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30th June: Thanks to Paul Warne for passing on details of the funeral of late doorslammer legend Dave Warne. Dave Warne's funeral takes place at 15:30 tomorrow (Friday 1st) at Overdale Crematorium, Overdale Drive, Chorley New Road, Bolton, Greater Manchester BL1 5BU (map). Paul would be pleased to hear from anyone with stories of Dave; please E-Mail [email protected]. Brett Featherstone writes "Sad news as another true racing great leaves us. Dave achieved so much in the early Pro Mod days and inspired many to go on and build the amazing cars we see in the class today. I am sure with his fearless driving Dave would have been a force to reckon with had the family been able to carry on racing to this day." Scottie's All Day Fundraiser. 
29th June: Pamela Hiscock writes that a fund-raising event planned to support Scottie Durrant, Gina Rumble and their family before
his death will still take place but now in his memory. The Bagshot Breakfast Meet All Day Fundraiser takes place on Sunday 10th July at Pine
Ridge Golf Club, Old Bisley Road, Frimley, Surrey (map).
Pamela writes:
My brother originally planned this event in May when my sister Gina and Scot first received the news that he had cancer, with the intention to help raise as much as possible for them to enjoy the rest of their time together with their family building memories. The event is still taking place as planned in his memory and all money raised on the day will go to Gina and their children Zak, Beau and Elsie-May to help them get through this difficult time. Pine Ridge Golf Club have kindly allowed use of the function room, bar and terrace, music is sorted for the day thanks to rocking band Shaking'A'Round, a few trade stalls are booked and some fantastic raffle prizes donated thanks to some very generous people in the scene, so all we need now is some good weather and for people to bring their Hotrods, Customs, Classics and Yanks along to join us! If anyone would like to donate prizes to the raffle or would like a trade stall on the day - no charge for stalls, just a donation to the cause - they can contact me on [email protected]. Event entry update. 29th June: Shakespeare County Raceway's Jerry Cookson has been in touch to let us know that the official entry forms are now available for the Championship rounds of 8.50 Bike and 9.50 Bike (both UK National), Supertwin Gas and ET Bike / NAST which take place at the Mid Summer Madness Public Track Weekend on 23rd-24th July. The entry forms can be downloaded from the track's web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. Jerry adds that racers are encouraged to pay their entry fee by Bacs rather than credit card or cheque, as this cuts down on administrative charges and time. Shakespeare County Raceway's account details can be found on the entry forms. Many thanks to Ian Marshall for sending Version 3 of the official entry list for Bug Jam, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 22nd-24th July (racing 23rd-24th) and which is a Championship round for the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club, Sportsman ET, Outlaw Anglia and the European Nitro FC Series and a non-points round for Lucas Oil Junior Dragster. You can check out the Bug Jam entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Entry closes on Saturday (2nd July) after which entry, if accepted, will be subject to a Late Entry penalty. You can download the official entry forms on the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Paul Marston Racing is proud to announce that entry is officially open for Gearhead Garage UK Top Sportsman which takes place at the Mopar EuroNats at Santa Pod Raceway on 29th-31st July. Paul says that he received a flood (sorry not a good choice of wording) of entries at the recent SPRC Summernationals but that there is plenty of room for more. Gearhead Garage UK Top Sportsman is open to any doorslammer which can run 9.99 or quicker. There are two races over the weekend. The first race is on Friday and is the 0.400 Pro Tree Fast Bracket. One time trial run then straight into eliminations, everyone makes the first round, race to completion. The second race is the 0.400 Pro Tree Heads-Up. One-shot qualifier Saturday night for a sixteen-car elimination on Sunday, again run to completion.
We would like to thank our supporters and business partners, especially Gearhead Garage who through head honcho Michael Pusey are enjoying title rights sponsorship. Mick himself will be competing in UK Top Sportsman. Engine Data Analysis, courtesy of Kenny Coleman, are supporting the event and Kenny will be entering his mighty Chevy Nova. Last but by no means least thanks to all the guys and gals who organise the Mopar EuroNats and to Tog and the team at Eurodragster.com who provide the streaming service and the race coverage (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed). Swift snippets. 29th June: 
The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com (left) came with the words "I spy". If you know more, or if you would
like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at [email protected].
Many thanks to Andy Marrs of SPRC's timing crew for sending us the official timing data from the SPRC Summernationals. You can check out the SPRC Summernationals timing data by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Thanks also to Andy Marrs for forwarding us updated tables of European and UK Bests including the ACU Top Fuel Bike speed record set by Rene van den Berg at the SPRC Summernationals. You can take a look at the record sheets by clicking here or by clicking on the European and UK Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Web site updates. 
29th June: DJ of Santa Pod Raceway writes that there are now four FIA / FIM Main Event shows to watch on SantaPodTV.
"The first is a short Highlights video giving a flavor of the event", says DJ. "Next is
the season's second Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator show featuring the racing, the
Cruise and interviews. Then come then come the latest programmes, two full TV Shows, one featuring car
classes and the other bike classes. Both feature the racing from the pro classes along with
driver interviews. If all of that isn't enough then you can still watch the full Live Web Broadcast again at
www.livestream.com/SantaPod/mainevent2016.
The latest update to our good buddy Alan Currans' excellent Acceleration Archive is a gallery of Sunday's action from the weekend's NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest updates via the What's New link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. Dick Parnham has updated his Flickr site with a gallery of shots from the FIA / FIM Main Event. You can check out Dick's work at www.flickr.com/photos/dickparnhamdragracing. Samu Kemppainen (Super Twin Motorcycle), Kalle Lyrén (Pro Stock Motorcycle) and Rikard Gustafsson (Top Fuel Motorcycle) impressed with dominant wins in their respective categories in the opening round of the EDRS Pro Nordic Motorcycle Championship at the Tierp Internationals. All three riders raced to victory from the number one qualifying position at the state-of-the art Tierp Arena facility. In Super Street Bike, Henri Kolehmainen was the surprising winner when favourite and number one qualifier Rick Stubbins' motor failed to start. In Super Comp Bike and Super Gas Bike the finals couldn't be contested as the rain which hampered the Tierp Internationals almost all weekend, came back ten minutes too early. You can read a review by our good buddy Remco Scheelings on the Drag Racing Europe Blog by clicking here. The return of Waterbed Fred. 29th June: The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame has announced that 'Waterbed' Fred Miller, part of the team behind Raymond Beadle's three consecutive NHRA Funny Car championships in the legendary Blue Max Mustang, will be attending the BDRHoF Gala to be held at the Sheraton Skyline Hotel, Heathrow, on 19th November 2016. Along with many drag racing personalities from the UK, Fred joins a growing band of BDRHoF supporters from the USA including Don Schumacher, Paula Murphy, Eileen Daniels, Traci Hrudka, Donna Garlits, Ron Hope, Harry Hibler, Carl Olson and Bob Muravez. 
Waterbed Fred Miller is one of the most respected tuners in drag racing. During his time in the sport, he and the Blue Max driver Raymond Beadle raced
over one hundred dates a year including both US Championship tours. He travelled with Raymond Beadle and the Blue Max Funny Car team
during the visits made to Santa Pod Raceway in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Now retired, he served four years as Motorsports Manager for Zantrex
and StriVectin – sponsors of Dave Grubnic's dragster.
Fred Miller said "It's a great privilege to attend the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Gala after such an enjoyable day last year. I look forward to telling some more of the stories about my racing exploits with Raymond, Dale Emery and Dee Gantt, touring the US and making many passes to thrill the fans. I've had a great life in racing and met some super people." BDRHoF Chair Stu Bradbury said "It's really special for Waterbed Fred to return this year. He has been a great supporter of the BDRHoF and has an absolute ball telling stories of those times when racing life was both busy and fun." Ticket prices for the 2016 BDRHoF Gala Awards Dinner remain as last year at £60 per person. Corporate tables of ten are available at £580. More details are available by clicking here. For advance booking of tickets contact [email protected] or telephone Stu Bradbury on 01933 279102. A celebration for Scottie. 28th June: The date has been set for the farewell to late UK Wild Bunch racer Scottie Durrant and the intention is to make the event a big and loud celebration. Scottie's celebration takes place at 12:45 pm on Friday week, 8th July at West Berkshire Crematorium, Bath Rd, Thatcham RG19 4LD (map). All are welcome and attendees are encouraged to wear racing or hot rod attire, Hawaiian shirts, shorts, and to bring their hot rods etc as Scottie wanted it big and loud. Family flowers only but donations to the Duchess of Kent Hospice would be appreciated. There will be collection boxes at Scottie's celebration. SPRC Summernationals results. 27th June: Congratulations to the winners of the weekend's SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway: MSA Pro Modified: Andy Robinson 6.0921/232.87 def. Michel Tooren 6.1435/233.74 Nostalgia Fuel Car Cup: Nick Davies 6.5998/174.37 bye, Bob Glassup no show Comp Eliminator: Kev Perkins (8.00) 7.5061/183.52 def. Robin Orthodoxou (7.50) 7.2692/185.88 Super Pro ET: Daniel Giles (7.40) 7.3654/179.93 def. Billy Gane (8.26) 8.2468/164.82 DQ red Pro ET: Lee Huxley (9.36) 9.4725/132.55 def. Gino Bernadine (9.59) 9.608/136.43 Sportsman ET: Ricky Hale (15.20) 15.2278/90.47 def. Gill Medley (14.35) 14.3358/94.68 DQ b/o Super Comp: Stu Doignie 11.9930/68.02 def. Paul Letchford 8.8180/146.28 DQ red Super Gas: Stu Doignie 9.9176/150.55 def. Jon Giles 9.9445/143.44 Super Street: Leigh Morris 10.9009/119.60 def. Matt Seamarks no time DQ deep stage Lucas Oil Junior Dragster: Shannon Kiddell (8.00) 8.1964/74.30 def. Liam McDonald (13.67) 14.0604/44.19 Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: Martin Smith 8.0559/154.19 def. Matt Smith 10.4640/119.80 VW Pro: Paul Herbert (11.80) 12.0871/102.54 def. Dave Crowhurst (10.20) 11.0643/114.06 DQ red VW Sportsman: James Gould (13.30) 13.6863/101.18 def. Ed Keech (13.20) 13.3968/107.29 DQ red Nostalgia Super Stock: Don Scott (10.86) 10.8346/125.53 def. Mike Lacey (9.48) 9.9867/106.27 DQ red ACU Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woollatt 6.2407/217.19 def. Rene van den Berg no time DQ crossed lanes Pro Stock Bike: Alex Hope 7.3413/179.97 def. Len Paget 7.4438/170.44 Funny Bike: Phil Crossley 7.2905/173.07 def. Eric Richard 7.9455/158.48 Super Street Bike: Steve Venables 7.1775/198.90 def. Richard Hann 7.9650/141.15 Comp Bike: Eddy Smiley 7.8841/173.06 def. Sean Mills 8.3313/152.08 9.50 Bike: Richard Sawatzki 9.6540/139.47 def. Dave Bowe 9.6131/131.71 8.50 Bike: Rick Stubbins 8.7664/131.82 def. Jay Roe 8.9497/144.81 Junior Drag Bike: Wichard Veldman (9.38) 9.4573/70.50 def. Jordan Kenway (8.70) 8.7840/72.39 Supertwin Top Gas: Scott Collier 9.6128/134.92 def. Alfie Udall 9.6497/130.96 ET Bike / NAST: Dave Smart (9.95) 9.8533/133.33 def. Gary Hester (10.77) 10.8570/120.74 DQ red Subject to official ratification the following record was set: ACU Top Fuel Bike speed: 226.74 mph, Rene van den Berg 
Congratulations to Sam and Olly Young and the Black Current team for new world records for an electric doorslammer of
8.7118 seconds and 151.58 mph. You can read more in yesterday's pit notes (click on picture at right).
Congratulations also to Pro ET racer James Forster who took the £50 Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supporting the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children with an 11.8604 on an 11.86 dial-in in the second round of eliminations. The Perfect ET Award has been reset to £50 for Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway in July. The Eurodragster.com / Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award was not won and has been increased to £75 for Dragstalgia, also at Santa Pod Raceway in July. You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored reports, pit notes and galleries clicking here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Swift snippets. 27th June: Congratulations to Sweden's Jonnie Lindberg on his win in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the weekend's Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk. Jonnie qualified #4 at 5.610/264.75 and took the final against Kris Hool with a 5.546/266.95 to Kris' 5.646/261.07. You can find out more on Drag Race Central at www.dragracecentral.com and on the excellent Lindberg Brothers web site at www.lindbergbros.com. UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Steve Ashdown got in touch to explain that the non-appearance of his son Tyler Ashdown, who was scheduled to licence in Super Comp, at Santa Pod Raceway this weekend was due to the failure of his new dragster's primary and spare water pumps and the non-arrival of other parts. "Tyler is gutted", said Steve. "It will have to be another day, possibly Bug Jam." Take it to the Street at York. 
25th June: York Raceway's 39th Annual Street Racer Championship
on Sunday 3rd July will bring some of the UK's quickest real street cars to the home of drag racing in the North of England. Chris Murty writes:
The Street Racer Championship is the original race for street legal cars anywhere in the world. The brainchild of BDRHoF inductee Dave Grady, the quarter-mile heads-up race was created to find the UK's quickest street car. This iconic drag race has experienced a rejuvenation over the last four years and thanks to the support shown by racers, fans and marketing partners it is set to once again be a headlining event for The North's Drag Strip. With rules focussing on streetability and general safety, the Street Racer Championship has always attracted a diverse array of competing machinery. Over the last few years the field has grown to include more turbocharged four- and six-cylinder cars, which are now producing the same sort of performance levels as their traditional V8 counterparts. It's not unusual to see a 4WD turbocharged Subaru Impreza face off against a nitrous oxide injected Pro Street ‘69 Mustang or even a stock-appearing Nissan GTR racing the likes of 2015 Street Racer Champion Ian Wally's turbocharged Big Block Ford Cortina; all competing for the £1000 winner takes all prize and the title of Street Racer Champion. In 2016 all competitors will be paying the lowered entry of £30, with an additional £5 for a one day licence for those who don't already have one with the MSA or IOPD. The race will once again be run throughout the day to allow cooling time, rather than the brutal hot laps from previous years. For the non-street legal race cars, the event will also feature our Big Bracket in which all non road-legal race cars can race against each other in the anything-goes bracket race. Straightliners will provide the two-wheel action and Julian Webb will be making demonstration runs in the Split Second Jet Dragster. As usual at York Raceway the track will also be open for RWYB throughout the race weekend. The 39th Annual Street Racer Championship is sponsored by Blue Bar Caterers, Performance Unlimited, KC's Hot Rod'n'Race Shop, The Turbo Shop and York Raceway's Official Trophy Partner, Aford Awards. Swift snippets. 25th June: A tribute to late Wild Bunch racer Scottie Durrant is to be held at Shakespeare County Raceway at 09:30 this morning (Saturday). All present are invited to the start line; please make your way there at 09:00. If not at the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals then please give Scottie a minute's silence wherever you are at 09:30. Good luck and stay safe to NHRA Lucas Oil Top Alcohol FC Champion Jonnie Lindberg who is contesting this weekend's Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk. You will be able to stay in touch with Jonnie's progress on Drag Race Central at www.dragracecentral.com and on the excellent Lindberg Brothers web site at www.lindbergbros.com. Ålund and the dismal weekend. 25th June: The second round of the 2016 FIA European Drag Racing Championships took place at the Tierp Internationals at Tierp Arena in Sweden. The facility has an excellent reputation as a record-setting track with a track crew second to none. This time, however, the weather made for a less than perfect weekend for everyone including multiple FIA European Pro Stock Champion Jimmy Ålund who had started the season with fantastic performances at the FIA / FIM Main Event where he qualified number one and then ran quick and consistent through eliminations to win the race. 
