2014 FIA European Championships Round 1

It will always be The Main Event to us and a fair few others I should think too! Anyhow, after the success of last meeting, Team Rampage knew we had to keep the momentum going for this weekend to keep our championship hopes alive; fair to say we sort of did and sort of didn't!

The midweek forecast for the long weekend was against us racers with only two of the days looking relatively settled (emphasis on the relatively) and so it struck us that we needed to qualify well to secure as many points as possible in case rain put a stop to eliminations. After the previous meeting, we felt that an 8.00 dial in would always be a good starting point for us as the dragster had the tendency to always run an 8.0 something. Running through with an 8.05 in round 1 of qualifying on the Friday did indeed confirm what we already knew. It wasn't bad, not at all, but it could certainly be better!

As Friday went by, numerous stoppages on the track for a number of reasons meant that we would only get one more run in so we tried to narrow it down a little more and shoot for an 8.02. The dragster hooked so hard, wheels higher than they have ever been, that it was a little unsettled when coming back down again, resulting in a few hundredths lost in the 60ft time. This in turn meant running through with a slightly off pace 8.08, not improving on our previous 8.05. After the end of that session, we were down in 15th. Not good!

Saturday arrived and pretty much everyone knew that the weather was supposed to be at it's worst and it didn't fail to deliver, although nothing compared to the test and tune on Thursday! Time went past midday and it was still raining, resulting in us all doubting whether we would see any racing at all. By some miracle however, the rain did eventually stop and it all dried up rather quickly in time for another round of qualifying; we could see some racing happening after all! Knowing that the track had been soaked for many hours meant it would be a little 'green' so we knocked down the dial in by a hundredth to 8.03 and to our delight she ran through with an 8.04, moving us up to 3rd, narrowly missing out on 2nd by just 2 ten thousandths of a second!

After a few pro sessions on Sunday, it was time for round 1 of eliminations and we were due to race 'that' monster of a pickup truck from the Netherlands. Unfortunately Reinier Van Schelt had informed us that he was out due to a breakage, so we were paired with one of the 4 first alternates Frank Esjkoot. We went for an 8.02 to Frank's 8.55. Knowing we had a slight advantage when it came to running our numbers, Dave tried to consciously not pull a red light...which in turn meant he pulled a -.03 cherry. Gutted was an understatement, but hey ho, the old saying of "if you never pull a red, you're not trying hard enough" definitely came into play. Frank running an 8.54 breakout to our 8.10 added insult to injury, but we were a little off our time as it was. After talking to Felicity and Ian, who were on the startline, they came back and said that it had never been so sticky so we think the track may have been too sticky for the amount of power we have compared to the Pro classes, holding us down enough to make a difference. Fortunately for us however, was that the other championship contenders also went out in the first round so it wasn't as bad, as well as the advantage of having qualified higher in the first place.

We now look forward to the Summer Nationals where we can hopefully go a couple more rounds and keep the points coming in. See you all there!

2014 Festival of Power Race Report

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!

2013 National Finals Race Report and Season Review

After what was a hectic European Finals in Super Pro (in a good way mind!) it was time for the last event of the year and it soon sunk in that another race season had passed already; the years seem to go by quicker and quicker as we get older (and I'm only 18!). For Team Rampage it has been a fairly decent season overall, winning both the closest to dial in and random qualifier award in the Super Pro sponsorship scheme, which has been a fantastic addition to the class this year, combined with having a consistent race car has meant that the year has been another good'n for us. Indeed we have had a few howlers along the way, normally due to the odd dodgy prediction and not the car, but at the end of the day, we still love racing and are already looking ahead to 2014!

Right then, the National Finals...

