SPRC Summernationals
Santa Pod Raceway, 25th-26th June 2016

Sunday


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Latest update 17:00


Super Street Bike racer Nigel Barker was first alternate in an eight bike field with a 7.82/184, but wasn't called on to race. Thanks to Steve Moxley for letting us know that Pete Field had to withdraw after damaging engine cases in Friday testing and having a subsequent problems with his spare engine after a change. Mark Wells had bearing issues but was able to make a change overnight.


Super Street Bike racer Rudi Zordi qualified eighth with 7.76/183 and won a wild first round race against Garry Bowe where both machines struggled to keep the front wheel down and Rudi recovered first from a 45 degree wheelie at 300 feet.


8.50 Bike racer Augy Harrison said 'I had to miss the first few events of the season as we were preparing the bike. I now have EFI and a boost controller and I have designed and made my own clutch'. Augy qualified no.2 with an 8.52/160 and got through to the semi finals.


8.50 Bike racer Rick Stubbins has his Super Street Bike in Sweden awaiting a new cam before travelling to Alastaro for the FHRA Nitro Nationals. His Suzuki GSXR1000 qualified third with 8.59/156 and he won the event.


Funny Bike racer Phil Crossley ran a new PB of 7.278/172. He said 'The incrementals yesterday were better than my previous PB but the engine was running too rich at the top end.' He went on to win the event with a 7.29 win over Eric Richard's 7.49.


ET Bike/NAST racer Gary Hester, pictured left with NSA member Carl Hester, suffered a missed shift in his round one race against Mike Nelthorpe but went through with a 10.97 on a 10.77 dial in with his Suzuki Katana.


8.50 Bike racer Margot Schmidt who is an organiser of the sport in Drachten, Holland through Quarter Mile, ran a new PB of 8.67. She said 'Last year I was running nitrous and ran a best of 8.9. This year I have switched to a turbo and lowered the front, so we are progressing'.


Nostalgia Super Stock racer Donny Scott, pictured with Eurodragster.com sponsor Tig Napier, has raced since 2010. 'I took the car to North Weald. I've raced it since but it's never more than two days' work to get it back to road trim. I joined Nostalgia Super Stock when it started in 2014 and had Andy Robinson put in a cage which is tagged to 8.50. Roger Luty of Surrey Muscle built the engine which is a hemi with aluminium heads, Ray Barton manifold and 1150 Dominator carb. My best is 10.1 at SCR but am aiming for a nine second run.' He took the event win with a 10.83/125 over a red-lighting Mike Lacey.


Super Pro ET racer Jim Draper with brother and former Fuel Funny racer Charlie, have their Reckless Rat alky altered here to work out the bugs before running it at Dragstalgia. After running a 8.82 on a 7.51 dial, Jim said 'The spark plugs went on the run, so we would expect the car to run a lot quicker at Dragstalgia. We built the car eight years ago and have a KB block and plenty of spares. Oil came out of it yesterday at speed and got on my visor but I got it stopped ok'. The car is running an injector system and hat formerly used by Pro Comp racer Bjorn Ardin.


Super Pro ET racer Paul Marston is running the Chrysler Bruiser. He qualified ninth with a 8.31/160 on a 8.23 dial in and went one round with a breakout 8.19/162 on 8.20 dial-in to a red lighting Jack Brewster. He said 'The car first came out about fifteen years ago with a Pro Stock style engine. We changed that to another engine with easier maintenance and also worked on the aerodynamics with a new rear wing'.


Pro ET racer newcomer William Clark from Yateley has a 'Junior Comp' car, with a 1000cc Hayabusa engine, air shifted gears and chain drive. The car was built in the US by JR Race Car Engineering and was run at Bandimere Speedway before being imported. His best time this weekend is 10.41/119


Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer David Murdoch was unable to take part in the cruise when some metal fragments got into the scavenger pump which seized and caused damage to the turbos. The car had previously run 7.98/176 to go third in qualifying. David said 'Our best is a 7.72 at the Main Event but here we knew we had problems when there was oil coming out of the exhaust. We stripped the turbos and will hopefully be back at Dragstalgia'.


Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer Jonny Smith had battery recharger issues and a boot lid coming off during the cruise. But he overcame these issues to run a PB of 10.51/129 in his first round loss to Matt Smith.


Pro ET and Super Street racer Dave Cherrett had launch problems during qualifying. He said 'We were trying to improve the launch and I chose rear springs that were softer. But when it launches and hits hard I have to take my foot off the pedal. We will get harder springs. I feel sorry for my crew and we will test at the Mopars with the new parts.'


Pro ET racer Annie Wallace was suffering directional issues in her Anglia. 'The Main Event was great for us as the car was running on its dial-in and going straight, but here it feels very twitchy in the second half of the track. The car has a short wheelbase which makes it more likely to not run straight'. A stiff cross-wind as well doesn't help.


Sportsman ET racer Daniel Adams is at his very first meeting with a stock Fiesta. He said 'I would have started earlier but have only just passed my driving test. My Dad who passed away recently had been taking me to the drag strip since I was very young. His 1999 Mustang GT with a Procharger is back home and he drove it to 13s at the track at rwybs and SCR Gambler races. I have renamed it Steve's 'Stang and aim to bring it to the track in a few meetings' time'.


Sportsman ET racer Felicity Gibbs, niece of former Rampage FC racer Dave Ward, is running her fourth generation Ford Mustang under the name 'Lil Miss Rampage with suitable team shirts. She said 'I thank Billy Gane who did a great job on the car's bodywork since the last meeting'. The car runs a stock 3.8 litre V6.


