SCC 2011


This year I left the bus at home and decided to fly to Norway to visit SCC, help out our USB members and catch up with friends.

Espen had recently fitted his eagerly awaited JMR 2110cc engine and was hoping to get into the club. Jan had his crewcab ready and was hoping to improve on his 14.7 and Terje Nyhagebraten was looking for better times in his beautiful early crewcab.

I was impressed by the amount of buses racing at SCC this year, both splits and bays. The weather wasn’t always kind to us but between showers there was plenty of track action. Espen was getting used to his new engine, his times improving with every run, although he missed out on qualifying by 0.4 secs. I’m sure it won’t be long before he runs faster and becomes a member. Jan had a few issues with his shifter but once this was sorted he ran twice into the 14’s, one of these runs producing a PB of 14.65. I knew as soon as I saw his run that he was flying, it all hooked up and went like a bat out of hell. Terje Nyhagebraten was having issues and was running consistently in the 18’s although his burnouts were very impressive and I love the stinger which comes out of the right-hand side of the bus!

Several other bays were aiming to get into the club and two buses made it! Congrats to Jorgen who now owns Jan’s old blue camper. He hadn’t raced the bus before and was very nervous about trying but after some words from fellow racers he decided to have a go. His times were also getting better and on his final run he ran a 17.88.

Pick-ups were definitely popular this weekend. Stefan Mälman from Sweden had brought his green single cab from the famous ‘turbo town’ and was producing many fast runs. He qualified as a Bronze member but had Silver in his sights. After a tweak to the turbo he ran a best of 15.3. He’d not run the bus before but this didn’t look the case with his times.

Welcome to the USB!

Well done to Jan for getting 3rd place in the buses class and to everyone that attended/raced. I just wish I’d have taken my bus too ha-ha.


Chris.

 

USB @ EBI4


This years EBI4 held at Chimay in Belgium was huge! It was my first experience of the show and I have to say I was very impressed. 5 buses travelled over to Belgium, 3 from the club, all intent on racing over the weekend. A very early start for us, arriving at Dover at 5am, we managed to get an earlier ferry which enabled us to get to the show by Weds lunchtime.

We were the first there, with many other UK dubbers arriving later or on Thursday. We set up camp next to the burnout box as Autotechniks had been assigned to look after the area. Of course we had to try it out ourselves and although we had one breakage on the Weds (CV joint), Mat soon had his van fixed for racing at the weekend. Most of our vans were out at some point over the weekend pleasing the crowds in the burnout box. Plenty of tyre smoke and cheers throughout those days, particularly pleasing to watch was Mark in his deluxe doing loads of donuts!

2 of our team were asked to do the scruitineering on race days, well done to Rob & Terry for spending their mornings checking all the race vehicles.

Mark had an issue with his engine so wasn’t able to race so we all decided to go out on the Sat afternoon when we had clear heads! Dixie joined us which made 4 members on track but we did have some new members qualify too! Congrats to Mathew Brown (from Autotechniks) in running a 17.1 and Vincent Grangier (from France) in running a 16.28.

Rob became a member as well, running a 17 in Alex’s bus – his first ever attempt too! Talking of Alex, he was out playing with his new slicks and ran a PB of 15.3, well done mate! By Sat my rear tyres were nearly bald (maybe one too many burnouts haha) but luckily I’d taken a spare set of wheels/tyres so I was legal to drive home. I was very happy with my 15.4 and 15.5 runs, nothing broken and getting home in one piece. One of the best shows ever, we’ll definitely be back in 2013!

Oh and one last thing - For some of us it was our first time and wow does the local beer knock you for six!! For anyone who’s tried the Chimay beer you’ll know what I’m talking about haha.


Chris.

 

USB @ EBI4


European Bug-In 4 will be graced which the presence of at least 4 USB members this year. 6 buses are cruising over on the Weds before the event and we are looking forward to a great show, some awesome burn-outs and some quick racing. To anyone attending, we’ll see you there! Get your camera’s ready!

Chris.

 

Another Silver member


Congratulations to Paul Moore in his ’74 camper in becoming the latest member to set a new PB. Paul is already a member, qualifying originally with a 17.1 sec run but has recently been trying out a few things with his NOS at York Raceway and has now run a very respectable 15.9. Great work Paul!

Chris.

 

Big Bang ‘11


Once again Big Bang saw USB action as members turned up to improve on their PB’s and get some track time after a long winter break. The weather forecast for Saturday wasn’t looking great so most of us decided to run on the Friday as the weather was perfect. Out with their buses were, myself, Alex, Mark from AutoTechniks and our latest member Neil with his Subaru powered late bay. A wise move by us as Friday was the quieter of the two days, probably as many people were still arriving and setting up camp. With the fire-up lane thin on cars it meant we got to run several times between cooling our engines down.

We had great fun racing each other and other types of vehicles. Alex & Mark had two ‘heads up’ races, both won by Alex and even though they had passengers, he managed to pop a wheelie too!!

I also had two ‘heads up’ races against Alex. The first one, well that didn’t go to plan as I’d not turned on the NOS bottle so after 2nd gear I cruised down the ¼ mile leaving Alex wondering where I’d got too. I then had a run against a MkV Escort, lowered, stripped out and roll caged I surprised him by crossing the finish line first. Every run I was improving on my PB as was Alex so when it came to our last run of the day it was going to be a close affair. We’ve always had close racing but this topped them all!

Alex had fitted both buses with his Go-Pro camera’s that captured our best ever run together. Alex got a 0.2 reaction to my 0.4 so I was playing catch up all the way. I worked out that I was catching him by roughly 1½ mph at the top end but although I ran a faster time, Alex pipped me to the finish line by 300th’s!!! It was an awesome race, our best ever plus I recorded a PB of 15.4 secs.

During the afternoon Alex also ran a PB of 15.4 with Neil running close to his PB with a 14.5. Mark had a few issues at the start line and was in the 17’s. Friday night/early morning saw the rain come and it wasn’t till near lunchtime that the track was open. The fire-up lane was very busy so most of decided to watch the racing or help crew for others. Dixie was there with his Bay although not running but Steve (two benders) was out in his early bay running high 17’s/18’s and I witnessed our latest member qualify in his early bay.

Congrats to Paul Phillips, Russ’s bro, who completely surprised himself with a 17.8, his camper still full of camping gear, bike rack and beer hahaha......so now there’s two Dormobile’s racing in the USB! You can see my runs against Alex in the Gallery and for more vids check us out on Facebook.

Chris.