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17/09/2003 FIA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS AT LAST! This report carries right on from the last one so there’s no need for me to set the scene for once. After that weekend of testing at Santa Pod we stayed on site which can be a very lonely, eerie place when no one’s there and all the track and pit lights are off but the Lucozade machine shines valiantly on like the band playing on the Titanic. At a nice, lazy pace we got the car ready for the press day on Wednesday where we were planning to make two more test runs and pick up some media exposure in the process. Having made five test runs we thought we had a pretty good handle on the track and how to make the best of the tune up changes we were trying out. Then in front of the vast array of world media assembled at the press day we proved that in fact we really didn’t know what on earth we were doing by smoking the tyres on our first pass. However the folks seemed to enjoy it and we were soon in the middle of an on track photo session featuring our American Car Imports Racing dragster and the surprisingly unattractive, yet suitably scantily clad, self publicist; Jodie Marsh. Once we finally made it back to the pits our skeleton crew got the car ready for another run and late in the afternoon we laid down a much better 5.556 at 245.91 mph to show the press what the car was really capable of and put a more encouraging end to our testing exploits. Whilst we hadn’t run the numbers we were perhaps hoping to, we felt like we had a much better understanding of that eternal problem of all alky dragster racers; tyre shake. Plus we knew that we ought to be able to run at least a 5.55 as soon as qualifying started on Friday, a run that would have been number one qualifier at the previous FIA event held at Santa Pod in May. Once the car, pit and trailer were all cleaned up and everything was ready for the big race weekend it was off to the airport to collect some of our many for the weekend; Gene and Nicole (my fiancée Jennifer’s father and sister) who had flown in from California in search of some good racing and decent beer. Our Finnish friend and longtime TMD supporter Salla also came over from Helsinki for the event and we had 250 other team guests expected during the remainder of the weekend. We passed the evening watching the eventual completion of our team principal, Tony’s 30 hour struggle to erect the hospitality awning and catching up with a lot of British fans and family that we hadn’t seen since we left for our European tour… To be certain of locking up the FIA title over points leader Peter Schofer, we would need to set low elapsed time of the race and win the event. Obviously this was a tall order but at least we could control our own destiny and it was clear once all the crew were on site that every member of the ACI Racing team was totally focussed on doing their utmost to make it happen for us this time. Whilst we managed to enjoy ourselves at the races as always, we were all a little on edge and more tense than usual. People’s nerves certainly weren’t eased when we totally overpowered the racetrack and smoked the tyres at the hit of the throttle on our first qualifying pass. They say practice makes perfect but for us to balls up like that after seven test runs shows that there is always an exception to every rule! With no ‘chutes to pack, the fuel tank still almost full and no real evidence that the car had actually run at all we soon had the PlayStation backed rail ready to go again but had to wait until the ungodly hour of 7:15pm for our next try. It was worth the wait though when Dave stormed down the quarter mile to a straight, smooth and totally shake free 5.508 at 251.10 mph. The car was in great shape when we got back to the pits and this put the team back in a happy mode and once we had finished our maintenance duties we talked rubbish, relaxed a lot, had a beer or two and a nice spicy dinner and then made sure the roof vents were open so that Ricki’s notorious expulsions didn’t suffocate anyone during the night… The way Peter Schofer and Rob Turner have been running this year we didn’t think a 5.508 would be good enough to keep the number one spot so we were up and ready on Saturday morning to make sure we went out for the next qualifying session that day. The sky was overcast and there were a couple of rain delays but we did eventually get our turn and notched up a slightly faster, but slightly early shut off 5.506 at 250.33 mph. Again the whole car looked just fine when we turned it around and we were still in the number one spot ahead of Turner’s 5.52 and Schofer’s 5.58. The qualifying order for the FIA races is predetermined and we were scheduled to run in the first pair in the fourth and final qualifying session alongside Turner, before Schofer made his last pass. Obviously in this situation we would have to just go for it on our run and hope that it would be enough. With some fairly radical tune up changes it was hard to know what to expect, so it was great to see a 5.478 at 255.91 mph flash up on our scoreboard whilst Turner failed to improve with a 5.54. We were delighted to have made it back in the 5.4s on our 50th pass of the 2003 season but everyone was on tenterhooks waiting to see what Schofer would do on his run in a couple of minutes… Having seen us raise the bar Peter really went for it, and when his car shook he drove through it which took him into the wall and scuffed up the front wing, headers and rear wheel on the left hand side of