Tim Blakemore Racing Bristol Drag Race News

	10th - 11th July Junior Dragbike Shakespeare County Raceway Congratulations to Rookie Junior Drag bike racer, 11 year old Conor Meehan who made his track debut at Shakespeare County Raceway in July. Campaigning his cousin, and former Drag bike racer Tyler Clutterbuck's Honda CB125 fuel bike replica, he looked as if he had been racing for years! Conor has been coming drag racing with Tim and Wendy since he was a born and is an avid fan. He had to wait until his birthday in June until he was old enough to be able to race the 125cc machine. Although he had previous experience with automatic machines, he only learnt to ride the geared bike the week before. Conor under went his licensing passes without a hitch, and went on to qualify well in the 10 bike field. It was very difficult to dial him in as he was going quicker and quicker with each pass, so we had to try and anticipate his times! He was really geared up to go for his first race on Sunday, and, although he cut a great light, he broke out against 'race veteran and sharp little cookie' Jorden Bissell in the first round by almost a whole second! Conor and his team would like to thank all the Junior Drag Bikers for being so welcoming, C&C medical Services for their support and sponsorship and especially to Sharon and Jerry Collier for the time and effort they have put in to this fantastic class! Catch Conor and the Junior Drag Bikes at their next round at Shakespeare County Raceway: 28th - 30th August.
	MAY 27TH – 31ST FIA UEM MAIN EVENT 2010 FUNNY BIKE CUP For 2010 a new class was showcased at this prestigious Drag Racing event held at Santa Pod Raceway near Northampton, heralding the start of the European championship. We have always enjoyed ‘putting the cat amongst the pigeons’ by entering the Top Fuel Bike class, where as rule, the quicker reacting Funny bikes always got out on the Nitro burners making the racing very interesting to say the least. However, creating this new class should prove a step in the right direction and hopefully attract more of these fantastic machines out of the woodwork. This season has also seen and the addition of the awesome 7 second ‘Super Street’ bike class which should altogether see a healthy boost to the Bike classes as a whole. We had spent the winter thrashing to get the bike ready for this season and had hoped to get a bit more track time before debuting the machine for this event. However, We did get some very good data on the dyno before hand as Dave Rowe of EPS (Electronic Performance Systems) gave us a crash course with the Motec engine management system. We set up the initial fuel map, gave everything a check over and tried to find a starting point with the new MTC GenII clutch. We decided to enter the Peak performance test day on the Thursday before the meeting and decided to burn out only until we can find a launch base setting with the waste gate spring on the new turbo charger. We now have the luxury of 3 complete spare engines! Even so, we don’t intend rush things this time round! The trouble with these new combinations is finding that base setting whilst carefully easing 500+ Hp up the track. One wrong decision can cause extreme loading and unloading of drive causing devastating consequences to the Engine, the gearbox and/or Tim’s back (well he is getting on a bit now) So when we were happy it was on to a launch, Which, to our utter surprise, It did! With a reasonable 1.2 60ft, driving through it by ¾ track. So far so good. Due to rain on the first qualifying day we only had 2 opportunities to make the field so with a Motec system we barely knew our way around and a clutch that works unlike any other, we had a steep learning curve ahead. We qualified number 4 which wasn't a bad start to the season but we couldn’t get the bike to rev past 10000rpm when it should have been around 12000rpm! This turned out to be a little hiccup with the Motec set up, which, as novices to the software and the fact we needed another sensor we were unable to sort out at the track. We ran a best time over the weekend of 8.2 with a 1.17 60ft and found the whole weekend to be an overall success! So it was back to the workshop to go over everything……… FRIDAY JULY 2ND -WEBSTER RACE ENGINEERING TEST DAY- SANTA POD RACEWAY Sometimes problems that arise turn out to be blessings in disguise and the engine limiting problem at THE MAIN EVENT turned out to be just that! The ZZR1400 is integrally stronger than the older ZX12R with a much larger clutch area, which was always an issue with the latter. The only slight worry with the ZZR1400 is that the cylinder head is actually narrower than the ZX12R and this means that the cylinder bores are very close together, which, we suspected, could cause sealing issues when introducing large amounts of boost. We have, as we did with the ZX12R, employed the ‘o’ring copper sealing ring design and machined receiving grooves into the cylinder head and barrels. Initially we went with the Cometic copper gaskets but we found that the exhaust valve cut outs were allowing the gaskets to blow out over the sealing rings. These had almost completely failed and if we had run to full potential at the previous meeting we would have, most certainly suffered engine failure to some degree. We have now fabricated our own copper gaskets and, after further testing, have solved the problem. The fun now is getting to grips with the MTC GenII clutch, which, essentially, for ease of explanation, is a cross