Lot 17 – Kid’s Venom Racing Fan pack & photo shoot
Join the big kids with this exclusive Venom Racing Fan Pack from team principal and driver Tony Betts. Pack comes with cartoon stickers, T-shirt, flag, hero card and the offer of a photo shoot sitting in the hot seat of Team Venom’s Nostalgia Funny Car.
Lot 18 – Undertaker Funny Car Team Hoodie & T Shirt
Standout from the rest of the pack by wearing the all new and professionally designed Undertaker Funny Car Team hoodie & T shirt at the drags courtesy of team owner and driver Steve Ashdown.
Lot 19 – Viveca Averstedt Top Fuel signed print
Captured at the hit of the throttle by trackside photographer Paul Duxbury in 1994, Sweden’s Viveca Averstedt launches the Valvoline Top Fuel Dragster to another fast paced run along Santa Pod’s hallowed tarmac surface. Print has been signed by Viveca.
Racer Press Packs are collected all over the world! Now here’s your chance to own one from Shirley’s multi winning years as a professional NHRA Top Fuel drag racer racing under the stateside Pioneer Team banner. Pack comes with photos and detailed information sheets as well as a NHRA poster from 1981.
How does the auction work? See an item at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee that takes your fancy, then write your bid on the bid sheet for the item at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but the Sale of memorabilia will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
As well as the Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia, there will be a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing - see last Sunday's article for full details.
Gasser Circus's historic qualifying. 30th June:
Many thanks to Nick Brooke-Langham for sending in a report on the Gasser Circus at the STP Sportsman Nationals, with some great qualifying:
Round 2 of the Gasser Circus Showdown got underway for some of the drivers on Friday. This was a limited number test day for the cars contesting the Sportsman Nationals. Santa Pod looked like it would be busy not least because it seemed like 3 events had now come together on the same weekend.
As it was the pits were relatively busy, but when the racers taking part in the racing between two strips left the Pod in the early hours of Saturday the pits became a little bare at the top end. The guys and girls who take part in the Street Weekend are a hardy and determined bunch, and perhaps gained a glimpse into what fuel racers in the 60s and 70s did in the states. Racing at a different track before packing up and heading off to another one to do it all again. Only in the case of the likes of Jungle Jim, it was not over one weekend for him and his crew and crews like them. It meant moving from town to town on their way to the next race weekend, earning money match racing locals as they went. A hard life.
The weather as always was a talking point as was the recent passing of friend to the Gasser Circus Steve Moxley. We will miss him popping into the pits for a chat, our thoughts go out to his family and friends.
The weekend was blessed with glorious sunshine and with that came a good amount of heat. With 21 Gassers on the plot, it was going to be a stellar weekend, not everyone could make qualifying when we got called to lanes, Rookie Gasser Circus racer Niamh Smith had made good use of Friday and with 5 runs already successfully negotiated, Niamh was off on her sixth, at the end of the run she knew all was not well with her Cleveland engine with a distinct knocking noise coming from it, she wisely shut it down. The problem later traced to collapsed bearing on the push rod for number one, with significant damage to one piston, crank, heads and cam ending the racing for Nogbad the Bad (above left) for the weekend and possibly longer!
With 20 now left in contention, qualifying was becoming ever more important. When the Gassers entered the fire up road there were 19 as the newly arrived Model A of Andy Cobb was still being sorted prior to his first run in the Gasser Circus (above right).
Qualifying got off to a steady start, with Ray Turner at Number one at the end of the first session. By the end of the second qualifying run the top 8 Gassers were within a 10th of their dial ins, which was exceptional. As the final round of qualifying began there were 3 cars not qualified, Martyn Hallam, Nervous Nick (me) and Andy Cobb. There were several drivers looking down the list, hell bent on making sure they did not swap places with any of those not qualified. Martyn Hallam cannot catch a break at the moment or put another way breaks are following him this season, this time suffering dropped valve in his Hemi, which drew his racing weekend to a close.
The final qualifying was still an exciting affair even if the top Gassers were unlikely to improve their numbers as they had effectively already run their best.
At the conclusion even Colin in the commentator’s booth was impressed as were so many others with the top 9 Gasser’s having hit their numbers. With 16 Gassers qualified would all be able to take Eliminations in the morning if not number 1 Alternate Nervous Nick in his new The Traitor Anglia (above left) would be there ready to take the spot.
Round one began with a green Anglia sat at the end of the fire road as beside it the qualified Gassers were already paired up and ready to race. First pair up Billy Jones in his Willys Coupe against Nick Hewison in his freshly signwritten Fordson Short Fuse (below left). Billy went immediately red and Nick advanced running an easing down 10.72.
Simon Prest in his The Rocket (above right) dialling an 11.00 against Graham Barton’s High Anxiety Devon with 10.69, Simon cut a .1 light and at the top end took the win with an 11.08 despite Graham once again hitting his numbers with a brilliant 10.69!
Next up a double Falcon race with John Gibson in High Roller 10.67 lining up alongside Jason Hollamby in Jumpin Jalapeno dialling a 10.68. Jason left early and John left late, but with a red by Jason, John progressed.
Brian Gibson Identity Crisis performed a stonking burnout as he prepared to take on Jason Pickett in his Cherry Bomb 55. Brian dialled 11.44 and Jason 10.92, a side by side race followed with Jason taking the win with a 11.02 to Brian’s 11.60, the win margin just 03.
With this being Father’s Day it was an extra special pairing next up as Ray Turner in his renowned Green Onions 55 Chevy prepared to race for the first time his son Harvey who was behind the wheel of his Nurse Stoner 64 Chevy Nova (above right). Both of them previous Gasser Circus Champions, so we knew it should be a good race and so it was with Ray on a 10.91 who would be chasing Harvey on his 11.89. A 0.01 light in Harvey’s lane and an 0.08 in Rays ensured the advantage was with the Nova and as it turned out there was no Father’s Day gift on the track as Harvey took the win.
The two cars virtually guaranteed to pull a wheelie off the line were up next with Sean ‘Chili’ Milsom piloting his Aint Misbehavin Morris van lined up against Steve Matthews in his Honky Tonkin 57 Chevy. On Steve’s back window was a 9.64 whilst Sean had 10.03. A big wheelie from Sean followed but as he left the line he also left behind a red bulb glowing in his lane, Steve taking the win.
Next pairing had the 2022 Gasser Circus Champion Ray Irish taking on Chris Layram in his Outa Gas Pop, 10.60 for Chris and 10.05 for Ray as both cars left we had a green light race and Ray was in hot pursuit, at the line Chris took the win with a 10.66. Final pair up and with no breakages the loneliness of the first alternate was becoming clear. Adam Kruczynski in his Not So Mellow Yellow 55 Chevy performed his burn out, swiftly followed by Simon Glenn in his now blown Sharp Shooter Austin Devon pickup. However, all was not well as Simon’s crew rushed forward to indicate to shut down the Pontiac engine. With copious amounts of water falling from the engine bay. As Simons opportunity to race disappeared so did mine as first alternate as with burnouts complete the chance to take Simon’s place was also gone. Adam sent a solo one down the quartermile running 11.39.
Round 2 Elimination and the first pairing was an all Tri Chevy affair with the 55 of Jason Pickett dialling 10.92 taking on Steve Matthews in his 57 with a 9.66. They produced a green light race which was so close at the finish gantry, with Jason taking the win with a 10.97 to Steve’s 9.72 a 04 win margin.
Chris Layram in Outa Gas Pop had 10.60 on the back of his Pop as he edged toward the line he was joined by his opposition Harvey Turner in his Nova with a dial of 11.93, in another close battle Harvey came out victorious with a 12.01 to Chris’s 10.77.
Simon Prest in his The Rocket Mercury occupied the right lane as he took on Adam in his 55, the bright yellow Tri Chevy brightened up what had become a gloomy afternoon. Adam was not done there though as he added a bit more of a glow only this time from the red light he lit in his lane and Simon progressed another round.
Nick Hewison in his Fordson and John Gibson in his now bonnet less Falcon exited their burnouts at the same time, and headed for the line. A 9.97 was lit up on the gantry next to Nick’s lane and 10.70 in Johns, with John leaving first Nick soon followed but slightly ahead of the lights handing the win to John.
Semi Final time and the final 4 sat at the end of the fire up road ready to do their thing. Up first were John Gibson taking on Simon Prest with John due to leave first, a great side by side race developed with Simon taking the win. John having run spot on his dial in 10.80, but Simon taking it with a hole shot win with a 01 on the lights.
Jason Pickett was sticking with his ultra-successful 10.92 and got ready to take on Harvey who had chosen an 11.98, a short staging duel ensued as both sat in pre stage, but when they activated the tree Harvey jumped the dropping lights to a red and Jason was through to the final where he would take on Simon.
Just after quarter to 4 the two finalists fired their Gassers and left the fire up road, the two friends saying they hoped the other won, yet determined to ensure they took the win for themselves. Keith Williams who had crewed for Jason guided him into the burn out box and Simon keeping it in the family had his sister guide him into his. Jason saved a poor burnout until the final, but still brought his Cherry Bomb 55 Chevy to the line, Simon in his Mercury Comet already waiting for Jason at the line. With .13 between the two dial-ins tension was rising soon followed by their engine revs, Simon rolled the light and with ironically a cherry glowing in his lane handed the win to another, Cherry Bomb and its superb driver Jason Pickett.
An outstanding weekend of Gasser racing drew to a close but what a weekend it had been with 21 gassers on the plot and the best Gasser Circus qualifying ever witnessed, it was a phenomenal show.
The best bit is we get to do it all again at Dragstalgia, as we look forward to that, a few thank you messages are required to all the drivers and their crews that make racing with them so much fun and our sponsors Neil Melliard Modern Lettering, the NSRA, Serck Services, The Rocket Racing Team, Renegade Fuels, Williams Brothers Racing and the crew and staff at Santa Pod for keeping us safe.
Gasser Circus – Racing the Dream.
Swift snippets. 30th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Nostalgia Funny Car crew chief Paul Stubbings, Junior Dragster racer Damion Redshaw and VWSEC racer Jacob Kopasz. We hope you all have a great day.
Many thanks to Drag Race Union committee member Markus Münch for sending us a link to his detailed report on the Clastres European Dragster #21 race. The report is in German and if you have a Chrome browser it can be translated into your language of choice.
Photographer Ashley Booth-Dale has sent a link to his photos from Street Weekend, taken at Melbourne Raceway, which you can see at this link on his Flickr site and here on Facebook.
Stickers for Steven. 29th June:Tim Hailey of Eatmyink and King Racing's Ian King have teamed up to provide some race vehicle stickers for those racers who wish to commemorate our dearly departed friend and photojournalist Steven Moxley.
Stickers will be available from Kathy Taylor in the signing on office from tomorrow at the STP Summer Nationals event at Santa Pod Raceway.
Thanks go to Matt Coulter of Image Worx for the production of the stickers at short notice.
Urgent Summer Nationals request. 29th June:Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall has been in touch with an urgent request for racers at this weekend's STP Summer Nationals, which has a bumper entry of 287 vehicles:
"Could all crew members participating in this weekend's Summer Nationals please make an effort to sign on as early as possible, Friday preferably if you are at the track, this will be a big help for the signing on office; thank you in advance."
Bug Jam entry closing this weekend. 29th June:
Thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for a reminder that this weekend is the closing entry date for Bug Jam to be held at SPR on 21st-23rd July. Ian says "Please get your entries in as soon as possible as space is going to be a premium."
The Bug Jam entry list is at this link on the SPRC website, and you can see details of the event at bugjam.co.uk.
NitrOlympX entry open. 29th June:
A reminder that all entry forms and information for the 2023 event at Hockenheimring from 25th-27th August are available on the event home page at www.Nitrolympx.de.
Online entry should be made at this link (English version available). From this link you will also be able to see on the 'virtual notice board' general information (including entry conditions, crew ticket allocations, commercial rights), pit space and electric hook-up applications, and travel/prize money requirements.
All information is available in English. Class information for Junior Dragster is also there, and as in
2022, there are limited entries so get you entries in ASAP as entry will be first come (with time slips from 2023), first served.
Countdown to BDRHoF Grand Dragstalgia Auction: 7. 29th June:
Following the article posted last Sunday describing the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia taking place at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee over Dragstalgia weekend, 7th-9th July, we present the next four lots for auction:
Lot 13 – Print of Colin Theobald's Camaro
Featuring Colin’s show winning Chevy Camaro ‘Bruce’ expertly captured by photographer Matt Woods, this image comes from a photo shoot and feature for American Car magazine, and measures 120cm wide by 60cm high. It looked good on Colin’s office wall so why wouldn’t it look good on yours?
Lot 14 – Signed Print of Steve Read’s Top Fuel Dragster
The last time BDRHoF member Steve ‘The Pom’ Read sat in a Top Fuel Dragster in anger was in 2014 and to commemorate this fact a limited edition poster of the RSR dragster captured in stunning night time action was produced and signed by multi British, European and Nordic champion, and you could own this poster by placing a bid.
Lot 15 – Ian King Racing Gulf Oil T Shirt, baseball hat and candle
From Europe’s number one Top Fuel Dragbike Team and sponsors Gulf Oils team principal and BDRHoF member Ian King is offering an exclusive team T Shirt featuring a 6 colour design of the 5 second machine ridden by Neil Midgley, a Gulf Oil baseball hat and a unique candle shaped like an oil can!
Lot 16 – 2 American Car Imports start line dress team shirts
Donated by multiple European & British Top Methanol Dragster Champion, and BDRHoF member Dave Wilson, these exclusive button pilot shirts were worn by the American Car Imports Racing crew during season’s 2003 and 2004 and were manufactured for the team by Phoenix Custom Apparel.
How does the auction work? See an item at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee that takes your fancy, then write your bid on the bid sheet for the item at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but the Sale of memorabilia will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
As well as the Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia, there will be a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing - see Sunday's article for full details.
2023 är teamets trettionde år, något lite speciellt och något som känns otroligt: hur har vi blivit så gamla???? När vi började tävla år 1993, åkte vi till tävlingarna med bara en bil, min Camaro, ett slickdäck i bilens lilla bagageutrymme, det andra i baksätet med tältet, verktygslådan på golvet i passagerarutrymmet, och oss två klämda på våra platser med en liten resväska.
När vi var framme, skulle vi förbereda bilen för att tävla, och bilen fick tändstift med högre värme tal, däcken byttes, hela avgassystemet togs bort, förgasaresmunstyickena byttes till större och det högra bakljuset ersattes av en säkerhetsbrytare… det var inte så roligt men vi kände oss lyckliga och så glada för att vi fick tävla. Innan vi kunde åka hem, fick vi göra om allt igen, fast tvärtom, och om vi vann, fick vi göra det sent på kvällen, ofta när det redan var mörkt, med en ficklampa för arrangörerna hade redan släckt lamporna. En gång i en tävling blev det så sent att de till och med stängde grindarna och vi var tvungna att hitta en alternativ väg ut genom fälten runt banan.
1993 blev jag ”rookie of the year” och vann Regionala mästerskapet, och fick andra plats i Nationala mästerskapet, vilket var skönt och oväntat. 1994 blev jag vinnare i Nationala mästerskapet och började tänka att det här var lätt att göra… vi jobbade på bilen och den blev snabbare och snabbare, men med mer kraft kom lite opålitlighet också, och nästa gången vi lyckades vinna ett mästerskap blev 1998. Vi lärde oss att vara tålmodigare, att jobba mer, att aldrig ge upp, och det fungerade. 2002 och 2004 blev vi vinnare igen, och fick en andra plats 2001 och 2003. Vi byggde våra motorer och lärde oss att bygga växellådor, vi modifierade bakaxeln och ändrade differentialens utväxling, och sparade en massa pengar genom att göra allt (eller nästan allt!) själva, och blev stolta över bilen när allt fungerade just som det skulle. Ibland hände det inte, och varje gång blev vi påminda om varför teamet hette Heaven & Hell: helvete betyder att ligga under bilen sent på natten, med växellådsolja som droppar i ögat medan man försöker fixa något som gick fel.
Vi delade körning genom att köra varannan tävling var, och det var bra för enligt de engelska reglerna fick vi tävla som ett team och kunde vinna som ett team, vilket vi gjorde. Men vi alltid ville få en andra bil och köpte Ricks Camaro 2008, och har tävlat med de två bilarna sedan dess. Vi åkte till Tyskland från England och tävlade Pro ET, Super Street, Super Gas och äntligen kom grädden på moset när vi fick tävla Stock / Super Stock i Sverige och Finland, vilket blev anledningen till vår flytt till Sverige år 2015.
Nu trettio år från början, och med många flera mästerskap i England och fyra i Sverige, är det lite svårare att ligga under bilar på nätterna, men det gör vi fortfarande på dagarna, och ibland på kvällarna, och fortsätter tävla i bästa klassen i världen: NHRA Stock / Super Stock.
De tekniska synvinklarna är fascinerande, och vi älskar att lära oss mer och mer om motorer och hur de fungerar och hur man får mer kraft, men den viktigaste anledningen till att vi gillar racing så mycket är människorna vi träffar. Nästan varje tävlande ska hjälpa någon som behöver hjälp, även om han eller hon är den man kommer att köra emot i nästa runda.
2023 började ganska bra, för Rick vann den första tävling i Vårgårda, men Tierp var inte fantastisk, för han förlorade i första rundan och Carla förlorade i andra.
Sista tävlingen som vi körde var Midsommar Festival i Orsa, vid Tallhed Dragway, en liten bana mitt uti i skogen, där vi hade det roligt trots att vi inte vann. Faktiskt, hade vi mycket otur, som började med att vi fick tävla mot varandra i första rundan, sedan förlorade Rick i andra rundan trots att han körde mycket bra, för den andra killen körde ännu bättre. Men vi fick äta och dricka och fira midsommar med våra vänner och medtävlande, och alla hjälpte oss så snart som de såg att vi inte hade något team som följde med. De skulle kunna helt enkelt bara ha tittat och vetat att våra motorer skulle bli varmare och varmare om vi hade behövt köra till startlinjen, men det gjorde de inte. De knuffade våra bilar framåt när vi var fastspända och inte kunde skjuta fram dem själva, trots att det gav oss ett bättre läge att förbättra ET. Det är den sanna betydelsen av sportsmanship. Och det finns så jättemycket av det i dragracing, att man känner sig som om man befinner sig i en stor familj var som helst man tävlar.
Vi skulle vilja tacka alla som hjälpte: Brandt Dragracing, Just In Time Racing, Johan Stam Racing, AE Stock Racing, Jens Söderlund, och även arrangörerna och funktionärerna på Tallhed Dragway, som ständigt och regelbundet informerade oss om tiderna och schema, och Susanna Sundberg, som hjälpte till vid Tierp Arena tävlingen och vid några tävlingar under de senaste två åren. Sist men inte minst, våra brittiska teammedlemmar, som flyger från England för att hjälpa till närhelst det är möjligt: Dave Buckland, Christine Buckland, Grace Roaf and Colin Roaf och Peter Lane, som gett oss lite av sin tid genom åren trots att han hade sin egen racing att ta hand om. Även om vi skulle flytta till Mars kommer ni alltid att vara en del av teamet.
Tackar också alla fotografer som tog bilder av bilarna: Stefan Boman, Patrik Jacobsson, Peter Bohlin, Julian Hunt, Hans Eriksson, Cenneth Schiller, Rob Cox, Jörgen Bergkvist, Elisabeth Viklund, Simon Groves, Tierp Idag, och självklart Eurodragster (tack - Redaktör), det var skönt att få en omedelbar rapport vid Tierp Arenas tävlingen!
Vi ses på nästa tävling!
Heaven & Hell Racing’s Anniversary year! 29th June:
Many thanks to expat Stock Super Stock racer Carla Pittau for sending in an article reflecting on Heaven & Hell Racing's 30 years in drag racing, showing above in Swedish and here a version in English.
2023 is the team’s thirtieth year, something rather special and which feels incredible: how did we get to be this old??? When we started racing in 1993 we used to travel to the races with just one car, my Camaro, with one slick in the tiny trunk, the other on the backseat with the tent, the toolbox in the passenger’s footwell, and the two of us crammed in our seats with a little overnight bag.
When we got there, we had to prepare the car for racing, and we installed spark plugs with higher heat range, swapped the tyres, took off the complete exhaust system, swapped the carburettor jets with bigger ones and the rear right light cluster got replaced by a custom made safety cut off switch assembly… not so much fun but we always felt happy and exhilarated that we got to race. Before we could travel home, of course, we had to do it all again but in reverse, and if we won, we got to do it in late evening, often when it was already dark, and at times with a torch as the officials might have already turned off the lights. One time at a race it got so late that they even shut the front gates and we were forced to find an alternative way out through the fields surrounding the track.
In 1993 I was given the “Rookie of the Year” award, as well as coming second in the National Championship, which was as great as unexpected. In 1994 I won the championship and started to think that it was easy… we worked on the car and it became quicker and quicker, but with more power came also a bit of unreliability, especially when we played with nitrous oxide, and the next time we managed to win a championship was in 1998. We learned to be more patient, to work hard, and to never give up, and it worked. We won the National Championship again in 2002 and in 2004, and got second place in 2001 and 2003.
We built our engines, and learned to build and modify transmissions, we modified the rear axle and changed the gearing, and saved a lot of money in the process as we did almost all work on the car ourselves, which made us even prouder when all worked just as it should. At times it didn’t happen, and each time we were reminded of the reason for the name of the team: hell is when you lie under the car late at night with transmission fluid dripping in your eye while you try to fix something that went wrong.
