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2003 News
14th December 2003
The first outing for Firestorm in
2004 can now be confirmed. Its a very early start to the year for us but
an exciting one as it is the new Extreme Wheels Show at Alexandra Palace,
London on 14th & 15th February 2004. Thank you to Obsession Motorsports
Limited who are organising the show for inviting us. They have confirmed
that it is some years since a show of this kind has taken place at Alexandra
Palace or indeed in London and the South, they felt it was time to put that
right! Firestorm will be on display in the Dragracing section helping to
promote our great sport, myself (Helen, the one with Red Hair) and
Roger (the one with no hair!) will be there on both Saturday and Sunday
so please call round and say Hello. Full details of the show can be
found on their own website at
www.xtremewheels2004.com.
As promised, we can now publish the
first of the 2004 season confirmed bookings for Firestorm. You will find
them all on the
Calendar page which we will
continue to update as soon as we receive confirmed bookings. Roger is
talking to various promoters at both old and new venue's for the 2004 season
and once we receive confirmations we will let you know (as always we will only
publish confirmed dates). A big thank you to both Lee Child and Alan
Martin for these early invitations to Shakespeare County Raceway!
Have a look at our latest link to
UK Event Safety website.
These are some of the people which make our sport safer, we could not do what
we do without them!
6th December 2003
Looking back over the 2003 season
is a joy, not only have we had the best summer ever, with sunshine all the
way, but for us personally, this has been our best and most consistent season.
As those of you who stay in touch will know, the last few years have not been
easy (or cheap) ones! Not going back as far as when we had to build a
new car having completely destroyed Northern Flame, the last couple of years
have been a nightmare. Firestorm would run perfectly one day and not run
right the next which has culminated in many destroyed parts, countless hours
in the workshop, a lot of scratching of heads and loads of glum faces.
However, not wishing to dwell on the darker times, the 2003 season has been
brilliant. We finally managed to get to the route of the problem and
started the year as we meant to go on, with 40' flames on the fireshow, wicked
afterburner pops and full quarter miles passes, straight out the back door
(which in itself was an achievement) and all to the delight of everyone -
racefans, track support crews, our friends and not least the Firestorm crew.
We then started a development programme which we sometimes felt was too slow,
but with lessons learnt by trying to run before walking, this was the
'sensible' way forward. (Hmm, not sure when the word 'sensible'
became part of a Jet Car Teams vocabulary!!!)
There have been one or two
obstacles thrown in the way during the course of the year, some political some
not, but as always we will just step over them and carry on. Nothing is
insurmountable, we haven't got this far without the determination to succeed -
it is just annoying and disappointing that not everyone is in it 'for the good
of the sport'. Enough said.
We have had a very busy but
satisfying year and of course the icing on the cake was an all time best speed
of 250mph and an all time best ET of 6.2 at the end of the year!
Fantastic, onward and upward into 2004!
Not wishing this to sound like a
speech, we would like to thank everyone for their continued help and support
and we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous and exceptionally
quick 2004 season!
We already have some dates for you
for the 2004 season, we will be publishing them in the next couple of days.
Also, if you're short of a Christmas present for the jet fan in your life
don't forget you could order one of the new Firestorm T-shirts, (we've just
got time to get it to you provided you're in the UK). The t-shirts have
been a great success and are selling really well!
25th November 2003
Hello everyone, no we've not disappeared at the end of the season we've all
taken well earned breaks after what has been a busy and exciting 2003 season.
Once we've unpacked (and done the mountain of washing and ironing) we will
endeavour to put together a review of this last year. For the regular
visitors to our site you will know the last few years have not all been plain
sailing, we have had our ups and downs, but this year has been brilliant!
Roger is already talking to promoters about meetings for next year so it
shouldn't be too long before we can start putting the 2004 calendar as well.
21st October 2003
We had a great time at The Halloween Showdown held at Shakespeare County
Raceway this last weekend. It was a good end to what has been a
brilliant season for the Firestorm team. We had 4 strong runs over the
weekend with Firestorm as consistent as ever. It was great to see so
many racers and fans for an end of season bash particularly as it was so cold.
That said though, we had ANOTHER rain free weekend which must be unheard of in
a full season of drag racing. Lots of people stopped by at the Firestorm
pit over the weekend to buy T-shirts and have a chat, both of which was
brilliant, our new t-shirts went down an absolute storm!
14th October 2003
As promised HOT NEWS, the Firestorm camp have just taken delivery of the first
official Firestorm T-shirt! We now have a supply of best quality, heavy
weight t-shirts, in white, for sale at £12.00 adults and £8.00 childrens!
