UK National Finals
Santa Pod Raceway, 19th-20th September 2015

Saturday


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Latest update 15:40


Super Pro ET racer Rod Harrison had an air leak in the gas bottle meaning that the car was unable to get into reverse gear. At the recent Euro Finals Rod went as quick as 5.87/225 and, after sufficient sponsorship is obtained, is looking to move up to Top Methanol Dragster next year.


Super Pro ET racer Brad Jackson had a breakout 7.70 on a 7.72 dial to go seventeenth after session one. An almost identical run in the second session with a 7.70 dial in moved him up the order.


VW Pro Racer Mario Thau has made the trip from Germany with his front wheel drive turbo VR6 Polo. At the NitrOlympX in August he ran a 8.69 quickest ET in Europe by a FWD car and went to round two in Super Pro ET.


Nostalgia Funny Car racer Tim Garlick ran new PBs of 6.13/230 in testing yesterday. He said 'The car was running well so we took the nitro percentage up to 90 and hope to make up four passes with that setup'.


Nostalgia Fuel Altered owner Lawrie Gatehouse was presented with this wonderful collage of team members and drivers of the Chaos altered. Lawrie, who has been in the sport since the 1960s and has run Chaos for the last ten years has decided to retire and the car is up for sale.


Super Pro ET racer Daniel Giles is aiming to run in the 7.3s and went 7.41 and 7.44 in the first two sessions. He said 'This is my first outing in the car since the Summer Nationals and my Dad and I will be sharing the driving again next year'.


Super Pro ET racer Roy Walker has put his Vauxhall Ventora up for sale. He said 'It's for sale turnkey and has run PB of 8.57/156 today and gone from strength to strength in performance. Highlights of the year include Hockenheim and Mini in the Park where we made a big improvement in performance'. The car has a new Jeff Bull 555cu in engine and two speed Dedenbear Glide trans. Plans for next year are for wife Michelle to race the team's Cortina in Pro ET - with Roy as crewman.


Super Pro ET racer Peter Lane improved his times to 8.73 at the Euro Finals after a slipping torqe convertor was repaired. Crewman Colin Roaf said 'It's been good to be involved with finishing the build of the car and see it develop over its first season'.


Super Pro ET racer Roy Wilding drives the S&K Racing rear engined dragster. He said 'We are planning on using our one shot nitrous system which comes in with second gear and raises the power by 300hp to around 1300. The air quality today should enable us to use it'. The first runs gave a best of 8.20/163 without gas. Roy also mentioned he is installing a KB engine in his nostalgia slingshot to replace the old Donovan, for which parts are becoming hard to source. The plan is to run the slingshot at nostalgia events in 2016 and continue driving the S&K car in championship events.


VW Pro Racer Sam Young had a great 0.006 reaction time in his electric powered Beetle. He said 'We can alter the launch power and that affects how the car reacts. We are still working on it, but we have had a good season performance wise, with new PBs of 9.35 and our first 150mph pass. We enjoyed helping Jonny Smith and his Flux Capacitor Enfield at the Euro Finals. We helped him improve his PB by a second to 10.8'. Brother Ollie went on the cruise with Jonny, aiding him when the car stopped at hte crossroads on the way back due to an overheating controller. A minute with the power off allowing it to cool, and Jonny was able to complete the cruise.


VW Drag Racing Club Chairman Luke Stephenson had this pictorial presentation of where the racers are in the standings as the meeting progresses. Sam Young qualified no.1 which moved him ahead of previous points leader and current champion James Hodson.


Competition Eliminator racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Belinda Bull ran a new PB of 6.96/195 after a 6.99 in testing, her first sixes. Husband Jeff said 'The six second run was in there and all we had to do was to find it. The chassis is working well but there was not so much grip on the start line early this morning. Our 60ft slowed from 1.03 to 1.1 on our first run today which was a 7.04. We think it's one of the quickest runs in Europe naturally aspirated with a single carb. Our thanks go to BLP Carburettors, Doug Herbert, Transmission Specialities and Top Sportsman racer Glenn Wright'. Belinda's testing was done in A/Altered trim meaning the car has 150lb of ballast on it.