We shared the driving by alternately doing every other meeting, and it was good that the English rules allowed us to race as a team and could win as a team, which we did. But we always wanted to get a second car, and finally acquired Rick’s car in 2008, and have raced with two cars since. We travelled to Germany several times and raced in Pro ET, Super Street and Super Gas, and finally we got to put the cherry on the cake and race in Stock / Super Stock in Sweden and Finland, which also became the cause of our move to Sweden in 2015.
Now, thirty years from the start of our adventure, and with many more championships in England and four in Sweden, it’s a little harder to lie under cars at night, but we still do it during the day and sometimes in the evening, and continue to race in the best class in the world: NHRA Stock / Super Stock.
The technical aspects are fascinating, and we love to learn more about the motors (which we didn’t originally build but have since rebuilt and/or modified) and how to get more power, but the most important reason why we love racing is the people we meet. Almost every racer will help anyone that needs it, even if he or she will drive against them in the next round.
2023 started rather well, as Rick won the first meeting in Vårgårda, but Tierp was not fantastic, as he lost in the first round and I lost in the second.
The last race we did was the Midsummer Festival in Orsa, Tallhed Dragway, a little track in the forest in the gorgeous Dalarna region, where we had a lovely time although we didn’t win. In fact, we had bad luck, as we got to race each other in the first round, and then Rick lost in the second despite driving well, as the other guy drove better. But we got to eat and drink and celebrate midsummer with our friends and fellow competitors, and all helped us as soon as they saw that we had no crew with us. They could have just looked and known that our engines would get warmer and warmer if we had to drive them to the start line, but they didn’t. They pushed our cars when we were strapped in and unable to do it ourselves despite that fact that in our class performance is crucial and that they were giving us the opportunity of squeezing an extra couple of hundredths from our ET. This is true sportsmanship. And there is so much of that in drag racing, that we feel at home wherever we race.
We would like to thank all who helped: Brandt Dragracing, Just in Time Racing, Johan Stam Racing, AE Stock Racing, Jens Söderlund, and organisers and crew at Tallhed Dragway, who regularly kept us informed, and Susanna Sundberg, who is part of our Swedish crew and helped at Tierp Arena and at various meetings in the last two years. Last but by no means least, our English crew, who flies over to help whenever possible: Dave and Christine Buckland, Grace and Colin Roaf, and Peter Lane, who gave us some of his time over the years despite having his own racing to take care of.
Thank you also to all photographers who took pictures of our cars: Stefan Boman, Patrik Jacobsson, Peter Bohlin, Julian Hunt, Hans Eriksson, Cenneth Schiller, Rob Cox, Jörgen Bergkvist, Elisabeth Viklund, Simon Groves, Tierp Idag, and finally Eurodragster (thanks - Ed), it was nice to get an instant report when racing at Tierp Arena!
Swift snippets. 29th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Super Pro ET racer and Feltham Urban Car Club founding member Phil Toppin, Gonzo The Great Topolino driver Alan Lloyd, and Association Trophée Dragster organiser and racer Eric Angeloni. Have a great day guys.
For a great article on the start of Australian Outlaw Anglia sensation John Willard's UK visit, including several photos by our Julian, go to this link on dragnews.com.au.
Dutch dominate Sports Compact Shootout. 28th June:
Two unheralded Dutch racers came across the English Channel and took the prize fund of £750 winner and £250 runner up in the 15 car Sports Compact Shootout at Santa Pod's Fast Show Reloaded last Sunday. Running under the banner of DJP Motorsport, Dustin Karelse (AWD Honda Civic EH B20 Turbo) and Joey Franse (AWD Mitsubishi Evo) had competed at Clastres in 2021 but we cannot recall seeing these names in competition at Santa Pod.
After some tune-up runs in Saturday's RWYB, including a 8.9966 ET and a 163.06 mph speed, Dustin, whose 1000hp Honda was built by Reandly Winklaar from Sneaky Tuning in Almere, Netherlands, went into qualifying against some established FWD names, some of whom had run in the nines. Dustin qualified #1 with a 9.1313/161.90 whereas Joey, remotely tuned from Dubai by Jerry Ace of Ace-Motorsports, Zaandam, Netherlands, was second with 9.7792/149.17. All 11 other qualifiers ran 10s or slower in the baking conditions.
In eliminations, Dustin had a bye in round one, then Joey had a single as Connor Edwards was unable to make the call after diff damage in Q2. In round 2, Dustin ran one of his best runs with a 9.0114/161.35 over Scott Lewry who reported temperature related tuning problems.
The semi finals continued the Dutch dominance, with Joey running his best 9.5094/151.11 over Luke White running a mid 10. Dustin continued his relentless progress with a 9.0628/161.91 over Ian Pepper's 10.2933/142.07. The final went to form with Dustin running a 9.0236/161.92 over Joey's 9.9905/149.06.
Doubtless there will be discussions over whether the AWD/RWD handicap of 0.8s should be reinstated, but the consistency of the Dutch duo in the conditions is to be admired.
Photo credit: Santa Pod Raceway.
STP Summer Nationals Perfect Awards. 28th June:£225 is up for grabs at this weekend's STP Summer Nationals courtesy of Eurodragster.com and our sponsors.
This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been increased to £75 after it was went unclaimed at the STP Sportsman Nationals. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds.
The Perfect Light Award is available in all classes during both qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the event.
The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with Cath and Tig Napier of Modurstang Pro ET team Bad Habit Racing.
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect Light Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available
in Signing On or from Eurodragster.com staff.
The Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supported by Andy Hadfield and the Twister Race Team has been reset to £50 after it was won by 7.60 Heads Up racer Mark Turner at the STP Sportsman Nationals. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to run +0.000 on index or dial-in. The Perfect
ET Award is available in Peter Nee Super Pro ET, Modurstang Pro ET, B Fast R Super Comp, Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas, Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster, Springbridge Direct Wild Bunch, VW Sportsman, VW Pro, JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike, Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike, Blood Cancer UK ET Bike and Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike,
but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield of the Twister Race Team in memory of his late wife Hayley.
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect ET Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are
available in Signing On or from Eurodragster.com staff.
Bob's Photo Finish Award, which is presented in association with Eurodragster.com sponsor Bob Roberts, will award
£50 each to the racers involved in the closest finish of a green light and non-breakout race of eliminations at this weekend's event. At the FIA/FIM-E Main Event, the Award was won by Modurstang Pro ET racers Warren Watts and Daniel Fulton with a finish line margin of 0.0014 seconds or 3.34 inches.
The closest race will be decided upon distance rather than time since, for example, 0.001 seconds at 230 mph is further than 0.002
seconds at 110 mph. For this reason the official timing data will need to be consulted so the winners will be announced here on Eurodragster.com
as soon as possible after the event and the winners will then be contacted for their preferred method of payment. The award will be paid on green light drag races only, and not on bracket races where there is a breakout.
Bob's Photo Finish Award is open to all classes during eliminations only and although Eurodragster.com decals are not mandatory we would
appreciate if it they are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available in Signing On.
Countdown to BDRHoF Grand Dragstalgia Auction: 8. 28th June:
Following the article posted on Sunday describing the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia taking place at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee over Dragstalgia weekend, 7th-9th July, we present the next four lots for auction:
Lot 9 – Limited edition framed Allard Dragster Print signed by Nick Mason
This limited edition framed print of Sydney Allard’s dragster was the first commissioned print for the Allard Chrsyler Action Group restoration project that got artist Paul Whitehouse recognised in the sport of drag racing. Although the print isn’t of any particular image it does fit in with the 1963 SEMA Challenge 60 year celebrations with the chasing Mooneyes dragster of Dean Moon in the background and could almost have been inspired by one of the races that took place at RAF Debden that year. Certified and signed by Alan Allard the print is also signed by ACAG patron and former Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. This is print number 10 of 100 produced.
Lot 10 - Limited edition framed Pegasus print
This unique framed image of Pegasus is a digital composite made up from eight separate photographs blended together in Photoshop, and started life as a simple screensaver. This is #1 of a very limited print run; an everlasting memory of one of British drag racings iconic drag bikes from the team of BDRHoF members Derek Chinn & Ian Messenger.
Lot 11 - Jon Morton Print
Last year we lost our dear friend and BDRHoF member Jon Morton. Inspired from photographs taken by Jon Spoard and Callum Pudge this digital ‘cartoon’ image was created by Graham ‘Durbie’ Durbridge and commissioned by Dave Gibbons and Tony ‘Chunky’ Morris, and it’s thanks to their company – TMC with RDR Performance Carburetors– that we have this amazing image up for auction at this year’s Dragstalgia. In addition to the print, Graham has also added a hi-res file on to a memory stick of the Jon Morton cartoon for the successful bidder to use as they wish.
Lot 12 - Tee-Rat Painting
We are indebted to top British drag racing artist Paul Whitehouse for the donation of his original framed painting of BDRHoF member Dave Stone at the wheel of the legendary and iconic British altered ‘Tee-Rat’ captured in oils, and in full anger at Santa Pod in 1974 from a Donald Cross photo. Inspired by the Fuel Altered shows at Blackbushe and Santa Pod brought back memories for artist Paul of Shutdown, Sneaky T, Aardvark and or course Tee Rat in some of British drag racing’s most entertaining duals over the quarter mile, and you could have this painting on your wall at home by placing a bid in this year’s BDRHoF silent auction taking place at Dragstalgia on Saturday July 8th.
How does the auction work? See an item at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee that takes your fancy, then write your bid on the bid sheet for the item at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but the Sale of memorabilia will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
As well as the Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia, there will be a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing - see Sunday's article for full details.
Helloil Midsummer Festival 2023, Tallhed Dragway. 28th June:
After rain brought an early end to the eliminations of the Tierp Internationals, several racers immediately headed to Tallhed Dragway for the next round of the Summit Racing EDRS Series, the Helloil Midsummer Festival, write Remco Scheelings.
"The drivers and riders got their revenge on the weather as they got plenty of track time with many qualifying runs and after several great elimination rounds, the winners were awarded with trophies and championship points on Sunday afternoon."
You can read Remco's report on the Helloil Midsummer Festival race at this link on www.dragracingeurope.eu. Detailed results can be seen at this link on www.dragracing.eu (search Helloil Midsummer).
The EDRS Points have been updated following the first six events of the season including the Helloil Midsummer Festival and you can see the current standings at this link on www.dragracingeurope.eu.
Photo credit: Inge Bjermeland
Swift snippets. 28th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Junior Dragster racer Jacqueline Bartlett, Super Pro ET crew chief Babs Saunders, former Super Twin and Slingshot racer Ian Turburville, 8.50 Bike racer Craig Wright, Danish Pro Modified-racer-still-in-waiting Mike Reymond, and Maltese Funny Bike racer Glenn Borg. We hope you all have a fantastic day.
Graham Sykes has announced that the “Force of Nature” Steam Rocket Bike will be making an appearance on the track at Dragstalgia on Friday 7th July around 7.30pm to close the show. Graham said "This is the first time a steam rocket has run at Santa Pod Raceway." Graham's record runs are attracting the attention of the media and you can read an article from the Northern Echo at this link.
Dragstalgia is just over one week away, so attention turns to the annual Fire Burnouts and Cracklefest on Saturday evening! This is your opportunity to get involved!
The Cracklefest is open to any entered racer at Dragstalgia. If you want to be involved with Fire Burnouts, your vehicle will need to be front-engined, rear wheel drive and have open rear wheels.
To register your interested in either, please get in touch with Max at the office at [email protected].
Racers: the deadline for entries for Dragstalgia is this Friday, 30th June. Don't miss out! You can enter by clicking here.
Countdown to BDRHoF Grand Dragstalgia Auction: 9. 26th June:
Following the article posted yesterday describing the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia taking place at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee over Dragstalgia weekend, 7th-9th July, we present the next four lots for auction:
Lot 5 - Revell 1:25th scale model kit of Warren Johnson’s GMC Performance Parts Pro Stock Oldsmobile
It takes 109 pieces to build a detailed model of 1993 NHRA Pro Stock Champion Warren Johnson’s legendary Oldsmobile Cutlass which in real life, ran impressive times 7.027 seconds in the quarter mile and 196.24 mph.
Lot 6 - John Force Signed Blower Belt
Donated to the auction by international photojournalist Andy Willsheer, this genuine blower belt was given to Andy by John ‘The Brute’ Force while visiting the multi-time NHRA Funny Car champ’s Californian headquarters in 2004. It is thought that the belt came off one of John’s world beating Castrol sponsored Funny Cars. What a piece of drag racing history. Also comes with a letter of authentication.
Lot 7 – When The Light Turns Green Book by Tom Murphy
This complete guide to building and operating high-performance drag racing motorcycles includes information on building and maintaining the engine, fuel system, electrical system, and gearing, published in the 90s in softback format. If you’re into drag bikes then it’s worth a look!
Lot 8 – A Guide to Motorcycle Drag Racing book by Mike Nelson
Produced in the early 90s this soft back will teach you all the set up techniques to racing a competitive drag bike and much more. This book was written with the notion that many people were missing out on the fun of working on and experimenting with their motorcycles.
See an item at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee that takes your fancy, then write your bid on the bid sheet for the item at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but the Sale of memorabilia will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
As well as the Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia, there will be a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing - see yesterday's article for full details.
Pro ET party in the pits this Saturday. 27th June:
Thanks to Modurstang Pro ET co-ordinator Brett Featherstone for sending us an announcement of a party on Saturday night:
Just a quick note to everybody who is going to the Summer Nationals this weekend. Pro ET has its usual party in the pits - everyone is welcome.
Thanks to all the amazing support from our class sponsors this year:
B&H construction, Bean&Ballantyne, Jon Turner Upholstery, Modurstang, Nemesis UK, Maverick Diagnostics, Hauser Racing, CSK Building, Independent Scaffolding, Supercharged Outlaws UK, SG Commercials Vehicle Repairs, S.I.B. Plumbing, Three Brothers Brewery, Tig and Cath Napier, TMC and RDR Performance Carburettors, UK Scaffolding and VP Racing Fuels.
We are pleased to announce the band that will play for everyone is WOOD BURNT RED, a country rock band with a hint of drag race history. Please give them a warm Santa Pod welcome.
Be fast and safe, Brett and Debs.
Clastres 21 in the books. 27th June:
Drag Race Union committee member Markus Münch was at Clastres Dragway for the Association Trophee Dragster event last weekend and, as he writes, he had a ball:
Clastres 21 is in the books. Great racing from drivers out of France, England, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain
The classes that were run were Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Street Run (Sportsman ET), Super Gas, Super Comp, Junior Dragster and a RWYB Field.
A detailed race report will follow. It was very hot, 30 plus degrees without clouds; the racing was also very hot and close. Fabien Dubois from France in his red Milwawkee sponsored Dragster won Super Pro ET, Laurent Levi from France in his nice Gasser won Pro ET, Marianne Wisotzke from Germany won Super Gas, Gerd Habermann from Germany won Super Comp. Junior Dragster was won by Jonah Dormoy from France and Street Run was won by French Nicolas Chevassus.
Pictured: Fabien Dubois, Laurent Levi, Marc Schön licencing in his dragster (a former TF chassis with a blown methanol engine), Marianne Wisotzke, Gerd Habermann and Jonah Dormoy. All pics by Markus.
Clastres is always worth a trip. Ask the Clarks, the Huxleys, the Moldens or the Mercers... and all the others. The next race in Clastres (and their season finale - Ed) is end of July. Do yourself a favour and travel. The mobile bakery and their croissants and pain chocolat in the morning are worth the travel.
Markus's gallery of 270 pictures can be seen at this link.
Congratulations to Sébastien Lajoux for resetting the Clastres track record in Super Pro ET by running 6.647/333.62 (207.30mph).
Street Weekend videos. 27th June:
Many videos of Street Weekend are being posted to social media. We highlight five more of the SW vlog postings to Youtube below:
Kieran has posted his Top 10 Moments from the event at his Mk1 Kieran Youtube channel. He says "I think it's safe to say that Street Weekend 2023 lived up to it's expectations, for many this will now be the highlight event of the year with so many great stories coming from this year's event." Kieran himself does the voice-over with his customary knowledge of the racers featured. Over the next few days Kieran will also release his on-track footage from each particular day.
Next up is European FWD whose admin, SPR commentator Luke Stevenson took videos of a wide variety of cars at both tracks and was also with Carl Goldsmith in his VW Corrado, taking footage from the road trip as well as at the track.
Four videos posted are principally vlogs on a small group of racers or one team. Code Red Racing is the Chevrolet Belair of Robert Slater who posted footage of his journey together with some footage of fellow Tri Chevys of Andy Bond and Graham Smith. You can see Robert's footage at this link.
Motor Addicts is a Youtube Channel with a healthy following and their Owen Forrest was competing in a 1000BHP LSQ4 Turbo Swapped Datsun 280Z. Part 1 can be seen at this link and we are promised Part 2, with some dramas, soon.
Nightmaro, a social media channel we are unfamiliar with, has driver Scott Barmby behind the wheel of a 79 Chevy Camaro z28, however not goes to plan with fuelling problems on the road and at Melbourne, and the car with Scott's commentary can be seen at this link in a series of videos.
Finally, Mini owner Adam Campion and his friend Alex set out to compete in Street Weekend. He said "It may not be a week long like in the United States, Sweden or Australia. But it was the best thing I've ever done in a car!" Adam conveys the joy of competing in the event on his video at this link.
Street Weekend not only encouraged participation from those new to drag racing, it was a challenge for established teams, and the spirit of enthusiasm and camaraderie comes over in all these well edited and produced videos, not to mention the ever-present pineapple. We look forward to next year's event.
Swift snippets. 27th June:
Happy Birthday for today to BDRHoF crew member and Top Methanol crew member Glen Read, former 9.50 Bike racer Paul Furlong, and Nissan GTR racer Mark Moseley. We hope you all have a great day.
Lot 1 – NHRA Motorsports Museum Picnic Backpack (pictured right)
Everyone has a picnic now again whether it’s at a drag race or car show. You could stand out from the crowd with the official NHRA Museum Picnic Backpack. Comes with glasses, plates etc for two - in fact the usual items found in any picnic set although this one comes for the official NHRA Motorsports Museum logo.
Lot 2 – Hot Rod Dreams Book (pictured left)
HOT ROD DREAMS – Car Shows and Culture tells the sensational story of how indoor hot rod shows changed America and taught the world to love hot rods, customs and the people who built them. Written by Larry Erickson & David Boulé, and accompanied with a Foreword penned by ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons the publication features 350 photographs many of which have never been published before and comes signed by the co-writers.
Lot 3 – Signed, numbered and framed pencil print of Viveca Averstedt’s Valvoline Top Fuel Dragster (pictured right)
Produced in the early 90s by artist Tony Parsons, this is one of two other pencil prints featuring the Valvoline Top Fuel Dragster of Sweden’s Vivica Averstedt, which was available through the Drag Racing Nuts stand at Santa Pod. This is the third of 200 prints produced, and is also signed by the artist.
Lot 4 – AMT 1:25th scale model kit of Don Garlits Wynns Charger (pictured left)
Rereleased over 10 years ago, this kit is a replica of the dragster Don Garlits raced at the Drag Festivals in 1964. Fully detailed, the model comes with transparent body panels should you want to be different and reveal the chassis or can be painted on the inside in that rich gloss black that made all of Garlits’ dragsters the most feared. The model comes with a display plinth as well as a detailed decal sheet carrying the famous US Tour Team logos.
The Auction is silent: see an item at the BDRHoF's pitside marquee that takes your fancy, and you can write your bid on the bid sheet at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but our Sale will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
As well as the Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia, there will be a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing - see yesterday's article for full details.
MPH Vintage Sprint galleries. 26th June:
Thanks to former editor Tog who attended the first MPH Vintage Sprint at Deenethorpe Airfield Corby and has supplied us with two photo galleries, one on-track and the other pits, return road and show field.
Tog writes: "This was the first running of the eighth-mile MPH Vintage Sprint at RAF Deenethorpe and I don’t see any reason to think it won’t happen again next year. It was an enjoyable event in glorious weather with full take-up of racer places, with some familiar faces and vehicles, and a large contingent of show cars and bikes. First-running rough edges were minimal and easily smoothed. The organisers are to be congratulated on achieving their goal of an old-time grass-roots event at the first attempt."
Entry for Summit Racing Equipment Internationals now open. 26th June:
Thanks to Kjell Petterson for letting us know that entry for the Summit Racing Equipment Internationals taking place at Tierp Arena, Sweden, from August 10th to 13th is open on www.dragracing.eu (click on photo).
Invited classes are:
FIA: Top Fuel Dragster, Top Methanol Dragster, Top Methanol Funny Car, Pro Modified Car, Pro Stock Car
FIM-E/Pro Nordic Bike Drag Racing Championship: Top Fuel Bike, Super Twin Motorcycle, Pro Stock Motorcycle, Super Street Bike
Summit Racing EDRS Series sportsman cars: Top Doorslammer, Competition Eliminator, Stock/Super Stock, Pro Street (7.60), Super Comp, Super Street, Super Gas, Super Pro ET (Summit Racing Super Series Pre qualified only), Pro ET (Summit Racing Super Series Pre qualified only), Street (8.60), Junior Dragster
Summit Racing EDRS Series sportsman bikes: Super Comp Bike, Super Gas Bike, Junior Dragbike
Full instructions can be downloaded in pdf format from this link. Note that the closing date for entries at normal fee is 13th July.
Swift snippets. 26th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Santa Pod Track & Events Coordinator Dan Melrose, 8.50 Bike racer Alex Gordon, Top Fuel Bike racer Peter Ström and former Top Fuel tuner Eddie Corr. We hope you all have a great day.
Well done to Damion Redshaw of the Odyssey Battery Junior Dragster team for becoming runner-up at the Clastres 21st European Dragster race at the weekend. In a close race Damion lost out by 0.08s.
