Quick report from the 2009 ROSSA speed challenge

Written by Tony Lovering:

Hi Guys

Just back from the event so here is a quick review just to keep people updated. More reports, vids and pics will follow.

The weather on Saturday was perfect with bright sunny weather and we were off to flying start right away. Kevin Simms blasted the UK record set by Vassmar last year at 104mph with a run of 111mph with his Losi XXXs.

I was concentrating on the rocket car and manages a decent run with 1/2 NOS at 58mph. The car went straight so we were all set for a flying run. Next run saw a craking 117mph much to Kevins dismay.

Kevin also was putting in flying times with his B4 buggy of 94-97mph.

Jay was putting in some really ast times with his 2 cell stock car and was pushing the record right up to 87mph.

The final run with the rocket car on the Saturday was clocked at 107mph.

Ken turned up and concentrated in getting his jet car preapared for the sunday.

Sunday came and it was dry but a bit windy. The times were a bit lower but lots of good times were posted in the 80s and 90s. Keving plugged away all day with his B4 and manged to finall break the 100mph barrier. Jony Bast from Sweden plugged away with his 4cell 2wd F1 car and got 94mph. Andy managed a decent 51mph with hos revo. Tom pennington couldnt better the 75mph he got with his xray 2 cell on the first day. Jay and Time were setting decent times and Allan Waterfall and John Veal were having their usuall too and fro on their IC bikes. John managed to come out on top this year with 85mph.

Then there was the final run with the rocket...

The previous runs were pretty good and I knew the car had potential for more speed. As this was the last run I opened the NOS injector up from 1.5mm to 2mm and the exit nozzle from 8.5mm to 9.5mm. I filled the accumulator with over 16oz of NOZ and pressureed it up to 1100 psi and set it up about 200m firther back than the previous run.

Tom hit the ignitor and I waited a good 5 seconds for the heat to build before I pulled the throttle and off she went. The rocket started slow and at about 1/3rd of the way into the run really took off. The car went through the speed trap and started to vear so I tried a correction but it went over and skidded about 100m on its room.

The guys ran over to the speed trap and read the numbers...

163.58mph and a new worlds record beating the existing record set by Nic Case of 161.76mph last year.

I'm waiting for the videos but hope to post something really soon

Thanks to everybody who turned up and made the event what it was. I'm sure all of you pus many more will be back again next year.

Also thanks to Jerremy at the drag strip who supports our events and does a fantastic job of preparing reviews for mags and other promo stuff.

Special thanks to Tom for his help again and also for the techincal input of Carolyn Chambers without hwhos help I could not have built the rocket car

A full report will be out soon

Cheers