2004 Allstar Nationals
Sunday (qualifying)
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20:15
Today's pictures have now been posted, you can view them via the Event Index page. The pictures include a start line gallery by Roger Gorringe, to see the link for that you may need to click on your Browser's Refresh button on the Event Index page.
We'll be back in the morning with all the news from eliminations. See you then!
20:00
Here are the final top five qualifiers in all classes, with the exception of Fuel Funny Car which has one more qualifying session tomorrow:
Fuel Funny Car
Top Methanol
Super Modified
Super Pro ET
Pro ET
Sportsman ET
Super Comp
Super Gas
Super Street
Junior Dragster
Custom Car Street Eliminator
Wild Bunch
Outlaw Anglia
VW Pro
VW Sportsman
VW Alternate Engine
Top Fuel Bike
Funny Bike
Pro Stock Bike
Comp Bike
Super Street Bike
9.90 Bike
10.90 Bike
Supertwin Fuel
Supertwin Gas
Supertwin Street
Supertwin Modified
Junior Drag Bike
16:30
The track crew worked very hard indeed but twice when the track was almost dry the rain fell down again, so with a curfew of 5:00 pm we are done for today - right now it is raining so hard that you can't see the finish line. Eliminations commence at 11:00 tomorrow morning.
What we will be doing now is to bring you the top five qualifiers in each class as well as work on today's pictures. Stay tuned and we'll bring you those in the next couple of hours.
14:40
The drizzle turned into heavy rain so we are on hold right now.
We just had a visit from Dave Pollen, Crew Chief for Jerry Charles' Custom Car Street Eliminator Capri. If you were tuned in earlier you will remember that Jerr's car disappeared in a cloud of smoke in this morning's session. Dave said that Jerry's throttle stuck open at the finish line, Andy Frost was an interested spectator in the other lane as Jerry came past him hard on the brakes. Both of Jerry's rear tyres are down to the wires!
Earlier on we managed to snatch a word with Bob Jarrett, Crew Chief of the Showtime Fuel FC and Gordon Smith, driver of the Shockwave Fuel FC. Bob showed us a piston which had a big hole burned through - but this one had been burned through on the side, just below the crown, round behind the rings and out again just below. This was something your reporter has never seen before, Bob explained that it was likely a ring failure allowing the burnthrough. Bob told us that the Showtime team had installed a new crank last night and that they had worked on a couple of the minor sorts of problems which come with a new set-up.
Gordon Smith said that a rod had snapped on the Shockwave Fuel FC causing yesterday's explosion. "That doesn't usually happen at the hit", said Gordon. We asked Gordon how much of such an explosion gets through to the cockpit. "It feels as if you are smacked in the chest", he said. The Shockwave team have rebuilt using their spare block.
Stay tuned and as soon as there is any more to report we shall let you know.
14:10
Phil Leamon improved his ET in the fourth session of Comp Bike qualifying, but stayed in third place whilst Roland Chaplain also improved with another best for the Think Pink bike but stayed fourth. Klaus Sarembe has had a lot of problems this weekend but made it into the top five in this session. The final top five in Comp Bike is as follows:
Spencer Tramm took second place in the final session of Super Gas qualifying, we ended up with eight qualifiers of fourteen in the 9.9s. The final top five in Super Gas is as follows:
We're on hold for drizzle, stay tuned.
13:50
We're now into the fourth, and final, cycle of qualifying. If time permits we will be running the first round of eliminations in some classes, most notably Pro ET. Stay tuned and we'll bring you all the results as they happen, including the final top fives in ET classes, VW classes, Wild Bunch and Junior Drag Bike.
The fourth session of Funny Bike qualifying was again contested by Paul Knapp and Neil Midgley. Midgo stepped right up with a 6.969 at a huge 191.59 to cement his pole position. The final Funny Bike standings are:
After the final session of Pro ET qualifying, Malcolm Motler is of course still #1 +0.000 at 10.352/128.02.
VW Pro contested its final qualifying session next. Justin Aldred has maintained his #1 qualifying spot, +0.027 over dial-in at 11.427/108.93. Some of our buddies on Volkszone were asking after VW Pro racer Ken Blomer, in this session Ken dialled-in a 9.30 and ran 9.372/143.77, a very nice-looking pass, and he is qualified third behind Simon Cooper.
13:20
After session three of Wild Bunch qualifying, Tony Smith has taken an unassailable lead +0.000 on his dial-in at 11.540/113.75. He did it at the Power Nationals, and now he's done it at the Allstar Nationals! No bonus this time, though, as the Eurodragster.com/Curbishley Automotive Perfect Light Award has of course already been taken.
Next up was session three of Super Pro ET, in which Martyn Jones has taken the lead back from Steve Johnson, +0.006 on his dial-in at 7.716/175.23. Bob Glassup and his team had to work on his altered's front suspension last night after his problems yesterday, Bob put in an 8.414/175.40 checkout pass with much more in there since the car hesitated a couple of times.
The third session of Supertwin Fuel was contested by Chris Stebbings and Steve Clutterbuck, Steve ran a tremendous 8.614/128.43 with plenty more to come as he backed off at a thousand feet. Chris Stebbings improved to a 9.147/138.05.
Closing out the third cycle of qualifying was Super Modified. Steve Rawlings finally got in a pass after problems with a core plug and a sprag yesterday and went into third place. Kev Perkins improved to consolidate his #1 spot. After session three, the top five in Super Modified are:
Trackside conditions are 17.4 C, 72% humidity and 29.85 inches of air pressure.
