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NEDRA News from 2012

First Electric Vehicle to win an NHRA Championship!

Megan's Junior dragster

NEDRA NEWS - SASKATCHEWA, CA (December 27, 2012) Megan Madarash raced her electric jr dragster into the record books as the first electric vehicle to win an NHRA Championship. She won the championship in her class in Saskatoon, Saskatchewa, Canada.

Megan's adventure into electric Jr racing began in 2009 when her family went to Saskatoon to watch the races. A jr racer asked Megan if she wanted to sit in her jr dragster which set the gears turning for her father Mark to buy a used jr on E-Bay. They painted it purple and raced it with a gas engine that first year. After they watched the Rocket episode on American Chopper they decided to give electric a try. The timing was perfect since the NHRA had recently allowed the electrics to race against the gas Jrs and with inspiration from NEDRA they were able to race in 2011 with lead batteries and made it to the second round twice and the third round once. They won the best engineered Jr at the SIR Banquet that year. For 2012, Mark built A123 lithium pouch cells and Megan won four races including the Big Buck Shoot Out and finished off the year with a 2012 Championship in the Junior Thunder Class. Megan's best run so far was 10.19 and the fastest speed was 66 mph. Mark is building Megan a new car for the 2013 race season.

Mark and Megan would like to thank their sponsors including Blackjacksautosales.com, Wynyard Napa, Wynyard Technologies, Wynyard A&W, Wynyard Esso, Wynyard Co-op, Saskbatteries.com and manzanitmicro.com

Click the photos to for a larger image. Congrats to Megan and Mark!

Megan's NHRA Trophy



Frankenstein Jolts to Life for First Series of Test Runs

Frankenstein

NEDRA NEWS - PHOENIX, AZ (December 27, 2012) Frankenstein jolted to life for it first series of 200 volt test runs at Speedworld in Phoenix AZ. The electron powered Chevette monster is driven by "Hella" Stella Kostolna and crewed by the "Electric Trippers." Frankenstein features a custom built GE motor by Dennis Berube, 400 volt battery pack by Derek Barger and a 3000 amp Evnetics Soliton Shiva monster controller. This was one of the test/tune runs in Phoenix as the crew begin to get the Frankenstein Chevette rolling. As any mad scientist would expect building a monster EV from scratch there were some initial quirks, particularly with the drive gear ratio, which is hardly uncommon but Stella was still able to unleash Frankenstein to set a little NEDRA record in her first two runs at 200 volts in the XS/C division.

Special thanks to Kerry Hemenway for all of his hard work helping build this wonderful machine at Hemenway Body Shop in Park Rapids, and to Rachel Morgan for introducing Stella to Kerry. Soon the Electric Tripper crew hopes to set the XS/A3 record.


In Memory of Don Crabtree "Father Time"

FathertimeNEDRA NEWS (December 15, 2012) NEDRA has lost one of it's pioneers. Don was an inspiration for us all. In 2008, he stepped up to the plate to take the reigns as NEDRA President when the organization was going through some rough times and pulled us through with his grace and wisdom. He was instrumental in helping to form our rules and classes.

But most of all, he loved to build fast electric vehicles of all kinds. Don was an early pioneer in electric drag boat racing. He's also famous for his electric drag bike, "Frakendragon," pictured above. And his most recent project, the green narrowed hot rod that he's been working on the past few years which he brought to the Emerald Joules Event at Pacific Raceway this past August.

Don's presence will surely be missed. Our thoughts are with his son, Tom True and family at this time.



Big Foot goes "Electric"

bigfootNEDRA NEWS - PACIFIC, MO (November 16, 2012) Bob Chandler's latest Big Foot #20 creation is not unlike a radio controlled monster truck you would find at the hobby store. Except this truck is much larger and features the ingenuity of master motor builder, Dennis "KilloWatt" Berube, who built the eletric motor for the newest Big Foot Monster Truck. The motor produces 800 ft/lbs of torque!

The electric components use for the electric Big Foot include a 2K Zilla controller painted Ford Blue in the picture above, originally designed by Otmar Ebenhoech and an off-board PFC-20 Charger designed and built by Rich Rudman of Manzanita Micro.

