36. Santa Pod or Shaky

It looks like I have a quandary to sort out, I sat down the other week with my son to try and see when we could fit another day in to do some testing on the track. After much discussion it was decided that 14th September would have to do as it was the only day that we could all get together at the same time. So the crew were informed that we would be attending a RWYB at the Pod on that date...but!!! I get a message from a friend and fellow racer Jim Tanner that he was going to be attending a meeting at Shakespeare County raceway that same weekend...

Ok so that got me thinking can I get all the crew together for a weekend race meeting hmmmm. well it was not just the crew this time as both my brothers were coming and my three sons and my wife so a lot of phoning and it is all sorted now I hope, if the meeting at Shaky is what I think it is then we are all going but Phill and Dan will be going back in the evening the rest of us will be staying but! if  we have to then we can all still go to the Pod on the 14th..well that's the plan anyway.

Will be good to get a two day meeting in as it will give us time to sort out the tune up with the new injector stacks on and the new spring kit in the magneto with the hope that all this will give us our first 8 second run, I wont be too upset if it doesn't happen this time but I really want it,,dam do I want it.

We will see in a few weeks time and as they say.." what will be will be" or was that Doris Day...anyhow we will have fun trying and fingers crossed we don't damage anything.

Of course a lot depends on whether my son and crew chief Steve gets a car sorted by then and if his back is better as he has hurt it, dam I wish I could insure against such things happening LOL..roll on September...Bring it on !!!!!!!

35. Bigger pipes

Since I bought the car there is one thing that has bothered me...no not bothered, annoyed me and that is the injector ram pipes or lack of them to be honest, the ones on my car are very small and I believe the previous owner cut them down and it really spoils the look of the car, well I think it does...

Anyway not being too sure what is supposed to be what? I left well alone, but! a couple of times I have been told they are not the right length so I made the decision to find out for myself so I got on the net and sent a mail and a photo off to Hilborn in America..

I got a reply  rather quickly explaining that the length of my ram pipes are fine if the engine is revving between 9000 and 9500 if it is lower than this I really need a set of 8 inch ram pipes which will increase the bottom end and mid range torque....which would be brilliant, our engine only revs to around 7000 to 7500 so time to look for some  bigger ram pipes.

It was around this time that I found a picture of the car before the previous owner got it..and guess what??? it use to have much larger ram pipes....

So after scouring e-bay I found a place in America that still supplies the correct size pipes www.alkydigger.com  and after a mail or two about diameters I found the ones that I need.

These are no winging themselves from the Sates and I have my fingers crossed that will turn up before the 14th Sept when we are testing again at the Pod, I am hoping they will make the difference between a 9 second run and an 8 second run,,,,we will soon see.

The next problem is I promised myself that I would let both Steve (son and crew chief ) and Dave (brother and crew) a go in the car at the end of the season, now I know how not so easy it is to keep in a straight line I am having doubts LOL that is such a good idea, the other problem is the required safety equipment I know that my fire suit and gear will fit Steve but Dave is considerably smaller than both of us,, oh well we will have to try and see what happens, I will probably find it more difficult and nerve racking watching my car than actually driving it..October will come round far too quick...........and they had better not go quicker than me or they will never get in the car again LOL.

34. Back to the Pod RWYB

I had been watching the weather forecasts for two weeks and I had my fingers crossed that the sun would shine and the rain would hold off just for Saturday. It would seem that the remains of Hurricane Bertha is a drag racing fans as the weather for Friday was horrendous and acute weather warnings had been issued by the Met Office and again for Sunday looks like we got the "eye of the storm" thank god.

So up at 3:30am  disconnect the batteries and get them in the car and the rest of the food from the fridge. wake Lorni up and get moving. Steve had already left Swindon with my youngest son and was on his way to Luton to pick my youngest brother Andy up. I picked up my other brother Dave and we all met up at the truck in Bedford, So this is a first I have with me my wife, my two brothers and two of my sons, I am hoping that next year I will get everyone together for at least one of the meetings maybe Dragstalgia 2015.

