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31st July: Of all the weekends it had to happen...our good friends at Svensk Dragracing are devastated after their web site server crashed over the weekend, preventing them from bringing us the latest from the Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park.
Briefly, the FIA and FIM class winners were:
- Top Fuel Dragster: Barry Sheavills
- Top Methanol Dragster: Rob Turner
- Top Methanol FC: Micke Kågered
- Pro Stock: Niclas Andersson
- Supertwin Top Fuel: Stefan Junerud
- Comp Bike: Sverre Dahl
- Pro Stock Bike: Roger Petterson
Super Series 3 report and results.
31st July: Our own coverage of Super Series 3 at Shakespeare County Raceway is available via our Race Coverage link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster page, or by clicking here.
FIM points, records updated.
31st July: The FIM co-ordinators have leapt into action and processed the latest points standings and Championship records after the weekend's FIM round at Mantorp Park. You can find the new FIM points standings and records on the King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com.
First 2000 Champion crowned.
31st July: Congratulations to UK Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt on winning the 2000 ACU UK Top Fuel Bike Championship. The ACU Championship for this class is held over four rounds, and the final round was at Super Series 3 at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend. Steve rounded off his ACU season by winning the final at SCR yesterday. Thanks to ACU Championship co-ordinator Ian King for providing us with rapid confirmation of Steve's Championship win.
Top Gas records broken...
31st July: We have yet to receive official confirmation, but we think that Holland's Job Heezen set and backed up new records of 8.321 seconds and 156.25 mph during yesterday's European Top Gas eliminations at Super Series 3.
There is more to come from Job since he recorded 8.154/158.45 in practice on Saturday.
You can stay in touch with the European Top Gas scene on their official web site at www.topgas.com.
...but Nol doesn't break anything.
31st July: We're pleased to be able to report that fellow European Top Gas racer Nol van Zwieten was only slightly injured in his shutdown area spill at Shakespeare County Raceway on Saturday. Job Heezen told us that Nol damaged his right ankle but was otherwise only bruised, and that his bike had suffered cosmetic damage. Nol was at that point leading ETG qualifying with the pass in question, a run of 8.747/150.00.
Best wishes to Nol for a rapid recovery and rebuild.
Updates from Mantorp Park.
28th July: Our good friends at Svensk Dragracing will be reporting from the Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park throughout this weekend. The race, a round of the FIA European Championships, the FIM European Drag Bike Championships (to be run over the eighth-mile), and the Nordic Drag Racing Series, starts today. You will be able to stay in touch with the latest on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se.
Swedish Top Methanol Funny Car racers Micke Kågered and Leif Andreasson are also updating their own web sites with reports direct from their pits at Mantorp. Micke Kågered's web site is at www.kagered-racing.com and Leif Andreasson's at www.andreassonmotorsports.com.
Quick Times 17 on-line.
28th July: Issue 17 of Quick Times, the newsletter of the Avon Park International Racers Association, is now on-line. This issue features reports on Super Series 2 and the Mopar Nationals, a nostalgia photo feature featuring shots of Shakespeare County Raceway in its formative years, tributes to Chris Hampson, Dave Graham, Ed Shaver, and Maz Harris, a feature on SCR's FAST Team, bike news, and much more. Issue 17 also contains a biography of Eurodragster, for which many thanks to Quick Times editor, Shakespeare County Raceway Tech Crew member, and all-round good guy Ozzy. Check out Quick Times 17 at avonquicktimes.tripod.com.
Real scrapheaps!
27th July: Thanks to Craig Mallabone for letting us know that his Team Trax teammate Darren Cross, who currently stands in second place in the Streetfighters Straightliners 9.90 class, is to appear on UK TV in the Channel 4 programme Scrapheap Challenge. The idea of the TV programme is that each team is given a certain amount of resources (or, rubbish) and is then given a project to build. Darren's team The Megalomaniacs won the series last year and were invited back to defend the title.
This year Darren and the team had to build a vehicle capable of drag racing. The Megalomaniacs had Top Fuel Bike racer Brian Johnson advising, whilst the opposing team were under the care of Pro Mod racer and race car builder Andy Robinson. Filming started yesterday (Wednesday) and the teams will be taking their creations to Shakespeare County Raceway tomorrow to race them.
We hope to have a spy at SCR tomorrow and we will report back during our live coverage of Super Series 3, which starts on Saturday.
Web site updates.
27th July: Dutch Top Methanol FC racer Lex Joon has updated the News page of his web site with a report from the Cannonball and the Dragten Internationals. Check out out at www.eurodragster.com/lexjoonracing.
Top Fuel Dragster racer Barry Sheavills' web site has been updated with a preview of the forthcoming double-header of FIA Championship races, which you can find on the Press Release page at www.topfuel.co.uk.
The Avon Park International Racers Association web site at www.eurodragster.com/apira has been updated with new track records in Jet Funny Car and the dates of more shows and exhibitions featuring drag racing.
A weekend on the Top Fuel Tour.
26th July: Eurodragster staffer Tog's report on the first round of the Swedish Top Fuel Tour, which took place at last week's Midnight Sun Internationals at Pite Dragway, has now been posted. Tog spent the weekend with Top Fuel racer Peter Lantz and his team and got the inside story from all four of the Top Fuel pits. You can get to Tog's report via the Race Coverage link on the left hand side of any page, or direct by clicking here.
Tog has also posted Top Fuel pitside, portrait and action shots from Piteå on his personal web site Tog's Drag Racing Page; there is also a huge batch of pictures from other classes to be posted, Tog is working through these steadily and they will be posted soon. Click here to view Tog's Top Fuel pictures from Piteå.
Malmgren offers ride of a lifetime.
26th July: Swedish Pro Stock racer and current FIA Championship leader Michael Malmgren is to fit a passenger seat into his Camaro to wow the media before this weekend's Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park. "Some lucky guy or girl will from a national TV channel will have the ride of their lifetime with Michael on Friday afternoon", says crew member Magnus Cato. "This will be the first passenger run with the new car."
After entertaining the media, the serious stuff starts on Friday. "Hopefully there is another six-second run to come", says Magnus, "we have tuned both the car and the engine for it". Magnus also tells us that Malmgren Racing have joined what seems to be a growing trend amongst race teams for naming engines - their engine is named Viper.
Drag Festival preview.
26th July: On the subject of this weekend's race at Mantorp Park, our good friends at Svensk Dragracing have posted a brief preview of the forthcoming Scandinavian double-header (Mantorp Park and Gardermoen on successive weekends), prior to starting their usual excellent race coverage when action gets underway. Check it out at www.dragracing.se.
UK invades Scandinavia.
26th July: Also on the subject of this weekend's race, a number of UK sportsman racers are heading to Mantorp for the first date of a summer tour. Super Comp racer Zane Llewellyn and Super Street racer Bob Lees head up the list. Zane has promised to keep us informed of the progress of the Planet Bristol racers both this weekend and next. Super Comp racer Paula Atkin is also expected at Mantorp Park with her Ford Rapid Fit-backed Super Comp 100E, and Ken Cooper will be competing in FIM Competition Bike with his Pro Mod Bike. The FIM classes will be running over the eighth-mile, and Ken told us at the Cannonball that one of his engines is particularly good over the eighth-mile so he hopes to do well.
