APIRA Test and Tune
Saturday

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18:25

We're now done for the day here at Shakespeare County Raceway. At the end of the day the trackside temperature was 56.1 F, humidity up a touch to 37% and air pressure slightly increased to 30.03 inches.

Let's take you through the last set of runs.

CCSE racer Ian Hook looked to be on a good pass before he backed off at about 900 feet, recording 11.099/93.56, whilst fellow CCSE racer Moose Hollingworth clocked 11.098/130.06. Matt Attwood and Dave Cherrett paired up, the VW Alt racer clocking 13.990 to the Super Street racer's 11.395/101.35. Fellow SS racer Leigh Morris recorded 11.237 on his last pass of the day.

Supercharged Outlaw racer Johnny Hall brought the house down with a wild 9.476/144.23, all over his lane and only backing out for the briefest moment...good boy! Tony Smith clocked 12.148/112.50 in his Wild Bunch minivan whilst Cliff Griffin put in an 11.758/112.78 in his Outlaw Anglia, the engine sounding a lot better this time. Also in a van, Pro ET racer Ken Britton ran 13.153/86.37 with clouds of white smoke coming from the engine at the top end.

The Wild Bunch racers have had value for money today, most of them managing a number of runs. Tom Coe's last run today was an 11.756/111.39, with Dick Sharp following up at 9.667/139.32 and Alex Coe 10.556/115.09, his crew looking very happy indeed with that pass.

Junior Dragster racers Ross Norris and Holly Mitchell paired up, Ross clocking 16.448/36.23 to Holly's 15.097/40.76, followed up by Joe Bond and Holley Glassup in their JM Advanced cars, Joe running 10.771/65.03 and Holley another rapid 8.972/73.12.

We'll be back in the morning with tomorrow's action from the APIRA Test and Tune.

17:45

Trevor Graves' first pass in his Cleveland-powered Honda netted him a 12.52/108.90 whilst in the other lane Dave Cherrett clocked 11.582/111.94 in his Super Street van. Wild Bunch racers Tony Smith and Tony Wynne-Jones matched up, Tony S running 12.22/111.90 and Tony W 12.740/101.81.

CCSE racer Andy Frost got the tyres to stick to the track with a great pass of 9/560/160.71 whilst Sue Jackson was on a good one but then black smoke appeared from the exhausts and Sue got off the throttle and on the brakes very quickly, the fire crew chasing her down after an 11.121/98.25.

VW Alternate racer Matt Attwood ran a 14.128/98.47 in his Fastback, which sounds very strong indeed, and Super Street racer Leigh Morris a 12.211/115.36. Dave Ward made his first pass in the Rampage FC and was off the throttle at about a thousand feet, clocking 11.962/75.38. Fellow Pro ET racer Dave Baldwin followed up with an 11.843/115.38 and Bill Murfin a 10.390/131.96.

Super Street racer Mark Watkins was off the throttle early on an 11.211/114.50, getting back into the swing of 10.90 we would imagine, and Brian Huxley a near-perfect Super Street pass at 10.901/120.32. Bob Lees countered with a 10.597/126.40. Outlaw Anglia racer Bob Hancox clocked 12.753/110.29, and fellow OA racer Pete Ashworth put in a half pass of 13.207/64.56.

9.90 Bike racer Carl Gray ran 10.373/147.06, and Lewis Honey a 10.339/132.35. Also on two wheels Dave Bartz (Supertwin Modified) clocked a very strong-sounding 11.240/112.22, Mark Earrey (ST Street) 11.182/130.06, George Laycock a very solid 9.865/134.33 on his Supertwin Gas bike and Nick Daniels a 10.663/125.00. Rich Davies (STG) paired up against Comp Bike racer Vaughan Foster, Rich clocking 9.976/128.21 to Vaughan's 9.811/141.07.

Junior Drag Bike racer Dan Baldwin put in test passes of 15.552/39.13 and 28.606/17.02 over the eighth, whilst fellow JDB racer Jennifer Hurcomb broke on her last attempt.

We're now emptying the pairing lanes so tune back soon and we'll take you through the last few runs.

16:20

The weather is holding steady at 57.4 F, 36% humidity and still 30.00 inches.

We had a large number of Wild Bunch racers run immediately after the oildown, let's take you through those. Sarah Howells 10.713/133.14, Ray Ford 13.091/97.83, Darryl Howells 12.428/106.89, Dennis Hawkins 10.177/140.62, Dick Sharp 9.748, Chris Hartnell 10.306/126,76, Alec Coe 11.224/113.64, Tom Coe 11.709/110.84, Mat Lee 14.785/104.17, Colin Stephens 13.705/109.76 and Pete Loveridge 10.905/122.28.

On two wheels Steve Ingham clocked 10.247/142.86 on his 9.90 Bike, George Laycock 10.139/133.14, Nick Daniels (Supertwin Gas) 10.305, and SB100 11.314/138.04.

