Super Series Fallnationals
Monday (eliminations)

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19:45

Today's pictures are now available, you can get to them from the event update index.

That's the end of our Fallnationals event coverage, thank you for tuning in. Thanks for their help this weekend to: Simon, Ozzy and Wayne of the tech crew; Race Director Tina Gibbs; Chief Starters Scott Talbot and Ian Marshall; all the APIRA race officials; Bruno and the FAST team; Terry Gibbs; APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson; track announcer John Price; Roger Gorringe; Lee Child; Jim Broome; Dave Alexander; Ivan Sansom; Ian Turburville; and Tracy in the media centre. And, of course, thanks to all the racers for giving us quotes and action to write about!

Eurodragster's next event coverage will be the pre-FIA European Finals testing and Press Day at Santa Pod Raceway; our next event coverage from Shakespeare County Raceway will be the Doorslammer Shootout in October.

This weekend's coverage was brought to you in association with American Car Imports.

18:00

Here are the final results in all classes:

Fuel Funny Car: John Spuffard 5.858/234.38 def. Gordon Smith 8.587/102.97
MSA Top Methanol: Dave Wilson 5.688/251.40 def. Rob Turner 5.756/240.64
Super Pro ET: Martyn Jones (7.58) 7.610/173.75 def. Steve Johnson (7.60) 7.550/163.64 breakout
Pro ET: Carla Pitau (10.66) 10.691/127.48 def. Kev Taylor (10.95) 11.105/124.65
Sportsman ET: Al Platt (13.35) 13.403/94.54 def. Richard Davis (12.45) 12.432/104.90 breakout
Super Comp: Tim Adam 8.947/135.14 def. Martin Curbishley 8.964/149.01
Super Gas: Peter Lane 9.920/140.62 def. Tim Adam 9.905/146.10
Super Street: Conrad Stanley 10.923/128.57 def. Dave Cherrett 10.856/102.97 breakout
Junior Dragster: Holley Glassup (8.75) 8.778/72.00 def. Joe Bond (9.65) 9.731/65.22
Super Modified: Danny Cockerill 7.481/181.45 def. Rob Smallworth NTR (rolled through stage)
Custom Car Street Eliminator: John Ricketts 11.046/110.02 def. Steve Pateman 8.550/170.45 red light
Outlaw Anglia: Paul Hensher 9.133/153.06 def. Jeff Meads 9.245/155.17
Wild Bunch: Mark Coulsell (10.55) 10.612/118.73 def. Tom Coe (11.50) 11.557/111.94

Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woollatt 6.595/208.33 def. Ian King 12.479/62.07
Pro Stock Bike: Chris Hope 7.606/173.08 def. Nick Pepper 7.663/168.54
Funny Bike: Neil Midgley 7.356/177.17 def. Tim Blakemore 8.825/101.58
Comp Bike: Klaus Brinkmann 10.044/78.67 def. Andy Newcombe broke
Super Street Bike: Graham Dance 8.435/157.89 def. Mark Fisher 8.803/166.67
9.90 Bike: Paul Morris 9.942/129.31 def. Mark Hammond 9.781/141.07 breakout
10.90 Bike: TJ O'Brien 11.044/112.22 def. Glenn Randles 10.944/112.22
Supertwin Fuel: Jamie Millership 7.586/175.10 was unopposed
Supertwin Gas: Rich Davies 9.775/131.20 def. Sefton Whitlock 9.901/127.48
Supertwin Modified: TJ O'Brien 10.455/127.48 def. Dave Bartz 10.647/124.65
Supertwin Street: Les Harris 10.813/125.00 def. Dave Jones 11.185/120.32

We're now working on today's pictures, stay tuned.

17:45

Top Fuel Dragster match race round three

Andy Carter 5.417/284.81 def. Susanne Callin 11.410/73.53

3-0 for Andy, a straight hard pass. Susanne had shake to about sixty feet and then got off the throttle.

Fuel Altered match race four

Wendy Baker 7.822/191.49 def. Jim Seward 7.875/139.75

Jim was weaving left and right again, Wendy got past him as he pedalled and got to the top end first.