They will be on sale at the weekend at SCR or you can order from us by
e-mail
(p&p free in the UK). Sizes
available are childrens 9/10, 11/12 and adults medium, large, x-large and
xx-large! We also have embroidered Firestorm caps available in Black and
Red for £9.00!
The design of the shirt is by
Darren West of Power Race Graphics who we have to say has been a huge help and
has interpreted our ramblings brilliantly! Thanks also to Promenade
Printers who have taken on the printing and again have helped us no end.
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Firestorm's all new T-shirt's
£12.00 (free p&p in the UK) |
13th October 2003
Sorry for the delay in updating the website, I'm not sure where the last week
has gone. Firestorm was at Shakespeare County Raceway for The Big
Shootout on the 4th & 5th October, this was the last but one meeting of 2003 -
where has the year gone (never mind last week). We had a great
weekend which culminated in another personal best ET of 6.2, again this was
really encouraging and shows that we are definitely on the right road!
We are all looking forward to this coming weekend when we will be at SCR for
the Halloween Showdown!
We will also have some news for Firestorm fans which we will be announcing on
the website tomorrow!
22nd September 2003
Shakespeare County Raceway once again welcomed Firestorm for the second
Dooorslammer's event following the huge success of last year.
Considering the weather forecasters had been giving out doom and gloom
weather forecasts for the weekend we were surprised to wake up on both Saturday and
Sunday to clear blue skies which stayed with us all weekend. Firestorm
had 4 good runs over the weekend, putting on an excellent flame and thunder
display accompanied by what are now fierce afterburner pops.
16th September 2003
It was a great day out at York Dragway for both spectators and competitors
alike. They had a full days racing, very little down time with everyone
putting in some good times and speeds. Roger and Ian have continued with
the development programme for Firestorm and this weekend proved invaluable.
11th September 2003
STOP PRESS - FIRESTORM HEADS BACK TO YORK DRAGWAY! Roger has just got
off the phone from Steve Murty of York Dragway who has invited Firestorm to
Sunday's meeting the UK Northern Finals - American Super Stock Series Finals.
Interclub Shootout finals. Round 5 of the Northern Drag Racing Championship.
Round 6 Hot Rod Challenge. The day is also an open RWYB with camping from 6pm
Saturday night. Should be an excellent day and even the weather forecast
is good! See you there.
8th September 2003
We
have been to Shakespeare County Raceway for the NSRA Hot Rod Drags this
weekend. We set off after work on Friday, arriving at SCR at 11.30, giving us the
last hour in the pit bar and a good start to what turned into a brilliant
weekend. Roger and Ian have been tweaking the settings
on Firestorm again and we were looking forward to seeing the end result. We were down to do two runs on Saturday, unfortunately a
thunder storm robbed us of the first run so Roger had to be content with just
the one run at 6.00pm. The jet turbine certainly sounded keener and the
afterburner pops were wicked, Roger made Firestorm dance about on the line,
so much so he had to limit the number of afterburner pops as Firestorm nearly jumped itself right through stage!
This was followed by a good strong run which showed an
improvement on all ET's right down the line, beating Roger's all time best ET,
fantastic!
Sunday
was a bright, warm day (not bad to say the weather men had forecast nothing
but doom & gloom) and we were all looking forward to our runs, having
once again tweaked Firestorm a little bit more. We did the first run of the day
at 2.00pm, flame & thunder show was both hot & loud and the afterburner
pops ferocious (as reported by the folks in the commentary box who take the
full force of it). This was followed by a stunning run which culminated
in Roger matching his all time best speed of 250mph and beating his previous
best ET with a 6.35. Well pleased with this performance, Roger matched
it with the second run of the day which closed the show. A very fitting
end to another brilliant weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway. We are
now looking forward to going back to SCR in two weeks for the European
Doorslammer Nationals and continuing to improve Firestorm's performance.
7th September 2003
Oh
no, its another apology, this time from yours truly! Sorry for the down
time on the website this week, it has hopefully been sorted and you shouldn't
have any more problems accessing the site, however, let me know if you
do!
2nd September 2003
We have
had a couple of e-mails this week from disappointed Firestorm fans who travelled
to York Dragway to see Firestorm on the bank holiday weekend, as regular
visitors to our site will know, we were at Shakespeare County Raceway for the
Allstar Nationals that weekend. We have looked into it and there had been
a misunderstanding between organisers of the York event and it had been
advertised that we would be at York Dragway on the Monday in error.
Everyone concerned has sent their apologies for the mixup.
28th August 2003
We have had some more photographs
kindly sent down the wire by Ivan Sansom from the Allstar Nationals at
Shakespeare County Raceway which I've put on the Photo Gallery! Thanks
Ivan.
