The Roeler

Season 2011

2011-09-24T18:48:00.002+02:00

So.
Our 2011 dragracing season was pretty much dominated by the weathergods.
Someone must have made a bad comment since rain fel down in serious amounts during the whole season, even the last day of the season, The Dutch Finals was cancelled due to bad weather.

But.. during the hours we could start up our BelAir we did good, very good!
During Drachten 1 we encountered some problems with the car to get it performing consistant, that combined with the bad weather and not enough runs we ended up qualifying 8th.
Rain was the reason that there no eliminations held during Drachten 1.

At Drachten 2 we found the right set-up and the flow, we ran from 5th and 3th place to second place, a small crack in the transmission and -yes- more rain we stopped racing.

The transmission was repaired, due to the effort of Thomas Engelage to be perfectly fit for the Finals (Drachten 3).
Again bad weather, so every run we could make was important.
On Saturday we had a wild, wild run, the car almost hit the guardrail but Roel, the driver was able to keep in in and on track, thank you very much..
Wich set us back to the 20th qualifying place.
The track was not at its best at that moment, again more rain to pause the eliminations.
When the sun showed up and racing resumed we wisely choose the best lane, in our case the right lane wich resulted in a very good run wich propelled us to the top-qualifying position, an 8,55 run that is..

So, with the status of topqualifier we where anxiuos to race on Sunday the last day of the Dutch Finals- weather was good in the morning, after an impressive tribute on the strip to John Geytenbeek we where ready.
Everybody was ready!
So were the weathergods who send in some heavy rain, it didn't stop anymore, despite the organisation's effort of drying the track inbetween showers non-stop rain was a legitimate reason for the organisation to call off all races.

Nevertheless, we ended up first place overall.
Once more we head towards a new season with the status of Dutch ONK champion in the SuperPro E/T class.

A big huge thank you to our sponsors and everyone who visited the races !

See you all next season!

All American Day Zandvoort, a promo

2011-04-24T09:09:00.009+02:00

click for bigger image

Pitbox number 9, where all the good fun was

burning

burning some more

And a rolling burn-out

As expected, all the pretty girls want to pose @ The Roeler's
Somehow we like that more then eating cake or doing extended burn-outs.
Anyway, this day was great for promoting our sport, checking the Bel-Air after it's winter sleep, making sure it's ready for the upcoming dragrace-season.
See you all at the dragstrips soon !

Some more pictures, by Limpe Iven

Warming-up sequence

2011-04-24T08:25:00.001+02:00

During the All American Day @Zandvoort

The Roeler, Zandvoort 2011 from limpix on Vimeo.

Dragrace Demo, sunday april 17

2011-03-07T21:31:00.005+01:00

On Sunday the 17th of April 2011 "The Roeler" will be laying down some rubber on Netherlands' most famous track Circuit Park Zandvoort.

During a theme day called "American Sunday" dragracedemos will be held during the day.
More info on this way cool event can be found here
We are looking forward on meeting you there !

Eurodrag, september 2010

2010-09-27T21:30:00.005+02:00

We attended the newly organised event in Belgium last weekend.
Impressed by the potential of the location, an airstrip with lots of potential for a great racing-event, great paddock area and best of all;a return road wich, during a event could result in many runs for all competitors.

spacious paddock-area

We pulled off three runs on saturday (no pics, sorry, our photographer was busy shooting pretty girls), on sunday the rain kept us from even starting the car,too bad, but hey, even we cannot fight the weather-gods.

On sunday we witnessed a jetcar, doing a demo run with a passenger, impressive stuff!

Rain or shine, competing or watching, it's always good fun at the roeler's-team

New banner from our latest sponsor

and a new logo on the racecar

Organisation of eurodrag did their best, prepping the track, laying down rubber and spraying gallons of track-bite to get the desired grip on this new track wich could become a real good one over time.
We where proud to be there !

Small teaser by Belgian's KetNet

Eurodrag, upcoming event

2010-09-12T21:29:00.001+02:00

www.eurodrag.com

condoleances

2010-08-25T22:27:00.003+02:00

Tragic news was brought on sunday, Top Fuel rider John van Geytenbeek crashed.
Our thoughts are with his family, friends and The Explosion organisation.

Official announcement and condoleances

Drachten Finals 2010

2010-08-25T20:56:00.014+02:00

The Drachten Finals 2010
We had a blast !
The weathergods where mild during the finals, some sun, almost no rain wich resulted in a lot of qualifying runs.
Come rain or shine, the car is always clean, Vic from Car-cleaning Culemborg is making sure the racecar is detailed to the max as a part of the prepping routine.

