January Work Day 2009
The Workshop, England

Each year the "off season" seems to go quicker and quicker, I can't believe it has already been 4 months since the Lucas Oil team claimed the FIA European Top Fuel Championship at the European Finals and 3 months since our last show appearence. The off season this year has been especially busy for Andy and Dan who have been hard at work finishing their first book "Andy Carter - King Of Europe!" The project was first started in early 2007 and has grown beyond anyone's expectations. The book tells the story of Andy's career to date in Top Fuel drag racing, from the switch from Outlaw Anglia right through to his historic third FIA title. Packed full of photographs, many previously unpublished, hardback and printed to a very high quality this book is a must for any drag racing fan.

The rest of the team do not escape from the hard work and after a well deserved Christmas break the team gathered together at the workshop this past weekend to continue preparations for the 2009 season. Once again the Lucas Oil team will be attending a wide range of shows and events to promote our sponsors and drag racing as a whole. After a lengthy list of show appearances last year it was time to give the show car a very thorough clean ready for its first show appearance of the year at Autosport 2009. As you would expect cleaning a top fuel dragster is a time consuming and labour intensive task. First of all the body panels have to be removed and washed to remove all the dust and debris that has settled on them. Then its time to clean the 25ft long chassis, once complete you go back to the start and oil it too! Wheels and tires are cleaned and the engine is cleaned as far as possible. The panels can then be reattached before the car is polished... using the fantastic Lucas Oil Slick Mist of course!

Whilst the rest of the team were working in the workshop "The Las Vegas Kid" and "The Lion" braved the freezing -2c winter temperatures to fully service the truck. As always there was some time for bench racing and it is fair to say the team simply can't wait to hit the track and continue where they left off in 2008!

We look forward to seeing you all at Autosport International 2009 and at the tracks and shows throughout 2009.

Gary Cottingham
Carter Motorsport

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