The NSRA Hot Rod Drags

Saturday:

The magnetos hadn't arrived back in time for the Hot Rod Drags, however after a few conversations Pete Radcliffe allowed me to use his mags, so a big thank you to Pete and Fay for their help, also to Neil Townson and the Northern Spirit team for taking them upto the track for us. When we got them we found out we had the wrong pin arrangements on the bottom of the mags, but a quick journey to Wayne Allman's workshop Intergalactic Customs sorted that (So very handy having a workshop 2 miles from the track!). Arriving back at the track with the adapters, the mags were fitted and the car sounded very crisp with them.

The first run of the weekend was to be against Neil Townson in the Northern Spirit 32 Ford. After a softish burnout we staged and the car launched hard and straight to a new personal best of 7.29 @ 186mph.A video of this run is available in the Multimedia page.


Photo courtesy of Richard Stirling

The second run was to be against Frank Bennett in the Relentless Topolino. Another softish burnout both cars launched, the car pulling the wheels up to 60ft where I had my first ever encounter with the dreaded tyre shake, and I won't lie, it rung my bell well and truly. I just idled through to a 14 second pass while Frank ran to a 7.1

After that run the car was taken apart and every bolt checked and tightened, and we waited for Sunday

Sunday:

First thing Sunday morning the car was checked over and fired up again, everything sounding and looking great. The first run was against Neil Townson again, after getting away together about 300ft out the car made a slight move to the left, only for the car to make a huge move to the right, in which I had to come out of. After seeing Neil pass me I put my foot on it again and ran through to a mid 8 at 180mph. I haven't found any photos of it yet, but here is the video, you can see the two moves very easily.

The final run was to be against Kenneth Feldthusen in the Northrace 34 Chevy altered. There was a lot of dust blowing around because a storm had rolled in overnight, so the track wasn't like how it was Saturday. After getting a huge .240 holeshot on Kenneth, the car made 400ft before the tyres went up in smoke and moving towards the centre-line, for Kenneth to come past and run a 7.5.

Unfortunately their aren't many photos so far, but when more are available I will add further. After the Hot Rod Drags, with one more meeting to go I was joint 2nd in the NFAA Championship. The National Finals would be where it would all come down to the final honours!

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