Extreme Performance Bike Weekend - Santa Pod

9-11 October 2009

This was the meeting we had been looking forward to, all depended on this for the Championship, with 100 points between me and Gary.

First pass came, and from the last time out, we had made some significant gearing and nitrous jetting changes.  We also had a new tyre (see the latest news for the low down) so for the first pass we were relatively happy with 7.3869 @179mph, putting us in number 2 qualifying position. (The number 1 went to Dave Holland with a 7.3861, very close!!!)  We still had a lot of wheel spin in 1^st gear, which needed addressing.

Pass 2

The bike was now set up to improve the present number 2 spot, but a combination of possible warped steels in the clutch, plus not enough water for the burnout, resulted in me putting a lot of heat into the clutch.  This made it difficult to select first gear, and when I did, the clutch dragged me forwards, so I aborted the run.

After checking the bike in the pits and replacing the warped steels, we decided that we needed to check the gearbox in case we had any bent selectors.  We didn’t think we would be out for the third qualifier due to this, and was already told we would have a forth one on Sunday.  So out came the clutch, and off came the sump, and with some advise from other racers, we decided to run it as it was, as it looked ok.

Then we got a 5 minute call!  Thanks to a great team effort, no problem, the motor was put back together and clutch checked again, we made the show!

Pass 3

 

Into the burnout and back up through the box to first, up to the start line and the bike lost fire!?  Re started and again lost fire, one more chance, and again just didn’t want to know – 2 restarts and you’re out, so being waved bye bye by the starter (!) we pushed back off the track and towed the bike back to the pits.

A bit baffled we checked the electrics of the bike over, and found a faulty connector on the main 12v feed to the schnitz box.  All sorted and repaired and now ready and down to one last qualifier on Sunday.

We woke up to rain, which was kind of a good thing for me, as long as it stayed raining!  Then it stopped, the track was dried, and it started raining again.  Again the track dried, and we were told we were going into Eliminations and not having the qualifier we were hoping for.  We had Gary in the first round.  All would depend on this.

Down to the pairing lanes, Lizzy and Jake said Good Luck and Gary and I shook hands, and Lizzy pushed me round to the burnout box.

Did the burnout, and up to the line, into first gear, nitrous switched on, sat as usual, waiting for Chris to finish lining me up, and the pat on the back from Ian.

Moved forward into the stage beams with Gary, the race was on.  Lights dropped, and I launched, spun the tyre hard, which turned the bike towards the wall!  I did my best to get the bike away from the wall, but had to roll on and off the throttle once or twice.  When things settle down a bit more, (remembering these dramas are all split second stuff) I realised that I still hadn’t seen the red bike going past me!  Got back on the throttle, heading for the finish line. Because we had moved out the goove and onto the marbles, it still wouldn’t shift 4^th to 5^th, crossed the line in 4^th thankfully when the bike unloaded some of the power it went into 5^th after the finish line, and still hadn’t seen Gary….. By Jove I think we got it!!

Click here for the slow mo video taken by Ian at Blackett Photography, and thanks to him and Paula for the photos and videos throughout the season.

CIMG4986 FB 4

Source: www.youtube.com

The time was 8.83 @138.55 mph to Gary’s  11.01 @ 72.54 mph, not the fastest race, but possibly one of the most messy and  exciting as far as drama and significance was concerned.

Nitrous versus Turbo, and our “lickle” nitrous bike winning the Championship!

With a big grin and re focusing on the meeting in hand, back to base to get the bike ready for the next round, a lot more relaxed than I had been !!  Thanks too for the bottles of champagne that kept appearing, and to all who came over to congratulate us.

With Dave Holland broken, we had Dave Bailey in the final. 

 

(Photography thanks to Lisa Ambler)

As soon as I let go of the button, it spun straight out of the traps, I could see Dave in front of me, and because of a totally different mind set for this race, I shifted through the gears, and let it go, there was no way I was catching him after that, and no point in breaking parts.

Well done to Dave for finding a good tune up on a real tricky track, and taking the win.  I couldn’t have lost to a nicer bloke.

Huge thanks as always go to my amazing crew, who do so much for so little. Crew Chief Chris, Donna, Corey, Ian and Lou. 

Andy Dawson, Ken Cooper, Dave Beck, Richard Gipp for their support and advice.

And lastly Lizzy for the exemplary backup at home as well as the track, and Jake for being a top Son, and a wicked bar-be-que chef!

NATIONAL FINALS 26-27^TH SEPTEMBER 2009

SATURDAY

Before the meeting, happily situated in the garage at home, we decided to change some of the fuel system. The first qualifier, the bike kind of launched, “coughed” and set it bouncing.  I thought “oh f**k, have I done the right thing “! (Lizzy tells me, she was at work at the time, had a quick look on Eurodragster, to see how I was getting on, and was mortified to see the time, and thought I had broken the bike.)  The run was a shambolic 8.06 @ 170 mph!

