Attention FIM Europe racers. 30th April: Geoff Myers of Trakbak Racing has been in touch with an important message for racers planning to contest this season's FIM European Drag Bike Championships: If you wish to be eligible for travel and prize fund payments you must have registered for the Championship not later than 30 days before the first round you wish to enter. You now have just 15 days in which to register for the Championship if you intend racing at Tierp Arena in June. If you do not register in time you will not be eligible for travel and prize payments. The dates below are also the final date on which entries at normal fee will be accepted by venues for each round of the Championship. Round Venue Date Registration and entry close 1 Tierp Arena, Sweden 13th-16th June 14th May 2 Alastaro Circuit, Finland 4th-7th July 4th June 3 Hockenheimring, Germany 9th-11th August 10th July 4 Santa Pod Raceway, UK 5th-8th September 8th August If you do not already have a registration form then you can download it at www.tgeurope.eu. If you have any queries then please contact me at geoff@tgeurope.eu. Vic Hammond's funeral. 29th April: Thanks to Sam Freeman for letting us know that Vic Hammond's funeral will take place at 12:45 on Monday 13th May at Breakspear Crematorium, Breakspear Road, Ruislip, Middlesex, HA4 7SB (map) and afterwards at the Clubhouse Sports Bar and Lounge at the Middlesex Stadium, Breakspear Road, Ruislip, Middlesex - which is two minutes away. "Vic's wishes were that anyone who was attending should wear whatever they wanted and felt comfortable in", says Sam. "Rather than flowers a donation to one of Vic's favourite charities would be appreciated at the funeral." Springspeed Nationals racer update. 29th April: Thanks to Shakespeare County Raceway for passing on details of the arrangements for the Springspeed Nationals, which takes place this Saturday-Monday (4th-6th May): Version 1 of the official entry list is now available and can be checked out by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com. The final version will be posted on Wednesday or Thursday. Racer tickets, along with final instructions, vehicle passes and scrutineering slips have now been sent out to every racer who submitted their entries before the close of the day last Friday. Anyone who has posted their entry since Friday will be able to collect their tickets on arrival at the main gate. If any crew member arrives before their racer then they must notify the track beforehand, or wait until their racer arrives at the track to gain entry. A maximum of four half price racer tickets will be available per team. These can only be purchased on arrival at the main gate on Friday and Saturday, or in advance by calling Rachel on 01789 414119 (outside the UK +44 1789 414119). Entry to the pits will commence at 12:00 on Friday. If racers wish to arrive on Friday morning, before the pit gate opens, then they are more than welcome to park up and wait. Please note that pit marshals will escort all racers to their designated pits, so please be patient if a queue develops on the entrance road into the pits. Anyone who pits incorrectly will be politely asked to move to their correct allocated pit space. Scrutineering will commence for both cars and bikes at approximately 17:00 on Friday. Scrutineering will resume at 08:00 on Saturday. Signing On will also open at this time. Saturday's running order will be posted here on Eurodragster.com later this week. Copies will be available in the Signing On office which will be open between 18:00 and 20:00-21:00 on Friday. There will be a riders' and drivers' meeting at 09:15 prompt on Saturday in the grandstand by the entrance to the pairing lanes. All riders and drivers must attend, or if busy then please send a representative. Shakespeare County Raceway and APIRA would like to thank all racers for their support for the meeting despite the low entry numbers, as well as being the second event in a very short period for some classes! If you have any queries about entry to the APIRA Springspeed Nationals, then please contact the Raceway office at enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk or call 01789 720180/414119 (outside the UK +44 1789 720180/414119). Big Bang results. 29th April: Congratulations to the winners of the weekend's Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway: Sportsman ET: Stephen Cherrett (19.30) 19.3673/69.05 def. Craig Wright (16.61) 16.8078/79.24 red Junior Dragster: Billy Everitt (8.29) 8.2709/77.72 b/o def. Belle Wheeler (13.55) 13.5064/46.53 b/o VW Pro: Dave Bridge (12.99) 13.2219/96.03 def. Matt Attwood (11.28) 22.2141/52.69 red VW Sportsman: Paul Day (19.10) 19.1384/69.37 def. Jason Anslow (16.50) 16.3578/79.10 b/o Outlaw Anglia: Colin Millar 7.9470/166.68 def. Cliff Griffin 7.8864/172.40 JDS Street: Andre Gysler 16.8331/76.55 bye 8.50 Bike: Robert Field 8.6631/146.73 def. Phil Bloomfield 8.6646/150.55 9.50 Bike: Joe Elliott 9.6281/135.23 def. Fred Furlong 9.5612/143.02 Congratulations also to Junior Dragster racer Belle Wheeler who won the £50 Eurodragster.com / Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award with a 0.000 Reaction Time in the first qualifying session. The Award has been reset to £50 for next weekend's Springspeed Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. The Eurodragster.com / Gold RV Perfect ET Award was not claimed and has been increased to £75 for the Springspeed Nationals. You can check out our Big Bang coverage, which is presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Swift snippets. 29th April: 17:50 Many thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us Version 9 of the official entry list for the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May. You can check out the FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Entry is still open although a Late Entry penalty may apply; you can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. We would like to wish a big Happy Birthday for today (Monday) to UK Junior Dragster racer Thaliah Gibb. Have a lovely day Thaliah. Malmö Test and Tune webcast. 28th April: Malmö Raceway is hosting a Test and Tune this weekend and you can stay in touch with events there at www.ustream.tv/channel/malmo-raceway. Swift snippets. 28th April: Many thanks to Dutch Supertwin racer Job Heezen for sending us pictures of his very pretty new bike The Side Winder. We look forward to seeing Job in action on his new ride at the FIA Main Event in a few weeks' time. Many thanks for the continued tributes to the late Vic Hammond, with which we will catch up when we return from Big Bang. You can check out Vic's tribute page by clicking here or by clicking on the Features, Interviews, Tributes link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. if you would like to send your own tribute to Vic then please E-Mail us at tributes@eurodragster.com. Springspeed Nationals entry. 27th April: Entry is still open for the APIRA Springspeed Nationals, which takes place at Shakespeare County Raceway next Saturday-Monday, on 4th-6th May. Entry forms in PDF format can be downloaded from the Downloads page of the Shakespeare County Raceway web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. You can check out Version 1 of the official Springspeed Nationals entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com. If you have any queries about Springspeed Nationals entry or about the event in general then please call 01789 720180 (outside the UK +44 1789 720180) or E-Mail enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. All ticket and advance ticket enquiries should be directed to 01789 414119. You're invited... 27th April: Jon Webster of Eurodragster.com sponsor Webster Race Engineering tells us that four places are available at a Private Test at Santa Pod Raceway this Monday (29th). If you are interested then please contact Webster Race Engineering via their Facebook page. Supertwin Gas racer Les Harris tells us that Top Gas UK has been formed to keep twin-cylinder Gas bikes out on the tracks. "Our first get together is at Santa Pod Raceway for the Test and Tune weekend on 18th-19th May", says Beardy. "Five racers have already signed up, anyone else with a twin gas bike running slick and bars and no nitrous is welcome to come along and join us. If we get enough support then next season we hope to make it a proper class". A Facebook page is being set up at Top Gas UK. A charity road rally will take place next Saturday, 4th May, starting from The Hill, Wollaston at 4:00 pm. As some race teams pass through the village on the way to Santa Pod it would be great to see some race cars either on show or taking part. Entry is £10 per car, either for show or rally. Cash raised will go to a local youth project, and a national charity such as Great Ormond Street Hospital. You don't need to pre-book, just turn up on the day. Turn into Wollaston from the A509 Wollaston roundabout, proceed up Cobbs Lane, and the venue is at the top. Swift snippets. 27th April: 08:50 The forthcoming Version 9 of the FIA Main Event entry list will finally confirm that Norway's Thomas Nataas will be driving the Andersen Racing Top Fuel Dragster. Eurodragster.com sponsor Karsten Andersen tells us that the team plan to campaign the entire FIA European Championship tour. Stay tuned for more. European fans have a duo to cheer on this weekend as ex-pat UK racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences and Sweden's Leif Andréasson are contesting Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car respectively at this weekend's O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals in Houston. You will be able to stay in touch with Mike's and Leif's progress courtesy of our Drag Race Central colleagues at www.dragracecentral.com. Good luck guys and stay safe. Web site updates. 27th April: The Mad Welshman has updated his Flickr site with pictures from last weekend's Public Track Weekend and VXR Four-Pot Challenge Day at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can check out Mad's pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/the_madwelshman. Braking news from Lucas Oil. 27th April: After a significant investment in product development, Eurodragster.com sponsor Lucas Oil is to supply synthetic brake fluid for disc and drum brake applications, for the first time. Products will be available on UK shelves from 1 May 2013. The move carries significant implications for motor factors, independent garages and retailers, says Lucas Oil Products (UK) Managing Director Les Downey: "This is a direct response to market demand and will allow certain motor factors to select Lucas Oil as their premium additive and lubricant supplier." For safety reasons, brake fluids must conform to specific performance criteria and the internationally accepted benchmark is US standard 116. Both DOT 3 and DOT 4 brake fluids are polyethylene glycol-based. Brake fluids that match the DOT 4 brake fluid criteria have higher dry and wet boiling points than those that which DOT 3. Lucas Oil's new brake fluid is the product of extensive research and development. It has been tested and proven under the most extreme conditions, with the help of an abundance of motorsport teams in a wide range of disciplines in track and rally events all over the world. The synthetic brake fluid range is launched with two alternative options: Lucas Oil Synthetic DOT 3 Brake Fluid is supplied in two separate sizes (354 and 934 ml) Lucas Oil Synthetic DOT 4 Brake Fluid is available in one size (934 ml size) Les Downey says the launch of the brake fluid has significant implications for the brand. "It's a good fit for our range and it makes us a more attractive option for those motor factors who already sourced some products from us, but had to go elsewhere for their brake fluids. There's no doubt the range and the brand is a stronger option as a result." Hockenheim gets laid. 26th April: NitrOlympX Race Director Jerry Lackey has been in touch with an update on the resurfacing of the Rico Anthes Quartermile at Hockenheim: On 4th April the road builders arrived at the Hockenheim track and started their repaving of 1000 feet of the Hockenheimring quarter mile. The 1000 feet ends at the corner of the Formula 1 surface as in the past and the remaining 320 feet will be treated as in the past as as well as an additional 150 metres of braking area. The work was completed on 11th April and in the picture below left Klaus Schwenninger, Director of Logistics, Erich Schenkenberger, Chief Starter, and I are having a look at the new surface in the rain. Above right is a glance at the surface and it is easy to see that the asphalt is a special mix with very few pores to fill with Trackbite and rubber. We have a new type of sled for treating virgin asphalt. The rubber buns for this machine have been specially manufactured by a leading tyre company in Germany and will be used to get the first many layers of rubber on the new surface. We have just received 250 new slicks from Hoosier Racing Tyres in Lakeville Indiana, we have ordered twenty barrels of VHT and we have on hand twenty buckets of Gold Dust and fifteen buckets of Track Spot. We are arranging for some top assistance and advice from two of the best in Europe at treating virgin tracks, Darren Prentice and Ian Marshall who just recently did a amazing job of getting the new virgin surface well-prepared at Santa Pod Raceway. We will now wait several weeks before we start to treat the new surface to allow it to air, which will help it to take Trackbite and loads of rubber. We are lucky that there is no F1 event in 2013, which will give us plenty of time and good weather to get the track into better than ever shape for top times and speeds. We will as in the past be inviting the FIA and FIM Europe Championship rounds back to Hockenheim and this year on a trial basis we will take a round of most of the EDRS classes in the hope that we can continue with EDRS in the future. We will also be taking a round of the newly formed European Nitro Funny Car Challenge in the hopes that this new Challenge will develop large fields in future. We have rounded up loads of new shows for our famous Nitro Night Show and we hope to welcome the same sold-out spectator numbers as in the past. We expect to have all the required entry documentation on our web site by 20th May. It will be found at www.nitrolympx.com under Racers Information. All in all we can truthfully say that we have spared no cost or effort to regain or excel our previous reputation, and we will welcome all riders and drivers when they return to one of the best venues in Europe. Swift snippets. 26th April: Today (Friday) is the closing date for standard-rate entry to the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May. Entry after today, if accepted, will be subject to a Late Entry penalty. You can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc, and you can check out the official FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Many thanks to Yvonne Tramm for forwarding us the post-Festival of Power standings in the Santa Pod Racers Club Championships. You can check out the SPRC points on our OCS Paint-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the OCS Paint Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Many thanks also to those who have already sent tributes to the late Vic Hammond. We have now set up a tribute page which you can check out by clicking here or by clicking on the Features, Interviews, Tributes link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. if you would like to send your own tribute to Vic then please E-Mail us at tributes@eurodragster.com. Our Alamo Rent A Car-sponsored coverage of Big Bang commences tomorrow; however the event starts today with Run What You Brung and our good buddies at Nitro FM will be broadcasting from Santa Pod Raceway from 9:00 this morning. You can tune in to Nitro FM at www.eurodragster.com/nitrofm or click on the Nitro FM logo at right. European fans have a duo to cheer on this weekend as ex-pat UK racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences and Sweden's Leif Andréasson are contesting Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car respectively at this weekend's O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals in Houston, which starts today. Top Alcohol qualifying takes place at 17:00 UK / 18:00 European and 20:00 UK / 21:00 European and you will be able to stay in touch with Mike's and Leif's progress courtesy of our Drag Race Central colleagues at www.dragracecentral.com. Good luck guys and stay safe. Old Skool Ford Round 1 review. 26th April: Jo Peters writes that Round 1 of the Old Skool Ford Drag Challenge took place at Santa Pod Raceway last Sunday in sun which shone all weekend: We had a total of ninteen entrants although there were some breakages during practice on Saturday which meant that those few cars could not run on the Sunday, but they did gain attendance points at the start of their race for the title. The track was well-prepped and our racers found the shiny new surface at Santa Pod was pulling in the PBs and as RS Central Day was mostly for the Show and Shine boys it meant our racers got plenty of runs in. First place went to Rich Savage in his X-Flow powered MK1 Escort, second place went to Glenn Jefferson in his MK1 Escort Mexico - he had started the day with a broken Quaife shaft which he replaced - and third place to OSFDC newbie Colin Brick in his 302 Small Block powered MK3 Capri. Sadly, Rich Savage's day ended on a bum note with a small fire in the engine bay due to a snapped fuel rail at the finish line. Luckily the Santa Pod marshals were straight on it and put the fire out before it went too far. Rich hopes to have the car sorted by Round 3 in June. Round 2 is at Santa Pod on Sunday 12th May, during Street National weekend.  As always, full coverage of each round can be found at www.oldskoolford.co.uk and in Classic Ford magazine next month! Tethys goes TMD. 25th April: When we last heard from the UK's Tethys, he had just returned from Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School in the USA clutching a Top Alcohol licence and was considering his options for 2013. Tethys' name popped up in Top Methanol Dragster in yesterday's Version 7 of the FIA Main Event entry list; the motor size of 421 ci greatly narrowed down the identity of his ride which turns out to be Dave Wilson's 5.2-second injected-nitro dragster. Eurodragster.com spoke to Tethys to get the lowdown. "When I came home from America I spoke to various people", said Tet. "Discussions to drive a couple of cars from other European countries fizzled out but then late last year I spoke to Dave Wilson. He is rather more convenient since he is fifty miles away from me rather than thousands. I sat in the car to make sure that it all fit and we reached an agreement in principle, but it has really all started to come together in the last few weeks. I have been rushing around getting an FIA race number and an MSA International Licence, which is not a trivial matter. Luckily the NHRA licence which I earned at Hawley's is good for European competition because NHRA is an FIA-affiliated organisation. That means that I won't have to relicence here - I can just get on with it. There are other things to organise such as safety kit since my existing firesuit and helmet were adequate for Super Pro ET but not for Top Methanol." The plan is to make familiarisation passes at the pre-FIA Main Event Test Weekend and then to test at the Pro Racer Test Day before contesting the FIA Main Event. "I hope to have beaten my Personal Best of 6.08 in licencing by the end of the first session of testing", said Tet. "A decision about future races will be taken after the Main Event. It's a big step but I've done a few years of being sensible with money so now I'm going to live a bit!" Tet's Capri, which has been into Eurodragster.com sponsor Webster Race Engineering for back half work, will also be in action at the FIA Main Event where his partner Ferret will be driving it in Pro ET. Swift snippets. 25th April: 16:55 Many thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us Version 8 of the official entry list for the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May. You can check out the FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Entry at standard rates closes tomorrow (Friday; you can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Many thanks to those who have already sent tributes to the late Vic Hammond. We will post Vic's dedicated tribute page when we get back to base this evening. If you would like to send your own tribute to Vic then please E-Mail us at tributes@eurodragster.com. European fans have a duo to cheer on this weekend as ex-pat UK racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences and Sweden's Leif Andréasson are contesting Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car respectively at the O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals in Houston, which starts tomorrow (Friday). Top Alcohol qualifying takes place tomorrow at 17:00 UK / 18:00 European and 20:00 UK / 21:00 European and you will be able to stay in touch with Mike's and Leif's progress courtesy of our Drag Race Central colleagues at www.dragracecentral.com. Good luck guys and stay safe. We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to Maikel Gloudemans of our streaming service provider Doyousee.me. Have a great day M@ik and thanks in advance for your efforts this weekend. Nyström accepts Speedgroup rôle. 25th April: Former Pro Mod racer Kristian Nyström has been assigned as Speedgroup's general representative and contact in Finland. Kristian says "I have been involved in drag racing since 1994 and in Pro Mod between 2006 and 2012. We took a decision amongst the team last year that the end of the 2012 season was the right time to quit. The main reason was lack of time and also the difficulty to find sponsorship. So no more racing for me, and the car is sold. I have made many friends throughout Europe thanks to drag racing and I am extremely proud to have been involved in making the sport more and more well-known over the years. I have monitored Speedgroup's work in European drag racing and their professional success and Speedgroup's operation have interested me. During the winter Speedgroup's coordinator Åsa Kinnemar asked if I would be interested to become involved as the general contact in Finland. "The question came up again last week. I thought for a only brief while and a few days back I accepted the assignment. I have been provided an E-Mail address at kristian.nystrom@speedgroup.eu. I am honoured to take on this assignment and will be happy to provide information to teams in Finland, to listen to their feedback, and to take feedback to the EDRS workgroup and Speedgroup management. I look forward seeing you soon and keep up the good work all of you!" Speedgroup Co-ordinator Åsa Kinnemar explains "We wanted to assign a dedicated representative in Finland for quite a while, as we have in a few other countries in Europe. We have good relations with the Finnish Hot Rod Association and with many of the teams, but as Finland is a very important country for drag racing we feel it would be valuable in both the short and the long term to have someone paying a bit of extra attention to the Finnish teams and matters related to drag racing in Finland.   "When I found out that Kristian was not going to race, it felt like the most natural thing to ask him to get involved and I am sure that he will be an asset for Speedgroup in many ways. Just the fact that he can assist Finnish teams in their own language, beside speaking English and Swedish, is a huge benefit which we have been lacking before. "I personally also asked Kristian to keep an eye on the Pro Modified class of which he has been part for so long, and to provide some expert comment and do some research which I think will make a difference when we report about the Pro Mod class from Championship events. We encourage Finnish teams and other parties involved in drag racing based in Finland to contact Kristian any time about drag-racing related matter where Speedgroup can assist." Speedgroup contacts in other other countries: Germany: gittli.koller@speedgroup.eu The Netherlands: remco.scheelings@speedgroup.eu Norway: trond.host@speedgroup.eu and lin.granlund@speedgroup.eu Vic Hammond. 24th April: We were shocked and very sorry to hear from Sam Freeman that UK Comp Altered racer and blown-alcohol slingshot owner Vic Hammond has passed away. Sam tells us that Vic's wife Freda and daughters Vicki and Kelly were at his bedside. Vic Hammond seemed to have been around the UK drag racing scene forever. Our first encounter with Vic was in the 1970s as driver of the Mr Big Comp Altered in the 1970s and it was great to see him return as owner of the class record-holding Speed Demon blown-alcohol slingshot driven by Sam in the Supercharged Outlaws. Vic was a very friendly and very funny guy who if he was not laughing himself was making the rest of us laugh. Our deepest sympathies to Freda, Vicki and Kelly, to Sam, and to all of Vic's family and friends. If you would like to send a tribute to Vic then please E-Mail us at tributes@eurodragster.com and we will put together a tribute page. Event entry update. 24th April: Entry is still open for the APIRA Springspeed Nationals, which takes place at Shakespeare County Raceway on 4th-6th May. Entry forms in PDF format can be downloaded from the Downloads page of the Shakespeare County Raceway web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. If you have any queries about Springspeed Nationals entry or about the event in general then please call 01789 720180 (outside the UK +44 1789 720180) or E-Mail enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. All ticket and advance ticket enquiries should be directed to 01789 414119. Entry is also open for the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May. Standard rate entry closes this Friday (26th); entry after Friday, if accepted, will be subject to a Late Entry penalty. You can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc, and you can checkout Version 7 of the FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. If you have any queries about FIA Main Event entry then please contact Ian Marshall at SPRC on 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625) or E-Mail paula.marshall@btconnect.com or ir.marshall@btconnect.com. Swift snippets. 24th April: We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to Team Heaven & Hell Pro ET team member and Honorary Eurodragster.com Staff Member Colin Roaf. Have a great day Colin. Steele returns to his roots. 23rd April: Phil Steele, Chairman of the National Sprint Association who has competed in quarter mile events for nearly forty years, is returning to his mid-1970s roots at the Springspeed Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway over the early May Bank Holiday. Phil started racing in the Street class, which run as an ET class, in 1976 and will be riding Keith Parnell's old bike the Parny Express in the ET Bike class at the Springspeed event. The Parny Express which has been used for sprinting, top speed flyers and in Phil's hands 9.50 Bike at permit meets at Shakespeare County Raceway over the last couple of seasons. Littlecherub Racing, Phil and wife Julie's racing team, are heading to Speed Week at Bonneville in 2014 to fulfil Phil's fifty-year dream of racing on the sale, so this year they will only race at selected events including the Springspeed Nationals and Open Sport Nationals. As well Team LCR's historic ride, NSA Southern Champion Jasper Joy will be bringing his Trident-powered Mickey Taker bike, the former ride of NDRC stalwart Mike Taylor. Both Phil and Jasper think that ET Bike will be a boost to drag bike racing in the UK, if plenty of entries are forthcoming, as a real mixed bag of bikes will be able to compete. For more information about ET Bike check out the ET Bike Facebook page or E-Mail Tony Smith at cunningplan@btinternet.com. Outlaws kick off with a Bang. 23rd April: This weekend's Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway is the season opener for the UK's Outlaw Anglias. Paul Wright writes: There are seven cars entered including the début of Simon Barlow's Fordson van in familiar orange hue. That's not to say that other racers have been taking it easy over the winter; three-time reigning champ Cliff Griffin's supercharged ride is bristling with upgrades and Colin Millar has had the body off taking moulds, after his scare at last year's Dragstalgia. Steve Wells hasn't even had the winter to carry out his work as some engine damage at Easter has forced an impromptu rebuild to his super-quick Rover-powered pick-up. Jedd Guy has added a new rear wing to the Guy Brothers' Anglia. Rob Stone was back on form towards the end of last year and is hoping to continue in the same vein, whilst Mark Bracking has had the polish out to cut down on drag. If you're a fan of heads-up racing come along to Santa Pod this weekend or to Shakespeare County Raceway for Round 2 at next weekend's Springspeed Nationals, or even better both! Cool on a hot day. 23rd April: Chris Emms of Cool Green Racing writes that Saturday at Santa Pod Raceway was a bit like déjà vu: More than ten years ago we hired a Stock Junior Dragster from Geof Hauser and Ricky completed his licencing runs at Santa Pod, and we all know what happened next. This time it was slightly different: Ricky was Crew Chief and our eight-year-old daughter Summer the driver under tuition. After a very nervous start in the play pen (anybody remember that), Summer took to driving the Santa Pod Raceway stock car very well under Ricky's expert guidance. She made five runs in total and achieved a best of sixteen seconds over 38 mph. The very hot weather and lack of wind made the car struggle for air and the track temperature was also very high. I would like to say a very big Thank You to Ian, Darren and all the patient fire crew, Carol, Holleym Steve and Mathew, and Crunch. Everybody could not have been nicer and even Thomas Nataas watched us run - cool! Ricky can't wait to drive the Fuel Altered and Summer the Stock Dragster... full workload or what? Swift snippets. 23rd April: 16:50 Many thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us Version 6 of the official entry list for the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May. You can check out the FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Entry at standard rates closes this Friday (26th); you can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Many congratulations to UK Outlaw Street racer Rob Slater who made a great start to the season at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend. "The conditions were fantastic on Saturday and after a Personal Best on a no nitrous pass I ran 9.95 with a shot of gas kindly offered by fellow Outlaw Street racer Andy Murton", says Rob. "The car feels much stiffer on the launch after the work at Hauser Race Cars." Lena Perés writes that ME Racing Service is now stocking Docol R8 tubing, a new high-strength steel tubing to complement chromoly and finally being rolled out by the SSAB tube mill in Borlänge. "Not every variety has been made yet, but most racing tubing should be in stick in some weeks", says Mats Eriksson. "We have five varieties in stock at the moment", adds Lars Göran Eriksson, "but the list will be growing. So check out our web site at www.meracing.com for prices and what's coming in. We will do our best to answer questions and give as much service as we can." FIM and ACU UK Top Fuel Bike Champion Ian King would be pleased to hear from any European racer who is, or knows of anyone who is, bringing a container back to Europe from the US in the near future and who would be able to accommodate ten Top Fuel Bike slicks in return for a contribution to the logistics costs. If you can help then please contact Ian at ian@kingracing.com or telephone 07785 341099 (outside the UK +44 7785 341099). Big Bang coverage. 23rd April: Eurodragster.com will be at this weekend's Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway to bring you all the news in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car. Our coverage will include real-time reports on Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's qualifying and eliminations together with photo galleries at the end of Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately there will be no pit notes this weekend as Simon is unable to attend. The Webster Race Engineering / Nimbus Motorsport webcam will be on-line and will broadcast live video and commentary / Nitro FM audio so long as the track is open on Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to Maikel and the guys at Doyousee.me for the provision of streaming services. We will post a direct Home Page link to our coverage as soon as it commences but in the meantime you can check out our Big Bang coverage index, which includes the official entry list and provisional running orders, by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Big Bang racer update. 22nd April: Many thanks to Ian Marshall for passing us the arrangements for this weekend's Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway. Santa Pod Raceway's gates will be open between 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm this Thursday (25th), and will then reopen for the weekend at 9:00 am on Friday. Signing on will open at 8:00 am on Saturday and Sunday. Car scrutineering will commence at 8:00 am on Saturday with no specific class order. Bike scrutineering will begin at 8:30 am on Saturday again with no specific class order. Saturday's and Sunday's provisional running orders are now available and can be checked out by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Please note that as ever these running orders are subject to change due to weather or track conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by race officials. Swift snippets. 22nd April: Many thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us Version 5 of the official entry list for the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May. You can check out the FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Entry at standard rates closes this Friday (26th); you can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. New sponsors for Gulf Oil TFB. 21st April: The King Racing managed Gulf Oil – Grand Prix Originals Top Fuel Bike team is proud to welcome four new partners to their team of blue-chip associates for their 2013 season campaign. Nexus Underwriting Management Ltd is a private equity backed Managing General Agency established in March 2010 who provide first class support services to underwriting subsidiaries. Web-Cam have been in the camshaft industry since 1945. Their knowledge and constant R&D has helped racers win Championships and set world records. Their support for Top Fuel Bikes is peerless. Supertough are part of the Baskey group and are fast gaining an unparalleled reputation for the highest quality and toughest bespoke cases and covers for use in the TV, Film, Music and Motorsport Industries. Spies Hecker is the world's leading supplier of paint for car, commercial and industrial finishing. The company began developing paints in 1882, and built its reputation on the high quality of its products and is now the number one name for car paints. These new companies join our existing team of blue chip partners and bring their own market leading services and products into the world of the quickest, fastest and most powerful motorcycles in motorsport. The team would like to thank Bell Helmets UK (Putoline) and Kent Camshafts for their invaluable support over the last years and wish them well for the future. The team start their season of events this weekend at the world renowned Meilenwerk in Stuttgart, Germany where both static and burnout displays are planned. It is the renowned centre that covers the whole spectrum of classic, stylish and exclusive motoring, whether by vintage or collector's car, motorbikes or boats. Meilenwerk combines professional companies where they can be acquired or sold, rented, restored or serviced. Service providers and retailer offer everything which is required for this hobby – or that which can enrich it. Gentlemen drivers have the opportunity to park and store their exclusive motor cars in special glass boxes. The restaurants, lounges, event and club areas at each Meilenwerk are recognised nationwide as meeting points for "petrol talk" between tenants, customers and visitors. The team is to defend its Championship Crown the FIM European Drag Racing Championship and selected invited events across Europe in 2013: FIM European Drag Bike Championship Round 1 - Tierp Arena  (Sweden), 13th-16th June Round 2 - Alastaro (Finland), 4th-7th July Round 3 - Hockenheimring (Germany), 9th-11th August Round 4 - Santa Pod Raceway (UK), 5th-8th September FIM European Invitational Santa Pod Raceway (UK), 25th – 27th May Goodwood Festival of Speed Goodwood (UK) 12th – 14th July The team is extremely proud to be supported by many leaders in their chosen markets in their successful challenges for the 2013 European and UK Championships: APE - The world's most innovative manufacturer of aftermarket parts for drag bikes Action Cameras - Europe's leading source for action sports cameras Cometic Gaskets - The premier manufacturer of racing gaskets Gates - The world's most trusted name in drive belts, hoses and hydraulics Goodridge - The original and the best in fluid transfer systems Grand Prix Originals - The brand for drive and lifestyle, past and present Gulf Oil International - The world's most iconic brand in automotive fuels and lubricants Hotrod Hangar– Home of the world renowned custom artist Knud Tiroch Hyperpro - The leading producer of progressive suspension products for motor bikes JE Pistons - The world's premier manufacturer of high performance forged pistons Kibblewhite Precision Machining, Inc -The highest quality valve train components on the market King Racing - The most successful Top Fuel Bike team in European drag racing history Mickey Thompson Tyres - Simply the best drag race tyres in the world 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 NitroShutter - Europe's leading drag racing photo-journalists NCT Engineering - Manufacturer of the world's leading non contact torque sensors for motorsport Nexus Underwriting Management - First class support services to underwriting subsidiaries NGK Spark Plugs UK - The world's number one spark plug manufacturer Pär Willen - Master webmeister and proprietor of HarleyDrags.com Portable Shade - The best custom branded collapsible canopies available Pro Alloy Motorsport - UK's leader in fabrication of alloy racing tanks, intercoolers and radiators Puma Engineering - Manufacturers of the world's most powerful motorcycle engines RSG Customize - The UK's most creative website designers and vinyl artists Supertough - Custom cases and covers for the Film, TV, Music and Motorsports Industries Spies Hecker - the world's leading supplier of paint for car, commercial and industrial finishing 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 Zodiac - Europe's largest supplier of performance and aftermarket HD parts For more information on King Racing, visit www.kingracing.com. Big Bang Perfect Awards. 21st April: Next weekend's Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway is the second event in the 2013 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards Scheme. £100 is on offer for perfect performance. The Eurodragster.com / Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Super Pro ET racer Jayne Kay at the Festival of Power. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available to racers in all classes during qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £75 for the Springspeed Nationals; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for the Springspeed Nationals. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with UK Pro ET team Bad Habit Racing (Tig and Cath Napier). 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 / Gold RV Perfect ET Award has also been reset to £50 after it was won by Pro ET racer Ian Brown at the Festival of Power. The Perfect ET Award is available this weekend during qualifying or eliminations in VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Sportsman ET, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster (eliminations only), 9.50 Bike and 8.50 Bike, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Run of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £75 for the Springspeed Nationals; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for the Springspeed Nationals. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with RV sales and service specialists Gold RV. For more details about the services which Gold RV can provide see Derek Flynn or visit www.goldrv.co.uk. To be eligible to collect the Perfect ET Award, racers are required to carry scheme decals (right), one on each side of the vehicle. If you pull this weekend's first Perfect ET but are not carrying decals then there will be no discussion; we will not pay out and the next person to pull a Perfect ET will get the money assuming that they are carrying decals. Eurodragster.com / Gold RV Perfect Award decals will be available in Signing On this weekend. Web site updates. 21st April: In the latest instalment in his Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, Santa Pod Raceway Track Announcer Colin Theobald describes a day on the track. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. A National Team for Norway. 19th April: Tor Erik Westbye writes to announce the Norwegian National Dragrace Team: The five bike racers have been chosen for the National Team on their results in last year's UEM European Drag Bike Championships, all finishing within the top tens in their classes, and believe it or not they are all from the same drag bike club: Hawgs Racing in Toten. The members of the National Team will compete in the 2013 FIM European Drag Bike Championships, Nordic Challenge, and Norwegian National Championship and some of the team plan to contest a couple of races in the USA. Jan Sturla Hegre will be testing a new Norwegian Top Fuel Bike in the FIM Championship in 2013. This bike has been under construction for the last four years, and will be something never before seen in Europe never. In addition Jan Sturla will ride his own Supertwin at selected races. Jan Sturla is Europe's youngest rider in Supertwin and Top Fuel Bike, but has finished in the top ten in the UEM Championships in the last three seasons. Jan Sturla's goals for 2013 are to break 400 kmh on the Top Fuel Bike and to win the Norwegian Championship. Kenneth Vik has been a part of the Veidec Pro Stock Bike team for four years and this year is looking forward to an exciting season fully focused on the FIM European Championship. Kenneth is currently the only Pro Stock Bike rider in Norway and during testing last year set an unofficial speed record at Gardermoen Raceway. Kenneth's goal for 2013 is to finish in the top three of the FIM European Championship. Svein Olav Rolfstad started his career in 1993 and has competed in the UEM Supertwin Championship since 2000. He has competed in the USA twice, most recently in 2012. Last year he broke a European record which had stood since 2004. Svein Olav's goal for 2013 is to make is Top Fuel Harley the world's fastest. Hans Olav Olstad came out with a new Supertwin for the 2012 season, it's a beast of a bike and we have never seen anything like it. Last season was spent sorting out minor issues and at the last race of the season he showed us that the 2013 season will bring a lot of fun. Hans Olav's goals for 2013 are new PBs and fighting at the top of the FFIM European, Nordic, and Norwegian Championships. Trond Jostein Høiberget made his début in 2008 and have been at the top of Supertwin since he started in the class in 2009. He has only been drag racing for six years, but has still won both Nordic and Norwegian Championships in his short career. Trond's goals for 2013 are top 3 finishes in the Norwegian and Nordic Championships, new PBs, and to contest selected races in the FIM European Championships. The Norwegian National Dragrace Team is managed by: Pål Magnussen: Pål works at Norges Motorsportforbund and won a Bachelor in Motorsport Management degree in 2013. He has been in motorsport his whole life. In 2009 Pål made the movie Svidd Gummi, a documentary about drag racing. Egil Johnsrud: Emil has been an active member of Hawgs Racing for twenty tears. He has been a Chief Starter in Norway and Europe for twenty years. He is a Jury Chief and responsible for starters. He holds all FIM and Norwegian licences. Lin Granlund: Lin is the Branch contact for the riders in the Drag Bike division of the NMF, and has been active in Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen for twelve years. Lin is responsible for Junior dragbike in the European Dragracing Series and holds FIM licences for Jury, Technical and Clerk of the Course. Tor Erik Westbye: Tor Erik has more than ten years' experience in drag racing, both car and bike. He has been a Supertwin Team Manager for several years. He has a National licence as Clerk of the Course and is now permanent starter at Gardermoen Raceway. If you would be interested in sponsoring or getting involved in the Norwegian National Dragrace Team then you can read a full presentation (PDF format) by clicking here or E-Mail paal@nmfsport.no. Swift snippets. 