The GLNs have been kind to us in the past – winning both days and setting records in 2018 was a major factor in us winning the championship that year – and it’s a relatively low key event which means plenty of runs. Following our PB 6.549 at the Summernationals we were cautiously optimistic with more power loaded in for the next runs. As usual though, nothing comes easy…
Regular crew man Simon couldn’t make the event so long time friends Dave Woodard and Kermit (Graham) stepped in to deliver the bike to the track, crew and handle the startline duties. Thanks chaps! A nice surprise was seeing a pic of Storm in the event programme too.
Q1 the bike conked out on antilag. We tried again but it stalled on the launch. Back in the pits we eventually found that the ignition fuse which blew at the last even had not been refitted properly. A last minute thrash meant we just made it for Q2. With the bike putting up a bit of a wrestling match when the front wheel touched down (more on this soon) we ran a 6.94 shutoff to qualify #1 for eliminations. With some attrition in the other bikes, we got a bye run into the semi-final.
The bye run gave us PB 60′ (1.07) and 330′ (2.78) times but then wheelspin and a shut off 7.9 at 115mph.
In the semis we pulled a huge and totally unnecessary cherry red against Box of Frogs Roger Moore, followed by tyre shake mid track. Cracked under the pressure obvs! Well done to Roger and game over for us for the day. Congrats also to Louis Davies who went on to win day 1.
Q1 on day 2 saw another PB to 60′ of 1.061, then wheelspin, hit the rev limiter which killed the ignition with the front wheel in the air, slamming it down hard enough for the front mudguard to hit the fairing and skew the front wheel sideways. Then it came back with such force (10,000 rpm and 50psi boost) it threw me back, opening the throttle to hang on. Luckily I got it shut and avoided the right wall.
We decided on calming it down a bit for the next qualifier to get one in the bank, ran another 1.06 to 60′ but then our CO2 bottle ran out and we coasted to a 14 sec run with no drive from the air clutch. At least we had qualified.
With only 3 bikes remaining (poor old Tony Clark had detonated Phil Crossley’s freshly rebuilt motor and Dave Peters was also out) some rather confusing pairings put us against Roger Moore again. A cautious 0.33 reaction time against his 0.27 didn’t really hurt, but I once again mistakenly shifted from 3rd back to 1st gear at half track and had to hurriedly shift 2-3 and give it a squirt before Roger caught me up. Our 7.0 @ 191 beat 7.5 comfortably though.
Into the final against quick-reacting and consistent Louis and we decided to take no chances. We’d taken 5psi out of the big turbo on each of the previous runs, but still the bike was breaking traction at the 60′ so we took another 5psi out.
Watch the result here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXCr_Q8QTm0&t=36084s
6.544 beat our previous best by just 0.005s and gave us our first event win in 4 years. Hooray! We’d also run 1.06 to 60′ three times, which is encouraging for the future.
More pics to follow.
Thanks to the whole team and to our sponsors for making it happen:
AS Transport – HIAB crane services
ARP bolts #1 in fasteners
Leeks Landscapes – class sponsor
Owen Developments – turbos and wastegates
Mr Sticker – signwriting and decals
Horsepower Factory UK – support with our electronics.
