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30/05/2004 USE THE CHUTE, LUKE! The king is dead, long live the king! Andy Bisset our former Team Manager and race-report writer has left us for a new life with future wife Jenny and, hopefully, a position in a NHRA race-team. Andy, everyone in ACI Racing misses you but equally wishes you and Jenny a loving and rewarding life together. Thanks for your enormous contribution to the team. So the ‘phone rings after the Main Event, “fancy writing a race-report” says Dave, “ok but I’m not amusing like Andy was” says I, “just write from your perspective and besides, you can be funny sometimes” says Dave. Still not sure what he meant but anyway here goes… Firstly though we need to finish off our American tour. Andy ended his last report before our final race at the O’Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park in mid-April. David and I flew out from Heathrow and met Andy and Jennifer at Houston Airport after they flew in from California. Together we arrived at the track to see Dave “Grumpy” Wilson relaxing in shorts and t-shirt whilst reading a copy of the National Dragster (there’s a picture of him on page 64). Our pit was on grass which gave us difficulties using the jack and stands as both sank when we lifted the car. The grass was quite long and as it poked through the black and red pit flooring it looked like we were working on green Wilton. Thankfully there weren’t any king-sized bugs or snakes in the grass although the pit awning just a few cars down from ours was invaded by a large swarm of ‘killer’ bees. This is apparently quite a common occurrence and the track authorities kept a specialist on standby to deal with them. There wasn’t room for our awning so the car was in the open which is great for warm-ups (no methanol fumes) but probably a bit disconcerting for the bees that fancied having a European for lunch. The American spectators were very welcoming and a surprising number had seen coverage of European drag racing on American television the week before. They seemed genuinely impressed by the European scene and were quite chuffed to meet Dave Wilson. The top alcohol entry was large at around 22 cars with a 16 car qualifying field so blood was going to be spilled. We abandoned the new type of clutch tested at the previous meeting but continued with the M/T tyres. We still managed to shred them very quickly until we were given a later batch that seemed to cope better. A steady 5.52 @ 257mph had us 9th after the first round but some big names had still to qualify. Broken blower belt terminated our second run but a third-time lucky 5.48 @ 257 saw us qualified at 14th for the eliminations. Shortly after being recruited by Andy to the team about 16 months ago, I remember him telling me that Dave was one of the best drivers around once the car was moving but that leaving the line promptly was not one of his strong points! Ironically, at the previous event, he pulled a perfect light and then in the first round of eliminations here he just pulled a cherry. That marked the end of the O’Reilly Spring Nationals and the US tour for ACI Racing. Disappointment within the crew lasted no more than half the length of the recovery road and by the time we collected Dave we were already listing the highlights of the tour. We failed to qualify for just one event and did not once oil down a track or in any way hold up racing and we also won a ‘Wally’. All that remained was to drive for 3 days right across the southern states and then north through the Carolinas to Portsmouth Virginia to load the truck on a ship for Liverpool. We managed it but only after having 2 rear tyres explode and an alternator failure on the truck. A big thank-you to Fred, a former crew member now living in Georgia, for fixing the alternator. The truck arrived at Liverpool with a clutch system that was mysteriously lacking fluid and as it was impossible to find any at the time, cooking oil was used instead. This enabled the truck to happily travel the 200+ miles to deepest Hampshire and it has since driven to the main event and back again without any problems. So if you happen to be standing beside our truck after it has just finished a journey, the funny smell is not the toilet in the trailer but the Mazola getting up to temperature. Friday of the Main Event was for the Sportsman classes, so we spent the day practicing turnarounds as the crew had been reorganised. Not only have we lost Andy this season but also Mike, our bottom-end specialist. Mike, we wish you and your family well in your new life in Australia and thanks for everything. We will miss you. On the basis of ‘you have to be in to win’ our first qualifying run was to be a steady pass and a time of 5.58 was considered OK particularly as we hadn’t raced at the Pod since last year and our electronic run data for the last 3 years has been lost (that story is for another time). After a long delay for rain we could not improve on the first run but we did manage to damage a rear tyre. Hoosiers were fitted ready for day two and when given a good thrashing they produced a 5.50 which made us the provisional no1 qualifier. Emma from Silverline Tools entertained the crowd after this run as she hung out of the window of our Dodge Ram tow vehicle. Nobody could improve with their final runs so we were qualified no1. Unfortunately the Hoosiers were damaged. No 1 qualifier perhaps, but with no tyres for eliminations. This was soon remedied with generous contributions from both Turner Racing and Micke Kågered - thank you both. With only a 3-car field we had the bye in the first round and used it to try a few things which worked a treat as we cranked out a 5.45 @ 255mph. Downside was seeing Rob Turner being led to an ambulance after suffering burns to his neck. We were all very pleased to hear that he would be OK. Seeing Robs helmet afterwards was a stark reminder of the dangers that drag racers face. Now is the time to mention a theme that was running through the weekend as a result of the crew reorganization. I am of course speaking about the parachutes. Yours truly was delegated to become parachute-packer and it was a job entered into with gusto. Unfortunately with a successful deployment rate of around 50% the results of my enthusiasm could hardly be called encouraging. On 2 runs they performed a slow intimate duet becoming more and more entwined and of course absolutely useless. After the 5.45 run only 1 chute deployed but this would have been fine but for the fact that the brakes failed! Must be character-forming to cross the line at 255mph only to find one ‘chute working and no brakes as the suburbs of Luton appear larger on the horizon. Mention was made of a backup arrangement whereby I would be strapped to the back of the car with ankle and wrist bracelets attached to parachute cords and when prodded with a stick would jump off the back with arms and legs spread wide to help stop the car. Curvature of the spine would be easily dealt with by turning me round to face the other way for the next run. The final was a closely fought race which we expected from the Schofers but our consistency paid off and we took the win with a 5.47. Everyone including Kevin from Playstation and Daniel from Portman Business Consultancy went to recover Dave, who, upon our arrival declared “now, we are a team”. That, for me, was the best moment of the entire weekend. The ACI Racing team needs a lot of external support and to this end some 250 sponsors and customers of American Car Imports were welcomed by Rhonda, Suzanne and other members of the Cohen family as well as Darryl Bradford. Thank you all. Tony from Custom Graphics and Clare from Total Design came to discuss the next design and graphics update for the racecar and trailer. It was great to also welcome Emma from Footman James, Dave from Classic American, Kiki from Euro American, Amanda from OCW, Gavin from Expert IT, Stuart from US Automotive, Stuart from Alternative Automotive Fuel Conversions and Steve from Firstline Motorcycles, along with all their guests. We hope you enjoyed the racing as much as we did.
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