Carter fills CBD F&T seat. 31st October: UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter has replaced Chris Andrews in the seat of the Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster in the match race against Jon Webster at this Saturday's Flame and Thunder Show at Santa Pod Raceway. Team owner Knut Söderquist told Eurodragster.com that the two-time FIA European Champion has taken over the seat of the dragster driven this season by Jöran Persåker due to problems confirming Chris' participation. "I am about to travel to Pomona and then from Pomona to Bahrain so I had to decide yesterday that Chris will be replaced by hot shoe Andy Carter", said Knut. "The plan was always for Chris to drive, and he has been mentioned on all of Santa Pod's advertising, but I couldn't get clear confirmation so I had to make this decision. Alan Jackson and the boys are looking forward to working with the little Champ. Andy is a hard racer, who could ask for a better replacement for the crowd?" ©Eurodragster.com Meanwhile CBD team member Animal faces a busy time driving two rigs to Frankfurt so that their contents can be flown to Bahrain for next week's FIA Invitational. "The world-famous Animal - even a party of Russians in Sweden recognised him! - will have two trucks, one loaded with Pro Mods and the other with a race-ready Top Fueller", said Knut. "Everything is ready for Bahrain and Animal is leaving tomorrow." For more information about the Flame and Thunder Show incuding ticket prices and running order check out Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.co.uk/e_flame.php, and don't forget that a family weekend pass to Santa Pod as well as an SPR goodie bag are on offer in our Flame and Thunder Show contest, which closes tomorrow (Tuesday). You can enter our Flame and Thunder Show contest by clicking here or by clicking on the Flame & Thunder Show Contest link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Swift snippets. 31st October: Yesterday's second day of the Halloween Showdown at Shakespeare County Raceway had to be abandoned due to the rain. After an enjoyable day on Saturday, rain arrived overnight and continued into yesterday morning and despite strenuous, and again rain-interrupted, efforts by the track crew the track was never going to be ready in time before curfew. You can view our American Car Imports-sponsored gallery of Saturday's action by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and clicking on the Halloween Showdown link. ©Eurodragster.com The Whistling Pop. 31st October: UK Outlaw Anglia racer Simon Barlow and the Orange Pop crew finished their 2005 season a week early after breaking the Pop's engine at Shakespeare County Raceway on Saturday. "The weekend started on a high with our first pass of the weekend, a new non-nitrous PB of 11.5", says team member Jason Yates. "We got the car ready for the next pass which was going to be the first nitrous pass of the weekend. Simon did a nice smoky burnout, left the line very very hard (see the picture on our Halloween Showdown Gallery - Ed) and the new tyres gripped lifting the front wheels straight in the air. When Simon got to the eighth pure black smoke came from the engine. "Back in the pits we changed all the plugs, started the engine and then pure white smoke came from the exhausts and a whistling noise came from the engine. Phill our Crew Chief stripped the engine down to have a look at the pistons and they were a bit loose so something has let go in there. ©Eurodragster.com "We won't know the extent of the damage until we completely strip the engine and try and find out what caused it. This means that we are unable to attend the Flame and Thunder Show as booked next week. It's a shame that we've damged the engine, we wanted to finish on a high, but that's racing for you. "It's been a fantastic year for the Orange Pop team. Simon wants to say Thank You to the whole crew for their help over the season, especially a big thank you to Andy Frost, and thanks to everyone involved with the Orange Pop. Roll on 2006." Web site updates. 31st October: With News Editor Tog putting the laptop to one side and picking up his camera again to do Eurodragster.com's Halloween Showdown gallery, Photo Editor Sharkman was free to do whatever he fancied at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend. Sharkman took a few on-track shots, a few pictures from different angles, and a few people pictures and you can check them out on his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales at www.topendtales.com. ©Eurodragster.com European Championship TV dates. 30th October: Our good buddy and honorary Eurodragster.com staff member Simon Groves has spotted the first tranche of TV broadcast dates for the 2005 FIA, FIM/UEM and NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified Championships on the UK's Sky satellite network: Programme 1: FIA Main Event Top Fuel and Pro Stock Monday 31st October on Sky Sports Xtra at 23:00 Tuesday 1st November on Sky Sports Xtra at 02:30 Programme 2: FIA Main Event Top Methanol Dragster and Top Methanol FC Tuesday 1st November on Sky Sports Xtra at 23:00 Wednesday 2nd November on Sky Sports Xtra at 02:30 Programme 3: FIA Main Event Top Fuel Bike and Pro Stock Bike Wednesday 2nd November on Sky Sports Xtra at 23:30 Thursday 3rd November on Sky Sports Xtra at 02:30 ©Eurodragster.com Programme 4: FIA Main Event Supertwin and Pro Modified Friday 4th November on Sky Sports Xtra at 00:00 Friday 4th November on Sky Sports Xtra at 02:30 Programme 5: FHRA Nitro Nationals Top Fuel and Pro Stock Friday 4th November on Sky Sports Xtra at 23:00 Saturday 5th November on Sky Sports Xtra at 01:30 "Later races will be airing daily from 7th November, details to follow", says Simon. "Note that the Radio Times web site states this is the 2001 Championship but Digital Spy states it is the 2005 championship!" As ever, we recommend that you keep a close eye on TV listings and Electronic Programme Guides as satellite channels are particularly prone to last-minute schedule changes. Web site updates. 29th October: The official web site of UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter has been updated with a 2005 Photo Gallery, which you can directly address at www.andycarter.net/gallery.htm. Andy tells us that he will be posting a progress report soon. ©Eurodragster.com More Velocity in 2006. 28th October: The Netherlands' Velocity Racing have unveiled their new race car for the 2006 season. The pick-up (right, click on picture for large version) would not look out of place in a custom show but Jan Scheppers tells us that the team plan to step up. "After four years racing Super Comp and Super Gas with our very nice '68 Ford Mustang, we might step up to Competition Eliminator in 2006", says Jan. "The new car is a show-quality '73 Chevy Stepside pick-up built by Chris Alston's Chassisworks. ©Eurodragster.com "The pick-up features 632 ci Merlin Big Block by Dave Riolo Racing Engines, dyno'd at 1200 hp. It has Big Chief heads with twin Barry Grant carbs and a fancy dry sump oil system. On top is a Pro Shot Fogger 2 nitrous system of 750 hp. Transmission is four-speed Lenco trans with Crower clutch. For more tech specs and plans for 2006, check out www.velocityracing.nl." Jan tells us that the Mustang is not for sale and that the team will make more announcements in the coming weeks. Santa Pod Raceway 2006 dates. 28th October: Many thanks to Rick Cuthbert of Trakbak Racing who has provided us with the provisional calendar of events at Santa Pod Raceway in 2006. FIA/FIM and UK Championship events are listed in bold upper case: Sunday 22nd January: Run What You Brung Sunday 29th January: Run What You Brung Sunday 12th February: Run What You Brung Saturday 18th February: Saturday Night Special (RWYB until 21:00) Sunday 19th February: Run What You Brung Sunday 26th February: Run What You Brung Sunday 12th March: Run What You Brung Sunday 19th March: Run What You Brung Saturday 25th March: Run What You Brung Sunday 26th March: The Fast Show Sunday 2nd April: GTI Spring Festival Saturday 8th April: Peak Performance Test Day Sunday 9th April: Run What You Brung Friday 14th-Monday 17th April: EASTER THUNDERBALL Sunday 23rd April: Central Ford RS Owners Club Day Saturday 29th April-Monday 1st May: The Big Bang (VW Festival) Monday 1st May: Run What You Brung Saturday 13th May: Run What You Brung Sunday 14th May: Redline Rumble Saturday 20th May: Peak Performance Test Day Sunday 21st May: Run What You Brung Friday 26th May-Monday 29th May: FIA MAIN EVENT Sunday 4th June: Performance Vauxhall Show Saturday 10th June: Run What You Brung Sunday 11th June: Classic Ford Show Saturday 17th-Sunday 18th June: SPRC SUMMERNATIONALS Saturday 24th June: Run What You Brung Sunday 25th June: JapShow Saturday 1st July: Run What You Brung Sunday 2nd July: Retro Cars Show Sunday 9th July: GTI Festival Friday 14th July: Peak Performance Test Day Sunday 16th July: Run What You Brung Friday 21st-Sunday 23rd July: Bug Jam 20 Friday 28th-Sunday 30th July: 13th Mopar Euronationals Friday 4th-Sunday 6th August: Ultimate Street Car Sunday 13th August: Run What You Brung Saturday 2nd September: Peak Performance Test Day Sunday 3rd September: Run What You Brung Thursday 7th-Sunday 10th September: FIA EUROPEAN FINALS Saturday 16th September: 2 Wheel Hijack Sunday 17th September: Run What You Brung Saturday 30th September-Sunday 1st October: UK NATIONAL FINALS Saturday 7th October: Run What You Brung Sunday 8th October: JapShow Saturday 14th October: Saturday Night Special (RWYB until 21:00) Sunday 15th October: Run What You Brung Sunday 29th October: Run What You Brung Saturday 4th November: Flame and Thunder Show Sunday 5th November: Run What You Brung Sunday 21st January 2007: Run What You Brung Sunday 28th January 2007: Run What You Brung ©Eurodragster.com "The only major changes from the 2005 calendar are the concrete addition of Saturday Night Special events, and also the combining of the Scooter Hijack, Speedfreaks Ball and On2Wheels event to form 2 Wheel Hijack", says Rick. Also of note are the extension of the Easter Thunderball to four days, the move of the SPRC Summernationals to mid-June, and a number of Run What You Brung events held on a Saturday, usually in conjunction with a specialist event on the Sunday. Please note that additional events may be added, that RWYB dates may be upgraded or replaced by alternative events, and that Santa Pod Raceway reserves the right to alter their calendar without further notice. Swift snippets. 28th October: Rick Cuthbert also tells us that the official 2005 Bug Jam DVD is now available from Santa Pod Raceway. The one hour, forty minute DVD features commentary by Paul Venners and includes both on- and off-track action. The DVD is priced at £14.99 plus £2 p+p and can be obtained by calling Santa Pod Raceway on 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828). ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 28th October: Juoni Vesterlund has been in touch to let us know that he has added an English-language section to the very nicely-designed Dragrace.fi web site at www.dragrace.fi. "The web site focuses on drag bikes and was mainly created to share information about Finnish drag bike teams and riders", says Juoni. ©Eurodragster.com Flame and Thunder Show demos. 27th October: David Lloyd-Jones of Santa Pod Raceway has been in touch with the final list of participants in the drag racing demonstrations at next week's Flame and Thunder Show at Santa Pod: John Parkinson (Top Methanol Dragster) Steph Milam (Top Methanol Funny Car) Johnny Hall (Nitro slingshot) Paula Atkin (Super Pro ET) Nick Davies (Super Pro ET) Mark Flavell (Super Pro ET) Sam Freeman (Super Pro ET) Vic Amato (Pro ET) John Atkinson (Pro ET) Sandie Gibb (Sportsman ET) Jon Turner (Sportsman ET) Belinda Bull (Super Comp) Malcolm Francis (Super Comp/Super Gas) Dave Cherrett (Super Street) Pete Thompson (Super Street) Paul Marston Racing (four cars) Jay Hauser (Junior Dragster) Scott Hauser (Junior Dragster) Joe Kellett (Junior Dragster) Matthew Seamarks (Junior Dragster) Anna Stanley (Junior Dragster) Gibb family Junior Dragster Dave Grabham (Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association) Alec Coe (Wild Bunch) Ken Blomer (VW Pro) Rob Bowler (VW Pro) Simon Barlow (Outlaw Anglia) ©Eurodragster.com Dave Bailey (Funny Bike) Pete Bellenie (Super Street Bike) Mark Fisher (Super Street Bike) Jamie Sneddon (Super Street Bike) Roland Chaplain (Comp Bike) John Hackney (9.50 Bike) Steve Knapp (9.50 Bike) Phil Pratt (9.50 Bike) Steve Wood (9.50 Bike) These racers are of course in addition to the Top Fuel match race between Jon Webster and Chris Andrews, Rob Turner and Frank Bennett in The Mob Fuel Altered and Bennett Racing blown-alcohol altered, the Fireforce Jet Funny Cars, Roger Kirchner's Jet FC, and the Import racers who Rick Cuthbert of Trakbak Racing tells us are Dee Ireland, Ron Kiddell (Yes, the Ron Kiddell - Ed) and Mick Begly. Eurodragster.com News Editor Tog will be sitting in with Paul Venners on the Flame and Thunder Show commentary and would appreciate any commentators' notes which participants could supply. Suggestions for commentators' notes are your home town, your racing history, brief details about the vehicle including powerplant, Personal Best ET and speed, sponsors and crew but all contributions will be gratefully received however detailed or brief - remember that every word you send gets you more airtime! Please send your notes to tog@eurodragster.com. For more information about the Flame and Thunder Show incuding ticket prices and running order check out Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.co.uk/e_flame.php, and don't forget that a family weekend pass to Santa Pod as well as an SPR goodie bag are on offer in our Flame and Thunder Show contest, which you can enter by clicking here or by clicking on the Flame & Thunder Show Contest link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Barlow's first Showdown. 