BDRHoF's 2023 Grand Dragstalgia Auction. 25th June:
The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame is delighted to announce its 2023 Grand Auction and Sale of Drag Racing and Hot Rod memorabilia taking place over Dragstalgia weekend, 7th-9th July. Not only that, but in a special addition to our annual programme, we are privileged to host a unique display of three vintage trophies harking back to the earliest days of British drag racing, undoubtedly seen together for the very first time. We shall be located as usual in the Historic Marquee near Santa Pod’s pitside grandstand.
This year’s Auction again offers an array of classic American quarter-mile artefacts collected by Tony Thacker. Major UK donations include a Paul Whitehouse Art oil painting of BDRHoF Member Dave Stone at full chat in the legendary Altered Tee Rat and a Graham Durbridge cartoon of much missed racer and BDRHoF Member Jon Morton commissioned by Dave Gibbons and Tony Morris.
Then there’s a host of books, posters, t-shirts, crew shirts, signed racing parts, signed limited-edition prints and more, all kindly donated to help raise essential funds for the Hall of Fame. And alongside the Auction we also have our Sale. There’s plenty to rivet the attention of anyone with an eye for drag racing and its storied past. We shall publicise details of individual items daily between now and then.
The Auction is silent. See an item that takes your fancy and you can write your bid on the bid sheet at any time and raise it as often as you want if you find someone else outbidding you. The Auction runs on Friday from 2pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am, closing at 5pm when successful bidders will be notified by text. Winners can pay for and collect their items up to 6pm that day or on Sunday till 4pm.
There will be no Auction on Sunday but our Sale will continue on all three days. Credit card payments are accepted for Auction and Sale purchases.
Our trophy display is something special. Pride of place, in its 60th anniversary year, goes to the SEMA Challenge Trophy, dedicated in 1963 by America’s then-Speed Equipment Manufacturing Association to the winner of the first AA/Fuel Dragster race series to be held on UK soil and involving Americans Dante Duce and Mickey Thompson and ‘the father of British drag racing’, Sydney Allard. Awarded to Allard, the SEMA Trophy is now in the possession of the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, to whom we are grateful for its appearance here this weekend.
Displayed alongside the SEMA Trophy are the Hot Rod & Custom Funny Car Eliminator Trophy presented in 1980 to the winner of Santa Pod’s World Finals Funny Car race – the only 16-car nitro-fuelled field ever assembled outside North America – and repatriated recently from the USA by Matt Seamarks; and the Gosporteers Challenge Trophy originally presented in 1971 at a BDR&HRA on-tour meeting held at Gosport, Hampshire, and thereafter for the next 20 years to points leaders, ending up in 1991 with Stephanie Milam. We are grateful to Matt and to Stephanie for the loan of their trophies for this most significant occasion.
During the lead up time to Dragstalgia we will be highlighting all of this year’s auction items here on Eurodragster as well as the BDRHoF Facebook page and web site (newly refreshed by Pete Walters - Ed).
The Dragstalgia Grand Auction takes place with the kind permission of Santa Pod Raceway. The Hall of Fame is indebted to all those who have so kindly donated items.
Over the countdown to Dragstalgia for next 10 days we will be displaying on Eurodragster.com items to be auctioned, with descriptions of their origin and why they are unique. Be sure to come back daily to see the many and varied lots.
Street Weekend on the road gallery. 25th June:
Many thanks to photographers who, as part of race teams in Street Weekend, captured pictures and sent them to us. We have gathered the photos in a gallery which credits the individual photographers.
The photographers supplying shots are Mackenzie Kelly from Andy Bond's team, Bradley Haywood whose shots include Mark Bracking's Pop which won Melbourne Raceway's Best Appearing trophy, graduating student in photography
Roxanne McCarthy, Kai McSweeney from Al McSweeney's team and Ford Mustang racer Rhys Griffiths.
M&M Racing's 7.60 Sportsman Nationals adventures . 25th June:
Many thanks to Dave Turner, crew member on the M&M Racing Toyota Supra with brother Mark Turner driving, for sending in a report on their STP Sportsman Nationals, racing in 7.60 Heads Up:
Following the highs and lows of the Festival of Power and the rebuild that ensued, we had set our
sights on getting the car race ready for the first round of the new 7.60 Heads Up championship for
this year. This is a class that we have looked to compete in since first hearing about it from Jeff and
Belinda Bull last year and where we made it to the semis of the class's first running at last year’s
Greenlight Nationals despite struggling to hit the numbers. This year Mark had different plans, and
with the winter upgrades we knew we would be in the hunt.
Though we had run the engine up before the event in Mark and Michelle’s garage (they have great
neighbours) Mark and Rob wanted to double-check everything with the new combination and run it
past expert eye of Richard Walters.
Q1, plan for Q1 was for the first run to be a half-track checkout pass, see what difference the reduced
boost from the blower was going to make, we can’t say it was a perfect run, the car was huntng
more than we would like and Mark said it was hard to hold on the line, at the hit the Supra drove out
of the groove and Mark ended up fighting it all the way to the 1/8th, seeing the car get to within a foot
or so of the wall wasn’t fun to watch on the start line! (click on image for clip of run).
Q2, after checking over the car to we were all happy after Q1’s adventure, car fired like a dream (I
was getting the hang of bottle feeding the injector) Kieran lined Mark up for the burnout in the left
lane with Darren Peart in the Wildcat Cortina in the right lane, great burnout, but then as I stood in
front of the car Mark was gesturing that the car wouldn’t go back, looked like the transbrake had
failed, we pushed back with help from the startline guys and did the pre-run checks all was good
motor was idling at 2100rpm so no hunting, I beckoned Mark into stage and he pulled a great
impromptu footbrake launch, car ran straight and sounded strong recording a perfect 7.6006 et at
171mph. what a run, we couldn’t quite believe it after all the off season work and, with the issues at
Easter, we were ecstatic, hugs all round on the start and in the collection area at the end of the track
with everyone offering congratulations, our first No1 qualifier. Well done to Darren and team on their
off the trailer 7.81 great first pass in a new class. For a clip of the run,
click here.
Q4, we sat out Q3 and with the changing air (it was hot) we made changes to the Ɵming map for this
one, lining up against Billy Gane is always fun even in qualifying. due to our transbrake failure we had
to change our start line procedures returning to a static burnout (no reverse) and also how Mark
staged the car as he was totally reliant on the foot brake to stage and launch the car however to run
the timing map he would have to press the transbrake button to start the timing map well he did that
but momentarily forgot to release the button the car stayed on the rev limiter, causing a slight
stumble off the start (brain fade for Mark). However in what would have been a really tight race
Mark ran a wandering 7.74 to Billy’s 7.81, Mark taking the stripe by 0.007! (click on image for clip of run)
Saturday night servicing entailed carefully checking the car and engine over (valve lash and oil
change and check the chassis).
Round 1, We had a bye in round 1 Sunday morning thanks to No1 qualifier, Mark was told to send it
as we needed the data, which he duly did resulting in a 7.80 at 175mph. this meant a semi final
match up with Billy Gane who had seen off Rocket Ron Bartlett who ran an epic 7.93 in the Sweet FA
105 Anglia.
Semi final, for the semi the decision was made to remove the timing map and therefore the need for
the transbrake button, this meant another different staging procedure for Mark! So after the burnout
the motor rpm was checked and found to be spot on the Supra moved forward into stage and waited
for the green then we aren’t quite sure what happened but Mark whether the car lurched or Mark
released the brake too soon (Billy gets in his head) but he managed to leave before the tree had run
leaving a big red on the bottom bulb on, Gutted we collected a sheepish Mark from the top end and
started to prepare for home (click on image for clip of run).
So now we prepare for the next round of 7.60 Heads Up at Bug Jam, in the knowledge that we have a
car that can run the numbers, now we need fix the trans brake and send the driver for therapy to get
Billy Gane out of his head. Thanks to Jeff and Belinda Bull for creating the 7.60 Heads Up
championship, it is turning into a great class to race in and is attracting some great teams to try
Heads Up racing from Comp Eliminator and Super Pro.
Thanks as ever to all from Mark and Michelle to the crew, Rob and Shelly, Dave, Kieran T, Kieran B and
John Wright, thanks to Richard Walters for the setup guidance and also to sponsors AD Coach
Systems, Ellisons Hire, MotorMax Camera Solutions, Ade Cookson Engineering and Gmax for their
support.
As a little side note I checked the Pro Street (the class 7.60 Heads Up is based on) qualifying in Tierp
the same weekend and the 7.6006 would of put us on top there too. (Entry is open for Tierp August - Ed)
Swift snippets. 25th June:
Happy Birthday to Swedes Marie Selander, marshal at Tierp Arena, and Kent Eriksson, crewman and direction-pointer for Michael Malmgren, Finnish Photographer Pasi Uponen, Maltese Rotary Mk1 Escort exponent Gary Camilleri and Force of Nature steam powered rocket bike rider Graham Sykes (who ran to a quarter mile 7.61/148 at Cambeltown yesterday backed up by a 7.37/144) celebrating his 60th. We hope you all have a great day.
Deenethorpe Vintage Sprint tomorrow. 24th June:
Organised by new company MPH Vintage Sprint Limited, the Deenethorpe Vintage Sprint takes place at Deenethorpe Airfield tomorrow.
There will be almost 100 pre-1949 vintage cars and pre-1969 bikes taking part in an event whose aim is to reproduce the days of early Drag and Sprint racing like they held in California back in the days after the Second World War. There will be prizes for the fastest car and bike as well as grudge races between competitors.
Deenethorpe Airfield, also known as RAF Deenethorpe, was used by the United States Army Air Forces Eighth Air Force in WW2, used by the 401st Bombardment Group. The racing will take place at the southern end of the original south westerly runway, with a racers pit area on the apron, an additional showground for cars that are not racing, along with various vendors and music, making for a great family day.
Whilst competitor entry is sold out, spectators and crew members can buy general admission tickets at £10, plus £1 booking fee, by clicking here. You can reach Deenethorpe Airfield, also known as RAF Deenethorpe at Oundle Road, Corby Northampton NN17 3AN.Please enter the event where you see the M.P.H. flags and not any other entrance. Marshals will be on hand to give competitors directions.
Gates will open for racers at 07:30, with scrutineering between 08.00 to 10.00. General admission opens at 09:00 and racing starts at 10:00 and goes on to 17:00.
More details can be found on the MPH Vintage Sprint website. Former editor Tog will be attending to photograph the event for our gallery to be posted after the event.
Crew Killer at Doorslammers. 24th June:
Eurodragster.com sponsor John Tebenham has with the assistance of videographer Simon Letkey, put together a vlog of his Crew Killer Pop at Doorslammers which you can see by clicking here.
Included are track and pit footage. We are promised more videos coming soon including the Fabulous Lightning McQueen Pro Mod at Doorslammers, and the Ford Pop at the Main Event. Hit that subscribe button, and the notification bell, so you dont miss the next video.
Swift snippets. 24th June:Glad midsommar! to all our friends in Sweden who are celebrating the longest day of the year.
Happy Birthday for today to Swedish former Pro Modified racer Matts Logren, and belated birthday greetings for yesterday to Nissan GTR racer Ian Cleminshaw. We hope you are having, or had, a fantastic day.
Pro ET Junior Comp dragster racer and Junior Dragster crew chief Nick Mugridge has posted the latest in a series of videos analysing his and brother Luke's racing weekends, the latest covering the Festival of Power from Santa Pod Raceway. You can see Nick's videos at this link.
If you are thinking of buying a drag car, go to our Unusual Car Sales page brought to you in association with Nigel Taylor and sponsored by Jeff Bull Race Engines. Latest postings include the Hayling Garage Pro ET Plymouth Duster and Lee Pike's Honky Tonkin' II Chevy Nova.
In Leeks Landscapes Funny Bike, at this event t refuge for Super Street Bike racers, the four bikes present had five qualifying rounds, with Lorcan Parnell coming out on top with a 6.9624/188.22, ahead of Dave Peters' 7.5738/180.63, new boy Ryan Davidson who ran his first seven on Phil Crossley's former machine, 7.9942/171.74. Jordan Kenway trailed at 8.7440/147.70. The road to the final followed these performances and Dave Peters won his third race of the season with 7.7477 177.14 as Lorcan Parnell ran into more mechanical issues and didn't reach the startline. You can read a detailed account of Lorcan's race weekend on the Storm Drag Bike Facebook page.
Suzukiperformancespares.co.uk Comp Bike had 17 bikes attempted to qualify for the 16 bike ladder, with Graham Dance coming out on top with 7.4331/198.01. Dave Smith was in his second event of the year after the Festival of Power and qualified second with 7.4873/199.00.
Well done to Adam Burns for running a new PB of 7.7326/184.36 in qualifying, running two sevens in eliminations as well. Adam wrote that in the run-up to the event the MIB team had installed a new head gasket and a completely new engine cooling system. However performance was hampered by shifter issues which Adam thinks are now solved.
In the final, although Jake Mechaell was first over the line after running a pair of 6.9s and a 7.1, his run was disqualified and Dave Smith, who had been ultra consistent running 7.3s to defeat Anna Sasiak, Paul Hambidge and Mark Dainty, was adjudged the winner.
Also of note in Comp Bike was Pete Field, not on his previous Super Street Bike but a brand new build with a Maxxecu controller, the new bike only on its third pass ran a 7.954/177.13 in a losing round 1 effort against Paul Hambidge. To see more, go to his team Facebook page Triple P turbos.
JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike was very tight as usual.
Winner Brad Head posted:"Wow what a weekend! Zero to hero! The weekend started well, at the test day I ran a 8.51 and decided to park it for the rest of the day. Qualifying however was a completely different story no matter how much power I was taking out I just couldn’t get in the 8.50 index running a 8.47, 8.41, 8.49 and an aborted run due to blowing the clutch away due to a knackered fibre! So I had qualified last which was rather deflating and would make elims day much harder for me! Note to self, going forward just get the bike in the index, no matter what, rather than trying to hit the number!
"Elims day dawned and I had last years champ Dan De'ath, always a tough competitor, especially on the tree. I knew I had to cut a light if I had any chance of winning and I did an 0.02 to Dan's 0.04 we had a great race to the stripe with me taking the win at the end by 0.06.
"Next up was Stacey Reed who had been on it all weekend, qualifying right up there and taking out the current championship leader in the previous round! Once again I had Stacey on the tree my 0.08 to her 0.12 gave me the upper hand at the stripe with me taking the holeshot win by 0.02 at the finish a lot closer than I’d have liked it but onto the semis! Where we faced team mate Craig Wright who had also been on it all weekend hitting a perfect run in quali and really getting to grips the bike!
"Once again close on the tree with my 0.06 to Craig’s 0.08, another close run to the stripe with me taking the win by 0.03 at the finish. Onto the finals and a really quick turnaround due to incoming weather. We faced Ian Chrichlow who once again had been on it all day cutting some mega lights and being bang on the index. once again I had Crich on the tree my 0.06 to his 0.07 he was then ahead most of the way and broke out 8.46 to my 8.56 another great race!
"Absolutely over the moon, the bike has been on song all year and I really had to work for that win yesterday facing some really tough competition. 8.50 really is one of the toughest classes out there!
"Now onto the thank you’s, first of all thank you to Tony Underhill who was new to the bike scene this weekend but took to it like a duck to water, couldn’t have done it without you mate! Purdie Hadfield for filming duties and and holding the 101 things I threw at her during the weekend, Chloe Jade Carter for keeping us watered and fed and also giving the bike a clean between rounds, Andy Head for being there when I need him, Dion Hartley for the use of his helmet in the final due to mine breaking in the semis...
"And finally Jake Mechaell at JKE Race Works for sponsoring me and giving me this bad ass bike to go out and win with!
Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike was Rick Sawatzki's second win of the season. Many thanks to Debbie Sawatzki for sending us an event report: "A very hot sticky weekend, but an amazing one too, felt for the guys and gals in their leathers, luckily with not too much hanging around. All four qualifiers were completed even with the on-and-off showers first thing on Saturday.
"It was lovely to see Dion Hartley back and who took the number one qualifier all bikes in the 9.5s and Dave Hall just missed out running a 9.5 with a 9.499.
"The outcome was a repeat of Springspeed Nationals with Carl Thomas and Richard Sawatzki in Final but this time Richard taking the win. Richard had a hard first round with Zoe Hallet then lucky to have the bye in the final.
"The trophy presentation was held in Fuellers bar which was a very welcome change from the track, we could all hear Colin and, better still, our feet were not sticking to the track!
"9.50 racers are such a super bunch of people and I know we have a couple of new racers joining soon!"
The winner of Blood Cancer UK ET Bike was Dave Grundy. He wrote: "What an awesome weekend. Qualifying was a bit iffy, consistent 10.55 second runs on a 10.42 dial-in. So I switched the dial-in to 10.53 and ran 10.46, oops. This left me as number 11 qualifier.
"This gave me a first round elimination against Liam Holgate, ex-junior drag racer, currently 4th in the championship and a force to be reckoned with. 10.57 on a 10.50 dial was enough to squeeze the win - less than 1/2 a bike length at the stripe. Round 2 put me against Jake Boden who was way off form - a point 3 reaction from him and I was past just after the eighth and could back off to take the win which gave me a bye run to the semi-finals against Gary Hester, last year's runner up in the championship and always consistent. I got him on a holeshot after he slept on the line - still too close for comfort, but a win is a win and into the final we went.
"Scott Collier is another ex-junior and had taken out current champion and number 1 qualifier (Phil Pratt - Ed) on his way to the finals and is 3rd in the championship. He's also been running bang on his dial-in with lightning quick reaction times.
This was going to be tough - but what a final!
"I had almost a second start on the tree. It felt like a decent decent light but I could hear him coming all the way on his TL1000 based drag bike. I wasn't going to back off. If I break out so be it. At the stripe he was right alongside but I got there first. Where the hell is that win light? Did I break out?
"Then ping, on it came. In my lane. I've only gone and bloody won it, 10.51 on a 10.50 against 9.66 on 9.65. The clincher was a 0.01 reaction time against Scott's 0.08. That was one helluva race.
"Races like this are what drag racing is all about. And we get to do it all again in two weeks time at the Summer Nationals. See you there."
Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike was won by Richard Willcox, his second win in a row with his Firefighter Racing Juniors team now planning to attend the NitrOlympx. Ollie King wrote for The Junior Drag Bike Club:
"At the Sportsman Nationals we welcomed another two new riders, Declan Butt who is 13 and riding a Honda CM125.
John "Spud" McLean who is 11 and riding a Piaggio 125, Spud came away with no2 qualifier as well, well done!
"The weather was extremely hot and muggy, and all the juniors coped very well sat in their leathers in the pairing lanes.
Maggie Smallman came away with the no 1 qualifier, well done! Overall a great weekend of racing with Leah runner-up and Richard winner! Well done Leah and Richard your both having an amazing season this year! All the other juniors are riding amazingly, it's great to see the class growing.
"A huge thank you to the guys at Nitro FM who have very kindly sponsored a new trophy. This trophy will be decided by them at each event for various reasons. It will go home with the recipient, then brought back for the following event.
"This week it was awarded as the "bad luck" award which was given to Jaxon King. Jaxon unfortunately came off his bike on the test day so was unable to compete this weekend. Thank you Nitro FM for supporting the juniors."
Old School Stockers had six bikes with 2022 champion Claire Rule sidelined after a road accident in April. Kevin Melling (Kawasaki H2) qualified #1, followed by Rod Spry (on his new Suzuki) and Chris Spry (Kawasaki H2). Newcomers to the category but seasoned racers Peter Mcguiness (Kawasaki) and Alan Ward (Suzuki GSX11ET) completed the field. Martin Blight (Suzuki GSX 1000 ET) also made it to round 1 of eliminations.
In eliminations, Kevin Melling ran low ET of the event 8.633/147.59 in the semi finals but against Rod Spry in the final broke on track, giving Rod, who had run in the eights earlier, the win. Rod said "I bought the historic Suzuki from Nick Pepper and have refreshed it over the winter to race this year alongside my Kawasaki Z1R; my H2 is on loan for a year to Freddie Smith who will be on it at Dragstalgia."
Ålund doubling up again. 23rd June:
Thanks to Pär 'PiPPi' Willén for sending us his account of Pro Modified and Pro Stock racer Jimmy Ålund's Tierp Internationals:
Jimmy Ålund is racing in two classes again this season, FIA Pro Stock and FIA Pro Mod. This second race of the FIA drag racing season was the first weekend where Ålund ran both cars since 2019 which of course makes for some interesting challenges.
In Pro Mod, as usual, the class had a solid turnout. There were 18 cars going all-in for a 16-car field. The first qualifying round was a tad rocky to say the least, the warm weather made the well prepared track hard to read and only 14 cars made a ticket and only 8 of those made it into the 6-second zone.
Things improved big time and after two days and five rounds of qualifying Ålund ended up in the #3 qualifying position with the Magnus Petersson-owned Old 51 Chevrolet. The qualifying ET and speed at 5.8976/391.30 km/h (243.14 mph).
Pro Stock had a solid turnout here as well, 10 cars vying for an 8-car ladder. Qualifying was very tight, Ålund ended up the #1 qualifier with the Summit Racing Camaro but just by a hair. Veteran Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren made the #2 qualifier only 3/1000 seconds behind Ålund. Ålunds ET and best speed being 6.5856/340.48 km/h (211.56 mph).
"Yes, it was hot and tough for everyone. This was our first time on the track with the Old 51 Pro Mod car since 2019 and it has a few upgrades that we needed to tune for" says Ålund. "In Pro Stock, this was the second race for the Summit Racing Camaro this season and we were happy with the qualifying, especially running over 340 km/hour a few times". Ålund continues, "racing two cars at one event is logistically challenging but it works with excellent help from the teams. I get a quick ride back to pits after a run with The Old 51 so as to get as much time for the next run in the Summit Racing Camaro".
