Springspeed Festival 3rd-5th May Created On: 2008-05-13 at 01:31:21 The prospect of driving to Stratford-Upon-Avon had obviously daunted Nigel as in the week between meetings he solely spent his time on preparing the race trailer for it's epic journey. Brakes, power steering and tyres were all meticulously serviced and the rig was ready to tow the furthest distance it had been in many years. The Corvette was ready to go as it had been prepared at the end of the previous weekends meeting and had been packed away, not seeing daylight ready for Shakespeare County Raceway. Graham arrived early on Friday morning and was going to follow Nigel and the rig to the track. This was not going to be a quick journey. After breakfast and a quick refresh on Multimap of the route they headed off in convoy. After about an hour the phone rang and they were lost. A map consultation showed they had prematurley taken a turning off the M1 and they were soon heading back in the correct direction. They eventually made it there and soon made camp. After lots of waiting for a scrutineer to legalise the car for the meeting they gave up and headed home for a much deserved curry. They drove home in Graham's car and after suffering Grahams music for as long as he could Nigel threw the cd into the back of the car. I can confirm this was not a drastic measure, you haven't heard his music! The weather was, as always a big issue for the weekend and an unsettled forecast gave no real indication of our fate. Saturday though, started bright and fair and Graham and Nigel left to meet Steve and Kyle at the track. For two days of this meeting the catering division was out of service ie me, due to a family party and they were going to have to fend for themselves (I still sent a packed lunch though). Nigel hadn't raced at Avon for many years and was really impressed at the condition of the track. They had prepared it really well and Nigel was eager to run. They warmed the car and were ready to go and only needed the scrutineers to check the car before they could go. Again, already some of the other Super Modified cars were having problems and some hadn't materialised after breaking at the previous weekends meeting. Early season always brings casualties. We found ourselves yet again pared with Tim Garlick for the first qualifying run at midday. A quite unimpressive burnout followed by Nigel pulling a great light of 0.05 and produced yet another personal best of 7.66 ET @ 180.74. There seems to be no stopping team Sticky Situation this year. A really pleased team towed back to the pits, after weighing and prepared the car for it's next run. The next run was a bye ( meaning a single car) and Nigel managed a better burnout this time. A poorer light was followed by a slower ET of 7.69 although mph was still up at 180.04. The car was serviced and as a Pro-Modified car had crashed through the starting lights they decided to head home. They eventually arrived in time to drink beer and eat food at the party. After a good nights sleep and a scary episode of a sleepy man in a pair of underpants they left for the track quite late as they have a curfew at the track. Racing doesn't start till 10am and has to finish at 5pm. This can be, as you can imagine quite restrictive. The day didn't pan out well on the racing front as the weather was poor. Periodic showers left the track crew trying to dry the track all day and an incidence of the track dryer crashing into the barrier didn't help. The boys did however, spent a lot of time fixing things and getting all the little odd jobs done that normally takes Nigel so much time between rounds. Steve got stuck in changing the gear ratio's ready for our test meeting at the Main Event. They returned home in good time hungry and quite dehydrated due to there inability to boil a kettle! Monday, I was back and ready to organise the motley crew. Metcheck had predicted brilliant weather and I had dressed accordingly with new team flip flops. Oh dear, mistake. Half way to the track the rain began to fall, and fall and fall and surprisingly when we got there it was still falling. We had no electricity at this track and Nigel had borrowed Paul Mander's generator which Tim was sharing, but as we arrived we found that it was stuck in the back of Tim's trailer as his batteries had gone flat. The day was not panning out well. Everyone was a bit gloomy and frustrated. Even the cake was making little impression today. The power was eventually sorted and the continual flow of coffee seemed to spur some life into everyone. Suddenly the sky became less grey and the sunshine fought it's way through. Within a couple of hours the track was almost ready to race on. The team warmed the car and we towed down to run. We seemed to sit in the fire up road for ages but the children enjoyed watching the other racers head up the track. Eventually he was on the start line and launched hard pulling a 0.01 light. ET and mph were down @7.72 and 178.9. Due to problems with other Super Modified cars this left us to race Tim Garlick in the final. The boys worked hard and fast to prepare the car not knowing how long we were going to have to wait to run. As we had only two cars left the much larger classes had more rounds to go through and the track were planning to run all the finals together. 