NEDRA NEWS - Summerville SC, (November 23, 2014) Ed & Tammy Fargo and their “Current Attraction” Nissan LEAF have hit the Bracket racing circuit and in their first two events are showing the local ICE racers the advantages of electric racing.

Take a used 2012 Nissan Leaf, change the tires and rims, add a decal or two and go racing!
It may be slower than the usual EV drag racing vehicle, but it is a daily driver and in the first two events the team made it to the quarter and semifinals.

From the team:
Back to foot brake racing.
Since we had not foot brake raced in over a decade we had a simple goal in our first big bracket race, win a round. This was a $2400 race so some of the state’s heavy hitters were here. The no box category had 34 cars at one of the best IHRA tracks in SC. Most of the cars were purpose built race cars with a few street driven vehicles like ours. We were the only electric.
The track was familiar with NEDRA and the only question they had was the designation on the car. They liked the idea of a production class.

Current Attraction performed as we had hoped. All the runs were very consistent with a total spread of only .03 seconds all day on our dial in. Ed’s reaction times were all good as the car launched very consistently, much better than most of our earlier ICE bracket cars.

We reached our goal in the first round by beating a Mustang. Then we won the second round, the third, the fourth and making through a few more to the Semifinals before losing by .014 of a second on the total package.
It was an outstanding day. The staging track official remembered us for our Blower car days and had picked us to win the event.

Maybe next time.

NEDRA NEWS - Kent, WA (September 5, 2014) NEDRA will be hosting it's Silent Thunder event at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington. There will be over 40 vehicles participating in both drag racing and a road course. Stay tuned for more news from the event. The Northwest has always been a hotbed of EV racing activity and this should be a winner.

NEDRA NEWS - Bradenton, FL (August 20, 2014) NEDRA attended the Test-n-Tune Event put on by Dyno Dom's Sikeston Raceway. Dyno Dom himself was there to welcome NEDRA and came around to greet every driver. He was a very gracious host and asked us to come back again next year.

13 racers from all over the country, including Florida, Quebec, Minnesota, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, New York, Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana. In addition, about 20 spectators that caravan'd down from the just concluded EVCCON 2014 in Cape Girardeau MO. The largest NEDRA event this year so far which is why it's called the "1/8th Mile Nationals". It is nicely centrally located for those folks wanting to travel from the center of the states.

The track was amazing, they just concluded an event the night before, there was no rain and they freshly sprayed the track down in the morning. So the pavement was sticky left to right the entire 1/8th mile. As Bob Salem found out when he twisted his right axle off on his TVR on perhaps his first run of the day. Entry prices were low and food and drinks available for a pittance.

We were amazed at the staying power of the range packs as several guys, like Brad Gregory, Michel Bertrand, Jason Horak, Glenn Brown made pass after pass after pass. The award for the "most passes" goes to Jason Horak with at least 10 passes.

Fastest Non-drag car pass was by Glenn Brown out of Iowa City Iowa in his Blue 67 Cobra. A great technical build. Most technical way to make power was a tri-powered AC35 Titanium Porsche owned by Michel Bertrand. New world records will be applied for by Brian Noto in his 1957 Porsche Speedster, George Grant in his 76 Kawasaki drag bike, Terry Hatfield in his custom Golf Cart-modeled Dragster. Quickest dragster run of the day went to Terry Hatfield at 6.6019 @ 98.39mph Fastest/Quickest/Only Motorcycle George Grant at 7.2 @ 82mph

Brian Noto bettered his time from last year by nearly 0.5 seconds, I had to go double check his battery voltage, he ran the second run at about 30% SOC. Wow. He claimed the improvement was due to alignment changes on the chassis.

They were hosting a motorcycle points event during there as well and there was a long time NEDRA member there amongst the motorcycles. It was George Grant III from Plymouth Minnesota. He drove 700 miles and was the biggest surprise of the event. He was driving a 4 motor drag bike that looked a lot like he was emulating TRON but with his own twist on the design including a gun barrel jack shaft. He may have set a new world record there with two runs at 7.2 second in the 72volt dragbike class.

Here are some details and typical speeds for some of the 72 passes recorded at the Sikeston Event. Thanks to all our competitors.

NEDRA NEWS - Bradenton, FL (June 7, 2014) "Big Daddy" Don Garlits attempted to break 200 mph over the weekend but just fell short of that goal following a brush spring failure.

Here is a first hand account from Shawn Lawless about the weekend's amazing attempt at Bradenton Motorsports Park. This incredible account shows just what's involved to go after 200 mph on electrons. Shawn's company, Lawless Industries, is overseeing the electronic drive components of Don Garlit's Swamp Rat 37 dragster. Click on the photos for larger images.

Shawn Lawless: First some things we learned from the previous test on April 30.

The tranny reverser was no match for the motor torque. Don removed it entirely for this test. The low ratio was changed form 1.40:1 to 1.45:1

The rear end pinion was twisted from the massive torque. Don replaced the 3.50:1 ratio 3rd member with a much stronger Pro Gear 3.20:1 ratio unit.

