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Thread: Gasser Wars & Gasser Circus Round 3 Dragstalgia Report

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    Gasser Wars & Gasser Circus Round 3 Dragstalgia Report

    Gasser Wars & Gasser Circus Round 3

    The Gasser Circus reached a new milestone over the Dragstalgia weekend with the biggest field ever assembled with 26 Gasser on the plot. The ranks of cars waiting to do battle being boosted by 4 Gassers that had made the long trip from Sweden and the ever present and popular Laurent Levi hauling in from the South of France.
    Qualifying looked like it could be a frantic affair and upsetting as 10 Gassers would miss out on Sunday!

    Mechanical gremlins were set to reduce the field with Gas Guzzler and Honky Tonkin not making it down the fire up road. Old Harper made it down but sadly did not make it through the burnout.

    The stars of qualifying were definitely the Swedish drivers as they brought a whole new meaning to the term rolling burnout. More often than not they burnt out until mid-track but Stefan Flodell in his Chevy Nova and Kjell Anderson AKA Lufson in his 1956 Crown Victoria on occasion hit the 1000 foot mark.
    The stands, starting crew and fellow racers loved it.

    Unfortunately once qualifying was done only two of the Swedish cars was in the show with Bengt Eriksson’s 57 Chevy ‘Rattler’ and Lufson in his ‘Dog Catcher’ 56 Ford.
    Missing out on the UK side were a few regulars more used to racing on Sunday, with Bad n Blown, Gas Junkie and Sean Milson in his Ain’t Misbehavin Morris missing out on Sunday.
    He however had the consolation of being one of the 5 fastest U.K. cars and he would along with Honky Tonkin 2, Psychedelic Relic, Wragged Wedge and The Mighty Mouse be representing the UK in the Gasser Wars! This was a heads up race against the 5 European Gassers.

    With rain effecting chunks of Saturday, Santa Pod took the decision to extend racing until 9 pm around 7:20 the 10 Gasser Wars cars were in the fire up road paired up and ready for battle.
    First up was the pairing of Katie Booth and Stefan Flodell who did another huge rolling burnout.
    As the lights dropped both cars left greens on the tree but by ¾ track Katie was ahead a lead she held over the line the UK going up 1 - 0.

    The second pair were already burning out with Lee Pike in Honky Tonkin 2 deciding he needed to get in on the rolling burnout show, and a very fine halftrack burnout followed. In the other lane Leif Ostberg in his Sharp Teeth Barracuda had warmed his slicks. When the two cars left, Honky Tonkin was on one with the UK going up 2 – 0.

    Next up was the ‘Dog Catcher’ a 1956 Ford Crown Victoria, with the crazy Kjell (lufson) Anderson behind the wheel. He knew he had to register a win for the Europeans or it was all over. He did his by now customary rolling burnout and Tim Holmes in his ‘Wragged Wedge’ Dodge patiently waited until the Ford was backing up before commencing his burnout. The cars ran hard but the honour of the Swedes was upheld with Lufson taking the win it was now 2 – 1.

    Sean Milsom and Laurent Levi were next up with the both burning out at the same time. Seans reaction to the tree was somewhat slow, he later confirming he intentionally did this as he did not want to hand the win out on the start line with a cherry. Sean was now chasing down the ever fast Laurent, at the lights he had just edged ahead, this meant that the UK Gasser Circus had just secured an unassailable lead in the Gasser Wars 3 – 1.

    As eyes turned to the final pair something was missing, the 57 Chevy of Bengt Eriksson, as Merv Barnett was already warming his slicks but the nearside lane remained empty.

    Unfortunately Bengt had issues in the fire up road when his 57 Chevy refused to start. This was later traced to a faulty relay. This left Merv on a solo pass which concluded the Gasser Wars in the favour of the UK with a 4-1 win. Just as well it wasn’t penalties!

    Back in the pits the two sides celebrated with a bottle of bubbly putting in a brief appearance, and as the bubbles vanished the Gasser Circus Barbeque was underway. The racers and crews gathered around and in just over 90 minutes we had fed over 100 people. The socialising and bench racing went on well into the next day.

    Sunday is race day and within the Gasser Circus pits preparations for a full days racing were underway.
    Two of our Swedish visitors who had not qualified but they would still get to keep on running, tagging on at the end of each round of eliminations.