24th August 2003
Firestorm
returned to Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend after a break of some 8 weeks. Once again, it was a beautiful, dry weekend and we saw some very
competitive runs from all the classes in attendance. We were told by the
organisers of the Allstar Nationals that it was a record amount of entries for Shakespeare County Raceway which is
obviously a brilliant achievement for all the people involved in the
organising of race events at SCR. Saturday saw a hectic days qualifying,
with a little downtime which made Firestorms first run of the weekend very
late in the evening, Roger was asked to make the flame & thunder show
short and sweet as the day had run over its curfew hour, hence a quick fireshow (by Rogers normal standards) followed by a full 1/4 mile pass, right
out the back door. The run looked the fastest any of us had seen to
date, but we were all disappointed to find that we hadn't quite got there so
we are still chasing that best to date of 250mph in 6.4 seconds.
Sunday was another qualifying day, but today was even more exciting as it
included the Top Fuel Funny Cars, which performed brilliantly!
Firestorm followed the Fueler's for the first run of the day, doing a Hot
Flame Show and some pretty fearsome afterfurner pops (especially for
race control) which Roger then had to limit because they were so fierce
Firestorm was jumping about 6ft at a time and it was nearly right through
stage. This was followed by another strong 1/4 mile pass. We were
due to close the show but unfortunately this was curtailed by an unfortunate
incident in which Lex Joons Top Fuel Funny Car kicked a rod and fireballed at
the top end, Lex was out of the car in double quick time (as you can imagine)
and OK, but this ended what had been an excellent days racing.
We again saw some great racing on
Monday with several track records being broken over the course of the day,
including a new world record by Jerry Collier and a national speed record in
Fuel Funny Car of 272.73 set by John Spuffard. We had a little bit of
downtime due to a small oil down which meant we were kicking our heels a bit
whilst waiting in the staging lanes (or as Ian did, just catching up on some
sleep)! Firestorm was as strong as ever on both 1/4 mile passes, the
last run of the day was 241.94 mph in 6.45 seconds.
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Allstar Nationals, Shakespeare
County Raceway
23rd, 24th & 25th August 2003 |
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Above photographs by Ivan Sansom |
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Photographs by Tog of
eurodragster.com |
15th August 2003
Unusually for this time of the year,
(where has the year gone), we have a new date to add to our 2003 Calendar.
We have been invited by
Lee Child of LA Performance Services to his meeting on the 4th & 5th October.
The Big Shootout at Shakespeare County Raceway will see some of the fastest cars
in the UK fight it out over the quarter mile. Included will be Top Fuel &
Methanol Dragsters, Altereds, Pro Mods, Super Mods, Supercharged Outlaws, Custom
Car Street Eliminator plus of course Firestorm Jet Funny Car - this will
certainly be a meeting not to be missed! For further details you can visit
Shakespeare County Raceway's website or APIRA's website via our Links Page.
12th August 2003
This last weekend saw Firestorm at
York Dragway for the Northern Nationals. Once again, we were blessed with
scorching weather all weekend and this saw some excellent runs from some
extremely fast cars. Firestorm did two runs over the weekend, one Saturday
and one Sunday.
We have also got hold of the
Newspapers from the Isle of Man in which Firestorm gets a mention! I've
posted copies of the cuttings in the Photo Gallery - we're pleased as punch with
them and have already received an invite to return to the Island for at least
one meeting next year, but possibly three. How exciting is that!
3rd August 2003
This is the second year that Ten of
the Best (TOTB) has been held and after last years success, this years event was
even bigger and better! Front,
rear and four wheel drive cars clashed in a supreme test of power and handling,
with fast Road Legal Cars such as Scoobies, Evos, Skylines, RS Turbo's, Vipers,
Supra's, GTI-R's and many others.
Firestorm did one flame & thunder
show at about 3.30 followed by a run which was all well received as this was the
first time many of the folks at the event had seen Firestorm.
This years event was sponsored by
Redline magazine and was also televised by Sky TV for Sky Sports so it should
get plenty of media coverage.
Sorry but I didn't manage to get any
photographs from this event so if you have any to put in the Photo Album please
e-mail them across for us!
29th July 2003
We are looking forward to this coming
weekend at Elvington, its a new event for 2003 and the first time that Firestorm
has been at this famous venue. There will be more than 100 cars from 10
different clubs which will compete down the 1/4 mile as usual and over the
flying kilometre, where some cars will reach speeds of 200mph! These are
all street legal cars and some will do the 1/4 mile in the low 9 seconds
bracket.
27th July 2003
We
were at York Dragway today for the GTi Hot Hatch Spectacular. After a
brief shower of rain the rest of the day was spent basking in sunshine.
Firestorm did a flame and thunder show followed by a run at about 2.00 and
then again at 4.00. It was a really good turnout by competitors and spectators and a good day was had by all.