27th October: Simon Barlow and the Orange Pop Outlaw Anglia team are all set for the final round of Outlaw Anglia at this weekend's Halloween Showdown at Shakespeare County Raceway, says team member Jason Yates. ©Eurodragster.com "We are looking forward to this weekend because weve never run at Halloween Showdown", says Jay. "We will be running Mickey Thompson Street Radials, thanks to Lee Child of LA Racing Parts. Simon wants to run consistent 10.3s as he did at the Hot Rod Drags, and maybe a new Personal Best, but of course that depends upon the weather and track conditions. "We have had a great season and want to finish on a high." Swift snippets. 27th October: UK blown-alcohol altered racer Dave Grabham tells us that the Freddy's Revenge Topolino will be making some shakedown passes at the Flame and Thunder Show at Santa Pod Raceway on Saturday 5th November. This will be Dave's first outing since the huge, chassis-bending wheelie at the SPRC Summernationals. You can see pictures of the Altered under repair at Andy Robinson Race Cars as well as shots from the UK and the USA on the team's web site at www.freddysrevenge.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen is hoping to hold both Nordic Drag Racing Series and Scandinavian Dragracing Championship rounds in 2006, and the Norwegian club is also hoping to welcome back Pro Mod as an FIA class after NDRS and Pro Mod were dropped in controversial circumstances in 2005. You can read more, including news of improvements to Gardermoen, on the NDRG web site at www.norskdragracing.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=48. Tog and Sharkman would like to send their best wishes to Kathy Taylor who is headed into hospital today for an operation. We're sure that all of the racers and officials who benefit from Kathy's help at Santa Pod, and all of her other friends, will join us in wishing her all the best for her operation and a very rapid recovery. Dan Kennedy tells us that the UK's All Folked Up 9.50 Bike team would be pleased to hear from anyone who can help them to acquire three Honda C90s. "Gwatty, Paul and Bryan are going to attempt a charity run from John O' Groats to Lands End on Honda C90s", says Dan. "If you can tell us where we could get hold of Honda C90s then please E-Mail me at dankennedy@allfolkedup.co.uk." More bests for Goring. 26th October: UK Jet Funny Car pilot Roger Goring says that the Firestorm team have thoroughly enjoyed their year. Roger has reset his personal bests on many occasions this year most recently at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway when he clocked new bests of 6.213/255.51 as well as his best-ever sixty foot and eighth time and speed. Roger and the team will be making their final outing of 2005 at this weekend's Halloween Showdown at Shakespeare County Raceway. "We've gone quicker and faster by degrees, exactly as planned", says Roger. "It's small increases each time but it shows willing! We've had a real ball this year and we are really looking forward to the Halloween Showdown." It hasn't all been plain sailing for the Firestorm team, as although they have not suffered any damage to the jet engine this year Roger is beginning to hit issues with his parachutes. "It can get very hairy at the top end", he says. "I want to go quicker and I want to go faster but I don't want to go much faster until the chutes are sorted. We run the risk of damaging the car and it does my neck and back in! Obviously we need to find a happy medium between stopping it dead and taking too far to get stopped, so we are talking to Jim Deist in the USA." ©Eurodragster.com Roger's partner Helen Rusling took over the Crew Chief role in 2005 and Roger says that she has done a great job. "I am over the moon with Helen", says Roger. "She can do any job on the car, I can say to her "Change that valve" and she'll go off and do the job as well as anyone can and she puts in the hours. And then on top of that, when I run Helen stands out front and runs the show calmly and efficiently." Roger and the team will be saying goodbye to Stuart Every, whose last weekend this is with Firestorm. "Stuart's been with us a year and has done a grand job", says Roger. "We would like to thank him for all of his work this season and wish him every success in the future." The team's official web site at www.firestorm-jfc.co.uk has been updated with news of the NSRA Hot Rod Drags as well as some new photographs. Snap, cackle and Pop! 26th October: UK Outlaw Anglia racer Pete Ashworth will be making the first outing in his new race car at this weekend's Halloween Showdown at Shakespeare County Raceway. Almost a year to the day after he decided to go to Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars Pete is all set to début his new Big Block-powered Pop which by all accounts is stunning. After testing at SCR this weekend we hear that Pete is headed to Malta for a couple of weeks and will be taking the Pop with him. ©Eurodragster.com We also understand that at least one member of the Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association will be attending the Halloween Showdown. Swift snippets. 26th October: Legendary US Funny Car racer John Force is to be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Autosport Awards at London's Grosvenor House Hotel on Sunday 4th December. ©Eurodragster.com Lex Joon has asked us to say big Happy Birthday for yesterday to Kirsty Gibb. "Kirsty is our biggest fan and when you become sweet sixteen the world must know about it", says Lex. "All of us at MPM Top Fuel Racing would like to wish Kirsty a Happy Birthday." Johnson's second title. 26th October: 2005 UK National Super Comp Champion Chris Johnson is celebrating his second National title, adding this year's Super Comp Championship to his 1999 Pro ET crown. This season Chris was also runner-up in the Ultimate Power and Santa Pod Racers Club Championships. Wife Diane and daughter Emily are an integral part of his race team, along with Crew Chief Paul Somerville and Mechanic Will Burnett. Paul and Will are both colleagues at Southampton's Main Kia Dealer, Viking Garages, where Chris is Workshop Controller. Chris estimates that his hobby has cost him in excess of £100,000 over the years. Although he has not been able to attract the type of big money sponsorship he would like - he was on the verge of clinching a deal with MG when the car manufacturer went into receivership - Chris is grateful for the support provided by his employer and his other sponsors. Viking Garages have happily provided the facilities needed to build and maintain the car. "Chris, Paul and Will are all very talented technicians", says Managing Director Neil Evans. "If they choose to spend their spare time honing and refining their skills, the very least we can do is to provide the facilities they need. It’s surprising how often the highly specialised experience they obtain through racing can be used in an everyday workshop context. Our customers and, ultimately, the company derive tangible benefits." Chris plans to defend his UK title next season and also plans to take his car to Sweden and Finland for Nordic Drag Racing Series events. ©Eurodragster.com Allen on the learning curve. 26th October: UK VW Pro racer Danny Allen says that 2005 has been a fun year. "If Racing as a team have learnt a lot about the car, and about ourselves", says Danny. "I've learnt I'm a stroppy git when things don't go my way - Ben my-ever suffering Crew Chief will tell you that. Sorry dude. I've also learnt that it's not as easy as I thought. In hindsight I half expected to go straight out and for the car to behave itself. Yup I was naive, but as we got closer to the end of the season Ben and I started to get a grip on the car and get part of the way around that steep learning curve. Oh, and we also learnt how to rebuild the diff in the car's gearbox amongst other little jobs. "So I guess you're wondering what our plans are for the winter. Well, I'm off to pick up the new case for the new motor on Friday, we are stepping up from the current 1914 cc turbo engine to a 2276 turbo engine. Before we install the new engine we plan to attend a few Test and Tune days at the beginning of next year to fine tune the handling. Also over the winter we will be getting the official IF Racing lorry finally sorted, sponsors note you will have even more sticker space! "I'd like to end this year by saying a few Thank Yous to people who have helped me this year, so here goes. Ben Pascoe - thanks dude, your help is much appreciated both at the track and in the workshop at home; Brian Burrows - Without you what I'm doing wouldn't be happening, thank you; Stefan Vince - Cheers for your help in the car's early stages dude; Mum and Dad - Thanks for putting up with me going on about nothing other than my car, I know you listen really; the crew at SSP and VW Heritage - Thanks for your sponsorship and help, and thank you for letting me steal so much of Ben's time; Anders Hildebrand and crew at Anglo American Oils (76) - Thanks for yours and your team's support Anders; Oz and the Flying Zebras T-Shirt company - Thanks for the shirts dude, they rock as seen on the Bug Jam DVD; Whosyourhost.com - Thanks to Alex and Rob for looking after my web site; Performance Paints - Cheers Nigel, I owe you more than I can ever repay you; Turbo Thomas Exhausts - Cheers Rich you're a star. And thanks again to everyone who has offered words of encouragement and help in the last year. "Check out this month's issue of Ultra VW magazine, we made the front cover: www.ultravw.com/ultra_vw/agentorange.html." ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 26th October: Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Power Race Graphics have moved URLs to www.powerracegraphics.com. "Look out for new paint schemes, logos and T-shirt designs which will hopefully be added around early December, which will coincide with the launch of the site a year ago", says Darren West. "I’d like to say a big thanks to Nobby Hills Racing and Walking the Dog webmaster Chris Blows for continued help with changes and maintenance to the web site!". The Power Race Graphics web site contains details of the graphic services which Darren can offer as well as examples of work for customers and much more. ©Eurodragster.com Charity cookies! 25th October: The UK's Team Twisted Wild Bunch team got into the spirit of last year's Halloween Showdown at Shakespeare County Raceway as Twisted Driver Helen Smythe and Twisted Crew Christine dressed up and handed out free Halloween Spider Biscuits and Ghost Cakes. Helen tells us that things have taken a slight twist for this weekend's Halloween Showdown at SCR. "We will still be there in our spooky outfits, but this weekend we will be supplying Halloween cookies in return for a small donation to the Royal National Institute for the Blind", says Helen. "The RNIB is organising a raft of charity events over the Halloween weekend to raise awareness of the work they do, and we'd like as many racers as possible to contribute if at all possible. We know people are regularly tapped for charity donations, but don't forget you get a spooky cookie for whatever donation you can manage, however small! And as we approach the scariest weekend of the year, the facts regarding sight loss are indeed very scary: ©Eurodragster.com Every day another hundred people will start to lose their sight. Although ninety per cent of people say that sight is the sense they most fear losing, a regular eye test can help prevent avoidable eye problems. Unfortunately, many of the two million people with sight problems in the UK do not receive the help and services they need. RNIB helps people with sight problems get on with their lives. Join thousands of wonderful wicked people involved in our Scared Senseless fundraising for the RNIB this Halloween. Your support for RNIB helps us rebuild lives devastated by sight loss. You can find out more at www.rnib.org.uk/scaredsenseless. "So, keep an eye out for the Witch and Devil (right) with the tubs of cookies, and we look forward to another great weekend's racing at Shakespeare County Raceway." Continuing the scary theme, Helen adds that husband and Crew Chief Dean will be driving the Hell's Belle altered at SCR this weekend. Swift snippets. 25th October: We have two birthdays in the Top Methanol ranks today: our good friend Gittli Koller of Germany's Peter Schöfer Racing celebrates her birthday today whilst down in Switzerland 2005 FIA European Top Methanol FC Champion Urs Erbacher is hoping that he gets a Top Fuel Dragster for his birthday. Dave Alexander of ETMRA has asked us to pass on the birthday wishes of the European Top Methanol contingent and we're sure that everyone will join Tog and Sharkman in wishing Gittli and Urs the happiest of days. ©Eurodragster.com Further to yesterday's lead news item Anders Envall tells us that he has arrived in Orlando in one piece. "No Wilma here in Orlando but you can sure see that something was here and it wasn't Kilroy", says Anders. Web site updates. 25th October: Dan Kennedy tells us that the official web site of the UK's All Folked Up 9.50 Bike team has been updated with a signature tune. "It is an untraditional folk song", says Dan, "a tale of courting and drinking. Well, actually, it is a tale of Corki on the pull in Ireland!". You can hear the tune at www.allfolkedup.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com At the mercy of Agneta and Wilma... 