Easter Thunderball

I arrived at the track around 9pm.  Started work on the car again straight away.  Got the seat bolted in properly, borrowed the seat belt from my tow van as i'd left the right one behind.  Got a few other minor jobs done and went for an early night as all the long days had finally caught up with me.

Early next morning i was up running the engine for the first time properly and gave it tune up ready for action.

Being my first event i was really nervous.  I didn't have a clue what the car would run or how it run but was advised to aim at a 16.50 dial in.  First run was really bad 0.932 reaction - 21.344 @ 69.45mph.

Had 5 runs all getting gradually faster, before being knocked out in the first round of eliminations by Matt Dolby.  But it was break out - 18.00 dial in but ran a 17.73 @ 69.97mph.   Had a few teething troubles, broke a throttle cable on my second run and had to towed off and had a lot of gear selection problems which are yet to be resolved.  Other than that I was really impressed with car it ran a lot better and quicker than i expected from from a heavy car with a little engine.

3rd Power Nationals

Only change to car was a race harness and a bit more of a tweak on the carbs.

Started out a bit more realistic this time with 17.50 dial in, ran a 17.107 @ 75.01mph, which was a good enough break out to qualify last!.  Then I tried a 16.90 dial in an ran a 17.35 @74.38 mph.

Only had two qualifing rounds this time so it was straight into elimnations.  Up against Neil (dude) Ellis I wasn't too confident about getting through.  Dialled in a 17.10 and ran a 17.336 @ 75.83 mph on a 0.057 reaction.  Somehow the car picked up at the top of the track and just crept past dude to put straight into the semi final.  But unfortunatly as we were called down to run the rain came and washed out the event.

Big Bang

Starting off with a bit more confidence this time i dialled in a 17.30 and ran a 17.468 @ 73.87 mph.  Next round I went for 17.35 and ran a 17.186 @ 75.37 mph.  My third run made no difference as i broke out again.

I ended my event in the first round of elimination by launching it at 5000rpm instead of the 3000rpm that i had been doing.  Proved to much for the diff as it locked up as i lauched killing the power.  Other than the box failing i was really happy to run a low 17 with such a heavy car and small engine.

UK Power Nationals

After a six week break and then a mad rush in the last few days to change the gearbox we got up to the track around 9pm only to find the gearbox had poured its oil out everywhere, mainly at the hub end.  The n/s was strpped and resealed fine but the o/s wouldn't come apart.  Some how the wheel bearing had come loose and was jammed on the shaft in the wrong position pushing the hub seal out.  We worked through until 1am and then had to give in.  But taking a diferent approach in the morning and doing a trackside bodge we new it'd be ok for a couple of runs.

I only did 2 out of 3 qualifing runs just to be on the safeside.  I qualified 6th with a 20.814 @ 73.00 mph on a 17.50 dial in, way off target due to launching in 3rd gear.  Still not resolved the gear selection problems.  Took a look at the gearbox/axle problems later in the day and it had held up ok so it all go for the morning.  Unfortunatley I went out in the first round to Chris Bray, but ran a 16.952 @ 77.66 mph on a 17.00 dial in.  Knocked out but happy with a new personnel best.

When the car was stripped back in the garage i found the main problem with the wheel bearing was a lump of metal stuck behind it, probably the tip of a pry bay broken off in the rush to get it done.

Bug Jam

With the new gearbox brace fitted and a set of urethane mounts I hoped this would cure the wheel hop i was getting.  The kadrons were replaced with a nos set of weber 40 idf's donated by my new sponsor Dukes Kustom and Speedshop. 

We'd also added so nice comedy headlights, mainly to cover the holes where the lights should be.  I hoped these would be enough to get me into the 15's.

Out of 6 practise runs on the saturday, 4 were 16.72 @78 mph.  The last 2 were bad runs as the car lost all its mid range power and only ran low 18's.  A quick check over showed the right banks plugs were fouled up, we put this down to poor tuning of the new carbs as they had been done in a rush and we were still playing with the mxture to get it right.  So a quick tweek on that side to lean it up a bit and we were straight into round 1 of qualifying.  I went for a 16.70 dial in and ran a 16.724 @ 79.08 mph on a 0.037 reaction.  This run against Richard Merriman put put him no.1 and me no.2 qualifier which at bug jam and in a field of 31 racers was great, my best result yet and unfortunatly the way it stayed due to continuous rain on the sunday.

Custom Car Allstar Nationals

Due to the nearby birth of my baby son this was going to be last event this season and will be the one i remember as the best of the year. With 5 rounds of qualifying and the weber re-tuned I really wanted to break into the 15's.  Pulled my first red light in round 3 while trying to get my reaction times down.  But round 5 had to be the best.  Dialled in a 16.50 but broke out running a 16.287 @ 80.93 mph and on a 0.000 reaction!!  The only driver in the vwdrc to get one all season, but how i managed I'll never know.  Still overall I qualified no6 with a 16.686 on a 16.50 dial in.

I was paired up against Holly Baldwin in round 1 of eliminations and lost by 0.257 of a second!

Well done to Paul Herbert for tieing up the championship with a race to spare.