The motors were pristine though the 630 chains were stressed after 8 launches. We upgraded the chains to the same 630 EK drag bike chain that we use on Rocket and replace the synthetic oil in the chain box with a special
coating fluid Don uses in his rears.

Everything else on the Lawless side was the same as the first test.

Run one, 8.243 @ 160 mph. 75% power

Smoothest run to date. Getting rid of the reverser, Don's custom pro gear and setup, and the EK chain all contributed to a reduction in driveline slop. Post run inspection showed everything 100%.

Run two, 7.52 @ 173 mph:

Power was increased to just below max level battery current and to max motor voltage.

The motors are in a series wiring setup with each pair splitting the max motor voltage. The motors are good for 225 volts each but controller voltage is limited to 425 absolute max and 400 at full power. In an effort to get the most out of the motors at the top end the batteries were charged to their maximum of 420 volts. Previously we had only charged to 410. The idea was that some voltage would "burn off" during the massive burnout at the line. Unfortunately Don reported that when he went to burnout the car had no power and felt like it shut off completely. Don drove the car from the line back to the pit where we uncovered and inspected all electrical system components. All checked out good. A phone call to Otmar confirmed that we had indeed charged the batteries to far to a point where the Zillashad cut back the available motor power to almost zero to protect themselves.

That was good news and bad. We had no way in the pits to bleed off the excess voltage so we sent Don on a loop that went down the strip and back the return road. By mid track the voltage had dropped to allow for some real power and Don finished out the run hard. One the way back he added some massive burnouts on the return road to further bring the voltage down closer to 400 volts. We brought Don straight around to the burnout pit and he did another big burnout. At that point I saw some sparks under the car but that is nothing I haven't seen periodically on any of our other machines during abig burnout. We discussed the sparks quickly before Don staged but at that point there was no going back to the pits and delaying the run again. The people in the stands came to see the car run not us looking at it. I told Jeff Garvin who was crew chief to send Don down the track. Just before Don shifted I saw a few sparks from the car then it was all good to the finish. Don told me after the run that he stayed in low a bit longer than he had been until he felt acceleration starting to slow then shifted and the hard acceleration returned and stayed good through the 1/4 mile. The crew at the top end saw a bit of smoke from the car. Initial inspection at the top end revealed no fire so we towed the car back to the pits and stripped off the covers. All wiring looked good. All batteries looked good. All Zillas looked good. All motor brushes, coms and holders looked good till we found the source of the smoke and sparks. What was left of a melted motor brush spring was stuck in the vent cage of motor number 4.

Amazingly the brush was still in place! As everyone was waiting for answers we searched for a way to replace the brush spring and get back to the track but the tight design of wedging 6 motors into the chassis made it impossible to replace without removing the motor. On SW-37 this is a 4-5 hr process and it was a day killer on Sunday as there was no point in running the car on 5 motors or even on 6 motors minus every single brush. I broke the news to Don and he broke the news to his admiring fans in the pits, who to my surprise all applauded the effort! He is truly one loved racing legend!

I talked to Otmar post race and learned one more nuance of this sport. I had set the rev limiter to 8000 rpm to protect the motors during burnout. It turns out that by doing so I did more harm than good. Otmar informed me that when up against the rev limit the Zilla turns on and off at full power. So during a big time burnout at the rev limit the motors are subject to huge pulses of voltage and current several times a second, much more abuse than they ever see anywhere else. We know from experience that the 7.5 GE's can rev well past 10,000 rpm during burnouts without incident but I wanted to be conservative and set SW-37 at 8,000. The huge amount of power spikes heated the motors and brushes up to the point that the weakest spring couldn't take it and melted of and bounced around motor 4 com causing the sparks and smoke we saw. Interestingly, though all other motors and even the brushes and springs in number 4 were all in perfect shape except for the one that I now hold the remnants of!

I talked to Don this morning and have set a plan in place for the following:

1. Raising the rev limiter to 10,000 rpm.
   
   
2. Adding a third "burnout" position on the power switch which will limit voltage and current during burnouts while keeping the motors off of the rev
   limiter.
   
   
3. Building a battery load bank and using it to cycle and drain batteries instead of using the drive system to do it. Lithionics Battery in Clearwater, FL has joined the SW-37 team and donated all of the massive locomotive resistors needed to build the bank!
   
   
4. Adding 3 Zillas so that the motors can get max voltage of 225 without pushing the battery voltage over the 400 volt threshold.

The Lawless team will complete this work and get Big Daddy back in the car sometime in July, just before the 50th anniversary of his last 200 mph first!

NEDRA NEWS - Bradenton, FL (May 3, 2014) "Big Daddy" Don Garlits broke Dennis Berube's long stading NEDRA DR/A3 record which stood unchallenged since 2007. Dennis' record at the time was 7.953 seconds at 159.85 mph.

Don's official NEDRA record breaking run at Brandenton Motorsports Park May 1 was 7.526 seconds at 178.42 mph when Don and his crew were making test runs with the dragster.

