Shawn Lawless and John Metric
to Recieve Coveted NEDRA Awards for 2011
Shawn Lawless to receive the Ed Rannberg Award
and John Metric receives the Bob Rice Memorial EVenturer Award
NEDRA NEWS (December 27, 2011) NEDRA had a busy year in 2011 with many individual efforts to spread the news of EV racing. So NEDRA would like to express our sincere thanks to two members who have helped make this year a success.
This year, Shawn Lawless and Team Lawless has been all over the map promoting EV racing with his "Rocket" electric drag bike which was built in front of millions of viewers on "American Chopper" and pulled off a "world record," as Paul Sr. called it, on the show. In addition to building the "Rocket" and his bright yellow S-11 drag race truck, Shawn has been behind the scenes helping other racers get on the track including Jeff Disinger, the builder and racer of the record breaking "Predator" drag bike. Shawn has also been involved with an Ohio university in helping them with their electric motorcycle project and Miramar High School's new electric Cobra project. Congratulations to Shawn for receiving the 2011 Ed Rannberg Award.
NEDRA would also like to acknowledge John Metric for an outstanding year of record breaking racing and traveling half-way across the country to attend the Power of DC. We'd like to congratulate John with the new Bob Rice Memorial "EVenturer" Award in memory of Bob Rice who travelled all across the US to attend NEDRA Events on both coasts. John shares the same spirit Bob had in promoting EVs. John has been active with his local EAA chapters in getting more people interested in EV Drag racing and formed a new racing group, "Lonestar Racing."
IHRA Accepts Electric Vehicles in their Racing Rules!
Electrics now formally recognized by the IHRA
NEDRA NEWS (December 19, 2011) The National Electric Drag Racing Association is pleased to announce that the IHRA, International Hot Rod Association, has formally recognized electric drag racing. Electric Cars and Motorcycles including Electric Junior Dragsters are now in their latest rule book.
The IHRA was formed in 1970 and is the largest drag racing sanctioning body in Canada and the second largest in the US. NEDRA's President, Mike Willmon and Vice President Roderick Wild! e worked with Skooter Peaco, the IHRA Vice President of Race Operation s and Mike Baker, their Director of Competition and Technical Services to help make this a reality. Chip Gribben, NEDRA's PR director has been working with Kurt Oberholtzer, IHRA Director of Contingency and Inside Sales concerning events at their member tracks. This now smooths the way for new and exciting EV drag racing venues. NEDRA looks forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the IHRA.
This news is particularly significant to NEDRA's newest Regional Director for Western Canada, Casey Mynott. Casey is head of Canada's first electric drag racing team which just happens to be a group of high school students from Delta Secondary School in Ladner, British Columbia. Casey is the Automotive Instructor there. Besides their electric drag racing pick up they have added a Junior Dragster to their racing stable. It is g! oing to be an exciting and educational racing season coming up for them in 2012.
DC Plasma Breaks MC/A2 Record!
John Metric takes DC Plasma to a new record
and into the 125 MPH Club
NEDRA NEWS (December 3, 2011) Despite fog and dampness settling over Baytown Royal Purple Dragway Friday night (the photo above is a file photo), John Metric piloted DC Plasma into the record books with a record setting run of 11.04 seconds at 123.67 mph beating the current MC/A2 record of 11.416 seconds at 120.33 mph! (record to be posted soon pending verification)
Although the record run is 123.67 mph, John had an even faster and quicker run at 128.15 mph at 10.461 seconds that put him into the 125 MPH Club! NEDRA would love to post the 10.461 time as the record but according to NEDRA rules the times must be within 1 percent in order to take the quicker time. He'll get there soon though
John's warm up run was a casual 11.713 seconds down the track spinning the tires on the damp pavement as he took off. To reduce the tire spin, John cranked down the amps to 1800 and lowered the tire pressure which propelled him to his 128 mph run. There was still a still a bit of spin so he lowered the amps down to 1700.
Times at the 1800 amps:
60ft: 1.631
330ft: 4.336
1/8 mile ET: 6.648
1/8 mile speed: 104.93 mph
1/4 mile ET: 10.461
1/4 mile speed: 128.15 mph
On a dry track DC Plasma should get into the high 9s at over 130 mph. That will happen soon enough!
First Electric Drag Racer in Canada!
Student built electric truck screams
down the drag strip
NEDRA NEWS (December 1, 2011) British Columbia high-school teacher Casey Mynott and his students have built the first electric racing car in Canada. Watch it in action in this exclusive Great Futures video.
DC Plasma Breaks into the 10s!
