European Drag Racing News

Talbots' Oscars speech.
30th September: UK Super Pro ET team Talbot Racing achieved their 2003 target when Pat Talbot blasted into the sixes with a 6.956 in Super Pro eliminations at Santa Pod on Sunday. Pat broke out, having dialled-in a 6.99, but husband and Crew Chief Stephen Talbot is "Over the Moon" and untroubled by little formalities such as losing a race.

"The six-second pass was the result of three years of planning and effort by a lot of people", says Stephen. "We have a lot of people to thank - sorry if this is a long list but we think that Eurodragster is the best medium to thank everyone who has helped us.

"Firstly, thanks to Geof and Ray at Hauser Race Cars and Jon Webster at Webster Race Engineering for giving us a lovely chassis to work with. Thanks also to Rob Loaring and Nick Davies at ICE Automotive for the engine build, tuning advice and patience - they have given us a great Nitrous set-up which hasn't hurt any motor parts all season! - and to Al O’Connor for looking after our transmission.
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"Of course there are all of the Super Pro racers who have given us advice, especially Roger and Dave Moore who have supported us in our first Nitrous season. Thanks to Tog and Sharkman for the support through Eurodragster (Thank you! - Ed) and to all of the fans who have wished us well in the pits.

"Finally, as all racers know, we can’t race the car without our Super Crew. Thanks to Robin, Lisa, Crunch, Jason, Mike, Peter and all the rest who have helped us this season.

"Congratulations to George Chiarella on his Super Pro ET win at the weekend, and we hope that Mark Flavell and Wayne Nicholson are well on the way to recovery and will soon be back racing (Hear, hear - Ed). OK, so this sounded like an Oscars speech - but we'll see you all next season!"

Frost's season of bests.
30th September: Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Andy Frost has had his best-ever season in his Red Victor Vauxhall, coming third in the CCSE Championship, winning a coveted Eight Second jacket, and setting new personal bests not just for ET and speed but at every incremental point on the track. Andy dropped us a line to express his appreciation to everyone who has helped him this year.
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"First a big hand to my sponsors: Knight Racing Services, Aldridge Trimming and Kevin Scott", says Andy. "Thanks to my hard-working crew of Tony Grayston, Steve Potter, Debbie Frost and Gary Frost. Also a big thanks to Jon Webster and to FB Racing for the all the special help they've given me over the season, and to Darren Prentice for the awesome tracks over the last couple of meetings. Big thanks too to Custom Car magazine, who continue to support the fastest street-legal cars in Europe, all the class sponsors (you're welcome - Ed), Lee Child and Dale Reardon for their sterling work, and finally everyone who has supported the Red Victor race team."

Andy will be updating his web site at www.redvictor1racing.co.uk over the off-season, and promises fans more of the same next year. "Watch in 2004 as we continue to set new PB ETs and speeds in the World's fastest street-legal Vauxhall Victor FD", he says.

Speedy Beck takes title.
30th September: Additional information which came to the hand of ACU UK Drag Bike Championship Co-ordinator Ian King has changed the outcome of the 2003 ACU Pro Stock Bike Championship. Dave Beck just squeaked the title from Richard Gipp after setting high speed at last weekend's UK National Finals, which made the difference to win Becky an unprecedented sixth ACU title.

"US racing commitments resulted in Dave being able to contest only four of the six rounds in the UK", says Stephen Moon. "Despite this, the team secured wins at all four meetings, built on a foundation of four number one qualifier spots. This dominant performance was enough to secure a sixth title, against competition with a two round advantage.

"In addition to winning four rounds, Dave set new ET and speed benchmarks for the class earlier in the year, turning in the first sub-7.3 run outside of the US, with a new European ET record of 7.29. A new terminal speed record of 183.07 mph was also set.

"In the ProStar rounds in the US, Dave has also continued to make progress, posting qualifying times in the 6.8-second bracket at Indianapolis. With two Championship rounds still to run in 2003, in Alabama and Gainesville, Dave has high hopes of improving on this mark and making a strong impact on the eliminations.

"Plans for 2004 are already well underway, with a new Roger Upperton motor making its debut last weekend. Discussions with potential sponsors are also well advanced. The ACU Championship will be defended and the US campaign will also continue. In addition Dave is considering, subject to sponsorship discussions, contesting at least one European Championship round with his record-breaking Pro Stocker."
©Eurodragster.com
Big Shootout snippets.
30th September: Mark Needham will be one of a number of Supercharged Outlaw racers attending this weekend's Big Shootout at Shakespeare County Raceway. Mark's car can appear either as a Topolino altered or a Funny Car, and he tells us that the Topo body is currently the favoured cloak for this weekend. "We are awaiting a part from the States, but have been told it should be here by tomorrow", says Mark. "We will most probably be running the Bad Black Topolino alterd body for the weekend as it says more about being an Outlaw than the Funny Car, but then again the Funny could be fun...Hell, just wait and see."
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UK Super Gas racer Rob Elsom is plannnig to return to the track for some fun at the Big Shootout as well as the Halloween Showdown and Flame and Thunder Show. "I was hoping to be out at the National Finals last weekend, but unfortunately had a mains panel go bang in my face leaving me with lots of little green red and blue spots in my eyes", says Rob, "not to mention the mandatory flash burns. It's just Sodd's Law that something like that happens when you eventually get your finger out to go racing! The rest of the year has been taken up making plans for a new arrival as Sharon is expecting a baby in March 2004, giving me a bit of time to prepare for a full season of Super Gas next year - at least I hope so anyway!"

Martin Curbishley will again be eschewing his Roadster for Will Furniss' Toyota Supra at the Big Shootout, after a successful weekend at the Doorslammer Internationals. Will Furniss is still out of service due to family commitments, and Martin has damaged the transmission of his Roadster, so Martin will again be teaming up with Nev Mottershead and Andy Williamson.

For more information about the Big Shootout including entry fees, check out last Friday's news item.

Spuff overwhelmed by reaction.
30th September: MSA British Nitro Funny Car Champion John Spuffard has been overwhelmed by the reaction to his recent accident which seriously injured his left wrist and hand. "The phone hasn't stopped ringing, I have had E-Mails, cards, and even a bunch of flowers from Santa Pod which was a tremendous gesture", says Spuff.

Spuff came up to visit us in Race Control at the weekend and was laughing and joking and enjoying the racing. He is very optimistic about a complete recovery. "The repairs are already underway and the outcome looks very good", he says. Spuff also took a turn around the pits and he tells us that the reaction of fellow racers, officials and fans was just overwhelming. "Everyone has shown so much concern, I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am", he says.

Spuff asked us to say a very special thanks to Turner Racing team member Ricky Gowen. "It was Ricky who rushed me to hospital", he said. "Without his help things could have been a lot worse. I would also like to say again how grateful I am to my partner Jo who has had to drive me everywhere and put up with me generally!"
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On the subject of repairs, Spuff told us that the ex-John Force Racing Mustang body which departed the Showtime FC in dramatic fashion at the FIA European Finals is also well on the road to recovery. "It wasn't very badly damaged", says Spuff. "In fact it was easier to repair than my wrist! Carlo Gandolfi of CG Composites is working on the Mustang. It's in the early stages of repair, say about three to four weeks to complete, but if you look at it now it already looks as if all it needs is a top coat!"

Spuff promised to keep up up-to-date with news of the repair of the Mustang, and hopefully we will be able to persuade the self-effacing FC star to keep us informed about his own recovery.

Timing data, points update.
30th September: The timing data from the UK National Finals is now available courtesy of Andy Marrs of TSI Timers. Click here to view the timing data, or click on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.
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Thanks also to National Association of Supertwins Championship Co-ordinator Sue Beneke for sending us the final standings in the 2003 NAST Championships, which confirm the Champions published yesterday. Click here to view the NAST points, or click on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

The weekend's timing data is also available on the European Drag Racing Database at www.eurodrag.com.

Erwin Lihtola.
29th September: We were very sorry to hear from our good friend Hannele Höydén of the Finnish Hot Rod Association that much-loved supporter, member and official Erwin Lihtola has died suddenly.

"Erwin was a long term worker in Finnish hot rodding and drag racing, who had the chance to work on every level of the sports, from a racer to a Member of the Board in FHRA", says Hannele. "He had a very positive attitude to life and you always enjoyed his company, now we have lost a very fine and a invaluable person. FHRA would like to send condolences to Erwin's family and friends, and we are confident that the whole Finnish and international drag racing community will conjoin the condolence. We miss you Erwin."

Sharkman and Tog and we are sure all of our readers would like to echo Hannele's sentiment.

UK National Finals results.
29th September: Congratulations to the winners of the UK National Finals which took place at Santa Pod Raceway this weekend:

Top Methanol: Dave Wilson 5.722/239.05 def. Steph Milam 10.444/82.87
Super Modified: Andy Hone 8.127/170.04 def. Steve Rawlings 7.937/169.90
Super Pro ET: George Chiarella (7.92) 7.933/165.41 def. Barry Giles (7.65) 7.719/169.70
Pro ET: Bob Doyle (10.37) 10.398/131.28 def. Rick McCann (10.74) 10.750/123.59
Sportsman ET: Nick South (14.01) 14.171/97.20 def. Andy Raw (12.80) 12.772/102.13
Super Comp: Malcolm Francis 8.931/133.40 def. Tim Adam 8.921/149.54
Super Gas: Frank Mason 9.997/127.57 def. Pete Creswell 10.141/138.26
Super Street: Dave Cherrett 10.957/102.34 def. Mike Bentley 10.892/126.65
Junior Dragster: Nick Mugridge (8.90) 8.964/70.70 def. Collin Morrice 9.008/72.39
Custom Car Street Eliminator: Jon Webster 8.174/177.50 def. Jeff Meads 8.581/161.13
Wild Bunch: Gareth Kent (12.40) 12.603/99.25 def. Alec Coe (10.57) 10.756/110.61
VW Pro: Justin Aldred (12.40) 12.607/106.86 def. Paul Bate (11.75) 11.837/111.34 red light
VW Sportsman: Christos Kouzaris (21.20) 22.494/46.03 def. Graham Fairhead (15.70) 16.397/65.05 red light
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Funny Bike: Dave Holland 7.046/185.12 def. Mike Chislett 7.110/183.82
Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck 7.445/176.28 def. Richard Gipp 7.526/175.11
Super Street Bike: Ivan Birch 8.476/164.46 def. Graham Dance 8.475/174.07
Comp Bike: Phil Leamon 8.406/156.52 def. Klaus Sarembe 8.551/120.12
9.90 Bike: Fred Furlong 10.015/125.54 def. Shaun Jones 9.993/136.65
10.90 Bike: Andy Burfitt 10.906/112.63 def. Phil Pratt 10.877/124.66 breakout
Supertwin Fuel: Ian Turburville 9.351/143.22 was unopposed
Supertwin Gas: George Laycock 9.639/132.39 def. Andy Smith 10.533/124.38
Supertwin Modified: Simon Hodgson 9.957/143.94 def. Dave Bartz 10.253/135.92
Supertwin Street: Mark Earrey 10.184/132.76 def. Chris Mott 11.108/124.28

In a thrilling weekend of Sportsman action ET and speed records were set in Custom Car Street Eliminator by Steve Pateman and Jon Webster respectively, Sarah Jane Head became the second-quickest female drag bike racer on the planet (only 0.036 seconds behind the quickest), and Graham Dance set a new Super Street Bike speed record, to name just a few highlights. VW Sportsman racer Graham Fairhead took the final Eurodragster Perfect Light Award of 2003 with a 0.500 in qualifying on Saturday.

Click here to view our American Car Imports-sponsored Event Coverage, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Provisional UK Champions.
29th September: Subject to ratification by Championship Co-ordinators, the provisional 2003 UK Champions are as follow. Congratulations to:

MSA British Drag Racing Championship: Dave Wilson
Pro Modified: Gordon Appleton
Super Modified: Team Steelcraft (Danny Cockerill and Kev Perkins)
Super Pro ET: Ian Bishop
Pro ET: Team Top Banana (Brian and Lee Huxley)
Sportsman ET: Kev Slyfield
Super Comp: Tim Adam
Super Gas: Tim Adam
Super Street: Mike Bentley
Junior Dragster: Collin Morrice
Custom Car Street Eliminator: Steve Pateman
Wild Bunch Series: Tom Coe
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ACU Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woollatt
ACU Funny Bike: Neil Midgley
ACU Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck
ACU Super Street Bike: Karl Larcombe
ACU Comp Bike: Phil Leamon
9.90 Bike: Fred Furlong
10.90 Bike: Andy Burfitt
NAST Supertwin Fuel: Chris Stebbings
NAST Supertwin Gas: George Laycock
NAST Supertwin Modified: TJ O'Brien
NAST Supertwin Street: Mark Earrey

When we receive final confirmation of the Champions we will run another news item.

Doubled-up ACI On Tour.
29th September: To celebrate their double Championship wins (FIA European and MSA British Drag Racing), the UK's American Car Imports Racing Top Methanol Dragster team are to embark upon an tour of the USA with plans to contest eleven races.

Dave Wilson and the team will be competing in the last two NHRA National Events of 2003 in Las Vegas and Pomona, as well as the 2004 Winternationals, Gatornationals and NHRA Divisional events before returning the dragster to the UK in time for next year's FIA Main Event.
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"The truck is leaving on Wednesday", said driver Dave Wilson yesterday evening. "We fly to pick it up in Florida and then we have to drive it to Las Vegas!"

We will bring you more news on the ACI Racing team's US venture as we receive it.

Get well soon, Sharon!
27th September: Many thanks to Terry and Tina Gibbs for passing on the news that the UK's Super Modified Championship Co-ordinator Sharon Hogarth, husband of race car builder, painter and Super Mod racer Jon Hogarth, is well on the road to recovery after being taken ill last weekend and needing an operation. "Jon Hogarth has been keeping in touch with Terry and I daily", says Tina. "He said that the operation went well and that Sharon is on the road to recovery. Jon has been beside himself with worry but now that the op is out of the way Sharon can make a full recovery."
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Terry and Tina asked us to send their very best wishes to Sharon, which we are very pleased to do and to which Sharkman and Tog and we are sure all of our readers add their own best regards.

If you would like to send a card then you can find Sharon and Jon's address on the Home Page of their Specialist In Design web site at www.specialistindesign.co.uk.

Spuff OK after "argument".
26th September: 2003 British Nitro Funny Car Champion John Spuffard is at home and recovering after suffering serious injuries to his left hand and wrist last weekend. Spuff was doing some DIY last Saturday when in his own words "I had an argument with a circular saw and lost".

Spuff spent five days in Stoke Mandeville Hospital after his accident. "I can't say enough for the Hospital", he says. "They did a superb job. I would like to thank everyone on Ward 21, the surgeon, the registrar, the doctors and the nurses. They've all been blinding, as has my partner Jo."
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Spuff says that although the injuries to his wrist and hand were serious, it is not going to wreck his and the Showtime team's plans for 2004. "It's all there, there's nothing missing!", he says. "I can already move my fingers. It just needs physiotherapy and time to heal now."

Spuff asked us to thank everyone who has written and called. "I am very grateful indeed for all of your support, it is much appreciated", he says. "I'll be glad to shake your hands just as soon as I can."

Finals VW Pro preview.
26th September: This weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway includes the fifth of six rounds of the 2003 Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Championships. VWDRC Championship Co-ordinator Spencer Tramm kindly sent us a preview of this weekend's action in Jon Rathbone Race Cars VW Pro.

"We have a thirteen car field which is one of our best this late on in the season, the Championship looks set to be between Russ Fellows who drives his eleven-second turbo Bug from Chester and Paul Woodhead who is still in his first full season of racing.

"Joining these two is a returning Nigel Green who despite a slow start at Bug Jam is one of the club's most experienced Pro racers and will be back to his low eleven second best here. The Aldred brothers will be looking to continue the round wins after Justin's runner-up finish at Bug Jam and although Jason broke his gearbox (and subsequently nearly broke his Credit Card!) he will be looking to even the score as Justin took him out in round one last meeting.
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"Rob Bowler has added a turbo system to his Beetle in hopes of getting into the elevens, whether Rob has factored in if the extra weight can be towed by his camper van remains to be seen! Richie Webb is back in VW Pro after his Euro Finals venture into Pro ET, although he lost in round one to Marius Blackburn, Richie made great strides towards getting his street legal Bug into the tens.

"Paul Bate is hot off another Bug Jam win, his second in a row, and Paul also has one of the Cal Look Forum top twenty fastest cal-look street cars and the only one outside of North America. Ian Dale is making steady progress deeper into the twelve second bracket with the Stripburner car and Ian has one of the most consistent cars in VW Pro. After his early season spin at a RWYB just before Easter, Brett Lincoln and team owner Duane Brown finally managed their season long task, take the car home in one peice! After taking a couple of race to acclimatise in the car Brett was pulling excellent reaction times and made the semi finals of a twenty three-car field at Bug Jam.

Class sponsor Jon Rathbone will be looking to get more seat time while he waits for his new Mendeola gearbox to arrive in readiness for 2004. Jon is busy in his workshop readying some new Pro cars for next season. Last but by no means last the Fiat's of Cogbox's Pete Englezos (Fiat 600) and Taylor Machine Services's Martin Taylor (Fiat 500) add to an interesting mix of body styles."

You can find out more about the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club on their official web site at www.vwdrc.com.

Go Big at SCR.
26th September: All cars running up to 13.99 are welcome to next weekend's (4th-5th October) Big Shootout at Shakespeare County Raceway. The Big Shootout is a turn-up-and-run event similar to last weekend's Doorslammer Internationals, except that this time around doors are not mandatory. "Whether you've got a Fuel Altered or Super Street car, whether you're blown, carburetted or injected, whether you're long and pointy or short and wide, this is the event for you!", says promoter Lee Child, who sponsors Eurodragster's Links pages through his company LA Racing Parts.

Joining the festivities will be Darryl Bradford in John and Lesley Wright's Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster, Roger Goring's Firestorm Jet Funny Car, and a large field of Supercharged Outlaws about which more details soon.

For Big Shootout participants, all classes will run heads-up on a Pro tree. The classes and prize structure for the Shootout are as follow:

Top Eliminator for cars running quicker than 7.25 seconds

Entry fee: £150
Eight-car field winner/runner up: £2000/£1000
Sixteen-car field winner/runner-up: £3000/£1500

Super Eliminator for cars running 7.26-8.50

Entry fee: £125
Eight-car field winner/runner up: £1250/£750
Sixteen-car field winner/runner-up: £1500/£1000
Thirty two-car field winner/runner-up: £2500/£1500

Top Gasser for cars running 8.51-9.75

Entry fee: £100
Sixteen-car field winner/runner-up: £1200/£600
Thirty two-car field winner/runner-up: £2000/£1000

Super Sportsman for cars running 9.76-11.25
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Entry fee: £75
Sixteen-car field winner/runner-up: £750/£400
Thirty two-car field winner/runner-up: £1000/£650
Sixty four-car field winner/runner-up: £1500/£750

Sportsman for cars running 11.26-13.99

Entry fee: £55
Sixteen-car field winner/runner-up: £500/£300
Thirty two-car field winner/runner-up: £700/£500
Sixty four-car field winner/runner-up: £1000/£750

Open practice will be run in between sessions of the Shootout.

Entry to the track will be £15 each on Saturday and Sunday. Weekend tickets (which include camping) are available for £26 on the gate or £20 in advance.

For more details, or to order advance tickets, contact LA Performance Services on 01803 554308.

Fireforce 2 II.
26th September: UK Jet Funny Car pilot Martin Hill tells us that he has had a hard couple of weeks since throwing the Chevy Lumina body of the Fireforce 2 Jet FC at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway just after crossing the finish line at 273 miles per hour. However, a new body has been fitted to the chassis and Martin is all set to take Greece by storm.

"I still don't have a definitive answer to our problem with the body letting go but there are various possibilities", says Martin. "The run itself was normal, as was the chute deployment, but shortly after the canopy opened daylight appeared between the chassis and the body - this happened two years ago also. It had bellowed out again and lifted from the mountings, having broken its back. This in turn let all the air pressure out and the body sat back down, but then the body flexed the other way, unlatched itself, acted like a sail and just peeled off. I watched the body disappear over my head through the roll cage. It was a strange feeling going from being a totally enclosed Funny Car to a dragster in a second or two. Then I focussed forwards again and the front wheels must have been at least a couple of feet of the floor, luckily the car just planted itself back down again as there was no lift with the body off. The car was always in a straight line throughout the ride, and was brought to halt at the end of the strip as normal much to the relief of the fire crews.
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"I do not know whether it is a problem with the manufacture of the body, the materials used, or a more serious problem with airflow on shut down but we will get to the right conclusions as soon as possible. Until it all has been sorted I will run the car more conservatively - in other words slow it down a bit, I think with what else is going off around me 250 mph is fast enough for the time being and just concentrate on a bigger show. it is against my nature to go slower but I hope that everyone will understand.

"The car now has its spare body painted and fitted and is loaded in the trailer ready for our trip to Greece. We will be fulfilling all our commitments with both cars till the end of the year and then re-assess the situation.

"I must thank all involved for their help over the last couple of weeks, not at least Steve from Roadcoal who talked me in to having the spare body done early this year; Trev, Steve and John and all those at B and H Autokraft who have put up with me; Roger at Unity Painters for turning the body round; Paul the fibreglass man for sticking the right bits on and the body itself; Horrace for being Horrace; the rest of the team and the support from the track crew and all the public who contributed to the collection."

You can find the Fireforce web site at www.fireforce.co.uk.

Lots Happening.
26th September: UK Supercharged Outlaw racer Johnny 'Mental' Hall and the Windridge Hall McKenzie team have sold the wild, Tree-hugging Happening slingshot as they aim to go one better next season.

"The Happening was put up for sale recently, so that prospective buyers would have the opportunity to look at the car in action at the Hot Rod Drags and the Big Shootout", says Johnny. "We fully expected to see out the season before selling, but we shot ourselves in the foot as a fan of the car phoned up as soon as he saw the ad in Custom Car magazine. Peter Van Goethem, who owns and runs the Americana shop said that he couldn't make the Hot Rod Drags because his company had a trade stand at the FIA European Finals at the Pod, but that he would come and view the car later that week .

"Well, we are glad that he didn't come to Shakey that weekend as he may have had a heart attack watching the antics of our wild wheelying slingshot. Our first run was an arrow-straight 8.78 beating a quicker 8.77 from Lee Johnstone in his silver Topolino, but later that day the car narrowly missed the Tree for a sqiggly 9.7 against Frank Griffin. On Sunday we were joined by our buddy Bill Felstead who is just coming back on the scene after a layoff of over ten years. We were again paired against Lee and this time he had to shut off with problems to our winning arrow-straight 8.7/150.

"Later in the afternoon we sat in the pairing lanes waiting to race and my Crew Chief Mark Windridge leaned over and told me that he lowered the tyre pressures to 5 psi because we were having traction problems all weekend, and as a result of that he had to raise the wheelie bars because they would be too low in the shutdown area and would unsettle the car when I came off the tyres at the top end. Well, those of you who have seen the startline antics of the Happening are now informed that it is always this way when we lower the pressures. All I can say is thank God for what happened next.
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"Bev gave us the signal to fire up and our opponent Pete Radcliffe in Burning Desire did exactly that and proceded to go round to do his burnout, but we couldn't spin the motor over to get it to fire, and Rad did a solo run. It turned out a wire had come loose, and in the couple of minutes that this was occuring I had got out and then back into the car as we had remedied the problem and were given the all clear to do a run. I did a burnout and was instructed I was on a single. I went into stage and when the lights came down I pulled the biggest wheely of my career, not only that but I went straight past the Tree and into the other lane with the wheels in the air, and if I had been racing Rad I would have landed on top of him...Spooky.

"Since then, lots has happened. Peter has put a deposit on the car and will be coming back over in October to pick it up after Bill Felstead and myself put a new lower roll cage on it and take it to Martin Curbishley's paint shop for a new '60s paint job. It will be on display at the shop in Belgium as well as coming out to play at various Rod Runs and Shows and hopefully some Supercharged Outlaw meets in the UK and maybe abroad.

"As for Windridge Hall McKenzie, we are building a 225" AA/Fuel slingshot, and in fact have already got a rolling chassis finished, also on the chassis table in our Northern branch a blown altered is starting to take shape. So plenty is "Happening" in our camp. Whatever happens elsewhere on the Nostalgia scene in this country, we will be there to meet the challenge, and the message is 'We don't need no stinking Hemis'. Yes, we are laying down the Gauntlet."

You can see pictures of the ex-Wheeldon Plan X car taking shape at Johnny's workshop on the Windridge Hall McKenzie web site at www.alkyoneus.co.uk.

PMR's double act.
26th September: With so much going on this year, Paul Marston Racing have found themselves with very little time to let us all know what they've been up to recently. But Paul managed to find some time to sit at his computer and sent us the latest from the PMR pit.

"We have found ourselves flat out with the Drag Race Driving School and Passenger Ride Experiences", says Paul. "We have taken advantage of every single opportunity to get on the track at Santa Pod, and I simply cannot thank Santa Pod staff, Paul Marston Racing and all our sponsors enough for their co-operation. For without their forward thinking and belief in the programme we simply could not achieve what we have.

"Just prior to the European Finals at Santa Pod earlier this month, we managed within three days to run twenty seven passes in Grumpy's Dodge alone, without counting the runs in the Insanity Vega. Eurodragster's very own Tog held the record for the fastest pass by a pupil at 10.669/126.06, everyone at PMR thought that would stand for the rest of the season as it was quite an outstanding effort on his behalf. But at the last Webster Race Engineering Test Day, whilst teaching two more pupils this was surpassed and a 10.64/128 is now the new mark. Not that the teaching is about speed, it is about driving skills and learning them, but it does demonstrate the human competitive streak we all have in us (I'll be back - Ed).

"We must also congratulate Dave Gibbons for his stellar efforts in the Alien altered at Shakespeare County Raceway in August, to smash a personal best held for nearly twenty years was a joy to see and a 7.87/163 is no mean feat. The Alien was scheduled to make an appearance at Santa Pod this weekend but that plan has been changed, more on that further down.

"Last weekend Paul Marston Racing returned to Shakespeare County Raceway for the Doorslammer Internationals. A welcome return of our first pupil to enter competition, Michael Pusey driving Grumpy's Dodge for a second time, the first being at the Main Event at Santa Pod earlier this season. With plenty of track time available Mick had the added bonus of plenty of practice before eliminations commenced (see Tuesday's news item Doorslammer PB Fest for more - Ed).

