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The pictures shown below are captured from the computer drawings of the new frame. Click on the thumbnails to see them full size.

As soon as the bike was back in the workshop after the European Finals, Ton and Vincent started preparations for the new chassis. Ton spent many hours in the workshop building a frame rig and determining all the measurements, while Vincent was behind the computer designing the new frame and making the drawings.

Now that the annual Zodiac Dealer show (that had Ton's bike on display) is over, they can finally start with the REAL work. The photos above show the engine-clutch-transmission unit in the rig.

And especially for Jim Mcclure... Jim, to answer your question about our clutch placement, check out the four pictures below...

Ton ended up Vice-Champion of the 2003 FIM/UEM European Championship at Santa Pod Raceway in England.

Photos: Eurodragster.com

With a personal best of 6.60 sec @ 209.3 MPH (336.7 km/h) Ton was no. 1 qualifier again. In the first round on race day he had a bye run and ran a 6.68 sec. @ 200 MPH. The bike showed some signs of running too rich, so we leaned out the fuel system - just a little. But in the semi finals it turned out that the engine was wearing out (20% leak on the cylinders) and we were out of the competition with a 6.90 (against Junerud's 6.87). When Per Bengtsson made it to the final running a 7.62 against Willem Been's 10.93 he was the lucky one and took the championship.

Having the strongest performing bike in the class throughout the season (no. 1 qualifier at five out of six events and lowest ET and highest Top Speed at most events), it seems that bad luck struck us at the worst possible moments. So, although no. 2 is still an achievement to be proud of, we can't help but feel somewhat disappointed.

However, we'd like to look forward rather than back. The good news is that we know we have a very powerful combination right now. The one thing that is holding us back at the moment is the chassis, which can't handle the full potential of the engine. We are therefore going to design and build a new chassis for the 2004 season.

The Zodiac team would like to express their thanks to their main sponsor: ZODIAC Performance Parts for Harley Davidson for their continuing support as well as to other major sponsors: Supertrapp and Accel.
Also, a big THANK YOU to Bauke Strobos for helping us out at the races Crew Chief Vincent was unable to attend. Very much appreciated Bauke!

We'll be back!

Photo: Ivan Sansom

We're off to the "European Finals" at Santa Pod Raceway in England for the last round of the UEM European Championship, in which we currently have the lead by 2 points.... Qualifying will be on Friday and Saturday, September 5 and 6. Raceday (eliminations) will be on Sunday the 7th. For live updates during these days, please go to Event coverage at Eurodragster.com

Wow, what a weekend! Top Qualifier, Winner of the Event and back in the # 1 spot of the Championship!

Coming to Hockenheim Ton was # 3 in the Championship, right behind Per Bengtsson from Sweden and Ronny Aasen from Norway. Due to serious traction problems on Friday, we didn't go out that day. On Saturday the track was in much better condition - although still far from perfect - so we tried a pass with a very soft set-up. Ton left half throttle, slowly feeding to full throttle and managed to run the quickest E.T. of the class: 7.23 @ 321 kmh.
For the second qualifying session we made no changes to the set-up, but Ton felt that the track was probably good enough to leave the line full throttle and right he was. He did the first 6 sec. pass of the weekend - with the bikes - and was no. 1 qualifier again with 6.99 sec. @ 322 kmh (200 mph).

On Sunday the track conditions had improved some more and Ton had a bye run in the first round. He ran a 6.84 @ 332 kmh (206.5 mph). Per Bengtsson (7.14) and Ronny Aasen (6.95) also made it to the semi-finals, as did Rob van Geffen (6.80). Ton was the first to make it to the final when he ran 7.02 @ 336 kmh (208 mph) against Rob van Geffen (8.35). The other finalist would be the winner of the run between the top 2 of the championship at that time: Per Bengtsson and Ronny Aasen. Unfortunately for Ronny he smoked the tyre (7.47) and Per made it to the final with a 7.09 @ 316 kmh. With both Ton and Per doing 7.0's it looked like the final was going to be very close racing.

