BUG JAM 21. PMR SUMO REPORT

PHOTOS FOR THIS ENTRY WILL FOLLOW....... With the summer break halfway thru, PMR have been in touch with an update on what's going on. Bug Jam 21 saw Paul Marston Racing debut their naturally aspirated DRE and CTM backed Super Modified Calibra, their first entry into a head-up class. Paul takes up the story ‘In true heads-up/whatever it takes style I finished assembling the 555ci Big Block Chevy that powers the Calibra at around 9.00pm Thursday night and fired it up. Went through the usual loose and leaks checks, took her up to temp, shut it off, finished off, rang DRE proprietor Gary Springford let him know how it worked out and what issues we still had, then I went home to bed. Many thanks to Mark at DRE who stayed late so as I could finish up and locked up after me. Gary assured me on the phone that everything would be done for when I arrived back Friday morning and it was, that’s teamwork my friends. Friday morning I loaded up the DRE Calibra and set off for Bug Jam 21. We watched it rain for two days, all of Friday and most of Saturday, but hey we are in England after all!! The Friday RWYB would have helped us get all the small stuff out of the way so as the Saturday qualifying runs could start the build process to enable us to begin to put a very basic motor tune together, realistically we needed 10 passes. As we know, this never happened due to the weather, so the only qualifier Saturday evening produced a first for me. I pulled round into the water spun the tyres, started my rolling burnout and then went for the brakes and there weren’t any! Yes I could not stop, so I decided to get off the track as quickly as I could, Andy Chilton was in the other lane and I did not want to spoil his run, I drove down the track to first exit, shut off, could not make the turn safely(still going too fast) so fired up and went to the end exit on the track, again could not safely slow down to make the turn so I turned right and headed towards the farm along the farm track until the Calibra eventually rolled to a halt. Then we had to push it all the way back to the pits, meanwhile the heavens opened and the whole crew got drenched doing so (sorry Guys). The problem was a failed brake rod, our acting crew chief Sefton Whitlock took the bent item home and made a nice new straight one ready for Sunday, - What a Nice Man!! Sunday dawned and we spent our three allocated qualifiers doing what we wanted to do Friday, first attempt I shut it off after the burnout, the Calibra was leaking fluid, Sefton cured a water leak and we managed to tag on the back of the class (what a great crew we have at Paul Marston Racing), ran a planned 1/8th mile shutoff/checkout pass. With such a short turnaround (in real terms under an hour after being weighed and towed back) all we had time for was a valve lash check, then back out for second qualifier, This time a full pass, this netted an 8.48ET @ 151 MPH with a misfire from the 1/8th, 10mph down on our PB but what I expected. Again quick turnaround, a plug check, timing check and rotor phasing with the crank trigger, with all this done we really barely made the session, running nearly flat last, again all and full credit to the crew, it really was a great effort. A small improvement 8.43ET @ 153 MPH, so a very small step in the right direction, still a misfire from the 1/8th on. That was that for qualifying, now first round elim's, a little more time, a whole hour! After discussing it with Sefton and the two Mick’s we decided a jet change would be a reasonable move. On consulting with a our US based BLP carburetor expert Tony Morris and Gary at DRE we were all in agreement on what to try. Bizarrely it was not a performance improvement we were looking for, it was an attempt to isolate what was causing the 1/8th onwards misfire. Well this was successful as come first round against the NO1 qualifier Andy Kirk, the problem was much worse, confirming what direction we needed to go in. In summary it was the beginning of our campaign in Super Modified, the DRE Calibra got down the track every time, nothing got broke, we know which direction we need to be heading, we lost in exactly the round we knew we would, - the first!! Special thanks go out to the following people in no specific order, Gary Springford at DRE for all the help, support, hard work, friendship and belief. Charlie Mahoney at CTM who produces some of the best quality head work and development there is, once we have the motor and chassis figured out, the performance will become apparent. The great sponsors, business associates and partners that we have, without you guys this could not happen. All the Paul Marston Racing Super Crew, Acting Crew Chief Sefton Whitlock, Grumpys Dodge Shoe Mick Howling, Mick Pussey and Leigh Hemsil, plus of course DRE Proprietor Gary Springford and Tony Morris from BLP our American Fuel System and Carb Specialist. Last but not least Eurodragster for excellent Event Coverage and Nigel, Julian and all the people at Nitro FM for keeping it looking positive in less than ideal conditions.