Another great outing at the SPRC Summer Nationals

The SPRC Summer Nationals turned out to be a really great weekend once more for the team! After such a great Festival of Power (given the conditions!) we were looking forward to the Summer Nationals and some warmer weather!

With all that, we woke up Saturday morning to quite heavy rain! By 10.30 the rain had stopped and the track was drying nicely. By midday we were called and we were to continue our battle with Chaos driven by Nick Davies.

The run was a mixed affair, as the track was a little loose, but we got the job done with a winning 6.73 @ 203mph. I was personally impressed by my .005 reaction time in that race! We checked the car over and all was well for the second qualifier later that day. The track had warmed a little and general conditions were better, and that paid off when we ran a 6.56 @ 207mph in that round. The car was skipping and skating a bit around half track, but the car ran real well and we got a good strong low ET.

We have two videos of that run, a super slow motion video:

6.56 @ 207 Super Slow Motion

And also, Guy Scofield from Forge Motorsport put a on board 'Go Pro' camera on board watching the driver, and that can be seen below:

6.56 @ 207mph On Board Video

This cemented our spot for No.1 qualifier.

Sunday morning came and because of a withdrawal by a team, we ran a final qualifier run in the morning. This worked out to be another good run for us, with a pedalling 6.64 @ 209mph pass. The conditions from that point on went very intermittent, and as such the rain came and curtailed the rest of the event. It was a shame, but the car is running really well and we look forward to the next event which will be Dragstalgia at Santa Pod Raceway.

Go check out Santa Pod Raceway for tickets for one of Europes premier Nostalgia events in the calendar, and will cater for all nostalgia enthusiasts!!

So until next time, thanks for reading!!
Joe

Looking forward to the next meeting

As a promise to myself and the blogspot page, I have decided to try and keep this as upto date as possible in between meetings. The car is back in the workshop and the servicing is well underway to get the car ready for the next meeting.

Currently the next meeting isn't until mid June for the SPRC Summer Nationals at Santa Pod, but we are working (both as a team and as a series) to get to some other meetings in between times. Once we know more we will let you all know on our facebook page (www.facebook.com/nuthinfancyracing) and on here.

Until then, Guy and the people at Forge Motorsport put one of their Go Pro cameras on the car for the final round against Chaos on the Easter Monday. Here is the YouTube clip on our Nuthin Fancy Racing Youtube channel.

Nuthin Fancy Racing on-board final round

Please subscribe to our channel for more videos over the 2013 season, and maybe a few candid interviews and in the pit videos of us and the team!

Cheers
Joe

Victory at the 2013 Festival of Power

The Festival of Power was a very very cold event, with intermittent snow flurries on the first two days meant we were watching a lot of downtime due to strange weather conditions! Alas, we were able to get a few gaps in the weather and make a test pass on the first day.

Our first pass was a second gear launch which after a few wobbles, I coasted the car to the line with a 8.48 second pass.

Photo copyright of Rob Cox

By the time we ran this pass the evening was beginning to come in so we kept the car ready for the Sunday, where we ran early afternoon. The weather was slightly better this time around. After a brief pause before the burnout we took to the line against Chaos. I unfortunately rolled the starting beams and activated the timers before I launched the car, and as such sadly lost a sizable chunk of ET on the pass. The car still ran 6.84 @ 205, but looking at the mph incrementals (171mph at the 1/8th and 195mph at 1000ft), it makes me think it had a lot more in there to come.

Here is a video from the startline of this pass:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kRTjLtTaQI

Chaos wasn't able to attend the next run in the day, so we decided to save the car until the next morning so we can run as a pair again. The Monday started with another pairing, and after a brief burndown, our car shook hard on launch and went up on two wheels, here is a shot to show just how bad the ride got for me:

Photo copyright of Chris Eyre

This lead us to run the final. We narrowly had lane choice over Chaos for the final round. The weather was getting colder as the Monday went on so we made some small changes for the final.

On launch, the car went hard and straight while Chaos spun and smoked the tyres at the hit, leaving me alone to pedal my way to a 6.99 at only 176mph.

Photo copyright of Chris Eyre

The car really began to move around a lot at the top end, so for the car to run a six after a lot of pedalling and playing with startline routines, it really backs up our earlier laps and that the winter changes we put in place are really beginning to work.

 

 Photo copyright of Chris Eyre

We have a LOT of people to thank for their help over the weekend. First all my family and crew for braving the cold and getting us the victory. To Lawrie, Nick and all the guys on the Chaos team for helping us put on a good show for those fans who braved the cold, I hope we made the cold a bit easier to brave. To Adam Gleadow for giving us a bit of commentary assistance during our passes, to the guys at Forge Motorsport for putting their Go Pro camera on the car for the final run (video to come!) and to Martyn Jones and Crunch for letting us borrow their starter motor when ours gave up the ghost! Massively appreciated all of your efforts, and we look forward to racing again soon!

Gearing up for 2013

Hi guys,

Okay the time has nearly come for the start of another season, and we've been very busy again getting our Topolino altered ready to go for the first event, which is the re-named Easter event at Santa Pod now called the 'Festival of Power'.

