Fri…
The fReQs arrived to warm greetings from fellow racers at an already busy Santa Pod. The team quickly established their weekend base and began preparation of the car and making arrangements with track officials for Andy to take his test as a race driver.
After the now traditional evening ‘team’ meal, another of Ashleigh’s fantastic Spag Bogs, the ‘Franken-cycle’ made it’s debut.

The new creation, conceived only during the previous week, was mastered by Hula P, Ben and Andy who quickly developed a range of tricks they could perform.

The partying continued into the evening, eventually ending up in the Supertwins bike pits with various challenges being made amongst the bikers to ride our two wheeled creation. Several riders made brave attempts with Neil (scouse) Dickson making the most determined effort but sadly ending up in a heap on the floor. Much laughing and banter followed until late in the night.

Sat …

Up at 7pm and all the team were ready to race. Andy was eventually strapped into the car at around 11.30 and drove to the start-line for his first ‘observed’ run, a full launch and half pass.
Andy was repeatedly reminded to switch off at half track, it’s all too easy to keep your foot down and enjoy the ride :-)

Andy’s trackside crew, Hula and Ash, led him onto the burnout box and took their positions. An enormous and very aggressive burnout followed, both tyres smoking fully as he powered the car over the start line.

Ashleigh guided him into position exactly central in the launch area and Andy quickly pre-staged.
After a slight delay, confirming with the starter that this was to be a half-pass Andy staged the car and left the line on a respectable .04 reaction. A perfect run to mid-track, showed the gearbox issue has been resolved and the engine is making maximum power. Despite shutting off at the eighth the car crossed the line in 13 seconds which suggested that a full pass would get a low et.
He was able to drive back to the fReQpit area, the cooling system working properly and the whole team on a high from his performance.

Soon the racers were called down for their second qualifier and Andy took his place in the pairing lanes.

This drive doubled as final observed and qualifier to race the next day, making the pressure on him to do a good clean run even greater. A ‘dial in’ time of 11.42 seconds was given to the officials and Andy powered another strong burnout across the line.
The start line team again looked very professional taking their positions as he staged the car.

Another strong launch followed with a very powerful drive up the strip which gained an 11.57 @115mph , placing him at no3 on the qualifying table (later races moving him to no5)… The whole team was elated by this and greeted Andy back in the pits with much cheering and hugging.
However, as the engine cooled a core plug began to leak and so fReQmikey began the repair immediately. Meanwhile, back in the pits, Ben had been spending time baking bread ! Fresh bread and a vegetable soup made by Lorna saw the whole team re-energised and more bench-racing , franken-cycling and general banter, with the background of a beautiful sunset, brought the day to a relaxed end.


Sun…
Another early start, the Dream successfully repaired and in top condition as the team relaxed in the sun, juggling and ‘playing’ with the various toys to the background of a Dubstep mix booming out from Andy’s car stereo. Other racers were spotted ‘skanking’ to the tunes as everyone prepared for the day’s racing. Andy met up with Terry, who he had been drawn to race against and both wished each other luck in gentlemanly fashion. After much debate the team agreed on a first round dial in time of 11.55. Exactly on schedule the cars were called to the pairing lanes and Andy took his place. After a short wait the cars were called to the start line, a short burnout by Terry in ‘Rat-catcher’ was followed by another of Andy’s now characteristic storming burnout routines, Ashleigh again backing him into position. This performance got a big cheer from the grandstands and the crowd on the grass banking as the commentators gave a very flattering report on the team, including profile’s of each of the members and referring to ‘the’ freqmikey.
At this point Freqmikey became so exited, both from the pride of seeing his son on the start line at Santa Pod on Father’s day and from the reaction of the commentators and audience at the appearance of the team that he completely forgot his elected job of filming the events :-)

Another fantastic launch, with a reaction time of only 0.03 and The Dream roared its way up the strip to an et of 11.47, a breakout of only 0.08 but enough to lose the race. Despite this there was much cheering and whooping as Andy crossed the line after a great race, the cars crossing the finish line together.
The car returned safely to the pits and the whole team enjoyed the remainder of the day’s racing in the beautiful sunshine. The finals were run with some amazing times and speeds in all classes on Santa Pod’s immaculately prepared track

At the end of the day, on our return to the pit’s to de-camp the team was met by Chris Hartnell who presented us with a trophy, awarded by the track commentators for ‘Best appearing car and team’.
The effect of this on the team was/is astonishing and each of us is very proud to have won this award at the UK’s premier drag-race venue.

…Next race – 2008 NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway – June 28th – 29th.
Driver for this event – Hula P –
Crew - Andy, Ashleigh, Ben, fReQmikey...