News - Sept 2004
And Finally........... (Allstar Nationals - Avon Park 28/29/30 August)
14 years of trying finally ended at 15:56 on Aug 30th 2004 - I won a Drag Race event for the very first time!...........................
Saturday
We
arrived at this event we a completely revamped fuel system to try
and unlock the new engine's potential horsepower. Our first qualifying
pass brought us head to head with the only other dragster entered
for the event - Doug Bond. We ran a rather dissappointing 6.4 to
Doug's 6.2, however on looking at the timing ticket it comfirmed
what I thought happened on the run, namely that the car had left
the line like a rocket - the timing ticket confimed that the car
had run its best 60' time ever - so we had something to work on..........
However during the routine maintenance program it was revealed that #2 inlet valve had broken a valve keeper and if it had not jammed in place we would have dropped a valve and no doubt would have caused irrepairable damage - call me Mr Lucky :-)
Replacing the damaged valve prevented us from making the 2nd qualifying session - but we were still lying in the #2 spot at the end of the day.
Sunday
Based on the computer information from the 1st qualifying run additional fuel system changes were made - this proved to be a move in the wrong direction with the car slower at almost every point 6.7 @ 224mph - still no improvement on our 2nd spot.
Monday
I decided
to completely ignore our computer data and return to our original tune-up
with a few additional tweeks.
Our 1st round opponent was Doug Ripley in the always well turned out CC Racing Funny Car, now Doug could turn out a good number at any time so I made sure I was on the mark and managed to holeshot him away from the line and once again the launch returned with a vengance and it was wheels up for 100' or so, then hit some severe tyre shake and then all over the track from the 1/8th mile but we hung on for the win 6.1 @ 220mph - it looked like we were moving in the right direction and we were through to the final!
Final - The tune-up was left as the previous run but it was going to be close as our final round opponent Trevor Capewell had run a 6.2 to overcome an engine exploding Doug Bond in the previous round.
The final was set - a classic Funny Car v Dragster duel - once again I had to be on my mettle and managed a holeshot but had to short shift to avoid tyre shake then the blower belt let go around 3/4 track - unbeknown to me Trevor was having problems of his own in the other lane culminating in him kissing the barrier at the finish line an taking a trip into the field but our 6.3 @ 196mph won out - we were the All Stars Champions!
If anyone has some video of any of our runs at this event (or any other) please contact me.
2004 National Championship Race Dates
| May 1st, 2nd, 3rd | Excitement Nationals | Avon Park |
| June 26th, 27th | Summer Nationals | Santa Pod |
| August 28th, 29th, 30th | Allstar Nationals | Avon Park |
| October 2nd, 3rd | National Finals | Santa Pod |
Links to “Old News”:-
A very Testing time at Avon Park!
Main Event 2000 - Santa Pod - Our Best Ever -Then…...
Easter 2000 - Santa Pod - Our big day
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