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.
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