Fuel Funny Car final

John Spuffard 5.858/234.38 def. Gordon Smith 8.587/102.97

Spuff pedalled it on the way down, Gordon's engine started to smoke at half track and he got off the throttle.

Top Methanol final

Dave Wilson 5.688/251.40 def. Rob Turner 5.756/240.64

One of the best races all weekend, the cars stuck together all the way down and very difficult to see the winner from the start line.

Top Fuel Bike final

Steve Woollatt 6.595/208.33 def. Ian King 12.479/62.07

Steve goes quicker still, identical terminal speed to the last pass. Ian King threw a belt which is a real pity because he was on one up to that point.

Stay tuned and we will bring you the winners in all classes very shortly.

16:00

Top Methanol round two

Rob Turner 5.811/240.64 def. Steph Milam 6.791/214.29

Steph Milam was re-instated after the first round as Dennis Wratten had staged on the FC's bodywork, which is an infringement of the rules. Steph pulled a sizeable holeshot on Rob, but he quickly caught and overtook her. Congratulations to Turner Racing on another MSA Championship.

Dave Wilson 5.676/252.81 def. Lindsay Deuchar 9.975/68.18

Dave took no prisoners on this pass, a stunning run which reset his own track speed record. Dave gets lane choice in the final against Rob Turner.

There was a superb race in Pro Stock Bike earlier on when Nick Pepper and Dave Beck ran side-by-side 7.4s at 7.451 and 7.447 respectively. Super Modified racer Rob Smallworth stepped right up with a 7.594 at 176.47 in the semi-finals, Danny Cockerill's response in his bye was a 7.620 at a huge 177.87. The final will be a doozie!

We're up to our finals in all classes now but we are ahead of time so we are on a fifteen-minute break. Stay tuned and we will bring you all the final results as soon as they happen.

14:30

Top Methanol round one

Rob Turner 5.733/241.94 bye

A straight hard pass for Rob, no sign of tyre shake and lane choice in the next round.

Dennis Wratten 7.272/182.93 def. Steph Milam NTR

A red light came on in Steph's lane and Dennis was gone. It wasn't clear what happened, the consensus is that Steph rolled out of stage. Dennis ran another personal best with a very smooth-looking pass, he must be feeling more and more confident with each run.

Lindsay Deuchar 6.372/217.39 def. Doug Ripley 7.416/191.49

Before the pass Lindsay described himself as fair to...well, not very happy shall we say. He took the win and his team didn't look too unhappy. A new best for Doug and his team looked very pleased indeed.

Dave Wilson 5.837/251.40 bye

Doug Bond broke giving Dave a bye and the chance to test out a shake-avoiding tune-up. The car shook a little but was really moving in the last half of the track, another huge terminal speed.

Top Fuel Dragster match race round two

Andy Carter 12.729/68.39, Susanne Callin did not start

The CBD team could not get Susanne's car to fire despite a lot of work in a very short space of time. Andy went on a squirt to save parts and there was a hint of rain in the air. The CBD car stayed at the start line for another half hour or so with the crew working on it, but in the end the dragster was towed back to the pits. 2-0 to Andy.

Fuel Funny Car round one

Gordon Smith 5.576/226.13 def. Gary Page 11.051/69.77

Gordon and the Shockwave team had a point to prove and they made it very clear on this pass, a hard pass with just the tiniest bit of drift towards the top end. Gordon was off the throttle between 1100 and 1200 feet. Gary was going great guns until a burst panel blew and the relief plate flew into the air.

John Spuffard 10.218/84.91 bye

Spuff hit tyre shake off the line, pedalled at about 70 feet and then the rear slicks went up in smoke so he got off it and idled through. A big thumbs-up to crew member Lee who realised that he would be running into the photographers' lines of sight just as Spuff did his burnout, so he jumped the guardrail and ran down the service road instead. Thanks Lee!

