National Finals

The National Finals at Santa Pod were eagerly awaited by all NFAA Teams and the adrenalin was pumping as we looked forward to rounding off the 2006 season in style....alas, it was not to be .

It being the last meeting of our season, inevitably there were some notable non-runners due to damages/awaiting parts. These included The Mob, Time Warp, Freddy's Revenge, Burning Desire and Dirty Harry IV - but they will be back for 2007. Saturday's first round showed promise as the teams dialled into the well prepared track - hoping for some new PB's.

First up was Xtreme bob Glassup paired with Joe(007)Bond in Nuthin' Fancy. Both launched well but Bob had to shut off at half track with transmission woes, handing the 8.33/160.65 win to the continually improving Joe.

Next we had Venom versus Bennett Racing, Frank needing the points to close the gap on Clayton, the points being very close at this stage. On the green, Tony Betts cut a slightly better light and recorded 1.058 at 60Ft and 4.33 at the eighth. Frank was chasing hard as the big mill churned out the HP, with a 1.139 at 60Ft and 4.772 at half track. Unfortunately for Tony, a valve seat dropped, taking a valve head and piston with it amidst much smoke at 1000ft. A great shame because Venom was charging - probably a low 'six' at around 220 MPH was on the cards. Frank Bennett meanwhile, steamed by the stricken Nitro car to a 7.46/181.36 to take the win and the points. A good side-by-side pairing was judged by all.

The final pair was series leader and defending champion Clayton Round in Rebel 'T', matched against John Wright in Chaos. Clayton laid down a stormin' burnout to around half track, reminiscent of 'Wild Willy', which ultimately earned him valuable points. Chaos wasn't sounding quite right on the burnout and on the backup the headers were starting to glow, so John actuated the high side lever to put more fuel in, hoping to cool the motor. At the hit, Clayton pulled a hole-shot, with a 1.046 at 60ft, 4.576 at the eighth, culminating in nearly a PB, with 7.202 @ 183.65.

Chaos, meantime, launched hard and just past the tree, 'popped' with a little flame out of the LH cylinder bank and then died. First examination in the pits revealed very little oil in the diaper, but big splits in the girdle and top to bottom in the block. It looked like Nos 1 & 2 rods had departed, possibly caused by a hydraulic 'moment' in No 1 cylinder, the nitro burning in the headers, rather that the combustion chambers.... time to raid the piggy bank again !

The heavens opened around the time for round two, so it was 'finis' for the day.

Sunday dawned with reasonable weather after a stormy night and the four remaining BB/FA's were in the staging lanes ready to run when the wet stuff came down again and again. The track crew toiled ceaselessly, but to no avail, so the meeting had to be called.

So, Clayton Round successfully defended his 2005 title - congratulations to him and all his crew. Commiserations go to Bennett Racing, who tried so hard and kept Clayton 'honest' all year, and to all Franks team. Third place goes to Bob Glassup and well deserved too.

In my book, all NFAA members are winners and have put on a very good show all season long, with good coordination, superb side-by-side passes and many personal bests.

Hopefully we will be judged by others to have been entertaining - we have all enjoyed the season tremendously.

It is expected that the NFAA will be able to field an additional 4-6 cars for 2007.....we can hardly wait. now it's time to regroup and plan to be better and faster for next year, but we can't guarantee to be any straighter down the quarter mile !!

Hot Rod Drags

Last weekends NSRA Hot Rod Drags was an event of mixed fortunes for the NFAA.

Saturday was cloudy and overcast with temps in the low 60's and a corrected altitude of 1200ft. The track preparation was excellent, but there was no heat in the surface, making it difficult to better the ever lowering ET's that had been run, thus far.

Armed with some fuel system set-up data from top USA Fuel Altered Teams, The Mob was being run as a test mule for Chaos, the two having near identical combinations.

