As told exclusively to

Thanks to our major sponsor Gold RV whose web site you can find at www.goldrv.co.uk. If you have a question for Derek or the team or if you would like to send a message of support then please E-Mail us at derekflynn@eurodragster.com.

Wednesday 20th August 2008: Better late than never.

Finally Gold RV Racing is back and we hope back in some style, whilst our precious cargo had a detour via Rotterdam it was finally delivered and it all arrived safe and sound, unfortunately too late to go to Hockenheim.

We are now busy getting our truck and trailer and everything else ready, the car has its new SFI stickers and is nearly ready for our debut at Santa Pod later this month for some testing before we go into some real competitive action at the European Finals.

We are so pleased with our new car and hope that we can finally be competitive in TMD, but A/Fuel cars are pretty tricky to tune but with the aid of our American friends Larry Miersch and Jim Rizzoli who are coming over to help and have previously driven and tuned the car respectively in the US, we are hoping we might be able to hit the track running so to speak. We are not taking anything for granted though and we know we have oh so much to learn, Jim and Larry are really looking forward to coming over this side of the Pond and are fairly confident that providing I can drive it and the team can turn it round that we should be able to put on a good show.

This year has been so frustrating for us and we just cannot wait to get back to the track and start racing again, and surely we will finally get that five second run, that we were robbed of due to the blower belts coming off at the end of last year! Bit of an overkill though buying an A/Fueler to get rid of that problem I guess but we are so looking forward to seeing what fives this baby will do, if we can get it going as good as it looks we shall be very happy.

We very pleased to welcome Lucas Oil as associate sponsors of the Gold RV A/Fueler and we look forward to working with them, we already sell and use their products in our workshops and know the benefits of using the high quality oils they supply and the superior lubrication that they offer. By a strange quirk of fate Jim Rizzoli our US tuning consultant used to be Crew Chief and tuner for Morgan Lucas with his Lucas backed A/Fueler from 2004 - 2006.

Thanks for stopping by and sorry for the lack of blogs recently but there is only so much you can say while you are waiting for your new car to turn up, if you are coming to the European Finals please drop by and say hi and join us in sniffing the nitro!

Sunday 20th July 2008: Supporting Drachten.

What do you do when you’re waiting for your new car, well go to Drachten of course and support your junior; I think we had the biggest team there! One funny moment was when the junior failed to start at the line and within seconds there were TF, Pro Mod as well as Top Methanol Mechanics all over it and with that many crew we managed to scare it back in to life. Lisa did really well despite the added pressure of most of her sponsors present and managed to get number one qualifier with a 0.001 reaction, unfortunately due to the fact we had to slow the car down with a lump of wood under the loud pedal it was a little inconsistent on the runs and she lost in the first round, personally I blame Dad for getting the dial in wrong he blamed me for choosing the wrong lane, however it did not seem to bother Lisa too much and she was back doing her other job of assisting the timing crew. I would like to thank the Selles family for all their hospitality and wish them good luck in Sweden, with over fifty juniors competing for a 32 car field it is going to be tough but I am sure Lisa will make the cut if she continues with the near perfect lights.

It was really neat to be back at Drachten and congratulations to everyone at the club for all their hard work at the event and for making sure Drag Racing is back in Holland. It was also good to see a few Brits competing and supporting the event, congratulations to Mark and all the Flavell Welding Team for being number one qualifier especially as they did it on the last qualifier after a late night thrash, and for reaching the final in Super Pro. It was just a shame the rains came before all the finals could be run. From what I saw, everyone seemed to have a great time and the new track looked real good and hopefully next year we might get invited to run the first A Fuel Dragster in Holland.

Our new car should be here in August and we just can not wait to compete again, it has been far too long since I have been able to mash a loud pedal, in fact it was last October.

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully in my next blog we will have the new car at our workshops, I am looking forward to making some noise and telling you all about it.

Tuesday 1st July 2008: New car, new colours.

Well the car should have been loaded on the ship and sailed yesterday. This is the bit I really hate, the long wait until our precious cargo arrives and hopefully all in one piece! Thanks to John Price of Flint Insurance for insuring the car and parts during its long journey. As usual, John managed to get us a very reasonable quote to insure against accidental damage and theft as well as total loss, should the ship sink or God forbid the container is lost at sea, this happens more than you may think, apparently they just fall off and then float just below the surface and are a real hazard for yachties.