"Everyone at Paul Marston Racing was very happy and proud of Michael, our first graduate of the Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School. Sometimes you have to wait a very long time for the first win; to win a round at the second event in which you compete is no mean achievement. With the added bonus of being able to run some more passes in the RWYB, Michael went on to run a flat out pass of 10.33/130, a new mark for Grumpy's Dodge in its current set-up. I also took to the wheel again and ran a couple of passes, taking two attempts to better Michael's time with an eventual 10.27/129.
©Eurodragster.com
"So with this weekend being the last National event of the season at Santa Pod, the UK National Finals, I will be entering the fray with Grumpy's Dodge in both Super Street and Pro ET. It is the first time I have driven Grumpy in a double class situation and I am looking forward to it immensely. I ran the Insanity Vega at Easter and really had a great time with the Super Street competitors and Pro ET is new territory for me, it is the only class I have never raced in. Both are fiercely competitive classes with some really good teams, with a whole season of experience on their backs. They are going to be tough, no easy rounds, but I am going to savour this. I have nothing to lose as I am not in the points chase and I will be driving my favorite race car.

"We will also be seeing the return of some familiar faces at Santa Pod this weekend. Logistics Manager Dave Kalisz has been absent for most of the season due to work commitments and general laziness...only joking Dave, major business commitments have kept Dave away, not much else would! We also see the welcome return of Anthony Middleton from ChryslerCard who will be spending some time with us as our guest and will as usual be roped into crewing at the same time.

"With so many plans for the future still in the pipeline, but some close enough to be able to tell you, we can confirm that the Drag Race Driving School and the Passenger Ride Experience Programmes will both run next year. Paul Marston Racing will be fielding the PT Bruiser next year, competing at all major events, most probably double classing Super Comp and either Super Pro ET or Super Gas as the other. A major new sponsor will be announced over the off-season which will be backing the PT Bruiser campaign in 2004.

"We must thank our tireless heroes, the crew at Paul Marston Racing; ChryslerCard; ATI Performance Transmissions; Disco Equipment Hire; especially London Road Tyres who repaired a puncture in the rear slick on Grumpys Dodge while we waited after the WRE Test Day; MAC Tools; Jeep Club; and Black Box London Ltd.

"Finally, the Brighton Speed Trials were run last week and we were amused to hear that no-one ran a faster time than ours of last year, and in fact the competitor who finished second to us last year won the event this year.

"Just a small reminder regarding the Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School and the Passenger Ride Experience. We are at present inviting enquiries for the 2004 season, particularly for the Driving School as the spaces are more limited and we already have firm bookings, so if you were considering it now is the time to be talking to us. The office number is 0208 597 4575, visit our web site at website www.paulmarstonracing.com, or E-Mail office@pmracing.fsnet.co.uk.

Births and birthdays.
26th September: Congratulations to Nick Davies of our Home and News Page sponsor ICE Automotive and his wife Jo on the birth of their son Callum, who arrived at 12:30 yesterday afternoon and weiged in at nine pounds. Nick tells us that Callum and Jo are both fine, and asked us to thank everyone for their congratulations and good wishes.

A very Happy Birthday to Santa Pod Raceway's Chief Starter and occasional Super Modified racer Ian Marshall. "Ian is not quite over the hill yet - that's next year!", says Ian's wife, SPRC Club Secretary Paula Marshall. Ian's brother Paul celebrates his birthday tomorrow; Paula tells us that Paul is the younger brother but that looks can be deceptive.

Sharkman, Tog and we are sure all of our readers would like to send their very best wishes to Nick, Jo and Callum, and to wish Ian a very Happy Birthday and the same to Paul for tomorrow.
©Eurodragster.com
Larsson to prove a point.
25th September: An unexpected, and very welcome, name on the entry list for this weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway is that of Swedish Pro Stock Bike racer Anders Larsson, who is taking one last chance to prove that his engine woes are over.

"Since we finally got the bike to run really well in Finland last year, it has been all uphill with steps in the wrong direction and stupid errors occurring when we least expected them", says Anders. "But I think I am known for never, ever giving up no matter what. This year we entered the FIM/UEM series a little late due to the marketing department (that’s me) failing to rise the proper funding to run the whole series.

"Nevertheless we still invested in quite a lot of new parts to be competitive at our planned events. But when we look back on the races at Mantorp, Gardermoen and Hockenheim everyone could see that we were still lacking behind quite a lot. Before Hockenheim we went to Jimmy's workshop and tuned the engine on the dyno, and the engine proved that it had the BHP we always thought, and even more. But it didn’t show on the track and we didn’t know the reason for the power loss when we put the engine in chassis. It’s very frustrating when you know that the engine has the power one day but not the next, even if we had the same tune-up as on the dyno.

"The funny thing with this mystery was that the performance up to three hundred feet was the best that we have ever had, but after that it was like running in glue, you could really feel how the power just went away from you. For the last year and a half we have been working on a new clutch set-up so at least we could carry on working on that part so we could have some fun out of this mess. Hockenheim really proved that we were finally very close to our ultimate goal. The track was slippery but the set-up proved that we were able to run 7.6 when everybody else was running eight and nine-second runs. Some have said that it was pure luck, lack of power (true) but the run data showed something else, our settings had really begun to kick in.
©Eurodragster.com
"Between Hockenheim and the European Finals we found the stupid little thing which was causing the lack of power. We knew more or less that it was fuel related in some way, but we never realized that a small hose could cause a pressure drop in the fuel cell. The hose was shortened by four centimetres from last year and that was actually enough to make a vacuum in the fuel cell. So on the second run on Press Day, with a slow sixty foor time and an early shut-off, a 7.46 showed that we were on the right path. So we stepped it up for the third run and had a solid launch, the bike was really pushing forward and then the main fuse was pulled out by dropping the exhaust valve on the second cylinder. End of story? No, not yet!

"The run data made good reading, we had never had a launch like that before. So with big help with parts from Chris Hope's camp we slowly began to build up an engine for the Finals. My engine was beyond repair at the track, so we took the healthy parts like crank and gearbox from my engine, and cases and other stuff from Chris, and flew in a top end from Sweden. Thanks to Anders Abrahamson for letting us use his 1640 Raptor top end (which I built). Sadly even this engine was suffering with wear down, so it popped head gaskets on every run, but it took us to the semis which was more than we expected on Wednesday. The best pass was 7.50 after being on the throttle for 6.9 seconds - after that the gasket was blown.

"So to end this season with some self-confidence we decided to run the National Finals with a one hundred per cent cured engine, to finish the unfinished business hopefully with some really competitive runs, and to prove to ourselves that that setting was not just one-off luck."

NAST Championship outcomes.
25th September: Many thanks to National Association of Supertwins Championship Co-ordinator Sue Beneke for dropping us a line about the possible outcomes in the NAST Championships.

"Overall I dont think there will be any upsets", says Sue. "The various class leaders - Mark Earrey, TJ O'Brien, George Laycock and Chris Stebbing - are unlikely to be toppled from the number one spot. Runner-up position, though, is still up open in Street with Chris Mott and Dave Jones both vying for STS 2 next year. Unless Andy Smith doesn't come out in Top Gas this weekend he should take STG 2. Likewise Dave Witts should be runner up in Top Fuel.
©Eurodragster.com
"In Modified there has been a battle royal going on all year between TJ and Dave Bartz with both setting new class records. If Dave can pull another two out of the bag, he just might be able to knock TJ off the top of the list. But it seems unlikely now that he can make up the requisite number of points."

UK National points updated.
25th September: We are grateful to UK Championship Points Co-ordinators Simon Groves and Yvonne Tramm for sending us the points standings in the UK National Drag Racing Championships going into this weekend's UK National Finals.
©Eurodragster.com
Click here to view the UK National points, or click on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. Don't forget that you can find the ACU UK Drag Bike Championship points standings on the King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com.

National Finals running order.
25th September: We are indebted to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall and SPR's International Race Director Darren Prentice for forwarding us the running order for Saturday's qualifying at the UK National Finals. As ever the running order is subject to change due to weather or track conditions or any other reason at the discretion of the Race Director.
©Eurodragster.com
Click here to view Saturday's running order.

Swift snippets.
25th September: With a little help from Pro Mod racer, race car builder and event sponsor Andy Robinson, UK Super Comp racer George Chiarella finally found the cause of his throttle-closing problem at the Doorslammer Internationals, and promptly ran into the 8.0s with his beautiful blown-alcohol Straight To The Point '37 Coupe. "It was because the engine was moving back", says George. "We are in the process of stiffening the engine mounts, because Andy Robinson found the problem we compensated which gave us our 8.0 passes. Thanks to Shakespeare County Raceway and Lee Child for a great meeting, many thanks to the crew Al, Ben, Baggy and Phil, and thanks also to Steve Black for the loan of the E Type. Many thanks to Andy Robinson (Gus) for spotting our nightmare problem which has bugged us all season, to much criticism from other drivers and crew. mentioning no names you know who you are!"
©Eurodragster.com
A very Happy Birthday to Ryan Motler, son of UK Pro ET racer Malcolm Motler. "Ryan is really looking forward to the National Finals this weekend as he hasn't been able to come racing much this year because of work commitments", says Malcolm. "We're all chomping at the bit!"

Last Perfect Light of 2003.
25th September: This weekend's UK National Finals is the final qualifying event in 2003 for the Eurodragster Perfect Light Award. Martin Curbishley won the money at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway with a 0.400 RT in qualifying, so the Perfect Light prize fund has been reset to £50. All racers in all classes are eligible for the Perfect Light Award: it will be awarded to the first racer at this weekend's event to record a perfect Reaction Time, 0.400 or 0.500 as appropriate. The money can be won in either qualifying or eliminations. Good luck everyone!
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
25th September: The official web site of the UK's Showtime Fuel Funny Car team has been updated with a report of their weekend at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway, at which John Spuffard took the 2003 British Nitro FC Championship title. Team member Chris Dossett's report is as usual very insightful and entertaining and is well worth a read at www.showtimeracing.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
Chris Dossett has also updated the official web site of the British Nitro FC Championship with details of the final round of the Championship which took place at the European Finals. Check it out at www.showtimeracing.co.uk/championship.html.

The UK's Flying Dutchman Comp Bike and 10.90 Bike team have updated their web site with a report of their weekend at the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can find the site at www.flyingdutchmandragbikes.co.uk.

FAST depart SCR.
24th September: It has been announced that the Fire and Accident Safety Team (FAST) will no longer be providing safety services at Shakespeare County Raceway. The decision, which was taken for reasons which track owner Anthony Hodges would prefer to remain confidential, was announced this afternoon.

"I would like to thank FAST for their devotion and duty to the sport", said Anthony.
©Eurodragster.com
"This is a decision not of our making and is due to circumstances beyond our control", says a FAST press release. "We would like to thank everybody who has ever supported us, on and off the track.We have yet to decide what the future of FAST will be but in the meantime, wish you all 'Safe and Happy Times'."

Next week's Big Shootout at Shakespeare County Raceway will go on as planned, since arrangements have been made for safety cover at the event and for the remainder of the season at SCR.

Söderquist thinking of 2004.
24th September: Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster team owner Knut Söderquist has already been hard at work preparing for 2004 with new trailers already purchased and a new car on order for Sweden's Micke Kågered.

"On the Monday after the European Finals I went to Liverpool and bought two new double-deck trailers", says Knut. "It is mainly so that we don't have to transport all of our cars in one trailer - it was a real nightmare this year."

Knut is also attending to the comfort of his large team. "After much pushing from my crew, I have decided to build bunk beds in each trailer", he says. "After they saw Micke Kågered's trailer they decided that they are sick and tired of deluxe hotel rooms and first-class gourmet restaurants."
©Eurodragster.com
On Monday a deal was done with Swedish chassis builder Mats Eriksson (of Green Goblin Pro Mod fame - Ed) to build a Top Fuel Dragster for Micke Kågered to race in 2004. "I think everyone who has seen Mats' Crown Victoria Pro Mod will agree that there's no finer race car builder", says Knut. "He is building a brand new Top Fuel car which when complete will be moved to Micke's shop in Eskiltuna. I am delighted to have Micke and his team with us again in 2004. We were struggling with Micke's 2003 car and we were disappointed even if he was Championship runner-up. But I told Micke at the start of the season that there are good days and there are bad days."

Knut says that he was very pleased by the performance of the whole Top Fuel field this year. "But I am personally very disappointed that we only managed a the Main Event winner and runner-up, the Alastaro winner and runner-up, the winner at Piteå, the winner in Norway, and the winner and runner-up at the European Finals", he says. "I would say to Alan Jackson (Crew Chief - Ed) please keep up the bad work!"

Knut says that 2003 FIA European Champion Smax Smith did a good year's work. "He worked hard and did what he was told", says Knut. "Now comes the real trick - to do it again next year. And Smax shouldn't think that I'll forget how to scream at him!"

Records fall in Serres.
24th September: Elias Vathias of the dragster.gr web site writes with news of this year's fourth Hellenic Dragster Race at Serres in Greece.

"It was the best race ever!", says Elias. "New tarmac gave the racers the chance to run faster on almost every pass! We had new Hellenic records in the following classes:

Auto - Open: 9.6 Mr Nefraim and then 9.3 Mr Androulakis
Moto - Open: 8.4 Mr Svrahnos
Auto - T3: 10.27 Mr Dimitriadis
Auto - T2: 10.9 Mr Tzampazoglou
Auto - T1: 11.96 Mr Zafeiris
Auto - A3: 11.47 Mr Hatzimoisiadis and then 11.21 Mr Papadopoylos
Auto - A2: 12.08 Mr Loukos
Auto - A1: 14.16 Mr Daravigas
©Eurodragster.com
"It was a great race and on almost every pass we were expecting a new world record."

You can find 342 photos of the race at www.dragster.gr/images/Shows_Races/030907Serres/index.htm.

UK Championship outcomes.
24th September: The story of the 2003 UK National Drag Racing Championships is that in the car classes most Champions are virtually decided bar major problems but that the runner-up places are very tight, whereas in 9.90 and 10.90 Bike the Championships are running down to the wire, says Simon Groves who together with Yvonne Tramm Co-ordinates the National points. Going into this weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod, this is how things are panning out:

Pro Modified: Congratulations to UK Champion Gordon Appleton ('67 Camaro), who beat other UK regular John Ellis (Vauxhall Calibra). NDRS champion Roger Johansson ends in third despite only attending two out of four events. Team Steelcraft are Champions in Super Modified, Danny Cockerill (Rover 220 Coupe) having won three of six events so far; congratulations to Danny. Graham Ellis (Olds Cutlass) is second, having won two events, but is only fifty points ahead of third-placed Andy 'Fred' Hone (Gleeson Wright Ford Granada), so expect a war between these two!

Super Comp: With three wins in seven events so far, Tim Adam (Brogie Roadster) is over four rounds ahead of Malcolm Francis (69 Camaro Z28, with two wins) and Tim would have to falter badly for Malcolm to win the Championship. After another superb performance at the Doorslammer Nationals, Brian Pateman ('67 Firebird) could take second from Malcolm if he goes a couple of rounds further, but 2002 champion Martin Curbishley (Brogie Roadster, crewed by Spencer Tramm) is only a round further back. Tim Adam is also looking very good in Super Gas with three event wins and could pull off the 'double' for the second time since 2001. 790 points back, Martin Curbishley is only just over two rounds ahead of Conrad Stanley (Chevy Vega). In Super Street, Mike Bentley (Ford Sierra) has three event wins and a runner-up to be a consistent scorer in this category. Conrad Stanley has two event wins but is less than one round of racing ahead of Bob Lees ('71 Ford Mustang).

Ian Bishop (Dodge Avenger) has won one event in Super Pro ET but attended more events than most to build up a Championship-winning lead of 860 points - congratulations to Ian. Second and third places are very close between Al Golding (Grounds for Divorce Vauxhall Firenza) with one event win and Mark Flavell but unfortunately Mark is out for the rest of the season. Fourth-placed Barry Giles (Giles and Hartley dragster) needs to qualify a couple of places better than Al and win two more rounds to snatch second place in the Championship. Pro ET: Congratulations to Champions the Huxleys (Team Top Banana '32 Ford Roadster) with three event wins, a superb achievement in such a competitive class. Malcolm Motler (Morris Minor Pickup) is only one qualifying position ahead of Steve Wells who is only three qualifying positions ahead of Team Heaven and Hell (Camaro). Malcolm and Steve have each won an event. Kevin Slyfield (Plymouth Belvedere) has emerged as a real force in Sportsman ET with two event wins and two runner-up places. Mark Anderson (C.R.A.P. Conversions Capri, 590 points further back) has also won two events but is only three qualifying places ahead of Team Rainy City Lightning (2001-2 champion Al Platt and his wife Linda, Chevy Camaro) who will also obtain 100 bonus points from attending all eight rounds. Nick Gay, Nick South and Rick Denny are close behind too, and second place could be any of these five racers.
©Eurodragster.com
In Junior Dragster, Colin Morrice is just over three rounds ahead of Jonathan Bond, who needs at least to qualify better and win the event and have Colin go out in round one to win the Championship. Tom Watts and 2002 champion Ricky Emms are too far back to have any chance of runner-up.

Fred Furlong (Suzuki GSXR 1000), with one 9.90 Bike win and one runner up is 150 points (less than two rounds) ahead of Steve Coombs (Suzuki GSXR 1200), who has two event wins. Steve needs to qualify more than six places ahead of Fred and go one round further (or qualify less than five places behind and go two rounds further) to take the Championship. Two more riders could grab second place if Steve has a bad weekend: Geoff Connor or Martin Walker. 10.90 Bike is the closest title race this year, as David Warren (Suzuki GSXR 750), is only 50 points ahead of Phil Pratt (Suzuki RF900). Phil could get the Championship by qualifying at least five places ahead of David and going at least as far in the event.

The post-European Finals National points are just undergoing final ratification and will be posted here on Eurodragster very soon.

Swift snippets.
24th September: The Nordic Drag Racing Series Annual Banquet and Prizegiving Ceremony takes place at the Scandic Infra City near Stockholm on Saturday 25th October. For the invitation and more details including ticket and hotel bookings check out the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se.

The European Pro Mod Association will be holding their annual meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, also on Saturday 25th October. You can find more details on the EPMA web site at www.promod.nu.

UK Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Andy Frost was "Chuffed to pieces" with a new Personal Best of 8.77 which he ran at the Doorslammer Internationals at the weekend. "We were especially chuffed as it got us in front of Fatty (Ian Hook - Ed) in our private battle", says Andy. "A big thanx to my hard-working crew this weekend, and a big mention to Deb who finally found out what it's like to ride in a CCSE car on the Cruise. She was smiling on the return to the pits that's for sure...". You can find a race report on Andy's web site at www.redvictor1racing.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
UK racer Keith Crampton is in the final stages of getting his new bracket car together. "It is the ex-Trevor Kitney Anglia from a few years back", says Keith. "I must say a huge Thank You to Ian Harben for his help and commitment to the project, and to Steve Mardle for helping us out mechanically. After many years as a spectator it really brings home what a commitment it is to run even a modest race car, let alone a team travelling around Europe."

Neil Tanser is looking for news of the whereabouts of the Malibu Express rear-engined dragster which ran in the UK in the 1970s-80s. Neil would appreciate photographs as well as information about the car's current location, state, name etc. If you have any news then please drop Neil an E-Mail at ntanser@aol.com.

Web site updates.
24th September: Swiss Top Methanol FC racer Dezsoe Krivan's official web site at www.dragracing.ch has been updated with a report and photos from the Nitrolympics at Hockenheim as well as pictures of a pleasant Sunday spent in Engelberg where the team had their Summer barbecue and Grand Day Out.
©Eurodragster.com
The UK Junior Drag Bike web site at www.juniordragbike.co.uk has been updated with more guidelines for bike builders, the first three illustrated Rider Profiles and, for budding drag bike riders, the Turnertech designed, two wheeled flavoured, reaction time game. Webmaster Carl Wadkin-Snaith asks that teams who don't have their profile yet and those building for 2004 get in touch with him by E-Mail at carl@turnertech.co.uk.

Sweden's 'Big Stan' Mellström has updated his personal web site with a large gallery of excellent Junior Dragster pictures. You can find Stanley's web site at www.bigstan.se.

UK National Finals entry.
23rd September: We are as ever indebted to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for passing us the official entry list for this weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. The entry is very healthy indeed, with all of the usual suspects joined by the Volkswagen Drag Racing Association, Wild Bunch and National Association of Supertwins.
©Eurodragster.com
Click here to view the entry list.

For more details about this weekend's event, including ticket prices, check out Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com.

British Top Methanol preview.
23rd September: This weekend's UK National Finals hosts the final round of the British Drag Racing Championship, writes Championship Co-ordinator Dave Alexander. After four rounds the Championship points standings are:

Dave Wilson 334
Steph Milam 324
Rob Turner 288
Doug Ripley 227
Doug Bond 195

There are only two entries this weekend, but they are the top two contenders and there are only ten points between them in the Championship. The winner of the meeting will get twenty points more than the runner up, so it is literally a case of winner take all this weekend. In an echo of the epic Top Methanol Dragster final at the FIA Finals a couple of weeks ago, whoever gets to the finish line first without fouling will win not only the meeting but the Championship as well.
©Eurodragster.com
Going into the final round, Dave Wilson leads the points in the American Car Imports Racing dragster. Already crowned the FIA Champions, Dave and the team are determined to make a clean sweep of the Championships this year.

Steph Milam will be looking to repeat her performance at the last round of the MSA Championship, where she secured her first ever National event win in Top Methanol. The She Devil Racing team are determined to make their mark, and are just as keen on taking the Championship honours back to Sussex as Dave Wilson is to see them head for Farnborough.

"We've got some parts left" says Dave Wilson, "let's see what we can do with them!" and the opposition are equally confident. Crew Chief Dave Milam says "We'll give it our very best shot. This is a great opportunity to show potential sponsors what we can do.".

You can stay in touch with all matters Top Methanol on the ETMRA web site at www.etmra.com.

Stay tuned to Eurodragster this week for more Championship scenarios.

Racers: It's not too late to send us your UK National Finals previews. Drop an E-Mail to news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish your news here.

Leanders declines tattoo.
23rd September: Swedish Top Methanol Funny Car racer Ulf Leanders has turned down a suggestion from 2003 FIA European Champion Urs Erbacher to have a tattoo after he beat the Swiss racer and also ran Europe's quickest TMFC ET at the FIA European Finals.

"I would like to say to Urs that any tattoo is out of question", say Ulf and brother and Crew Chief Jörgen. "It will get too expensive to get new tattoos all the time as we plan to stop a lot of people from winning and break a lot of records in the future. I also think that it was for the best that we didn't back the up the 5.666. We now have the time to make a specially-designed, laser-cut, razor-sharp Käserhobel for the tattoo on your arm. We are all nice people here so a good tool will ease the suffering for both you and us!
©Eurodragster.com
"I have to say to Urs and his great crew that they really were unbeatable this year. We and the other racers tried hard to beat them, but we did not succeeded until the last race. To get the car first over the finish line so many times is proof of a great job done.

"We also want to thank the other racers in the class for good competition under the season. We can only congratulate Dan Larsen to the win at Santa Pod and second place in the Championship; a drag race is not over until one car passes the finish line so he deserved the win. Dan also showed that he can run the numbers earlier in the season. Leif Andréasson is always there, Niclas Andersson is running better and better, and big congratulations to our Fast Freddy for his 5.8-second runs and a great-looking spark plug tool. Martin Lundqvist has won the positive thinking race and will be very hard to stop next year, he will for sure be running well in his Moon car when they get some more runs under their belts.

"As for us, when we started this season we knew it would be a tough year. After the tyre explosion at the 2002 European Finals destroyed most of the chassis and a quarter of the body we had many new things to sort out. The body was fixed by the plastic surgeon Hans Kadi from Forsa, and he would later join us for the whole year as a mechanic and also brought his and son Robin's Junior Dragster along to the races around Europe, resulting in two finals and one win.

"The new chassis was a brand new Plueger chassis sitting at the John Force shop in Yorba Linda, California. The chassis was all bare except A-arms, spindles, steering and a brake handle. This gave our sheet metal guru Stefan Lundaahl something to do, he made a seat which fits me perfectly with a lower back support, all the chassis panels, fuel and oil tanks, all the tin work inside the body and a lot of welding and other work. During this build-up we also had great help from Lars Göllas who lives closest to us. In this project we also got a lot of help from Mats Eriksson at ME Racing Service in Borlänge, he provided us with wheelie bars, brackets, fasteners, extra chromoly tubes and a lot of good advice. Göran Persåker at Persåkers Speed Shop also helped a lot again as he has done for many years.

"The only things which were OK after the tyre explosion were the engine and transmission. We still decided to buy a PSI blower with 92% pulley and a new fuel system, so that we would have all the best parts in the car from the beginning. At a show race at our club SHRA Avesta after the Main Event, an intake valve broke and the heads were a total mess. We sold the heads as they were and our brilliant engine man Tomas Nygren finally got some new parts to work with. Behind the engine we have our clutch and transmission wizard Börje Mattsson who makes sure that the drive train and clutch are in perfect trim at every round. Anders Nordén also deserves big thanks for all his help and service during this season and for many years.

"Bosse and Curta from SHRA Avesta are also there andwant to help all the time, and I really have to say that we couldn’t wish for a better club to drive for! We mustn't forget all the help from Nisse at Avesta Bildemontering who stepped in big time when our old truck started to break down after Norway, thanks to him we are now driving around in a white 400 hp Scania R143 and actually enjoying the travel between the races, and to Benny Edvardsson who takes care of our website and is helpful in many ways during off season. Also thanks to all our friends that have helped out in any kind of way under the years.

"IronCAD and all of our other sponsors also deserve a big thanks, and everybody knows that we would not be able to do this without you.

"It feels great to have a race-ready car after the last European race, and as there won't be any major changes we know that we will be competitive right from the first race next year. This makes us sure that we can give Urs and the others a good fight for the Championship in 2004!"

You can find the very nice Leanders Brothers Racing web site at www.leandersbros.com.

Top Fuel snippets.
23rd September: 2003 FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion, the UK's Smax Smith is already working on his 2004 Championship defence and the Purple Loans-sponsored racer and team owner Knut Söderquist are seeking more crew to assist. "King Knut needs four crew who are ready and willing to work soon, as our off-season is as busy as racing!", says Smax. "We would like people from the Santa Pod area as there is no budget for crew so travelling shouldn't be a problem for applicants. The up side of course is working with the top team in Europe and travelling expenses-paid to all the FIA rounds abroad. The faint-hearted need not apply - this is hard work but rewarding, I know because I've done it for thirty years! If you're interested then call Knut on 0772 044 6695."
©Eurodragster.com

Fellow UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter (right, with son Albert) told us last week that he was to be involved in a promotion for B and Q, and the appointment was duly kept late last week. "We did a burnout each day at 11:00 and a warm-up on the stands each day at 2:00", says Andy. "I didn't do the customary short 'serious racing' Andy Carter burnout, Rune Fjeld gave me the OK to do three storming burnouts! I felt really comfortable and natural in the car which is great after the accident in Norway."

