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29th July 2008
Martin Taylor, driver of the spectacular 1952, turbo VW Beetle has been in touch with his thoughts of his first outing with the B&H Automotive Street Eliminator series.
‘First meeting – WOW!
As you know I have entered all the rounds this year but not made it for one reason or another, either reliability problems or just getting some stuff wrong! The Thursday before bug Jam we were not going, I had had enough of it and was getting tired, but my good friend Russ Fellows gave me a talking to and told me to pull my finger out! He booked the rolling road for Friday and told me to get the MOT sorted. So Thursday night I finished proper work at 10.30pm then got the car ready for the MOT.
Friday morning, I load the car into the trailer to go to the MOT booked for 10.45am on the way my tow car broke down, so a quick fix at the side of the road followed by some kicking and choice words and we were off again. The car passed the MOT just fine, by 1.00pm it was Taxed. The car was legal for the first time in 11 years! By 3.30pm we were on the rollers and for the next few hours the car got a proper thrashing! All was looking good, plenty of power and not getting hot. By 6.30pm the car now drove into the trailer and we were on our way home, to get ready for bug jam!!!
We arrived at the track about noon on the Saturday, it was just sinking in that I'm going to have to drive the thing now lol. Once we had got all the paperwork sorted it seamed to take ages to be called up for a run, but when it came I was a little nervous to say the least. The runs went like this.
Run 1) Observed run, burn out and drove off the start line put the car through the gears on light throttle got to the end, happy
Run 2) thought I'd try the chute, so launched a bit harder, messed it up but we were off, up the 3rd gear on and off the throttle, all nice and stable, got to the finish like pulled the chute, that woke me up! It lifted at the rear and then started to wave about the track, I steered with it and got it under control. Thought that was odd, I'm sure I was only doing 80-90 ish. I read the ticked and I was doing 124mph.
Run 3) tried a bit harder and the car jumped out of 3rd, but all was good.
Run 4) harder still, got all the gears but very slowly, resulted in 10.39 @ 139.4 MPH, How happy was I! over the chuffin moon I was and still am!
Run 5) proper competition against splinter, never one to be put off, I gave it a big un, chuff me were off, as I shift into 3rd and nail it the car launched real hard then crunch! Bust 3rd gear, Bugger
So to sum up the meeting, WOW! I'd like to thank everyone who made us feel welcome, people came over and introduced themselves and had a good look round the car. I just had the best weekend and look forwards to racing you all in the future, and don't worry I'll get a handle on the chassis and the gears.
Martin Taylor’
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29th July 2008
Race Report, Round 5, The Bug Jam
July 19th/20th Santa Pod Raceway
The Bug Jam is an unusual meeting being part drag race meeting, part musical event and part VW show. Some racers enjoy the atmosphere and big crowd whilst others dislike the restricted qualifying time and the inability to cruise.
For this event Street Eliminator welcomed newcomer Martin Taylor with the class’s first VW. The ’52 bug is immaculate and sports a very powerful and very special turbocharged flat four, making an interesting and exciting addition to the Street Eliminator line up.
In qualifying Steve Pateman set the bar high in the first round with an 8.12 that nobody (not even Pateman himself) could better. Steve Nash and his crew were working hard on the Cougar and started to close the gap, improving from a wheelstanding and wheel spinning 8.75 to a more controlled 8.59. But there was a shock in store when Jeff Meads pipped him at the post with a final session 8.50 on Sunday morning to grab second spot on the ladder
The first round saw a baptism of fire for Martin Taylor who faced Nash after qualifying his VW in eighth with an impressive 10.39.
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Things got worse for the rookie as he lost third gear and slowed to a 13 second pass whilst Nash was obviously making a lot of power as he again fought wheelstands and wheelspin to garner a winning 8.79. But Taylor went home with a big smile on his face having enjoyed both the weekend and the welcome he’d received from the SE racers. It was coupes old vs new next as Ian Hook and his ’34 Ford hot rod faced Jon Webster in the turbocharged MG. Having been unable to repair the intercooler damage Webster struggled to a 13.08 pass allowing Hook to use a 10.23 to take a rare win. Another hot rod was up next as Jeff Meads took on Mats Andersson in the little Opel. The cars left together and the race followed the script as Meads’ Anglia progressed with a 9.53. Following them was Pateman who ran 8.26 @ 173 mph on a bye. Ron Haslett was keen to improve his earlier NPB and had upped the tune in the Cortina. But it was obvious he’d gone to far for, as opponent Ray Comer disappeared up the track for the win, Haslett had a driving job on his hands as the Cortina whipped first one way then the other as the combo completely overpowered the Ford estate’s chassis. Despite getting almost completely sideways the car was undamaged with Haslett’s pride being the only victim.