The truck is powered by 360 volts of Odyssey batteries which are blanced charged by Odyssey chargers. The lead batteries also help with the weight needed to smash a row of cars. Despite the huge size of the truck and the battery pack, it charges off the same 120 volt outlet you would charge your radio controlled monster truck. This is because of easy access to 120 volt outlets at arenas the truck will be performing at. See the Big Foot website for more information. And check out the cool video of the truck's first test run.



Electrocutioner Street Bike Breaks 150 in the 1/4 mile

ElectrocutionerNEDRA NEWS - NEW YORK (October 27, 2012) Jeff Disinger and crew Ed Tucker took advantage of one of the last days of racing this season to test out his Executioner street bike. With a fresh coat of paint, 7.5 GE motor and a set of lithium batteries he took the 296 volt bike to a record run of 10.8 seconds at 150.53 mph.

Over the winter break Jeff will be getting the gearing sorted out and with other improvements hopes to get the street bike close to 200 mph. Now that's freaking awesome.




Delta Secondary School District Drag Truck Makes it into the 14's

Delta Secondary School Drag Race Truck

NEDRA NEWS - BRITISH COLUMBIA (September 28, 2012) Friday was the last BCSSMA (high school) race day for the 2012 season at Mission Race way. The Delta Secondary School team attended and set a new Canadian class record! With DSS Automotive student Chris McCluskie behind the wheel, the DSS electric drag truck, still Canada's 1st and ONLY official record holder for a full size 100% electric drag racing vehicle, was propelled to a speed of 88.79 mph in 14.633 seconds!!! And, this is with a 1/2 second reaction time, when the light said GO!


Silver Bullit Breaks into the 1/8 mile 5's!!

SIlver Bullitt

NEDRA NEWS - DENMARK (September 15, 2012) Great News II: True Cousins finally nailed it and ran a 5.972 at the very last run of the entire season. Before this they had all sorts of bad starts, wheelies dragging to the side, failing timing equipment, but managed a 6,008 sec and needing a back-up time which came at last to secure a new DMC/E record og 5.972 sec (1,433 60") and a step ud to the ET 5 sec. club!

See the video!



Silver Bullit Breaks 1/8 mile Record

Great News II: We finally nailed it and ran a 5.972 at the very last run of the entire season. Before this we had all sorts of bad starts, wheelies dragging us to the side, failing timing equipment, but managed a 6,008 sec and needing a back-up time which came at last to secure a new DMC/E record og 5.972 sec (1.433 60") and a step ud to the ET 5 sec. club! We will bring up videos and pictures asap!

NEDRA NEWS - DENMARK (September 4, 2012) The Silver Bullit built and raced by True Cousins out of Denmark at Mosten Raceday just broke a new DMC/E record (144 volt) 1/8-mile, at 6.135 and 6.049 seconds at 114 mph and a became a new entry into the 100 mph Club. 5 seconds is just around the corner. True Cousins wishes to thank Glenn and Motornissen for everything!

Read the full story here.



KillaJoule Breaks 200 mph!

NEDRA NEWS - BONNEVILLE, UT (August 28, 2012) On the Bonneville Salt Flats today, Eva Hakansson just ran 213 mph on a backup run for a world record! The official record is an average of both of today's runs and the previous run of 169 mph.

Here's a report from Eva.

Track was smooth but really slippery this morning and I couldn't get KillaJoule up to more than 169 mph. This was still a new record, so we got a return run. At that point, the track had dried up and traction was great. Since I did my qualifying run on the short track (starting at mile 3 with a 2 mile run-up), I had to make the return on the short track.

I run full throttle from start, and the bike just kept accelerating. The average over the flying mile was 213.190 mph. It was accelerating through the entire timed mile and the exit speed was probably close to 220 (my meter showed 201 mph entering and 211 exiting, but that is obviously not correct, it typically is correct so it must have been front wheel slip or the heat making the electronic speedo get out of calibration).

We are making a new attempt tomorrow, this time starting from zero to get a 4.5 mile run-up. If the planets line up and luck is with us, we have a good chance for a record of over 200 mph.

Eva & Bill with our great team Mike, Kent, Alicia, Tim, Debbie and Lena.

