I have been looking forward to this for so long, we have had so many problems with our car that I could write a book about it, after the Retro Show we knew we had found something and I couldn't wait to see how she would go given a well prepped track and some decent weather. Also I had suffered problems with my back I have had disk problems in the past and this was not what I wanted just before Dragstalgia and at one point I even contemplated pulling out of the competition as I couldn't see how I could get in and out of the car.
Thankfully with a bit of hard work I managed to control the pain so....we were set we were going come hell or high water.. The plan was to leave Thursday morning from the house and get to the truck by midday and to the Pod an hour later at the most. I was thinking about the 45 entries in the Wild Bunch alone and I knew pit space would be limited.
So Thursday morning the car was packed up ready to go,
Not too long after and after a few phone calls from Steve and Dave who were really interested in my whereabouts on numerous occasions I arrived at the truck, where all the "stuff" in the photo above was transferred to the mobile garage / home from home,
a quick fuel stop on the A6 and I was there driving through the gates of the Santa Pod Raceway. I was amazed to see how many racers were already there, this was around 1pm. A couple of the guys Andy and Jim agreed to give me a hand to get the car out of the Truck, not an easy task at the best of times it was here that I noticed the car was sitting at a strange angle one of the rear slicks was deflated so a quick pump up and the car was out, I set up camp ready for the arrival of my brother Dave as soon as he could get out of work.
Friday morning I was up early to check the car and get ready for the arrival of the rest of the crew for the weekend, the slick appeared to be still inflated so all looked well, that was until Steve who had arrived with my other brother Andy checked the pressures, the slick was still going down even though it was slowly, so after erecting a tent for Steve and Andy I went looking for help, Jim knew John Webster so he went and asked if he could help us, now bearing in mind John was busy getting his own car ready for racing and was very busy, he said that he had inner tubes that would fit my slicks in his workshop and he would fetch them as soon as he had a few minutes to spare ......
click on image for link
The track opened at 12 and a couple of hours later and true to his work John turned up with two boxes and not only only did he go out of his way to go get them he fitted them for us as well, not an easy task for someone that has never done this before, so I would like to thank John Webster for all his help without which our weekend would have been over before it has begun.
So a little later than expected I was in the pairing lanes the weather was really over cast and had shed some of that wet stuff on the track a little while earlier, the good thing was we managed to get two runs in on Friday which after finding the flat slick we thought we wouldn't make any. so tow runs which netted a 9.5 and a 9.22. This was a good start after the problems we had at the Retro Show one of those runs was against Johnny Smith who was a presenter on Fifth Gear.
Johnny drives an amazing electric car which I believe is now the world record speed holder for street legal electric car, you can find out more about this amazing machine here..
But...I was in the other lane and there was no way I was going to let an electric car beat me even if it was from another class of race vehicle..Street Eliminator...but well done Johnny on your 9 second pass that is just incredible.
I really enjoyed the race and if you ever read this Johnny!... thanks. But! even better than that my wife Lorni who also turned up at around mid afternoon was on hand to video the race on her phone, bless her.
So that was a 9.2 second run with a sort of two step launch we were heading in the right direction at last, that saw off the first day which was a RWYB day next day was for real!!! The real buzz for us was that on both runs we re-set our PB speed. On both runs the car was all over the place and I was even complimented on my driving by none other than Santa Pods own Darryl Bradford.
The first of our schedule 3 runs was against Maurice Takoor in the little Spirit slingshot, now once again Lorni videoed the run on the her phone, again not the cleanest of runs but........
..you will notice, if you put the volume up that Lorni lets go of a little scream at the end of the clip, I was sitting at the top end waiting for the crew to come and tow me back and they arrived with flashing lights we had done it after all this time we had run our first 8 second run..to say I was over the moon would be an understatement. Dave even had the number board on the screen of Steve's car set up LOL
But oh then the surprise f the meeting for me..in my first ever Dragstalgia and my first ever race against anyone I was put up against a certain German lady in her 8 ball altered powered by a BBC...Jutta Winter, she beat me that day and I ran what was up to this weekend my fastest and quickest ET 9.203
I looked to my left and there she was again, this time I wanted payback, the cars were fired we made our way round to the start-line I was really up for this, the lights ran down and I was gone, foot planted as hard as I could and at no time did I see that black car I went through the lights and gave a little scream of delight then hit the Chute, my new chute that is, for the first time, and it nearly tore my head off, I made the first turn off for the very first time! the crew came to get me with a big smile on their faces and I found out that I had just run my fastest and quickest ever at 8.72 @ 150 mph. If anyone has a video of this please let me know.
