The rain meant that there was a little more work in getting the track ready than is usual and this delayed the start a little but in the end it wasn’t long things before got going. If there was a downside to the popularity of the event then it was the number of cars looking for track time; the volume of cars wanting to get out on track straight off meant that the route down to the pairing lanes was all but gridlocked so it took a while to get down there but it was a good looking queue so there’s no complaints here. The first runs of the weekend revealed that the weather had taken its toll on the track and unfortunately it was a little more slick than is ideal but such is the nature of racing in the UK. A lot can change in a couple of weeks and ultimately the weekend didn’t turn out to be quite as quick as the Open Sports Nationals had been. That said though we had a good two days worth of track time and still managed to get a few good numbers.

Frank Hoffman was out for what will probably be the last time with the current set up in the ’67 and ran pretty much exactly where he left off from the Open Sports Nationals. A little more track would have certainly have netted a new PB but Frank is happy that the car is pretty close to going as quick as it will and is now looking towards revisions over winter which will see the car running quicker in 2009. Match race of the weekend was probably a run between him and Jo Gallagher which saw Jo take the win. As well as the win against Frank, Jo also managed a new PB with a 12.26, again a little more track may have seen this drop further still. Dave Dinning came very close to getting himself a PB but had to abort a pass and ended up crossing the line coasting, looking at the ticket though everything up to the point where he shut the car down he was on target for both the MPH and the ET. Also running hard was Peter Englezos who managed good 10 second passes all weekend but none were quite good enough to get him back into the 10.4s. Similarly both James Wotton and Paul Bate were there or thereabouts and had a strong showing throughout the weekend, indeed with both chasing similar targets seeing James and Paul up alongside each other on track grabbed the attention of some of the onlookers. Paul got James that time but we’re sure they’ll race again sometime soon and both will once again be equally as keen to cross that line first.

The NSRA’s Hot Rod Drags has always been a great meet but this years was the best we can remember, thanks go to the NSRA and all at SCR for having us back. We look forward to being back there next year for another Saturday night Cacklefest and maybe a field of Nostalgia Funny Cars.

Recently married and just back from honeymoon Jason Rew was out with his Oval and looking to extract a little more from the existing set up prior to possibly making some changes this winter. In a similar vein Peter Shattock was hoping to wring a little bit more out of the 1776 'Happy Shopper' mill before retiring it favour of a slightly grumpier shopper for 2009, whilst Frank Hoffman was looking for deeper 12s with the White Trash '67. Dave Dinning made a welcome return to the numbers chase with his recently completed high calorie all motor Cash & Cakes set up and was looking to pick up where he left off last year having spent the early part of this year with his son Daniel at the wheel of the car with a loan motor. Having more than got to grips with The Sting during the course of this season, the Open Sports Nationals would be Jo Gallagher's first MSA meeting whilst James Wotton had turned up with some coolers full of ice and a modified turbo set up having found the limit of his previous intercooler at the Mopar Euro Nats. Having been racing at Gardermoen in Norway at the awesome Scandinavian Cal-Look Classic the previous weekend Richie Webb rolled into SCR on Friday pretty much straight off the ferry following an epic journey down through Northern Europe. Fortunately the car had survived the previous weekend’s campaign and was ready to roll, though Richie and American guests Russ and Dave Rhoads were probably in need of some rest! It seems that there's no stopping the clubs newest member, Anton Murrells and only a few races in he was looking forward to his first MSA round with the Ghia whilst Martin Taylor had his split Bug entered in both its Outlaw Flat Four debut and Street Eliminator. Peter Englezos had spent the time since his last outing helping Dave Dinning with his new motor so the 600 arrived at the track pretty much as it left it last time round whilst Phil West returned to racing for the first time in 2008 with an even lighter version of the Natural High Bug and was obviously looking to shave some time off his ET accordingly. Another MSA first timer was Greg Bishop who has been enjoying a promising year with the Triple Six Bug which was putting in increasingly strong runs. Jim Smith and Joe Gallagher had a challenge ahead of them having to get to grips with various set up considerations both cars showing tremendous potential but at the same time a degree of sensitivity to small adjustments. To complete the line up, having had a busy year away from the track Paul Bate returned to racing hoping to be able to just jump in and go with his orange Bug.