You will be able to keep abreast of the UK contingent's progress over the weekend on the Svensk Dragracing web site, after which we will publish reports as we get them from the racers.
European Top Gas at Super Series 3.
26th July: This weekend's Super Series 3 at Shakespeare County Raceway sees the annual visit of the European Top Gas Championship to the UK. This weekend is the fourth of seven rounds for the Top Gas racers, and at time of writing seven racers are entered. The entry includes two of the top three runners in this year's Championship: Job Heezen and Nol van Zwieten both of the Netherlands. Reigning champion Job Heezen has been the class of the field this year after a setback in testing at Santa Pod in May. Since then he has set a new eighth-mile record of 5.29 in the class at Vasteras and went even quicker at Drachten recently, clocking 5.13 but not able to back it up because of the weather conditions.
If you are a bike fan you will marvel at the appearance of the Top Gas entries, the engineering and presentation of the bikes and the professionalism of the teams sets a fine example. But don't take our word for it - head for Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend and see for yourself.
For more details on the European Top Gas scene, check out their excellent, fact-filled web site at www.topgas.com, and for details on Super Series 3 including ticket prices and a map, check out the Super Series web site at www.eurodragster.com/superseries.
Super Series 3 entry on-line.
26th July: On the subject of Super Series 3, the entry list for the race is now available by clicking on the Race Info button of the Super Series web site.
Björk confirms IHRA date.
26th July: Finnish-born, Swedish-resident, working in Norway, Nordic Pro Street Cup founder, oh and
Pro Mod racer Tommy "Tiger" Björk has confirmed that he will be racing his blown-alcohol '57 Chrysler
300C at the IHRA Mopar Parts World Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio in August. Tommy has had quite a career in drag racing,
featuring a number of "firsts". He is currently the subject of a news item-cum-biography on the IHRA web
site, which you can read by clicking here.
Tommy has promised to update his web site with news from Norwalk, in the meantime you can check out what's already there at www.speedghost.com.
Speedworld extends invitation.
26th July: Thanks to Carl Weisinger of Orlando Speedworld for writing with details of this year's World Streetnationals. "We have the pleasure of being host to quite a few visitors from Europe at our events throughout the year" says Carl, "especially the World Streetnationals which this year will be contested here on October 13th-15th. For complete information please see our Streenationals page at www.speedworlddragway.com/Streetnationals.html, or our main page at www.speedworlddragway.com".
Web site updates.
26th July: UK Top Methanol and Junior Dragster team Shell Racing have updated the News page of their web site with a brief preview of their next few outings. Martyn Hannis adds that the promised Daily Telegraph article is to be published "soon, they tell me - I think they told us it would be in there so we bought it", he says. The Shell Racing web site can be found at www.eurodragster.com/shellracing.
Swedish American Autoshop Racing Engines Inc have updated their English-language site. The site contains details of new and used engines at bargain prices, and much more. Check it out by going to www.swedishprostreetnews.com/autoshop.htm and clicking on the link to the English version.
The Little Big Racing web site at www.netax.se/vopar.html has been updated with a report of Super Gas racer Linda Axeldal's last two races in Sweden, at Piteå and Skellefteå.
Crew: we got 'em (now).
25th July: Fay and Paul Fischer of our sponsors Speedflow have thanked everyone who has offered to crew on their Super Pro ET dragster at Super Series 3 this weekend, after we published their plea for help on Sunday. "We now have thirty one helpers at Super Series 3", commented Paul.
A big thanks, also, from us to everyone who read and responded to the news item.
Web site updates.
25th July: The official web site of the Showtime Fuel Funny Car team has been updated with Crew Chief Bob Jarrett's thoughts on the Cannonball and the Fuel FC frenzy at Super Series 4 in August, a look at work in progress on the FC's new rear wing, and news of the arrival of a future crew member. Check out the Showtime Racing site at www.showtimeracing.co.uk.
Congratulations from the Eurodragster team to Showtime crew member Will Sherratt and his wife Jenny on the arrival of son Loui.
Gold Town Summer Race results.
24th July: A report and results from the weekend's Gold Town Summer Race at Skellefteå are now available on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se.
Andreasson gets the bus.
24th July: Swedish Top Methanol FC racer Leif Andreasson has completed work on the team's new transporter in time for this weekend's Sko Uno Drag Festival, which includes the third round of the FIA European Championships, at Mantorp Park in Sweden. The old rig and tow truck have been sold and replaced with a snazzy new bus which team member Anders Magnusson describes as being "à la McLaren".
You can find more details on the new rig, plus all the latest from the Andreasson Motorsports pit, on the team's web site at www.andreassonmotorsports.com. Anders promises regular updates in the lead-up to this weekend's race, and on past form frequent updates will be posted from Mantorp Park once the event gets underway.
We were very sorry to read on Leif's web site that the team's good friend, veteran American racer Bob Riddle, has broken a leg in a plane crash. Everyone here at Eurodragster sends their best wishes to Bob for a speedy recovery.
Mid West Show invites cars and bikes.
24th July: Les Sanderson of the Mid West American Auto Club has written with an invitation to drag racers to display their cars and bikes at the club's show at Cheltenham Racecourse exhibition centre on 18th-20th August.
"Every year we try to promote drag racing and Shakespeare County Raceway", says Les. "The Show is on the weekend before Super Series 4, and it is the same weekend as Hockenheim but I'm inviting anyone who's not going to Germany! In return for putting your race vehicle on show, I will provide a free weekend for racers and their families. It starts on Friday with a disco and welcome buffet, and Saturday is set-up and polish day with a party in the evening. We open to the public on Sunday: this is your chance to promote our sport."
Les tells us that the Shell Racing Top Methanol and Junior Dragster team have already signed up, together with the Top Banana Super Street team, Tim Hines, Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Ian Hook, and members of the Wild Bunch. The F.A.S.T. team, Shakespeare County Raceway's track and safety crew, will also have a presence at the Show.
"I also want to help Super Series promoter Terry Gibbs in promoting the events, so this is the racers' chance to thank Terry for what he has done", says Les.
To enter your vehicle for the Mid West Show, or for more details, visit the club's web site at www.Mid-West.co.uk, or mail Les Sanderson at les@sanderson81.u-net.com.
Web site updates.
24th July: The FB Racing web site at www.fbracing.co.uk, hosted by Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Ian Hook, has recently been expanded. There is now a selection of photographs from the 2000 season plus an all-new News section covering anything Street Eliminator-related (or not related if it's funny or interesting enough). This is the site for the CCSE with race reports, profiles, points standings and history. Ian invites everyone to drop by and take a look.
Fay seeks crew after new nightmare.
23rd July: On July 4th we reported that UK Super Pro ET racer Fay Fischer was experiencing a nightmare season with her Speedflow Racing dragster, and that she had promised to make next weekend's Super Series 3 at Shakespeare County Raceway "if I've had a leg amputated and my head cut off".
