SlowMo

Due to the disappointment of having a flat battery on my onboard camera i splashed out and bought this little slow motion clip from Ian Blackett....



A better version is also available on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=499b-hzWNrg

Stoppin 'n' Startin

Third gear burnouts was one of the things i tried at the last event. It's harder to get the tyre spinning but once it does it gets hot much quicker than when in 2nd.

We had some issues with our starter again during one of the qualifying runs at the last round. For some reason it just wouldn't turn the motor over, we tried twice and failed so pulled back from the burnout box and tried again. This time it turned the motor over fine and we managed to run anyway. Had this been an elimination round we would have been out, and i don't want that to happen.
The batteries get charged every run but one of the batteries has become damaged after the cart fell over and it now dissolves it's own terminal at a fairly rapid rate..... so finally it's been replaced. I've also taken the motor apart and cleaned it out, some of the solenoid parts are available as a service kit so i might replace those too. And finally I've managed to identify the starter as from a Diahatsu Rocky TDX. According to the spec it's 2.5kw so should be adequate ..... it's just sometimes it isn't!
The brakes are also on my hit list of things to improve - they do the stopping bit ok, but the front caliper binds slightly and need aligning more accurately as if i loosen the bolts the wheel spins freely.
My pillar drill has had a change of use as a makeshift lathe. I needed taller aluminium standoffs making for the lockup clutch, so i bought some ally bar and machined them up by putting the bar in the chuck of the drill. It took some time but result was spot on. For next weekends race I've taken a further10lb base pressure out of the clutch. the 60ft time will tell me if it's the right thing to do. If we can get it down to mid to high 1.2's then we are in the right area. All that will be left to work on then is applying the nitrous either sooner or with a shorter build time in order to go faster.

As mentioned, next weekend is the final round in the ACU championship. The National Finals at Santa Pod is a 2 day event, there are currently 10 bike on the comp bike entry list. The same as the last event but Dave Buttery isn't entered. To update the gallery from a few posts ago, 3 of the new entries at the last race can be seen here:
Paul Wing CB10
Not really sure but it looks like a turbo GSX but with a GSXR cylinder head.





Dave Buttery CB20
Dave has been at some of the previous events. The bike is a Turbo GSX






Nick Daniels CB19
Again i don't know much about the bike other than it's a turbo GSX.






Thanks to eurodragster.com........
The entry list for the Nationals can be seen here
The webcam will be live and can be seen here
Live reports and end of day galleries can be seen here

And Nitro FM will be live throughout the weekend and you can tune in here

Licensed for woteva

This weekends Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare county raceway is the 2nd round of the ACU championship. Nearly every possible bike and car class will be thrown into the mix. Classes that didn't run at the Easter event such as the Supertwins, will be there and should provide plenty of entertainment.

In the Competition bike class there are 8 entries. Unlike the last meeting though i don't have to do any observed or licensing runs as they are all done and out of the way. And to my relief, i received my full racing license from the ACU yesterday, so i now hold a full national Class 2 License, entitling me to race anything going! inc a top fuel bike should anyone need me to ride one on their behalf!
Soooo ...... as long as i do the right weather dance this time and the track stays dry, every pass will count as a qualifying run. The schedule for each day hasn't been published yet but I'm hoping for at least 2 runs per day. As i still haven't done a full 1/4 mile run on the bike i would like to get at least one in without using nitrous, so when i do turn it on i can see how much more the nitrous gives.
I still have the 36Hp jets in and i don't have any more so thats what I'm stuck with. I have a feeling it will be more than enough for my first real event.

The final entry list can be seen here. Live updates and reports on the race action can be seen here, and the eurodragster.com webcam can be seen here

We will be setting off on Friday night, so i need to load the van tomorrow so i can set off straight after work. This time Sam and Yohann can't make it, so I'm missing an all important video camera operator. Hopefully i can get someone to record some footage and take some pictures so I'll have something to post on my return.

Winter Wonderland

Easter was quite early this year, and at Santa Pod it was still the middle of Winter.

We arrived just before midnight on Thursday and after finding our location in the pits we set up the trailer tent. It was very windy at this point and if it wasn't for the fact we were pitched right behind the pod shop and that it was protecting us from the oncoming wind then i'm not sure the tent would have survived the night.

Our peculiar looking but luxurious accommodation.

On Friday morning everyone was busy signing on and getting vehicles scruitineered. I took the bike down the fire up lane for it's turn around 9.30. It passed but i was asked to plug the ends on the footpegs with something as they are hollow and could potentially take a chunk out of a trapped leg. I used some rubber fuel hose to bung them up.
None of the things i've been working to address recently, such as fuel cutoff or catch can were even checked.... or at least if they were then the scrutineers eyes were very fast!

