We learned last year during the European Finals lane choice is the key for winning rounds. The right lane is not forgiving for Top Fuel cars; this has everything to do with the lock-up clutch these cars are using to apply the power to the track. Somehow the right lane has less traction around the lock-up point than the left lane. We know this, and were happy to have lane choice in the Finals last year because we had the best chance to make it first to the stripe. By the same token, we knew we had a problem in the second round of this year's Main Event when we were given the right lane. We gave it away in the first round not running the numbers we should losing lane choice because of that. Now you know!

On any given day it's possible to have a track that delivers records in all kind of classes but the nitro cars are struggling to get down the track. All has to do with the amount of horse power a track can hold on any given spot at the track. You can imagine that a car that is running in high gear before the 1/8 mile doesn't need a sticky track for the second 1/8 mile, it could hurt the ET if the track is pulling at the tires. When this situation occurs those cars run records while Top Fuel is struggling because those cars need the traction to apply the power to the track. We would love to run record numbers just as they do in the other classes.

Thanks for all the well wishes I received after my last blog and the story about my horse Splandit, the good news is that I have started riding again and things look really promising. The wound healed really well and the only thing we need to do now is ride for miles to make him stronger again after a month of rest in the stable.

Friday 3rd July 2009: Equine drama.

A couple of weeks have passed since I sent in my last blog. The reason that has taken me some time to write the next one has everything to do with the fact that time is needed to get started.

Three weeks ago, my horse Splandit (Splendid-Bandit) was seriously hurt after it received a kick from another horse while playing in the paddock. Both horses were chasing each other and they had a great time playing around. They have done this type of playing for more then four years without any problem. This evening, things went really wrong. After we heard the sound of the kicking against the horse's chest's we saw a long trail of blood spraying over his left leg colouring the front of the horse red at once. His main artery had been hit, and we could see the blood spurting out of the hole with the rhythm of his heartbeat. He got scared from the blood spraying around and started running around leaving a spattering of blood. Finally we managed to catch him and we could try to stop the bleeding.

The location of the damaged artery gave us no room to ligature the wound. In the meantime, a vet was called but because it happened after six there was no vet available in the nearby area. Gerda tried to stop the bleeding by putting her two thumbs in the hole. In the meantime a big pool of blood formed around us and we all were covered with blood. At one point, after we were working with the horse for almost 15 minutes, we both had the feeling we would lose the horse because he was losing too much blood. After 25 minutes, the vet arrived and he started helping us with making a suture to stop the bleeding. Splandit had lost more then 25 litres of blood already, and his condition was very critical. He survived the first night and we feel we are very lucky to still have him with us. He is still recuperating but, according to the vet, he will be okay and won't have any setbacks after the wound has healed.

This weekend, the second round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship is held in Finland. It's a strange feeling not to be there, especially being the defending event winner from last year. It's not that we were not interested to attend the event, but the cost and time that we need to invest to go there are not realistic any more. With the economy going through rough times, the chance of getting a better financial stepping stone is a great challenge. Of course we are very happy with our primary sponsor MPM, but the reality is that they have to settle with the amount of races and television air time that is presented currently. We have made the decision to run a limited number of races so we can use the available funds to help our business partners in their quest to grow, which will help us in return.

Not only have the running costs of a race team increased, but also the enormous amount of rule changes have taken their financial toll. I received a new rear wing I ordered a couple of weeks ago, together with a recertified one. The costs of complying with the new rear wing rule would have been enough to allow us to attend the race in Finland. Our focus is now set to our next race and that will be the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Sweden. More about this, and how important it is to have lane choice at Santa Pod in my next blog.

Thanks for reading, Lex.

Monday 25th May 2009: FIA Main Event Eliminations.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the interview to have the no.1 qualifier interview. I have never before had this privilege at a Santa Pod meeting and seeing the crowd and getting so much applause gave me a real boost. I was amazed to see how many were on the bank and in the grandstand and the whole occasion was well presented.

