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PUSHRODS AND ODDBODS It sure seems like a long time since I last sat down to write a race report and a lot has certainly happened since then. I will endeavor to bring you all up to speed on what’s been happening here at American Car Imports Racing since our 2002 season ended at the FIA Euro Finals last September. I expect this report will turn into a bit of a monster so it’s probably best to grab yourself a cold beer, find something interesting to watch on TV and have someone read it to you quietly in the background. As you may have noticed things have been a bit quiet from us over the last few months and the website hasn’t been updated very much. There are three reasons for this; a) We have been keeping a lot of our plans secret because we’re all paranoid, b) Gavin Evans of Expert IT has taken over as webmaster and has been sensibly putting his efforts into creating our new-look site rather than updating the old one and c) I just couldn’t be bothered. However due to popular demand (plus the fact that no-one else wants to do it) I will still be writing our race reports and trying to give you all the inside story and a chuckle along the way hopefully. So with that in mind, on with the story…  After the Euro Finals we weren’t entirely happy with our performance so we decided to go testing to work on our tyre shake problems and to make sure that we went into the off season with absolutely none of our engines still in working order. We did learn a lot and try out a lot of ideas including a different clutch set up and altering the ignition timing on the run with our funky new Six Shooter ignition control. It was very pleasant running when we felt like it rather than working to a racing schedule, and when we knew that to make another run before the meeting ended we would have to skip checking the motor over we decided to call a halt to our testing. This turned out the right move as we discovered after the meeting that we had spun a bearing, wrecked the crank and were on the verge of dropping two valves. Had we run again on that motor we would have kicked a rod and hurt the block, heads and cam too so for once being lazy was actually the right way to go. Back at the workshop and struggling to come to terms with life without going to the races we decided to stick our heads in the sand and go to the races. Not just any old races either but the NHRA Finals in Pomona, California to watch the last round of the American championships and catch up with all our friends over there. Now they say the sun always shines in Los Angeles. Well that’s crap. For two of the qualifying days it rained so hard it was like being at Wimbledon. However this actually worked to our advantage because all the US racers we wanted to talk to had plenty of spare time to share ideas with us, mock our strange accents and funny ways and give us some pointers for the 2003 season. Thanks in particular to Mike Johnson and all the guys for letting us shelter in their trailer, feeding and watering us and making us so welcome. Thanks also to Duane Shields, Rick Santos, Steve Federlin, Norm Drazy, Gary Sumek, Dave Fletcher, Brad Hadman, Dave Uyehara, Bob Meyer, Brad Anderson and our old pal Bill Reichert for giving of their time so freely and openly. An unexpected side effect of all this talking and throwing around of ideas was the suggestion over breakfast from American Car Imports MD Anthony Cohen that perhaps what we really needed was a new car. From behind our piles of blueberry pancakes and hash browns the rest of the team told him not to be so daft and get on with his omlette. Boy were our faces red when most of the people we spoke to back at the track later that day agreed a new chassis would help us a lot and after a long discussion with the guy who builds the majority of the Top Methanol dragster used by NHRA racers, Brad Hadman, we started to seriously consider the idea. Whilst mulling it all over we went to visit our friends over at Brad Anderson’s place and became even better friends of theirs when we ordered two new forged blocks, two crankshafts and a pair of complete cylinder heads along with a bunch of other stuff to stock up the war chest with. Much fun as had by all at the NHRA museum and at the Racepak open day where everyone (especially Ron and Henry) was very helpful and welcoming. A big tip of the cap as always to our main man in California; Gary Burgin for his wry insights, excellent service and coffee when we dropped in on him too before heading for home.  Once we were back in Blighty an order was placed with Hadman for a brand new dragster chassis and a trip to Seattle for Dave to have his seat fitting was quickly arranged. Whilst there Dave had all of the pedals and levers fitted around him, as well as an extra big hole put in the dash for his trusty, clunky, 25 year old rev counter with the Roman numerals on… Once the car was complete in early January and it and all of the rest of our goodies (including a new billet 10.5” Chrisman rear end) were loaded in a container at our shipping agent in Los Angeles our box full of toys was soon on its way across the Atlantic with the help of the gang at Air Sea Logistics. As if putting together a new car and two new engines and repairing our old engines wasn’t enough work for the winter we decided to really go for it and move into a new workshop, build a new trailer and attend the Autosport show too. Firstly we moved into, painted, wired up and fitted out our great new workshop in Guildford. Because we have been trying to keep our plans under wraps we couldn’t really arrange a workshop visit with our friends at eurodragster.com because a new chassis in the background of the pictures would have given the game away really, however hopefully we can do that just as soon as we have worked out where to put the bar here at the Grumpy RaceStation. The first task was to build the stand for the Autosport extravaganza which was no mean feat and once everything was ready and all loaded up both the Krypton and Nemesis rigs were crammed full of stuff and the display vehicles traveled up separately! Arriving at the NEC in Birmingham in the snow we unloaded the seemingly endless supply