Shakespeare Nationals, SCR, 19th June 2005
Report and Pictures by Richard Stirling
Full Picture Gallery (Including Soundbytes)
What a scorcher of a day it was at Shakespeare County Raceway on the Sunday! I was boiling up the moment I stepped away from the chilled environment of my car and wishing there was a cool swimming pool nearby to dive into. Nevertheless, I headed off into the pits for a nosey around and had a natter with Darryl Bradford and Andy Carter who were getting ready for their Top Fuel match race. Andy had run once on Saturday and gave himself a pounder of a headache with the tyre shake he encountered. Both were looking forward to the match race later.
In Pro/ET, it was good to catch up with the recently licensed Tethys who, in amongst his duties as Top Fuel crew member for Smax in 04 and this year, has decided to have some fun behind the steering wheel in a variety of Paul Marston's race school vehicles. He was a little apprehensive just before his first-round match up with Carla & Rick in the Heaven and Hell red Camaro. He needn't have worried as he was away and gone after the Camaro timed out on staging. The net result was another 9 second run after breaking into that zone for the first time in practice. In the second round, Tethys dipped a little too far into the 9 second neighbourhood on what looked like a perfect run and... break out! Well done anyway, Tet! Hopefully there'll be more fun and games next week at the Summernationals at Santa Pod.
Again in Pro/ET, Tig Napier in his fantastic Dodge Challenger was eager to pick up some points and prize money. He started well with a perfect reaction time (sadly the eurodragster prize for that had already been awarded to someone else!) and then falling victim to the break out scenario himself. Never mind - he'll be back soon.
Meanwhile, back in the pits, preparations were well underway for the Top Fuel match race. Rune Fjeld was looking after all of the tuning adjustments as Ben Allum was not at the races this weekend. The car sounded strong in the warm up and the nitro fumes seemed no less smelly than normal. Almost immediately after Andy had warmed up then John Wright took Darryl through his warm up procedure. Again, the car sounded strong and since the last outing there has been a whole bunch of new parts and money and a huge effort by the team to get back on track.
In top Fuel bike Steve Carey laid down a sizzling burnout but then broke and handed over the win to Steve Woollatt who ran a scorching 6.8 second run at over 205mph. Tony Smith was thrashing it out again with his Cunning Plan mini van in the Wild Bunch category. I couldn't help noticing that the characteristic 'bounce' he used to have a couple of years ago has made an unwelcome re-appearance. Talking with Tony, he said that upping the tyre pressures had helped, but had not cured the problem again. Tony ended up bowing out in the final to an ecstatic Sarah Howells.
Paul 'Guv' Wright was looking pretty unstoppable again in his Outlaw Anglia and had been dipping into the elusive 7 second zone again. However, when it came to final round time, he was caught out by an on-form Paul Hensher who pipped him on the line. This category seems to be getting better and better all the time.
The much anticipated Top Fuel match race between Andy Carter and his B&Q Powertools backed rail versus Darryl Bradford in the Wrights Racing Dragster took place under a blazing sun. A small fault with the timing lights delayed the action for a couple of minutes and the assembled teams took their places and started their growling and cackling dragsters up. The Wrights dragster lost fire almost immediately - and had to be hand turned in order for it to be able to be re-started. Andy Carter in the meantime, unaware of starting dramas for Darryl, heading to his lane and burned out nicely.
John Wright successfully got Darryl started and he wasted no time with a short quick burnout, as Andy Carter was virtually drawing into stage. I was impressed Darryl calmly completed the procedure and was with Andy as they were ready to go. At the hit of the throttle Andy was slightly ahead. Darryl blew out the rear blower inlet manifold gasket and the high pressure fuel mixture was spraying from the rear of the motor which promptly ignited. Not again!! I kept my finger on the button and he came past me like Hayley's Comet. Darryl was not aware of the fire and although he could feel some loss of power, he stayed with it passed half track before shutting it down. Andy had some shake and shut down early to a mid seven second run. Thankfully, the damage to the Wright's dragster was not has extensive or costly as had been feared.
After the roasting Top Fuel match race, I went off for another cruise around the pits. There I met John Everitt who is, of course, this year's driver of the Paul Marston owned Alien altered. I'm a great fan of all the Alien films and as I nosed around the car I was astonished to see atop the bug catcher, the most incredible model of the Alien beast that you ever did see. Made from screws, broken conrods, motorcycle chain and odds and sods, the whole thing was welded together so expertly it looked..... alive! This thought occurred to me as I finished photographing it, so I promptly screamed and ran away.
It was absolutely blazing hot and by the time I returned to my car, I was grateful to turn on the cooling wave of the environmental control which made the cruise back to Derby much more pleasant. Thank you for taking the time to read this report and please come back to www.topnitro.co.uk soon!
I must thank Sharkman, Gareth Evans and Eurodragster for invaluable race data and information. I would also like to thank Lee Child, Jerry Cookson, Wendy Talbot and Tracy in the media centre for all their help and media courtesies.
