Fireworks roll call...

[hellfish]

I think the comments from the commentry team were that something went wrong in the engine department,fluid under tyres and you kno the rest!Ofcourse i may have dreamt that?

[central]

peterwalters said:

I thought i heard on the radio it was a turbo explosion??

Pete

[hellfish]

I started writing that before peterwalters reply and got disstracted hence the out of sync reply,I remember them saying that now you mention it

[redvictor]

with the greatest respect to Tog and Venners it's pretty hard to know exactly what happens when it happens,unless it's patently obvious.Fluid on the tryes and smoke can be a few things that give the same result..
I was just wondering if anyone had seen Steve to find out...

[hellfish]

Your right about that,ykno as long as he is ok and can get back soon then thats cool.Hes onto a big thing with that setup

[central]

[trackday addict]

st st weather strikes again

Really bloody gutted for Steve as you couldnt meet a nicer guy, hope the cage etc is all ok & the car can be fixed reasonably easy .
He had a major hole in the side of his block which no doubt threw all oil over his tyres.

I could see the bugger coming a while off as flames & a bit of smoke before it went.
He had a camera on board on the run & after seeing the footage he just had no chance as it went without any warning signs.

We were paraniod about the track after being sat waiting in the staging lanes for 2 hours to get on & Mark @ Abbey watched countless cars slip & slide & said sod this & knocked the boost & rev limit right back on ours.

Come on weather god if you do bugger all else make 2009 a good one

[redvictor]

trackday addict said:

st st weather strikes again

Really bloody gutted for Steve as you couldnt meet a nicer guy, hope the cage etc is all ok & the car can be fixed reasonably easy .
He had a major hole in the side of his block which no doubt threw all oil over his tyres.

I could see the bugger coming a while off as flames & a bit of smoke before it went.
He had a camera on board on the run & after seeing the footage he just had no chance as it went without any warning signs.

We were paraniod about the track after being sat waiting in the staging lanes for 2 hours to get on & Mark @ Abbey watched countless cars slip & slide & said sod this & knocked the boost & rev limit right back on ours.

Come on weather god if you do bugger all else make 2009 a good one

same old same old...
Thanks for letting me know what happened Jon...
2009 just has to be better for all of us mate..

[central]

[JakesterUK]

Thanks Central, those are some awsome pics..

[WJM]

Did it rain in the end ? We saw the Jap car run and the engine exploded just as it passed us so I knew there would be a lot of oil on the track. I suspected there would be at least 30 mins of downtime and that none of the big stuff would be out for at least another hour after that , the first set of fuel runs had been a bit of a non event anyway ,so I suggested we got into the warmth of the car and headed back up north just before 3pm.

The local weather forecast said sunny but cold { later part was correct} and no rain otherwise I would not have come.

I must say given the weather the crowd there was pretty large and every stall etc was open. Apart from the shambolic way SPR sell grandstand tickets and a lack of the 2nd string fast cars { Pro Mod, TMD etc} it was OK if it had just been a bit warmer.

As we left I drove past what looked like a nostalgia funny in the paddock, did that actually run ?

Bill

[cliff gould]

thanks central.
great photos of garys incident.
the track wasnt as we expected,so gary had way to much wheel speed on the burnout.
just glad risto wasnt half way into his burnout?
someone has to go first!
cliff

[central]

Thanks guys.

[anonymous-user]

WJM said:

As we left I drove past what looked like a nostalgia funny in the paddock, did that actually run ?

Bill

Unfortunately not, Wendy & Paul have had niggling issues regarding the injector frosting over and freezing the butterflies. Having been suited and booted and strapped in the car for 2 hours, I got a checkout launch in, just before the rain came in

It was nice to see a few folks on Saturday, and that the crowd were glued to the racing despite the forementioned down time. Well done also to the Santa Pod crew who gave us the best track they could in conditions that were utterly minging.

[Furyous]

JB,I saw your launch, that looked good, hard and straight. Car looks fantastic too, well done. Didnt say hi as you had been strapped in for ages and ages .