24th October: Sweden's Anders Envall has packed up his ten-second street-legal Impala SS (right, click on picture for large version) and is headed to the USA for the Southern Super Heavyweight Shootout #5 at Atlanta Dragway in Georgia on 5th November. Anders says that his wife Agneta insisted that they go so now it's just a case of getting Hurricane Wilma to agree. "The ship with the Nordtrafik container carrying the Impala SS is supposed to arrive in Miami on Tuesday, and I'm supposed to land in Orlando on Monday", says Anders. "It sure doesn't look like it when checking in to the weather forecast because then it will be Wilma time!" Anders says that a stormy ending would be apposite after the season he has had. "As soon as I have left The Best Damn Garage In Town something has stopped us this year", he says. "Fires, broken trans and disappearing oil pressure to mention a few. We just managed to show up at Mantorp to tow the Solifer T1 to a new World Record for caravans. It barely worked, the engine was not happy at that stage." Anders thinks that he has his unhappy engine covered. "I'll be teaming up with Lennart 'Baker' Bergqvist and Birgitta at Autoshop in Orlando", says Anders. "They built the Impala's engine Jeezus to begin with. They've been friends of ours since they lived in Sweden and we've planned this adventure for a couple of years, to have fun going racing together again. They just won the Engine Masters Championship with their trademark - a Happy Engine. The first thing we'll do is to wrench Jeezus and tune it on a dyno." ©Eurodragster.com Agneta was not happy when Anders said that after all of his problems this season he would have to put off going to the Shootout until next year, reportedly replying "I don't want to hear 'next year' again, we're not giving in, we're going!". Anders says that Agneta was right and now it's a case of whether "Wilma will be jealous." The Blackout Impala SS, which is sponsored by Bilsport, Nordtrafik, Autoshop, Solifer, Lubrication Engineering Sweden and Gates USA is up against some tough competition in Atlanta. "It's a race for heavy cars with a 3800 pound minimum (without driver), and the Blackout SS is at 4222 pounds", he says. "The race is dominated by 1994-96 Impala SS running tens although a Lincoln ran a 9.73 last year before it blew the engine." Anders knows his competitors via the Internet. "We have an Impala SS forum with over 11,700 members!", he says. "We also have a Dynamic ET list where we race each other, I was third on that list with 10.80 after the 2003 European Finals, but because I haven't improved since then I'm now eighth. I want to top that list and when everything works as planned I'll run nines. I've been waiting so long to make it happen, but there's always something. I am sure there's a curse on the car." Anders' web site at www.blackout.nu includes news and pictures of the preparation of the Blackout Impala SS, as well as a superb video of his World Caravan Record run including in-car footage. You can find out more about the Southern Super Heavyweight Shootout on the event's official web site at www.sshs5.com. Fanciful end to SCR season. 24th October: Shakespeare County Raceway hosts its traditional season-ending Halloween Showdown this weekend (29th-30th October) and all cars and bikes are welcome. "The track will be prepped to event standard by Darren Prentice and Jon Cross" says promoter Lee Child, who jointly sponsors Eurodragster.com's Links pages through LA Racing Parts. As well as Run What You Brung on both Saturday and Sunday, the Halloween Showdown features Roger Goring's Firestorm Jet Funny Car and Martin Hill's Fireforce 1 and Fireforce 2 Jet Funny Cars, Outlaw Anglia, and special sessions set aside for grudge matches on both Saturday and Sunday: for more information about the grudge matches either check out our news item of 7th October or E-Mail lee@laracingparts.com. Also featuring on Sunday is the Shakespeare Street Car Challenge which will be running between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm and which offers trophies for the quickest street-legal car in five categories: eight cylinder, six cylinder, four cylinder, rotary, and four wheel drive. Entry to the Street Car Challenge comes at no extra cost; participants merely need to ensure that they display the correct category letter with their running number. ©Eurodragster.com There will be two Fancy Dress contests at the Halloween Showdown: the first runs throughout Saturday and is for racers and crew, and the second will be held in the Clubhouse on Saturday evening and is open to both adults and children. Lee (right, before and after promoting events - Ed) tells us that as usual prizes will be on offer for the best fancy dress. Gate prices for the Halloween Showdown are £10 Saturday, £12 Sunday or £20 for the weekend. Advance weekend tickets are available for £18 by calling LA Performance Services' Credit Card Hotline on 01803 550306 before 22:00 this Wednesday (26th October). Sign on for unlimited Test and Tune is £15 each for Saturday and Sunday, or £25 for the weekend. A valid DVLC licence must be presented at the signing-on office. The track will be open between 10:00 am and 6:00 pm on Saturday, and between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm on Sunday. Eurodragster.com will be presenting end-day photo galleries on both days of the Halloween Showdown in association with American Car Imports, and the Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam will be on-line and will be scheduled to broadcast a picture every two minutes. Power Point line up DVDs. 24th October: At the end of the week in which Christmas advertising started on UK television, David Coleman of Power Point Communications tells us that the company have a busy schedule of DVD releases over the next few weeks which we think will make great presents for any race fan whatever their preference. "This week we will be releasing the 2005 Hardcore Street DVD which features Street Eliminator, and we will also be releasing the Mopar EuroNats DVD", says David. "The following week we will release the Ultimate Power Championship DVDs, as with last year the Pro and Sportsman DVDs will be available separately. ©Eurodragster.com "Shortly after this will be Super Mod Wars which follows all eight competition rounds of Super Modified, Nitro Warriors featuring the Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association, and Street Racers and Foot Brakers which will include footage from Bradenton Motorsports Park, Florida and the UK's Street Racer Saturday series. "Titles already available include Strip and Street which covers the American Car World Nationals, and Rotorstock II." For full details including frame grabs from the DVDs, or to order your copies, check out the Power Point Communications web site at www.quartermilehigh.com. Swift snippets. 24th October: UK Super Comp and Super Gas racers Dave and Sarah Day tell us that they, and not forgetting son and trainee crew Elliot, hope to be back in action in their roadster at the 2006 Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod. "We hope to throw a curve ball at all those Compers and Gassers", they say. ©Eurodragster.com Over the weekend we did some housekeeping on the Eurodragster.com server which involved removing the photographs from all of our 2004 Event Coverage - with the exception of the FIA Main Event and FIA European Finals - to free up disk space. Full galleries for every 2004 race and for several years previous are of course still available on Photo Editor Sharkman's personal web site at www.topendtales.com. UK Jet Funny Car pilot Roger Goring tells us that although the Firestorm Jet FC is listed on the official running order for Santa Pod's Flame and Thunder Show, this is a typo as he is not booked to appear at that event. Smax junior and Junior. 24th October: Aidan and Ronan Smith, sons of ex-pat UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Smax Smith, are back at the track in their adopted home of Canada. Former Junior Dragster racer Aidan is now shoeing the ex-Southern Rebel altered (right) whilst Ronan is still racing in Junior Dragster. Aidan dropped us a line to let us know how their first Canadian outing went. "Dad's original plan was to throw a blown hemi in the altered and run in the Supercharged Outlaws as a six-second altered, but since running Top Fuel he says is it hard to go back so he handed the car down to me", says Aidan. "Obviously with this being my first time in a full-size race car I wasn't going to put an engine that big in. I wanted to, but believe it or not dad wouldn't let me. Luckily for us, the previous owner of the house had left an old scrappy 350 small block Chevy in the garage, so we got the dirt stripped off the engine and after getting the chassis back from painting we got the axle, front end, steering etc done and got the engine in. "We wanted something to buzz on before the snow came, so we called the three tracks within an hour of our house and luckily one was open up to yesterday so the race was on to get the car completed. We called a paint shop to get the body coated with black primer, which was only done on Tuesday, and we still had to complete the engine. We put the headers on, only to find that they rubbed on the body. We tried putting spacers on but it just got ridiculous, so I said why not turn them upside down. Dad just loved the idea and so we did it. We still had to get the motor plates and...the list went on. After receiving the motor plates on Wednesday we found they just didn't fit so we had a mad dash to get them lined up and fitted which was finally done by Thursday morning and most of the engine was completed. "That evening I put on the race suit and we tested to see if I could fit, then they strapped me in and put the body down to see how I felt. Everything was good, then dad gave me the ten second test to get out the car: four seconds, perfect. Then the moment of truth, we fired up the car, and after of bit of fiddling with the timing and whatnot, she was ready to go. Just before loading the altered and the Junior Dragster on Friday we remembered we hadn't run through the gears, so I jumped back in and we fired it up. First gear nothing, second gear nothing, third and reverse nothing! After trying to find another converter dad came up with another suggestion: "What if when you tightened the converter bolts the converter has come so far forward that the shaft isn't engaging the pump?". So he found some spacers and twenty minutes later I jumped back in the car, the car fired, dad signalled for first gear, I released the brake...and the tyres spun! I just felt the biggest sigh of relief come over me, revved her up to 5000 rpm and shifted through the gears. Perfect, so I shut it off, jumped out, called Ronan out and we all started loading the trailer for the next morning. "We got into the track just after 10:00 am and pretty much had it to ourselves. We got Ronan in the Junior and warmed it up only to find it kept dying on us. We thought it was just the methanol so we got him on the start line, fired him up and the engine died. Re-fired him, got into pre stage...died. Fired, staged, the lights ran...died. We pushed Ronan back to the pits, I got suited up and strapped in, and pushed to the start line. As soon as that body dropped my heart started racing, got the signal from dad to fire it up, high gear, rolled forward into the water box and hit the throttle. No smoke, although the wheels spun like crazy. First gear, into stage, transbrake on, the lights ran, hit the throttle, on green released the transbrake and the car took off and turned right immediately so I got off the throttle. I was only supposed to run to the eighth for testing so I only got an eighth slip, sixteen seconds to the eighth. The Junio rruns quicker than that. "Back to the pits and dad was working on the Junior Dragster, he had a huge grin as usual so I knew he was happy. Second time round I wasn't nearly as nervous but that’s how it always is, so they lowered the body. The car started fish tailing on me in the burnout so I got off it and that smashed my head against the roll cage. I sat holding the brake for a couple of seconds until I got my senses back and figured out where I was, and with dad laughing up front was guided back. I knew I had to do something better than the first run to impress dad, but I was still only allowed to go to the eighth so I launched her hard, 1.81 to sixty feet, not bad especially spinning the tyres like crazy on a bad track, then shut it off just before the eighth. I ran 13.6 on the quarter and 7.78/90 at the eighth. Dad came up on the back of the truck clapping and cheering saying I did great, so I knew he was pleased. "We got back to the pits and Ronan was dying to get out, so dad took apart the carb on his car, only to find what looked like a hairball clogging the main fuel line! He put the carb back together, fired it up and she stayed running so Ronan got on his helmet and dived into the car, pushed to the start line as I was getting my suit on, and I watched as he ran the car no problem. 10.66/68, it's not a nine but don't forget it is a bad track, the weather's bad and it's also cold! Ronan drove it back to the start line, pumped like crazy wanting to go again before me, but I had the altered fired and ready. No knocking myself out in the burnout this time, dad said "Do what feels right, this run you can do anything". I launched and shifted straight into second because the tyres keep spinning off the line and I held on for the ride, shifted into third by the eighth and ran her right through the quarter mile 12.31/106.9! "I was really buzzing at this point because I knew it was fast and I knew dad was going to be over the moon. I got out of the car and went all light headed, maybe from never going that fast or maybe just from adrenaline, but either way I was loving it. Right behind me Ronan ran and got into the nines, 9.902/68, so we were both happy. Neither Ronan or I had the cars working under full throttle because on Ronan's car the cable wasn't fastened properly and on mine the pedal hit the flex plate. With twenty minutes before the track closed we just cut and bent the throttle pedal on my car and tested it out and we got full throttle! Ronan ran first, but he tried something different and it only ran a 10.67/67. I went to fire my car...nothing. It was turning over but wouldn't come to life, at this point I'm strapped in the car getting worried, dad traces the wires and checks the coil and the plug wires, nothing. Then I remembered that when you turned the ignition on the shift light lit up for a second, so dad checked the fuse and it was dead. "We replaced the fuse and I was ready for my last run. She fired first time, I pulled probably the best burnout of the day with the tiniest bit of smoke. I waited for the lights to run, mashed my foot to the floor and away I went, shifted into second a lot later than I should have and the car started skating but I stayed with it. Into third gear then my visor started fogging like crazy, but I ran it through the back door and shut it off. I knew it was fast and I got that head rush as I climbed out of the car. The tow truck was right behind me as they had tried to keep up with me in the other lane filimng. I asked what the time was but they wouldn't tell me until I got back to the pits. Dad had the grin again and was jumping around, when I got out he put his arm around me and said 11.96/112. I couldn't believe it! He also said it spun the tyres for a good half a second off the line, and with a non-tuned engine, a scrappy motor which was on the floor and a bad day and track that run easily eclipsed my expectations. Now I just cant wait to get it back in the shop and get her running sweet. As we loaded up and climbed into the truck, down came the rain, not bad timing eh? "We shall keep you updated on what goes on over here during the off season and next season, we hope all of you enjoy the remainder of this season and have a great off-season." Capewell heads for Bahrain. 