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Halloween
Bonfre Burn-Up Review (1st November 2009)
Traditionally the last event of the Outlaw Flat Four
Season has been as much about having a get together
with friends as it has been about the racing and this
years Halloween Bonfire Burn-Up at Shakespeare County
Raceway was no exception to this. By the time you get
into October it's always going to be a little hit and
miss with the weather, even more so at the November
end of things but it's always worth a shot just in case
there's a last PB to be had or maybe a chance for a
little more set up information information or maybe
just a chance to catch up with everyone over a few beers
on the Saturday night before packing up for winter.
As well as club members we also had a couple of guests
join us for the weekend so everything was set for a
good weekend out on track so long as the weather played
ball.
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Heavy
rain on Friday night didn't bode well for the weekends
racing but come Saturday morning it was dry so it looked
like we were on for a good day's racing. Beacause it
was relatively cool and due to the amount of rain overnight
it took a little while to get the track dry and then
prep it but the track opened early afternoon and everyone
headed out to the pairing lanes. With just a few more
passes to be had people were pretty much running all
out but a stopage in the afternoon reduced track time
a little so when it and came the last run of the day
the track was past its best. Nethertheless people got
a couple of passes in which is much better than it could
have been all things considered. From an Outlaw Flat
Four perspective run of the day probably went to Jim
Smith who's final pass of the day saw the Bug pointed
at the barrier not once but twice. In some ways it was
a scary run but having emerged with the car unscathed
Jim looked pretty pleased as it seems the car is now
hooked up and ready to go. As is often the case sometimes
it takes a while to put things together and get a car
right but on the evidence of this pass it looks as if
Jim's going to be running hard in 2010. By the time
the track had closed it's probably fair to say that
everyone had had a pretty good day and thanks go to
the track staff for getting the track in order despite
difficult conditions and a little anti-freeze!
Saturday
evening was all about taking time out and chilling out
over food courtesy of Carol Newbury and crew who as
ever put on a top spread. After food it was time to
watch this seasons DVD and everyone gatherered around
a laptop (!) since the projector had been left 'at home'.
It's not for us to comment on the content of the DVD
but thanks go to Helen and David from Quartemilehigh
as well as Paul Venners who between them have done an
awesome job of the production. As well as the DVD we
all got to say Happy Birthday to Mr Keene who despite
being another year older isn't showing any signs of
slowing down just yet.
Sunday
morning sadly wasn't so good and high winds saw horizontal
rain soaking through the site, and there wasn't anything
to be done other than to call it. This of course meant
that the CHP Ashes weren't run as planned which is a
pity as we were looking forward to a little grudge racing
with the cars of the Pro Street Drag Series but there's
nothing you can do about the weather. Away from the
MSA series we'd like to spend more time in 2010 racing
other groups of like minded people so we're sure we'll
get another shot at the Ashes sometime soon. So that
was that, an excellent weekend despite the weather trying
it's best to ruin it. Additional photos of the event
can be found on Jeni Long's Yawning
Cat Photography site, The
Acceleration Archive and Eurodragster.
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| 2009
Outlaw Flat Four Season DVD (28th October 2008)
A full run down of Outlaw Flat Four's fourth season
has been captured on DVD and is now available to buy
on-line from the 'Merchandise'
page. As well as serving as a reminder of the season
the DVD is a great opportunity for those that were unable
to get trackside during 2009. Quoting the press realease:
Step
inside the spectacular world of Outlaw Flat Four right
through the exciting 2009 season. Wheels up, heads up
drag racing action from the class that has taken the
UK drag racing scene by storm. Running VW Flat Four
engines these cars thrill the crowds wherever they go
with their wild launching, highly tuned machines. Turbos,
nitrous and a healthy dose of cool gives one of the
most exciting drag racing classes out there. See them
taking on and wiping the floor with monster engined
muscle cars at chilled out lifestyle events like the
Hot Rod Drags, and also running side by side in full
on competition at MSA championship rounds at Santa Pod
and Shakespeare County Raceway. This class is all about
enjoying the racing and putting on a show for the fans,
and it does this in bucket loads. Once you watch them
you’ll be hooked!
As
well as the Outlaw Flat Four DVD Quartermilehigh have
also released a number of other DVDs from the 2009 season
including event coverage of the Open Sports Nationals
and the Hot Rod Drags. More details of all the titles
available can be found on the Quartermilehigh webpage.