19th April: With the first Swedish National Championship event of 2013 on 11th-12th May Tierp Arena have just weeks to get ready. Preparation for the season is in full swing all over Europe but right now the work differs between the European Championship tracks. Tierp Arena CEO Lars Erik Lindberg says "We're really glad to be able to follow the work on the resurfacing of both Santa Pod and Hockenheim. For the last few weeks we have been fighting to get rid of ice and snow from our track!". You can enter the season opener and several other EDRS Series events at www.dragracing.eu. Jo Peters writes that the first of seven rounds of the 2013 Old Skool Ford Challenge takes place at Santa Pod Raceway this weekend. "This round coincides with RS Central Day", says Jo. "The series, now in its eighth year, is once again receiving full coverage in Classic Ford magazine. Everyone with an old skool Ford is welcome to take part and more information is available at www.oldskoolford.co.uk. A report from the first round will be submitted to Eurodragster.com next week (Thanks in advance - Ed)." If you are going to join the Eurodragster.com team at Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway next weekend then discounted advance ticket sales are closing at 17:00 UK time today (Friday), after which tickets will only be available on the gate at full price. To book your tickets visit www.santapod.com or call 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828). Attention FIM racers. 18th April: Geoff Myers of Trakback Racing has been in touch with a reminder for racers intending on contesting either the FIM European Super Street Bike Cup round or the FIM Invitational for Top Fuel Bike, Supertwin and Pro Stock Bike at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May: Next Wednesday, 24th April, is the fast-approaching deadline for teams wishing to register for the FIM Europe European Cup for Super Street Bike in time to compete at the FIA Main Event. Registration forms can be downloaded at www.tgeurope.eu. Any SSB racer requiring additional information on registration can contact me at geoff@tgeurope.eu. Wednesday 24th April is also the closing date for entries for the Invitational race for Top Fuel Bike, Supertwin and Pro Stock Bike which will also take place at the FIA Main Event. Entry forms can be downloaded at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Calling ET Bikers. 18th April: There was a very good initial response to Shakespeare County Raceway's proposed ET Bike Bracket announced in February. Racers and others were saying positive things about the idea - a Sportsman and Pro ET bracket for the bikes - however, with only two weeks to go before the APIRA Springspeed Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, that initial good response has generated a very poor entry. "We never expected the entry to be big for the first event, but if the entries don't start coming in then we will have to have a rethink and for the first meeting run both classes as one" says APIRA's Tony Smith. Entry will stay open until Wednesday 1st May, and there will be a limited number of one-event licences available. Riders can download the entry form (PDF format) by clicking here. For more information check out the ET Bike Facebook page or E-Mail Tony Smith at cunningplan@btinternet.com. Decision made! 18th April: Swedish Pro Modified racer and ADRL Pro Modified Championship leader Adam Flamholc says that he has decided to leave his blown Camaro in the USA: After discussions with our sponsors we have decided to keep the Pro Mod in the US and to do all the remaining ADRL events. Its gonna be tough both economically and timewise, but right now we are number one in points and we have a well-running race car and a great team! Thanks to our sponsors on the Pro Mod car: Hurst Boiler and Welding, Cleanpipe, Autoshop, Performance Plus, and welcome to new sponsor 5 Day Plantation Shutters who are providing us with a Toterhome to pull the trailer. Sponsors on our Top Methanol Funny Car are Amalie Oil, JA IT Hjälp, Custom Graphics and Malmö Motor Renovating (MMR). Swift snippets. 18th April: Many thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us Version 4 of the official entry list for the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May. You can check out the FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. You can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. McLean into the eights. 18th April: With new bikes, a new team and a new set-up, UK 8.50 Bike racer John McLean Jr arrived at Santa Pod Raceway with a good bit of optimism for Festival of Power weekend: We decided that we needed to run at Friday's test day as my bike still needed some setting up. Senior's bike was running pretty well last year so we knew that that was good to go. It was lucky that we took this decision, as otherwise we would have been packing up Sunday morning. The recent weather meant we that had no testing done whatsoever, so turning up with a brand new untested bike would be a gamble. We prepped the bike and got down to the line as the track opened and that what was when our optimism slowly walked out the door. The bike misfired the whole way up the track, to a 12.3/86. We towed back to the pits and after some searching we found a possible problem with an earth wire. Back out for the next run and the same again, so I shut off mid track so that I didn't damage the new motor. A fourteen something, not a great start. Back at the trailer we finally managed to find and isolate the problem and now the bike was starting to sound a bit better. The next run was slightly better, 10.56/106 but now the bike was backfiring going up and felt like it was running out of fuel. Back at the trailer with the bike in bits we got a good indication that the bike was running lean, not helped by the bitter cold weather either. We upjetted the carbs quite significantly to get it safe and so that we could move back if we needed to. Up to the burnout box and the bike sounded noticeably better. Up to the line, staged and launched, the bike spluttered up to the 330 foot mark due to being too rich low down, but then cleared its throat and took off, running only a 10.4 but with speed above 135 mph we knew we were on the right track. After a quick play with the carbs to lean it off at the bottom of the rev range, we went up for what would be our last run of the day. By this time I was getting used to the new slider clutch, something I had never used before. On the next run I got a good solid launch with a poor (for me) 1.51 sixty foot time although a slight splutter getting off the line but the bike got down the track faultlessly to a 9.35/140. This was with only thirty degrees ignition. Now that we knew the bike ran, we could start putting some ignition back into it. On Saturday we woke up in a good mood, ready for qualifying. We made no changes made to the bike overnight, we decided to run it and tune it between runs. We went down for Q1 and the bike had reverted to popping and banging down the track like a firework display. With an 11.27/108 it wasn't the start we wanted. This was now slightly worrying as the weather was obviously playing a much bigger part in our tune than we had at first realised. The snow flurries came and went and that would be the only run we would make that day. We worked into the night on Saturday changing spark plugs, putting some more ignition timing in and going through the bike making sure that there were no other issues which we had overlooked. We also checked the clutch and made a few tweaks. In Q2 I was paired up against Jake Mechaell which would give me a good indication on how far off the pace I was. The bike was sounding very good now, dug in on the launch and ran a 1.41 sixty foot, clicked into second, short shifted into third and then I couldn't get fourth, shutting off way before the 1000 foot marker. I ran through with a 9.34/123. Although a bit gutted, I was very pleased as the bike was pulling 134 mph 1000 feet while off the throttle which meant that the new motor was very strong. When we looked for the reason for the missed shift, nothing jumped out at us, so we put it down to lack of air pressure. In Q3 and the bike launched very hard, with a PB sixty foot of 1.37, but then I couldn't get any gears other than first. It was only when my Crew Chief Ady came back to the pits with a handful of bits and said "Do you know what this is from?" that I realised the reason for the missed fourth gear in Q2 - the airshifter kill valve had somehow dismantled itself, I still can't work out how. That was qualifying over with, and we decided to double check everying as we would be into eliminations the next day. The back tyre was completely shot but after hearing I would be against reigning Champion Mick Winyard in the first round we decided not to change it as we were certain we would be going out. We would just go out, and try to get in another good run in. In round one, the bike spun up off the line losing nearly two tenths in sixty feet but still pulled hard and we got a full box of gears... and Mick hadn't come by yet. I went over the line with a 9.29/144 having shut off just before the line in disbelief to look over my shoulder, I'd won. The next problem was that I was now against Martin Wilson whom I had just watched run a perfect 8.500 in round one. We didn't have time to change the tyre, and we hadn't even run an eight yet. Between the crew we decided to check the nitrous system again and again to make sure it was good to use as this would be the first time on gas with this motor. We only had 80 hp jets in as we had hoped to have run an eight on the motor by now, but we could only try our best. We were called up for round two and we had everything armed. The winner of this round would have a bye into the final. Burnout done, into stage and launch, I spun again on the launch losing nearly two tenths again, but going up the track. I kept looking over to see and it was neck and neck, but Martin just crept ahead at the finish line. Looking at the timing ticket I was in the lead until 1000 feet then the power of the turbo bike just got the better of me. But my bike had run 8.84/157, the first eight of the season and a PB speed. I had only lost by 0.0600, who knows what would have happened if we had a new tyre. Lesson learned. As a team we are very proud of what we achieved in our first ever event. We wereleft drained after the weekend, but positive about the year ahead. Bringing a brand new untested bike to an event was always going to be a challenge, one which we accepted and one from which we have learned and on which we can can build. I would like to personally thank my Crew Chief Adrian Cattell, John Senior my dad and team mate, Andy Trigg and Mum Mclean for all the help / advice / food / tea / coffee etc they provided all weekend. Thanks also to Stuart Crane, Dave Brader, Dale Leeks and the rest of the Warpspeed Racing crew for the help and advice they gave leading up to and throughout the event. Thank you also to the Santa Pod crew who did an amazing job of the track and keeping things going all weekend and to all the other racers who made us feel welcome into the pits. Stratford or bust. 18th April: Shakespeare County Raceway are looking for a couple of race vehicles (cars and bikes), hot rods and Nostalgia Drag Bikes for display in the centre of Stratford-Upon-Avon on the weekend of 5th-6th May. If you are not contesting the Springspeed Nationals that weekend then this might be for you. Organised by Stratforward, the inaugural Stratford Festival of Motoring  is a two-day celebration featuring over two hundred classic and special interest vehicles to be displayed throughout the historic town. Event organiser Adrian Grubb of Stratforward says "The Stratford Festival of Motoring promises something for everyone with at least a drop of petrol running through their veins. And what better way to spend part of Mayday Bank Holiday than in the picture-perfect location that is Stratford-upon Avon, surrounded by fascinating vehicles and fellow motoring enthusiasts? (apart from watching Championship drag racing at Shakey of course - Ed)" Much interest has already been shown in the event by enthusiasts with vehicles from the veteran, Edwardian, vintage, PVT and classic eras, whilst by contrast some of the world's most famous modern supercars will be on display. "This will be a great marketing opportunity to present to the general public visiting Stratford about what drag racing and what goes on at nearby Shakespeare County Raceway", says Jerry Cookson. "Not only will the Festival be the perfect platform to showcase our vehicles but they will also fit in with the historical element of the event." Anyone who is interested in displaying is asked to get in touch with the Raceway on 01789 720180 or E-Mail enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. Although it won't be possible to leave vehicles unattended in the Town Centre on Sunday night, overnight concessions can be arranged at the Raceway for a return visit to the Town Centre on Bank Holiday Monday. Micallef's weekend of firsts. 16th April: Many thanks to Malta Drag Racing Association Secretary Jason Camilleri for sending us a report on Duncan Micallef's outing in Top Fuel Dragster at the Festival of Power: The Festival of Power was an all-new weekend for many reasons. For example, the track had been resurfaced and until that weekend there hadn't been much going on due to bad weather, and Duncan decided to have a new all-Maltese crew. This crew performed extremely well for their first meeting. Raymond Debono took care of all clutch-related servicing while Mark Farrugia and John Cassar handled the cylinder heads with the help of Adrian Busutill who is an all-rounder and a very useful person, and Franco Pace had bottom end duty while Duncan was concentrating on how to get down the track in the chilly conditions. Joe Ghiller supervised the new crew with very helpful instructions from Rune Fjeld's crew. Duncan briefed the new crew about what would take place during the weekend and what they would encounter, which was very professional preparation as it gave the team a clear view on how things would run. After fitting new stickers and decals to the Telephone Box car which included the addresses of the newly-designed web site www.duncanmicallef.com and Facebook page the crew got their hands on the car to prepare for the run. The first run looked quite smooth but Duncan had a fogged helmet visor. He couldn't make the full run and shut off early but he still showed his immense determination for the weekend. Duncan explained that for the majority of the run he couldn't see anything and practically had his eyes closed. Later in the weekend Duncan managed to clock a 4.92 over the thousand feet and 0.93 over sixty feet which was the best ET of the weekend and since track was resurfaced! All this was done on 2.7 seconds of throttle as the blower belt let go. For the final run we intended to run with Risto Poutiainen but we were told that it was not possible due to the very cold track conditions which may have proven unsafe. At the end of the weekend Duncan and the team were extremely satisfied with what they had achieved, since this was an experimental weekend which resulted in the best ET of the weekend and the best since the track was resurfaced. Duncan plans to run some more events this season in preparation for 2014. His aim is to run the full season, and he is looking for some help in the form of sponsorship to realize his mission. Duncan can be contacted via Facebook at Duncan T F Micallef. We would like to thank our sponsors and all supporters for the great encouragement and positive feedback. See you all at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway, if not before... so watch this space! Nitromethane is our blood group, horsepower is our life! Editor's note: Another first for Duncan and his team but not mentioned above was that at least some of the guys had never seen snow in their lives until the Festival of Power. But like the lionhearts they are, still they want to come back... Do you realise... 16th April: ...that Friday of next week, 26th April, is the official closing date for entry to the FIA Main Event which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May? FIA Main Event entry closes four weeks before the event rather than the usual three for UK National Championship rounds. Entry after Friday 26th, if accepted, may be subject to a Late Entry penalty. You can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc, and you can check out Version 3 of the FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. If you have any queries about FIA Main Event entry then please contact Ian Marshall at SPRC on 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625) or E-Mail either ir.marshall@btconnect.com or paula.marshall@btconnect.com. FIM SSB Cup date change. 15th April: Thanks to Geoff Myers of Trakbak Racing for letting us know of a small change to the date of the third round of this year's FIM European Super Street Bike Cup. "I have been advised by the Promoter of the event in Hungary that due to Hungary's National Day falling on a Tuesday the round at Kunmadaras has been brought forward by a day to 16th-18th August", says Geoff. The event was originally scheduled for 17th-19th August. If you have any queries then please get in touch with Trakbak Racing on 0208 852 5005 (outside the UK +44 208 852 5005) or E-Mail geoff@trakbak.com. UK Championships points update. 15th April: Many thanks to Yvonne Tramm and our own Simon for forwarding us the post-Festival of Power standings in the UK National Drag Racing Championships. You can check out the UK points on our OCS Paint-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the OCS Paint Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Swift snippets. 15th April: 19:00 Many thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us Version 2 of the official entry list for the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May. You can check out the FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. You can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. We would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to Speedgroup Co-ordinator Åsa Kinnemar. Have a lovely day Åsa. Event entry update. 14th April: Entry is still open for the APIRA Springspeed Nationals, which takes place at Shakespeare County Raceway on 4th-6th May. Entry forms in PDF format can be downloaded from the Downloads page of the Shakespeare County Raceway web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. If you have any queries about Springspeed Nationals entry or about the event in general then please call 01789 720180 (outside the UK +44 1789 720180) or E-Mail enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. All ticket and advance ticket enquiries should be directed to 01789 414119. Entry is also open for the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May. You can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc, and you can check out Version 1 of the FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. If you have any queries about FIA Main Event entry then please contact Ian Marshall at SPRC on 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625) or E-Mail paula.marshall@btconnect.com. Swift snippets. 14th April: The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com came with the words "Coming to a Main Event near you!". If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at eurodragster.com@btinternet.com. Good luck and stay safe to Sweden's Adam Flamholc who goes into Pro Modified eliminations from #4 spot at the ADRL Georgia Drags VII at Valdosta. Adam clocked 3.935/192.25 over the eighth. You can read more at the ADRL web site at www.adrl.us and on the Flamholc / MMR Racing Facebook page. Results are available courtesy of our Drag Race Central friends at www.dragracecentral.com. Allard anniversary. 12th April: Today (12th) is the forty seventh anniversary of the death of UK drag racing pioneer Sydney Allard, who passed away the day after Santa Pod Raceway opened. The latest update on the Trakbytes UK Drag Racing History web site concentrates solely on additions involving Sydney. "A look at the 1961 and 1962 sections of the archive will now reveal that pretty much every entry relates to the great man", says Chris Dossett. You can check it out at www.trakbytes.co.uk. The Allard Chrysler Action Group is seeking an aluminised fire suit, face mask, gloves and boots for cacklefest purposes, large size if possible. "There must be some lying around somewhere which are no longer suitable for racing but would be ideal for the Allard Dragster", says Stu Bradbury. "So come on guys, help us out: get searching the loft, under the stairs, your race trailers and the shed. If you find anything then please E-Mail either myself at britishdrhof@aol.com or BrianTaylor at brian@petrolhead.vianw.co.uk." Super Pro ET launch Awards Scheme. 12th April: Starting at May's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway the UK's Super Pro ET racers will institute an Awards Scheme formed by the new Super Pro ET Group. Festival of Power Super Pro ET winner and Eurodragster.com sponsor Pete Walters writes: At each race meeting throughout the year teams will race for a random spot prize picked from a hat before qualifying. Spot prizes will be things such as best Reaction Time, number one qualifier or even best package. Prize money and trophies will be given for each award. There will also be various end of year prizes, such as Best Appearing Car or Team. Racers can sign up to the group by paying an annual membership fee of £15 for the year for which they get a Super Pro T-Shirt, a custom Super Pro decal made for their vehicle, and entry into the prize fund. We already have a good number of sponsors signed up, but we are looking for more. For £100 a year you or your company could become a class sponsor of Super Pro ET for seven events (five for this year) which will include your company name on the back of our class T-Shirt, your company name read out by the Santa Pod or Shakespeare County commentators before every round of qualifying and eliminations, and your logo being displayed on multiple banners around the Super Pro ET pits, on the Super Pro ET web site, and on our Facebook page. We will soon be launching the new superproet.com web site, hosting and domain courtesy of Martyn Jones. So watch this space! If you would like more information or would like to register your interest then please contact Richard Walters at richard@richwalters.co.uk, call 01278 664363, or via our Facebook page. Swift snippets. 11th April: European fans will have someone to cheer on at two events in the USA this weekend. Swedish Pro Modified racer Adam Flamholc will be at the ADRL Georgia Drags VII looking to increase his lead in the 2013 Championship. Qualifying commences tomorrow (Saturday). You can read more at the ADRL web site at www.adrl.us and on the Flamholc / MMR Racing Facebook page. Results will be available from tomorrow courtesy of our Drag Race Central friends at www.dragracecentral.com. Meanwhile Germany's Acka Riemer and the HD-Service Supertwin team are competing in the NHRA Harley Davidson Drag Racing Series at this weekend's NHRA Lucas Oil Divisional event at Virginia Motorsports Park. Qualifying commences today; again results will be available courtesy of our Drag Race Central friends at www.dragracecentral.com and you can stay in touch on the HD-Service team's Facebook page. Good luck guys and stay safe. Pro Xtreme beckons at Malmö. 