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FAY FISCHER & SPEEDFLOW RACING |
SPEEDFLOW HOME PAGE PARTS LIST & PRICES HELP and FAQs |
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First car - 1992
Speedflow's owner, Fay Fischer has driven a number of drag race cars since her racing debut at the famous Santa Pod drag strip in 1992. The later cars were emblazoned with the Speedflow logo although her career started with home financed efforts in the old class of "Modified". This was a class for cars capable of running the 1/4 mile in 11.5 seconds or quicker and attracted huge fields of 30 to 35 cars. The front engine "altered" (pictured right) ran a big block Chrylser with a drive train taken from a 60's Jensen muscle car. It is pictured at the old Avon Park track where Fay took out two teams from "Pro" division during a Good-Guys shootout before rain stopped play. |
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Now competitive - 1994
1994 at Santa Pod, a beautiful sunny August Bank Holiday, a new paint job and a race against Mike Ismail's
radical Citroen. 25 entries in the class forced a pre-race eliminator on the previous night to get the
field down to 16 cars. A huge Santa Pod crowd remain on the bank to become engrossed in the regular
frantic dogfight that "Modified" had become. Mike runs too quick and Fay moves on the the next round.
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A big step up - 1995
1995 at Santa Pod saw the new car's debut, shown here with original wide-stance front end and huge
front wing which achieved two things, (1) It weighed 22lbs & (2) It triggered the starting line beams.
This was later removed in favour of the 2lb version along with a 10 inch reduction in the front
tracking. The car could now turn through 180 degrees in less than an acre but was totally unsteerable
under power due to the loss of front end weight. A weight bar was then added to ensure the carefully
constructed plan came together perfectly!
The car featured an ICE built 516 cid Big Block Chevy mated to an "indestructable" JW Ultraglide -
which was promptly destroyed! But the car did hit 7.95 seconds at 169 mph.
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The Super-Pro wars - 1997
The car is now well equipped and Fay has reached a standard of driving which makes the team the least welcomed opponents. Running regular 7.85s at 170 mph plus saw some event wins and a top three placing in the Natiional championship. A sponsorship deal was signed with the Big Bus Company, a tour operator in Central London who came on board with financial help and some good engineering backup. Opportunities in other areas began to emerge. |
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Top Alcohol racing - 1998
Old friends, Mick & Bob Gleadow had teamed with Barry Redstone to put together a budget TAD operation using an ancient chassis and many borrowed bits. Fay joined the team to drive in 1998. A first outing was at the Cannonball event at Santa Pod where she debuted the TAD car and also drove her own Super-Pro car. The TAD made a first full pass of 6.66 seconds at 211 mph - much to everyone's surprise and the team's relief. That weekend saw a best of 6.47 from the TAD but Fay went on to win the event in the Super-Pro class. Those sort of weekends don't come around too often. The stress (not to mention the extreme differences in driving technique) saw the Super-Pro car parked for the season despite leading the national championship points race at the time. |
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A new Top Alcohol car - 1999
A near-new TAD was purchased from a retired Finnish team and readied for the 1999 season. The parts were not the latest state-of-the-art kit but everything was there to get the team into the rarified air of the 5 - second zone. Alas, it was never to be. Despite the team having worked every available hour and spent much more money that it should, the old saying of "you can't buy experience" applied. A lack of real track time and a bewildering set of adjustments for which there was no known "norm" proved beyond the team's ability to overcome. The car never ran quicker than a 6.33 at 215 mph before Fay moved out of the drivers seat and the team was sold on. |
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Super-Pro again - only bigger!
The Super-Pro fields had grown larger and much more competitive, several cars were running deep into the 7 second
range, one or two into the sixes! Notably Steve Johnson and the Motormouse dragster. The picture shows Fay in the left
lane at Shakespeare raceway about to hit her dial in dead-on, that - coupled with a .52 light was enough to take the win
against Martyn "Sid" Jones in the final round of a Super Series event. |
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