Veidec Festival by the numbers.
31st July: We are indebted to Kjell Pettersson and Lars Andersson for sending us the post-Veidec Festival points standings in the FIA European Drag Racing Championships and FIM/UEM European Drag Bike Championships respectively.

You can check out the latest points on our
Simpson Race Products-sponsored points standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
©Eurodragster.com
Thanks also to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us the timing data from the Veidec Festival which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Eurodragster.com's American Car Imports-sponsored event coverage of the Veidec Festival attracted 71,123 unique visitors who generated 650,167 page views, 3,581,738 hits and 34.22 Gigabytes bandwidth. Tog, Simon, Roger, Kirstie and Christer put in some 316 man-hours during the event. Thanks to everyone for tuning in, to the racers for giving us so much to write about, to Mantorp Park, Svensk Dragracing and race officials for the facilities, and to American Car Imports for their support.

Editor's note: We are currently working on our news backlog. Tune back tomorrow and catch up with what has been going on whilst we were away in Sweden, and racers please keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com.


Veidec Festival results.
30th July: Congratulations to the winners of this weekend's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park:

FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Lex Joon 4.9590/411.64 def. Thomas Nataas 12.0272/127.70
FIA Top Methanol Dragster: Dave Wilson 5.4841/408.67 def. Peter Schöfer 5.6158/407.15
FIA Top Methanol FC: Leif Andréasson 5.8312/386.77 def. Freddy Fagerström 9.8017/135.11
FIA Pro Mod: Micke Gullqvist 6.2473/369.39 def. Andy Robinson 6.2780/362.12
FIA Pro Stock: Jimmy Ålund 6.9932/318.68 def. Eero Knihtilä 16.3372/76.21 red

FIM/UEM Top Fuel Bike: Peter Svensson 4.3107/235.27 def. Ian King 5.7070/131.93
FIM/UEM Supertwin: Roel Koedam 4.4869/269.97 def. Lorenz Stäuble 4.5487/267.20
FIM/UEM Pro Stock Bike: Anders Larsson 7.5729/272.40 bye, Tom Tinndahn no show

Comp Eliminator: Robin Sattler (9.76) 9.1411/219.37 def. Per Erik Lindgren (9.37) 8.7812/241.37
Super Comp: Bo Ragnebro 9.2301/202.88 def. Laura Sassi 9.2348/231.31
Super Gas: Harri Forsten 9.9221/251.32 bye
Super Street: Janne Carlsson 10.9691/196.75 def. Jessica Gustafsson 10.9548/192.52
Stock/Superstock: Hannu Palasmaa (11.07) 11.1318/184.32 def. Lasse Bodén (11.05) 11.1303/190.08
Junior Dragster: Sabena Jadersten (8.95) 9.0251/111.59 def. Annette Kavli (10.99) 11.0782/90.72

Funny Bike: Stefan Andre 8.3462/243.88 def. Peter Westin no time (broke)
Super Comp Bike: Jonas Sundstrom 9.1912/251.43 def. Micke Berglund 9.3949/241.40
Super Gas Bike: Nichlas Sverin 9.5570/218.79 def. Jonas Mohren 9.4159/221.59

Subject to official ratification the following European and track records were set:

Top Fuel Dragster ET: 4.732 seconds, Andy Carter

Top Fuel Bike eighth-mile ET: 4.189 seconds, Ian King
Top Fuel Bike eighth-mile speed: 292.25 kmh / 181.60 mph, Ian King
©Eurodragster.com
Top Fuel Dragster track ET: 4.732 seconds, Andy Carter
Top Fuel Dragster track speed: 506.18 kmh / 314.53 mph, Andy Carter
Top Methanol FC track ET: 5.711 seconds, Ulf Leanders
Pro Mod track ET: 6.2113 seconds, Michael Gullqvist
Pro Mod track speed: 367.72 kmh / 228.49 mph, Micke Lindahl
Pro Stock track ET: 6.812 seconds, Michael Malmgren
Pro Stock track speed: 324.60 kmh / 201.70 mph, Michael Malmgren

Top Fuel Bike eighth-mile ET: 4.185 seconds, Peter Svensson
Top Fuel Bike eighth-mile speed: 292.25 kmh / 181.60 mph, Ian King
Pro Stock Bike track ET: 7.256 seconds, Tom Tinndahn

You can check out our
American Car Imports-sponsored reports, pit notes and pictures by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

One for the books.
29th July: This year's Veidec Festival will go into the history books as the race with Europe's first-ever all six-second Pro Stock field. The spread across the eight - of fourteen, also a record - qualifiers was 0.1598 seconds from Michael Malmgren's track record 6.819 #1 qualifier to Kenneth Söderström's 6.978 at #8.

The record for the quickest-ever Top Fuel Dragster bump spot was also beaten at Mantorp Park yesterday. The record was previously 5.183, also at Mantorp Park, but now stands at 5.074. Seven of the eight qualifiers are in the fours.
©Eurodragster.com
Andy Carter set a new European ET record of 4.732 during qualifying and Andy is also half way to setting a European speed record of 506.18 kmh / 314.53 mph together with Urs Erbacher who is half way to setting a European speed record of 505.44 kmh / 314.07 mph. Andy's web site is being updated from Mantorp Park every evening and you can find out what he has been up to at
www.andycarter.net.

Finally for the record books Top Methanol Dragster racer Timo Habermann became the first ever Pro racer to win the Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award with a 0.000 reaction in the final qualifying session. In fact this is the first Perfect Light which the Eurodragster.com staff can ever remember seeing from a Pro racer but in any case it was good for 1000 SEK which we will be presenting to Timo today.


Swift snippets.
28th July: Helen Todd of Powerpoint Communications tells us that Super Street Bike, Super Modified, and NFAA coverage from Shakespeare County Raceway's Springspeed Festival is scheduled to be broadcast as part of World Motorsports on Sky Sports 1 at 8:00 pm this Monday (30th July) with repeats on Sky Sports 2 at 1:00 am and 10:00 am and at 2:30 pm on Sky Sports 3. The usual caveats apply about schedule changes and bear in mind that the coverage will mainly be based around qualifying as the event was ultimately rained out.
©Eurodragster.com
A very Happy Birthday to our very own Simon who is spending the day at Mantorp Park collecting pit notes. Have a great day Simon and be sure to stop for a beer at some point.


Web site updates.
28th July: Paul Lister has updated his Drag Car Anon web site with pictures of Nobby Hills Racing's Houndog Fuel FC on display at the Sandringham Flower Show. You can check out Paul's pictures at
www.dragcaranon.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com

Swift snippets.
27th July: Santa Pod Raceway are looking for race cars to make demonstration passes at Ultimate Street Car which takes place on the first weekend in August. SPR are looking for the very quickest and most relevant drag machines which means doorslammers which can run low eights or quicker, so Super Mod, Pro Mod, Street Eliminator and similar are most likely to be selected. "USC is a great chance to give huge exposure to your sponsors and show drag racing to a wider audience", says Rick Cuthbert. "There will be pit area fenced at night, and tickets and sign on for successful applicants. If you are interested in a fun and unusual weekend and keen for some track time, contact me on 0208 852 5005 or E-Mail
rick@santapod.com. Racers who have already spoken to Paul Venners about USC please contact me for confirmation. For more info on the event, have a look at www.ultimatestreetcar.co.uk."

Shaun Jones tells us that he and wife Terrie have opened a guest house less than two miles from Stansted Airport, offering bed and breakfast, parking and complimentary transfers to the airport. Eurodragster.com readers can get a ten per cent discount by quoting reference "Eurodragster". You can find out more at www.bonningtonfarmguesthouse.co.uk. Shaun has also revealed to Eurodragster.com (That'll set your mobile off Shaun - Ed) that he hopes to acquire a Hayabusa soon and that when the B&B money rolls in he plans to attach a huge turbo to it and return to Super Street Bike.
©Eurodragster.com
UK Pro ET sponsorship co-ordinator Carl Burton tells us that those wishing to book accommodation for the Pro ET party in November should do so quickly as the allocation of hotel rooms is running out. For more details check out the forum on the Pro ET web site at www.pro-et.co.uk.

Editor's note: Thanks to everyone who has got in touch by E-Mail to us here in Sweden. We are very busy working long hours on the Veidec Festival coverage so may not have time to answer or act upon every E-Mail received before we return to England, but please keep the E-Mails coming and please be assured that every E-Mail we receive is at least being read; feel free to set a view-acknowledge when writing. Thanks for your patience.


Web site updates.
27th July: In the latest entry in Lex Joon's exclusive Racer Blog, and the first of this weekend's updates direct from Mantorp Park, Team Manager Gerda Joon gives her thoughts on the track, the role of the Chief Starter, and the importance of the Veidec Festival in the 2007 FIA European Championship. You can read Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blog link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
©Eurodragster.com

Swift snippets.
26th July: German Top Methanol Dragster team Peter Schöfer Racing reaped the benefits of a change from a nine and a half inch rear end to a ten and a half inch rear end as the tyres didn't shake in Finland, says team member Gittli Koller. "Because of all the rain we have only had six runs this year on a proper track", adds Gittli. "We are very pleased to have nine cars in Top Methanol Dragster this weekend. We would also like to thank Michael Malmgren for helping us to get the new rear end in time."

Tireshake.com and Top Methanol FC team Leanders Brothers Racing are teaming up at Mantorp Park this weekend. Benny Edvardsson tells us that there will be many new T-Shirt and cap designs available at the track. For more details check out
www.tireshake.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Lizz McCarthy has been in touch to ask us to say a big Happy 40th Birthday to UK Comp Bike racer Kev Charman from herself "and all the Marston Mafia". No sooner said than done, have a good day Kev.


Veidec Festival Press Day coverage.
25th July: Eurodragster.com's advance guard of Tog and Christer Abrahamson is already at Mantorp Park and we will be bringing you a photo report of today's Veidec Festival Press Day in association with
American Car Imports. The Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam will be broadcasting during the on-track demonstrations and will be scheduled to post a picture every two minutes (We are on dial-up - Ed).
©Eurodragster.com
The report will be posted late this afternoon after the Press Day has taken place and you will be able to find out who did what and to whom, and view the webcam, by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Today's Press Conference is scheduled for 13:00 local/12:00 UK with on-track demonstrations to follow at approximately 14:00/13:00.

Simon, Roger and additional reporter for this event Kirstie Tramm will be joining Tog at Mantorp Park later today well in time to bring you full coverage of the Veidec Festival proper starting with tomorrow's Sportsman qualifying. As their schedules permit we will also have input over the weekend from our good friends Tezzii of EurodragsterNorth.com, Patrik Jacobsson of the European Pro Mod Association and bike journalist PiPPi.

Webmaster Gary Cottingham has been in touch to let us know that UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter's web site at www.andycarter.net will be updated from Mantorp Park at the end of each day. In the meantime you can check out the Carter Motorsport web site for the latest update from the team which is a report of a promotional appearance at the weekend's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway.


Three runs, three blowers.
25th July: Sweden's European Championship-holding Leanders Brothers Top Methanol Funny Car team will be on their third blower in as many appearances at the Veidec Festival after the IronCAD-sponsored FC suffered damage at an exhibition last week.

"We did an exhibition run and when we got back to the pits we found a hole in the injector", driver Ulf Leanders told Eurodragster.com. "A screw had come off the injector and gone into the blower and then come out again through the injector. When we opened up the blower we found that the rotors were ruined". One call to fellow TMFC racer Freddy Fagerström and a quick trip to Stockholm later the team had the loan of a blower for their demonstration appearance at last weekend's Borlänge Street Open where Ulf ran a track record 7.77. This still left the team needing a serious blower for the Veidec Festival and that's where Eurodragster.com main sponsor American Car Imports stepped in.
©Eurodragster.com
"We are renting a type D blower from Anthony Cohen", said Ulf. "It was on the American Car Imports show dragster at the company showroom. Dave Wilson went and got it off the dragster for us and Derek Flynn is bringing it to Mantorp Park. We are very grateful to Freddy, Anthony, Dave and Derek for helping us out."

The team's misfortune may turn out of benefit in the end as Crew Chief Jörgen Leaders told us that he was never happy with the original blower. "Since we put that blower on our terminal speeds were down and I was sure that there was something not right about it", he said. Jörgen added that the team's new clutch, built to their own design and SFI-approved, has had to be taken out of the car because of the lack of development time. "We have lost so many runs to the rain this year", he said. "We know that the new clutch works but we need the time to find its operating window and with the limited time we have left we won't be able to do that. We need to concentrate on chasing Freddy."


Race, then chainsaws at dawn.
25th July: The UK's Silverline/Lucas Oil Top Methanol Dragster team can't wait to get to Mantorp Park, says driver Dave Wilson.

"After the weather the previous two FIA Championship rounds we are looking forward to the usual sunshine and good track at Mantorp Park", says Grumpy. "We have changed the engine size to 470 ci and the lack of track time has prevented us from fine-tuning the different combination. Initially the car seems to be running well, as shown by the 5.43 at Santa Pod and the string of 5.50s in Alastaro, but we do expect more and the lack of development time is very frustrating.

"Although we currently lead the Championship race the lack of runs this year has kept the points very close and with nine cars entered we expect a full eight car-field with very close qualifying.
©Eurodragster.com
"Also at Mantorp we will be representing our new product sponsor Crane Cams. We have used and endorsed Crane products for many years and have always enjoyed a very good relationship with the Crane personnel, culminating now in a full product sponsorship. This of course is in addition to Silverline Tools, PlayStation 3, Lucas Oil, BMRS, IronCad, Euro American Car Services and 1st Line Motorcycles: none of this would be possible without their support.

"As soon as we arrive back from Sweden the car and trailer will be readied to attend the Silverline Power Tool Drag Racing event the at the Haynes Motor Museum near Yeovil, Somerset on 5th August. We will have the car on display, run the engine as per normal warm ups and possibly do a burnout or two on their track. This is quite apart from the Power Tool Drag Racing which should be great fun with tools going forty miles per hour in three seconds on the seventy five foot track. The Motor Museum itself is well worth a visit. See you there!"


Veidec Festival snippets.
25th July: We understand from pit chatter here at Mantorp Park that Swedish Pro Mod racer Mats Eriksson is to be joined at the Veidec Festival by Australian Top Doorslammer legend Victor Bray. Mats' family and the Brays have been good friends for a long while so we vote this rumour to be true; pit reporter Simon is sharpening his pencil even as we post this update.
©Eurodragster.com

Veidec Festival Perfect Awards.
19th July: This weekend's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park is the latest event in the Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards Scheme. A total of 3320 Swedish Kronor is on offer for perfect performance.

The Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been increased to £75 after it went unclaimed at the Bug Jam. In fact to make things easier we have rounded it up a little to 1000 SEK. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to record a perfect Reaction Time of 0.000. The Award is open to all classes and is available during qualifying or eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the weekend. The Perfect Light Award is jointly presented by Eurodragster.com and high-performance hose and fitting manufacturer Speedflow whose web site you can find at www.speedflow.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
The Eurodragster.com/LA Racing Parts Perfect ET Award has also been increased to £75 then rounded up to 1000 SEK after it went unclaimed at the Bug Jam. The money will be awarded to the first racer to run to the thousandth on their index or dial-in. The Award is open to Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Stock/Superstock (eliminations only), Junior Dragster (eliminations only), Super Comp Bike and Super Gas Bike and is available during qualifying or eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is jointly presented by Eurodragster.com and performance supplier LA Racing Parts whose web site you can find at www.laracingparts.com.

Should the winner of the Perfect ET Award go on to win the event then a bonus of £100, which we have very slightly rounded up to a not-inappropriate 1320 SEK, will be paid by LA Racing Parts.


Be there and get the full impact.
25th July: If you were tuned in on Monday you will recall that Real Steel Street Eliminator racer Colin Lazenby suffered a crash in his eight-second Team '56 Chevy at the Bug Jam on Sunday. Colin got in touch to let us know what happened:

All classes were down for two sessions on the Sunday, and presumably the officials were sufficiently confident with both the number of entries and the weather to add a third. This turned out to be a great decision by the race officials. Having chased a number of electrical gremlins in the first three sessions we eventually found our past form with a still-improving 8.15, putting us into the #1 slot. In truth, Luke Robinson and Garry Coull never gave up on chipping away at the faults and with each solution we were rewarded with a cleaner, quicker run.

In round one of eliminations, we were due to #16 qualifier and RSSE returnee Paul Webster with his BMW Mini. In spite of a valiant effort he failed to achieve the 13.50 ET cut off required to get in the field and we were therefore on a bye. Having reviewed the start line the boys chose their tune and we were off. The '56 left beautifully but shook the tyres hard at the top end of first gear. I short-shifted into second, at which point the characteristics of the shake changed and the car immediately veered towards the wall. Now, it must be the soft white paint scheme of those guardrails which makes them appear soft, because soft they ain't. Having 'rubbed' the left wall I could see the right wall coming up quick, though I did manage to get the old girl stopped just as it crossed the centre line taking out the eighth mile foam block in the process (I'm sure the timing crew will forgive you Colin - Ed).

The rest, as they say, is history. Needless to say the damage, quite remarkably, is largely superficial. A fair chunk is related to the back axle, which broke all but one of its associated mounts as it succumbed to the shake, combined with the extra torque by short shifting into second. Mercifully our Andy Robinson Race Cars chassis is confirmed as unaffected by 'scuffing' the wall. Naturally the remedial work, or at least the disassembly element, is already underway and if we don't make Shakespeare County Raceway's Open Sports Nationals at the end of August it won't be for the want of trying. The majority of this responsibility being embraced willingly by the guys at ARRC - so, no pressure there then.

To the medics, the race officials - all of them, I can't thank you guys enough for how you handled the incident. Many, many thanks. And a special thanks to SPRC's Carole for delivering my family to me in the medical centre. To Mark Perkins who kindly loaned us his flat bed trailer, to Wilf Stacey (who almost certainly has his work cut out) again many thanks. And the same thanks go out to each and every one of the RSSE teams who offered their words of encouragement, and spiritual support, to get the '56 back into RSSE competition as quickly as possible. To my hard working crew, who are completely undeterred by the apparent damage, well you know I'd be screwed without you. And the same goes for my sponsors, I bet you can't wait for your phones to ring!

Me? I'm fine, and in the words of the Governor of California "I'll be back".

RSSE tour event number five of seven was eventually won by Andy Frost in his twin turbo Red Victor II; well done to Frosty, Tony, Rob and Debs on their win and the 8.02 ET. Commiserations to the runner up (and also twin turbo car) of the Wildcat Racing Team, who must surely be equal in numbers to the cast from Ben Hur - that's Splinter, Mick Franklin, Chris Isaacs, Ray Perkins and the ever-excitable birthday girl, Elona. Oh, and I suppose a mention is worthy for the four-time Champion Steve Pat*man, who recorded an astounding 8.1 new Personal Best in the red Calibra.


Swift snippets.
25th July: Best wishes to UK Real Steel Street Eliminator racer Pete Smith who Ray Tucker tells us was taken into hospital last Wednesday with severe abdominal cramps. "The tests are not yet complete, so the diagnosis is not certain, but it could possibly be gallstones", says Ray. "Pete's mobile was even busier than usual - if thats possible! - checking up on the class' progress at the Bug Jam from his hospital bed. Hurry back soon Pete". And so say all of us. Will you stop breaking things Pete and get out on the track, but only as soon as you are fully recovered which we hope is very soon.

