Jet Funny Car
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Jet Funny Car
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* Updated 24/06/2008 |
2008 News 9 July 2008
Hi guys, its been a while since our last update, apologies for that! We're all working hard at our day jobs and trying to fit everything together for this season. It has to be said at this point that the fuel prices are a problem to us since Firestorm drinks more than 20 gallons of fuel each time it goes down the track.
We had a good weekend at York Dragway at the Ultimate Road Car Challenge, we were there a day early to party and as usual the race day was well attended by both fans and competitors, we saw some stunning runs and in general had a fantastic weekend.
We have also been to the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, this is one of our favourite meetings of the year at Shakey and the weather gods were kind to us so we had great runs all weekend, the best of the runs was 6.111 at 261.26. On the Sunday we had a slight problem with a rather strong wind so in the interests of safety we did 1/8 mile passes, even so the car still recorded 195.51 in the 1/8 and with an early shut off went 6.44. We were happy that we did our best in the circumstances and even happier with the times and speeds on Saturday.
Saturday night at the Nostalgia Nats is always a good night, but this year our crew man Graham (Syko) was celebrating his birthday, even more reason to party. A good night was had by all!
Back to work now and shortly we will be getting ready for the Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway. Its a long time since we have been to a Bug Jam, so long ago that at that time we were spectating, so we are really excited that we are invited to this most prestigious event - if you've never been to a Bug Jam take my word for it, its worth the effort. Chill out and party!
28 May 2008
The weekend of 17th/18th of May was spent at Santa Pod Raceway where we tested Firestorm and had two brilliant runs, both culminating in personal bests. The first run was 6.106 @ 259.96 a personal best on ET, the second run topped that at 6.075 @ 261.17 a personal best on ET and only 1 mph short of its best on speed. As you can imagine we were really pleased and now looking forward to the Main Event on the following weekend. I'd checked the weather forecast (as I'm sure everyone else had that was attending the Main Event) and all looked good, for most days sunny intervals with just one day showing light showers - how can they get it SO wrong! It absolutely poured with rain on Sunday and for most of Monday - this following the snowed off Easter Thunderball is disastrous for Santa Pod and really disappointing for both racers and fans. (Snow scene photo's from Easter are now posted on the Photo Gallery - not an Easter Bunny in sight)! On the Friday and Saturday of the Main Event we had one run each day, unfortunately on Saturday Roger did not manage to stage Firestorm so no times and speeds for that run, but the first run was a promising 6.114 @ 260.55.
We are now looking forward to our next event, returning once again to York Dragway on the 15th June for the Ultimate Road Car Challenge.
12 May 2008
Hello Firestormer's! We have recently completed some more work to Firestorm, we took it to SCR for a RWYB and it was all systems go. We had just the one run due to the inclement weather and had an early shut off due to a fearsome side wind, but it told us what we want to know, and that is that Firestorm is running very well. We had an excellent weekend at York Dragway last week, putting in two strong runs in brilliant sunshine, both days were well attended by racers and spectators. Well done to Steve and all the Crew at York Dragway for a fantastic weekend.
We will be heading off down to Santa Pod Raceway this weekend for the Peak Performance Test and Tune, to make sure that we've knocked the rust spots off Roger and to set up for the Main Event. This weekend is very important because due to the poor weather so far this year we haven't had any full 1/4 mile passes - there is no way we are turning up at the Main Event without setup and practice. Look forward to seeing you all at the Pod!
13 April 2008
I'm sure by now we have all had a good laugh at the Easter weather, rain, sleet, snow (4" on Sunday), all took their toll on everyone who attended, fans and racers alike. Firestorm chose to be as badly behaved as the weather, and had two hiccups from our two starts. At this point it is a mystery as at the Peak Performance Test & Tune Day the week before it had all gone OK - maybe it didn't like the cold as much as us! We will be testing before our next meeting so fingers crossed and we will give you an update as soon as we can.
16 March 2008
We finally completed the work required for the new combination last Saturday 8th March, a little later than we wanted to be but never the less finished. We did some tie down tests on Sunday to test most of the systems on the car and check for any leaks, unfortunately we were unable to test the afterburner because of noise limitations. Having done the necessary testing we were able to go to Santa Pod for the Peak Performance test day on Saturday 15th. Unfortunately the weather gods have not been kind to us and we were only able to do one run on Saturday, just as we returned from that run it started raining and was still pouring with rain as we were packing up on Sunday. Although the run on Saturday was a short pass with Roger clicking it off just past the 1/8th it told us that we are definitely good to go for the Easter Thunderball, both the 60ft and 1/8th mile were good and there were no signs of stress or drama from the motor. We text Al at Hanna Motorsports with the information from the run and he is delighted with the results of this first test - now we have more instructions for the next runs. Fantastic news - the first runs of the season are always a little nail biting as we all knock the winter rust off ourselves but with a complete new set up we are now both relieved and very excited for the forthcoming season. It would have been nice to do another couple of runs over the weekend just to get away from the basic (and very gentle) settings that we are starting with but it was not to be - roll on next weekend.
2 February 2008
The first update of the 2008 season. I can't believe that we are already into February, we have had a really busy winter with Roger burning the midnight oil in the workshop most nights of the week (I let him have Friday night off - for the early start on Saturday morning)!
We are looking forward to the coming season, once again, working with Al Hanna of Hanna Motorsports on the continued development of Firestorm. This next stage of development is going to be very exciting, we are moving on from our tried and tested (and very reliable) combination into, for us, unknown territory. Al of course has used the new combination for some time and says don't worry, just do it! We are obviously looking forward to it! We will be testing shortly so the learning curve continues. There is still much work to do on the general preparation of the car, the body needs minor attention in a couple of areas and some panel work needs to be replaced. Although this is routine stuff it still takes time and time is a commodity that is pretty scarce right now. We WILL be ready, we just need to keep working at it!
We have included the 2008 calendar onto the website. We were excited to receive an invite to the Bug Jam from David Lloyd-Jones at Santa Pod Raceway which is in addition to the Easter Thunderball, Main Event, FIA European Finals and the Fireworks meeting that we have attended previously. We will be at the two NSRA meetings Hot Rod Drags and Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway and we have also been invited by Steve Murty to York Dragway for UK Open Nationals, Ultimate Road Car Challenge and August Bank Holiday meeting which comprises of the Jap 2NZ Tuners and GTi Hot Hatch Spectacular.
Following discussions with Lee Childs we have been invited to attend the Summer Drag Wars which is to be held at RAF Portreath near Redruth in Cornwall. This is a first not only for the Firestorm team but also for Lee from LA Racing Parts. Lee's new Street Wars series was incredibly successful in 2007, held at Smeatharpe Airfield in Devon and we have every reason to believe that the Summer Drag Wars will be just as successful. The Summer Drag Wars is promised to be on line at the end of February - stay tuned.
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