Conditions thwart Santa Pod heroes
Organiser: Santa Pod Racing Club When: March 25-27 Where: Santa Pod, Northamptonshire Championship Starters: 7
It was a cold and often wet start to the 2016 MSA Drag Racing Championship over the course of the Easter weekend, with rain truncating qualifying on the Saturday. The eliminations on the Sunday were also severely limited by somewhat cool conditions, the occasional incident on track and ultimately by one of the torrential downpours that swept across the country.
MSA Pro Modified featured nine entries, two of whom were trying to secure licensing during the meeting. The Dutch duo of Michel Tooren and Marck Harteveld were both restricted by conditions and mechanical glitches, while class veterans Chris Isaacs and Mick Payne succumbed during qualification to turbo damage and transmission failure respectively. It wasn’t straightforward for the rest of the class either. This was perhaps best illustrated by Andy Robinson. A flaming bang from the supercharged 1969 Camaro on his opening attempt to make the field came at the expense of two torched heads and an overnight thrash to put a time on the board.
Down to the last shot, Robinson ended up topping the field with a 6.3752s (225.88mph), followed by Bert Englefield (6.7895s), the aforementioned Isaacs (6.9355s) and Jean Dulamon (6.9560s). Reigning class champion Kev Slyfield (7.0721s), Payne (7.9380s) and Wayne Nicholson (18.6165s) rounded out the rest of the qualified field.
The withdrawals reduced the opening (and only) round of eliminations to two pairings.
Dulamon prevailed over Slyfield with a 7.1684s and Englefield carded a 6.6968s to defeat Nicholson. A bye for Robinson produced class best numbers of the weekend with a 6.3155s (224.64mph).
Unfortunately the rain that drew the event to a close came just before the semi-finals were due to run, although Englefield’s 1938 Ford Coupe had also succumbed to damage after the first round, leaving Dulamon and Robinson as the last men standing at the end of a frustrating weekend for all concerned.