of wood, nails and BS pills ready for our stay. The stand featured the 2002 car wheelstanding and resting its front wheels in the back of a Ford Lightning pick up. There was also a luxurious office suite, PlayStation 2 consoles and a new Hummer 2 stuffed in the corner where we could find room for it. Overall the show was a big success and helped gain a lot of exposure for all our valued sponsors and the sport of drag racing. However if the thieving swine who stole my nice new stepladder during the second setup day there is reading this I hope you fall off it and break your neck you filching herbert…  It was only the middle of January and already we all needed a holiday. But of course we kept our noses to the grindstone. Well actually the Wilsons kept their noses to the grindstone while I conscientiously buggered off on holiday for two weeks and left them to it, getting engaged in Venice whilst I was there. In a strange twist of fate the first time I ever wrote one of these reports it was to send to Lucas Oil over in California back in 1999, for someone in the marketing department there called Jennifer. The rest is history as they say and we will be getting married next year! At the end of January we got seriously stuck in to building our new hauler, inside an empty step-frame box trailer we pinched from a layby just outside Romford. This rig is all singing, all dancing and all unfinished but once it is complete will be ideal for running a dragster on the European tour. With bunks for the crew, a fully fitted kitchen, shower and toilet along with all services, lighting, a beer fridge, a workshop and an awning big enough to park several Hummers under the outfit really is the dog’s dangly bits. Well I say is, but it’s not quite yet truthfully. With the start of the season rapidly approaching and a pile of work left to do on the actual racing kit we realized that we wouldn’t be able to have the truck properly finished for the Easter race. None of us wanted to turn up at the track in a less than 100% rig so ironically enough we decided to take the old truck instead. Funny that really, seeing as that truck was never much better than a 45% rig on a good day but that was our plan regardless. This meant we could turn our attention to playing with our new toy which had by now arrived from the USA and had been neglected in the corner of our workshop like an empty crisp packet for several weeks… Some of you may have seen the advert I placed for a new crewman and I’m delighted to say we were successful in finding the right man from the job when Phil James came on board (safety goggles and all) as we were finishing off not quite finishing the trailer in March. With Phil’s help as well as the assistance of our existing crew of Mike Nicholls and Ricki Packham, along with plenty of cakes and sandwiches from team mum Linda we cracked into the new car and within a few days it was starting to look like a racecar is supposed to look. The folks at Total Design, Euro American and Custom Graphics worked their magic again on the design, paint work and decals respectively and with a strong effort from everyone involved we had a finished piece in time for the Easter race. We even found time to test fire the car before going to the track and to clean the mould out of the fridge in the old trailer! Drag racers are a tough bunch to please you know. Despite arriving at Santa Pod for the first round of the RAC MSA British Top Methanol Championship with the aforementioned brand new dragster straight from the USA all we got was lots of people saying “Hmmm… but where’s the new trailer?” Thanks everyone! We couldn’t bring all of our new toys to the races in one go now could we? Although the forecast for the weekend was pretty grim the Friday afternoon was warm and sunny and we soon remembered how to put the awning and pit up whilst Geoff Martin and Mark Norton went about their SFI inspection of the new car. We really did roll out the red carpet for them to walk on, but I shouldn’t feel too honoured boys; that carpet was part of the Auto Trader stand at the Autosport show a couple of months beforehand… On Saturday morning we fired the car up and when we checked everything over we found two burnt pushrods which was a bit of an unpleasant surprise. Then due to a slight technical oversight the replacements that went in were the wrong size and so they broke when we fired the car up again. After a bit of a thrash we had everything back together and ready to go in time for the first qualifying session. It was bone chillingly cold and windy so when we pulled to the starting line on Saturday afternoon none of us were expecting great things as the track temperature was a very unhelpful 58 degrees. With a very soft tune up dialed in and a deliberately conservative driving job we were all delighted to see a 5.716 at 244.75 mph come up on the scoreboards. Best of all there wasn’t a hint of tyre shake despite the cold track which was very encouraging for us all to see.  Back in the pits a we found more burnt pushrods which we were not at all happy about but with the forecast for Sunday saying rain we put it all back together and headed out for another run. With the same tune up and a little more aggressive driving the HGC Scaffolding backed machine responded with a 5.665 at 253.63 mph. The track temperature was down to 54 degrees by this time and again there was no shake so we were very pleased with this run and as always it was great to get over 250 mph. There was a strong tailwind blowing, reducing the downforce from the rear wing which made the car spin the tyres and move around a lot on the top end of the track. Obviously this hurt the performance so we were confident that there was plenty more to come out of the new dragster on a better track and with a more aggressive set up. Apologies to our qualifying opponent Doug Ripley for screwing up his time on that run. With the tyre spin taking the car right over to the centre line and the slightly outwards-angled parachute packs on our new car we tripped his clocks with our parachutes. I think Doug was happy with his 5.56 time slip but of course his run was disallowed. Sorry mate! Yet more pushrods got burnt on that run so we elected to