Contributing to this article and the photo of the Timeslip and metals is courtesy of Tom Eckert.

Killajoule Medals



Emeral City Joules EVent

Johnson vs rue

Stephen Johnsen's Fiero vs Jon Rue's Del Sol Friday night
Click photos below for larger images

EVENT REPORT by Stephen Johnsen (August 24, 2012) What a great time we had at the Emerald City Joules EVent at Pacific Raceways! We had a number of cars show up despite the whole thing being so last minute.

E-Stang RaacingRich Rudman broke into the 15s with E-Stang and blew away a big Chevelle too! As he mentioned Rich's launches were much better than they have been in the past due in part to the awesome wheels and tires from Wayland! Still, I even though I only got my Fiero into the 16s I was pleased to soundly beat Rich off the line each time we raced. With only 17 tired old Hawkers and my dual 8" motor being stuck in series my launch was phenomenal and then the voltage sagged and it was thumb twiddling time past the 1/8 mile or so. Oh, well really fun.

Also one of the other big highlights of the night was when I let my friend Ron drive my Fiero and race against Jay Donnaway's gorgeous Karmann Ghia conversion! It was the closest race I've ever seen, I don't remember the exact times but Clarice should have them recorded! Even the announcers in the tower said "Boy that one was just about too close to call!" Jay thought he'd won but my Fiero was just barely a hair faster. It was almost like the Tortoise and the Hare though with my Fiero launching like it was out of a slingshot and speeding away from Jay but then Jay accelerating more as the seconds ticked by until he almost got us by the end.

Father Time Hot Rod PitsDon "Father Time" Crabtree had installed a new grill on his lightweight dual 11" green hotrod and it looked so cool!! Unforunately just after passing tech, Don had some contactor issues and wound up not racing despite our best efforts to try and fix it.

There were a number of spectators who drove their EVs to the track and the majority of all EVs that attended used the Range Trailer to rapid charge in minutes! It was so awesome and allowed us to do run after run with pretty full batteries. All in all, the ~370 volt pack in the range trailer dished out 66AH or 24kWh charging everyone.

Emerald JoulesAlso Jeffri Smith actually raced his Zenn NEV which improved its time by 12 full seconds with the Manzanita Micro Lithium upgrade compared to when he had raced it with Pba!




Great Day of Shake Down Runs for KillaJoule and a New Record!

KIllajoule Shakedown Run

Dennis Manning, organizer of the BUB Speed Trials, honored us with a visit while waiting at the starting line.

EVENT REPORT by Eva Hakansson (Aug 25, 2012) We had a great first day of racing. Started with a shake-down run at 159 mph.

Since our current AMA/FIM record was 138 mph, this qualified for a new record. Bumped it up a bit on the back-up run to 175 mph. Had an exit speed of about 180 mph, and that's where it ran out of gearing (permanent magnet motors have a top RPM when it starts to loose torque). We bumped up the gearing about 10 % for tomorrow, and it should now do 200 mph (we have 10 possible combinations of gearing with us ;-)

Bike is running fabulously. All we need now is a bit of luck that nothing breaks. We will give a new try tomorrow and hoping to get even a bit closer to that 200 mph magic limit.

Eva & Bill with our wonderful crew Mike, Alicia, Kent & Lena, and Debbie and Tim Eckert who are here cheering for us.



Don Garlits and Lawless Industries Team up to Build Swamp Rat 37

NEDRA NEWS - OCALA, FL (August 16, 2012) The Lawless EV Racing Team is pleased to announce the Birth of Swamp Rat 37. This is an all electric, full sized dragster being built at Lawless Industries that will be driven by the one and only Legendary "Big Daddy" Don Garlits.

The car features a Brad Hadman 300 MPH + rated chassis, Weld wheels, Mark Williams rear, B & J transmission, GE series motors, Manzanita/Zilla motor controllers, High Tech Systems battery pack, and a few extra "go fast" goodies.

It will make it's public debut at a National Full Throttle NHRA event in the very near future and will continue on the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Circuit throughout remainder of the year. Upon completion of the tour the car will take up residence at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, FL. Details to be announced.

