European Drag Racing News




























Spitfire results.
30th September: "A great day, a massive thank you to everyone who attended today's Drag and Drift at Spitfire Raceway, thank you once again for the support", wrote promoter Lee Child last Saturday following the day's racing which had over 100 vehicles traverse the strip with prizes for the quickest times.

"Massive congratulations to Luke Jasse running the quickest time of a 9.714 at 144.23mph. The Storm tuned Audi TT had some serious competition and Luke earned it, this was no gift. Full list of times and speeds, world records and track records can be seen at these links to page 1 and page 2.


"Congratulations to Richard Milton as well for resetting his own world record for a VW Caddy, running a new personal best of 9.728/149 and the 2nd place for the quickest time on the day. Both 1st and 2nd place position vehicles from Saturday are Storm Development tuned with JM imports tuning in 3rd place. "Well done to Jack Vosper for smashing the motorcycle track record which has stood for six years, by running 9.866/148.80. Jack also took the quickest motorcycle time on the day on Saturday and finished 4th overall.


"Finally a regular in the Spitfire Raceway top 3, congratulations to Nathan Lang bagging another trophy in the full street legal trim GTR for 9.825/148.80." You can take part or spectate at Spitfire Raceway, all vehicles are welcome. Spectators are £10 per person and under 16s go free, and you can pay on entry. Drag racing is from £10 after admission, with a crash helmet and full driving licence required. Show & shine is no charge after admission. Gates are open at 8am, track action is from 11am to 3pm. Any queries contact Spitfire Raceway via its Facebook page.

The next Spitfire Raceway Drag n' Drift event will take place on 10th December at Perranporth Airfield, Cornwall TR5 0XS where you can pay at the gate or sign up in advance on-line (details to be published later).

Sywell Pistons & Props gallery.
30th September: Many thanks to Dave Evans, son of Mad Welshman Paul, for supplying a gallery of photos from last Saturday's Pistons & Props event at the Sywell Classic which you can see by clicking here. Dave writes:

"It was the first time visiting this event and had a great day, a combination of air displays, static displays and historic race vehicles & drag racing on the runway meant there was plenty to look at. A varied mix of drag vehicles from Juniors to Supercharged Outlaws entertained the crowds with some huge burnouts and wild rides, with Justin Woolner the eventual Shootout winner in the Outlaw Street Camaro over Garry Hill in the Outlaw Anglia. This event will definitely be on our calendar again next year!"

A wide variety of race cars were present including members of Supercharged Outlaws, Taz Racing, Outlaw Street and Perry Watkins' Oklahoma Willy VW jet pickup. Click on the photo above to check out Dave's gallery.

GTi Festival preview.
30th September: This weekend Santa Pod Raceway hosts the GTi Festival on Sunday following a Run What Ya Brung on Saturday. The GTi Festival and its forerunners have attracted hordes of water cooled Volkswagen enthusiasts since the 1980s. This year's GTI Festival is now a Final Fling season finale incorporating enthusiasts of all VAG marques, SEAT, Skoda, Audi as well as Volkswagen.

The main on track attraction is Run What Ya Brung for which signing on is online at this link. You will still need to visit the Sign On Office to show your driving licence and your race voucher e-ticket before hitting the track. Please note an Admission ticket is required in addition to your RWYB Race Voucher. Sign-on costs £45 for the day with unlimited runs. There are five classes for trophies for the quickest ET: Class A is under 1600cc, Class B is 1601-1800cc, Class C is 1801cc-2000cc, Class D is over 2000cc and Class E is for aircooled vehicles.

There is also the final round of VW Heads Up for which there is an entry list of 14 cars, including championship leader Dave Henderson (Audi RS3 saloon) who will be crowned champion in the absence of current second placed Paul Jordan, who could be overtaken by Richard Milton (VW Caddy). Other attractions include the Autoglym Show & Shine with ten trophies up for grabs, Dizzy Rascals handling course, traders' stalls and club displays. Spectators are welcome on Sunday at the GTi Festival for £20 or £5 for kids 5-15, you can book at santapodtickets.com.

'Sixties reminiscing.
30th September: Photojournalist Andy Willsheer reports on Shirley Bainger a racer from the sixties who entered the record books but subsequently became forgotten after she left the sport, only to return to Santa Pod Raceway after over 50 years:

Present at the recent NSRA Hot Rod Drags was former competitor from the 1960s, Shirley Bainger - then known as Shirley Rumsey - along with husband Mike and three generations of the family. Thanks to track manager Darren Prentice, the group gathered together to watch proceedings on the Sunday from a VIP suite adjacent to the spectator-side banking. This occasion marked the first time that Shirley had been back to Santa Pod since the late ’Sixties, and it's fair to say that the lady in question was certainly impressed with the current state of the facility that has of course been hugely developed since the Phelps family first opened the place way back in 1966.

She enjoyed recalling her spell of driving the Hustler, a 1930s BSA Scout-bodied, 265ci V8-engined entry built by the late Mark Stratton, an iconic figure in the straight-line sport right from the early days of the track operation. Shirley’s involvement came about through a friendship with Mark and wife Daphne that developed when then husband Graham owned a couple of Singer cars that were parked at the Rumsey home in Northampton. Mark stopped by and enquired about them and, to cut a long story short, the two families became close friends following this initial encounter.

Getting along to USAF Upper Heyford for some Saturday night dancing, the friends duly made the acquaintance of Dave Riswick through Mark, a gentleman whose name is nowadays best known through his involvement with well-chronicled American speed shop, John Woolfe Racing, that’s based in Bedford. Her automotive horizons were extended to a point where after the Stratton/Rumsey/Riswick collaboration came about she felt that what was needed was a driver of the fair sex.

As a founding member of the crew and also a learner taught to drive on the road by Mark some four years previous, Shirley’s offer was duly accepted and she was given the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the race car, a procedure that involved her sitting on the floor and wedged in with a number of cushions in order to reach the pedals! Safety standards back then were, er, somewhat rudimentary, and even though she had a bit of a job seeing over the windscreen scuttle did however manage to make some respectable passes, recording respectable triple-digit terminal speed numbers and in the spring of 1967 garnering the Ladies’ Eliminator class mph record of 102.67, an accomplishment that remained unbeaten for five years.

“I was never too sure exactly where the finish line was, but as there was plenty of strip room to safely slow down at the end of a run, it didn’t worry me unduly” Shirley laughingly recalled. Now domiciled in Swanage, Dorset, Mike is fully intending to bring 85-year-old Shirley along to next season’s Dragstalgia, where it is hoped they may even encounter some fellow competitors from the sport’s ’Sixties scene…

Swift snippets.
30th September: Happy Birthday for today to prospective Top Fuel Bike Racer Phil Crossley who reaches his half century, VW Sportsman racer Morgan Wilson and Ford Zephyr - Zodiac Mk1 exponent Danny Wilson. We hope you all have a fantastic day.

Congratulations to Adam Gleadow who reports that his Motor Psycho fuel altered has been shortlisted for the UK Final of UK Hot Wheels Legends. If you're interested in attending the Car Throttle filming of the final judging and presentation to the winner of the UK round tomorrow, you can register to attend by going to this link. The location is secret and filming is from 2pm to 6pm. The judges will be Ian Callum CBE, Helen Stanley (Goblin Works Garage, Motor Pickers) and Jonny Smith (The Late Brake Show) with host Alex Kersten.

Jon Morton's funeral.
29th September: Many thanks to Heide Stanley for sending details of Jon Morton's funeral:

Jon Morton’s funeral will take place at 11am on Friday 14th October at Dorchester Abbey, High St, Dorchester, OX10 7HH. Afterwards at Benson Parish Hall, Sunnyside, Benson, OX10 6LZ until 5pm and then at the Three Horse Shoes in Benson.

Dress code: Whatever you feel comfortable in, Hawaiian shirts, Race Shirts etc.

If you are planning to attend can you please ensure that you are at the Abbey by 10.30am as there will be a walk from the car park.

We would like flowers to be family only and have therefore set-up a memorial page with donations link if you would like to donate to one of the charities close to Jon.

Thank you all for your love and support over the past few weeks.

National Finals racer comments - Bike classes.
29th September: We present racer comments on the ACU and SPRC Championship bike classes at the STP National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway last weekend:

In Banks Night Club Top Fuel Bike we saw the successful outcome of Neil Midgley's first season on the Cannon Racing Puma TFB. This world renowned machine first introduced in 2010 by Ian King, subsequently owned by Filippos Papafillipou who recorded the current FIM-E record ET with it, was not an easy transition for Neil, however the team worked to improve his riding position by moving the pegs, and by the National Finals Neil was much happier and able to run times that kept him ahead of the competition.

However the competition had upped their game, Steve Woollatt was hungry for another championship and Al Smith wanted his first five second pass. In a shortened qualifying due to rain, Neil achieved a PB of 5.8588/204.41 and a second pass of 5.9632/207.95 which served as the new ACU ET record, which brought with it extra points meaning he could overtake Steve for the championship if he won the event.


Meanwhile, the team of Al Smith on the Phil Baimbridge Racing 'Rocket' bike had worked hard to get the bike to perform quick and consistently. You can read Phil's Facebook blog account at this link as Al and the team ran their first five after Friday testing in session #2, 5.932/230 after a 6.08 on Friday. A burnt piston slowed the Rocket to 6.17/208mph in round one as Steve stepped up to 6.10/224.

After Neil had defeated Holland's Chris van Nimmen 6.09/182 to 7.37/188 in round one, the exciting winner-takes-all finale did not disappoint, 6.020/193 to 6.133/222 in Neil's favour. The event was a credit to all four bikes who ran at or near their respective bests, and we look forward to seeing them in 2023 joined by some others.

Leeks Landscape Funny Bike saw some great times but also attrition. Qualifying saw Louis Davies, 2022 champion go #1 in the first session with a 7.175/158.50 but in session 2 Lorcan Parnell and the Storm Drag Bike turned up the wick following a belt snapping in Q1, and were rewarded with a 6.84/179 despite 'epic' tyre shake. Lorcan said "We didn't get to make our E1 bye run as the fuel pump belt played up again, making the bike stall. As the timing gear was activated we technically got a bye into the final but decided the belt issue needed further investigation." So Storm was out, and the E1 burnout and stall had resulted in the primary drive gears being damaged, requiring repairs to the gear case and new gears.

Meanwhile Roger Moore had qualified with a good 7.58/173 however in E1 disaster struck the Box of Frogs team with a broken rod. Dave 'Rocket' Peters had defeated a misfiring Wicked Wench of Louis Davies with a 7.64/176 and staged for the event win.

We wish a speedy recovery to class sponsor Dale Leeks who recently suffered a non-racing accident, falling from a roof.


Suzukiperformancespares.co.uk Competition Bike was a victory lap for Chris Neary of Hobo Racing who qualified #1 with a 7.551/197.19 which secured him the championship. With early season performance leader Shawn Buttigieg back in Malta, Chris had a clear run with apparently the only serious event challenger Mick Winyard who had run a new PB of 7.973/173.70. However Jordan Kenway had other ideas and in round 2 just before took out Chris who slowed in the gathering gloom.



We send our best wishes to Jacky Olie-Zijlstra who in round 1 had ridden what looked like a bucking bronco when her bike got into handling difficulties and was ejected from it and went to the medical centre and then to hospital for X-rays. Husband and Funny Bike racer Mike Olie told us "We arrived in the hospital in Holland on Monday morning, the X-ray in England showed us that it was a broken shoulder and collarbone, but we did not want to wait for surgery in England. We have no idea what exactly happened, but Jacky was hitting second gear and it looked like the bike jumped up on the tyre and started to wheelspin and move violently sideways." We hope to see Jacky back at the track in 2023.

Taylors Trophy Super Street Bike finished with a final unrun between Steve Venables and Alan Morrison Jnr. In reaching the final, Steve qualified #2 with a 6.7742/221.45 to Daniel Lencses's 6.7187/212.92, great runs but not PBs for either. Steve took the championship in round 1 when Jake Mechaell's engine cut out on the launch, Jake having swapped engines after a gear selection issue on the test day.


Best wishes for his retirement from quarter mile competition to Steve Woody Wood, who has graced the class with his good nature and well turned out machine for 16 years, running in the sevens in the last two seasons. Steve, we hope to see you at the track next year.

Well done to Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike racer Hollie King who, in only in her second year of racing, has won the ACU and SPRC Championships in both years, as well as the FIM Europe Junior Drag Bike Cup. Dad Ollie wrote for the Junior Drag Bike Club Facebook page:

"The National Finals was the last event for our Juniors this season. Saturday saw some brilliant qualifying from the Juniors. They only got 2 runs in due to the pesky weather. This saw Leah Morrison taking the number 1 spot and Meg Talbot (in her final race in the class) no.2.

"Sunday was a slow day with a few incidents on track, however were first out for the first round of eliminations. We had Megan against Maggie Smallman with Maggie taking the win. Leah against Casey Holgate, Leah got bang on her number, but Casey had the better reaction also with wheelspin off the line which she handled very well, giving her the win. Then Anouk Burgering against Sam Hope with Anouk taking that win. Grace against Lyra Humber with Lyra taking the win. Then Brad Morrison against Hollie with Hollie taking that win.

"Then they had to wait all day until 18.30 for their 2nd round which saw Casey having a bye run, Anouk against Lyra, however Anouk didn't run as a team member had an incident and was injured, so Lyra also got a bye run, then we had Hollie against Maggie with Hollie taking the win.

"3rd round in the dark saw Casey against Lyra with Casey taking the win and Hollie having a bye run. Unfortunately by this time it was pitch black and nearer to 8pm so Hollie and Casey were unable to run their final, which is such a shame as it would have been nice to see Casey do her last final and also take a trophy home.

"Well done to all juniors this season, we have seen some amazing riding from everyone with some very close races. Looking forward to next season when we will be welcoming at least 4 new juniors!

"Also Brett, a former Junior racer, had a incident at the top end in 9.50 bike, he was ok and we hope to see him back next season. We would also like to thank this year's sponsors Eurodragster.com, Warpspeed Racing, Suzuki Performance Spares and Bobby Frazier. Your sponsorship has given the winners and runners up a little extra in their pockets so thank you. Thank you to Santa Pod Raceway and the crew for their amazing efforts in keeping the track in perfect safe condition for the riders. Thank you for everyone's support.


The JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike championship was taken by Dan De'ath who, with Ian Crichlow and Brad Head, had reached the semi finals that weren't able to be run. Dan had also qualified #1 of 23 giving him a sizeable boost in the points and three round wins were enough for him to overhaul Jay Roe in the points. Dan said:

"Well now the hangover has finally worn off, time to reflect back on this past weekend!

"What a year it has been, ups and downs from the start where it looked like it wasn’t meant to be, changing gearboxes at 3am and replacing the engine before 9am the next day! To getting a runner up position in the exact same weekend to one of the best in the business Jay Roe! To get to the finals the next event and win was a fairytale that I could never have imagined especially in a rookie year out.

"Coming into last weekend there was no way I could have thought this would have ended the way it did, but some very kind words of encouragement from many people (you all know who you are!) managed to keep my hopes alive, just managing to get the last pass in which was the championship decider was mental, racing in the dark against Jonathan Hines was wicked too and was a close race too! Oh and even bagged the best reaction time prize money put up by Nick SPS from Suzuki Performance Spares who kindly sponsored 8.50 bike for this event and going into next year as well. Thankyou sir.

"To end up this season as no.1 in points in a rookie year! Man I’m happy! Here’s to 2023 and yes, Darryl Bradford, I'm gonna be back as I can’t just quit now but thanks for the kind words.

"Obviously I couldn’t have done it without the help of everyone surrounding me, all of my family and friends at home and at the track, many different people that have played a massive part in the build of my bike and even the continuing support from them too throughout the season has been invaluable.

"Thanks to JKE race works and Nick Pepper from Suzuki Performance Spares for sponsoring the class, Brad O'Connor from BTC Moto for all his help and assistance, Garry Bowe for all his help over the years, and Danny Cockerill with Steve Splinter Nash for crew duties all year!"

Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike had a race to forget. Richard Sawatzki who had wrapped up the championship before the National Finals, qualified #2 with 9.555 behind Carl Thomas with #1. Rick's wife Debbie took up the story: "So this has to be one of the most difficult eliminations days in the history of 9.50 bike, first round called at 4.30 , rain Saturday night which meant late start, qualifying from the previous day having to be finished. Although there was no rain on Elims day we had the accident in Comp Bike. Then the Funny Bike oil down in the burn out box, these things happen.

"Our first pair went out everything seemed fine, but unfortunately Brett had come off top end after winning , I’m very pleased to say Brett is fine , but riders decided to call it a day. I’ve been racing with Richard for twenty years and this was a first, not the way to end the season. But it’s been a grand year and really great people in the class and all amazing riders Andy Head , Brett Cordelle , Carl Thomas Dave Hall , Dion Hartley , Phil Harrison , Richard Sawatzki and Rob Stanley."


In Blood Cancer UK ET Bike, Championship winning Phil Pratt's crew chief Suze Morris wrote: "Wow, what a season 2022 turned out to be a fair few problems, a fair bit of guess work but, at the end of it, we can say Phil and "Satan's Lady" are the FIVE time UK National ET Bike Champions. The class was only brought in at the start of the 2017 season and, for each of the years that it has been contested as a National Championship, "Satan's Lady" has worn the No.1 at the end of it... 2017, 2018, 2019, (dratted Covid spoiling things in 2020), 2021 and now 2022!

"Our season saw a win at Easter, a tiny 0.03 red light in Rd2 at Springspeed Nationals, a good long look at the green meant a loss in Rd2 at Summer Nationals, another 2nd round exit and a runner up at the Greenlight Nationals, and finishing with a spot in the semi-final at Nationals, which sadly didn't happen due to the 8pm curfew.

"ET Bike has become an awesome, huge, and incredibly tough class, with this season seeing 5 of 6 rounds run to completion with 5 different winners! Who knows what 2023 will bring, but, if there's one thing we know for sure, it's that we'll be going into it with an even bigger target on our backs! Thanks to everyone who has made 2022 a great year...how many days 'til Easter?"

Dakota Raceway this Saturday.
27th September: Online bookings are live for the Dakota Drag, Drift and Burnout Finale on Saturday 1st October. You can run what you brung or drag race for cash and trophies at Dakota Raceway, writes organiser Lee Child.

Dakota Raceway will be open to competitors and spectators from 09:00 to 16:00 for run what you brung over the quarter, drifting or drag race over the eigth mile for cash and trophies. A Trophy will also be up for grabs for the Sunday lunchtime roast them tyres burnout competition.

You can pay on the day or you can get a cheeky discount when booking online; spectators can pay on the day. Entry for 1/4 mile run what you brung 3 runs plus admission is only £40 online, with unlimited 1/4 mile run what you brung runs pre entry, including one admission ticket, for £60, on the day £70.

The 1/8 mile heads up drag race cash day includes run what you brung driver entry and one admission pre entry £105, on the day £115. If you get eliminated from the 1/8 mile no time drag race, you then can do timed 1/4 mile test runs at no extra charge; passengers have an additional charge of £40.

In the no-time 1/8 mile drag race, each sixteen car category has a £400 winner takes all prize fund. All categories will have the 16 car pairings decided from an out-of-the-hat selection until the final two race for the money.

Categories:

Pro AWD: Modified, competition tyres, interior removed.
Street AWD: Factory appearance, full interior.
Pro Small Tyre Rear Wheel Drive: Modified, competition tyres maximum height 30 inches maximum tread width 11 inches, interior removed.
Pro Rear Wheel Drive: Modified, competition tyres, interior removed
Street Rear Wheel Drive: Factory appearance, full interior
Pro Front Wheel Drive: Modified, competition tyres, interior removed
Street Front Wheel Drive: Factory appearance, full interior

Dakota Raceway opens to drag and drift competitors and spectators from 09:00 to 16:00. run what you brung or drag race for cash and trophies. You can enter for drifting action via this page on the Straightliners web site.

All participants must also complete a entry form or passenger entry form and then buy tickets at the links for drag entrants or drift entrants .

Dakota Raceway is situated at Smeatharpe Airfield, Devon EX14 9RF. For daily updates check the Dakota Raceway Southwest Facebook page which will include photos and times from the event. We will also be posting a gallery thanks to Kieran.

Swift snippets.
29th September: Happy Birthday for today to Street Eliminator racer Paul Morton, PBR Rocket crew member and former Super Mod racer Andy Kirk and retired Pro Modified racer Gordon Appleton. We hope you all have a great day.

Thanks also to Yvonne Tramm and sponsor Pete Walters for posting the latest Santa Pod UK National and SPRC Club Championship points after the STP UK National Finals. Again you can see them via our points standings page.

Linda Wilson celebration of life details.
28th September: Thanks to Dave Wilson for providing details of the Celebration of Life for his wife Linda who sadly passed away on 20th September:

Firstly I would like to thank all of the wonderful people for their responses and comments on the news of Linda's passing. It has resulted in many memories and tears. I never realised how well regarded and loved she was by so many people.

Linda's Celebration of Life Service will take place at 1.30pm on Wednesday 12th October 2022 at Easthampstead Park Crematorium and afterwards at the Meade Hall, Crown & Cushion in Minley. Anyone wishing to attend will be very welcome. Flowers are okay (Linda loved flowers) and, if preferred, donations instead will be very welcome via her tribute page lindawilson.muchloved.com which also has directions and full information.

Could we ask that anyone wishing to attend just send us a notification via Facebook, email or text.

Best wishes, Dave and family.

National Finals racer comments - SPRC Championship car classes.
28th September: We present racer comments on the SPRC Championship car classes at the STP National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway last weekend:

NEM Plant Nostalgia Superstock was a close SPRC championship, held over three rounds. Coming into the race NSS co-ordinator Don Scott was in second place behind Stuart 'Kiwi' Thompson and had to pass him in the points to secure the championship. Team member Grace Roaf wrote:

"2022 SPRC Champions in Nostalgia Superstock! I am so, so happy for Don Scott, after a few rough seasons with breakages and bad luck, this year we did it Yvonne O'Rourke! We qualified at each meeting this year with .01 off the dial-in (although at the Greenlights this was only good enough for 6th!)

"Other highlights of the 2022 season:
  • At Springspeed we got the Runner Up trophy and running .01 off the dial in twice in eliminations including the final
  • At GreenLight we won round 1 being .0078 off the dial-in
  • National Finals losing in Round 2 with a Perfect ET .0009 off dial-in but already winning the Championship
"All in all I am so pleased with how I’ve learnt to dial-in the ‘Bird (even with mid-season surgery) so closely, we’ve had some damn good races against fellow awesome UK Nostalgia Superstock racers and Don has just driven amazingly all season.

"Being on two Championship winning teams in the same year (one sportsman and one pro - Steve Ashdown's Funny Car team - Editor) isn’t something I thought I’d ever get to say but, hey, guess I’m just living the dream...bring on 2023 to try and defend two Championships with two awesome teams."

Don sends thanks from his team to Santa Pod Racers Club, Santa Pod Raceway's staff and crew and Eurodragster.com (thanks - Editor).


In Springbridge Direct Wild Bunch, Keith Crampton and the Soultown Shaker was the winner of the SPRC and MSUK Championships comprising Springspeed Nationals, Summer Nationals, Green Light Nationals and National Finals. Keith wrote:

"I wanted to thank a few, no, a lot of people after a really successful first full season with the Small Block Chevy. Springbridge MSA and SPR Championships, a race win and ended up with a 9.28 and 144.77 best!

"Markie Turton played a massive part crewing this year and going beyond the call of duty, along with Philippa Turton at one event if I remember rightly, Natalie Long at the MSA events, Thomas Cook-Abbott, Steve Cassisi and Anna Cassisi at a fantastic Dragstalgia. Plus great help from Mark and Lynne Coulsell and getting fed and watered too. Can't forget the Marras and all of team Rebel and Wrathchild for always jumping in to help, worthy Wild Bunch number 1 again.

"Finally what an engine build by Steve Cassisi, thank you and thanks for the ongoing support, you're a star. Thanks to Claire Meaddows for keeping things running smoothly and of course everybody else who helps to make this events happen. Love too to Christine Crampton for supporting me in all of this racing malarkey."

Wild Bunch co-ordinator Claire Meaddows had published the results of the Wild Bunch Championship comprising closest to dial contests at four lifestyle events and the National Finals, which you can read by clicking here. Congratulations to Team Rebel (Rob and Pete Brown aka The Marras) for winning the Wild Bunch Championship by virtue of runner up at Dragstalgia, third place at the Hot Rod Drags and winner at the National Finals.

The VW Drag Racing Club completed their SPRC championships at the National Finals. Congratulations to Paul Robinson for winning the VW Sportsman championship by virtue of winning Summernationals and a semi finalist at five other events. Brian Burrows Rookie of the Year was awarded to Jerry Sadler. The semi finals still to run were Lottie Bradford v Rhys Finney and Paul Robinson v Jon Crawford.

Jon Crawford wrote: "A terrific end to a great season. We went into the National Finals in third place in the championship, a mere ten points (or one qualifying place) ahead of Laurence Clark. So whilst we had a mathematical shot at second place, we also had to watch over our shoulders at any of four who could have taken third.

"After a sudden and completely unheralded downpour, the second qualifying round was moved from Saturday to Sunday morning when we were able to qualify in the top half of the field.