Most of Friday's first day of qualifying was rained out and the Pro Stock cars had to wait until 19:30 for their first qualifying run. In Q1 Jimmy had slight tyre shake and was second in
the qualifying list. The second qualifying round started at 21:45 in unfavourable conditions but the Jimmy Ålund Pro Stock Racing team had the best tune-up and went to the number
one spot with an elapsed time of 6.65 and a strong speed of 338.98 km/h (210.63 mph). "It was a tough day for everybody" says Jimmy. "We started qualifying very late and the track
was cold so it was impossible to break any records today. We did what we could and be sure it's a rough crowd to race against, we're only 0.007 seconds quicker than Bengt Ljungdahl
in second place. Good for the fans."
Saturday came and went with no qualifying runs due to very inclement weather with torrential rain. Sunday dawned with clear skies and it was time for eliminations. Jimmy went on to round two with what would turn out to be the quickest and fastest Pro Stock run of the weekend, an ET of 6.55 at a stout 340.91 km/hour (211.83 mph). Round 2, Jimmy was up against Magnus Petersson. Jimmy left the line first with a superb Reaction Time of 0.006 seconds but more tyre shake ended the quest for another final this season as Magnus got ahead leaving Jimmy with no chance to catch up. Jimmy says "It was very disappointing and frustrating. KB Racing supplied us with a real strong engine as usual and we ran 339.20 km/h (210.76 mph) in a losing effort. Magnus and his crew are good, they had a better handle than we did on the complete package, you cannot give away one inch in this class. Congratulation to Magnus also for winning the whole event." Jimmy left the Tierp Internationals still in the points lead, thirty three points ahead of Bengt Ljungdahl in second place. A good start for Jimmy in his chase for an unprecedented tenth FIA European Pro Stock Championship. Jimmy of course wants to express his gratitude to all his sponsors: Summit Racing, Viking Industrimålning, Exclusive Cars, Sverigedemokraterna, KB Racing, Camaroskroten, Tradepac, POs Harley Davidson, All American AB, CFM, Vadstena Klosterhotel, Stigs Axle and Parts, Hydraulakuten, VP Racing Fuels, and X Parts. The next event for the Jimmy Ålund Pro Stock Racing team is the third race of the 2016 FIA Pro Stock Drag Racing Championship series, the FHRA Nitro Nationals, at Alastaro, Finland. Qualifying starts on Friday morning, 8th July. Tierp Internationals wrap-up. 25th June: Timing and stats guru Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe has updated his 'Spreadsheetosauruses' showing qualifying positions, results and round wins for all FIA Championship events after the Tierp Internationals. Marrs' tables are available on the Champions' Champions page which you can check out by clicking here or by clicking on the Champions' Champions link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Our good buddy Remco Scheelings has posted two Tierp Internationals reports on the Autosport.nl web site. As ever there is a race report and an off-track report, both of which are excellent and well-illustrated for those who don't understand Dutch. You can check out Remco's race report by clicking here and the off-track report by clicking here. One bullet too many... 25th June: Luke Robinson says that UK Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson and team looked forward to the FIA / FIM Main Event having had nearly two months off after a fairly successful Festival of Power: 
We had planned to test on the Thursday to check that our new short motor was happy, with a view to fixing any potential problems on the Friday in time for Saturday's qualifying. It was
just as well that we took this opportunity as testing revealed a bad misfire. Initially we thought that it was the two-step rev limiter module so we removed it and had one last shot at testing,
with Dad swapping feet Top Methanol FC style. Whilst the run didn't set the world alight it did show us that the misfire was still present, and also showed that the new short motor was
indeed happy. The decision was made to change every ignition component but one. In doing this we rewired the car for an MSD Power Grid system, replacing the old chip-style ignition
controller. The Power Grid is fully computer controlled which is great in terms of tune-ability, however when you are at the track with no internet connection to download the software it
can cause problems! Luckily we borrowed a laptop from BA Racing to get us up and running in the meantime.
Saturday came round and we were out for Q1, Dad did his burnout and reversed, but there was a slight fluid leak. Ian Marshall made the right decision to shut us down, and what we hadn't noticed is a trail of bronze under the car from where Dad stopped after reversing. The entire bronze coating had stripped itself from a brand new floater plate! When you are on the start line, under pressure, in a race or qualifying situation it is sometimes hard to make the right decision, so we are very grateful to the entire Santa Pod start line crew for being so vigilant 100% of the time. Their priority is always safety and they have the racers' best interests at heart. Had we run the car, at the very least we would have destroyed the clutch. Bullet #1 dodged. We still had some used floaters in the trailer so we reassembled the clutch with some help from BA Racing refacing the steel surfaces on their grinding machine. Q2 was a relatively tame 6.38, due mainly to our fuel system lean out solenoids not working. We had overlooked the trigger signal for the fuel system in the haste to rewire the ignition, so that was remedied on the Saturday evening. 
On Sunday morning we decided we needed to step up our tune-up significantly to make up for lost time. We added more clutch, more timing and more launch RPM! I was still after that sub-1.00
sixty foot time to build on. We were rewarded with a 6.09 at 230 mph, and perhaps more significantly a 0.966 sixty foot time! We did our usual maintenance and everything looked good, so
we went for Q4, making some minor changes to hopefully improve on the 6.09. Unfortunately, with the sun heating up the track the traction wasn't quite as good as in the morning and we slowed
to a 6.11, losing nearly 0.02 seconds in the sixty. The good news was that we seemed to have a consistent race car even in the heat of the day, which inspired confidence leading up to eliminations.
We stripped down the bottom end of the motor that evening to check the main and big end bearings, knowing that we had plenty of time. We even had enough time to test-fire the motor that night before the curfew! It was lucky that we did, as when we started it there was no oil pressure! It turned out that a small piece of valve spring had jammed the oil pump causing the pump drive to shear. This was not picked up beforehand as it happened 0.1 seconds before the ignition was killed on the previous run! Bullet #2 dodged. Micke Gullqvist luckily had a spare pump drive so a big Thank You to him for lending it to us. In the first round of eliminations we faced Marck Harteveld in the Voodoo Hemi Superbird. That car never fails to amaze me, being capable of 6.40's and being a stock bodied car! We felt fairly confident but knew that we would have to work for it, and thus we tried for a repeat of the 6.09 run. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be... remember that one ignition component we didn't change? It was a mag trigger changeover box, which chose to malfunction in the first round of eliminations. Bullet #3 got us. Overall it was a very successful weekend, we are making progress with the car slowly but surely and if the weather co operates this weekend we will look to build on that. We had planned to make at least one test tun yesterday to ensure that our ignition woes were fixed, we had our fingers crossed but the weather won. As usual a big Thank You to our sponsors NGK Spark Plugs, Torco Oils, Nimbus Motorsports, BMRS Hose and Fittings, PAC Racing Springs, Aerocom, Aurora Bearing Company, Hoosier Tyre and Ringspann RCS for their continued support. 71% Fives. 
25th June: Ian King and the Gulf Oil Top Fuel Motorcycle Dragracing team kicked off their new season
in style with consistency of the highest order, a new European Record, and an event win to take an early lead in the 2016 FIM European Drag Racing Championship.
The target for the team was five-second consistency and so small but meticulous technical enhancements particularly in areas such as clutch were undertaken over the winter stop. This approach was proven effective when an off-the-trailer first competitive pass of the year 5.950/239.85 pass, and a new European speed record if backed up within one per cent in any subsequent run of the weekend. However, the team were plagued with damaged drive and rear wheel sprockets and drive chains on each and every pass, problems also experienced by many riders in this machine category across the globe due to chain stretching issues following an unknown and as yet unresolved change in manufacturing. Yuo can see a video of the chain stretching on a run by clicking here. The team remained in number one qualifying position for the entire two day qualifying session, running two more two-second passes, one a 5.8172/233.77, a new European elapsed time record to add to the potential speed record should it also be backed up within one per cent over the event. 
In the first round of eliminations Ian overcame Glenn Borg despite breaking a drive chain mid way on the run, a slowing 6.46/163.68 still too quick for the Maltese rider.
In round two Ian ran another five second pass, a 5.904/228.93 which would have been too quick for Greek rider Filippos Papafilippou even if his run had not been aborted at the start.
In the final round Ian was up against his great friend and long-time rival Rikard Gustafsson in what was looking to be a possible first European side-by-side five-second run following the Swedish rider's stunning 6.04 second pass earlier in the weekend in his début competition on his own new Puma-powered and -supported nitromethane machine. Unfortunately it was not to be when the Swedish team suffered a minor technical issue which necessitated shutting off before staging, but Ian did not disappoint the expectant crowd with another fine 5.893 second run at 239.95 mph, his fastest speed of the weekend and resetting his own FIM European Speed Record. It was a stunning start to the European Championship season for the team: number one qualifier, five five-second runs out of seven, a new European Terminal Speed record and an event win! More videos: 5.817 run 5.902 run on-board 5.904 run rear-facing The Gulf Oil Dragracing team's next event is again in the UK after being invited by the Earl of March and Kinrara to appear once again alongside the great and the good from all aspects of motorsport at the world's biggest and most diverse motorsport event - this weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed within the grounds of the Earl's ancestral home. You can see the entry list by clicking here. For more information on the team visit www.gulfoildragracing.com, @kingracing on Twitter, and the team's Facebook and YouTube pages. For more information on Gulf Oil International visit www.gulfoilltd.com. The Gulf Oil – GPO Dragracing team uses and endorses exclusively Gulf Oil greases and lubricants in their history-making machine. The team is extremely proud to be supported by many leaders in their chosen markets in their endeavours to secure a tenth European Championship: APE - The world's most innovative manufacturer of aftermarket parts for drag bikes Bell Helmets - The most iconic name in helmets, since 1954 Cometic Gaskets - The premier manufacturer of racing gaskets Drift Innovation - Europe's leading source for action sports cameras Gates - The world's most trusted name in drive belts, hoses and hydraulics Goodridge - The original and the best in fluid transfer systems Grand Prix Originals - The brand for drive and lifestyle, past and present Graphite Additive Manufacturing - A leader in 3D printed technologies and rapid prototyping Gulf Oil International - The world's most iconic brand in automotive fuels and lubricants Hotrod Hangar– Home of the world renowned custom artist Knud Tiroch Hyperpro - The leading producer of progressive suspension products for motor bikes JE Pistons - The world's premier manufacturer of high performance forged pistons John and Dea Morgan Racing - The creators of the world's most advanced New Age Funny Bike Kibblewhite Precision Machining, Inc -The highest quality valve train components on the market King Racing - The most successful Top Fuel Bike team in European drag racing history Mickey Thompson Tyres - Simply the best drag race tyres in the world MRE - Leaders in trackside support for drag race components and air shifting systems MTC Engineering - Manufacturer of clutches for the fastest motorcycles in the world NitroShutter - Europe's leading drag racing photo-journalists NCT Engineering - Manufacturer of the world's leading non contact torque sensors for motorsport NGK Spark Plugs UK - The world's number one spark plug manufacturer Pär Willen - Master webmeister and proprietor of HarleyDrags.com Portable Shade - The best custom branded collapsible canopies available Pro Alloy Motorsport - UK's leader in fabrication of alloy racing tanks, intercoolers and radiators Puma Engineering - Manufacturers of the world's most powerful motorcycle engines RSG Customize - The UK's most creative website designers and vinyl artists Supertough - Custom cases and covers for the Film, TV, Music and Motorsports Industries Spies Hecker - The world's leading supplier of paint for car, commercial and industrial finishing Tryka LED - The UK's cutting edge LED lighting manufacturer Van Es mobility - The leading manufacturer of telematic products for management of moving objects Vanson Leathers - The most iconic brand in motorsport leather goods Web Camshafts Inc - Simply the company for Top Fuel Bike camshafts Worldwide Bearings - The world's leading supplier of ceramic bearings for racing Zodiac - Europe's largest supplier of performance and aftermarket HD parts Web site updates. 25th June: Our good buddy Steve Moxley has again been hard at work flying the flag for drag racing with an FIA / FIM Main Event review and SPRC Summernationals preview on the ACU's official web site at www.acu.org.uk. Dave Warne. 24th June: We were sorry to hear of the death yesterday of former Pro Mod Champion Dave Warne. 
Elaine Southworth writes "Dave was unfortunately suffering from cancer. We visited him recently and he was really chatty,
talking about the racing that he loved. He made a point of saying he regretted nothing in his life; he was a great friend."
Dave was instrumental in establishing Pro Mod as a class in UK drag racing. All of his cars were titled Mean As Hell. He first ran in Super Gas and Super Modified with the Mean as Hell Vega pick-up. Then in 1988, at the start of the official UK Pro Mod era, came the début of the legendary Ford Sierra which ran in the low eight second zone on its first full pass, took the 1989 NDRA Pro Mod Championship, and was runner-up in the National Championship. By 1991 Dave was running a Trans Am in which he ran a string of low sevens at over 200 mph. He retired from racing in 1994. Dave's wife Sandra passed away some years ago but our sympathies to son Paul, daughter-in-law Alison and to all of Dave's family and friends. Event entry update. 
23rd June: Josef Hadnagy writes to invite FIM European Super Street Bike Cup racers to the Championship
round which takes place at the Adrenalin Extrém Fesztivál at Kunmadaras, Hungary, on 12th-14th August. "The track
is sledded and well-prepared!", says Josef. You can download the entry form and Supplementary Regulations (PDF format) by
clicking here and you can find out more about the event at
www.kunmadarasmotorsport.hu.
Many thanks to Ian Marshall for sending Version 2 of the official entry list for Bug Jam, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 22nd-24th July (racing 23rd-24th) and which is a Championship round for the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club, Sportsman ET, Outlaw Anglia and the European Nitro FC Series and a non-points round for Lucas Oil Junior Dragster. You can check out the Bug Jam entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Entry closes on Saturday week (2nd July) after which entry, if accepted, will be subject to a Late Entry penalty. You can download the official entry forms on the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. SPRC Summernationals Perfect Awards. 23rd June: This weekend's SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway is the latest event in the 2016 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards Scheme. £100 is on offer for perfect performance. 
This weekend's Eurodragster.com / Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Lucas Oil Junior Dragster
racer Harley Jay Darby at the FIA/FIM Main Event. The money will be paid in cash to the first racer this weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The
Perfect Light Award is available to racers in all classes during qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the event. If not won
this weekend then the Award will be increased to £75 for the APIRA Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway; if it is won then it will be reset to
£50 for the APIRA Open Sport Nationals. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with Bad Habit Racing (Cath and Tig Napier, Pro ET).
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect Light Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals will be available from the Signing On office first thing on Thursday morning. 
This weekend's Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supporting the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has been reset to £50
after it was won by Super Pro ET racer Jack Brewster at the FIA/FIM Main Event. The money will be paid in cash to the first racer this weekend to run an ET to the thousandth
of a second on dial-in or index. The Perfect ET Award is available this weekend during qualifying or eliminations in Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Sportsman ET, Super Comp, Super Gas,
Super Street, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster (eliminations only), VW Pro, VW Sportsman, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike, ET Bike, Junior Drag Bike and Nostalgia Super Stock, but will only be
awarded for the first Perfect ET of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £75 for the APIRA Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County
Raceway; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for the APIRA Open Sport Nationals. The Perfect ET Award is presented by Derek and Fiona Flynn of Eurodragster.com
sponsor Gold RV in support of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children;
you can donate to the NSPCC at www.nspcc.org.uk.