John Metric takes DC Plasma to a best run of 10.4 seconds at 124 mph in the 1/4
NEDRA NEWS (November 12, 2011) Since building his electric Fiero, DC Plasma, John's goal has been to break into the 10s. After a couple months of upgrades to the car including a beefier drive train and a new aerodynamic front end he's done it with a single run at 10.4393 at 124.83 mph! And at the same time beating the gas car he was running against.
The timeslip tells the rest of the story.
On John's second run a CV joint failed so John wasn't able to finish the day with more runs but it will just be a matter of time - very soon - before John breaks into the 9's at 130 mph with new records and into the 125 mph Club. John has gone through the car and found where he can take 10ths of a second off here and there and hopefully with some clear weather he can pull it off.
Predator Bike Breaks a New NEDRA Record
Predator breaks into the 8's and takes the
DMC/A Record
NEDRA NEWS (October 24, 2011) Ever since the wall encounter in Cleveland last month Jeff "Dice" Disinger and Shawn Lawless have been wanting to get the Predator bike back to the track. Today it finally happened. Dice and Shawn met in Rochester, New York at Empire Dragway for their last race of the season. Dice was sporting almost healed fingers, new gloves, and Predator a new drag slick. After the day's effots, Predator is now the DMC/A record holder, with an 8.96 @ 141 MPH. This betters the Lawless AGNS bike record by more than a second. It took all day to get in just 4 runs but Dice was the last guy down the track for the season with an 8.60 @ 144 MPH to back up the record. The first run off the day to shakedown the slick was 11 something @ 117 MPH. The first backup attempt failed as the front end lifted and Dice had to get off the pot resulting in a 9.76 @ 136 MPH. The most impressive part of the day for Shawn was that they never had time to bump the current up above 60% and even with only 259 volts split in series on the motors, the GE's were still pulling like crazy at 122 volts. That and the fact that Godzilla Serial # 7 ran flawlessly and is still cranking out records.
Look for the record to appear soon on the Records Page. The above photo is from the Power of DC. We'll have an updated photo of Dice and Predator soon.
MotorWeek Features NEDRA Racers at Power of DC AutoCross
NEDRA NEWS (October 18, 2011) MotorWeek came out to film the AutoCross portion of NEDRA's Power of DC event from June. As you can tell from the video, burnouts aren't just limited to the dragstrip as John Metric lights up the AutoCross course and leaves his mark on the pavement at the Valley Mall.
NEDRA Members and their vehicles featured in the MotorWeek episode include John Metric with his Pontiac Fiero, Lowell Simmons with the Miramar High School Porsche 944, Dave Bollinger with his red Tesla, Dave Cover with his Porsche 944 and Dave Delman and his electric powered DeLorean.
Delta Secondary School's Chupacabra breaks new NEDRA Record
NEDRA NEWS (October 1, 2011) On Friday September 30th 2011 the DSS electric drag racing team attended the last BCSSMA (http://www.highschooldragracing.org) race day of the 2011 race season. At 2:22pm Alex Lehmann set an official NEDRA electric drag racing record, the 1st for Canada! The time was 14.762 @ 83.57 miles per hour. This was in the HS (High School) A2 (348 volt nominal) category. This was an amazing day for Alex and the whole team. Duncan Cowen (DSS Metal Shop instructor) and myself worked with the team throughout the day to get rid of any bugs that were left since our race debut on July 1st. With the batteries all charged up, Alex completed two runs with in the same speed and time frames. This qualified us for an official record! The excitement from the team was palpable as this was a 1st on multiple fronts. You might be asking yourself, where to from here? The answer, FASTER!!!
With the season now officially over, we are eagerly looking forward to the 2012 high school race season. A huge "thank you" to all of our sponsors and supporters. With out you we certainly would not have been able to reach this grandiose achievement. Please feelfree to pass this information on. We are all making history together one clean, green, electron at a time!
Big Weekend for Racing
into the 10s and the 9s!!!
Lawless Lemon Juice, Predator, DC Plasma and
Black Pearl continue to push towards
the 10s and 9s!!!
BREAKING NEWS!!!! Reports from Shawn Lawless:
First Run: 8:50 pm, 1.53 60 ft, 10.97 @ 120.26
Second Run: 10:22 pm, Fuse blew at 30 ft
Third Run: 11:40 pm, 1.50 sixty ft, 10.65@ 123 mph
Fourth Run: 11:54 pm,
one motor blew but still ran 11.39
NEDRA NEWS (June 15, 2011) With the racing season in full swing several racers have been hard at work in their shops in an effort to push their EVs to the next level . . . the 10s and the 9s!