"Our first round opposition was birthday boy Connor Jones, and it was a good job that he went under his dial in and broke out, since Jon had to lift at around 1000' to avoid what turned out to be Connor's oil filler cap which bounced across the track in front of the Golf. Elsewhere in the first round, Connor's Dad Phil Jones (who was in second place) went out. This meant that if we could win the event, we could take the runner-up in the National championship...

"The SPRC marshals were battling both a tricky track and a number of on-course incidents all day. Because of this it was after six pm when we eventually had our second round race against Jerry Sadler. This was effectively a run-off for third place in the season which came to an early end when Jerry red-lit away his chances.

"This set up a third round match-up with Morgan Wilson. We have had lots of brilliant races, and this would be no exception. Racing after dark presents a different set of challenges, but the image from inside the car of Jon overhauling the HAVOC Beetle under the floodlights will stay with Jon forever. By now, it was ten to eight, and frustratingly the event was called. This meant that Phil was safe, and took a very well deserved second place.

"All in all, a great day. Jon was on great form, and the race in the semi-final against newly crowned champion Paul Robinson would have been a cracker. So that was 2022. Third place out of 39 overall was a great result, but it was some poor qualifying performances earlier in the year cost us dearly. As for 2023.... watch this space.

"Thanks to The VWDRC for the best kept secret in Motorsport, and to Santa Pod and The SPRC. Dave Grundy continued to be a fantastic friend and helper, and Damian Burke was the super-crew all year. Dom Crawford was a huge help, and we can't wait to welcome him to LuPro ET next year. Last of all, thanks and love to the ever patient and ever supportive Emma."

VW Pro had cash prizes put up by the VWDRC for championship spots, congratulations to champion Graham Fairhead who won £2,000, runner up James Hodson who won £1,000, Phill Blogg (3rd place) with £500, Jonathan Newell (4th place) and Jacob Bailey (5th place) with £250 each, a very generous gesture by the club. In competition, semi finals were reached with Graham v Charlie Roberts and Jake Fronda v Chris Waterhouse due to race before the curfew curtailed the meeting. Graham also won the Dennis Cox Memorial Award for Most Consistent Qualifier, and ran a new PB of 10.69 in the quarter final.


Outlaw Flat Four was won by Adam Lowe in a typical race of attrition for the class. Adam qualified second with a new PB 10.887/121 behind Danny Pike, who recorded a 9.34/152 but suffered a crash in the shut down area following deployment of his parachute, hitting both walls. You can see a 12 photo sequence of photos of Danny's incident by clicking here. Mechanical issues forced the withdrawal of championship runner up James Wootton and Jon Rathbone in round 1 of eliminations, then Darren Shephard and Vito Versluys were unable to make the call for round 2, gifting the event title to Adam, who had secured the championship in round 1. In our next update we will report on the bike classes.

RRC-built '55 Chevy returns to Pro Mod.
28th September: Competition Eliminator Jaguar racer David Smith has announced he will be stepping up to Motorsport UK Pro Modified next year with a car that has generated a lot of interest since it was bought in an auction by its previous owner. David wrote:

"We are very excited to announce that we have bought the Andy Robinson Race Cars built 55 Pro Mod Chevy! There’s been huge speculation and a lot of interest over the last few months in regards to what my plans were for the 2023 season. At some points, it seemed that everyone else knew more about it than I did! The truth of it all is, after looking at a few different cars, including a twin turbo Corvette, that the crew voted for me to buy, I just couldn’t get this car out of my head.

"What made it worse, it wasn’t even for sale! Luke Robinson made the initial introduction, but it still took many weeks, a lot of chats, pub visits, and gentle (and maybe some not so gentle) persuasion to get the owner to agree to sell it. You caved in the end Gary! It was actually a done and dusted deal, and stored in hiding long before it resurfaced and graced the pages of Facebook. The car is currently due to be recommissioned at ARRC in mid/late October along with a new fuel system and blower overhaul, the engine then being taken care of by ICE Automotive.


"Our intention is to campaign the car in the MSUK Pro Modified Championship in 2023. Whether we can finance the complete season is another matter though, but we’re hoping with the help of our very generous sponsors to have a really good go at it! If anyone out there is interested in coming on board with sponsorship, please get in touch, however little you think your contribution might be. It all helps the cause!

"It’s going to be a huge and very fast learning curve for me and the team, but we’re very excited about the prospect of being part of the party even if we struggle to be competitive until we’ve got to grips with it all. I’m sure everyone in the Pro Mod pits will be sick of the sight of us after a few events of all our questions and asking for advice etc! "But, if I can tick off my bucket list, the 5 second run, even only once, it will all definitely be worth it.

"I never thought in a million years when I had my first slingshot dragster with my friend Paul Jackson back in the 90’s, that I’d be driving in Pro Modified in the future - it’s insane, I’m so excited! In fact, I’d probably say the crew are as equally excited as me (at the moment)! I do wonder if that might change after our first meeting when they realise how much work there is to do?

"Plus we are hoping to be back in the Jag to defend our title if the 7.60 class gets a few more events in 2023. But it may have a new driver yet, we’ll keep you posted. We are so looking forward to the 2023 season, wahoo!"

Any potential sponsors or customers for David's custom built, tig welded stainless steel exhaust systems should contact him at Powerflow Alcester, telephone number 01789 765 677. David adds "We are on the search for new sponsors and experienced Pro Mod crew for 2023."

Swift snippets.
28th September: Happy Birthday for today to Wild Bunch founder and Supercharged Outlaws racer Roy Wilding, Pro Comp Funny Car legend Björn Ardin, Junior Dragster racer Jack Taylor and photographer and Stock/Super Stock team member Elisabeth Nattskugga. We hope you all have a great day.

BDRHoF 2022 gala filling up.
27th September: The directors of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame have announced that interest is keen for the annual Gala Awards Dinner for 2022 taking place on Saturday 12th November, and bookings are filling up. The venue once again will be the 4-star Oatlands Park Hotel at Weybridge, Surrey. This year’s new Members who will be inducted into membership are:
  • National Street Rod Association
  • The Stones Drag Racing Team
  • Jon Morton (posthumous induction)
  • Mark Flavell
  • Henk Vink (posthumous induction)
Table reservations for the Gala (£70 per person) may be arranged via email at [email protected] or by telephone at 01933 279102. Hotel rooms may be reserved for the occasion at special rates (£104 single, £124 double, bed & breakfast) by telephoning the hotel directly at 01932 847242 and quoting the code BDRHoF2022. The final deadline for booking forms and payment is October 14th.

National Finals racer comments - UK Championship car classes.
27th September: Motorsport UK Pro Modified was won by Bobby Wallace in the Wallace Motorsports Camaro. Bobby suffered less tyre shake on a cold track than other competitors and ran a new PB of 5.881 in the final. It was Andy Robinson who took the championship, qualifying #1 with a 5.9026/245.15. #2 qualifier was Kev Slyfield, competing in what could be his last event before retirement with his Blown Bird racing operation up for sale.


The Anger Management 2.0 team headed by sponsor Andy Robinson won the Championship after Kev and Wallace Motorsports both put up a spirited challenge. The team posted: "It was a good opening qualifying run! 5.90 at 245mph to get us the provisional number 1 spot which gave us a great opportunity to use the next two sessions to improve, and regain some consistency we had temporarily lost. Unfortunately Q2 didn't go to plan, an electrical problem caused the engine to cut out after the burnout. The crew worked hard to figure out what might have caused it. Rain came and ruined the day unfortunately, we finished qualifying in the number 1 spot though which is ideal for eliminations.

"We had a bye in round one where we took the decision to stage the car, take the green light and push back. It was a hard decision because we wanted to make a run, but with the electrical issue yesterday we didn't want to knock ourselves out when points are so crucial in the championship.

"By going through round 1 we have secured at least 2nd place and made it that bit harder for Kev to take the win, however it was still possible for the Blown Bird team to snatch it. In round 2 we had another bye but this time we went for a test hit. We had shake unfortunately but we're through to the final. In the other semi, Bobby beat Kev meaning we have officially taken.the 2022 championship. Beyond thrilled is an understatement, at the start of the year we didn't anticipate being here so we're very proud of what we've achieved this season.

"In the final Andy unfortunately red lit the race away although the run had tyre shake and a big move so it would have been difficult to beat Bobby's stellar performance of a 5.88. We're pleased to have a third final appearance for the year and take the championship win. As well as that we ran consistent low 5.9s and back into the 5.8s a fraction off our previous cars pb. What a year it's been!"

You can see Andy and Anger Management 2.0 by going to the team's Youtube channel. The team also thank their sponsors NGK, NTK, Torco, WELD Racing, Mike Janis Racing,PAC Racing Springs, BMRS Brown & Miller Racing Solutions LLC, Manton Pushrods, Noonan Race Engineering, Voss Wheelie Bars, Power Race Graphics, Vivid Vinyl, and Precision Racing Suspension.

Track Worx Competition Eliminator was an all Williams Bros Racing final as Nic Williams defeated newly crowned Champion Dan Williams. Dan and Nic qualified 0.7055 and 0.6590 below their respective indices, with team member Spencer Tramm 0.5531 below his. Also outstanding for his first time in the category Ahmed Jamshaid qualified 0.4771 below his BB/AF index with a new PB of 8.7229/168.49, which he believes is the quickest Honda K20 FWD car in Europe. Unfortunately, Ahmed found a broken rocker roller and ran out of time to fix it, but he plans to reappear at the Jap Show. The other FWD entrant Terry Newton, suffered a cracked block as bad as any we have seen.


The B Fast R Super Comp championship went down to the semi final, Leah Kellett was the winner of the championship by defeating her closest contender Steve Hudson, whereas Richard Tunstall was deprived of a prospect of a rookie championship by the final not being run. Leah was quick to remark on social media to Richard "Nobody would know it was your first year if they didn’t alreay know it, you did so so good, you gotta be thrilled for all you have achieved. Massive well done to you and Jaz (in Super Gas) as well, both did amazing".

Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas went to the final round of Collin Morrice against Bob Molden, the championship went to Andy Dibley who had earned enough points to secure it despite qualifying bottom and going out in round 1. Andy wrote: "That’s a wrap on the 2022 Super Gas season. We managed to just hold on to the Championship at the last event even if I did try to do everything to throw it away. Thanks as always to my dad for being chief box number picker, time off work allower and all round crew chief. Also all the other Super Gas racers UK and teams and of course the Santa Pod crew and marshals.

"No matter what though, this season will always be remembered for the year we lost Jon. This whole journey in Gas is thanks to him. He took me from a nervous wreck after my first squirrelly run at a test day to dialling me and dad in and maintaining the car. I can never thank him enough and so so wish he was here now to say thank you. We got to run together in the finals at Easter, for me that was the race of the year. He nailed me to the tree and backed into me on the finish line giving him a MoV of 0.001 just proving I still had a lot to learn. See you all in 2023!"


Peter Nee Super Pro ET only managed to reach the semi final level, however the championship was confirmed when Billy Gane defeated Ron Bartlett in round 1 of eliminations. Billy's team member Jim Massey wrote: "We went to the National Finals with quite a bit of a points lead due to getting to the final of the Euros, knocking out Peter Walters in the first round and Joe Kellett going out in the 2nd round. "We still needed to be on our game as Pete and Joe are great racers and come from great racing families, any slip up they would jump on and beat us.

In qualifying we did ok, one hundredth off put us in 6th, Pete was second and very unlucky not to be 1st he hit the number with a 1 but Callum Swinchatt just nudged it. Joe Kellett unfortunately broke out twice ending up in last place, Joe like everyone else wanted three qualifiers but due to rain that was that for the day.

"Going into eliminations we got a points lead over Joe, and Pete had got some points over us. Since the Euros, all I have been thinking about is the first round, we must win it. If we lost the first round, Joe and Pete could win the meet and pip us to the championship.

It seemed like forever waiting to go out,but at last we did. We had Ron Bartlett,not an easy one as Ron's a top racer and top bloke. Joe and Pete were going out before us and were both beaten, by Alan Didwell and Nick Good, in real close races. We beat Ron in another very close race and in doing so won the Super Pro Championship.

"We carried on going rounds and ended up in the semi final but due to the curfew the meeting was stopped. Unfortunately for us this ended our quest to also win the Drag Race Union competition, we were second. We have raced in Germany, France and England; you have to nominate the races you want your points from and one was the National Finals. All we needed to do was stage in the semi but alas it was not meant to be. At the end of the day we were well happy with how it turned out,as last year we were second, losing out in the final that would have secured the championship, by 11 thousandths.

"Lucky for me I crew on one of the best teams in Europe, oh and we have a get laugh doing it. I'd like to thank all the team, Billy for some brilliant driving, awesome reaction times all season, and basically driving the pants off the car. My mate Dave for all he does, keeping us all on the ball. Tim Clarke, good friend and great crew man but where Tim excels is cooking, we have such great meals, even if it's a casserole at 1 in the morning. As everyone knows now Harriet is expecting and due in a few weeks, it hasn't slowed her down one bit, a calming influence to us all Also Thanks to Alex Gordon for his help when he's not racing in 8.50 bike, in which he has done very well for his first season, Mike Smith, Aaron Springford, Andy Thetford and anyone else who helped out by driving the van, cheers boys.

"Thanks also to all the track staff who have worked their butts off the whole season so we can race. What a year, Billy Gane Super Pro ET champion, sounds good to me."


Modurstang Pro ET also reached semi final stage but the championship was even more open than Super Pro ET, so Brett Featherstone earned the championship with Simon 'The Package' Gough deprived of the chance to overtake him in the points. Simon wrote: "What a year of racing that was. Congratulations to Nova Scotia. Best friend, best laugh, best p*sstaker, just the very best friend anyone could have. We have been battling each other all year, giving it as hard as we could against others and against each other. Both had issues to contend with at the track and away from it. Nova Scotia no.1, pro et champion.

"Big thank you to all my sponsors who I could not race without you by my side. Sponsors, no matter how big or small, are so needed in this very expensive sport that we do. I just hope I didn’t let you down by coming second, I know you wanted the win and believe me I done all I could. So a huge well done to all of you also.

"We made it to the semi finals but were not called to the lanes. This was out of our control. We needed the next race to win the championship but it wasn’t to be. So the championship was decided on someone’s decision rather than on the race track. A sad way to finish the year.

The biggest thank you is to my son John Gough, he stepped up and took me to the start line and looked after everything with me. He found issues that we fixed and made sure I was safe at all times. Love you loads John Gough.

"Special thank you to my main supporter Sharron Kay Gough, without her pushing me when sh*t's going wrong I wouldn’t be where I am now. Love you to the end. Not sure if we will be racing again, who knows. Sort that out another day. Loads of other people to thank who helped out, it’s been very much appreciated. The list is endless. Jeff (engine), Woody (car settings), Gary (crew), Brett (team mate and best friend), John B (making me laugh and truck loan), Kenny (crew), Johnny A (electrics), Jon G (support). I could go on and on, if your names not there it’s not that I forgot as you have all been supportive and the list would just go on and on."


Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, again down to semi finalists, had the championship decided in round 1 when Gary Lake defeated Troy Atree to secure the title. Gary wrote on his Homa Racing page: "What a great season, certainly some highs and some lows, but after lots of close racing, lots of laughs and a few head scratchers wondering where it had all gone wrong, I’m chuffed to bits to have won the 2022 Sportsman ET UK SPRC National Drag Racing Championship!

"We came into the STP National Finals with 410 points lead but 990 available, which gave Brian Huxley a chance to snatch the title if we weren’t on it! First qualifier on Saturday didn’t go to plan with a slim -0.01 breakout on a 13.98 dial in, and this turned out to be our only one of the day as the heavens opened just before our planned 2nd of 3 qualifying chances.

"So we had it all to do Sunday with an early 2nd (and last) qualifier planned plus eliminations in front of us, luckily we managed to get 0.01 on the plus side this time, hitting 13.99 vs 13.98 dial, putting us in number 2 behind Felicity Gibbs who took the top spot and the Hutchinson and Dibley number one qualifier Trophy.

"With the whole day starting late due to the torrential downpour on the Saturday evening, despite the amazing and tireless efforts of the Santa Pod Raceway track crew, eliminations for us didn’t start until after lunch. Plus with significant downtime on the track for a number of incidents, sadly eliminations was never going to be concluded before the 8pm curfew. We finished the day loosing in the quarter finals to an almost perfect ET from Georgina Smith hitting 15.905 on her 15.90 dial in, well done Georgina!

"At this stage, we had done enough to secure the points lead and therefore the title! Massive thanks to Crew Chief, wife and often sage counsellor Clare, without whom I just couldn’t have ever got this far! Thanks to everyone at Santapod for providing the facilities for us to play our favourite sport and Eurodragster.com for keeping us well informed (thanks - Editor)! Let’s hope we can do it all again next year!"

Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator was as a race, down to an exciting final between Tony Higgs (Capri) and Al McSweeney (Volvo 162). You can see exactly how close the race was by viewing this FB video taken from the top of Al's car. Tony's 7.6439/179.92 pass was less than 40 minutes after his semi final win and new PB 7.6321/181.37 over the new Passat of Rob Carter. Ugly Sister racer Andy Bond had already wrapped up the Championship with three event wins, however the battle between Tony and Al (who had a great RT of 0.001) was one of the highlights of the event.


The Lucas Oil Junior Dragster championship was won by Luke Fulton who had led the championship since the Springspeed Nationals although when racing was curtailed on Sunday, Luke Mugridge still had a mathematical chance of taking the title. Luke Fulton wrote: "My junior dragster career has come to an end in 2022. I started Juniors in 2019, got my license in Kaitlan Deevey's car which she kindly let me drive because I didn’t fit in a Junior Stock, and can’t forget Andy Fensome and Richard Deevey's help.

"For the 2020 Covid Cup we had got the JMA from Jordan Payne at the end of 2019; we did Flame and Thunder for a day of testing and getting used to the car. The Covid Cup was my first year in the Blitzkrieg Racing Junior. It was only a three event championship, but I got into all three finals, came runner up it twice and won the third which made me the 2020 Covid Cup champ. 2021, there's not much to say about that but I got two winners' trophies that year and got invited to the Hall of Fame gala. 2022, what can I say, I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved this year, winning two events, getting the Half Scale cup, and becoming the 2022 champion. Thank you to all my racing friends and family for an amazing racing experience and good luck to the all the Juniors in the future."

We will look at the SPRC club car championships tomorrow and the UK Bike Championships on Friday.

British Junior Dragster Club awards.
27th September: The annual Junior Dragster Awards from the British Junior Dragster Club, run by Edel McDonald, with the help of husband Graham and son Liam, were presented on Saturday evening by Santa Pod Announcer Colin Theobald in the JD pits.


Edel wrote after the event: "Thanks to Colin for presenting the awards at the Junior Dragster prize giving at Santa Pod last Saturday.

"Well done to all the racers and crew that competed this year and we hope to see you all next year. Thanks to PWHouse Rushden with his help with the Trophies, to Ian Marshall for bringing the cups up, also to Jan Mugridge and family for setting up the prize giving and obtaining the Voucher for me."

The following were rewarded:
Best Junior Stock:Lola-Belle Kent Most Improved Junior Stock:Daniel Todd
Junior Stock Sportswoman Award:Nieve Deevey Junior Stock Sportsman:Teddy Howe
Junior Stock Rising Star:Finley Fagg Junior Stock Newcomer Award:Max Taylor
Best Junior Modified:Jake Cooper Junior Modified Sportsman:Damion Redshaw
Junior Modified Most Improved:Kai Cooper Junior Modified Perfect Light:Chevrolet Checkett
Junior Modified Rising Star:Teddy Sullivan Junior Modified Sportswoman:Ada Cassisi
Junior Modified Future Star:Harry Peters Junior Modified Up and Coming Star:Grace Smith
Best Junior Modified Rookie:Tom Peters Up and Coming Junior Modified :Jack Taylor
JMA Sportsman Award:Max Love JMA Best Reaction :Daniel Weir
JMA Most Improved:Ellie Brown JMA Rising Star Sportsman:Luke Fulton
JMA Rising Star:Luke Mugridge JMA Most Motivated:Harry Redshaw
JMA Sportswoman Award:Jessica Bishop JMA Most Consistent Female:Lara Bartlett
JMA Most Enthusiastic:Richard Willcox JMA Future Star:Harley Coulsell
JMA Up and Coming Star award:Freddie Taylor JMA Most Travelled:Liam McDonald
JMA Star of the Future:Jacqueline Bartlett JMA Competitor Award:Sam Fairhurst
JMA Rookie Award:Ellie Fagg Good Luck Leavers' Award:Purdie Hadfield, Thomas Cook Abbott and Katie Ellis
Rising star:Jack Taylor and Teddy Howe Keith Bartlett Cup:Daniel Weir
Tog’s Trophy:Lola-Belle Kent Best Crew Chief:Steve Cassisi
Hayley Hadfield Cup:Team Flame Game Anita Board Cup:Nieve Deevey
Half Scale Cup:Luke Fulton and Liam McDonald

Well done to Luke Fulton who won the SPRC National Championship and Luke Mugridge who came runner-up.

Tog's Trophy, presented to those that the former Eurodragster.com editor considers set a fine example in the sport, was awarded to Lola-Belle Kent. Tog commented: "It is a great pleasure to be asked to nominate the winner of the Tog Trophy for a second year and of course a big Thank You to the McDonald family for asking me. I am only sorry that I am again not able to present it in person this weekend.

"In the face of a large field of professionally-turned-out teams it was not easy to choose a winner but the 2022 Tog Trophy goes to Lola-Belle Kent. Lola-Belle’s is a tight family team and as an old guy it gives me a lot of pleasure to see Lola-Belle’s legendary Grandad Tony in there helping.

My congratulations to Lola-Belle, Shelley, Kevin, Tony and the team and indeed to all of the Junior Dragster teams for another great showing this season."

Edel, who is to be congratulated on organising another great event, said "Thanks to Cartac for the goodie bags and Steve Taylor for collecting them, Kathy Taylor for donations including a can of Renegade, Victoria Smith for two cans of Renegade, Jan Mugridge for all the drinks for the kids. Also thanks to Keith Bartlett and Susanne Callin for the gift vouchers and presenting the cups, also thanks to Colin Theobald for his kind words and presenting Hayley’s cup."

Swift snippets.
27th September: Happy Birthday for today to Outlaw Anglia team member and Mrs Colin Millar Lynn Purvis, Street Eliminator racer Jack Hale, Swedish Super Twin racer Juha Hintukainen and hot rodder also Venom NFC crew member Sam Styles. We hope you all have a grand day.

In his most recent video upload to VeeDubRacing, Simon Letkey posted footage up close of Top Fuel Bikes, including Neil Midgley getting a new PB of 5.85, and Alan Smith running a 5.93 @ 230mph. You can see his video of these incredible machines by clicking here. Simon also spent some time at Doorslammers with Eurodragster.com sponsor John Tebenham and The Fabulous Lightning McQueen Pro Mod. "In-between filming on the track, I managed a few visits to the pits and fire up lane to watch them prepare the car" said Simon. You can see the results of Simon's time spent with JT at this link.

2022 UK and SPRC champions.
26th September: Congratulations to the winners of the 2022 UK and SPRC Drag Racing Championships:

Motorsport UK Pro Modified: Andy Robinson
Track Worx Comp Eliminator: Dan Williams
Fast R Super Comp: Leah Kellett
Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas: Andy Dibley
Peter Nee Super Pro ET: Billy Gane
Modurstang Pro ET: Brett Featherstone
Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET: Gary Lake
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: Andy Bond
Lucas Oil Junior Dragster: Luke Fulton
NEM Plant Nostalgia Superstock: Don Scott
Renegade Outlaw Anglia: Rob Stone
Springbridge Direct Wild Bunch: Keith Crampton
VW Sportsman: Paul Robinson
VW Pro: Graham Fairhead
Outlaw Flat Four: Adam Lowe

ACU Banks Night Club Top Fuel Bike: Neil Midgley
ACU Taylors Trophy Super Street Bike: Steve Venables
ACU Leeks Landscapes Funny Bike: Louis Davis
ACU Suzukiperformancespares.co.uk Comp Bike: Chris Neary
JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike: Dan De'ath
Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike: Richard Sawatzki
Blood Cancer UK ET Bike: Phil Pratt
ACU Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike: Hollie King

STP National Finals curtailed.
26th September: Congratulations to the winners of the STP UK National Finals held at Santa Pod Raceway over the weekend:

Motorsport UK Pro Modified: Bobby Wallace 5.8816/242.40 def. Andy Robinson 9.3707/85.54 DQ red light
Track Worx Comp Eliminator: Nic Williams (11.40) 10.9114/108.16 def. Dan Williams (10.35) 9.9435/117.31 DQ red
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: Tony Higgs 7.6439/179.92 def. Al McSweeney 7.7393/180.68

Outlaw Flat Four: Adam Lowe, unopposed

ACU Banks Night Club Top Fuel Bike: Neil Midgley 6.0203/193.77 def. Steve Woolatt 6.1331/222.44
Leeks Landscapes Funny Bike: Dave Peters, unopposed.

Other classes were unable to be completed although with the unceasing effort from the track crew in the face of adverse weather and on-track incidents, six classes reached the finals and the remaining ten classes were at semi final stage. On Saturday rain mainly, but also the top end crash of Danny Pike's VW Pro Type 3 notchback meant that the planned third qualifying session was cancelled. The remainder of the second qualifying session was run on Sunday morning, however a late start due to water seepage under the shutdown area meant that eliminations were behind schedule from the start.

