APIRA Test and Tune
Sunday

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15:00

The rain-cum-lunch break turned into a rain-out, so that's the end of the APIRA Test and Tune. A pity, since there was a packed fire-up road and a potential couple of hours' more action.

During the break we posted today's photographs, they are now available from the raceday update index.

Your reporters this weekend were Tog and Sharkman of Eurodragster.com, all pictures by Sharkman. Thanks for their help this weekend to: Wayne, Simon and Ozzy of the tech crew; the APIRA officials; Bruno, Sophie and the FAST team; APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson; Tracey in the press office; Terry and Tina Gibbs; Richard Warburton; and Cath Napier.

Our next event coverage will be Super Series 1 back here at Shakespeare County Raceway, on 5th-7th May. See you then!

14:30

PDRC's Cath Napier tells us that there are seven NSCC contestants here this weekend. The allocation of points is quite simple - whoever runs quickest gets the most points. Ricky Swan currently leads the field with a pass in the 10.3s. We also have Dave Evans, Ian Walley, Vince Gibbs, current NSCC Champion James Murray, and Chris McCulloch here at SCR after the points. Russell Pursley was here yesterday, but has gone home.

Roy Wilding has visited race control to explain what happened on his pass. "I had no heat in the motor, because it's very cold out there", he said. "After the burnout I was getting bits of blower belt in my face. I wanted to check out the fuel pump so I nailed it to get down the track and out of Ian's way so that he could make his run - but I didn't make the return road. When I checked the blower belt, half the teeth were missing. So it looks like I've got to buy a new pulley set!".

We're currently on a rain-cum-lunch break, stay with us and we'll bring you more news soon.

14:00

Frank Bennett put in another planned half-pass in his Topolino altered, a great 100-foot burnout followed by a solid 8.613/97.61, 4.671/136.78 at the eighth, so looking good for the new combination. Roy Wilding followed up with a superb burnout in the Hemi Hunter slingshot, but then floored it and disappeared down the track, it's unclear what exactly happened there. In the other lane Ian Hanson waited for the track to clear and then put in a checkout pass in his gorgeous Wild Bunch altered clocking 10.13/137.20.

Derek Annable was next up in the Shell Racing TMD. He didn't quite get the tyres to light on the burnout, but then left the line gently and gave it more and more throttle as he went down the track, recording 9.111/128.94.

Steve Saunders' latest checkout pass in his Pro ET Zephyr netted him a 13.481/99.78. After Steve was Tony Froome in his ex-Altered Ego car. Tony has had Jon Wright helping him out this weekend, and the input showed as Tony put in a very easy-looking 9.155/149.01. Dave Cherrett looked to be aiming for the Super Street index as he ran 10.882/120.00 in his van. Pete Radcliffe took the long way round on a great pass in his WIld Bunch altered, a very nice-looking piece, at 10.969/123.97.

John Williamson swapped bikes to his Supertwin Fuel mount and recorded an easy-looking 11.085/125.70.

Holley Glassup won another Junior Dragster match-up with Katie Gibbs, 8.615/73.77 to 9.139/71.32.

It's got a lot colder out there even since this morning, but it's remained dry which is what matters. Stay with us and we'll bring you more news from the Test and Tune.

13:00

No sooner had we cleared the track than we had a very scary incident at the top end. Wild Bunch racer Tony Smith was paired up against Wobbly Bob" in his Bedford CF van, a very nice piece of kit that van is too. Bob was ahead at the top end when suddenly he turned hard right in the lights and spun across the track and in front of Tony who did a great job of stopping his minivan. Both drivers were fine and neither vehicle was damaged, we understand that Bob's rear end locked (if it didn't before, it probably did soon after - Ed) leaving him with little say in the matter. Tony Smith is currently up in race control and said that there was about ten feet between his car and Bob's van, and that Bob missed the armco by inches.

Turbo Tim Boutle has done it again, resetting his own unofficial world record with a pass of 11.286/129.31 on his CX Turbo.

