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20/09/2004 WIRE TO WIRE IN 2004! Isn’t it always the way, you spend the summer in Scandinavian countries looking for moose and find nothing then they start appearing in droves when you least expect them. Seemingly, inspired by the antics of their German cousins at Hockenheim, a small expeditionary force bribed a keeper at Whipsnade and began the long overland trek to Santa Pod. Meanwhile those remaining at Whipsnade had a plan to fool the keepers. During the night some horses were smuggled in from other enclosures and then fitted with hats that roughly resembled antlers. The plan was to keep them between two moose just like in the war films when British prisoners of war used stuffed dummies to cover for chaps that had dug their way under the wire during the night. They were also going to be unusually frisky and run around the enclosure to make counting them at roll-call extra difficult. It would have worked too if it hadn’t been for the prat that smuggled in some ‘horses’ that were covered in black and white stripes. Figuring that they should put plenty of distance between themselves and the park before the keepers had a shift-change, the escaped moose raced to the woods on the outskirts of Barton-Le-Clay and laid low during daylight hours. Pressing on they skirted round Bedford and swam the Great Ouse then through the broken fence near Bozeat and finally to the Pod. Showing their fake racer tickets at the main gate (well there’s always an expert forger in the war films) they made their way to trackside and then unfortunately decided to leap the barrier and inspect the track. This of course stopped the racing but during all the excitement there was a sh*tdown and thus the hard-working track crew had to make a clean-up. Still it could all have been avoided if the fake tickets had been detected at the gate.  If the above seems like waffle to cover for the fact that there is nothing funny to say about the racing then you are right. The fact is that yours truly spent the entire weekend of the finals in the loo. Not just one loo but a small circle of three, after all it seemed only fair to share it around. Still it gave one the opportunity to compare the design strengths and weaknesses of each. There was the cramped but cosy wood-lined ACI Racing facility in the truck as opposed to the more spacious ultra-modern plastic utilitarian construction of the Santa Pod portable cubicle. I particularly liked the 2-way flush handle in the cubicle and the deep blue flush liquid had a certain soothing effect as it resembled the sea colour in a lagoon on some exotic pacific island. Did you know there are 117 rivets in a portaloo? Needless to say, working in the pit was no bed of roses. Having fought through the crowds to unravel, re-fold and repack a parachute and just as I’m standing on one leg with the raised knee compressing the drogue ‘chute spring, nature calls. What to do? Only seconds from containing the ‘chute for the next race, let it go and watch it disappear into the crowd or stay and finish the job and risk creating a personal exclusion zone of a couple of metres? Did manage to set a new personal best reaction time of 5 minutes although I had made more runs than Top Methanol Funny Car and Top Methanol Dragster put together! Apparently there was some racing at the finals which for us began on the Friday. Many of you will know that we won the FIA European Championship in Hockenheim so the pressure was off for the Pod. We were, however, still keen to win and determined to get the European Record back from Peter Schofer. Initial inspection of the track left us uncertain as to what it might handle, so a relatively mild set-up was chosen. In the event this proved to be too mild as we were lying 3rd out of 3 at the end of day 1 with a 5.73 @ 241mph. Peter Schofer ran a 5.67 and Rob Turner a 5.64. Mother Nature had intervened and racing was rained off for the rest of the day. Spectators on Saturday received a bonus as 3 rounds of qualifying were scheduled for the pro classes. We knew we had to raise our game so a couple of aggression pills were popped into the scoop of the ACI flyer and for Q2 we were right on the numbers with a 5.479 @ 254mph. This was unmatched by the competition so we were top qualifier and with 2 more runs left. Hitting the number one spot early is advantageous for 2 reasons; firstly the competition has to figure out how to match the leading time and secondly the no1 qualifier has run data upon which to build an even quicker run. This is the theory anyway, so for Q3 we changed a gear ratio and went for it only to record a near identical time and speed of 5.472 @ 254mph. This brings me to a particular issue that I struggle to understand. I am convinced there should be a relationship between engine power, gearing, elapsed time and terminal speed. There is a generally-held view that high terminal speed is a good thing yet in Norway we ran 270mph (the fastest ever in Europe) but in an uninspiring time of 5.50. Here at the Pod we ran 5.47 but at 16mph slower and in Pomona last year, we ran a 5.38 at 8mph slower, it’s crazy! Somehow we didn’t feel Q4 would change things as track conditions seemed to be going off and sure enough we could only manage a 5.51 @ 248mph. Race day and we had a bye in the first round. We could treat this run as an extra qualifier and try some changes knowing that we had an existing quick set-up ready for the final if necessary. Weather data from our weather station suggested the air quality was good. Even from behind the startline it looked a good run but when 5.43 came up we were stunned. It turns out that we ran 5.436 and had broken the European Record by 3 thousandths of a second. In the final we were up against Peter Schofer. Our quicker times in qualifying suggested that Peter would have to cut a very good reaction time. Initially we thought Dave had gone to sleep on the line as Peter rapidly disappeared down the track but we quickly realised there was a bright red cherry showing in the other lane and Dave had the win with a 5.457 @ 255mph. Needless to say everyone was very pleased that we had both the event win and the European Record. Anthony Cohen, MD of American Car imports and Team Principal of ACI Racing produced some champagne and our success was toasted amidst scenes of much jollity. This is our last report for 2004 and so it’s time for some reflection. We raced in the states in the early part of the year and acquitted ourselves well. Returning to Europe we then proceeded to reel off several top qualifier and event wins that enabled us to win the Championship in August. Then in October we broke the European Record. All of this was achieved despite the loss of Crew Chief Andy Bisset and bottom-end specialist Mike. Congratulations to everyone in the team: Dave, Linda, David, Ricky, Brian and Phil. Special thanks to Anthony Cohen of ACI and wife Rhonda as well as Catherine for the barbeques and Suzy for the hair cuts. Special thanks to the track-crews, announcers, organisers and reporters (especially Tog and Sharkman from Eurodragster) because without your commitment and hard work we could not race. Thanks also to the race fans, your cheering and general encouragement is always appreciated. Last but not least a big ‘thank you’ to our sponsors: Playstation2, Silverline Tools, Footman James, Alternative Automotive Fuel Conversions, Custom Graphics, Total Design, Portman Business Consultancy, USAutomotive, Euro American Car Services, Expert IT, 1st Line Motorcycles, North Hants Tyre & Wheel, 76 Racing Fuels & Lubricants, Creative Car Sounds, Classic American, Air Sea Logistics and O.C.W. See you all in 2005.
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