European drag race finals at Santa Pod today.

[Beemer-5]

Did anyone else go today, or at all this weekend?
(Ballistic, did you go in the end?)

Today saw the biggest crowd in the venue's history and some stunning times, 2 and 4 wheelers, under a sunny sky.

The '0-304 in under 4.8 seconds run' was the well other side of totally awesome!

[slinky]

Unfortunately we left competition and the venue yesterday..

A fantastic event up until that point tho!

slinky
587racing.com

[Balmoral Green]

I would have fancied that if i'd known.

[slinky]

Balmoral Green said:

I would have fancied that if i'd known.

BG, if you fancy watching some drag racing, albeit not top fuel, we're out again at Santa Pod at the end of the month.

slinky
587racing.com

[Boosted LS1]

slinky said:

Unfortunately we left competition and the venue yesterday..

A fantastic event up until that point tho!

slinky
587racing.com

I looked for you, couldn't find you and thought you had left. What went wrong?

Also, anybody know how badly the spectator was hurt at the end when the cars engine blew up or whatever it was that let go?

Boosted.

[hollypop]

Boosted LS1 said:

Also, anybody know how badly the spectator was hurt at the end when the cars engine blew up or whatever it was that let go?
Boosted.

I don't think the outcome was good judging by how many police were in the sealed off area.

[Boosted LS1]

hollypop said:

Boosted LS1 said:

Also, anybody know how badly the spectator was hurt at the end when the cars engine blew up or whatever it was that let go?
Boosted.

I don't think the outcome was good judging by how many police were in the sealed off area.

He died, see other thread. Quite sad really.

Boosted.

[Beemer-5]

Balmoral Green said:

I would have fancied that if i'd known.

If you don't mind the traffic, BG (we always get there at 8am to avoid the crush), the Euro Finals are well worth going to.
I have seen every one since 1973, except for 3 missed through being elsewhere on holiday.

You are naturally at the mercy of the weather, but drag racing is good fun, both to watch and take part in.
Sadly, the best run i ever did was a rather ordinary 10.7 @ 142mph.

[slinky]

Beemer-5 said:

Sadly, the best run i ever did was a rather ordinary 10.7 @ 142mph.

That's some good MPH for that time, left the line quite gently?

slinky

[Beemer-5]

Not sure Slinky, it was the best of quite a few runs i made on a tuned Suzuki Hyabusa i had for a couple of years.
(Apparently a professional rider would have got well under 10 seconds on my bike, i am told).

I am always fascinated by the time and speed figures, slower times winning races and higher terminal speeds losing them, etc.

[slinky]

Beemer-5 said:

Not sure Slinky, it was the best of quite a few runs i made on a tuned Suzuki Hyabusa i had for a couple of years.
(Apparently a professional rider would have got well under 10 seconds on my bike, i am told).

I am always fascinated by the time and speed figures, slower times winning races and higher terminal speeds losing them, etc.

Now that I know you were on a bike, it makes sense.. getting a fast bike of the line on the strip is not an easy thing to do, but then you watch the super street guys that entered 9.50 bike this weekend to have a breakout competition.. I seem to remember some of them running through in the low 8's!!!

We launch gently.. ish.. and run 9.8 @ 136 on a regular basis, 60ft times are normally in the low 1.4's... we could hit it harder on the launch, but we're not trying to set the world alight and run PB's every time..

slinky

[Beemer-5]

Just being out there gets my admiration, Slinky. It is neither easy nor cheap to produce good times at the drag strip.

I was just happy that a reliable road bike with a couple of simple mods., (exhaust, air filter, etc), was as happy launching me down the strip as it was cruisng across France.
I always tell anyone fancying a go at 2 wheels to spend £3000-£4000 on a nice used Hyabusa, you can't really go wrong for that money and 'fast' cars like Porsche 911s suddenly seem very average!

[slinky]

Beemer-5 said:

Just being out there gets my admiration, Slinky. It is neither easy nor cheap to produce good times at the drag strip.

Not only produce the times, but if you're competing in a bracket class as we do, the racing is amazingly tight, the 32 cars the qualified in our class were all less that 0.03 away from their predicted ET!

slinky

[Beemer-5]

The minute's silence on Sunday, for the rider killed in Europe the week before on his Super Twin was a nice touch.
Freak accident right at the end of the run i was told.

[Beemer-5]

Slinky, i cannot get to grips with bracket racing, tbh!

I know it is popular with many people and i know it makes sense from a point of view of keeping racing affordable, -ish, but somehow it feels weird that you are disqualified because you didn't slow down enough at the end!

How the heck do you know how much to shut off?

[Beemer-5]

Boosted LS1 said:

hollypop said:

Boosted LS1 said:

Also, anybody know how badly the spectator was hurt at the end when the cars engine blew up or whatever it was that let go?
Boosted.

I don't think the outcome was good judging by how many police were in the sealed off area.

He died, see other thread. Quite sad really.

Boosted.

Where's the other thread, Boosted?

[slinky]

Beemer-5 said:

Slinky, i cannot get to grips with bracket racing, tbh!

I know it is popular with many people and i know it makes sense from a point of view of keeping racing affordable, -ish, but somehow it feels weird that you are disqualified because you didn't slow down enough at the end!

How the heck do you know how much to shut off?

I think it's probably best if I get Hodgy to answer that question!

slinky

[Beemer-5]

Thanks, i have never understood why people don't get more jarred off when they do a super time and someone says, "disqualified, you did too well i am afraid"!

I found the other thread now, cheers. Poor fella.

[hodgy587]

Beemer-5 said:

Thanks, i have never understood why people don't get more jarred off when they do a super time and someone says, "disqualified, you did too well i am afraid"!

I found the other thread now, cheers. Poor fella.

Hiya.
thats just the thing in bracket racing making your car run as quick as possible isnt the key. yeah we all like to run fast but you'll find most of the cars in it ar'nt running to quite full potential. the trick is consistancy and being able to judge exactly what your cars going run due to weather/track conditions etc.
Another thing that wins you races is consistantly quick reaction times(somthing im having issues with at the mo )as the more you leave on your opponent at the start the more space you have to judge them at the finish.
Ah yes the finish line this is the heart in mouth exciting part, well apart from pulling 1.6 g on the launch and hitting 60 in around 2 seconds. what you need to do here is cross the finish line before your opponent but not quicker than you predicted time, easy hmm maybe not imagine if you were an 11s car at 110mph and you were racing a 9s 145mph, if you can see your going to cross the finish before he reaches you just back out of the throtle and dont go to fast, trouble is thats not easy at those speeds and it can be a real battle of nerves at the top end with the drivers staring each other down and trying to read what each other is going to do. gives you a hell of an adrenaline rush.

hope that explains a bit but ive got to admit it really is hard to put into words. come and see us at the track and ill take you through what we do a bit better.
www.587racing.com
www.ojzengineering.co.uk

[hodgy587]

Boosted LS1 said:

slinky said:

Unfortunately we left competition and the venue yesterday..

A fantastic event up until that point tho!

slinky
587racing.com

I looked for you, couldn't find you and thought you had left. What went wrong?

Also, anybody know how badly the spectator was hurt at the end when the cars engine blew up or whatever it was that let go?

Boosted.

hi mike sorry we missed you
unfortunately i red lit by .005 in the 2nd round but hey ho thats racing. we qualified very well though only .002 off our dial in time which put us at number 4 in the tightest field of 32 ive ever known (no 32 was only .03 off!!!!!)
after that we decided to take an early bath and from what i can hear of the crowds that wasnt such a bad call.