Meca adds pre-Festival test. 31st May: Martin Olsson of Malmö's Meca Raceway has been in touch to invite Pro racers to a private Test and Tune session on 21st-22nd July, the weekend before the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park. "Anyone wishing to test their set-up before Mantorp is welcome", says Martin. "The entry fee is €545. This includes a fully-prepped track with full safety cover, electricity, food for five team members (more can be ordered), and twenty admission tickets for sponsors. ©Eurodragster.com "Teams who would like to stay at the track until leaving for Mantorp are very welcome to stay during the week. We are running an extra test session on Wednesday 25th July with full track security and track preparation. Usually on a Wednesday we have a crowd of between 1500 and 5000 race fans so that Wednesday will be something special." You can enter the Pro Test and Tune on the SRIF web site at www.srif.se/anmalan.htm. The Mopar Performance duo. 31st May: UK Pro ET racer Tig Napier's Dodge is up and running again after an absence of two years. The 572 ci Keith Black engine recently barked into life and Tig and Cath are aiming to run at this weekend's Gary's Picnic/Yanks Weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway. ©Eurodragster.com "The KB sounded sweet", say Tig and Cath. "It fired on the second turn and settled to a suprisingly stable idle when warm - looks like we're getting the hang of this at last. It should be at Gary's Picnic this weekend for some shakedown runs, although we have a hundred things to do before we get there. Anyone in the pits this weekend will be forgiven for thinking the car is blown, those gear drives are louder than I thought. "Incidentally, though the Dodge has Mopar Performance on the windscreen, something left from its 318 ci days, there are only two actual Mopar Performance parts on the engine!" Readying the invasion... 31st May: Like everybody else UK Super Pro ET team Mark Flavell Racing were "well miffed" with the rain ruining the weekend's FIA Main Event, but Mark Flavell says that they have something else to look forward to. "We were well up for it after burning a lot of midnight oil to be there in the first place following major engine damage at Shakespeare County Raceway", says Mark. "But I would imagine that we were nowhere near as miffed as some of our foreign friends and competitors and certainly not as much as Steve Saunders and his family and crew who barely slept for a week after getting the High Speed Gas Zephyr back from the paint shop. "Why not join us on a summer excursion to Vandel for the Danish Midsummer Nationals on 22nd-24th June. You can enter on-line through their web site at www.streetfire.nu, or if you require further information then E-Mail [email protected]. ©Eurodragster.com "Your regular race licence and €130 are all you need. The ferry is straightforward, ring Dave Higgs at Allsports Logistics on 01873 859500 for an excellent deal. We leave on the Wednesday morning from Harwich to Hoek of Holland and drive the 499 miles to Vandel stopping part way for a beer and a barbie. Arrive and scrutineer Thursday, and have a beer and barbie. Qualify on Friday and Saturday and have a beer and a barbie. Race on Sunday and enjoy a tranquil glass of Claret (read a beer and a barbie again). Then head for the Tuesday lunchtime ferry back to Blighty. Sounds like fun? You bet. "Super Pro ET is a featured class, so all those who initially showed an interest get packed and let's go, but all the Super classes are running so there’s room for just about everybody." Flynn's last blast. 31st May: UK Top Methanol racer Derek Flynn of Eurodragster.com News sponsor Gold RV says that next month's SPRC Summernationals will probably mark his last outing in Super Pro ET. Derek's new engine will render the Gold RV Racing dragster illegal for the class. "I feel a twinge of sadness that this may have to be our last outing in Super Pro, unless there are rule changes in the future", says Derek. "As we reported earlier in the year, we really enjoy competing in Super Pro ET, a great class full of great people, and we had intended on competing in the class at a few events each year. However, we have now purchased a Hemi and a screw blower which will rule us of Super Pro, but which should definitely help us in our quest to go quicker and ultimately that five second run that we are now aiming for. I wanted to try to see out the year with the Chevy but now that we have a Brad in the workshop my crew just can't wait to put it in the car and it will probably be in there for the European Finals. ©Eurodragster.com "Even though things have not quite gone to plan so far this year, I am quite happy with the steady progress we have made in the ten or so runs we have had in the new car, and would like to thank all my crew for the effort they have been putting in. We feel that the weather robbed us of the chance to get back in to the sixes at the FIA Main Event. We would like to thank Joe Pando from MSD for his help and assistance, it is really great that a US supplier of such standing is helping us racers over this side of the Pond, long may it continue. "We really hope that our last outing in Super Pro ET will be a good one and that we can lay down some good numbers again before leaving the class, and as we have always been Chevy men we will be a little sad to say good bye to the Bow Tie too. We know we can still get a lot more out of what we have and we just hope we get a chance to prove it. The Rodeck aluminium engine with Bow Tie heads will be available after this meeting having been freshened for the start of the season with new rods, pins, bearings, a couple of new pistons, new push rods, springs etc. If you are interested then please get in touch with me at [email protected]." Swift snippets. 31st May: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has kindly forwarded Version 2 of the official SPRC Summernationals entry list which you can view by clicking here (Apologies for the typo which was here for an hour yesterday - Ed). ©Eurodragster.com Mikey of Danny Cockerill's Pro Mod team would be pleased to hear from anyone with pictures or video of Danny's runs at Santa Pod Raceway on Saturday and especially the 230 mph pass in the second qualifying session. If you can help then please drop Mikey a line at [email protected]. FIA Main Event FIM/UEM review. 31st May: FIM/UEM European Drag Bike Championship Co-ordinator Lars Andersson has been in touch with his traditional post-event review, this time of the weekend's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway: I arrived on Thursday for the safety inspection of the track, it was in excellent condition. It is one of the best prepared tracks in the whole world. Even the time it takes to clean up the track after an incident is now low thanks to qualified personnel and new methods. Since we only managed qualifying on Saturday not so much happened. But in Pro Stock showed that this year is going to be a very interesting year. Anders Jakobsson went straight out under the current European record and backed it up in the next and last qualifier. Tom Tindahn was number two qualifier and he had brought Chip Ellis help from USA to help him. I do hope that he was not too scared of the weather. Anders Larsson was third and Anders Abrahamsson was fourth with a 7.31, a time which put him high up last year. With fifteen bikes the qualifying was very interesting, hopefully will we see a sixteen-bike ladder in the future. A little about Top Fuel Bike. Roel Koedam moving to Supertwin put Steve Woollatt in charge of the Top Fuel Bikes. Second was current champion Rickard Gustavsson. The most remarkable thing was that neither Ian King nor Eric Teboul qualified. But with all of the rain this did not mean so much for the Championship. The main problem in Top Fuel Bike is the absence of several of the Top Fuel Bikes and so many other bikes in this class. It was strange in Supertwin. Ronny Aasen was working for Ian Turburville, and Anders Karling was not ready. This made the Supertwin class different. Some years ago was it a Swedish class with almost only Swedes, and then the Norwegians took it over. Now was it Lorenz Stäble and Gunther Sohn at the top. Two Scandinavians qualified and three Scandinavians had a problem. Jaska Salakari has a habit of only running fast in the very last qualifier and that one was rained out, problems for him. This was a short report from the first event. Next is Finland and Alastaro, this time without a clash with the UEM congress. I hope that we will nave a nice race in the land of a thousand lakes. All the investment which has been made at Santa Pod with new asphalt in the paddock area makes Santa Pod look much better. The old Santa Pod is now almost a memory only. You can check out the post-FIA Main Event FIM/UEM Championship standings on our Simpson Race Products-sponsored points standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com A star-spangled weekend. 31st May: It's going to be a festival of fins and chrome this weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway with the first edition of a new old skool concept for the Warwickshire based drag strip: Yanks, twinned with the twenty ninth annual running of one of the oldest established rodding events in the UK, Gary's Picnic, writes promotions man Jerry Cookson. Shakespeare County is pleased to welcome back the National Association of Street Clubs-managed event following its long association with London's drag strip North Weald, and Santa Pod where it all began in the late seventies. With eight classes featuring the usual brands of Detriot legends, Super Stock, Hot Rod and British Muscle, Gary's Picnic has lined up plenty of cash awards and trophies for the quickest and fastest street bread muscle machines in the UK. Born from the 1980s when the race track was lovingly known as Long Marston, Yanks is gearing up to feature the very best in American muscle and chrome. With most of the weekend's entertainment taking place on the drag strip, event partners American Vehicle Owners Club have already lined up a generous helping of club activities while several bands, including Super Pro ET's Chris Orthodoxou's band Executive Relief, will be rocking the night away. Last year's winner was Shakespeare County regular Stuart Ramsey in his awesome low nine-second Chevy Camaro. Will he have it all his own way? Find out Sunday afternoon. Strip action will be catered for by the ever popular wheel standing antics from the posse known as the Outlaw Anglias, blown action comes from the Supercharged Outlaws, together with Outlaw Flat Fours who are prepared to take on all comers including the line-up presented so far from the Gasser Circus. A special Yanks Challenge has been issued to see who really has the quickest and loudest Corvette in the land thanks to Steve Borland of Moving Parts fame, and for the first time at the Raceway, a Replica Super Stock Shootout sponsored by quartermilehigh.com for period looking sixties Stockers and AFX look-alikes. It's bound to create some nostalgic interest! And speaking of nostalgia, the Wild Bunch will be there along with the National Street Car Challenge, Street Racer Series as well as places for National Championship teams who wishes to test during the weekend. For further information or last-minute ticket bookings call the Shakespeare County Raceway office on 01789 720180 or 01789 414119 during normal office hours or check out Shakespeare County Raceway's web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 31st May: We have another bunch of FIA Main Event photo updates for you today. First up is Germany's Markus Münch who has posted some excellent shots at dragstripper.smugmug.com/gallery/2920974#157545798. Next is Julian Hunt who has followed a friend's suggestion to let us know about his shots which you can find at photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=326849. We're glad that Julian followed his friend's suggestion as his shots are just great. Sue Whyte of Motorshack has posted a nice mixture of on-track and off-track pictures from the weekend on her Fotopic gallery at suewhyte.fotopic.net/c1291403.html. James Hands has posted pictures from Saturday's qualifying and updated his Andy Carter gallery at jhphotography2007.moonfruit.com. Finally for the FIA Main Event updates John Hutchinson has posted his pictures at community.webshots.com/user/nitromaniac. ©Eurodragster.com Next up is a video clip of Carolynne Campbell's Laffin-Gas Rocket Dragster at Shakespeare County Raceway which you can find on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctWZlCEqerY. Finally Richard Smith has updated his Fotopic gallery at richardsmith.fotopic.net with pictures from the UK Spring Nationals at York Raceway. "229 timed runs were completed on Sunday before rain stopped play, and a full day of eliminations took place on Monday despite a wet start", says Richard. "Round 2 of American Super Stock was unfortunately cancelled but Al Platt took the Round 3 win in his late-model Camaro." VP Racing Fuels press release. 31st May: Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor VP Racing Fuels has introduced a new enhanced formula for methanol. Called M3, it contains combustion and lubrication additives that make more power than standard methanol and promises numerous other benefits. "M3 is simply a better methanol for racing", said Steve Burns, VP's President and Director-R&D. "It makes more power than any standard methanol on the market, primarily due to improved vaporisation and faster burning speed. Both improve the thermal efficiency of the air/fuel mixture and with a wider acceptable range of air/fuel ratio, the range of ignition is enhanced leading to more consistent performance. M3's lubrication additive helps seal the rings, also yielding more power - overall, up to a 50 hp gain in a 1030 hp engine. The improvement in throttle response is also substantial - we've seen a five per cent increase in torque across a wider rpm range." M3 will perform well in drag racing and circuit racing, according to Burns. "M3 is not pure methanol and won't pass a water test. For 60-70% of all applications, it won't require jetting or timing changes - just pour it in and get up to five per cent more HP. In the other 30-40%, proper jetting changes will yield the same performance improvement. Not only will its better vaporisation and faster burn rate make more power, it will offer better protection against detonation. In addition to its lubrication additives, M3 includes an anti-corrosion package, so there's no need to add anything else to address lubrication or corrosion issues. If you're not bound by fuel rules, there's no reason to use anything else." "An important secondary benefit of M3's increased combustion rate is a 75% reduction in the formation of aldehyde emissions", Burns continued. "These include formic acid and formaldehyde, the components in standard methanol fumes that cause the burning sensation to the eyes and nose. I personally used M3 in a full bodied car and was very surprised at the difference in the smell, and it was so much easier on my eyes. This has been confirmed over and over by other racers who have used it. "One of the things racers count on with any of VP's methanol products is consistency in production and packaging. VP's M1 Methanol set the standard for years with 99.8+% purity and lined drums. Customers never have to fear contamination. So much of the cheap methanol you see is reclaimed from industrial processes and contains who knows how many contaminants. VP doesn't cut corners or reclaim methanol like some competitors who yield to the pressure for lower prices. We won't even go there. To our customers, that might mean slightly higher prices, but they can also trust our product. They won't be chasing a bad ignition for a month, only to find out their problem was bad fuel." M3 can be ordered by contacting any of VP's regional distribution centres, contact information for which is available on VP's web site at www.vpracingfuels.com. Technical questions can be referred to VP's Technical Department at +1 812-878-2025 or [email protected]. ©Eurodragster.com SPRC Summernationals entry. 30th May: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has forwarded Version 1 of the official entry list for the SPRC Summernationals, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on Saturday-Sunday 16th-17th June. You can view the entry list by clicking here. ©Eurodragster.com If you have any queries about SPRC Summernationals entry then please E-Mail Paula at [email protected] or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625). You can download the entry form for the event from the SPRC web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Paula tells us that gates will open for the SPRC Summernationals at 3:00 pm on Friday 15th June. If you fancy a spot of last-minute testing then bear in mind that Santa Pod Raceway is holding a Peak Performance Day on Friday 15th June; you can find more details about Peak Performance Days at www.rwyb.com. A Fat sponsorship deal. 30th May: We are very pleased to announce Switzerland's Fat Attack Custom Bikes as the latest sponsor of Eurodragster.com News. Owned by Top Fuel Dragster racer Urs Erbacher, Fat Attack is based in Arlesheim and produces custom bikes hand-built using the best possible materials from suppliers such as Rick's Motorcyecles, Custom Chrome Europe, Drag Specialties, Zodiac, W & W Cycles, and Meguiar's. Fat Attack Custom Bikes are designed and built to be street-legal across Europe. Fat Attack also sells new and used Harley Davidson bikes and offers servicing, customising and alterations and has recently started to import American cars, trucks and Hot Rods. The Fat Attack premises also houses the Fat Inn which offers drinks, snacks, grill, music, games, free internet, Motorsport TV, and private parties. ©Eurodragster.com No run-down of the Fat Attack operation would be complete without mentioning the Erbacher drag racing team which comprises the European record-holding Top Fuel Dragster driven by Urs Erbacher, the Supertwin ridden by Lorenz Stäuble, Harley V-Rod ridden by Sascha Brodbeck and the Junior Dragster piloted by Noah Stutz. Urs made his first trip down the quarter mile in France in 1982 so is this year celebrating twenty five years of drag racing. For more information about Fat Attack click on the Erbacher logo at right or visit www.fatattack.ch. We are very pleased indeed to be associated with Fat Attack and we would like to thank Urs and everyone at Fat Attack for their support of Eurodragster.com. FIA Main Event updates. 30th May: Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe has forwarded us the official timing data from the weekend's race. You can check out the timing data by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Andy has also forwarded us an updated table of European bests listing the new records set by Michael Malmgren, Eero Knihtilä and Anders Jakobsson at the weekend. You can see the current European records by clicking here or by clicking on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Kjell Pettersson has forwarded us the points standings in the 2007 FIA European Championships after the weekend's race. You can find the FIA points on our Simpson Race Products-sponsored points standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. UK 9.50 Bike racer Fred Furlong didn't think that he would be at this year's FIA Main Event until Pro Stock Bike racer Ray Debben needed a Crew Chief for the weekend and Fred and Sandra jumped at the chance. "Along with Andy and Sarah Burfitt we helped him to a very respectable opening qualifier", says Fred. "I was far more nervous crewing than racing my own bike. The last time I crewed for Ray was in Bahrain when the weather was very different from this weekend's wind and rain!" ©Eurodragster.com Charlie Chivers and the UK's Taxi Express Pro ET team have asked us to say a big Thank You to Herb Andrews for all his help as Crew Chief at the Main Event. "We qualified seventh in Pro ET and eleventh in Super Street", says Charlie. "We were looking forward to eliminations then came the rain." In the excitement of the FIA Main Event a few birthdays got missed, so big belated Happy Birthdays to Heike Schäfer of Peter Schöfer Racing, quickest female drag bike racer outside the USA Sarah Jane Head, Martin Gleadow of Time Machine Racing, track announcer John Price, and Sue Morris of Santa Pod's Media Centre. Hope you had good days guys. Bob Roberts of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars has updated the ARRC web site with in-car video and pictures of Andy's Pro Mod in action at Santa Pod Raceway at the weekend. Check it out at www.robinson-race-cars.co.uk. DJ of Santa Pod Raceway has been in touch to let us know that FIA Main Event reports are available on Santa Pod Raceway's web site (written by our very own Roger - Ed) at www.santapod.co.uk/e_main.php and on the official MSA British Drag Racing Championship web site at www.msadragracing.co.uk/reports_round2_07.htm. Santa Pod's web site also includes details of rain-out values for FIA Main Event tickets. The first of today's FIA Main Event web site updates is from Eurodragster.com Reserve Photographer Peter Donaldson whose pictures you can find at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net. Jamie Dyks has added pictures from Saturday's qualifying to his Fotopic gallery at topnitro.fotopic.net. Next up is Dave Grabham who has posted FIA Main Event pictures on the Freddy's Revenge web site at www.freddysrevenge.co.uk. Finally for today's web site news Michael Fordham has updated his Blazing Wheels web site with pictures from Saturday's qualifying which you can find at www.blazingwheels.co.uk. Swift snippets. 30th May: UK Real Steel Street Eliminator Ron Haslett has been in touch to ask for Eurodragster.com readers' help with his passenger rides for charity at the RWYB and Classic Ford Show at Santa Pod Raceway on 9th-10th June. "We need the use of a pumping station as we don't have enough nitrous bottles to last", says Ron. "We can pay for the gas we use as we have had a couple of very genorous donations from Matthew Wright and Ray Comer. So please get in touch if you are doing demos on the day or if you could lend us the kit for the weekend". If you can help then please drop Ron a line at [email protected]. ©Eurodragster.com Ron has also asked us to remind Santa Pod race officials and track and safety crews that passenger rides in his nine-second Cortina are on offer on Saturday week, 9th June, in return for a donation to the Macmillan Cancer Trust. You can contact Ron on the above E-Mail address. UK Pro ET Sponsorship Scheme Co-ordinator Carl Burton tells us that class sponsor Inkwell Printers has a new E-Mail address. You can contact Inky, who was responsible for Eurodragster.com's very snazzy business cards, at [email protected]. FIA Main Event rained out. 28th May: Yesterday's FIA Main Event qualifying and today's eliminations were rained out. The event was called at 13:00 today after non-stop rain since Saturday evening left Race Director Darren Prentice with no choice but to call a halt. It promised to be a spectacular race event with very close Sportsman qualifying and three European records set on day one of the 2007 European Championships (subject to official ratification): Pro Stock ET: Michael Malmgren 6.803 seconds Pro Stock speed: Eero Knihtilä 202.61 mph Pro Stock Bike ET: Anders Jakobsson 7.243 seconds Another barrier fell on Saturday when Danny Cockerill became the first European Pro Mod racer to record a 230 mph terminal speed with a 6.1761/230.73 pass, beating Robert Joosten's 232.93 by about two minutes. The weather robbed Danny and Robert of the chance to back up their records, as well as robbing Andy Carter of the chance to back up a new European Top Fuel speed record of 314.43 mph. In Comp Eliminator qualifying John Tebenham set a new world best for a Cosworth engine with a 7.7781 in his Probe. Pro ET racer Carl Burton won the £50 Eurodragster.com/LA Racing Parts Perfect ET Award with an 11.280 on an 11.28 dial-in. The Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award went unclaimed and will be increased to £75 for the SPRC Summernationals in mid-June. ©Eurodragster.com Click here to view our American Car Imports-sponsored coverage of that action which did take place, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and select the FIA Main Event. We updated Lex Joon's Blog from the track and you can read Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blog link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Sara Magnusson also gave us a report from Top Methanol FC racer Leif Andéasson's pit and you can check out Sara's update in association with John Woolfe Racing by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA Main Event. The guys from the US' 1320TV web site were also at Santa Pod at the weekend uploading video features which you can view at www.1320tv.com. Rapport på svenska hos EurodragsterNorth.com. Parkinson calls it a day. 28th May: UK Top Methanol Dragster racer John Parkinson has announced that he will no longer be competing in Top Methanol. John says that his retirement is for personal and financial reasons. "I simply can't afford to run at the level of competition that I'd like", says John. "I've tried to attract sponsors and to interest others in backing my efforts, but to no avail. My business is not large enough to support my racing and so my only option is to stop. "It's a sad day for me, for the crew, and for all those who have helped me over the last few years. After acquiring an engine from Dave Wilson we were all set to run the car down into the low sixes as the rest of the car was just crying out for a decent engine, but it's not to be. Maybe the next owner can do what I can't. ©Eurodragster.com "My personal reasons for bowing out are in no way to do with the people involved in the class, or in any other class come to that. I have always received the best and utmost support from all those I have encountered. I don't think there is another motorsport on the planet that can boast the friendship and the helpful qualities which drag racers show, sometimes to virtual strangers who wander into a pit with broken parts in both hands. Dave Wilson has given me support and time during my term in the class, but he is not alone in that respect. Both Steve and Rob Turner have offered help and information over the last few years, and the whole class including those from abroad have been very supportive. "I struggled hard to get back into the sport after my crash, but this time I'm beaten. There is just not enough money available to continue. I will continue to be around, and have already been offered a place with another crew. Watch this space and look out for the car coming up for sale soon." Swift snippets. 28th May: Santa Pod Raceway would be pleased to hear from any racers who would like to make demonstration passes at next Sunday's (3rd June) Performance Vauxhall Show. Vauxhall-based vehicles would be preferred but if you are interested then please contact Darren Prentice at [email protected]. ©Eurodragster.com A Happy Birthday to our good friend Pat Ginn. "Happy birthday Potty Pat", says partner TJ O'Brien. "I think this is the first time in eight years we won't be celebrating Pat's birthday at the Pod. I would also like to wish Neil Midgley good luck as he had eye sugery last week and has had the all clear to race. Make sure that there's oil in the engine, if you break another one Pat won't be happy". Have a good day Pat. Web site updates. 28th May: Colin Donisthorpe has updated his Fotopic site with pictures of Friday's and Saturday's action at the FIA Main Event. You can check out Colin's pictures at colindonisthorpe.fotopic.net. ©Eurodragster.com Stroud kits out SPR crew. 27th May: Safety equipment manufacturer and UK Championship contingency sponsor Stroud Safety has equipped Santa Pod Raceway's fire crews with four top of the line firesuits, gloves and boots. The Stroud 3.2A/20 spec firesuits and kit (right, click on picture for large version) were donated by Bob Stroud of Stroud Safety after a visit to Santa Pod last season. ©Eurodragster.com "Bob Stroud was at last year's European Finals and he asked if there was any safety equipment which Santa Pod needed" said Andy Robinson of Stroud Safety European dealer and Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars. "I spoke to Darren Prentice and asked him what would be most useful and I passed that on to Bob. Both Stroud Safety and Andy Robinson Race Cars have been contingency sponsors of the UK Championships for some years and we are very proud to be associated with Santa Pod Raceway." "It's very reassuring to know that when our front-line fire crew go into action they have the best protection available", said SPRC Race Director Darren Prentice. "It also gives the racers confidence. We are very pleased to be associated with Stroud Safety. We would like to say a big Thank You to Bob Stroud and we look forward to seeing him at Santa Pod again soon." For more details about Stroud Safety products check out the company's web site at www.stroudsafety.com or the Andy Robinson Race Cars site at www.robinson-race-cars.co.uk. Swift snippets. 27th May: German Top Methanol Dragster team Peter Schöfer Racing have announced a sponsorship deal with Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Sunoco. "The worldwide name in fuels is expanding in Germany and can supply fuel and motor and gear oil" said team member Gittli Koller. We understand that Finland's Alastaro Circuit, which includes the drag strip, has been sold. The new owners are drag racers and businessmen and doubtless we will get more details about this soon. A big Get Well Soon to UK Funny Bike racer Steve French who had to withdraw from this weekend's FIA Main Event due to a "Stupid gardening incident" which put him in A & E on Friday night. "I was really looking forward to this meeting to try join Chris Hall and the other Funny Bikes in that six-second zone", says Steve. "With five injections of anaesthetic and a large incision I have a thumb the size of my fist. I have been given enough antibiotics to resurrect a dinosaur, so I don't think it's wise to try racing." ©Eurodragster.com Brian Taylor has been in touch to let us know that yet again Eurodragster.com readers have come through after his plea here o Thursday for help with a magazine article. "I had two responses within hours", says Brian. "Jerry Cookson thought his dad might have it and then Steve Trice of USAutomotive came through with JPGs of the actual article taken from Hot Rod in March 1962. In terms of what happened next as far as UK drag racing is concerned, this is probably the most important article ever published. Long live anoraks and thanks to Eurodragster.com regulars." Spencer Tramm has asked us to wish a very Happy 40th Birthday to Quantum Leap crew member Rachel Georgiou. No sooner said than done, have a great day Rachel. NitrolympX classes. 