you see the fuel spray in the blower injector hat !!

cannon motorsports end of season reveiw

well its seems another race year has come and gone and once again developing a new combination had its highs and lows, we started the year full of hope the winter upgrades would net good results, the thunderball and main event were both good events but both showed we needed more testing time if we were going to make to long haul to hockenhiem, so off we went to the jap show to do just that however it would be a short lived test as we blackend a crank due to unfortunate unforseen circumstances, this however made my mind up that hockenheim was a none starter till we could get a grip on what was going on, we had a full tear down and rebuild with some more updates and we were ready to test once again, the next event was the bug jam and thanks to darren and santapod for allowing us to get some valuble test time, this was the 1st time we made 4 passes in one day and the oil updates were working superb and me thinks have actually cracked our issues ??? although we didnt have any fast times we were consistant and damage free and as we all know to tune a bike it first has to live, neil and the boys had the fueling somewhere near and the crank was good and the drive belts were staying on and we actually though we are going forward which was pushing good for the euro finals as due to work commitments for both me and the team was going to be the next event and boy did it come round fast, watching the racing this showed that although we were upping our game the rest of the field was really upping there game, we arrived at the european finals with an uphill task just to qualify and with some new and returning faces in the field it was going to be hard but fun, once again we made the test and all the qualifying passes lowering our european best by 2 tenths but we were spectators on race day due to the magnificent bump spot of 6.77, the super twin top fuel class really is the class of the year for me with the most exciting close racing and we are proud to be a team campainging against the best bunch of guys and teams, we left the track happy the bike was running great but we needed to find out why things just wernt reacting as they should, well this is where the rider has to hold up his hand and say that we were having problems keeping the throttle pinned to the stop when moving on the bike to keep it straight, back in the workshop again machining a new quick action throttle for our last event the national finals, we arrived early to great weather to get the bike ready for testing and spent all day friday getting every thing perfect for saturday as we would have 3 rounds of qualifying, saturday dawns and topfuel is called to the lanes and boy were we ready, 7.09 @ 191 out of the van and pb for this bike and whats more it only needed fuel and oil and was ready to go next round and the new throttel was doing its job, next round again we ran good with a 7.13 but my creeping throttle was accuring again as moving on the bike made a bigger percentage closure with the quicker acting throttle which only got worse round 3 with a 7.28 and ended up in the number 3 spot which against the 4 cylinder bikes we were quiet happy to take, sunday moring dawned and 1st round we were againt our good friend steve carey who had been on fire this year running in the 6.5s but was having some issues at this event, it was time to race which is something ive not done for some time, i cut a great light and went straight down the track to a 1st round win with steve having some issues but a win is a win, we then had to face ian king on his fantastic new bike, me and ian go back years to streetbike and belive me i was up for this as ian was nearly 8 tenths quicker and he would have got some stick had he lost, i really enjoy racing and this fantastic race was like a final for me, we staged and i convinsingley beat ian on the tree showing i did my job but thats were it stopped as ian raced down the track with a fine low 6 sec pass so he was making sure there was no winter of mickey taking to come.
when back in the pits i reflected on the year and the event and the fact we qualified 3 rounds and raced 2 eliminations and all we did was between round maintainance was very pleasing, once again the development has moved forward, the bike has no damage , we have ended the year with a new personal best time so all in all a good year.
lastley i would like to take this oppertunity to thank lucas oils for there fantastic product and support in keeping hardest working topfuel twin on track, also my great hardworking super team who keep the whole deal running, santapod for the track time, all the photographers and race fans along with all the race reports and info on eurodragster, kingracing & dragbike.com for reporting on us and look forward to next year, bring it on!!!!

pits side bike and team pics

easter new bike pics

new bike pics from easter

easter thunderball

well easter has come and gone and we are now fast approaching the main event so time for a quick update, we turned up at the pod with a full days work to get the bike running and to be fair every thing went very well for a change, with the bike all sorted and ready to run saturday saw 2 passes a7.7 and a 7.4 but were very rich trouble free passes and showed we needed to lean out and advance the ignition to go quicker, on the sat tear down to check the motor we found some scuffs on the piston skirts which we had not had before and were puzzeled by this, however in went 2 new pistons and rebuilt for sunday, on the fire we lost oil pressure and this turned out to be paper in the oilfilter doh… so we loose 1st round but better to be safe, 2nd pass sunday show all was responding and once again on the 1st half of a 6 sec pass only to go towards the centerline and shut off which was not what i wanted but we were qualified at number 3, our 1st round match up was against the rookie christian jaegar on his new prp harley recentley accuired from gunter shone and this was going to be a good race as christian had the bike to do the job but was still learning and i new how to race the round but had a bike that didnt have a setting so it was all up for grabs, on the lights i cut a great light leave christian trailling only to have my drive belt break 60ft out and leave christian to ride on by to the win, i was happy with the weekend but we must try harder to get the result we want and racing against 12 plus twins in may will certainley need us to step it up and boy im pumped and ready to rock and when this thing finally clicks its going to fly.. so there you have it and we look forward to the main event and seeing you all at the pod.

thanks go as always to lucas oils and my hard working team..