14th Dec, 2011: Videos from NZDRA Summer Nationals available

14th Nov, 2011: RIPS FED wins 1st round of IHRA comp series

Post win video with Robbie (updated 2nd February, 2012)

Robbie is interviewed in the pits by Philip Royds from Link Engine Management about his winning strategy against a faster car.

RIPS FED wins NZ Nationals (updated 31st January, 2012)

The 4 and Rotary Nationals is the biggest drag meet of the year by far, there are 100s of cars and 1000s of people so its the "must do" meeting.

Another cold and miserable day at the track with rain comming and going all day.

We had four high 6 and low 7 second/200mph Australian cars come over to race the top NZ import cars in the "outlaw" division where there are no rules - any engine size, any chassis, any weight, NOS, meth, turbos, blowers, all in, heads up, pro tree, no excuses.

We knew the quick times were not going to be present and that the Aussies were used to FAR superior tracks to this one, so we went with the "to finish first, first you must finish" aproach and it paid off.

We didn't get greedy with power and started off at 7.8s and worked our way down to 7.4s during the day.

There were 17 (YES 17!!!) oil downs during the day, mainly by the 100s of street cars, several crashes, some quite serious, rain on and off and some guys trying just a little too hard almost ending in tears.

We have some great footage out the back of the FED with a VERY close call for the Aussie R100 which nearly hit the wall just before the finish line. They will be on YouTube shortly. If you search RIPS FED, you'll find them all.

Here's the first one:

Big thanks to LINK ecu, Jason, Spook, Brad, Callum, Steve Murch, Sheryl, Angie and Paige and all our other sponsers and supporters.

Next meeting is the Drag Combat next weekend (Monday, 6th February - Waitangi Day). We won it last year and are looking to win it again but this year they have thrown in a twist - all classes will be heads up based on tyre WIDTH only with one class up to 10.5s, another from 11s to 14s and another from 15 and up.

We usually run on either 15in wide or 17in wide. Either would put us in the top class and if any top fuel or alcohol dragsters turn up we'd be pretty much history so we have a "plan" - lets hope it works,

Robbie

RIPS FED gets runner up at 2nd round of Fram Track Series (updated 23rd January, 2012)

Another weekend of ups and downs but we managed to keep it together long enough to take runner up spot in the 2nd round of the Fram track series.

If you qualify in the top 8 out of all the cars there, you race each other with a dial in time which is your PB for the series. My quickest time at the 1st round of the series was 7.34.

For the first qualifying run, we thought we'd hit it reasonably hard off the line (1.5 bar) and give it around 1.8 bar from there. It left pretty well but started spinning the tyres as soon as it went into 2nd, headed for the wall, then back accross the lane again, so I coasted through for a 7.99 @ 130mph. The data showed I came off and back on the throttle 7 times during that run and it felt pretty nippy when it was on power so I was reasonably happy so far.

The next run we decided to leave a little softer and make it quite a bit softer through the gearchange point. We just wanted a clean 7.5 to 7.6 to be sure of making the top 8.

By around 1/2 track I knew something was wrong. The tune should have easily given a mid 7 but it was very lathargic indeed. Time card was an 8.0 and there was a strange smell comming from the transmission area.

Much to our surprise, we'd done enough to make it into the top 8 but our first draw was a blown door slammer who runs 7.20 - 7.30 pretty reliably. His dial in was going to be a 7.32 to our 7.34. We would get the green light at basically exactly the same time so I thought we'd be history.

We checked over the trans and found nothing obvious. All looked fine but we suspected a damaged torque converter as we'd had it before where the ETs fall away no matter how much power we threw at it. We decided to put the tune on what should run a 7.20 to 7.30, try to cut a good light and hope he had a problem. Its all we could do.

It worked! I pulled a 0.019 light to his very asleep 0.358. We got a massive jump on him and although he was gaining real fast at the end, he didn't quite catch us and he ran a 7.318 to my 7.653. Margin of victory 0.024!

After the 1st round we knew there was something seriously wrong with the trans or converter but luckily our opponent for the semi final had blown a head gasket and advised out, so we had a bye run. We could have just taken the green and backed up to try and save extra damage to the trans, but we were told we had to do the run if we wanted the round points, so I just rolled into stage and then cruzed down for an 18 at 40mph I think it was. Not exactly hair raising but we were through to the finals.

Then it rained............and we all thought it was over so packed the car up.

A lot of people had left and just as we were about to leave it looked like it might clear and over the PA they said they were going to wait and run the finals once the track dries out.

We initially thought we had runner up in the bag so why bother risking hurting the trans anymore and why risk trying hard on a track that's just had a lot of rain on it, but once again we were told we had to run the final if we wanted the points.

We unloaded the car again, got all set up and just before 6pm they called us up for the final.

We had a very tough competitor. He's the track manager, very experienced and he'd been running quicker than us all day. To make things even worse, he was to get just over 1/2 a second head start on us based on his PB for the series so I knew our only chance would be if he red lit.

Here's the run........note no people left in the grandstands:

He cut a good light, was long gone, we got runner up, got the points and adding them to our points haul for getting 1st place in the last round, we are still in the lead of this series.

We have the transmsission out and away being checked and we have the torque converter away getting cut open and inspected. Hopefully they find something very obviously wrong and can get it sorted in time for the 4 and Rotary Nationals next weekend.....

Thanks to my crew, family and for all the support of my sponsors. Without everyone backing me so much there have been times when I'd have probably given up by now......

Onwards and upwards and as I always say "If it was easy, everyone would be doing it".....
Robbie

New RIPS videos are available on YouTube (updated 14th Dec, 2011)

Robbie has been loading new videos from the NZDRA Summer Nationals last weekend (11th December) onto YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

Watch the videos.

RIPS FED wins 1st round of IHRA comp series (updated 14th Nov, 2011)

What a way to start the year!

Watch the video from this weekend on YouTube.

The IHRA comp series is an all out competition that puts any type of dragster, door slammer, top street car etc against each other based on the PB (personal best) time of each particular car.

Anyone in anything can enter and based on qualifying times the field is broken up into 8 car groups. NZs fastest dragster, a Nitro burning 5.4 second car turned up, along with top alcohol dragsters, top door slammers, competition dragsters, Pro imports and several quick street cars.

We qualified 8th fastest out of the entire field and made it into the Top 8 bracket called "top comp". As per usual rules, the No1 qualifier races the No8 qualifier in round 1 so I was up against the Nitro dragster and boy was I nervous about that.

The dial in time each car was given was based on the cars personal best, his was 5.40 and mine is 7.26 so I was given a 1.86 second head start and who ever is first to the finish line, wins. We decided to tune for 7.3s and just be consistant and reliable.

I got away well and was waiting for the roar or the nitro engine but it never came! His drive shaft broke or disengaged somehow and we took the win with a 7.342

The next rounds were against doorslammers, 1 N/A V8 with Nitrous and another was a blown alky V8, although close, we took the win in both rounds with a 7.394 and 7.377 and came away with the overall win.

I have a great team of guys help with the car and it was extra special because my wife and 2 of girls were with me too. All in all a great day.

Extra special thanks go to Danny at Rotorua Steel Structures, Dodson Autospares, Link, Infomotive and Stitch n print for their very generous continued support this season.

Next meeting we'll probably go to is the Spring Nationals at Meremere on the 26th and 27th of Jan.

Thanks to everyone for the support, onwards and upwards!!

Robbie

Ed: We've decided to keep all the articles on the RIPS FED together so you can read as much as we have about the dragster in one place. Following this entry are the 2010 season entries, from the beginning to the end or use the shortcuts below to find the event you want to read about.

Shortcuts to article updates:

6th April, 2011: RIPS FED season summary

10th March, 2011: Masterton round in series cancelled

8th March, 2011: Mixed bag at the 4 n Rota South Island Champs for the RIPS FED

8th February, 2011: The Northern Nationals on 6th Feb 2011 won by R.I.P.S

4th January, 2011: RIPS FED RB30 finally expires

18th January, 2011: RIPS FED wins the Hell Pizza Summer Slam

13th January, 2011: RIPS FED wins dragmasters pairing 3 - nil

13th December, 2010: RIPS FED claims NZ record and secures substantial points lead after round 1 of the NZDRA series

6th December, 2010: R.I.P.S FED wins at Drag Battle

1st December, 2010: RIPS FED makes the TOP 8 against Nitro and Top alcohol dragsters!!!

26th November, 2010: We had a great weekend at NIZFEST

16th November, 2010: RIPS Dragster runs 1.2 seconds under national record in testing

Update

Starting the 2010 season

Starting the 2010 season

The FED is all set to go and we have put all new Link logos on the car.

We have had some teething problems with the CDI but Jase is pretty confident he is on top of it now. Our first test 'n tune is tomorrow so hopefully all is well and the car handles and sticks better with the new wings and larger rear wheels and tyres. We will be really pushing for a 6 this season.

I'll keep you posted and update you after each time we are out.

We are also displaying the car at NIZ Fest at Hampton Downs and Meremere and we may do some demonstration burnouts and/or 8th mile passes depending on weather etc.

We are also running a South Island round of the NZDRA series in December at Motueka so really looking forward to that.

Thanks a lot for your continuing support and here's hoping we have a fantastic season,

Regards Robbie
R.I.P.S Racing

Update

Hi,

Just a quick update about the weekend.

We went to Taupo for a test 'n tune and a niggly electrical problem caused a cut out on our first and second attempt at a run.

Back to the pits and luckily Jason found a setting in the laptop which needing changing and it appears the problem is gone.

With the motor sounding awesome again we went back out for another go. Beautiful big burnout to scuff in the new tyres and right before I was about to back out of the burnout, BANG and instant free revving (over 10,000rpm when it let go).

Early last year we had trouble with the transmission and all presumed it had broken again, we loaded up with our tails between our legs and headed home.

Luckily, with all the covers off, its turned out the locking ring on the coupler which is between the trans and diff had come lose and allowed the coupler to come out of the diff. Not really sure how that happened as I remember tightening it as I was showing one of my new guys how it all worked.

In any case, unfortunately we didn't get any good runs in but we plan to go to Meremere on Saturday for another test 'n tune and hopefully we'll have better luck.

The car is looking great and we are getting lots of positive comments on the way it is now. Lets hope the wings and new tyres work and we can chase that 6 second pass.

I'll keep you posted with progress and thanks again for your continued support, it really means a lot and we couldn't be out there doing it without you and everyone else that supports us,

Regards Robbie
RIPS Racing

RIPS Dragster runs 1.2 seconds under national record in testing. (Updated 16th November, 2010)

Hi

We had a great day of testing on Saturday at Meremere. We still have a niggly missfire which we think is due to a trigger error but managed some very promising results none the less.