26th May: Nitrolympx promoter Rico Anthes has been in touch with details of the categories and race formats planned for the NitrolympX which takes place at Hockenheim on 17th-19th August. "Our event status is NEAFP (National Event with Authorised Foreign Participation), so each racer can enter with his national ASN licence", says Rico. "More detailed info is available by end of May on our racers' page at www.nitrolympx-racer.de. All racers who have competed at Hockenheim over the last two years will automatically receive entry documents. Other racers should contact us at [email protected]." SUPER MOD Limited to UK entries by invitation to qualify for an eight-car field. All teams from England will be coordinated by Tina Gibbs. PRO MOD SHOOTOUT We will run a sixteen-car field Pro Mod Shootout for our central European PM teams and I would like to invite PM cars from England and Scandinavia, paying a guaranteed amount of €1500 for each invited team if they go out before the final. Invited teams participating in the final will receive a travel compensation of €500 extra on top of the prize-money. The payout structure as follows: First round loser €350 Second round loser €700 Third €1100 Runner-up €1500 Winner €2000 If there are less than fourteen cars in qualifying we go down to an eight-car field. Entry fee for open qualifying is €100 regular and €180 late entry. TOP METHANOL CANNONBALL This category will be invitational for two TM Dragsters and four TM Funny Cars qualifying the best three runs into the Cannonball final, racing for the winner bonus. We pay €1000 travel money for English and Scandinavian teams and round money for invited drivers is €500 for each qualifying run. The final round pays €1500 for the runner-up and €2000 for the winner. There will be also open qualifying spots for other teams to enter in TM Funny Car with the opportunity to qualify for the final. Teams should negotiate open entry conditions directly with us at [email protected]. Invited Top Methanol Dragster drivers: Timo Habermann, Peter Schöfer. Invited TMFC drivers: Ulf Leanders, Leif Andréasson, Arvid Grödem, Freddy Fagerström. TOP FUEL CHALLENGE Invitational for Top Fuel Dragster teams qualifying the best of three rounds into the Final, racing for the winner bonus. We pay €1000 travel money for English and Scandinavia teams plus €1750 round money for invited drivers for each qualifying heat. The final round pays €2500 for the runner-up and €3500 for the winner. Teams should negotiate open entry conditions directly with us at [email protected]. Invited Top Fuel drivers: Siw Nystad, Thomas Nataas, Urs Erbacher, Lex Joon, Brady Kalivoda, Janne Ahonen COMPETITION ELIMINATOR Open qualifying for an eight-car field. Entry fee is €100 regular and €180 late entry. SUPER COMP Open qualifying for an eight-car field. Open qualifying for an eight-car field. Entry fee is €100 regular and €180 late entry. SUPER GAS Open qualifying for a thirty two-car field. Open qualifying for an eight-car field. Entry fee is €100 regular and €180 late entry. STREET CARS (Public Race) Open qualifying for a thirty two-car field. Open qualifying for an eight-car field. Entry fee is €100 regular and €180 late entry. SUPER STREET BIKE We have to limit the SSB entries by invitation in order to get a maximum thirty two-bike field: Fourteen riders from England (already listed by Pete Bellenie) Six riders from Germany Six riders from Italy Six riders from other EU countries Entry fee is €100 regular and €180 late entry. PRO BIKE ELIMINATOR This category will combine Pro Stock Bike and Funny Bike for an eight-bike field, to give Central European riders the opportunity to enter without UEM status. Entry fee is €100 regular and €180 late entry. NITRO-BIKE THUNDER This category will be invitational for four Supertwin TF bikes and four Top Fuel Bikes qualifying the best out of four runs from each class into the final racing Super Twin against Top Fuel for the winner bonus. Round money for invited riders is €300 each run and final round bonus is €1000 for runner-up and €1500 for the winner. There will be also open qualifying spots for local riders to enter in STW or TFB with the opportunity to qualify for the final. Entry fee only for open qualifying spots is €100 regular and €180 late entry. Invited STW riders: Anders Karling, Jaska Salakari, Ronny Aasen, Roel Koedam. Invited TFB riders: Eric Teboul, Ian King, Rikard Gustafsson, Shaun Branch. SUPER TWIN TOP GAS Open qualifying for an eight-bike field. Entry fee is €100 regular and €180 late entry. V-ROD DESTROYER CUP Open qualifying for an eight-bike field. Entry fee is €100 regular and €180 late entry. We wish all racers the best of luck for the 2007 racing season and we welcome everybody to take a look at our Nitro-Hall of Fame at www.nitrolympics.de/hof/hof_main.html. ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 25th May: If you are coming along to Santa Pod Raceway this weekend then have your catcher's mitt ready as Benny Edvardsson tells us that the Leanders Brothers Top Methanol FC team in association with Tireshake.com will be throwing T-Shirts into the crowd after each of Ulf Leanders' runs. Get your T-Shirt before Health and Safety hear about that. ©Eurodragster.com A very Happy 12th Birthday to Laura Turburville (right). Laura is stuck in school today but will be up at the track at the weekend, have a great day Laura. Quick Q & A with Janne Ahonen. 24th May: Finnish Top Fuel Dragster racer Janne Ahonen is preparing to start his first FIA European Championship season in the Eagle Racing Top Fueller owned by Rune Fjeld Motorsports. Our good friend Hannele Hoyden had a quick chat with Janne to get his thoughts about 2007. Have you already raced or tested this season? A little basic testing, but not with Top Fuel car, so it will be a really new situation to arrive at Santa Pod. But we trust Rune and his mechanics, so we have no worries. Will you be contesting the full Championship and do you have any other events or shows lined up? We are doing the whole Championship. How are you looking forward to your first season as a Pro? It is kind of interesting to see how big the difference is, or if there is any difference, between the Pro and other classes. Getting to know the car, the team, the driving, it's all very challenging. ©Eurodragster.com Who do you see as the main contenders for the Championship? I think that all of the Top Fuel racers are Championship material, so there is no-one special in my mind. It is going to be a very tough season and we will see what happens at the end of the year. Who are your sponsors? DekkPartner, Total Management, Loimaan Tasoiteurakointi, Aubox, Ferroplan, Rautia, Finnlines, Radio Pop, Specialty Engineering, Radius, Nordgren, SKS Connect, VeKu, Rittal, Phoenix Contact, Promosport, Öljyhetki, DayDream Sport, K1 Katsastajat, Trade Parts and Visual Sports. Do you think the European records will be broken this season? Hopefully, at least I'll be trying to break the Finnish Top Fuel record. Anything else you would like to add? Thanks to everyone who has made this dream come true. I'll do the best I can. The Eagle will fly! Woollatt's right direction. 24th May: UK Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt says that he is more than pleased with his progress so far this season. Steve recorded a best of 6.3182 on The Dealer at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball and followed that up with 6.4-second passes at the Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway. ©Eurodragster.com "We have high hopes that we will be able to build on our progress at the FIA Main Event", Steve told Eurodragster.com. "The 6.31 at Easter was shut off a little early according to Phil Baimbridge's number crunching on the Racepak. We've got the motor going in the right direction. Mickey Thompson will be providing us with tyres again this season and we will have a new tyre on the bike this weekend." Steve has demonstrations lined up at Motorcycle World at Beaulieu on 23rd-24th June and at the Festival of 1000 Bikes at Mallory Park on 15th July - stay tuned for more news about these two appearances. If you are into drag racing memorabilia then also stay tuned for some great news from Steve in the next few weeks. Never say "Never". 24th May: Knut Söderquist of the Carbon By Design Top Fuel team once said that there was no way that he would run another Fuel Funny Car, but now he is back in Fuel FC with Patrik Pers in the seat and what he says is one of the best European FC teams of all time. "I thought the class was digging its own grave", Knut told Eurodragster.com. "It got so that none of the racers would go to watch the Funny Cars run any more. That will change, I have now found the right people to put together one of the best European FC operations of all time. They are all young and they all come from Pro Mod where you have to know what you are doing. ©Eurodragster.com "As I have said before Alan Jackson and I are very happy with Patrik Pers' driving skills, I think he will be as good as Harlan Thompson and that is very good. Patrik has also got the right young guys around him and they only need a little guidance from Alan and I. We have also found the missing link in Steffan from Trollhattan. This guy is one of the best in Sweden and has done an excellent job to get everything right. With Bjorn, Jocke, Micke and Håkan we are looking good. "The plan for the FIA Main Event is not to go stupid. We hade a staging problem at Easter which is now fixed - the car was too low so we staged body which means that the time slip is not as good as it should have been. We also had a big problem hurting pistons which almost broke two motors. That problem is with the dry sump oil system - the piston skirts are not getting any oil. We have made a few changes which will hopefully solve the problem. We will make a half pass to check it out and go from there. I can't say how fast we will go but we will try our best." Appleton sees orange, not red. 24th May: UK Pro Mod racer Gordon Appleton has revealed the new design of his blown-alcohol Camaro (right, click on picture for large version). Crew Chief Adrian Spencer tells us that the car could have been a different colour but for his powers of persuasion. "As always it seems to be a bit last minute to get the car ready, but as you can see I think it has turned out pretty well", says Adrian. " We managed to talk Gordon out of the bright colours and red was totally out of the question! I suppose the two of us could not have the same! So we settled on orange. "There are several people I would like to thank. Our sponsor Lucas Oil for staying with us for the third consecutive year; Neil from Pro Sign who stayed until midnight on Tuesday to get the car finished; Andy Robinson for repairing and updating the car; all the crew - my right hand man Dave Hollwood and David; Rob Smallworth for helping us out when things got busy and Mick the Fish who came on board this year, and a final thank you to Byron 'no polish' Bartlett. "As you know this is Gordon's last year and I would really like to finish this year as we started, eleven years ago - winning. I have had eleven great years with Gordon and through it all we have had our ups and downs but I would especially like to thank him. I would like to wish him the best of luck for whatever he moves on to next. See you next Easter Gordon!" Grumpy signs Lucas Oil. 24th May: 2006 FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Champion Dave Wilson has announced an associate sponsorship deal with Lucas Oil. The dragster has undergone a quick design update (right, click on picture for large version) by Darren West of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Power Race Graphics and will be sporting the Lucas Oil name along the top of the body and on the front and rear wings. "I'm very pleased to be associated with Lucas Oil and I would like to say thank you to Les Downey of Lucas Oil UK and Europe for his support", Grumpy told Eurodragster.com. "The car has been signwritten today. "I am looking forward to the race at the weekend because I know I will be able to go to bed at night instead of worrying about getting everything ready! We've been working late in the workshop for months and months and we have been helping Paul Ingar Udtian who has bought the Nemesis TMD from us - I've been hosting Norwegians but they left for the track today. "It's pretty much the same car, we have new heads and another blower, and hopefully we will take up where we left off last year." Schöfer looks for consistency. 24th May: After missing the 2006 FIA European Championship by a few points, German Top Methanol Dragster racer Peter Schöfer and team are aiming to make the car consistently quick in 2007. "We haven't made any major changes to the car except for changes because of the rules", says team member Gittli Koller. "We made some exhibition passes at the German Touring Car Championship at Hockenheim and also in Hungary and we used these as a test. We are planning to contest the whole season and we are going to participate at a number of other races too. ©Eurodragster.com "We are happy that the class is growing again. Eight cars is a good number, and we are looking forward to a good season with good sportsmanship in Top Methanol Dragster. "Thank you to our sponsors Normstahl, mipa, US-Parts Weindel, JE Pistons, Norfolkline, Uvex, MoteC, Calwer Grafik and Design, Dirsch Motors, HR Fahrzeugbau, Armin Schneider, Zehetbauer, Hary Wegner and the Friends of PSR. Hopefully, if all works well, we will have one more sponsor." Enter the Demolition Squad. 24th May: The Netherlands' Ton Pels says that having a new rider on his Supertwin is going to be fun. Ton's close friend and former Top Fuel Bike racer Roel Koedam has already made one outing on Ton's Zodiac Godfather Supertwin, at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball, where the team were put out of competition by serious engine damage. "We found out that the Demolition Squad is alive and kicking and we have put one of them on the bike!", says Ton. "Although Roel is a very experienced rider, riding a V-Twin is different. We hope that he picks up the Zodiac Godfather V-Twin very quickly. ©Eurodragster.com "We don't expect to become Champions but we will do our very best to get as close as possible. We see Lorenz Stauble as a potential champion, and maybe Gunter Sohn. "We have very loyal sponsors and they will be the same as in previous years: our main sponsor is Zodiac International BV and the others are Supertrap Industries, Spectro Oils of America and Accel Parts and Accessories." FIA Main Event snippets. 24th May: Further to yesterday's news item about Junior Dragster pitting at this weekend's race, Santa Pod Raceway have laid down tracking in the middle of the Junior Dragster pit area (right). Pro Mod racer Pelle Eriksson tells us that the government of Åland will this weekend be presenting Santa Pod Raceway with the flag of the self-governing region of Finland. Åland will be represented at this weekend's race by Pelle and by Pro Stock Bike racer Fredrik Fredlund. UK Pro Modified racer Danny Cockerill has replaced his Chevy's Alan Johnson wedge motor with a brand new ERD/Brad Anderson Hemi. Danny tells us that it was a fantastic feeling to win at the 2006 FIA European Finals and that we will have to wait and see if he contests the entire 2007 Championship and that until mid-season he thinks that it is anyone's title. ©Eurodragster.com Stefano Padrazzi tells us that Italian Pro Stock Bike racer Luigi Chinarello and team of Andrea Chinarello, Ezio Brini and himself were happy with their improving performance in 2006, describing it as "Getting better and better in little steps". Stefano says that testing so far this season has produced similar ETs to 2006 with potential for improvement. "We see the usual Swedes and Tom Tinndahn as the main contenders for the Championship", adds Stefano. We have updated our American Car Imports-sponsored FIA Main Event coverage with a small gallery of shots taken around Santa Pod Raceway yesterday (Wednesday). You can check out the bonus gallery by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA Main Event. We will post another gallery today if time permits. Don't forget that our Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam is already on-line at Santa Pod and is broadcasting a picture every sixty seconds. Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars will have their usual stocks of Ringers gloves, both traditional original style and the padded Impact style, at this weekend's race plus FIA-approved roll cage padding, Stroud Safety parachute spares, and sets of Hoosier C2055 34.5/17.0-16 slicks. German SE Champion repeats. 24th May: Mathias Wienand has been in touch with news of the weekend's Toyo Tyres Street Eliminator Germany round, presented by Dragracer magazine, which took place at Bitburg Airfield: Top sixteen drivers of last year's series have qualified for the 2007 series and forty new drivers battled in Saturday's three-round shootout for the remaining sixteen spaces in the thirty-two car field. Three completly destroyed engines during session one proved that this is serious motorsport. Last year's Champion Guido Uhlir took the first win of the season in his V8 Opel Manta. ©Eurodragster.com You can find my pictures at www.flckr.com/photos/competitionpix, Markus Munch's pictures at dragstripper.smugmug.com/gallery/2884022#154929516, and Dirk Belau's pictures at pixeleye.smugmug.com/gallery/2882400#154842831. Sportsman ET update. 24th May: UK Sportsman ET racer Nick Gay has been in touch with some news from the Sportsman ET pits: I tested at Santa Pod last weekend to try out my new Quaife Torque Biasing Diff. This works so well that it even pulls the motor down in the burnout! So when the track comes around this weekend I think I will only be doing a quick blip up to the line to clean the tyres. This should make the car far more consistent than in the past and I am of course hoping for a good result in the racing. The other reason we went to the Pod last weekend was to take some lads from the Southampton Special Purpose Workshop (where I work) to see the racing. This was a great success and everyone enjoyed themselves immensely (right, click on picture for large version, from left: Nick Gay, Phil Hendricksen, Dave Tull, William Mill and Phil Howard). A big thank you to Caroline Day of Santa Pod Raceway who helped to organise the trip. ©Eurodragster.com Did you Know why Ian Jackson made such a remarkable return to form at the Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway? His Camaro's electronic brain was going haywire at Easter and he couldn't work out what was wrong. So when he got home the car was gone over with a fine toothcomb and Ian found that over the winter a mouse had made its nest in his air filter severely restricting the airflow and so totally confusing the air mass meter! Another of the Sportsman ET racers who has his work cut out to be ready for this weekend is Jon Turner as he dropped a valve on the Greenfish Racing Barracuda at Shakespeare County Raceway damaging a piston and bore and totalling a head. So good luck to him and hope he makes it in time! Finally my deepest sympathy to Barry Giles, family and team at this difficult time. Our thoughts are with you. Swift snippets. 24th May: Congratulations to Switzerland's Sascha Brodbeck of Erbacher Racing who won the first round of the Harley-Davidson V-Rod Destroyer Cup at Meca Raceway at the weekend. Sascha was #1 qualifier with a new European eighth-mile record of 5.92, and a quicker reaction won Sascha the race against Alex Seifert when both recorded 5.946. ©Eurodragster.com Brian Taylor is again seeking the help of Eurodragster.com readers with source material for his book Crazy Horses. "I’m searching for an article that was published in Hot Rod magazine either late 1961 or during 1962, a feature on the first Allard Chrysler which was instrumental in setting off a chain of events which eventually led to the Mooneyes demonstrations in 1963 and the 1964 and 1965 Drag Festivals", says Brian. "Because of its importance I would like to get sight of this article and I would be most grateful if anyone can E-Mail a JPG of it to [email protected]. Alternately if you are coming to the FIA Main Event please bring it with you." Supercharged Outlaws Round 1 report. 24th May: The first round of the reformed Supercharged Outlaws at Shakespeare County Raceway last weekend was contested by Lee Gallimore and Dave 'Fuzzie' McKenzie whose altered was making its first outing. Fuzzie dropped us a line to tell us how it went: Lee could not make it on Saturday which left me to try to dial in his new car and iron out any teething problems. The car was made ready early on Saturday afternoon but the run was delayed by a short shower. When we eventually made it to the start line it was three o'clock so only one run would be possible. My Crew Chief Mark Windridge told me to do a sixty foot squirt just to check the car out. The burnout was very soft and when I took my foot off the throttle I had very bad front wheel wobble. I took it to about sixty feet and lifted, further down the track I re-applied the power and it was very stable at speed. Feeling very pleased we towed the car back to the pits only to discover that an inlet push rod had broken luckily this only damaged two roller rockers and did not drop a valve, but it that put an end to our weekend. ©Eurodragster.com On Sunday Lee rolled out the ex-Ian Hanson altered for three runs. Lee also experienced the dreaded altered front wheel wobble at the end of his burnout. Lee' three runs were 8.616/149.29, 8.238/154.45 and finally 8.105/172.26. This gave Lee the win for the weekend and the lead of the Supercharged Outlaws after round one. The next round is at Shakespeare County Raceway on 2nd-3rd June where Alec Coe will hopefully be back out with his slingshot and the chase will be on for the seven-second pass. Web site updates. 24th May: Our good buddy Alan Currans has updated his Acceleration Archive with the latest entry in Brian Taylor's Crazy Horses Author's Blog. You can check out Brian's latest progress, and he is making a lot, at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk/crazy_horses/blog_01.html. ©Eurodragster.com Main Event Thursday scrutineering. 23rd May: Santa Pod Raceway and Santa Pod Racers Club are trying a new arrangement for the queue to scrutineering to prevent blocking of the pits while pitting is still in progress. This is only for those Sportsman car classes seeking to be scrutineered tomorrow, Thursday 24th May. ©Eurodragster.com The scrutineering/tech inspection queue will run down the pairing lanes, around the control tower, past the signing on office and continue up the old fire up road at the side of the track, to the scrutineering bay. SPR and SPRC hope that these arrangements will help to divert traffic from the pits and make pitting for everybody easier as the day progresses. Leindahl aims high. 23rd May: Swedish Pro Stock Team Tommy Leindahl Racing started their 2006 season with great expectations, and their new Reher Morrison engine turned out to be a reliable source of power. Cooperation with RM has meant a lot and they have shared their knowledge and experience with the team but to develop a successful Pro Stock Racing team takes both effort and long-term planning and it was harder to utilise the new knowledge than the team expected: Theory is one thing, practice is something else. It wasn't until after the Veidec Festival that the team felt that things were falling into place. Even the car was finally taking the shortest way to the finish line, in every run. We made it to the semi-finals in three out of five races and at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway we ran a 6.947. For this year we have changed pretty much everything, altered set-ups, and the engine has been back to RM over the winter, for inspection and tuning. Tommy and engine mechanic Kent Jonsson went there too, got a few more tips and while they were at it ordered another engine. The team now consists of Tommy, Kent, Robban Rahm and Stig Leindahl, as last year, plus Bo and Elin Ragnebro who joined in for 2007. We firstly went to Meca Raceway in Malmö to test the new set-up. Our experiences from 2006, together with calculations made during the winter, turned out to be efficient. We made some nice 330 feet runs and got the answers we wanted. All four Swedish Pro Stock teams who showed up at Meca ran within hundredths of a second of one another, and Tommy predicts that this is what we can expect to see in this year's Championship. Anyone could win and several cars will break the European record from 2006. Tommy is aiming high and is supported by his sponsors Skyltbolaget, Daldehog AB, Morgan Gustavsson Av, Nilsson & Luthman AB, Bensin & Rörtjänst I Göteborg AB, Am Tee Production AB, NTG Företagen AB, Sjöströms AB, and the newest sponsor MCD AB. The team will race all Championship events as well as the Pro Stock Shootout in Sundsvall on 16th-17th June. Stay tuned as we will shortly be presenting a feature on Tommy Leindahl Racing in association with John Woolfe Racing. Robinson hunts the shake. 23rd May: Bob Roberts of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars says that Andy and the team have been through Andy's Studebaker Pro Mod from one end to the other since the Autotrader Easter Thunderball. "We've been trying to figure out why a car which ran fine last year, and which hadn't been changed over the winter, could shake as much as the Studebaker did at Easter", says Bob. "We've been through the car and fixed a few minor problems, and hopefully we'll be back to our usual form for the Main Event. We have spent the winter getting a few spare parts together, this means we can begin to try a harder tune without worrying too much about breakages and hopefully go faster and quicker than last year - and we think we will need to step it up judging by the times in testing over the weekend, and the twenty three other entries this weekend! ©Eurodragster.com "During the rebuild ARRC have had the support of Aurora, Hylomar, Pac Valve Springs, Crane Cams, IronCAD, RCS, Hoosier and Stroud Safety. The engine has been re-plumbed with excellent lightweight hoses from BMRS and this season we will once again be relying on the Torco oil and lubricants which have worked well for us over the past couple of years. "We will be selling some of the life-expired parts from the Studebaker in our E-Bay shop at stores.ebay.co.uk/Andy-Robinson-Race-Cars over the next couple of weeks. "As always, thanks for the weekend coverage...it meant we don't have to send a spy to the track (Thanks, but how do you know we weren't BS'ing you at your competitors' request - Ed)." FIA Main Event snippets. 23rd May: Further to Saturday's news item about pitting at the FIA Main Event, Darren Prentice of Santa Pod Raceway has been in touch to let us know that Junior Dragster will be pitted on grass at the end of the pits. "If you wish to bring flooring or matting to lay on top of the grass then it is OK to do so", says Darren. We are indebted to Santa Pod Racers Club Race Director Darren Prentice and Club Secretary Paula Marshall for forwarding us detailed provisional running orders for all four days of this weekend's FIA Main Event. You can check out this weekend's running orders by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA Main Event. Please note that these running orders are provisional and are subject to change due to weather or track conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by race officials. Swedish Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren tells us that Anders Wall has taken over as Crew Chief for the Lahega-sponsored GTO. "Anders has showed very high skills in running the operation", says Michael. "Heikki Parviainen will still work with us as supervisor but it is hard for him to run the team living in Finland when the rest of the guys lives within one hour of the shop. Most Pro Stock teams have stepped up this year buying new engines from the USA, but we will be right there at the top with the new bullet from Bob Ingles. It showed very good results on the dyno but is not yet proven on track, however it turned out to be the strongest 500 ci Pro Stock engine he ever built". Michael will shortly be the subject of a Feature in association with John Woolfe Racing. As well as updating Lex Joon's Blog, Eurodragster.com will also be presenting end-day reports from the Andréasson Motorsports Top Methanol Funny Car pit at this weekend's FIA Main Event. The reports and photographs will kindly be provided by Sara Magnusson. The official web sites of Top Fuel Dragster racers Andy Carter and Micke Kågered will also be updated live from Santa Pod. Racers, if you are updating from Santa Pod this weekend then please let us know at [email protected] and we'll mention it here. ©Eurodragster.com Eurodragster.com's Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam will be going on-line from Santa Pod Raceway this afternoon (Wednesday) and will then broadcast a picture every sixty seconds until the track closes after the FIA Main Event next Monday afternoon. If you want to check out the preparatory work taking place on the facility you can view the webcam by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA Main Event. After the unfortunate events at last year's FIA Main Event we would like to say a big Thank You to Lucas Oil for sponsoring accommodation for Eurodragster.com this weekend. Thanks also to Andy Carter for organising the deal. Engine by HDS. 23rd May: Norwegian Top Methanol Dragster racer Yngve Solberg won't be chasing FIA European Championship points around the Continent this season but he and the team fully intend to have fun and enjoy the friendship with their fellow racers at those races they attend in 2007, says Team Owner and Crew Chief Oystein Solberg. The dragster has a new HDS engine for this season - if you've never heard of an engine builder named HDS then read on and all will become clear. "Right after we sold our Super Comp dragster to Martin Curbishley in 2004, we obtained an almost brand new turn-key 2004 Dakota Race Cars 250" Pro Comp car which was owned by an elderly gentleman in the midwestern USA", says Oystein. "Driver was aged sixty nine and the mechanic was aged seventy four. They had started it twelve or fifteen times but could not agree on if they had run it two or three weekends before we bought it (Comes to us all - Ed). It was made for the Midwest Outlaw Series, and is not really competitive as a Top Methanol Dragster even though the chassis and safety equipment are full TMD spec. It had a Chevy 477 big block, 8:71 blower, and PG gearbox. The Americans had it running 7.05, and we got it to 6.94/198 mph, and that is just about as quick as it will go. "This winter we have built ourselves a new HDS engine. HDS = High Dollar S**t. Billet CN block, all billet internals, needle bearing cam, Schubeck roller-X lifters, Alan Johnson heads, Kobelco 14:71 Superman hi-helix blower, programmable MSD Promag 44, and CBD carbon fibre hat. Absolutely the best parts available anywhere in the world for a Chevy gearhead. It will be dynoed before we take it to the track. "The new motor will definitely make us more competitive, but it is still a fact that a small 397 ci Chevy wedge motor and a Powerglide cannot go 5.50. But we are still happy, and the thing about building such a small displacement motor is that it will actually fit in the AA/Dragster class of Comp Eliminator, so we have more races to attend if we want to. And a low six on a 7.55 index should be OK! ©Eurodragster.com "We have two engines for sale. The first is a 477 ci BBC complete with magnesium 8:71, Enderle birdcatcher, Promag 12 and tune-up, which has run 6.94/188. The second is an alky carburetted 496 ci BBC engine which has been freshened with expensive parts and which runs 7.90 in a Super Comp dragster. For details E-Mail [email protected]. "This year we are sponsored by Craftsman Verktøy (tools), Powertrans AS (transport) and ET Nordic (computer equipment). "Good luck to newcomers Paul Ingar Udtian, who bought Dave Wilson's spare TMD turn-key, and our friend Derek Flynn who is at about the same stage as we are. We will not be in UK this year, but look forward to the Scandinavian races." On the Sunday drive. 