    These were to prove costly for Bengt and his 57 Chevy ‘Rattler’ and a lot of work for the start line crew, as the car was just about to emulate its name. As Bengt prepared to race Hoch in the B & G Falcon his launch was followed by a metallic based bang and exiting under the car was a contorted, twisted and split propshaft and various parts of the diff!
    Afterwards he was quite philosophical about it and still had a smile on his face. Especially as he rode back up the fire up road with the Propshaft gaffer taped across his pushbike with the gear drive and pinion shaft occupying the shopping basket on the front!

    Lufson in his ‘Dog Catcher’ Crown Victoria then suffered an issue with its transmission as he lost out to Katie Booth in The Mighty Mouse Pop.
    Laurent took on Goldrush driven by Kev Strevett and lost, Kev would then face the winner of the clash between Mick Allen in Horrid Henry or Tim Holmes in ‘Wragged Wedge’. Kev would race and win against Tim advancing his golden car to the semi-finals.

    Mighty Mouse took on B&G racing with B&G coming out on top, it stayed that way when they raced Goldrush. This time Ty Strevett was driving and he laid down a huge burnout. This filled the car with tyre smoke and as Dad Kev tried to fan it out of the car by means of the driver’s door, he was directed to move away. He complied, but the car was till packed full of smoke and as Ty edged towards the line he could not see the Christmas tree. Somehow he staged and as he flew down the strip you could not really see him because the car was in a white out inside! B&G racing had no such problems, and took the win.

    On the other side of the ladder, it was the battle of the Willys brand, with John Gumbles Willys pickup, this weekend piloted by Tom Margessen and the 33 Willys of Martyn Hallam. Tom was getting a good handle on the car and soon put Martyn on the trailer.
    Harvey Turner was driving father Ray’s, Green Onions 55 Chevy and he was up against Lee Pike & Jerry Denning in their Honky Tonkin 2 Nova. Harvey is consistent and it showed when the lights at the finish line lit up as they did over his lane.

    Next up was the Gibson brothers, in a re run of the final from Nostalgia Nationals, but this time in Round 1 of eliminations.
    The brothers always run hard against each other, and when they got to the top end John had the win, but did he?

    First round elimination threw up a glitch with the Santa Pod system, with some cars were receiving, not only a win light but the words 'winner' on their timing slip, which in a few cases was not correct. John had in fact broken out so actually lost to Brian. I hoped I may have been one of these as in my first round race in ‘Nogbad the Bad’, I had dialled in at 11:66 and run 11:66 but lost. The slip was correct and closer review showed that Merv Barnett in the other lane was the winner, treeing me off the line!

    Stefan tagged on at the back of eliminations but was nursing his engine. This curtailed his next rolling burnout to halftrack! When he got back to the pits he was surprised when he was the recipient of a pair of upholstered racing seats donated by another sponsor of the Gasser Circus ‘Matt the Stitch’. He chose Stefan to receive them due to his awesome rolling burnouts.

    Back on this side of the ladder, Tom in ‘Rat Poison’ saw off Brian in ‘Identity Crisis’ and Merv in his light blue Pop brought an end to Harvey’s afternoon in Green Onions.
    The second semi-final had Merv taking on Tom in the 38 Willys pickup, however Toms luck was about to run out, with Merv putting in yet another supremely fast and consistent mid 10 second run.
    With the 5 pm curfew fast approaching, the final pair burnt out and we realised this was not only a Bristol final but also a battle of the Grandads! Merv Barnett in his gorgeous period Pop, and John (Hoch) Grant in the B&G Racing Falcon.
    Both cars left hard on clean passes, they were side by side all the way, the win light coming on in Merv’s lane. A quick look at the times confirmed that Hoch had run faster than his dial in. Despite this the team deserve a big pat on the back, as the engine having spun bearings at the previous meet was still in pieces on Wednesday night.

    A delighted Merv picked up his Winners Trophy and the tools supplied by one of our sponsors Speedking.



    Merv Barnett with the Gasser Circus Winners and the Gasser Wars Trophy's

    Laurent Levi picked up the number 1 qualifier Voucher and the Gasser Circus proudly collected the Gasser Wars trophy on the startline.
    It was a weekend of winners, as we got to race with some fantastic like-minded visitors from Sweden and France and make a whole new bunch of friends along the way.
    Gasser Wars 2018 anyone?

    The Gasser Circus wish to thank the Santa Pod crew who kept all the racers safe, the back room team and commentators for all their hard work. We also want to say thank you to all the drivers who visited from Sweden and France and our sponsors the National Street Rod Association, Speedking and Matt the Stitch.

    Gasser Circus – Racing the dream

  2. #2
    NSRA member crumble's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    8,265
    what a great weekend see you at the mopars.
    Real steel

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