Nostalgia Fuel Car Cup

Although there were four entries for the NFCC, the class boiled down to a head to head between the nitro fueled Apache and Chaos teams after the methanol burners of Dave Grabham and Adam Gleadow decided not to play ball.

Tim Garlick (Ivan Sansom photo)

Tim Garlick wheeling the Apache Trans Am appeared to have stolen a considerable march by busting into the fives with a 5.9666/220.36 on the Saturday evening and a faster 5.9971/235.30 on the Sunday morning, but in the money round against Nick Davies in the Topolino the wick might have been turned up a little too far when the NFC churned the slicks handing the Chaos team, led by team owner Lawrie Gatehouse, a win on its final outing.

Nick Davies (Rose Hughes photo)

“During our first lap on Saturday the ring and pinion decided to shed 80% of its teeth, but luckily it didn’t destroy the top loader casing. When we saw the damage we thought that we would be out of contention, not a fitting end to the Chaos saga. But Roy [Phelps] and Bill [Sherratt] worked on replacing the parts with the original 3.92 gears that we had from three years ago. They worked until 2 AM on Sunday morning, to ensure we could get into the semi-finals. We made the Final, but did not expect to win as the Apache funny car was running 5.9s at will. However, they overpowered the track, got up on the tyres and we got to the stripe first, beyond my dreams. Needless to say, we were all elated and on a high! A fitting end to the history of the car and us all.”

Gatehouse has done so much to promote Nostalgia fuel racing in the UK and will be a big loss to the arena, although the retirement of the purple trousers isn’t perhaps before time!