Meads was the recipient of a bye in round two running a 9.81 to face the winner of Pateman and Comer who were up next.
Pateman was still trying to find his earlier seven-second pace but could only manage a 8.28. Comer was well beaten on a 9.92 but it looked like more bad news for him as the black Camaro started smoking before crossing the line suggesting engine damage for the second meeting in a row. The final pair for round 2 was Ian Hook and Steve Nash. 2006 champion Hook is still running with the borrowed N/A motor in is hot rod Ford so it was no surprise when he was taken out by Nash.
But come semi-final time there was a realisation that all was not well with the Wild Cat Racing Cougar as, having pushed the vehicle to the fire up road, Nash simply broke the beams to progress to the final on the bye.
The other side of the ladder saw long-term rivals Pateman and Meads squaring up to one another. The cars left the line almost together but Meads tyres started to smoke and Pateman pulled ahead. Then Pateman suffered wheelspin and pedalled the Calibra towards the finish line. What he didn’t realise was that Meads had gathered up the Anglia and was screaming up the strip after him. Unfortunately for the Anglia driver he ran out of road and Pateman took the win with a tighter than needed margin of just 2/10 9.03 to 9.24.
Come the final the news was out that Nash had stripped gears in the backend and that he was simply staging for points. This didn’t slow down Pateman who wanted to show what he could do on what had been a difficult track.
As Nash broke the beams for the points the red Calibra blasted down the track for an event best 8.08. The win has closed the gap between Nash and Pateman to only 475 points and certainly keeps the nitrous racer in the title fight. Just like last year it looks like this one is going down to the wire!
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23rd July 2008
The points after round 5 have now been updated. At present they are provisional until the final data comes through, to take a look at them click on the Standings button at the side any page.
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14th July 2008
Custom Car magazine is currently running features on various classes of drag racing and this month it’s the Street Eliminator. The Editors selection of 8 cars provides a snapshot of the various body styles and motor/transmission combinations used and their various achievements to date. I have to say it's turned out to be a really nice piece - well done to Editor Dave Biggadyke.
Custom Car magazine is available at the news stands now.
This forthcoming weekend sees the SE tour visiting Santa Pod Raceway for Championship event number 5, and at the slightly madcap Bug Jam http://www.bugjam.co.uk/
Darren Prentice has confirmed that the SE class (and at least SUMO) will be pitted adjacent to the fire up road and almost up to where the main hospitality area is usually positioned. The VeeDubs will be pitted up by the shower blocks as per usual. Entry to the Pod (for vendors and racers) will be available from Thursday and the gates will be open between 10:00 and 21:00 hrs. Then from no later than 09:00 hrs on the Friday, from which point on the gates WILL NOT CLOSE.
Should racers want to ‘test’ the RWYB track will be available from the Friday, and this will be the case through to Sat mid afternoon. At which point the track will be fully prepped and the Race Permit will kick in. Racers are reminded that should they wish to use the RWYB facility they will be required to sign on using their regular DVLA licence. And if I'm not mistaken scruitenering will take place from Fri night, failing that, first thing Saturday morning.
And that's it, you'd all better get as much sleep as you can before the 72 hrs of incessant partying begins.
The very best of luck to everyone.
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24th June 2008
Race Report, Round 4 Summer Nationals, Santa Pod Raceway
Round 4 at Santa Pod Raceway and the Summer Nationals marked the midway point in this year’s B & H Automotive Street Eliminator championship. A smaller than usual entry of 9 cars was reduced by the early withdrawal of Mark Perkins with mechanical damage.
Qualifying was an exciting affair with championship leader Steve Nash pipping Steve Pateman to the top spot by just 1/1000t of a second (8.290 vs. 8.291). Jeff Meads grabbed a deserved third on 8.85 with Jon Webster back in the MG in fourth with 8.93. Another racer was lost from the SE pits when Ray Comer lost a cylinder after a stout 9.1 second qualifying pass.