In Pro Mod eliminations, Ålund kept running strong with a win in E1 and the same in the quarter finals running an event best ET of 5.86 seconds. In Pro Stock eliminations, Ålund took the win in round #1 against hard-charging Tommy Leindahl.
That was unfortunately the end of an otherwise great race weekend for racers and spectators. The race was called due to rain, a tough foe to contend with.
"We did good with both cars over the weekend" says Ålund. "The rain is of course nothing we can do anything about. It's always untimely but we felt we were stepping it up real good with the Old 51 Pro Mod car". Ålund continues, "same with the Summit Racing Camaro, we had the top speed in eliminations and all qualifying rounds except Q3 where we lost traction right off the line".
Summit Racing Equipment is sponsoring Ålund Pro Stock and Pro Mod racing this year as well. This is in addition to Tunghantering, Viking Industrimålning, KB Titan Racing, Camaroskroten, Swerink, Hydraulakuten, Mike Janis Superchargers, Quick Drive, and Stigs Axle and Parts. Jimmy Ålund Racing is very grateful for the continuing support from such great companies.
Photo credit: Stefan Boman.
More Tierp media. 23rd June:
Thanks to Dutch photojournalists Remco Scheelings and Mike Kraaij for sending in more links to media from the Tierp Internationals.
Remco has published articles about the Tierp Internationals on the autosport.nl website, you can read about the race and see Remco's great pictures by clicking here and also clicking here for behind the scenes pictures and stories.
Mike Kraaij has updated his Kraaijmotorsportfotografie Facebook page with a summary of the event and photos of drag bikes.
FWD records recognised. 23rd June:
Thanks to Andy Marrs for supplying a revised European bests records sheet which you can see by clicking here or clicking on the Data, then European Bests links in the main menu.
Andy says "I have included Dawid Lamik’s FWD ET record from this years Doorslammers. 8.4803 backed up by 8.5095.
"I have also now included FWD in the SPR track records. No backup is required for track records, but they must be set under race conditions, as in at a permitted event in either qualifications or eliminations. Ahmed Jamshaid set the track ET record at this years Doorslammers with a 8.4458.
"The current speed record is Calvin Skerrit at the 2022 Doorslammers with a 174.40. Both Dawid Lamik and Ahmed Jamshaid came close to resetting that at this years Doorslammers, both running 174.38."
Swift snippets. 23rd June:
Good luck and stay safe to several British racers who will be travelling to Clastres Raceway in France for the Association Trophée Dragster race this weekend. In Super Pro ET, Lee Huxley will be racing his Dark Horse Mustang, Will Clark, Ronnie Mercer and Bob Molden will be in Pro ET, Harry and Damian Redshaw will be in Junior Dragster, and in the RWYB category, from Taz Razing, Darren Scannell, Chris Skinner, Kevin Preston and David Arnold will be running. You can keep up with events on the ATD Facebook page.
The first of what we expect to be several Street Weekend videos is on Youtube from videographer Simon Letkey at this link on his VeeDubRacing channel. You can see on-track action from Santa Pod and Melbourne Raceway, plus some great shots on the road and from checkpoints.
This Sunday the Sports Compact Shootout takes place at Santa Pod as part of The Fast Show Reloaded, with nine cars signed up eight of which are FWD. We will publish results in Monday's update. You can see more detail on this event with loads of Run What Ya Brung, car clubs, show & shine plus family entertainments at this link. Fans and RWYB racers should buy tickets in advance at santapodtickets.com.
The main gates to the track will open at 08.00 on Friday, 30th June.
Friday, 30th June:
10.00-18.00 Signing on office opens
10.00-18.00 Scrutineering open for cars at the Scrutineering building (for vehicles attending their first event, or following major changes requiring re-scrutineering)
10.00-17.00 Scrutineering for biked at the Scrutineering building
Saturday, 1st July:
07.00 Signing on office open
08.00 Scrutineering for cars and bikes
09.30 Track open for qualifying
Sunday, 2nd July:
07.00 Signing on open
08.00 Scrutineering and signing on open for cars and bikes.
09:30 Track open for qualifying/ eliminations
The detailed running orders and entry list can be seen in our event coverage page.
SPRC National and Club championship points posted. 22nd June:
Many thanks to sponsor Peter Walters and points co-ordinator Yvonne Tramm for updating the National and Club SPRC Championship points after the STP Sportsman Nationals which you can see via our points standing page or on the Santa Pod Racers Club website.
Review of STP Sportsman Nationals - car classes. 22nd June:
The STP Sportsman Nationals had a wide range of classes, being a mixed race between Championship permit classes and Lifestyle non-permit classes.
Street Weekend was the feature class on the Friday test day and Sunday, and you can see our report and results on Tuesday's update.
7.60 Heads Up was a great mix of Doorslammer cars, still a little short in numbers due to waiting on parts, but several looking to step up to expand the budding class. Organisers Jeff and Belinda Bull, with Belinda driving their Chevy S10 pickup was #1 in the first qualifying session with 7.7469 180.67. However Mark Turner put his claim on the #1 spot well and truly with a perfect 7.6006/171.75, winning the Eurodragster.com/Twister Racing award of £50 sponsored by Andy Hadfield. Mark followed it up with a 7.7421/169.82 in session 4, with Billy Gane, Brendan Clancy and Darren Peart also running in the sevens.
Paul Marston was disappointed to be last qualifier with an 8.34 and reported that his ex Jari Konola Pro Stock engine, at the level of revs used, was not producing the power needed to run 7.60, so he will take Bug Jam off to work more improving the combination, and return to the class at the Green Light Nationals in August.
In eliminations, round 1 saw Ron Bartlett run his first seven a 7.9405/173.08 in his Anglia 105e in a losing effort against Billy Gane. Darren Peart improved his time to 7.7258/175.06 low ET of the round (a tenth off his PB) to defeat Paul Marston. In the semi final, Mark Turner's Supra crept through stage against Billy Gane, whilst Brendan Clancy (above right) improved with a 7.6654 /175.76 to defeat Darren's 7.9372/173.06. In the final it was all Brendan as Billy slowed to a 9.1 at 106.26, giving Brendan a winner's trophy on his return to the sport after a long break. We look forward to the next round at Bug Jam.
You can read Clare Lake's comprehensive report on Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET in yesterday's update.
In VW Pro Abi Tether qualified #1 with a +0.0027 on her 12.77 dial in her Golf R, followed closely by Ed Keech's Golf which ran +0.0047 on a 11.95 dial in. In eliminations it was Graham Fairhead (left) who had the benefit of a Danielle Coppin red light in round 1, an Ian Dale breakout in round 2, a slowing James Hodson in the semi final and, in the final, a great 0.0990 package against Ed Keech.
VW Sportsman had 20 cars qualify, with top qualifier Paul Robinson being +0.0052 on his 14.71 dial-in in his Audi TT, having topped three of the four sessions and #2 in the other. In eliminations Andrew Bambrick, who qualified #2 in his Golf Mk2, prevailed by defeating Danny Bean in round 1, a breaking-out Jerry Sadler in round 2, a red-lighting Steve Metcalf in round 3, getting a bye in the semi final, and then going up against Paul Robinson in the final, Paul breaking out.
There were three non-permit car classes. Supercharged Outlaws had special guest John Willard from Australia, running his blown Outlaw Anglia (below left) for the first time in the UK and scoring an outstanding off-the trailer (or, as somebody said, off-the-boat) 6.7374/206.05. There were some amazingly consistent and quick performances from the other six cars, Paul Dale in Acute Angle 105e scoring a new ET PB of 8.0950 and new speed of 170.45.
Ian Merryweather was also very consistent in the Banzai Topolino with a best of 8.0495/171.74 and all six runs within 0.13s of that time. Aaron Windridge (above right) was within two tenths of his PB on two runs with a best so far this year of 7.7608/172.40. Steve Clarke in The Good Guys Topolino ran new PBs of 8.6547 and 158.48, with three other runs within two tenths. Keith Freeman was another consistent runner with six runs within four tenths of his best 9.3048/143.42, which is one of his best ETs ever. The only out of sorts Outlaw was Jim Tucker in the Hellfire Hemi '34 3 window coupe, suffering directional problems.
Modified 100e with an encouraging nine car entry had a series of handicap races, not strictly a round robin, but most of the cars ran the seven rounds held during the event. Clive Charles (below left) went undefeated, then (not counting bye runs), Stuart Flitton, Dave Mott, Mark Stanley and Mark Wade won four apiece, Tim Evans three, Sharon Carver one, and Paul Lorne and Scott Collin went winless, Scott with the quickest car at 9.4665/149.52.
The Gasser Circus, with another big field of 19 cars, had four rounds of qualifying and Steve Matthews (Honky Tonkin' '57 Chevy) came out on top with a +0.0036 on his 9.64 dial in. That these are seasoned bracket racers was shown by the top nine all being less than 0.01 off their dial in. In eliminations, the top 16 went into round 1, and Jason Pickett (above right) was the winner, and becomes championship leader with previous leader Ray Turner being defeated in round 1. Jason defeated Brian Gibson in round 1, Steve Matthews in round 2 (0.0471s win margin), Harvey Turner in the semi final and Simon Prest in the final.
Tomorrow we will focus on the bike classes and include a report from Debbie Sawatzki on 9.50 Bike and the thoughts of some 8.50 bike racers.
Julie Moxley's thanks. 22nd June:
Following our tribute to Steve Moxley posted yesterday and comments on Facebook, Steve's wife Julie and Sam, Abbi and Robert Moxley posted their thanks for condolences received:
"We wish to say thank you for everyone’s kind words following the sudden loss of Steve Moxley. We are absolutely devastated, I have lost my husband, best friend and soul mate, Sam, Abbi and Robert have lost a dedicated father who was so proud of all of their achievements, and he loved them dearly.
"Your kind words have brought so much comfort at a difficult time. As most of you have stated, Steve was a total gentleman and so enthusiastic about everyone’s runs, times and speeds; he was a walking encyclopaedia of racers' best times and speeds, and loved to hear about any improvements to their bikes - ‘strictly off the record.’
"Steve was equally enthusiastic about his new found sport - crown green bowling, being a member of two of the league teams at Aston Bowling Club. He enjoyed helping out, he enjoyed the challenges, he enjoyed the social side of it, and he enjoyed playing bowls.
"We will in due course let you know the funeral arrangements as soon as they have been finalised. Thank you once again."
Swift snippets. 22nd June:
Happy Birthday for today to Willys Wars racer Matthew Hollins, NSA and historical bike racer Justin Newell, former Junior Dragster racer Freddie Taylor, German Super Pro ET racer Tom Winter and Malta FWD racer Wayne Muscat. We hope you all have a great day.
Motorsport UK Pro Modified racer Wayne Nicholson of Lucky Devil Racing is planning a workshop Q&A session, send any questions to the team via Messenger and Wayne will do a short video in the workshop. We'll publish a link to it after it is published.
Nic Williams of Williams Bros Racing is pictured receiving a trophy at Tierp Arena last Saturday for the #1 Stock/Super Stock qualifier of 8.1536/166.68 mph (a massive 1.2464 under his index) from Swedish Stock & Super Stock Association Vice President Lars Bodén, the trophy sponsored by Ljundhal Racing and VP Racing Fuels. Brother Dan Williams has announced today that he has entered the U.S. Nationals to be held at Indianapolis Raceway Park on 30th August-4th September, driving the team's 396ci Chevy Nova in B/S, with a little extra weight added. Good luck to the brothers who will be racing at the STP Summer Nationals in Comp Eliminator in their respective Camaros.
Steven Moxley. 21st June:
We were deeply shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of our friend and photojournalist Steve Moxley. Steve passed away on 14th June, a few days after suffering a cardiac arrest at home. Steve's wife Julie and paramedics performed CPR on Steve but he did not regain consciousness and was on life support in ICU before the sad decision was made to let him pass.
Ian King posted "Steve was one of the most cheerful people you could wish to meet, he never had a bad word to say about anyone and was truly interested in all the racers and the teams with his infectious enthusiasm. I will miss his phone calls to discuss the next news items for his posts in Eatmyink and for the ACU, and his excitement at being asked to contribute to the Santa Pod event programme, and our time spent in the USA at the MFC Cup. Our deepest condolences to his wife Julie and his children Sam, Abbi and Robert."
We at Eurodragster.com appreciated Steve's good spirits and sharing of information, meeting up or calling us between events to discuss the achievements or problems suffered by racers. Going back to our first production of pit notes almost 20 years ago, Steve gave your editor much useful advice on how to approach racers who might have been under pressure in the pits or trying to get into the zone in the pairing lanes.
Julian said "With Steve, it was always the Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen cap and denim jacket that I think of first! I think he must have first been involved trackside in 1990, he got shots of the Darryl Gwynn accident from the bank, Santa Pod wanted them, and that is how he got trackside."
Former editor Tog said "You couldn’t hope to meet a nicer, kinder, more unassuming guy than Steve Moxley. This was a man who cared deeply about the sport and about the racers who, in turn, were very loyal to him and appreciated his tireless efforts over the years to promote UK and European drag racing around the world."
Always carrying his trusty notebook, Steve's writing on and photography of drag bikes was enthusiastically taken up by Streetfighters Magazine and the ACU who published his previews and reviews of each championship round, and by Tim Hailey's Eat My Ink under the title "English Beat". He was also adopted by Outlaw Anglia as a reporter for Eat My Ink. For Eurodragster.com, Steve and Julie contributed reports and photos of the Man Cup World Finals from Valdosta, Georgia and had planned to visit Maple Grove Raceway, Reading, Pennsylvania this September.
Steve's passing will leave a big hole in the small world of European drag racing journalism. We send our deepest condolences to wife Julie and children Sam, Abbi, and Robert, together with his many friends within and outside the racing community.
Photos by Tog.
FIM-E wrap-up from Tierp Internationals. 21st June:
Thanks to Huw Button for supplying the latest FIM-E championship points after the weekend's rained-out Tierp Internationals, which you can see via our points standings page at this link or by clicking on the link under News in the main menu.
With three more rounds to go (two for Junior Drag Bike), championship leaders are Neil Midgley (Top Fuel Bike), Marcus Christiansen (Super Twin Bike), Bertrand Maurice (Pro Stock Bike), Alan Morrison Jnr (Super Street Bike) and Richard Willcox (Junior Drag Bike).
Thanks to Andy Marrs for confirming that no records were set at the Tierp Internationals. Andy adds "In terms of round wins, in Top Fuel Bike, Neil Midgeley moved up to #10 and in Super Twin Bike Marcus Chrisiansen moved up to #6."
Mike Olie (Top Fuel Bike): 6.8249
Per Bengtsson (Super Twin Bike): 6.3755
Marko Lantto (Super Twin Bike): 6.8116/329.07 (204.47 mph)
Jörg Lymant (Pro Stock Bike): 7.5441/280.23 (174.12 mph) - Jörg's all time PB, in Super Twin Top Gas, is 7.360/288.14 (179.04 mph)
Krisztián Jász (Super Street Bike): 7.0945/318.40 (197.84 mph)
Peter Östlund (Super Street Bike): 7.1474/312.68 (194.29 mph)
Entry for the next round of the FIA and FIM-E Championship, on 10th-13th August is open at dragracing.eu.
Tierp Internationals media. 21st June:
As well as our race report and galleries which you can see at this link, other web media from the Tierp Internationals can be seen at the following links:
Melbourne Raceway Summer Nationals results and points. 21st June:
Congratulations to the winners of eliminations at the weekend's Summer Nationals held at Melbourne Raceway:
Pro Comp Cannonball: Ant Harris (Mills Dragster 8 Ltr) 5.80/129 def. Pete Youhill (Pontiac Firebird 584ci) 5.89/123 Pro Extreme: Nik Wilson (Quartermixer 1989 274ci) (6.98) 7.26/105 def. Kris Thoburn (Ford Mustang) DNS Sportsman ET: David Coombes (Lexus LS400 4 Ltr) (8.51) 8.54/81 def. Peter Lane (Plymouth Barracuda 6.3 Lt) (8.86) 8.85/79 breakout NSCC (Saturday): Damian Halliwell (Chevrolate Biscayne pictured right) 7.31/103 def. Ben Fielder (Plymouth Satelite 7.2 Ltr) 7.64/91 NSCC (Sunday): Damian Halliwell (Chevrolate Biscayne) 7.41/101 def. Dean Mason (Dodge Mason 440ci) 8.38/84
Straightliners No Mercy Shootout: Carl Mountford (Suzuki GSXR 750cc) (7.30) 8.96/67 def. Terry Mountford (Aprilia 1000cc) (7.21) 8.38/84 red light Scooters No Mercy Shootout: Ade Horrocks (Vespa Primavera 149cc) (8.40) 8.69/83 def. Nigel Howard (Vespa Smallframe 200cc) (8.66) 8.65/78 breakout Juniors No Mercy Shootout: Toby Jackson (Piaggio Trike 50cc) (12.05) 13.18 50 def. Alfie Barraclough (50cc Special) (12.10) 12.04/50 breakout 6.00 index Bike class: Ashley Hodgson (Suzuki GSXR 1000cc) 7.12/106 def. Mark Taylor (Hayabusa 1300cc) 9.16/89 Oldschool USB Stock: Geoff Rogerson (Suzuki GSXR 1100cc), unopposed Race Legends class:Colin Fallows (Kawasaki ZZR 636cc), unopposed
Many thanks to Tog for covering the event providing photo galleries and best times of the day. You can see our coverage of the event sponsored by John Woolfe Racing by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu above.
The championship points have been updated and can be seen at this link. The next race at Melbourne will take place on 15th-16th July. You can get tickets at this link.
Swift snippets. 21st June:
Happy Birthday for today to Super Pro ET racer Ron Bartlett, who is most likely still celebrating after running his first seven 7.94@173mph in qualifying his Anglia 105e for the 7.60 Heads Up (for which you can now see points on our points page). Ron now has his eyes firmly on the 7.89 unofficial European record held by Torben Stenström.
Well done to two British racers who have been selected to run demo passes at the NitrOlympX Night Show, Hockenheimring on 25th-27th August. Graham Sykes will be taking his Force of Nature steam powered rocket bike to run on the Hockenheim quarter, whilst Perfect ET sponsor Andy Hadfield will be travelling with his Twister Model T Altered to wow the crowds with huge burnouts and crazy runs.
The results of the 2nd race of the Panhellenic Drag Racing Championship at Agrinio Raceway on 9th-11th June have been posted at promoter site Proaction Racing (click on 2023). Congratulations to Stamatis Mavrommatis whose 6.961/321.00 (199.46 mph) was the first Greek Super Street Bike time in the 6s bracket. The next race in the championship at Agrinio Raceway is on 8th-9th July.
With three more rounds to go, championship leaders are Ida Zetterström (Top Fuel), Jan Ericsson (Pro Modified), Linn Fløysvik (Top Methanol) and Jimmy Ålund (Pro Stock).
Thanks to Andy Marrs for confirming that no records were set at the Tierp Internationals. Andy adds some interesting landmarks were passed for round wins.
Jimmy Alund passed 200 round wins in FIA combined, he sits at 202 (160 in Pro Stock, 42 in Pro Modified). His 200th round win was his R1 win in Pro Modified against Stian Rusanes.
In Pro Modified round wins Bruno Bader moved up to #2, Jan Ericsson up to #5 and Jimmy Alund up to #7.
We also identified a few new FIA personal bests with help from the excellent European Drag Racing Database and, for Pro Modified, Motorsport UK Pro Modified PR Robin Jackson:
Tony Bryntesson (Top Methanol Dragster) 5.449/418.93 (260.31 mph) - Tony's all-time PB, in Top Fuel, is 5.221/443.50 (275.57mph)
Johnny Oksa (Top Methanol Funny Car): 5.531/423.86 (263.37 mph)
Andres Arnover (Pro Modified): 404.49 (251.34 mph) (equalled his previous PB)
Andreas Arthursson (Pro Modified): 417.31 (259.30 mph)
Åke Persson (Pro Modified): 396.48 (246.36 mph)
Stian Rusånes (Pro Modified): 364.37 (226.41 mph)
Andreas Sjödin (Pro Modified): 7.803/196.58 (122.15 mph)
Simon Ekengryn (Pro Stock): 6.623/336.87 (209.32 mph)
We will report on FIM-E in tomorrow's update.
Street Weekend category winners. 20th June:
Congratulations to the category winners for Street Weekend:
Turbo (£250 awarded by Turbosmart): Andy Bond (Ugly Sister Chevy 210) Ford (£250 awarded by Mk1Kieran): Ian Walley (Ford Cortina Mk2) Front Wheel Drive (£250 awarded by European FWD): Carl Goldsmith (VW Corrado) All Wheel Drive (£250 awarded by Pro Race Engineering): Dave Henderson (Audi RS3) Diesel (£250 awarded by Darkside Developments): Matt Henty (BMW 435D) Outlaw Street (£250 awarded by Outlaw Street): Arnie Pamment (Hourglass AMC Javelin) Spirit of Street Weekend (£250 and trophy awarded by National Street Car Challenger: Scott Linacre (Vauxhall Chevette)
Street Weekend category results, thanks to Max Frost and James Forster of Santa Pod Raceway, can be seen at
this link. You can see the overall Street Weekend results by clicking here.
There was a tremendous atmosphere at the venues and checkpoints with videographers Kieran and Simon Letkey following the events up and down the route from Santa Pod to Melbourne Raceway.