First thing was to get parked up and get the car out and set up camp which we managed to do in record time, then Steve wanted to set the backlash change the oil and warm the car up which didn't take too long in fact the whole session took less time than it did to boil up some water for coffee on Dave's gas BBQ.

Santa Pod were having trouble with the track, there had been so much rain that the water table had risen and water was seeping up through the track so they were having a torrid time trying to dry it all out, in fact for much of the day we were only using one lane which sort of slowed things up which is why we only managed three runs instead of the planned four, anyway while they were still drying the track we made out way tot he food hall and a light breakfast.well some of us did......

I guess Steve and Andy just hadn't eaten for months....?? LOL So on with the testing  we let the tyre pressure down a wee bit to see if that would help with a relatively green track, unfortunately I didn't get backed up into my tyre tracks very well and at the hit the cat turned sharp right and headed for the Xmas tree so I had to peddle and then hit again which resulted in a 10.19 sec pass at 137 mph not what we was looking for but we learned something.

Also on the first run the car seemed to be moving left to right a bit more than is comfortable so having passed this information on to my crew chief  and number one son he changed the tyre pressures for the next run, put a little bit more pressure in. this resulted in a much better launch but the car still moved about a bit.

I also noticed when we were racing at Dragstalgia that whenever i ran in the Pit lane I had trouble with the run so I was beginning to wonder if there was such a big difference between the two lanes. The last run of the day was made on the spectator lane as the Pod track crew had managed to sort out the water problem and with even higher tyre pressures we managed a 9.5 second run at 143mph that was a little bit more like it. what I would have liked was another run in the other lane with the same set-up to see if we could run the same numbers and prove to myself that there is no difference between lanes and that it is all in me head....probably!!

Anyway that was it for the day we were lucky with the weather and I and the team did  learn a few things...how to untangle a parachute , how to pack a parachute, I also learned that you must release the chute under power or you will get bounced all over the track and yes it is uncomfortable LOL...very!

So we started to pack up Steve had a look under the truck to find the source of the oil leak and he found it was nothing to worry about..phew!!! and I managed to get a photo of all three of us Heaven brothers, it's not often we are altogether like this in fact the last time we had a photo of all three of us was again at the Pod about 9 years ago.....

After the photo the crew thought very hard about packing the car away...

And as always with the drag racing fraternity we made some new friends..Jim Tanner  and the "Wavy Gravy" crew, he built the car himself and like us he is going through the steep learning curve stage, great guy great looking car.

photo courtesy of www.eurodragster.com

So we learned a lot made some new friends and it was great to have so many of my family together I am now looking forward to next year, we have to get the car re-tagged (dragster MOT) I will get a licence and I am determined to run in Super-Pro et so we will get the car into the 8's at some point. in the meantime I must check to see if there are any-more RWYB's I can get the crew together for before the end of the season.

33. Back to the grind

Well Dragstalgia is now a distant memory, a good one but distant, so what next? well first we all took a well earned rest we had all worked very hard to make it to Dragstalgia, the next thing was, I looked at all the data from the runs and the video clips and I noticed that the car is not launching as hard as it used to, Crew Chief Steve reckon sit is because we have a couple of tight valves which also explained the smoke through the breather on the last run...I hope So with a bit of tweaking we are still hopeful that we can run the big "8" at the next RWYB on the 9th August..fingers crossed.

So what else? well first I would like t thanks Julina Hunt for this brilliant photo he took of me and the car going through the lights with the laundry out, makes me look like a real drag racer.

While we were putting the car away after Dragstalgia we managed to rip off one of the brackets that held the wheelie bar up out of the way while manoeuvring the car so I took the truck and dragster to Luton to where my brother works to get the bracket welded back on,

While we were at it we welded up a side bracket and fixed the rear door latch, I have also received a new piece of lexan of the right grade to replace the windscreen which I broke while getting out of the car, also got a new remove before flight pennant for the chute,

I did notice however that there was a puddle of oil under the truck when I drive off so must have a look at it that before it gets too bad.