23rd July 2003
What a weekend
this has been! It was Firestorm's first visit to the Isle of Man and we have
been made so welcome by everyone concerned, nothing was too much trouble for
anyone. Me and Roj took the Thursday afternoon ferry closely followed by Ian
who came over on Friday morning on the Seacat. We had been invited to the 8th
Round of the Straightliners 2003 Series by Trevor and Howard of Straightliners,
they work in conjunction with Bushey's Brewery and the Special Events Team
from the Isle of Man Tourist Board who all contribute towards making the Jurby
Drag Race happen each year.
The Isle of Man
Tourist Board had already contacted us for information as they wanted to put
Firestorm in the newspapers, this was closely followed by a telephone call
from Manx Radio who wanted to do an interview with Roger. We had the car on
Douglas Promenade on Friday afternoon and the media attention we'd had brought
people down to the prom just to see Firestorm and take some pictures, it was
absolutely brilliant.
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Firestorm at the Jurby Drag Race
2003
Fuel kindly sponsored for this
event by Manx Petroleums |
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Firestorm on Douglas Prom, Isle of
Man. |
Also a first for
us, we were sponsored by Manx Petroleums for Fuel for the weekend. As anyone
who knows the car will tell you, this is not just a few gallons of fuel, the
twin fuel tanks hold 25 gallons, and Firestorm WILL use all of it per run (bit
of a story coming up on that one later ), so Manx Petroleums kindly donated
100 gallons of their finest Jet A1 for the weekend! Huge thank you to
everyone at Manx Petroleums, especially David Kay, for organising that for us.
We also need to thank the Isle of Man Tourist Board office for the use of
their colour printer on Friday, as our Printer decided not to work at 11.00pm
on Wednesday night we desperately needed some printing doing and they came to
the rescue. Thanks for that and for all the other bits and pieces that you
all did!
On Saturday, we
made our way up to the North of Island, we ended up going a different way each
time we went to and from the track and I have to say, if you've not visited
the Isle of Man you should do, for such a small island its very beautiful and,
of course, has an awful lot of history, particularly for us motorcyclists! We
did two flame and thunder shows on Saturday afternoon followed by two short
runs as the track is just not quite long enough to leave it in through the 1/4
mile.
Sunday was
another dry but windy day and yet another route back to the track! Firestorm
had generated a huge amount of interest and lots of people made the effort to
come to Jurby for the meeting. They were treated to some pretty serious
motorcycles doing the 1/4 mile, many running 8 and 9 second runs in qualifying
and of course Firestorm's 3 runs during the course of the day. This is where
I have to confirm that not for the first time, Roj and Ian got carried away
with the flame & thunder show and ran it right out of fuel! I'm sure no one
was too concerned though as it was an exceptional show and certainly caused a
few laughs! We made up for it on the second show of the day however, with
another stunning flame show and this time, a run that had everyone clapping
and cheering with plenty of people taking the time after to come over and say
how much they had enjoyed it. That always makes everything worthwhile.
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Jurby Drag Race, Isle of Man
19th & 20th July 2003 |
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Flame Show at Jurby
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'Now sit down, shut up and hold
on!'
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Now, who's for a Beer?
End of a brilliant weekend! |
Tribute to Joey. |
At the end of an
excellent weekends racing we did the third and final run of the day, once
again a ferocious fire show, afterburner pops that frightened everyone to
death and a strong but short run.
A fantastic
weekend had by all, thanks once again to everyone for their efforts.
Cheers!
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Jurby Drag Race, Isle of Man
19th & 20th July 2003 |
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Isle of Man Courier
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Isle of Man Independant |
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Firestorm makes the Headlines in
the Isle of Man! |
14th July 2003
We have had a
mixed day down at the Classic Bike Sprint at Northweald Airfield (well it was
the 13th). The meeting was everything that was promised, there were classic
bikes in abundance and as promised the twin engined 'The Hobbit' ridden by
John Hobbs, who put in a stunning last run of the day at 8.8, 154mph. We
unfortunately did not do quite so well, we had started the car and began the
flame show when the car developed a small fuel leak on an actuator, obviously
safety must come first so we had to terminate the show early. This aside it
was a brilliant day out with a good attendance and I'm sure everyone had an
excellent time.
30th June 2003
The next outing for Firestorm is
something we are particularly looking forward to, its the 11th Annual Classic
Bike Sprint at North Weald Airfield, Nr
Harlow, Essex. There will be over 200 classic race machines competing over
the 2 lane 1/4 mile course. Top of the bill will be the double engined
Weslake "The Hobbit" ridden by John Hobbs. At least 4 double engined
machines will also be competing alongside supercharged Triumphs, BSA's and
Norton's. Take a look at some of these classic machines in the photo
gallery.