Jim Usher (in his fancy, newly painted helmet) started his burnout in earnest, but just out from the tree, numbers 1 & 3 rods let go and punctured the billet Rodeck Donovan block.

Naturally the fear was that the tune-up data was to blame, but subsequent examination of the damage revealed this not to be the case. The culprit was an incorrectly plasma sprayed crank journal, 'correcting' damage from the previous meeting.

Venom, shoed by Tony Betts, went for a half pass to test their rebuild and launched to a 1.16s 60ft incremental.

Bennett Racing & Nuthin' Fancy had good side-by-side runs and Pete Radcliffe in Burning Desire started to get a handle on racing again after a 3 year gap.

Rebel 'T' and Xtreme Racing both ran mid sevens alongside one another, with terminals in the high 170 MPH zone.

The racers were all in the staging lanes for their second round at 4.15 PM, but a big oil down, which would take the track crew into the curfew, meant that the round had to be curtailed.

Sunday dawned with better conditions, warm and sunny with temps in the mid 70's.

Bennett Racing and Rebel 'T' were first up, with neatly co-ordinated burnouts and Frank got the win light with a new PB of 191.22 MPH.

Freddy's Revenge could not continue their improvements and Joe Bond ran a new PB of 7.92 at 165.22, in only his 14th pass in the car.

Bob Glassup & Pete Radcliffe had acceptable passes, the win going to the Xtreme Racing Team.

Venom and Chaos were both feeling their way somewhat, Tony Betts recording a 60ft time of 1.069 to John Wright's 1.17.

The faster three BB/FA's all had tyre shake at about half track, but all drove through it without troubles, if a little squirrelly at the 1000ft mark.

The last and final round at 4.00PM had some good pairings based on previous ET's with Xtreme matched against the Bennett's. The adrenaline was running high as they squared up and 'Xtreme Bob' pulled his first red light of the series. handing the win to Frank Bennett, who ran a 7.46 at 183.64.

They say that if you don't pull an occasion 'cherry', you aren't trying hard enough and fractions of a second make all the difference.....

Burning Desire ran another half pass as Rad gets used to racing again and Dave Grabham lost fire, but subsequently ran an 'off-the pace' 9.59 - investigation subsequently indicating a split block.

Rebel 'T' won another round with a 7.35.183.4 to Joe Bonds 7.99 at 183.44, the terminal speed being another PB for the improving Nuthin' Fancy Team.

Chaos and Venom could not make the call, both sidelined with oil pump problems - recoverable for the next round, the National Finals at Santa Pod.

Open Sports Nationals

Entertainment was the name of the game for the NFAA at the Open Sports Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway and it was adjudged, by others, that plenty was provided.Aided by a superbly prepared track, thanks to Bruno and the track prep team, nearly everyone recorded personal bests.

We try to co-ordinate the burnouts and staging as one part of the show. By matching previous or last round ET’s, we also aim to provide close side-by-side racing to the stripe. This past weekend we achieved most of our aims with some cracking duels, with only inches in it at the lights.

With only 3 Nitro cars available, the cackle factor was limited, but not before Jim Usher in The Mob recorded his first 200+ MPH run, with a 7.142 @ 202.60. This was quickly followed by that elusive ‘six’ in the next round at 6.982/205.45. Everyone appreciated the achievement, after only 20 runs in the car and congratulations flowed for Jim, Ollie and all the crew.

Tony Betts, sporting an all new, fresh, combination in Venom had teething problems in the pits with various oil leaks, but made it out for round 4. A very smoky burnout followed, but disintegrating valves & fuel pump caused a mini firework display out of the headers, sidelining the team for the rest of the event.

Chaos missed the first round, to enduring embarrassment, when we couldn’t get the car out of the trailer after the tail lift hydraulic hose burst at a critical moment.