Tog would like to thank everyone who has been in touch to enquire after, or send best wishes to, his sister Kirsty who is currently in hospital. The latest news is that Kirsty's op went well and that although tired Kirsty was sufficiently with-it last evening to ask the nurses to "Turn that crap off" when EastEnders came on the ward TV.
©Eurodragster.com
Adding to yesterday's birthday wishes to young Eurodragster.com fan Grace Roaf is the UK's Panther Racing Super Gas and Junior Dragster team whom Grace visited at the recent London Drag Racing Show. "Grace blew us all away with her in-depth understanding and knowledge of the sport at the show, what she didn't know wasn't worth knowing - a name to remember I think!", says Panther Racing UK PR Wayne Corbitt. "Grace, we all hope you had a cracking day and we look forward to seeing you, dad Colin, Uncle Brian and cousin Nick at the European Finals in September."


An evening with Big Daddy.
25th July: Devotees of hot rodding who have any type of access to London should make a date in their diaries for an evening dedicated to Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth at The Horse Hospital in Bloomsbury this Friday.

The evening starts with Tales of the Rat Fink, Ron Mann's wildly inventive bio about Ed who engineered a shift in mid-twentieth century culture with his customised cars, monster T-shirts and America's alternative rodent the Rat Fink. Mann's largely animated documentary features the voice talents of John Goodman, Ann-Margret, Jay Leno, Brian Wilson, Tom Wolfe, Matt Groening, Robert Williams, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Paul LeMat, Billy F Gibbons, and The Smothers Brothers.

The film is followed by Ken Hollings in conversation with Edwin Pouncey (aka Savage Pencil) about Ed Roth, and ends with Roger K Burton's Prodragpinup, a forty-minute film in which the catwalk clashes with the drag strip.

The Ed Roth evening takes place at 7:30 pm in The Chamber of Pop Culture at The Horse Hospital, The Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1HX. Entry is £7 or £5 for members and concessions. You can find The Horse Hospital web site at www.thehorsehospitalcom.
©Eurodragster.com

Smax on standby.
25th July: Ex-pat UK Fuel racer Smax Smith was on standby to race in Top Fuel Dragster at the recent IHRA National Championship event at Great Bend.

"The Grand Bend Motorplex is ninety minutes from my home", says Smax. "I could have been driving Grant Flowers' Top Fuel Dragster as he was sick with shingles. When I got off the phone I was packing my firesuit, however Grant felt much better by Friday and was able to drive. I still had a fabulous weekend spectating with my boys Aidan, Ronan and Azzy and hanging around with the other Top Fuel teams including Scotty Cannon who won the event.
©Eurodragster.com
"It was the best to bump into good friends Dave Bryant and Neil Titheridge helping Terry Haddock who won the previous event in Edmonton. I am hoping to do a deal with Terry for the next leg of the Canadian tour near Toronto in September. Ex-Smax team member Belfast Ray Gardner, now nicknamed Father Ted, flew over to help the Patons who live ten minutes from me. Ray worked on Tim Horton's Top Fuel Dragster so it was a blast to see him and enjoy brekky!

"Thanks again to all the well-wishers who missed us at the Main Event. Keep the E-Mails flowing, we miss you all."


A few words of thanks.
25th July: If you were paying attention in Colin Lazenby's news item above then you will already know that Andy Frost took the Bug Jam event win in Real Steel Street Eliminator. Andy has been in touch to thank all those who made it such a good weekend for the Red Victor team:

Firstly Nigel at Altiss who fixed my shocker mountings at last, Gazmatic who fixed my faulty shocks in three days, Steve at Nimbus who got me a pair of Hyperco springs in record time and Jon at Webster Race Engineering who brought the problem to my attention. All of this made the car hook up for the first time in a long while and ultimately was a big part of our win this weekend. The other part was as usual my crew, who don't have to work as hard now but who are so important to the smooth running of all aspects of our racing weekend. They consist of Crew Chief Tony Grayston, Rob Kearns and of course Debbie and Gary Frost.
©Eurodragster.com
Also guesting as crew this weekend was Jonny Smith (of 5th Gear). He was bowled over by what he saw on the start line and is hoping to take a run in the car at the European Finals Press Day - with cameras of course! We'll know shortly if it's being filmed and when it would be on.

Finally commiserations to Colin Lazenby on his unfortunate incident on Sunday. Rivals we may be, but I never want to see that kind of thing happen to a fellow competitor. I'm just glad he walked away from it without needing to be fixed, which is more than you can say about the car. Knowing Colin, though, he'll be back for the next one to keep us on our toes.

If you want to read all about our weekend for there is a report on the Blog page at www.redvictor1racing.co.uk.


Web site updates.
25th July: Our good friend Gwynn Clark has updated his Flatboy Slim photo site with pictures from the weekend's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway. Although Gwynn is a VW fiend he assures us that there are plenty of pictures of V8s. You can check out Gwynn's excellent shots at www.pbase.com/slimboyfat/bug_jam_21.
©Eurodragster.com

Selkämaa steps up to Top Fuel.
24th July: Big news for fans of Nitro Top Fuel Bikes in Europe is that Finnish Super Street Bike rider Kai Selkämaa of
DB-Team Selkämaa has acquired the ex-Sverre Dahl and latterly ex-Norbert Kutzera Top Fuel Yamaha (see right for picture), says Jouni Vesterlund.

The bike, which has run regular 6.3s and 220 mph whilst ridden by Norbert Kutzera in the US Prostar Championship and during NHRA exhibition runs became surplus to requirements when his son, who is a talanted Kart racer, began competing at the top level and Norbert decided to concentrate on his son's efforts.

The bike features a 1325cc Puma engine with an XS1100 Yamaha head, an Autorotor OA3150 2.3 RC blower, Bentec 2 speed gearbox, Mallory magnetos and ART clutch.

Kai and are working on arranging a test for next weekend in Virginia, United States and hope the bike will be in Finland at the latest by 31st August for the Finnish Finals where they may have the bike on display as it may be too early for Kai to race in anger.

It is planned that Kai will compete in the full UEM Dragbike series in Top Fuel Bike during 2008.


Pro Dutch in Finland.
24th July: FIA Pro Modified racer Robert Joosten of team Pro Dutch had an up and down time at the FHRA Nitro Nationals but reports that he is doing his best to be ready for the next round of the championship this weekend at Mantorp Park, Sweden:

We made the long trip to Finland with Marc Meihuizen from K&H racing. It was our first time that the team went to Alastaro. It is indeed a long way, but what a beautiful countries Sweden and Finland are. If you are driving there through the woods, across the bridges in Stockholm, seeing the lakes and by the coast, so many little islands, you think that you are driving in a movie.

Well the movie went on to Alastaro, where we took first qualifying place with a 6.4 and a top speed on our first pass. Second pass was a little off with a 6.5 which put us back in fourth place. Then on Saturday, when we were on a really good pass, the movie turned ugly. With just three runs on it, a con rod decided to leave us, putting a big hole in the block. Game Over. With such a short championship like this year, we cannot do with this (well I think you can never do with it anyway).

Sorry guys and girls, but I had to do the "rain" dance for Sunday so that we have still a chance to stay in the top 10 in the points. Luck was with us; it rained after the first round and we decided to try to repair in time for Mantorp.

The first thing to do was get home as quickly as possible. So we did a non-stop 1,750 km drive. We got home at 5 in the morning, and got to work. Parts needed to be checked, and unpacked for repair. Also, work was waiting the next day for me also. If the Customs and UPS do their thing on time, we will be there. So now I am doing the "send it back quick" dance.

Hopefully we are getting it done and, I promise, no more dancing for this year.


Support teams outstanding at Bug Jam.
24th July: UK Event Safety head Glenn Ramsden says that with the support teams’ help at the Bug Jam, not only was a potentially dangerous situation arising from the weather avoided, but also the event successfully completed:

The conditions at the 2007 Bug Jam are no doubt, by now well documented elsewhere. I must admit, having dealt with the flooding emergencies of recent weeks 'up t' north lad' I was more than slightly concerned with a deluge as we were getting into the Friday afternoon and no let up in sight; however it did stop - for a short while. We were already planning for the hours of darkness when everyone was camping and asleep with their noses and mouths two inches from the floor, because with these conditions it doesn’t take that much flood water before there are many casualties. However despite everything, it all turned out well in the end.

What I would like to mention is the dedication of all the crew at Santa Pod for being able to pull the event round from a near disaster to a damn good event. For some considerable time, all of the track and safety crew were heavily involved with trying to stem the flow and remove many thousands of gallons of flood water and to their credit they did a brilliant job. It was with their determination that many of the traders, race teams and the medical centre could still operate throughout the weekend albeit with their enthusiasm slightly dampened.

I think that we should all take our hats off the the support teams that make Santa Pod what it is today, if it wasn't for them where would we all be, thanks guys you did a great job.


Swift snippets.
24th July: Congratulations to Tim Jan and Nick Mugridge for the newest arrival of the Mugridge Family and future Junior Dragster/Super Modified racer - Luke Mugridge (see right for picture). He is starting as he means to go on with his finger on the button of his reaction tester.

We would like to wish a very Happy 12th Birthday to Grace Roaf whom we understand from dad Colin is a big fan both of drag racing and of Eurodragster.com. A girl of exquisitely good taste, then: have a great birthday Grace.

For those of you who missed Driving Force first time round, we understand courtesy of Caroline Day of airtime sponsors SPR that the series will be repeated on the Biography Channel in August. Timings will be posted in your usual pay-TV listings.


Web site updates.
24th July: In the latest entry in his exclusive Racer Blog, Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon describes his experience of showing the MPM Oils TF Dragster at a tractor pulling event and his thoughts in the lead-up to the Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park this coming weekend. You can read Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blog link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

A large gallery and video from the Gold Town Summer Nats held at Skallefteå have been posted by Richard Lindahl at his site race.ulkhyvlers.net/.

UK photographer Jamie Dyks has updated his web site with a few pictures from the pits at last weekend’s Bug Jam which can be seen at www.topnitro.fotopic.net.


Kågered team develops.
23rd July: Åsa Kinnemar, team coordinator for
Micke Kågered Racing , says that the crew has progressed well as a team this year and that performances in the Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park next weekend will hopefully reflect this, at what for the team is undoubtedly their busiest weekend of the year:

First of all, I would like to comment on the ‘thing’ we have going within our team right now. It may not be visible just yet from our on-track performances, but the flow we have when we work together in the pits is really amazing. In Finland one of our chief mechanics, Göran Edman, came to me just after the dragster got back in the pits after a run. He made a gesture with his arm towards the car and some of our mechanics who worked around it, and he said; “just look at them..." We looked for a while and I saw it too. It was very quiet. Nobody seemed to have a need to communicate by words. It almost seemed like the communication between them were telepathic. Very focused, very efficient and very quick. The smooth cooperation between our clutch mechanics, (Robert and apprentice Edvin), our diver Mika and our two upper engine mechanics Gary Page and Terry is really impressive to watch. We have got to the point where we have a team that functions real well as a unit, even under stress. Changing an engine in between runs is at this point not a problem whatsoever. They do that just slightly slower than the usual "in between run" service.

With that said, I think we have achieved something already this year. You may find that kind of statement strange or even amusing thinking of our performance so far this year (a best of 5.13 sec/438 km in Finland). I can understand that, but keep in mind we pretty much started at zero this year. Sure, we have the same chassis as last year, but many things have changed, both technical details and the way we operate.

We have said within the team that no matter what, we are going to be patient and continue working according to plan and that will pay off eventually. One thing to realise is that Top Fuel Dragsters "eat" parts. The runs when something fails are lost runs in the sense the car does not perform at its best and yes, it may mean you are out of competition if it is during eliminations. This is not unique for our team. I dare say all teams deal with technical problems during every event (more or less).

In my opinion the teams that compete in Top Fuel Dragster at this time are only the teams that can afford the costs to keep the cars running. In Finland we had 6 cars qualified within 15 hundreds of a second, which I think is truly worth noticing. To me it reflects the efforts (and funds) all Top Fuel teams have put in to make the Top Fuel Dragster category where we are today. Urs Erbacher´s 4.82 sec run in Finland may well have set the level of performance that will be required to stand a chance at Mantorp Park 11 days from now.

Mantorp Park is a great track, a bit of a favourite for Micke actually. The fact that Mantorp also is team Kågered´s home track, means a great number of invited guests will be present and it also means a lot of focus on Micke in different ways. With extra staff present to care for our guests, we try to let our mechanics work as normally as we can, but, sure, the fact we have around 750 guests there to follow their work does affect them, but hopefully only in a positive way. Last year at Mantorp we qualified number one and got beat by Håkan Nilsson (who was number 8) already in the quarter finals. Micke´s losing 4.91 against Håkan´s 4.86 should have been the perfect final, but it rarely happens the way it is supposed to, does it?

There is absolutely nothing to take for granted. With 10 cars entered at Mantorp, it means two will be left outside the elimination ladder and be out of competition already before it starts. We will do what we can to be inside the ladder when the qualifications are completed. We have great respect for the other teams. We are also confident about what we can do and we hope the positive feeling we already hold within the team also will start showing in our performance.


Bug Jam results and photo gallery.
23rd July: Many thanks to David Anniwell of TSI timers for supplying the results of the Bug Jam. The following were the final top five qualifiers:

VW Alternate Engine
Andy Raw 11.5289 (11.52)/112.17
Laura White 16.3769 (16.35)/79.35
Ian Huggan 11.4061 (11.35)/120.97
Laurie Craig 9.2772 (9.20)/141.90
Matt Attwood 12.9437 (12.86)/110.54

VW Pro
Neil Ellis 12.2232 (12.20)/110.83
Joe Gallagher 11.9800 (11.95)/110.83
Martin Taylor 12.5589 (12.50)/104.93
Jason Aldred 11.0699 (10.90)/125.32
Travis Rider 10.7331 (10.50)/117.84

VW Sportsman
Jacob Bailey 13.5057 (13.50)/92.24
Paul Herbert 13.4773 (13.45)/93.90
Adrian Wigley 16.5990 (16.55)/82.86
Daniel Smith 16.0830 (16.00)/82.28
Spencer Tramm 19.5081 (19.40)/67.96

Super Modified
Andy Hone 7.6270/177.12
Andy Kirk 7.6308/176.40
Tim Garlick 7.6591/177.85
Craig Gibbs 7.8469/170.37
Paul Mander 7.8750/171.72

Outlaw Anglia
Paul Wright 7.6721/182.11
Pete Ashworth 7.9688/166.67
Rob Stone 9.4301/142.27
Ray Guy 9.9761/133.46
David Sidaway 10.2648

Street Eliminator
Colin Lazenby 8.1578/178.75
Steve Pateman 8.2681/175.68
Steve Nash 8.4828/172.39
Andy Frost 8.5201/184.37
Alan Simms 8.7308/159.05

Final results of eliminations were as follows:

V.W. Alternate Engine
Andy Raw 11.5451/101.75 def. Mark Skeen 15.2450/89.83

V.W. Pro
Glynn Morgan 12.7380/102.70 def. Martin Taylor (no show)

V.W. Sportsman
Craig Allen 16.3327/75.92 def. Martin Ayton 16.1301/91.10

Super Modified
Andy Hone 7.6962/172.32 def. Tim Garlick 20.4879/14.09

Outlaw Anglia
Paul Wright 7.7310/179.27 def. David Sidaway 10.4801/126.41

Street Eliminator
Andy Frost 8.0221/185.75 def. Steve Nash 8.4771/167.92

Unfortunately Andy Frost didn't manage to back-up the 8.0221 for a new record. Colin Lazenby had the misfortune of crashing, following vicious tyre shake resulting in a rod end coming out and rear axle becoming loose at 200 feet. The Chevrolet 210, on a bye-run, collided with the left wall and came to rest across the centre line. The car suffered front end damage but Colin was unhurt.

In spite of the damp stuff on Saturday, the 21st edition of the Bug Jam was a success with the new Santa Pod grandstand full on Saturday and a vocal crowd on both days. There were a sizeable crop of wheelstands and Roger has posted a photo gallery in association with American Car Imports which you can view by clicking here or via the Event Index link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.


Gold Town Summer Nats results.
23rd July: Tezzii and the crew of Eurodragsternorth.com have posted the results of the Gold Town Summer Nats held at Skallefteå; congratulations to the winners.

Web site updates.
23rd July: Our good friend Patrik Jacobsson has posted 125 pictures of the Borlänge Street Open held on Friday and Saturday at his site www.racebilder.nu.

Stanley Mellstrom has posted pictures from the same event covering the Junior Dragster class at his site www.bigstan.se.

More pictures from the Borlänge Street Open by Lars Sikhammar can be seen at www.ziken.se.


Bug Jam rain-affected.
22nd July: The Bug Jam has become the latest UK event to be affected by one of the wettest summers on record. After raining all morning and with much effort to dry the racing surface, track action started at 16:35 and was stopped at 17:45 with a torrential thunderstorm, which resulted in the cancellation of the remainder of the day’s running. Nearly one full round of qualifying was completed before the heavens opened, with just three Street Eliminator cars left to run which will now be completed on Sunday.

Many thanks to David Anniwell of TSI Timers for providing the details of top qualifiers as follows:

Super Modified

Andy Kirk 7.6308/176.40
Tim Garlick 7.6591/177.85
Andy Hone 7.6759/177.14
Paul Mander 7.8750/171.72
Craig Gibbs 7.9559/171.83

Outlaw Anglia

Paul Wright 7.7821/176.94
Pete Ashworth 8.7468/153.17
Rob Stone 9.4301/142.27
David Sidaway 10.5270/130.11

VW Pro

Joe Gallagher 11.9800 (11.95)/110.83
Jason Aldred 11.0699 (10.90)/125.32
Colin Jardine 12.6174 (12.30)/104.83
Justin Rivett 13.3121 (12.90)/84.26
Bernard Newbury 11.0919 (10.60)/121.65

VW Alternate Engine

Andy Raw 11.5289 (11.52)/112.17
Matt Attwood 12.9437 (12.86)/110.54
Mark Skeen 13.7921 (13.60)/99.99
Paul Braithwaite 13.5664 (12.00)/105.09
Ben Putland 15.1118 (13.50)/86.66

VW Sportsman

Adrian Wigley 16.5990 (16.55)/82.86
Polly Naylor 17.8643 (17.60)/75.47
Christopher Bray 15.8209 (15.50)/87.18
Shane Rae 19.4210 (19.00)/69.55
Paul Herbert 13.9128 (13.45)/97.40

We will be publishing the results of eliminations when received, stay tuned.


What do you get when you cross a...?
22nd July: Roger’s photo (right, click for larger version) is not a Top Methanol Dragster parked behind a shorty VW camper van but Wayne Allman's extremely wild and stunning looking VW pick-up coupled to a tagged TMD 136 inch chassis complete with a 526 cubic inch KB motor.

Wayne built the complete machine in his chassis works, the Intergalactic Custom Shop and the project was all set to be tried out at the Bug Jam. However, it was not the rain that stopped him but an input shaft that was found to be one inch too short after a hectic thrash to ready the err, car? van?

It was entered into the VW Alternate Engine class at the 2007 Bug Jam but Wayne hopes that when finished, complete with pick-up truck bodywork front to rear in the shape of a rescue tow truck, it will run at not just VW events but enter into the fray of regular racing. Which class? We will have to wait and see but he hopes to run it ultimately in the TMD wars.


NDRS championship events.
22nd July: Tezzii and the guys have been busy at Skellefteå and have posted results from all five qualifying rounds and a photo gallery on Eurodragsternorth.com.

Final elimination results for the Borlänge Street Open can be seen here.


Swift snippets.
22nd July: Congratulations to Bracket racer Nils Eriksson who won 500 SEK for Best Burnout posted by Eurodragster.com at the Borlänge Street Open yesterday. Nils pulled a number of rolling burnouts in his Chevelle which had the crowd clapping and cheering. Tog attended Saturday's second day of the event as the guest of organiser Christer Gustavsson and in association with American Car Imports has posted a photo gallery which you can view by clicking here or via the Event Index link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Many thanks to Christer and to everyone who made Tog so welcome.