After cancellations and route changes at the first three meetings this event saw the cruise run to its full length for the first time this year.
Everybody made it round OK although Jerry Charles’ Capri was smoking from one bank when he returned to the track.
The seven remaining cars were reduced to six on Sunday morning when Charles withdrew, unwilling to risk the Capri’s smoking engine. This gave Jeff Meads a bye, which he used to produce an excellent 8.52, a full 3/10 improvement on his qualifying ET. Also on a bye was Jon Webster who ran a 9.01 to progress. This left a numbers one and two vs. numbers 7 and 8. Both races went with the script, Steve Nash taking out Ron Haslett 8.67 to 11.26 whilst Steve Pateman produced his quickest of the year using a 7.98 to put Ian Hook back on the trailer. Some consolation for Hook was that his .022 light garnered him the Power Pour reaction time of the meet award.
The semi-finals saw turbo vs. turbo as Jon Webster took on Steve Nash. A superb 2/10 hole shot from Webster in the MG wasn’t enough to defeat the power and lightweight of the Cougar and the little coupe went down with an 8.91 to the Nash 8.51. The other semi was an all-nitrous affair with Pateman facing off against the improving Meads. This race also went to the script with Pateman taking the win light 7.99 to 8.56, his second seven of the meeting garnering the third of four commemorative 7-second gold rings from Webster Race Engineering.
The final was an exciting affair with, for once, a nitrous car in the ascendancy. Unusually Nash was first into stage and it paid off with a hole shot for the turbo Cougar but, despite some tyre slippage, Pateman came back strongly to take the lead at one third distance. The huge top end power of the turbo power in Nash’s ride was pulling him back into contention at the 990’ point but he ran out of track.
Pateman took the win 8.10 to 8.22. Incredibly this was the first time an all-nitrous car had been in the SE winners circle since July 2006 when Ian Hook took the honours.
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11th June 2008
To all B&H Automotive SE competitors:-
This weekend’s SPRC SUMMER NATIONALS sees us exactly at the half way point in the season and we just wanted to write you all a short note to wish everyone entered the very best of luck.
We've made an entry field of 12, and it's nice to see Billy 'the kid' Macdermid on the list with his pro-chargered Camaro. New for this event should also be Martin Taylor with his insane single turbo'd '52' beetle. For the latter, and if he does manage to shake it down at this event he'll be looking forward to capitalising on the VW brand at the next event - and make a laughing stock of the American tin at the same time. Either way he's surely gonna to have the most popular car in the class by the time the B&H Street Eliminator show reaches the Bug Jam (July 18th – 20th).
And we’re still dearly missing ‘wax on wax off’ Wilf Stacey, the 2 Corvettes of Pete Smith and the Tucker boys, Alan Simms with his blown PC Cresta, Alex McIntosh and his currently being revamped pro-charged Mustang. Big Davie Murdoch and his sweet BDS blown ‘33’ hot rod. New (ish) dad John Sleath and his championship winning twin turbo Audi. John ‘Moose’ Hollingworth and his ‘Sleath Race Cars’ twin turbo’d Cortina. And dare I say it Steve Kellett’s B&H backed killer 2003 Mustang. Happy George Scanlon, where the hell is George, anyone?.. And finally what about us, where the hell is us?
Tell you what guys, we're missing you all... we've never done as much gardening in our lives. Man I hate gardening.
Good luck, Colin & Ann-Marie Lazenby
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5th June 2008
Current points leader and reigning champion Steve ‘Splinter’ Nash took part in the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway at the end of May, and Crew Chief/co-owner of the Wildcat Cougar, Mick Franklin, has been in touch with how they got on....
‘Wildcat Racing at the Main Event
First I would like to thank Darren Prentice for inviting a small number of B & H Automotive Street Eliminator teams to the Main Event. Although just as an exhibition class, it was still great to be able to help represent Street Eliminator along with Jeff Meads, Steve Pateman and Mark Perkins
I had to work until 4.30pm on Saturday so Splinter was on his own when he arrived Friday evening. He had to do all the setting up on his own which is a pain and Mr P gave him a push in with the car.
We had spent every evening that week prepping the car so we could put on a good show for the public. The only concern were the tyres we had recently bought - they weren’t working. The compound seems to get too hard as they age and are harder to get the traction that our particular car needs so we needed to change our suspension settings to try and get more of the car’s weight on them. This didn’t work so I brought some more tyres with me on Saturday.
