Bit of a late update

The extreme bike weekend then .......

Thanks to Sam who has updated her Photobucket site with 2 galleries that can be viewed here - COMP BIKE , and here - FUNNY BIKE

Saturday was windy and the track not as good as was hoped. I didn't get one clean run, and had 2 that were quite lively. Initial checks on arrival revealed a nitrous controller that wasn't coming on with the ignition. I went though the connectors and fuses checking them, and found nothing wrong. And when i tried it again it decided to work. So i put that down to a poor connection somewhere...... i should have known better.
The first run was a bit of a novelty as we were paired up with kev Charman on the Top Fuel bike. It was quite amusing to not be able to hear my own bike and i had to presume it was still running as the bike made a move towards the wall, i feathered the throttle until it started to move away, but when i managed to give it full throttle it was bouncing around and the front end flapping unnervingly. The time was only a 9.4 and checks back in the pits revealed I'd not set the wheel alignment after adjusting the chain last, so that explained the move toward the wall. Why it was bouncing around so much was a mystery though.
The first 30 or 40 feet were ok then it suddenly lost power, an instant later it suddenly engaged warp speed and took off again, only i wasn't expecting that and had the handlebars wrenched from my grip! Once i had a hold again i just ran slowly up the track wondering what the heck had just happened.
Finding nothing wrong we went out for what was to be the final qualifyer. This time it ran relatively normal but seemed to be lacking in power at the top end, teh result was an 8.4 and placed us number 6.
The planned Sunday morning 4th round was abandoned as it took the track crew all morning to get the track dry after a night of rain. So in the first round i was against Harold Wolfenden, Harold needed go through the first round and meet and beat Stu Crane to win the comp bike championship. If he didn't make the first round and Stu did then it was game over. I left the line first and wasn't having a great run with the bike lacking in power once again, but neither was Harold who thinks he missed a gearchange instead hitting the limiter.
Stu Crane - 2011 Comp bike Winner

The result was i got there first with another 8.4 vs his 8.7. Unfortunately that was the end of his championship hopes. But the good news for Stu Crane was he was now 2011 Comp bike champion.
It meant some bad news for me too as it was Stu we had to race next round. Back in the pits i discovered the Nitrous controller not switching on again. Realizing that there was definitely something wrong we pulled the fuses out again and this time discovered the culprit. The fuse for the controller had a broken terminal and was causing intermittent activation of the gas. Which explains all the dodgy runs and the lack of power on other runs. Cursing the last minute discovery it was replaced, and we went out to race Stu in the semi finals with hopes of actually making a good clean run .... and maybe even making the elusive 7 second pass we were hoping for.
Of course, that's not the way it turned out. Firstly - we both were caught snoozing on the line with .5 and .6 reaction times, Stu had a poor run and only went 8.0, whereas i had a bike that span, gripped, shot wildly to the right, broke a rose joint on the wheely bars and tried to take off! And that was the end of our weekend.

The 7 second barrier has eluded us .......... for this year at least!