Weekend events.
21st July: On one of the busiest weekends in the season, there will be several racing events across Europe this weekend. In the UK the Bug Jam is under way at Santa Pod. Roger will be attending to report on the race, and there will be news of the top qualifiers and winners. As well as hosting the VW Drag Racing Club, Bug Jam will have National rounds of the Super Modified, Real Steel Street Eliminator and Outlaw Anglia championships. There will be a run what ya brung on Saturday for a £20 sign on fee in addition to the weekend gate fee of £40 (or £55 for those not in VW); Sunday gate admission is £15.

In Sweden there are two championship events, both part of the Nordic Drag Racing Series. Eurodragsternorth.com will be posting live updates from the Gold Town Summer Nationals here. The event will include a round of the Toyo Scandinavian Drag Racing Series and the Snowmobile Ashphalt Series and feature Top Doorslammers and the Skellefteå open. All sportsman classes will be competing and we are promised demo runs from Monica Öberg (Top Fuel Dragster) and Jonas Staflund (Top Methanol Funny Car). Racing takes place from 10am to 5pm on Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday and spectator admission is 120kr per day (60kr for under 16 and free for under 12s).

The Borlänge Street Open takes place on Friday and Saturday at Dala Airport about 7 km southeast of Borlänge over a quarter mile and is organised by the Yankee Car Club. As well as racing in street classes, championship points will be awarded for Junior Dragster, Super Street and Super Gas (9.50) bike. Qualifications will take place on Friday from 10.00 to 18.00 and Saturday 09.00 to 12.00, and eliminations will take place from 13.00 to 20.00 on Saturday. Spectator admission is 60kr for each day.

Turtmann in Switzerland hosts the Swiss Drag Challenge, which is this year a round of the French Trophee DCR Dragster championship. There will be pro demos from nine categories of vehicle and altogether 180 teams will be taking part. This scenic track will also rumble to the sound of the Super Twin Top Gas Serie and the Harley Davidson V-Rod Destroyer Cup and a night show from 7pm to 9pm and band and DJ from 9pm to 3am are planned. The event, from Friday to Sunday will cost spectators 55 Fr. in the grandstand or 35 Fr per day (under 12s free). Turtmann is located on the A9 near Sion.

In the Czech Republic, Bechyne airport hosts the Motoklub Predators Ceské Budejovice which is a round of the Czech Drag Serie Championship 2007.


Swift snippets.
21st July: We would like to wish a big Happy Birthday to our good friend, UK Comp Eliminator racer Nev Mottershead who is the other driver of his eight-second Valvoline-backed Toyota. Have a great day Nev and we wish you were in Sweden with us.

Howard Holmes has written to ask does anybody have, or know anybody with, a 3rd generation Camaro? It does have to be a road car, it does not have to be a show car; a used car, modified is okay (preferably not pro street though), any colour, but preferably not white. It will be used for a real nice photo shoot in Derby within the next 2 weeks, and you'll get a CD of the images and magazine coverage -in a good magazine. If this isn't you, but you know someone who might be interested, please forward my details, email: howard@thebeyond.co.uk.


Wikström's Thrilling return.
20th July: Swedish Pro Modified racer Patrick Wikström will be making his long-awaited return to competition at next week's Veidec Festival. The newly-renamed OFAB Thriller blown-alcohol Camaro will be pounding the pavement at Mantorp Park twenty two months after its last appearance on the track.

"It's almost a new Camaro", Patrick told Eurodragster.com. "We've built a new engine, updated the chassis and apart from the
roof and rear quarter panels the body is now completely carbon fibre.

"The engine is 511 ci and has a new blower, new fuel system and new injector. It's the same chassis but it's been updated with more tubes. We have changed the seating position and I sit a lot better in the car now."
©Eurodragster.com
Patrick and his team have been working at the Best Damn Garage In Town in Gothenburg for twenty months and Patrick reckons that they have put in two thousand hours of work. "I would like to thank my crew and everyone involved in the rebuild", said Patrick. "It looks like a show car!"

The car should be finished this Sunday leaving Patrick and the OFAB Thriller team no time to test so its first run will take place at the Veidec Festival. "We need to make a couple of checkout passes", said Patrick. "It may be a problem to get into the field but the point is to get the car together and we are looking forward to the FIA European Finals!".

Editor's note: Thanks to Anders Envall for help with this news item.


Grin Like Flynn.
20th July: The silly grins are back at Eurodragster.com news sponsor Gold RV Racing. Team head and Top Methanol Dragster racer Derek Flynn says: After the engine damage suffered to our Chevy at our last outing, the team have done an excellent job over the past few weeks and we now have the BAE Hemi fully installed just in time for Sweden and have just run it for the final time in our workshop under the watchful eyes of both Andy Robinson and Dave Wilson. The eyes and ears are still suffering, not from seeing Dave and Andy of course but from the din and the fumes from our new Hemi. We just cannot wait to see what it will do on the track; it sounded awesome. We finish packing the trailer tomorrow and leave for the Ferry on Saturday for our first FIA mainland Europe adventure and we are all really excited; let’s hope the weather gods are kind this time.

I would like to thank all my crew for all their efforts recently, although the silly grins on their faces after each of the fire ups says it all really.

Thanks to everyone at Andy Robinson Race cars for all their help and assistance with our recent modifications, fabricating a new fuel tank and converting the old fuel tank to an external oil tank and other work. Very special thanks to the Vegter Brothers of Team Force of Habit for the loan of the 14:71 blower, and thanks to Dave Wilson who is helping us with our initial tune-up. I would also like to thank Trevor Capewell who sold us our new engine who is apparently called Bob; lets hope he does as well for us as he has done for both Leif Helander and Trevor. Our plan at the moment is to run with the borrowed roots blower for the rest of this season and get the Whipple checked and tech’d over the winter ready for next year’s campaign.


It’s all a bit of a drama really...
20th July: ‘Little’ Dan(aka Mikey) from Danny Cockerill’s Pro Modified team says “can anyone with any pictures or videos of the flying ‘57 in action or in the pits please email them to danbrisa@hotmail.com. A big thanks to all the track crew at the SPRC Summernationals who did a wonderful job and an even bigger thanks to all the crew Dave, Steve, Gareth, Andy Kirk, and another thanks to Gordon Appleton’s crew for providing us with most of the entertainment most of the weekend - and remember Ray - its only a hobby.”

PMR Update.
20th July: Eurodragster.com news page sponsor Paul Marston Racing enjoyed showing two of their vehicles at the London Drag Racing Show and are looking forward to their debut outing in Super Mod at the Bug Jam:

We would like to thank Paul Knight, Elo and the gang at the London Motor Museum and everyone else involved for a great event. Along with the Drag Race Engineering-backed Super Modified Vauxhall Calibra of Paul Marston Racing, a special mention goes to Steve Bolton who also brought his Pro ET Plymouth Scamp, a welcome addition that was admired by those attending. This, the first London Drag Racing Show, was the beginning; every year this show will grow and grow. It’s a fantastic venue in London and had a great display of quality Drag Racing machinery. Would we go again? You betcha!

Since the show, the Calibra has been at the Drag Race Engineering workshops in preparation for the team’s debut in Super Modified. Our thanks go to Mark Norton for coming to DRE on Monday evening and inspecting our 555ci naturally aspirated Big Block Chevy to ensure that it was indeed legal for Super Modified. The cylinder heads had just been returned from our sponsor CTM Performance Engineering, where Proprietor Charlie Mahoney said he would be looking forward to seeing at the track the results of his company’s labour. Charlie said ‘The BBC Aluminium Dart 320 heads came fully ported; the Americans rely a lot on CNC Machine technology which is good for mass production, as you just set up the machine and away it goes, time after time. However it can be improved on to get the optimum flow within the restrictions placed on the modifications currently allowed in Super Modified. It’s things like the attention to detail in each individual port runner that makes the difference and consequently makes the power’.

There is still a lot to do on the DRE Calibra whilst it is at the Drag Race Engineering workshops but as usual head honcho Gary Springford, is confident that the Calibra will be ready in time. Gary also added that he was quietly confident of unlocking the performance potential of the DRE Calibra. “I have taken a little side bet with Paul (Marston) that the DRE Super Modified Calibra will run a seven at Bug Jam and I am that confident. As usual it’s a race against time to get everything done but running one car instead of six will make a change. I have never been to Bug Jam before and I think we will enjoy it.”

My thanks to the PMR crew and drivers, who will be sharing the crewing duties at Bug Jam. Thanks also to principal sponsor Drag Race Engineering (020 8597 4575) and associate sponsor CTM Performance Engineering (020 8592 1180). Please stop by and say hi over the weekend and join us in wishing Bug Jam a Happy 21st Birthday.


Swift snippets.
20th July: Top Methanol Funny Car racer Ulf Leanders says that supplies of methanol racing fuel for the forthcoming Veidec Nitro Festival may be obtained via him on +46 70 376 7280 or from the handlers direct at +46 11 248484.

Veidec Festival snippets.
19th July: The Netherlands' Ton Pels says that a few changes have been made to the Zodiac Supertwin since the FHRA Nitro Nationals. "In Finland it seemed that the bike ran lean from the start line and richened up just before the eighth mile", says Ton. "We now suspect it is the length of Roel Koedam's arms. I always had my arms high and pretty straight but it looks as if Roel's arms are further down to the extent that they are partly cutting the air stream to the injector bodies. We have now moved the injectors forward so tha Roel can't do that anymmore. Hopefully we now can go back to where we were before and run 4.2-4.3 seconds on the eighth and 6.6 on the quarter."
©Eurodragster.com
Next week's Veidec Festival is Danish Top Fuel Dragster racer Rene Hersland's only FIA Championship outing this season because of personal commitments. "I have been involved in several other activities this year, most notably the
Fast and Furious Car Show which attracted 25,000 spectators", says Rene. "We had a lot of exposure from television, car magazines, newspapers, you name it. In June we attended the Danish Midsummer Nationals. It rained most of the weekend, but we managed to run two Top Fuellers side by side for the first time in Denmark. Stig Neergaard and I did our best, but didn't manage to get down the cold track. If you look at the Fast and Furious site and at www.bilexperten.dk you will see why I can't run the whole series. But we have to go to Mantorp - I have been there every year since 1983."

UK Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop is looking to step back up at Mantorp Park after hitting electrical and fuelling issues at the FHRA Nitro Nationals. "We had the top speed at the FIA Main Event but then hit setbacks in Finland and ran out of passes to address them and ended up in the middle of the ladder", Martin told Eurodragster.com. "We're looking to get back where we should be at Mantorp". Martin added that this year's arrangement to travel and pit with the Motospeed team has worked out very well.


Swift snippets.
19th July: Santa Pod Racers' Club Secretary Paula Marshall has asked us to remind racers that there are only three weeks to go to the official FIA European Finals closing date, which is Friday 9th August. This applies to both Pro and Sportsman racers. Paula has also asked us to remind racers that they must make it clear on the entry form whether they require single or three phase power. You can download the FIA European Finals entry forms from the SPRC web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc.
©Eurodragster.com
Adrian Spencer tells us that he will be in the Super Modified pits at this weekend's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway. "I will be helping Craig Gibbs", says Adrian, "but I will have my secret weapon: a fishing rod, you would not belive what is in that pond at the top end."

Many thanks to FIM/UEM European Drag Bike Championship Co-ordinator Lars Andersson for sending us the official points standings in the FIM/UEM Snowmobile Challenge. You can check out the Challenge points on our Simpson Race Products-sponsored points standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Congratulations to Stuart Meads who retained the title of the World's Fastest Mini for the seventh year running at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend. "Although it rained, and I was testing a new engine and could have done with some track time, I three quarter pass after the car got a bit out of shape", says Stuart. "I idled across the line at 10.30/107. I will be at Ultimate Street Car at Santa Pod in August looking to run in to the mid-nines - not bad for a Mini."


Bug Jam Perfect Awards.
19th July: This weekend's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway is the latest event in the Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards Scheme. A total of £200 is on offer for perfect performance to those classes contesting a Championship round.

The Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to record a perfect Reaction Time of 0.000. The Award is open to Super Modified, Real Steel Street Eliminator, all VW classes and Outlaw Anglia and is available during qualifying or eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the weekend. The Perfect Light Award is jointly presented by Eurodragster.com and high-performance hose and fitting manufacturer Speedflow whose web site you can find at www.speedflow.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
The Eurodragster.com/LA Racing Parts Perfect ET Award has also been reset to £50. The money will be awarded to the first racer to run to the thousandth on their index or dial-in. The Award is open to all VW classes and is available during qualifying or eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is jointly presented by Eurodragster.com and performance supplier LA Racing Parts whose web site you can find at www.laracingparts.com.

Eurodragster.com/LA Racing Parts decals must be carried on both sides of the vehicle to qualify for the Perfect ET Award. As with other contingency schemes the decals are available from the signing-on office.

Should the winner of the Perfect ET Award go on to win the event then a bonus of £100 will be paid by LA Racing Parts.

As the Eurodragster.com staff are variously in Sweden and preparing to go there this weekend we will not be reporting live from the Bug Jam. Santa Pod's timing crew will be keeping an eye out but as they have plenty to do as it is we will present the Perfect Awards after the event based on the official timing data.

Please note that as Junior Dragster is not contending a Championship round at the Bug Jam, the class is not eligible for either Perfect Award this weekend.


Web site updates.
19th July: The Billadeau Speed and Automotive web site at www.billadeau-speed.co.uk has been updated with expanded portfolio and services sections, and the About Dave page now includes a history of Dave's previous cars and of course his 1970 GTX, which has been fully renovated for the 2007 season.
©Eurodragster.com
Camping it up at the Summernats.
18th July: Colin Lazenby says that he had a chance to work on his trusty camper van at the SPRC Summernationals, but his normally so-consistent
Real Steel Street Eliminator ’56 Chevy 210 had a less-than-reliable outing.

Dear diary:- Test day, Friday. With a recently overhauled transmission (thanks again to our buddies at Rosslers) things went surprisingly ok, and an off the trailer 8.60, followed by an 8.50 told us we were pretty much there or thereabouts, especially given that both runs had shook or spun the tyres, or both.

Saturday: - It rained, rained, and then it rained some more. RSSE secretary Ann-Marie had managed to con (yes I used the right word) Wilf Stacey, crew chief Richard and I to fit the rear air bags on the camper. Wilf and I had shipped 2 pairs together, thereby sharing all the costs - and besides, Wilf and Richard had fitted his airbags earlier in the week and by virtue of the rain it was deemed by the boss to be an easy job that afternoon. Where was Ann-Marie? She chatted the time away with Diane Stacey in the warm, dry, relative comfort of Wilf's camper. You can bet your bottom dollar that much red wine was consumed by both during that little get together. As usual our kid handled all the dirty jobs while Wilf and I lay on the soaking wet floor to undertake the mechanical installation. Richard admirably handled all the airlines and wiring. I won't tell you what we saved in doing the job ourselves, suffice to say trackside airbag fitting is now our speciality. Shame on everyone who didn't manage to stand up to her - on this occasion. I know I didn't. Highlight of the evening was the delivery of my new Neil Tadman stitched seat covers. A large number of people had been 'scheming' for weeks on these, completely unbeknown to me; I can't believe I wasn't aware - at any point. As I've already shown my gratitude to all those involved in the ‘scam’, I won't do it again here. Needless to say they complement the sparse interior, check ‘em out at the next event.

Sunday: - With brighter weather the emergency qualifying on the Sunday should have been a breeze, given our previous 8.50. I pulled up against Ian Hook and his FB racing '34' hot rod. Man he spanked me as the '56 misfired almost all the way down the track, so much so, and believing that we had a nitrous 'malfunction' I managed to switch off the nitrous arming just after the shift into 3rd, it recovered, marginally, and as we returned I had to ask fatty if we had qualified (the cut off is 13.5) we had, we were 17th, and back in the pits we went about statically checking all things associated with the nitrous systems - everything tested out ok.

We had drawn returning veteran Ian Jackson, who was # 1 qualifier with his ever improving twin turbo'd '64 Corvette. The burn-out was ok, and I have to be honest we did consider running without the juice though having not found the fault we had to almost make it fault again. I cleared the engine with my usual 2 revs and it sounded Ok. Ian went in, I went in and as I let go of the button the b*stard thing just died on me. I'd broke the beams, but all I could do was watch Ian tear down the track. Somewhat gutted, I restarted the car ambled down the track and returned to the pits. We packed up and left for home. Somehow, the drive home seemed longer than usual, leaving us much to contemplate.

Tuesday evening: - Following a number of phone calls to both Luke Robinson, and Clive Bond, I set about checking everything, leak-down, valve spring pull, and compression test. All were ok. With everything reassembled I once again statically checked the fuel and nitrous solenoids. All were working fine. I threw the towel in just as it got dark, which in Scotland it's around midnight.

Weekend: - Garry was available and together we pulled off all the hard lines from the intake just so we could check out the nitrous jets. Again everything was Ok, but just as we were checking the seats of each the solenoid plungers we found a lose wire, 1st system nitrous side. The thing must have been making a circuit on the static test but then failed when it was under load. Fuel would then be dumped into the runners but with no nitrous to assist its burn rate it just killed the motor. Relieved, we re-made the connections and as a precaution we ordered a complete solenoid from our friends (and series sponsors) Real Steel - thanks to Mark for his prompt attention. Job done.

Monday July 16th: - MOT, we'd booked this just before our short break last week, we also had a local statutory holiday the same day. Now, that short round trip of around 20 miles ought to have provided us with no problems, having treated last years engine carnage (premature lifter failure) merely as a one off. However it was pouring down with rain and had been since dawn. Garry was charged with trying to secure another slot later in the day, but it simply wasn't available and as the MOT runs out on the 20th we had little option but to go for it, rain or no rain. Having warmed and primed the oil, we unloaded the car while it was a deluge down so we were both soaked to the skin when we left. I have to say the conditions were horendous, certainly the worst I have ever driven in and without any demisters (don't be silly) the visibilty was severely diminished. That aside, this trip was uneventful and it passed the test with only one advisory note which we'll clear at the Bug Jam.

As all the perceived RSSE big guns went out in the early rounds of the Summer Nats it really was great to hear of the nail biting conclusion between WSR runner up Jeff Meads and 2004 SE champion Ian Jackson dukeing it out for the top slot. Needless to say well done to both and congratulations to Ian on taking the win with his 8.25 PB. And I can only imagine what Mick Franklin and Steve Nash were thinking of when Steve pulled his multiple out of session wheelstands; hopefully builder Chris Isaacs has now made a couple of sensible changes there.

The RSSE series moves on to the Bug Jam this weekend boasting 20 entries. All competitors will looking to top up their current points standings, along with improved PB's. One or two will be looking for revenge. For Eurodragster readers with a favourite RSSE competitor,the entry list can be viewed here.


Swedish Bug invades UK.
18th July: Jo Harris of Santa Pod raceway writes: with only three days to go before the gates of Bug Jam are flung open for another jam packed festival weekend of all things VW, we can confirm that Leif Nyström is winging his way as we speak over to Santa Pod from Sweden with his super fast 8 second beetle, which can do the quarter mile in 8.876s/158.5 mph! Also taking to the strip will be the VWDRC and sportsman racers.

With top notch music taking place in no less than four music arenas and a first for Bug Jam with not one but two Monster Trucks, Santa Pods’ very own Podzilla and the mighty Slingshot Monster Truck going head to head in the Live Action Arena, Terry Grant and his awesome stunts and the UK FMX boys pulling big air, Kids entertainment on Saturday and Sunday there’s something to keep everyone amused!

Tickets are still available on the gate from Friday 20th July! For more information and full timetable visit www.BugJam.com.


