25 November 2007 - 2007 Awards Night Real Steel Street Eliminator UK 2007 Awards Evening The top street legal racers their crew and families descended on the Brandon Hall Hotel in Warwickshire on Saturday 17th of November for the Real Steel Street Eliminator UK awards dinner/dance and awards evening. The attendance of around 100 was the biggest yet seen in the thirteen years since Custom Car’s Tim Baggaley launched the first multi-round, multi-venue street legal championship to be seen in Europe and reflects the continued growth in both support and participation for the class. The event got underway with a few drinks and a lot of bench racing before everyone sat down to enjoy a superb three-course meal. Then it was down to the real business of the evening – the awards. Paul Venners once again ably handled the MC duties assisted by class secretary Ann-Marie Lazenby. Paul first recognised the support of the class sponsors and echoed the sentiments of those present in thanking them for their generosity before moving on to the presentations themselves. Racers taking home trophies and awards this year were as follows: Steve ‘Splinter’ Nash took the championship trophy, a framed photograph of the Cougar in action, cash, vouchers and one (of only four to be presented) WRE commemorative 7-second gold rings. As well as winning his first championship, 2007 also saw Splinter reset the class ET record on the final run of the last meeting of the year with a stunning 7.84 . Andy Frost was runner up in the championship also taking home a trophy, cash, vouchers and framed photo - Frosty was the first to run and back up a 7-second ET in the class. He also now holds the class speed record at 188.53 MPH. Jeff Meads took third place after a titanic battle with Colin Lazenby that was only settled at the final meeting. He received a trophy, cash, vouchers and the last of the framed photos. Fourth place went to Colin Lazenby (cash & vouchers) whilst fifth went to Steve Pateman (cash & vouchers) who also took the trophy for the Hardest Launching Street Car award with a 1.28 60-foot time. Alex McIntosh was in sixth collecting cash & vouchers along with the prize for the Most Qualifying Passes. Alex was also runner up in the Perfect Light category. The last of the positional prizes went to Jon Webster in seventh followed by Jerry Charles. Ian Hook went away with a trophy and cash award for winning the Perfect Light category (for the sixth year in succession!) with an average reaction time of .034 George Scanlon, the only racer to drive his vehicle to the track, took home embroidered team jackets and T shirts as his reward for the racer having made the biggest improvement in ET s this season. Finally this year saw the introduction of a perennial trophy for the Spirit of Street Eliminator thanks to the generosity of photographer and fan Mark O’ Hanlon. This award recognises the contribution and dedication of the SE racer seen to be the most dedicated and “hard core” and yet still finds the time to help others. Winning this trophy means a lot as it is voted for by all the drivers in the class. This year’s winner not only works tirelessly as the class chairman but also came back from the disaster of smacking the wall due to rod end failure and getting the car repaired and back out within six weeks to maintain a 100% appearance record. It must be remembered that none of the awards above would happen without the support of a lot of sponsors. Those who have supported the class in 2007 are listed below. Thanks are due to them from the drivers, crew and fans of the quickest, fastest and toughest street legal championship in Europe – The Street Eliminator UK. REAL STEEL – Real Steel are suppliers of all things V8 from dress up to hard core and have been title sponsors for the last 3 years. Thanks go to proprietor Charles Pinion for his generous support. AMERICAN CAR WORLD – This well-established magazine covers the American car scene, with a mix of hot rodding, drag racing and technical features. You will also find, of course, round by round coverage of the SE UK season. QUARTERMILEHIGH.COM – Producers of the SE Championship DVD (and of many other motor sport/hot rodding DVDs). Hard Core Street 2007, covering this year’s exciting season, is available now via www.quartermilehigh.com. WEBSTER RACE ENGINEERING – Jon Webster’s company has built a number of the SE cars, and, as a competitor himself, Jon plays a very ‘hands on’ role. WRE are also sponsors of the SE 7-second club providing gold commemorative rings to the first four SE racers to run, and back up, seven-second passes. POWERPOUR– Contingency sponsors of the Best Reaction time at each meeting and of the best average reaction time over the season. This fuel additive is used by a number of racers in the class to help get the best out of the obligatory unleaded pump fuel. EURODRAGSTER.COM – As everybody’s first stop for the very latest news from European drag racing this website needs no introduction. Street Eliminator UK are proud to be associated with www.eurodragster.com who presented each of the top 3 finishers with a framed photographs of their car in action. B&H AUTOMOTIVE – This company provides a comprehensive range of automotive services from crank balancing to performance engineering and everything in between, and are one of the most knowledgeable companies in the UK for ProChargers. B & H rewarded the driver who made the most qualifying passes throughout the season with £500 worth of engineering services as well as paying out cash prizes to each round winner. EMBROIDERY SOLUTIONS – Offering everything from a one off baseball cap to a full in-house design and supply service for embroidered race wear, promotional items, commemerative shirts, etc.. Embroidery Solutions sponsor the Most Improved award. ROBINSON RACE CARS/STROUD SAFETY – Stroud Safety’s mission statement is “To provide the best quality in safety equipment for the racing industry using superior technology and to provide fast service.” And that just about says it all! In partnership with ARRC, builders of race cars and suppliers of a myriad variety of parts, they sponsor the winners & runners up of each round. 