sit out the remainder of qualifying on Sunday to conserve parts and figure out the oiling problem that must have been causing the damage and limiting the supply of oil up to the inlet pushrod rockers. After a lot of head scratching and taking the heads off twice we finally spotted the problem; an elongated oiling hole in the head gaskets we were using which we had never run before. We had bought these gaskets second hand and the Canadian we bought them from shall remain nameless. For some reason the oil feed holes to the head had been enlarged with a file. Instead of increasing the flow this actually meant that most of the oil leaked out under the head and over the camshaft instead, hence the lack of oil in the rockers and burnt pushrods. In the excitement of finally finding the cause we came up with a really stupid solution to the problem. Unfortunately I realized this wouldn’t work as I torqued down the very last nut on the second cylinder head so off they came for the third time, fresh gaskets were fitted and the old ones were cut up in to lots of tiny pieces… Our 5.66 stood for the number one qualifying spot and we had everything back together in good time so we had an early dinner that night and then relaxed with a beer or too. Much amusement was had by all watching the goings on in the Time Machine pits both on and away from their new altered. The whole crew were shattered by this point so an earlyish night was had by all and a bit of a lie in too because our first round wasn’t ‘til the following afternoon. Monday dawned dry and sunny and the track had clearly improved with the sunshine and rubber laid down by the awesome Pro Fuel Shootout. In a total misuse of their equipment I used the eurodragster.com web-cam to wave to Jennifer watching over in California whilst I was checking out the track that morning. Thankfully for all involved I managed to resist the urge to pull a mooney… We headed for the staging lanes at 2pm ready to rumble against Doug Ripley in the opening round. The better conditions and the extra top end grip helped the car speed to a 5.636 at 251.11 mph and a win over Doug’s 7.983 (and yes we did manage to keep our chutes in our own lane that time). The elapsed time proved to be good for lane choice against our longtime friends and rivals over at Turner Racing in the final, if only by 2 thousandths of a second. No motor damage was found back in the pits and all the pushrods remained their original shiny silver colour at last. However we did find that the magneto cap had worked loose and in the time available the best option was to put the spare mag in and reset the ignition timing. Once this was all done it was time to go and get it on in the final. As driver Dave Wilson backed up from the burnout the car just didn’t sound right and as he revved it up in pre-stage we all felt there was something amiss but there were no leaks so it was going down the road anyway. The car looked a little weak all the way down and started to shake the tyres at the top of first gear. We thought this may have been due to a lack of power and our suspicions were aroused even further when the car recorded just a 5.708 at 245.31 mph when we had been expecting a high 5.5 at well over 250. Rob took the win with a 5.65 and we headed back to the trailer disappointed with our performance and wondering what was wrong. The computer trace showed a problem with the number four cylinder and sure enough when the rocker cover was pulled we found that both pushrods had broken on that cylinder. Further investigation back at the workshop indicated that the bottom broke off of the exhaust pushrod, shutting the exhaust valve. The cylinder then filled with fuel holding the intake valve shut forcing the intake pushrod to break under the excessive strain. This put the blower boost up as it was only breathing into seven cylinders instead of eight giving the connecting rods a pretty hard time too.  We were actually pretty lucky considering the damage that could have resulted and apart from losing the final had a very good weekend. The new car performed like a dream, setting low elapsed time and top speed as well as claiming the number one spot. The crew worked well and effectively together and the mood was one of laughs and smutty comments all weekend which is always productive when working at the races. Now we are putting together one of our Brad Anderson motors ready for the next MSA championship round at Shakespeare County Raceway on the 3rd to 5th of May. Before you all get your hopes up, no, the new rig won’t be making it’s debut until the Main Event but we will have a new pair of slicks courtesy of North Hants Tyres if that makes you all happy. If you’re going along come by, say hi and ask where the new trailer is and BRING ALONG DOUGHNUTS! Over the last couple of meetings there has been an unsettling outbreak of custard doughnuts. Please stick to the jam variety folks, we really are that unadventurous… Phew! I said this would be monster didn’t I? Congratulations to those of you that made in this far. All that remains is for me to mention a few very important people. A huge thank you firstly to the hardworking crew and to Anthony and Jon Cohen of American Car Imports. We are indebted to Barry Owen for all of his help with the new workshop, trailer and the Autosport show stand. Also thanks to our neighbour Alan Shepherd for all of his help with the new workshop and trailer and for always knowing a man that can whenever we needed anything. I’m delighted to say all of our product sponsors stayed on board from
last year so we are still using methanol from 76 Racing Fuels, Lucas Oil supplied
courtesy of US Automotive, NGK spark plugs from Old Car World and terrorizing
the pits on our scooter from 1st Line Motorcycles. You can expect to continue
reading all about us in Classic American magazine too. Welcome aboard to the
folks from Alternative Automotive Fuel Conversions and Silverline Tools, we
hope you enjoying racing with us. Lastly I was particularly delighted to see
so many of our fans out there cheering for us over the weekend and keeping the
mobile bar nice and busy. See you all at the drags again soon…
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