Jet Funny Car
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Jet Funny Car
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* Updated 28/08/2009 |
2009 News 28 August 2009
Firestorm has truly gone global - following our visit
to Merecourt in France earlier this year, we have now been to Germany for the
Nitrolympx at Hockenheim. We are sure Firestorm's first appearance at the
Nitrolympx went down well and was well received by Hockenheim's massive crowds.
Not having been before we didn't know what to expect and we have to say the
whole weekend exceeded all expectations, it has been fantastic. We were
initially down to run in Saturday's night show which is famous, but we spoke to
the organisers and it was agreed that we could have an additional run on Friday
so Roger could familiarise himself with the track. The Friday run was then
aborted due to a malfunction on a solenoid so was rescheduled for Saturday
during the day. A disappointing start to the weekend but nothing that
couldn't be fixed. On Saturday we were asked not to do our full show so we
kept it all to a minimum, the run was fantastic, the track which is the F1 track
is as smooth as a billiard board anyway, but was also well prepared by the track
crew, and had a huge shut down area. We were all delighted with the run
and now felt ready for the night show which we were told was going to be
excellent - we were not disappointed. It was really busy all day Saturday, with lots of race fans in
the stands and walking around the pits, but this did not prepare us for the
amount of people that were at the night show - all the stands were absolutely
full - there was not an empty seat in the house! The show started at 8.00pm
and it was 2 hours of non stop entertainment with a variety of jet vehicles,
fuel cars, Ronnie Picardo's wheel standers and even a flame thrower! We
were scheduled to close the show at 10.00pm just prior to the Firework Finale. For
everyone who has seen Firestorms flame show you'll know it can put out a lot of
flame - to see that same show at night is something else! We did our flame
show, followed by wicked burner pops which reverberated around the Grandstands
that surround the dragstrip, staged it and completed the show with a good strong
run at 6.357, 221mph, this was
with an early shut off as we were not taking a risk with our first run at Hockenheim in the dark. 21 June 2009
More great news Firestormer's - we are very pleased to announce that we have an invite to the Nitrolympx at Hockenheim in Germany. This is fantastic news for all of us and our first event in Germany. The Nitrolympx is a round of the FIA Top Fuel Championship but more than that its a three day event with all the classes and, its night shows are legendary. We don't know the running order yet or how many runs we will be asked to do but we will be at the track and ready to rock and roll for all three days. Its a long drive to Hockenheim from Rotherham but it will be worth it and we are really looking forward to it!
We are looking forward also to this coming weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway, it is the annual NSRA Nostalgia Nationals and one of our favourite events of the season. At this event its a great trip down memory lane with Hot Rods, Customs, Anglias, Nostalgia Altereds, Dragsters & Gassers, Flathead Meltdown, Street Eliminator Shootout and plenty of American Muscle! You can see a complete history of drag racing at these events. This weekend is also Graham's birthday bash, estimated 35 of our friends coming to party - Happy Birthday Syko!
26 May 2009
The Main Event 2009 has been exceptional, but not without its trauma's. Firstly, the weather has been fantastic all weekend, which after the last two years rainy Main Event's was more than welcome. Secondly the racing was second to none. All classes were really close, with personal bests being recorded left, right and centre!
After the successful testing last week, Firestorm threw another curve ball at us and misbehaved on the first run of the weekend on Saturday. Everything went well with a great fireshow, followed by a couple of burner pops, unfortunately it then stalled on the launch. We took it back to the pits and since we were not scheduled to do another run on Saturday we started trying to find the cause of this inconsistency. The rest of the event Firestorm was on its best behaviour, putting on thunderous fireshows and wicked burner pops since we had returned to the old 'tune up'. Until we have a positive answer to this problem we have to be very cautious - its very easy to break a jet engine when it stalls.
17 May 2009
We have just returned from testing a new combination at Santa Pod. Its all gone very well, the first start up highlighted a minor pressure problem so we shut the car down and returned to the pits to investigate. The concern was unjustified but aborting the run and checking it out was the right thing to do. Safety first ALWAYS! So the first run of the day was on very modest settings and into a fierce headwind. So fierce that 2 track officials had to hold the body while the prop and safety strap was removed. The car ran really well recording 183.42mph in the 1/8th with a planned early shut off. Even though this speed with the new set up was nothing special it was encouraging because it left the line with no drama, and that's 50% of the battle right there.
Second run had a very slight tweak on the afterburner. An adjustment this small would have gone unnoticed on our old set up - we were in for a shock! The first afterburner pop indicated that we were making serious power. The launch was very hard and after once more shutting off at the 1/8 mile, the speed was 196.13 mph, again into a seriously strong headwind. Back in the pits Roger had said something like "my word that felt good". Not his exact words of course but I'm sure you get the picture.
During our development programme we are constantly in touch with Al Hanna of Hanna Motorsports. It needs to be said at this point that this is absolutely priceless and so encouraging, to have someone who has "been there done that" is fantastic and most times really funny. Al Hanna has such a dry sense of humour he could well have ancestors in Yorkshire (which Roger insists by the way is Gods County! Its a local call from here)!