"Big Daddy" was the first to take a car to 200 mph in the 1/4 mile and now wants to go 200 on electric power. Initial goals for the car are 6 second 1/4 mile passes at 200 + MPH.

This idea was the brainchild of Don Garlits and Mike Gerry. It was brought to life by our own Jeff Disinger. It would not be possible without the support of the following sponsors:

Dynamic Machine
Brad Hadman Race Cars
Crescent Electric
Don Garlits Museum of Racing
High Tech Systems
Manzanita Micro
Mark Williams
B&J Transmissions

and most certainly not without the tireless efforts of Mike Gerry!

Thanks to all of these folks we may be close to seeing something very special!



Lawless Drag Bike Featured in Machine Design

Machine Design Rocket BikeNEDRA NEWS (August 10, 2012) Machine Design is the "Rolling Stone" for engineers and nothing beats making it onto the cover then to be featured on this well respected magazine.

Back in May, Shawn Lawless and Larry "Spiderman" McBride took the Lawless drag bike to over 200 mph in the quarter making it the quickest electric vehicle in history. This was quite an engineering feat which the editors at Machine Design has recognized.

Check it out at http://digital-edition.machinedesign.com/




New Record for KillaJoule!

NEDRA NEWS - BONNEVILLE, UT (July 26, 2012) It's not too often you see a salt flat racer streaking down the pavement of the 1/4 mle but the husband and wife team of Bill Dube and Eva Hakansson are veterans of the dragstrip winning several records with their drag bike, KillaCycle. So they used the opportunity to run some tests of KillaJoule at Bandimere and made a new NEDRA Record in the Concept Vehicle Class in the process. Here's a play by play from Eva.

"We test ran KillaJoule at our beautiful home track Bandimere Speedway today. Bandimere is a 1/4 mile dragstrip and KillaJoule has of course no business there, but it is our best place for testing. For $30 we get as many runs we want at the "Take it to the Track night". These Wednesday nights are open for all vehicles and sponsored by Colorado State Patrol to keep the racing off the streets.

We managed to get all the settings correct in the highly sophisticated Rinehart motor controllers this time. KillaJoule ran great and did 16.518 s @ 104.41 mph and 16.115 s @ 100.85 mph. These times would not impress anybody at the dragstrip, but it is decent for a vehicle geared for 240 mph and never meant for the dragstrip. It is also a new world record in the NEDRA Concept Vehicle class.

KillaJoule Timeslips

Records are always fun, but more important is that 100 mph in the 1/4 mile means an average acceleration of 0.3 g. Why is 0.3 g so important, you may ask. Well, the coefficient of friction on the salt in Bonneville is at best 0.3. It is therefore no point in turning it up anymore, it won't accelerate any faster on the salt. More torque will only result in wheel spin and tire damage.

We also took the opportunity to test and film the brake chute. Here is a pretty cool video of the "low speed" chute (low speed means below 250 mph). I love the look when the chute blooms like a flower. Unfortunately YouTube turned our HD video into typical YouTube low resolution... Anyway, enjoy!"



Black Pearl Rises!

Black Pearl

NEDRA NEWS - PALM BEACH, FL (July 16, 2012) Racing report by Lowell Simmons

Finally after months of rainouts, motor carnage, and other mechanical woes we had a great night at the track. A little more background first then to the race. Again after thinking about Shawn's offer of the LemonJuice motors I started thinking. I have 2 brand new 11's, a transwarp and a second 11 slated for the Cobra project. I really have no data on how many RPM's etc so gearing etc for the Cobra was a big question, so why not put the 11"s in BP to get a baseline of their performance while sill having many hours of work on the Cobra, so that is what we did. I was able to fab up the arrangement fairly easily and this also allowed me to utilize the one piece 92"- 4" aluminum driveshaft I have. I finished up the install a couple weeks ago but have been meticulously working on brush seating running first simply on 12 volts then finally zilla power. more

Black Pearl Timeslip




Larry "Spiderman" McBride breaks the 6's and 200 mph in one run!