It was absolutely beautiful weather on the Friday which set up the weekend perfectly. Saturday morning was again a gorgeous day and the air was near perfect, so being that we only had 3 qualifying sessions scheduled, we knew we had to make every run count. An 8.00 was the dial in for the first run and having looked over the history of all our runs, we had never run quicker than an 8.04 off of the trailer so we felt that number would be a good starting point, not wanting to breakout either. After a fairly average 60ft time, the dragster soon 'gobbled' in the good air and went on to an 8.018 straight into number 1. Not bad at all! However this was Super Pro, one of the most competitive classes ever, so once the session had finished we were 2nd. Being a couple of tenths down in the 60ft and still running an 8.01 was a good indicator that the air was as good as expected so it was good to know that we were right in that department. It wasn't until late afternoon that the 2nd round was upon us, due to the rather horrific crash Graham suffered, and according to said data, conditions were as near as makes no difference the same as they were in the morning... or so we were led to believe! We decided to leave the number were it was and see what would happen. Running through with an 8.04 wasn't too bad in the grand scale of things, even though it meant no improvement in our position; it would still be a reasonably difficult time to beat in racing. We would end the day in 4th position.

Eliminations weren't as good as we were hoping for on the Sunday. The car was performing consistently up to Round 1, so it would be a no brainer to go for the same 8.00. Up against Thomas Haas who had travelled a real long way from Switzerland with Natalie, meant Dave would be playing catch up to Thomas's 8.18 dial in. For reasons unknown, the transbrake wouldn't hold the dragster dead still on the line and was rolling slightly. At this time, Dave had noticed this but the lights were already half way down and all of a sudden the light was green and the race had already started! This meant a .115 reaction time to Thomas's .05 which in turn decided the outcome of the race as we went through with an 8.08 to Thomas's 8.29, so we were closer to our dial in but lost a tenth at the start. Being that our 60ft time was 7 hundredths off of what we normally run was a clear indicator that the car wasn’t quite right! Nevermind! After our mandatory fried breakfast, we packed up, watched another round of Super Pro and called it a day, which was also the end of the meeting, which was also the end of the season!

A big well done to Scott and Geoff on winning the double championship this year and Barry Giles on the SPRC championship. Thanks to the Walters family for organising the sponsorship scheme and Giles&Hartley Racing for providing the trophies. 

And last but most certainly not least a massive thanks to our sponsors:

• Mini Gears/Components Worldwide - www.minigears.co.uk - the complete supply package for all your metal components, whether it be gears, racks or machined parts at very competitive prices. They have been with us for 3 years now so an extra thanks to them.
• All Aces Couriers - 01295 275049 - delivering your reputation at incredible prices!
• Payday UK - www.paydayuk.co.uk - offering quick and super easy loans at the most competitive prices.

Winter is going to be, as always, a long one!

2013 FIA European Finals Race Report

Now, The Euro Finals has always been a personal favourite for both racers and fans alike, and this was no different for Team Rampage. Mixed weather reports for the 4 day drag racing extravaganza meant that we were feeling fairly optimistic, considering how well the Summer Nationals had went for us.

It was Thursday morning, and a rather pleasant one at that. It was the main day for Sportsman qualifying and knowing full well that Friday's forecast was not a good one, we knew we had to hit the nail on the head today. It was a unanimous decision that we would go for an 8.05 dial in for the first run, based on the fact that it was the first run off the trailer, however the air was fairly good. It was quite annoying when an 8.044 appeared on the board though, damn! Never mind, we weren't too far off of our prediction so that was the positive that could be taken from it.
We looked to give the Rampage dragster an oil change after we had got back from our run and had breakfast as it was long overdue one, but just as we had finished topping up the 540ci motor we were called, so it was into a small panic mode at this time as the car was still in pieces! Luckily, it was the biggest ever field entry for Super Pro so we had more than enough time to get it all back together. The conditions hadn't changed too much compared to when we had our first run, albeit a lot warmer and so with the breakout in mind and the fact that we had to get a number on the board, we went for an 8.02 dial in. Only a couple of pairs before we were due to run, and straight after our routine fire up in the pairing lanes, my leg decided that it would come into contact with the scorching hot headers and boy did I feel it! This meant a trip to the medical centre for me and missing out on our run, to which I was told when I got back that we had run another 8.04, this time an 8.045. At least the car was consistent and we had improved on our position, just not our predictions!
3rd round proved to be an additional improvement, going for the obvious 8.04 dial in subject to our two previous runs and running through with an 8.051 meant that we would finish the day in 9th place out of some 50 odd cars, not bad! A transbrake issue meant that our 4th run was wasted and so we looked onto next day, praying that the weather Gods would be on our side!

