Round 6 2018
Round 6 WebTV Show
Round 6 Race Report
Santa Pod Raceway – National Finals - 6th – 7th October 2018
According to the Pro Modified notes in the National Finals programme, it would take ‘a disastrous weekend’ to deny Andy Robinson his seventh MSA British Drag Racing Championship. No such thing happened. Robinson qualified low in the one-off Sunday morning session occasioned by Saturday’s total rain-off, then sailed past Wayne Nicholson in the opening round to secure the title beyond doubt, followed by a semi-final win over a stuttering Jon Webster. At 7.15pm, under Santa Pod’s meagre track lights, Robinson rolled into the right lane ready to conclude yet another magisterial masterclass in Pro Mod racing with his 15th career MSA race victory in the very last competitive match of 2018’s drag racing season.
What could possibly go wrong?
A scuff against the track wall is the answer: a scuff which jammed the front wheel, sending the Camaro veering sharply left, up on two wheels, then airborne across the finish line – vertically, nose-down – before twisting and crashing back to earth far into the shutdown area in an explosion of sparks and debris. The chassis and body are a write-off but, miraculously for such a wreck, the engine and drivetrain are reported as possibly ‘salvageable’. More miraculously still, Robinson climbed out and walked to the arriving ambulance under his own steam. If nothing else, the catastrophe provided a tribute to the construction qualities of Andy Robinson Race Cars’ products and the SFI Foundation safety standards that underpin them, plus a marvellous, if unwanted, advert to all those circuit racers who rely on the roll cages and other chassis components which ARRC installs for them. There will be an added poignancy when Robinson is inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame at next month’s Gala and the SFI Foundation is presented with the Lucas Oil Global Achievement Award.
Robinson’s Anger Management team intends to build a new car next year and return to action in 2020. “Dad’s not done yet,” says Luke Robinson.
Apart from the obvious, it is also a shame that Robinson’s calamity overshadowed what was happening in the left lane, where Chris Isaacs was notching a clutch of firsts for the Isaacs & Tramm team – a career-first Pro Mod round-win followed by career-first semi-final and final wins, plus (one for the historians) a first MSA race victory by a turbocharged car. Moreover, the sixth-qualified Isaacs’ beaten opponents were not only the top three qualifiers, but the top three championship finishers too. Kev Slyfield blew away a quicker pass with a fractional red light and Bobby Wallace suffered gearbox problems during the run. While Robinson was going haywire in the final, Isaacs clocked an official personal-best ET (6.579sec) on the way to victory (though the time still lags behind his 2015 test best of 6.387). If Isaacs’ opponents all had their problems, that is immaterial. Getting to the finish line first is what counts in heads-up drag racing, and Isaacs & Tramm accomplished that essential goal with distinction.
2015 MSA champion Kev Slyfield’s first-round loss lifted Bobby Wallace into second championship place for the second year in a row. Repeating his European Finals appearance in sister Annie’s nitrous Mustang, Wallace clocked a new speed PB (228.94mph) in the Sunday morning qualifying session. The event’s other PB fell to Jon Webster (6.850) as he begins to wind up the power in his new turbo Mustang while Nick Davies also stepped up the pace (6.823/209.12) in the ICE Automotive turbo Barracuda. Davies’s 2019 sights will be set on the 6.39sec/239mph figures he achieved while testing Graham Ellis’s ICE-engineered Superbird in 2011.
2019 will therefore crown a different MSA champion after three Robinson seasons. Might past champions Slyfield (2015) or ‘Bert’ Englefield (2008) repeat the feat, or will it open the door to a fresh winner? Come next April when the new season begins at Easter’s Festival Of Power, the UK will (in theory at least) have left the European Union. How will that affect the eligibility of overseas entrants for the championship, which has hitherto required a driver’s competition licence to bear the image of an EU flag? The MSA’s consideration of the matter is awaited with interest.
RESULTS:
QUALIFYING:
Best
ET MPH MPH
1. Andy Robinson GBR 6.225 242.50
2. Bobby Wallace GBR 6.227 228.94
3. Kevin Slyfield GBR 6.510 219.33
4. Jean Dulamon FRA 6.677 215.11
5. Jon Webster GBR 6.850 200.80
6. Chris Isaacs GBR 7.274 204.26
7. Nick Davies GBR 8.180 120.43
8. Wayne Nicholson GBR 16.082 47.09
Not qualified:
Mick Payne GBR No Time -
ELIMINATIONS:
Round 1:
Jon Webster 6.907, 206.28 def. Jean Dulamon 6.977, 158.52
Chris Isaacs 6.666, 210.11 def. Kev Slyfield 6.390, 229.05 DQ R/L
Bobby Wallace 6.236, 226.62 def. Nick Davies 6.823, 209.12
Andy Robinson 6.127, 237.32 def. Wayne Nicholson 7.556, 140.31
Semi-Final:
Andy Robinson 6.492, 237.31 def. Jon Webster 19.367, 58.13
Chris Isaacs 7.172, 195.54 def. Bobby Wallace 7.681, 125.91
Final:
Chris Isaacs 6.579, 222.56 def. Andy Robinson DQ
Low Elapsed Time of the Event: 6.127sec. – Andy Robinson (E1)
Top Speed of the Event: 242.50mph – Andy Robinson (Q)
Personal-best performances set during event:
ET MPH
Chris Isaacs 6.579 -
Bobby Wallace - 228.94
Jon Webster 6.850 -