Ex-pat Swedish Fuel racer Viveca Averstedt and her husband and Crew Chief Håkan enjoyed their weekend spectating at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod. "We really enjoyed being back and meeting everybody, and to be there 'live' when Kim run 4.64, wow!", says Viveca. "We were very impressed with all the cars and bikes, lots of professional teams, great performances and a part of that is of course all the people from Santa Pod Raceway and Santa Pod Racers Club, who did an awesome job to prepare the track. Good job, guys! It was great to see the improvements around the track too. Drag racing is growing in Europe, that's for sure! We are certainly going to try to be part of the European Championship next year. We also would like to take the opportunity to thank John and Alison Hackney from Santa Pod Racers Club for their hospitality."

Doorslammer PB fest.
23rd September: Personal bests were falling left, right and centre at the Doorslammer Internationals at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend.

Custom Car Street Eliminator Ian Hook was one of the many in CCSE to run new bests, breaking his SCR eight-second duck in some style with an 8.79. "I'm absolutely over the moon", says Ian. "To break the Shakey duck with a respectable 8.79 was icing on the cake. Although I obviously wasn't there at the time I have heard the start line reaction when the ET came up (via our 'launch' video) and can only say thanks for the support.

"We weren't the only ones garnering good numbers. As well as Steve Pateman's awesome record-setting 8.22 many other Street Eliminator racers (running anything from twelves to eights) set new personal bests. An excellent reflection of the super state of the track and the hard work and enthusiasm of all the CCSE racers and their crews. We're really looking forward to the coming weekend's UK National Finals where we'll be throwing the 'kitchen sink' tune at the '34. Andy Frost, who's now gone two hundredths quicker than us, is threatening the same approach so it should be entertaining". Ian's event report is available on his web site at www.fbracing.co.uk.

The UK's Never Again Racing team didn't think things could get any better after Dave Evans ran a personal best of 9.64 in the Coco Connection Camaro at the Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway, but that was just a dress rehearsal, writes team member Andy.

"Sunday mornings pairings elimination's saw Coco paired with Mick Cheley, a formidable match-up with the eight-second black and red Calibra", says Andy. "Dave was eliminated by a 9.107 but pushed Coco to a fantastic new personal best of 9.470/141.96. This ET represent the fastest Coco Connection has ever run in this country, irrespective of owner, in the last thirteen years. As far as we are know the car's best ET Stateside, a 9.6, was beaten.
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"But it gets better, after being eliminated Dave took Coco out in the Run What You Brung lane and was paired with Peter Lane in his Earsplittenloudenoomer Camaro on Sunday afternoon. Peter's experience shone through and he treed Dave taking the win with a 9.927, but Dave pushed the Camaro even quicker to a 9.446/141.96 (incidentally exactly the same mph as the other 9.4 pass).

"The recent success with the Camaro has followed many upsets this year with balancer problems, head gasket problems etc, and this fillip was a long time coming. The better ET comes from our playing with the stock front suspension set-up, Dave managing to get some use out of the transbrake (even though it's only working at fifty per cent capacity), and Jeff Bull's magic dust which he sprinkles on the motor (but that's our secret)."

Michael Pusey did a deal one week prior to the Doorslammer Internationals to drive Paul Marston Racing's Grumpy's Dodge for the first time since the FIA Main Event. "Saturday started with glorious weather and a 10.75 straight off the trailer", says Michael. "This was against the 10.50 cut-off for the highly-subscribed Sportsman class. All our other runs on Saturday were in the 10.40s so the 10.75 ended up being our qualifier. Such was the level of competition that I have no idea where that put us but it certainly couldn’t have been near the top! A surprise added bonus was that we had qualified for the Quick 32, 32nd! This meant that we drew John Ellis in the Pro Mod Lethal Calibra. I tried too hard on the start line and pulled a red light and then John shot out of the hole and I watched him disappear into the distance with a 7.77, just slightly quicker than my 11.3!

"Sunday morning brought more of the fantastic weather and we found that our first round was against Cliff Puddle who usually races in 10.90 Super Street. We knew Cliff was running the numbers and would be hard to beat. So when I was coming back down the return road to see the crew all leaping about and waving I had a good idea that we had had a result. Cliff ran an oh-so-close 10.501 but as I managed to get out of the hole first my 10.54 got us the win. This was my first ever win in competition. I’m still sporting the huge grin! Second round we drew birthday girl Carla Pittau. My instructions were to just keep the nose in front and not break out. Due to no other reason than my lack of experience I lost because I backed off earlier than I should have done and Carla went blasting past to take the win.

"So that was the end of that but we (Paul) decided that we should take advantage of the test and tune time available. I went out and ran my new personal best of 10.33 which was awesome! Then we did a swap; Paul took on his more usual role of driver and I resumed my more usual role as crew. The result, 10.34 (ha!). All of the runs so far had been off the footbrake so Paul went round and did a transbrake wheels up banzai and netted a 10.27, the quickest Grumpy has gone with the current set-up.

"All in all a great weekend to round off a superb year for me. I would like to say a huge Thank You to Paul, Sam and Max of Paul Marston Racing for putting up with me and allowing me the chance to get behind the wheel. You ain’t seen the last of me! If you’re thinking about doing the same then don’t think, just do it!"

Finally, UK Pro ET racer Malcolm Motler asked us to say a big Congratulations to Steve Saunders for running an 8.93 at the weekend. "Nice one mate!", says Malcolm.

Birthday boys and girls.
23rd September: We would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to two of Eurodragster's honorary staff members: Andy Marrs of Santa Pod's timing crew who celebrates his birthday today, and Santa Pod's Chief Marshal Steve Horn who celebrated his birthday at the weekend.
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Happy Birthday, too, to Marcie Motler of the UK's Spellbound Pro ET team. "A big Happy Birthday for today from me and all of the crew", says Marcie's husband Malcolm. Slightly-belated birthday greetings to Pro ET racer Carla Pittau, whose birthday it was on Sunday, and also to Chris of John Ellis' Pro Mod crew who clocked up another year on Sunday.

We hope that all involved have or had a very Happy Birthday!

Doorslammer Internationals results.
21st September: Congratulations to the class winners at this weekend's Doorslammer Internationals at Shakespeare County Raceway:

Custom Car Street Eliminator: Steve Pateman 8.240/171.76 def. Ian Jackson 9.260/167.29

Top Gun (7.50): Danny Cockerill 7.695/171.76 def. Nick Stephenson 7.705/177.17
Top Sportsman (8.75): Brian Pateman 8.768/154.64 def. Mick Cheley broke
Sportsman (10.50): Conrad Stanley 10.831/94.54 def. Stuart Doignie 14.692/51.31
Street (11.75): Brian Payne 11.877/100.00 def. Simon Davies 15.538/54.81
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Quick 32: Danny Cockerill 7.396/191.49 def. John Ellis 15.775/42.02
Outlaw Street: Simon Davies 10.713/125.70 def. Chris Skinner 11.086/122.95
Gasser Circus: Jimmy Hibberd 9.973/133.53 def. Jerry Denning 11.727/126.05

Congratulations also to Steve Pateman on setting a new CCSE ET record of 8.223.

Click here to view our American Car Imports-sponsored summaries and pictures, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Karling ready for Indy.

19th September: Four-time FIM/UEM European Supertwin Champion, Sweden's Anders 'Charley' Karling is ready to contest his first AHDRA event in the USA, this weekend's Joker Machine Indy Nationals at Indianapolis. The team have spent the last couple of weeks in Milwaukee with half a million bikers for the Harley Davidson Hundredth Anniversary, and also participated in the annual Global Trainers Conference to be updated for new training which is going to take place in Sweden during the winter. The team moved the bike into the Harley Davidson University at Juneau Ave during the training, where it was on display at the third floor. Jim McCaslin (the company's president), Willie G. Davidson and many other employees from the main office came to see the bike and talk with Charley and Carina during the week.

After the visit in Milwaukee the team moved to Indianapolis the week befor the race to participate at a North America Die Cast Association event (right, click on picture to view a shot of the team and bike at the HD University) together with Karling Racing Team partner Uddeholm. The bike attracted a lot of attention for the brand, Uddeholm Steel is known as one of the best tool steels on the market and is used all over the world. The connection between Karling Racing Engines and Uddeholm was established ten years ago when Charley designed the motor which has won the team four European Championship titles and also a lot of National Championships; the material for all of the main components in the engines is supplied by Uddeholm.

You can read more about the Karling Racing USA tour on the team's official web site at www.karlingracing.com, and you will be able to view results from Indy on the AHDRA web site at www.ahdra.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Beck relishes comeback.
19th September: Swiss Top Fuel Dragster racer Peter Beck had a great comeback, writes his partner and Team Manager Regula Stucki. "With the win at Hockenheim and three 4.9-second runs at Santa Pod, we were very pleased", says Regula. "Teaming up with Rune Fjeld and his crew turned out to be a very good combination. From the first minute, Peter felt comfortable and this gave him the chance to do a great job.

"It was great to return to Santa Pod for the European Finals, and we enjoyed the real home of Drag Racing. In the middle of nine Top Fuel cars was definitely the best place to be. On the Friday, we missed the first qualifying run because the reverser didn't work. But we were ready at noon on Saturday and Peter ran his very first four-second pass, 4.941! It was a great feeling to come out of the trailer and get down the track like never before! The speed of 263 mph was not really high because the blower belt disappeared at the top end. A view hours later we backed up our personal record with a 4.936/287! Although far behind Kim Reymond with his storming 4.6 run, we ended up in second spot.
©Eurodragster.com
"On Sunday morning, we faced Micke Kågered in the first round. Unfortunately Peter had problems holding the dragster in pre-stage and rolled into stage before he was ready to go. This gave Micke the chance to launch first and take the win a 4.92 against our 4.91. Even though we lost too early, we are very happy with our three consistent runs in the fours!

"Our congratulations to the new Top Fuel Champion Smax and his crew, and we congratulate Kim and crew for the incredible 4.64 and 317, well done guys!

"To Rune and Lindsay, Ben, Ian and Paul, Christian, Roland and Beat: thanks very much for the great Drag Racing! Also we would like to thank Remco, Martin, Ivan and Andre for taking pictures to keep great moments unforgettable. A big Thank You to our friends on the track and to those who had to stay back home! And of course to Tog, Sharkman and everybody else who is always nearby..."

Wildside loving life.
19th September: There is a reason that the European Finals is the most important and eagerly-awaited race of the year, writes Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster driver Darryl Bradford. "For our team it was the best and the most frustrating race we that have all enjoyed together. From the first flaming wheels-up launch on Friday, to just making the show ahead of none other than former FIA Champion Anita Mäkelä it was a weekend to remember.

"The highlight had to be the stunning, dare we say upset, victory over the number one qualifier, defending European Champion and the fastest man outside the USA, Kim Reymond. When you race a man who has that many accolades, a win is always special. We'd all like to say well done on a stunning performance by the whole USA Autodele team, and we know you'll all be tougher than ever to get around next year!
©Eurodragster.com
"The downside was not being able to get reverse in the semi against my old tutor and our good buddy Smax. When we said last week that we would like to help him to the title, this wasn’t the way we anticipated doing it! But at the same time we were thrilled for Smax and the whole team to take the title in true thrilling Smax style!

"I know that Simon our clutch man said this in an earlier piece (11th September - Ed), but I have to say an enormous Thank You to everyone who stood and cheered for us. Weekends like that are made special by the people you share them with, and to everyone who was there with us I can't thank you enough! And sharing it with the great Wildside bunch including Sean, Simon, Ian, Lee, Clive and Tom was fantastic!

The spectators I unfortunately can't thank individually, but those we can thank I can proudly say are not only our sponsors but also our valued friends and racing partners. A huge Thank You goes to: Racing Champions, Lipsync Post, Datron Technology, Royal Purple, White Contract Services, Flint Insurance, Cambridge Motorsport, MT Drains, KG Freeman, La Vista Restaurant, Webbs Power Tools, Simon Dale and Russell Hill, Doc at Roberts Builders and Derek, Teresa and Hannah Todd who kept us all fed watered and smiling all weekend!"

You can find the Wildside Inc Top Fuel team's official web site at www.wildsideinc.co.uk.

Already missing you...
19th September: "The European Finals are over, we miss racing immensely, we miss all our friends a lot, the winter is yet to come, what can you say?", says team member Magnus Cato of 2003 FIA European Pro Stock Champions AC Delco/Malmgren Racing.
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"I can't say anything about next year so far, maybe we are in for a surprise or two. Some steps have to be taken for next year, Pro Stock has been tough this year, and I bet it's going to be even tougher next season! Now we have to start the planning for the off-season, but first there are a couple of events to attend. Right now we are preparing the car for some passenger rides at the Swedish Touring Car Finals next weekend. Our car and Micke Kågered's car both on display.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors and fans for this year. We had a struggle, but we came out on top. AC Delco Racing also wish Charley Karling's team all the best as they start their US trip this weekend."

Will furnishes Curbishley ride.
19th September: 2002 UK National Super Comp Champion Martin Curbishley has teamed up with fellow Super Comp and Super Gas racer Will Furniss at this weekend's Doorslammer Internationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, says crew member and Honorary Eurodragster staff member Spencer Tramm. Recent Eurodragster Perfect Light Award winner Martin will be driving Will, Nev Mottershead and Andy Williamson's Toyota Supra in the 10.50 bracket since his Championship-winning roadster can't make the cut.
©Eurodragster.com
"Will is unable to make the last couple of meetings on the calendar due to family commitments, and with Martin casting about for a ride due to the Brogie's lack of doors and his unwillingness to take an angle grinder to the body, a one-race deal was agreed", says Spencer. "The group met up at the Webster Race Engineering Test Day on Wednesday and after a couple of familiarisation passes and Nev and Andy's fettling, the car made a host of 10.5/10.6 second runs in preparation for the weekend. Meanwhile Martin's crew, which comprises his wife Ruth and myself, will be busy heckling from the stands."

Spencer tells us that Will will be back behind the wheel of the Supra next season with Crew Chief and co-owner Nev turning wrenches. For this weekend, though, Martin would like to say a big Thank You to Will, Nev and Andy. "You've made an old man very happy!", he says.

Angry Antoniou's challenge.
19th September: UK Super Street racer Perry Antoniou is one of several outraged by the story which we broke yesterday about the dismissal of drag racing in the latest issue of Top Gear magazine (incidentally don't buy it, stand in WH Smiths and read it - Ed). Perry saw our challenge yesterday to critic Dick Hammond to learn to drive a race car and has raised the stakes.

"On the obscure off-chance that Dick contacts either yourself or Paul Marston, tell him that I will gladly pay for him to have a go in Grumpy's Dodge", says Perry. "How can he comment on something he knows nothing about. It is the typical thing with circuit people: too much money, and not enough bottle. 'Too much oversteer, too much understeer' and they don't know the difference between the two. I wonder just why the circuit racers are booking track time at Santa Pod Raceway to improve their launch and gear change tactics, then (good point - Ed)?
©Eurodragster.com
"When we are still racing at 8:00 pm, sharing our tools, spares, knowledge and resources, and staying up all night to change axles and head gaskets, they are already sleeping, and probably on their own."

If Dick would like to get in contact with us at eurodragster@btinternet.com we will gladly put him in touch with Perry.

Garlick champions Super Mod.
19th September: UK Super Modified racer Tim Garlick still has not come down from his victory in Super Pro ET at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. Not only did he take the event title, but he also became the quickest and fastest Rover-powered doorslammer racer on the planet with bests of 8.26/162. However, Tim is looking forward to returning to his beloved Super Modified at next week's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway.

"We had a busting weekend at the European Finals", says Tim, "but Super Mod is where my heart is. There is a lot more to come yet - we've had hiccups with nitrous, heads lifting and gaskets shifting, but you have to be careful. I think we'll get into the sevens eventually but I guess we'll do a couple of gearboxes or something along the way!"
©Eurodragster.com
Tim not only enjoys racing in Super Mod but enjoys being an ambassador for the class just as much. "It's a good heads-up Sportsman class", he says. "The rules are changing to slow things down a little to keep performances to the times and speeds originally envisaged - low eights with maybe very high sevens. I want to help potential Super Mod racers to run and to support the class as best I can, so please come and talk to me in the pits. In fact come and talk to any Super Mod racer, they are the friendliest people you could meet!"

Tim tells us that he has the world's best crew. "They are amazing and no-one else can have them!", he says. "Ricky and Paul Dawson and Big Chief Paula Garlick! And not forgetting Rob Loaring and Nick Davies of ICE Automotive, I couldn't do it without them even if Rob takes the pee about my gear shifts when we read the computer trace!"

Erbacher: thanks for beating me.
18th September: 2003 FIA European Top Methanol Funny Car Champion Urs Erbacher has said a big Thank You to all of the Santa Pod Raceway staff and officials for the FIA European Finals, as well as to all of his competitors for a great Championship.

"It was a fair competition and everybody was helping everyone to keep things going", says Urs. "Believe me, it was scary even for us to win every race during the season and I didn't feel too bad to see that we can lose when we were kicked out in the second round. As some fellow racers said: 'Now you are human again'! Unfortunately I blew an engine at the Finals, the first in four years. Despite this the season was very low on damage, just the usual parts wear.
©Eurodragster.com
"I would especially like to congratulate Ulf Leanders. He was the first to beat us after over a year, or 430 days, of victories. Wouldn't it be a good occasion to get your first tattoo, Ulf? Something like "I beat him" or "The guy who stopped Urs' one year winning streak". A big compliment to the Leanders Brothers team for the fantastic 5.66 they smashed out on the track at Santa Pod, and a big thank you for not backing it up! So we are still the official record holder.

"At the moment we are recovering from the season, thinking about all the memorable moments we were able to share with all of you on the track and in the pits. It was a lot of fun, of course it is always is when things run that well, but I really enjoyed every fight out there on the track. A big thank you to my crew, they did an excellent job during the whole season. We had a lot of fun and they even let me win when we were playing cards or beach volleyball to keep my motivation high."

Urs' web site is currently getting a facelift; he has promised to let us know when it is on-line.

Swift snippets.
18th September: David Wilson, son of 2003 FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Champion Dave Wilson, took a turn in the American Car Imports Racing TMD at the Webster Race Engineering Test Day at Santa Pod Raceway yesterday. David clocked a best of 6.54/176 on what was only his fourth pass in the car. "David ran a fifteen, then 8.12, then 7.0, then 6.54 - a reasonable progression!", said Dave Wilson. "David has spent nearly thirty years around me working on cars, so we thought it was time he found out what it was like to drive. He did extremely well, he did everything I told him, and I think it has given him a real insight. He said that there was a lot of work to do before launching, then you launch and hang on for a couple of seconds, and then a little light comes on and you've got another lot of work to do!"

Swedish Pro Modified racer Lars-Inge Johansson is recovering fine from his top end crash at the FIA European Finals and is expected to be returned to Sweden from hospital in the UK soon, says Micke Gullquist. "Lars-Inge has been on the phone with team member Peter Nilsson, who told us that Lars-Inge was fine, except for some pain", says Micke. "His wounds included broken ribs, punctured lungs, a cracked pelvis and snapped ligaments in one leg". Sharkman and Tog and all of our readers send their best wishes to Lars-Inge for a continued rapid recovery and return to the track.
©Eurodragster.com
Also in the wars, although not as seriously, is our good friend Monique Koedam, wife of the world's second-quickest Top Fuel Bike racer and 2003 FIM European Champion Roel. Monique is hobbling around on crutches after landing heavily from "Jumping in the sky" when Roel's 6.04/235 qualifying pass came up on the top end boards at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod. "It's going to take me six to eight weeks to recover so I am never going to jump again, not for a five-second pass or anything quicker!", says Monique. Best wishes also to Monique for a swift recovery.

Vote against Top Gear tirade.
18th September: Enraged Eurodragster reader Chris Smith and Supertwin Gas racer Ric Naylor have written with news of a surprising attitude taken towards drag racing by Top Gear magazine, the paper offshoot of the popular UK TV programme which is usually very positive towards the sport.

"The latest issue of the magazine has a section for and against drag racing", says Chris Smith. "For drag racing, and putting forward a very good case, is Pete Trafford. Against is Dick Hammond". Chris goes on to quote and comment on some of Dick Hammond's observations, which copyright and libel laws prevent us from quoting, but suffice to say that Dick's comments consist of well-worn and ignorance-fed can't-go-round-corners, anyone-can-do-it, no-skill-necessary cliché.
©Eurodragster.com
Eurodragster's readers do, however, have the chance to have their say. "You can cast a vote on the Top Gear web site at www.topgear.com/polls", says Chris. You know what to do, folks. Please note that to vote it will be necessary to leave a name and E-Mail address which may be a ruse by the magazine to send you junk mail about circuit racing.

And if you are reading this, Dick, then we challenge you to contact Paul Marston's Drag Race Driving School (www.paulmarstonracing.com), book some lessons in Grumpy's Dodge, and then come back and tell us all how easy it is...

Museum seeks race car.
18th September: And proving that drag racing is a respectable motorsport, the British Museum of Road Transport in Coventry is planning an exhibition on Speed and Racing in the Spring of 2004 after a multi-million pound redevelopment, and the Museum's Lucy Rumble is looking for a representative of drag racing to be considered for a part in the exhibition.
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"We already own the two Thrust Land Speed Record cars, have close links with World Rally, and are sourcing cars, cycles and motorbikes to represent key motorsport and cycle-sport competitions", says Lucy. "I am in the process of drawing up a list of items which could potentially be represented. This will then be tightened to around fifteen to twenty which will be eventually displayed. As with all of our exhibitions we will be using our extensive contacts around the motorsport and transport heritage industry to support it. However, we do not know very many people representing drag racing and feel that the sport should at least have the opportunity to be represented in our initial list.

"At the moment we don't have dates or duration, but are trying to pull together contacts which may help us to pin this down a little. If you might be interested in being included or have any ideas for other contacts please do not hesitate to contact me either by E-Mail at Lucy.Rumble@coventry.gov.uk or by phone on 024 7683 2425."

Web site updates.
18th September: Not strictly a web site update, but the final standings in the 2003 FIA European Pro Stock Championship have been slightly amended. You can view the amended standings by clicking here (PDF format).

Similarly not a web site update but very important since UK Tech Inspector Geoff Martin has sent us a higher-resolution version of yesterday's SFI chassis spec change, which you can view by clicking here, or by clicking on the link in yesterday's news item.

The official web site of 2003 FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Champions American Car Imports Racing has been updated with the latest of Crew Chief Andy Bissett's unrivalled race reports (Andy hard at work - right), in this case from the FIA European Finals, together with an updated photo gallery and the addition to the Media page of every piece of press coverage which Dave Wilson and the team have enjoyed. Check it out at www.americancarimportsracing.com.

Michael Buhagiar has updated his Maltese Drag Racing web site with photographs and results from the latest Night Race at Hal Far. You can find Michael's excellent web site at www.geocities.com/dragraceway.
©Eurodragster.com
Alan Currans continues to develop his keen sense for what nostalgia buffs like to see, with the latest update to his Acceleration Archive being another gem from the archives of John Woolfe Racing. "The update contains pictures of Dennis Priddle's two Chrysler Avenger-bodied cars and the later Chevy Monza", says Alan. "There are pictures of the first Avenger under construction, rare pictures of it with Shellsport sponsorship as it appeared at Santa Pod on one occasion only, even rarer pictures of the completed Shellsport paintjob, and of course the familiar STP-sponsored cars. There are some great burnout shots of the second Avenger and the Monza is pictured at various venues including a stately home and outside John Woolfe Racing's facility at Bedford where it is safe to say it caught the attention of the neighbours". You can find Alan's site at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk.

Eurodragster's American Car Imports-sponsored Event Coverage of the recent FIA European Finals has been updated with another photo gallery featuring a small number of mainly off-track pictures from Finals week. You can view the extra pictures by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

SFI Rollcage update for TF and TMD.
17th September: Many thanks to UK Tech inspector Geoff Martin for giving us the latest SFI Tech Advisory note for Top Fuel and Top Methanol dragsters. It is SFI spec 2.3K and concerns the back brace section of the roll cage. Full details are available in the note, available here (Jpeg Format). Should anybody require clarification on this you can contact Geoff using geoffrey.martin4@btopenworld.com
©Eurodragster.com
More 'slammers sponsors.
17th September: Fresh from yesterdays news of RRC's backing of this weekends Doorslammers Internationals at Shakespeare County Raceway LA Performance Services have announced more sponsors for the event. "Both Webster Race Engineering and Gleeson Wright Security have joined the growing list of sponsors for the event" reveals promoter Lee Child.
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Both WRE and Gleeson Wright Security will be contributing to the prize fund and Gleeson Wright will also be providing a recovery truck should the need arise to trailer a car off of the track or shutdown area, in addition to their usual role of supplying the security at the Ultimate Power events. Lee adds "I would like to say a big Thank You to Gary Gleeson and Matt Wright for their continued support of the Ultimate Power series of events and its a pleasure to welcome Jon Webster and WRE on board as well"

SPRC Dinner Dance.
17th September: Paula Marshall of SPRC has been in touch to ask us to give you the first information on one of the highlights of the off season, the SPRC Annual Dinner Dance. "The Dinner Dance is to take place on Saturday, 21st February 2004 at the Bedford Moat House." says Paula. "Forms will be going out to people shortly when the menu selections have been finalised. The Dinner Dance will also feature the presentation of the SPRC Sportsman Championship trophies to winners and runners up and it is also the SPRC's turn to present the National Championship trophies."
©Eurodragster.com
We will bring you more details and the relevant forms as soon as we get them, but until then, we are off to brush up on doing the Timewarp!

Another Chain Reaction.
17th September: UK Supercharged Outlaw racer Mark Needham returned to action at the Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway exactly one year after a devastating pit fire destroyed his "Chain Reaction" altered. "We have just got back from a fantastic weekend at the Hotrod Drags, It was the first time out this season and although we are still in the process of setting up, the new car is already showing its potential" says Mark.
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"We lost everything in the fire last year so it was great to be back in time for this years event. We have said our thanks to everyone involved and we are greatful to so many people. Lots of you have been in touch to say you managed to get some pics from last year, as we were in not position to take any ourselves we would be very greatful if anyone with photos or video footage could email them to marknolimits@aol.com. We are trying to put together an album and some pics of what happened would just finish it off.

FIA Euro Finals Anorak Stats.
17th September: Many thanks to our good friend Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for once again supplying with a full statistical breakdown of the European Finals.
©Eurodragster.com
Blue lights (Tower ready): 715
Pairs: 583
Single runs: 109
Byes: 23
Total vehicles entered in pc: 1298

Made it to the finish line: 1255 (inc. 73 jd's)
Made it to 1/4: 1182
Average ET (not inc jd's): 9.731
Average MPH (not inc jd's): 143.85
Lowest ET: 4.645 Kim Reymond
Highest MPH: 317.56 Kim Reymond

Closest Race (Eliminations): 9.90 Bike R1, Fred Furlong v Steve Coombs (Win) 0.000. (Further inspection showed a split of 0.000134, approximately 0.305 inches or 7.75mm.)