Fair to say they were with us! The majority of forecasts the evening before had stated that it would be a wash out for Friday, but what did they know? This was the Pod after all! We knew that any window of opportunity for the track to be in action today would be for the Pro classes so we had our fingers crossed that the weather would remain overcast, at least so we could have another shot at nailing our dial in before the first round of eliminations the next day. After the odd shower or two throughout the day, we had our wishes granted with one more round and so going into the early evening we felt that an 8.03 dial in would suffice. Hoping the transbrake issue was resolved, Dave came to the line, the lights went down and off he went, onto an 8.039, which got us back up the field to only the number 10 spot; goes to show just how good all these other guys in our class are! This meant that we were paired to race Alan Didwell in the 1st round Saturday morning.

We were only half way through the meeting and it was already time for eliminations, due to the huge amount of Super Pro cars that had managed to qualify. Commiserations to those who had breakages and couldn't fix in time, hopefully see you at the National Finals!
Seeing that the conditions were very similar to the 1st round of qualifying on the Thursday morning, we decided to stick an 8.03 on the board despite the number of breakouts before us. Well it was to our dismay when Dave went through running a 7.98 AND coming off of the loud pedal way before the gantry. Going over the data after the run, we were 8 hundredths quicker at 1000ft compared to what we normally run and so after a few calculations we would have run a 7.8 second pass, which would have been the quickest we had ever run in the car by quite a chunk. What was different about that run in relation to Q1 we had no idea, and it seemed that quite a few others didn't either! The dragster just picked up a big amount of speed and time after 60ft that came out of nowhere, which no-one could have predicted!

Sadly that was our weekend done and dusted already, and it wasn't even 11 o'clock yet of the 3rd day! After entertaining our brilliant sponsors from All Aces Couriers, who after coming drag racing for the first time now want to come again, we packed up, watched our guys in Super Pro run and made off for home, after we had gone to the pub of course!
Thanks again to this years fantastic sponsors, whose support is always very much appreciated:

• Mini Gears/Components Worldwide - www.minigears.co.uk - the complete supply package for all your metal components, whether it be gears, racks or machined parts at very competitive prices.
• All Aces Couriers - 01295 275049 - delivering your reputation at incredible prices!
• Payday UK - www.paydayuk.co.uk - offering quick and super easy loans at the most competitive prices.

See you at all The National Finals!

2013 Main Event Race Report

Let's be honest, Easter was bloody freezing and we couldn't wait to see a warmer Santa Pod for this years Main Event. In some ways we got what we wished for and in some ways we didn't!

It all started with taking the dragster over on Thursday afternoon, where the weather (as usual) was all over the place, one minute the Sun was shining and the next there were hail stones. Unfortunately due to lack of availability in Team Rampage that day, it was just the case of leaving the truck and trailer where it was and having to set up and take the car to scrutineering the following day.

Friday morning was upon us and we got to the track as early as we could knowing that we would (potentially) be starting just after Pro ET at 9am. The forecast looked dreadful for the day but at around 8am the Sun was just peeping through the clouds, which was a bit of a tease and gave us false hope really! It wasn't long after we had got the car back from scrutineering that it started to drizzle, which then turned to rain, which then turned to heavy rain before eventually becoming stormy weather. Cold. Wet. Windy. It was on and off all day before it got to around 3pm when the Race Director decided to call it and so we looked to Saturday with more promise.