14 November 2007 - 2007 DVD now available. We heard from Street eliminator sponsor Helen Todd at www.quartermilehigh.com this morning with news that the 2007 Street Eliminator DVD is on sale from today. The DVD features the world’s most spectacular, fully street legal, drag racing class doing battle on the track. That’s the Real Steel Street Eliminator, and this is the DVD that follows the lot – Hardcore Street 2007. Click on the image below. With speeds approaching 190mph, a ¼ mile race in just 7 seconds, in cars you could drive to the shops, only seeing is believing! Wild rolling burnouts, wheels up launches then pedal to the metal ‘till it’s time to pull the ‘chutes! For 1 hour 45 minutes get up close with the cars and stars that make this awesome class. Follow the new twin-turbo Cougar being built, hear these wild cars rumbling through the streets, and experience all 7 championship rounds at Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceway. It was nail biting stuff right to the end, with the last final of the year producing something quite special…. Available now for just £15.95 + £1.50 p&p from www.Quartermilehigh.com (Secure Online ordering) or telephone on 01926 612848. 13 November 2007 - Final reminder A final reminder to all that the AGM and Awards evening for the class is held this weekend at Brandon Hall 07 November 2007 - Rookie year - and an 8 as well!! We've just heard from Mark Perkins (we can drop the rookie tag now, mate) with his view on his first season in Street Eliminator. SE666 2007 Season Mark says "We have just completed our first season running in The Real Steel Street Eliminator class and thought some of you may find our experiences interesting. Having been drag racing spectators for many years it was a fantastic feeling when we found ourselves in a position where we could actually begin to get a car and team together. In 2006 an opportunity arose to purchase the Jon Webster built 1996 Ford Mustang Cobra, from John Hales. The car was available as a roller and the lack of the ‘Big Bits’ made for some interesting conversations and a lot of thought. We had watched the Street Eliminator class evolve over the years and really fancied the idea of heads up racing together with the street legal aspect. Looking at other Street Eliminator cars it could be seen that there were basically three options for the type of engine set up, Nitrous, Super Charged or Turbo. The turbo route looked daunting due to the amount of technical knowledge required and also the budget, I personally love the look and sound of a blown motor but we eventually opted for nitrous as we thought we could get to grips with it more quickly. An order was placed with Knight Racing Services for a 598ci big block Ford and a second order placed with fellow SE racer Andy Frost at Penn Autos for a two speed Powerglide transmission. Thankfully Street eliminator sponsor Webster Race Engineering agreed to take on the rebuild and preparation of the car. There was one more essential part needed, a crew. I’d previously spoken to a guy called Dave Dunmore who on our first ever meeting took me for a wild ride in his Mustang Convertible. Dave has followed drag racing for many years and had talked of his interest in crewing so when the car got underway I called him and he took on the job without hesitation. Chris, my youngest son, is also crewing and does the jobs Dave doesn’t fancy, sorry Chris. Other crew members are, Tom my eldest son and Jackie who is the really unfortunate one as she has to look after us all. Also a big thanks to Mick Ryan and Sean Harton who stepped in as crew to cover the many holidays Dave has each year. Without support from people like these running a car would be impossible. Anyway back to drag racing: As all these high performance engines tend to be ‘One Off’s’ it took a huge amount of technical input and expertise from Knight Racing Services to finalise the engine prior to installation. Running on their dyno proved essential as it was the only way to diagnose any engine issues and to get the best tune. Engine tuning and adjustment at the track can be a lengthy, difficult and very frustrating procedure. Unfortunately we were unable to run at the seasons first event, The Easter Thunderball, but all parties pulled together to make sure we weren’t going to miss The Big Bang. As soon as the engine was completed it was collected by Webster Race Engineering who began the installation. All went very well and we were called over to collect the car on the Friday evening before the meeting. It should be noted that at this stage we had not even sat in the car with the engine running. Following