Rainy European finals at Santa Pod Raceway

Blood, sweat and tears, day and night, 7 days a week is the best way to describe the last few weeks in Zodiac Racing's workshop to get "The Godfather VII" ready to rumble for the first time. One hour before it was put in the trailer, the bike ran for a couple of minutes on Methanol, and only for 5 seconds on Nitromethane. For 5 seconds and then shut down in a hurry to be able to catch the ferry to England's home of European drag racing, Santapod Raceway. There it literally shook the world, as it started, and ended, with a big bang.

The team principal and bike owner Ton Pels announced it on Eurodragster and Kingracing.com: "Yes, we will come to the European Finals with the new bike, but no, cosmetically the bike will not be ready yet." So the team had to go for it. Ton was finishing the final drive, rear wheel hubs and spacers, outer sprocket support plate and all the other hardware that needed attention, whilst Vincent had put on the fuel, pneumatics, electrical and datalog system in record time. Roel finished the brake hoses and fittings, clutch management pressure lines and fitted the temporary body and front fender. The day the bike was leaving for Santapod was the first day the bike could be started to run in nitromethane. The engine ran good on methanol from the spray cans, so the fuel was switched on. After it filled the nozzle lines the engine ran fuel, but the setting of the barrel valve and butterfly were way off, so it idled at 4500 RPM. The fuel shut-off was hit, the engine quit and it was decided to set the bike up in England. "It runs, the rest is a matter of tuning" Ton said.

Building a top fuel drag bike from the ground up in less then a year turned out to be a tough job. With "from the ground up" meaning making almost everything in-house. When a Eurodragster reporter asked what was made by the Zodiac team themselves, Vincent probably described it best: "Let me sum up what we didn't make ourselves, as that list will be a lot shorter". But in the end it felt like putting a "two year project" into one year. The team has frantically worked to get the bike ready in time for the finals. Being a new bike, points for improvements will be found and it is better to find these before the winter then at the beginning of the season when the pressure is already on.

At Santa Pod it took the team two more warm-ups to get the bike to idle and pick up to their satisfaction. But then rain came, long heavy rain. Thursday was no race day so, OK, let's hope for better weather on Friday. But no, no better weather on Friday. The last hope was Saturday, as the team wanted to get track time to tune the bike. Saturday morning it looked better. The Pod crew already swept and dried the track and were already putting glue to it, the SuperTwins were called to the line for the first qualifying session. Once in the line up, it started again. Dark clouds started to come in just as the final layer of glue was being applied to the track, heavy rain started to poor down. At 3 O'clock in the afternoon the day was cancelled and there would be a "one shot" qualifying session Sunday morning. A wise decision as it rained continuously till Sunday 10 O'clock in the morning.

Because of the One Shot qualifying the bike was "Upped" to be able to qualify in the only qualifying session they had. More Fuel, more clutch and more ignition. Sunday afternoon they had the track race ready and qualifying started. The "Godfather VII" was the first SuperTwin out. It was fired up and Roel went straight into the burnout. Great burnout and the engine sounded clean. Maybe too clean? Roel only wanted to roll out of the waterbox, but the rear wheel instantly went up in smoke so the throttle response was more then he had anticipated for. "Just this much throttle" Roel was smiling from within his helmet when Vincent was pushing the bike back. His nerves suddenly became confidence, as the bike was easily guided in the burnout and it did not vibrate at all. Back at the start line the bike was put on the "high-ish cackle" and moved into stage. On the green Roel hesitated a short moment, getting himself focused on the game plan, and then hit full throttle. The bike hooked up, planted the rear tire and BANG! With a huge flash both heads were lifted and it went quite. This is not what the team had hoped for.

Back in the pits the questions started, was it too lean? All the data was studied and the bike seemed to be doing what it was supposed to do, at least close enough. Was it too rich then? With the amount of fuel going in it was sort of impossible to hydraulic the heads that quickly.

Back home the engine was opened up and the damage was inspected more closely. Both heads lifted, oval small end on the con rods, bent wrist pins, even the main bearings of the rods and crank were smashed in. What immediately caught our attention the most was that the pushrod sides of both exhaust rocker arms were broken off and with nitromethane, that can cause devastation like this. So even though the bike only ran for 0.2 seconds, the team was glad they went to the Pod to find out these issues. The rocker arms is one of the few parts not made or designed by the Zodiac team, but this will not be for long. Other areas that are going to be taken under extra close investigation is cam-timing and manifold design.

Right now, the bike is being readied for a couple of shows. A new body is fabricated and the bike will finally receive a paint job. After these shows, some more cosmetic work will be done on the bike and it will be made ready for the 2009 season. Tests will probably commence at the Easter Thunderball, if not before.

For the real race enthusiast the bike will be displayed at the Rosmalen Big Twin Bike Show in November, the Custom Performance Show at Bad Salzuflen Germany in December and the Motor Bike Expo at Verona Italy in January and, like said, it will be fully painted in the Zodiac colors!!

See you at the racetrack!

Next to Zodiac Racing's own products the Zodiac Race Shop can supply racers brands like G2 (exclusive distributor for Europe), S&S Race Products (exclusive distributor for Europe), McClure's Master Performance Racing, ARP, JE, Racepak, Kinsler, Gates, PM and much much more. For any racing needs, please contact us at zodiacracing@zodiac.nl Check out our race catalog at http://www.zodiac.nl/en/catalog/zodiacracing_shop.html