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04/05/2004 BREAD AND TOOTHBRUSHES Have any of you ever been to the USA and noticed how the strangest things are way more expensive there than they are back at home? Like a loaf of bread, or a toothbrush? And I'm not talking about some fancy, multi-coloured, soft bristled affair shaped like a novelty dinosaur. Oh no, even your bog standard, non flexible, gum scratcher can be outrageously expensive here. Conversely other things are much cheaper than they are at home; such as diesel, dragster parts and methanol. That's why we have been able to spend every waking minute over the last ten weeks going racing rather than writing about it. Of course Tony and Darryl at American Car Imports along with Tog and Sharkman at eurodragster.com have done a great job in keeping you all up to date in how we've actually been getting on whilst we've been swanning about either driving to a race, preparing the car for a race or taking part in a race. We have been like circus animals I suppose; touring the country in our bright red truck and stopping somewhere every few days to come out, eat, put on a little show for the public and then climb back in and head on down the road. Now that I do have some free hours I thought it was high time for a report from this side of the water. Less of a race report and more of a travelogue really to give you an idea of what it's been live racing on the American tour. Way back in January Dave and David flew in to LA from England and Jenn and I came in from deepest Peru. Our good friends Gene, Judy and Bob had let us park the rig out at Irwindale Speedway over the winter and after a couple of days there getting the truck ready to roll and picking up bits and pieces for the car we were on our way to the NHRA test session in Las Vegas. Boy it was cold there and the track was in the 50s. Not the 1950s by the way. I mean the track temperature hovered around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The racing surface didn't stand a chance of being very good in that weather and the fuel cars were struggling so we concentrated on lots of top secret start line stuff and just made 60-foot shut off runs. We even painted the car in Valvoline colours for the occasion… And anyone who gets that joke wins a pint of 'Cynics Cider' on me in the Pod bar… Seriously though, we made a lot of progress by concentrating on some small details that had been bugging us throughout the last two seasons and we left Vegas in good spirits. Plus it was a real buzz to make a run with John Force's car lined up behind us ready to make his run and to queue up with all the big guys in the staging lanes. When you see Austin Coil driving their tow car and wandering around in an old pair of jeans and shocking red trainers you realize the top guys are just like us; scruffs when they can get away with it. Our next stop would be the annual NHRA pre season test at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona which is about a seven hour drive direct from Vegas. However we decided to take a detour and go and see the Grand Canyon along the way. We should have realized this was a dumb idea when about 50 miles from our planned overnight stop we could see a few flurries of snow. Half an hour later we were trundling along at 30 mph in six inches of snow trying to find somewhere to safely pull the truck off the road and stop for the night. Next morning it was snowing again and we discovered that the access road to the canyon was closed because of the weather so we threaded our way down Interstate 17 to Phoenix instead and gave up on the idea altogether. In Phoenix the desert sun was bright but the air temperature stayed reasonably cool. We met up with expert TAD tuner Les Davenport there who warned us that "whatever happens, I guarantee by the time you leave this track you will be pissed off." And man he was right. Due to some pretty terrible organization we only got two shots at the track all weekend, which we valiantly used to undo all the good stuff we had done in Vegas the weekend before. On top of that we managed to break a valve retainer, damage a cylinder head and piston and set fire to the kettle so when it was time to leave we were happy to be out of there. We did clock our best ever top speed though at 262.90 mph so it wasn't all bad. Many thanks to our new friend and honorary crew member; 'Bones' from Mark Hentges' team, for dropping our damaged head off at Brad Anderson's shop for repair. Also a big thank you to Brad, Jeremy, Donny and Andre at BAE for all the help and excellent service they've given us this year. Originally we'd planned a weekend off before the Winternationals but the debacle in Phoenix convinced us to head back to Vegas for another weekend of testing and try and get back to where we were. So we