Shawn Lawless and his crew at Lawless Industries has been hard at work taming their 1/8 mile monster quad motor Lemon Juice S-11. Shawn's been conservatively running Lemon Juice in the 1/8 to keep the beast on a short leash but even then he's breaking 110 mph. After some chassis massaging and suspension mods from fellow drag racer Jeff Disinger and his Electrafunk crew, the truck's frame and suspension components are now NHRA 8.50 Certified. Shawn can finally let up some slack on the leash and launch the S-11 into the 10s after some soft runs and then into the 9s! Shawn will be running the S-11 at Quaker City Motorsports Park Friday evening.
Lemon Juice features four 7.2 inch GE Motors, 2 Zilla 2K Controllers and a 363 volt Lithium battery pack borrowed from the Rocket Drag Bike.
Jeff Disinger will also be racing this weekend pushing his Electrafunk Predator electric drag bike to 125 mph. At the recent Power of DC he ran the Predator effortlessly to 110 mph!
John Metric has been hard at work taking his DC Plasma Fiero to the next level by installing an NHRA certified roll cage. He's been keeping his ETs on the low side at 11.5, if you consider that low, until safety mods were made to push the car into the 10s. He'll be racing this weekend in Texas. John has taken EV drag racing by storm in the Gulf region, showing DC Plasma at local EAA Chapter meetings and inspring a group to build an electric drag racing Mustang.
During the summer break, Miramar High School Automotive Instructor Lowell Simmons has been hard at work on the school's Porsche 944, Black Pearl. After some tranny work Lowell, Matt Graham and Matt's coworker, Charlie, took Black Pearl to Palm Beach International Raceway for some runs. They got two fairly good runs in with the Zilla speed controller set at 100% duty cycle for almost 2 seconds before shifting into parallel. This netted an 11.811 at 118.06. The times from the two good runs: R/t-.496, 60ft-1.948, 330-5.050, 1/8-7.628, mph at 1/8- 92.80, 1000-9.899 and final ET 11.81@118.06. The other time was: R/t-.158, 60ft-1.835, 330-4.840, 1/8-7.484, mph at 1/8-90.42, 1000-9.763 and final ET 11.697@116.58. With some tweaking an additional tranny and drivetrain mods Black Pearl should be into the high 10s soon, maybe before the Fall school season starts!
Good luck to all the racers breaking the boundries with their EVs!
We'll post results of everyone's efforts as they become available.
Students Build First Electric Drag Racing Truck in Canada
Delta Secondary School Students Appear on 6:00 News as they Prepare to Test Run Their Truck
NEDRA NEWS (June 24, 2011) Delta Secondary School District Automotive Instructor, Casey Mynott, and his students have been working diligently for 2 years on their electric drag racing Toyota truck and are about ready to see the final results of their efforts as they prepare to test run their truck at Mission Raceway.
But before they even hit the track, word got around and the awesome team of students were featured on the local 6:00 pm news. Visit this link to see the full news report.
What the students have put together would be the envy for any EV enthusiast building a drag racing truck. The truck features an 11 inch Warp motor, 2000 Amp Zilla High Voltage controller fed by 350 volts of Odyssey PC 680 batteries charged by a Manzanita Micro PFC-50 charger. Fresh high performance tires and wheels will give the truck the grip it needs to tear down the track. We'll let you know how their test run goes very soon so stay tuned.
Test run results from June 30 at Mission Raceway in Mission, British Columbia.
The truck made four runs with times in the 17s and 18s. Seems the new batteries were undercharged before those runs so they'll be back to try again after a full battery charge and to repair a loose A2 terminal on the motor.
White Zombie at Gasless in Greenwood this Weekend
John Wayland drives the 10.2 second White Zombie 169 miles from Portland to Seattle area
LATEST UPDATE!!!
June 24, 2011, 8:44 PM PST . . . .
169 miles - No Sweat!
We're getting ready to sit down for a Santa Maria BBQ at Sharon and Robert's home in Federal Way, having arrived in the Zombie about an hour ago...169 miles, no sweat! Of course, we got in two oportunity recharges, but it's still great to leave the trailer behind.
The Zombie seems to be happy switching roles from 10 second drag car to interstate freeway cruiser. The EVision system boldy reported all traction and 12V system while logging the data, the Bruce Sherry Designs/Manzanita MicroTouch screen bus display dash meter kept the cells monitored, the Siamese 9 motor ran flawlessly, the Zilla thought it was on vacation, and the Dow Kokam cells cranked out steady power mile after mile, town after town!