The DR/A3 record is for dragsters with a nominal voltage of 408 volts which is a measured voltage between 382.9 volts and 448.8 volts. Dennis' voltage was 390 when he made his record in 2007 and Don's voltage was 409.

NEDRA records require at least 2 runs and the ETs must be within 1 percent of each other to take the best ET.

Don also made it into two NEDRA 100 MPH Clubs. The 150 mph 1/8 Mile Club and the 175 mph 1/4 Mile Club where he joins another infamous drag racer, drag bike racer Larry "Spiderman" McBride.

Don will be taking the dragster out again in June for a go at 200 mph. He was the first to take a dragster 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.

When Dennis found out his long standing record was broken by none other than "Big Daddy" Don Garlits he was thrilled. Check out the official time slips from Don's record run and the great video on Don's 184 mph run by Jeff Disinger.

Follow this link to hear the electrifying inverview with Don at 37:28.

http://www.wforadio.com/archive/2013/20140506-wforadio-nitro.mp3

NEDRA NEWS - Richmond, VA (May 2, 2014) Kristen Stacy is showing the guys how to put the "hammer down" at Richmond Motorsports Park with a new NEDRA DR record of 7.89 seconds at 161.87 mph on her second run of the night! Click the photo above for a larger picture of Hammerdown's burnout.

Kristen's warm up run was 8.81 seconds at 142 mph. Her back-up run was a respectable 7.940 seconds at 159.80 mph. The 7.89 record makes Kristen the quickest woman in an EV to hit the drag strip. Check out the video of Kristen's 159.80 run.

Hammerdown features the one and only Zilla Z4K in existence. Yes, that's right. A 4000 amp speed controller which was producing over 3000 Amps for these runs! Who knows what it could do a full power!

Hammerdown is an electric dragster built by Lawless Industries who also built Don Garlit's Swamp Rat 37. Hammerdown, when it was called Matrix, was featured in an episode of Top Gear in the 2013 season. With Kristen at the wheel and her top notch crew at Lawless Industries we can expect to see more records this racing season.

NEDRA NEWS - Bradenton, FL (April 30, 2014) "Big Daddy" Don Garlits took it to the pavement and blasted Swamp Rat 37 to a best test run of 184 mph Thursday at Bradenton Motorsports park in the "Quest for 200 MPH on Batteries."

The dragster arrived at the track with High Tech System's brand new uncycled lithium battery packs. So Don ran a couple warm up runs to get the electrons moving. The first was 10.05 seconds at 129 mph on 33 percent power. Next warm up run was 8.74 seconds at 150.95 at 50 percent power. They decided to crank it up the amps more but blew a couple 800 amps fuses. After dialing down the amps, Don ran a 7.526 second run at 178.42 mph with power at less than 90% then a last run of 7.258 seconds at 184.01 mph after no charge and hot lapping after an 1/8 mile burn out while trying to run opposite lane. The GE motors didn't even get warm. 200 mph is just around the corner.

Many NEDRA members who are part of the SW-37 crew and to witness the event were there. Helping to turn some wrenches was NEDRA Vice President Lowell Simmons, Jeff Disinger who was part of the team that inspired the idea of SW-37 helped in the pits, Tim Meehan, a former Lawless Team driver, Bob Salem was there with his NEDRA hat to support the crew and former NEDRA President Shawn Lawless whose company, Lawless Industries, designed SW-37s electric drive system and has been an integral part of the build from the beginning.

The dragster uses components built and designed by NEDRA members including Otmar Ebenhoech's Manzanita Micro Zilla 2K controllers that Swamp Rat 37 uses 3 of. The 1.5 megawatt battery pack was designed and built by NEDRA sponsor, Derek Barger of High Tech System. Derek has supplied many of NEDRA records setting racers with custom lithium battery packs over the years. And of course Rich Rudman whose company, Manzanita Micro has been a vital part of the project in supplying parts.

The idea for SW-37 was the brainchild of Don Garlits and Mike Gerry with Mike's excellent dragster building skills. 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
Lawless Industries
Mark Williams
B&J Transmissions

"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.

NEDRA NEWS - Ocala, FL (April 29, 2014) "Big Daddy" Don Garlits and the Swamp Rat 37 "Quest for 200 MPH on Batteries" EV Dragster will have a full systems test on April 30 in at Florida's Bradenton Motorsports Park. The test is open to the public for a nominal $10 facility fee.

The SR-37 team will converge today at "Don's Garage" at the world-famous "Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing" for the final installation of the battery pack and integration of the motors and Manzanita Micro "Zilla" Controllers. Garlits will be joined by battery engineer Derek Barger of HighTech Systems LLC who recently completed the incredible 1.5 megawatt 2014 SR-37 Lithium Polymer battery package. Shawn Lawless of Lawless Industries will be on hand to tune and tweak the 6-pack of GE motors furnished by Crescent Electrical Supply Company.

The Quest Dragster is designed and constructed to be the first battery-electric dragster to exceed 200 mph on a quarter-mile drag strip. The dragster will be powered by a 1500-kilowatt array of lithium polymer (LiPo) batteries producing an equivalent horsepower rating of over 2,000 horsepower.