Well, we are pleased to say that no such afflictions are ailing Fay, but that unfortunately the new crewman on the team has suffered a leg injury and won't be able to make the race next week. Fay and husband Paul are now urgently seeking a crewman for next weekend's race. Anyone who would like to work on the Speedflow Racing dragster at Super Series 3 is asked to contact Fay on speedflo@netcomuk.co.uk.
Web site updates.
22nd July: German Top Methanol Dragster racer Peter Schöfer's web site has been updated with all the latest from his operation, including the news that the car is up for sale (we hope that this doesn't mean that you're retiring Peter?). You can find Peter Schöfer's web site at www.dragsterracing.de/schoefer/index.htm. And thanks for the nice words in your E-mail, Gittli!
Dutch Super Gas racer Robert Joosten has updated the Bad Nova web site with news and video clips from his weekend at Drachten. Check it out at cougar.www.cistron.nl/dragrace.htm.
Eurodragster staffer Sharkman has updated his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with a report and pictures from last weekend's Dragten Internationals, some more pictures from the Cannonball, and some new Windows Wallpaper. You can find Sharkman's site at www.btinternet.com/~sharkman.
Super Modified demo goes ahead.
21st July: On 8th July we reported that a new class, to be named Super Modified, has been proposed for the UK: a heads-up class designed to fill the gap between Pro Mod and the Custom Car Street Eliminator (for more details see the original news item).
It has now been confirmed that a demonstration of the new class is to take place at Super Series 3 at Shakespeare County Raceway next week. The competitors will be Glenn Dumont, driving Nick Davies' Allstar Performance-backed Pro Mod Olds Cutlass without Nitrous, and Andy Hone driving his Super Pro ET Sierra with Nitrous. We'll bring you more details as we get them.
Teng Tools sponsor Smax.
21st July: UK Fuel FC and Top Methanol Dragster racer Smax Smith has announced that he has signed a sponsorship deal with Teng Tools, who also sponsor Tony Betts' Fuel FC.
Smax is still clocking up the busy weekends; last week he appeared at the Max Power Show in Birmingham were he fired up his Astral Projection Top Methanol Dragster, and he seems to be developing a taste for celebrity. "At the Max Power Show I was joined for photos by Jordan, Jo Guest, the Max Power girls and Jeremy Clarkson (more or less the order in which I'd put those names, too - Ed). After sticking Tara Palmer-Tompkinson in the Funny Car at the Cannonball I'm having fun with the celebs!". This weekend Smax is appearing at the Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway, again with the TMD.
You can stay in touch with the latest from the Ant Hill Mob on Smax's web site at www.smax.co.uk, which has just been updated with Smax's reports from the Max Power Show and the Cannonball.
European SSB results and pictures.
21st July: Last weekend's first round of the European Super Street Bike Series at Drachten was, as we have already reported, highly successful. A couple of web sites now have results, pictures and video available.
The official web site of the Series at www.dragsterracing.de/eurossb contains a full run-down of qualifying and eliminations, points standings, and a large number of excellent photographs. Series originator Peter Calwer says "It was a great weekend for us with the boys from UK, I think we know for sure Who's the Daddy..." (for more details on the Who's the Daddy saga, see the Super Street Bike section of any 2000-season report on Sharkman's web site - Ed).
Peter's German-language race report from Drachten is available on the Loud and Proud web site (the official web site of the German Super Street Bike Series) at www.dragsterracing.de/ssb.
German SSB racer Clemens Walleit has updated his web site at www.dragbike.de with results and video clips from Drachten.
Post an Ad, you'll go far...
21st July: We were very pleased to hear from Robert Inglis, who enrolled as a crew member on Knut Söderquist's Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster team as a result of a classified advertisement placed on our Swap Meet section.
"I'd like to take the opportunity to thank all you guys at eurodragster.com for providing such a great site and services", says Robert, "I know that without you I wouldn't have landed the place on the CBD crew". What can we say but thank you very much, Robert.
"I'd also like to thank Knut and AJ for giving me the time of day and letting me try out for the position at the Main Event", continues Robert. "It was tiring and difficult for a start, but with their help and the help of the rest of the crew I soon picked it up. Also, big thanks to Smax for the food and tea on the Sunday night, and to Franco for showing me the ropes on the bottom end of the motor. I'd like to think that my experience illustrates the good spirit within the drag racing community, and that you can just go from being a small garage hot-rodder and full-time student with no drag racing experience, to crewing on one of the best cars in the premier class of the sport!"
Adverts are free in our Swap Meet section; to view or post our classified ads either click here or click on the Swap Meet link on the left hand side of any page. You never know what it might lead to...
Web site updates.
21st July: Whilst we were gallivanting around Scandinavia and the Netherlands, a lot of webmasters were busy updating their sites.
Swedish Top Fuel Dragster racer Peter Lantz's web site has been updated with some more details and pictures of the new-model injector (which on Anita Mäkelä's TFD was victorious on its first public outing), and a new Links page. Check it out at www.plr.nu.
The official web site of UK Fuel Funny Car Team Showtime Racing has been updated with additions to the Photo Galleries and an updated Parts For Sale list. The Showtime site can be found at www.showtimeracing.co.uk.
Our good friend Tommy Nilsson has been very hard at work posting more race results on his European Drag Racing Database at www.eurodrag.com. The Database is one of those great sites in which a drag racing fan can easily become absorbed for hours, and is without doubt the authority on drag racing performance this side of the Pond.
Another good buddy, UK racer and photo-journalist Ian Turburville (aka Turbo), has written to confirm that his web site is now on-line at www.turboville.com as well as at www.turboville.co.uk.
Swedish Super Pro Street and Super Small Block race team DTE Racing have, as promised, introduced an English-language version of their web site at www.dteracing.com. "Sorry for the delay", says webmaster Åsa Le Mon. No problem Åsa, you did it a lot quicker than we could do a Swedish-language version of this page!
UK Super Gas team Rat Fink have updated their Home Page, which is hosted on Ed Roth's web site - how's that for a signal honour. Go to www.ratfink.org, scroll down the Home Page, and you will find a link to the UK team.
Hill does it again!
20th July: You will remember that on 3rd July we reported on Martin Hill's new European best in his Jet Funny Car Fireforce 2, and commented that the mark was likely to be short-lived. And indeed it was; thanks to Jerry Cookson of APIRA for letting us know that at last weekend's Mini Showdown at Shakespeare County Raceway, Martin recorded a best ET of 6.163 seconds at an astounding 260.12 mph. This puts beyond doubt the question of who has the quickest and fastest Jet FC outside the USA. Martin's next appearance is scheduled to be the Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway this weekend, and you wouldn't like to bet against his beating this performance. Congratulations Martin.
Firestorm hits Super Series 3.
20th July: Still on the subject of jets, Martin Hill has some competition! Jet Funny Car driver Roger Goring has announced that he will be appearing at next week's Super Series 3 at Shakespeare County Raceway with his new car Firestorm. After some minor teething troubles, Firestorm has shown great promise in testing at York Dragway: Roger recently smashed York's eighth-mile speed record at 188 mph, and recorded an ET of 6.9 seconds over the quarter mile even though the parachutes were released at half track (the uneven surface at York makes full passes inadvisable). We are now in the enviable position of having two potential five-second Jet FCs in England.