5pm came and they had managed to extend the curfew due to the fact they hadn't had any runs on Sunday. We waited and waited, ate dinner, waited some more and then... the meeting was over. Their extended curfew time was up. Not one class manged to run a final. We were all very frustrated and disappointed but that was that. Packing up didn't take two long but no one was looking forward to the drive home, especially Nigel who only at best could reach 60mph. The next meeting is not a point's round for Super Modified but we are all looking forward to having some fun at the Main Event. We have entered two different classes, Super Pro ET and Comp Eliminator. A good opportunity for lots of runs and lots of testing with some different variables in which we hope to learn some more about the car and it's potential. Fingers crossed for the weather. Big Bang 26th - 27th April Created On: 2008-04-30 at 06:12:55 Seven days prior to the Big Bang and the weather forecast was fantastic. They predicted cloud but unseasonal temperatures of 20 degrees centigrade. We were all feeling very up beat and raring to go. As the days progressed the forecast became increasingly worse and Sunday looked as if it was going to be a complete washout. Never the less Kyle travelled down from Coventry on Thursday to help Nigel set up camp. They got there ahead of the other teams and found a good pitch with views of the finishing gantry. On Friday morning I returned home from the nursery school run to find Graham and Kyle lounging on the sofas. After feeding and watering them they headed off to Santa Pod to service the car and refill with essential oils after it's post Easter tinkering and to scrutineer ready for the following day. They reappeared early evening and after a great curry and a scary movie we settled down early, ready for the weekend ahead. We awoke Saturday to a beautiful bright and sunny morning and were all aware that we had to make the most of this first day of racing.Jordan headed off the the track with the boys as Milly and I left for her weekly ballet lesson. We did get rather a lot of strange looks as she changed from her ballet clothes into her Nimbus clothing. Pretty fairy in to a goth child. On the way to the track Graham had taken on the guise of Dick Darsterdly in trying to catch the pigeon, which manged to escape with millimeters to spare. Our country roads were not prepared for Graham's driving so early in the morning. The boys were all warmed up a ready to race when us girls arrived. This was a Rung What You Brung day and only a few sportsman drag racing classes were participating at this meeting. The rest of the pod was filled with Volkswagen vans and bugs, a good opportunity for some testing. We queued for ages in the fire up road, but the kids were really excited because for the first time, they were going to stay in the tow vehicle and I was going to drive the crew back up the return road at the end of the run. After a long wait I drove around to the side of the track and the children realised that they would be able to see Nigel's full pass (they had always been too short to see it behind the barriers). After a lame burnout due to lack of water in the burnout box, Nigel staged and pulled a 1.79 reaction, I think he had a cat nap! He got up the track in 7.780 seconds @176.9mph. Not bad. We drove up to the shut off area, collected him and towed down to the officials to get weighed. This is required to validate each run due to the strict rules within the class. They serviced the car and Kyle taught Jordan how to download the cars datalogger. After discussion with Tim Garlick it was decided that they would pair up for their next run, a better show for the crowds. Tim wanted the better right hand lane and Nigel had the left, which seemed to have no grip to it at all. The run proved this true as the car lifted the front wheels so high Nigel could hardly see over the dash board. He then proceeded to head further and further towards the centre line leaving black tyre marks two thirds the length of the track. I sat with gritted teeth hoping he still had some vague control where he was headed. He managed not to take out the centre timing lights and finished with an ET of 7.80. The Rung What You Brung was then over and the MSA decided to license the rest of the day as official qualifying, which seemed sensible due to the predicted weather for Sunday.They proceeded to prep the track. The boys turned the car around quickly and we were called to race around 6pm. As we sat in the fire up road Graham checked the tyre pressures as usual. Well almost as usual apart from he seemed to be using one of the children's lollipops to release the surplus air from the tyres. Most professional appearing race team! If only they knew. The normal tummy flutters were now less of a problem as Nigel staged the car. A reaction of .108 was followed by a storming run up the track. An ET of 7.686 left the whole team screaming for joy. Even Graham jumped into the air (thank god for cod liver oil). Nigel's smiling face was a joy to see as we headed up to collect him. Our first ever 7.6 second run. Who cared if it rained now? We were back out by 8.45pm for our last run of the day. An improved reaction time of .0315 was followed with a ET of 7.771. We collected ourselves together and bedded the car down and then handed our trailer keys to Fred, who was our lodger for the night. Sunday morning was unbelievably bright and no one dared to hope they may have got the weather wrong. Our lodgers had vacated the trailer which was not going to receive a five star rating due to the air