Actually it wouldn't be that bad, if our team would not always try to make it a one day trip, which means: Leave home at 2 am in the morning, be there 11 hours later, unload the tractors, pull until 2 am in the morning, load the tractors back up, hit the road again and be home at 3 pm the next day. Then unload it all, have BBQ at the workshop and finally get to sleep.
Talking about feeling shot until tuesday ....
Anyhow - the trip to Bernay is always worth it. Having the 2.5t modified class gave some extra excitement to the show this year (still.. I think they could have minis on sunday....).
The light mods started on a little difficult track. Because of rain there was plenty of water below the surface - but no water was put on on top. So the first couple of guys had to run on that try stuff and had trouble getting the nose up or speed built. For luck the sled was set light and almost everybody, not experiencing technical difficulties like Voldsom Volvo (WAY rich) and Mad Max (backfire?) could make a full pull. Crowd was happy and nobody felt like he was getting screwed. For the Pull Off the track was in good shape and we could have a fair competition. It took quite some tourque, but didn't lift too much front end weight - so far. This was going to change later in the day though.
The Pull Off was opened by the Curtiss Wright radial engine powered Herbie, but the impressive yellow machine was a little overgeared and also lacked some front end weight.
The distance was no match for the next competitor, the Green Monster of my team. Our old trusty Allison did the job well and set the first distance to beat at around 72m.
That was the little bit of 5m too much for the Isotov 2 with Günter Bals behind the wheel, but Günter was happy to at least have stayed in bounds and the 4000hp twin turbine tractor not bouncing this time.
Next one up, the new Green Spirit 7. After the impressive showing at Herning, everybody expected a new distance to beat of the RR Griffon machine, but it failed to pass the distance of the Green Monster by 12 cm!
The next competitor from Denmark, Fighting Star, almost made me run. I don't know what he was thinking but he was heading straight for us photographers and showed no sign of changing it's direction what so ever and never let off the throttle until he was out of bounds.
The De Jong Special that got hooked to the sled always has me keep my fingers crossed. They are really the underdogs in this competition running with a supercharged Continental V12 engine on a tight budged and I am always afraid they would come in last and not make their fuel money. But Toine de Jong showed they belong in the Euopean Top of the class and laid down a nice pull. Not the greatest distance, but for sure in the money!
The Viper that followed next had some engine trouble with one of the KB engines the way it sounded and the young team had to seddle for a place behind the De Jong Special. The next competitor would have been able to set a new leading distance - but bad luck seems to stick with the Le Coiffeur team. After a marvelous run in the qualification, the Griffon engine just slowly died after the start in the Pull Off. Therefor Poul Ager Jensen showed how it's done and set a new leading distance at about 74m. Not really as far ahead as he used to be.
But there was still one tractor to go, Stefan Kronvall with the Wild Thing, who came all the way from Sweden. He placed the sled on the far left of the track and then with a hammer down pull ended up right between Black Power and Green Monster.
What a finish!
Ok - Super Stock time and I thought I should go help to get our little tractor loaded and take pics of the Super Stocks in the Pull Off.
A) I did NOT expect that for the first time in decades the french come up with a sled setting that didn't let everybody fly through the gate
B) I also did NOT expect to be pulled off the track by Jean Pierre during the Super Stock Pull Off, to check out the food tent of the local assiciation after taking only four shots:
Well.. I got to exercise some of my absolutely rusty french, had to try french beer and got to talk with the promoter some, who wanted to make up for having "stolen" some pictures of my website for the Pull promotion....
I got some interesting facts out of him though. There is over 150 people working on that pull during the weekend, there was over 6000 cars parked (and a lot of the spectators just walked there from the nearby town so they could drink without risking their drivers liscense) and I also noticed, they were taking good notes about the progress of each class, to set the breaks right to have the event last way past midnight.
By the time I got out of the tent the Super Stock class was over and Mean Ole Pete, a british owned pulling truck, was making an exhibition run. I did get to see some of the Super Stocks on the video screen inside the tent and can tell you Willem Veldhuizen won it by having found the best spot to start from (far left).
So there I stood... Super Stock class over and they were having a break before the 4.5t modified division. Time to check with my team and discuss track conditions, fuel set up and weight placement. Since Popeye wasn't there because of that damn accident on it's way to France, we had first hook. With the nose full of weights we laid down the first full pull and almost everybody else followed. The Cougar team lost a blower belt and then on top also couldn't make a run in the Pull Off.
Matthias Vogelsang on the Erlkönig did make a beutiful pass for the picture gallery, but ended up WAY out of bounds in the end.
Anyhow - we was first in the Pull Off and after having removed some weight off the nose, because of the track becoming loose, Enrico laid down a so/so pass with the Green Fighter, having to use the breaks once.
Then we got really outsmarted by Bert Wuytack and his crew, who placed the sled even further on the left and Bert laying down a brilliant pass parrallel to the boundary line - beating our distance by 2m. Respect! Therefor he was so far away from my flash, I couldn't take a good picture of him and the Baby Duck...
Peter de Regt on the Green Spirit already had to fight with track conditions getting tough and following the same trail as the Green Fighter, ended up in the same hole and came to a hold too soon to beat the triple Allison.
For Egbert Dros it went accordingly with an even more loose track and even less covered distance.
The rest of the results reads like the starting order... the later you pulled, the worse your distance got. The only exception was the Lambada that, with a late hook, still managed a 5th place in the end.
Given the conditions, the result of the Fox team wasn't too bad either. The yellow machine laid down a nice pass - but unfortunatly didn't receice many points for it.
Well.. that's the way it goes. I remember us ending up somewhere down in the ranks for years because of a late hook, too.
What I really wonder though, is this because of the sled and it's brutal scrapers that the track is going away so quickly, or is it a matter of the dirt? It for sure was not a lack of water. Maybe it would be worth trying to get one of the modern sleds from England or Edewecht there, that do not work with long knifes under the pan?!
Well.. after the class it was time to load up the big tractor to and go home as points leader. Not a bad feeling after all....
No comments:
Post a Comment