Hello Everyone - A quick update after Finland, Our weekend wasn’t that great as bad weather and a few minor mechanical issues meant our first and only full pass was in the first round of Eliminations. This was a big struggle for us and was so frustrating that we weren’t able to make a decent pass in qualifying. Without making up any rounds we are now sitting 10th in the points although we are close to the top 5 so we hope to be able to improve on that. In the meantime we will be going through the engine and checking that its all fresh for Germany which takes place mid August.
Thanks for everyones support!!
Hello Everyone - Its been a while since we’ve updated the blog, we’ve been very busy over the last few weeks with the Main Event and then almost immediately afterwards the first FIA meeting at Tierp Arena. Although we qualified well at the Main Event rain halted play and no eliminations were completed. We were really disapointed with this as we were in a good position in our first round. At Tierp Arena we had a few tuning issues - We qualified in the gigantic field of pro mods, and the field was tight but unfortunately our run wasn’t good enough against the Lindberg boys who took us out in the first round. Despite this we were happy with the fact we were running very consisitant and running with no damage. Something we can definitly build on at the next event.
So later this week we will be travelling to Finland for the 3rd meeting of the year. This is where we suffered from our horrific fire last year so we’re keen to get back out there, run some good numbers as we knew we were capable of last year!
Watch this space for the update!!
Its only a week until the Main Event! - Just a reminder that our Hungary report is available to read on our website and that we will also be attempting to blog again from the track this weekend.
Andy and Luke will travel up later this week and will be at the track to help out some customers while they test. The rest of the crew will arrive throughout Friday. Our first run it to take place on Saturday morning.
The field is large, 25 cars in total all competing for the 16 car field! the competition is tough but we feel we’re in a good position and hopefully we will be able to do our home crowd proud.
Stay tuned over the weekend and we will update you after our runs, Wish us good luck!
www.robinson-race-reports.co.uk has been updated with a report from Easter. Hungary report to follow later this week. Check it out!
Right guys last blog of the weekend! We were lucky enough to be able to fit in one more run, so thank you to the event organisers for really helping us out here. We made some changes after the last run and needed to make one last pass to ensure our issues were no longer a problem. So after all of the sportsman finals we were able to make a pass. The agreement between crew and Andy was to do a burnout, launch and half pass. If the oil pressure was good then keep it in. So 6.10 seconds later we are all very happy! Andy over the radio confirmed the oil pressure was good and the pass felt great. The mph was better and the tune safe but fast so we are all happy in the Robinson pits. The car has been checked over by the crew and the engine is looking good so we are going to pack up and Andy along with Luke and our guest crewman Andrew Wright will drive over Hungary. The rest will fly over on Friday. Thank you all for your lovely supportive comments and everyone who’s wished us luck. We will post photos and a full race report in the next couple of days.
Well our engine problems still seem to be with us. After qualifying number 1 we had a bye in the first round but after the burnout there was a visible oil leak. We pulled back and consequently we were knocked out of eliminations. We were offered to tag along on the back of the pack for a check out pass, we were able to do this and Andy launched as normal. The oil light came on so Andy shut off the engine. Once back into the pits the oil light seems to have been a red herring but our issues with bearings still seem apparent. We are not sure at this stage what our next move will be so stay tuned and as soon as we have some more information we will let you know.
You may have noticed a lack of a red stude in the last qualifying session. While checking through our regular maintenance we came across a problem and unfortunately it has meant taking the car apart and rebuilding. We are expecting to start the car up before the end of the day and be ready for tomorrows eliminations we are qualified well and with only one session left are still number 1 so not all is lost we will be back with more updates later.
We have maintained our no 1 spot with a beautiful and effortless 6.15 at 229mph. Andy and the crew were very pleased by the run, and although it did get a little loose at the top end the time goes to show the track and car are both good. We are still taking it easy so tomorrow we will be trying to improve and get back into the zeros, however it’s good to be able to run in both lanes well and consistency wins races. For tonight we will do our regular maintenance, check over the engine and get it turned round for tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!
We are having difficulties with Internet connection so please bear with us. Were all happy after the first run and now doing our regular maintenance before our next qualifier.
Our first run was a shake down, we were planning to take it easy and do an 1/8 mile however we hit shake straight away and Andy got off the throttle pretty sharpish. The conditions were very which is a nice change for this time of year but still a challenge. Tomorrow we have 2 runs and we hope to be able to get some good times on the board. Currently we are 3rd with a 14sec pass, so it’s no surprise that Andy is being interviewed over what happened! Definitely not usual Robinson performance!
