Springspeed Nationals review

Well the Springspeed Festival was a few weeks ago, and due to work and family commitments this is the first time I was able to sit down and write up about our ventures at the meeting. This was the first meeting we were to be without one of our crew members Lawrence as family matters meant he was unable to attend.

With only two cars entered (myself and Chaos) it was always going to be a quiet meeting for the NFAA, and with some small debate about whether we should race the 1/8th mile due to safety concerns was raised, but were quickly quashed after a quick conversation between myself and the Chaos crew. For the record, I was always going to be racing the 1/4 mile, and that really was the end of it.

Saturday went quietly for us as we went through our normal routine, and as the weather was notably cooler than Easter, the car was sounded really very strong. We pulled to the fireup road and were soon against the blast wall. The car sounded great at start up and pulled a soft burnout; I could hear Chaos in the other lane and with that we staged the car.

On the green I left .1 of a second ahead of Chaos and never saw him again; I could certainly hear him, and heard the car pedal as his engine note died over the sound of my own. I decided to short shift both gears and as soon as I saw the shift light at top end, pull the parachutes and shut it down. Coming up about 1100ft the light came on and pulled the parachutes and coasted through the line and to the last turn off.

I saw ambulance crews and fire teams leaving their station as the car coasted through to the turnoff, totally oblivious to the disaster which happened with Chaos in the other lane. I'm just glad to hear that Gary was unharmed. As the fire crews were tending to Chaos they couldn't allow the crew to come pick me up, so I was stranded up the top end with Dick Sharp with the Dorset Horn for about 10 minutes, where we sparked up a friendly chat while waiting for our crews.

The crew finally got to me and were quiet, which I was expecting as it was only to be a check out pass. It wasn't until they started grinning and said quietly that I had run 6.48 @ 198mph and smashed the BB/FA track ET record. I was stunned, and thought they were winding me up! Looking at the timing ticket and it was true, a check out pass turned into a record breaker!

Returning to the pits feeling quite amazed, we checked the car over and everything was looking great, so we saved the car for the next day.

Sunday dawned overcast with spots of rain here and there delaying proceedings, and with eliminations finally getting underway the weather improved. We took to the line about 3pm when their was a slight lull in eliminations. We fired the car against the wall and quickly shut it down as we found a small issue, and after 30 seconds we fired the car back up. A sharp burnout followed and was given the thumbs up by Dad and Martyn to take it to the line.

And the end result? a .065 r/t, 4.17 @ 170 1/8th, brief pedal and went through the finish line at 6.47 @ 214mph! Not only had we taken the E.T record, but now the speed. We got to the entrance to the pits and were greeted with a really warm applause by spectators on the banking and in the grandstands, thank you so much everyone we really appreciate all the support we get.

Sadly we did some damage on that run, but we are well set to get the motor sorted for Dragstalgia in the middle of July.

I want to thank my incredible crew once more for making me a record breaking race car, all the fire and safety teams who chased after me on the Sunday after seeing the smoke when the motor decided to hurt itself, you were with me all the way and there like a flash when the car came to a stop at the turn off; can't ask for much more than that from a fire crew.

I also want to thank Jerry Cookson and all the startline and track crews at Shakespeare County Raceway for preparing a record breaking race track, it was superb and I look forward to going back there for the next meeting, which will now be the Open Sports Nationals. We were planning to attend the Nostalgia Nationals, but sadly with parts turnarounds from the states we are unable to source the last peices of the motor.

Our next meeting is the first running of Dragstalgia at Santa Pod, the weekend of my birthday. If your going, we will see you there!

Cheers for reading
Joe