Unfortunately, this looks like
being the final year this event as sadly costs are overtaking, but the
organisers are looking to make it the best yet. Anyone requiring details
of an entry can e-mail
terryhoman@aol.com
or telephone 01255 508120. You can also visit their website
motorsportspromotions.co.uk from the Links page.
Should this be their last event it
would be a great loss. We
sincerely hope that it will be the best ever meeting for the organisers and
the Firestorm team will endeavour to help make that happen!
29th June 2003
This weekend we were again blessed
with glorious sunshine at Shakespeare County Raceway with an excellent turnout
both from racers and racefans alike at the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals. Roger
and Ian turned up the wick again for each run and you could certainly feel the
difference, both in the fireshow and the run! The first run of the day was
Saturday 2.00, everything went really well, with Firestorm's fireshow warming up
the guys in the commentary box (soz), I think they were already warm enough!
With the afterburner pressure that little bit higher Firestorm's engine sounded
that extra bit sharper and when Roj does afterburner pops key your eye on the
car because its certainly jumping further than ever - on this run it was nearly
right through stage! Firestorm did an excellent, straight run in 6.4
seconds for the 1/4 mile, closer than ever to the all time best.
The second run of the day, to close
the show at 6.00 went OK, with that bit of extra pressure the fireshow was even
hotter which culminated in Roj setting the track on fire (literally) oops.
One problem with the run, Roger didn't manage to stage Firestorm so we didn't
get a speed or time, apart from Roger's statement that "It was truckin".
Understated as always!
The weather stayed with us and we had
a great barbeque followed by some socialising in the track bar. How funny
was Mark at about 2.00am 'dancing and making shapes' hmm!! Thanks for the
quote Mark, I'm sure I'll be able to get a photo from somewhere (Hannah),
entertaining to say the least!
Sunday was HOT HOT HOT right from
word go, with temperatures soaring around 28° for the best part of the day and
it didn't cool off until we set off home about 8.00 Sunday night.
Unfortunately for the organisers they
had a bit of a poor start to the days racing with two oil downs within the first
hour, the crews worked especially hard (and in that heat it wasn't easy) and got
the racing going again to then be thwarted for the third time with an incident
on the track which help up the racing again. Taking all that into account
they still managed to run everything and get Firestorm out for both the two
scheduled runs, the first one being an hour late (which I didn't think was bad
under the circumstances).
The first run at 3.00 saw an
excellent pre run Fireshow, which heated up both the track and our friends in
the commentary box! The run went extremely well and backed up yesterdays
best ever 60' time, which pleased us all no end as it shows we are going in the
right direction with our development programme! Time and speed just a tad
slower than yesterdays which could be explained by the higher temperature and
the lower air pressure. We are still chasing that best ever!
Unfortunately the last run of the day
had to be aborted just after the fireshow due to a slight fuel leak
disappointing for the team and the race fans but safety is paramount.
For full race reports on this
weekends meeting and future meetings at Shakespeare County Raceway check out the
APIRA website.
16th June 2003
Shakespeare County Raceway was
certainly buzzing this weekend at the Power Nationals, once again we were all
basking in Sunshine at some points even muttering that it was too hot. We
obviously didn't do that for long though, as you quickly remember all the 'not
so nice' days and thank your lucky stars.
Unfortunately for us we only had the
one run on Saturday (it should have been two), the organiser's were inundated
with entries and due to this there simply was not enough time, this is
disappointing for us as we are reliant on the runs for the development programme
which is in place. As you may be aware after the problems suffered last
year we are being very cautious on our tune ups and obviously not wanting to
cause any damage to the engine this is all done one step at a time.
Unfortunately, Firestorm is not the kind of car you can just fire up in the back
yard!
So, moaning over, we had just the one
run on Saturday, and I am pleased to say that it all went very well. The
Fireshow was superb, with masses of flame lighting up the start line, Roj did a
couple of afterburner pops which jumped Firestorm more or less into stage,
followed by a very smooth, full 1/4 mile pass.
Saturday evening was spent firstly
down the local pub for a meal followed by one or two bevvies in the Race Track
Bar (it would have been rude not to!) On Sunday morning we woke to clear
blue skies and warm sunshine which very soon became Hot Sunshine and found us
all scurrying for shade.
We had our first run of the day at
2.30, Firestorm put on an excellent Fireshow followed by a good 1/4 mile pass.
Roger had stepped it up a little bit more and went a little quicker than
yesterdays run which brings us within 10 mph of Firestorm's quickest run to
date. We're all now getting quite excited that its all going in the right
direction, and we are really looking forward to beating Firestorm's overall
quickest time and speed to date 250mph in 6.4 seconds! Watch this space.