Fuel Altered match race round three

Wendy Baker 7.622/193.97 def. Jim Seward 12.019/64.75

On the green Wendy Baker was away, one twitch towards the centre line but for a Fuel Altered a straight pass with a great terminal speed. Meanwhile in the other lane Jim Seward was all over the place in true FA style, hitting the centre line, getting off it then on again in an attempt to catch Wendy. 2-1 to Wendy!

14:00

You may have worked out from the long silence from this end that something was amiss. Unfortunately we had a huge accident here during Super Pro ET eliminations this morning when we had a two-car crash. John Parkinson's Every Penny Racing dragster turned hard right just after the finish line and flipped, also collecting Gary Malin's dragster as it rolled. The FAST team and the paramedics were there in moments and word soon came back that both drivers were OK, and were to be checked out at the track's medical centre. The same can't be said for both cars which have been destroyed.

For our friends in Greece, Filipp went out of Pro ET eliminations in round two when the car broke.

We've now had the first round of Fuel Funny Car and Top Methanol, and the latest rounds of the Top Fuel and Fuel Altered shoot-outs. Stay tuned and we'll bring you the results of those in about fifteen minutes.

10:30

Good morning and welcome again from Shakespeare County Raceway. It's race day and we're here to bring you all the news in association with www.americancarimports.com. The weather has thrown us another curveball, the morning dawned bright and sunny but then a weather front came over the track at about nine o'clock, it's cooled down and is overcast - but it's dry, that's the main thing.

A couple of raceday greetings, firstly to our US correspondents Ed O'Connell and Kathy Hileman whom we know are tuned in from New Hampshire, and also a big Hello to Steve and Jacky Young who dropped us a mail to say Hi. We'd also like to say hello to all the fans in Greece who are tuned in to check up on Filipp's progress, we'll keep you up to date.

We're on another early start this morning, eliminations started at 10:00 although we had the first round of a number of classes yesterday. We had a very quick visit to the very busy pits and managed to touch base with a few racers.

Greece's Filipp Papafilippou made it through the first round of Pro ET eliminations yesterday on his first ever outing in the Sierra. "I'm enjoying it a lot!", he said. "My Lotus in Greece has run 156 miles an hour, I thought this car would be like it, but it isn't yet!"

Andy Carter told us that his record-smashing 5.1/288 pass yesterday could have been even quicker. "I pedalled at about four hundred feet and then it really took off", he said. "It was the sort of shake when you know it's on the verge of smoking the tyres. It was great to get the track record back from Spuff, hopefully I'll do even better today". Andy is 1-0 up in the Top Fuel best of three against Susanne Callin, not for him the one-each-then-race-it-out strategy. "I want to get the next run to make it 2-0 and then we'll really load it up for the last one!"

In the North Herts Engineering Fuel FC pit, car owner Mark Hawkins didn't seem too bothered with the huge wheelie which Gary Page pulled in yesterday's second qualifying session. "You have to try hard, don't you, that's what it's all about!", he said. "I decided it wasn't going to come down", said Gary. "I thought it would just about make Mark's weekend if I'd hit the guardrail!". "It would have been a good 5.8 or 5.9 if it hadn't gone up", said Mark. The car has a new engine, uprated mags and a datalogger and yesterday was spent finding a baseline. "The logger is showing that everything is alright", said Gary. Gary has a smart new paintjob on his crash helmet which was executed by Mark Fossey. "Mark made a real nice job of it", said Gary.

The American Car Imports Top Methanol Dragster team spent a long while last night discussing today's strategy after suffering tyre shake yesterday. In the second pass the car threw a blower belt which Crew Chief Andy Bissett says was right on time. "Norm Drazy says that you should use a belt for ten runs and that was the tenth!", he said. "It looked like it was on a good one, too". The ACI team have a bye in today's first round after Doug Bond broke, and they will use the pass to test out a different set-up to cure the shake which they have been suffering this weekend. "You don't mind shake unless it gets uncontrollable or it does harm", said driver Dave Wilson.

We're now going trackside to get some pictures, stay tuned and we'll bring you news from eliminations. The first round of Top Methanol is due in a few minutes so don't go too far away.