his machine. Thankfully Peter was unhurt and the team would be back in competition, but the contact with the wall meant that Peter didn’t improve on his time and would stay qualified third. So at the end of qualifying we were in the top spot and would race Krister Johansson in the semi finals who had put his A/Fuel car in the fourth spot with an ailing 7.26. The fact that all of our full passes would have put us in the number one spot helped boost our confidence, but the fact that Turner and Schofer would have to race each other in the semis, with Turner having the qualifying advantage, really had us wondering if this could finally be our year. If Turner won and we won then it would be all over and we would be the champions. Despite our great friends Kim Reymond running an awesome 4.64 at 317 mph in Top Fuel qualifying and Ulf Leanders carding a 5.66 in Top Methanol Funny Car (huge congratulations to them both) the track conditions were causing lots of headaches in the methanol dragster pits, and all the teams were a little jumpy when qualifying was all said and done. Once all the turnaround and race day preparations were done we sat down to a huge meal prepared by Linda, Jennifer, Gene, Catherine and our trusty cake supplier, Anna for the 22 of us assembled for dinner that night. Everyone had some fun with Ricki’s new wig-hat and relaxed a little ahead of the big race day. None of us slept very well and were all itching to get out for the opening round on Sunday which was finally run some two hours later than expected. As number one qualifiers we exercised our right to run last so that we could see the outcome of the big Turner / Schofer match-up. It shows the quality and experience of Peter as a driver that he beat Rob on a hole shot (5.55 to 5.54) in the same lane that he crashed in the night before. That put the pressure right on us to beat Krister and earn our space in a winner takes all final. Despite the tune up being exactly the same as the night before our car smoked the tyres about 100 feet out and Dave did a brilliant job of getting the car back under control and staying in his lane. We all held our breaths for the whole run as the smoke disappeared in our lane and smoke appeared in Krister’s lane as his motor started to expire. It was ugly but we scraped through with a 6.32 to a 6.51 victory, but our confidence had taken a big knock and there was a lot of head scratching in our pits as we readied the car for the final. With some changes made and the seemingly endless five hour wait over it was time for the final where whoever won the race would also win the 2003 FIA Top Methanol Dragster Championship. It has been such a close run season between us and Peter that it was fitting it had come down to this, and the tension in both camps was clear to see. It was also fitting that the race turned out to be a good, clean, fair affair with neither team, car nor driver having any kind of problems, and I am totally thrilled to say the we took the win by 0.034 of a second with a 5.559 at 252.83! And that was it. After five years of trying on the full FIA tour and a life sentence behind the wheel for Dave, we were finally the champions! It was magical to take the entire crew on a slow drive past the huge, vocal Santa Pod crowd for an emotional reunion with our driver at the top end. As we rolled back through the pits the other teams were lined up cheering and applauding us and as soon as we got back to our trailer the champagne was flowing and a fantastic night of partying started. When my best man elect, Phil Pratt wrapped up the 10.90 bike win it turned into an even more magical evening which concluded when the FIA champions banquet ended at 4am on Monday morning… As you all know, Dave, David and I have given up our jobs this season to pursue the championship as a full time hobby and Anthony and Jon at American Car Imports and Ray, Emma and Carl at PlayStation have increased their support and commitment to us. The huge amount of investment and pre season work to put together our new truck, dragster and motors really paid off, and I would also like to say a huge thank you for the relentless enthusiasm, determination and efforts of our regular crew of David, Linda, Ricki, Mike, Phil, Jennifer and Harry. It is a tribute to them all that we have had no race day screw ups this season, very minimal damage and apart from losses to Peter Schofer where all the margins of victory combined add up to less than a quarter of a second, we have won every other round of FIA competition we have been in this year. Add in to that breaking the 5.5 second barrier at Santa Pod in May and the 260 mph barrier in Sweden in July and you can see that a lot of hard work from a lot of people has been rewarded with the championship title that belongs to each and every one of us. A huge amount of other racers, fans, journalists and sponsors far too numerous to mention here have also played an absolutely vital role in creating and enjoying our success as well as keeping our trailer stocked with doughnuts (thanks Tony, Matthew, Eddie and Mickey) and Jack Daniels (thanks Carl). Hopefully we can give you all one more thing to celebrate by wrapping up the MSA British Top Methanol championship at Santa Pod on the 27/28 September. We are leading the points with this last round to go but know that Turner and Steph Milam will try their hardest to keep us from winning the double! Hope to see you all there, and I expect we’ll all still be grinning from ear to ear like we are now...
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