When I arrived at 6.45pm Splinter had already run his last pass of the day so I decided to check the car. This took longer than I thought as the public gathered and showed their enthusiasm and respect for Street Eliminator and asked why we were left out of the big meets. It’s so encouraging when so many people say they love the class.
It shows that what we give them is what they want to see. It’s not just the times we have run at Wildcat but the commitment given by the whole Street Eliminator field and as a class what we do is give value for money. Anyway, I finally decided to replace the valve springs which I finally finished on a very wet Sunday, then changed the tyres ready for a good show on Monday.
Well as you know it didn’t happen. So my opinion - yes it rained but what our representatives did in the time they had was great with such good feed back from the public. Big thanks go to Splinter, Mark, Steve and Jeff for their professional turn out and performances. That goes to all the crews as well. What we need now is the Euro Finals and better weather.
Mark and Jeff did well showing their potential, Mr P showed that he loved gardening by ploughing the field at the top end of the track and Splinter, although off par, did his usual Freddy + + burn outs. As for me I drove a total of 245 miles to change 2 tyres and a set of valve springs!
I would like to thank all the class sponsors and especially Helen and Dave of www.quartermilehigh.com for their usual happy faces on such a grey, windy and wet day (Sunday).
I would also like to send my best wishes to Colin and Ann-Marie and the Chevy who sustained massive engine failure this year and could do with your help as they are greatly missed from the class. Good luck guys.
Mick’
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5th June 2008
Another racer flying the flag for the B&H Automotive Street Eliminator at the FIA Main Event was Mark Perkins with his Mustang, here are his thoughts of the weekend....
‘Our peaceful evening at home soon disappeared when we received an “Out of The Blue” call from Santa Pod Race Director Darren Prentice asking us to run some Demonstration passes with three other B & H Automotive Street Eliminator cars at the Main Event. As you can imagine this put us into a state of extreme excitement at having been given this privileged opportunity. The main crew guy, Dave Dunmore, was on holiday with his wife Jeanette in Greece and following some frantic texting everything was in place.
As the class wasn’t originally scheduled to run at The Main Event the car was at Webster Race Engineering having a fogger kit fitted. The timescale was very tight but as usual the WRE guys had the car completed, ready and waiting for us to collect on the Thursday prior to the event.
Darren kindly allowed us to run on Friday but the pass was unfortunately interrupted by a very small electrical problem, which I had overlooked. Saturday’s great weather meant we managed two passes and with a little nitrous tuning by Jon Webster we were creeping towards the 8’s again with a 9.0 ET at 159 mph.
Sunday and Monday were “Rain Affected” to put it mildly, and even with their heroic efforts the Santa Pod track crew couldn’t bring the track round and we weren’t to venture out again during the meeting.
We would like to send a big thank you to Santa Pod for giving us this opportunity and hope that the few passes the B & H Automotive Street Eliminator cars ran gave the public an idea of what the street legal class is all about.
The rain will never put us off and we’ll be back running at The Summer Nationals in June.
Mark’
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30th May 2008
Race Report, Round 3, Springspeed Nationals, Shakespeare County Raceway
The Springspeed Nationals is the first of two events at the Warwickshire facility hosting rounds of the B & H Automotive Street Eliminator championship in 2008. With this round taking place just a week after the Big Bang Colin Lazenby, Pete Smith and Ray Tucker were unable to make repairs in time and Jerry Charles’ Capri hurt at Round 1 was also still in the workshop. The number of damaged cars meant that this round saw a rather depleted field of just nine cars. However the class did welcome back the 8-second Camaro of Ray Comer.
Saturday qualifying saw Steve Nash again setting the pace (and a track record) running a 7.77
and Jon Webster (again at the wheel of Ian Jackson’s Vette) behind him with an 8.45.
The rest of the field was some way behind led by Ray Comer on 9.74. The surprise occupant of the penultimate slot was Steve Pateman whose fuelling problems limited the Calibra to an 11.09 ET.
Everyone was hoping to step up their game on Sunday but the weather gods had other ideas and rain stopped play. It didn’t however stop the Cruise although that also sprung a surprise when a fatal accident on the road to the petrol station forced an about turn through the narrow streets of Chipping Norton and an early return to the track. Fortunately everyone made it back despite some cars being very low on fuel and all passed the hot start test held at the track entrance.
