Sam Freeman
I was born on 4th November 1951, I have two daughters in their mid twenties and my partner Lindsey has two boys aged 18 and 19.
I live in Hemel Hempstead, Herts and have a house in Rushden Northants.
I Work for Prodrive Automotive Technology and I am currently located at Ford Motor Co’s research and engineering centre in Essex as a Calibration Engineer. This involves the calibration of the engine management system or in simple terms the computer that controls the engine.
I have been involved with various forms of motor sport over the last 30 years, not just drag racing. I enjoy most forms of motor sport; basically if it has an engine and wheels then I am in my element!
I’m not a very good spectator and prefer to be in the thick of things getting my hands dirty if need be. I consider myself to be quite lucky to have sampled some of different forms of motor sport in the UK and for that matter across the world.
I started in the 1970’s with Drag racing ending up in the late 70’s running a car in top fuel; I was responsible for preparing and maintaining the car and delivering it to the track ready for the driver. Further to this I maintained the car during the meeting. This could involve dismantling the engine after every ¼ mile run. I’ve even rebuilt an engine in a motel bedroom in Sweden. Rebuilding it was not a problem, getting it out after it was assembled was! Taking the doors off the room to enable us to carry it to the van at 4.30am was probably not the way to behave?
After this I did a small amount of circuit racing for a few years, having completely redesigned and rebuilt a car that I had bought. At this time in my life I could not really afford to race, so it was quite a slow process. This car ended its life in the concrete wall at Donington Park circuit, the steering failed and I had no control. Fortunately, although the car was 1.5 metres shorter after it hit the wall, I walked away with nothing more than a fast pulse rate. SEAT BELTS AND SAFETY RULES WORK!!
At this point the company I worked for(Tickford Engineering) got involved in building engines for high level circuit racing teams (international F3000, Formula 1 and the like) I worked on these projects and spent a few years travelling with various teams as the “Engine support engineer” . Although this would seem ideal to some, it does involve a great deal of travelling and time away from home. It also does mean that you never get time for any hobbies or life in general come to that. I also got to rub shoulders with some very famous people, who I might add, were mostly very pleasant to deal with. When this work died out I thought my involvement with motorsport was going to come to an end, wrong again! I found my services and skill that I had learnt over the previous 20 years were probably in as much demand as ever. A new class in British motor sport had started. BOSS (British open single seater) this was a class where any single seat racing car with any engine could compete. A lot of cars were old F1 cars that the owners had fitted a slightly less powerful engine to; they had a problem here because not many knew how to make them work. I was regularly called in to advise and make up the cars electrical system and adaptors to allow such engine swaps. Another few years spent helping other people to race their cars.
That really is briefly my involvement in motor sport. There have been some great moments and good times in there.
Of note: Trevor Young 1970’s first sub 7 second run in Sweden
Evan Muller 1992 British Formula 3000 Champion
Oliver Gavin 1995 British Formula 3 champion
Having taken a few years off in early 2005 I decided that I would like to have a proper go myself. A friend who sort of races a drag type car got talking to me and the next thing I knew I was in the USA buying my car that I now race. I took on a slightly different attitude to racing, I wanted this type of car and I wanted some fun! So far it has worked out well and I have had great fun in the process.
Ready For another go
An old friend, Vic Hammond, who I met up with at the drag strip in the 70's and again in 2005 was contemplating buying another car after a long lay off, I found a suitable car in the USA and a few weeks later we were over there to check things out and returned with Ed & Tammy Fargo's "Speed Demon" FED (Front Engined Dragster). this car is fitted with a mildly tuned small block Chevrolet engine with a supercharger and uses Methonal as fuel. I have a page here with further details and pictures of Vic and myself driving it. It's best time is 7.711 and has reached speeds of 183 mph. Both the time and speed have exceeded the best that the car ran in the USA.
2009 Speed demon set a new speed record in the Supercharged outlaws class in 2009 183.43 mph. and came 3rd in the Championship.
2010 Speeddemon further extended the speed record with a speed of 194.07mph, and ran several personal best times, eventually settling on 7.61 seconds. Another third place in the championship (due to the way points are awarded witth a missed meeting its virtually impossible to do any better).
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