We changed to the EE/D class where we are not allowed to run NOS but this is just for the NZDRA series, in the other events we will run the NOS and chase the 6 second slips.

Even with the niggly missfire causing me to back off just after 1/2 track on most runs we still ran more than 1.2 seconds under the EE/D national record!!!

Here are the test runs in order:

8.70 @ 109mph
8.04 @ 149mph
7.95 @ 150mph
8.12 @ 134mph

We ran under 5.0 to the 8th with just on 140mph so things look good for mid 7s in the EE/D spec once all sorted.

With low boost and no NOS the FED also 60ft'd just 0.04 off the best its ever done with more boost and NOS so the new tyres seem to be doing there job also.

The wings seem to be working (must be the stickers) as the FED was stable, no bouncing and ran extremely straight for a change.

Onwards and upwards and thanks for your continued support.

Robbie Ward
R.I.P.S Racing

We had a great weekend at NIZFEST. (Updated 26th November, 2010)

We had a display at Hampton downs with the Dragster and the RIPS Borg (silver R33 GTR) which attracted a lot of attention.

I was lucky enough to be the first ever to drive a dragster around the Hampton Downs circuit and it was great fun, my lap times were down a bit but it sure was fun on the straights!!!

The FED had no problem maintaining 90deg water temps all the way around which proved it was a true street engine, I even stopped to lay a nice burnout on one of the straights where my cap blew off (big thanks to Mothers Polishers for giving me a new cap and some cleaning product!!!), hopefully someone got some good photos and we get to see them.

On Sunday we headed to Meremere for a fun drag day where the NIZFEST team had asked us to do some demonstration runs, we took the opportunity to find the niggly missfire we had previously had, and as hoped, it turned out to be a faulty crank trigger sensor, all sorted!!.

It was incredibly windy (around 30-40mph) and dead head on, the track wasn't prepped at all and it was very cold so good times were not on the cards.

With a gentle launch and on and off the power a little we managed a 7.7 @ 165mph so with a combined wind speed of around 200mph I'm happy to report the car was rock solid, very stable and it ran straight, looks like the wings and tyres are going to work well without the head wind at 180mph+.

Watch the video

Robbie
R.I.P.S

PS. We appear on a couple of promotional posters for drag racing events around the country!

RIPS FED makes the TOP 8 against Nitro and Top alcohol dragsters!!! (Updated 1st December, 2010)

What an amazing weekend, I've never been so happy to lose a race!! Sound strange for me to say that, well here's why..........

We entered an open season, all in, up against ANYTHING drag meet on Sunday at Meremere where there were Nitro and Top Alcohol dragsters, Top door slammers and plenty of other SERIOUS cars in the field. My first qualifying run ended with an abort after wheel standing towards the left guard rail, the track wasn't there yet and lots of guys were having trouble.

We decided to go conservative, hope that others didn't de-tune enough and with any luck we'd get down the track and post a time good enough to make the top 8 shootout and others wouldn't............IT WORKED!!!!  We qualified No8 against the big boys!!! That in itself was a dream come true. I knew I'd probably get beaten but just the chance to race against these guys was something I'd wanted for a long time and to say I was nervous would be an understatement.

We added a bit more power and decided to try and cut good lights and get down the track straight and true and "hope" the other guy red lighted or had some other problem.

Once you were in the top 8 the races were run off an index basis, your PB (personal best) + 0.5 seconds, my PB is 7.26 so my dial in was 7.76, my first pairings PB was 6.46 so his dial in was 6.96 and he has to give me a head start based on that time difference.

I decided on a short burnout to get to the tree a.s.a.p to try and rush the other guy might also help. I cut a good light (.117 to his .194) and was on my way 0.8 seconds before him.

I can't describe the noise of having one of these things coming up behind you. I lost a lot of my sense of my own car - I couldn't hear it and it almost seemed like even if something was going wrong, I wouldn't know and I wouldn't lift. I was on auto pilot, foot hard to the floor all the way and he "just" caught and past me at the finish line, margin of victory to him of 0.177 (6.398 to my 7.452) but I was the happiest loser you have ever seen I tell ya!!!

2nd race went much the same but this time it was against a 5 second top alcohol dragster driven by one of the best in the business. I did the short burnout and up to stage as quick as possible tactic again but this time he cut a better light than me (his .078 to my .169). I had a 1.27 second head start and once again the noise and vibration of 3000hp bearing down was incredible. Once again I was caught and beaten to the finish line by 0.200 seconds and once again I didn't care (his 6.073 to my 7.452)! I'd had the 2 best races of my life and to even make the field against these guys was a big deal for the RIPS team.

Watch the video of the weekend's action.

We have found that the new wings are working too well, they are giving too much downforce and robbing us of ET and mph but the car runs straighter than it ever has so we'll de-tune the wings and get it back to the point where we have just enough downforce to get the job done and chase that 6.

Thanks again for your continued support. We are at Meremere again this weekend for the V8 V Jappa drag battle where we need to be running very low 7s to be competitive. Lets hope the weather/track is good and we can get enough wing out and enough power in to do well there.

Regards Robbie.

R.I.P.S FED wins at Drag Battle. (Updated 6th December, 2010)

Another awesome weekend with Azhah and 4 & Rotary Promotions putting on a great event, the weather was great and there was a good sized crowd.

The concept was an open season event for V8s and Jappa's, 2-3 qualifying runs then everyone put into 6,7,8,9,10 second brackets based on your qualifying times with heads up racing to follow to find a winner in each bracket.

There were plenty of serious V8s in attendance with several of them capable of 6 and 7 second runs but the track didn't feel too good before the first round of qualifying so we felt baby steps were the order of the day and to finish first, first you must finish.

We took some rear wing out but left everything the same as the previous meetings last run of 7.45 @ 175mph and straight off the trailer with a gentle launch, we ran 7.35 @ 181.75mph. Super smooth and straight as a die, we had qualified No1 after the first round.

The V8 boys were struggling and I didn't hear any strong full track passes, instead a lot of misfiring and aborted runs.

Round 2 of qualifying:
We felt we still had too much rear wing so we took another 2 degrees out and gave the tune a tickle up so we would hit it harder to 1/2 track. We had a beautiful clean run although a little slippery at the end. It felt super strong to me but the timing lights didn't work!!!  We were gutted because we knew it was a beauty.

The V8 boys were having trouble with reliability, broken transmissions, oil downs etc and after round 2 our first run still had us in the No1 qualifying spot.

Round 3 of qualifying:
The V8 boys were starting to get on top of the track and their cars and I heard a couple of clean strong runs.

We put a little rear wing back in but left everything else the same so we could get a time to try and keep our No 1 qualifying spot. The car ran great, nice and straight, and we managed a 7.29 @ 296kph (185mph).

We checked the data of the run with no time slip, compared it to the 7.29 at 296kph and Jase is sure it was a 7.1 at over 300kph. It may well have been the world record run we needed to take the title off HKS Japan (7.18). Oh well, although gutted we didn't get the slip, at least we know its in the car and we will be able to do it again sometime.

One of the V8 boys ran a 6 so we qualified No 2 out of the whole field but were quickest in the 7 second bracket.

I'm not 100% sure what happened to the V8s in the 7 second bracket, maybe breakages, maybe none qualified in the 7s. It was an all Jappa 7 second bracket and we were paired against the Curren Brothers Rapid little RX2 in a best of 3 shootout.

There were delays while the track was cleaned after serious oil downs (both lanes on separate runs) and we were warned it was slippery out there. Also the wind had picked up so we decided to de-tune a little, try to cut good lights and do our best.

First of 3:
I red lit by 0.004 (left before the green light) and although we beat him to the finish line no problem, I handed the win to Brent Curren. :-(

Second of 3:
I decided to take it easy on the tree and just do what we knew the car could do consistently. I cut a slow light and ran a 7.43 to his 7.86 to take the win.  1 all.

Third round:
We decided to do the same again. We wanted the win bad and in all honesty, we needed the prize money so we could travel to Motueka this coming weekend. All went to plan although I got all out of shape just after 1/2 track and had to lift. I got back in it and "just" took the win with a 7.61.

Big thanks to Link for an ECU that is so easy to tune to track conditions, big thanks to Jase from Infomotive for working the laptop to make it all happen on the day and big thanks to my crew, sponsors and supporters. Without you all we simply couldn't be out there doing it.

Here is a video a friend took from the stands and I'll get our footage up on youtube a.s.a.p.

This coming weekend is the first round of the NZDRA championship series in Motueka where we hear the track is pretty "average" with very little run off. It should suit us though, as we are running the NZDRA series in EE/D without NOS and we have a 9.2 second record index to race against (we have already run 7s during testing in EE/D specification) so we will have a good advantage over the others, therefore no need to push very hard at the end of the track.

I'll keep you posted and thanks again,
Robbie
R.I.P.S

RIPS FED claims NZ record and secures substantial points lead after round 1 of the NZDRA series. (Updated 13th December, 2010)

What a fantastic weekend, lots of ups and downs but it ended up perfectly for us and we now have a serious points lead going into round 2 of the NZDRA series.

The Nelson and Motueka guys sure know how to make you feel welcome, its a beautiful place and it turned out to be a hot one. The goal of the trip was to get maximum points to start the series off well. We needed to claim 2 x NZ records and win the meeting to do so.It didn't all go to plan but the end result was actually better than we first thought.

Under normal circumstances there'd be a full field of cars, you'd qualify, get points based on where you qualified then race for points each round with 5 extra points on offer for claiming an ET and/or mph record. At first we were disappointed to find that only 2 cars had turned up for the Competition class of the series, as that usually would mean both guys get equal points for "appearing and qualifying" but due to the lack of a full field no more points are given as the "racing" doesn't actually happen.

We knew we were still eligible to claim an ET and mph record and the 5 points that comes with each during qualifying so we thought that was our best hope of getting at least 5 or 10 points over the other guy. We knew the track would be slippery so we took out as much power as possible and thought we'd still have enough to easily claim the NZ ET and mph record for EE/D which stands at 9.22 @ 137mph.

The other guy started his engine only to find it was history and he was out for the day. He didn't do a qualifying run so he now only gets 10 points for entering.

We went out for the first qualifying run, smoked the tyres, had lots of tyre shake and then a very slow accelerating car, something was seriously wrong! We ran through with a terrible 9. 7 @ 141mph. . . BUT we had now done a qualifying run and were entitled to another 60 points.

The 141mph was quicker than the current EE/D mph record but we could only claim it if we backed it up.In the mean time we found a big split in the inlet plenim which was quickly patched up with a length of wood, race tape and a motor cycle tie down - kiwi ingenuity at its best!! There was a serious problem with the torque converter in the trans which we think was caused by, or at least, unknown existing damage was compounded by the brutal tyre shake on the run.