Rocket Burnout

NEDRA NEWS - RICHMOND, VA (May 4, 2012) Electric vehicle history was made today at Virginia Motorsports Park when the Lawless Orange County Chopper Rocket electric drag bike, piloted by Larry "Spiderman" McBride, pulled off a world record drag race time and became the first electric vehicle to break the 6 second quarter mile and go over 200 mph!

This makes the Rocket the first electric vehicle to be admitted into the NEDRA 200 mph Club!

Rocket passed the 1/4 mile from a standing start in 6.94 seconds with a trap speed of 201.37 mph!


That run was backed up by Larry's second run of the day which was a 7.00 @ 195 mph.

Larry's first trip down the track was a warm up run of 7.16 @ 188.36 mph. See the video below for a cool burnout and the 188 mph run.

The day was not without some drama. The Lawless team, including Larry's brother Steve McBride of Cycle Specialties, not only had to deal with an 8 mph headwind but after the 195 mph run, some chunks were discovered in the rear tire. As the tire was being changed a thread stripped in the aluminum wheel further delaying the repair as the track was beginning to bake under the midday sun making a record run less obtainable. Fortunately a passing cloud obscured enough sunlight to cool the track down to reasonable levels and the team was able to repair the wheel and make it's record 6.94 second, 201 mph run on a new tire!

The record run was a debut for the bike's new battery pack built by Derek Barger of High Tech Systems. The 250 pound, 355 volt lithium battery pack has a capacity of 14.2 kWh packing in 1340 hp!

The bike also features a 13-inch GE motor built by NEDRA Record Holder Dennis Berube and a 4000 amp Zilla speed controller custom designed and built by Otmar Ebenhoech.

The proof is in the timeslips!

Larry McBride Timeslip



Bookman's Spring Thaw April 15 a success . . . despite the rain!

Bookmans racersNEDRA NEWS - TUCSON, AZ (April 18, 2012) EV Drag racers from across the country converged at Southwestern International Raceway for the Bookman's Spring Thaw April 15. Although the rain cancelled our April 14 race date we were able to race the next day with many successful runs. Featured legendary racers included White Zombie, DC Plasma, Smokescreen, KillaCycle, E-FLux, Lemon Juice, Tron, AGNuS, Predator, Black Pearl and more!

Photos
Check out photos at:
http://ow.ly/amsNQ

http://gallery.me.com/stevenslough#100449

Videos
White Zombie racing a Camaro
http://youtu.be/1UgrCb_KyjE

Predator versus KillaCycle
http://youtu.be/VFeDctUSORg

Predator's 7.84 run
http://youtu.be/9r7iffQbNbg

Predator's 7.90 run
http://youtu.be/n8483ymRa40

Race Results

Race Results

Bookmans TShirt



DC Plasma Breaks into the 9s and Black Pearl makes History at NEDRA Florida Nationals

NEDRA NEWS - BRADENTON, FL (February 25, 2012) It was a historic two days of racing at Bradenton Motorsports Park February 23 and 24 when NEDRA's quickest racers came together to push the limits of electric drag racing at the NEDRA Florida Nationals.

It was just a month earlier at Bradenton, that Lemon Juice, Shawn Lawless' electric S-10, which he calls the "S-11" made a historic run of 9.80 at 132 mph with a 333 volt Flight Power pack, dual 2K Zillas and four GE motors! This time Shawn arrived at the track from Ohio with a 370 volt pack ready to drop further down into the 9's. Just before sundown, John Metric arrived at the track from Texas with DC Plasma, his dual-9" inch motor, dual 2K Zilla, 360 volt 1984 Fiero with an upgraded pack ready to break into the 9's.

Back in the pits, the high school teams were getting ready for their runs. Black Pearl, Miramar High School's dual 9-inch motor Porsche 944 and the Central Shenandoah's Porsche 911 were getting prepped by their students led by Lowell Simmons from Miramar and Brian Humphries from Central Shenandoah. Audrey and partner Steve Clunn were ready to take a fun trip down the track with their electric Morris Mini.

Also in the pits was Zilla controller designer Otmar Ebenhoech who was there to see for himself how his Zillas could handle the high voltages and quick time. Jeff and George from Eventics, the Zilla's competitor were also there to see the action.