Since the entry numbers were pretty high the SCR track crew had scheduled an early start for activities and things got moving pretty quickly come Saturday morning. Conditions looked to be ideal with a predominantly bright sky delivering dry weather and accompanying cooler temperatures making for good air.

The early promise of the track proved to bear fruit and the second qualifying session of the weekend saw Dave Dinning getting a PB with a 10.39 which was enough to claim the Outlaw naturally aspirated crown by a considerable margin. Indeed with the weekend really being little more than a shakedown effort on Dave’s part we’re looking forward to seeing what the set up can really do. As we move towards the end of the 2008 Outlaw Flat Four season and into 2009 it looks as if there’s going to be a close fought two-way battle for the aspirated title between Dave’s car and Joe Gallagher’s Velocirazor both of which can be expected to shake things up considerably. Unfortunately the Open Sports Nationals wasn’t a great weekend for the Velocirazor and it was prematurely sidelined with clutch failure but given the leap Joe has made with the car he seemed pretty happy overall and was quietly confident that they’re getting close to being where they want to be with the set up of the car. Like Joe, Jim Smith also ended up having a tricky time with the car and didn’t end up with as much track time as he’d have liked as he was having problems with fuelling. Greg Bishop was over the moon on Saturday when he not only got a personal best with a nice square 12.12 run at 112mph and is now contemplating the possibility of an 11 which not necessarily something he’d have thought at the beginning of the year. The car was hooking up really well and few more passes will see this time drop further, the only question is how far? Also getting in a quick run early on was Martin Taylor who got an Outlaw PB with a 10.82 with a 141mph terminal speed though progress was bought to a halt prematurely with both axles failing on the line. Saturday also saw what was probably the biggest surprise of the weekend when Peter Shattock ran a 12.20 with his Bug. Peter thought he’d pretty much got to the limit of the ‘Happy Shopper’ set up and was planning to switch the engine out and replace it with something pretty special for 2009 but the 12.20 completely blitzed all expectations and now Peter is considering keeping the car as it is to see just how much more can be squeezed out of it. The pass didn’t tick all the boxes increment wise and in places Peter has been quicker so there’s certainly more to be had out of it. He’s continuing with the new motor program but is now thinking that it will go straight into a different car instead of the Bug.

Straight out of the traps there were a number of other personal bests but these fell later in the weekend. One example of this was an early 12.74 for Anton Murrells but this was later beaten by a 12.56 at 107mph and then again during the eliminations on Monday when he got a 12.46 now terminating at 108mph, all this is still without having switched on the nitrous system! Frank Hoffman and Anton were running pretty close all weekend and Frank got a PB with a 12.65 at 106mph which he then went on to beat again in the eliminations alongside Anton with a 12.47 this time at 107mph, not quite enough to see him through to the final again this year. The worst thing being that he missed a gear so he’ll have to wait until next time to see what he could have run. Later in the weekend Jason Rew got a PB in the Oval with a 12.18 at 109mph and is now looking forward to the possibility of an 11 with the car sometime soon. Paul Bate’s return to the track proved to be a success and Paul got an Outlaw PB of 11.02 with an all time terminal speed PB passing through the traps at 122mph. The 11.02 takes Paul close to his all time PB of 10.91 and a couple more trips to the track should hopefully see this fall. Richie Webb had a strong showing running a number of 9s during the course of the weekend as has become the norm but a new PB of 9.67 at 141mph in the second round of eliminations on the Monday confirmed that the set up is where it needs to be for a forthcoming adventure over seas. Whilst a 9.67 is cool the run that most people will remember was a 9.88 most of which was run on two wheels. Having lifted off the line the car just hung there scraping its valance down the track, when Richie hit second gear the car was still in the air and stayed there quite a while longer. Well, relatively speaking, nothing lasts too long on a 9 second run! It’s got to be one the longest wheelies any VW has ever done in competition spec and it certainly made an impression with people at the track. If Richie’s two wheeled antics impressed then Phil West’s are best described as scary, whilst we’re now used to seeing him on two wheels generally these are the rears but one run saw the car get sideways and get up on its two left wheels, though a close shave the car fortunately settled back down on all four pointing at the grandstands and having turned the car back towards the finish line Phil was able to carry on up the track with one of his slower ETs!

