The season ended on the best possible high, after being shut off with a small oil leak in the first qualifier I lined up against fellow ex-junior dragster drive and best mate Joe Bond in the Nuthin’ Fancy topolino for the second session of NFAA qualifying. After getting a good feel for the car and controlled burnouts I was starting to feel a lot more confident, and thought it was about time I tried for a burnout that (hopefully) Fast Freddy would be proud of.

Bringing the revs up into stage and launching the car pulled harder than I’ve felt before and I held the shifts longer, around 330ft I saw Joe out the corner of my eye but I wasn’t all that far behind so I thought it must have been on for a semi decent pass. In the second 1/8th it was really pulling until I felt the car nose over at 1000ft, coasting over the line and popped the chutes.

After turning off at the top end I waited for the crew to arrive, not really sure what time to expect, when Martin announced it was a 7.60 I was over the moon, nothing like diving straight into the 7s!

Upon inspection in the pits it turned out that the burst panel on the blower had gone, and an onboard video confirmed it was as it went through the 1000ft mark. With clocking 172mph at the 1000ft and 173mph at the quarter it would surely have been on for a low 7.5@180mph, so plenty more to come next year. Unfortunately we found an air leak on the blower manifold on Sunday morning, we think the aluminium plate on top of the manifold had warped so we were out for the rest of the weekend, which was then lost to rain.

Over the winter we’ve got plenty of improvements and changes to make, we will be putting a set of 4.56 gears in the rear axle to get the 60fts down, also a magnesium buzzard catcher injector will be replacing the nostalgia ribbed Enderle injector which is just not big enough to supply the air required, if time permits there will be a few aero tricks on the body as well.

I’d like to congratulate Joe Bond, the whole Bond family and Nuthin’ Fancy team on their NFAA Championship win, there’s not a more deserving team out there. I’d also like to thank everyone who has helped and supported us this year, you know who you are - it wouldn’t be possible without you all.

Once again a massive thank you to sponsors; Lucas Oil and Dodo Juice.

Now, how long is it until Easter? In the mean time I’m off to the California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield to finish off the season with sun and nitro.

Following on from our recent test session at Mini In The Park we are now getting ready for the Euro Finals and a foray into Super Pro for the weekend.

In our preparations I’m excited to announce a new sponsorship partner: We’ve put together a deal with Dodo Juice. Those of you heavily into vehicle detailing/polishing will know Dodo Juice for being the best of the best and creating their own pure carnauba specialist polishes and waxes for different applications - along with their own line of cleaning equipment there is nothing better for keeping your ride looking it’s best! For more information about their products take a trip over to Dodo Island, the home of Dodo Juice and all things shiny. For the results, see Motor Psycho at the track!

2009 has been a very busy year for us all at Time Machine Racing, in February the bare chassis, engine, axle and wheels arrived at Bill Felstead’s Fester Race Cars shop in Romford. In the next 7 months Motor Psycho was born, of course that makes it sound easy but in reality it was 7 months of constant work, parts aquisitions, phone calls, emails and weekends at Bill’s, including all but one weekend in August, the final result though? Mind blowing, Bill’s fabrication and eye for detail, stance and nostalgia is second to none and come the end of Euro Finals weekend there sat the car thats been in my head for the last two years, Bill I can’t thank you enough - it’s perfect.

Euro Finals weekend in itself was a manic one putting all the last touches to the car and getting it ready to make noise, which it did Saturday afternoon and after solving a mag clamp problem if I do say so myself it sounded fantastic.

Two weeks later we were ready for shakedown passes at the National Finals, due to highly overgeared rear axle the clutch and gearbox took some heavy abuse, but its a start.

Work is already underway for the 2010 season, the rear gear problem is currently being solved, the gearbox will be rebuilt and the clutch freshened. There are some other rather unique and potential highly advantageous plans being hatched, but I’ll keep them secret for now!

The list of thank yous is huge, without these people though this car simply wouldn’t have been possible.

Les Downey at Lucas Oils UK for their continued support, this is our 11th year of involvement with Lucas and simply nothing else would go in that engine.

Bill & Luke ‘Pit Rat’ Felstead, Bob Jarrett, Dave ‘Crunch’ Crunkhorn, Martyn Hannis the Bond Family & Nuthin Fancy Racing, Bob Glassup & Xtreme Racing, John & Leslie Wright, Lawrie Gatehouse, Tony Betts, Andy Kate & Luke Robinson, Jason Phelps, John Spuffard, Dave Bryant, Martin Hill, Doug Ripley, David Lloyd-Jones, Darren Prentice & everyone at Santa Pod Raceway.