22nd October: UK Top Methanol Funny Car racer Trevor Capewell has confirmed that he has been invited to take part in next month's Drag Racing Festival at the Bahrain International Circuit. "This is a great honour for us", says Trev. "In preparation for the first round of the 2006 Championship the Bahrain Drag Racing Club are holding an event to show the crowds what they can expect next year and to help the track crew get used to FIA Pro-class cars. We are proud to be helping them do that." This is a season of firsts for the team. Trev's wife Esta gave birth to their first child Anastasia a few months ago, Trev himself became the fastest-ever British TMFC driver, and now he's off to his first overseas event. "Of course the Funny Car has travelled a lot" he says. "It's been to more parts of the world than we have, so now we're playing catch-up with it!" The crew are busy fixing some minor internal engine damage suffered at the FIA European Finals before packing everything up and driving the car down to Frankfurt. "Everything's being palletised and air-freighted from Frankfurt to Bahrain and it will be delivered to a pit at the track for us - we're very impressed", says Trev. ©Eurodragster.com The team are confident that they will put on a good show for the drag racing fans in Bahrain. "We've heard a lot about how enthusiastic they are and we can't wait to make them sit up and take notice - this will be the first Funny Car they have ever seen!", says Trev. Final UK Championship standings. 22nd October: We are as every indebted to UK National Championship Co-ordinators Yvonne Tramm and Simon Groves for sending us the final standings in the 2005 UK National Drag Racing Championships. ©Eurodragster.com You can view the final 2005 UK standings by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. We're sure that everyone will join us in thanking Yvonne and Simon for their hard work co-ordinating the UK Championships in 2005. Swift snippets. 22nd October: Joe Bond tells us that the Bond family have taken delivery of their altered which will be taking part in the 2006 Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association series. "It's nothing much to look at at the moment but once we have made some progress I shall send you some pictures", says Joe. Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has written to let us know that the venue for the joint APIRA/SPRC Dinner Dance has changed its name to the Park Inn Hotel (previously the Northampton Moat House). The telephone number and fax numbers have remained the same", says Paula, "and the booking reference is still MIC040206. This is just in case anyone ringing to book their rooms think they have got through to the wrong hotel - it's the same place, just a different name". For full details about the APIRA/SPRC Dinner Dance see our news item of 14th October or check out the Entry Forms link of the SPRC web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. ©Eurodragster.com Wedding bells are ringing today for our good buddies Barry Bohannon and Alison Gowlett who are to be married this afternoon, with a subsequent few days of honeymoon to be spent in York. Barry and Alison make a fine couple and we're sure that everyone will join us in wishing them every happiness for the future. UK Wild Bunch racer 'Crazy Chris Hartnell writes with the good news that he is now a Crazy Gramps, as son and fellow Wild Bunch racer Lee and his fiancée Sarah have had a lovely baby boy named Liam Christopher, born on Friday 7th October. "Liam weighed in at 8 lbs 4 oz and is just wonderful!", says 'Crazy Claire Meaddows. "Mum is tired and happy, and Dad is 'Dazed and Confused' and very proud! We’d like to send our warmest congratulations and love to Lee and Sarah and welcome little Liam to the world". Sharkman and Tog would like to add their own congratulations and we're sure that all of our readers will, too. Steve Young tells us that the classic documentary Funny Car Summer is to be screened on UK satellite channel Sky Matinee Movies (336) next Friday, 28th October, at 10.10 am. "The film is a feature length biopic of Jim Dunns' 1972 Division 7 season with the wild rear-engined Dunn and Reath Funny Car", says Steve. "It has some wonderful old cars and really cheesy music, and look out for a young Mike Dunn winning Top Eliminator on his chopper bicycle complete with parachutes! I kid you not, set your videos for some smiles and a little nostalgia." Racers answer F&T call. 21st October: Santa Pod Raceway received the usual strong response to their 6th October call here on Eurodragster.com for racers to make demonstration passes at the Flame and Thunder Show on Saturday 5th November. David Lloyd-Jones has kindly sent us the list of Flame and Thunder Show demo participants (and Eurodragster.com readers, thank you guys - Ed) as it currently stands: John Parkinson (Top Methanol Dragster) Steph Milam (Top Methanol Funny Car) Mark Flavell (Super Pro ET) Sam Freeman (Super Pro ET) John Atkinson (Pro ET) Sandie Gibb (Sportsman ET) plus the Gibb family Junior Dragster Jon Turner (Sportsman ET) Malcolm Francis (Super Comp) Dave Cherrett (Super Street) Pete Thompson (Super Street) Jay Hauser (Junior Dragster) Scott Hauser (Junior Dragster) Joe Kellett (Junior Dragster) Matthew Seamarks (Junior Dragster) Anna Stanley (Junior Dragster) The four Paul Marston Racing cars Alec Coe (Wild Bunch) Ken Blomer (VW Pro) Simon Barlow (Outlaw Anglia) ©Eurodragster.com Dave Bailey (Funny Bike) Roland Chaplain (Comp Bike) Peter Bellenie (Super Street Bike) Jamie Sneddon (Super Street Bike) John Hackney (9.50 Bike) Phil Pratt (9.50 Bike) These racers are of course in addition to the Top Fuel match race between Jon Webster and Chris Andrews, the Fuel Altereds and the Jet Funny Cars. David tells us that entry is now closed. For more information about the Flame and Thunder Show incuding ticket prices check out Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.co.uk/e_flame.php, and don't forget that a family weekend pass to Santa Pod as well as an SPR goodie bag are on offer in our Flame and Thunder Show contest, which you can enter by clicking here or by clicking on the Flame & Thunder Show Contest link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Swift snippets. 21st October: UK Funny Bike racer Sarah Jane Head called us last night (Thursday) with the great news that she is already home from St James' Hospital after her latest operation, which involved taking a piece of bone from one of her hips and using it to pack out her right ankle. "I didn't get any sleep at all last night", said Scary. "I was in a lot of pain with my right hand because I couldn't take my regular medication. So this morning I felt like crap and I told them I was going home!" ©Eurodragster.com Magnus Cato of Sweden's Malmgren Racing Pro Stock team says that Michael Malmgren and the crew are hard at work preparing for their trip to Bahrain International Circuit. "We have more or less filled up four gigantic boxes with spare parts", says Magnus. "Spare engine, gearbox, driveshaft, clutches etc. to ensure that Malmgren Racing do everything possible to guarantee the promoters and spectators a great drag racing show. Together with Richard Sundblom we are excited about showing the Bahrain fans what Pro Stock is all about." Congratulations to UK Wild Bunch racer Mark Hartnell who made it into the twelves and over 100 mph with a best of 12.927/101.58 in his Pinto-powered Awesome Foursome at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend. "More jumping up and down for me on the start line, and going hoarse with shouting!", says Claire Meaddows. Claire tells us that Mark's dad 'Crazy' Chris Hartnell will be taking a drive in the dragster on the Saturday of next week's Halloween Showdown. Web site updates. 21st October: Our good friend Alan Currans has updated his excellent Acceleration Archive with a fourth page of pictures from the Dennis Priddle Collection and Alan tells us that this update contains some very historic photographs indeed. "There are some pictures of the famous Tudor Rose dragster and a whole host of shots from the 1960s which could only be positively identified with the kind assistance of Nick Pettitt (Good on you Nick, - Ed). Also included are some shots of the visiting US Masters Commando Drag Racing Team. Finally, do you know what a car looks like when dropped from a great height? If the answer is no, take a look for yourself". What more invitation to you need to check Alan's latest Dennis Priddle update at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com Bartlett reveals BIC Team Europe. 20th October: FIA and UEM Championship Promoter Keith Bartlett has been in touch to let us know that the driver and rider line up is now finalised for the FIA Invitational event to be held at the Bahrain International Circuit on 10th-11th November: Top Fuel Dragster: Thomas Nataas (Norway) and Susanne Callin (Sweden) Top Methanol Funny Car: Trevor Capewell (England) Pro Stock: Michael Malmgren (Sweden) and Richard Sundblom (Finland) Pro Modified: Freddy Fagerström (Sweden) and Patrik Pers (Sweden) Top Fuel Bike: Ian King (England) and Sverre Dahl (Norway) Supertwin: Ronny Aasen (Norway) and Per Bengtsson (Sweden) Pro Stock Bike: Paul Watson (England) and Ray Debben (England) ©Eurodragster.com "I would have preferred to have the original planned thirty teams going over for the Invitational, but the main purpose of this event is get the Bahrain International Circuit drag strip 'homologated' to enable professional drag racing to take place at the facility", says Keith. "The budget just for flying out the thirteen teams is much higher than most people realise and we must not lose sight of the main goal, which is that we are negotiating to have a full round of the FIA and UEM European Drag Racing Championship held at the BIC in early April 2006. This would then be the first round of the 2006 Championships. "We are of course disappointed that we have no Top Methanol Dragsters and only one Top Methanol Funny Car taking part in the Bahrain Invitational. With that said, we are confident that the teams going down to Bahrain will not only put on a good show, but will receive a huge reception from the 'drag racing crazy' fans in the Gulf States." Eurodragster.com have been invited to the Bahrain Invitational and we are planning to post live coverage from the event. Go 0-60 for charity. 20th October: Glenn Ramsden of UK Event Safety tells us that the organiser of the 0-60 Challenge event held on private land in Derbyshire a couple of years ago is to hold another 0-60 Challenge on Saturday 29th October. "This time the event is in a secret location near to the A38", says Glenn. "The event is being run in partnership with a new mineral water based drink H20 Adrenalin. Profits from the event are going to orphans throughout the world, H20 being a double strap: water and Help 2 Orphans. "We are looking for cars which can run 0-60 mph in under four seconds for the event. There are a limited number of places left and there are a number of prizes on offer for the winner including a few hundred quid in cash. ©Eurodragster.com "The promoter has televison rights and the whole event is being filmed for release both on DVD and TV. At present Men and Motors and Max Power are backing the gig. "The event is being held on a private venue and not a country road as before! Each entry is allowed to take ten guests to the event, it is a closed event therefore not open to the public. All entries must travel by road in convoy from ten miles from the venue. You can trailer your cars but they must be street legal and drive the last ten miles, with the exception of exhibition cars. "Additionally, it would be great to an exhibition car or two and to have a Junior Dragster to run at the event. This is firstly to show some of the street cars the way home and secondly to tie up the link with children. Any volunteers?" If you are interested then please contact Glenn by E-Mail at glnnram@aol.com. Croot on his 'mobile. 19th October: UK snowmobile drag racer Max Croot says that 2005 has been an interesting first year. "I had a massive learning curve", says Max. "It came good towards the end with a lot of help from a couple of the Swedes, Thomas Petterssen and Lennart Karlsson, who figured out my clutch problems and lent us parts to fix it. Snowmobile CVT clutches are a real science which is not well understood in Hampshire! "We are now into a major winter rebuild with some radical changes and lots of new parts, so 2006 should be a lot of fun. Plans are to run demos, including a few major circuit (What? - Ed) car and bike races, plus some Swedish Championship races in Pro Stock spec, and then if all goes well the Snowmobile Finals in Brainerd, Minnesota." ©Eurodragster.com Max also tells us that he has broken new drag racing ground by being featured in The Undertaker, the Funeral Directors' industry journal, through sponsor Motorcycle Funerals. If you want to find out more about Snowmobile drag racing then Max has a very interesting web site at www.mad-max-racing.com, and the European Snowmobile scene - which not surprisingly is particularly big in Sweden and Norway - is covered at www.snowmobiledragrace.com. "The European site gives a lot of generic background and links to some of the teams", says Max. "Anyone not featured is asked to get in touch via the web site so that the database can be completed." Web site updates. 