https://nitrojunkie.ukhttps://nitrojunkie.uk/static/images/topfuel_header.jpghttps://nitrojunkie.ukTop Fuel Motorcycle Drag Racing Teamen-gbwebmaster@nitrojunkie.uk (Jake Charman)https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/updates-march-2026https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/updates-march-2026It’s time for a long‑overdue update on the progress of the fuel bike. Work is steadily moving forward, and while there’s still lots to do, the aim is to be back testing later this year. Following last season’s issues when none of us were entirely sure where the root of the problems lay we spent a great deal of time reviewing the bike with help from several very knowledgeable people. It became clear that each system needed to be checked and proven good before any further testing could take place. Protecting the engine from unnecessary damage was the priority. The fuel system was the first area under scrutiny. With support from Dave Wilson, we confirmed that fuel distribution was largely acceptable, though some refinements have already been made by Dave and further improvements to fuel control are being planned to improve fuel control. Attention then turned to the ignition system, which was also identified as a potential contributor to the problems. Instead of servicing the existing Mallory magnetos, we made the decision to upgrade to MSD Pro Mags, the preferred choice for most top‑fuel cars and bikes running nitro. A used pair was sourced from the US, sent straight toinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Kevin Charman)Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/dragstalgia_2025https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/dragstalgia_2025Finally managed to stop grinning long enough to write a race report!! Dragstalgia 2025 It's been a while.......... For a few years now, Andy Lambert has offered me his awesome Prostock bike to ride, after my few attempts on Claire Rules and Richard Gipps stockers, someone must have seen potential or giggle factor! If you don't know me, I used to race in Comp and Funny bike, and won the Championship in 2013, and been a "borrower" of race bikes, or sometimes, even offered a ride! Then Covid, total knee replacement, and recovery - 4 years down the line, Andy asked me again - He, being unable to ride due to a shoulder injury that he's still waiting for an op for, told me this year I had no choice! Now, I'm not the size for a ProStock bike, Nostalgia, or otherwise anymore, but really wanted to have a try, so yes! I then had to convince Bois that Dragstalgia was a great idea, so "Give me your card, Bois, I'll enter you now, and can you bring both bikes please" whilst in the bar !! Bois was going to see Linkin Park at Wembly with his girls, so theinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Lizz Charman)Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/festival_of_power_2025https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/festival_of_power_2025I wasn’t 100% for the Thursday test day. We'd been to Prague for Lizz’s “significant” birthday and managed to bring back Norovirus as a souvenir - it wiped both of us out for a few days. By race week we were mostly recovered, but definitely still feeling the effects. Jake and Esther arrived Wednesday night, and Jake and I got up early Thursday to set up our pit area for the weekend. The girls followed later with food and supplies for the weekend. With everything set up, we chilled for a few hours and prepared the bike. Once the rest of the crew arrived we made a plan for starting the bike first thing in the morning, we all got some sleep ahead of Friday's action. Friday morning, we ran into a bit of nitro mischief. Even though the bike had sounded great just two weeks earlier, it now didn’t want to idle properly. We took our time resetting the barrel valve and idle settings. We weren’t in a rush to make the first qualifier - this is about testing, not chasing points (yet). We also got some excellent advice from seasoned friends in the paddock, including multiple European championinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Kevin Charman)Sun, 20 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/2025_nitro_diarieshttps://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/2025_nitro_diariesOver the winter, real life and work took priority. In between the daily grind, the bike was stripped and cleaned. We relocated a few components for easier access and maintenance, and did our best to balance the setup. I'm really happy with how the bike stands now. We removed the fuel distribution blocks, stainless hard lines. These were replaced with showerhead fittings and equal-length braided lines to help improve fuel distribution - fingers crossed this addresses our persistent fueling issues at idle. I made the decision to skip the season opener at Santa Pod for a few personal reasons, but we did manage to make time to attend the Yam Yam test day the Monday after the event. It was a well-organized session and gave us a great opportunity to fire up the bike on nitro post-rebuild. We had a productive day: got the timing set and sorted out a couple of minor fuel leaks. Unfortunately, during testing, oil pressure dropped, halting our progress. We went through the oiling system piece by piece - lines, components, everything - and eventually traced the issue to a faulty fitting. Once replaced, all was well again. The troubleshooting took longer than we expected,info@nitrojunkie.uk (Kevin Charman)Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/testing_june_2024https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/testing_june_2024Having committed ourselves to a date to test the new fuel bike and get everyone together, we went to a Run What Ya Brung at Santa Pod. Bearing in mind that the bike was a new build so new to us, all checks had been made, the fuelling had been set as well as we could, before riding it in anger on the track! We fired it up on nitro, this has to be done at the track anyway due to the phenomenal noise of the thing, the restrictions we have at present on the fuel and also not wanting to scare or annoy our neighbours! I had not ridden a top fuel bike since 2011, being the first time riding one of these huge machines