The ones who make Baldie's plans possible.
18th July: Top Fuel Bike racer Asko Määttä says that after last weekend's testing the team is ready for the ‘driver's holiday’ trip to Estonia and then will be heading to the Mantorp Veidec Festival Top Fuel Bike UEM race.

“Baldie Racing & Media Relations is happy to announce the people that have made this possible:

Kuvan Moottoripalvelu,
Hanx-Suomi Oy,
Pro Turbo Systems Oy,
Autokoulu Moottori,
Kopparin Kukka,
Jyväskylän Moottoriklubi,
Moto Italia Import Oy,
Jyväskylän aikuisopisto,
O. K. Auto Oy Jyväskylä,
Bomber Magazine,
Mainos-Jane Oy,
Schnitz Motorsports Inc. / Connie, and
Jalka- ja Kauneushoitola Cosmetics.

“Thanks also to my son and Crew Chief Mika and the team and friends always helping: Jani, Sami, Tarmo, Jari (M2R) for your work for the team and especially to my wife Tepa; without you I couldn't do this at all!

“Not to mention my spirit of 'latter' days inspiration: my nearly half year old grandson Lenni Aleksanteri Maatta and his patient and supporting mother Tiina and father Mika."


Swift Snippets.
18th July: Marcus Eck mentions that last weekend Paolo Andreini with team drove 6.763/334km/h at the Piteå dragway. “Thats a new European best for a turbocharged doorslammer”.

You can read more about Paolo's awesome truck at www.protruck.se and Markus has just posted a stunning wallpaper from that event.


Web site updates.
18th July: Peter has added a gallery of pictures taken at last weekend’s Truck festival to his site at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net.

Allan Currans brings news of a new page published today on his excellent Acceleration Archive site: “I have been looking through the previously unpublished pictures in my collection and have decided to inflict some more of them on you. I have come up with 35 pictures of dragsters ranging from 4 cylinder Junior Dragsters up to small block Chevrolets, and there is even a Go Kart in there for good luck. John Whitmore, Russ Carpenter, Tim Claxton, Jim Read - they are all there and many more besides.” You can see them here.


Carter parks up with AACI.
17th July: In a ground-breaking move, the American Auto Club International has agreed a two-year sponsorship deal with top British Top Fuel Drag Racing team
Carter Motorsport. The deal, which will further extend the AACI's name into the American Car Enthusiast strongholds of Northern Europe, has been agreed with the team's Andy Carter.

"I'm delighted to be teaming up with AACI!", said Andy Carter. "We really enjoyed spending time with Harry and Pam Tune at the AACI Summer Nationals at Billing and I was so pleased that we were able to put this deal together. These guys are passionate about their Club and our sport with all that it has to offer. This two year association is great news for us and we will do all that we can to promote AACI in that time and hopefully beyond!"

In addition to spreading the name of the club, the deal also includes regular exclusive features from the team for the club's superb magazine Torque.

The American Auto Club International is a U.K. based club dedicated to promote and assist the 250,000 owners of American vehicles in the UK, as well as owners throughout the world. The club has active members in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA. The AACI has a very successful web site at www.aacint.com which has an average of two million hits per month. The Club is also authorised to provide expert valuations for insurance purposes and assists the DVLA with age related importation queries.

The Club also campaigns tirelessly for the rights of its members, for owners of American vehicles and classic car owners in general to ensure that there is a voice of reason in times when there are so many misnomers about the hobby.
©Eurodragster.com

The biggest Festival.
17th July: Next week's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park in Sweden is the biggest-ever in the event's thirty four-year history.

"With 344 race teams attending from twelve different countries, this one will be huge and it sends a clear message to anyone who says that drag racing isn't that big a motorsport yet", says PR L-O Jonsson. "It also makes a big challenge for the organisers when it comes to the pit area and running order."
©Eurodragster.com
Event Manager Fredrik Ström is of course very pleased with the numbers. "It's fantastic!", sys Fredrik. "The Pro classes have increased with more than sixty race teams more than last year. We have a lot to do just to get everything into a limited pit area, but our organisation is very well-prepared so we are of course looking forward to a very exciting weekend."

The Veidec Festival takes places on 26th-29th July and you can find out more, including the latest entry list, on the event's official web site at www.veidecfestival.com.

One thing to look out for at Mantorp Park is the newly-completed Simpson trackside service rig (right) which is headed for the Veidec Festival after its début at the Midnight Sun Internationals at Pite Dragway. "All racers and race fans are welcome", says Jan.


Riding the curves in Finland.
17th July: The FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro was a weekend of ups and downs for Eurodragster.com News sponsor Urs Erbacher and the Fat Attack team, says team member Andrea Wucher.

"Firstly there was a big fireball from Urs and then a top qualifier run. The 4.823 second run in the first round of eliminations was the highlight of the weekend for the Top Fuel team and they would have liked to confirm the performance in round two and the final. At Mantorp Park we have another opportunity to show the crowd some decent racing. Lorenz Stäuble was riding in a class of his own in Finland. Steady, great performance and no problems at all for him and his crew. At Mantorp Park the Supertwins will run over the eighth mile. We are looking forward to it and will see it the track length has any influence on the ladder.
©Eurodragster.com
"Before we race at Mantorp Park all four teams, including the Junior Dragster and the Harley Destroyer teams, will race at Turtmann in Switzerland. Urs and Lo will be entertaining the crowd with great burn outs and runs. Let's see if we can break that track record as well. For the Junior Dragsters it is a Swiss national race and the Harley Destroyer team is fighting for their second Championship title. At the moment Sascha Brodbeck is in the lead and he won this weekend's race in Wittstock. There are two more rounds to go, the round at Turtmann and a round at Hockenheim in August."

You can find an FHRA Nitro Nationals race report on the Erbacher Racing web site at www.erbacher.biz/nhra_nitro_nationals.0.html?&L=1.


School's in.
17th July: The Rushden Rebel car club flew the flag for drag racing at Kimbolton School at the Classic Car Show at the weekend, writes UK Pro ET racer Antony Wilkins.

"The show consists of various car clubs and marques with everything from supercars to minis ,all set in the grounds of Kimbolton School", says Butch. "This was our second year of attending the event and we were made very welcome. Members in attendance were three Pro ET cars and a Junior Dragster (click on picture for large version).
©Eurodragster.com
"I took my 1928 Model A pick-up Ground Zero, Mark Bishop was there with the Raindance I mean Vegas Hustler Topolino altered, as was Kim Bishop with his '41 Willys. Kim is rumoured to be entering the European Finals after years of nagging! The Junior Dragster needs no introduction as Matthew Seamarks' Gingerman is well known by all.

"Although we were the underdogs we were made to feel extremely welcome and parading around the showground certainly raised a few eyebrows and positive comments. I recommend this show to anyone so next year come along and see us."


Swift snippets.
17th July: Following on from the Beaulieu Motorcycle World demonstration, UK Top Fuel Bike rider Steve Woollatt was at Mallory Park at the weekend for the VMCC Festival of 1000 Bikes. Dave Powell tells us that Steve and the bike received lots of attention from the public and also from the media who are featuring Steve, the bike and film of his demonstration burnout and pass on The Biker Show at 19:00 this Thursday (19th) on Channel M. You can find Channel M on Sky 203, or the footage will be available on the channel's web site at www.channelm.co.uk after broadcast.

Finnish Pro Mod racer Marko Lantto and his team have a thrash to make next week's Veidec Festival after suffering damage at Alastaro, says team member Janne Storrank. "We dropped an intake valve just after Marko shifted to second gear, and since it was eliminations he kind of drove it to the end", says Janne. "Two rods, sleeves and camshaft among smaller pieces have to be replaced. Marko himself is now at Anders Holm's shop in Sweden for some serious block and head welding, and when he returns we are going to start to assemble the engine. We are looking forward to coming over."

Markus Münch says that the weekend's Dragracing Internationals at Wittstock was awesome. "It was well organised by the Kath brothers, the pits were full, and the Danish and Swedish guys did a brilliant job on the track prep", says Markus. "The best time of the weekend was Timo Habermann with a 6.0 in his TMD, and Peter Ritscher ran 6.9 in his fourth ever run in his Pro Mod. Bernard Goldbach, Guido Uhlir and Micha Vogt ran nines in Street Eliminator. Top Gas Euroserie, the Harley Davidson Destroyer Cup and the German Street Eliminator fought for Championship points". You can find results at www.dragracing-internationals.de.

Bob and Carole Hancox have sent this picture of the beautiful Debbie Hancox Memorial Trophy which they have had made for the Spirit of Outlaw Anglia and whose first winner was Simon Barlow and the Orange Pop team. "It took the guy six months to build the trophy and it is an absolute beauty (click on picture for large version). "A total of £1070.18 was raised for the John Radcliffe Hospital", says Bob. A big Thank You and Well Done to everyone who contributed.
©Eurodragster.com
Jordon Bissell made his first Junior Drag Bike outing at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend says mum Mandy. "Jordon was first after qualifying", says Mandy. "His frame was built by Jerry Collier and the rest has been done by his stepdad Glyn Sainsbury. Our thanks to Jerry and family for everything, they are brilliant, and to everyone at Shakespeare County who have been behind us one hundred per cent and have shown Jordon so much support and kindness, they're amazing."

Longtime readers will remember Jo Holland of Eurodragster.com News sponsor Motorsport News who made a lot of friends within drag racing during her time as Sporting Scene Editor. We are very pleased to report that Jo and partner Neil Burgess were engaged yesterday after Jo accepted Neil's proposal in a castle on the Isle of Man. Our very best wishes to Jo and Neil for a very long and happy life together.

The first known drag race between two monster trucks at Santa Pod Raceway took place at the weekend's UK Truck Show (click on picture for large version). Drew Thornton in the Podzilla machine showed he had the drag racing connection in him as he pulled a one and a half truck holeshot on opponent Karl Swallow in Slingshot and motored through the complete quarter mile, although the motor sounded a little lumpy at times uptrack. Karl followed but lifted at the sixty foot mark, as was the initial plan for both trucks, after achieving the feat of smoking one of the truck's huge tyres.

Martyn Hannis has been in touch to wish a very Happy 21st Birthday to UK blown-alcohol altered racer Joe Bond on behalf of himself and all the Nuthin' Fancy crew. "We had a great party on Saturday, have a great day today", says Martyn. Have a great day Joe.

Matthew Seamarks of Gingerman Racing has asked us to say a big Congratulations to the Mugridge family on the birth of Luke Mugridge, who arrived on Friday thus proving that Friday 13th is not always a bad thing. We're very pleased to add our congratulations and we're sure that our readers will do likewise.


Just think, if you hadn't gone...
17th July: Vicky Smith of Never Again Racing had to be persuaded to go to the track at the weekend, but she is glad she did because she set new Personal Bests in her Nova at the Mini Showdown at Shakespeare County Raceway:

I was such a miserable bitch on Friday, I didn't even want to go, I was so sure that the weather would be crap. I am so glad Dave made me go, I had the best day ever, loved it!

We were desperate for a day of passes to test out the replacement pieces from the prop shaft accident, no heroics! Oh and to come away without breakages or damage. The first pass was a 10.6 but there was very little traction on the left hand lane and it went out of shape so I had to back off. The second pass was better at 10.4.

The third pass was the race of the day according to Dave, me against Charlie Chivers in his Taxi Express. It was fab, two great burnouts and some real competition. The launch felt good (no transbrake), everything felt good, and I ran a new Personal Best of 10.1 - shaving those tenths off! It felt ace, I enjoy having real competition, it makes me work harder.

The fourth pass was OK and felt straight, but the gear change didn't work properly, it went straight from second into third, which you can hear ont he video. It was a 10.4 anyway, I reckon that might have been another 10.1 or lower otherwise. I am inching nearer to the nines all the time, just want this crappy weather to hold off now so I can get more of this in.

We achieved what we wanted and the girl came home with a huge grin on her face!
©Eurodragster.com

The honorary truck.
17th July: UK Supertwin racer Ian Turburville's Mr Spokehead generated a lot of interest during its appearance at the weekend's UK Truck Show:

I don't think the crowd expected to see a bike, let alone a Fuel bike and we seemed to capture their imaginations. The trucks were simply awesome, every kind you could think of. To see a convoy of 250, custom painted, trucks, air horns blaring, cruise the return road in the brilliant sunshine while a Spitfire flew overhead was unforgettable. The monster trucks put on a great show, the racing trucks were unbelievable and broke all records running 100 mph quarters! Racing pick-ups, custom trucks, American trucks, model trucks, trade stands and a great family atmosphere made it an unmissable weekend.

We went out with our Main Event set-up and completely overpowered the track, actually using those little alloy wheels in the middle of my chassis on one run! We calmed it down a bit for a softer run and it cruised to a lovely 7.5/188 on our fifth run carrying the wheel over the finish line. We just got the last run in on sunday before the heavens opened and the Lancaster flew down the track bringing a lump to everyone's throat.
©Eurodragster.com
We got through fifteen gallons of nitro, twenty spark plugs, four gallons of Red Line oil, a whole load of Santa Pod calendars and over one hundred hero cards over the two days. Crew Chief Steve worked like a donkey non stop whilst I kept the crowd at bay and Mad Max - who had brought his snowmobile to confuse the public even more - kept everything together. Brum showed up on his way to a date with Ken Cooper's dyno and put his beautiful new Triumph on display whilst doing a bit of crewing. Sue in the Pit Stop Cafe kept us all well fed and watered, as well as garaging Mr. Spokehead in the Cafe overnight! It was quite the talking point over breakfast for many truckers!

There was a nice selection of other drag race vehicles to give the crowd a taste of drag racing and they all went down very well, so I think we have made a lot of converts! Many thanks to Russ for inviting us, to all the Truck Show organisers for looking after us, and to the Santa Pod track staff for their usual professional job. Well done all!


Web site updates.
17th July: As promised we have posted a gallery of Peter's pictures from the weekend's UK Truck Show in association with American Car Imports. You can check out Peter's pictures by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
©Eurodragster.com
The official web site of the Supergaschamp Drag Racing Series has been updated with the news after the sixth round of the 9.90 Championship. Check it out at www.supergaschamp.com.


Swift snippets.
16th July: Stuart Oliver was declared the winner of the British Truck Racing Association Sprint Cup at the weekend's UK Truck Show at Santa Pod Raceway. Stuart qualified #1 at 14.319/100.65 which earned him a first round bye whilst #2 qualifer Matt Summerfield set new BTRA bests of 14.288 and 100.83 mph in the first round before rain curtailed the race. One of the weekend's other undoubted highlights was a Personal Best 7.954/171.10 by Belinda Bull in what is nominally a Super Comp pick-up.

Our good friend Patrik Jacobsson is again running a Pro Mod Bump Spot Contest for next week's Veidec Festival. To enter, send your estimated bump spot to three decimal places, together with your name, address and T-Shirt size, to
webmaster@promod.nu by 23:00 UK next Tuesday (24th July).
©Eurodragster.com
Tickets are now on sale for the first ever UK Pro ET Christmas Bash which takes place on Saturday 24th November. For more information check out the Forum on the Pro ET web site at www.pro-et.co.uk.

Editor's note: Only a brief news update today due to pressure of work in your News Editor's day job. Tune back tomorrow for news of the Rushden Rebels' latest outing, Turbo's antics at the UK Truck Show, a tribute to the late Debbie Hancox, Never Again Drag Racing's newest racer, and more.


Web site updates.
16th July: In the latest entry in his exclusive Racer Blog, Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon describes his weekend at the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. You can read Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blog link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
©Eurodragster.com

Weekend event coverage.
14th July: Tezzi and our colleagues at EurodragsterNorth.com are at Pite Dragway this weekend covering the Midnight Sun Internationals. You can read EurodragsterNorth.com's Midnight Sun Internationals coverage under Live at
www.eurodragsternorth.com, and in a joint effort qualifying (Kvallista) and elimination details (Stegar) can be found on the SHRA Luleå web site at www.shralulea.se.
©Eurodragster.com
Also hard at work this weekend is Jouni of the Dragrace.fi web site who is posting coverage of the FDBA Speed Weekend, a bike-only event, at Alastaro. You will be able to stay in touch with the latest from Alastaro at www.dragrace.fi. We have resurrected our no-frills Alastaro webcam, which we knocked together last week, and you can view that by clicking here.

Finally, the easiest coverage job of the weekend falls to Eurodragster.com as we will be broadcasting the Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam from the UK Truck Show at Santa Pod Raceway. The webcam will broadcast a picture every two minutes and you can tune in by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Peter will be providing us with a UK Truck Show gallery, in association with American Car Imports, at close of play on Sunday.


Rain, rain, go away...
14th July: UK Top Methanol Dragster team Turner Motorsport are hoping for a water-free Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park, says Carmel Turner. The team have had a good season so far but the wet stuff keeps interfering:

We had fantastic weather at Easter. Steve is diving for the British rounds this year, and he got down into the 5.90s on a soft tune up. We were looking forward to getting Rob back into the hot seat, back on track and into the frame for this year's FIA Championship.

The FIA Main Event was always going to be problematic, as the weather forecast was bleak to say the least, but you always live in hope that the weatherman is having a Michael Fish moment. With a lot of freshened parts, and adjustments to the tune up, new slicks and so on the first run was a check out pass. All was fine after checking the motor over and we went out to do a full pass second run which was a 5.69/245 qualifying us in third place at the end of Saturday. Then it started to rain, and it never stopped until later that week, the meeting was called and you know the rest.

The crew flew out to Finland for the FHRA Nitro Nationals on the Wednesday before the race and arrived just past midnight. It was still light, just like twilight over here. Thursday had fantastic sunshine and the car was ready to go, but our first run was the next day, We got two qualifying runs in on Friday with a 5.63/395 kmh putting us into second place, then on Saturday morning the rain gods started playing and the waiting began. At about two in the afternoon the track was ready to go and the sun was out. All the Pro classes had been scheduled for three runs, although the first had been lost to the weather, This without doubt was most frustrating day's racing I have ever seen, Oil, rain, oil, rain and so it went on, we ran at about six that evening, and improved our speed and qualified in second place with a 5.63/399.

Sunday was much the same. We ran Krister Johansson in the first round and won with a 5.76, which after the other runs would pair us against Peter Schöferschofer in the semi final. We towed back, got weighed and had just started to turn the car round ,and it chucked it down with rain so hard that within five minutes the meeting was called. We were all disappointed, as we felt really confident going into the next round, and the car was starting to react the way Steve wants it to, but it was not to be.

So we are going to Mantorp Park with a air of confidence in the camp, and the knowledge that this Championship is going to go all the way to the finals at Santa Pod in September, and we intend to be in the mix.


Swift snippets.
14th July: Malmö's Meca Raceway will be fully prepped for their Test and Tune sessions on Wednesdays 18th and 25th July for those who wish to test before the Veidec Festival. Jan Ekström tells us that sign-on is €33 and entry for crew and spectators is €2.50. More information at www.srif.se.
©Eurodragster.com
If you are looking for something to brighten up a boring Sunday then you could do a lot worse than visiting tomorrow's Uxbridge Auto Show which features a line-up of fourteen Zephyrs, one of which is Ray White's outrageous blown-alcohol Lethal Zephyr 2. For more details about the event which is in aid of charity check out www.uxbridge-autoshow.com.


SCR on TV.
14th July: Helen Todd of Powerpoint Communications has been in touch to let us know that the May's rain-affected Springspeed Festival at Shakespeare County Raceway is to be televised shortly on UK satellite and cable channel Sky Sports.

