Stanley/Weiss Racing Ventures To Santa Pod Raceway With Trouble Motorsports
Story by Camp Stanley
Hagerstown, MD – The confirmation is that YES, I do have the world’s greatest “job”. I have just returned from my trip to Santa Pod Raceway in Merry Ole England. This trip was a return to a race track where my friend Brian Wood and I had ventured off to several years ago and observed 40 days and 40 nights of rain over a six day time span. To say that it rained hard would be a gross understatement of major proportions!
So when I arrived at the track Wednesday afternoon after a visit to Andy Robinson’s race car emporium and it started to sprinkle I had a massive case of deja vu! Not this again was all I could think! But after meeting all the crew on Marcus Hilt’s “Punisher” Pro Mod Corvette we got straight into the suspension setup of the car. The harder we worked and the faster we worked, the harder it rained and the little rivers of water running through the pits was enough for us to just give up on it for the night. We had no recourse but to delve into the premixed stash of that margarita stuff manufactured by the infamous mixologist (I am not a bartender!) himself, Me! And it was received well by one and all! The WORLDWIDE reputation enjoyed by this drink has now been carried to the European side of the world. Until we ran out of mix, they had been sampled by people from Texas, Sweden, England, Switzerland, France and Denmark. And it received its’ just due in the compliment department.
But by Thursday afternoon it was wonderful t shirt weather! The first test hit with the Vette gave us reason for optimism as things went exactly as planned. Even though it was setup really weak the car went quicker by .04 in the 60 foot than ever and even more tenths in the eighth mile even though it was a planned shutoff. After some between rounds maintenance we went back for our shot of the day. The result should have forewarned us that we were not going to be very happy with our results on the weekend. The reverser broke on the burnout and then it was into the take two transmissions and try and make one mode.
Then Mother Nature intervened and gave us rain and lots of it all by the bucketloads!!! The entire qualifying Saturday session was washed away down the storm drains. So we went into the Sunday qualifying with the expectations of three shots to gather some data. This was not to be as well since the track was plagued by a myriad of happenings that stopped the racing dead in its tracks! Everything from the Christmas tree being run over and destroyed to a massive power outage to the ENTIRE facility. Both of our runs were ruined by nagging little issues that the testing and the first couple of qualifiers were going to show us. NOT!!! On the first run the two step malfunctioned and his borrowed transmission broke when the large Swiss fellow plugged it into second gear. And that ended our racing adventures for the weekend!
I spent a lot of time on Sunday watching some racing and talking with people. Roger Burgess had flown his Camaro along with Mr and Mrs Al Billes, Mr and Mrs Darren Mayer, several of the crew and Ms Melanie Troxel to enter the race. The Camaro qualified for the field but lost its first round race. But the tuning people on the team came back and showed why they are at the top of their game in the US. The Camaro logged a 5.93 at over 242mph on an exhibition pass. Never sell Al Billes short! He was just one run shy of my prediction to the track announcer…… And how about that pair of young brothers in the Rockstar Energy Drink sponsored ex-John Russo Firebird! A true honest to goodness 6.0 bracket car that just never ceased to amaze everyone on the grounds and they won the event with those kinds of numbers!
What can be said for Urs Urbachers’ 4.70 Top Fuel dragster? 4.70s at will when he needed them and a new European speed record as well at almost 315 mph.
All in all it was an enjoyable experience and one that I hope to experience again. Thank you to Santa Pod Raceway, Marcus Hilt along with his entire crew, all the many people who took the time to stop and speak with me and especially to all the fans who persevered to witness a GREAT drag race .
Well done one and all!
