Having headed to the Main Event for an easy weekend we bumped into Tethys on Thursday night who was short of crew and unable to run for the weekend. He offered me the opportunity to come and meet with him and the crew the next morning to learn the routine and see if I felt able to help out for the weekend as Top Fuel were not running until Saturday. I soon realised that the amount of work that goes into running these cars is on a completely different level. The engine is completely stripped down to a bare crankshaft and block at the end of every run and to add to this the rules only allow 90 minutes turn around time. With a lot of guidance from the team I ran through the routine once on Friday and discussed some ways to speed up for the real thing. Including… Read More »
After a weekend helping my old friend René with his Top Fuel bike at the Main Event at Santa Pod, we discussed trying to find some time to test the Shark attack racing Pro stock bikes. With various options dismissed we decided to enter Competition bike at the Summer Nationals so 13 years after entering Competition Bike for the first time I’m back to try my luck, I think I’ll need some with the quality of bikes and riders in this catch all class, I think I’m being thrown to the lions.
Ok here goes…… Usually, it’s my job to ride the bike and leave Lizzy to the PR and write the race reports, but I thought I would give it a go. Due to real life and having to go to work, I couldn’t make it to the Track until Thursday evening. By the time I got to Santa Pod, the pit was set up. The girls had done a great job setting up the pit space and the caravans! (Thanks Nipper for the tow) Just a small hiccup with fuel in the generator (yes as it’s not an ACU race meeting, there was no electricity supplied by Santa Pod 🙁 )This was soon sorted out, and I made up for being late, by buying the Team a Chinese takeaway, we know how to live it up! Friday morning we had a look over the bike and fitted the wheelie bars,… Read More »
Yes I know I’ve said it before, but I’m saying it again. I am now officially retired from competitive drag racing. This doesn’t mean that if the opportunity arose, I wouldn’t be on the race track again; it just means that I will not be competing, or spending all my money on racing, instead supporting and crewing for Kev when the fuel bike comes out. Kev has given me more racing years than I ever expected, mentoring me and giving me great advice, which led us winning a Championship in 2013. He is one of the best nitrous tuners out there, we learnt from another good guy, Ken Cooper, and Kev and I testing and developing his own ideas, has been able to tune my bike with minimal spare parts with tired old stuff which I could never afford to replace. There are not enough words or hours in the… Read More »