Pondered back at the pits for a while, and decided that rather than change the fuel system back, we would stick with the changes and try again. We had a while for the next run, Lizzy turned up with enough food to feed the pits, and the full compliment of crew was here, and would get fed in the evening!

The second run was a lot better than my first, arrow straight, and strong.  It seemed effortless, and was rewarded for this, with my PB of 7.19 @ 173mph!!  Very happy with that one.

Photograph thanks to Mark Skinner

 

Third run we were still having issues and had to try to stop the wheel spin.  Tried a different nitrous ramp, and ran 7.22 @ 181mph which was very comparable to the previous run.

Photograph thanks to Chris Eyre

 

SUNDAY

First run of the day was against Mike Olie who appeared to be having a troubled weekend, but was improving all the time.  We had changed nothing, and stuck to what we knew, and ran 7.27 @ 178mph for the win.  Well done to Mike for his PB on that race.

2^nd round we had a bye, so time to play!  We made some drastic changes to the clutch settings, and promptly went slower, but got some good data! 7.37 @173 mph

So here we were at the Finals.  We were due to line up against Dave Holland, but (As his team name suggests) had damage and was a no show.  I still made the pass mainly to gather data, seeing this was the first meeting for a while that we were really progressing.  7.28 @ 177mph, and I had won the meeting!

Thanks goes as always to my long suffering crew, Our Sponsors - Kate and Andy at Zone Security, Doug at Ensys and Ryecroft Design Services. 

Thanks too, to Dave Beck, Ken Cooper, and Andy Dawson, for their input, Eurodragster for theirs (!) and the Track crew who work so hard to make our weekends as good as this.

I better thank Lizzy and Jake too, for putting up with all of this !!

Photo thanks to Mark Skinner

 

 

Summer Nationals - Santa Pod June 13-14th 2009

Just a quick update for now, as we seem to have a really busy life outside of the racing one.

It was sunny all weekend, for once, and apart from the first run, where I did a cracking burnout and lost power, unable to re start, the  rest of the runs were consistant 7.3's.  The mph were pretty much re found, round about the 180's. 

Long story short - I won the meeting.! My first win in Funny Bike, and a very happy Team and Rider!!  Thanks to my Team, Jake and Lizz, I really am so grateful to them all for the contunued support.

Thanks to Ivan and Rose for the following photos. You can see their report of the Summer Nationals, plus much more on www.dragracingonline.com

There was also the scattering of Paul Roses ashes at the top end of the track, and a book we could all sign.

 On the Sunday, there was a minutes silence for him.  The last and final farewell.  He can still have a laugh with us when we race through the finish line!  We will all miss you, mate.

 

Spring speed Nationals Avon Park 2-4 May 2009

The first meeting at Avon Park, Shakespeare County, or whatever they are calling it this year… we are not embracing change very well, in this camp! We are also writing this a couple of weeks after the meeting, so memory is hazy, and Lizzy’s notes don’t make as much sense as they did last week!

I went up on the Friday morning, and got there about lunchtime, awning up, scrutineered, ready for the following day.  Lizzy was coming up on the bike a bit later on, and I took said bike down to Newbury to collect Jake, who was here for the weekend.  For some strange reason I thought it was just down the road, it was rather a long way, and both Jake and I were a bit uncomfortable by the time we got back to the track!!

First run of the day was a rather disappointing 8.59, a real rodeo ride, also sounded like it had dropped a cylinder again, but also has lots of wheel spin.

Back to awning, and take a look. Sandra of Eclipse got the picture of the back wheel off the ground…  bet Steve was gutted!

Lizzy has the video, certainly looks scarier than it felt!  Prepped bike and adjusted the clutch ready for the next run.

Second one was 7.521 @ 180mph.  Much better solid run,putting me in 2^nd

Third run was 7.647 @ 173mph and kept my number 2 position, but still spin.

In the evening we upped the jetting, and decided to go for bigger everything, as Chris said, “We have another motor, we don’t care!!”

Towed Lizzy up to the top end in the evening to have some photos taken by Steve at Eclipse, and they have come out very well indeed.  Potentially we collated some cracking pictures for hero cards, as we are often asked if we have photos, and we always have to say no.

Sunday we woke up to the sounds of rain… so went back to sleep again, and got up an hour later to sunshine!!

First run, 7.589 @175mph wheel spin again….. Getting a bit baffled, upping it all and going slower.  I know that in hindsight we should have changed the motor, and put the new one in.  But previous experiences with the track at Shaky, kind of told me not to do this. The motor has done a few passes now, and does need refreshing, but I wanted to do the first meeting here with the old one.  The new one was in the van in case, and we could spend the evening swapping them, if needs be. The second qualifier, and our last one, as time was pushing on, and it was getting cold, was much better 7.443 @ 176mph. still major amounts of spin.  Ken by this time had turned up, and after having a bit of a rant about the new motor not going in and various other things, removing the seat pad so I could possibly get more weight transference over the back tyre to stop the spin.  Clutch checked, and ready for the next day.