 
Sunday started as Saturday had ended – wet! The rain continued until early afternoon when racing finally got under way. The surprise in round 1 was the elimination of title-chasing Steve Pateman by Ray Comer. Steve Nash was well off Saturday’s pace with an 8.57 whilst the other pairings followed the script Weir, Meads and Webster progressing, the latter with an 8.52.
Round 2 and again Nash was off the pace with an 8.65 but it was enough to defeat Meads. Weir despatched Comer and Webster, on a bye, ran his quickest pass of the weekend with an 8.40 from the Vette.
Sadly the late start and the Avon Park curfew combined to halt proceedings at that point. It was all the more galling as the performances of Nash and Webster had strongly hinted at an exciting final and perhaps even a break of the Nash stranglehold on the 2008 winners circle.
So far this year we’ve had snow, wind and rain – surely round 4 will provide good weather????? Fingers crossed everybody!!!
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20th May 2008
Four B&H Automotive Street Eliminator racers will be proudly putting on demonstration passes at this weekend’s FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. The drivers flying the flag for the Street Eliminator in front of the tens of thousands of drag racing fans who will attend are Steve Nash, Steve Patemam, Jeff Meads and Mark Perkins.
The Main Event is Europe’s premier drag racing event and takes place on the 23rd - 26th May, as usual, full details are available on the Santa Pod Website www.santapod.com as well as www.eurodragster.com
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14th May 2008
Ron Haslett has had an interesting start to the 2008 season, here are his thoughts thus far....
‘What a start to the season....
Event #1, the Easter Thunderball
Me and Nick arrived at Santa Pod around midnight by the time we were set up it was 2am then to bed only to get straight back up as the wind had picked up and was lifting the gazebo up and hitting the car and motor home. With that sorted it was back to bed for a couple of hours.
Run 1 - No gas pass as I've not run the new engine for long, an easy 11.
Run 2 - Again a no gas pass and we matched our old PB without gas without too much effort.
Run 3 - We lost our spark from the new MSD unit so we pulled the car apart trying to find the fault with no joy.
With Steve and Graham coming up from Portsmouth a quick call and they brought up my old MSD.
With that fitted still no spark. After a lot of asking questions and advice from the fat boys we bypassed the main fuse and hey presto spark.
We woke on Sunday to a good covering of snow. After a snow ball fight with the kids and a couple of the other teams it time to relax as the racing had been called for the day. About 5ish we decided to fire the car but it would fire again after hours of work buy us and with help from the wild bunch and John Everet and team it fired again at 9pm. This time we think it was the cold and too much fuel.
Round 1 Jon Webster - After talking to John he was going to do a long burn out so I waited for him. He started then the start line crew rushed to me and shut me down. My first thought was I've dropped some oil, WRONG as the smoke cleared I was looking at the front of the Vette. Our first ever bye.
Round 2 Bye
Round 3 Splinter - As it was so cold and we had been kept waiting before I decided to heat the bottle to 1200psi - bad move as we went straight round, with too much pressure we shut off the gas.
The trip home was a nightmare as the gear box on the motor home decided it didn't want to engage 3rd, so our 4 hour trip home became 9 – almost as long as Team 56’s normal journey.
EVENT # 2, the Big bang
With the gearbox in the motor home fixed we had a good drive up
As Saturday was mainly a RWYB we used the opportunity to get used to the trans break - 4 runs later I was happy
Run 1 - Launch was strong but then the car went flat
Run 2 - The same as run 1
A members vote was taken and it was decided that the cruise was not to be done due to the state of the exit route (and the slightly inebriated/happy campers).
Run 3 - We decided on kill or cure and went for 400bhp of gas it moved us up the ladder but not as much we hoped as it put us with Colin.
Steve Pateman came over and said that he thought that it sounded as though the gearbox was slipping.
Round 1 Colin - After a slight miss hap with his engine Colin was a no show – not sure that’s how Colin would sum it up (ed)
Round 2 Jon - This time I was shut down for an oil leak coming from the vent on the trans.
Off we set for home and what a surprise we had in store - a double blow out on the trailer and with only 1 spare I had no choice but to drive the car home luckily we were only 60 miles from home. To date I had only driven it to the MOT station (5miles). It was a disappointing drive home as I was waiting for something to go wrong, get stopped or anything else that could have been equally sh*tty. In the end it was a flawless run, apart from one of the road repair workers falling over as we went passed him.
