The good, the bad, and the ugly. 30th April: UK Top Methanol Funny Car racer Steph Milam's Easter Thunderball started off badly, got better, but then got a lot worse: Our new piston rings were not bedding and giving us a very smoky engine. There was even more smoke on the second try to see if they would settle and with many raised eyebrows all round, Dave decided to take the engine apart. So a late night was had by all, Dave, Dan and Aaron stripping down the motor and Nick and I going home for more rings, some of which were found nestling in a friend's trophy cabinet. Very early Saturday morning we were up finishing the motor and after a normal smokeless warm-up we went out and ran a 6.39 first pass, not bad for having six months off. It was then followed with a leisurely 8.10 as I had a throttle problem. Sunday morning throttle sorted and a very nice 6.20 but off it at 1000 feet. For the next run we decided it needed a little perking it up so we added a bit of ignition at start and got our best sixty foot time of the weekend. That’s when it started to get ugly. I couldn’t get traction in second and top, and as it went through the traps there was a very loud bang. The guys on the start line saw the burst panel go up then heard the bang, by that time I was coasting to a stop with all the new safety equipment performing as it should - chutes out, fuel and ignition off. The worst bit was that both front and side screens had broken so we were done for the weekend. A big Thank You to our Sponsors NGK Spark Plugs, Torco Oil and newly-signed VP Racing Fuels all of whom certainly helped our performance. A weekend with Mrs Grumpy. 30th April: After her vicissitudes before the Easter Thunderball with the dishonest RV "specialist" who was most definitely not Eurodragster.com sponsor Gold RV, and having spent two hours in traffic when collecting a hired diesel transit to tow Rick McCann's car, UK Pro ET racer Carla Pittau was still exceedingly grumpy when the Heaven & Hell operation got to Santa Pod on the Thursday night, and could only bark a crabby "Hello" at team members Dave and Christine Buckland as they welcomed her to the pits. But Carla writes that things changed dramatically over the course of the event: The weather turned out to be even better than the forecast and ended up rivalling the US Nationals in sunshine and heat. Our engines weren't quite as delighted with the heat and slowed down quite a bit, mine by over 0.3 seconds and Rick's by 0.15 or so as the density altitude climbed to an unheard-of 2800 feet. Traction, however, was another matter altogether. My car loved the new traction compound and gripped well at every launch, producing several wheelies in which I cut the sixty foot beam with the rear wheels. On Monday, with a better density altitude, the launches become even more interesting and ended up producing a fantastic 150-foot wheelie, going higher up than I'd ever gone. That was in the second round of eliminations, when cooler air and start line preparation joined forces to give me a great ride. There was a point at which I felt as if I was floating, and could only see the red of the bonnet, the sky having disappeared over my head, and as I shifted gear in mid-air I felt the car pushing further, carrying the wheels in a graceful arc and then coming down gently and bouncing a couple of times, at the same time hearing a voice screaming "Yeee Haaaaw" and vaguely perceiving the voice to be mine. A video of that run taken by team member Grace Roaf should be checked out by any wheelie addict at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj0qRExm2FM. I thought I enjoyed that wheelie so much I didn't even care if I won or lost, but pedal to the metal I passed Nigel Green in the Beetle, then saw the finish line coming up fast and tapped the brakes. My win light came on and I just resumed screaming. I had already got past a red-lighting Liz Malcolm in the first round, when I pulled a safe 0.06, but against Bob Molden in the third I decided that a snooze was in order, and my 0.11 was pitched against Bob's very un-gentlemanly 0.003 and whilst we both broke out, I was pushed to break out by more. Rick’s car, for some unknown reason, wasn't gripping quite as well as mine and he wasn't terribly pleased with his launches, but the '84 ran within 0.03 of its best ever, nothing wrong there then, and thanks to a 0.01 hole shot he managed to get past Lee Huxley in round one, not a mean feat as Lee is always on the ball and he's definitely one of our most respected opponents. However a 0.07 wasn't enough against Paul Marston's 0.04 in the third round, so Rick was out of the game with a double breakout at the top end, going 0.01 worse than Paul. Bob Molden deservedly got to the final to race good friend Mike Lacey who ended up winning the event, the first win for him and he was absolutely delighted. I'm sure he was still bouncing off the walls whilst packing for his holiday the next day. We had a great time and it was fantastic to see everyone at the track again, all the friendly faces who made us forget our troubles. We would like to congratulate Lee Huxley on taking the first Number 1 qualifier Pro ET sponsorship trophy, prize money and goodies, Bob Molden for knocking me out with no regard to etiquette and getting to the final, and Mike for taking a well-deserved win. Thanks also to the Pro ET sponsors and the Eurodragster.com team for the excellent coverage (I got a couple of texts from wheelie addicts) and last but certainly not least we would like to give heartfelt thanks to our excellent crew Dave and Christine Buckland, and Colin and Grace Roaf. Not only did they work as hard as ever to ensure the cars ran smoothly and were ready for a run almost immediately after the previous one, but they also had the very difficult task of putting up with Mrs Grumpy, and passed the test with flying colours, even managing to cheer me up! My first time. 30th April: Tony Underhill became a member of Wayne Nicholson's Lucky Devil Pro Modified team having answered an advertisement on the Rods'n'Sods forum, and last weekend was his first at the race track. Tony got in touch to tell us what it was like: Having crewed on numerous rally and circuit cars I felt confident I would be of help. After arriving at the track on thursday the apprenticeship started. After several attempts at getting the awning up, the car was unloaded and up on the pro jacks to get ready for Friday's qualifing run. The rest of the team arrived and after tea and a few beers it was time for bed. Friday came and after all of us were given jobs to do we set to work preparing the car for the first fire up of the big Hemi. Unfortunately all was not well as the starter was not playing ball and skipping on the ring gear although it did fire. After several more stop/starts for checks and to set the timing the ring gear was not looking good. We took the starter on and off to try to sort the problem then we decided to pull the trans and see what we could do. With the flex plate removed the extent of the damage was clear and with no replacement we needed a fix so we made a trip to Andy Robinson's pit to get the teeth welded back on, and a lot of filing later we were back in business. The motor sounded good but not right, after more checking we were left scratching our heads about what was wrong. Lots of people stoped by our pit with ideas but Andy Kirk came up trumps, and with the firing order swapped we were ready for the second qualifer on Saturday. After a good burnout I jumped the wall to back Wayne up and very nearly stepped out of my shoes when they stuck to the track! A 7.21 from wayne was a great start. Back in the pit and the usual maintenance completed we were ready for the third qualifier with my laces tied tight. This time a 7.77 but as we were to find out all was not well - back in the pit the maintenance began and we found the converter was trying to tear itself from the flex plate, so we took the  trans out to inspect the damage. The converter was toast. Kev Slyfield, who was helping us, offered his but there was one closer to home: Mick Payne was having problems of his own and very kindly offered his converter to get us going. By now it was getting late and after problems getting every thing to fit we called it a night to take a fresh look in the morning. After starting bright and early our problems were soon sorted and with everything checked and double checked two more passes were completed without any incidents. Race day came and after sorting a problem with the tach and shift light we were ready for the first round. With the burnout done the engine died and would not come back to life. Back in the pit the problem was traced and will be sorted ready for the Main Event. It was a shame to end the weekend like that, but we had learned a lot and we can't wait for the next meeting. Thanks go to Lucas Oils, Ally Fab and Original Hot Rod Supplies and also to Wayne, Belinda, Joe, Dennis, Adam and Kev for looking after me. Swift snippets. 30th April: European fans have someone to cheer on in the USA this weekend as ex-pat UK Top Alcohol Dragster racer Michael Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences is contesting the O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Springnationals in Houston. You can stay in touch with Mike's progress courtesy of our Drag Race Central colleagues at www.dragracecentral.com. The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com came with no words. If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at [email protected]. Michelin Power One drag tyres were used by finalists in 9.50 Bike, 8.50 Bike and Super Street Bike at last weekend's Easter Thunderball, writes 9.50 Bike winner Fred Furlong of Eurodragster.com sponsor Furlong Tyres. "Michelin were very happy to see their tyres used by the eventual winners who had registered with Furlong Tyres for the Michelin contingency scheme", says Fred. "Congratulations to Fred Furlong from Yeovil 9.50 Bike, Mick Winyard from Spalding 8.50 Bike, and Graham Dance from Norwich Super Street Bike, all of whom will recieve new rear tyres." ACU UK Funny Bike Champion Steve French says that the Easter Thunderball Funny Bike entry looked good until he signed on when the class was down to four and his was the only UK bike. "I know some of the Dutch guys want to come back in June but what’s in store for the rest of the year?", says Steve. "If the class is under-subscribed then I might as well follow Gary Jones and race in Comp.  The ETs are tumbling, there are plenty of entries, so there's lots of racing to do which is good for spectators and racers and definitely fun. However, on the off-chance that a whole bunch of bikes appear for FB then let me know else I will have won the Championship after just one round. Empty." PMR's Thunderball. 30th April: Paul Marston Racing enjoyed some good results from the sun-blessed opener for the 2011 UK National Drag Racing Championships. The team fielded two competitive entries in Super Comp and Pro ET with just one driver, Paul Marston himself: The team decided to test Grumpy's Dodge in competition conditions in readiness for future events later in the season. This was probably wise as after two passes, Paul and the crew decided to withdraw the Dodge and replace it with the Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School car, the Insanity Vega. "Having not driven Grumpy's Dodge for nearly three years, I was really looking forward to teaming up with an old friend", says Paul. "Unfortunatley my reunion will have to wait a while as on my first qualifying pass I quickly identified a vibration with which I was not happy. I must thank our great crew at Paul Marston Racing who within one hour had gone through the whole car and found what we were pretty sure had caused the problem. We tried an adjustment just to see if it was fixable quickly, I went out to try it, but it was no quick fix. After a team meeting, we decided to park Grumpy and break out our spare car, the Insanity Drag Race School teaching car. "The results speak for themselves, the Vega is deadly in Pro ET. I qualified a solid second, eventually finishing up fifth, and went four rounds losing to eventual winner Mike Lacey by a 0.012 breakout in the semi finals. Mike had a 0.03 package against me; any time you are 0.007 on the tree, have a 0.04 package and do not get the win light, you know the other guy earned it. Congratulations to Mike, he does a lot for the sport and deserved the victory." The other PMR entry was the PiranaZ-backed Super Comp dragster. With such a healthy field of entries, Paul was really looking forward to some competitive racing. "I learned a lesson this year, which was that even though you test and everything is perfect, don't count your chickens! After my third pass in the dragster, I suspected that we may have had a problem, as it only ran a 8.96 when it should have run a 8.91 and it lost three miles per hour. For anyone who knows race car engines it may not sound much, but it's enough to tell you that something's not happy. Our options were to identify the problem anf fix the motor in the dragster, go get another motor, or go get another car! All the PMR crew were up for whatever I decided was right, it was my call. As the sun was out I decided to do none of these. It was Friday, the first round of the series, and we were currently qualified second. My plan was to sit out the rest of qualifying and just stage for loser points on Monday. After all we could take any of the above options and still lose first round, have done all that work and got the same result. "Come Monday we had dropped down the qualifying order and had Pete Creswell first round. I went to see Pete and told him what we were going to do, my Crew Chief had also informed the Chief Starter and the officials, as is only fit and proper. I drove round to the waterbox, cleaned the tyres and went up to the start line and staged the dragster, Pete went in and the Tree ran, I broke the beams and shut off as planned. As I was being pushed back I noticed the PMR crew jumping around more than usual, Pete had broken out and so had lost the race, we had won! Just goes to show there are more ways to lose than there are to win. So we had to do it all over again, this time in round two with Steve Wells, who did not break out and so we lost gracefully." Paul drove straight down to Drag Race Engineering with the dragster on Tuesday, removed and stripped the motor, and is confident that the decision to leave everything alone was the right one. Everyone at PMR is now looking forward to Round 2 at Shakespeare County Raceway, where there is ground to make up. Big thank you to all our super crew at Paul Marston Racing, the Crew Chief and Funsize - what would we do without you! - Mad Mick Howling for looking after me so well and his mum for the food parcel, the banana jelly was fantastic, Keith Bick our official BBQ specialist, pit crew, cameraman and photographer. Ian 'Tink' Hart and Rory for start line, pit crew, technical and keeping us all in stitches! Mick 'The Pieman' Pusey our longest serving/suffering crewman who is just the best/funniest company anyone could wish for. Last but by no means least Super Crew people Seff and Lisa who made it Friday and Monday - your contribution always always makes a perceptible difference, you are all stars. It's always great to go racing with your friends and that's what we at PMR do, can't wait till the next one! Lastly special mention must go to our mate the ice cream man who is definitely not afraid of his ice cream Machine, it went down a treat on Mick Howling's mum's home-made apple pie, and the banana jelly of course! Ex-PMR Drag Race School pupil Amanda Cox who put up a good fight round one against Keith Herbert in Pro, well done; Gary Springford at DRE for taking in the dragster at such short notice; Eurodragster.com for such excellent coverage of the Thunderball; and last but by no means least everyone at Santa Pod Raceway - start line crew, fire crew, pit runners, management - for putting on such a great event and working under some pretty extreme conditions. It's always appreciated never taken for granted, thank you. Another Gredzinski masterpiece. 30th April: Some of us have no beginning to our talents but UK photo-journalist, graphic designer and model maker Mark Gredzinski seems to have no end to his. Mark's latest main d'oeuvre is a stunning 1/16 model of a Funny Car chassis, depicting a generic Logghe-built frame from around 1972: The engine, which I finished earlier, is plumbed into the chassis using fuel and oil lines of my own manufacture using solder. The hose endings are hexagonal and round section slices of styrene, which were then drilled and painted with transparent clear acrylic paint over a silver base. The main parts of the chassis were donated, together with a big box of other old dragster kit bits, by Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger Gorringe. The parts were stripped of glue and paint and repaired.  All the plated parts were stripped and repainted in a special high gloss aluminium paint. The hardest thing to do on the chassis was making a Mallory magneto transformer box. On the kit, this was a blob intergral with the engine block which is unacceptable. I scratch-built around four of them before I was happy and had to use lots of reference pictures as they are a peculiar asymmetrical box in shape. I can now draw them with my eyes shut as I've studied them that hard!  The brake system is plumbed with hard lines to the master cylinder and the fuel tank has a breather added. The bodyshell is a Dodge Demon which has been much-modified and which will feature a complete body latch and bracing. The model was built over a ten-year period as an exercise in trying out new techniques and learning how to do authentic period Funny Car control systems in scale.  My next few models will be even more ambitious.  I'm doing a Charger right now which is half the size but has even more plumbing. Sometimes this is really daunting but I know the end result I want and there is no easy way to do this but squint and hope for the best with a sharp blade in hand! Phil Burgess of the NHRA kindly offered to write a piece about me it is available to see right now on the excellent Dragster Insider column on the NHRA web site.  As you can imagine, I'm immensely pleased and flattered by the attention. Future projects include Pro Stocks, Pro Mods, and I really must try a twin engined nitro slingshot.  I'm doing a Kenny Youngblood-designed Funny Car that never saw the light of day and it's a bit special in concept. Finding time for this is tricky but I was getting up for work at 6.15 to work in a factory for the last year and getting half an hour in before setting off. It's amazing what you can achieve over the period of a week. Web site updates. 30th April: As mentioned above, Heaven & Hell Racing team member and honorary Eurodragster.com staff member Grace Roaf caught Carla Pittau's wheelies at the Easter Thunderball, but she also caught fellow Pro ET racer Dan William's huge on-the-bumper effort. You can check out Grace's clip of Dan's wheelie and find links to her other videos at www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWmL9mraBNs. Italy's quickest SSB. 29th April: Italian Super Street Bike racer Luca Carbonera and team are contesting this weekend's first round of the European SSB Mini-Series at Kunmadaras in Hungary. After testing at Santa Pod a couple of weekends back the guys from North East Italy are hoping to show more improvements in Kunmadaras: The tests in the UK began with a difficult Saturday session with no runs quicker than 8.50 after a busy Friday of work, a night flight, and just few hours of sleep in front of the Pod gates. The tiredness was fixed ovenight between Saturday and Sunday. Then Sunday started with a good improvement and finished with the team's fastest-ever run and the best time for an Italian Super Street Bike, an 8.14. Luca will improve with some more practice as he gets more comfortable with the bike. Denis DeCandido is able to set up the Motec after attending a BTC Motec course run by Brad O'Connor. Luca is learning to ride the bike faster and faster with some wise suggestions from Paul 'Grumpy' Watson, who set up the bike at Dynospeed Developments. Now we'll see what the Italian guys are capable of running in the European Super Street Bike class in Hungary. They deserve a good result after all the huge effort running their bike in Europe with no sponsorship help. They will miss the important FIA Main Event but they hope to return to the UK very soon and run their first seven-second pass. Cockerill's first race. 29th April: Paul Watson of Dynospeed Developments has been busy recently as not only has he been supporting Luca Carbonera and a number of other bike racers with his usual aplomb but he has also been supervising former Pro Modified racer Danny Cockerill's entry into Super Street Bike: The bike has been apart all winter whilst Danny was powder coating the chassis and having it short necked. After testing the at the Pod the week before Easter all seemed well with an 8.2 with low boost. After some discussions we decided to go for a different clutch set-up as I won't be with Danny for the rest of the season. We opted for the Hays clutch supplied by Steve Mead, so on the Thursday night before the Easter Thunderball Steve helped Danny install the new clutch. Friday was a hard day as we had some boost issues in the lower gears causing the bike to wheelie in first gear. Considering it was Danny's first race meeting on this bike he rode well, handling the wheelies with great ease. It seemed that most runs had issues with which we tried to deal, finally we put some power in trying to qualify. At last, Danny’s first seven-second run, 7.91/179 but alas not enough for the 7.88 bump spot. I was a bit confused with the top speed as I thought it would be a bit more, then Danny came and said he missed a shift so there is more to come. Luckily for us we were first alternate and met Peter Field in the first round. Our plan was to have a clean run, with a wheelie out the hole nicely ridden by Danny we clocked his new PB of 7.82/187. This was a great way to finish what was a fantastic weekend with awesome weather and a great track as usual from the Pod, Danny would like to thank Ray White and Smack for crewing, Brad at BTC, Big CC Turbos, VP Racing Fuels, Mistral Performance for a great motor and to all the SSB racers who made him and his family feel so welcome. We are looking forward to the Main Event, with some new changes to the bike we'll see if we can drop into the 7.6s. McIntosh makes a good start. 29th April: Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer Alex Mcintosh has had the best start to a season since he took up drag racing. The Webster Race Engineering / Power Pour Mustang produced some amazing numbers in pre-season testing and a place in the final at the first meeting of the year: We might not have reproduced the ETs and speeds we achieved in testing but the new-found power and top end charge enabled us to reach the final. The class was a little down on numbers but qualifying was tight and racing close. Well done to Brian Payne and his crew for the win in the final, his 8.2 shows he means business in the Championship this year. I would also like to congratulate Stuart Williams on his string of PBs after we introduced him to the benefits of Power Pour over the week end. Thanks to my crew Jon Webster, Dave Rowe of EPS Motorsport and James. I’d also like to thank all the Santa Pod staff for a great meeting. Swift snippets. 29th April: Jörgen Hult writes that Sweden's Safetygroup has signed a sponsorship deal with Veidec AB to support them with a Volkswagen Touareg for their extrication team. "Veidec will also provide our rescue personnel with rescue clothes", says Jörgen. "Veidec is a leading supplier developing and selling high-quality chemical products for the service and maintenance industry in Europe. They offer professional cleaners, lubricants, adhesives, sealants, surface treatments, body care, special tools and personal protection". You can find out more at www.safetygroup.info. WG Autocare have added new products to their web site at www.wgmotorsport.com, the home of Synionic products. "We would also like to congratulate Andy Hone who was running on our Synionic oil at the Easter Thunderball, making it through to the finals but defeated by Nigel Payne", says Matthew Wright of Eurodragster.com sponsor WG4. "Our congratulations go to Nigel and his team." UK Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com Blogger Dave Beck is planning to contest August's NitrOlympX at Hockenheim and has space for another in his trailer. "We are looking for someone who might want to transport their bike in our trailer to help defray costs for both", says Dave's sponsor Stephen Moon. If you are interested then please drop Stephen a line at [email protected]. For the record... 29th April: The UK's Heaven & Hell Racing Pro ET team would like to make absolutely clear that the incompetent and deceitful self-proclaimed "RV specialist" mentioned in their news item last week who ripped them off, did an appalling job on their motorhome, lost bits of equipment, mounted incorrect tyres, left hub caps hanging off, and furthermore became abusive when confronted is in no way associated, connected with or even on the same planet as drag racing and Eurodragster.com sponsor Gold RV. "We also very much regret that some people may have incorrectly assumed that because of Gold RV's connection to drag racing we were referring to them", says Carla Pittau. "We just did not know they did servicing and repairs as well as sales, and quite honestly we thought they were out of our league. That will be a lesson to us for the future: always contact Eurodragster.com sponsors first. You don't know it yet, but if they can help you with your project, you may just be saving yourself a lot of aggravation and, in the long term, a lot of money. "Whilst it is not appropriate to publish their details on Eurodragster.com, we will be only too happy to privately supply the name of the rip-off company to anyone who would like to avoid dishonest traders." Your News Editor thinks there is a salutary lesson here for numbskulls who insist upon assuming the worst. How anyone could possibly think that Gold RV would behave in this way is totally beyond any of the Eurodragster.com staff, but we invariably get in some kind of trouble when we express an opinion so we'll leave it there. TVR Power back to back Beck. 28th April: Following a record-setting weekend at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway, the pace hasn't let off for UK Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com Blogger Dave Beck as he and the team gear up for the European season. The new 1755cc motor suffered some damage in taking the event win with a 7.16 run and the has been completely stripped for an inspection, some repairs and a few modifications to squeeze a little more power out. The cylinder head is currently on the way to Paul Gast's workshop for a few repairs, but also some modification. The block and pistons are with Eric and the MTC team for some upgrading, with the crank being shipped to Falicon to be checked out. With the expert input and support from MTC and Fast by Gast, the motor will be back in the frame in order to allow for testing the weekend prior to the Main Event. In addition, the back-up motor will also be upgraded. Stephen Moon Consulting has led the list of sponsors this season and following the Thunderball Stephen had a long discussion with Dom Trickett, proprietor of last season's main sponsor TVR Power. They discussed what Dave needed to deliver the wins and the hopefully record the first six-second run outside of the USA and agreed to join forces to give him the best chance. Dom has been busy over the last few months, not only fielding two cars in the GT Cup series with great success, but also expanding his business interest in the TVR marque by taking over all aspects of the business. But as many in the sport of drag racing are aware, Dom has long been an enthusiast and an influential figure in a number of successful drag race programmes over the years, and he thought that the chance of being in the thick of Dave's 2011 race efforts was too good to miss. The outcome of the discussion is that TVR will become the lead sponsor for Dave's racing efforts for a second season, with Dave racing under the TVR Pro Stock banner. Stephen has also increased his financial support for the team. MTC, PR Factory Store, Worldwide Bearings and Nimbus Motorsport will continue to support the team, with Fast by Gast and Ward Performance continuing to give technical support. The weekend saw LA Racing Parts commit to provide VP Fuels to the team for the season as well, adding to a very strong list of sponsors. Dave commented "I'm in the fortunate position of having TVR renew their commitment and Stephen also increasing his input, giving me all the resources I need to compete at the highest level in Europe this year. While I was very pleased with the Easter outing, I know that the UEM guys haven't been sitting around during the winter and I need to step it up again." Expect to see the TVR Pro Stock Bike team fit and raring to go at the Main Event. In addition to coverage on Eurodragster.com via the News and Alamo Racer Blog sections, you can follow the team on Facebook (Dave Beck Pro Stock Bike) and on Twitter (@beckprostock). Showtime's Dynamic backing. 28th April: One notable absence from the weekend's Easter Thunderball was the Showtime Fuel Funny Car and the team tell is that there were two main reasons for the no-show: First of all we came away from last year's European Finals last year with more broken and irreparable parts than we had had in all of the previous two years put together. Secondly we lost our major sponsor, Allegheny Technologies earlier this year. Taken together this put a huge strain on our time and resources. However we are pleased to announce that we have a new sponsor joining the team, Hemel Hempstead-based Dynamic Metals Ltd. The company was established in November 2010 focusing on supplying a range of metals to the motorsports industry as well as other markets such as aerospace,defence and oil and gas. It has quickly developed into one of the leading suppliers to motorsport having secured contracts and orders from teams in Formula 1, World Rally and Le Mans amongst others. Materials in stock include Titanium, 4130,13-8,17-4,300M,15CDV6 and various grades of special steels; a full list can be found on the company's web site. Sponsoring the Showtime FC will be the company's first direct involvement in drag racing. We are also pleased to announce that Dynamic Metals Ltd has come on board as a sponsor of Eurodragster.com. We would like to thank Dynamic Metals for their support and Nigel Hoskison for his help. We have no doubt that Dynamic Metals' venture into drag racing will be a successful one and we are sure know that our readers will return their support by considering Dynamic Metals when looking for the relevant goods or services. Check out www.dynamicmetalsltd.co.uk to see what the company can offer you. The Coupe comes home. 28th April: The UK's Tony Smith says that his Cunning Coupe is finally sitting on its own four wheels and home again to Wales: After having the safety tub tagged down to 7.50 the other week, we thought it time to get the front end welded on. I can now see what its going to look like and I am very pleased with the result. I would like to take all the credit, but I can't, if it was not for Steve and Lesley Field (Black Pig Too) it would still be in the planing stage. Not only have they both helped on the car, they also look after me when I am there on the weekends. A big thank you both. If it was not for Steve, the pedals and brackets I have made would have been just plain, but are now they are shaped and drilled, they look a lot better for it and well worth the extra time. I would also like to thank John Munday for the use of the tube bender. As the car is so long, it would be a problem for Steve and Lesley if it was left at the shed, so when I do go up on the weekends I will be taking the car there and back each time. But due to events at Shakespeare County Raceway, holidays and family commitments, I won't be going back up to the shed until June. That's not to say the car won't be worked on during that time. I will be rubbing down  and priming the chassis and my good friend Jon Paine will be doing the bodywork ready for paint. I am hoping that it will be out for the Hot Rod Drags, but I will only do so if it is finished. For the latest updates you can go to www.cunningplan.net. The first win. 28th April: It was a brilliant weekend at Santa Pod for Roger and Dave Moore and the Shakespeare Engineering, Challenger Solutions and Generator Power Systems-sponsored Viper took the Pro Modified win. "It was our first win, we got three Personal Bests, and most of my burnouts were straight-ish", says Roger. "It was a cracking first-round race with Jean Dulamon. Dave said afterwards that he would have bet his house on me winning by a holeshot, as the car has been a trouble to drive at times during staging, but Jeff Bull has been helping to get the carbs working better and there's not much Jeff doesn't know about carburation, thanks Jeff.  "The crew as normal put their heart and soul into getting the car ready between runs, and deserve a mention: Martin, Chris, Garry (stop moaning about the new tight team shirts and get down the gym!) and of course Dave who was not pleased at getting caught on the start line for comments after each run - a good idea I think. It was a shame that Andy Robinson and Graham Ellis both had problems, but as the saying goes you have to finish to finish first. Ours was not the quickest car by a long way but it certainly was the most reliable. Well done to Andy Wright on getting his Pro Mod licence. "We're looking forward to the Main Event where trying to get into a very tough European field will be a challenge. The eagle-eyed may have noticed that the final run I had my fastest sixty foot time of the weekend. We were trying something which seemed to work so we're hoping for another tenth or so to try to creep into the sixteen-car field. "If only all UK events had that kind of weather! Thanks to Xamax Clothing for the new team outfits." And on the third day... 28th April: UK Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis and team were keen to make an early start at the Easter Thunderball and so were through Santa Pod Raceway's gates as soon as they opened: We erected the new awning for the first time (we are still working out the best way to do this) then got the Cuda inside and started work. This mostly involved work with the scales which Paul Foote kindly lent me. After the handling problems we had with the car last year we were nervous but we knew we could tame this beast and sure enough, three hours later and after lots of adjusting, swearing and sweating we got it to a point we were happy with with zero preload and the rear weights we were looking for. Into the first qualifier and I started a burnout and the car swung viciously toward the Tree. At that point I was pretty worried that we had missed on the chassis tune-up. Into stage and a launch, straight and hard, off before 330 and a coast through. This was the sign and in the next qualifiers we improved dramatically. We had an unknown clutch combination from the Leanders Brothers which had never been tested before. As we crept up on it lap by lap we had consistent 0.9 sixty foot times and and decent 2.6 330 foot times without tuning the car for performance at all. It starting to become apparent that we had a problem with the motor, which had made seven passes from brand new. It was breathing heavy and started to push gaskets out and create oil leaks, and that was to be the end of our weekend when I was shut off for drips in the semi-finals. Well done Roger Moore! We have made good progress and we are confident of a decent showing at the Main Event in May. We were a new team inasmuch as there has been a shuffle around, but everyone did their part and did it well: I'm now feeling like I have a race car that we can race well. Andy and Lee Kirk, Dave Reid, Graeme Waite, Anthony Ellis and Gareth Ellis (who was flitting between two cars) all performed flawlesly and against it all came through, well done guys. The Superbird finally made it to the track on Sunday afternoon because of a super-human effort at ICE Automotive with the entire team dead on their feet. That thing starts so easy and sounds like an old diesel Transit van...until it gets angry. Nick Davies is still getting used to the car; the purpose of getting it there this weekend was mostly to test and check the electrical systems and the mechanical integrity of all the parts. Anything more than that was a bonus. Being out of competition early allowed me to stand there on the line and watch that beautiful car arrive from behind the tower, a sight I've never seen before. Boy! That is a bad ass car. Now that it is lowered to its original ride height - I had to run the rear high to get the injector hat below the roofline as per the FIA rule book - it looks the part and when it's on the chip it sounds better than Dave Wilson's car, which is impossible! A big thanks to all the crew for the effort, it's been super-human and there must have been some god-like intervention to make that happen (Well, Sunday was the third day - Ed). To all at ICE and everyone involved, well done guys! Onwards and upwards. 28th April: The Easter Thunderball represented a milestone in the calendar of the Doomsday Impala, writes Andy Bennett: Easter Time, four years ago, a wreck of a rolling shell 1968 Impala was on its way to Houston, Texas from Antioch, California to be shipped to the lesser climate of Bacup in Lancashire. What would eventually roll up at the Easter Thunderball four years later represents approximately 5000 hours' work spanning nearly four years since the car arrived in the sticky hands of Dave Evans and Andy Bennett. If you have ten minutes to spare you can watch those four years of work on YouTube: Doomsday Impala - the complete build and test story in many thousands of pictures at www.youtube.com/watch?v=g08yCT5wlo8. Dave and the team of Pete Smith, Chris and Elliott Rushton and Mark Todd set off to the Pod on the Thursday. Huge problems with the delivery of the alcohol fuel meant that Dave set off without it. So no fuel to race. After waiting about all morning for a promised alcohol delivery which never showed, Doomsday was the last in the scruteneering line and was turned away until the Friday morning. Crew Chief Vix Smith came to the rescue collecting some drums of fuel to rendezvous with the team later on Thursday evening. Friday and things went up a gear for the whole Never Again crew. This was the first sanctioned event the guys had ever run, despite racing at three or four events every year since 1999. So a milestone marker in the diary for this one. Doomsday had already done the last Webster Race Engineering Test Day and admittedly on a much cooler day had clicked off 8.80 passes. So this became the dial-in for Super Pro ET. The heat played a big part in getting the balance right over whether to lean out the 489 ci ex-CoCo Connection motor or stick with the trusted tune-up. A couple of very low nines got the team in the running, but the eights eluded us. Saturday and Bennett and son arrived to add to the team numbers and the proceedings continued again with that magic eight still eluding us but a 9.02 on an 8.80 dial-in was getting something like. The last qualifier on the Saturday proved to be a crowd pleaser: pulling huge wheelies is detrimental to ET as "When you're going up – your not going forward" (Any thoughts Carla? - Ed), but after an incident at the top end with Leon Green and downtime for a short while, Dave popped a red on the Tree so he decided to give the crowd a spectacle. He mashed the pedal and stood Chevrolet's finest full size offering, the eighteen foot long Impala, on its back bumper. Proof for sure that boats can fly! Mark from Tech Inspection came to check that everything was OK but no damage had been done apart from a bit of a track scrape. Sunday and a small disaster in the burnout. The speed seemed to be getting less each run and the Sunday in the cooler morning air was a good chance to get that magic eight. But alas, the cylinder head gasket blew in the burnout and on inspection looked like it had been on its way out for a while. Mark Norton came and convinced us that we could still carry on and he called up the Big Block Chevy guru Jeff Bull. Jeff had the parts and we were away. Roared the engine down, cleaned everything up and built it back up in record speed, but the eliminations were called and we missed the call. Maybe another half an hour and we would have been there with Barry Giles.   We had so much good feedback over the Thunderball, the car looks stunning and is and unusual choice worldwide never mind in Europe. We don't actually know of another 1968 Impala race car worldwide built to the same kind of spec (SFI 25.2), that late '60s full size muscle car styling certainly stirs the grits. Thanks to all the crew and everyone who came to say hello. If you have any pictures or video then please get in touch via the web site, we would love to see them. You can catch up with the team on our official web site, expertly done by our buddy Nigel Holland, at www.68impala.co.uk and on Facebook. Bradshaw's best weekend. 28th April: John Bradshaw and Abbey Motorsport have been in touch to say a quick thank you for all of the kind words and notes sent both during and after the Easter Thunderball at which John's Project Zed Nissan blasted into the sixes and over 200 mph. "We have all worked very hard over the winter in terms of developing the car further and improving a few things that we had on our to do list", says John. "We were quietly confident going in to the event and were hoping to see a six-second pass if luck came our way. To run five six-second passes was just amazing and the Sunday for us was probably as perfect as it gets with theee runs all in the sixes, 6.80, 6.81 and 6.83. "We ran another 6.8 in eliminations on Monday and the run was actually 0.2 quicker to 1000 feet but the car didn't accelerate in fifth gear. On getting the car back we noticed lower oil pressure than normal on the datalogging. We just didnt have the time at that stage to pull the motor out to get back out again and didnt want to destroy the motor in the car so it was time to for a crew group hug, huge smiles allround and time to pack the car away in one piece for the next event. "We're delighted with the start to the year. Our best-ever sixty foot time of 1.01, our best eighth time now down into the 4.2s and obviously our best ET and Terminal Speeds. There is certainly more to come from the car, but we will not blindly throw more power at it but aim for more gentle constant improvement. It would be fantastic to try to get close to a 6.5-something by the end of the year. "A huge thank you to our sponsors Motul, Nissan, Sanyo, AET Turbos, Gizzmo, Turbosmart, Kelford Cams, Darton, Autoglym and Bosch, and a final thank you to one of our key partners, Performance Motorsport based in Long Island in the US and the very talented Shane Tecklenberg at ST Consulting in the States." Pictures courtesy and ©Matt Woods, Matt Woods Photography Seven up for Rodman. 28th April: The Easter Thunderball was a weekend of small margins and big Thank Yous for Shawn Rodman and the AFB Drag Racing Supertwin Fuel team, says Nick Saunders: We came into 2011 hoping to press on from our first trip into the seven-second bracket at the end of last year, but seemed to find ourselves languishing in the low eights all the way through qualifying. After final qualifying we had made the field in fifth place giving us a first round match up with Kev Charman. Obviously our set-up wasn't where it should be and without a datalogger to help, the head scratching continued on Sunday night. Being relative newbies to the world of nitro, we sought advice from various sources to see what we were missing, and with a few small corrections on our bike and with Kev suffering gearing problems, we were hoping to at least cause some trouble on Monday morning. The race on Monday morning was excellent to see, and although we lost out to a superb job from Kev's team, we came away with a 7.73 and a good base line tune up to move forward with. We must say a big thank you to the guys at Spen Valley Biodiesel for supplying us with excellent methanol to mix, and to Kev Charman's and Chris Hannam's crews who were kind enough to offer us a helping hand in the true spirit of drag dacing! We're off to Shakey for the Springspeed Nationals in three weeks with the National Association of Supertwins so hopefully we can progress quickly from here. Please look at our web site at www.afbdragracing.co.uk where there are pictures, videos and reports from all of the events which we attend. Lacey takes the win light. 28th April: Finally, after a lot of hard work and a desperate effort to try to find a green light, UK Pro ET racer Mike Lacey managed to stitch it all together and take the win at the Easter Thunderball: What an awesome feeling to finally win. I put my  life into this sport and for this to happen is the best thing ever. Qualifying third and going on to win will be hard to improve upon! Thanks go out to so many people. Karen, Adam and Sam, my crew, were fantastic. The Santa Pod marshals, in particular Daniel in the water box who knows exactly what I want every time. This year's Pro ET sponsors Toxico, Penn Autos, LA Racing Parts, Engine Data Analysis, Power Engineering, Power Pour (Webster Race Engineering), Norbar, DS Racewear, Avonside Engineering, Modurstang.co.uk, Drag Race Engineering (Gary Springford) , Grand Prix Racewear, Sick Boyz, Topspeed Automotive, LohrSpeed (Dusty Laugher), Real Steel, wolfysworkshop.co.uk and VP Racing Fuels. Easter this year will be remembered for the fantastic weather. We will remember it for getting our first win. Baynton bounces back. 28th April: Fellow Pro ET racer Paul Baynton had a bad start to his weekend but things improved when he actually got onto the track: Before leaving home I moved the motorhome and connected it to the trailer. A quick check of the lights and I spotted water dripping from the radiator. A neighbour had some Radweld and an hour later than planned we set off. We had a reasonable run until we left the M1, the motorhome started to lose power and backfire. We limped to the track but unfortunately the engine cut out just outside the main gate. For a while I tried to re-start it but it wouldn't have it. A call to Steve Hudson resulted in both Steve and Keith Herbert turning up to tow us in. Keith towed the motorhome and Steve towed the trailer. Thanks guys your help was appreciated. A couple of hours later it fired up without a problem once it had cooled down. As for the race car, last year's engine problem will take a while to recover from. Dave Milam was given the mess to sort through at the start of the year. The engine had been built wrongly before I bought it second hand. Dave examined everything and did an excellent job on the budget that I had. Initially the plan was to miss Easter but Dave got everything sorted for me with a few weeks to spare. Qualifying started well with a 10.54 on a 10.50. On Saturday we ran a 10.596 on a 10.58 dial-in which moved us up the field. Later that day we developed a misfire and the car slowed to 10.75. I assumed it was electrical and borrowed a coil from Mark Bailey. This didn't cure the problem and we ran 10.71. A chat with Mike Lacey and he said it sounded more like fuel starvation. I thought about it and came up with float levels. They were low and I adjusted them moments before the last qualifier. We took a guess at 10.40 and ran a PB of 10.339 at 129.76. My first round opponent was Rick Denny. I knew Rick can be good on the tree so we dialled 10.33. Rick pulled a red and we won on a 10.367 run. Monday morning and we had Mike Lacey in Round 2. We dialled 10.33 again and hoped we'd be close. Unfortunately I snoozed cutting my worst light of the weekend. The Capri launched hard and ran great, no sign of Mike so I hit the brakes. Mike flew past after the line but got the win light. I collected my ticket and was over the moon to see that we had blown away our previous best with a 10.214 at 124.53 on the brakes! My fifteen-race unbeaten run came to an end but I knew it had to at some point. Well done to Mike he deserved the event win. We left as soon as we could just in case we broke down but had a good run home and the motorhome didn't miss a beat! Thanks to everyone that helped. Huge thanks to Dave Milam for producing a great engine out of a pile of rubbish. 2011 will be a restricted season for the Capricious team due to finance. 4...3...2...1... 28th April: One of the undoubted highlights of a classic Easter Thunderball was Wendy Baker and Paul Stubbings' Timewarp Nostalgia Funny Car which made three runs including new Personal Bests. Wendy got in touch to tell us about the team's weekend: As we had a limited amount of fuel available we had only planned to do three runs and the original plan was to run at lunchtime each day. This changed on Saturday as on the warm up we had a fuel leak which was traced to the barrel valve. After finding a spare from the Chaos team (thanks Lawrie!) and setting it up we managed to get out for the afternoon session. This first run and the run on Sunday were a bit puzzling as the car seemed to nose over after the eighth mile, actually losing speed, but a strip down of the Lenco on Sunday night told the story - the box wasn't going into top gear properly so a quick rebuild later and we were ready for Monday to see what it would do with all the bits working!   The last run was one of those where you don't remember much about it because it all happened as it should do - no dramas, the only indication I had that it was quick was that it bounced a bit more than usual through the shutdown area but I had to wait until the crew arrived to find out the time and speed, 6.73/215.8! So in summary the weekend was: 4 days of perfect weather 3 runs down a good track 2 new Personal Bests 1 dead piston I would like to thank all the people who took the trouble at the weekend to stop by for a chat or just to show an interest in the car, thanks also to both our regular crew of Chris, Tony and Lee but a special mention for Martyn Jones and Crunch for stepping into the breach at short notice when one of our guys couldn't make it. Following lots of requests over the past year or so we now have T-shirts available - pop by when we are at the track to pick one up - all proceeds go straight into the tank! Readers should also check out this month's issue of American Car Magazine as there is a feature on the car with some excellent photos by Dominic Romney. Charman: Who'd have thought it? 28th April: UK Top Fuel Bike racer Kev Charman didn't know where to start with his report of the Easter Thunderball, his first competitive outing on Rene van den Berg's bike: With all the work that has been going on in the background, it would be only right to thank Craig and Binzi for all their hard work over the past few days to get us out on the track at the weekend. Thanks seem inadequate, but thanks! We got to the track on Thursday night to get set up early, go over the bike thoroughly, and take a chance to chill a bit before Saturday. The weather was very kind to us compared to last year, Lizzy got to see a lot of racing before the stress of me going out (she is not too fond of Top Fuel at the moment, but I'm sure this will pass!). Bike all OK, and rest for the first outing on Saturday when the bike spun off the line and headed for the wall, so I shifted gear and rolled off the throttle, great start! It transpires that after speaking with Ivan Sansom about the first run I had done the right thing, as through his lens I was heading right for him! So a sixteen-second first qualifying run it was. Second run was so much better, 6.9, the long way round. The bike went one way, I over-corrected, and went the other...and still managed 199 mph, and #2 qualifier. Bike back, looked over and all seemed to be OK, and onto Sunday. On Sunday's first run I thought the sprag had let go, and the crew thought I had not shifted soon enough; I am still learning, and understanding new sounds and noises. The bike launched hard, but then nose dived, so shifted into second, and that possibly hit the clutch in the gearbox real hard, frying the internal clutch and working the clutch really hard, I had damaged the gearbox. The second run was the nail in the coffin, the sprag didn't hold it, and the worn out gearbox is now really worn out, and a new one is needed. We did a deal with Eric Teboul, for a newer B and J gearbox, with sprags we can now buy off the shelf, plus a good selection of gear ratios and spares. After much discussion we decided to take the broken gearbox out and see if the new one would fit in, to be delighted that yes it would, but unfortunately needed new mounting. We could have totally bodged it at the track, but at about 10.30 pm, I reluctantly decided to call it and get the machining etc done properly at the workshop. Lizzy, Jake, Rene and the crew were gutted when Chris, who had been thinking (one eyebrow was up!), said "Can this thing launch in second?". Craig looked startled for a moment, and the excitement went back into the meeting again. I felt awful for asking the crew to take the new gearbox out and put the old one back in, but they seemed keen to do this. We wrapped up the evenings re build at about one o'clock in the morning, and we were up again at 6 o'clock to finish off. We were still finishing off in the morning when we got the hour call, but had the time to start it up, sort-of set the timing, and grin (a little) over what we had done! So against Shawn Rodman with only second gear I burned out, launched, and flew. Shawn had an excellent run, had me on the tree and the sixty foot, and I thundered past him but only just! I beat him by 0.2995, running 7.28 seconds and my first 200+ mph pass at 206 mph to Shawn's 7.73/175 and a fantastic PB for him, nice one. I had a bye into the final, where I now had to wait to see if it was going to be Steve or Christian, Christian having taken the win against Cannon. It was Steve! He had been so consistent all weekend, with times averaging pretty much in the 6.4s every run. To get this far was more than a rookie racer could have hoped for, so to race in Top Fuel in the final was quite a big deal for me. Best burnout of the weekend, very happy with that one. Steve beat me, deservedly, a 6.34/218 to my 7.31/205. Another 200 mph + for me, and the last two runs done with only second gear! I felt my runner-up was honourable, I don't think the team, Rene or anyone could ever have thought we would get this far, but we did, against considerable odds. I also had the privilege of meeting Mark Pemble who built the engine set-up and campaigned the bike, and ran a 6.9 on it 20 years ago. I was understandably quite surprised when he came to congratulate me on mine! The bike is now off to get the engineering work done, new gearbox, and move the foot pegs back about five feet - Rene has very little legs! We will be out again testing hopefully before the Main Event. Big thanks as always go to the amazing crew I have inherited and we are all learning a lot. The Boss Rene, Craig, Binzi, my team Chris, Lizz and Jake, you are all tops. Who'd have thought I would ever have a trophy for Top Fuel! It's a great class but terrifying, although even Lizzy is beginning to enjoy it more. I would also like to thank everyone who has phoned and sent us messages, to congratulate, it is very, very humbling. Thanks also to Eurodragster.com for the excellent coverage (Thanks! - Ed), the hard-working track crew, and the lovely Kathy Taylor (you know why). Swift snippets. 28th April: European fans have someone to cheer on in the USA this weekend as ex-pat UK Top Alcohol Dragster racer Michael Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences will be contesting the O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Springnationals in Houston. You will be able to stay in touch with Mike's progress courtesy of our Drag Race Central colleagues at www.dragracecentral.com. Many thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us the official timing data from the weekend's Autotrader Easter Thunderball. "A massive thanks to Tethys who has joined Tony Brennan and Steve Talbot on my list of heros for developing another extraction program which cuts several hours work out for me by extracting each class individually and in the format I have been using for the past year or two", says Andy. You can check out the Thunderball timing data by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Andy Marrs has also kindly provided us with an updated table of UK bests now including the records set at the Easter Thunderball by Nigel Payne and Dave Beck. You can check out the UK bests table by clicking here or by clicking on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. UK Top Methanol Dragster racer Dave Wilson says that the black clouds of 2010 will be followed by a silver lining in 2011 after a good weekend at Santa Pod. "Three of my crew have retired from drag racing, and we have two new guys who turned out to be brothers, Nick and Jim Chandler", says Grumpy. "After a couple of weekends' intensive training in the workshop they got into the swing of it really well at their first race meeting. The car pretty much got into the swing of it as well. We achieved 99% of what we set out to do, and didn't break it! The 5.58 we ran was lazy, and it did the second 5.6 differently to the first. We have now got an idea where we're going. Give it the right conditions and by god it will fly. I'm a fairly happy boy right now." Bob Hawkins and the UK's Team Time Traveller Wild Bunch team would like to say huge Thank You all the guys at Limited Funz Racing and Andy Gosling of Dogs B's Racing fame for all their help in getting them to an unexpected win at their first-ever Easter Thunderball. "With several new PBs over the weekend and good consistency we are really pleased with the car's performance after the winter lay-off", says Bob. UK Super Gas racer Nick Curtis tells us that there are mates, and then there is Nick Griffin. "Nick double-dutied his pride and joy and let me drive in Super Gas", says Nick. "When I staged in the seventh round the lights came down, I gave it the large one, then bang! I'm on the wildest ride I've ever had. All I could think was "Not your car, don't hit the wall". Got it straight and stopped so I was sort of happy. One of the ladder bars had broken and bent just about everything on the axle. After the safety crew got the car on the truck (with great care, thanks guys) I wasn't looking forward to seeing Nick but he put both his arms around me and said "S**t happens, we can fix that we can't fix you, good driving job". The man's a star and I'm privileged to be his friend. So thanks again mate and yes we can fix it." The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com came with no words. If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at [email protected]. Andreas and Marcus Wål;lm tell us that Walm Racing will be contesting AA/A in Comp Eliminator this season, in a new Funny Car with a Ford Mustang body previously owned by John Force. "It's clearly a big jump up for us but it will be really fun and we like challenges!", they say. "Our main sponsor of this year is Mad Croc Energy. We also have Colorama, CRAMO, Hasses Skylt och Text, Ringtjänst i Vårgårda, LFT Biltillbehör, Vårgårda Screen, Tidaholm Bilrecond, Br. Samuelssons Åkeri as our sponsors for this year. We have just been at the Bilsport Performance and Custom Motor Show at Elmia, Sweden". You can find out more at the team's web site at www.walmracing.se and on Facebook. Terje Håkensbakken writes with a warning from Toten. "Four Supertwins are going to Hungary. They all have more powerful motors than last season so they will be hard to beat." The UK's Mad Rs Drag Racing Supercharged Outlaws team are seeking an additional crew member as the rest of the team are getting old and knackered. "You must have some experience and be reliable", says Alec Coe. "There is no pay but free entry. We need help to move the car around, minor regular maintenance and help on the start line. Get yourself on the track and enjoy the fun whilst doing a little bit of work. Send a message  via our web site at www.madrsdragracing.co.uk or see us at the track." 2010 FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion and Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher has put one of his Top Fuel Dragsters up for sale. The Hadman chassis has one full pass on it and is available as a roller or turn-key. You can find out more on the Cars For Sale section of our Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored Swap Meet. Although Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars didn't have a stellar weekend at Santa Pod, Bob Roberts writes that at least they didn't have to test any of the new safety fittings mandated by this year's rule changes. "The most obvious of these is the Funny Car cage padding which has been around for a while but which is new for Pro Mod this year", says Bob. "As you can see in the picture we have arranged supply of suitable material from BSCI and we can either fit it for customers or provide a kit for self-installation. More hidden from view is a mechanism to shut off car electrics if the fire bottles are triggered. We're using a cylinder attached to the master cut-off which is pressurised by the fire system and once again we can either fit or supply these. It is now expected that the driver's seat is a very snug fit and we can offer seat pour kits which generate foam to fill in the gaps if necessary. And finally there is the "Eject helmet" removal kit intended to simplify the removal of a driver's helmet after an accident. The Main Event is not far away now so contact us on 01256 880589 or at [email protected] if you need to install any of these items to pass scrutineering." Spiers' thanks. 28th April: UK Super Comp racer Paul Spiers writes to express especial thanks to Kenny Coleman of Engine Data Analysis for fantastic customer service and back-up: Prior to stripping the motor down, Kenny and Dennis ran fuel and power comparisons using his Superflow Dyno. The dyno also highlighted some oil pressure issues at high rpm, which I would have never have seen during a run. Following the rebuild, the engine was further tested on the dyno, allowing Kenny to fine tune and correctly set up the engine for optimal performance. It was decided to fit a different make of cam follower into my engine. Because I wanted the engine back home for other chassis work at Andy Robinson's, Kenny said that he would be happy to spend the day at the track making sure that I was happy with the new combination and be on hand for any technical advice and assistance. At the end of the racing on Friday, Kenny then stripped the cam followers out and replaced them with a different make. We fired the BBC 540 up and carried out final checks. Kenny was in no rush and gave me as much time and advice that I needed, what a star...thanks Kenny. You can contact EDA via their web site at www.engine-data.co.uk or on 01977 516622. I would also like to publicly thank Clive Allen for all his off-season hard work and fantastic effort at the Easter Thunderball and Max Croot, current European Snowmobile record holder for his help and assistance over the weekend. It was a shame Max had to fly off to India for business on Saturday night. This is Clive's first season as crew for a race car, and Clive has a calm and methodical approach which is making my racing a pure pleasure. Max Croot guided and gave advice to Clive as the weekend progressed. We look forward to working with Clive over the coming year. It all kicks off with the Outlaws. 