A long story cut short . . . we went out, limped down the track and did another terrible 9.8 run at 144mph which was enough for the NZ mph record, claimed the points and very disappointingly our day was over due to no drive from the transmission.

Although gutted, once we started to think about it, we'd actually had a great day because "if" a full field had arrived we would have not been able to race anyway, THEY would have got all the points and we would have come home well behind in Series points.

Although no-one ever likes to see a competitor have problems, the fact the other guy who did arrive, did have problems, and didn't do a qualifying run it means we got a lot more points than him. So all in all, we left with a 85 points lead over everyone in our class and that is not going to be easy for them to catch back up.

We'll get the transmission fixed this week and be ready for our next meeting in Taupo early in the new year.

Thanks for your continued support and I'd like to take this opportunity to let everyone know we now have Rotorua Steel Structures Ltd as a new sponsor, it couldn't have come at a better time and we really appreciate the deal they put down for us,

Regards
Robbie

PS. Sorry about the quality of the newspaper article - it had to be cut up to fit on the scanner!

RIPS FED wins dragmasters pairing 3 - nil (Updated 13th January, 2011)

Another great day at the drags although once again very hot and very slippery with track temps reaching 150 deg. (ideal temp for traction compound is 90-110). Dragmasters is an event where a team of Jap cars race against a team of V8s to decide an overall winning team, the Jap team has won it the last 2 years in a row and we were looking to make it 3 from 3.

The well known and quicker cars get issued a pairing before the event based on their previous best ETs but also on the day other cars can try to qualify to be in the Dragmasters team and the ones that don't can race in 9.90, 10.90,11.90,12.90 brackets and so on. Once they have done 2 qualifying passes the Jap cars and V8s are matched so as to give close heads up racing, its a great concept and brings in the crowds of loyal V8 and jap fans.

At the last minute, I ended up being the Jap team captain as Glen Sucking couldn't make the event which was a real shame. About 5 or 6 pairs (including myself against a 7.4 second big block altered) had been pre-arranged and about another 6-7 Dragmasters team pairs were decided on the day based on qualifying times.

We knew it would be slippery so on our first qualifying run we set it pretty soft and with 3 lots of tyre shake and 3 pedals before 1/2 track (only 136mph @ 1/2 track) we managed a 7.65 @ 172mph. My paired competitor went up in smoke off the line and ran a 9 something.

2nd round of qualifying we took some more power out early on and added a little bit more up top, left pretty well (1.10 60ft) and got to 1/2 track OK with 147mph then it smoked the tyres at around 300 meters and we rolled through with a 7.55 @ just 165mph. My paired competitor went up in smoke off the line and ran a high 8 I believe.

After qualifying all the chosen Dragmasters pairs would have 3 heads up races, each win scoring a point for their team. It was clear the winner was going to be whoever could make it stick and be super smooth with power delivery, we knew we could run under 7.5 with less power than we had been trying to use so decided to detune even more and just go from A to B and smoothly as possible.

By now it was very hot and there'd been a problem with the timing gear, they took about 2 hours to try and sort it then came to us and said we can race but we won't get normal time slips, just a hand written slip with our own ET and MPH with no info for the other guy, I thought that was fine, as long as we knew who had won.

Round 1:

We both went up in smoke off the line and it was a pedal fest, I could hear him for a while but I kept coming on and off the power, gently feeding more in each time and managed to somehow get to the other end with a crazy slow 8.44 @ 175mph to take the win.

Round 2:

I got away "ok", he went up in smoke off the line again and although I had to pedal it 2 or 3 times I pulled a huge lead and took the win with a low 7.98 @ 166 mph.

Round 3:

He informed me he wasn't going to come back out and it had cooled off a bit so we decided to set the tune on "kill" and see what we could manage. Got off the line pretty well but about 50 meters out we got massive tyre shake and went up in smoke, I pedaled it, then gently got back into it and drifted a pair of black lines all the way for a 7.65 @ 176, what a ride!!

All in all a great day but unfortunately the Jap team as a whole were having serious traction problems and overall the V8 boys managed to get the job done better than us to take the V8 teams win.

I've got a fantastic crew and they all work hard each day racing all for a few beers, lots of laughs and some KFC, hahaha, massive thanks to all my sponsors and supporters. The next meet for us will be Jan 23rd if its not too hot, it looks like we have a lot of work to do to get that 7.19 record of HKS Japan and even more to try and get that 6, but nothing REALLY worth having comes easy.......

Robbie

RIPS FED wins the Hell Pizza Summer Slam (updated 18th January, 2011)

What an incredible day and by FAR the hardest we have ever had to work for a win.

It was crazy hot (around 30 deg C outside and around 60 deg C in the car sitting on top of the trans and diff), we were at our highest altitude track in Taupo, it was slippery and we entered a DYO competition class with a 27 car field of very experienced, mostly V8, DYO racers.

1st round of qualifying smoked the tyres just before 1/2 track, got massive tyre shake, headed for the center line then the left hand wall, the most out of shape I have ever been in this car but managed to keep it together and roll through for a 8.09 @ 169mph.

When I pulled up at the end the engine was missing and popping. It turns out the tyre shake had thrown the fan belt off and the resultant low voltage was not enough for our new CDI ignition. Damn that tyre shake can be violent!! A very rushed replacement of the fan belt (not quick or easy to change in this car) and we were ready for round 2.

2nd round of qualifying went much better with a gentle launch and slippery 7.59 @ 171mph. With that we managed to qualify No1 out of the 27 car competition field but we would need to win 5 rounds to get the job done.

Round 1:

The other guy was a no show and we ran a 7.67 on a 7.50 dial in.

Round 2:

I had to give the other guy a 2.38 second head start and its so hard to watch a guy drive off for that long but I cut a good light (RT 0.021) caught him "just" before the finish and backed out, I was sure I had the win but the timeslip came up that I had run a -3.601 1/4 mile!!!! and it gave the win to him... After it was shown to be a timing error (turned out the timing blocks on my lane were miss aligned) it was agreed we needed a re-run.

Round 2, part 2:

My opponent changed his dial in time slightly and this time I had to give him 2.45 seconds head start, he drove off again while I watched, I cut another good light (RT 0.055) and didn't quite catch him, I thought I'd lost but it turned out he'd dialed in at 9.950 and ran a 9.895 so we took the win.

Round 3:

Due to qualifying No1 we got a bye run and just accepted the green for the win to help save time as the meeting was running well behind by now. It was now 6:54pm and we were through to the semi final, it was crazy hot and our trans still hadn't cooled down properly from the run before the bye.

Despite that I presumed it would be OK and I dialed in at my usual 7.50, he dialed in at 10.75. I watched him drive off, cut a 0.123 light but it was very lazy off the line and I didn't quite catch up, I thought I'd lost but he broke out!! I ran a 7.834 and he ran a 10.727 (0.023 too quick)

Round 4:

The other guy was in a N/A big block coupe and was rearing to go because he knew we were having trans problems and needed time to cool down, we stalled them for 20 minutes and then headed for the start line.

I knew we were going to be slow and I knew we'd lost 3 10ths on the previous run due to heat so I decided to dial in real slow, hopefully catch the guy early, back right off and play the side by side game till a fraction before the finish line where I'd nail it again and hopefully beat him across the line with out breaking out.

Round 5:

I dialed in at 8.10 and he dialed in at 10.05, he drove off, I cut a 0.102 light and was off after him, I caught him just after 1/2 track, backed right off, did the side by side and the last minute nail it thing and I crossed the line just ahead but I didn't know if I'd broken out (run quicker than my 8.10 dial in)

My crew at the finish line radioed my crew at the pit tower and we got the win with a 8.388 @ 133 mph to his 10.427 @ 135 mph, I was over the moon but almost passed out from the heat (the trans and diff I was sitting on top of were now at over 130 deg C and we had a 10 minute tow back to the pits).

That was by far the hardest and hottest days racing I have ever had with 8 runs needed to take the win, my crew Jason, Brad, Spook, Dan, Sheryl, Makaela, Paige, Annie and Ange worked very hard and all did a great job all day, it was such a team effort and simply not possible without all of them and all of my sponsors.

Thanks again for your support,

Robbie
R.I.P.S

RIPS FED RB30 finally expires (updated 4th January, 2011)

Well, I suppose it had to happen one day but unfortunately "the old faithful" failed due to a silly mistake following an unusual situation, not an issue with the engine itself which is really gutting for us.

We'd done our usual warm up and 3 qualifying passes (an 8.3 after smoking the tyres off the line, a 7.49 and a 7.48). All went well and the track was starting to heat up which meant we were going to lean on it a bit harder and try to get the times down some more.

The last qualifying run was at 12:59 and after we'd packed the chute and topped up the fuel we all settled into our chairs to wait for the call for the first round. There was a lunch break and delays for some reason and time just flew by. Without taking much notice it was soon 3:20 and we were told we'd be up in about 15 minutes.

We pushed the car up to our usual waiting spot about 20 meters from the start line and waited for the cars we knew would run before us to come out for their runs.

We'd usually have about an hour between runs and then we'd fire up the engine when there were 2 runs to go till ours, that gives us time to get some heat into the oil and coolant and for me to settle in and prepare for the run. We didn't give it a second thought that there'd now been 2 1/2 hours go by since our last run.

All of a sudden, out of the blue, we were called up to the line, we started the motor and I made my way to the burnout box while the guys wiped stones off the tyres. I was on a bye run, running on my own, therefore no-one to wait for and I was given the go to do the burnout. I did the burnout and backed up as usual.

I came into stage, once again with no-one to wait for so it all happened pretty quick. Came up on boost and left just as usual, it hooked up real nice and I felt I was on for a great run. About 150 meters out, all of a sudden I lost power and smoke started pouring from the exhaust. The motor was still running and I just presumed we'd blown the turbo. I kept coasting, presuming everything else was OK and then near the finish line, my visor got covered with antifreeze and I couldn't see a thing. I ran through with an 8.8 @ 96mph still not knowing what had happened.

Once I'd slowed a little more I opened my visor so I could see and the safety guy at the end of the track was signaling me to pull left and shut down the motor as it was still running. I shut it down, pulled to the left and came to a stop as quick as I could.

I was still in the car and confused about what could have happened because I had antifreeze on the screen, on my helmet, on my race suit and there was no sign of oil as far as I could see. The safety guy then told me there was oil on my side deflectors in front of the rear tyres

As we were towing back to the pits I saw the clean up crew on the track just after the finish line so we stopped and asked if they needed a hand. We were told to get the car to the pits in case we could fix it before the next round.

Once back at the pits and we found a hole in the side of the block and the undertrays and nappy full of oil and mangled parts. We got the pit runner to radio the guys on the track to see if they needed us down there, but were told it was all under control and not to bother coming down.

We were all scratching our heads as to what could have happened. It started to come together once we looked at the data. My water temp was just 35c when I started the burnout and 60c at the start of the run. We had a sudden loss of oil pressure during the burnout and it was low during the run.

We have since found the oil filter had collapsed due to the oil being too cold and although there would have been 130-140psi going to the filter (instead of 80-90 when up to temp) we had MUCH less than we usually would have at the engine/crank during the run. We were leaning on it pretty hard (2.5 bar boost) and the old girl just decided to throw No2 out the side.

Although gutted that we didn't get more heat into the motor to get the oil pressure down, it really has done a huge amount of work and given us over 3 years of trouble free racing with 100s and 100s of runs with a huge amount of them in the 7s, all with 2 oil changes, 1 set of spark plugs and a set of rings and bearings about 15 months ago.

Its also lucky we had big undertrays and a huge nappy because there was a real risk of fire and oil under the tyres.

Regards, Robbie
R.I.P.S

Video footage of the extraordinary weekend

Follow Robbie on the GTR Register Forum

PS. We are all back together with a "bitza" engine made up of all sorts of used parts I had lying around. We just had to get something together for this weekend and, fingers crossed, we achieve our goal of setting 2 more NZ records and winning the Northern Nationals this Sunday (6th February, 2011).

Video footage of the RIPS FED living to fight another day

The Northern Nationals on 6th Feb 2011 won by R.I.P.S (updated 8th Feb, 2011)

What a week and what a weekend!! Last Sunday night after the big blow up at Meremere during the 4 n rota Nats, none of us would have ever imagined we'd have had a new engine in the car and be at the Northern Nationals, let alone winning it and claiming 2 NZ records to boot.

After the blow up, we worked hard and got a "bitza" motor together and were all in and running at 3pm on Thursday. We were "running in" the motor and testing Co2 injection on Friday, doing our usual prep and loading up on Saturday and racing on Sunday. I really have to thank all the guys who helped out - without all of them we'd never have made it.

We had the car all set up for EE/D which means we can't use Nitrous so we set up Co2 injection on the turbo instead!! The current NZ record for EE/D the class was 9.22.

Video footage of testing the Co2

On the way to the drags we set a goal of qualifying No1, winning the meeting and claiming both the ET and mph records for EE/D as that would give us maximum points and a substantial lead in the NZDRA championship we were already leading after round 1.

Everything went exactly to plan. We ran 7.8s with a mild "run in tune", we claimed max points after a great days racing and we were all absolutely over the moon.

Big thanks to Brett, Brad, Spook, Jason, Sheryl, Annie and all my sponsors and supporters. I have a great team and it really shows when the going gets tough.

Next meeting is next weekend about 600 miles away in Christchurch where we'll be flying the Link ecu flag at full mast. Its going to be an interesting 6 days away I'm sure.

Once again, thanks so much to all my sponsors, we really couldn't be out there doing it without you all,
Robbie
R.I.P.S

Mixed bag at the 4 n Rota South Island Champs for the RIPS FED (updated 8th March, 2011)

I'll keep it short and sweet as we are still getting to grips with what has happened in Christchurch since we left.

We put the FED on the Link G4 display at the car show and came away with some trophies which I was very surprised to get as there were some serious dedicated show cars on display.

On the Sunday we went to the Ruapuna circuit to drag race on the back straight, we had no idea what to expect so detuned as much as possible for the first run and netted a 7.6 @ 172mph.

The track was very smooth and flat and I was looking forward to another run but we found water in No2 cyl. Now that I have the head off, I have found the head gasket we used in our haste to get the motor back together for the last meeting was not up to the job - with very low power it gas axed its way from No2 cylinder to the water jacket. Our day was over but we did still get the quickest time of the day.........

The cylinder head was also damaged so we have had a brand new one built at very short notice so we could be ready for the next round of the NZDRA championship series in Masterton this weekend.

Big thanks to Lynn Rogers Automotive and Kyle at High Octane for sorting out the parts and getting the job done in such good time.

We fired the engine yesterday afternoon at 3pm and it sounds great, we look forward to re-setting our national record for EE/D at Masterton this weekend IF the weather holds for us.

I'll keep you posted and thanks very much for your support,

Regards
Robbie
RIPS

Masterton round in series cancelled (updated 10th March, 2011)

Unfortunately the Masterton round of the NZDRA series was cancelled due to rain. We were hoping to get some runs in to try and make up for the bad luck we had in Christchurch 3 weeks ago.

Although the meeting didn't go ahead there is a silver lining, we now have a points lead that can't be caught by anyone else in our class so with the Nationals next weekend being our last round we will go all out to get the HKS world record of 7.19 and we'll officially be 1NZ for competition division, something we have been working towards for just on 3 years.

Here's where the points stand now and max points per meet is approx. 140.

I thought rather than just have the FED parked up at the workshop, we'd get it on display at the newest specialised performance shop in Rotorua, SS Customs. Its a good spot for extra exposure for everyone and with RIPS and SS Customs working together on many up coming projects (including our new dragster), it was an ideal spot to display it for a few days. Big thanks to Peter for giving us such a high profile spot in his incredible showroom.

Our next meet is the Nationals on the 19th and 20th of March at Meremere so fingers crossed we get good weather and we can give our best shot at the world record. It would be an incredible way to end the season if we can be 1NZ and claim the long standing world record off HKS Japan,

Thanks for your continued support and I'll be back to you after the 20th.
Robbie
RIPS

RIPS FED season summary

Well the 2010/2011 drag season is over and we are now officially 1NZ, something we've been working towards for years. Its been a massive effort for RIPS, the crew, our families and we definitely couldn't have done it without the kind support of all our sponsors.

Thanks to:

• Link Engine Management
• Infomotive
• Turbosmart
• Rotorua Steel Structures
• SS Customs
• Machine Skinz
• B.O.P Polishers
• Morbark
• Regal Automotive
• Robs Auto Spray
• Motorsport Fabrication
• NZ Performance
• Kiwi Race Cars
• G.S.S
• Ross Dampers
• ARGO Engineering
• Trevor Robson Signs
• Te Poi Country Pub
• Scotty's Bar
• Repco
• Stitch N Print
• Rotorua Powder Coaters

Below is a list of some of the events we attended this season and our results:

• Winner: WDRC Outlaw drags 2010
• Winner: NIZFEST 2010 quickest/fastest car of the day at the drags and the first dragster to ever drive around Hampton Downs circuit.
• Winner: Round 1 & 2 of the NZDRA series.
• Winner: NZPC V NZV8 Drag battle in the 6.99-7.99 second bracket
• Winner: Century batteries Northern Nationals 2011
• Winner: Hell Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival summer slam 2011
• Winner: V 4nrota south island champs, best overall 6cyl vehicle
• Winner  V 4nrota south island champs, best overall engine bay
• Winner: V 4nrota south island champs, quickest car at the drags
• Winner: Mothers dragmasters 2011 pairing 3: NIL
• Winner: Overall NZDRA championship for competition devision.
• Round 3 of the NZDRA Series (rained off)
• Runner up: Mothers dragmasters 2011 team
• 4th: Fram Comp meet #1
• NZDRA National Records x 5 this season.
• NZDRA DD/D current record holder
• NZDRA EE/D current record holder
• Quickest Import of any kind running in NZ this season.
• World record: Quickest and fastest RB30, 7.26 and 185mph

I believe we would have had the highest enter/win ratio of any drag car in NZ this season.

Regards

Robbie Ward

RIPS Racing

Triple Crown Series - 2 Nights in Christchurch (updated 31st January, 2012)

Finally we have some good news! It went as follows for the first two rounds of the Triple Crown Midget Series in Christchurch.

We flew down to Christchurch on Thursday night ready for the First Round at Ruapuna on the Friday night (27th January). We had run here in the TQ but never in the Midget, so we were looking forward to being able to get it all underway.

First we had a Hot Lap session for the out of town cars, then experienced our first earthquake for the weekend, then we got into the heat races! We started off 4th in the first race and finished 5th after getting a flat right front tyre. Then went from 4th to 3rd in the next.

This put us off grid 10 for the Pole Shuffle, which is one car at a time racing against each other. We progressed from tenth to 4th, beating 5 cars in the process on a one on one race which we were happy about, getting the car sorted now and starting off grid 4 for the feature. We got off to a good start running 3rd behind Pickens and Coons. We lost the brakes in the first 5 laps and dropped down to 8th and then moved back up to 3rd, after adapting to driving with no brakes when the side of the diff cracked a hole in it, spilling constant oil all over the brakes. We got past Buckley with 5 to go, to take 3rd overall for the meeting, putting us 3rd in points after 1 round.

Next night (Saturday, 28th January) we headed out to Woodford Glen Speedway just out of Christchurch. We did a car prep and clean, then got ready for the night's racing. Midgets have never run here before so was a learning experience for all. We started off 3rd and 4th in our heats and got 3rd in both heat races. We were still learning a lot with our Heat race speed and need to work on this but anyhow ,qualified us for 5th overall and then in the pole shuffle, we managed to beat two challenges and were on grid 4 for the final.

We started off the feature with Coons and Pickens climbing into each other in front of us and putting Coons to the rear of the field because of it. We got a good start running in 3rd behind Hickman and Pickens and managed to pass Hickman in the first few laps. We then set our sights on Pickens, who we think we were starting to catch on the very, very slick track, before he had an engine problem with about 5 to go and had to retire to the infield. This gave us the lead for the rest of the race and brought the CSR Vernon and Vazey 91a Midget home in 1st place for our first feature win of the season! Least to say we were stoked and was awesome to come away to an unknown track and beat the 20 odd other cars that were challenging us!

We're now leading the points going into the last round of the series at Springs this Saturday night from Coons and Buckley. The coverage from the two nights racing will be on the dirt with all the run down so be sure to check that out! This Saturday is also the NZ Grand Prix Midget Championship so will be a huge night I'm sure!

Thanks to the team that came down with us and helped us to achieve what we did - Andy, Brad, Luke, Ham, Kelly, Mikey and Nicola. Thanks to some of our Christchurch sponsors who came and checked it all out too - Simon from Link and TLT Van Hire.

Upcoming Events:

Triple Crown Series Round 3 – Springs Speedway, Auckland  4th February

Come say hi and check everything out if you're there!

Thanks to all who are on board as part of the O’Connor Motorsport Sponsor’s team.

Take care until then,

Cheers,
Shane O'Connor - Vernon and Vazey Truck Parts Midget 91a

40 Lapper and 50 Lapper Update (updated 26th January, 2012)

Unfortunately I have bad news and we have had properly two of our worst meetings to date in the two biggest races of the year! They went as follows.

For the 40 Lapper we had a good run of heats and transferred direct to the feature, starting off grid 13. We got up to 9th after about 28 laps and then I got tangled into another car trying to pass it that got loose and I was carrying too much speed and spun the car after tapping the back of him. We got collected by another car and we unfortunately dnf’d. Back to the drawing board!

For the 50 Lapper it was a different format having two timed laps to set the fastest time that we possibly could. We didn't do as good as we had wanted and set the 24th time out of 34 cars. This put us off grid 8 for the Semi Main having to get a top 8 to qualify for the main event. We passed two cars to finish 6th putting us off grid 22 for the final. It pretty much went down hill from there. We got out to the grid with the car ready to go and then under the 4 wide salute to the crowd, we gridded up and I realised that our left rear tyre had gone flat and was on the rim. It was a brand new tyre and after closer inspection the tyre was faulty from the factory and the bead part of the tyre was manufactured incorrectly. Unfortunately we didn't even get to make the start for the big race and it wasn't until we ran it on the track that it showed the fault!

This was not what we wanted right before the biggest race of the year and we are hugely disappointed, but none the less we have had a major day today with the boys in the garage and turned the car upside down setup wise, checking everything possible. So with a lot of positivity now about where the car is at, we have very high hopes for the 30 lap derby tomorrow night!

Looking at where we are at now in the season and after our early engine dramas and the bad luck that we have had of late, it is really not our year it seems after last year going without a glitch, but onwards and upwards from here. We are going to turn it around. We have our South Island series coming up so we are looking forward to that,

Upcoming Events:

• Midget World 30 Lapper Derby, Springs Speedway, Auckland  7th January
• Triple Crown Series Round 1 – Ruapuna Speedway, Christchurch  27th January
• Triple Crown Series Round 2 – Woodford Glen Speedway, Christchurch  28th January
• Triple Crown Series Round 3 – Springs Speedway, Auckland  4th February

A huge thanks to the team of Brad, Andy, Luke, Hamish, Kelly, Mum and Dad for all there efforts over these last hectic few weeks. Also, thanks to all my sponsors.

Up and Down NZ Champs for O'Connor Motorsport 91a Midget

That’s the NZ Midget champs done for another year!

The team of Andy, Brad, Jason, Luke, Hamish, Kelly and Dad had a huge effort all weekend and I thank them hugely for this as we needed every bit of help that we could get! It went as follows:

We started the Friday qualifying night in one of 4 groups with approx 10 cars in each. We had to get top 4 in our group to progress through. We start off grid 2 in our first heat and got 2nd, then started off 8th and only managed to get to 6th.

For the final qualifying race we had to start off grid 6 with 2nd-6th all tied on points. We had an incident while passing for 5th and got into the wall very heavily, bending the front and rear of the car up and we dnf'd. We had a big night in the shed and the entire next day to get it prepped and fixed up to try make it to the final.

We were starting off grid 4 in the first repecharge and needed a top 2 to advance. Michael Kendall, who was multiple NZ champ, was off grid 1 so it was all on. We had an awesome run in this and managed a 1st which we were stoked about! This put us into the top 20 to start the night!

We had 3 x 20 lap races to set our grids for the 25 Lap final. We had grids 8, 18 and 6. We finished 8th, 10th and 9th for the heats, the last one not going like we had hoped unfortunately. For me, this was the heat that I needed to do well in and we couldn’t to get the better grid spot for the final. This put us off Grid 9 for the start.

We started off a bit slow and lost a few spots then started to come on towards the end, finishing up 8th after 25 Laps. Pickens won with Mc Cutchoen and Insley in 2nd and 3rd. We learnt a lot and had a hell of a time running out there with everything else. The car held together and the motor ran like a dream, so should be a hopefully great start to the rest of the 11/12 season for O'Connor Motorsport!

Next we have the 40 Lapper at Huntly in 2 weeks time which never disappoints! Then into the international series on Boxing Day.

Also check out this video that James at James Selwyn Photos made of our incar from Springs 2 weeks ago, with a bit of extra terrestrial inspiration. See if you can understand what's going on!

Thanks to the following who are on board as part as the O’Connor Motorsport Sponsor’s team,

• Terry and the team from Vernon and Vazey Truck Parts
• Gary and the team from Waiuku Car Spares
• Phil from GT International Logistics
• Craig from Ortho at Ormiston
• Dave & Jess from Waiheke Easy Store
• Simon from Link ElectroSystems
• Bryan from Carbon Fibre Designs
• Angus from Garage 9 Performance
• Tim and Chris from Motul Oils
• Dave from Logick Print
• Gary from GCP Performance
• Chris from CSR Fabrications
• Ryno from Ryno Designs
• Troy from TWC Contracting

Take care until then,

Cheers,
Shane O'Connor - Vernon and Vazey Truck Parts Midget 91a

Springs Night 3 (26th November, 2011)

Firstly thank you to everyone who came along Saturday night. There was almost every sponsor we have there to check out the action which was wicked to see!

We started the night well with a 7th and a 1st in the heats for our first night back at Springs, putting us off Grid 8 for the feature out of 20 cars that qualified. The car was feeling strong and running right. It was a very difficult track to judge and we started off struggling a bit in the feature and then started to get some more speed and worked our way to 6th before with about 12 laps to go the drive to the fuel pump and power steering pump broke off and we had to retire to the infield. Wasn’t the start that we had hoped for but crucially, we have ironed out this problem before the NZ champs this weekend and I am hoping that our luck will all turn around for this weekend.

We are replacing the drive part with a new one and going right through the car on our crew nights this week so fingers crossed -  should get through the Friday night unscathed and then head into the finals night on the Saturday night with a strong car like we always have at Huntly.

This weekend:

• Friday Night is 4 Groups of ten cars with the top 4 in each Group progressing directly to Saturdays Finals and the remaining 24 cars going to a repecharge where they will select the next 4 fastest.
• Saturday night will be the top cars in the country racing it off to find an eventual winner :)

Come say hi if you are there and hope to see as many of you as possible! Huge thanks to the boys of Brad, Andy, Ham and Luke who did a massive effort helping us get the car to the track after all the problems that we have been having and for putting so much of their personal time into helping get us out there - it is much appreciated! Also to Mum and Dad for their help and to all our Sponsors who make this all possible (see list at end of article). Check out the photos from the the weekend!

King of the Dirt (19th November, 2011)

Well we had a good start to the weekend but it didn’t finish how we had hoped.

We were at Huntly for the King of the Dirt 20 Lapper on the Friday night and this was our first shakedown for the new season for the Vernon and Vazey Truck Parts #91a.

We started our first heat off 17th getting up to 7th before I made a mistake and spun the car around and we dnf'd the first heat. For the second heat I started off grid 1 and we pulled away with this one easily. This put us off grid 5 out of 18 starters for the feature.

We got off in the first lap to 6th, then within a few laps drove around the outside of the cars in front of us and started to chase down the 9H Car that had pulled a bit of a lead before we lost power with about 7 laps to go. Turns out we had stripped a rocker cradle bolt out of the head - repercussion of last week we think.

Apart from this let down, the car ran very well and the boys got the car looking spik and span. The setup was on the money with me setting the fastest lap time in the feature. We couldn’t get the motor fixed in time for Springs the next night unfortunately but this weekend we will be back out there trying to take on the best. If you're there, come say hi. I know that everyone from Waiuku Car Spares will be having some fun in the corporate box this weekend I'm sure so I'm looking forward to that!

Thanks to the team that I have as they have been helping flat out to get us out there and without them we wouldn’t be there. Also thanks to the sponsors and friends and family who have helped out financially and with all support possible to making this work. When we have a start like we have had you really find how great some people are! You all know who you are!

This coming weekend we will be out there in force with Garage 9 getting the engine sorted as we speak and getting these niggling little problems sorted which is just motorsport sometimes, The boys getting the chassis sorted and helping where they can, I have attached a few photos from Huntly to have a look at.

Thanks to the following who are on board as part as the O’Connor Motorsport Sponsor’s team,

• Terry and the team from Vernon and Vazey Truck Parts
• Gary and the team from Waiuku Car Spares
• Phil from GT International Logistics
• Craig from Ortho at Ormiston
• Dave & Jess from Waiheke Easy Store
• Simon from Link ElectroSystems
• Bryan from Carbon Fibre Designs
• Angus from Garage 9 Performance
• Tim and Chris from Motul Oils
• Dave from Logick Print
• Gary from GCP Performance
• Chris from CSR Fabrications
• Ryno from Ryno Designs
• Troy from TWC Contracting

Cheers,

Shane O'Connor
Vernon and Vazey Truck Parts Midget 91a

2011-2012 Season

14th Dec, 2011: Awesome result for Afterburner II at the NZDR Summer Nationals at Taupo

4th Oct, 2011: Preparation for the 2011-12 Race Season

2010-2011 Season

23rd Mar, 2011: Saturday's 8.01 second qualifier at the Nationals

8th Mar, 2011: The Power is finally being unleashed . . . .

9th Feb, 2011: 4 & Rotary Nationals in Auckland and Northern Nationals reports

12th Jan, 2011: Afterburner 2 debuts at Taupo International Dragway

2011-2012 Season

Awesome result for Afterburner II at the NZ Drag Racing Summer Nationals at Taupo on December 11th, 2011

Afterburner II and Black Thunder carry out Hat Trick Performance breaking two National records on two Kawasaki powered Drag Bikes.

Ian Wilkins took his Kawasaki engined, G4 Xtreme controlled, drag bike “AfterBurner II” to a sensational run in the Competition Bike Class with an elapsed time of 7.91 seconds taking out the NZ National Record for his class, and finishing as runner up in his competition class.

Hamilton’s Alan Thoresen who rides a modified Kawasaki ZX14 under Black Thunder Racing , has won the NZ Drag Racing Association Summer Nationals Modified Bike Class and also broke the NZ Record for his AA/MB Class running a 9.756 sec ¼ Mile, at Taupo International Dragway.

The Kawasaki ZX14 “ Black Thunder which he rides is now in to its 5th Drag Racing Season, and has also run three years at Bonneville Speed week chasing a Land Speed Record, where he plans to return in August 2012.

This double record achievement for Kawasaki in New Zealand should create some excitement and interest with Kawasaki Fans and race followers in NZ.

NZDRA Summer Nationals Motorcycle results were :

Modified Bike -

• Winner - Alan Thoresen -E.T 10.10 @135.14 ( Kawasaki )
• Runner Up - Tim Hart E.T 11.88 @102.97 ( Suzuki)

Comp Bike-

• Winner - Spike Allen E.T 9.75 @ 137.61 (Harley Davidson)
• Runner up - Ian Wilkins E.T 8.75 @ 157.34 ( Kawasaki )

The NZDRA Summer Nationals at Taupo was the first round of the NZDRA Points series, which will be followed by a divisional points series at Taupo “Summer Slam” on January 4th, and a South Island meet also on at Motueka on January 4th with another Divisional Points series at Tokoroa on February 19th. From here the racing will move to the grand finale which will be held on March the 3rd being the climax of the NZDRA Nationals at Taupo International Dragway.

Preparation for the 2011-12 Race Season (4th October, 2011)

Through winter the bike was stripped to a bare chassis for a full checkup, and is now reassembled and ready for action.

We are working on a booking date and final setup requirements for the dyno tuning at Dtech Motorsport, and expect to have this all done in preparation for our first race meeting of the season at Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere 13th November. It has been a really trying time in the offseason. After finishing initial testing on such a high, the team have spent winter feeling like caged tigers and we can't wait for the keeper to open the gate!

We spent some time with a team in Australia earlier this year who run a supercharged methanol bike with the same clutch and transmission as Afterburner 2. Our planned changes to the clutch setup were discussed with them and after comparing notes, we are definately on the right track to get the clutch to handle the horsepower from our G4 Xtreme controlled bike. The amount of information we were able to provide from the amazing datalogging capabilities of the G4 Xtreme was met with enthusiasm and nods of approval from our Australian friends.

The team and I are really excited about the next race season and, in particular, the improvements we should make after the dyno tune is done. The results from the tuning already done by Dtech Motorsport owner Dave Heerdegin have already been more than we hoped for, so the dyno tune and new clutch baseline have us chomping at the bit to get on the track.

We have also made changes to our oil specification as part of the clutch setup from information gathered in Australia. Penrite Oil will be providing us with a product which will meet our requirements and protect the internals of the beast.

We will be sure to let you know the dyno results so watch this space!

2010-2011 Season

Introducing the Afterburner 2 Dragbike (20th December, 2010)

After a lengthy bare chassis rebuild with every component inspected, including the engine which has had the transmission inspected and prepped at R & D motorsport in Florida, and many new internal and external parts fabricated, the Afterburner 2 turbo methanol dragbike is finally in the last stages of preparation for it's dyno runs at Dtech Motorsport in Tauranga.

Afterburner 2 is equipped with the latest Link Engine Management G4 Extreme ECU, and tuning maestro David Heerdegen of Dtech Motorsport will be carrying out dyno tuning on the new Dtech chassis dyno this Wednesday.

The bike is due for it's debut at Taupo International Dragway on January 3rd at the Summerslam competition meeting.

This bike was previously raced by Canadian Geoff Pollard in Prostar Funnybike in the USA where it ran consistent mid 6 second quarter mile races at over 200mph. During this time the Kawasaki based 1327cc in line four turbo methanol bike ran mechanical methanol injection.

One of the many upgrades for the 2011 release of the bike has been moving to a complex EFI system and Link Engine Management were the obvious choice for an easily tuneable control system with great technical support. Being a New Zealand owned company influenced the decision as well, and Link were happy to join the team as a development partner as the proven record of this machine and the performance potential with G4 engine management made it a great platform to demonstrate the capabilities of these top class electronics. Potential improvements with EFI over mechanical injection should see some great results in reliability and repeatability with the immense amount of information available in the built in G4 dataloging. Further updates to follow this week's dyno runs.

Ian Wilkins

Afterburner 2 debuts at Taupo International Dragway (updated 12th January, 2011)

After some problems with the new dyno at Dtech Motorsport, which were unable to be rectified due to the Christmas break, a decision was made by bike owner and rider Ian Wilkins, along with Dave Heerdegen from Dtech Motorsport, to fire the bike up at the workshop and set the basics up, then travel to Taupo International Dragway and continue tuning from data gathered while running at the track.

This proved to be a worthwhile compromise and left the entire team convinced we had a very good bike with no teething problems worthy of noting, that Dave Heerdegen from Dtech Motorsport really knows his stuff and the Link G4 Extreme is the most incredible and easily tuneable ECU we could imagine. It's datalogging capabilities have given us unprecedented levels of very useful information to work with.

Dave Heerdegen did nothing but impress us all with his comprehensive knowledge of Link G4 engine management, and a clearly advanced skillset in all aspects of high performance setup and tuning. We spent the day getting to understand more of the data we were viewing and learning more of the capabilities of the G4 Extreme while getting a base tune done on the ECU and a feel for the new bike on the track.

It was decided that we would go and do a burnout and shutdown to check the tune and see what the next adjustments would be, as the fueling had been set up rich to start with for motor safety With a methanol engine this is the best practice to get your tune, rather than starting lean and melting parts.

With clutch settings sorted and ECU launch control settings worked out we hit the track for the test burnout. I put the bike into 3rd gear, pushed the two step button and let it build up to to the launch boost. It did this cleanly and quickly, sounding fantastic as it popped and banged ready to be unleashed, at which point I let the button go and smoked the big 12 inch hooosier slick unmercifully.....does this thing have power....oh you bet it does! And this was just the first tune! I rolled the burnout from the water trap up the track about 30 metres and shut the throttle, put the bike into neutral and shut it down. We took it back to the pits, serviced the bike as Dave worked some more magic on the G4 Extreme.

We did a couple more launches and runs partway down the track, then decided to call it a day and service the bike, with plans to perfect the tune some more and add a little more boost for the next outing.

We will be on display at the 4 & Rotary Car Show at Auckland Showgrounds 29th January and will be doing exhibition runs at the 4 & Rotary Nationals 30th January at Fram Autolite Dragway Meremere. These will be full quarter mile runs to lean on the bike harder and get a setup for the NZDRA Northern Nationals at Fram Autolite Dragway 6th Feb. Our intent at that meeting is to shoot for the NZDRA National record for AA Dragbike, which stands at 7.98 seconds at present. I am that confident in the abilities of the team, the bike, Dave from Dtech and the impressive Link G4 Extreme that this record will be within easy reach soon as progress is faster than we ever thought it would be. Link G4 Extreme Engine Management has proven already to have been a very wise choice.

Ian Wilkins

4 & Rotary Nationals in Auckland and Northern Nationals reports (updated 9th February, 2011)

The last two meetings with the Afterburner 2 drag bike have been a story of the extreme highs and lows of motor sport.

We attended the 4 and Rotary Nationals and displayed the drag bike on the Link Engine Management stand during the Saturday show and shine event at Auckland showgrounds. The stand was attended by Philip Royds and Phil Williams from Link, along with Afterburner 2 crew chief Dean Fry and owner/rider Ian Wilkins.

This meeting is enormously popular so a great day was spent talking to people at the show, followed by a day doing exhibition runs at Fram Autolite Dragway in Meremere the following day. We wanted some much needed test and tune time in order to set the bike up for the NZDRA Northern Nationals at the same track the following weekend.

An engine tune is just the beginning with this type of vehicle and we were working hard to work out a clutch tune to get the bike down the track. The clutch in a drag vehicle is very difficult to get right without testing and we were literally melting the fibre plates not far out from the start line. Using the data gathered from the Link G4 Extreme we worked on improving the clutch and made progress each run.

The team's clutch man Frank Van Uigin was the hardest working man on the crew that day, having to laboriously clean out the clutch housing of stinking hot destroyed clutch every run. The smell of these things is hard to describe when they are burnt up this bad and the cleanup is no fun at all. Frank persevered while we worked on analysing the data with Dtech Motorsport's Dave Heerdegen and Link's own Phil Williams.

We ended up with more weight on the centrifugal arms than the previous Afterburner 1 nitrous drag bike had ever run and in the last run made the clutch last a full 3.8 seconds . This was no small victory as the bike indicated it's potential by running an 8.73 second quarter mile at 208kmh, staggering figures with only 3.8 seconds of acceleration.

Video of the clutch burning out!

The beauty of the Link G4 Extreme engine management was how much detail we were able to see by comparing the different items recorded in the data logging. Though poor clutch man Frank was head down in the smelliest and hottest place on the track again we were looking at some clear indications of progress and had more than enough information to take to clutch manufacturer MTC in Florida to get some help.

A phone call was made to MTC on the Tuesday morning and after a lengthy discussion we had some clear answers. The MTC technical adviser was very impressed with the amount of information we were able to provide and in return gave us some very encouraging news and advice. Basically, we were definitely doing all the right things and just needed to forget our worries about how heavy the lockup arms were getting as this is a truly powerful bike which needs an aggressive clutch tune. We were to add 4 grams to each of the 5 centrifugal lockup arms and raise our shift point in order to ensure the engine was 1800-2000rpm above the stall point of the clutch, also making changes to other parts of the clutch setup to work with these changes.

We had until this point been conservative with the shift point as Dave wanted to be sure the bike was getting enough fuel at peak torque. There was enough good data from that last run to be certain the tune was still safe, so an increase in shift RPM would be just fine. We were definitely needing more RPM as the motor was shown to pull down to just 935RPM above the clutch stall point on the shift to 2nd gear. The clutch was already in serious trouble at this point and this sealed it's fate.

Armed with this knowledge, we made the changes during our preparation for the Northern Nationals and went into this meeting hugely confident with our sights on that 7.98 second AA/DB record.

As our luck would have it Dtech Motorsport's Dave Heerdegen was unable to attend this meeting to assist due to commitments with another vehicle at Manfield, but with Dave just a phone call away we were still very confident this televised meeting was going to be huge for us.

The trouble with motor sport is that when you are the most certain of success you can fall victim to Murphy's Law or whatever you want to call it, and things can go wrong.

After our pit was setup and the team talk was over, we prepared to fire the bike for the first warm up. The bike fired up but just didn't sound right. We let it warm up and the first blip of the throttle brought dark and worried looks to our faces. It was dropping a cylinder.

We performed some basic checks and found nothing. To cut a long story short, we spent the next 5 hours trying to trace the fault. With numerous phone calls back and forth with Dave we were still scratching our heads 5 hours later, unqualified and out of the running.

It was one of the most heart wrenching moments to advise out and make the decision to pack up and head for a cold beer to cool down, but we had no options left and no clear answer other than a suspected faulty injector. The team had worked extremely hard in hot conditions and the frustration coupled with massive disappointment was evident with all of us.

The other problem in this situation is that owner/rider Ian has to be 100% focussed and ready to ride a bike like this, due to the need to be able to react without fault, as any mistake can be fatal. So after all the hours of work and failure to sort the problem in sweltering heat, crew chief Dean Fry had already taken Ian aside and said he could see that even if we got it going, it may be too dangerous to put the bike on the track. These are tough calls to make but they are the right calls when lives are at stake.

We had a huge advantage in this situation to diagnose the fault with the immense power of the Link G4 Extreme and felt certain we would overcome the problem. But like any ECU, it won't fix mechanical faults and and giving up is a really hard thing to do. But we will be back to run at the Summerslam 2 race meeting at Taupo International Dragway 20th February and we will do all we can to make sure we get down the track fast!

More photos from the meets:

The Power is finally being unleashed . . . . (updated 8th March, 2011)

In our preparation for Summerslam 2 at Taupo International Dragway we had to locate the cause of the dropping cylinders and fix it in time to compete at this meeting. Sometimes when you find the cause of these faults you can learn new lessons as well, and this situation was definitely one of those.

Saturday's 8.01 second qualifier at the Nationals

Shame we made a mistake and stalled the bike in the first elimination round on Sunday, however we are stoked that with only 6 full runs down the track we have already got the new bike, oh so close, to the magic 7 second blast. We will be ready to really ramp up our performance at the start of the new season later this year.

A huge thanks to all who have been involved with the bike. It has been a great effort from everyone and we cannot have hoped for better performance so quickly. To put this into perspective, we started racing in 2000 and took 9 years to get to 8.11 seconds with the old nitrous bike and it's predecessors.

More to come, along with some good video footage, and TV coverage is likely to include the 8.01 run against Dean Veale who ran 8.06 beside us in what is the fastest side by side NZ dragbike run in competition (overseas top fuel bikes have gone quicker in exhibition runs here). The team are all looking forward to improving this next season and our continued partnership with Link Engine Management, Penrite Oil, Kellow Engineering, Dtech Motorsport and Leading Edge Cylinder Heads will be of great benefit in achieving this.

Once again, thanks to all involved.

Regards,

Ian

End of Season Update (added 13th April, 2011)

It may be the off season, but work never stops. We have shows to display the bike at, along with a freshen and general checkup of the bike.

Plans for the off season are to rewire the bike to tidy up the mess of wires with the new loom kit provided by Link Engine Management during our visit to the temporary headquarters in Christchurch. These guys are resilient. We drove through broken streets to get to the premises and found all the staff in high spirits, just getting on with the job. It's a real shame we didn't get to see the original Link Headquarters, which has been so badly damaged during the quake, but it's business as usual as they get things organised.

We will also travel to Dtech Motorsport in Tauranga for Dave Heerdegen to cast his eye over some of our engine internals with a view to seeing how the flame front is etc, so we can determine what, if any changes need to be made to the pistons and combustion chambers. Leading Edge Cylinder Heads will be making sure the cylinder head is fresh and ready to go, and any problems with it corrected. Penrite oil will ensure the Syn 15 Synthetic Race oil is looking after our internals properly, and the transmission will take a trip to Florida for a checkup. Upon reassembly we will finally get the bike onto the Dtech dyno at their impressive new building.

There will be no excuses next season. We know the bike handles exceptionally well and is now begging to be fully unleashed with more of that finely controlled G4 Extreme horsepower. We are also looking closely at our clutch management programme to get some more life from the tortured clutch plates and to improve our 60 foot times.

Next weekend sees us on display at the V8 Supercars in Hamilton for the Cars and Bikes for Canterbury Show, with all proceeds going to Christchurch. Please come along and support us with a gold coin donation. Christchurch really does need all we can do for them. We saw things first hand and caught up on a lot of real people stories that don't make the news. I have to say my personal opinion is that not enough is being done for this region. There is a lot of media hype about rebuilding etc, but there are still so many people who need help that are just not getting it due to not meeting the criteria set by unrealistic public services and insurance companies.

We extend our thanks to Christchurch residents, our good friends Dave Salter and Linda Le Cren for putting a roof over our heads in Christchurch, then joining us in Auckland for the Nationals where Dave joined us as a crew member for the weekend, and got to experience history in the making with the fastest side by side dragbike run in NZ history. Dave was lucky enough to witness us achieve this milestone from a great viewing spot just behind the bike at the start line.

Come and meet us in Hamilton next weekend and let us know if you are a Link Engine Management fan and you will get a special up close look at the way Link G4 works for us. We will be showing off the data logging capabilities and the awesome power of the G4 engine management. Even with the complex setup of the Afterburner 2 turbo methanol drag bike we are still not even using half the real computing power of this unbelievable engine management system.

We are also going to be looking at fitting a Link G4 Atom to one of my other personal toys, a Holden V8 Ute with a 355 stroker engine. Dave from Dtech says we will experience far better fuelling and ignition control with this powerful little black box taking over duties from the Holden ECU. Look out for some before and after dyno runs from Dtech Motorsport to be posted some time this winter.

Cheers,

Ian and the Afterburner 2 team

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This YouTube video steps you through the process of how to update your G4 firmware on our website.

• "Jekyll" is a winter setup of snow tires, lighting and appropriate ground clearance
• "Hyde" goes to sticky rubber, aggressive suspension, minimal ground clearance and styling aesthetics

For each 'personality', there is a custom tuned map in the Link G4 Plug-In that allows for these 2 different setups.

Read more about this car on the FLi blog

FLi website

The awards ceremony was overwhelming and it was wonderful to mix with other companies also creating market leading products.

The G4 KnockLink on display in the New Products section of SEMA

The actual award won by the G4 KnockLink.

We're fielding a good level of interest in covering the build (see scan of Juiced magazine article at end).

Just as a sneek peek, if you haven't seen this clip before - it's a small taste of what you can expect to see from the Subaru in Gymkhna courses. This was filmed early in July at Hampton Downs on their new skid pan facillity which is proving a great practice ground for driving technique and testing various parts on our test vehicle: 

It's been interesting to see where media are interested in taking the story, in terms of establishing / uncovering a whole new discipline of motorsport in NZ. Several series events are starting to pop out of the woodwork and it's great to be involved at this level right from the start. Growth and attention in gymkhana is generating quickly through our build and it's very exciting. In terms of timing, it's likely we'll be testing in October, and will be participating at Big Boys Toys this year as part of our soft launch to that audience. However once we have a confirmed testing start date we'll be sure to let you know!

On that note, we're wrapped to announce our latest partnership with YHI NZ Ltd, in conjunction with Nitto Tyres and Advanti Racing supporting our much needed wheel and tyre requirements for the Subaru. Many thanks to Chris and Sarah at YHI for seeing the dream and getting on board with the team! It will be great to be support YHI in testing and reviewing the performance of various compounds. We're really looking forward to putting our wheels and tyres through their paces, starting off with light weight 18x9.5 Advanti Racing Nebullar's wrapped with 265/35R18 Nitto NT555s.

Link ECU have also been building a powerful computer, just like they did for my Silvia, to ensure we can get the most out of our engine safely. We are all looking forward to getting to test this new weapon!

We were able to break ourselves out of the workshop and get back on the tarmac in front of fans for a weekend. We ran the Drift Silvia for Speedshow in Greenlane last month, participating in the demos on Saturday and Sunday. Both days went fantastically, however during our  2nd demo on the Sunday, I had my rear differential break and with Super Tourer driver Johnny McIntyre!

Not to worry, we had a great time showing the crowd just how skilled the NZ Drift field are and the interest in the Drift series really showed by the size of the crowds each demo attracted. I definitely wouldn't be telling a lie in saying drifting was one of the main attractions - with the crowd not letting rain stop their enthusiasm in cheering us on and visiting us at the stand throughout the day.

It was also a great opportunity to get out and catch up our supporters - in particular Philip from Link Engine Management and Chris from Auto Quip. On top of that, an awesome opportunity to make contact with new potential supporters and sponsors interested in the upcoming Drift and Gymkhana/Time Attack season. Read the Drifted article for more coverage on the Speedshow Drift Demo.

Back to the Subaru - it's currently in Hamilton with Mike from Sinco Customs having the exhaust manifold constructed and fitted. They do an amazing job with precision work and whilst this has been happening, it's kept me busy in the weekends adding to the fabrication work. When "working hours" finish during the week, we've been concentrating on porting the engine cylinder heads and fitting the large cams - all adding to those last remaining parts of the jig saw. I've attached a few pics of the fabrication going into the Subaru, as follows:

Turbo 'up' pipe, waste gate end with twin scroll bridge & Twin Scroll Turbo up pipe made with wastegate ports

Tien racing coilovers, Whitelign sway bars, Custom E&H/JL designs CNC machined rear subframe locking washers, strengthened lower arms

Last but not least, just to measure up the competition and to ensure we're not missing a beat, last weekend we flew to Australia (Sydney) to check out the World Time Attack Challenge in Eastern Creek. The top cars were awesome and I look forward to competing against them in the new Subaru. Hopefully by next year we will have the support and car at a competitive pace which will enable us to show the rest of the world what kind of cars we can build in New Zealand! The Japanese Cibre Evo took first place, with a cool 1:28 and the American Siera Siera Evo took 2nd close behind.

Things are ramping up to a very busy summer season. September is just around the corner - bring on the action!

Kind regards
Carl and the Team from E&H

• Carl Ruiterman:
• Website
• Facebook page
• E&H Motors website

The throttle bodies are made to look like carburettors but house injectors. I rebuilt the internals of a Mallory distributor to have 24 tooth and single tooth sensors to allow me to run it sequential and run an ignition map.

The engine is 347 cu in crate motor and on the dyno I got 380HP at the wheels at 6500 RPM.

The owner originally had IDF Webber carburettors but could not get the engine to run nice from idle to full throttle, it was always a compromise. I suggested this setup and after driving it he had the biggest smile I have ever seen, it did everything he wanted and more!

Ivan
Udy Automotive

Watch the video on

The result is increased torque right across the rev band and 204 hp at the wheels compared to 167 before the Storm was installed.

More on Team 13 Hydroplane Racing:

• Website
• Facebook

Thanks to Dave Heerdegen from DTech Motorsport for the information.

Driver John Cassidy of Bangor, Maine and Co-Driver Jennifer Daly from Kelowna, British Columbia started their summer season with a second place in the R1 Rally class at the Climb to the Clouds, a hill climb up New Hampshire's Mt. Washington Auto Road.

First run in 1904, the Mt. Washington hill climb is the oldest motorsport event in the United States.  Last run in 2001, Cassidy jumped at the opportunity to compete in the event. "Jennifer and I had no idea what to expect on the mountain. What we encountered was both a technical and psychological challenge. The weather and visibility were constantly changing, forcing us to push in low visibility on roads with significant exposures."

The event marked the first time that Daly and Cassidy have worked as a team since the 2008 Rallye Defi in Quebec. "We were ecstatic with a podium finish at the event, as we had no prior experience on the mountain. Having to run a restrictor in the turbo certainly kept our speeds down at altitude, but we pushed as much as we dared in the limited visibility at the top of the mountain. Our rally experience definitely served us well on the often wet surface and challenging visibility."

The following week found the team in New Richmond, Quebec for the Rallye Baie des Chaleurs. One of LDR's favorite Canadian events, the technical and rough stages of Baie suit Cassidy's driving style. The team was setting top ten stage times on Friday night, until they had an off, striking a bridge with their Subaru STi on SS6. The front suspension suffered terminal damage, and they were forced to retire from the event.