Also to the crew, my Dad (Bob), Darren, Martin, Ben, Tanya & Vicky, a better crew I couldn’t wish for.

Finally some congratulations are in order, Bennett Racing for their championship win, Joe Bond for getting back into the 6s and runner up in the championship, Bill Felstead & Jon Best for having the most evil sounding car on the planet and running right into the 6s on fire on his first full pass, Bob Glassup for breaking into the 6s for the first time and commiserations to Freddy’s Revenge for the engine damage sustained at the National Finals, we hope to see you out again soon.

Don’t forget you can keep up to date with all the news from the team via our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

After a long season of rain and niggling problems things finally came good for us at the Flame & Thunder show - handy as it was the last chance to get in some track time before the end of the season.

We received the block back on Thursday morning after having the bottom end rebuilt and Darren, Bob (my Dad), Luke and I set about rebuilding it and getting it back between the chassis rails. By Friday we were ready to fire the motor up - all was well and we were looking forward to the weekend ahead.

Saturday morning arrived and a starter motor problem held us back from the first session and a slight oil leak saw us shut off after the burnout in the second session but the burnout sounded promising.

In the 6:30 night session Darren Prentice asked John Everitt and I just to do burnouts and a launch as the track was cold and getting damp, but what a launch, it found some traction and pulled the front wheels right up,

Shifting into second they stayed up and tripped the 60ft beams with the rear wheels still clocking a 1.24 - after that it I shut it off but we were extremely happy with the launch and running at night was an amazing experience with some throttle barks and dry hops with John. When the crew game to get me at the top end there were grins all round and we decided to run in the RWYB on Sunday to see what would happen on a full pass.

Sunday dawned and the pits filled up quickly, it was a really busy day at the track. We made it to the startline at around lunchtime and once again paired up against John. At the hit it spun the tyres then turned right and lifted the wheels when I pulled second. I stayed in it until the centre line was getting too close for comfort, lifted and straightened up then nailed it again, weaving all over the lane. Great fun but no good for my ET, only managing a 10.1 but we were all pleased with the cars performance.

This leads us on to the spy pic two weeks ago, the pictured blown Chevy is sat in Doug Ripley’s workshop waiting to go between the rails of Motor Psycho next year, It is a 481-X Rodeck block with Bac-Man billet heads and an 8/71 blower - I’ll have more news in the next few weeks.

Unfortunately this means the current injected Big Block has to go, so if anyone wants a freshly rebuilt 489ci injected alky motor that has serious 8 second potential contact us via the ad in the for sale section.

After all that we have a few people to say thank you to: the crew for all their hard work all season on the car, allowing me to go out there and have a blast; John Everitt for rescuing us with a spare starter motor and being a great match race partner; Sam Freeman for the loan of a generator after ours died and Darren Prentice for keeping us informed, and generally being one of the most helpful people you could know.

Finally if anyone has any pictures or video from the weekend please let us know - we are especially looking for a wheels up night shot from Saturday evening. Have a good off season everyone and see you at the track next year.

Last race meeting of the year and my second with the car, after the rain at the National Finals we woke up to the Sun (all be it cold!) on Saturday morning with the car ready to go after Darren re-did the plug leads Friday night.

Now with full throttle I was the first car down the track, pulled a nice strong burnout but at the hit it smoked the tyres and the back end stepped out so I gave it a quick pedal and pulled second which straightened it out nice, I ran through to the 1/8th and clicked off.

The second pass was much more successful, the car hooked up hard running a 1.36 60ft and 6.13@108mph at the half track mark but as I didn’t feel it go into third I shutoff coasting through with a 10.83. Upon inspection in the pits we had a trans leak (fortunately the trans blanket held most of it from going on the track).

The leak sorted I went round to do my final licensing pass but as it transpired we broke a pushrod (on the burnout we think) and the run was only on seven cylinders, the car felt very loose so I lifted a few times around half track and ran through with an 11@120mph, not quick enough for my Super Pro license but that will come next year.

The car is now at Doug Ripley’s for a winter diet and a few bits of work. We’ve got a few cosmetic changes planned for the off-season too including the full paint.

Quick thanks to the crew for their help again and to everyone who stopped by to say hello and wished us well.

Roll on 2007!