The final was a very important one for both riders. Bengtsson was leading in the championship by 8 points, so if he were to win he would increase his points lead to 18 points. And if Ton were to win this final, he would be taking over the lead by 2 points...
Ton had the better light and left hard, but just before the 1/8 mile the engine dropped a cilinder, slowing the bike down. However, Per had even worse problems. His bike went sideways and even hit the concrete wall at some point, so Ton took the win with a 7.57 @ 243 kmh as well as the lead in the Championship. Luckily Per didn't have any serious injuries, so we will be seeing him at Santa Pod for the last round of the Championship. It is definitely going to be a very interesting weekend at the European Finals!

Congratulations to European Champions Roel Koedam, Urs Erbacher, Roger Pettersson and Michael Malmgren.

We're off to the "Nitro Olympics" in Hockenheim for Round 5 of the UEM European Championship.

Next to the race-bike we'll have two other ZODIAC bikes on display. We're bringing a beautiful "Softail Sportster" and also a bike called "Predator", which is a modified twin-cam softail with a paint job that matches the Godfather Dragbike. Furthermore we will have some cool new goodies for sale, such as ZODIAC Racing Coffee Mugs, our brand new ZODIAC Racing T-shirts - which came in just two days ago - and of course the latest four-inch-thick ZODIAC Catalogue.

So if you're coming to the Hockenheimring this weekend, come pay us a visit at the ZODIAC pit-box.

Round 3, Mantorp Sweden: beaten by a cam

After doing some test launches at a national meeting at Drachten the Zodiac team finally had the new clutch more or less working like it was supposed to. When they left for the race at Mantorp in Sweden they were expecting some better 60 foot times and quicker passes and right they were. When Ton did his first "easy run out of the trailer" he did a 6.91 sec. pass with a terminal speed of 321 km/h (200 mph). The ET was not great (Ton had to go off the throttle to correct the bike) but the 1.16 sec. 60 foot time looked promising. Due to weather conditions there was only one qualifying session on Friday and with the 6.91 sec. Ton was in the number one qualifying spot. After the first round of qualifying on Saturday Swedish rider Per Bengtsson took over the number one spot with a 6.79 sec. pass, Ton was second with a 6.80 sec. pass. But in the second qualifying session on Saturday the Zodiac Team took the number one qualifying spot back with a 6.73 sec. pass and a terminal speed of 331 km/h. (206 MPH), also the 60 ft time improved to 1.12 sec. Things were looking good for race day.

(Photos: Ivan Sansom)

Race day Being number one qualifier, Ton was out first and fired up the bike for the first round in Elimination. In the Smoky Burn-Out the engine sounded strong. The bike launched like a rocket but only for less than a second. There was a "Big Bang" from the engine department and it killed itself. Instead of cutting through the field the Zodiac Team was out in the first round. To find out what went wrong the engine was taken apart right after the first elimination round. They found that a tooth of the rear intake cam gear was broken out of the gear and destroyed the other cam gears. The broken cams took care of 4 bent valves. The Zodiac team had to be out the following week-end again so instead of a couple days Pike fishing in the huge Swedish lakes, the team traveled to a camping ground close to Gardermoen Raceway and changed the camping ground into a workshop to repair and prepare the bike for the next race in Norway.

Round 4, Gardermoen Norway

Because of rain the first round of qualifying started late Friday afternoon and turned out to be the only session that day. This first round was used to check out the track and engine after the last repair. The bike launched OK and Ton put a 6.91 on the board with 325 km/h. The 6.91 was the quickest pass of the first qualifying session. The weather forecast for the Saturday was not too good (even worse than Friday) and it looked like it was going to be a one shot qualifying again. The clutch was set a bit more aggressive with some more weight on the first stage. The bike left hard and the time board showed an ET of 6.61 sec. (new PB) with 331km/h. The rain did not come but in the following qualifying sessions the team did not go out, as they had to do some repairs on the front exhaust pipe. The 6.61 remained the lowest ET and, like in Mantorp, Ton was number one qualifier again. Race day The forecast for Sunday was great and track condition looked to be perfect so the team decided to put in an even more aggressive clutch for the first elimination round. In the first round Ton met Greger Johansson. Both bikes left ok but after approx. 50 meters Ton had to roll off the throttle a bit to get away from the concrete wall. Ton still took the win with an ET of 6.71sec. and a new personal best TS of 337.55 km/h. In the second round Ton was up against Swede Stefan Junerud on his supercharged Servex. Again both bikes left hard but Ton had a better light and a better 60 foot time so things were looking great... but just for 2.5 seconds. After 2.5 seconds the 14 mm pitch and 115 mm wide primary belt gave up and Ton was out of the race. The team left Norway with mixed feelings. Although Ton had run a new personal best in both ET (6.61 sec) and speed (337.55 km/h 210 MPH), the win of the race had not been closer the whole season. It's crowded at the top of the Championship ranking of Supertwin Top Fuel. With the top 3 (Per Bengtsson, Ronny Aasen and Ton Pels) only a few points apart (all within one round), we're looking forward to round 5 in Hockenheim.