I would like to thank Larry Miersch, his Crew Chief Jim Rizzoli and Miersch senior for all the hard work they put in to ensure the car and spares are virtually race ready, after rebuilding the engine, heads etc. Larry even sent the mags, Racepak computer and crank away to be tested before rebuilding it. They fired it up to make sure everything was all OK and as you can see in the picture Jim looks pretty pleased with the fire-up. They loaded the car and parts in his trailer and delivered it and unloaded it all at Montana Exports, who have arranged all the packing and shipping for us.

Pete Walters of PWRD has come up with a new scheme for us. We really did not want to cover up all that beautiful carbon fibre and as you can see we have reverted back to our more traditional flames.

Just to whet your and our appetites for our new car, this is one of the last runs that Larry made with it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1XTV4-bjrU.

Tuesday 17th June 2008: A Fuel it is then.

Apologies for not blogging sooner but as you may have read on Eurodragster I have been a little busy, after reaching an out of court settlement with regard to our Top Fuel ride, it was a trip to Finland to look at Mats Björklund’s car, then to Houston and checkout Howard Main’s Car, and then California to check out Larry Miersch’s A Fuel Dragster, I must say I was smitten right away with the A Fueller. The whole car is a work of art and looks to have the best of everything, the chassis is beautifully built and the one piece carbon fibre body is awesome, it was just so light I could not believe it; the one piece body on the Top Fueler weighed at least three times as much.

It was really neat to meet with some good honest racers and I would like to thank them all for their hospitality, all three cars had their merits, but at the end of the day we decided on the Nitro route, I reckon if we can get a handle on it, this car will perform just great and we own it, which we feel much more comfortable with, but again we have oh so much to learn!

We are trying to get the car here in time for Hockenheim but shipping from the East Coast at the moment is very busy and it may be that we will have to wait until the European Finals. Larry is busy preparing the car for us at the moment after stripping it all down so I could see everything and has already had the crank crack tested and has ordered a new set of rods to go in it. He has had all the restraints re tagged and he is doing everything he can to ensure we have a good shot at running well over here and has even agreed to come over with his Crew Chief and tuner Jim Rizzoli to assist us. We have never had this kind of support before and it should prove invaluable. They are both really great guys and are looking forward to coming over and helping us and I would like to thank them in advance for their support.

We are all really excited about our new acquisition and the Go Gold Crew are up for the challenge, but these type of cars are very difficult to set up and tune and can be dangerous if you get the servicing and starting routines wrong, so we know we have our work cut out to try and learn everything.

No sooner had I got back than it was off to the Pod and resume my duties as Crew Chief for Matt Glassup and his first time in our old rail, Matt was excellent and got his Super Pro licence at the weekend, qualified and even went a couple of rounds knocking out my mates Mark Flavell and Steve Johnson after both red lit. It was looking like it might be Matt’s day as, if we could get around Crunch in the next round, we would have a bye to the final but alas it was not to be. On our run against Steve we broke a rod when Matt lifted after the run and that was us out. Matt, Bob and the Xtreme team were all happy with our achievements and Matt smashed his previous PB of nine seconds down to a very respectable 7.3. Well done Matt and thanks also to John and Sarah of the Go Gold Crew for coming down to help out too!

Saturday 31st May 2008: Driver turns crew chief.

It was not quite what I had planned for the Main Event, but it was great to be back amongst friends in the Super Pro Pits. I was helping my mate Bob Glassup to get to grips with our old TMD, now with the Chevy from his altered installed; it was great fun too.

Our biggest challenge proved to be getting Bob to wait for the sportsman tree to run, due to the fact he normally runs on a pro tree. I have pulled some cherries in my time, but never left before the tree activated! How things have changed; it only seems like yesterday that the roles were reversed and Bob was telling me what to do and when to do it on my debut runs in Easter 2004.

Bob had never driven a rail before and I think he thought they just went straight, which in comparison to what he normally has to do to wrestle his altered down the track I guess they do. But on his first run he drew a perfect S on the track which made me chuckle as I knew he now realised that you still have to drive these things. Anyway he handled it all very well and straight off the trailer, and after short shifting both gears he managed 192mph a new PB for speed for him; well done mate. Unfortunately our best run of the weekend was the one without the ticket but the data showed the car was doing around 217mph when he lifted. One amusing moment was when we decided that, due to earlier gear selection problems, this may be our last chance to qualify. We insisted that Bob did a really short burnout and try to stop before the staging beams, so we did not have to use reverse. Bob did it perfectly stopping inches before the blue line. On this occasion he waited for the green before launching but obviously the tyres were not to temperature and the launch was more like a second burnout, until it hooked up and flew. Whilst we were miles off our time we had qualified, phew.