"Up to now I've mainly been practising launches and testing the afterburner", said Roger. "I am really, really looking forward to running at Shakespeare County Raceway. For one thing, we will be able to run the whole quarter, although we will be taking it sensibly and learning to walk before we can run".
Super Series 3 takes place on Saturday and Sunday 29th-30th July; see the Super Series web site for ticket prices and other details.
Still want to race in the USA?
20th July: As reported on 17th May, a trip is planned for bike racers wanting to compete at the AMA/Prostar Finals at Gainesville in November. Top Fuel Bike racer and ACU Championship Co-ordinator Ian King has written with the latest state of play.
"We are still trying to assemble a big enough group of riders to share the costs of a container to travel to the Prostar World Finals in November. So far we do not have enough participants to make sense of the trip, and if we do not get any more then the trip may be off. The plan is for the container will be loaded in the Heathrow area of West London on on the 14th of October (one week after the last ACU Round of the year). If there are eight riders then the cost will be £785 each with ALL costs included (insurance, carnet etc). Anyone wishing to travel should notify us of their intent and arrange to pay their money by the 25th AUGUST LATEST. Should anyone wish to secure their place on the trip, then please contact Brian Johnson on + 44 (0)1344 625182, mobile + 44 (0)370 425441, or E-mail him on brian.j@btinternet.com. Remember, first come first served!"
Congratulations, Erik!
20th July: Congratulations to our good friend, Svensk Dragracing's Erik Zettervall and his girfriend Lotta on the birth of their daughter. Erik is doubtless already fitting wheelie bars to the pram and instructing the youngster on the evils of corners.
Rain mars Piteå race.
19th July: The Midnight Sun Internationals at Pite Dragway were severely affected by rain which ultimately caused racing to be abandoned on Sunday afternoon. The event had the makings of a classic drag race since as well as the Top Fuel Tour it was a round of both the Nordic Drag Racing Series and the Nordic Pro Street Cup; the entry was huge and the action which did occur was spectacular, with several track records broken.
In the first round of the Top Fuel Tour, Monica Öberg qualified first at 5.059/451 Kmh, just in front of the UK's Alan Jackson at 5.070/438, with Pelle Lindelöw third at 5.158/453 and Peter Lantz fourth at 5.398/456. The first round of eliminations was run on Sunday, Alan Jackson beating Pelle Lindelöw 5.133/457 to 11.493/155 and Peter Lantz taking out Monica Öberg 5.138/443 to 7.782/180. The race was rained out before the final could be run; the final and the third and fourth place run-off will be run during qualifying at the next TFT round in Stockholm.
Tommy Moller gave everyone a fright in his blown-alcohol Pro Mod. Having qualified first with a 6.60, he hit tyre shake off the line in the first round of eliminations, causing the car to turn hard right and go up on two wheels at quite an angle. A great driving job by Tommy saved the car from flipping and meant that it only lightly touched the guardrail rather than the fearsome head-on crash which at one point looked inevitable. Tommy is quite OK, and his crew said that damage to the car is minor and that its new owner still wants it!
For more details on qualifying and the few eliminations at Pite Dragway check out the SHRA Luleå web site at www.shra-lulea.bd.se and the Results page of the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se.
Eurodragster staffer Tog's report of his weekend in Piteå will be published here later this week.
Feast of Fuel at Super Series 4.
19th July: We've just heard that Super Series 4, at Shakespeare County Raceway (UK) on 26th-28th August, is rapidly turning into a must-see for Fuel, Methanol and Jet fans.
It has been announced that Super Series 4 is to be headlined by a Top Fuel Dragster match race between Barry Sheavills and Andy Carter, a Fuel Funny Car field consisting of no less than five FFCs (John Spuffard, Gordon Smith, Smax Smith, Tony Betts and Allan Bates), the final round of the MSA Top Methanol Championship, and the Fireforce Jet FCs of Martin Hill and Tony Baker.
There is much more information to come on this race, and we will keep you posted, but let's face it - there isn't going to be anywhere else you'll want to be on the August Bank Holiday.
Main Event TV coverage.
19th July: The first programme in this season's FIA Championships TV coverage is to be broadcast on Eurosport today at 19:30 CET (18:30 BST). The drag racing coverage is half an hour within the programme Start Your Engines, and is the first of two programmes from the Main Event.
Remember that TV schedules and especially satellite/cable channel schedules are subject to late change so check with Teletext or the Eurosport web site to confirm the broadcast time.
Dragten Internationals.
18th July: Despite weather that would be very familiar to anybody that has been to Santa Pod this year (It rained a lot) thanks to the hard work of the track crew and the racers accepting that the surface might not be perfect the Dragten Internationals did get completed and a very enjoyable event it was. Highlights of the event included Lex Joon laying down a huge burnout in front of his home fans, close racing over the 1/8th mile in the European Top Gas Series, The first round of the European Super Street Bike series and Roel Koedam on his Top Fuel bike pulling the sort of burnout more associated with a Pro Mod car despite the fact it was raining at the time!
Eurodragster photographer Sharkman has posted a large selection of pictures from the event which are available from our Race Coverage page or to go to them directly, click here. For full results of the Dragten Internationals and plenty of excellent photo's check out the Explosion web site at www.explosion.nl.
European SSB Series Round 1.
18th July: As mentioned above, the European Super Street Bike Series got under way with the first round being held at the Dragten Internationals at Drachten. This proved to be an excellent first round with 16 bikes in attendance with bikes from Germany and England making the trip to race with the best of the Dutch riders. With the track offering less grip than some of the riders were used to it wasn't just about who had the most horsepower it was about getting down the track with out wheelspinning too much.
Qualifying saw all 16 bikes covered by 1 and a half seconds with Tony Clark no.1 with a 9.089 just ahead of Graham Dance (9.265), Rudi Thurmyer (9.278)and Frank Hetscher (9.364). The first final of the Series was fittingly a true European affair as England's Graham Dance faced Germany's Frank Hetscher. Frank had a small advantage off the start line with a 0.521 reaction to Graham's 0.578 but couldn't hold onto it at the finish as Graham ran an 8.83 to take the win over Franks 9.27.
Not only was the event a big success on the track but off it as well with all the riders and crews getting on really well together which culminated Saturday evening with everyone gathering to have a drink and swap advice together and extended through to the prize giving with the riders and crews all sitting together and applauding one another.
You can find more information and results from the European Super Street Bike Series on its official web site at www.dragsterracing.de/eurossb. Eurodragster's pictures from the event are included in our photo coverage of Drachten and our reporter at the event (Sharkman) promises a full report on his own site shortly.
Gone racin'...
13th-17th July: This will be the last update on Eurodragster.com until late on Tuesday 18th July, since Tog and Sharkman are on detached duty at Piteå and Drachten respectively. Keep those news items coming in, though, to news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them as soon as we get back.
For coverage of this weekend's events in Piteå, stay in touch with the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se and the SHRA Luleå web site at www.shra-lulea.bd.se, and for details of the Dragten Internationals check out the Explosion web site at www.explosion.nl.
European SSB Series kick-off.