Sunday night provided the opportunity to get some useful information on the cars when the Mark Norton and Graham Stockton of the MSA came by the pits with a set of scales offering the opportunity to get a few of the cars weighed in return for a charity donation. Since power and weight are key factors in the fight for 10ths there were plenty of takers and some interesting results. Perhaps the keenest of the lot was Phil West who estimated he’d lost something between 15 and 19lbs of weight since the last weigh-in and was keep to see exactly how much lightness he’d managed to find. To this end he looked pretty stumped when the car actually turned out to be something in the order of 60lbs heavier. Further investigation revealed that the front was disproportionately heavy for a Bug and it was discovered that a spare steel wheel and a container holding something in the order of 35 litres of water had somehow found its way under the bonnet. Thanks to Mark and Graham for providing the scales.

When it came to the eliminations on Monday the first round saw Richie Webb as number one qualifier through with a bye run whilst second placed qualifier Dave Dinning took on third placed Jim Smith. Martin Taylor and Joe Gallagher were paired up but Martin didn’t make the start due to the axle breakage whilst Paul Bate was paired up with James Wotton. Peter Englezos lined up alongside Phil West whilst Greg Bishop and Jason Rew got to race their Ovals. Peter Shattock faced Anton Murrells and Jo Gallagher got to race Frank Hoffman. In the second round Richie Webb took the win against Dave Dinning whilst Paul Bate went through against Joe Gallagher. Meanwhile Peter Englezos’ Fiat got the better of Jason Rew and rookie Anton Murrells beat Frank Hoffman in what turned out to be a super close pairing. The semi finals pitched Paul Bate against Richie Webb who took the win whilst Peter Englezos lost out to Anton Murrells. For the second year a rookie had reached the final but this time out lost out and Richie Webb took the win over Anton Murrels. All in all another pretty good weekends racing.

Mopar Euro Nationals Review (2nd August 2008)
Whilst at Gary's Picnic earlier in the year we met with the organizers of the Mopar Euro Nationals and were asked if we'd want to run a couple of cars at the event and the offer of another weekend out racing with the Americans was too good to pass up! Running since 1994 the Mopar Nats as it was originally known is now the biggest event of its type outside of the USA and attracts American car fans from across Europe.

The focus of the event is very clearly all things Mopar but besides the obvious from names like Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth the event also attracts a whole lot of metal from other manufacturers and most of these are muscle cars. Indeed by the time we rolled in the place was already heaving with them and Santa Pod looked very much like any US strip must have looked sometime circa the early 70's. The muscle car of course comes from an era when the American manufacturers were using straight line speed to sell their cars so the vast majority of the shows visitors had come well equipped for quarter mile action by default and the result of this was a fire up lane full of cars and the track pretty much running at capacity with some pretty cool looking cars filling the fire up lanes.

With three days track time available and some good weather forecast it was looking like it was going to be a good weekend and once out on track all the cars seemed to be running pretty well. The temperatures which were edging into the 90s at times were probably a little too high for racing but the track was in good shape so any impact the air available had was largely made up for with grip.

As it turned out the weekend turned out to be fairly productive for us with some great passes and a number of Personal Bests. Jo Gallagher had been spending some time getting used to The Sting and was putting in a number of ever quicker passes but hadn't quite managed to edge into the 12s and then on a run with a 1000ft time equivalent of a 12.80 of some description there was no quarter mile time data on the ticket, typical! On the next pass though Jo got a 12.89 with a 1000ft time marginally down on the previous pass so as it was it didn't work out so bad. In fact having run the 12 and getting ever more comfortable with the car everything started to come together and by the time the weekend was out she had managed to net a 12.60 at 107mph.

Anton Murrells was also in the process of trying to get to grips with a car and had a productive weekend in the Ghia managing a PB of 12.86 with a trap speed of 105mph. There's no stopping Andy Marriot now that the car is back together and despite being off on holiday he decided to pop in on the Saturday and run the car which turned out to be well worth the trip as he left for his holiday with a new PB of 12.64 at 104mph. Yet another of the runners taking a PB home was Joe Gallagher who ran an effortless 10.89 at 125mph in Velocirazor which hints at the cars potential, a few teething problems had slowed progress at the beginning of the year but it now looks as if the gremlins are a thing of the past. Having taken the car on a bit of European trip following the European Bug-In Frank Hoffman was back out on track in the '67 and managed to knock his PB down to 12.72 at 105mph. James Wotton managed a number of solid passes but was unable to better his 10 from earlier in the season whilst Richie Webb banged out a series of 9s all of which were preceded by some fairly epic start line wheelies. Not the best thing for ETs but certainly popular with the stands!