The coverage is in two parts, both forming part of the World Motorsports programme. The schedule is as follows:

Street Eliminator and Outlaw Flat Four

20:00 Sunday 15th July, Sky Sports Extra
01:00 Tuesday 17th July, Sky Sports 2
10:00 Tuesday 17th July, Sky Sports 2
14:30 Tuesday 17th July, Sky Sports 1
©Eurodragster.com
Super Street Bike, Super Modified, NFAA "taster"

20:00 Monday 30th July Sky Sports Xtra
01:00 Tuesday 31st July Sky Sports 2
10:00 Tuesday 31st July Sky Sports 2
14:30 Tuesday 31st July Sky Sports 3

Satellite and cable channels are notoriously subject to late schedule changes so keep an eye on your electronic TV guide for any last-minute alterations.


Nitro Nationals FIM/UEM review.
14th July: FIM/UEM Championship Co-ordinator Lars Andersson has been in touch with his regular post-event review, on this occasion of last weekend's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro:

We arrived on Thursday to a splendid weather, but it changed during the weekend to clouds and some rain. The track looked very good. It is smooth and in good condition but it is a tricky track for clutches.

We started on Friday and the bikes did alright but then we came to Top Fuel cars and it was hard. A lot of oildowns so the track had to be cleaned. On Saturday morning it was raining so the start had to be delayed until 13:00 but still we managed to make two rounds on Saturday.

In Pro Stock Bike there were eleven riders. Of those six were Swedish, one English, one Italian, two Danish and one Finnish. At the end of qualifying we had three Swedish Anders and Tom Tindahn at the top. Tom on his S&S GS2 Buell qualified first with a 7.26 which is very good.

The first round on Sunday was delayed due to rain, all the Anders and Tom went through to the next round. But when we were ready to start a car broke and then it started to rain and since it was 19.00 and we could only race until 20.00 there was nothing else to do than abort the race.

In Supertwin Lorenz Stäublet was the number one qualifier followed by Gunther Sohn. Jaska Salakari as is almost normal did his best qualifying in the last round. When Jaska gets his bike running will it be very fast but he still has a lot of work to sort it out. Here it was the same as in all other classes, the elimination was delayed on Sunday and then aborted in the evening due to rain.

Top Fuel Bike is always something special in Finland. Not so many riders are coming and that is always a problem. This time we had five riders entered. This led us to have a ladder of five again and that ladder is not a good one. But the rules must be followed. Number one qualifier was Rikard Gustavsson and that gave him a solo run in the first elimination. Then it was it Ferretti against Soren Hartvig in the next round. This time Soren had problems getting in to stage. The lamp started to blink. We did look directly afterwards to see if something was wrong with the beams but nothing was wrong. The only thing I could say is that if I was racing would I use a black rim without any kind of holes.

That was the race in Finland. We're hoping to come back to Finland for a new race again next year. The new scoreboards were very good even with some problems but when they are solved they will work very well. They had very good contrast and could show more information than just the time. The commentator in Finland talks mainly Finnish but with help from Pippi to talk some Swedish and English it was possible to understand the times. A special thanks for the room that we had. This makes all easier at the race.

I am now waiting for the race in Mantorp Park at the end of July. I am hoping that several Pro Stock riders will get down to 7.2 seconds and maybe some more Harleys in Pro Stock. We are expecting fifteen bikes in Pro Stock - soon it will be time for a sixteen ladder. We're also waiting for the return of Anders 'Charley' Karling with his new bike. Hopefully will we also see a big Top Fuel Bike field. And most important, no rain at this event.
©Eurodragster.com

Bug Jam racers' update.
13th July:
Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has been in touch with an update on the arrangements for the Bug Jam, which takes place at Santa Pod next Friday to Sunday, 20th-22nd July.

Gates are open between 10:00 am and 9:00 pm on Thursday (19th July) and will then reopen at 9:00 am on Friday.

Run What You Brung takes place on Friday, and on Saturday into the early afternoon. Racers wishing to take part in RWYB must remember to bring their DVLC licences as Competition licences are not valid for RWYB.

Qualifying takes place on Saturday afternoon and into the evening, then again on Sunday morning. Eliminations start to run from lunchtime Sunday:
©Eurodragster.com
Click here for Saturday's provisional running order
Click here for Sunday's provisional running order

Please note that running orders are provisional and are subject to change due to track or weather conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by race officials.

You can view the final Bug Jam entry list by clicking here.

We will publish details of the Bug Jam Perfect Awards during next week.


Swift snippets.
13th July: 10:00 Many thanks to FIM/UEM European Drag Bike Championship Co-ordinator Lars Andersson for forwarding the post-FHRA Nitro Nationals Championship standings. You can check out the FIM/UEM points on our Simpson Race Products-sponsored points standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Tune in tomorrow for Lars' FHRA Nitro Nationals report.

Anders Magnusson of Swedish Top Methanol Funny Car team Andréasson Motorsports has been in touch to advise racers that Joe Pando of MSD will not be attending the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park due to a personnel shortage at US races. Anders adds that the usual MSD service will still be available from the Andréasson Motorsports pit.

UK Supertwin Fuel racer Ian Turburville is amongst racers making demonstration passes at this weekend's UK Truck Show at Santa Pod Raceway. Turbo tells us that Mr Spokehead will be running on 98% nitro and 2% diesel. Turbo joins Belinda Bull, Dave Cherrett, Martin Hill, Malcolm Motler, Junior Olley, Mark Pointer, George Scanlon, Steve Wells, Jason Weir, Antony Wilkins and Wobbly Bob, all of whom when on-track will be mercifully deaf to the ramblings of your News Editor who is colour commentating.
©Eurodragster.com
Dirk Behlau tells us that he will be producing a DVD of next week's race at Switzerland's Turtmann Airfield. "The event will be filmed by multimedia production company Performed with four 16:9 High-Definition cameras including a flying tower cam", says Dirk. "Commentary and interviews will be provided by Switzerland's pin-up starlet Zoe Scarlett (The next Mrs Tog - Ed). I will be Creative Director. All cars and classes will be filmed, and there will be behind the scenes footage, driver interviews and much more. The DVD will be out in September but can be preordered for €19.95 at www.turtmann-dvd.com."

Dirk Behlau also has a book scheduled for release in August. Speed Kings covers hot rodding, Mopar drag racing and pin-ups and will be released worldwide. More information at www.speedkings-book.com.

Sweden's Netstore is offering the latest Oregon Scientific ATC2K Action Helmet Cam. The camera is water- and shockproof and can deliver up to thirty frames per second of 640 x 480 VGA with sound. The camera has 32 Mb of on-board memory which can be expanded to 2 Gb with an SD memory card. Interface is via USB or RCA connection. The camera can be ordered for 1599 SEK from christer@netstore.de or for more information check out www.wmbrons.se/dragracing.htm. Sample video from Meca Raceway will be released next week.

At this weekend's British Mini v Caterham Showdown at Shakespeare County Raceway the boys and girls of Junior Drag Bike will be contesting the third round of their Championship which is currently being led by Scott Collier, with Jake Carruthers in second place followed by Giselle Moor and Tyler Clutterbuck. "This round will be kindly sponsored by Motorshack, who are providing trophies and prizes", says Sharron Collier. "Thanks to Steve at Motorshack, and to all at Shakespeare County for their enthusiasm for this great little class. For more information check out www.juniordragbike.co.uk or ring Jerry or Sharron Collier on 01246 570304."

If you pick up a copy of the latest American Car World magazine youll be able to find out what powers Pete Ashworth's Dayglo Twister and how he's got to edition four, writes Jerry Cookson. "Also inside the August issue you'll find reports from Santa Pod's Main Event, round two of Real Steel Street Eliminator, NASC's Springnationals, and a competition to find the best featured Muscle Car ever in ACW", says Jerry. "The August issue is available now from all leading newsagents at £3.99."

Congratulations to Jon Crawford on his first class honours degree in Ancient History and Archaeology from the University of Leicester. "Academic highlights include a comparative study of the use of local animals for the amphitheatre games in Britain (where lions and tigers were unavailable) with the ingenuity displayed by British tuners in using the locally available Jaguar, Daimler and Rover engines for drag racing in the 1960s, 70s and 80s", says Jon. "As a mature student (possibly an oxymoron!), there have been many challenges along the way, and I am eternally grateful to my wife Jane and the rest of the family during the last three years. Once my teacher training is complete, I will be back at the tracks more regularly, and may even buy a proper camera this time!"


Web site updates.
13th July: Another worthy plug for Dirk Behlau's Pixeleye web design service as his latest customer has gone live. Germany's The Silver Bullet 62 Chevy Nova II team web site is now on-line at www.silverbullet-racing.de and the old school Vegas-style web site features run-down on the Nova, team introduction, race dates, gallery and more. The site will receive another update after this weekend's race at Wittstock.
©Eurodragster.com

Another entry for the horror log.
12th July: Regular readers of Eurodragster.com will not be surprised to hear that Norwegian Supertwin racer
Hans Olav Olstad didn't have the most straightforward weekend at the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro:

Back home we had started the bike with a new welded head, and everything looked fine. We were ready to make a good performance in the first qualifying round, using the same set up as at Gardermoen. Just one hundred metres down the track it happened again - we lit up the whole of Alastaro with another burning head. There are never any boring times in the Olstad Race Team. The second qualifier took place without us. Many people look at the parts and told us our problem. The only thing was that they all came up with different reasons. My head rolled back in time and I discovered that we just forgot to tighten the head bolts after heating the engine. There is no place for mistakes in this class.

The bike was ready again for another try for the third qualifying session. After seeing lots of smoking tyres, we dropped the fuel pressure to get traction. With some confused team members the bike wasn't placed correctly on the start line, I was not standing straight, and the bike went to one side. I manage to straighten the bike over the first 150 metres, and then gave it full throttle. The front wheel was flying for a few metres before I smoked the tyre. For me on the bike, it felt like the engine dropped a cylinder at the same time, so I shut down the engine immediately. I rolled over the finish line with an 8.19, and was outside the qualifying list. In the fourth qualifier, with a big focus on a straight bike on the start line and less fuel pressure, we launched pretty good, but went straight in to terrible tyre shake, and up in smoke again. With a feather of the throttle the bike hooked up again and kept the front wheel in the air to the finish line. I managed to reach a speed of 293 km/h in a time of 7.84 for sixth place in qualifying. At least we were back in the game.

In the first round of eliminations on Sunday we met the experienced Roel Koedam on the Zodiac bike. We drop the fuel pressure even more to be sure that we had traction this time. Roel launched 0.10 seconds before me and we both had the same sixty foot time of 1.21. This time the bike hooked up nice and smoothly, and I started to catch Roel. With a flying front wheel we were side by side all the way, and I just managed to pass him before the finish line with a 6.98/325. My team and I were in heaven, all of our problems forgotten for a moment.

Happily we start to service the bike, when the skies got totally black again. When we drained the oil we found that it was gray/black and smelt terrible. The datalogger also told us that we lost the oil pressure when we leave the start line. The engine had to be taken apart again. The crank was badly damaged, and our future seems to be ruined. But however black our sky is, there is always a moment for a light. This time it came from Ton Pels who told us that he wanted to take the crank with him to the Netherlands to try to get somebody to repair it before Mantorp. The rain started again, and rest of the event was cancelled, and we stayed in third place in the UEM Championship.

All of the parts and pieces were ready to leave Alastaro at 04:30 on Monday morning. Because diesel fuel is cheaper in Finland we filled the tank before we went on the ferry to save some money. On the ferry, believe it or not, the tank started to leak again. There was nothing we could do except to going home and make another repair. On the trip we also discovered a big leak in the front air pad in the bus, and it seems that we have to change that out also. I hope to be finished and ready for the Veidec Festival in Sweden.
©Eurodragster.com

Fun with burnouts.
12th July: Liz and Iain Malcolm of the UK's Jus'4 Fun Racing had a great day on Saturday at the Retro Show at Santa Pod Raceway where they were making demonstration passes.

"The meeting was very busy with a large attendance of cars, motorbikes and scooters from the past - in fact the pits were packed!", they say. "Some had come just to show their machinery, many came to race and ran very respectable times.
©Eurodragster.com
"A lot of interest was shown in the race cars and of course the sound of open headers on a V8 race car warming up in the pits always draws a crowd. For us the day was an opportunity to try a two-gear burn out without crossing the start line. It seems to work, although we did spin the tyres on every but we put this down to picking up street rubber on to our Hoosier slicks, not the track which was well-prepped for a RWYB.

"We like to thank Santa Pod Raceway for allowing us to run and Ian Marshall for use of the track at end of racing for a photo shoot by Peter Donaldson (Of which more anon - Ed)."


Swift snippets.
12th July: The date of the Nordic Drag Racing Series Prizegiving Banquet has been changed to Saturday 27th October. The Banquet takes place at the Scandic Infra City in Stockholm. For more information including hotel bookings visit the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se.

Monique Koedam tells us that she and Supertwin racer and husband Roel Koedam put out the red carpet for UK Top Fuel Bike racer Ian King when he stayed with them at Alastaro at the weekend. Ian, to whom Monique refers as "Mister Lah Di Dah", had his own doormat and it appears every other comfort he could need.

The Dragracing Internationals returns to Wittstock in Germany this weekend, starting tomorrow (Friday). Markus Münch tells us that the weather is good and that a track crew from Sweden together with co-organisers the Kath brothers have been working on the track since Monday. There are nearly three hundred entries on two and four wheels and you can find out more at www.dragracing-internationals.de.
©Eurodragster.com
Tezzi and our colleagues at EurodragsterNorth.com will be at Pite Dragway this weekend covering the Midnight Sun Internationals which starts tomorrow. Tezzii tells us that the 3g signal can be a bit dodgy in that locale so service may be sporadic but the team will do everything they can. The coverage will be on-line from tomorrow at www.eurodragsternorth.com and you can read more about the event including the entry list at www.shralulea.se.

Jouni of www.dragrace.fi will be posting live event coverage from the FDBA Speed Weekend at Alastaro, which takes place between 12:00 and 20:00 Finnish time on Saturday and between 11:00 and 18:00 Sunday. The FDBA Speed Weekend is a bike-only event featuring rounds of the Finnish Championship and Cup classes as well as a Hayabusa class. More information at www.fhra.fi.

For our own part we will be broadcasting the Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam from the UK Truck Show at Santa Pod Raceway this weekend. The webcam will be on-line from approximately 8:00 on Saturday morning and will broadcast a picture every sixty seconds until the track closes on Sunday.


Making Headway in Rushden.
12th July: Carolynne Campbell's Laffin-Gas Rocket Dragster will be on display at this Saturday's (14th) Party In The Park in Rushden, in support of East Northants Headway.

"As you know, we proudly carry Headway's logo on our car in recognition of the great work they do with brain injured people", says Carolynne. "My husband David is a member of East Northants Headway and he has benefited from his membership in so many ways. Learning to live with brain injury is not easy, either for the injured person or for their family and friends. This is a disability that is not so obvious as being blind or being bound to a wheelchair. Very often erratic behaviour and short-term memory loss are put down to rudeness or bad manners. Headway has helped David and myself to come through all these things and to crack on with our rocket car project, which is now very, very close to real success. We've been testing new fuel combinations and the new Bio-fuel rocket is doing everything we hoped for it.
©Eurodragster.com
"Rushden is only three miles from Santa Pod, so those of you who'd like to take a closer look at our car and have your questions answered are all invited to this lovely community event. Please give Headway your support."

You can find a video of the latest rocket engine test at www.myspace.com/laffingasrocket.


Lacey on the Ball.
12th July: UK Pro ET racer Mike Lacey knew it wouldn't be a lazy and relaxing six days when he entered the Cannonball Run Europe, but his usual relentless, aggressive enthusiasm was going to be needed at all stages of this thrilling event writes Carla Pittau:

Mike left at 9:00 am on the first day and drove the trusty Metamorphosis 2006 Mustang the first stage to Sandown. After a quick shine up all cars were displayed at 12.30, and what a display of money and power with Porsche being the most popular entry, but with several BMWs (M3, M5 and M6) followed by Audi, Ferrari, Maserati, and Jaguar, two Aston Martins, two Bentleys, and Ford being represented by an F150 Lightning and a couple of Mustangs, one of them the yellow and purple Metamorphosis entry. Here the fifty seven entrants had a chance to meet and be briefed on the next stage, which was to start at 2:30 pm, towards Dover to catch the 4:00 pm ferry to Calais. 

The next 'mission' turned out to be an non-stop lap to Lake Garda in Northern Italy, 820 miles away. Mike thought that would be the end for the day, but he found out that the plan called for a one hour break immediately followed by the next stage, five hundred miles plus to Bratislava in Slovakia. So the total mileage for the first day was nearly 1500 miles!

The pace didn't slow much on the following days, with the trail taking the entrants to Budapest in Hungary, where they finally got to "relax" at the Hungaroring Formula 1 circuit, and where the drag racer got to show all the roundy roundy advocates how to throw a muscle car round bends at high speed, although a Ferrari 360 Modena tried to emulate and unfortunately ended spinning out of control and crashed. Seventy laps and one full tank later they were all back to Budapest, leaving the following morning with destination Berlin, 595 miles away.
©Eurodragster.com
The journey to Berlin and the exhilarating freedom to speed on the autobahn wasn't to be relaxing either, starting with a brief meeting with the law when still in Hungary, when much to Mike's immense relief the bike copper who stopped him turned out to be heavily into American muscle cars and let him go with a very lenient fine after taking pictures of himself with the Mustang. Things got worse when towards the end of this stage a "bag of nails" was heard making a racket under the hood. This proved to be caused by a broken intake rocker. After a bit of head scratching the rocker was removed, and a call to Jon Webster confirmed that it was OK to push on with only one intake valve serving up the fuel to a hungry #8 cylinder, and the resulting leaner mixture would not end in disaster. Mike's new best friends Andy Paul and co-driver James, at the wheel of a Maserati, helped with the removal of the thousands of parts you have get out of the way to open up the rocker covers in a modern car, for which Mike was very grateful.

So the Mustang raced on, on seven and two thirds cylinders and at 140 mph, for the remaining five hundred miles to Belgium and Antwerp and finally Calais - where some obligatory doughnuts and burnouts were performed for the cameras - for the return home and the black tie dinner at the Outlands Hotel Surrey, where Mike found that of the fifty seven entries the Metamorphosis Mustang had achieved second place, behind a Porsche 997 Turbo and in front of a Porsche 911 Carrera. Amazing fun and incredibly thrilling being able to whip up on such a lot of exotic and insanely expensive cars, a pleasure Mike doesn't believe he'll be able to better for quite some time. So he's now got a trophy for his cabinet, a pair of made to measure Vitallo racing shoes, and a huge grin on his face. And, I kid you not, as a result there are now a Ferrari 360, a Ferrari 355 and a Maserati up for sale, and the owners are going to buy Mustangs!

Mike would like to thank Jon Webster for the input and Andy Paul and co-driver James for their help during the trip. More information about the Cannonball Run Europe can be found on the official web site www.cannonballeurope.co.uk.


New kit for Glueharbor.
11th July: Sweden's
Glueharbor Dragracing Pro Stock team have announced the acquisition of a Pontiac GTO Pro Stock from US racer Justin Humphrey.
©Eurodragster.com
"We will complete this season with the current car and then ship the motor, transmission etc to the USA and continue the season there with the new chassis", says driver Adam Flamholc. "The car has yet to be painted in our colours but this (right) is what it looks like at the moment. This would not be possible without our partners Amalie Oil, Malmö Motorrenovering, HC Bilservice, Karlstad Bilförsäljning, YIT, Motorenova, Custom Graphics and MO-RE.

"Before last weekend's race in Finland we worked very hard adjusting the chassis. We qualified in sixth place and after two cars were disqualified and the race was discontinued due to rain we ended up in the top four. This puts us into fourth place in the European Championship."


Baldie changes plans.
11th July: Finnish Funny Bike racer Asko Määttä has changed his plans for 2007 after recent developments with his bike Baldie's Gun III.