The last leg of the trip was a 66 mile run, with the cells still hanging at 3.45V under load on arrival to Federal Way... about 40 percent capacity remaining.
Looking forward to tomorrow's car show!
See Ya...John Wayland
June 24, 2011, 12:58 PM PST . . . .
White Zombie, possessed by Zilla, pulling out of the Longview/Kelso area at near hurricane speeds of about 70 mph, targeting Tenino.
NEDRA NEWS (June 22, 2011) In a historic trip for a 10.2 second 1/4 mile electric car, John Wayland and his family and crew will be driving the White Zombie 400 miles, roundtrip, from Portland to Seattle to celebrate the Gasless in Greenwood event, part of the Greenwood Car Show. The trip includes several side trips along the way there and along the way home.
The Zombie has a range of just over 100 miles with it's Dow Kokam Lithium Polymer battery pack and will be making three short charge stops to juice up along the way.
One of those recharge stops will be at Bob's Lil Car Hospital in Lexington, Washington Friday morning from 9:00 am to 10:00 am.
On Saturday they will head out for the last leg of the trip to Seattle for the Greenwood Car Show. They will be in the company of 900 classic cars and street rods. The "Gasless" crowd will include many EVs including conversions, Volts and Teslas.
Several years ago, who would have thought you can drive a street legal 10.2 second electric car over 100 miles on it's own power.
For more information call Wade Patterson at 360-560-4612 or David Nelson at 360-901-6466.
Lawless Drag Bike Continues the Climb in it's persuit
of the 6's
and 200 mph
NEDRA NEWS (April 30, 2011) Shawn Lawless and his crew took the Rocket electric drag bike to new heights on Saturday at Virginia Motorsports Park with several 7 second runs.
Since their last trip to the track at Valdosta where the Rocket incinerated it's high strength-aluminum rear sprocket just two weeks before, the crew installed an Orange County Chopper sprocket with an even higher strength material hoping to decrease the ETs.
The Zilla motor speed controller was intentionally set down on the first run to shakeout any bugs. The bike went down the track flawlessly but left wimpy and ran a 7.81 @ 177 MPH. Larry "Spiderman" McBride came back to the pits and scolded Shawn with "More Power!!!" For run two, the crew went with settings they had in Valdosta. The light turned green and the rear tire instantly went up in smoke. They grabbed the laptop, backed off the juice a good bit, and Larry restaged. A decent launch followed with a 7.26 @ 181 MPH showing on the board. A new NEDRA record that needed backed up. No problem but a post run inspection showed a badly blistered tire and a trashed rear sprocket. It looked like the crew was headed home with a best ever run but no improvement on the 7.70 @168 record.
The McBride men came to the Rocket's rescue. They offered to take the entire crew 100 miles to their world class shop, where they installed a second new OCC rear sprocket. This one was made out of good old hardened alloy steel like the front sprocket. They installed and balanced a new rear tire, repaired some bad threads in the bead locks, hastily ate some pizza, marveled at all of the historic bike racing photos on the wall, and headed back to VMP.
They arrived back at the track at 5:30 pm, put the bike back together and left the Zilla settings right where they were from the previous run. The bike lost traction at the launch but finally grabbed the track and ran a 7.24 @ 185 MPH. Post run inspection showed the bike to be perfect. All that was needed to get ready to run was a slight chain and tire pressure adjustment, a bit of motor cooling, and a charging of the batteries . Knowing that they were right on the limits of traction at the line they left the settings for starting torque the same but bumped up peak motor volts just a touch. They were rewarded with a 7.13 @ 187 MPH. The 60 ft was still a dismal 1.23, almost 1.24, but the bike was still strong enough once traction was restored to run 160 MPH in the first 660 ft. Post run inspection showed the bike to be perfect and ready to run again with a quick charge. By this time the stiff 10 + headwind was dwindling with the daylight. They crew seriously considered turning up the juice for one more run and taking a shot at 6.99 @ 190+ but everyone was exhausted and very happy to have persevered through the early morning trials with a new NEDRA record and decided to call it a day.
World's First Electric Street-Bodied Car to Break into the 9's!!
Black Current Posts New NEDRA Record at Santa Pod Raceway
NEDRA NEWS (April 23, 2011) Brothers Sam and Oliver Young made it into electric drag racing history today at Santa Pod Raceway in the UK with his 1600 pound electric VW bug, "Black Current." Sam piloted Black Current to a 9.82 @ 132.22 mph run at 10:15 GMT followed by a 9.51 time at 135.65 mph at 13:52 GMT. The time is a new record for the Extreme/A3 NEDRA Class and also made it into the NEDRA 125 MPH Club.
