EASTER EXCITEMENT

Words by Ivan Sansom
Photos by Rose Hughes and Ivan Sansom
3/30/05

European drag racers shrugged off their winter coats over the Easter weekend at Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire, England – and given the temperature struggled to get close to 50 degrees for most of the meeting many of the competitors, crew and crowd quickly put their coats back on. Once the shivering had stopped and the vehicles got on track, the action produced a series of stunning headlines which boded well for the rest of the season.

PRO FUEL SHOOTOUT

Running to an index system in order to qualify for a place in the final, a mixed field of four T/F dragsters and the Nitro Funny car of Gordon Smith had some fun and games trying to get hooked up to the track.

Gordon Smith’s crew had a lot of work on their hands over the weekend as the Shockwave Funny Car refused to put in a full pass, spewing raw fuel out of the headers on its first and last passes and splitting the blower in half in a fiery conflagration at 100 feet second time out. The Nitro Funny Car class is still somewhat up in the air in the UK but there is talk of a return to the track in May.

4.4 second fuel cars take a lot of backing down to run in glacial conditions, although the late afternoon sunlight lit up the MPM Oils paint scheme on Lex Joon’s recent import from the States. The ex-Baca car shook and rattled a lot over the weekend, but when the team’s new crew chief Eddie Corr is tuning on site rather than via mobile phone, expect great things from this combination.

Running a block picked up on eBay, Peter Knight’s Canto Consultancy rail produced a new PB for driver Jon Webster, running the team’s first four 4.979 in the preliminary rounds. A later 5.0 suggests great things for the low budget outfit once the track warms up.