Saturday was a vast improvement. It was almost like being in a different country with how the weather had changed. For the first run, we had all mutually decided to wack a number on the board and go from there, so an 8.00 dial in was the target. Running an 8.06 left us in 3rd place after the first session, knowing full well that that number wasn't going to keep us there long! After the two scheduled Pro sessions, it was already quite late in the day but either way we thought leaving the dial in where it was, was a good move. We ran an 8.02, narrowing down the gap however we weren't the only ones nailing our dial ins, pair after pair and numbers were flying left right and centre eventually leaving us in the number 4 position. Not too shabby.

It was already Sunday and it had  been rumoured the night before that we would have just one more qualifier in the morning before going into eliminations. This proved to be the case and so with that in mind we went for the same 8.00 dial in hoping to narrow it down just a little more. Unfortunately, we ended up waiting on the line for longer than usual and the car had got hot enough that the temperature had gone off of the gauge. In the past the car had shown to run quicker when hot and this wasn't about to change, running through with a 7.97 breakout. Not improving on our time meant that we were going into eliminations in 9th place, which out of 40 odd cars could still be seen as fairly decent!

We were paired to race Noah Stutz from Switzerland in his gorgeous looking dragster. He had dialed in a 7.84 and we an 8.00 so we would marginally be leaving first. As all racers will know, they say if you never red light, you're not trying hard enough and on this occasion Dave tried a bit too hard, cutting a -0.007 red to Noah's -0.003 red which was a little aggravating considering we ran through with another 8.02, proving the car was running consistently. Never mind! This meant that our weekend had come to a premature end but it did mean that we could return Monday to watch all the brilliant racing from the Pro classes which ended up being worth it.

Despite going out early, Team Rampage can look forward to the Summer Nationals, especially with the dragster running its numbers. Congratulations to eventual winner Barry Giles and Vince Gibbs for running the perfect number, top stuff guys!

As always massive thanks to our sponsors for this year: Mini Gears UK who  provide a wide range of CNC machining and CNC gear grinding services, Payday Loans UK who can offer quick and hassle-free loans and All Aces Couriers who can provide super-quick and efficient delivering services at a fair price.

2013 Festival of Power Race Report

So the new season is upon us and we've got a feeling that it's going to be a good'n! A brand new race surface had been laid and, with that in mind, a massive well done to Santa Pod's fantastic track crew for battling the rough conditions leading up to the event and prepping the track to a more than adequate standard, hat's off to you guys!

Forecasts for the first ever Festival of Power were not looking too bad at all which meant that Team Rampage were excited to get underway for the new season, albeit the temperatures were on set to be the coldest that we had ever raced in.

Saturday morning certainly proved that the temperatures were going to be difficult for some of the race cars to get down the track and so we acted upon this by tweaking the chassis a little to make sure that the rear got all the traction it needed. Being that Super Pro were to be the second class on following Pro ET, it was important that we knew what the Pro ET guys were doing in terms of their dial ins. After watching a number of runs, we decided that the track would just about hold up and made the decision to dial in an 8.05. Just as we started to pull round to begin the burnout, the heavens opened and sent us some snow. D'oh! There were a number of flurries on and off for about an hour, but once they had stopped, it was just the case of re-sledding the startline with rubber for the track crew, so it didn't take long to get going again. Well when the time came to run, we had slightly over anticipated the track resulting in a small amount of tyre spin off of the line and when combined with the car being all over the last 3/4 of the track, we ended up with a sluggish 8.25 at 166mph. Definitely room for improvement!

Photo courtesy of Kirstie Tramm at Eurodragster.com - All throughout the day, there were multiple snow flurries resulting in qualifying being very much a stop start situation for every class. However, the second run came in the late afternoon and was both good and bad in certain aspects. Knowing full well that the weather was all over the place, we decided to knock the dial in down a little bit and go for a 8.15. Well the car hooked up this time sending the dragster through the the 1/4 running an 8.07 breakout. Didn't really see that coming, considering so many of the other cars were still spinning the tyres off of the line! This ended up being the last run of the day and so we would have to wait till next morning to give it our next shot.