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New
2009 Date Added - Halloween Bonfire Burn Up (5th
October 2009)
Having had another great season during 2009 it has
been decided to extend it with one last meet giving
everyone another chance to to run the cars on track
before the winter break. As a result of this Outlaw
Flat Four will be at Shakespeare County Raceway for
the Halloween
Bonfire Burn Up. The event takes place on the
weekend of October 31st and November 1st and as well
as the usual Outlaw Flat For Heads-Up action the Sunday
will also see the return of the CHP
Ashes in association with Ultra
VW and Japanese
Performance magazines. The CHP Ashes see the club
take on the Japanese power of the Pro Street Drag
Series. Last run in 2006 a lot has changed since then
and we're looking forward to running with the Japanese
cars again.
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New
Outlaw Flat Four YouTube Channel (9th August
2009)
Outlaw Flat Four now has its own YouTube
Channel which currently features all the videos
from this site to date as well as two new slow motion
clips courtesy of Blackett
Photography. We have a few of these and more will
be added during the next few weeks. Now
that the club is on YouTube
we are planning on making much more video content
available including more in car footage. Ofcourse
if a few short clips aren't enough then there is always
the Outlaw Flat Four 2008 Season DVD which will be
joined towards the end of the year by this seasons
DVD currently in production with Quartermilehigh.
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SPRC
Summer Nationals Review (16th June 2009)
The SPRC Summer Nationals held at Santa Pod Raceway
are a new addition to the Outlaw Flat Four calendar
for 2009 and the event was the second round of this
years Outlaw Flat Four Championship. Being just a couple
of weeks after the Yanks Weekend & Gary's Picnic
the timing made for a busy few weeks but when all was
said and done it had definitely been worthwhile. As
per usual for a race weekend people started arriving
at the track early on Friday with a couple of people
taking advantage of Friday's Peak Performance Test &
Tune Session to check out their cars set up. Being a
Championship round every run counts so the more information
you can get ahead of the qualifiers the better. As with
the other race weekends this year the weather was looking
fine, so some good racing was anticipated. The remainder
of the Friday was pretty chilled out and with everyone
ready to run there wasn't so much to do other than sit
around and relax ready for two days of racing.
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Saturday
morning was a scorcher and the track was open according
to the schedule and soon everyone was headed down to
the pairing lanes ready for the first qualifying sessions
of the weekend. Making up the field were Dave Dinning,
James Wotton, Andy Marriott, Phil West, Peter Englezos,
Bernie Newbury, Paul Bate and Adele Woodbridge. The
first run of any weekend is always one drivers are wanting
to get out of the way and sometimes this can cause times
to be a little off target and whilst nobody had any
issues everyone was a little out of the groove except
for Adele who having run on the Friday was able to go
straight out and put in a Personal Best (PB) running
a 12.18. The first runs confirmed everything was OK
with the cars so all was set for the remainder of the
qualifiers. Perhaps the most significant run of the
first session was that between Dave Dinning and James
Wotton who were the first Outlaw Flat Four members to
run at Santa Pod at an Outlaw Flat Four Championship
round, something of a milestone for the club.
Despite
a packed event with a good number of entries throughout
the classes the qualifying sessions progressed quickly
and by the time the schedule got back round to us it
was the best part of an hour ahead and a couple of people
were caught out having been aiming to have cars ready
according to the timetable. This is not usually an issue
for drag racing in the UK but with great weather and
only very minor interruptions the classes ran through
much quicker than expected but after a bit of a last
minute thrash all the cars were once again back in the
pairing lanes. The second session saw both James Wotton
and Paul Bate storm back into the tens, Paul ran a 10.98
whilst James took a new PB with a 10.87, also of note
was Bernie Newbury's run which was a 10.71 and a sign
that the car was working as it should. The third and
final qualifying session of the day saw Adele net her
second PB of the weekend and the cars first eleven second
pass with an 11.93. All in all a pretty successful day
but the final session left James, Bernie and Dave Dinning
with some work to do on the Saturday night. The most
spectacular parts failure of the day was Bernie's clutch
with had all but exploded but with enough spares for
the entire field it wasn't a major issue.
