I took new cabrio to Rockingham yesterday to try No prep racing, we ran the Small tyre heads up class which is a anything goes door car class with maximum of 28/10.5 or 275 drag radial class with flashlight start no times etc.
I had made a few changes to how I sit in car and to pedals as the RLR supplied pedals were just not correct for a RHD car as they were to far to the left and forced me to sit facing left toward middle of car instead of straight which often caused me to line car up pointing right[me facing straight forward] and is something that I should have modified along time ago, anyway it was much better and easier to line car up straight now with its RW pedals
To the race:
We got 2 test hits in morning which showed me a few things, mainly even turned down a lot car had way too much power
Every round was drawn out of a cup by drivers with lane choice also done same way, there were enough cars to run a 32 car ladder. 1st round I drew a supercharged LS powered 100E Ford who also was having issues with too much power, I managed to pedal it pretty quick in 1st and get it to hook up only using 30% throttle and drove away from him and got the win, 2nd round and I drew a twin turbo LS powered later model Camaro, this was my best pass, I got a slight jump on him but he got round me as I shifted into 2nd and I short shifted into 3rd allowing me to get power back in quicker and went round him just before finish line and got another win, next round I was in the shitter when they did the draw
So Joe Elliot who was helping me stepped in and drew for me, and got me a bye
as odd number of cars left.
I choose to just break beams and wait for semi final as they were getting near curfew by now, semi final and I drew a nitrous small block Ford pop/Anglia, this was one pass too far for me as I just didn't react quick enough to flashlight and then didn't pedal it quick enough and by time I got it to hook he was too far ahead for me to catch him.
We did get a lot of people come to pits and ask about the car, comment on how cool it was to see a "little beetle" winning or how wild it was
etc and it was a really fun day, its a shame they are shutting the Track down next month forever to build another car park/storage facility as it would have been good for it to continue drag racing there but it does seem its all done now
I am just glad I got to take part and try it while I could
Oh and the burnouts were fun
Thanks to Callum Pudge for the excellent picture mid burnout
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