12th July: The European Super Street Bike Series has its first round at this weekend's Dragten Internationals at Drachten Airport in Holland. The European SSB Series is the brainchild of Super Street Bike team owner and dragsterracing.de web master Peter Calwer, who had the idea after a large field of SSBs from all over Europe attended the European Finals at Santa Pod last year. Peter and his fellow racers had such a good time - as much off the track as on it, if we know SSB racers - that he decided to set up a series to encourage more international competition at races at which SSBs would be running anyway.
Although the Series has no FIM or other official sanction, points will be awarded for the three rounds at Drachten, Hockenheim (Nitro Olympics) and Santa Pod Raceway (European Finals). The Series winner will receive cash and a free web site designed by Peter (who, as one look at dragsterracing.de will confirm, is one of Europe's premier drag racing web site designers), with trophies and other prizes also posted.
This weekend's first round at Drachten should be attended by around ten German SSBs, four UK SSBs, and a number from Holland. "Right now we have to pray for good weather", says Peter, "then we will have a thrilling event. The German team is very motivated, and I hope that we will have a lot of fun together - not only on the track" (See? We do know SSB racers - Ed).
The Bavarian Drag Racing Club is providing sponsorship for the Series, and Peter is currently in negotiation with other potential sponsors. You can find more information about the European Super Street Bike Series on its official web site at www.dragsterracing.de/eurossb.
Dragten Internationals.
12th July: As well as the European SSB Series, the Dragten Internationals is hosting a round of the European Top Gas Series, and features racing in Supertwin Top Fuel, Competition Bike, Super Street Twins, Street Twins, Street Bikes, Ultimate Street Bikes, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Competition Eliminator and Street Machine. Appearances are also expected from Top Methanol and Pro Mod racers (Lex Joon and Henri Joosten being names we've heard mentioned), and Roel Koedam is reportedly making his first appearance of the season on his Top Fuel Bike.
The Drachten action starts on Saturday. You can find more details on the web site of the organising club, Explosion, at www.explosion.nl.
Eurodragster's very own Sharkman will be attending the Dragten Internationals, and although no live updates will be posted from Drachten (not this year, anyway), you can be sure that a report will be posted not long after his return home.
Optima sponsor Lantz farewell.
12th July: Swedish Top Fuel racer Peter Lantz has announced the return of Optima Batteries as main sponsor on the PLR Motorsports dragster - and his retirement from racing at the end of this season.
Optima Batteries were on board when Peter won the European Top Fuel Championship during the 1990s and have provided backing during a number of Peter's twenty years in drag racing. The new sponsorship announcement comes days before the beginning of Peter's season in the first round of the Top Fuel Tour at Pite Dragway, and the Tour has now become Peter's farewell.
"This is our last season, our final countdown, and we will of course finish in style", said Peter. "The goal will be to run a Four before I retire, and show that this operation is the one to buy for next year."
Midnight Sun Internationals.
12th July: This weekend's Midnight Sun Internationals at Pite Dragway will be seeing action in some twenty classes as well as Top Fuel Dragster. The event is hosting a round of both the Nordic Drag Racing Series and the Nordic Pro Street Cup, which means that just about every conceivable car class is catered for including Pro Mod, Super Pro Modified, Super Mod, NPSC Street classes, Super classes and Comp Eliminator through Junior Dragster to Snowmobile, whilst on two wheels Street Bike, Super Gas Bike, Funny Bike and Pro Stock Bike feature. On top of this we also understand that Leif Helander and Ulf Leanders will be appearing in their Top Methanol Funny Cars.
The Midnight Sun Internationals runs from Friday to Sunday. You can get more details about the event from the web site of the organising club, SHRA Luleå, at www.shra-lulea.bd.se.
Eurodragster will also have a presence at Pite Dragway in the diminutive form of Tog. Like Sharkman, Tog is nominally on holiday and so no live updates will be posted here; but with as last year he will be keeping a detailed diary of his weekend and will post a report on his return, and will also be rendering whatever assistance he can with this weekend's reports from Piteå on the Svensk Dragracing web site.
UK National and SPRC points posted.
12th July: The latest standings in the UK National Drag Racing Championships and the Santa Pod Racers Club Championships are now available via our Points Standings page. Thanks to National Championship points co-ordinators Yvonne Tramm and Simon Groves, and to SPRC's Paula Marshall and Spencer Tramm, for making the points available.
Mini Showdown.
12th July: If you aren't headed for Drachten or Piteå this weekend, and if you are into Minis, then you could head for Shakespeare County Raceway in the UK where the sixth annual Mini Showdown is taking place this Saturday and Sunday, 15th-16th July. The event is organised by the British Mini Club and combines a Run What You Brung with a Pride of Ownership Competition, Auto Jumble, trade stands, club displays, Stereo Sound Off and more.
Attractions include Bill Sargent's street-legal injected-nitrous A-series, and Roy Hill who will be trying to better his own record of twenty seven runs down the track in one event. There are several other records to be beaten including Neil Dobson's quickest Mini record of 12.33 seconds, and Karl Austin's quickest A-series record of 12.9 seconds.
"Last year's event was a huge success with over three hundred minis taking part on-track" said event organiser Dave Hollis. "This is the only event giving Mini owners the chance to take part in the action at very little cost. For just ten pounds you can sign on and run your Mini on the track as many times as you like; you might even be in line to win one of the many class titles.".
Other star attractions are the Wild Bunch, and Martin Hill and Tony Baker in the Fireforce Jet Funny Cars. As we reported last week Martin Hill is predicting five-second passes from Fireforce 2 before too long and with the long shutdown area at Shakespeare County Raceway who knows how quick and fast he may go!
Track action starts at 10:00 am on Saturday and 11:00 am on Sunday. Entry is £10 per day or £18 for the whole weekend: more details from the British Mini Club on 01384 897779 or visit the BMC web site at www.britishminiclub.co.uk.
Web site updates.
12th July: The Drag Racing Central discussion forum has been updated with the addition of a new section for discussion of the UK Super Modified proposal, which we covered on July 8th. You can find the Drag Racing Central discussion forum at pub10.ezboard.com/bdragracingcentral.
Brian Fawcus has updated his fan site with some great spectator-side photographs and video clips from the recent Cannonball at Santa Pod Raceway. You can find Brian's web site at www.x28800.demon.co.uk/drag.
Eurodragster staffer has posted the first of two batches of his Cannonball pictures on his personal web site at www.togsdragracing.com. Tog apologises for publishing fewer pictures than normal but hopes that the inclusion of shutdown area shots for the first time will make up for the shortfall.
The Swedish Prostreet News Magazine at www.swedishprostreetnews.com has been updated with some more video clips including an interview with Matts Applegren about the two-seater dragster (incidentally Matts, Tog will be at Piteå if you need a test subject).
NPSC Super Pro Street team DTE Racing have updated their web site, also with some new video clips which you can find via the Bildgalleri link. Fredrik of DTE Racing tells us that an English-language version of the site will be available in a few days. Check it out at www.dteracing.com.
Surprises ahead of first TF Tour race.