a quick bit of tuition from Jon we were loading onto the trailer and off to Santa Pod. One thing that has taken us by surprise is the preparation and equipment required to even get to the track. We have check lists for the car, tools, pit set up, etc, etc, etc. Unfortunately even with all these in place it doesn’t always prevent errors and I must admit to arriving for one meeting at Santa Pod without any keys, licenses and money. Luckily we live within 30mins of the track and so soon returned with the essentials. Once signed on we prepared the car and waited for the class to be called for the first round of qualifying. The feeling in our pit was tense to put it mildly and we checked everything at least a dozen times. Finally we were called, we fired the car up and ran down the pairing lanes. I can assure you nothing can prepare a novice driver for the moment when the marshal calls you forward to the burnout area, I would describe it as blind panic. There is a great deal to remember for the driver and crew and if one aspect is overlooked it’s quite likely the pass will be pretty poor or even aborted. We knew we had to complete our observed runs to get the race license signed off, these consisted of Burnout, Launch, 1/8th and eventually a full pass. With guidance and under the watchful eye of Santa Pod’s Ian Marshall we completed these tasks without a problem and got signed off. What a moment, we had just completed the last stage on the road to drag racing in competition. Qualifying went well with our first naturally aspirated full pass of 12.02 sec at 90mph. By the end of the qualifying session we were knocking quite large lumps off that first run and eventually got down to 10.74 sec at 129 mph. Although we didn’t make the eliminations we thoroughly enjoyed our first event. Unfortunately the summer seemed to be relentless rain which affected most race meetings we attended making it very difficult to get a good tune in the car. By the last meeting of the season, The National Finals, we had just begun to move forward and made our best pass of 8.90 sec at 155 mph against Ray Comer who ran 8.97 @154mph (beginners luck ;-) ), what a great drag race that was. As for next season we can’t give out too much information regarding the car’s tune and potential as we’re beginning to creep up the table and we don’t want them knowing too much, if you know what I mean. We would like to thank Knight Racing Services, Penn Autos, Webster Race Engineering, all the staff at Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceway, and the Real Steel Street Eliminator class sponsors. A big thanks also goes to our fellow Street Eliminator competitors and crews who welcomed us with open arms and gave encouragement at every opportunity. We hope you have enjoyed reading the brief insight into our first season and perhaps, if you have been considering racing, this may well help you take that final step. We would strongly recommend it and if you’re passing the pits next year please drop in and say hello we should be a little calmer and have more time to talk. 03 November 2007 - Wilcat Racing - What a year!! We've heard from Mick Franklin of Wildcat Racing with an end of season report on their year - essential reading for anyone out there who thinks building a race car is easy!! Mick said "We both knew in 2005 that Steve’s old car would not be legal to run in Street Eliminator, a class we both love, in 2007 due to the cars existing chassis and weight being incompatible with the speeds we had already run. I had already purchased an 850 BMW to adapt for the class to try and compete with the slower cars, but after a re-think I realised that investing into the old car was the only way forward. Creating the team, Wildcat Racing, gave me the opportunity to further develop what we already knew was a very capable combination. Why, you may ask, don’t I drive? To me, the drivers bond with the cars; they know what the car is thinking and do the best job in controlling them (respect!). I know my strengths and that was to watch, learn, listen and put my thoughts and input into its achievements. In 2006 CIRC (Chris Isaacs Race Cars) was commissioned to build the newest chassis seen outside the USA so that we could have the best that we couldn’t afford! Well, if you are going in, it might as well be at the deep end! We spent many hours constructing the body shell and panels whilst Chris carried on with the chassis with just the measurement from the old car and no body to play with. In December we fitted the new body to an amazing chassis and had ProAlloy Motorsports Ltd work their magic on the charge cooler and fuel-ice tanks etc, at this stage just templates made out of cardboard. The winter flew by, Pro Alloy delivered the goods and, oh by God, they fitted like bespoke. I think that’s a term usually used for kitchens but the less said the better? Yes, we were on target. Yep, no problems…….Doh! Easter Thunderball arrived, and we finally got to the track, after 40 hours non stop work!, on the Saturday afternoon having missed the whole of Fridays qualifying sessions. We made the final qualifier on Saturday at around 4.15. Our 1st ever pass in the new car was enough to get us on the ladder; all we needed to do now was pass the cruise…... well, that’s another story but the important thing is we made it. The car has been kept in grey gel coat all year as we struggled with teething problems