Spirit of Street Weekend winner Scott Linacre was awarded the prize for an epic effort in getting his Vauxhall Chevette back on the road back to Santa Pod. Jack Speed wrote: "Amazing tenacity and enthusiasm! These guys will just not be defeated! They may be late but they WILL finish! 1.15am Sunday they've replaced big end bearings, rebuilt bottom end and are installing front subframe."
Scott said "Well what a weekend that was! From my car bunny hopping on Friday to wiping a bearing out Saturday to return to Pod and finish the weekend was amazing I'd firstly like to apologise for appearing very quiet and not much to say when receiving the award, I was extremely sleep deprived and not quite with reality at that point. I'd like to thank every racer that took part making the weekend what it was. It was amazing to receive waves and horn sounds when seeing each other on the drives and nice to put faces to names, or voices. I've heard the commentator at Santa Pod for years and to be stood face to face was a experience all of its own.
The weekend was only completed due to the support of my team, the people at Melbourne that help out, and my old man for helping get the car ready and parts to fix it! So thank you to all those people who helped. Also thank you to Santa Pod Raceway and Melbourne Raceway Community for the event itself, and to the crew for doing a amazing job. I will be back at pod to chase my 10 sec pass and most definitely will be at the next Street Weekend.
Swedish competitor Petter Lundgren wrote: "Me and Linus Löövhave had some much fun and we would like to thank everyone that was involved. It is been an adventure that we will never forget. And we will have to try and make it happen again.
We have still got a lot of miles left and should be home late Tuesday night,. but the journey feels easy after an event like Street Weekend! Thank you.
"In a couple of weeks we do Street Week Sweden drag n drive for those who can’t get enough of Drag n Drives, make sure to check it out and to follow us on Instagram @dirtymeckers
So do we see you in Sweden or in the UK next time? Well I can’t wait!"
Nigel Swift on Nick Gunby's team with Graham Slaven as co-crew summed up the event perfectly: "For 72 hours, nothing else in the world mattered. Not the TV news, not all the nonsense click bait social media, not foreign wars or lockdown parties, not work, nothing.
"Street Weekend was a piece of pure magic, where long time friends and people who’d never met before had just one goal, to complete an epic drag and drive challenge and help their fellow competitors achieve the same. Sometimes, it’s great to be reminded that all you need in life, is an awesome car or two, the right people and some kind weather. Oh, and a pineapple. Thank you to everyone involved in making this happen and everyone who was part of it."
Sportsman ET at the Sportsman Nationals. 20th June:
Many thanks to Clare Lake for sending a report in on Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET at the STP Sportsman Nationals:
The inaugural Sportsman Nationals was the 3rd round of the championship for Sportsman ET. As a new event, we weren’t sure what to expect, but we could be sure of competitive racing by Sportsman ET.
Qualifying was once again close with there being less than 0.03 between the top 9 and some fantastic reaction times. The weather was more overcast than forecast, but still humid, and it proved difficult for many of us to predict our times. In Round 1 Pete Walters (SPET4, Mustang) showed that he was a fitting stand in for his sister Holley, with an 0.001 light; unfortunately, he broke out. It was very close between Dave Cherrett (SPET79, Astra) and Al Platt (SPET601, Camaro) but it was Dave Cherrett who ended up as no 1 qualifier after the first round. Unfortunately, in Round 2 Matt Halsall (SPET964, Escort Mk2) had to retire from the rest of qualifying with a drive shaft issue.
By the 3rd Round everyone was starting to get to grips with the track (excuse the pun), although Ashleigh Clark (SPET479, Golf) didn’t run due to a seized brake. It was Jago Stokes (SPET 636, Skyline) who predicted his time perfectly (and with an impressive reaction time) that landed the top spot. Although there was still one more round to go, the groundwork for the final qualifying table and the elimination ladder had been laid. During qualifying many of the racers were competing for the Reaction Time award. Pete Walters was leading this until Round 4 but was eventually pipped to the post by Gary Lake (SPET167, Trans Am). It was amazingly close with Pete having an average of 0.0533 and Gary 0.0457.
Sunday brought eliminations and more humid weather, and unusually Sportsman ET were out on the track first. By merit of being no 1 qualifier, Jago Stokes had a bye run straight into the second round. Here he would face Simon Swarbrick (pictured right SPET82, Ford Pop) as Al Platt broke out and red lit. Al Platt was happy as he had managed to get his car back as an 11 second car though. Felicity Gibbs (SPET816, Mustang) also had a red light, so Kirstie Tramm (SPET5, Camaro) proceeded to round 2. Kirstie had run a strong race too. Her opposition would be Chris Creswell (SPET33, Fiesta ST) after Ashleigh Clark broke out.
Bill Wilson (SPET851, Ford F100) was close to his dial, but Stef Pateman (SPET68, BMW 435I) crossed the line first, with an amazing 0.0121 reaction time, taking her through. In the next round she would be facing one of the experienced racers - either Pete Walters or Brian Huxley (SPET25, Focus XZ3). Brian Huxley is currently racing in a spare car, after a fire in our first event. This was caused by the transmission fluid pushing the dip stick out resulting in the fluid getting on to the exhaust. Like Stef, Pete had an incredible 0.0131 reaction time and passed the line first for the win.
Onto the second half of the ladder and next match up was Ashley Symons (SPET48, Skyline) and Troy Attree (SPET107, Camaro). There wasn’t much between the two racers, however it was Ashley with the better light who took the line. Even so Troy was content as he has had several issues with the Camaro over the last few seasons, and these now seem to be resolved.
Two new racers for Sportsman ET in 2023 provided the next match up, Shane Sturman (SPET309, Jaguar XK8) and James Grew (SPET244, Touareg). They were evenly matched, but this time the win went to James, who would be facing Ashley Symons in Round 2.
Georgina Smith (pictured left, SPET387, Supra) took the Bounty when she defeated previous event winner, Gary Lake. Gary couldn’t quite catch Georgina who made a great start off the line and was closer to her ET. She would face Steven Mellors (SPET19, MX5) in the next round, after Richard Palmer (SPET109, Jaguar XKR) broke out by 0.002! A disappointing result for Richard but a great light and dial in nonetheless.
Only two more places left in the 2nd round, Carl Magedera (SPET520, Tesla) took one of these by beating experienced racer Dave Cherrett. The other went to Michael Franklin (SPET940, Range Rover Sport) who was runner up at the Spring Speed Nationals. He took the win from Matt Halsall, who had worked through the night to get back on the track, as he broke out.
The stage was set for the second round. Chris Criswell is feeling that he has found some consistency this season and this was evident when he proceeded to the Quarter Finals in a close race with Kirstie Tramm. His next challenger would be Simon Swarbrick, after Simon took the win in a close race with Jago Stokes.
The next Quarter Final pairing would be Stef Pateman (who with an excellent light and dial in would take the win over Pete Walters) and James Grew. Ashley Symonds had issues at the start line and then couldn’t quite catch up as he chased James who crossed the line first.
The last Quarter Final pairing went to Dual Fuel team-mates Carl Magedera and Steven Mellors, after Georgina Smith’s car went uncharacteristically slow and with Steven being so close to his ET he managed to take the win. In a strange twist of fate for the teammates, the same thing happened for Carl Magedera when Michael Franklin similarly had an uncharacteristically slow car, and with Carl hitting his number he also took the win to go through to the Quarter Finals.
Who would be in the Semi-Finals was decided by lights; red lights from both Chris Creswell and Stef Pateman, resulted in Simon Swarbrick and James Grew taking the first semi-final positions. Unfortunately for Steven Mellors an 0.5 light gave the Semi Final bye to the Finals to his teammate, Carl Magedera. As Carl already had a place in the Final, there was just one place left to contest. James Grew took this as Simon Swarbrick couldn’t catch him after trouble getting off the start line.
In the end James Grew did magnificently well to get to the final on his second competitive outing in the class (and not in the car he eventually wants to race in), but despite his best efforts he lost in a close race to Carl Magedera (pictured right) on his reaction time.
Sportsman ET was once again competitive, with all the racers so capable, no matter what they drive, that a win is there for anyone. Well done to all the racers who took part and for make the racing fun and challenging. None of this would be possible without the generosity of our class sponsor, Hutchinson and Dibley, so thank you Andy (and Dave) for all you do for the class.
There must be a mention for all the staff at Santa Pod – there are too many too mention, and you are all vital cogs in the machine. Planning this event, with so much happening, must have been a logistical nightmare! A shout out to Eurodragster for the photos (who are providing the photos for this piece) (thanks to Julian and Diana - Ed) and Colin for his commentary. Lastly the track crew, fire marshalls and paramedics who are there come rain or shine. We wouldn’t be able to pursue our hobby without any of you, so thanks!
Swift snippets. 20th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Mrs Floyd Lippencott Jr. aka Sharon Muravez, UK Tech inspector and former altered racer Geoff Martin, Pro ET/Super Gas racer Marc Huxley and 8.50 Bike racer Lewis Burgess. We hope you all have had a fantastic day.
In the meantime, check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Tierp Internationals reports and galleries by clicking here or clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main directory. A big Thank You to Patrik Jacobsson for supplying us with photos over the four days of the event, and to Lena Perés for parachute shots from today and pit shots from previous days (see foot of gallery).
STP Sportsman Nationals results. 19th June:
Congratulations to the winners at the STP Sportsman Nationals held at Santa Pod Raceway over the weekend:
7.60 Heads Up: Brendan Clancy 8.1623/150.19 def. Billy Gane 9.1976/106.26 Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET: Carl Magadera (12.60) 12.8082/95.81 def. James Grew (16.00) 16.1995/85.21 VW Pro: Graham Fairhead (10.90) 10.9185/108.17 def. Ed Keech (11.95) 12.1159/112.64 VW Sportsman: Andrew Bambrick (13.23) 13.4390/99.48 def. Paul Robinson (14.89) 14.7852/86.34 Supercharged Outlaws: Top qualifier: John Willard 6.7374/206.05 2nd place Aaron Windridge 7.7608/172.40 Gasser Circus: Jason Pickett (10.92) 11.0207/110.01 def. Simon Prest (11.05) 11.0632/121.06
Leeks Landscapes Funny Bike: Dave Peters 7.7477/177.14 def. Lorcan Parnell stage foul Suzukiperformanceparts.co.uk Comp Bike: Dave Smith 7.8899/195.46 def. Jake Mechaell 7.0148/214.89 DQ JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike: Brad Head 8.569/159.08 def. Ian Chrichlow 8.461/160.18 Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike: Richard Sawatzki 9.5236/145.22 def. Carl Thomas 9.6117/124.87 Blood Cancer UK ET Bike: Dave Grundy (10.50) 10.5187/132.05 def. Scott Collier (9.65) 9.6692/132.55 Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike: Richard Willcox (9.40) 9.4468/67.52 def. Leah Morrison (11.67) 11.6772/54.04 Old School Stockers: Rod Spry 9.1760/142.62 def. Kevin Melling broke on track.
Street Weekend overall winners: 1st Andy Bond 21.8424, 2nd Al McSweeney 22.3457, 3rd Rob Carter 24.7498
You can see the detailed Street Weekend results, thanks to Max Frost and James Forster of Santa Pod Raceway, by clicking here.
The only incident that took place was Junior Drag Bike racer Jaxon King who suffered a mechanical problem on his bike and came off it before the finish line. Dad and Next Generation Racing boss Ollie King said "The bike is badly damaged but Jaxon is ok a bit sore in places but his safety gear did its job. Thank you to Santa Pod Raceway and all their teams who got to him straight away and kept him safe and calm, and to the ambulance crew who checked him over. We would also like to say a massive thank you to those who have very kindly given us some donations to help get Jaxon back up and running in the near future, and to Craig Rukus who is going to help get his bodywork sorted."
The Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award of £50 supported by Cath and Tig Napier went unclaimed during the event as no-one scored a 0.000 RT, and will be rolled over to the STP Summer Nationals on 1st-2nd July. Congratulations to 7.60 Heads Up racer Mark Turner who won the Eurodragster.com/Twister Racing Perfect ET award of £50 supported by Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield.
Thanks to David Anniwell of the Santa Pod Timing Crew for sending us detailed timing data, including test day results, which we have posted to our timing data area which you can see by clicking on Data, then Timing Data at the top of any Eurodragster.com page. Official results can be seen at Santa Pod's Official Results Site.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored STP Sports Nationals results and galleries by clicking
here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link at the top of any Eurodragster.com page. We should repeat our new policy that the watermarked photos from our galleries can be downloaded and may be used in social media posts but please do not crop or modify them, in particular we need the watermark retained.
Please join Simon in thanking Julian and Diana for their hard work over the race weekend.
We look forward to publishing racer comments on the event later in the week.
Melbourne Round 3 gallery. 19th June:
Former Editor Tog has made his third trip to Melbourne Raceway in 2023 and has posted galleries and best times from both days of the Straightliners round taking place this weekend, including Street Weekend on Saturday.
Congratulations to Graham Sykes on the The Force of Nature steam powered rocket bike (pictured) who broke the eighth mile track record by running 4.10/169mph.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Melbourne Raceway results and gallery by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu above. We will publish race results from Melbourne in tomorrow's update.
Swift snippets. 19th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Top Fuel racer and British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Barry Sheavills, former Super Twin Top Fuel racer Gert-jan Laseur, Super Pro ET crew chief and class admin Richard Walters, Super Gas racer Rick Johnson and Morrice Boys crew Sandy Morrice. Have a fantastic day all.
Ford Show vehicle call-out. 16th June:
Santa Pod Track & Events Coordinator Dan Melrose has put a call out for Demo Vehicles needed for the Ford Show at SPR on Sunday 16th July:
Santa Pod Raceway is on the lookout for up to 10 demo vehicles at Ford Show! If it’s got a blue oval on the front or runs a Ford motor, we’re looking to hear from you. If you’re interested, email Dan Melrose in the office at [email protected] with details and pictures of your vehicle. Applications close 5pm Friday June 29th, after which point successful applicants will be contacted.
Tierp Internationals KEG track data to be published. 16th June:
Thanks to FIA Technical Consultant Frans Steilberg for an announcement about track data:
Tierp Arena will, during the 2023 Tierp Internationals, transmit track data measured with the FIA – KEG device to all racers wishing to log the available data.
The data will be available through the DISCORD App which can be downloaded from Discord.com.
Once installed on your device (Windows, Android or IOS), you have to register an account and then join the Tierp Internationals chat by clicking here.
The intention is to post the track data 45 minutes prior to each Pro session where possible, as there may be constraints due to weather or other factors.
We will be posting the track data in links from our race reports from today until Sunday, you can reach them by clicking here .
Tierp notes from Mike Kraaij. 16th June:
Many thanks to photojournalist Mike Kraaij for sending us some notes on FIA and FIM-E racers at Tierp with accompanying photos:
FIM-E Super Twin racer Julia Wagner from Norway (below left) is here in the large field of 17 entries. She has her boyfried and father both crewing for her this event. As the only female in the class, Julia's best achievement so far is becoming runner up at the August Tierp race last year.
Only 21 years of age, Julia's bike is an nitro injected 175ci machine. Her career started 11 years ago in Junior drag bike. She thanks supporters NST Gardermoen bike shop, Gruff Service, and Magnussen Kran & Transport.
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike racer Bertrand Maurice (above right), here after taking the long trip from France, is leading the championship after the FIA/FIM-E Main Event. He admits struggling with his clutch setup which caused the bike to stall in the Main Event final, where he still defeated Aswin le Noble who pulled a cherry on the tree.
The good news is that Bernard believes the clutch issue is now solved and so there will be a six bike field at Tierp. Bernard and his team including Erik and Hervé as crew plan to run all FIM-E rounds, and he thanks NGK for their support.
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike racer Jörg Lymant from Germany (below left) is running in the class for the first time with his V-Twin Buell, the only such machine in the class which is currently dominated by Suzuki 4 cylinder based engines. Jörg has travelled to Tierp Arena in a new motorhome. He is currently record holder in Super Twin Top Gas and was back to back champion. His target in the quarter is to run low seven second times, and is supported by crew chief Michael.
FIA Top Methanol Funny Car racer Sandro Bellio (above right) ended the FIA/FIM-E Main Event in third place behind Linn Fløysvik and Silvio Strauch, 34 points behind Linn. Sandro went out in the semi finals when the head gasket failed. Since then the spare engine has been installed and he is confident that the setup can produce good results this event. Sandro wants to run close to his PB of 5.449/269mph and he said "The team is ready for action!".
We plan to publish more notes from Mike during the remainder of the event.
Swift snippets. 16th June:
A very Happy 95th Birthday to former Funny Car and land speed racer Miss STP Paula Murphy, have a great day Paula!
Geoff Stilwell wishes Fuel Altered legend Ron Hope a Happy Birthday for today, to which we add have a great birthday Ron, and hope to see you in the UK again soon.
Happy Birthday for today to Jndia Erbacher who we know would rather be racing at Tierp than recuperating at home from a back injury, to Wild Bunch and Junior Dragster crew chief Steve Cassisi, German Comp Eliminator racer Bernd Rudolph former commentator Steve Young and Mk1 Zephyr racer Steve Matthews. We hope you all have a great day.
Arnold “Arnie” Kuhns. 15th June:Arnold “Arnie” Kuhns, safety pioneer and founder of SFI Foundation, passed away peacefully on June 1, surrounded by family. He was 83. The SFI Foundation wrote on its website:
"Arnie had a unique background that blended his engineering, production, and business skills into one talented individual. In 1984, Arnie was approached by his peers in the automotive industry to lead the newly formed SFI Foundation to address the increasing concern of inferior parts that posed a risk to safety at the racetrack. Arnie developed what was at the time an innovative system, creating minimum performance testing standards for products to help reduce the frequent failures of parts experienced during that era.
"In the beginning, SFI had only two employees managing four product standards for one sanctioning body. Now, SFI testing and certification has grown to a steadfast program with more than one hundred quality assurance specifications that are utilized by hundreds of sanctioning bodies internationally.
"As a result of Arnie’s hard work and unrelenting belief in doing the right thing, thousands of parts have been tested to safety standards to prove their worth and reliability. That has undoubtedly led to countless lives saved on the racetrack.
"He was well-respected in the motorsport safety community due to his high level of integrity. Along the way, Arnie was honored with many industry awards including being inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame (2002), awarded an NHRA Wally for Valued Personal Contributions to the Sport of Drag Racing and High Performance Industries (2002), SEMA Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council (MPMC) Hall of Fame (2016), British Drag Racing Hall of Fame’s Lucas Oil Global Achievement Award (2018), and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) John Melvin Motorsport Safety Award (2021). He also sat on several industry safety committees.
"As a person, Arnie was a kind family man and served as a role model to those who worked with him and knew him personally. He will be greatly missed by all."
Internationally, Arnie pioneered the SFI European tour which has taken place over 20 years. Head of Drag Race Tech UK Mark Norton said "Arnie was always part of the SFI tour filling the Administrative role now conducted by Jenny Faye.
"He was well known to many European racers and officials and enjoyed his time over here to the point that he visited the Euro Finals several times independently of the tour."
The news about Arnie was released on the SFI website on the 9th a little while after his passing on the 1st.
"Although I was spotted yesterday with my trailer going to Jörgen's workshop in Ludvika, from my own shop in Stockholm by on of the old Tee Cee crew members! I’ve got some questions what I will do and if I’m going to drive a Corvette at Tierp but I have jus told everyone that you will all see what will happen at Tierp in June."
In the last couple of months, the Corvette, which had a clutch and Lenco setup behind its Brad Anderson Stage VI engine with Mike Janis supercharger, has been completely rewired by crew chief Bengt Rudh and a Andreas Bruno Lenco torque converter was installed.
Andreas said "I took the converter, converter drive, Lenco and some more stuff from my Chevelle and we installed it, all the work with the rewiring and adjustments took hundreds of hours that Andreas, Jörgen and Bengt spent on the car. We are here more to test than anything else. I will also need to get used to tuning a Hemi powerplant compared with my screw blown Big Block Chevy. I don’t want to hurt parts so we are taking baby steps.”
Andreas invited us to see the car unveiled after a major amount of social media teasing to his new Pro Modified class-mates. We admired the looks of the new car, and time will tell how quickly Andreas can climb to the top of a very tall European Pro Mod tree.
Gasser Circus Sportsman Nationals preview. 15th June:
Thanks to Nick Brooke-Langham for sending in an update from Gasser Circus going into the STP Sportsman Nationals this coming weekend at Santa Pod Raceway:
Round 2 of the Gasser Circus Showdown looks set to be another battle, first to qualify with 21 Gassers entered, and then on through eliminations. Amongst those entered is a new and welcome departure for the Circus, with the arrival of Andy Cobb in his Model A Coupe, highlighting once again the mix of body styles and manufacturers that campaign in the Gasser Circus! Where else would you see Ford Pops, Tri Chevys, Austin Devons, Fordsons, Falcons, Willys, Morris, Chevy Novas, Mercury Comet and a Dodge Dart racing each other?
If you are attending the weekend make sure you check them all out in the pits and when they hit the strip, when the racing will be as ever close and unpredictable as we continue to celebrate this being our 20th Anniversary.
Gasser Circus - Racing the Dream.
Swift snippets. 15th June:
Commiserations to Supercharged Outlaws chairman and Perfect ET sponsor Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield who has announced that due to parts shortages he will be unable to attend the Sportsman Nationals this weekend, we look forward seeing you back at the track at Dragstalgia Fadster. Commiserations and get well soon to Super Street Bike racer Stephen Mead who has withdrawn from the Sportsman Nationals due to illness.
Stream from Tierp Arena this weekend. 14th June:
Thanks to FIA Drag Racing Commission member Lars Petterson for sending a link to the stream of this weekend's FIA/FIM-E race at Tierp Arena.
