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(photo: Eurodragster.com)

The first day of qualifying for the European Finals started out well for us, when Ton and Per Bengtsson did side-by-side 6 second passes, resulting in the first 2 qualifying positions. However, the newly found power resulted in a broken chain in the second qualifying pass when the second stage of the clutch came in and in Ton's third pass the strong wind blew the bike sideways forcing him to shut off. Therefore he could not improve the E.T. of his first run, which resulted in the following top 4 of qualifying: 1. Per Bengtsson (S): 6.69 sec. 2. Anders Karling (S): 6.73 sec. 3. Rob van Geffen (NL): 6.93 sec. 4. Ton Pels (NL): 6.98 sec.

The next four qualifiers were all in the 7.5's: Kai Selkamaa (FI), Eric Nielssen (DK), Ronny Aasen (N) and Svein Gottenberg (N).

In the first elimination Ton met Kai Selkamaa from Finland. Ton had a better reaction time and left hard, but when the 2nd stage of the clutch came in he broke another chain, so he was out. Nevertheless he gained enough points for the 3rd place in the Championship. Charley Karling took the win and the Championship and Per Bengtsson became # 2.

The Zodiac team would like to express their thanks to their main sponsor: ZODIAC Performance Parts for Harley Davidson as well as to their other major sponsors: Supertrapp, Accel and Arlen Ness.

We'll be back!

After interpreting some of the computer data of the Hockenheim event, Ton & Vincent decided they will start out with an overdrive unit on the fuel pump (18% overdrive) at the European finals at Santa Pod. Let's see where that brings us... We hope to get back on track at the Finals and translate the power we found in Sweden into low E.T.'s and high terminal speeds again instead of breaking parts and going "all over the track" due to a faulty tyre. We would like to end this season with good results again!

This race was not part of the European Championship tour. Instead, the organization ran a "Nitro Bike Challenge" This meant that the competitors in both Competition Bike and Supertwin Top Fuel had 4 qualifying sessions. The sum of the best 3 runs would decide which rider was top qualifier in each class, defining the two finalists. Ton experienced some problems caused by yet another broken rocker arm, a faulty new tyre and more, resulting in 2 runs lost. He ended up no. 2 in Supertwin Top Fuel qualifying. The final between Roel Koedam and Per Bengtsson was a surprising one, when Per Bengtsson took the win on his parallel twin.

(photo: Theo Willemse)

Very troublesome weekend. Ton ended up qualifying 3rd with a 6.86 sec. run. In the first elimination he defeated Svein Gottenberg from Norway with 6.88 @ 332 kmh. In the semi-final against Sweden's Per Bengtsson, a rocker arm broke and we did not make it to the final this time. Per Bengtsson defeated Charley Karling in the final. Per is now ahead of us in the European Championship standings.

Zodiac Team sets new European Speed Record !!! Click HERE for video

During the Sko Uno drag race meeting at Mantorp Park in Sweden the Zodiac team took the European Speed record of the SuperTwin Top Fuel class. After struggling through qualifying with broken drive belts and broken cam shafts Ton qualified with a 7.06 sec. pass. Not the best time but enough to take the number three qualifying spot after the Swedish competitors Anders Karling (1st qualifyer) and Per Bengtsson (2nd qualifyer).

When Ton and Vincent were preparing the bike for next day's elimination they discussed the qualifying passes one by one and came to the conclusion that the small changes they made during qualifying did not give the expected results. The engine needed a drastic change to the injection system to get more power. They decided to do the "Much More Fuel" trick and the injection was set up in such a way it became much richer throughout the whole RPM range, richer than ever before. When the engine was fired up after the change it sounded vicious.

In the first round of elimination Ton defeated Ronny Aasen from Norway with a new personal best of 6.63 sec. @ 335.99 kmh. The speed of 335.99 was 5 kmh more than the existing top speed record but needed to be backed up within 1 %. In the second round Ton met Per Bengtsson from Sweden who he defeated with a 6.66 sec. @ 336.45 kmh (209 mph). The new speed record was set!! In the final round Ton met reigning European champion Charley Karling from Sweden. Charley got lucky but Ton got even more lucky. When holding the bike in stage Ton felt the front brake going away. As the Mantorp run-off area is the shortest in Europe (less than 550 mtr) his first thought was to kill the engine at the start line but he decided to do a half pass in case Charley had problems or could not do a full pass. Ton had a better light and left the line hard. At mid track he was still in the lead but had to shut off the engine and Charley came storming by and took the win, he did not make a mistake.

With making it to the finals and setting a new speed record the Zodiac team gained enough points to take the second place in the European championship ranking.

It has begun to rain again, so the race has been officially called off. Next race will be the Sko Uno Festival in Mantorp Park, Sweden. Thanks for joining us here this weekend. Please come back next time.

It has been raining all morning. It has just stopped and the track crew have begun to dry and prepare the track...

First qualifying session (12:00h Finnish time): Because a lot of bikes had traction problems leaving the line, Ton left half throttle, gradually opening to full throttle (approx. at the 1/8th mile). ET: 6.95 sec. @ 330.68 kmh (205.5 MPH). This puts us in 2nd qualifying position. Next session around 15:00h. Second qualifying session (16:00h Finnish time): Primary belt broke. Per Bengtsson ran 6.59, so we're no. 3 now. Third qualifying session (19:30h Finnish time): Solid run, bike is still a little "lazy" though. ET: 6.79 sec, which means we're locked in the no.3 qualifying spot. We will meet Ronny Aasen from Norway in the first elimination round tomorrow.

