Autosport International
The NEC, Birmingham, 14th-17th January 2016

Friday

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Brown and Miller Racing Solutions were displaying their Pro Black DR (DR for drag racing) range of fuel hoses which are already contributing to success on the NHRA Tour having been used by Alan Johnson and on the cars raced by Antron Brown, Jack Beckman, Del Worsham. In this country Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson and the Showtime Fuel FC team are customers. The Pro Black DR hoses feature significantly increased diameter allowing more and smoother fuel flow whilst still using Dash-12 fittings. "This range is specifically for high-flow applications", explained Barry Miller. "We exploited the hose diameter and redesigned the fittings for a better bend radius leading to improved flow. Big bore hoses have been available for ages but have never delivered consistently through the fittings. Fuel pump pressure is going up but on the conventional set-up you are losing several hundred PSI through the fittings and the pumps last one run. You're no longer trying to overcome the massive pressure drop - these hoses reduce the fuel pressure loss by 100 to 200 psi and reduce the load on the pump. Jim Oberhofer told us that with our product they are now getting four times the life out of their fuel pumps. It's a whole product range for a tiny market ("We're not very smart" interjected Wade Brown) but we enjoyed doing it."
"We thought of doing this for a long time", said Wade Brown (left, above with Barry Miller). "We thought that we could do things better, nothing has changed in twenty years. The next challenge was to persuade the Crew Chiefs because this product has changed things so much that the little black book doesn't work any more! Some of the Crew Chiefs have been very helpful. Alan Johnson for example, he knows how to evaluate every component. Oberhofer, Prock, they're all good people to work with. We had the opportunity to make something a lot better and it works good."
Race car builder and Eurodragster.com sponsor Geof Hauser is a new customer of Brown and Miller Racing Solutions having changed the fuel lines on son Scott's Super Pro ET dragster. "The previous hoses weighed eight pounds and these weigh five pounds", he said. The dragster was on display at Autosport at the request of the organisers. "I thought they'd be fed up with us by now but they love the car!", said Geof. There is plenty going on at Hauser Race Cars with four engines being built and Joe Kellett's new dragster ready to assemble.
Super Pro ET racer Scott Hauser said that it would be more of the same in 2016. "We're not changing anything", he said. "We had the new engine built in time for the European Finals and we won that event. This year we need to get back to the top! The aim is to earn points although event wins mean just as much to me as you've earned it. Winning an event is difficult."
Lee Child of Eurodragster.com sponsor LA Racing Parts has been busy in the last year with his own business, distributing products for Eurodragster.com sponsor VP Racing Fuels, prepping tracks in various European locations, and organising events at Dakota and Spitfire Raceways in the south west of England. "I have been speccing new products for VP Racing Fuels", said Lee. "There is an additive range if you don't want to use race fuel, we've even got stuff for diesels. There's a new range of synthetic oils too. We have still got a good stock of fuel which you can get through LA Racing Parts". Fred Turza of VP Racing Fuels said that their X16 fuel has been a big success. "It's a non-oxygenated conventional race fuel", he said. "It's just a better fit for a lot of guys and the customers are really happy with it". "One racer here in the UK put X16 in his car, it was the only change he made and the car went two tenths quicker", added Lee.

Lee said that together there would be nine events at Dakota (Devon) and Spitfire (Cornwall) Raceways in 2016. "Five of the events will be at Spitfire and four at Dakota", he said. "The land owner at Spitfire is very supportive. We had an event there in mid-December and we had 130 signed on to Run What You Brung and twenty drifting, and the Show and Shine was well-supported. We have something on in the south west from February to December."
Mark Todd's street-legal, seven-second, 200 mph, Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator GTO was on display on the stand of Serck Motorsport. Graham Smith of Serck Motorsport said that Mark was one of many satisfied customers of Serck's. "Mark's car was really hard to cool", he said. "You can't just turn up and put a radiator on these cars, there is a lot of work to do and a lot of data to collect. We restricted the flow to give the water more time in the core and ultimately lost ten to fifteen degrees. We use Mark's format on a lot of Street Eliminator cars. Because we do a lot of work with Formula 1 we were offered an F1 car to display here but there are lots of F1 cars here and Mark's car is so extreme, it's as top end as you're going to get. He drove it in here on Wednesday and people's jaws just dropped. One of the great things about Mark's car is that it covers all of the divisions of Serck Motorsport - cooling systems, racing services, classic and historic, and power and performance."

