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The Thunderball/ Pro Fuel Shootout 2004 - Santa Pod Raceway April 10th - 12th

Words And Pictures By Chris Dossett  

The Team

Driver - John Spuffard, Crew Chief - Bob Jarrett, Assistant Crew Chief - Bill Sherratt, Clutch - Lee Brown/Bill Sherratt, Top End Motor - Keith "Bunch" Brittain/Will Sherratt, Bottom End Motor - Paul Gibson/Chris Dossett, Additional Crew - Nigel Payne, Jo Green
 
With the long winter break behind us it was finally time for the Easter Thunderball, the traditional start to our racing season. The Pro Fuel Shootout at this meeting features Nitro Funny Cars taking on the top fuelers in a Cannonball style format. This years competition features ourselves and the Shockwave team on the FC side while Andy Carter and top fuel rookie Lex Joon made up the dragster field.

As you may have read on Eurodragster crew Chief Bob Jarrett has had a busy time in the seven months since our last race. His regular visits to John Force's shop have resulted in numerous changes and new parts to the Showtime Mustang. Among them a new six shooter ignition system, a Force spec. camshaft and a new manifold, blower and injector. With so many new parts the track time gained at this meeting would provide valuable data for the fast approaching Nitro Funny Car Championship. Plus of course there was the small matter of upholding the honour of the Funny Car ranks and showing the 'long cars' just who was really the kings of the sport!

So, how did we get on? Read on...
Saturday
With the best weather of the weekend behind us (Friday was like a summers day!) the Pod felt decidedly chilly for most of the day. The car was wheeled out of the trailer early and the first thing that stood out as being different from last year was the striking new paintjob. The design, by Chris Parker, stands out as being simple yet very effective and Curbishley Automotive have done a splendid job in painting it. In fact looking at the car it was hard to imagine that the last time it was seen in public, at the European Finals, it looked very sorry for itself.

Once the body had been removed the full extent of the winters work could be appreciated. As well as the obvious additions of a carbon fibre injector, new blower and manifold, there were new fuel and oil tanks (Force spec. again), new fire bottles, a very impressive titanium cover for the timers, new tyres front and rear and a new Impact Racing safety harness. A closer inspection revealed the new ignition components and a shield over the manifold burst panel designed to deflect any escaping blast downwards instead of forwards into the body.

We were not due to run today so the time was spent getting the car ready for the qualifying tomorrow. Some final adjustments were made to the body mountings in order to get the shell to sit square on the chassis. Bob and Bill set about setting the timers for the clutch, ignition and fuel, assisted by Super Mod racer Nigel Payne who is spending a second season with us digesting as much knowledge about running a fuel FC as he can manage. Once this was done new ignition leads were made up while Bill Sherratt, as usual, was grinding clutch discs. He was huddled over the grinding machine trying to keep warm. John tried out his new Impact Racing helmet and towards the end of the day the time came to check that everything worked ok. You might think that the evening before we were due to race was a little late to be finding out such things but starting the car up between meetings is not really an option. And of course we are always confident that everything has been assembled with rigorous attention to detail. If anything is wrong at this stage then it would be blindingly obvious. The starter was attached and Bill flicked the switch as Bob fed the injector a stream of gasoline from a squeezy bottle. The motor burst into life, shook the trailer and ran until Bob stopped squeezing. All was well. The crew tidied up, packed away and went away in search of warmth.
Sunday
Race day at last and the team were eager to get out there and put on a show for the large crowd. After the usual routine preparations the car was fired up, first on alcohol, then on nitro. Everything checked out well and we were ready to roll.

Our first run was up against the top fuel dragster of Andy Carter. Andy had beaten us in the final two years earlier so it was going to be interesting to see if we could turn the tables on him this time. We took the left lane and fired the car up. It sounded strong and John and Andy pulled side-by-side burnouts, much to the appreciation of the crowd. The cars staged and the lights counted down, with a .35 sec. advantage to us. On the green John hit the throttle but the slicks broke free almost immediately. He was off the pedal in an instant while in the other lane Andy stormed to a remarkable 4.94 at 292mph. A disappointing start for us but congratulations to Andy and crew for such a great run.

Back in the pits we began the service routine to see wether there was any damage to the engine. The rear main bearing cap was removed to reveal that the bearing had turned in its housing, causing damage to the crankshaft and block, but suspicions were running high that there was a problem in another area.

Sure enough, late in the day the full extent of our problems became obvious when it was discovered that the ring and pinion in the rear axle had cracked. This was not the sort of thing we could sort out in time for the next day. We had to face the frustrating fact that we were not going to be able to run the car at all tomorrow.
Monday
We decided that the best course of action for the day would be to get the car as ready as possible for the next meeting. The motor was stripped of everything from the cylinder heads up and lifted out of the chassis. The oil tank and all the oil lines were removed and cleaned out before refitting and the new block was installed. The rebuild was completed while the old block was stripped down to its minimum in preparation for a trip to Keith Blacks to repair the rear main saddle. One particularly memorable aspect of this was seeing Bill pull the liners out of the cold block. In between rounds, when the engine is hot, the liners come out with comparative ease. But getting them out of a block that hasn't run for over 24 hours is a different story. Surprising then, you might think, that Bill should volunteer for such a task. The first two or three were extracted with little problem but after number four he had to go away and sit down for a bit. I suspect that his hope was that while he was gone someone else would complete the task but to his dismay he returned to find four liners still waiting for him. Another two were removed by a rapidly flagging Bill before he roped in an innocent bystander to finish the job for him! The crank and block were boxed up ready for dispatch and, with the car almost fully rebuilt we packed up the trailer and made our way home.

Showtime Racing are next in action at the first round of the Nitro Funny Car Championship at Shakespeare County Raceway on the weekend of May 1st - 3rd. See you there!

You can see 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. They're all great, check 'em out!
Credits
Impact Racing Products, Ringers Gloves, Torco Racing Oils, Ferrea Racing Components, Snap On Tools, Myltons for the loan of the Voyager tow car, Nigel Hoskison & Titanium International, the SPR officials, marshals and track staff and all the fans who came by to say hello and wish us luck.