Scruitineering ticket

The sun was shining at this point and we were pretty much ready to go, however the wind was still quite strong (blowing straight across the track) and a message came round the pits stating that racing would be over the 1/8th mile only. That was fine by me as i need to do observed runs first. As the morning passed into the afternoon and the bikes still hadn't been called a start line official came round the pits telling us that the wind speed had increased and they'd decided it was too dangerous for the bikes to run. So that was the end of friday..... nice but very windy.
We did use the time to put up the awning on the trailer tent, effectively doubling it's size so we could easily get all 6 of us and the bike inside!

On to Saturday, and the weather was bad. The wind was still strong and it was raining too. It didn't improve through the day and the racing was called off by mid afternoon.
Many racers packed up at this point, particularly the bikes. the turnout wasn't as good as expected anyway but all the funny bikes left and there were only 5 bikes left in my class (comp bike).
We did however take the opportunity to watch the action in the live arena. There was a wall of death/globe riders motorcycle show, monster trucks, jet truck, jet VW, and jet quad. Plus stunt riders.
It's not drag racing but it helps pass the time when theres nothing else to do.

We had made the trailer as comfy as possible by this point, i had rigged up an extension lead so we had electricity. This meant we could have the fan heater on to keep warm as it was literally freezing outside and watch films on the laptop, charge mobiles and thanks to Sam's great idea of bringing the toaster, we had lots and lots of toast!

Onto Sunday then and we awoke to find a 2inch covering of snow!
It was at least noon before this melted so racing was again canceled.
So the day was taken up with making snowmen and taking unusual pictures of Santa pod in the snow.
Unfortunately the rest of the bopchop crew were living in tents in the family camping area so they had a rather chilly night, my nephew forgot to zip his tent up and his porch was filled with snow and Stuarts tent collapsed with the weight of ice stuck to the top!

Onto Monday......
There was still the odd snow shower early in the morning but by 10am the track was ready and some intermittent racing got underway.
Competition bike were called about 10am, and unbelievably i had trouble with my bike just as we needed to set off. It was only running on 2 cylinders, so whilst i did my wonderwoman impression and got my leathers on, Stuart changed 2 of the spark plugs. This did the trick and i was able to get the bike down the fireup road and into the pairing lanes in time.

When i came to this event the plan was to do my 3 licensing runs on day one (friday) and spend the next 2 days trying to qualify. But with the event effectively reduced to one day there was no way i was going to be able to license and qualify as there would be only 3 runs maximum in the day. So after speaking to the race director he agreed to let me tag on at the back of my classes runs and at least try and get my license before the event ended.
With only 5 bikes in my class the first 2 pairs did their runs and i came round to do my first licensing task which was to burnout and then launch to 330ft.

I tried a burnout in 2nd gear and it worked ok but i didn't hold it for long enough really, so i rolled out of it and staged. The bike left really well but was pulling to the left and heading for the wall. I held it to 330ft though before shutting off and coasting to the finish.

Reaction time was a great 0.1097sec
60ft time was also my best at 1.5699sec
330ft time was also my best at 4.4636 sec

I later spoke to long time pro stock racer Len Paget who had watched my run and gave me some good advice about positioning on the startline as well as making adjustments to stop the bike pulling to the left. These seemed to work as on the next run it ran nice and straight.

I didn't get to run again until 3pm when Comp bike were called up again. I was placed as first alternate for the semi finals, so if someone didn't make it to the start i could have taken their place. But without my license it wouldn't have counted anyway. So instead i ran on my own after the first two pairs. This time i had to do a half pass (run to 1/8th track).
The burnout was a lot better this time, i just let it run for longer and with more revs. Something happened on the line though and i think i was just not ready and tried to set off with either not enough revs or without getting the bite point of the clutch ready. The result was a great reaction again but rubbish 60ft as i set of, pulled the clutch and then set off again. Effectively i wasted half a second in the first 12inches of the startline!

The bike went dead straight though and felt better than it has before. I shut off at a bit beyond half track and ran my best numbers so far.
Reaction time of 0.0721
1/8th time of 7.0039 @109mph
And a 1/4 mile time of 11.1862 @99mph

Unfortunately those were the only 2 runs i got in the whole 4 days. I did try and get a final run at around 7pm but after waiting for over an hour in the pairing lanes in the freezing cold i was told they had to give other classes priority as they were still running finals.
So with that we packed up and headed home.

The results for the final in Competition bike were:
1st Conrad Skett 8.6971@135.17mph
2nd Phil Leamon 12.0373@89.94mph

The good news from this weekend was that the bike does seem to run a lot better with 9psi in the back tyre and with the slightly softer front forks.
And i haven't had a repeat of the flooding carbs so haven't had to fit the regulator.



My 2nd run complete with commentary from Sam and Johann

Alternatively someone else was kind enough to film my second run as i found myself on youtube earlier. You can watch that clip HERE