19th October: The official web site of the UK's American Car Imports Racing Top Methanol Dragster team has been updated with a report of Dave Wilson and the team's weekend at the UK National Finals. Check it out at www.americancarimportsracing.com. ©Eurodragster.com Isabel's farewell. 19th October: Isabel Randisek, formerly of TV production companies Sunspot Production and Lima Television, has been in touch to express her thanks to everyone who helped her whilst she was involved in the production of TV coverage of the European Championships. "As I have recently started working for another TV company, I will not be able to work on the 2006 European Drag Racing Championships", says Isabel. "So I want to take this opportunity for the last time to acknowledge and especially thank all the people behind the scenes who helped me - you know who you are. ©Eurodragster.com "I think it is often these people who are sometimes the least acknowledged, but seem to me the most dedicated and enthusiastic and who taught me everything I need to know as regards to real drag racing. It is these people, as well as the drivers who constantly reminded me what drag racing was all about. This is something that I hope never changes, especially as the sport becomes more commercial. Drag racing to me will always be about passion, a pure love for the sport and not forgetting a true feeling of community. "No matter how stressful it became for the drivers and crew, I would never have been able to do my job without their co-operation and great kindness, which often left me speechless (rare for me). I was always treated with the utmost respect and I was always made to feel welcome - for all of this, I thank you all." From no-hopers to upset merchants. 18th October: The UK's Canto Racing Top Fuel Dragster team have a lot to be satisfied about in 2005 even though they did not go many rounds on their last outing, says Crew Chief Peter Knight. "Although we don't do many events, our team has really matured during this season and I am personally very proud of each individual team member's achievements since we started with the Top Fuel car", says Peter. "We have gone from being a team of no-hopers to the people probably most likely to cause an upset, and that is a good feeling. "I personally still have a huge amount to learn about these complex machines, but getting the car down the track succesfully so many times this season has helped everyone increase their understanding of what is going on. Jon Webster (Driver - Ed) always gives a hundred per cent, and as we demonstrated at Easter and at the FIA Main Event we can run well and consistently and, just as importantly, get the car turned around quickly. That was a shock in itself as we had never had to do it until Easter! Posting Low ET and High Speed of the Easter Thunderball was a dream come true, and as far as our runner-up finish at the FIA Main Event was concerned, we could only have gone one better!" Peter says that he took a gamble on the track conditions at the FIA European Finals but that it didn't work out. "I left the car set soft, but when I saw Lex Joon run like a train, I thought "Bugger - that's done it"!", he says. "I knew we were too soft there and then, but it was too late to change the tune up and Susanne Callin beat us fair and square." An old friend of Peter's visited and extracted all of this season's runs from a recalcitrant datalogger and Peter says that as soon as he looked at the data he noticed something which should stand them in good stead in 2006. "What I discovered when sifting through the run data was astounding", he says. "You could hear the penny drop from some distance away. Suffice to say that I am very much looking forward to next season as I feel we can now go forward with the car's performance - and I'll leave it at that! Jon, the rest of the team and I are making plans and chasing a couple of leads for next year. We really want to do the FIA tour, so we have to concentrate on what will allow that to happen as our number one priority." ©Eurodragster.com The team are not yet finished with 2005 as Jon Webster will be taking on Chris Andrews in a two-shot match race at the Flame and Thunder Show at Santa Pod. "Someone called it a demo run, but we're going to give it our best shot as usual", says Peter. "If all goes OK - which is a big assumption anyway! - then we'll be trying to run as fast as we possibly can. That is what the cars are for, isn't it?" Peter has many people to thank for their help and support during 2005. "Thanks to Jon Webster (driver and car builder), Johnny Mac and Alex Mackintosh (clutch), Laurie Bamford (bottom end), Dean Bailey (right head), Tim (left head), Steve (general everything), Anne Mac (catering), and Martin (entertainment officer)", he says. "Thanks also to John and Lesley Wright for stripping their car more than once to bring spares to the track, and of course to Alan Jackson for knowing how they work." If you are on the look-out for a new motor then Peter's company Knight Racing Services have a number of engines for sale under Adverts from Businesses on our Jeff Bull Race Engines and Performance Parts-sponsored Swap Meet including an aluminium 358 ci Ford, a twin turbo set-up 460 Ford, and a number of SB and BB Chevy motors. Showing us both sides of the car... 18th October: UK Street Eliminator's newest recruit Ray Tucker put in his licencing passes at Santa Pod Raceway at the weekend. Ray had a bit of a wild ride in his blown 'Vette (right) on Saturday evening pass when the car made what sounds like a violent move at half-track, but Rob Tucker says that Ray and the team are very grateful for the help they received on Saturday. "It's a new untried car, new crew, and a "born-again drag racer" driver, we needed all the help we could get!", says Rob. "Our special thanks go to Ian Marshall who took time out to make sure that Ray did everything necessary on his observed runs to gain his competition licence. Ian and the crew were really great and especially patient with us. Thanks also to all the start line crew and the rescue team who towed Ray's Corvette off the track after his exciting début run! ©Eurodragster.com "I would like to add my own thanks to Pete Smith for his help and advice to me on the start line. Many thanks guys for all the encouragement, and for your patience. "We look forward to entertaining the crowds next year in Street Eliminator - but maybe not quite so spectacularly!" Swift snippets. 18th October: Åsa Kinnemar of Sweden's Kågered Racing says that Micke Kågered wishes Niclas Andersson every success in his return to Pro Mod. "When Micke put the Top Methanol FC up for sale they agreed that Niclas was free to do whatever he wished, as he is not the type of person who stays in a team just to be a mechanic", says Åsa. "Micke is happy that things have already worked out well for Niclas and we wish him all the best. The future of the Kågered TMFC is still uncertain, although we have some people interested it is not yet sold so I guess we will just have to wait and see!" UK Junior Dragster racer Anna Stanley will be racing in Junior Modified in 2006 after acquiring the Morrice Boys JMD. Anna's Junior Stock Dragster has been sold to the Bishop family and will be driven by Victoria Bishop. "Anna can't wait until the Flame and Thunder Show, where she will be testing her new car", says dad Conrad. "Anna has earned her new team name Bristol Doorslammers Novice (previously Apprentice). With Collin Morrice as Anna's Crew Chief we are sure that 2006 will be another winning season for this JDM. Good luck to Victoria with her new car." UK 9.50 Bike racer Steve Knapp, who has been collecting expressions of interest in a new 8.90 Bike class, tells us that he has now sent all opinions received to Avon Park International Racers Association and Santa Pod Racers Club for their consideration. "Thanks to everyone for their support", says Steve. Wendy Clutterbuck made her first passes on her Supertwin Fuel Bike at the weekend, says Ian Turburville. "Everything checked out A-OK", says Turbo. "Wendy's bike is the ex-Chris Stebbings machine which he bought from Wendy's dad Steve, and which was ridden into the eights by Rush Carruthers!" This week's issue of Motorsport News is scheduled to include a feature about the thoughts and sensations involved in driving a race car. The article, written by Jo Holland, includes contributions from Jet Funny Car pilot Martin Hill and Eurodragster.com News Editor Tog who when 'volunteered' (I nominated a number of real racers - Ed) had just gained his race licence. Jo tells us that the feature is scheduled for a full page and should be on page 37. This week's Motorsport News will be published tomorrow (Wednesday 19th) and will be available from all good newsagents for £1.99. ©Eurodragster.com A provisional running order for November's Flame and Thunder Show at Santa Pod Raceway has been posted on Santa Pod's web site at www.santapod.co.uk/e_flame.php together with some updated information about participants. We understand that Germany's Roger Kirchner has also joined the line-up with his Jet Funny Car. Don't forget that a family weekend pass to Santa Pod as well as an SPR goodie bag are on offer in our Flame and Thunder Show contest, which you can enter by clicking here or by clicking on the Flame & Thunder Show Contest link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. UK Comp Bike racer TJ O'Brien's partner Pat Ginn has asked us to warn the party going to the AMA/Prostar World Finals in Gainesville that she will be taking a camera with her. "Get the flowery shirts out", says Pat. Luke Bennett of Bennett Racing is now offering a web site and graphic design service. Luke says that he can provide services from logo design, production of catalogues or flyers and design of stands at exhibitions to complete web sites. For more information on the services which Bennett Design can offer check out Luke's web site at www.bennettdesign.moonfruit.com. Seven-second Import imported. 18th October: Europe's leading Japanese performance specialists GT Culture are importing a seven-second street-legal GTR Skyline to the UK from Japan as one of GTC's new demo cars for 2006. The GTR, built by drag racing specialists Duke Racing Japan, has clocked a 7.942-second pass and numerous low eights and is believed to be one of two GTRs to have run a seven. GT Culture's new car is currently the second-fastest four-wheel-drive car in the world, second only to a non street-legal out-and-out drag racing R33 GTR built by HKS Japan. To put things in perspective, the current fastest road-legal four-wheel-drive car in Europe is Skyline which clocked 9.3 at Shakspeare County Raceway. In 2006 the GTC Duke Racing Drag GTR will be challenging for the title of Europe's quickest street-legal car and GT Culture say that they have little doubt that the car can do it. The team from Duke Japan will be spending time in Europe with GT Culture in 2006 and will be pushing the car to its limits to break records. ©Eurodragster.com Spec wise, the car includes HKS 2.8 hi-deck engine, HKS crank shaft, HKS special piston and HKS special conrods, built to sustain over 1200 BHP. An HKS Air shift gear box allows open-accelerator quick gear changes and is one of only twenty on the planet at a cost of £32,000. The car also sports massive 3240 HKS turbos, with 3540s available to us. The GTR will be attending high-profile drag racing events all over Europe in 2006 and is set to receive TV coverage. For more information check out the GT Culture web site at www.gt-culture.com. Wilkes takes the Challenge. 18th October: The 2005 National Street Car Challenge was a close-fought affair, with drivers going the length and breadth of the country to rack up points, says Shaun Wilson: The victory went right down to the last round of racing which took place this weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway. Good weather and a superbly-prepped track meant that all of the drivers in the sixteen car field were able to wring good times – including a number of personal bests. ©Eurodragster.com Mick Wilkes clinched this year's title, with his friend piloting the two-litre Vauxhall Viva to a points win despite nuking the gearbox in the third round on Sunday. This still gave him a four-hundred point advantage over Al Williamson's '54 Chevy Stepside pickup, which went through to the semi-finals before losing out to Russ Pursley's unstoppable Dutton. James Murray came home third, though a new second stage of nitrous on his Mk2 Cortina Estate saw him rocket to a new Personal best of 12.3/109. Shaun Wilson came home fourth after a very fortunate meet where reliability saw his '68 Camaro run through an elimination ladder decimated with breakages to reach the finals with the Dutton. Neil Martin's 5.0 GT Mustang came home in fifth overall place after a solid and consistent season. For a full account of the event, plus the overall points standings check out the HotRod Gazette at www.hotrodgazette.com. Flame and Thunder Show contest. 