Closest to dial in: Barry Giles (Super Pro ET) spot on, 7.630 (15:36 on Friday).
Frank Mason (Super Gas) spot on 9.900 (10:19 on Saturday).
Alan Didwell (Pro ET) spot on, 10.410 (13.58 on Sunday).

Best reaction time: Martin Curbishley (Super Comp) 0.400 (10:27 on Friday)
Gordon Appleton (Pro Mod) 0.400 (11:45 on Saturday)
Robin Kadi (Junior Dragster) 0.500 (15:03 on Saturday)

Total run time (all cars that reached finish line inc. JD's): 3 hours 26 minutes 47.73 seconds

Runs under 5 seconds: 6
Peter Beck x 3
Kim Reymond x 1
Micke Kagered x 1
Tommy Moller x 1

Runs under 5.5 seconds: 19
Tommy Moller x 4
Smax Smith x 3
Peter Beck x 3
Kim Reymond x 2
Micke Kagered x 2
Susanne Callin x 1
Jon Webster x 1
John Spuffard x 1
Dave Wilson x 1
Darryl Bradford x 1

Runs Under 6 seconds: 58

Runs Over 300 mph: 1
Kim Reymond x 1

Runs Over 250 mph: 29

Runs over 200 mph:132

Notes :
2nd quickest event ET average ever 9.731 (current fastest 02 Finals 9.643)
3rd fastest event MPH average ever 143.85 (current fastest 00 Finals 144.44)

Web site updates.
17th September: Pro ET racer Terri Lee has updated her website with the great news that the team have sourced a new block and are starting on the rebuild of the engine for the "van formally known as Blown It". Full details at www.terrileeracing.co.uk/
©Eurodragster.com
Eurodragster staffer Sharkman has updated his personal website with over 500 pictures from the European Finals. There are no wallpaper files from the event yet, but Sharkman promises them as soon as he gets a chance! Sharkman's site can be found at www.topendtales.com.

Carter minds his B & Q's.
16th September: For the first time since his crash in Norway Andy Carter will be getting back into a Top Fuel Dragster and he is really looking forward to it! "I think it is important that I do this before the end of 2003, even if it's just 3 warm ups and a burn out each of 3 days at Bruntinthorpe airfield." says Andy. B & Q are releasing a brand new range of power tools and Carter Motorsport have been asked to help market the brand, the event at Bruntingthorpe being part of the product launch. With their own car awaiting repairs the team will be joining up with the Rune Fjeld of RF Motorsport for this promotion. "It's really great to be working with the Wizard, Rune Fjield, again. I tried out Runes Silver car on the Friday of the European Finals and we found that the pedals need to be further away, the steering column needs raising slightly, but besides that its a ok!"
©Eurodragster.com
As well as letting us know about his plans for the rest of this year, Andy has also taken the time to look back over 2003 and forward to 2004 and he was keen to share those thoughts with all the fans of Carter Motorsport. Obviously the first thing that most fans ask Andy about is the car, badly damaged after a top end crash in Norway. "The week after the accident in Norway the dragster was delivered to WRE (Webster Race Engineering) where owner Jon Webster gave us an appraisal on the car and whether any of the chassis was usable again. As we feared only the cockpit section survived the crash intact, so it is having a new chassis from the cockpit forward, new chassis from the cockpit back as well as new A arms, front spindles, steering rack, steering column, front and rear wheels, rear wing strut, rear wing, axle mounts, and some new body panels! It will basically be a new car when it leaves Jon's shop"

It was far from the season that Andy and the Carter Motorsport squad were hoping for, but Andy is still able to take some on track highlights from the year, those being

Number 1 qualifier at the Main Event.
Running the 4.88 at the Main Event, still the 3rd fastest European et ever behind Kim's 2 awesome runs.
Getting to the final at Sweden before Smaxs rain dance put a stop to it!
Ending another season still holding the FIA European ET record (4.89), still holding ET and speed records at Shakespeare County Raceway
Despite everything we still came 6th in the points. Not the end of the world by a long way!

One of the hardest things for Andy was having to sit out the biggest race of the year, the FIA European Finals, held in front of his home fans at Santa Pod Raceway. " As I said earlier I had a meeting with Rune on the Friday which went well and I managed to have a coffee with Kim Reymond and say hello to a few of the other TF racers and wish them good luck. But that was it, I was out of there! Make no mistake, Drag Racing is a great motorsport, but I'm not a great Drag Racing spectator and to watch 9 TF cars battling for an 8 car field would have hurt to much, particularly when we so badly wanted to be there and involved in the title decider. My wife Sarah and I decided to concentrate on business commitments over the weekend, but of course after every qualifier / round we got about 10 texts so we did know what was going on. Well done Kim and team on that run, awesome! Well done to Smax, King Knut and the Purple loans / CBD team on the Championship. Well done to all at Santa Pod for the road and pit improvements and for putting on probably the best race in European history" said Andy, before ending with a heart felt "I really wish I could have been part of it."

Moving on to looking ahead to next season Andy reveals "I will start by saying that nothing is 100% confirmed at present for 2004. My aim is to compete at all rounds of the 2004 Fia European Top Fuel Championship, win the Championship and get maximum exposure for Carter Motorsports sponsors. First National Telecom and many of our sponsors have already committed 95% to next season but it's 7 months away and if you know anything about business in general you will understand that things can change. Dan is working away as hard as usual and I'm sure will add a few more before 2004. I must mention that Dan has been major player in helping to turn Carter Motorsport into a really professional race team. He does a fantastic job and doesn't get much glory, so thanks Dan. The first race in 2004 will be the Pro Fuel Shoot out at which we placed 2nd in 2001 and won in 2002, wouldn't it be great to see 4 Fuel Funny Cars and 4 Top Fuel Dragsters at this event running heads up. Then of course its on to the Main Event, lets hope there's 10 cars going for the 8 car field, I will be ready, of that you can be sure!"

Andy says that there are not many highlights in 2003, "but at lkeast there are some!". He lists Number one qualifier at the Main Event, running the 4.88 at the Main Event, still the third fastest European ET behind Kim Reymond's two awesome runs, and "Getting to the final at Sweden before Smax's rain dance put a stop to it! And of course we have ended another season still holding the FIA European ET record (4.89), we still hold the ET and Speed records at Shakespeare County Raceway, and came sixth in the FIA points. Not the end of the world by a long way."

Andy would like to thank First National Telecom Services; Wynns Lubricants; Lucas Oils; NGK; Binamic; S.I.D.; Global Commercial; Yuasa Automotive Batteries (Europe) Ltd; Earls Performance Products; Sigma Signs; Rainbow Conference Sets; I.P.A. Print Associates Ltd; Juice Creative Media Ltd and K and N Filters. "I would also like to thank my my wife Sarah who has always fully supported me, but this year has been extra tough for us, on and off the track", says Andy. "Thanks to all of those people who have been sending us their best wishes and come back soon E-Mails.

"It's just left to say from all of us at the First National Telecom/Carter Motorsport Top Fuel Team that we want to offer our sincere thanks to all the fans, sponsors and friends for their support. Look forward to seeing you at the Flame and Thunder Show, I can't miss the comeback of arch rival Barry Sheavills can I?"

RRC back Doorslammers.
16th September: LA Performance Services have announced another sponsor for this weekend's Doorslammer Internationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. Race car builder Robinson Race Cars are to back the doorslammer-only event for the second year running with a contribution to the prize fund. RRC owner Andy Robinson had a good weekend himself at last year's event, taking the title in Outlaw and running into the 6.6s on the first trip to Shakespeare County with his Studebaker after crashing his Rover.
©Eurodragster.com
"It's absolutely fantastic that Andy is repeating his sponsorship of the Doorslammer Internationals", says Lee Child, who sponsors Eurodragster's Links pages through his company LA Racing Parts. "Andy has been a solid supporter of racing at Shakespeare County Raceway this year with backing for the Ultimate Power Drag Racing Championship as well as the Custom Car Street Eliminator, which also has a round at Shakespeare County this weekend. Andy will be well-represented by customers at the track this weekend and I would not be surprised to find them in the winner's circle."

One run short for Zodiac.
16th September: Coming into the final round of the championship Team Zodiac were optimistic of their chances, holding a slight lead in the points and with a bike that was running well. Things didn't quite go according to plan for them though, as Monique Pels explains;

"Having a 2 point lead in the Championship and being qualified no.1 running steady 6.6 passes things were looking good for us. But in the semi finals we suddenly lost 3 tenth of a second, running 6.90, and 10 mph top speed, causing us to lose the race and ultimately sliding us back into the runner up spot in the championship (Congratulations to Per Bengtsson and his team on winning the Championship).
©Eurodragster.com
"When we checked the engine after the semi's it turned out that we had 20% leak on the cylinders, so after 2 entire seasons running the exact same cylinders and pistons we had lost them one run too soon... (read the full story on the News page of our web site).

"Being no. 1 qualifier at five out of six events and running lowest ET and highest Top Speed at most events, we clearly have a very strong combination right now. The one thing that is keeping us from running lower ET's is the frame, which can't handle the full potential of the engine. We are therefore going to design and build a new chassis for the 2004 season.

"The Zodiac team would like to express their thanks to their main sponsor: Zodiac Performance Parts for Harley Davidson for their continuing support as well as to our other major sponsors: Supertrapp and Accel. Also, a big THANK YOU to Bauke Strobos for helping us out at the races Crew Chief Vincent was unable to attend. Very much appreciated Bauke!"

Crew needed for WRE day.
16th September: Superstreet Bike racer Dave Bailey will be attending the WRE test day tomorrow to continue his quest to run a 7 second pass on his bike before the end of the year, as he is moving into Funny Bike next season. However there is a slight technical hitch in tomorrow's plans; "Maybe you could put a request out for a brave soul to crew for me and ride the pit bike from hell (Yes, THAT pit bike - Photo ED) on Wednesday?" asks Dave. "They'll only need to tow me around - nothing technical (unless they want to). I'll be doing no more than 7 passes. All going well, (the kiss of death, that statement!) at least one of them should be a 7! If anyone's interested they can phone my house Tuesday Evening (01634 378515)."

Don't forget that the WRE Test Days now accept entry's on the day and offer a superb opportunity to test in race conditions from and the track time to experiment with set-ups. The track, which will be open from 10:00 - 17:00 with a break for lunch, will be fully prepped and full marshal and paramedic cover will be in place. Catering is also available on-site. The Test Day is open to both car and bike racers. Entry is £120 per driver or rider. In the event of a rain-off, 75% of the entry fee can be carried forward to another Test Day. A full DVLA driving licence must be produced to sign on, with the obvious exception of Junior Dragsters.
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
16th September: Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Andy Frost has updated his web site with a race report on the Allstar Nationals, held at Shakespeare County raceway over the August bank holiday weekend. It was a mixed weekend for Andy with a runner up finish offset by some engine damage. For the full story head over to Andy's site at www.redvictor1racing.co.uk

Fresh from producing Eurodragster's awesome new shirts, UK Nitro Harley rider and journalist Turbo has updated the classifieds section of his site with more bikes for sale. You can find Turbo's site at www.turboville.co.uk
©Eurodragster.com
Nicholson returns home.
15th September: We were very pleased indeed to hear from UK Super Pro ET racer Wayne Nicholson. If you were tuned in last week you will recall that Wayne suffered a devastating accident on his way to the the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod, but "Thanks to the Queens Hospital in Nottingham" he is now back at home in one piece.

"Unfortunately it will be a while before I am back to normal, but can get about on crutches now", says Wayne. "Thank you so much to everyone at Santa Pod, Shakespeare County and everyone else who has been in touch, sent cards, offers of help, and notes of best wishes.
©Eurodragster.com
"My motorhome, trailer and race car are now just scrap, along with a lot of other things. This was a freak accident, and hasn't put me off racing at all, so when I have the finances available I will be back, although when that will be I don't really know just yet.

"Big thanks go to Dave Billadeau for being so cool at the accident and taking care of my youngest son Joe, we are all so lucky that we can actually talk about it! Once again thanks to everyone and hope to see you all very soon."

Super Modified Racers' Meeting.
15th September: As the final date of the Super Modified race calendar fast approaches a reminder goes out to racers who are members of the SMRA that a Racers Meeting/SMRA AGM is scheduled over the weekend of the National Finals, writes SMRA Secretary Sharon Hogarth. "The time and Venue are to be agreed by SMRA Chair Danny Cockerill", says Sharon.

"This is the opportunity for SMRA members to air their views on the class, where it is going and improvements required to move forward. It has been a challenging year for the class in a number of respects and not least bedding in the MSA updated rules drawn together to keep racing tight. Those racers who have supported the class throughout the season have put on a fantastic show and have been great ambassadors. We cannot however allow the class to stagnate and the SMRA fully recognises that we must do more to promote and protect what we as a class have built up within relatively short timescales, gain stability and encourage more racers to join the ranks of Super Mod.
©Eurodragster.com
"Let's look at some of the class achievements of 2003:

White Book class 2003
First National Super Mod Championship
Formation of the SMRA
Super Mod voice on Tech Committee
Two new teams on board – Paul Brooks and Andy Kirk
Sponsorship from Andy Robinson Race Cars
Sponsorship from Power Race Graphics in the form of SMRA logo design and identity

"That’s not bad but with the right backing there is so much more that can be achieved.

"The SMRA AGM will also be your opportunity to vote in your Secretary and Chair for 2004. Nominations for both offices should be received by the Chair prior to the meeting.

"I take this opportunity to advise members that I will not be standing for the position of Secretary for 2004 for personal reasons and hope that nominations are received from individuals willing and able to put a strong voice and influence behind the Association for the coming year and to encourage all SMRA members to fully support that individual throughout the year.

"Jon and I look forward to coming back out with the Vette for a full season’s action next year and I’m sure that all Super Mod racers and fans alike await the swift return of Rob Smallworth and his superb '55 Chevy, Andy Kirk and his 68 Camaro and will no doubt enjoy the debut of Obsession Racing's '69 Camaro very, very soon.

"Best regards to all involved with Super Mod - Great Class, Great Show."

King Racing press release.
15th September: It was anything but inevitable that the King Racing Top Fuel Bike team would make a return to their 2001 Championship winning form after the trials of their 2003 season, but they did for the final competitive outing of the year, in front of their home supporters and with their rider resplendent in his new Vanson Leathers. However, it was not all plain sailing for the team as team principal and rider Ian King explained:

"The changes made to the fuel system since Hockenheim seemed to have done the trick after we returned to mid six second performance in our first qualifying pass, leaving us comfortably in second position. However, after observing some worrying swings in fuel pressure on the data downloaded from the onboard computer after the run we conducted a leakdown test and discovered significant loss through the exhaust ports, necessitating removal of the cylinder head. New team member (and ex-500cc GP mechanic to riders such as Barry Sheene) Martin Brookman undertook the laborious task of cleaning up the head and replacing valves damaged by the exit of the tips of the spark plugs. After some long discussions with Marius van der Zijden and Rob van Geffen, I decided to modify the fuel pickup in the fuel tank again.

"After recommendation from Frank Brachtvogel, Armour Fabrications of Irchester were called and the owner, John Shakeshaft, kindly made his way to the track to discuss the modifications. Unbelievably, John returned a few hours later with the resculptured tank - a work of art!"

The speed of the repairs enabled the team to make the third qualifying session whereupon they again ran a mid six second pass - without burnt head or valves. The modifications seemed to have improved matters somewhat. The team sat out the final session, with the rigours of the modifications taking their toll, but still ended in the final ladder in fourth place despite a huge entry of 20 riders.

Saturday evening was spent enjoying a party (organised by the girls from the King Racing team) to celebrate fellow rider Roel Koedam’s birthday, along with other luminaries from the world of Top Fuel car and bike racing (Stefan Reisten, Anita Mäkelä, Kim Reymond and Ton Pels to name but a few).

The first round of eliminations saw King pitted against rapid Norwegian rider Jon Leret, whose reputation for lightning reactions and low six second passes meant this was the British riders toughest race of the year. The race was a classic, with both riders side by side until the finish line. Unbelievably, both recorded the same elapsed time to a thousandth of a second - 6.617 seconds! However, it was King who took the win light after proving to be more than a match for Leret on the lights.

The semi final loomed, and King was facing the onerous task of taking on Koedam, whose 6.04 second pass earlier that weekend had firmly established him as the second fastest rider in the world. King knew it would need something special to overcome the Dutch rider, but it was not to be as King left before the green, handing Koedam an easy win. To add insult to injury, his opponent grenaded his engine after a con rod let go, and ambled across the line whereas King ran another six second pass. King takes up the story:

"I knew that if Roel was in his usual form, and knowing our potential in the current state of tune, I’d have to produce a perfect reaction time to overcome him. I gambled on the lights and lost, it’s as simple as that, although we would probably have made the final if I had not used that strategy, and had a great chance of winning the event after Sverre Dahl (event winner) also suffered problems in the final. However, we came here to race, I owe it to my team, supporters, the companies who support me, those who contributed to my 'back to the track' campaign, and the surgeon and nurses who continue to provide care to my leg injuries, whilst knowing that I would be back out racing again and putting all their hard work in jeopardy. This has been a great season for European Top Fuel Bike. The riders provided a thrilling spectacle whilst racing in the most competitive Top Fuel Bike competition in the world. But none of this could have happened without the organising company - Power Racing Promotions, the track crews, organising clubs, and respective promoters across Europe who provided great venues and world-class track preparation - I’d like to send a huge vote of thanks to all of them.

"I hope that we will be able to raise the necessary finance to compete in the Championship next year, it’s going to be even better than this one!"

The finale for King Racing’s season will be demonstration passes at the Extreme Madness show in Athens, Greece in October.

Any companies or individuals who wish to be involved in the King Racing 2004 race effort can contact Ian at ian@kingracing.com, by telephone on 07785 341099 or by fax on 01763 852707. Visit King Racing at www.kingracing.com.

King Racing were proud to be supported in their 2003 campaign by:

Obsession Motorsports, Straightline Racing, New Engineering Ltd, Performance Machine, Wackyshack Paintshop, Turboville.com, RSG Customize, House of Kolor UK, Murdoch Racing Enterprises, Goodridge UK, Vanson Leathers, White Line Cycles (Athens), Cometic Gaskets UK, G Max Race Fuels, Aerotek Fasteners and Job Link.
©Eurodragster.com
Swift snippets.
15th September: Whilst we're on the subject of King Racing, we understand from Monique Koedam that today (Monday) is Ian King's birthday. "The Koedams, Pels and van Geffens would like to wish the old man in the Quality Street outfit a Happy Birthday", says Monique. Sharkman and Tog and, we are sure, Eurodragster's readers would like to add their own best wishes.

The 2003 FIM/UEM European Championship ended at Santa Pod with a personal best of 6.68 seconds for Rob Van Geffen's home-built Supertwin Bike. "We hope to improve the performance of the bike in the future", says Steven Van Loven. "The bike displays a powerful combination witch has yet to reach its full potential. The team like to thank sponsors het Motorparadijs HD-service, Zodiac, Tsubaki chains , Flexion aandrijftechniek, SMC Pneumatics, Supertrapp Exhaust Systems, and of course all their friends and fans."
©Eurodragster.com
Eurodragster's American Car Imports-sponsored Event Coverage from the FIA European Finals was viewed by no less than 53,705 unique visitors who between them clocked up 1,322,938 hits on the server. Many thanks to everyone who tuned in last weekend.

Change of contact details.
15th September: If you are one of our phone contributors then please note that News Editor Tog's daytime phone number will be changing tomorrow (Tuesday), therefore today is the last day upon which the number ending 1516 applies.
©Eurodragster.com
If you would like Tog's new daytime number then please drop him an E-Mail at togsdragracing@btinternet.com.

Web site updates.
15th September: Photographer Bill Sly has updated his Bad Boys Imagin' web site with a large number of photographs from last week's FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. "I have posted Top Fuel Dragster, Fuel Funny Car and Top Fuel Bike", says Bill. "The other classes will be posted next week". You can find Bill's site at www.badboysimagin.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Grateful Schöfer.
13th September: Gittli Koller of Germany's Peter Schöfer Racing Top Methanol Dragster team agrees with Anthony Cohen who said yesterday that it has been a great season for TMD in 2003.

"It was a hard fight for points, ETs, speeds, records and points leads", says Gittli. "But it was always just on the track. The competition was always very fair: we would like to thank Turner Racing and the American Car Imports Racing team for offering us parts and their help immediately after our crash at Santa Pod last week.

"I also think that it is very impressive how teams from different classes worked together this year. I think drag racing has taken a big step in the right direction.

"We would like to thank the organisers of the events, Power Racing Promotions, the track crews, timing crews, safety crews, and everyone else who worked all weekend for the teams and the sport. Also of course, Tog and Sharkman and all the other journalists (Remco, Andy, Ivan, Martin and everyone else) who produced reports and pictures.
©Eurodragster.com
"A big Thank You goes to the PSR crew - Peter, Wolfi and Rudi Schöfer, Holger Werling, Clem Sayers and Heike Schäfer - who tried everything they could and did a very good job. Everybody is very important in the team. Thanks to our friends, fans and our sponsors Castrol (Lubricants), Normstahl (German garage door company), Brisk (spark plugs), Roth (German metal polishing company), HR (vehicle construction), Dirsch (engine shop), Norfolk Line (ferry company), Weindel (US cars and parts), NitrOlympix (Promoter of the FIA race at Hockenheim), Mipa (German painting/coating company), Armin Schneider (motorbike tuning and parts), Optima (batteries) and Bentia (oil stain remover)."

Peter and the team are this weekend appearing at the Nitro Days event at Modena in Italy, and Gittli also tells us that they are to be the subject of an eight-minute feature on Germany's RTL2 channel at 23:55 this Tuesday (16th). You can find a report from the FIA European Finals on the team's official web site at www.p-s-r.com.

More Doorslammers sponsors.
13th September: Lee Child of LA Performance Services has announced two sponsors for next week's Doorslammer Internationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. Both sponsors are returning after backing the highly-successful event in 2002.

The first sponsor is Nitrous Solutions who as well as sponsoring the 'slammers will be selling their range of Nitrous Oxide, turbo and other performance equipment at the Warwickshire venue. Custom Car Street Eliminator Jeff Meads is one of the company's noted customers and they are also an associate sponsor of CCSE team FB Racing. Nitrous Solutions will also be entering the fray soon with their own ex-Neil Taylor Ford Probe. "I am very pleased indeed to welcome Nitrous Solutions back for a second year", says Lee Child, who sponsors Eurodragster's Links pages through his company LA Racing Parts. "We are very grateful indeed for their continued backing of Europe's premier doorslammer event."
©Eurodragster.com
Also returning for a second year of backing the Doorslammer Internationals is Jeff Bull Race Engines, who also sponsor Eurodragster's Swap Meet. Jeff's engines power a number of the UK's Championship-holding race cars and his company will be well-represented at next week's event. "It's great that Jeff and Belinda are supporting the Doorslammer Internationals again", says Lee. "Jeff is a solid supporter of UK drag racing and the head-count of Jeff Bull engines in the upper echelons of the UK Championships speaks for itself."

Lee Child has also confirmed that Ronnie Picardo will be appearing in his High Risk Corvette Wheelie car at the Doorslammer Internationals next weekend. "Ronnie has helped out tremendously in the first year of the Ultimate Power Championship", says Lee, "so next weekend we're going to let come out and play!". Ronnie joins Roger Goring's Firestorm Jet FC in providing the exhibition action.

For more information about next weekend's Doorslammer Internationals, the turn-up-and-compete event exclusively for cars with doors, check out the Eurodragster News item of 29th August, or call LA Performance Services on 01803 554308 or APIRA Club and Race Secretary Wendy Talbot on 01379 740100.

Canary flies the nest.
13th September: Sharon and Jon Hogarth of race car builder and painter Specialists in Design have asked us to send their very best wishes to Pro ET racers David and Shelly Higgins of Hairy Canary fame, who are leaving for pastures new today, to set up home in or around the Melbourne area of Australia.

"Dave and Shelly will be continuing their love of drag racing on the other side of the world just as soon as they take receipt of their Pro Stock-style S10 pick-up truck currently under construction at our workshops", says Sharon. "SID goes international! Shelly Higgins, who is destined to drive the all new 7.50 truck, has pointed out that the SID build contract clearly states they can expect trackside advice, assistance and set-up when the truck hits the race track for the first time, and has reminded Jon on a number of occasions that we didn't specify at which track!
©Eurodragster.com
"The pick-up is likely to be ready for shipping next spring, and Jon and I have every intention of being dockside when the Higgins open their container and set eyes on their new ride for the first time. All part of the service. Good Luck to Dave, Shelly and family - so glad it's all come together for you guys - see you next year!"

We are sure that everyone will join Sharkman and Tog adding their best wishes for the future to David and Shelly.

Swift snippets.
13th September: Further to Thursday's news item about this weekend's UK Northern Nationals at York Dragway, Jet FC pilot Roger Goring and York's PR Howard Holmes have both been in touch with the last-minute news that the Firestorm Jet FC will be appearing at York Dragway tomorrow (Sunday).

UK Pro Stock Bike racer Dave Beck is planning to make a point at the UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway in a couple of weeks' time. Dave, who has not participated in FIM/UEM Championship events due to fixture clashes with the AMA/Prostar in the USA, has relegated his record-holding 7.2-second engine to a spare. Engine builder Roger Upperton has built a new motor which, given the conditions, Dave feels is capable of "at least" 7.1 seconds.

Fellow UK Pro Stock Bike racer Paul Watson writes with an appreciation of the work of the Santa Pod Raceway staff at last weekend's FIA European Finals. "What a fantastic weekend", says Paul. "Pro Mod was awesome, Top Fuel was great - well done to Kim Reymond and his team - Top Fuel Bike as well, but none of this would have been possible without the fantastic work from Kjell Petterson and his team, Darren Prentice and all the marshals who do a great job there, so to everyone involved with running Santa Pod we the racers salute you, well done."
©Eurodragster.com
We are indebted to Simon Groves for sending us the latest standings in the UK National Super Modified Championship, which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. Simon tells us that the post-European Finals standings in the UK National Championships are currently being ratified and so they should be available here on Eurodragster soon.

Fay and Paul Fischer of Speedflow have been in touch from their holiday in Russia where drag racing has taken hold. "On TV tonight we saw a report about organised drag racing in downtown Moscow", they say. "Ladas and Volgas with tons of Nitrous! The starting lights were the very latest design - an over-dressed Russian with huge flags - just like California 1955. The finish line comprised of two burning oil drums...Santa Pod eat your heart out."

Tomorrow's (Sunday's) edition of Scrapheap Challenge on UK network TV station Channel 4 features two teams building wheelie vehicles from the usual pile of parts, writes John Hutchinson. The programme is scheduled to broadcast at 5:35 pm.

Web site updates.
13th September: Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com has been updated with an FIA European Finals report and updates on the UK National Finals, Japannese Performance Show, and the Flame and Thunder Show. Also available is a downloadable version of the no-obligation registration form for the Santa Pod Supporters Club which is planned to launch shortly.

