12. My luck just keeps getting worse

After 3 weeks of looking, and of being let down and mucked about I have found somewhere to park the truck up, because I live within the M25 I am subject to the low emission zone rules and unfortunately the old MAN truck does not comply.

Anyway just to be on the safe side I decided to run her up as I did about 10 days back just to check the batteries out and make sure they are charged up, there is a battery isolator switch on the truck which for some reason has seized up solid and even with liberal use of good old WD40 wont budge and has now bent. Bloody typical just when I really need it to work it doesn't, will I be glad to see the back of this year or what?????

11. Some Race Dates

I haven't updated this for a while, because there hasn't been much to say till now, first and foremost I am still looking for somewhere to park the truck up I have e-mailed a certain party at Santa Pod a couple of times regarding private parking and I have yet to get a reply so unless they have been very very busy for two weeks solid or suddenly gone on holiday I must conclude I am just not important enough for them to answer so. I have got my son out looking for somewhere for me but that will mean parking the truck up some way away from not only where I live but the the Pod and Shaky too, but beggars can't be choosers.

In the meantime I have been looking at the race calender for next year, well the Pods one at any rate and I have asked my wife to try and get the following dates off from work,

29th March, - Run What Ya Brung-Dial in Day

28th-29th June, - Summer Nationals

11th-13th July, - Dragstalgia

4th-7th Sept, - European Finals

20th-21st Sept, - National Finals

That's it so far I am hoping to get a couple more dates in there at Shaky with the Wild Bunch and just how it goes with any other free dates that I get during the year.

It's nearly time to start thinking about fire-suits, medicals,  licences etc....oh and joining the racer groups, can't wait now.

10. Now it's Boris causing problems!!!

I don't know it looks like the big man upstairs just does,'t want me to go racing, got a message today from Turbo to say he has had a letter from the nice Nazi's at Transport For London to inform him of the penalty's etc for driving a vehicle within the Low emission zone of London, which is everywhere inside the M25 in a vehicle that does not conform to the required standards. So DVLC or whatever they call themselves these days haven't updated their systems yet so I made a few phone calls to find out what the hell all this is about and as far as I can see it's just another stealth tax another way of getting money out of people that can ill-afford it.

I have choices...I can  convert my vehicle to run on gas which means converting the engine to spark ignition...yeah right!!!

I can replace the vehicle..again yeah right!!

I can use one of their registered suppliers and fitters and get a new particulate filter fitted to the vehicle...

Again I made a few phone calls I was directed to the list of registered suppliers and fitters there are 12.....3 are not in this Country 3 are right up north and the first one I tried that wasn't too far away has stopped doing them...this is going to be fun!. I managed to get hold of a company in Milton Keynes who informed that supply and fit would cost anywhere between £3500 and £4000 we are talking about £150 worth of materials here and two hours to fit...god lets just rip everyone off again...

So none of the above so I am now trying to find somewhere else to park it up that is not inside the M25 bloody rip off zone grrrr!!!!

9. Young Blood is now home

Its been another short while since I last blogged anything on here, it always amazes me how awry plans can go because life just keep getting in the way. Right the good news having spent a day or two trying to get my son and Bother to agree on a date that they both could be free on I gave up...so last Saturday I got on a train to Nottingham. now there is something I haven't done in a while, and I have to admit it wasn't too unpleasant a journey.

Ian picked me up from  the station and took me back to his place where after a cuppa and a very welcome pizza I set sail for home, it took a bit longer to get home then it did to get to Nottingham but thankfully the traffic wasn't too bad at all.

As you can see Emily has taken over already but I am afraid she is going to have to wait a couple of years first as myself and my brother have booked the seat for a couple of years at least, I will have to look at hiring the Santa Pod junior dragster for Emily and see how it goes from there.

In the meantime I have another small dilemma,, if I sell on of my bikes and it's trailer then I will have enough room to get the dragster in the garage, but I will still have to find somewhere to park the truck up.........

Even though it is all legal I think my next door neighbour ..Julie..would love to park her car outside her house and stop having the light blocked from her window.......problems, problems always problems LOL

8. And so it starts

Ok so the time is getting near to when I have to go and pick the car up..just over a week now so I have to admit in getting a little bit excited I have got to work it so my son Steve and my brother can come with me, Steve wants to pick Ian's brain over how the engine is set up and how etc. So first thing on the agenda for tomorrow is getting the truck insured.

Santa Pod has published its race dates for next year so only waiting for Shakey to release theirs then it will be a case of going over them and see which events I can do or not do, then I suppose I will have to part with some more money to join the SPRC (Santa Pod Racers Club) and Shakespeare County s equivalent, then and I am probably going to join the Wild Bunch too.