28th April: The opening round of the 2011 Supercharged Outlaws season takes place this weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway and an entry of twelve cars at time of writing makes it the best-ever opening round since the series launch:   Number one plate holder Paul Watts with the No Easy Pick Up will be there to defend his title but he will be without his longtime crew man Nobby otherwise known as Kerion Thomas. This season Kerion is campaigning his own car, the ex-Andrew Chilton Super Mod Rover with Chevy Big Block power on petrol. This will be Nobby's first trip up the quarter mile! What a way to start your drag racing career. Also in the petrol ranks will be Richard Davis with his immaculately turned out '41 Willys. Richard is a consistent runner and we're sure he would have gained the Outlaws #1 plate sooner had he been able to contest all the year's rounds. Finally in the petrol ranks mid-sixties Allard Dragon owner Chris Pattison will make his formal series début with his blown T-bucket altered last seen at the 2010 Hot Rod Drags. Chris will be crewed by Johnny (Mental) Hall this season. A lot of the big hitters in the Outlaw class will be at Shakespeare County. Class record holder Ian Hanson and the Hanson Racing Stars'n'Stripes '53 Corvette will be looking to go even quicker, into the six second bracket. Vic Hammond will again be campaigning the Speed Demon slingshot with Sam Freeman in the hot seat. This combination and formidable pairing works very well together and is regarding as being one of the teams to beat. Steve Goode will be back stronger than ever after a disastrous 2010 in the Ghost Train Dodge Avenger Funny Car which is believed to be one of the last Winston cars Whit Bazemore drove on the NHRA circuit. Steve assures everyone that he's found of a lot of engine damage last year and is rearing to go in 2011. This car should easily run in the six second zone. Also, if rumours are true Steve may very well tip the nitro can this year! Another pairing in the form of Dave McKenzie and Mark Windridge has spent the winter updating the Team Thing altered. The 350 ci Chevy engine and gearbox have been freshened up and the chassis has been straightened. A new rear wing has been fitted and the race truck has received another makeover. Alec Coe has had a winter of rebuilding the engine as well as spending most of the winter at Team Thing HQ where Mark Windridge rebuilt the Small Block Chevy after suffering serious engine damage last year. Another hard competitor is Lee Gallimore. With his trade mark long smoky burnouts Lee is expecting some more low seven-second action and, who knows, may even dip into the sixes with his Small Block Chevy Red Mist altered. Another altered driver looking for good things in 2011 is Brian Gandy. Brian, who was unfortunately struck with a health problem, is now fit and well and looking forward to hanging on tight with the Skullduggery altered at the tracks again this year. Finally Trace Froome will be out with the ex Doug Ripley/CC Racing Dodge Avenger Funny Car. Trace runs a Big Block Chevy and will be looking for some low seven second passes this year. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed Roy Wilding missing from the entry. Roy will be helping Brian Gandy at this event and with Roy's busy schedule he hopes to be out at the next event with his excellent prepared slingshot. New cars are lined up to début later in the season so keep checking our web site at www.supercharged-outlaws.co.uk. Finally a big thank you to all our sponsors who are supporting the 2011 series in one shape or form: Good Vibrations California, Steve Wood's Motor Shack, Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars, Johnny Hall at Stamford Speed Shop in Romford, LA Commercials in Kidderminster, Bill Felstead at Fester Race Cars in Romford, Paul Watts at Academy Glass IOW, Alec Coe and Kev Mortimer of Mad Rs Racing. Also let's not forget the tracks, Shakespeare County Raceway and Santa Pod Raceway. Have a fast and safe 2011 season. Of Outlaws and Gamblers. 28th April: There's a mixture of performance and on-track entertainment at Shakespeare County Raceway at the Public Track Day RWYB this Saturday and Sunday. If you like your horsepower loud and brash then the opening round of the Good Vibrations-supported Supercharged Outlaws will be of particular interest. With no less that thirteen blown dragsters, altereds and doorslammers primed and ready for action expect to see a few low seven-second flyers from this monsters. You might even be treated to some sixes from Ian Hanson's '53 Corvette or from the ex-Whit Bazemore Dodge Avenger Funny Car The Ghost Rain belonging to local racer Steve Goode. Plus you'll get to see those awesome eighth-mile burnouts from the Red Mist 23T of Lee Gallimore. As is customary with any PTD weekend there's the chance to gamble some pounds by taking part in the track's Royal Gamblers Bracket Race. Already we've seen two different winners, John Mulligan and Holly Baldwin, take the money and prizes so who will it be taking home this weekend's goodies courtesy of American Car magazine, Piston Apparel and Alamo Car Rental. Practice Saturday, bracket race on Sunday. Also making a home at Shakespeare County is another round of the Honda Street Stock Drag Series. DNR's Daz Honour is expecting ten or more cars to contest the weekend, some of which will be hitting the strip for the very first time. Following the Clubs' debut at last year's Ash Nationals the Bandit Owners Club will be at the track with over fifty of Suzuki's finest competing on the quarter mile. Also making a second visit are the members of Cruise-Mids. Over on the tractor pulling arena the Power Pullers Club start their season with a mixed of entertainment from the 950 kg Mini Modifieds and the kids Garden Pullers for eight to sixteen year olds. Popular tractors in the club include The Dealer with its incredible drag race Chevrolet engine and Satan's Toy - the first successful jet turbine mini-puller in Europe, and Devils Symphony with its 27-litre v12 Rolls Royce. Gates open at 6:00 pm Friday ready for the track opening time of 10:00 am each day subject to the usual conditions. Admission is £12 per person and the RWYB track fee is £20 per day or £35 for the weekend. Please remember your driver's licence and don't forget to bring a crash helmet. There's evening entertainment in the bar both nights, with a film show on the big screen Friday. Further details can be found on the Shakespeare County web site and Facebook pages or call 01789 720180. See you at the strip! Keep Saturday Special. 28th April: Run What You Brung is a simple concept: drive your car or bike down the famous Santa Pod drag strip as quickly as possible from a standing start. Your performance is measured in Elapsed Time and Terminal Speed. No police speed-traps to worry about, no oncoming traffic or potholes, and no risk to your licence. Going flat-out is a rare pleasure that can only be experienced at track days in this day and age. Luckily, Santa Pod Raceway offers the cheapest and the most accessible of the lot, and it’s based about as close to the centre of the UK as it is possible to get. Run What You Brung is an addictive formula, and for those who just can't get enough, the Saturday Night Special event this Saturday (30th) is a top date on the Santa Pod calendar, because the racing runs long into the night for extra track time and a fantastic atmosphere. If you’re all Royal Wedding'd out and fancy getting your backside trackside then head to The Pod this Bank Holiday weekend for the Saturday Night Special, Run What You Brung on Sunday, and the Drift What Ya Brung on Monday. A variety of tickets are available at the Saturday Night Special events including day, evening and full weekend tickets, along with ticket details for the Drift What Ya Brung too. All the information is available online on Santa Pod's Run What Ya Brung web site at www.rwyb.co.uk. The word on the Street. 28th April: Outlaw Street's second meet of the 2011 season got off to a great start with scorching sunshine all weekend and with the Shakespeare County Raceway team doing their usual excellent job of making everyone feel welcome it was bound to be a good weekend for all, writes Mark Wallington: Twenty three Outlaw Street members ran their cars over the course of the weekend with several setting new PBs for ET, Reaction Time and sixty foot times. Although for some members it was their first outing for the year, none of them were holding back and all were out to improve their PBs from 2010 or to try to 'break' the new parts they’d fitted over the winter. The Joe & Co-sponsored Reaction Time trophy was being fiercely contested as members all tried to improve their RTs in the hope of being able to win the amazing trophy. The OS-2 RT Trophy went to John Edwards in his OS-16 '60s Mustang with an impressive 0.071 RT. The competition was close on John's heels with OS-26 Steve Adams in his 1999 Mustang recording a 0.078 RT and Vic Fisher in his late model V6 Mustang recording a 0.080. The winner of the OS-2 American Car magazine years free subscription was won by Troy Atree in his OS-39 LS1-powered Chevrolet Camaro, as the highest points scorer at OS-2 with 218 points, which considering this is Troy's first year drag racing is a huge accomplishment already. Those closely chasing Troy in the points are tied with 215 points each Steve Moisey in his OS-19 supercharged Shelby Mustang and Steve Adams in his OS-26 1996 Mustang. The best performances of the weekend went to: 60 feet OS-07 Andrew Murton in his 1967 Camaro with a 1.572 OS-21 Rob Slater in his 1957 Chevrolet with a 1.742 OS-27 Trudy Slater in her Cosworth powered Morris Minor with a 1.788 OS-47 Russell Smith in his big block powered Pontiac Trans Am with a 1.805 OS-16 John Edwards in his 347 powered 60’s Mustang with a 1.948 OS-13 Stuart Ramsay in his 1967 Camaro with a 1.964 ET OS-07 Andrew Murton with a 10.061 OS-13 Stuart Ramsay with a 10.964 OS-21 Rob Slater with a 11.527 OS-47 Russell Smith with a 11.712 OS-27 Trudy Slater with a 11.833 OS-23 Simon Paul with a 12.069 Terminal Speed OS-07 Andrew Murton ran 137.69 mph OS-13 Stuart Ramsay ran 133.09 mph OS-27 Trudy Slater ran 126.22 mph OS-23 Simon Paul ran 119.91 mph OS-47 Russell Smith ran 119.82 mph OS-21 Rob Slater ran 118.54 mph You can find out more on the Outlaw Street web site at www.outlawstreet.co.uk. Snake draws Blood. 28th April: A purposely unannounced stop on racing artist Kenny Youngblood's Blood Did It 45th Anniversary World Tour was the April 23rd surprise seventieth birthday party for famed American drag racer, Don 'Snake' Prudhomme. Kenny and wife Terri were among 200 invited guests gathered at the Pomona, California, Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum to celebrate Prudhomme's milestone. Youngblood, who was responsible for the trend-setting graphics on Prudhomme' Army-sponsored Funny Cars of the 1970s, presented The Snake with a copy of his original design for the star-spangled reptile. "We told a couple of stories too; it was a great evening" says Youngblood, who also designed graphics for Prudhomme's Hot Wheels counterpart, Tom 'Mongoose' McEwen. Meanwhile American motorsports personality 'Trackside Tina' Pettet was busy celebrating the Easter weekend as only she can. Tina, who spends 180 days a year as a product specialist and 'Spokesmodel' at new car shows and racing events across the country, is also the racing correspondent for Jerry's Garage Talk, a com-cast and radio show emanating weekly from Chicago, Illinois. Both Blood and Trackside Tina will be featured guests at Santa Pod's upcoming FIA Main Event on 27th-29th May where they will be found in the pit of Eurodragster.com sponsor MPM Oil UK. Web site updates. 28th April: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, Luke Bennett brings us up-to-date with the work on the Bennett Racing Top Methanol FC operation. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page Our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson has given the European Pro Mod Association web site a facelift, which you can check out at www.promod.nu. First with the Easter weekend updates is John Przybyl whose pictures of the Autotrader Easter Thunderball you can check out at multicapturephotography.zenfolio.com. UK Junior Dragster racer Zak Johnson's web site at monsterracing.moonfruit.com has been updated with a report from the Autotrader Easter Thunderball. Ash Smith was at York Raceway on Monday and has posted photographs at www.ashdigital.net. Chris Eyre has posted his Autotrader Easter Thunderball pictures on his web site at www.eurodragpics.com. "Time was a bit tight as I was rather busy with the rest of the team getting the Timewarp car to new PBs of 6.73 and 215.87, those numbers feel really good!", says Chris. "I have posted a brief write-up in the news section on my site. I would also like to say a big thank you to Syd and Crunch for all their help over the weekend, their knowledge and help were greatly appreciated." Paul Lister was only able to attend the Saturday of the Autotrader Easter Thunderball but has posted pictures on his Dragcaranon site at www.dragcaranon.co.uk. Event entry update. 27th April: Racers are reminded that Friday of next week, 6th May, is the deadline for entry to the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 27th-30th May. Entry after 6th May, if accepted, will be subject to a late entry fee. You can download the official entry forms for all classes from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc and entry forms for FIA and UEM classes are also available on the Speedgroup web site at www.speedgroup.eu. Tuesday of next week, 3rd May, is the official closing date for entry to the Performance, Tuning and Modified Show, a round of the Jap Drag Series, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on Sunday 15th May. Again you can download the official entry forms for all classes from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. You can check out Version 1 of the official entry list for the PTM Show by clicking here. If you have any queries about entry to the FIA Main Event, PTM Show, or to any event at Santa Pod Raceway then please contact Paula Marshall at [email protected] or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625). Entry is still open for the Spingspeed Nationals, the second and third rounds of the UK Championships depending upon class, which takes place at Shakespeare County Raceway on 14th-15th May. You can download the official entry form from the Shakespeare County Raceway web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. If you have any queries about entry to the Springspeed Nationals or entry to any event at Shakespeare County Raceway then please contact SCR at [email protected] or call 01789 720180 (outside the UK +44 1789 720180). Entry is also open for the inaugural Sweden Internationals, which takes place at Tierp Arena on 9th-12th June. On-line entry to the Sweden Internationals is available at www.tierparena.com/regsi. Coverage from Kunmadaras. 27th April: Speedgroup and Eurodragster.com will be co-operating on coverage from this weekend's UEM Drag Bike/Honda Biker Celebrity of May which takes place at Kunmadaras in Hungary between tomorrow and Sunday. Although the Eurodragster.com staff cannot make it to the event, Kunmadaras Motorsport have kindly agreed to send us timing sheets and Åsa Kinnemar, Lena Perés and Aila Striem plan to send us pit notes and pictures. We will post a direct Home Page link to our coverage as soon as it commences, but in the meantime you can check out the Event Index page, which includes a link to the official entry list, by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Web site updates. 27th April: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, Easter Thunderball Pro Stock Bike winner and repeat record holder Dave Beck describes his weekend at Santa Pod Raceway. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Editor's note. 27th April: Your News Editor is still tired and shagged out after a long weekend. We have a large backlog of news all of which we will publish on tomorrow's (Thursday's) update, which promises to be an epic, and please keep the news coming to [email protected] - we always have room for more. Easter Thunderball results. 26th April: Congratulations to the winners of the weekend's Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway: Pro Fuel Shootout: Urs Erbacher 5.0987/274.74 def. Gordon Smith 5.6531/220.36 MSA Pro Modified: Roger Moore 10.9270/79.81 bye Super Modified: Nigel Payne 7.4094/184.32 def. Andy Hone 7.5908/183.61 Super Pro ET: John Atkinson (8.71) 8,8354/155.19 def. John Everitt (7.87) 7.8665/172.34 red Pro ET: Mike Lacey (9.40) 9.4483/126.98 def. Bob Molden (9.90) 9.9047/134.81 Sportsman ET: Nigel Hale (12.78) 12.8882/104.20 def. Ian Petrie (13.90) 13.7761/81.67 b/o Super Comp: Collin Morrice 8.9330/142.63 def. Brian Pateman 8.9367/150.57 0.0079 Super Gas: Brian Pateman 9.8067/153.63 b/o def. Mark White 9.7325/133.34 Super Street: Leigh Morris 10.9770/121.09 def. John Grant 10.8956/131.06 b/o Junior Dragster: Josh Saunders (7.90) 7.9959/82.11 def. Rhiannon Bellenie (7.90) 7.8473/81.96 b/o Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: Brian Payne 8.2803/172.43 def. Alex McIntosh 11.8226/110.99 VW Pro: Richard Merriman (12.50) 13.3805/96.10 def. Dave Bridge (12.60) 14.0186/84.56 VW Sportsman: Matthew Bennett-Sime (18.25) 18.2118/71.80 b/o def. Paul Jackson (16.49) 16.2815/83.01 b/o Wild Bunch: Bob Hawkins (8.75) 8.8472/141.63 def. Adz Price (9.30) 9.2422/134.56 NFAA: Gary Page 6.2687/223.30 def. Adam Gleadow 9.9154/152.07 JDS Pro: Chris Impey v Leon Green no winner JDS FWD: Neil Knight no time bye, Adam Buckley did not start JDS Street: James Willday 10.9058/138.16 def. Mark Salem 11.0792/128.05 Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woollatt 6.3406/218.04 def. Kev Charman 7.3141/205.32 Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck 7.1695/167.29 bye, Len Paget no show Funny Bike: Steve French 7.0133/190.61 def. Mike Olie 9.0034/133.72 Super Street Bike: Graham Dance 7.4710/185.91 def. Wayne Saunders 9.4410/93.65 Comp Bike: Stu Crane 7.2688/179.20 def. Harold Wolfendnen 7.9836/182.87 8.50 Bike: Mick Winyard 8.9042/132.60 def. Sam Sykes 9.6221/139.01 9.50 Bike: Fred Furlong 9.6305/131.00 def. Paul Furlong 9.7675/108.04 Subject to official ratification the following records were set: Super Modified ET: 7.381 seconds, Nigel Payne Super Modified speed: 184.32 mph, Nigel Payne ACU Pro Stock Bike ET: 7.067 seconds, Dave Beck ACU Pro Stock Bike speed: 188.22 mph, Dave Beck JDS Pro ET: 6.776 seconds, John Bradshaw JDS Pro speed: 204.17 mph, John Bradhsaw Dave Beck's 7.067 was the quickest-ever Pro Stock Bike pass outside the USA and John Bradshaw's records are also European bests for a Jap car including of course the first six-second and 200 mph passes. In addition Sam Young and the Black Current III team set World bests of 9.513 seconds and 135.65 mph with their electrically-powered Beetle. Congratulations are also due to Junior Dragster racer Joe Kellett who won the first-ever Eurodragster.com/Cotsweld Race Cars Perfect Light Award and to Pro ET racer Lee Huxley who won the Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award. You can check out our Alamo Rent A Car-sponsored Autotrader Easter Thunderball coverage by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. We would like to thank everyone who sent or posted feedback about the event coverage and the Webster Race Engineering/Nimbus Motorsport webcam. It is much appreciated and makes the sixteen-hour working days and 47-degree temperatures in our office more than worth it. Swift snippets. 24th April: We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to our good buddy, honorary Eurodragster.com team member and Heaven & Hell Racing team member Colin Roaf. Have a great day Colin. Swift snippets. 23rd April: The guys from Eurodragster.com sponsor Topspeed Automotive tell us that they will be up at Santa Pod Raceway tomorrow and can bring up any oil or parts required. You can get hold of the team via their web site at www.topspeedparts.co.uk. Powerpour back Stanley. 22nd April: UK Pro Stock racer Conrad Stanley and the Panther Racing UK team are pleased to announce that Powerpour have agreed to come on board to support their exciting venture into the FIA European Tour. Powerpour, available from Webster Race Engineering, have signed up as Conrad prepares to make his first outing of the year. "The winter has been really busy down in Planet Bristol with a new race transporter being converted", says Conrad. "We only started it in January and time seems to have flown by, the car being winched in for the first time on Sunday and phew, it fitted in! "The engine has had a complete rebuild with new rods and bearings at Zannetec's workshop, the clutch has been repaired by Markus Svensson at Clutch Services in Sweden, and a new clutch was purchased over the winter to extend our spare stock at the track. "We plan to test at the Easter Thunderball to give both the driver and crew valuable track time to help us gain the experience we need to tune one of these cars, and with help of a Swedish clutch tuner who will be working with us this weekend we are looking to baseline the car so that we can go to the Main Event giving it our best shot. "We are still actively seeking partners to join Panther Racing UK and hope to announce more news soon. If you wish to be involved in our European Tour please contact us through our web site at www.pantherracinguk.com." Olstad aims for one better. 22nd April: After a very good season 2010 where he showed his strength, finishing runner-up in the UEM European Supertwin Championship, Norway's Hans Olav Olstad thinks that he and his team are ready for another real fight for the title in 2011. "Our plan is to fight our best at every UEM race", says Hans Olav. "We know it's going to be harder than ever to get good results in our class. The first round in Hungary shows twelve bikes on the start line, and that's amazing. I think we will see a six-second ladder for the first time in Europe this year. Maybe we will see it several times. I also think we will see more than twenty bikes in the field several times. "As for us, we have changed the geometry on the bike to be able to put more force to the asphalt rather than keep the bike running with the front wheel in the air all the time. The engine is the same, only small adjustment according to different tracks. One of our goals is to break our personal best 6.67 from 2007. Running consistent six second runs every time will put us in a position to fight for the Championship. Special thank to our sponsors who make it possible to fight for the Championship: Automester, GB Tech AS, Sande Gård, Dekkteam, Profilehuset, Billakkspesialisten Engros AS, and Øveraasen. Sweden Internationals booking now. 22nd April: The moment for which race fans all over Europe have been waiting is here: ticket sales have opened for the grand opening of Sweden's Tierp Arena which has Europe's first full quarter mile, 20,000 seat grandstand. "We've chosen to build a 20,000 permanent seating grandstand so that everybody who wants to is able to experience top class drag racing in the best way possible" says Leif Andréasson, one of the brains behind the project. The FIA European Championship race, the Sweden Internationals starts on Thursday 9th June and finishes with eliminations on Sunday 12th. Besides the drag racing, you will also find car shows, an amusement park, paintball, good food and much more in the Arena area. As a visitor you can create the ticket of your choice, everything from one single ticket to enter the area, up to having a grandstand seat for all four days. One and two day tickets are easily bought on-line at www.tierparena.com. For three and four day ticket packages, you need to call +46 771 10 80 00 to place your order. You can of course buy your tickets on-site on raceday, but by then prices will be higher and a grandstand seat cannot be guaranteed. Tierp Arena will also exhibit and sell tickets on site at the Bilsport Performance and Custom Motor Show 2011 in Jonköping during this weekend. You can follow the progress of this fantastic arena at www.tierparena.com or on Facebook. Web site updates. 22nd April: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, Pro Stock Bike racer Kalle Lyrén and the Veidec Pro Stock Bike team are just about ready to head to Hungary for next weekend's first UEM European Drag Bike Championship round. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. The Beast, ready for lift-off. 21st April: Per Bengtsson and the Beast Supertwin team are about to leave Sweden for the first race of the UEM European Drag Bike Championship in Kunmadaras, Hungary. L-O Jonsson has been in touch with an update from the Beast workshop: A lot of hours in the workshop over the winter have paid off both on the bike and on the race bus. New for the coming season are an increased wheelbase and the new Bentec clutch control system, which will help to manage a good launch and which allows different clutch engagement during a short period of time. You can read more about this system on our web site at www.bentec.net where you will also find our news page which is updated weekly. Per and the team will go for the whole UEM Championship Tour and the target is a fourth Championship title. "We're looking forward to going back to Hungary and meeting all the race fans again", says Per. "And it's really nice to have such a good entry list including twelve Supertwins. Let's hope we will have the same result as in 2009 when we won a very close final against Job Heezen." The sponsors who are supporting us in the battle for this year's Championship are Swedcut, Gates/Lönne, Red Line Oil, Fanhultstvätten Älmhult, Ulvsgården AB, Cemecon, Liqui Moly, Autoexperten Växjö, Bilservice i Åseda Ab, Larssons Bilverkstad AB Lenhovda, AB Kalvsviks Bilverkstad, Rävemåla Bilservice AB, Bentec Engineering and Flexoart. Robinson's supporters. 21st April: MSA British Pro Modified Champion and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson and team are excited about getting back out on the track to start their title defence at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway with the backing of their sponsors, says team member Stefani Robinson: As it is the first race of the year we thought that it would be a great opportunity to announce our sponsors for this year. Firstly we would like to thank Torco Oils who will be sponsoring us again this season. It is important to us to use the best products we can, Torco have been with us for many years now and we have always been very impressed with the quality of their products so we're very pleased to have them on board again. Other sponsors who are rejoining us in the 2011 season are PAC Springs, RCS, Racepak, TRS, Aurora and Hoosier. We're proud to have these parts on our car and are confident in the performance they provide. Together they have helped us create a car that is very competitive so we would like to thank them for their continued support. Last but most definitely not least, we have a new full time sponsor for 2011: NGK Spark Plugs. We have used NGK spark plugs on the car since we started racing with the blown motor. Last year after our fire in Finland, NGK Spark Plugs provided us with some much-needed support, which was crucial in getting the car back on the track so quickly. We are very excited that this support has continued and are very proud to be representing NGK Spark Plugs this season. We would also like to thank all of the Speedgroup Contingency Sponsors for their support of the FIA European Pro Mod Championship. This weekend we will trial our blogging at the track to keep everyone updated on our progress. You can find our Blog at robinsonracing.tumblr.com and our usual reports will continue to be posted on our webs ite which at www.robinson-race-reports.co.uk. No end of Hell for Carla and Rick. 21st April: In the last few weeks, Sodd's Law has reigned supreme at the HQ of the UK's Heaven & Hell Pro ET team. Carla Pittau and 2010 UK National Pro ET Champion Rick McCann say that everything which could go wrong has gone wrong, or almost: The latest project for the team is a Pontiac Catalina, which we are building as an odd Street and Strip toy. This has been great fun but has taken plenty of money and quite a lot of our time, namely every evening and every weekend since the first week in January, often with the whole team at it. Preferring to work on the new project rather than the team's Winnebago, we found an RV 'specialist' (sic) to take care of a few problems, including fitting seven new tyres, which was to be relatively cheap insurance after the tread came off one of the original (!) 1997 tyres whilst towing Heaven & Hell on a terribly rough and bumpy motorway in Belgium and wrapped itself around the brake drum. It could have been a disaster but we were lucky and didn't want to try and be lucky again. We also wanted the tank level indicators, leisure battery chargers, generator and other bits and pieces to be looked at by the 'specialists'. I won't bore drag racing enthusiasts with the details, but the specialists of course revealed themselves to mainly specialise in the art of gabbing and, like so many times before, we discovered once again that the only way of getting something done correctly is to do it yourself, the difference being that if you don't know about something you are motivated to find out, while the 'experts' won't waste time in anything of the sort, much preferring to do the job badly but quickly. So, after some arguments we forced the experts to replace the incorrect tyres they had enthusiastically fitted which would have given us, amongst other problems, the wrong speedometer and odometer readings as well as increased fuel consumption. Due to other, new problems the 'experts' may well have caused whilst messing with the electrical system, our precious time was wasted in trying to fix various faults, including a transmission stuck in third gear, instead of preparing the Camaros for the Thunderball. We finally gave up and ordered an ODB scanner. Ordered it on Sunday night and Fedex delivered it first thing this morning. Once again, thanks Jegs. "Is that all?", I hear you say. Well, no. Moser delivered the Catalina axles, the size of which we painstakingly calculated, especially as the housing is now a composite with Ford housing ends welded to a GM ten-bolt from a '92 Caprice converted to go into a full-size car with a different suspension. Only they decided to deliver one which was too long and one which was too short. Being a reputable company they replaced them, but it set us back one week, and of course we needed it rolling to get it to the paint shop and out of our hair. I could continue with our catalogue of disasters, but will instead try to get preparing the last things for the Thunderball (*thanking the RV 'experts' for both tasks, previously unnecessary): Hire a tow vehicle* ✓ Book a hotel* ✓ Buy beer X Valve lash ✓ Fuel Camaros ✓ Fire up Camaros ✓ The Camaros made noise - hopefully not too much noise, or not more than 120 dB now! - so with any luck they're OK. We'll find out at the track! Holly takes on the Gamblers. 21st April: After many months of being the bridesmaid and never the bride, VW Sportsman racer Holly Baldwin picked up her second Bracket Gamblers win at last weekend's Public Track Day held at Shakespeare County Raceway. Having qualified her 1918cc Type 1 Beetle on provisional pole in the first of the three qualifying sessions, Holly eventually found herself in the final against Pro Street Drag Series racer Ian Brockbank who pulled a red on the tree handing the win over to Holly. Jerry Cookson writes: After being plagued with a serious cold at the last Gamblers Worcester-based street racer Vic Fisher was this time well and truly on his game to run a near-perfect 15.060 on a 15.05 dial etched on to the rear screen of his '07 V6 Mustang to take the number one qualifying spot away from previous Gambler winner John Mulligan and his trusty Brown Sugar II Buick Skylark. Fisher's progression up the ladder also bumped Holly down to number three with a 15.072 on a 15.00 dial. Due to the odd number in the ladder Vic Fisher was given the competition single before going down to Ian Brockbank's 4.3 TVR Tuscan next round on a losing 15.122 (15.05) to a bang-on 12.955 on a 12.95 dial. With Fisher's Mustang gone Holly, sticking with her customary 15.00, sealed the fate of Gamblers rookie Chris Antell and his incredible VWDRC Camper Bus, 15.274 to 16.923. In the next round Holly's advance to the final was made doubly possible on another red light start dealt out this time by the Outlaw Street silver 302 ci Mustang of Birmingham's Nigel Jenkins. In the semis Brockbank was drawn to take on American Car Magazine Editor and event sponsor Dave Smith. Having qualified a virtually stock 5.0 Mustang sixth following a first round loss in the National Street Car Challenge, the racing scribe took on and some how managed to beat Mulligan's Buick. Then in the next round Dave was handed the lucky dog bye but in the semis eventually went out to the blue TVR, 15.649 (15.40) to a winning 12.994 on a 12.95 dial. This time it was Holly's turn to get the competition single into the final. In the final sprint to the line, Brockbank knew what he had to do; stage deep but cut a good light! In the end it wasn't such a good plan after all as a -0.500 foul handed the win to Holly's Beetle. This latest achievement now backs up last year's win from The Ladies That Launch Shootout. Unluckiest racer was George Chiles who brought his 6.1 Hemi Dodge Challenger down from Halifax to contest the Gamblers. In pre-event practice the Challenger snapped both the fan belt and the supercharger belt at the same time. If this had not have happened then I'm sure the outcome of the race would have been different. Shakespeare County Raceway would like to thank all the racers and sponsors American Car Magazine and Alamo Rent-A-Car who have supported the Gamblers races this year. We wish to remind Sportsman racers that there are still places left at all of the remaining races this year; the more racers taking part the bigger the prize purse becomes! And with the second round of the National Championships at the Springspeed Nationals in a couple of weeks time, dare you miss out on some extra testing of your dial-in skills! The next Gamblers event is Sunday 1st May. See you at the strip! Declan the League 1 Champion. 