11th July: This weekend sees the first round of the Swedish Top Fuel Tour at the Midnight Sun Internationals at Pite Dragway. The Top Fuel Tour takes in three events, at Piteå, Stockholm and Landskrona, and features the Top Fuellers of Monica Öberg, Peter Lantz and Pelle Lindelöw and Knut Söderquist's Carbon By Design Fueller which - Stop Press! - is now to be driven by Alan Jackson (see AJ steps into TF Tour breach, below).
Last year, Peter Lantz became the first Top Fuel Tour Champion when he won all three events. This year the stakes have been upped with the addition of a 25,000 Kroner bonus for the first four-second pass.
Peter Lantz comes to the Tour celebrating his twentieth season in drag racing. "The team are now really looking forward to the race at Piteå", says Peter, "and I guess that it will be a very tight field since all of the cars are capable of running very well. We have not changed much this year, we were hoping to get a Data Logger on the car, but at the moment we'll simply have to do it the like we did in the old days - which has worked quite well for the last two seasons! The four-second bonus will of course step up the pace a bit; we will do our best to grab that bonus, and the the tracks at Piteå and Stockholm are ready to take a Four."
Peter hasn't lost sight of the target, however. "We have to concentrate on winning the race in first place. We won all three races last year and had a couple of tight finals with Monica, and that will be very hard to repeat".
We understand that a sponsorship announcement is imminent from the PLR Motorsports team, plus another major piece of news. Naturally, we will let you know the moment we hear.
Monica Öberg naturally has other views on the outcome of the series, and she had a little surprise for us. "This is our last season in drag racing. Hopefully some youngsters (her words - Ed) will take up where we leave off", she said. "We will do all we can to make this race our best ever. We'll be trying harder than ever for that four-second run, and we will try our very best to win the race. And I wouldn't mind if we ended up number one in the Tour as well!"
Monica is running the Tour with the minimum of sponsorship, but careful tuning last season has left the team with the parts to make the show. "We have not been able to get any big sponsorship deals at all", said Monica, "just some coffee money. And I really mean coffee money! Luckily for us, nothing got broken last year so the engine is in good shape and we hope that it will stay that way this year as well. We will try to go as fast as possible but still stay on what we think is the safe side."
Pelle Lindelöw has stolen a march on his competitors by already having run at a race this year, the FIA round at Alastaro in June. "After the race in Finland, which was more or less a Test and Tune Session for us, we feel a lot more confident about what the motor is doing back there" said Pelle. "We came out five times, but for various reasons we only made one launch and two aborted runs. Still, we ran 5.59 at 319 Km/h against Barry Sheavills in the first round of the eliminations, where I only ran to half-track before losing traction. When we took the motor apart for the first time everything looked like new and nothing needed changing. When did that last happen to our team?
"Our plan for this weekend is that we will be able to run the whole distance under power, and to start to do the fine tuning which we never had the chance to do last year because of all the problems we had. We are confident that the car is capable of really low figures, and if the weather conditions allow we will be out there to break records. 5.29 - 4.99 ($$$) - 4.94, in that order!"
You can find more details on the Swedish Top Fuel Tour on the official web site at www.topfueltour.com, and more details on the Midnight Sun Internationals and Pite Dragway on the web site of the organising club, SHRA Luleå, at www.shra-lulea.bd.se.
AJ steps into TF Tour breach.
11th July: Breaking news: Just as we were about to post today's news update, we heard that UK Top Fuel Dragster pilot Alan Jackson is returning to the cockpit of the Carbon By Design Top Fueller at Piteå this weekend. Jens Nybo was slated to drive the CBD car on the Top Fuel Tour this season, but team owner Knut Söderquist has had to make the substitution since it appears that Jens will be not able to make it. AJ drove the CBD car at its last outing at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway in May, and would have been at Piteå anyway since he is one of the team's Crew Chiefs. We hear that US tuner Bill Schultz is now also joining the CBD team at Pite Dragway this weekend.
We'll bring you more on this story as soon as we receive it.
C & S Pro Mod misses Bug Jam.
11th July: UK Pro Mod racer John Ellis has had to withdraw from his match race appearance at next week's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway, due to engine damage sustained at the Cannonball. John was due to race the blown-alcohol Eightrage VW Beetle, but a mysterious failure of a steel rod has put paid to that. "I'm happy to say that we can virtually rule out human error", said John, "which only really leaves an unusual parts failure. The block has sustained some damage, although it doesn't appear too severe initially".
The good news is that C & S Racing will still have a presence at the Bug Jam, with Paul Marston in his Grumpy's Dodge Super Gasser, who was number one qualifier at last year's event with a 9.901. "See you there in the sunshine!", said Paul.
NDRS points posted.
11th July: The latest points standings in the Nordic Drag Racing Series are now available on the Points page of the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se. "Nothing is decided yet, that's for sure!", says our good friend Erik Zettervall of Svensk Dragracing.
ETMRA hit by hardware failure.
11th July: Dave Alexander of the European Top Methanol Racers Association has asked us to let ETMRA members know that he has suffered failures of both his laptop computer and his home PC. This has severely affected both the maintenance of the ETMRA web site and Dave's access to his personal e-mail. "If anyone would like to contact me urgently then please e-mail me in the office at dalexander@triskele.co.uk", says Dave.
Web site updates.
11th July: BJ has updated his fan site BJ's Drag Racing Pages with some excellent spectator-side photographs from last week's Cannonball. You can find BJ's site at www.jsjhisted.freeserve.co.uk.
Summernationals reports and pictures.
10th July: Our good buddies at Svensk Dragracing have posted on their web site reports from the weekend's Summernationals at both Kalajoki (Finland) and Gardermoen (Norway). The Svensk Dragracing web site can be found at www.dragracing.se.
You can also find qualifying reports and pictures from Kalajoki on the Finnish Hot Rod Association web site at www.fhra.fi.
Web site updates.
10th July: The official web site of the Fireforce Jet Funny Car team has been updated with some thoughts from JFC pilot Martin Hill about the season so far, and a promise that last week's 6.265/252 is only a stepping stone on his way to the fives (Excellent - Jet Car-loving Ed). You can find Martin's thoughts on the News page of the Fireforce web site at www.fireforce.co.uk.
UK Funny Bike team Predator Racing have updated their web site with details and a photograph of their (very nice-looking) new bike, which should be out on the strip later this season. Check out the Predator Racing web site at www.teampredatorracing.freeserve.co.uk.
Rchard Bell of Pie Boy fame has decided to concentrate his efforts on the official web site of UK Super Street team Top Banana. "You should hopefully find the new site quicker to load, with drop-down menus and redesigned graphics, and I have posted a report from the Nostalgia Drags" says Richard. The Top Banana web site van be found at www.topbanana.home-page.org.
Super Modified proposal for UK.
8th July: A new Super Modified class has been proposed for the UK. Not to be confused with Scandinavian Super Mod, the UK version is a heads-up class designed to fill the gap between Pro Mod and the Custom Car Street Eliminator.
"It opens an area for those who can't afford to compete in Pro Mod" says Nick Davies, who was one of the originators of the proposal. "We've written the rules so that the big-engined cars have to add weight, that way that no-one will get too close to the 7.50 SFI break. You can't buy victory in the class: no billet clutches, you have to add weight the more cubes you run, only one nitrous bottle (no refilling) on the day regardless of number of rounds, it should see the return of innovation over cheque books."
