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30th September: Many thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers (Europe) for forwarding the official timing data from the weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out the timing data by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Andy has also sent a new European Bests table updated with the records set at the weekend by Rob Turner and Dave Beck. You can check out the European Bests table by clicking here or by clicking on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. UK Import racer John Bradshaw and the Abbey Motorsport team, who contested Super Pro ET last weekend and who will be racing in the HKS Series at this weekend's Jap Show, have asked us to say a big Thank You to everyone for their welcome in 2008. "We have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the mainstream for the first time at the FIA Main Event and National Finals, and the experience has been incredible", says John. "The car is still very much in development and may take some time before we can really dial in numbers we are sure of (7.7 from a Skyline isn't impressive enough?! - Ed), but the learning curve has been fantastic. Congratulations to all of this season's Championship winners and others who have set Personal Bests this season. We're looking forward to taking part in 2009." 2008 ACU UK Pro Stock Bike Champion and contingency sponsor Dave Beck has been in touch to congratulate Ivan Birch on the 2008 ACU UK Comp Bike Championship, the UK National Finals event win, and his fourth set of MTC contingency money this season, for purchasing MTC products though Dave Beck Racing Ltd. ©Eurodragster.com Also in touch with congratulations is Tony 'Topo' Deluca formerly of the Alien team who would like to say a big Well Done to 2008 UK National Super Pro ET Champion Rick Cooke. "A well-deserved win", says Topo. "Hard luck to Nigel (The Shirt) Turner - perhaps next year. Also thank you to Ashley Bell for letting me crew for a couple of meetings this year and to all the Santa Pod crew for their hard work this year, well done. I would have loved to see John 'Leadfoot' Everitt have a better year with the Alien, as my heart belongs to the Alien and its crew." Congratulations to John Hinks of South Lanarkshire who won our Kings of Nitro contest having correctly answered that Urs Erbacher won the 2007 Championship by two points, that Wayne Dupuy is tuning Urs' car in 2008, and that Urs' Fat Attack business is based in Arlesheim. Thanks to everyone who entered and thanks again to Nina Carbone of The Gamma Project for putting up the prize of a DVD set of the series which is now winging its way to John. Don't forget that you can order your own Kings of Nitro DVD set at www.kingsofnitro.co.uk. Thanks to those readers who have already sent in tributes for departing Santa Pod Raceway Commentators John Price and Graham Beckwith. The tribute page will be posted tomorrow (Wednesday) with those messages already received; if you would like to send your own tribute to John and Graham then please drop an E-Mail to tributes@eurodragster.com. Web site updates. 30th September: Not only has Brian Taylor been busy working on his history of drag racing in the UK and the Allard Chrysler Action Group, but he has even found time to write a couple of Blog entries about the two projects on Alan Currans' excellent Acceleration Archive. You can find out what Brian has been up to on both fronts via the What's News link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. First up with a UK National Finals update today is John Seymour who specialises in a presenting different slant on events at the track. You can check out John's excellent photographs at www.thebaldphotographer.com. ©Eurodragster.com Jamie Dyks has updated his Fotopic gallery with shots of Saturday's action at the UK National Finals. Jamie's pictures can be found at topnitro.fotopic.net. Finally for the UK National Finals updates Ben Sharich has posted video clips of Sunday's action on YouTube at uk.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Speedblood. Editor's note: Only a brief news update today because of pressure of work in your News Editor's day job. If you know where Tog works, and if you've been keeping an eye on the news in the last couple of days, you'll know what he's been trying not to make worse. Tune back tomorrow for the identity of one of two mystery Pro Mods under construction in the UK, news of the work on getting the Chaos Fuel Altered back in order, a preview of this weekend's JapShow Final, a review of the UK Northern Finals at York Raceway, the latest from The Fang and more, and please keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com. UK National Finals results. 29th September: Congratulations to the winners of the UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway: Nitro Fuel Shootout: Risto Poutiainen 4.9169/301.20 bye, Barry Sheavills no show Top Methanol: Rob Turner 5.5260/246.69 def. Derek Flynn 5.6070/255.98 Pro Modified: Graham Ellis 8.2915/149.06 bye, Roger Moore shut off Super Modified: Andy Hone 7.5382/177.66 def. Craig Gibbs 8.0215/169.75 Super Pro ET: Chris Isaacs (8.73) 8.7706/143.71 def. Dave Ward (8.85) 8.8662/151.92 Pro ET: Neil Hunter (9.68) 9.7147/134.71 def. Carla Pittau (9.80) 9.8128/135.94 Sportsman ET: Brian Huxley (15.35) 15.3939/89.36 def. Nick Gay (14.60) 14.5817/92.75 red light Super Comp: Pete Creswell 8.8909/172.32 def. Paul Letchford 8.8586/159.56 Super Gas: Stuart Morrice 9.9177/129.14 def. Conrad Stanley 9.9260/152.57 Super Street: John Grant 10.9806/128.64 def. Bob Lees 10.9251/129.47 Junior Dragster: Matthew Seamarks (7.90) 8.0094/74.70 def. Rosie Hunt (8.10) 8.1270/78.36 Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association: Paul Wratten 6.8708/195.42 def. Tony Betts 7.2976/153.58 B&H Automotive Street Eliminator: Steve Pateman staged def. Jeff Meads 9.3370/157.85 red light VW Pro: James Hodson (10.70) 10.874/103.59 def. Phil Norman (12.60) 12.7274/103.76 VW Alternate Engine: Spencer Tramm (8.73) 10.2495/90.53 def. Matt Attwood (11.48) 15.4596/104.95 VW Sportsman: Spencer Tramm (15.93) 16.3633/63.04 def. Chris Baylis (13.60) 15.0829/80.45 Wild Bunch: Terry Clifford (10.18) 10.2070/125.49 def. Chris Hartnell (9.09) 9.5534/121.40 ©Eurodragster.com Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woollatt 6.3423/211.76 def. Rene van den Berg 6.9698/193.81 Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck 7.2504/186.48 def. Len Paget 7.7761/144.71 Funny Bike: Chris Hall 7.0991/189.52 def. Dave Bailey 7.1849/161.84 Super Street Bike: Steve Venables 7.5501/188.83 def. Richard Stubbins 7.6411/188.94 Comp Bike: Ivan Birch 8.6389/124.45 def. Phil Leamon 9.6197/94.46 9.50 Bike: Fred Furlong 9.5938/123.44 def. Wayne Saunders 9.6506/139.83 Supertwin Fuel: Martin Blackwell 8.2985/158.43 def. Shawn Rodman 9.4635/151.01 Supertwin Gas: Andy Smith 9.4844/136.41 def. Piet Verhoef 16.1795/78.66 Supertwin ET: Joe Elliott (10.50) 10.7454/132.37 def. Steve Partridge (11.23) 11.2301/118.76 red light Subject to official ratification the following records were set: Top Methanol Dragster ET: 5.466 seconds, Rob Turner Pro Stock Bike speed: 186.48 mph, Dave Beck Super Street racer John Grant took the £150 Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award with a Reaction Time of 0.0006 in the first round of eliminations. Steve Partridge took the £50 Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award with an 11.2301 on an 11.230 dial-in in the final of Supertwin ET. You can check out our American Car Imports-sponsored UK National Finals event coverage by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and select the UK National Finals. Our good buddy DJ has been updating Santa Pod Raceway's web site with daily galleries from the event, which you can check out at www.santapod.co.uk/e_nat_finals08daily.php. 2008 UK Champions. 28th September: Congratulations to our UK National and other series Champions, subject to ratification: MSA British Drag Racing Championship: Bert Englefield SPRC Top Methanol: Rob Turner Super Modified: Nigel Payne Super Pro ET: Rick Cooke Pro ET: Paul Baynton Sportsman ET: Geoff Cowley Super Comp: Dave Catton Super Gas: Conrad Stanley Super Street: Leigh Morris Junior Dragster: Scott Hauser B&H Automotive Street Eliminator: Steve Pateman VWDRC VW Pro: James Hodson VWDRC VW Sportsman: Spencer Tramm VWDRC VW Alternate Engine: Scotty Evison Wild Bunch Series: Tony Smith and Dave Williams Outlaw Anglia: Paul Wright ©Eurodragster.com ACU UK Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woollatt ACU UK Funny Bike: Chris Hall ACU Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck ACU UK Comp Bike: Ivan Birch ACU UK Super Street Bike: Steve Venables 9.50 Bike: Richard Sawatzki NAST Supertwin Fuel: Martin Blackwell NAST Supertwin Gas: Chris Mott NAST Supertwin ET: Joe Elliott Blood, sweat, tears, and bang! 
26th September: Blood, sweat and tears, day and night, seven days a week is the best way to describe the last few weeks in
Zodiac Racing's workshop to get the Godfather VII ready to rumble for the first time, writes Vincent
Pels:
One hour before it was put in the trailer, the bike ran for a couple of minutes on methanol, and only for five seconds on Nitromethane. Five seconds and then shut down in a hurry to be able to catch the ferry to England's home of European drag racing, Santa Pod Raceway. There it literally shook the world as it started, and ended, with a big bang. Team principal and bike owner Ton Pels announced on Eurodragster.com and Kingracing.com: "Yes, we will come to the European Finals with the new bike, but no, cosmetically the bike will not be ready yet". So the team had to go for it. Ton was finishing the final drive, rear wheel hubs and spacers, outer sprocket support plate and all the other hardware that needed attention, whilst Vincent had put on the fuel, pneumatics, electrical and datalog system in record time. Rider Roel Koedam finished the brake hoses and fittings, clutch management pressure lines and fitted the temporary body and front fender. The day the bike was leaving for Santa Pod was the first day the bike could be started to run on nitromethane. The engine ran good on methanol from the spray cans, so the fuel was switched on. After it filled the nozzle lines the engine ran fuel, but the setting of the barrel valve and butterfly were way off, so it idled at 4500 RPM. The fuel shut-off was hit, the engine quit and it was decided to set the bike up in England. "It runs, the rest is a matter of tuning", said Ton. Building a top fuel drag bike from the ground up in less then a year turned out to be a tough job. "From the ground up" meaning making almost everything in-house. When Eurodragster.com reporter Simon asked what was made by the Zodiac team themselves, Vincent probably described it best: "Let me sum up what we didn't make ourselves, as that list will be a lot shorter". But in the end it felt like putting a two year project into one year. The team worked frantically to get the bike ready in time for the Finals. Being a new bike, points for improvements would be found and it would be better to find these before the winter then at the beginning of the season when the pressure is already on. At Santa Pod it took the team two more warm-ups to get the bike to idle and to pick up to their satisfaction. But then rain came, long heavy rain. Thursday was no race day so, OK, let's hope for better weather on Friday. But no, no better weather on Friday. The last hope was Saturday, as the team wanted to get track time to tune the bike. On Saturday morning it looked better. The Pod crew swept and dried the track and were already putting glue to it, and the SuperTwins were called to the line for the first qualifying session. Once we were in the line-up, the rain started again. Dark clouds started to come in just as the final layer of glue was being applied to the track, and then heavy rain started to poor down. At 3:00 in the afternoon racing was cancelled and there would be a "one shot" qualifying session Sunday morning. A wise decision as it rained continuously until ten o'clock on Sunday morning. Because of the one-shot qualifying the bike was "upped" to be able to qualify in the only qualifying session they had. More fuel, more clutch and more ignition. Sunday afternoon they had the track race ready and qualifying started. The Godfather VII was the first SuperTwin out. It was fired up and Roel went straight into the burnout. Great burnout and the engine sounded clean. Maybe too clean? Roel only wanted to roll out of the water box, but the rear wheel instantly went up in smoke so the throttle response was more then he had anticipated for. "Just this much throttle" Roel was smiling from within his helmet when Vincent was pushing the bike back. His nerves suddenly became confident, as the bike was easily guided in the burnout and it did not vibrate at all. Back at the start line the bike was put on the "high-ish cackle" and moved into stage. On the green Roel hesitated a short moment, getting himself focused on the game plan, and then hit full throttle. 
The bike hooked up, planted the rear tire and bang! With a huge flash both heads were lifted and it went quiet.
This is not what the team had hoped for. Back in the pits the questions started. Was it too lean? All the data
was studied and the bike seemed to be doing what it was supposed to do, at least close enough. Was it too rich
then? With the amount of fuel going in it was sort of impossible to hydraulic the heads that quickly.
Back home the engine was opened up and the damage was inspected more closely. Both heads lifted, oval small end on the con rods, bent wrist pins, even the main bearings of the rods and crank were smashed in. What immediately caught our attention the most was that the pushrod sides of both exhaust rocker arms were broken off and with nitromethane, that can cause devastation like this. So even though the bike only ran for 0.2 seconds, the team was glad they went to the Pod to find out these issues. The rocker arms were one of the few parts not made or designed by the Zodiac team, but this will not be for long. Other areas which are going under extra close investigation are cam timing and manifold design. Right now the bike is being readied for a couple of shows. A new body has been fabricated and the bike will finally receive a paint job. After these shows, some more cosmetic work will be done on the bike and it will be made ready for the 2009 season. Tests will probably commence at the Easter Thunderball, if not before. For the real race enthusiast the bike will be displayed at the Rosmalen Big Twin Bike Show in November, the Custom Performance Show at Bad Salzuflen, Germany, in December, and at the Motor Bike Expo at Verona, Italy, in January. As we said it will be fully painted in the Zodiac colours! See you at the race track! Next to Zodiac Racing's own products the Zodiac Race Shop can supply racers brands like G2 (exclusive distributor for Europe), S&S Race Products (exclusive distributor for Europe), McClure's Master Performance Racing, ARP, JE, Racepak, Kinsler, Gates, PM and much much more. For any racing needs, please contact us at zodiacracing@zodiac.nl. Check out our race catalogue at www.zodiac.nl/en/catalog/zodiacracing_shop.html The Zodiac SuperTwin Top Fuel drag racing team is proudly sponsored by Zodiac International BV, Supertrapp Exhaust Systems, ACCEL Motorcycle Products and Spectro Oils of America. The Zodiac SuperTwin Top Fuel drag racing team is proud to use products from Zodiac International BV, Supertrapp Exhaust Systems, ACCEL Motorcycle Products, Spectro Oils of America, Performance Machine Disk Brakes and Wheels, Kibblewhite Precision Machining, Midwest Acorn Nut Company, Goodridge Fluid Transfer Systems and Gates Belt Drive Systems. ©Eurodragster.com Playing with the Toy. 
26th September: Ex-pat UK Supertwin racer
Paul Castle fired up his Grandpa's Toy
bike for the first time in some years at the Goodridge Dutch Finals at Drachten. Paul got in touch to
let us know how it went:
We went to Drachten in company with Stan Verheijen. As both bikes had not been fired up for about six years Stan suggested that we spend the day checking everything. On Saturday the plan was to fire up both bikes three or our times to bed in the motors. This plan worked well with Stan's bike but with mine we found some problems. When we fired it up, it only fired on one cylinder and when I checked the plugs fron the cylinder which didn't fire they were completely dry so we suspected a fuel problem. I checked out the fuel system which was all OK, but we eventually traced the problem to a bad plug wire. We also found a problem with the front wheel, the tyre was not staying up which I traced to a small area of damage on the rim which I hadn't noticed before. In light of this I decided it might not be a good idea to make a pass, so we spent Sunday trying to sort out a few other minor problems. ©Eurodragster.com Although we did not make a run it turned out to be a very profitable weekend in terms of knowledge, for which I am very greatfull to Stan Verheijen and Karl Thiecke, amongst others, for their help and advice over the course of the weekend. Without Stan's help it would not have been possible. We now know what we need to do over the winter and several changes will be made. Mainly the ignition system, a different battery set-up, and a new and re-sited fuel tank. The other work will be cosmetic to make things tidy and shiny. But what we can say, the Toy is alive if not 100% well. Wild Bunch closing out 2008. 26th September: Wild Bunch Race Co-ordinator Claire Meaddows writes with a quick preview of the nostalgia racers' round at this weekend's UK National Finals: The Wild Bunch are really looking forward to the Finals this weekend, where they will have eight cars. The event will be the Club's sixth and final Round of the Wild Bunch Series, when the coveted numbers WB 1 to WB 4 will be decided. The current leaders are yet again Tony Smith and Dave Williams with The Cunning Plan Minivan altered with Scot Durrant's Tiki Munki Ruby-bodied altered in second place. Neither of these teams will be at the National Finals, but Tony and Dave are guaranteed to be either winners or runners-up in the Series, as the only teams who can catch them being the current third and fourth place holders Chris Hartnell and Terry Clifford. Either of them would have to win the event to take the Wild Bunch Series win. ©Eurodragster.com This event will also be the tenth and final round of the contingency-sponsored Real Steel Series, with the top four earning a share of £350 in Real Steel vouchers. Current leader Dave Rowlands is guaranteed the Series win if he makes it to stage in the first round, with the only racer able to pass him being Chris Hartnell who would have to win the event if Dave did not race on Sunday. Currently in second place is Darren Law, who can only sit and watch, as sadly the Wicked Lady suffered axle damage at the Open Sport Nationals. But Darren is still assured of a top four slot, with only Chris and Terry able to overtake him. Can Crazy Chris run his first eight of the season in Backdraft and take the event win for his first ever Wild Bunch Series title? Or will Terry Clifford take his first ever WB Series win with the golden Ratcatcher Resurrection slingshot, running his first nines along the way? Or will Tony and Dave hang on for a record fifth win in the Wild Bunch? Can Dave Rowlands win the Real Steel Series to add to his recent Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series win in only his first full season of racing in Destiny's Angel? Will Mark Richardson's Pony Express continue its good run of form into the low nines and leapfrog into a top four Series placing? Can Eurodragster.com sponsor Ed Yates move into the top ten with Team DB's RamRaider slingshot, and will Keith Crampton break into the elevens with his beautifully turned out Soultown Shaker slingshot in its first race at the Pod? Can Darryl Howells run back into the nines and up the table in the DASH Racing Chemical Reaction slingshot? Or will Andy Cresswell take his first win in the FreQ Team's Living the Dream slingshot just before his twenty first birthday? Can't wait for Sunday, Sunday, Sunday to find out! Best of luck to all the racers for a quick, safe, and enjoyable event, and many thanks in advance to all the Santa Pod crew for all their hard work. We really appreciate every one of them. See you at the drags! Swift snippets. 26th September: UK blown-alcohol altered racer Dave Grabham has had to withdraw from this weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway due to non-arrival of parts. Freddy's Revenge suffered engine damage at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags after a 7.3-second pass. ©Eurodragster.com Paula and Holley Marshall have asked us to say a big Happy Birthday to Santa Pod Racers Club Chief Starter Ian Marshall. No sooner said than done girls, have a great day Ian. Don't forget that 23:59 UK on Sunday is the deadline for our contest to win a Kings of Nitro DVD set. For more details, or to enter, check out the Contest page by clicking here, or by clicking on the Kings of Nitro contest link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. PMR locked and loaded. 26th September: Eurodragster.com News sponsor Paul Marston Racing are loaded for bear going into this weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway: Dave Catton currently leads the National Championship in Super Comp with the PiranaZ-backed Ugly Stick four-link dragster and is looking at a total lockout with the Santa Pod Racers Club Championship still to be decided. This will be PMR's first National title; Dave will be taking each round as it comes with the knowledge that there will be a bullseye on his back all weekend. Just as important for drag racing is the début of our second generation of new drag racers to the PMR team. Simon Innes will compete in Pro ET at the wheel of the Insanity Vega. The Vega has been the backbone of the Drag Race Driving School for some time now and is currently for sale on Eurodragster.com's Swap Meet. The Insanity Vega has been very good to us and all the drivers who have learned in her: Dave Catton, Steve Bolton, Mick Howling, Gary Springford and myself, to name but a few who have all taken turns driving and learning from her. I just felt that it was time to let someone new to drag racing have the opportunity to have a great, decent, sorted, entry-level ride. Everyone at PMR will be sorry to see her go but if she doesn't then our 2009 pupils will also have her to guide them through their rookie stages. The Insanity Vega can be a demanding ride but teaches the driver to respect this great sport of ours . Mick Howling will return to Pro with the mighty Grumpy's Dodge. With a semi final finish at Shakespeare County Raceway last time out, there is unfinished business to take care of. Currently in seventh position in the National points, a top five position is tantalisingly close and well worth aiming for. Paul Marston returns to Super Gas with the Whoopass Monza, in which Dave Catton won this event last year. Paul is looking to repeat this and set yet another record for PMR of a National vvent title successfully defended. ©Eurodragster.com PMR would like to thank their sponsors PiranaZ, CTM Performance and Machine (020 8592 1180), Black Box London, Disco Equipment Hire (020 597 4575), ACL Bearings (01708 890494), London Road Tyres (01708 735355), Geddex, plus all our other associates sponsors and partners along with Eurodragster.com who make us all look so good. All the Paul Marston Racing super crew: Crew Chief Funsize, Sefton Whitlock, Lisa Whitlock, Meat Pie Mick, Lighthouse Lee, Sam Innes and all the PMR pupils who have spent time with us this year. Special thanks goes to Mad Mick Howling for all the behind the scenes work that he puts into the Drag Race School (Hear, hear - Ed) and the National Events, PMR could not function without you mate. Last but not least thanks to Santa Pod Raceway for all their help with the Drag Race School, for without them Paul Marston's Drag Race School would not exist, and of course the fans who we all look forward to seeing this weekend. Paul Marston Racing will as usual be holding stock of all your race consumables, gaskets, plugs, oils, and Geddex Products Dial-in, Wheels-up, Burnout Gard, Slick Air, just stop by our trailer. With the weather playing ball on the long range weather forecast and Fuel cars at dusk, it is all shaping up to be one hell of an end to the season. See you all there. Web site updates. 
26th September: Dominic Romney has updated his photographic web site
Modern Pics with shots from the NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway. Dom
tells us that a 2009 calendar of his shots will be available soon, but in the meantime you
can check out his pictures at www.modernpics.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com UK National Finals racer update. 25th September: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has been in touch with gate, signing-on and scrutineering details for this weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. ©Eurodragster.com Santa Pod Raceway's gates open at 12:00 midday tomorrow (Friday). Signing-on is open from 1:00 pm until 8:00 pm tomorrow and then reopens at 7:00 am on Saturday. Car scrutineering commences at 3:00 pm tomorrow, and bike scrutineering commences at 6:00 pm tomorrow. Scrutineering recommences at 7:00 am on Saturday. 12:00 Saturday's provisional running order is now available and can be viewed by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage page on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the UK National Finals. Please note that as ever the running order is provisional and is subject to change due to weather or track conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by Race Officials. Beckwith's last ride. 25th September: If you were tuned in to Eurodragster.com News during FIA European Finals week you will recall that Santa Pod Raceway commentator Graham Beckwith announced his departure from beneath the Helmet of Truth after seventeen years. This weekend's UK National Finals will be Graham's last appearance on the microphone and he says that he has had a very enjoyable time and has a lot of people to thank. "I would like to thank Santa Pod Raceway, Trakbak Racing and Santa Pod Racers Club for all the support and encouragement over the last seventeen happy years of commentating at The Pod", says Graham. "Special thanks to Keith Bartlett and his 'Generals' Caroline and David for their faith in my abilities. Thanks too to the oracle that is Eurodragster.com. I have watched it grow to become the foremost authority and respected window on the sport we love. How easy is it now to be in the know on all aspects of quarter mile action? Cheers Tog, Roger, Simon, Kirstie, Sharky and Co. You guys know how dedicated you are (Oh I say, thanks - Ed with something in his eye). "Most of all I will miss the racers. I have made so many friends, some I can't even put a face to, but each and every one dedicated to providing a motor sport so blindingly brilliant, I stand in awe of you all. The racers are the people who have made my job so enjoyable, from Junior Dragster and 9.50 bike to Top Fuel on (sometimes) two and (occasionally) four wheels. You are all stars. ©Eurodragster.com "Since I first donned the Helmet of Truth at the 1990 Canonball, a series of people have joined me in sporting that apparel: Dave Grady, Paul Venners, Sharkman, Dave Alexander, Tog, PiPPi, Benni Voss and Björn Sundqvist, along with Messrs Sheavills, Lindelöw, Bradford and of course Gary Page, all of whom have made the commentary informed and entertaining in large doses. But of course, the man who has coloured my performance, and left me dazzled by his people skills is my mate John Price. One could not have experienced a happier partnership. Thanks John. "I've had a ball. But never a Pukka Pie!" We will shortly be publishing a tribute page for Santa Pod's dynamic duo of John Price, whose last commentary at Santa Pod was the reecnt FIA European Finals, and Graham Beckwith. If you would like to send a tribute to John and Graham then please drop an E-Mail to tributes@eurodragster.com. UK National Finals Perfect Awards. 25th September: This weekend's Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway is the last event in the 2008 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards scheme. £200 is on offer for perfect performance. 
The Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been increased to £150 after it went unclaimed at the
Extreme Performance Bike Weekend. The money will be presented to the first racer this weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000
seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available to all racers in all classes during qualifying and eliminations but will only be awarded for
the first perfect light of the event. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with performance hose and fitting manufacturer
Speedflow whose web site you can find at www.speedflow.co.uk.
As Santa Pod Raceway's timing system works to four decimal places we must clarify that although the Perfect Light Award goes to three places, we will not pay out for red lights with zeroes in the first three decimals since a foul is a foul however far in the first non-zero digit may be. So a reaction time of 0.0001 will win you the money (if you're first to do it), but a reaction time of -0.0001 will not. Decals are not formally required for the Perfect Light Award but of course we appreciate it: you can get Eurodragster.com decals at the track from any Eurodragster.com staff member. ©Eurodragster.com 
The Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by 9.50 Bike racer Richard
Beck at the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend. The money will be presented to the first racer this weekend to run to the thousandth on
their dial-in or index. The Perfect ET Award is available this weekend in Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Sportsman ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super
Street, Junior Dragster (eliminations only), 9.50 Bike, VW Pro, VW Sportsman, VW Alternate Engine, The Wild Bunch, and Supertwin ET, but
will only be awarded for the first perfect run of the event. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with RV sales and service specialists
Gold RV whose web site you can find at www.goldrv.co.uk.
To be eligible to collect the Perfect ET Award, racers will be required to carry Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET decals, one on each side of the vehicle whether car or bike. If you pull this weekend's first Perfect ET but are not carrying decals then there will be no discussion, we will not pay out and the next person to pull a Perfect ET will get the money assuming that they are carrying decals. The decals (pictured) are available in the Signing On office; please note that, as is usual with contingency schemes, racers are responsible for requesting or picking up decals when signing on. A list of required decals per class is always on display in the Signing On office. Swift snippets. 