Then the rains, ho hum, weekend over, but I enjoyed the experience of being crew chief and Bob seemed to enjoy driving the rail. Matt has asked if I could be crew chief again for him at the Summernationals, as he will be driving our old car this time, sure why not. There is definitely some unfinished business here as I reckon with a bit of fine tuning there is a mid six in the current combination at over 200mph.

Thanks to the Go Gold crew who attended and helped me and the xtreme team and I'm sorry we were not sniffing nitro, but it was good to all catch up again and at least make some noise.

I would also like to say a big well done and commiserations to Peter Walters who got his Super Pro licence and at sixteen. I think he is one of the youngest Brits to do so, but unfortunately broke his crank.

We have started our comeback and have already purchased a truck and trailer ready for the new car and we are currently working on a few options at the moment and hopefully in my next blog I can tell you what and where next for Gold RV Racing; we are aiming to try and get out again in time to make our debut at Hockenheim, having never raced there before.

Wednesday 14th May 2008: Down, out, but not finished.

It is with a very heavy heart that I finally have to admit defeat with regard to racing at the Main Event and probably the 2008 FIA Top Fuel Championship.

I would like to thank everyone who has telephoned me and the team as well as all the people who sent us E-Mails, offering messages of support and commiserations. Thanks also to my team who had worked so hard and have been on and off standby since being let down. I had been working very hard to try and secure another ride for this season and to get my Top Fuel licence but to no avail, it was just too last-minute.

Thanks also to Rune Fjeld for agreeing to licence me at this weekend's Peak Performance Day, at very short notice, but due to the fact I have been unable to secure a ride for the Main Event, I have passed up on Rune's offer at this time. This is mainly due to the fact that in the unlikely event that something went awry so close to the Main Event I would not want to be responsible for ruining another driver's opportunities.

We have gone legal with the situation we find ourselves in and I am afraid I can not comment any further about that, until the legal eagles have done their job.

Having sold our race car, trailer and equipment as well as all the spares we had built up to assist funding our Top Fuel aspirations, we are now in the situation of having to start all over again.

We have decided to take some time out for now. I won't say retire, mainly thanks to Tog who talked me out of that when I was feeling particularly down, but maybe once the lawyers have done their thing, we shall return.

Gold RV and myself will continue our support of the sport, as we have links with several teams now as well as a great deal of respect for Eurodragster.com and everything they do for the sport and their sponsors, and more importantly we have so many friends in the sport too. But at the moment I cannot see Gold RV Racing being out again with another car for a while. Having said that, the people who know us all know that the team and I do not give up easy, nor am I a very good spectator. So who knows, something might just turn up with those Gold RV logos on it and with Yours Truly back in the hot seat. I do hope so, as this would be an awful way for us to finish!

Good luck and safe racing to everyone competing at the Main Event, in particular Bob Glassup who is driving our old car with the recently-installed blown Chevy from his seven-second altered. This is his first outing in a rail and will probably be some of the straightest runs he has ever done. Good luck also to Peter Walters and to Lisa Selles who will be flying the flag for Gold RV, and good luck to everyone competing for the Gold RV/Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award.

Tuesday 29th April 2008: Done before we started.

Well I thought the first entry of my Blog was the hardest one I had to write, but this one is now proving to be. As you have probably already read on Eurodragster.com News, Knut and the Gold RV team have parted company. The team and I are absolutely gutted and despite taking a couple of days out, I am still very angry at the way we have been treated, so much so I need to reflect a little longer on what has happened and decide what we are going to do about it and where we go from here. I will tell the whole story over a couple of Blogs if you don't mind, but I needed to start with some apologies and some Thank Yous:

I would like to apologise to Brian Burrows for not running at the Big Bang, also to Darren Prentice and the fire and safety crews that were brought in especially to allow us to run, sorry guys but the situation we were confronted with was just untenable.

I am also sorry we disappointed the fans that were looking forward to seeing us run and thank you for all the support we have received.

Thanks to the Go Gold Crew for all the hard work you put in to get the car virtually ready, I would estimate as a team we put well over three hundred man hours in getting the car ready to run and able to pass tech, something we had not planned on as it was supposed to be a turnkey car capable of competing at this high level and should have met FIA and SFI regulations. Anyway thanks guys and girls and sorry you did all that for nothing.

Thanks also to Andy Robinson who at the eleventh hour managed to squeeze the work that was required into his already busy schedule and for burning the midnight oil at our workshop on a couple of occasions to ensure the car was brought up to spec after the Tech guys visit.

