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.
Posts