To be eligible to collect the Perfect ET Award, racers are required to carry Eurodragster.com / NSPCC decals (left), one on each side of the vehicle. If you pull this weekend's first Perfect ET but are not carrying decals when the run is made then there will be no discussion; we will not pay out and the next person to record a Perfect ET will get the money assuming that they are carrying decals. Eurodragster.com / NSPCC decals will be available from the Signing On office first thing tomorrow (Friday) morning. SPRC Summernationals racer update. 21st June: Many thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us details of the arrangements for this weekend's SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway. Friday 24th June 10:00 Gates open NB Gates open earlier for Peak Performance Day entrants 10:00 Signing On office opens 12:00 Car scrutineering commences, no specific order 15:00 Bike scrutineering commences, no specific order 20:00 Signing On office closes Saturday 25th June 07:00 Signing On office opens 07:00 Car scrutineering commences (scrutineering order) 07:00 Bike scrutineering commences (scrutineering order) 09:30 Track opens for qualifying Sunday 26th June 07:30 Signing on office opens 07:30 Car scrutineering commences 07:30 Bike scrutineering commences 09:30 Track opens for qualifying and eliminations The provisional running orders are now available and can be checked out by clicking here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Please note as ever that running orders are subject to change due to weather or track conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by race officials. No race vehicle motors are to be fired up before 09:00 or after 20:00 on any day of the event. Before 09:00 vehicles should be pushed or towed to Scrutineering, not driven. Non-observation of curfew will result in exclusion from the event. Junior Dragster and Junior Funny Car racers please remember the new rule about pushing vehicles back to the pits once through the arch beside Scrutineering. Tierp Internationals results. 20th June: Congratulations to the Pro winners of the weekend's Tierp Internationals at Tierp Arena: FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Anita Mäkelä 3.9746/455.31 def. Birgitte Bremnes 4.1280/476.61 FIA Top Methanol Dragster: Chris Polidano 5.4560/433.73 bye, Jonny Lagg no show FIA Top Methanol Funny Car: Johnny Oksa 9.4113/144.54 bye FIA Pro Modified: Micke Gullqvist 5.9472/393.87 def. Mats Eriksson 6.0220/383.25 FIA Pro Stock: Magnus Pettersson 38.1786/27.24 def. Bengt Ljungdahl 7.0919/241.50 DQ red light NMC Top Fuel Bike: Rikard Gustafsson 6.6686/254.00 def. Thomas Pettersson 7.4537/274.25 NMC Supertwin Top Fuel: Samu Kemppainen 6.4831/352.17 def. Greger Johansson 7.3061/247.25 NMC Pro Stock Bike: Kalle Lyrén 7.0231/309.28 def. Thomas Lysebraate Olsen 9.0465/151.69 NMC Super Street Bike: Henri Kolehmainen 7.3305/315.97 bye, Rick Stubbins did not start The event was severely affected by the weather although the track crew and race officials never gave up until they really had no option. The far-too-frequent rain returned immediately after the last Pro final causing the Sportsman finals, which were all queued up in the pairing lanes, to be cancelled. No records were set at the event but of note was the Top Fuel Dragster final which was the first all-female final round of the FIA Championships era (an all-female TF final took place at Santa Pod in 1988 pre-dating the FIA Championships). You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Tierp Internationals reports, pit notes and galleries by clicking here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. A big Thank You to Lena Perés and Patrik Jacobsson, our photographers for the weekend, a personal Thank You from Tog to Simon for the unceasing supply of pit notes which were collected even when the weather was not fit for man nor beast and to Spencer Tramm for proof-reading the race reports, and of course a huge Thank You to the race officials, Tierp Arena staff and the racers for their endless assistance and co-operation. The tale of Nigel's truck. 19th June: UK Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer Nigel Hale is preparing for a return in his humungous pick-up after installing his repaired motor and making a couple of test passes at Santa Pod Raceway yesterday (Saturday). Diana Macrae kindly spoke to Nigel about the recent work in the Redneck Racing workshop and snapped us some great shots of the work in progress: The truck had issues at a Run What You Brung the weekend after Easter. It didn't break but it sounded not quite right. Next morning we took the rocker cover off to find that the valve for one cylinder wasn't opening. So we decided to find someone to take a more in-depth look and see what was wrong. ICE Automotive were recommended to us and they happily took on the challenge. After strip down, the cam was found to be completely screwed, worn in places it shouldn't be, and a fix was required. The lifter link bar had broken and the roller had scored the cam badly. We went for solid lifters rather than the hydraulic lifters which we had previously run. And then the wait began... 
We had hoped to be ready for the Main Event but unfortunately the parts didn't arrive from the USA in time. As soon as the parts arrived the work began. ICE Automotive reassembled, re-tuned the carb then dyno'd the motor. We got the engine back to Redneck HQ on Friday afternoon. The team apart from Steve Clayton, who unfortunately couldn't make it, then worked through the night only stopping for rather large kebabs. We started the motor, but blue smoke was filling the workshop fast, coming from one side of the exhaust. We decided to wait for morning to think it through and check the little things. 
Morning came and we were up at the sparrowfart. Everything looked good but we still had blue smoke. A quick call to ICE Automotive and it was agreed that it was most likely oil in the manifold from the previous breakage. So off came the exhaust pipes and they were cleaned with the aid of petrol and a lighter. It did the job thanks guys. So off to the Pod, arriving just in time for the lunch break. 
We made two successful runs yesterday, just gentle shakedowns. The first run was 11.35 but the blower pipe blew off just before the finish line so I had to let off the fast pedal. We think that Nick didn't tighten it properly because he didn't want to lose the race to me. The next run was 11.80, the track wasn't at its finest but good enough for what we needed. A big Thank You to all at ICE Automotive. Their knowledge, advice, help and service were spot on, big cheers to Rob and Nick. And a big thanks to my crew Nick, Jack, Steve and Andy and to Diana for her not-often-enough coffee-making skills. Tributes to Scottie Durrant. 
18th June: We will set up a standalone tribute page on our return from Sweden but here are the tributes we have so far
received to Wild Bunch racer Scottie Durrant, who died on Thursday:
While I only knew Scottie for a relatively short period of time, I had the privilege and honour of racing against him in the Wild Bunch back in 2014. Scottie was a true drag racer, always there to help out and give advice when I needed it, we had some cracking races on track and shared a few beers in the pits. There wasn't a bad bone in his body, and was always willing to help out and have a laugh. Scottie and his family were, and still are a credit to British drag racing, and those memories I have of racing against him will be with me forever (Adam Charnley) Rest in peace my friend what a loss we have suffered. Scottie will always be in my and my family's hearts. Our thoughts are with the family (Bob, Carole and Fiona Hancox) I only met Scottie on one occasion but he made a real impression me - Simply as a really genuine good bloke! Many years ago I had what is now the Rat Catcher Resurrection and Scottie needed cars for a static display. I was more than happy to oblige but was slightly worried about handing over the car to some bloke who I had only ever spoken to on the phone. As soon as he arrived to pick it up, all fears were gone. I know he was major part of the Wild Bunch and will be hugely missed. My deepest condolences to Gina and family (Dan Welberry) Heart breaking news. Thoughts are with his family at this very sad time (Ron B) My sincerest condolences to the Durrant family. I am just a long time fan who competed briefly in the Production class In the seventies. I lost my wife to this horrible disease two years ago so I have a certain empathy. (Martin Ward) Scotty was such a great bloke. Love to Gina and the kids (Chris and Tania Manning) One of the nicest people I have ever met. A big guy with a lovely smile, always happy to help. So so sad (Sue Osgathorp) At this moment I feel numb at losing one of the legends of our sport. My heart goes out to Gina and the kids. Rest in peace big man (Paul Williams) Our thoughts go out to Gina and the children. One of a kind. Rest in Peace Scottie (Mark, Martyn, Steve and Alan, the Hot Rod Drags team) We lost one of the good ones with the passing of Scottie, it's just another reminder that some of us are lost sooner than others, you only get one life so live it. Scottie and Gina did just that, true racers and lovely people. Scottie was always fun to be around and was a pleasure to talk to. I was gutted to hear Scottie was not well and then passed soon after. Our thoughts go out to all of his family. God bless (Paul Marston and all of the Paul Marston Racing crew) Just such an awful waste of a young life. He was a such a nice guy, always ready to help, always a smile. One of life's good men that I had the privilege of knowing. My thoughts to Gina and the family. He will not be forgotten (Richard Warburton). If you would like to send your tribute to Scottie then please drop us a line at [email protected]. Smithies gains EFR backing. 18th June: UK Sportsman ET racer Harley Smithies, who runs a Peugeot 205 under the Rascals Racing banner, is pleased to announce sponsorship from EFR Travel Group: EFR Travel Group is owned by a friendly guy named Edward Rom and specialise in luxury corporate and leisure travel. If anyone is planning any trips abroad then these are the first guys to contact. Their web site is at www.efrtravel.co.uk and you can call them on 0208 421 7090. 
Can I also say a massive Thank You to everyone who has given the team and I help and advice (we can't name you all) and to everyone in Sportsman ET class for welcoming us into the class with open arms. We will hopefully racing at Bug Jam and the UK National Finals to finish our brief début season to get prepared for a full-on season in 2017. Last but not least a big Thank You to family and friends for their support so far, and the biggest Thank You to my wife for putting up with eat, sleep, drag racing, repeat. You can find out more about Rascals Racing on the team's Facebook page. An explosive weekend. 18th June: Ex-pat UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Smax "Paul" Smith is riding the wave of NHRA competition, standing seventeenth in points after racing the Leverich family's Top Fueller at the last round in Englishtown: Bob drove the rig from New Hampshire to New Jersey. As we all had to work Gary got a rental car to pick us up at Jake's, Dan met us there but sadly Aidan and Ronan couldn't make it. We drove through the night and arrived at Englishtown at 5:00 am and grabbed a power nap before brekky at 7:00 am. Boy we were beat! The car was rebuilt for the rained-out first round at Epping. We decided to put three-stage management in the fuel system instead of a pump loop as this would allow us to put the fuel that we took away at the hit of the throttle back in the motor down track. We fired up the car and seated the clutch with our two ferocious nitro whacks which scared everyone to death, to the delight of the huge crowd. We went to the start line quietly confident that we had solved our dropped cylinder issue but opted just to do 330 feet to make sure. The car sounded awesome and the burnout was strong. I launched hard then kaboom! Major explosion! What the hell? It transpired that we broke an intake valve which launched the blower off the car. Amazingly the blower survived but the explosion broke our new tall carbon injector as well as destroying two heads, and the usual burst panel and blower stud repairs! 
At this point we thought we were done for the weekend as we have no spare block - the last one broke a maincap - also we needed to fix our six heads which all needed repairs but doing
back-to-back races gave us no time to address this so we were out of cylinder heads too. I took out the clutch out as we had no Aidan while Jake did great job on bottom end and checked
the short motor. It survived but needed couple of pistons. Dan ripped the heads off in no time and found an intake valve jammed sideways through the seat. We had had enough and went to
a great steak house and then got some well-earned rest.
Next morning I ran around pits like a madman seeing who had what to help. It transpired that Jeff Diehl was switching from Stage 5 to Stage 6 heads after qualifying so we did a deal on his bare heads one he was qualified on Saturday night. His valves were square lock and ours beadlocks and ours were mostly damaged so the ever-helpful Bobby Lagana found us a set. Next was an injector and good friend Terry McMillen had a which spare he sold us. Meanwhile Gary called his friend Mark Jones in Florida, who has helped him a bit with parts. Mark offered to pay to have our injector fixed to sell to offset buying Terry's! We thrashed to midnight and got the car more or less rebuilt for race day. I did the clutch while Jake did the bottom end and then Gary, Jake and Gary worked rebuilding the heads from scratch and getting the other injector ready. Bob ran out for pizza but Paul Smith's team invited us over for food, then Cruz Pedregon's team sent turkey steaks over -we are getting spoilt! I grabbed an ice cream and went to bed even though I was tempted to go to a bar by the motel which had a patio and a DJ blasting out cool music. Up next morning at 6:30 am for drive-thru brekky and back to work. The headers had to go on, then injector had a poor fit due to blower thread damage. I had to set the burnout stop etc etc but we made it to the line to face number one qualifier Steve Torrence. I said to Gary that we needed another 330 foot test really but decided that if he redlit or blew by me I would shut it off, but that if he smoked his tyres I'd go for it. A good burnout and staged and shot off, but Steve passed me at around 400 feet so i clicked it off. But to our delight we ran our best of 2.30 seconds to 330 feet, also made 8200 rpm at the hit with 52 lbs boost and no dropped cylinders. Even a 0.922 sixty was good for us so we were really happy. We get this weekend off then Grand Bend for the local Nitro Nats in Canada followed by Toronto Motorsports Park local Nitro Nats - only an hour away! It was great to see bunch of English fans at the races... always come and say Hello if you're over. Susan Wade has written a great feature on Smax (aka Paul) for Competition Plus, which you can check out by clicking here. Just to clarify: It is theft. 18th June: Yesterday was yet again open season on screen grabbing our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Event Coverage and posting it on Facebook with no permission and no credit, and the thieves were quite happy to bask in the glow of adulation from credulous idiots who are too stupid or lazy to type Eurodragster.com. John Woolfe Racing pay a lot of money for their banner and name on our Event Coverage and they have the right to expect our race reports to be read in situ with their banner at the top of the page. Secondly Simon, Lena, Patrik and Your Reporter at this event, and Kirstie, Julian and Grace at other events, do not work ourselves stupid doing sixteen- and seventeen-hour days for others to come along and steal that work and either not say where they got it or try to pass it off as their own. Your Reporter and News Editor is at the end of his tether with thieves on Facebook and YouTube and elsewhere and is very tempted to throw a huge strop and say "That's it, I am not doing this any more" but the thought of the mawkish virtue signalling which would ensue on Facebook is almost as bad as that of the continual theft. So here's the deal: stop stealing our work. If you stole our work without permission on Thursday or yesterday, remove it now. Final warning. We are not going to negotiate, we are not going to argue, we are not going to reply to E-Mails about it. We don't care who you are or who you think you are. Just stop stealing our work and we'll all get on a lot better. Keep it up and you will find that this is not a drill. Scottie Durrant. 
17th June: We were sorry to hear of the death yesterday of yet another of the good guys, longtime Wild Bunch
racer Scottie Durrant, after a short illness.
The Wild Bunch say "Scottie Durrant was a Wild Bunch racer, all-round nice guy, consummate laughter-bringer and a true gentleman. As many of you will have already seen by the outpouring of love and affection through social media and at the track, Scottie has always been well-respected and adored by so many. Our deepest condolences go to his loving and adored wife Gina, and his beloved children, Zak, Beau and Elsie-May, and his entire family and huge circle of friends." Wild Bunch Co-ordinator Claire Meaddows sums it up very nicely, saying that Scottie was "One of the best, one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, and to ever have the honour of knowing and calling a friend." Our own deepest condolences to Gina, Zak, Beau and Elsie-May and to all of Scottie's family and friends. If you would like to send a tribute to Scottie then please drop us a line at [email protected]. Race demos sought for BMW Show. 15th June: Phil Bennett of Santa Pod Raceway writes that SPR are looking for some sub twelve-second race vehicles to make demonstration passes at the BMW Show this Sunday (19th). If you'd like to take part then please contact Phil at [email protected] or call 01234 782828. Lump and a half. 14th June: UK Pro Modified racer Rick Garrett's Willys now has a motor which is not so much a bullet, more a dum-dum. 
