Santa Pod Raceway |
This weekend is the favoured test session for professional racers with the Peak Performance test session on Saturday 21st May and a Run What Ya Brung on Sunday 22nd May. Eurodragster are covering the event with, I am pleased to say, a recovering Tog back in the control tower after a recent health hiccup. We all look forward to a return to 100% fitness for him in the immediate future. Eurodragster’s coverage this weekend is in memory of the Söderquist Top Fuel clutch technician David Elden who passed away on February 1st, this year after a long illness borne with good humour and always a wicked wit.
Saturday morning, I was up with the larks on what appeared to be a super day. I scuttled off to Santa Pod, eager to see the professional racers in action and I was at the gate for just after 8 o’clock and eagerly headed round into the pits to seek out what was happening. The track preparation team were just putting the finishing touches to the racing surface and I couldn’t wait to see some action. It was with a little disappointment that I noticed the bright sunshine and clear skies had already disappeared and had been replaced largely by cloud, including one or two patches of the really angry stuff. This was to be prophetic for a little later in the morning.
Undeterred, I spotted one familiar pro-mod car that has undergone recent extensive surgery and rushed over to take a closer look. Andy Robinson’s gorgeous 1953 Studebaker Commander has had a major engine transplant and is now home to a mountainous blower atop a BAE hemi motor which protrudes magnificently through the hood. The engine detailing is superb and FIA Top Methanol dragster champion Dave Wilson has been drafted in as consultant during the whole conversion process. Young Luke Robinson spent a whole week (and several worn out files) hand filing the blower guard graphics (see pictures) and deserves a big pat on the back along with the rest of the crew, for their efforts in the transfer to blower pro-mod technology.
On my wanderings around the pits I saw a superb ’69 Pontiac GTO ‘Judge’ which looked immaculate….. It was only later that I pondered to myself ‘when did a 69 Judge have 18 inch wheels and drilled discs all round?’ they never did, of course, so this example has been heavily reworked using modern equipment.
Rolf Ammann’s Blown Nugget Pro-Mod looks simply gorgeous. I am unfamiliar with the driver but look forward to seeing this beautiful machine racing on the strip. A collection of Corvettes and Dodge Vipers soon amassed in the (normally) traders area by the collection road. Several rare examples were there including the L16 VET machine which I understand is unique in this country….
A new Altered machine for Sam Freeman appeared for the first time. I recorded a sound byte of his warm-up and that can be heard just here. Ers Erbacher is now the proud owner of a Super Twin Harley bike which is to be ridden by crew member Lorenz Stauble. The bike looks absolutely superb and I was there to witness it’s first tentative nitro warmup.
It was super to see Tommy Möller and the crew getting to grips with their new purchase, a state-of-the-art Top Fuel dragster purchased from NHRA racer Doug Herbert. Doug is at least 6 foot 4 inches tall and this means that Tommy, (6’5”) is now much more comfortable. I have to say that the crew were all looking pretty pleased with themselves and Tommy himself quipped “we want to run really fast”. Good luck to the team and I think we’ll see some performance benchmarks from them.
As to any racing, well, the weather had it in for us the whole time. Light showers, light spray and the track team made valiant efforts to keep the track swept and clear of standing water, but as the last picture in the gallery shows, black and thunderous clouds moved in just after four o’clock and literally the heavens opened. It wasn’t just heavy rain, it was like ‘stair-rods’ and I decided to call it a day. As my windscreen wipers could barely clear the water, I was staggered to see huge hail stones pound my car and the surroundings with this unprovoked weatherterial attack. It was all a little bit disappointing, because I knew by then that I would not be able to visit Santa Pod on Sunday. Never mind, that’s British weather for you!
I recorded some other soundbytes as I shuffled around the pits and these include Mickey Moore warming up on nitro; Robert Koper with a bit of a warm-up in his Pro-Mod. Matts Erikson with a nice warm-up and Danny Cockerill with another Pro-mod warm-up.
Thanks for visiting http://topnitro.co.uk. I hope you enjoy the small gallery and look forward to seeing everyone at the Main Event!