Four unfortunate on track incidents caused further delay meaning that, with track temperature dropping sharply in the dark, the race was concluded at the 20:00 curfew time. Commiserations to Super Street Bike rider Mark Dainty who had an engine expire in the shut down area with a long oil-down. Later in the afternoon, Comp Bike racer Jacky Olie-Zijlstra came off her bike at 330ft and was taken to the medical centre for observation. We wish Jacky a speedy recovery. Our sympathies also to Box of Frogs Racing Funny Bike racer Roger Moore who suffered a broken rod in his burnout with aluminium fragments and oil to clean up. Finally, 9.50 Bike racer Brett Cordelle came off his machine at high speed in the shut down area, fortunately Brett was back at the startline less than an hour later helping other racers although the accident must have been quite a shock and a new set of leathers will be on his shopping list.

A big thumbs up to the Santa Pod track crew and medical team who in all these incidents and weather related delays, worked efficiently and effectively to ensure racing could resume as soon as possible on a safe track. Subject to official ratification the following records were set. Congratulations to:

ACU Top Fuel Bike ET: 5.9632, Neil Midgley

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. We appreciate all the help that David and the SPRC timing team has given to us during the course of the season.

Despite a plethora of 0.001s reaction times, the Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award went unclaimed at this event. Congratulations to Super Comp racer Leah Kellett for winning the Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supported by the Twister Race Team. Many thanks to Cath and Tig Napier for sponsoring the Perfect Light Award and to Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield for the Perfect ET award. Congratulations also to Lucas Oil Junior Dragster racers Ada Cassisi and Jessica Bishop who won the Bob's Photo Finish Award of £50 each posted by sponsor and longtime Eurodragster.com supporter Bob Roberts. Ada and Jess's finish line margin was 0.0010 seconds or 1.25 inches.

You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored STP UK National Finals reports, results, pit notes and galleries by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu at the top of the page. Please join Simon in thanking Julian and Diana for their hard work over the race weekend.

We plan to post racer comments in our update tomorrow. Please do send your thoughts on your race to [email protected].

Swift snippets.
26th September: Happy Birthday for today to Santa Pod Raceway Chief Starter and SPRC Secretary Ian Marshall, also to Supercharged Outlaws racer and back up girl Kirsten van Croonenborgh, we hope you each have a fantastic and relaxing day Ian and Kirsten.

STP National Finals coverage.
24th September: We are in place for coverage of the 2022 STP National Finals. Coverage will take place on both days of the event and consist of a live race report and end-day galleries from Julian and Diana which include photos of the Friday test day. You will also be able to follow via Santa Pod's live stream and Nitro FM, see our coverage page for links to all the coverage, entry list and running orders.

Thanks as ever to John Woolfe Racing for sponsoring our live coverage.

Midgley pipped at the post.
23rd September: Thanks to Ian King for their latest report on Neil Midgley and his Puma Engineering Top Fuel bike run by Cannon Motorsport and King Racing.

Neil Midgley’s progress in taming his Puma Engineering bike reaped rewards at the final round of the FIM European Drag Bike Championship Finals at Santa Pod Raceway, England after he made his way through eliminations to make the final at the most prestigious event on the European calendar.

However, the event was tinged with great sadness as the capacity crowds not only paid their respects to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II following her passing on the first day of the event but also to great friend of the team and former FIM Championship Top Fuel Bike owner Jon Morton who sadly died shortly after returning to his pit from a qualifying run in his Super Gas car. An immaculately observed and poignant 2-minute silence was held in respect of both the Queen and Jon on race day at around the same time.

The King Racing / Cannon Motorsports team kept the tune modest for the event but Midgley still qualified in number 2 spot with a brace of 5 second passes including a crowd pleasing side by side 5 second run against Gustafsson, with Midgley’s best an early shut off 5.976 sec @ 204.30 mph pass. He then progressed steadily through eliminations by beating Rene van Den Berg with another early shut off 5 second pass to end the Dutch riders hopes of a European Championship crown, and then fellow British rider Al Smith on the innovative Phil Baimbridge conceived machine to meet the now new European Champion and European speed record holder Rikard Gustafsson in the final.

The final between the two 5 second runners took place as the night closed in and the track began to cool. Midgley was very sharp on the lights with a 0.09 second reaction time and was ahead of the Swedish rider all the way until around the 1000 ft mark when Midgley rolled off the throttle in the darkening conditions to let Gustafsson take the stripe.

Despite competing in only half of the FIM Championship rounds this season Midgley finished in third place in the Championship behind Rene van den Berg and Rikard Gustafsson, both of whom competed in all rounds. The team look forward to their final race of the season, the ACU UK Drag Race championship finals at Santa Pod on the weekend of the 24/25th September. Live news and free streaming of this event can be found on Eurodragster’s superb event coverage page.

The team are proud to be supported in their world class performances by their blue-chip partners:
APE - The world’s most innovative manufacturer of aftermarket parts for race bikes;
COMETIC GASKETS - The Premier Manufacturer of racing gaskets;
GATES - The world’s most trusted name in drive belts, hoses, and hydraulics;
GOODRIDGE - The most innovative and the best in fluid transfer systems;
JE PISTONS - The world's premier manufacturer of high-performance forged pistons;
KIBBLEWHITE PRECISION MACHINING - The highest quality valve train components available;
LUCAS OIL PRODUCTS INC – High performance engine & gear oils second to none in the racing industry;
MRE - Leaders in trackside support for drag race components and air shifting systems;
MTC ENGINEERING - Manufacturer of clutches for the fastest motorcycles in the world;
NGK SPARKPLUGS UK – The world’s number one spark plug manufacturer;
PAR WILLEN – Master webmaster and proprietor of HarleyDrags.com;
PRO ALLOY MOTORSPORT - The UK’s leading fabricator of alloy tanks, intercoolers, and radiators;
VANSON LEATHERS - The most iconic brand in motorsport leather goods;
WEB CAMSHAFTS INC - Simply THE company for Top Fuel Bike camshafts;
WORLDWIDE BEARINGS - The world’s leading supplier of ceramic bearings for racing; and
ZODIAC - Europe’s largest supplier of performance and aftermarket HD parts.

Pictures courtesy of Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes.

Sjödin Motorsport/ÅBM Racing end-season report.
23rd September: Last race report for 2022, and Sjödin Motorsport/ÅBM Racing are the 2022 Summit EDRS Top Doorslammer Champions!

We ended up as runner up at Top Doorslammer round 5 and the finals this year in the series at Gardermoen Raceway in Norway September 9-11.br>
The weekend started already on Wednesday before the race when I drove the first part to my hometown Vansbro alone to meet up with parts of the team for this weekend for some team building dinner and then continue to the track on Thursday morning.

Before that we made sure to fix all we needed on the Chevelle, I bought the new parts we needed that got damaged on the race before in Sundsvall and got spares are fixed to make sure we would have parts if it would happen again and after that I got the trailer cleaned and organized! Max and Dennis also went the last time for the year to our awesome partner ICA Gärdet and got all the grocery’s we need to survive during the race weekend! They have been with us since 2014 and I can’t describe how much I appreciate my friend Kaare Naess' support to my racing.

It wasn’t a lot of cars on this outing either but at least we were 5 cars in the TD class, and we were in the points lead and was for sure planning to stay there in the top when the weekend was over!

The roads we did chose on the way from Vansbro to Norway was not suited for our truck and trailer. They were so crazy narrow so it was really hard to drive, it was some road work that forced us to take roads that was even worse, we checked out a ditch a little too close with the right side of the trailer at a moment but it all went good! And then when it felt like nothing more can make the trip worse we almost fronted with another truck like ten minutes from the track that was in our lane heading straight against us when trying to go around a moped or something so I did step on the brake and turned around it and when I did stuff moved around in the trailer and damaged our winner trophy from Tierp this year, things could have been really bad because of this and I’m just happy I reacted fast to the situation!

This was the first time in eight years we went to Gardermoen, I’m pretty sure we were there in 2014 the last time! The track did look good like always at Gardermoen but the weather wasn’t with us, it was really cold, around 10-12 degrees Celsius so I was not really sure how the car would react to my tune and I did overpower the track a bit and went into a shake in Q1. The car left pretty ok but then I felt it started to shake so I was off the throttle and just coasted down, Tee Cee made a decent pass after us with some pedaling where I started to shake.

But with some data to work from I made a 4.21 @ 293 km/h in Q2, better but not good, little shake and some pedaling to the number 1 position in the qualifying list for a moment! After that. we ended the first qualifying day with a 4.11 @ 295 km/h in Q3 and we finally got a full pass even that the car moved around some. Track was a bit tricky due to the cold weather, the 10-12 degrees and no sun during the whole day of course makes the conditions with the track hard to figure out.

Tee Cee made a nice 4.02 @ 295 km/h against us in that round so we both started to find what the track could handle.

First round on Saturday was cancelled due to too cold weather and some rain during the night and morning. Sad but it’s nothing we can do anything about and they did working on the track to do the best of the situation and keep it under control so we could be out quickly whenever it stopped.

First round we made on Saturday the car left the line really good and felt good but it started to move left against the center line so I had to pedal it and made a 4.22 @ 248 km/h.

In the last qualifying pass for the weekend we manage to make the weekends first full pass with just a tiny shake but no pedaling. 4.0575 @ 299.63km/h and that did put on in the second place in the qualifying list on the last event for 2022. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t beautiful, and it took a long time but the cold weather makes it really hard if you try to go fast… Well, we ended up with a 4.0575 @ 299.63km/h and I’m amazed it went that ET and speed with the little power I did put in it! Data and tuning changes gave results for sure in that qualifying round so I was happy with that!

Sunday and last race day for the season, and we did actually have some sun and blue sky and you could feel some heat finally! We were out in first round against Kenneth Lingvald and KLR Motorsports that was struggling during the weekend with different problems but finally started to get the car to work, I was really lazy on the tree that I was during the whole event, really don’t know why because even if I really tried I got reaction times like a snail!... Well anyway I did have power enough to reach the finish line first with a millimeter or so! We won the round with a 4.0575 @ 296.42km/h. And we made sure we are THE EDRS TOP DOORSLAMMER CHAMPIONS in 2022!


After that it was time for elimination round 2 and the finals against Tee Cee Racing where they made a better job than us and also made the only 3 second pass for the weekend with a 3.9993 @ 298km/h! A huge congratulations to the whole Team Tee Cee Racing for an awesome performance this weekend and I’m happy that I did loose against just you and that you got an event win on your last race ever in the class!... Yes, this was the last pass for the team that have decided to end their drag racing career after about 25 years, we will miss you guys in the future for sure because you have always been around me since I got involved myself in Top Doorslammer back in 2008. I gave it a bit too much in the final and the car went slower and to the right in the top end. So, I’m just happy we did have a car without damage with us back home to be honest. We made a 4.06 @ 295km/h in the finals and I must say that I’m happy anyway with figuring out the track so we could make some decent passes to end the year with! And it’s not so bad making 4 outings and getting 4 trophies during the first real season we make in years! Also, I did say in December 2021 that we are going to make 4 events in the series in 2022 and its time to bring home the biggest trophy of the year and we did!

Nothing of this would have been possible without my awesome team, Dad (Åke), Max, Sofi, John, Krille, Dennis and Fredrik that went with us on the last event!

Our awesome partners during the 2022 season, Åkes Bil & Motor, Birka Motorrenoveringar, Sjödin Motorsport Race Cars, Swecomposite, LSF Custom Lackering, Swelube Amalie Motor Oil, LVV AB, Bengtssons Smide, Loggamera, Clearwrap, SnapOn Pro Tools Peter Hult, ICA Gärdet, W-Linds Bärgning, Kustservice, Supra Trading, T. Grundström Plåtslageri, Jonnie Lindberg Motorsports, Swedol Arninge, CP-Carrillo, Alwerco Svets & Smide, Catch With Care, Edlunds Maskinservice.

Last and absolutely the final event for Sjödin Motorsport / ÅBM Racing in 2022 is to fire up the Chevelle at our partner Swedol in Arninge / Täby (about a minute from our shop) at their event “Swedoldagarna” 25th October. If you are around, please come by and say hi!

After that it’s time to start think about what to do in 2023! What I want the most is going to England and Santa Pod Raceway again for The Doorslammers and Main Event in May if we get the opportunity and I find the funding for it! And main reason is that I’m looking to adjust my personal best of 3.84 on the 1/8 mile and 5.88 on the 1/4 mile to a 3.7? and a 5.7? I’m pretty sure I got it in the car after looking on the data from when we where at Santa Pod in 2019! And also, it will still be with the same motor that we got in 2019 without any updates except on the tuning part!

If you are interested in seeing us at Santa Pod Raceway again and want to be a part of it and help us, please don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected]. Thanks for season 2022!

Freddy's Revenge Hot Rod Drags report.
23rd September: Thanks to Robbie Grabham for posting a report on the Freddy's Revenge Supercharged Outlaw team at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags, who achieved their first six second timeslip and then surprised us all by debuting a beautiful and historic Hillman Avenger body on the car on Saturday.

What a weekend for team Freddy at the NSRA hot rod drags! I don’t know where to start. We started Friday off with the unexpected magical number of our first ever six second pass at 6.971 @ 194mph I think this just set the tone for the weekend!

We debuted our nostalgia funny car body on Friday afternoon which was much of a surprise to many people. I’d firstly like to thank everyone for their very kind comments about the body, we as a team are very happy how it turned out but the reception from everyone else has been amazing and we can’t thank you enough. It’s a true compliment to the team and everyone involved in getting the body ready; thanks to Pete Grange for the paint work and to Darren West for selling and trusting us with the body in the first place and the great design!


As well as setting our PB ET with the Topolino we also set our personal best speed with the Avenger at 198mph getting oh so close to the magical 200mph which we never thought possible with our current set up.

It really was a great weekend for us, slightly tarred by some reverser issues which we will sort over the winter.

Massive thanks to the team from me (Robbie) for which the weekend wouldn’t be possible without every single one of you no matter what you do for the team! Over the winter we have a few things to do such as gearbox repairs, wheelie bar mounting point repairs (one mounting point broke on the last run), taking a look at the Avenger mounting to stop the body moving around during a run, amongst the usual servicing that’s due.

Along with our success it was great to see Joe Bond set a new PB and methanol slingshot European record, Jim Usher setting many PB’s and also Wayne Allman creeping into the six second zone with us! It was also fantastic to see Hayley, Andy and Purdie at the track and the fantastic support for the family! I’d also like to wish Keith Lee a speedy recovery after injuring his back over the weekend, who has been a long time supporter of the team and the Avenger project!

Once again I’d like to thank everyone for their kind words and support of the weekend and the year. We will see you again next year, fingers crossed a few more 6’s will be possible.

Thanks to sponsors Lucas Oil Products UK.

Hot Rod Drag Week day 4 update.
23rd September: Hot Rod Drag Week, the drag and drive event taking place in the mid west this week, is full of race car attrition, at the track on on the road and this year has been no exception. Richie Webb, entered with his US-based Beetle Cabriolet (pictured below left), has had to withdraw saying "after a couple of very long and tiring days we are sad to say we are out of competition. A parts failure at the second track (Indianapolis Raceway Park) meant we were unable to continue. Hot Rod Drag Week is not for the faint hearted, we have made many new friends and were blown away by the support given to us from total strangers and dragweekers. (Thanks to Ross Norris for the update).

Also out of contention is Swede Stefan Gustafsson who had terminal engine problems ("the valves met the pistons") with his red Corvette after running a 6.521/219.76 on day 2. The team commented "This bad girl is going to rehab for getting a lil wild on some alcohol. But she will be back to #sickweek even faster!" Swede Magnus Frost racing an Opel Ascona was out after day 1's 6.852/202.58.


Meanwhile Michael Westberg's Chevrolet S10 pickup (pictured right, photo credit Hot Rod) is lying in 2nd place in the Unlimited category after times on day 2 (Indy), day 3 (Byron) and day 4 (Cordova) of 6.554/211.26, 6.61/200.83 and 6.639/204.88 respectively making a four day average of 6.5855/207.30. On Thursday evening Michael said "Today I ran the fastest time of everyone in the whole event so only 2 thousand separate from the total. So whoever is the fastest between me and Tom Bailey tomorrow wins. The plan is to run a safe lap and then set it up to give him a match."

Mikael Borggren is in third place in the Modified Power Adder category in his 1987 Volvo Wagon after times of 7.044/202.82 on day 2, 9.75/148.12 on day 3 and 9.147/157.39 on day 4 for an average of 8.3913/172.22.

You can follow Hot Rod Drag Week on the Hot Rod website and watch the stream at the Motor Trend Youtube channel.

Swift snippets.
23rd September: Happy Birthday for today to statistical guru Andy Marrs, Andy Robinson crew member Nick ChandlerSteve Johnson and hot rodder photojournalist Keith Harman. Also a belated Happy Birthday to Outlaw Anglia co-ordinator and racer Colin Millar. We hope you have or had a great day.

Markus Münch of Dragmag.net was trackside at the FIA/FIM Euro Finals. You can see Markus's report at this link and his gallery of great photos at this link.

Signing on for STP National Finals.
22nd September: Santa Pod Racers Club secretary Ian Marshall has announced "Could all crew members signing on for the National Finals please try to do so on Friday if possible. We have a big entry and Kathy will be on her own Saturday. Signing on will be open to 9pm Friday night. Your help is appreciated."

Gunne Back.
22nd September: We were saddened to hear from Anders Bostic Envall of the passing on Tuesday of 1970s Top Street, Top Modified and Pro Stock racer Gunne Back at the age of 77.

Described by Bostic as "one of Sweden's greatest drag racing personalities", Gunne started his racing career in 1968 at Anderstorp with a street Corvette, got bitten by the bug and went home and built a new drag racing Corvette named Frighten Chicken which became the first of several race cars.

Many racers acknowledged Gunne's role as a mentor. Leif Andreasson wrote "We worked together in insurance for several years, even then he was a mentor to me, and then he mentored me in my Top Methanol Funny Car career. He was a damn funny man with a twinkle in his eye."

His first trip to Santa Pod Raceway was in July 1971 at the 2nd International Drag Racing Championships, running his Frighten Chicken to 11s times. The following year, the car sporting an outrageously tall hood scoop, he won the Top Modified competition against Tony Dickson who had performed three burnouts whilst Gunne was waiting before pre stage. When the lights ran, Gunne grabbed a huge holeshot on Tony to win the title. In 1973, the first year of UK Pro Stock, Gunne his 'More Frighten' 427 Camaro, ran the only 10s time in the class but this time lost on a holeshot to Kevin Pilling. He was also a winner at the Blackbushe race in September despite gearbox trouble, as opponent Mike Aitken had used too much fuel in his burnouts, and ran out of gas in the final. In 1974 he attended the Silverstone June NDRC meeting, however by then the British cars of Colin Mullen and Adrian Yorke with their Lenco transmissions had seized the advantage running nines. A year later he had a Vega which was seen in action at Mantorp Park in Sweden, his visits to England having been curtailed.

Seeing Gunne launch Frighten Chicken hard at Santa Pod was an experience, the car left harder than many others and the weight transfer created much negative camber on the front wheels.

We send our deepest condolences to Gunne's brother Dan and his family and friends.

Picture inscription: "Master among the Stock classes". Thanks to Chris Dossett at www.trakbytes.co.uk for race information.

Colin's Hot Rod Drags.
22nd September: Fast forward from my wee blog last Thursday and both Lynn and myself had such a great break in St Neots even managing to take a day out on the river Ouse, she might know even get that canal holiday she keeps going on about, relaxed and refreshed and I don’t think we got up before 11 most day, bliss absolutely bliss, however that was all to change as it was race day on Friday at The Hot Rod Drags, I was up at 6am bouncing around much to the annoyance of Lynn, we took off and were at the gates for 8 sharp.

It was going to be a big day but not for me for Aaron Springford, I had messaged him food for thought the previous night so he could go over the sequence of events and get used to the controls in the car, every item he was very familiar with but only ever when the car was standing still, joined by his dad Gary Springford we both took time to go through each step so Aaron new exactly what he needed to do.

I could see he was really nervous and we decided to head down and get a first pass in, good burnout and a decent first ever pass in the car running a 11 seconds, around again and great launch with a wee twitch at 330 foot and off the gas presenting him with 12 second pass, break for lunch to get some food in him as there isn’t much of him and head down early afternoon for his third pass, strong burnout and arrow straight and he’s right into an 8.04 second pass at 167mph,. boom !!!, he was on cloud 9 beaming from ear to ear, back to the pits and Gary said to me how heavy are those two NOS bottles mmm I said 50 pounds, out they came and back down the pairing lanes to do battle, he was focused and ready to push The Flyin Fyfer and what came next was just incredible, what dreams are made of, a stonking burnout and another arrow straight pass giving Aaron a 7.97 second pass @ 173mph, the fastest the car has ever went without Nitrous, I was so chuffed for him and his dad and he struggled to control the emotions at the top end, (it was ok to cry Aaron, we all do sometimes lol), a lovely young man who will do well in life and who deserved everything he achieved that day.

The lesson I learned was easy, I just need to find out how to lose 5 stones!

We called it a day to ensure we left on a high and we sure did (thanks Gary)


Onto Saturday and its Race Day, were trailing Jedd in the championship by 100 points so it had to be done, we stepped the car up, it was early and a tad fresh and I was thinking to myself I wonder if the track will take this tune as the air was just perfect, well the proof is in the pudding and she went off like a bullet 1.08 sixty foot with masses of tyre shake but I wasn’t lifting no way was I lifting, I kept my foot in and she was up on those wheelie bars not once but three times as each of the kits came in hard, what a roller coaster ride woooo hoooooo and I loved every minute of it, I new it was quick but how quick, I was awarded with someone shouting at me at the top end, it’s a 6.94 , wow just wow, we were in the right place at the right time, 22 cars out of the 24 car field ran that morning with no incident’s, onto qualification round 2 and I actually wanted to find out the difference that 5 stones makes, we ran the car with the exact same tune as when Aaron ran it on Friday and the proof of the pudding (far too many puddings !!!) is 7.97 for Arron against fatty at 8.05 for me, what am I doing over the winter, yes you guessed it lol.

Jed was obviously going to step it up and he sure did running a storming 6.95 second pass, so close but it looked like I could maybe steal 50 points back and reduce the gap down to 50 points, it was to be as the third qualifier both Jedd and myself sat out saving the cars for Sundays eliminations, it was a actually a nice experience to go down to the grandstands and watch the class in action, never hardly get the opportunity.

It was also great to see young Aaron Bird debut his car for the first time out well done Aaron and keeping it in the family well done Gary Bird for that amazing save how he did it nobody knows not even Gary lol

. A quiet night was had by all as the temperatures plummeted (well quiet for Outlaw Anglia...)


Up sharp and into eliminations, a huge amount of rushing around as Jed found a split in his cam belt and couldn’t risk running it as the damage could have been unmeasurable, so in goes second alternative Wayne Power who is still half asleep and Gary Bird lost a push rod and Mark Bracking taking his place as first alternative, good racing and after taking Douglas McClure I realised I had in fact won the OA Championship for 2022, not the way I would have wanted to win as I would have preferred a bitter fight to the end but a win as they say is a win.

Onto the next round and the four winners are Ben Rushforth, Simon Barlow, Rob Stone and myself, into the semis we go with Ben Rushforth on a bye as Simon was broke and Rob and myself the other pair, one thing you have to watch with Rob he is still fantastic on the tree so I had to put a wee squirt in to make sure I was able to get there first, thank Rob and I would like to congratulate Rob Stone on winning the OA SPRC Championship as well as coming in a storming 3rd place in the OA Championship, well done that man.

Onto the final and I could see Ben Rushford was well made up as it was his first ever OA final for him in his stunning car, the win goes to Ben and I couldn’t be more please for a young man with a beautiful car a beautiful family and solid crew, get well soon Dave, I bet you was roaring at the live feed.

Hopefully I can pull the converter and box out tonight and see what we broke, getting good at this taking out and putting back way of doing lol.

Other news, Ginner man won the most consistent ET trophy in qualifying, Ben Rushforth won quickest first round elimination reaction time trophy, Peter Butler came second in the OA Bracket Class and Rob Brindle came first in the OA Bracket Class.

All in all, a great year for the class with some stunning performances and more to the point great fun, great memories and great people, hopefully I will see some over in Malta in November and it was really nice to catch up with Jamie Felice and his dad Victor from Malta as they has spectated over both the Euros and Hot Rod Drags and had a fantastic time.

Otherwise I hope to catch most of you next year, stay safe and look after each other xx

Spitfire Raceway open on Saturday.
22nd September: Promoter Lee Child has reminded us that Spitfire Raceway at Perranporth Airfield, Cornwall TR5 0XS is open on 24th September for drag racing, drifting, car show plus the opportunity to stay over. The event marks seven years since it first opened for drag racing thanks to Lee's support.

Online drag bookings are open for the next event on Saturday 24th September. Note that the drifting is sold out. You can join us on the venue's Spitfire Park holiday camping area for a relaxing short or long time stay. Visit this link for more details on holiday camping.

You can spectate or take part at Spitfire Raceway, all vehicles welcome. Spectators are £10 per person and under 16s go free. You can pay on entry You can drag race from £10 after admission, crash helmet and full driving licence required. Show & shine is no charge after admission. Gates are open at 8am, track action is from 11am to 3pm. Any queries contact Spitfire Raceway via its Facebook page.