"This is our new all-billet 5.3" bore space motor!", Rick told Eurodragster.com. "It's an awesome piece and makes more power normally aspirated than our previous motor did on
two kits!
"Along with the serious upgrade in the engine department, we're also installing new Racepak datalogging along with some other upgrades. We'll be keeping our 5" bore space motor as a spare as it's been such a good engine. We freshened it completely over the winter in preparation for this season's racing, so it's ready to drop in. "Missing out on Easter and the Main Event were difficult decisions, but it was mainly down to our new Artic race transporter not being finished. It is now near completion and the new awning is made and ready to be fitted. We can't wait to use it! "Our businesses are currently very busy and amongst everything else we're building our new house, but we are planning on a début at the Mopar EuroNats. We can't wait to get back out there!" Swift snippets. 15th June: Many thanks to Lena Perés for forwarding details of the latest updates on the Drag Racing Europe Blog. A preview of the Tierp Internationals can be checked out by clicking here, a review of the first race of the season at Thunder Valle can be read by clicking here, and you can read about the latest meeting of Speedgroup management by clicking here. Some of the Eurodragster.com team are on the journey to Sweden to cover the Tierp Internationals so news updates may be a bit hit-and-miss for the next day or two, and postings to our Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored Swap Meet may be delayed until the event has ended. One thing is certain, to whit that our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Tierp Internationals Event Coverage will kick off here on Eurodragster.com early tomorrow morning. Supertwins test at Alastaro. 
14th June: Pasi Uponen writes that a number of Supertwin racers made test passes at the second round of the
Finnish National Series at Alastaro this past weekend:
Samu Kemppainen was testing a set of different clutch plates but he wasn't pleased with them and that's why he decided to rely on his old good ones, at least for the Tierp Internationals. Aku Lantto, who got his license at his last race, came back to the track in order to test for the next race at Tierp. Aku had a great start but before half track the bike was engulfed in flames. And then the other cylinder head broke so he couldn't continue any longer. Now the cylinder head has been fixed and Aku is looking forward to his next race this weekend. Even Torsti Kettula was testing his bike with the FHRA Nitro Nationals in mind. During his first runs he suffered from technical problems. Finally, after the race Torsti managed to get a proper test run and his sixty foot time of 1.3 seconds was quite a promising although another cylinder dropped out before half track. However, the team gathered important data for the Nitro Nationals. The fourth Twin rider on the track was Niko Lepistö (right) who made licensing runs on Vesa Lipponen's bike. Niko was really convincing; first he just performed a burnout but after that he ran three sixty foot passes finishing with a 1.1. On his last run Niko held the throttle wide open for three seconds, if he had finished his run he probably would have been able to run a six. All welcome to PMP Open House. 14th June: Mike Domagala writes that Premium Motorsports Products is holding its very first Open House during this weekend's Tierp Internationals at Tierp Arena: 
Premium Motorsports Products is racer-owned and operated and is based in Indianapolis, IN. PMP proudly supplies parts, products and services
to FIA European Drag Racing Championship teams as well as IHRA, Australian National Drag Racing Association and 400 Thunder teams from
around the world.
All racers in all classes are encouraged to stop by the BSG Dragracing Top Fuel Dragster pit to meet Mike and Michelle Domagala and to learn how PMP can help your race team. Customers who place an order at the event for Hussey Performance Gaskets will receive an exclusive event discount (orders must be placed during the Tierp International event and orders will ship following the event)! PMP would like to thank their friends at Hussey Performance and BSG Dragracing Team for their support! Be sure to stop by! You can find us on-line on Facebook, on Twitter and on our new web site launching shortly at www.racewithpmp.com. Swift snippets. 14th June: Many thanks to our own Simon for providing us with the updated points standings in the UK National and APIRA 8.50 Bike and 9.50 Bike Championships after the weekend's Sunday Street Drags weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway. Again you can check out the latest points on our OCS Paint-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the OCS Paint Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. This weekend's Tierp Internationals hosts the first of four rounds of the EDRS Pro Nordic Motorcycle Championship. The Championship covers six classes and the Tierp Internationals will be the first indication of who are favourites to follow in the footsteps of Robert Karlsson (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Samu Kemppainen (Supertwin), Jan Sturla Hegre (Top Fuel Motorcycle) and Björn Friström (Super Street Bike). Or will the reigning Champions be able to keep their number one plate? You can read a preview by our good buddy Remco Scheelings on the Drag Racing Europe Blog by clicking here. We are sure that most of our readers realise that, as John Glenn once said, "None of us could do this without pretty solid backing at home" and on the day of our 25th Wedding Anniversary your News Editor would like express appreciation to Kay, aka Mrs Tog, for support and tolerance during more than eighteen years of those twenty five of evenings spent with nose buried in the laptop and weekly absences between Spring and Autumn. Together with Simon's wife Ros, Mrs Tog is one of the powers behind the throne so a big Thank You to her from Tog, the whole Eurodragster.com team, and doubtless from our readers too. Web site updates. 14th June: Liam Lodge keeps a European Drag Racing Blog which he updates whenever work and free time allow. "The whole idea of the Blog is to include stuff about the drivers and classes both past and present, as well as personal memories" says Liam. "With Santa Pod celebrating their 50th Anniversary I have been inspired to add a lot more content this year. The latest update is a look at past Main Events". You can take a look at liam66europeandragracing.wordpress.com. The Mad Welshman has updated his Flickr site with a gallery of shots from the Saturday of the recent Gary's Picnic / Yanks Weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can take a look at Mad's pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/the_madwelshman. Weather beats the bike round. 13th June: Jerry Cookson writes that the latest round of the UK National and APIRA 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike and ET Bike / NAST Championships, which took place at Shakespeare County Raceway's Sunday Street Drags Weekend, fell victim to the weather after qualifying: Despite the weather's best intentions in curtailing the entire weekend, three rounds of qualifying did eventually get in entered into the books. With just four riders contesting the National Championship round in each class, NFT Racing's Andy Haley took the number one qualifier in 8.50 Bike with a strong 8.542 on his 1300cc Hayabusa in the second cycle. Provisional pole man had been Phil Leamon at 8.625. After watching daughter Stacey take her first couple of runs after her fall at last month's Springspeed Nationals Chris Reed entered the class in fourth in cycle two, and later moved up to second with a flying 8.574 at 177 mph. Third was the Leamon Brothers' Vehac Special at 8.625 followed by Jay Roe.s GSXR 1000 at 8.859. 9.50 Bike was all Rich Sawatzki's right from the start. After his opening 9.547 the only other rider in challenging mood was Brett Cordelle on the Hysteria Racing Bussa with a 9.590. Stacey Reed ran a cautious 10.439 for third. The Yamaha R1 of Leo Lester was quick all day long. In fact Leo was too quick for the class as his three runs proved: 9.378, 9.412 and 9.468 for fourth. It was an up and down affair for ET Bike with ten riders contesting the class. Early leader was Peter Harrison's Ducati running a 10.922 on a 10.90 dial-in but in the third and final qualifier Mike Nelthorpe managed to jump nine places to number one with a 12.822 on a 12.80 dial-on his 250 Aprillia, demoting Peter to number two. Third was the Kawasaki of Peter Austin at 9.544 on a 9.51 dial-in followed by the 1000cc BMW of Joe Elliott at 9.069 on a 8.70 dial-in. Fifth was Ian Chrichlow on the Fossil Fuellers Suzuki with a rapid 8.848 on an 8.70 dial-in. Anchoring the field on three occasions were Duncan Barron, Ian Chrichlow and Robbie Dobbie. Gasser Circus Round 1 review. 
13th June: Gary's Picnic once again heralded the arrival of the UK's Gasser Circus race season. Nick Brooke-Langham writes:
For many of the cars and drivers it's their first venture of the year on to the drag strip and is therefore a time of shaking down the cars, crew and drivers. Over the Bank Holiday weekend there were thirteen Gassers on the site, with just one of the four new Gassers in attendance, this being the 1933 Willys of Steve Blomfield named Lil Crazy. After several years of hoping to join the Circus, Steve finally had his Gasser in the pits. It is always great to see another quality nose high car join the ranks, and Steve was not alone as after selling his co-owned 41 Willys, Nick Barnett had joined forces with Hoch, and the two had located and imported a bog-standard Ford Falcon. The car arrived on these shores in January, and as soon as it rolled into Nick's workshop the strip down and build were underway. The car was to make an impressive debut when racing got underway as it was hitting really consistent times on the strip. Ahead of the all the drivers and crew lay two days of qualifying with final eliminations taking place on Monday. Some of the cars arrived on Saturday morning including Lee and Jerry with their Honky Tonkin 2 Nova, whose motor the two of them spent Friday night rebuilding. I was another arrival as I had some electrical issues which were traced late on Friday to a faulty battery. Nogbad the Bad had its fresh Zane-built trans ready for its first runs and this was only going to be the third run on the new engine. On Saturday the sun gods shone and my first run netted an eleven-second pass as did the second run, it took me a few runs to get comfortable with the car, which was now launching hard and charging strong. This new combination was all working well and with this being the first time with it at Shakey it came as a shock that I was going so fast that I could not make the first turn off after the lights. This led to a whole new experience as I had the somewhat exhilarating ride in the uneven shutdown area! Brian Gibson had a brand new race engine in his Identity Crisis Dodge, but it was going to be a frustrating and somewhat baffling weekend for him as although the car now had a more powerful engine in its bay, was running slower. Defending Champion Sean Milsom had problems with his transmission, as it had decided to begin leaking fluid, but by the team successfully managed the problem during the weekend. The Golden Boys were in attendance, Steve Dixon and his High Roller Falcon, and Kev Strevett with his Goldrush Ford, adding a bit of glitz to the events. By the end of qualifying Kev had a huge smile on his face (when doesn't he) as his Gasser held the coveted number one qualifier spot. Unfortunately, due to other commitments, he was unable to race on Monday so his opponent would have a bye to round two. Martyn Hallam was back with his wicked Willys, and the haul up from Plymouth was so worthwhile especially as he was part of a first for the Gasser Circus as two 1933 Willys Coupes burnt out and pulled to the line side by side. Martyn and Steve's nose high Gassers looked fantastic and it was easy to be transported back to the period we pay homage too. Mick Allen turned up on Sunday with his Henry J Horrid Henry, but by the time he came to the end of the fire-up road the temperature of his new 400 Chevy engine had shot up so high that he drove through the gap in the wall back to the pits. The problem was soon identified as a failure of his electric water pump. Despite rebuilding the electric motor and trying to source a replacement, his weekend was unfortunately done. Ray Turner was back out with his legendary Green Onions '55 Chevy, but by Sunday Ray had vacated the driver's seat in favour of his son Harvey who took the Chevy into eliminations. The Mighty Mouse Pop of Ted and Katie Booth made its entrance in the back of their new support truck, which had kept Ted busy over the winter as he kitted it out the truck with a kitchen, bedroom and ramps and an impressive winching system to load and unload the race car. Katie was once again behind the wheel of the Pop, and she soon showed that she had lost none of the racing skills after the winter recess. Another welcome but surprising return to the Gasser Circus, was Merv Barnett and his wicked supercharged Ford Pop Psychedelic Relic, the surprise being that the car had not sold during the closed season, but with Merv feeling a bit under the weather he reasoned it was no good sitting at home, he might as well feel unwell at the strip and try and have some fun. It proved a good choice as during qualifying Merv set two PBs with a 10.49 followed by a 10.48. With this being a Bank Holiday weekend, we were all going to be spending an additional night and day at the strip. It became quite clear that for many of the other racers it would remain a traditional two-day weekend, as by 18:00 on Sunday the pit area was becoming an ever emptier environment. By 20:00 there was pure open space across from the Gasser Circus pit area and this appeared to instil a sense of the playground into many of the Gasser Circus drivers and crew. Sean Milsom suggested that a frisbee would come in handy, but it was the arrival of a luminous green tennis ball which was the catalyst for well over an hour of fun and mad antics. I have thought long and hard about how to describe how this all started, and the only way I can is to say a game of catch began. Initially involving three but with a high level of inaccuracy it soon involved six to eight people. The protagonists soon tired of this and sought some new excitement / challenge was required. This appeared to take most flooding back to their childhood as a version of kerbs soon appeared before the gathered masses. Kerbs is where two or more of you stand either side of a road and threw a ball to try and hit the kerb opposite so the ball bounced back to you. The Gasser Circus version did not have any kerbs, but what it lacked in these it made up for with one of the many oil drum bins which populate the pit area. With one of these placed at the midpoint between each edge of the pits, various members of the Circus stood either side of the now vacant pit. The challenge was to see who could get the Wimbledon refugee into the bin. Initially with a direct throw, and when that wasn't working with one bounce and in. This was all highly amusing, and the over the top celebrations when finally the ball went into the bin reflected just how long it took for anyone to be successful. With the ball in the bin, the entertainment was not over, as the ball then needed retrieving from within it. I am not sure if we were missing having a television but the pursuit of the ball in the bin drew quite a crowd, with chairs being pulled up by the expectant crowd. It was so pleasing to know that even without our cars the Gasser Circus can still put on a good show. In true cricket style light, or lack of it, brought all the madness to an end and we could once again focus on racing. The climax of the weekend was eliminations on Monday and with the weather giving racing its blessing Gassers headed towards the fire-up road. In the first round of eliminations Sean Milsom dumped me (Nogbad The Bad) out of competition, Martyn Hallam redlit away his chances against the Barnett and Hoch Falcon, Katie Booth took the win over Steve Blomfield in his Lil Crazy '33 Willys, Harvey and Green Onions saw off the challenge from Merv Barnett and his Psychedelic Relic Pop, Honky Tonkin 2 of Lee and Jerry red lit, Steve Dixon in his High Roller Falcon took the win and finally Brian Gibson had the bye run. Round two followed about an hour later and it was now the turn of Brian Gibson to turn the bulb red whilst racing Steve Dixon, Barnett and Hoch were on the wrong end of a 125 mph run by Katie Booth in the Mighty Mouse Pop, Green Onions lost out to Sean Milsom's Ain't Misbehavin van which had dialled in a 10.35 and ran a 10.35. Steve Dixon could now rest easy for a short period as he had a bye to the final, but on the other side of the ladder the pressure was building as Sean Milsom and Katie Booth went through their burnout procedures. Katie rolled out of her burnout under the guidance of Ted and Sean came out of his under the guidance of his daughter Steph. The cars edged into pre stage then stage, within in an instant the tree activated with both drivers eager to go. Katie jumped first, but the red light in her lane indicated that it was fractionally too soon, Sean was on his way to the final against Steve. We now had our final pairing with defending Champion Sean Milsom against Steve Dixon. Steve was a bit short on crew, and amazingly it was some of Sean's crew who stepped up to help him in the fire-up road and burnout box. As they came to the line Sean's Morris Van shot forward and lit the red bulb, he quickly reversed and with the system reset the two cars lit the two top bulbs, as the lights descended Sean again shot forward, this was later traced to a failure of his transbrake. Steve didn't see the red light left by Sean as he was by now in full throttle mode flying down the quarter mile to his first victory in the Gasser Circus. He had no idea what had happened and as he pulled back into the pits he was faced with various members of the Circus lining each side and applauding him as he drove between them. Steve later confessed he thought people were taking the proverbial, but was on reflection delighted with his guard of honour and even more elated to have won round one of the Gasser Circus Showdown 2016. Gasser Circus Standings after Round 1
The Gasser Circus wish to thank the NSRA, Speedking and Mechanix Limited for their continued support and sponsorship. Street racing. 