Problem overcome, John Wright, shoeing the altered for only the 5th time, laid down a stout 7.063 @164.25 – a 3/4 pass as John felt a couple of cylinders go away. Inspection in the pits revealed a number of bent exhaust valves and pistons that had departed prematurely. There is plenty of potential in the combination and Chaos expects to be knocking on the doors of The Mob and Venom very shortly.

Clayton Round and the Rebel ‘T’ team, sporting very attractive new shirts, was his usual consistent self, with passes of 7.201/186.44 and 7.195/186.09 – aiding his points chase.

Xtreme Bob Glassup stunned all of us with a 3/10ths improvement to lay down a PB of 7.056@186.92.

Bennett Racing had their problems, new pistons were found to be incorrectly profiled, causing Luke, Cliff and the crew many hours of tedious hand grinding of valve relief’s and domes. Having said that, they tried very hard to put on a show and had some good competitive passes against Clayton and Bob.

Freddy’s Revenge, now being assisted by Norm Wheeldon, helped Dave Grabham to improve by over a second, culminating in a significantly higher terminal of 170.55 at 8.39. The team were, rightly, elated and are sure that improvements will continue as they start to run the numbers.

Joe Bond was getting to grips with the 426 CI motored Nuthin’ Fancy, having had only 10 runs including the licensing passes. Round 5 paired Joe with Xtreme Bob and was interesting, to say the least. On the green, Bob blazed the tyres (trying for a second burnout perhaps ?), whilst Joe was out of the hole like a scalded cat. Just past the tree, the car reminded Joe and all of us, just how unpredictable they can be, veering sharply left across the centre-line, up on two wheels and the headers. Joe reacted quickly, got back in his correct lane, still with his foot hard down and got very close to the Armco. Bob Glassup, meantime, got the power to the deck and sailed past for the win, which was automatic in any case. Joe controlled the out-of-shape car very well considering and it’s all part of the learning experience. However, a half mile run on a quarter mile track is probably not the best way to win races, even if it was spectacular.

Unfortunately, rain showers halted play after only one round on Monday, in spite of the valiant efforts by all the APIRA personnel.

The trophies, kindly donated by Touch FM were awarded to Bob Glassup as the winner and Clayton Round as runner-up - awarded for the quickest ET’s up to round 5, on the basis that only those that could have made the last and final round could have been in the Finals.

This was, without doubt, the best ever NFAA event so far and we look forward to upcoming meetings, when we aim to battle and thrill in a similar fashion.

Nostalgia Nationals

Of course, we in the Drag Racing Fraternity commonly complain about the weather, but at the NSRA Nostalgias at Shakespeare County Raceway this past weekend, the complaints were somewhat different – too hot and poor air quality.

The first round saw some stellar performances from the Rebel ‘T’, Bennetts and Xtreme Teams with consistently improving runs from Freddy’s Revenge.

The Mob was the only Nitro burner available as Chaos was doing duty at the NEC for the Max Power Show on sponsors Lucas Oil UK stands. The idea being to try to interest some of the high disposable income ‘hot hatch’ brigade in the sport and the NFAA, in particular, whilst supporting Lucas Oil, in order to enhance their profile in this market sector.

Tony Betts in Venom was also unable to attend as, when they went to build their new engine, due to some damages incurred at the Summer Nationals, they discovered that the new KB block had the wrong dimensions in a few critical areas. Frantic calls to Gary Burgin got the correct mill on the shipping route, but the earliest it could arrive was Monday, 3 July. Kind of like ‘rubbing salt in the wound’ and Tony and all the Team were bitterly disappointed as they wanted to run another, possibly lower, - ‘6’.

Jim Usher, rapidly getting used to the violent launches in The Mob, laid down some spectacular burnouts and will be a force to be reckoned with at future meets.

Wendy and Paul of Time Warp fame were mourning the comprehensive damage to their KB, Lenco and clutch and need some time (and funds) to source replacements, so they could not pound the strip.