We're off to Scandinavia again for Round 3 and 4 of the UEM European Championship. First stop will be the "Veidec Drag Festival" at Mantorp in Sweden (July 24-27). (For live updates during this weekend, please go to Event coverage at Eurodragster.com) One week later (August 1-3) we'll be in Gardermoen - Norway for round 4 of the Championship.

Photo: Remco van Laar

Photo: badboysimagin.com

Photo: Wijnand Kors

The race at Alastaro has been very eventful. Throughout the entire weekend we were trying to set up the new clutch, which lead to some ups and downs.

During qualifying our E.T.s varied from 9.43 to 7.06 seconds. Ton was qualified #3 with the 7.06 second run and had the best Top Speed with 330 kmh (205 MPH).

Via a 7.80 sec. in the quarter-finals and 7.02 sec. in the semi-finals Ton made it to the final where he met Charley Karling from Sweden. Because of some technical problems (the bike couldn't be pushed back after the burn-out), Ton was lined up all wrong and didn't have any chance of doing a good, straight run. Charley took the win with a 6.65 and Ton was runner-up.

Coming to Finland Ton was no. 4 in the European Championship Standings, but with these results he has now climbed to the no. 2 spot. He is sharing this place with Ronny Aasen from Norway. They're both right behind Sweden's Per Bengtsson, who is leading by just 7 points.

We're off to the Alastaro circuit in Finland for the second round of the European Championship. Due to the technical problems we experienced in round 1 in England, we're currently no. 4 in the Points Standings, so our goal for this race is to climb a few places in the ranking. Ton did a lot of work on the clutch, so hopefully we can find a good set-up early on in the weekend. Since Crew Chief Vincent has recently became a father, he will not be joining us in Finland, so this race will therefore be especially challenging.

During all qualification rounds Ton was the fastest rider in Supertwin Top Fuel and the only one in the sixes. He qualified #1 with a 6.88 sec. @ 207 mph. In the first elimination round he found himself up against Per Bengtsson from Sweden. In that run Per ran the only other six second run of the event and because Ton broke the clutch-hub support at the top end, he lost this one to Bengtsson (by 0.052 seconds).

For the next round at Alastaro in Finland Ton & Vincent will make a new and stronger clutch-hub support and they're also planning some changes to the clutch itself. The pictures are courtesy Eurodragster.com again (thanks guys). Please click on the thumbnails to see them full size.

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We're off to the "Main Event" at Santa Pod Raceway in England for Round 1 of the UEM European Championship this coming weekend. Qualifying will be on Saturday and Sunday, May 24-25. Raceday (eliminations) will be on Monday the 26th. For live updates during these days, please go to Event coverage at Eurodragster.com

Freaking out at the Speedfreaks.

Last weekend the Zodiac Team went to the Speedfreaks Ball at Santa Pod Raceway in England to check out their newly made 1 to 1 primary and the new "inside the engine plates" 3 stage R&P clutch. After a few low seven try-out passes and some adjustments to the clutch, they were ready to go for it and loaded the engine with 98% Nitro. The low seven passes were good enough to get into the finals of the Speedfreaks Top Fuel Bike Shoot-Out and they were up against very well running fellow country-man Roel Koedam on his blown Yamaha. The engine on the Zodiac bike sounded very strong in the long and smoky Burn Out. When Ton lined up and the green light came on, the bike blasted of the line. But unfortunately not for long... something snapped in the drive train. The team did not have the time to find out what had happened, as they had to load up the bike to be in time for the ferry back home.

