we were cutting it fine again, I then met up with Dave at the trailer park hooked up and made our way to the Pod. Once we had gotten the car out and set up camp I phoned up Mile Oates who has been helping us out no end with the car, I couldn't get through so I drove out to Odell where I picked up our fuel system, injection system, fuel tank, filters etc Mike has been through them all cleaned them all and re-piped some of it for us. So now we had nearly all the bits ready for the Steve and Dave and later on Mike to put it all together again.
To add to the workload we could only get 80 thou thick head gaskets instead of the 60 thou ones we were using which meant the other head had to come off as well, Steve turned up at around 7:30 am with my youngest brother Andy, Dave had stayed at the Pod over night and they were off, spanners and bits and pieces flyng everywhere, the temperature was increasing all day and the heat was bloody well oppressive and we had no real shade. Mike turned up around lunchtime and between them all they performed a minor miracle and the car was fired up around 3:30 after some fettling with the timing she was ready for the scheduled Friday evening qualifying run.
Our first run we were up against our friend Terry Clifford in the Ratcatcher Resurrection slingshot, always good on the lights and always competitive, in fact Terry and team won the whole event! We both staged I hit the trans brake the lights went green and...I didn't move I let the revs drop touched the throttle slightly and she moved forward so I hit the throttle Terry was already at half track by now but wow the car pulled hard and just kept going we went through the lights at 9.5 sec it would have been a much quicker run if I hadn't tripped the start line beams with the mucking around with the trans brake but.... we ran over 155 mph a new PB, so we now knew the car was running right. Back in the pits Steve found what we thought was the problem with the trans brake..low oil level, so this was rectified and the car put to bed ready for the next day.
photo courtesy of Max Messenger
The next day on our first run we were lined up against our friends the Brown twins, I took the car into stage after the burnout waited for Wrath Child to stage then hit the trans brake the lights went green I released the trans brake and......nothing again!!! the car didn't move, I let the revs drop down from nearly 7000 rpm touched the throttle again, she moved so I floored it and she took off like a scalded cat and god did she pull all way past the Brown twins car and through the finish line at 9.18 secs at an amazing 153.16 mph a bloody shame I tripped the start beams again at the beginning. I also have to mention that we had a new back up girl for the day Diana Macrae who works for Eurodragster.com in fact Diana was also our BUG on Sunday.
Photo's courtesy of Andy Rogers
Back in the pits I made a decision not to use the trans brake again as we couldn't risk messing up another run and on top of this we found a small leak coming from what we thought was the gearbox overflow we weren't the only ones sprouting leaks we all thought it was down to the excessive temperatures. So after an oil change we were ready to be towed down again. This time we were paired with Phil James in Rampage another hard charging racer with good reaction times.
So on this run I was launching off the hand brake the lights ran down and I floored the throttle I was pushed back in the seat the front wheels came up and I knew it was a good run, When Steve came to pick me up at the top of the shut down area he told me that we were back in the 8's that put a smile on my face we had also managed our best ever 60 foot time of 1.24 secs. back in the pits we found a problem, the trans brake had stopped working altogether which meant I had no reverse now as well, we didn't have any power getting to the trans brake solenoid also on the last run the chute had refused to open and the brakes were getting a little uhmmm jaded. the team did their best but we were called into the pairing lanes so we wrapped the car up and towed her down, with trans brake, no reverse, a chute that wouldn't open and dodgy brakes and maybe a gearbox problem that also had a little leak. Was I worried? of course not....much. I think I was the only member of the Wild Bunch that was not unhappy about being "bumped" that is our third run was cancelled due to a large oil down and lack of time left. Back in the pits the boys worked like demons found the fault and just about re-wired the whole car they finished around 11:30 miracle workers!
We towed down Sunday morning ready for our next run, even though the super team had fixed just about everything and we had checked the trans brake worked I still decided not to use it just in case, we would check it out properly at a RWYB event.
photo courtesy of Laura-Ann Caryl Peters
This time we were paired off with Dave Rowlands and the Destiny Angel altered conditions had changed a little and the team had taken a little fuel out of the car we still ran a stout 8.9 at 151 mph and a decent 60 foot of 1.27. Out last run was a bit of a disaster I could only get second gear and while trying to keep it in gear it jumped out a couple of times, probably driver error or maybe gearbox problems? anyway we only managed a 9.9 second run but we weren't too down hearted as for the first time in two years we finished an event made all the runs and came away with an engine in one piece.
