back to race reports

The Thunderball rescued so many previous Easter meetings when the weather was awful (I even remember one that was "snowed off"), the clear, blue sky and the cold air giving most racers great ETs.

Early mishaps included Neil Hunter's 7 Year Itch Mopar motivated Capri giving up after a 10.23 pass - the gearbox spinning a bushing and damaging the converter neck. Neil went on to crew for Jerry Smith, generally carried out humorous wind up missions with other racers and still had a great time. Another early breakage - gearbox too, I'm told - put Liz Malcolm's pretty Jus'4 Fun dragster out of action before first round.

Carl "Diamond Geezer" Burton enjoyed the number 1 qualifying position for a while with a +.001, and you would have expected this position to be fairly safe, but poor Carl had to give it up to Keith Herbert in the "Mr Furyous" Plymouth Sport Fury at the 6th qualifying round when Keith pulled a treble zero out of the bag and claimed the big money, the trophy and the vouchers from the Pro ET sponsors Inkwell Printers, Penn Autos, Sandy Scooters, A1 Motor Stores, W.A.S.P., Toxico Clothing, Black Bear Harley Davidson, Alley Jax, Motorshack, Hauser Race Cars, Real Steel, Top End Tales and the big money from the perfect ET contingency sponsors Eurodragster and LA Racing Parts. Keith said that the money would finally allow him to buy shoes for his children but we know he has spent it on shiny bits for his car and the rest he just squandered.

The first round saw Rick McCann in the Heaven & Hell Camaro (after a hasty trip home to once more swap engines) run a 10.267 on a 10.26 dial in against Gary Springford in the Whoopass Monza who pulled a cherry, whilst Steve Bolton in the shiny black Plymouth Scamp had the benefit of Chris Hodgkins's red light but pulled an .01 reaction time for good measure, Chris's good dial-in going to waste in the balance and the 383ci SBC motivated silver dragster was on the trailer.

In the mean time Mike Lacey in the finally straight running Metamorphosis Camaro was putting Diamond Geezer on the trailer, by overkilling Carl's start-line snooze with a .003 RT. Mike shaved the tree a bit too close in the following round, though, a -.03 followed by a 2 thousandths breakout for good measure giving Steve Bolton the win light.

Big first round upset, however, was John Atkinson in the normally rapid Cortina which was unusually running mid tens due to a new converter that didn't quite deliver the goods. John pulled a .01 RT against a snoozing Nigel Green at the wheel of the WV Beetle and then, to crew chief Tom's consternation and utter dismay proceeded to break out by 8 thousandths despite the fact that Nigel had problems and was about 3 miles behind.
John has had to take a lot of stick because of this and there was excellent banter in the Pro ET pits with the set up of the Naughty Chair (see 15th April news on Eurodragster by Rachel Blackburn) for first round losers.

Charlie Chivers in the Taxi Express Capri was the victim of a cherry in the second round against Vic Amato, who also red lit but did it second. Charlie went on to run a dead on with a 9, while Vic decided not to be outdone and went one better and ran a dead on with a 4! Apart from the cherries which spoilt the fun too early this would have been an excellent, close race.

Other second round victims were Brian Huxley in the Top Banana roadster who after getting by Gino Bernadine's 9 second 2 litre Capri in the first round, proceeded to break out against Nigel Green despite the better reaction.
Big money Keith Herbert gave up the chance to bag all of the awards by redlighting against Jerry Smith at the wheel of the nicely presented Grim Beeper Road Runner, allowing Jerry to nick the bye run in the quarter finals which should have gone to number 1 qualifier.

Rick McCann in the meantime was paired with Marius Blackburn who uncharacteristically pulled a slow RT to Rick's .04, which forced the lovely Escape from Reality altered to break out by 2 hundredths to try to pass the red Camaro which slowed to a braked 10.33 on a 10.25 dial-in.

Rick was next to meet Vic Amato's yellow "Inabit" Mustang in the quarters. The two racers pulled virtually identical .05 reactions, with Rick enjoying only a 4 thousandths advantage on the tree, then went on to clock a double breakout with Vic taking the finish line but breaking out the most. A nice close race which could have easily gone either way.

On the other side of the ladder Nigel Green succumbed to Paul Baynton's Chevy powered Capri despite the better reaction, by running a slowing 11.84 on an 11.64 dial-in - while Mike Howling was busy launching the Paul Marston Racing Dart a tad too early and unfortunately also suffered axle damage during the run against team mate Steve Bolton who took the win.

Steve went on to trailer Paul Baynton in the semis, both racers pulling near identical reds but Paul doing it first, and both racers breaking out by 5 hundredths and 7 hundredths respectively.

Meanwhile Rick McCann was getting past Jerry Smith with a sizeable advantage on the tree and braking to a 10.34 on a 10.24 dial-in to Jerry's 2 thousandths breakout run and landing in the final.

And here Steve could have gallantly followed the script and repeated the premature acceleration in the previous round, or made some other mistake - but no, he threw a .006 light back at Rick who pulled a respectable .027, the 2 hundredths advantage being then instrumental in Steve's victory in the top end battle. The finish line split was .008, you couldn't have had a closer race - with both contenders braking too late and both breaking out, alas Rick breaking out the most.
As we always say there are 2 races in any one round: the first at the start-line, the second at the top end, where decisions have to be made with partial data and at lightening speeds - Rick hesitated for a couple of hundredths of a second before hitting the brakes, and that cost him the race.

Congratulations once again to Steve for an excellent performance during the whole weekend and for a well deserved win, (and did he get the girl?) to Keith Herbert for cunningly depriving the whole class of the big booty and many thanks to our great sponsors : Inkwell Printers, Penn Autos, Sandy Scooters, A1 Motor Stores, W.A.S.P., Toxico Clothing, Black Bear Harley Davidson, Alley Jax, Motorshack, Hauser Race Cars, Real Steel and Top End Tales.

Thanks to Carla for the report.