through the season, which in turn was eating into the funds we had saved for the paint work. To make matters worse we had lost all the data and tunes from the old car when our laptop crashed so we started the 2007 season with a new car and nothing to play with other than what was in our heads, and yes they are small so not much help there then!!. We knew that if we could get into the top 5 we would have a good chance for doing well in 2008; the field for this season was the biggest ever in Street Eliminator to date and the top 3 big dogs would not be making it easy for anyone. Every meet gave us more problems to sort out but then, finally, the car really came alive and it worked…... and then it didn’t again. At the National Finals we finally started to find some consistency but then the misfire returned; we wiped out the cam sensor in the final qualifying and found that the cam had worked through its guide plate. With only 30min before the cruise, and the points so close, we did a temporary repair and made the cruise on tick over. After that we worked until 2.30am Sunday morning to sort out the problem, then back up again at 6.30 to finish putting the engine back together just in time for eliminations. The rest is HISTORY! The 7 felt great but not as good as the final against the big man mr p, cheers Steve and team, what a way to finish the season. Well done to all the competitors and thanks for making Street Eliminator such a great class" Mick Franklin" 17 October 2007 - Spirit of Street Eliminator Award Mark O'Hanlon, a photographer friend of Colin Lazenby, has kindly provided the class with the opportunity to reintroduce the 'Spirit of the Street Eliminator' award. The rather splendid trophy, which has been permamently gifted to the class, will become an annual award which the winner will receive engraved with their name and the year won. This year Mark wants to donate a small keeper trophy which will also be suitably engraved with the winners name. The award is open to both racers and crew who Members feel most reflect the spirit of the class. Mark Norton, our friendly Tech Inspector has agreed to collate the votes and with a view to providing sufficient time for engraving, the votes will need to be in NO LATER than Sunday, October 28th. Please remember these should not be performance, or sympathy votes but for recognition, primarily for a person who holds the roots of sportsman racing close to his heart. He/she is outwardly helpful, he would lend/give/rob his last pound of nitrous (or last chunk of ice) to anyone who was needy. He keeps coming back and he probably attends every event too, or at least every event he can scrape the funds together for - even if that means he has to sell one of his vital organs to get there.... I guess you get the picture. The vote is open to all full members, with the understanding that they cannot cheekily vote for themselves. Votes can be cast by emailing your proposal to Mark Norton 13 October 2007 - Video page update The video page has been updated with a couple of clips, courtesy of Quartermilehigh.com, of the 2007 season. Check out the videos and the www.Quartermilehigh.com website for details of how to purchase the new 2007 season Street Eliminator DVD 05 October 2007 - AGM & Awards - hotel booking details Well what a thrilling end to the season, I bet Fatty is hammering the keyboard to get his race report finished. I can't wait to see how it reads. Well done of course to everyone racking up NPB's, also congratulations to team Wildcat Racing for taking the very well deserved Championship win. Last weeks letter confirmed the AGM meeting on the 17th November, this is to take place in the afternoon and for those intending to stop overnight for the awards evening a number of special priced rooms have been secured, these are priced at £80 B&B. Rooms should be booked direct with the hotel on 0870 400 8105. If calling between 9am and 5pm the automated service will take you to the reservations staff. Take a look at the hotel and its facilities here Brandon Hall Please mention 'Street Eliminator' when placing your booking and if you do run into any difficulties whatsoever please get in touch with either Ann-Marie 0775 439 4908 or self 07880 780 690. This venue should provide us with the best Awards evening to date and the disco people have confirmed they WILL bring their sounds from the 50's for Ray and Bob Tucker's pleasure. Slade and Status Quo for our kid, a bit of Kajagoogoo for Pat*man, Culture Club for Ray Comer and those lovely boys from Bros for Ann-Marie, besides Jeanette Webster will dance to anything! For everyone wishing to attend the Awards party, including a 4* sit down meal priced at £30 per head (kids £13). Please confirm your numbers with Ann-Marie at secretary@streeteliminator.co.uk no later than October 17th. Rgds, Cj 02 October 2007 - 2007 Champion and PB's galore! Following one of the most exciting Street Eliminator rounds ever, Steve 'Splinter' Nash is the Real Steel Street Eliminator Champion for 2007 with Andy Frost taking the Runner Up slot.Splinter will be sporting the much contested SE1 number next season The excitement was never ending with new personal bests (PB's) being made with almost every run up the track. Amongst others, Al Simms, Mark Perkins, Steve Nash, Steve Pateman, Ray Tucker and Ray Comer all recorded new PB's with Steve Nash and Steve Pateman both recording their first 7's in the series, Splinter backing his up to record a new ET record of 7.840 for the class. Between them they recorded the quickest side by side race in the history of SE and the first 7 second final to boot. Frosty, of course, still holds the MPH record. Whoever tries to take that on will really need to dig deep next season because its going to need close to 190mph to take it away from the Wolverhampton Warrior. Look out for the full race report soon in American Car World in Europe and RPM magazine in North America and Canada. 