MR.SPOKEHEAD'S WINTER SPORTS SPECIAL!
Round 1 of the National UK drag bike championships got underway at Santa Pod Raceway on Easter weekend. It turned out to be one for the record books, not because of performances but because of the freak weather! Team Turboville turned up on Thursday in normal weather conditions, for the time of year, and proceeded to set up camp with our all new Custom Chrome truck and spacious awning. The stresses of working from the back of a small van all gone thank goodness! During The night the weather turned real nasty though and we were in for three days of violent winds and rain with bitter cold. Sunday night the winds finally subsided and we got some sleep at last. We awoke Sunday morning to the sight of 6cm of snow!!!!!!! It kept falling and racing was called for the day although the event staff worked non stop to keep the track clear so that it could be prepped more quickly if the weather improved, a fantastic effort. Much tomfoolery ensued and snowmen of every shape were built and spontaneous snowball fight broke out everywhere. A lot of the bike classes just gave up and went home at this point but the Nitro Bikes were made of sterner stuff and stayed their ground. We busied ourselves fitting snow-chains to our enormous new slick delivered by Ton Pels of ZODIAC. Crew chief Steve DD Leedell scrounged up some extra ceramic heaters and a blanket so that we could get the bike warm enough to start without exploding. It worked a treat and soon the crowd were treated to the thunder of a big Harley and the small of nitro! It sounded great after a long quiet winter. We spent a pleasant evening watching DVD's of our pal Tak Shigamatsu's 2007 season. By 10.00 am we were in a go situation, suited and booted we got to the line anxious to get the first pass of the year in and check everything out. Steve Carey went first to see if his new chassis went straight but on the hit of the throttle he just went up in smoke straight away as if there was no traction, very worrying. We picked the other lane and chose our line carefully then did a nice big burn-out to get the slick sticky. I staged carefully and turned on the hi-side of the fuel, it was sounding good. On the green I just rolled the throttle on gently instead of snapping it and it worked! I left the line gracefully then, when it hit full throttle, picked the front wheel up and blasted the last part of the track at 181 mph arrow straight. Man it felt good and blew all my cobwebs out! I stopped the bike in the return road, dis-armed it, and ran to the wall to watch my pal Job Heezen roaring towards me on his first ever nitro pass on the bike he bought from Ton Pels. Everyone was whooping and grinning at the end of their runs, well OK, Job was whooping on the inside being a 'laid back' sort of guy! 2008 KEY TEAM MEMBERS ARE:- |