25th September: From Brian Taylor comes the great news that the proposal to restore
the historic Allard Chrysler dragster to cacklefest condition has passed the approval criteria of
both the Beaulieu Advisory and the Trustees Comittees and thus that the project can proceed. There will be more news in Brian's forthcoming
update of the Allard Chrysler Action Group Blog which you can find on Alan Currans' excellent Acceleration Archive at
www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk.
The post-Extreme Performance Bike Weekend points standings in the ACU UK Drag Bike Championships are now available on the King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com. ©Eurodragster.com Carl Burton has been in touch to tell us of a change of plan for the collection of tickets for the Pro ET Christmas Bash. Tickets will now be available at Santa Pod this weekend from Charlie Chivers. If you can't make it to Santa Pod this weekend then you can get your tickets by sending an SAE to Carl Burton at Gravel House, 2 Wisbech Road, Coates, Peterborough PE7 2DG. UK Pro ET racer Phil Toppin has decided to hold a conker tournament at this weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. "In the pits on Saturday night, 50p to enter, all money to the Medical Centre", says Phil. "The glove is on the floor, Pro ET will take them all. Bring your own Simpson bootlace. It might be an idea to have a medic on standby, some transbrake button fingers might get hurt." Weather tracking with Gold RV. 
25th September: UK Top Methanol Dragster team
Gold RV Racing are pleased to announce that they have become
an official re-seller of the Kestrel 4250 Racing hand held weather tracker/station.
"As you may have read recently, we flew Jim Rizzoli in from the US to assist us with tuning the Gold RV A/Fuel Dragster", says Derek Flynn who sponsors Eurodragster.co Home and News pages and the Perfect ET Award through Gold RV. "It was Jim who introduced me to this excellent little hand held device and I just had to get one. After searching the web I was really pleased to find that that they Kestrel 4250 is available here in the UK at around the same price as they are in the US and that they are distributed by R-P-R Ltd. Even better was that they R-P-R hold stocks and fully support the product this side of the Pond. I did the usual that us racers do and asked for a discount in return for promoting their products to the drag racing fraternity, after explaining how many teams drag raced here in the UK and Europe, which quite surprised them. We managed to secure the deal not just for us but for all racers. ©Eurodragster.com "To cut a long story short (makes a change I hear you say, especially if you have been reading my Blog lately) we have negotiated with R-P-R that any racer who purchases a unit through Gold RV Racing and agrees to wear a Kestrel sticker on each side of the car or bike can receive a rather nice 10% discount off the normal UK retail price of £230 plus VAT. We shall add details of the product to our own web site in time but you can read more about it on the R-P-R website at www.r-p-r.com/kestrel/k4250.htm although to qualify for the racers discount you will have to order through us. We have also purchased a 4250 for demonstration purposes which will be available at the track, so why not pop by and have a look...if it is good enough for Cory Mac, Jim Rizzoli and the like, it's good enough for me! "The 4250 Racing comes with a five-year guarantee here in the UK and is packed with all the features you need from a weather station. Don't be fooled by the price or how compact this unit is as it has been race-proven to deliver the functions and accuracy of its much larger and more expensive counterparts all in one neat hand held unit. So why not give yourself the competitive edge with the Kestrel 4250 Racing weather tracker with altimeter, corrected altimeter, barometer, wind meter, temperature gauge, air density, humidity % and gpp etc. One really nice feature is that you press one button at the time of your run, probably best done by a crew member than the driver, and it remembers all the weather data when you actually ran! "See you at the National Finals - safe racing and good luck with those Perfect ETs, and let's hope that the Kestrel 4250 does not show too much moisture in the air, if you know what I mean!" The fastest RC racer. 
25th September: So who ended up the UK's fastest radio-control racer at
Shakespeare County Raceway this past weekend? Jerry Cookson has the answer:
It all started off early Sunday morning as twenty four speed-hungry racers broke camp for the UK round of the World RC Speed Championships. Many were double-loaded with two or three cars. Even a team from Sweden showed, to give the event a truly international flavour. Fastest overall out of the competing eight classes was Magnus Vassmar from Sweden. Controlling what partly resembled a NASCAR Dodge Intrepid, Magnus achieved a flying speed of 104.25 mph beating Leon Morrel's 103 mph from last year before exploding the car into a million pieces on the next run after hitting one of the blocks acting as a shield for the timing cells. Although Magnus had brought his car in a box and was now going home with it in a bag, he still had a smile on his face when accepting his trophy from event organiser Tony Lovering. For the Bikes, one of which was using nitro for fuel, Ken Dineen managed to run a top speed of 55.25 mph with his electric bike while in the IC Open class Allan Waterfall achieved a staggering speed of 71.77 mph from his stretched racer to bump John Veal's 70 mph from the podium. Chris Guilpin won the IC Open Car category with his twin-engined buggy while Tony Lovering's Kyosho sports racer took the IC Scale trophy with a speed of 86.75 mph. The Non Wheel-Driven category went to Rees Adams with his Mustang-bodied fan-assisted turbine racer. As it is very much in the prototype stage Rees was more than happy with his 17.32 mph time. All in all, a very enjoyable time was had by all. Shakespeare County Raceway will be hosting the Championship round again in 2009 with practice events taking place earlier in the year. The next round of the Championship is being held the the USA's Rockingham Dragway next month. Although the record stands for the moment at 134 mph, set by Nic Case, Nic achieved an unbelievable 145.53 mph last weekend in testing with his Schmacher Mi-3 based racer. With this in mind, just what speed will Nic be capable of achieving in at The Rock on Sunday 5th October? UK National Finals coverage. 25th September: Eurodragster.com will be reporting live from this weekend's UK National Finals in association with American Car Imports. Our coverage will consist of regularly-updated reports on the on-track action on both Saturday and Sunday, and a photo gallery at the end of each day. There will be no pit notes this weekend as Simon will be working in real time on the Championship points. The Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam will be online throughout the weekend and will be scheduled to post a picture every sixty seconds until the track closes on Sunday. ©Eurodragster.com We will post a direct Home Page link to our coverage as soon as it commences, but in the meantime you can access our Event Index, which includes the official entry list and which will shortly include provisional running orders, by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage page on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the UK National Finals. UK Championships Dinner Dance. 24th September: Bookings are now being taken for the fourth joint Avon Park International Racers Association/Santa Pod Racers Club Dinner Dance and Trophy Evening, which takes place in the Buckingham Suite of the Park Inn Hotel in Northampton at 6:30 pm on Saturday 7th February 2009. Pre-dinner drinks will be available in the Buckingham Suite foyer from 6:00 pm. SPRC Club Secretary Paula Marshall has asked us to stress the following:
Bookings close on Friday 30th January or when the Function Room is full, whichever is the sooner. The Clubs have negotiated a preferential rate for hotel rooms in the Park Inn Hotel. These are priced at £30 per person for double or twin rooms, or £55 per person for single rooms, both including breakfast on Sunday morning. To book your room, please call the Park Inn Hotel on 01604 739988 (Reservations is button 1) and quote booking code SAN070209. If you do not pay a deposit at time of booking then your room could be released after 2:00 pm on the day. You can download the booking form (Word format) from the Entry Forms page of the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. If you have any queries then please contact Paula Marshall at SPRC on 01933 313625 or E-Mail paula.marshall@btconnect.com. UK Championship outcomes. 24th September: This weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway is the final round of no less than twenty three National Championship classes. Competition will be fierce as racers strive for the glory of being presented with the Championship trophies at the various prizegiving dinner dance evenings during the winter break. Being a class winner can also be that extra edge to a racer's reputation that can help ease sponsorship deals. Simon, who with Yvonne Tramm co-ordinates the UK National Championship points, presents the possible outcomes from this weekend's race: In MSA Pro Modified for 2008, there will be double elimination points at the final round as well as bonus points for attending all five rounds. Bert Englefield is well clear of other racers attending, Graham Ellis being 110 points further behind. With Andy Robinson out of competition since the NitrolympX and Danny Cockerill not on the entry list, Bert's job is an easy one. But Graham could mathematically catch him if he wins the event and Bert goes out early. Top Methanol is only run at Santa Pod Raceway only and therefore is not a National Championship. But the SPRC Championship could go to any of the three cars entered providing they qualify first and win the event because the field is potentially greater in numbers than the Easter Thunderball where Timo and Dennis Habermann were the only racers to score points, Timo qualifying first and winning the event. The situation in Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association couldn't be closer with Paul and Dennis Wratten's Dirty Harry IV and Eurodragster.com sponsor ICE Automotive's Havoc, driven by Nick Davies, both on 460 points. The much-improved Freddy's Revenge of Dave Grabham is in third spot with Jim Usher rounding out the top four. ©Eurodragster.com In Super Modified a good entry of eight cars will race for second place as Nigel Payne is provisional Champion, having won three of the five events contested so far this year. Andy Hone and Tim Garlick have 240 points between them so Tim could get second place if he wins the event. Dave Catton in the Paul Marston Racing dragster has a healthy but not insurmountable lead in Super Comp. In second place, Jon Morton is fairly safe as Pete Creswell will not pick up the 200 point bonus for attending all rounds. Jon is also a player in Super Gas, being third with a gap of 410 points behind Frank Mason who is in turn 530 points behind Panther Racing's Conrad Stanley. In Super Street, Leigh Morris in the Green With Envy Jaguar is fairly comfortable with a 560 point lead over 2007 champion Bob Lees. Bob could be challenged by Mark Watkins, Dave Cherrett and Chris Kenny who are a couple of rounds further behind. Four rounds of racing mean they could overtake Bob for runner-up spot. The Super Pro ET points leader is Simon Rowland with a 210 point lead over Nigel Turner. But the non-entry of the Formula Tanker Rental team (the car is up for sale on the Jeff Bull-sponsored Swap Meet pages) has meant this class is now wide open. As well as Nigel, Rick Cooke, Bob Doyle, Barry Giles, Team Stardust, Ashley Bell and Dave Ward are all in with a chance of the championship. So Super Pro ET will be one of the most tense competitions of the event. The top five runners in Pro ET are all Ford, with Paul Baynton and his Capri having the opportunity to be the first repeat Champion since the National Championship was introduced. But Paul is only 140 points ahead of second placed Lee Huxley of Team Top Banana. Paul has to finish at least a round and five qualifying positions ahead of Lee to become Champion. The gap between second and third is 510 points meaning that Charlie Chivers or John Atkinson have a bit of a mountain to climb to earn runner-up status. In Sportsman ET Geoff Cowley, who won the class Championship in his rookie year in 2006, has a comfortable 580 point lead over Brian Huxley in the Team Cando Mustang who is 510 points ahead of third placed Nick Gay. Junior Dragster is not yet tied up. Scott Hauser of Eurodragster.com Site Search sponsor Hauser Race Cars is in the lead from Anna Stanley by 270 points with Joe Kellett a further 160 points further back. In B&H Automotive Street Eliminator, Steve Nash looks set to tie up back-to-back Championships (the first time Steve Pateman's trio from 2001-3) with a 735 point lead over Steve Pateman. Steve is more than safe in runner-up spot with a massive 2,570 point lead over Jeff Meads. Richard Sawatzki has a comfortable lead in 9.50 Bike after a win at the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend to add to his Summer Nationals crown. Second placed Martin Walker has several riders looking over his shoulder: Shaun Spiers, Fred Furlong, Andy Haley and Wayne Saunders. In the ACU Championships, Top Fuel Bike sees Steve Woollatt looking good for a twelfth Championship with a two hundred point lead over Steve Carey. In Funny Bike, Tim Blakemore has gained the advantage over Chris Hall following his recent win but Chris could make up the difference by qualifying better than Tim and going one round further. Dave Beck has a healthy 390 point lead over Len Paget in Pro Stock Bike and this would be Dave's sixth Championship in the last eight years; Len is 370 points ahead of Richard Gipp. Competition Bike has been all about Ivan Birch in 2008 and a 490 point lead over Phil Leamon makes the outcome all but certain. Stuart Crane is a further 290 points back. Super Street Bike is between reigning champ Steve Venables, looking for his third Championship in four years, and team mate Graham Balchin who is 290 points behind. Graham would need to go three rounds further than Steve and qualify better to have a chance of taking the title. The National Association of Supertwins points are close in all three divisions. In Supertwin Fuel, Martin Blackwell has a 235 point over Wendy Clutterbuck which will be difficult to overcome in a five bike field. Chris Mott has been riding high in Supertwin Gas with two consecutive event wins and a 365 point lead over Andy Smith will also be difficult to surmount. Supertwin ET sees Joe Elliott 235 points ahead of Eurodragster.com honorary staff member John Hackney. John will need to go at least two rounds further and qualify four places better to catch Joe. In the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club, fellow Eurodragster.com honorary staff member Spencer Tramm has a comfortable 710 point lead in the VW Sportsman division over Chris Bray who is in turn only 10 points ahead of Adrian Wigley. Congratulations to James Hodson who clinched the VW Pro championship at Bug Jam and has amassed a 1500 point lead over second placed Paul Herbert. In contrast, the VW Alternate Engine division is much closer with Scott Evison 210 points ahead of Andy Raw who is 50 points further ahead of Matt Attwood. Editor's note: This would be a good time to say a big Thank You to Yvonne Tramm and to Simon for their continued hard work on the Championships this year and for forwarding the points for posting here on Eurodragster.com. Medical Centre appeal total. 24th September: Our appeal to help the reconstruction and restocking of the Medical Centre at Santa Pod Raceway Medical Centre rasied £4600. To raise this much money in two weeks was far beyond what we could have hoped and we are very grateful indeed to everyone who contributed. We will present Human Touch Training and Care with a cheque at this weekend's UK National Finals. Big, big thanks to the following for their contributions (listed in order of donation): Bob Roberts; Clive Rooms; Martin Grosse-Geldermann; Erik Zettervall; Chris Wilson; Jon Spoard; Mark Flavell; David Witts; Antony Billinton; Jon Lovett; Martin Gleadow; Cath and Tig Napier; Phil Cottingham; Chris Vowles; Mantisweb (Nigel Holland); Phil Sweeney; Richard Nicholls; Tony Smith; N Saunders; Martin Wilson; Adam Gleadow; Ian Hook; Ann Wilcox; Michael Bagshaw; Rides; Peter Lane; NAS Events; Pat Smith; Brian Nixon; Jim Broome; Stuart Crane; William Rayner; Ian Moore; Richard Smith; David Hoy; Sarah Johnson; Danny Cox; Nick Good; Darren Sykes; Adrian Murray; James Hodson; Jemma Harrison; Dawn Balzaretti; Lynton Banks-Davies; Mike Kason; Christina Hume; Bruce Moult; Carla Pittau and Rick McCann; Craig Gibbs; David Knight; Clive Lewis; The UK Pro ET racers and the Pro ET Sponsorship Scheme (A1 Motor Stores, WASP, Hauser Race Cars, Penn Autos, Inkwell Printing, Toxico Clothing, Real Steel, Alleyjax, Blackbear Harley Davidson, Motorshack); Geoff Martin; Nigel Burch; Richard Glen; Jean-Paul Verweij; Neale Fetter; Terry Clifford; David Dibley; Jan Hardekopf; Alex Bruce; Derek Flynn; Nick Pugh; Ken Blomer; Dan Allum; Jason Aldred; Phil Evans; Ian Messenger; Nick Daniels; Per Bengtsson; Martin Jones; Steve Gannon; Andy Clarke; Richard Phelps; Roy Stoker; Mark Norton; Lynn Green; Andy Robinson Race Cars; Pete Roberts; Geof Hauser; Jonathan Pearce; Sue Watson; Stuart Mooney; Colin and Grace Roaf; Job Heezen; Malcolm Doe; Jonathan Evans; The National Association of Supertwins; Gary Page; Chris Hannam; Micke Kågered Racing; Paul Bryan; Marion Hoffmann; Chris Johnson; Dezsoe Krivan; Terry Fisher; Chris Mott; Colin Theobald; Naturally Karma; Jonathan Dimond; Huw Button; Tim Fountain; Graham Beckwith; Andrew Court; Tracey Calcutt; Luke Robinson; Steve Carey; The Wild Bunch; Dom Coleman; Dave Friend; Kathy Taylor; Pete Creswell; David Parker; Richard Haszko; Helen and Dean Smythe; Charlie Draper; Simon Hodder; Martin Charles; Chris Bray; Ray Gardner; Mike L'Alouette; Mark Proctor; Jens Riehl; Graham Dance; Markus Münch; Phil Crossley; Steve French; Eurodragster.com. Thanks also for their contributions to those donors who preferred to remain anonymous. The return of the Fast Cat. 
24th September: After a season of struggles in America last year, when he couldn't get the old Cat to work with them at all,
2008 FIM/UEM Supertwin Champion Svein Olav Rolfstad and the Fast Cat team were very happy to cure the main problem over the winter and
get back on track in Europe,
"First I would like to say Thank You to all the people congratulating us and wishing us all the best after our win in the European Championship this season", says Svein Olav. "Secondly I will say that it didn't come for free. In the spring we were low on parts and we were a little off on the tune-up due to the problems of last year. After the first race we knew that the main problem with the ignition was solved, and at the Main Event at Santa Pod we qualified third before the rain called the rest of the weekend off. Then we blew the engine in the Norwegian championship at Gardermoen the first weekend of June. After several hours of labour and a lot of new parts we were back for Finland where we kept the guys at the track busy bringing our pushrods back (we are still missing a few). The first decent pass came in the last qualifying round, after the crew more or less had given up. Since then the bike has turned out to be almost a bracket bike, being very consistent. "After some really tight racing we won both at Alastaro in Finland and at Mantorp Park in Sweden, which was far better than we ever expected. I think it also surprised our fellow racers that we had come this far. At Gardermoen in Norway we where ready to put in the last nail to secure the Championship at this point. We wanted to have a good race at our home track and found a few more ponies for the second qualifying run, which resulted in the wildest ride of my racing career so far. Then the rain came and we were third qualifier again. "For the Finals at Santa Pod we knew that qualifying fifth or better would win us the Championship. Unfortunately Friday and Saturday were rained out. But on Sunday the crew at Santa Pod did a tremendous job to prepare the track for racing in between the rain showers. Thanks to all of you! "This time we did our job well. I got bad tyre shake about fifty metres from the start line but managed to ride the bike through it and qualified number one for the first time this year. The next pass was a bye run but we went for lane choice in the semi-final and got it. Sorry to say the rain came back and we started preparations to win the Banquet as well (It was a tie between you and several other teams - Ed). "We would like to say Thank You to Keddell & Bommen AS who have helped us a lot over the last two years, and thanks also for their support to Shotgun magazine, Sand-Tec AS, AtrSolution, JCC Enterprises, and Fabritech Racing. Next year we hope to be back with a new bike. It's all in my mind right now, and hopefully we will be ready for next year's Main Event. The old bike is For Sale, so go for it and contact me through my web site at www.rolfstad.com. ©Eurodragster.com A weekend at the Drags. 24th September: If you were tuned in to Eurodragster.com News at the weekend then you have probably already checked out Kirstie's photographs from last week's NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway. This was Kirstie's first visit to an NSRA event but she says that it certainly will not be her last: Friday was rained off but Saturday and Sunday were blessed with some fantastic weather, just a shame it could not have come sooner for the European Finals. The pairing lanes were far from empty all day Saturday starting off with some RWYB action then some fun was had by the Outlaw Flat Fours, Wild Bunch, Outlaw Anglias and Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association. A noticeable run on Saturday was made by Dave Grabham in Freddy's Revenge, a storming 7.3-second run although was at a price. Engine damage prevented him from making a return to the strip for the rest of the weekend and it looks like he will be sitting out the UK National Finals. 
The highlight of the weekend was a truly amazing spectacle: the Saturday night cacklefest. I've never been to a cacklefest so I was really rather looking
forward to it. I must say that after snapping away I took the opportunity to take my ear defenders off so that I could experience the sound of many
engines firing together. Race cars including Wendy Baker's Time Warp Nostalgia FC and Alec Coe's and Chris Hartnell's slingshots were
started up on the strip one by one and were then joined by the NFAA altereds of Nick Davies and Tony Betts, amongst others, after they had
driven past the grandstand and around onto the track where they came to a halt at the end of the cacklefest line.
The line up was started just after the Christmas Tree by Wendy Baker and finished at about the eighth mile by Tony Betts. After the last car had been
shut off the firework display started from over the other side of the bank. It was a very enjoyable evening with points going to Chris Hartnell
and Jon Best for Biggest Bunny Ears.
Nick Davies told me that the Havoc altered was on a certain percentage of nitro for the cacklefest, which would explain why my eyes watered more than normal as it drove down the fire up road in the dark past the grandstands. The altered had been suffering tyre shake in a previous round. ©Eurodragster.com There were some fantastic wheelies from the Outlaw Flat Four guys which you can see on the gallery, and not to be outdone Ray Guy in his Black Outlaw Anglia reached for the sky too! The ever sky high Honky Tonkin' made its last track appearance ever and did it in true style with massive burnouts and huge wheelies which made a very fitting send off. The car's last race was to be against Jimmy Hibbert but alas last minute gremlins put paid to the match up and it was a solo pass for Honky Tonkin'. 
I spoke to Nobby Hills who was signing autographs of his new book but more importantly was there with his Houndog Fuel Funny car. Nobby
said that he is waiting for the roll cage to be modified in the next few weeks but that progress is slowly being made. The plan for the weekend was
to warm the motor up on Saturday in the pits and then again on Sunday with a view to coasting down the track after a practice burnout. New driver
Simon Hayward, son of Owen, is quietly happy about how the testing and learning curve is going and it's only a matter of time before his Fuel FC cherry
is well and truly popped. On Sunday the car was towed down to the start line to end the Hot Rod Drags but last minute problems occurred and the car
didn't seem to have any forward drive and was shut down. A great great shame as the car sounded and smelt beautiful.
I caught up with Wendy Baker and Paul Stubbings and their beautifully turned out Time Warp Nostalgia Funny Car. They had been hoping to complete a burnout but settled for just the Saturday night cacklefest instead. "We had a fuel leak when we fired her up in the pits but we've got over the nerves and teething problems and tightened it all up", said Wendy. "Everything's great. The Flame and Thunder Show is a possibility this year but we will see". The team have been absent for two years since their altered suffered a huge engine explosion but have bounced back with this fine flopper. By the way the team assure me that the bear is just fine and has a new fire suit on the way. I had one of my many dreams come true when Wendy and Paul let me sit inside the car with the body down. In all a very enjoyable weekend with a relaxed atmosphere, well turned out vehicles and excellent weather. It's going on my calendar next year, that's for sure. You can check Kirstie's NSRA Hot Rod Drags shots, which are presented in association with American Car Imports, by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the NSRA Hot Rod Drags. Swift snippets. 24th September: Geoff Martin of the UK Tech Crew says that if any racer has a proposal to be considered by the Technical Committee for the 2009 UK rule book, then they should please put it in writing to the Tech Committee or E-Mail it to Paula Marshall at Santa Pod Racers Club at paula.marshall@btconnect.com. "We would like to have the 2009 issue in draft form by the middle of November, with publication in January", says Geoff. "I remind you of the Diaper rule on page 24 of the 2008 rule book, and the HANS Device rule on page 67. You might also want to take a look at pages 21 and 22 to check the life on your SFI equipment. If you have any questions about re-certifications please contact me at chassis1@onetel.com. Back in August UK Event Safety posted a request on Eurodragster.com for nominations for the NFAA Spirit of Fuel Altereds Award. The award is to be presented at the forthcoming NFAA Dinner Dance and Glenn Ramsden tells us that there have been some noteworthy nominations submitted so far. Voting closes on 10th October, so Glenn asks that any remaining nominations are submitted as soon as possible. For more details please check out our news item The Nominations are... of 20th August. 
UK blown-alcohol altered team Bennett Racing displayed their
Topolino at sponsors The Plough and Tractor pub in Basildon at the weekend. "We went down very well indeed", says Luke Bennett.
"We also fired the car up and the crowd loved it, although a few of them ran off when we revved it! We also had banners and posters up to
help raise money for Macmillan Cancer support, and managed to raise £270 on the day. The donation buckets have been left in the pub all
week so we will see how much more we have raised soon. A big thank you also to the rodders that came along - thanks for your support.
We will be bringing the Macmillan buckets to the National Finals so if you have any spare change then please drop by and donate, it's
a very good cause."
©Eurodragster.com A big Happy Birthday for yesterday (Tuesday) to Santa Pod Raceway timekeeper, timing authority, all-round good guy and Eurodragster.com Honorary Staff Member Andy Marrs. Hope you had a great day Andy. Editor's note: Many apologies for the non-appearance of yesterday's news update. You really do not want to know about your News Editor's day at work yesterday. Web site updates. 