The second run went well with Roger
backing up the time and speed of the first run.
Thanks go out to Tog of
Eurodragster.com who has yet again provided us with some superb photographs
taken at the UK Modified Nationals, check them out in the Photo Gallery.
For full race reports and photographs of this weekend visit Eurodragster.com.
2nd June 2003
How pleased I am to be able to say
what a fantastic time Firestorm and the crew has had this weekend, the weather fairies
granted us sunshine in abundance with only one little shower all weekend and
we had no gremlins whatsoever messing us about! Well done to Mark
Needham and No Limits Events for organising the first UK Modified Nationals,
they couldn't have picked a better weekend for it and had a good turnout.
There was plenty going off all weekend and certainly something for everyone!
There was an 'Hour of Power' on the
dragstrip, twice a day on both Saturday and Sunday with demonstrations runs
from various cars with Firestorm closing the show each time with its
spectacular Flame and Thunder show, followed by some pretty strong 1/4 mile
passes.
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UK Modified Nationals - 31st May
to 1st June 2003
Shakespeare County Raceway |
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Photographs by Tog of
Eurodragster.com |
19th May 2003
This weekend was the
Classic American Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, a weekend jam packed
with Classic American Vehicles as well as the Wild Bunch, Supercharged Outlaws
and National Street Car Challenge runners. On Saturday morning we were
unfortunately woken with the sound of rain on the trailer roof. By about
12.00 the track had dried out enough to start running the street cars.
Unfortunately it then rained on and off all afternoon and proceedings were
eventually brought to a halt about 4.15, without Firestorm doing a run as the
track never really dried out enough.
Sunday saw a rainy start but it
soon brightened and we were soon seeing some pretty strong 1/4 mile passes by
the American Muscle Cars. Firestorm had one run about 4.00 as there had
been some downtime due to an oil-down which the F.A.S.T and A.P.I.R.A. crews
cleared as quickly as they could. We then raced back to the pits, all
hands on deck to turn Firestorm around to close the show in time for the 5.00
curfew. We got Firestorm into the pairing lanes with Roger strapped in
ready to go only to be thwarted at the eleventh hour by a short sharp downpour
that unfortunately ended this racing weekend.
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Excitement Nationals 2003
Photograph by Sharkman of
Eurodragster.com |
11th May 2003
This weekend has
seen Firestorm up at York Dragway for the 12th You've Been Nabbed Motorcycle
Rally. This is a charity event organised and run by the National
Association of Bikers with a Disability (shortened to N.A.B.D.). They run
various events throughout the year to raise funds so that disabled people can
have full access to the independence and enjoyment of motorcycling. As
motorcyclists ourselves this is obviously something close to our hearts.
Firestorm certainly went down a storm, doing two flame & thunder shows and two
1/8th mile passes, the second pass with a terminal speed at more than 180mph
at the 1/8th mile marker. Everyone was well pleased with this and as
myself and Ian followed Roger down the track to collect Firestorm, everybody
in the Grandstand, on the banking and on the Startline really showed their
appreciation which was absolutely brilliant! The whole weekend has been
jam packed with entertainment from start to finish with a free run what you
brung, stunt shows, stalls, live music, comedy show and girlies with their
tops off etc etc, if you've missed this one certainly watch out for next years
rally or visit NABD's website for other
events being organised for the rest of this year.
Our next event is down a
Shakespeare County Raceway for the Classic American Nationals next weekend
(there's no rest for the wicked)! This will be a top class meeting
crammed full of Classic American vehicles and much more, for full details of
the event check out the
APIRA website.
9th May 2003
As reported 7th May, the
last meeting at Shakespeare County Raceway was the Excitement Nationals and
what a brilliant weekend it was. It was over the May Day Bank Holiday
Weekend and we had 3 days of some pretty keen racing, including some Top Fuel
and Methanol. For ourselves it was the second time out for Firestorm
this year and Rogers first chance to do 1/4 mile passes. Once we had the
SFI tech. inspection out of the way on Saturday morning we prepared the car
ready for one run scheduled for later in the day, unfortunately due to one or
two delays during the day and an unfortunate shower of rain about 5.00pm time
ran out and we had to put the cover on Firestorm and retire to the bar.
Sunday morning we got up to
brilliant blue skies and for me personally a raging hangover (oops not sure
how that happened)! Anyway, everything was set for some good times and
speeds as the track warmed a little following a pretty chilly night. We
had two runs planned for the day, both of which went as planned and pleased us
all no end. Monday was another good day weather wise and saw another
full day of racing which culminated in Firestorm finishing the days racing
with its Flame and Thunder show and after a little hiccup a 1/4 mile pass, we
can only apologise to A) all the people who had to run back to the stands to
catch the run and B) to Clerk of the Course Richard Warburton for scaring him
half to death, Roger say's it was the devil that made him do it!!!!!!!