In the first round I wanted to run good numbers because lane choice was crucial for the next round, as there was a difference between the left and the right lanes. Both are equal to 600ft then there is a big difference for Top Fuel where the clutch locks up and the car needs traction. For some reason the right lane was not working as well for us as the left lane. In fact no car made a decent pass in the right lane all weekend.

In the first round when I made my burnout I saw that Jon Webster had a problem and I knew we had a bye-run. We could have taken it really easy but that is not how I race. I am here because of the crowds in the grandstand and what I do is why they buy tickets.

The track is not the same as the day before. I thought the cooler conditions would give us the same track or better than yesterday but we spun the tyres from 60ft out. I tried to pedal it once then got off the throttle before I crossed the centre line.

When we got back to the pits we found one of the main studs from the crank had broken. If we had made a full pass that could have cost me an engine, so lifting saved me a motor.

For the next race Andy Carter had the better ET in round one and therefore lane choice. It was an unequal fight, I am not blaming the track crew but we found the issue was just the same as it had been last year. We gave it our best shot in spite of the difficulty. We wanted to grab everything and set the car up to run fast until the problem spot and then took out power to get over it. We had a good reaction time of 0.0386s. I don't like having to do this as it is a bit of a risk. On the pass the car ran good. I thought if I made it through the middle section I would have the race in the bag.

We hazed the tyres at the eighth mile, the Gs went away and I pedalled one. At 1000ft the engine dropped a cylinder and the tyres spun. We sustained a lot of damage. It was the first oil down that we have had since running our own car. Both heads were torched and the block was damaged but repairable. A big thank you to the track crew and in particular the guys and girls at the end of the strip who asked if I was ok. There had been a lot of energy and adrenaline and I was out of breath when I took my helmet off. They came to see me in the pits later to give me a second check-up which made me feel well looked after. The outcome was not what we wanted but there will be a next time.

In spite of the loss it had been a great weekend. There was great weather, we enjoyed the event and we know we have a car that is competitive, which will help us get through the year. And we sold a lot of tee shirts. We are having fun and hope to be back here in September.

Sunday 24th May 2009: FIA Main Event Qualifying, Day Two.

I think we have done really well at this meeting to get no.1 qualifier after deciding so late to compete. We tried to make a faster run each time and this trategy worked well until the fourth session.

We were not looking to run 4.8 today. The car was instead running on the edge of going much quicker. In the third session, up until the eighth mile point the car was on a potential 4.4s run. The incrementals at 60ft, 330ft and the eighth were my best ever. We got to 330ft in 2.1s and the eighth in 3.1s when we were starting to spin the tyres. This was all with a more conservative tune-up than yesterday.

A lot of people have asked today whether the Top Fuel racers here have agreed to run the car only to 990ft. Top Fuel cars are a different setup to any other class. Most other classes make power to half track and then run to the end. So the track is good to the eighth but, for Top Fuel, it is difficult beyond that point. The problem for us is that we struggle further down the track and if there is no grip for us in the swcond half, we can't run the low ETs over the quarter which we want to. We have to calm the car over the second eighth of the track.

On the first run we hit the earlier part of the track as hard as we felt it could take and it stuck until the eighth mile point. It was vibrating a huge amount because of the thrust of momentum the car experienced. It went towards the wall as well but I kept my foot in it because I wanted to run a four.

For the fourth qualifier, the temperatures were well up compared with the morning. We had tried to calm the car down especially at the starting line. Earlier I had run a 0.84s 60ft time in the right lane. In this last session Andy Carter ram a 0.84s 60ft time in the left lane which stuck even in the hotter temperatures. We had taken out power but not enough. Also Andy's run showed that the left hand lane is better than the right. I have lane choice as no.1 qualifier amd hope we can go rounds. But we also want to run the numbers to get the lane choice which I think is the key to winning this race.