I saw the Standings and nearly had a nosebleed as I've never been that high before 3rd yes read it again were 3rd.
Event # 3, the Spring Speed Nats
Run 1 - The same as round 2 gearbox was slipping so the damage was done.
The cruise went without any drama apart from an accident (which effectively closed the road) so we had a shortened cruise but included the much feared hot start.
Round 1 Jon again - Because of our gearbox issues we decided to use the gas on a button and not through the controller. With some interesting fabrication by the lads we had a button on the wheel. I wanted to hit the button about 60 foot into the run to see what effect it would have. It worked but as soon as the gas came in the box started to slip.
This time no dramas on the way home. I dropped off the box at Express Gearboxes and ordered a new converter from Sussex Autos. So fingers crossed for the next round.’
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14th May 2008
Team 56 driver Colin Lazenby has been in touch about his huge engine explosion at Round 2, Big Bang....
‘Event # 2 – the BIG BANG, quite literally.
Ok, so following our rear gear pinion breakage at the EASTER THUNDERBALL we had lots to do. And we simply had to find out the root cause of our tyre shake problems. One element at least was certainly the prop shaft assembly, this was supposedly balanced but the car vibrated something terribly at anything above 4k revs. Also was the rear wheel wobble, which was probably the result of last year’s smack with the concrete wall – bearing in mind we’d already replaced the front wheel but maybe the back wheel had been overlooked simply because of its size and apparent structure (and at 15” wide) it was never really suspect.
Ultimately we made the Big Bang by the skin of our teeth and set about tackling the last remaining job which was to replace the loan tail piece (off team Wildcat Racing) of the transmission, and to replace at the same time the rear transmission ‘sprag’. Both items arriving from Rosslers in record time but not in time enough to tackle the jobs before we left for the track, my fault, not theirs. Either way all the tasks had been completed before qualifying proper commenced.
In the first session we ran a misfiring (one system of N2o) 8.90 ET followed by a soft (two system of N2o) 8.30 ET. This put us pretty much where we expected to be. With no more ‘in session’ runs scheduled until the Sunday morning and with only one small change planned we were happy to call it a day.
On Sunday morning and with some time before our final qualifying runs Luke did a valve spring pull – everything was normal. The boys decided on their tune and we readied ourselves for qualifying run #3. It spun the tyres, almost immediately, I peddled it, it recovered, and I gave chase. About a 1000 foot there was a distinct and momentary ‘flat spot’ before it banged big time.
 
The rest, as they say, is history... Which is probably where it should stay. As I exited the car and removed the hood I could actually see the window in the block, oil was everywhere. At that point I knew that our race weekend was over.
We elected to pull the motor out there and then and inevitably our pit space was soon full of those who were genuinely concerned about the ‘bang’ (and probable damage) to the nosey b*st*rds who just wanted to take a peek. Some 2 hours later and after the assistance of specialist equipment from Jet Car pilot Martin Hill, and surprisingly, 4 time SE champ Steve Pat*man, we were done. Danny Bates of Adrenalin Race & Performance had kindly permitted us the space to stow the motor until later that week. We packed up and left sometime after the finals, arriving home at 02.20 am the following morning – never has there been so little conversation on the journey home.
Tuesday at work was little more than a blur. Though I did make the necessary arrangements to get my own engine stand sent by carrier to Danny’s place, ahead of our Kelvin collection vehicle on the Wednesday, it did, just. And the motor was delivered back at Kelvin KBB headquarters by the Friday morning. I have to say it looked just as sorry for itself as I remembered it when I last saw it.
The following weekend Ann-Marie, Bradley and I decided to kill 3 birds with one stone. This meant that straight after Bradley’s rugby training on the Saturday we’d head south of the border for Clive Bond’s place. Ultimate Race Cars base being just outside Cheltenham. We arrived at 8:30 pm and had left by 10:00 for our overnight stay in Bromsgrove. In the morning we would travel on to Shakespeare County Raceways Spring Speed National event. We pretty much saw all the SE guys and it was good to catch up with the ones who had made this event their first of 2008. Class Title Sponsor decals needed to be dropped off to Ian Hook at FB Racing (the new title sponsors decals look splendid BTW) and we had paint to drop off ultimately for Wilf Stacey to effect repairs to the hood and scoop. Either the Wildcat boys, or, the diminutive Jeff Meads (with arms like Popeye) had offered to take this back to Southend-on-Sea when they left.