compressor going off at 4am. We had two more qualifying runs scheduled for the morning and we were ranked third in the class. As Nigel sat in the burnout box for the first run the rain began to fall at the top of the track and he was instructed to switch off the engine. After only 15 minutes and a debarkle in the car with Milly needing the toilet it was safe to proceed. Another good reaction time was followed with an even faster run of 7.67 seconds. Nigel's lucky streak seemed to be returning after many years of absence. Our final run was in the left hand lane and although prepped it didn't seem to suit the car as well. No improvement and this left us number four qualifier. Big debates took place now between the teams as to the parings that would take place in eliminations. Barabara Kirk sought the advice from race officials and we finally found ourselves against Tim Garlick. The orange pre-stage lights shone, then into stage, Tim first followed by Nigel. Tim pulled a better reaction of .0540 to Nigel's .0572. As they headed up the track you could see Nigel bearing down on Tim and he eventually beat him through the finish line with a 7.69 to Tim's 7.77. We were through to the second round. The sun was still shining. Second round was against Rob Smallworth. As we sat in the fire up road a small child the other side of the fence became overwhelmingly excited as he believed the corvette was in fact the real Lightning McQueen, obviously unaware of it's inability to go around corners. They started their engines and drove round to warm their tyres in the burnout. As Rob rolled up the track he came to a sudden halt. The Pod crew raced to the car with extinguishers in hand as Rob tried his hardest to restart the engine. No luck. The crew cleared the track and Nigel was beckoned into stage. A .0492 light was followed with a 7.742 ET. We were in the final. We were all a bit gob-smaked really, two finals in two meetings, more than we could have wished for and the sun was still shining. Final round was against last years champion, Andy Kirk who had been setting the fastest ET's of the weekend. Nigel could only hope to beat him on reaction time, a particular talent of his. We were all very excited and Jordan couldn't bear to watch and buried his face in the car seat. We all held our breath. The light's burned down and you could see Nigel had launched ahead of him. He managed a .023 to Andy's .203 reaction. Andy seemed to loose power for a micro second and then he was back chasing Nigel up the track. Nigel was too far ahead and reached the line first with a 7.79 @178.08 to Andy's 7.70 @177.4 mph. Reaction time had won the race. We had now securely placed ourselves in the running for the 2008 championship and we all enjoyed watching Nigel and Jordan on the podium collecting the trophy. No champagne but we celebrated with sausage hot pot before packing up for home. Only four days of down time before the next meeting at Shakespeare County Raceway. Lots of washing and baking to do. Lets hope we need champagne again. Easter Thunderball Created On: 2008-04-16 at 01:30:45 As ever Team Sticky Situation Racing were eager to get to Santa Pod raceway for the first meeting of the year despite the predicted weather for the weekend. Metcheck.com had become a favorite website of mine over the previous weeks and it suggested the weather was going to be very grim. Never the less the team were filled with enthusiasm and excited anticipation for the forthcoming four days and we had a good supply of woolly hats and gloves in stock. Nigel and Kyle set up camp on the Thursday in wet and cold conditions leaving the new baby warm and snug inside the trailer. Despite being bitterly cold, Friday mornings weather was not that bad. The children could hardly bend their limbs, as an ever over protective mother I had given them far to many layers of clothes. It must have been cold, even Graham was wearing a woolly hat, not surprisingly it was not on straight. The team carefully took the car out of the trailer and proceeded to tow it to scrutineer. It must have been freezing as the normal coffee order was exchanged for hot chocolate on their return. After tinkering and I'm sure some unnecessary faffing, the car was eventually started and the team looked eagerly on as it roared into life. The children watched mesmorized through the window of the trailer and Nigel's face held a contented but apprehensive gaze as the boys surveyed the various connections for leaks and drips. A few minor adjustments were made and joints tightened around the new Goodridge hosing. We were eventually called for our first run and the time had come to see if the gods of the USA really did know what they were talking about, and if the car would reach it's expected potential. With new engine, new tyres and various other parts in the car Nigel really felt he had something to prove, especially to me who had since found out how much he had actually spent! He was in the burn out area and my fluttering stomach had come back. The adrenaline and excitement had obviously kicked in for Nigel too as he produced a really huge burnout which could not fail to impress the spectators, who had braved the elements on the bank. He staged against Tim Garlick who was in the left hand lane. Lights down and a dream of a run unfolded. He reached the 60ft at 1.0985 seconds and stormed the rest of the run with an ET of 7.7316 at 176.88 mph. It really had been worth it, those results with