Frank Bennett showed yet again how good he is at anticipating the tree, with a reaction time of .097 and personal bests of 7.161 & 190.63. Clayton Round had a number of minor glitches and snags, but overcame them to record 7.36/181.45, making sure that Frank stayed honest.

The Xtreme Racing Topolino demonstrated great launches but at the cost of another damaged converter, sidelining the Topo for the rest of the meet.

Dave Grabham improved steadily, whilst getting used to a Lenco and clutch combination and now has the experience of Norm Wheeldon to assist in the tune up and settings and will soon be able to ‘run the numbers’ if these improvements continue.

Joe Bond continued his licensing progress, getting his licence on his second pass enabling him to pair against The Mob for the 3rd and final round, which was an excellent side-by-side pass to the stripe, with Joe running a best to date of 8.68s

The second round on Saturday was due at 5.00 p.m. but the track officials were worried about the state of the track in terms of its suitability to handle the amount of power put down by the NFAA cars. An inspection was held and, wisely, it was jointly decided to forgo the run so as not to cause any more track damage. At this point, the track temperature was 159°F with a corrected altitude approaching 2,700 ft - poor air quality not helping the situation.

The Shakespeare track crews had worked long and hard overnight to re-lay the track with extensive sledding, so that it was perfect for Sunday – thanks guys, very much appreciated.

By the second run on Sunday, the humidity was 24%, track temperature 145°F and the corrected altitude was 3,500 ft.

The rivalry between points leaders, Bennetts and Rebel ‘T’ continued with super reaction times of .089 and .097 respectively. Great to the wire passes that the crowd really appreciated.

All in all, a good meeting with improving performances and tremendous enthusiasm by all concerned.

Summer Nationals

The Summer Nationals event was the best to date for the NFAA, helped by an excellently prepped track and warm weather.

We had some good side-by-side duels with only inches in it at the stripe and with most of the licensing runs now completed we look forward to many more....

The first '6' for the NFAA was recorded by Tony Betts in Venom - 6.702/204.74, followed shortly by the best run to date by Nick Davies in Havoc with a stunning 6.910/205.47. The sound of gauntlets being thrown down comes to mind !

Saturday's high humidity took many by surprise, especially The Mob, upsetting the fuel system such that Jim Usher's run resulted in damage to 6 pistons when the ring lands blew out - so into the spares box for the next round.

Bennett Racing, Rebel 'T' and Extreme Racing all put down some stout low 7 second runs after good smoky burn-outs.

'Dirty Harry IV, shoed by Dennis Wratten ran well on his 'familiarisation' pass to a 7.66/186.0, which shows that this Team will be a force to be reckoned with in the future - a very good debut with the Class.

John Wright in 'Chaos' got to grips with the all new set-up, improving in Round 4 to a 7.432/161.83 at the 1/8th - more to come now that a base-line has been established.

Newcomer Joe Bond in 'Nuthin Fancy' advanced steadily - 23.45/20.47/12.89 & 10.13 on his observed runs, very well controlled progress as experience is gained - excellent stuff.

Commiserations go to Wendy Baker in 'Time Warp', super burn-out and then the motor let go, just past the tree. Examination in the pits, after removal of the blower, revealed half the cam and several rod bolts in the lifter gallery ! Coupled with a severely broken Lenco, Clutch & Can, means that there is little left to salvage. We all hope that the funds can be found for 'Time Warp' to re-appear later on this year, but at the moment it looks doubtful.

On Saturday night all NFAA Teams got together for a barbeque, hosted by the Bennett's, which helped all to mingle and enhance the group spirit.

All in all, an excellent event and we appreciate the encouragement and kind comments expressed by so many people.

Our next round is the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County - 1/2nd July, when we intend to continue to entertain.

American Carworld Nationals

We were scheduled for 4 passes at Shakespeare County Raceway, but the weather and the curfew put paid to two of them.

Saturday 13th - Round 1: Rebel 'T' 7.69 @ 178.55 (W) Extreme 7.86 @ 164.5 Good side by side .