Two of the more exotic vehicles here this weekend are a pair of grass track racers. Sporting slicks they made a good job of burning out and then both put in passes in the twelves at nearly 100 mph. A new Sportsman ET entry, at least to us, is the "Shoe String Racing" entry, an orange Jaguar although from the sound of it that ain't no Jaguar engine in there! Whatever the engine, a 15.95/85 was the outcome of his last pass.

Wayne Nicholson put in another pass in his new Pro ET-headed BMW, still taking it nice and easy and commendably sideways in the burnout. Wayne clocked 11.20/125.00. Steve Saunders brought out his beatutiful new Pro ET Mk 3 Zephyr, six years of work and worth every moment of it. Steve too took an easy pass, still checking out the car, recording 13.09/102.74.

Wild Bunch racers Clive Bush and Paul Croston's latest passes netted 11.44/107 and 14.30/86 respectively. The B'Sting team have had a real weekend of it, having to change a rear end and assorted other parts.

Following on from the infamous Super Pro ET "girlie race" at the Thunderball, Holley Glassup and Katie Gibbs ran their own version in Junior Dragster, both running modified cars. Holley got there first, 8.722/73.53 to Katie's 9.292/71.09. Scott Hauser recorded 14.701/42.41 and Johnny Walker 17.058/34.35, whilst Wendy Talbot's granddaughter Holly clocked 15.203/38.26 in the "Matrix" JS dragster.

Frank Bennett, Derek Annable in the Shell Racing TMD, and various other altereds are lined up and ready to go, tune back shortly and we'll let you know how they went.

12:00

We're currently stopped for a large oil and trans fluid leakage at the top end of the track. Track announcer Ozzy tells us that Supertwin racer 'Turbo' Tim Boutle set an unofficial world record for a Honda CX-650 Turbo with a pass of 11.44/133.93 yesterday. World records can't be set in test sessions but doubtless Tim will be back at Super Series 1 to make it official.

Supertwin Gas racer Jerry Collier took the long way round on a pass of 9.892/128.57, getting very close to the timing reflectors at half-track. Jerry tells us that Red Line Oil have renewed their sponsorship of Jade Racing this season.

Mark Pointer is on his way home after damage to the gearbox of his Hayabusa Super Street Bike. Mark is however very happy since the work on the nitrous system seems to have worked.

The fire-up road is packed but we're still a little way from re-starting, stay tuned and we'll bring you more news as soon as things get going again.

11:00

Good morning and welcome from Shakespeare County Raceway on a chilly but dry Sunday morning, for day two of the APIRA Test and Tune.

First things first, yesterday's pictures are now posted. If you tuned in yesterday you will remember that my fellow reporter Sharkman was having all sorts of problems with the phone line dropping out, but the guys from APIRA's tech crew have done the usual excellent job and things are a lot better. You can get to yesterday's pictures from the raceday update index.

We've been asked to pass on a message to racers entering Super Series 1 in a couple of weekends' time. The deadline for entries should have been today, but because of postal delivery problems in the area in which the club secretary lives, the deadline has been extended to this Wednesday (25th April). After Wednesday, ebtries will be accepted at the discretion of the race organiser, but will br subject to the additional £25 late entry fee. Also a reminder that entries for Super Series 2 close on 4th May.

Dave Cherrett is very happy indeed with yesterday's passes in his Super Street van. Shark visited Dave and the team in the pits last night and said that they were over the moon.

Super Street Bike racer Mark Pointer has found a problem with his nitrous system. He has worked on the jets to improve the delivery of the nitrous and hopes to get into the eights today. He has just made his first pass of the day and appeared to have problems selecting gears, running in the 9.3s.

Junior Dragster racer Ricky Emms won't be running today since the Cool Green Racing team can't slow down their new Junior Modified dragster; after consultation with the race officials it was decided that it was in everyone's best interests if the car didn't run.

Action is continuing apace here at SCR; we have a large number of racers from the Northern Street Car Challenge putting in passes down the strip. A great mixture of everything from big Mopars to Escorts, the quickest so far has run in the 10.3s. We don't have a list of competitors here at present but regular NSCC fans will recognise a purple Dodge Dart with 'Marx Brothers' shoe-whited on the back, which is running in the 12.4s.

Stay tuned and we'll bring you more news from Shakespeare County Raceway very soon.