Sunday morning brought a bitter wind worse than Saturdays but the sun was out a little so not all bad! Following on from the previous run, we thought it would be a good idea to bring the dial back up to an 8.05. It was just our luck when the car really grabbed the track on the launch resulting in our one of our better 60ft times of 1.13. This quick burst resulted in all the time traps being a little quicker throughout the entire run which resulted in an 8.02 breakout. These few breakouts meant that we were slowly sliding down the qualification ladder and after the run we were in an uncharacteristic 16th place. With just one round of qualifying left, we really had to do something to get higher up the table.

The 4th round came at just past midday and Crew Chief Ian made the final decision to dial in 8.02 against the opinion of crew member Dan who was sure that it would run faster as it had been every single run up to then; his predication being an 8 flat. It was a solid burnout from Dave, he brought the car to the line, launched brilliantly, recording our quickest 60ft time ever of 1.11 and carried on right the way through, straight as an arrow...to an 8.001 breakout. What did Dan say beforehand?! Ian you're fired! This consequently resulted Team Rampage in being in a disappointing 18th overall place with the very first run of the weekend being the only run that would count. Therefore in the late afternoon we were to be up against Rick Cooke who had qualified a solid 7th.

Photo courtesy of Colin Donisthorpe at www.flickr.com/photos/colin_donisthorpe - It was time to race and it was fair to say that we were a little more nervous than usual. Looking over the data from the previous runs, combining it with the weather conditions at those times and then monitoring what the weather was doing just before the first round resulted in an agreed 7.98 dial in. Being that Rick had dialed in an 8.44, it would mean that he would get near enough half a second head start. Tension was fairly high at the time and we were hoping that we had predicted right. Rick left the line with a 0.15 reaction time and Dave quickly after with a fairly brisk 0.009 light. The quicker reaction from Dave meant that he had caught Rick earlier than the finish so he lifted off of the loud peddle rolling through with an 8.02 at 159mph, 0.04 from dial in. It would have been interesting to see what the time would have been if he had kept going, or maybe not! We would have to wait until Monday morning to race again.

Having got through the first round, we had to face an on form Scott Hauser in the second round in the newly built Hauser Race Cars 4-link dragster. There has been some close racing from Scott and Dave in the past, so this one would prove to be a good one, whoever would win. Come race time, we decided to lower our dial in a tad to a 7.99 knowing full well that we didn't want to give too much away. Scott had dialled in a faster 7.61 giving Dave nearly 4 tenths of a second head start. What a race it turned out to be! Near identical reaction times meant that it would be all down to who ran closer to their dial in. Side by side all the way up the track was a great sight to see but at the very last split second Scott just crept ahead, taking the stripe by just three hundredths of a second. We had ran an 8.03 and Scott a 7.62 which was were the race was marginally lost for us. Both Dave himself and Scott thought that Dave had won, which went to show how close it was. Just how racing should be! Scott progressed all the way to the final, so at least we could say we lost to a bloody good racer!

Even though that was the end of the meeting for us, we felt that the car had performed brilliantly in terms of consistency and we were already well up for The Main Event!

The Festival of Power was all in all a fairly decent weekend for Team Rampage despite qualifying not as well as we would have liked and going out early, but it was the first event in the new season and we weren't too sure how the car would cope with the cold conditions and new track surface so positives could be taken.

A massive thanks to this years sponsors: Mini Gears, All Aces Couriers and Payday Loans all to which your contributions are very much appreciated and we are happy to have you onboard. Hope to see some of you at the track soon!

Video Footage from the 2013 Festival of Power at Santa Pod

On board footage of the dragster in action at the 2013 Festival of Power held at Santa Pod Raceway.

Click here to watch the fantastic video!

Additional track side footage again of the dragster taking part in the first round of qualifying at the 2013 Festival of Power. Take a look here!