12th June: Paul Fischer writes that things are starting to happen once again in Croatia:
The street race series of index racing survives but an additional major PR event was held in Zagreb last weekend, right in the centre. Vukovarska Avenue is Zagreb's version of London's Oxford Street, albeit considerably wider. It was all blocked off last weekend, concrete barriers were hauled into place and the entire centre of the city was given over to a exhibition event. People brought their cars from several central European countries so that the good folks of Croatia's capital could see first hand what a blown dragster looks and sounds like. A nostalgia FED, of course, plenty of mega-turbo doorslammers (the region's favourites). The Mayor was there, numerous other lesser photo-opportunity seeking 'celebrities' and, perhaps most importantly, all the national TV companies. Two days of fun, slap bang in the middle of the capital city. Is there anywhere else where that could happen? Actually, they also did it in Budapest, right alongside the Danube... but apart from Zagreb and Budapest, is there anywhere else... The picture shows Casba Erdos, Hungarian dragster driver and motorcycle stunt rider. He's also fifty years old, looks like thirty, super-fit despite type one diabetes, has a beautiful wife, successful in business, a real nice guy, speaks several languages... don't you just hate some people? Swift snippets. 12th June: UK Super Pro ET racer Pel Norman, who is headed for Tierp Arena this weekend to contest EDRS Pro Street with his Shogun Capri (below left), asked us to thank everyone who helped him to make the date after a catastrophic engine failure in testing. "First of all thanks to Jon Sleath for all the engine work and advice even though he thinks I am not an adult!", says Pel. "Kenny and the boys at EDA, Steve Kellett for electrical work and new Racepak logger, Pokies Paint Shop for bodywork and paint, but the biggest thanks to Andy Lindop at 351 Motorsport Wakefield, where the Shogun lives, for all the fab work and everything else. Finally Stretch my Crew Chief, for keeping my blood pressure low!" 
UK Super Street Bike racer Danny Cockerill tells us that he hanging up his boots for a while to concentrate on other things so his NLR Super Street Bike (above right) is up for grabs. "It's an NLR bike built in 2009 all brand new for Wayne Saunders", says Danny. "I purchased it from Wayne in 2012 and went a best of 7.33 at 197 mph but I am a lump so there is much more potential. It has NLR side mount, Motec M800, NLR AMS 2000, Choice of NLR air clutch or brand new Rock Solid clutch, New Motec C125 colour dash, a fresh motor done by Rob at Mistral Performance with new bearings, rings, etc, R&D gearbox, Carrillo rods, CP pistons, with zero runs on it, fresh turbo done by Owen Developments, Marvic wheels, Brembo brakes front and rear, freshly painted frame and swing arm, and new style billet NLR intercooler. Lots of spares available by negotiation. Yours for £28,500; if you are interested then call Danny on 07971 568266 (outside the UK +44 7971 568266). Michel Tooren and the Pro Dutch Racing Pro Modified team had a fantastic weekend at the FIA / FIM Main Event, repeatedly blowing away Personal Bests and doing the memory of Robert Joosten proud. You can check out the team's review (Dutch-language PDF) by clicking here. Thanks to Ian Marshall for sending an updated final version of the official entry list for the SPRC Summernationals, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 25th-26th June. The list is down one Pro Mod but up in several other classes courtesy of late entries. You can check out the entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. We will be reporting live from this weekend's Tierp Internationals in association with John Woolfe Racing. Our coverage will consist of frequently-updated reports and results of the on-track action each day together with pit notes updated throughout each day and a photo gallery at the end of each day courtesy of Lena Perés on Thursday and Patrik Jacobsson on Friday to Sunday. We will be using the popular split-screen report format to allow instant access to Sportsman qualifying standings courtesy of Time-Tree although we will as ever post Pro and EDRS Pro results on the fly manually. You can check out our Tierp Internationals Event Index, which contains a link to the official entry list, by clicking here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Vegter's Main Event lacks spark. 12th June: After a very successful test session at Malmö Raceway, The Netherlands' Vegter Pro Mod Racing team travelled to Santa Pod Raceway with high expectations and were looking forward to a great start of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship at the traditional Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. Remco Scheelings writes: With successful seasons to their credit, Vegter Pro Mod Racing want to step up to the next level and now want to finish in the top three of the 2016 FIA European Pro Modified Championship. With a new blower, Adam Flamholc from Sweden as his tuner, and a successful test session, David Vegter wanted to go for a good result. 
The first race was won in the pits when the Vegter Pro Mod Racing '67 Camaro was unveiled in its black and gold Playboy Energy Drink livery and attracted everybody's attention. In his second qualifying run David recorded a great 6.19 seconds, and at the end of day one the Dutch racer was number three qualifier in the twenty one-car field. The Vegter Pro Mod Racing Camaro's top speed of 234 mph was also good enough to finish in the top three. But the first day of qualifying was not trouble-free, as the ignition started to cause some problems. The team was almost sure it had solved the problem, but tyre shake in Q3 and a 6.29-second run in Q4 made it clear that the problem was still there. As other teams improved on their earlier performances, David ended qualifying in eighth position. "During the warm-up in the pits, everything seemed to be okay, but on the track, under full power, the ignition problem was there again" said the Vegter Pro Mod driver. 
In the first round David had to face Bert Englefield. As in qualifying the '67 Camaro didn't want to get up to speed, and with a 6.39 run David was defeated by Bert who reset his personal best to 6.29. "Disappointing", said David. "We were well prepared, and the top speed was okay, but the ignition caused too many problems which we couldn't solve in time. Thanks to Adam we learned a lot about the set-up of the car and were able to solve some issues we had last year. "At Tierp this weekend we will go for revenge and gain some extra points to make up the lost ground." Vegter Pro Mod Racing is supported by Playboy Energy Drink, HKR Techniek, WVB Holland, PedalToTheMetal Musclecar Performance and Sonic Equipment. European Top Gas Round 2 review. 
12th June: The second Euro Serie Super Twin Top Gas race of the season took place
at Bechyne Airfield in the Czech Republic last weekend. Herman Jolink writes:
The race took place over a quarter mile. The track was raw concrete with runner and glue over the first hundred metres. Friday was a Test and Tune. We were very lucky with the weather, there was some rain on Saturday night but the concrete dried very fast. The organisers MSTO and the Czech Bikers Club the Predators did a fine job. There was a good crowd on Saturday due to the nice sunny weather. Qualifying after three rounds:
Eliminations: E1: Albers 8.151/230 but after 300 metres the ignition rotor was damaged so the top qualifier was out of the race. Kolacny 10.658/177 bye, Birch Andersen's bike did not start. Schack 7.695/274 bye, Mia Maria Vespalainen did now show. Caspari 8.562/250 beat Müller 12.994/166. Semi-finals: Kolacny 9.262/251 bye, Albers was broken. Schack 7.667/271 beat Caspari 8.601/249. Final: Frederik Schack DK 8.289/269 beat Milan Kolacny CZ 13.074/117 Euro Serie Super Twin Top Gas Championship after two rounds:
1st-3rd July: Main Event, Drachten NL 22nd-24th July: Main Event, Drachten NL 19th-21st August: NitrOlympX, Hockenheim D 2nd-3rd September: Mosten Race Days (eighth-mile sprint), Allingabro DK There is a non-points race at Hoskovice CZ on 16th July. Smax misses the party. 12th June: Ex-pat UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Smax Smith is currently in New Jersey contesting the NHRA Summernationals in the Leverich family's Top Fueller. The team's last outing was at the NHRA race in Epping and Smax got in touch to let us know how the team got on there: We were eager to run as we had a new plan to stop dropping cylinders. Gary, Dan and Jason took the rig from Michigan but smoked a wheel bearing on trailer and had to arrive with five wheels on their wagon. Aidan, Jake and I drove the twelve hours in Jake's ace Ford F350 in time to watch first qualifying session then got the car ready for the second session. Aidan had the clutch out and Jake stripped the bottom end in eighteen minutes each! Dan and Jason yanked a head each and Dan started assembling heads. We got up early and started thrashing but found #3 main cap had cracked, so we had to yank the motor and put in our only spare block. Got a crank off Bobby Lagana as ours had a small crack, had to dial in the cam then Jake fitted the rack while Aidan put in his clutch. Meanwhile I scored a chute cable off Dom Lagana as I snapped one of ours, and we also borrowed timer jets off Barry Paton to try to take more fuel away at the hit and put it back downtrack but it didn't work out so I put a pump loop in for the first round. It took all day to sort everything and quit around midnight again. Got up Sunday and was gutted to see the rain as we were hoping to at least get in the first round. So then we sat around all day waiting for NHRA to decide when to cancel. The rain stopped long enough to fire up the car and seat the clutch with a couple of nitro whacks to the delight of the fans! We got the legendary Tony (Elvis) Shortall over to check our millihenrys on our coils as we still suspected ignition issues even after MSD said they checked out OK. We did find poor coil connections so hopefully that's it. Sunday was cancelled and put off until the Monday but Gary and the crew couldn't stay because of work so we disappointedly drove back to Canada! The sad news is that we drew Steve Torrence who smoked his tyres so felt we could have had that round, then there was a bye to the second round, then Doug Kalitta smoked the tyres in the semis so that could have been in our first final... woulda, coulda, shoulda! We missed the party - Alexis' crew girls were over with Jello shots and invited us to their pit party but we had to drive back to Canada. But I am loving this! Hot Rod legend attends BDRHoF Gala. 12th June: Whilst there is no substitute for being at the track and witnessing drag racing first hand, a crucial role in its history has been played by publishing, in spreading the word about the sport and promoting it. So the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame is excited to announce that Harry Hibler, the former publisher of Hot Rod magazine, will be attending the BDRHoF Gala to be held at the Heathrow Sheraton Skyline Hotel on 19th November. 
Harry started by building and racing dragsters and jet cars in the early 1950s, becoming known as Hand Grenade Harry after a number of on- and
off-track incidents. He was manager of San Fernando Raceway for over fifteen years and then spent almost thirty years with Petersen Publishing,
becoming publisher for numerous automotive publications culminating with Hot Rod. He sat on the Board of Directors of SEMA and was inducted
into the SEMA Hall of Fame.
He was part of the team which created the concept of CadZZilla for ZZ Top member Billy Gibbons in 1989. In 1994, he was inducted into the
Northwestern College Hall of Fame for his contribution to its High Performance Motorsports Education Program. He was named California Business
Man of the Year for 2002 by the Business Advisory Council. Currently, Harry sits on the Board of Directors of Quarter Mile Foundation / Project 1320,
and the SEMA Hall of Fame committee and Task Force. He was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2013.
Harry Hibler said "I've had a great career and have plenty of stories to tell about San Fernando Raceway which I look forward to sharing with folks in November. It was a real privilege to become publisher of Hot Rod and that opened a lot of doors for me including the heads of major auto manufacturers and politicians. It's certainly been a blast." BDRHoF Chairman Stu Bradbury said "It is a real privilege and honour to have Harry, such an important person in the development of hot rodding, to be able to attend the Gala Dinner and other exciting events we are planning for the daytime on 19th November. He has a fund of amazing stories about his experiences on the track and in publishing. Everyone should make sure that they are available for the whole day and book their tickets because they are going fast!" Ticket prices for the 2016 BDRHoF Gala Awards Dinner remain as last year at £60 per person. Corporate tables of ten are available at £580. For advance booking of tickets contact [email protected] or telephone Stu Bradbury on 01933 279102. SPR seeking slicks for sleds. 11th June: Ian Marshall writes that Santa Pod Raceway are seeking more used slicks for their sleds to help to prepare the strip before the SPRC Summernationals. "Because of the amount of work we are doing on the track, we are going through our supply of slicks at quite a rate of knots", says Ian. "We therefore need to keep our supplies up, so any help would be appreciated." If racers have any slicks which they no longer need then please get in touch with Ian [email protected] or on 01933 313625 and he will arrange collection. Ashdown's unreal weekend. 
10th June: UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Steve Ashdown found his first competitive outing in the class at the FIA / FIM Main Event a life-changing
experience. "It's the most thrilling and scary thing I have ever done", he told Eurodragster.com, "but even better than I thought it would be. It goes from one
extreme to the other: sitting next to Urs Erbacher thinking "I can't do this" and a few seconds later undoing my belts wanting to do it again. It was a brilliant
weekend with good weather and I got down the track a few times. I was only meant to licence as a birthday present then go home!"
Steve completed his licencing at the Pro Peak Performance Test and Tune with a 4.3250/247.74 before qualifying third for the race with a 4.1642/291.13 and making it to the semi-finals before an electrical problem shut the car off in the burnout. Steve said that he could not actually remember much about his runs, not at unusual statement to hear from a Fuel racer. "It's brutal on the body", he said. "Someone said to me that I should have done more time in the Super Pro ET car. But Rune Fjeld told me "Nothing can prepare you for what you are about to do" and he was one hundred per cent right. I could have done another two years in Super Pro ET and not been ready. Luckily I had the help of Gary Page, who was my rock. I kept calling him in the middle of the night with questions which probably sounded silly but he answered every one. I couldn't have done it without Gary, nor without Rune and Lindsay who gave me such a good car and so much good advice, nor without the crew of Krister, Luke, Jamie, Scott, Stig and Stanna. They were just brilliant." Steve was made very welcome in the Top Fuel pits. "Anita Mäkelä was the first over to wish me luck", he said. "Micke Kågered, Stefan Gunnarsson, they all helped to calm me down when I was crapping myself. To compete alongside people I have admired for years, to have them shake your hand and then you're sitting next to them in the lanes and on the track, it's quite an experience. I even got a compliment out of my team-mate Liam Jones! We have quite a rivalry but when it came down to it he wanted me to do well." Another unreal experience for Steve was the response of the fans. "I lost count of the autographs I had to sign, kids wanting photographs with me, the lovely comments I had after I did a video interview on Nitro FM", he said. "When I first said I was going to run at the Main Event Tog told me "Prepare to become a hero", Kathy Taylor and Darren Prentice both told me that things would change, and they were right! I didn't realise how big a thing it would be. The support from the bank and the stands, the guys at either end of the track, every single one of the Santa Pod Raceway staff made a beeline for me to wish me luck, which I really appreciated. The crew told me that when they went down the track to get me everyone on the bank and in the stands was clapping and cheering. It was unbelievable! 
"To think that I was frightened, worried, concerned about whether I could do it - and now I can't wait to get back in the car. I'm really looking forward to the European Finals.
I only wish I could afford to do more! I am talking to Rune about Santa Pod and maybe Hockenheim next year. I want to run some numbers this year then put together a portfolio
and try to get a few more sponsors so that I can race at Hockenheim. I love the NitrOlympX, it's by far the best meeting I have been to abroad.