Heating them tires.

Team tactics.

Crewchief Ernie Steel giving directions, the main man !

My burn-outs where improving, just like the reaction times, too bad that we missed the chance of winning the eliminations by 4 thousands of seconds on our second run on sunday against Alex Schmidli.
First run on sunday was a bye run due to gearbox troubles on the other contestant.

Gratuliere !

Redlighted.

Saturdaynight at the Roelers, scenic shot.

Last preparations and adjustments on saturdaynight

New race-car decals, our new proud sponsor; Pure Fitness Breda

PURE is the cure......

Mike H, as always making sure the race-car is delivered at the track from its home and vice-versa.
thanks Mike !

Mark H's promo-girls had a great time posing in our paddockstand.
Thanks girls !
Our team-photographer Limpix found great inspiration in your short but pleasant visit and just neede to make a teamshot with you girls.
Wich resulted in the shot below:

So, if you need shots like these, contact this guy , amazing what he can do with a camera.

Seasons ending by now, we might do some promo's and demo's troughout the country, keep following for updates.

Run compilation

2010-07-19T10:45:00.003+02:00

Some onboard footage, Drachten Internationals July 2010

Drachten Internationals 2010

2010-07-14T22:13:00.007+02:00

Heat dominated the Drachten Internationals this year.
Heat; good for grip, bad for your concentration when waiting in the line-up.
Teammember Vic is doing the airconditioning move here...

Last race was cold, lack of grip due to the cold and unpredictable track.
Not this race, grip was good wich builds confidence
Teammember Arnie directs me to the best place to get things rolling..

Distractive, waiting on the strip, in burning heat.

On Sunday, the eliminations we won the race but where kicked out of competition due to a low reaction time, will be working on that.
The car and team performed predictable, contstantly, so there's something to be found in the reaction times.
Read a full report on Autosport.NL,by Remco Scheelings;
http://www.autosport.nl/dragracing/news/20881/verhitte_drachten_internationals.html

The Engelage E-85 engine performed flawlessly, almost no adjustments where made, where some riders suffered from the lack of oxygen in the hot air, ours just did it's job.
Thomas Engelage checked from time to time, just to make sure that everything was adjusted perfect.
Having this engine build by Engelage was the best choice we made, almost no re-jetting was neccesary, where the gasoline burning engines suffered a lot from the lack of oxygen in the hot air the E-85 engine needed some minor adjustment, just minor.
Check;
http://www.engelagebros.de/

Checking valve clearance after runs.
Notice the Kendall lubricant, keeps things rolling smooth inside.
http://www.kendall.nl/

Vic, checking tire temp and sometimes the track wich showed temperatures of above 60 celcius during the day.
Phew, hot...

Black race-suit, black helmet is not what you choose on a day like this, normally.

Water, keeping things cool, just like the attitude.

See ya'll on Drachten 3, The Dutch Finals in August
http://www.explosiondragracing.com/

Drachten 1 2010

2010-06-22T20:05:00.006+02:00

So, a new season has started for us and the other competitors in the Dutch Dragracing Championships.
Drachten 1 was dominated by the forces of nature, rain
The organisation was busy cleaning and drying the track most of the days, except sunday, wich was, seen overall, one of the best days regarding the weather.

So, on arrival the engine was fired up after its winter-beauty-sleep, checked and double checked.

And heating it up, checking once more.

Despite checks and fitting a new pressure gauge it did go berzerk after some qualifying runs.
The Bellio team gave us a spare, worked fine for the weekend, thanks guys !

Rain and dragracing don't mix'n match, here SSC16, Olav Swiderek almost lost control.
He was able to save his car and got away with it.
Just a few drops of rain made him lose traction and control.
Phew !

But the weekend was not overruled by bad luck, our team worked like a clock, fixing small issues and we pushed it some more to end up with a personal best of 8.331 on friday.

Shot from the rear, sunday, last run.

Food and drinks !
We probably have the coolest fridge !
Don't leave home without it.
Ever.

Running hard.

heating them tires.