All vehicles have a safety check for drag racing and drifting. If you are competing on the Drag strip there is a riders and drivers meeting at race control 10.45am.

Please respect the surrounding areas and speed limits when travelling to and from the venue.

Force of Nature tests successfully.
22nd September: Many thanks to steam rocket bike pilot Graham Sykes for sending us his account of testing his bike at Melbourne last weekend:

We have been building up to running the Force of Nature Steam rocket bike this year with its larger pressure vessel, and last Thursday at a Straightliners event at Elvington we managed to have 2 test runs. Both went well I rode it first and the second run with Phil Wood riding the bike went to plan so the decision was made to run the bike at the coming Melbourne meeting.

Saturday I took the riding duties and with the same low powered set up as we had used at Elvington we prepared the bike to close the show before lunch. The run went well but my thump slipped off the "GO" button and fluffed the start but I got back on the power and ran through to a 7.03@ 96 mph.1/8th

Back in the pits it became apparent that the fire box used to heat the water in the bike was damaged so we removed the firebox from the "Mothership" where the bike dock’s into to be heated up and returned home to repair the damage.

We got back to the track at 8.00 pm just in time to catch the live music and band. Sunday was an early start and a lot of work to rebuild the Mothership. This work was completed and the repair was very effective and worked as it should, and quickly warmed the water up to over 200 degrees ready for another run just before lunch.

I had decided to turn the power up from 20% to around 40% to get it off the line better. The run went well and although I rolled the beams so my time in not official, it was worked out the run was 5.32 seconds to the 1/8th with a terminal speed of 127 mph running out of steam thrust 3.5 seconds into the run. the 60 ft time was 1.29 seconds so we are heading in the right direction.

My target is to run a 200 mph pass using just water.

The bike handles really well and is fun to ride and spectacular to watch. Next weekend we will be testing again at Elvington at the Straightliners National Speed Record event on Sunday and Monday 25th and 26th October, spectators are welcome.

Although its doubtful we are ever going to be able to run as fast as the amazing Eric Teboul on his hydrogen peroxide powered Rocket bike, we will hopefully be able to put in some very impressive passes as we get used to the bikes power and delivery,. And get another Rocket bike out there. And remember we are only using hot water to generate the steam which is heated by Hydrogenated Vegetable oil!

Thanks to Trevor and Paul from Straightliners and my Team: Billy, Jim, Will, Diane and anyone else who has helped me to get to this stage with the project

Thanks to sponsors Norgren IMI, CPE Pressure Vessels, Mial Coach builders, Hansell Composites, FIN Maintenance and DSG Apicom.

Photo Credits to Harvey Brewster.

STP National Finals Perfect Awards.
22nd September: £200 is up for grabs at this weekend's STP National Finals 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 Modurstang Pro ET racer Alfie Watten at the FIA/FIM-E Euro Finals. 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 Modurstang Pro ET racer Andy Garnett at the FIA/FIM-E Euro Finals. 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 BeFastR Super Comp, Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas, Peter Nee Super Pro ET, ModUrStang Pro ET, Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, VW Pro, VW Sportsman, NEM Plant Nostalgia Superstock, Wild Bunch, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike, 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.

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 race of eliminations at this weekend's event. At the FIA/FIM-E Euro Finals the Award was won by Eurodragster.com FIM-E Junior Drag Bike Cup racers Hollie King and Anouk Burgering.

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.

Swift snippets.
22nd September: Happy Birthday for today to Nostalgia Funny Car racer Wendy Baker and back up girl Holly Jakes. Have a lovely day Wendy and Holly.

Videographer, crewman and occasional slingshot racer Thomas Cook Abbott has continued to post regularly at his Youtube channel TCA Racing. Thomas's posts in the last week or so include the Euro Finals and NSRA Hot Rod Drags, working with a number of teams including Mark Coulsell's Limited Funz and Keith Crampton's Soul Town Shaker Wild Bunch slingshots. The videos give an insider's perspective on the startline, the top end and the pits with an honest account of some of the problems that can occur during a race meeting.

Other Youtube videos posted of racing at Santa Pod include McLaren Media's footage from the FIA/FIM-E Euro Finals and Hot Rod Jamboree's walk around and track footage from the NSRA Hot Rod Drags..

Linda Wilson.
21st September: We were very sorry to hear of the passing of Linda Wilson, wife of multiple Top Methanol Dragster champion Dave 'Grumpy' Wilson. Dave writes: "With great sadness I have to tell you that my love of more than 60 years, wife for 55 years, mother of my childen, team "mum" and my rock, finally passed away peacefully yesterday after a long and painless illness. Now at peace, and pain free. Rest well, my dearest Linda. Details about the arrangements will be posted in due course." Former editor Tog writes:

"The words “Team Mum” may conjure up a soft image, and Linda could do soft, but she was very tough and absolutely Grumpy’s equal in everything: that the team won Championships and events and set records with her as its matriarch was no accident.

"When I visited the team’s pit I was always assured a warm welcome, offers of catering, and interesting and frequently hilarious conversation. Linda was not afraid to be honest - she got pissed off with me once and, believe me, I made sure that it never happened again – but her quietly-delivered opinions, informed by years of experience dealing with politics and people as well as the racing itself, were always worth hearing.

"It is some comfort that Linda was able to see Grumpy inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame, and on the night he wasted no time in crediting Linda as his biggest asset and greatest support. It was a privilege to have known her. My sympathies to Grumpy, David and Anne, and to all of Linda’s family and friends."

We add our deepest condolences to Dave, David, Anne and Linda's family and friends.

2022 UK Championship outcomes.
21st September: In 2022 the SPRC National and Club Drag Racing championships have been hard fought with larger entries than last year and some incredibly close points chases. Including the National Finals, there will have been up to six rounds of racing for each class, and all rounds have been able to be completed which is an enormous tribute to the work of the track and SPRC staff under sometimes adverse conditions. As in past years, some championships are finely poised at this point, others have already been decided. In one class, Renegade Outlaw Anglia, the final round of the SPRC Club Championship was held at the Green Light Nationals in August and congratulations to Rob Stone on the title. Champions in FIA/FIM-E European classes and the Funny Car Cup were listed in our update on 12th September.

Motorsport UK Pro Modified has three contenders, Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson, Kev Slyfield (37 points behind) and Wallace Motorsports (Bobby driving at this event, 52 points behind). Andy could secure the championship by qualifying top and going one round, if he qualifies second he will need to go two rounds or one round with low ET of the event. Kev or Bobby need to win the event and have Andy and Bobby/Kev go out early to take the title. Track Worx Comp Eliminator has Dan Williams in a commanding position 650 points ahead of Spencer Tramm. With 730 points available Dan can secure the championship by qualifying #1 with Spencer qualifying 5th or lower, or qualify better than Spencer and go one round further. Spencer can mathematically win the title but it would require Dan to have a nightmare weekend.

B Fast R Super Comp is a three way battle between leader Steve Hudson, Leah Kellett (100 points behind) and Richard Tunstall (330 points behind). With only 110 qualifying points available, elimination wins are going to be necessary for Steve to secure the championship or Leah to go two rounds further and take it from Steve.

Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas has Andy Dibley 550 points ahead of Collin Morrice with 740 points available. Again, elimination points will be needed, however, if Andy qualifies in the top part of the field, he could secure the title by going to the semi finals. If Collin drops out early, Dave Fulton could get a runner up trophy if he qualifies better and goes a couple of rounds further than Collin.

Peter Nee Super Pro ET is a tight class, Billy Gane is leading the chase however has Joe Kellett (320 points back) and Eurodragster sponsor Pete Walters (440 points back) breathing down his neck. To secure the championship with 20 cars entered, Billy will need to qualify better and go three rounds further than Joe and Pete. With the frequent appearances of Joe and Pete in later rounds, it is likely this championship will go down to the wire.

ModUrStang Pro ET is as in previous years the most competitive championship, with a spread of less than 500 points between #1 and #10 and 1070 points available. Brett Featherstone is leading with Dave Fulton 110 points behind him, Simon Gough 150 behind and Leigh Morris 170. Qualifying points will definitely make a difference with 33 entered and there are another five racers who could pick up a trophy if any of these stumble along the way.

Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET is a four way battle with Gary Lake and veteran Brian Huxley, 410 behind, the main protaganists. Felicity Gibbs and Holley Walters have a mathematical chance of runner up but will need to qualify well and go several rounds in eliminations.

Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator is almost a done deal with Andy Bond 710 points ahead of Tony Higgs and 710 points available. Andy can secure the championship by qualifying #1, meanwhile Tony will need to watch Al McSweeney who could take second place off him if he qualifies well and goes to the final round with Tony going out early.

Lucas Oil Junior Dragster is led by Luke Fulton with Luke Mugridge 110 points behind and Daniel Weir 220 points in arrears from Luke F. A bumper field of 27 cars makes for 1010 available points, so qualifying well and getting through the rounds will secure the championship for Luke F, with Luke M qualifying two positions better and going one round further will be enough, Daniel qualifying three positions ahead of both and going two rounds further than both Lukes will secure him the title.

SPRC Club Championship classes

Springbridge Direct Wild Bunch is led by Keith Crampton on 860 points with only 60 points advantage over Pete & Rob Brown’s Rebel slingshot, who in turn are only 20 points ahead of Bob Hawkins, and with all of them on the bonus for completing all rounds, any of these teams could take the win. With 6 cars entered and 3 rounds of racing, even though Phil James is a couple of rounds behind, he is still in with a mathematical chance, if he were to be #1 Qualifer, win the event, and the leaders not make it past the first round.

Congratulations to Graham Fairhead who secured the VW Pro Championship at the Greenlight Nationals. James Hodson and Jonathan Newell look set to battle it out for runner up position, although Jonathan has a 340 point gap to make up and will have to rely on James going out early.

VW Sportsman is between Paul Robinson and Phil Jones, with a gap of 430 and 1010 points available, Phil will need to qualify near the top of the 27 car field and go at least three rounds further than Paul to take the championship, whereas Paul will be looking over his shoulder at Phil for most of the weekend.

Outlaw Flat Four is most likely to come down to whoeever of Adam Lowe and James Wootton goes further. Third and fourth placed David Wheatley and Lee Crofts have a mountain to climb to surpass Adam or James, but Outlaw Flat Four can be unpredictable...

NEM Plant Ltd Nostalgia Super Stock is led by Stuart 'Kiwi' Thompson with only about a round's advantage over Don Scott. With Pete Dodd not entered for the event, Dave Billadeau is 330 points behind Kiwi, Chris Goodale and Simon Rickwood are both 400 points behind Kiwi, and with 12 cars entered and four rounds of racing, any of these could get second position unless Don qualifies well and goes rounds.

Bike classes

ACU Banks Night Club Top Fuel Bike is led by Steve Woolatt from Neil Midgley (125 points behind), who has a performance advantage. With six bikes entered this could go down to the wire.

Congratulations to Louis Davies who won the ACU Leeks Landscapes Funny Bike title at the Greenlight Nationals. Second place is likely to be a tight battle between Lorcan Parnell, Dave Peters and Roger Moore with Lorcan having a 175 point advantage over Dave and Roger who will have to go a couple of rounds further to pass him.

ACU Taylor's Trophy Super Street Bike has Steve Venables in a leading position, however Ven has had to rebuild his bike rapidly following his fire at the FIA/FIM-E European Finals and Jake Mechaell is within striking distance being 440 points behind, with 560 competition points available (not including points for new ET/speed records). Dániel Lencsés, as record holder will want to add trophies to his collection, which could include the championship runner up. however bridging the 350 point gap to Jake is a tall order.

ACU Suzukiperformancespares.co.uk Comp Bike is a two way battle between Chris Neary and Paul Hambidge who is 180 points behind. Second placed Malta-based Shawn Buttigieg is 160 points behind Chris, but is not on the entry list, so Paul can get second place by signing on, but will need to go two rounds further than Chris or one round with best ET and speed of the event.

ACU Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike is led by Hollie King with Casey Holgate 400 points back. To secure the championship Hollie will need to win two rounds of racing, however if Hollie goes out in round 1, Casey will need to win the event, having qualified better than Hollie to take the title.

The JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike title is led by Jay Roe who is 240 points ahead of Dan De'Ath. Jay is 600 points ahead of Jonny Hines and Andy Haley. With 1010 points available, realistically any of these four could come away with the championship, but Jonny and Andy will be dependent on both Jay and Dan both going out early and winning the event. With an entry of 27, the likelihood of upsets in eliminations is larger than ever.

Congratulations to Rick Sawatzki for winning the Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike title for the tenth time, Carl Thomas, Dave Hall and Brett Cordelle will be battling it out for runner up spot.

Blood Cancer UK ET Bike is another tight championship, the points being led by Scott Collier with Phil Pratt 110 points behind and Gary Hester 120 points behind Scott. There could be some tense eliminations - or a rider could fall partly out of contention during qualifying on Saturday with 29 entries.

You will be able to experience all the drama live at the track if you go to santapodtickets.com and buy tickets to attend the event. You can also see the current points by going to our points page.

Hayley Auction offering unforgettable experiences.
21st September: A reminder to everyone who will be at Santa Pod Raceway on Saturday that the SPRC National Finals Auction for Hayley Hadfield’s chosen charities will be taking place in Fueller's Bar from 8pm onwards. SPR announcer Colin Theobald has been busy posting auction lots to the auction's Facebook page, which include some experiences not otherwise generally available.

  • A ride in Twister with Andy Hadfield (above left) sometime next year, event to be confirmed. Colin says "Only the brave need to bid, but everyone can share!"
  • A trip out on the 26 mile Street Eliminator cruise with Mark Todd (above centre) in either the Freight Train GTO or the 6 Appeal Aston, depending on which car is being run next season. You’ll also get a T-Shirt of the car you cruise in. Event to be confirmed in due course.
  • Thanks to SPRC secretary Ian Marshall, a chance to ’Ride the Gluebird’ at an event to be agreed. You’ll be on the back with Ian as they make several passes to ensure the track is perfect for racing.
  • A passenger ride with multiple Pro ET Champion Lee Huxley (above right) in the multiple championship winning Dark Horse Mustang at this years Flame & Thunder Show.
Several of the lots are unique memorabilia or a chance to put your preferred name to a product:
  • Our Julian is offering a season’s worth of track photos of any racer, or race car/bike, with Hi Res files being sent by email after each meeting which would generally be 10-15 images, sent after a meeting for the whole of the 2023 season, the offer applying to events Julian is attending.
  • Donated by Hot Rodder Lawrence Farr of Neon Dream, this is a one-off neon sign of the Twister logo. (Neon Dream can create incredible signs of your team logo that would look superb in your pits at the track or at home in the mancave/workshop.)
  • Drag racing artist Paul Whitehouse has donated his original ‘Paradise Road’ iconic American Graffiti painting (above centre) which will be supplied in a frame of the winning bidder's choice. The size is 20” x 15”.
  • Paul Savage and Santa Pod Raceway have come up with a very special ‘Name the Beer’ opportunity. The basics are that you are bidding to name the beer. This beer is then produced for the beer festival at Dragstalgia 2023, the logo will be designed with your chosen name in advance and the barrel of beer is donated and sold, with the proceeds donated to charity.
  • Donated by Perfect Light Award sponsors Tig & Kath Napier, owners of the ‘Bad Habit’ Dodge is a Jon Spoard photo, transformed into a 25” x 21” oil painting by Anth Knight and framed.
  • Several lots donated by Modurstang Pro ET racer Pete Dodd all with Snap-On Tools branding: a Cordless Impact Wrench Kit, steak knives, complete with wooden block holder, a Blue-Point aluminium race jack, a 1/24 scale Cruz Pedregon Funny Car die-cast, and a Socket Slow Cooker Set.
  • Site sponsor Pete Walters aka PWRD has donated 4 Team/Startline shirts (sample above right) , completely custom designed by Pete in the sizes and shirt design of your choice.
There will also be lots to be firstly shown ‘on the night’ to keep everyone interested including plenty of teams that donated T-Shirts, hoodies and other memorabilia. Keep the donations coming to Colin on [email protected]. You can get your Hayley T-Shirts & stickers by ordering them through Craig Dixon at www.alteredteesapparel.co.uk.

Wild Bunch Hot Rod Drags report.
21st September: Thanks to Wild Bunch co-ordinator Claire Meaddows for posting a report on the class at the NSRA Hot Rod drags last weekend on the Wild Bunch website.

In the report Claire gives details of the cars taking part and provides a detailed list of prizes, personal bests and credits (thanks Claire - editor). And while you're at the Wild Bunch website you will able to read about the class since its inception in 1995.

Swift snippets.
21st September: Happy Birthday for today to Stock/Super Stock racer Carla Pittau, former Jet Dragster racer and SPR timekeeper Steve Horn, Nostalgia Superstock racers Lola Cavey and Connor Hall, Outlaw Anglia racer Dave Sidaway and Santa Pod Raceway crew member Ben Lewis. We hope you all have a great day.

If you haven't seen the FIA/FIM-E European Finals montage video produced by Barney Campbell of Box Lane Productions, go straight to this Youtube link - or just play it again. It uncannily brings back the emotional atmosphere of the event with a moving tribute to the late Jon Morton at the close. A great video of one of the most memorable races in the history of Santa Pod.

On the subject of the FIA/FIM-E European Finals, photojournalist Steve Moxley has written a report on the event with photos and many pit snippets, which you can see on the ACU website by clicking here with a separate report on the barrier breaking run of rocket bike pilot Eric Teboul which you can see by clicking here.

Santa Pod Raceway's main 2023 dates.
20th September: Santa Pod have announced the following provisional 2023 major dates as published in the event programme for the Euro Finals:
  • Festival of Power: 7th-9th April
  • Doorslammers: 19th-21st May
  • The Main Event: 26th-29th May
  • Dragstalgia: 7th-9th July
  • Bug Jam: 21st-23rd July
  • Ultimate Street Car: 4th-6th August
  • European Finals: 7th-10th September
  • Flame & Thunder: 28th October
 Supercharged Outlaws Hot Rod Drags report.
20th September: Thanks to Supercharged Outlaws Chairman and Perfect ET Award sponsor Andy Hadfield for his report on the class at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags:

A fantastic end to the Supercharged Outlaws 2022 season with many PB’s and many smiling faces. I think it would be fair to say the pairings were really close, some great match races and the Supercharged Outlaws were arguably the fastest group on the property with 3 teams producing six second passes, 2 teams breaking into the 6’s for the first time and a European record in the bag!

Notable achievements were from Joe Bond with a string of 6.28 runs and a new PB of 6.20, a new European record (for a front engined methanol burning dragster!)


James Usher manhandled the Hemi Hunter to PB after PB and the whole team were utterly thrilled. So well deserved and rewarding.

Simon Boot romped home to an easy PB with his wheelstanding 9.0 run at 155, and that was even with a pedal ! The 8’s are beckoning and will be an easy goal in 2023. Robbie Grabham with his first ever 6 in Freddy’s Revenge is just reward for such a hard working team whilst Roy Wilding came tantalisingly close to that elusive 6. Wayne Allman finally broke into the 6’s with Mental Breakdown and didn’t it look effortless ? Aaron Windridge had us all swallowing our hearts when he made what has to be the wildest pass in history…….and escaped completely unscathed.

Keith Freeman and Gary Parkes battled it out separately vying for the championship trophy with only 5 points separating the pair at the top of the leader board.


Leo Knight, Des Taylor and Ian Merryweather forged on with impressive passes and building good data whilst Mick Hannah finally got a baseline to build on for the achingly pretty Haggis Hunter.

Luke Watts and the Alkypone team struggled with fuelling issues and deserved a better result. You have my heart felt commiserations although I have to say, the car looked immense and sounded fantastic. I’m really looking forward to seeing that car romp up the track next season.

As a final note, I would like to thank all the Supercharged Outlaws, Santa Pod Raceway, SPRC and our fellow racers for the support they have shown me and my family during an intensely difficult time.

Being chairman of this group is one the most rewarding jobs and I’m proud to serve such a great bunch of people.

Congratulations to the Supercharged Outlaws award winners through the season:

NSRA Nostalgia Nationals
Best Reaction Time: Mike Couch
NSRA award for fastest Outlaw: Roy Wilding

Retro Show
Best Reaction Time: Mike Couch

Dragstalgia
1st Place Keith Freeman
2nd Place Jim Tucker
3rd Place Ian Merryweather
Best Reaction Time: Des Taylor

Mopar Euro Nationals
1st Place Thomas Cook-Abbott
2nd Place Roy Wilding
3rd Place Simon Boot
Best Reaction Time: Thomas Cook-Abbott

VW Action
1st Place Gary Parkes
2nd Keith Freeman
3rd Place Mark Windridge
Best Reaction Time: Gary Parkes

Well done to all the winners! The winners of HRDs will be announced at the Supercharged Outlaws AGM


Trigger's Broom partly reaches 50.
20th September: In our preview of the Wild Bunch for the Hot Rod Drags, we mentioned that two cars in the class had reached 50 years old, however parts of one more car have reached their half century as reported to us by Trigger's Broom 23T driver Paul Tarry: "Triggers Broom was built in 1972 by Ray Hoare. Actually it’s been five cars along the way, Reality, Hang ‘em High, Jeans T, Camera84 and Vixen. It ws lengthened by about 18” and rebuilt from parts to run as Triggers Broom. "The wing is off Mick Hillier's Pony Express and parachute is from Mike Kason's Kerbdozer. "It's a pity we can do the same thing with the drivers - a few new parts, a brush up and possibly a new name!" Well done to Paul for running a new PB time and speed of 10.668/125.24 on Friday.

Hot Rod Drag Week live stream Day 1.
20th September: This year Hot Rod Drag Week, now in its 18th year and sponsored by Ebay Motors, travels from World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois to Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for Tuesday, Byron Dragway, Byron, Illinois for Wednesday, Cordova Dragway, Cordova, Illinois for Thursday and back to World Wide Technology Raceway for Friday and the event's conclusion.

You can see the live stream of the event by clicking here, also results are available from this link. Of a record entry of 339 cars qualified on Monday, European teams taking part in the event include the UK's Richie Webb (Beetle Cabriolet) who was 20th in Street Race Small Block Power Adder (10.439 140.78), Sweden's Michael Westberg (Chevrolet S10), Stefan Gustafsson ('89 Corvette) and Magnus Frost (Opel Ascona), respectively 2nd (6.539/212.23), 3rd (6.61/221.45) and 5th (6.852 202.58) in the Unlimited standings after yesterday, also Mikael Borggren ('87 Volvo Wagon) who ran 7.624/180.55 to go top in Modified.

We will provide updates during the week, so come back to see how our European heroes are doing.

Malta Hal Far round 3 results.
20th September: Congratulations to the winners at the third round of the Enemed Malta National Drag Racing Championship, which was organized at the Hal Far track by the Malta Drag Racing Association on the weekend of 17th-18th September:

Dragster DTA6 and Open 6 class: James Aquilina (unopposed) (pictured top right)
Dragster D5 class: Nathan Bartolo (unopposed)
Dragster D4 class: Antoine Schembri (unopposed)
Dragster DTA4 class: Tyson Debono (unopposed)
CA6 clss: Andre Bugeja def. Mark Mallia
Front Wheel Drive Open Class: George Cutajjar def. Marie Francoise Larosa
Escort Class 3: Martin Scerri def. Paul Fenech (3rd place Mariano Ciantar)
Escort Class 2: Paul Fenech def. Mariano Ciantar (3rd place Frankie Ellul)
Index Class 1: Chrsitian Pirotta def. Wayne Zammit (3rd place Steve Jennerway)
Index Class 2: Chris Mercieca def. Joe Ashton (3rd place Sean Cassar)
Bracket 8.00-8.49: Andre Bugeja (unopposed)
Bracket 8.50-8.99: Wayne Zammit (unopposed)
Bracket 9.50-9.99: George Cutajar (unopposed)
Bracket 10.00-10.49: Christian Pirotta def. Carmelo Cardi
Bracket 11.00-11.49: Chris Mercieca def. Joe Ashton
Bracket 11.50-11.99: Sean Cassar def. Steve Jennerway
Diesel class: Marie Francoise Larosa (unopposed)
Junior Dragster: Luca Mangion def. Ismael Mula Debono (3rd place Isaac Mula Debono)

Super Street Bike 1 and Open class: Briegel Micallef (unopposed) (pictured middle right)

Motorcycle bracket 8.00-8.49: Steve Bezzina (unopposed)
Motorcycle index 8.50 and bracket 8.50-8.99: Leslie Said (unopposed)
Best reaction time: Paul Fenech

Pictured bottom right is the new dragster owned by Antoine 'Il wirky' Spiteri and driven by John Martin.

Video playlists from the event can be seen at the Youtube channel of MDRA Secretary Konrad D'anastasi. You can also see a replay of the livestream at the Facebook page of MotorsMT

Thanks to Alex Buttigieg for the photos. You can see Alex's photos from the event at this Facebook album.

You can also see photos at the Facebook pages of DLP Photography and Samuel Mifsud at Samuel's Photography.

Straight To The Point Racing update.
20th September: Straight to the Point Racing chief Benito Chiarella has announced that the motorsport engineering firm is having an open day on 2nd October at 11am. Food and drink will be available on site. Benito added "Everyone’s welcome so come on down and meet some fellow enthusiasts." Straight to the Point Racing's address is: Whatton Lodge Farmyard, Grantham Road, Whatton, Nottinghamshire NG13 9EW. Situated just off the A52, STTPR can also be easily found on Google maps.

