Truck Stop ...

SANTA POD. U.K TRUCK EVENT. 19th & 20th Aug '06,

All week "they" had been threatening rain, it started as we loaded the car in Marlborough and continued almost all the way to Santa Pod, at times hard enough to seriously toy with pulling over, I'm never sure how bright the trailer lights are. In the end we decided that as ace crew Johnny was behind and he would get hit first we would continue. Santa Pod does seem to have it's own weather system, not always a good thing, and today was no different,

about five miles to go the sun came out and we rolled through the gates with everything gently steaming. This was the first time that we had run at this event, mainly as it had not been hosted before, and through the efforts of our Club Chairman "Crazy Chris" and the lovely Claire we were actually billed as a display class, first big plus of the weekend, no entry fee ! We signed on and collected the pit passes and a very nice man escorted us to our allocated pit space, unheard of, just like the Pro's. We set up in what seemed like record time, what a difference having all the crew together in one place and on virgin tarmac too, the Pod's been having a

that this actually works quite well, took three seasons to work that out and then forced by circumstance, maybe time to review other aspects of what we do ! The rain finally caught up with us and after a couple of beers with the B'sting boys, off to bed we went.

Saturday morning, it has to be Santa Pod, half past seven and woken by jet engines, the strip dryers were flat out cleaning up the last of the rain and prepping the track surface. A lazy breakfast, service the car, putting new springs in the dizzy to replace the broken one we found after last time out and chat to anyone that looks even remotely interested in what we are doing, just as we don't go to truck meets so these guys don't see dragsters and I hope most went away wanting more. Ten o'clock and we are called by the marshals to the pairing lanes, wait whilst the last of the racing trucks did their runs, and on we go. the track didn't feel as good as I have

movement over the motor and then a big bang as something hit the windscreen, one of those slow motion moments while I duck ( a pretty futile gesture in harness, restraints and brace ) check everything on the panel and look at the front of the car, finally notice the half of the air intake that is left just as it departs in the direction of

Welsh Tony running just behind me in the other lane, all over in less than a second. As I cross the line I lift off and instantly the car is surrounded in fog, inside as well as out! much less than a second this time to realise that, with the scoop gone and throttles shut the slipstream is pulling all the fuel out of the carb vents, atomising it and drawing it into the cab. A couple of seconds of real fear as the car normally spits fire out of the pipes on the overrun but not this time, bless those new springs, every hot rod should have flames but call me sissy, I'm happy with just the painted ones.

Back in the pits I find Tony had run over the scoop, so that's that buggered then. Off he went and came back a few minutes later with his old ali tunnel filter and some fuel line scavenged from another team and we cobbled together a system that would

hopefully keep everything where it should be. We had two more runs officially and Tone and I snuck a freebie in at the end of play, but none were really what we had hoped for. I am starting to think that when we down jetted the carb we have taken too much fuel out of it as it has never run as well since, no matter that the plugs and pipes are

now showing "right" we simply aren't going as quickly, another little job to do before next time out. Saturday evening, beer o'clock, a party for Christine, co-crew to Dean and Mother of driver Helen (the meat in the seat, as seen in previous Manky photos) of Helle's Belle, Team Twisted, a Birthday we think but were too polite to ask, and later on to the big top to see a U2 tribute band, and bloody good they seemed, although we only caught the end of the set and I may have been past appreciating by then.
Sunday morning and the Santa Pod alarm jets wake us up again, time for a bit of

shopping before we need to be anywhere, this is a truck event and we now have a truck. Some of your shiniest (?) wheel trims and a pair of those air horns please, a

hundred and ninety four decibels you say, Ok, they'll do. HOW MUCH ! ouch. Another three runs in competition but not really getting the car to hook up, lots of spin and a little sideways, there is a photo out there somewhere with the car up on two wheels, unfortunately they were both on the same side ! Nil pwa for us but a great weekend all the same, well organised, good marshalling, and a lot of different stuff to look at, hope we are invited again.

-Steve