Santa Pod 6th – 9th September

Thursday

Set up day, as we were not due to run until Friday. We were not in our usual place in the pits, but in with the Top Fuel dragsters in the area known as “the playpen”. Whatever the location the first thing to do is put up the awning and have a general tidy round in the workshop and ready the car as much as possible.

We were visited in the afternoon by Holly Chamberlain of the Motorsports Industry Association (MIA). Holly was given a tour of the car and given some insights into the running of a Nitro Funny Car in advance of the MIA guests who would be visiting the pit during Sunday. We hope Holly won’t mind us quoting her reaction.

‘’ It definitely makes it more interesting to watch knowing how much hard work goes into each car afterwards”

Friday

The “ Brad” motor was in the car, with the motor we hurt at Hockenheim as the spare. We gave the 1st session a miss and were raring to go in the 2nd session around 4.30pm.

A solo run in the right lane. 0.947 sec 60ft and 231.89mph at the 1/8th, finishing with a 5.2639 secs at 261.64mph, speed a little down but seemed OK for a “straight off the trailer” pass. The incremental times were all down and the back of the car was loose after about 900 feet so an early click off around 1100 feet.

As they say looks can be deceptive – dropping the pan at the service revealed a sprinkling of metallic filings. Worst fears were confirmed, we had marked the crank. The spare motor was not quite complete so it was decided to change the crank in the “Brad”. A long evening ensued, but we left the track with the motor back in place and the car virtually ready to run.

Saturday

After the late night, we again gave the 1st session a miss in order to thoroughly check the car over and be fully prepared, ready to go when called. Bob and John had made a few changes to try and get the incremental times up, so it was decided if there was any shake or it just didn’t feel right John would click off. If it hooked up John would drive it “like he stole it”. Better arrest that driver for car theft! 5.139 secs at 284.90mph. Subject to back up, a new European ET. The car was still down on the incremental times but we are learning with ever pass, John’s visor lifted on that pass so he was forced to shut off early, but the car was still pulling hard.

The routine service would tell us if we had fixed our crankshaft issues, all our guys were watching and waiting for our bottom end guys to give the answer, and the word was we were looking real good, so a regular service was carried out and an early night was in order.

Sunday

The busiest day of the weekend. 1st run around 1pm and the 2nd around 4pm. We would also have several of our sponsors and their guests joining us, as well as a group from the MIA visiting the pit. For many of the guests it was to be their first visit to drag racing and their first close up look at the car. First call of duty for John was to head to the start line to be interviewed as part of the pre-race ceremonies.

The car was warmed up around 10.30 and readied for towing down. Our guests had made their way to the various vantage points to await the 1st run. A long, strong burnout followed by 5.168 secs at 274.06mph to back up Saturdays run. So we had now set the official ET record at 5.139 secs .

One of our 1st time guests summed it up in a 1 word text message “ Unbelievable !”

Bob has been adding power and clutch into the car and the car is responding to the changes, The car is a dream to drive but will still take more power and clutch to bring it around to where we need to be.

So its back to the pit for the routine service to be carried out, and ensure we had fixed our crankshaft issues, and again we were looking good, the incremental times was still not up where we would like to be but every run shows we are getting closer.

We had the ET record but lost the speed record to Leif Helander who ran a 278mph, which was backed up by his 284mph from a previous run. Well done Leif.

The crew now had to be on their toes to turn the car round in a little under 2 hours. An appreciative audience of sponsors, guests and fans were present throughout.

It was back to the startline for 4pm to race Leif Helander in the final. After the burnout, John seemed to be having a slight problem getting the car into forward drive.

John was first to the 1/8th but the car was heading for the centre line. Over to John for a fuller description of the run “When we fired the car for that last run the car jerked forward which is not good, it means we have a clutch issue, after the burn out I got reverse gear but then could not get it out of reverse with out the quick thinking from Bob.He saw I was in trouble and brought the ideal speed down and I was able to get into forward gear. But all this time the clutch was getting far too hot. Both cars went up to the line and my clutch was dragging and I went into deep-stage. The light ran, but by the 1/8 it was all over. Just past this the clutch let go big time and a shower of sparks lit up the inside of the car followed by a flash fire which was quickly put out by the on board fire system. While dealing with this the car drifted over and hit the top end timing reflectors, ouch! you would not have thought foam could do so much damage.

Back in the pits there was some light damage to the front of the body and confirmation that the clutch had given out. Not an ideal ending to the weekend.

Overall we were very pleased with our performance. Bob has certainly got a handle on the tune up and we see exciting times ahead for the Showtime FC

We will be making our final appearance of 2007 at the Flame and Thunder Show on the 3rd November at Santa Pod.

Thank you to all our sponsors, their guests, and the fans for your support, and the Santa Pod crews and officials for a great weekend’s racing