21st April: Daren Brett has been in touch with a report on the first round of the Roy Wilding Race Cars/Shakespeare County Raceway Junior Dragster League: The first round of the League featured eight cars. Unfortunately due to lack of parts Paige Wheeler was forced to put a contingency plan in place with the Alamo Dragster to enable her to do some testing runs at Santa Pod on the Sunday alongside Joe Kellett and Rhiannon Bellenie whom we all look forward to seeing at future SCR Junior Dragster League dates. Saturday was brilliant day weatherwise, but the drag racing gods were unfortunately against us in that respect. Shortly after lunch, a RWYB Mazda RX7 decided to empty the contents of its transmission oil along the entire quarter mile, but under the direction of Uncle John Cross and Big Al the track crew rose to the occasion as they always do, and got on with the big clean up. The track came to life once all the Juniors were in the Staging Lanes making steady progress to the lighting up point. Two cars from the front all the pilots were belted in and latched down, whilst us parents decided to watch Ian Norman make his first pass in four years with his rebuilt Outlaw Anglia Ford Pop. The car sounded real sweet through the burnout, pulled back, parachute armed, staged and loaded, and away she launched. The run looked good but when nearing centre line just shy of the 1000ft mark it all went wrong. With the swift response from the emergency services we were all relieved to hear that Ian was OK, and was going through the mandatory check ups back at the Medical Centre.  However there was some significant damage to the Armco which needed to be repaired, together with a track sweep and some minor surface repairs which unfortunately took a couple of hours before the track was back in a go status. Thanks to all who were involved in the speedy re-opening of the track. On Sunday we decided to push down early to put in a preliminary run, in order to set our dial in times. With a couple of the bigger motors down three tenths the runs didn't really give us any real data to work from. So in the end it was a bit of a lottery for the League run dial-ins. Running on the proven Wild Bunch format, from the five runs all of the pilots achieved it was fifteen year old Declan Webb who emerged as the first Junior Dragster League round winner by averaging a 0.14 difference from his original dial-in of 9.15 in his 350cc Blockzilla Webb Express 2. Second was twelve year old Alex Brett in the 450cc LPW Lightning dragster followed by ten year old Tyler Webb driving the 220cc Briggs and Stratton Hauser Dragster. The day's best reaction went to Alex with a 0.006. On behalf of everyone involved in the League a big well done to all the pilots, especially to Russell Victory who nursed his That's Racin! dragster through the four rounds with a seriously flat spot on the carb leaving Russ to feather the throttle on all of his launches, and still hit third place in the Reaction Time contest. Well done Russell. Thanks to Grant, Tracey and Russell Victory for sponsoring the opening round trophies and medals. GV Motorsport will be introducing a separate trophy within the League, so watch out for an up and coming press release real soon, and a big thank you to Ian and Dorothy Connop and all the CC Medical Team. None of this would be possible without you guys! Swift snippets. 19th April: Thanks to Paula Marshall for forwarding us Version 8 of the official entry list for Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-8th May. You can check out Version 8 of the Big Bang entry list by clicking here. Easter Thunderball racer update. 20th April: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has been in touch with gate, Signing On and scrutineering times tomorrow ahead of this weekend's Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. Gates open at 3:00 pm tomorrow (Thursday) Signing On is open between 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm tomorrow Car scrutineering commences at 3:00 pm tomorrow and bike scrutineering commences at 4:30 pm tomorrow. SPRC Deputy Race Director Carole Ismail of Eurodragster.com sponsor Phoenix Personnel says that all administration of qualifying and elimination ladders will now be based in the Stewards' Room next to Signing On. "We have moved the photocopier to the Stewards' Room, and all qualifying and elimination admin will be dealt with by Yvonne Tramm and Emma Humphreys under the supervision of Kathy Taylor", says Carole. "We are hoping to get information to racers more quickly and to offer a better service for those racers who do write-ups for publications. This will also free up the timing crew to concentrate on the task in hand." Three Motor Sports Association officials are expected to attend the Easter Thunderball on Saturday. The MSA is the UK's official governing body of motorsport and sanctions National Championships in many different disciplines. Pro Modified has been the designated class of the MSA British Drag Racing Championship since 2007. Allan Dean-Lewis MBE is the MSA's Head of External Affairs, responsible for the training of all volunteer motorsport officials in the UK, including the co-ordination and development of training programmes and the delivery of specialist seminars. Jennifer Carty (right) works alongside Mr. Dean-Lewis following her November promotion to Volunteer Officials Training Co-ordinator. Having recently served on a focus group considering the future of marshalling, Ms. Carty is now visiting different motorsport events to meet and observe marshals in action in their diverse but essential roles. Tim Swietochowski, the MSA's Communications Officer, interviewed Melanie Troxel for the MSA's quarterly magazine at last September's European Finals and met several other racers. Mr. Swietochowski was appointed the magazine's News Editor on its recent relaunch. NDRG confirm UEM Funny Bike Cup. 20th April: Many thanks to Palle Lind for letting us know that Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen have confirmed that they will host a round of the UEM Funny Bike Cup during the Sunoco Drag Challenge at Gardermoen on 5th-7th August. The Sunoco Drag Challenge is already a round of the UEM European Drag Bike Championships. The 2011 UEM Funny Bike Cup calendar is as follows: 28th April-1st May: Kunmadaras, Hungary 30th June-3rd July: Alastaro, Finland 5th-7th August: Gardermoen, Norway You can read more about this year's UEM Funny Bike Cup on our news update of 12th March, and you can download the registration form by clicking here. Please note that registration for the UEM Funny Bike Cup should be sent to Trakbak Racing and not to Speedgroup. Woollatt gets help starting. 20th April: UK Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt and the Dealer team are looking forward to the start of their season at this weekend's Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. Steve's low six-second bike is pretty much as it was last year save for a new but essential piece of kit. "We have freshened everything on the bike, but there are no new parts on board", Steve told Eurodragster.com. "We did think about putting on a second mag, but the big mag has only been on there for one season and it's not a simple bolt-in job anyway. "We do have one new piece of kit: Martin and Cindy Newbury of Psycleworkz have made me a super-trick new starter motor. It's all-billet and is very well-engineered. If you have a look at their web site www.psycleworkz.com you can see the quality of the parts they produce for both bikes and cars. "Martin and Cindy have offered me workshop support throughout 2011 for which I am very grateful, and I am also pleased to confirm that we have retained all of our 2010 sponsors this season. We're ready to go, thanks to Martin and Cindy we're ready to start, and we are really looking forward to this weekend." TJH Racing set to fire up. 20th April: team Manager Tor Erik Westbye has been in touch with an update from Norway's Trond Høiberget and the TJH Racing Supertwin team. Tor also says that all are welcome to visit the team who are holding Open House tomorrow (Thursday): During winter and early spring TJH Racing upgraded the bike for 2011 season. We have put on a Racepak datalogger, modified the fuel system, installed new heads and made a lot of minor upgrades. During the winter we visited Hawaya Racing Inc and had a couple of days with Johnny Vickers and his employees. We got a lot of answers and tips, which we are pretty sure will help us a lot this season. We are also now the dealer and distributor for Hawaya Racing Inc in Scandinavia so please contact us for prices and parts. We have also build a new race bus this winter which is more up-to-date for our purposes. Today we will be starting up the bike for the first time this season, and we will have a Kick-off at our workshop in Raufoss tomorrow (Thursday). We will be firing up the bike, and we will barbecue some hot dogs for sponsors, friends and everyone who has helped us this winter. This Kick-off is open to all so feel free to join us. We are proud to announce that Elite Bil have chosen to sponsor us this season together with Kemppi, Tess, Håkerud Johansen Transport AS, Rema 1000 Kopperud v/Knut A Egstad, Mike's Harley Repair, Statoil and Telekiosken. Without these sponsors we could not run the 2011 season. We will leave Norway on Saturday to participate in the first round of 2011 UEM Championships in Kunmadaras, Hungary. You can find out more about TJH Racing on the team's web site at www.tjhracing.com. Swift snippets. 20th April: Further to Monday's news item, Matthew Wright of Eurodragster.com sponsor WG4 says that the on-line shop for Synionic Prolong oils and products is now open at www.wgmotorsport.com. "Product is available for Easter", says Matt. "I will be at Santa Pod on Saturday to give out information." Olle Elfqvist writes that preparation has started on the all-concrete surface at the new Tierp Arena in Sweden. "Kalle is putting his heart and soul into the track and won't stop until the first pair comes to the start line at the NDRS Nationals on 7th May", says Olle. You can find stay in touch with the latest from Tierp Arena on the facility's official web site at www.tierparena.com. We were very pleased to hear from Carl Wadkin-Snaith that the UK's Team Fang Supertwin team's first outing of the year at Shakespeare County Raceway last weekend was a resounding success. "Running with some help from Tim Blakemore Racing my daughter Bryony came within 0.08 seconds of her first ten whilst brother Dominic, making a guest appearance, ran his first eleven and ten on the same day!", says Carl. "Our 2011 News page at www.thefang.co.uk has now been updated with photos and a full report of the weekend's action." Dutch Pro Modified racer Robert Joosten is holding a pre-season Open Day at his 'shop in Werkendam this Saturday (23rd). The Open Day takes place between 14:00 and 18:00 at Vierlinhgstraat 49 A 11 - 4251 LC Werkendam and all are welcome. You can find out more (PDF format) by clicking here. If anyone is attending Robert's Open Day and would like to send a report and a picture or two to Eurodragster.com then please drop us a line at [email protected]. Readers outside the UK may not be aware that our media are at their intrusive best this week on a quest to find every relative, near or far, of our pulchritudinous Princess-to-be Kate Middleton, and Lesley Wright noticed that a drag racing connection has been uncovered via Kate's mother's second cousin's father (Did you get that - Ed). "The Daily Express mentions a 'Jack Harrison' in Hayes whom they said introduced drag racing to the UK in the 1960s", says Lesley. "We know him as John Harrison, partner of Allan Herridge in H&H Race Craft and a very famous early competitor. Amazing!" PSDS Round 1 report. 20th April: Packing over 630 bhp of Roger Clark Motorsport's finest in engine conversions in their Subaru P1 Impreza, father and son duo Gordon and Martin Farley finally took their first ever Pro Street Drag Series eleven-second class win at Shakespeare County Raceway's opening round of the Japanese and European Import sprint series supported by Marle Pistons/Roland Alsop Engineering, Opie Oils and Total Car Magazine. Although the Solihull-based Scooby has previously run a 10.9 and is a shared drive it was son Martin who wound up with the quicker quarter mile sprint time of 11.048 seconds over dad's effort of 11.345 in the Matt Clark maintained P1 Impreza. Walsall's Steve Lloyd was also in fine form now that his '93 Skyline R32 GTR is now fully equipped with an HKS TO4 turbo unit and Apexi Power FC ECU. Towards the end of last season all Steve could squeeze out was an 11.5 but with track conditions at their best up popped a 11.373/129 to dismiss the car's previous best. It was a welcome return to the drag strip for Bristol's Robin Greaves. Having taken a year out to look after the family Robin was in fine company in the twelve-second class as towards the end of the day he only just managed to hang on to his first win of the year with a 12.054 achieved from his RB25 power packing '94 Skyline despite Gaz B (aka Garry Bramwell) having other ideas. Receiving further support from Coventry-based Thor Racing Garry's three-litre single turbo'd Toyota Supra pounded the quarter mile on more than one occasion to wind up with a close 12.066 for his troubles. The TFS Racing-sponsored '03 Impreza STi of James Nash stayed on top of the time sheets in the thirteen-second class (13.061) above the R33 GTST-T of Paul Reeves whose best was a 13.398 from the Project-D Twisted Monkey Skyline. Northolt's Mustafa Zahir drove his Nissan S13 200SX through to some fairly consistent mid- to low fourteen-second times (the best being a 14.238) over Duston Clarke's EM1 Honda Civic (14.393) and the Mitsubishi FTO GPX of Don Griffiths at 14.616 to take the fourteen-second category. To see all the results from Round 1 please visit the PSDS forum at www.prostreetdragseries.co.uk, and remember that you can join in at any time during the season, just apply for a race number on the forum. Alternatively look up Pro Street Drag Series on Facebook. We're now looking forward to the second round which takes place at the Warwickshire drag strip on Sunday 12th June (Saturday 11th is practice day). Another big thanks to all our sponsors this year who help to make it all happen: Marle Pistons, Roland Alsop Engineering, Opie Oils and Total Car Magazines. See you at the strip! NitrOlympX Junior Dragster update. 19th April: Further to yesterday's news item, NitrOlympX Race Director Jerry Lackey has been in touch to confirm the conditions to which Junior Dragster will be running as an NEAFP class at the event at Hockenheim on 12th-14th August. "The below will be given to all twenty four Junior Dragster racers whom we invite to the event", says Jerry. "We hope that this will clear up those issues which have been a problem in the past." Junior Stock J/S xxx (race number) Ages 8 and 9 The quickest eighth-mile run is restricted to 12.90 seconds. This applies either to a dial-in of your own or heads-up. Runs from 12.70 to 12.89 are regarded as a breakout. Any racer whoruns quicker than 12.70 during the event, in qualifying or eliminations, will only be reprimanded once. Should that racer again run quicker than 12.70 then they will be excluded from the rest of the event. Any racer who runs quicker than 12.50 during the event will immediately be excluded from the rest of the event. Junior Modified J/M xxx (race number) Ages 10 to 16 The quickest 1/8-mile run is restricted to 8.90 seconds. This applies either to a dial-in of your own or heads-up. Runs from 8.70 to 8.89 are regarded as a breakout. Any racer whoruns quicker than 8.70 during the event, in qualifying or eliminations, will be only reprimanded once. Should that racer again run quicker than 8.70 then will be excluded from the rest of the event. Any racer who runs quicker than 8.50 during the event will immediately be excluded from the rest of the event. Modified Advanced J/MA xxx (race number) Ages 13 to 17 The eighth mile may not be run quicker than 7.90 seconds. This applies either to a dial-in of your own or heads-up. Any racer who runs quicker than 7.90 seconds or faster than 140 km/h (87 mph) during the event, in qualifying or eliminations, will immediately be excluded from the rest of the event. In every class a run is considered lost if the racer goes quicker than the class index or their dial-in during eliminations (break out rule). SCR Junior Dragster available. 20th April: You can let your child experience the power and thrill of drag racing with a day's hire of the Shakespeare County Raceway 5 hp Junior Stock Dragster Experience. The dragster is now available for hire at most Public Track Day weekends including 30th April-1st May and 28th-30th May. Other weekends are available except for the UK National Championship rounds and the For Ladies That Launch weekend. For a day's hire of £120 the day consists of driver and parents' tuition with a minimum of three runs and a maximum of ten runs, and race attire (suit, helmet, gloves etc). One day/weekend tickets will be made available to parents or partners. Additional tickets can be purchased in advance at any one event. When the day is complete the driver will receive a signed Track Certificate and their timing slips as a memorandum of their experience driving a Junior Dragster at Shakespeare County Raceway. If you require additional information, or wish to book a day or weekend, then please call the Raceway Office on 01789 720180, or e-mail [email protected]. SCR look forward to your call. Book an event today! Easter Thunderball running orders. 19th April: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall and SPRC Race Director Robin Shone for forwarding us the provisional running orders for this weekend's Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out this weekend's running orders by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage page on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Please note that these running orders are provisional and subject to change for weather or track conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by race officials. NitrOlympX entry open. 19th April: NitrOlympX Race Director Jerry Lackey writes that information and entry forms for August's event are now available on the NitrOlympX web site at www.nitrolympx.com: Due to the curfews and maximum three day event duration, and the fact that I have brought the UEM Championship back to our event, we have been forced to set a limit on all Sportsmen classes including Junior Dragster. Super Street Bike, and Supertwin Top Gas. We have written the following guidelines in the hope that everyone will be aware in good time how we will choose who can enter this year. Our main goal is quality in place of quantity. NEAFP classes Super Gas, Super Comp, Pro ET, Super Pro ET, Competition, Super Street Bike, Supertwin Top Gas Qualifying: for Junior Dragster and all NEAFP classes a maximum of 24 participants will be accepted. Qualifying rounds give the participants ample opportunity to adjust to the respective class index. To qualify at least one qualifying round has to be completed, however only the first sixteen in each class will qualify for the eliminations (first eight in Super Comp, Competition and Supertwin Top Gas. The position in eliminations is according to the ET with the least difference from the respective class index or rather the ET with the least difference to dial-in during qualifying. Eliminations are carried out with an NEAFP ladder per Scheme 2 of the DMSB Drag Racing Rules Part II (DMSB-Reg. Teil 2). Competition Index Control will only apply during eliminations. The Competition Index in effect will be from the last official event to take place before the NitrOlympX. Appendix article 20 Amendment to the DMSB Drag Racing rules 1. Time limits The international event in Hockenheim is one of the largest events in Europe. To avoid delays during the event the following appendix will apply: ALL participants of Junior Dragster and NEAFP classes must produce proof of at least two timed runs that in 2011 using the car or bike entered. Verification can only be produced by a time slip (printout from timing system) of a recognised timing-system or through the confirmation of the respective organiser. Verification must be submitted together with the entry form no later than the final entry date. The two timed runs produced must be within the following time limits (quarter mile): Pro ET: 11.99 seconds Super Pro ET: 8.99 Super Gas: 9.90 Super Comp: 8.90 Competition: The class index for the entered vehicle The organiser remains the right to accept, at their own discretion, participants who do not fulfil the above-mentioned time limits if sufficient experience of the participant is apparent by other means. Important notice We would like to point out that since 2010 only helmets meeting ISG/FIA/DMSB requirements will be accepted. Even more Fancy. 19th April: UK blown-alcohol racer Joe Bond has been in touch to bring us up to date with the Nuthin' Fancy team's preparations for the 2011 season: Shortly after the New Year we took the car to Wayne Allman's workshop to have work done to the car to make the car look more of an out and out altered, not a funny car with an altered body on it. After some research and inspiration from Wayne the car now sports a totally re-designed and re-built front end with all sorts of new parts. The car also has new front and rear wings, as well as having the body slightly chopped about and lowered over the chassis to help with the new lines of the car. Finally the rear axle has been updated to a new Strange lightweight aluminium 9.5" centre section. I must say the car looks a completely different animal and I hope that everyone likes the new look as much as we do. Some might have seen more photos of the car if they have been following the rebuild on Facebook, but this is a little teaser photo if you haven't. Mechanically the car is the same as last year, but some fresh engine bits have come in over the winter so hopefully with them we can keep the car running in the mid sixes and get some consistency throughout the season. So with that, and after a long hard - read very cold! - winter we are thoroughly looking forward to getting to Santa Pod for the Thunderball. I just want to say some huge thanks to my team who once again worked so hard over the long winter months to get the car ready after the changes. Also want to say a huge thanks to Rich and Pete Walters who sorted out the fresh paint and stickers for the car, they look superb. Finally to Wayne Allman for his inspiration to make the Topolino look as great as it does. Thank you Wayne, we appreciate the hard work you did and in such a tight time frame. Looking forward to seeing everyone at Easter! I also wanted to say that the Nuthin' Fancy Racing web site at www.nuthinfancyracing.co.uk has had a slight tweak, with a new Blogspot page which I keep as up to date as possible. Please check it out, and it you're part of Blogspot then please subscribe too! Swift snippets. 19th April: With three days to go to the Autotrader Easter Thunderball UK blown-alcohol altered racer Dave Grabham has discovered that a replacement front wheel for one damaged at Xtreme Wheels last year will not fit. Dave is therefore urgently seeking any make of 15 x 3.5 Anglia fitment spindle mount front wheel to buy or borrow for this weekend's event. "It does not have to have a tyre fitted, anything will do so long as it is not bent", says Dave. "If you have anything which you think may do please call on 07721 831875 or 07525 652098." Multiple ACU UK Pro Stock Bike Champion, European record holder and Eurodragster.com Blogger Dave Beck had a potential calamity when his new motor's trick vacuum pump broke during a warm-up. Luckily Dave was able to find someone to make replacement parts and he is all set for this weekend's Easter Thunderball. You can read more, and find out about a plan to race in the ADRL, on Dave's exclusive Racer Blog, presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Thanks to Paula Marshall for forwarding us Version 7 of the official entry list for Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-8th May. You can check out Version 7 of the Big Bang entry list by clicking here. 2010 FIA European Pro Stock Champion Michael Malmgren has added another product sponsor from the Federal Mogul family, namely Champion Spark Plugs who will support Malmgren Racing this season. "I already work with Fel Pro and Sped Pro so the deal came easily after a meeting at PRI", says Michael. "Champion was an easy choice as they make some real nice spark plugs for Pro Stock engines. A test on the dyno showed positive results." UK Outlaw Street racer Rob Slater says that he was testing a new front end setup and 540 ci motor in his '57 Chevy at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend. "I ran 11.5", says Rob. "I feel there is more to come. I will try for the tens at Gary's Picnic when the 1150 Dominator will be on the motor in place of the street 850DP I used this weekend. The motor set-up this weekend was the one I use to tow my caravan to the events and shows, ten miles per gallon, not bad! Thanks to everyone at Eurodragster.com (Thanks! - Ed), here's to a fantastic Thunderball." This weekend's Autotrader Easter Thunderball not only marks Santa Pod Pod Raceway's 45th anniversary, but it is also thirty five years since Big Daddy Don Garlits came to the UK and Peter Crane ran the first five-second pass. "We are having a reunion of many of the Top Fuel drivers and teams which competed at that event", says Peter. "If anyone wants to say Hi to some of us oldies, we'd be pleased to see them at the Thunderball." Emma Humphreys and all of SPRC's marshals have asked us to say a big Happy 40th Birthday to SPRC start line marshal Richard Bell. We're very happy to do so, have a great day Richard and we'll see you at the weekend. Easter Thunderball Perfect Awards. 19th April: This weekend's Autotrader Easter Thunderball is the first event in the 2011 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards scheme. £100 is on offer for perfect performance. The Eurodragster.com/Cotsweld Race Cars Perfect Light Award starts at £50 and will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available all 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 Big Bang and the NDRS Nationals; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for Big Bang and the NDRS Nationals. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with race car builder Cotsweld Race Cars whose web site you can find at www.cotsweld.co.uk. The Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award starts at £50 and will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to run to the thousandth on their dial-in or index during qualifying or eliminations. The Perfect ET Award is available this weekend in Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Sportsman ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Junior Dragster (eliminations only), 9.50 Bike, 8.50 Bike, the Wild Bunch, VW Pro and VW Sportsman, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Run of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £75 for Big Bang and the NDRS Nationals; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for Big Bang and the NDRS Nationals. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with RV sales and service specialists Gold RV whose web site you can find at www.goldrv.co.uk. To be eligible to collect the Perfect ET Award, racers are required to carry Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET decals, one on each side of the vehicle. If you pull this weekend's first Perfect ET but are not carrying decals then there will be no discussion; we will not pay out and the next person to pull a Perfect ET will get the money assuming that they are carrying decals. As with all contingency schemes racers are responsible for collecting decals; Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award decals will be available in Signing On. Azzopardi gets Smart. 18th April: Malta may be a tiny island in the middle of the Mediterranean, with a population of 400,000, but what it lacks in size, its people make up for in sheer determination to succeed against all odds. One only has to look at its history of defeating the Turks in one of the greatest battles of all time during the Great Siege, or the way it held off the combined forces of the Axis powers during the Second World War. This innate strength and intensity of character is only too visible in Oliver Azzopardi, the Maltese team owner and driver of the Smart Racing Team who will be competing for the first time at a professional level at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway in May. Oliver and brother Edmund, who apart from being his mainstay and greatest fan is also his Crew Chief, have both been passionate about cars and involved in racing, in one form or another, for almost all of their adult life. Oliver started off in hill climbs, but his love for speed eventually lead to him becoming an avid follower of the drag racing scene in Malta. Never one to do anything by half measures, Oliver decided that if he was going to get involved in the sport, then he would have to do things the right way. So he travelled to the USA and attended the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School, where he obtained his Top Alcohol licence and then even went on to purchase his current car there. The car is a Top Alcohol Dragster which ran in the top ten of the NHRA Championship and was driven by Jason Cannon to a best performance of a 5.38/265. Oliver shipped it to Malta and the following year was spent stripping, checking and rebuilding it. It was a highly successful year of tests and races culminating at the last event of 2009 at Hal-Far Raceway when the team raced and beat the Borg Brothers' Top Alcohol Dragster with a run of 5.93/228 on a soft tune-up. Since then substantial further investment has been made to improve the engine's performance through collaboration with one of the foremost American alcohol engine suppliers Brad Anderson Enterprises. This year the Smart Racing Team will be competing in at least two events, the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod in May and the NitrOlympX at Hockenheim in August. The team is made up of Oliver Azzopardi the team owner and driver, his brother Edmund Azzopardi who is Crew Chief, and their four-man team. For these events Edmund will also be assisted by Randy Anderson, two-time NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car Champion and current Crew Chief of the Kon Rodz Racing Team. Brown changes name. 18th April: UK Pro ET and Super Comp team Paul Brown Motorsport are proud to announce that Dunster House Ltd will be supporting them in 2011 season and the team will now be called Dunster House Racing. Dunster House sell a wide range of garden products including log cabins, garden offices, play systems and UPVC windows and doors. The dragster will be getting a makeover before the Easter Thunderball. "The dragster has not really had much change over the winter apart from going through the whole car checking that everything is OK and fitting silencers to comply to the new noise regulation", says Paul. "It was great to be back in the seat at the weekend after nearly seven months and we managed to try some new things out ready for the start of the season. We will be competing in Pro ET and Super Comp this season. "I would like to say Thank You to everyone who voted for me as Most Promising Newcomer last season. I would also like to thank Mark Fairhurst for his time, help and advice, and to everyone else who has helped me out over the last couple of years - you know who you are." Silverline renew with Wilson. 