24th September: The Ultimate BMW Show took place at Santa Pod Raceway this past Sunday under sickeningly blue
skies, writes Rick Cuthbert. The event proved as popular as last year, and attracted hundreds of cars which came from as far as Scotland and Belgium
to take part in the action. Several drag-focused BMWs emerged at the event and the pace on the dragstrip has definitely picked up now that the event is
in its third year. The full report is available on-line at www.bmwshow.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com Our good buddy Markus Münch has updated his web gallery with shots from Das Drag Day, a VW event at Bitburg in Germany. You can take a look at Markus' pictures at dragstripper.smugmug.com/gallery/6027157_D2xWn#377219524_RTRRY and his German-language report at www.raceblog.de/2008/09/22/das-drag-day-bitburg-review. The official web site of the UK's Showtime Fuel Funny Car team has been updated with an account of the team's weekend at the FIA European Finals. You can check it out at www.showtimeracinguk.com. Colin Donisthorpe has updated his Fotopic gallery with shots from the FIA European Finals. You can find Colin's pictures at colindonisthorpe.fotopic.net. Also updating from the FIA European Finals is Paul Lister whose second page of Finals shots you can find at www.dragcaranon.co.uk. Interview: Keith Bartlett. 22nd September: 2008 will go into the history books as a very difficult year for Santa Pod Raceway with snow falling on the Easter Thunderball, the FIA Main Event rained out, three out of four days of the FIA European Finals lost to rain, and various of SPR's lifestyle and other specialist events also affected by the weather. As the water table continued to rise at the FIA European Finals, Santa Pod Raceway CEO and FIA and FIM/UEM Championship Promoter Keith Bartlett announced the addition of the Nitro Fuel Shootout to the UK National Finals, which up to that point was to be one of SPR's two showcase Sportsman events of the year. ©Eurodragster.com In the latest in our occasional series of Features presented in association with John Woolfe Racing, Eurodragster.com spoke to Keith Bartlett to find out how Santa Pod Raceway as a business was faring in the face of so many wrecked events, how the decision was made to add Fuel cars to a nominally-Sportsman event, how Keith thought the Sportsmen racers might take it, and how future plans for Santa Pod Raceway had been affected by all the disruption. Whilst there we also took the opportunity to check out an interesting rumour about the 2009 Easter Thunderball. Click here to read our interview with Keith Bartlett, or click on the Features, Interviews, Tributes link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Medical Centre appeal closing. 22nd September: Many thanks to all of those Eurodragster.com readers who have donated to our appeal towards the reconstruction and restocking of Santa Pod Raceway's Medical Centre, which was destroyed by a fire at the FIA European Finals. The appeal total passed £4000 yesterday thanks to a donation from the UK's Wild Bunch racers. We will be closing the appeal at 23:59 UK today (Monday) to give us time to organise the cheque to be presented to Human Touch Training and Care at this weekend's UK National Finals, so you still have a few hours to make a donation if you so wish: please check out our news item You can help... of 12th September. We shall be publishing a full list of donors later this week. If you have donated to our appeal but would prefer to remain anonymous then please drop an E-Mail to donations@eurodragster.com. Swift snippets. 22nd September: A couple of birthday greetings today; first up is Sharon Norris of Santa Pod Raceway's timing crew whose birthday is today, and not yesterday as we were originally told. Two Happy Birthdays for the price of one, though: have a lovely day Sharon. Happy Birthday for yesterday to Santa Pod Raceway's Chief Timekeeper and Honorary Eurodragster.com Staff Member Steve Horn, hope you had a great day Steve. It must be TSI Timers Europe Birthday Week since we have another tomorrow. ©Eurodragster.com Contest: Win a Kings of Nitro DVD set! 
21st September: Eurodragster.com has teamed up with The Gamma Project to offer
one lucky reader a DVD set of the Reality TV series Kings of Nitro, which documents the 2007
season of Swiss Top Fuel Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com News sponsor
Urs Erbacher and his
Top Fuel, Supertwin, Harley Destroyer and Junior Dragster team at the race track, at Urs' Fat Attack
custom motorcyle business, and at home.
The two-disk Region 0 DVD set features extended versions of the broadcast episodes plus an additional episode which has not been broadcast. You can find out more about Kings of Nitro on the series' web site at www.kingsofnitro.co.uk. For your chance to win the Kings of Nitro DVD set, simply answer the three questions below. The answers can all be found here on Eurodragster.com or Urs' own web site at www.fatattack.ch if you don't know them already. The winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries received. ©Eurodragster.com Question A: By how many points did Urs Erbacher win the 2007 FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Championship? Question B: Which overseas tuner worked with Urs Erbacher's Top Fuel Dragster team during the 2008 season? Question C: In which village in Switzerland is Urs Erbacher's Fat Attack operation based? How to enter Simply send an E-Mail to eurodragster.win@btinternet.com giving:
For full Terms and Conditions check out the Contest web page which you can view by clicking here, or by clicking on the Kings of Nitro contest link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. We would like to say a big Thank You to Nina Carbone at The Gamma Project for putting up the DVD set. Swift snippets. 21st September: Our appeal for the reconstruction and restocking of the Medical Centre at Santa Pod Raceway will be closing tomorrow (Monday). There is still time to make a donation if you wish; please check out our news item You can help... of 12th September. ©Eurodragster.com We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to UK Pro ET racer, one of your News Editor's racing mentors, and all round good egg Carla Pittau. Have a lovely day, Carla. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 21st September: We have now posted a gallery of pictures from last weekend's NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can check Kirstie's shots, which are presented in association with American Car Imports, by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the NSRA Hot Rod Drags. ©Eurodragster.com The tale of the black nitro. 
20th September: Ex-pat UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Smax Smith tells us that he would have
loved to have been at the FIA European Finals but but that, as reported by our US correspondent Ed O'Connell,
he had the opportunity of racing in the IHRA National Event at New England Dragway that same weekend. Top Fuel
was calling:
We had a slightly different format for this race as there was no qualifying on Friday night, just two sessions on Saturday. Up early on Friday and had brekky and a leisurely drive to the Canada-US border. After crossing the phone rang and Top Fuel friend Barry Paton informed that Hurricane Hannah was heading for New England on Saturday so there was no racing expected that day and qualifying was now Friday night! We were still five hundred miles away but I thought if I tramped it I could just make it, as car owner Bob Leverich had set off the day before. Anyhow I discovered that Bob had trailer wiring issues and was only two hrs ahead of us so we were done. ©Eurodragster.com We missed the first qualifying session but still decided to make the race in case the weatherman was wrong, and sure enough Saturday morning was wet and cloudy but it stopped raining and the IHRA dried the track. Meanwhile we discovered our nitro was turning black! Theres some cheaper and obviously crappier nitro around since Beijing. So we ended up cleaning tank lines etc, lost $500 worth of nitro, and ran out of time to do the warm-up on nitro. We went to the line, fired the car but it didn't sound as good as usual on nitro. The burnout was, hit the throttle and came out of the groove but stayed with it and ran 6.00/243. The fuel check revealed only 83% nitro, so we were down on power, but we had been conservative on the amount of fuel at the hit and we only made 4500 rpms - a Sunday drive in the country! We have added fuel timers to the system so we recalculated and sorted the nitro and we were ready for the 6:30 session. We needed a 5.20 to get in the show. The limited crew were amazing, turning the car around and happy with the car then of course the weather turned on us and the heavens opened at 5:30. Qualifying was cancelled, never mind. We watched friend and neigbour Barry Paton's driver Tim Boychuk power his way to the win and consistent 4.70s. We decided to drive the scenic route back with Gary and Bernie from the team, listening to their amazing old hot rod stories from racing in the 1950s to still campaigning race cars and hot rods. We drove over the Adirondack mountains, through Lake Champlain (Not literally I hope - Ed) and the islands. We even found Irish pub and had a few pints of Guinness with our seafood. It took us twelve hours and we arrived home knackered at 3.30 am. All in all a positive weekend. I hope Aidee and Rooz enjoyed the Finals. Congratulations to Andy Carter and team but I would have preferred it if it went to the wire with Lex, who appeared to be on his game. Hope no politics came into play! Well done to all the other winners - I love reading up on all your exploits. The car is in one piece so we are going to the last race in Rockingham, North Carolina, in October. Hammond and Freeman's double act. 20th September: Returning UK racer Vic Hammond made his second outing in his newly-acquired slingshot at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend. UK Super Pro ET racer Sam Freeman, who had another turn behind the wheel, has been in touch to let us know how it went: After the first shakedown runs at the Pod the car went back to my shop where we went through it to check it out, and a new throttle pedal was made - well, it was the old one from my altered suitably modified so that it fitted Vic. A couple of things showed up on the check-over which were rectified with no dramas. A quick clean and polish and we were set to go to Shakespeare County Raceway. We set off Friday night in the rain and arrived to find some very big puddles at Shakey. We bedded down on the floor in the back of Tony Betts' truck, thanks Tony. Chris and Paul arrived on Saturday and we unloaded and set up for the weekend. Vic had not driven here with the current track set-up so we took a ride up the return road so that he could familiarise himself with the exits. The car was warmed up with Vic in the seat and then the problems started. Trying it with all the gear on Vic found that the neck brace was pushing his helmet up and limiting his vision. We worked round that and took Vic down to run, he was not comfortable in the car at all but continued with the planned short burnout and launch, high gear only to settle the car, and idle it through the finish. A fifteen second run at fifty-ish miles per hour was just the job. ©Eurodragster.com On return it was obvious that we needed to relook at Vic in the car and also find out why the fuel shut-off was sticking. The shut-off was sorted and we then spent quite a while making up various pads to get Vic in a position where he was fully comfortable without the helmet support pushing it up. Several options were explored and we finally ended up with just a new headrest which fixed everything. The second run was to be more of the same: short burnout, launch in high gear and run through, the idea was to get Vic more seat time which is all he needs. On Saturday night we attended the cacklefest where we started the car up twice and put on a pretty good show with the flames out of the headers. On Sunday Vic asked me to drive as he also wants the car to perform while he gets back into the swing of things. On the first run with the new pedal and headrest and a loan of Vic's neck brace (only about a 500% improvement on mine) I was very happy to find that the mods for Vic also suited me. Having checked out the track I decided to run high gear only, not that the track was bad but with the amount of street rubber down it was not at its best. Anyway a short burnout and stage and drive it off the line getting out of it at just after 1000 feet resulted in a 8.25/155, careful not to get on the brakes too quickly and it came to a stop with none of the bouncing I had experienced the first time I drove it. While waiting in the queue for a second and last run of the day Alec Coe came over and said he was just a few places behind and would we like to do a side by side run, no problem for us. Alec's son Tom was driving his car. I was tempted to use low gear for the launch but managed to stop myself as I don't like changing a plan last minute. Tom easily had me out of the hole but we were off as straight as you like and before half track I could see that we were gaining. I crept past and did not let up until I was a good fifty feet past the finish, it was obvious that this run was much faster than the previous but the car coped well with the bumps. I knew I had not gone red and that I was in front at the stripe but neither of us knew our times until the crews arrived to tow us back.. Tom ran 8.28/163 to my 8.01/183.5 which was considerably faster than expected and also a Personal Best compared to my 166.5 in the altered. That capped the day for us, taking nothing away from the Coes who ran very well considering they have been having motor problems for a while. Side by side low eights in blown alky FED's must have looked good from the stands. As usual thanks to Chris Paul and Lindsey, it would be so much harder if not impossible without you, thanks also for all the kind words from racers and spectators alike who seem to like the car. Three special thanks: to Roy Wilding who donated five gallons of alky for the cacklefest and Sunday runs, to Lays Transport who loaned us the truck to transport the car, and lastly my personal thanks to Vic for giving me the privilege of driving the car. One final thing, if anyone has pictures we would like to see them please. Swift snippets. 20th September: We've had an urgent appeal for help from the UK's Freddy's Revenge blown-alcohol altered team. "Does anyone have any new 400 long BBC heavy duty ally rods going spare or ordered by accident?", asks Jo Carter. "If anyone can help then please get in touch via E-Mail at dave@freddysrevenge.co.uk or saucyminx34@hotmail.com, or preferably phone 01460 242739 and ask for TC, or ring Dave on 07721 831875. Any help would be gratefully appreciated." ©Eurodragster.com We are as ever indebted to Paula Marshall of Santa Pod Racers Club for forwarding us the final version of the official entry list for the UK National Finals, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 27th-28th September. You can check out the entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the UK National Finals. If you think you should be on the entry list then please contact Paula on 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625) or E-Mail paula.marshall@btconnect.com. Santa Pod Raceway CEO Keith Bartlett has announced that the head start to be enjoyed by the Fuel Funny Cars over the Top Fuel Dragsters in next weekend's Nitro Fuel Shootout at the UK National Finals is to be 0.40 seconds. KB also tells us that each of the three qualifying sessions will feature one TF v TF pairing, one FC v FC pairing, and one TF v FC pairing, with the match-ups arranged so that each car gets to run against a representative of the other class. For more information about the UK National Finals, check out Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com. Many thanks to Championship Co-ordinators Yvonne Tramm and our own Simon for passing us the post-Extreme Performance Bike Weekend standings in the 2008 UK National Drag Racing Championships, and also to Yvonne Tramm for forwarding us the post-Extreme Performance Bike Weekend standings in the 2008 Santa Pod Racers Club Championships. You can check out the latest Championship points our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. A World Championship at SCR. 
20th September: The UK round of the 2008 World RC Car Speed Championships
will be taking place at Shakespeare
County Raceway tomorrow, Sunday 21st, writes Jerry Cookson. This event is part of the World Championships
with rounds in the USA being held at Rockingham Dragway, North Carolina on October 4th as well as other countries
around the world.
The events here and in the USA will feature entries competing in the International Speed Challenge Cup for a bunch of trophies and prizes for all class winners, and special 100 mph Club hats awarded to anybody going over 100 mph. Hopefully we will see the record of 134.4 mph, set by Nic Case in 2006, being broken and some decent 100 mph speeds set by the nitro cars. The Speed Championships is a flat-out speed event comprising seven different classes including Nitro Bike. There will other 'unofficial' classes expected to run for jet- and rocket-powered cars but these will be segregated for heats. The course will run from the finishing line beyond the quarter mile of the drag strip. Details of the event and classes can be found on the information pages at wrccsc08.blogspot.com or www.fast-rc.co.uk/forum/index.php. If you are in the area, racing is expected to start at 10.00 am. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 20th September: The latest entry in the exclusive Racer Blog of Top Methanol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Derek Flynn is the last of three instalments about his highly-successful first competitive outing in his new injected-nitro dragster. You can read all about it by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com First visit and lots achieved. 
19th September: Maltese Super Street Bike racer Simon Giordmaina paid his first
racing visit to Santa Pod Raceway for last weekend's Extreme Performance Bike Weekend and says that the weekend was one
of great achievement.
"We were only there to test and try the new Super Street turbo Hayabusa which we bought three weeks ago", says Simon. "We did not have any big expectations, but on our first run on Sunday we ran a very respectable 8.31/176, with lots of work still to be done on the bike. It was all preparation for next season's Championship. We needed to know how things worked and to find any problems so that we will be prepared for next year. It was definitely a good start for us and it started our minds working to get into the sevens in the 2009 UK Championship, in which we will be competing. ©Eurodragster.com "A very big thank you goes from myself, my wife Graziella and our team to Mr and Mrs Terry Wilson and our friend Graig for taking good care and doing all the work needed on the bike whilst I am away without even thinking of asking for a penny, so again a very special thanks to you guys, I owe you. A special thank you also goes to all our Maltese friends who were at the track last weekend: Mario, Denise, Malcolm, Luana, Richard and Ethel. Thank you guys for all the help. You are part of what we achieved. Thanks also to my wife Graziella for all the work she does and her patience. Graziella got a trilogy ring for our second anniversary when we where at the presentation. I would also like to thank my family and friends who were phoning and sending messages all the time, especially my father Charles, brother George and mum Carmen. "Last but not least, thank you to all the guys guys running and working at Santa Pod for making us feel welcome, and for all your help. We will see you again soon." PB, then an enforced retirement. 
19th September: Ex-pat UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Steve Read took a hairy ride off the
end of the track at Western Sydney International Dragway in Australia last weekend when the throttle stuck
open on his Spirit of Las Vegas dragster after a qualifying pass. Thankfully Steve was OK after the
eventful Personal Best pass, but the same can't be said for the dragster which has been retired. Steve's
partner Heather Bond has been in touch to tell us what happened:
Our weekend started last Wednesday. We left Brisbane very confident that, having tested at the Mopar event, our gremlins had gone and we would be in good stead to contest the ANDRA Championship for the 2008-09 season. We decided not to run the first qualifier and warmed the car in the pits in readiness for Q2. During the warm-up the car seemed to jolt instantaneously and we were not quite sure why. The download didn't show up anything untoward so the car was prepared for the pass. The guys pushed the car out ready to hook up to the tow car when a clunk was heard from the rear end. We immediately pushed the car back into the pit and got it up on the stands to pull out the reverser. We found the sun and planet gears were smashed. We knew we needed to make this pass as the weather was not looking too good for the Saturday so we towed down with the plan to push the car back manually from the burn out as we should have forward drive. The car was started but unfortunately it didn't move so we went back to the pits. Thankfully Bob Shepherd's team found the gears we needed and came to our rescue. Saturday arrived with temperatures in the high twenties and not a cloud in the sky until sundown, when the threat of a local storm was on the horizon and due in at the same time as the third qualifying session. As it happened the storm passed by and we were fortunate enough to put in a good strong pass of 4.88 giving us the fourth spot on the ladder. Steve had a slight drama having to lift the throttle pedal up with his foot as the car didn't shut off straight away, added to this he suffered major chunking of the rear tyres at the top end. Back in the pits the crew got stuck in to turn the car around in readiness for the fourth qualifier. Unfortunately the time slot was delayed until much later in the evening and I wasn't too keen on putting down another pass, as I felt we wouldn't better our position. However Steve said we would go down ready to run if necessary depending what the other guys ran. Ours was the last car and as no-one else had changed our position I assumed we would go back to the pit until I saw the starter being plugged onto the car and realised we were doing a pass for the huge crowd that had sat waiting to see the spectacle of Top Fuel. We stood behind the car and watched Steve take the green light and knew he was on an exceptional pass, not realising at that point how exceptional. We saw the car cross the finish line still under full power then the flash with the commentator shouting that Steve was in trouble, then came the huge explosion. Silence fell upon the WSID crowd as the crew raced to the van to get to Steve as quickly as possible. As soon as I was in an official car on route to the bottom end it came over the tannoy that Steve was out of the car and OK. At that point everybody in the crowd were up on their feet and applauding, many as I have now been told were also wiping away the tears having seen the impact and not believing that Steve would get out, let alone walk away. Our crew behaved admirably at the scene making sure they were there if needed and taking care of the car with the WSID track and safety officials. ©Eurodragster.com Steve got the OK from the ambulance crew and we went back to the pit and were greeted by many friends and fellow racers offering help and support. We ended up going to the local hospital as Steve felt that his hand was damaged by the steering wheel and the result from the whole event was a fracture to his little finger. The one and only reason Steve was able to walk away from the horrific crash is that he was for the first time wearing a HANS device which kept his head and neck locked tight in the roll cage. Sitting here and relaying this to you would have had a completely different ending if he wasn't wearing it, so thanks must go to Mark Brew of Proforce for making a new roll cage in time for last weekend. We set off for home in the truck and settled for an easy journey maybe getting home by mid-morning Monday but the prime mover had other ideas by having us sit on the side of the Pacific Highway for ten hours while it was repaired. We eventually got home by two on Tuesday morning. On Tuesday evening the guys met us at the workshop and the Spirit of Las Vegas was unloaded for the last time. The car was stripped down and we had a more detailed look to see what was left. Considering the throttle was under full power for 7.34 seconds and that the car glanced over the kitty litter at around 250 mph then came to a grinding stop through the safety fence and up the bank, we could have lost a lot more than what we did. As you will see from the photo the front of the dragster did what it was supposed to do and crumpled taking the full impact (click on picture for large version). Oddly enough the only body panel that has stayed reasonably in shape was the Showgirl and she had started to climb the bank. Steve is back driving one of our trucks. We are now in the process of sourcing another car, so it won't be long until we hit the track again. Next week Steve will post a personal account, and there will also be reports from our team who witnessed their first serious accident and only made one crucial mistake - they left me behind! Take care everyone and remember - if you are racing wear a HANS. Dakota done for 2008. 19th September: After a promising start for eight-mile street-legal racing at Dakota Drag Strip in the south west of the UK, organiser and Eurodragster.com Links sponsor Lee Child tells us that that the 2008 season has had to be terminated early. "East Devon District Council received complaints about the street-legal racing and other activities on Smeatharpe Airfield", says Lee. "The council have now served noise abatement, plus also linking all landowners together on the same planning permission plot. This investigation by the Council has been ongoing since the beginning of May 2008. The Sunday Street Wars team have given East Devon District Council detailed information so that they have a better understanding of Dakota Drag Strip. The Landowners of Smeatharpe Airfield are working very hard to resolve this setback. They will be taking this to court as negotiations were not an option for a solution with the Council. It is a major set back both for the landowners and the Sunday Street Wars team who have spent time and invested money in new equipment for the street-legal drags. Sunday Street Wars is well-supported by local companies and the police, so we hope that this will be resolved soon and we will be back in 2009. Thank you for all of your support in 2007 and 2008." It's not often that we comment on anything here on Eurodragster.com, but if East Devon District Council really prefer this sort of thing to be done on their streets rather than in a controlled environment with the support of the Fuzz then surely the next Local Council elections can't come quick enough. If you live down that way then you know what to do next time folks. Swift snippets. 
19th September: Joan Larsen of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor
Dansk Auto HiFi has been in touch to let us
know that all twenty T-Shirts have now been won in the contest to identify Dan Larsen's new Top
Methanol FC from a small extract of the full picture (right). Dan's new car turns out to be
a Dodge Stratus. You can find the list of winners on Dan's web site at
www.funnycar.dk.
©Eurodragster.com We are as ever indebted to Paula Marshall of Santa Pod Racers Club for forwarding us Version 2 of the official entry list for the UK National Finals which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 27th-28th September. You can check out the entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the UK National Finals. If you think you should be on the entry list then please contact Paula on 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625) or E-Mail paula.marshall@btconnect.com. Calling Medical Centre contributors. 19th September: Many thanks again to all of those Eurodragster.com readers who have contributed to our fund towards the reconstruction and restocking of Santa Pod Raceway's Medical Centre, which is run by Human Touch Training and Care. The fund currently stands at just over £3500, the latest contribution being Chris Mott's prize money from his victory at last weekend's Extreme Performance Bike Weekend. Thanks very much indeed Chris! We plan to hand the money over to Human Touch at next week's UK National Finals. ©Eurodragster.com We shall be publishing a list of contributors to the fund next week; if you have contributed but would prefer to remain anonymous then please drop us a line at donations@eurodragster.com. We will be closing the appeal on Monday, so there is still time to make a donation if you wish; please check out our news item You can help... of 12th September. Web site updates. 
19th September: Eurodragster.com Reserve Photographer Peter Donaldson has updated
his Fotopic gallery with shots from the weekend's NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway.
You can check out Peter's shots at
peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net.
©Eurodragster.com Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger Gorringe has updated his Nitro Exposure web site with pictures of the winners of the weekend's Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway. You can see Roger's pictures at www.nitroexposure.co.uk. Editor's note: The promised pieces from Smax Smith and Sam Freeman are still in editing and will be posted on tomorrow's news update. What a weekend! 
18th September: Peter and Sören Svensson of Sweden's Team Kendall Racing Top
Fuel Bike team had a very promising weekend at the FIA European Finals despite the rain:
We came to Santa Pod with lots of hope to be able to get some more runs on our new set up from Mantorp Park, where we set a new European record for the eighth mike, but as everyone know the rain kept on falling more or less the whole weekend and we had to concentrate on only one qualifying run on Sunday. It was really hard for us to get an idea of how much power the track could take as it was twelve years since we last raced at Santa Pod in 1996, winning both the event and the European Championship that year, but we were more than happy when the score board showed a 6.27 at only 204 mph, which gave us number two spot after Sverre Dahl. After tyre shake in the first run, we decided to add some more fuel to see if the track could handle some more power for our first round race against Neil Midgley on his Funny Bike. The bike responded in a tremendous way and was running down the track like never before until 3.7 seconds into the run, when it started to drift towards the centre line. Peter had to shut off and unfortunately had to cross the centre line to avoid hitting the timing lights (sorry Neil), giving the win to Neil. ©Eurodragster.com When we got the timing slip we were very pleased to see the great numbers, which give us high hopes to be able to run a lot faster then our personal best of 6.14/ 221.56 in 2009. A summary of the weekend:
Kendall Motor Oil Sweden who make some of the best oil products in the world Samek Industri AB who make some of the best moulding tools in the automotive industry in Sweden HRM/Ritline AB a technical consultancy within the automotive industry in Sweden CemeCon A/S one of the best powder coating companies in Europe when it comes to camshaft coating etc. We also would like to say a big Thank You to Funny Bike rider Rikard Gustafsson for helping us with the transportation of our Top Fuel Bike and all of our equipment in his coach to Santa Pod. Pictures courtesy and ©Patrik Jacobsson First season, fourth place. 
18th September: DB-Team Selkämaa
took the fourth place in FIM/UEM European Supertwin Championship at the rainy Santa Pod race, writes Kaija Kohtala:
At Santa Pod the team decided to change the lock-up on the clutch to operate by relay. Unfortunately Kai couldn't test the new lock-up due to the rain, he had to run the only qualifier with it. The lock-up worked fine thanks to Harry Räikkönen who helped us to install it. But Kai wasn't used to it and shut off too early. However, the time was 7.185 seconds and he was fifth in qualifying, and he also ran his best terminal speed of 331.42 kmh. As Eric Teboul had some problems with the engine and was placed eleventh in qualifying, Kai overtook him in the final point standings. During the first elimination round Kai was off and on the throttle again while trying to get used to the new lock-up. Due to this we were beaten by Chris Hall. Kai ran 7.182 and Chris 7.039. During this run Kai also ran his best sixty foot time on this bike, 1.039, which tells us that those few adjustments we made to the bike throughout the season seemed to be correct. In addition, it was the second best sixty foot time of the whole race. After this round the rain took over again and the race was stopped. Big thanks to Steve Porter, technician from Eagle Racing, who helped us a lot at Santa Pod as some of our crew members couldn't come along this time. Thanks go to Timo Lehtimäki for lending his transport vehicle and Rikard Gustafsson for his tow bike. In addition, we would like to thank our spronsors who made this season possible: Fastems Oy, ST-Koneistus Oy, Bahco, Vuorenmaa Yhtiöt Oy, Tallink, Bike Doctor, Eastands Engineering, PME Oy, Carpino Oy, and Metallivälitys Lähdemaa & Aarnio. ©Eurodragster.com Picture courtesy and ©Marko Pikkarainen Enter 8.50 Bike. 18th September: Extreme Performance Bike Weekend 8.50 Bike winner Paul Watson of DynoSpeed Developments says that the new class had a great début: We initially had eleven bikes entered but we were down to seven due to some last minute problems, but qualifying was still close. Chris Jones on his supercharged Hayabusa was number one on 8.55, followed by myself with a 8.57, Richard Hann on his Big CC turbo Hayabusa 8.59, Andy Fawcett on his Outlaw GSXR turbo ran 8.69, Paul Hambidge on his ZX12 DSD turbo 8.97 but breaking out on most runs running a new PB of 8.31. Both Mark Winder and Jon Webster were having some problems but I'm sure both will be sorted shortly. Eliminations worked out a bit weird as both Richard and Jon pulled out due to mechanical problems, so nearly every one got a bye except myself and DSD team member Paul Hambidge. Typical, end up racing a team member, but no quarter was drawn. I had a small problem with my clutch set-up so made a big change just before, the banter was rife between us whether we were going to run straight 6 psi or use some boost. I opted for the safe, tried and tested 6 psi, however it appeared Paul may have been using a bit more boost just in case, but to no avail as we both spun hard off the line, obviously both trying too hard. We both ended with 9.1s but luckily we took the win. The semis were between Chris Jones and Mark Winder, Chris taking the win with a 9.04, I had Andy Fawcett but an 8.8 saw us go to the finals with Chris Jones. The final was a great match up. I don't think Chris and I have ever raced together. Chris was on form, after all he cleaned up in 2007 winning 9.50 Bike. I am a former 9.90 Championship winner from 2001 so all to play for. With a slightly better reaction and a cracking 1.36 sixty foot I was in front most of the way, and with a slight roll-off at the stripe just in case we ran 8.57 to Chris' 8.72. There has been a tremendous amount of interest in 8.50 Bike and I see it being one of the biggest bike classes in the near future. I would like to thank all the people who helped with this class. Firstly Chris Jones who done so much, Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceway for having faith and allowing this class to go ahead for the National Championships next year, all the marshals at the Pod - you are the best without question. A truly great weekend. ©Eurodragster.com Frankimpala update. 