Benito also announced that dad George Chiarella's colourful '37 Ford Coupe has reached the UK Finals of The Hot Wheels Legends Tour 2022. Congratulations to the team for that honour.

Photo credit: Dave G. Wilson

Swift snippets.
20th September: Happy Birthday for today to former Comp Bike racer Ken 'Cooperized' Cooper, from Germany VW racer and recent visitor to VW Action Markus Welte and Draglist.com's John R. Bockelman. We hope you all have a wonderful day.

NSRA Hot Rod Drags results.
19th September: Congratulations to the winners at the weekend's NSRA Hot Rod Drags held at Santa Pod Raceway:

Renegade Outlaw Anglia: Ben Rushforth 8.8232/151.13 def. Colin Millar 11.5507/74.41
Outlaw Anglia Bracket: Rob Brindle (8.90) 9.2348/124.42 def. Pete Butler (11.10) 11.0055/119.94 breakout
Gasser Circus: Jason Pickett (11.04) 11.0717/111.08 def. Patrick Hobbs (11.40) 11.3839/117.90 breakout
Wild Bunch: Phil James average close to dial in, 0.0171

The event was held in superb atmospheric conditions, with density altitude below sea level for part of the time, resulting in many personal bests. Congratulations to racers who broke barriers over the course of the weekend with Supercharged Outlaw Robbie Grabham in Freddy's Revenge and Wayne Allman in the Mental Breakdown VW Single Cab running their first six second passes, also Aaron Springford who was given a drive in Colin Millar's Flyin' Fyfer Outlaw Anglia on Friday and ended the day with a 7.971/173.06, remarkable for his first time in a race car. Congratulations to the two lifestyle class champions which were decided during the weekend:

Renegade Outlaw Anglia: Colin Millar
Gasser Circus: Ray Irish (Gas Junkie)

There were thankfully no major incidents and well done to Robin Read and Gary Bird whose driving jobs saved their cars, along with other racers who skilfully steered their way out of trouble.

You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored FIA/FIM European Finals reports, results, pit notes and galleries by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu at the top of the page. Please join Simon in thanking Julian and Diana for their hard work over the race weekend.

We will publish more highlights and racer comments tomorrow. If you want to send your own highlights of the Hot Rod Drags, write to us via [email protected] or to the editor via Facebook messenger.

Northern Street Legal Shootout results.
19th September: Congratulations to the winners at the weekend's Northern Street Legal Shootout held at Melbourne Raceway:

Duck All Prep (Saturday): Andrew Flavell 5.74/133 def. Phil Evans 8.83/56. 3rd place: Michael Castle
Duck All Prep (Sunday): Pete Youhill 5.88/118 def. Phil Evans 6.86/116. 3rd place: Michael Castle
Northern Street Car Shootout (Sunday): Ian Walley (Ford Cortina 5.7 Ltr) 6.44/119 def. Dave Meleg (Ford Capri 6.3 Ltr) 8.63/90
NSCC Eliminations (Sunday): Ian Walley 6.52/119 def. Martin Rawlinson (Dodge Challenger 6.4 Ltr) 8.43/92
Junior Dragster Autumn Takedown: 1st place: Grace Smith, 2nd place: Harry Redshaw, 3rd place: Dexter Wilson, 4th place: Tom Peters.

Nostalgic Pro Stock: Claire Rule (Suzuki GSX 1100) 6.12/123 def. Chris Spry (Kawasaki H2 750cc) 6.63/98
Class 6.00: Mark Taylor (Hayabusa 1300cc) 6.36/133 def. David Storrie (BMW S1000RR) 6.52/119
Race Legends: Colin Fallows, unopposed
No Mercy Shootout (Bikes): Ashley Hodgson (Yamaha RD 350cc) 6.76/100 def. Trevor Houlden (Suzuki GSXR 1100cc) 7.43/113
No Mercy Shootout (Scooters): Mike Pacey 9.47/74 (Lambretta 230cc) def. Stephen Holt (Lambretta 290cc), Aborted
No Mercy Shootout (Juniors):Amy Wolstenholme (Gilera DNA special70cc) 11.87/57 def. William Mountford (Pit Bike 110cc) 12.34/48

The Junior Dragster Autumn Takedown was the first time of being held and was supported by nine cars all aiming for a cash prize. Organiser Edel McDonald wrote: "Thanks to co-organisers Pragmatis and Victoria Smith for helping. Grace was the winner of £1,000, Harry £200, Dexter £100 and Tom a drum of Renegade methanol, as did Harry Peters for being the quickest junior. All drivers also received a medal and an embroidered towel to mark the occasion, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th got a tiled plaque along with their Cups.

"Thanks to all that helped out over the weekend, thanks to Melbourne raceway crew and all of the Straightliners crew for all their hard work, a lovely friendly bunch of people who went out of their way to make us all feel welcome, we hope to improve this event for next year so all suggestions as to how to improve on thee event for next year would be gladly received to the British Junior Dragster Club."

Congratulations also to Bob Molden who celebrated thirty years of the White Noise Peugeot 205 drag racing team, and Graham Sykes for a successful test run on the Force of Nature Steam powered Rocket Bike.

You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Northern Street Legal Shootout results and galleries by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu at the top of the page. Please join Simon in thanking former editor Tog for supplying the galleries over the race weekend and posting results produced by Martyn Greathead of Straightliners.


Swift snippets.
19th September: Happy Birthday for today to 8.50 Bike racer Brad Head, former Funny Bike racer and Cannon Racing team member Michael Vickers, also Jake Wray of Kejja Motorsport. We hope you all have a great day.

Congratulations to our Kieran on his wedding to Ellie Feltham at the weekend, photographs from Callum Pudge of the happy couple are eagerly awaited, and we wish Kieran and Ellie a long and happy married life together. A regular reader of the site and photographer, Patrick O'Connor, whose engagement to Deena we announced after the Festival of Power, flew to the U.S. Patrick and Deena getting married in North Carolina on 13th September (pictured left). Best wishes to Patrick and Deena for their future together.

ACU Championship points posted.
18th September: Many thanks to ACU Drag Bike Championship coordinator Ian King for posting the latest updated points following the STP Greenlight Nationals which you can see by clicking here.

SPRC National Finals Charity Auction.
17th September: Santa Pod Raceway announcer Colin Theobald has confirmed the SPRC National Finals Auction for Hayley Hadfield’s chosen charities will take place on Saturday 24th September 2022 at Santa Pod Raceway. The chosen charities are the Christie Hospital in Manchester and Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Colin says "Loads of items up for grabs, a lot of which have already been posted on the auction's Facebook page.

"Latest items donated to the auction include a canvas print of a picture of Twister burning out (60cm x 30cm) from Ian and Paula Blackett, a pair of tickets to the final event of the BTCC season at Brands Hatch on 8/9 October from Serck Motorsport, a Acme 1/18th scale diecast model of Randy Bradford's Topolino donated by Nigel Rigden, a welding mask donated by Topspeed Automotive and many more. Thanks to all donors."

If you want to donate an auction item, contact Colin on [email protected]. You can get your Hayley T-Shirts & stickers by ordering them through Craig Dixon at www.alteredteesapparel.co.uk.

The auction will take place at 8pm by the Fuellers Bar, so, see you there. Payment from winning bidders can be made by card or cash.

STP National Finals racer update.
16th September: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for sending us details of track opening and signing on at the STP National Finals being held at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-25th September, including scrutineering times.

Ian says "The entry we have for the National Finals 2022 is the biggest entry ever seen at a single permitted event in the UK (unless someone knows otherwise). We need your help to get through all of thiss so please bear with us when we need to push a bit, we hope to complete three qualifying rounds on Saturday, with all eliminations taking place Sunday. Your assistance will really be appreciated by all concerned, and thank you in advance from all of the SPRC and Santa Pod Raceway staff."

The main gates to the track will open from 8.00am on Friday 23rd September.

Friday, 23rd September:
09.00-18.00 Signing on office open
09.00-18.00 Scrutineering for cars
10.00-18.00 Scrutineering for bikes

Saturday, 24th September:
07.00 Scrutineering and signing open
09:30 Track open for qualifying/eliminations

Sunday, 25th September:
07.30 Signing open
08.00 Scrutineering for cars
09.00 Scrutineering for bikes
09.30 Track open for qualifying/eliminations

The detailed running orders and entry list can be seen via our event coverage page.

NSRA Hot Rod Drags coverage.
16th September: We are in place for coverage of the 2022 NSRA Hot Rod Drags. Coverage will take place on all three days of the event and consist of a live race report and end-day galleries from Julian and Diana. You will also be able to follow via Santa Pod's live stream and Nitro FM, see our coverage page for links to all the coverage, entry list and running order.

Thanks as ever to John Woolfe Racing for sponsoring our live coverage.

Points update.
16th September: The final FIA and FIM-E championship points for 2022 and Funny Car Cup points have been published and you can see them via our points standings page. Thanks to Andy Marrs for forwarding the link to FIA car points, to Job Heezen for the FIM-E bike points and to Chris Hobson for the Funny Car Cup points calculation.

Thanks also to Yvonne Tramm and sponsor Pete Walters for posting the latest Santa Pod UK National Championship points after the FIA/FIM-E European Finals. Again you can see them via our points standings page. We will be publishing our annual championship outcomes piece next week in the run-up to the STP National Finals.

Wild Bunch Hot Rod Drags preview.
16th September: Co-ordinator Claire Meaddows writes to let us know that the Springfield Direct-sponsored Wild Bunch are really looking forward to this weekend at Santa Pod for the 34th NSRA Hot Rod Drags where they have a fantastic total of 32 teams entered, the biggest race class at the event!

The entry is made up of longstanding regulars, returning drivers and a few newcomers! There will be a large variety of slingshots, altereds, dragsters and radicals, burnouts and the Cracklefest plus a celebration of all things Nostalgia! The Wild Bunch would like to congratulate the NSRA on their fantastic 50th Anniversary this year and thank them for all the hard work they have put in to the rodding scene, the sport of Drag Racing, and particularly the Nostalgia Nationals and Hot Rod Drags events, all still going strong!

Speaking of Golden Anniversaries, we have 2 teams celebrating the 50th Anniversary of their cars. Andy Jackson & Karen James and team will be running their unique “Hammerman II” sidewinder econorail rear engined dragster, fresh from some PB’s at Dragstalgia after a huge amount of hard work and perseverance by the whole team! James Auld’s “Little Fauss” rear-engined dragster is also 50 years old this year, and is still putting in great performances and running very competitively! Many Congratulations to both teams! Also celebrating a Golden Anniversary is Mick Gleadow, as this season sees 50 years since he raced the first ever “Motor Psycho” car! Congratulations Mick!

We welcome a few newcomers this weekend. Gavin Meanley will be driving the rarely seen Dean Butler-owned 1960’s slingshot, the “Charles Bang Special”. This car was the ‘D class’ record holder in 1965 in Cincinatti Ohio, with an ET of 10.32! We also have Dave Shoemark driving his brand new slingshot, making his Wild Bunch debut. Dave has crewed for many teams over the years, hence the apt name for his car “The Crewman”. Hopefully he will be instantly hooked and will bhis e soon enjoying his new role, as driver! Then we have Paul Brown joining us for the first time with his Brogie Roadster. Paul has had a great drag racing career so far, and is most recently known for driving the fantastic Santa Pod 2-seater rear engined dragster, taking passengers on the thrill of a lifetime!

This year is the club’s 26th full season and the Hot Rod Drags is our 6th event of the year. The competition this weekend will include Wild Bunch Series Round 4, Spirit of Nostalgia Challenge Series Round 7 and the third and final round of the Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series.


The Wild Bunch Series is currently led by Wild Bunch newcomer Dan Wilson in the “Antique Toy” slingshot (he had a win at Dragstalgia and was runner-up at the Mopars event). The next 3 teams are all on the same points, only being separated by amount of wins, seconds and thirds! In 2nd place is former Series winner Phil James in the “Rampage” funny car, 3rd place are current Wild Bunch champions Rob & Pete Brown in their awesome “Rebel” slingshot, and in 4th is James Auld in his “Little Fauss” dragster. This event is sure to see more close competition with a change in those top places!

The Roy Wilding Series is also led by Dan Wilson, with Rob & Pete in second place, James Auld in 3rd and Bob Morgan in 4th with the “B-Sting” altered. Any one of those could take the lead in this Series this weekend! (We will also be glad to see Roy running his slingshot this weekend, as he races in the Supercharged Outlaws! Best of luck Roy!).


Pete & Rob Brown (who share the driving of both their slingshots) currently lead the ‘Spirit of Nostalgia Challenge Series’ with their “Rebel” slingshot. Phil James is second, followed by Keith Crampton in 3rd with his groovy “Soultown Shaker” slingshot. Dan Wilson is in 4th place, a great performance for a newcomer. This Series encompasses all of the 4 lifestyle events we run at plus the 4 MSUK events, so it is a great all round challenge!

We would like to say a huge thanks to all the brilliant hard-working marshals and officials, track and safety crews, promoters, organisers, media, photographers, and the excellent eurodragster team! You are all stars! Thanks for helping us all do the racing we love and for sharing the stories!

This weekend we have some amazing bespoke trophies made by Elaine Southworth of coolengineeredart.co.uk so the lucky winners will be thrilled with these! With so many teams entered, the competition is bound to be really close, with some friendly rivalry thrown in, so we’re really looking forward to finding out the winners on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Thereafter our thoughts will return to our dear departed Queen, as our country, Commonwealth and many more unite on Monday to mourn our loss and celebrate the amazing life and service of our most gracious and noble of ladies. May Her Majesty Rest in Peace.

Further info can be found on www.the-wild-bunch.co.uk or see our Facebook group on ‘The Wild Bunch Nostalgia Drag Racing Club’.

See you at the drags!

Colin's Outlaw Anglia angst.
15th September: Thanks to Outlaw Anglia co-ordinator Colin Millar for sending in a "wee blog" about the trials and tribulations for the Flyin Fyfer Drag Racing Team after Dragstalgia.

Do you want to test your mental stability to the wire then why not become a drag racer?

Dragstalgia 2022 and we certainly never saw that coming, a six off the trailer, it didn’t even feel fast, just really smooth and I hardly had to navigate the car at all during the run, it took a long time to realise we had achieved something that at times we felt was maybe impossible, we ran hard all day Saturday and ended up damaging the motor so no eliminations for us on the Sunday.

Back home, the engine was removed and damage assessed. We had done a piston and unfortunately the crank was also to go in the bin. The Green Light Nationals were 4 weeks away, but more importantly Hockenheim was 5 weeks away, the entry was made, the ferry was booked, the carnet was in place and the holiday in Luxembourg was booked. We were so looking forward to the yearly adventure as we had so missed it the last two years.

The parts search was in full swing with no stone unturned as we contacted the world, and Scott Shafiroff, the main man himself, managed to find me two Diamond custom pistons when no one else could. Where he found them god only knows but he did and I was eternally grateful. The next big hurdle was the crankshaft; we drew a blank as Callies in the States said they had none. We were down in the dumps and it was looking like our season was over. Then the phone rang and Nick Davies said to me "Have you managed to find a crank?" I said "Nope, they have nothing in stock", "Give me today", said Nick and to his word he called back and he had managed to find a crank for me but it would be around two weeks. The season was back on yeeeeee haaaaa!

Two weeks to the day, and I received a call from Nick (thank you for all your help Nick), saying it had arrived and he would ship it overnight up to EDA so my engine builder Ian Whitworth could pick it up as he is only 20 minutes from Ben. And that’s the last time any of us saw the crankshaft, we still don’t where it is and maybe we never will, good old UPS!

This hit us really hard as we so wanted to go race, and I have to admit I was a grumpy old man as we quickly realised there was not going to be a Greenlight and even worse no Hockenheim for us; gutted is an understatement, I even refrained form going to the garage for a few nights which is completely out of character for me, my wee Lynn said just chill and put a plan in place for 2023 and come back stronger with time on your hands. I was just about accepting our destiny when an e-mail came in from Vincent Stephen Budano who is Scott Shafiroff's right hand man, I had already called him some weeks back but he also said he was waiting on back order crankshafts coming in, two had arrived. I immediately got on the blower to Vinny on Thursday 25th August and asked him if he could help. The crank was balanced that day and sent out the very next day and we received it three days later, wow, what a service from Shafiroff Race Engines, Vinny is also a racer and he understands, that’s the difference right there!

Maybe jumping the gun, as we were certainly not out the woods yet, we entered The European Finals, racing in Super Pro-ET, we just needed an engine, Ian picked up the crank and started the rebuild. This is one week before the Euros and disaster struck. We had the correct bearings for the original crank, but the new crank came in underground, we needed a complete set of oversize coated bearings and where the heck were we going to source them within a couple of days? Well, again between Ben Rushforth and Nick Davies, they both saved the day and we eventually got the bearings we needed to set the clearances correctly; time was really moving on and Ian Whitworth as always worked his socks off and we had a fully rebuilt engine by Monday with the Euros starting on the Thursday. A call to Ben and we were given a slot on the dyno (thankyou Ben). I tried to sleep Monday evening but was way too wound up, Lynn said at 2am for god's sake just get up and go, so I did, the engine was pulled out of Ian’s van and onto the Dyno it went, no hiccups and good numbers all round, a happy boy, got loaded and headed for home which was 5 hours away, arrived at 6pm and immediately started putting the engine back in.

During the week I had cleaned and located every part we needed, every spanner, every wrench was within reach on a table, I could not be more ready, I was not going to fail but I had a real sense of some huge obstacle was going to jump out in front of us and stop us in our tracks, thankfully that never happened.

Scotty Crookston was at hand every step that evening, and we got on very well, throwing the towel in at 1am home for a few hours, then back at it at 5am until we had a running car with everything checked to ensure we had a safe race car, I loaded up and Lynn had organised all the food and clothes and everything that she does to allow us to go racing, we left at 10am and we arrived at the signing on office at 17.57.

The lovely Kathy Taylor was just locking the door on the signing on office and Colin Theobald was standing and I could see him squirming a bit as he could see I was going to ask Kathy a question, Kathy its not six o’clock yet its three minutes to six, if a look could kill I was dead in the water but after a few well chosen words the lovely Kathy opened the door, switched on the lights and allowed me to sign on and get my scrutineering ticket so I could get sorted early in the morning (thankyou darling xx).

With Aaaron Springford at hand and my wee Lynn we went racing and after the first pass all the stress, money and hassle were long gone, was it all worth it, ABSOLUTELY!

It was for sure a very strange weekend with the loss of Jon and our glorious Queen and with the weather, it was certainly a battle to the bitter end but as always Santa Pod pulled it out of the bag and all the marshals did a fantastic job even when it looked futile.

The Flyin Fyfer was faultless and we done good in Super Pro-ET, they are a lovely bunch of racers and I was eventually put out by the class winner Brian Pateman, but a real close race which I so enjoyed, I really thought I had him at the stripe as I nosed in front, but broke out in the process.

We have now escaped for a wee holiday near St Neots to replace our Hockenheim trip and return to do battle on Friday for the up and coming Hot Rod Drags, it's looking really good with a strong field of 25 Outlaw Anglia’s so if you can come along to watch, please make the effort and we will as always put on a fantastic show for you, if you can't, then watch the superb quality on the live feed and all the details and links will be here on Eurodragster (we promise - Editor)

I said to my crew chief Aaaron Springford some time ago if I ever manage to run a six second quarter I would let him drive the car so I can't exactly go back on my word and secretly entered Aaron to run the car this Friday during the RWYB session, to say he is excited is an understatement, good luck Aaron.

Thankyou, God speed Jon and God speed the Queen.

See the outcome of the Outlaw Anglia championship at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags where Jedd Guy leads by one round of racing from Colin, and Rob Stone three rounds or so further back.


Robin Ortho's field trip.
15th September: Thanks to onboard video posted on Facebook we were able to have a ride with Competition Eliminator racer Robin Orthodoxou along the Santa Pod strip - and deep into the field. Robin was unhurt although the car needed a good clean and some engine damage was suffered. Robin said:

"Our team were so fortunate to be at Santa Pod this weekend. If you are mad enough to drive a drag car it gives you great confidence to know that you are in safest hands, all the way from scrutineering to the end of the run you know everything is about your own safety. On race-day I had a problem stopping and went into the field at speed; The response from the track crew and medics was amazing. Thanks to all at the Pod!"

Malta event this weekend.
15th September: This weekend at Hal Far Raceway in Malta, the third round of the MDRA 2022 Championship sponsored by Enemed takes place on 16th-18th September. The usual pre race run what ya brung took place on 3rd September and you can see videos of the runs taken by MDRA Secretary Konrad D'Anastasi at his Youtube channel.

There is a wide variety of vehicles running which you can see on the entry list at this link and you can see a video promo by clicking on this link.




Six fantastic drag car names.
15th September: Thanks to Robin Jackson for once again raising the profile of UK drag racing within the broader UK motorsport media. In the September 2022 issue of Revolution, the official magazine of Motorsport UK, Robin profiles six vehicles which will be immediately recognisable to drag racing fans but likely a mystery to circuit racing devotees.

To see which vehicles Robin has chosen for his selection of names, you can download Revolution free at this link (pdf format, go to page 32) or go directly to the online version at this link.

Also in today's Autosport magazine, available from all newsagents, you can read Robin's report on Pro Modified at the FIA/FIM-E European Finals (pictured).





Baimbridge's Triumph.
15th September: Further on from Top Fuel rider Steve Woolatt's appearance at a local bike show (see news on 11th August), Phil Baimbridge, the builder of his Dealer machine and current builder and owner of the unique 3 cylinder Rocket Top Fuel bike, made an appearance at the Butchered Classics Show near Tewkesbury on 3rd-4th September riding his 1976 3 cylinder Triumph Trident and was snapped by former Pro Stock Bike racer and photographer John Goodman to whom thanks.


Swift snippets.
15th September: Happy Birthday for today to Top Fuel Bike legend Ian King, Competition Bike racer and Nostalgia Funny Car crew member Philip Leamon, U.S. Fuel Altered racer Brian Hope who celebrates his half century and VW Pro racer Daniel Pigott. We hope you all have a wonderful day.

In his latest VeeDubRacing uploads, Simon Letkey focuses on five cars from VW Action, Petros Taxopoulos's Seat Ibiza, Markus Welte's Mk1 Golf, Dave Henderson's Audi RS3, Julian Hermann Beyer's Golf Mk2 and Richie (aka Richard Henry and Mr Ignition), Jet Car conductor for Martin Hill's Fireforce jets. You can see Simon's uploads, including behind the scenes footage, at his Youtube channel.

Gasser Circus Hot Rod Drags preview.
14th September: Many thanks to Gasser Circus co-ordinator Nick Brooke Langham who has sent us a preview of the class at this weekend's NSRA Hot Rod Drags:

As we head towards the NSRA Hot Rod Drags, the Gasser Circus Championship is still up for grabs, so who will take the opportunity from the 3 Gassers still left in contention. Currently sitting at number 1 Sean ‘Chili’ Milsom and his Ain’t Misbehavin Morris van, he is literally in the driving seat with 1660 points. Sat at number 2 is Ray Irish in his Gas Junkie Willys Pickup, he has the best chance to overhaul Sean, but to do this will have to go several rounds further than him to top up his 1550 points. That is entirely possible so Ray is not only ready but he can’t wait to begin the racing weekend. The other driver within the trio of possible Champions is Billy Jones and his Grumpy Grizz Willys Coupe with 1500 precious points. With only 110 between the top two and 160 points covering the top 3 it is entirely possible for any of the 3 brilliant drivers take the title and with it bragging rights all over winter.


It will be a nervous time for all of them as the run to the Championship will not be an easy one. That is because there are a whole host of other Gassers seeking their own event win. The supporting cast this coming weekend will include, Roarin Rat, Green Onions, Nogbad the Bad, Not so Mellow Yellow, The Mighty Mouse, Straight Shooter, Jumpin Jalapeno, Short Fuse, Cherry Bomb, Six 40, Honky Tonkin 2, The Tinseltown Hustler, Southern Flyed, and making its debut will be the ‘Outa Gas’ Ford Pop of Chris Layram.

Unfortunately, the Honky Tonkin 57 Chevy of Steve Mathews will not be in contention having discovered metal shards in an oil filter.

This weekend also marks the conclusion of at least two journeys with both The Tinseltown Hustler and Nogbad the Bad moving onto new owners after the race weekend. The bright green Pop of John Gumble and Tom Margesson making way for their new Austin Dorset Gasser which they will build over the winter. Nervous Nick says a fond farewell after 21 years to his Nogbad the Bad Austin Gasser, with the new owner bringing the car back to the Circus in 2023. Nick and his daughter Jungle Pat moving onto a new Gasser for next season.

Lee Pike has his Honky Tonkin 2 Chevy Nova up for grabs so this could also be the car's swansong with Lee at the wheel.

To see who comes out on top this coming weekend and walks off with the impressive trophy created by the Gasser Circus sponsor Neil Melliard, make sure you are at the Pod this weekend, this could be epic.

Current Gasser circus points can be seen by clicking here. You can also see our coverage page, with a printable entry list and running order, by clicking here.