The Quest for 200 MPH on Batteries dragster was built by Brad Hadman, created by Mike Gerry with art direction by Kenny Youngblood, car and logo graphics by Eric Reyes and print graphics by Tommy Naccarato.

Congratulations to all the NEDRA members who are a vital part of this project.

NEDRA NEWS - Palm Beach, FL (March 30, 2014) Mirmar High School Automotive Instructor and NEDRA racer, Lowell Simmons earned his IHRA License this past weekend at Palm Beach International Raceway doing the five required runs using the Lawless Industries Hammerdown dragster.

After racing the five runs for the license, he put the Hammerdown for a high-seven to get an electric dragster record. Unfortunately, the ET was another 8.37 second run, same as the previous one, with the same 1.15 second 60' time at 148.7 mph. But the season is still early and there will be more opportunities ahead.

NEDRA NEWS - Palm Beach, FL (March 30, 2014) Matt Graham's Nissan SX is no stranger to the drag strip. In 2006 the SX blasted through the traps at just over 100 mph! But with twins on the way and other commitments, the car was garaged. Matt later had the students at Miramar HS upgrade the car under the direction of Automotive Insruction Lowell Simmons with upgrades including a fresh 400 volt lithium battery pack and cleaning up the dual motor Warp 9s fed by two 2k Zilla speed controllers. Lowell took it for a test spin at Palm Beach International Raceway and blasted down the quarter at 11.7 seconds at 104 mph which is just as quick as a Tesla Model S!

Matt, Lowell and the kids at Miramar HS are to be congratulated on this awesome achievement.

NEDRA NEWS - Baytown, TX (March 15, 2014) Breaking the 8's has been a goal electric drag racers with street based electric cars also known as "door slammers" have been attempting to achieve for quite awhile. John Metric finally did it with his electric Miata, Assault and Battery Friday night at Royal Purple raceway with a 1/4 mile time of 8.913 seconds at 147.99 mph. It's also the first doorslammer to break 125 mph in the 1/8 mile!

Here is John Metric's on the scene account.

We went to Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown instead of HMP due to rain in Houston. The nearly 2 hour drive and showing up about 1.5 hours late paid off.
lately we have been running with both zillas maxed to 2000amps and motor volts at 210V.

This clips the zilla power limit back to about 1700amps near 200V. The only real adjustments we have been making is to the stance, four link pre-load and spring heights. It has made a huge difference. The car finally is getting the front end in the air and it is not twisting the chassis over on its right side anymore. It was leaving nice and straight on a test-n-tune night.

The warm up run was 9.364 at 143.16mph 1.47 60ft at 15psi.

Second run, only change was we dropped to 13psi, we left really strong but right about the 1/8th mile at 120mph both controllers tripped and I coasted down the track. But they came back after the race. It was like an overspeed protection, I will have to check the sensor. Not sure what happened. However, That run was 9.379 at 120mph
Third run only change we made was to drop to 11psi. The car raised up on its rear tires and felt really good.

60ft was 1.349
1/8th mile 5.730 126.26mph
1/4 mile 8.913 147.99mph.

So in summary, for a short day, nearly a rain out. Assault & Battery blasted past the 9.0 second barrier and posted a 8.913 147.99 mph.

First door car in the eights (ET Club), first door car over 125mph in the eighth(Roger Hedlund Club), and we will apply for eighth mile record 5.730 126.26mph.
Thanks to all the folks that make it possible.

NEDRA NEWS - Palm Beach (January 12, 2014) NEDRA will feature it's first event of the year in conjuction with the DragTimes Street Car Drags at Palm Beach International Raceway January 26, 2014. This event will feature the quickest street EVs such as the Tesla Model S to the Matrix Dragster which was recently featured on Top Gear. Local NEDRA Racer and NEDRA President Lowell Simmons will be racing the Miramar High School Porsche 944. NEDRA President John Metric will be coming from Texas to race his record breaking electric Miata, Assault and Battery.

The video shows the NEDRA Record DragTimes founder Brooks Weisblat, made in 2013 at the event with his Telsa Model S. He'll be racing the Tesla again to see if he can top his record.

The EVs that will be racing include:

1984 Porsche 944 Electric - Lowell Simmons
2013 Tesla Model S - Brooks Weisblat
Matrix Dragster - Shawn Lawless
Assault and Battery electric Miata - John Metric
1987 electric TVR 280 Electric - Robert Salem

WHERE:
Palm Beach International Raceway
17047 Bee Line Highway
Jupiter, FL 33478

Date: Sunday, January 26th, 2014
Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm

For more information contact: info@streetcardrags.com

NEDRA NEWS - New York (December 3, 2013) The CBS Evening News featured NEDRA and John Metric's Miata, Assault and Battery Tuesday night with Scott Pelly. The segment was about the future of electric racing. John gave a great interview. A video is worth 10,000 words so check it out.