Work over Winter 2012-2013

 Even though the new race season always seems such a long time away during winter, it doesn't mean that nothing happens for the entire duration until the first meeting back; far from it! Any team will tell you that winter is an important and fairly busy time to get ready for the up and coming season.

That certainly has proved to be the case for Team Rampage, for the reason that the dragster required a new ring gear as the current one had a couple of teeth missing and was no longer certified. Alongside that, the gearbox also needed to be re-certified so that was sent off.

At the same time, the decision was made that it was probably a good idea to oil the entire chassis as the trailer had suffered a small leak in the roof during bad weather conditions causing some surface rust to appear in some places. Certainly looked a damn sight better afterwards and last time we oiled the chassis before a run we ran our personal best 7.96, so every little helps!

Once the gearbox and ring gear had arrived, it was time to get it all back together. Boy was that a job! We were plagued with a few problems along the way such as trying to re align the axel that we had to unbolt and move back so that the propshaft would clear the gearbox when getting it out initially. After some small adjustments that issue was solved.

Next up was lowering the box into position - using a pole and some belts, as you do! Trying to get the box to slip itself into position proved a pain, however after some 'gentle' persuasion it slotted itself into place. Lovely jubbly! After all the brake lines and pipes were re-attached and the brakes were bled, it was time to go outside and fire her up for the first time. There was a major improvement already in terms of how quickly the engine fired after cranking it over, whereas with the old ring gear it would take a few attempts because the starter motor wasn't making adequate contact to the ring gear.

A little something to replace the current rev counter already on the car is pictured; so that we can playback what the revs done on the run. That'll prove to be a neat little gadget to mess around with! Along with the new rev counter, we also have a carbon fibre dash going in that is currently being constructed by our good friend Dave King over at Carbody, Banbury.

Obviously, Easter comes early this year so once this short February month is out of the way, the Festival of Power will soon be on the horizon and we at Team Rampage cannot wait to get started! See you there.

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.

Season's Greetings

Wishing you all a great festive period and look forward to your continued support in the new season. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Team Rampage.

Season Pics

Dragstalgia

The success of the first ever Dragstalgia can only be described as fantastic. Not only because of the amount of nostalgic race cars that had entered, but also for bringing back all the traditions, that these days health and safety have restricted. The cackle fest, flame burnouts, even the good old christmas tree was brought out, totally refurbished.

The event for Team Rampage was an absolute blast, and thanks must go out to Santa Pod's track crew, doing an awesome job as ever. Having looked at every possible weather forecast, they were all unanimous in saying that it was going to bucket it down pretty much all day. But this was until our prayers to the weather gods were answered by providing the event with rays of sunshine from around 3:00pm onwards, and this time it was the turn of our rookie driver Dave King, who had previously been up the track a couple of times. We had chosen to enter into Wild Bunch for the meeting, having done a few meetings before in the class and being more than happy to enter again. The first run was somewhat wasted, as we decided beforehand to change the rpm chip to shift at 6000 instead of the usual 5400, but as forgetful as we are, we didn't tell Dave that and he thought the engine was revving much too high forcing him to come on and off the throttle going through the traps running 12 seconds.

The decision was therefore made to put the chip back to the original shift point of 5400rpm, and being that Dave was launching the car using only the throttle and not the launch button, his second run was a more respectable 9.90. This was however the end of the day for racing, but certainly not the end of the day in terms of entertainment! All the late evening shows proved to be well worth staying the night, it was made even better when the beers came out!