7th May 2003
Firestorm was at
Shakespeare County Raceway for the Bank Holiday Weekend for the Excitement
Nationals and I can confirm a good time was had by all! I will be
putting together a full report over the next day or so but here is the news in
brief.
Firstly let us despatch any rumours
which you may have heard about the new Jet Rules and Firestorm's subsequent
SFI technical inspection. We were advised on Tuesday that rules had now
been put in place for Jet Powered Vehicles but since we keep abreast of NHRA
Jet Rules this was not really an issue to us. On Thursday we received
some SFI Specification Roll Cage Padding from John Webster Race Engineering
and other than that Firestorm was fit and ready for inspection. Saturday
morning at SCR Firestorm passed its inspection with flying colours and is now
sporting the relevant SFI chassis certification tag. As promised a full
report of the weekend will follow and as normal you can catch up with
everything on
www.eurodragster.com.
22nd April 2003
We were at York Dragway on
Sunday and Monday for our first meeting of the year. Sunday saw the
second round of Streetfighters and Monday was the Super Street Shootout.
It was a brilliant turnout on the two days, both competitors and fans were out
in force braving the chilly East wind! As this was the first meeting of
the year and the first time Firestorm had been fired up since the winter strip
down, the first run on Sunday was a shakedown pass just to make sure
everything was AOK. On Monday we had two pretty strong 1/8th mile passes
which both thrilled and warmed the race fans.
We are all looking forward to the
next meeting which is the Excitement Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway
in two weeks time on the Bank Holiday weekend. We will be there for the
three days doing flame and thunder shows on each day. Amongst other
things the meeting will feature the first round of the 2003 British Nitro
Funny Car Championship and some Top Fuel Dragster action! Shakespeare County Raceway will certainly be the
place to see some serious Drag Racing on the Bank
Holiday Weekend. For further information on this and other events, you
can visit the Shakespeare County Raceway website via our Links Page.
18th April 2003
Roger would like to thank Graham Sykes
of Sykes Engineering for his invaluable help and expertise. We needed
some specialist engineering which was beyond the realm of our small workshop
and Graham 'Syko' Sykes did the work, did it on time and didn't charge a
fortune. Much to be said for that! Something else that is
exceptional value for money from Syko are the sets of aluminium spanners for
the anodised fittings that we all use. We have used our set constantly
and 100% recommend them. Take a look at his website via the links page
and checkout out his V8 engined dragbike one of the most ferocious (and best
engineered) machines we've seen!
15th April 2003
Firestorm has had another confirmed booking for the already busy 2003
calendar. The meeting is once again a first for Firestorm although we
have been to North Weald on a few occasions. On 13th July Firestorm will
attend the 11th annual Classic Bike Sprint, at North Weald Airfield, Nr
Harlow, Essex. There will be over 200 classic race machines competing over
the 2 lane 1/4 mile course. Top of the bill will be the double engined
Weslake "The Hobbit" ridden by John Hobbs. At least 4 double engined
machines will also be competing alongside supercharged Triumphs, BSA's and
Norton's. (Roger is really chuffed about this one and can't wait as
these are all from his era)!
Unfortunately, this looks like
being the final year this event as sadly costs are overtaking, but the
organisers are looking to make it the best yet. Anyone requiring details
of an entry can e-mail
terryhoman@aol.com
or telephone 01255 508120.
Should this be their last event it
would be a great loss. We
sincerely hope that it will be the best ever meeting for the organisers and
Firestorm will endeavour to help make that happen!
30th March 2003
As usual time seems to have moved forward much quicker than anticipated, Roger
has been spending long hours in the workshop since Christmas doing all those 'little
jobs' on Firestorm that actually take up quite a lot of time! April is
nearly upon us and the first meeting of the year just 3 weeks away!
Whilst Firestorm will be tarted up and ready to rock n roll by then the Ford Cargo
Transporter may not be ready to use and keep warm in - Ho Hum!
That's priorities for you!
We are still working on more dates for this years calendar, hopefully they
will be confirmed in the next few weeks. Other than that not much news
at the moment, not long now though so keep checking the website for regular
updates throughout the coming season!
8th February 2003
Everything is moving forward at quite a pace now in the Firestorm team, we can
confirm that Firestorm's first 2003 appearance will be at York Dragway on
Easter Weekend. We'll be blowing away the cobwebs and helping to keep
folks warm on Sunday 20th April at the Street Fighter Spectacular a bike only
event featuring Round 2 of Street Fighter's Straightliners and on Monday 21st
April at the Super Street Shootout, which includes Mini vs Beetle shootout,
Cruise Missile Shootout No. 1 and rounds of the Hot Rod Challenge and Northern
Drag Racing Championship.