"I want to say a huge Thank You to my sponsors Dave Robey, Robey Scaffolding, Scott Clark, Aerial Scaffolding, Barry and Stuart, Demon Inkoperation Tattoo Shop, Nick Kirk, Epic Integration, Matt Wright, Wobblebox Hire, Nathan and the lads at Rushden Graphics for the awesome wrap, Pete Walters for the wrap design and team shirts, and my good friend Richard Deevey. "The biggest thanks go to my family who have gone without holidays and everything so that I could run Top Fuel. I did mention running at Tierp next week but I'm getting married that Saturday so Tracy didn't think it was funny. On the other hand, every time I run a race car I have to decorate the house!" Steve's next race date is with his son, former Junior Dragster racer Tyler Ashdown who will be licencing in Super Comp at the Peak Performance Test and Tune Day at Santa Pod Raceway before the SPRC Summernationals. "Tyler is entered for the event but we'll see how the licencing goes and play it by ear", he said. Steve now has a Facebook page which you can check out for more. Junior Fun Day reminder. 10th June: Donna Finnegan writes with a reminder that Santa Pod Raceway's Junior Drag Racing Fun Day returns for its fourth year on Wednesday 31st August. For 2016 there is a sign-on fee of £20. Junior racers wishing to take part in the Junior Day will need to telephone the Santa Pod office on 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828) to book their race voucher. Entry forms (PDF format) can be downloaded by clicking here. Forms submitted without payment will result in the racer not being entered for the event. For 2016, Santa Pod's chosen charity is Harry's Rainbow, which is committed to supporting bereaved children and their families in Milton Keynes and the surrounding areas. For more information about the Junior Fun Day, please visit www.santapod.co.uk/e_junior_day.php. Swift snippets. 
10th June: The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com came with the words
"Aiming for the Summernats". If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at
[email protected].
It happens every two years or so and always turns out OK but it is currently the turn of racers in Norway to endure a nitro ban scare due to terrorism concerns. Discussions are underway between government and racing authorities and there seems to be a certain amount of optimism about the outcome. If your Norwegian is up to snuff then you can read more at www.nrk.no. In the middle of this week Malmö Raceway suffered an overnight fire in a service building. The fire damaged some vehicles and equipment, but this weekend's Test and Tune will be going ahead and will be webcast at www.ustream.tv/channel/malmo-raceway tomorrow and Sunday. Somewhat ironic given its name but our Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored Swap Meet does not actually have a Parts for Swap section, not least because we have never had a pure swap advertisement... that is until yesterday. Eurodragster.com reader Luke got in touch looking to swap his brand new roof-chopped Paul Bland Topolino shell, which doesn't even have its windows cut out, for an unchopped version of same for his Nostalgia project. If you can help then you can contact Luke on 07450 974381. A big Thank You from both Ian Messenger and Eurodragster.com to UK Super Comp (sic) racer Richie Webb who very quickly answered yesterday's plea for a drag slick for the historic Pegasus-Norton Drag Bike. "I had a reply from Richie within an hour of posting", says Ian. "He very kindly offered to sell us a slick from his uncompleted project. Within a few hours he had taken the slick off its rim and was arranging to send it over to us... amazing. Just shows the power of Eurodragster.com!" Good luck and stay safe to ex-pat UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Smax Smith, who is contesting this weekend's NHRA Summernationals in the Leverich family's Top Fueller, and to ex-pat UK Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences who is contesting this weekend's NHRA Lucas Oil Divisional race in Tulsa. You will be able to stay in touch with Smax' and Mike's progress on Drag Race Central at www.dragracecentral.com, and you will be able to get updates direct from Smax' pit on Facebook at Ant Hill Mob. Need Clevite bearings for Tierp? 
10th June: With less than a week to go to next week's Tierp Internationals, the second round of the FIA European Drag Racing
Championships, a reminder from Dick Koster of Eurodragster.com sponsor Post & Dros that
Racepak and MSD trackside support at the event will be available from Mats Brag's pit area.
Post & Dros Racing Engines & Parts are also the European distributor for Clevite bearings, with Mats Brag as their sub-dealer in Sweden. If racers want to order Clevite bearings for next week's race then please submit your order now as Post & Dros have to send Clevite orders to Mats Brag this coming Monday. You can contact Post & Dros through their web site at www.post-en-dros.nl. Editor's note: Many thanks to Remco Scheelings for passing this news item to us Web site updates. 10th June: Thanks to MSA British Drag Racing Championship PR Robin Jackson for letting us know that the official report on the Championship's second round, aka Pro Modified at last week's FIA / FIM Main Event, is available to read on its web site at www.msadragracing.co.uk. Kenneth Throndsen. 9th June: We were very sorry to hear from Lin Granlund of the death of Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen race official Kenneth Throndsen. Lin writes: Drag race heaven has a new star. On Tuesday came the incredibly sad news that Kenneth Throndsen has passed away after a short illness. Kenneth was arguably the most knowledgeable official in drag race in Norway. all organisers, officials and competitiors benefited from his knowledge. For years he was a monument, not only in Norwegian but also in European drag racing. He held numerous positions, both at home and abroad, and dedicated his life to drag racing. Kenneth was friends with everyone and worked faithfully on both the car and motorcycle sides. He was clearly an anchor of our sport. Kenneth can take a good share of the credit for the upgrade of Gardermoen Raceway. He sat on the court committee, and is behind many of the solutions applied. Therefore we were very pleased that Kenneth defied the disease and even got to see the state of the track a few days ago. This shows how much heart he had for the sport. Kenneth called us his drag racing family, now we unite in grief. Our thoughts and deepest sympathy go to his family. Rest in peace dear Kenneth! Kenneth's funeral will take place at 13:00 next Tuesday (14th) at Gjerdrum Kirke. Our deepest sympathies to Kenneth's family, friends and to NDRG. Help urgently sought for Pegasus return. 9th June: Ian Messenger has been in touch with the great news that the National Motorcycle Museum have asked Derek Chinn and Ian to run the historic Pegasus-Norton Drag Bike at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and at Dragstalgia next month. The bike was fired up for the first time in thirty five years last Friday and Ian reports that there are a few gremlins to sort out; however the team urgently need the assistance of Eurodragster.com readers to help them to run at Goodwood and Santa Pod Raceway. Ian says that the team need to get hold of an M&H 6/26/15" motorcycle slick. If you have one of these slicks which you would be willing to sell, or if you know where to find one, then please contact Ian on 01234 823905 or E-Mail [email protected]. Dutch Championship entry open. 8th June: Margot Schmidt writes with news of the return to Drachten of the Dutch Championship for 2016, two of whose events will be organised by Quartermile, 402 Events and Oliehandel.nl: By agreement with DHRA, KNMV and KNAF there will be four Pro events from which points won by various car and bike classes count for the Dutch Championship. We will organise The Main Event at Drachten on 22nd-24th July and the Weekend of Champions on 16th-18th September. Registration is now open for both the Championship and the events. Events organised by Quartermile are Open events to which all Pro and Junior classes are welcome to participate for points and prizes. You can find your classes on the entry forms. Points won in the following classes will count for the Dutch Championship 2016: Car classes Junior Dragster Pro ET Super Pro ET Bike classes Junior Drag Bike Super Street Bike Competition Bike Funny Bike Pro Stock Bike Entry fees are as follow:
We invite everyone to sign up and enjoy a great weekend with us. You can sign up at www.quartermileshow.com. See you at the races! Swift snippets. 8th June: Our good friend Benoit Pigeon writes that Sweden's Leanders Brothers tested their Top Methanol FC at the new Galot track in Benson, NC as well as appearing at the Mad Mule Pro Modified event. "The car wheelied a lot on the two passes I saw", says Benoit, "I think they were trying to fix that. They made a demo pass at Mad Mule and the car went up on the wheelie bar again. It hit hard or bounced further down track resulting in a major transmission damage. They checked the engine, but said that they did not find any damage there". Thanks to Benoit for the below pictures. 
Martin Ayton, Motor Vehicle Tutor at Carshalton College, has been in touch to thank all the staff of Santa Pod Raceway for making the College's students very welcome at the FIA / FIM Main Event. "We would also like to thank the Institute of the Motor Industry for organising our pit tours and the use of their VIP suite", says Martin. "The sixteen students and teaching staff Jim Darville, Elaine Simpson and I enjoyed the whole experience and we look forward to attending again in the future." Timing and stats guru Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe has decided that it is high time that he shared his spreadsheetosauruses showing qualifying positions, results and round wins for all FIA Championship events since 1996. We have added the tables to the Champions' Champions page which you can check out by clicking here or by clicking on the Champions' Champions link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Jordan's six-day weekend. 
8th June: FIA / FIM Main Event Lucas Oil Junior Dragster winner Jordan Payne has been in touch with a report on his
successful weekend at Santa Pod Raceway:
The Main Event started for the team on Wednesday, when we loaded up the car and towed down to Santa Pod Raceway to set up our camp for the weekend to come. When we arrived at the track and parked up next to the Wallaces, who had been generous enough to let us borrow one of their awnings for the event. I would like to thank the whole of the Wallace Motorsport team for lending us their awning, and also to congratulate Annie for reaching the semi-finals racing in Pro ET. After we put up the awning (under the strict instructions of Annie) and pulled the trailer along side it, we said goodbye and left the track so that I could get back home, ready for an exam-filled day at school on Thursday. After school on Thursday I was picked up straight from school to rush over to Santa Pod for the chance to scrutineer my car ready for Friday, the first day of qualifying. We arrived at the track at around 5 o'clock, so managed to get the car through scruitineering before the 6 o'clock deadline. We woke up early on Friday morning so that we arrived at the track at 8:00am, as soon as the gates opened. We drove straight round into the pits, unloaded the car from the trailer, and were ready for our first qualifying session. We were called round into the pairing lanes at 11:00. I was a bit too eager in this round of qualifying as it was the first time that I had been in the car since the APIRA Springspeed Nationals three weeks before. I pulled a -0.1 red, however knew that I had many more runs to improve my qualifying result. During the second qualifying session on Friday I pulled a 0.07 light improving my qualifying position and in the third improved further, putting myself into the number one qualifying position with a 0.023 reaction time. Although I was already in the number one qualifying position, a 0.02 light wouldn't keep me there for long. The fourth qualifying session took place at 3:00 pm on Friday. I pulled a 0.0005 perfect light, keeping me in the number one qualifying position. We had two more sessions on Friday, however I couldn't improve on my 0.0005 perfect light. The car ran very consistently all day on Friday running between 7.92 and 7.94. We were given another two qualifying sessions on Saturday, however I was not going to be able to improve on my current reaction time so instead used these qualifying runs as practice elimination rounds. I pulled a 0.03 light and also a 0.06 light, which is where I wanted to be leaving the line during my elimination rounds the next day. My 0.0005 light managed to keep me in the number one qualifying position, giving me a bye run in the first round of eliminations. As I had qualified number one, I was awarded a free drum of VP Racing Fuel by Darren Prentice on Saturday evening. I would like to thank Darren, Santa Pod and VP Racing Fuels for the drum of fuel, as it greatly contributes towards the funding of my racing. On Saturday we also watched the Pro cars take part in their first two rounds of qualifying. The racing was great, and I would like to congratulate Colin for once again providing great race commentary over the course of the weekend. 
The next day was Sunday, the first of the two elimination days. We arrived once again at 8:00 am just as the gates opened and drove round to the pits, unloaded the car and waited to be called down to the
pairing lanes. As the Professional classes get priority over the Sportsman classes, the first round of our eliminations didn't start until 5:30 pm. I had a bye in the first round, so took the opportunity to use it as
a dial-in run. I pulled a 0.02 light, however the weather was very muggy at this point of the day, so I ran a 7.96 on a 7.92 dial-in. The next elimination round took place soon after the first. I was against
up Thomas Cook-Abbott, who races the Tominator II dragster. We both pulled good lights, Tom pulled 0.06 and I pulled a 0.01, it was a very close race to the finish but I just managed to edge in
front to take the win, running a 7.93 on a 7.93 dial-in. This was the final elimination round of the day, meaning that I would need to wait until the next day to find out if I could progress any further.
Monday was finals day. After getting to the track early at 8:00 am again on Monday, hoping for an early round of eliminations, we sat around in our pit area until 4:00 pm. I was up against Roman Sixta from the Czech Republic in the third round of eliminations. I pulled a better light than Roman and caught him just before the finish to take the win, running a 7.94 on a 7.92 dial-in. Within half an hour of this previous run we were back out again. This time I was up against Billy Everitt, the previous owner of my car. After Billy tried to faze me by taking an age to move forward into stage, the lights came down and it was a green light drag race. Billy pulled a 0.07 light, I pulled a 0.06. Billy was ahead of me for the whole length of the track, there was no way I could catch him. It turned out that the reason that I couldn't catch him was because he was going too fast and he broke out, running a 7.96 on a 7.97 dial-in. This meant that I was in the final against the Championship leader Ruaridh Hart. Ruaridh and I pulled round to the start line at 6:30 on Monday evening to take part in the final of the Main Event. Ruaridh had dialled an 8.97, meaning that he would have over a second's head start on me. We both pulled away from the line with green lights. Ruaridh pulled a 0.07 and I pulled a 0.03. His car stayed ahead of mine throughout the length of the track until right near the finish where my higher mph kicked in, and I passed him to win the race on a hole-shot! The win margin was 0.01 of a second. It was always going to be a close race against Ruaridh, so I was quite excited! Congrats to Ruaridh for achieving his second podium position this season, he deserves it with the hard work that he put in last season to get his car into a consistent racing condition. After a six-day long weekend and a lot of hard work, I managed to claim the win at the Main Event, my first official points round victory. I am extremely happy with how the weekend went, claiming another 1010 points and having a lot of fun in the process. I would like to thank Mike Vickers, 'Fluff' from Windrush Roofing, who was crewing for Cannon in the Super Twin Bike pits over the weekend. Just before we towed down to the pairing lanes Fluff raced up to us on a bike and extended his sponsorship with me throughout the 2016 race season. I give him my thanks for continuing his support for the team and I, and hoped that he had an enjoyable weekend at the track. I would also like to thank all of my sponsors who are generously supporting me with my racing. Without them I would not be able to race, and great events such as last weekend would not be possible: Goodridge, Nimbus Motorsport, Cam Auto Developments, CTR Developments, Mantis Web, Windrush Roofing, WaspCam, Simon Cox Marketing Solutions and Curbishley Automotive. I would also like to thank all of my family, who stuck with me throughout the whole weekend sitting in the cold during the early morning and getting me suited and booted before getting into the car. I am very lucky and grateful to have such a supportive family. You can find out more about Jordan's racing and the Sticky Situation Junior Drag Racing Team on his Facebook page or on his web site at www.jordanpayne.co.uk. Funny Car Summer adjourned. 