Gareth Evans has updated his UK1320 web site with some great photographs from the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Gareth's pictures at www.uk1320.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Adam Gleadow has updated his UK Supercharged Altereds fan site at www.uksuperchargedaltereds.itgo.com with more details of some of the UK's wildest race cars.

Anni and Bob Valder's Feel The Noise web site at www.feel-the-noise.com has been updated with photographs from both the FIA European Finals and the NSRA Hot Rod Drags.

Dahl loses pressure.
12th September: Yesterday we heard from the team that was runner up in Top Fuel Bike at the European Finals and new FIM Top Fuel Bike Champions, Koedam Racing so its only appropriate that today we hear from the team that won Top Fuel Bike at the European Finals, that being the team of Sverre Dahl.

"First of all I am sorry for the slow run in the final, but there is a reason behind it." says Sverre. "When we started the bike everything seemed to be ok, but then the oil pressure started to go down, and it got lower and lower. I had the choice between shutting off, just try a launch or try a full pass and maybe throw a rod out, so I just made a launch with my eyes on the pressure gauge.
©Eurodragster.com
"The first pass Friday started with a lot of tire shake and the fuel shut off got closed caused by the shake. For the next round we stepped up the clutch, and it worked off the line, but we started spinning the tire after 330ft and the camshafts broke before the finish line. I shut off after 5,7 sec, but we still ran 6.14/236.5MPH(380km/t). We then had a lot of work to get the bike fixed and with my broken finger I was not able to do much work, so Svein and Stefan had a lot to do because the cams did quite a bit of damage. A big thanks to team Lund and Leret for loaning us parts, also to Ton Pels for the loan of his welder and to Gunnar Olsson for welding the head cover. After a lot of work it came together again, but we were not able to do any more qualifying passes.

"First round we used the same clutch set up but adjusted the timer to start later and we also had more power because we found a small error. The launch was ok but it started smoke the tire after 0,85 sec, so I had to feather the throttle a lot to get it to grip again, Nils Ole also had tractions problem so I went through to the next round. Before the next round we soften the clutch, but we decided to keep the power because it was quite close to not smoking the tire and we were trying to go faster. In the semis we were waiting quite a long time after a track clean up and when I hit the throttle the bike started spinning right from the start line, it had to be some dirt from the cleanup in the left lane because it was very slippery.

"Before the finals we were taking power out off the bike and we also put the clutch back to the Mantorp set up. The goal in the finals was to try to back the speed record, but then the oil pressure was gone. The problems for us are that we need more track time to find the clutch set up, but we are quite close to running big numbers. See you all next year!"

Meet the Dealer.
12th September: On the subject of Top Fuel bikes, 2003 ACU UK Top Fuel Bike Champion Steve Woollatt's 6.4-second bike is on display at one of his sponsors' premises this weekend and fans are invited to visit. The Dealer is on display both tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday at Motorcycles Unlimited of London which is at 2 Medway Parade, Welland Gardens, Greenford, Middlesex UB6 8HR. You can find a map of Motorcycle Unlimited's location by clicking here.
©Eurodragster.com
Steve was a little disappointed with his European Finals weekend which ended with a tyre smoke in eliminations after a storming qualifier. "We should have stuck to the track on Sunday", he said. "We stuck to it Saturday. I had lane choice and took the right lane, but the left lane was the better lane. The Pro Stock boys were all saying that the left lane was better, but they only told me that after I ran!".

Veidec get the shakes.
12th September: Coming into the FIA European Finals the NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified series was still to be decided, with Roger Johansson and Hakan Nilsson fighting for the title. Ultimately the championship would be decided in the semi final pairings where Hakan's loss to Freddy Fagerstrom sealed the title for Roger. Many thanks to Ulf Stadig from Hakan's Veidec team for giving us an inside look at how the weekend went for them;

"We came in to this last event with some confidence from our last competition success at Gardermoen, Norway. We also added to the team for the European Finals with the addition of long time friend and US tuner Britt Micetich from Iowa.

"When the qualifying started Friday noon we had made some changes to try to put our Veidec Rocket consistently in to the 6.30 zone, and that greediness may have been the price of the Championship title. Looking at the outcome for next seasons competition, with a lot of cars running good this year, we are now feeling that it might not be all that bad as we learned a lot this weekend with the help from Britt.

"The 1st qualifier ended up really good with a strong and solid 6.418 / 220, that run took us to the second spot. For the next round we were the fastest of the session, but it didn't help us much as we were off our previous pace with 0.009 seconds, but the other teams didn't step up either. The Saturday morning run (3rd qualifier) gave us some confidence with new personal best 60 and 330 foot times, but that wouldn't stay long as the evening and last qualifying pass started out with what would be a familiar story for the rest of the weekend with bad tyre shake setting in, Hakan had to lift to save the car.
©Eurodragster.com
"For elimination's we still were #2 qualifier and with that we had to face off Henri Joosten. We had some luck in an "on and off" the throttle contest, where Henri broke some parts and we advanced through to the next round. In the quarter finals against Mikael Lindahl the luck was still smiling on us as we won when he redlit. Once again we shook the tyres. We had Fast Freddy in the semi finals and we hoped our earlier luck would hold for us. In the other half of the ladder our main opponent for the Championship title Roger Johansson had found his set-up and was cutting through the field.

With the need to go 1 round more then Roger to secure the 5th Pro Mod title it all came to an abrupt ending for us as we couldn't get rid of our tyre shake against Fast Freddy. Hakan really tried to drive through the shake in a really wild ride but it was no use as Freddy got there first. That made Roger the Champion for the first time and we have to congratulate him for his effort during the season. We are not happy to end up on second spot and are already planning for the revenge in the next season.

It have been a hard season with a lot of ups and downs for the Nilssonmotorsports team, but as it feels right now, we are going to put in more effort next year to the bring back the title back to were it belongs. It was really fantastic to have Britt Micetich to spend the weekend with us, we have been learning a lot that we are going to try out in the future. We have to give a big thanks to every one beyond the Veidec Racing Pro Mod team, Rickard Pålsson at Veidec for the long and truly support of our team, and to the rest of our sponsors collected on our "sponsors" site, you are all the best and we are not a complete team with out you all!! Stay tuned for a complete season wrap up later on this fall"

ACI's thanks.
12th September: The European Finals also saw the crowning of the FIA Top Methanol Dragster champion and after a season long battle with the lead swinging backwards and forwards several times between Dave Wilson and Peter Schofer. In the end it was decided by the final as Peter and Dave faced off for both the event win and the championship. In a race typical of the entire season Dave Wilson and the American Car Imports Racing squad took a narrow win and with it the title. For team principal and Eurodragster sponsor Anthony Cohen it was the validation of a season's hard work by all concerned;

"As Team Principal of American Car Imports Racing I want to pay a huge tribute to Dave, Andy, David, Linda and every member of the team for our victory in the FIA Top Methanol Championship. The commitment and enthusiasm of everyone involved to make this OUR year, starting with the Autosport Show, building the new trailer, setting up the new Hadman car, and then winning the European Championship has been amazing.

I know that I am not alone in getting immense pleasure from seeing Dave Wilson as European Champion - I cannot imagine any sportsman deserving such a result more than him.
©Eurodragster.com
The Championship has been very hard fought with Rob Turner and especially with Peter Schofer. We have great respect for both teams and our other competitors and thank them for an excellent years racing.

I also want to say a huge thanks to all of our great marketing partners who have supported us at every step;

Sony Playstation
Footman James
Total Design
Air Sea Logistics
American Appliance Centre
Alternative Automotive Fuel Conversions Ltd
Custom Graphics
Silverline Tools
Euro American Car Services
HGC Scaffolding
ExpertIT
Portman Business Consultancy
North Hants Tyres
US Automotive
Old Car World
76 Racing Fuels and Lubricants
1st Line Motorcycles
Classic American Magazine

I would also like to thank my business partner Jon Cohen, and most importantly my wife Rhonda - who has attended every meeting and has fully supported my involvement in Drag Racing for the last 3 years.

Finally I want to thank all of those people who have been sending us their best wishes."

Crossfire Race Report.
12th September: The European Finals saw Rob Faulkner and his Crossfire Camaro return to National competition after a problem plagued season. Here's Rob's take on how the European Finals went;

"What a fabulous weekend the Finals were, in between watching the racing we raced our old banger, the Crossfire Camaro in the brilliant class of Super Comp. We as a team are quite happy with the way the car is behaving ,and the way it has stayed in one bit this year, but if it doesn't put an 8 up on the board soon, we will have no choice other than to give the car a smacked bottom! We ran a string of 9.1's all weekend, which is fine if you are in a bracket class but we are not. We are up against the likes of Zane Llewellyn, Martin Curbishley, Tim Adam and Brian Pateman and they are all on the numbers every time. We still have a little tweaking to do like taking a bit more fuel out of her and also set the 4 bar link up properly so time will tell.
©Eurodragster.com
Qualifying was a ball, no stress just getting out there and enjoying the racing. The first race we had was a strange one, it was against the dragster of Jens Riehl. The lights came on and we were gone, but he was really gone! I thought I had a problem with the car then half way up the track I caught him up and went past him and ran a 9.15. I found out later that the dragster is a 7 second motor and has no throttle stop so he was relying on his slow down then speed up and keep in front skills.

"After that run we had two more which went ok and we ran a best of 9.13. On the Saturday we all got up early because we didn't know what time we were going to be called. The day before we were on the track at 9 o'clock in the morning, so we waited until we finally went down at 4.30 pm. I was lucky enough to get Brian Pateman. I told him he had better have a good light because that's all I'd got on my side seeing as I couldn't run the numbers. I came round and had a good strong long burnout then went into stage, the lights came on and I was gone like a rat up a drain pipe! I was well out in front of him (he will tell you that he gave me a head start) when that dastardly Brian hit his gas and drove right past me, then had the cheek to slow down! (wish I could do that!)

"I enjoyed the race big time, its always a pleasure running with the lads in Super Comp. Brian went on to win the race meet, we were chuffed to see a full bodied car beating those pesky roadsters and dragsters!

"Before I slither off back into the hole from whence I came (Robs own words! - Stand in Ed) I would just like to thank Simon Farmer and his crew for helping me change the inlet manifold gaskets on my car, he was a shinning light at the meet because we only found out about 8 o'clock that the inlet gasket had leaked after the racing. We did ask someone if we could buy a set of inlet gaskets but were told that the person hadn't had his dinner yet and we would have to wait until the morning, which was leaving it a bit late to say the least. Anyway Simon came up trumps with a pair he had in his van, what a player he is. The poor guys own car had a bit of a Nos melt down the day before, good luck with the rebuild Simon. I also had help from two lads Mack and Banzai who are building their own car. Thanks men I owe you one. Come to think of it I don't owe you one, you drank us out of tea and coffee and ate most of my sandwiches! (only kidding) Thanks to everyone who helped me at weekend including, when he was awake, my main crew man Andy and a big thanks to you at Eurodragster for doing a stirling job its always good to come home and read all about it!."

RD's and 8's.
12th September: Back in August the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway saw more record breaking performances from Jerry Collier, this time aboard his trusty RD, but running in the Top Fuel Supertwin class, the RD not running nitro, but with nitrous in place of the normally aspirated set up. After a mad month including moving house Jerry's wife Sharron has been in touch to tell us the story behind the RD's appearance in the STTF class;

"We went to the AllStar Nationals purely to officiate Jerry’s 9.18 and 9.22 second passes he did on the RD at the Bulldog. With the Bulldog not being a sanctioned event runs made there cannot count as official records. We had already decided to park the H2 for the season due to moving house and not being able to give it the time it needs. We first put the nitrous on the RD for a bit of fun, to see what would happen! We didn’t expect it to take to it like it has, this bike is tuned specifically to be normally aspirated, a nitrous tune would be wildly different. It is the nitrous kit off the H2 using tiny jets (26/24) and so to run an 8 is amazing. On both the 8 second passes Jerry went through the speed traps with the clutch in, as he felt the motor pulling and tried to minimalise damage (learnt from the H2!).

"If we spent more time on it, it could go quicker, - we have only ever done 8 passes on the RD using the gas – but we don't want to go down that road in England. The RD is now resting on it's laurels in our dining room (next to a grumpy looking H2!) It has done everything we have asked of it and ridden it's heart out and we love and respect it for that.
©Eurodragster.com
We are hoping to take the H2 and the RD to the States in 2004 when Prostar are running a two stroke class at three events throughout the season. We tried to go this year but finances wouldn't let us, so that is our major plan for next year. Our house is for sale as we speak...!

We couldn't have set this record without some wicked people, you've heard all the names before but these people are our hero’s. First of all huge thanks to Chris Hall for not only lending us his camper, but driving it to the track for us. Next is our God, Steve French, for constant advice and help. Our crew, Scott Collier, Sean McDade and Nicola Lane, Thanks also to Alice French, Bartzy, Baz, Seff and Lizz Tracy and Ian., all the people who lent us things and Bob Brooks for Saturdays evening meal - awesome.

A special mention for our wonderful sponsors, Gavin at RedLine Oil, Tom at Activ8 Friction Reducer, and Anthony at Shakespeare County Raceway, not to mention Wizzard Technical Designs for our brand new website (on which there is a more in-depth report if anyone wants to know more). Thanks also to Wendy and APIRA, Bruno and FAST and Lee Child for promotion - well done Lee, it was great.

We had a fantastic weekend, top people, top track, top atmosphere, and the WORLDS QUICKEST RD - We couldn't be happier, our Christmas party is going to be a blinder!"

Sharron also asked us to let you know that Jade Racing's trailer is for sale. Its 16' long 10' high with living accommodation, double bed and bunk bed, shower cubicle, hot and cold running water, cooker, fridge, sink, aluminium chequer-plate workshop with workbenches, power points, 12/24v. If you are interested email jerry@jaderacing.com or call 07930 902137 for more info.

Buzzing Smax likes TF1.
11th September: Newly-crowned FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Smax Smith found that many were sceptical at the start of the year when he paired with his business manager Paul Townsend and started the Championship attack in one of 'King' Knut Söderquist's cars. Smax himself was quite bullish about his chances. "No one has won in their rookie year before, but I have the love and support of my family, crew and fans to throw me down the track", he said at the time. Smax was looking to enjoy the season supported by his sponsors Purple Loans but had no idea how well he would do in the Championship. Against professional full time racers of many years' standing, such as Micke Kågered and Andy Carter, Smax's team knew the magnitude of the challenge before them.

"The support of the fans has been great and we arrived at Santa Pod for the European Finals leading the Championship, but with any one of four teams able to win the title", says Smax. "The weekend started OK with a tidy 5.3-second run, but at the expense of engine and 'chute fire damage. We went out with a soft qualifying tune-up in the first session on Saturday and ran a tidy 5.04 at 291 mph. We decided to save the motor as we were confident of being in the top of the qualifying tree and sat out the second session on Saturday which resulted in our dropping to fourth qualifier behind Kim Reymonds phenomenal 4.6/317. Truly awesome show...well done guys, but you didn't 'smack' me!

"The weather was supposed to break on Sunday. We started in the quarter finals with a lucky win over our team mate Susanne Callin who broke a blower on the start line. We had lost the throttle stop, so I hadn't had the chance to warm the tyres properly for fear of spinning a bearing and damaging the motor in the burn out. On the hit we lit the tires which I caught immediately, and with Susanne's breakage I was able to take the win with a gentle nine second squirt.
©Eurodragster.com
"My crew worked superbly to turn the car around and we were hot for the semi against friend and now very mature apprentice Darryl Bradford. I was a little disappointed that he broke on the burn out as this was to be the Sorcerer v. the Apprentice, the Wrights had bought a new mag set-up and wanted to strut their stuff. But it was my day and I saved parts with a gentle three hundred foot squirt with a great 0.901 sixty foot to save the crew time and to escape the wrath of Knut!

"We had Micke Kågered, another team member, in the final and I was not going to give an inch! This was drag racing at its finest - down to the wire between numbers one and two in the points. The car was sounding so strong and I just flew from the light, winning with a 5.05/292 to Micke's 5.6 with another damaged motor. A truly great race and the roar from the crowd was louder than the motor!

"Then the party started. The UK fans are amazing in every sense and I floated down the return road on a crowd of happiness. The reception in the pits was awesome and I signed as many parts, photos, t-shirts and body bits as I could!

"Now the work starts again to get ready with all the back room work. I must pass my thanks to King Knut and Debbie, Alan Jackson for his support and tune-ups, the mechanical team of Spiky Sparky and Uncle Dave on clutch, Animal, Gary Page and Terry on motor, along with Carlo, Scotch Rob and all-rounders the Belfast Bruvvers Ray and Brian, Mack, Kev, Gordon Callin, even Team Manager Paul pitched in, together with the back room staff who get me sorted and at the track. This was one team effort - sorry if I missed anyone, I'm buzzin'!

"My sponsors have been great and thanks also to my family for supporting me and allowing me to meet my dream. I'm just like all the Eurodragstrer readers - a guy in the street who shops at Tesco (and now may be opening a couple!)and has a love of racing. I've done it and so can any of those who want to live the dream. It is possible, it just has taken a thirty-year apprenticeship and the help of a lot of friends! See you at the Fireworks meet for a Best of the Brits match race against Barry Sheavills.

Racers: Send your FIA European Finals reviews to us at news@eurodragster.com and we will publish them here.

Andersen proud of achievements.
11th September: Denmark's Kim Reymond and the USA Autodele Top Fuel Dragster team came to the FIA European Finals with a chance of retaining their FIA European Championship. Things started well with a 4.645/317.56, but Kim went out in round one after having to pedal. However, Crew Chief Per Andersen says that the team have a lot to be proud of.

"First of all I want to thank Keith Bartlett and the entire crew at Santa Pod Raceway for a very well-organised event, where everything worked how it is supposed to at an FIA event", says Per. "I was really pleased to see the improvements made, from the new asphalt to toilets in the pits. I know these things cost money, and it’s hard work to put a race like this together, so it’s only fair that the people behind it get the appreciation they deserve. I want to thank Kjell Pettersson and his crew for preparing a perfect and safe track for us. It’s the only way we can make those good record-breaking performances which everybody wants to see. It was comforting to see how thoroughly the track was checked and prepared after each run. So thanks to everybody out there, you did a very fine job. Keep up the good work.

"After accepting that we didn’t win the Championship, congratulations to Smax and his team. But I looked back on this season and you know what, it doesn’t look so bad at all. At the first event at Santa Pod first event we ran a personal best of 4.93, and that was with a whole new setup: new injector, new blower, new heads, new cam, new cannon (hydraulic, instead of air), new fuel pumps, new fuel system, six shooter and lastly a datalogger. The datalogger sure is a nice thing to have, I can’t believe what we have been doing without one all these years.
©Eurodragster.com
"At Mantorp Park we ran 4.89/475.7 kmh, a personal best and track record. At Gardermoen 4.76/487.51, another personal best, the fastest ET in Europe and a track record. At the Finals at Santa Pod, 4.64/317 mph - a personal best, the quickest and fastest ET and speed outside USA, a track record, the fastest car on the planet with a two-element wing, and the first 500 kmh in Europe.

"Achieving all that in one season, with thirty runs, without throwing a rod, blackening a crank, hurting a block or blowing a gasket - yes it's true! I think that says a lot about the driver and the crew behind it all.

"The only thing I regret is that I didn’t get the whole team on stage when I received the Crew Chief of the year award at the Finals Banquet, especially my longtime friend and technical wizard Karsten Andersen, because without him nothing of this would have been possible. That will never happen again, I promise you, the whole team deserve all the credit they get. I hope to be back next year to improve upon and back up those records."

You can find the team's official web site at www.usa-autodele.dk.

Webster and team impress.
11th September: Europe's newest Top Fuel Dragster racer, Jon Webster, impressed everyone with his competitive début at the FIA European Finals last weekend, not least Martin Canto, in whose name the Top Fueller was racing and who describes himself as 'Team Hanger-on'.
©Eurodragster.com
"Jon looked dead right in the job", says Martin. "It just looked like another day in the office for him". Martin is also impressed with Crew Chief Peter Knight and his crew. "I'm convinced that with a few more runs' experience under his belt, Peter will be giving all of the other teams a run for their money", he says. "And the team were incredible, they worked all the way through the night on Saturday. I had to go to bed but when I got back at 8:00 on Sunday morning they were still there working away without a moan. They're a very pleasant group of people who know what they're doing."

Jon exited Top Fuel eliminations in round one when he was shut off for a fluid leak. "It didn't leak on the warm-up did it, no, it did it on the track!", says Martin. "It's a real pity that we couldn't run against Tommy Möller because he had the misfortune to break a blower belt and we would have had him. It was a strange experience for me, standing there without empty pockets - I had a tenner in there at one point! But running a Top Fuel car is really where you want to be."

Thanks to the fans.
11th September: Stuart Prest, clutch technician on the UK's Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster team, has asked us to pass on his thanks to the fans who were at Santa Pod last weekend.
©Eurodragster.com
"I'd like to thank the whole of the massive crowd for giving us such incredible support at the European Finals", says Simon. "All the crews, on cars and bikes, work extremely hard for a long time to prepare for a race. It is therefore great to get the appreciation for that hard work as you follow the driver up the track after a race. "Hearing the whooping, clapping and cheering, and seeing all the Union flags being waved, after we'd beaten Kim Reymond in the first round was wonderful. What was more amazing was that we got the same reception when we towed the Wildside car up the track after breaking in the semi-final.

"I love to see teams being appreciated for what they are, part of the most spectacular sport on the planet. What a weekend! Thanks everybody, and in the words of Vinnie Jones, "It's been emotional"."

It's all records for Koedam.
11th September: The European Finals was the last of a record number of nine events which FIM/UEM European Top Fuel Bike Champion Roel Koedam attended in 2003, writes Crew Chief Marius van der Zijden.

"Because we had already taken home the Championship title at the previous event, we went to Santa Pod without any stress at all, that is if our team suffer stress at all. The final targets which we had set for this meeting were no less than:

Score another #1 qualifier (to make it a 100% record)
Win the event
Reset the European ET and speed records
Try to get as close as possible to that magical five-second barrier

"Although this is quite some list, we knew it was all possible because we are very confident in the performance of our bike. It would just be a matter of whether we would be able to adjust the bike’s tune-up to the conditions and a little bit of luck. We didn’t worry about the track, which is always perfect at Santa Pod. As far as the weather conditions for that weekend were concerned, a little rain was expected during the Sunday afternoon. The British weatherman was wrong (We try to contain our amazement - Ed), as it turned out a beautiful late summer weekend with great temperatures and no rain.

"The entry list for our Top Fuel Bike class was another record with a total of twenty bikes, of which no less than twelve were Top Fuellers! We made our first qualifying pass on Friday. We expected to see a real good number, something like a low 6.2 or a high 6.1, on the score board, but couldn’t believe our eyes when it displayed the time. An absolutely stunning 6.046 sec @ 235.79mph (379 kmh)! Wow! Unbelievable! The eighth-mile numbers for this run were impressive as well: 3.963/191 (307.4). The crowd went crazy, as we did. Everyone at the start line was jumping, Roel’s wife Monique even hurt her ankle while she jumped for joy. What a record time, set in the opening stage and so close to that five second barrier.

"Going into this event we hoped that we could work to a high 6.0 run towards the end of the meeting, but we never dreamed of opening with a 6.04 right off the trailer. I guess no one was prepared for this scenario, it was only four weeks ago when we entered the 'teens' for the first time with a 6.18 in Norway and now we entered the six zero zone. One of the best things we learned from being this close to the five second barrier is that it happened on a European track, which we thought wouldn’t be possible. It all seemed to go so very easy and we weren’t even pushing the engine. This brings us a big step closer towards a five in the future.

"Looking at the data from this run we decided that we would take a little clutch out because the bike was a little loose at the start line. We left the rest of the tune-up as it was. Saturday was Roel’s birthday and 'Happy Birthday' sounded over the PA system early in the morning. In our second qualifying attempt we followed up the record 6.04 run with only a 6.118/229.99mph (which reset the European records - Ed). It's strange how easily one gets used to running a six zero-something as we were happy, but not really excited, about this run. We learned that the track had improved and that we could have stepped up the clutch a little bit instead of taking it down. So that’s the next thing that we did. By the time we were scheduled for our second qualifying attempt, a very gusty wind appeared all of a sudden and blew right across the track. This created an unsafe situation, especially in the run-off area of the track where the natural banking stops and the wind had a free road. Bike qualifying came to halt for over an hour. Another serious delay was caused by a Pro Mod car which crashed at the top end (nothing to do with the crosswind).

"By the time we were called again, we decided that in our opinion there was still too much sidewind and that the track would be too cold. We made the decision ourselves and called it a day. At the end of qualifying we remained in the #1 spot (this season we have a 100% record of #1 qualifying positions), followed by Norwegian Sverre Dahl with an impressive 6.14/236mph run! The bump spot stopped at a record) 6.84 seconds. For Roel’s birthday a celebration party was organised on Saturday night by a couple of fellow riders. A special thanks go out to Debbie King, Theresa Beaumont and Sandra Pepper for preparing the delicious food and also to Jan Honée for the fireworks display. Many racers from both bike and car classes paid us a visit. It was an excellent party with maybe a little too much alcohol here and there!

"Although slowing down to a (still impressive) 6.20/221 we won the first round of eliminations, and we were still we were only fooling around with the clutch system. In the semi finals we met Ian King, who seems to be back on track again after so many problems this year. Ian gambled on a holeshot and tried to catch us on the lights. But in a flash of light he reacted to Roel’s staging lamp instead of the green light from the Christmas Tree, pulling a red light and eliminating himself. This gave us a free ride to the finals. Mind you, we’re still talking drag racing here and things can change in a split second. Some two hundred feet into our semi final a con rod left the building and worked its way out in a ball of flames. Because of a good reaction from our rider, he came to a safe stop. We're real sorry to the Santa Pod crew for messing up your superb track. The damage to the engine was beyond repair. A real big window in the cases, a destroyed crank and lots more. At this moment we haven't opened the remains of the engine yet to see the real damage, but we certainly will have to review our initial plans for this year’s winter break. Carefully going through the data of that run, at this moment it looks like it was a con rod fatigue related problem, because (strange as it may sound) we were still not pushing the engine by any means. So one could say that we ended the season with a bang!

"Despite Ian’s red light, it was our blow up which caused a no-show for us in the final round, handing victory to Sverre Dahl. We became the event runner up. Apart from the last run we can look back at an exceptionally good season. Oh boy what a season it was! Allow us to give you just a short summary:

We entered a record number of nine events.
We were number one qualifier at all of these events.
We won six events.
Were runner up twice.
One final round was undecided because of rain.
We were the quickest top fuel bike at each event.
We reset every track record.
We reset the European record.
We became the second-quickest Top Fuel Bike presently running in the world.
We became the third-fastest Top Fuel Bike presently running in the world.
We won the FIM/UEM European Top Fuel Bike Championship title.

