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Once again we decided to
attend the Nitrolympix .
The opportunity to race at such a famous location is almost irresistible
although the track can be tricky since it's only used once a year.
This year we had FIA Top Methanol
champion Dave Wilson with us.
Click here to see
more about Dave. |
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Here we are somewhere on
the road in Belgium. |
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Everybody joins the same
queue for tech inspection. The bad news for Luke and Tom was that they had to
push the car round as our crew car hadn't arrived. |
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The team checks out the
track. You can see from the shine that it had been "glued" but we were not
so sure about the amount of underlying rubber. |
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After the inspection we
decided to change the first ratio in the gear box. Luke and Tom have
the box in bits prior to changing the gear set. |
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New for this year is
Hockenheim promoter Rico Anthes top fuel taxi. He
has been using this to give German auto journalists passenger rides, a stunt
which has ensured plenty of column inches for him, the meeting and the
sport.
Click
here to see more
pictures. |
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We were pitted on the
main start/finish straight and here we are towing down for our first
practice run on Friday. Many teams were pitted in the F1 garages on the
left, luxurious accommodation indeed.
Unfortunately when we got to the start
line the car wouldn't fire so we had to tow back.
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There were two problems,
possibly connected. Firstly the
batteries wouldn't hold sufficient charge to start the car. In course of
investigating this we found a second intermittent electrical problem.
Dave, Bowser, Andy and Gerry ponder
the suspect section of wiring.
The solution was to install two new batteries and
remake a section of the loom.
|
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All was well for our
first competitive run on Saturday morning.
Bowser, Luke and Tom look on as Andy
burns out.
We were in a cannonball type
competition with the best three of four runs to count and the two fastest
cars to run in a final.
We ran a 6.4, which was 3/10ths ahead
of the rest of the field. |
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Between rounds we pulled
off the blower to re-torque the heads.
Andy and Bowser get ready to pass it over to Tom and Gerry so that all
four can lower it back into place. |
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This is the view from the
top of the grandstand while Andy burns out in the second round on Saturday
afternoon. The Grand Prix track
cuts away from the strip at about the 1000 foot mark which you can see from
the change in colour.
We ran a 6.6, this time only 2/10ths
clear of the field. |
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Sadly Sunday morning
dawned wet and windy as you can see from the shiny track. |
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Things had dried up a bit
by 2:00 pm so a number of cars were asked to do a burn out and launch to
reward the spectators who had waited patiently in the rain.
The burnout was as wild as you would
expect on a dampish track as you can see from the wavy black stripes. |
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Although this was show
time we followed the normal start line procedure and you can see Bowser
bringing Andy up to the line.
Danny Cockerill's ARRC built 57 Chevy in the other lane. |
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One of the unusual things about
the Nitrolympics is that dinner is provided for the racers at the awards
ceremony after the end of racing. Although there had
been no racing Rico decided to award the trophies anyway. Because we had the
two fastest times we were given the Pro Mod Thunder trophy.
Tom, Stephani, Kate, Andy, Luke, Dave and
Bob were on hand for the photograph. Gerry and Bowser were already on their
way home.
Thanks to Dave for all his help and advice
over the weekend. |