7th June: Tuner Rob Loaring writes that the five-second Garlick and Antoniou Apache Nostalgia Fuel
Funny Car is going to have to sit out its next couple of planned appearances after it suffered rear axle damage at the Festival of Power:
We spent the last four or five weeks rebuilding the axle case, but it appears that the manufacturer has recently dropped a number of key components from its product line. In short, this has left the Apache Funny Car team with something of a dilemma. If we patch things up and then run into trouble next year we'll almost certainly have to switch axle designs, and if it doesn't happen next year then it's going to happen some time. So, whilst other teams are either finishing up their builds, rebuilding or testing, we feel that it's best to do the work now. Unfortunately, the earliest we can get the car back on the jig at ICE Automotive at Silverstone is the second week in July. This means that we'll have to skip both the SPRC Summernationals and Dragstalgia. It's pretty disappointing but that's life. With the new axle fitted the car will almost certainly end up heavier but hopefully we should still have decent pace. We'll be testing again in August and hopefully have things back on course for the UK National Finals - see you there. Swift snippets. 7th May: We are indebted to Palle Lind for forwarding us the post-FIA / FIM Main Event points standings in the FIM Europe Drag Bike Championships. You can check out the latest points on our OCS Paint-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the OCS Paint Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Many thanks to Yvonne Tramm and our own Simon for providing us with the post-FIA / FIM Main Event points standings in the UK National and SPRC Championships. Again you can check out the latest points on our OCS Paint-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the OCS Paint Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Thanks also to Ian Marshall for sending the final version of the official entry list for the SPRC Summernationals, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 25th-26th June. You can check out the entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Vacancy at Chris Isaacs Race Cars. 6th June: Following the move to a new, bigger shop in Wickford, Essex a few months ago, Eurodragster.com sponsor Chris Isaacs Race Cars is now in a position to add another fabricator to the staff. Chris writes: The prospective candidate will ideally have some relevant fabrication experience in steel, stainless and aluminium, and be able to TIG weld. Having said that, we understand that unless you have already worked in a chassis shop you probably won't have tackled everything we would do here. We also might be interested in a trainee but you should at least have a grounding in racing of some sort. Non-smoker absolutely preferred! Full time or part time OK, pay is dependent on talent and experience. In the shop at any time is a wide variety of projects from street to strip to circuit, and we handle anything from a simple bracket to full, ground-up turn-key builds. For the suitable candidate, this is an excellent opportunity to be at the heart of the race car construction industry. If you think you might be interested then please get in touch with us preferably via E-Mail at [email protected]. Swift snippets. 6th June: Although Swedish Pro Modified racer Micke Gullqvist had a moment or two to forget before making the final of the FIA / FIM Main Event, our good buddy Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe tells us that congratulations are due to Micke as his first round victory over Hussain Al Shammari made him the fifth FIA European Championship racer in history, and the first FIA Pro Mod racer, to record 100 round wins. Micke ended the event with 102 round wins. As well as Micke the other four racers to exceed 100 round wins are Jimmy Ålund (Pro Stock) 126, Michael Malmgren (Pro Stock) 115, Micke Kågered (Top Fuel Dragster / Top Methanol FC) 109, and Leif Andréasson (Top Methanol FC) 105. Many thanks to Ian Marshall for sending Version 6 of the official entry list for the SPRC Summernationals, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 25th-26th June. You can check out the entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Version 6 of the SPRC Summernationals entry list confirms Sunday's Swift Snippet, to whit that the Havoc altered will be making its first test outing with its new nitro-fuelled motor at the event. Support for Scottie. 6th June: We have received the following statement from the Wild Bunch in support of racer Scottie Durrant. You know what to do folks... Very recently our good friend, fellow Wild Bunch racer and all-round top bloke Scottie Durrant has been diagnosed with cancer. Scot's wife Gina shared this terrible news on his behalf. Gina's message read: "Hi everyone, Scottie has asked me to write this on his behalf... "I'm going to keep this short n neat! You may have been wondering what the hell is going on with me changing my profile pictures on Facebook. "Over Easter weekend I did not feel well at all. I carried on working over the next few weeks until I booked a doctors appointment. I was given painkillers for a bad shoulder. Another 2 visits to the docs later after losing weight and feeling exhausted, blood tests and chest x-ray my GP admitted me to hospital on Monday 9th of May when finding my liver had enlarged massively. I spent the week in there having more blood tests, ultra sounds and a CT scan and various medications. "On May 12th, with Gina by my side, we were told I have cancer of the bowel which has spread to my right lung and my liver, the liver being the most affected. We left hospital on the Friday in a bit of a mess but with hope. "On Tuesday 17th we were asked to visit the Berkshire Cancer Centre to talk about Chemo treatment which I will have 12 sessions over 6 months. "The downside is we were also told we are dealing with a terminal cancer. This treatment will only prolong my life, not cure. "Over the last few weeks I've had great support from Gina, family, friends and neighbours. "As I'm sure you can imagine we are deeply shocked and devastated and we are trying our best to deal with this the best we can. We decided to use Facebook to share our news as it preserves our time and energy spent on phones, time and energy we need to fight this as long as we can. "I ask of you all to stay positive, look up and don't look down, and with everyone's support we can hopefully get through this. Thank you. Scottie, Gina and Family xx" Gina has created a facebook page called Support Our Scottie. It's the perfect place for all of their friends and the racing community to share pictures, funny stories, words of love and encouragement to keep them going through this difficult time. The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive, so much so that answering individual messages is challenging but being able to keep in touch through this page gives them the chance to save their much-needed energy to fight this beast. Scottie is a very popular chap so you will be pleased to hear there are a few different initiatives going on to help make some of his wishes come true. It is one of Scot's wishes that Gina drive their beloved coupe-bodied Tiki Munki at Dragstalgia. There is a working party already on with turning this into a reality. To make things easier, we are hoping to arrange an RV for them to stay in on site at Santa Pod for that event. If there is anyone out there who can help us with that quest please get in touch. The Wild Bunch and the drag racing family are already rallying round to raise funds to help support Scottie and his family with collections held at Shakespeare County Raceway and a number of future fund raising plans on the horizon. We're organising a raffle (prize donations very welcome) which we will be selling tickets for up until the draw at Dragstalgia, cake sales, chocolate bingo, colouring books and whatever else we can think of! We will have some donation buckets in the Wild Bunch pits for anyone wanting to contribute to the fighting fund and would be very grateful to hear from any racers willing to have donation buckets in their pits during Summer Nationals and European Finals. Tom Larman will be continuing to run his Support Our Scottie Bring and Buy stall at race events where anyone is able to donate items to sell / buy items for sale with the proceeds going direct to Scot and Gina. Tom can be contacted via Facebook for further details. Nick Connor has created The Shot for Scot community so be sure to check out that Facebook page to see where they will be next! We cannot express the extent of our gratitude to everyone for their generosity so far. It's very humbling and we appreciate every penny raised. I will steal a quote from Steve Cassisi who wrote recently "Lindness, compassion, friendship and support are not obligatory but are more than apparent within our drag racing community". Scottie and Gina are truly grateful and the funds will make a massive difference to the way this young family are able to cope with what they are facing. The support means so very much to them. If there is anyone who would prefer to donate electronically then please contact Sarah on [email protected] and she will share the details. We are trying our best to avoid any commission or processing charges which rules out some easier options such as Justgiving but we want to ensure Scot and Gina receive all of the donations in full. A massive thank you to everyone for their support. We are all here for you Scot and Gina. We are willing to do anything we can to help you fight this. All welcome at North Weald tomorrow. 4th June: Damian Burke writes that the second event of the season takes place at North Weald Airfield tomorrow and that if the huge turnout at the opening event is anything to go by then it should be a very busy day both on and off the drag strip: The action on the track will as usual be headed up by the Top 8 cars eliminator and Fast 8 bikes but there is also an eliminator for Front Wheel Drive cars as well as a V8 group featuring the Taz Racing team. The regular Test'n'Tune will take place at a fee of £25 for both cars and bikes. Signing on is limited to 200 entries on a first come basis, so getting there early is essential as the field soon fills. Helmets are required for all as well as jackets with armour and boots for bike riders. Helmets are helmets available on loan for drivers without their own. Away from the track there are club displays featuring Mercedes, Skyline and many Modified groups... over 400 attended the opening event .There are trophies up for grabs in the Show'n'Shine top five, Best Club, Interior and Engine Bay. Catering outlets are on site as well as a licenced bar and trade stands, and there is stuff for the kids too. Entry to North Weald is still only £10 and free for under-14s. North Weald Airfield is located just off the A414, close to Junction 7 of the M11 (postcode CM16 6HR). With the weather looking good for tomorrow it should be a good turn-out for some grass-roots drag racing. Jade Race gains NEAFP status. 
4th June: André Martens writes that this year's
Jade Race, which takes place at Mariensiel Airfield, Wilhelmshaven, Germany on
15th-17th July, is for the first time an event held under National A (NEAFP) and EU Open (FIM Europe) sanction:
Starting as a street race, the Jade Race has developed into more of a pure motorsport event year by year. In collaboration with DHRA the street racers were gradually introduced to regulations and to the motorsport code of conduct. For the last two years the employees of Jade Race have attended the DMSB Academy in Germany in order to qualify to organise drag races to professional motorsport event standards. On this basis the Jade Race has now been officially certified as a motorsport event by DMSB. Besides the NitrOlympX at Hockenheim and the Grand Nationals in Bechyne the Jade Race is the third race officially advertised by DMSB. The following classes are invited to the Jade Race:
For this event DMSB a driver licence or the respective ASN license from the driver's country of origin is required for all classes. Those who have no licence, may purchase a DMSB day license from the on-line shop or at the race office. The licence required for each class can be found at www.jade-race.com/?page_id=2198. All vehicles must be authorised for public road use (06 and 07) or must hold a DMSB (ASN) log book. The log book is necessary for the following classes:
Entry and the ticket shop can be found at www.jade-race.com/?page_id=2157 and ticket prices can be found at www.jade-race.com/?page_id=2164. Bring me my chariot... 4th June: Longtime Eurodragster.com supporter Steve Young has been in touch with the great news of the return to the track of a historic UK dragster: 
In the early 1970s a very talented fabricator named Mick Pearce put together ¼ Chariot, one of the very
earliest UK-built rear-engined dragsters. It was powered by an Alfa Romeo sixteen-valve twin-cam and was campaigned
in the old Junior Dragster class (If you're not an old fart like us that that's more or less Pro ET - Ed). The
dragster had many unique features such as a VW Type 2 steering box and a VW transaxle with Hewland internals. Mick
campaigned the car until 1978 when the fragility of the Alfa power unit decided him to retire the car from racing.
A racing enthusiast from Southampton named Ian Coulsell, who had helped Mick, jumped at the chance to purchase this little machine. He did however decide to ditch the troublesome Alfa engine and decided to try the two-litre OHC Ford Pinto engine. He christened the car Blue Demon but before he could début the revamped car an addition to the family, in the shape of Louis Coulsell, meant that the budget was stretched too far and he reluctantly sold the car and donated the power plant to my own Autocat slingshot. Ian crewed with me for several years and when I called it a day in 1995 he continued his involvement with Mark Coulsell who had purchased my last slingshot and raced under the Limited Funz banner. Ian also encouraged his grandsons Harley in Junior Dragster and Morgan in his tot rod. 
In 2015 the rear-engined dragster surfaced, looking a little sorry for itself having sat outside for many years.
A fellow Wild Bunch racer, Alan Skipp, asked some questions on racing forums; Ian contacted Alan and a deal was
done to bring the car back to Southampton after a gap of thirty five years.
The dragster was stripped and refurbished and a new Ford engine was built and installed. Unfortunately the dragster is not up to current MSA specs and is limited to RWYB events. At the grand old age of 69, and after close to fifty years in the sport, Ian has finally got to run up the quarter mile in his own car. Some gearbox issues slowed the dragster to fourth gear-only runs but a 15.23/98 shows promise. Three generations of Coulsells now compete with son Mark in Ballbreaker slingshot, Harley in the Bandit Junior Dragster, and Morgan in the Tot Rod. So, as you can see, a family of petrolheads! The next outing is Dragstalgia. Swift snippets. 4th June: Sweden's globetrotter Adam Flamholc will soon be travelling to Russia to support the new owners of one of his Pro Mods. Lena Perés tells us that you can read more about Adam's Russian adventure on the Drag Racing Europe Blog at www.dragracingeurope.eu. Further to Thursday's snippet about copyright theft, and the last word on this subject for the time being unless anyone else fancies a ruck, we draw readers' attention to the following notices which were clearly in place before last weekend's race, which always have been in place, and which always will be in place. There is of course only one guaranteed way to prevent theft of our webcasts, reports, pictures and other work; we'll leave the clever readers to work that one out. 
Good luck and stay safe to ex-pat UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Smax Smith who is contesting this weekend's NHRA New England Nationals in the Leverich family's Top Fueller. You will be able to stay in touch with Smax' progress on Drag Race Central at www.dragracecentral.com and on Facebook at Ant Hill Mob. We understand that one of the prospective stars of Dragstalgia is planning what is described as "A dress rehearsal" at the SPRC Summernationals. We will bring you more on this when we receive it. Shaky success. 4th June: UK Top Methanol Dragster racer Rod Harrison has been in touch with a report on the FIA / FIM Main Event weekend of the NUA, Willow Transport Solutions and RKS Motorsport-sponsored team: 
We arrived at Santa Pod for the first round of FIA Top Methanol Dragster Championship on Wednesday evening.
The crew arrived during Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday ready for our first assault on pro racing!
The car passed scrutinering with flying colours and we were ready.
We had fitted new 36" tall tyres for the Main Event to try to improve our top end speed. Big mistake! We shook the tyres in every qualifying run, so for the first round of eliminations against Chris Polidano's Kalanc Racing A/Fuel Dragster we switched back to our old 34½" tyres and tune-up from Easter. Chris was on a stormer and beat us fair and square in a proper drag race with an outstanding 5.29/263 but the biggest cheer came from us! 5.79/237 and we smashed both of our previous PBs. We learned a lot and came out smiling. It was a weekend we will never forget, Thank You to everyone who supported us especially our sponsors NUA Motors, Willow Transport Solutions, Quick Drive Racing, Jeff Bull Race Engines and Post en Dros. Our next adventure is Hockenheim. As always a massive Thank You to our crew Tash, Lisa, Andy, Abby, Jacko, Lee, Jonno and Sam. Also a huge thanks to Dave Wilson for parts and advice, and to Camp Stanley for his advice and knowledge. Nervously to number one. 
4th June: UK Super Comp racer Paul Watson's first outing of the season was at last
weekend's FIA / FIM Main Event. Grumpy got in touch to let us know how it went:
On the Thursday I had help from Andy Haley and Jose Souto as Kim was working until the Saturday. We fired it up for the first time on Thursday then went into qualifying feeling a little nervous as it had been a while. Lucky settings gave us a 8.907 good enough for third place after our first qualifier. We then made a few changes both up and down running 8.83 and 8.92s which gave us a good baseline. Pixie joined us on Saturday morning and sorted the predictions. I got a bit nervous after Paul Hudson crashed in my lane in front of me (See below - Ed) but the Santa Pod crew as always were the best. In the last session against Conrad Stanley we managed number one spot with an 8.904 - to say that Super Comp is getting tough is an understatement! WWe had a great race with Billy Gane in the first round of eliminations and couldn't stop laughing as Dave was on my case before the race, but a great team to race win or lose. We had a bye next round and tried a little something but ran too quick - the track was catching us out. We went in to the quarter finals against Pete Creswell who is always on his game, but alas it was payback time. Pete had a 0.02 light to my 0.04 then a double breakout, neither of us knew who had it had won as it was so close. Pete went on to win the meeting so well done Team Creswell. A special mention for Aaron Springford who joined us for the weekend as it was his 17th birthday, so Happy Birthday Aaron, and a special Thank You to his dad Gary who offered the use of his van as we had no way of getting the race car to the track. As always a big Thank You to my team without whose help it would not be possible. The car is for sale and I have had some interest so this could possibly be our last race - I will keep you informed. Early to bed, early to rise. 4th June: UK Outlaw Anglia racer Colin Millar decided to race rather than spectate at the FIA / FIM Main Event. Although running to dial-in rather than heads-up Colin had a ball: 
The Main Event is the one event to which the Flyin Fyfers always go down and spectate, relax, have a few beers, sit on the bank and
make a nuisance of ourselves. However this year with Scott Crookston in the seat at all the Outlaw Anglia events I saw a wee window of opportunity
to get back in the seat for four whole days. In went the entry form and we were in a thirty eight-car field in Super Pro ET, probably the hardest class
in which you can be involved with some real hardened racers with a lot of experience - and of course a lot of those long cars with no doors!