10 May 2009
Firestorm has been to France for the 17th Drag Power Show at Mirecourt on the weekend of 1st to 3rd May and we had a brilliant time. We took the Ferry from Portsmouth to Caen on Wednesday evening and arrived at the track on Thursday in time to drop the trailer and head out for a Pizza and a few beers. Friday we got to the track early about 9.00 am, weather was good, we got the car ready, then was amused to find out that our one run on Friday would be at Midnight to close the show. Running at night does bring its little problems, with no 'dashboard lights' it makes it difficult for Roger to see the gauges also with the drop in temp/air pressure it can cause the windscreen to mist up, both of which are fairly important when driving a jet car at night. However, as all the timing equipment had been removed before the jet cars ran, there were no holds barred on the fireshow as the focus seems to be more on the show than the run. We started the car up, then rolled forward in front of the grandstands, did a huge fireshow followed by a quick blast into the darkness. What a buzz! Firestorm performed to full grandstands each time, by the time we had turned it around and come back down the track the place was deserted apart from the start line crew. Firestorm had definitely 'closed the show'!
Saturday's show was again at Midnight with massive
amounts of smoke and flame, we did a couple of burner pops and launched, the car
did maybe a couple of hundred feet and ran clean out of fuel - that’s called
'cutting it fine'!! 24 gallons of fuel gone in approx 2 minutes of flame
and smoke.
26 April 2009
We are really pleased to announce some additional dates to the Firestorm Calendar. We have been contacted by Alan Martin who organises the NSRA meetings at Shakespeare County Raceway and he has confirmed he would like Firestorm to be at both NSRA events, Nostalgia Nationals and Hot Rod Drags. These bookings have been confirmed much later than normal due to the current economic crisis but Alan and SCR once again put the drag race fans first and told us to "come on down"!! Thanks guys! Also thank you to Steve Murty for confirming Firestorms attendance at the Northern Nationals at York Dragway - so far we only have one scheduled event at York Dragway but there should be more to follow, we will keep you posted.
We are off to France next week to the Drag Power Show at Mirecourt, it's our first time at the Drag Power Show and we are all really looking forward to it! We will be setting off on Wednesday, taking the overnight ferry so should be at the track on Thursday in plenty of time to set up for the scheduled runs on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It'll be great to have a leisurely drive, which I'm sure will give us all time to brush up on the French language!
20 April 2009
We are pleased to report that we had an excellent weekend at the Easter Thunderball despite it raining for the first two days. Hats off to all the Santa Pod crew who worked tirelessly day and night to keep as much excess water off the track that so that when it did stop raining, track preparation would be at a minimum. We lost Friday and Saturday to the rain but when it did stop on Sunday morning proceedings soon got under way. Firestorm performed flawlessly in his first official run of the season in front of an enthusiastic Santa Pod crowd, although the temperature was still slightly chilly, Firestorms thunderous fireshow soon warmed everyone.
We are pleased to announce our invitation to the 17th Drag Power Show at Mirecourt in France. As the name suggests it has been running for 17 years and was formerly held at Chambley.
It is a huge deal for us because this is the first time Firestorm has been run in France. There is also going to be some friendly rivalry as Donald Pottier who is the promoter of the event also runs his own jet funny car. England vs France then! Quite a few of our buddies are already planning the trip out there on their motorcycles .... I think I feel a party coming on!! Check it out on www.duckteam.fr.
6 April 2009
We’ve now had two pre-season test days with the new
setup which have not gone entirely to plan (slight understatement)! No one
ever said it was going to be easy did they!
18 January 2009
Well where did 2008 go! It has to be said, that like most events in the UK, the weather had a huge impact and for the best part there was a lot of time spent in the trailer doing the age old drag racing pastime of 'talking complete rubbish and drinking way too much tea'! That said 2008 was a good year for Firestorm when we did get down the track. As you may know we are working in collaboration with Al Hanna of Hanna Motorsports in developing Firestorm, this is still ongoing and as a bonus we have become firm friends with Al and his family. Due to the lack of run time last year (which is down to good old British Summertime) we have not taken the development as far as we all would have liked. That said we are delighted with how we have gone last year, we have run consistently faster at every meeting and 260mph plus is now regular. We continue to improve in small increments and that is how we have planned the development programme. We would not wish to take huge leaps as we have to continue to monitor the behaviour of the car as it goes quicker, we have already carried out some work on the body to give it additional strength in a couple of areas. We are also continually monitoring the performance of the parachutes which are the main brakes on Firestorm. The chutes take off the majority of the speed before Roger uses the brakes, in jet cars as with most drag racing vehicles you must never ever touch the brakes until the parachutes have brought the car down to a 'reasonable speed'. As you go faster some aspects of the run may change, so development has to be done carefully, to continue to be as safe as you possibly can be under the circumstances!
The final meeting of 2008, Santa Pod's Flame and Thunder, finished on a fantastic high with yet another personal best of 6.055, we all had big grins on our faces after the run, even more so when it was announced by Tog that Roger had shut off early! That final run of 2008 was so close to that magic 5 second run! We are all really fired up and can't wait for the 2009 season to start. We will be continuing to develop Firestorm, Roger has some late evenings in the workshop planned. We also have an awning on the trailer to shelter under (from the sun of course) which will make life a little more comfortable for everyone, but most of all Firestorm - who up to now has had to stand out come rain or shine. The little used awning was sourced by our crew man, Graham Sykes of Sykes Engineering. Graham made the new box and mounts for the awning and it was duly fitted by Roger and Graham just before the Flame and Thunder meeting of 2008. What a godsend, thanks Graham!
We are delighted to have had confirmed bookings from David Lloyd Jones (see the Calendar Page) and we are in discussion with other promoters for the 2009 season which will be confirmed at a later date.
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