Super Series 5Sunday (race day)
Super Series 5
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13:30
You won't be surprised to hear that the meeting has been rained-out. However, a meeting was held of all riders and drivers at which the offer was made by facility owner Anthony Hodges and Super Series co-ordinators Obsession Motorsports to run today's eliminations at the Test and Tune/Mopar race at the end of October, so that the Super Series Championships could be decided. This was put to a vote but it was decided to finish the Super Series this weekend. So that's that for the year 2000.
The Junior Dragster raffle was drawn, and the winner of the turnkey JD was Hans Kirimaa; second prize of £250 was won by Holly Mitchell; and third prize of £100 was won by Robert Howard. Congratulations to the winners who will be hearing from the raffle organisers in due course.
There you have it then, a not entirely uncharacteristic ending to a race in the UK this season. Thanks for staying with us through the weekend. Eurodragster's raceday coverage was brought to you in association with E-Manumit.com and High Performance Heaven, to whom many thanks as usual.
Your reporters this weekend were Tog and Sharkman of Eurodragster.com, all pictures by Sharkman. Thanks for their help this weekend, and for the entire Super Series season, to: Wayne, Simon and Ozzy of the tech crew; the APIRA officials; Bruno, Sophie and the FAST team; APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson; John Andrews in the SCR Press Office; Terry and Tina Gibbs; the MSA and ACU officials; and thanks to track announcers John Price and Steve Young for putting up with us for five events.
Eurodragster's final raceday coverage this season will be from the National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway on 7th-8th October. See you then!
12:00
Good morning and welcome from a very soggy Shakespeare County Raceway. What a turn-round: yesterday beautiful weather and today it's soaking. It's curently raining and nothing's moving out there, hopefully this evil wet stuff will go away soon and then we can get down to the serious business.
Thanks and congratulations to Pat and Stephen Talbot, whose twentieth wedding anniversary party we attended last night. As you will know if you are a regular reader of our race reports, the Talbots' hospitality is legendary and last night was no exception, a great time was had by all. We're already booked for the fortieth anniversary party!
It's been a weekend of attrition in Funny Bike: Shaun Branch, Neil Diggens and Dave Peters are out with engine damage, and Chris Hannam, Jean-Yves Vetsch, Chris Hall and Steve French were up late into the night making repairs. In addition we are pleased to report that Chris Hall is walking normally today after one of his qualifying runs yesterday resembled a kangaroo on stimulants. "I have a bruised coccyx", said Chris.
We handed Dave Billadeau his Perfect Light prize money this morning, and asked him if it would cover the cost of repairing the universal joint. "I borrowed the bits off my brother, they cost me nowt!", he said.
Super Street Bike racer Tony Clark has his potentially record-holding bike back in one piece after a mammoth effort last night. "I've had help from 9.90 Bike racers, 10.90 Bike racers, car racers, everyone", he said. Particular thanks are due to Mark Ramplee, Graham Dance, Ray Debben, Ken Cooper, Jamie Sneddon, Steve Venables and Richard Stubbins. We hear that Graham Dance offered Tony the use of his spare engine, which speaks volumes about the atmosphere in the SSB pits.
Tony told us that the thought the chain had snapped on his next pass after the 8.141. "Ian Marshall came running to my aid, and I told him that it was OK, it was only the chain. Ian looked down at the bike and said oh no it isn't!". Tony is happy enough with his pass and isn't too concerned about backing it up. "It doesn't really matter", he said. "Graham Dance has won the Championship, but I'm second and I have run quickest and fastest this year".
Karl Larcombe had an interesting postscript to his trip across the grass yesterday. "I don't know if you know, but the guy who owns the bike doesn't just do motorcycle engines - he also does lawnmower engines", said Karl.
Supertwin Gas bike racer Jerry Collier ran consistent 9.8s yesterday but wasn't happy. "We're still working on the 60 foot times", he said. "It runs quickly but we know it can run quicker. Ric (Davis - Ed) and I are numbers one and two qualifiers, and we both had to have our engines apart last night. No-one can catch us in the Championship, and today it will go down to whoever goes furthest in eliminations. There aren't any team orders!".
9.90 Bike racer Andy Haley is pleased to be back in the nines. "It's nice to do it at the final round", he said. Andy started the season with an ex-Martin Bishop head on the bike, but then made up a hybrid head with some of his parts and some of Martin's. "I ran a 9.98 at the last race, which was back in the ballpark", he said.
Super Gas racer Dave Gadney is delighted to be back in the 9.90s after problems with misfires for a large part of the season. He was about to give us a quote about it when his wife returned from the Sunday market. "I'll give you a quote for your web site", he said, "my wife buys loads of crap from the market". Dave's trailer and camper are up for sale, so give him a call if you are interested.
Fellow Super Gas racer Pete Creswell felt that his weekend was going in the wrong direction. "It started off OK", he said. "I was number two with a 9.94 but I ended up eighth. That says a lot about how competitive Super Gas has become". Tim Adam, who qualified first with a perfect 9.900, said "It was planned. I wanted to claw back the points I lost at the European Finals.
Pete of Bob Hancox's crew is very happy with Bob's 9.3-second run in Outlaw Anglia yesterday. "Bob changed the carburettor set-up last week, and we didn't know how it would go. We ran a 9.5 and then a 9.3! Bob said that the 9.3 felt slower than the 9.5 because the car was so stable! We were on a high all day yesterday."
Well, it is looking dark and miserable outside Race Control, and the rain is pouring down. It's not looking very good at all, I'm afraid. Stay tuned and we'll let you know how things pan out.