Thursday night came and we all finished work and off we went, made good time and arrived just before midnight. Up at 6:30 and signed on and scrutineered at seven. Everything was good and we had five runs out of six during a day in which I was trying to get a handle on that funny light sequence. The very first time I ran at Hockenheim I was away on the first amber with Scott my then Crew Chief just shaking his head and walking away in dismay, however as the day progressed we started to get a handle on the car. The last run of the day was sabotaged by Ginner as he helped me to put my wheelie bars on very early in the morning and made me forget to tighten up a bolt. Lesson learned: don't talk to Ginner before 10 am! Saturday was a good day again dialling the car in and actually starting to guess a bit better. The air quality was measured by sticking my tongue out, being bumped in the middle section gave me Pod Face but it great to be around everybody on the Bank. We were very well behaved all weekend, honest, and got up early on Sunday. I had done quite well by running a 8.47 on a 8.45 dial in which gave us number twenty two position on the qualifying ladder, pretty stiff competition when you looked at the numbers being run. Into eliminations, first up Chris Parker and I was already tidying up my pit to pack up the car on my return, Chris ran a red and I ran a 8.4732 on an 8.47 dial-in, well chuffed unlike Chris! Next up Mark Flavell, it was getting on a bit and my tongue sensed a colder air so I dialled in an 8.44 and ran an 8.47 with Mark blowing the tyres away I think. Sunday night and I was still in, how could that be? I called for a wee celebration as we were not out until mid-day on Monday but I was still in bed by 9:30, honest! So its Monday and it's Race Day, whooooo hooooooo, I had Pete Lane and it was all a new experience and I was just loving every minute of it. Off we went and Pete rans a cherry, I just saw it out the corner of my eye and away I went with a -0.0039 reaction dialling in an 8.44 and running an 8.4482. By this time I was on top of the world, imagine - me in the semi-finals, must be dreaming or maybe I was just 'Living the Dream' again ! 
Up again and it was two of those long cars with no doors, Billy Gane, and me in the semi-finals. I got Ian Powell who is a really good racer. I even looked
back at the timesand the tongue was out again (must be getting very technical now). The conditions were pretty much the same as the last run so
we thought let's be having you with a 8.44. Off we went and I went and broke out running a 8.4393, seven bleeding thousandths of a second. Ah well
I loved every minute of it and met some great people old and new, and I even got some money sent into my bank account... I reckon it got me up to
Manchester so can't complain.
Big huge thanks to my crew, Scott Crookston, Lynn Purvis and my BUG for the weekend Nicole Wardrobe, have to buy a new set of yellow boots for her as the zip burst far too early on! Regrets, I have very few but I would have to loved to have run with Billy in the final, two door cars side-by-side with big huge burnouts. You can't buy that, maybe next time Billy! Take care everybody, can't wait to all catch up again soon. We're running in Outlaw Anglia at the Nostalgia Nationals at Shakey at the same time as the Summernationals... I wonder sometimes at people, we've only got two tracks, don't get me started (Look on the bright side Colin, had we paid attention to the dolts on Facebook over the winter then SCR would be long closed by now - Ed). Erbacher: Space for rent. 4th June: Swiss Top Fuel Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher says that the team had a good weekend at the FIA / FIM Main Event even though Urs made a first round exit. Urs adds that there is room going spare in a container leaving Indy near the end of the month: We raced a new car, the Hadman Chassis which Noah used and which was last raced in Abu Dhabi in 2011. We had a brand new fuel system with AJ valves with a new fuel pump built by the Lagana gang Bobby, Dom and Stewy. We raced a brand new clutch head donut. So it was hard to find a set up. 
We had problems with the injector springs which were too loose. So when I put my foot on the gas pedal before staging my idle went up to seven gallons and richened up the engine before I hit the pedal. So the engine idle was too rich and at the hit we lost a cylinder. That meant that with only 9000 hp the clutch didn't work correctly and pulled the motor down and we ended up smoking the tyres after 300 feet. That cost us the all of qualifying. We fixed that and in the first round of eliminations one of our magneto clamps started to loosen after the burnout and the ignition went backwards, down to 42 degrees before I hit the gas pedal so we didn't have the right horsepower and we ended up smoking the tyres. I pedalled it three times because Liam was having the same problems with the cold track. Liam pedalled it better and he took the win. 
We ran the whole weekend with the same engine and heads, so the car is serviced and ready to race out of the trailer at Tierp. We have a forty-foot container in at Anthony Dicerio's place in Indy to bring Jndias A/Fue/ler to Hockenheim. So if anybody has any heavy stuff to bring here then we can share the container. It is there until 26th June. If you are interested then please contact me at [email protected]. If you want a good price on ferries then please contact our sponsor JH Ferry GmbH. JH Ferry's Managing Director Tobias Jaursch will make you a good deal. You can contact Tobias at [email protected]. Hudson's thanks. 4th June: UK Super Comp racer Paul Hudson has been in touch to thank everyone who came to his aid after his top end crash in qualifying at the FIA / FIM Main Event: I would like to say a huge Thank You especially to the paramedics, doctors and fire crews who got me out of the car, the hospital staff at Bedford General who sorted me very quickly - once they had got over the fact that I'd hit a wall at 140 mph and was talking to them when I was wheeled in! To my crew Jordan and Connor who came to the hospital as soon as they could and kept the family at home fully informed of my condition (which was as high as a kite on morphine for a few hours). To show their dedication, one of the first questions they asked me when they knew I was OK was whether they could crew for me when I get the new car. Then they went and got themselves locked in the hospital car park before going home. To everyone at the track who put money in the tin a huge Thank You. I collected a substantial amount (I don't know how much as I haven't finished counting it yet) which will go a long way to finance the new project. Finally, Thank You to all the racers, pit marshals and webcam viewers (yes Jerry, you) who offered help in any way whether it was to put me in touch with cars for sale, to carry me around, give me a hug, or even drive the lorry home. It just goes to show that although we are competitive on race day we are all part of the family of drag racing and I can never repay all the kindness that was showered on me, thank you all. As for the car, it seems that the transmission locked up as I lifted at the finish line, this then locked up the back wheels - that was the smoke you saw - and I was then driving an ice skate. It spun into the barrier and left the driver's side door firmly pinned into the wall. As my back was hurting it was decided to cut off the roof and lift me out the car. Although the car has now been retired I am absolutely fine, if a bit sore and stiff, and I will be back racing with a new vehicle as soon as I can. Ålund's dominant start. 4th June: Swedish Pro Stock racer and multiple FIA European Champion Jimmy Ålund started the 2016 season with a bang as he dominated the qualifying sessions as well as the final eliminations and won the FIA / FIM Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway, not only a classic place for drag racing but it one of the top-performing asphalt tracks in the world. 
Jimmy had the quickest ETs and fastest speeds in all four qualifying sessions and marched through eliminations
with Elapsed Times and speeds unmatched by the competition.
"Yes, it was a very good start", said Jimmy. "We won here a year ago, we're very happy about the relative performance and the consistency. We would have liked to gone into the 6.4 second range, the start line was excellent but downtrack was a little bit tricky". In the final run against reigning champion Thomas Lindström, Jimmy put a 6.458 second run on the boards. Jimmy explained "There was a glitch with the timing over the first sixty feet. That number would have been 0.003 off of Jason Line's record in NHRA but not this time. We will eventually get there with the help of KB Racing who keeps providing us with the best engines in the sport". The Jimmy Ålund Pro Stock Racing Team got their main sponsor Summit Racing into the winners' circle once again, and Jimmy would like to express his gratitude to all of his sponsors: Viking Industrimålning, Exclusive Cars, Sverigedemokraterna, KB Racing, Camaroskroten, Tradepac, POs Harley Davidson, All American AB, CFM, Vadstena Klosterhotel, Stigs Axle and Parts, Hydraulakuten, VP Racing Fuel, and X Parts. The next event for the Jimmy Ålund Pro Stock Racing Team is the second race of the 2016 FIA Pro Stock Championship series, the Sweden Internationals at Tierp Arena in Sweden. Pro Stock qualifying starts on Friday morning, 17th June. A close thing in Super Pro ET. 4th June: Our good buddy Markus Münch writes that the Super Pro ET Challenge is in full swing: The Wide Open Spring Nationals in Rivanazzano in Italy featured a very healthy entry of twenty five teams. Italian, Swiss, German and French teams fought for the win of which thirteen are contesting the Challenge. 
In the end Mike Bruckmüller took the win over fellow Swiss Nicole Rechsteiner. Robert Gassner and Max Longo were the other semi-finalists. The margin of victory in the final round was 0.012 seconds, a close one. It was a good event which had the MSTO Timing Crew under Jerry Lackey as timekeepers for the first time. The next race at Rivanazzano will be the legendary Hillsrace on the first weekend in September featuring drag racing, Harley meet and Air-cooled meet in a smooth late summer Italian atmosphere with live bands in the evening. The AMP do a great job putting on events. Marc Henney collected points at the Main Event but went out in the first round so didn't collect many points. Mike Bruckmüller leads the Challenge followed by Nicole Rechsteiner, Robert Gassner and Florian Übel followed by fifteen other drivers. This weekend they are fighting for points in Bechyne, CZ. We would like to thank our sponsors for their support: MSTO, Schumann Motorsport, Beat Rechsteiner, Turboscheune.com, Ehrismann AG, Mike Bruckmüller-Team '74, Eisenhauer KFZ Service and Hillbilly Hellfire Racing. Pictures courtesy and ©Roland Schenker Web site updates. 4th June: Lorcan Parnell has been in touch to let us know that the official Blog of the Storm Funny Bike team has been updated with a report from the FIA / FIM Main Event. You can check it out at www.stormdragbike.co.uk. The latest update to our good buddy Alan Currans' excellent Acceleration Archive is a gallery of Saturday's action from last weekend's Yanks Weekend / Gary's Picnic at Shakespeare County Raceway. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest updates via the What's New link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. The Mad Welshman has updated his Flickr site with a gallery of shots from the Sunday of the recent Late Spring Madness Public Track Day at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can take a look at Mad's pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/the_madwelshman. Mike Collins tells us that the latest issue of American Autoparts news includes Ramblin' on FIA Top Fuel Dragster in 2015 and the last quarter-mile Top Fuel event at Santa Pod Raceway in 2011. You can take a look (PDF format) at www.americanautoparts.co.uk/pdf/news_june.pdf. Cool it with VP. 
4th June: Eurodragster.com sponsor VP Racing
Fuels have introduced a new, improved formula for VP Cool Down, its popular coolant performance improver for high-performance radiator systems.
Now included in VP's portfolio of VP Madditive performance chemicals, Cool Down decreases cylinder head temperatures up to 50°F!
"Cool Down increases coolant flow for better heat transfer while lubricating all the vital components without the crystallization you find with other coolant additives" said Bruce Hendel, Director of Sales-Consumer Products. "It won't harm radiators or water pumps and it's approved by most race sanctioning bodies. Cool Down is safe for all radiator systems. It's ideal for racing, street, RV and tow vehicle applications, and like all VP's products it's formulated by the Mad Scientist with the same leading technology and passion for performance that we bring to our race fuels." One 16 oz bottle of Cool Down treats cooling systems of 12-20 quarts. For systems over 20 quarts, one ounce of Cool Down is required for each additional quart. For straight water applications, an additional 50% more Cool Down is recommended while diesel applications require twice the normal amount. Treatments last for one year or 30,000 miles, whichever comes first. For more information or to identify the nearest dealer contact the nearest VP Regional Distribution Centre, all of which are listed on-line at www.vpacingfuels.com. Technical questions can be directed to VP Tech Support at +1 812-878-2025 or to [email protected]. Event entry update. 2nd June: Entry is still open for the UK National Drag Racing Championship rounds of 8.50 Bike and 9.50 Bike and the APIRA rounds of ET Bike / NAST and Supertwin Gas taking place at Shakespeare County Raceway's Street Drags Public Track Weekend on 11th-12th June. You can download the official entry forms from SCR's web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. Many thanks to Ian Marshall for sending Version 5 of the official entry list for the SPRC Summernationals, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 25th-26th June and which is a round of the MSA British Drag Racing Championship, UK National Drag Racing and ACU UK Drag Bike Championships, Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Championships and a demonstration round for Nostalgia Super Stock. Click here to check out the entry list or click on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Entry closes on Saturday (4th) after which entry, if accepted, will be subject to a Late Entry penalty. You can download the official entry forms on the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. FIA/FIM Main Event wrap-up. 2nd June: As Chairman of the FIA Stewards Group at the Main Event Phil Evans has been in touch to congratulate everybody connected with the race meeting for their hard work and expertise which produced a wonderful event that has given the 2016 Championships the best possible start. "Special mention should be made to the Medical and Emergency crews who handled several difficult situations with huge skill and dedication", says Phil. "Well done competitors, SPRC and SPR officials and all those people on the bank and in the grandstand who showed their appreciation of the great motor racing they witnessed." Mark Cook-Abbott got in touch to say a big Thank You to all of the Junior teams who offered to help Thomas Cook-Abbott's Tominator Junior Dragster to get back on the track after the engine problem at Race, Rock'n'Ride. "A big Thank You to Lee Darby and to Mark Coulsell for the offer of engines, Ian Marshall and Martin Moor for the offer of a car to drive, and to Bob Wallace for putting an identical engine in the car on Tursday and Wednesday night to get the car to the start line on Friday", says Mark. UK Pro Modified racer Mick Payne asked us say a big Thank You to Matt Wright of Eurodragster.com sponsor Wemoveyourcar.com for providing transport for his Camaro to the Main Event. "If anyone needs any vehicles moved then contact Matt for a professional and friendly approach for your individual needs", says Mick. "Thanks again to Matt and his team." Many thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for sending us the official timing data from the Main Event. You can check out the Main Event timing data by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page Thanks also to Andy Marrs for forwarding us a new table of European and UK Bests and Santa Pod Raceway track records including the European records set at the Main Event by Kevin Kent, Ian King and Steve Venables and the track records set by Jonny Lagg, Kevin Kent and Samu Kemppainen. You can take a look at the new records by clicking here or by clicking on the European and UK Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Our good buddy Remco Scheelings has posted two Main Event reports on the Autosport.nl web site. As ever there is a race report and an off-track report, both of which are excellent and well-illustrated for those who don't understand Dutch. You can check out Remco's race report by clicking here and the off-track report by clicking here. Chris Eyre has posted a gallery of Sunday's Main Event action on his Eurodragpics site at www.eurodragpics.com/galleries/2016/main-event. "I would like to thank all the Eurodragster.com staff for their hard work over the weekend (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed), and Santa Pod Raceway for the Web TV", says Colin. Chris Eyre and Colin Donisthorpe were the first but many thanks to all those who got in touch to alert us to the illegal recording of our Webster Race Engineering / Nimbus Motorsport webcast posted on YouTube - this despite the fact that the culprit must have clicked through the agreement not to do so to get to the webcast in the first place. Particularly galling were the facts that the clip posted was of Roger Johansson's crash and that the culprit claimed to have posted the clip to try to do some good for drag racing. That particular kleptomanic and mendacious tit-head's tail is now between his legs and we will not hesitate to pursue anyone else who steals our work. Swift snippets. 2nd June: We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to Allard Chrysler Action Group member and Eurodragster.com Team Nutritionist Syd McDonald. Have a great day Syd and thanks again for all the delicious lunches and excellent company at the weekend. Editor's note. 2nd June: After a couple of days' break we sat down to post today's news at lunchtime only to discover that we had no access to transfer files to the web server. Consequently we are now a day behind with our news updates; we will catch up tomorrow and Saturday so stay tuned for news from (in order of receipt) Paul Watson, Rod Harrison, Colin Millar and Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher, more web site updates, and more. We still have room, though, so please keep the news coming to [email protected]. Earlier news |
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