MPM Top Fuel team diary

Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon moved to Top Fuel Dragster in 2004, contesting the season in a Top Fueller hired from Knut Söderquist. The plan was to spend the year seeing how Lex fared in Top Fuel whilst trying for the best possible Championship finish, with the eventual aim to run his own operation. The plan to run a self-owned car came a lot quicker than most were expecting, and the MPM Top Fuel team will be contesting the 2005 season with their own operation after the MPM Top Fuel Racing Foundation purchased a state-of-the-art car from NHRA team Baca Family Racing.

Eurodragster.com has stayed in close contact with Lex Joon and Team Manager Gerda Dijkstra since the end of the 2004 European Championship season to bring you a diary of their acquisition of the new race car, as well as the recruitment of crew and all of the other factors which go up to build a professional Top Fuel team.

It all started with a chat late one evening at the 2004 FIA European Finals, which led to an announcement on Eurodragster.com on 13th September:

By the end of September Lex's planning was in full swing. With searches in the USA starting to show results, on this side of the Atlantic Gerda was looking at personnel issues, putting out a call for crew on 7th October:

Almost as soon as Eurodragster put out the call for crew Lex's phone started ringing, with one call in particular setting up one of the bombshells of 2004. At the same time as Lex and Gerda were recruiting team members, they were also hopping the Atlantic, taking two trips within a couple of weeks to negotiate and finalise a deal with one of the NHRA's leading race teams. The announcement was made on 8th November after the NHRA Finals at Pomona:

With the race car in place, the MPM team signed a deal with their new Crew Chief. After telephone conversations in early November and a meeting at the NHRA Finals at Pomona the deal was done, but it was Andy Carter who announced on 22nd November that Lex had secured the services of one of Europe's leading Crew Chiefs: Eddie Corr, who had tuned Andy to two FIA European Championships:

A few days later, on 26th November, Eddie Corr got in touch with Eurodragster from Ireland to give his thoughts on the upheaval in his racing life:

In the relatively few weeks since Lex Joon Racing announced that they would be running their own operation in 2005, everything had moved very quickly. In less than ten weeks Lex had acquired a turn-key Top Fuel Dragster with heaps of spares, a crew, and one of Europe's biggest names to tune the car. Lex gave Eurodragster his thoughts on 1st December and he had every reason to feel optimistic about the coming season:

Just before Christmas, Lex and Gerda flew to San Francisco to oversee the loading of their new acquisition into a container for the trip to Holland. As Gerda told Eurodragster on 4th January, the process was far from smooth but they got there in the end:

"David Baca and his guys were going to help us out to load the car and parts into the container", said Gerda. "The only problem was that the container didn't arrive! Eventually David had to let his guys go because it was Christmas and they all had flights home to their families. When the container didn't turn up I started to get worried so I called MPM Oil back in the Netherlands and they started to call around. They managed to track down a container on Wednesday but there was no truck or trailer to bring it to the Bacas' Shop. So David called one of his truck drivers who had a trailer but then the container didn't turn up anyway! "MPM Oil made a fuss for us and we got the next available container. David's truck driver went and fetched it for us and brought it to the Shop. We had exactly one hour to put the car and parts in the trailer because David was going home for Christmas. We had no means of getting the container off the trailer and onto the floor so we had to use the tail lift on David's race trailer to pick up the car and then reverse the container up to it. We got everything into the container in the hour and then Lex and I stayed on to secure everything. I bubble-wrapped all of the delicate parts including the rear wing and spare engine. It all got done eventually and everyone did a great job." The container was then driven to the docks where more problems arose. "We had to guarantee that there was no petrol anywhere in the container, and we had to prove that there was no fuel in the car, and that the battery was safe", said Gerda. "We even had to activate the parachute release so that it wasn't sprung!". Whilst waiting for the container to turn up, Lex and Gerda went shopping. "We bought a tool chest and tools from Triple T, and we got lots of nice stuff from Home Depot!", said Gerda. "We spent hours in there!". The container is due to leave tomorrow and is scheduled to arrive in Rotterdam on 3rd February. "We should have the car in our workshop on 4th February", said Gerda. "We have a busy schedule then as we need to become familiar with the car, and put everything together, and the car will need to be painted. We are having this car airbrushed - as it is now our car we don't have to use vinyls. The design will be similar to Joey Bon's Top Fuel Bike and it must be ready for the first weekend in March as we will be displaying the car at the Netherlands' biggest car show. "We would like to say a big thank you to MPM, David Baca, Kevin, Jeff, Rocky and Dennis for helping us out, not only during that week but also on all the occasions when they took the time to answer all our questions."