See ya'll on Drachten 2
9-10-11 July 2010 Drachten
More info on;
http://www.explosiondragracing.com/

Season's start

2010-06-21T22:22:00.005+02:00

First of all;
A big huge thanks to all the guys that make it happen
Above you find Vic, polishing the Bel-Air, making sure it's spotless
If you don't know Vic, check out his business, polishing and detaling cars;
http://www.carcleaningculemborg.nl/

Mike-H's carhauler, who takes care of the transport of the Bel-Air
http://www.mikehautotransport.nl/

Michael;
Came over from Germany, one super-relaxed guy with a lot of knowledge and expierence when it comes to dragracing, almost a walking library

Arnie, my eyes around the track

Limpix, capturing the action around the Roeler's team and helping whenever he's around the paddock.
www.limpeiven.com
Contact this guy for killer shots, chances are he's shot you in action on the dragstrip.

Thanks guys !
And my girl for taking care of the team as a whole !

Sneak preview

2010-01-10T11:16:00.020+01:00

Just an artistic view of "The Roelers" new doorslammer, pictures taken at our shop by Limpix

The car is based on a 1937 Chevrolet buisines coupé,
build by competition cars Sweden, loaded with only the good stuff.
During the years Andy Robinson Race Cars has taken care
of all the required chassis updates, wich makes this car "Killah".

We made a deal with the K&H racing team by taking over the Coupé.
Marck Meijhuizen, the previous owner of the Coupé did a 6.18 @ 234 Mph on the quarter mile, by this he made the car one of the fastes '37 Coupés of the Planet.

Our goal is to get the car race ready for the season 2011
to compete in the Superpro/ET class.

At the moment we are busy finishing our tourbus, and browsing for
a new blown injected motor and a new transmission.

To make this all happen, we unfortunately might be forced
to sell our '55 belair.
For more info about "The Champ"drop a mail to info@theroeler.com

rumours

2009-12-03T10:11:00.002+01:00

When there's smoke, there might be fire!!

My Main Man

2009-10-18T16:17:00.009+02:00

Years before John Force arrived on the scene, dragracings original flamboyant showman was "Jungle Jim"Liberman, a lager than life individual whose flaming burnouts, glib personality and boundless energy helped endeared him to fans in a manner that enluded other drivers including me with better winning records.

Liberman was much more than a touring professional, with his wild wheelstands, 100 mph backups from burnouts, stubborn refusal to lift on even the most out of shape runs, and his curvaceous companion "Jungle Pam" Hardy-Liberman provided all the entertainment of a traveling circus.(John Jodauga)

Promotion

2009-08-30T19:26:00.005+02:00

Last Saturday we attended the annual Harleydag at our hometown
Displaying our car and doing several warm-up sequences for a huge crowd, wich was good fun
In general, people are most impressed by the sound that 620 cubic inches produce, question most asked is about the amount of horsepower produced

Josh, one of our sponsors was there too, giving away some of its bling bling wich put a big smile on 3 peoples faces, great !

M@ikel from Explosion set up a nice stand to promote the dragracing some, displaying recorded streams from several races and explaning the general public something about dragracing in general.

M@ikel is the man behind the live dragracing streams, find out more about his stuff on www.doyousee.me

ONK Champion !

2009-08-28T15:51:00.004+02:00

We just finished reading the final results from the season as a whole.

In the ONK Clubchampionships 2009 we ended on the first place.

All made possible to the great help of our sponsors and our team.

Great ! We cannot say how gratefull we are for the help we got this season but lets start off with the words "Thank You !"

A big motivation to spice things up, and to perform even better in the next season !

Some statistics;

182 points overall won by qualifying and eliminating during the championship

Best 60 feet time 1.197 seconds

Best 1/eight mile time 5.315 seconds

Best 1/eight mile speed 209.481 km/u

Best quartermile time 8.344 seconds

Best quartermilespeed 261.311 km/u

Small sidenote;

The second racing event during 10-12 july just added points for qualifying, no eliminations where held due to bad weather conditions

download the full ONK Clubchampionships results and statistics here

Or read a full report on autosport.nl

Meet the team this Saturday

2009-08-25T21:47:00.007+02:00

This saturday we will be attending a local event, promoting Dutch Dragracing by displaying our car.
We will be doing two start and warm up sequences, answering questions and more.

Here`s your chance to see a competition dragracer up close !

With bands, stands and lots of cool rides this will be a great day.

Check out the details at http://www.harleydagtilburg.nl/

(don`t worry, we`ll stick to 4 wheels)

Not quite like a quartermile strip, but hey! It`ll be great fun !

Full racing report, Goodridge Dutch Finals

2009-08-25T21:34:00.003+02:00

Read a full report about the Goodridges Dutch Dragracing Finals 2009.

