European Drag Racing News

2013 FIA Championship calendar.
30th September: Many thanks to Lars Pettersson for forwarding us the provisional calendar for the 2013 FIA European Drag Racing Championships:

24th-27th May: FIA Main Event, Santa Pod Raceway, UK
13th-16th June: Sweden Internationals, Tierp Arena, Sweden
4th-7th July: FHRA Nitro Nationals, Alastaro, Finland
9th-11th August: NitrOlympX, Hockenheimring, Germany
22nd-25th August: Scandinavian Internationals, Tierp Arena, Sweden
5th-8th September: FIA European Finals, Santa Pod Raceway, UK

FIA introduces AutoStart in 2013.
30th September: Thanks also to Lars Pettersson for letting us know that AutoStart is to be introduced at FIA European Championship events in 2013. The relevant section of the rulebook reads as follows:

The AutoStart system will automatically start the Tree at a random pace within a given window. Three programmable timing parameters per category are available to tune the start sequence to the type of cars running.

The system will allow a vehicle to "bump" into the Stage beam without the fear of an early or false start. After the staged condition is met, the programmable desired delay (the normal Starter "two count") is activated. The System then adds a random 0.0 to 0.13 seconds to the sequence before firing the Tree, preventing a racer from guessing the Tree cycle.

Note that the third parameter, a programmable Total Timeout timer, is also in effect. This timer starts when both cars havepre-staged, and then one lane has staged. If the second car does not stage, the tree will cycle in the selected delay (five to thirty seconds, enforcing a "no-burndown" time limit.

The Starter may stop the sequence by simply turning the stater switch off before the Tree activates. He also may override the sequence if one car does not stage, or other conditions exist. Starter discretion may be used in this decision, thereby allowing the Starter ultimate control of the race.

Typical AutoStart settings are as follows:

Class	Stage Minimum	Staged to Start	Total + Variance	Total Timeout
Top Fuel Dragster Fuel FC	0.500	0.300	0.800 - 0.930	7.000
Top Methanol Dragster Top Methanol FC	0.500	0.300	0.800 - 0.930	7.000
Pro Modified	0.500	0.300	0.800 - 0.930	7.000
Pro Stock	0.500	0.300	0.800 - 0.930	7.000
ET	0.600	1.100	1.700 - 1.830	10.000

1. Stage Minimum is the amount of time the tyre breaks the beam to begin AutoStart.

2. Staged to Start is the amount of time both cars are staged to begin AutoStart countdown.

3. Total + Variance is the combined total of both "Stage Minimum" and "Staged to Start" plus the variable from both stage beams lit to Tree activation.

4. Total Timeout is the total time from both cars pre-staged and one car staged to the tree being cycled.

The AutoStart system shall be in use at FIA Championship events.

FIA Championship rules change.
29th September: A meeting of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council took place yesterday in Paris and made changes to the championship rules as follows:

"From 2013, countries may organise a maximum of three events counting towards the Championship. Competitors must take part in at least one event per participating country on the calendar to be eligible to win the FIA European Drag Racing Championship. In this way, the number of events per season remains the same but more events will be eligible."

There is also a change in the points structure. "From 2013, there will be no points awarded for establishing the Low E.T record of the event. To provide a better sporting challenge, instead points will be awarded after each qualifying session to the top three qualifiers in that session, with three points awarded to the quickest E.T, two points to the second quickest and one point to the third quickest."

We will post a link to the full Sporting Regulations, Technical Regulations and Race Procedures when they are published in December.

JapShow Finale.
29th September: This weekend at Santa Pod Raceway, the JapShow Finale will be taking place, with a Test Day today and racing on Sunday. £25 gives you unlimited runs today and £20 for four runs on Sunday's race day. RWYBs as usual will need to bring a driving licence to sign on. RWYB is open to everyone on Saturday but Japanese Cars and bikes only on Sunday. As well as trophies for the JDS Pro, JDS Street and JDS FWD racing classes, all RWYB participants will be entered into a free prize draw for the chance a win an Eibach Pro-Kit worth £200. More details are at the JapShow web site and list of competitors at Jap Drag Series web site.

Impey's Supra breaks cover.
29th September: JDS Pro racer Chris Impey has written with news of his new ride:

I will be displaying my new Supra at the Japshow Finale on Sunday and will be racing it in 2013. It uses a 2200hp Toyota 2JZ engine from Paradise Racing in USA. The turbo will be a Garrett GTX55 94mm billet wheel Using a JW Powerglide transmission and the chassis is SFI 25.1e spec. The car, built from scratch by Fester race cars, should be capable of running mid to low 6s.

Swift snippets.
29th September: Many thanks to Yvonne Tramm and our very own Simon for passing us the post-VP Racing Fuels National Finals points standings in the UK National Drag Racing Championships. Additional thanks to Yvonne for also passing us the latest standings in the Santa Pod Racers Club Championships. You can check out the UK and SPRC points on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Speedflow Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Meanwhile, on this side of the Pond, the EDRS Finals are being run at Tierp Arena yesterday and today. As well as the final EDRS points round, the Swedish Championship finals will be run in Pro Modified, Comp Eliminator, Stock Super Stock and Jr Dragster. Yesteday, the rain prevented qualifying apart from one round of Junior Dragster and a few Stock/Super Stocks. You can stay in touch with results from Tierp at www.nitroz.se or at www.dragracing.eu.

European fans have someone to cheer on at the ADRL Summit Ohio Drags VI as Swedish Pro Modified racer Adam Flamholc is contesting Pro Mod in his blown-alcohol Camaro. In the second qualifying session, Adam ran a great 3.934/189.79 on the eighth mile strip and ended as number two qualifier. you will be able to stay in touch with Adam's progress courtesy of our friends at www.dragracecentral.com, a webcast will be available at www.adrl.us, and Adam will be updating from the track on the Flamholc Racing Facebook page. Good luck Adam and stay safe.

Web site updates.
29th September: Richard Smith has updated his Zenfolio site with galleries from the European Finals and York Raceway's UK Northern Finals & Viking Volks Fest, held last weekend.

Wild Bunch racer Neil Ward has updated his blog with some thoughts on Nitrous Oxide use and a word for Eurodragster.com sponsor Wizards of NOS.

Live Stream of No Mercy 3.
29th September: Our good friends at Bangshift are putting on a live stream of Outlaw Radial Revolution No Mercy 3 at South Georgia Motorsports Park this weekend. To see the stream, go to Bangshift's live broadcast page.

Bike Weekend racer update.
28th September: Thanks to Ian and Paula Marshall for passing on details of the arrangements for next week's Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway.

Santa Pod Raceway's gates open at 5:00 pm next Friday (5th).

Signing-on is open between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm on Friday and then from 7:00 am on Saturday.

Scrutineering takes place between 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm on Friday and then from 7:00 am on Saturday.

The provisional running orders for both Saturday and Sunday, including Straightliners sessions, are now available and can be checked out by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend. 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.

The final entry list can be checked out by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend.

Tiny Toby goes SE.

28th September: When Jasmine, daughter of 9.50 Bike rider Andy Burfitt, was asked to take care of her Pre-School bear for the weekend she and her family knew that he would like to take a ride in a race car:

We asked Jon Webster if Tiny Toby could have a ride in his Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator Comet. Jon kindly said yes and the team looked after Toby before strapping him in. After watching dad, Jasmine was delighted to see Tiny Toby through the window of Jon's car whilst it was burning out. Unfortunately Jon pulled a red but ran 8.01/177. Jeanette Webster said "It wasn't a red - just a reflection off Tiny Toby's bright red jumper".

A huge Thank You goes to Jon and Jeanette Webster for the ride out, and a big thanks to Julian Hunt and Eurodragster.com for the fab pictures on Saturday's event coverage - the children at Pre-School loved these (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed).

Perkins' thanks.
28th September: Nineteen-year-old Chris Perkins and twenty one-year-old brother Tom, who race the Dr Pop 1953 Ford Anglia in Super Street, have been in touch with thanks for offers of help received at the VP Racing Fuels National Finals:

Chris was driving at the National Finals and was getting rather excited following three passes on Saturday after which he was number three qualifier. Unfortunately a dying starter motor caused some very frantic moments of under-car repairs but without success.

Without a spare it looked like our race meeting was over but within minutes we had offers of starters from Rob Smallworth, Jim McGee, Ade and Jon Webster. We were overwhelmed with everyone's kind support and would like to send them all a very big Thank You. We managed to fit Rob Smallworth's starter in time for the first round of eliminations but unfortunately rain stopped play.

In spite of the starter problems and the weather we thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and we look forward to racing in 2013.

Swift snippets.
28th September: European fans have someone to cheer on at the Summit Ohio Drags VI as Swedish Pro Modified racer Adam Flamholc is contesting Pro Mod in his blown-alcohol Camaro. Qualifying commences today; you will be able to stay in touch with Adam's progress courtesy of our friends at www.dragracecentral.com, a webcast will be available at www.adrl.us, and Adam will be updating from the track on the Flamholc Racing Facebook page. Good luck Adam and stay safe.

Meanwhile, on this side of the Pond, the EDRS Finals is taking place at Tierp Arena commencing today. You can stay in touch with results from Tierp at www.nitroz.se or at www.dragracing.eu.

The post-VP Racing Fuels National Finals points standings in the 2012 ACU UK Drag Bike Championships are now available on the King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com. Ian asked us to say Thank You to our own Simon for paperwork.

UK Pro ET racers Brian and Lee Huxley are seeking the help of Eurodragster.com readers to allow them to finish the season with their Mustang. "We would like to thank everybody for help over the National Finals weekend", they say. "We were wounded but carried on, although we had a good idea the gearbox was going away. On further investigation, after removing the gearbox we found that the torque converter had broken inside and stripped all the gears on the front gear pump. We can't believe this car still ran fairly good numbers in the circumstances. But if anybody out there has a C6 high stall converter we would be interested, as we would like to race the Dark Horse at the Gamblers Races at Shakey this Sunday and on 14th and 28th October". If you can help then you can contact the Huxleys at huxley@hbrian75.orangehome.co.uk.

Steve Dudley has been in touch with a reminder that the first slot drags of the new season at MrD Raceway will take place at 8:00 pm this evening (Friday) at The Cathedral Primary School, Victoria Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1PA. You can find out more at slotdragracing.weebly.com.

Twice the world's quickest.

28th September: Sören Svensson has been in touch with an account of a very successful FIA European Finals weekend for Sweden's Team Starta Top Fuel Bike team:

We packed the bike and all our spares on Sunday before the race and three of our team members took the ferry from Hirtshals in Denmark to Harwich with our trailer. The rest of us flew in to Stansted on Thursday and we all met at Santa Pod during the afternoon on Thursday in order to set up our common pit with our good friend Hans Olav Olstad and his team. We passed the technical inspection on Thursday afternoon and started to prepare the set-up of the bike. We checked the track and decided to take out some clutch compared to the previous race at Tierp Arena in Sweden.

Friday morning came around and we got ready for Q1 having changed the tune-up a bit more since the air was pretty good. After a nice burnout Peter staged and the green light came on, and we all could see that Peter was on a decent run and the scoreboard showed 6.114 seconds at only 193.88 mph to give us the number one spot despite an early shut off at about 1000 feet. We got back to the pit and started to prepare the bike for Q2, deciding to step up a bit since we expected the traction to improve during the day after all the cars had made their Q2 runs. It paid off as Peter ran a 5.969 on another early shut off, which improved our number one spot even further.

Saturday morning came around and we decided to make a major change in our set up in order to try to run really quick. Peter made a strong burnout and on the green we could see that we had added just enough power to the bike, it hooked up really strong with great performance until about 1000 feet where Peter got off the throttle. The scoreboard showed a stunning 5.725 seconds at only 227.01 mph letting us all know that Peter had just made the second quickest run ever on a Top Fuel Bike, with an early shut off! We got back to the pit and started to prepare the bike for Q4 and decided to try backing up the ET record and we were called to the lanes for Q4. Peter made a great burnout and on the green light we could again see that Peter was on a good one but just after the eighth-mile the bike started to behave strangely and drifted towards the centre line forcing him to abort the run. At the end of the run we could see more strange behaviour, Peter locked the front wheel and went over into Ian King's lane.

After the run I met Peter at the end of the track and we all understood the reason since a spark plug had snapped and the porcelain was hanging in the spark plug wire giving Peter four or five sparks straight to his chest. The doctors had already checked him out and he was found to be OK which was the most important thing for us.

The weather forecast for Sunday looked just as great as the rest of the weekend and we woke up to a new nice and sunny day. It was time for E1 and we were called to the lanes at about 1:00 pm for E1 where we had a planned bye run because of the no1 spot. Peter made a nice long burnout and as I was pushing him back I noticed immediately that the track was of the same high standard as always. When Peter hit the throttle he moved straight and hard to a nice run taking the win at 5.913 with an early shut off to get lane choice in the next run. We were called to the lanes at about 2.30 pm for E2 to meet our opponent and good friend Rikard Gustavsson. Rikard and Peter were staged and the green light came on, Peter ran straight to a new win clicking off the throttle at about the 1000 feet mark at 5.984 and only 201.66 mph, getting lane choice for the upcoming final against Ian King. What was even more important was that this win gave us the runner-up spot in the 2012 UEM Championship!

It was time for the final and both riders started up their bikes followed by some nice straight burnouts. Both of them were standing in pre stage and then Peter lit the stage lamp, Ian lit the stage lamp and after this something very unusual happened - last time this happened was 1982 - Peter left too early and got a red light which handed the win to Ian. Peter still ran a good 6.329 at only 166.67 mph clicking off the throttle only 4.2 seconds in to the run, well aware of that he got a red light. Well done Ian and congratulations on the win in the 2012 UEM Championship.

Back in the pits the whole team started to pack all our equipment together with the bike and then we all went over to the prize ceremony which was held first by the track and then the UEM prizegiving ceremony in the VIP marquee where everyone celebrated until late in the night. The morning after we started the long journey back to our home town of Sollebrunn with a smile on our faces, thinking what great weekends we had had at two races in a row and knowing that we ran the two quickest ever ETs in the world during this season. Our next race will unfortunately be in 2013, since we will not be able to go to the Manufacturers Cup at Valdosta in November.

We must take the opportunity to thank both the organisers of the race and Ian Marshall and the track crew who gave us the opportunity to run the second quickest ET ever by a Top Fuel Bike on an asphalt track!

A big Thank You to all those who make this possible:

Starta Produkter, supplied by Sollebrunns Oljeservice
HRM Engineering AB, skilled engineers within mechanical engineering, mechatronics, electronics and software development
Samek Tool AB, who makessome of the best moulding tools in the automotive industry in Sweden
CemeCon A/S, one of the best companies in Europe when it comes to camshaft coating etc
Real Form, product development within mechanical design
Romnet, computer network etc consultants
AF Konsult AB, consultants within most electrical installation areas
JJ Ventservice, solve all your problems when it comes to ait conditioning and ventilation
Pippi, No. 1 when it comes to marketing

All our fans and family members who are supporting us towards new achievements every year!

For more information about our previous achievements and updates, please visit www.billetracing.se.

A trio of Junkies.

28th September: The UK's Nitrous Junkie team fielded no less than three bikes at the VP Racing Fuels National Finals with Pro Stock Bike owner Richard Gipp also fielding a 9.50 Bike with Brendan Young in the saddle. We have received three race reports from the Nitrous Junkie team, leading off with Kev Charman who was riding Richard's PSB:

After a very busy afternoon getting loaded up and meeting up with Gipp and crew, we set up the Nitrous Junkie / Team Gipp pit space, complete with MPM branding. All looked very impressive. Four bikes in four different classes - Jake in Junior Drag Bike, Brendan Young in 9.50, Lizzy in Comp Bike and myself in Pro Stock - so we were set for a pretty busy weekend!

Saturday came, and down to the start line for Comp and Pro Stock, with Juniors a few classes behind. I helped Lizzy get set and run, then donned helmet and gloves on for my run. First pass for the PSB was 7.80/170, which gave me number two slot although we were still not getting data from the logger, and the sixty foot times were down. Towed back to the pits where my Crew Chief Chris was helping Lizzy get her bike ready for another run. Gipp and Nige set about getting the PSB turned around and made some more changes to get our sixty foots back, while I went off to the line again, this time with Jake!

Qualifier 2, same deal: set Lizzy off, back to the Stocker, did the burnout and the bike stalled as I was putting it back into first gear. Restarted and up to the line, stalled again. That was it, push back as you can only have one restart. Fortunately this did not change the ladder and we stayed at number two. We scrapped the third qualifier as we were having problems with Lizzy's Comp Bike, so Chris and I worked to try to get it ready for racing.

On Sunday morning we were down to two bikes, as we couldn't repair the Comp Bike at the track. Very disappointing for Lizzy and the team. In Round 1 of Pro Stock Bike, I was up against Ray Debben. The clutch was starting to work, as we were back to 1.16 sixty foots, and a winning 7.7 ET on a tricky track. We were set up to meet Len Paget for the Finals, but the weather thought otherwise, and the meeting was called at 13:30.

Jake Charman - Junior Drag Bike: After some very good runs at Shakey last meeting I was keen to see what I could do at Pod. I arrived at the track and everything was ready to go! Thanks to Dad, Brendan, Gipp, Nige and special thanks to Lizz for taking time off work to come and pick me up! Before we raced we were all given purple and black ribbons to put on our wheelie bars for Martin Bishop and his family who lost their granddaughter in a tragic accident last Monday. All in Junior Drag Bike and the Nitrous Junkie team are thinking about them at this most difficult time.

We decided to start with our last dial–in of 10.10 and I ran a 9.92/66 prompting us to change the dial to a 9.90 for the next run. Back to the pits normal maintenance done, back out for Q2. Next run I ran a 9.99/66 bumping me up to number two qualifier and taking a shot at the Perfect Light Award with a 0.002 Reaction Time (the best reaction for the class as far as I know!). Q3, no changes to speak of, 9.92/66 bumping me up again to top qualifier!

Sunday morning and a bye in the first round. I kept my dial in the same after Saturday's success and ran 9.93/66. Unfortunately we began to get spits of rain which soon turned into buckets and the meeting was called making every official meeting of Junior Drag Bike rained off this year!

As always thanks to my sponsors 'Uncle' Steve Wood at Motorshack and Alan Young at RCP Training - hope to see you both next year! Also thanks once again to Dad, Lizz, and Chris for crewing on the line and to Donna, Gipp and Nige for support in the pits. Now I just have to wait for next year...

Lizz McCarthy – Competition Bike: I was looking forward very much to racing again at Santa Pod, after not being on the track at all due to injury, and having such a successful time at the Bulldog Bash, running two sevens back to back. While Kev went to the track to set all three bikes up, I drove from Banbury to Southampton to fetch Jake, who lives on the Isle of Wight, and then drove onto Pod. This was the first time all three of us were racing at the same time, and we were under no illusions that this could be a very busy weekend!

After suffering engine damage at the Bulldog and having various parts around the country, Kev had been working flat out most evenings once the parts arrived, getting my engine back together again for this meeting. I can never thank him or Allan Davies enough for all the help. Final checks done and started at the track, and I was happy when I got a call to say all was well, and no problems.

