Drag Racing News

Welcome to our very own drag racing newsletter.

We hope you will enjoy following the trials and triumphs of Bob Main Racing. This page will be updated after every event that Bob is in. He goes to about ten meetings during the season. The first this year was at Santa Pod on Easter weekend.  All I can say about it is that it RAINED, mud is not one of my favourite things now! When the track was dry the racing was good.

Easter Thunderball 2000

Well that is the 2000 drag racing season well and truly under way and as per usual the weather was up to the expected standard of severe downpours of rain with the odd bit of sunshine. A good turn out of cars was already in the pits when we arrived, so getting pitted was more of a problem than usual. After a bit of a look around we all got into a space and set up our tents and all went to bed. Next morning saw us with a bit of work to do to make room for everybody's cars and Paul Hudson's caravan, which we borrowed for the Inverness posse, Gail (our webmistress) and David. Once we were all sorted it was time to get the kettle on for Steve and the boys. Next it was time to get down to some serious work and get the car up to the scrutineers to be looked at and the new log book made up. To my dismay, I was told to come back later as only one man could do the log book and he was busy. So by midday, I was still waiting to be looked at and was not happy to say the least. Finally, by three thirty, my car was ready to race, but due to weather getting wet, I had missed all runs and things looked bad for that day. On Sunday morning I got my first run, which was to be an observed run to prove to the race director that I can handle the car under power. After this has been don the race director signs your ,.log book and that's you ready to race. Because of the weather conditions, the normal two observed runs were cut down to one and it was treated as a qualifying run. As this was a new car, we did not know what time to dial in on the back of the car, so a 13.80 second prediction was tried , but proved to be a bit out. The first run of the new car prove to be a bit of a shock as it ran faster than last years car. It also ran arrow straight and produced faster top end speeds. The s4econd run was a bit closer, but still was off the dial in. The best was yet to come, on the third run we dialled in 13.60 and ran a 13.64, to give us  a number 4 qualifier spot. Not bad considering this was only the third run. All good things have to come to an end though and a first round loss drew the meeting to an end for the team , who had worked damn hard all weekend.      THANKS GUYS.

Avon Park Raceway

Super Series Round One

April 31st to May 1st 2000

One week late , we were hard at it again, this time at Avon Park, now known as Shakespeare County Raceway, near Stratford. Lady luck shone upon us this time, as did the weather. Which makes all the hard work seem just a little more worthwhile. This track always seems to make the cars go faster and ours was no different. Once again we had to try and predict a time, so after much thought and cups of tea, we settled on 13.45, but ran 13.445, braking out by 5000ths of a second. Because of this we went to the bottom of the qualifying pile. Round two produced a far better run of 13.468 on  a dial of 13.45 giving us number one qualifying spot. Over the next few rounds we played with the startline revs and tried different startline procedures to improve my reaction times. We thought we had it all sewn up with being only 1800ths off our dial in, but in the last qualifying session we were pipped at the post by Paul Hudson, who was only 1200ths off his dial in. This then made us number two qualifier, not bad and lots of points too. Round one of elimination's saw us up against the man who put us out at last weeks meet and I was out for revenge, and got it , dialling a 13.50 and running a 13.585 to win the first round. Round two saw us up against Alan Platt with his new shape Camero, who I had not run against before. Luck was on our side and we won against the Camero to go to Round three. This was a tough one, against Chris Hodgkins, and a bit of over keenness on my part saw a start line red light for me and a win for Chris. Once again all the crew worked hard, sorting out a radiator problem, which could have kept us out of the competition.            THANKS AGAIN LADS

Main Event 2000

Santa Pod

27 to 29 May 2000

With two out of three days spoiled by almost continuos rain, qualifying was thin on the ground. The first session was missed by everyone, so when we did get to run, we had no idea how it would go. Strong headwinds made everyone's runs way off pace except Alan Platt, who ran a 14.109 on his dial of 14.10, making him number one qualifier. Subsequent runs saw us in the top half of an eighteen car field. Not too good, but all we had. With this many cars entered there were lots of rounds  to get in before the final. Round one saw us up against Martin Lewis in his Nova (Vauxhall, not Chevy, that is) Luck was on our side however and Martin broke out allowing us into Round two. Next we were up against the new Corvette and due to some tinkering with the car between rounds, we found the pace again, but due to driver error, i.e. me not backing off soon enough, we broke out big time with a 13.74 on a 14.30 dial in, at 10mph slower than normal. At least we know why the car was slower than normal and that there is nothing wrong with it (only the driver). On a sad note, one of the motorbike riders came off at the top of the track and into the field, he was taken to hospital by the rescue crews but unfortunately he died of his injuries on the Monday. I didn't know him personally, but he will be missed by his friends and family and racers in general. That's all for now folks , Avon Park next