From our perspective our first trip to the Mopar Euro Nationals was a resounding success and as anyone that has followed our class for the last couple of seasons will probably have guessed we love mixing it up with the American stuff. Like the other events we do on that front the event had a great atmosphere and a big thanks goes to the organisers for inviting us along to experience all that Mopar mayhem!

Once the drags got started a constant stream of VWs passed through the start line and off up the quarter mile track, with just over 200 entrants there was no shortage of quality quick VWs and everyone settled in to a full program of racing. By the time the Outlaw crew got down to the start line everyone was ready to make it count and flew out of the box guns blazing, none more so than Chris Emmens who got things started by monstering the Hembug into a massive burn out across the line, on a fresh track any rubber you can get is a good thing and James Wotton followed suit making good use of the power available to him in his turbo Bug. Andy Marriot made a welcome return in his Bug and judging by his first pass all that careful attention paid to the ‘avionics upgrade’ had obviously paid off. Also out in their race cars were the Gallaghers, Jason Rew, Peter Shattock, Travis Rider, Greg Bishop and Frank Hoffmann. Because of the way the track is arranged at Chimay racers wait at the top after their run and then return back to the pits as a group as the track doesn’t have a return road. At first this may seem inconvenient but the reality is that it works pretty well providing an opportunity for some good conversations with other racers. With the likes of Larry McKenzie, Roger Crawford, Ron Flemming, Paul & Mark Schley, and Don Chamberlain hanging out up there (were it not for a few gray hairs) there were times when it could well have been the staging lanes at Orange County two or three decades back!

The Friday continued in much the same way as it started with the racing lasting late into the evening, as the sun set over the track you could still hear the sounds of highly strung flat four motors disappearing into the distance and shutting down a quarter of a mile away, a perfect sound track to bring a summer day to a close. With the onset of evening there was a relaxed party atmosphere which carried many show goers through to the early hours of Saturday morning ready for the shows second day. As with Friday Saturday got off to a sunny start and straight away the race cars were out on track. With traction improving all the time people were putting in ever quicker times thrilling the specators lining both sides of the track. Unfortunately lunch time saw the onset of some rain which of course put a stop to the racing but it did provide the opportunity to take a look around elsewhere some of the events other attractions. Aside from drag racing the Bug-In also boasts an extensive trade area, a swap meet, an off road course, a slalom and an enormous Show & Shine so there was plenty of other stuff to take a look at and for those without a car to race there was also the bar so one way or another the rain did its thing whilst the show carried on regardless. Come the early evening though and things were looking very different with the rain giving way to more sun and the racing at Chimay once again resumed. Despite a late start quite a few cars made it out onto the track and raced late into the evening seeing out Saturday in much the same way as Friday. At the Bug-In there was racing until it was dark and no one could see anything resulting in some of the most awesome evenings entertainment you're likely to see at a VW show.

Waking up on Sunday morning it was hard to work out how it had got to being the third day of the show so soon; the time had absolutely flown by. Fortunately the sun was out and there was no sign of anything other than blue skies which meant the racing could start straight away and as had been the case throughout the weekend the fire up lanes quickly filled with cars and drivers wanting to take a short Sunday drive in the Belgian country side. Despite Saturday’s rain the track was still pretty good and throughout the field a few people got Personal Bests including both Frank Hoffman and Greg Bishop. With only a few hours remaining everyone out on track was hammering it trying to get that best run in before time was called. As well as people hunting times several battles were being fought amongst various parties; amongst these was a fight for ET supremacy between the Yanks and the Brits in the Gasser Garage pits whilst Chris Emmens took to the track against Ole Endler for a rematch of their side-by-side run at Gary’s Picnic, (Ole took the win at the Bug-In equalising with Chris’ SCR win). In addition to this the first ever running of the Powderpuff Class in Europe was drawing to its conclusion so every run there counted whilst both Rudy Olivença and Joe Gallagher had started trying to push their Ghias to the limits of adhesion and beyond. One way or another wherever you looked it was getting pretty frantic out on track and there was some hard ass driving going on! Too bad then that like all good things it eventually had to come to an end but sometime just after 4pm on the Sunday the last pairing of the 2008 European Bug-In set off up the track.

