Excitement Nationals 2003

Fuel Funny Car Championship Round One

Shakespeare County Raceway May 3rd-5th

Words And Pictures By Chris Dossett

On the weather front, well you know the deal by now. British Bank Holiday. Forecast - Rain. No surprises there.

With only two cars present it had been decided that we would not run on the Saturday and have two qualifying runs on the Sunday. If you read the report from the last meeting you will know that we had got the car ready to run but the opportunity didn't arise. Therefore the car was more or less ready and there were only minor things to be completed. The pushrods had been removed so these were refitted and the valve clearances set, batteries were charged, final body repairs carried out and Bill retreated to the back of the trailer where he can usually be found at these times, grinding the new clutch discs to ensure they are perfectly flat. Bob replaced both mags as part of an ongoing update of the ignition system. The burst panel was refitted to the front of the body having been repaired after its last trip skywards. The timer box that had taken a hammering previously remained in place despite the fact that a new item was ready to be fitted. We wanted to make sure that there would be no repeat performances.

Later in the day Lex Joon arrived with team manager Gerda and three of his crew members. They had come to see how we operate during a meeting and learn some of the basics they will need to know when the time comes for them to run their new car.

Of course the weather deteriorated throughout the day. A series of showers brought proceedings to a halt and generally dampened the enthusiasm.

The crew all arrived and set about the final preparations for the first qualifying run. The car was fired up in the pits and checked over and everybody kept their fingers crossed in the hope that the troubles of the previous meeting were behind us. The call came and we were due to make our first pass at 13.30.

After a careful inspection of the track by Bob he decided on the left lane. We took our position behind the start line and waited for the signal to fire 'em up. Both cars completed their burnouts and made their way to the line. With the green light the cars launched, it looked like John was hooking up well but just as we thought it was going to be a good run there was a bang and once again the burst panel flew up into the air. Almost exactly what had happened before in almost exactly the same place. John got the car over to the side of the track and coasted to a stop. The safety crew were on the scene immediately but there was no panic as John was out of the escape hatch, there was no fire and all seemed as well as can be expected. Once again it seemed that a head had lifted after a backfire and the burst plate had gone along with the blower belt. The timer box had taken another beating but other than that there was no serious damage visible.

Back in the pits the strip down revealed that the problem was more severe than first imagined. The head had lifted with such a force that a stud had broken off in the block. Bobs thinking now was heading in the direction of an ignition fault causing a cylinder to fire at the wrong time, this being the most likely explanation for such a dramatic failure. The head with the broken stud was reluctant to come away from the block and it remained attached while we removed the stripped down motor and prepared the spare. Later on the head was removed and it was found that most of the studs were bent and the gasket had blown out at both ends. With plenty of time available John set about making a complete new set of plug leads for the car.

We arrived at the trailer and set about getting the car ready for another qualifying run. We were optimistic and felt sure that we had found the source of our problems.

For this round we were in the right hand lane.We fired the car up and John set off on his burnout.Everything looked well as the cars moved up to the line. John staged first and Gordon followed soon after. On the green John got away a fraction quicker. The car hooked up and left the line hard, header flames were visible as the car began to move to the left. With black stripes being left on the track the car was drifting towards the centre line but it was now well past the point where the previous problems had occurred. In the other lane Gordon was drifting to the right and the cars came very close together before John pedalled it in order to correct the direction. When he hit the throttle again there was a backfire and the burst panel sailed high into the air followed by the blower belt which came down and slid to the right hand side of the track. In the other lane Gordon had shut off and, despite the breakage, John got to the line first and recorded a 7.1 to Gordons 8.1. We had made number one qualifying spot!

We set off to collect John and the car and on the way collected some of the debris. This included the blower belt, the burst panel and some broken manifold studs. At the top end of the track the safety team had surrounded the car but John was out and was fine. This time the blower was sitting at an awkward angle. The inlet manifold had broken and once again there was damage to the body, including a crack in the screen and a repeat of the timer box lid re-shaping consequence.

Back in the pits the work began to ready the car for the final, no mean feat when you consider how much work there was to be done. Despite the backfire it seemed that we had solved the problem that had plagued us for the all the runs prior to this one. Although the plug leads we had been using were only made and fitted a year ago it appears that they had not survived the British winter and deteriorated. The new leads had definitely cured one problem. But now we had another. Fortunately at the bottom end of the engine all was well. At the top however there were problems. The inlet manifold was damaged too badly to be repaired at the track but fortunately we had another in the trailer. Removal of the heads found a large piece of manifold gasket lodged in an inlet valve. Everyone got on with the job in hand and the rebuild went well with new rods and pistons. In fact we were completed in enough time to begin packing away the equipment and the awning before it was time to race.

We towed down for the final. The mood in the camp was good but everyone had one thought in their minds, 'please let it get down the track in one piece'. Will pointed out that the car hadn't returned to the pits with a blower belt this year. Sounds bad when you put it like that doesn't it? We had lane choice and Bob decided to go for the left lane having watched Dave Wilson run a fine 5.63 in his Methanol Dragster just before us. After the burnouts the cars lined up and moved into stage. On the green both cars launched hard with Gordon seeming to get away first, John was doing a fine job in keeping the car straight as it black-tracked the lane and gathered speed. By half-track the cars seemed to be fairly level and I'm sorry to say we were waiting for the bang, but it didn't come, John pedalled it once as the car moved around on the track and continued to gain speed,  header flames clearly visible all the way, Gordon seemed to have got off the throttle and John continued on across the line. The win light came on in our lane. A 5.63 at 263mph. And no signs of any trouble. You can't imagine what a relief it was for us all. On the startline the biggest grin and the loudest yell belonged to Bob Jarrett.

At the end of the run off area John was out of the car and looking happy. He admitted that he too had been waiting for the bang! We lifted the body and a quick visual inspection found everything intact and still attached. We hooked the car up and set off for the trailer feeling a lot happier than we had a few minutes earlier.

A quick strip of the bottom end revealed that all was well inside the motor and we packed everything away happy in the knowledge that despite the trials and tribulations of the weekend we had started the defence of our Championship title with the result we had hoped for.

Check out more reports and photos from this meeting on Eurodragster.com , Dragsterworld, Togs Drag Racing Page   Sharkmans Top End Tales , Feel The Noise and Bad boys Imagin.

The next outing for the Showtime team will be the second round of the Fuel Funny Car Championship at Santa Pod Raceway on the weekend of May 24th-26th. See you there!

Qualifying Round Two

Final Round