Andy Carter
Defending FIA champ Carter off to rocky start
Wednesday, 07 July 2010
It's been a busy year so far and it will continue to be. So far we have attended eight shows, two NHRA races in the USA, the first two rounds of the FIA European Championships, as well as testing and getting seat time with Albert at least once per week.
I went over our very successful appearance at the massive Autosport Show at the National Exhibition Centre in my last blog.
I don't want to go into the races in the USA with Terry Haddock as they were a complete disaster. All I would like to say is sorry to all the people who supported me, I let you down and I should have known better after February 2009 with Haddock. Hopefully sometime in the future I can make it up to the people that supported me.
 Supporting the Multiple Sclerosis Trust. |
The FIA Main Event season-opener in Santa Pod, England, was another bad result for me, qualifying seventh and losing in the first round. We chased the car all weekend but never got to grips with it. If we hadn't lost Saturday to rain I'm sure the performance would have been better.
It is great to have Urs Erbacher back in the FIA Championship. What a weekend for him and he qualified No. 1, won the event, set low ET, and reset his own FIA European speed record -- it don't get much better than that. This is one tough competitor; I hope he will continue to focus more on Europe from now on.
We had lots of guests at the Main Event including head of Lucas Oil Europe Les Downey and from Lucas Oil USA, Tom Bogner and his son Zak. Zak races Junior Dragster all over the USA and is doing real well. I think this is a name to look out for in Top Fuel in the future. It was great to see them all as well as all the other guests we had. The weather wasn't great for them and our performance certainly wasn't, but I hope they had a good time.
I had to make it happen in Finland, a track where I have won four times, qualified No. 1 twice, set the track record, and was first over 300 mph; all great when you look in the record books, but this weekend was a new one. I had to do well here and hope that Urs went out early.
What an action-packed weekend! Not great for the Carter Motorsport/Andersen Racing/Lucas Oil team as we were again chasing the car all weekend, although we did make big steps forward that should see us more competitive in Sweden.
 My best gal Sarah |
Sarah and I arrived in Finland on Wednesday and after picking up our Alamo hire car at Helsinki Airport, we went straight to the hotel to get settled in. No Albert with us otherwise he would miss four days of school. Although we knew we would miss him big time it was good in some ways just get a lay in till 6:30 a.m. or so. Usually at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. each day, I hear him get up, run to the toilet, have a wee, then come running in to squeeze in between Sarah and I. If you don't give him almost instant attention he starts pulling my nose saying "Wake up Dad!"
Thursday we went to the track for an hour to see the team and do the paperwork with the FHRA. Next we headed to Turku airport to pick up our American tuning consultant, Jim Brissette, and took him to the hotel.
Friday Q1: As soon as I hit the throttle it went straight into shake with no chance of driving through it. The shake was too violent so I had to shut off.
Friday Q2. Left great and the car was so smooth and also stuck to the track, smoothest it's been for a long time. Then around 500 feet I thought I heard the motor go lean (which was actually one of the header pipes breaking off at the flange) I thought, "Shall I stay with it? Yes see if I can get nearer the finish line," but then I was getting pushed to the centre line (because of the broken header) and got one wheel out of the groove. I heard the rpm go up more and the car was shaking and I couldn't see where I was going so it was time to give up on this one. I ran a 4.35 which moved us up to third.
It's always Karsten and Markus who meet me in the shutdown area for the tow back and we were just looking at the broken header hanging by a tiny weld inches in front of the back tyre. Karsten was saying, "Good driving job Andy," when next he shouted "LOOK OUT!" I looked up to see a dragster sliding backwards with sparks, dust and parts flying everywhere, motor revving and it looked like it was coming toward the turn-off where we were. I thought, "Oh no, Stig's crashing." Then I saw a red dragster almost wrapped together with it and thought "Risto's crashing too!" I started to run towards them but the marshalls shouted out "Andy, NO!" I kept running, and then they shouted again "Andy, NO!" I stopped and walked back. It was not nice to see two cars crashing like that and pretty emotional for me. Stig was out very quick and we waited until Risto was out and then started the tow back. Much as I want to beat Stig and Risto, you do worry about them when something like this happens and because it's Top Fuel, it seems very personal.
Saturday Q3: Into shake around 300 feet and I had to pedal, then lost traction again, so we were qualified fourth after session three.