NEDRA NEWS - New York (November 30, 2013) Check out The premiere edition, NewMotor 001! Featuring an interview with NEDRA Member, Jeff Disinger, EV drag racer and creative genius, with ten minutes of video. Also in this issue: interview with SAAB Public Relations Officer Mikael Östlund regarding their EV plans, and photos and an interview with Fiat 500e chief engineer Brett Glem. Internet access required to view videos. About NewMotor...NewMotor covers Alternative Fuel Vehicles (EVs, hybrids, Fuel Cell, etc...) and the people that make them go.

The issue is available from iTunes. Follow this link for more information and to download your copy today!

NEDRA NEWS - MICHIGAN (November 12, 2013) Tune in to Top Gear on the History Channel Tuesday, November 12, 2013 for a re-air of the last week's episode. See show hosts Adam, Rutledge, and Tanner take a spin in the Black Pearl - Miramar High School's electric Porsche 944, Lemon Juice - Shawn Lawless' electric S-10 and the Matrix dragster. Filmed at Milan Dragway in Michigan. This is a great episode! The NEDRA racers appear at the beginning so be sure to tune in early.

Show airings:

November 12, 2013 - 11:02PM-12:01AM ET
November 13, 2013 - 03:03AM-04:02AM ET

NEDRA NEWS - TEXAS (October 11, 2013) NEDRA President John Metric took his Miata, Assault and Battery to an all-time 1/4 mile record for a door slammer at Royal Purple Raceway with a best time of 9.12 at 145 mph!

John ran Assault and Battery with a newly installed 333 volt LiPo pack and two 2000 amp Zilla controllers feeding dual NetGain 9-inch motors. For the first run, John was conservative and set the battery amps to 900 on both speed controllers and sag voltage to 300V.

When he approached the line he accidently knocked the line lock switch off its mount so he had to do the burnout the old fashioned way. At fir,t the car spun the wheels off the line but caught traction a fraction of a second later. John kept pulling it straight and made it down the track. Just for kicks he pulled the parachute and turned a respectable time for his first run which was his best time so far with the car.

60ft 1.578
330' 4.108
660' 6.250 114.42mph
1320' 9.745 139.70mph

The new pack stayed strong and beat the Mustang by .01 seconds.

With a 9.5 run in his sights and the pack warmed up which should gain more HP, John deflated the tires a couple PSI to gain more traction. He told his crew he was planning to leave the Zillas set at 900 amps but John's son yells, "900amps, 900amps, I didn't come all this way to run 900amps." So dad, raised it to 1100amps. Unfortunately, the battery charger was having some programming issues so John was only running the charger at 1/3 power so he charged the lithium batteries the best he could before the second run.

To add some drama to the evening John's Miata danced off the line on it's second run. He had a good burnout, but the front tires went up in the air and the car pirouetted and took a hard right turn directly towards the truck in the other lane. When the wheels came back down the car jerked violently back to the left, but he was able to gain control.

Back in the pits John's crew lowered the tire pressure some more, fixed the line lock switch holder, decided to try to feather on the power with his foot versus just mashing it. Another hour goes by and they head up to the front again for the third launch. John figured he had two good runs left fot the night.

At the line John does a massive burnout and with the latest settings pulls a 9.1!

60ft 1.312
330' 3.729
660' 5.793 118.29mph
1320' 9.161 144.23mph

John deploys the chute for kicks and beat a black Mustang this time.

At this point John is contemplating the eights but decides not to get greedy with the settings and leaves everything where it is and try another run. With five minutes left before the track closes John makes his fastest past ever.

60' 1.315
330' 3.771
660' 5.802 120.88mph
1320' 9.122 145.16mph

John has a new NEDRA XS/A2 Record. He would like to thank his crew and fellow EV enthusiasts who came out including Nathan Metric, Adam Clark, Kevin Douglass and wife, Keith Howard and Wife (who both drove their EVs.

NEDRA NEWS - PORTLAND (September 30, 2013) Tune in to NOVA's new series "Making Stuff Faster" on October 16 to see John Wayland's White Zombie featured in a quarter length segment of the show. For a preview, check out the series trailer. The segment was filmed in June.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365080329/

NEDRA NEWS - NEVADA (September 9, 2013) Looking like a jet fighter, Don Garlit's Swamp Rat 37 is starting to take shape with Mike Gerry at the helm. The dragster will be on display at the upcoming SEMA show in Las Vegas at the Lincoln Electric booth. Shawn Lawless of Lawless Industries will continue to test the drive train at his shop in Ohio while the finishing touches to the body are completed at Mike's shop in Las Vegas. Rich Rudman of Manzanita Micro has been helping out with the Zilla controllers and charging. Derek Barger of High Tech Systems designed and built the battery pack with Jeff Disinger providing the inspiration to getting this project rolling on a Brad Hadman dragster chassis. Click the photo for a larger image

NEDRA NEWS - CANADA (August 25, 2013) Layton Krauss is the first electric racer to take home the big Wally! Layton won the big guy after leading the points in the Northwest NHRA Division which includes 7 races at 4 tracks. The overall points winner is invited to Seattle to the annual NHRA presentations. As of Sept 6, Light Switch Racing Junior Dragster is in first place.