23rd May: UK Fuel Altered Tony Betts and the Venom Racing went to the Springspeed Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway with a clear direction for the set up. The post-Easter Thunderball data proved correct since Tony set a new Personal and NFAA Best of 6.687. Team member David Ainsworth got in touch to tell us the inside story: After the burnout, Venom was brought into stage and was trying to go, once Tony let the brake off and nailed it - the altered was back to her old self - the Venom kicked in then Tony clicked off about a thousand feet as the engine nosed over. At the top end the crew asked Tony "Well, how did she feel?". Tony replied "Good, like a Sunday drive". The crew replied "That's good because we have beaten the record that we held from last year with a new time of 6.68 seconds". Tony was ecstatic along with the crew.  ©Eurodragster.com Once back in the pits, post-run checks on Venom showed no engine damage. All that had occurred during the record-breaking run was that the tips of the spark plugs had failed, hence the nose-over at a thousand feet. Venom Racing were hoping to improve on the new record with on the next run, however due to an NFAA staging mix-up and the weather we were unable to do so. Tony Betts would like to thank the Venom racing crew:  Kevin Miller, Steve and Nick Walker, Ron Ward, John Mordey and all involved with the team. This would not have been possible without input from our main sponsors Teng Tools, Superpower Unlimited and CustomArt. For more updates and team news check out www.venomracing.co.uk. Swift snippets. 23rd May: UK Jet pick-up pilot Junior Olley says that the Dakota Thunder got a lot of attention at the Ultimate Extreme Show at the weekend. "There were around 7,500 people through the gates over the weekend, and we met many People, who were all impressed with the truck!", he says. "After firing up the truck on Saturday night we had some air in the fuel system, which put a stop to any further flame shows. We made a new fan in the person of TV star Sammie Winwood of Emmerdale who spent part of Sunday afternoon talking about the truck and asking if she could drive it!". More coverage soon at www.dakotathunder.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com The official entry list for the Danish Midsummer Nationals, which takes place at Vandel on 22nd-24th June, is now available at www.streetfire.nu. Holger Dueholm tells us that more than fifty teams from Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Holland, Switzerland, the UK and even Italy have already registred for Denmark's biggest drag racing event. Web site updates. 23rd May: Our Reserve Photographer Peter Donaldson has updated his Fotopic gallery site with pictures from the weekend's pre-FIA Main Event testing at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Peter's pictures at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net. ©Eurodragster.com Ode to The Barn. 23rd May: Moved by news of the imminent demise of The Barn at Santa Pod Raceway, Eurodragster.com reader Stephen Billings has sent us the following elegy: Oh barn you have to go, It's sad but true we know, No more will we feel the noise, Of Top Fuel, Funny Car and 'Ton up boys'. ©Eurodragster.com No more taking the blast, As Jet and Rocket leave so fast, No more to see from where we stand, The fastest vehicles in the land. This Main Event will be your last, So as you go into the past, Let's fill you up one more time, And raise our voices in 'Auld Lang Syne'. Knuckle down with Turbo. 23rd May: UK Supertwin racer Ian Turburville says that this is the biggest weekend of his life and he just don't know what to expect. "Plan A is to have fun, but there is so much at stake that that will be hard", says Turbo. "We will see! "I will, as always, have stocks of SImpson shoes, shirts, etc with me and will have a great line of 'Spokehead' and other T-Shirts and sweats available at great prices. The big news is that our own brand of mechanics gloves just arrived in time. They are called Nitro Knucks and will indeed save your knuckles from those darned cuts and bruises you get when you 'fall off the spanner' or grab that hot engine part between rounds (See yesterday's Lex Joon Blog update - Ed)! They are in all sizes, printed with our snazzy new 'Flash' logo on the grey spandex breathable back, and have reinforced black synthetic leather palms and fingers with Velcro wrist fastening! They are on offer for just £10 a pair at the FIA Main Event! ©Eurodragster.com "Another great product line that came to our attention this winter is the Innotec line of sealants, adhesives and lubricants. These really do work better than anything we have come across and are invaluable in our extreme race environment! The Easy Gasket for example isn't just silicon but completely nitro-proof rubber type compound which comes in a great dispenser that lasts for ages. They have lots of other great products like ceramic greases and teflon oils as well as plastic repair kits for those Funny Car bodies that suddenly fly off! I will carry many of them with me to the races as I am now an Innotec dealer so come and check it out in the Supertwin pits. For more information have a good look at www.innotecworld.com/home.php." Maddy Motorsport. 23rd May: Motorsport fans could hold an important key to expanding the Europe-wide search to find the missing British four year-old, Madeleine McCann. The McCann family and close friends want to target motorsports fans at events across Europe. They hope that organisers will help by positioning images of the freely-available multi-language posters at international motorsport events and by publicising the web link details to visiting spectators. Despite media coverage generated from the scene in Portugal and at home in the UK, many Europeans in neighbouring countries remain unaware of the youngster's disappearance and would be unable to identify her on sight. "We need greater exposure for the poster", says campaign spokesman John Corner. "We are aware that these events generate a lot of cross-border traffic. The organisers and spectators could play a major part by generating fresh interest in the search to find Madeleine so that the chances of her being spotted will increase." The print-ready high-resolution image can be downloaded by clicking here and more images are available on the campaign web site at www.findmadeleine.com. Mantorp reinstates FIM/UEM. 22nd May: Mantorp Park have announced that after two weeks of meetings and negotiations they have reconsidered and that they will after all run a round of the FIM/UEM European Drag Bike Championship at the 2007 Veidec Festival. The round will be run over an eighth of a mile for Top Fuel Bike and Supertwin, and over a quarter of a mile for Pro Stock Bike. "We believe we have underestimated the importance for many teams to be able to run and bring their sponsors to the event at Mantorp Park and are happy to announce the reinstatement of the Championship round in Sweden", says Event Director Fredrik Str&oumm;. "We would like to thank all involved parties for their patience and commitment in this matter and apologise for any inconvenience that these decisions may have caused riders and teams. "Now we are looking forward to an excellent Championship round of drag racing for both cars and motorcycles at VEIDEC Festival and Mantorp Park this summer, on 26th-29th July. The entry form for the UEM bike classes will be published shortly at www.veidecfestival.com." "I think that this is very good", says FIM/UEM Championship Co-ordinator Lars Andersson. "Now we can also get more people to Norway because I know that many continental riders combine Sweden and Norway. Let us now help the promoter and organiser and make the Veidec Festival one of the best races ever." ©Eurodragster.com Urgent appeal for help. 22nd May: TJ O'Brien has been in touch with a last-minute plea for help at this weekend's FIA Main Event. ©Eurodragster.com "I am trying to arrange for Pat and I to get married on the start line at Santa Pod Raceway this weekend as all of our friends will be there", says TJ. "As you know we don't have much time left. We need a priest or vicar to perform the ceremony so if you know anyone or have a friend who can perform the ceremony (no Hyenas) please contact me at [email protected], at home on 01992 716702 or mobile 07888 633764." Put those nurses down! 22nd May: Norwegian Top Methanol Funny Car racer Arvid Grødem has torn himself away from the nurses at his local hospital after an off-season bicep-rupturing "Fridge incident" and is all set for this weekend's FIA Main Event after testing at Gardermoen. "The last season was "amputated" as we did not participate in the Main Event nor the FHRA Nitro Nationals", says Arvid. "Our adjustments were way out until we got back on track at the European Finals, the only drawback was that by then the season was over. Providing my arm is OK after Gardermoen I will participate in all of this year's FIA races as well as Gardermoen and Hockenheim. We have not yet made any changes to the car apart from the usual service, but will see what we can do as season progresses." Arvid has said goodbye to one team member and hello to another since last season. "Christian Løining has left the team and Gunnar Olsson has joined us", he says. "Thank you very much to Christian and welcome to Gunnar. We are working flat out on the trailer with Pål Henning in charge, but it is lots and lots of work and even though we have been working long hours - and we all have full time day jobs - it will not be fully completed for the start of the season. But as long as we can transport the car we will have to put up with it." Sponsors are few and far between for the Westside Racing team, but Arvid says that those he has are even more appreciated. "Keddel & Bommen, the agent for Sunoco Oil in Norway will provide us with the best oil and methanol, Phoenix US Cars AS are the best when it comes to American cars and parts, and Holmestrand Lakkering is the greatest painter around", he says. Arvid thinks that it will be a hard run for the FIA European Championship this season. "Ulf Leanders, Leif Andréasson, Dan Larsen and of course Fast Freddy Fagerström, will all be serious contenders for the title", he says. "If Jörgen Johnsson decides to brush the dust off his car then he will be a major player as well as he really got his car flying at Mantorp last year. It is a healthy field out there this year and everyone is capable of winning races which means that the spectators will get lots of excitement during the season. The ex-Kågered car will also gave a new driver this year so it seems like the field of cars will rather increase than decrease, which is very good for the class! I'm really looking forward to get into the driver's seat again - see you all out there!" Time for the new Show. 22nd May: Showtime Fuel Funny Car Crew Chief Bob Jarrett has been in touch to let us know that John Spuffard and the team have almost finished the new Funny Car, with just a few loose ends to be tied up on Friday. Bob says that as is traditional the team have given the new car a name. "We have always named our cars", says Bob. "This has mostly been a team thing so that we all know what we are referring to. The Silver car, the Skuza car, the Chartreuse car (now Shockwave), the Pioneer car, then "The Mustang. " Now in memory of Eric Medlen, we have the Eric car. The picture (right, click for larger version) was taken on the day I did the deal with Robert Hight for the car which is now the new Showtime. "The Easter Thunderball was obviously a great weekend for us. I knew the car would run well as the track and weather conditions suited my tune-up perfectly. The team did a super job servicing the car and we had absolutely no parts attrition except from a couple of exhaust valves after the 5.11 run. 305 mph was a bit of a surprise, as I always thought we would break into the four-second zone before we reached 300. I said to Bill Sherratt walking back that a piece of paper must have hit the beams, until I looked at the data and found 8000 rpm at the stripe. The run before was actually quicker to the 330 and 660 timers, so with some small refinements we may soon see the four-second run we all want, possibly by the Finals. ©Eurodragster.com "We have more data channels to look at now which will be a great help but I would again be surprised if the new car will run 300 straight off. The wing and body area are totally different and will definitly create more downforce but at the expense of greater drag. "John has a new trailer under construction and so the blue trailer is for sale at the end of the season. Along with some other parts, it is listed on the Swap Meet and any interested parties can come and see John or I at Santa Pod this next weekend." FIA Main Event snippets. 22nd May: Top Fuel Dragster tuners Eddie Corr and Ben Allum will be tuning Janne Ahonen's ride this weekend. "It's a favour to a friend", says Eddie Corr. "Rune Fjeld needed some help so we're giving it. It isn't a formal contract to run the car, and as for what's happening after this weekend, that remains to be seen. In this sport, when a friend asks for help we just give it." Just in time for the FIA Main Event, Swedish Top Methanol Funny Car team Andréasson Motorsports have announced a deal to become Scandinavian dealers for safety wear and equipment company Impact Race Products. "Impact have all kinds of safety race wear a racing driver and team could need: helmets, shoes, gloves, suits, restraint systems and everything around it", says team member Anders Magnusson. "John Schneider of Impact says he's looking forward to a prosperous future with Andréasson Motorsports. Impact is also planning a support programme for European drag racers in the future. Contact Leif Andréasson for orders and questions on Impact's products". Thank you Micke! 22nd May: After running with the Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster team for five years, Sweden's Micke Kågered decided to run his own operation and purchased a Mats Eriksson-built chassis from CBD Team Owner Knut Söderquist. Knut got in touch to express his appreciation to Micke and his team for the years of business. "I know that Micke had been in the USA looking for cars, and there are a lot for sale there", says Knut. "But he knows th ecar which Mats built for him, and he knows how many runs the car has made, and he knows that it has been taken care of. He didn't want a car with more than one hundred runs on it which the Americans didn't want any more. I think that Micke made the right decision, and we all know that the car can run with anyone. I will of course help Micke in any way I can. As everyone knows it is one thing to buy a nitro car but it is another thing to keep all the spares you need. ©Eurodragster.com "I want to thank Micke for everything. It has been nice to work with the most professional team in Europe, no competition. Åsa is the heart of Micke's operation and an ecxellent cook, not only that the envelope alway arrived in time. To all foo of the guys on the crew, run by Emil and second Crew Chief Tomas, thank you for all the bullshit and excuses through the years. I will see you all at Santa Pod, let's go out and get them." Great start for the Dodgeboys. 22nd May: Denmark's Dodgeboys Pro Street team had a good first weekend at the weekend's Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series round at Meca Raceway, says driver Michael Dyrlund. "On Saturday we made a few more runs on motor only, just to make sure that everything was OK before adding one of the two stages of nitrous", says Michael. "The two runs on motor only were 5.0/137 mph, 1.12 sixty foot time, and the 600" NRC Predator motor sounded great. That was enough to get us in the game for Sunday, qualified number six. Now it was time to add one stage of nitrous so we changed the converter to a nitrous-ready converter on Saturday night. ©Eurodragster.com "In the first race we were up against Patrick Grahn in his Olds Sierra GT. A great run for us and new best ET for the Dodgeboys Team, 1.08 sixty foot time and 4.74/147 which got us into the semis. In the semis we were up against Peter Lund's Pontiac Firebird and we were all fired up from the last run, but when I released the transbrake there was no first gear, that's drag racing. "Still, it was a good week-end for the new Dodgeboys team and we went back to the shop to fix the tranny for the next race in the TSDS series at Meca on 1st-3rd June." Back in the old office. 22nd May: Wild Bunch racer Sarah Howells says that she set some new performance standards in the Ramraider slingshot at Shakespeare County Raceway last weekend. "As reported a couple of weeks ago, Bernie Nicholas' Destiny's Angel altered, my beloved and trusty steed for the past two years or so, has been sold as Bernie is moving to pastures new later in the year", says Sarah. "To try and help me get over my heartbreak, the boys from the Dogs B*ll*cks team kindly agreed that I could take my first turn in the hot seat of the Ramraider slingshot, in Pro ET at this weekend's Main Event alongside my husband Darryl in Chemical Reaction. "Everyone thought it would be best to check things out beforehand and make sure I was comfortable in the car, so we went along to Shakespeare County Raceway to test. There's quite a difference between the set-up of the Destiny's Angel and Ramraider, having to manually change gear for one thing. Things started pretty well with one of my scheduled shopping trips, 10.28/127. Things felt really good and I was delighted I could control the car under power so put a bit more oomph on the old right foot, and by my third run I'd managed a 9.12/149.07 which is the quickest and fastest the car had ever been. By this time the boys were getting some stick from the commentary tower and I could barely believe my luck. ©Eurodragster.com "With a couple more not very straight runs under my belt on Saturday when I still managed a 9.14, I decided to concentrate on short burnouts so as not to cross the line for Pro ET and launching the car steadily to get things as straight as I could. We managed both of these and on the fourth run everything fell into place perfectly as we lay down our first eight second pass, an 8.98/147 (Er, Pro ET lower limit of 9.00? - Ed) and I really was gobsmacked. "We had a brilliant weekend, and it was great to run against Gina Rumble who was also testing in the Tiki Munki altered and running down into the fourteens with great consistency. Thank Yous go to my husband Darryl for yet again leaving Chemical Reaction at home so he could video, crew and support. A massive Thank You to Edd, Gos and Ray; you lot really are the Dogs B*ll*cks and the best set of friends a girl could have. Thanks to Tony Smith for the fabulous commentary and the whole team at Shakespeare County - the track was spot on yet again." "I would like to congratulate Sarah for taking herself and Ramraider into the eights", says Sarah's husband Darryl. "I would also like to congratulate the Ramraider crew for helping to achieve this and for all the help over the weekend. Well done again to SCR who again presented an excellent track. Get in there Hun." Hillclimbing on the flat. 22nd May: Adam Charnley gave his mother an unusual present at Santa Pod Raceway at the weekend. "First off, can I say a Happy Birthday to my mum, Ann Charnley who was fifty one years young yesterday (Monday). As her birthday present I let her drive the Legend for the first run on Saturday. Unfortunately, all didn't go well and, after stalling four times, we pushed her back. "What I thought was her inexperience (cue women driver jokes) was actually a small gear selection problem. After resolving that in the pits, I bolted on the new Hoosier slicks. Thanks to Hoosier for helping me get the right ones. They're actually made for hillclimbing; however, because they are designed to get hot really quickly, they are ideal for the strip. I couldn't have drag slicks because the Legend only has thirteen-inch wheels. ©Eurodragster.com "The first run didn't go too well and the car just spluttered to a halt. The usual way of driving the Legend is to dump the clutch and it leaves the line pretty quickly. However, the new tyres gripped so much that the car spun the clutch. I thought it had broken a half shaft at the time, but they were OK. This meant I had to spend the rest of the day learning how to drive the car again, it was like driving a completely different car. However, by the end of the day we were back in the thirteen-second bracket and more importantly I got the car's sixty foot time to 1.9 seconds which is a personal best, showing that once my driving is up to scratch we should be in the twelves. "I'm still enjoying it all despite the problems, and that's the whole point. Can I put a big shout out to the track crew for doing a great job, and bearing with us when we messed up, and say good luck to all those racing at the FIA Main Event." FIA Main Event Perfect Awards. 22nd May: This weekend's FIA Main Event is the latest event in the 2007 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards Scheme, with up to £200 on offer for perfect performance. The Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Super Street racer Chris Kenny at the Springspeed Festival. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to record a perfect Reaction Time of 0.000. The Award is open to all classes and is available during qualifying or eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the weekend. The Perfect Light Award is jointly presented by Eurodragster.com and high-performance hose and fitting manufacturer Speedflow whose web site you can find at www.speedflow.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com The Eurodragster.com/LA Racing Parts Perfect ET Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by 9.50 Bike racer Andy Burfitt at the Springspeed Festival. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to run to the thousandth on their index or dial-in. The Award is open to all Super classes, all ET classes, and Junior Dragster (eliminations only) and is available during qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is jointly presented by Eurodragster.com and performance supplier LA Racing Parts whose web site you can find at www.laracingparts.com. Should the winner of the Perfect ET Award go on to win the event then a bonus of £100 will be paid by LA Racing Parts. Eurodragster.com/LA Racing Parts decals must be carried on both sides of the vehicle to qualify for the Perfect ET Award. As with other contingency schemes the decals will be available from the signing-on office. Web site updates. 22nd May: Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon's exclusive Racer Blog has been updated with the final set of Reader Q & As. This week's questions are from Kevin Maguire, Glyn Pearson, Phil Sweeney and Claus Hansen and the subjects for discussion are setback blowers, how to turn round a Top Fuel Dragster when engine and drivetrain components are hot, Top Fuel Dragster without rules, and gas masks. You can read all about it by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blog link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com Benny Edvardsson has started a web shop for drag racing fans at www.tireshake.com. "You can buy printed and embroidered T-Shirts, hoods, sweatshirts, caps and more", says Benny. "More and more products will be updated every week. The first fifty orders will get a free T-Shirt!". Hans Karlsson has updated his Hassebilder web site with pictures from the weekend's first Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series round at Meca Raceway. You can check out Hasse's pictures at www.hassebilder.se. So, did anything go right? 21st May: Norwegian FIM/UEM Supertwin racer Hans Olav Olstad says that everything which could go wrong did go wrong over the off-season. "Early in the winter we started to make new heads for the engine", says Hans Olav. "I lightened the front head three times last season, and had to make new one. Thats why the bike get its new name Lightning. After two months' delay the heads arrived, and gives us another headache. There were no channels so we have a struggle to find somebody to do the channel work. But luckily we know Cato Waale who has the parts for a new engine and he wants to help us out with a head for the first event. "The next step was to put the engine together, and we discovered that the cylinder honing was too bad, and it had to go to be rehoned. Then we got the new pistons back from machining for buttons, and the holes for the buttons were too big, and we struggled to find new material of the right size. So we put the old pistons back in. Together with the new pistons we also got new piston rings. Believe it or not, the rings were the wrong size. Ross Piston promised us new rings free of charge, but we have had to borrow rings as a first step. "We are going to try out two injectors this year. Both point forward, and make the bike look awful. We don't know if it will help us to a better ET, but we think so. We have a new wing so we hope for better traction, and not to smoke the tire at half track any more. ©Eurodragster.com "Last season didn't go so well as we expected, and we ended as #5 in the UEM Championship. But we finished 2006 with a new personal best ET of 6.83 at Santa Pod. The clutch seemed to be giving us answers together with the new ignition. We have better thoughts about 2007. We have a new clutch mechanic with lots of experience of Top Fuel, Top Methanol Funny Car and Pro Stock. We believe that he will be valuable for the team. VP Racing Fuels is one of our new sponsors and you can read more on our new web page at www.olstadracing.no. "I think the hardest contenders this year will be Lorenz Stauble, Gunter Sohn, Jaska Salakari and Roel Koedam. I expect a hard fight between Lorenz and Jaska, but as we know in Supertwin everything can and will happen. I don't think the European record will be broken this year, but I expect Jaska to be the closest. "With only four UEM rounds this year, we decided to race the Nordic series as well. If the bike holds together, and if the rider holds tigether, we will contest every race - I broke an ankle in February but it looks alright now. Last year I only damaged two fingers and four ribs. "The winter was very strange without 'Gotten', Svein Gottenberg. We all miss terribly the nice conversations we used to have. Gotten is gone, but never forgotten." The flying Pro Stock. 21st May: Malcolm Francis of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Air Sea Logistics tells us that his company was again used by an FIA European Pro Stock team to import their new Pro Stocker from the USA. "Jan Palmqvist of Snowball Racing in Sweden contacted me at the beginning of May requesting our assistance", says Malcolm. "European fans will know that Jan previously campaigned his Volvo Pro Stocker in FIA European Pro Stock competition. Jan had just purchased a Pro Stock Pontiac Grand Am from a racer in the USA (right, click on picture for another angle) and wanted us to get the car to Europe in time for his team to prepare it for competition at the FIA Main Event. ©Eurodragster.com "We would usually load a race car in an ocean container and send it by container vessel, as we did with Michael Malmgren's Pro Stock Pontiac GTO in March. However, due to time constraints the only way to ensure it got here on time was airfreight, so we had to arrange to move it by air from Chicago to London Heathrow on a twenty foot aircraft pallet. The car arrived at London Heathrow last week and Jan and his team are due to collect it from Air Sea Logistics London Heathrow warehouse today. They will then head up to Santa Pod Raceway to spend the next few days preparing the car for competition. "I would like to thank Jan for using our company to transport his new car from the 'States and to wish him good luck this weekend's event." FIA Main Event snippets. 21st May: MSD expert Joe Pando will be working out of the Andréasson Motorsports Top Methanol Funny Car pit at next weekend's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway offering support to racers on MSD products. Team member Anders Magnusson tells us that the team planned to test this weekend but just had too much to do to get prepared for the race. The Stratus will be sporting new MSD parts and new colours this season, and the team will be wearing new clothing. Stay tuned for news of a new deal for Andréasson Motorsports. Steve Weston tells us that he has a hotel room booked at the Wellingborough Rushden Travelodge which he no longer needs, and that he would like it to go to a drag racing family if possible. The double room is booked for next Saturday evening (26th May) and although it cost Steve £50 he is willing to let it go for £30. If you would like to take the room then please get in touch with Steve at [email protected]. ©Eurodragster.com Brian Wood and Camp Stanley of the 1320.tv video web site will be posting video reports from the FIA Main Event. The web site at www.1320tv.com features videos from NHRA, IHRA and ADRL races, video features and more and is well worth a look in. Collin Morrice tells us that he will be collecting for the charity Diabetes UK at next weekend's race. "I hope to increase the awareness of diabetes", says Collin. "At the moment there are over two million people in the UK diagnosed with diabetes and an estimated half a million have the condition but don't know it! Diabetes UK is a charity that raises money to try and find a cure for diabetes. There will be a collection box in the Morrice Boys Super Gas pit, and all donations will be appreciated. For more information visit www.diabetes.org.uk. Good luck to all racers next weekend." Swift snippets. 