2003 Power Nationals
Sunday (eliminations)
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20:00
Today's pictures have now been posted; you can view them from the Event Index page.
That's the end of our coverage of the Power Nationals, thanks for tuning in. For their help this weekend we would like to thank Ozzy, Simon and Wayne of the Tech Crew; Race Director Richard Warburton; all the APIRA race officials; the FAST team; Scott Talbot and the start line crew; Darren Prentice; Lee and Emma Child; John Price; Barry Bohannon; Wendy Talbot; Tracy in the media centre; and of course to all the racers for giving us so much to write about and quote. Thanks also to Cath and Tig Napier, Steve Wells, Mel with the (fourteen-second) Duster, Sarah Jane Head, and Tony Byng for food and drink at various points over the weekend.
Eurodragster's next event coverage from Shakespeare County Raceway is scheduled to be the Allstar Nationals on the August Bank Holiday, our next event coverage will be from the SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway on 28th-29th June.
This weekend's Event Coverage was brought to you in association with American Car Imports.
17:30
Darryl Bradford won the final Top Fuel Dragster match race. It was a great race which Darryl won on a holeshot, 5.543/240.64 to Susanne Callin's 5.457/220.59. Both racers were on the throttle to about 1100 feet, Darryl had cylinders out and the header flames from Susanne's engine turned green towards the finish. Darryl took the match race 2-1.
Jim Seward soloed for the final Fuel Altered race after Mickey Moore broke. It was a superb pass from Jim, every way but straight towards the top end, a lengthy pedal past half track as he got close to the centre line, but still running 6.928/177.17.
Gordon Appleton also soloed for the last Pro Mod match-up, no word on whether John Ellis had broken or whether he had run enough passes this weekend. Gordon's pass was hard and straight, not much sign of shake, 6.737/207.37.
Roger Goring ended the day with a 6.664/240.64 in the Firestorm Jet FC.
Here are the final results in all classes:
Super Modified: Graham Ellis 7.744/181.45 def. Steve Rawlings broke
Super Pro ET: Mark Flavell (7.84) 7.825/173.75 def. Ian Bishop (7.96) 12.084/79.51
Pro ET: Ian Brown (10.86) 11.007/116.28 def. Aidan Kenny (11.60) 11.704/114.80
Sportsman ET: Mark Anderson (13.48) 13.811/99.34 def. Kev Slyfield (12.08) 14.169/65.22 red light
Super Comp: Malcolm Francis 8.953/150.00 def. Martin Curbishley 8.966/150.50
Super Gas: Tim Adam 9.945/146.58 def. Martin Curbishley 9.884/138.04
Super Street: Lee Huxley 11.014/119.36 def. Ian Brown 10.988/120.00
Junior Dragster: Colin Morrice (9.00) 9.160/69.44 def. Johnny Walker (14.93) 15.118/40.87
Custom Car Street Eliminator: Steve Pateman 9.741/145.16 def. John Hales 9.575/166.67
Wild Bunch: Ray Ford staged, Chris Hartnell did not show
Outlaw Anglia: Pete Ashworth 9.827/138.46 def. Gary McCormack 9.901/136.36
Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck 7.641/171.10 def. Chris Hope 8.543/167.29
Funny Bike: Neil Midgley 7.058/189.08 def. Dave Holand 7.273/178.57
Super Street Bike: Karl Larcombe 8.268/173.08 def. Steve Venables 8.487/170.45
Comp Bike: Klaus Sarembe 8.337/158.45 def. Phil Leamon 8.508/157.89
9.90 Bike: Fred Furlong 10.555/98.68 def. Wayne Hobbs 14.657/74.38
10.90 Bike: Iain Jack 11.479/91.65 def. Paul Coombs 13.417/65.60
Supertwin Fuel: Chris Stebbings 9.698/123.97 def. Ian Turburville 10.096/140.62
Supertwin Gas: George Laycock 9.690/133.53 def. Andy Smith 10.597/120.97
Supertwin Modified: TJ O'Brien 10.581/125.70 def. Dave Bartz 20.532/33.03
Supertwin Street: Mark Earrey 10.448/133.53 def. Chris Mott 11.076/120.64
Junior Drag Bike: Andy Irvine (12.00) 12.772/50.90 def. Jake Carruthers (13.00) 13.616/48.18
Stay tuned for today's pictures.
