Team Grid Lock Racing
"Go Hard or Go Home"
Home      SpringSpeed Nationals
                     SPRINGSPEED NATIONALS                  
 
Shakespeare County Raceway
 
A massive thanks to Paul at Pauls-Place (www.pauls-place.co.uk) for getting us out of trouble with the engine build. With Dex stuck in the Dominican Republic due to the erupting volcano we had just 4 days to prepare for the Springspeed Nationals. On the Tuesday before the race we still didnt have the special Ball/Cup push rods and it was all starting to get very tight. On Wednesday Pauls Place managed to get hold of some push rods which were a little too long and set about modifying them to suit. Thursday was the news that we had been waiting for, Paul had completed the build and the car would be going to the Springspeed Nationals.........
 
Friday
The car is loaded, the RV all loaded and off we set for Shakey. Very windy but the new marquee went up and looked great.

 

Saturday - Day one   

New Engine build by Pauls Place sounded sweet as a nut and the combination of Artel Hoses and a very pretty dressed Mopar looked as good as it sounded. After Day one we had qualified 4th with what really is an untested car, with good engine reliability Paul and Peter started on the fine tuning. Using a meeting like this to fine tune is not really a good way to win a competition but it’s the only way to refine the engine as its impossible to get the engine running perfectly in the workshop, it needs track time. After 3 very strong runs there were big smiles all round

 

Sunday - Day Two  

Confidence in the new chassis and build was growing and this reflected in the driving, three more qualifiers and even though we dropped to 6th place the engine grew stronger, and everything was coming together. Some further jet changes and some more tweeks by Paul and Peter resulted in another boost in performance which saw Adam massively break out. Under normal circumstances this would have been a disappointment but we were estatic as it was another personal best. For the last qualifying of the day we studied all the improvements and decided  on a final dial in. The burnout was strong and straight, the engine was singing. Adam was in his favourite lane and all was looking great. A perfect launch and Paul and I were on the line waiting the few seconds that seemed an eternity for the lights at the end gantry to display his time. NOOOOOOO a break out but what a run 1/1000 of a second too fast.  Just a blink of an eye and we would have had the perfect qualifying time and gone on at #1 qualifier. Disappointed but elated that we had got so close and such a near perfect run.

 

Monday - Race Day  

Now we had got into the quarter finals, we just had to keep our heads and with the ladder position a win would have guaranteed us 3rd place.  Rain and some oil downs delayed the day, the cold and the rain wasn’t helping, The Fuel altereds all turned around and left the staging lanes. When we were finally called we were last to run against “Green with Envy” . A strong burnout and some on line tactics didn’t pay off when we had a die on the line, it was all over for us. Overall a fantastic weekend, lots of coverage on the car, some great racing and great company.

 

The team looked great all weekend and was awarded “BEST APPEARING TEAM” by the tower, a really coveted award and shows the professionalism of the crew and the turnout of the car .

 

A fantastic weekend, big thanks to Paul and Peter of Pauls Place and to all of our sponsors for their support. We are hoping to be out at North Weald Test and Tune next Sunday for some gearbox tuning then its back to Shakespear County Raceway for the Spring Nationals and WB round 1… BRING IT ON!!!!!