Saturday 23rd May 2009: FIA Main Event Qualifying.

We got to the track and prepared the car at the shop beforehand. We only had a week and a half to prepare as we only found out we could race at a late stage. Also we have a couple of new guys on the team and had to get them up to speed. So last weekend we had a practice session which went well. The team has worked well at this event and seem happy.

I am very happy with the car and how it is handling. Jon Webster has put a new back half on the chassis and changed the front half. I joked earlier with our starter Ian Marshall who actually ordered the parts for the car he started today.

The car has never run as straight as this before; it is really straight even in the burnout. A lot of work has paid off. The car shook a bit on the second run. We have changed the approach to tuning the car to be more aggressive. Whereas we were consistent, we are now aiming to be both consistent and quick. Last year we did not get the opportunity to do many runs with the weather conditions and we wanted to fight for the championship.

The other reason we want to run quick is that attending fewer events, we need to get points for quickest ET to have a chance of winning the championship. But we are having a lot of fun and running really good.

On the first run the car smoked the tyres at the eighth. I felt the number that came up on the board was not correct and was three tenths slower than what our data showed. On the second run the car did a brilliant 60ft and the 330ft was our best ever. We smoked slightly but still got to 1000ft in 4.1s. We were the quickest in the second session.

The tyre smoke was a result of a little bit too much clutch but rather than loosen the clutch we will try adjusting the tune-up as a way round it; this is fine tuning for track conditions. John Spuffard did a fabulous run at the end of the day; it was a real achievement.

We are dialling a low 4.6 or high 4.5. We can run a 4.8 with no problems but want to go quicker. First of all I want to be the first in the fours this year in Europe.

Saturday 16th May 2009: Entry for FIA Main Event.

Wow, a week ago we were making arrangements so we could sit behind the computer and listen to what was going at the Main Event and a week later we are entered and my name is listed on the Top Fuel entry list!

I must admit I still had a small hope we would pull it off but with the closing date becoming that close, the chance it would work at the end became really slim.

You can understand I'm very proud that Corporate Persuasion has faith and belief in our program, and that this type of company is prepared to help us to make the first round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship this coming weekend. You can find the Corporate Persuasion logo on my website and you can click at it for more information when you want more information about this great company. For all our fans it was a great relief to understand we will join the Top Fuel class for the first round of the Championship, I must say it gave me an extra drive to find a solution, seeing all those emails with the message that the Main Event would not be the same without us. We finished the car today (Saturday) and we will start packing the trailer tomorrow. After we received the green light, I started ordering parts through Gary Burgin; he has helped me out as always, collecting the parts I need and sending them so that we will have everything in time. It has been a long time since the last time we ran the car, so I'm really looking forward to starting working the 1/4 mile again. We have a couple of new crew members; they will have to adjust quickly, but I have the idea that will be no problem. We had our last training session today and looking at their performance we will be right where we need to be by Saturday when we start with the first round of Qualifying.

We will bring new T Shirts which will be sold for GBP10 in case you want to support us; we think it will be a nice way of thanking our fans for the support over past years.

We will have to sort out the car in our first qualifier to see if everything is working the way it should. The whole car has been taken apart so it makes sense to check out if all management systems are working the way we are used to. Also we made some changes to the set up of the car to make it better under difficult circumstances. Let's see how the car reacts on the first launch. After that, we have one target and that is going after the #1 position and the European records at the same time.

I lost my bet with Gerda because I said Urs would race at the Main Event; I really expected he would race, but with the big blow up the team encountered at Houston I presume the plans to attend the Main Event had to be changed. The amount of money lost in this accident is not something that can be taken lightly and will be the main reason Urs has to change his plan to ship one of his cars back to Europe. Talking about Urs, I have a great respect for what he has achieved in the USA. It must be a great adventure going over there, but it can be really difficult at the same time when you try to compete with those high profile teams with budgets of more then $3 million a year. My regular readers know my plans are to start racing in the USA later this year, I think this is something I have to try and find out for myself. I understand what it takes to be successful and it won't be easy, but I believe we have what it takes to turn some heads.