14:30
Susanne Callin took the second Top Fuel Dragster match race from Darryl Bradford with an 8.041/97.61, no time for Darryl. Susanne hit shake at about 120 feet and got off it, but then there was a huge sheet of flame from the Carbon By Design car in the shutdown area. The cleanup, though, took place in the second half of the track with shards of aluminium all over the surface. Darryl appeared to have trouble holding the Wildside Inc car on the line, rolling forward from stage into deep stage and then moving forward as the lights ran, pulling a red. It's one apiece.
Jim Seward took the second Fuel Altered match race with a 7.301/171.76 to Mickey Moore's 8.632/181.45. Jim ran straight and hard whilst Mickey had cylinders out in the burnout and the engine sounded as if it were misfiring. That's also one apiece.
Gordon Appleton won the latest Pro Mod match race from John Ellis. Great burnouts from both cars as usual, as they were backing up John's crew chief Ray held out his arms wide to indicate that the big stick was back in the tuning department. Both cars took the long was round and drove through shake, Gordon getting there first 6.715/211.27, a new track speed record for Pro Mod, to John's 7.351/184.43 - Ray and the team very happy with that.
Martin Hill went first in today's first Jet FC session and he wiped out his own track record, again, with an awesome 5.885/272.73. Roger Goring followed up with a great flame show and another back-door run, 6.888/240.64. The weather station sensor was in the shade behind race control, but in the jet blast from both cars, and immediately after Roger Goring ran the weather station was reading 53.4 C and 11% humidity! Right now it has settled down again, 27.6 C, 39% humidity and 30.12 inches' pressure.
Neil Midgley took the Funny Bike track ET record with Shakespeare County Raceway's first six-second FB run, 6.988/182.93 in the semi-finals. Super Street Bike racer Karl Larcombe ran an awesome 8.216/175.10 in the semis, all of this in the heat of the day. Congratulations to the Dorset Horn Wild Bunch team on a PB of 9.541 in the latest round.
12:00
We put the weather station out in the sunshine on the track surface as promised and it registered 33.7 C and 28% humidity. We have now put the sensor back in the shade where it should be and the paramedics have given it a dose of sunblock.
In those conditions the first round of Funny Bike was just stunning, with the track record changing hands and personal bests falling left right and centre. Neil Midgley took out Sarah-Jane Head 7.593/175.10 to 8.797/152.03 but Scary will be very happy with another solid pass on the new bike. Dave Holland then beat Paul Knapp with a 7.256 at a new track record 186.72 to 7.747/175.10. Mike Chislett blew away his PB with a stunning 7.196/183.67 to Tim Blakemore's 8.652/110.84, and Steve French also ran a new PB, 7.180 at a huge 192.31.
Pro Stock Bike is the class of attrition today with all four first round pairings turning out to be bye runs. Dave Beck backed off early after heading for the centre line, Paul Watson clocked 7.884, Richard Gipp a new PB again of 7.569/177.17, and Chris Hope quickly backed off after what sounded like a gear selection problem.
Graham Ellis ran the second-quickest Super Mod pass since the rule change at the start of this season, 7.865/175.78, Andy Hone will be happy with an 8.050 so quickly on his return after crashing in May. Steve Rawlings ran a new PB od 8.241/165.44 whilst Ian Marshall rolled through stage. Danny Cockerill cruised through with an 11.634, saving parts for later we'd say.
Stay tuned.
11:00
Good morning again and welcome from Shakespeare County Raceway on a sunny and very warm morning. The pairing lanes are full, and we're all set to bring you a great day's action in association with American Car Imports.
The Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam is already on-line and broadcasting a snapshot every two minutes.
A big raceday Hello to our US correspondents Ed O'Connell and Kathy Hileman who are tuned in from Rye, NH. Hello also to Anni Valder, hope you guys are enjoying the reports.
Abbreviated pit notes this morning after a late finish last night but let's take you through what we we found out, in the order in which we found it out.
If you were tuned in yesterday you will remember that Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Ian Hook had a huge backfire in qualifying. Ian explained what happened. "Someone was looking for third gear on the Powerglide", he said. "It sort of went into neutral, and went up to 8000 revs on a stock crank - not good! My crew were having kittens on the start line!"
