Race Control

This is the page for drag racers and race fans. We're going to keep you updated on our progress with the BoneShaker as well as our friends plus anything else we think you'd like! Also if you scroll right down the page ,below the photos of the cars I have put some notes on the meetings I have been crewing this season.

Racing Video Links

John Turner's Cuda running at the Pod

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br2a3IZxlcU

Steve Taylor's Black Magic dragster running licensing passes at Peak Performance test weekend (Simon, Brian and Steve)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooIL_0-iPaY

John Everitt launching the Alien at the National Finals '09, Santa pod

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnMXL8gZxhQ

Rick "Cookie Monster" Cooke runs an 8.14 pass at National Finals '09, Santa Pod

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG-krx8Yodw

John Everitt and the team firing up the Alien on Sunday morning at the National Finals '09, Santa Pod

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBAU2w_W-3s

The Drivers...

Simon Mitchell - BoneShaker

For details see staff cars...

Nigel Turner - Super Pro ET Methanol Dragster

Nigel owns Turner's MoT centre in Sheerness and Simon crews for him on his dragster along with brother Phil and Nige's fiancé Emma. Nigel's had a blinding season sitting high on the leader board through all the meetings. After a very, very wet Euro Finals he is now resting in 1st Place with one round to go at the end of September. He also has big plans for next year, with a top methanol dragster waiting in the wings to propel him even more quickly to the golden lights at the end of the strip.

Rick Cooke - Super Pro ET Dragster

Ricky pits with Nigel, and Simon is often found giving a helping hand on this rail too. Rick's 31 and works in a garage restoring classic MG's. He's been racing for about 5 years or so and like most racers he spends every spare penny and more on his machine. It's running a 500ci Mopar lump with powerglide 'box, carrying him to a terminal speed of around 160+MPH in 8.1 seconds over the quarter mile.

Mick Payne - Pro Mod Camaro

After what seems like an eternity, the fabled Artful Dodger Coronet is to be finding a new home as Mick has gone and bought himself a Pro Mod. The Ex-"Wheelgame" Camaro of Gordon Appleton (built by Andy Robinson Race cars) is his new ride. This machine will finally take all the power his blown Keith Black Motor can throw at it, so we're expecting big things from this experienced and very capable driver (if anyone has seen the "Artful Dodger" weave it's way up the track you'll get what we mean).

John Turner - GreenFish Racing Barracuda

Back on the strip, the Pro ET Barracuda of John and his team has seen a biblical amount of work done on it over the last 12 months. From a mechanical rebuild to a complete bodywork restoration, the car is running strong and fast tapping in consistent low-11 second quarters without gas.  

She Devil Racing - Top Methanol Funny Car

Dave and Steph Milam have been racing for years, and for the past 5 year they've been running their funny car. Last year saw some bad luck with an engine explosion at Easter where the car suffered major engine damage and a damaged-beyond-repair supercharger. The explosion also damaged the expensive carbon fibre body and they both spent many hours rebuilding and repairing to get the car back out for the next round of FIA events at Santa Pod Raceway. Over the winter the car has had a major revamp including new blower, major engine work and the body repaired and re-sprayed. The car has had two runs out this year: first hindered by a new fireglove the car was accidentally shut off, second at the Euro Finals at Santa Pod where the car made a full pass. Track time before season close is desperately needed to further the challenge of getting the car into the five second field. More testing, weather permitting, will be taking place at the final meet at the end of September.  You have to admire the effort and dedication from them and the crew and we wish all the best to them at the last meet of the year.

Steve Taylor - Black Magic

Steve's been making noise for the first time this season. His ex-top fuel rail now runs a supercharged methanol chevy lump. 7.60 best ET so far.

Karl Harrison - Blown Budget Funny Car

Booth by Mitchville, paint by Steve Taylor. Karl's a new driver this year and has already proven he's more than capable of driving this awesome car in anger. Powered by a 2000hp Keith Black engine Karl is already well into the low 7's and possibly heading towards top methanol and the 6 second barrier if his pocket and his pants let him.