made the haul to Nevada again, this time avoiding the Grand Canyon and hung out at the Petro truck stop for a couple of days. We are now all big fans of the Petro stops and their great Iron Skillet restaurants and buffets. And they would prove to be lifesavers later on in the trip… It was a bit warmer in Vegas than it had been two weeks before but extremely windy. And not just because of the meatloaf in the Iron Skillet. The four of us had some extra help for the weekend when our crewman from England, Brian 'Harry' Palmer, turned up a week early for the Winternationals because one of our team who we won't name (let's just say he drives the car) booked his flight for the wrong week. Strengthened in number we made 6 runs in two days and managed to get back to where we were before Phoenix. Plus we made a couple of full passes to get Dave back in the swing of making competition runs and reeled off a couple of nice 5.50s at well over 250 mph. Next we rolled on to Pomona for the NHRA season opening Winternationals. We had a bunch of guests for the weekend including Jon and Suzanne from ACI, Jenn's parents and brother and my mum came all the way out from England. Plus our good friends and rivals from Turner Racing and Schofer Racing were on hand too to watch along with anyone who is anyone in the West Coast drag racing scene. With the eyes of the racing world upon us we managed to screw up big style on our first qualifying attempt when two plug wires were put on the wrong way round after we checked the top end of the motor over following our warm up. This meant we had to shut the car off on the line, tow back to the pits and spend the rest of the day blaming each other for the cock up. As if that wasn't bad enough the weather then took a turn for the worse and on Friday it was very overcast. Luckily we got a shot at the track and got ourselves in the field with a conservative 5.54 before the remainder of qualifying and eventually the rest of the weekend was rained off. The event was postponed to the following weekend but unfortunately Dave and David had to return to England for two weeks and that meant we would be unable to return for the re-run. That was a real bummer as the conditions transpired to be excellent that following weekend and several 5.3s were recorded by the TADs and lots of 4.4s by the fuel dragsters. Luckily for me I got to go in for free with my racer pass, park in the pits and watch a bit of racing for a change. Anyway, Jenn and I got a few days peace, though we spent a lot of time collecting parts before heading to Colorado for a week. Then it was on to Phoenix once again to meet up with Dave and David and compete in the first race of the Division 7 championship. Ten tough cars made the trip out to try and get into the 8 car field and we were tickled pink when qualifying was all said and done to be third with a 5.52 and qualified for a divisional event for the first time. Plus we had achieved two more goals by getting in to the top half of a field and getting to race on a Sunday. And race on Sunday we did, and lose a close one to Larry Miersch, who was wheeling Morgan Lucas' A/FD for the weekend to save Morgan from using up a points scoring chance while they were still struggling to work the car out. The TAD points system over here is far too complicated and tactical to try and explain here but you can find out how it works on the NHRA website. Though we were knocked out there was no time to mope about as we were entered for the Gatornationals down in Gainesville, Florida which was 2000 miles away across Interstate 10 and due to start in four days time. It was a heck of a drive, stopping only to eat and fill up at every Iron Skillet along the way but we made it safely to Gainesville in less than three days. What a nice racetrack Gainesville is. Whilst not the best facilities on the tour (we were pitted on the grass and by the end of the weekend the port-a-loos smelled like the back of Kings Cross Station) but there is just such a pervading peaceful and pleasant atmosphere that everyone relaxed from the drive as soon as we arrived. Everyone tensed right back up when we got the rig stuck in the mud getting into the pits but soon the beer was flowing, the car was ready to run and we were arguing about why the Petros are better than the Flying J truck stops with the other foreigners on tour from Steve Harker's Australian TA/FC team. The racing surface had been recently resurfaced at Gainesville and it caused everyone, including us, problems but we got in the show in our highest ever position (12th) with a 5.50 and booked ourselves a first round match up with East Coast terror and the only man over 280 mph in a A/FD; Mike Gunderson. Just like everyone else we've raced with on this tour his group turned out to be a great bunch and we had a lot of fun with