"At the beginning of this season I thought I would be racing in Finland for the whole season", says Asko. "But after the last weekend's Nitro Nationals all my plans have changed! I'm now entered in UEM Top Fuel Bike at the Veidec Festival as well as the Drag Challenge at Gardermoen.

"The main thing which changed my plans was what my bike did at the FHRA Kamasa Tools Nationals almost four weeks ago. The Katana was at last flying over the quarter mile, carrying the front wheel from sixty feet well past the eighth-mile traps. The times were at the seven second zone. Last weekend at the Nitro Nationals, despite not making a full pass, I solved the problems leaving the line. So the power is there - last weekend in third and fourth gear the bike blackstriped its eleven-inch Hoosier on the well-prepped track! I even had to take some power off the turbo-gas GSX engine.
©Eurodragster.com
"So it has been easy to replan the rest of the season. The NX nitrous kit is already sold, I haven't used it and I don't need to. This weekend I will be testing at the FDBA Speed Weekend at Alastaro, and then at Mantorp Park we'll see what it's going to do over the eighth mile.

"Many thanks to OK Auto/Jyväskylä, Tarmo, Sami, Mika and all the others who made this possible. And I mustn't forget my dear wife Tepa who is the most important on the list."


Open Sport Nationals entry.
11th July: Julie Willcox of Shakespeare County Raceway has been in touch to remind racers that entry is now open for the Open Sport Nationals, the next full round of the UK National Drag Racing Championships, which takes place on 25th-27th August.

"Some racers experienced difficulties downloading the entry forms for the Springspeed Festival, which caused some problems", says Julie. "Please ensure that you download the 2007 forms from the APIRA web site at www.apira.org.uk. These forms have the correct entry fees for this year. If you have any questions then please contact the SCR Track Office on 01789 720180, call me on 07050 108043 or E-Mail julesw@tesco.net.

"For all entries received before 13th August paperwork will be mailed to racers (postal strikes permitting) unless requested to be left on the gate. Entries received after that date will be available for collection on arrival at the main gate.

"We would like to remind everyone that the No Dogs policy will be in force along with the new no-smoking rules.

"Plans have been put in place to ensure that qualifying and racing will take place if the event is hit by bad weather, and to further add to the protection there will be a track dryer on site."
©Eurodragster.com

Swift snippets.
11th July: This Saturday, 14th July, is the deadline for entry to the pre-Veidec Festival Test Day at Malmö's Meca Raceway. The test itself takes place on 21st-22nd July and you can enter at www.srif.se/anmalan.htm. Should less than ten teams enter then the event will be cancelled. Martin Olsson adds that Michael Malmgren and Adam Flamholc will be testing in Pro Stock at this evening's (Wednesday) Test and Tune at Meca.
©Eurodragster.com
The UK's newest Jet jockey, Junior Olley, will be appearing at the UK Truck Show at Santa Pod Raceway this weekend. This will be Junior's first on-track outing in the Dakota Thunder pick-up and he tells us that on Sunday he will be doing flame and thunder shows on the start line and then putting in very gentle, no-afterburner checkout passes in accordance with Jet licencing rules. "Thank you to everyone who has E-Mailed to wish me luck", says Junior.

Peter Frost of Svensk Dragracing sent us this picture taken at Legoland in Denmark by Thomas Pettersson's wife Ninni (click on picture for large version). "It's a mini copy of Santa Pod", says Peter. "If you take a close look in Race Control you'll see who is in there (No Marrs, it's not an actual size figure - Ed)."

Henrik Wilhelms has been in touch to tell us that Finland's Mats Björklund has a Top Methanol Dragster chassis, engine and other parts for sale in the Parts For Sale section of our Jeff Bull Race Engines and Performance Parts-sponsored Swap Meet.

Further to yesterday's news item, Graham Dance has been in touch to say that he has now received the threshold number of entries for the private test day at Santa Pod Raceway on Wednesday 1st August, and thus that the event will go ahead. Entries are still being accepted; for more details check out yesterday's news update.

We would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to our good friend Kirstie Tramm. Hope that you're having a great day Kirstie...big hugs.


Bug Jam the 21st.
11th July: This year's Bug Jam, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 20th-22nd July, is the twenty first and one hell of a party is planned with more than ever to see and do.

Putting in appearances for the first time at Bug Jam will be Santa Pod's very own monster truck Podzilla as well as the Slingshot monster truck. The master of stunts, Terry Grant, will be tyre screeching and sideways sliding with his thrilling stunt shows along with the UK FMX freestyle motocross guys who will be grabbing big air action all in the Live Action Arena! There will be all the normal side shows, massive trade village, fun fair, skate ramp, Auto Trader cars for sale paddock, auto jumble, Autoglym Show and Shine competition and much more.

On the track you'll see the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club, Super Modified, Street Eliminator and the wild Outlaw Anglias all eager to burn rubber with wild burnouts and crazy launches away from the startline. The world's fastest Jet Funny Car Fireforce 3 and the Blue Max Beetle will be here ready to entertain you with their awesome flame and thunder displays.

We'll also have Santa Pod's very own Two Seater Dragster running on Saturday! So if you fancy a go in a seven second missile at 170 mph, £499.00  will buy you the ultimate thrill ride, just be sure to ring in advance to book your time and to avoid disappointment as limited places. 

For more information and to book tickets check out www.bugjam.com or call the ticket hotline on 01234 782828. Remember advance tickets close this Friday, 13th July!
©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
11th July: Eurodragster.com Reserve Photographer Peter Donaldson has updated his Fotopic gallery with pictures from last Saturday's Retro Show at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Peter's pictures at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net.
©Eurodragster.com
The official web site of Sweden's Samantha Racing Pro Stock team has been given a make-over by Peter Frost. The excellent web site is presented in both Swedish and English and includes details about the only Mopar Pro Stock in Europe, race calendar, photo gallery, the team, the competition, the Samantha Hemi project and much more. Check it out at www.samantharacing.se.


Racing returns to Drachten.
10th July: We were very pleased to hear from Aldert Tjoelker of The Netherlands'
Fast Frisian Racing that drag racing is to return to Drachten Airfield after a concerted campaign. Racing was stopped at Drachten after an unfortunate runway cleaning incident following a race last year.
©Eurodragster.com
"The Mayor and his people agreed to some of our plans!", says Aldert. "It is not sure right now when drag racing is to start again at Drachten, we are aiming for 21st-23rd September, but what is sure is that it is coming back! Thank you for posting the banner on your Home Page (You're welcome - Ed). The site at www.dragracedr88.nl will stay up until we race again, but the signatures are no longer needed for the petition.

"Think positive thoughts and hope for an Indian summer."

Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard for racing's return to Drachten, and thanks to all of those who signed the petition.


Private Test Day on offer.
10th July: UK Super Street Bike racer Graham Dance has invited racers in all classes to a private test day which he is organising at Santa Pod Raceway on Wednesday August 1st.

"Because of this year's terrible weather and a lack of RWYBs and Peak Performance Days in the middle of the Summer we felt this was the best thing to do as many of us wish to test before Hockenheim", says Graham. "However, it isn't cheap and we are looking for some extra racers to make the costs reasonable. It will be £100 per racer but there is no admission charge so you can bring as many crew as you like.
©Eurodragster.com
"We are not looking for people who are going to drop out at the last minute. You will have to pay when booking! If we can't get enough racers in the next few days it won't happen, and we are also limiting places so everyone has maximum track time.

"If you're interested then please E-Mail me at grhmdance@aol.com."


Jolly good Show!
10th July: UK Pro ET racers Carla Pittau and Rick McCann have asked us to say a big Well Done to Paul Knight for putting in such a great effort to organise the weekend's London Drag Racing Show at the London Motor Museum.

"The museum owners were helpful, charming and enthusiastic and it was a real pleasure to display the Heaven & Hell Camaro at the venue", say Carla and Rick. "Attendance wasn't huge but certainly passionate and it was great to chat with drag racing fans - you know how it goes, when incautiously prompted by innocent bystanders to talk about our favourite topic we can hardly stop, and although subtle clues that a change of subject is in order (like big yawns, winding up alarm clocks, insertion of ear plugs etc) are normally not enough of a deterrent, it is refreshing to rabbit on to an eager audience. And so it went, talking about launch, maintenance before a run, weather station use etc.
©Eurodragster.com
"The place itself was really interesting, with much of the American use of the Base still visible (the US Post Office, the AT&T telephone point) and the old Cadillacs and the muscle cars everywhere throughout the grounds gave the place a dreamy atmosphere, just the kind of place we like.

"The weather was great too, although it started to rain as we were loading the cars for the journey back, just to make us feel at home I guess.

"All in all a good experience and an opportunity to do a lot of bench racing with our friends, topped by a complimentary drink and excellent cake offered by the owners."

Eurodragster.com contest winner Vivienne Maclennan has also asked us to thank Paul Knight both for donating the ticket and for making sure that she and husband Richard were well looked after all day despite being busy himself helping Elo with organising the Show. "Everyone we spoke to was very friendly and helpful and really passionate about the sport they love", says Vivienne. "We're looking forward to meeting them all again at Santa Pod for the FIA European Finals in September."

Sue Whyte of Motorshack has posted pictures from the Show on her Fotopic gallery at suewhyte.fotopic.net/c1322328.html.


Flying the flag.
10th July: UK Sportsman ET racer Nick Gay has taken advantage of the summer break to promote drag racing and generate some exposure for his sponsors.

"The first weekend in July is the date for the Hedge End Carnival and as usual I helped out with the PA for the main arena along with some of the other presenters from Skyline FM", says Nick. "This meant I could take my race car along to show. The main attraction for the afternoon was the Tigers Junior Motorcycle display team. When one of their organisers asked if they could use my car for part of the display I was pleased to get in on the act!
©Eurodragster.com
"As the big finale to the show I had to drive the Metro into the arena and reverse up to the jump ramp. Then, after two more cars were added to the line, the four senior members of the team took it in turns to jump their bikes over the obstacle! Much to my relief they all managed this feat with no problem. So a big thanks to all the team (aged 6-16) and the adults who trained them.

"Other stuff of interest at the carnival was a display of classic motorbikes including Triumphs, BSAs, and Skyline FM's morning DJ Mike Green's Harley. In the carnival procession itself was a big red bus, powered by Chris Johnson and Paul Somerville of the Woftam Super Comp racing team, which was entered by local KIA dealer Viking Garages.

"So a good day was had by all, partly due to the good weather, so let's hope that it will last for the end of the racing season!"


Swift snippets.
10th July: David Lloyd Jones of Santa Pod Raceway has been in touch to let us know that the second 'green' grandstand is now in place by the start line (right, click on picture for large version). There are now three thousand seats alongside the left (Pukka Pies) lane. The big 'blue' grandstand has been dismantled and is ultimately headed for the start line area alongside the right (Autoglym) lane. David tells us that the Barn is now likely to be demolished in August once the local authority has approved the design of the wall which is to take its place.

Many thanks to FIA European Championship Points Co-ordinator Kjell Pettersson for sending us the post-FHRA Nitro Nationals standings in the FIA European Championships. You can check out the FIA points on our Simpson Race Products-sponsored points standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

A late addition to this weekend's Midnight Sun Internationals, one of Europe's most famous races, at Pite Dragway is local hero Monica Öberg in a Top Fuel Dragster. Monica's car was reportedly sold to a Finnish team last year but so far we have no word on whether it is this car she is piloting this weekend. For more details about the Midnight Sun Internationals including the official entry list check out the SHRA Luleå web site at www.shralulea.se.
©Eurodragster.com
A very Happy Birthday to our good friend Malcolm Pellett, supporter of Eurodragster.com since its inception and originator of the two classic quotes "I know you're doing the live updates because they read like that bloke from The Good Old Days is writing them" and "With that camera on your stomach you look like an upside-down Dalek". Have a great day Malcolm.


Stuck on LA Drag Strip.
10th July: After selling car and bike parts for seven years, Eurodragster.com Links and joint Perfect Award sponsor LA Racing Parts has added traction-enhancing compound LA Drag Strip to its offerings.

"LA Drag Strip is designed for all drag strips but especially for non-permanent venues", says Lee Child of LA Racing Parts. "This is the product to use if you do not have a sledge and other track preparation equipment.

"LA Drag Strip was used last week at the excellent European Bug In at Chimay in Belgium. The Chimay circuit is a public road and so is the drag strip, which is narrow but very long witha half-mile shutdown area. Jon Cross and I started work on the surface on the preceding Wednesday dodging the rain showers. With the surface ready for spraying on Friday morning we proceeded to apply LA Drag Strip to the track at 11.45 am ready for the racing to start at lunchtime. With the track in a go position the heavens opened and finished the racing programme for that day.
©Eurodragster.com
"Eight hours of rain showers hammered the race track surface into the evening. A 7.00 am track inspection the next day, with the track almost dry, found the LA Drag Strip compound in good shape. The race programme started at 9.30 am and did not need another spray. All cars ran straight and safe, a true testament to the product. Saturday afternoon delivered its first full quarter mile oil down in the left lane. Once all the oil had been removed by the Green Stuff the track was in a go position. LA Drag Strip is not affected by oil once it is removed, and everybody was running straight and safe again with no extra glue. The left lane did suffer another oil down from the sixty to three hundred and thirty feet clocks. Once again the compound was not affected after a clean-up and racing continued to just past 9.00 pm with no incident.

"Sunday morning dawned and after some work on the surface we sprayed the track. The day was free of oildowns and saw some excellent ten- and eleven-second runs with some new Personal Bests from the VWs, some getting serious daylight under the front wheels on the start line.

"LA Drag Strip compound is available ready to spray in forty five gallon drums. This compound is also non hazardous and reduces your shipping and storage costs. For more details contact me on 01803 554308 (outside the UK +44 1803 554308), or please use the same number for our track preparation team."


Web site updates.
10th July: The official web site of the UK's Firestorm Jet Funny Car has been updated with the latest news from the team including their appearance at the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway and the answer to an oft-repeated question about the relative paucity of bookings at that track this season. Check it out at www.firestorm-jfc.co.uk.

The official web site of Sweden's Old 51 Pro Mod team at www.old51.com has been updated with pictures and video of their test passes at Meca Raceway at the weekend. The team are to start their 2007 season at the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park at the end of this month with Niclas Andersson at the wheel.

UK Pro ET racer Vic Amato has launched a web site at www.vicamatoracing.co.uk. The very professional-looking web site by Nigel Holland's Mantisweb includes news, details about the car, Vic's racing history, pictures and video (including on-board footage), and more.

Joe Bond has updated the official web site of the UK's Nuthin' Fancy blown-alcohol altered team with reports and videos from the SPRC Summernationals. "In addition I think I can speak for all of the NFAA drivers present at the Nostalgia Nationals when I say we hope for much better weather come August Bank Holiday when the NFAA are next out", says Joe. "On that note we were grateful for the efforts of the APIRA track crew to get the track ready at the Nostalgia Nationals. It seemed to the point of a conspiracy that as soon as the track was ready it would rain again. Thanks guys and girls it's greatly appreciated". You can check out the Nuthin' Fancy web site at www.nuthinfancyracing.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
The first of the updates from this past weekend can be found on the Panther Racing Super Gas and Junior Dragster team whose beautiful Firebird attended the London Drag Racing Show. To check out the illustrated report follow the 2007 Event Calendar link at www.pantherracinguk.com.

The official report and gallery of Santa Pod Raceway's Retro Show, which took place on Saturday, can be found at www.retroshow.co.uk, and a big welcome back to Rick Cuthbert who has rejoined the staff after a year's sabbatical.

Nigel Holland has updated his web site with pictures from the Retro Show. You can find Nigel's pictures at www.nigelholland.co.uk.

Michael Fordham's pictures from the Retro Show are now available on the Blazing Wheels web site at www.blazingwheels.co.uk.

The ZaNNetec Motorsports web site at www.zannetec.com has been updated with a report of the Bristol Doorslammers' progress at the SPRC Summernationals and the rained out NSRA Nostalgia Nationals.

The Bristol Hot Rod web site at www.bristolhotrods.co.uk has been updated with a new section for the Bristol Doorslammers, writes Chris Kenny. "Each driver will have his or her own drag racing profile on there, which contains a brief history of their past and present race cars", says Chris. "We have started with Zane Llewellyn, Neil Grant, Mike Bentley, and Conrad and Anna Stanley. There are more profiles being written at the moment so please keep an eye on the site. In other news, congratulations to newlyweds Neil and Julie Grant who were married last Saturday, also a big well done to Bob Lees for getting through the Best Man's speech through the heckling."


FHRA Nitro Nationals coverage.
8th July: Our good friends Hanski and Jouni are at Alastaro and are all set to bring you all the news from the FHRA Nitro Nationals whose eliminations take place today.
©Eurodragster.com
Hanski is posting the live car class report at
www.fhra.fi/reports/nitro07.html and you can find the full final qualifying results at www.fhra.fi/eng/dragracing/results.html. Jouni is posting bike results at www.dragrace.fi.

In addition we have put together a simple no-frills page to display and refresh the Alastaro webcam, which does not automatically update on its own web site. Click here to view the Alastaro webcam.

Andy Carter's web site at www.andycarter.net is being updated with results and comments after each round of Top Fuel, and Micke Kågered's web site at www.kagered-racing.com is being updated at the end of each day. Dan Larsen of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Dansk Auto HiFi is also reporting live from Alastaro with Top Methanol FC results and reports. You can reach Dan's reports through the TM Funny Car link on the Dansk Auto HiFi web site.


TSDS South coverage.
8th July: Tezzii and the guys at EurodragsterNorth.com are at Malmö's Meca Raceway ready to bring you the news from the latest round of the southern branch of the Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series, whose eliminations also take place today.
©Eurodragster.com
You will be able to stay in touch with events at Meca Raceway at www.eurodragsternorth.com and the Meca Raceway webcam can be found at www.srif.se.


London Drag Racing Show report.
7th July: We have now posted our report and pictures from this weekend's excellent London Drag Racing Show in association with
American Car Imports.
©Eurodragster.com
Click here to view Simon's report and pictures, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

If you are within driving distance of West London then it is not too late to go along and take in the Show tomorrow. We can highly recommend it.


Swift snippets.
7th July: We understand that multiple ACU UK Pro Stock Bike Championship and record holder Dave Beck plans to contest FIM/UEM Pro Stock Bike at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. We hear that Dave has secured some of the requisite sponsorship and that parts are already on their way to Dave Beck Racing. One version of the story has Dave flying a big-name US tuner to England for the September event. If this turns out to be true then it's going to be one of the European drag bike stories of the year since Dave has historically only raced in the UK Championship but has consistently out-performed his European Championship counterparts.

Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has forwarded us Version 5 of the official entry list for the Bug Jam, which takes place at Santa Pod on 21st-22nd July. You can check out the Bug Jam entry list by clicking here.
©Eurodragster.com
UK Pro ET racer Vic Amato has opened a storage facility of twenty- and forty-foot containers which can be rented short- or long-term for the storage of items. The facility can also hold motorhomes, caravans or any other trailer. Vic's facility is near Huntingdon and so is only thirty minutes from Santa Pod Raceway. For more details give Vic a call on 07802 320414.

UK Super Pro ET racer Wayne Nicholson has asked us to say a big Well Done to Junior Dragster racer Zak Johnson on his first event win at the SPRC Summernationals. "Don't forget Zak, starting young was how Lewis Hamilton started", says Wayne, "so when you are racing Top Fuel Uncle Wayne wants a go!"