It has been raining all day, so next to firing up the bike, there was no action today. We fired up the bike 3 times to "break in" some new parts.

First elimination round (12:00 UK time): Ton Pels took the win over Kai Selkamaa from Finland in a great run of 6.85 sec. He is also getting back into the 200 MPH speeds again; in this run his top end speed was 203.8 MPH (328 km/h). Next round he'll meet Per Bengtsson from Sweden, who took the win over UK rider Bernie Hepworth in the first round in 7.11 sec., so Ton has lane choice.

Second elimination round (14:00 UK time): Very problematic run. We had a lot of work to do on the bike between the first round and this one, so we couldn't check everything we wanted to. This caused some minor problems during the run, which resulted in Sweden's Per Bengtsson taking the win. His 6.82 was enough against Ton's 6.92. Ton did however run a personal speed record of 205.64 MPH (331 km/h) !

That's it for this weekend folks. Thanks for checking in with us.

(picture courtesy eurodragster.com)

Fifth qualifying session : We put on a new belt and an entire set of new clutch plates (and finished the work barely in time for the last qualification round), but it worked out well: Ton ran 6.94 sec. @ 199.97 MPH (322 km/h). Per Bengtsson ran 6.95, so we stayed ahead of him. The top 4 qualifiers for tomorrow are:
1. Charley Karling (SWE): 6.79 sec.
2. Ton Pels (NL): 6.94 sec.
3. Per Bengtsson (SWE): 6.95 sec.
4. Svein Gottenberg (NOR): 7.68 sec.

Tomorrow (Monday) is race-day, so we'll probably be too busy to do updates during the day. We'll try to put the whole story on-line after the finals...

Fourth qualifying session : Broke primary belt mid-track (E.T. 8.04 sec.). The belt probably broke because the clutch was too soft, causing the belt to get extremely hot. Ton is still no. 2 qualifier with 6.96 sec. but Per Bengtsson from Sweden has come very close now (6.97 sec.). Hopefully we can get one more run in today.

Third qualifying session: Good solid run and considering the fact that Ton couldn't shift gear, his E.T. of 6.96 sec. looks very promising (and a top end speed of 183 MPH (295 km/h) in first gear is not too bad either). He is in no.2 qualifying position at the moment because Charley Karling from Sweden just ran 6.89. Next round in a few hours...

Second qualifying session: Couldn't make the second session because we had to change the cam shaft. Nevertheless, Ton is still in the no. 1 spot, because none of the other riders ran quicker in this second session. Three more rounds of qualifying planned for tomorrow...

First qualifying session: Fuel system was way too rich, but despite a far from perfect run, Ton is currently no. 1 qualifier with 7.41 sec. Ton & Vincent will make the fuel system leaner for the next round of qualifying (around 17:00 UK time).

Main Event Preview
We're almost ready to leave for England again for this year's first Championship race, so it's time to give you an update on the new set up we'll race there.
Lots has happened over the winter. We basically have a new engine. The cast cylinders we used before, didn't survive the stress of the engine anymore last year, which resulted in a set of black pistons and beat up cylinders after each two passes. So a little math will tell you it costed a lot of time and money to run a bike like that.
We came up with a couple of things to cure it, and to do the job properly we implemented all of the ideas. This meant new billet nitrated steel cylinders, the surface of these cylinders is so hard, that even when we hurt a piston the cylinders will survive. New billet con rods of 8 1/2" (1/2" longer), so the con rod to piston angle is less meaning more pressure to the crank and less to the cylinder surface. Because the rods are longer, we are also able to use longer pistons with two rows of press-in buttons, so the pistons topple less.

(picture courtesy togsdragracing.com)

These were the major changes, the smaller changes were cutting the chassis in two (engine is 1/2" longer and didn't fit anymore). Small modifications to the heads. Changed the clutch internally. Brought one ignition magneto to the other side of the bike for balance (so new drive units had to be made). New staged exhaust system for better top-end performance, also 4" longer for better torque. To complete it all the bike has a new paint scheme, this time in the original Zodiac colors. After the Speedfreaks Ball we cured some minor bugs, so we're ready to go!

We already won 3 Main Events in a row, let's hope we can make it 4... Check here during the weekend for live updates.

Ton Pels won the final of the Top Fuel Bike Shootout with 6.99 sec. @ 198.40 MPH ! Steve Woollatt was a little late on the lights and trying to make up, he smoked the tyre. Ton and Vincent are pleased with the results this weekend, showing that the new cylinders they made (and many other technical changes) are working out.

(picture courtesy eurodragster.com)

Third run: Didn't launch full throttle to avoid too much wheel spin. E.T.: 7.07 sec. / speed: 199.21 MPH. Ton will meet Steve Woollatt in the final.

Second run: Bike didn't get off the line due to some minor clutch problems (the slider head came off the clutch). It was easily fixed and the bike is ready for tomorrow. Ton is currently in no.1 qualifying position for Supertwin Top Fuel.

(picture courtesy eurodragster.com)

This weekend we will run in the SpeedFreaks Top Fuel Bike Shootout. The schedule is to have 3 or 4 qualifying sessions for Competition Bike and Supertwin Top Fuel and then run a final on Sunday between the best riders of each class.
First run: Traction is not as well as expected, resulting in an E.T. of 7.65 sec. Top end speed looks very promising: 199.74 MPH (321 km/h).

Next to numerous technical changes, upgrades and enhancements, the Zodiac Dragbike has gotten a brand new look again. These picture were taken right before the bike was loaded for transport to England for its first runs of the season, at the Speedfreaks ball at Santa Pod Raceway (May 10-12). Please click on the thumbnails to see them full size.