As you can see thanks to the boys at J&W and Peter Walters, the car was looking good and we were really looking forward to flying the flag for Britain.

I will tell the full story after I have calmed down a little and not smarting quite so much over the £20,000 plus we had invested into this season so far as well as selling a perfectly good race car to help fund this year's proposed adventures.

Wednesday 23rd April 2008: Big Bang preparation.

We are getting very excited now, and hopefully in my next Blog I will be telling you about what it felt like to unleash over 6,000 horses, as well explain what the team had to do to get me down the track and between runs.

We still have a few things to do before we can load up and head up to Santa Pod, Andy Robinson is busy modifying the shroud and few other bits and pieces. The Go Gold Crew were at our workshop all day on Saturday but we were still waiting for some parts to arrive from the US that Knut had ordered and they duly arrived yesterday from Gary Burgin’s, what helpful guys they are and they seem to know everything about drag racing, they have helped us in the past with Chevy Parts as well as parts for our Hemi in the TMD and now with Fuel parts.

Alan Jackson (our Tuner), has been busy too, getting our Racepack computer running as well as building a new fuel slide valve that Knut has had manufactured. Once we get to the Pod Alan then has to programme all the ignition timing curves, fuel and clutch timers, then hopefully some time on Saturday we will be able to do the first launch and after that the required half pass. All going well and I get signed off on the launch and half pass, we are planning to change motors Saturday night and with the new bullet installed we shall be going for an all out assault on the two full passes, which have to be 5.4 seconds or quicker and one run in excess of 260 mph. Whilst these numbers are well within the cars capabilities, obviously track and weather conditions will also have to be with us (as well as yours truly getting everything right) and when you consider in Vegas last week after three rounds of qualifying some of the guys were struggling to get 5.40 and this was their fourth round of the championship plus all the testing they have done, so it is not going to be easy.

If you are coming to the Big Bang this weekend then please come and say hi and keep your fingers crossed for us, that we can get the licence runs out the way, at least then we will know we can attend the Main Event and the next goal will be to try and make the show, last year at Mantorp qualifying in TF was just awesome and you basically had to run a 4 to make it in. Hopefully if it all goes well this weekend, we can collate some useful data to help us for qualifying next month. If you can not make it to the Big Bang in person keep an eye out on the excellent Eurodragster coverage and keep those positive vibes coming we really appreciate all the support we have been getting.

Sunday 13th April 2008: Top Fuel Racer In Waiting.

I am starting to really dislike that title, but again I am blogging you before driving our Top Fuel Dragster and watching the other guys at the Easter Snowball get three rounds in on the Monday albeit over the eighth was just so frustrating for me and the team, as we wanted to be out there too.

My Team Manager Gary Jenkins managed to get his licence at Easter though, not for driving a car but driving the monster of a tailgate that we now have, and just to prove his proficiency he managed to lower it to within a centimetre of an egg without breaking it, things you do when you are bored! Pictures courtesy of Richard Stirling of Top Nitro, just in case you have visited his excellent web site and wondered what that was all about.

Now we have had the car at our workshop for a while, we may not have been able to run at Easter anyway as we have found a few things that needed to be rectified, so perhaps the bad weather was a blessing in disguise for us.

With the car only arriving just before Snowball, this was my first chance to check out the modified seating position Knut had done and with all my race gear on, one time I did not mind getting suited and booted as at least it kept me warm during the sub zero conditions and gave us the opportunity to check out the new seven point harness that we now have to use.

Andy Robinson of Andy Robinson Race Cars as well as Mark and Tim of the Tech Crew are booked to come to our place this week to ensure the car is all up to date and is well and truly race ready. We have used Andy many times before on our own race cars and can not speak highly enough of the help and support he has given us in the past, we are very fortunate to have Andy almost on our doorstep and as an excellent chassis builder and racer himself he has a vast amount of experience to help any racer in any class and I was really pleased when Knut said he had spoken to Andy and he was to do what ever needed doing. Also all the Gold RV crew will be at Gold RV next weekend to button everything up and get all the equipment and tools ready for the following week's assault, thanks guys.

There have been quite a few rule changes from when our car was built in 2006 and whilst most of the equipment we have is pretty much state of the art and the same as they use in the US - things like seat belts, HANS devices and shrouds - the rules have changed back and forth so much so that even the FIA have struggled to keep up with them. We normally run a year behind the US with regards to rule changes but if it is a safety issue then we tend to adopt the changes as soon as possible.