EDRS Champions announced.
14th September: Following on from the announcement of the EDRS Pro Champions on 19th August, congratulations to the provisional points champions in the Summit Racing Equipment EDRS series run in Scandinavia by Speedgroup:

Top Doorslammer: Andreas Sjödin
Pro Street: Tommy Abrahamsson
Street: Lars Erik Persson
Super Pro ET: Mikael Nilsson
Pro ET: John Thidé
Super Comp: Mats Arntzen Wanvik
Super Gas: Annica Larsson
Super Street: Åke Törnqvist
Stock/Super Stock: Theodor Brandt
Junior Dragster: Almathea Granholm

Super Comp Bike: Peter Östlund
Super Gas Bike: Teodor Norling
Street Bike: Juha Eralahde
Junior Drag Bike: Jone Sokura

You can see the detailed points at www.dragracingeurope.eu.

Thanks to Lena Perés for publishing reports on the last two events of the EDRS season on www.dragracingeurope.eu. You can see her report on the races held last weekend at the Summit Racing EDRS Series Finals at Kauhava clicking here, and the Gardermoen Drag Finals by clicking here.

Chris O's Viper rodded.
14th September: If you saw the name Chris Orthodoxou on the Competition Eliminator entry list of the FIA/FIM-E European Finals but not the results you may be wondering what happened after his first run which was an off-form 7.1074/151.04.


Chris explained "I was DQ'd for not getting weighed on the way back to the pits after my qualifying run earlier. Well, I'm sure they would have loved me for driving through the weighing area with oil pouring out of my sump after a rod let go!

"Here are a few pics of the engine damage from Thursday, I took it apart today, it was biblical."

Commiserations to Chris on the damage and let's hope he can return to the track in 2023.



Rivanazzano Hills Race media.
14th September: The Hills Race took place at Rivanazzano Dragway, Italy last Saturday and Sunday. Media from the event can be seen at the following links:



Swift snippets.
14th September: Al and Linda Platt have written in to say "Congratulations to Rick and Mel Denny (Pro ET 731) who are currently tying the knot in New Jersey, all the best for the future". We at Eurodragster add our best wishes to Rick and Mel for a long and happy marriage.

Happy Birthday for today to Wild Bunch racer Paul Croston from Barry Bohannon and the B-Sting team, Nostalgia Funny Car racer Ricky Gowen, Supercharged Outlaw racer Steve Clarke, ET Bike racer Jayne Kay, Sportsman ET and VW Sportsman racer Rob Creswell and Nostalgia Superstock racer Vic Parsons. We hope that you all have a great day.

Photojournalist Remco Scheelings has posted two Euro Finals reports on the Dutch language site Autosport.nl (the Chrome browser can automatically translate). The first report concentrates on the FIA and FIM-E classes with Dutch sportsman racers and can be seen by clicking here. The second goes behind the scenes, with many snippets from the pits, and can be seen by clicking here.

Reports by photojournalists Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes can be seen on the Dragbike.com web site by clicking on this link..

Jon Morton.
13th September: We were shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the passing of former drag bike racer and four-times Super Gas champion Jon Morton on Thursday, following his last final in his aptly named No Hair Camaro.

We have setting up a tribute page in memory of Jon and would be pleased to receive tributes to him and pictures for publishing, send your words and photos to [email protected].

Thanks to British Drag Racing Hall of Fame director Robin Jackson for sending an appreciation of Jon:

Jon Morton didn’t mind telling you of his sheer, joyful surprise on learning of his selection for Membership of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame. So it is a sad, supreme irony that when 2022’s five new Members are inducted at the Gala Dinner on 12th November, Jon will be present in spirit alone. That he died doing something he so loved will offer some comfort, though scant consolation, to the family and friends he has left behind.

On behalf of all our Members, the directors of the Hall of Fame wish to offer our condolences and deep sympathy to those family members and friends. Jon’s profile and portrait, and what has now become an appreciation of his life in drag racing, may be found on the Hall of Fame website at this link.

Rest in peace, Jon.

Jon's stepson Dan Page has announced that he will be putting Jon’s race car on display at the National Finals and will next season be racing in Jon's name in Super Gas which title sponsors Tony Morris Carburetors have retitled as Jon Morton Super Gas. Dan adds: "It was an honour to be your crew chief and so glad you decided to give racing another go and so happy we got you one last win at Easter putting you top of the Super Gas wins, in a new car! God I miss him so much but I know he’ll be riding shotgun every 1/4 mile!"

FIA/FIM-E European Finals numbers.
13th September: Many thanks to Andy Marrs for sending an updated version of his European bests information following the FIA/FIM-E European Finals which you can see by going via our Euopean Bests page.

The records and quickest or fastest side by side runs at the event, all for FIM Europe drag bikes, are confirmed as follows:

FIM Europe records:
Top Fuel Bike speed: Rikard Gustafsson 252.25 / 405.96
Super Twin Bike speed: Marcus Christiansen 230.37 / 370.74

Side by side:
Super Twin Bike ET: Q2, Marcus Christiansen 6.2587 v Martijn de Haas 6.5050
Super Street Bike ET: Q2 Daniel Donat Lenses 6.7574 v Steve Venables 6.7030
Super Street Bike speed: Q2 Daniel Donat Lenses 220.37 / 354.65 v Steve Venables 224.41 / 361.15

Santa Pod Raceway track records:
Top Fuel Bike speed: Rikard Gustafsson 252.25
Super Twin Bike speed: Marcus Christiansen 230.37

FIM Europe Bike race report.
13th September: Photojournalist Mike Kraaij reports that teams from all over Europe came together at the FIA/FIM-E European Finals to battle for the event victory and the championship crown in the European Championship. Not all had been decided yet and the teams were eager to give it their all to win in their class.

Racers who had engine explosions at the Main Event returned rebuilt and were able to win their respective championships in Top Fuel Bike and Super Twin Bike. In other classes racers had suffered either engine failure or traction issues earlier in the season and the race was a chance for them to prove their performance advantage over the rest of the field, diminished in numbers by customs procedures which will hopefully be overcome before next year's championship gets under way.

You can read Mike's full account of the FIM Europe bikes at the European Finals with photos by clicking here. You can see Mike's other photos from Santa Pod Raceway on his Facebook page.

End of season for Tian Magnussen.
13th September: Thanks to Kim Johansen for sending a report on Junior Drag Bike racer Tian Magnussen's race at Gardermoen last weekend:

9 year old Tian Magnussen from Norway raced his Rune Fjeld Motorsport supported 125 cc motorcycle this weekend in the season finals of the Norwegian drag racing championship. The race was held at Gardermoen Raceway with 140 teams running for glory. The young boy who is not old enough to take part in the main junior bike class due to age restrictions, was ready to do his best and give the crowd some cheerful moments. Tian runs in the Junior Dragbike Recruit class, that means running 201 meters with a break-out on 12.0 seconds.


Like every race hosted in September up in the north there were some rain delays. But when Sunday came and the sun was shinning, the young lad made his mark with a new personal best ET of 12.16 and with that he could end his season on a high note, very proud of his own achivements.

Now he will retire his bike for this year, the bike is of course parked beside his bed in his room, and he is allready planning for more racing next year.

Picture credit: Kim Johansen. We will report on other classes at the Gardermoen Drag Finals tomorrow.

Swift snippets.
13th September: Happy Birthday for today to Pro Modifed racer, and welcome Euro Finals participant, Fredrik 'FastFreddy' Fagerström, Swedish Super Street Bike racer Mathias Bohlin and Swedish race official Oscar Lindgren. We hope all of you have had a great day.

There is a great Facebook album of photos of the FIA/FIM-E European Finals from MCT Photography (Kenzie Taylor), including top end shots of Steve Ashdown's Funny Car fire, which you can see by clicking here.

Video of the FIA/FIM-E European Finals has been posted by Kieran on his Mk1Kieran Youtube channel, including trackside footage of Eric Teboul's world record rocket bike pass which you can see by clicking here and 18 minutes of Pro Modified footage which you can see by clicking here.



2022 European Champions.
12th September: Congratulations to the 2022 European Champions, decided at the FIA/FIM-E European Finals with the exception of Marcus Christiansen and Hollie King who had respectively won FIM Europe Supertwin and Junior Drag Bike Cup after the NitrOlympX:

FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Antti Horto
FIA Top Methanol: Sandro Bellio
FIA Pro Modified: Jan Ericsson
FIA Pro Stock: Jimmy Ålund
Funny Car Cup: Steve Ashdown

FIM Europe Top Fuel Bike: Rikard Gustafsson
FIM Europe Supertwin: Marcus Christiansen
FIM Europe Pro Stock Bike: Martin Newbury
FIM Europe Super Street Bike: Daniel Donat Lences
FIM Europe Junior Drag Bike: Hollie King

FIA/FIM-E results.
12th September: Congratulations to the winners at the weekend's FIA/FIM-E European Finals held at Santa Pod Raceway:

FIA Top Fuel: Susanne Callin 3.8850/309.20 def. Antti Horto 4.1448/277.64
FIA Top Methanol: Sandro Bellio 5.5148/262.52 def. Jonny Lagg 5.6783/253.26
FIA/MSUK Pro Modified: Jan Ericsson 5.8185/245.15 def. Bobby Wallace 6.3691/232.85
FIA Pro Stock: Michael Malmgren 6.6154/206.28 def. Jimmy Ålund 6.6189/208.92
Funny Car Cup: Jason Phelps 9.3446/78.70 def. Steve Ashdown no-show
Nostalgia Funny Car Cannonball: Tim Garlick 6.45 def. Andy Raw 6.69
Track Worx Comp Eliminator: Nic Williams (11.40) 10.8546/117.10 def. Dan Williams (10.32) 9.7815/131.65
Fast R Super Comp: Richard Tunstall 8.9538/145.74 def.Paul Hudson 9.0342/159.05
Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas: Pete Creswell 9.9171/148.63 def. Dave Fulton 9.8953/130.16
Peter Nee Super Pro ET: Brian Pateman (8.34) 8.3620/157.36 def. Billy Gane (8.58) 8.5808/162.46
Modurstang Pro ET: Lee Huxley (9.48) 9.4924/140.25 def. Marc Huxley (10.18) 10.1680/128.05 (MOV 0.0288)
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: Andy Bond 7.5127/195.55 def. Tony Higgs 7.9534/174.37
Lucas Oil Junior Dragster: Luke Mugridge (8.14) 8.1757/76.54 def. Jess Bishop (8.10) 8.1157/78.41

FIM-E Top Fuel Bike: Rikard Gustafsson 5.935/250.99 def. Neil Midgley 6.2219/172.43
FIM-E Super Twin Top Fuel Bike: Marcus Christiansen 6.2112/230.37 def. Martijn de Haas 12.3764/70.83
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike: Bertrand Maurice 7.3552/175.73 def. Martin Bishop, broke
FIM-E Super Street Bike: Alan Morrison Jnr 6.8255/211.80 def. Jake Mechaell 6.9142/216.13
FIM-E Junior Drag Bike Cup: Meg Talbot (8.15) 8.2227/80.22 def. Hollie King (11.22) 11.3356/55.63

The event was held under some of the most difficult conditions we can remember. On the first day of racing Queen Elizabeth II passed away and the remainder of the event was held during a period of national mourning with Nitro FM subdued in tone. The racing community suffered a tremendous blow on the same day with the passing of Jon Morton who we will be publishing a tribute to in Tuesday's update and will be tremendously missed. Another issue which affected the event was the weather with rain on all three days of qualifying and then heavy fog on eliminations day which resulted in late running on Sunday. Despite all of these blows and on-track incidents, the officials, track staff and racers made tremendous efforts to ensure that racing was completed on Sunday.

Subject to official ratification the following records were set. Congratulations to:

FIM Europe Top Fuel Bike speed: 252.25, Rikard Gustafsson
FIM Europe Super Twin Bike speed: 230.37, Marcus Christiansen

Congratulations also to Rocket Bike pilot Eric Teboul who finished his career by setting two world records, 5.0681/263.52 on Saturday and a barrier breaking 4.9766/290.51 on Sunday.

We will bring you other records such as quickest side-by-sides once we have been through the official timing data.

Congratulations also to Pro ET racers Alfie Wratten and Andy Garnett who won the Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award and the Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supported by the Twister Race Team respectively. Both Awards have been reset to £50 for the STP UK National Finals. Congratulations also to FIM-E Junior Drag Bike Cup racers Hollie King and Anouk Burgering who won the Bob's Photo Finish Award of £50 each posted by sponsor and longtime Eurodragster.com supporter Bob Roberts. Hollie and Anouk's finish line margin was 0.0063 seconds or 5.87 inches.

You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored FIA/FIM European Finals reports, results, pit notes and galleries by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu at the top of the page. Please join Simon in thanking Julian and Diana for their hard work over the race weekend.

Wedding wishes.
10th September: Many thanks to Nigel Charman for letting us know that tomorrow (Tuesday), James Charman, driver of the Wheeldon and Charman Nostalgia Dragster and crew on the Two Much dragster is marrying Stacy Mills. Nigel says "The romantic honeymoon will be three days later at the Hot Rod drags with the Two Much dragster. Dad Nigel, Norm, Jo and family wish them all the best." We're sure the whole of the drag racing community send James and Stacy best wishes for their wedding day and for a long and happy future together.

Midgley looks forward to Euro Finals.
10th September: Following UK Top Fuel Bike rider Neil Midgley’s successful test session at the ACU UK Championship Greenlight Nationals, the Colchester based rider is looking forward to competing in anger at the weekend’s FIM European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway, England. Following riding position enhancements and a number of subtle streamlining adjustments Midgley has made steady progress in getting to grips of the multi-championship winning Puma Engineering constructed machine currently operated under the King Racing & Cannon Motorsports collaboration.

Midgley ran a string of eighth mile times in the 3.9 second zones and a best of 6.10 over the quarter mile with a soft tune and `lazy’ clutch and felt at ease with the control.


Although Midgley is not in the running for the 2022 FIM European Championship crown, his competitive presence amongst his fellow Puma powered Top Fuel bikes of Sweden’s Rikard Gustafsson and Rene van den Berg of the Netherlands who are both in contention bodes well for an exciting Championship Finale.

The 2022 FIM European Dragbike Championship finals are to be held on the 9th – 11th September at Santa Pod Raceway, England. Details of the event can be found at this link. Free live streaming of the event and up to the minute news and data can be found on Eurodragster by clicking here.

Pictures courtesy of Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes. The team are proud to be supported in their world class performances by their blue-chip partners:
APE - The world’s most innovative manufacturer of aftermarket parts for race bikes;
COMETIC GASKETS - The Premier Manufacturer of racing gaskets;
GATES - The world’s most trusted name in drive belts, hoses, and hydraulics;
GOODRIDGE - The most innovative and the best in fluid transfer systems;
JE PISTONS - The world's premier manufacturer of high-performance forged pistons;
KIBBLEWHITE PRECISION MACHINING - The highest quality valve train components available;
LUCAS OIL PRODUCTS INC – High performance engine & gear oils second to none in the racing industry;
MRE - Leaders in trackside support for drag race components and air shifting systems;
MTC ENGINEERING - Manufacturer of clutches for the fastest motorcycles in the world;
NGK SPARKPLUGS UK – The world’s number one spark plug manufacturer;
PAR WILLEN – Master webmaster and proprietor of HarleyDrags.com;
PRO ALLOY MOTORSPORT - The UK’s leading fabricator of alloy tanks, intercoolers, and radiators;
VANSON LEATHERS - The most iconic brand in motorsport leather goods;
WEB CAMSHAFTS INC - Simply THE company for Top Fuel Bike camshafts;
WORLDWIDE BEARINGS - The world’s leading supplier of ceramic bearings for racing; and
ZODIAC - Europe’s largest supplier of performance and aftermarket HD parts.

FIA/FIM-E European Finals coverage.
7th September: We will be in place at Santa Pod Raceway from Wednesday 7th to Sunday 11th September to cover the FIA/FIM-E European Finals. Coverage sponsored by John Woolfe Racing can be seen via the event index at this link together with a direct link on our front page.

The live report will include numerous snippets on the teams and be accompanied by on track and pit pictures courtesy Julian and Diana. You will also be able to see a live stream supplied by Santa Pod Raceway at the usual links or via the event index.

Racing for Sienna.
7th September: After just two days away Luke Stevenson will head back to Santa Pod after commentating at VW Action; he will be swapping the microphone for the steering wheel as he will be back racing in Comp Eliminator at the FIA/FIM-E European Finals.

Luke says “I am excited to host our sponsors Hoot Recruit, a Northamptonshire based recruitment company with a national reach. From SME’s to global blue-chip organisations, their expertise cover most bases including HR, IT, Logistics, Commercial/Administration, Finance, Legal, Sales and Retail. If you have positions to fill contact Dan at [email protected].

"Dan will be treating his staff to a day at the Drags so I’ll be looking to do the best job I can even though I’ve got my work cut out just to reach my index of 7.52.

"Going back to what I’m mostly known for and that’s doing the track announcing at Santa Pod, back in august at USC a lad by the name of Jack Gibson popped into the tower to explain his group's message on their cars taking part in the RWYB, #siennagibsonsmatype1journey.

"From there I thought where I cannot help out massively financially, I can use my position to shout out and using the Dragster as a poster I can help spread awareness for someone in need.

"He told me about his daughter Sienna who was born with SMA type one (spinal muscular atrophy). Type 1 is the severest form of SMA in babies 0-6 months, the possibility of sienna ever been able to walk or crawl is slim and there can be a life expectancy of 24 months for children untreated.

Thankfully she is being treated by our wonderful NHS and received the Zolgensma treatment which if 100% successful can result in giving sienna a normal happy life with the chance of being able to walk and being able to sit up unaided.

"Unfortunately the hospital is not local to Jack and Sian so they are having to stay in hotels locally and obviously this is forcing them to have time away from work.

"They have a Go Fund Me at the link below which is going towards these costs and if you can help in anyway please do. For more information you can read Sienna's full story via this link or follow on Instagram #siennagibsonsmatype1journey or to donate anything you can click the link below or scan the QR code that will be on the Dragster this weekend."

Luke also reminds us that next weekend is the penultimate MDRA Round at Hal-Far in Malta where he will be heading out once again to catch up with the racers before the big end of year Finals in November. The MDRA Finals has recently become the annual end of year gathering for all European Drag racers and fans seeking sun and race fuel one more time before the year ends.

Julie wins Indy.
6th September: Expat Norwegian racer Julie Nataas had a remarkable U.S. Nationals. Over the five days that she competed she won the Jegs All Star competition for the second time and on Monday followed it up by winning the Top Alcohol Dragster title for Randy Meyer Racing, the first time that she and the team won both titles, and only the second time a European has won a U.S. Nationals title.

Over the last busy month which started with the rain out of the Chicago Route 66 Raceway Division 3 event, Julie has raced at four different races with two event wins. Following the Chicago event, Julie went to the National event at Heartland Motorsports Park, Topeka on 14th August, and pitted alongside team mate Travis Shumake, son of the late NHRA Funny Car driver Tripp Shumake. Julie won the event on a holeshot from Mike Coughlin.

The following two weekends were not as successful, Julie going out to Shawn Cowie in round one with a 0.008 red light at Brainerd's National event on 21st August. Then at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at Bowling Green Kentucky, Julie qualified #1 but had another red light, -0.036 against Jasmine Salinas.


At Indy, Julie had a new team mate, Hunter Green, son of current NHRA Funny Car driver Chad Green. She also had the additional competition of the JEGS All Stars, a points-based race-within-a-race to win $7,000. The first round of the JEGS All Stars was also the third session of qualifying and Julie raised her game to 5.151/283.19 against James Stevens, then defeating Casey Grisel in round 2 with 5.185/279.90 and in the final round won against the supercharged car of Joey Severance, getting the win despite bad shake causing the body panels to come off the speeding dragster.

Randy Meyer and the team immediately got into action, calling on Randy's daughter Megan to bring the spare body for the dragster to Indy overnight from Kansas City. In eliminations Julie defeated Steve Collier with a 5.204/279.44, a perfect-lighting Tom Fox Jr. with a 5.192/280.14, Joey Severance with 5.240/278.75 and Mike Coughlin in the final with 5.237/277.15 for her fourth National event Wally and her second in a month.

We send congratulations to Julie and hope to see her in the winners' circle again in the rest of the NHRA season.

7.60 Heads Up - this stuff isn't easy.
6th September: Thanks to Paul Marston for sending in a review of his weekend in the inaugural 7.60 Heads Up competition organized by Jeff and Belinda Bull and held at the STP Greenlight Nationals at SPR.

From our perspective, it gave a reason and a deadline to bring out the PT Bruiser, although she was not fast enough to compete per se. These initiatives need support, so that the powers that be can see that, if instigated, there are teams that would participate and support it in future years.

The mindset for doorslammers that are running this quick is different to that of bracket racing. With bracket racing, you are after consistency, it's what we all usually do. But a class like this is different, make no bones about it, 7.60 seconds in a door car is very fast indeed. You need in excess of 1100+ hp with a light and efficient racecar to run that number. You also need a good experienced driver, a well-tuned car, both in motor output and chassis setup, also last but no means least a good crew.

What most people don’t see is the challenges that a team has to overcome when leaning on things real hard. Drag racing, like most forms of motorsport, has its highs and lows. This is how our weekend went.

The PT Bruiser has not been at Santa Pod since 2015, it was ready to go but just hasn’t been used for a variety of reasons. The car was recommissioned, fired up and a full systems check prior to coming to the track.

We arrived Friday early to run her at the test day, unloaded and set up our pit area. The PT runs injected methanol with an all ally 540CI Big Block Chevy, built by Gary Springford at Drag Race Engineering about 8 years ago, dyno’d around 900hp, 2 speed Glide transmission, she also runs a Primer Plus petrol injection system. This is for warming the motor up, methanol burns so cold that you need the petrol system to get heat into the motor. The petrol system is quite a basic system and can be a little quirky sometimes, but once you have it started its usually okay. Add to that the fact that being an ally motor complete, you have to set the valvelash at nearly zero and when heated the lash gap grows a lot in engineering terms. Have you followed me so far?

We got her fired up and running, only to find that the alcohol fuel return line had sprung a leak, not a terrible one but bad enough. So we shut off and then had to go find some replacement pipe, we had fittings but no braided hose. Pel Norman with the Shogun Capri came to the rescue and gave me some hose, a lot of teams help one another out like this, thank you Pel. Whilst that was going on I cleaned out the injectors, lines and jets again. So crewman Elliotte Pearson made up the new pipe and once installed we were up and running. So we got signed on and went up for our first run.

First Run, 1.00pm, motor temp okay, around 150 on the startline, good long rolling burnout. Launch and a planned click off way before the 1/8th after changing into 2nd gear. Could have stayed with it but that was what we planned. We reviewed the video of the run and decided we needed to firm up the rear a little as she was burying the tyres.

Changed the rear shocks to 50/50 +1 click hard, upped the rear tyre press from 7-8lbs. Second Run 2.30pm, motor temp about the same, The burnout was a bit lacklustre, which, at the time I figured could have been the track or me not using enough right foot, but it was short. Up to the line, put her on the chip (4200rpm launch control/transbrake) when I let go the button she was relatively a slug off off the line, also she spun a little, drove it to a full pass, nothing special. I got flagged down by the top end crew to click her off. Upon checking, there was oil all the way down the drivers side wing and the door, not a good sign.

I called the crew and got towed back by Jay and Elliotte, we got no timing ticket as they had an issue with the timing system, but I didn’t need the ticket, I knew we had problems. The car left so slow, my first thoughts were that we had rolled the sprag in the convertor. The sprag is a one-way bearing that is integral to the convertor working. I called my mate Tony Morris and asked whats the best way to check it. Tony said "Do a stall test with no launch chip to make sure the convertor locks up properly". Once the guys had cleaned up the oil and suspected the rocker cover gasket had leaked, we replaced the gaskets with new ones and were ready. The stall test only went to 4300rpm, which indicated a broken torque convertor.

I had already called Gary Springford at DRE, he said he would pick one out and would meet us back at the shop that night if needed. (That is what good mates do for their friends). I fired the motor up again just to make sure the motor would actually rev to 6000rpm out of gear. It didn’t, then seemed to clear itself and reved no problem. So I chipped it again and it hit 6000 on the transbrake no problem, I did it again and it repeated. Looks like its fuel injection related and not the convertor.

So for what is now the third time I stripped the fuel system and cleaned her out again. By the time we are all done (4.50pm) the lanes are about to close, so we get all ready for tomorrow.

Saturday
First job, get scrutineered, done, then breakfast, courtesy of Elliotte, then ready for first round.

First qualifier, good burnout, good motor temperature, good run, felt a tad slow, run was 8.40 @156 mph, 1.29 60FT. Again told to shut off by the top end crew, this time its real bad, A LOT of oil all down the side of the car, the undertray has oil in it too.(thank you Bill at Comanche Racecars for fabricating it, it probably prevented the oil leak from putting the car in the wall). Got towed back from the top end again by Jay and Elliotte. So it wasn’t the rocker cover gasket after all. Upon close inspection it became clear that the vac pump which usually draws excess moisture from the motor had pulled oil instead and once it filled its tank it puked the rest all over the car, the whole side of the car was covered from front to back, in a word, we were lucky.