On Saturday morning we went to start the bike up, and it wasn't having any of it. It started fine the day before, why not now? Eventually after going over the whole bike, and testing everything, a loose connection was found, sorted and the bike fired up! The first run was disappointing, and fantastic at the same time. Unfortunately I didn't give Harold Wolfenden the race I so wanted (we have been trying to race each other for three years!). Although the nitrous purged, it didn't activate. I knew I was on full throttle as I was trying to wring the neck off the throttle trying to chase him! Great shame, but still very happy that I ran an 8.90 normally aspirated. It's the quickest the motor has gone. Before that it was 9.1 with Kev on it! Back to pits, found the issue, so the next run should have been a good nitrous pass.

Second run launched hard, and then seemed to lose power, kicked in again when I hit third gear pulling me towards the wall, and I had to correct it quickly. A power ring had failed, resulting in a very rough 8.70, and it was very fortunate that I didn't do any more damage eithedr to me or to the bike. We need to address this, as this is the second time I have had the same thing happen and just had repaired.

There was nothing that we could do at the track, so my bike was put away. To say I was gutted was an understatement – but on the bright side, Jake did fantastically well, number one qualifier, nearly a Perfect Light winner, and Kev got into the final before it was rained off.

Our next meeting, the last of the season, is the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend next week. I am so hoping that my bike will be ready, but if not there is always next year...

Thanks as always to our long-suffering, hard-working crew. Without them, this weekend would have been murder: Chris Pyke, Donna and Corey, Richard Gipp, and Nigel, Allan Davies, Big Rich, and Alan Young. Thanks to our sponsors Richard Stevens at MPM Oil UK, Steve Wood at Motorshack, Ken Cooper at Cooperized, and Doug at Ensys.

A quick mention too to the track crew, Eurodragster.com (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed), Colin Theobald and Nitro FM, without them we wouldn't have any idea what was going on!

Web site updates.
28th September: In the latest instalment of his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, Top Methanol Dragster racer and tuner and Eurodragster.com sponsor Derek Flynn checks in from the USA where he has been working with a blown-alcohol TAD team. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Andy Coe has been in touch to let us know about the official Facebook page of the UK's Mad Rs blown-alcohol slingshot, which runs in the Supercharged Outlaws. "The address is www.facebook.com/MadRsDragRacing", says Andy, "and I post regular updates, pictures and videos". Andy has also posted a video compilation of Alec Coe pulling a fire burnout, cackling, and racing against Rockin' Ramon in the Wild'r at Heart Nostalgia FC which you can check out on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaIDugnSVhI.

Simpson acquire HANS.
28th September: Simpson Performance Products, Inc today announced the acquisition of HANS Performance Products. This expands Simpson racing safety products to include the prestigious HANS Device Head and Neck Restraint System.

"We are glad to have the HANS Device under the Simpson umbrella of racing safety products", stated Chuck Davies, CEO of Simpson. "This acquisition positions Simpson as the clear market leader in innovative racing safety products. Our total restraint system capabilities now include a comprehensive range of car restraints for all types of racing, including seatbelts, in-car nets, parachutes and the top models of head and neck restraints in the world today. We are excited about the new team we are forming and the growth possibilities for the future."

Jim Downing, co-founder of HANS Performance Products added "We are thrilled that HANS has joined the Simpson family. Together, we look forward to bringing new and innovative products to the market."

HANS Performance Products, formed in 1991 by five-time IMSA driving champion Downing and Dr Robert Hubbard, will be operated in Atlanta as a separate division of Simpson Performance Products. Downing and Dr Hubbard, inventor of the HANS Device, will continue to provide engineering experience and support to Simpson and its HANS division.

For more information check out the Simpson web site at www.simpsonraceproducts.com or the Simpson Europe Facebook page.

Steve Tong.
27th September: We were sorry to hear from Trevor Langfield of Eurodragster.com sponsor Wizards of NOS of the death of 1970s bike racer Steve Tong. Trevor writes:

It is with great sadness that I have to report that a good friend has just died of a heart attack. Anyone who drag raced bikes back in the mid to late 1970s should have some memories of Steve Tong and his all-conquering Orient Express drag bike. I can't remember all the details but I believe he ran in Funny Bike and was the European Champion for a couple of years. He retired from racing soon after and had very little to do with drag racing from then on.

He was a very affable and easy-going guy and, at just 63 years old, has left us way too early but thankfully it was quick and relatively painless.

His funeral will be held at Scunthorpe Crematorium at 12:00 noon on Wednesday 3rd October. Anyone who wishes to pay their last respects is welcome to attend.

RIP Steve Tong - a genuinely nice guy.

Our own deepest sympathies to Steve's family and friends.

You just saw a Ghost.
26th September: It has been a year of ups and downs for Swedish Top Fuel Dragster racer Patrik Pers and the Speedghost Motorsport team. Team member Mark Bodimeade aka Animal writes:

We were very happy at the beginning of the year when we secured funding with Rock Star Energy Drink, 76 Oil, and Persåkers Speed Shop. However it was not enough to do all events on the FIA calendar so it was decided that we would miss the first race and start at Tierp. Sadly in the week leading up to Tierp Patrik’s grandfather died and the funeral was on the Saturday so we had to withdraw our entry from the event.

So it was on to Finland and we had four qualifying sessions full of problems trying to get our slide valve to work correctly. We qualified number eight and went out in the first round, but we managed to gain a little more knowledge. Next stop for us was Gardemoen Raceway where we made some demonstration runs. This was also a good weekend for us and we managed to find a set-up which worked. We left Gardermoen and started the long journey down to Hockenheim. I am not going to waste any time talking about what happened there as I am sure every reader knows by now that no eliminations took place due to safety issues, which was the decision of all Top Fuel drivers.

The next stop was the return to Tierp. During Q1 and Q2 we suffered severe tyre shake. The following day after a bit of tinkering from Alan Jackson we went 4.22/275 mph. In the next round we ran 4.17/296. Both of these were Personal Bests and we finished up qualfied sixth which gave us a first round match-up against Anita Mäkelä. Sadly we had to shut the car off as it was about to go into stage due to a fractured oil line.

After the Scandinavian Internationals we had a team meeting and decided that we were going to call it a year and not attend the final race at Santa Pod Raceway. There were many reasons for this but mostly we were not chasing the Championship and we were running very low on cylinder heads. It was not worth the gamble to spend in excess of £7000 to attend an event at which we may have only been able to make one qualifying attempt before running out of parts. On reflection we all enjoyed our year, we learned a great deal and we are now looking forward to next year when hopefully we will improve even more.

None of this year would have been possible without the support of our sponsors all of whom have been fantastic: Rock Star Energy Drink, 76 Oil, Dry Wash Sweden AB, NBM Hydraulic AB and Persåkers Speedshop AB. We would also like to say a big thank you to Kenneth Holmberg of Swecomposite who stayed up all night to repair our front wing when we were at Tierp. Lastly a big thank you to our crew Mathias Westman, Lars Helander, Lars Johansson, Danne Ohlen, Robert Ivarsson, Stefan Westrin, Tomas and Juho, and of course Annika Wallin who looked after us for the whole year.

See you all in 2013.

The return of Hope.
26th September: Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted the name of Alex Hope on the entry list for next week's Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway. Alex, the son of Pro Stock Bike racer Chris Hope, will be contesting 9.50 Bike for the first time and got in touch to let us know about his entry to UK National Championship racing:

Dad parked the Stocker at the end of the 2008 season and has been meaning to come back out on it since, but without myself and my brother Mark (who also used to crew for him) living at home and on his back to get it ready it just hasn't happened. Things move very quickly in UEM Pro Stock Bike and I think the likes of Fredde and Ulf have shown this year that you need to run in the 7.1s to compete, or it may as well stay in the shed... so it's still in the shed! The engine from the Pro Stock Bike has been sold to an up and coming Pro Stock Bike rider here in the UK and I'm sure he will be competitive in 2013 with our old V&H two-valve engine.

The last time I was at Santa Pod was at the 2009 European Finals and it was tough being there just to watch after so many years on the start line and amongst the other riders and drivers. Over three years is by far my longest stint away from the Pod since I first went in 1989 as a four year old spectator!

I have talked about getting a road bike to run in 9.50 Bike for some time but other things took priority, like buying a house, having our first baby and so on, so it never materialised to anything. Drag Bike remained top of the search bar on my EBay account however, just keeping an eye out for anything which came up of any interest. It did in April this year when I bought Jim Beck's Hayabusa which I have spent the season learning to ride at York Raceway. It was quiet a step up from the Honda Vision I last rode to push the Stocker back down the return road, but after a few trips to York and no less than eighty passes we're about there with it. I cannot praise the crew at York enough from this past season. Extremely friendly crew and I would recommend York to anyone who is in the same position as myself at the beginning of this rookie year.

Mark is also racing and the Old Man has been with us at each event for support and says he is enjoying watching us have a go at it now after so many years as the pilot. Looking back, giving him hassle about short shifting or tagging the limiter wasn't such a good idea as he is now enjoying giving as good as he got!

My first pass on the bike was I think 19.1 at 74 mph and we are now running consistent 9.7s at just over 140. Certainly not quick enough to be competitive next weekend but I know that the bike has the potential as Jim won on it many times, so we will work towards getting as close as possible to the 9.50 dial-in.

I'm really looking forward to being in the burnout box at the Pod sat on a bike, rather than holding the starter motor. Then we will take it from there! Mark is also running at the Extreme Bike Weekend on his 900cc Kawasaki. He's running mid-tens so there is no ACU class suitable for his current bike but I think that like me he is just looking forward to having a go at the Pod!

No plans have been set for next year yet other than going to compete at the Linde Open and at Tierp Arena against many of the guys whom we met at Mantorp over the years.

A seven-second car?!
26th September: Team member Dan Holloway writes that the VP Racing Fuels National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway was a weekend of mixed emotions for UK Super Pro ET racer Dave Ward and Team Rampage:

Saturday evening was one of the best moments that any of us had ever experienced, as we ran a new best of 7.96, an 8.02 being our previous best ET. On Sunday we dialled in 8.04 for round one of eliminations but ran a breakout 7.99, which confirmed that we did indeed have a seven-second car, something which deep down we knew we had.

Of course this was made possible by the perfect weather conditions for drag racing that we had over the weekend (apart from the heavy downfall Sunday afternoon) and when you combine this with the excellent track prep which was and always has been provided, it is the perfect formula for quick times.

Thanks must go to our sponsors, whose funding has been greatly appreciated:

Mini Gears: A UK precision engineering company, established over forty five years ago, providing CNC machining and CNC gear grinding and the manufacture of machined parts.
Hawkins: A family owned business, delivering complete design and build service solutions nationwide, including roofing, fabrication, stockholding, logistics and projects.
Smiths of Bloxham: Buying scrap metal for top prices for over sixty years, Smiths of Bloxham also provide a skip hire service in the Oxfordshire and Greater London areas.

Now comes the long and painful wait until next Easter!

You can watch an on-board video of Sunday's race at www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Q8Bl6FmXs.

Scheming for Super Pro ET.
26th September: Jacqui Vye, Richard, Pete and Julie Walters and Eurodragster.com photographer Kirstie would like to say a huge thank you to all those in Super Pro ET, and those who just visit occasionally, who turned out for the meeting in the pits on Saturday evening at the VP Racing Fuels National Finals. Kirstie writes:

For those who couldn't make it, a meeting was held in the Walters' pit area to discuss the possibility of a Sponsorship Scheme for the 2013 Super Pro ET Championship. The response so far has been fantastic! With twelve firm offers of sponsorship and a couple more possibly on the way, 2013 is looking great so thank you once again for your interest as without you the scheme would not have got this far so quickly. As an added bonus each team is to receive a personalised Super Pro ET sticker designed by Pete (of course!). Eagle-eyed racers will know what I'm talking about as a few have been springing up already on a select few Super Pro ET cars, switt swoo.

As the scheme is in its early days we will be back with more information as we have it but so far Richard and Pete are finalising a document explaining how it will all work - this will be available soon so to all interested parties whether sponsor, driver or team member. For further information please contact Richard at richard@richwalters.co.uk or Pete at peter@pwrd.co.uk. Of course if you have any fantastic and amazing ideas of your own which you have a burning desire to share with us then please don't hesitate to contact us! My E-Mail is kirstie@eurodragster.com.

On a side note, many thanks to the Walters family for allowing the invasion of their pit space on the Saturday night. I know a good (clean) time was had by all and the atmosphere was fantastic. Same again at Easter? We will be back with more news in due course so hang on to those hats!

Swift snippets.
26th September: Paula and Holley Marshall have asked us to say a big Happy Birthday to Santa Pod Racers Club Chief Starter Ian Marshall. Very pleased to do so, ladies; have a great day Ian.

The Demon Champs.
26th September: The UK's Speeddemon Supercharged Outlaws team of owner Vic Hammond and driver Sam Freeman took this year's Supercharged Outlaws Series. Sam got in touch with a review of the team's season:

Our season started with a test weekend back in March. We were treated to glorious sunshine all weekend and by the end we had recorded a 7.58 which was our best with the car. We have two on board videos taken at this test, which you can see at www.youtu.be/E5Sw1N6lBHg and www.youtu.be/xcqn9W6AD5U.

The first round was the Yanks Weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway, which we won running a PB of 7.54 at over 194 mph. We also won the reaction time prize from Good Vibrations Racing. The second round was the Shakey Super Pull with another win, quite how we pulled this one off is unknown. We had fitted some new Hoosier tyres, as the old Goodyears were well over five years old and well worn. We were still pulling PBs with the Goodyears so even when fully worn they still performed. We did two huge burnouts and a launch to bed the tyres and then went to qualify. It lit the tyres up at the shift and we recorded a 8.50. We knew we would go quicker as the tyres settled so we dialled in 8.00. First run it shook at the shift but we recorded a 7.96. Second run it was really on a good one, a little shake, but I pulled the chute way early to slow us down and 8.1/126 was the result. Final run with hardly any shake and a 7.69 kept us close enough. Once again we took the Good Vibrations Racing reaction time prize.

Third round was the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals, scored over one run as the meeting was rained off. We finished second to the Mad Rs team, and took the Good Vibrations Reaction Time prize for the last time this season. We missed the Dragstalgia round at Santa Pod, then our next meeting was a non-points outing at the Bulldog Bash. In short, as the long version has already been published on both the Speeddemon Facebook page and on Eurodragster.com. We broke the tow car, we broke the replacement tow car. Took eight hours to get seventymiles. First run we bent twelve push rods, fixed it and second run we went 197.58 mph (PB), found the chassis broken, got it fixed, ran a great side by side run with Mad Rs and squeaked the win, final run went 7.48 another PB. We were declared the winner of this event as decided by the commentators and track crew, thanks everyone. You can find a video of the last run at www.youtu.be/D4UUPcBmB7g.

On to VW Action, four runs in one day of which two were in the evening. We could have won the Championship at this meeting, bur a red light put paid to that. We finished fourth at the event. We have a video of clips taken on a phone we have put together on You Tube at www.youtu.be/5ng79S70wD8.

Finally to probably the best Nostalgia meeting of the year, the NSRA Hot Rod Drags. For us not to win the Championship, Mad Rs had to win the meeting and we would have to finish below tenth. We finished fourth and team Mad Rs finished second. However the two front-engined dragsters took the top two positions, we have run as a pair several times, and it's always close which the crowd always loves. Knowing we had it tied up before the last run we decided to see if we could run a PB. A small change was made to the shift point for the left lane, the result was another PB of 7.43.

A great year for the Speeddemon team. Reduced our ET, increased our top speed, retained the fastest speed record. Won the Bulldog Bash, won half the Reaction Time prizes, and took the Series title. We'd love to run the car a bit harder but we can't afford to unless a generous sponsor would like to be associated with the quickest and fastest front-engine dragster now running in the UK.

Thanks to all the other racers in the Supercharged Outlaws, a great bunch of racers. Thanks to the track crews wherever we run for the great track prep, thanks also to all the spectators who tell us they love the car and what we do with it.

Swift snippets.
25th September: Barry Paton has been in touch to let European racers know that his Top Fuel Dragster is available for hire for the season-ending NHRA events in Las Vegas and Pomona. A licencing programme is also available. If you are interested then you can contact Barry on +1 423 967 6817 or at barrypaton@rogers.com.

Thanks to Paula and Ian Marshall for forwarding the latest version of the official entry list for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on Saturday and Sunday week, 6th-7th October. 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 Extreme Performance Bike Weekend.

Thanks also to Paula Marshall for forwarding the final points standings in the MSA British Drag Racing Championship (for Pro Modified) which you can check out on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Speedflow Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us an updated UK Bests sheet now including the Super Street Bike speed record set at the weekend by Dave Holland. You can check out the updated sheet of UK Bests by clicking here or by clicking on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Thanks also to Andy Marrs for forwarding the official timing data from the VP Racing Fuels National Finals, which you can check out by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Web site updates.
25th September: Eurodragster.com sponsor Direct Plastics have successfully launched their new web site at www.directplastics.co.uk and MD and Super Comp racer Paul Woodhead tells us that it seems to have become an instant hit. "The goal was to make it even quicker and easier for customers as well as increase the range to include Lexan, Perspex and wall cladding", says Paul. "This is the first of a series of improvements planned to make life easier for engineers and manufacturing companies and we can't wait to launch the next one."

Marcus Sjödin tells us that Simon Arvidsson has put together a movie of Top Doorslammer action from the recent Winter Nationals at Malmö Raceway. "We found out that duct tape can't do much against tyre shake - you'll understand when you see the video", says Marcus. Check it out at www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqCgsRhy2Ak.

Our good friend Alan Currans has been busy with a couple of updates on the two sites which he administers. First up is a gallery of excellent shots from the weekend's VP Racing Fuels National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway which you can check out via the What's New link on Alan's own Acceleration Archive site at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk.

Alan has also updated the official web site of the UK's Chaos Fuel Altered team with a weekend race report by owner Lawrie Gatehouse, a weekend gallery, plus a fantastic on-board video of Nick Davies' 6.3-second pass at Santa Pod on Saturday. You can check it all out via the Latest News link at www.chaos-fuel-altered.com.

After being absent from a drag strip since the 2011 FIA European Finals, Tim Fountain was fortunate to be able to attend this year's FIA European Finals. "The superlatives were all worn out after such a stunning meeting but I have put together a blog post and gallery at www.timtime.co.uk", says Tim. "Thanks to everyone for one of the best meetings I have ever attended and a special thanks to Eurodragster.com for keeping me informed and entertained the rest of the time (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed)."

Also updating from the FIA European Finals is The Mad Welshman whose shots from the Saturday and Sunday you can check out at www.flickr.com/photos/the_madwelshman.

Editor's note: Only a brief update today due to pressure of work in your News Editor's day job. Stay tuned for news from Top Fuel Dragster racer Patrik Pers, a season review from one of the Supercharged Outlaws, a Personal Best in Super Pro ET and more, and please keep the news coming to news@eurodragster.com.

