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As many of you will know after a 2 year tenure running in VW Alternate Engine and winning the 2004 and 2005 championships I wandered off into the distance to try my hand first at Super Gas and then Super Pro ET.

After becoming SPRC Super Gas champion and National Championship Runner-Up in 2005 with the trusty 468ci (7.6 litre) engine that propelled the Corrado to a best of 9.10 @ 145mph, I took most of 2006 off to crew for a Super Pro ET dragster and occasionally dabbling in Competition Eliminator.

At the beginning of 2007 I decided to celebrate my impending 30th and my Dad's 60th (still now we race as a family) by having Jeff Bull Race Engines build a new 555ci (9.1 litre) engine ready for Easter and moving up to Super Pro ET.

For those that don't know, Super Pro ET is full mainly of dragsters with a smattering of door cars and altereds running under 8.99 seconds. The car was readied the day before Easter and I set off to Chris Isaacs to collect the car, after suffering 3 mishaps on the way to the track all was set to run the engine in on Friday and blast an 8 on Saturday morning, the day of my Dad's birthday. After keeping my toe in a bit too long an 8.79 shutoff run spoiled that, but at least we had run the 8 we so wanted.

Easter finished with an 8.60 best and a semi final finish. The plan was to run just at the Pod and leave Avon Park out due to holiday contraints. After Avon was rained out meant that by the time the Main Event rolled around we were still in the top five.

Friday of the Main Event reminded me of what the extra 1.5 litres was capable of as I nuked the gearbox on the startline and had to sit and watch the others run. Thankfully the rains came (how many people have said that?!) and no ground was lost.

Summer Nats is my worst meeting always, it was one I could never win even in AE and a 2nd round redlight proved my luck wasn't about to change. This left a quandry, to go to Avon or not.

We eventually went and landed a semi final finish redlighting to the Giles and Hartley team who along with Steve Johnson both have 30 years experience each and were my closest rivals.

The Euro Finals is the biggest meeting of the year with 28 cars turning up, things were looking bad when first Steve Johnson and then Giles and Hartley both ran dead on the dial to the thousandth! No pressure we ran a perfect run the next session, to end up third, in the end Steve Pateman from Street Eliminator ran perfect too and 4 of us ended up perfect.

For those that haven't been to a Euro Finals you arrive on a Wednesday, qualify on a Thursday and Friday and run round one on Saturday and 9am, to run on finals day you have to win 2 rounds which we did over John Tebenham (Ford Probe) and Steve Neimantis (Aston Martin), finals day saw us defeat Steve Green, Barry Giles and Steve Johnson to win my first Super Pro meeting and take the points lead with one round to go.

The National Finals was a bit odd, Barry Giles broke out when his opponent broke, this meant a 2nd round win over Chris Orthodoxou and we were champions, Chris redlit and it was all over. A fantastic year and we were the first 'door car' to win Super Pro in 4 years!

A big thanks to my superb crew (who are all V-Dubbers) George and Rachel Georgiou, Steve and Adele Woodbridge and Ady Goodier.

To all those that said it couldn't be done, it can!

Spencer

p.s I've bored you enough now but hopefully later in the week I will have pics of the new Sportsman VW beast!

There are again 7 races in 2008 with any competitors best 6 counting towards the national championship.

There is a 100 point bonus for attending the first event.

There is a 100 point bonus for attending the final event.

There is a 100 point bonus for attending 6 events in the season.

Round 1 - Easter Thunderball

All the VW classes plus National Drag Racing Championships, Pro-Fuel Shootout - Top Fuel Dragsters, Funny Cars, Street Eliminator Series plus Rocket Bike, Jet Cars, Jet Trucks, Jet Beetle, Monster Truck and an extravaganza of moto stunts and displays.

Round 2 - Big Bang

Many racer's favorite event, Big Bang will once again host a whole line-up of great things to do on and off the track, day time and night time.

The best way to enjoy Big Bang is to camp over with your mates and take things at a relaxed pace. This is the most chilled-out VW show on the calendar!

Round 3 - Spring Nationals

Mixed drag racing event up in Shakespeare's Stratford.

Round 4 - Summer Nationals

All the VW classes plus MSA British Championship for Top Methanol plus all sportsman classes plus The Wild Bunch, Nostalgia Altereds and Drag Bikes inc. SuperTwins. Jet Car demos and track displays.

Round 5 - Bug Jam 22

For a full Bug Jam 21 report and gallery visit: www.bugjam.co.uk.

"Europe's No.1 Summer VW Festival" VW Drag Racing, RWYB track action, Super Mod, VW Traders, 4 music arenas, Top DJs, Comedy shows, Funfair, Mr & Miss Bug Jam, Show & Shine plus weekend camping.

Round 6 - Open Sports Nationals

Mixed drag racing event up in Shakespeare's Stratford.

Round 7 - National Finals

All the VW classes plus MSA British Championship Finals for Top Methanol plus all sportsman classes plus The Wild Bunch, Nostalgia Altereds, Drag Bikes inc SuperTwins. Jet Car demos and track displays.

Remember guys, entries have to be in THREE WEEKS before the start of the meeting or you'll be charged double for entering late...