Proceedings for the Second European Bug-In were bought to a close with the prize giving and a couple of photo calls including a line up of all the gassers that were in attendance. As Chimay slowly started to return to its normal quiet self there was definitely a sense that the event had been something special and looking around at the smiles and through talking to various people it was apparent that pretty much everyone could have quite happily have stayed there for a few more days but it was time to start thinking about heading back home again. Just prior to the prize giving the club was notified that we'd won the Best Club Display award which was an unexpected but welcome finish to an already perfect weekend. Given that Enzo Englezos was celebrating his 18th Birthday that day it seemed appropriate that he should pick up the award on behalf of the club, all we can say is thanks for considering us in the running! It was very much appreciated by the club

Looking back at the weekend it would be great to be able to provide a blow-by-blow account of it all but the simple truth is that it’s a total blur just like last years was. There was quite simply too much going on to remember any of the details and highlights, quite simply it was all good. As far as we are concerned the format is superb and will clearly continue to attract the best VWs Europe has to offer. This is a VW show for VW enthusiasts and in only its second year the show is already a legend. Our thanks go to the shows organisers who made it all possible, thanks to the visitors that made the atmosphere what it was and last but by no means least thanks to the people of Chimay for hosting the event. We look forward to seeing you all again same time, same place next year. Roll on 2009!

Forthcoming Events (14th June 2008)
It's a busy summer ahead so a quick reminder about what's coming up. Following on from a great weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway (SCR) for the Yanks American Weekend & Gary's Picnic it's back over to SCR to race yet more American iron for the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals on June 28th & 29th. Always a good weekend with plenty to see we'll once again have a few cars there mixing it up with the V8's. Less than a week later (July 4th, 5th & 6th) we're off to Belgium for an event that needs no introduction; the second European Bug-In (EBI II), more of that on here in the next few days. Moving on from there it looks as if a couple of club members are off to Norway’s Gardermoen track for the Scandinavian Cal-Look Classic on the 15th, 16th & 17th of August after which is another MSA Round, the Open Sports National Drag Races (23rd, 24th & 25th) at SCR. Looking further ahead the Autumn will see the NSRA Hot Rod Drags (September 13th & 14th 2008), DAS Drag Day 6 (September 20th & 21st) and of course Flame & Thunder on November 1st. Also yet to be confirmed is an additional date in July and another in October, keep an eye on our Calendar page for details of those.

Yanks American Weekend & Gary's Picnic Review (2nd June 2008)
May seems to have passed very quickly and no sooner were we packing up from the Spring Speed Nationals at the beginning of the month it seemed we were straight back to Shakespeare County Raceway (SCR) to see the month out over the weekend of the 31st May and 1st June. The 30th Gary’s Picnic organised by the National Association of Street Clubs (NASC) is held in conjunction with the SCR’s Yanks American Weekend and this was our second visit to the event as a club. With plenty of variety and a strong nostalgia vibe it’s an event we really enjoy being a part of.

For the second event of our season we had a field of eleven cars lined up. As well as Bernie Newbury, Chris Emmens, Daniel Dinning, Jason Rew, James Wotton, Jim Smith, Joe Gallagher, Peter Englezos and Richie Webb we were also joined by Udo Becker (and Crew Chief Jörg Wortmann) with his chop top and Ole Endlander with the Pink Panther Gasser. Whilst various Outlaw Flat Four members had raced with both Udo and Ole before both in Germany and Belgium it was the first time we have been joined by visitors over here and we’d been looking forward to it since they confirmed they were planning on making the trip over.

The weekend started out pretty much as usual with the pits slowly filling up and taking shape during the course of Friday with pretty much everyone set up and ready to go by Friday evening though there were a couple of people who were busy into the night with a few last minute jobs. Due to a delay getting a couple of parts together Richie was putting the finishing touches on a refreshed turbo system whilst Bernard Newbury, Joe Gallagher and the Velocirazor crew were busy finishing building the car! A new engine is now in the car but Joe was still short of a vital part of the gear linkage assembly as he pulled up at the track. Meanwhile Mrs Gallagher was at the UPS depot in Tamworth waiting for them to unload a truck, four hours later work could finally start on getting the car finished.

