So we’re back from the Summer Nationals, Round 3 of our MSA British championship. We left for Santa Pod on Friday night with hopes of being able to run well after our challenging Main Event. After a bit of workshop time in between the Main Event and the Summer Nationals, we hoped that we had solved our detonation problem that we were experiencing at the Main Event. So we were all anxious to get the first pass out the way and crack on with the weekend.

The first qualifier we were up against Graham Ellis. After a strong burnout, Luke backs Andy up into his tire marks for the launch. There wasn’t a lot of heat in the track and as this is a sportsman event we were really the biggest cars running down it. However, the track was good enough for Andy to drive through a bit of tireshake and clock a 6.06. The crew were obviously very pleased with this number as its back in to our personal best territory. Graham in the left lane unfortunately suffered with extreme tireshake.

Car back to the pits and there isn’t any oil where it shouldn’t be, the problem that was non – stop all weekend at the Main Event had been sorted and we were back to where we should be. With the car checking out nicely we turned it around for our 2nd qualifier out of three. This time we were in the left lane and even though only minor adjustments had been made, the lane was significantly different to the right, leaving the Studebaker shaking off the line. Andy got off the throttle, to cruise through the finish line. The Stude didn’t have the greatest of  passes, but Kev Slyfield ran a very straight and clean looking 6.5 to take the number two spot. Graham also improved, although clearly still having problems with shake but managed to run a 6.7 to nip in at number 3.

So we have one more qualifying run and we’re back into the right lane, the crew assess the track and the difference between the two lanes. We were shocked at just how different the lanes were. With the original setting back into the car, we were hoping to repeat our morning performance, of which we did against another shaking Ellis pass!! This time slightly faster, we ran 6.062 to take number 1 qualifier. Our incremental’s looked good, 60ft back to where it should be and our 1/8th et improving consistently.  We were very happy to be lapping 6.0’s and just hoping that we would be able to improve on our new pb.  In the meantime the qualifying order was a bit of a shock when Wayne Nicholson jumped into the no. 3 spot with a 6.69, a new PB. Unfortunately, this knocked Graham back down to 4th place.

Sunday morning arrives (And Fathers Day – Happy Fathers Day to the best Dad in the world!) and we’ve been called, early! 10am and we’re out on the track, however due to an uneven amount of competitors we have a bye for our first round. The track is cooler than Saturday but we maintained the 6.0  set up and clocked a 6.07 at 230mph. Slightly better speed and more shake, this could have been better as Andy himself also noted that due to the shake the shifts weren’t quite spot on, however we were through to the next round.

We had Graham Ellis who, although wasn’t running well was able to overcome Wayne Nicholson. Kev Slyfield was also able to beat Roger Moore purely on the tree and Roger nipped back into the 6.9s against Kevs 7.1. This gave Kev a bye into the final where we hoped to have met him.
Unfortunately that was not to be, as severe tireshake in the semi–finals caused the car to jump out of gear and hit the rev limiter. In fear that we may have pulled valves from over revving the engine, Andy remained off the throttle, leaving Graham to take the win.
As disappointing as it was to go out in the Semi’s, this couldn’t put a downer on our achievements and developments over the weekend. Three 6.0’s on a sportsman track! 1 hundredth off our PB, and after assessing the possible damage from the run, we are in good shape for Finland! Of which Andy leaves for on Saturday.

So who took the crown? Kev Slyfield met Graham in the Finals and was running on form again. Kev took the win with a straight 6.5 to another difficult pass from Graham. This is great news for Kev, it’s his first win of Pro Mod and the whole crew really deserved the win. For Graham, it seemed a pretty difficult weekend, with tireshake causing the usual damage. However, we know he’ll have it all fix and ready for when he also leaves for Finland with Andy next weekend.

In the meantime Andy and Luke will be fixing a few minor issues on the car this week, and hoping some of the spares we have ordered come in time to leave on the trailer if not the rest of us will be taking rather heavy suitcases when we fly out the following Thursday.

We are very much looking forward to competing against the Europeans again especially now our Main Event gremlins seem to have been solved!