Also this week so the début of Blood Lines new car built by Ian Turberville..."Beach Bomb" as reported on Eurodragster.com

and very nice it is too, I wouldn't mind that engine myself, will have to make do with out Small block for now, and I say for now as we do have plans for the season after next...watch this space.

32. Dragstalgia 2014

When I was a young lad of 12 in 1971 my father took me to Santa Pod for the first time, my brother and I have been going back ever since come rain, snow, floods etc. we both love this sport and late last year I thought to myself " I can still go to the toilet unaided I can walk without a frame I can still hear and see..just!, so maybe it's about time I had a go at this before its' too late!" So I did a deal with Turbo to purchase Laura's rail from Bloodlines racing, I could just about fit in it hence the name "Tight Fit" The idea was to get the family involved have some fun and try and get everything together ready for Dragstalgia 2014.

Our first RWYB was a bit of a disaster as the on-board battery failed so we didn't get to run, the next RWB I managed an 18 sec run followed by 14 then an 11 then a 10.9 and I was doing burnouts of sorts,,I am now addicted roll on Dragstalgia but! the gearbox destroyed itself and then the truck gave up the ghost so my very understanding wife gave up the hope of a new kitchen and bathroom and we went racing!!!.

The drive to the Pod early Friday morning was awful, the rain was so bad I had to slow right down to see where I was going, this was not a good start, I met up with the super crew in Bedford loaded the truck up and got to the Pod around 8am and set up camp and parked in a puddle..

But the sun came out the incredible track crew dried the place out and we were on with racing,so over the three days I was sent back once for not having my arm restraint done up properly..I have no problem with that, safety must come first at all times, we missed one run as we were having trouble with the  timing on the car, I would like to say a big thanks to Mo Blackburn who helped us out over the weekend ....

I managed to get one good run in on Saturday against the one of our overseas visitors and ran a 9.27 at 136mph I was well chuffed 

The rain came back with a vengeance Saturday night Sunday morning and I learned a very important lesson...always shut the roof vents when going to bed as a soggy sleeping bag is not a comfortable place to be.

 While we were at the event Pete "Eddie" Yates turned up with a set of car name stickers for us, so a big thanks to him for that, so we stripped the last stickers that placed the car in the previous owners name and suddenly we had our own car.

We  managed to card a 10.8 and a 10.0 on Sunday which was a long way off from the 9.2 which we had set as our dial in, we managed to get another run in at the end of the meeting but when I went to tell the crew I found Steve with the rocker boxes off as we had a couple of tight valves and we had managed to split the rocker box gasket on the previous run and no more spares, so I ran round the pits very quickly and managed to get a second hand gasket...well it had been used on one run so a big thank you to Mark Coulsell and the Ball Breaker team for helping us out in out hour of need. We pulled the car round while Steve was still putting the rocker boxes on, so no warm up we got past a couple of Outlaw Anglia's and made it in line in time and we then went on to run another PB 9.203 at nearly 145mph..brilliant.

So what a belter of a weekend the weather was on our side for a change. well most of  the time,  we managed 4 PB's learnt a lot  about the car made some great new friends including the now adopted Ove Kroeger and family.

Here is a video clip of me against one of our German visitors thanks to Nick Pettitt I managed a PB of 9.27 on this run I was a bit more than happy. little did I know I would run even quicker a day later.

We got help and advice from so many people I can't even begin to thank you all, Sarah was brilliant as usual and nearly as excited as me to run 9's

Claire never stopped going back and forth keeping everyone updated I would also like to thank the start line crew and marshals for putting up with the car stalling on  nearly every burnout, we are looking into this problem and hope to cure it soon, we started packing away a bit late and by the time we were ready to winch the car up the ramps nearly every team that was leaving that night had gone then disaster I had forgotten to turn the battery isolator off, the batteries were dead flat.ooops!

