The Thunderball/ Pro Fuel Shootout 2006 - Santa Pod Raceway April 14th - 17th

This year's Pro Shootout saw 3 Funny Cars, Showtime, Shockwave and Leif Helander running against five Top Fuel dragsters. The format was the same as in previous years with three qualifying runs for all the cars and the quickest Funny Car and dragster meeting in the final. The lights would be giving a 0.35 second advantage at the start to the Funnies.

The pit was all set for the weekend, the crew assembled and ready for racing. As the same motor had been in the car throughout 2005, it was decided to give the spare an outing to start this year. Of course the main rival of the weekend would be … the weather! As always Easter can be a fickle time.

The car launched fine but smoked the tyres after half a second, John pedalled and recovered the car. It started to rattle and the tyres broke loose again at the top end. But the car ran straight and true with no handling issues so the testing at the end of 2005 had paid off. A 0.955 sec 60 foot before a little tyre shake then back on it to run through in 6.673 at 212.21mph. A full pass straight off the trailer, and first blood to the Funnies!

So it was a routine service back at the trailer with no major dramas, a good ending for the first day of racing.

Picture by Franco Molinari

The car launched hard but went into tyre smoke immediately. With a quick slap of the throttle the car stuck down and started to make a move. But the car was loose and moving around, so John gave it a second courtesy slap to try and stop the wheel spin , but to no avail so he clicked it off early. Then there was a flash of flame from under the body. In Johns words "just as I saw it flash up it died down, but then as the chutes came out it flashed up again , so I hit the fire bottles and parked it right next to the fire crew. The fire was pretty much out and the fire crew just dowsed down the hot spots to stop any flash fire reoccurring. Many thanks to the fire crew, marshals and medics who were on me as soon as I had stopped."

So John was safe but the aluminium god had claimed the motor!

The result was a 7.44 at 207.46mph so we remained number 2 qualifier but had a lot to do to get the car ready for Monday. The crew worked long into Sunday night. It had been an expensive day but car and driver were all okay.

Picture by Ivan Sansom

At the end of the qualifying, John was overall number 1 with lane choice over the quickest of the dragsters, Micke Kagared.

The final round loomed, so did the clouds. With a mixture of sunshine and showers the track crew had their work cut out.

The shootout final was squeezed in during a dry period around tea time. John took the right lane and launched with a 0.906 sec 60 foot staying with Micke to half track @230.59mph. This was quickly followed by an unplanned fireworks display as the clutch let go, leaving John to coast through the finish in 5.63 at a slowing 190mph amid a shower of sparks. Micke took the win with a 5.18/230.

Back in the pits John summed up the final to Eurodragsters Simon Groves: "We had the edge on him to past half track. I like racing Micke as we used to race at the Cannonball when he was running Top Methanol and we had a friendly rivalry. I feel we really have a grip on the motor, which did what it should do, and all eight cylinders kept alight. Until the clutch went after the eighth, it was really on one. If the clutch had held, we would have run a low five. It dug in at the start but when the clutch went, it blew the clutch out of the bottom and that lit the fuel vapours, which must have looked pretty. I set the fire bottles off and then deployed the chutes. When the clutch goes you can see the fire in the motor bay window in the cockpit. It lit up like a roman candle."

Crew Chief Bob Jarrett added; "It took us a couple of years to work it out but finally things are working in our favour and we're going in the right direction. We had a little setback but are pleased with what we achieved and learned where not to go. The car's performance is looking promising and is where we expected to be, one step closer to the four second pass that we want. It was the first time in ages that the car left the line running on eight cylinders. Our combination makes so much power, we had to take a lot of clutch out of it. We're happy with the motor and will be looking to put a little more clutch in next time."

Picture by Ivan Sansom

We had a fair share of guests over the weekend, some of whom were 'virgin' Drag Racing spectators, who have gone away converted, their comments to the team and about the sport are encouraging.

We will be back at Santa Pod at the end of May for the Main Event. See you there!