Nostalgia Fuel Cup racer Nick Davies has the body from Chaos removed after his first qualifying pass of 6.48/175. The Nostalgia Fuel Challenge Cup racers are due to run twice on both days of the event.


Top Fuel Bike racer Rene van den Berg ran an engine damaging 7.75/126 in session one. When we passed he said a couple of valves had broken however later we heard that the crankshaft had broken and he was out for the rest of the event.


Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt went up in smoke a second and a half into the run in the first session. The resulting G forces threw Steve onto the frame with a suspected cracked rib an unfortunate consequence. Not to be deterred, he came back in session two and went better to a 7.62/116, lifting from half track. Team member Phil Baimbridge said 'The fuel settings were the same as at the Euro Finals where Steve ran a PB of 6.23 but we have to tune the clutch to give it less after the launch.


Funny Bike racer Stu Crane ran a new PB of 7.006. He said 'We changed a few things from the Euro Finals as we had a problem at the eighth and we took hp out as we are expecting the track not to be so grippy. So we expect to run 6/1000 quicker. The Euro Finals were great as we ran four PBs back to back. It's a 7.0 bracket bike!' His subsequent pass was


Funny Bike racer Loran Parnell, pictured with Mick Hand and Barry Eastman ran the Storm twin turbo bike to its first six, a 6.89 in testing yesterday. He repeated that time in the first session of qualifying and broke the speed record at 203.49 but without backup, his run of 200.50 itself being a back-up record. The team said 'We have been trying for three years to get this performance. The twin turbo system with one larger than the other is difficult to balance. We have had a lot of help by using a AMS1000 boost controller. But we haven't been able to get it on a dyno, it moves around a lot'. The bike runs a slider clutch with nine arms, allowing for plenty of adjustment, and the team thanks Owens Turbos for their assistance.


Funny Bike racer Bob Brooks ran a 7.33 in the first session but suffered an explosion in the sump which created a split of 0.5cm with resultant loss of oil. The team were calm about the damage but want to examine the bike further at home before making repairs.


Pro Stock Bike racer Len Paget had to change engines after not making session one due to mechanical failure. He said 'I've got to go back to the two valve spare' and went 7.56 on the spare in session two. With that we have the minimum number of PSBs for a points earning race.


Pro Modified racer Chris Isaacs has engine work by Eurodragster.com sponsor Jeff Bull and tuning advice by Mike Moran from his base in the US.


Pro Modified racer Chris Isaacs said 'At round one of the Euros we had too much power and that is good because we have been trying to find the limit all year. Now we know, we have a tuning window. Our testing yesterday had some ignition timing taken out which produced PBs of 6.52/222 but we had a boost leak which reduced it to 14.5lbs. This morning we had 19.5 lbs which was too much so we spun the tyres again. We will adjust the boost by wastegate changes and hopefully avoid tyre shake which was starting on our run yesterday'.


Pro Modified racer Roger Moore said 'We are running consistently but not as quick as we could with a 6.5 and 6.6. All the runs from the Euros had different problems. We are here to run well and are not looking at the championship'. Pictured (left to right) are team members Lucy Moore, Martin Tolley, David Huett, and Anita Finding.


Visiting SPR is David Bawley of VW Group who is supporting the IMI, represented by Hayley Cromwell-Dorrell. David said 'VW is always interested in applications from school leavers who want to go into the motor industry as service technician, service adviser, parts adviser, body shop specialists'. Hayley said 'We are promoting the Twitter hashtag #motorcareers in announcing about careers tools and resources for the motor industry'. You can see more information at www.theimi.org.uk


A big get well soon to Pro Modified racer Robert Joosten who is unwell in hospital; several racers were displaying this message too.



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