So had the race car half in the truck and no power, thankfully Alan and Margaret Smith were staying another night and he had a 24v starter pack, there is a god after all, so many thanks Alan you are a gentleman and a rock star, and on top of everything else I won a trophy for being closest to a Dial in,

 a perfect end to a perfect meeting. and what can I say about my crew. they have learned so much so fast, Steve you a diamond, Dave kept our spirits up when things were looking a lot less bright.so once again thank you everyone who made this possible it was a true high- light in my life...awesome weekend

I must also thank John O'Sullivan, Ian "Turbo" Turberville and Laura for all their help and encouragement over the last few months and especially my incredible wife Lorni for putting up with all this and never complaining, Thanks!

31. Dragstalgia here we come!!!

So after all the setbacks it looks like we are now on track again, Steve and John have sorted out the problems with the gearbox and the car is now ready to race..

The only problem now is with the old truck bless her, the tail lift has stopped working which is a big problem,

the power steering pump is not working and not long after we got her we found a crack running all the way round the exhaust manifold which we tried to weld up but it is in a fiddly place and the welds have cracked again, there are teeth missing on the flywheel which means starting the dam thing is really hit or miss,mostly miss, and the box leaks like a sieve so everything was getting damp when it rained, and the cab leaked, we also found the whole rear end electrics are dodgy the lights keep going on and off all the time sooo I decided that we can wait for a new kitchen and bathroom and bought a newer truck

Say hello to Boris a converted extended ex council mobile library, converted at a cost of 30K a few years ago by well known drag racer Tim Adam, it is long enough maybe not as wide but I am hoping he will be so much more reliable, and no tail lift, so with a bit of luck I shall be sorting Boris out over the next couple of days ready for Friday when we will be heading for Dragstalgia, making sure the ramps are tracked for our slingshot etc.....Oh and my race/fire suit has arrived at last..

I so hate pictures of myself god I look old..anyway I have also sorted out some stickers for the cars,vinyl for the car name, numbers etc,

The orange will be gold when they are ready which I hope will be in time for next weekend. along with some polo shirts I can't afford proper team shirts but what I found on the net were some polo shirts that are in the team colours so we might look a little professional on the start line...

So now join with me in a prayer to the weather gods and BRING IT ON!!!!!!!

30. Best laid plans and all that!!!

Some times things just don't pan out the way you want them to, no matter how hard you try.We, when I say we I mean the team were hoping to have the gearbox back today ready for refitting, Steve and Dave had taken time off work and I had charged the batteries up and driven 200 miles to take them over to Dave's place so the dragster could be started up and the gearbox checked before putting it away ready for Dragstalgia. Then just when you think you have everything in hand...."Chaos Reigns" and it all falls apart.

First of all the gearbox it has taken John longer than expected to replace all the parts and set up correctly, he has worked hard to get it all done on time but! even with all his hard work..and we do appreciate it John.. time beat him, not to worry we still have a week and a half to try and sort something out, much rather this than rush a job and get it wrong, then......

While on the way to Luton with the batteries I get a txt from Steve to tell me that my other son Phil has been involved in a car accident.....

This is what happened to Phil's car at a roundabout when some d**k-head ran a red light, thankfully in the greater scheme of things Phil is ok nothing broken he will suffer from some bruises and aches and pains and probably nasty whip-lash as well. But what this prat doesn't know is ..he has ruined Phil's car, his pride and joy a car that over the last few months he has lavished much money and time on and none of this will he ever get back, on top of this it's his transport to and from work and even more importantly it's his transport to go visit and pick up his kids  every other weekend, this numpty has ruined more than just a four wheeled machine.

I'm not finished yet!!! oh no...as I pulled up at Dave's place..my brother.. he was under the bonnet of his Astra estate, his battery had gone flat, he knew that the alternator wasn't that old but the battery was, so she went and bought a new battery and as I got there smoke was billowing from under the car as the alternator slowly fried itself into oblivion. So even if the gearbox had been ready we would have still had a problem to deal with.

What with the damage to my bike, this week has so far been a bit of an anticlimax but I always try and remain optimistic, ..my son is still alive and kicking, my bike still works and the damage is fixable, Dave's car is now fixed and ready to rumble and the Gearbox will be fixed and ready in the near future so all in all I suppose things could have been a lot worse???