Avon Park Raceway

Super Series Round Two

June 17th/18th 2000

The sun had come out to play for this round, which was an improvement on the last three. But for our team, we had unexpected problems which were going to prove somewhat difficult to repair at the track, a broken rose joint on the front tie rod. Things were not so bad as at least we noticed the problem before we went out to run. After much asking in the pits if anyone had a spare joint, we drew a blank. The main problem was that when building the car, I used all metric joints and everybody else had used imperial ones. After much stressful thinking, I phoned Andy Robinson Race Cars, who, as luck would have it, was just about to leave to come to the track. Andy uses imperial joints, but not metric, so the only thing to do was change the thread to imperial. Andy was more than helpful and brought all I needed to do the repair at trackside. In the meantime, our class had run, but I had not. This meant that I had no qualifying spot yet. As luck would have it, our class was in the fire up road when we got the job complete, so we got a run to give us a qualifying spot. As things turned out it was the only qualifying run we would get due to running out of time before the curfew at six o'clock, although we did get an open practice run to prove all was well. With the weather being very hot, the cars were all being pushed down to the fire up road, and ours was no exception. A lot of drink was had by all in the evening to relax us after a hard days work. As usual Paul Hudson was on the receiving end of most of the slagging but managed to keep his trousers on for a change. Sunday saw more sun, which was starting to become unbearably hot and humid. This was to effect the running of the car, and what with only one qualifying round, we were unsure what to dial in. Round one saw us against Neil L Alouette in the Chevy pick up. Neil red lit, giving us the automatic win in to the next round. Round two saw us up against Paul Walker in his Chevy Malibu. Paul kindly broke out to give us a semi final place against Chris Hodskins in his Audi 80 sport, but unfortunately it was my turn to brake out as lifting off at the top was not good enough, and a 9000 of a second brake out saw Chris go on to the final against Granddad Annabelle in his BMW six series. Granddad had got  through to the final from the previous round on a  buy run. Chris would see off the old timer to win the meeting and possibly take over the championship lead in the points with either myself or Paul Hudson in second spot, as Paul went out on Round one. So things seem to be looking up for Bob Main Racing in 2000. Not long now to the Santa Pod cannonball, so watch this space for more nailbiting action as we look to get our first final since we started racing.

Santa Pod Cannonball

July 1st/2nd 2000

As per usual, the weather was up to the Pods normal standard of lots of rain with the occasional sunny period. The track staff were doing their best to keep on top of the track with the drier and the sweeper going out fairly early to get things going ASAP. Approximately one hour behind schedule we got our first qualifying run. Hot and humid weather confused us somewhat and our dial in was poor resulting in ninth qualifying spot. Three runs were scheduled for the Saturday, which every class received due to a nine o'clock curfew. Our second run was a bit closer, but due to everybody else getting closer, we slipped down to thirteenth place! Our third run did not help our qualifying spot any. Sunday eliminations saw us paired against Simon Chalkly in his Corvette. The luck was on our side for a change and Simon was pushed back with a leak of some sort. This gave us a second round spot against Brian Burrows in his VW Beetle, who was doing double duty in Sportsman ET and VW classes. As luck would have it, Brian was a bit quicker than his dial in and broke out, giving us a semi final place against Neil in his pick up. This time it was my turn to break out, giving Neil a shot in the final. Neil's luck, so far, had given him two bye runs and then our break out! Neil was paired against Ian Turnbull in his Camaro in the final, which took place around eight thirty, due to the bad weather. The final was run and Neil's luck prevailed as Ian broke out. All in all, not a bad result for us as that is three semi-finals in five rounds, keeping us in the top three in both the super series and the national championship. That's all for now folks. Santa Pod in three weeks. Watch this space for further fun in the sun. Ha ha ha .....................

Good news and bad.

Bob finally got into his first final, unfortunately he didn't win it.

He is finding that pressure at work and the ever increasing cost of fuel is taking its toll on him. So he has decided to sell the car and quit drag racing. We will have to wait and see if he means for good or for a year. Meanwhile he is thinking of moving from Winchburgh to live somewhere nearer the Pod, so he hasn't given up totally !!!!

Oh I wish men wouldn't keep changing their minds!!!!

Bob went off to Cambridgeshire for a while and came back to the correct side of the border after he realised what the cost of living was down south. He has also been persuaded not to give up on drag racing yet as his pit is now needed by our new junior dragsters from the Morrice clan. Click here for details on what they are getting up to in preparation of the 2001 season We are also awaiting info from Bob on his new car, so keep coming back.

We have another connection to the world of drag racing, as the latest recruit to the club is Paul Hudson and Money Hungry

Click here to see what Paul is up to

2001 and Bob is once again disenchanted with drag racing and after being knocked out in the first round at the Main Event at Santa Pod in May he has said that he will not race again. But he did say that last year, so we are not giving up on him yet !!!!!

If you have come onto this as the first page of our site welcome to

Ill-Eagle ac Scotland