Santa Pod Raceway European Finals

September 6th-8th

Words And Pictures By Chris Dossett

As the Championship situation stood we almost had the title in the bag but it was still possible that Gordon Smith and the Shockwave team could finish ahead of us. Bob Jarrett had returned from California having only been at home for a week since the last meeting at Shakespeare County Raceway. With him was Ken Symer who had come along to work on the team and fill the gap left by top end motor man Huub. The block that had been damaged at the Main Event in May had been repaired at Keith Blacks and was now fully rebuilt with a new crankshaft and sitting in the car. In the trailer was the spare motor, ready if we should need it, and also the motor that we had used in the final of Round three at Shakey two weeks ago. That motor was also on standby and new bearings were fitted on Friday morning and the crankshaft polished to remove any blemishes.

We had a different pit space to the one we were used to with the trailer parked at 90 degrees to the track and closer to the start line than usual. A gazebo was erected behind the trailer to accommodate guests but the winds on Friday did their best to re-locate the thing to the start line, or beyond, so it was dismantled and packed away before it could make an unscheduled departure. Myltons of Bedford came up trumps with a superb Chrysler Grand Voyager for us to use as a tow vehicle. It had tinted windows, air con, electric everything and a Playstation2 and DVD player with a drop down screen mounted in the roof. The finishing touches were added with the application of the Showtime logos and a rather special number plate!

Three paragraphs and no mention of the weather or the inaccuracy of various forecasts! Well despite a strong wind (which I did mention) Friday turned out to be better than expected, beginning bright but becoming cloudy with a brief shower. Our first qualifying session was scheduled for the early evening so we had all day to prepare the car. Nearly all the crew had arrived early to get things ready and eventually Bill Sherratt turned up with Tom Hoover who was on his annual visit to the Pod before heading off to Moscow with Bill the following week. Bob and Bill set about checking and setting the clutch and fuel timers and ignition timing.

The car was fired up in the pits but there was a problem with the oil pressure. The relief valve spring that had been fitted at the last meeting was proving to be to strong with a different block and new crank so it was removed and the original one fitted in its place to bring the pressure down. Again the car was fired up and all seemed well.

Finally it was time to tow the car down for the first round of qualifying and of course the weather decided that now would be a good time to turn bad. The sky became very gloomy and occasional drops of rain could be felt. Ahead of us was the first round of qualifying for the Top Fuelers and the intermittent rain saw a stop start situation on the start line with some of the cars having to be shut down. Eventually the fuelers were all gone and it was our turn. We were in the left lane with Gordon Smith in the right. The gloomy weather and twilight meant that we would see some spectacular header flames for the first time in quite a while. With the burnouts completed the cars lined up in pre-stage. John staged first followed immediately by Gordon, the lights ran and on the green the header flames and flashguns lit up the start line area like an electric storm. Before the 60ft mark John was experiencing tyre shake and pedalled the car to try and eliminate it, he was back on the throttle briefly before lifting again and idling to the end. In the other lane something even more spectacular was going on. Gordon to launched hard but the headers on one side blew off and trailed a shower of sparks down the length of the quarter mile. He had stayed on the throttle longer than John though and got to the other end first.

At the top end all seemed well with the car and we set off back to the pits to begin the servicing. Once again it was Bobs intention to strip the motor down to remove all the rods and pistons after each run so that he could keep an eye on what was going on inside. In this case the same pistons went back in for the rebuild. We carried on working into the night while the racing on the track continued into the darkness. At one point I took a breather and wandered over to the fence to watch some 9.90 bike action. To my surprise and subsequent bemusement I was just in time to see a Hyabusa hurtle up the strip to record a pass in the mid-eights, breaking out by well over a second! I decided I had been up too long.

Bob had looked at the data from the previous nights run and decided that he would leave the clutch settings the same but use the mag retard device to back off the timing after the launch in an attempt to beat the tyre shake. This has the effect of launching the car hard but then taking some of the power away before 0.8 second which is where tyre shake normally begins.