2012 UK National Champions.
24th September: Congratulations to the 2012 UK National Champions (subject to official ratification) who were decided at the weekend's VP Racing Fuels National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway:

MSA British Pro Modified: Roger Moore
ACU UK Top Fuel Bike: Ian King

UK National Super Modified: Belinda Bull
UK National Super Pro ET: Jack Brewster
UK National Pro ET: Paul Brown
UK National Sportsman ET: Craig Wright
UK National Super Comp: Brian Pateman
UK National Super Gas: Brian Pateman
UK National Super Street: Leigh Morris
Lucas Oil Junior Dragster: Joe Kellett
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: Brian Payne

VW Pro: James Hodson
VW Sportsman: Dean Clatworthy
Wild Bunch Series: Adz Price
Junior Drag Bike: Louis Davies

Congratulations to all and a special tip of the hat to Brian Pateman for a repeat double in Super Comp and Super Gas, and to Leigh Morris and Joe Kellett for repeat Championships in Super Street and Junior Dragster respectively.

The remaining bike classes have their final rounds at the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-7th October.

Swift snippets.
24th September: Hans-Christian Nilsen of Rolfstad Pro Dragracing tells us that the bikes are loaded in to the container ready for the Swedish and Norwegian contingent's trip to the Manufacturers Cup Finals at Valdosta. "We are very excited to be racing in the States again", says Hans-Christian. "We wish to thank all of our sponsors who made this possible: Notaplan, Meca Hadeland, Kreativ Data, Midthaug, PCI, Full Torque, and a special thanks to Sunoco's Lars Rud."

Many thanks to our own Simon for posting the final standings in the 2012 APIRA Ultimate Power Championships. You can check out the APIRA points on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Speedflow Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page

Maikel Gloudemans of our streaming service provider Doyousee.me has asked us to say a big Happy Birthday for today (Monday) to his friend of twenty five years Gijs de Ruiter. "Gijs was the reason I got involved in drag racing a long time ago and without him there would never be Doyousee.me broadcasts", says M@ik. Have a great day Gijs.

Web site updates.
24th September: In the latest instalment in his Nostalgia Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, Brian Taylor brings us up to date with the latest from the Allard Chrysler Action Group as well as other Nostalgia matters. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Further to his news item of 24th August, Hungarian Pro Stock Bike racer Szabolcs Borsay has posted a YouTube video of his exploits including the first-ever Pro Stock Bike passenger ride. You can check out Szabb's video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD2bKpdNcTw.

National Finals rained out.
23rd September: Today's eliminations at the VP Racing Fuels National Finals were rained out after the first round of eliminations and the second rounds of a couple of classes. Although it is scant consolation for the loss of yet another race event to rain, most Championships were decided on the track during eliminations rather than by the rain.

Congratulations to Dave Holland who set a new Super Street Bike speed record of 204.25 mph in qualifying.

Congratulations also to Junior Dragster racer and repeat UK National Champion Joe Kellett who won the Eurodragster.com / ModUrStang Perfect Light Award with a 0.000 Reaction Time in the last session of qualifying. The Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50 for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-7th October. The Eurodragster.com / Gold RV Perfect ET Award went unclaimed and so has been increased to £75 for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend.

You can check out our Alamo Rent A Car-sponsored VP Racing Fuels 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 selecting the VP Racing Fuels National Finals. Thanks to our good buddy Julian Hunt for providing the photographs for this weekend's coverage.

Swift snippets.
23rd September: We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to our good buddy and Honorary Eurodragster.com Staff Member Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe. Have a great day Marrs.

Stef's Super Gas bits.
22nd September: Stef Pateman has been in touch with her usual event preview from the Super Gas pits:

To round up a fantastic year of racing we would like to say a big congratulations to Team Tokyo Toy on their APIRA Championship win, and also to my dad Brian Pateman and Stuart Doignie who came runner-up and third on identical points.

Pete Creswell has bagged a fine lead of 420 points in the Santa Pod Racers Club Championship over second-placed veteran Jon Morton. Stuart Doignie, Stuart Morrice and my dad are all tied in third place twenty points behind Jon so it's going to be an interesting weekend! Team Southern Belle are up to sixth place which is very good considering they missed the SPRC Summernationals - look out for some more 9.90 runs without a throttle stop!

In the UK National Championship, for which Britex Services Ltd is putting up £250, it will be down to the wire with six racers fighting for glory. Stuart Doignie and my dad are currently tied for first place with 1520 each including all round bonus. If this ends as a tie then the two racers will share the £250 Britex Services Ltd prize money. Peter Creswell is snapping at their heels with just ten points behind, Team Tokyo lie in fourth place a further 110 points behind Peter. Chalky White, Jon Morton and Southern Belle all still have a chance and anything can happen in drag racing.

We all hope you have a great weekend and good luck from Team Pateman.

Swift snippets.

22nd September: We have three birthdays today. Happy Birthday to Sharon Norris of Santa Pod Raceway's timing crew, to Santa Pod Racers Club official Emma Humphreys, and a Happy 9th Birthday to Junior Dragster racer Belle Wheeler. Have a lovely day ladies.

Funny Car summer.
21st September: UK Comp Bike racer Phil Leamon has been in touch with an account of a summer spent with the Time Warp Nostalgia Funny Car of international dairy product smuggling kingpins Wendy Baker and and Paul Stubbings:

It was all a little last minute, but Wendy confirmed that it was definitely on. The Time Warp Mustang Nostalgia Funny Car was going to the Hockenheim NitrOlympx and maybe the Drachten International meeting as well. "We're match racing Rockin' Ramon van der Weurf and the Wild'r at Heart Dodge Charger."Do you and your team want to come?". Wendy didn't have to ask twice. The answer was yes!

Dragstalgia and the Mopar Nats had been a great introduction to racing the Time Warp Funny Car. A trip to Germany and then to Drachten in the north of Holland were going to be an adventure and the Leamon Bros Team was up for it. I'd heard from other racers that Hockenheim was unlike any other drag racing venue. Expect an atmosphere between a rock concert and a football match and you wouldn't be far wrong, said one racer. How right they were!

Paul Stubbings and right hand man Chris Eyre had set out earlier in the week with the race truck and had arrived in good time. However, whilst unloading Time Warp a minor mishap occurred. A hydraulic pipe broke on the tail lift and the car dropped off the back of the ramp! Thankfully the damage was reasonably minor. The wheelie bars were slightly bent and a few cracks to the body. A lot less than had been originally feared. The team spent Friday afternoon and early evening making good the damage, repairing the tail lift and preparing for our slot in the Saturday night show.

Unlike the Pod all of the food vendors close early. Spectators have to leave the race track once racing has finished. We decided to go into town and see what Hockenheim had to offer for somewhere to eat. We stumbled across a really cracking restaurant full of locals which is always a good sign. Suitably refreshed we returned to the track and Paul suggested we run the car up! Starter motor on, fuel in the bug catcher, spin her over, pull the crocodile clips off the coil and she barked into life. The pits reverberated to the sound of an old school nitro engine and we quickly had a crowd. One of those was Ian Turburville who was over crewing for Supertwin racer Nate Gagnon. Checkout Ian's video clip at www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ94vK8_RfY if you like header flames.

Saturday came and we had a long wait for our part in the Night Show. At last we were given the call and we made our way to the pairing lanes with the '71 Charger Wild'r at Heart team. The two classic Funny Cars looked the part and the atmosphere was starting to build as we moved ever closer to the start line. The crowd was huge, somewhere in the region of 30,000. The main stand was packed, full of noisy and enthusiastic spectators. They were here to see a show not just a drag race. I was I have to say, a little nervous. My job was to be back up boy. Get Wendy and Time Warp back to the start line after the burnout nice and straight. It couldn't be simpler with so many people looking on as well.

At last we were given the thumbs up, it was our turn to entertain. Wendy prefers to be directed all the way back from the burnout. I trotted down the track to just before the eighth mile marker. Wendy did a lovely long Smokey burnout as did Ramon. Wendy's burnout had an added ingredient in keeping with the Fire Show! Hydrogen Peroxide dropped on the track by Eric Teboul's rocket bike ignited. The left rear slick was ablaze but thankfully the ring of fire quickly went out. I jumped over the retaining wall, gave Wendy the OK sign and directed her back as best I could. With all the tyre smoke, lights and noise it was difficult to make out Chris' hand but somehow we got her back.

Both the Time Warp Mustang and '71 Charger looked a million dollars under fluorescent lighting. The smell of tyre smoke and nitro hung heavy in the air. Both cars dry hopped to the line and the commentator whipped the crowd to a frenzy. The lights went down and the race was on. Well, not exactly a race as the track really wasn't playing ball, but we had entertained the crowd and both teams were happy. Our job was done and we could relax. Part one of the European adventure was over.

Part two, started for most of the crew and I with an overnight ferry Thursday night and a long drive to Drachten on Friday morning. As the meetings were so close, Paul and Chris had taken the race truck to some friends of Ramon's at Arizona Garage not too far from Drachten. The team can't thank them enough for their hospitality as without them it would have been so much more difficult.

Ordinarily Drachten could be described as a sleepy little town which just happens to have a runway. In just four days, the hard working team from Explosion Drag Racing transform this venue into a really excellent track. We were there to match race Wild'r at Heart over the eighth. The track is a little too short to stop safely from 200 mph although Wendy seemed keen to have a go! Ramon did a couple of demo check out passes on Friday afternoon but something didn't seem quite right. The car launched really well but clouds of smoke were ominously coming from the headers.

Saturday morning came and the heat was starting to build. It was getting hot, really hot. We fired up Time Warp and she sounded crisp. She was ready to do battle. Unfortunately the '71 Charger was wounded. Smoke pouring from the headers on warm up suggested it was pretty terminal. Ramon was also suffering from an allergic reaction to a wasp sting of all things. They decided to retire from racing and instead concentrate on the evening BBQ. A great night guys, and thank you.

We pulled Time Warp around to the start line and picked the left lane to do the first run. The Race Director said that there was a slight dip in this lane so look out for it! Wendy did her usual super-smooth controlled burnout and I got her back reasonably straight. At the hit, loads of clutch dust and Time Warp was off. They were right about the dip, but the John Buttera chassis tracks nice and true with little or no drama. Unlike modern Funny Cars which have no front suspension, Time Warp has a neat torsion bar system which allows it to ride out bumps and dips just like this.

Run two was in the right hand lane. No drama on the run but that all changed at the end of track. A rather weird incident saw the towing hook break loose from Time Warp and attempt to impale the foot of super crewman Chris Eyre. Ouch! Paramedics on the scene and Chris in rather a lot of pain.

With Chris out of action for a while, the crew rallied and got stuck into getting Time Warp ready for the cacklefest. As the sun was sinking, we pulled the car to the start and lined up with the Wild'r at Heart '71 Charger. A great photo opportunity for those who stayed on. Lovely flames and that great smell of nitro again. Nearly set fire to Paul's trousers too.

Sunday was even hotter. Afternoon temperatures were approaching 35 C and the sweat was dripping off my nose. We had fortunately picked the right weekend to be here as the previous couple of events had been rained off. Two more runs over the eighth and we were done. The European adventure was over.

Thanks to Paul and Wendy for letting the Leamon Bros Team of Denis, Gary and I loose on their pride and joy. To the rest of the Time Warp Team of Chris, Tony and Lee it was an absolute pleasure to crew alongside you. To Ramon and the Wild'r at Heart team, it was great fun and we look forward to racing you next year.

Check out the videos on You Tube. You can just about smell the Nitro:

Time Warp Hockenheim Saturday 11th August
Time Warp Drachten Saturday 18th August
Time Warp Drachten Cacklefest
Time Warp Drachten Sunday 19th August

Swift snippets.

21st September: Further to yesterday's news item about six bike racers heading for Valdosta, Marius van der Zijden writes that the bigger Zodiac Trans Atlantic Dragrace Tour went to Gainesville in 1996, then again in 1997 and 1998. "We stuffed no less than eight bikes and equipment into a forty-foot sea container", says Marius. "Participants were Roel Koedam (Holland, Yamaha Top Fuel Bike), Ton Pels (Holland, HD Supertwin Top Fuel), Gerard Willemse (Holland, Triumph Supertwin Top Fuel), Rob van Geffen (Holland, HD Supertwin Top Fuel), Mark Klessens (Belgium, HD Supertwin Top Gas), Job Heezen (Belgium, HD Supertwin Top Gas), Jan Honee (Holland, Jawa Super single / Nitro) and the late Chris Hampson (GB, Funny Bike). We all had a great time and I'm sure our friends will too. Believe it or not, but it is the Triumph and the Jawa about which they still talk today."

European fans have someone to cheer on at this weekend's 27th annual AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals in Dallas as ex-pat UK racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences is contesting Top Alcohol Dragster in his injected-nitro Shredder. Qualifying commences today; you will be able to stay in touch with Mike's progress courtesy of our friends at www.dragracecentral.com. Good luck Mike and stay safe.

We have no less than four birthdays today. First up is UK Pro ET racer Carla Pittau who is making a return to the track tomorrow at the VP Racing Fuels National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. Have a lovely day and a great weekend Carla. Happy Birthday also to SPRC Chief Timekeeper, Honorary Eurodragster.com Staff Member and all-round good guy Steve Horn, to Steve Silvester, and to Draglist.com supremo Bill Pratt. Have a great day all.

Three PBs, a body and a motor.
21st September: UK blown-alcohol altered racer Adam Gleadow says that this was not the Motor Psycho team's most successful season on record:

We started the season at the Autotrader Easter Thunderball in high hopes. After a very busy (borderline frantic) off season we all felt justifiably proud of the car's appearance, hundreds (no joke!) of hours spent lightening the body, improving the aero and most impressively of all the gorgeous new paint job laid down by our sponsors at Custom Exotics and pinstriping and polishing by Joe at Fresh Reflections A few upgrades and tweaks over the winter left us without a real baseline and every run at Easter saw the tyres lighting up and the hit, a quick pedal job and running mid to high sevens before the weather swept in and ended the event prematurely.

On to our next appearance at the SPRC Summernationals, another addition to the car in the form of a swoopy nose hoping to cure the top end wheels-up we had at Easter. The racing gods however had other plans, the car was on a great run (new PB at every incremental) when at about three quarter track I saw daylight, lots of daylight. The quick we release pins we had to fit to the body did exactly that, and quick released themselves launching the '34 Ford body thirty feet into the air, spectacular but painful. The impact all but destroyed the body. We made plans to return and I spent the rest of the weekend helping Darryl with a bit of colour commentary.

Ten days' hectic cutting, grinding and fibreglassing later we arrived at Dragstalgia with a very different look, a satin black '23 T body a far cry from the show finish of the '34, but functional, and at least we were out racing not sat at home. Everything came together with great weather and the car running sweet, the result a PB of 7.52 on an early shut off due to a ruptured fuel line, followed by a 7.4/178 for new best numbers at both ends. Set for a final round appearance against Chaos unfortunately I lost drive staging and had to watch Nick Davies storm away to another impressive 6.3 pass.

The long summer break was too long, so we set out for a bit of testing at Mini In The Park, a couple of aborted launches due to a magneto fault and we set out to get ready for an outing in Super Pro ET at the Euro Finals. Massive thank you to Ian Turboville for helping us out with a replacement rotor arm after Parcel Farce once again made a simple job impossibly difficult! First run, a soft launch and checkout run against John Everitt (always a fun guy to race!) 7.8/173. A few tweaks to the fuel system and more clutch looking to take advantage of the awesome track conditions, driver error with a double clutch off the line but then the car was flying until around 500 feet where I felt a weird vibration, quickly lifted and felt the motor die accompanied by a cloud of death smoke. I knew it wasn't good news, popped the chutes, pulled over and left the brakes well alone in case I was swimming in oil. I hopped out the car, pulled the diaper back and confirmed the worst, a gaping hole in the sump and aluminium everywhere. Those shiny new Bill Miller rods don't look so good when they're on the outside...

A quick comment on diapers: basically ours saved the car. 90% of the expelled oil was safely held in the diaper when we got back to the pits - without it there would have been ten quarts of Lucas' finest racing oil and chunks of aluminium under the slicks at 150 mph and probably a very bent fuel altered stuffed into the concrete wall. Safety gear at its best, every car should have one. It also minimalised clear up time which has to be a bonus especially on such a busy weekend.

That's our season done. We stripped the motor totally and are waiting on the diagnosis on the block/crank but we've got a few ideas to step things up a bit for next year! We'll be back out at Easter, bigger, better and faster, it's going to be a long winter again. We're gutted to miss the season finale at the VP Racing Fuels National Finals supporting the NFAA but I'll be there (you can't keep me away) and will give Colin a hand up in the commentary box for the NFAA again.

Finally a massive thank you to our sponsors Lucas Oil, Custom Exotics, Auto Finesse and Fresh Reflections, to the crew - never down and always hard working, everyone who has helped us this year (you know who you are) and our supporters around the world - over 1200 of you on our Facebook page now!

The invasion grows.

20th September: L-O Jonsson tells us that the Supertwin contingent of the European team contesting the Haltech World Finals of the Manufacturers Cup in Valdosta, US in November has increased.

"Our original plan has expanded", says L-O. "Our team now includes Per Bengtsson, Jan Sturla Hegre, Svein Olav Rolfstad and Trond Høiberget together with Funny Bike rider Rikard Gustafsson. These five teams will load their bikes into our container this coming weekend and the equipment will leave for the USA next week.

"We have also confirmed that UK Supertwin racer Chris Hannam will compete at the event. Europeans racing in the USA is nothing new, but six teams racing at the same event - I don't recall that this has happened before."

Eurodragster.com is already making plans to bring you trackside and pitside reports from Valdosta in November. For more about the event check out www.manufacturerscup.info.

Bond's season done.
20th September: UK blown-alcohol altered racer Joe Bond's season has unfortunately already finished and he will be sitting out this weekend's VP Racing Fuels National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. Joe has been in touch to let us know how his season went in the Nuthin' Fancy Topolino:

Easter started so well for us, a few share of new parts, fresh paint job and with the cool weather at Easter the car instantly performed brilliantly, running an early shut off 6.30, chewing up some lifters and pushrods going through the finish line, which explained the low 207 mph terminal (Well, I say low... it's still fast!), and then running a very out of shape 6.59 at 205. The car was running really well, and as it ran mid to high sixes at the Nostalgia Nationals we were quite content with how it was performing.

Dragstalgia was a bit of a nightmare for us all. After all the good times and speeds the car ran during the first few events it was like turning off a light switch: instantly the car wouldn't get off the start line without huge tyre shake causing huge damage. We broke all sorts of parts during those two launches, and spent all of July through to the Hot Rod Drags repairing the damage. We had to repair all sorts, it's amazing how much carnage it causes. We entered the Hot Rod Drags hoping to have sorted the tyre shake problem, plus wanting to try some new parts.

Saturday at the Hot Rods started well, and the car responded really nicely to the changes we made, and we were happy going into the second run on Saturday to see what sort of late season marker we could put down. Saturday early evening we went back out and the car drove brilliantly, no wheels up, shaking or bucking around. It went straight down the groove before the motor zinged before half track and lost drive. I remember shutting the car off and cruising to the turn off fearing the worst, smelling dead transmission fluid and seeing smoke from the motor.

We checked over the car and things were looking OK until we found a broken part in the Lenco, a part for which no one had a spare readily available, and sadly after a night of trying to brainstorm how to repair it to get back out on Sunday, it couldn't happen.