Darryl Bradford was quite happy with yesterday's first Top Fuel match race. "It came back in one piece!", he said. "I put the chutes out early though, I don't know why I did that!". "I have had a word with Darryl about that" laughed crew chief and owner John Wright. The car came up clean after yesterday's run save the header support straps which came off from one side of the engine.
Susanne Callin left an intriguing pair of tyre tracks in her lane yesterday. Black-striping started at two hundred feet, but whilst the right-hand track was solid, the left track showed shake. "I haven't seen my tracks but I certainly felt it!", said Susanne. Crew Chief Alan Jackson hadn't seen anything like it before, either. "Tyre shake on one side! Weird!", he said. "It shook at that point in that lane when we were here with Smax in May, but that was both tyres! We've found a couple of things, though". Susanne added that she will be driving the "red" Carbon By Design Top Fueller at the Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park in July.
Jim Seward said that the Harry The Spider Fuel Altered was shaking very badly in yesterday's match race. "We've put another pair of tyres on it", he said, "if that cures the shake then I think you will see the numbers. All we had to change on the engine were one bearing and one spark plug. We're confident". The HTS team have a birthday today, Jim's son Nick is 21 today, happy birthday Nick. Also getting a present today are the FAST team, to whom Jim has donated his old slicks to go on the sled. nice one Jim.
Frank Mason has turned heads with the beautiful new 'Vette body on his existing chassis, which needed extensive work on the cage as the 'Vette nose is a lot longer than the Monza's. "I got the body from Dale Edmonds", he said. "The car was going to be red, but about two days before I was going to paint it, someone pulled up next to me in a car park with a beautiful blue car. It looked nice in the sun, but metallic colours always look good in the sun. I saw it again in the rain and it still looked good so I changed the colour! So I have a Corvette with Renault paint on!". Frank had a wicked twitch at the top end in open practice yesterday and he said that he thought he was a gonner. "That's this year's hairy moment over with, but I am going to take it easy today", he said. "I'll be the biggest coward in Super Gas today!"
Ian Jackson and Al Cook were sitting in the Silver Fox Racing pit "hatching a master plan" for the return of Sue Jackson's 'Vette after her crash yesterday. "The chassis is untouched, all the hardware is intact, but there isn't one body panel which isn't undamaged". Ian said that he felt that he have been to blame. "It was a bad call on my part", he said. "I let too many ponies go too early. These cars have so much momentum, especially with the tall gears they run". Ian and Sue are very grateful to the FAST team for their response yesterday. "They were really on the case", he said. "They got there so fast and they did a great job". Ian said that he and Sue would take their time to return, but return they would. "We're bent but not broken!", he said.
Mickey Moore and the Mob Fuel Altered team were thrashing when we retired late last night, and Mickey confirmed that that had a few problems. "We trashed some pistons", he said. "On my checkout run yesterday I couldn't get stopped after the burnout, I went a long way down the track, and the engine got very hot. Then I was held on the line in the race against Jim, and it got hot again. But it's all back together now, we were up until midnight though."
Martin Hill said that his 5.92 in Fireforce 2 yesterday could have been quicker. "I could have held it in stage a bit longer but it slipped", he said. "I'll try to back it up today". Martin said that hot weather can affect jet cars but that he thought that it should be OK today. "The more air you can get in, the more fuel you can run, so the more power you make", he said. "When it gets really hot you have to back it off a bit". I asked Martin how Fireforce 2 copes with the point on the shutdown area where another runway crosses. "It depends how fast you are going", he said. "If you are going below 230 then it flies, but if you are going 250 or above then you have the momentum to get across it."
Fellow Jet FC pilot Roger Goring is happy with the progress of the Firestorm. "We gave it a little tweak yesterday", he said, "and it went four miles per hour faster. We've given it a little bit more today. We're having a pile of fun too!". Roger was quick to congratulate Martin Hill on his five-second pass yesterday. "What a run", he said. "It gives us something to aim for, and a reason to get up in the morning!".
Eliminations are well underway, we had an unfortunate start to the day when Super Street Bike racer Fiona Moor took the back door out of her bike off the start line, but Fiona is absolutely fine apart from a "bruise on my bum".
Right now tha trackside conditions are 24.4 C, 46% humidity, and 30.15 inches of air pressure. As an experiment we are going to put our sensor out in the sunshine on the track to see what the track temperature is. Stay tuned for that, and for news from eliminations.