2004 APIRA Test and Tune
Saturday

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19:00

Good evening and welcome from Shakespeare County Raceway at the end of day one of the APIRA Test and Tune. We've had a few problems with the elements, ultimately the rain won with a heavy shower at the end of the day, but it was dry for a large part of the day and we saw some great action including one racer recording a PB on his first run of the year. Let's take you through who did what, in association with American Car Imports.

Jet Dragster pilot Ian Caseley gets today's hard luck award as he had just steered his new Roadzombie II dragster into the start area when it started to pitter patter with rain. The rain got harder and harder eventually causing today's activities to be called. Ian's car looks great in its pink paintjob with metalflake, and Ian has delivered on what we thought was an idle threat to wear a pink firesuit. Track announcer Barry Bohannon summed it up perfectly when he said that Ian will never be run over wearing that sort of outfit. I spoke Ian as he was waiting to climb into his dragster, he was in good spirits and very much looking forward to his first outing. He managed to stay cheerful even after the heavens opened. With the weather forecast for tomorrow looking very good Ian will get his chance.

Mickey Moore has put in a test launch in the Mob Fuel Altered. The new magneto installed by Ollie Burn has made an instant and audible difference to the car. The engine sounded very strong indeed and Mickey went straight into Fuel Altered mode having the car up on three wheels as he came off his burnout. On the green, the Altered roared off the line and almost instantly went out of shape again in classic Fuel Altered style, Mickey was on the throttle for about thirty feet or so before getting off it and wrenching the car straight and idling through. Mickey is reported to have jumped out of the car and said...well, this is a family web site so we can't quote him exactly so let's just say that Mickey confirmed in vivid fashion that the difference in power from the new magneto got his attention.

Tony Clark has put in two test passes on Paul Rose's very nicely-repainted Pro Stock Bike, a 9.210/156.52 followed by an 8.839/161.87. Tony took the long way round on both passes so there is more to come yet. Martin Clitheroe is here on his ex-Tim Blakemore bike, now sporting Comp Bike numbers, an 11.478/126.76 followed by a 10.036/129.31.

Super Street Bike racer Chris Reed clocked a best of 10.100/136.36 today, his other passes a 10.285/126.05 and an 11.446/126.46. On a well-prepped but cold track Chris was blackstriping away from the line every time which will have hurt the ETs a little. On most of his runs Chris was lined up against a fellow Super Street Biker, this one from Team Hyena on a very well turned-out Hayabusa carrying the number SS410 for which we unfortunately can't find a name anywhere. SS410 clocked passes of 9.516/156.79, 9.529/155.71, 9.334/156.25 and 9.766/159.01.

9.90 Bike racer Martin Walker recorded passes of 13.172/94.54, 11.132/131.20 and 11.573/110.29 today. Lizz McCarthy was trying out Manor Racing's 10.90 Bike for size with runs of 11.535/131.20, 11.233/132.35, 12.043/129.68 and 11.521/129.68. Meanwhile David Warren was running Manor Racing's 9.90 Bike with a best (or naughtiest, depending upon how you look at it) of 9.766/145.63, his other passes being 9.975/144.23 and 9.770/145.63.

Former Super Street Biker Mark Pointer has moved over to four wheels, testing the ex-Phil Osborne Super Street Mustang again after his outing at Santa Pod last weekend. Big Chief Hooligan clocked 10.951/123.63, 10.876/124.65, a cracking 10.904/124.65 and a naughty 10.816/125.70. Also in Super Street, Bob Lees recorded 11.433/114.80 and 11.352/117.19 whilst Leigh Morris clocked 11.669/118.42 and an 11.667 whose speed I was not quick enough to catch. Scott McCarthy was testing in a Mazda 323 in which he is entered for next weekend's Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod.

