This was an excellent opportunity to get drag racing into the mainstream.The Autosport show has 90,000 vistors over the weekend of which 50,000 would be watching the Live action shows over 4 days.
I got there on Wednesday to get the car into the paddock and set up our pit area.Some of the other guys did a bit of testing to see how the surface was but as i'd already been in December i decided to pass,particularly as my crew weren't due until Friday night.Luckily for me Luke Robinson and Tom Barnes,who were crewing for Andy Robinson,did an excellent job of filling in for the first couple of days.Obviously as the car needs no maintainence i didn't need any help other than in the burnout.
 

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As for the show i did 15 burnouts(2 practice on Thursday) all together,all about 330ft long,which took their toll on the tyres!! We had to change them on Saturday night because they had worn down to the canvas,and deposited the rubber on the underside.... ah well,at least i have a coating that won't rust...

On Sunday Louise Goodman(of F1 TV fame) came round to take a look at what was making all the noise and smoke.
We managed to grab a photo of her with the team.She surprised me by telling us that she'd already been drag racing and enjoyed it.Unfortunately her schedule always clashes with the FIA meets so our invite to the Main Event was reluctantly declined...

www.motorshots.co.uk  

Her co commentator was a big drag racing fan who really made an effort to explain to people what the cars and drag racing where all about,although not much explaining was needed for Andy R's pro mod,as taking bits off the roof with the noise really doesn't need many words..!!
In summary i think Santa Pod and drag racings first outing at the Autosport show was a big success.All the reports i received of the publics opinion was good.

A very big thanks go to Darren Prentice,Caroline Day and David Lloyd Jones for inviting us to be in the first team of drag racers to make an appearance at the Live action arena,to Luke and Tom for their assistance,particularly Luke for helping with the tyres on Saturday,Matt Woods for his photos and live arena filming(bless him,another drag race addict) and my crew for this year of Deb and Gary.
So now that is over the big strip down can begin.The car is off to www.altiss.com  to remove the engine/trans in readiness for the rebuild and modifications for this year.These include an A to W intercooler,(cores will be from a company in Australia) complete with ice tank,water system etc,new wheels,different tyres,gears,bigger fuel tank,new rear brakes calipers from www.hispecmotorsport.co.uk ,a revamped fuel reg system from www.aet-turbos.co.uk  ,all new heat management from www.nimbusmotorsport.com and a few more things we'll talk about later in the build.
From there the car will make it's way to www.webster-race-engineering.co.uk  for a look at the chassis,as it seems the "rocking" has tweaked the chassis,so Jon will be fixing that before the engine is replaced.
Of course the engine rebuild is done in house with parts from www.knightracingservices.co.uk .There will be some upgrades here also.This will be in mind for Dragweek,which still isn't finalised for us yet,although the upgrades will be for the good anyway.Same for the trans,even though we didn't have one issue in 1 1/2 years,we are going with Hutch trans parts that have been tested in Pro mods throughout 2007,just to be on the safe side.

I'll update with pics when the work has started.....
Thanks for watching,ANDY.