Well time has come to start the evolution from rookie to Pro car with the engine back in the hands of Daz at Aircooled Performance.

The gearbox sold to Craig Allen and all four corners off with a stance rejig, the front now houses disc brakes with stock spindies and 10 spoke ET'S with MH front runners, the rear now has T3 drums and 6" erco's with Phoenix slicks, between the wheels there is a pro drag ex Paul Hamilton ex Glynn Morgan box.

The engine will have a CB dial a tune fuel injection with a SA2 turbo and custom header all done by Daz's fair hand, with a digital 6 MSD unit supplying the 2 step launch I should get in to the early 11's fingers crossed with a possible 300bhp on tap.

The shell has been flatted off ready for paint and the doors have been sign written as you can see I've got my work cut out but hopefully it will be ready for the VolksWorld show in March.

Here's some pics...

Well hello everyone.

As a new member I thought I'd kick things off by introducing myself & my car.

My name's Russ & I live in Gillingham, Kent. I've been into VWs most of my life, but didn't own one until 3 years ago.

I joined Harvey Smith (VWSP162) as his 'pit-bitch' at Big Bang 2007 and was totally hooked, so I have him to thank, but also the camaraderie amongst the other racers was clearly evident. The easy entry & low cost of Sportsman has been the main appeal, and I will be keeping a full financial account of this 2008 'Rookie' season to demonstrate this.

So, the car. Her real name is Miranda, but when the stinger's bolted on she'll be known as Shiftin' Ghia. She's a LHD 1974 Karmann Ghia Coupe, originally a 1500. She's fairly stock. Engine-wise, there's a 'TES' 1641cc unit using a new case/B&P's/heads etc. Bolted to this is a 36DRLA, 009, 8mm leads, breather kit, Empi exhaust and I'm hoping Santa shops at Pertronix and sends me electronic ignition.
As far as the body is concerned, she had some light resto work this year; a heater channel, sill, wheel-arch and rear wing repairs. The front end is balljoint with discs, sitting on a -1" to -5" adjustable beam with 2 sets of castor shims. A 3" narrowed, -1" to -5" beam is currently sitting in my back garden awaiting fitment, together with anti-bumpsteer bushes.

She wears 4 early Riviera wheels which are 5x15", covered with 135/70 Continentals up front and 195/65 at the back, however I'm awaiting delivery of some 185/70 Fuldas to allow a little more clearance as I want to lower her a couple of inches at the back.

Inside she's totally stock save a dash-fitted tacho. I'll be pulling out the seats for a little weight saving when I'm racing though, together with the bumpers and decklid (+spare wheel & jack!).

Oh, and I'll be over the moon if I get an 18, I'll reward my fellow competitors with the contents of my beer stash if this happens.

Here's to a great 2008!

Update - Race stickers have arrived from Slook Designs. I'm very happy with the results

thanks to everyone that attended, was a great day, shame about the weather :(

we will have another in the summer you will all be welcome :)

RNJ motorsport has finally moved so work can start on the wizard project again :D

the tube bender we ordered seemed to take forever to arrive but now it's here we can get on to it.

Hopefully it will be done by mid January so I can shake it down in Feb at the RWYB at Santa pod.

there are plenty of build pics here

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v290/polly75/wizard/

will keep you updated :)

STILL Can't find a 16...

Went to Open Sports nationals looking for the ever elusive 16, and came away without one, but got as close as we've been yet on the track.

Managed to run a 17.02 on my first run out in qualifying on Saturday, which was nice, except we'd dialled a 17.5! haha!

Y Then, as these things happen, the harder we pushed, the further away we got., but I also managed to cut some 0.0n lights which was a good feeling.

Then came VW Action and the USB Vs. BWA shootout, we'd taken some extra measures (including a splash of some 'Cool Blue') to get us closer to the 16s, but in the end, the headwind proved to be our undoing, only managing fairly consistent 17.2's, although I managed a PB 60' time of 2.18s

So onward to the National Finals, lets pray for good weather (and a slight tailwind).

Well after an early exit from my first round it was time to head to Shakespeare County Raceway for the Spring Speed festival.

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Pic By Gwynn

Two full days of qualifying and one day of eliminators, with the threat for rain on Sunday night through to Monday meant we had a non stop schedule which was very hard on the car due to the fact that I had no cooling on the car!

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Pic By Gwynn

So day one was fantastic I was number one qualifier after the first run!!! I was still there at the end of day one, what a result. Day two looked good, I was in a good position but others were upping their game, pushing me down to 3rd, all was not lost however as after a little tune up I managed to run a personal best of 13.3 at 100.05 mph.

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Pic By Gwynn

Unfortunately the bad weather came early and qualifying was rained off Sunday evening. Monday saw more bad weather an the eliminator rounds were also called off, but every cloud has a silver lining with no eliminators the qualifying positions were kept as the final result great!!

At least the car's looking good, as evidenced by this excellent picture and video taken at Santa Pod!

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Look like I'm out for the year :(

Exactly a year and a day after the last one :(

Thanks for a great start to the season, sadly it doesn't look like I'm gonna be at any more races.

Taken from http://www.chrisbray.co.uk