17th October: Eurodragster.com has teamed up with Santa Pod Raceway to offer one lucky reader a Weekend Family Pass to the Flame and Thunder Show as well as a Santa Pod Raceway goodie bag. The Family Pass admits two adults and up to four children to the Flame and Thunder Show which takes place on Saturday 5th November and features a Top Fuel Dragster match race between Jon Webster and Chris Andrews, Fuel Altereds, demonstration passes by racers, the Fireforce Jet Funny Car team, Ronny Picardo's jet-powered truck and Volkswagen Beetle, Michel Kooy's Pyromania jet quad, Paul Bailey's Jet Trike, Steve Murty's Wheelie Truck, stunt displays, drifting demo, Denny Dobson's aerobatic show, Hot Air Balloon Glow, the traditional bonfire and huge firework display, and more. Santa Pod Raceway's own radio station Nitro FM will also be making their last broadcast of the season. If you want to stay over for Sunday's Run What You Brung then the Family Pass is valid for the whole weekend including camping on Saturday night and entry to Sunday's RWYB (although not sign-on). For your chance to win the pair of Flame and Thunder Show tickets, answer the three questions below. The answers can all be found somewhere on Eurodragster.com if you don't know them already. ©Eurodragster.com Question A: What has been the highest terminal speed at Santa Pod Raceway in 2005? 308.28 mph 317.56 mph 336.10 mph Question B: What are the names of the Nitro FM presenters? Darren and Jon Nigel and Julian Tog and Sharkman Question C: Which companies sponsor the Eurodragster.com webcam? American Car Imports and ICE Automotive Speedflow and LA Racing Parts Webster Race Engineering and MPM Oil To enter, simply send an E-Mail to contest@eurodragster.com giving: Your answers to Questions A, B and C Your name Your E-Mail address A daytime or mobile phone number The winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries received. Entry closes at 23:59 UK on Tuesday 1st November, and the winner will be notified by Eurodragster.com on Wednesday 2nd November. For the full Contest rules check out the Flame and Thunder Show Contest page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Flame & Thunder Show Contest link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Many thanks to Kelly Ingall of Santa Pod Raceway for putting up the great prize for this contest. Good luck everyone! Swift snippets. 17th October: Apologies that Eurodragster.com was off-line for a large part of yesterday (Sunday). This was due to a server problem which our ISP Selfnet tells us was caused by the application of a Microsoft patch to the server software. Selfnet spent five hours on the phone with Mircosoft yesterday before Microsoft finally admitted that their patch had caused a problem and supplied a workaround. 16:00 The problem with the Swap Meet has now been cured - advertisements can now be placed. UK 9.50 Bike racer Phil Pratt has asked us to say a big Thank You to Super Street Bike racer Gary Drury who offered Phil a ride of his eight-second turbo Hayabusa, an offer which Phil was only too pleased to accept. "Gaz gave me my first eight", says Phil. 175 in a quarter is as funny as! I wonder what a seven feels like? Cheers Gaz you're a star!" ©Eurodragster.com We would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to Santa Pod Raceway race official Robin Shone. Hope that you have a great day, Robin. Paranoia receives attention. 16th October: Answering Thursday's call for news to help us through the Autumn slowdown is Herb Andrews who has been in touch to explain the absence of the popular Jaguar-powered, '33 Plymouth five window coupe Paranoia from UK drag strips this season. "Current owner Martin Holgate has had Roy Wilding upgrade the chassis to current MSA specifications and at the same time increased the wheelbase to 125", in readiness for a number of performance improvements", says Herb. "Last winter Martin advertised for crew on Eurodragster's Swap Meet after longtime helper Dave Stamper (aka Bonehead) moved to France. Dave had crewed for Martin since the Ultimate Streetbike days in the late 1990s up until last year. I answered Martin's plea for help for two reasons. I raced against Paranoia when it was in the hands of original owners Brian Thomas and Alan Loten, any my '27 roadster Magnum Force finished in third place, six points behind Team Paranoia, in the 1983 BDRA Competition Car Championship. The other reason was that for the past six years I have helped my Canadian friend Ralph Hope run his 302 ci inline six-cylinder Ford powered Altered in NHRA events at Gainesville, Englishtown and Indianapolis, running a best of 8.03/165 and sixty foot times of 1.10 on petrol, and I wanted to try similar technology in the UK. "Apart from the chassis upgrades, visually the main change to Paranoia is the ex-Larry Morgan five-speed air-shifted Liberty gearbox, now used by all the top-performing NHRA Pro Stocks. Combine this with an Ace 7" twin-plate slider and scalloped flywheel weighing less than twenty pounds (the Liberty box, scalloped flywheel and Ace clutch came back in my suitcase from Gainesville!), three-step MSD ignition and launch control, new nitrous system from Trevor Langfield at Highpower featuring a maximiser controller with race software, and new methanol injection system designed and built by Andy Mapes. In the long term Martin would obviously like to better the 8.77/156 best which Brian ran on methanol and nitrous, making it still the quickest British-engined altered in the world, but for now he will be pleased just get the car back on the track in 2006." ©Eurodragster.com Herb is documenting the chassis upgrade for an article on Alan Currans' excellent Acceleration Archive and has been in touch with Brian Thomas to ensure its accuracy. Readers will find out how Brian acquired the famous twelve-spoke wheels originally used on Tee Rat amongst other anecdotes. Herb would also like to hear from anyone with pictures of Paranoia or Magnum Force; if you have any pictures of these cars then please drop him a line at mail@budroyal.freeserve.co.uk. Herb also tells us that he has another friend running NHRA events, Dave Hirata who at the recent Chicago National event ran 5.16/276 in his injected-nitro rail for #1 qualifier. Herb has advertised Dave's spare car for sale turn-key on Eurodragster's Jeff Bull Race Engines and Performance Parts Swap Meet. "It's a 300-inch Murf McKinney chassis, '95 Kalitta Championship car and has run a best of 5.29/276", says Herb. "This is a top-running NHRA car which would be ideal to run in Europe. If anybody wants a step up in performance then please contact me." Swift snippets. 16th October: The latest issue of Sweden's Bilsport magazine reports that in 2006 Niclas Andersson will be driving Magnus Pettersson's Old '51 Pro Mod which has been driven by Kent Trenneman. UK Street Eliminator racer Andy Frost says that a review of inspection procedures currently being undertaken by the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency could put an end to the street-legal racing class, and as far as we can see it could also have implications for rodding and customising. Click here for more information from DVLA, or click here to read the National Street Rod Association's response (PDF format). ©Eurodragster.com Steve Young writes to congratulate UK Wild Bunch racer Mark Coulsell and his wife Lynn on the birth of Harley Russell Coulsell who arrived on Friday morning, tipping the scales at 7lb 12 oz. "All the best to them both, and I guess the Supertwins could have a new rider in 2021-ish!", says Steve. We'd like to join Steve in congratulating Mark and Lynn and we're sure that all of our readers will join us. A very Happy Birthday for yesterday (Saturday) to Santa Pod Racers Club official Carole Ismail, and for today to Santa Pod Raceway marshal Barry Halliwell. Hope that you had a good day Carole, and that you are having a good day Barry. Could Chris Dossett please get in touch with us at tog@eurodragster.com, thanks Chris. Discover drag bikes! 16th October: The much talked about and long-awaited Drag Bike Project episode of the American Chopper television series receives its first British airing tomorrow evening (Monday 17th) on the Discovery Channel, writes Jerry Cookson. Filmed at Englishtown Raceway Park, the episode features a project bike built for NAPA Auto Parts by the world famous Orange County Choppers. Although most of the bikes from the series built by Paul Teutul and his sons Paul Jr and Mickey are for special company commissions and shows, the drag bike project is a true drag racer featuring a Racing Innovations chassis built by former Top Fuel rider Sam Wills and motivated by a 151 ci R&R V-Twin. The show features NHRA Pro Stock star Rickey Gadson as test rider for the project. Gadson, who teaches the art of riding fast bikes at Doug Foley's School of Drag Racing on the east coast, spent a lot of time with the Teutuls and the OCC crew teaching the basics of drag racing, how to ride the quarter mile in the fastest time possible as well as giving some exhibition runs for the cameras on Del Flores' eight-second Hayabusa. The two-part episode airs this week and next on the Discovery Channel (Sky 551, NTL 500/130 and TeleWest 212) at 9.00 pm and is repeated on Discovery +1 at 10.00 pm. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 16th October: The Freddy's Revenge NFAA Blown Alcohol Altered web site at www.freddysrevenge.co.uk has been updated with a selection of Altered pictures from the 2005 California Hot Rod Reunion. Dave Grabham tells us that slingshot, doorslammer, hot rod and truck pages will follow shortly. ©Eurodragster.com UK Championships Dinner Dance. 14th October: Bookings are now being taken for the first joint Avon Park International Racers Association/Santa Pod Racers Club Dinner Dance and Trophy Evening, which takes place at 6:30 pm in the Buckingham Suite of the Northampton Park Inn Hotel on Saturday 4th February 2006. Pre-dinner drinks will be available in the Buckingham Suite foyer from 6:00 pm. SPRC Club Secretary Paula Marshall has asked us to stress the following: Proceedings will start prompt at 6:30 pm with the trophy presentations to both the Santa Pod Racers Club and Ultimate Power Champions and runners-up. For this reason it is important that everyone is in their seats in the Buckingham Suite at 6:30 pm as the presentation will not be held up for latecomers. If you miss your presentation then we will not be going back! Dinner will be served at 7:30 pm. ©Eurodragster.com After dinner, the 2005 UK National Champions and runners-up will be presented with their trophies, followed by the APIRA and SPRC Perpetual Award winners. Bike racers please note that both Clubs run Bike Championships, so bike racers are encouraged to attend to collect their Championship and runner-up trophies. "As this is the first joint Dinner Dance and Trophy Evening we are expecting a large number of guests", says Paula. "Please be aware that timings are very important in order for us to run a smooth and enjoyable evening for you. Your co-operation is greatly appreciated!" Tickets to the Dinner Dance cost £27 per person which includes three-course meal plus coffee and mints. An additional £1 per ticket should be added if paying by credit card. The Clubs have negotiated a preferential rate for hotel rooms in the Northampton Park Inn. These are priced at £30 per person for double or twin rooms, and £50 per person for single rooms, both including breakfast on Sunday morning. To book your room, please call the Northampton Park Inn on 01604 739988 (ask for Reservations) and quote booking code MIC040206. If you do not pay a deposit at time of booking then your room could be released after 2:00 pm on the day. You can find the booking form and information on the Entry Forms page of the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc, or you can download the forms below: Dinner Dance booking form Important Dinner Dance information If you have any queries then please contact Paula Marshall at SPRC on 01933 313625 or by E-Mail or E-Mail paula.marshall@btconnect.com or Wendy Talbot at APIRA on 01379 740100 or E-Mail wendy@apira.org.uk. Dual-choice UK weekend. 14th October: Racers in the UK have two choices of venue for some late-season Test and Tune action this weekend as both Santa Pod Raceway and Shakespeare County Raceway are open to all comers. Santa Pod Raceway are holding a Saturday Night Special tomorrow (Saturday 15th). Dave Jones of Santa Pod tells us that gates open at 8:00 am for a full day's and evening's Run What You Brung action on a prepared track, together with demonstration passes by the Fireforce 2 Jet Funny Car as well as National Championship racers. Fuellers bar will be open on Saturday night. For more details including entry and sign-on check out www.rwyb.co.uk/pictures_sat_night.htm. ©Eurodragster.com Shakespeare County Raceway is hosting a Test and Tune both tomorrow and Sunday (15th-16th). The track will be prepped to event standard and all cars and bikes are welcome. Gate prices are £10 Saturday, £12 Sunday, or £20 for the weekend. Sign-on for Test and Tune is £15 per day or £25 for the weekend, both for unlimited runs. You can find SCR's web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. Swift snippets. 14th October: Norwegian Supertwin racer Han Christian Nilsen has put his bike up for sale. "After two years with this bike I've decided to build myself a new, bigger one", says Hans Christian. "This is an excellent bike for anyone who wants to try out Supertwin drag racing. It finished eighth in the 2005 UEM European Championship, runs in the mid sevens comfortably, but should be capable of low sevens or high sixes. The bike's Fastcat engine has a bushing crank which is good for another 90+ runs". You can find more details at www.panhead.no. ©Eurodragster.com Further to Tuesday's news item about the JapShow Finale, Lee Child of joint Eurodragster.com Links sponsor LA Racing Parts has been in touch to let us know that Pro Shootout winner Gary Passingham was on Mickey Thompson ET Street Radial tyres and runner-up Gulli Haldorsson was running Mickey Thompson ET Streets. LA Racing Parts is an official distributor of Mickey Thompson tyres and you can enquire about or order your MTs at www.laracingparts.com. SPR offer F&T package. 14th October: Kelly Ingall of Santa Pod Raceway tells us that SPR are offering a special deal on a VIP package for the Flame and Thunder Show on Saturday 5th November. "Why not experience this event in style and let the Santa Pod hospitality team look after you, your guests, family or staff", says Kelly. "The Hospitality Package includes admission to the track, access to the VIP balcony, refreshments throughout the day, traditional Firework food, VIP parking and toilets, souvenir of the day, and complimentary ear plugs and programme." The Hospitality Package is available at £79 plus VAT per person, or £500 plus VAT for a table of ten. For more details or to book your place call Kelly on 01234 782828 or E-Mail kelly@santapod.com. VWDRC Championship final standings. 