21st May: Many thanks to Colin Donisthorpe for forwarding us this picture of Straightliners racer and 200mph member Woody on a 205 mph demo run at the British Superbikes round at Snetterton today. Woody was one of three racers showing the circuit guys the only proper way to go fast. ©Eurodragster.com Congratulations to UK Pro Stock Bike racer Dave Beck and his wife Charlotte on the arrival of their daughter Penelope. Penelope arrived on Friday afternoon and we hear that she and Charlotte are just fine. Tog would like to say a big Happy Birthday to his good friend Julia Cooper. We hope that you have a great day Julia. Weekend event round-up. 21st May: There is plenty of news to catch up with from events in the UK, Sweden and Finland at the weekend. First up is the pre-FIA Main Event Test Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway. Eurodragster.com reported live from Saturday's Peak Performance Day and yesterday's Run What You Brung and you can check out our American Car Imports sponsored reports and pictures by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA Main Event. ©Eurodragster.com Our colleagues at EurodragsterNorth.com spent the weekend at Malmö's Meca Raceway reporting on the first round of the 2007 Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series. You can find Tezzii and the guys' bi-lingual reports and photographs at www.eurodragsternorth.com. Our good friends Hanski and Jouni Vesterlund covered this weekend's FHRA Sonax Spring Nats at the Motopark at Virtasalmi, which was a round of the 2007 Nordic Drag Racing Series. You can check out the weekend's news from the Motopark at www.fhra.fi. Web site updates. 21st May: UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter's web site will be updated with live reports from this weekend's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway as well as other events this season. The first update was from the weekend's pre-FIA Main Event Test Weekend at Santa Pod and you can check out Gary Cottingham's reports and pictures at www.andycarter.net/events/peak-performance-day.php. Jamie Dyks has posted some pictures from Saturday's Peak Performance Day at Santa Pod Raceway on his Fotopic site at www.topnitro.fotopic.net. ©Eurodragster.com Also posting from Saturday's Peak Performance Day is Richard Stirling whose Topnitro fan site has been updated with over three hundred pictures. You can check out Richard's pictures at www.topnitro.co.uk. Dan of the UK Drag Bike Forums has introduced a Clubs category which gives riders exclusive access to areas of the forum dedicated to their class type, for example Street Bike, which can be used for discussing class issues, event arrangements etc. You can find out more under Announcements at www.ukdragbike.co.uk. Important notice: FIA Main Event pitting. 19th May: Kjell Pettersson and Darren Prentice of Santa Pod Raceway and Ian Marshall of Santa Pod Racers Club have sent the following very important notice about pitting arrangements at next week's FIA Main Event: Due to the large entry at the forthcoming Main Event - still at three hundred even though 9.50 Bike is not competing - we will be taking a very close look at the pitting arrangements and in particular how much space competitors are taking up. Santa Pod Raceway have spent a considerable amount on money and time upgrading the pit areas in the last few years, however there is only so much physical space available to tarmac and consequently that space has to be utilised to maximum efficiency, which it appears is not always the case. To help with this situation there will be additional pit marshals to assist where possible (read push, shove, squeeze) and to ensure that everybody pits in a reasonable manner and keeps everything tight. If however we still find that we cannot fit everybody in, the unfortunate outcome may have to be that we are forced either to limit entries to the FIA European Finals or indeed to drop a further class altogether for this and subsequent years. The other options to increase available space may include the removal of caravans,motorhomes etc. ©Eurodragster.com Please use a minimal but comfortable amount of space, remove all open trailers to the trailer park, and remove all unnecessary vehicles from the pit area. As from the beginning of 2008, any awnings which currently require additional space will no longer be permitted and there will be no exceptions. Racers now have almost a complete season to comply with the width restrictions so please don't leave it to the last minute because as previously stated there will be no exceptions. Please do your utmost to help. In anticipation of your assistance thank you all and have a great weekend's racing. Else Fjeld. 18th May: We are sorry to have to report the death of Else Fjeld, wife of Top Fuel Dragster Team Owner and tuner Rune Fjeld. Else died this morning after a short illness. ©Eurodragster.com We will publish a fuller tribute soon but in the meantime our thoughts and sympathy are with Rune, their sons Christer and Joachim, and all of Else's family and friends. Francesca Withers. 18th May: Geoff Martin has been in touch with the shocking news of the death after a short illness of Francesca Withers, nineteen-year-old daughter of Frank and Marie Withers who have been family members of the UK's Giles and Hartley Super Pro ET team since its inception. "This is unbelievable", says Geoff. "All of us long-time friends of Barry and the family have known 'Cesca' since she was a babe in arms." We are sure that everyone will join us in sending our deepest sympathies to Frank and Marie, and to all of Francesca's family and friends. Lethal Zephyr 2 ready for war. 18th May: UK Pro Mod racer Ray White says that with a little help from Eurodragster.com Swap Meet sponsor Jeff Bull Race Engines and Performance Parts his blown-alcohol Lethal Zephyr 2 is ready for war at next week's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. "Since our disaster at Easter the gearbox is now sorted and the starters have been upgraded", says Ray. "We also had a few issues with the new valves so to the rescue came Jeff Bull. Jeff let me use his new workshop to strip the motor, he then re-cut the seats and valves, re-assembled the heads in super quick time, tweaked the pistons and then let me rebuild the motor at the shop. ©Eurodragster.com "You only have to look around Jeff's new workshop to see the quality of the machinery and the equipment he has invested in, and his eye for detail. I won't be going anywhere else for my engine work and the Zephyr will wear the Jeff Bull Race Engines decals with pride, thanks Jeff. "We know we will have our work cut out for us at the Main Event, but we are in the best shape we have ever been. The little bit of data we got from Easter showed us how much more power we are making...let battle commence." Malmgren on the sponsor tour. 18th May: Swedish Pro Stock team Malmgren Racing visited long-standing product sponsors Strange Engineering and Fel Pro during their recent visit to Chicago, says driver Michael Malmgren: From Chicago airport we went directly to Strange Engineering. Jeff Strange was kind enough to show us the factory, which was very interesting. Over one hundred people were doing everything from cutting forgings to axles, yokes etc, and also making third members for everything from street cars up to Top Fuel Dragsters. Jeff said that right now the biggest demand is the bolt on street stuff such as complete rear ends with high performance gear ratios. Strange Engineering is unique because it is still family owned, and it was Jeff’s father that started the company in late 1950s, so over forty years of experience makes Strange a leader on the market. On our car we use the new ultra double adjustable struts with Strange’s own carbon fibre brakes, the new style two-piece axles and their new style third member with Richmond gears. It’s great and means a lot to have company like Strange supporting you year after year. ©Eurodragster.com The next stop was Fel Pro. Our visit included a tour of the one million square foot Fel Pro manufacturing facility in Skokie, just outside of Chicago. The Skokie site combines product engineering, product testing, material development, manufacturing, packaging and warehousing under one roof. Additional roduct testing and materials development sites exist in North America and around the world. Skokie specialises in the design and manufacture of PermaTorque Multi-Layered-Steel head gaskets and moulded rubber valve cover, oil pan and intake manifold gaskets for both the traditional aftermarket and the performance market. State of the art dynamometer and environmental chamber testing combined with desktop Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software and computer modelling allow engineers to design and test parts for the real world operating environment. The Skokie facility ships approximately 100,000 gasket sets daily and operates three shifts per day. "Our involvement with Malmgren Racing began in 1999 and it's been great for us", said a spokesman for Fel Pro. "Michael is a very competitive driver and the team is first class. We work with Michael as well as some of the other top names in Pro Stock drag racing, and the data we receive from these professionals helps us make the best racing gaskets available today." FIA Main Event snippets. 18th May: The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame in association with USAutomotive will be presenting its first overseas member Ton Pels with his 'Bootsie' trophy at next week's FIA Main Event. The award will be presented by Selection Panel member Ian Messenger who himself competed in Europe and the USA racing the famed Pegasus Top Fuel Bike which now has pride of place in the National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham after running 8.30/175 in 1978. You can read Ton's biography and find out more about the Hall of Fame by clicking here or by clicking on the British Hall of Fame link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com Pro ET Sponsorship Co-ordinator Carl Burton tells us that the #1 qualifier at the FIA Main Event will receive £200 cash, £160 vouchers and a trophy courtesy of sponsors Metamorposis Finance, Sandy Scooters, Motorshack, Real Steel, Penn Autos, A1 Motor Stores, Toxico Clothing, Inkwell Printing, Alleyjax, WASP, Black Bear Harley Davidson and Hauser Race Cars. New members and sponsors are welcome to the Sponsorship Scheme and you can find out how to get involved at www.pro-et.co.uk. FIA Main Event safety. 18th May: Glenn Ramsden of UK Event Safety has been in touch to wish everyone a very safe and successful weekend at the FIA Main Event and to take the opportunity to remind those attending of a few Do's and Don'ts: Glass: A slick costs a fortune and does stitching someone’s foot, so no glass bottles please. Fire extinguishers: Please note that you must have a fire extinguisher in your pit area, not under the bed in the camper, not at home and not the one in your car but a fire extinguisher in an easily accessible place in your pit area. Fuel storage: Use your common sense! If you put it under your caravan then it is the equivalent of placing a bomb under the bed at home - fire can and does take life in an instant, think about it! Awnings: Please ensure that they are anchored down in a suitable way, suitable does not mean with a few gallons of methanol, nitro or any flammable fuel or gas. Make sure that they will not move throughout the duration of use even in the highest winds. The pits are the pits and not a skateboard or BMX park. The only vehicle movement in the pits should be support vehicles, race vehicles or emergency vehicles and even then the maximum speed is 10 mph. Thank you for your time. Have a great Main Event and stay safe! ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 18th May: Outlaw Anglia racers Bob and Carole Hancox tell us that their Runaway Prefect has been Betty Boop'ed (right, click on picture for detail) in memory of their daughter Debbie who was a big fan of the cartoon character. "We think that Debbie would have wanted us to do this", say Bob and Carole. The car will be running at Shakespeare County Raceway on 2nd-3rd June sporting a Big Block Chevy after twenty years of Small Blocks. "We look forward to seeing everyone at the track", they add. ©Eurodragster.com With the FIA Main Event fast approaching it would be easy to forget that Friday of next week, 25th May, is the official closing date for entry to the SPRC Summernationals which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 16th-17th June. Luckily SPRC Club Secretary Paula Marshall is here to remind us. You can download entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association promoter Lawrie Gatehouse tells us that Sweden's Team Northrace and Nilfisk-ALTO Motorsport plan to return to the UK to compete in the NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway on 15-16th September. "With a revised livery (right), new sponsors and many new or uprated parts this likeable team, which carded a 6.78/198.3 at this event in 2005, are looking to improve on these numbers in 2007", says Lawrie. "Owner, Crew Chief and driver Kenneth Feldthusen, ably assisted by crew members Anders Merenius, Pelle Stanikowski and Christer Thelin, really like the SCR track and the atmosphere and are keen to add to the spectacle. Maybe this year we will give them some more serious competition." Busy SCR welcomes legend. 18th May: Although this weekend's Public Track Day entertainment at Shakespeare County Raceway has deviated from the original concept, it still has a busy schedule which should keep the tracks crews on their toes, writes SCR's Jerry Cookson: High on the list of appearances is a further points round for the track's popular Jap Racer series and the HotRod Gazette's National Street Car Challenge. Jap Racer Unlimited series leader Steve Guirey is expected to top the timing charts again in the SMG Tuning 2.5 Subaru although MGT-Racing's Dean Buxton and Team Tomlinson & Farrer are expected to give him a close run for his money. Last time out Steve ran into the low nines and is now hunting for an eight. Also appearing for the first of a couple of outings this year are the Old Skool Fords Drag Challenge, Kawasaki Triples Challenge, National Championship competitors testing and the Supercharged Outlaws Lee Gallimore and Dave 'Fuzzie' McKenzie. Also making further test runs under the watchful eye of television cameras will be Carolyn Campbell in the Laffin Gas rocket-powered dragster. Club members from the Wild West Crew and A-Serious will also be making a weekend of it in the Raceway's popular Street Car and Bike Challenge. The track opens for general RWYB from 10.00 am on Saturday and 11.00 am Sunday and all are welcome to attend. Further information is available at www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. American drag bike legend Bill Baxter will be at the Kawasaki Triples Challenge at SCR this weekend as a guest of the UK's Kawasaki Triples Club. A leading developer of H2 engines, Bill is visiting the UK on an information-gathering exercise, and as a valued member of the clubs forum when it comes to racing these machines over the quarter mile Bill wants to use the visit to meet up with some of his fellow forum members who will be time trialling at the Warwickshire drag strip. Bill, together with racing business partner Joe Bird, recently ran a custom-built H2 at the AMA/ProStar Elmer Trett Nationals in Georgia where Joe ran an incredible an off the trailer 8.624 to qualify for Super Eliminator and lowered it even further with an 8.540! The following week in Bill ran his H2 in Super Comp at the PMRA season opener and qualified #3 with new Personal Best numbers of 8.790 which was not to shabby for an all-motor 750 carrying a big old boy over the quarter mile. Joe also ran a Kawasaki ZX-14 in the Street class and went away with personal bests too of 9.300 and the elimination win. Bill's presence at the weekend will certainly give fellow Kawasaki enthusiasts Rice Rocket Al Smith, Gary Clark and Jerry Collier some tuning tips as they squeeze every inch of horsepower out of their machines. ©Eurodragster.com Our readers come through, again. 18th May: Yet again a plea for help on the News page of Eurodragster.com has been answered by our readers in double-quick time, as UK Super Gas racer Paul Spiers tells us that he can now bring his Camaro to the FIA Main Event after yesterday's request. "I would firstly like to say Thank You to Eurodragster.com for such a fast reaction in placing the plea for help on the news page", says Paul, "Within a couple of minutes of my submitting the request for help, it appeared on the news page...if that had been a drag race then I think Tog would have pulled a 0.001 reaction (I did that once - Ed). "I received a number of phone calls of offers of help last night and I would like to say Thank You to Conrad Stanley, Lee Darby, Chris Johnson and Ron Haslett who all offered the use of their trailers for the Main Event. Thanks to Nick Griffin for ringing and visiting everyone that he knows last night, and for his support in trying to locate a trailer at such short notice. ©Eurodragster.com "This proves that the drag racing community is a bunch of great people who can and will pull out the stops the help a fellow racer in need. Thanks guys, look forward to seeing you at the Main Event." We would like to add our own thanks to everyone who offered to help. We knew you wouldn't let us (or Paul) down. An innovation from the Leanders. 17th May: A new drag racing clutch with innovative technology is now under production by Sweden's Leanders Brothers Racing. The 2006 FIA European Top Methanol Funny Car Championship team, with Ulf Leanders behind the wheel and brother Jörgen as Crew Chief, have developed a complete new unit after building their own clutch dyno, which enabled them to study movement and load on their existing clutch. Research and development were assisted by Leanders Bros sponsors Ironcad 3D CAD software and Haas CNC machines of Europe. First to appear is a 10" clutch with three discs which has been approved by the SFI. Under development is an 11" unit which will be available with and without ring gear. No bolted facings is just one of many new technical solutions. Using four floaters in this three disc unit will make sure that all contact surfaces are equal and not affected by previous runs. Seven stands instead of the usual six will make it stronger but the odd number also makes it balance easier. The stands and the floaters have a flat face contact surface which will eliminate the problem of heat changing the radius of the contact surface as with the round shapes as used on other clutches. Disc gap adjustment is done with a special nut with numbered sides instead of turning the stands. Clutch arms can be removed or changed without removing or taking the unit apart. "We are very excited about the new clutch and are convinced that it will help our performance", says Ulf Leanders. "What we see as the biggest improvement is the ability to have a bigger spread of adjustment levels and a more service friendly unit." Flywheel, douhgnut and top cover are fabricated in Alumec from Uddeholm Tooling, a Swedish metal refiner specialising in high performance and tooling metals. With strength superior to many steels it can take fifteen per cent elongation before breaking and has little weight. Although carrying four floaters and being stronger than other units the total weight with discs is only thirty kilogrammes or sixty six pounds. "It has been pure pleasure to develop the clutch when having the opportunity to work with the quality tools and materials supplied by our sponsors", says Jörgen Leanders. "Everything was designed in Ironcad 3D CAD software to be transferred to our Haas CNC machine." Leanders Bros' first race with the new clutch as well as the new Ironcad/Haas paint scheme (right, click on picture for large version) will be next week's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. ©Eurodragster.com FIA Main Event snippets. 17th May: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has been in touch to let racers know that Santa Pod Raceway's gates open for the FIA Main Event at 13:00 next Thursday, 24th May. Knut Söderquist tells us that at every event this year Carbon By Design will keep a stock of CBD injectors as well as shafts and blades for all type of injectors. "A lot of people are using CBD injectors and I am grateful because I need the money!", says Knut. "I know from racing in the USA that if a blower belt breaks then it will bend your blades so I have spares. For Top Methanol cars running PSI blowers I have a new style of injector which has bigger blades, I planned to have one with me at the Pod but they have already been sent to the USA for Jay Payne and Randy Anderson". If you are interested then see Knut at Santa Pod Raceway next week. A number of places are left for Saturday's (19th) Peak Performance Day at Santa Pod Raceway. Racers wishing to test will be able to pay on the gate for £12 per person entry and £60 per vehicle sign-on. Amongst the classes represented on Saturday are Top Fuel and Top Methanol Dragster, Top Methanol FC, Pro Mod, Pro Stock, Super Modified, Super Comp, Super Gas and Junior Dragster. Spectator entry is £12 on the gate. You can read more about Peak Performance Days at www.rwyb.com. ©Eurodragster.com Ex-pat UK racer Smax Smith has been in touch from Canada to thank everyone who E-Mailed him to say that they are sorry that he will not be racing at the FIA Main Event. "It's purely a money thing, we don't have the funding to compete", says Smax. "I will be watching Eurodragster closely (Good boy - Ed) from Canada. I wish all racers a safe and record-breaking weekend." MDRA Round 2 review. 17th May: The Malta Drag Racing Association organised the second of six 2007 National Championship events at Hal Far Raceway on 12th-13th May and MDRA Secretary/PRO Kevin Perry says that it was a great two day event with fantastic racing from everyone who competed: Lots of Personal Best times were recorded from certain drivers as was predicted. During this event everyone who came to watch was more than satisfied watching great races and a lot of racers and owners had happy faces. On behalf of all of the Executive Committee, I personally would like to say thanks to everyone who helped us to organise the event and another thanks and well done go to all the drivers and owners for their effort they put in to make this event another successful one. The weather held beautifully through the whole weekend and the excitement of racing never stopped for the spectators. We have to start by mentioning Mario Borg, who drives a Ford Escort equipped with a very powerful Cosworth engine. Mario achieved a personal best of 8.5 and also won the Open 1 class with several eight-second runs. Well done Mario and Power House. Another competitor who achieved a record was Tommy Aguis in his super speedy truck. This is the fastest truck in Europe at the moment and he also won the Truck Open class with a record run of 10.9. Well done to Tommy and all of Maksar team. The D6 and CA6 classes were both won by Manty Bugeja driving Sergio Aqulina's modified Ford Escort equipped with a powerful V8 engine with nitrous running low eights all day. This one is surely loud and proud, well done Sergio and Manty. The winner of the Motorcycle Open Class was Carmelo Ciantar who also registered a record with an 8.7 run on a street trim motorcycle. This is the fastest street motorcycle on the island at the moment. The Motorcycle Street Class was won by Mark Muscat with a 10.1. I can keep on mentioning names but if you want to read more about this event, visit www.maltadragracing.com where you can view all the results. Finally thanks once again to everyone involved in organising another great drag racing event. ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 17th May: Junior Olley has been in touch to let us know that his jet-powered Dakota pick-up will be making its first public appearance with two flame and thunder shows at this weekend's Ultimate Extreme Show at Elvaston Castle in Derbyshire. "I will be there with crew member Stu Bradbury", says Junior. You can find out more about the Show at www.the-ultimate-extreme-show-2007.mfbiz.com. ©Eurodragster.com Two pedals equals enough pedals. 17th May: Colin Lazenby says that he and the Team '56 Real Steel Street Eliminator team owe a debt of thanks to Clive Bond of Ultimate Race Cars for his help at last week's Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway: Not only was Clive providing his own brand of tuning expertise on Andy Kirk's Super Mod Camaro, which ran a new class speed record at this event, but he also managed to find the time to diagnose the problem with our usually bulletproof TH 400 transmission. We missed the first session on Saturday due to the car being stuck up in the air on the Pro Jacks - Luke Robinson and Garry Coull (and Andy Robinson) had elected to make further adjustments to the four-link and just when they were close to completing the change we got the call to go to the fire-up road. Once we realised that the pump had 'malfunctioned' we were able to borrow...OK then, take Jon Webster's conventional jack and axle stands, which were needed to elevate the car up above the cups of the Pro Jack stands. Then, once we'd got the car down to the ground, we had to borrow Andy Kirk's pump to finish off the changes. Oh, and yes Andy, generally we do have our own equipment - thanks mate. Thanks go out to Jon Webster also for the loan of his equipment. In our first session (the second for the class) we netted a remarkable 8.23 which moved us into #1 spot. The four-link changes, along with Luke and Garry's fine tuning skills, obviously worked effectively. In our second session we ran an improved 8.11. The tyres shook hard - just as the shake peaked I swear I could hear a 'click' in the transmission, even though the shift into second and third were otherwise uneventful. However on the return road I could feel a slight gear vibration transmitting through the chassis. Given how severe the shake was, it was remarkable that we ran an 8.11. The track record at SCR was 8.12. On the latter run the journey back to the pits was slowed down by the Super Pros being towed back, and back at our pit space it took at least two manoeuvres to get the car aimed directly into our tight pit area. On the last attempt I found that I couldn't get out of reverse gear and we were effectively blocking the pit lane. Thankfully Jon's trolley jack was on hand to lift the back wheels off the ground and we simply pushed the car in elevated on the jack. On this occasion I don't think Jon had realised that we had commandeered his equipment yet again. Now we're dab hands at pulling the transmission out: we got used to it a couple of years ago when the flex plate kept coming loose (an out of balance 'balanced' Eagle crank being the cause). Once we had the trans out we commenced the disassembly, or more to the point Clive Bond did. Everything was fine until reaching the first/reverse planetary set. After much persuasion we realised that the final components were not going to give in that easily and Clive kindly offered to take the remainder back to his workshop - this was at around 10:00 pm. I did ask that if Clive managed to separate the remainder he give me a call. True to his word he did, although by now the time was around midnight. Clive had determined that one of the five idler gears had seized, this had damaged a number of teeth on the end of the input shaft. Being helically cut, they are almost impossible to extract conventionally unless they all spin freely. It's unlike us but we sensibly opted to quit whilst we were ahead. We were flattered by the many offers of help, from Andy Robinson and Nigel Payne (both of whom had three-speeds available) and from almost all of the Street Eliminator racers themselves who offered help. Well, we were not ahead, but we had an express desire not to damage someone else's transmission. I did ask #2 qualifier Steve Nash for the use of his three-speed but he wasn't up for it - some people are like that I'm afraid, and to be fair it was still in his car at the time. The ultimate offer of Timmy Garlick's Lenco was a nice idea, but Luke didn't like the idea of adding a third pedal at the track. Nothing like a challenge, eh Luke? Another thanks is in order at this point. We lost all the tail and marker lights on the camper/trailer and had it not been for Martin of Street Eliminator's new sponsor Embroidery Solutions, who lashed up an emergency solution, I suspect we would have been left stranded without any rear lights. A huge thanks Martin. So, all in all a strange event for us and somehow it seemed like such a long journey home on the Sunday night for the Striling based crew. Still, with the event ultimately being rained off on the Monday and with no RSSE class eliminations run we find ourselves still in contention for a Championship position. To all those competitors who completed the Cruise only to find themselves having little option but to sit around and wait for the conditions to improve on race day, my most sincere commiserations. The Monday was productive as Garry and I got the trans crated up for shipping, by Wednesday it was uplifted and about to start its journey back to the USA. I suspect that a number of costly upgrades are now on the cards, and I say that given the power we're now putting through the old girl. ©Eurodragster.com Take the Corvette Challenge. 17th May: Steve Borland, Moving Parts proprietor and sponsor of the Outlaw Anglia Reaction Time Award has announced news of a special Corvette Challenge to be run at Shakespeare County Raceway's Yanks Weekend on 2nd-3rd June, writes SCR's Marketing Manager Jerry Cookson. The Moving Parts Corvette Challenge will be open to all street and strip Corvettes and provided that there is enough interest in the concept the Challenge may well be split into two categories, Pro and Street, with time trials each day. "We are really looking forward to this weekend of racing", says Steve. "It will be great to get some more Corvettes on the strip. We are hoping that it is a real success and will generate enough interest to warrant a competitive series in 2008." For further details, or to register your car, give Steve a call on 01784 481635 or drop him an E-Mail at [email protected]. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 17th May: Our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson has updated the Racebilder web site with pictures from the Right On Spring Nats at Gardermoen. You can check out Patrik's pictures at www.racebilder.nu. ©Eurodragster.com VP Racing Fuels press release. 