18th September: Andy Bennett of Never
Again Racing has been in touch with an update on Frankimpala:
Last time around the glass front end had just come back from Dale along with the doors. We propped the front with wood and hung the doors with chewing gum and sellotape for some mock-up pictures. Anyway here she is with the one piece front end fixed, braced and good to go (click on picture for another angle). The fill-in piece between firewall and front end, kind of an extended dashboard, is completed, this also supports the front lexan. The doors are now also hung on custom lift-off hinge brackets, they now wear aluminium door inners and we have just got some parts from Webster Race Engineering to fabricate the door window supports. The completion of the doors is the task in hand. ©Eurodragster.com The control pod for the instruments is complete, custom made in aluminium and fixed on the steering column. This sports a laser-profiled Impala emblem in the front face to make it look trick. At the time of writing we are waiting for delivery of a switch pod and a number of laser-profiled brackets for the door assemblies. You can see that the scoop is not tall enough now. The correlation between the firewall, the windscreen angle and the front end means that the scoop will end up being three or four inches taller than we envisaged, to keep it looking in perspective for the photos it was back out with the sellotape and chewing gum! Think we will have to find a more permanent way of fixing the scoop before we do a run. Web site updates. 18th September: In the latest instalment of his exclusive Racer Blog, Luke Bennett of the Bennett Racing blown-alcohol altered team recounts the Topolino's return to the track at the Open Sport Nationals and NSRA Hot Rod Drags. You can check out Luke's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com Peter Walters of Eurodragster.com News sponsor Peter Walters Race Design has updated his web site at www.pwrd.co.uk with renderings of Wendy Baker's new Nostalgia Funny Car and Derek Flynn's A/Fuel dragster. There are also new logos and the Street and Strip project, including handouts, logos, a web site and a forum. PWRD are for a limited time offering a deal of 30% discount on all web site design, including forums. "There is no limit to how many pages and updates etc", says Peter. "Please contact us at pwrd@jwautomotive.co.uk for a quote. Visit PWRD for a great deal on any graphic design service, you won't regret it!" Our good buddy Alan Currans has updated his excellent Acceleration Archive with pictures of Saturday's action at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags. You can take a look at Alan's pictures via the What's New link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. Editor's note: We're almost caught up on our backlog now. Tune back tomorrow for Smax Smith's account of his weekend at New England Dragway, how Vic Hammond and Sam Freeman fared at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags and more, and please keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com. Can you identify the new ride? 
17th September: Four days after arriving home from the FIA European Finals, Danish
Top Methanol Funny Car racer Dan Larsen of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor
Dansk Auto HiFi has procured a new ride for 2009.
The car is already on its way to Denmark from the USA.
"After eight seasons with the old Funny Car, we have decided that now it is time to look at something new", says Joan Larsen. "The old Funny Car was built for Frank Manzo who raced it for two years, then Monty Tod bought it and ran a couple of IHRA races with it, and the car has been Dan's since then." ©Eurodragster.com To celebrate the arrival of the new car Dan and Joan have decided to award a T-Shirt to the first twenty people to get in touch to identify its body style based on the picture. You can enter the contest on Dan's web site at www.funnycar.dk. Nitro Fuel Shootout format. 17th September: Santa Pod Raceway CEO Keith Bartlett has announced the format of the Nitro Fuel Shootout which will take place at next week's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. The Shootout will run to the classic Cannonball format. If a Fuel FC is matched up with a Top Fueller then the Fuel FC will receive a head start on the Tree. Three qualifying rounds will be held, two on Saturday and one on Sunday, and each racer's ETs will be aggregated. Those two racers with the quickest aggregate ETs from the three qualifiers will race in the final on Sunday afternoon, with the third and fourth quickest on aggregate pairing up for final #3 and #4 spots in the Shootout and fifth and sixth pairing up for final spots #5 and #6. Any car not appearing in a qualifying round will incur a penalty ET of 32.0 seconds, and should any qualifying round not take place due to weather conditions or for other reasons then the aggregate ETs of completed qualifying rounds will count. ©Eurodragster.com Saturday's second qualifying session will be scheduled to take place at 6:30 pm promising nitro flames in the dusk. For more information about the UK National Finals, which is the final round of the 2008 MSA British Drag Racing Championship, the UK National Drag Racing Championships, the ACU UK Drag Bike Championships, the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Championships, and the National Association of Supertwins Championships, check out Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com. The USA as a cure for depression. 
17th September: Swiss Top Fuel Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com News sponsor
Urs Erbacher says that he and his team are
a little depressed after missing out on a repeat Championship, although they now have a trip to the USA to look forward to.
"Everybody was hoping that we would do it again", says Urs. "But know we that it is not possible every time and the best person always wins. It wasn't our turn this time and now I know how Lex and Micke have felt in the last couple of years. ©Eurodragster.com "Anyway we are happy that we have learned a lot this year and our car is around ninety per cent perfect. We now have twenty three runs on the same engine with no damage. So we have a good set-up now and the car is still fast.It was hard for Wayne Dupuy to run a 4.50 car on our race tracks. "We are now going to the States to try to make it over there. I really want to bring home a Wally for my team and myself. We have loaded everything up and Wini will drive the truck and trailer to Antwerp to put them on the boat. We will be flying to Las Vegas on 28th October and we hope that our European fans will follow us and help us to win from the grandstands." Urs and the team are having an end-of-season party at Fat Attack Custom Bikes on 27th-28th September featuring rock band Crown of Glory. For more details click on flyer or visit www.fatattack.ch. Pro Mod Challenge arrangements. 
21st August: Marco Maurischat of Eurodragster.com News sponsor
Exhaust-coating.de has been in touch to
explain the new arrangements for the European Exhaust-coating.de Pro Mod Challenge, which was unable
to run at the FIA European Finals:
I am very sorry that we were unable to crown the Pro Mod Challenge winner at the European Finals because of the never-ending rain. When we created the Challenge with the points system at the beginning of 2008 I didn't consider the possibility of rain all over the Shootout weekend, and what to do in such a scenario. Since the finals I've discussed it and decided there were only two options: one was to hand the money to the driver who leads the point standings, and the runner-up. The other option was to run the Shootout on the next available date. I decided to take the second option as I feel that this is the best and fairest way for the drivers in third to eighth positions in the points standings. When creating the Challenge our goal was to give all of the drivers the chance to win, not just the leading runners in the Championship. This is how we plan to deal with the situation as it stands and in the future. We have decided to run the Exhaust-Coating.de Challenge again in 2009. But first there is still €2000 for the winner and €500 for the Runner Up of the 2008 Challenge to be won at the Main Event -2009! The 2009 winners will be decided at the 2009 European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. The 2008 Exhaust-Coating.de Pro Mod Challenge will be decided at the 2009 FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. If eliminations cannot be completed at this event because of rain or other circumstances, the drivers with the best ET after the last elimination round will be the winner and runner-up. If eliminations cannot be held at all at the Main Event because of rain or other circumstances the winner and runner up will be the drivers with the best point standings. If eliminations for the 2009 Exhaust-Coating.de Pro Mod Challenge cannot be held at the 2009 FIA European Finals because of rain or other circumstances then it will be held at the next FIA event (FIA Main Event, Santa Pod, 2010). If eliminations cannot be completed at the 2010 FIA Main Event because of rain or other circumstances, the drivers with the best ETs after the last elimination round will be the winner and runner up. If eliminations cannot be held at this event, the winner and runner up will be the driver with the best points standings. If a top eight driver does not attend the race where the shoot out takes place, then the number nine will come in as an alternate. ©Eurodragster.com Final 2008 points standings: 1. Micke Lindahl 600 points 2. Urban Johansson 595 points 3. Marc Meihuizen 580 points 4. Mats Eriksson 560 points 5. Roger Johansson 545 points 6. Micke Gullquist 515 points 7. Patrik Wikström 435 points 8. Bruno Bader 415 points The points standings for the 2009 Exhaust-Coating.de Pro Mod Challenge, after the FIA European Finals, are: 1. Roger Johnsson 175 points 2. Urban Johansson 165 points 3. Micke Gullquist 155 points 4. Robert Joosten 145 points 5. Danny Cockerill 140 points 6. Rolf Ammann 135 points 7. Norbert Kuno 130 points 8. Bruno Bader 125 points 9. Johan Lindberg 120 points 10. Bert Englefield 115 points 11. Patrik Wikström 110 points 12. Micke Nord 105 points 13. Roger Moore 100 points 14. Mats Eriksson 95 points 15. Ingo Rolla 90 points 16. Micke Lindahl 85 points Swift snippets. 17th September: We were shocked to hear via David Vegter of the sudden death of US Pro Mod racer Steve Engel who appeared to be recovering after his accident at the US Nationals at Indianapolis. You can find out more at the Pro Mod Zone web site. We are sure that everyone will join us in sending our deepest sympathies to Steve's wife Tonya and sons Stevie and Michael and to all of Steve's family and friends. 
UK Supercharged Outlaw racer Alec Coe was proud and honoured to have Nobby Hills sit in his Shy Talker
slingshot during the Cacklefest at the weekend's Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway. "This was our first personal meeting with
Nobby and what a great guy", says Alec. "Bit of a tight squeeze though! He really enjoyed it, so did we. Thanks Nobby."
©Eurodragster.com Many thanks for the continued contributions towards the rebuilding and restocking of the Medical Centre at Santa Pod Raceway. We have now collected nearly £3500. We plan to close the appeal next Monday (22nd September) to give us the chance to get all contributions together and bank them in time to write a cheque to Human Touch Training and Care which we will present at the UK National Finals. If you would like to contribute then please check out our news item You can help... of 12th September. 
UK Supertwin Gas racer Les Harris' 2009 calendar will be going to print this week and copies should
be on sale at the UK National Finals at Santa Pod. This is the fifth year of the sought-after calendar.
"We hope everyone will appreciate this calendar, and look forward to speaking with people about it" says
Les' little helper Scott Price. "Should anyone want to speak with Les or pre-order a calendar, please
contact him at les@lesharrisracing.co.uk."
We realise that it must be tempting at times but could readers please refrain from posting spoof advertisements on our Swap Meet. We have quite enough work to do running Eurodragster.com without idiots adding to our workload. It would be the work of a few moments to suspend posting on the Swap Meet but that would inconvenience far more readers than it helped so we would really rather not do that. King joins Danish royalty. 17th September: The Portable Shade Top Fuel Bike of King Racing took top honours when rider Ian King reset the track record and was crowned King of Mosten at the recent Mosten Raceday in Allingåbro, Denmark. 
The event, run by the Anglo American Bike Club - Mosten MC for the last fifteen years has many attractions to tempt the near 10,000 motorcycle enthusiasts:
American cars, trucks, motorcycles and stands selling biker merchandise coupled with fantastic evening entertainment and a free buffet breakfast served in
the huge entertainment marquee. However, the most important factor in the recurring success of Mosten Race Day is the concept of mixing serious motorsport
with tremendous entertainment. Even before the end of 2007, the two invitational classes, Top Fuel and Supertwin, were filled with registered riders from
Finland, England, Norway, Holland and of course Denmark. No less than three Top Fuel Dragsters and a Funny Car as well as several Pro Mods and Top
Doorslammers were entered in this year's race.
As well as the Pro classes there were an additional eight classes with around 180 registered teams from Scandinavia, Germany, Holland and Belgium. The club boasts an impressive clubhouse and extensive grounds, but the jewel in their crown is a permanent eighth-mile single-lane sprint track prepared by their hardworking crew to a fantastic level of traction over the preceding days of the event. The race format is simple, a sprint race with a minimum of three runs per rider with the best times assembled in order with the quickest run affording the rider the King of Mosten title. The Top Fuel Bike class boasted some of the best bikes from Europe, with Norway's Sverre Dahl, Sweden's Peter Andersson Ström, Rikard Gustafsson and Patrick Borgh, and Denmark's Finn Asserbo joining the UK's Ian King. From the start it was a very tight affair with King, Dahl and Gustafsson vying for the lead, setting new personal bests and unofficial records until the very end. As a previous winner and with superior experience of the Mosten race track Dahl set the pace but King responded each time to out gun the rapid Norwegian rider. With an eye on the European Finals crew chief Michael Beaumont proposed a change in gearbox ratio to improve the sixty foot and eighth mile times and the team set about making the change before the final run. 
The decision was vindicated with King immediately setting new personal bests in sixty foot and eighth mile times, and recording a new track record for bikes.
The coveted King of Mosten crown was King's!
Top Fuel results Ian King, sixty feet 1.0657, eighth mile 4.0103 Sverre Dahl, sixty feet 1.0971, eighth mile 4.0686 Rikard Gustafsson, sixty feet 1.0869, eighth mile 4.1674 The team rely on only the best parts and services from leading companies in their chosen markets: Portable Shade The world's premier awning and modular exhibition product company JE Pistons The world's premier manufacturer of high performance forged pistons Kibblewhite Precision Machining, Inc The highest quality valves and components for motorsport Swecomposite The leading supplier of carbon fibre parts to the racing, performance and custom markets Craft Safety Helmets The ultimate in safety and unique in design Del West Engineering, Inc Pioneers in valve train design Torco Oils The only oil recommended by engine manufacturers Puma Engineering. Goedhals Precision specialist gear cutting and engineering. Mickey Thompson Tyres The best drag race tyres in the world bar none. Goodridge UK The original and the best in fluid transfer systems. Gates The world's most trusted name in drive belts, hoses and hydraulics. Vanson Leathers Thirty years producing the best quality track-tested motorcycle apparel. Performance Machine The leader in aftermarket custom wheels, brakes and components. Kent Cams Specialists in motorsport camshaft manufacture, short runs and one-offs. Pro Alloy The UK's leader in fabrication of alloy racing tanks, intercoolers and radiators. PsycleWorkz The UK's best custom and race fabricators and innovators. House of Kolor Manufacturers of the world's most stunning specialist paints. Cannon Engineering Gear cutting and precision engineering services. Zodiac Europe's largest supplier of performance and aftermarket HD parts. Pixeleye Innovative graphic and website design. MRE Leaders in trackside support for drag race components and air shifting systems. Customize Premier sign makers and vinyl sign and design services. Turboville Your one stop drag racing resource. NitroShutter, The combined efforts of ace photojournalists Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes Wackyshack, Creators of stunning paintwork and murals. ©Eurodragster.com Tales from a strange season. 
17th September: Norwegian Supertwin racer Hans Olav Olstad is now back at home after
a very strange season:
First of all, we congratulate Team Rolfstad, who took the European Championship back home to Hawgs Mc Toten this year. It has been a season of lots and lots of rain. Both events in England were rained off and the same happened with the round at Gardermoen. We ran through lots of bearing problems, fuel pump problems and a big explosion in Mantorp. This gives us a fourth place going to the Finals. After Gardermoen we went to Mosten in Denmark, where we got fourth place. Rolfstad took the win here as well. The three runs on the well-prepared 200-metre track ended in a huge flame from a burning head. But Cato helped us out again and lent us his head for the last round in England. With most of the engine rebuilt, we arrived at a wet Santa Pod. I've never seen so many umbrellas in one time over that long a period. All the umbrellas were sold out, and the field around was only mud. Friday and Saturday were rained off, and we got one qualifying run on Sunday morning. Before this, Günter Sohn packed his gear and went home to Germany. There were only eight bikes, and everybody had a place in the ladder. I got terrible tyre shake at 150 metres and had to let off the throttle and rolled in to fifth place, just before Lorenz Stäuble. Koedam on Ton Pels' new bike blew off both head in his first try. Welcome to the family together with Job Heezen who also blew both heads when he pulled off the belt. We discovered a very high base pressure on the fuel system, and had to change the set-up totally. In the first round of eliminations we were supposed to meet Ian Turburville, but sadly he also broke his head gasket and was out. We did a 7.05 at half throttle, and the bike really worked fine. We were ready to meet Rolfstad, but then the rain started again, and cancelled the rest of the event. That's it for 2008, but we did overcome the fuel pump problem, and we did come back after the disaster at Mantorp. We worked to solve the bearing problems and we will be back in 2009. Watch out people, the lightning will be more dangerous than ever. Another huge thanks to all the people and sponsors who helped and supported us in 2008. See you all next year. ©Eurodragster.com UK Tech Crew update. 17th September: Mark Norton of the UK Tech Crew has asked us to thank racers and staff at Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceways who have contributed to the Tech Crew's chosen charity Help for Heroes by paying to have private weighing sessions or buying the charity's wristbands and other articles. "The crew already supported the charity, which raises money to support wounded troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan", says Mark. "But now that one of our own crew members Adam Martin, grandson of Head of Tech Geoff Martin, has joined the Royal Artillery it has become more personal. "You can check out Help for Heroes' web site at www.helpforheroes.org.uk, and there is a short news article about Leif Andréasson's support for the charity at www.helpforheroes.org.uk/latest_news.html. Leif has run the Charity's decals all season (below) after volunteering to do so at the FIA Main Event." ©Eurodragster.com 
Spotted in the pits at the FIA European Finals was Tech Crew member Graham "Gadget Man" Motler testing the new Tech Crew-approved Top Fuel Bike Training Tandem (above). "The Tandem was put to use during the busy Finals meeting ferrying drivers and Crew Chiefs back to their pits after they stayed in the tech area for TV interviews after their cars had been whisked away for maintenance. Racers availing themselves of the service included Derek Flynn, Steph Milam, and Gittli Koller of Peter Schöfer Racing. Editor's note: We're catching up, but we still have a backlog of news items which we should clear this evening. Please keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com. Swift snippets. 16th September: We are as ever indebted to Paula Marshall of Santa Pod Racers Club for forwarding us Version 1 of the official entry list for the UK National Finals which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 27th-28th September. You can check out the entry list by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the UK National Finals. Many thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us the official timing data from the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out the timing data by clicking here or by clicking on the timing data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Andy has also forwarded us an updated table of European Bests including Steve Venables' new ACU Super Street Bike ET record set on Sunday. You can check out the European Bests by clicking here or by clicking on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com Santa Pod Raceway have confirmed that Linda Thun Tønseth (Top Fuel Dragster) and Gary Page (Fuel Funny Car) are the fifth and sixth racers signed up for the Nitro Fuel Shootout which has been added to the UK National Finals. For more details check out last Tuesday's news item or visit Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com. Editor's note: Only a brief news update today as your News Editor is snowed under in his day job. We have a large backlog so tonight has been cleared for a mammoth updating session; tune back tomorrow for what is likely to be a long news update. Please keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com. Bike Weekend results. 15th September: Congratulations to the winners at the weekend's Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway: Funny Bike: Tim Blakemore no time bye Pro Stock Bike: Len Paget 7.3443/178.48 def. Dave Beck 7.3548/182.66 Super Street Bike: Steve Venables 7.6676/189.59 def. Graham Balchin 11.0209/67.08 Comp Bike: Ivan Birch 7.4582/174.95 def. Stu Crane 7.8313/170.34 9.50 Bike: Richard Sawatzki 9.5469/136.88 def. Martin Walker 9.6400/139.80 8.50 Bike: Paul Watson 8.5785/140.05 def. Chris Jones 8.7298/167.24 Supertwin Fuel: Martin Blackwell 8.2636/158.50 bye, Wendy Clutterbuck shut off Supertwin Gas: Chris Mott 8.9404/144.28 def. Andy Smith 9.3862/138.50 Supertwin ET: Aaron Sparks (12.20) 12.3728/105.71 def. Joe Elliott (10.50) 10.5633/135.93 ©Eurodragster.com Congratulations also to the following on new National records, subject to ratification: Super Street Bike ET: 7.308 seconds, Steve Venables NAST Supertwin Gas ET: 8.811 seconds, Chris Mott NAST Supertwin Gas speed: 145.29 mph, Chris Mott 9.50 Bike racer Richard Beck won the Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award with a 9.500 in the first round of eliminations. Richard asked us to pass on the £95 prize to the local Air Ambulance which was one of the beneficiaries of the 200mph.net grudge races held on Saturday afternoon. The Perfect ET Award has been reset to £50 for the UK National Finals in a couple of weeks' time whilst the unclaimed Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been increased to £150 for that event. You can check out our American Car Imports-sponsored Event Coverage by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and select the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend. Venables sneaks out new ride. 
15th September: Slipping almost unobtrusively into the Straightliners sessions at
Santa Pod Raceway was reigning ACU UK Super Street Bike Champion Steve Venables' new Hayabusa Super Street
Bike (click on picture for larger version), recently arrived from Velocity Racing in the USA.
©Eurodragster.com Steve told Eurodragster.com that although the bike had run 7.4 seconds at 199 mph in the USA, he had been struggling with electrical problems which turned out to be caused by the battery. Having solved the battery problem Steve then suffered second gear selection problems, but Steve is happy with the bike so far and thinks that new-bike problems should be solved without any further drama. Steve added that, as things stand, testing the new bike will have to take second place to his current Hayabusa in the battle for the 2008 ACU Championship, which he leads with team-mate Graham Balchin in second place. Thanks from Human Touch. 15th September: Anita Human of Human Touch Training and Care has been in touch to thank everyone who has E-Mailed or phoned with sympathy and offers of help to rebuild the Medical Centre at Santa Pod Raceway since last weekend's fire. "We are overwhelmed with the offers for donations and assistance", says Anita. "The money will go directly into re-stocking the Medical Centre so that we can continue with supplying the service you are used to. We are currently awaiting fire and insurance reports. "Our main priority in the last week has been ordering a medical equipment 'start up pack' so that we could be open and ready for business for the weekend's event. So far we have spent just over £2000 for basic supplies. One of the problems we had was that the ambulance keys were burned and melted, and these proved difficult to replace. Also some of the defibrillator charging units were destroyed leaving us with some of the defibs unusable. It has been surprising what little things we have had to re-order, from mugs to brooms, plasters to suture kits! "We also had an offer for two caravans for which we were very grateful as we would have had crews working with nowhere to be on call from. ©Eurodragster.com "Thank you again from Roy and Anita Human, Dr Mark, Debbie, Adrian, Mark, Becs, Neil, Bill, Phil, Joy, Vicky, Jamie and Matt." Donations submitted via our appeal here on Eurodragster.com have just passed the £3000 mark and we cannot thank you enough. Again we will list contributors when we close the appeal - which we plan to do just before the UK National Finals so that we can present a cheque to Human Touch at that event - but we would like to say Thank You to the National Association of Supertwin racers who at the weekend voted to make a contribution to the appeal. It was this donation which took us past three thousand pounds. If you would like to make a contribution towards the rebuilding and restocking of the Medical Centre at Santa Pod Raceway then please check out our news item You can help... of 12th September. Swift snippets. 
15th September: Many thanks to FIA European Drag Racing Championship Co-ordinator
Kjell Pettersson for forwarding us the final points standings in the 2008 FIA Championships. You can
check out the FIA Championship points on our Speedflow-sponsored
Points Standings page which you can view by clicking here
or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.
©Eurodragster.com Congratulations to Swedish Comp Eliminator racer Peter Thörnäs and his Tricky Team on setting a new Swedish AT/A eighth-mile record of 4.423/256 kmh on their first Comp outing at Malmö's Meca Raceway. We will have more about this on tomorrow's news update. Web site updates. 15th September: Two of our Bloggers have been busy this weekend. First up is Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon who has posted his thoughts on the narrowest of defeats in this year's FIA Top Fuel Dragster Championship. Second is Top Methanol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Derek Flynn who has posted the second instalment of his rapid introduction to injected nitro racing. You can check out Lex's and Derek's Blogs by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 
13th September: To celebrate the Leanders Brothers' FIA European Top Methanol Funny Car Championship,
Eurodragster.com News sponsor Tireshake.com have produced a Championship T-Shirt which is now available on-line. Benny Edvardsson tells us that
all Leanders Bros merchandise is reduced in price for the rest of September. To order your T-Shirt and to check out Tireshake's other apparel click on
Categories/Teams and Leanders Bros at www.tireshake.com.
©Eurodragster.com The latest 2008 ACU UK Drag Bike Championship standings are now available on the King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com. You can help... 12th September: It goes without saying that every person who goes through the gates of Santa Pod Raceway owes the Medical Team, whether or not we use their services on any particular visit and whether we are racers, spectators or officials. If you do need the services of Human Touch then your News Editor and countless others can testify to their professionalism and high level of care. Now is the time that we can repay the Medical Team by making a donation towards the reconstruction of the Medical Centre at Santa Pod after its destruction in a fire early on Sunday morning. If you would like to make a donation towards the reconstruction of the Medical Centre then you can use Eurodragster.com's Paypal account and we will pass the money on to Human Touch Training and Care. You can donate in two ways: If you have a Paypal account: Make a payment to donations@eurodragster.com either from your own Paypal account or via our Payments page by clicking here and clicking on the Paypal donate button. ©Eurodragster.com If you do not have a Paypal account: Go to our Payments page by clicking here and click on the Paypal donate button. On the page which is then displayed, enter your donation amount and click Update total at the top of the page, and you will find a credit/debit card link at the bottom left of the page. This should work both within and outside the UK. If you don't do Paypal or electronic payment, then drop us a line at donations@eurodragster.com. about cheque payment or other methods. At time of writing the total of donations has gone over £2000. We are very grateful indeed to all of those who have contributed so far; we will of course publish a full list of contributors when we close the appeal. More gold on Åland. 12th September: Last Monday afternoon Fredde Fredlund, the recently crowned 2008 UEM Pro Stock Bike champion, arrived on his home island of Åland amidst pomp and circumstance, writes Par Willen: At the end of the European Finals Awards Banquet we sent Fredde off for the flight home where he kept going and put on an excellent press conference set up by our main sponsor PAF, schmoozed the local government officials who met him on arrival, and all in all garnered good press and attention for his Championship in particular and UEM drag racing in general. As good as UEM Gold is, a lot more important was what had been on Fredde's mind when he left home for the European Finals and that was the event that occurred yesterday afternoon after nine months of waiting: Tina and Fredde are the proud parents of a brand spanking new human bean. A healthy baby girl it is. As usual it was very hard work for the mother and child, but everyone and everything are just fine. Congratulations to the new family. Timing is everything. ©Eurodragster.com A Beast untamed. 
