Thunderball review

Of the 11 entries in comp bike, one never turned up and one had to go home as their race license didn't turn up in time. That left 9 of us and after Monday mornings extra round the qualifying times looked like this:
1 STUART CRANE 7.7663 @ 174.34
2 IVAN BIRCH 7.9753 @ 160.67
3 DAVE PETERS 8.0943 @ 160.10
4 RICHARD GIPP 8.2869 @ 168.49
5 PHILIP LEAMON 8.4740 @ 156.23
6 NICK DANIELS 8.6640 @ 154.09
7 SANDRA CHAPLAIN 8.8344 @ 157.86
8 ALAN YOUNG 8.9425 @ 147.56
DNQ
9 PHIL CROSSLEY 9.0598 @ 152.03

I managed to get some shots from the first 2 rounds.

First pair was Al Young vs Stuart Crane. Stu took it easily with another 7 second run.







Next was the ill fated pairing of Phil Leamon and Richard Gipp. Phil pulled a red light, both riders went 8.2 but Gipp took it but then came off his bike at the top end at over 150mph. This was the first event for his new bike and only 3rd pass of the weekend.

Ivan Birch took on Sandra Chaplain. Ivan took it with a strong 7.7 et










Dave peters went against Nick Daniels. Daves bike had some major changes over the off season and didn't have it's usual 7 second form, however he still took the win with an 8.2




The next round should have seen Ivan take on Dave Peters, but Daves engine cut out and he didn't restart. So Ivan through on a bye run
And Stuart Crane was due to go agains Richard Gipp but Gipp was now in hospital so Stuart also went through on a bye run.

The final then, and Stuart Crane won with an 7.9 against Ivans 8.0
Well done to Stuart.


It's less than 2 weeks now till the Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway. The plan is to have a new set of wheely bars by then. A decision has been made and the theory is that now the bike rides the wheely bars for longer and harder then they are a more important part of the bikes handling than before. The new bars will be a bit wider, and symmetrical instead of the staggered setup of the current ones, and new mounting points will be made on one side of the bike.
A fellow racer is also lending me a wideband sensor so i can try and find the fault with the LM-1 unit. It's no longer on my mission critical list ... in fact i almost couldn't care about it now. But it would be nice to have it working seeing as how i paid a fair bit for it!

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.