NEDRA NEWS - WASHINGTON (August 24, 2013) NEDRA had it's second annual Emerald City Joules event at Pacific Raceways in Seattle, Washington. There was a great turnout with several EVs racing. Here are some of the racing results.

• Dave Denhart's 2008 Tesla Roadster - 13.503@99.67 mph
• Rich Rudman's Mustang conversion - 16.407@76.13 mph
• Eric Johanson's 2012 Nissan Leaf - 17.845@68.04 mph
• Steve Lough's Mitsubishi MIEV - 19.849@68.40 mph
  
  

Here is a video of Rich Rudman's racing his Mustang against Dave Denhart's Tesla Roadster. See more photos here.

NEDRA NEWS - MISSOURI (August 16, 2013) NEDRA's 1/8 mile Test and Tune at Dyno-Doms in Sikeston, Missouri was a great event. Here are the results. These are 1/8 mile runs.

• Fastest Non-Drag Car ET 9.369 Brian Noto - 1955 Porsche Speedster 9.369 at 73.75mph
• Runner Up Non-Drag Car 9.707 Michael Bertrand - 1988 Porsche 911
• Most Runs Michael Bertrand with 12 runs in his 1988 Porsche 911
• Most Runs Runner Up Jon Szubski with 11 runs 2006 HHR
• Honorable Mention - Jon Szubski got a rare holeshot victory in the 27th race getting by Charlie Rickman in the quicker Opel GT
• Furthest Trip - John Bishop -1959 Morris Minor from Albuquerque NM
• Best Overall - Michael Bertrand string of 11 very consistent runs between 9.7 and 9.9 seconds.
• Fastest Drag car Run of the Day - J. Metric 7.365 at 88mph
• Four new potential World Records for their class: Brian Noto, Kevin Smith, Michael Bertrand, Byron Izenbooz.
  
  

NEDRA NEWS - OHIO (July 13, 2013) Eight year-old Mark Dubiel Jr. won the Quaker City 8-9 year-old class in the Lawless sponsored Jr. "Bat Mobile." powered by 56 volts of Milwuakee power tool batteries! This, on only his second day of racing!

Mark wasted no time getting to it. Running in the 8-9 year old 11.90 class at Quaker City in a class of 10, Mark posted consistent runs of 12.42, 12.43, and 12.45, cutting a near perfect reaction time of .0017 on one of his runs. He won his first elimination round with a light of .0735. He also made a NEDRA record in the JR/CH class.

The "Battery Mobile" or "Batt Mobile" was built by Mark's dad and his grandfather with some help from Shawn Lawless. Mark's grandfather, a dragracer himself, helped procure a trailer and components for the car which was a retired Spitzer Jr dragster from a racer at Quaker Raceway.

The batteries are 28 volt Milwaukee power tool batteries wired together in parallel and in series to produce 56 volts. Mark's dad is an electrical contractor so the Milwaukee batteries were the perfect choice for the car. They can make several runs without a recharge. The car used only .02 volts per run!

Shawn Lawless provided a permanent magnet motor and technical advice for the project. The motor controller is Curtis from a 48 volt golf cart. Pretty simple in design but effective on the track!

NEDRA NEWS - ENGLAND (July 1, 2013) Lord Paul Drayson broke a long standing electric land speeed record at RAF Elvington in Yorkshire, England, smashing the previous record of 175 mph set by Battery Box General Electric in 1974. Lord Drayon drove the Lola B12/69 EV electric race car to a top speed of 204.2 mph at the racetrack over a course 1.86 miles.

The Lola was running on an A123 Systems battery pack designed and fabricated by NEDRA Members Bill Dube and
Eva Hakanson.

"We designed and fabricated the main (rear) pack. Then Eva and I taught the Drayson engineers how to fabricate battery packs. They then built a supplemental center pack for extra added capacity they needed for the land speed record," said Bill Dube soon after the record run.

The battery pack Bill and Eva helped build for the Lola B12 uses a 30-kWh lithium-ion battery from individual A123 cells to deliver 850 hp with a single-ratio transmission. The car has customized Rinehart motor speed controllers and Yasa motors.

Bill and Eva have several years experience building packs using A123 batteries which has been used for their record setting bike, KillaCycle, and their latest project, KillaJoule, a land speed racing streamliner motorcycle. They will be racing KillaJoule August 24 at the Salt Flats in Bonneville. Drayson will be gearing up for the FIA Formula E Championship in September 2014.

NEDRA NEWS - DENMARK (July 11, 2013) True Cousins, Glenn E. Nielsen and Hans-Henrik Thomsen took their TC9 Hornet to a new 1/8 mile record for the 300 volt class Wednesday evening at Malmö Raceway with a record run of 7.07 seconds.

The previous record was 7.63 seconds. Glenn drove the TC9 Hornet through the 201 meter track at 7.40 and 7.58 seconds in the first two runs, below the old record but a little slower than they had hoped.

After making some adjustments by letting the air out of the rear tires for better grip and turning up the amps in the last two runs, they clocked a 7.07 and a 7.01 for the new 1/8 mile record.

