First to join this week is two-wheeled fan, Tony Mayo:
Hi from the bottom end of the standings. To summarise it having sorted the engine last winter (Trevors old Yamworth not having raced in 20 years), after failure at every meeting last year, I started with high hopes, had a couple of gearbox issues, sorted them, then the rear tyre couldn't cope.
Managed to get a good slick (not easy in that size) so, having power and grip, destroyed the clutch. Managed to find a lock-up clutch, modify and fit it for last meeting at Melbourne, first heavy launch went crazy when the wheelie bars hit, corkscrewed left and right and oh, so nearly spat me off.
Looks like I was lifting the back wheel, possibly because they were half the recommended length. This winter, fixed a few cracks in the frame, building longer wheelie bars, and a bit of tidying up. Next year... reliable and competitive
Next to join us is the new face of Team Hawkins, XDA Champion and future Funny Car Pilot, Dale Leeks:
So as you, I had a busy year, the beginning of the year I travelled to Gainesville to undertake training at Frank Hawleys drag racing school. My goal was to go there and achieve my nostalgia NHRA funny car racing licence. At this point i had never driven a car down a drag strip and 2 days later broke the school car record running a 6.01 at 232mph in the quarter mile, I found the car comfortable and not to alien to me all the controls made sense and I had a good understanding of what I needed to do, but also went with a blank mind to make sure I could really maximise on the training available. I took the training very serious, and the result was more than I had expected. Frank signed off on my licence and I flew back to the UK to meet with Mark and Jackie Hawkins to strike the deal on becoming the pilot of their Top fuel Funny Car in Europe. Many people won’t know, but I’ve known Mark and Jackie for 20 years outside of drag racing.
I first met the pair when they had decided to close down their engineering business and help run a quarry in Leighton buzzard, I was a bulldozer driver and Mark found me in the yellow pages. Never did I realise at that time how special these two would become within my life. What a lot of people don’t know is I had a serious accident at the quarry and broke my neck in the process. I had 9 months in and out of hospital and needed speech therapy to be able to talk fluently again (many will say they over did it) but over the years we became great friends and I got into motorcycle drag racing while they got back into funny car racing. I pursued my Motorcycle career, but the whole time pestered Mark and Jackie into letting me drive the fuel car. The answer was always one day, Dale, one day.
Eventually Mark said he would consider me driving the car if I went and proved myself at Hawleys within 5 min of that phone conversation I called Mark back and said Hawleys is booked. The rest is history. The original plan was I would finance Jason to continue driving the car through the 2024 season while I came along and learnt, and we would fit licensing in between me racing the bike in the USA and then racing the car in the UK. This didn’t go to plan after the second meeting the car suffered serious damage and I sat down with Mark and said let’s put finances into the car so we have a better starting point for me in 2025. So we have spent the rest of 2024 ordering new parts and building the car how we want it. We wanted a jump on next season for me to try to get some licensing out of the way, and Kevin Kent called up and offered his car for me to use to licence. I can’t thank Kevin and his team enough for the opportunity.
I spent the day with Kevin before going through everything on his car and familiarizing myself to the cockpit. Furthermore, I most of done 150 passes in that car sitting still on the Friday, but I was feeling happy with the layout and what I needed to do. We went out on the Saturday with a planned 330 pass, to start my licensing. The car reacted exactly how I thought, and I was really pleased with my first attempt (truth be told I didn’t want to lift at the 330 it felt so straight and sweet) but it wasn’t my car, and I was under orders for licensing. It was great to have Kevin and his whole team around me and probably Europe's best funny car mentor helping me, John Spuffard. Unfortunately, we could go no further with our licensing attempts as the weather put play to that, but I get to sit through the winter with the mind set of yeah I think I might be able to do this ya know.
A week later, I flew back out to the states to race the biggest race of my life in the XDA world championship. I was point leader going into the event, but there was still a mathematical chance of me throwing it away. I’m happy to say that didn’t happen, going out Friday night and laying down the weekend's number 1 qualifying pass set the standard, and we took the championship on Sunday morning in E1. As many will know I’ve raced over there for 2 years covering, 78000 air miles and making it to every round. It was hard work but so worth it to retire in my final year of bike racing as world champion, it was a fairy tale for me. I couldn’t of done any of it without simply the best team in the world behind me.
Dan Wagner my tuner is simply the best in the world and without him, I would have got nowhere. And the Procopio family enabled me to race not just one race but two full years with their support I had motorhomes laid on, trailers laid on, all just to help this guy who showed up from England with a bike and a dream. Without them, I would not of been able to do it, so I’m eternally grateful to them all. My Dad travelled the world with me and has stood by me through the hard parts so more than deserved to stand next to me in my championship quest, I couldn’t of done it without him. He works on the bike to turn it round between rounds and is a crucial part of my team. I’m looking forward to going into top fuel with him. So the Gladiator livery is stripped off the car my race suit is made, the car's ready to go to paint and the parts are flowing through the door. I can’t wait to come up early next year, testing to get my licence signed off and race with the guys in the European funny car cup.
To round us up this week, we head to the "Snake Eyes" camp with Andrew Clifford:
One of the major assets of any drag racer is the ability to constantly look forward. So it was, following the biblical soaking at the National Finals we looked towards next season and began to work out how and where we can improve but first a brief season review from the Snake Eyes nostalgia dragster camp… Right before our first event we discovered major trailer damage which was impossible to fix in time. However, James’s boss Kevin came to the rescue, allowing use to borrow a flatbed trailer for the weekend. Our aim was to complete all Super Comp events this year, so a bit of a sketchy start! We were ticking along nicely, gradually getting more and more track time until The Main Event where we achieved surely one of drag racings holy grails; perfect ET and as such, number one qualifier. I only ever wanted to get close to 8.90, but to hit the index slap, bang on the nose was a real buzz for our team. Turns out the squirrelly launch DOES work!! We wanted more… Sadly, excitement is often short-lived in our sport, and the Summer Nationals hurt us.
The engine suddenly stopped around half-track during the final qualifying round. Inspection revealed a snapped timing chain, split cover, toothless sprocket along with 6 bent valves and pushrods. Being realistic, we got away with one. Thankfully, the big, strong Ford FE absorbed the impact! Luckily, we had some pushrods in stock – although used. This allowed us to make the mad 3 weeks in September to finish the season. Driver error screwed us in R1 at The Euros (for which I’m still apologizing) but when we let the car loose at the Hot Rod Drags we achieved PB's at every increment plus RT and MPH.
National Finals. Err, it was wet.
The dragster is now tucked away for the winter following a thorough check over; fuel system removed and cleaned, bearings checked, sump booked in for welding, half-shaft seal ordered, back axle seals ordered. We also discovered we’d broken a pushrod so maybe the rain was a blessing. Does leave me wondering how much longer we can ride our luck…oh well, best not to think too far into the future!
Due to some big birthdays in 2025 which will be a drain on finances we’re planning a pretty light schedule (most likely FoP, Main Event and Euros) but if we have some spare cash and more importantly annual-leave, who knows. I just have one aim: get out of first round at least once!
Finally, the thanks. EVERYONE in Super Comp, EVERYONE who bought a t-shirt, Kevin Parsons of Parsons Metal Recycling, Andy & Emma Gosling (stellar stand-in crew when James is on TF duty), Mum and Dad, and most of all Rach for holding the whole thing together.