Web site updates.
7th July: After a spring sabbatical the web site of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Power Race Graphics at www.powerracegraphics.com has been updated with recent design work for the Dave Wilson Racing Silverline Top Methanol Dragster operation, the Drummin' Man' Junior Dragster paint scheme, team shirts and helmet design, the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame logo, Wheelgame and Obsession Camaro paint schemes, T-Shirt design for Super Comp/Super Gas racer Jon Morton, and more. "It's been a busy year at Power Race Graphics with new work to be added soon", says Darren West. "We've done new T-Shirt designs for Real Steel Street Eliminator racer Jason Weir, Rick McCann and Carla Pittau’s Heaven and Hell Camaro, new team wear, and more sponsorship proposal illustrations. Thanks as always to webmaster Chris Blows who has tolerated and worked through many IT woes of late to update the web site."
©Eurodragster.com

Swift snippets.
6th July: The first book about the history of Swedish drag racing is to be launched at the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park later this month, writes Christina Bodén. "In the Swedish-language book (right, click on picture for large version) you can read how drag racing came to Sweden, and about the people who took the sport to where it is today", says Christina. "Swedish drag racing personalities and today's drag racing stars tell their story about how they came to start drag racing. The book will be sold at Veidec Nitro Festival, but will also be available from the publisher". The book also includes pictures by our very own Photo Editor Roger Gorringe.
©Eurodragster.com
Congratulations to Vivienne Maclennan who has won our contest for a family ticket to this weekend's London Drag Racing Show at the London Motor Museum. As did everyone who entered, Vivienne correctly identified Show organiser Paul Knight as a Super Comp racer. Thanks again to Paul Knight for putting up the prize, and to everyone who entered the contest. You can find out more about the Show, which takes place tomorrow and Sunday, on Tuesday's news update.

Also on the subject of the London Drag Racing Show, organiser Paul Knight tells us that today's edition of The Standard in London, available from mid-morning, will include a piece about the Show.

Simon will be going to the London Drag Racing Show tomorrow and will be posting a report and pictures in association with American Car Imports as soon as he can. We will of course post a link to our coverage as soon as it is posted but you will be able to reach the report by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.


PMR Showing up.
6th July: Paul Marston Racing will be out in force at the London Drag Racing Show, displaying three cars under the banner of the Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School and with business partner Drag Race Engineering:

First I must thank Paul Knight and his team for all their hard work in putting this show together. People simply do not realise the amount of sheer hard work that goes into just making something like this show happen. Everyone in drag racing owes Paul Knight a debt of gratitude. We were flattered and honoured to be invited, the very least Paul Marston Racing could do is support it.
©Eurodragster.com
Attending the show will be Steve Bolton with his beautiful Black Plymouth Scamp which competes in Pro ET, Drag Race Engineering proprietor Gary Springford with Hulk Shogun which also competes in Pro ET, and last but not least the Drag Race Engineering-backed Super Modified Vauxhall Calibra which is making its show début with its Crate Motor spec 555ci Big Block Chevy.

The DRE Calibra is also available for the 2008 season through the Paul Marston Racing race car rental programme. For anyone who is at all interested in this or any other aspect of the Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School, the London Drag Racing Show is an ideal event to come and share your ideas with us in an informal event away from the hustle and bustle of the drag strip. Everyone at Paul Marston Racing looks forward to seeing you there.


ELP on power at Santa Pod.
6th July: ELP, who supply power to the pits at Santa Pod Raceway, have apologised to racers for any inconvenience caused by the intermittent power supply at the FIA Main Event:

An internal investigation has been completed and the main reason for the intermittent power was with a fault on the generators that incorrectly thought they were overloaded, which in turn caused the generator to trip out for safety reasons

To ensure we do not get a repeat of the situation, ELP will ensure a backup generator will be on standby at future events.

As a goodwill gesture, after the intermittent power supply at the Main Event, ELP have offered to turn on the power supply on Wednesday for the FIA European Finals and allow it to run over Sunday night until 9:00 on Monday morning for those staying on site.
©Eurodragster.com
As you will be aware the service that ELP supply has up to yet been a great success as was shown again at the SPRC Summernationals. But we could all do more to help the power situation run even smoother by, for example, not bringing electric patio heaters and other unnecessary items.

At just £25 for five days' power, at any event you are getting a great deal. We believe it would be very hard to run a generator for twenty four hours on a fiver anywhere else!

The idea behind offering the power service was to enable each racer to run pit bays, i.e. compressors, electric tools, and the kettle. When everyone starts to bring ancillary items such as patio heaters then more power is required and therefore increases costs which will have to be passed on.


Magazine update.
6th July: It might be raining outside but there's plenty to read in the latest issues of Gasser Wars magazine and the Hot Rod Gazette, writes Jerry Cookson:

Now in their ninth year, Phil and Dee Morris of Morris Motorsport Printing have taken what was simply a black and white magazine into the realms of the real publications for serious nostalgia drag racing and Gasser fans the world over, with Issue 49 packed with wall-to-wall colour. Featured Gassers in this issue includes a the daily driven replica of Don Montgomery's Rockerhead '41 Willys, Rod Barnett's '48 Anglia and a real look into the past of some of the classic North American Ford dealerships. There's the usual build up sections and a look at Willys World Downunder. Issue 49 is now available at £4.25 from Graham Rennie's American Auto Mags at www.americanautomags.com.

Packed as usual with ozone-eating horsepower is everyone's favourite grass-roots hot rodding magazine, the Hot Rod Gazette edited by Shaun Wilson. Much of the issue is dedicated to the National Street Car Challenge, with an overview of the opening round of the series at Shakespeare County Raceway. Al Williams' white and blue flamed '54 Chevy Stepside is the feature of the month again, photographed outside the hanger doors at SCR. Show reports include the American Auto Mags Cruise, Riversway Cruise, Wheels Day and the Cornwall Reliability Run. HRG is priced at £2.50; for availability look up www.hotrodgazette.com.
©Eurodragster.com

An Express in harmony.
5th July: Swedish Top Fuel Dragster racer Micke Kågered is looking forward to this weekend's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro after promotional work at home.

"The Bahco Express dragster has been highly visible in Sweden this last month, not on the race track but at our numerous roadshow activities together with our sponsors", says Team Manager Åsa Kinnemar. "It was only last week that we got the car back in the workshop, not that we had too much work remaining as we already did that after the last run at Santa Pod."

Micke and the Bahco Tools-sponsored team have not yet run the car full-bore this season and so can't really evaluate their performance so far. "We were supposed to run the car at its maximum during the latter part of qualifying at the FIA Main Event before it was rained out", says Åsa. "As far as we can tell, the problems with the frequent engine disasters, including fires, which we dealt with last year are gone and everything seems to be working in better harmony now. We have worked with the brilliant engineers at Custom Racing in Örebro in Sweden and with their assistance located and sorted out the issues we believe caused most of the problems.
©Eurodragster.com
"We are also immensely pleased with our new on-board computer and the vast amount of new data which our Chief Mechanics Alan Jackson and Göran Edman have available to work with in between runs. However, a computer does not do the whole job by a long way: it only gathers information, and in the end it is still Alan and Göran's skills, together with Micke's experience from the runs, which decides how the set-up is adjusted for next run. We hope to get it all together in a good way at Alastaro.

"We have not had the best success rate in Finland, at least in Top Fuel Dragster, but we think that in recent years we have managed to handle what can be a tricky track."

Åsa plans to post results and our comments from Alastaro at the end of each day, starting tomorrow (Friday), on the team's official web site at
www.kagered-racing.com.

Down the drain...not.
5th July: Peder Eneroth of Aros Rör & Svets has announced that he is to sponsor this weekend's Power Big Meet at Västerås airfield. The Power Big Meet is one of the world's biggest car meets and Peter will be supplying the event with drain filters.

"The drain filters will be placed in the drain wells by the cruising lane", says Peter. "Waste from cars such as oil, grease, tyre dust and cooler water would otherwise run with the drain system to the nearby Lake Mälaren.
©Eurodragster.com
"FlexiClean drain filters are a product of AB Aros Rör & Svets and developed by Leif and Peder Eneroth. In September 2006 FlexiClean was one of the prize winners at Sustainable Stockholm award. The prize ceremony was conducted by the King of Sweden (right)". You can read more at www.vlt.se/powermeet/artikelmall_powermeet.asp?version=500942 (Swedish language)."

If you think that Peder's name sounds familiar then you are quite correct: Peder is a Board member of the Swedish Motorcycle Federation and Crew Chief of Alex Eneroth's Junior Drag Bike.


Top Fuel driver for a day!
5th July: We are indebted to Jan Broersma of Carter Motorsport for sending us a translation of yesterday's news item about the exciting offer at this year's Nitrolympx which takes place at Hockenheim in August:

In a world premiere at the Nitrolympx, one spectator is to win a ride in a bullet.

From 17th-19th August, the Nitrolympx, Europe's biggest drag racing exhibition, is being held for the twenty second time. at the Hockenheimring. As many as 50,000 spectators can witness this high horsepower vehicle shoot-out.

From 0 to 60 within one second and with excess of 5000 hp behind your back, reaching a topspeed of 400 km/h, this will be the ride of a lifetime for one of the spectators. All weekend-pass holders are eligible to win this ultimate Top Fuel thrill. Never before has a spectator had the chance to experience this, to be a co-driver in such a high-end motorsport, getting to actually feel and live this quarter mile shot. Only the German F1 reporter Kai Ebel had the experience during the 2005 F1 race held at Hockenheim, and he was very much impressed of the capabilities and acceleration, to say the least.
©Eurodragster.com
At 12:00 pm on Sunday 19th the prize winner will be drawn. After a thorough physical check-up he or she will be trained with the team for two hours to get familiar with the driver and crew of the car, and to experience the start and warm-up of the engine from close by.

After that the winner will be strapped into the dragster with a full five-point harness and the team will make the preparations to get the run on its way.

The deafening sound of the 5000 hp engine, the whining of the supercharger and the burnout, in which the rear tires are brought up to proper working temperature, will get the adrenaline rush going.

As soon as the Tree starts running and goes green, the passenger will experience 4G, four times their own body weight, during launch and be pressed in the seat followed by an approximately five-second run over the Hockenheim quarter mile.

After that the chutes will be released, and will bring the "Top Fuel driver for a day" back to a safe halt still recovering from the nitro trip of a lifetime.

Further information about the event and ticket sales can be found at www.nitrolympx.de.

Organiser : Hockenheim-Ring Gmbh, tel. +49 (0)6205-950222 E-Mail: info@hockheimring.de


Swift snippets.
5th July: Swedish Pro Mod racer Patrick Wikström has had to delay his much-anticipated return to racing which was due to take place at this weekend's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. Although big hitter Patrik and the team have been knocking themselves out, the Camaro just could not be finished in time.

Finland's Jari Halinen has started his Top Fuel Dragster licencing passes at Alastaro today ahead of his appearance in Top Fuel at the Nitrolympx at Hockenheim in mid-August. You can stay in touch with Jari's progress on the live coverage of the FHRA Nitro Nationals as detailed above.

Congratulations to Marcin Blauth who won the King of Europe race for street-legal cars in Poland at the weekend, breaking the string of UK winners. You can find out more at www.streetracingmania.com/2007/koedrag/history.html.

UK Super Pro ET racer Martyn Jones was not in total agreement with Graham Ellis' comments about crate motors in Super Pro ET in yesterday's news update. "Whilst some cars in Super Pro run crate motors, far from everyone does", says Syd. "For example, Steve Johnson's motor is far from a crate motor. And the same is true of Steve Green's, Derek Flynn's, Mark Flavell's, Wayne Nicholson's and so on. Even my motor was built to my specifications."

Rick and Sarah johnson have been in touch to ask us to say Well Done to their son, Junior Dragster racer Zak Johnson on his first event win at the SPRC Summernationals. "After a very wet Saturday Santa Pod pulled off a weekend of racing in one day, which is down to their hard work and comitment to drag racing, well done all at Santa Pod", they say. "Also after another wet Saturday at the FastFest both Grant Norris of Future Publications and Santa Pod made another good day of it, with Zak and Rosie Hunt getting five runs at a nice leisurely rate in between showers. Finally a big thanks to Grant who really looked after us and hope we can do something together again in the future."

UK Super Gas racer Malcolm Motler tells us that his immaculate Spellbound Morris Minor pick-up will be appearing at this weekend's London Drag Racing Show at the London Motor Museum. For more news about the Show check out Tuesday's news item.

On that subject, don't forget that 23:59 UK tonight (Thursday) is the dealine for entry to our Contest to win a family ticket to this weekend's London Drag Racing Show. For more details including the Contest rules click here or click on the London Drag Show contest link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

If you are into classic cars, bikes or scooters and you like drag racing then you will love the Retro Show at Santa Pod Raceway this Saturday, says Jo Harris. "Anything from Mk 1 Escorts and Yamaha RD350s to Vespas and Minis are welcome, so if there's a special place in your heart for carburettors and drum brakes then make sure you come along!", says Jo. "All are welcome to participate at this show with Run What You Brung and Show and Shine, and there will be hundreds of great cars and bikes to have a look around, so tell your mates and we'll see you there! Tickets are just £12 on the gate, for more details check out the web site at www.retroshow.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
Darren Prentice of Santa Pod Raceway adds that Steve Warner will be piloting the Two-Seater Dragster at the Retro Show on Saturday. If you have £499 to spare and fancy covering the quarter mile in under eight seconds then drop Darren a line at darren@santapod.com or call him on 01234 782828.

The UK's Dave Beck Racing are selling the new MSD 4350 Powersports Launch Master for the ZX12 and Hayabusa. The publicity blurb reads that the Launch Master is "A universal low RPM limiter which will provide consistent launches and quicker sixty-foot times by setting an rpm limit for staging. Once the green light comes on, release the clutch and take off - but be sure to hold on! The RPM is adjusted with two built-in rotary dials ranging from 1800 to 9900 rpm in 100 rpm increments. A handy LED shows when the launch rev limit is active. Easily set an RPM limit to use for the launch. Matching connectors for easy installation. Delivers firm, consistent holeshots."

Lawrie Gatehouse's Chaos Fuel Altered is the subject of an excellent feature in the current issue of Dragster Australia magazine (Which also provides European drag racing with regular and excellent coverage courtesy of Ivan Sansom - Ed). You can get hold of your copy from Graham Rennie's American Automags at www.americanautomags.com.

Luke Bennett of UK blown-alcohol altered team Bennett Racing has asked us to say a big Thank You to Matthew Wright of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Gleeson Wright Security for the loan of a truck at for SPRC Summernationals.

Brian Pateman would like to acquire five racer tickets for the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park later this month. If you can help then please get in touch with Brian on 01702 343401.


Web site updates.
5th July: Our good friend Alan Currans has added a twenty first Readers' Gallery to his excellent Acceleration Archive. "The update is truly action-packed!", says Alan. "Apart from pictures of cars catching fire, wheelstanding and crashing, there are pictures of two of Dennis Priddle's early rides, Pro Comp entries galore, Slam'n Sammy Miller, Paula Murphy and even fireworks. You can see it all at http://www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk/readers/gallery_21.html."
©Eurodragster.com
Patrik Jacobsson has updated the Racebilder web site with pictures from the weekend's Aros Nats at Västerås including, as mentioned yesterday, a couple of shots of Micke Nord getting bored with doing it conventionally. You can check out Patrik's excellent pictures at www.racebilder.nu.

Jon Best has relaunched his Best Intentions web site at www.bestintentions.co.uk. "The look is a bit cleaner and hopefully easy to navigate", says Jon. The latest development on Jon's blown-fuel slingshot is the bodywork, and a large box of pieces is on its way from the USA.


Gullquist looks to great race.
4th July: Swedish Pro Modified racer Micke Gullquist is very much looking forward to this weekend's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro after he started to find form again at the rained-out FIA Main Event.

"It's great to see that there are more Pro Mods than ever in Finland on the entry list", says Micke. "This makes for a great race and I hope that the weather gods are with us this time.

"At last year's FIA European Finals we lost the last chance to win the Championship when we didn't qualify due to a problem with the fuel system which made the car shake the tires. Before that we were on a streak of wins and we had not lost a round of eliminations since Alastaro last year where I made a bad mistake.
©Eurodragster.com
"At the Main Event this year we had fixed our problems and the car was running smoothly down the track, but ended up in only fifth place after two rounds of qualifying with a 6.245 (I like that "only" - Ed). These other guys runs really fast and there is no room for fooling around any more if you want to be on top. But I really like the challenge and it means we have to aim a bit higher. Bring it on guys!

"I want to thank NordicLAN, Lucas Oil and World Nutrition Technologies for their support and world class products."


Top Fuel Pilot für einen Tag.
4th July: Weltpremiere bei den NitrolympX: Ein Zuschauer gewinnt den "Ritt auf der Kanonenkugel"

Vom 17.-19. August 2007 finden zum zweiundzwanzigsten Mal die NitrolympX, Europas größte Dragster-Veranstaltung, auf dem Hockenheimring statt. 50.000 Zuschauer werden an diesem Wochenende die spektakulären Rennläufe der PS-Giganten mitverfolgen.

Von 0 auf 100 km/h in einer Sekunde und mit 5.000 PS im Rücken den Topspeed von 400 Stundenkilometern erleben, das wird für einen der anwesenden Besucher zum "Ritt seines Lebens" werden. Unter allen Inhabern eines Wochenend-Tickets für die NitrolympX 2007 wird der ultimative Geschwindigkeits-Kick in einem Top-Fuel-Dragster verlost.

Noch nie hatte ein Zuschauer die Gelegenheit, als Beifahrer die Beschleunigung in einem solchen PS-Boliden über die volle Distanz einer Viertelmeile hautnah und live zu erleben. Einzig der Formel Eins Reporter Kai Ebel konnte sich, im Rahmen des deutschen F1-Grand Prix 2005, einen ersten Eindruck von der unglaublichen Motorleistung eines Top Fuel Dragster verschaffen - und war davon sehr stark beeindruckt.

Am Sonntag, den 19. August um 12:00 Uhr wird der Gewinner aus dem Publikum gelost. Dann ein kurzer körperlicher Check und der Kandidat wird für die nächsten 2 Stunden in das Team aufgenommen, lernt Fahrer und Crew kennen und ist bei den Startvorbereitungen hautnah dabei. Es folgt die Anprobe des Rennanzuges und mit einem 5-Punkt-Gurt im Cockpit fest gezurrt, geht es an den Start:

Das ohrenbetäubende Dröhnen von 5.000 Pferdestärken und das Vibrieren des Kompressor-Triebwerks, wenn beim „Burn-Out“ die Reifen auf Betriebstemperatur gebracht werden, lässt den Adrenalinspiegel steigen. Dann gibt die Ampel den Start frei. Mit dem vierfachen Körpergewicht in den Schalensitz gepresst, werden die 400 Meter auf der "Hockenheim Quartermile" zurückgelegt. Nach knapp 5 Sekunden öffnet sich der Bremsfallschirm und bringt den "Top Fuel Pilot für einen Tag" sicher zurück, von diesem "Nitro-Trip", der ein Leben verändern wird.

Weitere Informationen über Event und Kartenverkauf finden Sie unter
www.nitrolympx.de

Veranstalter:

Hockenheim-Ring GmbH, Tel. 06205-950222, E-Mail: info@hockenheimring.de.

Editor's note: Our German is non-existent and an English version of the above is currently unavailable but Christine Calwer kindly told us that in a nutshell the above says that one weekend ticket-holder for the Nitrolympx will be taken for a ride-along in Rico Anthes' two-seater Top Fuel Dragster. There's as good a reason as any to book your tickets now...
©Eurodragster.com

Swift snippets.
4th July: Tomas Pettersson has asked all racers entered at the Veidec Festival check the entry list at www.veidecfestival.com/2007/entrylist.htm to ensure that they are listed and in the correct class. "If anything needs to be changed please contact Mantorp Park either by E-Mail at info@motorevents.com or phone +46 142 298850", says Tomas.

