03/05/2026
Test day at Santa Pod yesterday with The Mistress — and what a day it turned out to be.
The weather was perfect: 22°C, not a cloud in the sky. Huge thanks to Josh Duncan for coming up and spending the day with us, going through the car and sharing his knowledge — top guy.
First session, we launched off the transbrake at 3200 rpm. It hooked up nicely, but the car pulled hard to the right so I had to lift, costing us some time. Still managed a 9.8 @ 138mph over the 1/4, so not a bad start.
But just as I crossed the finish line… the car cut out completely.
Got it off track and back to the pits. Initially thought it was the MSD control unit — luckily we had a spare at home, so a quick 8-minute round trip to swap it over… but no luck. Still dead. Frustration levels rising.
Then someone wandered over, took an interest, and said: “Check the distributor gear roll pin — I bet it’s snapped.” At that point, we had nothing to lose. Pulled it apart… and sure enough, that was the issue.
From what we’re hearing, the MSD roll pins supplied in these distributors aren’t the strongest. Thankfully, one of the Top Fuel teams kindly helped us out with a spare, and with the help of John Marsh, we got it fitted.
Back out on track — straight away we could hear it wasn’t right, clearly missing. Timing was out. Back to the pits, adjusted it, improved things, but still down on power. Needs more fine-tuning.
By then, everyone was absolutely knackered. Long day, so we packed up and called it.
All in all, a solid learning day with a few hiccups — but that’s racing.
Massive thanks again to Josh Duncan from Financial Mistakes Racing for making the trip and helping us out — really appreciate it.
Also, big shoutout to “Paul” (didn’t catch your full name) for spotting the roll pin issue — lifesaver.
And finally, thanks to everyone in the pits who jumped in to help, and to the commenters for shouting out parts we needed. Proper community spirit.
We go again 💪
01/05/2026