We are also thrilled to have been
invited by Mark Needham of No Limits Events to appear at the UK Modified Nationals, a new event
for 2003 at Shakespeare County Raceway. There is plenty happening on
this weekend with loads of fantastic shows and entertainment - something for
everyone. For all the details and information visit Marks website www.modifiednationals.co.uk.
Work on the Cargo Truck, Firestorm
Crews new living quarters, is a little slower than we would like,
unfortunately things like Work seem to be getting in the way. Fingers
crossed that it'll be ready for Easter!
2nd February 2003
We are delighted to be able to announce several new dates for the 2003 season.
Lee Child of LA Performance Services has invited Firestorm to appear at five
events at Shakespeare County Raceway throughout this year. This is
of course great news and we are all looking forward to supporting both Lee's
events and Shakespeare County Raceway over the coming months. More
details on the events will be posted as we get them.
Roger has also taken a call from
good friend Steve Murty who has confirmed two meetings at York Dragway.
More dates at York are to be confirmed in the next two weeks. Firestorm
will be at the GTi Hot Hatch spectacular on Sunday 27th July and at the
Northern Nationals, Saturday and Sunday 9th/10th of August. Over the weekend,
amongst other things will be Mopar Muscle Shoot-Out and Wild Bunch Shoot-Out,
rounds of American Super Stock and Hot Rod Challenge and much more!
All the dates which have so far been confirmed can be found on the Calendar
page, you can also get further details of these events on both the Shakespeare
County Raceway and York Dragway websites.
As you can imagine we are all more than pleased with how this year's calendar
is shaping up for Firestorm and we are looking forward to an excellent years
Drag Racing. See you there!
26th
January 2003
We
have had some brilliant news this week. Firestorm has been invited to
the Isle of Man, Jurby Sprint, courtesy of Straightliners and Isle of Man
Tourist Board. We will be at the Jurby Sprint on the 20th & 21st of
July and as this is Firestorm's first visit to the Isle of Man we are all
looking forward to it.
Everything
is progressing quite nicely in the Firestorm camp at the moment. Roger
is busy in the workshop doing some winter jobs on Firestorm, stuff that gets
left during the season as there never seems to be enough time! The Ford
Cargo modifications have been delayed a little through work commitments but will be started
again next week on Ian's return from a trip
to the USA. Among other things Ian is collecting some spare parts
and new chutes from Deist Safety Equipment in California.
Direct
Plastics of Sheffield (0114 526 0889) is another helpful company to
note. It is owned and run by Paul, who is a drag racer himself.
Pauls company supplies aluminium (or aluminum if you prefer!) in all the
different sections and grades, also as the name suggests they supply plastics
of all kinds including Lexan to make Firestorm a new windshield!
15th
January 2003
Hot
off the press we have published the first confirmed dates for this
season. We are more than pleased with how things are shaping up and
there will be plenty more dates published soon. We are very excited as
some of the planned appearances will be a first for Firestorm, so stay tuned
to hear all the details first hand!
We
will be supporting the NABD Rally for the 3rd year running, which is held from
the 9th to 11th May at York Dragway. As motorcyclists ourselves this is an
event we whole heartedly support and can recommend it to everyone. It is
a brilliant weekend with plenty of entertainment for all and Firestorm will be
strutting its stuff on Saturday with flame and thunder displays and 1/4 mile
passes as often as we can. Visit the NABD (National Association for
Bikers with a Disability) website where full details will be published
shortly.
We
are also chuffed to be invited back to Shakespeare County Raceway for the
Classic American Nationals, NSRA Nostalgia Nationals and the NSRA Hot Rod
Drags, all three events have plenty of first class cars doing some pretty
nifty times down the 1/4 mile. Firestorm will appear on both days at all
three events with Flame & Thunder a plenty and 1/4 mile passes down the
drag strip.
We
have also been invited to Elvington, home of countless speed records for a
brand new event in August. Elvington is a relatively new venue to drag
racing and that can only be good for the sport of drag racing and its
supporters. We don't have all the details on this event at this stage
but we will let you know as soon as we can.
That's
it for today we will have another update shortly as things develop!
4th
January 2003
Well
here we are into 2003, may we take this opportunity to wish you all a very
Happy New Year from the Firestorm Jet Funny Car Team.
The
planning for this season is already well underway. Roger and Ian are
busy in the garage upgrading a Ford Cargo which will make life a little easier
whilst away at weekends. Roger is also talking to numerous people about
bookings for this coming year. The calendar is already starting to look
busy for this year but as usual we will not publish any of the dates until
they have been confirmed - keep checking the Calendar page for details.
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