13th October: Many thanks to Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Championship Co-ordinator Spencer Tramm for sending us the final standings in the 2005 VWDRC Championships. ©Eurodragster.com You can view the VWDRC points by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. If the shoe fits... 13th October: Ian Turburville has written to inform those who ordered or enquired about Simpson pit shoes that the new batch is in stock and being dispatched now. "Apologies for delay", says Turbo. "If you want a pair then be warned they are going fast! For super comfy and stylie feet order by E-Mail to turboville@ntlworld.com. I will not be available between 6th and 11th November as I am taking my bucket and spade to Bahrain (Like collecting limestone do you Turbo? - Ed)! ©Eurodragster.com "Also a note about crash helmets, as you know Snell 95 has now expired and Snell 2000 has a few years left, but for motorcycles you should have Snell SM, not SA which is for cars only. Other makes should be ECE-approved (equivalent to the old BSI) to be ACU gold stamped. The new batch of ballistic vests for Harley racers is also ready and look out for news of our fantastic new carbon products for Harley drag bikes, from bodywork to fuel injectors! Now wrap up warm and get in those garages, there's work to be done! "Finally, congratulations to Tommy Grimes of the Samson/Ray Price Nitro Harley Racing Team on his NHRA win and 6.256/220.62, the quickest pass ever on a Nitro Harley, way to go!" Buyers beware. 13th October: Absolutely unconnected with the above news item (sorry for the timing, Turbo - Ed), Adam Sayers has been in touch to bring readers' attention to either one prolific or a few scammers on E-Bay UK re-listing old USA auctions and then trying to get money from UK rodders and racers. "Such an example is item 4581963660, a 1970 Baracuda selling for £4800", says Adam. "Just check out the spec on this at least £20k car. I believe the same guy has also in the past week listed a set of ally BBC 427 heads as item 8005070588, a Whipple charger (8005763920) which had all its bids cancelled and a hi-helix supercharger (8005764563). "This scammer has moved from the Isle of Man to Plymouth to the Isle of Wight in a matter of days to avoid inspection of the goods, and guarantees that the Whipple will fit anything from a boat to a Honda generator engine. He confirmed it also had "Triple whipple huffermoose valves!". A recently-sold 327ci sbc and Muncie is being offered to bidders as a Second Chance purchase with copied E-Bbay graphics in the email. ©Eurodragster.com "A thread is on the NSRA forum at www.nsra.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16425&whichpage=1. "This is an important issue as I have already spoken to a guy who lost £1000 earlier this year on a Pontiac blower set-up advertised a few weeks ago. Please be careful when bidding on no-feedback sellers and ask for a photo with perhaps a copy of today's paper in the pic. They always want to go through E-Bay 'secure protection' and the grammar in E-Mails is nothing like the copied listing. I know this is old news to most of you out there but please pass this info on as somewhere someone is going to get shafted by these scammers." As users of our Swap Meet will know it is not unusual to attract the attention of scammers, but this individual or group of individuals has obviously taken a degree course so please be sure to bear Adam's advice in mind when using E-Bay. Note to racers. 13th October: As we approach the off-season the news will start to slow down and we will be looking to moving to alternate-day updates soon. However, drag racing fans don't stop being drag racing fans just because the racing has stopped, and we've got five thousand hungry readers (disproving the "No-one's interested in me" reasoning) to feed throughout the winter. Please don't hesitate to send your season reviews, off-season news, even your 2006 plans if you already know what you are doing, to us at news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them here. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 13th October: UK Super Pro ET racer Sam Freeman has launched a web site at www.doubledensity.co.uk. Although Sam describes the site as a "Work in progress" there is already plenty of interest including details on his Altered, Sam's own biography, photo gallery, For Sale/Wanted and more. ©Eurodragster.com Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Sharkman has updated his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with pictures from the pre-FIA European Finals Peak Performance Day and Run What You Brung (available via Race Reports/2005) and eighty Windows wallpaper files from the FIA European Finals. You can find Sharkman's pictures at www.topendtales.com. Comer's rookie thanks. 12th October: UK Street Eliminator rookie Ray Comer has asked us to forward his thanks to everyone who has helped out during his first season in Street Eliminator. "I would especially like to thank Alex McIntosh who has taken a year out to get his own car sorted for next season", says Ray. "Having Alex on board has been a great bonus for me as this guy goes straight into race mode when he arrives at the track. His experience, enthusiasm for the class and commitment to drag racing played a big part in my learning curve. I also have to give Jon Webster a huge Thank You for his enormous input not only into the car itself but in helping me to improve my racecraft at the expense of time spent testing his own MG, which is going to be a force to reckoned with next year. ©Eurodragster.com "Thanks also have to go to all of the other Street Eliminator competitors who have made me very welcome this season, notably Andy Frost, big Ron Haslett and Colin ‘Rocky' Lazenby who kindly allowed me to use his awning on a couple of occasions as a counterweight to my own somewhat flimsy canopy and an overnight storage facility. “I can't wait until Easter comes around. We were right on the edge of getting the car to perform to its potential but lacked track time to capitalise this year. a lot of people were surprised to hear just how safe we have been running the engine and yet still achieving the times we were. The car has a lot more power to offer as I think the oft-commented wheelstands demonstrate! In fact we had set up our base race tune into the car for the quarter final against Splinter at the UK National Finals when a jammed throttle forced us to shut down in the burnout area. We also had some minor electrical problems over that weekend which gave the impression that I was hitting the brakes at the thousand foot mark which is definitely not the case.” Safe from TJ in 2006! 12th October: Pat Ginn, partner of UK Comp Bike racer TJ O'Brien, says that this season has not been so good racing-wise, but that it has been very good on the social front. "We have met so many more friends, our groups just get bigger and bigger which is great", says Patt. "I would like to thank everyone at Santa Pod and Shakespeare County for all their help and apologise for TJ - believe me he is no better at home. Now that the season is over we have to go to Gainesville to party, and what a party (and diplomatic incident - Ed) that is going to be. I'm not sure how many Brits are going but the last time I counted it was thirty plus so we are all looking forward to that." ©Eurodragster.com Pat tells us that the scrutineers will be pleased to hear that TJ is taking a year out of racing in 2006. "The bike may be ridden by another rider - we will see (Ken Cooper has tried it for size - Ed)", says Pat. "Meanwhile TJ will be looking for something new." Pat has also asked us to congratulate Super Street Bike racer Matt Nixon and his wife Leisa on the birth of their daughter Maisie Lola, who was born on Monday. "We would like to wish them all the luck in the world", says Pat, and we're sure that everyone will join Sharkman and Tog in seconding that. Passingham the JapShow Pro. 12th October: Gary Passingham of GT-ART fended off faster opposition at the JapShow Finale Pro Shootout to take a long-awaited event win, writes Rick Cuthbert of Trakbak Racing: Gary's 900 bhp Nissan Skyline (right) remained reliable and consistently quick to run a string of personal bests, culminating in an ET of 10.078. He took on Iceland's Gulli Haldorsson of Roger Clark Motorsport in the final in what was to be a dream day for the GT-ART team. The final between Gulli and Gary was an extremely closely fought battle, with inches separating the two finalists at the finish line. Gary was one of the engine builders on Andy Barnes' 2004 event-winning Skyline, and was thrilled to have his time in the limelight. ©Eurodragster.com The event played host to a huge number of personal bests, and a new record for the fastest Mitsubishi Evo in the UK, set by Simon Norris of Norris Designs who ran a best ET of 9.719, and a best Terminal Speed of 147.05 mph. Dee Ireland of Calder Race Developments set a new UK record for a Toyota Supra, running a 9.867/144.17 on a run in which his gearbox detonated as he crossed the finish line. For a full report and photo gallery from the JapShow Finale event check out www.japshow.com. Swift snippets. 12th October: The deadline for bookings for this year's NDRS Banquet and Trophy Presentation is fast approaching. The Banquet takes place at the Scandic Infra City in Stockholm on Saturday 29th October, and the deadline for bookings is this Friday, 14th October. For more details check out the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se. ©Eurodragster.com Our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson tells us that the European Pro Mod Association Annual Meeting will take place at 10:00 am on Saturday 29th October at the above-mentioned Scandic Infra City in Upplands Väsby, north of Stockholm. "Please register for the EPMA meeting by sending an E-Mail to info@promod.nu", says Patrik. Top Fuel Dragster racer Smax Smith has asked us to apologise to fans who waited up to hear the radio interview which was due on Monday night. "I got a call one hour before the show advising that the presenter had fallen ill on his journey home from the Japanese Grand Prix and was too sick to work", says Smax. "The other presenters were abroad so they have scheduled for same time next Monday. I hope you guys were not too pissed-off sitting up past ten o'clock in your jim jams!". For more details check out the Swift Snippets of 5th October and change last Monday's date to next Monday's. Our good friend Gittli Koller has asked us to say a big Happy Birthday to German Top Methanol Dragster racer Timo Habermann. We're very pleased to do so, have a great day Timo. Ramsden on Safety role. 12th October: For the past few seasons UK Event Safety have been contracted to provide health and safety support for both Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceways. Glenn Ramsden tells us that in that time the company has worked to improve safety standards, not particularly on the track but for the public, but that in that time he has encountered a number of problems with those who maybe don't understand their role. Glenn has written to clarify why UK Event Safety are there. "Legislation tells us that event promoters must employ the services of an Event Health and Safety Co-ordinator", says Glenn. "This person is there to look after the interests of the promoter with regard to the safety of the paying public and those who work at the venue (whether full, part time or volunteer). We are also there to front meetings between local authority inspectors, HSE inspectors and the promoter and carry out accident investigation etc. So in effect we go to the meetings instead of bothering the promoter when they are at full tilt at a meeting. "We are there to look after the interest of all at the venue and not to try to catch you out at anything. However should we see something which is unsafe, then we must address the matter. This may be something trivial which may warrant a quick mention or it may be more serious in which case we will probably discuss it with the promoter to agree a way forward. "The last thing we want to see is the sport destroyed, we are here to keepdrag racing safe and enjoyable. I have been going to drag race meetings since Elvington in 1969 and Santa Pod in 1975 and understand the sport and the needs of the folk at the tracks, all we want to do is send them home happy and in one piece! "Now the season is coming to a close, from the team at UK Event Safety, may I take the opportunity to thank everyone for their support during 2005." ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 12th October: The King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com has been updated with the final standings in this year's ACU UK Drag Bike Championships. ©Eurodragster.com The web site of UK 9.50 Bike racer Steve Gwatkin has been updated with a discussion forum which you can find at www.allfolkedup.co.uk/forum/. Bergqvist the Engine Master. 