Traveling home from England, Ton and Vincent were not exactly sure to what extent the engine was damaged, nor were they sure about the cause of it. Considering the short time-slot between the Speed Freaks Ball and the Main Event, the Zodiac bike was being taken apart "minutes" after they arrived home on Monday Evening. It turned out that all the changes Ton and Vincent made to the ZODIAC sponsored bike over the winter had been working well, but the 6 bolts and 3 dowel pins of the primary belt drive front pulley gave up. Since the crank was severely damaged, repairing it would take too long, so Ton got a new (and stronger) one from his buddy Jim McClure in the States that same evening, which is being built in right now. To strengthen the mount of the pulley to the crank, they also have to make some new parts from scratch, but everything is expected to be ready before this coming Thursday, when they leave for the Main Event.

Some throttle problems in Ton's first pass of today: 7.33 sec. @ 195.57 MPH. In the Top Fuel/Supertwin shootout final against Roel Koedam, Ton went about a foot off the line and then the engine cut out. The cause is not known yet. Ton & Vincent will investigate in the next few days...

Below two more pictures (courtesy Eurodragster.com). Please click on the thumbnails to see them full size.

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Today Ton did two passes of 7.39 sec @ 197.07 MPH and 7.23 sec. @ 194.61 MPH. The engine is running very well and sounds strong, but the bike is "lazy" leaving the line. Since we have a new clutch on the bike, we'll need to do some tuning in that area...

Below some pictures of today, courtesy Eurodragster.com (hello to you too guys!). Please click on the thumbnails to see them full size.

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After a very hectic last month, we fired up the bike last weekend and all went well and the engine sounded strong. In just a few days we're off to the Speedfreaks ball at Santa Pod Raceway in England (May 10-11) for the first time out with the bike this year. Ton and Vincent will attempt to find a good initial set-up for the new configuration.

Sneak preview in the Zodiac Racing workshop in Mijdrecht showed us that the new engine & transmission unit are getting into "Pre-Stage" position. It seems Ton and Vincent have been doing some overtime. Ton said: "We have been buying a lot of aluminium and been making a lot of offcuts lately. We started with nearly 100 kilogrammes of aluminium for the plates, pulleys and the pulley fronts and we managed to throw away nearly 90 kilogrammes in "chips"! The "new second hand" Bridgeport miller works fine for us and, although we are beginners in CNC programming (too slow), we got it to do what we wanted and the nice thing is everything fits and seems to work!".

To get a rigid engine unit, the new main motor plate is CNC machined out of a 15 mm thick ST 51 aluminium plate. The transmission plates out of 10 mm ST 51 plate. The new T&V 1:1 primary is machined out of 160 mm wide 14 mm pitch Gates blanks and will accept a 115 mm wide Gates polychain. Front supports for the pulleys are machined of ST 27. Once the outside support plates are finished Ton and Vincent are getting to the point where they start cutting up the frame. They expect to start working on this within the next 14 days. Ton and Vincent will be going "down south" to Eindhoven to work on the frame, where they can use Rob van Geffen's frame jig.

The photo's show the new power train of the Godfather Harley fueler with the new T&V 1:1 primary drive that takes a 115 mm wide Gates polychain belt, new motor plates and the inside the engine plates 8" and 3 stage R&P clutch.

Lots of work again for the Zodiac team.
The 2002 season was ruled by broken primary belts and broken chains costing Ton a lot of qualifying and elimination passes last year. A new clutch might be the solution to both problems...

• The primary belts broke because they melted from being exposed to the extreme heat coming from the clutch (the clutch was inside the driven pulley).
• The chains broke because there was too much load on the transmission and the chain.

To be able to fit the new clutch, the frame will need to be cut in half to add an extra 40mm in length. Also, it needs to be extended 30mm to the right.

Dec. 26: Frame (with 'new engine plates') just before it was cut in half:

Change one thing and you'll get the infamous chain reaction... all other things after the front drive pulley must be changed as well (input shaft, output shaft, engine plates, fixing points in the frame etc. etc.)

For these and future changes Ton acquired a CNC Milling Machine to make the new parts himself, such as: new engine plates for the new clutch, new primary drive pulleys and various other bits and pieces. It's an overhauled 8 year old Bridgeport INTERACT1 Mk2 CNC milling machine with "Heidenhain" Operating System. When Ton had his technical school education ('some' years ago), there were no such things as CNC milling machines, so he took a 5 day "Heidenhain" training for programming the machine.

Previous News: 2002