Showtime Funny Car FIA Main Event 2012

The wait was finally over, after the disappointments at Easter we were raring to go at the Main Event.

The weather looked promising on Saturday and the car was warmed up mid morning as we were scheduled to follow the 1st round of “Pro qualifying” around 1.30.
The car certainly sounds different due mainly to the new blower and different fuel management. We got to the startline around 4.30, unfortunately after starting the car there was a problem with the reverser and John shut off and we towed back to the pits.

The problem was tracked down and fixed and we were ready to go again. After a few stoppages, it was 8.30 before we were at the start. The car launched hard and straight with the header flames clearly visible in the fading light. John hit tyre shake around 300 feet and clicked it off. Routine servicing showed no damage.

Sunday was a total rainout with not a wheel being turned by anyone. The rain continued all night and into Monday morning. The track crew as always did a fantastic job in getting the track both ready for racing and cleaning up after the frequent showers. We spent a couple of hours in the pairing lanes due to various stoppages, eventually firing the car around 5pm to run against Jason Phelps in the Shockwave car. John had an amazing reaction time of 0.013 secs but the tyres “lit up” off the line and the car veered hard right, so shut off. Once back in the pits we found the problem to be in the clutch management.

We could have done with more track time as it is a very steep learning curve with a new car, but we have learnt a lot, and we are going in the right direction.