It was great to see Stig Neergaard back in this session after his crash. The team must have worked so hard to repair the dragster. I think this is a real credit to FIA European Top Fuel.
Saturday Q4: An improvement in ET as I pedalled to a 4.30 but others also improved so we dropped to fifth. I know I have talked about the many, many different types of shake you can experience driving a Top Fuel dragster but the one I'm getting at the moment is one of the hardest to deal with as a driver. You get shake and you think "I can drive through this," then BOOM from nowhere it hits you real hard, you totally lose your vision and if you can imagine hitting a bell with a hammer and the vibration it suffers, this is what I could compare it to. What I'm saying is it's not easy to pedal the car quickly with this type of shake as you have to let it settle a little.
It was great to see Risto back in the fourth session after his crash. This time Rune Fjeld and the team had worked non-stop to build a spare chassis up. Fantastic job and again a real credit to FIA European Top Fuel. Then to go out and take the No. 1 qualifying position, awesome! I was strapped in to my car and I'm sure I saw Rune smile after that run.
While I'm here, I'm again gonna get on my high horse. This time it's about Top Fuel drivers in Europe not getting the credit or recognition from the mass media we deserve. Come on! This stems a little from how I felt after my crash in 2003. Risto and Stig both suffered a violent and horrifying crash on 290 mph runs and the next day both got back in untested dragsters (let's not forget these are the world's fastest, quickest, baddest, most powerful and most dangerous race cars) and again drove them without making any fuss. They just got on with there jobs. Well done Risto and Stig and all involved in those teams! If that had been a Formula 1 crash at "only" 190 mph and the driver was back in the car the next day, it would have been all over the world's press. We're hard done by here in Europe I think.
Sunday race day: Eliminations were not to be and I lost in the semifinals to Risto. I feel I'm still driving very well this season and once we get the car going I will be a real threat. I knew my race with Risto would be a tough one. He had a tenth on me from the last round and also had lane choice. I needed a very good light and I aimed to put a .030 light on him. I cut a .025, which is excellent in a Fuel car (in fact it's excellent in any race car), and was still ahead at the eighth but I felt the car was starting to lose traction. Then suddenly I lost it big time but hadn't seen Risto yet, and still had some good forward motion, so I decided to hang with it rather than pedal. Anyway he was right there and got round me about 800 feet and that was that.
We have a great team of people in the Carter Motorsport/Andersen Racing/Lucas Oil camp but I want to say a little bit about Gary Cottingham, who has been with me for six years now and, as with all of the team, I often think how we would do without him. Gary's jobs include attending the shows, working the hospitality at FIA events, doing some web updates, writing some press releases and taking photos, and he is also doing a great job running my Facebook page. Thanks Gary it really is appreciated, as is everybody in the team. I must admit I was against the Facebook idea at first but I'm getting into it now, it is great for doing quick and short updates and runs well with our web site at www.andycarter.net. You can find the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/#!/CarterMotorsport?ref=ts.
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 Albert doing his thing |
Despite a disappointing start to the season points-wise, life elsewhere is great as usual. Sarah and I are real happy and seem to get stronger and stronger together. She is so lucky to have me. Besides the racing our main focus in life is putting lots and lots of effort in to our son Albert's education and the sports that he loves. He plays football morning, day, and night, loves to play tennis, and of course there is his Karting in which at the moment he excels. Although only just 7 he looks so mature out on a busy race track. Last week at PFI he was quickest in all three qualifiers and then won both races against other racers up to 12 years old. OK so the quality of some of them is suspect but what more could we ask for?
For the last year we have been getting ready for the MSA Super 1 Cadet National Championships and we have another 10 months to prepare. Albert can compete in this Championship from age 8. It's a tough, tough class with all the best kids in the country, with ages ranging from 8 to 13. Qualifying in the top 12 is usually separated by a tenth of a second, most have unlimited budgets and Dad's worth millions! But that doesn't put us off, we have something they can't buy - desire, hunger and talent! We can't really expect to go out and win at this level at just 8 against kids some of whom have been in this Championship for four years, but we are aiming high and that is to be in the top 10 in our first year.
We have some great people helping us. Gary Walker and his son Oliver have been around Karting for many, many years and say Albert has something and are putting a lot of effort in to helping him. Martin Hines and his son Luke, the owners of Zip Karts, have been fantastic too. Then we have Lucas Oil, Teng Tools, 3t creative, NGK, Rainbow Conference Sets, Cottingham Engineering and Grand Prix Racewear.