By the time the track opened on Saturday morning there was still work to be done on the Velocirazor and Jim Smith still experiencing issues with his motor elected to call it a day but everyone else was ready to roll as soon as the track opened. A number of quick passes showed that the track was good and of note was Ole’s pass which was a solid 11.8 and the first time he’d run on a dedicated track whilst Daniel Dinning having taken over the wheel of his Dad, Dave’s car for the weekend got a 12.2 out of his first ever pass equalling Dave’s best time with that set up. As the day progressed it was pretty much business as usual with wheels up action and times dropping run on run.

Unfortunately not everything went to plan though. First to experience an issue was Udo who had a material failure with one of his cylinder heads and was sidelined early on. It was an issue Udo was well aware of and his plan was to race over here in the UK and make the necessary changes to the set up once back in Germany, unfortunately the problem got there first. It’s unfortunate that it had to happen over here as it’s a long way to drive and it would have been good to have seen Udo take on Pete again for one of their now traditional match races however there will hopefully be another opportunity for this later in the year. Later in the day Bernard Newbury’s ‘Stitch Up’ was damaged by a fire. Towards the top end some sort of engine failure resulted in a fire taking hold at the rear of the car and for a little while those of us on the line weren’t sure how bad it was but luckily the rescue crews got there quickly and got the fire knocked down pretty much instantaneously.Fortunately Bernie was absolutely fine and the car though damaged is in good shape considering what could have happened and it wasn’t long before Bernie was talking through possible plans for the car. Also experiencing problems were Richie Webb who suffered a small oil fire at the top end off of the back of another 9 due to an issue with the oil breather whilst Joe Gallagher was eventually beaten by clutch gremlins. Whilst the problem is not especially difficult to fix it was not something that could be done trackside even by someone as determined as Joe! It was a wild thrash getting the car there and though it didn’t work as well as it might Joe now knows the engine is running fine and that there is one fix between him and some serious numbers.

Though Saturday turned out to be a long tough day at the track Saturday evening provided an opportunity for the club to get together to celebrate Mrs Gallagher’s 40th Birthday and everyone was very much in the party mood. As well as Udo, Jörg and Ole we were also joined by Julien, Nicolas and Clement who had travelled up from France for the weekend. It’s good being able to spend time away from racing as during the day it’s too hectic to spend any time with anyone and catch up with what they are up to so there was a lot for people to talk about, all in all it was an excellent evening. Thanks go to Carol, Jo, Helen and Pete (on the barbeque) for an excellent spread and Happy Birthday Mrs G!

Sunday started with light rain and though it wasn’t settling on the track the light dusting persisted for much of the morning and delayed the start of things on track but fortunately it didn’t last into the afternoon and the familiar sounds of the track were soon back. The first run of the day saw Richie Webb run a 10.02 alongside Peter Englezos who didn’t finish, James Wotton ran a solo pass whilst Chris Emmens ran an 11.51 just ahead of Ole Endlander’s 11.70. The final pairing was Jason Rew who ran a 14.30 with Daniel Dinning taking the light with a 12.51. The next time out Richie Webb faced James Wotton but suffered an engine issue leaving James with a clear track and a 12.18 whilst Chris Emmens ran 12.03 with Daniel Dinning running a 15.17. The days final run saw James Wotton run an 11.10 with Chris Emmens just behind him with an 11.38.

When time was called on the Sunday there had been four new Personal Bests, Chris Emmens had a great weekends driving and ended up with an 11.38 beating his previous 11.51, Daniel Dinning’s first ever weekend behind the wheel left him with an amazing 11.98 and Ole Endlander got an 11.57. Meanwhile James Wotton netted his first ever ‘ten’ running a 10.90 and Richie Webb once again ran a nine only this time it was a 9.95 so not quick enough for a Personal Best but all the same not a bad start for the Cabrio’s first outing this year.

As well as the Outlaw cars we also had a couple of guests in our camp who’d bought cars with them and both had a pretty good time out on track. Anton Murrells bought his recently imported Ghia along and having made a couple of soft ‘exploratory’ passes got it into the low 12’s right out of the box whilst Chris Lambourne ran his fully fitted Bus and achieved a 14.4, not bad considering he was living in it during the course of the weekend and had a slipping clutch!

That’s about all, yet another great weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway albeit with some ups and downs but that’s racing and if it wasn’t for the bad stuff the good stuff wouldn’t mean anything! Thanks to the SCR crew and also the NASC for a great event and one we look forward to returning to in 2009.