11th April: Mikael Angelin writes that Malmö Raceway are working on their new Pro Xtreme class which was introduced when Top Doorslammer joined the EDRS Series: Pro Xtreme will be a 201 metre Advanced ET class similar to Top Doorslammer. It will run at five events at Malmö Raceway. We are currently working very hard to find sponsors to back up this venture which among other things will provide prize money of 30,000 SEK to the winner and 12,000 SEK to the runner-up. There will also be an additional 8000 SEK for the best qualifying time. This will be for at least four of the five races. Of course will there also be other cars and bike classes. The dates for Pro Xtreme at Malmö Raceway are: 17th-19th May 28th-20th June 19th-21st July 9th-10th August 6th-8th September (final round) For more information about the races, or if you would like to become a sponsor, feel free to contact us at info@srif.se. Rules, classes and so on will be presented on our web site at www.malmoraceway.se and on our Facebook page. Swift snippets. 11th April: European fans will have someone to cheer on at this weekend's ADRL Georgia Drags VII as Swedish Pro Modified racer Adam Flamholc will be looking to increase his lead in the 2013 Championship. Qualifying commences on Saturday. You can read more at the ADRL web site at www.adrl.us and on the Flamholc / MMR Racing Facebook page. Christine, Sandy, Stuart and Megan have asked us to say a big Happy Birthday to UK Super Comp racer Collin Morrice. Our pleasure guys, have a great day Collin. Also celebrating a birthday today is the endlessly-helpful Simon Day of APIRA's Tech Crew. Have a great day Simon. FIA event entry update. 10th April: Speedgroup Administrator Åsa Kinnemar has been in touch with an update for racers planning to contest this year's FIA European Drag Racing Championships: FIA Championship registration should be completed thirty days before participating in your first FIA Championship event. You can register at www.dragracing.eu. Non-registered drivers may participate in individual events, but are not eligible for payout of prize or travel money. For more information and link to the full regulations please visit www.speedgroup.eu and click on Practical information 2013 FIA. To enter the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May and FIA European Finals on 5th-8th September download the forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. These are rounds 1 and 6 of the 2013 FIA European Drag Racing Championships. Entry is open at www.dragracing.eu for the following Championship events: Sweden Internationals, Tierp Arena, Sweden, 13th-16th June (Round 2) FHRA Nitro Nationals, Alastaro, Finland, 4th-7th July (Round 3) Scandinavia Internationals, Tierp Arena, Sweden, 22nd-25th August (Round 5) The organisers at the HockenheimRing have announced that they are preparing their own entry system for the NitrOlympx on 9th-11th August, which is round #4 of the championship. More information will be made available in due course. Bull announces TSI Racer Bonus. 10th April: As part of their continued successful partnership with Transmission Specialties, Eurodragster.com sponsor Jeff Bull Race Engines are pleased to confirm a Racer Bonus Programme for racers who have purchased a Transmission Specialties converter and / or transmission through JBRE. Bonus money will be paid as follows to winners of 2013 UK National Championship rounds at Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceways: Transmission and Converter £150 Transmission only £100 Converter only £50 To qualify for the bonus payment the racer must have purchased the TSI units through Jeff Bull Race Engines, display TSI decals on both sides of the car and provide a photograph of the car and team with TSI decal clearly visible. TSI units purchased through other parties are not eligible for the Racer Bonus Programme. We would like to thank Peter Miller of Transmission Specialties Inc for supporting his British customers in these difficult economic times. If you would like to be included in the Racer Bonus Programme check out Transmission Specialites' products at www.transmission-specialties.com, and call Jeff on 07834 381804 for up to date pricing. We are pleased to welcome Kevin Cerasale of RCCS as Jeff Bull Race Engines / Transmission Specialties' appointed UK transmission builder. Kevin, who has many years' experience and knowledge in all aspects of transmission building, will be stocking many of the TSI Powerglide race transmission parts and will be happy to quote on rebuilding your race or street transmission to any level of performance. Contact Kevin on 01923 773500. Congratulations to two Jeff Bull Race Engines customers who had a great start to the season: well done to Jon Morton and team for their Super Gas win at the Festival of Power with a JBRE. Great driving job Jon. Also very well done to Dave Gadney and team for their well-deserved runner-up position in Super Comp after a long lay-off and now using a JBRE and TSI Torque Converter. There is a lot more to come from this team. SCR confirm European Top Gas. 10th April: Also expected amidst all the American iron expected to populate this year's USAutomotive Yanks Weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway is a contingent of European based Harley and Buell drag bike riders contesting the second round of the European Top Gas Series. Supporting the twentieth anniversary of the National Association of Supertwins a number of European teams, including 2012 overall series champion Milan Koláčný from the Czech Republic, are expected to make the sea crossing to the UK, a voyage last undertaken ten years ago in 2003 for the APIRA Ultimate Power Excitement Nationals when the 1900 cc Harley of The Netherlands' Harry van Schie took out the 160ci Pro Stock Sportster of Germany's Cord Albers on a red light. The first overseas crossing was in 1999 for the Super Series events held at the Stratford-upon-Avon drag strip formerly known as Avon Park. "Since becoming the representative for Euro Serie Super Twin Top Gas this year I wanted to add some new tracks to the calendar, and as always the riders decide themselves where to race and a couple of them voted for Shakey in the UK" says ETG spokesperson Piet Verhoef. "We were there at the start of NAST and we are really looking forward to crossing the pond again for some good close racing as well as a bonus twentieth anniversary party. A couple of years ago we had some riders from NAST over to Drachten Airport so it is always good to do something in return. I was the last Top Gas rider who crossed the pond in 2008 so let's hope the riders have more luck than I had when I broke my Top Gas bike at the finals at Santa Pod." With seven rounds scheduled all over Europe this year (plus a rain date), the class is made up of a large contingent of very quick American based eight-second machines capable of terminal speeds at the end of the quarter mile of over 160 mph. Although there are a couple of blown Honda gas bikes raced by Germany's Peter Niklas and current champion Milan Koláčný, for years there has been one lone Ducati belonging to runner up Herman Jolink who this year is poised to give the blown V-Twins an even faster run for their money. "When it all started back in 1993, our European Top Gas friends used to come over and race with us as part of their own rounds at Shakey (Avon Park as was)", says NAST Chair Bev Batsford. "It is a great honour that both Herman Jolink and Piet Verhoef have chosen this year to repeat past history to coincide with the twentieth anniversary celebrations for NAST where we hope to see many former Twins racers and past Champions joining in on the party! We also hope that the European Top Gas visit to the UK continues for many seasons to come!" The season kicks off in the Czech Republic at Hoskovice and ends at the Mosten Drag Days in Denmark. In between the Series takes in further races at the world famous Home of Speed, Germany's Hockenheimring, and the Dutch airfield quarter mile in Drachten. For more information, stop by the events page at www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk or www.topgas.com. Swift snippets. 10th April: 16:45 Many thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us the final version of the official entry list for Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 26th-28th April (race days 27th-28th). You can check out the Big Bang entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Thanks also to Ian for forwarding us Version 1 of the official entry list for the FIA Main Event, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-27th May. You can check out the FIA Main Event entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. You can download the official FIA Main Event entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Further to the announcement of the availability of Lexan and Margard to their web site, Eurodragster.com sponsor Direct Plastics have now added the first part of a two-part feature offering tips on making windows for race cars put together with race car builder and fellow Eurodragster.com sponsor Chris Isaacs. "This first part is creating the template and the next half (almost ready) will be the windows themselves", says Paul Woodhead. "We'd like to thank Chris for his help on this, a big thanks also to Kirstie Tramm who took all the photos and Spencer Tramm who was on kettle duty". Click here to check out Making race car windows. UK Pro Modified racer Wayne Nicholson says that he had to have his sanity checked a few times in the freezing cold and snowy weeks leading up to the Festival of Power. "Even getting the car in to the truck the week before was more like an expedition", he says. "If you had told me that we would run a new PB speed and be number one qualifier, and come back with some great data I wouldn't have believed you", says Wayne. "The new track surface is going to be awesome at the Main Event in May, great work Santa Pod. I have updated our web site at www.luckydevil777dragracing.com with more news and details of our first event of the season for us. You can see from the picture how cold it was. A truly massive Thank You to all of our crew and sponsors."  Leo Knight is looking for a crew member to work on his blown-alcohol altered which he will be running this year in tribute to Allan 'Bootsie' Herridge the date of whose passing is approaching thirty years ago. If you would like to work with Leo then check out the Crew required section of our Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored Swap Meet. We have no less than three birthdays today. First up a very Happy Birthday to UK Comp Bike racer Lizz McCarthy who got an early birthday present last week winning the Festival of Power with PBs. Happy Birthday also to Santa Pod Raceway Track Announcer and Eurodragster.com Blogger Colin Theobald and to widely-respected UK blown-alcohol tuner Karl Harrison. Have a great day guys. Funny Car Series Round 1. 10th April: Many thanks to Keith Bartlett, CEO of Trakbak Racing Ltd the Promoter of the 2013 European Funny Car Series, for forwarding us a review of the first round of the Series which was run over the Easter weekend at the Festival of Power held at Santa Pod Raceway: The whole weekend was far too cold for nitro cars and added to that was the green track, just newly surfaced at the Pod, making for a tough weekend for all the Funny Cars. Only three days before the event Leif Helander from Sweden had to drop out as a result of illness. This left just three cars to compete round one of the Series. Any fans could be forgiven for thinking "Here we are back to just three Funny Cars", however that is not the case and I am quite sure that we will see at least four or five Funny Cars at the FIA Main Event in May, plus we are hopeful of having six cars for the last two rounds in HockenheimRing (Germany) and the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod in September, with one of those drivers possibly being from the USA. The first round saw a win for Jason Phelps and a runner-up from his Shockwave team mate, Gordon Smith, although Gordon was a no show in the final due to severe engine damage. Other news from the weekend was the continuing struggle which Bob Jarrett and John Spuffard are having to tame their ex-John Force Racing Funny Car. This JFR trick set-up race car has all the latest and best equipment and gizmos and only seems to want to run the big numbers or blow the tyres off. When Bob and John finally get the monster dialled-in and the right set-up on the car, it should, and probably will, run four-second passes all day long. In any case congratulation to Jason Phelps on his win and being the first points leader of the 2013 European Funny Car Series. The weekend was also far too cold for Kevin Kent to make his licencing runs in his new Funny Car, but I am sure that once he is licenced and has some runs under his belt he is going to be a good addition to the series. Learning to drive one of these short wheelbase 8000 hp monsters is quite a different story to driving a Top Fuel Dragster, which will generally go straight down the track, whereas a Fuel Funny Car needs to be driven to go straight. We are making a one-hour TV special from the Series in 2013, which is going to be far more of a lifestyle show than a race reporting show, and in addition to that we are going to produce a fifteen-minute highlights package from each round, to be broadcast over the internet via the Santa Pod web site. This fifteen-minute package will be shown approximately one to two weeks after each round, depending upon the schedule of the next round. We plan this type of internet TV show to become part of Santa Pod TV to be launched later in the year. Points standings after Round 1:   Appearance Qualified Low ET First round loser Runner-up Winner Total Jason Phelps 50 20 20 0 0 100 190 Gordon Smith 50 10 0 0 80 0 140 John Spuffard 50 10 0 60 0 0 120 You can find the Series' official web site at www.eurofunnycar.com. Showtime Festival of Power review. 10th April: Nigel Hoskison of the UK's Showtime Fuel FC team has been in touch with a review of the team's outing at the Festival of Power: Five cars were entered for the Easter meeting with more expected as the season progresses. The action was scheduled to begin on Saturday and the Showtime crew were raring to go. Unfortunately no-one had told the weather we were going racing! The Santa Pod crew had done a great job preparing the newly laid surface but near freezing air and track temperature did not bode well for the Fuel cars. Having spent a couple of hours warming the oil in the trailer, it was put in the car and we fired up. Everything sounded good. Off down to the start with the crew dressed like an arctic expedition, it was bloody cold! John did a lengthy burnout to try to get as much heat into the tyres as possible, but to no avail. The tyres spun immediately on the hit, John tried pedalling, quickly lifting and idled through. No damage on servicing, maybe Sunday would be better. During Sunday morning John was in front of the TV cameras doing three interviews for the upcoming TV and web broadcasts of the Funny Car Challenge Series. On the racing side it was an identical build up with oil and warm up. Having fired up at the start, there was a slight problem and we were told to wait before re-firing. Another long burnout. At the hit, the car disappeared in a huge cloud of tyre smoke, when it cleared there were S-shaped tyre tracks away from the line. Being behind the car the start line crew were not aware what had happened. The car had turned very hard right at the hit and John had lifted and straightened it out. During servicing a potential clutch problem was identified, and it was decided to review further on Monday. After consultation it was decided to miss eliminations on Monday, as John explained to Eurodragster.com: "The car is suffering from the cold conditions. We are chasing a problem and are not sure if it is the weather or a genuine malfunction. The clutch is not working as it should and coming in all at once. These cars are not designed to run in these temperatures.We are having to preheat the oil out of the car and put it in at the last moment as running with cold oil could cause main bearing damage. Even with this we are struggling starting the car and getting the fuel to burn." We now look forward to the FIA Main Event over the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May. The Junior Bikers' Easter. 10th April: Many thanks to Lizz McCarthy for passing on the individual Festival of Power reviews of the Junior Drag Bike racers: JB1 Louis Davies: It was very cold and snowy when we arrived at the Pod and I wasn't expecting many runs. The bike was pretty much the same as last year apart from repainting the frame, checking the engine and polishing all of the alloy parts. Q1: It was time to test the new track. Our first dial-in was 9.78 based on last year's times and we went for the lower rear tyre pressure, no burnout option as that had proved the most consistent last year. Unfortunately it didn't agree with the track this year giving me a huge wobble and throwing my feet off the pegs near the finish. I had to shut off but still ran a 10.03. Q2: Change of plan and we raised the tyre pressure and went for the burnout option. We left the dial in at 9.78, I actually ran a 9.636 which was a new PB so who cares if I broke out. Q3: No changes apart from the dial in time to 9.60, this time I ran a 9.634 which was more like it as now I was qualifying third and another new PB. Also my reactions had began to recover from the winter break with a 0.061. Q4: 9.62 dial in and ran 9.691 so no improvement. 0.0278 reaction though. Q5: This was on the Monday and it was my twelfth birthday, there was a bit more wind but dialled in 9.62 again but ran a 9.54 so a breakout but another new PB. E1: I had qualified third and was up against new rider Jordan Kenway. I needed to make sure I didn't red light or break out so we set my dial in at 9.50 and I ran 9.527 (another PB) with a 0.076 reaction time, this was good enough to get me through. Semi: I had my mate Jake in this one and it was going to be close. Luckily this was my best run of the weekend and it needed to be. 0.015 reaction and ran a 9.507 on a 9.50 dial in (another PB). only 0.022 off a perfect run. Jake was mega close behind me with a 0.04 reaction and 9.91 on a 9.89. Final: I had Scott in the final this was going to be close as well. I ran a 9.54 on a 9.49 dial in Scott was right alongside me on the finish line and only the lights could tell who won. Yes it was me, I had won the Festival of Power. Thanks to Mum, Dad, Grandma and Grandad, all at Santa Pod and the other riders and parents for making a great meeting. See you at Shakey. JB4 - Jake Charman: When Dad and I arrived at the track, the awnings and bikes were already set up thanks to Lizz, Gippy, Sarah, Chris, Clair and Allan. After getting the caravan set up we started to get my bike ready for scrutineering. Despite the efforts of the track crew, the track was very cold. First run out I ran a 10.10/66 qualifying me second. Because of the cold track there was a lot of wheel spin, so we decided to drop the rear tyre pressure and go out for another run with a bigger burnout. Unfortunately due to small flurries of snow throughout the day we would have to wait until Sunday for our next run. The big burnout heated the clutch causing the bike to drag me through the start line and red light. Apart from the clutch, this technique was working well so we decided to keep the same approach for the next run. Later, Dad decided to check the weather station and the adjusted altitude was under –300! Terrible for engines. After some consideration, we decided that it was too late into the meeting to change the jetting. Monday began with a surprise qualifying run then straight into eliminations. Jordon Bissel had already left the track due to being unwell leaving me a bye into round two. Round two and I was against Lou, the run went well and some very close racing, he won by just .04 of a second. He later went on to win the meeting. Well done to him. I would like to thank Dad, Lizz, (Uncle) Steve Wood and our new sponsor Doug at Ensys. There will be videos of the meeting at www.youtube.com/nitrousjunkieracing including on-board footage from my bike. JB5 - Scott Collier: The 2013 Festival of Power was the first meeting on my completely new bike for this season. Due to the Run What You Brung being cancelled the weekend before we hadn't tested the bike at all (apart from a couple of start ups in the kitchen!) so at the Peak Performance day I ran a PB of 8.22 (We run over the eighth mile) and that was with a really soft launch and going through in fifth gear. In qualifying I went against my new team mate Jordon Bissell and I dialled in an 8.00 and ran a 8.06 but that only placed me in sixth place! That was another personal best and a PB sixty foot as well of a 1.70 seconds. We were given an extra qualifier on the Monday morning so we decided to go for a seven second pass and dialled in a 7.90 and with a better launch and less of a shut off I ran a 7.95/75 which moved me up to fourth place. Round 1 I was against Liam Holgate and went through as he pulled a red light. The second round put me against Charlotte Hales and again I went through as she pulled a red. In the final round I was against Louis Davies so we left the dial in at 8.00 and I ran a 8.06 but lost by 0.007 of a second! Well done Lou! Thanks everyone that has helped get my bike on the track and thank you Mum and Dad. See you all at Springspeed at Shakespeare County Raceway on 4th-6th May. JB6 - Jordon Bissell: I couldn't believe how cold it was - I was very miserable, as we all were. After the first qualifier I was in at number six - and still there after the second one and then everything came together  - dialled in 8.55 and ran an 8.55 taking the number one spot and +0.0029 on dial in. I kept hold of the number one spot. Unfortunately I was unable to race on the Monday. JB7 - Jasmine Cordelle: On Saturday in the first qualifying run I beat my Personal Best and ran a 10.20. Unfortunately the rest of the weekend didn't go so well and I stayed in sixth place! The first round didn't go too well, as the bike broke down in the middle of the race but it was good to see Charlotte Hales get through. We are going to do some more testing next weekend to see what was wrong. I dad a great weekend even though it was freezing, and I was very glad to race again! JB9 - Liam Holgate: Day one - waited a long time in the cold eventually got to the track enjoyed the run as I had not been on my bike for ages.  Day two - reaction time were brill - they got better each time. My best was 0.24 reaction I was proud of that.  