16th
Nov 04 - Flame
and Thunder Report
Although
it was a very damp and cold day, the Flame and Thunder
Show at Santa Pod Raceway proved to be quite a success
for us. There was quite a big turn-out of drag racing
fans as well as the local day visitors who we usually
expect to see at this event. We took quite a few more
pledges and are expecting to receive quite a few more
via post and email in the next few weeks.
We
were kept busy all day at the Flame and Thunder show with
spectators who were keen to learn more about the project,
buy raffle tickets and take a look at the Santa
Pod Top Fuel Dragster. The Santa
Pod show car was definitely a good talking point and
a big draw for the crowds so we must say a big thank-you
to everyone at Santa Pod for all their help so far and
especially the loan of the car. Lots of people wanted
to know more about the world of Top Fuel drag racing,
and the fansfueler team did their best to provide them
with an insight. It was also great to see such a big number
of those fans who have already signed up come along to
see how we are progressing and join us for our little
get-together after the show was over.
We
are pleased to report that the raffle that we ran for
a voucher for up to £1000 towards wheels and tyres
kindly provided by AEZ
was won by Gary Simes. Gary was one of the first people
to make a pledge to the fansfueler project, so we were
very happy to see the prize go to one of our members.
Although
the racing was curtailled by the somewhat inclement weather,
all of the demonstration vehicles made it out on track
to put on a show for what was a huge crowd by the time
the darkness fell. Ronnie Piccardo had both of his Jet
Trucks out and the new Jet Powered VW Beetle, plus of
course the famous Wheelie Corvette. The Fireforce
team were also in attendance with Martin Hill and Tony
Baker and a new blue body for Fireforce 2... er Fireforce
3 I mean. We must also thank Martin Hill and the Fireforce
team for supplying us with power for the event, we'd have
been really stuck without them. Michel Kooij from holland
brought over his Jet Powered Quad the Pyromaniac,
performing skid turns and donuts whilst sat atop the turbine
of this impressive piece of machinery and was definitely
one of the high-points of the show.
Away
from the jets, Wendy Baker in the Time Warp Bantam Fuel
Altered and Mickey Moore in its counterpart The
Mob nitro burning Model T, put on a great nostalgic
show with strong burnouts, dry hops to the line all with
great header flames. It was just a shame the damp track
couldn't have held a run from these two. We also saw the
Top Fuel Dragsters of Thomas Nataas and fansfueler member
Andy
Carter come around for the Top Fuel Match Race. With
the track conditions less than marginal Thomas nailed
the throttle away from the line and although the car was
moving around a lot, was on quite a strong pass until,
discretion being the better part of valor, he backed out
of it at about 400ft with Andy a long way behind after
the engine revs failed to rise away from the startline.
That
was our last sniff of nitro for the 2004 drag racing season,
so after the fireworks it was time to enjoy the BBQ and
beer with some of our members and some of our drag racing
friends under the Turboville.com
party tent.
Thanks
once again for all their help to AEZ,
Santa
Pod Raceway, Ian Turboville,
Martin Hill and Fireforce
and Phil and Gary Cottingham of DragsterWorld.
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