for a while I obviously was a little nervous! It was great having Lizz and Jake crewing for me along with good friends Dean and Dan, they organized themselves who was doing what, and let me know so that I could concentrate on what I needed to do. By the time we had checked over the bike and made adjustments needed, we had one shot at getting on the track, for only a burnoutinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Kevin Charman)Sun, 23 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/making_progresshttps://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/making_progressFinally we have some updates to be able to share with you. The fuel bike is coming along very well. We have been working very hard on it, and it is now beginning to look like a race bike. Kev decided to try to make the body work himself, after all how hard can it be (!?) He soon found out. He made a wood and car filler plug, waxed and polished and polished some more, and made a fibre glass a mould off it and left it to cure for a few days. Then came the butt clenching moment of removing the body from the mould. The cracking noises that this made was concerning, but happily we had a mould, and it was in one piece!! Duly waxed and polished some more, and going back to the fibre glassing and stinking of resin, the body shell was made. There are probably easier ways to do this, but for a first attempt, Kev was rather pleased about the way it turned out. We have the engine build up, dismantled and rebuilt again, and in the bike. The gearbox is completed and also in. All the plumbing and wiring (not ainfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Kevin Charman)Mon, 01 May 2023 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/a_small_set_backhttps://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/a_small_set_backSitting here at home, due to Covid-19 and being on lockdown, we sadly (but sensibly) made the decision to put the fuel bike on hold. The last bits on the list to do will have to stay that way for a while and the toys will have to be put on hold. This period of uncertainty has put us into responsible adult mode, and monies are best left in the bank for mortgage and bills. Because we have no idea how long this is actually going to go on for, we have brought the bike home, as we are able to continue to do our bit, and work on it here, which we can do shut in the garage, at no risk to anyone else. It was also a good opportunity to see if it would fit logically in the race truck! This it does! It’s disappointing, but rest assured once this all blows over, the bike will have the last bits done and we will be back on course again. We will continue to update from home for now.info@nitrojunkie.uk (Kevin Charman)Tue, 24 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/10000_horseshttps://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/10000_horsesHaving headed to the Main Event for an easy weekend we bumped into Tethys on Thursday night who was short of crew and unable to run for the weekend. He offered me the opportunity to come and meet with him and the crew the next morning to learn the routine and see if I felt able to help out for the weekend as Top Fuel were not running until Saturday. I soon realised that the amount of work that goes into running these cars is on a completely different level. The engine is completely stripped down to a bare crankshaft and block at the end of every run and to add to this the rules only allow 90 minutes turn around time. With a lot of guidance from the team I ran through the routine once on Friday and discussed some ways to speed up for the real thing. Including gathering a selection of 5 torque wrenches for my tool tray alone! I was also nominated to drive the tow car which leads to a very strange view in the mirror. Thanks to a lot of help from the whole team I managed to just about keep up with theinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Jake Charman)Fri, 07 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/dragstalgia_2018https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/dragstalgia_2018Ok here goes…… Usually, it’s my job to ride the bike and leave Lizzy to the PR and write the race reports, but I thought I would give it a go. Due to real life and having to go to work, I couldn’t make it to the Track until Thursday evening. By the time I got to Santa Pod, the pit was set up. The girls had done a great job setting up the pit space and the caravans! (Thanks Nipper for the tow) Just a small hiccup with fuel in the generator (yes as it’s not an ACU race meeting, there was no electricity supplied by Santa Pod 🙁 )This was soon sorted out, and I made up for being late, by buying the Team a Chinese takeaway, we know how to live it up! Friday morning we had a look over the bike and fitted the wheelie bars, we then gave the bike a warm-up, and did a leak down test to get a starting point to work from while monitoring the engine condition, after the valve issues at the last test day. Down to the start line and the bike did not want to start, so backinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Kevin Charman)Sun, 15 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/season_review_2017https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/season_review_2017How we are able to write a season review when none of us have been racing is amusing. It’s been as much of a busy season as ever. Just like it would have been if there were the three of us racing competitively! How does this happen?? I will try to make this as interesting as I can. We are asked what is happening with various developments – so here goes. Jake got an unconditional offer to study Computer Networking at Sheffield University, and is going to be concentrating on this, so won’t be racing for a while. No doubt at some stage will be doing some run wots, on Kev’s old Bandit which is being rebuilt and redeveloped at present. He passed his driving test the week before he left, so was able to drive himself up there. Very proud of this chap! Jake and the team also crewed for Pete le Gros and his beautiful top fuel twin a few times, which was always such a pleasure. Kev is still working on the build of the Top Fuel Bike, as I’m sure you can all appreciate it comes