We carried out some testing of the changes late last year, but some drivetrain issues stopped us in our tracks. It definitely wasn't how I wanted to finish the year, so we are really looking forward to the new season!

On top of the changes from last season, we have a few new parts on the car for this year. We are hoping that all these new bits and pieces will get us running back where we want to and having some fun at the same time!

I want to say a massive Thank You to all my family and crew for once again getting our hot rod back together. I'd like also to thank Peter Walters at PWRD for designing our new posters and brand new crew shirts for 2013 - come by our pits and pick up a poster! Massive thanks to the guys at Chi-Town Racing Products / Nitro Rags.com for printing our new crew shirts (yes, they are flamed!). Dan 'Chi-town' Brown is a great guy and has been working his butt off to get them ready for us, so for that a massive Thanks, and please go see them at www.chitownraceproducts.com. Also a huge thanks to JR and Robbin at RBS Superchargers for their invaluable tech and parts, Kasey Smith at Good Vibrations for going out of their way to get us fresh safety equipment at very short notice, Roger LeVine at Crower, and all the guys at Jegs for their help.

Please check out our racing Facebook page and Like us if you haven't already, we are building a great fan base on there, and appreciate every follower we have!. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the track this season!

Let's bring you upto speed!

Okay this is so unbelievably out of date, it needs fixing. So, here we go!!

Here is a quick round up of everything that has happened since we last chat. The last time we spoke, we were packing up to head off for the Easter Thunderball in Early April. A lot happened over Easter, and in between times, so here is a quick round up of it all:

Easter Thunderball:

After a mild launch which eventually caused a lane change on the first day, due to the cold weather we were relatively confident that we could get the car down the track well. Due to the cold weather also, we knew the corrected altitude of the track would be absolutely brilliant for making a lot of power.

The first full pass we did over the Easter weekend was a absolute stunning run; the car ran a 6.305 @ only 207mph, the motor being shut off early due to a broken push rod and lifter combination. Here is a quick video of the run itself:

It was our Personal Best E.T by a long way, and we were chuffed to run it in the cold weather. Only 4/100ths of a second away from a European record too, so we will aim for that one another time!

The next day we ran a very, very out of shape 6.59 @ 205mph which got us No.1 qualifier going into the final day, but sadly weather got the better of things and the final day was washed out.

We were unable to make the Springspeed Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway due to other commitments, so the next meeting would be the Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway instead!

Nostalgia Nationals:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we would have normally raced with the NFAA at the Summer Nationals at Santa Pod, but instead we raced with the Supercharged Outlaws at the Nostalgia Nationals and had a great time. Bad weather was forecast, but Saturday turned out to be a great day. We only got one run in during the day, but it was a eventful one!

Here is a short video filmed by Sam Mason:

The car hit very violent tyre shake about 100ft, and it carried on through second gear to about 330ft when the entire car went airborne for a split second. I was able to settle the car back down and get to the finish line in 6.87 seconds, at a early chute 196 mph terminal speed.

Sadly, this would be the only run of the weekend because bad weather got the better of us on Sunday. The weekend has taught us some things about the car, and we are thinking of ways to go about solving some small issues. Either way, you'll know first here when things change.

At the moment, the next scheduled meeting is Dragstalgia at Santa Pod Raceway. Hope to see you all there. Oh, and I hope to keep this all more updated too!

Cheers
Joe

Time to go racing:

Well, after months of complaining about the long off season, finally the Easter Thunderball is upon us, and we are good to go!

The car is in the trailer, and we are fully loaded up ready to go to Santa Pod for the opening round of the NFAA championship for 2012. With mixed fortunes on the weather forecast, we are hoping to get some luck with the weather and lay some good opening runs on the year.

I am hoping to have access to a proper method of keeping relatively live updates from the pit area throughout the racing weekend. Experiments with wireless internet services hopefully means I can keep everyone updated with how the team gets on during the weekend.

Next stop; Santa Pod for the Thunderball. See you there!
-Joe

Pre Easter Preparations:

This is written after the events of the Thunderball itself, as the time prior to the event was very busy with finishing the car and other non racing matters that caused delays in updating the site. Here is however some words written in past tense, in a hope to give you all a idea of how things were!

The build up to the Easter Thunderball was a typically hectic time, with last minute parts being delivered and returned from respective certification and servicing. The parts we had ordered from Holbrook Performance Parts arrived in good time and we were able to do what we needed to prepare what we had. The supercharger arrived back from servicing, and the new injector hat arrived from Good Vibrations Motorsports of Whittier, California. Must recommend their service to anyone, anywhere in the world, speak to Kasey there (http://www.dragparts.com/) as they were fantastic for us.

The body also arrived back from paint the weekend prior to the race, and must thank Martyn’s brother Mick so much for driving to Bridgwater to pick it up for me. The body looks incredible, and photos will be aplenty hopefully at the Thunderball.

Things are looking good to be there in good stead for the opening round. Stay tuned for more information before the big ‘Go’

Thanks for reading!
-Joe