Our 2012 season is going to end on a bit of a flat note, but we solved the original issue we set out to sort, so I'm happy with that! I want to say a load of Thank Yous: to my Mum and Dad, Crew Chief Martyn and my crew Lawrence, Mike and Craig for everything they do for me to drive this car, and Laura Turburville for all her help with backing up duties and saving Lawrence's legs! Quite simply I couldn't do it without them. We have no sponsors at all so everything we do to race is off our own backs and for the love of Nostalgia-style drag racing. I think we do a really good job of it (Seconded - Ed), and we will be back in 2013 to try it all over again.

Web site updates.
20th September: Heaven & Hell Pro ET team member and Honorary Eurodragster.com Staff Member Grace Roaf has updated her Facebook page with pictures from the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway and the NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway.

Also updating from the FIA European Finals is Paul Lister whose shots you can check out at www.flickr.com/photos/dragcaranon.

Also updating Flickr from the FIA European Finals is photo-journalist Dick Parnham whose pictures can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/dickparnhamdragracing.

VWDRC close 25th season.
19th September: Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Chair Luke Stevenson says that as the Club's twenty fifth anniversary season comes to a climax, instead of looking back at an amazing season of non-stop hot VW action, we look back over a terrible season of rain-affected events culminating in one of the tightest and lowest-scoring Championships in both classes:

Never one to be pessimistic, though, the racing we have had has been awesome, real close and a great testament to the Club.

We finish off the season with a fifteen-car field in VW Pro and with the unfortunate events which ended Sam Young's season at Hockenheim, we now know who will be fighting for first and second places in the Championship: James Hodson, twice previous Pro champion or Paul Herbert who is three-time Champion in VW Sportsman. Can Paul win his first Pro title or will Mr Consistent regain his title? We have also had a last-minute entry from Club legend Russ Fellows who ran a 9.02 at the European Finals, let's all hope for the usual perfect track conditions and some fast air to create that magical eight-second second run. You can guarantee the club will be ushering the air behind him and going wild when he does it.

In VW Sportsman a lower than usual entry will mean a battle for every point between the top four. Currently leading the table is Dean Clatworthy in the Burner beetle, closely followed up by last year's runner-up James London, Luke Stevenson and this year's Rookie of the Year Steve Pugh. With just over 200 points between the top few qualifying is going to be super close as every point will count and we can be sure of a nail-biting finish.

We will be welcoming all our sponsors to the track at the National Finals and cannot wait to put on a great display for them, but again we must thank them for supporting the club in 2012: Dubz-by-Dan, Reichspeed Aircooled, Volkszone, Dubshows UK, Vibra-Technics, Bio-Cam, Sub11Motorsport, Bears Transmissions, and WRP Paint and Restoration

You can follow all the racing updates and racer news via the Club's Facebook and Twitter accounts, just search for VWDRC. If anyone wants to take up racing in the world's best Club then go to www.vwdrc.com and we will see you at the lights in the New Year.

Three Wild Bunch finals.
19th September: Wild Bunch Co-ordinator Claire Meaddows writes that the nostalgia racers are really looking forward to this weekend's VP Racing Fuels National Finals where there will be a great field of thirteen cars competing at the club's sixth and final round of the 2012 Wild Bunch Series.

Adam Price in the Team Gridlock Go Hard or Go Home!!! Topolino altered is currently leading the Series over second place Tom Larman, who is not entered with The Ferret altered. And with another big gap to third to sixth places, Adam may be able to secure his second WB Series win in a row. There are still three other teams in with a small mathematical chance of winning: Sarah Howells and Team DB in the RamRaider slingshot, Dave Williams in the Green with Envy altered and Andrew Murphy in the B'Sting altered, although to win the Series any of them would have to win the event and Adam not make the first round. So things are pretty close for second to fourth places!

The event is also the ninth and final round of the Series for contingency sponsors Real Steel (Performance Parts), which takes place over four MSA events and five RWYB events. Adam Price is again leading this Series and is guaranteed a top two finish, though Darren Law is not that far behind in The Wicked Lady rear-engined dragster so has a chance to overhaul Adam, and is also guaranteed a top two finish. But things are very tight in third to ninth places, being only separated by five points, so any of these teams have a shot at third and fourth spots. The top four will share £250 of Real Steel vouchers as prizes.

The Club's four-round Springbridge MSA Challenge Series will also be concluded at this event. The Challenge covers the Easter Thunderball, Springspeed Nationals, Open Sports Nationals and the National Finals, and is currently being led by Darren Law on 900 points, followed by Bob Hawkins in Time Traveller on 630, Team RamRaider on 610, and both Adam Price and Chris Hartnell on 580. With 770 points available, there are still eleven teams in with a mathematical chance of winning, and they are all entered. The winner earns the Springbridge MSA Challenge Cup and one free MSA event entry for 2013.

The competition should see some more close racing, with another exciting finale to the season. Can Adam Price make it two Wild Bunch Series wins in a row in the Go Hard or Go Home!!! altered and increase his tally of three event wins for the year? Will Dave Williams secure a couple of top four Series placings in his Green with Envy altered? Will Crazy Chris wheelie his way with Backdraft into the top ten this season in fine eight-second form? Can Mark Coulsell break into the top four and repeat his eight-second pass in the Ballbreaker slingshot? Will Sarah Howells gain a victory on the team's last competitive outing in the RamRaider and keep the team in the top four? Can Scot Durrant repeat his #1 qualifying form and improve on his third place at the last event in the Tiki Munki slingshot coupe, just one week before his wedding to the gorgeous Gina Rumble? Will Darren Law win the MSA Challenge once again with The Wicked Lady dragster and add to his other Series win for 2012? Can Ian Turburville earn his first ever Wild Bunch event win with the Mr Spokehead II slingshot and go fastest again? Will Alan Loten lower his PB even further in the Paranoia altered, and earn his first top four event placing? Can Darryl Howells maintain his top ten Wild Bunch place in the Chemical Reaction slingshot and move into the top four in Real Steel? Will Keith Crampton move even higher in the top ten than ever before in his Soultown Shaker slingshot? Can current quickest Wild Buncher Bob Hawkins make it into the Wild Bunch top four with his Time Traveller slingshot, score a top four event placing and go even quicker than before? Will Andrew Murphy pilot the B'Sting to another win and another top four position? We look forward to Sunday, Sunday, Sunday to find out!

Full results and news from previous events can be found on the club's web site at www.the-wild-bunch.co.uk.

Worth the wait...

19th September: In May 2011 Duncan Scott excited us with a workshop picture of what promised to be an awesome blown 100E Estate (right). Duncan made his first outing with the car at the Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway and got in touch to let us know how it went:

After an epic nineteen-hour journey and the loss of both tow vehicles en route we arrived late Friday from the Highlands. All hands on deck to get set up and a quick bite to eat before collapsing into bed. Saturday came round and we got going doing all the stuff which should have been done on Friday afternoon - valve lash, fill the sump etc - meanwhile the great Mr Charlie Draper and his lovely lady took time out of their holiday to travel from Ilfracombe to the track just to set up my engine and boy did he do his stuff. It's incredible how much difference a true expert can make, I can't thank Charlie enough.

Towed down to the line and after all the problems on Friday with tow cars the bloody race car refused to start! Back to the pits and a dodgy coil lead was the culprit. So out again but oildowns etc put paid to any further attempt at a run on Saturday. So we had a few pics taken by the lovely Jeni Long then drove the car down the return road and up the pits where it decided to catch fire! A broken evac pipe the culprit this time so both headers were removed and welded by another good guy to whom we owe a big thanks, Ramon from the Wild'r At Heart Funny Car team. Here we lost Charlie and Margaret to their holiday, back to Cornwall where they had their own adventure in broken down dailies, a story which would make you wet yourself laughing (You know the address, Charlie - Ed)!

We then wrapped the headers to keep the heat at bay and went for our first pass, but more problems arose - a misfire and no second gear. These things sorted a second attempt at a run resulted in a much better burnout and second gear, the car really getting up on the tyres, but my over zealous tightening of the header wrap made the headers collapse when they heated up and the wrap started to come loose and fall off. Not wanting to mess the track we shut down and that was the end of that.

Even after all the trouble I came away happy with the weekend and happy to start a new era in my life from building a car for sixteen years to racing it for as long as possible. I need to say a huge thanks to the people who have helped me to get this far. First and foremost my wife Angie and daughter Leia for help and patience over the years. Secondly to the Draper brothers for building me the fattest 100e on the planet, and to Charlie for help and advice along the way and for the mega-tune he put in the car on Saturday. To Steve for believing all these years and for all the help over the weekend, to Andy Solly for his untiring help and his better half Lynn for tea and cakes. To Davey, Rick, Mel, Dad, Pam, Dal, Vince, and Mick, and thanks to Leigh Wright for the stunning paintjob on the car. See you all next year.

Swift snippets.
19th September: Congratulations to Mick 'Wacky' Wilkes and Deb who finished eighteenth in Daily Driver at Hot Rod Drag Week after surviving broken parts, super-late nights all week, 1400 miles of street driving and a postponed final day. James Murray tells us that Mick also collected the Spirit of Drag Week prize. "Now they are going to drive the van over to California for a holiday and likely call in at Hot Rod Magazine HQ", says James. "I'm sure they'll have some great stories to tell when they return home."

Please note that the deadline for guaranteed posting of news items here on Eurodragster.com before the VP Racing Fuels National Finals is 20:00 UK / 21:00 European tomorrow (Thursday).

Blackburn's thanks.
19th September: UK Pro ET racer Marius Blackburn has been in touch to pass on a Thank You of immense proportions to everybody who offered parts after the Escape from Reality altered spat out its dummy and refused to play during Thursday's qualifying at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway.

"After repairing some electrical problems we then managed to break the distributor - not usually too much of a problem as there are plenty of Chevys around", says Marius. "However this proved to be more of a problem than anticipated as we don't run a crank trigger system and pretty much everybody else does! We stopped running the Ford engine a couple of seasons ago as we could never source any spares if we had aggro!

"At this point we were thinking it was going to be a long weekend, however thanks to Simon and Tog at Eurodragster.com (You're welcome - Ed), track announcers Colin and Darryl, and Nigel and Jules on Nitro FM, Swiss Super Pro ET racer Sascha Pretszch heard our appeal for help and came up with an identical (except it wasn't broken!) distributor which got us running.

"We had a great weekend although it wasn't quite as we had planned, but once again the drag racing family came together to help somebody out. This may sound like an awards ceremony speech but thanks to the guys I've already mentioned and also to Bobby Wallace, Paul Brown, Paul Baynton, Tim Stanbury, loads of other racers, event organisers, track guys, Joe Public... cheers!"

PMR's Pro ET success.
19th September: Paul Marston Racing set out their stall early at last week's FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway as Paul Marston ended the first session of both Super Pro ET and Pro ET qualifying in #1 position. Paul takes up the story, which actually started two weeks earlier:

The Whoopass Monza broke real bad in the third qualifying session at the Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. Just after the hit it broke the axle, rear gears, propshaft, transmission and made a real mess of the interior! To be honest it's the first time anything significant has ever broken on the orange car in six years. We loaded up and I towed from Shakespeare County Raceway straight back to Gary Springford's Drag Race Engineering and got to work. By Wednesday Gary and I had the Monza running again, rebuilt and repaired stronger than before. The last piece to finish was the replacement tinwork panels, courtesy of Bill Felstead as Fester Race Cars, which the Crew Chief designed: Max and I bead rolled the design ourselves. I fitted them myself at 7.30 pm on the Tuesday night, prior to leaving for the European Finals.

The PMR Brains Trust worked out the dials for both Pro ET and Super Pro ET and we were just where the Monza should have been. The Santa Pod track was awesome, it was good at the SPRC Summernationals so naturally we found the same at the European Finals. As with all teams we had some issues with the race car during the weekend, it's the nature of racing. With the consistent weather conditions and having qualified so well we decided to try some new things to see how the Monza would react so as to enlarge our performance window. This all worked very well and come eliminations we were ready.

Although it is listed as the entry-level class for purpose built race cars, Pro ET here in England is widely acknowledged as being the toughest class to succeed in. This is due to the number of teams which compete in this class and in my opinion Pro ET is the closest you will get to the level of competition you see in the States. If you are lucky enough to qualify, with the whole thirty two-car qualified field sometimes being covered by a little as 0.003 seconds, anyone against whom you line up can beat you no problem. So you have to be good, lucky or just too plain stupid to notice, to actually win this class. I was lucky enough to be that person at the 2012 FIA European Finals. As Pro ET is the very first elimination class out in the morning we have absolutely nothing to go on with regard to how quick the track is, how the weather conditions will affect the race car, how the wind will factor in, how quick the start line is, and how quickly the morning mist will burn off as at that time of the morning the conditions will be different between the first and last races of that session. It really does change that quickly. Unless you have actually raced you really have no idea how good you need to be to be able to pick the number you think your race car will run taking all the above into account. Then you simply have to survive four rounds of competition to make the money round. i took the stripe by five inches in one race and three inches in another, leaving the final in which I took the stripe by a massive four feet or 0.02 seconds! Fair play to the other finalist Paul Brown, he certainly kept me honest and gave me a great race. Paul is a great talent, his family make a great team and race for all the right reasons.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my friends and family who make up the crew, both here and the Florida connection of Paul Marston Racing. Without you guys I could not do this. My sponsors, Black Box London, London Road Tyres, BLP Performance Products in Orlando Florida, Gary Springford at Drag Race Engineering, Geddex, JW Performance in Rockledge Florida, all our loyal fans and marketing partners. Thank you once again to Eurodragster.com for all your excellent coverage (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed).

In answer to all the speculation, and due to public demand, we are looking at running the PT Bruiser for a full season next year. After our assessment of the Bruiser at the 2012 FIA Main Event, we now know what we have to do to start to make the car competitive again. Nowadays everyone at PMR goes racing to have fun and to enjoy the adventure of competing in National Event competition, but we do so with a competitive race car. The level of competition has increased markedly over the past few years, so the PT Bruiser needs to step up to get it where it needs to be. As the saying goes "We didn't come here to lose". It will take some time, but we will see it through and will not stop until we feel we have become competitive enough to win events. Then it's just up to the skills of the driver. After all it's the complete package for which we are all searching. Some people think you can just buy it, but if it really was that simple then most of us would have given up years ago after winning everything.

There is just one race to go, the VP Racing Fuels National Finals, and we look forward to seeing you all there.

Another record for Lazenby.

19th September: Having secured the world record on the Mickey Thompson Sportsman Pros back in 2010, UK Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer Colin Lazenby has secured a similar record with the Hoosier Quick Times (not Pros, he stresses) while competing at last week's FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway.

Colin says that both these tyres are regarded as being proper DoT treads and that his 7.65 on the MTs and 7.76 on the Hoosiers look like they'll stand for some time. "One narrow-minded individual recently said "Only two people in the world are interested in what you run on these tyres", and there's no doubt that resentful comments like these are made by people who could never make them work - actually never make anything work", says Colin. "Whilst I look up to most people (ahem) there are some true pioneers, past and present of the Pro Street movement, the likes of Larry Larson, Tony Christian, Annette Summer, Mike Moran, Pat Musi and ace commentator Al Tucci.

"We like to think we've contributed in some small way to Pro Street here in the UK and what we've achieved along the way is testament to our hard work and joint team effort. We love to entertain the crowds and we're always grateful for the continued interest and support we receive. But it's special thanks to Clive Bond, Luke Robinson, our Brian, Steve Clark at Nimbus Motorsport, and of course Bradley (my greatest critic). Also to Ann-Marie for the team management and head chef Jax for keeping the top notch food, teas and coffees flowing freely.

"For 2013 we have nothing left to prove using the full block tread tyre and it's now time for change. The team will announce soon enough on Eurodragster.com what lies ahead."

Please see News FAQ 16 - Ed

Web site updates.
19th September: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, Santa Pod Raceway Track Announcer Colin Theobald reflects upon a week at the drags. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Also reviewing the FIA European Finals is the latest issue of the Speedgroup Newsletter which also includes points, records, a chat with UEM European Top Fuel Bike Champion Ian King, a review of the Mosten Race Days, Eurodragster.com Editor's Diary and more. You can check it all out at club.speedgroup.eu.

Our good friend Alan Currans has been busy with two updates on his excellent Acceleration Archive. Alan has posted a page of pictures from Dennis Priddle's fortieth anniversary celebration of the first six-second pass outside of the USA, as well as a page of shots from the weekend's Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway. In both cases the quickest route is via the What's New? link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk.

UK National Championship outcomes.
18th September: Thanks to our very own Simon who has looked at the possible outcomes in those UK Championship classes to be decided at this weekend's VP Racing Fuels National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway:

With only two of six full UK National Championship races completed so far this year, this has been one of the most weather-affected UK Championships ever. However, competitor numbers have held up well and another large entry will be taking part in the VP Racing Fuels National Finals where car classes and Top Fuel Bike championships will be decided.

In the MSA British Pro Modified Championship, Roger Moore's consistency over Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis' outright performance gained Roger the Championship lead at the FIA European Finals. With Graham having withdrawn after failing to find a new block at short notice following damage at the FIA European Finals, and Bruno Bader and Eurodragster.com blogger Andy Frost not attending (the latter also due to damage), the Championship is decided.

The Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association is led by Nick Davies in Lawrie Gatehouse's Chaos Topolino and impressive runs of 6.3-6.4s in the rebodied machine have consololidated Nick's lead. Terri-Ann White is set to assume runner-up position, being only 30 points behind Adam Gleadow's Motor Psycho entry which will not be competing due to a destroyed engine.

Super Modified is led by Belinda Bull who is a mere 20 points ahead of class stalwart Andy 'Fred' Hone and this Championship will be between these two as other contestant Rob Elsom is behind by a further 340 points.

By winning Super Comp at the FIA European Finals, Brian Pateman's Championship is clinched as he has an unsurmountable lead of 880 points over second-placed Pete Cresswell. Congratulations to Brian, who won the SPRC Summernationals, the only other completed UK National Championship race in 2012. Pete's second place is 370 points clear of Team V4.0 (aka Martin Curbishley) who will need to qualify at least as well as Pete and go two rounds further to gain runner-up position. Super Gas is currently led by Pete Cresswell and this is a tight points battle. Stuart Doignie and Brian Pateman are both 90 points adrift of Pete with Team Tokyo Toy (Steve Dunn and Jon Evans) a further 220 points back. Stuart, Brian and Tokyo Toy are all eligible for the 100 points for attending all rounds, unlike Pete. With twelve cars entered, there are 810 points on the table (including 50 points for a Perfect ET). Congratulations to Super Street racer Leigh Morris who is provisional Champion with a margin of 800 points over second place Billy Gane, there being 660 points available. This is Lee's fourth National Championship and his second in a row. Billy is only 30 points ahead of Dave Cherrett so second place is far from being decided.