We are at the Easter Thunderball and the weather is glorious! Beautiful sunshine and no wind! We’ve started the engine and are now doing some final preparations before our first run at around 2.30pm. We will be back afterwards to let you know how things are going! Wish us luck!!
The crew are all very excited about getting back on the track this weekend, we look forward to running the car again and hope to be able to defend our MSA title.
As it is the first meeting of the year we thought that it would be a great opportunity to announce our sponsors for this year.
Firstly we would like to thank Torco oils who will be sponsoring us again this season. Its important to us to use the best products we can, Torco have been with us for many years now and we have always been very impressed with the quality of their products so we’re very pleased to have them on board again.
Other sponsors who are rejoining us in the 2011 season are PAC Springs, RCS, Racepak, TRS, Aurora and Hoosier. We’re proud to have these parts on our car and are confident in the performance they provide. Together they have helped us create a car that is very competitive so we would like to thank them for they’re continued support.
And last but most definitely not least.
New full time sponsor for 2011 – NGK Spark Plugs.
We have used NGK spark plugs on the car since we started racing with the blown motor, last year after our fire in Finland, NGK Spark Plugs provided us with some much-needed support, which was crucial in getting the car back on the track so quickly. We are very excited that this support has continued and are very proud to be representing NGK Spark Plugs this season.
We would also like to thank all of the Speedgroup Contingency Sponsors for they’re support to the FIA European Pro Mod Championship.
This weekend we will trial our blogging at the track to keep everyone updated on our progress. You can find our blog by following this link http://robinsonracing.tumblr.com/ and our usual reports will continue to be posted on our website which you can view here http://www.robinson-race-reports.co.uk/
Another great day working on the Stude yesterday! All the crew were over to help get the car ready for the first round, which takes place in 2 weeks time.
We managed to finish the rebuild of the engine and it is now in place, a few more jobs to do before we can start it up next weekend. We’re confident that we have discovered the little gremlins that caused us problems from last season and are looking forward to getting onto the track and back to our peek performance.
Yesterday we also did a few modifications on our awning and lighting set up which should make putting the awning up easier in future. It was such a beautiful day in Basingstoke yesterday that it was a perfect opportunity to work outside on the awning, lets hope that this weather stays put for Easter too!
We’re going to be exceptionally busy in the next couple of weeks as straight after Easter we will be travelling to Hungary to provide exhibition burnouts and runs for the crowd, its a real honour to be invited back again especially as the spectators are all so enthusiastic about the cars. After Hungary we will be back in the UK for some maintenance on the car before the first FIA round at the end of May.
As mentioned before next week we will be looking to start the engine for the first time this year, so we’ll get more photos and videos for you all to see before the 2011 season kicks off!!!
Easter is approaching quickly! We only have two more weekends to work on the car before attending our first meeting of the year. The Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway is always a tricky one. The weather is only just starting to warm up, it can often be very cold and showers can mean when the track is dry its still difficult conditions to race in. Not only that but this is the first meeting of the year, the track hasn’t been raced on by any substantial race cars since October last year - It goes without saying the track will be tricky for everyone. So although we will be going out there to win and take no prisoners we will be working with the car cautiously to ensure that the tune up is right - We have new parts in the engine and obviously do not want to do any damage.
Its difficult to say what kind of numbers we would expect to run, it would be amazing to be back in PB territory however we may have to wait until the Main Event for that, who knows we will take every run as it comes and assess the situation.
For the mean time its full throttle getting the car back together! As mentioned before we have had a bit of a crew shuffle…Therefore Jerry with his masses of wisdom is going through and mentoring Ryan and Scott who will be working on the bottom end together this year - On Sunday the boys made good progress on building one of our engines back up ready to put back into the car, the trailor has had some modifications and in even the Motorhome has had a bit of attention - There is still a considerable amount of work to be done but we will be ready and in full fighting fit mode soon!
About me
The Robinson Drag Racing Team blog is to give our supporters and sponsors more information and quicker updates on what we’re doing! Andy Robinson has been driving in Pro Mod since the 80s with a number of different cars – currently we campaign a 1953 Blown Studebaker. Regularly one of the fastest cars in Europe, we have some impressive statistics under our belt. In the last 6 years we have been number 1 qualifier in 5 FIA meetings, where we can be competing against up to 32 cars!
Also in the last 6 years we’ve qualified in the top 3 in 25 rounds (15 FIA meetings and 9 MSA Meetings excluding those that fall under both) and have had 11 final round appearances.
We have finished in the top 5 of the European championship 3 times over the last 5 years and have successfully been crowned the MSA British Champion 3 times in the last 4 years.
Our personal bests are 6.05 seconds at over 230MPH.