This makes the speedy electric bug the "World's First Street-Bodied Electric Car" to break into the 9's. A significant historic event for EVs and electric drag racing history. Congratulations to Sam, Olly and their team for their work on Black Current! We'll have more details as they become available. Oliver is NEDRA's UK Regional Director.
The current running through Black Current is provided by FlightPower Lithium Polymer® EVO Ultra Nano batteries which have thicker innerconnects then regular RC batteries to handle the extra current. Expect interesting developments from Team Black Current in future runs.
Past Performance of Black Current
This time last year, Black Current, with Sam Young at the wheel made it into the NEDRA 100 mph Club with a speed of 112.48 mph.
Check out this video of Black Current spanking a gas VW in 2010.
Weekend Racing Roundup
from April 9
Rocket, Predator, DC Plasma and Smoke Screen push the limits this past weekend despite some technical glitches
NEDRA NEWS (April 11, 2011) Although there were some technical glitches, the Lawless Team including the Predator and Rocket electric drag bikes racing at the Manufacturers Cup in Georgiea and John Metric racing his DC Plasma Fiero at his local track in Texas, were able to make some impressive runs. Dennis Berube bracket raced at Speedworld coming in second place!
Results are still coming in but so far the vehicles were racing very close to the edge for the vehicles in their respective classes. Meaning we are continuing to push the limits to eek out every amp possible.
John Metric raced his DC Plasma Fiero at the Houston Motor Speedway which is an 1/8 mile track and beat a Mustang GT in one heat. The Fiero had a few hiccups which John is looking at but he will be racing again April 23rd at Brandt National at Sealy and going for more NEDRA Records
John plans to put in a Lenco 2 speed with reverse in the next revision to the car. If he can stay in the 800HP area of the battery power curve, DC Plasma will fly.
The Rocket bike was heading for a six second run at the Manufacturers Cup on Saturday when a quirk in the system force Larry Spiderman McBride to prematurely end the one run they were given for the day.
The Predator Bike with owner/builder Jeff Dissinger in the saddle took off fast and smooth with a wheelie to start the run which pleased the crowd. Check out our Facebook Page to see the video Jeff posted up.
Dennis Berube's installed a fresh set of brushes in his S-10 Smokescreen and ran great without any glitches and the motor never got warm. At Speedworld he raced seven 1/4 mile passes to a 2nd place finish against pro cars. Dialed close at 12.91 ran 12.9178 and lost but was so close.
All in all, the weekend showed a potential in 2011 for some very fast 6 second runs for the bikes and 10 and 9 second runs for the cars.
Stay tuned, the Racing Roundup will be a continuing feature on the NEDRA website.
The Zilla is Back!
After a short hiatus the infamous
green speed controller is coming back to life
NEDRA NEWS (March 25, 2011) Zilla's are coming back! We're excited to announce that Otmar Ebenhoech, creator of the Zilla and owner of Cafe Electric, is in talks with Rich Rudman of Manzanita Micro to bring the Zilla controller line back to life soon! They have agreed on the basics and are finalizing details to get Zilla production, and sales and support up and running at the Manzanita Micro facility in Kingston Washington. Production is anticipated to begin in about 90 days.
The Zilla has been the mainstay of EV drag racing for a decade and most of NEDRA's records have been accomplished with the Zilla line of controllers. For those building EVs to race on the strip this is exciting news.
Cafe Electric still has
a few Z2K-EHV units available and is supporting current models.
Electric Fiero "DC Plasma" Races Into the 100 MPH Club
John Metric's "DC Plasma" also breaks 1/8 mile NEDRA Record
NEDRA NEWS (February 19, 2011) John Metric has started the year off with some high voltage excitement racing his freshly built Fiero conversion, DC Plasma, into the NEDRA record books. At the First of the Year Drags January 8 at Lonestar Motorsports Park in Texas, John propelled DC Plasma into the 100 mph Club with a run of 103.97 mph!
On February 19, DC Plasma made another mark in NEDRA history with a NEDRA record on his second time out on the track with a series of passes over 100 mph in the quater mile! He posted an unofficial NEDRA record in the 1/8 Mile MC/A2 Class with an ET of 7.045 at 92.25 mph. The record will be official once NEDRA's Record Keeper posts it to the record page. John has a data aquisition program which showed the 333 volt A123 Lithium Polymer battery pack staying stiff and constant after the initial launch and shooting up after the 1/4 mile mark after the end of the run. Incredible!
