MAIN EVENT SUCCESS FOR PMR

Paul Marston Racing enjoyed a most successful FIA Main Event at Santa Pod. Paul Marston explained ‘The weather was pretty much a foregone conclusion according to the internet weather sites, although you do try to ignore them, Friday Saturday was actually better than was forecast by most but Sunday and Monday never changed, it was going to be wet!

Paul Marston Racing marked a new landmark at the FIA Main Event in entering six Drag Racecars and nine entries, a really tall order, our biggest car count yet. Paul Marston Racing are proud to say that although stretched a little on Friday, the team coped very well, the pit crew, the backbone of Paul Marston Racing were very professional and rose to the task. The drivers also tried their best to not cause any problems themselves by keeping temperatures down and doing as much between round maintenance themselves to help share the load on the pit crew. When asked Pit Crew Co-ordinator Sefton Whitlock said ‘Its Mad Fridays that always stretches us and probably quite a lot of teams, it’s a real challenge for everyone, with so many qualifying sessions on the same day. It becomes a race in itself to keep the Paul Marston Racing Drag racecars turned round fast enough for their next session, in particular Grumpys Dodge, the Ugly Stick and the Whoopass Monza, each of which were double classing. But everyone works together to make it happen, it might look like organized chaos, that’s because it is!!’ With just two qualifying sessions on Saturday it was a far more relaxed affair. Tethys in The Ugly Stick 4-Link Dragster had a very solid outing, with both Tethys and The Ugly Stick displaying good consistency and a real handle on perfecting the Throttlestop in Super Comp. With the weather in mind both Gary Springford, proprietor of Drag Race Engineering and Paul Marston decided that we would treat the event more as a test and tune, with Gary bringing his beautiful alcohol injected Hulk Shogun in Pro and the DRE backed Super Modified destined Vauxhall Calibra that Paul Marston would be driving in Super Pro. Both Shogun and Calibra are still in early development stages, National Event conditions seemed the perfect opportunity to iron out some bugs, taking the ominous approaching weather into consideration. This does seem to have been the correct tactic and both Shogun and Calibra ran personal bests, Hulk Shogun with an effortless 9.77 @ 118mph and the Calibra with a 8.33 @ 162mph. Mick Howling driving Grumpys Dodge in both Super Gas and Pro ET had another solid outing with both Driver and Racecar being the picture of consistency. A special thanks goes out to Mick for all the enthusiasm he brings and also for always being the first up in the morning, you cannot keep a good man down. Dave Catton double classing in Super Gas and trying his hand in Pro in the Whoopass Monza was fighting an inconsistency that we now think has been identified and believe been since rectified, we will have to wait until the Summer Nationals presented by Santa Pod Racers Club at Santa Pod Raceway to find out. Steve Bolton in the Dark Destroyer Plymouth Scamp is still top of the pile in the Pro National Championship. Increasing his cushion to a little over 200 points from Carla and Rick in their Heaven and Hell Camaro, not much, but no harm done to Steve’s Championship aspirations. Still along way to go, the Summer Nationals marks the mid point in the 07 National Championship season, to be competitive against the very best teams in Pro and all the other Sportsman Classes is a level that thru hard work the drivers at Paul Marstons Drag Race Driving School who compete with us have reached. To be consistently competitive, qualifying well and going rounds is our next goal here for our drivers at Paul Marston Racing; we need to extra work hard on that. In our third season of competition with our more seasoned drivers, its good to see a maturity evolved, an unspoken confidence, a more businesslike approach, their knowledge and experiences being passed on to our new crop of rookie drivers who are currently crewing with us whilst going thru the Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School. After all that’s where every single one of us started, its what the Drag Race School is all about really, providing a stepping stone for our Drag Race stars of the future. Anyone who has the ambition to race with us or who just needs some advise, stop by at a National Event or contact PMR thru the link on Eurodragster, come and discuss your ideas, from a Passenger Ride, half day driving experience to a turnkey racecar.

Our continual thanks goes to Santa Pod Raceway for their belief in what we do, to Drag Race Engineering (020 8597 9484) for their support, Shakespeare County Raceway for finding the Grumpy Bike, The Wild Bunch crew of Ram Raider for the safe return of Paul’s Grumpys Dodge pit bike – Thank you, Black Box London, CTM Engineering (020 8592 1180), London Road Tyres, Custom Car, ACW, and all our associate sponsors, friends and of course the fans. A special thanks to everyone at Eurodragster, we owe you BIG!