no nitrous, off the back of the trailer! Nigel seemed to suddenly be more attractive! As you can imagine the team were elated. At least now, although still a little slower, we were in the same game as the Nitrous cars and with the potential to still make some alterations it seemed we were going to be able to race competitively this year. This as you can imagine makes it so much more interesting for all involved, especially for the children who now saw their Daddy in the same league as Michael Schumacher. The rest of the day was spent waiting for the next run. The children joined in an Easter egg hunt around the rigs, kindly invited by Barbara Kirk and once we had collected their chocolate treats we decided to head home. The next two days were painfully slow. We awoke Saturday morning to sleet showers and the boys made it to the track in time to watch the Grand Prix qualifying. Nothing happened that day except for lots of moaning about the temperature and how ridiculous it was that Easter was so early in the year. On Sunday night the Easter bunny left magic dust footprints and eggs around our house and Jack Frost left a blanket of snow across the county. By early afternoon the Race Director had canceled any racing for the day and it seemed that our run on Friday may have been the first and last of the weekend. We all sat around at home drinking coffee, eating and the team managed to find every single bit of motor sport on the television to watch. So much for my trashy soaps. Ever the enthusiastic team we arrived at the track reasonably early on Monday morning. Metcheck had stated dry weather for most of the day but as we arrived at the track it seemed to have failed on it's normally accurate prediction. Fine sleet showers persisted throughout the morning and some understandably disheartened racers were throwing in the towel and heading home. An endless supply of hot drinks and food kept the crew going until as last we could hear cars heading down the track. Being a smaller class there was a long wait until some had gone through two rounds of eliminations. Metcheck had come good and now, a brilliant blue sky shone over Santa Pod. We were eventually called and headed down to the start line much to the delight of everybody. We were pared against Rob Smallworth in the 55 Chevy Bel Air. These two cars look so mean together. Two Chevy's, heads up racing, a real doorslammer race. The lights burned down and Nigel launched well off the start line. A reaction of 0.0463 gave Nigel advantage over Rob's 0.1302 and again it roared up the track with an ET of 7.736 at 177.23 mph beating Rob's 7.996. We were all so excited, another good run and we had eliminated a Nitrous car (nothing personal). We were now guaranteed our place in the final and our goal for the 2008 season to win a round was in sight at the first meeting of the year. The boys worked hard in servicing the car ready for the final round and the prevailing cold weather no longer seemed to matter. There was an agonising wait until the final which eventually took place in the dark at 7.30pm. A no show by our competitor meant that Nigel had only to stage the car to win. As the temperature of the track was now so low it was decided this was the safest and most sensible option. He broke through the lights and that was that. We had won our first ever meeting in Super Mod and had broken records in the process. We are now the fastest naturally aspirated car in Super Modified in the UK and the first ever naturally aspirated car to win a round of Super Modified. A rejuvenated and highly motivated team are now looking forward to the rest of the season. More discussions are taking place, again censored. Sounds like it could be really expensive. Here's to better weather at the Big Bang. Bring it on! The New Season. Created On: 2008-04-15 at 02:42:56 Well here we are at the start of another racing season. As usual we have had a very busy winter when I was not sure if I was still married, if Nigel had emigrated or if I should call the police and formally list him as a missing person! Following the Super Modified AGM there was much discussion with the team into plans for the new motor and censored discussion with myself keeping all of the financial aspects very secret squirrel. A plan was eventually hatched to change every aspect of the old engine, oh except the carbs. Nigel then spent most of his time on the phone or on the computer speaking or e-mailing the great gods of the USA. He then gave them lots of money and they in return sent lots of shiny things that he and the crew spent hours looking at with big saucer eyes. Nigel's days and brain cavity were then taken up with putting all the different shaped and sized shiny things together. Weeks and weeks and weeks later I then realised that Nigel was actually still alive and reintroduced the children to the man they had formally known as Daddy. What an awesome motor he had produced. I guess not seeing him for all that time had been worth it although my addiction to trashy soaps had become quite worrying. It had only been completed thanks to our generous and supportive sponsors who have assisted us financially in many ways and provided us with essential parts. The task to organise the rest of the necessities for the first race meeting then took place. The truck became street legal again, the trailer resurrected and I started baking. We were ready to go.

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