... by Nick aged 40½ 
Due to last minute rushes over a number of things, I forgot to take my camera to TOTB so instead of the pics I'd normally post, I thought I'd write up my experience of the event.
Despite having got started with the work on my
'2 over two months ago, everything was a last minute panic as usual 
- I was dashing around the country on my bike on Friday picking up bits and getting the final mapping done at Owens. Time ran out and the last map was 400 fwhp @ 1.5 bar. Finally by 10pm on Friday night it was sat outside my house and all that remained was to change the Toora wheels with Falken 451s for Volks and T1-Rs, a quick trip down to 3S in the morning would sort that out in no time and I could have a leisurely drive up to Elvington. A 3pm arrival would be on the cards so plenty of time to chill out and have fun - hmmm, no chance!I pull into 3S nice and early Saturday morning to find smoke billowing out of the engine bay
- turns out the adapter plate for the oil feed pipe has blown a gasket and there's oil peeing out. On top of that the CC pump has stopped working, which worried me as that was one of the bits I gathered on Friday... James did a sterling job with the adapter plate, which had a sheared thread (cheers matey! 
), and the pump issue turned out to be a blown fuse, possibly due to water ingress on the electrical connecter when I jetwashed it that morning). Came to fit the wheels and realised we didn't have any nuts that fitted 
so had to leave the Falkens on (d'oh). It was now 3pm and I had to get on the road.An uneventful drive for most of the way but got a bit of a panic on when I called Toni at 6.30, and about 30 mins out, to find the gates shut at 7 and not 9 as I thought.
Some spirited driving saw me there at 6.55 (phew!). I needn't have worried though as there still seemed to be comings and goings at 8pm. Tent went up and I fired up a couple of BBQs and did chicken and burgers for the rest who were frantically sticking vinyl to their cars. A word of advice here - don't get Sainsbury's disposable BBQs 'cos they really suck! Some food, a few beers and Patrick constantly asking if we were all tired and shouldn't we go to bed
eventually meant the tent beckoned and I was soon in the Land of Nod (no, not Thor, sleep!). Unfortunately I was asleep too soon to hear Mike complaining about the cold and the fact he had no sleeping bag, unfortunate for him that is as I had a spare (sorry mate). It rained quite hard during the night and I had visions of a skating rink for a track and marshland all around. Thankfully the day started nice and bright and after a quick shammy of the cars we were good the go... apart from the fact that I had no time to refuel due to my late arrival. No probs, we'll just go get some. Left it a bit late and by the time we set out the whole access road was dedicated to inbound traffic and we were stuck. Bummer.The best way to get out once the queue had died down was to do a run and then turn off on the return road, so this was it, my first ever quarter.
..I was expecting to be pooing myself by the time I got to the line, with the old
'shaky knee' holding the clutch in but in reality I felt quite calm (and VERY hot). Fluffed the staging a couple of times and had to back up an inch or three and then we were ready for the off. Amber, 4000 rpm, green, dump clutch, lots of wheelspin and a bit of sideways twitching then we were bowling down the runway, redline came up way too fast and I snatched 2nd to the sound of more spinning, 7000 rpm, slammed into 3rd and spun again up to 4th and over the line for a time of 13.45 @ 109 MPH, which whilst not good was not a complete embarrassment for a first attempt I didn't think. With a 60 foot time of a dismal 2.49 it was obvious where the improvements were to be made. Off for fuel and back for another run, this time in the left hand lane so I could do the top speed run as well. Took it quite easy off the line this time and concentrated more on getting the power down, still stupid amounts of wheelspin when I floored the pedal. Flying past the quarter mile point and up into 5th scanning ahead for the mile marker which I had been told was there but had never seen with my own eyes. We'd also been told that the exit road was quite close but "200 mph bikes can make it round". To me, the marker and the exit road seemed to come up at the same time and, as they did there was an almighty bang from the front of the car and I was hard on the brakes. The ABS was just kicking in when I let off the brakes and took the 90 degree turn at nigh on 80 miles and hour, squealing tyres and some gentle application of power saw me safely off the strip and I pulled over to check what had gone wrong. Turns out my front undertrays had decided I was going too fast and had changed their job description to "air brakes", folding back on themselves under the car. Result - 157.6 MPHAnother couple of quarters with tyre pressure down to 15 psi still saw very poor 60ft times so I decided on one more top speed run before moving to the handling circuit.
This time I took it real easy off the line, 60ft was 2.75 and I hit the quarter at 13.72 @ 111 MPH. I was confident I'd see the marker this time and was changing up at 7200 rpm instead of bouncing off the limiter It felt like a good run and it was still pulling as I crossed the line. 161.1 MPH - Yay!!Happy with that I headed back to the pitlane to line up for the handling, only to find there was a one hour queue and the course closed in 30 mins.
To be honest I don't think I'd have done too well given my levels of grip but it would have been nice to have taken part in all 3 events as intended.All that remained was to pack up and head home, I tagged along with Mark
(+ Girlfriend), Mike, Andi and one other whose name I never did work out, sorry 
. A nice quiet drive down the A1 via Maccy Ds and finally rolled up outide my house at 10pm absolutely shattered. A good shower, some wine and catching up on the latest with my wife and I was ready to sleep for England Some time for reflection now and to take some time getting the absolute best out of the car.
Cooling is still an issue with the location of the inlet pipework but we have plans for that. The new wheel/tyre combo should make a big difference to the launches I reckon but I will be getting plenty of practice in the coming year (and perhaps set-up the Motec launch control 
), both on the strip and track is the plan. Hopefully I'll make it into the team next year and put in a better result.All in all I had a great time, a big thanks go to:
James, Brendan and Shamek from 3S Service Centre for a great job on the upgrade work and for sorting out my last minute problems.
Michael for doing a great job of organising things
Patrick, Matt and Tony from Rogue Motorsports for being there on the day to offer advice and support.
Luckily I didn't have any problems bar the airbrake undertrays and Patrick had those sorted out in no time. It was really great knowing that if something did go wrong, they were there to help.Everyone who helps run IMOC
</get out clause>All my fellow team members for their help, advice and camararderie.
Mark and the team at Owen Developments.
They did take their time and communication wasn't the best at some stages but they've done a great job wiring up the Motec and I didn't blow the engine up on the day.It was also great to put more names to faces, barring the team I also met a lot of other IMOCers, all of who were friendly and interesting! Peeps I met for the first time included but is not limited to
('cos my memory is shot away) - Michael, 'The Wraith', Tom, Mark E, Andi, Enis, Andy F, Ben, Adam, Jonno, Andrew S, 'someone in the car park asking me for snips and oil to fix Andy's car when the relocation kit went pop' and probably loads more... There were also a few peeps who I missed judging by some of the posters on the TOTB threads... next time maybe 
damn 5th Lumber Disc 
