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QUICK TIMES, FAST TIMES AND GOOD TIMES IN POMONA, USA American Car Imports Racing had a fantastic time competing at the NHRA K&N Filters Winternationals at a sunny and warm Pomona Raceway just outside Los Angeles. Here is the story of a trip that resulted in the team becoming the quickest and fastest Top Alcohol dragster team based outside of North America. Having purchased a new chassis from 2001 tuning adviser Bob Haffner and a whole host of new engine parts to go underneath our new PSI supercharger we decided we just had to race it in the USA before shipping the car home. We arrived in LA on the Saturday afternoon of the weekend before the big race to spend a couple of days getting over the jetlag before heading over to the drag strip. Our original plan was to stay at the Cadillac Hotel in Venice Beach but after checking out the place we elected to head for Santa Monica instead so that we may actually get some sleep… Sunday was spent relaxing in the glorious California sunshine and getting over the jetlag. Some of our gang continued chilling out and soaking up the rays on Monday and the rest of us went on a grand tour of Southern California picking up all the shiny new parts we'd ordered. After starting the day with an awesome "Big Kahuna" omlette we called in to see our good friend and US parts finder Gary Burgin in San Clemente and collected a whole heap of boxes from him. Next we called in to Racepak in Lake Forest to retrieve our newly upgraded data logger. We then headed on to Ontario Airport where our brand new PSI supercharger was waiting for us in one of the warehouses. Continuing onwards we stopped off at nearby Brad Anderson Enterprises to collect our new cylinder heads. We were very lucky to be taken on a tour of the workshops by Brad himself and saw all the production processes involved in manufacturing billet cylinder heads and engine blocks at this impressive facility. After a trundle through the LA rush hour we arrived at Keith Black Racing Engines to collect the last few parts and pieces on our list, then headed back to the hotel before the van's suspension gave up completely.  Bright and early on Tuesday morning we headed to the track and hooked up with the rig we'd borrowed from Bob Haffner. The truck had kindly been driven down for us by fellow Top Alcohol dragster racers Huey and Leo to whom we will be eternally grateful. Once in the track and parked we put up the awning, unloaded the car and set about getting ready to run. There was a lot of work to do to get all of the new parts and pieces race ready but by Wednesday afternoon we were all done and ready for our first warm up. The new motor sounded very strong indeed and we were deemed "good to go" by our tuning adviser Mike Johnson for our first qualifying run the next day. Thursday morning dawned dry, bright and very hot and we towed to the staging lanes at 12:30 for our much awaited first run. This gave us the opportunity to practice messing around with our new radio gear. With four crew and Dave all able to communicate much amusement was had by all but this was cut short when we were told our session was being postponed for two and a half hours to make way for the Pro classes. It was a blunt reminder that Top Alcohol teams come a long way down the pecking order at an NHRA national event. We came back later on for another try. After a solid burnout the car left quite badly, then the supercharger rattled right off the motor. Dave lifted to save the motor, coasting to a 7.269 at 131.52 mph. Back in the pits a blocked fuel jet was found which had halved the fuel supply to the number 8 cylinder causing it to detonate. The cylinder head was slightly damaged so we dropped that off at BAE to be repaired, put one of the new heads on in its place, borrowed a new set of blower studs and a fuel filter from Mike Johnson and hoped to fare better the next day. Fare better we certainly did as the American Car Imports / PlayStation 2 machine posted a 5.675 at 237.46 mph on its first pass on the Friday despite hitting the rev limiter in first gear and being short-shifted into top gear. That run was quicker than any posted in Europe (one of our aims for the weekend) so naturally we were delighted, even more so when the turnround showed that everything was in great shape. On our third and last qualifying attempt we achieved our other goal (qualifying) by posting a 5.623 at 253.23 mph which was good for the 13th spot and quicker than any other non American team had run before. It was also the first run over 250 mph for a British team and our first run over 200 mph at the eighth mile (205.16). Again the motor hit the rev limiter and there was some tyre smoke and shake in low gear but everything looked fine so we prepared the car for Saturday's first round of eliminations where ironically we would be paired against Mike Johnson's car, driven by Brian Hough. Hough had run a 5.36 in qualifying so we knew we'd be up against it and just concentrated on making a clean, smooth run rather than trying to match his time. In front of a huge crowd the two cars came to the line and after a long hold on the tree Dave just couldn't wait any longer and rolled the beams for a .382 red light. However he did just roll out of the beams and didn't nail the throttle for another .2 of a second resulting in a lousy 1.125 60ft time. The car still recorded a 5.731 at 255.24 which was faster that any other non American team and also ran a stout 206.48 mph at the eighth mile. If the car had posted the same 60ft time as on its previous run the time would have been a 5.591! 