Round two in the FIA European Drag Racing Championship at Tierp Arena will be broadcast live from the Swedish Automobile Sport Federation web page which you can reach by clicking here for only SEK 99/month (roughly €10).
The broadcast from Tierp International's start Saturday and Sunday 08:50 local time.
With a Svensk Bilsport-subscription you get access to all broadcasts all year round for only SEK 99/month (roughly €10). The sum is deducted monthly for as long as you want to watch. The binding period is one month at a time.
Yam Yam Drag Racing Club gallery. 14th June:
Many thanks to Kieran for sending us a gallery of photos from Monday's Yam Yam Drag Racing Club run what ya brung at Santa Pod Raceway which you can see at this link supported by John Woolfe Racing.
Kieran said some interesting cars were testing including an ex Andy Bond Mustang which could be headed towards competition.
STP Sportsman Nationals Perfect Awards. 14th June:£100 is up for grabs at this weekend's STP Sportsman Nationals courtesy of Eurodragster.com and our sponsors.
This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Track Worx Comp Eliminator racer Matt Davison at the FIA/FIM-E Main Event. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds.
The Perfect Light Award is available in all classes during both qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the event.
The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with Cath and Tig Napier of Modurstang Pro ET team Bad Habit Racing.
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect Light Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available
in Signing On or from Eurodragster.com staff.
The Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supported by Andy Hadfield and the Twister Race Team has been reset to £50 after it was won by Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas racer Andy Dibleuy at the FIA/FIM-E Main Event. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to run +0.000 on index or dial-in. The Perfect
ET Award is available in 7.60 Heads Up, Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, VW Sportsman, VW Pro, JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike, Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike, Blood Cancer UK ET Bike and Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike
but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield of the Twister Race Team in memory of his late wife Hayley.
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect ET Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are
available in Signing On or from Eurodragster.com staff.
STP Sportsman Nationals racer update. 13th June:
Many thanks to to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for
sending us details of track opening and signing on at the STP Sportsman Nationals being held on 17th-18th June, including scrutineering times.
The main gates to the track will open at 08.00 on Friday, 16th June.
Friday, 16th June:
10.00-18.00 Signing on office opens
10.00-18.00 Scrutineering for bikes at the scrutineering building
14.30-19.00 Scrutineering for cars at the scrutineering building
Saturday, 17th June:
07.00 Signing on office opens
08.00 Scrutineering for cars at the scrutineering building
09.30 Scrutineering for bikes at the scrutineering building
09.30 Track open for qualifying
Sunday, 18th June:
07.00 Signing on open
08.00 Scrutineering for bikes
08.00 Scrutineering for cars
09:30 Track open for qualifying/ eliminations
The detailed running orders and entry list can be seen in our event coverage page.
Williams Bros Racing head to Tierp. 13th June:
Thanks to Colin Theobald for sending a preview of Williams Bros Racing's first overseas race of 2023:
As you read this, Dan and Nic Williams are on their way to Sweden with the crew of the 3 ‘L’s, Lorne, Louis and Lee to compete in Stock/Super Stock with Nic’s recently upgraded Copo Camaro.
The car ran a new p.b. of 8.134 @ 168.52mph at The Main Event during qualifying and then proceeded to run faultlessly during eliminations and winning the final. This in effect set their minds on going to the Tierp Internationals with a now tested and proven car that would be competitive.
Nic says "Our aim is to go rounds but also try a few things to see if we can get the Camaro into the 7 second zone. Stock/Super Stock is extremely competitive in Sweden and the temptation to take on the Scandinavians on their home turf was just too strong to resist.
"We all know that the European teams travel many miles to compete at Santa Pod so it’s nice to be able to represent the U.K. as the only car competing at the event along with the contingent of U.K. bike racers. We set off on Sunday night and fair to say the journey has been eventful already, more on the journey once we get to Tierp on our Facebook page.
"Many thanks to all of the well wishers and of course VP Racing Lubricants for their support.
STP Sports Nationals and Street Weekend preview. 13th June:
This weekend, the STP Sports Nationals will take place at Santa Pod Raceway from 17th-18th June. There will be something for everybody.
In the car classes, the largest category will be Street Weekend, which will be running at the 16th June practise day and Sunday 18th. On Saturday and Sunday there will be qualifying and racing for 7.60 Heads Up, Supercharged Outlaws, Gasser Circus, Modified 100e, Sportsman ET, VW Pro and VW Sportsman.
Street Weekend entry stands at 81. A special welcome to Petter Lundgren from Sweden who will be competing in a Chevrolet El Camino. Prime interest is how Street Eliminator competitors fare - Andy Bond, Al McSweeney, Rob Carter, Graham Smith, Robert Slater, and Jack Hale have cars that are among the quickes but can their mechanicals survive intact the two way 400 mile road trip between Santa Pod and Melbourne Raceway, where the cars will be running on Saturday?
Outlaw Street has no less than 15 vehicles included in Street Weekend, quickest are Arnie Pamment with his AMC JAvelin. Several Outlaw Street cars are capable of nines, which may be all that is needed. All Street Weekend vehicles will have to check in at Snake Pass and EDA Racing Engines on the way up to Melbourne, and DArkside Developments plus Straight To The Point on the way down to Santa Pod. Full details are at https://santapod.co.uk/street-weekend.php">this link on the SPR website.
7.60 Heads Up supported by Eurodragster.com sponsors Jeff and Belinda Bull, has a field of nine cars, who will be aiming to hit the time without breaking out. New to the class are Brendan Clancy who returned to Santa Pod to race his Corvette at the Main Event, Billy Gane who is using nitrous in his Vauxhall Ventora, and Darren Peart in his Wildcat Cortina. Paul Marston returns with a new ex-Jari Konola Pro Stock engine in his PT Bruiser, Mark Turner with a supercharger atop his BBC engine powering his Toyota Supra.
The Supercharged Outlaws count is currently 7, with a planned first appearance of Aussie John Willard's blown Pop (below left) before it appears at Dragstalgia in Outlaw Anglia. Perfect ET sponsor Andy Hadfield returns with a rebuilt engine in his Twister Racing T.
Gasser Circus again has a strong 20 car field including the debut of Andy Cobb's Bad To The Bone Model A Ford with a 454ci engine (above right). Nick Hewison (Short Fuse Fordson) and Adam Kruczynski (Not so Mellow Yellow Chevy 210) will be making their first 2023 appearance.
The Modified 100e Challenge returns with 10 entries. Sharon Carver (Jezabel 350ci) and Clive Charles (Fopar 318ci) joining the class at this event. Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET has a 25 car field, with 'guests' Pete Walters and Dave Cherrett in their street cars. Also welcome back to double champion Al Pratt in the Rainy City Racing Camaro.
VW Pro has 11 entries, John Brewster back racing with the VWDRC in the Unfinished Business Beetle at Sportsman Nationals hoping to progress his times and speeds in the now turbocharged Bug (thanks for getting in touch John). Jacob Bailey is in his first racing event of the year with his R32-engined VW Jetta Coupe, whilst Dave Crowhurst returns in the Subaru engined Wanger after running 9s at Doorslammers. VW Sportsman has a strong entry of 22 including first appearance in the class this year for Travis Smith in his Audi S3.
ACU Bike classes also qualify on Saturday and race on Sunday. In Leeks Landscape Funny Bike, Ryan Davidson makes his class debut after running his ex Phil Crossley machine in ET Bike at the Festival of Power (below left). Taylors Trophy Super Street Bike is likely to have a smaller entry with two of their number (Alan Morrison Jnr and Ross Morrison) racing at Tierp. However Dave Smith is making his first appearance of the year making it a three bike field with Jake Mechaell and Alan Morrison Snr.
Suzukiperformancespares.co.uk Comp Bike has a 19 bike field, one of the largest for many years as several Super Street Bike racers make the switch (possibly and ironically, in fear of a small SSB field). The latest SSB refugees are Pete Field (above right), who has not competed since 2019, and Stephen Mead, who was in SSB in the FIA/FIM-E Main Event. JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike has the debut of Daniel Madeira on the Wolf Prestige Automotive Kawasaki ZX12R, the first appearance this year of Paul Morris, and a welcome back to Patrick Merite from the Netherlands on his Suzuki GSXR1000. Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike welcomes newcomer Kevin Gillett.
Blood Cancer UK ET Bike has 20 entered, with four from the Netherlands, Charly Anasagasti, Chantal Van Loon, Roxalvin Augusta, Nygel Lichtenberg and Patrick Merite, the last three making their first 2023 appearance. Old School Stockers has Chris Spry (Kawasaki H2), Dean Stevens (Kawasaki H2), Alan Ward (Suzuki GSX11ET) and Peter McGuiness (Kawasaki H1 500), the latter two making their class return, and with NSA sprinting experience, Peter being a past Euro champion and Alan a regular in Pro Stock Bike in the 1980s.
Finally, Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike has the long awaited debut of John 'Spud' McLean whose bike will be in team colours, and Declan Butt, with a Honda CB200 named Kermit.
Also for spectators is the Retro Show, a classic car show for fans of retro vehicles on two and four wheels. Fans can obtain tickets by going to the Santa Pod online ticket shop by clicking here.
Eurodragster.com will be covering the event, with Julian and Diana providing on-track and off-track photos, with additional pictures of Street Weekend competitors on the road. As Simon will be away at Tierp Arena, there will be a link to the official Santa Pod results page. Follow our coverage at this link, or via the Event Coverage page.
Swift snippets. 13th June:
Happy Birthday for today to photographer Rose Hughes and Outlaw Street racer Steve Unsworth, we hope you both have a great day.
Street Weekend Melbourne sweepstake. 12th June:
Melbourne Raceway PR Andy Flavell has announced that he is running a Street Weekend Melbourne Sweepstake. He said:
"Anyone can play, its £10 a ticket, £5 goes straight to the pits resurfacing fund.
Next Thursday I’ll draw your name out of a hat and will draw a Street Week contestant out of a separate hat and that is your entry.
The prize pot is then split into four separate prizes. Winners are the players linked with the car entrant who is:
The quickest car on the day;
Closest car to to 6.00;
Closest car to to 7.00; and
Closet car to to 8.00.
You can pay via PayPal at [email protected].
On the subject of Melbourne Raceway, Graham Sykes says "It’s going to be a busy weekend next meeting, especially Saturday with the Street cars joining us Friday evening and Saturday.
"Anyone who thinks they can help out marshalling and help with the running of the meeting to make it run smoothly alongside us guys, please shout out on here or Facebook message Graham Sykes or Alan Perkins."
Eurodragster.com will be represented at Melbourne Raceway's Street Weekend by former editor Tog who will be photographing racing at the track and posting results. To see our coverage, click here or go via our Event Coverage page.
Swift snippets. 12th June:
Happy Birthday for today to VW Sportsman racer Jack Gooding, Supercharged Outlaws crew Kevin Tearrell and Comp Bike racer Hannes Burgering. We hope you all have a great day.
Thanks to Jerry Cookson for letting us know that it's National Sprint Association's 'Queen of Speed' Sheelagh Neal's birthday today. We hope you are having a great day Sheelagh.
John O'Sullivan is putting the iconic ex Pro Mod Mr. Mopar Pop back together hopefully to be able to run at Dragstalgia so our Australian visitor and friend John Willard won't be the only blown hemi powered Anglia there. We understand the last time Mr. Mopar ran was back in 2007 so its reappearance will cause a stir with all nostalgia minded fans. John has Wild Bunch racer Steve Heaven helping with the rebuild.
Well done to Pro Modified racer Dmitry Samorukov for reaching the semi finals at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, taking out a couple of legends on the way. Dmitry's 0.011 RT and 5.935/240.29 holeshot Rickie Smith's 5.785/250.55 with a 0.192 light. Then in round 2, Dmitry's 5.896/241.80 defeated Todd Tutterow. Eventual winner Kris Thorne narrowly defeated Dmitry who ran another 5.8s pass.
Tierp Internationals preview. 11th June:
The Tierp Internationals at Tierp Arena commence this coming Thursday 15th June and take place over four days. Although a large number of sportsman racers will be taking part, the main focus will be on the FIA and FIM-E Championships, for which this event will be the second round.
Thursday will be a Sportsman EDRS qualifying day, Friday will have FIA and FIM-E qualifying sessions at 12:00 and 16:00 CET (11:00 and 15:00 BST). Saturday will have will have FIA and FIM-E qualifying sessions at 10:00, 13:00 and 16:00 CET (09:00, 12:00 and 15:00 BST, Top Fuel in the first and third Saturday sessions only). FIA eliminations commence on Sunday with Pro Modified round 1 at 10:30 CET (09:30 BST).
In FIA Top Fuel, there will be five cars. Sadly, Jndia Erbacher announced that in her last qualifying run at the FIA/FIM-E Main Event on Sunday she fractured a lower vertebra which was likely exacerbated by running eliminations on Monday. She said "It is not what we wished for, but now we have enough time to get the car faster and better for Hockenheim at end of August!" We wish Jndia a speedy recovery and return to the cockpit at the NitrOlympX.
As well as Susanne Callin and Ida Zetterström, Rune Fjeld Motorsport will be fielding the re-wrapped dragster run by Duncan Micallef at the Main Event for 2022 champion Antti Horto who will be running a reduced schedule this year. All three of these cars were championship contenders last year.
Returning to FIA competition for the first time since 2019 is Timo Lehtimäki who will be looking for his first three second pass, and Stig Neergaard will be looking for more consistency after an off-pace Main Event.
In FIA Top Methanol, the quartet of Main Event winner Linn Engan Fløysvik, Sandro Bellio (both Funny Cars), and Silvio Strauch with Jonny Lagg (dragsters) will be joined by Tony Bryntesson (A/FD) and Johnny Oksa (Camaro FC). Tony solved fuelling issues in 2022 and will be hoping to start where he left off, whilst Johnny is attending his first FIA race since 2019 and will be glad to be back on track. We were expecting Tina Høst in the Jedborn Motorsport A/FD but her licensing passes will now be taking place at the Mid Sweden Nats at Sundsvall in July and so we hope to see Tina at Tierp in the August race.
Among the ten FIA Pro Stock cars racing at Tierp, all but one raced in the FIA championship 2022, the exception being longtime PS racer Tommy Leindahl who will be driving a Chevy Cobalt. As this is effectively the first round of the 2023 championship for Pro Stock, with the second at Tierp in August, we hope to see a decent number of cars travel to Hockenheim and Santa Pod to decide the championship.
FIA Pro Modified at 22 cars is having a great year with a strong start at the Main Event. However travel difficulties and costs are reflected in nine cars entering the Tierp Internationals that were at the Main Event. It will be good to see Old '51 owner Magnus Petersson and double duty driver Jimmy Ålund back in the class after three years away. They were in the 5.7s in 2019 and it would be hard not to expect them to make a strong start. There are two class debuts as well, Mike Reymond and Andreas Sjödin, both having moved up from Top Doorslammer.
FIM-E Top Fuel Bike has a strong nine bike entry, and we will be looking out for three performance thresholds, Neil Midgley and Rikard Gustafsson backing up their record breaking passes from Santa Pod; Jan Sturla Hegre and René van den Berg looking to run their first fives; and Mike Olie needing a six second pass on his Funny Bike to make eliminations with six nitro bikes entered.
FIM-E Super Twin Bike is very well subscribed with 17 entries, of which 13 were competing in last year's championship. It's great to see Svein Olav Rolfstad back in FIM-E competition, fielding a pair of bikes with son John; the class welcomes FIM-E debuts from Frank Aaslund and Erling Opheim, whom along with John will be seeking to make two runs under 7.5s and over 273.5Kph (170mph) to satisfy the licensing requirements.
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike has two more machines entered than at the Main Event; Tim Christensen made his class debut in the EDRS Pro race at Garedermoen but, like Dutchman Aswin Le Noble, will need to run two runs under 7.90s and over 265kph (165mph) to satisfy licensing requirements. Another debut is from Joerg Lymant who raced in Super Twin Top Gas last year and has a bike that can run the required numbers.
FIM-E Super Street Bike with 12 entries has two Brits to cheer on, championship leader Alan Morrison Jnr and Ross Morrison. There is a first FIM-E appearance in the class for Roberth Häggblom who raced at Tierp in EDRS Pro in 2021. FIM-E rookies Krisztián Jász from Hungary and Peter Östlund from Sweden will be looking to improve further on times recorded at the Main Event. Wille Skinnars from Norway, with a PB of 7.947 will need to run two runs under 7.90s to satisfy licensing requirements.
Supplementary regulations can be seen at this link.
You can attend to watch four days of great racing by clicking here and choosing the options including camping and VIP as well as spectator entry.
A live stream will be available on Saturday and Sunday, you can follow the link to Svensk Bilsport TV from here you will be able to sign up for a subscription for 99kr/month (approx £7.30) which can be cancelled within the month.
Our coverage will start on Thursday with comprehensive live reports on Sportsman and Pro qualifying and eliminations, plus galleries from guest photographer Patrik Jacobsson. For another preview by photojournalist Remco Scheelings, click here to go to www.dragracingeurope.eu.
Swift snippets. 11th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Swedish Pro Mod racer-in-waiting Andreas Sjödin, Outlaw Street racer Tom Semper Carter Motorsport PR Dan Welberry and former Comp Bike racer and 2004 champion T.J. O' Brien. We hope you all have a great day.
Commiserations to expat Dutch Top Fuel racer Lex Joon who was in #16 in the qualifying field coming into the final session for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, but was bumped out by Spencer Massey, so Lex is first alternate. Good luck and stay safe to Dmitry Samorukov, who has qualified for Pro Modified at #15 with a 5.873/243.06.
Due to changing circumstances all racer tickets will have to be collected at the gate prior to the event. Those that have paid for racer ticket delivery will of course be refunded in due course.
Santa Pod Racers Club would like to apologise for this short term change, postage will resume for the Summer Nationals, once again sorry about the change at short notice.
STP Summer Nationals entry extended. 10th June:Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall has announced the extension of the entry deadline for the STP Summer Nationals.
The Summer Nationals entry system will remain open until close of play this coming Monday, if you have not entered please don't delay as time is running short.
Drag Illustrated report on FIA/FIM-E Main Event. 10th June:
Photojournalist David Beitler has published a report on the FIA/FIM-E Main Event on major US drag racing website Drag Illustrated.
In his report, David summarises the Top Fuel, Pro Modified and Top Methanol qualifying and eliminations, and lists all class winners. Also included are some excellent photos. You can read David's report by clicking on the photo.
It is to be hoped that Drag Illustrated editor Wes Buck, who also hosts the entertaining Wes Buck Show podcast will at some stage make his way over the Atlantic to view European drag racing first hand.
Swift snippets. 10th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Supercharged Outlaws racer Gary Parkes, Outlaw Flat Four racer Jonny Marriage, former Outlaw Anglia racer, crew, and car painter Andy Przybyl, and Germany drag racing scrutineer Mike Barnett. We hope you all have a great day.
Santa Pod Raceway have announced that Pro Mod racer and World Superstar DJ Carl Cox is bringing his Procharger powered Plymouth ‘Cuda Pro Mod car to Bug Jam this July. Eurodragster.com sponsors Robinson Racecars with driver Andy Robinson have challenged Carl to a 'friendly' grudge race and Carl has accepted. We are expecting the banter level to increase massively in the run-up to this event.
Super Gas racer Jazmine Tunstall is doing a sponsored skydive fundraiser to benefit the Hospice of St Francis (Berkhamsted) Limited in which her Grandad, the much-missed Kevin Cerasale was cared for in the last few weeks of his life. Good luck to Jazmine and readers are invited to contribute at gofund.me.
On the Sunday of the July event I’m organising a 50/50 bracket race at Melbourne! Sunday 16th July. This is a Big Bracket Big Money event, £150 entry, £50 of which gets added straight to the prize fund pot! (50% after costs).
We also have a bonus £200 lined up to add in once the entry gets beyond 10!
The more entries, the more prize money, as simple as that. We can run this event on a 4 car entry or a 32! The more the better. No minimum entry required!
Prize fund wise:
50% of that to the winner
20% to the runner up
10% to both semi finalists
2.5% to both 1/4 finalists
The other 50% after costs goes towards developing the pits resurfacing. All cars are welcome, they just need to be fit for purpose. FWD, RWD, Big Tire, Small Tire, dragsters, altereds, the lot!
Ultimate No Prep bracket challenge, have you got what it takes? Staggered start, Sportsman tree, dial in times. One practice pass and straight into eliminations.
Pairings will be drawn out of a hat. There will be £30 buy backs after round 1 eliminations (time allowing). Come up to Melbourne and prove your bracket racing credentials, take home some serious prize money. No prep bracket racing, do you have what it takes?!
Entry cost covers admission, RWYB costs and then 1 entry to the 50/50 bracket. Camping on the Saturday is available.
This is a RWYB deal so no club memberships needed. All you need is a car, a helmet and a DVLA licence.
Swift snippets. 9th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Wild Bunch racer Keith Crampton, motor cycle racer and British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Phillip 'Pip' Higham, Pro Modified racer-in-waiting David James and 8.50 Bike racer Andrew Christophi. We hope you all have a great day.
A reminder that today is the entry deadline for the STP Summer Nationals on 1st-2nd July at Santa Pod Raceway. You can enter by clicking here. The current entry list is showing at this link.
Kieran has posted several videos from the recent FIA/FIM-E Main Event to his Mk1Kieran Youtube channel. His latest postings separately show action he captured from Pro Modified, Street Eliminator, Top Methanol, Comp Eliminator and Nitro Funny Car at the event. Also posted is a feature on the SpottedMotors Twin Turbo LS Mk5 Cortina. You can see Kieran's videos by clicking on this link.