them before the cars were fired for the race on Saturday night. The track and weather conditions had improved and the Pro Mod cars that ran before us stormed the track with their bump spot ending up at a 6.22! Dave did a great job getting out on Mike, we recorded the best 330 foot time of the whole class for the whole weekend at 2.36 seconds and had over a car length's lead when the blower belt broke and we handed the win to Mike's 5.46 who was forced to admit: "you guys scared the sh*t out of me." We were gutted but encouraged nonetheless that we had come very close to winning our first ever round of NHRA competition and getting back on last years 5.3 second pace. Once we determined the cause of the broken belt and fixed that problem we were all excited about our next race; the Division 7 event in Tucson, Arizona the following weekend, a mere 1900 miles away. We were so excited about it we even packed up and left the track on Sunday afternoon to get on our way to Tucson. I still can't believe that I had a chance to stay and watch final eliminations of an NHRA national event and chose to get on the road instead… The drive to Tucson back along I-10 was unexciting and Iron Skillet laden and we duly arrived at a very windy Southwestern International Raceway on Wednesday afternoon, with qualifying due to start on Friday. As soon as we arrived we knew this was our kind of racetrack. The track staff were very friendly and helpful, entry and crew passes were free and our pit spot was less than 50 feet from the bar. The track is aimed at sportsman racers and currently has no intention of being national event facility. The staff are all there because they love what they do and want to be there doing it and we were made to feel very welcome. It was hotter than hell though and the basic elevation of the track is 3075 feet, meaning that the corrected altitude was well over 5000 feet and the air was very dry. We made some fuel and ignition system changes to account for this and weren't too far wrong, notching up a pair of 5.5 second runs in qualifying and ending up second to Chris Demke in the Maddern family car. Unfortunately we blistered a tyre and are indebted to Dennis Taylor for giving us one of his spares to use and for all of his other help over the last few months supplying and certifying our safety gear. Amazingly only five cars had shown up for the event and our first round opponent, Mark Niver, had sadly damaged his engine beyond repair in a qualifying blow up. So those of you who are familiar with a five car ladder (as any European fan must be) will realize this meant we got a pair of bye runs through to the final where we would meet Demke and his crew who seemed absolutely fascinated by us crumpet eating, tea drinking English folk. It was a close race and I'm thrilled to say our 5.65 just edged out Chris's 5.68 for the event win. Whilst it was a short field the win was no mean feat. Chris is currently leading the NHRA national points standings, won the Phoenix Division 7 meeting we attended in Phoenix and is driving the car that Darren Nicholson won a lot of NHRA events in a few years back. It is a reflection of how great the reception we've had from racers and fans alike here has been that everyone went wild when we won and Demke's crew were as excited to see history being made as we were. You see we're the first ever foreigners to win a divisional event in TAD and the first English team ever to win an NHRA event and pick up one of the coveted 'Wally' trophies. Needless to say we could be found celebrating in the bar that night along with the track crew and the NHRA staff. It was one of those evenings where everyone's jaws ached from smiling and their stomachs hurt from laughing by the time they went to bed. Before we left the next morning the track owner gave us all some really nice embroidered shirts with the track logo on and as we pulled out of the gates we all resolved to come back to this wonderful track again someday… Another day of driving had us back outside the gates of Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Monday night for the national event there the coming weekend. We couldn't get into the pits 'til Wednesday but luckily the Iron Skillet is just a few yards from the entrance and open 24 hours so we (and most of drag racing's other nomad racers) hung out, ate at the buffet and shared a gassy beer or two. On Thursday night we had the car serviced and ready to go and our very special guests, Ray Maguire from PlayStation Europe, Tim Redmayne from Motorsports News and Tony from American Car Imports, had all made it over from England safely in time for the weekend's events. When we went to bed that night it was drizzling, a couple of hours later it was raining and by early morning it was pouring down like finals day at Wimbledon. Las