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Nitrolympix Hockenheim -25th - 27th August The car and trailer already being at the track made it a relatively hassle free experience to get everyone and everything to the track. By the Thursday evening everyone was there and the car would be ready to go once the tune up had been decided upon. We were all very proud when we saw the event programme as the cover was the spectacular picture of the car off the startline from last years event with header flames above the roof of the car.There were also more pictures inside. As if that wasn’t enough, the T shirt souvenirs included 1 with the same picture printed on it. Thanks due once again to the Nitrolympics organisation. There was a possibility of John doing a “test squirt” on Friday but the weather soon put paid to that with unfortunately not a wheel being turned by any racers - it rained from morning till night.This was a particular disappointment to Sascha Hessel from sponsors Balzers who had been planning to make his first visit to a drag race. Saturday dawned grey and overcast, not looking too promising at all. The track staff worked tirelessly to dry the track between showers and get some racing underway, we meanwhile were ready to go as soon as required, but due to the intermittent showers and consequent delays we didn’t get a run during the day. “Nothing to do, just sit and wait” The night show was as spectacular as ever with music, stunt shows, track action and the huge crowd fully involved. After talking with Rico, and Leif Helander, who was to be our opponent in the “Funnycar Matchrace” it was decided that in the interests of safety the Funnycars would do side by side long burnouts to close the show, as the track was still on the damp side. John managed around 1000ft, Leif was a little more ambitious and ended up flirting with one of the F1 gravel traps near the top end. Servicing was very minor, and away from the track in time for a late evening meal and a couple of beers. The weather had improved considerably on Sunday, showing every likelihood of us doing the planned 2 runs, late morning and mid afternoon. The track crew had again been working on the track since around 6 am.
After strong burnouts from John and Leif there seemed to be a problem with the lights as they backed up, the reds came on in both lanes and stayed on as the cars began to stage. It was almost 20 seconds before they left, both lighting the tyres fairly quickly. It is not often that the fans get to see how tough it is on the crew to mentally prepare themselves for a race. Here we see Lee and Paul deep in concentration !
The final run of the meeting was scheduled to be John and Leif side by side. For this run John had the left lane for the first time at the meeting. The car left strongly and straight, Leif had a slight edge at half track before John came by as Leif hit problems. John went through in a 6.0 sec to record the win. No sooner had the cars began the tow back to the pits when the heavens opened again.
The event closed in the usual manner with the trophy presentations at the racers banquet, where a very good time was had by one and all. Our thanks go out as always to the organisers and our sponsors for their support. Weather permitting we will be testing at Santa Pod the weekend prior to the Eurofinals, which will be our final race of the season, however the show appearances start soon after with the car on display September 13th & 14th at the opening of a new facility by Norton Motorsports Ltd in Milton Keynes |
