Cal Look Drag Day 2015 Race Reports

[WPS]

Nothing on here yet? Can't believe it!!!! Big Cal Look Race weekend at the best track in Europe?....with loads of cool cars from all over and some great racing....this is what it's all about...right!!!???

Forums aren't just for selling shit and asking what colour wing beading the consensus think is the most 'rad'.....or maybe they are.....or maybe FFB is killing it but if you don't fancy trawling through loads of BS and adverts for crap you don't need and cats and babies and 'proud to be' bollox and 'what kind of breakfast cereal are you most like'....then this is the place....isn't it??

Anyway.....I was racing my Fiat 850 Spider for the first time this year having done a few shakedown passes last sept just to see how it felt before the winter so I haven't had much seat time......so I was looking forward to it and catching up with everyone elses exploits.
Lee Maynard came up to my place for a couple of days beforehand to help prep (cheers buddy) and we were at Santa Pod friday afternoon....gagging to get going!!

Dave Dinning transported Lil Pete and his blue '61 up in the posh lorry with the 'best/biggest awning in the west' to keep us all comfortable.....thanks to Alex and Dave. (get ya cars done!  )
Tricky first thing sat morning as I wanted to drive my car but also wanted to witness Pete's new combo on it's maiden voyage.......Pete's car sounded great in the pits and we headed off only to find his fuel pressure regulator shit the bed just before he staged....back to the pits to investigate.
I ran the Fiat for a quick 'feeler' and managed to use most of my lane  .....covered more than 1/4 mile I think!!
The rwyb track wasn't great for my car especially with a 'less than perfect' burnout....no front brakes and a spool make it 'interesting'....so I was backing off here and there for most of the day....great fun tho' and getting accustomed to the driving position etc with it's less than perfect ergonomics!! 
I'll let Pete update his 'eternal rebuild' thread with his progress but he got a reg from someone in the pits and got it going breaking his PB on the first run I think.....sounded the nuts!!! There's some footage on youtube and I'll post the links when I can....unless someone beats me too it.
As is the case when you're racing your own car I didn't get to see what everyone else was doing but Phil 'of the' West was running hard with his 'shopper' motor in the mid 11's and from what I could tell most were doing well with no oil downs or major problems..... It stayed dry but there was a strong wind coming towards and across so saturday was all about getting a feel for it.
I saw Richies cab up close for the first time...on the start line....sounds immense and looks nippy!! 8.3 @ 150mphish on a rwyb track!! Yup definately nippy!! 
Sunday saw a better surface with full prep for the Peak Performance Day and a determination to drive in a straight line for me having had some better passes late on sat afternoon against Pete in the bug who was going from strength to strength....we had some good runs together....I just need abit more HP!!
Avoiding the water and burnout helped, with just a tyre scrub and into stage, kept the slicks dry and resulted in a 1.51 60ft and a best of 11.85@111mph for the sub 2.0lt pakage in the 850....it gave me the shakes and made my heart beat alittle faster and I felt comfortable thrashing it through the 5 very close 'dog' gears. A slipping clutch all weekend seemed to get worse so there's more to come but I was happy to take it home in one bit...even tho' the odd missed shift saw over 10,000rpm on my old Jones tach!!
Anyway I'll leave it to others to fill in about their exploits but thanks to all who helped organise the event...it really is not to be missed....if you like fast VWs then you really should be there....preferably racing!!
Pete ran his 10 as detailed in 'pure racing' which was great to see from sat in my car ready to run next......top effort buddy.....in the words of Roy Castle... "Dedication's what you need"

Ian x

[lee-maynard]

[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ] http://youtu.be/x2L2UFqbL8c

[Straight Time]

Great report for those of us who couldn't go, please keep em coming, thanks

[WPS]

On a dull wednesday afternoon I'd rather be racing................

[dannyboy]

i ran consistent 14s all weekend 

[dannyboy]

and have started the ball rolling on a 1776 motor very inspired by petes car but want to add nitrous in the mix 

[leec]

Keep posting Ian, your posts make me laugh and it shows I am not the only person who doesn't find facebook interesting

[Jesus]

Well put Ian, and yes I need the bus back! I will try and find some videos!

[Jesus]

https://youtu.be/wmm4mmhO13g

[Jesus]

https://youtu.be/TEvdZHn_jGc

[Jesus]

https://youtu.be/IpkNdBw4lWM

[Jesus]

https://youtu.be/dEc7_06PdT4

[Jesus]

https://youtu.be/pZxjHGifB40

[Jesus]

https://youtu.be/4GKU6UArgt4

[Jesus]

https://youtu.be/YIE15bTsiFk

[Jesus]

https://youtu.be/by_Q0OUul1w

[Jesus]

https://youtu.be/qmIT6iELba0

[Jesus]

https://youtu.be/uZasJrJH4V8

[Jesus]

Ian hopefully that calms your FFB rant, which I am throughly guilty of!

[WPS]

Good work Mr Jesu!!......welcome back!! 

The 10........... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2L2UFqbL8c&feature=youtu.be   

[Neil Davies]

Brilliant report Ian, and a rant I can relate to! Great videos from Alex too, thank you. I really wanted to be there but double booked with a show I thought was the following weekend... might make it to a race meet later in the season so please keep us informed what you're all planning to be at (on here, obviously! )

[Ole]

O.K here's my report.

It's been two years since I had the Pink Panther out at the track. What better way to get of the cobwebs than attending a Drag Day at a local track just around the corner? So I loaded the car and headed up north, 750km to Dunkirk...