The next step is to run the class in exhibition at a race, and discussions are currently underway about that. "It's a heads-up class, and that's what people are missing right now", says Nick Davies. Watch this space for more details.
ACU points updated.
7th July: The King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com has been updated with the very latest standings in the ACU UK Drag Bike Championships. You can also find an updated ACU records page featuring Graham Dance and Brian Johnson's new marks, set last weekend.
Shell Racing feature in media.
7th July: UK Top Methanol Dragster team Shell Racing will be appearing in the UK media tomorrow when driver Doug Bond and his Junior Dragster pilot son Joe feature in an article in the sports section of the Daily Telegraph.
The News page of the Shell Racing web site has also been updated with a Cannonball report, including the team's encounter with a famous face at Santa Pod last weekend (there you go Dave, it wasn't a silly rumour - Ed). You can find the site at www.eurodragster.com/shellracing.
Web site updates.
7th July: Gary's Drag Racing Pages at www.dragracing.atfreeweb.com has been updated with Gary and Phil Cottingham's report from the Cannonball, and the addition of a Chat Room.
Eurodragster staffer Sharkman has updated his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with a report and pictures from last weekend's Cannonball. Check it out at www.btinternet.com/~sharkman.
Malmgren bids for Pro Mod victory.
6th July: Current FIA Pro Stock points leader, and Europe's only six-second Pro Stock racer, Michael Malmgren has decided to return to the Nitro Olympics at Hockenheim in August. Last year, in the absence of Pro Stock competitors, Michael participated the Pro Mod class at Hockenheim and emerged victorious. "We are returning to defend the Pro Mod title we won last year", says crew member Magnus Cato. "It will also be a good opportunity to try some new combinations to in preparation for the European Finals at Santa Pod". The Nitro Olympics take place on 18th-20th August; for more details check out the Nitro Olympics web sites at www.nitrolympics.de and www.dragster.de.
Came off in my hand...
6th July: Commiserations to Dutch Super Gas racer Robert Koper who crashed his car at a sprint in Harlingen, Holland last weekend. The steering wheel came off at the eighth-mile point after which point Robert didn't have any more say in the matter. The car was very badly damaged but Robert was A-OK; you can find pictures on the Explosion Drag Racing Club web site at www.explosion.nl.
The Explosion web site also has details of next week's Dragten Nationals at Drachten, which as well as the usual attractions sees the first round of the European Super Street Bike Series and the latest round of the European Top Gas Series.
NSA Sprint open to all.
6th July: This Sunday (9th July) sees the NSA Motorcycle Sprint at Santa Pod Raceway. The bikes-only event is run under an ACU permit by National Sprint Association South, and is open to racers, RWYB-ers and spectators. Entrance to the track is £8, and a further £17 allows you to participate in the sprint. If you do not have an ACU licence you can buy a one-day item for £5. Gates open at 8:00 am and the strip will be open for timed runs from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Turbo on-line.
6th July: Our good friend, Top Gas bike racer and photojournalist Ian Turburville (aka Turbo) has launched a web site at www.turboville.co.uk. The site features Turbo's drag bike operation, details of and links to his parts suppliers, and a gallery of a tiny portion of his superlative drag bike photography. Coming soon are promised details of Turbo's graphic design sideline. If you like your drag bikes, Turbo's is one site you should visit.
Bug Jam 14.
6th July: Next weekend (21st-23rd July) sees the fourteenth running of the Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway. Ed Titheridge of Trakbak Racing takes up the story:
"Bug Jam is a weekend festival aimed at the cult following of aircooled Volkswagens, and it is the largest new wave Volkswagen festival in the world with 30,000 attendees. The daytime entertainment will include drag racing by the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club, free Run What Ya Brung, jet car demonstrations, show 'n' shine, VW/festival traders, Mr and Mrs Bug Jam (tongue-in-cheek beauty contest), and a day and night big screen viewing on a 'drive-in movie' style screen.
"The evening entertainment includes major players in the music scene such as Felix da Housecat, James Holroyd, and Adam Freeland in the Bugged out arena, Des Mitchell (TBC) in the dance tent, Dum Dums headlining the indie/pop arena, and Arena 3 with Bug Jam residents Dave Valentine (his work includes remixes of Simply Red, Eternal, Robert Owens and Sunscream, and he is the founder member of the now legendary 'Self Preservation Society') and Louis Gaston (owns Bedlam Recordings and remixes under the guise Thumper for legends such as BT)
"All of this entertainment comes at only £31 in advance or £35 on the gate for the entire weekend for drivers and passengers of VWs (non-VW drivers and passengers pay £4 supplement each).
Full information can be found on www.bugjam.co.uk".
Web site updates.
6th July: Swedish Super Gas racer Linda Axeldal has updated the News page of the Little Big Racing web site with an account of her weekend at the Aros Nationals. Previously a Junior Dragster star, Linda moved to a Chrysler-powered, Volvo-bodied Super Gasser last year. Check out the Axeldal family web site at www.netax.se/vopar.html.
As promised by webmaster Trevor Jones on Monday, the FB Racing web site at www.fbracing.co.uk has been updated with Custom Car Street Eliminator competitor Ian Hook's Cannonball report, and more pictures of CCSE entrants.
DRAG thank volunteers.
5th July: Carol Ismail of the Drag Racing Action Group has asked us to thank the volunteers who helped with the raffle and collection for the family of the late Chris Hampson at Santa Pod at the weekend. The raffle of a framed picture by photographer Graham Whitehead together with donations from racers and spectators raised a total of £3475.11. "We're over the moon at the marvellous total" said Carol. "I'd like to say thank you to Kirstie and Spencer Tramm, Natalie Grief, Steve Johnson and my husband Mike who volunteered on the day both to collect money and then to count it up and bag it. And thanks to Graham Whitehead - he was brilliant.". And since Carol couldn't very well thank herself, we will say it: thanks to you too, Carol.
The Drag Racing Action Group was started after Darrell Gwynn's crash at Santa Pod in 1990, and like DRAW in the USA the organisation exists to help to assist racers and their families with financial and other practical help in the event of injury. DRAG will shortly be undertaking a membership push at races in the UK; watch this space for further details.
Nemesis: how we won.
5th July: The Nemesis Top Methanol Dragster team are the latest team to post an account of their Cannonball weekend, which for them was highly successful as they won the event. As usual the report is extensive, informative and entertaining; check out the News page of the Nemesis web site at www.eurodragster.com/nemesisracing.
Race teams: If you post race reports and/or previews on your web site then be sure to let us know at news@eurodragster.com and we'll post a link here.
Web site updates.
5th July: Following on from the Cannonball race report which we mentioned yesterday, the UK1320 web site at www.uk1320.com has now been updated with pictures from that race.
Showtime win update race...
4th July: The Showtime Fuel FC team are the first to post a Cannonball report on their web site. The illustrated report goes into great detail and gives a good insight into the work involved in such an intensive race for FCs.