KillaCycle on "Making Stuff Cleaner" airing at
9:00 pm Eastern Time. Check local listings.
NEDRA NEWS (February 3, 2011) The Killacycle Team will be on NOVA Thursday evening on a rebroadcast of the series "Making Stuff Cleaner." Check your local listings to see if it's airing at a PBS station in your area. The KillaCycle segment appears about 15 minutes into the show with a great interview of both Bill Dube and wife Eva Hakansson. Check local listings.
NEDRA NEWS (February 3, 2011) The 2011 Portland International Auto Show this year featured what is billed as the fastest accelerating street legal electric car of all time, both in the 0-60 and quarter mile categories. Organized by the Metro Portland New Car Dealers Association, the show ran from January 27 – 30. White Zombie owner John Wayland and driver Tim Brehm were on hand with a cool display featuring the White Zombie and running videos on a huge 50-inch plasma TV. Check out the great story above from "PDX TV Reports."
Lawless OCC Rocket Bike Beats Top NEDRA Record
Rocket makes it to the top of the Record Book as the fastest EV on the planet
NEDRA NEWS (November 15, 2010) The Lawless Team and Orange County Choppers is celebrating after their Rocket Drag Bike made it into the NEDRA Record Books as the Fastest 1/4 mile EV in the world. The bike, piloted by legendary drag bike racer, Larry "Spiderman" McBride took the bike to a new NEDRA record of 168 mph record at 7.703 seconds at the South Georgia Motorsports Park. In order for the record to be an official NEDRA record two runs must be made within 1 percent of each other.
Lawless OCC Rocket Bike Makes it into the 175 MPH Club
NEDRA NEWS (September 24, 2010) The Lawless Rocket Drag Bike piloted by Larry "Spiderman" McBride and owned by Shawn Lawless soared into the 100 mph Club with a speed of 177.09 MPH making Shawn's bike the first to enter in the 175 MPH Club section of the NEDRA 100 MPH Club.
Silver Giant II's Winning Racing
Season
A year of upgrades, records and how a good set of wheelie bars can keep you firmly on the ground
HOLEBY, DK (Sept 21, 2010) Check out this fantastic video of what Team True Cousins did with Silver Giant this past racing season. Electric powered dragbike 48 volt, 50 Hp, 4 motors, 2 gear and lithium batteries. Current 1/8 mile NEDRA record holders in the J/DMC and I/DMC Classes. Constructed by Glenn E. Nielsen and driven by Hans-Henrik Thomsen.
White Zombie becomes first Electric Street Car
to run a 10 second 1/4 mile
PORTLAND, OR (Sept 12, 2010) Some of the fastest street legal and drag racing EVs on the planet were at the NEDRA Nationals Friday and Saturday at Portland International Raceway with the White Zombie leading the pack to be the fastest street legal electric car to break into the 10's and the first street legal electric car to make it into the Roger Hedlund 125 mph Club. Thanks to Aaron and Cara Choate for the fantastic YouTube videos of these historic runs.
Joining the Zombie at the event were well known NEDRA pioneers and members including NEDRA President Mike Willmon with his Crazy Horse Pinto, Jay Donnaway's Karmann Eclectric beautiful Ghia, Father Time's Green Monster, Dave Cloud's rail dragster, Tom's, Richard's and Dave's colorful trio (red, blue and yellow) of Teslas and many more of the Seattle area's hot drag machines was there to race as well. Gregg Oberlin and Otmar Enbenhoech was there with their Porsche 914 electrics. In the pit area, EVs on display included Marko Mongillo's electric Datsun minitruck, Victor Tichonov's (Metric Mind) ACRX, John Wayland's Blue Meanie, and other electrified rides from the Portland area.
Watch this cool video compilation of the electric vehicles attending the 2010 Nationals by Michael Romano. The orange Pinto is electric and belongs to NEDRA President, Mike Willmon as well as the orange chopper in the opening scenes.
The 2010 Nationals was one of the most well documented Nationals events to date. See more YouTube runs and stories from the event on the Nationals Event page.
For more detailed information, photos and the latest technical specs on the White Zombie visit the Plasma Boy Racing 2010 page.
Lawless and OCC bike break
into the 7's at 169 mph!
Electric drag bike project to be aired on American Chopper September 30
RICHMOND, VA (Sept 11, 2010) Shawn Lawless finished taping with American Chopper taping yesterday at Virginia Motorsports Park. It was a 14 hour round trip from Lawless Industries in Ohio to Virginia but well worth it. They were able to lower their best ET to 7.63. They backed it up 4 minutes later with a 7.64. Top speed was 169, 11 short of their goal of 180 mph. Look for more speed improvements as the crew tweaks out the performance on the bike. The bike features a GE 13-inch forklift DC motor that used to reside in Dennis Berube's electric drag racing S-10 truck, Smokescreen. The motor is fed by two Zilla 2K controllers and a 360 volt pack of A123 lithium batteries.