This set the scene for an exciting night of racing and some drama. Back in the pits and the track the evening moisture was settling over everything. The chargers weren't able to feed more then 9 amps to DC Plasma and Lemon Juices battery packs and the car's windows continually needed to be dried off. Track workers were interrupting the races to dry the track off with gas burners. A gas Mustang had spun out and lost a rear wheel right in front of the stands.

Lowell Simmons was the first EV down the track with a 12.07 second warm-up run in the Miramar Porsche 944 easily beating one of the many diesel trucks who were also racing their own event.

Then came the dual between DC Plasma and Lemon Juice. DC Plasma quickly launched off the line with a 60 foot time of 1.55 and led the race with an ET of 9.89 at 134 mph which was a best time for DC Plasma. The wet track caused Lemon Juice to slip just a bit but Shawn was able to correct and came up with an ET of 10.80 at 120 mph.

The racing continued the next day. Lemon Juice wasn't able to make it but DC Plasma was there to back up the run for the NEDRA record but unfortunately blew a reversing contactor and one of the controllers while backing out of the pits which ended the day for DC Plasma. He was still able to leave the track with a NEDRA MC/A2 record of 10.677 at 124.77 mph.

Lowell Simmons, racing Black Pearl was able to take the NEDRA HS/A record with a time of 11.319 at 118.34 mph beating their previous record of 11.61.



BREAKING NEWS!! NEDRA Becomes an NHRA Alternative Sanctioning Organization (ASO)

NEDRA NEWS - SEATTLE, WA (January 30, 2012) The National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA), a non-profit Washington based corporation and a Specialized Chapter of the Electric Auto Association (EAA), is proud to announce we have become an NHRA Alternative Sanctioning Organization (ASO).

NEDRA has joined the ranks of other prestigious independent racing organizations such as the All Harley Drag Racing Association (AHDRA) and the American Drag Racing League (ADRL). Of note is that only three of the six NHRA ASOs are automobile drag racing associations, the other five are for motorcycles. To become an ASO, NEDRA's Class and Safety Rules were reviewed and approved by the NHRA. According to Josh Peterson, the NHRA Racing Administration Vice President, the NHRA ASO program is designed to enable independent sanctioning organizations to conduct drag racing programs not offered by the NHRA at NHRA Member Tracks.

NEDRA was formed in 1997 as an organization to promote safe EV drag racing and education as well as to keep records for electric drag racing. In 1999, then NEDRA President, John Wayland had Vice President Roderick Wilde and Tech Director Bill Dube work with the NHRA to include electric vehicles in NHRA drag racing. EVs were accepted and included in the 1999 NHRA rule book and were later adopted into the F.I.A. drag racing rule book. This was a milestone event for NEDRA as the NHRA rules stated since 1953 that you must have an internal combustion engine in order to race on their tracks. Since it's beginning, over fifteen years ago, NEDRA has grown worldwide to include representatives in five other countries. NEDRA looks forward to a further constructive relationship with the NHRA.

The NHRA is the largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world with more than 40,000 licensed NHRA drag racers that compete at 130 NHRA member tracks around the USA and Canada. www.nhra.com.



Shawn Lawless and Lemon Juice Breaks into the 9's at 132 mph

Lemon Juice

NEDRA NEWS - BRADENTON, FL (January 14, 2012) From sunny Central Florida, we're thrilled to report that Shawn Lawles has broken into the 9's with Lemon Juice.

This is a truly historic moment for EVs since it's the first electric door slammer to break into the 9's in the US.

Lemon Juice Time SlipHere are his times for the day leading up to the historic run. More info as it becomes available.

Run 1: 12.30 @ 105 mph
Run 2: 10.79 @ 121 mph
Run 3: 10.43 @ 121 mph
Run 4: 9.95 @ 127 mph
Run 5: 9.80 @ 132 mph

A couple days ago Shawn predicted a door slammer would break into the 9s and he was right.

Here's a view inside Lemon Juice. Four 10 HP GE Motors sharing a single chain, direct drive. The juice to the motors is provided by two 2K amp high voltage Zilla controllers. The 9 second record run was powered by Flight Power 333 volt 3500 amp lithium battery pack. 9-inch Posi Rearend.

Lemon Juice motor bay