Got back to the pits and only had time to just get out have a drink change the oil and we were being called again this time we were up against Chris Manning in his gorgeous new slingshot.."The Villain" unfortunately he had problems on the start line and didn't make the run but we made another 8 second blast 8.8 at again a little over 150mph. but! on the warm up we noticed a bit of a knock while starting up and a squeaky noise coming from the same area... Flex plate, starter area hmmm.
Sunday morning arrives along with some sunshine and heat, and my other son Phill and his better half Katie, so no pressure then with half the family watching but! on our morning warm up the starter gave up the ghost...................! Dam!
So not wanting to give up I went on the tour of the pits trying to find anyone who had a spare starter, I ended up at our friend Mike Oates pit he told us that he could get us a new one from a guy he knows that would be willing to open up his shop, Part of the Top Speed Automotive group and bring one to the Pod, but he might be an hour or so. I agreed and asked him to do this for us, then I bumped into Turbo who was not having the best meeting of his life either who said he had a spare in the trailer that we could borrow. So that was fitted in about 30 seconds and we just about made the call and there we were back in the pairing lanes again.
This time we were up against our good friend Mo Blackburn in his gorgeous "T" bucket Escape From RealiTee again I hit the throttle hard expecting to see Mo run off into the distance but I didn't see him and once again I went through the lights first and again we ran an 8 but this time even faster at 8.70 at 150.63 mph, this is beginning to feel like a dream.
Now not long after we got back to the pits the new starter arrived we took Turbo's loaned starter off when we heard that Mark Coulsell and Ballbreaker team were also having problems with shier starter after trying to make one good one out of the bits they had in their trailer. So having made our old starter work we ran round and gave Mark our new starter to use for the next run but!..are you still with me on this? we then fired up our car again to warm her up and the starter failed!!! so we had a choice we could ask Mark for our new starter back which was already fitted to Ballbreaker and ready to run or we sat the last run out. I made the decision to let Mark run and we would sit the last run out, but then I had an idea I ran round to another of our friends pits, Mick Gleadow, who had bought his brand new slingshot to Dragstalgia but had not managed to get her down the track yet, and I managed to get him to let us take the starter off his car so we could borrow it, unfortunately it didn't fit! but thanks anyway Mick hope to see the car on the track very soon.
so I then grabbed my camera and walked down to the start line to take some photo's. Not been there long when Phillip came running down and very out of breath told me to get ready Steve had fixed a starter up out of more bits and pieces..... I looked behind Phil and there was my car being towed down the pairing lanes at 60 mph!!. We ran last and it was a solo but on the burnout I decided to try out something I had been thinking about and I waved to the crowd as I was doing a one handed burn out...cool! again if anyone has a photo or video clip of this please let me know. I went to put her in stage but found I only had second gear so not wanting to disappoint the crew after all their hard work I went for it, She launched very hard still considering it was in second and I still ran another 8 second pass at 150mph God we have a bracket car.
We got back to the pits a very happy crew we had run a string of 8 second passes at over 150mph and we had remained undefeated all weekend with no damage! apart from starter motors that is...I was so glad that Phill had turned up to see all this as in the past everytime he came to watch us the car ran like crap.
The sons Phil and super crew chief Steve
What a weekend and what a crew Steve Dave and even Phil on Sunday worked so hard to get me down the track and to keep the car running, we now have a real dragster and a proper race crew thanks guys. Oh and I must not forget my darling wife Lorni who has been so great in supporting this project of mine over the last three years and for going without so we can go racing, thanks darling.
That wasn't the end of it we still had the Wild Bunch presentations to attend which happens at the end of every meeting.
The prizes were presented by Claire who won a prize herself this year "The Spirit of Dragstalgia" award present by the one and only Colin Theobald one of Santa Pods very own commentators. And guess what? we won a trophy as well for the best wheelie.....
Now this was a surprise as I had no idea that I was carrying the front wheels at all, apparently I had them up to around 330 foot on one run,,wow! I gave this trophy to Steve as without him we would be nowhere.
I have just seen this photo of me with my arms crossed waiting for the presentations, I had no idea I was that tall,...lol
So 45 cars entered 42 of them ran which is a Wild Bunch record we will soon have enough cars to have our meeting.....Oh we already do don't we? its called Dragstalgia!!!!!!!!!!!!
A nice and beautiful article.
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