The next goal for True Cousins is to compete in the 350 volt class where they hope to break 6 seconds in the 1/8 mile.

NEDRA NEWS - FLORIDA (June 15, 2013) Miramar High School Auto Shop Instructor, Lowell Simmons, took the school's 396 volt Porsche 944 to it's best time with a 9.952 second 1/4 mile at 130.90 mph beating a tubbed out turbo Supra. Despite a few Gremlins early on at Palm Beach International raceway Lowell was able to make five solid runs leading up to the Porsche's quickest time ever.

The first pass was a 10.565 and left a Dodge Challenger at half track when Lowell hit the line. Second pass was 10.115 @ 129.92 and was a bye run getting all so close to 9 seconds. Lowell learned how to play the game and waited for a car no one wanted to run then sneak into the opposite lane. Lowell figured his work was cut out when he looked over and saw the chute on the back of the Nova in the next lane. Lowell cut a marginal light .159 and left the Nova at the Gremlins caused the overdrive not to shift so only toped out at 122.28 but still ran 10.105. So close to the 9's. Now time for one more pass, no one wanted to go up against a big turbo tubbed out Supra, so Lowell took the chance. He cut a .045 light still only a 1.525 60' but then Black Pearl came to life. Crossed the line at 9.952 @ 130.90 beating the Supra's 10.946. Black Pearl was the fastest street car at the track.

Not bad for a daily driven 2910 lb full interior car with power windows built by a high school students. Lowell's next step is to get his license and certify the car's cage so he can continue to race into the 9's.

Lowell is very thankfull for the help getting the car to this goal. The Derek Barger High Tech Systems cells which make up the 15kw, 396 volt battery pack. Running 2 zillas each set at 1200 battery amps. 1 transwarp 11 and one warp eleven coupled to gear vendors overdrive. Gearing and suspension are the second best factors, running a 2.75 gear set right out of the junk yard with aNodular carrier on a Strange spool in a big bearing Ford 9 we narrowed and welded to a 4 link set up. Using advice from the school's physics class, the 4 link intersects at mid door so the car launches straight, front end raises only slightly. 275 60 15 Micky Thompson drag radials stick. Lowell proudly displays his Zilla Powered sticker in the rear quarter windows! High Tech Systems, Zilla power, and Manzanita Micro Charging: nothing finer in the world in Lowell's book!

NEDRA NEWS - ALASKA (June 11, 2013) On June 9th, 2013 Brandon Willmon defended his three week winning streak in his Electric Powered Junior Dragster (EPJD) at the local IHRA Track, Alaska Raceway Park. He is currently leading in the point standings. This marks the second year that the NHRA and IHRA have allowed electric Junior Dragsters to compete alongside their gas counterparts for official National Competition in their respective Junior Dragster Series. Brandon's dad converted this particular car, Munky's Ride, to electric several years ago for Morgan Carter, the track owner's granddaughter. Morgan is old enough to be getting into a "big car" now and so Brandon's dad bought the car from her parents. Brandon and his brother Spencer qualified for their IHRA Competition license last year in 2011 before an unfortunate accident rendered the motor inoperable. Pics of the rebuild can be seen on TheFoat site. Over the winter their dad rebuilt a $50 motor which was a pulled out of a wrecked forklift. The original conversion of this car was powered with a 12V Prestolite motor exactly the same as the late Father Time's Franken Dragon bike and a Logisystems 72V 1000A controller. It now sports a rebuilt ADC AT4-4001 6.7" motor and a Zilla 1K controller. It is still running the original Enersys XE-16's (same as the Odyssey PC-625's, and same batteries the likes of the White Zombie made it into the 11's with in the 1/4 mile) it was converted with 5 years ago. The car originally ran 10.90's in the 1/8th mile. Now with the new ADC AT4-4001 and Zilla 1K it is running consistent 10.9 times at 60 mph but with data logging capability. It is apparent now from the data coming in that the Enersys XE-16's are the limiting factor as to the ET and Trap Speeds of the car. But for Bracket Racing it is still a deadly consistent car. Brandon is calling his own "Dial In" times based on the T&T runs. The competition with the gas cars is fierce as you might see from some of the time slips. So far the winner of last year's season is dialing withing 100'ths of seconds. Brandon has won two of his final runs by "breaking out less than the competition" by hundredths of seconds. All-In-All this is a good day for the electrics around the world. We know there are other electrics out there and what a great day it will be when its EPJD Vs. EPJD in the finals.

NEDRA NEWS - DENMARK (May 13, 2013) In it's maiden run with 350 volts, Glenn Ellegaard Nielsen raced the TC9 Hornet against a twin tubo 930 HP Viper 3 times and won each time! Hans-Henrik Thomsen and Klaus Nissen Petersen reports the Hornet's best time was 7.039 in the 1/8th. Video to follow soon. Click the photo to see a large image.

NEDRA NEWS - TEXAS (April 15, 2013) NEDRA President John Metric cruised into the record books with the first electric doorslammer to break into the 5's in the 1/8 mile. This was Assault and Battery's third trip to the track after a series of test runs a couple weeks before.