VW Sportsman racer Cath Bishop has made a couple of passes in her buggy, 14.921/88.76 and 14.115/92.78. Spencer Tramm has recently arrived with his new VW Alternate Engine and Super Gas VW Corrado. Spencer had a bit of a drama on the way here when a tyre blew out on his trailer, luckily not causing any damage to Steve Silvester, who was driving, or the race car. Spencer will be running his new car tomorrow once builder Chris Isaacs has taken a turn.

Hazel and Holly Mitchell took a run out in their ex-Ricky Emms Junior Modified Dragster Matrix Two. Hazel was first up with a 9.674/66.57, followed by Holly with a 9.645/66.57. Hazel took her second run of the day at 9.304/64.47. Conrad Stanley's daughter Anna is carrying on where she left off at Santa Pod last weekend with passes of 16.808/36.38, 16.807/36.67 and 17.154/35.66.

Onto two Junior wheels and Andrew Irvine is testing a new Junior Drag Bike and has been very sensible about his testing, stepping it up a bit each time. Andrew started the day with a gentle 16.793/43.65, then 14.714/48.18, 14.021/50.28 and finally 12.648/53.96.

Rich Davies is getting his money's worth in his Sportsman ET roadster, with passes of 13.137/101.58, 12.207/110.29, 12.151/109.22 and 12.042/110.29.

UK Wild Bunch racer Tony Smith finally let us in on the little secret which he has been keeping, a new torque converter supplied by sponsor Newgate (Newark) Ltd. On his very first pass with the new kit Tony took two tenths off his personal best with an 11.621/110.57, following it up with an 11.687/108.17. Tony then took the body off the car and kicked his no-body record out of sight too with an 11.330/114.21 followed up with an 11.407/110.02.

Fellow Wild Bunch racer Chris Hartnell is showing off a very nice new paintjob on his Backdraft dragster, a metalflake red scheme with touches of gold applied by Ian Caseley. Chris had the wheels up on his pass of 9.625/138.46 and he tells us that the car was set very soft. Paul Harvey returned to the track with the rear-engined dragster now a nice aquamarine colour and took a gentle half-pass of 14.589/47.87. Tony Wynne-Jones' Corvette roadster clocked passes of 12.558/113.92 and 12.343/114.80, whilst Joe Stephens recorded 11.916/110.02 and 12.148/108.96 in his altered. Colin Stevens put in a nice pass of 12.083/108.17 in his Golddigger slingshot, whilst Helen Smythe clocked 14.892/88.93 and 14.455/95.95 on her first passes in the Helle's Belle altered. Dave Draper made two passes in a very nice '38 Opel, 14.449/94.74 and 14.424/106.89. Tuner Charlie Draper was on the start line assisting Dave with his checkout passes.

Fellow Wild Bunch racer Matt Lee clocked 11.736/117.80 and 11.625/117.94 in the Worth the Wait slingshot, Andrew and Sandie Gibbs' new slingshot recorded 12.929/109.49 and Andy Solley clocked 11.493/115.98 in his Repeat Offender altered.

SCR Test and Tune regular 'Wobbly Bob' started the day off with a 12.845/111.94 in his van, followed by passes of 13.253/111.11 and 13.120/111.11. Fellow van racer Ashley Cooper ran alongside Bob - we don't know where JoJo has got to - with passes of 13.851/102.51 and 13.578/102.51. Bob had a wobbly moment on his last pass, the van wanting to go right all the way down the track, on inspection Bob discovered that he had cut a tyre.

The star of the non-familiar contingent was a purple Toyota Celica which from its behaviour we thought was Ray Eldred's Sanity Assassin with a new paint job. It isn't Ray's car, though, apologies to the driver for not catching his name. This Toyota is carrying number plates and got our attention this morning by pulling a storming burnout, then pulling a huge twisting wheelie off the line...even with a feather of the pedal the car clocked 9.661/143.77 on that pass, and went into the 9.4s at 145 on its subsequent pass.

We have now posted today's pictures, you can view those via the Event Index.

That's it for today, tune in tomorrow and we will bring you all the action from day two of the APIRA Test and Tune.