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04/06/2004 ACI RACING RACE TO VICTORY! Looking forward to our first race for 8 months on home soil, the American Car Imports Racing team were eager to get back to Santa Pod and utilise the lessons learned and the improvements made to the car’s combination in the States, in conjunction with a European tune-up. With last year’s Crew Chief Andy Bissett and his fiancé Jenn off to pastures new, the weekend was always going to be a huge challenge to rise up to, as the team had to re-group with new responsibilities. The learning curve went well with “Grumpy” at the helm. This combined with David’s considerable experience and flexibility, encouraged and enabled Ricki, Phil and Harry to step up big-time. With only a few inevitable teething problems, the crew got stuck in and worked successfully as a team throughout the whole weekend. Team “mum” Linda along with Suzy and Catherine kept the guys “fuelled-up” and “serviced” so they would be at their best!  As important as winning the event on the track, was also winning the event in the pits by looking after the teams Sponsors and customers of American Car Imports-about 250 people in total. Thanks to Rhonda, Suzanne, and the rest of the Cohen family and friends for that. Leaving the US as number 4 in NHRA national points, hopes were high to defend our Main Event victory from last year. Add to that, wearing the big number 1 after last years thrilling season was a huge challenge for the whole team! As always in our class, qualifying was tight, and very close throughout. After 2 days of jockeying for position, the ACI Flyer was on top again with a 5.50/251mph charge. Emma from Silverline Tools got the crowds cheering after this run as she climbed half out of the window of the Dodge Ram Hemi tow vehicle as Anthony drove it back up the return road! 2nd and 3rd were just a tick behind with the Turner’s on a 5.51 and Schofer’s at 5.54!  The 1st round bye gave the team the chance to hone the tune-up even more, and we were rewarded with low ET and a potential Santa Pod track ET record of 5.45 at 255mph! As with all Top Methanol Dragster races these days, the other semi could have gone either way. However, Rob Turner set off ahead of Peter Schofer until his engine let go at 300 feet with a menacing fireball drawn in towards Rob’s cockpit. Unfortunately, Rob did not get out of the car unscathed, as he endured some burns on the back of his neck. He was out of the car straight away in pretty good spirits and after a couple of hours in the pits sporting a bandage on his neck, he was taken to hospital. On behalf of all of the whole American Car Imports team we wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to racing him at the next meeting. So the final was a race between us and the Schofers, a repeat of last year. No one was more pleased than us that the result was the same except that we ran even quicker by a hundredth! After a near dead-even start, Dave rocketed away to a near shake–free 5.47/247 mph win over Peters hard charging 5.68/251 try. That backed up the earlier 5.45 for a new official Track ET record to boot! Appropriately, tow vehicle passengers Kevin from Playstation and Daniel from Portman Business Consultancy were the first to congratulate Dave at the other end of the track.  The weekend was a dream start to the season, after what seemed like a lifetime away from the cosy confines of Santa Pod. With the No.1 qualifying position, Low ET and the win, we took maximum points. The weekend went really smoothly, and we even had time for Tony from Custom Graphics and Clare from Total Design to get their heads together for the next design and graphics update for the racecar and trailer.  It was great to also welcome Emma from Footman James, Dave from Classic American, Kiki from Euro American, Amanda from OCW, Gavin from Expert IT, Stuart from US Automotive, Stuart from Alternative Automotive Fuel Conversions and Steve from Firstline Motorcycles, along with all their guests. We look forward to continue working closely with them and the other sponsors in the coming year.  We’d like to thank everyone who came by and offered kind words and support of our US tour, and especially to everyone for cheering us so loudly over the weekend. Please keep it up!! Over 300 people were wearing the ACI Racing T Shirts by the end of the weekend, giving the team unprecedented exposure. 
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