Super Pro ET is led by Scott Hauser in the Eurodragster.com sponsor Hauser Racing dragster. Consistent performances have helped, but second placed Jack Brewster has attended all races and so will be eligible for the 200 point bonus unlike Scott who missed the Springspeed Nationals. A field of eighteen cars means that 920 points are up for grabs and team Time is Money (John and Tom Atkinson) and Dave Catton could gain positions if Scott or Jack have problems. Pro ET is led by Paul Brown who has a 290 point advantage over Team Dark Horse (Lee and Brian Huxley) with Paul Marston only forty points further back. A twenty five car entry means there are 990 points on the table and we would expect this Championship, like Super Pro, to be decided in the latter stages of eliminations. Sportsman ET is led by Craig Wright who has a 210 point lead over Nigel Hale. Nigel needs to go a couple of rounds further than Craig to overcome this advantage.

The Lucas Oil Junior Dragster Championship is led by 2011 Champion Joe Kellett who has a 440 point lead over Stacey Reed. Eurodragster.com sponsor Alamo/R2B2 Racing's Paige Wheeler is a further 40 points behind. Stacey may be more concerned about Paige going one round further and taking second place than hoping for Joe to unexpectedly go out early. Incidentally, if Joe wins, he will be the first racer in the history of the class to win back-to-back Championships.

Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator has had a great year with plenty of new cars, Personal Bests and drama. The Championship hopes of Brian Payne took a huge boost at the FIA European Finals with his event victory, which moved Mark Todd into second place with a 160 point deficit. By not attending Bug Jam, Mark will not have the benefit of the 200 point bonus for atending all events and so he now needs to qualify well and go two rounds the event with Brian going out early to have a realistic chance of the Championship. If Mark has difficulties, Eurodragster.com sponsor Jon Webster who is 190 points further back may grab the runner up position. There are 620 points available.

VW Pro is led by James Hodson who is 100 points ahead of Paul Herbert and the Championship will be between these two as Sam Young is unable to attend. VW Sportsman is between leader Dean Clatworthy, James London and VWDRC Chair Luke Stevenson - Dean has a 170 point lead over James and 210 over Luke.

Outlaw Anglia is not being contested at the National Finals as its final round was at SCR's Hot Rod Drags this past weekend. Congratulations to Cliff Griffin who has won the Championship for the third consecutive year.

In ACU Top Fuel Bike the Championship is between UEM European Champion Ian King (175 points) and Rene van den Berg (130 points) as other contenders are nursing broken parts following the FIA European Finals. We are sure that Ian and Rene will make it a good race for the Championship and would encourage readers to make the trip to Santa Pod Raceway to see them, and all the other classes.

Swift snippets.
18th September: With the exception of Top Fuel Bike the ACU UK National Drag Bike Championships have one more round to contest after the VP Racing Fuels National Finals (together with 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike and the NAST) and you can catch up with the current ACU UK points on the King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com. Ian King asked us to say Thank You to our own Simon for timing sheets and adds that Junior Drag Bike points will be updated when he receives the paperwork.

National Finals Perfect Awards.
18th September: This weekend's VP Racing Fuels National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway is the latest event in the 2012 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards scheme. £100 is on offer for perfect performance.

Racers please note that decals are mandatory for both Perfect Awards this season.

This weekend's Eurodragster.com / ModUrStang Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Pro ET racer Gino Bernadine at the FIA European Finals. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available all to racers in all classes during qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £75 for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend; 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 vehicle modification specialist ModUrStang. For more details about the services which ModUrStang can provide see Mike Lacey in the Pro ET pits at any race or visit www.modurstang.co.uk.

This weekend's Eurodragster.com / Gold RV Perfect ET Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Super Pro ET racer Scott Hauser at the FIA European Finals. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to run to the thousandth on their dial-in or index during qualifying or eliminations. The Perfect ET Award is available this weekend in Super Pro ET, Pro ET Sportsman ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster (eliminations only), VW Pro, VW Sportsman, the Wild Bunch, 8.50 Bike, 9.50 Bike, Supertwin ET and Junior Drag Bike, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Run of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £75 for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend; 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. For more details about the services which Gold RV can provide visit www.goldrv.co.uk.

To be eligible to collect either Perfect Award, racers are required to carry decals, one on each side of the vehicle. If you pull this weekend's first Perfect Light or 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 Light or Perfect ET will get the money assuming that they are carrying decals. ModUrStang and Gold RV decals are available in Signing On.

National Finals racer arrangements.
17th September: Many thanks to Paula and Ian Marshall of Santa Pod Racers Club for forwarding us details of the arrangements for this weekend's VP Racing Fuels National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway:

Santa Pod Raceway's gates open at 12:00 midday this Friday (21st).

The signing-on office opens at 13:00 on Friday.

Car scrutineering commences at 14:00 on Friday and bike scrutineering (all classes) at 16:00 on Friday.

Saturday's provisional running order is now available and can be viewed by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the VP Racing Fuels National Finals. Please note that this running order is provisional and subject to change due to weather or track conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by race officials.

The final official entry list is available and can also be viewed by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the VP Racing Fuels National Finals.

The screech of metal on salt.
17th September: UK Funny Bike racer Steve French has been in touch to let us know how the Speedflow- and Transdev-sponsored supercharged Triumph 750 twin, campaigned by himself, Dave Branch and Baz Rathbone, fared at Bonneville Speed Week:

The bike performed as expected and on the first run exceeded the existing record by some 41 mph, showing the performance we expected was indeed there. It ran an average of 129 mph on half throttle in mile two. However, during the run the rotors in the supercharger ran way too hot and started to pick up in the housing and within minutes had seized completely, stopping the engine. A strip-down in the pits revealed that every lobe on the supercharger had been damaged beyond repair. Several offers of help were made but the damage was too much. Likewise a replacement could not be obtained and most importantly we were unsure at the time why the failure occurred in the first place, although we know now. Not wanting to destroy another, we decided that was it for this year.

The bike had shown its potential and the entire run was captured for a BBC documentary. The on-board camera audio reveals a sickening squeal under the engine note which is the sound of tortured aluminium in the supercharger. Dave can pull some funny faces when noises like that are heard.

After rebuilding the bike back into a complete but non-functioning unit we continued with photo and documentary sessions and then helped the others to make the most of their own Bonneville rides whilst we thought about 2013.

We have already started the redesign with a new Rotrex supercharger from TTS and offers of a spare. The moment the bike arrives back in the UK we start work. We thank all those companies and individuals who came on board with spares and support and we hope that the BBC documentary shows your products well. However, I do not feel we delivered sufficient coverage or a speed record for the support you provided and as such we will leave the stickers where they are to promote you again next year.

Thanks to Graham at GSign, John at JH Bike Spares, Morgo, Richard at Rock Oil, Fay at Speedflow and Ian at Transmission Developments.

We will be back for 2013, the hotel is already booked.

Johansson's last race.
17th September: The FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway was the last race for Top Methanol Dragster legend and British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Krister Johansson:

1972-2012, that is forty years of racing, and what a race that has been. Many downs but many ups also. Many hard-to-beat racers. Overall I think for the means we had we did OK. For that you need a team, I tried to wear them out and I almost succeeded. Thanks to my team. You also need sponsors; I have never had a major sponsor, but small sponsors are so important too. Thanks Amalie Oil, Vargöns Mekaniska (darn best machine shop in town) and their team members.

I hope that Top Methanol Dragster will still be that strong and friendly class that it once was, and that I can be part of it in some way. My last run was against Chris Polidano and I don't mind losing to a great driver. And with two A/Fuel dragsters on the track, that was great.

Thanks to the track crews, spectators, sponsors, and again my team.

Finals thanks.
17th September: A very welcome visitor to the FIA European Finals was former Pro Comp racer Tim Claxton who was the winner of one of the most memorable and popular Pro Comp races ever in the Wheeldon and Claxton dragster at the 1979 World Series at Santa Pod Raceway. Tim has been in touch to thank everyone who made his Saturday a memorable one:

Having retired thirty one years previously you don't expect anyone to either remember, or to give a damn! But no, I was made to feel welcome at Santa Pod, and even a spell on the microphone when the A/Fuel and blown methanol dragsters were trying to qualify. I still love and support the sport, but not just for the racing. We are a special breed. Mental. Yes, spending all our money to spend less time on the strip, but special.

Thanks to Tog (Welcome, sir - Ed) and Colin Theobald, and a final farewell to Krister. The old guard are nearly all gone, leaving a legacy. Mind you it's about time Grumpy retired! Here's to the next time.

Former VW racer and Outlaw Flat Four member Neil Davies writes in his capacity as a Design and Technology teacher about his students' visit to the FIA European Finals. "On behalf of the students from the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths group from Ormiston Forge Academy in the West Midlands, I'd like to offer a huge thank you to everyone who made Thursday at the European Finals such a great experience.

"To Santa Pod for sorting out the tickets for us as such short notice, Emily at the Institute of the Motor Industry for giving the talk to our school group, to Eurodragster.com for the webcam footage on Friday which showed the others what they'd missed (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed), and most of all to the racers and crew to whom we spoke and who were more than happy to chat to the students, and for racing for our entertainment.

"The kids have seen photos of my old race car on my classroom wall, and some videos on YouTube, but nothing prepared them for the experience of live racing! I think we've hooked a few - they've already asked when they can go back! Quote of the day: "That race fuel stuff smells fantastic!" which was from Lauren of Year 10!"

Contingency congratulations.
17th September: Owen Developments and MoTeC have been in touch to congratulate the 2012 FIA European Finals winners of their contingency sponsorship programme: Micke Gullqvist in Pro Modified, Brian Payne in Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator, and Steve Venables in Super Street Bike.

Owen Developments' Director of Motorsport Mark Harrison said "Owen Developments, in partnership with MoTeC, are very happy to be involved in the 2012 UK National Drag Racing Championship contingency sponsorship programme. There have been some fantastic performances in all of the classes we support, and we are particularly proud to be the first team in the history of Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator to break the 200 mph barrier with Richard Billings' and Al Cook's Mustang which is supported by Owens, and of course to take both ends of the class record at the same event was some achievement for the team and for MoTeC Europe.

"We are looking forward to safe, quick and fast racing for all of the competitors for the final round at the National Finals - we will see you there."

Charman's Finals.
17th September: UK Pro Stock Bike racer Kev Charman has been in touch with a report of his weekend at the FIA European Finals, at which he was riding Richard Gipp's PSB:

Q1: Straight out of the trailer, first round, on a bye, 7.87/167.9, and a 1.23 sixty foot. This was not a bad starting run for me, and had me at number one qualifier for at least thirty seconds! The bike is still not sixty footing, and the datalogger is not helping by showing corrupt data. At present we are trying to tune the bike by what I feel and what Gipp and Chris see. Back to pits, serviced the bike and made a few tiny changes to help me and the bike hopefully get some better sixties.

Q2: Left lane against Elvira Karlsson. My Reaction Time was not as good as the first, launched OK, but the motor was smoking, which we initially thought was the rocker cover. Shifted into second gear, and realised that I did not have the bike on full throttle - my bad! Back on full throttle for the rest of the run, cursing myself under my helmet all the way. Back to the pits, and decided that we would need to go right through the motor to find what was causing the smoke, and where we thought what must be a leak was. We needed to find exactly where.

Q3: We missed this qualifier, the first one on Saturday, as we were still working on the bike, making doubly sure that we had cured the leak.

Q4: Leak cured, and another bye. A good reaction, still lacking on the sixty foots, happy no mechanical problems, but no improvement as I ran another 7.8 and still struggled to improve as the data logger was still acting up.

In Sunday's first round of eliminations I had Fredrik Fredlund. This was going to be an uphill race! Fredde had been running pretty consistant 7.1s most of the weekend, a very good racer, with much more experience than me in this Pro Stock malarky - but I would give it my best shot! I got away first with an .05 to his .08, but after that it was all Fredde! Many congratulations to him on the event win, and the Number One plate in the 2012 European Pro Stock Bike Championship. As for us? Still no bloody data! So home we went.

Thanks to the team: Richard Gipp and Nigel Sadler, my Crew Chief Chris Pyke, and my other half Lizzy. Thanks also to our sponsors Richard Stevens at MPM Oil UK, Doug at Ensys and Steve at Motorshack. We must also thank Eurodragster.com for the data, and the commentators Daryl and Colin who do an awesome job!

Now we are getting organised for the National Finals which is back at Santa Pod this weekend. We have all three of the team out for this one. Myself in Pro Stock Bike, Lizzy will be in Comp Bike - we are in the process of getting her motor built up now that all the parts are back - and Jake in Junior Drag bike. We have not attempted all three of us racing at the same time - this will be one to watch!

King's sixth crown.
Courtesy and ©Andy Willsheer

17th September: Gulf Oil – Grand Prix Originals Top Fuel Bike racer Ian King secured the 2012 UEM European Drag Racing Championship crown in style at the final round of the Championship at Santa Pod, UK last weekend, a record-breaking sixth in eleven years.

Despite leading the points table from the very start of the Championship to the finish there was an exceptionally tight group of riders at the top of the points leaderboard going into this final event. Europe's most successful Top Fuel Bike team only needed to win one elimination round to secure an unprecedented sixth European Championship but despite qualifying in a solid final number two position, elimination round one was to prove a tense affair for the team mindful of their early exit due to an electrical part malfunction at the previous round in Sweden. However, King made sure the title was his after blasting down the track to overcome Czech rider Otto Knebl to progress into the semi-finals where he was due to enjoy a solo bye run for the final after his planned opponent was a no show due to breakage.

The much-anticipated final between Swedish world record holder (and number one qualifier) Peter Svensson and King took place in glorious sunshine in front of a huge crowd of over 30,000, many willing the home rider to prevail. And it proved a fitting finale for the team and their fans when the tension got the better of the Swedish class veteran who redlit away his chance to win by leaving over 0.2 seconds before the green light. In any case, King's reaction of 0.02 secs. coupled with a quicker Elapsed Time meant the race would have been his anyhow without the benefit of the red light by his opponent.

Courtesy and ©Rose Hughes

King said "We always knew the season was going to be a particularly challenging one, the bike sporting so many new innovations is still under development, our competition have been stepping up their performances, and a grueling six events across four countries lay ahead. After a great start at the opening round with a win it seemed that we were to be the form team, but a succession of rain-affected events and the unfortunate first round loss in Sweden meant our lead was hardly increased from one event to another.

"However, our consistency and reliability were key, we won three of the five counting events, and finished runner-up in another with the first round loss in Sweden a few weeks ago the only real negative. With some smart tuning and tactical riding at critical moments the team's efforts were duly rewarded in maintaining our position on top of the table throughout the season".

"Firstly I'd like to thank my talented and hard working operational team of Debbie, Gerard, Marius, Martin, Michael and Nick, and most importantly my support team of Gulf Oil and Grand Prix Originals and their affiliates across the globe along with our fantastic associate product sponsors for their unwavering support and world leading products. This combined team effort is the sole reason we were able to clinch this unprecedented sixth title."

The team travel back to Santa Pod this weekend to take part in the final round of the ACU UK Drag Bike Championship in which they also hold the points lead, looking to make this a dream year for the Gulf Oil – Grand Prix Originals bike.

For more information on the European Championships visit www.speedgroup.eu, and for more information about King Racing visit www.kingracing.com.

The team is extremely proud to be supported by many leaders in their chosen markets in their challenge for the 2012 European Championship:

APE - The world's most innovative manufacturer of aftermarket parts for drag bikes
Action Cameras - Europe's leading source for action sports cameras
Cometic Gaskets - The premier manufacturer of racing gaskets
Bell Helmets - The ultimate iconic helmet brand
Gates - The world's most trusted name in drive belts, hoses and hydraulics
Goodridge - The original and the best in fluid transfer systems
Grand Prix Originals - The brand for drive and lifestyle, past and present
Gulf Oil International - The world's most iconic brand in automotive fuels and lubricants
Hyperpro - The leading producer of progressive suspension products for motor bikes
JE Pistons - The world's premier manufacturer of high performance forged pistons
Kent Cams - Specialists in motor sport camshaft manufacture, short runs and one-offs
Kibblewhite Precision Machining, Inc -The highest quality valve train components on the market
King Racing - The most successful Top Fuel Bike team in European drag racing history
Mickey Thompson Tyres - Simply the best drag race tyres in the world
MRE - Leaders in trackside support for drag race components and air shifting systems
MTC Engineering - Manufacturer of clutches for the fastest motorcycles in the world
NitroShutter - Europe's leading drag racing photo-journalists
NCT Engineering - Manufacturer of the world's leading non contact torque sensors for motorsport
NGK Spark Plugs UK - The world's number one spark plug manufacturer
Pär Willen - Master webmeister and proprietor of HarleyDrags.com
Portable Shade - The best custom branded collapsible canopies available
Pro Alloy Motorsport - UK's leader in fabrication of alloy racing tanks, intercoolers and radiators
Puma Engineering - Manufacturers of the world's most powerful motorcycle engines
RSG Customize - The UK's most creative website designers and vinyl artists
Vanson Leathers - The most iconic brand in motorsport leather goods
Worldwide Bearings - The world's leading supplier of ceramic bearings for racing
Zodiac - Europe's largest supplier of performance and aftermarket HD parts

Swift snippets.
17th September: 14:00 As if there was not enough to enjoy at this week's VP Racing Fuels National Finals, the UK's Laurie Bamford plans to complete his licencing in one of Rune Fjeld's Top Fuel Dragsters. We understand that although Laurie only has one run left to make to get his licence signed off he has a cunning (and provisional) plan to make additional passes.

Ex-pat UK Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences and the Shredder team are preparing for this week's NHRA National event in Dallas. "Despite various successes with our Indy passes we just didn't get the car to go quick enough so we are freshening up the motor and making a few tweaks", says Mike. "We would very much like to get into the top half of the field. Derek Flynn dropped by to see us in Indy; it's always a pleasure to see some of my fellow countrymen and women". There you go folks, if you're headed for Dallas then be sure to go to say Hi to Mike.

Dave Stamper aka Mr Bonehead says that he has repainted and polished the late 1980s ex-Harry Barlow RD 430 drag bike which he now owns. "I have been busy renovating my farmhouse in France this year", says Dave. "I am hoping to get over to Shakespeare County Raceway in 2013 to get in a few runs with the NAST. I would like to thank Martin Holgate and Ian Armitage for all their help, but especially the wife for buying the bike for me for Christmas."

Top Gas Round 6 review.

17th September: Herman Jolink has been in touch with a review of the sixth round of the European Top Gas Series which recently took place at the 19th Mosten Race Days, near Randers in Denmark:

MC Mosten organised this sprint over the eighth mile in combination with a motorcycle meeting with a lot of live music. There were five thousand visitors. The strip is a closed road in farmland the middle of nowhere. The strip is very well-prepared by Holger Dueholm and the MC Mosten Team. There were 200 riders in the bike classes and about thirty drivers in the car classes.

