Santa Pod (England), June 30, 2014 – To say MPM-driver David Vegter had a frustrating race weekend at Santa Pod is an understatement. Several times the Dutch Pro Mod driver was called to the starting line and had to return to the pits as rain made racing impossible. In three days the MPM-driver could only make two runs, but only one was enough to claim the number one qualifying position. Ready for the first round of eliminations, Sunday afternoon, it started to rain again and the race director had to cancel the Summer Nationals.
After his 180 degree spin at Santa Pod’s ‘Round 1’, MPM-driver David Vegter wanted to make some extra test runs with the rebuild ’67 Camaro before the start of the extremely busy second half of the FIA European Championship in August. The Summer Nationals at Santa Pod, a round of the British MSA National Drag Racing Championship seemed to be the best option for Vegter Pro Mod Racing. With seven British Pro Mods there was a competitive field, but more important for the team was: the make extra runs with the car and fine-tune the set-up. After touching the wall at the last race the Camaro got a brand new flat black paintjob that fitted the MPM-flame-design better than ever before. After fixing the rear spoiler, Vegter Pro Mod Racing was ready to run.
But when you name an English event ‘Summer Nationals’, you get the English ‘summer’ weather for free. In the line-up for a Friday test run it started to rain and the ’67 MPM-Camaro had to be pushed back to the pits. The same happened Saturday morning when the first round of qualifying was scheduled. Late Saturday afternoon the track was dry and al last the first round of qualifying could be completed. Without any problems Vegter ran 6.37 seconds, not the numbers the MPM-driver was looking for, but more than enough to claim the number one qualifying position. “We made some changes to the set-up, but it didn’t work out as the engine stayed too low in RPM”, said Vegter, happy he could race at last. Half past seven in the evening a second qualifying run was scheduled, but when Vegter came to the start line, another Pro Mod just caused an oil down and with only fifteen minutes left to the eight o’clock curfew, the MPM-team had to push the car back to the pits again without racing.
Sunday morning it looked much better for the second qualifying session. But this time the MPM-Camaro was hit by severe tyre shake and although Vegter tried to drive through it, he had to abort the run. Because nobody came close to his 6.37 seconds, the MPM-driver stayed the number one qualifier. But again the weather frustrated racing. The sun was gone and against all forecasts it started to rain. Numerous times eliminations had to be postponed and drivers were called to the start line and send back to the pits as it started to rain again. Late in the afternoon it was dry enough to race and after two other classes completed their first round of eliminations, it was ‘Pro Mod time’. But once again the English weather frustrated Vegter’s plans, as just before the MPM-Camaro could go out for his run, the rain was back. With only a limited time remaining and the bad weather forecast for the next few hours, the race director had to cancel eliminations. And so the Summer Nationals came to an early end, very frustrating for drivers and teams and especially for the hard working track crew who managed to dry the track so many times, but now had to give up.
Vegter Pro Mod Racing will skip the FIA EC-race in Finland, so the next race for the MPM-team will be the third round of the FIA European Championship, the NitrOlympX at Hockenheim, August 8-10.
- Author
- Remco Scheelings
David Vegter Dragracing MPM Racing MPM Sports Santa Pod