We have now sent our dragster body etc. away to get Gold RV'd. I am really pleased with the results and I would really like to thank Peter Walters of Peter Walters Race Design for coming up with the designs and Richard and Lee of J&W Automotive for applying the paint in the very tight time frame we had. In fact they could paint it quicker than my graphic guys could sticker it and at a price that was comparable too, thanks guys. So if you want a quick spray job rather than a sticky job look no further than the J&W boys, as you can see we have modified the scheme slightly as I liked the red so much, especially as it matches our team mate Bob Glassup's Altered, that I decided to dispense with the fade.

The Big Bang is fast approaching and we just cannot wait to unleash the monster and see what it can do. If you are at a bit of a loose end on the weekend of the 26th-27th April why not come along, the Big Bang and Bug Jam are quite different to your normal drag race meeting especially if you like VWs and the racing and evening entertainment is like no other meeting you would have seen before. So why not come along and please come and say Hi as your support is very much appreciated.

Thursday 27th March 2008: Close, but no cigar.

Unfortunately, I am writing this Blog still with no experience of driving a Top Fueller. As most of you probably already know the weather gods were against us at the renamed Easter Snowball. I remember my first time at Santa Pod with our first car, where it ended up with me in the cockpit with a lapful of hailstones and eventually the test day being called off and no racing. Snow drifts outside our RV definitely topped that one, drag racing can be a frustrating sport at times, especially here in England with our climate but I have learned not to get too down about the weather as that is one thing as a team we cannot do anything about.

Knut Söderquist (car owner) and Alan Jackson (Tuner) decided on Sunday evening that although the car was now virtually ready (still missing a few parts but that could have been overcome) and whilst there was a possibility of a weather window on the Monday, the temperatures could still have been a bit of a problem for a rookie's first launch and we should regroup and try again another time. Whilst the team and I were obviously disappointed not to get out on the track, we did understand their concerns, as with no experience it could have been easy to smoke the tyres and, being the rookie that I am, I may not have reacted in time to save the motor.

All was not lost though, as once the 50 mph winds finally dropped we got our excellent Leanders Brothers awning up on Saturday night, just in time to catch all the snow. On Sunday morning we were finally able to get our monster out of the trailer and in sub-zero conditions the team were able to do some much-needed work on it. We rebuilt the engine, found a couple of pistons that needed replacing, the cam end float also needed adjusting, set up the clutch and cannon as well as built a spare short motor etc. Special thanks to Alan Jackson without whom this would have been impossible, what a knowledgeable and great guy to work with and we are so pleased he is helping our team.

Going through the trailer was an experience too. The amount of spares Knut has is phenomenal. Open one draw, two draws, full of a multitude of MSD parts, another full of piston rings, open a box and it is full of rods, another box full of pistons, another pile of boxes full of complete fully-built cylinder heads, spare injectors etc. etc. It was like an Aladdin's cave for the team and I, it also helped to reinforce Knut's commitment to us as a team that he really wants us to go as many rounds as we can and that parts or lack of them should not be an issue.

The team really achieved so much on the Sunday despite the weather and we did manage to fire up the beast in the evening, just on a bit of petrol/methanol mix poured in through the injectors but I finally got to sit in the office with the engine running and the wheels going round and I felt right at home, although as I say it was not running on nitro yet! Despite all the smoke and fumes I was not moving for a while, I just sat there taking it all in and visualising what I will have to do on a run.

It was great to be back at the Pod and to see so many of our friends again, although at times it was hard to leave the warmth of the RV. Also it was quite difficult to go visiting as we had so many visitors ourselves wishing us well, and we were a very popular place to visit what with our central heating and underfloor heating going flat out along with our kettle that never seemed to stop. Sorry, got to plug the benefits of having an RV and you have to plug your sponsors you know, also as a few of our friends/customers who came by also kept commenting to us they were so pleased they bought an RV from Gold and all with rather smug looks on there faces. I would like to thank my wife Fiona who was probably one of the busiest members of the crew this weekend, the army still needs feeding even when you are not racing, as well as supplying endless cups of tea and coffee to all and sundry, so much so we both forgot our twenty fourth wedding anniversary, so a belated Happy Anniversary darling. I got told off for the come on no gagging bit last time so I won't mention that again, oops.

Also, even though we did not get out on the track ourselves, a huge thanks and total respect to all the Santa Pod crew, Fire and Safety crews, scrutineers, tech guys, sign on office, and everyone else who worked so hard at, on, in or around the event to ensure the meeting was completed for the racers and crowd who bravely stuck it out and I do hope you have all thawed out. Thanks also to the Go Gold Crew for sticking it out too!