Android phone Chrome browser users are advised to view Eurodragster.com via the native browser; the latest Chrome update has some "improvements" that result in our pages being displayed incorrectly. Android tablet users (subject to an adjustment to the zoom setting) and PC users need not worry.
Fast Show Reloaded Shootout entries close next Friday. 8th June:
Thanks to Santa Pod Raceway Track & Events Coordinator (and t-shirt cannon operator - Ed) Dan Melrose for an announcement about entry for the Fast Show Reloaded Compact Shootout taking place on Sunday 25th June:
This is a reminder to all compact racers that entries for the next Sports Compact Shootout at Fast Show Reloaded (June 25th) close 5pm next Friday, June 16th. Spots are limited to 20 total on a first-come, first-serve basis and are available online at racers.santapodtickets.com.
For more information and dates for the Sports Compact Shootout, information can be found at this link on the SPR website.
Ålund: 2023 in progress, with a win. 8th June:
Thanks to Pär Willén for his account of Jimmy Ålund and the Summit Racing Camaro at the EDRS Spring Nat's, Gardermoen Raceway, Norway:
The Jimmy Ålund Summit Racing Pro Stock Team has started a new season, it kicked off in Norway with the EDRS Spring Nat's at Gardermoen Raceway. Six of the top European Pro Stock cars were in attendance representing both Finland and Sweden.
It's been a long time coming back to Gardermoen Raceway, it was all of 17 years since Ålund's last race at this track.
Ålund said, "Indeed, time flies when you're having fun. It's of course good to be back. As always, Gardermoen has a great crew and the updates to the track, pits and general infrastructure are great. We'll be back here again in August for the annual Drag Challenge".
The new track surface is well laid and very smooth but a late and long cold spring made for a tricky setup in balancing the cool horse power inducing weather conditions against a track that was very cold at night and stayed that way into the daylight hours.
This was the first go for the season for all the attending Pro Stock teams but they got it figured out well in Saturday's qualifying.
The Summit Racing Camaro ended up as the #1 qualifier. Ålund said "It was nice and tight in qualifing with a few changes up top. The team did good and we ended up as the #1 qualifier with a solid 6.61 ET in the last run on Saturday. That's a new track record and we're of course very happy with that. I like the speed number too, over 336 km/hour (209 mph) is a good indication of a very healthy motor."
Sunday and eliminations. The Ålund Summit Racing Camaro went to the final against another veteran who is back racing again, Tommy Leindahl. Ålund pulled all the stops and won this season opener with another good set of numbers, 6.68 at 334 km/h (207.54 mph).
"That was a good start of the season", says Ålund. "The car and the team are right on track for the next event, the Tierp Internationals".
Any surprises coming up this year? Ålund again, "Well, I'll be doing double duty again, driving not only the Summit Racing Pro Stock car but I'll also be in the driver's seat of the Old 51 Pro Mod car of Magnus Petersson".
The next race for the team is the the Tierp Internationals, an FIA European Drag Racing Championship round held at the famous drag strip in Tierp. The dates are July 15-18.
Summit Racing Equipment is sponsoring Ålund Pro Stock Camaro this year as well. This is in addition to Tunghantering, KB Titan Racing, Camaroskroten, and Stigs Axle and Parts. Jimmy Ålund Racing is very grateful for the continuing support from such great companies.
Racers: send in your Tierp Internationals previews, and we guarantee to publish them in the days leading up to the race.
Swift snippets. 8th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Wild Bunch racer Phil James, one half of the Spotted Motors Youtube team Michael Castle, and to Norwegian Super Street Bike racer Peter Östlund. We hope you all have a great day.
Pro Modified racer Chris Orthodoxou sent us a tribute for the late Amos Meekins, whose passing we reported on yesterday. "Gutted to hear about Amos. I was really shocked by the sad news. What a great bloke. I knew him for over 35 years - he’d scrutineered every car I’d ever brought to race at the Pod. Always friendly and reasonable with his decisions and advice. And always good for a crack.
"A very sad loss to our community - he was the guy you always expected to see there for ever. My thoughts go out to his family.
Amos Meekins. 7th June:
We were saddened to hear of the passing of retired Santa Pod Raceway chief scrutineer Amos Meekins, who passed away on Friday 2nd June as a result of complications from a fall 10 days earlier.
Amos was chief scrutineer from the early 1980s until he retired in 2021, not only presiding over car scrutineering until he retired, but also organising the Major Incident practice sessions where scrutineers, marshals, medical and fire crews rehearse the procedures that they employ in such situations.
Thanks to Drag Race Tech UK team member Geoff Martin for this tribute:
"To most of the present day Drag Racing fraternity it seems as though Amos Meekins was scrutineering forever.
To the more mature Racers, his innings began in 1992, as assistant to MSA UK Technical Delegate Stuart Vincent.
Once he had found his feet, Amos and his beloved wife Lydia, lived for their weekends at Santa Pod, Amos Scrutineering and Lydia handing out the timing tickets from their camper window.
"Amos hated to tell a racer that he had failed scrutineering, it was always "i'll let it go this time, get it right for the next meeting". Being fluent in German, brought peace to many awkward "International Technical problems."
"And so the seasons rolled by, until he was deeply affected by the sudden death of Lydia. He soldiered on, in an increasingly modernised scrutineering system always calm in some seemingly horrendous incidents.
"Finally, when he felt he could hand over to someone, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and scrutineering was changed forever.
So the Amos Meekins era came to a close, but most, if not all, carry a special memory of him with us always.
Amos Meekins - fondly remembered."
Mark Norton, head of Drag Race Tech UK added "Geoff and Amos worked together, Amos as MSA Scrutineer and Geoff as head of Drag Race Tech UK and latterly as FIA technical delegate. They had their run-ins ,but beyond that they had a great respect for each other."
FIA Drag Racing Commission Member and Chair of Motorsport UK Speed Events Committee Philip Evans said:
“If I needed any advice with framing a new or revised regulation he would always be available to discuss the matter. He worked selflessly with our Technical Crew (especially Geoff and Mark) and implemented the increasingly complex eligibility rules and regulations.
"He was always helpful to the competitors, trying to give them advice on how to put right problems with their vehicles and where possible the time to put them right. Amos was a stalwart of our sport and I am saddened by his passing.”
Amos said that drag racing was his life. So one special event for him, which we were able to photograph at the time, was a surprise ride in Santa Pod's two seater dragster in 2009 (pictured, Jon Webster driving).
Amos told us "I was having a conversation in the pits when Darren Prentice joined us", said Amos. "He told me that they had a problem with the dragster and they weren't sure whether they could run it. I said I would go and take a look at it. When I got there, Darren pointed at the firesuits and said "Choose one, you're going in it". It was my first time down the track in 30 years and was only given 15 minutes' notice.
"It gave me a new perspective on the racing. The burnout scared me! It was a real kick up the backside off the start line and I thought the acceleration would tail off eventually but it never did. Jon said to me "When you see the gantry then grab the steering wheel because you'll get a kick" so I did and when the parachute came out I thought my arms were going to be ripped off. Now I know why I do what I do."
We send our deepest condolences to Amos's family and friends.
FIM-E event notices for Tierp Internationals. 7th June:
FIM-E drag bike racing commission member Job Heezen made the following announcement regarding important information for all racers who are racing in the FIM-E championship's series at Tierp in June.
Racers should make sure to arrange the following:
You need to present yourself with a valid FIM-E license, including a start-permission from your national federation.
Make sure you have the correct FIM-E start number on your bike (numbers that you can find in our 23rd May update).
To be admitted to the eliminations you have to present at least 2 valid time slips, showing that you meet or exceed the limits as to be found in our rules (see below). If you didn't meet these standards yet, you will be given the chance to do so in the qualifying rounds before the start of the eliminations:
Super Street Bike: Two quarter-mile runs of 7.90 or quicker and two runs of 165 mph/265km/h or faster
Pro Stock Bike: Two quarter-mile runs of 7.90 or quicker and two runs of 165mph/265km/h or faster
Super Twin Bike: Two quarter-mile runs of 7.50 or quicker and two runs of 170 mph/273.5km/h or faster
Top Fuel Bike: Two quarter-mile runs of 6.99 or quicker and two runs of 180mph/289.6km/h or faster
Markus's FIA/FIM-E Main Event. 7th June:
Thanks to Drag Race Union committee member Markus Münch who has posted to German language site Dragmag.net (translation available on the Chrome browser) a report and photos from the FIA/FIM-E Main Event from Santa Pod Raceway.
Markus said "Even the best week comes to an end, everyday life has me back; this was one of the really good races, the next one can come. Clastres, Mantorp, NOX, Hillsrace, bring it on... ah, the job calls first."
Swift snippets. 7th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Comp Bike racer John Mclean, Swedish former Pro Stock racer Michael Callin, Swedish former Super Twin racer Anders 'Charley' Karling who celebrates 70, Sportsman ET racer Ashleigh Clark, and Street Eliminator racer-in-waiting David Murdoch. We hope you all have a great day.
We were shocked and sad to hear of the passing of National Street Car Challenge racer Sandra-Lee Wood. Sandra-Lee's 9 litre engined 100e ran in the NSCC mainly at Melbourne Raceway but also at Santa Pod. Graham Sykes said "Our thoughts are with with the family and friends of Sandra-Lee. The whole of the Straightliners crew and Melbourne family send their condolences at this difficult time. She will be sorely missed by all of us."
The Irish Drag Racing Championship dates at Bishopscourt on Sunday 30th July and Sunday 27th August at Enniskillen Airport are in doubt due to a commercial dispute between promoter Irish Drag Racing and timekeepers Straightliners N.I. Ticket sales on the Irish Drag Racing website have been taken down. We hope that the dispute can be resolved in time for these events to take place and will announce further developments as we hear them.
Melbourne Raceway round 3 coming up. 6th June:
On 16th-17th June, Melbourne Raceway hosts its 2023 Championship Round 3. Included will be the Street Weekend Competition, on Saturday only, round 4 of the Straightliners Championship and Run What Ya Brung.
No less than 83 cars have entered Street Weekend, meaning there will be a plethora of seriously powerful machine in the pits, looking to run their best on the Melbourne track. Entries include from Street Eliminator the seven second cars over the quarter mile of Andy Bond, Al McSweeney and Mark Todd, eight second runners Rob Carter, Graham Smith and Rob Slater, from Outlaw Street the eight second cars of Dave Mahoney and Arnie Pamment plus many more.
Melbourne Raceway's new E.T bracket classes this year will be racing, Sportsman ET (up to 7.90), (Pro ET (6.90-7.89) and Pro Extreme (5.90-6.89) with dial-ins used on the Sportsman tree. There's also the NSCC Hot Rod Gazette heads up option for modified street legal cars. And for quicker cars that want to run a heads up pro tree, we have Pro Comp running a Cannonball style format with the two quickest running a shootout in the final.
If racers don't have a Motorsport UK or ACU licence for bike racers, a Nora licence is needed but can be purchased easily and cheaply at this link
For more details on the car rules, click on this link. The No Mercy Bike series offers bracket racing opportunities to bikers, jnr bikes, scooters, Ultimate Street bikes for modified bikes, stock and 2 strokes, racing legends for the over 70s among others. For more details on the bike rules, click on this link.
Specatator entry, available on the gate, is £15 a day, or £30 per weekend with camping available free from 17:00 on Friday 15th June. Bar and catering facilities are open Friday night and there is a band on then too. Run what ya brung is now exclusively pay on the gate, £25 per day for three runs or £35 per day for unlimited runs (plus £15 admission), so no pre booking is required for RWYB. Racer and spectator tickets can be purchased at straightliners.events.
Class racers should be quick to secure their place in the weekend's activities.
Drag Strip wedding in Clastres. 6th June:
Thanks to German Motor Sport Federation drag racing co-ordinator Andrea Kloss for sending details of a happy event at the recent race at Clastres Dragway:
Pro ET Racer #915 Janine (Mercedes CLK V8) and Super Pro ET Racer #915 Oliver Petzold (Corvette Roadster) of Schumann Motorsport in Germany had already married at the registration office in their home town of Gera. However due to the pandemic they where not able to go through with their plan to get married on the drag strip. So this year Oliver and Janine decided the time had come to finally have their dream wedding.
They contacted Eric Angeloni from the ATD-Crew at Clastres Dragway and our French colleagues where absolutely wonderful and instantly agreed to the couple having their wedding on the track on the Saturday after qualifying. Numerous drivers formed two lines down the staging lanes as an isle for the bride to be escorted down by team owner Udo Schumann. The groom and their daughter Eleanor who races in Junior Dragster #915 where waiting on the drag strip.
Andrea Kloss of the DMV held the ceremony and speech and when Oliver and Janine pledged their vows to each other - it was amazing how many drivers had tears in their eyes. It was a very moving ceremony.
Picture credit: Harry Czekalla.
Swift snippets. 6th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Swedish photographer Patrik Jacobsson, VW Sportsman racer Caitlin Wilson, Outlaw Anglia racer Ben Montgomery and VW Pro racer Ian Dance, we hope you all have a great day.
Post FIA/FIM-E Main Event National points update. 5th June:
Thanks to sponsor Pete Walters and National Points co-ordinator Yvonne Tramm for confirming that the Post FIA/FIM-E Main Event points for the SPRC National Drag Racing Championship have been updated. You can find the points on this link or via santapodracersclub.com.
You can see FIA and FIM-E points by going to this link, or via News, then Points Standings in the main menu.
Crew Killer not a tortoise. 5th June:
During commentary at the FIA/FIM-E Main Event one memorable first round Super Pro ET race, between five second dragster racer Barry Giles and the Crew Killer Pop of John Tebenham was described as "Tortoise versus hare". JT responds:
"How dare Darryl Bradford call my smoking Pop a tortoise, we had the car to win this weekend. The only problem is, so did everyone else.
"My crew were brilliant. We ran 12 x 8.9s and somebody made me an offer for the car. However, it’s £50k or not at all. They said they would run it like I do. No you won’t, it’s really tough on parts, slicks one meeting, oil every meeting, engine every six meetings refresh, with my outstanding I.C.E. engine and Edge gearbox and, yes, 10 x 150 mph bbbbbaaaahhhh - JT x Marina Van, what a show."
You can next see JT in action in the UK with the Killer Pop at the FIA/FIM-E European Finals where Darryl will undoubtedly give his response to JT.
Stop press: JT has announced his return to Hockenheim's NitrOlympX from 25th-27th August: "As I see the world from a different pair of glasses, we are ready for Hockenheim. I tell you this is going be a blast.
"I have wrapped my little white pop with a different theme. This is a film wrap. Let me know the theme and you will win free t-shirts and posters, and will get to sit in the car. We are going to be famous, come to the incredible NitrOlympX and see for yourselves."
Red Ned debut. 5th June:
Thanks to team boss Michael Dowdy for sending us his account of son Matthew's senior class debut in their immaculate Chevy Nova:
The Red Ned Nova was finally able to debut at the Nostalagia Nationals with the NSS, where unfortunately rain put a stop to a more meaningful debut. However it was good to be back out with such a nice group of racers.
On to the Main Event where we entered in hope rather than expectation just to get some seat time following Matthew’s appendectomy which had left him feeling off for some months. A tweak that meant that Matt could shift gear brought about a performance improvement of 8 tenths or so, although this wasn’t really enough to realistically qualify. Sure enough we ended up as second alternate but ended up running against event winner Kirsty Tramm in the first round as 3 racers unfortunately had to pull out. Trying to get some rpm on what is a street torque convertor resulted in a rather large red light and the end of the meeting for the Nova.
However, we did achieve the objective of getting some seat time and more experience of using the car. it also highlighted the need for a different torque convertor to get the car nearer its potential. As mentioned earlier, the car was destined for the street but following a change of plan by the owner and a bit of Williams Bros scheming, the car was having a 10 second roll cage fitted, a Moser axle and race wheels and tyres. We did think that we might drive to Santa Pod and change the wheels and tyres there but somehow we are now getting a trailer! Nic, Dan & Matthew have other plans and whilst I have all the gear (and no idea) I haven’t been close to having a drive yet!
We would like to thank people for all the help and advice at the Main Event, particularly the Wrattens, Keith Williams and Brett Featherstone. We hope to run Pro ET again and hopefully qualify on merit rather just by being there.
This does mean that our previous project is likely to be for sale, which can include an 18ft long x 5ft wide box trailer with internal lights and power points that is 14 months old and barely used. Please do ask if you are interested.
Swift snippets. 5th June:
Happy Birthday for today to Junior Drag Bike racer Hollie King, who has special wishes from mum Hannah. We also wish Happy Birthday to Super Twin Top Fuel racer Martijn de Haas. We hope you are having a great day Hollie and Martijn!
Funny Bike racer Dale Leeks had a semifinal exit at the Xtreme Dragbike Association event at Virginia Motorsports Park in the Maxxecu Pro Xtreme class yesterday. After qualifying in #4 with a 4.140/178.24 over the eighth mile, Dale had a bye run in round one which took him to the semi final where he was defeated by Tommy Saxon. Dale posted "Great to see my American team mate John Collins take the win with a 4.00. Massive thanks to Dan Wagner for all he does to keep me going, and Joe Procopio for hauling my bike to and from every event and the hospitality they all give us. And it was great to have my Dad here with me this week."
Gardermoen Spring Nationals results. 4th June:
Last weekend the Gardermoen Spring Nationals included test passes and match racing for Pro Cars and Bikes as well as a round of the Summit European Drag Racing Series.
There were six cars entered for EDRS Pro Stock, with Swede Jimmy Ålund qualifying first with 6.6129/336.45kph. Richard Sundblom from Finland was second with 6,6648/314,96. The remaining four qualifying racers were all Swedish, Robin Norén (6.7066/332.87), Tommy Leindahl (6.8832/321.86), Stefan Ernryd (6.9188/320.28) and Lasse Britsmar (7.5761/221.88). In round 1, Richard and Stefan were unable to make the call, leaving the two pairs to race to reach the final. Jimmy defeated Lasse 7.523/313.9 to 7.618/287.50, and Tommy Leindahl upset Robin 6.984/320.0 to 11.380/122.5. Tommy redlit in the final with Jimmy once again the victor 6.687/334.0 to 6.937/320.90.
It was good to see Tommy back as his last Pro Stock race was June 2022 and he has not raced in FIA since June 2019, but you will be able to see him in his Chevy Cobalt at the Tierp Internationals at Tierp Arena on 15th-18th June, along with the others.
Other Pro race classes included an exhibition field of three in Pro Modfied, Roger Johansson qualifying #1 at 5,9973/357.50, Stian Rusånes in #2 at 6,1645/363,09 and newcomer Mike Reymond having moved from Top Doorslammer with a creditable 6,2882/341,72 in his nitrous Mustang. Congratulations to Mike for defeating Stian in round 1 6.418/354.50 to a red light 6.122/363.30 then overcoming Roger Johansson in the final, 6.192/365.30 to 10.107/122.20.
There were also three exhibition Super Twin Top Fuel Bikes, although performance seemed lacking compared to usual. Frank Aaslund qualified in #1 with 8.6136/267.26, followed by Trond Jostein Høiberget with 8.8468/196.88 and Cato Oddmund Waale in third place with 10.3212/217.98. In eliminations, Frank was the winner by default, running a best of 8.212/277.40 after Trond was a no-show against Cato, and then Cato couldn't make the call against Frank for the final.
You can see the full results of the Gardermoen Spring Nationals by going to dragracing.eu and then searching for "Spring Nats 2023."
A debut in the EDRS Pro Comp Bike class came from 16 year old Theodor Vik who with former Pro Stock Bike racers dad Kenneth and Fredrik Fredlund, qualified and went to the final round, Theodor having set his sights on Pro Stock Bike in the future.
You can also see a report by Remco Scheelings plus photos of some of the winners at the www.dragracingeurope.eu site.
Swift snippets. 4th June:
A very Happy 90th Birthday to British drag racing pioneer Derek Metcalf, we hope you have a wonderful day Derek from Eurodragster.com and British Drag Racing Historians. You can read Derek's story at this link.
Happy Birthday for today to former Top Methanol pilot and Supercharged Outlaws crew Doug Bond, also to Outlaw Anglia crew Joe Taylor, have a great day both.
You can see in our Jeff Bull Performance Engines-sponsored Swap Meet, a well known dragster is up for sale, Steve Johnson's Motormouse supercharged slingshot which will be available after Dragstalgia, Steve's final race before retiring from racing. If you fancy buying this extraordinary car, contact Steve via the details in the advert.
Good luck and stay safe to Funny Bike racer and class sponsor Dale Leeks who is racing in the US at the Xtreme Dragbike Association event at Virginia Motorsports Park this weekend in the Maxxecu Pro Xtreme class. Dale qualified in #4 out of an 8 bike field with a 4.140/178.24 over the eighth mile. He now goes into eliminations for today. You can follow racing by going to the XDA Racing Facebook page.
Time Warp non eventing. 3rd June:
Thanks to Chris Eyre for a write up from Nostalgia Funny Car racer Wendy Baker's Time Warp pit space at the FIA/FIM-E Main Event:
The tradition of turning up with the car in one piece and promptly taking it apart continued at this year's Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway.
A good job it did continue as while running through the bottom end main caps it appeared the engine had spun a rear main bearing. In doing so it had covered the bearing oil feed hole, starving it of oil. It over-heated and blankened the crank too, which was a brand-new crank. This will now have to be inspected.
A trip back to base produced our spare crank but on further inspection and measurement it was apparent that the rear main bearing carrier was no longer round - so back to base again to retrieve another block - this was our old TFX 96 (block number 1320) and was the block that was damaged at the 2014 Euro Finals and although it had been welded it had not been machined back to receive the cylinder liners.