As
with Saturday's qualifying sessions the eliminations
got started pretty quickly on the Sunday morning and
ran through pretty much without interruption. The day
saw both Bernie and Paul running some good times Bernie
tripping the beams with a 10.20 and a 10.16 and Paul
getting another pair of tens with a 10.96 and a 10.95
a performance which saw them both making the final with
Paul emerging the eventual winner somewhat unexpectedly
Bernie having taken a detour off the line on his way
to the other end of the track. It had been two long
hot days but by the time everyone started packing up
on the Sunday it was pretty clear that everyone one
had had a great weekend and for various reasons there's
a couple of people busting to get back out again as
it looks as if a few more PBs are now on horizon. Thanks
to the Santa Pod crew for a really great weekend's racing.
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Yanks
American Weekend & Gary's Picnic Review
(3rd June 2009)
The Yanks Weekend & Gary's Picnic at Shakespeare
County Raceway now occupies a regular spot in our calandar
and is an established club favourite. The laid back
atmosphere at the event always makes it an enjoyable
weekend and the site and sounds of predominently V8
powered American machinery harks back to another era
on another continent. Last year we were joined by a
few guests and the format seemed to work pretty well
so it was more of the same this time round with a few
new faces trackside as well as a bunch of people from
the Belgian club, Der
Autobahn Scrapers (DAS). With the ingredients for
a great weekend all in place all that was needed was
weather to match and as luck would have it you could
have been forgiven for thinking that the track was situated
somewhere in California rather than Warwickshire with
two whole days of baking sun and blue skies. |
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Friday
was the usual chilled out affair with people arriving
throughout the day and getting stuff set up though there
was a downside to the day for those travelling up from
Dover who suffered a delay of ten hours or so negotiating
gridlock on the M25. By nine that evening most of the
crew were at the track and with a warm Spring evening
and a couple of Jupiler's the traffic chaos was soon
forgotten.
With
no worries about waiting for the track to dry out and
with everyone having got through scrutineering with
flying colours Saturday morning got off to a flying
start with both the Outlaws and guests wanting to get
going as soon as possible so no sooner was the track
open everyone got their stuff together and headed off
to the pairing lanes and it wasn't long before the VW
powered cars were heading off up the track in the heat
of the sun. The smell of race gas and burnt rubber and
the sounds of angry flat 4 and V8 engines makes for
a great start to a Saturday morning. With some good
numbers first pass everyone came away from the first
session pretty happy and a couple of the DAS cars came
back down the return lane and straight back into the
pairing lanes, something they would continue to do for
most of the the rest of the weekend!
Not
wishing to waste the opportunity things were mixed up
throughout the day with there being both VW versus VW
pairings as well as VW versus V8 pairings and with the
latter I think it's fair to say that the flat 4 engined
cars gave a good account of themselves with the win
light showing on the VW side of the track more than
a few times though it's fair to say there was some really
quick V8 stuff there and they got there fair share of
wins too. Whichever way it ended up I think both camps
enjoyed themselves and it's great to see such different
machines pairing up.
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After the racing finished on the Saturday and following
a quick (!?!) photo call it was time to chill out and
thanks must go to Carol, Helen and everyone else who
helped out putting an awesome spread together for everyone.
The remainder of the evening provided an opportunity
for people to catch up and in a couple of instances
pick up some spares courtesy of Pete Englezos and make
a few needed repairs.
For
the Sunday we had decided to put together an informal
ladder and ran some eliminations between ourselves,
our UK guests and the DAS guys which resulted in Phil
West winning through the weirdest set of circumstances
we've seen to date. Phil was confused but happy to take
a win on a bye run nonetheless! One thing's for sure
with heads-up racing, you really never can tell how
it's going to go! Outside of the ladder the DAS crew
were once again making use of the track time and were
running laps round the Warwickshire country side and
putting in some good times. Like Saturday the Sunday
saw another great day of action out on the track and
it was over way to soon. Thanks to the SCR
crew and the the National Association of Street Clubs
(NASC)
for inviting us and hosting such a great event and thanks
too to Jeni Long for use of some of her pictures more
of which can be found on her site; Yawning
Cat Photography.
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European
Race Action 2009 (10th May 2009)
With the season now well underway a quick reminder about
some of the cool events happening over on Continental
Europe later this year. First up is the 3rd
European Bug-In which this year takes place on the
3rd, 4th & 5th of July. Held in Chimay, Belgium
the event became a legend in only its first year and
continues to be the one by which all are measured, with
visitors and cars from all over the world this year’s
not going to be any different. Next up it’s off
to the north of Europe and Norway, the land of side-by-side
9's on the 14th, 15th and 16th August for the 8th
Scandinavian Cal-Look Classic where you’ll
find many of Europe’s fastest VW’s. With
beautiful surroundings, great Scandinavian hospitality
and an abundance of formidable flat 4 power you’ll
be wondering why you haven’t yet booked your ticket!