We have now arranged to try and get our licence runs at the Big Bang on the26th-27th April. I just hope the weather will be better, surely it could not be any...no, don't tempt fate Derek. I would really like to thank Brian Burrows and Darren Prentice for allowing us the opportunity to do this. This is not Gold RV Racing's first adventure at the Big Bang as we entered the ET Challenge a couple of years back with our six second Super Pro ET car and had a great time, so we are all really looking forward to it, again thanks Brian much appreciated. So why not come along and give us some support it will be very much appreciated and going on past experiences it is a really fun event.

Blog ya later and thanks again for stopping by.

Thursday 20th March 2008: White rabbits.

I'm late I'm late for a very important date, no time to say hello good bye I'm late I'm late I'm late. I feel just like that rabbit at the moment. Well, the car finally arrived and, for various reasons, about four weeks later than planned, and unfortunately as you may have read on Eurodragster.com News the truck broke down at the docks.

With all the delays, we have not had time to even get the car out of the trailer, so sorry no pictures this time either. This also means we will have to run in Knut's Tre Kronor colours and not the new Gold RV scheme for this event, which is disappointing, but hey at least it is here.

We had so much we planned to do to the dragster, truck and trailer before Easter but our first job was to find a replacement truck to take it to the meeting and I would like to say a special thanks to Animal for coming to the rescue with his truck and agreeing to pick it up and bring it back to us. Next we had to fit a new awning to the side of the trailer or we would have no where to work, which my guys did in the freezing cold, thanks guys. Then sort out the wheelie bar that was not quite finished, but are now mandatory for Fuel cars and we would not be able to run without it. But that is all we had time for before it had to leave for the track.

Once we get to the track we still have so much to do, Alan Jackson has to rebuild the clutch cannon and slide valve, the rest of the team have to tear down the engines and rebuild them as they have not turned a piston for nearly a year. Overhaul the fuel pump and fuel systems, a new set of HT leads to make, get the Racepak systems talking to the computer as well as a multitude of other things that I don't even know yet, good job we have got an army of crew with us.

It has been a really unusual off-season for us as a team this year, as this is the first time we have not owned our own car and usually we are busy all winter rebuilding and tinkering with it, organising spares, getting things checked and tagged for the up and coming season. Since we did the deal with Knut we have just had to wait for the car to be updated and tagged in Sweden and the first my team will get to work on it will be at the track, obviously we are not in competition this weekend and the aim is to familiarise ourselves with the car and for me to get some seat time and hopefully my licence runs. This requires that I do an observed launch, then a half pass with chute deployment and then hopefully two runs of 5.4 seconds or quicker, which is nearly a second quicker than I have ever been, also one run has to be in excess of 260 mph, let's hope the weather is kind and the car runs well.

I just can't wait to mash a loud pedal again it seems like an eternity since I did it last, but this time I am going to have over three times the horsepower than I have had before as well as a clutch pedal and a hand brake to get used to. Oh crap, I have so much to learn, so little time to do it, so many horses and I am so so looking forward to achieving my dream of driving a Top Fuel Dragster, I just hope it does not turn in to a nightmare.

Thanks for all the supportive E-Mails and telephone calls we received wishing me and the team all the best, it is really appreciated and rest assured we shall be giving it our all!

If you get a chance please come say hi to us in the pits, we shall all be flat out putting this monster together and your support will help to spur on the team.

Hopefully the next time I write I might be able to tell you what it felt like to unleash over 6000 hp and give you a bit of an insight of what the team had to do to get us there.

Thursday 6th March 2008: Blog of a rookie.

Well if you are reading this then I guess the blog has started! Thanks Tog and all at Eurodragster (I think). Welcome to you and thanks for stopping by! Let's call this the "Getting to know each other" phase of the blog and I will try not to go on quite so much next time.

Never having done a blog before I am not really too sure where to begin, a couple of people said I should start one especially as "This is your rookie year in Top Fuel". I was assured people would be interested, I guess we shall see... When blogging was first suggested I was worried people might think I was a bit up myself, after all who is this bloke? Some rookie that has been in the sport five minutes, but again they said the fact you have a blog won't be the problem, but what you write in it might be true!

I intended to start this blog on our own racing site, a little more private than here on Eurodragster.com, but I was both honoured and a little nervous when Tog advised me that Eurodragster would be interested in hosting it, also the fact that I have not driven a Top Fueller yet is also a bit of a worry as this could be the shortest running blog ever, as I might totally crap myself after the first run and vow never to do it again! Which will be a little embarrassing in such a public domain, we shall see. I can't wait to see what it is like having over 6000 hp under the control of my right foot and then trying to explain that feeling to you will also be interesting, at the moment I can only imagine!