Showtime Racing UK have also announced that they and fellow Fuel FC racer Gordon Smith are to make a return visit to Shakespeare County Raceway for Super Series 4, after their highly-successful visit for Super Series 1. More details on the Showtime Racing UK web site at www.showtimeracing.co.uk.
...and about that tow car.
4th July: The tow car used by the Showtime team attracted much attention over the Cannonball weekend; "It got almost as much attention as the Funny Car" says team member Chris Dossett. The car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, was one of the first of its type in the UK and was loaned to the team by Myltons of Bedford. Take a look at the car at www.ptcruiser.co.uk and see if you don't agree with us that it wouldn't look out of place racing through the streets of Chicago with tommy gun-toting mobsters hanging off the running boards.
Fay's nightmare season.
4th July: UK Super Pro ET racers and, through their business Speedflow Products, Eurodragster sponsors Fay and Paul Fischer are having no luck at all in her quest to return to racing this season. Fay was last seen in her dragster at Super Series 4 at Shakespeare County Raceway last year; this was itself a return after a long lay-off, but it was rapidly curtailed by engine damage in qualifying.
So here we are in July 2000 and just about everything which can go wrong has gone wrong for Speedflow Racing. Non-arrival of parts, bereavement, a disappearing parachute, and a non-appearing replacement parachute put paid to Fay's appearances so far this season. All looked good for the Cannonball, though, until the National Health Service broke some sort of record by bringing forward from later this year an operation on one of Fay's hands. Fay was home from hospital just before the Cannonball and everyone will be pleased to hear that she is OK, but the operation left her unable to use the affected hand for at least two weeks. With Super Series 3 on 29th-30th July, what are the chances of an appearance? "If I've had a leg amputated and my head cut off, I'll still be there", says Fay. We'll hold you to it Fay, in the meantime best wishes for a rapid recovery so that it doesn't have to come to that.
Russian speakers sought at FIA Finals.
4th July: Also on the subject of the Speedflow Racing team, Fay and Paul Fischer will be paying host to two Russian children at the FIA European Finals on 8th-10th September, and although Fay can speak a small amount of Russian they would appreciate the help of any Russian speakers who will be present at the track. If you are planning to attend the FIA Finals in September and can speak Russian then please e-mail Fay (in English please!) on speedflo@netcomuk.co.uk.
CCSE points update.
4th July: The FB Racing web site at www.fbracing.co.uk has been updated with the post-Cannonball points standings in Custom Car Street Eliminator. FB Racing driver Ian Hook's personal account of the race will be posted on the web site shortly, promises webmaster Trevor Jones.
On the subject of points standings, please note that UK National Championship points have to be ratified by both SPRC and APIRA after a round, which involves much painstaking checking of paperwork and contact between the Points Co-ordinators of both clubs. Points are posted here on Eurodragster, courtesy of SPRC and APIRA, immediately upon ratification so if the latest standings are not on Eurodragster then they have not yet been ratified.
Web site updates.
4th July: The UK1320 web site at www.uk1320.com has been updated with a report and results from the Cannonball.
The latest issue of the Swedish Pro Street News magazine is now available at www.swedishprostreetnews.com. The update is on the Swedish-language version, and webmaster Hasse says that the English-language page is imminent. But regardless of whether or not you can read Swedish, check out the Swedish page for a picture of a beautiful '00 Camaro.
The European Drag Racing Database at www.eurodrag.com has been updated with the results of the recent race at Wittstock in Germany, at which three new Comp Eliminator records were set. Webmaster Tommy Nilsson tells us that the Database will also be updated shortly with three new Comp Eliminator indexes.
The official web site of the UK's York Dragway has been updated with the results of the fourth and fifth rounds of the Hot Rod Gazette Northern Street Car Championship, and results from the Spring Nationals. Check out the York Dragway site at www.yorkdragway.btinternet.co.uk.
The web site of the Ill Eagles Americana Club, which is based in Scotland, has moved to a new URL at www.ill-eagle.20m.com. The site features details about and a brief history of the club, pictures of members' cars and links to their web pages, and links to other sites of interest.
Slip-up department.
4th July: Apologies to Pro ET racers Chris Johnson and Bob Doyle for reversing their placings in our Cannonball results on Sunday. Chris Johnson in fact won the Pro ET final when Bob Doyle broke out. On the same day's race report we praised Smax Smith for telling the truth about an error so we can only follow his fine example and 'fess up: your raceday reporter Tog was standing too far away from the TSI Timer computer display and simply misread it. One possible cure under investigation is to actually look out of the control tower window at the finish line gantry display. To quote Homer Simpson, official mascot of Eurodragster: "D'oh!". Sorry to Chris, Bob and all of our readers.
Kågered wins Cannonball.
3rd July: Sweden's Micke Kågered won the Cannonball at Santa Pod Raceway, beating fellow Quaker State sponsoree, Switzerland's Urs Erbacher in the all-TMFC final. Both Micke and Urs were on their game over the weekend, making it to the final with a slew of high fives and low sixes whilst the Fuel FCs started to struggle with tyre shake and other problems after some promising starts.
You can reach our on-the-spot reports, pictures and results in all classes via our Race Coverage page.
Hill breaks Jet FC record, window.
3rd July: In another of yesterday's highlights, Martin Hill set new ET and speed records for Jet Funny Cars in Europe and, we think, outside the USA when he blasted down the track to record 6.265 seconds at 252.77 mph in the new Fireforce 2 JFC. Martin posted a warning that something special was in the air when he ran in the 6.4s in testing at the recent GTI Festival at Santa Pod, and fulfilled that promise with yesterday's pass which also put paid to another of SPR's control tower windows. Fireforce 2 is capable of five-second passes so don't be surprised if this new record is short-lived. Congratulations, Martin.
Dance sets new SSB best.
3rd July: UK Super Street Bike racer Graham Dance was also in devastating form over the weekend, with three runs in the 8.1s. Any of the three runs would have been good for a new ACU record which before the Cannonball stood at 8.210 (held by Graham) and so the quickest, 8.161, should be confirmed as the new mark after ratification. This will put Graham in confident mood before the first round of the European Super Street Bike Series at Drachten, Holland, the weekend after next. Congratulations, too, to Graham.
Aros Nationals reports and pictures.
3rd July: The Aros Nationals at Västerås in Sweden were unfortunately rained-out yesterday. But our good buddies at Svensk Dragracing have posted a report, qualifying standings and pictures from Saturday's action on their web site at www.dragracing.se.
Beck makes Chicago round two.
3rd July: UK Pro Stock Bike racer Dave Beck has spent another weekend in the USA, riding Jay Regan's MRE Pro Mod Bike at the AMA/Prostar race in Chicago. Dave qualified tenth at 7.148/185.84, won the first round against Bruce van Sant at 7.027/187.81, but then went out in round two to Tom Miceli with a 7.043/187.18 to Tom's 6.932/191.81.
Full qualifying and elimination details from Chicago are available on Dragbike.com.
This is Dave's last race on this particular bike since it has been sold to UK Super Street Bike racer Dave Holland. Jay Regan is now planning to put Dave on a Funny Bike for the remainder of the season.
Earlier news
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