18th April: UK Top Methanol Dragster team Dave Wilson Racing are delighted to announce Silverline Tools as Primary Sponsor for the 2011 season. The announcement marks Dave's sixth year as a major partner with Racing Silverline - a prestigious stable which includes the 2010 British Touring Car Champion, Jason Plato.  It will be a busy year for the Silverline-backed team, as Wilson will contest the full FIA European tour as well as the SPRC Championship. "This is great news for myself and the crew" commented Dave. "We're really grateful to Silverline Tools for their continued backing. As ever, we'll be doing all we can to give them as much exposure as possible. This will include a full race programme as well as appearing at the 2011 Silverline Power Tool Drag Racing Championship at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in September. "2010 was a tough year for us, with the car's full potential not being achieved. We believe that the winter break has given us time to root out the gremlins and get the car into full racing shape. We're still the quickest and fastest Top Methanol car outside America, and we head into this new season confident of setting the bar even higher!" Silverline Director Darrell Morris said "Silverline are delighted to confirm our continued partnership with Dave and the team for the coming season.  We have a long and proud history with top-level motorsport and are proud to be back as primary sponsor. The extensive range of Silverline products fits perfectly with the standards the team require, and we are looking forward to the first round at Santa Pod." The first outing for the Dave Wilson Racing/Silverline Drag Racing team will be at this weekend's Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway, and Dave and the crew look forward to catching up with fans and friends over the weekend. "The Silverline Drag Racing web site at www.silverlinedragracing.comis currently receiving a complete re-design from new partner 3t creative and is due to go live ahead of the new FIA European season. Watch this space! Kellett's new bullet. 18th April: UK Junior Dragster racer Joe Kellett is looking forward to this weekend's Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway where he will be making his first outing with a motor purchased from McDonald Racing. "We would all like to thank Edel for bringing the engine in a suitcase on the ferry a few weeks ago, and thanks to Graham for flying over to the UK to help us fit and set up the combination last weekend", says Joe's dad Pete Kellett. "Graham is a top guy and they are a top family. We all wish Gabrielle good luck racing in Bristol, USA, and we hope that we will join her to race at the same event . "We will be competing for the UK Championship again this year, and we will attend Tierp in June and also Lindesberg as part of the NDRS Series and look forward to seeing all our friends in Sweden who made us very welcome last year. We also hope to see many Junior racers from Sweden at the Main Event. We would also like to wish all UK Junior Dragster racers good luck for the coming year's racing, and to thank Wayne Jackson for his help over the last few months. Here's to a great race season, cheers guys." Did the hard man cry? 18th April: The UK's Ray White has sold his wild Zephyr to Lee Cohen, who will be running it in Super Pro ET next season. "Lee is putting a blown 540 Chevy with my AFT clutch and Lenco so its going to look pretty much the same inside", says Ray whom we must thank for an early contender for Quote of the Year at Santa Pod yesterday, but more about that another time. "I bought the original car in 1977 and there were still one or two original parts there. Both my wife and daughter were in tears as the car was loaded into Lee's truck, but I'm much too hard for all that crying lark! I walked back into the empty workshop with one big empty space where the old Z used to live and I had a lump in the back of my throat. Thirty four years around the same car and it's over. But another Mk1 Zephyr is due to move in soon, just for the street though! "I would like to wish Lee good luck with the car. I will be around to help when it comes back out next season, and I'm up at Santa Pod this weekend helping Danny Cockerill with his Super Street Bike so I'll see you all there." WG4 strike oil. 18th April: Eurodragster.com sponsor WG4 is proud to announce the launch of WG Motorsport and WG Auto Care. WG Motorsport will primarily be a UK dealer for Synionic Prolong oils and products. This deal has come about through Synionic Prolong sponsoring WG Racing's Outlaw Rolls Royce. Further sponsorship, to include a Champion Super Mod racer and Junior Dragster team, will be announced shortly. Matthew Wright of WG4 was so impressed with the products which Synionic produce that he and the team at WG4 decided to distribute all of the Synionic Products range, making them easily available to every one, not just to those in motorsport. WG4 will be offering a number of various oils and additives in its product range. Synionic Motor oil is the next step in lubrication technology. Surface Modifying motor oil represents a greater leap in lubrication technology than that of mineral so synthetic. Surface modifying oils harness the power from within your engine and through the ability to withstand extreme pressures, turn the energy previously used to grind and wear your engine down, into one that smoothens and compresses the workings of your engine through a process of internal yield. Used throughout motorsport for a number of years now, the best kept secret from within the lubrication industry in now available through WG Motorsport. Available in high performance 0W30, 5W30, 10W40, 20W50 as well as 15w40 diesel power formula all oils offer the following benefits: Outstanding friction, heat and wear protection. All-temperature year-round protection Maximum protection against viscosity and thermal breakdown Ideal for new or high mileage vehicles Optimum performance where it is needed most, in, intense, high pressure metal to metal contact. Synionic Prolong Oils come in 1 Litre, 5 Litres, 25 Litres and 204 Litre sizes. So when you a buy a gallon of oil from Synionic Prolong, five litres is what you get, unlike other oil brands from whom you only get four litres and have to buy the other one. Size does matter! Other ranges on offer include a useful and time saving product Waterless Wash and Shine. Auto Express named Synionic Prolong's Waterless Wash and Shine its Best Buy of 2010. The full range is really making a name for itself and WG Motorsport are very proud to be offering it in their product range in their on-line store at www.wgmotorsport.com from this Wednesday, 20th April, thanks to the hard work and dedication of Neil Warwick, Tina Challis, and the team at WG4. "I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mike Purchase from Synionic firstly for backing WG Racing's Rolls Royce, with all the necessary lubricant and products for this seasons testing", says Matthew Wright. "We will be running on 20w50 surface modifying motor oil, a great product for our application. Secondly for having the confidence in WG Motorsport, a division of WG4 Ltd. For sales and information please call Sales Manager Tina Challis on 01277 366584." Swift snippets. 18th April: Interested in seeing a bad-ass self-built Swedish doorslammer? Then Andreas Sjödin recommends that you visit Sjödin Motorsport/ÅBM Racing at this weekend's Custom Motor Show at Elmia, Jönköping to take a closer look at their newly-built Top Doorslammer 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle. "You will find us at the Rod n Kustom/Kjula Dragways stand", says Andreas. Don't miss our new homepage at www.abmracing.com which is now translated into English." Spencer Tramm and race car builder and Eurodragster.com sponsor Chris Isaacs have passed us this rendering of their 1970 Plymouth Duster Pro Mod currently under construction at Chris Isaacs Race Cars. The rendering was prepared for Chris and Spencer by Darren West of Eurodragster.com sponsor Power Race Graphics and you can see a larger version and catch up with the build diary on the Chris Isaacs Race Cars web site at www.chris-isaacs.com. We have two spy pictures for you today. The first (below left) came with the words "We are going international this year"... ...whilst the second (above right) came with the words "Dodos aren't extinct; they've secretly been perfecting the world's best hand-made car care products". If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at [email protected]. Tom and Chris Perkins ran their 1953 Ford Anglia for the second time at yesterday's Peak Performance Day at Santa Pod Raceway. "With a bit more in the engine and a little less of the panic from their first ever outing Tom managed a 10.53/126 and Chris a 10.52/124", they say. "So looking at those figures one is quick and the other one is fast!". Chris has asked us to remind everyone of his 0.092 Reaction Time of which he is very proud, but Tom has asked not to mention his huge red light. Jeanette Webster tells us that the black Lamborghini which appeared at Santa Pod Raceway yesterday was driven by none other than Eurodragster.com sponsor Jon Webster. "A gentleman came into Signing On thinking it was a regular RWYB day and wanting to take his Lamborghini up the track", says Jeanette. "Because of the nature of the day he was unable to do so. On his way back to his car he asked if someone who had entered the Test Day would take his car up the track for him! It was mentioned that Jon would probably do it and after a brief discussion re possible breakages etc, Jon was re-suited and booted and made three passes in the car, much to the gentleman's delight as he enjoyed seeing his car on the track." Rick, Sarah and Zak Johnson have been in touch to ask us to say a big Congratulations to Jon, Donna and Francesca Giles on the arrival of their daughter and sister Georgina Nemi Giles who arrived at 8:55 this morning. Jon says that both mum and baby are doing well. Great news, congratulations guys. We would like to thank everyone who send feedback about the new Webster Race Engineering/Nimbus Motorsport webcam set-up. The new high-def camera and the service provided by Maikel Gloudemans at Doyousee.me were a huge hit and the constructive suggestions are being considered and will be actioned if practicable. At this weekend's Autotrader Easter Thunderball we plan to use Nitro FM as the audio track; this will be tested on Thursday. Web site updates. 18th April: The new Super Modified Association web site goes live today at www.supermodified.org. "Professionally produced, the site is ramped with information for anyone interested in this exciting heads-up doorslammer class", says Sarah Payne. "A progressive site, it will keep you updated with meeting results, latest news articles and an ever-growing media gallery of these awesome cars. It will also provide you the ability to browse individual team information as well as providing the Super Modified rules, history of the class, race dates and details of the tech team. Thanks to KC Tech Solutions for producing this fantastic site and also to Julian Hunt at www.julianunt.net for some stunning photography. So go on, have a browse - it's the way to start a great Super Modified racing season!" The official web site of the UK's Chaos Fuel Altered team has been updated with a report on the team's two recent test sessions together with a small gallery of pictures. Webmaster Alan Currans tells us that you can check out the updates via the Latest News link at www.chaos-fuel-altered.com. Pre-Thunderball testing coverage. 16th April: This weekend is the last chance to test before the start of the 2011 UK National Championships, and Eurodragster.com are at Santa Pod Raceway to bring you all the news in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car. This weekend's plan is to post end-day reports and end-day galleries from today's Run What You Brung and tomorrow's Peak Performance Day. The Webster Race Engineering/Nimbus Motorsport webcam will be on-line both days and will broadcast live video and trackside audio whilst the track is open. This will be our first webcast using new server facilities supplied by Doyousee.me and although Maikel has done a great job and the streaming server end of things is sorted, at the Eurodragster.com end we have a lot of new kit to try so we hope that viewers will understand if there have to be short breaks in service whilst we tweak settings. Better this week than next! The much-appreciated constructuve feedback received today (Saturday) mainly centred upon the volume of the audio; one solution is to click on the grey Settings tab at the bottom right of the webcam window which will bring up a small panel including a volume control. Click here to check out our Test Weekend coverage or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. We're also covered at Shakespeare County Raceway since, although he has plenty to do already, Jerry Cookson has kindly agreed to send us end-day us reports from SCR's Public Test Weekend, so stay tuned to the News page for Jerry's reports. SCR Test Weekend Saturday report. 14th April: Thanks to Jerry Cookson for sending us a report of today's action at day one of the Public Test Weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway: Outlaw Anglia Racer Ian Norman took a tough-looking rough and tumble at the top end today when for no reason his '48 Anglia took a sharp right at the 1000 foot mark into the Armco at speed before bouncing across the track to hit the opposite retaining wall. Ian was knocked unconscious in the impact and was taken to the track's Medical Centre but was found to have no injuries apart from his broken motor which won't 'buff out'. Other highlights included some storming runs from Andrew Murton'' 540 ci Chevy Camaro SS in Outlaw Street and Rob Slater's Pro Street '57 Chevy, both running in the low tens. Crewed by Tim Blakemore, veteran Comp bike rider Mike Chislett impressed all with his new Suzuki Comp/Funny Bike. With the gas turned on tomorrow, Mike could be in the eights. Also testing was the Harley V Rod of Supertwin racer Martin Holgate and Nigel Batsford riding the 1800cc ex-Dave Holland Super Street Bike Suzuki to the tune of 10.1. Leading the opening round of the ACU Junior Drag Bike qualifying after two rounds is Alfie Udall on the Hogbitz Yamaha after bumping Jack Wildman down a place to number two. Webcam feedback. 16th April: We would appreciate feedback about the new Webster Race Engineering/Nimbus Motorsportwebcam set-up. We are most interested in practical matters such as picture quality and the performance of the stream, but we will also be pleased to read constructive comments or suggestions. Please send feedback to [email protected]; all E-Mails received will go both to the Eurodragster.com team and to Maikel at our service provider Doyousee.me. As we are working all weekend we cannot promise immediate replies but please be assured that all feedback will be read. Event entry update. 16th April: Thanks to Emelie Carlswärd for forwarding us Version 1 of the official entry list for the inaugural Sweden Internationals, which takes place at Tierp Arena on 9th-12th June. You can check out the entry list (PDF format) by clicking here. On-line entry to the Sweden Internationals is available at www.tierparena.com/regsi. Thanks to Paula Marshall for forwding us Version 6 of the official entry list for Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-8th May. You can check out Version 6 of the Big Bang entry list by clicking here. If you have any queries about entry to Big Bang or to any event at Santa Pod then please contact Paula Marshall at [email protected] or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625). Editor's note: Because we have our hands full with the event coverage, the next full news update will be posted on Monday. We have plenty to tell you then, and please keep the news and Easter Thunderball previews coming to [email protected]. Event entry update. 15th April: Many thanks also to Emelie Carlswärd for forwarding us Version 5 of the official entry list for the inaugural NDRS Nationals, which takes place at Tierp Arena on 7th-8th May. You can check out the entry list (PDF format) by clicking here. On-line entry to the NDRS Nationals is still available at www.tierparena.com/reg. Thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for sending us the final version of the official entry list for next week's Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. This final update adds Shelley Pearson and confirms Risto Poutiainen on the Pro Fuel Shootout entry list and we understand that there may be more news about the Shootout shortly. You can check out the Easter Thunderball entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Super Modified, Outlaw Anglia, Sportsman ET, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike and Junior Drag Bike racers please note that today (Friday) is the official closing date for entry to Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-8th May. Entries received after today, if accepted, will be subject to a 100% late entry fee. You can check out Version 5 of the Big Bang entry list by clicking here. If you have any queries about entry to Big Bang or to any event at Santa Pod then please contact Paula Marshall at [email protected] or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625). Entry is open for the Spingspeed Nationals, the second and third rounds of the UK Championships depending upon class, which takes place at Shakespeare County Raceway on 14th-15th May. You can download the official entry form from the Shakespeare County Raceway web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. If you have any queries about entry to the Springspeed Nationals entry ot to any event at Shakespeare County Raceway then please contact SCR at [email protected] or call 01789 720180 (outside the UK +44 1789 720180). Smith: One is a lonely number. 15th April: UK Fuel Funny Car racer Gordon Smith says that he can't wait for the Shockwave team's season to start. There is a lot happening on the car but Gordon starts with an update ont he Shockwave crew, or the family as he likes to call them. Oover the many years we have been racing in the nitro class some crew have come and gone but there have always been five people who have been with the team for many years", says Gordon. "They know who they are. I am sad to report that this year three of these valued crew members have been persuaded to move on to pastures new. This has come as a massive disappointment to me and a sadness that we could not see it out to the end. However I wish them all the best of luck in the future whoever they are crewing for, and they will always be welcome at our pits. As for the crew who have stuck with the team, I thank them and look forward to another successful year together. New team members are being put into place to replace those that have left and there will be more on that at a later date. "Now for the racing. Longtime friend, partner and Crew Chief Dave Bryant remains the focus point for the team and I would like to take this opportunity to say what a terrific job he has done for the Shockwave team over the years. I know that he is as committed as ever this year. Jason Phelps of FGR Motorsport is in the process of building me a lovely new Funny Car which we hope will make its début at the Main Event. It will sport a Chrysler body and have all the very latest gizmos and some new go-faster parts so that we will be capable of running the big numbers. "The old car will be used at Easter and has been updated and made ready for the event. Dave has done a lot of work over the winter to make sure that the car is in fine fettle for the Easter win! After that the car will be given a little rest but may return with Jason at the wheel later in the year. We would like to run a two car team at some point but this will be down to funding, Mapei have continued to support us this year and we are grateful to them for that. "As for our opponents, I have to say that any of the dragsters could be in the final alongside Shockwave. They are all well capable but it would have been nice to beat up on Andy. I have to say that I am very disappointed in the turnout by the Funny Cars as in January all the talk was about how many Nitro Funny Cars there could be, but none of them seem to be ready to take us on. When I think about the very small funding that Shockwave receives but still we manage to put on a very competitive display it puzzles me even more. So come on race car owners, Shockwave needs you out there racing or there will be no Funny Cars racing! "All of the Shockwave team are looking forward to seeing all our fans and some who are not are also welcome around our trailer." Nitro FM set for 2011. 15th April: Nigel Fitzmaurice of Santa Pod Raceway's radio station Nitro FM has been in touch to bring us up to date with the station's 2011 plans: Jules has been extremely busy with a studio rebuild over the closed season. There are new commentator units with all audio including the PA coming via Nitro FM with a fresher sound. We have now an entrance at the side rear door of the studio and not the front door as all Meet and Greet and interviews will take place in the Green Room at the far end of the studio. The remodel is designed to make it a far easier place to operate. Our good friends at Eurodragster.com have the webcam with audio from Nitro FM plus the daily updates from the team live on Nitro FM at all main events. We are proud to continue our existing sponsorship deals and to make a few additions. Our sponsors are Carter Motorsport, LA Racing Parts, Pete Walters Race Design, Panic Racing, the National Association of Super Twins, MotorShack, the Curry Garden (Rushden), Mapei, and there are a few more to be added. This is an exciting time for Nitro FM with the changes and new vision. To get us on-line check out santapod.com and Eurodragster.com or tune in on www.audiorealm.com and search for Nitro FM. Many thanks to both Santa Pod and Eurodragster.com for their support with this (You're welcome, thanks for your support - Ed). Stay tuned as we have a host of new prizes including Nitro FM glasses with Have a drink with Nitro FM on one side and the Nitro FM logo on the other. These are real quality productions from MissB Engravings, thanks to them for a real great job. These are glasses are an exclusive and limited edition so competition will be fierce, and the questions will be difficult. Swift snippets. 15th April: European fans have someone to cheer on in the USA this weekend as ex-pat UK Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences is taking part in the Lucas Oil Divisional event at the Texas Motorplex. The event starts today; the Texas Motorplex web site at www.texasmotorplex.com offers webcam (with some great nostalgia footage when not live) and live timing, and you can also stay in touch with Mike's progress courtesy of our colleagues at www.dragracecentral.com. Eire's Gabby McDonald, who did the remarkable triple of UK National, SPRC and APIRA Junior Dragster Championships in 2011, tells us that although she may not be racing in the UK this year she will be racing at Thunder Valley in Bristol, Tennessee for the Eastern Conference Final. "Thanks to Bill Lancaster I will be racing both Outlaw 330 and 7.90", says Gabby. "A full week of racing is ahead of me in July - bring on the hundreds of kids! I want to wish the very best of luck to all the Juniors taking part this year old and new. I hope to be over soon for a visit. A very Happy Easter to everyone at Eurodragster.com and to all drag racers (Thank you Gabby, and to you - Ed)." The first of two spy pictures to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com (below left) came with advice to attend next week's Custom Motor Show on Easter in Jönköping. The Pro Mod on the right is pretty easily identified but the Top Methanol FC accompanying it piqued our interest. The second of today's spy pictures came with the words "Fired up for the first time tonight. Note the short (stock) swing arm and position of the turbo allowing the engine to be closer to the front wheel". If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at [email protected]. We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to Speedgroup Co-Ordinator Åsa Kinnemar. Have a lovely day Åsa. The new 2011 Santa Pod merchandise range will be launched at Easter including new look jackets, hoodies, polo shirts and long sleeved T-Shirts. "There's something available for everyone so head over to one of the merchandise outlets and take a look", say Santa Pod. The new clothing is also available on-line at www.santapodshop.com. Are you up to the Challenge? 14th April: Our good buddy Markus Münch has been in touch to invite European Super Pro ET racers to take part in the German Super Pro ET Challenge. Markus says that it couldn't be easier to paricipate: This Championship has been organised since 2008 and is a series in which the best four of five races count for points. Rounds take place at all three races at Drachten, the MSTO Grand Nationals at Bechyne (CZ), and the NitrOlympX at Hockenheim. If you are going to participate in these races anyway, then it is no big deal to take part in the Challenge. You register by telling Markus, Andrea or Rene of the organizing board that you wish to participate, and you pay a fee of €75 which goes towards prize money for the top third placed at the end of the season. There will be additional sponsors, as a sponsorship scheme in the making. So far twenty teams from Germany and Switzerland already in the show, with some others in the pipeline. Wanna be a part? Don't hesitate, contact us at [email protected] or visit out web site at www.suproet.de. You can see the list of drivers already signed up at www.suproet.de/teilnehmer/index.php. Another Gamble at SCR. 14th April: Another busy weekend is in prospect at Shakespeare County Raceway as the Warwickshire-based drag strip gears up for its second Test and Tune Public Track Day weekend of the season. High on the list of attractions is the track's very own Bracket Gamblers Race on Sunday. Run to real bracket racing rules the Gamblers races are open to any RWYB or comp car drivers. All you need is an extra £10 which goes towards the winner and runner up purse, and to get signed up by 11:00 am in order to qualify. One group of racers who will be taking advantage of the Gamblers will be the drivers of Outlaw Street who will not only be competing in their own series, but also runing in the Bracket competition. Bring it on for a sixteen-car ladder! So with the National Championships starting next weekend dare you miss out on some extra testing of your dial-in skills! Staying with the street car theme Sunday will see the opening round of a very busy National Street Car Challenge as well as the Raceway's exclusive Japanese class, the Pro Street Drag Series, supported this year by Marle Pistons, Roland Alsop Engineering, Opie Oils and Total Car Magazines. The Junior classes will also be out in force with the opening round of the ACU Junior Drag Bike Championship and the new SCR Junior Dragster League. With ten bikes already entered this year's JDB Championship is shaping up to be the best yet with plenty of interest from new riders and parents coming in nearly every week. The SCR Junior Dragster League kicks off with its own unique dial-in format guaranteeing its young drivers maximum runs at every round of the series and with cash awards and trophies sponsored by Grant Victory of GV Motorsport you can be sure that the sport's young racers will be well and truly on their game. Clubs attending include the Clio16valvers, Crusie-Mids and the UK Fiesta Network. Gates open at 6:00 pm Friday ready for the track opening time of 10:00 am each day subject to the usual conditions. Admission is £12 per person and the RWYB track fee is £20 per day or £35 for the weekend. Please remember your driver's license and don't forget to bring a crash helmet. There is evening entertainment in the bar both nights, with a film show on the big screen Friday. Further details can be found on the Shakespeare County web site and Facebook pages or call 01789 720180. See you at the strip! Swift snippets. 14th April: The UK's FireForce Jet Funny Car team would like to thank everyone for their words of support and emails following Saturday's incident at Santa Pod with FireForce 4. "It is still unclear what caused the problem, but Martin Hill experienced some steering issues around half track which resulted in the car hitting the wall", says Donna Finnegan. "Thankfully Martin was unhurt and the car suffered some slight damage to the front of the chassis and to the front of the body. Investigations are underway and hopefully the team can get to the bottom of the problem. Not exactly the début the crew were after with Number 4's first run but it could have been much worse had the car been travelling at full speed. A full report is on the FireForce web site and we will keep everyone updated on the progress of  repairs." Ian Turburville has been in touch to ask us to wish Good Luck to his daughter, Junior Dragster racer Laura Turburville, who is auditioning for the Junior Apprentice TV programme today. The very best of luck to you Laura; if they know what's good for them then they will take you, if they don't then fire them. Pre-Thunderball testing coverage. 14th April: This weekend is the last chance to test before the start of the 2011 UK National Championships, and Eurodragster.com will be at Santa Pod Raceway to bring you all the news in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car. This weekend's plan is to post end-day reports and end-day galleries from Saturday's Run What You Brung and Sunday's Peak Performance Day. The Webster Race Engineering/Nimbus Motorsport webcam will be on-line both days and will broadcast live video and trackside audio whilst the track is open. This will be our first webcast using new server facilities supplied by Doyousee.me and although Maikel has done a great job and the streaming server end of things is sorted, at the Eurodragster.com end we have a lot of new kit to try so we hope that viewers will understand if there have to be short breaks in service whilst we tweak settings. Better this week than next! We will post a direct Home Page link to our coverage as soon as it commences, but in the meantime you can check out our Autotrader Easter Thunderball week index, which includes the latest version of the official entry list, by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. We're also covered at Shakespeare County Raceway since, although he has plenty to do already, Jerry Cookson has kindly agreed to send us end-day us reports from SCR's Public Test Weekend, so stay tuned to the News page for Jerry's reports over the weekend. Event entry update. 