2007
Bug Jam.
After loading the Camaro up in the pouring rain on the Friday morning of the Bug Jam and leaving our Surrey home in two feet of water at about lunch time, we towed to the Pod in torrential rain !!!
I should have realised this wasnt going to be a good weekend, but us drag racers are a tough bunch !
After some major hassles in finding a decent place to pit we were ready for the weekend.
After the last rounds mis-fire problems, we had replaced all of the electrical components on the Camaro so were hoping for a better weekend.
But alas, it returned with a vengeance. This misfire problem is unique to the Pod. The Camaro was fine at Shakespeare County Raceway, was fine on the road but mis-fires at the Pod, at least its consistent !! They should have re-named this event the "Bog Jam", rain and mud everywhere as far as the eye could see.
No luck in qualifying with the '69 and to make things worse we drew Steve Pateman in the 1st round. With a nice burnout the '69 sounded awesome with the F2 Procharger and dump valve making their unique sounds.
Both cars left the start line but before I could shift into second gear the race was over for me as the Supercharger belt dumped itself onto the Santa Pod track. Not even sufficient time to see if we had cured the mis-fire problems ??
On the up side, I still really enjoyed getting back to the track and meeting all my old friends and meeting new ones and the Camaro is safely sitting in the garage in one piece with no major breakages.
As for the 2008 season, my main objective is to actively search for a couple of sponsors to try and help out with a full compliment of rounds in Street Eliminator. Not a brilliant return for me to drag racing after a 10 year layoff with 3 meetings all nearly being rained off coupled with a persistant mis-fire, things could have been better.
STOP PRESS :
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I have just recently driven the '69 to the American Car World Magazine Lazy Sunday event and returned with a top six award, what a really good day organised by Richard Nichols and the ACW team. We will definitely be going to next years event !
Alternatively, I am tempted to put the Camaro into “World Street Race” trim (DOT slicks, wheelie bars and racing fuel !) and just do a couple of the bigger meets at Santa Pod.
We have previously ran in the 8 second range (so be it on DOT slicks but no full tube chassis and at over 3500 LBS) with the '69 street legal and driven regularly on the road including a 250 mile round trip on the M1 & M25 in traffic, still pretty creditable I would say !!!
Make sure to return soon to check on the Winter rebuild which should include a complete new boost referenced ignition system, hopefully a freshened engine and blower and possibly a new charge cooler under the dash. (Sponsor Anyone) ??
It just leaves me to say a big thank you to my crew, (especially Vinnie) for all their help, all the racers and all the drag racing faithful (spectators) who come to support us rain or shine !
Santa Pod Raceway / Summer Nationals 17th/18th June
Not really much to report on this race event I'm afraid, but since the last outing at SCR we had replaced my Magna Fuel 500 pump and had the TH400 gearbox tweaked, so we were really looking forward to this event at Santa Pod hoping we could get a full pass on the '69 under our belts.
Arriving at the track about 2 pm we set up camp and proceeded to get the Camaro scrutineered and the crew signed on for the weekend and looking forward to 3 qualifiers on Saturday......How wrong could I be !!
It was forecast for showers on Saturday but the rain was near torrential for the whole day. The excellent Santa Pod crew worked relentlessly all day and every time the track was dried it tipped down again!
Thankfully the decision was taken not to run the Street Eliminator cruise on the Saturday night as Vinnie had spent most of the day polishing the Camaro and it would have come back resembling a farm vehicle if put on the road that night.
We awoke to bright sunshine Sunday morning and we all had a one shot qualifier to deal with. With a nice smokey burnout the car launched really hard for the street tyres but suffered a big misfire through 2nd and 3rd gears resulting in a way below par 10.51.
We drew Jerry Charles in his 706 Capri for the 1st round, and we had made a couple of changes to the ignition hoping to cure the misfire but again on the run the car went into misfire mode and with a -0.19 red light this didnt help matters either !! Still, I think we all had a good time, but now beginning to realise how important it is to get some pre-season testing in..
So hopefully for the Bug Jam we can cure our teething problems, get a full pass on the 69, (under full power) and get a decent number on the board.
See you all there.
Billy and the Crew.
Shakespeare County Raceway / Spring Nationals May 5/6 2007
Lots of work went into preparing the Camaro for this event but with numerous late nights in the garage,we made it to the track at friday lunch time (who can believe it is exactly 10 years since we were 1st team to run in the 8 second zone in the old Pro Street verion of S/E).
But with this in mind and S/E for me being the best class out there, this was why I had to get back out racing !! Due to various reasons we had not been out testing with the 69 at all, infact all we had done in the car last year was a 3/4 8.90 second run on ET Streets.
So coming to this race we had no data what so ever to work with, couple this with the car is now on full treaded tyres I was a bit apprehensive to say the least and had no idea how my high horse-power '69 would perform. With the car scrutineered we had to perform some observed runs.
On the 1st run we opted to run on the safe side and with a below average burn-out, no T/brake and a soft foot brake launch and a cold track. I pedalled the car til I hit 3rd gear then hitting full throttle, I was pleased with an off the trailer 10 zero @ 147mph.
On the second run we decided to dial in a bit more power and use the T/brake. Again spinning the tyres, pedalling, short shifting and hitting the rev limiter at about 1200 feet I should have been pleased with the 9.91 at about the same top speed.
That was about it for the weekend for us as we missed the S/E cruise chasing a fuel pump problem. All in all we had a great weekend with getting my RAC licence "signed" (thanks Richard) and the car performing well.
I would like to say a big thankyou to all the people at SCR and fellow racers and friends in making me feel welcome on my return to the track.
We are booked at Santa Pod for the next round of S/E June 16/17 and severely looking to take a big chunk off that 9.91 pass.