Springspeed Nationals Review (6th May 2008)
The Outlaw Flat Four season kicked off over the Bank Holiday weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway and after a fairly mixed three days concluded with a degree of success. A couple of gremlins had meant that the entry list was a couple of cars down and a couple of further issues subsequently kept two other cars from the track. Whilst it always seems that the winter break drags on conversely the first round of the season always seems to come round too fast for those working through changes to their cars. Of the entries most of the cars arrived early on the Friday except for Peter Shattock who spent the day swapping out the motor on his car for a loaner from Ian Clark. There were a couple of questions over Pete’s 1776cc mill and Ian offered him the use of his 1850cc which is currently waiting for a new home in his next car. An early season last minute thrash has now become a tradition for Peter and as such he didn’t make the track until late Friday evening. Apart from Peter most of the rest of the guys were pretty much race ready though Dave Dinning was using a smaller motor than he is used to as his race engine is still undergoing a rebuild. A couple of the specialist parts he is using come with a lead time and made it just too late for him to turn around the engine and in the end he used an engine he found in a cupboard at Pete Englezos’ place. It is believed to be one of Pete’s 12 second Ace Café spec units and as such wasn’t a especially well suited to the 10 second gearing in Dave’s car but getting some seat time was a better option than sitting it out as it would provide an opportunity to try out a couple of the winter upgrades. By the time Friday drew to a close we had seven cars waiting in the pits ready to race. In no particular order Bernard Newbury, James Wotton, Jason Rew, Peter Englezos, Dave Dinning, Peter Shattock and Jim Smith made up the first field of the year.

A bright start to the weekend meant the Springspeed Nationals got underway early on Saturday morning and as ever everyone was pretty pleased to get the first run of the year out of the way. As it was the pass was fairly uneventful for the majority of the field though Jim Smith experienced an issue with his newly repainted racecar and had to wait until the second round of qualifying to finally blast the cobwebs off. Meanwhile Peter Shattock's engine swap immediately netted a personal best, a 12.3 which equalled the time the motor had run previously in Ian Clarks now retired ’52 split. Also of note was Bernard Newbury’s first pass which was a lazy 10.2. Out of the box it was instantly clear that Bernie’s current personal best is unlikely to be the same by the end of the season and it’s probably not worth betting against there being a few tenths difference. Other than Dave Dinning who was a little way South of his usual 10 second form everyone else was pretty much on the money.

The second qualifying session came round mid afternoon and it was pretty much business as usual with the exception of Peter Englezos who ended up stuck on the line with a broken axle. Despite kicking the hell out of the little Fiat year in year out we were unable to remember the last time Pete got pushed back off the line despite regularly launching the car clean into the sky with all four wheels off the ground! Ten minutes in the pits saw the car ready to roll again but there was obviously a little short lived frustration with missing out on a pass. Elsewhere on track Jim Smiths car hooked up nicely and put in a clean pass providing a clue as to its potential whilst there were strong passes throughout the field including a second personal best of 12.13 at 107.5mph for Peter Shattock. It is of note that whilst happy with the personal bests Pete will not be counting them as such since they have been recorded with a loaned motor which is outside of the goals he’s set for himself. Pete is solely concerned with the challenge of seeing how far he can get with his own 1776cc ‘Happy Shopper’ power plant.

It looked like a third qualifying session would conclude Saturday however an incident on the track late in the proceedings just as we were about to run saw the Christmas tree comprehensively destroyed and bought the day to a close. As frustrating as missing the run may be there are far worse ways to end the day and we retired to the pits contemplating the ups and downs of racing. Fortunately the driver involved was OK and the car didn’t appear too badly damaged. More information can be found on the Eurodragster Event Report. All that remained for Saturday was the usual club barbeque.

Sunday turned out to be the low point of the weekend. Early rain lasted into the afternoon and no sooner had the SCR crew cleared the track it started to rain again. Late in the afternoon it finally seemed that we had a break and as such we headed down to the fireup lane looking forward to the third qualifying session only to find a freshly cleared track getting rained on once again at which point the racing was called for the day. It was a huge frustration for all but thanks to the track crew for their continued attempts to beat the weather. With nothing happening on track there was time for the Quartermilehigh team to visit the pits and interview various teams and classes. When they visited our pits Paul Venners talked with Peter Shattock and Bernard Newbury about various members personal goals for going faster and the challenges associated with this.