New for this year is Bug
Spain which is set to take place at the all new
Motorland Aragón circuit in Alcañiz on
the 4th, 5th & 6th September. With plenty of early
interest throughout Europe, a great new motorsports
facility and what will surely be the hottest drag VW
drag racing ever held in Europe it’s set to be
an event that’s well worth heading south for.
Last but by no means least is the 7th running of the
DAS
Drag Day at Bitburg in Germany on the 19th &
20th September. Now established as a racers favorite
and hosted by the famous Belgian DAS Club the weekend
is all about putting flat 4 power down on a quarter
mile track and offers little else other than a great
atmosphere, it’s just about perfect. Sometimes
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Springspeed
Nationals Review (8th May 2009)
The Bank Holiday weekend Springspeed Nationals meet
at Shakespeare County Raceway (SCR) has become our regular
season opener and is always a good weekend this year’s
event being no exception. This time round though the
event served as the first event of the inaugural Outlaw
Flat Four Championship so it was going to be a weekend
worth winning. As is usual for the first event of the
year there’s always a few people who get caught
out either running out of time or discovering a last
minute gremlin and as a result of this we were a couple
of entries down but those in attendance weren’t
going to have an easy time of it and some close racing
was expected. Great weather on the Friday meant that
getting everything set up in the pits was a fairly leisurely
affair making for an easy going evening.
Peter
Englezos and Joe Gallagher turned up with cars that
were pretty much as they were at the end of last season
whilst Dave Dinning, Andy Marriot and Bernard Newbury
all came with new set ups. Andy spent some time earlier
this year revising the front end of the Bug taking more
weight out of it whilst Dave made a number of small
changes throughout the car which is now pretty much
how he wants it. The only missing part of the equation
is his main engine which he’s currently waiting
on parts for so the Springspeed Nats saw him running
the spare which he and Ian from Wolfiburb Performance
spent a few nights thrashing away on. At first glance
Bernie’s Stitch-Up looks similar to the way it
did before but closer examination reveals a car that
has changed a lot and amongst other things features
a new motor, an awesome custom paint job and as you
might expect a new interior.
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Following
on from Friday more good weather on the Saturday morning
meant that the qualifiers got off to a prompt start
and thanks to the slick running on the part of the SCR
track staff it wasn’t long before we were out
running. The first run of the year is always the one
you want to get out of the way but for Bernie this was
the first weekend back racing since his engine fire
last season so he was keener than most to get on with
it. As such he took it easy on the first run just checking
everything with the car felt right and afterwards was
pleased to report back that it did and had managed a
respectable 11.72 at 102mph. Caution is not a word that
could be used to describe Dave Dinning’s first
run which saw the car head skywards and crashing down
on the track heavily due to second gear mysteriously
having ‘gone missing’ over winter. Dave
thinks he may have done the damage to the box in his
garage as the gear was definitely there the last time
the car was run! Andy Marriot got things rolling with
a 12.82 at 104mph and Peter Englezos put in a strong
first pass with a 10.73 tripping the beam at 131mph.
Unfortunately a couple of issues with the motor meant
that Joe Gallagher sat out the first few rounds.
As
the weekend progressed there were some good runs with
Dave Dinning getting an 11.25 at 126mph out of the three
gears whilst Pete managed a 10.66 which having been
at only 123mph gives a hint of the cars potential. Bernie
ran a 10.79 without nitrous, the cars previous best
without nitrous was a 10.81. It was Andy Marriot who
had the best weekend though running a series of personal
bests finishing in the eliminations on a 12.24 run at
109mph, the changes to the car obviously paid off. Looking
at the way the qualifiers had gone it really could have
been anyone's but on paper the fight for the win should
have been between either Bernie or Pete with Pete holding
the number one qualifier spot. In reality though the
competition ended up being between Andy Marriot and
Dave. In the qualifiers they'd met four times and it
was two all by the time they went into eliminations.
In order to win Dave had to make sure he didn't bog
the engine going between 1st and 3rd or it'd be his
third 13 second pass of the weekend, Andy had been running
12's every run but on this occasion was beaten by Dave
who finished the first race weekend of 2009 with a win.
