Motorcycle Drag Racing Team
Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that we would come away with the number 1 plate!! What an incredibly, unpredictable, and amazing sport this is!
The first run of the day we were not too sure what to expect. Craig had changed the ratio the week before, and we went to Santa Pod to test the bike last weekend. Unfortunatley the weather was not on our side, so never got out to test.
Kev had Steve Woolatt in the first round of qualifying, Steve had gone into pre stage before he had been pushed back from his burnout, but unfazed Kev launched and the bike just flew, 6.71 @ 202 mph, taking him to the only Fuel bike that ran a six in the first round, and gave him the Number 1 qualifying position. Needless to say we were very happy with that. Steve unfortunately had problems, running a 12.79.
(Photo thanks to Rob Cox) As drag racing goes, the highs and lows always come with it, and the second run, against Chris Hannam. Kev launched, the bike charged off again, sounding strong (1.08 60 foot) and the primary drive belt was destroyed again, thus running a 11.22 at 66 mph. Chris on the other hand ran an awesome 7.13 @ 189 mph! Got back to the pits, and then to our horror, discovered that we only had one left. We put a call out and thanks to Eurodragster for putting an SOS out on the website, and Colin Theobald for putting a shout out, the hero of the hour goes to Alex McIntosh, of Street Eliminator fame, who pooped over with a belt we could use, would take no money for it, and was pretty sure we could return the favour at some point. Big thanks to him.
Third and last one of the day, and was mildy comical. Kev had Chris again. Kev launched, and the tyre just smoked. Chris had waited for a while before launching himself, and ran a 7.24 @ 187 mph, but Kev effectively did a quarter mile burnout, getting hardly any traction at all, feathered the throttle, but the bike was having none of it, and ran a 10.06 @ 173 mph, huge mph for such a slow time!! Ian King ran an amazing 6.14 @ 213mph this put us in second spot , many congratulations to him and the team !
Usual servicing and maintenance done in the evening, leak down was all ok, and now decide what we were going to do the next day.
Massive commiserations to Steve Woolatt and the team who damaged their engine and could not make the the first round of eliminations
Sunday first round, as Steve could not race we had a bye, where we just staged for the next round,. We staged again for the Final. There was no other reason than we were trying to save parts. This was the clincher for the Number 1 plate in the ACU Top Fuel bike Championship. We were to meet Ian King in the final. Would we be able to win the meeting as well as the Championship?
Just before our round there had been a small mist of an oil down, and Ian and the team decided to swap lanes with us, which was no problem, and then we felt a small splatter of rain. Thankfully this blew over, and away we went. Kev's burnout was a bit longer than expected, but Ian waited, and we are sorry if we held you up! Ian just got away first, Kev's tyre lit up again, and he feathered the throttle, and was chasing Ian. Ian was heading towards the guard rail, and by the time they both got to the end, neither of them were too sure who had taken the win. Kev lost by .122 of a second ! An honorable second, and a very good race! 7.78 @ 140mph for Ian to Kev's 7.87 @ 199mph - that was some chase!
Photo Lizz McCarthy)
So there we are, runner up in the meeting, and number 1 in the Championship. We are under no illusions that we won because we have the quickest or most consistent bike, with rolling sprags, chains, and belts ,but as they say, you have to be in it to win it, and we did!! Not bad for a rookie season, and there is still so much to learn!
We could never have done this without the help and support of the incredible Rene and his Crew, Craig Boulton and Binzi, our Crew Chief Chris, Pyke, and the back up gang. Our Sponsors, Doug at Ensys, and Steve at Motorshack.
Also big well done to Kev's son Jake, who got through to the Semi Finals in Junior drag bike, we are proud of you too!
(Photo thanks to Ian Blackett - Blackett Photography) Thanks to to Eurodragster and Colin Theobald, as always for the excellent coverage over the weekend. And Big thanks too to everyone who came and congratulated us on the win, it's a bit of a thing to have run a 6 second pass first ever run, thinking it was a flook, running a PB this weekend, and now to have had three number one plates - Competition bike, Funny Bike and Top Fuel. What an achievement !
We would also like to say hi, and please get well soon to Paula Marshall, and hope to see you back at the track as soon.