"Domination? That’s up to you to decide!

"To finish off this report we would like to say a well-meant and a real big Thenk You to all of our supporting companies, for making this an absolutely super season:

Torco International Corp. (USA); for providing your superior racing oils and maintenance products.
Nimbus Motorsports (GB); for taking care of our oil distribution all over Europe.
Dakota-Industry (Germany); for making us look good in our team wear.
Flexion b.v. (Holland); for supplying the Gates drive belts.
Goodridge Benelux BV (Holland); for those safe fuel/brake/oil lines and fittings.
Goedhals Machinefabriek (Holland); for supplying the transmission (and various other parts).
Jan Smit’s Power Parts (Holland); for the Dynatek datalogger.
Jan Roelofs Race Service (Holland); for your cylinder head advices and preparations.
Motorparadijs (Holland); for offering your workshop facilities and being a parts supplier.
Arai Helmet (Europe) BV (Holland); for giving us the safest helmet there is.
Zodiac International (Holland); for taking care of all those last minute part orders.

"A final Thank You goes to all the organisers for creating this wonderful series, and to our fans."
©Eurodragster.com
Veidec Racing win it all.

11th September: The Veidec Racing Pro Stock Bike team started their sucessful European Finals early with a Tuesday arrival in time for testing at Wednesday's Press Day, says Crew Chief Roger Lyrén.

"The Press Day is very good for testing, and for meeting all the Press in a more relaxed way", says Roger. "The Veidec team had three runs for Helen Curran and two for Roger Pettersson, and we learned a lot for Helen with her personal best, 7.570 and a 7.320 for Roger (which is lower than the record!). The conditions were very good, no head or side wind as there normally is at Santa Pod. All of this was very promising for the European Finals starting on Friday, could we go to the 7.2 zone?

"Qualifying started OK for Roger, 7.395 which gave us the number one spot. Helen had bad luck, she ran a 7.90 and that was on only four gears rolling through line. An electrical problem just cut the ignition just when Helen put in the fifth gear and on these two-valve engines the valves on intake are very close to the piston so it just hit and also broke the cam chain, four valves and tappets. Since this is Roger's spare engine we had to repair it at the track. We don't usually do work like this at the track, we just change engine, but now we didn't have any choice. As usual Roger from MotoSpeed had lots of spares and we found some blank valves, retainers and tappets, so we could repair it. The whole team started to work on the engine and it was ready at three o'clock on Saturday morning.
©Eurodragster.com
"Sadly, Helen missed the first qualifying on Saturday morning because the nut came off the sprocket. So now there was only one more chance for Helen to qualify. When the last qualifying session started, the wind got wery strong and with one pair left, Helen and Samuele Spiga, they stopped the session. After about two hours the wind speed went down so Helen could make her run, and a 7.66 put her in sixth position (sorry to Kenneth Stromberg for bumping him out). Roger stayed in first position, this is is sixth number one qualifer this year, he also set low ET and high speed at every race.

Sunday's race gave us lots of good tight racing. Roger went through the first round against Martin Bishop and the semi again Anders Larsson, Roger running 7.35 which was low ET and a track record. Roger beat Vesa Rautio in the final. Helen faced Chris Hope in the first round, she was out first but Chris made his best run of the weekend at 7.49, beating Helen.

"A very big thanks to all the staff at Santa Pod: Kjell, Ian, Keith, Darren, and all the other folks; also thanks to Eurodragster: Tog, Sharkman, and Christer Abrahamson for very good coverage of the race and fast info all time (Thank you! - Ed). Big thanks also to all of the team: Roger, Helen, Henke, Lasse, Atle, Pal, Stefan and Dick for making this weekend possible, of course thanks also to all the families who took care of everything at home when we were away.

"Thanks also to all of our sponsors: Veidec, Suzuki, Motospeed, Vance and Hines Motorsport, Shoei, Arlen Ness, NGK, RK Chains, Beta Tools, Valvoline, Papyrus, GE Capital, Standox, Supertwin and Wiklunds Akeri."

Finals FIM/UEM review.
11th September: We are indebted to FIM/UEM European Championship Co-ordinator Lars Andersson for sending us the final event report of the season, from the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod:

Top Fuel Bike qualifying was absolutely fantastic. 6.04 and 235 mph from Roel Koedam is something special. First was it quiet for some seconds and we all screamed. 6.04 on a track in Europe. Close to a five and probably only Larry McBride has ever run faster in the world. Roel didn't back the time up but instead ran a 6.118 pass which is the new record. Then did Sverre Dahl ran a 6.14 and a of 236 mph, equal to 380 kmh. Sverre had some small problems after this run like broken camshafts, but managed to get the bike ready for elimination. The number eight qualifier was 6.84, this must have been one of the fastest-ever ladders in the world. Eliminations were exciting but no more new records. In the semi between Ian King and Roel, Ian started little to early and Roels bike caught fire and we had to clean the track. Sverre was against Joey Bon in the other semi and later Sverre had a solo run in the final.

There were also good times in Pro Stock Bike. We had a bump spot of 7.71. The fastest in qualifying was Roger Pettersson who was already Champion for this year. Roger made it to the final and beat Vesa Rautio who had beaten Chris Hope in the semi, and that run also decides who was number two and number three in the Championship. Chris had last year's engine in the bike and made some very good times this weekend. If he had made those times earlier this year could a lot of things have been different? Next year will be very exciting.

SuperTwin turned out to be a thriller. Ton Pels was leading the Championship by two points over Per Bengtsson before this race so it would be up to the very last run. Ronny Aasen was also very close and could win. With nine bikes entered it looked exciting but Trond Alm's bike refused to start and Erik Nielsen broke the gearbox so there were only seven left. Ton Pels had a strong qualifier and took first place which gave him a solo run in the first round of eliminations. In the next pair it was Ronny Aasen against Stefan Juneryd. Stefan beat Ronny and now Ronny was number three in the Championship. Rob van Geffen was number two and met Willem Been in the first round. Rob's bike stopped and Willem was the winner. Per Bengtsson had problems with traction but had a solo because Svein Gottenberg had problem. So in the semi was it Stefan against Ton in the first pair, Stefen beat Ton and now was it up to Per to beat Willem to be the Champion this year. After some problems with the handling of the bike Per took the win and the Championship. In the final Stefan beat Per, so Stefan won the event and did take out numbers three, two and one in the proper order.

And that was the 2003 Championship finished.

You can find the official final standings in all three FIM/UEM Championships on our good friend Ian King's web site at www.kingracing.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Motler in orbit.

11th September: UK Pro ET racer Malcolm Motler's European Finals week, which culminated in a number one qualifier and his first ever event win, was better than a week in Spain or even the USA, says his partner Marcie.

"The Press Day was a fantastic experience", says Marcie. "We really enjoyed the friendly atmosphere and being able to run the car as many times as we wanted. The extra bonus was that the car was running extremely consistently which made it even more fun. Then to go on and be number one qualifier and to win overall - wow, words cannot explain our joy! This is the first event we have ever won, and to win the European Finals is something we have only ever dreamt about. To say that Malk is pleased about this is an understatement, I am hoping that a shuttle will be launched in the near future to bring him back down to Earth.
©Eurodragster.com
"Malk and I would like to thank all our crew for all their effort not only at this race meeting but over the last ten years. We could not do it without you all, nice one people! Also we would like to thank all the Pro ET racers for such friendly, exciting and very close racing! Last but by no means least thanks to everyone involved at Santa Pod for a brillant weekend and the best prepared track outside of the States, and to Eurodragster for their second-to-none coverage (You're welcome - Ed).

"I'm off to wave goodnight to Malk though the telescope!"

European Finals Pro ET review.
11th September: We are indebted to UK Pro ET racer Carla Pitau for sending us a report of the Pro ET action at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod:

Wow! What a tough field in Pro ET at the European Finals! Just think of the times run by the top 7 qualifiers. Top qualifier Malcolm Motler (who also won the meeting - well done Malc) ran within three thousandths of his dial-in, then we had Tokyo Toy (Steve Dunn at the wheel) at number two with +.004, Heaven and Hell at number three with +.005, Dave Ward number four with +.006, Carl Burton number five with +.007, Top Banana number six with +.008, and Steve Wells number sevein with +.009! If this doesn't seem to mean a lot, just imagine it as a Super Gas field with the top seven qualifiers running nine nine zero and - listen to this - number eight running 9.91 and a 9.95 only good enough for number seventeen. Get it? Pro ET is just getting scary. The class is so competitive it makes you proud to be part of it - and it attracts an increasing number of competitors - twenty eight car field today, hopefully thirty two next year!

It was great to see two competitors from Scandinavia: Martin Boye from Denmark and Anders Envall from Sweden, both racers running Impalas, a lovely '67 (I think) and a '96 respectively. A leaking fuel pump gave Martin a few problems, then the headache increased when they were shut down with an oil leak which they couldn't fix in time for the first round, when Aiden Kenny went through by default. What a shame, I love to see a BIG car run nines, Martin ran 9.98 and 9.87 but obviously expected a lot more as he was dialling-in 9.60. The other Impala did not fare any better. Despite putting on a good show at the test day, Anders found that after throwing the charger belt and collecting other problems on earlier qualifiers the transmission slipped badly in the third qualifier, forcing him to be a spectator for the rest of the weekend and then wait to be picked up by the RAC to go home - yup, this ain't no trailer queen. Anders' car is quite special - it weighs a massive 4200 lbs. and not only it is his normal daily driver, he also drove it all the way from home in Sweden (OK, he used a ferry across the water). Engine is a supercharged 396ci and it propels the decidedly full-ssized car to 10.80s. Not bad for a four door car on street tyres! We hope Anders will be back racing in Britain next year. Check out his very enjoyable website at www.blackout.nu.

The first round of eliminations saw a high number of red lights in the dimming evening light on Saturday with victims mainly in the left lane: Chris Johnson, Lee Huxley (who lucked out as Stephen Richards broke), John Everitt in the excellent ride built by Ray Eldred (the Heaven and Hell team salivate when they see the small block powered Celica launch with lots of air under the front wheels), Jerry Charles in the "Scandalous" street racer Capri (who was happy to have run his personal best of 9.91 in qualifying), Kev Taylor in the "CRAP Conversions" Capri, Wayne Hiscock in the big orange Chevelle, Bob Doyle in the Z Case Datsun, and finally Gino Bernadine in the seriously quick 1800cc Escort (who had to be different and redlit in the right lane). Gino had to overcome a nitrous explosion in the pits when his manifold was blown open by the misbehaving laughing gas. The team didn't give up, and hard work and welding services on Saturday at least allowed him to race.

The Heaven and Hell versus Z Case battle was sad, both teams wishing to only ever meet in the final and only taking comfort from the fact that at least one team would go through, but both disappointed that the race was not decided at the top end. Marius Blackburn in the "Escape from Reality" Altered reversed the trend of red lights by pulling a .505 which forced Richard Webb in the Beetle to a breakout. Jack "Just Mustard" Brewster found that his own .509 light was not good enough as he slowed down and missed his dial-in by 9 hundredths - allowing Steve "Tokyo Toy" Dunn to go through with a good light and a close dial-in on the brakes. Malcolm Motler put Steve Large's beautifully presented Zodiac on the trailer by taking 2 tenths advantage on the tree and forcing Steve to breakout. The Zodiac shows much attention to detail with beautiful chrome trim all round and only the tell-tale Dzus fasteners revealing the fibreglass reality of the ride. The panels are straight and well painted and it's nice to have another very pretty car running in the class.

The following day saw Alan Didwell in top form pulling a .501 against Lee Huxley who despite his very respectable .558 was forced to breakout to a 10.883 on a 10.90, while Alan sailed on to a 10.444 win on a 10.41 dial-in. Terry Wareham's holeshot put an end to Steve Wells's valiant efforts when his unusually slow light spoilt his good run of 10.027 on a 10.00 dial-in. A holeshot of .559 against .601 also saved the day for Rick McCann in a close race, when the dial-in of 10.39 proved a tad too hopeful (Mike's fault) in a 10.425 run against a closer 10.891 on a 10.88 dial-in by Ian Brown. Ian had a few problems that weekend and was happy to finally run as close as he normally does. Aiden Kenny and Carl Burton in the "English Rose" Sierra had a good close race too, Aiden taking a .02 advantage on the tree and Carl breaking out by 2 thousandths. Steve Dunn unfortunately collected another chance for his red light award - whilst Marius Blackburn sailed to the next round.

Malcolm Motler collected his well earned bye in the third round and ran within 3 hundredths of his dial-in, while Alan Didwell beat Rick McCann fair and square with a quicker light and a bang-on run with a zero. Rick would only have needed to pull one of his mid .5s light to win, but the Heaven and Hell team had to take their hats off to such a close shaving of Alan's dial-in instead. Same fate befell Terry Wareham when Dave Ward went past him with a quicker light and a closer dial-in, and same again for Aiden Kenny losing to Marius Blackburn with both racers snoozing on the lights but Marius waking up a bit earlier.

The semifinals saw Malcolm advance by default when Alan Didwell broke (no details unfortunately - I did say that he was too good to beat and that we should have shot him, I hope nobody took me seriously) while Marius and Dave had a nap on the start line and Dave found that his lead foot would not let him lift and broke out by seventeen thousandths, losing the race despite a quicker light.

And then came the finals and it was nice to see Malcolm march to his first win of the season. Although he had a sleepy start of the race by snoozing to a .818 light (you can borrow my alarm clock, Malc, I'll bring two to the Doorslammers as I will need one myself) but then rescued his credibility big time by running seven thousandths away from his dial-in in the final, against a very unlucky and equally deserving Marius Blackburn who redlit by less than a hair with a .499. The Spellbound team had a great time by taking the whole week off and starting their fun on the Press Day - who needs Ibiza, says Marcia!

The atmosphere was electric, the crowds fantastic and the improvements on the track very encouraging (who knows, maybe we'll have tarmac for Pro ET next year - wishful thinking) and the Heaven and Hell team were delighted by the lack of any problems with the transmission, but also to run their very best time (10.407) in weather that should only have been good enough for a 10.60 (even the torque converter is finally behaving itself) and Carla and Mike were happy about having arguments on how much to dial UNDER what the weather station was telling them! Thanks Mike, for your help and dedication. See you all at the next one!

You can find out everything you could possibly want to know about UK Pro ET on the class' official web site at www.pro-et.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
Points updates.
11th September: We are indebted to FIA European Championship Co-ordinator Kjell Pettersson for forwarding us the final points standings in this year's FIA Championships. You can view the FIA points, which are in PDF format, by clicking here.
©Eurodragster.com
Thanks also to British Nitro FC Championship Co-ordinator Jim Broome for forwarding us the corrected final standings in this year's Championship, although the placings have not changed:

John Spuffard 472
Gordon Smith 387
Lex Joon 93
Gary Page 75
Leif Helander 31

"Congratulations to John and the Showtime team again on winning the Championship", says Jim. "It appears that all the luck that Leif Helander is receiving is bad. Finally, the 'interesting' Final - Gordon tripped John's clocks at 5.331 seconds, add to this the difference in the reaction time of 0.075 seconds and we get an ET of 5.406 for a 'long' quarter of a mile, which I believe is the fastest time the Shockwave team have 'theoretically' run and for which I send my congratulations, although they would obviously have preferred to win the race."

You can find the Championship's official web site at www.showtimeracing.co.uk/championship.html

Wynns sponsor SCR.
11th September: Lubricants and additives company Wynns has signed a sponsorship deal with the UK's Shakespeare County Raceway. The deal takes effect from next week's (20th-21st September) Doorslammer Internationals at the Warwickshire venue.
©Eurodragster.com
"It's great to see Wynns involved with Shakespeare County Raceway" Lee Child of LA Performance Services, who organised the deal and who sponsors Eurodragster's Links pages through his company LA Racing Parts. "It's a continuation of many years of support from Wynns for UK and European Drag Racing, and we are looking forward to working with them."

Meanwhile we understand that LA Performance Services are to extend their calendar of events at Shakespeare County Raceway next season; stay tuned for more news about that.

UK Northern Nationals beckon.

11th September: York Dragway will be hosting further rounds and the finals of the American Superstock Series, the Northern Drag Racing Championship (the two-tier bracket series, Sportsman ET and Pro ET), the Hot Rod Challenge, and the National Street Car Challenge, as well as RWYB sessions at this Sunday's (14th September) UK Northern Finals, writes York PR Howard Holmes.
©Eurodragster.com
"With the way the season has shaped up, it'll be a great day with some close races to be won", says Howard. "The weather forecast is looking good. It also provides the opportunity for some test and tune and RWYB, making it ideal for anyone looking to slam the doors at Shakespeare County next week.

"If you are running something fast and would like to put in an 'appearance' and shakedown, please call me on 01422 844010 or 07814 821415, so that we can make some arrangements for you."

Camping opens at 6:00 pm on Saturday night. Saturday also sees the Leeds Cruise, so those travelling some way in a street car can attend the Cruise and then follow on to the strip.

You can find more details about York Dragway on the track's official web site at yorkdragway.intrica.co.uk.

Happy Birthday Juha!

11th September: A very happy birthday to Finland's Juha Vane, a longtime mechanic with Simo Patoharju, who celebrates his fiftieth year today. Juha had a party last Saturday when Simo and other friends presented him with a 1974 Moskvitch pick-up (right) which Simo tells us was "Hot-rodded a bit".
©Eurodragster.com
"Juha is a member of the SDMA", says Simo. "Many members of the drag racing community will remember him from his years with the Finnish Top Methanol Dragster teams, firstly with Anita Mäkelä's and my Hedgehog Racing, and later with Mad Bomber Racing. In the early years Juha succesfully campaigned an Econo Gas Merkur with Gösta Kalen. Juha was presented with the hot-rodded pick up last weekend, and he even promised to drive it to his job on Monday!"

We are sure that everyone will want to join Sharkman and Tog in wishing Juha the very Happiest of Birthdays.

NSRA Hot Rod Drags reports.
11th September: There was plenty of activity at Stratford-Upon-Avon's Shakespeare County Raceway this past weekend when hundreds of hot rodding enthusiasts descended on the venue for the NSRA's annual Hot Rod Drags, writes APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson:

Everywhere you looked, reproduced look-a-likes, restored originals and fascinating new cars were all mixed and matched to recreate drag racing as it was in days gone by. Entrants were not there for the intense competition. Rather, it was a rare opportunity to watch living automotive history at speed, and at home on a drag strip.

>From the many passes made on the Warwickshire quarter mile quickest of the weekend was the Wirrel's Pete Radcliffe and his Burning Desire Model T altered dragster. Powered by a monsterous 7 litre supercharged V8 Pete, along with his eighteen year old daughter Faye who maintains the engine, pounded the quarter mile in 8.284 seconds. Quickest Gasser was Jimmy Hibberd's 1933 Willys Coupe called the 'Boston Brawler'. Running in a group known as the 'Gasser Circus' for high-ridin' American look-a-likes of the sixties, Hibberd posted a weekend's best of 9.975s at 132 mph. A nine second car resulting in a nine second marriage for crew chief Dave Cox who had to propose marriage to his girlfriend if Jimmy ran a nine second time later that day!

Pete Ashworth was also overjoyed with the weekend when he pushed his 7 litre Chevy V8 engined 1948 Ford Popular through its paces with an awarding 8.91 second elapsed time at 149 mph. Rob Stone, defending Outlaw Anglia champion also ran new personal best numbers with his 'Born to Run' Mopar powered Ford. Jim Turnbull's 1932 blown Roadster was judged as the quickest Flathead entrant. Known as 'King Jim', Turnbull's maroon coloured hot rod ran a best of 13.54 at 100 mph. Not bad for an antique in-line V8 engine!

Even the kids are allowed to get involved with miniature versions of classic hot rods. Powered by tiny Honda bike engines, Ryan Stacey and his very photogenic orange 'Pro Mod' roadster ran quarter mile time of 26 seconds at 50 mph. On the back of his performance, Ryan's car was featured on the kids 'Blue Peter' programme the following day. The two doorslammer's of Jerry Stevens and Mark Lamude faced each other to decide just who was the event's quickest. Earlier Stevens' 498ci Plymouth Belevadere, a recent import and a regular up at York Dragway's American Superstock Challenge, rans its first nine second lap; 9.913/135.36 mph. But as the menacing black Plymouth side-stepped its way off the startline, Lamude's mega cubed Merlin engined '55 Chevy ran its best ever numbers of 9.923/134.77 to Jerry's 10.200/133.14.

Unluckiest driver of the event was Rob Nugent who had the misfortune of having his engine's core plug blow out on his 1968 Chevy Camaro midway down the track resulting in oil and water dousing the tyres, and sending the car into the armco. The track's emergency services were on the scene in seconds as the Surrey Muscle Car Club member exited from his battered car unharmed. Crowd favourite though wasn't a piston powered machine but a jet powered Funny Car. Team 'Firestorm' led by pilot Roger Goring ran his best numbers at the Raceway so far - 6.350 seconds at 250 mph.
©Eurodragster.com
Thanks also to Andy from Never Again Racing for letting us know that Dave Evans piloted the Coco Connection Camaro to a new personal bests of 9.644/141.07mph at the Hot Rod Drags on Saturday. "Thanks to Jeff Bull (the guru) for pointing us in the right direction, and for inspiration", says Andy. "Dave is launching Coco off the footbrake, because the transbrake isnt working for some reason so we hope to pull the ET down with a better launch. Also we are looking to replace the front clip (we are running Camaro stock front clip) to get some weight down. Look out Rob Faulkner, we're hot on your heels!"

Web site updates.
11th September: The official web site of the European Pro Mod Association has been updated with the final standings in the NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified Championship. Check it out at www.promod.nu.

Holland's Patrick Kuyper has updated his personal web site with photographs from the FIA European Finals. You can find Patrick's pictures at www.imaginary.nl, click on Events, Racing, and Santa Pod Finals 2003.

UK Wild Bunch racer Tony Smith has uppped sticks and moved URLs to www.cunningplan.net. The web site features Tony's popular Minivan altered with news, pictures, facts and figures and more and has also been updated with a video clip by Bob Valder of Feel The Noise.

Christoph Lange has updated the Hanau Auto Racing Association web site with some three hundred and sixty photographs from the recent Nitrolympx at Hockenheim. You can find the HARA web site at www.haradragracing.de then Multimedia, Fotos 2003 and Hockenheim.

Editor's note: Apologies for the lack of a news update yesterday. Your News Editor is currently unwell but will undoubtedly recover very soon.
©Eurodragster.com
Nicholson recovering.
9th September: If you were tuned in to our Event Coverage from the FIA European Finals at the weekend, you will have read that UK Super Pro ET racer Wayne Nicholson was involved in a bad accident on the way to the track on Thursday. Pro ET racer Dave Billdeau, who was also involved, has been in touch to let us know what happened and how everyone is getting on.

"Wayne, his nine-year-old son Joe and myself were travelling down the M1 on Thursday when we became stuck behind a military low loader with a tank on travelling at around twenty five miles per hour on the nearside lane. Wayne was driving his Chevy camper with his BMW in a box trailer behind, Joe was sat behind him on a bench seat with a lap belt on and I sat in the passenger seat, Wayne and I also had lap belts on.
©Eurodragster.com
"We were struck from behind by a articulated lorry, which forced the trailer and car through the back of the camper tearing the roof and sides off and sending the camper into the back of the military truck. Joe was thrown from his seat busting his lap belt and landing on the camper floor behind me, Wayne was trapped behind the steering wheel. I got Joe out but could not get Wayne out. It took the fire brigade an hour and half to get Wayne out and he was air-lifted to the Queens Medical centre in Nottingham, where we found out that he had broken his pelvis and femur and fractured his hand. Joe and I were taken by ambulance, I have cuts and bruises and Joe a knock to the head.

"Wayne had an operation on Thursday night to have his hip pinned together, he is now on the road to recovery. Thanks for all the good wishes, and apologies to those who got caught up in the chaos on the M1.

"Wayne promises to be back."

We're sure that everyone will join Sharkman and Tog in wishing Wayne, Joe and Dave their very best for a rapid recovery and return to the track.

Inspiration speeds Goring.
9th September: UK Jet Funny Car pilot Roger Goring had a flash of inspiration at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend which resulted in a personal best ET and an equal of his personal best speed. Roger's last outing, at the Allstar Nationals in August, culminated in his quickest ET and highest speeds of the year so far, and the team's development work on the J85 bore more fruit at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags this weekend.

"We tried something out on Saturday and it worked", says Roger. "It felt good, it didn't break any records, but it was a good one. We only got to run once on Saturday because a downpour put everything behind.
©Eurodragster.com
"Then I was sitting there on Sunday morning, as you do, and I thought of something. I said to Ian (Crew Chief - Ed) "I'll tell you what we'll do". We tried it out and ran a 6.3 at 250! It was accelerating like you wouldn't believe. I got the chutes out and I thought "I hope that was as fast as it felt". It felt like three hundred miles per hour! Next time out I said "Let's not change anything and see what it does, prove it's not a fluke". Another 6.3 at 248. So it's been a step in the right direction, a personal best ET, the 250 equals our best speed, and I hope we can move on from that."

Roger says that the Firestorm team have some more performance to find yet. "I'm happy with how it's going right now", he says. "We've put on seven miles per hour in the eighth and ten in the quarter. You don't think you could tell ten miles an hour difference, but believe me you can!"

Lumina Forces surgery.
9th September: Meanwhile UK Jet Funny Car pilot Martin Hill says that he will need less than the available couple of weeks to put a new body on his Fireforce 2 Jet FC in time for an appearance at an Extreme Motorsports festival in Greece. Martin had just completed a demonstration pass of of 5.897/273.17 at Santa Pod on Sunday when the FC's attractive Chevy Lumina body failed in the shutdown area, came off the chassis, and flew high into the air before landing in the field to the side of the shutdown area. Initial fears that Martin may have crashed behind the normal cloud of jet pipe smoke subsided when word quickly came over the track radio that Martin was just fine and had turned off at the end of the track.
©Eurodragster.com
"I saw a little bit of daylight, and then I saw a lot!", Martin told Eurodragster on Sunday. "The body folded up and then came off. I don't know if it failed where it cracked before, or whether this was something new. The front wheels came up about a yard and I thought I was going to go over, I think the body coming off stopped it. But I wasn't worried, I got it stopped alright. I have been racing for twenty years or so, something like this was bound to happen sooner or later!"

Martin said that it so happened that he already had another body in a mould. "It's a fibreglass body so I will have to make the jet engine a little less fierce", he said. "But that's no problem. We'll get the new body put on and then we're off to Greece in a couple of weeks."

Fat camp for Wright's truck.
9th September: UK Super Street racer Matthew Wright has decided to send his eleven-second Chevy pick-up to a Yorkshire health farm to turn it into the required ten-second Chevy pick-up.

