I usually want to attend to the magazine Bilsport's event "one day at the drag strip"
Not because its a good track with record potential but its still a nice track,
nice people and not the least for tradition.
For some reason Im one of few in the team that feels its worth the 450km adventure
in my stinking tow trucks. Last year the pilot bearing jammed almost at the track,
so I had to shift without using the clutch all the way home.
The year before that I had a Ford Transit. I belive the chassie were cracked in some places
so the floor in the cabin mooved quite alot when breaking or running over bumps...
Since Daniel Andersson missed last years adventure it was his time to help me out.
After some 8km I realized I had forgotten my helmet,
so we stopped and waited for a guy to come with it to us instead of going back for it.
A couple of hours after midnight we arrived to a small town close to the track, called Nybro.
Rickard Olausson, a famous FWD N/A driver in Sweden, had a small house there where we could get
a couple of hours of sleep. Rickard were still building on his new car so he helped us out on the track.
This event is mainly or at least originally mostly for street cars,
so there is no real pit area. One has to find a spot and hold on to it.
On Piston head Open #1 the week before we had programmed a WOT-option that should make it
possible to shift gears with full throttle. It just didnt really work back then,
due to the ECU not understanding the difference of my inputs and selecting launch instead of WOT.
I found out a way to clear that out during the week. I hadnt tested it live but I knew he ECU
got the signals and understood wich option to engage on wich input.
Unfortunally it did not at all work in reality.
When I destroyed second gear I tryed third gear...
...so we had to change both gears.
It took us about 1,5 hour to fix the gearbox.
We then removed the WOT-option from the ECU and I decided to just get the car down the track.
Suddenly the speaker came running true the pits asking if I wanted to do a match race
against Kalle Uhr with the orange Opel Corsa. Hell yes!
This event doesnt include any eliminations. Its just qualifying runs and the fastest Q time is the winner.
That and the fact that its mainly a street car event makes reaction time unimportant.
Since its not important many drivers wait several seconds before the go making it verry boring to wach.
Just because I always go on green I accidentally went directly int ostage this time, with no launch on.
I decided to wait for a second and then pass Kalles Opel right before finnish line,
but for some reason I didnt get the boost I needed to do such an act and Kalle won.
He was so happy beating me he didnt dare a re-mach...
Even if I lost I ran the first FWD 9sec run on this track ever.
This is an article from the magazine coverage of the event:
Text translated:
MATCHRACE. With two real FWD racecars in the outlaw class (class 8) on sight there would have ben
a big mistake not to make them do a matchrace. Bjorn "Hot Wok"Holmberg in his Datsun Cherry against Kalle Uhr
in his Opel Corsa with a Saab engine. Bjorn was alot faster from start to finnish running 9,94 even if that
was almost a whole second slower than his personal best. Kalle who have ran 9,91 as a personal best at Kjula Raceway
only ran low 11's at this track, but he did the events longest burnout. In the matchrace Kalle had the best reaction time.
It was so much better than Bjorns that he even crossed the finnish line first.
While a happy Kalle loaded his car I took the oportunity to do some more runs.
In the last run wich I got by begging to the crew who were trying to close the track,
I thought, lets see what happens if I boost all I can?
I ran against a Toyota supra engine equiped Corolla from Denmark.
He had ran similar times as me so I was really excited...
...but the excitement ended right before 60ft as the engine stopped abrupt.
Timeslips:
We didnt adjust engine or chassie during the event, as you can clearly see on the slips.
60ft around 1,6 all day. Time difference was due to slow careful gear shifts.
When I ran agains Kalle I forgot to engage the boost-increase-by-gear switch...
After I got towed back to the pit I tryed the starter and heard at once there was a valve mechanism brakedown.
As we were going to winch the car up on the tow truck the winch broke down too. Always an adventure.
After a long while we got the car up and went back to Rickards house for a cold beer.
I have no memory after opening my third 33cl can...
Sunday morning we headed back to Stockholm.
Coffe break in Oskarshamn
Pizza in Söderköping
Back in the garage I liftet the valve cover and unfortunally the damage was alot worse than I had guessed.
Kelford cams from New Zeeland. Wonder if they do next day delivery around the globe?
As the head had to come off I figured I better change all red crap silicone I accidently put the engine together with
since it was pooring oil from everyware. I got a chock when I saw the bearings and ordered new at once.
A couple of valves were broken obviously, Japtuning sent me bearings,
Meca Vällingby gave me a new cam chain, valve sockets and so on.
Rickard gave me a new valve cover gasket and I got to borrow one of the originally used cams in the "Muppet"
The "muppet" was a SR20 engine built by DTE Racing and Madtech back in 2004 that dynoed 886hp.
Photo: Tommy Naucler, David Johansson and mobile cam.
Here is the magazines official film coverage:
