National Finals 2012 - No. 3 qualifier & back to back 9.18's!

Mixed emotions this weekend, a great season is coming to an end!
And we end it with a fair amount of consistency and an unbroken car!!

SAT - the sun shone through the camper windows & we were going racing. 1st qualifier - we dialled 9.10 and ran 9.18. 2nd qualifier - we dialled 9.12 and ran 9.18! 3rd run - dialled 9.16, had a bit of a squirley run and finished Saturdays qualifying with a 9.53 which left us as no. 3 qualifier, best ever for us! Team spirits were high and we ended the season with Cassisi Chili, burgers & home made Strawberries & cream cake.
SUN - started a little grey and we had Bob Hawkins with fixed NOS in the 1st round of elims. We dialled the magic 9.18 and ran a 9.58 @130mph but took the 1st round as Bob had NOS problems again. We eagerly awaited round 2 against the Sting boys but not to be as down came the rain again.
Many congrats to our pit neighbours Team Gridlock who ended the season as WB1 again and many other championship wins.
We'll be back next year to beat those pesky Altereds!!!

Team LFR would like to thank all of their family & friends for their constant support that keeps us all going throughout the year, all of the track officials & Marshall's who provide great tracks for us to race on, all of the photographers for the great pics that we can't wait to get home to see, Med staff, particularly at Shaky, Wild Bunch racers & teams for giving us some great competition on the track & good friendships back in the pits, Chris & Claire for looking after all of the Wild Bunch & to all of the fans who come and chat to us at the tracks - can't wait to do it all again next year!!!!

Mark & Lynne would like to say a personal thank you to Steve, Anna, Rob (Marra 1) & Pete (Marra 2) for helping to make Team LFR  the great team that we are.

Hot Rod Drags 2012

We love this meeting & the sun was shining!
Race Car - check, matching Tot Rod - check, Ian's Chevy Truck - check - let's have some Nostalgic fun!
SAT - 1st run - we followed Crazy Chris, being pushed by the gorgeous Burb truck & accompanied by stunningly dressed Claire as back up girl, to do a good old fashioned push start & flag start. We put 12 psi in the tyres to spin the tyres off the start line. Surprisingly with new tyres & a good track we ran a 9.15 @ 142mph!
Claire did an amazing job as back up girl & Lynne has promised that she will pluck up the courage to do it with her next year.
2nd run - we dropped the tyres to 5.5psi and ran 9.32 @ 140mph! Should have left them at 12 psi!!
Nobody cares, we're having fun! Now for the cackle.
Once again BallBreaker was pushed down the pairing lanes by Ian's gorgeous truck to lots of applause from the packed stands. Lots of noise was made, fireworks were lit & everyone went to bed smiling & happy. What a great day.
SUN - lets play again!
1st run 9.10 @143mph - that'll do nicely. Lunch & a stroll around the trade stands for Team LFR.
2nd run was a repeat of Saturday morning following Crazy Chris & his great outfit to do another push start down the pairing lanes. Great response from the crowds again. We ran a 9.51 @ 141mph to a 8.96 @ 149mph from Chris but we didn't care. We'd had  a great weekend and we all went home with a warm & fuzzy feeling!

Open Sports - HailStones, Space Hoppers & Man Down!

NOT a typical race weekend!
SAT - We only managed 1 round of qualifying on Sat before the sky's turned very grey and down came the rain! It was heavy and lots of it! We ran a 9.81 on a 9.18 dial as we were suffering some fuel problems. No more racing today so lets do the next best thing - Space Hopper racing on the track of course with fuel masks, helmets & wellies! All was going well, Dads v Dads, Girls v Girls and then Chief v Space hopper and MAN DOWN! Steve was carried to the med centre where he produced what looked like a boiled egg stuck to his ankle! No more Olympics for us today. Thanks as always to the med centre staff who did a sterling job of looking after Steve. We are starting to think of them as the LFR med staff after the various team visits over the last 2 years!
SUN - weather looked better and we managed 2 runs, the 2nd of which caused a little argument back in the pits as Mark pulled a larger wheelie than (Lynne) he would have liked and crossed the centre line hence the run being disqualified. At least Marks Mom, Auntie, Dorset Horn Carole & GHGH  Val didn't see it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bonus though, Mark was awarded 'Wildest Ride' trophy by C&C!
Back in the pits LFR & Team Gridlock staged their own version of the Olympics where Marra's (Marrows!) were used as batons in the relay, kids were carried on shoulders for the egg & spoon, Val flag started the races with Union Jacks & Mark & Dex ran a pushchair race! Good fun was had by all & kids went to bed happy full of sugar & rice crispy cakes! At least there wasn't any cheating was there Sarah (Howells) & Joe (Berwick)!
MON - Race Day
Weather was better than forecast so to round 1 of elims. Car hadn't run too well all weekend and we had Adz in the 1st so it should be close as he dialled 9.25 & we dialled 9.28. Sadly we had a problem & lost to Adz with a poor 12.13 @ 61mph. Fair play to Adz & we had had great fun partying with Team Gridlock this weekend. (Mark still mentions beating Adz in the space hopper & egg & spoon though!).
A mixed weekend of injury & car trouble but had a good old laugh, won a few Olympic medals & topped it all off with trophy for Best Appearing Team so still smiling!!

Dragstalgia 2012

We had fun!
Friday night was a long wet, windy one and it was a long wait on Saturday before we could get suited and booted and go racing! As soon as we had the call to go Ian fired up the 'push' truck, his lovely 1949 Chevy in team colours, and off we went. 5.05pm, we ran a 9.38/143mph. Not bad. Back to the pits hoping for another. Oh no here comes the rain again! Just enough time for a Push & a Cackle! Great fun, topped off with flame burnouts and even a sunset!
Sunday came and we were woken up with the sun streaming in through the curtains. Perfect racing weather. Sadly Lynne wasn't well so she had to listen to our run info from the camper bed and miss the sun! We gave Claire a dial in of 9.20, hadn't really got much to go on! 1st run 9.35/144mph, 2nd 9.25/143mph, 3rd spot on(ish) at 9.204/143mph & the 4th was 9.24/142mph. All in all a pretty consistent weekend.
A good weekend for the Marras as they finally go their hands on the old LFR chassis! Wrathchild is on it's way!
A fab weekend for Harley blasting around in his Tot rod. Massive thanks to Lee Patrick for getting it running and to Lee & Martin for fixing it after the little bump and to the Marras for chasing little man around the pits in it all weekend and keeping an eye on him!
A great weekend for BallBreaker and all the crew as we received the Santa Pod Dragstalgia 2012 Showmanship Award for Best Appearing Team, sponsored by LA Racing Parts. Happy Days!
We all travelled home in a convoy, The Coulsells & BallBreaker, Marras & Wrathchild, Steve & caravan & Anna & Ada, imagine the conversations if we'd have had CB radio!!
Thanks as always for all of the support from friends and family and to all of the photographers for capturing some great shots of us having fun!

'Gangster' Fancy Dress

Mark set off for Shakey on Friday evening, in the rain! The rest of the team decided to have a decent nights sleep in their own beds (well apart from Marra 1 who was on nights, bless him!) and head off for the track on Saturday morning. Everyone arrived nice and early and started getting BallBreaker ready for action. The track was nearly race ready and down came the rain again. By the time Lynne arrived just after midday it had been announced that the whole meeting had been called off!
So the decision needed to be made: TO PARTY OR NOT TO PARTY!
We were there now and fully equipped with Gangster fancy dress so after chatting to other Wild Bunch teams decided TO PARTY ON!!!
We all 'clothed' up and very dapper we looked too! Off we set to the clubhouse complete with, boas, splurge guns & very dodgy moustaches!
We all had a good laugh and it was perhaps the stress free weekend that we all needed.
The team would obviously had preferred to race but we made the best of a soggy situation and went home without our spirits too dampened.
Looking forward to Dragstalgia on the 14th/15th July.

Nostaligia Nationals 2012

Happy 2^nd birthday BallBreaker and the team!

And what a birthday it turned out to be!

The team fired up the car on Sat morn but she didn’t sound too happy! The new fuel filter was removed to see if that was the problem. Fire in the hole, literally and then a nice rock fell out of the gear box! Must have been the flying object Mark saw on the last run in the return road but couldn’t find! Let’s try again – sounded sweet. Let’s go racing. Had to wait a while for a couple of oil downs but eventually we were ready. 9.11 @ 148 mph. A PB. That’s more like it! The Crew are very happy and return to the pits to get ready for another. Fire up road virtually empty, stands too! Must be lunch time. Solo run then, OMG 8.95@ 148 mph. We all go wild, our first 8 second run! Thank goodness Louis was there and forced Lynne to video it else we would not have had any footage of it (even if it is rubbish and Lynne and Anna are screaming all over the end of it! Comment by Lynne!). Get out the 8 second champers! No time for partying let’s go again. This time against Andy ‘nutter’ Hadfield! Mark did a great burnout but couldn’t be seen once Andy had done his! Mark pulled a huge wheelie but still managed a 9.14 @ 148 mph. One more and it must be party time! Last run 9.03 @ 148 mph. Consistency at last, what’s occurring! Scottie kindly offered us a push so we thought we would join in with the flag starts. Paired up with Darryl ‘Shag’ Howells with 12 psi in the slicks for a nice smoky launch. Ran a 10.2 still @ 144 mph! Champagne and cake at last! What an amazing birthday!

Sunday’s weather wasn’t being kind but after huge efforts from the track crew we set off for round 1. We dialed 9.08 and ran a 9.19 so not too bad. We had time for 1 more round and finished up with a 9.12 which we were all more than happy with. Just to top off the weekend we got Best Burnout Trophy! We would just like to say a huge thank you to all of our friends and family who support us constantly and hope that we can do all this again when hopefully they will all be there to see it. Happy days!

June Jubilee/Shakey Super Pull 2012

OMG - 9.20 sec last meeting 20.9 secs this meeting! Maybe deciding to wear Red, White & Blue was a bad omen. Fitted tank, fuel filter & front end parts on Sat morn and tried a new set up recommended by Good Vibes. Off we went proud in our Jubilee colours for our 1st run of the weekend - 16 seconds!!! Ok, lets put the set up back to what we know! No time for a 2nd run so we will wait for Sunday.
Sun morn we were ready to roll for 10am - 20 seconds - WTF! Lots of head scratching was going on and not many ideas flowing as to the problem. 3rd run was worse & the 4th no better. Mark noticed that the fuel shut off lever had moved so a check was made back in the pits and this seemed to be the issue. This was confirmed in Martin Chesworth's set of photos showing the position of the cable from the burnout to the launch - cheers Martin. Sadly rain stopped the team trying out what they hoped was the answer so they will have to wait to test their theory until the Nostalgia Nationals, BallBreaker's 2nd birthday!

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