So for those that don't know me, and why should you, my name is Derek Flynn, I am forty six years old, married to the light of my life Fiona for twenty four wonderful years, come on no gagging, we have no kids but have a real cute thirteen year old three-legged terrier that we spoil rotten and we all live in our RV and work at Gold RV in Alton, Hampshire.

My life changed when at the age of forty one I made my first visit to Santa Pod to watch some racing, well actually I got badgered by Darryl Bradford for eighteen months to sponsor him and the Wildside team, after that one visit that did it for me, thanks Darryl, Lesley and John. "Let's get a car and go racing" I said. So here I am, lucky enough to be the driver for the Gold RV Racing team as well as being the team owner. I drove my first dragster in 2004 and just loved it, oh how I wish I had started this earlier. The Top Fueller will be our fourth car in nearly as many years, I like to keep the team on their toes. We have steadily worked our way up the speed charts mainly in Super Pro, what a great bunch of folks and I am forever indebted to them. Then a year in TMD, again great people and special thanks to the Turners and Dave Wilson for all their help, and now Top Fuel, I can hardly believe it myself. I do hope the need for speed will be satisfied here, but if not I guess I will have to have a go in that Virgin Galactic thing (busy saving my air miles just in case), although apparently the launch Gs of the Space Shuttle are less than a Top Fueller, oh crap what have I done?

So in drag race terms I am a rookie especially when you think there are Junior Drag Racers that have been racing longer than I. The journey so far has been great fun, hard work, full of highs mixed with a few lows and I feel very privileged to be part of this excellent sport and a part of the global drag racing family, because that is what it is like a family. Rather than bore some of you too much (too late you say) who already know me or the team, if you are interested in a more in-depth history of Gold RV Racing, then please see some of our earlier reports on our racing site at www.goldrvracing.co.uk. A good place to start is my review of our first year's racing at www.goldrvracing.co.uk/news/news_121004.htm. Or use the excellent search facility now on Eurodragster.com.

This is hard work this blogging thing, you try it, but I think it is coming along now, don't you?

At this point I must say a huge thanks to all the Go Gold Crew, past and present, you guys and girls, yes girls too, we are an equal opportunity team, you have all been brilliant. Also very special thanks to my Gold RV business partner Gary Jenkins who has been my Crew Chief to date and is now the Team Manager and always straps me in, a man I literally trust with my life, and of course my wife Fiona who has always been very supportive and is the Team Secretary and also looks after the crew whilst at the track. Fiona is a little worried about this years exploits, she's worried, I have to try and drive the thing! Without the support of these people none of this would have been possible, so thanks to you all.

Anyway you will be pleased to hear this blog is not going to be all about me but the team, the car and our exploits, and sometimes if I say I, I really mean we. As we are a team, we compete as a team, win as a team and we lose as a team, apart from when I redlight, but even then the team are pretty good to me saying stuff like "If you don't redlight occasionally then you are not really trying". It doesn't help though, I still feel gutted, as I know I have let them down and they have all done so much work to get me to the line. We also have great fun as a team too, which is just as well as they all volunteer their time and I really appreciate that they also use most of their annual leave from their day jobs to help make us go faster.

I would just like share a couple of little stories that have made me so proud of my team and at one point even brought a bit of a tear to the eye, I know, big softie. One of my proudest moments was our first all-night thrash, that's right the whole night, we were competing in Super Pro ET when on the last run of the day the blower literally exploded about three quarter track and the car caught fire. Anyway rather telling the whole story, suffice to say the excellent Santa Pod crew ensured the fire was quickly out and I was safe, although a little wet. Once we got our rather sorry looking car back to the pits the team soon decided if I could get another blower, they would rebuild the engine as bits had gone through everything, overhaul the injector and gearbox, re-wire the melted wires, we would try and make it for eliminations in the morning. With literally minutes to spare after working all night we pushed our way through the fire up road and made it to the Super Pro pairings that were already running. I was just so proud of the team and the looks from some of our peers, who had seen the carnage the night before, were priceless and the comments of "Didn't think you would be out again", or "We would have put on the trailer" also made us feel good. Well I think this was the start of the Go Gold Crew never-give-up attitude that I know is required as a norm at this level.