02 October 2007 - AGM and Awards night Colin Lazenby has confirmed that the AGM and Awards night will be held at the Brandon Hall Hotel in Warwickshire on the 17 November. Copy and paste the link below into your web browser to take a look at where we are going. http://www.mercure.com/mercure/fichehotel/gb/mer/6625/fiche_hotel.shtml This year it was felt that holding the AGM during the day and the Awards during the evening would benefit people as they won't have to make two trips. Further details of how to book rooms will follow soon along with information about ticket prices etc. Anyone who was at last years Awards night will, I am sure, be wanting to make sure they get their tickets booked early as it was a great evening with over 100 people in attendance - lets see if we can beat that this year. 01 October 2007 - National Finals So much happened over the weekend that it will take some time to put it all together but suffice to say that records were getting broken all over the place, a whole load of new PB's were set and the crowd saw some of the closest racing ever seen in Street Eliminator. Come back later for a full run down. 01 October 2007 - Fifth Gear Tonight Andy Frost is featured in tonights (Monday) Fifth Gear on Channel 5 at 8.00pm. The footage,filmed at Santa Pod during the Euro Finals a couple of weeks ago, has Andy taking a very apprehensive looking Johnny Smith for a quick blast down the track in the Red Victor 1 Vauxhall. Beware what you wish for Johnny!! 26 September 2007 - National Finals This weekend brings us to the end of the racing season for Street Eliminator, the National Finals at santa Pod raceway. To say its going to be a close finish is an understatement with just 245 points between Splinter, holding number 1 position, and Frosty in number 2 position. To put that into context, there are just 250 points for a round win! OK, so in real terms what do the points standings mean prior to the Finals? Well, if Splinter outperformed Frosty in qualifying by one place, or, if he set a record (either for et or speed) and they both met each other in the finals then even if Splinter lost the race, he would still win the Championship. If however Fosty outperforms Splinter in qualifying, they meet in the finals and Frosty wins, then he would win the Championship. Frosty has more to do, but less to lose. For Splinter winning from the front is never easy. Crikey, it's like a pressure cooker that's about to explode and with both Wildcat Racing and Red Victor II teams running twin turbo powerplants, maybe this is a sign of changing times to come - I only said maybe... Hey, and don't write off the teams still running nitrous ('dinosoars' I think DVD Dave Coleman refered to us as) maybe they'll unwitingly mess things up for either of our potential Champions. Another important point to remember is that since the inception of the single class format neither Splinter or Frosty has ever won the championship. Hungry for it? you bet they are. Over the course of the last 10 years previous Champion Pat*man has won it 4 times (3 years back-to-back) we've won it twice, John Sleath I recal broke Pat*mans monopoly on Championship wins, Ian Jackson won it in 2004 and Ian Hook and the Fat Boys of course won all the marbles last year. It's almost a similar set of circumstances for numbers 3 and 4 in the points chase, and both drivers are 'vertically challenged' too. Call me biased, but I think Jeff Mead is slightly shorter, and yet much, much angrier as a rule. In short (apologies again Jeff) NEVER has the Championship title race been so hotly contested... Gentlemen, please place your bets. The best of luck to everyone, this really is the last chance in 2007 for the class to put on a show for our sponsors, the promoters and the spectators. Rgds, Cj and AM Lazenby 26 September 2007 - New Website We are very pleased to reveal (at last) the new Street Eliminator website to the drag racing world. The class felt it was time for a new look to the website and to give the fans a bit more detail on your favourite street legal class. Using the buttons opposite to navigate around the site you will find information on your favourite Street Eliminator team; find out more about the fantastic sponsors the class has behind it, get all the latest points and standings to see who is heading the class and who is chasing. You'll also be able to register as a driver if you fancy joining Europes quickest street legal race class - or you can register as an associate member and have a chance to win a ride in one of the cars on the famous Street Eliminator cruise.Theres also a picture and video gallery. We hope you enjoy taking a look inside the class, please email us with any comments or suggestions you would like to make and why not add us to your Favourites list right now, then you can come back at anytime to check up on all the latest news.