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Webster Race Engineering 4 Cylinder racer Darren Shephard said 'I have been racing for 15 years mainly with Outlaw Flat Four. I'm enjoying this event as we're against cars we usually wouldn't race'. Darren's car has two 48IDA carbs, Comp Eliminator 13:1 heads, Engle FK89 cam and a six rib 091 Camper gearbox converted by Dave Forts and has run a best of 11.819.
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Spal Front Wheel Drive racer Michael Holleman is European record holder with a 8.404 recorded at SPR earlier in the year. He said 'I've been racing since 2016 and my Honda Civic is a street car conversion. My team did the bodywork and the engine was built by Dutch tuning company Sneaky Tuning. The block is original with all the internals changed using US imports. The turbo is a Precision 76mm 85 series. It's a different setup from last year, but testing hasn't gone well as it was jumping out of fourth gear yesterday'. In qualifying he reset his record at 8.3639.
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Spal Front Wheel Drive racer Sagar Jasegar raced his black Honda Civic at SPR last year and has been in the sport for four years. 'I built the car myself and with the team TW Built. The engine is a B16 turbo Honda built by the team with a Holset HX Super 40 turbo, and has run a best of 10.439'. Sagar ran into boost problems and his tuner Maylon is flying in from Holland later today.
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Spal Front Wheel Drive and OCS Group Big Bracket racer Carl Goldsmith said 'I wasn't able to do testing but ran back-to-back PBs of 10.64 and 10.63 at the last FWD event, then I did a lovely burnout across the line this morning, had a misfire in first on the launch and the boost pressure popped the grille off'.
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Webster Race Engineering 4 Cylinder racer Chris Todd runs a Mark 1 Fiesta Supersport with a Subaru EJ20 two litre engine mounted in the middle of the car. He said 'I did all the work myself apart from the chassis which was fabricated by Jon Webster. The engine has a Porche gearbox behind it. So far I have raced RWYB and the Ford Old Skool Drag Challenge, and I haven't run the car since last October'. Chris is a car tuner by trade and is based in Uxbridge, Middlesex.
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Webster Race Engineering 4 Cylinder racer Richie Webb raced in Hot Rod Drag Week last year and had a ball. 'It was amazing racing at different tracks during the five day event and driving between them. I have a floorpan car for racing in the US and a tube framed one with nearly identical mechanicals for the UK'. Naturally the UK car is quicker and has gone down to 7.97. Richie also has a new six speed sequential gearbox built by Sebastian Lakowski in Germany. 'We need to get more rpms out of the engine and have put in a new cam which should increase the speed above 170mph He qualified second with 8.688, and Jim Smith of Cotsweld has constructed new ladder bars and I have new tyres which should perform well on the new track.
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Spal Front Wheel Drive racer Thorsten Middendorf is unfortunately out for the weekend with a broken driveline component. He said 'I've had the car since 20017 when it had a G60 supercharger. Now it has a Garrett GTX42 turbocharger which feeds a two litre 16 valve Gof Mk 3 engine, and my best of 8.456 is the third quickest car in Europe'. Without the spares to fix his driveline, he won't be appearing on track for the rest of the event.
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Spal Front Wheel Drive racer Dave Duthie from Newcastle has raced at York and SPR in RWYB. He said 'I've had my Corsa for 12 years and converted it into this spec just over two years ago. The engine is a two litre 16 valve turbo and gearbox a six speed Vauxhall F28. I ran a best of 10.8 yesterday which is three tenths faster than last year. The new track's great and I will like to run in the FWD championship'.
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OCS Group Big Bracket racer Jon Turner tested yesterday but had a few issues. 'There was an oil problem at the top end which casued burnt pushrods. So my team went back to our Kent base to get the pushrods, rockers, lifters and heads from our spare engine and we're spending today putting them back together. So I will run tomorrow in the OCS Group Big Bracket'. Jon has a new engine, a 512ci big block Mopar with a F1-R Procharger fitted. 'It should be good for over 1000hp. We need to make some four link adjustments as it went sideways on the second pass but still recorded our best mph of 138'. Jon will remain in Super Gas and Pro ET, and will have to lift earlier in the former category as he eschews use of an electronic throttle stop.
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Spal Front Wheel Drive racer Allan Duthie, from Arbroath has a nine hour drive to SPR but attends the FWD series regularly. 'I have a different engine this year a C20 LET out of a Calibra Turbo and that is married to a sequential Vauxhall Sapiro gearbox. I also have a new tuner, DWR Performance who is a turbo specialist and have installed a Cybex ECU. I've not driven so far with this new setup, we are here mainly to test, if it goes well it is a bonus, but it is great to take part in the event'. Allan built the car himself apart from a Jon Sleath cage.
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OCS Group Big Bracket racer Brian Pateman raced at the original Gary's Doorslammers over thirty years ago and was back racing again at this event. 'I am working on the reaction times because I red lit in testing after running a 0.009 and I don't run a delay box'. Brian will again be running the National Championship in Super Pro ET and Super Gas and, having enjoyed Hockenheim in 2017 is considering a return depending how the season goes.
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Spal Front Wheel Drive racer Kiel Priestman, a regular in the FWD series at SPR, said 'This race is more intense and it's great to have more racers in the class. I have my own tuner Jamie Lumley of Evotune at this event, usually I would send him data by internet. Kiel has had his car for eight years and like many in the class, built it myself'. The car has a Honda B18 engine with aftermarket aluminium pistons and rods but still some stock internals, and a Precision 72mm Model 85 turbo. The transmission is a VPG dog box with H pattern shift and aluminium DSS drive shaft. His best is 8.701/169.