The whole team were still happy as we would have had real trouble beating Hough's 5.47 anyway and yet again the motor was clean and damage free. All in all our racing weekend was a big success. The new car ran like a dream and the whole crew is itching to run it again back in the UK. Being out of competition gave us a chance to go and watch the amazing spectacle of the final nitro qualifying session. Countless 300 mph and four second runs later we left the stands dazed and confused wondering if it was all just a dream, particularly Gary Densham's fastest ever 326.87 mph Funny Car run. At leisure on Sunday we packed everything back in the truck, took in some racing and made sure we'd been to see everyone we needed to at the track and picked up all the spares we needed from Manufacturer's Midway. Many thanks to Gary Sumek from Lenco for taking the time to show us how to service one of our new transmissions. Of course we also blew a fortune on T-shirts in the Nitro Mall, shades at the Oakley stand and crew shoes at the Simpson stand. On Monday morning most of the group went down to the docks in LA to load the car into a container whilst the others headed back to BAE for one last spending spree. Once everything was loaded we waved goodbye to our new toy as it headed off for its train ride to Houston, from where it will travel by boat back to England courtesy of our sponsor Air Sea Logistics. It is expected to arrive in mid March so you'll all get to see it at the Easter Thunderball. After leaving the docks we headed back to the airport for the plane home to a cold and wet London. 
I'd like to thank the many people who were involved in making this trip possible and such a big success. This list is in no particular order. Of course the entire crew for all their hard work and for giving so freely of their time to make this adventure a reality. Throughout the weekend we were also helped by our crewman Fred Wilbanks' brother Mike and Paul Strudwick of Teslayn Engineering helped fit our new electronic gadgets to the car. Without the support of Tony and Jon Cohen at American Car Imports we simply wouldn't have been there in the first place and doing what we were doing, period. Many thanks also to Bob Haffner for all of his help in making this possible, for selling us such a fine racecar and for putting us in touch with Mike Johnson. His and his great team's help proved invaluable as did that of Norm Drazy from PSI. Also through Bob we got the assistance of Huey and Leo who drove the rig all the way down from Canada and then helped us run the car inside it throughout the weekend. Cheer guys, we appreciated it. Thanks to PlayStation and HGC Scaffolding for their support and enthusiasm and also to Total Design, Master Repairs and Custom Graphics for their help with the temporary livery we ran in Pomona. We are very grateful to many companies out there who helped us out including Valvoline for supplying us with free oil for the entire weekend and to Hoosier for fitting our new front and rear tyres free of charge. Donny at BAE repaired our damaged cylinder head in double quick time and Ron Armstrong and Mike Walther at Racepak's help was essential for getting our new data logger up and running. Thanks to all the NHRA folks and racers for making us feel so welcome. When the President of the NHRA (Tom Compton) walks into your pit and introduces himself you know they're paying attention and Chief Starter Rick "the Ice Man" Stewart couldn't have been more friendly and approachable if he'd tried. Finally a big tip of the cap to our good friend Forrest Lucas from Lucas Oil for spending time with us and for stepping up to sponsor the entire NHRA sportsman racing league.
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