Sunday morning, in the earlier hours of around 4:00am, looked promising as the sun was actually shining at this time, but it wasn't until someone jinxed it that it became cloudier. Eventhough this was the case, the forecast for the day was supposed to be slightly better than Saturday's, and it wasn't until we were a few pairs away from the first run of the day when it started spitting. This lasted around 40 minutes, but as it was only light, the track wasn't too badly effected, resulting in the track crew taking little time to dry it. We had said in the morning that we would run a 9.8 because in Wild Bunch its about getting as close to your predicted E.T but without dialing it in into the timing system, and to our delight, the funny car ran a 9.816, thats bracket racers for you! This put us into the number two spot, which we gladly took, however once again the good old british weather spoilt the opportunity for another run, right before we were due to run too, and the race director decided to call the meeting off as the cut off point for the racing had already passed. So Team Rampage at least went home with the runners up trophy, and big thanks to the organisers of Wild Bunch Claire and Chris, we had a great weekend in your class, cheers for letting us in! And of course the Rampage crew of Jeff, Ian, Graham and Daniel, and last but not least our sponsors, much appreciated.

Main Event Race Report

It could be said that this year's Main Event was fairly successful for Team Rampage, the only let down being the weather on the Monday!

The first day of qualifying proved to be somewhat of a rush to begin with, as we didn't have the chance to set up the day before so this resulted in us having to miss out on the first round. It was 11:45, and after setting up our pit area, getting the car scrutinised and having a cuppa, the second round was upon us and to the team's delight, we ended up running an 8.12 on an 8.09, good enough for the number four spot, and the third round of qualifying only went from good to better. After making the joint decision to predict an 8.12 following the E.T from the previous run, the joy of everyone's face was fantastic to see when the Rampage dragster ran an 8.121, a mere +0.001 off of our dial in, which put the team straight into number one. This gave the team a bit of breathing space for the time being, so we were let off by breaking out in the following session by a couple of hundredths, although Dave Nelson in his slingshot dragster narrowed the gap between first and second by running +0.006 off of his dial in. The final qualifier of the day only improved the minority of racers in the field, so it was then time to go home for a well deserved pint.

From there on the weekend seemed to disappear, despite only getting three runs over Saturday and Sunday. The only run on Saturday showed that Dave had still got it when he pulled a +0.005 reaction time, and with how consistent the car was, that would have been tought for anyone to beat! As the day rolled by and the first session for the Pro classes was coming to an end, the choice was made that the Pro classes were to run again, this proved to be the end of the day for the Sportsman classes.

Sunday was to some extent the same, getting one qualifier in the morning where we dialled in an 8.13 and ran an 8.14, which verified that the dragster was still fighting fit. All Sportsman classes were scheduled another qualifier before the first round of eliminations in the evening but as predicted by a number of us, after the Pro classes hads their planned first run of the day, they then had their last qualifier straight after just having their third of four. This meant that all Sportsman classes would now be straight into eliminations in the evening.

The time was well into the evening by the time eliminations came around, 8:00 to be exact, and we had been paired up to race Roy Wilding in his S&K Racing dragster. Despite Roy qualifying at number seventeen, this was a man who was not to be counted out for by any means, having had a number of good races in the past. The tension that was built on the start line when staging was unbelievable, we had dialled in an 8.11 and Roy an 8.08, so it was to be a heads up race, and what a race it turned out to be. A +0.06 reaction time for Dave to Roy's +0.02 meant that Roy had four hundredths at the start, Dave slightly quiker to 60ft with a 1.15 to Roy's 1.22 but as the race progressed to the finish, Roy had pulled out a lead of just a measly 4ft handing him the win running a 8.09 on his 8.08, Dave running an 8.16 on his 8.11, knowing afterwards that this was where we had lost, it all boiled down to misjudgement.

This meant that we were able to come in the next day whenever and it wasn't too much of a loss for the team either, as it turned out to be absolutely abysmal. It had only been raining since 9:30am but once it started it never stopped and it wasn't until 2 o'clock time that the day was called off.

So for Team Rampage the event could be considered as a flourishing one, and a chance to see just how consistent the car could be, which proved to be very! Many thanks once again to Adrian, Jeff, Ian, Graham, Felicity, Daniel and particularly our sponsors Mini Gears and Smiths of Bloxham.