"As you may know the truck weighs in at 4320 pounds, and even if you take off my seventeen stone it is still 4090 pounds" says Matthew, who sponsors racers and provides contingency support through his company Gleeson Wright Security. "It's one of the heaviest cars out there and is like trying to run a 2500 pound car with a caravan hitched on the back. I thought that the cure was more power and until the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway nitrous was on my shopping list for a Stateside trip in October.
©Eurodragster.com
"Then I met this guy named Moose (Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Jon Hollingworth - Ed), a nice geezer, we were standing in the pits at the Allstar Nationals looking under the hood of my truck. I was saying that we needed to lose some weight, and Moose suggested getting shot of the front clip and going for a strut front end. That would cost a fortune, I said, but Moose said "Not really, I'll introduce you to John Sleath". John did the front end on Moose's Cortina and it has made a big difference.

"We've all heard of John Sleath and his home-grown cars - the Alfa, Saab, and of course the eight-second Audi which came to an untimely end although thank God John walked away. I'd never had the pleasure of meeting John before, he came to look at the truck and I thought this guy speaks my language. He quoted for the job there and then, I didn't even know that he did other people's work and had started to build cars full-time. I asked the possibility of getting the truck finished in time for the National Finals at Santa Pod, and John said that he could take it as soon as I could source the parts. Then I was a man on a mission, by the Wednesday after the Allstars I had everything we needed so off to Doncaster we went. After a brief look round the workshop at the progess which John was making on his new Audi creation for 2004 I was off to Waltham Abbey, leaving my pride and joy in the capable hands of Mr Sleath to transform into a ten-second Super Street truck.

"I strongly suggest that any of you guys out there looking for excellent quality work at a very affordable price check out John's web site at www.john-sleath.com. You will be able to find pictures of the work in progress on the truck."

Requests department.
9th September: We have received an E-Mail from Jennifer and Daniel Platt asking us to wish their dad, 2002 UK National Sportsman ET Champion Al Platt, a very Happy Birthday for today. "You're the best dad in the world", they say. We are very pleased to wish Al a Happy Birthday and we are sure that all of our readers will join us in doing so.
©Eurodragster.com
UK Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Ian Hook has written to ask if any Eurodragster reader has launch photographs from the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. "We were getting good air that day and I've been asked to provide a pictures for my employer's in-house magazine", says Ian. If you have any launch shots then drop Ian an E-Mail at fats-hook@supanet.com.

E-Mail problems.
9th September: Despite assurances to the contrary from our ISP, we are not convinced that our mail server is completely recovered from its problems of the last couple of weeks. If you have sent a news item to the Eurodragster News address and it has not been published, then please re-send it to eurodragster@btinternet.com and we will pick it up from there.
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
9th September: Andrew Bamford has updated his Racing Green web site with a number of photographs from the FIA European Finals. You can check out Andrew's pictures at www.racing-green.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
World's closest drag race?
8th September: The biggest pieces of news from the timing system from Santa Pod Raceway at the weekend were of course Kim Reymond's 4.645/317.56 in Top Fuel Dragster and Roel Koedam's 6.046/235.89 in Top Fuel Bike, both in qualifying. However, Steve Horn and Andy Marrs of TSI Timers told us about an astounding race on Saturday evening of the FIA European Finals which must qualify as Europe's, if not the world's, closest-ever drag race.
©Eurodragster.com
9.90 Bike racers Steve Coombs and Fred Furlong matched up on Saturday, with Steve taking the win on a holeshot, 10.110 to 9.990. However, the timing system display showed a margin of victory of 0.000 seconds. Inspection of the raw timing data, which has more decimal places, shows that Steve won the race by 0.000134 seconds.

Steve and Andy put their heads together and calculated that Steve won the race by 0.3 inches, or 7.62 millimetres. This is certainly the closest victory we've ever heard of in Europe, and we would not be surprised if it was one of the closest races in the history of the sport...unless any of our expert readers know differently?

More Top Fuel returns.
8th September: If you were tuned in on Friday you will have read that Barry Sheavills is to return to the track at Santa Pod Raceway's Flame and Thunder Show, match racing one of Knut Söderquist's Top Fuel Dragster against 2003 FIA European Top Fuel Champion Smax Smith. We promised to hunt Barry down at Santa Pod over the weekend to find out more, and that's just what we did.
©Eurodragster.com
"I didn't raise enough money to race this year, but I was asked if I wanted to race once in 2003", said Barry. "I've been to every Flame and Thunder Show whilst I had a Top Fueller. I watched some US TV coverage and they said that if you are out of a Top Fueller for a year then you'll never get back in. I was back in a car three weeks after my crash at the European Finals last year, but I would like to keep my licence current. I've done a deal with Knut for the match race, I have already been down to Knut's pit and tried the car for size, I also tried out Rune Fjeld's car for size but I didn't fit! Smax will be going out to prove that he's the boss, he has been racing all year, but I think he'll find that I don't forget so easy!"

Barry went away from the weekend's FIA European Finals a happy man since his European speed record of 301.65 mph still stood after the last wheel had turned. He hopes to get the chance to break the record himself in 2004. "I'm waiting to see if we are going racing next year", he said. "I should soon hear from a company with whom I have been dealing."

Barry wasn't the only Top Fuel racer projecting a return in 2004, as both Sweden's Viveca Averstedt and Norway's Øyvor Jacobsen told us over the weekend that they are working on Top Fuel programmes for next season. "I have someone working on sponsorship for me", said Øyvor. "This time next year I'll be European Champion!". Viveca is similarly looking at racing in Europe next year, but she has one basic condition. "Without a proper sponsorship deal, we will not run a car", she said. "It's one big lesson which we have learned."

Stay tuned for more news of the returns of Barry, Øyvor and Viveca.

Racers: Send your FIA European Finals reviews to us at news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them here.

Finals timing data, ladders.
8th September: We are indebted to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers for sending us timing data and ladders from the FIA European Finals. The ladders particularly involve a great deal of manual work on Andy's part for which we are very grateful indeed.
©Eurodragster.com
Click here to view the timing data and ladders, or click on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

The European Finals timing data is also available on the European Drag Racing Database at www.eurodrag.com.Webmaster Erwin Raets tells us that he will soon be updating the Database with more results from this year's races around Europe. "We have been racing ourselves this year", he says.

New TMFC representative.
8th September: Following a meeting held on Friday at Santa Pod, Dave Alexander has been appointed the new FIA class representative for the Top Methanol Funny Car racers. Dave will attend all meetings on behalf of the TMFC teams, liaise with Promoters and race directors, and provide colour commentary in his unique style (his words - Ed).
©Eurodragster.com
"This does not mean I will no longer be working with the Dragster teams", says Dave. "If anything, I shall now be working even more closely with the Dragster teams through their representative Gittli Koller to help promote the class and improve conditions for racers at the tracks."

You can find more information about European Top Methanol racing on the Racers' Association web site at www.etmra.com, which has also been updated with results from the FIA European Finals.

European Champions decided.
7th September: Congratulations to our 2003 European Champions, the remainder of whom were decided at Santa Pod Raceway today:

FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Smax Smith
FIA Top Methanol Dragster: Dave Wilson
FIA Top Methanol Funny Car: Urs Erbacher
FIA Pro Stock: Michael Malmgren
©Eurodragster.com
FIM/UEM Top Fuel Bike: Roel Koedam
FIM/UEM Supertwin: Per Bengtsson
FIM/UEM Pro Stock Bike: Roger Pettersson

Congratulations also to the other Champions decided at Santa Pod today:

NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified: Roger Johansson
British Nitro Funny Car: John Spuffard

FIA European Finals results.
7th September: Congratulatoins to the winners and runers-up at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway:

FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Smax Smith 5.055/292.64 def. Micke Kågered 5.642/194.04
FIA Top Methanol Dragster: Dave Wilson 5.559/252.83 def. Peter Schöfer 5.598/247.25
FIA Top Methanol Funny Car: Dan Larsen 5.793/239.10 def. Ulf Leanders 6.002/179.34
FIA Pro Stock: Jimmy Ålund 6.981/196.42 def. Magnus Hansson 7.067/194.69 red light
Fuel Funny Car: John Spuffard no time recorded def. Gordon Smith no time recorded
NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified: Roger Johansson 6.435/213.41 def. Freddy Fagerström 6.557/206.67
Competition Eliminator: Bruno Bader (8.13) 7.562/176.97 def. Richard Sundblom (8.13) 7.469/183.54
Super Pro ET: Tim Garlick (8.35) 8.370/160.63 def. Steve Johnson (7.60) 7.685/160.45 red light
Pro ET: Malcolm Motler (11.00) 11.007/117.98 def. Marius Blackburn (9.55) 5.932/139.35 red light
Sportsman ET: Kev Slyfield (12.18) 12.207/112.04 def. Neil L'Alouette (13.73) 13.591/95.54 breakout
Super Comp: Brian Pateman 8.973/150.59 def. Zane Llewellyn 8.937/150.22
Super Gas: Frank Mason 9.959/135.22 def. John Everitt 10.172/89.82
Super Street: Conrad Stanley 10.923/126.21 def. Mike Bentley 10.930/130.74
Junior Dragster: Robin Kadi (15.80) 16.133/35.99 def. Collin Morrice (9.30) 9.399/63.89 red light

©Eurodragster.com
FIM/UEM Top Fuel Bike: Sverre Dahl 12.742/61.11, Roel Koedam no show
FIM/UEM Supertwin: Stefan Junerud 6.715/182.72 def. Per Bengtsson 7.011/187.66
FIM/UEM Pro Stock Bike: Roger Pettersson 7.397/179.12 def. Vesa Rautio 7.873/160.90 red light
9.90 Bike: Shaun Jones 9.978/124.74 def. Steve Coombs 10.047/134.42
10.90 Bike: Phil Pratt 11.068/117.87 def. Grant Perrin 11.449/125.06

You can view our American Car Imports-sponsored Event Coverage by clicking here, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Anthes on Nitrolympx.
5th September: Nitrolympx promoter Rico Anthes has written with his comments on the recent race at Hockenheim, entitled A race report from a different point of view, or the “Ups and Downs” of using a Formula One Facility for Drag Racing:

Some of you may have heard about it or some of you may have been there on 22nd-24th August. It was a hot summer weekend, there was a big crowd on the grandstands, there was enthusiastic applause from the spectators, but the traction of the drag strip gave us problems to begin with. Friday's qualifying rounds took place on a very tricky surface which some of the top FIA classes couldn’t handle, thus resulting in cancellations. People started discussing about mistakes of the Organization, and each racer had his own personal advice about how to prepare a drag strip. What almost everybody seemed to forget was the fact that Hockenheim is every year a virgin race track. Circuit racing activities like Formula One and Touring Cars require all areas to be clean and free of rubber when they race. This was the content of an FIA Bulletin after a Mercedes DTM car slipped over the wet traction compound of our drag strip, which is part of their safety breaking area.

Therefore all of our traction from last year's drag race has been washed away, and we have to start each year from scratch, which was not the case in the old days when the startline was a hundred metres further down the track and not used as safety zone. Do we know how to prepare a drag strip? Yes we do, and even more, we followed the same procedures which Kjell Pettersson uses at Santa Pod and at other FIA events and I had the procedures in writing. We had the same amount and quality of VHT and also the Track Spot powder, which we used. The only thing which we didn't have is the same amount of time which other drag strips have. Why didn't we start earlier? Because the Hockenheimring is used every weekend of the year for racing activities. On the Monday before the race we built up a hundred metres of pitside grandstands and installed 2400 metres of trackside barrier walls, timing system and all other Race Control equipment. Wednesday afternoon was the first time that we had a race-ready track and could start with traction preparations. We were spraying VHT and sledding until late Wednesday and late Thursday, but the hot weather would not let the track dry out.

When we started qualifying on Friday, for the first hour the track seemed to be OK, but then the sun got hot and it 'melted' away. It was slick all the way, but not unsafe. The decision to run two rounds of Street Cars, Super Gas and Competition Cars before the FIA and UEM classes helped to put rubber down for the first hundred feet. What the track needed now was long burnouts to carry on traction down the track. But unfortunately the big guys decided to sit in the pits and not taking any risk of damaging motors. Blame it on the Organization, the track has got to be right. I remember running tracks a lot worse then Hockenheim in the good old days! A late night shift and double payment plus a collection of team T-Shirts for our farmer (tyre-sledding tractor) made him work almost the entire Friday night. The track got better, but still it needed the big cars to run and lay the rubber down. That’s the name of the game! The more powerful cars you run down the track the more traction you’ll get. At the end of Saturday qualifying the times were getting better and better.

In Sunday's first round of eliminations an experienced Top Fuel Crew Chief underestimated the traction and the team lost the race due to lack of power, but gave proof of the potential with a 5.13, the quickest Top Fuel run of the event, right after the Finals. In Top Methanol Dragster a 5.62 by Peter Schöfer and in Top Fuel Bike Roel Koedam with a 6.37 showed that the track was not really bad, just that some could handle it and others couldn’t! Then again almost everybody enjoyed the prizegiving ceremony and the following dinner and beer on the house! Being part of the Hockenheim NitrolympX like the big crowd, the Saturday Night Show and the traction problems. Every year the same! You like it or you don't, but it will never change.
©Eurodragster.com
Sheavills returns.
5th September: UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Barry Sheavills is to return to the track at Santa Pod Raceway in November. Barry, who sat out 2003 to raise funds for a return after a top end crash at last year's FIA European Finals, will be match racing Smax Smith at the Flame and Thunder Show on 1st November. We understand that Barry will be driving Knut Söderquist's 'Red car' which is being driven by Susanne Callin this weekend. We will bring you more news when we catch up with Barry over this weekend.
©Eurodragster.com
Riders' wives.
4th September: Speak to any married racer and it will not be long before they tell you that they could not do what they do without the solid support of their spouses. Drag racing being a family sport in Europe, you will most likely find those spouses up to their elbows in oil in the pits, catering for a large and hungry team, or standing behind the race vehicle calmly watching their husband or wife preparing to race down the track.
©Eurodragster.com
We spoke to the wives of three Dutch bike racers - Monique Koedam, wife of 2003 FIM/UEM Top Fuel Bike Champion Roel Koedam; Marianne Pels, wife of Supertwin Top Fuel racer Tom Pels who goes in to this weekend's FIA European Finals with a chance of the FIM/UEM Championship; and Henrietta 'Jet' van Geffen, wife of Supertwin Top Fuel racer Rob van Geffen - to get an insight into life on the other side of a drag racing marriage, and we discovered that they are far from drag racing widows.

Click here to read our interview with Monique, Marianne and Jet, or click on the Interviews link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Rain spoils Malmgren surprise.
4th September: 2003 FIA European Pro Stock Champion Michael Malmgren and the AC Delco team have been robbed of their planned surprise at the FIA European Finals by the weather a few thousand miles away. "We invited Jim Yates and his wife to Santa Pod for the Finals, but because of the rain-out of the US Nationals they can't come (sorry Spencer - Ed)", says team member Magnus Cato. "Jim was really looking forward to seeing drag racing over here, but what can you do?"
©Eurodragster.com
Michael's number one engine O'bej should be back in harness this weekend. "The heads arrived at Christer's last Friday, so he has been busy over the weekend assembling everything", says Magnus. "O'bej was due to arrive at Helsingborg on Tuesday night, and we were then going to fit it in the car before leaving yesterday."

Stone Cold, the engine which Michael purchased from Jim Yates as cover when O'bej was damaged, is now for sale. "If anyone is interested in buying some serious horsepower, talk to Michael at the Finals", says Magnus. For slightly less money, the AC Delco team will also have a limited edition T-shirt available at Santa Pod this weekend. "Come to the bus ane we'll be more than happy to show you", says Magnus.

With the Championship in the bag, Magnus tells us that the game plan for the Finals is to try to set a new record, and to "Relax and have a good time if circumstances allow".

Call me Mister Ten...er, Six.

4th September: Eurodragster staffer Tog became Europe's quickest and fastest web journalist yesterday when he was taken for a ride-along in Gordon Appleton's Wheelgame Racing Pro Mod. Gordon drove Tog to a 6.903/201.65 in the stunning new Camaro.

"Sharkman and I were talking to Gordon and his team in the pits yesterday morning when he asked me about my Super Gas drive a couple of weeks back", says Tog. "Before I realised it, Gordon was talking about taking me for a ride-along - I think the reasoning was 'So you think a ten feels fast do you?'!". Gordon took celebrity Jodie Marsh for a 6.8-second ride and then it was Tog's turn. "I didn't have any safety equipment with me so I had to beg a firesuit and crash helmet from Paul Marston and a neck brace from Will Furniss - it was a particularly generous gesture on Will's part as he was about to make a run himself."

Firmly strapped into the car, Tog was taken on the ride of his life. "The burnout was a lot smoother than I was expecting until Gordon got off the throttle", he says. "Then the car lurched a little and Gordon stood on the brakes. I got my first shock of the run when Gordon put the car in reverse and backed up, I was actually thrown forward - he was not hanging around! It was very interesting watching the interaction between Gordon and his team as we got back to the start line prepared to stage, it's the sort of thing you don't give much thought to as a spectator.

"Gordon had a lot to do before we staged, I have been talked through the Pro Mod routine before by Nick Davies and I don't know how these guys remember it all. >From where I was seated I saw the pre-stage light go on, but I couldn't see the stage light without craning my neck and that wouldn't have been a good idea! We went up on the revs and then suddenly someone picked me up and threw me down the track. I found when I drove Paul Marston's Super Gasser that when you leave the line at full throttle you go into sensory overload with the noise and the acceleration, or at least you do as a rookie, so I am not sure that I can do a very good job of describing the sensation, but I'll try...
©Eurodragster.com
"When we left the line, not only did it feel as if someone was pushing me back into the seat, but it also felt as if the seat came forward to meet me as well, so I was getting it from the front and the back! There was no shake at all, I was surprised how smooth the ride was, and I was also surprised to discover that it was not that loud inside the car. The acceleration was very strong and unrelenting in the first half of the track, and then you could feel it gradually come off in the second half of the track (half-track speed was 160 mph - Ed). I was aware of Gordon shifting the gears beside me but I was looking straight down the track and something weird happened to my vision as we approached the finish line - only one tiny area in the middle of my vision was in focus, I guess that was the 'tunnel vision' effect which racers mention. The car started to drift towards the centre line in the second half of the track but Gordon stayed hard on the throttle. I remember glimpsing the top end reflectors, but I don't think I saw the gantry at all.

"When Gordon got off the throttle at the finish line, there was a very brief smooth moment of freewheeling and then the chutes hit. You get thrown forward without ceremony, and boy does the speed come off - that popular factoid about the chutes taking a hundred miles per hour off at the hit isn't a lie. Add together the sensations of hitting and going through a brick wall, combined with standing very hard on the brakes, then that would just about describe it.

"When we turned off the track, Gordon asked me what I thought, and I gave him the same answer I gave Paul Marston about my 10.669 drive in his car: 'I would like to do that every half hour for the rest of my life'. Gordon thought that we had got into the sixes and when his crew turned up to collect us and the timing ticket was handed through the window, there it was: 6.903/201.65. That's just about every dream come true in a couple of weeks: drive a race car, run a six, go two hundred, and ride out a 'chute deployment!"

Gordon asked us to apologise to his daughter Sabra for breaking her ride-along record of 7.001, although one suspects that she may make another attempt on it in 2004! Tog would also like to apologise to our good buddy Erik Zettervall of Svensk Dragracing for taking away his 'Quickest Web Reporter in Europe' title, although Erik was behind the wheel for his seven-second pass so that's still a record.

Tog would like to thank Gordon Appleton and his team for the ride-along, Paul Marston and Will Furniss for the loan of safety equipment, and Paul Marston's wife Sam for exposing herself to ribaldry whilst helping with a broken zip. Thanks also to Gary Page who came up to Gordon's pit after the pass and was as pleased for Tog as if he had been on the ride-along himself, and thanks to everyone who has already written with congratulations.

Hot Rods ready to party!
4th September: Hot Roddings annual party takes place this weekend as hundreds of hot rods, customs and street rods prepared to descend on Shakespeare County Raceway for the venues annual Hot Rod Drags, says APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson.

Presented by one of the oldest UK established clubs, the National Street Rod Association, the Hot Rod Drags recreates those halcyon days of fifties and sixties middle order America when street rodding and racing came out of a long period of bad publicity as organised drag racing became an easy solution. Car clubs with a clear view of the future began staging drag races on property borrowed or rented for the occasional race.

This weekend's Hot Rod Drags attracts over 200 quality hot rods to the track as a participant in the NSRA's continued programme of 'havin fun as usual', and many of which take part in the weekend's test'n'tune/street legal drags. Descending on Shakespeare County is a group of renegade racers known as the Gasser Circus and a group of non conforming racers and there sixties inspired Chrysler, Ford and Chevrolet high riding American stock cars. As you might expect the circus also has its own resident clown called 'Honk' to stage the cars up on the startline.

The event also has its old favourites like the tyre smokin' Fuel Altereds; Supercharged Outlaws, Wild Bunch, Outlaw Anglias. There's also the Flathead Meltdown for sidevalve V8 rods and lakesters while bringing the event up-to-date will be Roger Goring's Jet powered Funny Car 'Firestorm'.

Today's Hot Rod Drags pushed the envelope of professionalism and showmanship. The cars are neater, faster and the subject of many 'Custom Car' and 'Street Machine' magazine articles. You've probably read about them...now see them in their rip roaring power snorting glory this weekend at the Hot Rod Drags. For more information call 01379 740100 or log on to www.nsra.org.uk.

Jerry will be posting live event coverage of the Hot Rod Drags over the weekend on the News page of the APIRA web site at www.apira.org.uk.

We were also interested to hear that this weekend is the thirtieth anniversary of Jerry Cookson's involvement with drag racing, which started as an enthusiast at age thirteen and has since included years of service to his beloved sport as a journalist, Press Officer, and track announcer amongst other things. Jerry has written a very interesting celebration of those thirty years which is now showing on the APIRA web site's News page. Congratulations, Jerry, and here's to the next thirty!
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
4th September: Alan Currans has posted another update to his excellent Acceleration Archive. "I have updated the Peter Jones Gallery section of the site", says Alan. "The first is an Introduction page which tells you a little about Peter and how he came to co-write with Alan Hardcastle the book 'Drive It - The Complete Book of British Drag Racing'. There is also a second page of Peter's photographs featuring Dennis Priddle performing a champagne burnout at the inaugural meeting of the NDRC's Long Marston track, Allan Herridge's crash in the Gladiator funny car and numerous other interesting pictures". Check it out at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk.

Gareth Evans' UK1320 web site at www.uk1320.com has been updated with a number of superb photographs from the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. Gareth also tells us that he plans to post end-day reports and a few phototgraphs from each day of this weekend's FIA European Finals.
©Eurodragster.com
UK National points updated.
3rd September: We are indebted to UK National Championship Points Co-ordinators Simon Groves and Yvonne Tramm for forwarding us the post-Allstar Nationals standings in the UK National Drag Racing Championships.
©Eurodragster.com
You can view the UK points by clicking here, or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Return of the King.
3rd September: It has been a long and difficult road for the UK's King Racing Top Fuel Bike team subsequent to their devastating fire at the UEM Championship round in Sweden just over five weeks ago. Their rider and team principal Ian King still must have his dressings changed on his legs three times per week whilst his plastic surgeon strives to minimise the need for grafts using new techniques, and the transport of the bike from Sweden to England for repair was particularly eventful. Ian takes up the story:

"With the assistance of the Gibbs family and Dave Silvester, Bob and Kath Glassup kindly offered to transport the damaged bike back from Sweden in the back of their Junior Dragster trailer via the event in Norway that I was unable to compete at. All was going well for Bob and Kath until they neared the port in Holland when the enormous extra weight of the bike and ancillaries caused the A frame to part company with the box! With the assistance of an extremely helpful crane repairman they managed to get back on their way, only to lose their electrics when the laden trailer grounded out on a railway crossing just a few miles from the King Racing HQ, and close to midnight. I am staggered at the fabulous assistance afforded by all in getting the bike back home, but Bob and Kath in particular deserve a medal for their hard work, and their cheerful manner despite the problems caused them."

Once home, work started in earnest to return the bike to race-ready condition. The King Racing team of Michael Beaumont, Nick Pepper, Marc Fossey and Ian King put in a supreme effort, whilst Mark Hawkins engineered replacement parts damaged in the fire. House of Kolor UK provided new paint applied by Wackyshack paintwork with their usual panache, and Goodridge replaced all the fluid lines that had melted. A local company, Job Link of Royston, Hertfordshire stepped in after seeing a news report and video of the fire on the BBC News and provided some much needed financial input, and many people placed orders for exclusive King Racing wristwatches, offered for sale in an attempt to offset some of the costs caused by the fire.

"Once again, my sponsors proved what fantastic companies they are", continues Ian. "Without question, they agreed to do all they could to get us back on track again. Particular thanks must go to Mick Woods of Job Link with his magnanimous gesture, all those who bought King Racing watches and those who made a generous and spontaneous gesture to our Back on Track campaign: Ivan Sansom, Rose Donohue, David Sim from Canada, Garry Sprake from Australia, and Ray Gardiner. All their contributions have offset the amount that was necessarily borrowed on bank loan to get back racing again."

The efforts paid off when King Racing made their return to the track at the NitrOlympx in Germany. The team fitted their new fuel management system with the kind guidance of Marius van der Zijden and Rob van Geffen, and looked (nervously) forward to their first run. Their nerves soon went when King made a marvellous effort to qualify in second position for eliminations, despite suffering the discomfort of his burns, bandages and ill-fitting but kindly-lent leathers from Nick Pepper of Straightline Racing (whilst Vanson Leathers prepare a bespoke new set). However, the first round proved a step too far for King when an awkward riding position necessitated by the leg injuries led to a shut off as the bike veered on the tricky Hockenheim surface.

The team gathered much-needed computer data during their runs in Germany, and returned to the UK with a plan to alleviate continuing fuel delivery problems. A new fuel cell and pickup system has been designed and built in a matter of days, and the team are looking forward to a the task of qualifying for an eight-bike Top Fuel Bike eliminator amongst a massive twenty entrants for the class.

The exclusive King Racing wristwatches in ladies' and gents' styles are still available from King Racing at a price of £32 in the UK, €44 to European customers and $54 to US residents, and includes Air Mail delivery.

Any companies or individuals who wish to be involved in the King Racing Back On Track campaign can contact Ian at ian@kingracing.com, by telephone on 07785 341099 or by fax on 01763 852707. Visit King Racing at www.kingracing.com.

King Racing are proud to be supported in their 2003 campaign by: Obsession Motorsports, Straightline Racing, New Engineering Ltd, Rofor Engineering, Performance Machine, Wackyshack Paintshop, Turboville.com, RSG Customize, House of Kolor UK, Murdoch Racing Enterprises, Goodridge UK, Vanson Leathers, White Line Cycles (Athens), Cometic Gaskets UK, and Job Link.
©Eurodragster.com
Dutch SG Series results.
3rd September: Many thanks to Robert Joosten for letting us know the outcome of this year's Dutch Open Super Gas Series. Congratulations to:

1. Robert 'Bad Nova' Joosten
2. Paul 'the Kid' Vrind
3. Andreas 'Little Deuce Coupe' Homburg
©Eurodragster.com
"The winners will recieve trophies and a cheque from Lucas Oil", says Robert. "Plans have already been made for 2004. The series will grow from a sixteen- to twenty-car field this year to a twenty-plus field next year! We also hope to see some UK drivers running the series."