On August 29, the "Rocket" broke the Guiness Book of World Records as the fastest electric vehicle set at Quaker City. Record time was 7.77 seconds @ 165MPH in the Quarter Mile. Larry, Spiderman, McBride now has records for racing the fastest fuel and electric drag bikes.
The bike was first tested in public on August 12 doing a burnout at Sturgis by Larry McBride who is well know in drag bike circles.
White Zombie Turns 10's in 1/4
Classic 30-year old electric Datsun conversion takes on Nissan's Godzilla GTR
PORTLAND, OR (July 30, 2010) Returing to the track after a few adjustments from the Wayland Invitational the weekend before, the White Zombie and crew's efforts were rewarded with a 1.5 second improvement turning a 10.4 second run against Nissan's Godzilla, a pocket rocket gasser GTR.
With Zilla motor controller creator, Otmar Ebenhoech's help, John figured out the series-parallel switching issues, that were a nuisance the previous weekend, were simply a wiring glitch in the reverse contactor circuit. So the Zilla was actually behaving as it should to protect itself when it was resetting after each run. John also changed the gear set from the 4:11s to the taller 3:70 ratio, something John was convinced would improve both the hole shot and the top end. With the Dow Kokam lithium battery cells so stiff, the series mode set in the Zilla seemed to pull like crazy and it was doubtful that parallel was even needed. Tim Brehm suited up and hit the track at 7:27 pm.
With the motors left in the series mode and with the controller quite happy about the situation, the car was now able to keep accelerating the full length of the track. The crew was all blown away with an eye-popping opening run of 11.111 @117.77 mph! What the heck?? Evidently, the stout lithium cells high voltage under load keeps the motor sections at full boil even in series mode - parallel no longer needed? An 11.1 was the quickest ET the Zombie had ever run - a full 3/10 quicker than the previous best of 11.4.
Without recharging and with no changes to controller settings, just six minutes later at 7:33 pm the crew ran a quicker 11.069 @ 117.70 mph....so close to a 10, but yet not one!
With no changes to controller settings and without a recharge, Tim went back out for run #3. On this 'almost 10' run with its 1.588 60 ft. time and a stunning 6.642 @ 103.09 1/8 mile, the car slowed to a the trap speed of 94.13 mph. Something bad had happened. The dash mounted 'Forward-Reverse' switch had shorted to the chassis and melted down filling the interior with smoke while shutting the car down...the Zombie coasted across the finish line and still ran a low 11!
After towing the White Zombie back to the pits and making repairs, the 4th run of the night came at 9:08 pm. With the juice cranked up more, the launch had a strong 1.62 60 ft., and the 1/8 mile was a quick 6.522 @ 106.33 mph. As the Zombie sped away the reader board lit up with a 121.09 mph 10.424 second run!
To get the record for a 10 second Street Legal EV the White Zombie needed another run within 1% of the 10.424 run and what better way to take the record then to race a gasser. The Taunter jumped into action to find the ultimate competitor to take on. He found it in a Skyline GTR that had been stoking the crowd - Japan's super car, affectionately called Godzilla by the automotive press and road tested with 0-60 at 3.3 seconds. This rare and exotic 485 hp twin turboed monster had already run an 11.4 at speeds approaching 120 mph on this evening! Matt, the owner and driver was a very good sport and agreed to take on the Zombie, knowing John's crew had just ripped off a 10.424 ET. With cameras rolling, Nissan's Godzilla lined up against a 38 year old Nissan with a green Godzilla across its small white hood. At 9:47 pm history was repeated as the Zombie launched hard, immediately pulled away from the potent super car, and ripped off 10.400 on the nose with a slightly lower trap speed of 117.21! But enough to get the record.
Hot Rod Electric Cars Return
to Portland International Raceway
July 23 to 24
White Zombie makes the first 6 second 1/8 mile run for a Street Legal EV
PORTLAND, OR (July 25, 2010) John 'Plasma Boy'
Wayland, of Plasma Boy Racing, Inc., and NEDRA (National Electric
Drag Racing Association), raced at Portland International Raceway with the White Zombie and several other EVs including NEDRA President, Mike Willmon's Crazy Horse Pinto, Teslas, electric Karmen Ghia, VW Bug, Fiero and an electric dragster. Plus many EVs on display.
