The Showtime FC had once again been invited to The Nitrolympix held at Hockenheim. This would be our 3rd appearance at the annual drag racing spectacular, known for its Saturday Night show.

The body and chassis made the journey separately due to a minor logistics problem, and our thanks go to Turner Motorsport. The team was complete by Friday afternoon with the exception of Paul who had a previous engagement!!

The car was fired up to check it over and a small problem with the ignition was found, unfortunately it was after the curfew when we solved the problem so we would have to Wait till morning before we good fire up the car.

Saturday
An early start and the weather was looking good, a relief after the disappointment of not being able to run in May due to the rain. We found ourselves sharing a pit garage with ‘Showdown’ the German jet car. Many thanks to Fran and friends for their company, barbecue and coffee…

The car was fired up, the electrical problem fixed and we were ready to go. The event was to be a series of match races against Patrik Pers.

The call came at 3pm and we towed down to the start line, and a waiting crowd. The grandstands were full and seem to love the Funny cars. John obliged them with a long burn out.

A full pass under power all the way  5.497 secs at 274mph. Confusing when the lights at the finish say 440.00 !!! You then have to remember it’s in kilometre per hour.

The timing ticket showed that the car was a little sluggish off the line with only a 1.005 sec at the 60ft.

We towed back to the pit for what was going to be an ‘unhurried’ service as we had over 4hours until the night run that traditionally closes the Hockeheim Nite show.

The service done, the car was taken off the jacks ready for the warm up. We then discovered that the front right wheel was flat, we had picked up a puncture somewhere. We rapidly removed, repaired and refitted the wheel but had to tow down  to the startline without the normal warm up.

John did a lengthy burnout, a spectacular sight for the crowd, followed by a planned half pass.
Back in the pits for the major service items were carried out and an impromptu barbecue by Fran and co was well received. Thanks again.

Sunday.
We had completed the major service items before leaving the track the night before, so we were ready to warm up the car for the first run at 11.00am  The original running order had us down for a first run at 11.00am  and a second at 3.30pm, not bad…..all change  first run at 2.00pm,  2nd at 3.30pm it was going to be a busy afternoon.

Another full pass, Bob thought the car had dropped a cylinder and once he looked at the computer data his thoughts where confirmed it had. 5.586 sec at 223mph.

We now had less than 2 hours to turn the car round. A couple of scuffed pistons and a liner had to be changed. On the bottom end the main bearings were replaced.

Andrea and the organisers kept us informed of the changing run times and we made it back to the start line as requested to end the show.

For the 3rd time another full pass, 5.856 secs at 208.mph. Then came John’s message over the radios ‘We’ve killed a motor’! Not the ending we had hoped for and not a pretty sight in the pits. The data logger showed that cylinders 5 and 6 were the culprits

Despite the damage we suffered a lot of valuable track time and data was obtained. The weather had been kind; the track was good and the crowd fantastic.

We would like to thank Rico Anthes and his team at Hockenheim for their hospitality and the fans for their continued support. You can find several pictures of the car in action at www.dragster.de in the ‘Gallerie’ and then ‘Nightshow’ pages.

A safe journey home by all and preparations are underway in readiness for the Finals.

So see you at Santa Pod for the FIA Eurofinals September 6th – 9th