13th April: VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Super Modified, Outlaw Anglia, Sportsman ET, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike and Junior Drag Bike racers please note this Friday (15th) is the official closing date for entry to Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-8th May. Entries received after Friday 15th April, if accepted, will be subject to a 100% late entry fee. You can check out Version 4 of the Big Bang entry list by clicking here. If you have any queries about entry to Big Bang then please contact Paula Marshall at [email protected] or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625). Entry is open for the Spingspeed Nationals, the second and third rounds of the UK Championships depending upon class, which takes place at Shakespeare County Raceway on 14th-15th May. You can download the official entry form from the Shakespeare County Raceway web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. If you have any queries about Springspeed Nationals entry then please contact Shakespeare County Raceway at [email protected] or call 01789 720180 (outside the UK +44 1789 720180). Preparing Kunmadaras II. 10th April: David Warren has again been in touch from Kunmadaras in Hungary, where an advance party from Santa Pod Raceway have started work to prep the track surface for the first round of the 2011 UEM European Drag Bike Championships which takes place on 28th April-1st May. "As our time comes to a close here in Hungary we have established a good base line preparation for the forthcoming UEM round", says David. "The VP Racing Fuels products used throughout, along with the many days of sledding, have sealed the racing surface nicely." "We fly back to the UK tomorrow to start preparation for this weekend's Run What You Brung and Peak Performance Day and next week's Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. We now look forward to our return to Hungary in a couple of weeks where we will start our final track preparation. We hope the new track records will be set at the race." Although Eurodragster.com cannot attend this event, we will be able to cover the race in reasonably real time since we will be sent results courtesy of the local timing crew, and Speedgroup in the person of Co-ordinator Åsa Kinnemar will be sending notes and pictures. In the meantime more information and more pictures of facility prep are available on the Kunmadaras Motorsport web site at www.kunmadarasmotorsport.hu. The Daddy's on his way back. 13th April: UK Super Street Bike racer Graham Dance had a tough season in 2010 after changing his combination to a turbo-based set-up. Graham, a former UK ACU SSB Champion, had a steep learning curve last season whilst his competitors were running with proven combinations. However things are looking a lot better for the ever-smiling Dancey for 2011. "Turning up at Easter with no testing and a bike that wouldn't even get down the track was not the ideal start", Graham told Eurodragster.com, "however by the end we were running mid sevens and in the mid-pack which met all my expectations. "This year we looked into the areas where we were lacking and have hopefully addressed them, mainly more peak horsepower and better clutch control. Roger Upperton has supplied a new engine which looks really promising following a dyno session and on-track testing last weekend, when we were rewarded with a first full pass of 7.7/185. This was acheived on a lot less boost than we ran last year and with a sixty foot time which wouldn't have bothered the record books! "With just some routine servicing and a spare motor to build this weekend I feel much more prepared and am counting the days to Easter. We are then in for a busy time: the day after we get back from Santa Pod we are then on a ferry and headed for Hungary to race in the new Super Street Bike European Mini Series. "As always I have lots of people to thank: Brad at BTC Moto, Jon and Sharon at SID, Len Padge, Sam Birch, Dave Smith, Roger Up, Chris Sadd, Stu Crane, and all the staff at Santa Pod for their help last weekend." One day from Sportsman to Pro. 13th April: The UK's Lucy Matthews had a magical rookie year in 2009, one Run What You Brung session followed by six rounds of the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Championship with the slowest car on the track, and walking away with VWDRC Rookie of the Year, the VWDRC VW Sportsman Championship, and nominated for Most Promising Newcomer in the Santa Pod Racers Club Perpetual Awards. Lucy then decided that she would take a year out and then maybe get the car back out for another season. However, after a chance jokey conversation, Lucy made the move from VW Sportsman to VW Pro in eleven runs: The OH Ian and I were at the GTI Festival at Santa Pod and we decided that we would make a weekend of it and stay over on the Saturday night, just to make the most of the whole day on Sunday. I spent Saturday feeling quite happy about having a couple of test runs in Ian's car. After a nice relaxing first night of the year at Pod, I woke stupidly early on Sunday ready for the day's runs. Walking down to the Signing On office, I was chatting away to Ian and just taking the atmosphere in. Into the signing on office, not a problem felt good. Filling out my RWYB form, missed out my licence number, oops not a good start. Wristband on, oh my, oh my, oh my I'm going down the strip today in a car that is at least twelve seconds quicker than I'm used to! What have I let myself in for? Out the office walking back to the pits, right need a RWYB number for the car. There's Polly, let's get a number, H13 it is then. Sitting in the pits having a cuppa waiting for friends to arrive feeling my stomach knot itself up and twist itself tighter and tighter. Ady and Michelle arrive, time to get down to the start line. I got in the car and had a few quiet moments remembering the trial runs I'd been making in the pits on Saturday evening. Trying out the gears and seeing a shift light for the first time ever. How was I going to remember everything Ian had been coaching me on? Ady and Ian let the Santa Pod crew know it would be my first run in this car. Heart pounding in my ears, what did Ian say about doing a burnout? Oh my life, it's finally here, I have to do this now! Right, into the burnout box, get lined up, car into second, pump brake, line lock on, accelerator down, clutch up pretty swiftly. Woohoo, burnout here we come! Right, up to the line, erm...what do we do here? First gear would be a help, creep up to the line, how did he say to keep the car on the line without brakes? Argh, there goes the lights, off we go. Wow! What a feeling. Into second, third, fourth, under the gantry and foot eased up off the accelerator. What were my next thoughts? Let's go and do it again, I wonder what time we ran. 15.03, that's pretty good for a first attempt, I think. Do it again, and by the time I had firmed this thought up in my head I was back in the burnout box ready for the next run. What a feeling to race down the track, it's indescribable. Every time I came round to the start line, Ian and Ady were there with massive smiles and pearls of wisdom to help me on the next run. Run number three, right Ian said I must preload the gearbox, erm how did he say to do it? Right, we've got it, second set of staging lights on, revs up, and green light. Clutch up, accelerator down, whoa I just did my first wheelie! Ten runs later and I'd managed to get into the twelves, satisfying when you realise you can race in the class you've entered. Time for run eleven, good burnout, pull up to the start line, stage, load the gearbox, off we go! Whoa there, where am I going? The car wants to go over the yellow line, erm that's the Christmas Tree I'm heading for. Off the gas, straighten up, back on the gas, OK... no, the car really does want to go right. Back off the gas, OK we're straight now, back on the gas. Right, really think there may be an issue with the car. It all sounds good though, hopefully I haven't broken anything. I pull over to the left hand side of the lane and coast down to the turn-off. I'm thinking I should be a bit scared about breaking a driveshaft on the track, but what I'm really thinking is at least I know what that feels like now. I was grinning ear to ear and buzzing with adrenaline, how could it get any better. It did after Ian visited Blackett Photography, wow, all those pictures just of the car. Ian got me a print of one of my wheelies, how cool does that look. Monday morning arrived and I was still smiling from ear to ear. I decided to take the print to work to show my colleagues what I get up to in my spare time. Well after taking that one print in I am now proud to say that the company I work for, Chemtest, have agreed to sponsor me for the 2011 season. Ian's just made me my very own Facebook page too. Good luck to everyone for the 2011 season. Nitro school. 30th March: Last Saturday our good buddies from the der Beschleuniger web site accepted an invitation from Germany's Black Seven Nitro Bike Racing Team to attend their training day. Markus Münch takes up the story: The team put up the new trailer and awning as well as all of the new equipment, including the ex-Günther Sohn G&R Racing Supertwin. There has been a lot of work done on the whole operation. The new trailer is very well painted, with the Bike on the complete length of it. That shows all others on European motorways "Attention, Nitro drag racing inside!". The whole team was busy that day. Günther and his mechanic Mathias were present and went through all the routines with the Black Seven team. Mixing Nitro, filling the oil and topping up the air, engine and ignition preperation, and working with the special tools. In the end they performed two warm ups. The team was extremely focused on their new routines, wanting to know all about the new driving machine. The first warm up was done by Günther himself, explaining everything. After that the Black Seven Crew took over and were in charge, preparing the bike for the first warm-up of their own. Excitement hung in the nitro-filled air. The bike came to life and sounded really mean and strong. Günther had a smile on his face, as well as Christian Jäger and the whole Black Seven team. They are now ready for the next step, which will be at the Easter Thunderball where they will be under supervision from Günther for the first runs. Christian is very keen on the first outing. "The vibration on the nitro bike feels totally different to the Funny Bike", he says. Günther explaned the main difference: "With the Funny Bike you have a very brutal launch, perhaps even more brutal than on the nitro bike. But when you are at half track with the front tyre in the air, you can't imagine that the bike is still pushing and pushing to the finish line". So what can you say about the Black Seven Nitro Bike Team. It will be a learning season in 2011 with a whole new challenge to take on. Nitro, new bike, new equipment. The bike itself is one of the fastest in Europe and they have a good baseline to start from. They want to race for the Supertwin title in the near future, that's one of the main goals of the team without a doubt. The truth will out on the track, and we will see what marks the team makes in 2011 when they contest the whole UEM Tour. You can find a German-language version of this news item on the der Beschleuniger web site at www.derbeschleuniger.de together with a Photo Gallery from the training day which you can check out by clicking here. Swift snippets. 13th April: 15:10 The rumour was out there but Lena Lingman of Sweden's Per Svedberg Racing has kindly confirmed that Pro Mod legend Scotty Cannon will be working with Per's blown-alcohol Pro Mod team this year. We will bring you more on this as we receive it. Advance ticket bookings for next week's Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway close at 5:00 pm UK this Friday (15th). "We still got some VIP tickets available for the Saturday, Sunday and Monday too", says Jo Harris of Santa Pod. "Don't forget we've also got Lucy Pargeter from Emmerdale and Gemma Merna from Hollyoaks at the race Easter Monday! For more details or to book tickets call 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828) or visit www.santapod.com. In the second part of his series of articles documenting the construction of his new Gulf Oil- and Grand Prix Originals-sponsored Top Fuel Bike, the UK's Ian King explains the design of the chassis and also reveals that he will be the latest of a small but select number of Top Fuel Bike racers to utilise a parachute. You can check out the very interesting article (Word format) by clicking here or by clicking on the picture below left. Dutch Pro Modified racer Robert Joosten is holding a pre-season Open Day at his 'shop in Werkendam on Saturday week, 23rd April. The Open Day takes place between 14:00 and 18:00 at Vierlinhgstraat 49 A 11 - 4251 LC Werkendam and all are welcome. You can find out more (PDF format) by clicking here or by clicking on the picture above right. If anyone is attending Robert's Open Day and would like to send a report and a picture or two to Eurodragster.com then please drop us a line at [email protected]. UK blown-alcohol altered racer Adam Gleadow says that the off season rebuild is all coming together nicely at Motor Psycho HQ, with everything assemble this weekend. "For the new season there are plenty of new parts and a few little tweaks and improvements", says Adam. "Sitting atop the 511 ci Rodeck is a 14/71 Hi-Helix Littlefield blower and Enderle mag Buzzard catcher, the rear gears changed to 4.56:1 ratio to help drop the sixty foot times into sensible territory, a freshly flowed and rebuilt fuel pump from Spud Miller at Fuel Injection Enterprises (I can't recommend Spud enough, his service and work is fantastic) and a general service/freshen up of the motor and clutch along with some modifications to make maintenance and turn rounds a bit easier. All of this leaves in a really good position to improve from last year's slightly curtailed 7.60 pass at the National Finals. As ever it wouldn't be possible without the crew's hard work, also a few special Thank Yous for people who've helped us out: Rune Fjeld, Tony Pearson, John Spuffard, Martin Hill, Joe Bond and Tom the machinist." Artist Paul Whitehouse has been in touch to inform us that, following on from the Bootsie Gladiator painting which he sold on Eurodragster.comn last week, he has another two driver-signed originals for sale. The first features the 1974 STP Avenger F/C driven by Dennis Priddle (below left). Paul had this painting on display at last year's FIA Main Event meeting at Santa Pod where Dennis kindly signed the mount. This original painting, unframed, measures 25" x 17" (640mm x 430mm). The second is a montage painting featuring Andy Carter in the 2009 European Top Fuel Championship-winning car (below right). Andy kindly signed the mount also at last year's FIA Main Event. This original painting, unframed, measures 28" x 21" (710mm x 630mm). For more details please contact Paul at [email protected]. Jemma Harrison and Mark Skinner have both been in touch to ask us to congratulate RWYB regular Adrian Cattell and his partner Andrea on the arrival of their daughter Daisy who signed on early yesterday morning. No sooner said than done, congratulations guys. Lørdag d. 16 april fra kl.13,00. inviterer Mosten MC til åbent hus. Der vil være mulighed for at se lokaliteterne på nær hold, samt få en hyggelig snak med medlemmerne, som vil være vært ved en kop kaffe og noget hjemmebag i klubhuset. Lørdag er der test race på banen, hvor dragracing kører i såvel biler som motorcykler, har mulighed for at teste deres køretøjer efter en lang vinters ombygninger og tuning, inden det for alvor går løs til det første DM, som afvikles allerede om søndagen på selv samme bane, "Mosten Race Way" i Bodeenge. Der køres fra kl. 10.00 til 18.00 begge dage og der er fri entre. Gæsterne vil derfor kunne få sig en god autentisk forsmag på Mosten Race Day, som afholdes 1. weekend i september, hvor mere end 250 race teams, sætter hinanden stævne på den smalle bane i Bodeenge, og 22 musikbands, heriblandt Johnny Winter, Back in Black, Die Herren og Den Danske Mafia, fyrer den af på de to musikscener. Se info på www.mosten-mc.dk. Alle er velkomne. On the housekeeping front, when sending pictures to accompany news items please do not hesitate to include a photographer credit. We are always pleased to name photographers - the usual method is a mouse-over on the picture - but we can only do this if the photographer's name is supplied. SPR offer VP Fuels for Easter. 13th April: Santa Pod Raceway are still accepting advance orders for VP Racing Fuels to be collected or delivered to your pit area at the Easter Thunderball. James Forster says that SPR currently have the whole range in stock at very competitive prices: VP C12 - Octane 108 - 5 US Gallon Drum - £85 VP C14 - Octane 114 - 5 US Gallon Drum - £95 VP Q16 - Octane 116 - 5 US Gallon Drum - £95 VP C23 - Octane 120+ - 5 US Gallon Drum - £125 VP Import - Octane 120+ - 5 US Gallon Drum - £135 VP SV-05 - Octane 98 - 5 US Gallon Drum - £95 VP M1 Methanol - 54 US Gallon Drum - £400 If you would like the fuel delivered to your pits then please let us know which event you need it for, along with the driver or rider's name and race number, by 5:00 pm next Wednesday (20th)", says James. "To place your order or for more information, please contact the office on 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828) or E-Mail [email protected]. Alternately fuel can also be purchased online at the Santa Pod Shop at www.santapodshop.com or bought directly from the Pod Shop on the day." Web site updates. 13th April: Stefani Robinson of Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson's Pro Mod team has been invited to start a Blog on the Female Racing News web site, which as you can guess promotes women in motorsport. You can check out Stef's first Blog entry, in which she introduces herself, at www.femaleracingnews.com. Future Blogs will cover race events and travel around Europe with Andy's blown-alcohol Studebaker. Paige joins R2B2. 12th April: Multi-car team owner Roger Burgess is taking steps to secure the future of his R2B2 drag racing team by signing twelve-year-old UK Junior Dragster sensation Paige Wheeler. Wheeler first came to prominence in her inaugural race last year, the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway in England, where she raced her Alamo Rent-A-Car dragster to a semifinal finish. A few months later, Paige met and befriended R2B2 Pro Melanie Troxel, who was racing at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod. With Melanie's signature on the top of her racecar, Paige went on to win that event, and celebrated the occasion by accepting Melanie's invitation to attend the NHRA National event in Las Vegas in late October.  It was there that Paige was introduced to Burgess, who offered her a chance to join his six-car team in time for her to compete in this year's United Kingdom Championship Series. "This is a fantastic opportunity", Paige said. "I keep pinching myself. Melanie has been my idol since I first discovered drag racing and it was such a thrill just to meet her. To think that I'm teammates with her now is hard to believe. I'm absolutely over the moon at the moment. "I will do my very best to represent R2B2 Racing in the UK and Europe. Mr Burgess puts forth the utmost in everything he does and I want to show off his team at a top level. The R2B2 motto is 'Uno Alla Volta' - One at a Time - and that's how we plan to race the season." Paige will carry R2B2 branding on her Alamo dragster beginning immediately. She plans to race all events in the United Kingdom National Championships as well as the NHRA Junior Drag Racing League Eastern Conference Finals, which are scheduled for 28th-30th July at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tennessee. She also may enter any other races she can manage to attend while in the United States, pending her school schedule. Additionally, Paige will represent R2B2 Racing at numerous car shows and exhibits. "We welcome Paige and her parents Andy and Dionne to our family" said Roger Burgess. "She's such a delightful young lady and I'm extremely confident she'll be a Championship drag racer and a wonderful spokesperson for our team, both in Europe and here in the United States when her schedule allows. "She reminds me a lot of Melanie in that she has a quiet intensity about her, and as we all saw at Santa Pod, she knows how to win. She's definitely R2B2 material." When not in her dragster, Paige can be found cheerleading at her local club and majorette troupe. She'll soon be joined on the strip by younger sister Belle. By coincidence Paige and dad Andy Wheeler of Eurodragster.com sponsor Alamo Rent A Car were interviewed in BBC Radio Northants yesterday (Monday) and you can listen to an MP3-format replay by clicking here. Andersens: Plan A or Plan B? 12th April: Karsten Andersen has been in touch from Denmark with some pictures from the latest work weekend on the Andersen Racing Top Fuel Dragster. "What is more natural than having this wing (below left) on the quickest and fastest car in Europe?", says Karsten. "We have everything ready; we have done at least forty labs on our fuel pump centre, we have four complete motors, tons of new parts - as a matter of fact I don't think we have ever had so many good parts. "We don't yet have a driver for the 2011 FIA European Championship, but everything is ready if he or she shows up! Truck, trailer and race car are all ready for vinyl! If nothing happens within the next week we will move to Plan B which is racing at Hockenheim then in Las Vegas and Pomona." Stay tuned as Karsten has kindly promised that Eurodragster.com readers will be the first to know as soon as there is firm news on either Plan A or Plan B. Careful readers will also have noticed the Landmeco banner in the right column and we will reveal what that is about in due course. Swift snippets. 12th April: York Raceway's rolling burnout competition on Easter Sunday is gaining increased controversy for its renegade attitude to re-invent the traditional, stale burnout competition by giving drivers free rein to do the burnout they always wanted, to do it with style, panache and more importantly skill. There will be no barriers to stop rolling burnouts. There will be no time restrictions. And no restrictions on props such asflares. There will be a set of rules approved by our governing body the IOPD, which will be handed out to participants on signing on, and they can also be found at www.yorkraceway.org.uk. York Raceway is working with Flag Time Films to have the burnout competition filmed. Flag Time Films have worked closely with the BBC, Sky One and has produced various high end music videos. Advance booking will shortly be closing for Sunday's Peak Performance Day at Santa Pod Raceway, after which entry will be on the gate on Sunday at a slightly higher fee. For more information or to book your place check out www.rwyb.com. A standard Run What You Brung takes place at SPR on Saturday. A Public Test Weekend is also taking place at Shakespeare County Raceway on Saturday and Sunday with a Gambler's Shootout on Sunday. More details at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. Julie Willcox has been in touch to ask us to say a big Get Well Soon to Junior Drag Bike leading light Sharron Collier who is under the weather in hospital but is being well looked-after. "Everyone at Shakespeare County Raceway, all the Junios and their families, along with everyone who knows Sharron, Jerry, Scott, and Skye send our love and best wishes to Shaz, and to Jerry, Scott and Skye as well. We are all thinking of you. Get well soon babe". What can we add to that save our own best wishes for a rapid recovery. Not so Nitrous a Junkie. 12th April: Former Funny Bike racer Kev Charman earned his spurs in fine fashion on Rene van den Berg's Top Fuel Bike at Santa Pod at the weekend. Kev says that after the disappointment of not being able to try the bike out in November, he had the chance to collate some cash, and have a good hard think about about what on earth he thought he was doing. Then... We have been in close contact with Rene over the months, and it was agreed that he would bring the bike over on the 9th-10th April. To say that I was getting apprehensive was an understatement. Arriving at the track on Saturday, waiting for my Crew Chief Chris and the rest of Rene's crew, so we could check over the bike, was nerve-wracking in itself! Once we started work on the bike we found a few mechanical issues from the rebuild, but got them sorted eventually and ready to fire up with no hitches. When you fire these bikes up it is a hard thing to get right - you have to be so precise with the fuel on start and I discovered a couple of times that there is no room for error. Rene talked me through pretty much everything and I was ready for the first run. I was given "race orders" and it was crunch time, put my money where my mouth was and have a go. Start, burnout and push back, so far so good, no leaks, and into stage.  This was where I was on my own to try to remember everything I had been told. The launch felt good, the bike went straight, and everything seemed to be effortless compared to the antics of the Funny Bike last year. I shut off at about 1000 feet as I felt I was drifting to the right and, being a novice, was not confident on how quickly I could correct.  Pulled off the track and waited for someone to come and get me.  I had done it!   Rene and Craig came up to get me, which I thought odd. "So what do you think you ran?" asked Rene. "I dunno", I said, "7.5, 7.6?". Big grin - "No, 6.80 at 167 mph, but it was 185 mph at 1000 feet. I had shut off early! I was stunned, and elated! Rene was overjoyed, the rest of the crew apparently had been jumping about on the line, and Lizzy, who had been terrified for me, had burst into tears! 6.8...could this be the fastest ever rookie run on a Fuel bike (I'd have thought so. Ian? - Ed)? I must thank everyone who came and congratulated us on the run, too many to mention, but you know who you are. I will say now that I was under no illusions that this could be beginner's luck, and I proved it on Sunday! First run I over-revved the bike and shredded the teeth of the blower belt, and possibly did some damage to the sprag. Before the second run the crew checked over the bike, and decided that they would chance the sprag as it would possibly be OK. Went for a second pass and launched OK, but the sprag let go in second gear and the drive chain snapped! I am aware that this Top Fuel ideal is going to be paved with highs and lows, and I am also very aware I have a lot to learn. Thanks as always goes to Chris Pyke, who has been my Crew Chief since Comp Bike days, whose comment "We knew nothing about turbo, we know even less about nitro" always makes me grin. We have a steep learning curve, mate (again!). Rene and his crew, Craig, Binzi, Dan and Holly, without their help, advice and support I would have got nowhere.  The Santa Pod Crew, Ian, Ben and Bob, thanks for your patience, and lastly to Lizz, for all the backstage stuff. Lizz is really suffering this, but she jokingly said she wanted a six for her birthday - there you go! Honda Drag Series round 1. 12th April: The d&eabute;but round of the Honda Drag Series took place at Shakespeare County Raceway at the beginning of April and Jerry Cookson writes that it pretty much proved that there's going to be a big following for Honda-based drag racing. The Series was put together by former motorcycle racer and instructor, and owner of DNR Performance Engineering, Daz Honour who was run ragged all weekend looking after customer cars and attending to anyone else who wanted to join the series. After a re-run the dial-your-own heads-up shootout for points eventually went to Bill Bingley in a Honda CRX SIR borrowed from his mum against the DNR Civic D-15 1500cc of Fast Eddie Wilmott. Although Eddie crossed the finish line first, running a 16.777 on a 16.80 dial-in, there was no telling who had won until the timing slips revealed the true winner was Bill: Eddie broke out by 0.023 seconds whilst Bill's 15.524 was on the safe side of a 15.30 dial-in. Buckets on standby. 11th April: Lena Perés has been in touch with another update from the workshops of ME Racing Service, where Mats Eriksson and the team are working on the Green Goblin Pro Mod: They are updating the car with some new components, some confidential and some not...just joking. The combination is going to be almost the same as last season. The guys have made small changes which they think will make the Green Goblin go faster than ever. Mats has a new seat which is in the safety rules, which is good. The body is not going to be painted before the season starts. Unfortunately for us but good for him Ray Hill, who is going to do the paint job, got a job at Chip Foose's so we'll have to wait a while for him to come back but we're patient. The guys are preparing the body so that when Roy's ready he can just hit the buckets of paint. Until then the old body will do. Ludvig is getting in the Junior Dragster again this season. Last season he had a break and raced at just a couple of events. This will be Ludde's last season in the Junior as he turns eighteen December. We'll see what happens then but right now he's more in to computers and design than in to working with cars. But he still likes to drive so he's going to give the competitors a good time this year, but it's going to be hard as there are so many talented Junior Dragster drivers out there. Doyousee the webcam. 11th April: Eurodragster.com is pleased to announce that The Netherlands' Doyousee.me will be providing server facilities and support for the Webster Race Engineering/Nimbus Motorsport webcam during 2011. Me(n)tal Enterprizes is a small IT company which manages and secures servers, workstations and networks all over the globe. "Our development branch specialises in creating web-based applications for small and medium-size businesses", says Maikel Gloudemans. "Doyousee.me was founded in 2008 because we thought that with our knowledge of servers and networks, and our own internet service provider branch with the necessary data connections, we could offer drag racing the extra exposure it needed by broadcasting events at Drachten and elsewhere live on the internet. Since then a lot of services have been added such as multi-camera, multi-audio mobile studio, connection to the timing database for live timing data on the web, and mobile text messaging. For 2011 we have built an entirely new platform with new servers, a new and very versatile player, and an extra wide path to the internet. "We love drag racing a lot and try to support and promote it as much as we can. We are looking forward to working together with Eurodragster.com." We would like to say a big Thank You to Maikel who has put in a lot of hard work to prepare the webcam service for us and has patiently put up with an endless stream of dumb questions from your News Editor. The first test of the new webcam service will come at this coming weekend's Run What You Brung and Peak Performance Day at Santa Pod Raceway. We still have some development work to do including finalising the configuration of our new webcam PC and making the injection of the commentary/Nitro FM stream work, and we hope to go a long way towards getting that sorted out this weekend. We must also say a big Thank You to both Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceways who respectively have upgraded and are upgrading their broadband access to give us, and the fans, an even better service. Swift snippets. 11th April: No spy pictures as yet but a source who wishes to remain anonymous tells us that at least one Top Methanol Dragster regular will have a new look when they appear at Santa Pod. It doesn't seem possible but today is the 45th anniversary of the inaugural event at Santa Pod Raceway in 1966. A very Happy Birthday to Santa Pod and here's to many more of them. Christine and Sandy, Stuart and Holly and Megan asked us to say a big Happy 21st Birthday to Collin Morrice. Have a great day Collin. A reminder that Top Methanol Dragster tuner and Eurodragster.com Blogger Will Hanna and UK Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis have organised a Private Test Day at Santa Pod Raceway on Wednesday 25th May. Other racers are welcome to attend this Private Test Day, on the proviso that they must also have entered the Pro Peak Performance Day at Santa Pod on Thursday 26th May. For more information please get in touch with Will at [email protected]. PMR go testing. 