Some
rain on the Monday made things difficult for the track
staff but we were lucky enough to be able to run through
to our final and would like the thank everyone at SCR
for their efforts. All in all a great weekend and a
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| Outlaw
Flat Four 2009 (4th April 2009)
It’s now less than a month until the start of
the 4th Outlaw Flat Four 2009 season and despite a difficult
economic climate we’re looking forward to another
great year of racing. The 2009 calendar is busier than
ever with eight official race weekends and the possibility
of a further four feature fixtures so there should be
plenty of opportunities for numbers to tumble throughout
the year. In
addition the our usual MSA rounds at Shakespeare
County Raceway, the Springspeed Nationals and the
Open Sports Nationals Outlaw Flat Four will also feature
at the Summer Nationals, Bug Jam and the National Finals
at Santa
Pod. As well as the MSA rounds there are also a
number of non MSA events to look forward to where we
plan to unleash more Flat 4 versus V8 mayhem on an unsuspecting
public. On top of the races here in the UK the 2009
calendar also features a number of events in Europe
such as the European
Bug-In in Belgium, the Scandinavian
Cal-Look Classic in Norway and DAS
Drag Day in Germany and as in previous years there
should be a few club cars heading over to Europe during
the course of the year.
Following
on from the success of the 2008 season DVD filming has
already started on the 2009 one and once finished it
will feature more coverage from all the events trackside
as well as offering some insight into what goes on behind
the scenes. The Outlaw Flat Four race season gets started
at Shakespeare County Raceway on May 2nd at the Springspeed
Nationals, full event information can be found on the
SCR
website. We look forward to seeing you there.
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Off Season Updates (4th April 2008)
As
is usual with Outlaw Flat Four quite a few people have
been quietly developing their cars over the winter and
it once again looks as if ETs are set to fall further.
Back in black is Bernie Newbury who retired from the 2008
season following a fire which left the stunning Stitch
Up looking a little charred. Not to be deterred Bernie’s
now running a bigger engine and has made a number of subtle
changes including a new interior (of course!) and a new
paint scheme which means the car not only looks better
than ever but should run harder too; definitely one to
take a closer look at in 2009. Another car which has seen
a lot of development work over winter is Martin Taylor’s
Bug which now features data logging for the front suspension,
clutch, and turbo as well as revised rear suspension,
a revised fuel system and changes to the inlet plenum
to accommodate a larger turbo unit.
Due
to a couple of smaller side projects Peter Shattock will
wait until Bug Jam to return to the race track but has
nevertheless been busy with the shopper. With a year between
visits to the track Peter has opted to freshen up the
gear box and is going to go over the heads and put a new
set of valve springs in the existing engine but will wait
until later in the year before deciding whether to run
this or switch to a new motor which is currently in development
by JPM in Sweden. Originally the plan was to switch to
this for 2009 but the old engine is close to the 11s that
Peter may yet wait prior to making the change which will
include a new gearbox set up to suit the specific characteristics
of the highly specialised mouse motor. As well as this
Peter has freshened up the front end of the car and has
made a few changes to it along the way. Perhaps the most
noticeable alteration to the car is that it now sits a
little closer to the ground, a step that’s aimed
at improving the way the car behaves at higher speeds.
As is always the case with the shopper it will return
to the track with less weight and Peter says there are
a number of other tricks on the car which he’s hoping
no one else will pick up on! Our guess is more titanium.
There
is a rumour that Johnny Grigg’s car is near completion
and the word from somewhere near Stratford-Upon-Avon is
that the 2442cc IDA/Nitrous motor is currently being built
whilst the car is in for paint shortly after Easter. Once
it’s back Johnny plans to plough into the rebuild
and is aiming to be out ready for Bug Jam if not before.
Its been a while since Johnny’s been on track but
looking at the spec which includes a KCR transmission
coupled to an MSE V gate shifter, a load of stuff from
Bigwig racecars and a ‘chute it looks as if he means
business.
Whereas most people have been working away on their
cars over winter Andy Marriot is planning to work on
his during a rare week off from work. That time should
see the car fitted with an alloy beam, a different oil
cooler arrangement, modified Autocraft rockers and if
a new set of centerlines. Never one to stand still for
too long Dave Dinning has also been hard at work on
his car and is looking to up the naturally aspirated
ante somewhat this year. Dave is currently putting a
new engine through its paces on a the dyno and whilst
not wanting to talk about specific times is cautiosly
optimistic about the new season. |
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