This car of ours is awesome and I know she will get a lot quicker we know there is a 7 second run in her Steve and the team will be changing the rear end ratios soon and servicing and fixing the gearbox with a few mods!!!! I of course have now stepped down from the team, my life is going to take a different more relaxed direction. So I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Shakespeare County Raceway, Santa Pod Raceway, The amazing Wild Bunch and of course the lovely Claire and my son Steve and the rest of the super team Dave, Mike and all the other great people that have helped us over the years and lastly my wonderful wife Lorni without whose support none of this would have ever happened.
Photo courtesy of Mark Coulsell
I will try and pop over to the Pod from time to time and I will keep up to date with what's going on courtesy of the internet and I did tell Steve that if the car is running properly then I would like to take the seat for next years Dragstalgia, thanks for the brilliant memories it truly has been a blast!!!!!!!................... Russ Heaven AKA DangerRuss
We have only got 10 days before we are supposed to go and set up ready for Dragstalgia so as per usual we are far from ready, just like the previous years running up to our favourite meeting of the year we still have issues to solve and bits to put back together, Also bear in mind this is supposed to be my final fling in the car as already stated I relinquished my responsibility for the car some time ago but continue driving till this Dragstalgia as Steve will take over the main driving duties from then on. he has already proved to be more than capable of handling the car.
First off all the race car, Steve has arranged for the head to go to an old friend of his to be welded up and machined, the damaged portion of the head will be cut back a bit and welded with the correct hardness rods, but on top of that it looks like there is a fuel delivery problem on that cylinder as it seems to be running lean on the one cylinder so another good friend of the team has taken the whole system away to be cleaned and checked and it looks like we need to put larger diameter supply fuel pipes on up from 6 mm to 8 mm to increase the fuel volume flow. I hope this works.
That was one problem, the other is the truck which is now in the capable hands of my son, it was due its annual MOT the regulations of which have changed dramatically this year, after a quick look round Steve found that most of the front suspension bits and pieces needed replacing along with a few other bits!!
Bottom Ball Joint-1
Bottom Ball Joint-2
Exhaust Hanger
Also drop links knackered and off side wheel bearing which is part of the hub assembly and loads of rubber bushes so Steve ordered the new parts only took two days to arrive and off he went and fitted them all, it will be like driving a new car.
New Parts
More New Parts
So looking forward to Dragstalgia now it will be a great family gathering and there at the moment 37 Wild Bunch cars entered, fingers crossed ours will be one of them.
The whole team had been looking forward to the Retro Show, we had the new Dizzie cap and rotor arm fitted as the old ones were pretty much destroyed, and we knew there was a hell of lot more left in the cars performance. The first problem of the day was getting to the trailer park I left my home at around 12:40 it took me nearly 5 hours to do 100 miles that was how bad the M25 and M1 were on that Friday, utter bloody disgrace the new Dartford crossing system is now slower than the old barrier booth system and the "Smart" motorway system is just an excuse to slow everyone down usually for no good reason, put the bloody hard shoulder back then we wouldn't have to be told to slow down to 50mph 10 miles before a bloody indecent and even after months of TV adverts telling everyone not to travel in a lane with a red X in it no one bothered telling any of our overseas friends this..grrr rant over!.
After arriving at the Pod around 6 in the evening we set up camp and settled in for the night or rather I did as Steve wasn't coming up till the morning and Dave went home to his comfortable bed...swine LOL.
The following two days were going to be exciting, or so we thought? First of all we were going to fire the car up and make sure she works, then if everything is OK Steve was going to get his first ride in the car followed by a couple of runs by me then if the car was still in one piece and we had time we were going to try and get Dave a fire suit that fits and let him have a go..happy days so after a few Jack Daniels courtesy of the Ratchet Strap team it was time for bed.
I was up early in the morning nursing a thick head, grab wash kit and run over to the toilet block it then starting to rain dam! but luckily it was just a very light shower that cleared up quickly, not long later Dave turned up followed by Steve then Mike, We started work on the car, now Steve wasn't happy how the car turned over but after firing her up she seemed ok. So Steve was sent off to sign on for the days racing big grin on his face showing off his entry wrist band.