Bennetts 7.61 @ 179.20 strong pass against Time Warp(trial run with new clutch setup).

Rain, lightening and hail put paid to the 4.00 PM slot.

Sunday 14th - Round 2:

Time Warp v Bennetts - Wendy rolled though lights, so no times or ET's, but strong runs by both, Time Warp a car length behind at the stripe, first full pass by Time Warp in 3 years, probably in the high 'sixes' by both cars.

Rebel 'T' 7.65 @ 179.51 Extreme 7.46 @ 175.85 (W) Side by side racing at its best.

The Mob; Venom & Chaos all performing licensing runs and all showing tremendous potential.

The third round was delayed due to a shut-down area oil leakage from a car from another class, we were in the fire-up area ready to run, but the 5.00 PM curfew had to be imposed, so we only got two passes at this event.

A few minor snags, leaking unions & 'O' rings, rocker cover gaskets, tyre shake, etc - only real damage - reverser on Rebel 'T' and broken 'A' Arm on Burning Desire.

Thunderball Review

 

Because of the number of new drivers that had to qualify for licences and the amount of new, untested combinations, the event was limited to 'shakedown' passes.

It was decided not to allocate any points for this event, so as to be fair to the majority of teams and the points structure will commence at the next event at Shakespeare County Raceway for the American Car World Nationals -13/14th May.

Two timing 'slots' were allocated on Saturday and Sunday, with three for the Monday, but the last day was curtailed by rain showers in the afternoon.

Jim Usher (The Mob) & Tony Betts (Venom Racing) started their observed solo runs and Nick Davies (Havoc) continued his half passes to gain his full licence.

Frank Bennett (Bennett Racing), Wendy Baker (Time Warp), Bob Glassup (Extreme Racing) & Dave Grabham (Freddy's Revenge) all picked up valuable track experience with their modified set-ups.

The 2005 Series Champion, Clayton Round was as consistent as ever in 'Rebel T' and ran a number of good passes, with a weekend best of 7.183/186.02, knocking on the door of the 'sixes'.

Nick Davies improved run by run, combining impressive burn-outs with a stout three-quarter pass of 7.42/185.35.

Frank Bennett was getting a handle on the power levels of the 511 CI Topolino to record best so far of 7.29/184.4 - subsequently found to have been on only seven cylinders due to a plug lead breaking down.

The Extreme Racing Topolino of Bob Glassup improved on his previous personal best with an impressive 7.41/186.0, two tenths better than his best 2005 pass.

'Chaos' - the new AA/FA, was beset by 'new car blues' with a number of glitches including fuel leaks, reverser engagement snags and broken valve springs - so was unable to record any runs at the meeting.

There were a number of good side-by-side passes from Bennett Racing/Rebel 'T' and Extreme Racing/Havoc, which the crowds really appreciated.

All in all, the event was judged to be a success by the NFAA Teams and the spectators, with good commentary from John and Graham, so we look forward to the next round which should show further improvements.

The Xtreme Wheels International Show

 NFAA Teams appeared at the Show, superbly organised by Terry and Tina Gibbs, on a cold weekend in North London.

 

The public attendance was high and the Teams really enjoyed the event, backed up by constant playing on a large plasma screen of the Nitro Warriors DVD, produced by David & Helen Coleman of PowerPoint Communications – www.quartermilehigh.com

 

In attendance were Frank & Luke Bennett with the Bennett Racing Topolino, Bob & Kathy Glassup with their Xtreme Racing Topolino, Paul Stubbings and Wendy Baker with the Time Warp AA/FA and Nick Davies & Rob Loaring with the new Havoc BB/FA – which took the award for Best Competition Car.

 

Such appearances help raise the profile of the NFAA and also give us the chance to talk to the fans as well as publicising the future race meetings where people can see the wild, wild, Altereds in action.