Our ferry will leave Thursday evening from the Hook to Harwich and we will arrive Friday morning at "the Pod". I hope to see a lot of people in the pits and the grandstands. It's been a long time the bank was filled with people cheering at us. My blog will be updated daily during the weekend. I believe we will have a great and history-making weekend. Thanks for reading, Lex.

Tuesday 14th April 2009: Car tagged and ready.

Last week the car came back from Jon Webster's shop tagged and ready for the years to come. Jon and his team did a perfect job on the car; not only was the back half of the car replaced so it meets the newest specs, also the front half was repaired. After Jon put the chassis on the jig the front half showed distortion caused by the wheelstand in 2005. The fuel tank has been made to the latest specs and also the puke tank that collects the engine oil when the pressure in the oil pan is getting too high has been made bigger. It's new and shiny and it looks like a mirror; my crew can check their hair cut when the car is reversing from the burn out.

This weekend we started to work on the car to get it ready for its first outing. We will change some settings and parts on the car that will benefit the tuning so we can apply more power to the track. I must admit it was a strange weekend, working on the car at the shop with the action from Santa Pod coming out of the speakers. It was good to hear the track was coming around on Monday although our Top Fuel peers didn't manage to hit the four second zone this early in the season.

Anita Mäkelä back in the hot seat is good news for the fans. She was really close to putting Europe's first four second run in 2009 on the scoreboard. I bet she has the urge to continue driving. Running a final round will give her a taste for more, and the excitement of a car accelerating as fast as the family Top Fuel car can close the deal.

Fans are asking me frequently if we will attend the Main Event. At least our car is tagged and ready to race. Gerda and myself are working hard to find the funds we need to race at the Main Event, the question is whether we will succeed in time. Looking at the emails I find in my mailbox, our fans are really expecting us to be at the Main Event and I must admit this gives me a warm feeling and the energy to continue to find the solution.

Thanks for reading, Lex.

Wednesday 18th March 2009: The memory and the dream.

Before the Easter Thunderball was run in the format as it is done nowadays the meeting had a slightly different character. The main act were the Funny Cars, Alcohol and Fuel Funny Cars competed in a Cannonball race. I made it to the final twice, both times against a Nitro burning Funny Car. In 1996 Gary Page was my opponent in the final. The difference between a Fuel and Alcohol powered car is big looking from a performance point of view, but this difference in horsepower was made up by an advantage on the Christmas Tree of half a second. I knew we had a chance to win this prestige Funny Car race. One of the things that would make the difference was the reaction time because the Fuel drivers were not used to pulling great reaction times. On the yellow my clutch was out and I ran the car like I was possessed by the devil. During the run I was waiting for the tremendous noise those Fuel cars make when they pass, then my blower belt broke before the 1000 foot mark and I thought I was fried. My engine went dead and the silence was massive, still no Fuel Funny Car charging to get me before the finish line? I passed the finish line first and won the event, Gary went up in smoke and could not catch me in time. I was really proud and in later Cannonball meetings I made it again to the Finals, those memories are great and I will never forget them. In 2004 I entered the race with my own Fuel Funny Car.

This year I will not enter the Easter Thunderball, for the first time in more then a decade. At a certain point choices have to be made and we made the decision to follow my dream, with the consequence that we have to make a choice which races to attend. I know my fans will be disappointed but probably they understand my decision and hopefully they support me in my quest to make my dream come true.

Living the American dream is what can be read on top of the Lex Joon Racing web site at www.lexjoonracing.nl. The idea is to go racing in the USA starting in Las Vegas and two weeks later in Pomona later this year. For me this is something I have been working on for the last couple of years and I know we are almost there to make it all happen. The race car is at Jon Webster's shop. Jon and his crew will make the car legal for racing in the US, something which is important because we can hit the nail on the head when we set foot in Las Vegas later this year, with a car we already raced in Europe.