between a slider and a lock up. Taking its cue from the Crank and NOT the rear wheel we can control traction loss much easier, but as we have no previous data to work with and are working from a blank sheet. As the day went on getting off the line was proving consistent; we just need a little more adjustment in the lock up and needed some stronger springs to continue. So, happy with our progress we headed back to the shop. The bike had been ‘stepped up’ up a little more running to full revs with around 26 lbs of boost, it was a good idea to strip the motor again and check everything over. Wendy and Dan prepare Tim for another launch at the Webster Race Engineering Peak Performance day. Photo by Kirstie Tramm of www.eurodragster.com check out Eurodragster for all the latest drag news and race reports. SAT JULY 2ND -TIM BLAKEMORE RACING BRISTOL The final piece in the puzzle is the new Nova 3-speed transmission, commissioned by Tim Blakemore in collaboration with the guys at Nova transmissions. Opting for the 3 speed allows a slightly larger ratio, which helps to ‘load’ the motor, working the turbo better. This gearbox is proving fantastic and is far more forgiving than anything we have used before. During the previous test day it took quite a hammering and we discovered that it had been working with a bent shift fork. Absolutely no marks were on any of the gears or the dogs! Great! Replacing shift forks is a lot cheaper than a gearbox! Overall inspection and rebuild checks out fine so were all set for the next test day……
	May 2010 - Shakespeare County Raceway Spring Speed Nationals - Tim Blakemore Racing Kawasaki rider runner up in 9.50 Bike Most of us involved with Drag Racing, especially the competing amongst us, experience the high's and lows of competition. Easter was a particular high for us on the Tim Blakemore Racing 9.50 Kawasaki, this was followed by a particular low at the Big Bang. Qualifying proved to be complicated due to an uncharacteristic handling problem, making the bike pull hard left on the first two runs, making me throttle back on both occasions. The third pass resulted in a mid pack qualifying position, making our pairing for the first round Steve Ashby, from there the disappointment continued, my slight advantage on the light not being enough for a heavily slipping clutch in 3rd and 4th gear, giving Steve the disserved win. No less than a week later we were back out at Shakespeare County Raceway for the Spring Speed Nationals. During the week I had removed the clutch, not only to repair but to try and make some adjustments so that the clutch lever feed would be easier from the start line, I also made some small adjustments to the ignition kill time as it has always felt quite aggressive. There were 6 qualifiers scheduled over the weekend so it gave us a few passes to dial in the new settings. Qualifier 1 was a bit of a surprise to say the least. The launch from the startline was ultra smooth, the clutch feed very linear, lock up coming in about 1500rpm before the shift light, lifting the wheel slightly, the kill time felt significantly shorter. I went through my usual routine, hitting the shift light on target, into 4th gear and rolled the throttle off and coasted across the line, 9.19 @130 mph is not what I expected, the small changes had resulted in significant differences on the track. The remaining qualifying runs were ducking and diving around 9.50 resulting in a best of 9.59 putting us at 6th and giving us a first round run against Steve Whiting. Steve had struggled in qualifying but I almost shut off too early making side by side 10.3s, too close for comfort. We were happy to progress to the next round, meeting Pete Austin, Pete and I both run big power for 9.50, the result was again to the wire and a good race, each pondering the result, but a complete contrast to our 1st round with a double brake-out, my 9.43 to Pete's 9.34 taking the win. The semi final was going to be tuff. Young gun Jake Mechaell has proved himself on several occasions with consistent good lights and spot on dial in's, including this event with a 9.503. On face value the race went as I expected, Jake seemed to get the lead, I reeled him back in by 400 ft and knew that there was a big possibility of a double breakout. We seemingly crossed the line together again not knowing the result. Shelby was waiting in the return road with both our timing tickets she seamed upbeat then expressed her surprise to Jake on his red light, which surprised me, and gave me a lucky route to the final against Richard Sawatski. The weather was looking more ominous approaching the finals and it looked unlikely to happen for a while, but with a lucky break we got to run, Richard had a better light and was in control of the race from the start, my breakout 9.468 no answer for his better light and 9.61. Thanks to Tim and Wendy for there support over the weekend and continued support from "Tim Blakemore Racing" and Kawasaki. Jon Webster