The rebuilt motor was fired up and checked over and all was well. We were to run in the first of the days two allocated qualifying sessions and we began to tow down as the Top Fuelers were out on the track. Then disaster struck as Barry Sheavills car broke in half on a 4.94/277 pass. Thankfully Barry was ok and we waited for the crew to clear the top end of the track. We were in the right hand lane this time with Smax Smith in the left. After the delay and a few spots of rain the signal came to fire the cars up. Bob waited until Smax had started his motor before giving the signal to Bill to operate the starter on our car, but Smaxs starter was spinning and spinning with no sign of the motor ever firing up. Eventually it became clear that Smax was going to have to sit this one out and we fired up on our own. John brought the car to the line, staged and on the green launched very hard. The car squatted down and leapt from the line with header flames clearly visible, it rapidly picked up speed and picked up the front wheels a few times as it charged straight to the eighth mile mark, John was definitely on one! Then just after the eighth there was a puff of smoke and John shut off to coast to the end in 5.91 seconds at a slowing 166mph. At the top end all seemed well with the car and John explained that he had shut off when he felt the car getting loose. The puff of smoke turned out to have come from number six cylinder which had dropped and could have contributed to the cars loss of stability. The timing ticket showed a 0.918 60ft time, a big improvement on the previous days 0.975. A speed of 220mph at the eighth showed that the car had been on course for a great time at the finish.In the pits the motor was stripped down to the block again and rods and pistons were replaced. With no more runs for us today we took our time on the rebuild making sure that everything was right for the first round of competition the following day.

The morning was spent getting everything ready for the first round of competition. As Smax had failed to qualify we were to have a bye run into the final but Bob and John had no intention of taking it easy. This was our penultimate run of the season and we wanted to show the huge crowd what the car was capable of.

With lane choice we took the left hand lane and John burnt out and returned to the start line. As he moved the car to the line all seemed well. He moved into stage and then the motor started to lean out and sounded like it was going to stop, it then picked up again but the lights were already running. John wisely waited a couple of seconds until the motor was fit again before launching. Once again the car launched hard but John was only on the throttle briefly as the revs climbed and he coasted to the other end. Then the reason for the start line problem came from John over the radio. He had accidentally caught the fuel pump shut offs causing the motor to almost die on the line.

At the top end the car seemed to be in good shape and we made our way back to the pits to prepare for the final. However it soon became clear that all was not well. The oil showed signs of bearing damage and once the oil pan was removed and the rear main bearing taken out it was possible to see that the crankshaft was damaged. So for the third meeting running we were going to be changing a motor. As I have explained before as well as removing one motor and fitting another many parts have to be removed and swapped from block to block such as the heads, the front blower and crank pulleys and of course the clutch assembly. Also the oil tank, oil filter, oil pump and all the oil lines have to be removed and cleaned out to remove any potentially damaging metal particles. The news came from Championship coordinator Jim Broome that the series title was indeed now ours, but for now our minds were concentrated on the job ahead of us. The Championship may have been decided but the race wasn't!

Well, having had plenty of practice this year we set about the task knowing that we could manage to get the job done in time for the final. Time of course was not on our side but the team remained calm and worked together well getting the car race ready with almost no time to spare before the final. The car was fired up on nitro straight away in the pits while Bob and Bill checked the timing. This done the motor was checked over and we loaded the Voyager, put the body on the car, changed into our startline shirts and towed down to join the North Herts Engineering team in the pairing lanes. This was not going to be an easy final. Gary Page in the North Herts car had earlier run the car to its best time and got it into the fives.

We took our places behind the start line and waited for the signal to fire up. When it came both cars roared into life and set off on their burnouts. The crowd were on their feet as the cars moved into pre-stage. John staged first and after about three seconds, which seemed so much longer, Gary moved into stage as well, the lights ran and both cars left the line hard, with header flames and clouds of clutch dust John was determined to get there first. It wasn't going to be easy though, the car started to get a little out of shape, John pedalled it which caused the front wheels to rise alarmingly before the car began to turn to the right, somehow John got it straight again and now charged hard and straight to the finish. It looked good, we held our breath and the win light came on in our lane. 5.56 seconds, our best time of the weekend had come just when we needed it most in a similar fashion to our Round Three win two weeks ago. We set off in a jubilant mood to collect John and the car. Both appeared to be in good shape and we waited while a traffic jam of Top Fuelers, Pro Stockers and Funny Cars cleared.

All that was left now was to pack everything away and remark on how far away Easter seems. All attempts by me to convince Karen from Myltons that she had said I could keep the Voyager failed. Some people have terrible memories eh! The meeting ended with rain calling a halt to the proceedings and a huge que formed of people attempting to leave the site.

So there you have it. The Championship was ours for a second year but it had been far from easy. At the end of a year like ours we can look back and see that all the hard work was worth the effort. Now the winter months ahead give us an opportunity to prepare our minds and our machinery for another exciting season of racing in 2003. Easter may be a long way off but we will try and provide some relief by keeping the website as active as possible over the winter. Stay tuned for the latest news and don't forget that the Championship page will remain active too. Why not add your name to our mailing list and be the first to know of any new updates.

Qualifying Round one

Qualifying Round Two

Eliminations Round One

Eliminations Final