When you visit our web site you will find details of how you can join us and support us to make our dream come true. For us as team it's a great adventure and the idea is to share this feeling with our fans and give them the possibility to join us during the races in the USA. That is one of the reasons we choose to race at the last two events of the NHRA season. Those races are not only interesting because it's the place to be when it comes to the Championship decision but to combine racing with a visit to Las Vegas and Pomona is an extra reason to make the trip.

Saturday 28th February 2009: Catching up.

As you probably have read already I was thrilled to make the announcement that the MPM Top Fuel dragster will attend a couple of races this year on the European tour. In spite of the ever growing costs of campaigning a Top Fuel team, we found a way to attend a couple of races. The key is to attend events where hospitality can be utilized to benefit our sponsors' products and give them the opportunity to network with business contacts. MPM made the decision to continue their support while the economic circumstances are not ideal, something that can be described as rather unique.

The fact that MPM and Lex Joon Racing came to an agreement is not only because our sponsor has a weak spot for drag racing but also because they see the possibilities to use our sport to expand their business, plus LJR has the best track record when driver points are calculated looking at the last four years of Top Fuel racing. Another reason MPM support us is that there is no sport that gives the public a closer look at what the teams are doing as drag racing. Drivers and crew are approachable and you can see everything that's happening in the pits during the servicing of the car. These aspects are unique and one of the main reasons to go for a lasting partnership.

For us as a team it means we have to catch up because during the winter break we didn't work on our race program as we normally do. The first thing we needed to do is to take the car apart because the chassis needs a lot of updates because of rule chances for the '09 season. Last weekend the car was stripped and transported to Webster Race Engineering. They will take care of all the work that needs to be done to get the car safe and legal for the coming years. I have admired Jon Webster's work and conduct since 2005 when he was campaigning a TF car he made in his workshop; this car was a perfect example of the craftsman Jon is. The car was built the way I would like to have my car built. The fact that he helped me put my car together after the wheel stand was awesome. I will never forget we were running the final of that same event and I could win my first Top Fuel race because he helped me getting the car ready, the same car that beat him in the final round.

This week we will attend the SFI tour with parts that need to be certified like clutch parts, bellhouse and rear wheels. Gary Burgin has already received parts sent by us that need to be recertified in the USA. The diaper needs to be done every year and the blower safety items every two years. This year we need to have a special insert in our seat to protect the driver against severe shake and vibration this became mandatory in the US after Eric Medlen crashed and lost his life in a testing accident almost two years ago. Our fuel system is in the hands of Don Jackson (DJE), he will go over the slide valve and BDK, parts that are crucial to have a fast and consistent racecar.

Thanks for reading and most importantly, don't forget to support the sponsors that make drag racing possible!

Sunday 1st February 2009: Planning for 2009.

It's been a long while since I posted my last blog. One of the reasons is that I'm very busy with my day job, and the other reasons are that I promised to support my wife's dressage ambitions and am finding a business solution to start racing in the USA.

Luckily we didn't experience a big set back at my garage after the economic problems set in. Although you are never sure if things will continue the way they are, right now the perspective is not too bad for our kind of business.

Gerda did very well this weekend with her horse Okido. She managed to win one round and was runner up at the other course she competed in today. With the two points she earned today she advanced to the next stage, M2. I'm very proud of her achievements and the perseverance to be successful that she shows.

The plans to start racing in the US are still in progress. With my regular job consuming most of my time, the steps we have made to transition to racing in the USA are not as big as I hoped they would be. It won't interfere with our overall objective because our aim is to start NHRA racing some time during this 2009 season. In the meantime everything is possible, perhaps good news for our local fans. Talk to you soon, Lex.