The new MPM Top Fuel Racing Team dragster arrived at Lex's shop on 4th February. As well as Lex and members of his team, representatives of MPM were in attendance as well as members of the media. Lex and Gerda were relieved to find that the inside of the container was just as they had left it in California.

"The car was in the Baca Family Racing shop in San Francisco only a few weeks ago, and now it's here", said Lex. "It's really nice to have it here. We have had a lot of attention today, the guys from MPM were here and they were very happy indeed - they didn't realise how good the car is! They toasted the car with champagne. We also had a newspaper here, and they will be doing a feature over this weekend." Lex said that the container turned up bang on time and that everything was in order. "We were very pleased to find that everything was still where it had been packed", he said, "we only had a couple of hours to pack the container and secure everything when we were in the USA. We're very relieved!" Now that the car is in the workshop, the MPM Top Fuel team will be checking their inventory of parts and preparing the dragster for painting. "We have to take off all the decals, and remove the wings", said Lex. "The body panels are to be painted dark blue, and then the MPM design will be painted on which will take about a month. Meanwhile we will be looking at the spares and training the new members of our crew. Our Crew Chief Eddie Corr will be coming over with the experienced team members in early March for a training weekend."

The MPM Top Fuel Dragster was officially unveiled their new Top Fuel Dragster at the Race and Rally Show in Den Bosch on 4th March. In front of a large number of press, TV and spectators the team pulled away a sheet to reveal the dragster in MPM's corporate blue.

Picture courtesy and ©Remco Scheelings

"We were a bit late, everyone was waiting for us!", Gerda told Eurodragster.com. "There were four of us round the car holding the sheet, then Lex gave the signal and they removed the sheet. There were lots of flashes from the cameras and applause. It was nice to do it like that!" Lex Joon Racing has a four hundred square metre stand at the Race and Rally Show, featuring not just the MPM Top Fueller but also Joey Bon's Top Fuel Bike, Robert Koper's Pro Mod, and Jessica Selles' Junior Dragster. "We had enough room to have our trailer in there, but it is still being worked on", said Gerda. Picture courtesy and ©Remco Scheelings After the presentation to the press, Lex was interviewed for a popular motorsports TV programme. "The guys couldn't believe that the car has eight thousand horsepower! One of the guys got in the car for the cameras and he had to do it a few times because he kept forgetting to pull in his elbows! The car is also up on air jacks so it was a bit of a climb to get in. We gave him an MPM Oil barrel to use as a step." The MPM team will all be together for the first time next week as Crew Chief Eddie Corr and the two English members of the crew will be flying out to Zaandam for a weekend working on the car. "The car is race-ready but we will be training", said Gerda. "This will be the first time that Eddie has seen the car in the flesh and he is very excited. We have been swapping lots of E-Mails but there is no substitute for being there." Picture courtesy and ©Remco Scheelings The MPM Oil rig will be towed to Santa Pod by a tractor unit supplied by sponsor VOS International Logistics. "VOS International supplied us with a tractor unit last year, and they have renewed their sponsorship for 2005 so we are very happy about that", said Gerda. A few finishing touches remain to be done on the car and trailer before the MPM team depart for the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. You can see a full-length picture of the MPM Top Fueller on Lex's web site at www.lexjoonracing.nl.