12th September: The FIA European Finals turned out to be one of the most frustrating race weekends in a
long time for everyone involved, including Swedish Supertwin racer Per Bengtsson.
With just one shot of qualifying on a track which had been under water for most of the weekend it really was a lottery. Per got severe tyre shake about one hundred metres from the start line on the qualifaying pass which caused a broken camshaft belt and bent exhaust valves as a result. Qualifying was not a problem since just eight bikes were left on the track when the racing started. The damage was fixed within in an hour and Tommy Möller was our opponent in the first round. The Beast went in to hard tyre shake early in the run and Per tried to ride through it, which he did, but when the bike hooked up again it went off course and unfortunately crossed the centre line which ment that Tommy was the winner. "There's not much to say really because every racer had the same situation with just one shot before eliminations", says Per. "The Beast now produces so much power that tyre shake is one of the problems we have to eliminate. Big congratulations to the new European Supertwin Champion Svein-Olaf Rolfstad who did his job as number one qualifier and with two event wins earlier in the season. "I want to say a special thanks to the Santa Pod track crew who did an excellent job with the track in the worst of conditions! I'm also glad that the sixteen guests from our sponsors Autoexperten Växjö and Quaker State did get to see some racing after all the rain, even though we didn't have one of our best performances of the year. But that's racing. "We will have a team meeting in the coming weeks to analyse the season and to decide what to do for next year. We will of course let you know when decisions have been made. "A big thank you from The Beast Drag Bike Team to all our sponsors for all your support through this season: Quaker State, Autoexperten Växjö, Swedcut, Flexoart, Gates/Lönne, Fanhultstvätten Älmhult, Ulvsgården AB and Bentec Engineering." Picture courtesy and ©Stefan Boman Smith: We'll be back. 12th September: UK Fuel Funny Car racer Gordon Smith had a rough time of it at Santa Pod Raceway last Sunday when a fuel line sprayed fluid under the Shockwave FC and sent it into the guardrail with Gordon powerless to prevent the impact. Gordon has been in touch to assure us that he is OK and that the team will return but he firstly has some thanks: 
I would like to say Thanks to the whole team at Santa Pod for the excellent hard work that they put in to get the track into a race ready condition
for Sunday after days of consistent heavy rain. It is a miracle that the track came around as it did. I would also like to thank the safety crew and the
medics for their prompt action after my little scrape with the Pod wall. I can't say enough about the work they do and it is a great to know that we
have such a professional team behind all the racers.
©Eurodragster.com As for Shockwave, there is extensive damage to the chassis and body but we are looking at the options open to us without delay. The car is repairable, as is the body. The fact that I got out of the car with no more than a few bruises says a lot for the safety of these monsters. However it might be the right time to source a new car and we are looking at that possibility too. Obviously we will be looking for funds from any source to help with the cost of returning, but have no fear we will be back. Anyone who would like to help with the finances can contact me at nitrofc7@aol.com. Once again thanks to everyone, especially all the fans who gave me such a great lift as I walked back from the wreck. Up amongst the cream. 12th September: Team Turbo Ville could not afford to make the whole European tour this year but instead concentrated on the ACU National Championship instead. Ian Turburville says that he did however contest the two UK-based European Championship rounds as it is always nice to run against the cream of European Supertwins: Unfortunately bad weather once again dogged the event, and like the disastrous Main Event at the beginning of the year it looked as if it was going to be a complete wash-out. Monsoon like weather lashed the venue for four days until it relented on Sunday morning and raceday was upon us with a vengeance! The track crew never stopped prepping the surface all weekend and as a result they got us a racing surface by about 10.00 am. The huge entry of Sportsman racers unfortunately were dropped as there was just no chance to run them, so it was all Pro racing with one shot qualifying on an untried track. We watched Top Fuel and Pro Mod go before us trying to get some indication, it looked like it was holding the power! 
It came to the turn of the Supertwins and first out was Roel Koedam on the new Zodiac blower bike, a really clever machine but an all new combination of
a short-stroke, high revving, supercharged, Overkill type motor. The burnout went well but on the hit there was a deafening bang and it was back to the workshop
for Ton and Vincent. I know that bike will work once they get it dialled in. We were next up on a bye and were quietly confident we could put in a nice reliable
pass and get into the field which was eleven bikes strong. We had suffered very bad handling problems at the previous meet and I was convinced it was the
rear slick which had lost side wall integrity after only ten runs. It felt a bit slippery in the burnout and I wished I could have done another to scrub the new rubber
in but this was our only chance. Brum and Chris, from 'Northants Nitro' team, expertly set me up and staged me but I could tell the whole crowd were holding
their breath to see if I would also explode or just veer all over the track and take out more timing blocks! I held my breath too but on the green it launched great,
accelerated nice and straight down the famous quarter mile, until at about 800 feet it suddenly stopped pulling, only carding eight seconds at some 164 mph!
©Eurodragster.com We raced back to the pits, jumped all over it like a professional team and got it turned around for the next session in thirty minutes, just in time for the call. However, when we started the bike to warm it up we found that the cylinder head was blowing fuel out of the seal. If we had another few hours we could have fixed it but to run like that would be suicide. So, hell and damnation, we were qualified number four - the perfect slot - but had to declare broken and were out of the game. I think Hans Olav, my opponent, was more disappointed than we were! I went down to the start line on foot and stood next to him as he made his solo pass as a show of respect. It was a nice, clean 7.00, I knew I could have given him a good race. Next up was my buddy Job Heezen on the other Zodiac bike and he had been doing very well in his inaugural season in Supertwin. He launched hard but at half track both cylinders let go big time and his year was over right there. His crew of daughter Evelyn and friend Bart looked very dejected but I know Job will have it all fixed very soon. There followed a lot of very intense racing from all classes until the evening when the rain made a slight return. Coolest move of the weekend? Tommy Möller started his nitro bike and rode it back down the fire-up road to his pit and great applause from all. My favourite pass of the event? Derek Flynn's barnstormer, man that was impressive! We were left with the number nine plate for next year which is my best placing yet in UEM. Congratulations to Svein Olav Rolstad who raced a six second bracket bike all year and a tearful farewell to my good friend Günther Sohn who has decided to retire from drag racing. I just know he will miss it as much as we will miss him. Big thanks to Brum, Chris, Pat, Ingrid, Martin and Dave for all the top-notch help at the weekend. Pray for good weather at the UK National Finals on 27th-28th September and let us see if we can end the year on a high. There should be three Top Fuel dragsters and three Fuel Funny Cars along with plenty of nitro bikes so it will be a big event. Don't miss it! Mister Spokehead appears courtesy of Custom Chrome Europe, Red Line Oil, Gates Belts, Arias Pistons, Jims, Curbishley Automotive, Rush Racing UK, Zodiac, Sprint Dampers, RST Wheels, Fast Lane Racing (Canada), King Racing, Innovate Dataloggers, Bentec Engineering, Aasen Tuning, Exhaust Gas Technologies, Slidercovers.com, Timtime.co.uk, DACS and I&S Logistics. Picture courtesy and ©DJ, Santa Pod Raceway A word from Flynn's tuner. 12th September: UK Top Methanol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Derek Flynn made his competitive début in his injected-nitro dragster at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway at the weekend and blasted his Personal Bests out of sight in the Gold RV, Lucas Oil and Ceratech-backed car. Tuning the car was the US' Jim Rizzoli, and Jim has given us his thoughts on racing in the UK: The last two weeks have been a great experience for me and one I will not forget. I was fortunate to be asked to come over the pond to England and tune Derek Flynn's new A-Fuel dragster, this is a car I know very well in America because I have been working with Larry Miersch (previous owner) for the past several years on this very car. Coming over to England and racing at Santa Pod is a dream come true, everything I heard about the racers over here is true, they are gracious people and very fierce competitors. The quality of cars is not unlike the States, and several of the cars I have raced against in competion back home. My main goal in coming over was to teach Derek's crew the basics of an A-Fuel car and how to work around it safely. I was very pleased with the skills of his team and how fast they picked up on the do's and don'ts of this type of car. Derek's long time partner and Crew Chief Gary Jenkins picked right up on tuning techniques for A-Fuellers and will be a pleasure to work with in the future too. But what can I say about Derek, his first check out pass in the car was faster than he'd ever been, and we just got quicker after that. Derek handled the car superbly and lost his ponytail in the process. I do feel that there is some unfinished business, with all of the bad weather we were not able to finish the race and lost several passes. I hope to be back next year! A big thanks to all of you I met, to Derek and all the Gold RV team. ©Eurodragster.com Derek has also updated his exclusive Racer Blog with his thoughts on his first passes in the Gold RV / Lucas Oil / Ceratech dragster, and you can read his account by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Carter Motorsport press release. 12th September: On Sunday Andy Carter in the Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster secured an unprecedented third FIA European Top Fuel title, aided by an incredible 4.90 number one qualifier, under difficult conditions. The FIA European Finals held at Santa Pod Raceway in England is always the FIA Championships season finale and has historically been the meeting where titles have been won and lost and traditionally in Top Fuel, the field has been very tight with a number of possible Champions. This year's event would see no less than four racers with a chance of winning the FIA Championship including Andy Carter, Micke Kågered, Urs Erbacher and Lex Joon with Joon leading Carter by five points going into the meeting. Traditionally a four day event including a full supporting cast of Sportsman racers, the incredibly bad weather meant that track action would only take place on the Sunday, with the decision to race only the Pro classes as qualifying and eliminations had to be completed. The pressure was really on all the teams who had one shot to go out and stamp their authority on the field and pick up extra points along the way. As the rain finally let up, Carter and Joon lined up together for their qualifying effort which saw the cars claim the numbers one and two spot, with Carter heading the field following an outstanding driving job, which included two pedals, with 4.90 second 293 mph blast. Going into round one of eliminations, Andy faced Risto Poutiainen, fresh from a strong outing in Germany where he recorded new Personal Best numbers. With the track beginning to build some heat in the surface, a simply awesome 4.74/317 run put Risto back on the trailer and Andy into the second round. With Micke taking out Urs in their match-up, it would now only be one of three to take the title. Tommi Haapanen was be the opponent in the second round as Micke squared up with Lex Joon in the other pairing. As Haapanen hit the loud pedal, he seemed to creep away from the line, by which time Carter was gone. A 5.05/237 timing ticket highlighted that a chute had come out early, in fact it had come out at 400 feet and Andy had pulled it all the way! In the other match-up, Micke's Championship hopes were dashed as Lex Joon took the win light and the stage was set for the numbers one and two in the Championship to go head-to-head for the title. The rain has played its part in many key Championship moments and it was once again the wet stuff that prevented the final from being fought, and with the points lead with Andy Carter at this stage the announcement that the meeting had been called was greeted by a huge cheer from our pit! Festivities continued long into the night as the team celebrated an incredible third FIA European title in Top Fuel for Andy. The 2009 aim now is back-to-back titles. It has been a very tough year in many ways and we'd like to thank so many people for making this all possible, including all at Lucas Oils, all at Andersen Racing, all at Carter Motorsport and our marketing partners Lucas Oil, Landmeco, NGK, Binamic, Pioneer Print, Crane Cams, K&N Filters, Yuasa Batteries, Brown and Miller Racing Solutions, Sigma Signs, Rainbow Conference Sets, 3t Creative, Norfolkline, RCS Cables, Teng Tools, CAAR, Jerrys, Extreme Action Cameras, and American Auto Club International. We would also like to thank everyone at Santa Pod Raceway who fought against all the odds to make this race meeting happen and of course all our fans who cheered on every run that we made over the year. Thank you for all for the kind words, E-Mails, texts and phone calls, it really is appreciated! Anyone we have forgotten here, thank you - we couldn't have done any of it without you all. Next stop for the Lucas Oil team is the AACI Autumn Nationals meeting at Billing Aquadrome on 19th-21st September, please come and say hello. ©Eurodragster.com Engineering a new deal. 12th September: David Ward, driver of the UK's Rampage Super Pro ET Funny Car Team, has been in touch to say a big Thank You to new sponsor Tatnell Engineering Services, located in Northampton. "Owner Alf Tatnell has a close relationship with motorsport especially with Formula 1 and this venture into drag racing has opened his eyes to a whole new set of conditions", says David. "Alf comes from Kennington in London and his engineering workshop has been busy making various parts for Formula 1 teams. ©Eurodragster.com "Rampage crewman Jeff Hart met Alf when he purchased a new Doosan Lynx CNC lathe from Mills Manufacturing Technology Ltd, and whilst being trained on the Fanuc computer side of the machine noticed that racing components were being manufactured on other machines. A five minute discussion on the sport of drag racing and Alf was only too pleased to sponsor us." You can contact Tatnell Engineering Services on 01604 587947 or by E-Mail at alf.tatnell@btconnect.com. Swift snippets. 12th September: Santa Pod Raceway have confirmed that Thomas Nataas (Fuel FC) and Barry Sheavills (Top Fuel Dragster) are the third and fourth racers signed up for the Nitro Fuel Shootout which has been added to the UK National Finals on 27th-28th September. Barry will be driving one of Rune Fjeld Motorsport's Top Fuel Dragsters. For more details check out Tuesday's news item or visit Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com. ©Eurodragster.com Danish Top Fuel Dragster racer Stig Neergaard says that he and his team have had a lot of fun, broken parts, and worked late hours in 2008. "The season would never have been possible without support from a lot of people", says Stig. "Therefore I would like to thank everyone who has made this season possible especially crew members from Denmark and Sweden, support from the USA and all the officials in United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden and Germany. Also I would like to thank all of the fans for their support at all of the tracks we have attended. See you next year at Santa Pod, on 22nd May 2009." Upton out to reclaim #1. 
12th September: The opening round of the 2008/09 Australian National Drag Racing
season will be a very important one for the nation's fastest man on two wheels, ex-pat Brit Jay Upton.
After what can only be described as a horror run last year the likeable West Aussie and his hard-working team will be keen to grab back their long held number one spot. Having to develop a new power plant last year took its toll on the results with Jay and his awesome Top Bike The Edge suffering with mechanical DNFs. "It certainly was a character-building year", says Jay Upton. "It's always tough when you're designing and developing from the ground up, but having said that the crew and I have been very busy in the off-season and we are extremely confident we are on top of the various issues and will be out there challenging for the number one spot." The Top Fuel Promotions team will not only have the latest high-tech components but will also sport a new team transporter and equipment as well as a new look web site at www.topfuelpro.com.au. Backed by regular supporters in Honda MPE, Gates Belts and Hoses and Sprintex, the operation will head into the new season with plenty of confidence. Such has been the dominance over the last few years of this team, Jay and the 'Scooter', as it is affectionately known, are still the outright record holders for both elapsed time and speed in the category. "We are very much looking forward to the new season", says Jay. "Although we have in the past carried the number one plate, this year will be very tough with the number of competitors in the category almost doubling. This is going to be great for the class and of course the fans with some fantastic action guaranteed." The action kicks off at Western Sydney International Dragway this weekend with qualifying on Friday and Saturday and daylight finals on Sunday. More information at www.wsid.com.au. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 12th September: Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger Gorringe has updated his Nitro Exposure web site with pictures from the FIA European Finals, some more vintage shots, and his latest news. You can check out Roger's work at www.nitroexposure.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com Jamie Dyks has updated his Fotopic gallery at topnitro.fotopic.net with pictures from the FIA European Finals. Weekend event updates. 11th September: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has been in touch with an update for racers attending this weekend's Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway. Santa Pod Raceway's gates will be open from 5:00 pm tomorrow (Friday). Signing on will be open tomorrow between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm. Scrutineering will start at 6:00 pm tomorrow. Signing on will reopen and scrutineering recommence at 7:00 am on Saturday. ©Eurodragster.com Legendary drag racing team owner and British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Nobby Hills will be present at this weekend's NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway to promote and sign copies of his excellent new autobiography Nobby's Quarter Mile. Hills, an icon of British Fuel Dragster and Funny Car racing, will be displaying the team's nitro-burning Chevy Camaro accompanied by former Houndog drivers Mike Hutcherson, Owen Hayward and Alan Bates. The team's new driver Simon Hayward, Owen's son, will also be at the Drags. You may recall that Simon recently test-drove the new Funny Car recently at Shakespeare County Raceway amidst great interest. Enter the first Nostalgia FC. 
11th September: Nobby Hills' car will not be the only Fuel-burning Funny Car at this weekend's
NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway as Wendy Baker and Paul Stubbings have completed putting
together their Time Warp Nostalgia Funny Car, the UK's first NFC, in time for the event.
"The chassis is the Buterra chassis originally built for Chadderton and Okazaki in about 1973 -74 which came to the UK in 1975 to become the original Gladiator", says Paul Stubbings. "After this it went through various guises: Hustler, Rain City Warrior and Mad Max until it was found in a garage near Birmingham in about 2003 minus the body and running gear but still sporting the unusual A-arms which Bootsie had fitted. "The body is a Mustang II which we think dates from the mid-seventies and was rumoured to be an ex-Pat Foster car last raced in the States by Crazy Jake Crimmins" in 1979. Keith Bartlett and Stu Vallance imported the car into the UK and it also went through various identities: Slick Tricks, Liquidator, Iron Horse, War Horse and Time Machine until we purchased it in about 1997. ©Eurodragster.com "The chassis has been put back to its original configuration of drop tube front axle with torsion bar suspension and the safety cell has been updated to conform with SFI regulations - very little work was needed as the chassis almost conformed as built! It now has a TFX 96 block with Alan Johnson Heads, 8/71 blower with bugcatcher, Crowerglide clutch, two speed Lenco and a Mark Williams/Strange rear end. "The body was also put back to original by removing the side windows and re-shaping the rear wheel arches. It was resprayed by JW Automotive in Bridgewater to a paint scheme by Peter Walters Race Design. "Thanks should go to Andy Robinson (tubing etc), Roger Clarke (chassis welding and tank fabrication), Andy Carter (block, crank, cam and heads), Dave Bryant (manifold and engine parts), Steve Turner (balancing, machining), John Spuffard (headers), PWRD, and Richard and Lee at JW Automotive. "Unfortunately the car doesn't have a class to run in yet but who knows..." Our reading today... 11th September: Phil Evans, who heads up the MSA Drag Racing Sub-Committee in the UK and also sits on the FIA Drag Racing Commission, has been in touch with today's lesson: "In the time of the eternal rain, strangers from far away came to the temple of speed bearing strange unctions and tinctures called Powermist. "The keepers of the sacred rules cannot detect the forbidden fluids" they said, and lo it came to be that some lost souls succumbed to the embrace of the dark side and violated the sacred methanol with the unholy additive. The priests in the FIA/MSA temple of control were much vexed by the revelations made unto them by the elders of the tribes of Pod who were sore pissed off by the actions of the miscreants. ©Eurodragster.com "A decree went out to all that henceforth that we assert the right to examine at any time the sacred fuels used in the chariots of acceleration at the next gathering of the tribes of Pod and transgressors will be cast out of the temple of speed and made to feel the full wrath and punishment of the keepers of the sacred rule book. Be very afraid all ye who transgress against the might of the keepers of the rules. So endeth the lesson." Before getting in touch with us about the above, please read the first paragraph of News FAQ 26. Swift snippets. 11th September: UK National Pro ET Champion Paul Baynton has suggested that Sportsman racers entitled to a refund of their entry fee after last weekend's events at Santa Pod could donate their refunds to the reconstruction of the Medical Centre, on the principle that they had already spent the money and so won't miss it. If you would like to donate your refund to the reconstruction of the Medical Centre then please contact Paula Marshall at Santa Pod Racers Club on 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625) or E-Mail paula.marshall@btconnect.com. ©Eurodragster.com In addition to his cautionary tale above, Phil Evans has asked us to congratulate the whole team at Santa Pod who managed to put on an excellent race meeting after battling so hard for day after day against the dreadful weather. Luke Bennett and the whole Bennett family have asked us to say a big Happy seventeenth Birthday for yesterday to Amy Bennett. Hope you had a great day, Amy. Still time to book some sun. 11th September: Race fans keening for a late-season nitro fix after our saturated summer can still obtain the perfect remedy from Eurodragster.com News sponsor Grandstand Motor Sports. The UK's leading motorsport travel company continues to take bookings for its Drag Racing USA tour beginning in seven weeks' time. There are separate short tours on offer to each of NHRA's final POWERade Drag Racing Series events, the ACDelco Nationals at Las Vegas (29th October-5th November) and the Auto Club Finals at Pomona (11th-19th November) plus a bumper twenty one-night excursion covering both events. Flights, quality hotels, car hire, race tickets and the services of a tour host are included. Grandstand can also tailor dates and arrangements to suit individual needs. There's an array of added attractions and, for guests who qualify as automotive business professionals, admission can be arranged to the mammoth SEMA Show. ©Eurodragster.com Grandstand is delighted to welcome guests from the UK, Europe and worldwide. For more information on the Drag Racing USA programme, please telephone 0845 375 0300 (from abroad: +44 (0)116 231 1222), visit www.grandstandmotorsports.co.uk, or simply click the Grandstand logo at right. Editor's note: Your News Editor is under the cosh in his day job today so we still have a backlog of news which will be published tomorrow. Tune back then to read Andy Carter's thoughts on his third FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Championship, what Derek Flynn's tuner Jim Rizzoli thought of running a car in the UK, Derek's latest Blog entry with his thoughts on blasting into the fives in his new Top Methanol Dragster, a new sponsor for the Rampage Pro ET team, how Ian Turburville's FIA European Finals weekend went, and much more. Please keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com. You can help... 10th September: It goes without saying that every person who goes through the gates of Santa Pod Raceway owes the Medical Team, whether or not we use their services on any particular visit and whether we are racers, spectators or officials. If you do need the services of Human Touch then your News Editor and countless others can testify to their professionalism and high level of care. Now is the time that we can repay the Medical Team by making a donation towards the reconstruction of the Medical Centre at Santa Pod after its destruction in a fire early on Sunday morning. If you would like to make a donation towards the reconstruction of the Medical Centre then you can use Eurodragster.com's Paypal account and we will pass the money on to Human Touch Training and Care. You can donate in two ways: If you have a Paypal account: Make a payment to donations@eurodragster.com either from your own Paypal account or via our Payments page by clicking here and clicking on the Paypal donate button. ©Eurodragster.com If you do not have a Paypal account: Go to our Payments page by clicking here and click on the Paypal donate button. On the page which is then displayed, enter your donation amount and click Update total at the top of the page, and you will find a credit/debit card link at the bottom left of the page. This will work both within and outside the UK. If you don't do Paypal or electronic payment, then drop us a line at donations@eurodragster.com. about cheque payment or other methods. Midway through this morning the total of donations has gone over £1000. We are very grateful indeed to all of those who have contributed so far, and please don't hesitate if you would like to add to this total. From the Shop to second. 10th September: Going to the Finnish Finals in the last weekend of the August wasn't easy for Finnish Funny Bike racer Asko Määttä and Baldie Racing: 
I found some damage to the engine in my shop on Friday afternoon while the other Funny Bikes were already at the
track and had made some qualifying passes. I had a damaged piston and seeve in the second cylinder due to a
broken spark plug and it was leaking down some sixty per cent.
©Eurodragster.com But so what, we made it to the race and we were second both in qualifying at in the race! I only had to use 0.9-1.1 bar turbo pressure and 25.5 degrees of igition due to that cylinder failure. Anyway I managed to get boost up at the line resulting in the best sixty foot times I've ever had, not good but acceptable for a lazy bike and an old driver. I'd like to thank those who make it possible: Pro Turbo Systems, XL Energy Drinks Finland, Kuvan Moottoripalvelu, Moto Speed, Hanx Systems, MC-Kaksikko, Autokoulu Moottori, Jyväskylän Moottoriklubi, and my bike racing and parts shop Baldie Racing & Media Relations." Picture courtesy and ©Mika Martelin Swift snippets. 10th September: Further to the above, Angie Daly of Santa Pod's safety crew has been in touch to ask if any Eurodragster.com reader can help the Medical Team with the loan of caravans at Santa Pod. "As you all know they lost they caravans in the fire and for the time being have nowhere to stay", says Angie. "Is there anyone out there who could possibly lend them some caravans until such time that they can get their own vans replaced, as they have no facilities but will still have to provide night-time medical cover this weekend. All offers will be truly gratfully received". If you can help then drop us a line at eurodragster.com@btinternet.com and we'll put you in touch. ©Eurodragster.com 
Liz and Iain Malcolm of the UK's Jus'4'Fun Racing Pro ET team have asked us to thank Darren West of
Power Race Graphics for designing and producing their Jus'4'Fun
T-Shirts which are now available from their trailer at race meetings. "The shirts are available in Small to XXL", says Liz.
"Whilst we are on the subject our belated thanks to Ian Turburville who in liaison with
PRG supplied our race shirts and jackets and did a fantastic job and at a very reasonable price."
Germany's Ove Kröger says that he had a fantastic time at the recent Goodridge Dutch Finals at Drachten. "Super weather and super nice people!", says Ove. "We raced in both Super Gas and Super Comp. It was our first time in Super Comp and we went to the semi-finals which was a great success for us. That is where our 2008 season ended." Brian Taylor has been in touch to ask if any Eurodragster.com reader can help with a UK historical query for his forthcoming book Crazy Horses. "Early in 1976 Clive Skilton's promotion company called European Dragways promoted two meets at Blackbushe", says Brian. "Up to this time the NDRC had been his organising body applying for the ACU and RAC permits. But for some reason they had been replaced by the BARC for cars and the BDR&HRA for bikes. I remember this happening as I was on the BDR&HRA committee that agreed it, but I can't remember why the NDRC had been dropped. I know the NDRC had financial problems, and Skilton Motors went down in the middle of the year which was the pre-cursor of Clive ending his racing activities. I would like to know why the BARC and the BDR&HRA took over these two Blackbushe dates". If you can help then please drop Brian a line at brian@petrolhead.vianw.co.uk 
Web site updates.10th September: Colin Donisthorpe has updated his Fotopic gallery with his first set of pictures from the FIA European Finals, with more promised soon. You can check out Colin's shots at colindonisthorpe.fotopic.net. Our good buddy Markus Münch, who kindly stood in for Roger at the NitrolympX at Hockenheim, made it over to Santa Pod Raceway for the weekend's FIA European Finals, travelling with Kirsten and Christel fom Peter Schöfer's crew and photographer buddy Matze. "We stayed at Bruno Bader's pit", says Markus. "Thanks to the Friesch Family for that awesome hospitality. We waited three days and nights, had only some 'Lake Amman' shots and nothing else. Many good conversations about drag racing, Super Pro ET in Germany and so on. The Championships in many classes were so exciting, it couldn't be that no racing at all could take place. Saturday, rain, nearly dry track, rain again...for several times was hard to take. Sunday we were on the lucky side, racing started and we had even some Champions crowned on the track. I especially congratulate Peter Schöfer and Timo Habermann for their number one and two positions in the Top Methanol Dragster Championship. On Monday morning back from Stansted to Karlsruhe and back to work at twelve o'clock back to work, with a sleepless night behind us. That's drag racing, we'll be back in 2009". You can check out Markus' excellent FIA European Finals pictures at dragstripper.smugmug.com/gallery/5921168_Ubp7V#368579793_jWrby. ©Eurodragster.com Also updating from the FIA European Finals is Paul Lister whose Drag Car Anon you can find at www.dragcaranon.co.uk. Statement on SPR Medical Centre. 