Though most of the UK apparently woke up with Sunshine on Monday Stratford-Upon-Avon was as dark and grey as it gets and early on looked to be worse than even Sunday but the forecasts predicted it clearing at lunchtime so it was a case of hanging on and waiting. Being something of a leap of faith it’s of no surprise that several teams packed up in the morning though the majority opted to hang fire just in case the forecast was actually right. Having considered the forecast and being happy with the car as far as it had got Bernie decided to drop out. Lunch time did see the weather clearing up and the crew once again got the track ready finally allowing eliminations to get going. Whilst waiting to get out Simon Groves of Eurodragster dropped into the pits and had a chat with a couple of club members for his Pit Notes section of the site, more of that can be found here. On track It was a bit hit and miss with only two previous passes and a days gap in between but the track time was welcome so we had six cars head into the first eliminations from which James Wotton, Dave Dinning and Jim Smith emerged as winners. Pete Shattock lost out having lost a lot of time to a monster wheelie but is now thinking of retaining the 1850cc engine for at least another round on the basis that it should be on course for an 11 with the right launch whilst Jason Rew and Peter Englezos both broke axles. Jason launched so hard the car ended up with three wheels airborne which it obviously didn’t like whilst Pete suffered with the legacy of Saturdays problem. That said he was happy to go home with an early season 10.7 which puts him well on course for getting the Fiat where he wants it in 2008. With the late start it wasn’t going to be possible to get to the finals but Jim Smith and James Wotton were the eventual finalists.

Overall it was a good weekend despite the weather limiting the number of passes. Thanks to the track staff for their repeated efforts to make the best of the circumstances and we look forward to returning to SCR in a few weeks time for Gary’s Picnic.

Outlaw Flat Four On Sky Sports (World Motorsports) (30th January 2008)
We recently got word that Outlaw Flat Four will once again be featuring on Sky Sports 'World Motorsports' program along with several other classes from the Ultimate Power Drag Racing Championship which could be seen at Shakespeare County Raceway last August at the Open Sports Nationals. Britain's best VW class features on the first of two programs which will also show action from Top Fuel Bike and Street Eliminator. The second program features racing from Outlaw Anglia, Super Street Bike and selected finals from a number of other classes. The schedule for the programs which are both aired several times is as follows:

For anyone that can't wait that long a reminder that Outlaw Flat Four action from both the Springspeed National Drag Races and the Open Sports Nationals is available on DVD from Quartermilehigh, for more information on these see our 2007 'News' section where we have full details of both DVDs. With the new season still some time off catching some racing on the TV has to be the next best thing to being trackside again. Sky Sports have confirmed that coverage from this years Ultimate Power Drag Racing Series (Springspeed National Drag Races in May and the Open Sport Nationals in August), is being scheduled, and will be filmed courtesy of Powerpoint Communications & Quartermilehigh.

Bug Jam 2008 (6th January 2008)
Following a really successful race at Flame and Thunder to bring Outlaw Flat Four's second season to an end we are pleased to confirm we are talking with Santa Pod about the possibility of racing at Bug Jam in 2008.

Outlaw Flat Four 2008 (6th January 2008)
After the success of the 2007 season it's time to look ahead to 2008 and the third season of Outlaw Flat Four racing action. Building on what we have achieved during the first two seasons we are looking to step up a gear this year and continue pushing boundaries with the VW flat four. Though 2007 delivered a lot one thing that's clear is that there is a lot more to come and we're looking forward to getting back out on track.

The first confirmed date of the year is the Springspeed National Drag Races in May, the first of two MSA rounds the second of which is the Open Sports National Drag Races in August. In addition to these we will be in attendance at the NSRA's Nostalgia Nationals and Nostalgia Hot Rod Drags, both firm club favourites. Having had a great time there last year we will also be returning to the Yanks Weekend celebrating the 30th Gary's Picnic with the NASC and of course we will return to Chimay for Europe's favourite VW show the Bug-In. It is likely that club members will once again venture to other European meets including both the Scandinavian Cal-Look Classic and DAS Drag Day. Full details of dates can be found on our 'Calendar' page and links to the associated web pages can be found on our 'Links' page. We are also currently looking at the possibility of other events to attend. Should there be any additions to the calendar well add that information here as soon as we have it.

In the meantime thanks to our supporters for 2007 and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2008.