Easter Thunderball Race Report

The Easter Thunderball wasn't the best of starts to the 2011 season for Team Rampage:

The first round of qualifying on the Friday put us in the number 2 spot, dialling in an 8.10 and running an 8.126. Knowing how tough the class is continuously becoming, we knew that it wouldn't be long until the others would be settling in and getting a lot closer to their dial ins.

Rounds went by, and the last qualifier on Saturday evening proved to be the start of issues for the Rampage dragster as a loss of traction off the line ruined another chance to move up the field, eventually ending up in 9th.

Sunday morning was where things started to get worse, as the dragster began to bog-down and misfire as soon as it was leaving the line. With that being the case, it was time to put the thinking caps on and start to string together the possibilities of what was going on.

First round of eliminations came at around 7:00 o'clock that evening and the team were fortunate enough to gain a bye run, after Leon Green in his 7-second Supra had earlier announced that he wouldn't be running. That gave the opportunity to launch the car without having to worry about any competition in the other lane, but the dragster was still experiencing its misfire.

The decision was to arrive bright and early on the next and final day to resolve the matter, the theory being that, somehow, the engine was being starved of fuel. The morning arrived and having checked all the fuel lines, the filter, the regulator, you name it, the second round of eliminations was suddenly upon us and so it was time to ready ourselves for that, despite the trouble. We were matched with Nigel Turner, who had qualified a solid third, so we knew it would be a task in itself. Predictably, the car again misfired which enabled Nigel to take a comfortable win.

Before packing up and going, the choice made was to explain what was wrong and having already checked the components to do with fuel, the team eventually found that one of the two fuel pumps had no current going to it, according to the multimeter. Once that had been noticed, we were able to confirm that this was the issue, because the regulator was only reading two pounds of fuel pressure, six pounds lower than it should have been.

However, it was later discovered that one of the switches that had never been used before, operated the second fuel pump, meaning that all the time that we had had the car, it was only ever running on the one fuel pump.

So the team ended up soldering the two together onto the one switch, which then gave a reading of just under eight pounds of pressure. Funny how something so simple could cause such inconvenience, eh?

To some extent, it turned out to be a test weekend for Team Rampage and big thanks must go out to Jeff, Adrian (especially for coming straight off his night shift to help!), Ian, Felicity, Daniel, Geoff Hauser for giving his valued knowledge and opinion and especially our sponsors Mini Gears and Smiths of Bloxham.

The Off Season

Obviously during the off season, every team are still working hard, not just on preparing the cars for the new season ahead but also concentrating on gaining funds in the form of sponsorship, and team Rampage are no exception.

We are fortunate to have retained some existing sponsors, but through the help of Jeff Hart (crew member) are pleased to announce the additional support from Mini Gears Components Worldwide.

Mini Gears have been established for over 40 years and specialize in gears up to 600mm diameter, rads, transmission parts and specialized machining.

Nigel Walker who heads up the technical sales at Mini Gears visited our pit at Santa Pod Raceway during the 2010 season and thought the idea of sponsoring a dragster would be an ideal opportunity to further promote his business in the motor racing industry.

Team Rampage are currently busy getting both the dragster, funny car and trailers ready for the coming season ahead and look forward to seeing you at the track.

Thanks for reading.

Double Bubble for Rampage

Team Rampage will be running 2 cars for the 2011 season consisting of the established Dave Ward in the newly acquired Dragster and rookie Dave King in the well known Funny Car.

Dave is pleased to have seen Dave King join the team and wishes him all the best for the following season as Team Rampage compete on two levels.

*FOR SALE*NOSTALGIA FUNNY CAR & ENCLOSED TRAILER

For sale Nostalgia funny car and trailer currently running in super pro et.RAMPAGE car This is the ex Priddle/Panic famous FC and is offered as a complete turn key operation. For full details,specification and videos visit http://www.rampagefunnycar.co.uk This could be your chance to own a piece of drag racing history for only £13,500.00 complete (will not split)

Dave Ward

England

07771931777

ward710@hotmail.co.uk

More Video's