See photos of the event!
Photos from Steven S. Lough, Seattle EV Assoc. Prez
After a bust for Friday, then a miracle one-day Siamese 9" inch motor transplant by motor guru Jim Husted, the White Zombie ran an 11.7 with the batteries and controller turned down - took out a low 12 second V8 55 Chevy in front of the crowd! White Zombie, with Tim Brehm at the wheel, also broke into the 6's in the 1/8 mile. The car is an absolute animal and has 10s written all over it for the 1/4 mile! The new Dow Kokam lithiums have tremendous power and capacity.
For more information on John Wayland and Plasma
Boy Racing, Inc., please visit www.plasmaboyracing.com
NEDRA NEWS (January 14, 2010) - The NEDRA
Board of Directors has unanamously approved Electric
Junior Dragster classes. This will enable kids to also set
NEDRA World Records. This has been in the works for seven long
years after Roderick Wilde proposed it in 2003. This was after
the NHRA had approved the safety regulations that Technical
Director Bill Dube wrote. At the time, although electric juniors
could run down the track, they were not allowed to race head
to head with their gas counterparts. Since the NHRA recently
reversed this decision, due to the tireles efforts of Brent
and Kent Singleton lobbying the NHRA, it is now prime time for
this class structure to take place. Classes are based on age
groups just as the gas NHRA ones. In addition we also divded
them by voltage divisions just like NEDRA does. All the NHRA
safety regulations apply. The new class structure is on the
Jr Dragster Page.
Recent
Event
KillaCycle and ElectroCat
set new NEDRA Records
BOULDER, CO (Sept 28, 2009) - Both the KillaCycle and the ElectroCat
managed to set new NEDRA records at Bandimere Speedway. The KillaCycle,
ridden by Scotty Pollacheck managed to bump up the record up in
the 1/4 mile to 7.864 @ 169 MPH. Eva Hakansson on her ElectroCat,
100% street-legal in both the USA and Sweden, set the 1/8 mile
NEDRA record for a 48 volt street-legal motorcycle; 13.249 @ 52.97
MPH. Bandimere is a great track to set records because of the
optimal track conditions and there is 20 percent less air to push
through because of the altitude. Enjoy the awesome videos.
HAGERSTOWN, MD (Aug 30, 2009) - The 9th
Annual Power of DC held in Hagerstown Maryland August
28-30 was a complete success with 17 vehicles racing, two NEDRA
Records broken and two more inductees into the NEDRA 100 mph Club.
Below is a video of Don Auker's electric Tesla vs
Shawn Lawless' (OBS-Orange Blossom Special) electric junior dragster
driven by Chip Gribben.
Production EVs
1) 12.672 (103.93 mph) Dave Bolling - 2009 red Tesla Sport
2) 12.975 (103.42 mph) Don Auker - 2008 blue Tesla
3) 13.297 (99.36 mph) Tom Jamison - 2009 prismatic blue Tesla
4) 16.008 (87.76 mph) Ken Barbour - 2009 Mini-E
5) 20.117 (62.57 mph) Bryan Murtha - Ranger EV
6) 20.856 (63.73 mph) Bryan Murtha - RAV-4 EV
NEDRA RECORD
Unofficially, the James Madison University Norton Electra is the
SMC/H record holder at 16.448 (81.62 mph) and Dave Cover in the
SC/B class.
BEST OF SHOW
1) Jeff Disinger - Awesome airbrushed drag bike, "Predator"
2) Alan Arrinson - Really cool and detailed teal green VW Truck
3) James Madison University - 1950's era beautifully restored
"Norton Electra"
Sponsors included:
KTA Services
EV Parts
Manzanita Micro
EV Consulting
Hot Juice Electric
Hi-Torque Electric
Hagerstown Convention and Visitor's Bureau
Valley Mall
Florida Electric Auto Association
Electric Vehicle Association of Washington DC
Younger Toyota
Comfort Suite
The Tractor Store
Westwall Murray
Visit the Power of DC Website for all the info and
feel free to contact Chip Gribben at pr@nedra.com
or (301) 490-0657.
Our 2008 recipient goes to Mike
Willmon. Mike is the owner of the Crazy Horse Pinto and is
currently the President of NEDRA.
The Rannberg Cup honors NEDRA
members who have made a significant contribution to the sport
of electric drag racing. Ed Rannberg
was an EV racing pioneer who is the inspiration for the creation
of NEDRA.
NEDRA NEWS (December 19, 2011) The National Electric Drag Racing Association is pleased to announce that the 