9th September: In the early hours of Sunday 7th September a fire broke out in the Medical Facility at Santa Pod
Raceway. The Medical Team were providing cover at the FIA European Finals. The fire was discovered by the duty medical crew who alerted the
Santa Pod Fire Crew and Security. The duty medical crew evacuated the off-duty crews and families from the caravans within the compound,
of which there were eleven medical staff and eight children under seven.
Matt Whiting, one of the duty medical crew said "I heard a small explosion and could see a lot of smoke coming from the rear window of the crew room. I immediately knew what was going on and used my experience of many years as a full time fire-fighter. I alerted Vicky and we sounded the alarm". Vicky Holmes said "Once I had raised the alarm I then found my way back blocked by thick black smoke and in the pitch darkness I could not get back to my caravan to rescue my children. It was the most awful experience of my life". Vicky's children were rescued by her Husband Jamie, an off-duty member of the medical team, and off-duty Paramedic, and ex-fire-fighter, Bill Davis. The Santa Pod fire crew and security staff arrived minutes later and assisted with the evacuation. The fire crew and two of the medical staff started to tackle the fire and were controlling it until water supplies on the fire engine were exhausted. The first fire brigade appliance arrived on site and took over the situation. One of the fire fighters who arrived on the retained crew was Santa Pod's very own 'Jiggle' Dave. Four main pumps arrived with support crews. It was decided by the Senior Fire Officer from the fire service not to enter the Medical Centre and try to contain the fire due to the medical gas cylinders. As all members of the medical staff were accounted for and there was no risk to life the fire was allowed to spread from the crew room to the medical centre. A number of tents and caravans over the road were evacuated for safety. They were offered shelter in the Fuellers Bar and one of the catering facilities was opened up where refreshments were available to be purchased. Medical staff were providing assistance in an ambulance that was retrieved from the Medical Centre compound. Anita Human, co-owner of Human Touch, said "It was really frightening, We had to lift the children out of their beds and we couldn't see through the smoke. It was pitch dark. Our youngest is just ten months old. It was lucky I grabbed the car keys so we had somewhere warm to sit. We were in our night clothes, no shoes or coats. We just had to sit and watch it burn down, not knowing if the med centre or our caravan had caught alight. All our hard work over the last year up in smoke." 
It was very unfortunate that the medical centre had only been handed over to the medical team by Carol of Santa Pod Racers Club a few
months earlier at the FIA Main Event. The building had been supplied by Santa Pod Raceway with a large contribution from Santa Pod
Racers Club. All equipment in the medical centre was supplied by Human Touch Training and Care. Fire investigation officers made an
inspection following the fire and their report is awaited. The fire investigation officer's opinion was that the fire was caused by an
electrical fault on one of the exterior cables supplying the crew room. There are no suspicious circumstances. The whole medical
facility and all our equipment and some of the Paramedics' personal equipment was totally destroyed including
five caravans next to the facility.
Roy Human, owner of Human Touch, said "We started off working out of a bag under the tower, got close to the standard of an A&E department and now we are back to working from a bag again. We had one of the best Medical Centres within motor sport in the UK. However, we will continue to provide the high standard of care to the racers and public at Santa Pod and we resumed cover just hours after the fire". Temporary facilities were set up in a portacabin in the Lost Children area so that the event could continue. A stewards meeting was held and Dr Mark Tyler, Medical Director and Roy agreed that they had enough facilities and equipment for the event to continue. Roy and David Lloyd-Jones of Santa Pod Raceway are working to provide a temporary medical facility until the monies can be found to rebuild. Roy and Anita Human, the owners of Human Touch would like to personally thank Barry Halliwell and his fire crew for their prompt and professional action, Will and PJ and their security team for their assistance and most of all, the Human Touch Medical Team for continuing their cover in a professional way despite considerable personal difficulties. We apologise for our blackened appearance and smoky smell on the Sunday but hope that you did not notice this affecting our professionalism! We would like to thank all the racers, marshals and staff who approached Roy for their kind thoughts and assistance. Any comments are invited to roy.human@humantouchtraining.co.uk or via our web site at www.humantouchuk.com. Watch this space - the medical centre will be back! ©Eurodragster.com Bike Weekend racer update. 9th September: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has been in touch to inform racers that, due to the failure of office equipment, all racer tickets for this weekend's Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway will be put on the gate. ©Eurodragster.com We will have this weekend's gate, scrutineering etc details very shortly. UK National Finals update. 9th September: If you were tuned in to Eurodragster.com News on Sunday you will have read that Santa Pod Raceway have added a Nitro Fuel Shootout to the UK National Finals, which takes place on Saturday-Sunday 27th-28th September. Three Top Fuel Dragsters and three Fuel Funny Cars will be contesting the Shootout and the first couple of participants have been confimed as Risto Poutiainen in Top Fuel and John Spuffard in Fuel FC. The Fuel sessions will include night racing. ©Eurodragster.com "The weather has been hard on everyone this season but our fans still deserve to see some top flight drag racing action", explained Santa Pod Raceway CEO Keith Bartlett. "As a gesture of good will we've confirmed a showcase of some of the best Top Fuel cars to appear at the National Finals. This event will still host the finals for the UK National Championships but adding this Nitro Fuel Shootout will make for something a bit special!" For more information including ticket prices check out Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com. FIA European Finals FIM/UEM review. 
9th September: FIM/UEM European Drag Bike Championship Co-ordinator Lars Andersson has
been in touch with his regular post-event review, this time of the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway:
Rain is a short summary of this year. This time it rained on Thursday and it continued on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday evening we were very close to being able to start but then started it to rain again. On Sunday morning it was better but still wet. After big efforts from the track crew and a lot of others were we able to start qualifying. We started straight away with Top Fuel cars and had one pair before we had to break for the rain again but a little bit later we could start and at around 14:00 we started qualifying for motorcycles. In Supertwin we started with Ton Pels' new bike with Roel Koedam riding but it went bang and stopped so he was not qualified. After some problems for some and some with less problems Svein Olav Rolfstad from Norway ended up as number one qualifier and with that also Champion for the year. In Top Fuel Bike it was very exciting. Sverre Dahl went out and made a superb 6.19 run and later Peter Svensson ran a 6.27, and the last pair out were Ian King and Rikard Gustavsson. Ian did a very nice 6.28 and Rikard had some problems so he did not qualify. With this result Ian passed Rikard in the points and was the new Champion or more accurately managed to keep the number one position this year. In Pro Stock Bike the Champion was already clear after Fredrik Fredlund arrived at the track. But with big interest we all watched all the new riders from Greece and Philippe Runget from France.Could they qualify or not? Yes they could. Philippe qualified as number four and Mixalis and Antonis did qualify as number six and seven leaving names such as Bishop and Hope outside the ladder. In the first round of Supertwin Rolfstad had a solo run and also Olstad due to the fact that Turburville was broken. Stäuble also got to the semi final after Job Heezen broke a belt. In the last pair the two men from Skåne, Per Bengtsson and Tommy Möller, met. After a red light it looked easy for Per but crossing the centre line is not good so Tommy won even after the red light. In Top fuel Bike Sverre Dahl went out first and made a very nice 6.14 second run. In the next pair it was Kai Selkäma against Chris Hall with Hall as the winner. Then it was time for Peter Svensson against Neil Midgley. Peter went out very strongly and ran 3.91 seconds over the first eighth mile but then switching to next gear turned the bike a little bit and he also crossed the centre line and Neil was the winner. But this would almost surely have been a five-second run. If so the first outside USA. And finally Ian King went to the semi final after a very nice 6.20 sec run, a new Personal Best for Ian. Pro Stock Bike was a little bit different than usual. Ulf Ögge made it to the semi and he would have met Philippe Runget from France who won over Richard Gipp. On the other half will it be Len Paget against Mixalis Tsoutsidis from Greece who won over the European Champion Fredlund whose bike stopped at the start line And can any one guess what then happened? It started to rain again. And since the time was 19:45 it was too late and dark to try to do something. I must say that the people of Santa Pod Racers Club worked very well and never gave up. Thank you also to Keith Bartlett and Darren Prentice for all the work they did during this weekend of rain. After this the Championship for 2008 is finished. Hope to see you all on the track for 2009. ©Eurodragster.com You can check out the final standings in the 2008 FIM/UEM European Drag Bike Championships on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. FIA European Finals snippets. 9th September: Many thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us the official timing data from the FIA European Finals. You can check out the Finals timing data by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com Thanks also to Andy Marrs for updating our table of European Bests to include Sverre Dahl's 231.11 mph European Top Fuel Bike speed record from the FIA European Finals as well as records recently set at Hockenheim and Shakespeare County Raceways. You can check out the latest records by clicking here or by clicking on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Santa Pod Raceway's web site has been updated with a report and galleries from the FIA European Finals which you can check out by clicking here. Our good buddy Christer Abrahamson kindly supplied us with a gallery of off-track pictures from Sunday at the FIA European Finals. You can check out Christer's shots on our American Car Imports-sponsored Event Coverage by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA European Finals. Bike Weekend Perfect Awards. 2nd September: This weekend's Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway is the next event in the 2008 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards scheme. £220 is on offer for perfect performance.
The Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been increased to £125 after it went unclaimed at
the FIA European Finals. The money will be presented to the first racer
this weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available to all racers
in all Championship classes during qualifying and eliminations
but will only be awarded for the first perfect light of the event. If not won this weekend then
the Award will be increased to £150 for the UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway; if it is won
then it will be reset to £50 for the UK National Finals. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with
performance hose and fitting manufacturer Speedflow, whose web site you can find at
www.speedflow.co.uk.
As Santa Pod Raceway's timing system works to four decimal places we must clarify that although the Perfect Light Award goes to three places, we will not pay out for red lights with zeroes in the first three decimals since a foul is a foul however far in the first non-zero digit may be. So a reaction time of 0.0001 will win you the money (if you're first to do it), but a reaction time of -0.0001 will not. Decals are not formally required for the Perfect Light Award but of course we appreciate it: you can get Eurodragster.com decals at the track from any Eurodragster.com staff member. ©Eurodragster.com
The Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award has been been increased to £75 after it went unclaimed at
the FIA European Finals. In addition the extra £20 donated by former Santa Pod Raceway Race Director Syd McDonald
is still available bringing the Award up to £95. The money will be presented
to the first racer this weekend to run to the thousandth on their dial-in or index. The Perfect ET Award is
available this weekend in 9.50 Bike, Supertwin ET and 8.50 Bike, but will only be awarded for the first first perfect
run of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £120 for the UK National Finals
at Santa Pod Raceway; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for the UK National Finals.
The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with RV sales and service specialists Gold RV, whose web
site you can find at www.goldrv.co.uk.
To be eligible to collect the Perfect ET Award, racers will be required to carry Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET decals, one on each side of the vehicle whether car or bike. If you pull this weekend's first Perfect ET but are not carrying decals then there will be no discussion, we will not pay out and the next person to pull a Perfect ET will get the money assuming that they are carrying decals. The decals (pictured) will be available in the Signing On office; please note that, as is usual with contingency schemes, racers are responsible for requesting or picking up decals when signing on. A list of required decals per class is always on display in the Signing On office. 2008 European Champions. 7th September: The FIA European Finals were curtailed by rain quite late in eliminations after a heroic effort by track crew, racers and race officials. Congratulations to the 2008 European Champions, subject to ratification:
7th September: We're in place at Santa Pod Raceway to bring you all the news from the FIA European Finals in association with American Car Imports. Our coverage will consist of frequently-updated reports on the on-track action together with pit notes updated through each day and end-day photo galleries. The Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam is on-line and is set to post a picture every sixty seconds. ©Eurodragster.com Click here to view our FIA European Finals coverage, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and select the FIA European Finals. FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Championship leader Lex Joon is updating his Blog from Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. 8:00 Sunday: We had a problem here at Santa Pod overnight as the Medical Centre was severely damaged by a fire at 3:30 this morning. Thankfully no-one was hurt which is the main thing. SPR was closed for a short while but the gate is now open again and if you were planning to come here you can come on site. This is all fact, checked with Race Officials; anything else you may hear from any other source is not necessarily so. It's still early doors here and a lot of assessments have to be made. Stay tuned to our Event Coverage for updates. Smax misses out.
7th September: Day two of searching for ex-pat UK Fuel Smax Smith at New England Dragway started with downpours which were the remains of Hurricane Gustav,
writes Eurodragster.com's US Correspondent Ed O'Connell:
©Eurodragster.com The rain ends but the skies don't clear as the leading edge of another hurricane, Hanna, is moving in. I arrive at Epping which is on hurricane schedule, meaning that the 2:00 pm Pro session will go off at 1:00 pm. The Leverich Racing dragster which Smax is driving in Top Fuel has arrived and a serious thrash is going on in his pit to get the car together to make the first session and beat Hanna. They just have time to warm the car up on alcohol and are still assembling the engine as it rolls into the staging lanes. There is a cylinder out at the hit and at least one more goes out down track on a clean but sluggish run of 6.06. The bump spot which was 8.42 after last night's session moves up to 5.2 in this session, so they don't make the field. The cloud cover is so black it looks like Armageddon rather than Hanna may be approaching so a final night qualifying session looks unlikely (and in fact didn't happen - Ed). Swift snippets. 7th September: Santa Pod Raceway have announced a six-car Nitro Fuel Shootout at the UK National Finals on Saturday-Sunday 27th-28th September. Three Top Fuel Dragsters and three Fuel FCs, yet to be identified, will be contesting the Shootout. For more information including ticket prices check out the UK National Finals page on Santa Pod's web site at www.santapod.com. Swedish Pro Stock racer and Eurodragster.com Blogger Adam Flamholc has acquired a blown '68 Camaro Pro Mod from Virginia-based racer Ellis Vial. Adam is currently in the US testing the car. The car was built by Tim McAmis in 2006 and has had only fifty to sixty passes on it. It comes with a Bob Newbery-built hemi with Veney parts and in the winter Adam will decide whether to order a new motor. Adam's goal was to race at an increasing number of events and the new car will enable him to be competitive in the Scandinavian Top Doorslammer series as well as FIA Pro Mod events at, at least, Mantorp and Hockenheim. Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association racer Bob Glassup's first 2008 appearance of the Xtreme Racing methanol-burning altered may be delayed. "We have been awaiting on delivery of a rear axle from the US", said Bob. "We have made the car as ready as we can for the UK National Finals but if we can't finalise it in time we may try to run at the Flame and Thunder Show and then run it next year. Trevor Capewell says there is a 5.8 run in the engine so we'll see what we can do". In the meantime Bob is crewing for Top Methanol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Derek Flynn at this weekend's European Finals. ©Eurodragster.com No less than three Happy Birthdays today, too. First up is Felicity Gibbs, Chief Cook and Oil Changer of the Rampage Super Pro ET team, who is seventeen today. Happy Birthday also to Pro Mod racers Ian Bishop and Wayne Nicholson. Hope you have a great day guys. On the Sunday of the NitrolympX, Dragracer.de magazine photographer Andreas 'Kalunki' Dierking lost his camera whilst the Junior Dragster trophies were being presented at the conclusion of the event. The camera contains many images for the next edition of the magazine. If anyone knows the camera's whereabouts then please contact Andreas at kalunki@dragracer.de. Smax pins hopes on weather window. 6th September: Eurodragster.com's US Correspondent Ed O'Connell tells us that as things stand ex-pat UK Top Fuel racer Smax Smith isn't qualified for this weekend's IHRA round at New England Dragway after yesterday's event schedule was tweaked: I knew the run schedule included qualifying for all Sportsmen, two rounds of Pro Stock and Pro Mod, one round of Alcohol Funny Car. There was speculation that the first nitrous car into the fives may happen if the track and air were good. The day was sunny and beautiful but at 89 F a lot warmer than a typical September day and way more humid with Hurricane Hanna pushing moist tropical air ahead of it. I know the adjusted altitude was over 1000 feet and the track is almost at sea level. Most importantly, I was on a mission as US correspondent for the venerable Eurodragster.com to find Smax Smith. At 1:00 pm the nitro pits seemed extremely relaxed, as I check each TF Dragster to see who was driving, as I am not that familiar with the IHRA players. All except one TF had a driver name on them so I asked a young man assembling a clutch who drove that car. He replied that he did and I realized he was Bobby Lagana Jr. I asked if he knew whether Smax was at the event and he said he didn't think so as he hadn't seen him and his name wasn't on the entry list he had seen which included eight TF and nine Nitro FC. My friend Submarine Boy said "You guys are doing a lot of work considering that you don't run till tomorrow". Lagana replied "No, they are running Nitro tonight so we will have one qualifying session in case Saturday is a washout". We thought how cool, a day of nitro at alcohol prices (Friday was only $25). ©Eurodragster.com While walking the pits in the afternoon, TF driver/owner Bruce Litton saw my Mantorp Park shirt and was asking me all sorts of questions about European drag racing. He said he always wanted to race over there and asked if I knew of anyone who could help him out with determining the cost and method of transporting a TF car to various FIA events. He holds an FIA licence as he has raced in Japan. He seemed like a really good guy. I said I would ask Eurodragster.com as you might know or know of someone who knows the cost of transport. He said he has a very exact knowledge of what it costs to run the car, but getting around is a mystery. He has a huge trailer which he thought might not be appropriate to ship or travel Europe in. The sessions went off amazingly well for Epping, with very few delays. Mike Castellana, in a nitrous car sponsored by the same Qatar deal Alan Johnson is involved with, ran a 6.01 in the thick but cooler night air. The nitro session went off like clockwork with eleven nitro FCs - one had no time as he left before the tree was activated, wasting a very nice clean run and probably over a thousand dollars - and eight TFs, with a bump of 8.42. After the Pro sessions ended at 9:30 they ran the first rounds of Sportsman eliminations up to curfew, since the storm is definitely motoring up the coast. I decided to roam the Pro pits and get a few nighttime work shots. I was just about to leave when in the pit of the Tim Horton's Doughnuts (a Canadian doughnut chain) TF car I saw a guy dumping a pan of oil who could have been Smax. I asked if he was and he said yes. I told him I had been warned by Tog that he might be there and he said he had emailed Eurodragster.com earlier in the day and asked you to keep an eye out for his kids who are at Santa Pod. I said "That's funny, Tog told me to keep an eye on you". Smax said that he and his race car were six hundred miles away from Epping when, after sleeping late and enjoying a leisurely breakfast, he got a call that TF's first (and maybe only) qualifying run would be Friday night and not Saturday as originally scheduled. He said there wasn't much he could do to get to the track on time and with his being the ninth car shooting for an eight-car field he was doomed unless there is a session today. We talked to Smax for about 10 minutes until he was called to dinner. He is quite a character. The announcers, being optimistic as they must, assured us that they would be two more nitro qualifying sessions on Saturday. That is where it stands now, and as I have been typing the rain has let up considerably so there may be window in here for one more chance for Smax to get in the field. Maybe they can get a run in during the calm that comes when the eye of the hurricane passes over us. If there is racing today, I will be back to check it out. To the rescue, again... 
4th September: If you were tuned in to Eurodragster.com on Monday you will have read an appeal from
German Top Methanol Dragster team Peter Schöfer Racing for help
in procuring a rear axle set. Proving yet again that if you want the job done you get in touch with Eurodragster.com,
the team now have a new rear axle safely in the dragster courtesy of Lee Child Eurodragster.com Links sponsor
LA Racing Parts.
"LA Racing Parts has been a direct distributor for Strange Engineering for the past six years", said Lee Child. "I saw the story on Eurodragster.com and got in touch with Gittli to say that if all of the other options she was exploring didn't work out then I would be happy to help. Gittli replied that she had been in touch with Strange but that because it was Labour Day she had not had a reply. As I knew that the team would travelling to England I told Gittli that I would take care of it. ©Eurodragster.com "I called Strange in Illinois on Tuesday afternoon UK time, and to speed things up I went to the UPS depot in Exeter at six o'clock this morning to pick up the package and then I drove up to Santa Pod Raceway and delivered it to Peter's pit (Lee with Wolfgang Schöfer, pictured)." PSR team member Gittli Koller said that the team were delighted with the offers of help they received after their appeal was published on Monday. "We had an offer of help from the Leanders Brothers, and Bob Jarrett of the Showtime team said that if Strange could get the part to him then he would bring it to England with him. We are very grateful to everyone who offered to help. When Lee got in touch all of our problems were over and we would like to thank him very much especially for getting out of bed so early! Thank you also to Eurodragster.com for publishing our news item (Happy to help - Ed)." Heezen: Happy so far. 4th September: Dutch Supertwin racer Job Heezen says that he is more than happy with his first year on a nitro-fuelled bike: When we bought Ton Pels' bike Godfather 6 I did not set too many goals for this season. Because the world of Nitro was all new to me I had only two things on the programme: 1. Try to learn as quickly as possible all ins and outs of the mechanics and especially the fuel side, without making major mistakes, and 2. Try to find my feet on the bike and get accustomed to higher speeds than I was used to. To start with the last I can state that I felt OK on the bike from day one when I made my first pass in between snow showers at the Easter Thunderball. The bike feels very solid and predictable but needs a strong hand to correct. As the power, weight and speeds are much higher compared to the bike I came from, the corrections must be a lot more persuasive. On the first run it felt more like sailing a supertanker but after a while you get used to that feeling too. So far all the runs have been pretty straight, no centre-line crossing and even on a tricky track like Mantorp I could keep it out of the wall. ©Eurodragster.com For a series of reasons I failed to appear in Finland so the real racing started at Mantorp Park. During qualifying it all went pretty well, we managed to reach the number three spot with an eighth mile time of 4.39/169. During eliminations we got it down to 4.36/171.5 which was a very good result considering the extremely hot conditions that day. During this weekend I had big help from Vincent Pels and his tuning made these numbers possible. Although he cooked dinner for us the night before we were all set to give my good friend Svein-Olav Rolfstad a hard time in the semis. It all went well, I was quicker at the lights and up to the 594 foot mark I had a nice margin until the rocker arm of the front cylinder broke and I had to finish on one leg so I fell short on the finish-line by 0.0288 seconds This was a beautiful side-by-side race, probably the best of the weekend. Qualifying at Gardermoen began in the same conditions as Mantorp: hot and sunny. The first run was not perfect with a 1.17 sixty foot time and a 6.80 quarter mile but the top speed was better than ever, 212.2 mph which is an all time high for this bike (the old record was 209 mph). For the second run we had something even better in mind and you know, this is asking for trouble. Right at the start line my belt broke and in the other lane Lorenz Stäuble made a fast run and set me back to second qualifier. That was the end of the show as the rain started to fall big time and lasted for two days. I feel very sorry for the guys in Norway, they do a wonderful job and deserve better. The Nitrolympics also started with rain on Friday but luckily enough this stopped in time. We got an invitation for the Nitro Challenge which we took with both hands. Being trainees we need the runs badly but it was also a unique chance to race against people you never meet side-by-side, such as Rickard Gustavsson. We made four runs in total, all of them very instructive. One was a 6.705 run which was a PB again for me. It was also instructive for us to see that, with the rapidly changing weather and track conditions, we had a hard time to find the right adjustments that put both feet on the ground again. There is still a long way to go ! Talking of Hockenheim, it was quite a while ago that I raced there and I have to say that a lot has changed for the better. The conditions for the racers are better now, the spectators are still there and the organisation is more relaxed than in the older days. So, are we happy so far? Yes, we certainly are, and looking at our situation we can be more than happy : No major damages (knock on wood), good control of the riding, very interesting numbers, even records and close to records, a reliable bike, interesting qualifying positions. Whatever happens at the European Finals, our season is more than satisfying so far. We will do whatever we can to perform well at the Pod and will open the throttle wide to see if we can run some more PBs! It has not been possible without the help of Ton and Vincent Pels, Roel Koedam, members of the King Racing team, members of Marc Meihuizen's team and, of course, my own dream-team. 