You can find the official web site of the Dutch Open Super Gas Series at www.supergas.nl.

Eurodragster T-shirts at Finals.
3rd September: In response to readers' requests for personal sales, a limited number of Eurodragster.com T-shirts will be available at the FIA European Finals this weekend. The T-shirts are white with the wording Eurodragster.com, Home of European Drag Racing on the Web on the front. The Fruit of the Loom shirts come in Medium, Large or Extra Large and will be on sale on a first-come first-served basis for £10. All proceeds from sales will go to fund Eurodragster.com.
©Eurodragster.com
The T-shirts will be available from Sharkman at the spectator bank end of Race Control after racing finishes each day.

Nilsson's secret weapon.
2nd September: Swedish Pro Mod racer Håkan Nilsson has revealed his secret weapon as he goes into this weekend's FIA European Finals with a chance of another NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified Championship. US tuner Britt Micetich will be at Santa Pod with the Nilsson Motorsports team as they aim to retain the Championship which they won in 2002.

"We are going to the final with high expectations", says Håkan Nilsson. "We are fairly pleased with our season so far but would like to get it straight in England. We have been suffering a little from my red light at the Main Event in May, and we have not been in the points lead once this year. We won at Alastaro, but then had another disaster at Mantorp Park where Roger Johansson took us out on a holeshot. It took some time to overcome that. In Norway it went our way again: we had a good consultant in the person of former Pro Stock giant Jari Konola who helped us with some invaluable advice and made some adjustments to our car which made a big difference on the reaction times. The power was there and that was what it took to take the win.
©Eurodragster.com
"We are now less than one round behind Roger and need to take him out in the final if the two of us end up there. We have however seen a lot of cars running fast throughout this season and it will not be easy to keep them all behind us. There are a few cars which have good potential and everybody will be running hard at the Finals.

"To strengthen our team and make the most of it, our long-time expert consultant, Pro Mod wizard Britt Micetich of Iowa, will come to support us. Britt was last here in 1997 and got us on a good line for professional racing, and we now feel that it is time to bring him over again to sort out a few things. I am sure that Britt's expertise will give us at least another five hundredths. This would beat the record which Patrick Wikström currently holds, and just might take us into the 6.2 zone."

Razors at the ready.
2nd September: Sweden's Fast Freddy Fagerström is doubling up at this weekend's FIA European Finals. He will be racing both his fan-favourite blown-alcohol Pro Mod pick-up, with which he won at last year's Finals despite a crash in qualifying, and the Top Methanol FC which is on loan from Magnus Larsson.

"Right now Freddy is on his way to Trollhättan with his bus and the Funny Car", says team member Björn Anderberg. "He will meet up with Stefan Petterson who is helping us by taking the pick-up to England in his bus."

Freddy had some problems with the TMFC after the Nitrolympics as a bearing spun and damaged the block and crank. "The vibration also caused trouble with the Lenco so we have had some long nights in the workshop, but the race car is ready and on its way", says Björn. "We have run 5.98 and 392 kmh so far, and we hope that we will go quicker and faster at Santa Pod. Over the winter we thought that racing the Funny Car would be easy, but we learnt otherwise. Now we have a computer in the car so that we can see what we have been doing wrong."
©Eurodragster.com
Freddy's pick-up has run a limited schedule this year, so he is not in the NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified points chase, but the team have a target. "We hope to run quicker than 6.40 with the pick-up", says Björn. "If we do, then we will cut Stefan and the other team members' hair into a mohican style, including the children! We did it when we ran the first five with the Funny Car.

"It's the last race of the year and we are not coming to England to go slowly. Both cars are set on kill..."

Björn tells us that a new Fast Freddy web site is coming together at www.fastfreddy.nu.

Bader's pleasure.
2nd September: Newly-crowned 2003 NDRS Comp Eliminator Champion Bruno Bader and Junior Dragster-racing daughter Yvonne are very happy indeed with their says Fränzi Bader.

"It has been a great season with exciting racing throughout Europe", says Fränzi. "We went to Alastaro, Piteå and Skellefteå for the first time and each track has its own nice character. We raced against the best Comp and Junior Dragster racers in Europe, we met the very friendly Scandinavian people, and we ran a European record at Alastaro. We also came close to winning at Hockenheim.

"For Yvonne, who is Switzerland's only Junior Dragster driver, the NDRS season is over. Her efforts were unsuccessful but she didn't lose heart and she learnt a lot. More importantly she had a lot of practice during the season.

"We now have the pleasure of ending our season at the European Finals at Santa Pod, and then we will attend some exhibitions in Switzerland. And let's not forget the other excellent Swiss racers, Urs Erbacher and the two Peters Beck and Wacker.

"We will decide our 2004 plans at the end of the year."

Wildside ready for battle.
2nd September: "Ready, willing and in high spirits" is the message from the UK's Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster team going into this weekend's FIA European Finals, says driver Darryl Bradford.

"With nine cars ready for battle and eight spots open, it's going to be just that - a battle!", says Darryl. "After a summer of match racing and promoting drag racing to thousands we are ready to get back to the serious business of FIA professional drag racing! The Championship has been so close in Top Fuel all season, and if there is a chance we can help our good buddy Smax over the final hump to victory then we’ll be there.
©Eurodragster.com
"We’re looking forward to putting on a good show for all the people who have helped to support us and make this event possible. The list is huge, and in no particular order is: Racing Champions, Lipsync Post, Datron Technology, Royal Purple, White Contract Services, Flint Insurance, Cambridge Motorsport, MT Drains, Gold Motorservice, KG Freeman, La Vista Restaurant, Webbs Power Tools, Simon Dale and Russell Hill, and Doc at Roberts Builders!

"Last but by no means least, thanks to all the guys and girls on the crew who have worked tirelessly all summer on the show circuit. We wish everyone a successful and safe weekend, and come back soon Barry and Andy!"

FIA European Finals snippets.
2nd September: FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Championship points leader Peter Schöfer has a very tight twenty one-point lead over Dave Wilson going into this weekend's European Finals, and team member Gittli Koller tells us that the PSR team will be doing their best to maintain the lead. "We've had a real good season in Top Methanol Dragster", says Gittli. "The cars have run very well and close ETs in qualifying prove the great performance of all of the teams. As we always say in interviews, every car can win: there have been just hundredths of seconds between the cars. We have made some small changes to the dragster which we hope will work."

UK Pro Modified racer Gordon Appleton will be giving UK fans their first look at the stunning new paintjob on his Wheelgame Racing Camaro this weekend (right, click on picture to view larger version). The Darren West-designed paintjob made its début at the Nitrolympics at Hockenheim a couple of weeks back.

UK Super Gas racer Peter Lane tells us that he has left his Earsplittenloudenboomer Camaro on the trailer since the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. "We don't fix what ain't broke!", says Peter. "Besides, the silly old git who drives it (his words - Ed) needs all the rest he can get."

UK Super Pro ET racer Mark Flavell will be tuned into Eurodragster's Event Coverage from his hospital bed. If you were tuned in to Eurodragster News in August you will recall that Mark needs a back operation. "I'll be banging away at the refresh key on my laptop for the latest updates as soon as they're posted", says Mark. "The entry is spectacular and I'm sure that the qualifiying and racing will be likewise. Good luck to all the Super Pro teams out there, I'll be cheering you on! Have fun, and safe racing."
©Eurodragster.com
This weekend's European Finals is the next qualifying event for the Eurodragster Perfect Light Award. Super Gas racer Tim Adam won the money at the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway with a 0.400 RT in qualifying, so the Perfect Light prize fund has been reset to £50. All racers in all classes are eligible for the Perfect Light Award: it will be awarded to the first racer at this weekend's event to record a perfect Reaction Time, 0.400 or 0.500 as appropriate. The money can be won in either qualifying or eliminations. If no-one records a perfect RT this weekend then the prize fund will be increased to £75 for the UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway at the end of this month. If the money is won then the prize fund will be recharged to £50 for the European Finals.

Goring's warning stands.
2nd September: UK Jet Funny Car pilot Roger Goring was very pleased with the performance of his Firestorm FC at the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, and is looking forward to his appearance at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County this weekend.

"We're very pleased with the way things are going", says Roger, who clocked a best of 6.445 at the Allstar Nationals. "We're enjoying ourselves - we always do at Shakespeare - and we're getting down the track. The sixty foot and eighth-mile times are very respectable, so we are working on the burner pressure in the second half of the track. The 6.4 was close to our best ET, we just have to find some top end now."
©Eurodragster.com
Roger asked us to explain to his fans that he had to tone down his flame and throttle slam show on some of his Allstar Nationals runs because the track was right on curfew. "Lee Child (promoter - Ed) asked us to take it easy because of the time of day we were running, and of course you do what the promoter tells you!", says Roger. "We don't want anyone thinking that those warnings about the vicious afterburner were bull (they weren't - toasted Ed)!"

Roger and his team of Ian Blaylock and Helen Rusling will be continuing the gradual tweaking at the NSRA event this weekend, with a view to beating Firestorm's best figures of 6.417/250.00. "We're very much looking forward to it, and my previous warnings to everyone in Race Control still stand!", he says.

The Firestorm web site at www.firestorm-jfc.co.uk has been updated with the latest news from the team as well as photographs from recent appearances.

E-Mail problems.
2nd September: We have been experiencing problems with our E-Mail server in the last couple of days as, like most other servers on the planet, our ISP Selfnet has been blitzed by the Sobig virus. Although the mail server is able to filter out viruses it is receiving so many that sometimes bona fide E-Mails are lost.

We know for a fact that a number of E-Mails sent to Eurodragster's News address between Thursday and yesterday have been lost, so if you have sent a news item or other E-Mail to News, Links, Webmaster, Tog, Sharkman or any any Eurodragster address and it has either not been published or acknowledged then please re-send it to eurodragster@btinternet.com and we will be straight back to you.

Should you receive an infected E-Mail with any Eurodragster address as the sender name then please be assured that it has not come from us, as all Eurodragster computers are virus-protected. Sobig, like most of the latest viruses, is clever enough to appear to come from someone other than the sender. The basic groundrule, as always, is to be wary of E-Mails from people whom you do not know, or which appear to come from someone whom you know but which have attachments with extensions such as .exe, .pif or .scr.
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
2nd September: Andrew Bamford has updated his Racing Green web site with photographs from the FIA Main Event. "Better late than never", he says. You can check out Andrew's spectator-side pictures at www.racing-green.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
Webster hails awesome début.

1st September: Europe's newest Top Fuel Dragster driver Jon Webster had trouble describing his first run in the class, which took place at Santa Pod Raceway's Run What You Brung yesterday (Sunday). Jon recorded a 7.17 on his first licencing pass, a 'Maltese sixty foot' of about three hundred feet, which included a 0.915 sixty foot time.

"There is nothing I can say which would explain it to you", Jon told Eurodragster yesterday evening. "The car just kept going and going, the pull was constant and got more as I went further". "Jon described it alright when he got out of the car - it was the first recorded instance of his swearing!", joked Jon's wife Jeanette. "One of the words was 'awesome' but I won't say what the other one was!"

"You can't hear the engine that much, which surprised me", added Jon, who sponsors Eurodragster's webcam through his company Webster Race Engineering. "The burnout was a bit harsh though! And the speed comes off so quickly as soon as you lift, the deceleration is phenomenal". Despite only being on the throttle for a couple of seconds, Jon took four tenths of a second off his personal best which was recorded in Pat and Stephen Talbot's Super Pro ET dragster.

Yesterday's pass was the culmination of a lot of hard work for Jon, Crew Chief Peter Knight and the team, who were up into the small hours every night last week and finally got the dragster ready to take to Santa Pod at 2:30 yesterday morning. Tuning advice was on this occasion provided by Alan Jackson, although it was a one-off as he will already be calling the shots on three Top Fuellers at next weekend's European Finals. Crew Chief Peter Knight will be in charge of the dragster which will be carrying the Canto Racing name at Santa Pod.

"Alan Jackson's expertise is second to none", said Jon. "There was no computer, it's a new chassis to him, it's a different combination. His knowledge and expertise put you at ease and give you confidence. Alan said that we wouldn't learn anything from a sixty foot pass, so I should just stay on it as long as I felt comfortable. I could have stayed on it a lot further because it felt so good, but I am licencing and of course I have to do everything properly. It was perfect, though, and when we got back to the pits the engine was fine, the clutch was OK, no problems at all. And Knut Söderquist was waiting there to tell me that it was a very good FIA licencing run and you know how hard he is to please!"
©Eurodragster.com
Crew Chief Peter Knight (right) was very happy indeed with the outcome of the first pass. "I couldn't have asked for a better result", he said. "If you had seen this car on Thursday you wouldn't have believed it possible, but Jon did a bloody good job on it. There was ultimately too much to do to get here on Saturday, we had it fired up that evening and made a few adjustments. I was a bit concerned for Jon but you saw how well he did on the track - Alan said that it would have been a 5.1 or maybe even a 5.0!"

Working with Martin Canto on Martin's Top Methanol Dragster gave Peter the bug. "I built the engine for the methanol car, and that dragster showed me what I wanted to do", he said. "I raced with Martin, and now he's racing with me! Martin has been an endless source of support and I am very grateful to him."

"All of the fuel people have been friendly, accommodating and helpful", said Martin Canto. "What a great bunch of people."

Peter said that the big difference between the methanol and Fuel engines is that he has had to learn to delegate jobs. "You can't do everything yourself so you have to give particular jobs to people and trust them to do them and then come back to you. But I know that I can trust everyone on this crew so it's not been a problem!". Peter added that there were enough spares for two or maybe three motors.

Jon will be making his next licencing passes at Wednesday's Press Day at Santa Pod. There will be a skeleton crew so the team turned the car round last night, but depending upon the outcome of the first pass on Wednesday there may be a second run. "Everybody just needs time to get the idea", said Jon. "Before we got here today none of us realised how much work it is. But everyone has been very positive and encouraging."

Peter said that the Canto Racing team have everything to gain and nothing to lose at the FIA European Finals. "I've - tentatively - no regrets", he said. "I have taken a lot of notes today, now I just have to go home and gather my thoughts and see if I have any more questions for Alan because we're on our own next weekend! We will have a full-strength crew including three of Lindsay Deuchar's team so we should be OK."

Jon and Peter asked us to thank Alan Jackson, Knut Söderquist, Laurie Bamford, Lindsay Deuchar, John McIntyre, Graham Rice, Martin Canto, and Jon and Graham's wives for their endless help and support.

Jarrett's trolley dash.
1st September: Bob Jarrett, Crew Chief of the UK's Showtime Fuel Funny Car, didn't have time to draw his breath back at his home in the USA before flying back to England for this weekend's FIA European Finals. John Spuffard set a new speed record of 272.73 mph at Shakespeare County Raceway last weekend but unusually for the Showtime team their victory at the Allstar Nationals came at the expense of an engine.

"I have only been back in the States for five days, which left only three days to gather the parts I need", said Bob last night. "With the biggest drag race on the planet, the US Nationals at Indy, going on this weekend most of the parts suppliers were stretched to the limit. I would like to thank Ken Black (KBRE), Joe Squires (Bryant Crankshafts), Jerry Sweeny (Brooks Rods), Steve at AFT, Gary Burgin and many others who have given me the same priority as they have to the top US teams."
©Eurodragster.com
We were pleased to hear from Bob that the legendary Tom Hoover will once again be the Showtime team's guest at Santa Pod this weekend. "We are aiming to show Tom what the new Mustang body can do on one of his old cars", says Bob. "Tom loves the English fans, so please stop by and say Hi if you get a chance."

The team's official web site at www.showtimeracing.co.uk has been updated with team member Chris Dossett's inside report on their weekend. As ever Chris' report is essential reading, giving a great insight into the hard work involved in running a Fuel FC.

Smax's home advantage.
1st September: UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Smax Smith has confirmed that he will be racing again next season and that he will be continuing his partnership with car owner Knut Söderquist in 2004. The news comes as Smax prepares for the weekend of his racing career as he goes to the FIA European Finals with the Championship lead.

"I now have a real appreciation of our European counterparts and the cross-border camaraderie amongst the fans", says Smax. "As you know this has been my first season on the FIA European tour, and to be leading the Championship into the final round is a dream come true for us. I've really enjoyed travelling around Europe and meeting all the fans. The atmosphere and reception have been great, but there is nothing like the home advantage of a UK track for the deciding leg of the Championship.
©Eurodragster.com
"I have only been able to do it this season with the great support provided by my sponsors Purple Loans and Purple Dreams whose representatives will be at the track on the final day of the Championship to see me race. They have been great and have had complete confidence in our team to present their business to the TV and the fans at the track.

"Knut, Al Jackson and all of my great team have been working their butts off. My team manager Paul Townsend and my family have been great in support of my dream, as it is very time-consuming attending all the meetings. I really do feel that the fans have lifted me up and thrown me down the track at every event, and for that I am most appreciative. I just hope that I make all the fans happy at the Finals - whatever the result on the track. We will be competing next year and intend to maintain our winning relationship with car owner King Knut."

How to make Tom Anderson laugh.
1st September: The UK's first blown-alcohol Pro Mod is set to make its first appearance at this weekend's FIA European Finals, completing a trio of powerplant types for Bert Englefield and the BA Racing team. "I first ran Pro Mod at the second-ever event in May 1988 and have now run a non-nitrous car, a nitrous car and a blown car in Pro Mod", says Bert. "That must make me the only driver to have done this."

The BA Racing team are working hard to finish the '38 Ford Coupe. "We are currently fabricating the fuel and oil tanks", says Bert. "We still have plumbing and wiring to do, and we are also awaiting some parts which Bob Jarrett is bringing on Wednesday."

Since we last spoke to Bert he has been in touch with Tom Anderson in the USA. Tom drove a Fuel Funny Car in the 1970s and has been Crew Chief for Don Prudhomme, Connie Kalitta and Al Hofmann. In the last few years Tom has been involved in Pro Mod, seeing Jim Oddy and Mike Janis to IHRA Championships in 2000 and 2001.
©Eurodragster.com
"I told Tom that I needed to run high 6.30s to win, and he laughed and said that the combination he was giving me has run 6.07 in the USA!", says Bert. "The engine has new pistons, rods, cam etc. We have a Kobelco blower, and Tom has supplied a complete fuel system including a JBR carbon hat, and one of his trick Pro Mod fuel pumps. It also has an AFT fuel management system and has all been flowed on Tom's computerised workbench."

Bert says that he is very grateful to Bob Jarrett, John Spuffard, Dave Wilson, Dave Milam and Andy Robinson for their help and advice.

"We know that we have a tough challenge this weekend, but if everything comes together then we could be the joker in the pack", says Bert.

Larsen's Norwegian farewell.
1st September: This weekend's European Finals at Santa Pod will be the last race at which Danish Top Methanol Funny Car racer Dan Larsen and his Norwegian mechanics will be working together. Dan borrowed a number of members of Norwegian TMFC racer Arvid Grødem's crew whilst Arvid sat out 2003.

"It has been a very exciting season", says Joan Larsen. "We have all worked together fantastically and had good results in this tough class, like 5.78 seconds, 401 kmh, runner-up in Norway, and in the top half of the eliminations all season.

"No doubt that the class will be even tougher in 2004, when Arvid is expected back in the class. We wish the Norwegian team good luck, and look forward to racing with them. I would like to thank the Norwegian team members for a great season.

"The European Finals will be very exciting. Urs Erbacher, who has completely dominated the season, is already the European Champion. So the fight will be for second, third and fourth place. Leif Andréasson has the second place at the moment and will be very hard to touch. The real fight will be between Ulf Leanders, Dan Larsen and Niclas Andersson, but we also need to keep an eye out for Fredde Fagerström as he could join the group."
©Eurodragster.com
Dan's plans for 2004 are not yet finalised. "We have to find replacements for the Norwegian mechanics first", says Joan. "Our Crew Chief of many years, Torsten Dahl, will continue but we have to find the rest of the 2004 team. It is very hard to find mechanics in Denmark, as it is not much of a motor sports country. So we will probably have to look outside Denmark."

Joan will be updating Dan's web site at www.funnycar.dk from Santa Pod throughout this weekend, not just with news of Top Methanol Funny Car but also of Top Fuel Dragster, in which Denmark's Kim Reymond has a chance of the FIA European Championship.

Blakemore left with two chances.
1st September: Time is running out for UK Funny Bike racer Tim Blakemore to achieve his ambition of running a six second pass on his current bike before it is put up for sale at the end of the season, writes Augy Harrison. "The Blakemore and Rose team are hopeful that it can be achieved at the European Finals if the conditions are right, and that they can fine-tune their combination to take advantage of the excellent racing surface", says Augy. "The team were buoyed by the eighth-mile speed of 165.44 mph recorded last weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway, indicating that they have more than enough power to record the elusive number. A best ET of 7.02 recorded at the Main Event also shows they are just a gnat's whisker away from achieving their goal.

"With their new ZX12-powered machine about to start construction in Jon Webster's race shop the team have decided to sell Europe's quickest Kawasaki Funnybike so that all resources and efforts can be concentrated on the new machine. This leaves Tim with just the European finals and National Finals to run the sub-seven pass. The team are open to expressions of interest in their current machine."

If you fancy buying one of Europe's quickest Funny Bikes, you can talk to Tim Blakemore on 0117 904 2216.

Boye back for more fun.
1st September: Denmark's Martin Boye is returning to Santa Pod this weekend after an enjoyable experience racing his 1963 Impala in Pro ET at the 2002 European Finals. "Last year at Santa Pod was the first time I have tried ET racing, and it's fun", says Martin. "I am not good at it, but I will have fun anyway. I'm looking forward to meeting all the very kind racers and spectators to whom I spoke last year. Santa Pod really is a special place to race."
©Eurodragster.com
Martin has spent 2003 racing in Outlaw Street in the Danish Street Race Cup, and also contested a couple of Swedish Dragracing Championship races in the Street class which allows 10.5-inch slicks. "That class is too fast for us", says Martin, "but I feel that we are getting there. This is last chance to improve on last year's best ET of 9.68, and Santa Pod is the place to do it. I still have the 603 ci motor in the car, but we have made a lot of changes to the chassis since last year."

Martin also tells us that he plans to run at the Press Day on Wednesday, stay tuned to Eurodragster for news of his progress.

FIA European Finals snippets.
1st September: Provisional running orders for qualifying on Friday and Saturday are now available on the Event Index page of Eurodragster's FIA European Finals coverage. They can be viewed by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. We are very grateful to Santa Pod's Race Director Darren Prentice and SPRC Club Secretary Paula Marshall for forwarding us the running orders. As ever the running orders are provisional and subject to change for weather, track conditions or other reasons.

UK Pro ET racer Malcolm Motler has had a hard slog to prepare his popular Morris Minor pick-up for this weekend's race, says Marcie Motler. "We opened up the garage door, walked around the car and kicked each tyre, and everything was fine", says Marcie. The Spellbound team are attending Wednesday's Press Day, their first, and will then stay at Santa Pod until the end of the race. "A week at Santa Pod - who needs Spain?", says Marcie. "We are hoping to get through a few more rounds this weekend and to move ourselves up the National Championship, to finish the same as last year (fifth) or better."
©Eurodragster.com
2003 Ultimate Power Super Street Champion and UK National Championship leader, the UK's Mike Bentley, describes himself as "Chuffed" to be Ultimate Power Champion, and he is well-placed to take the National title with two rounds left. "It has all has come good since Tim Heinz rebuilt the motor two seasons ago and installed the roller cam", says Mike. "As always, many thanks to all of the Bristol Doorslammers (we're known as their Northern division), Trevor Graves for helping us at the track, special thanks to Zane Llewellyn who has always helped and inspired us, but most of all success like this would not have been possible without the immense help and dedication of Crew Chief Dave White. Long may it continue!"

2003 NDRS Champions.
1st September: The 2003 Champions in the Nordic Drag Racing Series were decided at the weekend's NDRS Finals at Alastaro, with the exception of NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified which will be decided at this weekend's FIA European Finals at Santa Pod.

Congratulations to:

Comp Eliminator: Bruno Bader
Stock/Superstock: Jarmo Markkanen
Super Comp: Paul Ingar Udtian
Super Gas: PO "Ålands-Pelle" Eriksson
Super Street: Janne Carlsson
Junior Dragster: Erik Johansson
Funny Bike: Svein Arne Skjervö
Super Gas Bike: Michael Ivarsson
Street Bike: Mattias Carlsson

Congratulations also to Christer Abrahamson of Svensk Dragracing who did an outstanding job of covering the NDRS Finals online over the weekend. You can read the reports and results from Alastaro, and read more about the NDRS outcomes, on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se.
©Eurodragster.com
Dutch Finals rained out.
1st September: Yesterday's eliminations at the Dutch Finals at Drachten were rained out, says Gerda Dijkstra of Lex Joon Racing, who together with Lex Joon promotes events at the Dutch track. "We had a lot of rain all weekend", says Gerda. "There were only a few spectators because for the preceding week the weather forecast had been bad.

"On Saturday we had three qualifying sessions, and we finished the day at 20:30. If it had not rained on Saturday I think we could have had five or more sessions. Yesterday morning was really bad. We dried the track at about 08:00, and when the track was dry it started to rain again. We sat that out and started to dry the track again. At about 10:30 Lex held the drivers' meeting and during that meeting it started to rain again. So we had to dry the track again! But no problem, Explosion have a nice track dryer and it has been used several times. After that shower we ran for some time and it started to rain again, then at 16:30 it started to rain again, then dried the track again within an hour.
©Eurodragster.com
"At Drachten we are allowed to run until 18:00, the exception is that if we only have the finals left to run we are can do so. So we had thirty three runs to do in half an hour. At 17:55 it started to rain again and we were only at the quarter finals.

"The biggest disappointment of this race is that the Dutch Champions did not become Champions on the track, only in SM ET which was decided in the quarter finals.

Despite the rain, we can look back at a great drag race season in the Netherlands. The last event especially was an example of the potential which Dutch drag racing has displayed this year. The track crew worked their butts off, the timing system worked like a Swiss watch, the track was the best you can get, and the 190 competitors from as far afield as Italy and Sweden made it a weekend to remember, despite the rain."

The Explosion Club's web site at www.explosion.nl has been updated with a number of pictures from the weekend, as has Patrick Kuyper's web site at www.imaginary.nl click on Events then Racing.

UK National Finals entry forms.
1st September: Entry forms are now available for the UK National Finals, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 27th-28th September. You can find the forms on the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc.
©Eurodragster.com

Earlier news

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