Wow...yet another year of racing is upon us and still we never ask ourselves, why we still do it? Well, for us it's always an obvious answer: for the love, excitement and sheer uniqueness that Drag Racing is! There is nothing quite like the noise, the power, the "feel" that these cars produce for both the drivers and fans alike. Once the last meeting of the year is done, it seems to be an absolute eternity until the next one in the new year comes around; that is of course until it actually does come around and you think - bloody hell, it's been six months already?!I'm sure everyone remembers last year's Festival of Power, in that it was basically arctic conditions with snow showers in between rounds. Well this year the weather couldn't have been anymore different, with a beautiful array of sunshine covering the vast majority of the meeting which gave us all the best possible start to the new season.
Team Rampage were all geared up and ready to go after a very quiet off season in terms of maintenance to the dragster, with only a bit of welding needed to the chassis. We got to the track Friday morning and couldn't wait to get going for the first round of qualifying. After a small conversation with Geof Hauser, we decided that we would try running slightly higher tyre pressures and see what would happen to our consistency. After going through previous runs and weather conditions, we chose to dial in an 8.00 so we could at least get a number on the board and a decent one at that. Once the burnout had been completed, it was immediately obvious that it was way better than it used to be thanks to the higher tyre pressures, which then made us think "oh bugger, we're going to break out".
The car hooked really hard, which made us doubt ourselves even more, but fortunately we ran through the traps with an 8.003 to go number one qualifier. Brilliant! That set the tone for the rest of the weekend, but did make us ponder: what do we do now?!It was now the case of trying to beat ourselves and somehow trying to get even closer. Naturally we went for the same dial in for the second run which wasn't until the evening, after what seemed like numerous incidents on the track throughout the day, but it was to no avail as we ran through with a 7.991 break out, still close though right?
Saturday morning was upon us and had really good air conditions, something these naturally aspirated machines thrive upon, so we mutually agreed to go with an 7.99 dial in. In some ways, running through with an 8.002 was both good and bad: good because it was still a competitive run close to our dial in, but bad because leaving it with an 8.00 dial in would have beaten our 8.003, but it's always about the what ifs after it's happened! This did however make us feel a bit more confident that what we were doing was working and at this time the rest of the Super Pro field were catching so it was good to know we were consistent. Again, it wasn't until the evening that we got our second run of the day, which by then was changed from being a qualifying round to the first round of eliminations. As there were an odd number of cars qualified, we were given a bye run through to round 2. An average 60ft meant that we ran through with an 8.03 on our 8.00 dial in, still not bad when you look at it but an off run compared to our other runs!
Round 2 of Eliminations was Sunday morning and we were to race Phil Toppin in his altered. We would have been stupid not to go for an 8.00 so that's what we done, Phil going for an 8.97 giving the Rampage dragster nearly a seconds wait on the startline. Both drivers knew they had to cut a good light against one another and unfortunately for Phil, he tried a bit too hard cutting a -0.1 cherry to our +0.1. It wouldn't have made any difference as he ran through with a PB 8.69, completely annihilating his dial in! We ran through with an 8.02; confirming that an 8.00 was indeed our ideal dial in.
Sadly, before we could race Pete Walters in the quarter finals, on and off rain put an end to the weekend, which in a way was advantageous for us as it meant we left the event sitting 1st in the championship, even though we would have preferred racing to the end. Taking the runs over the three days meant we had averaged 8.009 on our 8.00 dial ins, which when you take a step back and look at it, is incredibly difficult to do. Trying to strategically predict what you will run over a 1/4 of a mile, trying to factor in so many variables, especially when these cars are as fast as they are, is really difficult so we think it's a hats off to all us sportsman racers who do it so well!
A huge thanks for our sponsors for this year: Mini Gears - who are a specialist gear manufacturing company based in Stockport that manufacture many types of high precision multi surface machine components and high quality gears - who have decided to remain with us for the fourth year running and to All Aces Couriers (01295 274050) - who can deliver your reputation for incredible prices - who have also decided to support us for the second year running. Also a thanks to the Walters for organising the sponsorship scheme again this year after it's success last year!
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