Then it will be time to sort out my licence that means a medical and buy a fire suit...fingers crossed that will be it then we can go racing.

In the meant time my aborted attempt at getting fit and losing weight starts again on Monday, i have found my gym membership card and my ankle and back seem to be a lot better now, so with a bit of luck and a following wind we can get everything back on track.

7. Learn as you go

Here we we are in October only 4 weeks..ish till I pick the truck and car up from Bloodlines Racing in good old Nottinghamshire. we are just about at the end of the racing season now this is the time of year where racers take stock and sort out their cars and get everything ready for the next racing season, I am so lucky that I an has done so much already this makes my task a lot easier  I have still got to track down a few tools but nothing major to get.

I have also been informed by the font of all drag racing knowledge that is Ian Turburville that even the race fire suits are "Dated" so best of getting that in the new year as well. So you live and learn thank god the drag racing community are so helpful and friendly, Talking of which I found this piccie on face book of the car, one of the nicest ones I have seen yet........

I do love the look of this car the proportions are just spot on, but it is a bit of a squeeze to get in and out........

Here's Ian helping me in and yes I can get in and out LOL

I would like to THANK my brother for taking this picture of me LOL now you can see why I want to call the car..Tight Fit.

6. Getting things done in the right order.

I wanted to make sure that I was aware of everything I needed to go racing so I spent yesterday going through al the various racing sites.....first one I tried was the Santa Pod Racers Club they have a section on starting racing, now I also believe that if you want to race at he Pod you have to be member of this club the first problem is this web site is way out of date they really need to update it,...so I read the first few chapters and the first thing that hit me was this........

"Next, regardless of whether you are running a block stock Lada or a Top Fuel dragster you need a licence,
so send off to the Motor Sports Association (MSA) for a licence form. At this point it is a good idea to 
join our drag racing club and register your vehicle. Once you become a member, part of your membership will
include a drag racing rulebook, which then it is a good idea to read about your class regulations
(firesuit, helmet requirements etc) and the basics of race craft."

So off I surfed to the MSA website, tte MSA are the governing body of Motorsport I went to the downloads page and downloaded the form for the licence application the only problem is it is still for 2013 so I will will have to wait for that to change to 2014, god knows when that will be but that was only the start of it, this licence thing is not cheap especially if  you want to race in Europe god knows why this costs more for this licence, and if you over 45 you have to have a medical , probably have to pay for that as well,so you pay all this money for a licence send off you medical records you have bought a car purchased a fire suit and then they refuse you a licence......that's an awful lot of money wasted and it looks like this is an annual thing as well which suddenly makes what Ian Turboville said ring true "Getting the car is the easy and cheapest bit" and wouldn't it be a good idea to have a rule book before you start spending all this money????
Then if you are successful then you have to pay to race at organised meetings and they are not cheap either...strewth how much money do these people think us poor amateur racers have.

I am dam sure they these sporting bodies could get together and simplify all this paperwork and make it dam cheaper, don't they know there is a recession on, I understand now why you see so many fantastic cars at "Run what you brung" events and not at organised championship meetings....far too much money and far too complicated.

The problem is what came first the chicken or the egg, I bought a car to go racing then found out what else was required, perhaps I should have had a medical first then applied for a licence but, the application is only valid for up to three months before you race so if you don't find a car in time then you have to go through it all again...hmmmm something really wrong with all this. It does all smack of " lets see how much money we can get out of all these racers" as if racing isn't expensive enough as it is. I can see why so many racers are taking "Time out" for a year etc.

So to go racing is not as simple as I thought it would be, there are different organisations waiting in a queue with their hands out waiting for your hard earned money on an annual basis then you and your car have to conform to certain standards and once you have done all this you can actually get onto the track, I am sure there are valid reasons for all of this but it does seem over the top a bit.

I may have done things in the wrong order so now it's time to get everything sorted so first I need the various web sites to update for next years racing then I will apply for the licence and get a medical done, then I will get a fire suit, gloves, helmet etc. a bit pointless in getting these if I don't get a licence.

I would like to point out that these are just the views of myself looking to getting into racing for the first time and finding out what is required etc and how complicated it seems and in some parts irrelevant...why do I need a licence? why do I have to pay to enter meetings?? etc and how expensive and time consuming it all is.

Maybe all this will change in the future but in the meantime it looks as if I have no choice if I want to experience the amazing thrill of travelling down the quarter mile..........