First 1/8 mile run
1.4926 60ft
4.4985 330ft
7.1748 1/8 90.84mph

Second 1/8 mile run
1.3092 60ft
3.8870 330ft
6.2146 1/8 103.73mph

Third 1/8 mile run
1.3921 60ft
3.9333 330ft
6.1690 1/8 108.17

Fourth 1/8 mile run
1.3014 60ft
3.7686 330ft
5.9566 1/8 110.19mph

The hot Miata is running a 333V nominal LiPo pack built by Lithium Start with Polyquest cells. John set the Zillas for the motors to take 2000 amps at 200 volst and ran the tires at 12 psi. Check out the cool video by Dejaymadhouse which shows all the runs and introduces you to John's crew who helped make the record happen.

NEDRA NEWS - TEXAS (March 23, 2013) Stella Kostolná feels right at home behind the wheel of Zack Vex's Tesla Roadster, "The Little One." After previously taking the Production NEDRA Record of 12.58 seconds in the quarter mile (recently overtaken by a Tesla Model S) Zack and Stella were ready for more challenges and entered the sleek black electric roadster in the Texas Mile.

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Running stock with new tires "The Little One" ran 125.9 mph at the end of the mile marker without hitting the rev limiter. The AC motor ran 13,500 rpm with one gear! Pack voltage from the 900 pound lithium pack was sitting at 400 volts with a maximum of 225 kW from the 6831 laptop cells. This outstanding run puts Stella on the NEDRA Land Speed Racing Page as a Production Class record. Texas Mile "Street Legal" SL-E NEDRA SP-A3. "The Little One" also received the award for Most Exotic Car at the Texas Mile.

The highest speed attained at the Texas Mile to date is 263mph, set with 3000HP, over 10 times the Tesla's 285HP.

Attending the Texas Mile with Stella and Zack was NEDRA President, John Metric and NEDRA Gulf Coast Regional Director Adam Clark.

NEDRA NEWS - TEXAS (March 25, 2013) NEDRA President, John Metric, made 4 successfull 1/8 mile runs with his newly built Miata, Assault and Battery, at Houston Motorsports Park for NEDRA's First of the Year Texas Drags. Despite the chilly weather and some drivetrain problems A&B still turned in some great shakedown runs. Check out the video where A&B ran a 1.404 60 ft and 6.5924 660 ft at 98.88mph. Ran at 1700 amps and 170 volts on each motor. 22 Ahr pack.

The tubbed out, tube frame 2002 Miata features dual Netgain Warp 9 motors, dual Zilla 2K-EHV, Lenco 2 speed, double Gear Vendors overdrive. For the test runs John turned the amps down to 1000 at 99 volts and finished up the day cranking it up to 2000 amps at 199 volts.

First 1/8 mile run
1.7262 60 ft
5.4863 330ft
8.9245 660ft at 66.99mph

Second 1/8 mile run
1.4855 60ft
4.4392 330ft
7.0877 660ft at 91.02mph

Third 1/8 mile run
1.4045 60 ft
4.1249 330ft
6.5924 660ft at 98.88mph

Fourth 1/8 mile run
1.3640 60ft
3.9700 330ft
6.7044 660ft at 78.78mph

After all the shakedown runs the good news is the car survived the without any carnage and John will do some further tweaking to go after the 100 mph 1/8 goal.

For the complete story of Assault and Battery's day at the track click here.

NEDRA NEWS - FLORIDA (January 19, 2013) Come out to NEDRA's first event of 2013, January 27, at the DragTimes.com Street Car Drags at Palm Beach International Raceway. This event reschedules our previous January 24 date for the NEDRA Florida Winter Nationals.

NEDRA was invited by DragTimes.com to come out to this exciting racing event. Check out streetcardrags.com and you'll see a couple of our electrics listed in the line up. More EV's will be signing up soon. Brooks Weisblat, owner of DragTimes.com, will be racing his newly acquired Tesla S.

Shawn Lawless will be racing Lemon Juice, his 9-second Chevy S-10 featuring four 7.5 GE motors sharing a single chain for a direct drive to a 9-inch posi rearend. Juice to the motors is provided by two 2K amp high voltage Zilla controllers. Battery power supplied by a 3500 amp lithium battery pack.

Jeff Disinger will be racing his new steet bike "Electrocutioner." Jeff's been working non-stop over the winter holidays to get the bike to the track. Also racing will be Andrew McClary's beautiful electric GT-40 and Matt Graham will be bringing an AC Propulsion E-Box.

To give you an idea of what to expect from street EVs at this upcoming race check out this video of a Tesla Model S on the dyno. See more information here.


Palm Beach International Raceway
17047 Bee Line Highway
Jupiter, FL 33478

Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013
Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm

Racers: $75, space is limited to 70 cars
Spectators: $5, paid at the gate.

NEDRA celebrates 15 years of world class electric drag racing with our 2013 Calendar featuring the quickest electric drag racing vehicles on the planet including some historical "firsts." The calendar covers 16 months and features ads from prominent EV performance companies. Lulu is handling the orders. Order your calendar today for the New Year!