Day three - I got my first red light trying to better my reaction of 0.24 and was pushed out of the eliminations. I will rise again to try again! JB11 - Charlotte Hales: We went testing on the Friday and as I'd not sat on the bike since the National Finals, I was quite excited. I'd not forgotten anything and from the go I was around fourteen seconds. This was slower than the 11.5 I'd managed at a RWYB in the summer. However, my times got quicker as the runs went on. On the first day of qualifying, I was around the 13.5 second area and so Dad said we should post 13.5 as a dial in time. This seemed to work as I put in a 13.507 on Sunday to make number one qualifier. I backed this up with a 13.1 later in the day. I was very happy and my Dad very proud. I think he told everyone in every camp what I'd done. My first red light on Monday was me being eager to anticipate the lights. Next I beat Jasmine on a stuttering Aprillia in my first elimination round to make it through to the semi finals. My second red light came in this round as I rolled out of stage. Overall I was very happy with this meeting despite the freezing wind. Thanks to my Dad, Mum, sister Emily and Dangerface Drag Racing team for all the support over the Easter. See you all in the summer. JB666 - Jordan Kenway: It was my first race meeting on my bike at the weekend, after a shaky start on Saturday I was able to get my licence signed off so I could race in competition. Everyone in the pits was very nice and helpful they gave me good and useful advice. Even though I was eliminated in the first round by breaking out I was able to run a new PB. Thank you to everyone for making me welcome. I am looking forward to round 2 at Shakespeare County Raceway. Dial-In Day a hit. 10th April: The rescheduled Dial-In Day took place at Santa Pod Raceway last weekend and was a great success, attended by no less than twenty three eager students including some familiar names. Organiser James Forster has posted a detailed report on the Run What You Brung web site and you can check that out at www.rwyb.co.uk/dialin.php. Meanwhile Paul Marston, who helped out at the Dial-In hosted by SPRC's Chief Starter Ian Marshall; Mick Howling and I, representing Paul Marstons Drag Race Driving School, volunteered our services to help out in any way we could. The day was attended by twenty three pupils and with clear skies and a great track, the day could be judged as a resounding success. The course consisted of classroom tuition and then on to the track to put newly taught techniques into practice through qualifying and then an elimination. Once that was completed, back to the classroom to learn more and then repeat the process on the track, qualifying and another elimination. Lastly back to the classroom for final fine tuning of newly learnt skills and back on to the track for a final track action session. The day was very enjoyable for everyone involved, especially both Mick and myself. It passed so quickly, we started at 10.00 and the next time I looked it was nearly 6.00 pm! I think the pupils learnt a heck of a lot in a real short period of time. This course is quite different to Paul Marston's Drag Race School courses where our pupils learn how to drive a real race car. Here all pupils all drove their own street or strip cars. This helped speed up the process of learning how to bracket race no end. Mick and I helped out with the more technical techniques employed by today's bracket racer and explained in detail the importance of staging and the importance of driving consistently. They must have been listening as one pupil recorded three, that's right three Perfect ETs! Amongst the pupils were Santa Pod's Track Announcer Colin Theobald and Eurodragster.com's own Kirstie Tramm who both had a good time. I must thank James Forster at Santa Pod and SPRC's Ian Marshall for allowing us to help out. Both Mick and I thought it was time very well spent, an investment in tomorrow's talent and we are both looking forward to the next Dial-In Day. Web site updates. 10th April: The Mad Welshman has updated his Flickr gallery with pictures from the weekend's Cal Look Drag Day and Public Track Weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can check out Mad's pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/the_madwelshman. Black Seven offer Private Test. 9th April: Our good buddy Markus Münch of the der Beschleuniger web site tells us that Germany's Black Seven Nitro Racing Team plan to organise a Private Test at Santa Pod Raceway on Wednesday 22nd May and that their fellow racers are invited: The track will be in full FIA/FIM trim and will operate under the watchful eyes of the Santa Pod crew. All bike and car teams are welcome, from street to Top Fuel. We want as many teams as possible to attend to reduce the costs for each participating team. If you would like an extra Test Day - the following day will be Santa Pod's own Pro Racer Test Day - to test your material and to get a feel for Santa Pod's new surface, then get in touch with the Black Seven Nitro Racing Team at black-seven-racing@gmx.de. Swift snippets. 9th April: We would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to Corrinne Gibb of the UK's Team 4Gs. Have a lovely day Corrinne. Punishment delivered. 8th April: Many thanks to Georgina Green for passing us UK Pro Stock Bike racer and Festival of Power PSB winner Mark Smith's account of the Punisher team's Easter weekend at Santa Pod Raceway: We arrived at Santa Pod on Friday, it was bitterly cold, the start of things to come. We set up our pits with our new team mates from Warpspeed racing and our new MPM Oil gazebo. It took a while but with help from the three crews, we were soon settled in and ready for scrutineering, which we all passed, so we were all ready for the next few days racing. On Saturday we woke up bright and early to snow flurries and freezing cold winds. We sat the first run out due to the weather conditions and then unfortunately missed our second call due to datalogger issues. The Stunt Monkeys were all ready for the third call but once again decided against it due to the cold. Not the best start to the weekend. Would things get better? We had to run on Sunday, having still not qualified, so we were pleased to see a little sunshine. The bike was all ready and we were raring to go. This would be our first run since the Extreme Bike Weekend in October last year, too long to be out the saddle. I was also keen to try out the new gear box. First qualifier run of the day and we were up against Ray Debben. The Punisher had an excellent launch but started to head towards the wall after going into second gear. I rolled off the throttle and forgot to pull the clutch in! I managed to straighten the bike up after compensating to the left to avoid hitting the wall. I punched through the gearbox and ran a 9.8. Problems at the top end as when the clutch was pulled in the Punisher kept going. Lots of funny noises on the tow back indicated problems with transmission, not the best start to the season. After inspection we found we had bent the shift fork and shaft, also breaking a ratchet pull. No more runs for the Punisher today. Hearts sank but we steamed ahead with mending the little beauty. Another crisp and chilling start to the day on Monday, after a long day mending the gear box we were keen to get racing. We had an early morning qualifier, sadly after sitting in the fire up lane for at least forty minutes the Pro Stock field all returned the pits, frozen to the bone. First qualifier of the day we were once again up against Ray Debben. Ray picked the right hand lane as he had qualified faster than us. Again the Punisher pulled an excellent launch. Kept it nice and soft, just to test the gearbox, and ran a sweet 8.3 quarter beating Ray who had gearbox issues. We were through to the final (hooray) against Len Paget! A quick look over the bike and a re-fuel and we were ready. Lenny chose the left hand lane. Nice long burn out, followed by another great launch. I was flying! Unfortunately there was a power cut half way through the run, so no times were recorded. As the race had been side by side all the way up the track to the finish, we were unsure who had won. The marshals were waiting for us on the return to the pits and we accepted their offer of re-running our final. Talk about a short turn-round - a quick refuel and pump up of air in the shifter and we were back at the start line. Launch was fantastic, a really straight run, it felt slower than the first final but no sign of Lenny beside the Punisher. Smithy and the Punisher had done it! A Personal Best of 7.6 and I won the round. Happy days. We were over the moon with the performance of the bike and I would like to say a huge thank you to the following for making it all possible: Stuart Crane, Roger Upperton, Ray Debben, Mark Green, Kerry Smith, Matthew Chivers and the Warpspeed Racing crews. Also our sponsors for 2013: Draper Tools, MPM Oil, TW Metals, Greens Plumbing, MDH Repair Centre and Warpspeed Racing. The Punisher crew and I would like to say a massive thank you to Simon Rich for joining us at Santa Pod and taking some amazing photos. They are very much appreciated. See you all at Shakespeare County Raceway for the next round. Grumpy joins his class. 8th April: The UK's Paul Watson, who was one of those behind the introduction of 8.50 Bike, says that he is pretty much ready for his entry into the class: Unfortunately I missed the Festival of Power but am on track now thanks to the help of Danny Cockerill and Ray White of Hot Rod House who have done some finishing fabrication to my chassis and subframe ready for the powder coaters, which Danny sorted out for me. Hot Rod House have also made new box ramps for my kart inside my van, so for all your fabrication needs from simple to full-on chassis builds Ray and Danny are there to help on 07971 568266. The bike has been booked in at Brad's BTC Motronics for the Motec install  then straight on the Dyno ready for Santa Pod. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. Harrisons' thanks. 8th April: Rod Harrison and the UK's Blown Budget Super Pro ET team have been in touch to ask us to say a huge Thank You to the fire and paramedic teams at Santa Pod Raceway for their instant response after Rod's half-track engine explosion in round two of eliminations at the Festival of Power: This is the first incident of this type the team have suffered, but Rod said it has given him great confidence for the future if anything happens - hopefully the crews will not be needed again! The damage incurred was a totally split inlet manifold and four pistons damaged through the engine leaning out. We are doing everything in our power to get the new parts and rebuild the engine for the FIA Main Event. Karl also suffered a serious injury to two fingers in the pits on Saturday evening, thanks must also go to the paramedics who attended him. The wounds are healing and he should also be OK for the Main Event. With Karl out of action Rod would like to thank the crew Andy, Stuart (aka Chunky), Tash, Jono and Kim for all their hard work. Thanks must also go to Karl for all his work the rest of the time. We would all like to send our congratulations to the new driver of Team Stardust dragster, Mark Adams, for his achievement of getting into the quarter finals on his début race meeting. Walters leads ex-Junior onslaught. 8th April: After considering not even attending the Festival of Power after a tough winter off track and the forecast leading up to the event, it was a good job that Eurodragster.com sponsor Pete Walters decided otherwise as he took his first number one qualifier position in Super Pro ET and went on to win the event: Our plans for the winter off-season were to completely re-build the engine and start the season with a new paint scheme, but after an unfortunate night in November the wicked weather flooded half of our house and so racing was put on the back burner. The race car workshop was filled up with furniture so the car had to remain in the trailer until about a month before the first event. We only just had enough time to rebuild the new 350 ci small block with fresh internals making a much stronger engine for the 2013 season, with our 377ci motor as a spare. As well as the flood taking up our preparation time, I also gained a full time job as a graphic designer for MotorSport Vision at Brands Hatch meaning I had to relocate to Kent. This is all on top of running Peter Walters Race Design, therefore we had no time to change the appearance of the car. The Festival of Power came around fast, from the first qualifying run we knew our freshly rebuilt motor was going to perform well, running super smooth and sounding great. Our first qualifying run, after having to shut off and restart twice because of snow, was an easy 8.51, at a promising 158 mph with a 0.028 reaction. I achieved a best of 8.34 by the end of the day with tyre spin and a lot of shake up to sixty feet. Our first run on the Sunday gave us our first number one qualifying spot in Super Pro running 8.204 on an 8.20 dial-in, which held for the rest of the day and gave us a lot of happy (and cold) faces in the Team Reloaded camp. It was defiantly a weekend for the ex-Juniors, as top three Super Pro qualifiers were Jayne Kay, Scott Hauser and I. Also congratulations to Jayne for winning the Eurodragster.com / Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award on her first run of the season and a storming run of nearly 190 mph! On Sunday evening we were up against our Super Pro rival John Atkinson (again!) Unfortunately John went in too deep and ended up going red. I pulled a 0.005 reaction and went 8.17 on an 8.18 dial in to advance to the second round where we had the number 1 qualifier bye on Monday morning. The quarter finals fast approached and we were faced with the Whoopass Monza of Paul Marston, cracking race, I pulled a 0.021 to Paul's 0.073 off the line, which gave me the edge to stay in front and take the win with an 8.22 on an 8.20 dial in. I then went on to race Steve Saunders in the semi finals, the winner would then meet Scott Hauser who had a bye into the final. Steve was on a stormer of a day, after breaking a fuel pump drive in his first round against Jayne Kay he then drove home to get another on Sunday night, enabling him to make it all the way to the semis and meet me for a fight for the finals! We took the win by 0.063 seconds running 8.219 on a 8.20 dial in giving us lane choice for the final round. One of the most anticipated races of the day arrived and in my opinion, the marquee match-up of the weekend, two ex-Junior racers in the final of Super Pro ET. Scott has already made a big name for himself in Super Pro, winning the SPRC Championship and runner up in the 2012 UK National Championship. The pressure was on both of us as we were both racing for our first Super Pro win. It was the last race of the weekend and we were both fired up to win, I was confident however nervous as both our dragsters had been running so consistent all weekend. I left the line first pulling a perfect light 0.0004 before Scott lit the cherry by -0.063 handing us the win. This gave us our first Super Pro ET win, leaving Santa Pod Raceway with maximum points and massive grins on our faces. I would like to thank my crew of Tom, Mick, Nick, Mum and Holley, but most of all to Dad, who put everything into getting us to the track and building me such a great winning race car. Also a big thanks to the Santa Pod crew for giving us yet another great weekend and race track considering the conditions. I am confident we will have some European records returned home at the FIA Main Event. On the Rampage at Easter. 8th April: Team Member Dan Holloway writes with a review of the Festival of Power for Dave Ward and the UK's Rampage Super Pro ET team: So the new season is upon us and we've got a feeling that it's going to be a good'un! A brand new race surface had been laid and, with that in mind, a massive well done to Santa Pod's fantastic track crew for battling the rough conditions leading up to the event and prepping the track to a more than adequate standard, hats off to you guys! Forecasts for the first ever Festival of Power were not looking too bad at all which meant that Team Rampage were excited to get underway for the new season, albeit the temperatures were on set to be the coldest that we had ever raced in. Saturday morning certainly proved that the temperatures were going to be difficult for some of the race cars to get down the track and so we acted upon this by tweaking the chassis a little to make sure that the rear got all the traction it needed. Being that Super Pro were to be the second class on following Pro ET, it was important that we knew what the Pro ET guys were doing in terms of their dial-ins. After watching a number of runs, we decided that the track would just about hold up and made the decision to dial in an 8.05. Just as we started to pull round to begin the burnout, the heavens opened and sent us some snow. D'oh! There were a number of flurries on and off for about an hour, but once they had stopped, it was just the case of re-sledding the startline with rubber for the track crew, so it didn't take long to get going again. Well when the time came to run, we had slightly over anticipated the track resulting in a small amount of tyre spin off of the line and when combined with the car being all over the last quarter of the track, we ended up with a sluggish 8.25 at 166 mph. Definitely room for improvement! All throughout the day, there were multiple snow flurries resulting in qualifying being very much a stop-start situation for every class. However, the second run came in the late afternoon and was both good and bad in certain aspects. Knowing full well that the weather was all over the place, we decided to knock the dial-in down a little bit and go for an 8.15. Well the car hooked up this time sending the dragster through the the quarter running an 8.07 breakout. Didn't really see that coming, considering so many of the other cars were still spinning the tyres off of the line! This ended up being the last run of the day and so we would have to wait till next morning to give it our next shot. Sunday morning brought a bitter wind, worse than Saturdays, but the sun was out a little so not all bad! Following on from the previous run, we thought it would be a good idea to bring the dial back up to an 8.05. It was just our luck when the car really grabbed the track on the launch resulting in our one of our better sixty foot times of 1.13. This quick burst resulted in all the time traps being a little quicker throughout the entire run which resulted in an 8.02 breakout. These few breakouts meant that we were slowly sliding down the qualifying ladder and after the run we were in an uncharacteristic sixteenth place. With just one round of qualifying left, we really had to do something to get higher up the table. The fourth round came at just past midday and Crew Chief Ian made the final decision to dial in 8.02 against the opinion of crew member Dan who was sure that it would run faster as it had been every single run up to then; his predication being an eight flat. It was a solid burnout from Dave, he brought the car to the line, launched brilliantly, recording our quickest ever sixty foot time of 1.11 and carried on right the way through, straight as an arrow... to an 8.001 breakout. What did Dan say beforehand?! Ian you're fired! This consequently resulted in Team Rampage being a disappointing eighteenth overall place with the very first run of the weekend being the only run that would count. Therefore in the late afternoon we were to be up against Rick Cooke who had qualified a solid seventh. Good to see Rick back after his break, the car's looking great! It was time to race and it was fair to say that we were a little more nervous than usual. Looking over the data from the previous runs, combining it with the weather conditions at those times and then monitoring what the weather was doing just before the first round resulted in an agreed 7.98 dial in. Being that Rick had dialled in an 8.44, it would mean that he would get near enough half a second head start. Tension was fairly high at the time and we were hoping that we had predicted right. Rick left the line with a 0.15 reaction time and Dave quickly after with a fairly brisk 0.009 light. The quicker reaction from Dave meant that he had caught Rick earlier than the finish so he lifted off the loud pedal rolling through with an 8.02 at 159 mph, 0.04 from dial-in. It would have been interesting to see what the time would have been if he had kept going, or maybe not! We would have to wait until Monday morning to race again. Having got through the first round, we had to face an on-form Scott Hauser in the second round in the Hauser Race Cars four-link dragster. There has been some close racing from Scott and Dave in the past, so this one would prove to be a good one, whoever would win. Come race time, we decided to lower our dial in a tad to a 7.99 knowing full well that we didn't want to give too much away. Scott had dialled in a faster 7.61 giving Dave nearly four tenths of a second head start. What a race it turned out to be! Near identical reaction times meant that it would be all down to who ran closer to their dial in. Side by side all the way up the track was a great sight to see but at the very last split second Scott just crept ahead, taking the stripe by just three hundredths of a second. We had ran an 8.03 and Scott a 7.62 which was where the race was marginally lost for us. Both Dave himself and Scott thought that Dave had won, which went to show how close it was. Just how racing should be! Scott progressed all the way to the final, so at least we could say we lost to a bloody good racer! Even though that was the end of the meeting for us, we felt that the car had performed brilliantly in terms of consistency and we were already well up for the Main Event! The Festival of Power was all in all a fairly decent weekend for Team Rampage despite qualifying not as well as we would have liked and going out early, but it was the first event in the new season and we weren't too sure how the car would cope with the cold conditions and new track surface so positives could be taken. A massive thanks to this years sponsors Mini Gears, All Aces Couriers and Payday Loans - your contributions are very much appreciated and we are happy to have you on board. Hope to see some of you at the track soon! Bond's weekend. 