"It was a bittersweet return to Canada. We had not been at Baie since 2008, and we were having a great time on stage. Jennifer and I were settling into the car and getting up to speed quite well. I came into the corner with too much speed and understeered into the bridge. It was a very heavy hit, and we were very lucky not to have done more damage to the car or ourselves."

Two weeks on and many repairs later, the team attended their home event, the 2011 New England Forest Rally, headquartered at the Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine. The twelfth consecutive showing for Last Ditch Racing at the event, the notoriously rough roads are home for Cassidy. "The New England Forest Rally has a reputation for being rough, and this year was no exception. For some, the rocks are intimidating, but I’m used to pushing on rough events."

The rough roads were new to co-driver Jennifer Daly: "During recce I was surprised by both the softness of the sand in some spots, and by the size of the painted rocks on the road, but John hasn't missed this event in over 11 years, so I was very confident in his ability to be fast through these strange conditions."

The National event spans both Friday and Saturday's stages, and each day is considered a separate Regional Rally. Cassidy and Daly set quick times on Friday, but unbeknownst to them, Jason Smith and Jared Lantzy, driving LDR's original Subaru, T-1, held a lead of 7 seconds on the LDR team going into the final stage of the night, the famous
Concord Pond stage.

Cassidy and Daly were unaware of their overall standing, and the team goal was to set a new personal record on Concord Pond. At the end of the stage, the crew had bested LDR's stage record; 12 seconds quicker over just 5.75 miles, and secured the win over Smith/Lantzy by 13 seconds. "Having both LDR cars on the podium was great. Concord Pond is an epic stage and we wanted to push for all the fans that come out to spectate. Taking the overall win and first in Open Class was a fantastic end to the day!"

Saturday's regional event opened with the longest stage of the day, where the LDR team posted the fastest time of the regional competitors by nearly 1.5 minutes over Smith/Lantzy. A flat on the second stage dashed any hope of an outright victory for the day, despite setting the best time on every other stage. "We had a flat and the tire started to delaminate quite quickly. We had 5 miles left in the stage and it was a very technical section. The car wasn't turning well and it would have been dangerous to continue. Changing a tire on stage is always costly, but sometimes it's the best choice." The team was awarded first in class for Saturday's event.

2011 has been another development year for the team, with a new engine and other technical changes to the car. The addition of Canadian co-driver Jennifer Daly to the team has also had a significant impact on LDR's recent success. "Jennifer strapped into the co-driver's seat like she's always been there. The communication in the car is very good and
we both feel there's still more speed to be had on stage." The team's future schedule is yet to be determined and likely won't be finalized until damage assessment is completed on the car after this difficult schedule of events.

For Daly, the possibility of rejoining the LDR team is attractive: “It’s very exciting to have some success early on with a new driver and co-driver match. John and the LDR crew are prepared and competitive; I was very happy to be a part of such a fun and tight knit team. When we set out to do three events in four weeks, it seemed a little crazy, but with the right people and some hard work, just about anything is possible.”

The team is appreciative of support from Mirraco, a BMX bicycle company founded by actions sports athlete Dave Mirra. Mirra supplied the team some of his personally autographed signature Bell helmets, which the LDR team gave to young fans at the rally.

John and Jennifer want to extend a special thank you to their crew for 2011: Drew Gladu, Duncan Matlack, Nathan Haskell, Jon Bolduc, Zach Sennett, Cullen Gillis, Bronson Crothers, Kevin Sennett and John Cassidy V. "Rally is a truly brutal sport on the car and without the support of our talented and dedicated crew, we wouldn't think about leaving the start line!"

The team would also like to thank Dave Heerdegen of DTECH Motorsport in New Zealand for his support in tuning the car's engine after all the recent modifications. "Dave has been an invaluable resource for us over the past two seasons, and we owe a lot of our recent success to his hard work."

Last Ditch Racing would like to thank their 2011 Partners for their continued support:

• DTECH Motorsport
• Mirraco
• VP Racing Fuels
• Triple Caution, LLC

For more information on Last Ditch Racing:

• Website
• Social Networking:
• Facebook
• Myspace
• Twitter
• Youtube

Christchurch shaken by series of quakes again (updated Jun 14th, 2011)

Just as we thought our world had settled down, yesterday we had a 5.5 and a 6 magnitude earthquakes only 1 hour or so apart. In the last 24 hours we are experiencing constant little tremors, pretty much too numerous to count.

Link is absolutely fine but we did lose our power for a while yesterday and we're back to using Port-a-loos, which is not very exciting. All the staff are well and their homes are all fine, even if some of the cracks are now larger. We did have some problems with email and our phones this morning (Tuesday) due to the power loss but everything is back on track now.

Christchurch has experienced much more liquefaction, particularly in the eastern suburbs. No-one was killed and a couple of people are still in hospital but our infrastructure has taken another hit. Understandably, everyone is getting very tired of all this!

More information on the quakes and our wobbly world can be found here.

Link R&D Centre sets a new world record (updated Mar 31st, 2011)

Our R&D Centre set a new world record - see News item here

Lyttelton Tunnel Building fights on (updated Mar 2nd, 2011)

We discovered at 9 pm Tuesday that our Development Centre was to be demolished the following day and informed that there was "nothing we could do to stop the demolition as the current State of Emergency meant that we did not have to be consulted".  They had not considered that we are well connected and highly regarded and things were not as simple as that. By 3 pm the next day (Wednesday) we had secured a "stay of execution".   We're very pleased to report that although our research and development centre has now been red-stickered (which means no-one can enter the site), we have been able to prevent the building from being demolished by the wrecking ball (see photo of the crane they were assembling to do this) this morning! This took a huge effort from a number of people and we're very grateful to:

• The Rt.Hon. Ruth Dyson MP
• The Rt.Hon. Jim Anderton MP
• The Historic Places Trust
• Helen Broughton - Councillor
• Tim Carter - Councillor
• Christchurch City Council
• Ian Lochead - University of Canterbury
• John le Harivel - Architect
• Win Clark - Structural Engineer
• Karl Varley - results.com

We have more photos on our Facebook page.

Whilst we were doing this, we were operating from our mobile Engineering Centre so we didn't get blown off the hill (see photo).

In the meantime, we're up and running at 22 Mowbray St, Waltham and we can see the AMI Stadium from our windows. Could be very convenient during the Rugby World Cup later this year!

We've had a huge amount of support from these guys in getting into our new premises:

• our network guys (thank you Rob from Egressive)
• we have a brand new phone system that we'd been discussing we'd install before the earthquake (thank you Tony from ShapeIT)
• logistical support from Walter and the team at NZEFI
• all the LInk staff and friends

We have plenty of stock, couriers are running in and out of the new premises and we're completely up and running.

Today we have a gale nor'west wind blowing (very hot, dry and strong) and the air is full of choking dust - very unpleasant. We know we are more fortunate than many other businesses in town and our hearts go out to everyone that has lost someone in this event.

Disastrous Earthquake in Christchurch (updated Feb 24th, 2011)

Staff

All our staff and their families are fine. Cameron's house, which was severely damaged in the earthquake on 4th September 2010, is now completely uninhabitable. Many more cracks in houses and broken crockery this time.

Link HQ

The earthquake was only 5km deep and it was centred directly under our building. As a result of this, the building has been damaged and is not likely to survive.

• A large boulder fell off Castle Rock above us, bounced on the motorway beside us and then crashed into the workshop.
• One of the large windows in the marketing office bounced out of its track and is currently leaning, in a very precarious manner, on the safety rail.
• Numerous windows broken in the store, office and workshop.
• Cracks have appeared in the pillars that support the building.

We're devastated BUT the reality is, even though its a fabulous building, its not Link. We are.

We are now at 22 Mowbray Street and will be open for business on Monday, 28th February. We are contactable on Skype but obviously we're concentrating on getting everything set up so we're ready to go on Monday.

We were able to get all our stock out of the building. A large number of the staff came over and there were many speedy feet carting everything out as we're still having many, many aftershocks.

Part of the storeroom after the quake (left). Storeroom after we'd emptied the shelves (right). We have a lot of sorting out to do at our new offices!

Obviously, we didn't get everything (staplers, laminator, cups, chairs, paperwork, etc) but we did rescue our coffee machine and we're in the process of setting it up so we can have a well deserved coffee.

We've set up the 'Toy Hauler' (our work caravan) at our new premises as it has hot and cold running water and, most importantly, a flush toilet! You have no idea how fantastic that is!!

Special thanks to the Tunnel Control Staff who helped us massively yesterday and who have looked after us extremely well over the years. We'll miss working with them.

Photos of the damaged canopy (left) and the demolished canopy (right), both views from the tunnel end. In the left photo you can see the original toll booth where you paid 20c to go through the tunnel.

Christchurch

Many, many people have lost their lives. The Central Business District is completely cordoned off, with rescue crews desperately trying to find missing people.

As this is written, 80% of the city is without water (including our new premises) and 50% of the city has no power. The roads are severely damaged and there is a lot of liquifaction. Moving around the city is a long and slow process. Our infrastucture is very damaged - sewage, water pipes, power lines, schools.

Many more houses have been damaged this time. Houses that had no damage last time are completely destroyed this time. Concrete tiles have been shaken off roofs, houses have shifted on their foundations, concrete floors cracked and all sorts of other damage.

Link tent protecting a neighbour's house in Cashmere. You can see how the concrete tiles have been shaken off. It started to rain on Tuesday evening after the earthquake. To give you a sense of scale, the photo on the right shows the Link tent at the 2011 South Island 4 & Rotary event.

Most of our beautiful historic buildings are severely damaged, if not completely destroyed. We are now a completely different looking city.

One of the myriad destroyed buildings.

General

Thank you for all your messages and best wishes. Link is still here and we've proved to ourselves that we are portable!!

If you wish to help Christchurch, please donate to the Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. There are a lot of people that are really suffering and they need all the support that can be given.

We'll update this information as we can.

'bye

• Previous work in an electrical, electronics, R&D, engineering or software environment
• At least 10 years experience in developing Microsoft Windows applications
• Exposure to the Motor Sport sector either as a sponsor, competitor or provider

Part of the engineering development team. Includes maintaining and improving our existing software, as well as development and testing of new software. Apply here.

Please note: Applicants for this position must have NZ residency

Other Positions Available:

Operations Manager - see News item

Technical Support Person - see News item

• Work at the top of the New Zealand automotive industry.
• Assisting in customer support through forums, phone and email
• On car testing and research including dyno tuning.

Part of support & development team. Improving our existing customer suport, as well as development, testing of new products and dyno tuning. Apply here.

Please note: Applicants for this position must have NZ residency

This position has now been filled

Other Positions Available:

Operations Manager - see News item

Software Engineer - see News item