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BRITISH RECORD AND EUROPEAN BESTS AT SEASON OPENER Due to delays at customs we were only able to collect our new dragster on the Saturday before the start of this season's RAC MSA British Top Methanol Championship. The car, which ran 5.62 and 255mph during our February trip to Pomona, California, had thankfully arrived intact along with all the new spares that filled the rest of the container. After a huge effort by the whole team we arrived at Santa Pod Raceway on the Friday morning ready to rock and roll at the Easter Thunderball. Everyone was itching to run again after our success in the USA and to prove that we could replicate those performances back home in England. After a checkout firing of the engine on the Friday evening where everything looked good we were all set to run in the first qualifying session on the Saturday morning. The Easter race is not renowned for good weather or particularly good track conditions. However Saturday dawned dry and sunny and the dragstrip looked to be in good shape! With the engine tune up corrected for the ambient air conditions, the remainder of the set up was left untouched and the American Car Imports Racing machine responded admirably with a 5.59 at 252mph on its very first pass in Europe. That run was quicker than we had run in the USA, the quickest and fastest pass in European history and the first ever 5.5 second run in Europe. The crowd, officials, press and other racers were absolutely stunned and naturally our team were delighted. As with many historic runs, it was straight, clean and looked effortless. After the run we elected to miss the next qualifying session and spend the remainder of the day checking over the car to ensure that it remained in tip-top condition. No damage was found, the car was readied for the next day and a pleasant evening was had by all celebrating our achievement. 
To establish an official British record, a back up run within 1% is required, meaning we needed to run at least a 5.64 to beat the existing record of 5.72. In Sunday's cooler conditions the car, driven by Dave Wilson, went straight down the track again to record a 5.61 at 241mph for an official record. The last time the record was lowered by over a tenth of a second at once was way back in 1979! Back in the pits we performed our usual turnaround routine and found everything to be good. Feeling confident that our 5.59 would hold for the number one qualifying spot we decided to stay in the pits and conserve our parts for race day. Sure enough we took the number one spot with a margin of almost eight tenths of a second and with the official record already set the whole team felt relaxed and confident going in to eliminations. Sadly our good fortune did not hold out on Monday when the throttle cable snapped in our semi-final match against the Funny Car of Steph Milam. "That will teach us to buy a car from a Canadian," commented Crew Chief Andy Bissett. On a positive note, the extra points earned by setting the record and qualifying in first place mean we are second in the championship, less than a round out of first place. The whole team is determined to move to the top slot at the next race on the tour; the SpringNationals at Shakespeare County Raceway on the 4-6 May. Our successes this season would not have been possible without the support of Anthony and Jon from American Car Imports, and all our other sponsors at PlayStation, HGC Scaffolding, Total Design, Custom Graphics, Master Repairs, Air Sea Logistics and Classic American magazine. Thanks also to all the fans for their support and congratulations - we're glad we could repeat our US performances for you all! The coverage we received from our friends at eurodragster.com in their American Car Imports supported racing reports was much appreciated as was the organisation of our new class representative; Jon Cross. They, along with everyone else involved with and supporting the team made this a very enjoyable weekend's racing and we can't wait to get back to the track and lower that record again…
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