From reporter Remco Scheelings, writing and hauling his shutter for autosport.nl, a great resource to follow the dragracing competition, national and international.

Ramon

2009-08-25T19:06:00.000+02:00

Seeing a very dear friend flipping over his car just a run after mine made me decide to skip my last run on saterday.
Dude, you scared the hell out of me! I was relived seeing you "undamaged" out of the car after rollercoasting your Willy`s

Hope to see you racing soon !

Drachten, The Finals

2009-08-24T12:03:00.008+02:00

warming up the BelAir
Our dragrace competition was great !

The first race (Drachten 1) surprised us by the performance of our new car, the second races where kind of disappointing due to the weather conditions so we where anxious to run the BelAir in the finals.

Victor, checking and double checking during warm up

Heating tires and laying down rubber

Arnie, guiding me back to the pre-stage area after heating up the tires

Launching and leaving hard

Sun and heat improved the track gradually but facing the sun at the start makes it difficult to see the tree, especially when it hits you straight on

Pulling a chute to slow things down, helps to come to a complete stop after reaching a maximum speed of 261 kilometers per hour

Therefore i only trust 1 man to fold my chutes

Rolling burnout

Hauling

BelAir, cooling down and posing some at the end of the runway

So, our active racing season has ended for this year.

Due to redlighting in the eliminations i blew my chances to an overall win in the Dutch Dragracing Competition, i was close, real close but coming this far with the new car has made me and the rest of the team very anxious for the next season.

Reflecting back, the results are plain good, nothing more, nothing less, the car feels great and performs predictable, the results are becoming more and more predictable wich is exactly what you need racing the ET class.

For the rest of this year we`ll be working behind the scenes to fine tune what needs to be fine tuned, working on our tour-bus and preparing for the next season.

And hey, we might even appear on a local car or speed-show so stay tuned, we`ll keep you informed !

A week and a half

2009-08-12T21:47:00.001+02:00

Read a full report on the previous racedays here

Read a pre-finals announcement on autosport.nl

Soon !

2009-08-12T20:53:00.005+02:00

We`re working hard behind the scenes

Doin`some photoshoots for our soon to be released website, prepping the car for its next appearance at the Drachten finals (www.explosion.nl) and doing some work on our tourbus.

Feel free to take a sneek-peek on http://www.theroeler.com/

Or download one of our banners to spread the gospel

Select whatever banner suits your webpage or social networking community

Click on the image for full resolution, download and spread

Or copy the image`s URL (rightclicking will open its properties, just copy and paste the url)

Josh, our new sponsor

2009-08-11T17:40:00.012+02:00

We're very happy to announce our new sponsor...............
"The innovators of Dutch-Bling"

Josh accesoires website

Drachten 2009 Pt.2

2009-07-12T13:30:00.005+02:00

Drachten Dragraces, 10-12 july, Part 2
Small report on saturday 11
Nothing to test, run or qualify on friday due to heavy rainfall, yet a good atmosphere in the paddock and our shelter, prepping,benchracing, socializing and bbq-ing, rainy days can be filled worse.

Around 11.00 on saturday the skies cleared and racing somehow started,SuperPro ET started around 13.15.
Redlighted my first pass, made a 8.67 run, popped the chutes

After pass 1, on the background John Gerritsen`s BelAir who upgraded from Pro E/T to SuperPro E/T

Second pass, redlighted again after a long rolling burnout

Made a nice and clean second run despite the red light

Minutes away from a hefty adrenalin rush

Arnie, my eyes before the start, i totally depend on him, directs me to the perfect starting position, does the final second checks and works me towards pre-staging.

Third and last pass on Saturday
Got past that redlighting thing, did a 8.61 run with an 255 Km/u

During tirth pass.
See you all on Drachten 3, 21-23 august 2009

Explosion flyer July 2009

2009-07-10T18:21:00.001+02:00

Back home

2009-07-02T18:38:00.000+02:00

So, after a very succefull try-out at Drachten were back home

Finished first in the first competition in my new car, this freakin`awesome BelAir, she did great, real great.

She`s checked before each run and after each run, when back home we scrutinize her, adjust where neccesary.

Bouncin`

2009-06-28T18:44:00.000+02:00

Drachten 2009 Pt.1

2009-06-28T17:53:00.000+02:00

Some pics from Drachten-1
First races
Raceresults to be found 2 www.explosion.nl
A complete report here http://autosport.nl/dragracing/