at a price, and a lot of the components areinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Lizz Charman)Fri, 29 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/tynwald_drags_2017https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/tynwald_drags_2017Just got back from a cracking weekend on the Isle of Man. The ferry journey over on the Thursday night was rather rough, and not very pleasant, but once there, and we had driven to Paul and Maria’s in a torrential rain storm, we finally got to bed after midnight. In the morning it was still raining, but by late morning the rain had almost gone, and we set off to the track at Jurby. Set up, bike out, and had a look about. Julie Moxley, by this time was on her way, I hadn’t heard from her for a couple of weeks, apart from a text to say she was on her way. Imagine my total surprise when not only Jules got out of the car, but Minx (Sarah Chapman) too! Lost for words I’m not, very often, but I was …… Brilliant that I had both of them here. Very happy ! We had a little walk up the track later on in the evening, and it is not like anything I was expecting. Having been spoilt by the Santa Pod track and Shakey, this track had no rubber, no stick, a strong headwind, and I have toinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Lizz Charman)Sun, 02 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/news_2017https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/news_2017The season sadly none of us are contesting the ACU Championship, Kevin is still building the top fuel bike, but other commitments have taken precedence, so the bike is on the back burner for now. Lizz has (supposedly) retired from competitive racing, but will be out testing, and will be racing at the Bulldog Bash on Dutchman’s Erik Feijt’s bike, who he has very generously agreed for it to be brought over to the UK for this. There are also rumours that Kev may have a go on Rockets funny bike too! Jake has out grown Junior Drag Bike in more ways than one. Jake is nearly 18 now, and over six foot, the Junior bike is far too small for him. The plans are for him to be out on Kev’s old Bandit in due course. Talking to Funny Bike Racer, Dave Peters (Rocket) who we are crewing for this season, we have offered the Junior Bike, as a sponsorship deal, to his Nephew Will Pickering, who has outgrown his first junior bike. We are delighted to be able to do this. We wish Will the best of luck, and will be there to give him all the guidanceinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Lizz Charman)Thu, 23 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/bulldog_bash_2015https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/bulldog_bash_2015Yes I know I’ve said it before, but I’m saying it again. I am now officially retired from competitive drag racing. This doesn’t mean that if the opportunity arose, I wouldn’t be on the race track again; it just means that I will not be competing, or spending all my money on racing, instead supporting and crewing for Kev when the fuel bike comes out. Kev has given me more racing years than I ever expected, mentoring me and giving me great advice, which led us winning a Championship in 2013. He is one of the best nitrous tuners out there, we learnt from another good guy, Ken Cooper, and Kev and I testing and developing his own ideas, has been able to tune my bike with minimal spare parts with tired old stuff which I could never afford to replace. There are not enough words or hours in the day to really thank Kev so much for everything he has done for me. To have achieved what we did was pretty good, considering! I am (so far), in a relatively short career, the second woman, next to Helen, who has won the ACU Comp Bike Championship, won the APIRAinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Lizz Charman)Sat, 15 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/news_2015https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/news_2015Kevin, as you know bought the fuel bike, “The Purple Princess” from Steve Carey and after taking a good look at the chassis without the engine in, rather sensibly decided that a new chassis was definitely in order, due to a terrible crash that Steve had on it at Dragstalgia in 2013. As you can appreciate, these things cannot be bought off the shelf, and are not cheap. It is a work in progress, but things are moving in the right direction. Pulleys have been made by Portobello Precision, and he has had a meeting with Jon Webster at Webster Race Engineering (webster-race-engineering.co.uk) and Dejan Jankovic from Portobello Precision (Find him on Facebook) to talk about the next stage of the build. The engine has been rebuilt, and is sitting pretty waiting for the chassis and various other components to be made. To get the build right first time is what is imperative. Rushing to get this finished is not an option. However he hopes to be back on the track in 2017, and will be good to have Chris Pyke back as Crew Chief too. Jake stopped racing to concentrate on his Exams, and is now in his secondinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Lizz Charman)Thu, 23 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/drag_is_back_2015https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/drag_is_back_2015The first day in Drachten and the weather was very hot. The first two hours of racing were allocated for testing so we decided to get a couple of runs in early to see what the bike would do after tuning from Don Kennedy. Our first run was delayed a little by some issues setting up the tree, Dad, being a little rusty at this crewing game, forgot to pull the pin out of the air shifter. I noticed the flag flapping in the wind just after 60ft and tried to pull it out however the loop connecting the flag to the pin broke leaving the pin in place and meaning the run was completed in 1st gear with a final time of 17.46 seconds @ 44.36 km/h (27.56 mph). In our second test and tune run everything went well. I ran 10.86 @ 97.27 km/h (60.44 mph). We decided also during qualifications to switch from feathering the clutch back to our old method of dropping the clutch at high revs. This took a little perfecting as at first this caused big wheelspin but a burnout caused the engine to bog. After a few