	April 2010 - Santa Pod Easter Thunderball - Tim Blakemore Racing Kawasaki rider Jon Webster wins 9.50 Bike It's amazing how quickly Easter come around this year, there never seems enough time to do everything without having to rush around. Tim has prepped the bike up in the weeks leading up to Easter but was unfortunately unable to attend the event, so Wendy brought the bike up on Thursday evening. Friday saw the forecasted inclement weather, but we remained optimistic for the rest of the weekend. No changes had been made to the bike over the winter, just routine checks and maintenance so we were hoping to start off the season with a known combination, the plan was to run the bike exactly the same as always during qualifying as the dial in is there or thereabouts by short shifting at 8500rpm and rolling off the throttle at the top off 4th gear. So 1pm Saturday we got our first call, Super Street bike ran before us and had a few problems on track but when we got our turn the bike ran faultlessly resulting in No 2 qualifier with a 9.57/127mph, not bad to start with. The rest of the day had down time for various reasons such as weather and on track incidents. Sunday saw two more qualifiers neither of which improving our position, Q2 netted a 9.491 and we were relegated to third by Jemma Venables and the final qualifier a shift solenoid gave up the ghost resulting in a 10 second pass. Our final qualifying position ended up being 6th place so I was quite happy with that because we were in the lower side of the pairings of a sportsman ladder which is an advantage for bye runs later in eliminations should we be fortunate to progress that far. We were all set on Monday, weather looked promising but there was a strong head wind which is better than a side wind for safety reasons, but this could prove difficult to dial in close to 9.50 for all riders, in terms of judgement, power etc. The Kawasaki has plenty of power to overcome the resistance of the head wind but I was very aware it could result in a breakout. The plan was to try and stage deeper, go for the light and try and maintain a nose until as late as possible, if the Guy/Girl in the other lane was no where to be seen then get off it in the usual spot. As plans go, by luck or judgement the first two round went more or less that way, Stuart Ashby lacked speed and I backed out early making our 9.93 to his 10.36 a good dial in point for the next round against Aaron Sparks, Aaron got out on me slightly then disappeared behind with some sort of problem, so I got off the throttle a bit earlier making our 10.10 to his 10.27 good enough to face Phil Pratt in the quarter final. Phil is a really tough competitor, always on the money and renound for good lights, my chances weren't good but I was fortunate enough to win, that bye run was the route to the final. I really lost my cool moving out of the burnout when my front wheel slipped away and I almost low sided it, but I gathered my thoughts and went for the game plan. What a race, Phil's 0.16 light to my 0.14, he was well out by 60ft over a bike length, but then the turbo power started coming in and by 3rd gear we were pretty even, I short shifted 4th gear and even hit 5th as we cross the line, it seemed an age for the win light to show on my side of the wall but a huge relief when it did my 9.53 to Phil's 9.47 breakout. That meant we had the bye run , Fred Furlong and Richard Beck squared up in front of me, by the time I had finished the burnout I saw Richard take the win and I knew who my next opponent was. I was going to just stage the bike for the bye run and take the light, but I decided to try something a bit different, which didn't work.So for the final I went back to the original plan. We only had 5 minutes in the pits before our final call, but with only air pressure to check, there was no stress, I was quite relaxed for the final, I had gone a lot further than I thought I would, based on the calibre of the riders attending that weekend, I learnt a long time ago that bracket racing is a game of mistakes, he or she that makes the worst one "looses" no mistakes means you run a perfect .000 light and run a perfect 9.5000 and that a rare thing. But primarily if you can leave first then you have more chance of controlling the race. Richard has historically made less mistakes than me in 9.50 so it wasn't going to be easy. Richard staged first, I followed my previous procedure and managed to get the light. As with Phil, Richards bikes 60ft gave him a short lead but again Kawasaki turbo power proved good and I pushed the line anticipating Richard will lift, I throttled back 20ft from the line as I had pushed harder in 4th than previous and thought I would go under so figured Richard would too. I looked at my side of the wall and the light was on so all was good but without the light it would have been difficult to call, another awesome race my 9.59 taking a 9.47 breakout. I must admit I didn't expect the win this early in the season as I have always found too many faults in my riding , which still need fixing , I just figured more practice required, I guess the thing about going round is you get more practice, so hopefully I'll be in better shape the next round. Many thanks to Kawasaki UK, Tim and the team at Tim Blakemore Racing for giving me a great bike, Jeanette and Shelby my family and crew, Jamie Sneddon for help and shift solenoid and to the well wishers who came by. Jon Webster
	Click here for our 2010 Race Calendar in PDF format.
	15/9/2009 Congratulations to Tim Blakemore Racing 9.50 bike rider Jon Webster, who won the FIA Top Fuel Dragster Final at the Santa Pod European Finals last weekend. Jon who had qualified No. 3 with a 4.8250/293.38mph blast, won a thrilling final against Sweden's Jöran Persåker. Jon's Top Fuel Car team were all in the Kawasaki team apparel sponsored by Tim Blakemore Racing and Kawasaki Motors UK. For the full story click here for the Eurodragster event coverage.

Click here for our 2010 Race Calendar in PDF format.

15/9/2009