John "Leadfoot" Everitt - Alien Altered

John's weapon of choice is a model T altered body dragster powered by a 555ci methanol injected Chevy engine. Average times  between 7.80 and 7.90. John is currently leading the 2009 championship in Super Pro ET.

The Santa Pod Diaries

Thunder Ball 09

What a first meeting this was! Again up the pod early on Thursday morning to set up ready for the racing. We qualified Friday with no real problems and we looked forward to a great weekends racing with a good crowd of spectators. Then disaster struck we warmed the engine up to find we had no oil pressure at all. This ended in removing the engine find we had blackened the crank and damaged all the shells in the motor. This then became a mad thrash involving stripping the whole motor to a block . The engine was taken from the track to a machine shop and sorted while we cleaned everything up to re assemble. !0pm  the engine block returned to the track where we all thrashed to rebuild the motor til 4am! 9.30 am came and we fired it and ran again! Never let it be said we would be beaten easily! The final outcome of the meet was we came runner up in the whole meeting only losing to Bob Doyle at the end. We ran into the dark as the last run was at 9pm which must of been scary for Steve as this rarely happens in this country and some racers who have been doing it for years have still never do it, so racing into the pitch black in a climbing frame with a bomb bolted to it must be a bit scary to say the least! We whooped and shrieked with excitement as the reality of what we had all achieved sank in .Yeah okay we were runner up ,but for a team that had done its first race meeting with a new car that had a busted engine the day before this was unbelievable! Needless to say we were all hanging the next day and no one went to work!

Easter Thunderball  2009 /Peak performance day testing weekend.

Here we go as promised after being a few months behind with everything I have finally got five minutes to write about some of my adventures at the strip!

2009 started for me with a few changes to last year, Nigel has decided to take the year off to sort out his new ride. The boneshaker was meant to be sorted by now but as usual these things always take more time than you think. For the last year my friend Steve Taylor who works for Lechler Coatings who we proudly use and promote on our customers vehicles has been building a dragster to run in super pro and I guess we have had a little race to see who would get to the track first. Well he beat me to it! Peak performance day run wot you brung was the first outing for Steve and his new car. I went along to support him as he has never driven a dragster before. We all arrived at the track for 8am on a freezing morning with the wind blasting. Our friend Carl Harrison who sorted the engine out for Steve was there to help get the engine running for its first bit of testing. Carl has a funny car (blown budget racing) and he was also testing his car as again this was a new car to run in Super Pro ET this season. After some messing about for a few hours the black magic dragster roared into life! Blown Big Block Chevy running Methanol nice noise you cant beat a blown engine if your a petrol head! Time for Steve to feel what it was like to drive a animal like this! This car is fitted with a big wheelie bar to stop it going to mad off the line, even though its an ex top fuel dragster and is huge it will still lift the wheels easy! However it was left off for a minute as it was decided we were only going to do a burn out and roll down the track with it. As I strapped Steve into the car in the staging lanes it all became very real for him. He must of been scared to death not knowing what he was letting himself in for. I'm sure I will feel the same very soon as I am being strapped into my car. As Carl and myself are quite experienced crew we both took on the startline duties with myself up the front of the car and Carl on the rear doing the parachutes and engine checks. Burnout time! Into the water the monster rolled. Roar!!! went the engine as 7000rpm of pure anger and evil let rip! whoa ! Bloody hell that sounded evil ha ha! I ran up the track after the car which had now just started to reverse back. As I got in front of the car I saw the face of  someone totally exploding with adrenaline. Right then parachutes armed and I brought the car into stage. Stage lights on and we were ready for it. What was supposed to be a quick blip on the throttle went a bit more. Steve gave it what for! Bloody hell! The car went off the line like a scalded cat wheel standing with the awesome amount of power that suddenly let rip. He came off the the throttle at half track briefly and then hit it again hard. Geezus that's quick I laughed. God if I knew he was going to be that wild with it we would have stuck the wheelie bar on for sure! At the other end he was sitting there all red and flushed ,but wow what a first go! If I'm half as brave as that I will be happy! Another run later saw a good time run and we blew a blower gasket. We decided we had had a good day and looked forward to the Easter Thunderball shortly after where the car would see its first real race. WOW!