11th April: Paul Marston Racing took advantage of the good weather and enjoyed a good test session at Santa Pod Raceway at the weekend: With both the Paul Marston Drag Race Driving School Chevy Vega and Grumpy's Dodge to shake down the game plan was to get it all done on Saturday. Mick Howling was test driver for the day, with Paul Marston as Crew Chief and technical, Keith Bick was pit crew, joined by Sefton Whitlock and the lovely Lisa Farmer. Seff and Lisa were there to give Lizz McCarthy and Kev Charman moral support with Kev's Top Fuel Bike endeavours, well done Kev on the 6.87 with a thousand-foot shut-off, very impressive. PMR's testing was full of the usual challenges and solutions. "Firstly I must thank Mick Howling for making my job so much easier", says Paul. "Mick showed no signs of being rusty, despite a whole year's lay-off. Mick was on the money straight away and made some very quick on the spot decisions so that all the runs we made counted and I was able to work with solid data. "The Vega had suffered very little during her hibernation. After the usual post-winter service the BLP alcohol Dominator carb needed a complete rebuild as some water had crept into the fuel. Once Keith Bick had removed, disassembled and reassembled using some lovely new BLP service parts, the carb was as good as new. Mick made two hits in the Vega running a 10.10 on the first run, and a 10.07 on the second run with the tyres starting to come back to life. Both runs were exactly on the money given the track and weather conditions. "Grumpy's Dodge has also undergone a winter refurbishment, with chassis repaint and other housekeeping jobs, it been 10 years since Grumpy had her last major refurb, so it was about due. The Dodge was in Fester Race Cars in winter 2009 for a new interior and a lot of small jobs, but due to deadlines the cosmetic stuff was never done. That ituation has now been attended to. Grumpy now has the motor she should have had in 2010: it's the motor borrowed by our PiranaZ Dragster to finish its 2010 UK National Super Comp Championship-winning season. Now installed in its intended place, the motor performed faultlessly all day. "With Mick Howling back behind the wheel, Grumpy was a little off pace from what we expected on the first hit, with an audible misfire towards the top end, but still ran 9.84/131.04. I suspected either carb or electrical; Mick, the consummate professional, had recorded the run and upon watching the replay it was plain to see the problem was electrical. I suspected it was the crank trigger position. When that had been adjusted, Mick wanted to go again. On this run the Dodge only ran a little faster ET-wise, 9.78, but mph was up to 135 so a full four mph improvement. Again given the track and weather it was what we wanted and expected, which just shows how far we have come. "Go back ten or fifteen years and just having a race car which doesn't leak after all that work would have been an achievement and a good day at the track, we would have taken that any time regardless of what she ran. Nowadays not only do we expect that as a minimum, the performance is predicted and expected from a car which was in hundreds of pieces just a week earlier. It's a team effort and a team sport, and Paul Marston Racing have a great team. It just shows how far PMR have come, along with everyone else in UK Sportsman Drag Racing for that matter. Competition is going to be tough in 2011. If you want to find out how tough, it all starts at the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. Come take a look, everyone who is anyone will be there." Web site updates. 11th April: Pro Modified racer Linda Thun Tønseth has updated her web site with the latest news and a Blog entry as she and Urban Johansson prepare to mount a two-pronged attack upon the FIA European and NDRS Championships. Check it out at www.lindaracing.com. Preparing Kunmadaras. 10th April: David Warren has been in touch from Kunmadaras in Hungary, where an advance party from Santa Pod Raceway have started work to prep the track surface for the first round of the 2011 UEM European Drag Bike Championships which takes place on 28th April-1st May. "We received the usual warm welcome from the S Riders and the people of Hungary", says David. Although Eurodragster.com cannot attend this event, we will be able to cover the race in reasonably real time since we will be sent results courtesy of the local timing crew, and Speedgroup in the person of Co-ordinator Åsa Kinnemar will be sending notes and pictures. VP Fuels the She Devil. 10th April: Following discussions with Lee Child of VP Racing Fuels and LA Racing Parts, UK Top Methanol Funny Car team She Devil Racing are pleased to announce that they will be using VP Racing Fuel for the 2011 racing season, adding another quality product to assist in their quest to increase the performance of their FC. "We are intending to run the four British rounds starting with the Easter Thunderball", say Steph and Dave Milam. "The car is nearing completion with an array of new engine parts and this year's safety updates. It was a easy choice to run VP Racing Fuels M1 Methanol in MSA and FIA  Methanol Funny Car competition. It's a tough class to run and we need to squeeze every bit performance out of our race equipment and a product like VP Racing Fuel M1 Methanol will help She Devil Racing to achieve our goals." "I am really glad that an engine builder, tuner and Crew Chief - which is Dave Milam all rolled into one - has chosen VP Racing Fuels", says Lee Child. "Dave can feel comfortable that he has a consistent fuel which is the same every time". For more information on VP Racing Fuels E-Mail [email protected] or call 01803 391740.  If you would like to advertise with or sponsor She Devil Racing please visit www.shedevilracing.com. Swift snippets. 10th April: In Friday's spy picture the mat was to have something sitting on it within twenty four hours and, bang on the money, Eurodragster.com sponsor and Blogger Lex Joon's Top Fuel Dragster is back from the USA and now in his workshop in The Netherlands. Thanks to Richard Stevens of MPM Oil UK for passing the picture on to us. Dawn Watson has asked us to say a big Happy Birthday for today (Sunday) to Lizz McCarthy; no sooner said than done, have a lovely birthday Lizz. Dawn also asked us to say a big Well Done to Top Fuel Bike new boy Kev Charman who can't possibly be called a rookie after a six-second pass on his first outing on Rene van den Berg's Top Fuel Bike at Santa Pod yesterday. Nice one Kev! You can see more pictures on the MissBFotos Facebook page. Welcome back to Goodridge. 9th April: We are pleased to welcome Goodridge back as a sponsor of Eurodragster.com News. Goodridge is the world's leading manufacturer of performance fluid transfer systems. It operates in the OEM, automotive, motorcycle, motorsport, defence and specialist industrial sectors. This dynamic private company manufactures in ten facilities globally and supplies customers around the world with a unique combination of design, innovation, reliability and outstanding service. Goodridge manufacture high performance, custom made hose, fittings and ancillary products for all forms of racing with methanol/nitro-proof PTFE hose being a speciality. You can find the Goodridge web site at www.goodridge.net. We would like to say a big Thank You to James Wills of Goodridge for his support, and to Steve Turner for introducing us to James. As ever, we encourage Eurodragster.com readers to return the compliment to our sponsors by considering them when shopping for goods or services. Event entry update. 9th April: Many thanks to Emelie Carlswärd for letting us know that on-line entry is now open for the Sweden Internationals, a round of the FIA and UEM European Championships as well as an NDRS and SDL round, which takes place at Tierp Arena on 9th-12th June. You can enter for the Sweden Internationals on the Tierp Arena web site at www.tierparena.com/regsi. You can check out the official invitation (PDF format) by clicking here. Many thanks also to Emelie for forwarding us Version 4 of the official entry list for the inaugural NDRS Nationals, which takes place at Tierp Arena on 7th-8th May. You can check out the entry list (PDF format) by clicking here. On-line entry to the NDRS Nationals is still available at www.tierparena.com/reg. If you have any queries about event entry at Tierp Arena then please contact Emelie at [email protected]. Alamo announce 2011 Junior Challenge. 9th April: Eurodragster.com sponsor Alamo Rent a Car is delighted to announce details of the 2011 Alamo Rent a Car Junior Dragster Challenge. Alamo will be offering all Junior Dragsters entered in the Lucas Oil UK National events the chance to win some great prizes. As in the 2010 Challenge, Junior Dragster racers will be ranked in 2011 with a combined package of Reaction Time and Elapsed Time v dial-in. For example if their RT was 0.019, their dial-in 8.00, and their actual ET was 8.05 then the package score would be 0.019 + 0.05 which equals 0.069. The following events will count towards the 2011 Alamo Rent A Car Junior Dragster Challenge: Auto Trader Easter Thunderball Big Bang Springspeed Nationals FIA Main Event SPRC Summernationals Bug Jam Open Sport Nationals FIA European Finals UK National Finals Package times must be from the same run and are only valid during eliminations, not qualifying, and breakout runs are of course not valid.   Each racer will carry forward their best package after each event, and at the end of the season each driver's best package of the season will be counted for the final rankings. Updated standings will be posted on Eurodragster.com after each event. At the end of the season, the three Junior Dragster racers with the best packages will be awarded as follows: Apple iPad2 16 Gb WiFi Apple iPod Touch 32 Gb Apple iPod Touch 8Gb The judges' decision is final. Alamo Rent a Car are sponsors of the Challenge and are in no way responsible for the organisation or safety of any of the events. Good luck! Andy Wheeler of Alamo tells us that the winners and runners-up in the Alamo Rent A Car 2010 Junior Dragster Challenge will be presented at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball in a couple of weekends' time. "As it was all about the ladies last year with Clare Giles taking the win, Anna Stanley coming second and Gabrielle McDonald taking third, the UK's quickest and fastest lady Shelley Pearson will be presenting the trophies with master of ceremonies Colin Theobald on the mic", says Andy. "There is also a trophy for all of the Juniors who took part in the 2010 Alamo Junior Dragster Challenge, including Harry Gibson in the Junior Funny Car. These will be available from me at the Easter Thunderball." Swift snippets. 9th April: Lena Lingman writes that Sweden's Per Svedberg Racing Pro Modified team are working hard to make their blown-alcohol Demon ready for the NDRS Nationals and will then contest the FIA Tour. The car, which was built by Denmark's All In Race Cars, is back from the paint shop and as you can see below it's a real beauty. You can see more on the Per Svedberg Racing Facebook page. It came to our notice too late for yesterday's update but we would like to say a big Happy Birthday for yesterday (Friday) to Richard Stevens of Lex Joon Racing and Eurodragster.com sponsor MPM Oil UK. Web site updates. 9th April: The UK's Time is Money Super Pro ET team have relaunched their web site at www.time-is-money.co.uk. The site includes details about the eight-second Cortina, pictures and video, and more. Our good buddy Alan Currans has updated his excellent Acceleration Archive with a review of Nick Pettitt's book British Drag Racing - The Early Years. You can check out Alan's review via the What's New link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. Although Eurodragster.com concentrates on the European drag racing scene, we are very happy to make an exception to plug the latest web site update by the US' Dawn Mazi and Mark Hovsepian who have posted a report and pictures of the March Meet on their Combustion Chamber web site at www.maziracing.com/2011mm/index.htm. If you like your nostalgia racing then the Combustion Chamber is well worth a good look around, and ladies be sure not to miss Dawn's range of apparel and accessories especially for you which you can check out via the Drag Strip Girl link. Nismo Competition back Santa Pod. 9th April: Santa Pod Raceway has partnered with legendary tuning brand NISMO Competition.com for the 2011 Season. The deal sees NISMO Competition.com (represented by Sumo Power in the UK, Europe and Middle East) sponsoring the entire 2011 Drift What You Brung events as well as the drift demo arenas at the Marangoni Fast Show, Japshow, Marangoni USC and Japshow Finale Events. The NISMO name will need little introduction to most Nissan car owners, being the last word in Nissan factory competition parts. The NISMO brand is renowned throughout the world and supports a wide range of motorsport activities, all the way from grass-roots clubmen, right through to World Championship teams. NISMO Competition parts are suited to every arena, including street use, high performance, racing, drifting and everything in between. As DWYB attracts the true club enthusiasts and novice drivers, NISMO Competition.com  can provide parts and support to those starting out on the Drifting ladder as well as supporting those already competing at a higher level. Commenting on the partnership, Sumo Power's Andy Barnes said.  "NISMO is already the choice with upgrades to many Nissan enthusiast cars and our association with DWYB encourages a better relationship between those starting out on practise days and the NISMO range even further. This is often overlooked and is key in order we help to improve ability and progress within the sport by understanding which parts should be used and why. Whilst the NISMO Competition catalogue is not solely for Drifting, it is obvious that NISMO parts are already widely in use within the sport and therefore we wish to continue and build upon that with DWYB drivers." Caroline Day, Marketing Manager for Santa Pod, commented "Sumo Power and Santa Pod have a long and fruitful history together, with many of Sumo Power's finest hours and most impressive records happening on our hallowed quarter mile, as well as brand association for several years.  We're obviously delighted to be a part of launching NismoCompetition.com officially in the UK and we're confident that we can deliver both the quantity and quality of enthusiasts to make this a successful launch." Event entry update. 8th April: VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Super Modified, Outlaw Anglia, Sportsman ET, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike and Junior Drag Bike racers please note that there is one week left to the official closing date for entry to Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-8th May. Entries received after Friday 15th April, if accepted, will be subject to a 100% late entry fee. You can check out Version 3 of the Big Bang entry list by clicking here. If you have any queries about entry to Big Bang, or any other event at SPR then please contact Paula Marshall at [email protected] or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625). Entry is open for the Spingspeed Nationals, the second and third rounds of the UK Championships depending upon class, which takes place at Shakespeare County Raceway on 14th-15th May. You can download the official entry form from the Shakespeare County Raceway web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. If you have any queries about Springspeed Nationals entry then please contact Shakespeare County Raceway at [email protected] or call 01789 720180 (outside the UK +44 1789 720180). Body needs attention. 8th April: The Fearless Count † (aka Vince Gibbs), driver and owner of the demonic six-second Nosferatu Super Pro ET Pontiac Firebird, writes to say that he has had to withdraw from the Easter Thunderball due to the lack of bodywork. "We ordered a replacement front for the car from the original Canadian builder Joe Van Overbeek back in September last year and for lots of reasons it is still not in the UK", says The Count. "The latest news I have is that it will be leaving the Canadian workshop today (Friday). With land and sea shipping times it is unlikely that the front will be on UK soil until after the Thunderball. "The team were really disappointed when I broke the news to them and it is a real shame that we can't make it, so we are now setting our sights on the Main Event. The team have had their ups and downs in the last twelve months with major engine breakage at last year's Thunderball, then long term co-owner Ray Eldred decided to hang up his spanners and leave the team, and then came the crash at the Xtreme Wheels show writing off the carbon fibre front end. But Nosferatu is the car which cannot be killed so we will be back - hopefully sooner rather than later. "Please check out or new-look web site at www.nosferatu-racing.co.uk." Back from the Eighties. 8th April: Eighties Street-class racer John Mulligan cruised to victory against the Holly Baldwin's VW Beetle during last Sunday's Piston Apparel/American Car magazine sponsored Bracket Gamblers Race at Shakespeare County Raceway, writes SCR's Jerry Cookson. John's last win at the track is alleged to have been some twenty five years ago when the Worcester racer used to compete in a black Triumph Herald called Quarter Pounder which beat friendly rival Brian Huxley to an NDRC Street Eliminator win. Although entries were a little disappointing to what was promised, two Dial for Pounds qualifying sessions were allocated to the seven signed up drivers. After the first session it was John's '72 Buick Skylark Brown Sugar II which came out on top. However, no one was expecting the performance delivered by VWDRC racer Holly Baldwin in the second session with a perfect last-minute 14.900 on a 14.90 dial-in from her Whirligig Beetle, which bumped John down a place. In the first round Outlaw Street racer and cold riddled Vic Fisher managed to stay on the right side of his V6 Mustang's 15.0 dial with a 15.014 against the '97 Mercedes Rep Mobile belonging Tom Atkinson with a breakout 15.04 on a 15.21 dial. After testing the family's Dark Horse Pro ET Mustang the previous day, Brian Huxley was back at the track in his Sportsman ET '66 Mustang and promptly took out the SBC powered Model A hot rod of Jason Green. With Holly on a bye to the semis this left John's 350 ci Buick to face the hard-charging 4.3 litre Straight 6 TVR Tuscan of Ian Brockman. In the end a 16.041 (15.90) to a losing 13.382 (12.85) dial sealed the TVR's fate. After a quick turnaround followed by one of Mother Nature's impromptu track washes, the semis produced wins for John and Holly who took out Vic Fisher and Brian Huxley. On paper it looked like Holly would have the final covered. By mid-track her Beetle began to pull away and finished first but in reality Holly broke out of her 15.00 comfort zone with a 14.97 to John's 16.070 on a 15.95 dial-in. With the first round of the National Championships coming up the next Gambler's Race is scheduled for Sunday week, 17th April. Dare you miss out on some extra testing of your dial-in skills! Further information can be found at the SCR Bracket Gamblers Race page on Facebook. See you at the strip. Swift snippets. 8th April: UK Pro Modified racer Wayne Nicholson is very pleased to announce the support of Lucas Oil Products for the 2011 season. "This is really great news for us", says Wayne, "we are delighted. Big thanks to Les and Steve at Lucas. It's going to be a very interesting year with the new Hemi and the support of Lucas Oil." Andy Wheeler has been in touch to announce that Eurodragster.com sponsor Alamo Rent-A-Car is now offering the drag racing community a whopping 30% discount on car rentals in the USA. To find out more or, to make your booking, check out www.alamo.co.uk/dragster. The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com came with the words "I wonder what will be sitting on this in twenty four hours?". If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at [email protected]. Easter will be here sooner than you think and if you would like to test before the Easter Thunderball then Santa Pod Raceway are hosting a Run What You Brung (Saturday)/Peak Performance Day (Sunday) weekend on 16th-17th April, and Shakespeare County Raceway are hosting a Public Test that same weekend including a Gambler's Shootout. More details at www.rwyb.com and www.shakespearecountyraceway.com respectively. Boosted Engine Expert seminar. 8th April: Marc Lamude writes that world-recognised boosted engine expert Steve Morris from the good old USA is planning to visit England to hold a seminar in July: We need to gauge interest in order to get the bookings completed and dates set. We plan on holding this somewhere in the middle of the country, so it's not too far for anyone to travel. Steve has also said that if the date is close to any meeting at Santa Pod then he would attend and give free on-the-spot tuning help to those who have attended the seminar. Inside the Boosted Engine will cover Procharged engines, turbocharged, twin turbo and Procharged, single turbo, roots, compound, in fact anything boosted. The seminar will be approximately four to five hours long then Question and Answer time which will be pretty much unlimited. The seminar will cover the oil pan to the power adder, covering what Steve uses, why and how: Blocks, finishes, gaskets; Cranks, types, clearances and balancing; Rods, types per application; Pistons, design, coatings; Rings, design, dimensions, coatings; Oiling systems; Valvetrain system; Camshaft basic design, lifters, push rods, rockers, springs, valves; Cylinder heads, ports and design; Intakes; Carbs/EFI; Power adder sizing, characteristics; Fuel system requirements; Ignition requirements; Inter-cooling; then Q and A. As an added benefit every paid attendee will recieve discount coupons for products by Dart, Magnafuel, C and S Carbs, Diamond Pistons, and Engine Pro Parts. The seminar will cost £250 per attendee. For more information or to book your place please contact Marc at [email protected]. JapShow beckons. 8th April: The JapShow on Sunday 19th June is Santa Pod Raceway's start to the Japanese car fan's season, and its official web site at www.japshow.co.uk has just received an update with the new look for 2011 and all the latest information on the forthcoming event. The show contains all the unique elements that only a Santa Pod event can provide: namely the world-class dragstrip and associated track time and race classes. The track will be open for both Run What You Brung and the Jap Drag Series, so spectators and participants are equally well catered for. The Jap Drag Series will be on Round 3 by the time the JapShow comes around, so the competition will be hotting up and drivers will really be getting to grips with their vehicles. Records seem to fall at every round, and even if they don't, expect to see some great racing. In addition to the essential drag strip focus, the JapShow has plenty going on away from the quarter-mile. The Autoglym Show Car Paddock is open for anyone who wants to take a more relaxed approach to the Japanese car scene. The JapShow has always kept entry to the Show Car Paddock open to anyone who wants to show off their ride, and as such, spectators will see plenty of variety, from highly modified show-stoppers to detailed retros that deserve a closer look. The JapShow also has a huge amount of hard-standing display space available to clubs, and there are always some excellent cars to be found in the club display areas too. More tyre-tearing action can be had away from the track too, with a dedicated drift track offering passenger rides, a free handling track suitable for all cars no matter how big or small, and stunt shows by the world-famous Terry Grant. New for 2011 is the London Rally School with 280bhp Subaru Imprezas on hand to give taster sessions in the passenger seat of some serious rally driving for just £10 per person! On top of all that, there's still more, including traders, dyno for power and torque profiling, the famous 270 mph Fireforce jet car, radio-controlled car track, catering and bar facilities. There is also a normal Run What You Brung the day before, and weekend tickets are available with free camping and evening entertainment. See www.japshow.com for all details including ticket information. Swift snippets. 7th April: Our good buddy, photo-journalist Stefan Boman writes that Freddy Fagerström's Pro Modified pick-up has a new front end with some new aerodynamic changes made to improve something which was not at the top of Chevrolet Trucks' list of priorities back in 1966. All of the work has been done at Swecomposite's carbon fibre fabrication and repair shop in Sweden. The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com came with no words although there appears to be a connection with Eurodragster.com sponsor MPM Oil UK. If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at [email protected]. Lena Perés writes that Mats Eriksson and the Green Goblin Pro Modified team have performed this year's updates on the Crown Victoria and that the team aim to give their competitors a tough battle this season."A new body is coming through but as far as we know it won't be painted in time for the start of the season", says Lena, "so we'll start with the old body. As we did last year we have been invited to Kunmadaras in Hungary in April. Mats is taking the chance to behind the wheel at that spectacular track to feel how the car feels after the winter break." Seeking European nitrous refillers. 7th April: Simon Barker of Eurodragster.com sponsor Nitrous Oxide Supplies would be pleased to hear from anyone who refills nitrous on the European continent. "Both Nitrous Oxide Supplies and our customers are regularly asked if we know of anyone who can refill nitrous on the Continent", says Simon. "Holland, Italy, Spain, Finland and Norway have been mentioned but we would be interested to hear from anyone in Europe who provides the service so that we can pass details on to their local customers." If you refill nitrous or if you know of companies which do then please E-Mail name, business address, telephone number and any other relevant details to [email protected]. Event entry update. 6th April: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for sending us Version 8 of the official entry list for the Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out the entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Entry to the Easter Thunderball, if accepted, is now subject to a 100% late entry fee. VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Super Modified, Outlaw Anglia, Sportsman ET, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike and Junior Drag Bike racers please note that there is a week and a half left to the official closing date for entry to Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-8th May. Entries after Friday 15th April, if accepted, will be subject to a 100% late entry fee. You can check out Version 2 of the Big Bang entry list by clicking here. If you have any queries about entry to the Easter Thunderball, Big Bang, or any other event at SPR then please contact Paula Marshall at [email protected] or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625). Manners doubles up... 6th April: Ex-pat US Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences had a great weekend at the IHRA Nitro Jam in San Antonio, taking the Pro Fuel win on both Friday and Saturday. "You can see from the photograph that I'm one happy camper", says Mike. "We got the car down the track every time and in the last round in style. "We have a pair of $3200 nitro checkers which are both back at the vendors as they are not working (probably due to corrosive Chinese nitro) so we used our premixed nitro. The track was actually better than its patchy appearance led us to believe so that pulled us down, but the car still didn't run as quick as we predicted. We then found out that our premixed nitro was under 93%. We boosted it to 96% for the last round and hauled the mail. "We love running Bill Evans and he was gunning for a teen but hurt the motor in the burnout. We did not hurt anything this weekend apart from my neck and back which are sore from signing so many autographs - the fans were great." ...Read runners up. 6th April: A fair way further around the planet and for ex-pat UK Top Fuel Dragster racer 'The Pom' Steve Read, it was one of those weekends that started off cautiously, and with a little bit of luck and a good run when it counted, the privateer Top Fuel team from Ipswich in Queensland would find themselves in the final round against hot favourite Darren Morgan at Willowbank Raceway on Saturday 26th March. Whilst the final round Elapsed Time would be non-representative due to a glitch in the clutch management system, Read and the team could hold their heads high for achieving a runner-up finish at their hometown race, gaining valuable data and playing the role of spoiler in a field which included title contending teams and past Champions. "It is always easy to be wise afterwards", said Read. "We had some issues on the hit of the throttle and it went into tyre smoke. I saw Darren break with his problems, but I made the decision not to pedal the car and chase after him, as I didn't want to run the risk of hurting another engine. It was Darren's event – he was the best all weekend and it was his to win, that's just how it goes." For Steve and the Read Speed team, being a privateer operation carries a sense of achievement knowing they are competitive with the more seasoned teams, but the desire to chase the Championship series purely comes down to budget. "We're offering an exciting opportunity for a marketing partner which would allow us the chance to compete at the next ANDRA Pro Series Top Fuel round in Sydney on 29th April to 1st May, before the big season finale at our home track for the Winternationals at Willowbank in June", said Read. With a runner-up finish and the season finale only two events away, Read is looking to capitalise on his recent form and reward his loyal fans by going one step further and securing a win. Swift snippets. 6th April: Santa Pod Raceway has recently celebrated reaching 21,000 fans on their official Facebook page by giving away two tickets to one lucky fan! Tom Wilday was the lucky winner and fan number 21,000 and chose to come along to the FIA European Finals on 8th-11th September. If you're a Facebook user make sure that you're a fan of the Official Santa Pod Facebook page to keep up to date with all of the latest offers and developments from the track, it's also a great place to ask any questions or queries that you may have. To join simply click Like at www.facebook.com/santapodraceway. Fiona Flynn and all the Go Gold crew have asked us to say a big Happy 50th Birthday to UK Top Methanol Dragster racer, Eurodragster.com sponsor and Eurodragster.com Blogger Derek Flynn. Our pleasure guys, have a very Happy Birthday Derek. Web site updates. 6th April: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, Pro Stock Bike racer Kalle Lyrén writes that he will start the 2011 season on his 2010 bike. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Reminder for UK Championship teams. 5th April: Further to the announcement in the report of February's UK Riders' and Drivers' Meeting, racers are reminded that if they wish to run as a team in the 2011 UK National Championships, i.e. if more than one driver or rider is going to field the same vehicle in the same class during the year, then they need to inform Santa Pod Racers Club or APIRA by Monday 18th April. "Any teams who do not notify us will be treated as individuals for points purposes", says UK National Championship Points Co-ordinator Yvonne Tramm. "We have only received notification of four teams and we know that there must be more. Please E-Mail me at [email protected], or please contact either Paula Marshall at SPRC, or APIRA." Announcing West Ten Motorsport. 5th April: UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Shelley Pearson and Fuel FC licencee Kevin Kent have formed UK Fuel FC team West Ten Motorsport. Kevin and Shelley, the UK's quickest and fastest lady, will campaign the Mustang Fuel FC previously piloted by Thomas Nataas out of the Rune Fjeld Motorsport pit. "The aim is for Kevin to complete his licence then to drive at as many events as possible to gain some seat time, then to come out next season as a contender", says Shelley. "Kevin has a passion for Funny Cars and is really looking forward to being in the hot seat. "The car will be tuned by Rune Field, it is great for us to be working with Rune Fjeld Motorsport as we work well together. My father Tony Pearson will be a consultant on the car and will also be performing the same role the for RFM Top Fuel Dragsters. He will also be my Crew Chief so he is going to be a very busy man. We have Nikki Hales as Crew Chief and Neil Titheridge as Clutch Technician on board with West Ten Motorsport and we feel confident that we will work well as a team. "We have a trailer which we are in the process of modifying to a race trailer which can also hold the Funny Car and a dragster. I shall be driving the RFM black and orange Top Fuel Dragster at Easter if we get the car ready in time. It has been at Webster Race Engineering being updated, and I am confident that we will make the event. I will be driving the Two Seat Dragster at Alastaro and potentially at other events but this needs to be confirmed. I hope to drive the Top Fueller at other events but I am currently trying to secure funding. "I shall drive the Funny Car at some point this season to see how it feels - I am guessing that Kevin hopes I hate it. We have not finalised events with the Funny Car but that will be arranged very soon. Here's to an exciting season!" The TIL Racing trio. 5th April: Finland's TIL Racing Top Fuel Dragster team plan to contest three FIA European Championship events in 2011, says team member Ulf Holtholm. Timo Lehtimäki and the team took the Top Fuel Dragster win at Alastaro last season and will be defending the event title as one of their planned dates. "We are building the car to have it ready for the summer", Ulf told Eurodragster.com. "It looks like we will be racing at Tierp, Alastaro and Hockenheim. We are also working to prepare our second chassis, which we have had for some years. The idea is that if we can prove that our car runs well then we will rent out the other car. "We have been working on the oil problem we had in Germany last year. We think that the oil filter was the problem so we have put a new oil filter on the car and we really hope that we have solved that. We have been thinking of moving to a setback blower, going from SSI to PSI. Other than that everything stays pretty much the same as it was last summer. "We would like to have tested but right now it doesn't look possible. We'll start the car at the 'shop and then go to Sweden. "We have some changes in the team because some of the guys had work commitments. We have the same sponsors as last year but we can't afford to come to England. Hopefully we can do it one day." One race at a time... 5th April: Belgian Top Methanol Funny Car racer Danny Bellio says that he plans to start his 2011 season at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. "We spent too much money last year after breaking our engine and transmission at the beginning of 2010", says Danny. "Our first outing will be the Main Event and if nothing goes wrong we will go to Tierp. Finland is too expensive to go and the last time we were there we didn't make one qualifying run on Friday, the Sportsmen needed to run and we all stayed in the pits. We were not happy travelling all that way only to make a few runs, we are better to stay home and save the money. "We have to go race by race and we hope that we can keep everything together. Last season is one to forget and we need to move on. We hope to see you at the Main Event, and in the meantime we will follow the Easter race on the internet." Swift snippets. 