12:45
The first Jet FC to run was Roger Goring's Firestorm, a superb flame and smoke show which gave the webcam something to think about, a couple of very solid throttle slams and then a 6.373/251.55 driving out the back door.
Martin Hill followed up in Fireforce 2, making an attempt to knock down race control with his very percussive afterburner, smoking out the entire start line and clocking a tremendous 5.957/270.27 which we didn't actually see from race control apart from a rapidly-receding afterburner flame through the smog!
12:35
First up in the Pro/Demo session was Top Fuel Bike with Steve Woollatt (left lane) and Steve Carey (rightlane) pairing up. Steve Woollatt's bike again seemed to leave the line relatively gently but very quickly hooked up and went; 6.545/214.43 to consolidate his #1 spot. Steve Carey looked to drift to the right, getting off the throttle a little early, 7.889/168.00.
Next up was Top Methanol and the two TMFCs went first, Doug Ripley taking the left lane and Trev Capewell the right. After the burnouts one of the track spotters hopped the guardrail and signalled to Trev to shut off for a fluid leak. Doug's FC left gently, stepping to the right off the line, and he shut off about a hundred feet before the finish line, 7.585/179.55. Lindsay Deuchar went next in his TMD, the engine dropped a valve yesterday so the LA Racing team had a lot of hard work to do. The car left the line gently and really looked to be picking up towards the finish line, 6.723/224.25.
Next up are the Jet Funny Cars.
12:15
After session three of Junior Dragster, Anna Stanley entered the top five and the qualifying is bunching right up with the top nine within 0.100.
Sportsman ET is still led by Linda Platt after session three, +0.043 at 12.743/110.27
After session three of Super Street, Mike Bentley moved into the top five:
Next up is the Pro session, stay tuned.
12:00
The third session of Custom Car Street Eliminator started the day. Colin Lazenby improved on his ET, Ian Jackson moved up to second by one thousandth, and Ian Hook entered the top five. Jerry Charles' Capri disappeared into a huge cloud of smoke in the shutdown area and there is a very long pair of skid marks down the shutdown area. No word yet but Jerry is obviously A-OK as he got the car stopped and off the track. The top five after the third session of CCSE is:
In VW Alternate Engine, Spencer Tramm still leads but has improved still further to +0.009 at 9.659/140.62.
No change to the leader after session three of VW Sportsman with Jonathan Grigg still at the top +0.040 at 14.290/91.09.
Some big changes in the top five in 9.90 Bike after session three with Ady Reade taking over the lead and Geoff Connor and Andy Bird moving up.
The standings in 10.90 Bike after the second qualifier are:
The top five in Supertwin Street after the second qualifying session has changed with Dave Jones entering the fray:
The top five in Supertwin Modified after the third qualifying session are:
The top five in Super Street Bike has changed with Carl Gray coming in at number four, Mark Fisher improved his ET and Steve Venables recorded a huge 192.93 mph, which is a track record and will be good for a UK record if backed up, well done Steve!
Andy Irvine has taken over the lead in Junior Drag Bike after session three, +0.021 on his dial-in at 11.821/56.04.
9:30
Good morning and welcome again from Shakespeare County Raceway. It's day two of qualifying for the Allstar Nationals and we're here to bring you the news in association with American Car Imports.
The Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam is on-line and broadcasting a picture every two minutes.
Weather conditions at present are 15.1 C, 83% humidity and 29.88 inches of air pressure. We had some rain overnight but right now the sun is out and the track is already dry; there is plenty of time yet for finishing touches as we are scheduled for a 10:45 start.
Sunday morning greetings to our good friends at Svensk Dragracing who are working hard at Mantorp Park covering the NDRS Finals, you can see their coverage at www.dragracing.se. A big Good Morning, too, to Bill Erickson who is tuned in from the rich side of the Pond.
We missed it when it happened as we were beavering away on the reports but we were very pleased to pay out again yesterday when Sportsman ET racer Mark Anderson took the Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award with a 0.000 in yesterday's second qualifying session. In fact it was a 0.00029 but we only go to the third digit! Mark is �75 better off as a result of his feat, congratulations to him.
Our plan for today's coverage is to track the top five qualifiers in all heads-up and index classes, and the #1 qualifier in dial-your-own classes with their top fives at the end of today. We will also have start line pictures today and tomorrow as our good friend photojournalist Roger Gorringe has kindly offered to step into the breach as he did at the Power Nationals.
We have some stories to chase up when we get the opportunity to visit the pits later on (a late finish last night precluding a pit walk). The Shockwave Fuel FC team were faced with a lot of silver pebbles when they pulled the diaper after the bang on the start line yesterday so they have had a late night putting things back together. In Super Pro ET Derek Flynn's weekend is finished with the Gold RV dragster as a valve component went for a walk in one cylinder yesterday; one piston is history and there is some damage to the head. Bob Glassup (Super Pro ET) and Brian Pateman (Super Comp) have done chassis work overnight.
We will be taking up where we left off yesterday with the third cycle of qualifying; Custom Car Street Eliminator is the first scheduled class. Fuel Funny Car, Top Methanol, Top Fuel Bike, the Fuel Altereds and both Jet FCs are scheduled to run twice today, at 12:00 and 3:30. We are also scheduled to start eliminations in some classes this afternoon. So stay tuned and we'll be back soon after 10:45 with all the latest from the track.