SPRC's unique fire cover.4th September: Racers at this weekend's FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway have an extra and unique piece of safety cover this weekend with Santa Pod Racers Club's purchase of a Firexpress All Terrain Vehicle supplied by Emergency Technologies Ltd (click on picture for large version). "The Firexpress is fitted to a Polaris ATV for go-anywhere firefighting", said Geoff Howard of Emergency Technologies Ltd. It features a low-pressure misting system, a 160-litre water tank and foam system and thirty metres of hose. The technology is in the hose and nozzle, or branch. It produces very small water droplets in the order of sixty microns. Because the droplets are so small, the water turns to steam and that takes heat out of the fire. It can put out a car fire in twenty to thirty seconds and has a five minute fire attack time. The branch is also designed to smash through a car window so that you can get directly to the fire. In addition it can refill itself or pump from anywhere". The vehicle is driven by a 500 cc motor which propels it at up to 40 mph. ©Eurodragster.com Geoff demonstrated the Firexpress at Santa Pod Raceway least weekend and the emergency crews were so impressed that an order was placed immediately by SPRC. SPRC's Firexpress is one of only two currently in the country. For more information check out Emergency Technologies Ltd's web site at www.emergencytechnologies.co.uk. Swift snippets. 4th September: FIA Top Fuel Dragster Champion and Eurodragster.com News sponsor Urs Erbacher is looking for a second trailer for next year's operations. "We want a trailer the same size as our current one", says Urs. "It must be Central European size, maximum height four metres". If you can help then please see Urs at his pit at Santa Pod Raceway this weeekend or contat him via the Fat Attack web site at www.fatattack.ch. ©Eurodragster.com Following on from yesterday's announcement from John Price that he is to retire from commentating at Santa Pod Raceway, SPR track announcer Graham Beckwith has also announced that he is to step down. Graham's last event as an SPR commentator will be the UK National Finals in a few weeks' time. More about this closer to that weekend. Another title for PMR. 4th September: Eurodragster.com News sponsor Paul Marston Racing clinched their first APIRA Championship in 2006 with John Everitt in the Alien Super Pro ET Altered and last weekend won their second APIRA Championship, this time in Super Comp with their devastatingly effective PiranaZ Racing-backed four-link dragster: It is great news for both Paul Marston Racing and our American sponsor, whose fast-moving clothing range will again be available from Colin at C&P Hot Rod Tees at the European Finals. Dragster Pilot Dave Catton was simply unstoppable, clearing the table collecting the very maximum points, #1 qualifier and winning the event. A richly-deserved win for Dave who will now refocus his efforts to the UK National Super Comp Championship. Dave's win/loss percentage is exceptional at 0.863 and bodes well for the forthcoming race. Also enjoying success was Paul Marston Racing's Drag Race School Instructor Mick Howling, driving Grumpy's Dodge in Pro ET. Qualifying number five Mick made it to the quarter finals, which will move Mick up into a strong top ten position in the National Championship. Paul Marston, who shared the driving duties with Mick Howling, was not so successful in Super Gas,going out first round and qualifying last and last seen muttering something about going back to school. To be fair, there was a problem with the transbrake on Grumpy's Dodge, which was sorted out the following week by Paul Marston himself who locked himself in the workshop with instructions not to let him out until it was fixed! Nevertheless no driver likes to lose first round, especially after having had a rotten time in qualifying. Paul Marston Racing's Drag Race Driving School would like to acknowledge and express their thanks to Santa Pod Raceway track crew and management for their help over the past few weeks. Paul Marston Racing's Drag Race Driving School have had five drivers complete the Drag School course over the past couple of weeks. PMR would also like to express their thanks for all the kind words said about the PMR Drag Race Driving School, not only by the man himself - Eurodragster.com's very own Tog (thanks mate) - but by every one of the other drivers on web sites and by letter. Your appreciation never goes unnoticed, as most people know the PMR Drag Race Driving School is here to provide a stepping stone for people to enter into this great sport of ours, either competing with Team PMR by renting one of our School race cars or, independently with their own race car. We like to think that PMR has made a difference and with what has been written recently it looks like we are on the right path. Once again, thank you. The European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway looms ever closer, with entries in Super Comp for Dave Catton with the PiranaZ-backed four-link dragster The Ugly Stick, Pro ET for Mick Howling in Grumpy's Dodge, and Paul Marston returning to the Whoopass Monza both in Pro ET and Super Gas. It should be quite something, so stop by to say Hi. This, unfortunately, will be the last season that Dave Catton will be competing in the dragster. If anyone is interested in talking to us about possibilities for the 2009 season now is the perfect time. Paul Marston Racing's drivers would like to personally acknowledge all the hard work and sacrifices contributed by the PMR crew: Crew Chief, fun-size Sefton Whitlock, Lisa, Mick Pusey, Lee 'The Beetroot' (he always brings the sun), Dave Gibbons, American representative Tony Morris, Simon and Sam Innes, Billy and Dave Gane and all the PMR Drag Race School pupils who come to learn more, and the past and part time PMR crew members. Without all of these we could not function. Special thanks also to all of our sponsors and friends, PiranaZ, Bo Laws Performance, JW Transmissions, Geddex, London Road Tyres (01708 735355), CTM Performance & Machine, C&P Hot Rod Tees, Black Box London Ltd, Disco Equipment Hire, Miller Oils and everyone else, you know who you are. Last but not least Eurodragster.com for your tireless support and all the fans whom everyone looks forward to seeing this coming weekend. Paul Marston Racing will also be once again trackside stocking the full Geddex range: Dial in, Wheels up, in all colours (orange, yellow and white), Slick-Air and Burnout Guard, along with most Big and Small Block Chevy consumables such as gaskets, plugs, filters, core plugs, alcohol lube, starters etc. all at racers' prices. For any advance orders E-Mail office@pmracing.fsnet.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 
4th September: Eurodragster.com Reserve Photographer Peter Donaldson has updated his Fotopic gallery
with shots from last Saturday's Peak Performance day / VW Action at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Peter's shots at
peterdonaldson.fotopic.net.
©Eurodragster.com The Shakespeare County Racers web site at www.shakespearecountyracers.co.uk has been updated with one hundred spectator-side and pitside pictures from the Open Sport Nationals. Julian Hunt has updated web site at www.julianhunt.net with pictures from July's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway. Price steps down. 3rd September: Santa Pod Raceway track announcer John Price has announced that he is to retire from commentating at SPR. John's last event under the Helmet of Truth will be this weekend's FIA European Finals after a commentating career which started in 1981 with only two short breaks in all that time. "I'm feeling my age!", John told Eurodragster.com. "Also my day job is keeping me desperately busy. Each gig I do at Santa Pod is a week away and I come back to more and more work, and each one is a week of time I haven't got. Also my daughter is growing up, she is nine years old now and it is a pain to be away." ©Eurodragster.com "I would like to say Thank You to everybody", John added. "I've made so many friends and clients in my time at Santa Pod. Everyone has always been so kind and nice - when I came here I knew nothing and people were very generous with information." John said that he still plans to do one- or two-day events such as the Damn Yankees event at North Weald as well as car and bike shows so his unmistakeable and authoritative voice won't be completely lost to us. Pro Peak Performance Day coverage. 3rd September: Roger and Tog are on station at Santa Pod Raceway to bring you all the news from today's Pro Peak Performance Day, which is the last chance for racers to test before the FIA European Finals commence tomorrow. Twenty four racers pre-entered the event, six of whom are Pro and the rest Sportsman with a preponderance of Pro ET racers. Our coverage, presented in association with American Car Imports, will consist of reguarly-updated reports on the on-track action, and an end-day Photo Gallery. The Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam is on-line and is set to post a picture every sixty seconds. ©Eurodragster.com Click here to view our Pro Peak Performance Day coverage, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and select the FIA European Finals. Selkämaa makes it. 
3rd September: From Kaija Kohtala comes the great news that Finnish Top Fuel Bike racer
Kai Selkämaa will after all be racing at the FIA European Finals.
Kai was unwell last week but he recoeverd well and left hospital on Sunday. The doctors have given Kai permission to race
and he can't wait to get back on the bike:
After Hockenheim we went through all the technical parts and repaired the damaged clutch on the bike. So far the motor on the bike has been working excellently as we have already made eleven runs with no motor damage this season. Thanks to Toni from Eastland Engineering who did a great job to rebuild the cylinder head. Our goal at Santa Pod is to keep our fifth position in UEM series and run our first six second pass. Finally, DB-Team Selkämaa would like congratulate our technician Samu (Skull) Kemppainen who got his STTF licence at the Defa Finals at Alastaro last weekend. It's great to have a new rider into the Nitro class. His bike (right) formerly belonged to Canadian Nate Cagnon. It's built by Bill Furr and has run 6.94/208 in Canada. Third place from half a season. 3rd September: Peter and Soren Svensson of Sweden's Kendall Racing Top Fuel Bike team are on their way to Santa Pod Raceway having made minor changes to their record-holding bike to see if the track can take more power than Mantorp Park and Gardermoen. Peter says that the team are satisfied with their third place in the FIM/UEM European Championship especially since they have only contested two races this year. "At the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park we gained 68 points which is the maximum you can get in one race and that's really great", says Peter. "At the Sunoco Drag Challenge at Gardemoen we made two test passes and still qualified third on our best pass despite getting off the throttle 4.91 seconds into the run." The team are already looking to run at next year's Veidec Festival, NDRG Drag Challenge and FIA European Finals. "We would like to take the opportunity to thank our sponsors for their support in 2008 and are looking forward to continue our cooperation with all of them for the upcoming season of 2009", says Peter: ©Eurodragster.com Kendall Motor Oil Sweden who make some of the best oil products in the world Samek Industri AB who make some of the best moulding tools in the automotive industry in Sweden HRM/Ritline AB a technical consultancy within the automotive industry in Sweden CemeCon A/S one of the best powder coating companies in Europe when it comes to camshaft coating etc. "We would also like to take the opportunity to thank our crew for a great job, as always, at the races and in our workshop preparing our bike during last winter. Without them we would never been able to make a whole race season. Thanks guys: Joachim Vuorenmaa, Nitro and Oil system/Mechanic Lars Grunnegård, Clutch timers/Mechanic Gunnar Jonsson, Driver of the trailer/ Mechanic Mats Grunnegård, Mechanic" The Beast on the attack. 
3rd September: Swedish Supertwin racer Per Bengtsson of the famous and very noisy drag bike The Beast is currently holding
number two spot in the UEM Championship going in to the final round of the Championship at Santa Pod Raceway and has every intention of taking the event win.
After the Championship round at Gardermoen Per and the team went straight to Malmö's Meca Raceway after the Sunoco Drag Challenge to confirm some more settings on the bike. "We have more power than ever before in the engine and it's now more a case of getting the handling right with all this horsepower depending on the track conditions and who is inthe other lane", says Per. "We're definitely going to Santa Pod to win the race and we aim to be number one qualifier as well. "It's been a frustrating season with all the rain wich means that you don't get enough rounds to go really fast, although we know that the potential is right there. But we are going in the right direction that's for sure. We will also have twenty invited guests at Santa Pod from our sponsors Quaker State and Autoexperten and they will see some excellent racing during the weekend!" The Beast Drag Bike Team would like to thank the following companies for their support this season: Quaker State, Autoexperten Växjö, Swedcut, Flexoart, Gates/Lönne, Fanhultstvätten Älmhult, Ulvsgården AB and Bentec Engineering. ©Eurodragster.com Picture courtesy and ©Stefan Boman More Hell for Carla and Rick. 3rd September: UK Pro ET racers Carla Pittau and Rick McCann are in a tight spot to make the FIA European Finals after the team's second car Heaven & Hell As Well developed an engine problem at the Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway: As you probably know we produced enough mayonnaise out of the rocker covers to spread on every sandwich being made in the pits at the Open Sport Nationals, which is when we decided it was best advised not turn up at the third round and risk further damage, even after an oil change. I was hoping it would be a blown gasket, or the deterioration of an eight year old repair on the heads, which would have been fixable with block weld. However after a few tests we were no nearer a diagnosis, so we took the engine apart and we found a hairline crack on #4 bore and wondered if this could be in any way fixed by the WonderWeld, even temporarily, to just do the last two meetings of the year. ©Eurodragster.com Dave Pollen, Peter Lane, Jeff Bull and Kenny Coleman all helped greatly with advice - and the consensus was unanimous: don't mess with it, the compression will prevent the magic stuff from sticking, so have it sleeved. But...there is not enough time! Dave Pollen called John Ellis to magic up some time, so Rick delivered the 383 block to John Ellis yesterday morning to be sleeved - this is a rush job John kindly agreed to, and we'll hopefully collect it at the latest this morning. If we're lucky we will have rebuilt it last night and if we're unlucky we'll rebuild it today. tomorrow if we aren't. Then it goes back in the car, then we leave for the European Finals. Our best estimate is getting to the track tomorrow morning and probably to the hotel at 3:00 am as we did at the Main Event. The worst estimate, better not think about it. When we are towing in convoy we'll have to keep each other awake by singing Little Deuce Coupe at the top of our voices on the two-way radio again, one verse each. I pity whoever was tuned in to the same frequency as we drove on that night, they'll hate all gearhead songs forever. Then again, we haven't missed one meeting since the 2001 Easter Thunderball, and before that we didn't miss a single meeting from the 1993 Season Opener to the 1999 National Finals: we took 2000 off to build the loft conversion, then we came to our senses and put racing back on the top of the agenda. FIA European Finals snippets. 3rd September: Reigning FIA European Pro Stock Champion Jimmy Ålund and the JJ Performance team are going flat out for their fifth consecutive Championship. ”We have been working hard with the race car after our semi-final loss at Mantorp", says Jimmy. "The car has been in pieces as we looked for areas of improvement to make it quicker. We all know that the fight for the title will be very tough, as Richard 'Nixxon' Sundblom amongst others is chasing right behind us in the points. As this is the last race of the season we need to peak in performance and make no mistakes, as always in drag racing. If we can achieve that we hope that we have a chance to qualify well and get a good result for the team and our main sponsor Klintberg & Way, number one in parts for US cars. Let's pray for good weather – see you all at the track!” ©Eurodragster.com 
Micke and Magnus Lindahl and the Kendall Racing Pro Mod team have been busy on two motors since the NitrolympX, says Krister Peterson.
"We have had to get our good ol' bus running again", says Krister. "It feels good to have that team member in business again, it's
not pretty but neither are we so it fits us like a glove. The Camaro's engine was running close to the limit at Hockenheim so it
needed a big overhaul to be ready for the Finals. That engine has also become a old and trusty team member having done the work for
five seasons and is now the quickest and fastest Pro Mod engine in Europe. So it would be pretty cool to win a Championship with that
engine, we think it deserves it. We are excited to come to the Finals with the points lead and it's going to be a fun and hard race
with many capable of running quickly. It'll be a big party for the fans and a war for the racers."
Ian Turburville tells us that Simpson UK have run out of crew shoes but that he will bring what he has to Santa Pod with him. "I will also have mechanics gloves, visors, Carbon X underwear, Top Fuel/Funny Car driving gloves and boots only", says Turbo. "If you think your helmet might fail tech and you need one let me know now via www.turboville.com as I have limited space and will only bring what is ordered. I have new Bandits, Valor, Super Voyager, Speedway RX and Impact Nitros. They are all Snell certified and Nomex lined and on end of season offer. I also have one two piece, medium, two layer Simpson driving suit. Have a safe but speedy weekend everyone." If you are coming up to Santa Pod this weekend and fancy eating out then don't forget that Eurodragster.com News sponsor The Curry Garden is a short drive away at 24 Church Street, Rushden NN10 9YT. Alternately the guys at The Curry Garden will deliver to the track given a big enough order; to enquire call 01933 314121 or 01933 359581. If you are around this evening (Wednesday) then The Curry Garden has a special eat-in deal on Wednesday evenings of two curry meals for £10, cooked by their award-winning chef. For more details including the menu check out the restaurant's official web site at www.thecurrygarden.co.uk. The perfect weekend. 3rd September: The NitrolympX at Hockenheim just turned out to be the perfect weekend for Team Werner Habermann Racing and the two Habermann brothers Timo and Dennis: Timo came to the Habermanns' hometrack in Hockenheim third in the FIA Top Methanol Dragster Championship and with a great ambition to improve in front of his home crowd. The first two rounds of qualifying was tough for everybody in the Top Methanol Dragster field. In his first run Timo ran a 5.8 with huge tyre shake and a dropped cylinder. On Saturday a 5.63 also with lots of tyre shake and Timo was fifth out of five competitors. The field was very close together, Peter Schöfer was first with a 5,62 and Timo in fifth ran a 5,63. But it was the third and last round of qualifying which brought a huge smile to the teams faces. Timo ran a 5.46/414 kmh which was not only top qualifier and the only 5.4 in the field, but Team Werner Habermann Racing also scored a new World Record for Whipple blower cars. Big cheers at the start line and father Werner even jumped up on the wall! The first run on Sunday was a bye run which the team used for a 330 foot test. The numbers indicated that the run would have been another 5.4. In the semis Timo had to face fellow German racer Peter Schöfer to whom he had already lost some races this season. A huge crowd on the grandstands was just as excited about this match up as the two teams. Timo finally managed to beat Peter on his home track and admited that he was very happy about it as Peter is the toughest competition imaginable. Timo proved one more time that he is very quick at the lights, his reaction times 0.072, 0.038 and 0.059 in eliminations. In the Finals Timo had to face the reigning and multiple Champion in Dave Wilson. Wilson was really improving this weekend and it looks like his team are handling the A/Fueller set-up very well now. Dave ran strong and consistently all weekend, but Timo ran a 5.54/406 to stay ahead of Dave Wilson and took the win, Low ET, top qualifier, new Personal Best, track record and the World Record this weekend and will travel to the European Finals at Santa Pod as the leader of the FIA Top Methanol Dragster Championship. ©Eurodragster.com Timo has a four-point lead that is over fellow German racer Peter Schöfer, so everything is wide open and very intense. Timo says he doesn't know if he can win the Championship but it sure doesn't get any better than the weekend they had in Hockenheim. It was also a perfect weekend because of the success brother Dennis Habermann had in Competition Eliminator. Dennis qualified second with a 6.85 in round one, 6.86 in round two and a new AA/D European Record when he ran a 6.80 in his last round of qualifying. He already run a 6.7 at Mantorp Park but couldn't back it up then. In round one Dennis took an easy victory and in round two was successful against one of the soon-to-be big names in German drag racing Patricia Kaestner. Dennis has known this young lady for a long time as they also often faced off when both where running Junior Dragsters. In the final Dennis had to face Rene Meierhofer who had won Competition Eliminator many times in Hockenheim. Rene got more than a two second head start over Dennis. That is the hardest part, keeping your nerves together and sit there for what seems to be ages and watch your opponent running away from you. After a big chase Dennis turned out the winner with another 6.81 which backed up his European Record. You could tell the team was on cloud nine after this breathtaking weekend, together with sponsor Uni Fit they celebrated in the pits until 5.30 am and everybody celebrated with them. Timo says they were especially happy that fellow Top Methanol Dragster teams came over to party with Team Werner Habermann Racing and made this very special weekend even better. Now the goal is clear for the Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. Timo and the rest of Team Werner Habermann Racing are hoping for good weather as they do not want to win a Championship that close because of a rain out. But whatever the result may be in the Championships, you will see a happy smiling family when you go to the pits of Werner Habermann Racing. European Championship outcomes. 3rd September: Simon has been looking at the standings in the FIA and FIM/UEM Europan Championships going into this weekend's final round at Santa Pod Raceway and here are his thoughts: The outcome is closest in the premier classes of cars and bikes. In FIA Top Fuel Dragster, Eurodragster.com blogger Lex Joon is a mere five points ahead of Andy Carter who is also five points ahead of Micke Kågered. In fourth place and thirty six points further back Urs Erbacher is ready to pick up the pieces if any of the leaders fail to qualify or go out in the first round. The five points for quick ET of the event could well come into play as well as qualifying positions. In Pro Modified, Micke Lindahl's has emerged as the car to beat with a win at the NitrolympX and runner-up at Alastaro. Micke has run quick at Santa Pod with a 6.110 at this event last year, so Marc Meihuizen has his work cut out with a margin of sixty three points. Trailing Marc by less than forty points are fellow Dutchman Robert Joosten, Patrik Wikström and Mats Eriksson any of whom who could grab runner-up place if Marc stumbles early in the event. ©Eurodragster.com In Pro Stock Jimmy Ålund is only seventeen points, or less than one round win, ahead of Richard Sundblom who has been strong this year. Michael Malmgren is another thirty four points back and a runner-up position is probably the best target for him to aim at. Eurodragster.com sponsor Ulf Leanders leads the Top Methanol Funny Car Championship by a wide margin from Leif Andréasson and Leif would need to qualify in pole and win the event to have any chance of overtaking Ulf. Top Methanol Dragster is a battle of German teams with Timo Habermann only four points ahead of Peter Schöfer and Rob Turner forty one points further back. Timo's brother Dennis is running TMD at this event - will he be a spoiler or will Bavarian Thunder prevail? In the UEM Bike Championships Top Fuel is the closest with only twelve points separating Championship leader, Funny Bike racer Rikard Gustavsson, from nitro rider Ian King - a lead which can be made up by one round of racing and a couple of qualifying places. Supertwin is more tied up with thirty four points separating Svein-Olaf Rolstad from second place Per Bengtsson with 2007 Champion Lorenz Stäuble a single point further back. For Per or Lo to take the Championship Svein Olaf would have to DNQ. Pro Stock Bike has Fredrik Fredlund's Suzuki forty two points ahead of Ulf Ögge's Buell which is a further eight points ahead of Martin Bishop. Another perfect weekend. 3rd September: Open Sport Nationals Supertwin Gas winner Chris Mott had the best weekend he could have wanted as he was top qualifier, took the event win, and repeatedly set new Personal Bests including his first eight-second pass. However Chris tells us that the weekend was almost finished as soon as it started: After breaking the clutch hub on our first qualifier we nearly didn't make the rest of the weekend, but thanks to Gavin Cupit removing another clutch hub from a second hand bike at work and bringing to the track on Saturday night we were able to carry on racing and the weekend just got better. ©Eurodragster.com We were able to secure number one qualifier with a run of 9.31 in the final qualifing session on Sunday. We went into eliminations still hoping we could get the bike back near its previous best of 9.10 from the National Finals last year, having been struggling all this year to get the bike to launch straight. Race day and the bike just got better each round: 9.05 in the first round, 9.02 in the semis and then the Big One - 8.95 in the final! We won the race and got into the eights, it doesn't get much better! A few Thank Yous. To John Phelan, boss of Oxford Harley-Davidson, for the loan of the clutch hub; Steve at Motorshack and Keith at Classic Cycle Works for help with the fuel and the paint; Dave Branch Engineering for the great frame and all his help; and of course Yvonne and Gavin, my Super Crew, for all their hard work and support. Swift snippets. 3rd September: Sussy Hofbauer of Svensk Dragracing has been in touch to let us know that the NDRS Prizegiving Banquet will not be taking place at the Stockholm Infra City on 25th October. As things stand Sussy does not have either a new date or a new venue but she will of course let us know as soon as she has the new details. Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has forwarded us version 6 of the official entry list for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 13th-14th September. You can view the entry list by clicking here; if you think that you should already be on the list then you can contact Paula Marshall on 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625) or by E-Mail at paula.marshall@btconnect.com. Gilbert Rozet of the Association Trophéee Dragster tells us that the last ATD Championship race of the 2008 season takes place at France's Vichy Charmeil Airport on 13th-14th September. As well as car and bike Championship rounds the event features Junior drag racing, nostalgia dragsters, and a night show on the Saturday. You can find out more at www.francedrag.com. ©Eurodragster.com Swedish Junior Dragster racer Ludvig Perés was the subject of a feature on local TV station TV4 yesterday. You can check out the feature at 3' 30" at anytime.tv4.se/webtv/?progId=657030&treeId=10071&renderingdepartment=2.757. Eurodragster.com reader Steven Taylor has been in touch to ask for help in tracking down a Lincolnshire Super Gas racer named Nick. Not a lot to go on here but if you used to race in Super Gas, and if your name is Nick, and if you're in Lincolnshire, then give Steven a call at 07887 594 975. Saunders regains the eights. 