Luckily Dave Wilson (of TMD fame) was on hand and offered help to take the block back to his machine shop and make it ready for the liners. Off went Paul with Dave to try and fix the block.
Back at the track on Saturday the block was cleaned, liners placed in the freezer and the block was heated up, unfortunately one of the liners refused to fit into the block so it was loaded up again and the second late night trip to Dave's was under way for more machining.
Sunday dawned and sadly when the crank was tried in the block it became apparent that there were major alignment problems with the main bearing carriers that would require some major machining to remedy that could not be done with the time available.
With 2 engines not in a fit state to use the decision was made to park the car for the event. While moping around the pits a deal was done with Stig Neergaard to have one of his old TFX blocks. There are subtle differences between this block and our existing ones, so a shopping list of parts has been made and sent off to America. All being well we will see you at Dragstalgia!
Many thanks to Dave Wilson for all his help over the weekend. As always, thanks to our tireless crew of Phil, Tony, Mark, Gary and Hannah. Also thank you to all our fans who popped by and wished us well.
FIA European Drag Racing Championship points posted. 3rd June:
Thanks to Huw Button for sending us the ratified points from the FIA/FIM-E Drag Racing Championship following round 1 at Santa Pod Raceway last weekend. You can see the points via our Points Standings page (under News in the main menu), or direct in pdf format by clicking here.
The next round of the championship is at Tierp Arena on 15th-18th June.
Yam Yam Racing test day entries open. 3rd June:
Thanks to Yam Yam Racing test day organiser Scott Lewry for letting us know that he has set up another private test on Monday 12th June at Santa Pod Raceway, hopefully repeating the success of the 18th April event.
Scott says "The private test day at Santa Pod Raceway is for a maximum of 90 racers. As before this is a private booking for a day's testing, these days are limited numbers for maximum track time. We have a private group which you can join by clicking here (chat available). The costs of the day are Driver/Rider and 4 crew £100, Camping £10pp, and Spectators £10pp. Payment should be made by Paypal to me at [email protected] or private message me for alternatives.
"If you want to avoid the queues at the big shows and get some real track time in, come along and give it a try!
We are open to cars, bike, karts, sheds, shopping trollys as long as you have a driving license and meet the track requirements set by Santa Pod. Any Questions please let me know!"
Kiskunlacháza - Main Event Thunder Days this weekend. 3rd June:
This weekend, there will be two races in one weekend at Kiskunlacháza airport, Hungary. There is a separate competition on both days, both of which count towards the Hungarian National Championship and the Drag Racing Cup! So there are a lot of racers attending this weekend, as they were able to score double points.
The 'KiskunDragháza' track has not only Hungarian competitors, but also German, Croatian, Czech, Austrian and Slovak competitors too.
Results will be published at dragracing.hu to which results of the two events this season have already been uploaded. See the Youtube video on the dragracing.hu channel as a review of the 15th April event.
The timetable for today and tomorrow's races is separate sessions for Super Pro ET and Pro ET, with general sessions for cars and bikes during the day, motorcycle finals at 13:45 and car finals from 17:00.
Agrinio Raceway next weekend. 3rd June:
As a result of heavy rainfall the Panhellenic Drag Racing Championship race, previously scheduled for 26th-28th May, will now take place on 9th-11th June at Agrinio Raceway, Greece.
The race will be the second round of the Panhellenic Dragster drag bike championship and the first round of the car championship from ASI under the auspices of OMAE-AMOTOE, the race also run with the help of the municipality of Agrinio and the region of western Greece.
The race is expected to be well attended, with around 40 bike entries and 30 car entries, with entry closing . Quickest car entries currently are the eight second Subaru Impreza of Antonis Kakarakis (pictured), the eight second Opel Corsa of Savvas Petropoulos, plus the low 9 second Peugeot 106 of Fotis Chondropoulos and Citroen AX of Thomas Stefanakos. The bikes are headed up by Funny Bikes of Dimitrios Gkosios and Hristos Papailiou, with 11 Super Street Bikes battling it out, most being capable of running low 7s.
You can watch a livestream of the event from next Saturday at Sportal TV..
Swift snippets. 3rd June:
Happy Birthday for today to longtime Swedish drag racing official Kjell Pettersson, supercharged altered racer-in-waiting Mat Cooper, Pro Modified racer Dmitry Samorukov and former Dutch Pro Modified racer Robert Koper. Have a great day all.
Reader Travis Shaffenden has written in to say that he is looking to join a Super Pro drag racing team. He says "I'm 21, have no experience but I want to learn what there is to know." If you feel you can offer an opportunity to Travis, contact him by e-mail at [email protected].
FastR Super Comp racer Leah Kellett wrote "What a weekend! What a dream team!
"So absolutely stoked for bro (Joe) for absolutely smashin’ it and taking the event win (pictured above right) in a super tough field in Peter Nee Super Pro ET.
Huge well done also to Scott Hauser for also smashing it and making it all the way to the final with bro!
"Absolutely LOVED being involved in helpin' bro hit them numbers this weekend! Me and Bill were so buzzin’ after mathematical complications initially confusing the hell out of us, then realising its two different drivers trying to hit that same number in the same car. Not as easy as you might think! Especially then hot lappin for my runs...
"By the end, I was completely worn out and from all the excitement over Joe taking the win, and absolutely nothing to do with partying with all the incredible entertainment & peeps all weekend. I forgot I also had to try match his success in the finals and ended up living up to the name on the car, totally dolly daydreamin’ my way on the tree As they say, You snooze, you lose!
"Sorry I let the side down but hey, the runner up trophies are really cool! And I did have multi time champ Stuart Doignie to contend with in FastR Super Comp (pictured right), so it was always going to be tough! Congratulations to Stu for having a cracking weekend also in Comp and Gas.
"We welcomed another legend into our class this weekend and it was so awesome to be able to run against Lee Huxley for the first time! We have always been big supporters of all the Huxleys so that was so cool to be able to race with Lee! It was also equally as fantastic to welcome in our European friends Clément Dubois and Marcus Ochsner, as well as Jon Turner, Martin Curbishley and Simon Fulton again! Felt so great to have a more wholesome class again and with Andy back with us too!
"Gotta say a big thank you to Gus Winterman for suprising me with a lovely gift, so sweet of you Gus - I love it thank you! It will have its pride of place along with the trophy. The biggest thank yous of course go to the dream team: Pete Kellett the main man that allows all this to happen! Billy Everitt, the main box man, cool as a cucumber, takin' two drivers to the final. Joe Kellett, my wing man, back tag teamin’ big style and smashin' it, Nicole Naylor, chief back up princess, Jeff Bull & Belinda Bull as always, for the continuous support, and absolutely incredible car! Geof Hauser & Scott, for the new kicks and maintenance!
"To Keith, for the best weekend! The entertainment was outstanding this weekend. To the commentators for the awesome commentary as always! (Sorry for the interruption the other day) and of course. SPRC, all of the track crew, Ian, dave David, Robert everyone! Love to name you all but this post is long enough as it is, all the marshalls, from the lovely fire up road girlies, to the call marshalls, to the top and bottom end, thank you! And of course allll the amazing photographers Thank you Julian once again for the cute shot and Callum for the band stage shot on my sh*t phone but still made it look mint.
"And last but not least thank you to everyone who was rootin' for me and bro this weekend! We really appreciate it! Cannot wait to be back in a few weeks! I need to now sleep from now until then to recover. Well done to everyone this weekend for smashin PB’s, wins etc! See you all soon! Lotsa love."
Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas was won by Pete Creswell who only returned to racing at Doorslammers, having been in Super Comp in 2022. The field was super-tight the spread of the 17 qualifiers only 0.0297. (Going to the latest NHRA race the spread between 1 and 17 was 0.058, twice the length!). Pete had some ultra close races in defeating Andy Harrison, Jazmine Tunstall, Marc Huxley and, in the final, Stuart Doignie in his Brogie Roadster. His average margin of victory in these races was 0.0427. So a worthy victory in a class which is as competitive as any in UK sportsman racing.
Eurodragster.com staff member Kirstie Tramm was the winner in her first ever Modurstang Pro ET competition, her Camaro qualifying in the "0.00" club with a +0.0044 on dial in #6. In eliminations, Kirsties reaction times in rounds 2 to the final were all in the "0.0" range and was close, within 0.1s, of her dial.
She wrote: Just woken up after a marathon sleep last night. Did I just dream the last few days? Pro ET Main Event Winner ‘23? Wow, I cannot believe it! I love this car.
Great to meet some new people in a different class, I was certainly not expecting the result I have come away with, what a class!Qualified 6th with an 11.894 on an 11.89 Thanks to all in Pro ET, to Brett and Debbie, lovely lovely welcome and wonderfully organised too.
After qualifying against Laura a couple of times over the weekend it was lovely to race against her in the final, such a squeaker of a red light.
I could not do this without a few people, thanks to my Tom, Thanks to Dan and Mike, my superstar crew this weekend, thanks to Adam too.
Lastly to Andy Dibley who has given me the best, the most awesome race car to race, I have had an excellent weekend, so thank you for the opportunity. I am one lucky person.
Unsure of the future with Pro ET, but I know I can’t wait to get back to my Sportsman ET family.
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator was won by Al Mcsweeney who had a fantastic race with #1 qualifier Andy Bond (pictured). Andy had appeared invicible, topping six out of the nine qualifying sessions with traction problems in the other three. But it was a 0.5s RT that undid his final, still running 7.3101/207.93 in an effort to catch Al Mac who had a great 0.03 RT and ran one of his best passes, 7.5827/188.14.
There was some attrition in Street Eliminator, the class losing Joe Stevens to a crash in Q1 and Ashley Cooper and Ricky Hale to mechanical issues in later qualifying sessions. Let's hope they can regroup for Street Weekend in a couple of weeks' time.
Swift snippets. 2nd June:
A very Happy 80th Birthday to former race director and supporter of the sport for many years Syd McDonald from all of the gang at the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame, have a great day Syd!
Happy Birthday for today to Melbourne Raceway PR Andy Flavell, Comp Bike racer Dave Batcheler, Street Eliminator racers Nigel Hale and Ricky Hale, Super Street Bike racer Alan Morrison and Drag & Drive king Michael Westberg. Have a great day all.
FIM-E Top Fuel Bike had some outstanding performances by nitro bikes in the great conditions, with a tail wind on three days in a row. In Q1, Rene van den Berg, who had been testing the previous day, ran a hundredth off his ET PB of [email protected], however no bike ran in the fives on Saturday. That all changed on Sunday with the #1 position to fight for. Rikard Gustafsson went quick in Q3 with 5.7674, followed two pairs later by eventual winner Neil Midgley with 5.7905. The final session saw Neil taking pole with a new PB 5.7084/245.09, then Al Smith joining the party with 5.9803/223.64, and then Rickard broke the 260mph barrier with 5.7424/260.55 new record speed but, even so, was disappointed not to take pole!
Eliminations saw some remarkable times, Warpspeed Racing stepping up in round 1 with Mark Smith's 6.4846/210.02 PB and Stu Crane's quickest FB in Europe 6.2522/218.14, both going through. Rickard broke his own speed record on a bye run with a 5.8640/260.65.
Then in the semis's another barrage of fives, Neil going 5.8470 at 'only' 215.84 as Mark redlit, Rikard barely slower with 5.7759/256.22. The stage was set for an awesome final.
Neil's (pictured ahead of Rikard Gustafsson in the final) crew chief Chris Hannam posted "Winner winner chicken dinner, both teams got greedy with wanting to put a side by side spectacle. which turned in to a pedalfest and the boy done good, yet another 0.957 60ft and one of the best reactions In TFB period (0.0294), we now have a fast bike and a racer with a bike that has ran faultlessly all weekend so the Lucas Oil Products UK has done it job again as well as our other world class sponsors.
"Now we travel to Tierp in Sweden for the 2nd round of FIM championship with the points lead in both the UK ACU Championship and the FIM European Championship, roll on the next round and big thanks to all for your support.
"The team are proud to be supported in their world class performances by their blue-chip partners APE, Cometic Gaskets, Gates, Goodridge, JE Pistons, Kibblewhite Precision Machining, Lucas Oil Products Inc, MRE, MTC Engineering, Nitroshutter, NGK Sparkplugs UK, Par Willen, Pro Alloy Motorsport, Vanson Leathers, Warpseed Racing, Worldwide Bearings and Zodiac. A full report by the team is in preparation.
FIM-E Super Twin Top Fuel Bike had only four bikes, but they all put on a great show. Like Top Fuel, the best performances of qualifying came in the final session, with Vesa Lipponen at 6.2646/212.06 just edging out eventual winner Marcus Christiansen with 6.2916/213.85.
In eliminations, Vesa, who had missed Q3, went out in round 1, commenting "Unfortunately we had a sensor problem so the bike didn't start. Anyway we are very happy that we have solved last year's problems and now the bike works fine, so we are looking forward to the next race!"
In the final, Marcus ran his third consecutive 6.2 (or fifth 6.35 or better in a row), taking the win over his good friend Chris van Nimmen who earlier ran a new PB of 7.03, closer to his first six.
FIM-E Super Street Bike winner Alan Morrison Jnr posted: "Main Event 2023 was an absolute blast!
I started off with a half pass on test day to bed the motor in and it felt really good, so we took the decision to pack it away and save it for the first qualifying session!
"Onto qualifying on Saturday and we decided to go with a fairly safe but competitive tune to kick things off and she went 6.95. With a strong time on the board we slowly ramped things up and finished Q4 in #1 with 6.76 @223mph.
Elimination day, and with a few close races we made the final to meet our Hungarian friend Dániel Donát Lencsés.
I took the win with a 6.76 and made a whopping 230.22mph, setting the new European speed record in SSB.
"To say I’m buzzing is an absolute understatement and I couldn’t have done it without the awesome team of people that are behind me. A massive thank you and well done to my guy Rick Stubbins for tuning the bike and making such a strong, competitive and extremely fast engine for us to compete with. Already looking forward to the next meeting in a few weeks where we do it all again.
Thank you to everyone who has messaged me with kind and supportive words."
Thanks to photojournalist Steve Moxley for some pit notes. Steve Venables had to change engines twice during the event, breaking one on a burnout, and also suffered gearshift issues. Dániel Lencsés also had to change motors twice, the second change occuring between the semi finals and final. Steve Mead also had to undertake an engine change, whereas Mark Hope was forced to stage with a damaged head gasket and shut off. Commiserations to the teams on their mechanical issues, we hope they can all return soon.
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike saw a small field, but the teams worked their socks off to try to stave off mechanical issues. Martin Newbury took #1 in the first session with 7.1417/184.32, backing it up in the second session, but that was the last we saw of him and we hope the mechanical issues can be resolved before he races at Tierp in a fortnight.
Winner and #2 qualifier Bertrand Maurice ran a 7.2624/189.72 but two of his four qualifying attempts saw the dreaded clutch issue which caused the engine to die off the line. After defeating Martin Bishop who was testing a new EFI system, Bertrand suffered a repeat in the final against Aswin le Noble, however Aswin, who had changed an engine on Saturday, had already red lit and Bertrand was the event winner as he had taken the green light.
The FIM-E Junior Drag Bike Cup enjoyed nine qualifying sessions over three days, at the end three of the eight qualified riders were less than 0.0s away from their dial-ins, Harry Isaacs, Leah Morrison and Alia Lester - great job! Into eliminations and Richard Willcox had an outstanding performance, his unique double-classing with Junior Dragster (sportsman tree compared with pro tree in JDB) not being a distraction at all. Three consecutive lights better than 0.2s, and less than 0.15s away from his dial ins earned Richard the win and lead in the championship, well done!
You can see the latest FIM-E championship points by clicking here or going via News, then Points Standings in our main menu. Thanks to Huw Button for providing the latest points.
Force of Nature Steam Rocket Bike breaks world record. 1st June:
Congratualtions to Graham Sykes on setting a world record set on his Force of Nature steam rocket bike. Graham writes:
The Force of Nature Steam Powered Rocket Bike Was at the UK&ITA World Land Speed Records Meeting Held from the 20th to the 26th of May at Elvington. We were there for the week and planned on running 3 or 4 times over the course of the meeting.
Our plan was to make an official attempt on trying be the outright fastest Steam powered bike in the World, using only stored hot water flashing to steam, not a Hydrogen Peroxide chemical reaction. Our plans were to run over the standing 1/8 mile and ultimately over the standing 1/4 mile.
Our first run on Saturday was using 60 litres of water and we ran 4.929 seconds at 100.313 mph. the 60 ft time was 1.06 seconds. On Sunday we added more water taking the fuel load to 90 litres and ran a real nice 3.878 seconds at 163.8 mph.
I had slightly miscalculated the water consumption and we used too much water in the first 330 ft and therefore the terminal was low.
I kept on the power through the 1/8 mile marker and ran much faster but in all the excitement I had not turned the data logger on so we don't know exactly what top speed we ran but it was somewhere around 180 mph.
We have learned so much from these runs that we are now in a much better position to attempt to run 200 mph in the 1/8 mile which is our ultimate goal. We have damaged the valves and they need replacing with a new set we have that have a much better flow rate, which will further increase the power available. So that was our week over.
We will be taking the Force of Nature Steam Rocket Bike to Hockenheim NitrOlympX this year to run in the night show. In the meantime we will be working on the bike to make it even faster.
Thank you to all the kind words and comments from everyone who has offered their congratulations to us, and also thanks to the team Jim Dickman, Billy Hudson, Phil Wood, Trevor Duckworth and the Straightliners Crew and Diane my wife for being brill!
Also thanks to IMI, Norgren, Thorite, CPE Pressure Vessels, Mial Coachbuilders and Firebired Burners. for all their help and support over the last 10 years of development.
The 1st Landspeed race of the year at El Mirage was certainly an interesting weekend. The weather forecast was good for the whole weekend, yippee...but you never know what Mother Nature has in store for you. With temperatures up around 42C but humidity around 10% it took its toll. Until you have experienced it nothing can quite prepare you for it. More of that later.
I had flown in to LA the previous weekend allowing me time to see old friends Floyd Lippencotte and Mrs Lipp AKA Bob and Sharon Muravez, TV Tommy Ivo, Tony Thacker, Jean and Al Teague for dinner at Chez Muravez. A fantastic evening with lots of laughs.
Then Wednesday it all started to get serious. Getting everything checked and double checked then stacked away in the trailer making sure we had enough oil for at least 4 runs, spares, wheels, tyres etc etc. Nick Davies, Rob Loaring and Scotty Barnes flew in Wednesday and were at my raceshop bright and early Thursday morning to recommission the motor and service it.
All done 7707 went in the trailer Thursday afternoon ready for us to leave early Friday morning. Diesel by the way is now around $5.00 a gallon in LA and Petrol around $4.30 a gallon. It’s cheaper in Nevada but we weren’t going there. $250 dollars later the truck was full of diesel and would see us through the weekend.
El Mirage is just a short drive from Pomona and we went in convoy. 2 RV’s support truck, the race car rig. We left the shop around 8.30 arriving at El Mirage around 9.45am. For those who don’t know El Mirage is a dry lake bed…well most of the time but it can and does flood. The lake bed had been under water for the best part of 3 months and had only been reopened 3 weeks before the race weekend.
Having set up our pit it was get the car to tech and because 7707 runs the 200mph plus lane we have to have 3 tech inspectors check the race car and sign off on all the kit.
The plan was to fire the motor Friday so that we new everything was ok and could be ready for first thing Saturday morning. The drivers meeting is at 7am and the first cars were fired up and ready to go just before 8am following the National Anthem sung by “Golden Throat” Wendell Burns.
7707 was ready to go and at 9.43 I made my first pass in the car since May 22. We went 190 but the car was sliding around all over the place so I decided caution rather than be stupid. But it was a good pass despite that and gave us some data to work on. It showed we had all 8 cylinders alight and everything was working as it should. Our second pass was 195 but the car would just not hook up and I completely shredded a new set of tyres.
So the car was serviced fuelled and readied for first thing Sunday morning. At around 5 pm on the opposite side of the lake we saw a “dust devil” which are quite common which suddenly developed into a full blown tornado with the funnel reaching high into the sky which was darkening by the second….we could see it raining at the far end of the lake and within minutes there was 3 inches of standing water. The SCTA quickly called the meeting and we were finished. The storm however raged for another 5 hours. Luckily we had everything put away or tied down.
Sunday morning dawned all calm. A beautiful day and time for a photo shoot but sadly the lake bed was too wet to race and as I write this it is still closed to all traffic. So we packed the car away and headed back to my raceshop and set about servicing the motor and going through the car to make sure everything was good and we had not missed anything at the track.
So huge thanks to the 7707 team of Geoff Stilwell, Rob Davies, Rob Loaring, Scott Barnes, Scotty Campbell, Pauly Rivera, Mick Jenkins, Tony Thacker and Mickey Larson. Now in less than 8 weeks we will be make the 800 mile drive from LA to Bonneville. See you all there.
You can see more photos of Geoff's car and the storm at this link. Thanks to Tony and Geoff for the photos.
Swift snippets. 1st June:
Happy Birthday for today to German drag racing administrator Andrea Morris Kloss, legendary photographer Bob McClurg and Old School Stocker racer Kevin Melling. We hope you all have a wonderful day.
Kieran's latest video is a must for Top Fuel fans - startline footage of all the Top Fuel runs from the FIA/FIM-E Main Event. You can see Kieran's spectacular at this link on his Mk1Kieran Youtube channel.
Results for the Association Trophee Dragster race held at Clastres Raceway on 20th-21st May are now posted at this link on the ATD website. Congratulations to the winners Liam MacDonald (Junior Dragster), Nicolas Chevassus (Street Run), Dirk Kunold (Pro ET) and Amandine Arnaud (Super Pro ET).