5th April: An early candidate for Best Appearing Bike must be UK Pro Stock Bike racer Mark Smith's Punisher with its new body and paintwork. You can check out more of Georgina Green's excellent pictures of the bike on Flickr, on ZenFolio, or on Facebook. Jeff Kline of www.jdklinephoto.com got in touch with this picture showing that ex-pat UK Top Alcohol Dragster racer, San Antonio Nitro Jam double winner, and Eurodragster.com sponsor Mike Manners always has time to show and teach kids about the sport he loves. "Mike is shown here explaining to my ten-year-old daughter Emily what it's like to drive his Shredder Junior Dragster", says Jeff. Staying with the IHRA Nitro Jam theme, further to Sunday's Feature submitted by David Knight, Baron Sharpe of Santa Pod Raceway's Two Seat Dragster crew writes with more about Chris Bennett, who is doing pretty well in Fuel Altered in the IHRA Nitro Jam series. "Chris started his driving career in the UK with the Wild Bunch whilst he was based at RAF Mildenhall with the USAF", says Baron. "He still has many friends in the UK. His first car was our old Rutland Rebel III slingshot (which later became Alex Coe's  Shy Torque) then shortly after that another slingshot which I believe went to Johnny Hall when Chris was posted back to the States for his pilot training." 2010 ACU UK Funny Bike Champion Steve French says that personally wonders if it is worth running a separate Funny Bike class in 2011. "The 2010 ACU list: Dave Bailey sold up, Kev Charman Top Fuel, Gary Jones in Comp Bike, Tim Blakemore not entered, Christian Jäger in Supertwin", says Steve. "There is the welcome return of Paul Knapp, but that's it. Two UK bikes do not make it fun or worthwhile to race. Last year Shakespeare County could not run FB so I moved into Comp for their first meeting, and I suspect that this year it will be the same. It's such a shame that with a Number 1 on the bike, I doubt if it will get used after Easter." Artist Paul Whitehouse has been in touch with news of his latest drag racing painting, featuring the legendary Allan Herridge in the Gladiator Funny Car. Paul says that he hopes he has done justice to one of drag racing's best-loved characters and, in his opinion, one of the best-looking Funny Cars ever! The original painting, which measures 500 mm x 380 mm (unframed), is for sale. For details please contact Paul at [email protected]. Paul would like to remind those who have expressed an interest in his print of The Famous Five that a limited print run will be underway shortly and will be available following the Easter Thunderball after being signed by Peter Crane, members of Peter's crew from 1976, and a very limited number by Don Garlits. Thanks to our good friend Robin Jackson for pointing us to an article about 2010 UK Junior Dragster Champion Gabrielle McDonald in the Irish Independent. "I didn't know that Scott Hauser was American!", says Robin. You can check out the article at www.independent.ie. Julie, Phillip, Dan, Nicky and James Bennett have been in touch to ask us to wish a very Happy Birthday to Darrell Bennett, and also to UK Super Modified racer Steve Green. Our pleasure guys, have a very Happy Birthday both. We also have a special celebration on the Eurodragster.com team today (Tuesday) as Pit Note Reporter and Blog Editor Simon Groves and his wife Ros are celebrating their twenty fifth wedding anniversary. We are sure that everyone will join us in wishing Simon and Ros a very Happy Anniversary, and many more of them. Phoenix Personnel back Santa Pod. 5th April: Santa Pod Raceway is delighted to announce its latest new partnership with Phoenix Personnel Limited (also a Eurodragster.com sponsor - Ed). Based in Northamptonshire the company has been around for six years, with a combined knowledge of the driving industry of about thirty years, and specialises in supplying Class One and Two drivers to many blue chip logistics companies. Company Director Jane Smith explained "Phoenix Personnel Limited and I have a great team around me who many in drag racing already know: Carole Ismail (Branch Manager) and Emma Humphreys (Business Development Manager and CPC Trainer). We have encouraged our clients to visit Santa Pod on many VIP days and have an excellent relationship with the venue and the great team. Carole and Emma always manage to spend their marketing budget in the correct areas and Santa Pod is now one of them with the newly erected Phoenix Personnel billboard. Santa Pod Raceway has proved to be most beneficial to our company, as we have many class one drivers who have been attracted to us from there. We have also signed four new clients whom we met at different meetings in 2009 and 2010." For more information about Phoenix Personnel and the services they offer, visit their web site at www.phoenix-personnel.co.uk or click on the logo at right. Feature: 2011 IHRA Nitro Jam, Tucson. 3rd April: The latest in our occasional series of Features presented in association with Lucas Oil Products and Carter Motorsport is a report by Eurodragster.com reader David Knight of last weekend's IHRA Nitro Jam in Tucson. You can check out David's report and pictures by clicking here or by clicking on the Features, Interviews, Tributes link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. JD Racing coming mob-handed. 3rd April: Sweden's JD Racing has a full calendar in 2011, says Christer Gustafsson: Some of the team went to the Gatornationals in Florida and filled a container with parts. Pontus Dantanus is planning a full season in both NDRS (international) and SDL (Swedish) Junior Dragster series. He has a tough job to defend last year's Championships in both series. In Pro Stock Jonas Dantanus is updating all three of his engines to give the class a serious challange for the trophies this season. He plans to run the full FIA series and an extra visit to Tierp for the NDRS Nationals. The car is beign upadted to comply with this year's new rules. The Super Street Challenger is to be raced by both Jessica and Jennifer this year. Jessica is racing in the SDL and Jennifer is defending her Championship in the NDRS. Simon plans to race in the NDRS series this year with his beatiful Camaro (left). All change for the Fadster. 3rd April: UK Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator and National Street Car Challenge racer Andy Hadfield, aka Andy Fadster, tells us that it is all change for the Twister in 2011: The old chassis has seen its last race and has been replaced by a new 7.50 chassis by the inimitable Roy Wilding. The Small Block is gone to make room for the new 598 big block. The 6-71 blower also made way for the 16-71 Littlefield Top Fuel blower which was sent back to Littlefields to be converted for gas use. We are working hard to get Twister out for some shakedown runs at Gary's Picnic at Shakespeare County Raceway at the end of May. Once we have ironed out the inevitable gremlins, Twister will be once again involved in Street Eliminator and the National Street Car Challenge...yes, it's staying road-legal! Plans after that are to run at Elvington to try to get the title for fastest Jago in the world which is currently held by SCTA Head Tech Inspector Kiwi Steve with his Jago 32 Sedan. His top speed was around 178 mph and we hope to smash that by at least 50 mph...we'll keep you posted. Other than that, our calendar consists of the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals, Dragstalgia and the NSRA Hot Rod Drags, not forgetting the Hot Rod and Hills event run by my Crew Chief Craig Dixon. This is a two-day cruise around our own beautiful Lake District, pounding out some two hundred miles cruising up hill and down dale, a test for any real street car. Swift snippets. 3rd April: Congratulations to ex-pat UK Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences who took his second Pro Fuel win in two days at the IHRA Nitro Jam in San Antonio. You can find out more courtesy of our Drag Race Central colleagues at www.dragracecentral.com. Santa Pod Raceway is often hired and when Sure Men approached them with the idea of running a new on pack promotion they were more than happy to help, says James Forster. "They brought along a whole host of different vehicles with some crazy match races including Dave Wilson racing his Top Methanol Dragster against a plane!", says James. "A new free race (i.e. you do not need a promotional code from a can of Sure Men deodorant) will be shown daily ay www.suremen.co.uk. For a peek at other match races you can expect to see in the upcoming weeks then check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnD4anKyGTU. Dexter Price has been in touch on behalf of the whole of Team Gridlock to wish a big Happy Birthday to Paul Bristow of Eurodragster.com sponsor Paul's Place. "Thank You to Paul for spending his birthday working on our car", says Dex. Have a great day Paul. UK Pro Modified racer Wayne Nicholson says that his web site at www.luckydevil777dragracing.com is now all in order again after a minor problem. "We're all looking forward to Easter, can't wait!" adds Wayne. Penske backs Red Victor 3. 3rd April: Penske Racing Shocks UK is proud to be supplying the official VXR Drag Racing team with the new 7500 series in-line double-adjustable coilover damper for UK street-legal Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com Blogger Andy Frost's Red Victor 3. The 7500 double adjustable allows independent adjustment of compression and rebound forces allowing the team to fine tune their shock set up to chassis and track demands. The custom spec shocks have been hand built with specific piston/valving to suit the Red Victor 3 chassis. Penske Racing Shocks are CNC machined to meticulous tolerances to ensure consistent and repeatable performance and the all CNC machined aluminium configuration also brings the benefits of reduced unsprung mass. The drag spec shocks from Penske Racing Shocks have been extensively developed in NHRA, Pro Stock, Pro Modified, ADRL and IHRA classes. The full piston range from Penske is available and the shocks are owner re-buildable and re-valveable allowing the end user to fine tune their shocks' performance to their chassis requirements. Andy Frost, team principal of Red Victor 1 racing says "We are very happy to be working with a world renowned shock absorber manufacturer, who will bring a wealth of expertise in a very crucial area on the car. We thank Richard Scott and Penske Racing Shocks UK for their support and look forward to giving them some good data to work with." Penske Racing Shocks UK looks forward to supporting and advising the Official VXR Drag Racing team to ensure they unlock the cars full potential through careful damper tuning. The damper plays a crucial role in controlling the dynamics of the chassis and how the tyre contacts the track and we will be working with Andy to help improve traction and control off the line with subsequent reductions in run times. You can see the whole range of Penske UK's racing shocks at www.penskeshocks.co.uk. PMR, just as before. 3rd April: There are only three short weeks remaining until battle commences for the UK 2011 Drag Racing National Championships. With a Super Comp Championship title to defend and an attempt to double up, Paul Marston Racing intend to hit the ground running: To ensure that it remains competitive it was time to raise the bar on the all-conquering Piranaz-backed Super Comp dragster, which has received some winter upgrades Preparations have gone well and the dragster, which resided for a while at Drag Race Engineering, has been disassembled, inspected and reassembled then had a full and is ready to roll into testing mode. Super Comp looks to be a tough class in 2011 with some veterans and some hungry new drivers and a good variety of race cars with doorslammers, roadsters and dragsters all represented. It has been very interesting to see the Easter Thunderball Super Comp entry list grow and grow over the past couple of weeks. The commentators will certainly have their work cut out for them with no less than five Pauls entered at Easter. Its been a while since the quickest Super Class had such a full field (currently fourteen) and with some heavy hitters still to register we will see an impressive final number. Phil Bennett is a welcome returnee and Paul Woodhead a very welcome addition making his d&eacite;but in Super Comp, in his ex-Paula Marshall entry. Starting the 2011 season with just one driver, Paul Marston made the decision to enter Super Comp only and see how the season develops, keeping the option open to enter Super Pro and double-class later in the season. "I am usually reluctant to make wholesale changes to a winning combination, but my hand was kind of forced by the way the season ended", says Paul Marston. "Sure we won the National Super Comp Championship and the SPRC Championship, but at the European Finals we had to switch motors in between rounds during eliminations. I am very grateful to the PMR crew and our many friends in drag racing. It meant that the PiranaZ dragster finished the season with our spare motor, so that was coming out regardless. We start the 2011 season with a new as yet untried and untested combination. It's not ideal, but with the late of Easter I figured it was worth taking a chance. It goes against the grain but by only entering one class instead of our usual two it kind of evens up the odds and gives us even more time to focus on getting the dragster figured out faster. "Obviously in a perfect world the dragster would be flawless and run the number and repeat every run and good preparation certainly helps that objective get a whole lot closer. But you never know how it will go until you start running competitive passes in qualifying or testing. Hopefully if the weather plays ball PMR will test prior to Easter. We certainly intend to, that's for sure. "It has been along time since my last pass, over six months, and like all of us it will probably scare the crap out of me on the first run and probably the second for that matter. After that you kind of get used to it again! "On a personal note everyone at PMR are looking forward to the return of Mad Mick Howling, who in 2011 will resume his rightful place in our line-up. It's good to have you back mate, I know you have missed it." PMR are very pleased to announce that the full Paul Marston Crew line-up of Sefton Whitlock, Lisa Farmer, Mick Pusey, Keith Bick, Mad Mick Howling, The Crew chief and Funsize has remained intact. This is something that helps strengthen our title bid, the continuity of everyone knowing their job and doing it so well last season is carried over to 2011. Everybody knows everyone, there are no new personalities to add to the mix. We are welcoming back a familiar face, namely world-famous globetrotting card game magnate and inventor of the Eliminator card game Ian 'Tink' Hart, and we have guest crew appearances from luminaries such as Dave Gibbons and Tony Morris. Yep, the whole gang are gonna be back in town! 2011 is shaping up to be a great year. A native New Yorker. 2nd April: This beauty is a lightweight fibreglass 1956 Chrysler New Yorker built by the USA's Ray Vallero, which is destined to cloak the new Pro Mod to be campaigned by the UK's Rick Garrett. The body arrived at Chatham Docks this week and Rick says that it is a work of art. "It's a one-off", Rick told Eurodragster.com. "Ray was going to race it himself but he said that he would let it go. I love those cars so when he told me about I booked my flight! The guy's a genius, I have never seen work like it. It has a three-inch roof chop, a slanted screen, the headlights have been cut back and the rear fenders have been raised three inches, but it is all done tastefully. It's so straight you'd say it was made of steel and so well-finished that you could just put primer and paint on it." Chassis construction will start shortly, but the first power plant has been decided. "We were thinking of getting a twin-turbo motor but I want to wait for the rules to stabilise", said Rick. "So I'm going for a big nitrous motor first. I like my nitrous! I have a young crew, they know nitrous and it's an easy way of breaking them in. We'll get out there then get our heads round it!" Rick's Nissan Skyline has gone to Norbert Schneider in Germany but there are still plenty of cars in the Garrett pit to keep them busy. "My son Ryan has the Dodge Dart", said Rick. "We have completely rebuilt the car and we were planning to run at Easter but it would be a rush. My son Nick has a 1967 Satellite which is coming on in leaps and bounds. We are working on the wiring and fuel system and will then put the motor in." Rick plans to drive the Dart a couple of times this season to keep his hand in, and the New Yorker is scheduled to hit the track in 2012. "I have been thinking about this for a couple of years", he said, "and now I am really looking forward to it." Swift snippets. 2nd April: Paul Watson is impressed with the twenty two-bike entry in 8.50 Bike at the Easter Thunderball. "Who would have thought it, after three years of pushing and it's now reality", says Grumpy. "A big Well Done to all the 8.50 class and to both Clubs and officials  for all their efforts. The 8.50 Bikes are out in force for Easter and should see some very close racing. I have even persuaded Andy Haley to come and play as he was taking time out. It should be a great weekend and I look forward to seeing all of you at Easter." Congratulations to ex-pat UK Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences who took the Pro Fuel win at yesterday's first day of the IHRA Nitro Jam in San Antonio. Mike is back in action today. Meanwhile Swedish Pro Modified racer Micke Gullqvist is currently qualified #13 at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at Las Vegas, with qualifying and eliminations set for today. You will be able to stay in touch with Micke's and Mike's progress courtesy of our colleagues at www.dragracecentral.com. Yesterday's story about FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion and Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher was not an April Fool. There was an April Fool on yesterday's news update, but no-one appears to have spotted it...maybe we're getting too good at this. R2B2 offer race cars. 2nd April: The R2B2 empire has added another jewel to its crown with the creation of R2B2 Race Cars. Roger Burgess, owner of R2B2 Racing and R2B2 Motors, has teamed with Jim Geese, who recently owned Vanishing Point Race Cars, to build Pro Mod cars and other drag racing vehicles for sale to the worldwide market. "We're so excited to have Jim and his people on board for this new venture", Burgess said. "Having them here at our own chassis shop has allowed us to do things like build a turbo-specific chassis and test it under race conditions. This allows us to demonstrate a car's performance before ever offering it for sale to other racers. Jim's reputation for producing a quality race car is second-to-none and I can't wait to see more of the incredible cars the shop will turn out." Geese and his team haven't eased into their new situation. Last year, Geese built the award-winning Pontiac Firebird driven by Raymond Commisso in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, as well as the 1953 Corvette Pro Mod Burgess currently is running in the NHRA. Commisso's Firebird was voted Best Engineered by NHRA officials. "Things are about as perfect here as they've ever been in my career," Geese said. "Going to work for Roger is taking us to a level we could have never reached on our own. We came down here and literally walked into an empty building. We put a list together of the things we needed, gave it to Roger, and he's come through 100 per cent." The key personnel from Vanishing Point -- Don Carey, Trevor Carey, Bruce Pelly, and Ian Carey -- relocated from Pennsylvania to get R2B2 Race Cars up and running. "We're bringing 25-plus years of experience to the table for Roger," Geese said. "Our track record speaks for itself. Our cars have won championships and set records the world over. We're proud of what we've done." Geese said teaming with Burgess under the R2B2 banner will give his group greater access to equipment and the ability to build more things in-house. "We've been doing a lot of catch-up work as far as getting our computer systems integrated," Geese said. "We've also added a lot titanium parts and kits that we will now be able to offer. Plus, I will get to be a lot more hands-on and help work on new ideas more than I have the past few years. It's an exciting time. It's literally like we unplugged up there, moved to Duluth, and plugged back in. Any kind of part people need on a Vanishing Point car, they can get here at R2B2. Everything we offered before, either on-line or in our catalogue, is here. We can build and have experience building all kinds of race cars and can ship to anywhere in the world." You can find out more at www.r2b2racing.com. Editor's note. 2nd April: Having had to rush the news update today due to other commitments we have a backlog of news which we will clear on tomorrow's news update. Stay tuned for the latest from Sweden's JD Racing and the UK's Andy Fadster, a report and pictures from last weekend's IHRA Nitro Jam, and please keep the news coming to [email protected]. Event entry update. 1st April: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for sending us Version 7 of the official entry list for the Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out the entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Today (Friday) is the deadline for standard-rate entry to the Easter Thunderball. Entries which arrive after today, if accepted, will be subject to a 100% late entry fee. Paula has also asked us to remind racers that there are two weeks left to the closing date for entry to Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-8th May. Entries after Friday 15th April, if accepted, will be subject to a 100% late entry fee. You can check out Version 1 of the Big Bang entry list by clicking here. If you have any queries about entry to the Easter Thunderball, Big Bang, or any other event at SPR then please contact Paula Marshall at [email protected] or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625). Many thanks to Emelie Carlswärd for forwarding us Version 3 of the official entry list for the inaugural NDRS Nationals, which takes place at Tierp Arena on 7th-8th May. You can check out the entry list (PDF format) by clicking here. On-line entry to the NDRS Nationals is available on the Tierp Arena web site at www.tierparena.com/reg and Supplementary Regulations are available on the Speedgroup web site www.speedgroup.eu. Pro racers who would like to test at the NDRS Nationals are invited to contact Emelie at [email protected]. For more information about the NDRS Nationals, or to buy tickets, check out the Tierp Arena web site at www.tierparena.com. First cars on the track! 1st April: Sweden's new Tierp Arena held a Press Day on Tuesday of this week, and Patrik Larsson tells us that media interest was huge: We had Swedish national radio and television at the site along with many newspapers, magazines and commercial TV channels. The results and coverage were good even though a small snowstorm chose to visit us during the event. This made a great contrast to the fact that we are going to host our first drag race in only five weeks! One of the most important things which made this day so great was that three drag race teams came and displayed their cars on the concrete drag strip despite the snow and rain. These guys made a nice gesture to support us, and we'd like to say a huge Thank You to Marcus Back Andersson (Junior Dragster), Stefan Eriksson (Pro Stock) and Mikael Larsson (Top Methanol Funny Car). Gullqvist expects tricky weekend. 1st April: Swedish Pro Modified racer and Speedgroup CEO Micke Gullqvist says that this weekend's Summit Racing Nationals in Las Vegas is going to be a tricky event for blower cars. "There's no doubt about it", says Gullan. "On the high altitude track of Las Vegas, the air density will be so bad that I think the birds will walk on the ground rather than fly. A look at the weather report says hot and a blower car does not like that kind of weather, especially with only 14% overdrive. But I see it as a challenge. It will be interesting to see how we can get it going under these extreme conditions and I hope we can qualify well again. "At the last NHRA National event in Gainesville I made a bad tune-up call for the first round and overpowered the track, but there is always a fine line between success and failure. We're currently in ninth spot in the NHRA points; let's see if we can improve a on that a bit." Pro Mod qualifying starts at 2:00 pm local / 10:00 pm UK / 23:00 European today and you will be able to stay in touch with Micke and his R2B2 mates this at www.dragracecentral.com or at www.nhra.com. "We will also post updates on the Micke Gullqvist Motorsports Facebook page between runs during the weekend", says Micke. This weekend European fans can also cheer on ex-pat UK Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences who is contesting Pro Fuel at the IHRA Nitro Jam in San Antonio. The Nitro Jam takes place today and tomorrow and you will be able to stay in touch with Mike's progress courtesy of our colleagues at www.dragracecentral.com. Flamholc's awesome Camaro. 1st April: Swedish Pro Modified racer and European ET record holder Adam Flamholc has been in touch to bring us up to date with the latest from the Glueharbor pit: After the European Finals last year, we dropped the car off at Custom Graphics' shop ouside Malmö. Errol and the guys did a great job and the car looks awesome! The motor we had in the Camaro at the finals was built in-house at Malmö Motorrenovering's shop. We have worked with our number two motor and tried to copy the record-setting motor as much as possible. As usual I want to thank my great business partners: Amalie Oil, Autoshop, Custom Graphics, Husby Tak, ÅF, Performance Plus and MMR. A huge Thank You goes from me to my great crew who always give their best. We are looking forward to the season, and  are going to do the best we can to take home the Championship! We also have another racing Flamholc: my son Mattias is going to do licencing runs at Malmö Raceway during the first weekend in May. If he gets his licence, we will take the Junior Dragster to some events this year. Erbacher goes around the bend. 1st April: 2010 FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion and Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher won an International Circuit Racing Licence during a two-day course at the Hockenheimring on Monday and Tuesday of this week. "I will try to make one or two races in this year's Pedrazza Porsche Cup", says Urs. "Noah Stutz, the former Junior Dragster racer who will be licencing for Super Comp at Easter with me as teacher, also got a circuit racing licence at Hockenheim. I think that before he jumps in a Super Comp dragster he needs to learn what do to when a car doesn't go straight. In the two-day School at Hockenheim we both learned a lot about driving cars the right way round a bend." Swift snippets. 1st April: Emma Humphreys says that Eurodragster.com sponsor Phoenix Personnel are holding a session of CPC Training at Santa Pod Raceway at 3:00 pm on Thursday 21st April, and that there are only a few spaces left. If you have any queries or if you would like to book a place then please drop Emma an E-Mail at [email protected] or call her on 01604 881664. The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com (below left) came with the words "First there was Rover the dog, now there's Jaguar the cat". If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at [email protected]. Patrik Larsson writes that 2010 FIA European Pro Modified Champions the Lindberg Brothers will unveil the new design of the car and their new sponsors at the Bilsport Performance and Custom Motor Show in Jönköping on 22nd-25th April. Meanwhile the Firebird is on display in the Tierp Arena booth at a 60 Plus Senior Citizens' Show in Uppsala (above right). "When this show is over, Jonnie and Johan will start to work hard on preparing the Firebird for the coming season", says Patrik. "Amongst other things, a new engine is on its way over the Atlantic right now." With four weeks to go before the class' first round at Shakespeare County Raceway, UK Supercharged Outlaw racer Paul Watts says that all is going to plan. "No Easy Pick Up is ready to defend its title", says Paul. "But that's not the only news from the Isle of Wight: Nobby is racing his car for the first time. Nobby has crewed for me for the last three years and is a ray of sunshine in the Supercharged Outlaw pits. He has never driven on a drag strip before and his first ride will be capable of seven-second passes! This will be interesting, good luck Nobster". You can find out about the Supercharged Outlaws on their web site at www.supercharged-outlaws.co.uk. Brian Huxley says that this weekend's Gambler's Shootout at Shakespeare County Raceway will be a good chance to shake down the Huxley family's Dark Horse Pro ET/Super Gas Mustang before a busy season. "Lee will be racing at all of the meetings at Santa Pod, and I will be racing in Super Gas at a couple of meetings this year", says Brian. "I will be racing at meetings at Shakespeare County Raceway and at as many of the Gamblers' Shootouts as I can - I love it, the best thing since sliced bread as they say. The Dark Horse Mustang will be on show at Notts Americana from 7th-11th July. If you have never been to this show you must go, it's a great weekend and we can't wait to meet old friends again." Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has asked us to wish a very Happy 22nd Wedding Anniversary to her husband, SPRC Chief Starter Ian Marshall. "Twenty two years, who would have thought it", says Paula. "I would have been out by now, wouldn't I?". Have a very Happy Anniversary guys. Web site updates. 1st April: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, street-legal Pro Modified racer Andy Frost explains why Red Victor 3 will not make the Easter Thunderball. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger Gorringe has updated his Nitro Exposure web site with three new galleries to start the year: the NHRA Kragen O'Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals at Pomona, the NHRA Tire Kingdom Gatornationals at Gainesville, and the March Meet at Bakersfield before the wind and rain set in. There are also a couple of blasts from the past on the Home and News pages. Check it out at www.nitroexposure.co.uk. Earlier news