Had a very nice get together in the evening, Donna had come up with new addition Corey, who took to the noise and bikes very well, Di and Paul King had also come up, Lou and Ian, Lizzy, Jake and myself, Lisa and Sefton came over for a bit of a social, followed later on by Hilary and Dave Grabham… a very pleasant evening all round.

Monday proved to be disappointing. I had Dave Bailey in Eliminations, who had not been the most consistent, but pulled it out of the bag, and ran a 7.275 to my 7.516.  He went on to run his PB in the next round of 7.034!!  Very well done to him. The Congratulations, and bad luck award goes to Chris Hall for running not one but 2 very impressive sixes, then obliterating the engine on the third attempt.

When I got back to the awning, Ken was already there, and told me about the state of the tyre…. Time for another one, it wasn’t exactly doing what it should be, it had forgotten it should be round and it seriously needed to be changed.  So for the next meeting we will have a new tyre and new engine, and are hoping to be able to test the bike before the Summer Nationals at Santa Pod on the 13th/14th June

Thanks go as always to our Sponsors, my crew, and Jake and Lizzy for putting up with it all!!

Photo thanks to Chris Eyre

Photo thanks to Mark Skinner

Easter Thunderball April 10-13^TH 2009

The Season Opener, and a bit unsure, not of what the bike was going to do, (as we always wonder that) so much as what the weather would throw at us. The forecast kept changing, and so far the outlook was rain. Last year it snowed, so thank goodness for small mercies, I suppose.

Long and short of it, one and a bit car classes got out on Friday and Saturday we never got out at all due to the rain.  Lizzy’s birthday which I remembered, was a bit gloomy as there had been no racing, so all was a bit flat.

To kill the monotony of Saturday, Paul Marston of PMR was doing a radio show for Nitro FM, and asked us to go down and answer questions about bikes for a while, so off we duly went for the interview.  As soon as a microphone is thrust in your face, it is a nerve racking and tongue tying moment, if you are not used to it.  The challenge before we got there was to see how often we could mention Ken Cooper’s name… which we managed a respectable 27 times!! I must apologise to anyone I insulted by calling Comp bike the Council class!!  Lizzy was humorous in her answers, and I think it went well over all!

Sunday the rain decided to stop, and we eventually got called and got on the track at 17.22.  Good strong burnout, launched ok, got to half track and dropped a cylinder, so shut off.

REACTION    .2421

60FT             1.1505

330FT           3.1034

ET@594FT    4.4543

1/8 ET          4.7749

1/8 MPH       140.35

1000 ET        6.2537

¼ ET            7.7903

¼ MPH         139.05        

We didn’t go out again, it was getting cool and dark and we had a few issues to iron out, two issues mainly being the dropped cylinder and the clutch, the cylinder could be sorted out.  Then the clutch had to be done and re done as the air gap just was too sloppy.  All sorted in the end and ready for the following day. Thankfully one more qualifier.

Weird one this... Tim broke so no show, but thanks so much to him for the use of this starter as we got flat tyres on the cart and couldn't keep them deflated, so couldn't pull or push it. Dave Bailey no show, he had broken and gone home, and Mike Olie had broken so he had packed up and gone back to Germany.  So the 3 remaining riders all had byes!  Chris ran a 6.93 bloody well done to him; Gary ran an 8.04, and then us. Well,  stonking 7.39 @174mph.... Minx was back!! And a 1.10 60ft!! Not a PB, as Eurodragster thought, but a fantastic run, straight as you like.  Infuriating that as we had changed so much we had no real idea what it was that had made the difference, and the data logger decided to throw a hissy too, so no data for that either.

REACTION    .4076

60FT             1.1096

330FT           2.9930

ET@594 FT   4.3241

1/8 MPH       4.6259

1/8 MPH       149.11

1000 ET        6.0434

¼ ET            7.3605

¼ MPH         174.39

So into the semis we went.  Quietly confident, well you have to be don’t you.  Could I be racing Chris Hall in the final??  Burn out and up to line. Onto two step, and …… I red lit. I saw it as I left.

(Photo - Mark Skinner)

The clutch may have pulled me through, I may have wanted the win too badly… but with every gear change the language, which thankfully no one else could hear, was not very good. I was angry and quite upset with myself.

REACTION    -.1806

60FT             1.1210

330FT           3.0046

ET@594FT    4.3360

1/8 ET          4.6379

1/8 MPH       149.01

1000ET         6.0502

¼ ET            7.3563

¼ MPH         175.62    How gutted was I??

So Gary Jones against Chris in the Final. Chris’s bike was a non starter, so Gary staged for the win.

We would also like to take this opportunity to wish Richard Gipp a speedy recovery after his top end crash…. We went to see him in hospital, and he is ok, all be it very gravel rashed and got away lightly with a broken ankle and wrist.  He is already talking about changing bits of the bike, so he is doing well.

Thanks as always go to the track crew, who always make such an effort to enable us to race, to my crew, sponsors, the great people who take and let us use their photographs, Jake, my boy and Lizz, who is getting the handle of the being towed thing!  As for myself?  Must do better next time!

(Photograph Ingrid Chesworth)