17th May: Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor VP Racing Fuels, Inc has announced the introduction of the latest generation of its U4-based fuels - U4.2. Following on the heels of its U4.1 introduction, U4.2 is designed as a direct pour-in replacement for its original U4 racing fuel blend. "While U4 makes up to 6% more horsepower than pump gas, it necessitates draining the fuel system between uses due to potential residue build-up in the carburetor", said Steve Burns, VP's President and CEO. "U4.1 addressed the residue issue, but requires substantial jetting changes to achieve optimum tuning. U4.2 combines the best attributes of both fuels by offering the same power, no residue and less odour, while requiring little to no jetting changes. The biggest jetting changes we've seen required for U4.2 are +2 main jets and +2 pilot jets. Relatively speaking, customers can simply 'pour in the power' and be on their way. "Like U4 and U4.1, U4.2 is designed for engines with 10:1 to 12:1 compression, but significantly, U4.2 has a much higher octane rating than either of its predecessors. For customers, this means even greater protection against detonation. In addition to motorcycles, this fuel will work great in Quick 16 drag racing at compression ratios up to 14.5:1. "There are always improvements that can be made. We'll never be satisfied until we've explored all options for providing customers with the best technology and performance possible. Fortunately, as a relatively small company we have the ability to move quickly to introduce the newest technological developments to market." U4.2 is designed for all four-stroke applications as well as stock two-strokes. Although U4.2 is illegal for AMA Pro Racing due to its oxygen content, it's still legal for AMA amateur, CCS, WERA, AFM and club level racing. Use of U4.2 will yield faster and more responsive engines without harming carburetors, O-rings or gaskets like some other race fuels will. According to Burns, its power gains compare to VP's best AMA Pro level race fuels for less than half the cost - a comparatively easy, inexpensive way to generate additional power. For example, a new exhaust system wouldn't generate as big a power increase and the increase would be on a smaller slice of the RPM range, while U4.2 produces power gains at all RPM levels. ©Eurodragster.com Abrahamsson ready and waiting. 16th May: 2006 FIM/UEM European Pro Stock Bike Champion Anders Abrahamsson has already made his intentions clear with ETs of 7.34, 7.30 and 7.27 and a top speed of 299 km/h at the Right On Spring Nats at Gardermoen. Team Manager and Crew Chief Roger Lyrén says that these performances were achieved on a cold track with a safe set-up and that everything appeared to work well. "We have been working on the chassis", says Roger. "We made some small changes, mostly moving some weight around. We will run a sixteen-inch tyre, that is the biggest difference sence it is wider tire and one inch bigger in size, this will hopefully help to improve the sixty foot times. We also rebuilt the front fork to make it work more as a fork and not only something which holds the front wheel. ©Eurodragster.com "We have mounted the latest style of front wheel from Performance Machine - it is very light! - and a staging carbon disc so there will be no problems with the timing lights. On the engine side we will run latest style Suzuki 1655 cc two-valve engine from Vance & Hines Motorsport. Step by step we will test lots of new products all season, so we are very exited about 2007. We were certainly very happy with the first test so we can't wait for the Main Event." Anders has rented Roger Pettersson's bus to accommodate the team of between six and ten and to give all of the team's sponsors and partners good service at the track. "Lars Eriksson will take care of the bus and transportation, he will get help from Magnus, Stefan and Goran", says Roger. "Putte will also this year be responsible for the bike, and get assistance if needed from Lasse Langkvist who will also take care of all the filming. The VIPs will mostly be taken care by our team of ladies Malin, Maria and Carina. "We have good support from all our partners: MotoSpeed, Industrisanering,Vance&Hines Motorsport, Super Twin, Berik, Oxtar, Shoei, NGK, Mickey Thompson Tires, Cometic Gaskets, RK Chains and SLK." Ubbe packing heat. 16th May: After a very successful 2006 season, with several records set and broken, including the first European 6.1-second Pro Mod pass, a new ET record of 6.174 and the first FIA European Pro Mod Championship, Sweden's Urban Johansson and the VBS Racing team have reloaded their guns and are heading off for this year's battle. "During the winter most of our energy has been put into building a new trailer", says David Johansson. "It was pretty much an empty shell when we got it, and the work that had been done on it was pretty bad. So it was a lot of work to get up to our standards. A completely new living area and shower with tiled walls and flooring has been put in, and an upgrade of the loading area and workshop has been done. Visit our web site at www.vbsracing.nu for pictures. "We have also been doing some car shows with Årets Bilsport, a Swedish book company which specialises in motorsport books and paintings. "But now the trailer is loaded up and is right this moment heading for England and Santa Pod. This weekend we will participate in the Peak Performance and Run What You Brung to do some testing before the FIA Main Event. We will be running the same engine as last year, as we believe it has got more to give and that we can squeeze some more horsepower out of it. We have some tricks up our sleeve that we hope can keep our competitors behind. "Our goal this year is to defend our European Championship title and to put down some record breaking ETs. Maybe even a dip into the 6.0 zone? This season will be the toughest in European Pro Mod history with a lot of new cars and many teams getting new engines and upgrades, but we hope to take up were we finished in 2006. "We would also like to take the opportunity to welcome Amalie Oils onboard as a sponsor this season. And of course to thank our other sponsors Västerhejde Bilskador, Reklam & Sånt, Olsson & Ekberg, Singas Tattoo, Migatronic welding equipment, Uppsala Textiltryckeri and Route 140 for their support. And a huge Thank You to everyone who has been involved in the trailer build, and to Kirk Kuhns for building us killer engines and giving technical support." ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 16th May: Our good friend Ulf Stadig got a sneak preview at the new chassis of Mats Eriksson's Green Goblin and was very impressed by what he saw. "The new chassis which they put together over the winter looks great and Mats is ready to let the clutch out!", says Ulf. "The team have really been burning the midnight oil and I am sure it is going to pay off at Santa Pod this weekend." ©Eurodragster.com A very Happy Birthday for yesterday (Tuesday) to Swedish Top Fuel Dragster racer Micke Kågered. Hope that you had a great day yesterday, Micke, and that your trip to Santa Pod Raceway this weekend turns out to be a good birthday present. Also celebrating a birthday yesterday was UK former Top Fuel Dragster racer Robin Read; we hope that you likewise had a good day Robin. A Big foreword. 16th May: Brian Taylor has been in touch with the latest news about his book Crazy Horses – British Drag Racing's Heritage, and some very prestigious news it is too. Don Garlits will be writing the foreword to the book", says Brian. "Don was the star of the 1964 Drag Festival of course and came over twice in the 1970s", says Brian. "I didn't know until recently that Roz Prior's Fast Lady helmet is in his Museum of Drag Racing as the first lady Top Fuel pilot outside the USA. I bet Roz wondered where that went. ©Eurodragster.com "I will be at Santa Pod during Sunday and Monday of the FIA Main Event. John Price and I will chat about the research so far and I am keen to talk to racers and spectators who have been following the sport since Santa Pod first opened or earlier when we were at Graveley and Debden. Some specific times and chat points will be announced over the PA, and I will be wandering around the pits on both days. Those with grey or white hair (or no hair at all) are the ones I really want to meet up with at the moment. I will be bringing loads of batteries for my digital recorder." MT's Holiday success. 16th May: The early May Bank Holiday weekend was an awesome one for both UK drag racing and sponsor Mickey Thompson Tyres, says Lee Child of Eurodragster.com Links and Perfect Award sponsor LA Racing Parts. "At the Springspeed festival at Shakespeare County Raceway the ETs just got quicker and quicker for Steve Venables", says Lee. "History was made when the Wiltshire rider laid down a 7.32/198 taking the number one spot in Super Street Bike. Steve has been using the Mickey Thompson MCR motorcycle tyre for some time and knows how get down the track. Steve Woollatt took his second number one spot of the 2007 season in Top Fuel Bike. With the Mickey Thompson hooked up Steve stopped the clocks with a 6.42/203, four tenths ahead of the competition. Joe Stevens, now running in Super Pro ET, had a great time with all the heavy hitters in class. The Mickey Thompson ET Drags complemented the Big Block altered tune-up taking #1 spot at 0.011 over dial-in. Unfortunately the weather closed in on the event. ©Eurodragster.com "Also over the Mayday Bank Holiday, Santa Pod Raceway hosted the inaugural Performance Tuner and Modified Show which features round one of HKS Drag Series. Tim Webster reset the record when he fitted a new set Mickey Thompson ET Drags. The Nissan Skyline R33 GTR smashed the 8.80 record of last year's Jap Final with an amazing 8.35/164. The East Yorkshire driver took the number spot and won the event, taking the points lead into round two in the Pro class. Also at this event the HKS Street class was dominated by teams running Mickey Thompson ET Street Radials. Jonny McKeon took the honours in the Team GTC Nissan Skyline. "With the FIA Main Event fast approaching today (Wednesday) is the last day on which LA Racing Parts can airfreight Mickey Thompson tyres for the Bank Holiday weekend at no extra charge. There is plenty of stock already in the UK, but to avoid disappointment call LA Racing Parts on 01803 554308 or [email protected]. Tyres can be delivered to Santa Pod Raceway for international racers." Approaching deadlines. 16th May: 18:00 UK this Friday (18th) is the deadline for the purchase of advance tickets for next week's FIA Main Event. You can order tickets at www.santapodshop.com or call 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828). Santa Pod Raceway still have some VIP/Hospitality tickets available for the FIA Main Event. Packages are available from £119 + vat per person. For more information and to book VIP/Hospitality tickets, please contact Donna on at Santa Pod on 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828) or visit www.santapod.com. ©Eurodragster.com SPR also have a number of Two Seater Dragster seats available for the Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the FIA Main Event at £499 either for that special someone or to treat yourself. To book your seat call Darren on the above number. Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall tells us that entry to the FIA Main Event is now completely closed. You can check out the final Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA Main Event. NSCC lead up for grabs. 16th May: This weekend Shakespeare County Raceway hoss the second round of the HotRod Gazette/John Sleath Race Cars National Street Car Challenge, writes HotRod Gazette Editor Shaun Wilson: Following a busy first round there are now over thirty cars on the points ladder - but it's set to be all change at the top. Steve Stringfellow, who is leading the series with his 400 ci Triumph Herald, unfortunately rolled the car two weeks ago and will be out of the series for a considerable time, the Herald having suffered considerable body damage although the chassis and running gear are believed to be unscathed. This leaves a number of drivers poised to take the lead of the Challenge following this round, with Al Williamson in the 502ci '54 Chevy Stepside, John Osborne in the 427 ci 100E and Graham Bell in the 427 ci Mustang all in a very close position behind. However, the points are so close that any one of the drivers in the top ten could steal the lead if they manage to cut some good times at the track over the weekend. Particularly, Russ Pursley with his class record-holding Dutton and newcomer Mark Todd in his twin turbo'd '69 Firebird could readily pull some big points if they can repeat their ten-second form of the last meeting. The Saturday practice session will be followed by a cruise out to a local pub for food, ale and of course a bonus 300 points! On Sunday the drivers will get the bit between their teeth and try to outpace each other on the track. Once again AW Upholstery will be posting a cash award for the quickest Reaction Time of the weekend - a closely contested prize at the last meet! For full event coverage check out HotRod Gazette magazine or catch the list of entrants, rules and diary dates at www.hotrodgazette.com. ©Eurodragster.com Sorry for my Trans Am... 16th May: Howard Holmes has been in touch to say a big Thank You to everyone at York Raceway after he took the win in the first round of this year's American Super Stock series. "Thanks to Tim Holmes for organising the series, the promoters and Pennine Drag Racing for running the event excellently and efficiently once again", says Howard. "Once again York Raceway was fortunate not to receive any of the rain which blighted things elsewhere. A big thanks to the American Super Stock series sponsors Classic American magazine, Engine Data Analysis, Transaxle Services, Toolsrus.biz, Billadeau Speed and Equipment, Performance Unlimited, W Drake Ltd, Hallam Horticulture, Watts Racing Transmissions, Milcon Construction, Youhill Machinery and Neimantas Jewellers (and due apologies for any errors or ommisions). ©Eurodragster.com "Since the company I work for now has no involvement in PR activity for the promoters of York Raceway, it was great just to be racing again. And after quite some absence from the track, it was pretty fantastic to win and to trouser a very welcome £150 wedge in the process. On the downside, I'm a bit embarassed and apologetic about winning in a late model Trans Am, when I should have been in my old Mopar...still, nice to win a round of the UK's biggest American car drag race series. "It was great to see some tough cars running some very good times too, no problems with the track at York. To name but two from a field of over two dozen: Steve Dixon with his beautiful new 66 Coronet and Dave Billadeau who has spent some of the winter making his Hemi GTX look tremendous. If you'd like to see some pictures, check out Richard Smith's race pictures at richardsmith.fotopic.net." Brander returns, and how. 15th May: This beautiful piece (right, click on picture for large picture from another angle) is the new 526 ci Pro Mod Chevrolet Cobalt campaigned by Finland's Paul 'Tami' Brander and Mika Jokinen. One of only two Pro Mod Cobalts on the planet will make its competitive début in Tami's hands at next week's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. "Three long years away from driver's seat was enough for a man who loves to compete", says Jami Kananen. "During those three years Tami has built many beautiful and high-class Pro Stock and Pro Modified cars for many teams , who have been more than satisfied with the build quality and finish. ©Eurodragster.com "Last year at Mantorp Park Tami and his old friend Mika Jokinen spoke in Nixxon Sundblom's pit and decided to join forces to field a new Pro Modified team. Tami is very satisfied co-working with Mika and he says that the whole project was possible only with Mika's contribution. And the project is impressive! "Tami says that the first season will be taken up making adjustments and finding the right set-up. But then Tami believes that the team will be ready to challenge the top European Pro Mods. This season the MPJ Racing Team will race the Pro Mod Cobalt at every FIA Championship event in Europe and a few races in Finland." The Cat's challenges. 15th May: Mick Franklin, joint owner of the new Wild Cat Real Steel Street Eliminator Cougar driven and fellow-owned by Steve 'Splinter' Nash, says that with a new car comes many a new challenge. "I was Crew Chief for a few years and then Steve was faced with new rule about weight, and as he loved his food the only option was a new car", says Mick. "We could have carried on with the old car but we would no longer be able to run the times we had. A new car means loads of cash, dosh, spondooleys. Yes, Steve can blag a blagger but I also saw what the old car already had and that was loads of power, and I knew that if we could shed the weight we could compete against the big hitters of our great class, so I bought in. "Enter Chris Isaacs. After seeing what he had done with John Atkinson's Jumpin' Black Flash Mustang we had to have a chat and by god was it a big one - he is like a human computer and calculator all in one. Chris pulled out every stop and proved to all involved that he is like an artist with his creations and puts his entire self into what he is doing. "When the car was rolling that was our starting point. Splinter started the glasswork, delegating jobs to myself and Ray Perkins, Porky (John Atkinson) did the main wiring, Pro Alloy sorted the charge cooler and all associated tanks etc, then after a final forty eight hours of non-stop work we made the Easter Thunderball which we chose to use as a test with good results. ©Eurodragster.com Since then we have run 8.07 in test mode which shows the potential of the car, and also the quality of the work of all those involved in its creation. I would like to thank a number of people if I may: Chris Isaacs for great work and dedication to the car; Pro Alloy for the perfect work as usual and the charge cooler which shows their understanding of what people require; Porky (John Atkinson) for doing the electrics and helping us when we were not going to make it, big thanks mate; Ray Perkins, thanks for the long hours and dedication; Trevor the machine guru and CNC man; ICE Automotive - cheers Nick and Rob, you are the men; Ian (wiring looms), you are too clever, I don't know what you're talking about but it works, now you can enjoy your boat! Elona, thanks for your spirit and nagging - you helped us through; Splinter, you may have cost me loads but it's worth it to be part of a team in a class I feel is worth the expense. I would also like to thank our class members and sponsors for making it worthwhile. The one who needs the biggest thanks is my wife Sarah Franklin, thanks for seeing and believing in the team, one day you will get your kitchen. "Finally thank you to Eurodragster and Peter Donaldson for the excellent coverage whilst I have been away from the race track with a split disc. It has eased the pain (All part of the service, get well soon - Ed). Cheers to all and see you at the FIA Main Event where we will be testing and representing the Street Eliminator class as it deserves to be shown. The car is in primer awaiting a paint to your design - sponsors more than welcome!" Swift snippets. 15th May: UK Super Gas racer Steve Wells says that he is beginning to get a handle on the blown-methanol set-up of the Team Orange pick-up with the help of the Motler family. "We ran a new best of 9.334/138.8 at the Springspeed Festival, still with a safe tune up, so we think there is plenty more to come", says Steve. "We are looking forward to the Main Event where we are again trying Super Gas. It should be fun running a blown-alky Rover with a manual box that jumps out of gear if you back off, hence no throttle stop. We have also had a lot of help from Cam Autos' on-line shops including www.exhaustwrapshop.com who have kept us supplied with Torco Racing Oil and Nimbus CarbonX protective underwear from Nimbus Motorsports." Jo Harris of Santa Pod Raceway tells us that Micke Kågered, Andy Carter in the Andersen Racing Top Fueller, Urban Johansson, Henri Joosten and Bill Weston are among Pro racers booked in for this Saturday's (19th) Peak Performance Day whilst on the Sportsman side Craig Gibbs is booked in with the Obsession Super Mod. The Peak Performance Day is open to spectators and you can get your ticket for £10 up to 18:00 this evening (Tuesday) at www.santapodshop.com or on the gate for £12. Spaces are available for racers wishing to test; for more details check out yesterday's news item Last chance testing. ©Eurodragster.com UK blown-alcohol altered team Bennett Racing have introduced a key ring to their merchandise range. The key ring features the Relentless altered on one side and a sponsor logo on the other side, and are available from the Bennett Racing pit at £1 or for £1.50 with p+p from the team's web site at www.bennettracing.co.uk. We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to our good friend, Dutch photo-journalist Remco Scheelings. Have a great day Remco and we look forward to seeing you next week. Swedish former Top Fuel Dragster racer, now domiciled in the USA, Viveca Averstedt has been in touch to wish all racers Good Luck at next week's FIA Main Event. "I will be watching the Eurodragster coverage", she says. You know it makes sense, Viveca. Media update. 15th May: If the weather's getting you down then why not pay a visit to Graham Rennie's American Auto Mags for the latest American drag racing titles, writes Jerry Cookson. The July issue of Drag Racing Action carries features on how to drive a 200 mph Pro Stocker in the company of Jeg Coughlin Jr who says "It's much more than just stab and steer", haulin' the mail for the US troops with NHRA Funny Car star Jack Beckman, what went under the hammer at the recent Barrett Jackson Auction, nitrous secrets revealed, the life and times of two-time Super Gas champion Sheldon Gecker, and the rebuild of the Croshier-Baltes-Lavato Top Fueler from 1964. For altered fans Vintage Fuel magazine looks at sixties legend Pure Hell II in a superb colour feature, Virgil Hartman's 1977 Pontiac Trans Am Sasquatch gets the centre page treatment next to the first Ronnie Sox Memorial Race held at Roxboro Dragway. There's also news from the Nostalgia Pro Comp Association, a look at Fred Bear's 1940 Willys Coupe and a shop tour behind the doors of Continental Torque Converters. ©Eurodragster.com Drag Racing Action and Vintage Fuel retail at £5.45 and £4.25 per issue respectively and subscriptions are available on request. For more details on other great hot rodding titles check out Graham's informative web site at www.americanautomags.com or drop him an E-Mail at [email protected]. The latest issue of Shaun Wilson's Hot Rod Gazette gives a full rundown on what's happening inside the world of the National Street Car Challenge, reports from the NSRA Swap Meet and the Riversway Cruise, progress reports from the Never Again Drag Racing Team, and a look at Swedish rat rods, while occupying the centre pages is Steve Fletcher's 1946 Chevy Half-Tonne PickUp truck with a side order of leather and lace! The latest issue can be obtained by E-Mailing [email protected] or by stopping by the web site at www.hotrodgazette.com. Jerry also tells us that series three of Pinks Drag Racing - Lose The Race, Lose Your Ride is currently showing on Men and Motors (channel 131 Sky and 286 Virgin and TeleWest) every Tuesday night at 8:30 pm, with repeat showings later in the evening and next day. Web site updates. 15th May: The twelfth gallery of pictures by Peter Jones has just been added to Alan Currans' excellent Acceleration Archive. "There are fuel dragsters and Funny Cars galore with a supporting cast of Pro Comp, motorcycles and Competition Altereds", says Alan. "Also included are two excellent pictures of the late Allan 'Bootsie' Herridge. You can check out the pictures out at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk/peter/jones_12.html. I have also added a second page of wallpaper images to my own collection which can be viewed and downloaded at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk/alan_currans/wallpaper/page_02/page_02.html. ©Eurodragster.com The official web site of the UK's Obsession Racing Super Modified team has been updated with a video clip of Craig Gibbs' 7.72-second pass at the Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway. "The video is courtesy of David Coleman at Quarter Mile High", says Craig. "It's a completely edited version, and shows everything from the burnouts, to the two cars crossing the finish line and is about forty seconds long. Just click on the link on our welcome page at www.obsessionracing.mfbiz.com. Because the video is high resolution it may take a short time to view, but it's well worth the wait. Quarter Mile High produce some fantastic footage, of mostly Sportsman classes and even feature the wild Fuel Altereds. If anyone fancies buying their loved one a cracking birthday present, you could do no better than to visit www.quartermilehigh.co.uk." Isaacs faces busy weekend. 14th May: Chris Isaacs of the UK's Chris Isaacs Race Cars is looking at a busy weekend at the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 25th-28th May, as not only is he competing in Super Comp in his Standard Vanguard but he is also overseeing a number of customers. "Steve 'Splinter' Nash is in Comp Eliminator to gather extra data and track time, so we will be continuing to fine-tune the twin-turbo Cougar for maximum efficiency on its block-tread tyres", says Chris. "Spencer Tramm's Corrado now has its new Jeff Bull 555 ci motor pushing it to mid eights on a 94" wheelbase and although the sixty foot times are satisfactory Spencer wants to pull the front wheels up as well so a four-link change is on the cards. "John Atkinson's Jumpin' Black Flash Mustang is back in Super Pro ET after missing Easter, the ICE-built 526 ci Ford motor is now revving to 9000 rpm and sounding more like a motorcycle than a big-block! Testing before Easter on a 'greenish' track that some were struggling to get down resulted in the car leaving hard enough that we had to calm the four-link in order to get the front end down before the first/second shift. Now that the launch RPMs are likely to go up again I will be on hand to study the data to decide on any further changes which may be required. ©Eurodragster.com "In Pro ET, both Matt Eley (Risky Trip Pop) and David James (Chevelle) have new motors in harness - DJ has gone from his 9.8-second 468 ci motor to another Jeff Bull 555 ci with a double-entry into Super Comp giving an indication of expected performance, whilst Matt has an ICE-built 468 to play with as well as new slicks now replacing the eight-year-old Hoosier street tyres! "Fortunately the little Toyota Corolla of the returning Steve Harrington just does its normal thing in Super Comp, as does the Vanguard. My crewman George Georgiou is not arriving until Friday evening as he is finishing up his teacher training course on Friday - good luck, mate! My other crewman Chris Dixon will be around all weekend, though is likely to be crewing on one or two other cars as well...I think he was up to four at Easter. "And some people reckon racing is a break from work! In my spare time I think I'll be writing a thesis on alternative proposals to Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Should be a good, if long, weekend." Reverse psychology gets you PBs. 14th May: Liz and Iain Malcolm of the UK's Jus'4'Fun Racing Pro ET team set new Personal Bests in their first outing of the season and were faring well at last weekend's Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway until the rains came. "We had to withdraw from the Easter Thunderball because of a small transmission problem which was quickly resvolved when we got home", say Liz and Iain. "Liz was still over the moon, though, because she ran a new Personal Best of 10.87/122. Pro ET drag racing is great - you can be out of competition but still come out smiling! The funny thing is that Ian richened the fuel system to slow the car down and it went quicker! "We had no weather station at Shakespeare County Raceway last weekend as it was back in the USA being repaired, so we had to best-guess the fuel set-up for the first pass. This proved to be way off with an 11.04 pass on a 10.95 dial-in. We thought this just might be an off the trailer run, so tried again and ran the same number, we were not qualifying well but we were consistent. ©Eurodragster.com "We did eventually dial in well enough to be # 4 qualifier. In the last session we decided to change the fuel set-up to get back into the tens and ran 10.95/120. First round eliminations saw us paired with John Morris in the Animal Magic Ford Probe, and we won with a 10.907 on a 10.90 dial-in. Unfortunately round two was not to be, whilst waiting in the fire-up road the heavens opened and it was back to the trailer. "Finally we would like to thank the event organisers and track crew for trying to keep the meeting going under difficult weather conditions, and we look forward to coming back in August." Last chance testing. 14th May: This weekend (19th-20th May) is the last chance for testing before the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway and racers have the choice of two UK venues for that last-minute track time. First up is the Peak Performance Day and Run What You Brung at Santa Pod Raceway on Saturday and Sunday respectively. The Peak Performance Day offers a limited-entry RWYB with track prepped to National event standard and full safety and crew cover. Advance entry is £50 per vehicle and £10 per person which can be booked at www.santapodshop.com, or £60 vehicle and £12 per person on the gate. Advance booking closes at 18:00 tomorrow (Tuesday). Sunday's RWYB is open to all; entry is £10 per person and signing-on is £20 per vehicle. A limited number of signing-on vouchers are available on the Santa Pod Shop web site as above or pay on the gate. More details including rules and regulations at www.rwyb.com. ©Eurodragster.com Shakespeare County Raceway is hosting a pair of Public Track Days this weekend which incorporate the Shakespeare County Street Car and Street Bike Challenges as well as Jap Racer Day, National Street Car Challenge, Old Skool Ford Drags, Kawasaki Triple Challenge, and RWYB. Entry is £10 Saturday and £12 Sunday. RWYB sign-on is £20 per day or £35 for the weekend. More details including rules and regulations at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. Swift snippets. 14th May: Already testing before the FIA Main Event were reigning FIM/UEM Pro Stock Bike and Top Fuel Bike Champions Anders Abrahamsson and Rickard Gustafsson who clocked 7.27 and 6.82 respectively at Amcar International Raceway at Gardermoen over the weekend. A number of other European Championship racers were testing alongside the domestic Championship contenders at the Right On Spring Nats and you can find out more on the Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen web site at www.ndrg.no. ©Eurodragster.com Super Pro ET and Pro ET will be qualifying for thirty two car fields at the FIA Main Event. Racers are reminded that Friday of next week, 25th May, is the official closing date for entry to the SPRC Summernationals which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 16th-17th June. You can download entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Shakespeare County updates. 