3rd September: If it wasn't for bad luck then it seems that the UK's Hi-Speed-Gas Super Pro ET team wouldn't have had any luck at all this season, says
driver Steve Saunders:
At the Easter Snowball, the whole crew had a bad bout of the 'flu but team driver had worse - man flu! We toughed it out, but when we lost the brand new awning on the second day there we just gave up and threw the towel in, leaving the rest of the class to have fun with the snowball fighting. The FIA Main Event everybody knows turned into the Rain Event, a few runs but we still struggled to find our previous perfomance and couldn't seem to find the answer to our problems. The Summernationals for us it turned into the Bummer Nationals! With a lot of help from a lot of good friends, finally we found the answer to our running problems. After welcome help and advice from Webster Race Engineering in the person of Ian Marshall who even offered to travel home, to strip parts from his own parked up race car to help us out, to Stan and Paula from Atkin Racing, we discovered that we had boiled our batteries dry and it proved a point that we should have gone back to basics in our quest for perfomance. With the help of Dave, the pit runner/mad biker who loaned us a battery, we were back out and fighting fit. After qualifying poorly it was great to be back in competition. We drew Simon Rowland in the first round and were full of enthusiasm, but were still not sure we had cured all of our ills. A good light followed but at 1000 feet the old bus started to over fuel and nose over. I knew the race was over. Simon drove an excellant race and as he came alongside me, it was nose to nose. He must have realised we had problems and as I slowed down he backed off and took the stripe. Well done to him for driving a good race. Further investigation into our problems discovered that seals had deteriated in the carburettor. At 6:30 pm on the Tuesday after the event I spoke to Bow Laws Performance in Florida, explained the situation and ordered new seals, gasket, floats etc. Believe it or not at 11.30 the following morning, I received a call from Midland Airport Customs and Excise asking me to pay duty and VAT on the parts, how's that for quick service! Even better for service is the Brothers Nee, Pete 'n' Tom, who turned up on spec as usual to service and freshen the motor. We weren't sure whether to pull the motor and take it to Kenny Coleman's at EDA or just do a test session. So hand on heart and a leap of faith we decided to take it to a Peak Performance Day. Prior to that we chilled out at the Summer Nationals at York Raceway crewing for Mark and Ann Flavell and thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. ©Eurodragster.com The Peak Performance Day arrived, off the trailer 8.96/153, six runs later, 8.91/156 on a decent track. We were over the moon to find we were back on track and in the eights. Check out the excellant photos which Peter Donaldson took on that day of the ecstatic crew. After the few runs we had at the Open Sport Nationals we are confident that we have found the cure of all our ills.It was also great to meet and chat to Tony Morris of BLP while we were there. We hope to meet up with him again when we are in the States in October. We can't wait for the biggest event of the year, the European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. Over the year the excellent service from the officials, track crew and fire marshalls have been much appreciated. They provide us with the facilities to help us do what we all love to do. We would also like to thank our sponsors for this year: Parsonscontainers.com, Uholdthekey.com, Freight Container Services of Newark, Seamer Engineering, Tees Valley Components for all your truck parts, Cleveland Horse Boxes, Skipfreight and we obviously can't forget Gas Appliance Services, Cleveland's premier gas service engineers). Most importantly thanks to all the crew - the Brothers Nee, Pete and Tom and Lee. Obviously can't leave out The Boss Babs, and to all those who have helped us this season, you know who you are, and I say a special thanks. To fans and Ford enthusiasts please feel free to call round the pit say hello, this is what makes it even more worthwhile. Web site updates. 3rd September: In the latest entry in his exclusive Racer Blog, Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon looks forward to this weekend's FIA European Finals, into which he goes as Championship leader. You can check out Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com FIA European Finals racer update. 2nd September: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has been in touch the arrangements for this weekend's FIA European Finals. Santa Pod Raceway's gates open at 2:00 pm tomorrow, Wednesday. If you are running at tomorrow's Pro Peak Performance Day then you will of course be able to get in earlier. ©Eurodragster.com Signing-on is open between 2:30 pm and 8:00 pm tomorrow, and then opens again at 7:00 am on Thursday. Scrutineering for cars only takes place from 3:00 pm tomorrow. Car scrutineering starts again at 7:00 am on Thursday, and bike scrutineering starts at 8:30 am on Thursday. Provisional running orders for all four days are now available by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA European Finals. Please note that these running orders are subject to change due to weather or track conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by Race Officials. Five questions to the Top Four. 2nd September: The 2008 FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Championship is just about as tight as it could be going into this weekend's FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. As things stand, Championship leader Lex Joon has a five-point lead over Andy Carter, who has five points over Micke Kågered, who in turn has thirty six points over Urs Erbacher. To put Lex's lead into perspective, a five-point lead is one quarter of one round of eliminations, and it is a small enough lead to be caught up in qualifying. Finland's Jari Halinen is the last racer with a mathematical chance of the Championship but Jari being the gentleman he is would be the first to say that realistically we are talking the top four not turning up for the race and Jari taking everything - although one would never rule out the second part. We thought it might be interesting to see how the thoughts of the Championship favourites contrasted going into this weekend's race, so we asked all four racers the same five questions. Here are their answers: Eurodragster.com: Sum up your 2008 season in three words. Lex Joon: The last one? Andy Carter: King of Europe! Micke Kågered: Bad, bad, good! Urs Erbacher: Chassis work super. Not enough races. Too much rain. Eurodragster.com: Was there a particular point in the season when you realised that you could be on for the Championship? Lex Joon: We know we have a good car. During the FIA Main Event we encountered some problems because of the new parts we installed over the winter but in Finland we prooved in we were on our game, winning one of the more difficult rounds in the Championship. The consistency our car is displaying is the main reason we are leading the Championship. Although most people were focused on what Urs and Andy would put on the table we managed to pull it off; whatever the outcome at the end of the season nobody can take that away. In the four years we have been running our own team this is the third time that we have been leading the Championship going into the last round, this fact speaks for itself. Andy Carter: 2007 was my first season with Lucas Oil and for Carter Motorsport / Andersen Racing working together as a single unit, and although we did not achieve our goal I think we learned a lot and did very well. In October 2007 I had a meeting with Karsten and Per of Andersen Racing to discuss whether we would go forward together again in 2008. We were all happy with 95% of our strategy and agreed to continue with the program for 2008. In November 2007 when I signed with Lucas Oil and my associate sponsors for 2008 I knew that with these great people and companies behind me I had a real chance of the Championship and this has proven to be true. Micke Kågered: I always aim and hope to be at the top, but for this year the turning point came after the win in Hockenheim. Urs Erbacher: The best team, the best car, I know that we can win. Eurodragster.com: Did you expect the Championship points to be so tight going into the European Finals? Lex Joon: That it would be a tight fight until the end was obvious to me. The growing quality of the cars and the amount of races making up the Championship are not enough to make a huge difference in the points. Andy Carter: Yes, I always thought it would be like this. With just five rounds it can keep things very tight. My dream is to win the Championship before getting to the European Finals, but this is not really realistic! I thought my main threats would be (in no particular order) Urs, Lex and Micke and this has proven to be true. They are all such experienced and great competitors, whoever wins this Championship has really achieved something. Micke Kågered: Yes, I did. ©Eurodragster.com Urs Erbacher: Yes we know that from last season. We are in a little better situation than last year, but if we look back we know that we can do it. It needs a little bit of luck too, but we trust in our luck. Eurodragster.com: So the car is ready, but what will you personally do to prepare yourself for next weekend's race? Mentally or physically or both. Lex Joon: I don't have much time to prepare myself. I'm too busy with organising all the facets that are needed to make the Finals successful. Besides that I have my daily business to run together with my wife Gerda, and that consumes most of the time we have. Andy Carter: Mentally I'm prepared. The mental preparation starts much earlier in the year, it's a case of keeping it at the right level from then on. Physically I will walk at least three miles per day, do some stretching, will try to have as a relaxed week as possible, will do my best to eat the right foods, and I will definitely be in bed by nine o'clock every night. Micke Kågered: I don't do anything special and I don't feel any pressure. I just think it is going to be great fun to run again and I look forward to it! Urs Erbacher: Mentally I work a lot on myself. I do it like Murphy says. Training my brain to win. I try to lose weight too but that's the hard part. Eurodragster.com: Have you already made plans for next year? Lex Joon: The plans for next year are up in the air at the moment. First we need to secure enough funding. Running on as tight a budget as we do is coming to an end with the increased costs for parts and travelling. At the same time I'm looking to find an opportunity to start racing in the USA. With the amount of races we run here in Europe its not possible to be professional so I'm looking past the European borders to see if we can make the ultimate step. I'm sure we can deliver a good job anywhere in the world. Andy Carter: I started working on 2009 early this season. Nothing is 100% confirmed yet, but Les Downey of Lucas Oil UK and I have been in meetings and I'm in regular contact with both Les and the American departments. I know that both Lucas Oil UK and Lucas Oil America are more than happy with the hard work and effort that we are doing to get the Lucas Oil brand out there in Europe. If everything goes to plan with my budget, I will stay with Andersen Racing. The whole team is first class and a real pleasure to work with. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Lucas Oil UK, Lucas Oil America, all at Carter Motorsport, all at Andersen Racing, all our associate sponsors, all the fans, well-wishers, friends, family, anyone I've forgotten, sorry, thank you all, it really is appreciated! Look forward to seeing you at the European Finals. Micke Kågered: The wish and preliminary plans are that we continue to compete in Top Fuel Dragster. Some contracts with sponsors are ready, but not all. In the end it depends on what budget we can raise and we will start to work more intensely on those issues at the end of September. After the European Finals we have a hectic month with several exhibitions in Sweden booked for our main sponsor Bahco. Urs Erbacher: Right after England we will go to the States and run the last two NHRA races in Las Vegas and Pomona. We have ordered a new car from Hadman and he will deliver after Pomona. So we will run the new car in the first two or three races in the USA. At the last two races in the USA we will try to find a new sponsor for the USA and Europe. We are open and ready for a two-car team and to run over here and over there. Everything is open and we have the right tools. We hope that there are more races coming up in Europe. The Gamma Project are working on a second series of Kings of Nitro for next year. Different, and interesting. 2nd September: Even tighter than this year's Top Fuel Dragster Championship is the FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Championship, in which Timo Habermann's lead over Peter Schöfer is a mere four points. Uncharacteristically missing from the top echelons and mathematically out of the 2008 Championship is five-in-a-row Champion Dave Wilson who switched to an injected-nitro set-up this season. Grumpy made it to the final round at Hockenheim, only for the Silverline Tools-backed dragster to stop dead off the line long enough for Timo Habermann to make up Dave's holeshot and take an unassailable lead. "Four or five things happened at once", says Grumpy of the final round at Hockenheim. "We think we would have blown the tyres off it anyway. It was a good weekend - we are getting somewhere and learning things. The engine has been rebuilt and is in the car, we have a lot to try and we can't wait for the Finals. It is going to be interesting to see how Derek Flynn gets on, too - that car of his has certainly got what it takes. ©Eurodragster.com "Silverline Tools will be there at the Finals of course, and Sony have given us a High Definition camera to put on the car." Grumpy says that he is quite pleased with his first season with the injected nitro set-up. "It's all quite different and it's all very interesting", he says. "We started at the Main Event a day late and a dollar short, which did us no favours. But we are pleased with what we have done on our few runs - five full runs at Hockenheim and only two full runs before that. Hopefully this weekend we will show some more of what we can do. A few more full passes and the car will become a different animal altogether." The car is up for sale turnkey in its blown-alcohol configuration with a 470 ci big bore engine, PSI blower, two gearboxes and fresh gearing in its rear axle. "It's a five-Championship car", says Grumpy. "If you are interested then please contact me. We will be continuing in A/Fuel and will have a new chassis over the winter." Fredlund gets his Top Three wish. 2nd September: Our good friend Par Willen has been in touch with an update from the pit of FIM/UEM European Pro Stock Bike Championship leader Fredrik Fredlund: The Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park was a blast. It was in all a very good race with weather that cooperated, exceptional racing in all FIA/UEM classes, and we managed to grab a serious amount of points by qualifying number one and going all the way to the final. There we went up against Stavros Svrachnos so we were all treated to a historical first: a matchup of Greece v Åland in a Pro Stock Bike final. Fredde made no mistake and won the run and event by bettering Stavros in all incrementals. Ulf Ögge had a problem with transmission and a clutch that pulled him into a red light during the semifinals and we thus left Mantorp with a points lead of thirty five points to Ögge in second place. On to Gardermoen where we had strong UEM-fields except for Snowmobile but it was not a points race for the FIA cars. The weather went back to rain and made for a repeat of the Main Event in that we only managed two qualifying runs before the race was called off. To say that all the racers were disappointed would be the understatement of the year. The quality of the track and the racers at this event was very high and we were looking for many strong runs and also some changes in the World's Quickest and Fastest List as the Top Fuel Bikes were out in force. But no go. We qualified number one and Ulf Ögge brought along some serious gremlins in the beautiful G2 Team Bikeline Buell and only managed a #8 in qualifying with rookie Gabbi Nikolovska only .03 seconds from bumping Ögge out of the ladder. Same with the points leader in Top Fuel Bike, Rikard Gustavsson, who had problems and also qualified on the bump. No doubt the racing would have been outstanding if the rain had stayed away but it was not to be. We did get qualifying points and left Gardermoen with a forty two point lead over Ulf Ögge in second place and Martin Bishop in third, trailing Ögge by eight points. ©Eurodragster.com The bike is in good tune and the only work we've done for the Finals is normal service. Crew Chief Jonas Ågerup has spent more time on the race bus to make sure we make it to the track. In place at Santa Pod we will test different gearing and most likely will put in another engine to test if we are satisfied with the first two rounds of qualifying. Our Championship chances? We are in a good place going into the Finals but we don't spend a lot of time talking about that situation, karma has a tendency to smack you in the head when you least expect it. It's one run at a time and after Gardermoen was called off we acknowledged the points lead and haven't really talked about it since, not even in the bus on the way home from Norway. We are far from having the strongest bike in the field but we do have a very solid rider and a tight team which works real well together. We can only do what we do, nothing more, nothing less, and it has worked fine so far. At the beginning of the season we wanted to shoot for a top three place and being in the points lead going into the Finals is more than we expected. We have worked hard with attention to details and have had very little problems, can't recall any low point except the very strong disappointment over the rain at Gardermoen but that was a concern for all in attendance. The high point was no doubt the event win at Alastaro, it really beat all. First time ever in a Pro Stock Bike final and we won it on hard work for consistency in the pits matched to Fredde's superb riding skills. We all had a real good feeling going into that final run and winning it was a moment noone in the team will ever forget. As for the future the focus is on doing as well as we can at the Finals but we'll be racing in 2009. Many thanks to our main sponsor, Paf, whose goal is to raise money for the public good by offering gaming to the public. Since starting in 1966 Paf has arranged gaming on Åland, on board ships in the Baltic and on the internet. More at www.paf.com. Bellio does the sums. 2nd September: Belgian Top Methanol Funny Car racer Danny Bellio says that he has some mixed feelings about his 2008 season despite running in the 5.8s at Hockenheim. "We are doing OK but not well enough", says Danny, "and as you know we still need more track time. I think we showed the rest of the teams that they had better watch out because they can't make any mistakes anymore. In Hockenheim we did OK with our 5.8 second runs but in the first round of eliminations the second gear of our Lenco broke and it was over for us. The parts just arrived from lenco and we are going to make the car ready for the next race, and hope that we perform better next time. ©Eurodragster.com "For next year we need to get some kind of sponsorship because the travel money to attend all the races is too much. Going to Finland and Sweden is just a little bit over our budget. We calculated all of our travelling costs for this year and then we saw were all the money was going, instead of buying spares for the car. "We hope to do the FIA tour again in 2009 because we like racing in Top Methanol. Our competitors are all very nice and friendly and we are all having a lot of fun - but as always it's the big M factor." Exciting times for PSR. 2nd September: German Top Methanol Dragster team Peter Schöfer Racing had an exciting weekend at Hockenheim and are now looking forward to the FIA European Finals, says team member Gittli Koller. "One part of the excitement was that the NitrolympX was again an FIA round, and it's good to have a round in your own country", says Gittli. "The other part was that we had the entire crew there and many many fans and friends, as well as most of our German sponsors. We had a great time and the second qualifying session showed how close the field is: we had five cars there, three of them were in the 5.62s, and two were in the 5.63s. We were thirteen thousandths away from each other. That was really cool. "Unfortunately we had a little bit too much power in the dragster in the semi final and the tyres spun with visible smoke after a hundred metres. But that's racing. ©Eurodragster.com "After that we went to make show runs at an old Russian airfield at Magdeburg in Germany, but it rained a lot so we just made one pass there. Now we are looking forward to the Finals and, as Steve Turner said yesterday, it is very close again. "I would like to thank all the people who offered their support to sort out our part problem. We really appreciate that. We would also like to thank our friends for their help and our sponsors Sunoco, Weindel US Parts, Mipa, JE Pistons, Normstahl, MoTec, Norfolkline, Uvex, Calwer G&D, Keyr ODM, Dirsch, HR, Zehetbauer, Schneider and The Friends of PSR." An end to the disappointment? 2nd September: Christer Gustavsson says that Sweden's JD Racing Pro Stock team have had a disappointing season. "After a rainy Main Event we went to a couple of test sessions and we hoped for a break in Finland", says Christer. "On the way home from a test at Västerås the engine in our bus let go. After a quick check around we were able to borrow a bus and driver from Logren Racing in Falun. A lot of unloading and loading took place to get us to Finland. Unfortunately we broke the motor so we didn't qualify. The engine had so much damage that we had to send part of it to Reher Morrison to be repaired. There was a lot of extra work as we had to get a trailer ready to replace the bus. Everybody pitched in and helped to get us going, I am very proud of our team. ©Eurodragster.com "At Mantorp Park we put in our back-up engine but it was not good enough to qualify. After two DNQs we worked day and night to get our good engine in the car for the Finals. Right now the heads, valves and rings have not arrived but are hopefully coming so we can have it ready. We all have good memories from the Finals last year and hope to repeat this year. I know we have a great team and a hungry driver in Jonas Dantanus. "A big Thank You to our sponsors who have stood by us: Stenvalls Trä, Hinz Palfinger, Ålhmans Motorslip, All American Peak and 76oils, Börje & Söner, Eriksson bygg & entreprenad, and Norfolkline." FIA European Finals snippets. 
2nd September: Finnish Top Fuel Dragster racer Risto 'Bad To The Bone' Poutiainen is
looking forward to returning to Santa Pod Raceway this weekend after running a Personal Best of 4.834 at Hockenheim.
"This tells the story about coming back to the track from the 'little break' Risto had", says Eagle Racing's PR. "Last time Risto raced at
Santa Pod the #1 position was his and he hopes to improve upon that now! He hopes to push his numbers even further as the track is
usually in great shape at Santa Pod". The Bad To The Bone Racing Team is backed by the Netbooster
Agency and Risto is backed by car owner and tuner Rune Fjeld, Crew Chief Hannu 'Hank Penttinen, and a crew of Norwegians and English
including Tony, Henning, Kevin and Jamie.
©Eurodragster.com FIM/UEM European Supertwin Championship leader Svein Olav Rolfstad says that he is planning on building a new bike, so his current item is for sale. "We haven't made any changes to the bike for the Finals", says Svein Olav. "Right now we are points leader in the Championship and we want to stay that way after the race. We finally got the bike working this season and the margins have been on our side. The races have been close but we went all the way both at Alastaro and at Mantorp Park and won both races." For the latest in our occasional series of Features presented in association with John Woolfe Racing, Roger inspected the building which we all hope will get the least use at Santa Pod Raceway this weekend, the new Medical Centre set up earlier this season by Santa Pod and Santa Pod Racers Club and equipped and very professionally operated by Human Touch Care. You can check out the Feature by clicking here or by clicking on the Features, Interviews, Tributes link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. FIA European Finals Perfect Awards. 2nd September: This weekend's FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway is the next event in the 2008 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards scheme. £170 is on offer for perfect performance.
The Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been increased to £100 after it went unclaimed at
the Open Sport Nationals. The money will be presented to the first racer
this weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available to all racers
in all Championship classes during qualifying and eliminations
but will only be awarded for the first perfect light of the event. If not won this weekend then
the Award will be increased to £125 for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway; if it is won
then it will be reset to £50 for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with
performance hose and fitting manufacturer Speedflow, whose web site you can find at
www.speedflow.co.uk.
As Santa Pod Raceway's timing system works to four decimal places we must clarify that although the Perfect Light Award goes to three places, we will not pay out for red lights with zeroes in the first three decimals since a foul is a foul however far in the first non-zero digit may be. So a reaction time of 0.0001 will win you the money (if you're first to do it), but a reaction time of -0.0001 will not. Decals are not formally required for the Perfect Light Award but of course we appreciate it: you can get Eurodragster.com decals at the track from any Eurodragster.com staff member. ©Eurodragster.com
The Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award has been been reset to £50 after
it was won by Supertwin ET racer John Hackney at the Open Sport Nationals. In addition an extra
£20 has been donated by former Santa Pod Raceway Race Director Syd McDonald bringing the
Award up to £70. The money will be presented
to the first racer this weekend to run to the thousandth on their dial-in or index. The Perfect ET Award is
available this weekend in Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, and Junior
Dragster (eliminations only), but will only be awarded for the first first perfect run of the event.
If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £90 for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend
at Santa Pod Raceway; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend.
The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with RV sales and service specialists Gold RV, whose web
site you can find at www.goldrv.co.uk.
To be eligible to collect the Perfect ET Award, racers will be required to carry Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET decals, one on each side of the vehicle whether car or bike. If you pull this weekend's first Perfect ET but are not carrying decals then there will be no discussion, we will not pay out and the next person to pull a Perfect ET will get the money assuming that they are carrying decals. The decals (pictured) will be available in the Signing On office; please note that, as is usual with contingency schemes, racers are responsible for requesting or picking up decals when signing on. A list of required decals per class is always on display in the Signing On office. Help needed. 1st September: Gittli Koller of German Top Methanol Dragster team Peter Schöfer Racing has been in touch to ask if anyone in the racing community can help the team to source a part for the dragster's rear axle. ©Eurodragster.com "We need a 4.29 gear ring and pinion for a 10½" Strange live axle top loader", says Gittli. "If you can help then please send me an E-Mail at gittli@t-online.de or give me a call on +49 172 257 4141." 2008 APIRA Champions. 1st September: Since the Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway Simon has been beavering away on the standings in this year's APIRA Championships. Subject to final ratification, congratulations to our 2008 Avon Park International Racers Association Champions: Super Comp: Dave Catton Super Gas: Conrad Stanley Super Street: Harrison Brown Super Pro ET: Barry Giles Pro ET: John Atkinson Sportsman ET: Brian Huxley B&H Automotive Street Eliminator: Steve Nash Outlaw Anglia: Paul Wright Wild Bunch: Phil Sweeney VW Sportsman: Chris Bray Outlaw Flat Four: Richie Webb Junior Dragster: Joe Kellett Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woollatt Funny Bike: Chris Hall Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck Comp Bike: Ivan Birch Super Street Bike: Steve Venables 9.50 Bike: Dave Hall Supertwin Fuel: Wendy Clutterbuck Supertwin Gas: Chris Mott Supertwin ET: John Hackney 2008 APIRA Sportsman ET Champion and Open Sport Nationals winner Brian Huxley of the Can Do drag race team says that he can't believe that he won two races in a row in Can-Do 2, a feat which he has not achieved since 1988. "The Mustang had a flat spot off the line and we couldn't find the problem in time, so we raced what we got and dialled in half a second extra to allow for the flat spot and it worked", says Brian. "I still get a great kick getting through one round and a bigger kick getting through the next round and so on. Sportsman ET racing is as good as its always been and good camaraderie. "I would like to thank Lee Huxley and Neil Bell for their support. I would also like to than APIRA for doing a good job clearing up the track after a couple of crashes and oildowns, for changing a red bulb in the left scoreboard, and also the new win lights at the end of the track. Good job." A spy subject revealed. 
1st September: If you were tuned in to Eurodragster.com News on
25th August you will remember
that we received a spy picture of a rear engined dragster and put out a plea for more information.
One of our favourite readers got a little breathless hoping that it was a new Top Methanol Dragster, but
the car turns out to be UK Super Pro ET racer Martyn Jones' new ride, albeit a blown and alcohol-fuelled
ride, so it was a close thing.
"The car is a 268-inch wheelbase dragster built by Kevin Cerusale of Race Car Chassis Services in Watford", says Syd. "It has been built to the current Top Methanol Dragster specs, except for the roll cage shield and the bellhousing which have been deliberately left sub-TMD spec to remove all temptation to do something daft and even more expensive. "The motor is a 452 ci TFX built by Tom Conway in Tulsa, with Brad 5 heads, topped with a PSI 206D blower and a carbon hat from Carlo Gandalfi in Rushden. Fuel is pumped courtesy of a Waterman Lil' Bertha pump and ignited by an MSD Promag 44. Behind the motor is a Neal Chance convertor and a Lencodrive three-speed transmission feeding the power into the Strange floater rear axle. The wheels are American Racing rears and Weld fronts - I ordered them just as Weld went bust - with Goodyear rubber keeping it off the ground. Stopping will (hopefully) be handled by the Strange disks and Stroud chutes." You can see more pictures of Syd's new ride at www.flickr.com/martyn_a_jones. Wells ready, just in time. 
1st September: After a disaster at the FIA Main Event, which left him with just a pair of heads with bent valves, five
pistons, a supercharger and a sump pan with which to build his new engine, UK Super Comp racer
Steve Wells' new 4.8-litre Rover V8 is finally ready, in time for the FIA European
Finals.
"The new Rover has been fitted with a new oil system with a Pace external oil pump to cure our oil problems, the cause of the catastrophic rod failure" says Steve. "Other modifications are a new spec cam from Comp Cams and a RPM Performance Data Logger to help us get a handle on the clutch. We will be contesting Super Comp although we are expecting it to take a while to get the tune-up for an eight-second pass. "Jayne and I would like to thank Turner Engineering for supplying a lovely Rover V8 block with ductile iron top hat liners, Cam Auto Development for the use of their machine shop and supply of top quality Goodridge hoses for our new oil system from their web shop at www.racehoseshop.com, and the Motlers of hr Spellbound Racing Team for their help in finishing off and firing it up. "Not only has rebuilding the Pop engine has kept us busy over the summer, but also our motorhome rental business. A motorhome is available for hire for the European Finals, for details please visit www.motorhome4rent.co.uk." FIA European Finals snippets. 1st September: Yesterday's Run What You Brung at Santa Pod Raceway was rained out without a wheel turning. As usual SPR's track crew worked very hard to keep the track in as good a condition as possible in case the weather should change but at about 2:45 pm it became clear that nothing was going to happen. We had nothing to post yesterday but you can check out our American Car Imports-sponsored photo gallery from Saturday's Peak Performance Day by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA European Finals. Racers have one last chance to test at Wednesday's Pro Peak Performance Day, which we shall be covering live here on Eurodragster.com. ©Eurodragster.com Sweden's Jöran Persåker has put his Top Fuel Dragster to bed for the year and will be contesting Super Pro ET at this weekend's race in his wild six-second twin-turbo Trans Am. Jöran tells us that he and team Per Olofsson, Erik Mark, Jari Konola and Christer Säfström will be gunning for the European turbo record of 6.59. Jöran adds that he plans to buy a new Top Fuel chassis for 2009. The UK's Turner Motorsport Top Methanol Dragster team will this weekend be carrying sponsorship from Allan Sives' company, Edinburgh-based Black Lane Asphalt which has been establised for nineteen years and which specialises in surfacing and road construction. "Many thanks to Allan", says Steve Turner. "We are looking forward to the weekend, it's great how the class has really stepped up this year and anyone can win. We still have a chance of the Championship if Lady Luck is in our pit, and we will be trying our best. We would like to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable weekend." Moonlighting from his job as Eurodragster.com Photo Editor (Get back on station - Ed), Roger has finished proof-reading the official FIA European Finals event programme which he compiles and edits and upon which he has burnt a considerable amount of midnight oil, and with oil prices as they are you know just how much effort that means. The programme features coverage of just about every class in close detail, with contributions from racers and experts across the sport, as well as features and notes on other aspects of drag racing. Of course we're biased because of Roger's involvement but having been vouchsafed a sneak preview we think that the whole package looks just great as usual and that £5 for forty four pages is a pretty good deal. We have received a number of FIA European Finals previews, the first tranche of which we will publish on tomorrow's news update. Racers please note that it's not too late to submit your previews or other news before the FIA European Finals; keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 
1st September: UK Pro ET racer Teresa Letchford has asked us to thank
the safety crews who helped to get her out of her Camaro after crashing at Santa Pod on Saturday. "You all did an amazing job", says Teresa.
"I'm incredibly lucky to have only injured my knee, which is now in plaster. I'm not really sure what happened. The run felt really strong and
straight until I got over the finish line where it got out of shape. I thought I'd got it back again when bang I was in the wall. I don't remember
hitting the other wall. Unfortunately the car is no more. Thank you to everybody who helped Paul to get it home, especially Mark for lending
him a trailer. Have a great weekend's racing, see you at the track."
Bev Batsford has been in touch to ask us to wish two very Happy Birthdays. First to celebrate today is Janet Schreier of APIRA's timing crew, and who according to Bev is also "Mommy Jan to us all!". You have a great day Janet. "My best mate Beth Satchell is the big 40 today", says Bev. "Happy Birthday mate, enjoy your day and welcome to the naughty 40s club! We have been friends for twenty four years and I couldn't wish for a better friend!". Have a lovely day Beth. ©Eurodragster.com News Editor Tog would like to thank Eurodragster.com News sponsor Paul Marston Racing for a very enjoyable day spent at the wheel of Grumpy's Dodge on Saturday. With the car in School trim Tog managed a best of 10.92/122 over his six runs, but we will draw a veil over his burnouts. Tog would like to say a particular Thank You to Grumpy's regular driver Mick Howling whose undivided attention Tog enjoyed all day; Tog not have asked for a better mentor-of-the-day as Mick took a lot of trouble to explain everything and was informative, patient, understanding, encouraging, cheerful and committed throughout. If you are considering racing then we can highly recommend a course with the PMR Drag Race Driving School about which you can read more at www.paulmarstonracing.com. Earlier news |
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