Santa Pod Raceway - 2012 Autotrader Easter Thunderball - Slow Motion Video

NSRA Nostalgia Nationals

Taking part in the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals was a first for Team Rampage and it turned out to be a good decision. Beautiful show cars and race cars made for a fun event at Shakespeare County Raceway and this time round it was the turn of the Monza Funny Car to have a play. We had entered Wild Bunch for the meet, as we have enjoyed the racing and atmosphere of the class in previous events.

Having taken the Funny Car over the day before, Saturday was a lot more relaxed than what the first day of an event normally is, this being because it was open practice for both days, so we could go out when we wanted and as many times as we wanted. The added bonus was that the weather was lovely and sunny, including a very strong tailwind! The first run in the late hours of the morning turned out to be a little disappointing, since the line lock which locks all four brakes used to launch the car was not working as it should, the culprit being the rear brakes in this case. This meant that Dave rolled through the beams and had activated the start time, resulting in time ticking away as he was still trying to launch the car. The Funny Car went through the quarter at a 10.08.

When we got the car back to pits after the run, we gave the rear brakes a thorough clean and tested the line lock from there and it worked, so hopefully the next run would be an improvement on the first. That proved to be the case as the car locked itself dead still and launched as it should, with Dave going through with a 9.59 at 135mph. The wind at this time was becoming more and more severe, so maybe the third run of the day would be even quicker.

The day soon shot by and it was time for our third and final run of the day alongside the Dorset Horn Funny Car which made for an exciting and photogenic race. The line lock did what it should, so the problem was well and truly solved in that department and the Rampage Funny Car ran through with a 9.57 at 139mph, the wind proving to be a factor for the quicker speed and time. That was the end of Saturdays racing and the team were certainly looking forward to race day the next day.

Like the vast majority of other events that had already taken place this year, rain had affected the racing at both Santa Pod and Shakespeare County and it was the same situation for the Sunday morning. On the journey to the track, it did look fairly promising as all the roads were drying from the heavy rain through the night and there were no nasty clouds that looked dangerous, however this was soon to change as the forecast had predicted. It wasn’t until the moment that the commentator had announced that the track was in a go position and the fire up roads were open that the heavens opened and boy did they open! Initially, it was just the odd shower but that soon altered into a series of monumental down pours. It really did not look promising and there was the thought to pack up and leave, however the rain did eventually stop and the sun came out, which really helped the drying of the track and more so the run off. "Could it be that we were going to have a run today?!" we said. 

It did mean exactly that! The track was opened and we, along with the other guys in Wild Bunch, made our way down to the start. We had decided to predict a run of 9.58 seconds and the Funny Car ran through with a 9.65, but of course we had forgotten to take into account that there was no longer a tailwind like on Saturday so the car would not run as fast. The time was 15:30 and it looked to be that if the weather stayed like this we could get a second run in too!

We did and we had to run quicker to get closer to our 9.58 to have a shot of being higher up the table. Running a 9.63 was indeed closer to our 9.58, but was not enough to get us any higher and so we finished the event in 4^th, coming home with a trophy. It was fair to say that we would never have anticipated getting one run on the Sunday, but to get two was very lucky.

The Nostalgia Nationals had lived up to the expectations of being good fun and we all went away feeling quite content with how the event went.      

Easter Thunderball 2012

The Easter Thunderball has always been one of those events where the weather decides to change throughout the four days and this proved again to be the case. However it has never failed to bring the closest of Sportsman racing over the many years since the event was created.

It was Friday morning and an extremely cold one too, the temperature gauge showing -3 in the earlier hours and this posed all sorts of problems for all the racers, but more so for the quicker classes including our class Super Pro ET. The decision was made by the team to not make a run for the first round of qualifications due to the track conditions and this was the same decision made by the majority of other teams too, just 7 cars who went out for the first qualifier. Luckily, the weather did improve slightly in terms of temperature and so we set ourselves for the first run of 2012 with a dial-in of 8.10 seconds. Unsurprisingly, the conditions were still too cold for the dragster to make a good run, resulting in Dave having to come off the throttle in the last third of the track due to the car moving about far too much, rolling through the quarter with an 8.45 at 148mph. Plenty more opportunities to rectify that! Next run then and the decision was made to bring the dial-in down to an uncharacteristic 8.21. This time the car hooked up nicely and ran what it’s supposed to run, an 8.08 at 166mph. D’oh! The breakout meant that we were lower down the field at this time. This run was the last of the day.

Saturday morning was an improvement on Friday morning’s weather, for the reason that it wasn’t below freezing. Waiting around most of the day for the fourth round of qualifying was something that we were used to by now and we all agreed on an 8.08 dial-in. The look on our faces when Dave went through running 8.07 at a terminal speed of nearly 168mph could only be described as frustrating, Dave’s even more so when we collected him from the end of the track! Unfortunately, that was the only run of the day.

The plans for Sunday were to have two more qualifying rounds and then go into eliminations. Well, the two more rounds never happened and it meant going straight into eliminations at a very late 19:45. What a good way to spend a Sunday evening! We were up against the newly built Fuel Altered being driven by Jim Draper and what a beautiful car it was, entering Super Pro for testing. The sun had nearly set at this point making it near enough night racing. We had gone for the dial-in of 8.07 and the altered with a quicker 7.40, giving Dave the start line advantage of 0.67 seconds. Dave used the advantage to his full potential cutting a +0.04 light, the altered was struggling up the track with what sounded like mechanical issues, if not then apologies! The dragster ran through with a much better 8.11 at nearly 165mph, 0.04 off of our dial-in. Not too shabby!

Yet again, the power that is Mother Nature meant that the Monday was a complete and utter wash out, with torrential rain and wind, giving Race Director Robin Shone no choice but to call the rest of the event. So, in a way, Team Rampage can come away from the event feeling relatively happy with the cars performance and consistency.

Thank you very much to all our Sponsors for their contributions, as always they are appreciated.