We now had to work out what caused it. I got out the leakdown tester to check out the individual cylinders for compression, if we had lost one or two, or pulled the piston rings out of it on all of them, it would explain the problem. There was also the issue of this being an aftermarket block, it oils different to a factory big block. I called Gary Springford at DRE who as I mentioned earlier, built the motor, to get his take on it, as you can use oil restrictors to keep the oil at the top of the engine more controlled. Gary assured me that the block has internal restrictors so it should be okay in that department.

I leaked it down and compression checked it as well, all was well. So we decided to oil change it and see how much was left in it. Well it still had more in it than was recommended, but with no dipstick or sight glass, without draining it, you just don’t know. We were 2¼ litres over, so we refilled her to exactly what she should hold and also drained the Accusump and replaced what was in it.

We missed due to working on car. Before Q3 we changed the tyres to 7.5 lbs, took rear shocks back 3 clicks softer. The third qualifier was at 5.00pm – motor temp a little cold 140 deg, good burnout, nice and straight, launched her 4200 rpm launch, good run, watched the oil pressure in the shutdown and clicked her off on the ignition when it dropped to 40lb oil press and coasted round. Got out, checked for oil, no oil, so fired her back up and drove back to the pits. She ran 1.19 60ft and 8.29 @159 mph. The loss of oil pressure is very common on most racecars as the huge deceleration hampers the oil returning to the sump.

Turned car around, no problems, refueled, battery topped up, tyres set, ready to go. Changes: raised launch chip from 4200rpm to 6000rpm. Fourth Qualifier – 7.30pm, motor temp okay, good burnout, nice and straight, the launch was pretty ferocious, she settled down, good pass, clicked her again in shutdown and coasted off. Checked under car, no oil so fired up and drove back. She went 1.14 60ft (Best Ever) 8.20 @ 161mph, we moved up to be qualified 9th out of 11. Yes, the front wheels were pretty high, yes, it got my attention, but a good way to finish the day.

Sunday - eliminations day. I wasn’t sure but I suspected that we had Belinda Bull, who unfortunately had broke. As I said right from the get go, I was purely making up the numbers to show support for the class, currently we don’t compete in a class that necessitates running in the seven second zone. We went through all our usual morning prep of the motor, get the oil pressure up and check the valve lash, I like to always do the lash cold. Then fire her up, having all the usual problems with trying to get her to start and run on the Primer Plus petrol system. The combination of a lot of cam overlap, virtually no valvelash gap and a quite primitive fuel system makes it challenging.

All checked out well and eventually we got called. The plan for this pass was leave everything the same and just see if she repeated the 60ft and ET. It’s a bit difficult to get heat in this motor and keep it there, due to the block being ally it loses heat fast, plus you have to rely on the Primer Plus petrol system to warm the engine up. If you switch over the alcohol the engine, at idle actually gets colder.

The pass was a good one, a bye run due to Belinda being broke, no drama, nice and straight. I clicked her off just thru the finishline and coasted to a stop in the collection area just off the end of the track. I got out and checked for oil and she was dry as a bone so I fired her up and drove back to the pits. She went 1.15 60ft and ran 8.19 @162mph.

We turned her round and awaited our call for the quarter finals, we had the no.1 Qualifier David Smith with that beautiful Powerflow Exhausts sponsored Jaguar in this round. Once called, we made our way into the staging lanes, David had got loose on his first round bye, so we had lane choice. We then sat for quite a while due to the unfortunate Billy Everitt crash.

We never really had a chance against Dave if he made a clean pass, which he did. I managed to get a little more heat into the motor and we made our best pass to date with this combo, we ran 8.16 @163mph, naturally Dave won and then went on to win the event. Congratulations to Dave Smith, crew chief Matt Wright and his whole team, well deserved.

Many thanks to my crew, Sam Jay and Elliotte, as I said before, this stuff isn’t easy, it was a lot of very hard work, three complete rolls of blue paper and a gallon of brake cleaner!

The 7.60 Heads Up class was the brainchild of Jeff and Belinda Bull, it had a real mix of quality cars, some of which came out specially to participate. Thank you for the opportunity.

Trackside photo courtesy Callum Pudge for Santa Pod Raceway.

Super Twin Top Gas champion crowned.
6th September: Congratulations to Jorg Lymant from Germany (pictured) who has won the 2022 Super Twin Top Gas Europe championship after six events around the continent. As STTG President Mike Kraaij reports, Jorg was leading the championship after four races, attending each round.

Round 5 was at Hockemheim at the NitrOlympX and Jorg added to his points lead by setting and backing up a new records of 7.360 and 286.20 on his way to winning the event. Meanwhile Gerd Caspari had run 7.275/298.43 but was unable to back it up for a record.

For the first time since 2019 the Mosten Raceday returned and with it an increased participation comprising 14 teams. Jorg Lymant was again the winner, and it was good to see that Mosten MC sponsored the class who recognised it by making donations to the club.

You can read Mike's full account of the class at the NitrOlympX and Mosten Race Day with photos by clicking here.

You can see Mike's other photos from Mosten Raceday in his Facebook post.

Swift snippets.
6th September: Happy Birthday for today to Supercharged Outlaws team member Martin 'The Duck' Hill, also to Pro Stock Bike legend George Bryce, we hope that you have a brilliant day Martin and George.

In case you are looking for a Willys Pro Modified car to run next year there are two examples up for sale in our Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored Swap Meet, the Bobby Wallace car and Rick Garrett machine are both for sale as rolling chassis. Click on the link to find more details, and as there is no price quoted for either there is a deal to be done.

Talking of Pro Mods, site sponsor and Pro Mod racer John Tebenham has revealed the design of poster he has printed for sale in his pit this weekend, along with "Johnny Bee Good" t-shirts. JT says "I am absolutely going to try to win with both cars. Come and see us."

FIA/FIM-E Prize giving banquet.
5th September: Thanks to Santa Pod Raceway Commercial Manager Caroline Holden for sending details of the FIA/FIM-E Championship Prize Giving taking place this Sunday 11th September after racing at the European Finals, the first time it has been held in three years.

Winners, second & third place FIA/FIM-E Championship teams are invited to celebrate with their team and collect their trophies at this free event. Each team finishing in the top three championship positions for all FIA/FIM-E classes, will each be given a table for 10 guests/wristbands to attend the event. Teams unable or not wishing to attend the prize giving banquet may donate their tickets to other FIA/FIM-E Championship teams if they wish.

The prize giving will take place in the VIP Hospitality Village. Doors are open from 8pm and food is available from 8.30pm, with all drinks at half price. The evening will be open to all teams after 10pm (or after presentations whichever is earlier) with bar and disco open till late! You can download the event invitation by clicking on this link.

Santa Pod Raceway and Trakbak Racing wish all riders and drivers good luck this weekend!

Racer grandstand access – Friday 9th September.
5th September: Thanks to Santa Pod Raceway Marketing & Communication executive Donna Finnegan for sending two notices regarding racer grandstand access this coming Friday at SPR.

Racers and crew members are welcome to watch the Friday Evening Nitro session from the main Grandstand free of charge at the forthcoming FIA/FIM European Finals. Free entry will be permitted from 6pm (Fri 9th Sept only) with access through gate number 81 – 110. A racer ticket or startline pass will need to be shown to the grandstand steward before entering.

N.B We also politely remind you that the Grandstand operates a strict NO SMOKING/VAPING policy. Anyone found smoking in the grandstand will be asked to leave.

Half Price Grandstand Seats
If racers wish to access the grandstand before 6pm on Friday, they can purchase half price grandstand tickets directly from the grandstand ticket kiosk. This offer is strictly for teams entered in to the European Finals. Tickets can be purchased by each crew member at the grandstand kiosk at the event. Please note that the grandstand is SOLD OUT for Saturday and Sunday.

Each crew member must show their barcoded racer admission ticket (not the start line crew pass) at the time of purchase. One racer ticket entitles the holder to one half price grandstand seat. All seats purchased will be subject to availability at the time of purchase. Disputes will not be entered into.

VW Action report.
5th September: Congratulations to the winners of the Saturday Night Shootout at VW Action held at Santa Pod Raceway over the weekend:

 Class A (RWD)
1st 9.4940/147.60 Danny Pike (VW Type 3 Notchback)
2nd 10.0896/141.14 Mark Elt
3rd 10.2726/127.36 André Nahler
4th 10.5439/110.15 Walter de Vette
5th 10.5817/129.88 Ian Shorrock

Class B (Vans)
1st 12.6082/112.49 Jake Tipping (VW Caddy)
2nd 12.7173/107.17 Simon Fogle Knief (VW Type 2 splitty)

Class C (AWD and FWD)
1st 8.2650/175.08 Markus Welte (picture: top right)
2nd 8.9264/156.33 David Henderson
3rd 9.5882/161.34 Petros Taxopoulos (picture: right)
4th 9.9841/140.75 Mike Whittaker
5th 10.0378/136.46 Chris Waterhouse

Class D (Alternative engine)
1st 14.3846/89.43 Phil Swell
2nd 14.4484/94.30 Michelle Carnegie Wallington

Thanks to Julian and Diana for supplying photos for galleries over the weekend at VW Action which you can see by clicking here. Coverage is sponsored by John Woolfe Racing. Photos of winners from the Saturday Night Shootout are included at the foot of the gallery.

New personal bests were set on both Saturday and a much quieter Sunday, the quicker cars nevertheless running on both days. There were four visitors from Europe all of whom were contenders for raising their position in European league tables which you can see at drdb.eu.


Quickest of the European visitors was Markus Welte from Germany who recorded a new PB (not backed up within 1%) of 8.0281/177.81 in his AWD Golf on Saturday afternoon (previous best: 8.251/177.81). Julian Hermann Bayer (picture: above left) ran a 8.2467/169.81 in his AWD Golf which was backed up (previous best: 8.506/168.26); Thorsten Middendorf (picture: above right) ran a best of 8.4264/167.32 in his FWD Golf (PB: 8.254/173.05). From Greece, Petros Taxopoulos in his FWD Seat Ibiza ran a backed-up best of 8.5120/163.08 (previous best: 8.777/160.76).

There were stars from the UK as well, with Audi RS3 racer David Henderson breaking into the eights for the first time with a best on Sunday of 8.8622/157.38. Jake Tipping's 12.16 and Simon Knief's 12.71 were both PBs as was Graham Fairhead's 10.921/124.08.

In addition to the VWs on site there was a select showing from the Supercharged Outlaws with Gary Parkes running his event best of 7.6384/180.65 and Keith Freeman 9.5013/142.47 both on Sunday morning. Mark Windridge had an outing in the Grim Reaper 23T altered and refamiliarised himself after four years out with a 9.810 pass in the absence of son Aaron whose work shifts clashed with the event.

As well as a plethora of air-cooled and water cooled VAG cars, Outlaw Street and Taz Racing were the other elements of the event on track. 14 from Outlaw Street were headed by Sally Woolner's Camaro (8.3057/163.07) and Russ Pursley in his Dutton (8.7724/152.15) with Dave Mahoney recording a 8.9529/147.61 in his Camaro. Taz Racing had seven cars with Brian Nixon (105e) the quickest at 9.0581/148.16, with Dave Arnold's '77 Pontiac Firebird at 9.5626/138.55 and Chris Skinner at 9.5991/144.39.

As well as our galleries you can see Santa Pod Raceway's own Facebook album at this link.

FIA/FIM-E Euro Finals Perfect Awards.
5th September: £250 is up for grabs at this weekend's FIA/FIM-E Euro Finals courtesy of Eurodragster.com and our sponsors.

This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been increased to £100 after it went unclaimed at the STP Greenlight 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 Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET racer Stef Pateman at the STP Greenlight 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 BeFastR Super Comp, Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas, Peter Nee Super Pro ET, ModUrStang Pro ET, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster 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.

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 race of eliminations at this weekend's event. At the STP Greenlight Nationals the Award was won by VW Sportsman racers Rhys Finney and Phil James.

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.

A bag of sand.
5th September: Thanks to site sponsor and Pro Modified racer John Tebenham for emphasising his objectives at the FIA/FIM-E Euro Finals next weekend:

As Mark Bowser (Balzaretti - Editor) thinks they have a fast race car, crewing for The Pro Mod Guru Andy Robinson, he is under some belief they are going to beat me.

As a gambling man I have put a bag of sand (a grand) up to win it. We are all going all out to try to win the Finals, 16 of the best pro mods in Europe are going to try to win. I just hope we don’t meet Andy in the rounds.

(Click on picture) We will also be trying to do more of these at the finals, .01 lights on 5 second passes.

We also still have brand new slicks on the Burnout King Pop. Bring a camera.

Snake Eyes at Euros.
5th September: Thanks to Andy Clifford for a preview of the Snake Eyes Super Comp/Wild Bunch team in preparation for this weekend’s Euro Finals.

This coming weekend the Snake Eyes team are excited and proud to have the support of local Southampton business “Leaf Nothing Behind” who specialise in the sale of plastic-free and zero-waste products.

Business owner Rach will be on hand all weekend to offer helpful tips and advice on how to make small adaptations in our lives which can add up to BIG changes. There will be a few sample products on hand which offer a small snapshot of what the company is about.

So please stop by the Super Comp pits and say hi. In the meantime if anyone is interested in learning more please check out the website www.leafnothingbehind.co.uk.

Introducing dragladders.com.
5th September: Thanks to Pro ET crew member Richard Bell for sharing a new free elimination ladders web app with us:

Over the past couple of months in my spare time I've been building a web app dragladders.com that helps with creating elimination ladders from first round to winner. I've no idea if anyone else will find this tool useful. The only way I am going to find out is to enable access to everyone.

In order to save and share ladders you need to sign up for an account. Once registered and approved you'll be restricted to managing 5 ladders. Depending on interest I may add further features in the future. Fingers crossed at least one other finds it helpful and that it works!

Currently the maximum number of entries is 64 as this is all the information I can find. My original aim was to figure out how to calculate any number of entries - though I failed to figure this out. I think it needs someone with more brain power than me - so if anyone can shed any light on how first round pairings are distributed, I'd be grateful. I may also look at adding USA ladders in future as I believe these are different to those used in Europe – again if anyone knows let me know!

Swift snippets.
5th September: Happy Birthday for today to Pro Modified racer Wayne Nicholson, doorslammer racer and Pro Mod crew member Tony Underhill, former Supertwin racer Brian Udall, from Malta sport compact racer Clint Fenech and German Pro ET racer Robert Willinger of 66 Nova Racing. Have a great day all.

Thanks to photojournalist Remco Scheelings for publishing a preview of the FIA classes at the FIA/FIM-E European Finals being held at Santa Pod Raceway from 8th-11th September which you can see at www.dragracingeurope.eu.

Heaven & Hell Racing season recap.
4th September: Many thanks to Stock/Super Stock racer Carla Pittau for sending in a season recap for her and husband Rick McCann for whom 2022 had its ups and downs.

The 2022 season comprised highs (literally!) and lows (literally!) for the Heaven & Hell Racing team. The highs were, as always, a mixture of achievements and a bit of good fortune, but at times they got a little too high and came crashing down, causing the lows. And here, sadly, we are not really speaking figuratively.

After the Summit Racing EDRS Nationals at Tierp, which saw my starter motor and Rick’s water pump give up the ghost, our next race was the Mid Sweden Nationals in Sundsvall. Sundsvall Raceway is located at the top of a steep hill, at quite high altitude, and it’s reachable via a tortuous unmade road with a frightening inclination if you happen to be towing your heavy race car in a heavy trailer with your 1997 Winnebago. However, once you reach the summit, you are presented with a nice, asphalted road leading to a fast racetrack. The facility is mainly run by volunteers, and a consortium of racers owns it, having purchased it from the military after it was dismissed as a secret air base during the cold war (let’s hope it is not needed again for a hotter one in the near future!) and it is managed as a non-profit entity, with any surplus going back into improving the infrastructure. It is a friendly, helpful, and cheerful place in which we love to race.

Qualifying is always a bit of a trying time for team Heaven & Hell, as the relative positions of the two drivers normally mean that they will be on the same side of the ladder, meeting in the first or second round. This time, after the first 9 (!) qualifiers, we were sad to see that we would meet in the second round, should we both be lucky enough to get there, but it got much worse when we realised that one of the racers had changed class not to meet another heads up in the first round, and the qualifying list changed, so Rick and I would meet in the first round instead. This, of course, should not have been allowed after qualifying started, but it turns out that nobody knew, including us, so we resigned ourselves to our fate and met in the first round. Here, Rick responded with a 0.01 to my 0.03 and my bad dial-in did the rest, giving the win to the blue Camaro and putting the red one on the trailer.

 The bad news stopped there, however. In the second round Rick met Theodor Brandt in the lovely white G/SA Nova, normally quick on the lights but this time a bit too quick with a red light, so Rick progressed with his yet respectable 0.07 to the third round. Here he met no. 2 qualifier Jonas Bengtsson, driver of the first stocker in the 9s, a wheelstanding blue ’69 Camaro in the B/SA class, where both drivers pulled a cherry, but a stroke of luck allowed the two red lights to go in Rick’s favour, as Jonas redlit first with a so close -0.009, so Rick got to the final to meet Anders Lindh. Anders drives a beautiful ’67 GTO in GT/FA, and this car is one of Rick’s favourites. Anders did get away first with a 0.05 to Rick’s 0.08, but span his tyres and allowed Rick to lift and brake at the top end, giving him the win. The Mid Sweden Nationals were in the bag. This was Rick’s first win since 2018, when he won two back-to-back events, the Tierp Internationals and the Nitro Nationals. However, even with the pandemic in between, which meant no driving in 2020 or most of 2021, it had seemed like a long time.

Still trying to solve fuel issues with his new combo, to try and get the horsepower out of the box into which it seemed to be imprisoned for ever, we were ready for the EDRS Summit Internationals at Tierp. Here we were to be assisted by old friend, legend and chief calmer downer Peter Lane, who flew in from the UK with his partner Ruth to crew for us. We were also advised by good friend Mankan, Thomas Strand’s crew chief, who helped us tune an old carburettor, which seemed to wake up the dragon in the engine.


Despite this, or because of it, Rick’s qualifying didn’t go so well, and we were horrified to witness his car going straight up on the launch, then leaning right and crossing to the other lane. Twice. Nothing we did seemed to stop it. Tightening the front shocks, once an easy way to control the height of the wheelies, did absolutely nothing. Adding weight to the front didn’t work. Working on the four link finally seemed to do the trick, only for the dragon to raise its ugly head again in the fourth round of eliminations.

Rick and I, respectively no. 11 and no. 25 qualifiers, were relieved to see that we were on opposite sides of the ladder, for once, and hoped… We had to survive not one, not two, but three elimination rounds on the Saturday, just to be rewarded with racing on race day.

First round gave a bye to Rick, as Peter Lindberg, at the wheel of a SS/DA ’70 Hemi Cuda, (as well as builder of Rick’s cylinder heads), had transmission issues and was a no show. I also advanced by defeating a breaking out silver E/SA Mustang driven by Bo Nylund, winner of the first Tierp meeting. The second round saw Rick compete against Lars Johansson, driver of a J/SA yellow Nova. A double breakout went in Rick’s favour, whilst I progressed again by doing the unthinkable and defeating no. 2 qualifier and good friend Thomas Strand, driver of the lovely ’70 B/SA white Firebird by pulling (let’s be honest) the only good light of the meeting, an 0.010, which gave her the win on the brakes despite Thomas’ dead-on ET.

One more round, then we could race on race day! I had it easy with a bye, Rick had it tough by meeting Erik Phersson, driver of a gorgeous ’64 Plymouth Sports Fury in H/SA and a killer on the lights. Erik did chop the tree, as expected, pulling a 0.0009, unmatched by Rick’s still respectable 0.046, but here Rick’s bracket racing experience came to the rescue, with a dead-on 9.801 against Erik’s 11.381 on his 11.32 dial in, letting him cross the finish line 2 hundredths of a second ahead to get the win. Beer o’clock! We can now race on Sunday!

Sunday came, and we were very hopeful. Rick was to meet another tree chopper, Anders Hållén, driver of a ’93 Firebird in C/S. Sadly for team Heaven & Hell, our hopes came crashing down this time, with the car again going straight up, turning right, and invading the opponent’s lane. I saw all this, my heart in my mouth, waiting for my burnout, and proceeded to pull a red light against Markus Svensson in the orange F/S Dodge, who in his turn pulled a 0.007 just to make sure. Markus had been driving superbly all weekend and fully deserved to win, and he did, including the final against Anders Hållén, but the Heaven & Hell team was going home, with more problems to solve.

Back at the workshop, on Bryan Broaddus’s advice, (Bryan sold us the car back in 2008 and has been a mine of information, help and advice) I teared down Rick’s transmission and swapped the rear planetaries and carrier with a stock unit, to go back to a 2.52 ratio from the 2.75 installed long ago. This higher gear ratio should have made the launch less aggressive, even though I couldn’t go the whole hog and install a 2.20 ratio as all I had was stock units. We hoped this would help, together with the other alterations in weight and suspension, and that we would see good results at the Mid Sweden Finals. We arrived at Sundsvall Raceway with no crew, as everybody was either in Hockenheim or couldn’t get the time off, and we tried to make do, but must thank Håke Hedberg, Magnus Lindahl, the German team and others in the class who helped us in the lanes or in the pits. Magnus “Mankan” Lindhal also assisted, once again, with carb tuning, but at this point we were just trying to tame the launch, and the higher first gear, the additional weight, the tight shocks and the 4 link adjustments initially seemed to work almost too well, when Rick started spinning the tyres on a tricky start line. So we removed the extra weight. And then loosened the shocks. The car started to respond well and we unfortunately believed to have solved the problem. A few 9.80s followed, and we regained confidence.

Eliminations day! Once again we were on opposite sides of the ladder… In the first round I met Mats Bäckham, driver of a red ’69 Camaro in SS/EA, and my 0.06 RT proved to be better than his -0.006. Unfortunately I did not see his red light and lifted at the top end, running a 10.47, which was a great ET for me. Rick met good friend Björn Bondesson, in the gorgeous orange B/SA Chevelle, and he also pulled a -0.004 against Rick’s 0.03, which was lucky as the ’84, worryingly, suddenly took off a little to the left and Rick had a little steering to do. The second round saw me pulling the -0.008 light which gave the win to Thomas Strand, although I did get a 10.44 ET in the process, which is my PB to date, 1.11 seconds under index, whilst Rick went sky high on his race against Per Fagerström’s A/SA ’69 Camaro, and came crashing down, cracking his windscreen. Per had then a bye to the final, where he met Thomas Strand who won the event. We were pleased for them, as both racers deserved to go forward, but the race was over for us, and it left us with the problem still unsolved.

Back in the workshop, on careful examination of the chassis, a small crack was found on the front crossmember, which will be welded and which we believe to be a consequence rather than a cause of the problems. We also received rebuilt shocks from Arto Sulopuisto in Finland, which were installed yesterday. We are not 100% sure that the old shocks were the cause of the problem, but sure enough when we experienced it years ago, it was solved by new shocks, and must say that they have taken a beating over the last few years, so I am cautiously confident that this will happen.

A new windscreen is on order with Dahlbergs Glas in Tierp, which will be installed on the 12th of September, and we are hopeful to then be able to test at Kjula’s last event of the season, on 17th and 18th September, as we don’t want to spend the winter wondering if we have solved the problem, so, wish us luck!

All in all, however, not a bad result from the season, as Rick has once again bagged the EDRS Pro Championship, as he did in 2017 and 2018, and managed a bronze in the Swedish Championship. There is a further championship yet to be decided, but it will all depend on the last round to be contested at the Kauhava Finals in Finland next weekend. Rick is in second position right now but this may well change, as we are not attending the event. But hey, can’t be too greedy with all the catastrophes that befell us!

Many thanks to Dave Buckland, Grace Roaf, Peter Lane, Ruth Stallan, Sanna Sundberg, Johanna Falborg, Elisabeth Viklund, Thomas Strand, Magnus Lindahl, Mikael Lind, Åke Hedberg for helping in one way or another during the season, and Julian Hunt and Jörgen Bergkvist for the kind permission to use their photos.

Whitehouse's charity art sale.
4th September: Our deepest condolences to drag racing artist Paul Whitehouse on the loss of his wife Caroline to ovarian cancer in June. Paul has decided to embark on a fundraising for the UK charity Target Ovarian Cancer in Caroline's memory which he has told us about.

"Some of you are already aware, but sadly my wife, Caroline, passed away in June following a brief, but brave, fight with ovarian cancer. This particular cancer is very hard to diagnose and Caroline was already stage 4 by the time it was discovered in April. After 36 years of marriage, to say my worlds been turned upside down is an understatement.

My Daughter, Grandson and I are already booked in for a 5K run, in London, in October to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Trust. If you'd like to sponsor us in raising money towards research for an earlier test and diagnosis of this terrible disease then our donation page is at this link.


Alongside the above I would also like to offer some of my original Drag Racing paintings for sale with proceeds also going to the Ovarian Cancer Trust. Most of these you'll recognise as they have been produced on spec and offered as prints, but this is an opportunity to acquire the original painting. All measure 510mm x 380mm (20" x 15") and are Gouache on artboard. I'll be looking at a minimum of £380.00 per painting and this will include mounting and framing to your specifications.