Of course we are always looking for more support and if you feel you could help Albert in any way and would like to spend some time at freezing cold kart tracks in the winter, please contact Sarah at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Dom Romney, a great and up and coming motorsport photographer, has also been helpful. He has recently put an Albert Carter gallery on his fantastic motorsport website, it's well worth a look and can be found at www.modernpics.co.uk.
Next week we are in sunny Wales for three days at the opening of the new Lucas Oil Store, and then it's off to Sweden for FIA round three.
I would like to say thanks to the companies who are again supporting me in 2010: Lucas Oil, Landmeco, NGK Spark Plugs, Pioneer Print, Binamic, Sigma Signs, BMRS Hoses, Yuasa Batteries, CAAR, AACI, Rainbow Conference Sets, RCS Cables, 3t Creative, Teng Tools, Norfolkline, Ultimate Air Brush, K&N Filters, Autotel Race Radios, GPR, VEIDEC, Hol-taj, Auto-reminder.co.uk, Zip Kart, and Alamo. Thanks to Andrew and Keith at Stand21 for technical and development support with my safety clothing, check out www.stand21.fr, their stuff is awesome! We will be doing our best for these great companies and also this year we will be doing our best to support Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital and RAF 78 Squadron.
I must also say a special thanks to Les Downey, Tom B., everyone at Speedgroup, Santa Pod Raceway, my lovely wife Sarah who puts up with me and my moods that change more times than a set of lights depending on how my racing is going, anyone who helps me in any way it is appreciated and of course all my friends, fans and supporters.
Hope to see you soon, or 'til the next blog.
AC
Gators gone from our schedule
Wednesday, 03 March 2010
It is with much sadness that we officially announce we will not be contesting the 41st annual Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals, one of the three events we had scheduled for the start of the year before heading back to Europe to start the heavy show tour and defense of our FIA European Championship.
The Gators was the one we were looking forward to the most. After a disappointing Winternationals, the team worked tirelessly in very difficult circumstances to put the dragster in the field in Arizona where a 3.94 against Tony Schumacher was not enough to get us to Round 2.
I'll still be making my planned appearance at the Don Garlits' museum the weekend before the event and will take part in Brian Taylor’s Crazy Horses book signing.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the crew -- Eddie Corr, Ben Allum, Richard Bruton, Steve Porter, and Neil Collins -- who worked so hard in the USA, often doing 14-hour days. I would also like to thank my sponsors and at the same time apologise to them for the terrible performance at Pomona. At least it was a little better at Phoenix.’
The two races would not have been possible without Don Garlits, Roger Burgess of ProCare Rx, Steve Wheatman of Hol Taj, Lucas Oil, K&N Filters, BMRS, Prothings, Hurleypalmerflatt, and Gatorwrap.
Not time to dwell on bad race
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Down but not out! After a hugely disappointing weekend at the 50th annual Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals, I'll will fly to Phoenix, keen to put the DNQ behind me. I'm more used to being No. 1 qualifier in Europe and the 4 time FIA European Top Fuel Champion is far from happy with the showing. What can I say? It was a very difficult week all round. Eddie Corr, Ben Allum, Richard Bruton, Steve Porter and Neil Collins worked very, very hard in very difficult circumstances, all things considered they did a great job. I flew back to Florida Sunday morning-no point in being there Sunday when your not racing-and they stayed with the Dragster this week getting it ready for Phoenix. All we can do is put it behind us and head in to the Arizona Nationals looking to do the best we can, not just for ourselves but for the fantastic partners we have on board. I'd like to say thanks to Don Garlits, Roger Burgiss of ProCare Rx, Hol Taj, Lucas Oil, K&N Filters, BMRS, Prothings, Hurleypalmerflatt and Gatorwrap for the faith shown in me. I will be doing my very best this weekend to qualify and go rounds. As ever, you can follow Andy's progress via the Carter Motorsport site:
Andy Carter: Busy before start of the season
Thursday, 04 February 2010
The first show (in January) of the year the NEC Autosport Show has come and gone so quick. It is a show I love; I get really excited about going to it and spending time with Les and all the other people we meet on the Lucas Oil and Santa Pod stand. This year was no different to the other nine years I have been at the show with the dragster, it was a great time and it just gets busier and busier. I had spent five whole days there, Wednesday to Sunday night, eventually arriving home at 11 p.m.