14th May: Shakespeare County Raceway will be mounting a display at the London Drag Racing Show at the London Motor Museum on 7th-8th July. "I'm thrilled to be placing the name of Shakespeare County Raceway in the public eye especially in the south of the country," says SCR's Marketing Manager Jerry Cookson. "The last time the track supported a show such as this was in the days of the London Docklands Drag and Custom Shows organised by Mike and Carole Ismail in the early nineties. The potential is huge and the London Motor Museum as the perfect ready made location, and I would like to express my thanks to Paul and Elo for allowing us to be part of it." The track will be promoting the remainder of its 2007 calendar as well as running reaction time competitions all weekend for the general public and race fans to win tickets to August's Open Sports Nationals in association with lane sponsor Motorshack. The second round of the Junior Drag Bike Championship takes place this weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway's Public Track Day/Street Car Shootout, writes Sharron Collier. As previously announced this will be the first of a series of rounds incorporated into RWYB weekends at Shakespeare County and is pre-entry only. If you wish to enter please call the track on 01789 720180. The entry fee is £60 which includes two adult admission tickets, one Junior Drag Bike race entry plus two days RWYB for the entrant. Qualifying and eliminations will be slotted in throughout the weekend and all points scored will count towards the Championship. JDB organisers Jerry and Sharron Collier would also like to announce that the Championship winners and runner up trophies will be sponsored jointly by Dave and Charlotte Beck of Dave Beck Racing. Both Dave and Charlotte will also be following the racing closely throughout the season as they also have the honour of choosing the JDB Rider of the Year trophy, which will be presented at the Award Ceremony in February. Jerry and Sharron would like to say thank you to both Dave and Charlotte for showing genuine interest in the class. If anyone needs any further information on this or any matter relating to Junior Drag Bike, please call Jerry or Sharron Collier on 01246 570304. Registrations are now being taken for the Quarter Mile High Nostalgia Super Stock Shootout which takes place at Shakespeare County Raceway's Yanks Weekend in June. "With so much interest in nostalgia and replica stockers at the moment, next to the inaugural idea mooted several years ago at the Mopar EuroNationals, the Yanks Weekend is the ideal event to portray this form of nostalgia door car racing here in the UK", says Jerry Cookson. "Thanks to support from Dave Coleman of Quartermilehigh.com this is possible on 3rd June." ©Eurodragster.com The event is open to all 1960s-style Stockers and Super Stockers, with or without period graphics. There will be no constraints on the choice of tyres, engines or interiors so long as it meets with the track's general safety regulations which can be downloaded from the APIRA web site at www.apira.org.uk. Quartermilehigh.com have also very kindly put up a couple of trophies for the winner and runner up as well as a DVD or their choice. If you own a period stocker and wish to get in on the act then call Jerry at Shakespeare County Raceway on 01789 720180 or E-Mail [email protected]. Swift snippets. 13th May: Denmark's Soren Madsen and Mike Dyrlund will be contesting Pro Street this year's Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series with a very tidy Dodge Avenger which was formerly raced in Pro Stock by Jöran Persåker. You can find out more on the Dodgeboys web site at www.dodgeboys.dk. Switzerland's Team Erbacher will not be testing at next Saturday's Peak Performance Day at Santa Pod Raceway. Top Fuel Dragster racer and Team Owner Urs Erbacher tells us that the team found their set-ups at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball and that they are still awaiting parts from the USA. Team Member Sascha Brodbeck will be racing the Harley Destroyer at Malmö's Meca Raceway next weekend. Further to Wednesday's news item, Albert Tjoelker of Fast Frisian Racing tells us that the official Save Dutch Drag Racing web site is now fully up and running with news, pictures, forum and more. The site also includes a link to the on-line petition to the local authorities to return drag racing to Drachten Airfield. You can sign up for this very worthy cause at www.dragracedr88.nl. ©Eurodragster.com Brian Taylor read yesterday's news item about the Silverline Power Tools Drag Race and got in touch to let us know that the Haynes Motor Museum is well worth a visit. "I was there the other day and hadn't realised that the museum includes one of the largest collections of American cars on public display in the UK", says Brian. You can find out more at www.haynesmotormuseum.com. A very Happy Birthday to Lex Joon Racing Team Manager Gerda Joon. Hopefully Gerda and Lex are taking a day off preparing the MPM Oil Top Fuel Dragster for the FIA Main Event to celebrate; have a great day Gerda. Web site updates. 13th May: The official web site of the UK's Showtime Fuel Funny Car team has been updated with a video clip of John Spuffard's 5.115/305.98 at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball together with a new picture upload facility. Check it out at www.showtimeracinguk.com. The Dragbet web site is ready to take your wagers on the 2007 European Championship season. The site has been updated with a new look and new features and you can check it out and register at www.dragbet.com. Parents and other interested parties please note that no money changes hands on Dragbet, it's all free and a lot of fun. ©Eurodragster.com If you're into the Import and Modified scene then you will be very interested in a video clip about which Ben Linney of GTC Performance gave us a heads-up, showing Tim Webster's 8.3-second run in the GTC Skyline at Santa Pod Raceway last weekend. You can check out the video clip at www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhDuLmd4RqY. Super Mod record for Rat Fink. 12th May: The entire Kirk Motorsport team were more than encouraged by their improved performances at last weekend's Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway. Team owner Andy Kirk says, "I, my wife Barbara, Crew Chief Lee (not at the track but glued to the Eurodragster.com coverage as well as a mobile phone) and stand-in crew "Pro Mod" Dave Read, Glenn Walker and Clive Bond (thanks guys, we couldn't have done it without you) were delighted with a new personal best of 7.612 and the setting of a new class speed record of 181.03 mph. "Our ETs will have to come down if we are to stand any chance of winning this thing and we are working hard to find the low .50's that its going to take. We know where we are slow and as soon as we can get Rat Fink to 60 feet in some sort of reasonable time then we will be able to run some numbers. Big wheelies and start line antics are fun for the crowd but they hurt us time wise and you can't win a championship with a car that goes upwards instead of forwards. However we have some of the best drag racing brains in Europe on the case and I'm sure that it's only a matter of time and testing. "Power on the other hand is not a problem. Rat Fink is not exactly killer in the drag co efficiency stakes and to run over 181 mph takes plenty of grunt. A combination of an excellent Ultimate Race Cars motor, long hours behind the laptop and the introduction (via Motorshack) of a new fuel adds up to record setting performances. Steve at Motorshack introduced us to the latest VP C23 nitrous fuel from the U.S and we immediately saw a difference. The people at VP specialise in making liquid horsepower and for our big inch nitrous motor to set records we wouldn't use anything else. See you all at the Summer Nationals and good luck to Danny Cockerill at the Main Event". Turbo's Datalogger Benefit. 12th May: Team Turboville had a good weekend in the second round of ACU Top-Fuel Bike at Shakespeare County Raceway although he nearly had to pull out before the event due to lack of pistons, fuel and money but someone came to the team's rescue at the eleventh hour. "As we had taken the plunge and entered the UEM round at the Main Event we couldn't take any chances hurting the bike, but desperately needed to put our Easter woes behind us and get back to form. At Easter we had serious problems causing major damage but could not figure out the problem. After stripping everything a couple of times, we finally found that an air bleed switch had shaken apart inside; these big twins will shake the fillings out of your teeth! "Thanks to our recent sponsorship deal with Innovate Dataloggers, we now have the facility to diagnose and avoid such situations in the future. The Innovate modular system is compact, sturdy, adaptable, and was fitted on the Saturday at the track. It instantly gave us the telemetry we needed and left us wondering how we ever got down the track without one. Above is an actual screen shot of one of our logs from the 187mph run. It also runs real time, which makes setting up the motor a doddle. To buy the basic DL32 recorder costs just £359. "One of the many features we like about the unit is that it records directly on to an SD card so you can record up to 40 minutes at a time, not 17 seconds like other units. We got data from before the burnout all the way to the return road. Should there be a power failure, all your info is still saved on the card. We are Innovate dealers now so can supply these great units for cars and bikes at great prices; come and see us in the pits for info and demos. Michael Malmgren has also signed with Innovate, which has been used by many US teams including Warren Johnson for years. You can go to the Innovate web site for lots of info and even download all the software for free and play with it now. Click on the Innovate logo on this page and scroll down to find it. "Armed with our new tool, we quickly returned to our 180mph form from last year ending with a 187mph pass but at only 7.8, which was a bit frustrating, as it looked and felt as if it had launched a lot harder. In fact we have a great picture from Peter Donaldson of the bike on launch squatting so hard that all four wheels are firmly on the ground, just the opposite to Wing Commander Glassup. Unfortunately, our last run on Sunday nipped a ring, which looked worse than it was, but had it covered. Rain stopped play on Monday, but it was a very fruitful weekend altogether. "Whilst browsing the trade stands on Monday, I came across ace photographer Richard Heeps and got to buy a copy of his long awaited book, do check it out at the Main Event or on his web site, it is a masterpiece and a must for anyone's coffee table. "A big slap on the back to Steve Carey for his 200mph six and well done to all the SCR/APIRA staff for all their hard work." PMR Springspeed Success. 12th May: Paul Marston Racing have been in touch with an account of their Springspeed Festival weekend and how the team drivers fared. "Due to the ever expanding entry list, we were pitted away from the main pit area", says Paul. "This presented the pit marshals with some challenges, but all went well. Our thanks go to everyone at Shakespeare County Raceway for once again making us feel at home and looking after everyone so well." "Although spoilt by the weather some racing was completed and it allowed Steve Bolton in the Dark Destroyer Plymouth Scamp to increase his points lead in Pro, by qualifying 6th and going one round. We believe this should have slightly increased Steve Bolton's lead, not by much, but it may make the difference by the end of the season. "Gary Springford, proprietor of Drag Race Engineering, was teamed up with his double class tag team partner Dave ‘Racing Snake' Catton, driving the Whoopass Monza, which ran faultlessly. Apart from a broken header pipe that was repaired by Bob Glassup's NFAA Extreme Altered crew, thank you very much, most appreciated, what a great little community we have in Drag Racing. Gary Springford went one round in Pro ET; Super Gas did not get a first round. "Mick Howling enjoyed a faultless weekend driving Grumpy's Dodge in Pro ET and Super Gas; the newly installed Strange Engineering 35 spline axle assembly fitted perfectly in the Drag Race Engineering workshops, which meant that Grumpy could come out to play. Grumpy's Dodge was a picture of reliability all weekend. "Tethys driving Ugly the 4-Link Dragster had an eventful weekend, full of ups and downs, but it all came good in the end, and a few more bugs were ironed out on this new Dragster. Once again he had no eliminations in Super Comp and Super Pro ET due to weather. "I elected not to drive this weekend due to some unfinished setup work with the Drag Race Engineering backed Vauxhall Calibra. We missed Head Pit Crew Sefton Whitlock, who was still in the States till Sunday, so I filled in for him. A very jetlagged Sefton was with us late Sunday and returned on Monday - what a star. "Congratulations go to fellow Pro ET racer Billy Gane who after visiting the Drag Race Engineering workshops to have his engine rebuilt, made the race. Billy had a trouble free weekend for the first time and to cap it all, with a little advice and help from us and a good driving job, went a round in Pro ET; well done Billy - all that hard work paid off. "With the FIA Main Event at the end of the month, Paul Marston Racing are looking at a mammoth six race cars entered. It's a very busy time at Paul Marston Racing, with testing and teaching now coming thick and fast leading up to the summer break. Very special thanks go to all the Paul Marston Racing Crew; they simply do a fantastic job and make us all look so good. Thanks to Drag Race Engineering for getting Grumpy Ready so soon. Sincere thanks go to all our sponsors, Black Box London, Disco Equipment Hire, Drag Race Engineering (020 8597 4575), London Road Tyres, all our associates and friends and of course our fans. Special thanks go to Eurodragster for without you we have no voice." (Thank you kindly - stand-in news editor) Nine Second Itch. 12th May: Neil Hunter ran his first nine in the Seven Year Itch Pro ET Ford Capri at the Springspeed Festival with the help of a newly-installed drivetrain. "A big thank you to John Sleath for the work on the new drive train", says Neil. "After totalling the 727 gearbox on the 1st pass at the Easter Thunderball, it was a two week thrash to get the JW converter, box and prop shaft into the car, along with a new trans cooler and associated wiring. "Well, what a shock we got on the first qualifier with a 10.022 new personal best, taking two tenths straight off with the new set up. The times came down bit by bit with the testing of the transbrake and then, in round one of eliminations, it happened, our first nine second pass with a 9.940 @ 138.59 mph. "So once again a big thanks to the team and Mr Sleath for helping us knock off three tenths in one meeting. Now back into the garage to fit the new Goodyears in readiness for the Main Event and hopefully another nine." Read hits 300. 12th May: Heather Bond says that transplanted Brit Steve Read (right, click on picture for larger size) broke the 300mph barrier and was runner-up at the Snap-On Tools Nitro Champs held at Western Sydney International Dragway in Sydney last weekend. "Our day began on Wednesday morning, running round and collecting last minute bits and pieces for the car", says Heather. "We got to the workshop around 5pm and loaded the car in the trailer, strapped her down and hoped we had packed all we needed. "At 10pm, Steve jumped in the prime mover and I started the crew bus with Colin our cylinder head guy, ready for our long drive through the night to Sydney. We arrived at the track around lunch time on Thursday. That night the crew flew in and, after a couple of drinks, we retired for the big week-end ahead. "On Friday the temperature was warmer than expected, around 26 to 27 degrees celsius with clear blue skies, which was great as it had pretty much rained every day for the last week. Our good friends Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes popped into the pit for a chat, which was nice. We did two qualifiers on Friday night with Steve getting his first official 300mph run at 302.08 in 4.805 seconds. At the end of Friday, we were sat at 3rd on the ladder with a 4.746 under our belt. "Saturday dawned and we arrived at the track around 11.30 for eliminations. The guys were pretty much heads down for most of the day, making sure everything was good on the car. The first two rounds went smoothly with Steve still not running the full track under power but still managing a 4.703/282.43 in the semi-final. "We were called to the final at 9.00pm, paired against Allan Dobson in the Rapisarda fueller. Unfortunately there was a huge accident involving a supercharged outlaw car. Thankfully the driver was ok but he left fibreglass over both lanes, which took the best part of an hour to clean up. By this time the temperature was down, the track was cold and a fine dew was forming. The marshals pulled us to the front of the queue and we had to run without changing the tune-up to the conditions. Unfortunately we smoked the tyres at around 100 feet out and Dobson was well on his way to the win. "The journey home was interesting in as much as one of the locker box doors decided to come loose and spill its contents onto the side of the highway. The contents were our churns of unused nitro. Thankfully Steve was slowing down for traffic lights at the time and we managed to load it all back again. We can't believe our luck as so far we have tested at Willowbank were the blower belt let go at 300 to 400' then ran 2 meetings and got a winner and runner-up. We are now readying the car for the finals at Willowbank in June and then the car will be in Melbourne for 3 days at a show for our sponsor Red Line Oil. I must thank our sponsors, Brian from Red Line Oil Australia and Daimler Chrysler for the crew vehicles and without reservation a huge thanks to our crew. Photo ©Ivan Sansom. DIY has never been this much fun... 12th May: Are you John Force with a power tool? Now is your chance to find out. The second Silverline Power Tool Drag Race is open to all – DIY enthusiasts, builders, boffins, engineering students, hardware retailers, families, children, mums and dads. Take a hand-held power tool, turn it into a mean machine and race it down a 75ft track. Use your ingenuity to turn an angle grinder into a drag racing device. Make a circular saw a speed machine. There's absolutely no limits to the resourcefulness and creativity you can bring to your project. There are prizes galore and if yours is the fastest machine you could be in the Guinness Book of Records for setting a new world record. In addition to the power tool action there will be activities for all the family. British Touring Car racer Jason Plato is the VIP guest and will be signing autographs and giving us a demo in a Haynes classic car. If you fancy yourself as a racer, there will also be a multi-lane Scalextric track with replica BTCC touring cars. Jason has dared anyone to take him on. For a rest from the action, tour the world famous Haynes International Motor Museum – the UK's largest exhibition of some of the greatest cars from around the world. It boasts more than 350 cars and bikes, dating from 1886 to the present day, 11 huge display halls, the world famous red room and one of the UK's largest speedway collections. It is an excellent day out for all the family, no matter what the weather. The Silverline Power Tool Drag Race will be held at Haynes International Motor Museum Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 7LH on Sunday 5th August 2007. Note the date in your diary now and log-on to the Silverline website (www.silverlinetools.com) for full details of the categories of power tool drag racers, guidelines for their construction and applications forms. The cost to compete in the Power Tool Drag Racing Event is £10 and includes entry in to the Haynes International Motor Museum. For spectators, standard Haynes International Motor Museum entry fees apply (Adults: £7.50, Children: £4.00 Concessions: Senior Citizens & Disabled £6.50, Family tickets: 2 Adults + 3 Children £22.50, 1 Adult + 1 child £9.50.) For further information, please contact Rebecca at Eventageous PR Ltd on 01452 886380, or email: [email protected] Swift snippets. 12th May: Wayne Schreier of Avon Park International Racers Association has kindly supplied timing data from last weekend's Springspeed Festival held at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can check out the Springspeed Festival timing data, which comes in pdf format, by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Carey's Best weekend. 11th May: UK Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Carey set new personal marks at the weekend's Springspeed Festival with a best ET of 6.801 and speed of 200.69 mph, and his first-ever six/200 mph pass at 6.835/200.69. "Although we didn't get to race on the Monday, the four qualifying runs were my most consistent so far, and for us it was good preparation for the FIA Main Event", says Steve. "We made some minor changes over the winter. Pete Davies has helped with repairs to the cylinder head to freshen that up, along with new liners in the cylinder block. The change at the start of last season to an Owens Spragless two-speed gearbox has proven to be a worthwhile change and works well. "I'd like to thank all the other racers and crew who given us support and advice since we first ventured down the track at Shakespeare County Raceway on 23rd August 2003, 31.994/13.60, when I sat on the start line, opened the throttle and quickly shut it, and slowly rolled down the track. Thanks also to all the track crews who make it all happen safely. Special thanks go to Paul and Ken for all their help, because without them nothing would happen. Thanks also go to Annette and Jax for their support. ©Eurodragster.com "There have been lots of people who have helped along the way, and all play their own very important part, so thanks to all those. Thanks must go to Bob Lovett for all his help and also looking after Mr Cat whilst we are away, and Colin Wells for his work on the paintwork over the winter - I thought it was time to make some changes, and adding the silver flames seems to have made quite a difference to the look. "We are supported by NGK Plugs through Ray Nicolson, Liam and Adam at Earls Performance Products, John Torring at World Wide Aviation, Charlie Whyte at Phoenix Motorcycles in Bexhill, Steve Bennett and Steve Hewgill at Weruwise Windows in Bexhill, Malcolm Rozier at Rossetts Commercials in Eastbourne, G-Max Fuels, Web Cams and Arias Pistons, so a big thanks to all those. "We will be doing the two English rounds of the European Championship. Unfortunately we don't have the time or money to go abroad. We were pleased to have won the ACU Championship in 2006, and look forward to another good season's racing in England, with more six-second 200 mph passes. We wish everyone well for the 2007 season." Flynn shows promise. 11th May: After a rather disappointing début in Top Methanol Dragster at Easter, Derek Flynn of Eurodragster.com News sponsor Gold RV says that it was great to make some excellent progress at Shakespeare County Raceway, where he got his TMD licence at the weekend. "Thanks to the efforts of my team we knocked off nearly a second from our previous times with our new car and we were pleased to get licenced", says Derek. "I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Shakespeare County Raceway for helping us to make it happen, from the back room staff to everyone of the track crew who made sure we had the best possible opportunity to put in some good passes. We took it easy to start with and slowly increased the shift RPM and fuel settings and I am sure if it were not for a slight smattering of rain before our last pass on Sunday we would have achieved our first 200 mph pass at SCR Alas it was not meant to be as I had to lift as I was rather sideways by the eighth, but the data to that point was most promising, especially as Tog reckoned we were rather sideways from the launch. ©Eurodragster.com "Thanks again to Jerry, Richard, Bruno and all the SCR crew. We had a great weekend. Unfortunately due to a small split in the sidewall of one of our front tyres and a small problem with the rings on #2 cylinder we had already decided to pack up on the Sunday night, before the rain really spoiled things, but up 'til then I thought it was a great meeting and we are really looking forward to achieving that 200+ mph in the Gold RV lane some time soon." Dragsters bitten by the snake. 11th May: UK Super Pro ET racer Chris Orthodoxou made his first outing of the year with his newly-rebuilt KB Hemi at the Springspeed Festival. Chris tells us that he was very happy with the qualifying numbers from his Apocalypse Dodge Viper before eliminations were curtailed. "Firstly, well done to the organisers for putting on a good event", says Chrissy O. "I felt really sorry for the track crew who spent about six hours Monday morning frantically drying the track, only for the heavens to open again after only thirty minutes of track action, forcing them to concede defeat and call the meeting. "Because this was the first outing with the rebuilt Hemi I was a bit apprehensive, so I set launch, shift and rev limits lower than usual to allow the fresh engine a 'gentle' christening. On the first run I got a 1.131 sixty foot with which I was very pleased, but the car went badly out of shape from about one third track onwards, probably due to the track being cold-ish, so the run was aborted. ©Eurodragster.com "Three subsequent runs, all on a 7.90 dial-in, were a 7.92, 7.94 and 7.91. The 7.91 also had a new best speed of 171.10 mph and won us #4 qualifying spot. This meant that ours was the only door car in the top right qualifying places. The snake had upset the dragster pit! Now that I know the engine is good, we've put it back on the Kill settings, and we should hopefully be comfortably back in the 7.70s. We were very happy with the qualifying numbers and eagerly awaiting eleiminations which as you know were unfortunately cancelled due to the weather. "As a side note, why were there so many dogs in the pits, some not even on leads? We have two big dogs, and we go to a lot of trouble to get them properly looked-after at home while we're away at a weekend meeting. Why are kids riding around the pit area on push bikes, mini-motos and quads, and private cars being driven the wrong way around the pit one-way system when the gate signs, event entry forms and pit instructions clearly state that all of the above are prohibited? Do these rules only apply to particular people? There are obviously a few who seem to think they are exempt and this applies at Santa Pod too. It should be clamped down upon, and for future meetings anyone turning up with a dog or letting their kids ride round on bikes etc should be refused entry to the whole facility, or ejected from the event regardless whether they are competitors or spectators. If a competitor or spectator was turned back at the gates or escorted out of the pits, they'd soon think twice. You'd only need to do this once to set an example and all guilty parties would immediately start abiding by the rules." Springspeed Festival NFAA review. 11th May: We are indebted to Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association promoter Lawrie Gatehouse for forwarding us a review of the Springspeed Nationals: The NFAA had a reduced field as Frank Bennett was ill, Dave Grabham was still searching for parts after the damage at the Easter Thunderball and the Wratten Brothers had head sealing problems. Xtreme, ably piloted by 'Sideways' Bob Glassup, put on a spectacular display on his first pass. The immaculate Topolino, winner of the Best Appearing Car points, pulled a giant wheelie as it launched, bounced down and lifted the rear slicks two feet off the track. At one time all four wheels had considerable daylight showing under them – perhaps he should be known as 'Airborne' Bob Glassup. In the other lane, Rebel 'T' got tyre shake and veered close to the guardrails, so neither car ran to their usual numbers. For the second slot, The Mob was paired against Joe Bond in Nuthin' Fancy. At the hit, Joe shot out of the hole, hooked left, crossed the centre line and got very close to Jim Usher, causing both to back off. Xtreme ran a half pass to check out the extra ballast at the front end and the revised wheelie bar setting, to see if this had cured the previous skywards tendency. Clayton Round had a bye in Rebel 'T' and ran a storming 7.06/193.47. Round 3 saw the return of Tony Betts in a strong sounding Venom and he proceeded to set a new PB and lowest NFAA time of 6.68, clicking off at a thousand feet when the engine nosed over. Next up was Rebel 'T' against Xtreme and on the green both launched well, but Clayton lost fire just past the tree when an HT lead shook loose leaving Bob to win with a 7.58/182.85. Joe Bond had a bye and ran a new PB of 7.37/181.55, surely it will not be long before he cards his first six. Chaos made a welcome reappearance for a scheduled half-pass, to check out the new combination and to get some base-line data to work from. John Wright shoed the car to a sixty foot time of 1.04, 2.77 at 330 feet, and 4.16 at 660 feet. The incrementals were encouraging and a full pass was scheduled next time out. Round 4 saw Clayton Round record his first six at Shakespeare, a 6.98/192.05 against Xtreme, which had to shut off after the burnout with a broken flex-plate. The other cars were ready to run, but the curfew put paid to any passes, so we all looked forward to another run and the Finals on the Bank Holiday Monday. We awoke to rain and despite the heroic efforts of the track crew to dry the strip, showers intervened and the meeting had to be called, to the disappointment of all. The track preparation was excellent as evidenced by the PB's and improved times, thanks Bruno. High hopes morphed into a damp squib, but Mother Nature is a factor none of us can control – we will be back soon. ©Eurodragster.com Exit the wimpy pyros. 11th May: UK Rocket Dragster pilot Carolynne Campbell says that she will be testing the Laffin-Gas dragster at the Test and Tune at Shakespeare County Raceway on 19th-20th May. "After analysing footage from the last run - many thanks to Quartermilehigh who provided some excellent crisp footage - we saw that we only lit three rockets and one of them blew itself out quite quickly", says Carolynne. "Two causes came to mind: first, wimpy little pyros! These have been changed to something with a lot more heat and duration. Second: the manifold that distributes the initial ignition Nitrous was not well balanced, though it is a naturally balanced design. We've dealt with this by adding flow controllers and balance testing using liquid nitrous itself. We're now 95% confident that all four will light and stay lit on the next run. How fast will she go? ©Eurodragster.com "Lots of people have asked why we're so open about sharing the technology we've developed. Well why not? It's intersting stuff and if others want to have a go they've got our blessing and support." You can check out a great video of Laffin-Gas in action together with some words from Carolynne on YouTube at www.youtube.com/laffingastv. Swift snippets. 