8th April: Festival of Power Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association victor Joe Bond has been in touch to thank everyone who made the event possible: Thanks to all the guys and girls at Santa Pod for doing everything they could to prepare the track and the site as best they could. They really had their backs to the wall but came up trumps given the conditions! We had a great weekend. To get a few sixes under our belt, tackle the conditions and come out the winner of our and Chaos' little shootout was a bonus. A huge thanks to all my family and crew for everything they did to get us there and worked so hard over the weekend. To Adam Gleadow for the extra commentary during our runs (even though I really want them back on the track so we can race them!), to Martyn Jones and Crunch for letting me borrow their starter motor when ours lost the ghost on Monday morning, and everyone who came up to us over the weekend, picked up a poster or just came to chat. It was great to be back amongst the racing community. I'd like to congratulate the other Junior Dragster graduates who have taken the bracket racing world by storm. Laura Turburville debuting her beautiful new slingshot, Jayne Kay doing so well in her Funny Car, and to have both Pete Walters and Scott Hauser in the final of the extremely tough Super Pro field was great, and proof that the system works! I have updated my racing Blog at www.nuthinfancyracing.co.uk, and you can find our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/nuthinfancyracing. Finally an on-board video of the final against Chaos can be found on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8RLiA4IZJg. One for the kids. 8th April: Eurodragster.com prides itself on being a family-friendly site so we are pleased to pass on this recommendation for kids from Chaos Fuel Altered owner Lawrie Gatehouse: Many racers and visitors have children between five and nine years old. A dear friend of mine, who is a drag racing fan), has just self-published a book for this age group, involving witches and wizards, which seems to be all the rage nowadays. I put my children's hat on (not difficult, I assure you), read the book and compared it to many others that are available. Minimising my bias, I have to say that it is very, very, good, the illustrations are exceptional and it way ahead of others of this genre. The book is entitled Tales From A Magical Kingdom and the author is Laurie Jules. You can find out advance information (PDF format) by clicking here or click on the image at left. Interested parents can purchase it direct from Troubador, a division of Matador - details are on the information sheet - or from any bookshop quoting the ISBN number and title. Lagg returns. 7th April: Injected-nitro Top Methanol Dragster legend Krister Johansson tells us that Sweden's Jonny Lagg is to make a return to European drag racing. Jonny campaigned a Pro Comp dragster in the early 1980s and then moved to the USA for a number of years. "This is a good deal for me", says Krister. "Jonny has bought my complete racing operation with all of the spares, and the best part is that he would like me to be his tuner and mentor. The first step is for Jonny to upgrade his licence and to get used to the car before the first FIA round. I am really looking forward to this." Cannon: I'll be back. 6th April: UK Supertwin racer Chris 'Cannon' Hannam has been in touch with an update on his plans for 2013: Since our trip to Valdosta in November and subsequent parts breakage the team took a constructive decision to step back and regroup and rebuild the parts inventory. As you may or may not know our unique blown twin now has most of its parts manufactured in-house as you just cannot get the parts required off the shelf. We have totally stripped the bike to the bare chassis to start making modifications to aid service time and to make it easier to change major parts, but unfortunately due to a massive workload at Cannon Engineering work on upgrades has been very slow to start. I started with the easy stuff sourcing material for the new cylinder heads along with new complete spare clutch and primary drive etc which all went great. We sorted new cams and all the hardware to go with them from Kent Cams, so things were moving forward until we got to the oil pump. We use an obsolete Slim Jim from Pace and after exhausting worldwide options we have bought the internals from Pace, not only to repair our own pump but to make a complete new spare with Cannon to machine all the ally housings etc. So we will have part Pace part Cannon pump, but most importantly we will have a spare which I should point out is the whole point of this rebuild - if we don't have a spare we don't need it! We are going to rebuild the spare heads which were damaged and move the valve centres in to give more clearance to the liners along with making two complete new heads. Cannon will do all the CNC machine work and Roger Upperton will do the all important port and valve work. So we should have enough spares to race. Alongside all this we will make new motor plates to accommodate a new cassette-style oil pump which can be changed in minutes, not hours, as this held us up for five hours Stateside and you just can't lose that time at the track. I really would like to take the Larry McBride approach and have eight motors all lined up in the trailer but I just don't have the workshop time to make it happen. We are also consulting with Mike at B&J about new triple sprag gearboxes as we want to beef up the drive train for our new-found power and boost, but all this takes time which is something of which I have very little at present. Once all this is done the bike can be rebuilt and rewired with the MSD all mounted inboard to make the bike neater. The bike will then travel up to Al Smith's for all new pipework along with new spare oil and fuel tanks so we are totally covered in all areas. In the meantime we will repair the carbon body and send it for painting so that we are ready to hit the ground running when we have finished machining parts. The $50 million question when will we be out and the answer is I just don't know. I want to say we will be at the European Finals and then ride out the back end of the season and possibly another trip out to Bradenton as we now have the infrastructure to run out there, the rider is ready  the team are ready but machine time is holding us back at the expense of keeping existing customers happy! I would like to thank Lucas Oil for their continued support even though we are not at the track; it just shows how good the company really is to do this on top of having a top quality products which, I have to say, I'm sure saved my crank in November! Lastly thanks for the help of my hardworking crew and Big Daddy Jay Regan of MRE who is also Race Director at this weekend's Manufacturers Cup race in Bradenton in Florida: we all wish you the best of luck for a great event and we are gutted to be missing Round 2 of our scheduled tour but in those immortal words I'll be back! Top Sportsman II on offer. 6th April: Paul Marston has been in touch on behalf of himself and Eurodragster.com sponsor Jeff Bull regarding the possibility of a second Top Sportsman event in 2013: Our good friends at VW Action have contacted us and invited Top Sportsman to hold a second event at VW Action at Santa Pod Raceway on 30th August-1st September (Weekend before the FIA European Finals - Ed). Having known the organiser Brian Burrows for many years now, and having enjoyed so many VW events in the past, I know it would be a pleasure to work with the VW Action team. It's very exciting to have such a great opportunity for the Top Sportsman race teams. I know for a fact that a lot of Top Sportsman teams wanted a second event in 2013, now there is a chance to have that event. We now need to know how many Top Sportsman teams would be interested in attending a second event, the first still being at the Mopar Euronationals on 26th-28th July. If you are interested then please either let us know via our new Facebook page, E-Mail pmracing@fsmail.net or call me on 07831 650230. Jeff and I need to know as soon as possible who is coming. I know teams plan in advance but given that it's the weekend before the European Finals it may make sense to include Top Sportsman in your race schedule. The Top Sportsman format would be the same: first day Heads-Up Bracket Race everyone runs, first round buybacks, run to completion. Second day would be one shot qualifier, sixteen-spot qualified field, heads-up eliminator. Top Sportsman is a doorslammer-only affair and other than safety there are no rules. For all of the details of how it runs and works check out the web site at www.uktopsportsman.co.uk. If you have any questions then please E-Mail, call, or use the Facebook page. We need to know if this is viable and do'able. It's up to you guys, the racers, to let us know that you want to come. We already have half a dozen racers who have expressed an interest, but we need more. The track will be awesome, the weather will be blazing sun, yes there will be prize money, yes there will be TV coverage for your sponsors, all we need is the race cars to make this another record-breaking Top Sportsman event. Swift snippets. 6th April: Pete Walton writes that the 2013 Superstock Shootout at July's Dragstalgia at Santa Pod Raceway is to be sponsored by Chris, the owner of Wisbech American Speed and Performance company. "We would like to thank Chris and everyone else for their support of the class so far and look forward to seeing everyone at Dragstalgia on 13th-14th July", says Pete. "Support and interest in the class is gaining at a good pace and we feel confident that it will grow to be a class which can eventually run full NHRA Superstock rules." Further to Tuesday's news update, the venue of Malcolm Olley's wake next Thursday (11th) has been moved to The Bell Hotel, Market Square, Winslow, Buckinghamshire MK18 3AB (map). UK Pro Modified racer Kev Slyfield has been in touch to say a massive Thank You to everyone who helped after his unfortunate incident on the Friday of the Festival of Power. "The safety crew were brilliant, thanks guys", says Kev. "As far as the car goes we have started to assess the damage and hope to be back out on the track soon. Thanks to my crew without whose help and dedication I would not be able to race." Due to unexpectedly low snowfall at the Festival of Power (In your face, Facebook and forum mizzogs - Ed) the ineffable Keith Herbert and the UK's Team Furyous Pro ET outfit have a job lot of huskies for sale. "These huskies have never been raced or rallied and are in perfect working order", says Keith. "A massive thanks to all the Pod staff for sorting out the track in sub-zero conditions; to my crew; to my sponsors Power Engineering and TT Teamwear, who provided us with shirts jackets and beanie hats. See you all at the Main Event." SPRC marshal Caroline Boncey will again be undertaking a sponsored walk for The Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamsted this year. "I will be walking eleven miles at midnight on 29th June", says Oscar. "Last year I raised £721 and I would love to match that again this year. I was the first to register this year! I will be dressing up as a naughty schoolgirl (yes, Oscar does sometimes act girlie)". If you would like to sponsor Oscar then you can find her Justgiving site at www.justgiving.com/carolinebonceyoscar. Many thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us the official Festival of Power timing data. You can check out the data by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. We have two birthdays for you today. First up is a Happy Birthday to Derek Flynn of Eurodragster.com sponsor Gold RV. Happy Birthday, too, to legendary and much-missed Top Fuel Dragster racer Kim Reymond. Have a great day guys. VWDRC are go! 6th April: Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Chair Luke Stevenson writes that Championship round one at the Festival of Power was certainly a challenge for all racers. With little to no pre-season testing and a brand new racing surface thrown in, it was going to be anybody's race: As It turned out that there would be all conquering racers in both VWDRC classes with Dean Clatworthy and Matt Attwood both qualifying number one, winning their respective classes, and running personal bests. And with everything Mother Nature could throw at them the Santa Pod crew pulled it off, the strip can only get better and we cannot thank them enough for their efforts. Round 2 at Big Bang is only round the corner and already the numbers in both classes have more than doubled as people who missed the early round one will join the fight for the 2013 Championship. Look out for some exciting new cars in the class and here's hoping for the first floor pan eight-second run. The Festival of Power also features the début of race coverage via our YouTube Channel VWDRCTV. We have uploaded coverage from both days of qualifying plus an eliminations episode: Saturday qualifying: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=I_l-p9HEibs Sunday qualifying: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=ENjw3VkUteQ Monday's eliminations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANFRWmmz3BY If you're a sucker for a Harlem Shake: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=z2CRiFZXOMA Thanks to the VWDRC 2013 sponsors Bio-Cam, LWS Design, Discover.co.uk, St Dub, Ken's Diner, Ban'D Creative Design, Bears Transmissions and WRP Paint & Restoration. Wild Ride of the Day. 6th April: The Bloodlines Racing team of Ian and Laura Turburville, along with Ingrid and Martin Chesworth arrived at Santa Pod Raceway for one of the coldest Easter meetings in living memory. It had to be done though as they all had cabin fever and a real need to get racing again after a winter which seemed never-ending. Bloodlines had taken delivery of the ex-Dog's Bollox Racing slingshot last September and Ian at Turboville Racing gave it a complete make-over in exactly eight weeks to the day so that the workshop could be cleared for blower installation on the True Blood car, more of which soon. Alongside the cosmetic changes to the car there were a number of performance-enhancing modifications. The main changes were that the car was a lot lighter, the slicks a lot smaller, and the fuel system modified. This meant that Laura had to learn to drive it all over again. After a lot of thought Laura decided that she wanted to compete in Super Pro ET which meant she needed to get it to run 8.99 at least, a tall order for a rookie in a new car. Friday was a test day so it was decided that Ian would do one checkout pass to make sure everything was good and, judging by the look on his face at the end of the track, it was. He said everything worked OK and, apart from some wheelspin, it was great fun to drive and the new track surface was like a pool table. You can really feel every single little bump in the track when you are sitting on top of an axle in a rigid car and Ian said there were none! The track crew worked hard all weekend and the surface came around surprisingly quickly, by Monday it was awesome! As the traction improved and after Laura quickly got the hang of burnouts, the car started hooking-up. Then it began to leap to the right on launch making Laura pedal the car before nailing it hard once again. Laura's reactions to the Tree were typical of an ex-Junior Dragster racer and she got the jump on most of her competitors at the weekend. It turned out to be a monster event for a lot of ex-Juniors such as Joe Bond, Jayne Kay and Pete Walters which really does prove the worth of that feeder class. Ian tried a few things with the car set-up and it finally came down to the new Junior Fuel slicks not being matched perfectly. The tyre pressures were also an unknown on this slick with a lightweight car. The rear wheels were swapped on the axle and the car the lurched left instead of right which proved the theory. There are a couple of tricks to remedy that now so no big deal. Laura immediately ran a lovely 9.0/144 which was close to the car's previous best and a big PB for Laura. She also got the Wild Ride of the Day award from Eurodragster.com and a lot of respect for her driving abilities. Nothing much could be accomplished tuning-wise as it was far too cold for injected methanol so that will come later, they were in the ball-park though. All in all a successful, exciting weekend was had and Super Pro ET was just a ton of fun. So many awesome cars in one class going balls out, and great camaraderie. Laura raced her nostalgia slingshot against blown methanol dragsters, comp dragsters, Funny Fars, and even a Dutch Pro Mod, fantastic! The weekend ended with the awards being made in glorious sunshine (Sodd's Law) and a beautiful ceremony for Paula and Big John with a eulogy from Darryl and the scattering of Paula's ashes at trackside. Laura's next outing will be at Shakespeare County Raceway for the Springspeed Nationals, and Ian plans to test the awesome True Blood car at Santa Pod during Big Bang, funds permitting. Again, well done to Trakbak on the new surface and to Ian Marshall and crew for the prep, by the Main Event it will be fantastic. Bloodlines Racing's Young Blood car is partnered by Turboville Racing, Anita Mäkelä, Nottingham Platers, Topspeed Automotive, South West Junior Fuellers  and Kenny Youngblood. Laura is on Facebook and Twitter and has her own web site at www.jrturboville.com. Victory in the chill. 6th April: The Festival of Power was a very successful meeting for UK Junior Dragster racer Rhiannon Bellenie whose car is toting a new body wrap by P&P signs with thanks to Mo: The weather wasn't that great, it was very cold and really windy and there were also a few snow flurries! Apart from the weather, everything else went as well as could be expected. The methanol doesn't work very well in the low temperatures, no one's car was running as it should. I qualified seventh with a 0.03 reaction and then went into eliminations late Sunday afternoon. In the semi finals I had a bye run, which was helpful for me to see what I should dial in for the final against last year's Champion Joe Kellett. Joe dialled in an 8.30 and I had dialled in an 8.40 which meant that I would leave the line first. When we passed the finish line and my win light came on I didn't believe it at first but then I looked at the times and we had both run an 8.4 – meaning I had won the season opener round! What a brilliant start to the new season, which is possibly my last year in Juniors as the car will be up for sale soon. Dad plans to build me a new car to run in Pro ET for next year as long as my car sells. The freshly laid track is so smooth and a big Thank You goes to Keith Bartlett and the awesome crew at Santa Pod! Also thanks to my Dad and friend from school Abi, great crew! Festival of Power NFAA review. 6th April: Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances including shortage of parts, finance and weather, the UK's Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association were only able to field two cars for the Festival of Power, Nuthin' Fancy and Chaos, but the NFAA were determined to make their presence felt. Lawrie Gatehouse writes: As it was, we outperformed most of the Pro field and had the quickest side-by-side  six-second runs for wheel-driven cars, on the Sunday first round of our qualifying session. Over the whole weekend the weather was bitterly cold and track temperatures averaged around the mid-thirties fahrenheit on the new, superbly laid tarmac, making it quite a challenge to tune the cars for the conditions and still run respectable numbers. Both cars made solo passes on the Saturday at around 3:00 pm to get a feel for what was possible, given the conditions, both half passes in the mid eights. Sunday qualifying was bright and sunny with a track temperature in the low 40s F. Both cars cut good lights, but Chaos was off the pace, Joe Bond doing a good driving job to take the win with a 6.847/204.41 to Nick Davies' 6.948/197.16. Back in the pits, the Chaos data logger indicated that a broken rocker arm occurred one second after the hit and the car also lost a cylinder three seconds later – not too bad for a six-cylinder car! Joe sportingly declined to run the second session so as to have another side-by-side  match up, which allowed the Chaos crew time to rectify the valve train problem. The last qualifying session on the Monday morning wasn't quite as good, Chaos powering to an arrow straight 6.833/210.12 win when Nuthin' Fancy got out of shape, headers skimming the wall and the rear slicks both airborne as the car bounced on its suspension. In the finals at 4:00 pm, with a track temp of 37F, Joe took the win with a 6.998/176.46 to Chaos' 8.480/196.40 when it got up on the tyres. Nick pedalled through shake and chased hard, closing fast, but not enough to overcome the deficit. Hopefully for the SPRC Summernationals, our next event, we will have better conditions on the track, which with warmer conditions is destined to be a record-breaking surface for all classes. You can find out more and check out a Festival of Power gallery on the Chaos team's official web site at www.chaos-fuel-altered.com. When customers whip suppliers... 