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The next morning it was no rest as Sarah, Albert and I were up at 5 a.m. to do the three hour drive to PFI Kart circuit near Grantham where we spent the day testing with Albert before the racing started at 4 p.m. It was a rainy, cold day so it was wet all day and get Albert in the van in front of the heater after each session, but the testing and seat time paid off as Albert got a 3rd in the first heat, 2nd in the next and a 2nd in the Final. The Kart looked great too in its new Lucas Oil colours. Then it was into the van for the long 3 hour drive home, within 10 minutes Albert was asleep, I don’t blame him he had worked real hard and put in extreme effort in the cold conditions. He has that hunger for winning and was crying in the van before the final saying his so cold. I said, ’’Don’t worry Albert you don’t have to do this last race, just relax and get warm." He stopped crying instantly and his reply was, "No Dad I want to win it’’.
About a week later we flew to Florida and after a couple of days getting things sorted, I drove up to see Don and TC and spent a morning with them in Don's office. Don is so excited about helping me and before I left I said, "see you in Pomona Don’’ he gave me one of them strong handshakes and said "let’s get that Dragster qualified’’!
I’m still in Florida right now and fly across to Vegas Feb. 6, to meet up with Eddie Corr my crew chief for the 3 races, some of Terrys crew and Terry Haddock whose dragster I’m lucky enough to be driving at the first three races of the NHRA Full Throttle Championship, Pomona, Phoenix and Gainesville. I’m planning to make at least one test run at Vegas, I wanted to do this. It’s so important and although I really haven’t got the budget for it. I’m doing it, it will give me seat time and it will be good to know that the systems on the dragster have at least one test run.
Sunday night we drive on to the wrapping company Gatorwraps in California, who are helping me out by wrapping the dragster for a real good price and giving me the loan of a Cadillac SUV for a week which will help cut my hire car costs. Monday is goner be such an exciting day! The dragster will be wrapped all-black in Don Garlits colours, other main partners on the car are ProCareRx and Hol-taj, also supporting me at the first three NHRA races are Lucas Oil, BMRS hoses, K&N Filters and Impact and I would like to say thanks to these people and companies for having faith in me, I will be giving it 100 percent for you all!
After Pomona it’s then on to the Phoenix race, then a weekend off and then we will be at Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Fla. to help promote Don’s museum and also help launch Crazy Horses on the East coast of America.
The next weekend it's off to round three on the NHRA Full Throttle Tour the Gatornationals this is goner be a real big one being Don’s home race! And also a lot of fans come over from the UK for this one.
A week later we fly back to England to carry on with the second show off the season where we will have a stand at the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway, then pretty close to each other we have another four shows and then it’s into round 1 of the FIA European Championships.
I’m looking forward to the FIA European Championships starting and getting together with Karsten, Per and all the Lucas Oil team again, it’s goner be tough to live up to what we achieved during 2009 but you can be sure that I’m as hungry as ever and ready to take on everyone, I’m sure most will be gunning for me as usual, just the way I like it.
While I’m talking about the FIA European Championships I would like to say thanks to the companies that are again supporting me in 2010, Lucas Oil, Landmeco, NGK Spark Plugs, Pioneer Print, Binamic, Sigma Signs, BMRS Hoses, Yuasa Batteries, CAAR, AACI, Rainbow Conference Sets, RCS Cables, 3t Creative, Teng Tools, Norfolkline, Ultimate Air Brush, Impact, K&N Filters, Autotel Race Radios, Impact, GPR, VEIDEC, Hol-taj, Auto-reminder.co.uk, Zip Kart and Santa Pod Raceway.
We will be doing our best for these great companies and also this year we will be doing our best to support Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital and RAF 78 Squadron.
I must also say a special thanks to Les Downey, Pelle Lindalow, everyone at Speedgroup, Santa Pod Raceway, anyone who helps me in any way it is appreciated and of course all my fans, friends and supporters.