Jan Samuelsson says that the Top Doorslammers were the heavy hitters at the weekend's Aros Nats at Västerås. "Mats Brag was #1 in qualifying with 4.27, and Micke Nord was #2 with a 4.27", says Johan. "The track was great to start with but the cold weather and some rain made the track slippery. During Sunday's eliminations Micke Nord came way too close to wrecking the beautiful Chevy Nova. After that "show" the rain came back and the whole event was closed". You can find pictures from the Aros Nats at www.lagergren.se/vasteras and a couple of our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson's pictures of Micke Nord on two wheels or less at www.racebilder.nu/nova.

Andy of Eurodragster.com News sponsor Adoorable Handles tells us that Andy Herron's Junior Dragster is headed for this weekend's London Drag Racing Show at the London Motor Museum. "Anyone who wants to bring their car along and join us, please contact Paul Knight on 07821 139945", says Andy.

Thanks to Paul Webster for letting us know that UK Super Pro ET racer Spencer Tramm is the subject of a feature in the 27th June - 17th July issue of Disney Big Time magazine. You can find Spencer's Quantum Leap Corrado on page ten, the Lightning McQueen's Mean Machines page.

We would like to wish a very Happy 4th July to all of our readers in the USA. Have a great day, guys. Best wishes for a good day also to Kathy Taylor of Eurodragster.com News sponsor the Bakers Court Café whose birthday it is today. Have a good one Kathy.


PMR unsure about aspiration...
4th July: The Super Modified-bound Paul Marston Racing Vauxhall Calibra, backed by Drag Race Engineering, made its début in Super Pro ET at the FIA Main Event. First up was a chassis tag as the car needed to be re-certified as Super Modified legal after rule changes since it last ran, but Paul Marston says that Hauser Race Cars build a good product with an eye on the future and that the chassis was perfect:

The PMR Calibra is presently back in the Drag Race Engineering (020 8597 4575) workshop, being prepped for its début in Super Modified competition. As most people know Super Modified is a heads-up Doorslammer class. Fastest race car wins with a reasonably simple set of rules which are designed to allow nitrous and naturally-aspirated entries to compete on a level playing field.

The Drag Race Engineering/CTM-backed Calibra has already been weighed at DRE and meets the Super Modified weight criteria. The next step is the inspection of the motor, tagging and sealing by the Tech team who need to verify its capacity as it directly relates to the Calibra's weight. Valve size and port height also need to be checked. It is a race against time to have all of this work done; it's a very busy time of year for Tech Inspectors Geoff Martin and Mark and they are doing their level best to fit us in before Bug Jam. It will be a major setback to PMR if we have to take the motor to Santa Pod in pieces. It will be a totally untried combination, we would at least want to have fired the motor up at DRE prior to setting off to what will be a hard weekend's racing, with an extremely steep learning curve for everyone on the team.

Paul Marston Racing is under no illusion when it comes to Bug Jam and Super Modified. "All Paul Marston Racing can realistically look to achieve at Bug Jam is qualifying and making the first round" says principal crew Sefton Whitlock. "If we do that I will be happy. Having personally raced bikes heads-up, I know it's a different level of commitment. That said, I feel we are ready for this kind of challenge. It will be tough: Super Modified is an established class with some very professional teams, and I have not seen any real weaknesses in the top drivers, which is only right and proper. The Drag Race Engineering Calibra is running the naturally-aspirated option. I know Gary Springford and Paul Marston have been working with CTM and their contacts in the States regarding the motor.

"That said, in my opinion there need to be some pretty reasonable and fair rule changes made for the 2008 season to level the playing field and for us to remain in the class. At the moment the naturally-aspirated option is just not competitive, in six years of competition a naturally-aspirated Super Modified has never won anything. Paul Marston Racing would like to attempt to change that statistic. It won't happen this year, some serious rule changes are needed before that could ever happen."

The power plant that Paul Marston Racing have selected for our Drag Race Engineering-backed Vauxhall Calibra is based on a Pro Series Scott Shafiroff 555 ci Big Block Chevy. Although the heads came fully ported they will be sent down to CTM so as under Charlie's direction the valve seats can be re-cut as he wants them and the heads checked over. There is only so much that you can get from a forty plus year old conventional factory head design, rulebook porting limitations and a limited engine size, but we will be doing our level best to close the gap between ourselves and Nigel Payne, the top naturally-aspirated Super Modified competitor. That's a realistic goal. As to chasing the nitrous cars forget it!

Nigel and his team have put a tremendous effort into the development of their motor, again a 555 ci Big Block Chevy and have run regularly in the 7.90 to 8.0 range with a PB in the high 7.80s which really is a fantastic achievement. But despite all Nigel and his team's hard work and their pioneering spirit, the Sticky Situation Super Modified naturally-aspirated 1953 Corvette still trails the nitrous by on average three tenths.

If you are at Bug Jam, stop by to see if we made it and say Hi, it's going to be a great weekends racing and the weather is pre booked too!

It goes without saying that Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School owes a huge debt of thanks to a lot of people to have got this far. It is our first venture into heads-up competition which would not be possible without the support of an absolutely first class crew and drivers, they are as professional and dedicated as you could ever want. Thanks to Santa Pod Raceway for their faith and belief in us, their support has been our corner stone; our business partners and sponsors Gary Springford's Drag Race Engineering, CTM Performance and Machine, Chrysler UK, ChryslerCard, MAC Tools, London Road Tyres, Black Box London, Disco Equipment Hire, Custom Car, American Car World, Tony Morris at BLP, JW Transmissions; all our NHRA Division 2 friends and all the others, you know who you are; the UK National Championship teams who have made Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School feel so welcome and respect what we do and why we do it; and last but by no means least Eurodragster.com, you are irreplaceable.
©Eurodragster.com

...but Ellis is perfectly sure.
4th July: Graham Ellis of multiple Super Modified Championship winners Ellis Racing got in touch as he is not sure that he agrees with Paul Marston's comments about naturally-aspirated Super Modified motors:

"No normally aspirated entry has ever won anything in six years of Super Modified" isn't true as I won a couple of events in 2002 with a normally-aspirated 565 ci motor but I'll concede that it's been a while.

There seems to be a misconception about the parity between nitrous and normally-aspirated Super Mods. This is down to the fact that everyone in the class with a normally-aspirated engine combination is at present using an automatic transmission. The only exception to this is Andy Chilton who to be fair has only a few meetings under his belt and is learning to use the clutch etc as we have all had to. This is a heads-up class so the requirements for engines are different. You can't take a Super Pro crate-type engine and expect it to perform as well as a class-specific engine, something that is built to maximise the rules to your own benefit. The downside to this is that when it's time to sell the motor it is only of real use to a Super Mod racer or you take crap money for it.
©Eurodragster.com
We have had six years of learning to use this stuff and working hard, blowing motors and transmissions etc, and no rules will be changed to allow any engine combination to be competitive if it is not an all-out effort by the owner and team. Once all avenues have been exhausted and the combination still comes up short then that is the time that a realistic rule change can be considered. As of now no normally-aspirated team has "Exhausted all these avenues". Nigel Payne for all his hard work still knows that a manual transmission is a requirement of this class and intends to get one. We will never change a rule to make autos competitive and no one within the class at present has ever asked for that to be considered. The comment that Nigel is three tenths off the pace is a little misleading, yes he is three tenths off the pace of the top guns in the class who all have manual transmissions and custom-built motors. He is not three tenths off the pace of all nitrous cars.

A strong point is Andy Hone's performance of late, or should I say his performance since he has fitted a manual trans. Prior to that he was not much quicker that Nigel having a best of 7.82 with the current motor and nitrous regs, he has changed nothing and is now a mid 7.60s runner having the advantage of a well-sorted trans and clutch right away. Should Nigel fit a five-speed Liberty to his existing combination how do we know that that won't be far more competitive? We won't make drastic rule changes to this combination.


Web site updates.
4th July: Markus Münch has updated his Lonesome Dragstripper gallery with pictures from the 19th Grand Nationals Dragrace at Luckau. You can check out Markus' great pictures at dragstripper.smugmug.com/gallery/3093844#169082644.
©Eurodragster.com

Win a London Drag Racing Show ticket!
3rd July: Eurodragster.com has hooked up with London Drag Racing Show organiser Paul Knight to offer a family ticket to the Show which takes place this Saturday and Sunday, 7th and 8th July, at the
London Motor Museum in West London. The family ticket is worth £20 and admits two adults and up to three children on either Saturday or Sunday (but not both).

Before we tell you how to win the family ticket, Paul has told us the latest about the Show. Thirty five drag racing vehicles are booked to attend including Andy Carter's Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster, representatives of the Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association, Kev Slyfield's Willys Pro Mod, Rob Smallworth's Chevy Super Mod, Chris Orthodoxou's Super Pro ET Dodge Viper, Tim Adam's Super Comp/Super Gas Brogie Roadster and Ford Falcon, Chris Isaacs' Super Comp Standard Vanguard, Jon Morton's Super Comp/Super Gas Camaro, Carla Pittau and Rick McCann's Pro ET Camaro, the Panther Racing UK Super Gas Firebird, Paul Wright's blown-alcohol Outlaw Anglia, three representatives of Paul Marston Racing, Paul Knight's own race car, and many more.

Both Shakespeare County and Santa Pod Raceways are presenting displays. SCR will be bringing their Reaction Timer and will be running a contest to win event tickets whilst Santa Pod Raceway are bringing their show Top Fuel Dragster, Fuel Funny Car and Supertwin.

Trade stands include Motorshack, T-Shirt and model vendors and AutoTrader magazine, and catering will be available on-site.

For your chance to win the family ticket, simply answer the question below. The answer can be found somewhere on Eurodragster.com if you don't know it already. The winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries received.
©Eurodragster.com
Question: In which class does Show organiser Paul Knight race?
  1. Super Comp
  2. Super Gas
  3. Super Street
To enter, simply send an E-Mail to eurodragster.win@btinternet.com giving:
  • Your answer to the question
  • Your name
  • Your E-Mail address
  • A daytime or mobile phone number
Entry closes at 23:59 UK on Thursday 5th July, and the winner will be notified by Eurodragster.com on Friday 6th July.

For more details including the Contest rules click here or click on the London Drag Show contest link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

If you are not lucky enough to win the contest then tickets to the London Drag Racing Show are £10 for adults, £5 for children, £6 for students and OAPs and as mentioned above a family ticket to admit two adults and up to three children is £20.

The Show is open between 10:00 am and 6:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday at:

The London Motor Museum
Aylsham Drive
Off Ickenham Road
West Ruislip
London
HA4 7DZ

West Ruislip overground and underground stations are a few minutes' walk away and the Museum is within easy access of the M25, M4, M40 and A40 (map). For more information check out the Musem's official web site at www.londonmotormuseum.co.uk.

Many thanks to Paul Knight for putting up the prize for the Contest.


In with the Bugs.
3rd July: The first ever European Bug In took place at Chimay Circuit in Belgium at the weekend, writes Mathias Wienand:

More than 150 drag racers, off road action, a slalom area, a swap meet and countless show and shine competitors filled the Chimay Circuit and pleased the huge crowd which attended the three-day show. The drag racing entries included the UK's Outlaw Flat Four who put on a great show. Everybody was very happy to see the guys racing outside their home track.

In addition more than thirty five nostalgia gassers from the original California Bug days of the 1960s and 1970s lined up and raced throughout the weekend, and Bug In legend and original promoter Ron Flemming took the seat in various cars and proved he can still handle these nasty cars perfectly. Flat 4 Products brought their original chopped split window Beetle from Japan and raced against Russel Richie's chopped top legend. All of this action was hosted by Mr Bug himself 'Dyno' Don Chamberlain who had crowd going nuts all day long.
©Eurodragster.com
The drag races were not competitive, everyone just raced for the fun of it. Unfortunately due to the virgin track and the bad weather on Friday there were no wheelies and no Personal Bests, but still history was made at the first European Bug In.

You can find Mathias' European Bug In gallery at http://www.flickr.com/photos/competitionpix/sets/72157600600466494.


Swift snippets.
3rd July: NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified series leader, The Netherlands' Robert Joosten, has a lot of driving ahead of him in the next few weeks. "We are leaving today for the big trip to Finland", says Robert. "The Corvette is already in the trailer (right), and we can't wait for the "Scandic" swing. 1800 km to Finland, back home (work is waiting) and then 1400 km to Mantorp Park. Should be good for the Diesel Card savings - lots of points! We had a good outing at Easter and at the FIA Main Event so we are looking forward to this race."

The final entry list for this weekend's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro, as well as other details about the race, can be found on the Finnish Hot Rod Association web site at www.fhra.fi.

The first version of the entry list for the Veidec Festival, which takes place at Sweden's Mantorp Park on 26th-29th July, has now been posted on the official Veidec Festival web site at www.veidecfestival.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has forwarded us Version 4 of the official entry list for the Bug Jam, which takes place at Santa Pod on 21st-22nd July. You can check out the Bug Jam entry list by clicking here.

UK Junior Dragster racer Matthew Seamarks has asked us to say a big Thank You to Geof Hauser for making time to fit the new crank and rings into the engine of his Gingerman Racing JM/A dragster. "Thanks also to JR Race Car, my engine builder, who made me a crank in record time - it was only finished last Tuesday", says Matthew. "Big Thank Yous to also Dave Day and Spencer Tramm...they both know what for! We will be attending the London Drag Racing Show this weekend."

Helping to save US-bound readers a wasted side trip, Les Barney has been in touch to advise us that the Race Rock restaurant in Orlando has closed down.


Web site updates.
3rd July: In the latest entry in his exclusive Racer Blog, Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon describes looks forward to this weekend's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. You can read Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blog link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Lex plans to send Blog updates from Alastaro this weekend.
©Eurodragster.com
The Super Gas Champ web site at www.supergaschamp.com has been updated with the latest news from the 9.90-second drag racing series.


Swift snippets.
2nd July: Paul Knight has been in touch to confirm that this weekend's London Drag Racing Show at the
London Motor Museum is indoors so will not be affected if the bad weather continues (How anyone could have got the idea that it was outside from the news items and pictures we've run is beyond us - Ed). "If anyone else would like to show their car or bike then it's not too late - please contact me on 07821 139945", says Paul. "If you have pledged your car or bike for the Show but have not yet heard from me then please contact me as soon as possible for the final arrangements."
©Eurodragster.com
Congratulations to UK Super Street Bike racer Pete Bellenie who qualified #7 for the weekend's Big CC Racing Super Street Bike Shootout and thereby won £50 from Eurodragster.com. Congratulations also to Dave Smith who won the Shootout at the FastFest at Santa Pod Raceway yesterday.

A big Hello and Get Well Soon to Tina Carter who right now is very poorly in a Greek hospital. All of our love and best wishes are with you Tina and we hope that you get sprung very soon.


Web site updates.
2nd July: UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter's official web site has been updated with the second Workshop Update of the season featuring news on the team's summer plans and an interview with Crew Chief Per Andersen. Check it out at www.andycarter.net.
©Eurodragster.com
Editor's note: Only a brief news update today as we are attending Pat Ginn's funeral.


FIM/UEM rule changes.
1st July: After last week's UEM Congress in Cyprus a number of changes were made to the FIM/UEM European Championship technical rules for drag bikes. Many thanks to Lars Andersson and Ian King for forwarding us the amended wording:

RR09.1.10 Control Levers
All control levers (both hand or foot) must be mounted on an independent pivot. The brake lever, if pivoted on the footrest axis, must work under all circumstances such as the footrest being bent or deformed.

RR09.1.21 Gear Change
The gear change mechanism must be constructed in a manner that the rider does not need to remove their hands from the handlebar when operating.

RR09.1.25 Data recorders
Data recorders may be used for information gathering only. Data recorders/computers are passive data recording devices only. Speed sensors can only be used to record data, and may not be connected to nitrous systems, nitrous progressive controllers, nitrous timers, boost controllers, ignition timing controllers, ignition modules or any fuel injection components.

RR09.1.25.A
Throttle operation and braking are to be solely under the control of the rider. Shifting and clutch actuation are to be under the control of the rider or to be preset before the race. RPM controlled gear change is prohibited.
©Eurodragster.com

Lithuania likes Fuel!
1st July: As promised on Friday Mark 'Animal' Bodimeade (right, with friends)has been in touch from Lithuania to let us know how Patrik Pers fared on the first day of demonstration in the Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster and Fuel Funny Car.

"There is a huge crowd here, easily ten or twelve thousand", Animal told Eurodragster.com. "On the first pass Patrik did a burnout and a launch. Then for the second run he did a full-track burnout and then a run with the throttle stop on because the track really can't hold all the power.
©Eurodragster.com
"Last thing last night we fired up the Top Fueller. We set it up for plenty of header flames and the crowd loved it. The people here are really friendly and appreciative and make a lot of noise, we are having a great time."


Big CC Racing SSB Shootout coverage.
1st July: The Big CC Racing Super Street Bike Shootout is taking place in between showers at the FastFest at Santa Pod Raceway today. David Warren is kindly sending us word on the SSB action.
©Eurodragster.com
You can access our
American Car Imports-sponsored Big CC SSB Shootout reports by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Swift snippets.
1st July: One for the trivia freaks amongst our readership: during one of the several passes by the jet dryers at Santa Pod Raceway yesterday we checked out the track temperature before and after the dryer passed over the surface. Prior to the jet dryer passing the track temperature was 71.7 F, and immediately after the dryer passed it was 166.1 F before quickly dropping and settling in the mid-nineties.
©Eurodragster.com
Swedish racing merchandise site Tireshake.com is holding a vote for a new T-Shirt design. All entries will be entered into a draw with a free T-Shirt on offer to the winner. Send in your vote by 8th July to be in with a chance of winning. Check it out at www.tireshake.com.


Attending to the Garden.
1st July: Today Eurodragster.com becomes possibly the world's only drag racing web site to be sponsored by an Indian and Bangladeshi restaurant as we are very pleased to welcome The Curry Garden on board as a sponsor of our News page.

The Curry Garden was established in Rushden in 1989 and offers restaurant, take-away and delivery service of Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine. Chef Joynul Abedin won runner-up spot in the 2006-7 International Indian Chef of the Year in Edinburgh, was a finalist the the same competition in 2005-6, and was runner-up in the 2006 UK South Asian Chef Competition. Manager Komor Uddin has managed the restaurant since its opening. Having eaten at The Curry Garden on many occasions the Eurodragster.com staff can attest to the excellence of Joynul's food, the courtesy and efficiency of Komor and his staff, and the comfort of the restaurant.

On Wednesdays The Curry Garden offers two curry meals for £10 and on Sunday an all-you-can-eat buffet for £6.95 or £3.50 for children. A function room on the first floor of the restaurant can cater for up to forty guests.

The Curry Garden is open seven days a week between 6:00 pm and midnight, only minutes from Santa Pod Raceway at 24 Church Street, Rushden NN10 9YT (map). For reservations, take-away or delivery (within four miles' radius, £12 minimum order) call 01933 314121 or 01933 359581. The Curry Garden will deliver to Santa Pod Raceway given a sufficiently large order. You can also check out the menu and find out more about The Curry Garden at www.thecurrygarden.co.uk or click on the logo at right.

We would like to thank Komor Uddin for his support of Eurodragster.com and also his support of drag racing through UK Junior Dragster racer Matthew Seamarks. We are sure that our readers won't take much persuasion to show their appreciation by visiting The Curry Garden or ordering a take-away or delivery.


Web site updates.
1st July: Alan Currans has updated his excellent Acceleration Archive with the latest entry in Brian Taylor's Blog as he continues to collect information for his book Crazy Horses. You can check out Brian's Blog at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk/crazy_horses/blog_01.html.
©Eurodragster.com


Earlier news