Allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Jan Broersma, first and only Dutch crew member of the Carter Motorsports / B&Q Top Fuel Team. I have been involved with the team right from the start of the '06 season, my responsibilities are taking off the left cylinder head between runs, servicing both heads and the biggest responsibility, strapping in England's fastest and quickest driver in a piston-powered car at this moment in time.

Our Main Event started with an almost all new crew, so quite a few of us were pretty nervous on how we would keep up and do proper services on the car in between track time. But we knew we were soon to find out, how we'd do.

Saturday 1st day of qualifications
Saturday was a long wait for us, as well as for all of the spectators. We'd been setting up the trailer and racecar on the days before Saturday, so we were ready to run the scheduled qualifying runs. Sadly Pluvius decided we could use some more rain, before the racing could commence. Being with the car at that time becomes very laid back, but stressful as well, because you know you won't be running till the rain stops. But you also realize that all the time that it is raining, you need to keep up with the weather, making changes to the set-up, so the car will hold up on the track given to us. Luckily come late afternoon, there was a dry window and we were called up to the pairing lanes. We were really convinced to take top spot, as we knew we did the best job we could on the car. As soon as the track was being dried by the fabulous Santa Pod track crew, things start snowballing if you are on the team. The car needs to be pushed out for the first time, after a short warm-up and away you go, out to meet your first opponent.

Being on the startline, getting psyched up to start up all those horses hanging in the chassis, is when all things you do are crucial. There is a set way of starting the car and a set place to stand when the car starts up and goes out for the burn-out, having some practice from being on the team at the Easter Thunderball helped and knowing that the crowd was cheering us on was good. Things all fell into place as Andy took the engine up to the high side of the fuel, gosh that really was a rush, standing at the back of the car, trying to breathe, whilst the cars are throwing teargas at you, feeling the thunder of Nitro finding its way through the blower and manifold, along the valves into the cylinder, turning into huge bangs which find its way to our eardrums and especially your gut.

The car really flew through the left lane, Andy well and comfy in his "office", doing his job on the car, trying to do us and of course the crowd proud, rewarding us with great driving skills and low ET's. Suddenly I saw the car kicking out to the left, moving awfully close to the left hand side wall, Andy got the steering to almost full-lock and managed to get through the timing equipment without damaging the car. 6th place qualifier, although Andy drove well over a ¼ mile within the ¼ mile.

Saturday wouldn't give us a 2nd run, so we were up late getting the car prepped for Sunday qualifications. We were absolutely determined to get the car go quicker over the track, so we took the time the Saturday evening gave us, to get a thorough rebuild and check-up on the car.

Sunday, 2nd day of qualifications.
Things looked up, the weather was good and we were sure we would get two runs, if we kept everything together. No long tedious wait, just all out qualifying. Santa Pod's calling crew gave us the sign to get ready to go to the pairing lanes. So in goes the startline tools into the back of the support car and out goes the dragster, off the jacks and from under its safe haven hanging from the right side of the well-known B&Q trailer. It is really good to race in front of the home crowd, everyone expects you to do well, and everyone comes up to you to wish you all the best for the run. It might not seem like a big thing, but it is a much appreciated bit within racing for the driver, as well as the whole supercrew.
Andy decided to go all out, and got Lisa (who you'll also likely to find with AC when he does B&Q shows) to walk with us down the pairing lanes for the Sunday and Monday, which I must say turned quite a lot of heads. This is what racing is about, getting the icing on the cake, for everyone involved. The little things that make it look proper and professional. I think many of the readers would like to see more teams doing this..., ;-).

Again at the startline, I got Andy strapped in real tight, to stop him from getting hurt as a result of the g-forces involved in a "normal" racing environment, and of course to keep him safe if things decide to go wrong. We do the best job we can to ensure a safe working place for Andy, but as Friday showed us, sometimes the wall can be just two feet away from your rear tyre. After a real proper and better burn-out opposed to Saturday, Andy drove off, taking a red light and a real bad tyre shake, pedaling it through the shaking as only he can, we ran a 5.18, not great but we were sure we were in the field now. It makes me proud to be in a position to work for a two-time European Championship winner.

Getting the car back as quick as we could, we put it on the jacks and started taking the whole thing apart, trying to get the service as quick but also as precise as possible, which obviously are two things that don't mix very well. Sadly we'd had damaged some parts, and realized that Sunday was over for us and we would be in for a long nights work getting the car ready for eliminations. We also knew that we would proberly run against our next door neighbour for the weekend and also running a Rune Fjeld car, Thomas Nataas.

Monday, race day
Finally Monday, the day it is all about, trying to get your car through as many rounds as you can, to ultimately take the win. The car was looking strong again, adjustments had been made, Andy was determined to make us proud and wanted to take Thomas out, he wanted to pull a 4 second run out of the box. And sure thing he did...... getting the quickest time on elimination day, a pretty stunning 4.89 second run, which no one got even close to on Monday. So there we were into the best run of the day, on the ride back to pick Andy and the car up, we got a big roar from the stands and I screamed my lungs out, as I have been told, big hands up from the back of the support car. I was estatic, that we pulled that one off, getting such a big reward for the late nights we spent on the dragster.
Getting on the rebuild, we decided we'd spent as much time there was available to get the car round in a proper way. We were on a winning high..... and winning only makes you hunger for more. Knowing we were up against Smax, we know we had to be strong, because he took out Ursbacher, and was on the much mentioned "mission". He was also definitely not taking prisoners this weekend.

As we got the car back in the pairing lanes, knowing we had a good set-up, which should give us an edge over Smax, we were awaiting our track time again. People came up to the support car cheering Andy on, and wishing us the best of luck on the run. At that point, we just felt that the weekend was getting better for us as time progressed and than the most unforeseen happened. As we took the car into the staging lanes, ready to fire up, the starter gave up on us. Not having a spare and Smax and his team getting a proper start right away, we knew we'd ran out of luck for the weekend. Having Andy in the car, knowing that he could do it, we had a car that we knew could do it, actually having like 80.000 pounds worth of equipment looking good and probably a couple of hundred pounds worth of equipment made us go down the track through the escape lane. An awesome day gone bitter, in under five seconds.

The good news is that we sorted the problem with the starter, the solenoid shorted out. It has been replaced already and well tested before we go off to Finland.

Leaves me to say a personal thanks to all our sponsors, B&Q, Lucas Oil, Wynn's, NGK sparkplugs, RCS cables, A1 Motorstores, Gold RV, Teng Tools, K&N Filters, Yuasa and all others for giving us the chance to do the thing we love most to do. Of course also a thanks to the people who mentally supported us from the stands and home, cheering us on. All of you fans out there, many thanks for the great weekend.

We will be back in England come September and try do to some more butt-kicking business and hopefully we will be well away on our way to the European Championship. Right now we are third and looking strong, if you're not able to come over for the foreign races, please visit our sponsors and make the circle round, without either fans, sponsors... we wouldn't be running races the way we are able to do now.
Big thanks to all!

Jan Broersma
www.andycarter.net
Carter Motorsports cylinder head man

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