Suddenly the old saying of 'life's too short` becomes more meaningful and I have decided to now concentrate on my paintings on a more full time basis. Prior to Caroline's diagnosis I had a number of commissioned pieces on my books but had to contact the various parties and explain my situation stating that it may be some time before I pick up my paint brushes again. Over the last few weeks I've began working on a couple and have found it very therapeutic and, when working on these, am able immerse myself in the subject matter and switch off from the situation. If anyone fancies an original painting of their car, or bike, then let me know. Although drag racing subjects are my passion I'm not adverse to any subject matter...planes, trains and automobiles...even pet portraiture.

Leeks sponsors Junior Drag Bike.
4th September: Hannah King of the Junior Drag Bike Club and mum of JDB racer Hollie King has been in touch with an exciting announcement for the class in 2023:

We have just been contacted by Dale Leeks of Leeks Landscapes; he has generously offered to pay for the 2023 Junior Drag Bike class ACU licences. The Junior Drag Bike Club would like to thank Dale for his very generous offer.

We also have a bonus number raffle on the Junior Drag Bike Club Facebook page to raise funds for the club. You can win yourself a Hel Performance rear finger brake for just £20 a number. Please visit our Facebook page Junior Drag Bike Club. Numbers are going fast!

Swift snippets.
4th September: Happy Birthday for today to British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member and UK pioneer Harold Bull on his 98th birthday today, also to Swedish Pro Modified racer Anders Nilsson. We wish Harold and Anders the happiest of birthdays.

Drag racing historian Nick Pettitt has uploaded 1hr 47min of footage from the Brighton Speed Trials including footage of cars on track. You can see Nick's footage by going to his Youtube channel at this link.

In his latest Youtube upload, vlogger and crew member Thomas Cook Abbott documents his first road trip to the NitrOlympX at Hockenheimring, including a tour of the pits. You can see Thomas's video at his channel TCA Racing.

Drag racing fans will be aware that this is the weekend of the NHRA U.S. Nationals, and a number of Europeans or expats are taking part. Congratulations to Top Alcohol Dragster racer Julie Nataas for qualifying #1 of 21 racers in the category with a 5.151/283.19. Julie also won the Jegs Allstars race-within-a-race sportsman competition, albeit at the cost of body panels coming off her dragster. Repairs will be made for today's eliminations scheduled for this morning local time. Meanwhile William Bros Racing's Dan Williams went out in round 1 of A/S class eliminations but survived one round of the brutal competition in Stock Eliminator until he lost against Jimmy Hidalgo who had an identical RT but remained the right side of his dial. In Top Fuel Lex Joon has had numerous problems, crossing the centre line in Q1, the car refusing to start in Q2 and then going up in smoke in Q3, however on the bright side there are still two more qualifying sessions during which he will need to go quicker than 3.795 to qualify.

Flame & Thunder demo callout.
3rd September: Thanks to Dan Melrose, Events Coordinator at Santa Pod Raceway who has been in touch with a callout for racers for Flame & Thunder:

"Santa Pod is on the lookout for Demo race cars and bikes for our Flame & Thunder event on October 29th. Any cars will need to have run 11.99 or quicker, and all bikes 9.99 or quicker to be considered for first batch entry (Junior Dragsters & Junior Drag Bikes are exempt from the ET requirements). To apply, please send an email to [email protected], including personal best ET and photos of the vehicle.

"Please note for this event spots are not necessarily first-come, first-served, as we have a quota for the different types of cars and bikes we would like to have. Anyone that doesn’t get a spot in the first batch will be put on a waiting list and will be invited as spots open up. If your vehicle doesn’t meet the ET cut-offs, we’ll also put you on the waiting list for consideration."

VW Action coverage.
3rd September: Thanks to Diana for providing a gallery of photos from VW Action at Santa Pod Raceway from Friday's setup day. We are also delighted that Julian has recovered from illness and will be on hand to provide trackside photography after the track opens at 10:00 on Saturday. Julian and Diana's galleries will be posted at the end of Saturday and Sunday. You can see our event coverage page sponsored by John Woolfe Racing at this link. Although there will not be a live report, we will post details of quickest times in the news update after the event. Also note there will be no live stream or Nitro FM from VW Action.

This is VW Action's 13th year at Santa Pod Raceway although the event itself as a show is in its 46th year. Unlike last year, when it combined with Doorslammers, the event has returned to its roots with two days of run what ya brung from Volkswagen Audi Group cars and invited guests. RWYB tickets can be bought online at santapodtickets.com. VW Action have the VW Action 'Speed Club' for all sub 13 second VWs running at the event with trophies in separate classes for 12.99 to 12.00 11.99 to 11.00, 10.99 to 10.00, and 9.99 to 9.00. Entry into these exclusive clubs is automatic and free on the production of two timing tickets within 1% of each other at the VW Action Information Centre in good time before the trophy presentation on the startline at lunchtime on Sunday. You can see Speed Club membership by clicking here.

Also featured is night racing sponsored by A-Plan Insurance for £2000 to be split between the quickest 5 aircooled VW cars, quickest 5 watercooled VW cars, quickest 5 VW buses and quickest 5 A/E VWs in this session. Only runs made by qualifying sub-14 second cars at the official night racing session will be eligible for prize money.

Cars eagerly anticipated for VW Action include Rob Carter's Mk1 Passat coupe 'Percy' which is now sporting a twin turbo v8 cooled by club sponsors Serck Motorsport UK, full tube chassis by Robinson Racing Cars, plus Fueltech doing the engine control.

One of the quickest expected is the FWD 2.0L 16VT ABT Mk1 Golf of Adt Adrenalin Tuning driven by Thorsten Middendorf. The 1000bhp engine made the car the quickest FWD car in Europe with a time of 8.25/173mph, although this was overtaken and Thorsten needs to run quicker than 7.980 to regain the #1 place. Markus Welte from Germany also has his 8.2s AWD Golf at the track.

Sjödin Motorsport/ÅBM Racing at Sundsvall Raceway.
3rd September: Many thanks to Andreas Sjödin for sending an account of his most recent race, the EDRS Mid Sweden Finals at Sundsvall Raceway on 27th-28th August:

Top Doorslammer round 4 at Sundsvall Raceway wasn’t our weekend, track was too tricky! (And not just for us, it was the first time ever I heard a Junior Dragster team complain about a track condition), I really wanted it to be better than it was and tried too much! And then it also ended early in elimination round one against Kenneth Lingvald with broken crank blower pulley bolts 2.2 seconds out when I finally took away enough power to go down the track!… E1 was the best pass during the whole weekend when looking at the graphs, finally a pass with an ok but slow wheel speed, good G-meter and no shake! But only until the motor got naturally aspirated!


It could have been a good race but all the pedaling and shaking with the motor really rich on fuel and low timing resulted in broken crank pulley bolts. At least that is how I see it. It was really sad because it was finally fun to drive the car for the first time during the whole weekend! Car felt really really good and it would have been a tight race against Kenneth Lingvald, I was slower on the tree (that old man got some awesome reactions) and he drove the car the whole way to a 4.41 (low on power of course) to the 1/8 mile and on the 330ft we both did have a time of 2.91 even that I just coasted from 2.2 seconds when my motor stopped pulling when the blower stopped! That sucks when I probably would have won that round, BUT this is the best part of drag racing! It isn’t over until it’s over when the best car / driver crosses the finish line! Congrats to Kenneth and KLR Motorsports for the round win!

I could not figure out the track, and the real reason we went there was to check out the track conditions! With my Racepak graphs and info, track meter etc. from earlier years I must say that the track was better in 2017 compared to this weekend! And then I really wonder why a known problem from the last race with the track surface coming loose wasn’t fixed before the event!? It was a warm and sunny Friday and about 3 hours just got wasted for all racers and spectators… Nothing good about that!! But after they fixed the first part of the track where the surface got loose the first 60-80 feet was really good! But then the track kind of disappears and that is really tricky to tune after.


On Saturday it started with rain, it's sad but there is noting at all to do about that because it’s something we can’t control! Its just doing the best of it and we did work some on the trailer and organized some stuff, Sofi took the opportunity to test sit a JR Dragster, really don’t know what that will end up with!? And like I said the reason to all bad runs is that I really hoped that the track was better and gave it too much even that I took away A LOT of power, I did slow down the motor with transmission, way rich on fuel and have less timing than I ever tried! Still it was too much, yes I’m able to change the whole car and make it work better but I think that if you need to change everything in the car to make it work the track isn’t good enough for a high powered Top Doorslammer car so I did not even care about huge chassis adjustments! No prep racing is not for me!.... And this is the real reason why there is so small amount of cars attending the event!

I made one full pass during the weekend without any pedaling, a slow 4.28 @ 275km/h, but I was just lucky and on the edge to go in to shake all the way and after 330ft the G-meter and wheel speed did go crazy up and down all the way to the finish line! I could even hear the motor rpm go up and down and the car was fishtailing pretty much!

Well, we did the best of it anyway, great friends around us, special guests were Jörgen and Bengt, really great and pretty warm weather with only a little rain on Saturday, it was great to be there at Sundsvall Raceway again with all the nice people and the facility that they work on and improve all the time! The one and only thing I’m disappointed at is the track, everything else is perfect!! Noting else needs to be changed, I went there on this event because I said I will do 4 events in the series this year and I really wanted to see if the track has changed from the last time I was there. My graphs and data are giving me what I need to make my own opinion about it, nothing more to say about that!


But I must say it’s a long time since I was this disappointed after a race. First the track problems, and then a couple of cheap bolts stopped the weekend's best round! And now when I’m thinking about Saturday's problem, we did have a blower starter that stopped us from making a pass makes me even more disappointed because if we would have made that round the bolts might have broken already on Saturday and we would have fixed it during the night to Sunday instead!… But of course, nothing say that they would have broken on that round if we would have made it.

Thanks to Sundsvall Raceway and all the people that work there! And thanks for the best 60ft trophy and the price money, much appreciated!

Congrats to Stefan “Totte” Carlsson and team Tee Cee Racing for the event win and for being able / having the spirit and knowledge to figure out the track and make 2 decent passes down it! Nice work guys!

Thanks to all involved this weekend, friends, family, my awesome team! Dad, Sofi, Max, John, Krille, Dennis and this weekend’s special guests Jörgen and Bengt!

Our Partners and sponsors, Åkes Bil & Motor, Birka Motorrenoveringar, Sjödin Motorsport Race Cars, Swecomposite, LSF Custom Lackering, Swelube Amalie Motor Oil, LVV AB, Bengtssons Smide, Loggamera, Clearwrap, SnapOn Pro Tools Peter Hult, ICA Gärdet, W-Linds Bärgning, Kustservice, Supra Trading, T. Grundström Plåtslageri, Jonnie Lindberg Motorsports, Swedol Arninge, CP-Carrillo, Alwerco Svets & Smide, Catch With Care, Edlunds Maskinservice.

Next outing for Sjödin Motorsport / ÅBM Racing is The EDRS Top Doorslammer finals at Gardermoen in Norway next week 9-11 of September, and we are still number one in points that we have been since the first round in the series this year!

Right now we just need some parts to fix the car and getting all stuff organized! Hope to see you there!

Swift snippets.
3rd September: Happy Birthday for today to Top Fuel crew member Paul Spaxman, FIM-E Pro Stock Bike racer Karl-Heinz Weikum and former Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association racer Paul Wratten. We hope you all have a fantastic day.

News from Mosten Raceday in Denmark that Top Fuel Bike racer Rikard Gustafsson reset the track record for the class on Friday with a 3.902/326.66 on the eighth mile single lane strip. Congratulations Rikard!

Santa Pod Nitrous Update.
2nd September: Dan Melrose, Events Coordinator at Santa Pod Raceway, has been in touch with a message of importance to those racers running with nitrous:

Due to issues with international shipping, Santa Pod is unfortunately unable to supply nitrous to racers for the time being. We’re unable to provide a definite timeframe, however we’re working with our suppliers to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We advise all racers that need nitrous to seek alternative supplies and bring their own to the track until the situation is resolved.

 Hockenheim-Ring's thanks.
2nd September: Many thanks to NitrOlympX Press Officer Christine Calwer for forwarding a joint statement of the Managing Directors of Hockenheim-Ring GmbH, Jorn Teske and Jochen Nerpel to all teams involved at this year's successful event:

“We are very pleased with the way things went last weekend. The weather was perfect, the racing was top-class and the atmosphere among teams and fans was excellent. Although the NitrOlympX has always been something special at the Hockenheimring, this year it was even more evident how much participants and visitors love this event. We expressly thank all participants for coming. Despite the fact that the last two years have been anything but easy for them, they once again succeeded in delivering a spectacular mix of extreme racing and show. We are also pleased that the varied programme of supporting events in the paddock was very popular among visitors. This motivates us for the coming events. We are already looking forward to next year.”

Prize money for Northern Street Legal Car Shootout.
2nd September: Melbourne Raceway are proud to announce that Fueltech UK are now one of our partners for the Northern Street Legal Car Shootout on 17th-18th September. This is the toughest street legal race in the UK!

Fueltech are one of the world leaders in ECU management systems, catering for almost any application. Fueltech systems have amazing features that make tuning your vehicle more detailed, and enhancing performance easily. Fueltech UK, an official dealer of Fueltech (telephone 01302 368774), can provide the full journey from supplying the product and fully installing the system ready for race day.

A fantastic service of advice and tuning diagnostics is also available from Fuel tech uk. They are that committed to their customers, the Fueltech UK Pro Mod Mustang has to take second place. Follow Fueltech UK authorised dealer on Facebook, for more details Contact Trevor Hirst on 01302 368774. £1000 up from grabs for the winner of the Northern Street Legal Car Shootout, plus trophies and merchandise awards.

The rules for the Northern Street Legal Car Shootout are:
  • Car must be taxed and MOT’d
  • No engine restrictions - all power adders allowed and no race fuel restrictions.
  • Exhausts: the silenced exhaust exit can be positioned anywhere on the car (updated 24th August).
  • Tyres: full tread width, no cheat DOT tyres, Mickey Thompson, Hoosier, M&H and Nitto etc all allowed.
  • Grip juice traction enhancer allowed.
Race format
  • 1/8 mile heads up pro tree first across the line.
  • Red lights , crossing the centre line or outside lines will result in the driver being disqualified in eliminations.
  • Saturday will be qualifying all day , eliminations on Sunday, all cars will qualify.
  • Pairings will be done on a pro ladder.
  • Cost to enter the same as a run what you brung fee.
  • Please advise via email to [email protected] your name, car details, mobile number for Shootout WhatsApp event group, and picture of the vehicle if you are entering to [email protected]
  • Prize money winner takes all £1000
To enter for the weekend, including run what you brung, click on both links below and complete the online forms: Melbourne Raceway is located in Ash Lane, Melbourne, Yorkshire YO42 4SS.

Billy, are you brave enough?
2nd September: Thanks to site sponsor John Tebenham who has issued a challenge to Super Pro ET racer Billy Gane:

So if you are a doorslammer guy, you would love to start my baby - it’s strange, I always wanted to sit and start a Pro Mod.

So we have two of the top doorslammers coming to have a go. I absolutely know Billy will try to buy it, but only if he is brave enough. And one of my heroes, the CEO himself, Mr Keith Bartlett, is going to fire it up.

I have about four crew to start the blue car, not many people in the world get to start these cars. Cheer us on as we are going to try to win.

Clastres results and media.
2nd September: Congratulations to the winners at the 19th European Dragster took place at Clastres Dragway from 30th-31st July, organised by Association-Trophee-Dragster:

Super Pro ET: Franz Aschenbrenner (Ford Mustang) def. Thierry Senges (Ford Mustang)
Pro ET: Cyprien Thiebaut (Dodge Charger) def. Frederik Coene (VW Cox)
Street Run: Sibylle Goldet (Pontiac Trans Am GTA) def. Francois Peeters (Dodge Challenger)
Super Gas: Marianne Wisotzke (Chevy Camaro) def. Oscar Scappocin (Chevy Nova)
Junior Dragster: Marie Camilleri def. Max Timmers

116 cars including 26 run what ya brung made qualifying runs for the race which counted towards the Association-Trophee-Dragster Championship and was also part of the Drag Race Union Challenge for Pro ET and Super Pro ET. You can see full results at this link on the ATD web site.

In Super Pro ET, 30 cars qualified with Claude Knof qualifying #1 on 7.6323/289.15kph (7.63 dial), closely followed by Alain Dürr (Alfa Romeo GTV) who ran 8,692/251,19 (8.69 dial) and Christian Schneebeli (Chevrolet Bel Air) who also ran a right-on 8,153/267.12 (8.15 dial). Billy Gane (Vauxhall Victor) qualified fourth with +0.010 on his dial, and three members of the Dubois family (Clement, Elodie and Fabien) were in the top 15 qualifiers. Franz Aschenbrenner defeated Cyril Perret (Renault Laguna) in round 1, Billy Gane in round 2, Fabien Dubois (Dragster) in round 3 and Alain Dürr in the semi final before his final round triumph over Thierry Senges.


Photos of Franz Aschenbrenner, Cyprien Thiebaut (above), Marianne Wisotzke and Marie Camilleri (below) . Photo credit: Roland Schenker of Dragmag.de.

In Pro ET, Ronnie Mercer (Ford Pop) qualified first of 29 with a perfect 9.050/235.29, followed by Clarissa Czekalla (23T altered) who ran 10.401/216.56 on a 10.40 dial, and Luc Thilges (VW Cox) who ran 9.093/230.19 on a 9.09 dial. In eliminations, Cyprien Thiebaut (who qualified #16) defeated Clarissa in round 1, had a bye in round 2, defeated Robere Vos (Chevy Nova) in the quarter final and Cedric Limasset (Ford Mustang) in the semi final.

The winner in Street Run, cars slower than 12.00, was Sibylle Goldet who qualified #2 with +0.001 on a 13.75 dial. Sibylle defeated Maxime Chevaillaud (Buick Regal) In round 1 , then Maurice Heller (Ford Mustang GT) in round 2 and Laurent Arnould (Chevy Chevelle) in the semi final, before a win against Francois Peeters in the final. #1 qualifier Jean Luc Jacot ran a perfect ET on his 13.90 dial

Super Gas had a repeat win for Marianne Wisotzke in her Chevy Camaro; Marianne qualified 3rd, defeated Stephan Blauwitz (Chevy Camaro) in round one and #1 qualifier Oscar Scappocin in the final.


In Junior Dragster, Liam McDonald from Eire qualified in #1 with a 0.0019 RT followed by Marie Camilleri, Lucas Potthoff, Cheyenne Visser and Max Timmers, all of whom had RTs of below 0.01s. In eliminations, Marie defeated Sam Timmers in round 1, had a bye in round 2 and defeated Anna-Lena Scherschinski in the semi final.

Congratulations to winners of the Association-Trophee-Dragster Championship afer this final race of 2022:

Super Pro ET: Christian Zulauf
Pro ET: Cedric Limasset
Street Run: Jean Luc Jacot
Super Gas: Marianne Wisotzke
Junior Dragster: Marie Camilleri

Association Trophee Dragster issued a statement:

"It is with great pleasure that we have registered a significant number of European drivers which reflects the full involvement of ATD and the quality of its organisation. The performance level is constantly evolving with several improved personal bests including the track record of 6.76 by Sébastien Lajoux! The grip of the track is worked on every time by our team and the performances confirm it. Safety on the track is always attended to, with professional firefighters and an emergency medical staff.

Runs were contested, tension was palpable at times but the show won, so did the winners. Congratulations to all. Thanks to the partners who help make the Dragster Trophy what it is: Saveurs & Poêlons, Nitro Magazine, @TAG, Maisons Pierre REIMS. Special Thanks to Milwaukee Tools France for their continued support! Thanks to our friend Sébastien Lajoux of Toxic Drag Racing who, besides being a great driver is a major partner of ATD, that's why the Trophy is now in Speed-Flex.

A heartfelt thank you to all the men and women of the team for their strong involvement in the organization, the track preparers who are indispensable for a quality competition, the officials in our ASA Drag Racing, as well as those who help with the assembly and dismantling and the shop, thank you all again.

The ATD 2022 season is over and we support all the French riders who are wearing the colors of France high on the tracks abroad. We will give you an appointment this fall for the 2023 calendar at the same place, with the same desire to meet and run!

Media from the 19th European Dragster at Clastres can be seen at the following links:: Swift snippets.
2nd September: Happy Birthday for today to Nitro Revival organiser and Hook Knows videographer Cindy Gibbs, Top Fuel tuner and sometime racer Laurie Bamford, Street Eliminator racer Jason Weir, fire burnout crew David Williams, Top Doorslammer racer Mattias Wulcan and VW Sportsman racer Oly Whitehouse. We at Eurodragster.com hope you have wonderful day.

Photographer Pat Weidman has posted a Facebook album of trackside photos from the NitrOlympX car classes at this link.

The Charity Auction for Hayley Hadfield to be held at Santa Pod Raceway outside Fuelers Bar at 20:00 on Saturday 24th September is now established as an event on Facebook, you can see more details by clicking on this link; donations of memorabilia to Andy Thetford (e-mail) or Colin Theobald (e-mail)will be greatly appreciated.

FIA/FIM-E Euro Finals racer update.
1st September: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for sending us details of track opening and signing on at the FIA/FIM-E Euro Finals being held at Santa Pod Raceway on 8th-11th September, including scrutineering times.

The main gates to the track will open from 8.00am on Wednesday 7th September.

Wednesday, 7th September:
08.00 Signing on office opens
09.00–18.00 Scrutineering for National Classes

Thursday, 8th August:
07.00 Signing on office opens
07.00–14.00 Scrutineering for National Classes
10.00-18.00 Scrutineering for bikes at the scrutineering building
15.00-19.00 Scrutineering for FIA Classes

Friday, 9th September:
07.30 Signing on office opens
09.00-20.00 Scrutineering for cars and bikes
09:30 Track open for qualifying

Saturday, 10th September:
08.00 Signing on office opens
08.00 Scrutineering for cars
09.00 Scrutineering for bikes until track closes
09:30 Track open for qualifying/eliminations

Sunday, 11th September:
08.00 Signing on office opens
09.30 Track open for eliminations

The detailed running orders and entry list can be seen in our event coverage page.

Ian also says "The closing date for the STP National Finals is on this Friday 2nd September". The latest version of the STP National Finals entry list can be seen at this link.

Bob's awesome fire burnout.
1st September: Many thanks to nitro slingshot racer Bob Hawkins who has sent in a link to onboard footage from his NitrOlympX Night Show fire burnout and exhibition which can be seen at this Youtube link:

Our helmet cam captures exactly what I am seeing and hearing in the car during our Fire Burnout routine in the Night Show. I think this is the best seat in the house!

Some people have been asking why we didn’t run on the Sunday. We were intending to compete in a match race against the beautiful Pine Mountain Speed Slingshot of Christian Zulauf in the afternoon. However, due to track time constraints caused by some timing system glitches, unfortunately that has now had to be postponed until we next meet.

Christian and I have both agreed that we would really like this to happen so maybe that will now take place at Santa Pod next year. We all very much hope so!

Our trip and visit generally all went according to plan and it turned out to be a real blast for the whole team, as always! A huge thank you must go to Jerry, Christian, Janet, Tatjana and everyone else involved for making the Nitrolympx ‘22 such a great and memorable event and Night Show.

ACU Greenlight Nationals reports.
1st September: Thanks to photojournalist Steve Moxley for letting us know that his reports on the ACU and National classes at the STP Greenlight Nationals have been published on the ACU website which you can see via this link.

As usual Steve provides some useful snippets of information, and after the double header event, the ACU championship is looking very interesting before the final round at the STP National Finals on 24th-25th September.

VP Racing Fuels continues support of BDRHoF.
1st September: VP Racing Fuels, Inc., regarded worldwide as the leader in racing and performance fuel products, has committed to sponsor the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Gala for a second year.

"VP Racing Fuels is excited to continue our support of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Gala," said Tom Davis, VP Racing Fuels’ UK and European Business Development Manager. "VP’s long tradition of supporting drag racing in the UK and worldwide continues to grow, and events like the Hall of Fame Gala showcase our belief in the sport."

Hall of Fame Honorary Chair Lesley Wright said, "Continuing support from VP Racing is a bedrock for our Hall of Fame Gala. Given VP’s increasing support of UK drag racing, their presence at the Gala is an indication of their support for the sport as a whole."

VP Racing Fuels will join with other Hall of Fame sponsors at the Gala on Saturday, November 12, at the Oatlands Park Hotel in Weybridge, Surrey, UK.

For more information about VP and its products for racers, enthusiasts, and general consumers, visit www.vpracingfuels.com.

Swift snippets.
1st September: Happy Birthday for today to Super Street Bike racers Steve Venables and Kim Hilander, also to Outlaw Anglia racer Mick Taylor. Have a great day guys from all of us at Eurodragster.com.

In his most recent video uploads, Kieran has posted footage of dad Kev's Fraudster C20LET Mk1 Escort bringing us up to date with what's going on with Fraudster since the Main Event, covering the two outings at Summer Nationals in Comp Eliminator and Greenlight Nationals in the new 7.60 Heads Up class. The other video has action Kieran caught over the Greenlight Nationals weekend with clips from Nostalgia Super Stock, VWDRC Pro, Super Street Bike & 7.60 Heads Up.

Outlaw Anglia racer Rob Nixon has set up a Go Fund Me page to aid Australian Outlaw Anglia racer John Willard in his attempt to come to the UK in 2023 to race in the class. In August John ran bests of 6.672 and 208.33mph, the latter eclipsing Chuck Moore's longstanding world record of 207.7 recorded at Bakersfield in 2007.


Earlier news