2006 Easter Thunderball

The 2006 Shakespeare Nationals

from Shakespeare County Raceway

I was only able to get to the Sunday eliminations of this year's Shakespeare Nationals; other commitments got in the way of my Saturday plans and, despite my protestations, I was forced to accept my responsibilities for these tasks. The good news was that I scored some rare goody points in Mrs. Topnitro's books which will, no doubt, be used up later in the year..... ahem!

The weather for Sunday was (on the Channel I watched) given to be promising but, as I approached the track, a preponderance of the wet stuff appeared to be making everywhere a little damp and the track was certainly not dry enough for racing. Of concern as well, was the fact that it was really quite cold. This forced me to press into service my cavernous rain coat, to keep me warm. It swamps me completely; in fact and I really must auction it off to the local Marquee manufacturer, at the earliest opportunity.

Before racing got underway, I had a smooch off up into the pits. I came across Jon Mort's lovely looking '68 Camaro with it's resplendent looking new paintwork. Step-son Dan Page's 68 'Panic' Firebird did, I have to say, look a little past it's sell-by date, even though this was only it's first or second trip to the track. On the second qualifier on Saturday, the engine cried enough and that was jolly well that. Dan and Heide will be back at the track soon - especially if Jon doesn't hide his car keys!

Super Gas had a new number 1 qualifier this weekend. Tethys had proven that the Paul Marston 'Whoopass' (what a superb name!) Monza was the picture of consistency. He had a couple of bye rounds in eliminations, but stubbed his toe in the semi-final with an uncharacteristic red-light. Never mind!

In Outlaw Anglia, the usual suspects were all present and in roughly the same order, performance-wise, as last year. There was a frightening moment when Ian Norman fell in his run-off with Steve Wells. Ian's transmission went up in a massive explosion, tearing the bulkhead open and firing a load of shrapnel into the car. Such was the force of the explosion, that the bulkhead blew sideways invading the footwell area and punching the foot pedals around a foot to the left of where they were supposed to be. I haven't seen any catastrophic gearbox detonations like this since my days in F1 Stock Car racing. It was good that Ian was okay. A huge mess then had to be cleaned up by the hard working track crew and well done to them for that.

Ian 'Turbo' Turburville continued the shakedown process of his 'Spokehead' Nitro Harley with further test passes. On the first, the drive belt snapped the instant Ian hit the throttle. On the final run of the say, he ran an 'easy' 9.46 second run at 156mph. This bike is going to be hitting the 6 second zone, before long.

Possibly the most significant result of the day was Ian 'Fatty' Hook and his roadster - AT LAST - getting some of the luck - and consequently the results, that he's been building to. He won the Street Eliminator final hands down with a new personal best of 8.2 seconds - and I reckon that was all won over the first 60 feet. His car seemed a lot quicker than Colin Lazenby's 56 Chevy Sedan. Fatty deserves this so much. Well done!

All in all, not a bad days racing. The weather held off until the evening, which topped off the day quite nicely. Just the one interruption to deal with Ian Normans transmission explosion, but other than that, it all went like clockwork.

Thanks to Shakespeare County Raceway for all their courtesies and for organising another excellent event and to that fountain of knowledge eurodragster.com, for all of the efforts of Tog, Simon and Sharkman in getting the news, gossip and pictures to all of us. Cheers, Guys! Finally, thank you for taking the time to visit www.topnitro.co.uk

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