11th May: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for sending us Version 9 of the official FIA Main Event entry list, which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA Main Event. ©Eurodragster.com Our good friend Hanski has sent the official invitation and entry form for the FHRA Nitro Nationals which takes place at Alastaro on 5th-8th July. You can download the PDF-format entry form by clicking here, on the FHRA web site at www.fhra.fi, or on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se. Holger Dueholm has been in touch to let us know that on-line entry is now open for the Danish Midsummer Nationals which takes place at Vandel Raceway on 22nd-24th June. You can enter the race at www.streetfire.nu. Away with the Angels. 10th May: UK Wild Bunch racer Sarah Howells tells us that to say that it has been a pleasure driving Bernie Nicholas' Destiny's Angel altered for the last two years or so would not do it justice. "It's been the best time ever!", says Sarah. "As a team we've won lots, we've experienced loads, we've laughed really hard but on Monday I cried like a baby when I fired her up for the last time. Destiny's Angel was sold on Monday morning and due to the rainout we didn't get to do our final runs with her. We were gutted but cheered up when Bernie was deservedly awarded the Wild Bunch 'Best Appearing Car' trophy for the team's overall performance throughout the weekend. That was a nice note to end on. It's been such a fantastic car to drive and so well campaigned by Bernie, we've steadily chased down the ET from an 11.6 first outing back in March 2005 to a 9.17/147 which we put down on our penultimate run on Sunday, a Personal Best for me which I suspect will remain for some time! "Bernie is well known throughout the drag racing community as being a true gentleman and is always there when people need help, spares or just another idea. When I say that the reason for the sale of the altered is that Bernie and wife Tez are moving to Norway later in the year, I'm sure you'll agree that he will be sorely missed by many, not just myself and Darryl and the rest of the Wild Bunch. Come to that, 'Mrs Bernie' will be sorely missed too as she spends hours slaving over a hot stove to supply us all with the most delicate fairy cakes and sausage rolls known to man! OK so the word delicate is not very accurate but they are totally delicious! Luckily we get to hang on to both Bernie and Tez until early September but after that it will be down to me for the pastry delights so I'd better get myself on a course quick! ©Eurodragster.com "Needless to say Darryl and I are so grateful to Bernie for all the support, fun, advice and friendship - we've really had a blast and for Dar and I to be able to race each other has been brilliant. When the time comes I'm sure we'll visit Bernie and Tez out in Norway...and we do believe there is a drag strip fairly close by which is terribly good planning on their part! "The new owners of Destiny's Angel are already part of a fantastic team and will be an asset to the Wild Bunch, of that you can be sure. I won't reveal who they are as that's for them to do but if they have half the fun we've all had then they're on to a winner! "Finally a plea to all spectators and photographers, if anyone has any photos or footage of Destiny's Angel or Chemical Reaction, or both, from this season then could they please please get in touch with us as we'd love to see them. You can contact me at [email protected], on 07796 937869, or via the Wild Bunch web site at www.the-wild-bunch.co.uk." I'll get my coat... 10th May: Matthew Wright of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Gleeson Wright Security and Bill Felstead of Felstead Race Cars have reached another landmark moment with their Fuel Altered Who Dares Wins which is due to hit the track soon. Matthew and Bill have also signed a new sponsor. "The chassis was tagged last weekend, thanks to Mark Norton for that", Matthew told Eurodragster.com. "We've painted it and we're now mad at work on re-assembling everything. I'm picking up the blower from Nigel at UK Blowers today and the axle parts are coming from Webster Race Engineering very soon." ©Eurodragster.com The new sponsorship comes from Waltham Abbey-based Metallon Power Coating. "Metallon can supply over thirty colours of powder coat for large or small parts at a very reasonable price", said Matthew. "The coating is very hard-wearing. They coated our rocker covers, fuel tank, puke tank, wheelie bars, lots of little bits and pieces. The quality of the work is very good and we are very pleased with it." Matthew said that he and Bill plan to take the altered to Shakespeare County Raceway shortly for testing up to the eighth mile before joining NFAA competition. If you are interested in having parts powder-coated by Metallon Powder Coating then call Steve Tanfield on 01992 715737. Swift snippets. 10th May: Swedish Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren has signed sponsorship deals with Innovate Motorsport and Weld Racing Wheels. "We are very happy to have Innovate and Weld Racing Wheels on board", says Michael. "Innovate will supply the team with the latest O2 system for analyzing the fuel curve on all cylinders individually. This helps a lot when tuning our Bob Ingles bullets. Weld Racing are supplying the latest Weld Mag Star DBL for our new GTO, they look just great!". You can find out more at www.malmgrenracing.com. UK blown-alcohol altered team Bennett Racing has announced a new sponsorship deal with N138 clothing, "Purveyors of distinctive apparel for the discerning petrolhead". N138 will be providing team merchandise in the form of their Severely Altered design featuring Frank Bennett's altered in its new 2007 livery, screen printed onto a top-quality cotton T-Shirt in sizes S to XXL at £20 including p+p. "T-Shirts can be bought from us at all events and shows we attend, from the Bennett Racing web site www.bennettracing.co.uk, and from the N138 website at www.n138.co.uk", says Luke Bennett. "Bennett Racing would like to thank N138 for their support so far and look forward to the future." ©Eurodragster.com Mike Lacey says that the UK's Metamorphosis Pro and Sportsman ET team have had a good start to the year as Anna Metcalfe won Sportsman ET at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball, Mike was #1 qualifier at the Springspeed Festival with a straight and consistent car, the team has a new trailer, and feature in the current American Car World magazine. "All is well", says Mike. "Big thanks to all at Webster Race Engineering for all their hard work over the winter, especially the personal touch from Jon himself. We hope to be running for the cups in both Pro and Sportsman ET. "Between now and Main Event, Anna's Mustang will receive a new Spec 2 Kevlar clutch, 31 spline rear diff and half shafts and new uprated brakes all round. My Camaro has had enough spent on her for now." UK Super Street and Outlaw Anglia racer Chris Kenny has asked us to say a big Thank You to Zane Llewellyn of ZaNNetec Motorsports for returning to his workshop on Saturday night to fix Chris' leaking water pump. "We put the car back together on Sunday morning in time for my first Outlaw Anglia session", says Chris. "I'd also like to thank Steve Borland of Moving Parts for the Moving Parts award for the best OA reaction time of 0.020, and Paul Wright for organising and collecting sponsors for Outlaw Anglia. Get Well Soon Guv! Also a big thank you to Eurodragster.com and Speedflow for the Perfect Light money, which I won on my dad's birthday - dad (Aidan Kenny, Pro ET - Ed) has won the Perfect Light before." Editor's note: Your News Editor is still a little under the cosh in his day job and although we have now broken the back of the backlog we have a few more news items in the queue. Tune back tomorrow for news from Steve Carey, Chris Orthodoxou and Carolynne Campbell. Web site updates. 10th May: Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon's exclusive Racer Blog has been updated with a third session of Reader Q & As. This week's questions are from Chris Eyre and Andrew Bamford and the subjects for discussion are Fuel Funny Cars and the budget needed to run in European Top Fuel. You can read all about it by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blog link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. UK blown-alcohol altered racer Joe Bond has updated his Nuthin' Fancy web site with reports and pictures from the Autotrader Easter Thunderball and Springspeed Festival, work which he tells us made a refreshing change from University assignments. "I believe that I've credited photographs as correctly as possible", says Joe, but if they are wrong then please E-Mail me and I will change them". You can check out Joe's reports at www.nuthinfancy.150m.com. ©Eurodragster.com More weekend action comes from our good buddy DJ at Santa Pod Raceway who has posted a report and gallery from the weekend's PTM Show at www.ptmshow.co.uk. "PTM Show featured a variety of drag racing classes out testing and licensing, as well as the first round of the HKS Drag Series for Japanese cars", says DJ. You can also find the HKS race report at www.japshow.co.uk/hks_round1report.htm. Pictures from the weekend's Pro test and Tune at Meca Raceway, including shots of the Lindahl Brothers' new Camaro Pro Mod, can be found on the Hassebilder web site at www.hassebilder.se. VP Racing Fuels press release. 10th May: Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor VP Racing Fuels has announced that an evaluation of its C23 race fuel blends has led it to consolidate the line into just one offering. "Our C23, C23+ and C23++ blends each offered incremental protection against detonation, but we've concluded the increments are simply not meaningful enough to continue all three blends", said Steve Burns, VP's President and Director-R&D. "The best performing of the three blends is C23++, so that's the only formula we'll continue to offer. We're simply taking the C23++ formula and renaming it C23." The C23 family of fuels was introduced several years ago to offer several options to racers with nitrous applications, large 800 cubic inch IHRA-style drag racing engines and/or 10.5 series cars with compression ratios up to 18:1. "With the 'new' C23, racers can be confident they'll get top performance and a significant cooling effect for their high compression applications with higher octane demands", added Burns. Despite this change, all three C23 formulas will remain on the Accepted Fuel List for NHRA Championship Drag Racing for the balance of the 2007 season. C23 is conveniently available from VP distributors throughout the US and internationally. More information can be found on-line at www.vpracingfuels.com or by contacting VP Technical Support at (+1) 812-878-2025 or E-Mail [email protected]. ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 9th May: Herman Zijlstra of the Black and Stout Mouse Team tells us that a representation was made yesterday to the Mayor of Drachten to allow drag racing to return to the Dutch airfield. Under Dutch law local authorities must consider any petition from more than twenty five people. A campaign web site has been set up at www.dragracedr88.nl which currently consists of a forum but which will be expanded and translated into several languages. Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for sending us Version 8 of the official FIA Main Event entry list, which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA Main Event. ©Eurodragster.com UK Jet Funny Car pilot Roger Goring says that he and the Firestorm team had a tremendous weekend at York Raceway. "What a great weekend", said Roger, "lots of spectators and lots of competitors and everyone going very fast. We sold lots of T-Shirts but unfortunately our posters and hero cards only turned up yesterday!". Heike Schäfer of Peter Schöfer Racing has asked if any Eurodragster.com reader can help with a lift from Heathrow Airport to Santa Pod Raceway at about 12:30-13:00 on Friday 25th May. "I only need a lift one way", says Heike, "and I will of course pay for petrol etc". If you can help then please drop Heike a line at [email protected]. Editor's note: Only a relatively brief news update today because of pressure of work in your News Editor's day job. The outstanding news items will be published on tomorrow's update and be sure to keep the news coming to [email protected]. Web site updates. 9th May: Our Reserve Photographer Peter Donaldson has updated his Fotopic gallery with a large number of pictures from the Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway, including a sequence of NFAA racer Bob Glassup's already-legendary wheelie and some shots from the pits. You can check out Peter's pictures at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net. Although very popular you don't see a lot of off-track pictures on the web and so we were pleased to hear from Sue Whyte of Motorshack that she has updated her own Fotopic gallery with some informal pit pictures and portraits as well as shots from the pairing lanes and on-track. Sue's Springspeed Festival pictures can be found at suewhyte.fotopic.net/c1274897.html. ©Eurodragster.com UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter's web site at www.andycarter.net has been updated with the first in a series of exclusive updates from the Carter Motorsport / Andersen Racing / Lucas Oil pit by team member Gary Cottingham. Back to the weekend photo updates and Richard Smith has updated his Fotopic gallery at richardsmith.fotopic.net with pictures from the Tuners and UK Open Nationals event at York Raceway this past weekend. Richard tells us that the event escaped the surrounding bad weather and that the highlights included Jon Hollingworth's 9.99-second pass...well done Moose! Springspeed Festival rained out. 8th May: Yesterday's eliminations at the Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway were called off due to rain. Eliminations started early in the afternoon after overnight rain and then more showers during the morning, and the rain fell again after just three classes had run their first rounds. Subject to ratification the following records were set: Super Modified speed: 181.03 mph, Andy Kirk Super Street Bike speed: 198.55 mph, Steve Venables ©Eurodragster.com Chris Kenny won the £75 Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award with a 0.000 reaction in Super Street qualifying whilst 9.50 Bike racer Andy Burfitt became the first bike racer to win the Eurodragster.com/LA Racing Parts Perfect ET Award with a 9.500 which earned him £50. The commentators' pick for the APIRA Driver of the Event is Jeff Meads who held onto his 'Pop when it went way out of shape during yesterday's Real Steel Street Eliminator qualifying. Jeff will be presented with his trophy at the next event at SCR. The APIRA staff have asked us to thank all of the racers for their co-operation in qualifying on Saturday and Sunday, which was much appreciated. Click here to view our American Car Imports-sponsored Springspeed Festival coverage, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Swift snippets. 7th May: Peter Frost has forwarded us the new official logo for the Bilsport Pro Mod Series. NDRS Bilsport Pro Mod Series logos will be available at races from Svensk Dragracing officials. Congratulations to Norway's Paul Ingar Udtian who won his Top Methanol Dragster licence at Santa Pod Raceway yesterday (Sunday). Paul is the new owner of the former Dave Wilson Nemesis TMD but by all accounts looked as if he had been driving the car all his life, culminating in a 6.09-second pass. Paul's first competitive outing will be at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod where Eurodragster.com News sponsor Derek Flynn will also be exercising his newly-won TMD licence. ©Eurodragster.com Sweden's Lindahl brothers had a successful first outing with their new Camaro Pro Mod at the Pro Test and Tune at Malmö's Meca Raceway at the weekend. Micke Lindahl clocked 4.18/234 kmh over the eighth and Patrik Jacobsson tells us that that was with an early shut-off. You can check out Patrik's pictures from the Pro Test and Tune at www.racebilder.nu. The UK's Alec Coe says that he hopes to be back on track with his blown-alcohol slingshot dragster by the start of June. Alec's engine and box are being put together by Johnny Hall and Alec tells us that he is looking forward to running a seven. A very Happy Birthday to Showtime Fuel FC Crew Chief Bob Jarrett. Hope that you have a great day, Bob, and that the weather in California is better than it is here in the UK right now. Web site updates. 7th May: Our good buddy Gwynn Clark has updated his Slimboyfat web site with pictures from the Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can check out Gwynn's excellent shots at www.pbase.com/slimboyfat/springspeed_national_07. ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 6th May: The Pro Test and Tune is taking place at Malmö's Meca Raceway this weekend. Although the event is closed you can check out the Meca Raceway webcam at www.srif.se. ©Eurodragster.com Swedish Super Gas racer Anders Walm's team and friends have been in touch to ask us to say a big Happy Birthday to Anders. No sooner said than done, have a great day Anders. Junior picks up a Jet. 4th May: The UK's Junior Olley has revealed his new ride, a jet-powered pick-up named Dakota Thunder which he has imported from the USA. The J34-powered pick-up (right, click on picture for another angle) generates some 5500 lbs of thrust and has run low sixes at over 250 mph. "The car was driven by Mike Pond in the USA", Junior told Eurodragster.com. "Mike has been building jet cars for the last twelve years. I was looking at building a Jet Funny Car, but after talking to Mike and spending some time with him I decided that a Jet Truck would be different in Europe and would hopefully be highly bookable - which seems to be the case judging by the amount of interest I've had from from car, truck and air shows so far! "I have had this project underway for around sixteen months now, but with work and other projects in the pipeline I had not made a decision which way I was going to go. I knew what I wanted to do, but I had to make some hard decisions to enable me to do this." ©Eurodragster.com The plan is to licence later this season although Junior has already had one outing in the car, a private tie-down test at Santa Pod Raceway last week where he cut loose with eighty per cent power. "I have been brought up with jet cars all my life so I wasn't going to have a problem getting in the car", said Junior. "I grew up watching my dad build and race jets in the late 1970s and 1980s. When we fired the truck up at Santa Pod last week and I hit that burner I thought "Yes, this is for me!". I said to Martin Hill afterwards "It's the most amazing feeling I have ever had in my life", and it's been a long time coming! "I have a set of 0.38 burner nozzles which will give the truck more power, but I figure it has enough for what I need at this moment in time. The J60 and J85 cars will normally be faster as they are lighter motors, but the J34 has the massive flame show. Mike ran 6.20/253 but we have better air here in the UK, and I'm lighter, so it should run just over that if I wanted to. But as Mike said to me "You don't get paid any more for going faster"!". Junior already has plenty of people to thank. "I would like to thank my dad for giving us a great childhood being surrounded by jet cars", he said. "A big Thank You to Martin Hill for helping me along the way and to Darren Prentice for letting me use the track. Jets don't need a big crew like other race cars, we could just run it with two crew if we wanted. But Stu Bradbury is crewing with me as much as he can and I will have some other crew whose names I will add to our web site at hometown.aol.co.uk/dakotathunderjfc/index.html when they get permission from their wives! My wife Maria also needs thanking for putting up with it all so far...but then she has it all to come yet! Pete Stafford at USAutomotive has also been a great help, as has Darren West of Power Race Graphics." Rapp sits out 2007. 4th May: Swedish Pro Mod racer Ulf Rapp has announced that he is to sit out the 2007 season. Ulf says that he plans to be back in 2008. "We did a lot of racing in 2007 and learned a lot", says Ulf. "We had some bad luck at the start of the season as we had to search for two new mechanics as two of the team didn't have the time to be away so much so that was a big loss. Maybe our goals were a bit too high but you must have goals. ©Eurodragster.com "When the season was over and we had made our last run at the Finals in Malmö we were completely out of inspiration and it took some time to realise what we had accomplished. That was quite a lot, we set our best ET of 6.59 at Mantorp Park and that was in my first complete season but not my last. "The team, my family and I are charging our batteries ready for next year. We have a long list of what we need to do and what we need not to do next year. I would like to thank all of my team and especially my personal friends Niklas G and Roger Johansson - without them none of this would have been possible. Thanks also to my sponsors who I hope will stand by for 2008. "Good luck to the Pro Mod racers in 2007 and we'll see you at the race track in 2008." Swift snippets. 4th May: Geof Hauser will be at Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend for the supply of Sunoco fuel as well as Sunoco and Toyo Tyre decals for the UK National Championship contingency sponsorships. "Sunoco are providing free fuel for winning cars in Pro ET and Super Pro ET, and Toyo are paying £300 for a win and £100 for runner up in all eight National Championship classes", says Geof. "The first recipient of Sunoco fuel was Ashley Bell who won then crashed his Super Pro ET Cobra at the Easter Thunderball. Ashley will be back at the track this weekend after a massive thrash to get the car rebuilt in time." ©Eurodragster.com Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for sending us Version 7 of the official FIA Main Event entry list, which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA Main Event. You can also find the entry list with driver and race vehicle pictures on Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.co.uk/e_entrylist_main07.php. Racers can fill in the gaps by sending pictures of themselves or their vehicles to [email protected]. Markus Münch has been in touch to ask if anyone has two spaces in their car for a lift from Stansted Airport to Santa Pod and back for the FIA Main Event. Markus and Mathias arrive at Stansted at 22:00 on Thursday 24th May and return at 07:00 on Tuesday 29th. Markus adds that he will of course contribute to fuel costs. If you can help then please drop Markus a line at [email protected]. PMR's handful stays at home. 4th May: Paul Marston Racing were extremely pleased with the initial results obtained from the latest addition to the Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School fleet, their Super Pro ET /Super Modified Drag Race Engineering-backed Vauxhall Calibra which made its début in Paul Marston's hands at the Big Bang last weekend. Paul Marston explains: We made three passes with just the last pass being anywhere near representative, 8.42/162 which was even better than we had hoped for. I must thank Gary Springford and all the guys at Drag Race Engineering for all the hard work that went into getting the Calibra finished in time for this weekend. The DRE Calibra rolled out of the workshop at around 7.30 pm Friday night. DRE proprietor Gary Springford was scheduled to attend but business commitments prevented him from joining us on Saturday. Gary was sorely missed but a fellow Pro ET entry needed his motor building ready for the Springspeed Festival at SCR this coming weekend, so it was a no brainer really - Pro ET racers look after one another and Gary did just that. ©Eurodragster.com The Calibra is a great race car to drive, and we have only just scratched the surface. That said it was a handful and needs more work before entering National Championship competition. So PMR has reluctantly withdrawn the Calibra from the Springspeed Festival as we will not take a race car to an event knowing it needs work. We knew that we were pushing it a bit but with the Big Bang just a week prior to Springspeed we figured it was worth a shot but it's just not quite ready. It will be at the FIA Main Event no problem and we will probably test at the Performance Vauxhall weekend. Meanwhile Grumpy's Dodge starring Mick Howling in Super Gas and Pro ET, the Ugly Stick four-link dragster starring Tethys in Super Comp and Super Pro ET, the Whoopass Monza starring Dave Catton contesting Super Gas, the Dark Destroyer Plymouth Scamp staring Thunderball winner Steve Bolton in Pro ET, and DRE Proprietor Gary Springford returning to Pro ET sharing the hot seat of the Whoopass Monza, along with all the supporting PMR crew, will be attending Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway this coming weekend. Be there or be square! Web site updates. 4th May: Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon's exclusive Racer Blog has been updated with the next set of answers to questions sent by readers. This week's questionmeisters are Jamie Dodd, Martin Wilson, Roger Cyster and Peter Roat and the subjects for discussion are the fuel tank inlet scoop and how European Top Fuel compares to the class in the USA. You can read all about it by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blog link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com The official web site of the UK's 587racing.com Pro ET team has recovered from a hacker attack and has been updated with a great set of photographs from the Easter Thunderball. Also, don't miss the superb on-board video clip. You can check it all out at www.587racing.com. Big Bang 9.50 Bike report. 3rd May: UK 9.50 Bike racer Chris Jones tells us that he has just been released from hospital where he had the permanent grin surgically removed from his face after his first event win at the weekend's Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway. Whilst in his hospital bed Chris had the time to send us a class review: I've got to start with the obvious one - I got the event win and what a feeling. This is the first ever trophy that's come my way. So doing my best to avoid a Halle Berry Bafta award type speech: big cheers to Mark Fisher (Greenhill Racing) for putting the bike together for its first outing along with all the extra time and help from both Mark and Jamie Sneddon in Busa whispering. What really comes home is all the guys in and out of 9.50 Bike - the Hyenas, Boss, Ollie, Fast Harry, Melvin, Chunk and everyone who's sent me texts, E-Mails, calls etc. It really shows what a close friendship there really is in the drag biking fraternity - cheers guys. On to the event. Never having run the Big Bang before, nobody really knew what to expect. As it turned out Saturday had plenty of qualifiers and more track time than you could shake a stick at with the Run What You Brung in there as well. This meant some really close times, The sun puffed out its chest and the track was in excellent condition. Suffice to say that come Sunday eighteen riders from a nineteen bike field came in within a 9.55 qualifying time. Wow, that's tight! Richard Sawatzki dominated Saturday the day with a first round 9.502/145 and wasn't moving for anything. Lee Baxter put in a 9.51/144 in the first round and stayed on Rick's tail all day and though Fast Fred Furlong started with a 9.54/145 he was out of the top five come close of play along with Shaun Spiers. There was more jostling than an ABBA tribute band gig as we were later to see in the night's festivities down at the bar. Dave Burfitt came home in #3 position with a 9.515/153 feeling the breath of Andy Haley in #4 with a 9.5188/130 at sundown. Carl Atkinson brought up the rear with a 9.52/147 and that's how the day ended. It's absolutely unbelievable how close the running is this year - oh, how wise bringing in a four decimal place timing system! Fast Harry wasn't without an issue or two, his clutch pushrod couldn't stand the stress and made a break for freedom, taking out the cover and all it's moorings and abusing the chain on its way out (sounds like my kinda night!). The addition of a handy 'long enough' set screw and a replaced chain from Grumpy's magic box put him back on track. Apart from that there were no other casualties apart from Boss who just couldn't bring himself to alter the gas settings to slow his bike down. Listen to your Uncle Fred! The night time saw a packed event. Where did everyone come from? The place was heaving with some excellent entertainment laid on in the bar culminating in Ollie (Team Breakout Chief Mechanic and beer drinker) doing his best John Wayne following a tussle with the mechanical bull. Sunday qualifying was even closer than the previous day's, five more qualifiers ended with Jason Macan holding the #1 spot with a 9.5019/126 bumping Richard Sawatzki into #2. Andy Burfitt at #3 ended the day on a 9.5029/145 followed up by Andy Haley in #4 leaving Fast Harry aka Julian Harris in #5 with his 9.5071/141. As said before eighteen out of nineteen riders in the 9.5s, this is amazingly close. On to the eliminations. Turn-round was quick and the field was halved, noted first round exits being Richard Hann's losing 9.49 to Fast Harry's 9.5, a real nail biter all the way up. Boisy (Chris Reed) went on through to the second to meet up with Fred Furlong, as did Shaun Spiers in the third, who showed the young and not so young guns (you decide who's who) the way to do it. ©Eurodragster.com On the other side of the ladder I was happily getting on with rounds thinking "Well, I've got this far, it's been a good weekend", but the bike was solid and I was having a great time with some real good racing. I got up against Jason Macan, the lights dropped, only Jason was off with a -0.248 red light against my -0.003 red light, whew that was close. Dave Burfit took out Richard Sawatzki in the second for a third round bye but unbeknown to anyone had sustained some carb damage, but was well enough to carry on. On the other side of the ladder Harry was busy making his way to the final with a bye run. I met up with Martin 'Chunk' Walker from Team Hyena in the third round, this was a great race with only half a bike length between us all the way up, brill race mate. This had me against Dave Burfitt in the semis, wow, never been here before! So after a quick return to the start it was all to play for. Bang, the lights dropped and I was off in a blaze of glory although something wasn't right. A quick look at half track revealed that Dave's carb issue had got the better of his day which took me to the final. Here we were, and grateful of a short break to let the bikes cool off I had Fast Harry in the other lane. Through the burnout, up to the lights and into pre-stage. Harry went in full first, I wound up the motor and in I went, "Gotta try and drop this one quick" I thought. Amber lights everywhere and the clutch was out. It felt like a quick getaway only what's this? Harry is half a bike in front. Now old Obi Wan Geoff Conner - Team Breakout flagship - once said "Keep it pinned whatever happens" (other advice involving quantities of cider and certain bars in Thailand didn't seem relevant) so that's what happened. Went through the end with a 9.6331/143 against Harry's 9.6661/140. What I didn't know was that Harry had red lit and that was that my first trophy. The first paragraph says it all. What a cracking day, a brilliant event and I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. See you all at Shakey for the next round. Swift snippets. 