So the car came off the stands and was roped up to the tow car, Steve went into the trailer and changed into the fire suit, I don't think I have ever seen Steve with such a big grin on his face.
Steve was strapped in tot he car only a helmet and gloves left to put on and the car was then towed down to the pairing lanes ready for the run.
It was a really weird feeling seeing someone else in the driving seat but this moment was supposed to have come last year so can't complain too much, Steve seemed unbelievably calm, I had gone through with him all the procedures and he knew most of them anyway, so the car was fired up I went round tot he side f the track and filmed him as best I could as I couldn't see anything on the screen of the cam corder as the sun was so bright.
So at half track after a decent launch ad run Steve hit the big "Off" button, we all heard it and I think we all knew what had happened? I went to pick Steve up from the first exit and he was already out of the car looking at the engine, he looked at me he didn't need to say anything, we towed back tot he pits where the plugs were pulled on the middle two cylinders of the right hand bank and there was the tell-tale signs of aluminium dust all over them, so the head was pulled and there was an old friend visiting us again!!!!
The head torched again, so after a lot of discussion we think we know what to do, first we have to get the head welded up again and machined flat this time with the correct hardness welding rods then we have to go through our fuel system and see if there is any blockages if not then we are going to put bigger nozzles on those two ports, so all the bits were put into the trailer and loaded up and went home, Now the team have their work cut out to try and get everything ready for Dragstalgia, a race we can't afford to lose.
This would be the first time the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals would be run at Santa Pod after the now confirmed closure of Shakespeare County Raceway,, a pox on the money grabbing greedy bastard developers...The team decided that it would be prudent to set up camp Thursday evening so we would be ready for the test and tune on Friday. This was also probably going to be the last nationals that I would race at so I wanted it to be a good one, on top of that it was going to be a bit strange not having number 1 son and crew chief Steve around as he had other Family commitments for the weekend and couldn't make it so we had the company of Mike Oates tuning for us. As usual the motorways were awful so I arrived at the trailer storage park a bit late but it didn't take long to hitch up and get out.
Dave and I arrived early evening and got the car out set up camp ready for the morning. At around 8am the next morning Dave re-appeared and not long after Mike turned up a little bit of fettling on the car and we were ready to go.
We got three runs in on Friday getting quicker each time culminating in a 151.05mph a PB for us but at only 9.3 seconds oh well we wee going in the right direction we managed some serious burnouts that day but were still spinning up on the repair patches just off the 60ft mark.
We called it a day after the three runs. Next morning we went out again this time we ran a 9.2 but a slight improvement on our speed this item we hit 151.59mph another PB. But that was the only run we made on Saturday as the weather Gods turned against as and it poured down so much I reckon I could have paddled over top the bar if I had a boat.
Sunday dawned and the sun came back out we were really looking forward to this day as we had made some changes to the fuel settings and we had hoped to get back deep into the 8 second range, However the car had other ideas and gradually got slower and slower resulting in a 10 second run at only 130 mph, The problem was diagnosed as a worn out distributor cap,
Funny how even the smallest of things can ruin your day. But never mind we had fun we ran a couple of PB.s and on top of everything we were voted the best appearing slingshot and we won a trophy.
So all in all not a bad weekend at all roll on the next round at the "Retro Show" next month.
Today was a special day, not just as this would be the first time we had run the car for nearly 10 months but it was also my 60th birthday which didn't go unnoticed thanks to the crew and my wife.
We go to the track nice and early did a quick bit of fettling and warmed the car up everything seemed ok, we waited for some cars to get up the track then we towed down for our first go at the new concrete track.
First thing I noticed was I couldn't get the tyres to spin up properly the car nearly died when I shifted into second but I had a go at the track anyway but she bogged off the line and when she did pick up she slid I did this a couple of times then just let her idle through. back in the pits Steve thought she was over fuelling so changed the pill size we armed her up and tried again.
Fired her up and made my way to the start went for the burn out but again it wasn't quite right I then couldn't get reverse I tried a couple of times then noticed and smelt smoke coming up from the cockpit so I shut her down and got pushed back behind the start line where we found one of the trans-brake wires had shorted out, we fixed this in place and Steve also took a smidge of timing out this however gave me another problem after the next burnout the revs shot up on tick-over to nearly 3000 rpm I could hardly hold her on the brake I took the lights and she nosed over stuttered and again I just let her idle through the top end. Back in the pits we realised we had gone the wrong with the pill sizes and had in fact put more fuel in instead of taking it out so a quick re-calculation another warm up and we were ready for another run this time we ran side by side with the Brown boys slingshot, the car sounded a lot better even managed to get some smoke form the burn out...