For those that are interested please check out my full 2010 schedule here at http://www.andycarter.net/schedule.php
Hope to see some of you soon,
AC
A visit with the sponsors in America
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
I wrote in August that we were travelling back from Germany on a high. Well this time were travelling from California and we are on that high again! Sarah and I are sitting at LAX with our Starbucks travelling back from a meeting with Tom Bogner at Lucas Oil. Sarah is getting to be a real asset at the meetings and I feel like I always want her with me now. She has gone from being real shy, nervous and saying, ‘‘I don’t want to come,’’ to being confident and providing good input.
We were so excited about going to see Tom and all the people at the Lucas Oil factory in California -- one of two factories that Forrest and Charlotte own -- the other being in Indiana. Again we had to leave Albert with the best Mum in the world, Molly my Mum, and we knew we were going to miss him. We wanted to take him to meet them all at the factory and although he is starting to understand we have meetings with sponsors and the importance of shaking hands with people etc., it would have been a very long day for him. I decided to write some notes and leave them for him, I gave these to Mum and she put one or two out around the house each day so he could find them. When I spoke to him on the phone each day it was nice to hear him say, "Thanks for the notes, Dad, only one sleep and you're home."
We landed in Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon and after picking up our hire car drove the hour and a half to our hotel which was only about 10 minutes from the Lucas Oil factory. That evening, we met with our American tuning consultant Jim Brissette and his lovely wife Carol and had a nice meal with them. it was great to catch up with Jim away from the race track. I have learnt so much from him in the short time I have known Jim. He really is a clever man who talks common sense and would be a major asset to any drag racing team at any level. I hope he will be with us in 2010 but as he is now working as a tuning consultant with Kenny Bernstein this may be difficult. Time will tell.
Wednesday after a light breakfast at Denny's, we arrived at the Lucas Oil factory to meet with Tom. What a place! Right from the moment you walk into reception you can see the motorsport connection with the walls covered with pictures and racing memorabilia. As we made our way through to Tom's office we were introduced to everyone on the way, "This is Andy Carter our four-time FIA European Top Fuel Champion." Everyone was so friendly. After a short chat, Tom said, "Would you like a tour of the factory and offices?" "‘Yes please, that would be great Tom," I replied. We started by meeting the rest of the people in the offices and then moved on to the science and test laboratory where all the oils and products are tested for viscosity, flash point, consistency, cavitations and many, many other tests and checks. Next it was the studios where all the Lucas Oil shows and adverts are produced, then the design studio where all the labels, merchandise, bottles etc are designed, then it was on to the oil manufacturing dept where the oils are actually made and blended, then on to the factory floor where the oil is put into the containers, caps put on and labeled. It was getting to 1 o'clock now so Tom and Jeff (also from marketing) took us out to lunch.
In between, Terry Haddock called and I had to let him know that the company I met with after the Lucas Oil meeting decided not to support me at the Pomona race this year -- my last ditch attempt at getting a budget to join Erbacher, Joon, Nattaas, and Neergard at the NHRA Finals. We decided to meet at the PRI Show in Orlando in December and sit down and see how we can go forward. I would still like to do one race at the beginning of the year in America and one at the end, this would fit in well with my FIA European Championship and show schedule. Terry's a real good bloke and although everything back in February was not quite as I liked it, I really enjoyed racing with him.
Then it was back on to the tour. This time Jeff was showing us 'round as Tom had been called to another meeting. Next was the shipping dept where all the oils, greases, problem solvers and car care products are put on to pallets and sent out all over the world. Last stop was the clothing dept where Sarah was let loose to pick anything she wanted. She was like a kid in a sweet shop, saying, "Yes I need two of them, three of them, have you got any sweats in small, any (I’m serious) handbags?" After spending 20 minutes with Sarah, Raphael (the guy helping us in the dept) got down to the serious stuff and picked out my order of crew wear for the team.
Then it was back to Tom’s office for a general chat about 2009 and 2010. The great news is that my relationship with Lucas Oil is getting stronger and we will continue to work together in 2010. I’m determined to do better for Les Downey, Forrest, Charlotte, Tom, Jeff and everyone at this fantastic company.
About one month before our meeting we had sent a marketing proposal in regarding Albert’s Karting and the other great news is that Lucas Oil has decided to support Albert in his Karting career. We called Albert after the meeting and he was jumping up and down screaming, "Yea, I’m a Lucas Oil driver!" Now we have to make sure we do a good job for Lucas Oil on the Karting scene too. Look out for Albert’s rebranded Lucas Oil site soon at www.albertcarter.com.
Thanks for reading and see you next blog.
AC
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