3rd May: UK Super Modified racer Craig Gibbs has asked us to say Thank You to everyone for the overwhelming response to yesterday's plea for help with his fuel pump. "What a great community drag racing is!", says Craig. "Mick 'The Fish' Smith has offered us the loan of his fuel pump for the weekend, thanks Mick. We have a source who is trying to get us the diaphragm for our pump in time for the weekend, but if this fails then we will use Mick's pump instead. Once again thanks to everyone for getting in touch, and we'll see you all at the weekend." ©Eurodragster.com Jason Yates tells us that Simon Barlow has had to withdraw his Orange Pop from this weekend's Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway as the car is still not quite ready. Steve Dunn has been in touch to ask us to wish a big Happy Birthday to UK Super Gas racer Jon Evans. "Moderate birthday celebrations will take place this weekend but bigger plans are being put in place to wish a sad farewell to the Barn at the Main Event", says Steve. "We hope for better luck this weekend than we had in the second round at Easter when a screw fell out of the ignition switch causing the motor to die at about two-thirds track". Have a great day Jon and better luck this weekend guys. Gay gears up with Quaife. 3rd May: UK Sportsman ET racer Nick Gay has been in touch to let us know how his season has gone so far which includes signing up a new sponsor. "My winter break was spent constructing a composite bonnet for the car", says Nick. "This has worked well in that the front is lighter, although a lot of the upper body weight that was cut out was replaced by boxing the sub-frame. The desired effect of this is that the car is hooking harder, the downside is that it has put extra stress on the gearbox. This has unfortunately resulted in the violent dismantling of the gearbox, not once but twice! Once in pre-season testing at Shakespeare County Raceway and the second at the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod which was the reason for my non-appearance for the second round race with Jon Turner. "To over come this problem i decided it was time to install the Rover PG1 gearbox which I had considered fitting during the summer break. After a few hiccups getting the clutch and gear box linkages fitted I was ready to test the car at Shakespeare County. Everything went well and the car ran 13.9/99, a first for the present low boost, 1600cc engine combination. I have a few refinements to make to the gearbox linkage then everything will be ready for the Springspeed Festival this weekend. ©Eurodragster.com "The next step in the cars development is to fit a Quaife Torque biasing differential to improve traction and burnouts, this will be done in time for the Main Event. We are very happy to welcome Quaife on board as a product sponsor with team SSPW. Their torque biasing diffs, gear sets and complete gearboxes are the market standard and their diffs are available for a wide range of axles, including nine-inch Fords, and gearboxes. For a full product list go to www.quaife.co.uk. "Now that the drivetrain has been beefed up I can start building a low-compression 1800 cc engine with more boost, reducing those ETs! But for the time being I still have a lot of work to do to get the bonnet prepared to be sprayed at Viking Garages. This is to be done by Paul Somerville, a crew member for Chris Johnson's Super Comp MG. "I would like to take this opportunity to mention the people and companies who have helped with the car. Firstly LUK Clutches: the new gearbox set-up uses one of their units as fitted to the MGF. This unit is larger than the Metro unit I was using before, with a larger input shaft and therefore able to handle more power. Secondly a really big Thank You to Jim and all the staff and the lads at Southampton Special Purpose Workshop for all their help and support with the car. As usual they will be making a trip to the racing this season." Springspeed Festival update. 2nd May: We are indebted to Julie Willcox for sending us the latest information about the weekend's Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway. First up is this weekend's pit plan which you can check out by clicking here. Please note the instructions listed at the bottom of the plan. ©Eurodragster.com Saturday's provisional running order is now available and can be viewed by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Please note that there is a Riders and Drivers meeting in the top grandstand at 8:30 on Saturday morning. Finally the latest version of the official event entry list is also available and again can be viewed by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Drag racing visits London. 2nd May: The London Motor Museum in Ickenham will be the only place to be on the weekend of 7th-8th July for the first-ever London Drag Racing Show: The show aims to introduce drag racing to a wider audience whilst also attracting racers and enthusiasts already hooked on the most thrilling of all motor sports. Drivers will be at the Show with their cars to answer questions about the power, speed, and thrills of their sport. This and much more will be on the agenda at this exciting event dedicated to drag racing in this unique venue. Exhibitors who have already pledged to participate in the show include former FIA European Champion Andy Carter who will display his Top Fuel Dragster, and Europe's only drag racing school, The Paul Marston Racing School, will be there to lure you into the driving seat! The event will definitely be a family occasion. Young or old, speed still enthrals. There will be exhibitors, food, trade stalls - something for all the family and their friends and relatives. ©Eurodragster.com If you have not visited the London Motor Museum then make a note in your diary to do so for this event. The Museum is a unique environment and is easily accessible from the M25, M40 and the A40. The nearest station is West Ruislip which is on both the Central Line and overground railway. Would you like to participate or do you have something to offer that will help make this event stand out from the others - whether yourself, your car, a product, a service, or an innovative idea? If so, or if you would like any more information, then Paul Knight is waiting to hear from you at [email protected] or call 07821 139945. Torque about power, torque about speed, torque about racers, torque about the London Drag Racing Show. The first time. 2nd May: Mark Perkins had a very successful first outing in Real Steel Street Eliminator at the weekend's Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway, and has been in touch to tell us how it went from his point of view: We collected the car from Webster Race Engineering at 5:00 pm on Friday, and after a round-the-block tuition course from Jon Webster we loaded up and headed off for Santa Pod. Having previously only sat in the car without an engine, what a great feeling it was to experience that 598 ci Big Block running. After signing-on we were given a briefing by Race Director Ian Marshall explaining what was required for the observed runs. Although we had run a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda at Run What You Brung events at Santa Pod in 2006 to gain knowledge of drag racing, the adrenalin still pumped hard when running the Mustang up to the burnout. The burnout seemed effortless with the engine picking up quickly and the tyres lighting up well, providing spectators with the compulsory plumes of smoke they demand. As a novice team we tried to keep composed and got into stage. The launch went well as did the shift and although we came off as instructed we ran a respectable thirteen-second pass. ©Eurodragster.com After completing the remaining observed runs we ran a full pass at 10.71/131 which I can honestly say brought huge smiles to all our faces. We didn't make eliminations but that did not detract from the fabulous fun we had over the weekend. As with most sports there are many people in the background who make a dream become reality. Webster Race Engineering gave outstanding commitment over many months to completing the car on time and supplying technical support. Knight Racing Services provided an engine of awesome capabilities and Penn Autos supplied a transmission which ran faultlessly. We would like to thank the Santa Pod staff, all of the Real Steel Street Eliminator sponsors and the drivers and crews who visited us with words of encouragement; it made the whole experience one we will never forget. I would personally like to thank my crew Dave Dunmore and Chris Perkins, my wife Jackie and my eldest son Tom who have supported me throughout my move into drag racing. Here's to a great drag racing year for everyone. Big Bang RSSE report. 2nd May: Real Steel Street Eliminator racer Colin Lazenby tells us that it promised, and proved, to be a frantic weekend at the Big Bang with a large number of entrants and relatively low numbers in other racing classes: Tuning for the Run What You Brung track on Saturday caused some frustration as many teams overpowered the slippery surface, although it did come round during the course of the afternoon. Well done to all those teams who persevered and managed to tune for the track conditions. Ray Comer had a tough weekend with his motor, though he did narrow the problem down to a leaking intake manifold. A stout effort by Ray, Phil and Laurie means that it was largely fixed trackside. All being well he should make Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend - well done guys. New boy Mark Perkins in the ex-Jon Webster 'Stang seemed to enjoy himself thoroughly shaking down his new ride. Inevitably with almost every run he recorded a new Personal Best, finishing with a satisfying 10.71. New PBs were also recorded by big Ron Haslett (9.70) Alex McIntosh (8.92) Jerry Charles (8.38) and Jon Webster who was oh so close to his first in-session eight with a 9.03. Ian Hook with Europe's quickest hot rod '34 Ford (and for now borrowed motor courtesy of Tim Jackson) went 9.29 - I'll have a tenner on Fatty recording an eight soon, but please keep this bit quiet, we wouldn't want the engine's owner knowing. Still, it's fair to say it'll be nicely run in by the time the Fat Boys are finished with it. All the early rounds produced some close racing and by the semis the match up between Frosty and Splinter and old rivals Pat*man and Lazenby were always going to be fiercely competitive - and they were. In a battle of epic proportions (which the Top Fuellers would have been proud of) Splinter outpedalled Frosty to take the win light and a slightly out of shape Lazenby defeated Pat*man. In the final the two vets slugged it out for the top honours. Simultaneous burnouts followed by a mini burn-down, Splinter went in first, Colin had a marginal reaction advantage as the big old '56 headed for the wall, it's yet to be confirmed if he lifted (at all) but at the stripe it was Splinter who got there first, his 8.14 defeating Colin's 8.22. This race goes down in history as the quickest, and fastest RSSE race ever. A joy to watch and as was quoted by one of the UK's top engine builders "The most exciting race I have seen in SE competition in fifteen years" - some compliment given the source of the comment. So it's congratulations to Splinter who not only won the event but also recorded low ET with an 8.07, helped along no doubt by Chris Isaacs' fine chassis tuning skills. Chris was crewing in Mick Franklin's absence, hope your glass back's improving by now, Mick. Real Steel Street Eliminator moves on to Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend for round three with another strong field of entries, hopefully great weather and more, much more, close racing. Many thanks to all of our class sponsors for their support including new and very welcome sponsor Embroidery Solutions. Swift snippets. 2nd May: The UK's Rampage Super Pro ET team have announced a sponsorship deal with Banbury-based Cross Embroidery. "We are delighted to welcome Cross Embroidery on board", says driver Dave Ward. "They have supplied The Team with new look race wear for this year's Super Pro ET début. Race teams interested in their range of products and custom logos can talk to us at Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend, or find details on their web site at www.crossembroidery.com, E-Mail Steve Davis at sales@ crossembroidery.com or call 01295 270555". ©Eurodragster.com Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe has kindly forwarded us the official timing data from the weekend's Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out the Big Bang timing data, which as ever comes in Excel format, by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. A very Happy Birthday to UK Super Street Bike racer Gary Drury. Hope you have a great day, Gary. Our good buddy Sharkman has been in touch to thank everyone for the cards, E-Mails and calls and to let us know that he unfortunately won't be able to attend this weekend's Springspeed Festival. "The doctors have told me to stop trying to do things and to take complete rest for at least another two weeks", says Sharkman. "I wish everyone a safe and successful weekend, I will of course be tuning in to the coverage and I look forward to seeing everyone at the FIA Main Event." No less than 243,493 readers visited Eurodragster.com in April. This is the most readers we have had in a month since we started to keep records. The number of hits was also the biggest-ever and page views were also near our best numbers but hits and page views will have been inflated by event coverage (which generates a lot of Refresh keys) during the month. Thanks to all of our readers for coming back, to the racers, clubs, promoters, and race officials for giving us material, and to our many sponsors for giving us the means to do it. Welcome to speed, power and show. 2nd May: ...heißt es wieder vom 17.-19. August 2007 auf der legendären „Quartermile" des Hockenheimrings, wenn die PS-Giganten bei den alljährlichen NitrolympX ihre Kräfte messen. Drag Racing, das ist Motorsport pur: Fahrer gegen Fahrer, Maschine gegen Maschine. Das Duell um die beste Reaktion, die schnellste Zeit und die astronomische Beschleunigung in weniger als 5 Sekunden auf knapp 500 Stundenkilometer. In Hockenheim wird ein Austragungs-Modus für die Top Dragster Klassen angewandt, der extrem spektakulär ist. Sozusagen „Back to the Roots", denn auch in den Anfangszeiten des Drag Racing war das Cannonball-Race für das Publikum das attraktivste Rennen. Die europäischen Top Teams der Klassen Top Fuel, Funny Car, und Nitro-Bikes gehen bei den insgesamt 4 Qualifying Heats, 2 am Samstag und 2 am Sonntag, an den Start. Nur durch die Addition der Laufzeiten aller Heats werden die beiden Teams mit dem besten Ergebnis für das Finale qualifiziert. Klar, dass bei diesem System jedes Team in jedem Durchgang seine beste Leistung zeigen muss, denn nur so führt der Weg ins Finale. Auch die Fans des Motorradsports kommen bei den NitrolympX nicht zu kurz: Von den „lachgasbeatmeten" Super Street Bikes bis hin zu den kompressor-geladenen, über 1.200 PS starken, Top Fuel Maschinen ist alles am Start was Rang und Power hat. Es ist ein „Ritt auf der Kanonenkugel", wenn diese High-Tech-Geschosse aus dem Stand in 6 Sekunden auf fast 380 Stundenkilometer beschleunigen. Dabei wird den Fahrern neben absoluter Fahrzeugbeherrschung noch eine gehörige Portion Mut abverlangt. Immerhin arbeitet direkt unter ihrer Brust ein nitro-befeuertes „Höllen-Aggregat". Spätestens am Samstagabend bei der legendären Night-Show sind die Tribünen des Motodroms bis auf den letzten Platz besetzt. Scheinwerfer tauchen die Strecke in farbiges Licht. Rock'n Roll und Motoren-Sound, für 120 Minuten brennt die Luft über dem Drag-Strip. Beginnend mit der Hot Rod Parade, dem Burnout-Contest, spektakulären Auto- und Motorrad-Stunts und der Flammen-Show der Jet-Dragster steigert sich die Spannung bis zum absoluten Highlight des Abends, dem unbeschreiblichen „Night-Race" der Top Fuel Dragster. Drag Racing ist Familien-Unterhaltung: Die Faszination der NitrolympX hautnah erleben, das können Kinder bis zum Alter von 6 Jahren in Begleitung Erwachsener jetzt GRATIS. Außerdem gibt es bis zu 70% reduzierte Eintrittspreise für Jugendliche bis einschließlich 14 Jahre. Ein Erwachsener mit einem Kind bis 6 Jahre und einem Kind bis 14 Jahre bezahlt am Samstag insgesamt nur 62,- Euro für 10 Stunden Racing Action. Zwei Erwachsene mit einem Kind bis 6 Jahre und einem Kind bis 14 Jahre bezahlen am Sonntag insgesamt nur 69,- Euro Eintritt für Tribüne und Fahrerlager. Weitere Infos auf www.nitrolympx.de. Ticket-Hotline : 06205 / 950 222 ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 2nd May: If you enjoyed Peter's end-day galleries in our Event Coverage of the weekend's Big Bang then be sure to check out his Fotopic web site at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net which features his full set of pictures from the event. ©Eurodragster.com Crisis at MFR? 1st May: There are signs of a mid-life crisis in the UK's Mark Flavell Racing Super Pro ET team as Mark Flavell has put the six-second Flavell Welding Specialists, NGK and DAPO Systems-backed dragster up for sale. "I want to sell the rolling chassis and I want to move it quickly, so here's the deal" says Mark. "If the new owner steps up to the plate quickly Team MFR, who are firmly commited to two events this summer, will prepare the car and let the new owner take the 6.91/197 drivetrain for a run out in a race at Vandel in Denmark in June, and then back to the UK for a demonstration event in July. After that we will remove our blown and injected 475 ci methanol-burning Big Block Chevy, deliver the chassis to you, and leave you to it! ©Eurodragster.com "Sounds like fun? You better believe it. We'll be at Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend as the National Championship swings by, so come on over to our pit and try the hot seat, then make me an offer which will acquire you an engineering masterpeice. People of a nervous disposition probably shouldn't bother, but if its a riotous time you're after then Super Pro ET is where it's at. "Is it a mid life crisis or have I really lost my marbles? Watch this space." Springspeed Festival sponsorships. 1st May: Shakespeare County Raceway is pleased to welcome Lucas Oil Products as a contingency sponsor for this weekend's Springspeed Festival, writes SCR Marketing Manager Jerry Cookson: Thanks to the combined efforts of Lucas Oil UK MD Les Downey and FIA European Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter, we have secured five cases of 20/50 racing oil for the winners in the Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association, Super Modified, Super Pro ET, Real Steel Street Eliminator and Outlaw Anglia. In order to win the oil racers must display the Lucas Oil 'shield' stickers which will be available from Sue in the signing-on office. ©Eurodragster.com If you haven't got up close and personal with Andy Carter's Top Fuel Dragster then the opportunity is yours this weekend as the entire Lucas Oil Products racing operation will be on display. Andy will also be present to sign autographs, explain Top Fuel and promote a great new range of Carter Motorsports/Lucas Oil mechandise. Super Comp and Super Gas racer Martin Curbishley of Curblishley Automotive has pledged his support of this weekend's Springspeed national drag races by adding an additional cash prize together with trophy sponsorship for his chosen class Super Gas - thanks to Martin and Ruth from everyone at Shakespeare County Raceway. Martin unfortunately won't be racing at the weekend due to damage sustained at the Easter Thunderball and a busy workload helping Street Eliminator racers Andy Frost and Jason Weir as well as the Showtime Fuel FC team. Martin won't be at the track this weekend but he has promised that the Curbishley Automotive.com Brogie Roadster will be out in all its glory at Shakespeare County Raceway in August. This weekend's Springspeed Festival is the latest event in the 2007 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards Scheme, with up to £225 on offer for perfect performance. The Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been increased to £75 after it went unclaimed at the Big Bang. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to record a perfect Reaction Time of 0.000. The Award is open to all classes and is available during qualifying or eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the weekend. The Perfect Light Award is jointly presented by Eurodragster.com and high-performance hose and fitting manufacturer Speedflow whose web site you can find at www.speedflow.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com The Eurodragster.com/LA Racing Parts Perfect ET Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by VW Sportsman racer Paul Herbert at the Big Bang. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to run to the thousandth on their index or dial-in. The Award is open to all Super classes, all ET classes, Junior Dragster (eliminations only), 9.50 Bike, Wild Bunch, all VWDRC classes, NAST ET and Junior Drag Bike and is available during qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is jointly presented by Eurodragster.com and performance supplier LA Racing Parts whose web site you can find at www.laracingparts.com. Should the winner of the Perfect ET Award go on to win the event then a bonus of £100 will be paid by LA Racing Parts. Eurodragster.com/LA Racing Parts decals must be carried on both sides of the vehicle to qualify for the Perfect ET Award. As with other contingency schemes the decals will be available from the signing-on office. Swift snippets. 1st May: Bill Macdermid is returning to the fray in Real Steel Street Eliminator at this weekend's Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway, in a Procharged 1969 Camaro (right). "I can't believe that it has been exactly ten years since I last raced in Street Eliminator in my old black '69", says Bill. "I am really looking forward to getting back into racing and catching up with all my old friends." Svensk Dragracing have now finalised the 2007 Nordic Drag Racing Series calendar and it can be found on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se. The Hyena drag racing team have asked us to say a big Well Done to Chris Jones on his victory in 9.50 Bike at the Big Bang. "It was an outstanding achievement in a very close field", says Martin Walker. "Not only did he win his first meeting but he also managed to do it on the first outing on his newly-acquired Hayabusa. Well done Chris!" ©Eurodragster.com Paul Watson of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor DynoSpeed Developments has similarly been in touch to say a big Well Done to all of the weekend's 9.50 Bike racers. "It was some of the closest racing for some time", says Grumpy. "The top five qualifiers all ran the 9.50s, fantastic, and the first round with Harry and Boss 9.49 to a 9.50, wow! Surely Santa Pod should think about returning 9.50 Bike to the two FIA events. Close racing, quick turn-rounds, very professional, keep up the great work. Congratulations to Chris Jones on a superb win." Darren Galloway has been in touch to say a huge Thank You to Gleadows and the Bonds and the security, track crew and medical teams at Santa Pod Raceway for their help after he suffered heart problems again at Easter and ended up in Bedford Hospital (The hospital of choice of Eurodragster.com - Ed). "If it wasn't for all you guys and girls I might not be here today", says Darren. "All these people in different ways kept me alive. There have been a lot of people who have helped in other ways which I find hard to talk about, but you all know who you are and what you have done. Many thanks to all the friends I know and the new ones I have since met." Martin Stanberry, aka Rubber Chicken Man, tells us that Charlie the Chicken is to be brought out of retirement for the last hurrah of the Barn at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. Fans are cordially inited to join Martin and Charlie in the Barn at the FIA Main Event whenever the Fireforce or Firestorm Jet FCs run. Super Modified thanks. 1st May: UK Super Modified racer Paul Mander made it into the sevens at the Big Bang at the weekend and also set a new Personal Best speed of 175.85 mph which is the fastest speed for a non GM-powered Super Modified. "I would like to thank mt crew Cliff Bagg, Mick Slocombe and Daryl Bagg for helping me to put the Poison Arrow into the sevens", says Paul. "The team has been plagued with fuel delivery problems but hopefully that is all behind us as we venture on to Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend.Congatulations to Tim Garlick for the win at the Big Bang and to Andy Kirk, Craig Gibbs, Fred Hone and Tim for their Personal Bests." As Paul mentions, Craig Gibbs set and reset PBs over the Big Bang weekend with his first-ever 7.7-second pass on Saturday and building on that to a 7.72 on Sunday. "These performances wouldn't have been possible without the help of a few people and I'd like to thank them all", says Craig. "Namely all the crew: Darren, Marie, Chris, of course Mum, Dave Clarkson who had been released from Pro Mod duties, Adrian Spencer, Rob Smallworth and Barry Grimes, Jon and Sharon Hogarth at SID, Jeff Bull, Andy Robinson, Rob Loaring, all the Super Mod guys, and absolutely everyone who supported the team over the weekend. Thank you! ©Eurodragster.com "Super Mod really has grown in stature when you think how far it has come even in just the last year. It really is so competitive now, with nothing to choose between the teams, this year's Championship is going to be the hardest yet, and I believe that it really could be anyone's. "Congratulations also to Tim Garlick for his 7.58 in qualifying and for winning the event, Andy Chilton and the team on the PB - keep an eye on them, there is so much more to come from that car - Paul Mander for his first seven, and Andy Kirk on those 180 mph terminals - well done everyone! I believe we officially hold the Super Modified ET record for an automatic equipped car, which was previously held by Andy aka 'Fred' Hone at 7.81 seconds. Now, who was it that said an auto would never run a 7.7..." The Obsession Racing web site at www.obsessionracing.mfbiz.com has been updated with a report and pictures from the weekend. Joe gets shirty. 1st May: Peter Kellett of Eurodragster.com News sponsor B & B Motors has been in touch to tell us about the very smart new shirts worn by son Joe's Drummin' Man Junior Dragster team, which turned heads at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball. "Darren West of Power Race Graphics designed the shirts, thanks to Darren for that as well as for the design of Joe's new car and thanks to Richard Walters for painting the car", says Peter. "I'd also like to thank Geof Hauser for sourcing Joe's new Lightning chassis from the USA. We still have Joe's previous car for sale, it can run in either Stock or Modified." The Drummin' Man shirts were produced by Phil Bagnall who specialises in printing shirts using customers' logos, pictures and colours which makes the shirts unique. There are no limits to the amount of logos which can be placed onto the shirt, offering maximum exposure for sponsors at a reasonable price. The maximum price for a one-off shirt is £50 + VAT; the minimum price based on an initial order of ten or more shirts is £35 + VAT, and following the first order shirts can be ordered as singles at £35. Shirts can have names printed on the right or left breast at no extra cost. The price includes design after receipt of customer logos and ideas, and the shirt including all printing. All logos are printed into the material in full colour using the very latest techniques. Shirts can be manufactured in any size from super small to super large. Bagnalls can also offer picture T-Shirts with fantastic re-production, kids' replica playsuits incorporating all logos and colours - in fact anything which will help your team stand out. If you have any queries or if you would like to order shirts then you can contact Phil Bagnall by E-Mail at [email protected] or call 01584 874737. Sponsors add colour. 1st May: UK Top Methanol Dragster team Turner Motorsport received a lot of positive comment over the dragster's new colour scheme which made its début at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball. "We think the car looks fantastic in its new design and from the positive response we had at Easter, it seems that others do too" says Crew Chief and driver Steve Turner. "The design was by our Team Manager Carmel Turner and was applied by our sponsor Rushden Graphics." ©Eurodragster.com Rushden Graphics design and manufacture decals to order for most uses including boats, jet skis, cars and vans, motorbikes of all kinds, and other sports equipment of various types. The work on the Turner Motorsport dragster is entirely vinyl. The company uses a thermal resin imaging technique which allows them to print true chrome and silver, and renders the printed detail highly resistant to volatile fluids as well as the weather. They can also reproduce lost/old decals as new, and are a registered number plate manufacturer including the production of show plates for private and commercial use. You can find Rushden Graphics just four miles from Santa Pod Raceway at 25 Alfred Street, Rushden. For more information contact Julia, Steve or Richard on 01933 418419 or Fax 01933 317790. Web site updates. 1st May: The official web site of Germany's Peter Schöfer Racing Top Methanol Dragster team has been updated with pictures and video of the team's recent demonstration appearance at the German Touring Car Championship round at Hockenheim. Check it out at www.p-s-r.com. Our good friend Gwynn Clark has updated his Slimboy Fat web site with pictures from the Big Bang. You can check out Gwynn's pictures at www.pbase.com/slimboyfat/big_bang_07. Also updating with a hundred or so pictures from the Big Bang is Michael Fordham whose Blazing Wheels site can be found at www.blazingwheels.co.uk. UK Fuel FC racer Gordon Smith tells us that the Contact link has now been fixed on the Shockwave Racing web site at www.shockwavedragracing.com and that the team would be happy to hear from fans. ©Eurodragster.com Richard Stirling has updated his Top Nitro fan site with a report and photographs from the Autotrader Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. You can find Richard's web site at www.topnitro.co.uk. Editor's note: When submitting web site updates please remember to include your web site address even if you think we should have it memorised by now. Earlier news