Passing by the Serck Stand was Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer Andy Bond who told us that his '56 Chevy, which he is building with Martin Kerr, is coming together nicely. "The chassis upgrade is done, the tinwork is done, and we're working on the rear end", he said. "We're doing all the fiddly stuff! A lot of engine bits have turned up in big boxes, and new carbon fibre doors are coming next week."
Graham Smith's own race car, the Snow White Chevy formerly campaigned by Roger Butterworth, should be on track later this season. "Jeff Bull has been brilliant with the motor", said Graham. "It's a 582 ci Dart with new Profiler heads. I got a trans from Charlie Chivers, 3.50 gears from Jon Webster, Strange shocks and springs. When it's done the car will go to Webster's for baselining."

Snow White's 2016 début should be the Tri Chevy Shootout, an eliminator organised by Graham and Adam Sayers, which will take place at the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway in June. "Shakespeare County Raceway and Jerry Cookson have been really helpful and the NSRA have OK'd it", said Graham. "We've already got a dozen cars signed up. We decided upon a straight eliminator and the winner will receive the Roger Butterworth trophy."
On active display on the Serck Motorsport stand was a rig showing stage two of the radiator cleaning process which Serck supply to a number of Formula 1 teams. "The teams send their kit to us after every race and every test and we clean it to 50 micron standard", said Graham. "We clean and flow test and perform a micro analysis, it's all documented and we return the kit to the teams with a dossier for sign-off. Mark's radiator has been through the same process. We have just opened a new building for Formula 1 work and the rooms become cleaner and cleaner as you go along the corridor! But we provide similar services to all sorts of racing operations, not just Formula 1. For example Sean Milson brings his oil coolers and trans coolers to us for cleaning so as not to contaminate new components."
Santa Pod Raceway's Two Seat Dragster has a new paintjob for SPR's 50th Anniversary season. The scheme is similar to the previous design but in new colours and was one of two under consideration, the other being a purple scheme. Andy Przybyl of Przym Paintworks did his usual excellent job of the paint.
Driver Steve Warner and crew Baron Sharpe and John Hackney (left to right above) were on hand to answer questions as the Two Seat Dragster attracted a lot of attention. Steve Warner said that a lot of work has been done on the car in the few weeks since its last revenue-earning appearance at the Flame and Thunder Show. "We have to thank Martin Hill, Andy Frost, Kenny Coleman at EDA, Jon Webster for the chassis repair, Andy Przybyl, Steve Clark of Nimbus Motorsport for the continued sponsorship, all of the Santa Pod staff, Donna and Darren, and Dave Warren and Steve Horn for getting it here", he said.
Les Downey of Eurodragster.com sponsor Lucas Oil UK said that Lucas Oil will again be sponsoring Junior Dragster in the UK this season, and will also be a lane sponsor at Shakespeare County Raceway as well as continuing to back Super Pro ET racer Brad Jackson. On display on the joint Lucas Oil / Santa Pod Raceway stand was a huge number of products including the new Blue Thunder 50W and 70W oils.

Flyers were also available for the newly-launched LucasOilRacing.TV which will broadcast 24/7 with live racing, expanded action, behind-the-scenes content, build shows, and an extensive library of motorsports content and racing. The new streaming service will be available for a monthly subscription of $4.99 and broadcasts will include American Sprint Cars, Pro Pulling, GT racing, Short Course Off-Road racing, Modifieds, Drag Boats, Late Model Dirt, NHRA, stock cars, motorcycle racing, build shows, racer interviews and more.
Wayne Jackson said that son Brad Jackson will again contest all UK National Championship rounds in Super Pro ET this season. Brad also has two offers of drives in the USA, one a Jet Dragster and the other Tom Bayer's Super Comp dragster at Fontana. "It would be great to race the Americans", sais Wayne.
On display on the stand of NGK Spark Plugs was the Pro Modified Camaro of Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson. Quote of the Show has to be the legend on the wall behind the car.
Eurodragster.com sponsor the Anglo American Oil Company, distributor of Sunoco race fuels and other products, had the usual sizeable enclosure. We unfortunately missed speaking to Anders Hildebrand as he was fully occupied speaking to customers every time we passed by.


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