So after the disaster at the Festival of Power, it was back home to lick our wounds and start again.

On inspection it looked as though all the damage was sustained to the front half of the chassis.

This was duly cut 6" from the front of the fire wall and promptly  binned it in disgust. New tube was then welded up and there you have it, just like it never happened. (If  only it was that simple).  Everything in front of, and including, the motorplate was damaged other than the tyres, hubs and one rim. A visit to Andy Robinson Racecars and more tube was purchased for the  chassis, front axle and torsion bar, new rim, flexplate and 7075 motorplate  stock ordered. By now the clock seems to be ticking faster, as the theory was to be back at the race track to test and tune again in just over a week. (We love a challenge).

New rim spoked, motorplate and flex plate replaced, front half remade, welded and repainted, new front axle and torsion bar made and fitted but not chromed and off we went for another go.

We arrived at Santa Pod early Saturday morning, set up camp, had some coffee and then some more coffee, fired the car up and had a slow drive around the pits for a final check over. What next? more coffee and a pep talk consisting of lets take it nice and steady, small burn out and a slow run down the track to see how it feels. Unable to put it off any longer the car was hitched up to the tow car and off we went. 

The 1st run saw a conservative 11.41 ET @ 123.44 MPH, not to bad, we had got from one end of the track to the other with no mishaps. More coffee while the engine cooled down and off we went again.

The 2nd run saw a 12.30 ET @ 89.98 MPH and a 3rd run of 12.39 ET @ 119.17 MPH, inconsistent to say the least.

This wasn't a worry to us as we've never been consistent and with the track now closed, that was us done for the day. With more testing planned for Sunday, we opened the beer and chilled out for the evening. 

Sunday morning saw us up early and raring to go.

We fired up to get some heat in the engine and tyres and then shut down, over night the gremlins had paid us a little visit, in the form of the shaft moving in the gear box and damaging the oil seal. Feeling somewhat deflated at being unable to resolve it at the track, we packed up and with 3 weeks until the next meet we headed over to Shaky to watch the rest of the Wild Bunch in action.

With the body freshly painted in its official colours, new push rods fitted and a thorough check over the engine, we headed up to Santa Pod on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday was Pro test day and the 1^st opportunity for Steve to put a few check out passes on the car before Sarah being unleashed in it. Thursday morning was spent giving it the once over and Sarah being towed around the pits to make sure she was comfortable with it all, the only thing left was to get it on the track.

We towed down to the start line just as they stopped for lunch, 20 minutes later, a pep talk on a nice and steady first run and we were on, this was it. Steve pulled round in the left hand lane, I headed towards the lights and gave him the thumbs up as he pulled through the water box and then it was all over.

A slight miss hap as he drove through the water box, saw the left hand tyre grip and the right hand tyre not. The results were devastating and pretty hard to comprehend at the time. The car hit the Armco upright, cutting the front axle clean in half and taking the Armco out of the ground.

Rapid response from the lovely St John’s Ambulance crew and the track crew who I’m sure to this day say to each other here they come stand clear (much appreciated guys), saw us parked up in the shed and utterly devastated, no racing for us this weekend then.