I did only a few passes on Saturday, I spent most time checking out the site and getting familiar with the track, I've never been at Santa Pod before. As I'm not used to race on fully prepped tracks I had some trouble to find a way to get the 60ft down. Regarding the strong headwind I was happy with the topspeed. The fact I missed 2nd gear some times didn't help the ET come down... Anyway I had a good time and there was a full raceday to come.

(two pics stolen from Julian Robinson, hope he doesn't mind)









Sunday morning I was early in the lineup. Burnout felt good and I staged against a beautiful 70s Mercedes Coupe. The track has been prepped even better this day, the tracion was awesome. This time I didn't miss 2nd gear  but I broke 1st 



At least I had a reason now to open the box and fix that 2nd gear issue

After all I had a great weekend meeting old and new friends. Thanks Rich, Jamie and Peach for their hospitality and help at the track. It's been good to see Richie and team, Ian, Pete, Dave, Alex and the list goes on! Oh and of course the Belgians/French, they seemed to be in the line up for ever.

Over all it's been a trip of 2071km on the road plus ferry Dunkirk-Dove and back. Guess the fact I didn't get my desired 11sec timeslip means I have to come back...

[Rocket Ron]

Thanks for the report Ian

I made it up to watch on Sunday after trying hard to get my car sorted the week before. A bent push rod was the final nail in my plans to attend with a car as I didn't have a suitable length replacement to hand on Saturday

Must say a heart felt thank you to the organisers for putting this on every year.

I understand there are a few cars attending the volkslife event at shakey in a couple of weeks, it would be nice to have the cars that couldn't attend drag day running for volkslife so we can have a full field of decent car running not just 20 busses

Regards Ron

[dth]

Was a great weekend , never had my car there (67 or oval) , but came away very inspired to get my finger out and
get my oval back on the track , met up with alot of people i dont see often , and got talking to alot of people iv
never met (but knew the cars) , we took Robs 67 down to show off , he done a few runs as he,s never been up the
1/4 before , he done well and last i heard him muttering something about mid mounts and stroker motors , in all
a very laid back , very inviting event , all credit to those involved (Jamie/Rich /Peach )

[dth]

image hosting 5mb

free image host

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[dth]

Must get this done now

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[Iryanu]

I had a great time, was only there for the Saturday. Drove from my house all of twenty miles and did my first quarter mile ever. I think I got the slowest out of every vw there (15.1@88mph) but I had a blast! Got some good advice from Danny paul and Jamie on how to improve my shocking 60 foot times (2.27). Gotta start somewhere right?

Thanks to Jamie and the rest of the guys who put the event on, was a great feeling in the fire up lanes and pits talking to people. Was expecting it to be full of chest beating and intimidating atmosphere but it was the complete opposite! It think if you guys were any more laid back you'd need skateboards under your heads! Super chilled and out for fun, just what it's all about, having fun (and going fast)!

See you at the next one!

Ryan

[Iryanu]

[BossHogg76]

What a weekend, after a mad week, which saw me travel back from work at the other end of the planet. Then pick my bug up from DTH and Deadline paint, where it was getting some loving attention. It was time to head south. 5:30 start from Dundee, via Tillicoultry to pick up Scot and the bug, then a detour to Kilmarnock to pick up the camper and eventually the traveling south began in earnest. Ten hours after i had started we arrived at Santa Pod.

They say first impressions count, and it was certainly the case at this weekend. I had no sooner pulled up, than Jamie was over welcoming us, and best of all offered a space under the Renn Wagon awning, a lovely gesture and one that really set the tone for the weekend, after battling with the awning, sorting out some snap,  the beers were open and we set about some socialising. Next morning this was the view as we cooked breakfast...not bad at all




DTH took me under his wing, got me signed on, and went through what I had to do on the track, it was a bit of a blur, so I sensibly decided that the best way to learn was to get out there.   After a short queue i found my self lining up alongside the incredibly impressive looking Natural High. The lights went green, it was gone and I sedately cruised the strip to a 17 second pass. My drag strip cherry popped, I hadn't stalled, blown up or any of the other nightmares that had gone through my head.

Back in the pit lane, Hans had arrived in his lovely blue 67, and proceeded to pitch the smallest tent i'd seen for a while. I can only assume it's like a tardis in side, as the tent looked 5ft long and Hans is over 6ft. Anyway a bit if a chat later and we decided to get on the track together, so back to queuing up, and for me one of the pics of the day was taken by...(credit to Terry Fisher for the pic)



However best laid plans were dashed as Hans ran before me, and the massively impressive 1303 of Gary Priest was looming behind me.



Hans set up for his run and had this photo taken.....awesome!



That left me and the Priest. Gary was on for getting his Renn Wagons wings, I just didn't want to stall on the start line. In the end Gary got his wings, pipping me at the timing light and was over the moon with my run. 15.78 for Gary and 15.85 for me.  

I ran once later, Hans catching my duff start in all it's glory  

Anyway I was happy, I hadn't broken anything, I'd done what I had set out to do 2 years previous, which was to build a Cal Looker for me, and to get to the Cal Look Drag day. The rest of the weekend was spent getting a good dose of pod face, and watching some great machines go by. Like the Richies cab, the Top fueler etc. After poking around other peoples cars, i now have a new list of things to do, i can almost hear DTH groaning in anticipation as i type this  

Finally my warmest thanks go out to those that organised it. For me it was perfect, a small bunch great bunch of really friendly, outgoing people, who really made the weekend what it was. Special thanks to Jamie and Peach who really went the extra mile to make me feel welcome, thanks guys