Ian Brown clocked 11.938/112.50 in the Thatadoo Camaro whilst Super Street racer Mark Watkins recorded 12.010/113.92. Fellow Super Street racer Bob Lees clocked 10.671/125.70 for the Bristol contingent and Cliff Puddle ran 10.442/131.96.

Custom Car Street Eliminator racers John Sleath and Moose Hollingworth ran 10.190/113.07 (half pass) and 11.433/129.31, and Cliff Griffin an 11.906/113.07. Pro ET racers Ken Britton and Kev Taylor clocked 12.778/97.83 and 11.028/128 respectively.

Jennifer Hurcomb's latest run on her Junior Drag Bike netted her a much quicker 12.047 at a huge 60.08.

Two new cars to look out for next time you are at the track are Trevor Graves' Honda, a very nice-looking car, and Dave Ward's re-bodied Rampage altered which now has a Monza FC body.

15:20

When we left you, Chris Round was about to make a pass in the Rebellious dragster, Chris ran a fine 8.931/159.01 and it sounded as if there was more to come from the dragster.

Pro ET racer Bill Murfin ran 11.114/122.28 in his Anglia, and then Pro ET racer Andy Williams and returning Outlaw Anglia racer Bob Hancox paired up. Andy pulled the burnout of the day so far, for a while we couldn't see anything out of the race control window. Andy clocked 11.482/116.88 to Bob's easy 16.443.

We then moved to a bike session, Chris Reed (Super Street) and Vaughan Foster (Comp) leading off with side-by-side elevens, Chris at 11.617/130.81 to Vaughan's 11.957/110.84. Carl Gray (9.90 Bike) and TJ O'Brien (10.90 Bike) were next up with 10.319/149.01 and 10.666/128.21 respectively, and Paul Coombs (10.90 Bike) and Ady Reade (9.90 Bike) closed out with 11.919/116.58 and 10.117/139.75.

Super Street racer Leigh Morris' first run out today was a 12.103/116.28.

We're just clearing a mist of oil from the track, several Wild Bunch racers are lined up to take to the track when we're ready to go. We'll be back soon.

14:45

A slight change in trackside conditions, 58.5 F, 35% humidity and 30.00 inches of mercury. When we left you we had a pair of Super Street Bike racers on the line, SS11 whose name we can't find ran 9.955 and Kev Charman broke before staging.

The second pass by Jennifer Hurcomb on her Junior Drag Bike was a 15.261/43.65. Pete Ashworth made a very welcome return in the Dayglo Twister Outlaw Anglia, a nice burnout and a atab off the line, cruising through to 36.819/22.03.

The first Wild Bunch action of the day was from Tony Smith and Gareth Kent, Tony clocking a solid 12.595/109.76 to Gareth's 15.448/95.74.

The Wild Bunch racers were followed by four Junior Dragster racers, Holley Glassup recording 8.998/72.58 whilst Johnny Walker, still with two engines in his dragster, recorded 13.288/45.59. New name to us Ross Norris recorded 16.153/36.53 and Holly Mitchell 15.227 in their Junior Stock cars.

Keith Charman broke after the burnout in the Alkymist Supercharged Outlaw dragster, oil is currently being cleaned from the track. As I type, Chris Round is next up in his Rebellious Supercharged Outlaw dragster and I can see Top Methanol Dragster racer Lyndsay Deuchar with Chris' crew.

Stay tuned!

13:30

We're now well into the swing of things here, struggling a bit with no top end displays but we're making a nuisance of ourselves by reading over shoulders in race control. Low ET of the day so far has been by Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Andy Frost who clocked 10.095 at a big 150.50 on his first run out. Fellow CCSE racer Moose Hollingworth recorded 11.525/128.57 and John Sleath wasn't far behind Andy Frost with a 10.858/130.06.

Pro ET racer Ken Britton clocked 13.138/104, and the Cheap Thrills slingshot a 13.844/103.21

We have also had our first run out from a Junior Drag Bike, Jennifer Hurcomb clocked 19.924/15.928 over the eighth on her first outing.

We're on a hold at the moment but stay tuned as we have a couple of Super Street Bike racers next up.

12:00

Good afternoon and welcome from Shakespeare County Raceway on a glorious spring day. We are very pleased to say that courtesy of Ozzy Ewing of Shakespeare County Raceway's tech crew we now have access to the web via a mobile phone link so we will be able to bring you our American Car Imports-sponsored reports all weekend. We would like to thank Ozzy and all of the APIRA officials for their help in getting us on-line.

The plan is to post this weekend's pictures when we get back to base tomorrow night, and unfortunately the Webster Race Engineering/Dragrace Drachten webcam will be offline over the weekend.

Our weather station tells us that the trackside temperature is 61.0 F, 34% humidity and 30.00 inches of mercury.

Right now the track crew are just finishing up on track prep. The plan is to run street-tyred vehicles to begin with, to put some more rubber on the start line, and then the race vehicles will be allowed out to play.

Stay tuned and we will bring you regular reports on today's action just as soon as we get going.