Vegas is in the middle of the desert and is a dry, dusty, windy and tumbleweed-prone place normally but, as it only can at the drags, it poured down solidly for the next 30 hours and the entire of Friday's racing was washed out. At least the day was brightened by the Maddern team bringing Dave a stash of birthday presents they had bought from an English shop in LA such as PG tips, Cadbury's buttons, an apple crumble and packets of Walker's crisps. The schedule was changed to give us 2 qualifiers on Saturday and after an iffy start the weather came around and we got our two laps in. We had decided to use the weekend to test some radical new ideas in the clutch department, knowing full well this would cost us in performance while we went backwards to try and ultimately go forwards. Sure enough we ran like crap but we squeaked into the field in last place with a 5.76 and would square off with Division 6 champ Joey Severance in the opening round on Sunday. The track conditions were great despite the preceding rain and Doug Kalitta proved that with a fastest ever pass of 335.57 mph in TF qualifying. In fact the track had so much bite we tore up another set of tyres on it but those good old Maddern folks leant us a set of theirs to keep us going and we really appreciated that. Thanks also to Mike at the Cooper Tires rig for all of his help over the Tucson and Vegas weekends. On Sunday, much to our amazement, Joey pulled a red light and we took the win with a shabby 5.94 at only 213 mph. We were way off on the tune up and, as we expected when we saw the low speed on the boards, the motor was hurt too. A broken exhaust pushrod had shattered the roller lifter underneath it and damaged the camshaft. So it was time for an engine change with less than two hours 'til the next round. This was what we had feared running with such a short crew because we knew there weren't enough of us to get the job done. Mark Hentges and his team of Bones, Thom and Herb jumped right in to help us even though they were out of eliminations and keen to get on their way home to Washington (that's the state on the West Coast, not the city on the East Coast by the way). We can't thank them enough for all they did to get us to the line where we would face that man again; Chris Demke. Dave did all he could by pulling a perfect .000 reaction time but Chris overtook him at the top end and brought a very strange weekend for us to an end. Congratulations to Morgan Lucas and crew for taking the event win after working like mad to get their car running up to speed over the last few months. Well that brings us pretty much up to date. We serviced the car after the race ready for our last event on this US tour, the national event in Houston on April 15-18. Yes, we all have a weekend off because Easter is a sacred holiday in the world of US motorsports. Not like you heathens at home who will all be eagerly heading off to the Pod for the Thunderball. After the Houston race I will be flying straight to New Zealand and won't have time to write any kind of report so right now I'd like to thank a few other people who have made this US tour possible and so much fun. I doubt any of them will be reading this so this is in no particular order and if I've forgotten any of them I guess they'll never find out anyway but here goes. Gary Burgin has been invaluable as always, as have Ron Armstrong at Racepak, Brian Scollon at GRP Connecting Rods and Dave Leahy at Electrimotion who has politely answered all sorts of dumb questions from yours truly. Bob Frey (NHRA announcer) has done a great job of getting the fans interested in us and behind us and Bob and Kiwi on the NHRA tech crew have been absolute stars and have finally got me in to the habit of filling in the tech cards properly. Thanks also to Steve and Patty Federlin, Mike Robeck, Les Davenport and Norm Drazy for all their help, advice and polite p*ss taking. This trip has been a blast and we have really enjoyed being part of the NHRA tour and getting to know everyone over here. Also the Houston race will be my last one with this team as I have enjoyed myself so much over here that I am going to stay behind with Jennifer and look for a full time position on the NHRA tour. So this is my last ever race report. It has been a great experience being with the team and I can't thank the Wilson family and everyone at American Car Imports enough for putting me in this position as well as the guys at Redstone and Gleadow Racing for getting me started all those years ago. The biggest highlight though has been meeting and getting to know so many great racers and fans from around the world and I'm glad to say we'll be coming over on holiday for the FIA Finals in September and I look forward to catching up with everyone then...
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