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Lucas Oil Pro Street racer Martin Smith was having trouble getting the twin turbo Bentley off the line. 'We took all the power out of it but it still blew the tyres off it after 40ft. We then increased the boost and power to load the chassis up, but that didn't work. Our next stage is to change the four link - it's a tuner's track'. Martin will be racing in Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator at selected rounds this year.
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EBC Brakes 6 Cylinder racer Justin Muscat runs a rotary engined Escort Mk 1 which has gone as quick as 7.18 for a European rotary record. However he faced problems with keeping the power up on the launch here. Justin has a chassis built by his company Ladmu Chassis Builder. The 13B rotary engine was built by the team and sports a Microtech ECU.
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EBC Brakes 6 Cylinder racer Mark Moseley, who usually runs in the Jap Drag Series, went 8.652/152 to go no.1 in his class. He said 'This event is awesome, the turnout is great and I like running heads up, like we do in the Jap Series'. Mark has been racing for about thirty years with Camaros and bike in the past. 'I started in the old HKS Series about ten years ago and am running the same car now'. Mark does all the work on the car including engine building, which he also does for Team Extreme. His best time is 8.5/166. He said 'You have to tune the car to the track with suspension and tyre pressure changes'.
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EBC Brakes 6 Cylinder racer Gary Gooding, previously seen in Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator, suffered cylinder head and block damage on the Supra's 2JZ engine on his second test run yesterday and has had to withdraw for the remainder of the race.
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Spal Front Wheel Drive racer Nicolas Hackiere from France started racing in 1998 and became French champion in 2001 with a Peugeot 106 S16. His best time is 10.029/146mph at Drachten in 2015 and his car produces an estimated 750hp from a 1600hp engine. Here, despite weaving down the track as he applied the power down the racing distance, he nevertheless ran a new PB of 9.623/152.
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EBC Brakes 6 Cylinder racer James Willday has been building his rotary engined Mazda RX-8 for a couple of years and tested last weekend. He said 'We had an oil issue while testing and fully rebuilt the engine during the week. We want to run another test pass before qualifying'. But he remained in the pits on Saturday working on the car until late, when he did a 15.8s run to get in the field. 'We fired it up but it didn't sound right', he commented earlier.
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Spal Front Wheel Drive racer Dan Frost races a Honda Civic with a K20 Turbo engine putting out over 600hp. He is sponsored by Fix Auto car repair shops and qualified third in the category with a 9.88/150.
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Lucas Oil Pro Street racer Marcin Blauth from Poland is at Santa Pod for the first time having raced in his home country, Hungary, Ukraine and Belarus, and at Hockenheim last year. He said 'I have been racing for 15 years with a GMC Typhoon which had four wheel drive and a 406ci SBC, and decided to change body, so with help from my team mate and tuner Gregor of VTG, I adapted the front frame of the GMC Typhoon and welded it to the Camaro chassis, making sure the engine was in the same position'. Marcin's engine has two Turbonetics 88mm turbos and his Camaro is the second quickest in Poland to Gregor's C3 Corvette which runs 7.5s with a single turbo. Why four wheel drive? 'It helps with the consistency, we mostly run on unprepped concrete or asphalt tracks. I have a new bump box to help me stage and launch which we made at home and works well'. A third team car is a Mitsubishi EVO8 with Chevy LS engine - and, of course, four wheel drive.
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OCS Group Big Bracket competitor Michael Hawkins has this Rover 220 which some of our readers may remember was driven by Andy Chilton some years back. Michael, who is a plasterer by trade, said 'I rebuilt it and Andy Robinson Race Cars had it tagged to 8.5. The engine is a naturally aspirated 540 steve Schmidt with single carb. 'I tested yesterday had no second gear and ran an 11. We pulled the Nitrous built Powerglide out, it is rated to 2000hp so should be strong enough, and Andy Robinson is helping us rebuild it'.
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VP Racing Fuels Pro Doorslammer racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson ran a 6.67/229, 6.27/185 and 6.23/237. Team member Stefani said 'We are tuning the car to the new track surface and want to win the money, despite Mattias's performance advantage [Reporter's note: He is running a screw supercharger and traction control and is 300lb lighter than an FIA spec Pro Mod]. Our first run was a full pass and the car is reliable, so if we get to the second round we will have reimbursed our entry fee as well having made a lot of test passes'. As we reported at the Festival of Power, the car is now sitting two inches lower and has taller tyres.
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OCS Group Big Bracket racer Joel Kerr made some great runs last weekend at the Nostalgia Nationals and continued at this event in testing and in today's race, where he went as far as round 3. He said 'The car came out first at Dragstalgia last year and I made mods to it over the winter by fitting a narrowed rear axle, 16 inch beadlocks on the rear and 17 inch wheels on the front and that's made it more stable'. The engine is a BBC by Kenny Coleman of 540ci, a 14-71 supercharger and methanol. His PB is 7.57/175 although the car has gone 180mph. Despite the front end and doors being fibreglass, the car still weighs in at 3200lbs with around 2500hp.
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Webster Race Engineering 4 cylinder racer Adam Skinner runs a Fiat 126 with a Subaru engine in the rear and wheelies its way to ten second passes at RWYB meetings. He is qualified
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