As it began to rain for the second time that morning we bid our goodbyes and left ourselves.
Having spoken to Clive pretty much every day since we are finally coming to terms with the damage. The bottom line analysis seems to suggest that cylinder # 4 has around a third of the piston mass missing. As the flame burnt its way through the piston, it also burnt the wall of the liner - at which point the explosion could be seen from outer space (image attached). With the piston strength undermined the little end then failed, though the wrist pin is intact/undamaged. At that point the big failure’s came into play, the block was ‘windowed’ by the flailing connecting rod, this also scrapped the split pan as it tried to exit through the bottom. The crank is bent, and almost unheard of is that all 18 of the titanium valves are bent too. The nitrous ‘burst’ plate did its job (bursting) though sadly the explosion ruined the beautifully crafted aluminium intake manifold as well as ‘rattling’ the various bits and pieces out of the carbs.
The good news is that the expensive ‘skeletal’ Jessel lifters are undamaged, though that’s largely because the cam and push rods took the brunt of the upper end of the explosion – it’s little consolation sure, but good news nonetheless. We may never know for sure the root cause of the failure, though one of the 2 fuel pumps is now high on our suspects list.
In conclusion (and I’m almost saddened by not using this for the Quartermile High 2008 DVD). “I didn’t know what went wrong, it made a lot of noise and it sounded expensive”.
Thanks to all Team ‘56’ Sponsors for their support this year, and unless you want, or are able, to help out in any way shape or form I dare say we’ll be back at some point in the future – hell, we’d be lost without it.
Now, where’s that spare 12.0 litre engine I had at the back of my garage...?’
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14th May 2008
Round 2 Race Report of the B & H Automotive Street Eliminator 2008 Championship
Big Bang, April 26th/27th Santa Pod Raceway
Round 2 of this year’s championship was held at Santa Pod raceway over April 26th/27th and featured 12 of Europe’s quickest and fastest street cars. The blown Corvette’s of Pete Smith and Ray Tucker made a welcome return
but there was still no sign of the new cars of Steve Kellett, Martin Taylor or Davie Murdoch all of whom are eagerly awaited and promise to be in competition this year.
Qualifying was a hard fought affair, straddling Saturday night and Sunday morning. Topping the ladder after the four sessions was, once again, the turbo Cougar of Steve Nash but Steve Pateman was trying hard and pushed the nitroused 706 Calibra to an 8.10 ET for second spot.
But qualifying wasn’t without drama. A new design of blower belt on Jason Weir’s Plymouth was causing the team problems as two breakages slowed the stunning station wagon to a best of 10.84.
Mechanical failure on the blower drive put out returning Vette driver Pete Smith. Suffering greater woes was the red Vette of Ray Tucker who ran a storming 9.3 only to torch 5 pistons in the big-block Chevy mill. But the biggest bang at the Big Bang was from Colin Lazenby’s immaculate ’56 Chevy.
Lazenby was trying to improve on his earlier 8.3 on Sunday morning but at around 1,000 feet a rod in the 706 let go. The resulting pressure wave was HUGE sending the car’s hood scoop some fifty feet in the air and riddling the oil pan with shrapnel. Smith and Tucker will certainly miss the next round. For most people the damage suffered by the Lazenby’s Chevy would mean an end to the season but knowing Colin and Ann-Marie’s determination the car WILL be back on track before the end of the year.
With only a few classes in attendance eliminations were squeezed into Sunday afternoon, the carnage in qualifying leading to byes for Ian Hook, Ron Haslett and Steve Nash in the first round. The stand out race was Mark Perkins vs Jeff Meads.
Perkins was first out of the traps pulling a massive holeshot on Meads who ran a quicker 9.33 to Perkins 9.60 but the win went the way of the Mustang driver thanks to his brilliant reaction time.
In round 2 Perkins pulled another great light but his opponent was Steve Nash and this was as far as he progressed.
Hook was also sent home as Pateman moved into the semis whilst Haslett got pushed back due to a minor leak from the Cortina’s transmission vent pipe allowing Webster to continue.
In the semis Pateman had earned a bye thanks to his number 2 qualifying position and laid down a strong 8.4. But Nash was really getting the bit between his teeth and despatching Webster in the turbo Vette with a potential record setting 7.81.