Top Gas after five runs:

Ulf Ögge S on 2622 V-Twin 4.583/243 kmh
Anna Lena Asplund S on 2600 V-Twin 4.972/218
Janne Gustavsson S on 2600 V-Twin 5.050/217
Milan Kolacny CZ on Blower Honda 1000 SP 5.224/219. Kolacny made two runs, 5.2 and 5.3.
Jan Malmberg S on 2622 two Blower V-Twin 5.240/209
Herman Jolink NL on Ducati 1198 RS (1266) 5.243/211. Jolink made three runs of 5.3 and two runs of 5.2.
Chris van Nimmen B on 2600 V-Twin 5.527/194. In the last qualifying run van Nimmen touched the right guardrail but the exhaust pipes were on the right so that meant that van Nimmen just got a bruised arm.
Fredrik Schack DK on 2000 V-Twin (ex-Ögge bike) 5.690/178. OK at his first race on this bike.
Christian Bruhn D on Ducati 999 6.076/181
Mats Larsson DK on 2622 Turbo V-Twin 6.102/182. A lot of problems finding the right set-up but now the bike is going better.
Peter Niklas D on Turbo Honda 1000 SP 6.206/144
Dale Jone DK on 1966 V-Twin 10.680/144

Bernd Niessen D was not there as he damaged his engine badly at Hockenheim. Simon Lewis D engine needed some new parts. Harry van Schie NL also damaged cylinder heads at Drachten the engine was not ready.

Top Gas Championship:

Milan Kolacny CZ 2010
Herman Jolink 1805
Chris van Nimmen B 1050
Simon Lewis D 990
Harry van Schie NL 910
Peter Niklas D 860
Bernd Niessen D 400

The other riders competing at Mosten were not participating in the Championship. The final round of Top Gas takes place at the Dutch Finals at Drachten on 5th-7th October.

Flamholc's busy fortnight.
17th September: Swedish Pro Modified racer Adam Flamholc had a busy fortnight on his last trip to the USA with ups and downs in NHRA and ADRL competition:

On the first weekend in Indianapolis it rained pretty much all the time and we only made one qualifying run. On that run the fuel shut off closed so we leaned out the motor and destroyed a couple of pistons. We had a new motor from JanCen (Mike Janis Racing) in the trailer, so that one took its place in the car before we went to Gateway Raceway in St Louis for a test-session. Again it rained, so we only made two hits which didn't gave us much information.

The Friday in Memphis was very hot and humid (almost 100 F), we made two runs and were number one qualifier with a 3.97 in the heat! The first elimination round was against Rickie Stivers, I left the line first and won with a 3.95 run against his 3.93s. In the semi-final we faced Pat Musi. Last time we were up against each other he won by 0.008 seconds. I was very motivated and really wanted to win this race. I left the line first and won with a 3.94 run to his 3.97. We where now in the final for the first time in ADRL! Unfortunately our rear end gave up in the final against Todd Tutterow. He made a solid 3.90 run and won the event, very well deserved!

We got a call from NHRA on the Saturday morning. They wondered if we could be in Indianapolis for round one in the US Nationals at 09:00 the next morning. We sad yes! After the final in Memphis we loaded up the car (with the bad rearend) and left the track just after midnight. We drove the five hundred mile in less than eight hours. When we arrived in Indy we took out the car, changed the third member in the rear end, changed the driveshaft, warmed it up and hurried up for round one. I lost against Troy Coughlin, but we made a beautiful run! Went 6.00 to his 5.96. We were the fastest blower car of the round.

Now it's time to work hard in the shop and to spend time with our families before the next event in Norwalk in two weeks.

I'm very pleased with the motor from JanCen, and also very satisfied with my G-Force built racecar which works extremely well. I'm also happy and proud to annonce that our sponsors Amalie Oil, Autoshop and Cleanpipes have signed on for another year with Flamholc Racing. I hope and believe that we have some more sponsor news coming very soon, so that we will be able to continue this adventure in the USA next year as well.

A first time for everything!
17th September: UK Comp Bike racer Phil Crossley returned to the track at the Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway after three months of work to get his engine back in a race-ready state with a lot of help from other people:

Finally, just a week before the Open Sport Nationals, the motor was finished. We fired the bike up and were happy enough with it to declare it ready for action, and so a few days later we headed off to Shakespeare County Raceway. Saturday began quite wet but started to dry out, and by midday some classes managed to get down the track, however we weren't one of them - although we did get close. We made it to the end of the pairing lanes when it started to rain so everyone was sent back to the pits. Just one hour later we were called again and this time we actually made it to the burnout box. We were just about to start the engine when it started to rain again, and we just made it back to the pits before the heavens really opened. It rained so hard our gazebo (which has never leaked a drop before) was leaking from every stitch, and the pits were two or three inches deep in standing water at one point.

Sunday morning brought much better weather and we made the full schedule of three runs. The set-up in the bike was the safest we have ever tried, tiny nitrous and fuel jets, lots of timing out, and a build time that would last the full run. The objective being to give the engine (and new parts) an easy time, whilst still trying to qualify reasonably well. On the first run the bike left well but was drifting to the left and the logger shows I had to roll the throttle slightly on three separate occasions. The time however was a pretty good: an 8.18, not perfect but enough to make number one qualifier. We made no changes for the second run but the bike still drifted left and most of the run was spent at half throttle, It was a disappointing but still in one piece 8.7.

We saved the best for last. On the last run we adjusted the chassis to try to stop it going left, and sure enough it went arrow straight and was a very smooth run. We were more than rewarded for our efforts as it netted us our first and long-awaited seven-second run – an incredible 7.931/164. And to top it off, we were still number one qualifier.

The weather forecast for Monday's eliminations didn't look good, and sure enough it kept raining on and off which caused delays, but despite the odds and with the hard work of the track crew racing got underway and eventually Comp Bike was called. The pairings for the first round were: Phil Leamon v Alan Davies, Tony Clarke v Harold Wolfenden, and Nick Milburn v myself. Phil Leamon won in an incredibly close race against Alan Davies, Harold won the race against Tony Clarke, Tony did get away first but had a large wheelie to contend with and started drifting so eventually had to back off, letting Harold come through for the win. I went for the left lane in our match-up with Nick Milburn, and once again the bike wanted to drift to the left and I got closer to the wall than I would have liked. Luckily for us Nick was also having problems and veered towards the centre line so wildly that he had to get off the throttle completely, leaving us to cross the line first.

In the semi-finals Phil Leamon was to face Harold Wolfenden, and because it was a six-bike ladder we had a bye run – something we have never experienced before! Phil Leamon beat Harold Wolfenden in the next round, and we made the decision not to run on our own so just went to the line to take a green light and break the beams - putting us automatically through to the final - our first final ever, and another one of our goals for this year!

It was all set for an all-Phil final and we got as close as being called when it started to rain again, and eventually the meeting was called. So, technically, we made it to the final but we have still never actually run in a final! Due to missing the Summernationals we're still placed third in the ACU points. The gap has closed a little due to qualifying position and points for low ET, and there are still two rounds left. So we will see what we can do to take back the lead!

Thanks go to Stuart Kenny for crewing, getting the bike ready between rounds, and putting gazebos up and down in the rain; Roger Upperton for most of the repairs to broken parts; Vik and Arge for use of their cellar and electronic upgrades; Stu Crane and the folks at Warpspeed Racing; and to all the folks at Shakespeare County Raceway who provided a great track and an almost complete event!

Volksfest goes north.
17th September: Pennine Drag Racing Club Chair Al Perkins has been in touch to inform PDRC Championship racers that the remaining rounds of eliminations from the previous rained-off event will be run at York Raceway's Viking Volksfest this Saturday, 22nd September. Sunday will be a full round of qualifying and eliminations for what will be the Championship decider.

Viking Volksfest is the north of England's fastest-growing VW event. The move to York Raceway will help the event expand with far more attractions than ever before. Not only will the event host its usual two evenings of live bands from the likes of The Karma Hearts, The Pepper Hearts, The Sex Pistols Experience, Fireball and Mark Simpson and Oz plays Paul Weller and The Jam Unplugged, but there will be the usual trade stands such as Mad Tattoos Water Zorbs, Kindred Café, GB Vintage Clothing plus many more and not forgetting the show and shine.

This year the Viking Volksfest can also boast two days of track entertainment from some of UK's fastest race cars. There will be an epic battle of VW v American muscle. Both groups have a long and deep-routed rivalry which extends from the early days of drag racing, and for the first time they will come head to head to fight it out once and for all who is better on the quarter mile. There will also be two days of Run What You've Brung, your chance to put your vehicle up against York Raceway's world-class timing equipment, and York is the only drag strip that can give you precise 0-60 times as well.

As if that wasn't enough, Viking Volksfest for the first time ever will have car-crushing action from the UK's leading monster truck team Big Pete which features two monster trucks, Big Pete - the daddy of all monster trucks, heavy and tough and the world's only 'Real Monster Truck' which will defy physics as it jumps in to the air and destroys all in its path - and the Grim Reaper, the new breed of lightweight racing Monster Truck, the 2010 UK freestyle number two and 2011 racing number two. And if you still want more, the crushing of cars will be finished of by Armorgeddon combination of half tank and half monster truck which is powered by two 1500 horsepower drag racing engines, that is a total of 3000 horsepower in this awesome machine.

And finally, back for the first time in twenty years, Rocket Ronnie Picardo will bringing his wheelie split-screen Camper Blue Split. A classic split-screen camper doing wheelies, this has got to be seen to believed, and a first for northerners.

For regular updates about the Viking Volksfest visit www.yorkraceway.org.uk and www.vikingvolks.co.uk or check out the official York Raceway Facebook page.

Web site updates.
17th September: If you are of a mechanical bent then Neil Ward of the UK's NW Racing Wild Bunch team has posted an interesting Blog entry about cam timing on his web site at nwracing.wordpress.com.

John Przybyl got to us first with a gallery from the weekend's NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can check out John's pictures at multicapturephotography.zenfolio.com.

Just another day at Oakley HQ...
16th September: Swedish Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren has been in touch to let us know about a video which shows us what he says is just another day at the headquarters of sponsor Oakley.

"Oakley do all kind off cool stuff to boost their image and to innovate in every area", says Michael. "Watch this cool video of the Derby of Doom, the race to end all races, at www.vimeo.com/48931587! The Oakley team came in second fastest overall with Factory Pilot Sheldon O'Connell behind the wheel.

"At the FIA European Finals I honoured the longtime support from Oakley with the big O on both sides on the car. We are pleased with our fourth place in the Championship considering that the top three raced at the FIA Main Event whils the rest of Pro Stock stayed home. But we are not satisfied with the number four on the car, so we are working on some stuff for 2013 that's for sure."

Swift snippets.
16th September: Malta Drag Racing Association Secretary Jason Camilleri tells us that Manty Bugeja's FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Championship has gained Manty, Joe Carabott and the Mr Whippy team a huge amount of coverage on Malta including in the Times of Malta, Maltasport.com, Pierre Vella Grand Prix, INewsMalta.com, and the Times of Malta again. "The sport has had a boost in the media and now the authorities are interested in upgrading our track to hold an FIA race", says Jason. "We are hoping for the best."

Courtesy and ©Nick Ranson

Bill Macdermind of Eurodragster.com sponsor Topspeed Automotive had a great weekend in Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator at the FIA European Finals running a PB on block treaded tyres of 8.57/168. Bill tells us that Topspeed Automotive have hugely increased their range of speed performance, standard American and early classic truck parts and that stock in increasing with twice-monthly airfreight. "The best way to view our latest stock would be to check out our eBay shop and if you don't see the parts you need then call the shop on 01932 341700 or 07720 678147", says Bill.

The organisers of the Mopar Euro Nationals are to launch a free E-Mail newsletter featuring contributions by regular and new participants, show reports and photos, winners' drives, competitions, previews of upcoming events and more. Everyone who signs up for the newsletter before 1st December will be entered into a prize draw for two tickets to next year's event. To sign up, click on Newsletter Registration at www.mopareuronats.com.

Eurodragster.com's Alamo Rent A Car-sponsored event coverage of FIA European Finals week attracted a grand total of 111,756 unique visits, 527,224 page views and 6,979,079 hits. Many thanks to everyone who tuned in, to the staff of Santa Pod Raceway for facilities, to the race officials for their help, to the racers for giving us so much write about, and to Alamo Rent A Car, Webster Race Engineering, Nimbus Motorsport and Doyousee.me for their support.

Steve Dudley tells us that the first slot drags of the new season at MrD Raceway will take place at 8:00 pm on Friday 28th September at The Cathedral Primary School, Victoria Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1PA. "There is a small car park in the school grounds which should be able to accommodate us all", says Steve. Entry and racing are free, all we ask is that you make a donation of a couple of pounds to help toward the hire of the hall, although it's not obligatory".

Web site updates.
16th September: Mark Skinner has updated his Flickr gallery with pictures from the pre-FIA European Finals test days and the race itself. You can check out Mark's pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/fast_n_bulbous.

The Mad Welshman has also updated his Flickr gallery with pictures from the pre-FIA European Finals Run What You Brung and VW Action as well as from the race. You can check out Mad's pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/the_madwelshman.

Editor's note: A number of perceptive readers have been in touch having noticed that something has been amiss in the last few days. To those readers, thanks for your concern. We can't go into details but please be assured that the staff are all OK. We are currently working on our news backlog and there will be a rather large update tomorrow.

Swift snippets.
15th September: Many thanks to Yvonne Tramm and our very own Simon for passing us the post-FIA European Finals points standings in the UK National Drag Racing Championships. Additional thanks to Yvonne for also passing us the latest standings in the Santa Pod Racers Club Championships. You can check out the UK and SPRC points on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Speedflow Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Web site updates.
15th September: In the latest instalment of her exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car, UK Junior Dragster racer Paige Wheeler recounts her recent racing trip to the USA. In his latest update, fellow Eurodragster.com Blogger Luke Bennett writes of recent promotional outings. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Event entry update.
13th September: Thanks to Paula and Ian Marshall for forwarding Version 2 of the official entry list for the VP Racing Fuels National Finals which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on Saturday and Sunday week, 22nd-23rd 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 VP Racing Fuels National Finals. If you are quick then entry is still open for this event but a Late Entry penalty will be applied. You can download the entry form from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc.

Entry is still open for the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend, the final round of the ACU UK Drag Bike Championships with the exception of Top Fuel Bike, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 6th-7th October. Again you can download the entry form from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc.

Two legends for a late classic.
13th September: Nick Osgathorp writes that yesterday's spy picture shows the driver of his Excalibur nitro slingshot, an ongoing labour of love which made a static début at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags in 2008:

Since then, the project has had to take a bit of a back seat whilst a few of life's little problems got in the way, but we're back - and back with a vengeance!

Sue and I are extremely pleased and very proud to announce that Crazy Chris Hartnell and Nobby Hills will be joining the Excalibur team as driver and Crew Chief / tuner respectively. Chris is well known to all race fans as owner and driver of the beautiful Backdraft dragster which he races in the Wild Bunch and Super Pro ET classes. It'll be a steep learning curve for him stepping up to nitro but we're 100% positive that he'll take it in his stride - being the consummate racer that he is! I've known Chris for many years now and I can honestly say that there is no-one who I would trust more than him behind the wheel of Excalibur.

There's not much I can add to what has already been said about the legend who is Nobby Hills. With his string of Houndog dragsters, Funny Cars and altereds featuring in a successful racing career stretching back well over forty years, his expertise in building and tuning nitro-burning cars is well-proven to say the least! A member of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame and one of the very few members of SEMA this side of the Atlantic, Nobby is a true professional in every sense of the word.

Joining us in the Super Crew will be Simon Hayward (son of former Houndog pilot Owen Hayward), Mark Hartnell and Pete Rivers who will all be bringing their own individual skills to the party and, of course, Chris' partner Claire.

Work is already underway to get Excalibur back to a race-ready condition. The Donovan motor is currently in the hands of Nobby and Simon getting a freshen-up and there are a couple of minor jobs on the chassis which Nobby will be undertaking to bring it up to his exacting standards before testing can begin in earnest, ready for a full season's racing next year. Roll on 2013 - we can't wait!

Our web site is currently having a bit of a refurb to bring it up to date but, in the meantime, if you'd like to contact us you can E-Mail us at hemiheaven@aol.co.uk.

At this point I'd like to say a huge thank you to our latest sponsors who are helping to make this possible:

Speedflow: A leading supplier of high performance automotive plumbing parts and accessories. Why buy from the USA when you can get the highest quality hoses and fittings right here in the UK? Superb customer service too!

DS Racewear: For all your top quality racewear and safety equipment including suits, boots, harnesses, helmets and accessories.

Peter Walters Race Design: Pete specialises in the most awesome race car paint schemes and designs, and can also accommodate all your tee shirt or hero card requirements and much, much more. You'll have seen his designs on many of the top European cars and the quality speaks for itself.

Richard Walters Custom Paint: Rich's painting skills are second to none and his eyeball-popping paintjobs adorn some of the very best race cars around. Truly amazing!

Scottie's Vehicle Transportation: If you want your classic car, rod or custom moving then Scottie is your man. As a rodder, racer and classic car owner himself, Scottie knows how to treat your pride and joy with all the care it deserves.

CT Services / Mac Tools: Mac Tools have a well-deserved reputation for their quality and West Country-based Chris Thompson can supply the full range of Mac Tools from stock or to order at very competitive prices. Chris is a long-time supporter of British drag racing and can be contacted on 07877 536919.

NSRA Hot Rod Drags update.

13th September: Nick Brooke-Langham, driver of the yellow Austin Devon NogBad the Bad has been in touch with the news that, so far, fourteen Gasser Circus entries are signed up for this weekend's NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway.

All of the usual protagonists are listed including Honky Tonkin II, Roaring Rat, Green Onions and the Alchemist '34 5 window of Carl Frith. Ray Turner in the Green Onions '55 Chevy is leading the Showdown, with Martyn Hallam '33 Willys Coupe Whiplash second. In third is some old Austin driven by that Nervous bloke, fourth is Sean Milson in his Morris van Ain't Misbehavin' and the top five is rounded out by Carl Frith in the Hemi powered Alchemist.

There look to be a couple of new kids on the block including yet another '49 Devon, the Checkered Demon of Phil Nelson and a '48 Plymouth called the Manx Kid owned by Rob Kilham. Nick also tells us that there are two additional Gassers awaiting confirmation. In the race to the series title Ray Turner has an unassailable lead with 29 points over Martyn Hallam on 18 and Nick on 17. Should be quite a shootout! So don't forget to be ringside for four sessions on Saturday and bracket racing on Sunday.

With a potential field of eighteen Outlaw Anglias battling for a sixteen-car field at the weekend, Championship honours will be on the line between defending title holder Cliff Griffin and the Flying Fyfer Colin Millar, making the weekends event an excellent prospect which no one will want to miss! With just 150 points separating them neither Cliff or Colin will be taking any prisoners following their recent performances at Shakey's Open Sport Nationals where they ran high into the sevens on more than one occasion. If Cliff can pull the win on Sunday this will make him three for three in Championship history, but there's a mad Scotsman who's hoping to topple Cliff's reign on Sunday afternoon. Third place belongs to Steve Wells at the moment over Rob Stone while completing the top five is the Alco Pop of Paul Wright. All the usual protagonists are there including Spencer Tidswell's Problem Child, the Gas Attack of Paul Hensher, Jed Guy's Shorty's Hot Rod and Rich 'Diamond White' Colby.

