PAST EVENTS PAGE 148
JAP SHOW, SANTA POD - SUNDAY 25th JUNE 2006
This is the first big Jap-Only meet at Santa Pod for the season, and the first time the
club has had a stand at this event, adjacent to the IMOC stand. We were very
fortunate to be given a prime location, right next to the drag-strip and very
close to all the trade stands. This meant that we had lots of interest in our
cars from the general public passing through. We had a pretty good turnout of 8
MK1s, including 2 superchargers and 2 track prepped MK1s. One of the track cars
belonged to Tim Cartledge, a club member who completed his first race in the MR2
Challenge recently in a car that he has been preparing himself. One lucky
couple, new to the club, had only just been ‘given’ their supercharger (SC)
from a kiwi guy who had imported it from NZ but then no longer used it. The car
had been sat left in a car park for a while before they got it but seemed to be
a lovely car, in need of a bit of TLC. It was still on NZ plates so is one to
look out for.
As the main show day is on the Sunday, and the strip gets very busy, Garrick and I had
decided to run our cars on the Run What You Brung (RWYB) session on the Saturday
instead. It was the first time I had taken our SC down the strip, but was very
pleased with a ¼ mile time of 14.7 secs. However this still doesn’t beat the
best SC time on the IMOC table of 14.5 set by Tom Dyke. Garrick however had
better fortune on the strip with a time of 16.3 secs which puts his MK1a as the
fastest standard mk1 on the IMOC table. I didn’t get chance to catch up with
the MK1 on our stand that was running the strip on Sunday, so don’t know their
best time.
The main drag strip action that most had come to see was the Pro-Shootout, with plenty of
close battles to keep you on the edge of your seat. The FWD final was won by Guy
Chamberlain in his Honda Civic Type R, with a time of 11.397 – a new FWD Pod
record. The 4WD/RWD finals was between Adrian Smith (Fensport Celica) and Kevin
Huntley (Supra), and was very close. Kevin pushed ahead at the finish with an
astounding time of 10.409 sec run at 145mph!
The jet car put on its usual amazing display of raw power and speed, putting in a 5 sec
run, leaving the chaos of car alarms going off all along the strip.
After 2 days at Santa Pod I made a weary journey home – one of the last MR2s to go. I
am now looking forward to the Jap Show finals in October.
See ya there!
JO WALKER