6th April: Following a record breaking 2012, the UK's Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racers started the season back on track at Santa Pod Raceway for the Festival of Power. With a new carpet laid at Santa Pod Raceway but sub zero temperatures it was difficult to predict how the weekend would pan out, writes Chair Matt Atkinson: With a strong contingent of seven cars entered for the first event including defending champion Brian Payne it was sure to be a thrilling weekends racing. Sadly before the weekend was even underway we lost Stuart Williams and the Carmasupra Team as the car just wouldn't be ready in time leaving us with a modest six car field. It was with great pleasure that we introduced Martin Smith to the Street Eliminator ranks running under the Team Extreme banner with his state of the art Nissan GTR35 immaculately assembled by Jon Webster of Webster Race Engineering. Martin is an avid petrolhead and has been involved on the periphery of drag racing for a while now, as we all know there is only so long you can watch from the sides before you get the bug and have to join in. As such Martin contacted Jon around fourteen months ago and that's how the project began! Martin was the only one to test at the peak performance on the Friday of the event, making his first runs in the new car and proving from the off that he is a force to be reckoned with! After just three runs Martin and the team clocked an impressive 8.480/168.55 setting them up perfectly for qualifying. On to Saturday and the first round of qualifying although slightly delayed out due to the snow flurries five of the guys managed to get out for their first runs of the season and used the run mostly as a test to get themselves familiar with the routine and get a handle of the new smooth track. Brian Payne ended on top of the pile after round 1 with an 8.6399/157.98. With the track temperature cooling even further and the sun setting the guys were back out for Q2 where Martin Smith took the class by storm with a strong 8.569/164.83 to end the day as number one qualifier. Come day two a lot of the guys were beginning to get a handle on the track and began to chip away at their times with the exception of Mats Anderson who unfortunately was suffering from ECU problems and as a result did not qualify. Final standings were: Brian Payne 8.2942/183.54 Martin Smith 8.3410/178.54 (New PBs for ET and speed) Jon Webster 8.5355/169.17 Alex Macintosh 8.6981/159.08 Andy Bond 9.9818/140.70 On to the compulsory cruise and with only five cars qualified we set off on Sunday evening. All cars completed the cruise with no problems to report returning back to the track to prepare for finals day! Quite a remarkable fact was that all five cars that completed the cruise were actually constructed by Webster Race Engineering. As number one qualifier Brian Payne had a complimentary bye round and delivered a storming 8.1742/185.80 showing that the new track was up for whatever was being thrown at it! Andy Bond and Martin Smith followed. With Andy not having been able to make a competitive run on the gas the whole weekend and Martin going great guns was there to be an upset? There sure was, Martin struggled to get off the line with problems allowing Andy to cruise through to the other end only after the tyres went up in smoke. Last pair was Jon Webster and the returning Alex Macintosh, great to see Alex back out in the lovely Mustang sporting a new hood and rear wing as well as losing some significant weight out of the car. With both racers renowned for their good reactions it was sure to be a close race. Jon took a big lead off of the start line and didn't look back, 8.3066 to Alex's 9.1410 struggling to get away from the line. Into Round 2 and as a bonus for knocking out the number two qualifier Andy Bond was presented with a bye run to the final and the perfect opportunity to gain some early points in the Championship clocking an 8.9685/159.60 best run of the weekend. Next pair round was Jon Webster and Brain Payne both cars capable of running deep into the sevens. Following a pair of lovely smokey burnouts the cars staged and the lights turned green, Brian reacting the quicker 0.014 to 0.018 and took the win with an 8.1001 to Jon's 8.3034. Jon's got to stop building his customers cars which are too quick! The final round followed after a quick turnaround with an all-Ford Mustang final, Andy Bond against Brian Payne. Brian made no mistake in the final and ran through with an 8.0365 to Andy's 8.8589; a great show from both the guys and a big well done to Brain and the team of Paul Wright, Paul Payne, Joe and Liam. A big thank you to our class sponsors, to whom we are very grateful: Topspeed Automotive, sponsoring the class for a third consecutive year, Custom Car magazine, RPM magazine, Webster Race Engineering, Doctor Flock, Quartermile High / Zeon TV, Matt Woods Photography and Eurodragster.com, all of whom can be found on our new and updated web site at www.streeteliminator.com along with calendar dates, race reports, team profiles and galleries. Worth a look guys! Last but by no means least, none of the above would have been possible without the outstanding efforts of the track crew to get everybody safely down the track and record some outstanding numbers. Here's to the FIA Main Event and some better weather so we can really put on a show! PMR get used to the cold. 6th April: The UK's Paul Marston Racing enjoyed a solid start to the 2013 campaign as Paul fielded the Whoopass Monza in Pro ET and Super Pro ET at the first event of the year: The winter conditions - it snowed six times Saturday - were some of the most challenging that you were ever going to witness at a UK drag strip, added to the fact that it was a brand new racing surface. The weather leading up to the event prevented the Santa Pod track crew from getting the freshly resurfaced track up to where they wanted to. This surely was a unique event. Praise and respect must firstly be given to everyone at Santa Pod, from CEO Keith Bartlett himself to the likes of Dave Warren working on the track tirelessly over the whole event. A huge thank you to everyone involved in making this event the success it was (Hear, hear - Ed). From the perspective of Paul Marston Racing we were facing an old enemy. History has shown that the Whoopass Monza has a particular dislike of a cold track, anything under sixty degrees and we're in trouble. In fact that very thing cost us both the runner up spot in the UK Pro ET Championship and the SPRC Pro ET Championship itself at the National Finals in 2012. So a game plan was hatched in the week prior to attending the event to attempt to change that. Knowing that the weather was going to be cold and the track temp would rarely get out of the thirties, unless we came up with something it would soon become a very frustrating weekend. Well, I am pleased to say that Paul Marston Racing were successful and for the first time ever the Whoopass Monza did indeed get down a very cold track. There were still some issues which became apparent as a consequence of the tune and set-up but all in all it was workable. This enabled the Monza to qualify fourth in both Pro ET and Super Pro ET, which on its own made the event worth attending. Make no bones about it, these were the toughest race conditions we have had in living memory, the track condition and its ability to cope with such low temperatures is such a credit to everyone at Santa Pod. The skills and abilities of the teams who competed were stretched to their limits in figuring out just how much they could push it and still stay hooked up. Come eliminations Paul bowed out in round one against a returning Neil Hunter in Pro ET, with a track temp of thirty two degrees the first round was always gonna be tough and with just a little wheelspin at the hit meant our day was done. Paul chased Neil down but the reaction time had suffered and it made it an unwinnable race. Well done to Neil who went another couple of rounds in Pro ET. Super Pro ET was a little different. Lady Luck shone. With Ian Powell as our first round opponent and with Super Pro ET running straight after Pro ET, we knew this would be tougher. On the hit our RTs were identical, the Whoopass Monza got way loose but Paul gathered it up and gave chase to Ian, who was caught out by the excellent air and actually ran a Personal Best and broke out! Next up was Simon Gough with his beautiful 2012 Camaro, with the track temp a little warmer (thirty four degrees) , this time the Monza stayed stuck and did not turn the tyres, pulling a nice reaction time and that gave Paul the room to take a 8.96 on a 8.92 dial win. Next up was Pete Walters with the Canon Reloaded dragster. To be fair these kind of conditions really play to dragsters' strong points, they are more consistent and can get down most any track. That said Pete was doing one heck of a driving job, displaying incredible focus and was simply on fire! So when he tattooed Paul on the startline and put together a package better than our reaction time it was an unwinnable race from our perspective. Congratulations to Pete a thoroughly deserved win in Super Pro ET. It came as no surprise that the other finalist was Scott Hauser in... yep you guessed it another of those dragsters. Well done to both Pete and Scott for some great driving in the most challenging conditions you are ever likely to see. Our focus now moves to Shakespeare County Raceway for the Springspeed Nationals, Round 2 of the National Championship hunt. The Monza left Santa Pod very healthy and we definitely learnt a bunch and now have even more options when it comes to tuning this great Championship- and event-winning race car. Paul Marston Racing are looking to début the new-look PT Bruiser at the FIA Main Event, plus we have a exciting new driver joining the PMR line-up in Super Pro ET; it's gonna be a busy 2013. Special thanks once again to everyone who made the effort above and beyond to attend the Festival of Power. Everyone at Santa Pod Raceway, Ian Marshall at SPRC, Eurodragster.com and doyousee.me for the great coverage (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed), all the fantastic Paul Marston Racing crew who were just the best - you are nothing without crew and our crew are the best friends you could ever wish for, thanks guys. Web site updates. 6th April: To improve communication with teams and fans of UK Top Sportsman, the class now has its own Facebook page. The Facebook page is intended for questions and answers regarding entries, rules, technical information, sharing of ideas, etc. Important information and press releases will continue to be posted here on Eurodragster.com. Our good friend Chris Eyre has updated his European Nostalgia Funny Car web site with additions to the NFC galleries plus a new gallery named Funny kind of evolution tracing the evolution of Funny Cars. "I currently have albums online for 1997 to 2003, but I hope to have photos up to current day", says Chris. "I think it will be one of those projects that will never be finished (as so many of you know about projects never finishing!) so keep checking back for the latest updates. Thank you has to go to Tog for the use of his many pictures (You're welcome - Ed) and to Stuart J Mitchell for his great photos". You can check it all out at euronostalgiafunnycar.jimdo.com. Another good buddy, Mark Skinner, has posted Festival of Power pictures to his Flickr gallery at www.flickr.com/photos/fast_n_bulbous. Announcing Team Two Norberts. 5th April: German Pro Modified racer Norbert Kuno has announced that Norbert Schneider will be driving the Lucas Oil-sponsored team's second blown-alcohol Dodge Avenger this season. It was originally announced that the UK's John Bradshaw would drive the second car but John had to step down citing the pressure of work in his new business. "We feel sorry for John and wish him all the best for his business but we also have to look forward to get our two Pro Mod cars on the track", says Norbert Kuno. "We had invested a lot of time and work to the idea of the two 'unique' Pro Mods. "If we're talking about two unique cars in European drag racing, than I have to tell the Lindbergs double Funny Car team: sorry, but you're only number two in Europe, read my report of 27th November. But I think that these two-car teams give a professional look to drag racing in Europe and I like it very much. "It is great to see not just matching cars but also the names: Norbert and Norbert will contest the 2013 FIA season. We are going with two teams and we hope to have a safe and fast season." "This is going to make it fun", says Norbert Schneider. "Getting results and really raising the profile of the teams, our sponsors and the sport in general". Swift snippets. 5th April: Thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us Version 4 of the official entry list for Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 26th-28th April (race days 27th-28th) and which is a Championship round for VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Sportsman ET, Junior Dragster, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike, Outlaw Anglia, JDS Pro and JDS Street. You can check out the entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Big Bang entry closes today except for JDS Street which closes next Friday; entry after today in all but JDS Street, if accepted, will be subject to a Late Entry penalty. You can download the official Big Bang entry form from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Santa Pod Raceway would like to thank everyone that helped collect or supply used slick tyres to help them to prepare the new track surface during the past couple of weeks. "The response was over whelming and much appreciated", say SPR. "We would also like to thank Jerry and Rachael of Shakespeare County Raceway for the loan of the sled for the second tractor which proved invaluable." European fans have someone to cheer on at this weekend's Summitracing.com NHRA Nationals at Las Vegas as Sweden's Leif Andréasson is contesting Top Alcohol Funny Car. Qualifying commences at 21:30 UK / 22:30 European today (Friday) and you will be able to keep up with Leif's progress courtesy of our Drag Race Central buddies at www.dragracecentral.com. Good luck Leif and stay safe. Hockenheim: work starts. 4th April: The promised resurfacing of the drag strip at Hockenheim has commenced. Race Director Jarry Lackey has forwarded us these pictures of the work in progress on the Rico Anthes Quartermile. This year's NitrOlympX takes place on 9th-11th August and you can find the official web site at www.nitrolympx.de. A word to the track crew. 4th April: Andy Kirk of Wayne Nicholson's Lucky Devil Pro Modified team has been in touch to thank everyone at Santa Pod Raceway for the massive effort they put in over Easter weekend: This was the coldest meeting I can remember in the thirty years I have been going to the track. There was much talk over the winter about the new surface and the timing of the work, as well as how poor the track would be for the first meeting of the year. Well all I can say is that all the detractors should hang their heads in shame (Hear, hear - Ed). Admittedly there were not going to be any records set over the weekend and all of the high horsepower cars suffered for traction but what I can say is that considering the brand new surface and the appalling conditions experienced since the day it was laid, I thought that the track and the crew had done an outstanding job. The surface is flat and smooth and once we get temperatures higher than freezing and more of the same track prep I think that we will have one of the best racing surfaces in Europe again, and I for one cant wait until the Main Event. In addition all of the track crew should be congratulated (or sectioned) for braving those conditions for four days straight as I didn't even fancy leaving the awning to fetch a burger. It must have been hell for them, well done all. We were fairly pleased with our performance, the highlight being a 6.69 on a track temperature of 41 degrees (and yes the burnout box did register zero on the gun!). To the rumourmongers who said we had traction control (Don't people ever give it a rest? - Ed): sorry you're wrong, we traded it in for more heaters on the Saturday. On another note, well done Gareth Ellis on what was a sterling effort on his maiden meeting with the Funny Car, good to see and one to watch for the future. Lizz' first win. 4th April: UK Comp Bike racer Lizz McCarthy says that her victorious and PB-busting Festival of Power didn't actually start too well: It was the first time I took the van to the track and had to set up. Usually I swan along after it's all done by Kev, but as he wasn't racing he went to fetch Jake from Southampton leaving me with a van that I hated driving and awnings I had no clue how to put up! Thankfully Richard Gipp turned up, as well as Allan Davies, our Crew Chief Chris, and Sarah (Minx) Chapman. Gippy got me organised, and that was just as well so thanks so much for the help! All set up pretty much, off to get scrutineered, sorted and ready for the following day. It was about that time when we stopped we realised how bloomin' cold it was. There was frost on the windscreens, and shivering crew. It was going to be a cold night (minus 5!). Saturday morning came and we woke to snow flurries, which refused to disappear. My bike had to have the fan heater put on it to get the oil a bit more fluid, eventually she started, put on the two step and ready to race. We had already decided that due to a few changes over the winter, where we had done away with the head gasket and now using bigger power rings made by Dave Branch, we were in unknown territory, a normally aspirated run was the sensible thing to do. We also had no idea how the track would be, and had already made the call not to change last year's slick. Every time we were called the snow started again! Eventually we got down to the pairing lanes, round to the burnout box, nice burnout, into first, staged, launched, shifted, and then found I could shift no more... and seemed to have no air to do it either! I eventually got to the end in a pretty dismal twenty two seconds at about 29 mph, giving me plenty of time to appreciate how smooth the track surface was, or something! Got towed back to the pits a bit miffed and baffled. Kev and Chris found that a seal on the air shifter ram had forgotten how to be a seal, and this was what had caused me shifting issues - my constant pressing the button being in total denial had emptied the air tank, so we were barking up the wrong tree for a while. So that all sorted and thanks to Ray Debben for his input, I was ready to race again. The rest of the day progressed, the crew and I got considerably colder as did the temperature. I was getting a bit concerned about the conditions, and if I really wanted to go out again, when I noticed someone had written "no" on the damp bodywork – the racing was stopped for that very reason several minutes later! Dewpoint had hit. We would have to wait until tomorrow to see if the shifting issue was cured. Sunday couldn't have been any colder could it? With an icy wind, it was bitter. Spent the first part of the morning wishing I could hibernate, and trying to keep the bike, myself and my poor crew warm. Track temp was at zero, but according to the weather station the air was good. Comp Bike was called and off we went to race! Nitrous on this time, as I had a bit of ground to make up, launched hard, wheelspinning along the way, drifted to the right, corrected, and scampered to the finish. It all happened very quickly, and I felt, it was quite a messy run. Something fell off though. When I looked over the bike, it turned out to be a wheelie bar board. Chris had just had them made for me, sorry Chris, and sorry Ensys! So what was the run time? To be told when collected that I had just run a PB of 7.61/164 on a freezing track, more than we could have hoped for, and number 1 qualifier too! Happy Days. Nothing broken, apart from the board, the bike was all prepped for the next run. No issues, a very similar, bit slower, 7.64/167. The new track is awesome. Who would think it possible to run the numbers on a track as cold as this! I sat out the last run so that we could do a bit of maintenance. I must mention it is quite nerve-wracking watching your class, and wondering if you have done the right thing missing a round. Jem Ven's run looked pretty quick, but not as quick as me (yet), Allan was getting quicker, and ran a PB, Harold was creeping up. But I kept the number one qualifier position. We had another qualifier in the morning, but we had already decided to spare the motor in the cold conditions for eliminations. Good call, it was still pretty cold. Harold at last had found his missing seven, but unfortunately had broken beyond at the track repair, and Jemma too snapped a cam and was unable to make the first round of eliminations. I had Phil Crossley in the first round. I don't know what I was thinking about, I got rattled when I couldn't get the bike to burn out, and once it did burnout I was a bit flustered: short shifted all the way up, and didn't feel I was making a very good job of keeping the bike straight. A very messy 7.95/159 but enough to get me through to the next round to Phil's 8.85/132. I had a bye into the final, and just staged as it was so cold I was beginning to feel that parts of me were dropping off, and just waited to see who I had in the final. It was between Allan Davies and Phil Leamon. Allan was improving all the time, but Phil took the win. So here I was, first meeting of the season and in the final. Mr Leamon has demon reactions, and there was no way I would ever be able to compete with that so I would have to chase, and not red light. As it goes, I was not too far behind and overtook him, running a 7.72/164 to Phil's 8.32/159. My first event win! Big thanks goes to my wonderful Kev for the motor, the support, the mentoring, and mickey taking, Ken Cooper for Cooperizing like a boss, Dave Branch, Richard Gipp, Jake, and Chris Pyke. What a bloody marvellous team we are! Additional thank yous go to Minx and Vizman Kustom Art for sponsoring the meeting, and Minx for coming to crew when she really should have been home nursing Lem Sips, Julie Moxley for endless cups of tea, fantastic soup, and team building! Thanks to my sponsors Doug Cheke at Ensys and Tony Gillam at Abbey Motorsports, and all the amazing people who took the trouble to come and wish me well, and came back to congratulate me when I won. Lastly huge thanks to Eurodragster.com (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed), the relentless track crew, marshals, and all at Santa Pod. The track is fabulous; with some heat in it, it is going to be amazing! Swift snippets. 4th April: 16:00 Thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us Version 3 of the official entry list for Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 26th-28th April (race days 27th-28th) and which is a Championship round for VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Sportsman ET, Junior Dragster, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike, Outlaw Anglia, JDS Pro and JDS Street. You can check out the entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Big Bang entry closes tomorrow; entry after tomorrow, if accepted, will be subject to a Late Entry penalty. You can download the official Big Bang entry form from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. European fans have someone to cheer on at this weekend's Summitracing.com NHRA Nationals at Las Vegas as Sweden's Leif Andréasson is contesting Top Alcohol Funny Car. Qualifying commences at 21:30 UK / 22:30 European tomorrow (Friday) and you will be able to keep up with Leif's progress courtesy of our Drag Race Central buddies at www.dragracecentral.com. Good luck Leif and stay safe. Hungarian Pro Stock Bike racer Szabolcs Borsay attended last week's Budapest Motorbike Expo with his newly-designed PSB featuring new MTC pistons and cylinder block. "We have modifided the pistons and added a black PFTE coating for more power", says Szabb. You can check out Szabb's 2012 review video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD2bKpdNcTw. Europe's newest Top Methanol Dragster licencee Birgitte Bremnes asked us to thank "Paul Ingar Udtian for the loan of the car and for being perfect teacher; Tormod, Raymond, Harry, Thor and my dad for their work; and to Mona, for keeping us all fed - and of course to all of them for taking their time to do this with me. People have been so nice lending me their driving equipment, and even fuel so I could do more runs. It shows how great the people of drag racing are, and I had a great time,  thank you! I would also like to thank my sponsors Eidsvaag AS, BeWi, Seashell and Marine Harvest for making this possible, to Sparebank1 for the scholarship and to Vindfang and MX Sport for making us new shirts for the weekend." The UK's Warpspeed Racing team came away from the Festival of Power with victories in Funny Bike and Pro Stock Bike as well as significant steps forward for their other riders. "We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of our riders, crew and behind the scene members for their relentless efforts and to our sponsors Draper Tools and MPM Oils", says Dave Brader, "but thanks especially to Roger Upperton for not only building both our class winning engines, one out of spare bits he had laying around, but also for showing his commitment to the team by turning up at the track and working to the early hours of Saturday morning stripping and rebuilding one of our race motors. A better sponsor we couldn't ask for." After working on the 514 ci Big Block Ford in the Dark Horse Mustang, UK Pro ET team the Huxleys suffered cam damage running in the new parts and the race was on. "A new cam was ordered and due to arrive on the Wednesday before the Festival of Power", says Lee Huxley. "The cam arrived and we were all ready to fit it but discovered that it had been snapped clean in half during transit. With no time left to ship another cam, Dad and I decided that it was not meant to be and cancelled our 2013 return until the next meeting. We were totally devastated but we will be sure to be ready for the next meeting in May. We would like to take this opportunity to thank those who attended our fund raising event the weekend before and all the support from sponsors etc." The Festival of Power was his first race in Pro ET for the UK's Glenn Pallant. "I would just like to say a big thank you to all the people who helped me and made me feel so welcome", says Glenn. "I'm not going to list names, as there are too many of them, but they will know who they are. Can't wait for the next one." UK Junior Dragster racer Tyler Ashdown has asked us to say a big Thank You to Matt and Steve Seamarks, Andy Fensome, Peter Kellett and families and Andys mate Gypo (sorry Tyler doesn't know his real name) for all their help getting the dragster ready for the weekend. "I couldn't have done it without them", says Tyler. "Thanks also to my sponsors Steve Caldwell and his brother Peter at Dart Corvettes, Matt Wright at WeMoveAnyCar.com, part of WG4, Barry and Stuart at Demon Ink Tattoo Studio, and lastly my dad for allowing me to take part in this great sport." Further to our news item of 21st February, Andy Wheeler of Eurodragster.com sponsor Alamo Rent-A-Car has been in touch to confirm that the legislation requiring International Driving Permits in Florida is to be repealed. The Senate has already approved the move and the State Governor, who has also made it clear that he is in favour of repealing the law, has only to put his John Hancock on the paperwork. Steve Dudley has been in touch with a reminder that the next slot drags at MrD Raceway will take place at 8:00 pm next Friday (12th April) at The Cathedral Primary School, Victoria Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1PA. "There is a small car park in the school grounds which should be able to accommodate us all", says Steve. "Entry and racing are free, all we ask is that you make a donation of a couple of pounds to help toward the hire of the hall, although it's not obligatory. I have loan cars for anybody wishing to try out this exciting form of slot car racing. We try to and run a couple of elimination races during the evening to add some element of competition / tension to the meeting. Come and have a go, it's great fun!" VWs head for Shakespeare County. 