Martin Wilmott's Supertwin Triumph, captured here by Doug McDiarmid at an early 1991 Avon Park event, is one of many bikes making up the Nostalgia Drag Bike Register/ NSA Touring Team at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags. The bike is the ex-Peter Woods 500cc Triumph and has been down into the eights. Having been involved in the sport since Easter 1974 Martin hasn't been unopposed to tipping the can and lacing the fuel tank with nitro which he did at Dragstalgia not so long ago, pushing the old Capella bike into the nines. Martin finished fourth in the old 1991 Back Street Heroes Supertwin Competition class series. Joining Martin will be a couple of aging but well known bikes. Bernie White (the man on the Dougie) has agreed to bring his seventies drag bike Endeavour which hasn't been seen since the early seventies. Also making the journey is Martin Newton on Black Jack, a blown 500cc Triumph and another bike which hasn't seen the drag strip in over thirty years.

Others making the Tour include Jasper Joy's Mickey Taker, Justin Newall's Weslake Hagon, the Grenade belonging to Simon Rees, and Bob Anderson on his replica Hagon Jap fully approved by the great Alf Hagon himself.

The tour events at Shakey have been received well by the hot rodders and thanks are due to the NSA's Phil Steele and the riders for giving up their free time to come along and mix in with the fun at the Hot Rod Drags and Nostalgia Nationals.

NSRA's Alan Martin has kindly given us a sneak preview of the design for the limited edition event clothing for the Hot Rod Drags. The design will be available on T-Shirts in all the usual sizes as well as long-sleeved hoodies, sweat shirts and ladies' V-neck T-Shirts. Quantities are limited and there will be no repeat orders once sold. The official NSRA Hot Rod Drags Ts go on sale Friday afternoon in the pit area opposite BB's Catering as well as by the side of the main grandstands on race days.

Raygun Industries are organising another of their popular art shows at the Hot Rod Drags. If you have anything you wish to display or any art you wish to sell then please get in touch with Paul at www.raygun-industries.co.uk.

The Hot Rod Drags will also host the Drive Out Cancer Auto Jumble. Thr organisers will be grateful for any small automotive items which anyone would like to donate. Table-top items would be best, such as gauges, switches, lights, steering wheels, magazines or books. Anything you can give will help. The stall will have limited opening times on Saturday and Sunday so make sure you keep a look out for the details. You can also contact the organisers through the web site at www.driveoutcancer.org or have a drive out and come to the breakfast meet.

Editor's note.
13th September: We have a sizeable backlog of news which we are clearing as time permits; your News Editor is currently away from base on his day job and does not have a lot of spare time (today's update was coded up on a train journey). We should be able to run everything we currently have queued up by either tomorrow's or Saturday's news update. However please do not hesitate to send your FIA European Finals reviews, UK National Finals previews and other news to us at news@eurodragster.com and we will add it to the mix.

Sharing the glory.
12th September: Finnish Top Fuel Dragster racer and FIA European Finals Top Fuel winner Anita Mäkelä has arrived back at the chicken farm but says that she is still in heaven:

Winning the European Finals means a lot to me. The nice memories will give me joy and a lot of energy for the cold and snowy winter. What a weekend! The weather was the best ever, the track was good, there were lots of friends there, and everyone was smiling! It was drag racing at its best!

Over the weekend we had Don Bender consulting with us. It was a pleasure and a privilege to have this high-profile Crew Chief who has worked with top NHRA teams. I had somebody to ask whatever I wanted and we talked a lot. About staging on the start line, burnouts, backing up the car, tyre shake, how to run the car if the tyres smoke, and I got proper, clear answers. Don has thousands of runs in his history and a great amount of knowledge about which I could only dream. If I could, I would have locked him up in our trailer and never let him go!

We didn't make any major changes to our car after Tierp. Sami knew that we were on the right track and #2 spot after qualifying confirmed that. The biggest pleasure comes when the car runs full-throttle all the way without any problems. When passing the finish line, you just know that that was a run. Happy faces amongst the crew and a honking tow car horn confirms it when they come to tow me back.

The feedback of my dear husband Tommi is the most important to me. If Tommi is pleased with me ("Emotional" is the word I'd use - Ed), that makes my day. Tommi sees that our car will get ready for the run what ever it takes. Tommi works hard and I know that he would love to drive the dragster himself, but he still allows me to get into the car. When I see that Tommi is proud of me, it makes all the effort worthwhile.

Sunday's final round was between Risto Poutiainen and I, and we came out winner out of that run. To share with your team the glory of winning is the best reward. I'm so proud of my team. Tommi and I would like to thank you all for this season: Crew Chief Sami Lehtimäki, Juha Sulanko, Jari Väinölä, Johannes Juvonen, Juha Sorariutta, Jere Kuoppala, Petri Mäntynen, Pertti Kinnunen, Jukka Johansson, Jarkko Leipälä and Eeva Vuorio. And thank you to Don Bender for visiting our team.

It's a pity that this weekend wasn't the FIA Main Event and the start of the season. But there is always next year and we'll see you all then!

The page turns again.
12th September: Nearly ten years ago UK Top Methanol Dragster racer and multiple FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Champion Dave Wilson and son David drove their truck out of the pit gate at Pomona Raceway, took one last look, and agreed that that book was finished, the last page turned. Grumpy says that it was the same deal on Sunday afternoon at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway, that the last page in that book has been turned:

Without a budget next year we will not contest the FIA Championship any more. Everything is for sale or rent, and if it doesn't sell I may run once or twice at Santa Pod just for my pleasure!

It was a great last Championship race in which to compete, our only regret is that we couldn't get the car to perform better. Congratulations have to go the Manty Bugeja and all the Mr Whippy team who have produced a consistently outstanding performance all year long and who thoroughly deserve to take the Championship back to Malta.

Thanks have to go to one or two 'special' people. Andy Robinson, for truck co-driving and crewing. Ray Magwire, for support and finding the funds to go to Finland. All my long serving crew (there must be some reason they put up with me for so long): Ricki Packham, Harry Palmer, Kathrine Sparrow, my newer crew for the last few years Nick Chandler, Jim Chandler, Pete Walton and my previous crew guys Andy Bissett, Jennifer Bissett, Fred Wilbanks, Mike Nichols, Phill James, Darren Galloway, Steve Martyn and Charlie Jarret. I couldn't have got through the last thirty plus years without all their help.

All my sponsors over the years especially Ray Maguire PlayStation, Antony and Jon Cohen at American Car Imports, James and Darrel at Silverline Tools, Kiki at Euro American, Chase Knight at Crane Cams, Barry Miller at BMRS and Malcolm Francis at Air Sea Logistics whose support and encouragement enabled our Championship successes (the failures were all ours).

And finally the two most important people, who have devoted much of their lives to keeping this team running. David for always being there with help and inspiration, and Linda whose support and dedication has allowed me to keep doing what I love, both at the track as Team Mum and at home being a partner in this enterprise for more years than either of us care to remember!

What now? The next chapter could include more of the same if we find a budget, Or it will be different if we don't. But either way I'm sure it will be fun!

Swift snippets.

12th September: The E-Mail bearing the latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com mentioned a caption but it was nowhere to be found. If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at eurodragster.com@btinternet.com.

Ex-pat UK Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mike Manners of Eurodragster.com sponsor Cosmo Residences had one qualifying pass at the first attempt at running the US Nationals at Indianapolis, and would have been fairly pleased with the performance of the car had the two other scheduled qualifiers taken place. "We have taken a bunch of weight off the car", says Mike. "We've solved the ignition timing problem and the front wheels are lifting at launch with even a 1.02 sixty foot time". Mike qualified fifteenth on the re-run of Indy but made a first round exit. His next race is in Dallas in a few weeks.

Mark and Rebecca Cook-Abbott have asked us to thank everyone who helped UK Junior Dragster racer Thomas Cook-Abbott on his first venture at Shakespeare County Raceway. "Thanks to Andy Fensome for advice, Pete Kellett for the power and most of all to Bruce Kopasz for the drive in their dragster", they say. "We would also like to thank all those in the Junior pits at the European Finals for getting Thomas to the line. There are too many to name, but thank you all."

Wayne, Pam and Samuel Hiscock have been in touch to thank UK Super Pro ET racer Alan Didwell for a fantastic weekend at the FIA European Finals and to congratulate Al on his PBs of 8.14 seconds and 157 mph. "Unfortunately it was not to be Alan's weekend as he suffered torque converter damage on Friday morning, but we hope that the damage is not too severe and that he will be back next season to break into those sevens!", they say.

Warning: Outlaws on the loose.
12th September: Supercharged Outlaws Co-ordinator Dave McKenzie has been in touch with news of who's in at this weekend's 24th annual Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway:

You wait all winter for the season to start and here we are at the Hot Rod Drags, the final round of Supercharged Outlaws 2012 series. This is going to be the big one with eighteen teams confirmed. Add in the Wild'r at Heart Dodge Charger Funny Car of Rockin' Ramon and this will be the biggest field of Supercharged Outlaws I can ever remember!

The series is all but won by the Speed Demon team of Vic Hammond and driver Sam Freeman on 182 points - all they need to do is to simply turn up and go two rounds! The Hammond and Freeman team cannot be caught even by Alec Coe in the Shy Talker slingshot who is in second place on 126. But as we all know, in drag racing nothing is guaranteed until the fat lady sings as there could be yet another twist in the tale! Third place is also up for grabs between Andy Hadfield with the Twister Model T altered on 110 points, Paul Watts in the No Easy Pick Up on 96, and outside bets Lee Gallimore with the Red Mist altered (82) and Team Thing (80) could sneak in at the eleventh hour and steal away the place.

There should be some really good match racing as well between the two Chevy trucks of Chas Chivers and Paul Watts, three Funny Cars with Steve Goode in the Pontiac Trans Am Firebird-bodied Ghost Train on which Steve seems to have a handle now, Trace Froome in the Ultra Racing Dodge Avenger Funny Car, and the Wild'r at Heart '71 Dodge Charger of Ramon all the way from Netherlands.

And what about the Doorslammers with eight cars which includes Simon Cooper's Chevy Nova, Ian Kerr in the newly-imported Pontiac Firebird which could be in the seven second bracket this coming weekend, and one of the fans favourites is back: the Stars and Stripes '53 Corvette of Ian Hanson fresh from a successful European Finals running in the 7.3s. Newcomers to the Outlaws are Simon Boot's Z28 Chevy Camaro and Martin Green in his Plymouth Duster looking to mix it up a bit.

In the altered category big hitters at this event will be Joe Bond and the low six second Nuthin Fancy Fiat Topolino. Another big altered to watch out for is Brian Gandy's Skullduggery Model T capable of running as low as 7.2 at speeds closing in on the 200 mph zone. Clive Bush is also back out with the Crazy Horse altered. And who can forget Mr Entertaining (nicknamed by track announcer Jerry) Lee Gallimore with the Red Mist altered! Lee is famous for his long smoky burnouts and wild guardrail-to-guardrail runs. Alongside Lee will be Dave Mac in the Team Thing altered. After nearly going flying at the top end in 2011, this year Dave decided to try two wheel burnouts at the Bulldog Bash much to the delight of the crowd. The team's five-window coupe altered may not be the quickest altered in the group but it sure does attract a lot of attention especially the drivers on and off the track! Not to be out done for the burnout title is Andy Hadfield in the Twister. So expect some excellent match-ups between these over the weekend.

So whatever your favourite style of car - doorslammer, pick-up, altered, slingshots or Funny Car - the Supercharged Outlaws has it all with exciting side-by-side burnouts and guardrail-to-guardrail action. You need to be at the Hot Rod Drags to see it.

The final round of the series is being sponsored by Jim Maher of Good Vibrations Motorsport, California. All of the Supercharged Outlaw racers and fans would like to take this opportunity to thank Jim and all the staff at Good Vibrations for their continued support for the fastest growing class in the UK. See you at the drags!

Ellis seeks block.
12th September: UK Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis is urgently seeking an engine block:

I need an early forged +100 BAE block with no damage or very little damage and no saddles. It needs to be the type with long head studs not short. Anything considered but I can't go racing again without it.

I can deal a well repaired later block.

If you can help then please get in touch with Graham at eltrans@hotmail.co.uk.

Web site updates.

12th September: Chris Eyre has updated his Eurodragpics web site with pictures from the FIA European Finals including shots from the winners' collection in the old fire-up road and the trophy presentation. You can check out Chris' shots at www.eurodragpics.com. "I would like to thank Ian Turburville for letting me come and help with the slingshot on the Saturday, I had a great time!", says Chris. "Thanks again go to the Santa Pod track crew for all their hard work, and to the Eurodragster.com team for your tireless efforts, where would we be without you all (Thanks, you're welcome - Ed).

Our good friend Remco Scheelings has updated The Netherlands' Autosport web site with his usual brace of post-event reports, this time from the weekend's FIA European Finals. You can check out Remco's race report by clicking here and his off-track report by clicking here.

Another good buddy, Patrik Jacobsson, has updated the Racebilder web site with a large gallery from the FIA European Finals. You can check out Patrik's pictures at www.racebilder.nu.

Eurodragster.com News Editor Tog has updated his Smugmug site with pictures from the pre-FIA European Finals RWYB and Peak Performance Day, Pro Racer Test and Tune, and a small gallery of grab shots from a busy week at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Tog's pictures at www.togsdragracing.com or eurodragster.smugmug.com.

Alex Eneroth has posted an excellent video of the recent Scandinavian Internationals on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zlH-BGJwGY.

2012 European Champions.
10th September: Congratulations to the 2012 European Champions, decided at the weekend's FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway:

FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Risto Poutiainen
FIA Top Methanol Dragster: Manty Bugeja
FIA Top Methanol Funny Car: Leif Andréasson
FIA Pro Modified: Micke Gullqvist
FIA Pro Stock: Thomas Lindström

UEM Top Fuel Bike: Ian King
UEM Supertwin: Nate Gagnon
UEM Pro Stock Bike: Fredrik Fredlund
UEM Super Street Bike Cup: Graham Balchin

Many thanks to Kjell Pettersson for forwarding the final points standings in the 2012 FIA European Drag Racing Championships, to Palle Lind for forwarding the final points standings in the 2012 UEM European Drag Bike Championships, and to Paula Marshall for forwarding the latest points standings in the MSA British Drag Racing Championship (for Pro Modified), all of which you can check out on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Speedflow Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

FIA European Finals results.
10th September: Congratulations also to the winners of the weekend's FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway:

FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Anita Mäkelä 8.6176/71.25 bye, Risto Poutiainen shut off
FIA Top Methanol Dragster: Manty Bugeja 5.3643/263.52 def. Chris Polidano 5.5402/264.21
FIA Top Methanol Funny Car: Leif Andréasson 5.6869/250.44 def. Rob Turner 6.0108/234.08
FIA Pro Modified: Micke Gullqvist 6.1521/230.21 def. David Vegter 6.3372/227.02
FIA Pro Stock: Jimmy Ålund 6.6977/206.11 def. Thomas Lindström 6.7176/205.33
Fuel Funny Car: John Spuffard 12.3131/72.49 def. Leif Helander 7.1000/151.63 DQ boundary violation

UEM Top Fuel Bike: Ian King 6.2961/206.09 def. Peter Svensson 6.3290/166.67 DQ red light
UEM Supertwin: Christian Jäger 6.5784/200.65 def. Trond Høiberget 13.1301/67.62
UEM Pro Stock Bike: Fredrik Fredlund 7.1231/185.07 def. Ulf Ögge 7.2222/182.89
UEM Super Street Bike Cup: Steve Venables 7.3452/194.71 def. Graham Balchin 8.8644/105.18

Super Pro ET: Jayne Kay (7.42) 7.4471/182.86 def. Nick Good (7.01) 7.0650/182.73
Pro ET: Paul Marston (9.00) 9.0505/139.01 def. Paul Brown (9.00) 9.0418/129.76
Super Comp: Brian Pateman 9.1341/139.84 def. Malcolm Motler 9.5006/143.46
Super Gas: Jon Morton 9.9890/137.70 def. Brian Pateman 10.0643/147.20
Super Street: Leigh Morris 11.0114/118.38 def. Dave Cherrett 10.8114/85.23 DQ breakout
Junior Dragster: Marcus Andersson (8.30) 8.3542/76.29 def. Samuel Holland Villa (8.80) 8.7763/73.31 DQ red light
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: Brian Payne 11.3948/124.77 bye

Subject to official ratification the following records were set:

Pro Stock speed: 208.09 mph, Jimmy Ålund
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: 7.590 seconds and 208.17 mph, Richard Billings
Super Street Bike ET: 7.259 seconds, Dave Holland

Thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us updated European Bests and UK bests sheets including all the records set at the weekend. You can check out the updated sheet of European Bests by clicking here or by clicking on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Andy has also forwarded the official FIA European Finals timing data which you can check out by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Congratulations to Pro ET racer Gino Bernadine and Super Pro ET racer Scott Hauser who won the Eurodragster.com/ModUrStang Perfect Light Award and the Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award respectively. Both awards have been reset to £50 for the VP Racing Fuels National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway in a couple of weeks' time.

You can check out our Alamo Rent A Car-sponsored FIA European Finals reports, pit notes and galleries by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Wacky Wilkes hits Drag Week.

10th September: James Murray tells us that, after much secrecy, Mick 'Wacky' Wilkes is in the USA with his HA Viva Van and that he will be taking part in Hot Rod Drag Week:

Mick is racing in the Daily Driver class of Hot Rod Drag Week. That's four tracks over five days and about 1200 miles. It is a real tough challenge. Mick has already driven the car up from the port in Texas to Tulsa Raceway Park.

Yesterday's practice day mainly consisted of a five-hour queue for scrutineering. There was only time for one checkout pass which revealed a troublesome misfire. Many hours later, after plenty of careful street testing, the misfire is gone and the van is hopefully ready for race day #1 at Tulsa today.

Stay tuned for planned daily updates on Wacky's Facebook page.

Editor's note.
10th September: We are going to take a short break which we consider we have earned. The next news update will be posted here during Wednesday (12th) and postings to our Jeff Bull Race Engines Swap Meet will be resumed on or by Wednesday. Please keep the news coming to news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them then.

Winternationals Web TV.
9th September: Smart TV will be broadcasting their popular multi-camera High Definition Web TV from this weekend's Winternationals at Malmö Raceway, the final round of the Scandinavian Dragracing Series.

Amongst the highlights will be the final round of Top Doorslammer with thirty three cars entered so far including Pro Mod racers Martin Lundqvist, Patrick Wikström and Eurodragster.com sponsor Marco Maurischat all the way from Germany, whilst Roger Johansson will make his second outing in his new nitrous Pro Mod. You can find the full entry list at www.dragracing.eu.

Smart TV's broadcast will be available Pay Per View from midday today (Friday) until the last wheel turns on Sunday; €10 will buy you the whole event.

You can find out more at www.smarttv.se/live.

Swift snippets.
9th September: Congratulations to Swedish Pro Modified racer Adam Flamholc who was runner-up in the ADRL Memphis Drags III in Memphis yesterday. Adam qualified second with a 3.976/188.31 and was runner-up to Todd Tutterow in the final.

Hannes Pesonen tells us that Finnish Supertwin racer Jaska Salakari is planning to attend the Sweden Finals at Tierp Arena on 28th-29th September. "Jaska is going to improve his 6.273 / 355.73 km/h", says Hannes.