The tear in the eye moment was the day after running my first 200 mph run, which I had been trying to achieve for quite a while and after four 199 mph runs in a row at a previous meeting, we finally nailed it. Now I wrongly thought that this was my goal as it meant so much to me, but as I say the day after, I was watching the video of the run that the crew do so we can see what the car does, anyway when the 205 mph came up on the board they forgot to switch off the camera and they went mental all hooping and hollering and a few other choice words that I can not repeat here. Obviously the team's reaction at the line is something I don't normally see or hear, but that was the moment I realised the goals that I thought I set for myself, meant as much or even more to the team too.

I also need to thank all those people who have and are helping us to achieve our goals, sorry there are just far too many to list here, it's a big family spread far and wide, but I am sure their names will pop up from time to time in this blog, providing I am not shut down.

So to the point in hand, the new car. Hoorah, at last you say! It is a virtually brand new Top Fuel chassis built by Mats Eriksson in Sweden and it will be the first European chassis that I have driven, having sourced all my previous cars from the States. I believe the car has only done a handful of runs in the more than capable hands of Harlan Thompson in Bahrain and it has got most of the latest bits available. I will go into specifics another time, yeah, once I have learned what they all are, I hear you say. Cruel but partly true and I am told it should be more than capable of competing at this top level, let's just hope the team and I are.

When Gary and I went to Sweden to see the car and do the deal with Knut Söderquist of Carbon By Design, Knut was explaining some of the major differences between our Top Methanol Dragster and the Top Fueller. From a driver's perspective, apart from the obvious that it will be faster and quicker, his exact words were "It would be a right animal and when the clutch locks up it may lift the front wheels again and it will just keep pulling all the way to the line". I am not sure if he was trying to scare or warn me, anyway the infamous Flynn Grin appeared as soon as he said "right animal", then got wider as he said "just keeps pulling all the way to the line". I guess he was satisfied that I thought I was up for the challenge.

From a team perspective, Knut also asked were we as a team ready for all the extra work? He said you don't just check the engine to see if you are going to pull it apart as we have been doing with the TMD, you just pull it apart after every run and between every meeting! OK, more team members required then, and preferably with Fuel experience!

I am very pleased that we have managed to secure the services of Ian Pellant, Laurie Bamford and Rob Inglis, all of whom have been involved with some top teams for a number of years and their experience will be invaluable. In fact after numerous telephone conversations and E-Mails as well as some recommendations, we decided to offer the Crew Chief's job to Ian, who is keen to progress his own Top Fuel career further by leading a team for the first time. We are also really looking forward to working with Alan Jackson who will be tuning the car for us, and of course with King Knut who is a fuel legend.

So here we are then a new car on the way, another rookie year for Yours Truly, a new Crew Chief and some new team members, I do hope it all comes together OK! We are all very excited about the challenges that we know we shall have to face and I hope to share these with you through this blog. So the talking will soon be over and the doing about to commence.

All going well, I will try and update the blog as much as I can or people say they want, my intention is to include some pictures and regular updates of how our adventure is going as well as try and get some input from some of the other team members of the Go Gold Crew, so they can give you an idea of what it is they do for the team and their take on life in Top Fuel.

We would be pleased to answer any questions you may have, if we can. We would appreciate some suggestions of what you would like me or the team to discuss in this blog. Or if you just wish to send us a message of support that will be very much appreciated too. You can write to us at derekflynn@eurodragster.com. I am really proud to be flying the flag for Britain in the FIA European Top Fuel Championship, but please be patient: we have so much to learn, but rest assured we shall as usual be giving it our all, at every meeting we attend!

The blog will not be so long next time ("Half a denarii for me bleedin' life story?" as the ex-leper said in the Life of Brian), but I had to get you up to date and tell you a bit about who we are, after all it is not as if we are Top Fuel Champions writing a blog and I promise it will be a bit more interesting with some pics of the car, engine etc.etc. Stats and reports of our exploits, he says trying to keep you interested and wanting you to come back.

Beat you to the book AC, might be the only time I beat Andy this year, but it won't be for the lack of trying. The banter has already started between us and he says he is looking forward to kicking my proverbial, although I must say he has also been very supportive. I wonder what he will feel like if he is beaten by a previous sponsor in the other lane, that he has helped, remember what I told you about those Gold RV logos, Andy.

The car should be arriving any day soon; I am just so excited, like a big kid, how many days till Santa comes Mum?

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to blogging to you again soon!

By the way please come and say Hi to the team or I at any of the race meetings, your support is very much appreciated!

All the best,

Derek
Britain's TF Rookie TF4055