Sportsman ET racer and Eurodragster.com Photographer Kirstie Tramm ran a 16.06 in her first qualifier, but a last minute change of the dial in from 16.05 to 16.15 cost her several places on the ladder. She eventually qualified seventh and suffered a first round defeat to Alan Medley, running a 16.19 on 16.10 dial in. She said 'I'm enjoying the racing and will run the rest of the championship season. But at the same time I miss doing photography.'


VW Pro racer Sam Young, pictured left, ran the quickest and fastest ever full bodied electric powered vehicle run of 8.711/151.58. Crew chief and brother Ollie said 'We have been chasing eights this year. We now have a third motor compared to two last year. We have the same number of batteries though. Our only real problem is carbon brushes arcing and sparking and we have started working with Morganite Electrical Carbon, a specialist company that manufactures these parts. The car handles well with its four link coil over shock and Ford nine inch rear, but we are starting to look at aerodynamic issues'.


VW Pro racer James Hodson is running 10.5s in his 1.8 litre turbo Golf. He said 'The engine had a burnt valve at Easter so I have missed a couple of events. I had a best of 10.1 last year but the gearbox went on that run. I am aiming to keep in the mid tens and enjoy the racing rather than develop the car further'.


Super Pro ET racer Karlheinz Kleider suffered a broken valve on his burnout in round one of eliminations, which caused head and piston damage. He said 'Fortunately there is no block damage. We have the spare parts so we will be back at Dragstalgia'.


Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt ran a PB to 330ft on his second pass, a 2.67s and then shut off after 4.5s to go 6.36/179. He said 'I have a different fuel system which helped early on but it hurt a piston and I shut off. We fixed the piston last night. It's good to have a third round of the ACU championship and I hope there will be more competitors in the class with more rounds.'


Comp Bike racer Mick Winyard qualified no.4 with a 8.24/177 and improved to a 8.11/178 in the second round of eliminations. But Sean Mills of Big CC Racing got there first with a 7.90/185.


Supertwin Top Gas racer Scott Collier, pictured with crew Baz Rathbone and Jerry Collier, suffered a broken chain on the launch in his round one bye. That in turn broke the generator cover, and the team had a trash on their hands. He went on to defeat Les Harris in round two and Alfie Udall with a 9.61/135 in the final, Scott's best ET of the weekend.


Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson ran three great passes of 6.15/230, 6.11/231 and 6.08/237 to dominate qualifying. 'We have good performance and consistency. The crew have done a great job and it is starting to pay back with consistency. The changes in weight distribution over the winter have helped and we also have a slightly different engine combination.' Eliminations are due at 10:30am and it may be that Andy has a bye due to Steve Rawlings not being licensed and Mick Payne having damage (see below). Andy was event winner with a 6.09/232.


Pro Modified racer Bert Englefield ran 6.2s at the Main Event but could only run a 7.05 in qualifying yesterday. He said 'On the first pass the clutch pack let go and bits got into the Lenco which we had to take apart to repair. We missed the second session with the repairs and in the third one, an ignition problem shut the engine off. So it's hero to zero for us.' Pictured is Andy Wright Jr working on the engine.


Pro Modified racer Kev Slyfield started well with a 6.36/221 but then slowed in the two later sessions. He said 'The first run was good but I had tyre shake after two seconds. We had two attempts at getting rid of the shake by altering the timing but neither worked. In the second session we had more timing but wheelspin, and in the third we retarded the timing again and it shook off the line and then spun the tyres in the second half. We are working with very fine margins at this level'.


Pro Modified racer Roger Moore had suffered piston damage at the Main Event. He said 'We have regrouped and are really in test mode this weekend. The damage was from the oil control ring at the bottom of the piston. We pulled the pistons out and made some changes to their skirts and then rebuilt the engine with different pistons. Our burnout was without nitrous, and we are finding the damage is worse'. His best time of 7.81 placed him seventh and against Michel Tooren in round one.


Pro Modified racer Michel Tooren ran a 6.28/219 to go second. 'We ran a great 6.16 at the Main Event but have been struggling with tyre shake this weekend', he said. 'We are trying different settings on our manual shocks and did run a best to 330ft of 2.66 on the 6.28 but it got loose and felt as if the car was fishtailing and I had to pedal twice'. Michel was event runner up with a 6.14/223.


Pro Modified racer Steve Rawlings is making his debut with his brand new nitrous '63 'Vette. He said 'Thanks to Chris Isaacs and Clive Bond for putting in so much time and Fred Hone and other Super Mod people. There were a lot of electronic issues but we fired the engine successfully on Thursday and it was still warm when we reached the track later that day. We couldn't make a run with the showers and I had to content myself by a couple of laps of the pits. Our 60ft was good and the Electromotive system worked fine. The second pass went well to half track and the chutes deployed manually fine. But a small issue about selection of forward or reverse gear was developing and I had to restart the engine after the burnout and Clive had to reset the air. I forgot to switch the rev limiter off so the run was on the limiter all the way'. The chassis is by Andy Robinson and engine is a 846cu in CN Billet block with Sonny's semi-hemi heads, Barry Grant Demon carbs and a four stage nitrous system of which one stage was used.


Pro Modified racer Wayne Nicholson, pictured with wife Belinda, is running his blown BAE engined 'Vette to better times after ignition problems during 2015 and had a 7.36/200 to go fifth. 'Everything is going in the right direction, and the advice that Camp Stanley gave us has been very helpful - we have been swapping messages during the weekend'.


Pro Modified racer Mick Payne is unfortunately out for the weekend after doing more valve damage on his single pass. 'We need to take a closer look as we don't want to do more damage. We had similar damage at the Main Event so I need to reassess what the cause is. I am hoping to attend the Mopar Euronats as I have been attending over many years.



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