clutch adjustments changing spring pressure andinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Jake Charman)Tue, 14 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/national_finals_2014https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/national_finals_2014After testing at The Bulldog Bash it was time for my first meeting on the new bike. To start with we decided to keep the bike as it was and went for a dial in of 10.2 just to get a number on the board. After running a 10.8 we decided to see what could be done with the clutch. We lightened the base springs to allow for more clutch slip off the line and added weight to the arms to compensate further up the track. This worked off the line with a falling 60 foot time but definitely felt sluggish. We also noticed the shift point was set far too low as I shifted gear just as the bike was about to take off. All together it equated to a time of 11.2. The night before eliminations we added even more weight to the arms and rose the shift point to try and get some speed back and guessed a 10.6 dial in. I ran another 11 second run and was out. But all in all we learned a lot about the bike and what needed to be done. We are planning to go to some Run What Yainfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Lizz Charman)Tue, 23 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/news_2014https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/news_2014It would appear my witty press releases have been missed, so I thought I would just put finger to keyboard, as it were and tell you what (little) the Nitrous Junkies have been up to. The story so far …… Kev Charman has bought Steve Carey’s Top Fuel bike, the Purple Princess, which suffered a huge and memorable crash at last year’s Dragstalgia Event at Santa Pod in 2013. So far we have upset absolutely no one in the village, much, by firing it up on nitro, or spending a lot of time in the garage. A new chassis is going to be built, and all being well, Kev aims to be out testing towards the end of next year. He is in no rush, and wants to learn as much as he can before he takes it back to the track. Big thanks to Steve to coming up to us, and spending a day with the crew teaching us all “stuff” Huge congrats to Steve, we went to the reception, so know it’s true….. Annette has made an honourable man of him, and they got married last Saturday !! Jake Charman’s new Junior Bike, aptly names “The Halfabusa” isinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Lizz Charman)Wed, 23 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/extreme_bike_2013https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/extreme_bike_2013We arrived at the track not sure what the bike would run after the National Finals. Up early Saturday morning ready for scruitineering and the first run, after some thought between two times written on either side of the board we decided on a dial of 10.7 from last meeting over 10.4. We went out to run and you would not believe it ... a 10.4! I thought the timing boards where broken when I first looked up at the gantry! Other than that, the bike launched better than it has for a long time and begun to hit the bars again. Time to turn the board round and a dial of 10.4 for next time. Next run out and after another good launch, a 10.2. Got back to the pits, still laughing inside my helmet and gave the ticket to Dad to which he replied "You are so fired! A dial of 10.2 for next run. Went out again hoping for a time the right side of the dial this time, and that was exactly what I got, 10.4, the right side, now we need to get a bit closer. Sunday morning at time for another qualifying round, soinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Jake Charman & Lizz Charman)Fri, 22 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/2013_reviewhttps://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/2013_reviewIn 2013 I had a tough year of racing, getting taller and a tad heavier, so we were having to work really hard to set up the bike. We made such good progress on the old bike in 2012, gaining 6 positions in the championship. 2013 was therefore very hard gong, I got taller and wanted to go faster, but the bike didn’t. Towards the end of the year, cramming myself into the bike, knees sticking out, it was very obvious I was getting far too big for the old bike and, thanks so much to Dad it was agreed a new one just had to be built. The new bike is beginning to take shape at Dave Branch's and will hopefully vastly improve on some of the shortcomings of the old bike. Even Dad is too short for the new one, the foot pegs are too far back for him, but is just fine for me ! On the old bike, we were having problems setting up the clutch and finding the balance between the clutch slip and wheel spin in order to get a good launch. Then there was me, the rider that gained an inch in heightinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Jake Charman & Lizz Charman)Tue, 01 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0100https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/open_sports_nationals_2013https://nitrojunkie.uk/news/post/open_sports_nationals_2013After finding two broken piston rings at the Junior Fun Day at Santa Pod on Wednesday we headed off to Avon Park hoping that a new piston and rings would solve the lack of power we have been having recently. First run out we decided to dial in 10.00 as a ballpark figure and I ran 10.80. The bike was back launching hard again and I definitely felt the front wheel lift up. Second run and we used 10.00 again to confirm our theory and I ran a 10.70. Again, the bike lauched well and despite a few prolems with the launch RPM light an alltogether good run. Back to the pits and an attempt at fixing the light ready for tomorrow. Sunday and the second day of qualifying. We agreed on a dial in of 10.50 for the next round as I still felt I could take some time off my ET. Another 10.70 and a whack with the dial in board from Dad (he suggested a 10.70 dial). We still had problems with the Launch light though, it was staying on down the whole track causing me to shift gear early. After another 10.70 run with the lightinfo@nitrojunkie.uk (Jake Charman)Thu, 29 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0100