Wendy & Pauls car looks fab, in fact, the whole meeting was very retro.

Didnt take many pics, but I do like this......sweeeeeeet !!

[anonymous-user]

Furyous said:

JB,I saw your launch, that looked good, hard and straight. Car looks fantastic too, well done. Didnt say hi as you had been strapped in for ages and ages.

Ta chap, it went fairly well, bar the whole sitting around and getting cramp in both legs

I'd hoped for a half decent 100-200ft squirt, but just after the hit it started heading for the centreline, hence the early lift

Thank you to my crew; Bill, Johnny, Dave & Luke, and again to Nick & Sue for the nitro

...and a big thank you to the quad bike chap at the top end for pulling me out of the way...

[hellfish]

Good to see the pictures of Gary,It got me all exited listening to the radio commentry,i ran outside my workshop(dont kno why because i couldnt see any thing).What was that Earlier comment Cliff about making sure that evil car behaved?.Seriusly my hats of to all the guys and gals that braved it out there. I was considering it but found an excuse to rewire my car

[Eurodragster Tog]

redvictor said:

with the greatest respect to Tog and Venners it's pretty hard to know exactly what happens when it happens,unless it's patently obvious.Fluid on the tryes and smoke can be a few things that give the same result.

Yes, absolutely right and thanks Andy. One of the things I've learnt having done a little commentary is the dilemma you face when something untoward happens.

I learned the hard way with the race reports: in the early days I got told so many times by irate racers how much crap I was talking (writing) that nowadays I write what I saw and don't speculate unless it's plain what happened. The most you'll see on one of our race reports is "It's as if...". One makes no secret of the fact that one is a mechanical f***wit so any diagnosis one might give is likely to be wrong anyway

However when commentating the difference, and the problem, is that the crowd expect you to explain what happened there and then and you have to busk until some facts come in. Such as "We found a piece of metal as big as that radio", even I could interpret that one You probably heard me bridling more than once at second-guessing on Saturday. Now, I know that it could be argued that 99% of the crowd are inexpert and will believe anything you say but I don't like to take advantage and the 1% who do know their stuff will always tell you what you got wrong...so I get to hear from them a lot Luckily Venners rescued the commentary each time because he knows his mechanical stuff and thus he could always speak with some authority on what might have happened.

I think my contribution to the day was making Steve Whittaker's crew stop dead when they were running down the track after his crash...strange, though: when I put on that same serious voice with Miss Corrado it doesn't work. Come to think of it, my greyhound pisses off into the distance when I call her too

Thanks for the nice comments above and also those by E-Mail or in person.

Edited by Eurodragster Tog on Monday 3rd November 12:42

[topnitro]

Eurodragster Tog said:

However when commentating the difference, and the problem, is that the crowd expect you to explain what happened there and then and you have to busk until some facts come in.

I shouldn't worry about it. It's better to advise the eager crowds with something that may (in time) turn out to be flawed, because it's easy to say later "Oh, so-and-so's just biffed me over the head and said it was this...".

On a related matter; Tog, you really excelled yourself, this time. The commentary was as entertaining as the very best of the Price & Beckwith days, never mind the Beckwith & Tog days. It was informative and amusing to listen to - well done. I'm not sure what you're commentary involvement will be next year, but having met the new man Colin, if you've got a mike in your mit as well, I can wager that with an "Essence of Venners" splashed here and there, that the commentary team are ready to move onto a new level... Orbit, for instance.

Edited by topnitro on Monday 3rd November 16:34

[Miss Corrado]

Eurodragster Tog said:

When I put on that same serious voice with Miss Corrado it doesn't work. Come to think of it, my greyhound pisses off into the distance when I call her too

On Saturday after John had thrown himself down the track all I heard was my name and Eurodragster.. so i waved in your general direction! To this moment i've still no idea what you said. It was probably a rude gesture such as "Excuse me slacker, where's my cake" :P

I'll have to wear ear plugs more often i do suppose.