In the final it was Nash all the way as Pateman suffered with poor traction. Another stunning run from the Cougar which stopped the ET clocks at 7.80 to reset the class record and win round 2, further extending his championship lead.
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14th May 2008
Recorded at Santa Pod’s Easter Thunderball in March 2008 and broadcast on Nitro FM 96.2, here’s a racer’s eye view of the Street Eliminator from 2 of the top drivers - Steve ‘Splinter’ Nash and Steve Pateman (interview by Nigel from Nitro FM 96.2). Click here to hear the interview....
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29th April 2008
Click here for the exclusive video review of Round 2 of the 2008 B&H Automotive Street Eliminator Championship.
Full race report coming soon...
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22nd April 2008
The next Championship round for the Street Eliminator is this weekend at Santa Pod Raceway’s Big Bang. The class will be putting in some demo runs on Saturday, with qualifying proper and eliminations taking place on Sunday.
For all the event details visit www.big-bang.co.uk
For the live race report, webcam, photos and full entry list, as always visit
www.eurodragster.com/santapod/live/2008bigbang/default.htm
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19th April 2008
Here’s a word from soon to be Street Eliminator racer Spencer Reynolds....
Hi to all in the Street Eliminator class!
Please let me introduce myself. My name is Spencer Reynolds and I will join you all this year racing in the best door slammer class for street legal, pump gas cars in the world!
I am based in south east London very close to some other S.E. racers; Pete Smith and Ray Tucker who you and I know so well. Pro Mod racer Ray White lives a few miles away also.
This will be my first pro class racing, in the past I’ve driven at RWYB events so I will be on a very large learning curve, but I intend to be professional and give it my full attention.
But it’s the car that you all want to know about -
It’s a 1959 Ford MK2 Zephyr, well I have owned the old girl for twenty eight years now, it’s always had a V8, a proper custom car.
An ex-Harris brothers car from all those years ago, and typical of all Harris cars it went straight ok, around corners it was fair, but it had a lack of brakes.
Like all custom cars over the years it’s been modified and worked on aplenty - you know the sort of thing continual new interiors, upgrades of brakes, paint and re-paint, and many engine and gearbox upgrades. One particular year having broken two gearboxes I then parked the car up, and as is often the case other things took over my life. That was until one day when my good friend Winston Sewell asked if his brother could have a look at the car.
I was reluctant at first as she had been covered over with a old tarpaulin, and when this was removed I was shocked to see the deterioration that had taken place. At first I thought I should sell it on to someone who could nurse it back to life, then, and having beat myself up over the sight that greeted me, I knew it should be me who did it.
The car was brought back to life in quick time and good enough to be used for my friend’s wedding car, which was just great. A year or two later I had been following the Street Eliminator series, with some envy I may add, so I decided to revamp the old girl for a much bigger stage. This took the shape of having work done by Paul Burnham of Burnham Autos. This was fine, but a bigger deciding factor was that the workshop was only feet away from Paul’s place, the old workshop of C&C Racing’s, Doug Ripley of Top Alcohol Funny Car fame.
Upon seeing Doug’s workmanship and the ideas that we might be able to use in my car the plan was hatched to completely change course and start over again. I was first shown how to use a plasma cutter so I started cutting, and cutting, and just when the car was about to fall on top of me in pieces I was asked to stop. Doug took the car to an almost completed stage after that.
The car has the following:-
Doug Ripley rolling chassis and paint
I.C.E. stroked small block Ford engine 408 cu.in. – the details of which are top secret.
Alders modified gearbox - trans brake, reverse pattern shift etc.
Chris Isaacs - A arms, front hubs.
9in. Ford axle - spool, Strange shafts, disc brakes
All the Old Ford GRP panels that I could buy
Wired by myself, as was most of the plumbing - brakes & fuel lines too.
 
The rest I guess you will all see at the track - soon. It seems like a million things still to do, working on the transporter, stocking up on sundries (tools, oils etc), but at least it’s now getting real close to the end.
Racing will bring its own demands and more work I’m sure (improvements are to go faster, in the safest possible manner).
All racers have been there and could write a book on the subject.
Thank you Colin Lazenby for the advise he gave me a while ago, which was to tackle one task at a time, so that the jobs can be ticked off the list, trust me it works.
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