Swift snippets.
8th September: UK Pro ET racers Carla Pittau and Rick McCann have been in touch to thank everyone who offered help after they put out a call for an inner tube for one of their slicks. "The Heaven and Hell team would like to thank the whole drag racing community for the overwhelming offers of help", they say. "Dave Cherrett came up with the tubes in the right size, Harrison Brown of the Ramraider team came up with a bead breaker, Mike Lacey and team helped fit them, so we can now race today. Thanks also to Tim Stanbury for the loan of a rocker stud, and to Eurodragster.com, the commentators, and Nitro FM for spreading the message."

Editor's note.
8th September: Perceptive readers will realise that we will be very busy indeed for the next few days and so news updates may become sporadic and postings to our Jeff Bull Race Engines Swap Meet may be delayed or temporarily suspended. Thanks in advance for your understanding.

Erbacher to attend Finals.

7th September: Outgoing FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion and Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher was and is not due to race at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway, but he tells us that he will be at the event and that fans are welcome to stop by to say Hello:

I will be helping Noah Stutz with his Super Comp car and Marcus Hilt with his Pro Mod Corvette. You will be able to find me in our team trailer. I will have more time to talk to fans and give autographs.

I'm really unhappy that we cannot race, it is the first time I have been there without my race car. But you can be sure that we will back next year like in this picture.

Meanwhile Swedish Pro Stock racer Mats Jacobsson has had to withdraw from the FIA European Finals as he has 'flu, a malady which has robbed him of the chance to consolidate his fourth place in the FIA European Championship. Get well soon Mats. Mats joins Top Fuel Dragster racer Micke Kågered and Pro Mod racers Steve Hall and Rick Garrett in missing the event.

Award Ceremony ticket deadline.
5th September: James Forster of Santa Pod Raceway has been in touch with a reminder that today (Wednesday) is the deadline for advance bookings for tickets to the European Championships Award Ceremony which will take place after racing this Sunday.

The ceremony is only open to Pro teams and officials. The evening will consist of live entertainment, barbeque, the all-important FIA and UEM Championship trophy presentations and of course a bar serving drinks and refreshments. Proceedings are due to commence two hours after racing finishes, or at 21:00 at the latest if racing is delayed, and will run through until 01:00.

The ceremony will be held in the VIP marquee next to the fire-up road.

Tickets are £20 per person and can be purchased in advance by completing the booking form and returning it to Santa Pod Raceway with payment by close of office hours today. After today, tickets can be purchased throughout the FIA European Finals from The Garage, in the pits next to the Pod Shop. Any tickets bought in advance will need to be collected from the Garage during the event.

Click here to download the booking form in PDF format, or click here to download the booking form in Word format.

Swedish setback.

5th September: The Gulf Oil Dragracing – Grand Prix Originals Top Fuel Bike team suffered a significant setback in their quest for the 2012 European Top Fuel Bike Championship after suffering problems when preparing for their first round elimination run at Sweden's Tierp Arena.

Despite concerns about the weather again affecting qualifying at this second Swedish event on the calendar, the forecasts proved wrong when two full days of qualifying on a well-prepared track were available to the large number of competitors. Using their four qualifying runs to experiment with different settings the team gleaned much need data and qualified solidly in second place with a 6.23/220.17.

Ordinarily the team would have been slightly disappointed at not achieving number one position, but after a blistering World record pass by the local Starta Racing team of veteran Top Fuel Bike rider Peter Svensson this was a satisfactory mark.

In the first round King had lane choice against the impressive team of Nils Lagerlöf who had hastily rebuilt the front end of his machine after a hard excursion into the boundary wall in qualifying. However, disaster struck for the Championship leaders when their machine failed to fire up correctly due to a failure of an electrical component, an ignition crank trigger. The team could only watch on as the number two in the points table took an unopposed bye run into the semi finals.

The team next travel next to their home track of Santa Pod, UK on Thursday to Sunday of this week to the finals of the European Championship for an exciting season finale with four teams able to assume the Championship title depending on the outcome of the race. For more information on the European Championships visit www.speedgroup.eu, and for more information about King Racing visit www.kingracing.com.

The team is extremely proud to be supported by many leaders in their chosen markets in their challenge for the 2012 European Championship:

APE - The world's most innovative manufacturer of aftermarket parts for drag bikes
Action Cameras - Europe's leading source for action sports cameras
Cometic Gaskets - The premier manufacturer of racing gaskets
Bell Helmets - The ultimate iconic helmet brand
Gates - The world's most trusted name in drive belts, hoses and hydraulics
Goodridge - The original and the best in fluid transfer systems
Grand Prix Originals - The brand for drive and lifestyle, past and present
Gulf Oil International - The world's most iconic brand in automotive fuels and lubricants
Hyperpro - The leading producer of progressive suspension products for motor bikes
JE Pistons - The world's premier manufacturer of high performance forged pistons
Kent Cams - Specialists in motor sport camshaft manufacture, short runs and one-offs
Kibblewhite Precision Machining, Inc -The highest quality valve train components on the market
King Racing - The most successful Top Fuel Bike team in European drag racing history
Mickey Thompson Tyres - Simply the best drag race tyres in the world
MRE - Leaders in trackside support for drag race components and air shifting systems
MTC Engineering - Manufacturer of clutches for the fastest motorcycles in the world
NitroShutter - Europe's leading drag racing photo-journalists
NCT Engineering - Manufacturer of the world's leading non contact torque sensors for motorsport
NGK Spark Plugs UK - The world's number one spark plug manufacturer
Pär Willen - Master webmeister and proprietor of HarleyDrags.com
Portable Shade - The best custom branded collapsible canopies available
Pro Alloy Motorsport - UK's leader in fabrication of alloy racing tanks, intercoolers and radiators
Puma Engineering - Manufacturers of the world's most powerful motorcycle engines
RSG Customize - The UK's most creative website designers and vinyl artists
Vanson Leathers - The most iconic brand in motorsport leather goods
Worldwide Bearings - The world's leading supplier of ceramic bearings for racing
Zodiac - Europe's largest supplier of performance and aftermarket HD parts

The Art of sponsorship.
5th September: UK blown-alcohol team and Eurodragster.com Bloggers Bennett Racing are very proud to announce their latest sponsor Paul Whitehouse Art.

Paul has been producing paintings and prints of drag racing subjects for a number of years primarily working with the Allard Chrysler Action Group to produce a number of paintings to raise funds for the restoration of the Allard Chrysler dragster. Paul has gone on to produce pieces for Andy Carter, Ian Turburville, Ian King, Bob Roberts of Andy Robinson Race Cars, Wendy Baker, Liz Rowland (Burn), to name a few, and a number of his original paintings are in collections worldwide. Paul has a love of nostalgia drag racing, especially drag bikes, and when he is not wielding his paint brushes he can usually be found in his garage building his 1977 Kawasaki Z1000 nostalgia Pro Stock Bike. "It's taken me quite a few years to build, but one day I might even give this drag racing lark a go, even if it's just a Run What You Brung!", he says.

Paul is currently producing a painting of the Bennett Racing Topolino Altered as shown in the sketch at left. "The painting will take a number of weeks to complete and a stage-by-stage update will be posted on the Bennett Racing web site at www.bennettracing.co.uk, the Bennett Racing Facebook page, and of course the Paul Whitehouse Art Facebook page", he says, "It's great to be depicting an altered of which I've been a fan for years and to be working with such a professional team as Bennett Racing. Luke Bennett has done a great job of hosting my web site at paulwhitehouseart.co.uk over the last few years."

"The team will be selling A3 and A4 prints of the finished painting and Paul has even said that he will be donating proceeds of his print sales of this painting to the team", says Luke. "What a guy! Paul has a large selection of prints available and accepts commissions for any drag racing or custom car / bike subjects, so if you want to get your race car or bike immortalised by an incredible artist then get in touch by E-Mail at pwhitehouse3@aol.com or call 07813 579876.

"Bennett Racing would again like to thank Paul and we hope for a long and successful partnership."

FIA European Finals Perfect Awards.
4th September: This weekend's FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway is the latest event in the 2012 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards scheme. £150 is on offer for perfect performance.

Racers please note that decals are mandatory for both Perfect Awards this season.

This weekend's Eurodragster.com / ModUrStang Perfect Light Award has been increased to £100 after it went unclaimed at the Open Sport Nationals. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available all to racers in all classes during qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £125 for the VP Racing Fuels National Finals; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for the VP Racing Fuels National Finals. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with vehicle modification specialist ModUrStang. For more details about the services which ModUrStang can provide see Mike Lacey in the Pro ET pits at any race or visit www.modurstang.co.uk.

This weekend's Eurodragster.com / Gold RV Perfect ET Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Super Pro ET racer Jack Brewster at the Open Sport Nationals. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to run to the thousandth on their dial-in or index during qualifying or eliminations. The Perfect ET Award is available this weekend in Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street and Lucas Oil Junior Dragster (eliminations only), but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Run of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £75 for the VP Racing Fuels National Finals; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for the VP Racing Fuels National Finals. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with RV sales and service specialists Gold RV. For more details about the services which Gold RV can provide visit www.goldrv.co.uk.

To be eligible to collect either Perfect Award, racers are required to carry decals, one on each side of the vehicle. If you pull this weekend's first Perfect Light or 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 Light or Perfect ET will get the money assuming that they are carrying decals. ModUrStang and Gold RV decals are available in Signing On.

CG Composites go on-line.

4th September: Carlo Gandolfi, Director of CG Composites who manufacture carbon fibre composite injector hats, has been in touch to announce the launch of his new web site at www.carbons.plus.com.

"I would like to thank Peter Walters of Peter Walters Race Design for his expertise in web design and his patience in putting the site together", says Carlo.

Carlo would also like to remind all Pro Mod racers attending this week's FIA European Finals that should they require any parts for theri DMPE superchargers then he has replacement seals and bearings in stock, a selection of which can be seen on the web site.

Swift snippets.
4th September: Bob Roberts writes that whilst the Eurodragster.com staff were enjoying themselves at Santa Pod Raceway at the weekend others were working hard at the Chelsea Auto Legends show. "The Allard Dragster, F&A Top Fuel Dragster and Santa Pod's display Funny Car made up the drag racing display and Steph Milam's Funny Car was in the Women in Motorsport area", says Bob. "There was a large turnout of people who mostly had never seen any kind of drag racer before. A pity that we were not allowed to fire anything up!"

Spencer Tramm and the Quantum Leap Racing team asked us to say a big Congratulations to VW Sportsman racer Adrian Wigley and his wife Sam on the arrival of future Junior Dragster driver Austin James Wigley who was born at 10:36 today. Today is an extra special day as it is also Adrian's birthday.

During the recent Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway a raffle was drawn for the annual Ladies That Launch charity drive for Refuge. Jerry Cookson tells us that five of the winning tickets were not presented on the day, so SCR would be pleased to hear from the owners of the following tickets: pink 153, pink 566, green 71, green 89, and white 210. If you have these tickets then please call the Raceway office on 01789 720180. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all of the FLTH supporters who donated prizes.

Web site updates.
4th September: The latest issue of the Speedgroup newsletter is now available and includes a review of last week's Sweden Internationals, a preview of the FIA European Finals, Eurodragster.com Editor's Diary written by US Correspondent Ed O'Connell, and a lot more. Check it out at club.speedgroup.eu.

Pro Racer Test Day coverage.
4th September: Eurodragster.com will be reporting from tomorrow's Pro Racer Test and Tune Day at Santa Pod Raceway in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car.

The plan for tomorrow's coverage is an end-day photo gallery and an end-day report if there are sufficient numbers testing - if not then we will put mouse-over captions on the gallery as we did at the weekend. The Webster Race Engineering / Nimbus Motorsport webcam will be on-line so long as the track is open and will broadcast live video, trackside audio and timing data overlays. Maikel and our friends at Doyousee.me, to whom thanks for for the provision of streaming services, have also instituted an experimental iStream.

You can check out our FIA European Finals week event index, which includes a link to both the proper and Apple webcasts as well as to the final version of the official entry list and provisional running orders, by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the FIA European Finals.

Winternationals Web TV.
4th September: Smart TV will be broadcasting their popular multi-camera High Definition Web TV from this weekend's Winternationals at Malmö Raceway, the final round of the Scandinavian Dragracing Series.

Amongst the highlights will be the final round of Top Doorslammer with thirty three cars entered so far including Pro Mod racers Martin Lundqvist, Patrick Wikström and Eurodragster.com sponsor Marco Maurischat all the way from Germany, whilst Roger Johansson will make his second outing in his new nitrous Pro Mod. You can find the full entry list at www.dragracing.eu.

Smart TV's broadcast will be available Pay Per View from midday Friday until the last wheel turns on Sunday; €10 will buy you the whole event.

You can find out more at www.smarttv.se.

FIA European Finals racer notices.
3rd September: Santa Pod Racers Club Assistant Race Director Carole Ismail has asked us to pass on an important notice regarding tow vehicles at this week's FIA European Finals:

With effect from this week's race, there will be a red line across the trackside service road at the Race Control end of the pitside VIP balcony. This is a stop line for tow vehicles. At any time, only the two vehicles supporting the cars or bikes currently running will be allowed to park at this line.

Tow vehicles must not pull forward until instructed. We would prefer the driver to remain in the tow vehicle at all times but we understand that sometimes the tow vehicle driver is part of the on-track crew. However, as soon as the car or bike has left the line then crew must get straight back into the tow vehicle and move as soon as instructed by marshals. There will be no hanging about, and as soon as you are asked to move then you must move.

We are doing this for several reasons. There are Health and Safety issues involved, we do not want to block disabled viewing, and we do not want vehicles blocking sponsors' advertising boards.

16:10 Thanks to Paula and Ian Marshall for forwarding us the provisional running orders for this week's race, which you can check out 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 as ever these running orders are provisional and subject to change due to weather or track conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by race officials.

No Web TV at European Finals.
3rd September: Keith Bartlett, CEO of Trakbak Racing Ltd and Santa Pod Raceway, has announced that the planned multi-camera high-definition Web TV will not be taking place from this week's FIA European Finals:

Regrettably, the Web TV (live streaming) will not be taking place this weekend for the FIA European Finals event due to TV partners Speedgroup withdrawing from the project. Sadly with the first two rounds of the FIA and UEM Championships being rained out or severely rain-affected - Santa Pod (UK) and Tierp Arena (Sweden) - it didn't get off to the best start. However, with that said, the plan for Web TV in 2013 is now being clearly laid with all the host tracks looking step this project up to the next level. I am still of the same mind I was at the beginning of this season in that the future of web TV for drag racing will become a huge success.

Subject to SPR's approval Eurodragster.com's Webster Race Engineering / Nimbus Motorsport webcam will be broadcasting all four days of this week's event as well as Wednesday's Pro Racer Test and Tune Day.

For Svenssons, see Olstad.

3rd September: Having checked and finished work on their Top Fuel Bike after the stunning 5.709-second run and new European Record at Tierp Arena, Peter and Sören Svensson and Sweden's Team Starta are ready for this week's FIA European Finals:

Some of us will be taking the ferry from Denmark to Harwich on Wednesday and the rest our team are flying from Sweden to Stansted on Thursday in order to be ready and to be able to get the bike ready for the race that starts on Friday morning. We will be pitting with the Norwegian Supertwin team of Hans Olav Olstad.

Anyone who would like to support our team is welcome to stop by in the pits and buy our new T-shirt made by Classic Graphix. If you would like to have this design as a background on your desktop or on your smartphone then you can download it for free from our web site at www.billetracing.se.

We hope to see as many of our fans and friends possible at Santa Pod this week at our final race of the season.

Swift snippets.
3rd September: UK street-legal Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com Blooger Andy Frost features in an episode of Speedgang, an Austrian version of Top Gear, which is being aired tonight (Monday) on Servus TV in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The programme features Red Victor V3 driving to Aldi with Gavin Ward, performance engineer for Red Bull F1's Mark Webber, for a chocolate bar (as you do). The programme is only available on TV in the countries, but it should be released at www.servustv.com/speedgang in the next couple of weeks. Frosty tells us that the TV johnnies are also visting Santa Pod Raceway this weekend.

Web site updates.
3rd September: Thanks to MSA British Drag Racing Championship PR Robin Jackson for letting us know that the latest edition of the MSA's quarterly magazine includes a feature about drag racing by distinguished F1 journalist Simon Arron reflecting on his June visit to the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. Simon was impressed by what he saw, heard and felt and you can check out his report on page 28 of the magazine which is available by www.msauk.org.

Eurodragster.com News Editor and Race Reporter Tog has updated his personal web site with galleries from the weekend's Run What You Brung and Peak Performance Day at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Tog's pictures at eurodragster.smugmug.com or www.togsdragracing.com.

Pre-Finals testing coverage.
1st September: This weekend's Run What You Brung, VW Action and Peak Performance Day at Santa Pod Raceway is the penultimate chance for racers to test before next week's FIA European Finals and Eurodragster.com are there to bring you the action in association with Alamo Rent-A-Car. This is the start of our build-up to next week's race which will also include coverage of Wednesday's Pro Racer Test and Tune Day.

The plan for this weekend's coverage is end-day photo galleries today and tomorrow, and end-day reports if there are sufficient numbers testing - if not then we will put mouse-over captions on the galleries. The Webster Race Engineering / Nimbus Motorsport webcam will be on-line so long as the track is open, including this evening's VW Action night racing session, and will broadcast live video, trackside audio and timing data overlays. Maikel and our friends at Doyousee.me, to whom thanks for for the provision of streaming services, have also instituted an experimental iStream.

You can check out our FIA European Finals week event index, which includes a link to both the proper and Apple webcasts and to the latest version of the official 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 FIA European Finals.

Eriksson stays home.
1st September: After last weekend's Scandinavian Internationals, Swedish Pro Modified racer Mats Eriksson and the Green Goblin team have decided not to go next week's FIA European Finals. Mats and team want to look over the car to try to get the bugs out, and there is not enough time to do so between the two races.

"We have a chance of third place in the Championship", says Crew Chief LG. "But the car is stable enough to take that chance, and it costs us to much money to do the trip not know our parameters. There's still no guarantee that the track is any better for us than last year, when we had a four-wheel flight over the finish line so that's another reason . We also have loads of work coming in to the companies which we are running so it's just too big risk for us all round to go, as we don't have a chance to end up at the top of the Championship."

Lena Perés says that there have been too few rounds this year to get a handle on the problems with the car and to solve them. The team will spend this month trying out something new and will give it a try at the next race at Tierp Arena at the end of September.

"We will miss all of our fans at the Pod and hope that they will understand our dilemma", says Mats. "But we will think of everyone at the Pod and I hope everything will be better until next Spring. We're now focusing on finding out why the car behaves like it does and we are also focusing on a new project in the chassis business. We're involved in putting new high-strength tubes from SSAB (Swedish Steel Corp) on the market and is taking a lot of our time as well."

Web site updates.
1st September: Further to yesterday's news item about York Raceway's Northern Classic Nationals and NSRA Hot Rod Reunion, Richard Smith has posted a gallery of excellent shots from the event on his Zenfolio site at rdsmith.zenfolio.com.

Earlier news