4th April: Seen the world over as the people's car, the humble Volkswagen Beetle can be both admired and raced! This weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway the Beetle gets to race at the fifth annual Cal Look VW Drag Day, a great way to start the Raceway's fortieth year of drag racing at Long Marston Airfield. Organised by a group of VW petrol heads, VW drag racing makes a welcome return to the Warwickshire drag strip where some say it all started some twenty years ago. Back then the fledgling Volkswagen Drag Racing Club, along with Goodguys UK, were beginning to flourish welcoming racers from overseas including as far away as America. The first, but never repeated, creation of Dub Hedge was created on the airfield's grounds in 1994 thus sparking a wealth of VW-based clubs, shows and businesses countrywide. The VW Drag Day is not only a celebration of the Beetle's involvement in the fast world of drag racing but it's also a Public Track Weekend where anyone can throw down the gauntlet and challenge a Beetle to a match race or two. As it's a general all makes RWYB weekend all makes of cars and motorcycles and Clubs are welcome to attend what is now the Raceway's true season opener! Visitors to the Raceway will get the opportunity to witness some of the quickest flat four VW street and race cars laying the rubber down in anger culminating in Sunday's Flat Four VW Eliminators. With a selection of gassers, Cal lookers and drag cars all heading to Stratford-upon-Avon, along with the début of a number of new and resurrected race cars, it's sure to be an exciting weekend for anyone who loves hearing a 100 mph plus Flat Four motor screaming at 8,000 rpm. In addition to the VW racers, the weekend will also feature the opening round of the Honda Drag Series on Sunday as well as some early season test runs from the Supercharged Outlaw dragsters and Funny Cars, as well as any other competition teams wishing to test before the Springspeed Nationals in four weeks' time. There will be the usual VW Saturday afternoon show and shine, as well as the Bench Racers Ball on Saturday evening where racers get the chance to line up grudge matches for the following day, learn from each other's experience or just enjoy an evening's fun with like minded VW fanatics. The day's Run What Ya Brung action begins at 10.00 am both Saturday and Sunday. Overnight camping is available on site, as well as evening entertainment in the bar and food facilities. If you want to take part in the RWYB you will need your driver's licence and a crash helmet. Further event details can be found at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com or call 01789 720180. Limited edition ACAG apparel. 4th April: Brian Taylor writes that Lucas Oil has supported the restoration of Europe's first dragster, Sydney Allard's 1961 Allard Chrysler, in many ways: Thanks to Chris and Vince Andrews a proportion of all Lucas Oil sponsorship money going to the F&A Racing Top Fuel Dragster has been diverted to the restoration fund. Les Downey of Lucas Oil for Europe has given the Allard Chrysler Action Group a range of items to sell and auction, and these have produced good funds. And of course they have supplied all the race lubricants for the dragster. Les came up with another great idea and he is supplying the ACAG with one hundred Lucas Oil Motorsport Division T-Shirts upon which have been added the project's individual identity in vinyl showing the bonnet shape and colours along with the 58 race number. It means that the ACAG's only cost will be the additional vinyl logo plus P&P. This will be a true limited edition of 100 shirts – each one being numbered. So it's quite a special item of branded clothing to own. And the shirts are priced very competitively too at only £15 plus £2.50 UK P+P (ask for quote on overseas posting). Sizes are S, M, L, XL and XXL with S and XL already in stock. More sizes are expected from the USA shortly. Send your requirements to brian@allardchrysler.org and I will contact you for payment once the shirt is ready for dispatch. All profits go to the Allard Chrysler Dragster restoration fund. Web site updates. 4th April: Chris Eyre has updated his Eurodragpics web site with shots from the Festival of Power. "Although it was nice to get back behind the camera for the day I would of much rather been under the Time Warp Nostalgia Funny Car preparing it for an assult on the quarter mile", says Chris. "Sorry to all the fans of the team for our absence, we shall be back out soon to put on a show for you all! I would think the next outing for Time Warp will be Dragstalgia, though we are looking at other events sooner, we need that nitro fix as Drachten seems so long ago now. A big thank you goes to the track crew for all their hard work in getting the track ready in the face of adversity with the weather. Second thank you goes to Tog for inviting me to the Eurodragster.com office, a view of Santa Pod I hadn't seen before (You're welcome - Ed)! On a much sadder note, to Ian Marshall and his family, my thoughts are with you all". You can check out Chris' Festival of Power shots at www.eurodragpics.com. Next with the Festival of Power updates is The Mad Welshman whose Saturday shots you can find at www.flickr.com/photos/the_madwelshman. Mad adds that there are also off-season updates with a drag racing element from Race Retro, Autosport International and the Butty Run monthly car meet as well as an album of pics from 2008 which will gradually be added to over time. Colin Donisthorpe has posted a small collection of Festival of Power pictures on his Flickr site at www.flickr.com/photos/colin_donisthorpe. Colin says that more pictures will be added soon. Last of the Festival of Power updates for today is Paul Lister's Sunday pictures which you can check out at www.dragcaranon.co.uk. Further to yesterday's results, Martin Drake has updated his web site with a write-up and pictures from the weekend's Easter Nationals at York Raceway. You can take a look at www.drakies-americans.co.uk. Our good buddy Alan Currans has updated his excellent Acceleration Archive with a fourth gallery of Benoit Pigeons photographs, this time featuring pictures of early US Pro Mods taken at Shuffletown, North Carolina in 1989, Atlanta also in 1989, New York Empire in 1991, and Englishtown in 1993. As ever you can check out this latest update via the What's New link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. Jimmy Parsons. 2nd April: We were sorry to hear that Jimmy Parsons, the man behind Radio Luxembourg's involvement with the NDRC and the development of drag racing on radio in the 1970s, passed away peacefully on 6th March at the age of eighty. Dave Riswick writes: Early in 1970, drag racing was fist advertised and promoted on national radio. This created a big change in the awareness of the sport. It all came about when Dave Riswick , the press officer for the NDRC, approached Radio Luxembourg at their London headquarters. This meeting sparked off a lasting relationship between Dave and Jimmy which developed into sponsorship of the John Woolfe Racing 208 dragster and drag racing in general right through the first half of the 1970s.   Jimmy was such a warm and sincere person, who befriended many in the sport over the years. Our deepest sympathies to Jimmy's friends and family. York Easter Nationals results. 3rd April: Thanks to George Kinghorn of the UKDrag.net blog for forwarding us the final results of Monday's eliminations at the Easter Nationals at York Raceway: Pro ET Winner Team Rodzilla 10.96/106 (dial 10.90) defeated Paul Grainger 10.35/138 (dial 9.79) Sportsman ET Winner Stephen Gilmoor 14.70/71 (dial 14.20) defeated Scott Priestland 19.16/65 (dial 19.00) American Superstock Winner Team Rodzilla 10.899/109 (dial 10.90) defeated Samantha Carter Chiles 13.533/103 (dial 13.55) Supercup (heads up) Winner Paul Grainger 9.87/139 defeated Marc Manning 10.48/124 JDM-DRC Winner Matt Davison 15.62/92 (dial 15.20) defeated Des Taylor 14.58/98 (dial 14.10) NSCC (heads up) James Murray 13.14/110 defeated Derek Beck 13.51/95 Event entry update. 3rd April: This Friday, 5th April, is the closing date for entry to Big Bang, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 26th-28th April (race days 27th-28th) and which is a Championship round for VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Sportsman ET, Junior Dragster, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike, Outlaw Anglia, JDS Pro and JDS Street. Entry after Friday, if accepted, will be subject to a Late Entry penalty. You can download the official Big Bang entry form from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Thanks to Ian Marshall for forwarding us Version 2 of the official Big Bang entry list which you can check out by clicking here. If you have any queries about Big Bang entry then please contact Santa Pod Racers Club at paula.marshall@btconnect.com or call 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625). Entry is still open for the APIRA Springspeed Nationals, which takes place at Shakespeare County Raceway on 4th-6th May. Entry forms in PDF format can be downloaded from the Downloadspage of the Shakespeare County Raceway web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. If you have any queries about Springspeed Nationals entry or about the event in general then please call 01789 720180 (outside the UK +44 1789 720180) or E-Mail enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. All ticket and advance ticket enquiries should be directed to 01789 414119. RWYB on Big Bang Sunday. 3rd April: Due to a relatively low number of race classes competing at the Big Bang Camper and Bus Show, Santa Pod Raceway have decided to introduce some Run What You Brung sessions into the Sunday's running order. James Forster writes: Due to the competition vehicles running under permit on that day we are going to have to restrict the vehicles which take part: VWs 11.99 or quicker Other race cars 9.99 or quicker Bikes 8.99 or quicker All vehicles must run race type tyres. Although this is a fantastic opportunity to run on a fully-prepped track please do remember that priority must be given to those classes racing in competition on that day. With that said, if the weather is on our side there should be plenty of track time available. Numbers are restricted and entry into these sessions is by pre-arrangement only. Entry fees are simply your admission ticket and then your £25 sign on for unlimited runs. To register your interest, please contact James on 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828) or E-Mail james@santapod.com. Two TMFCs for two brothers. 3rd April: For the 2013 season there are going to be huge changes in one of Europe's most successful drag racing teams, Lindberg Brothers Racing. "The combination of materials and the team we have built will be very dangerous for our competitiors in the European Championship", says Crew Chief Jonnie Lindberg. For three seasons Johan and Jonnie Lindberg have competed among the élite in European drag racing. The highlight so far is the FIA European Pro Modified Championship title in 2010 with Johan behind the wheel and Jonnie in charge of the tuning. The season will soon be here and it is time to reveal all the changes and updates that is taking place in this winning team. Johan, who has won everything which can be won in European Pro Modified, is hungry for more. Therefore, he is changing class from Pro Modified to Top Methanol Funny Car. "It feels great to try something new and faster", says Johan. Last season Jonnie started in Top Methanol Funny Car by winning his race licence and testing at the occasional race in an older Funny Car. Jonnie and Johan bought Frank Manzo's Funny Car at the end of the recent Gatornationals in the USA. Frank Manzo is a veteran in the sport and is one of the most successful drivers in the North American drag racing history. Car number two in the Lindberg team comes from Brian Thiels; it has been used in just a few races, and has been updated to the latest specification for the new season. "The whole team really liked the technique of this type of car, which was new to us", says Jonnie. "So to invest in two really competitive cars in the same class just felt like the right thing to do. By racing two identical cars we'll get twice as much tuning data after each and every round. We believe that this will give us huge benefits over our competitors. The plan is that both my brother and I will be in the Championship final this year." A two-car team with identical cars is unique in Europe. So unique that Chevrolet Sweden has decided to step in and support the team in their efforts. As a part of the agreement, the brothers will arrange the Swedish Chevrolet Road Tour 2013, presenting the latest Chevrolet car models.  Besides Chevrolet the Swedish construction company Pålplintar, which has been supporting the team for many years, has decided in connection with their thirtieth anniversary to expand their support further. Swift snippets. 3rd April: The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com came with no words at all. If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at eurodragster.com@btinternet.com. We had a huge number of viewers on our Webster Race Engineering / Nimbus Motorsport webcam at the Festival of Power and we have had a lot of positive feedback for which we are very grateful. However a tiny number of viewers suffered stuttering of video or audio or both. One likely explanation for at least some of those viewers is that their computers did not have the latest version of Flash Player. You can get the latest version of Flash Player at www.adobe.com. Web site updates. 3rd April: In the latest instalment in his Nostalgia Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, Allard Chrysler Action Group Chair Brian Taylor brings us up to date with the latest from the ACAG and the world of nostalgis including a bid to bring the Mooneyes Special to run in the UK. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Malcolm Olley's funeral. 2nd April: The family of the late Malcolm Olley have been in touch to thank everyone who has called, E-Mailed, texted and posted tributes to Malcolm. "It was lovely to see Chris and Claire dedicate the Wild Bunch runs to Dad at Santa Pod, over the Easter weekend", they say. Malcolm's funeral will take place at 1:00 pm on Thursday 11th April at: Willow Chapel Crown Hill Crematorium Milton Keynes MK8 0AH Map The family have requested casual dress and family flowers only. After Malcolm's funeral a small buffet and drinks will be available at The Bell Hotel, Market Square, Winslow, Buckinghamshire MK18 3AB (map). Festival of Power results. 2nd April: Congratulations to the winners of the weekend's Festival of Power at Santa Pod Raceway: MSA Pro Modified: Rick Garrett 6.9812/196.24 def. Andy Robinson 14.2607/68.96 European Nitro Funny Car Challenge: Jason Phelps no time bye, Gordon Smith no show Super Pro ET: Peter Walters (8.19( 8.3674/139.49 def. Scott Hauser (7.62) 7,6570/173.04 red light Pro ET: Keith Herbert (9.66) 0.0042 9.7263/123.04 def. Simon Innes (11.24) 11.2088/118.62 breakout Sportsman ET: Craig Wright (16.40) 16.6639/72.87 def. Nick Hale (17.70) 18.0337/76.54 Super Comp: Paul Brown 9.1062/119.30 def. Dave Gadney 9.1131/150.06 Super Gas: Jon Morton 9.9179/148.63 def. Mark White 9.7263/136.04 Deep Stage foul Super Street: Harrison Brown 10.9659/92.54 def. Mark Watkins 10.9718/84.57 Comp Eliminator: Paula Atkin (7.26) 7.5324/185.86 bye, Andy Hone did not start Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: Brian Payne 8.0365/187.35 def. Andy Bond 8.8589/154.68 Junior Dragster: Rhiannon Bellenie (8.40) 8.4998/75.30 def. Joe Kellett (8.30) 8.4494/78.68 VW Pro: Matt Attwood (11.28) 11.5864/99.93 def. James Hodson (10.70) 12.4111/130.23 VW Sportsman: Dean Clatworthy (15.52) 15.4853/84.26 breakout def. James London (17.42) 17.3191/76.94 breakout Wild Bunch: Sean Law (9.15) 9.1909/132.06 def. Keith Crampton (11.45) 11.5683/114.48 Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association: Joe Bond 6.9986/176.46 def. Nick Davies 8.4803/196.40 Pro Stock Bike: Mark Smith 7.6901/166.08 def. Len Paget 9.8477/92.92 Funny Bike: Stuart Crane 7.8274/164.84 def. Stefan Schmidt 9.6252/135.27 Super Street Bike: Steve Venables 7.3013/197.99 def. Graham Balchin 7.4504/197.26 Comp Bike: Lizz McCarthy 7.7277/164.88 def. Phil Leamon 8.3281/159.03 8.50 Bike: Jake Mechaell 8.6805/163.05 def. Martin Wilson 8.3312/152.08 9.50 Bike: Andy Burfitt 9.5029/154.15 def. Dave Smart 9.4878/145.30 breakout Junior Drag Bike: Louis Davies (9.49) 9.5477/67.26 def. Scott Collier (8.00) 8.0966/75.91 Congratulations also to Super Pro ET racer Jayne Kay and to Pro ET racer Ian Brown who won the Eurodragster.com / Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award and the Eurodragster.com / Gold RV Perfect Light Award respectively. Both awards will again be £50 at Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway on the last weekend in April. Click here to check out our Alamo Rent A Car-sponsored Festival of Power coverage, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. York Easter Nationals coverage. 1st April: George Kinghorn writes that his UKDrag.net Blog will be providing live coverage from York Raceway this weekend. You will be able to stay in touch with events at York at www.ukdrag.net. Swift snippets. 1st April: Sarah, Dogs Bollocks Racing and the whole of the Wild Bunch have asked us to say a Happy 55th Birthday to the original April Fool, Darryl 'Shag' Howells, driver of the DASH Racing Chemical Reaction slingshot. "Have a great day in your favourite place Dar", they say. Read does the double. 1st April:Ex-pat UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Steve Read capped off one of the most memorable victories of his career at the Santo's Cranes Super 3 event at Australia's Willowbank Raceway on Saturday. After winning Day 1, Read completed a dream weekend for his RSR team, defeating Darren Morgan in the final on Day 2 with a 4.76. "This weekend has proven that old dinosaurs can still win", chuckled Read, referring to his twenty year old engine combination. "This win means so much to me for so many reasons – running six straight four second passes this weekend, taking home the Louie Rapisarda Memorial Trophy and for my team that have given me a great race car all weekend". Read started Day 2 with a 4.76 to 4.77 qualifying duel with Darren Morgan, followed by a Round 1 win over Victoria's Phil Lamattina and a final round victory over Morgan with another 4.76. "I raced for Santo for eleven years and to win the Louie Rapisarda Memorial Trophy holds a great deal of meaning to me", Read said. "We came here to get the job done this weekend and show our fans that we still know how to contend with the bigger teams". NHRA star Larry Dixon put the field on notice with an opening shot of 4.503 at 332 mph over the quarter mile. The only regret Read has from the weekend is not having the opportunity to match up against Dixon. "Unfortunately, we never matched up with Dixon over the two days. I certainly hope there's a next time for that to happen, but for now, this is all about celebrating a job well done this weekend and letting it all sink in", Read smiled. Following the Santo's Cranes Super 3 event, Read moved back up to third place in points. Web site updates. 1st April: Photographer Julian Hunt, who is working with the Eurodragster.com team this weekend, has updated his web site with galleries from last year's Bug Jam, NitrOlympX and VW Action. You can check out Julian's shots at www.julianhunt.net. Our good buddy Alan Currans has updated his excellent Acceleration Archive with a fifth page of pictures by Peter Quinn. This update consists of pictures taken at custom car shows between 1971 and 1975. As ever you can check out the latest updates via the What's New link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. Team Rampage member Dan Holloway writes that he has posted a couple of YouTube videos of UK Super Pro ET racer Dave Ward in action at this weekend's Festival of Power at Santa Pod Raceway. "A cracking on-board video can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVCbu3urO6I and a close trackside video can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV_ol9lDdhM", says Dan. Earlier news