Still not right but a lot better, so back in the pits a quick turn round then we went for another warm up we were going to try and get another run in before the rain hit but we couldn't start the car a quick look around found a terminal had broken on the micro switch that acted as the inhibitor switch for the gear linkage, this was fixed in double quick time thanks to the super crew working flat out and we went down for our last run.
Again not perfect I peddled a couple of times when the crew came to pick me up Steve mentioned that he had not adjust the barrel valve so we can't complain we had got the car down the track four times and we took her home in one piece. Back in the pits Steve found the fuel we had been using had been contaminated which may have accounted for some of our problems, we had a good day and we all went home happy...now that's a first, next stop the Nostalgia Nationals.
I really didn't expect this, so after the complete and utter disappointment of Easter comes a ray of sunshine. Santa Pod have re-arranged some meetings due tot he ongoing problems caused by the weather which has allowed some of us to run on the 15th April...my birthday, free if we didn't get on the track at Easter.
I had to phone number 1 Son and crew chief first and see if he could clear it with his family, which he could then ring crew member and Brother and then ask my wonderful wife if she fancies coming along, they all say Yes!!!!
There are three things we want to achieve on this "All Torque" day
1. Get the car down the track nice and easy check everything is working as it should.
2. Perform at least two launches ( full run if possible) one with Trans brake one with Hand brake launch and see what the difference is?
3. Bring car home in one piece.
If we manage to achieve all three then I will g home a happy 60 year old (did I just say that out loud?)
I also noticed that on the Santa Pod web site under the photo entry list the photo of my car is amazing, both wheels up, so I tracked down the photographer David Beitler and asked for permission to use them, not only did he agree he mailed me the high res versions, so thank you very much David.
Love the bottom photo I don't have many photo's if any of the car with both wheels up like that and you can see all the fuel running out underneath out of the breather before we put the catch can on.
Right back on my head for today will update this blog after the weekend in the meantime I will be praying to the weather Gods.....again!!!
After a very long lay off we were ready to race again, the team had done a huge amount of work on the car and trailer to get everything ready for Easter, bear in mind we did keep an eye on the weather and we knew it wasn't going to be great but we had hoped we could get down the track a couple of times.
So very early Thursday morning I made my way to Bedford to "The Petrol; Station" where Dave and Steve would meet up with me a quick toilet break and cuppa then off we went to collect the trailer, The guys at the park told us they would open up at 7:30 am for us they were true to their word in fact they had the gates open even earlier. We hitched up the trailer and made our way the 7 miles up the road to the "Pod", We collected our tickets from the office and set up camp for the weekend.
I don't think any of us would have expected the weather to be so atrocious for three days, but it was it rained and rained and rained!!!!!
We did however get our car, along with a few others!! up to the scrutineering bay for the compulsory safety checks. Trust me this was the furthest our car went all weekend and probably the fastest too.
The car was scrutinised but they wouldn't give us our ticket till Mark Norton the tech guy stuck the chassis tag he had for our car on one of the chassis bars, for that we had to wait for the next day where mark duly cam down to see us and applied the stickers we had waited for two years to see on our car.
And that's all that happened Friday because of the weather, so we spent most of the day...again sitting in the trailer waiting for God to turn the sprinklers off. Although we do have some home comforts in the trailer.
Saturday night was not only very wet but very very cold as well, Dave and Steve went back to Luton I stayed with the trailer, turned out to be a bad decision, I thought we were going to lose our awning at one point, it was already battered and broken before we put it up, So we used some straps out of the trailer to give it some extra security we even strapped it down to the dragster Chassis.
Sunday dawned and instead of hearing the sweet sounds of birds chirping we got the even better noise from 6am of the track crew prepping the track. Things were looking up, Racing did commence but we had two accidents during the racing and after the second one the decision was made to not let any cars making any real power on the rack, so that was us done 4 days of sitting around and hoping then...pack it all up.
We did achieve a couple of things we managed to get the chassis tag, we got through scutineering and we ran the motor up a few times which is a dam site more than some teams managed to accomplish over this rain and accident hit weekend, Oh well on to the next one then.