11th October: 2005 Jegs Engine Masters Challenge winner, ex-pat Swede Lennart Bergqvist of Orlando's Autoshop Racing Engines, says that the 2005 Challenge was the closest and most exciting in the event's five-year existence. "Some competitors burned up their motors at home trying to overcome the obstacles to make power on 91 octane pump gas and keeping within the strict rules designed to keep the build-ups even", says Lennart. "This year the challenge was to build a 509 cubic inch Big Block and we decided to enter a Chevy. "We made our dyno pulls early in the contest and set the standard for the power needed to qualify for the Friday's final. Our score of 1285.33 held up as the top score until two-time champion Jon Kaase ran. Everyone's eyes were glued to the scoreboard after John's pulls, and when his numbers came up a big "Wow" went trough the crowd. John had beaten our score by just 0.67 with a total of 1286.0. ©Eurodragster.com "In the final we were scheduled to run next to last of the six finalists, and John was to run last. After the warm-up we decided to make a change to the valve lash to boost the compression a little, since the barometric pressure had dropped. We improved to an average of 1288 points. "Now the pressure was on John. Could he match our power? John started his motor and made his warm up pulls, then looked at the data and went to work inside the dyno room. We knew he needed to improve but would he make the right calls? His final pulls started and the first pull was strong, maybe better than ours. The excitement was unbearable when he started his second pull. In the middle of the pull we could hear his motor lose some power, but it was hard to judge just how much. Then when John made his third and final pull his motor started detonating. He had gone too far in his tuning to try to keep up with us. Autoshop Racing Engines were the new Engine Masters Champion! "Our peak horsepower was 853hp at 6500 rpm and peak torque was 756 lbs at 4900rpm with air cleaner, mufflers and regular pump gas." We're sure that everyone will join Tog and Sharkman in congratulating Lennart and Birgita on their victory in the Engine Masters Challenge. Great job guys! Make ours a triple! 11th October: 2005 ACU UK Comp Bike, Santa Pod Racers Club, and Ultimate Power Champions Jones and Friend Racing have had an exceptional year's racing whilst developing their Suzuki 1428 EFI blowthrough alcohol turbo system, says Crew Chief Dave Friend. "The season's goal was to be able to win a meeting as we developed the EFI turbo combination", says Dave. "But we exceeded our expectations as the season progressed, as did our performance at each meeting with solid consistency and no engine damage, except for a bent shift fork shaft early in the season. "Out of eight events we entered Gary Jones won five and was #1 qualifier seven times including setting a track record of 184.89 mph spinning the tyre at Shakespeare County Raceway. This consistency means the team have won the ACU UK Championship, the Ultimate Power Championship, and the Santa Pod Racers Club Championship. We also finished #6 in FIM/UEM European Top Fuel Bike including winning the biggest meeting of the year, the European Finals at Santa Pod, with a season best ET 7.46 shutting off at a thousand feet - well it was nine o'clock at night. ©Eurodragster.com "Having reached the limitations of our short chassis, we will now start fabricating our new eighty two inch Funny Bike chassis in our workshop between now and Christmas, so we will be able to develop our system further in Funny Bike in 2006. "Gary and I would like to thank all of our sponsors for all their continued support. They are Extreme Electrical Ltd, Universal Turbos, World Wide Bearings USA, BEK Wholesale Mistral Engineering and Ian Carver. Thanks also to the Hotel O'Brien and Chez Charman." A shaggy dog story... 11th October: UK National Finals Top Methanol runner-up John Parkinson is still having trouble believing that he made the final after his woes earlier in the season. He compares his first year in Top Methanol to Dulux: hard to use, but what a finish. "After a dodgy starter motor, then a wiped-out bearing, followed by not being able to do a licence run in time, showing up and not running, and all the bad weather this season, we were beginning to think that we should just write off this year and concentrate on next season", says John. "But then lo and behold Dave Wilson had what was probably the worst luck of his career, and despite people thinking there may have been team orders I kept my foot in on what was a very sick motor and passed him at about the thousand foot mark. My only thought was "He's going to come back at me on the line, I know he will", Dave is a true racer and will do whatever it takes to win. "After that, the rest of the meeting was a bonus and despite having an annoying ignition problem which would not let me get more than 6000 rpm out of the motor before cutting out, we landed up in the final. The rest is history and despite having no chance against someone like Rob Turner, with his wealth of experience on the track, I kept my foot in all the way to the finish - well, you never know, he could have 'done a Dave'!" John says that he has many people to thank for his first year in Top Methanol. "Every racer in the class has offered help and advice, sometimes working with us late into the night to resolve a problem", says John. "Thank you each and every one. If that was all of them, then the list would not be complete. We had help from other racers too, each helping in one way or another: some with fuel (thanks Frank), others with blower belts (thank you Derek) and, most important of all, those who offered no more than encouragement and good wishes. Thank you to the man who got me into it to start with, Dave Wilson, and his magnanimous crew led by Anthony Cohen who was the first to congratulate me on passing Dave. He sounded genuine too - the mark of a true sportsman. ©Eurodragster.com "Bob, Paul and Kim have been alongside me all this year and have done wonders as a crew, and importantly kept a smile on thier faces all year, but none as big as the one after the first round at the National Finals. At every meeting this year we have attracted more and more spectators into our pit, our relaxed attitude and willingness to find time to talk has gained us more than a few fans. I ask them to look out for us next year and come to see us again. Special mention goes to Karen and the rest of the crew's partners for unending support, like all teams we need people behind us to make it all happen. Gary Malin announced his retirement earlier this year and the opportunity to race against him once more has gone. We remain very firm friends and he may be seen next year with a Guest crew shirt on. We are also trying to talk Dave Branch, Shaun's father and a brilliant engineer (Hear, hear - Ed), to come and crew for us: he has done some work for us this year on bits for the car and the quality speaks volumes. "Tog, thank you for your kind words this year, long may they continue (You're welcome - Ed). Sharkman has graced us with some good shots on his web site this season, thank you. And how could I close without saying what a fantastic effort the track crew put in this year. I don't think that will ever be forgotten." Psycle Workz on-line, seek rider. 11th October: UK Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Newbury has launched a web site to promote his business Psycle Workz, and wife Cindy says that Martin is ready, willing and able to take on projects over the winter. "The web site at www.psycleworkz.com has an ever-growing list of products, which is updated regularly, from street parts to complete bike builds for race or custom tastes, car products, prototype work, and full CNC facilities for those one-off parts that everyone needs now and then, but can never seem to get done", says Cindy. "Psycle Workz can also offer 10% discount for racers (car and bike), and it also has a Stuff For Sale page where anyone can place an ad free of charge. There will also be promotions, so please check regularly, and the site also lists events and race meetings at which you can see some of the products or to discuss your requirements." ©Eurodragster.com Cindy also tells us that Psycle Workz is planning to run a Super Street Bike or 9.50 Bike in 2006 alongside the Crew 22 Pro Stock Bike and that Martin would be pleased to hear from anyone with an interest in riding the project bike. "Please drop us an E-Mail at psycleworkz@ntlworld.com", says Cindy. "Although no immediate decision will be made until closer to the start of the season, we look forward to hearing from interested parties." Martin and Cindy also asked us to pass on Psycle Workz' congratulations to Chris Stebbings for winning the NAST Supertwin Fuel Championship. "We look forward to helping Chris win next year's title", they say. Swift snippets. 11th October: UK Funny Bike racer Sarah Jane Head tells us that she will be back in St James' Hospital in Leeds later this month for another operation on her ankle. We will bring you details of visiting hours etc. nearer the time, but in the meantime Scary has asked us to say another big Thank You to everyone who contributed to her collection for the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 11th October: The official web site of Swedish Pro Mod racer Håkan Nilsson has been updated with pictures and a brief report about a highly-accurate scale model of the Nilsson Motorsports Camaro which was put together by a fan in Canada. Check it out at www.nilssonmotorsports.com. ©Eurodragster.com Joosten goes Pro Mod. 10th October: Holland's Robert Joosten has announced that he is to step up to Pro Mod for 2006. The erstwhile Super Comp racer has acquired the ex-Jim Oddy blown-alcohol C5 Corvette (right) which was brought to Europe by Filippos Papafilippou. "Our sponsors made it possible to get the ex-Jim Oddy car to The Netherlands at very short notice", says Robert. "The team is heading to Greece on 17th October to visit Filippos Papafilippou and take the Corvette to its new home." ©Eurodragster.com Robert has also announced that team member Leon van der Linden had to leave the team after the FIA European Finals. "Leon hasn't got the time to support Pro Dutch Racing next season", says Robert. "We're sorry that Leon is not able to stay along for the ride, but we want to thank him for all the effort he has put in since we started. We would like to welcome Jan Selles to the team. The team is now myself (driver), Marcel Roodhart, Jaap Oonincx, Dennis Freed and Jan Selles." Isn't it 2006 yet? 10th October: Swedish Top Methanol Dragster racer and speed record holder Krister Johansson is impatient for the next season to start. "I wish it was May 2006 next week", he says, "but it's nice to have the fastest TMD all winter." Krister says that he has had a lot of congratulations on the speed record of 262.79 mph set in his injected nitro dragster and that it was a dream come true for the team. "We not only ran the best speed all year but even the best ET at the European Finals", he says. "Everyone has worked on this. Just look at Thomas, who spent twenty hours making new steel bells for the rear axle after the first meting at Santa Pod, and a lot of other parts. Linkan has solved a long-standing bug between the mags and bunch of other electrical issues. Daniel has really got a handle on the clutch, and improved the work on data. Any problem you can find on a race car, Tim and Dave have been through it and can start to work on a problem at once. Not to forget all the travelling they do, paying for it themselves. And I can't say enough about Lisa and her cooking, it's been thanks to her that we have got through all the bad races. To all of you, and to my sponsors, a big thank you for all the effort you put in." ©Eurodragster.com Krister is looking forward to the hunt for even better ETs and speeds in 2006, and to the expansion of Top Methanol Dragster. "I would love to see all the TMDs from Malta and Finland back on the track again", says Krister. "Congratulations to Dave Wilson on the Championship win, congratulations to Rob Turner on his win, and thanks to Gittli and Anthony for all your efforts for the class. See you all at Santa Pod in May 2006." Jayne's rollercoaster ride. 10th October: It's been a rollercoaster season for UK Junior Dragster racer Jayne Kay (right) since she set out for her first full competitive season at the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway, says dad Gary. "Teething problems with the new car and engine meant that Jayne could not achieve her ambition of 50 mph for the first few race meetings of the year", says Gary. "Undeterred, Jayne set out once more for the Main Event in May, and the car was running well until disaster struck: Jayne fell over at the track and suffered a broken arm. This meant that the next two meetings had to be missed until she made a comeback at Shakespeare County Raceway in July. "Since then Jayne has never looked back. Her car has consistently reached speeds of over 50 mph over the eighth mile in 12.1 seconds. This has made hers the fastest petrol-driven Junior Dragster in Europe. Too fast for her own class, she has had to move up to the Modified class where the cars are running on methanol instead of petrol. More success was achieved at the Allstar Nationals at Shakey in August when she finished #1 qualifier from twenty other racers before losing out in the second round of eliminations. ©Eurodragster.com "The last meeting of the season, the UK National Finals at Santa Pod, was a great finale. Jayne beat off stiff competition to come away with the winner's trophy and £50 in Argos vouchers after winning the first all-girl final. Jayne is thrilled at winning her first trophy, hopefully the first of many. "Next season will be even more exciting for Jayne when she moves up yet another class to Junior Modified Advanced. A new car is presently on its way from the USA courtesy of Hauser Race Cars. Anyone requiring a Junior Dragster should contact Geof Hauser, as he will have quality cars for sale. "Thank you to all the Junior racers and parents for a great season, and thanks to Joe Kellett and family for the congratulations card. We are looking forward to next year when there may be more than six new teams, Junior Dragster will be one of the biggest classes next year." Here come the Twisted Sisters! 10th October: Svenska Bilsportförbundet invests in the education of race officials in its disciplines of Karting, Racing, Drag Racing, Rally and Rallycross, and the latest to benefit from this policy are Anette and Susanne Heleander who are going to Las Vegas to officiate in the AC Delco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals on 20th-23rd October. "The girls are going to help, learn and work with the NHRA Safety Safari before, during and after the race in order to gain knowledge which they can apply to racing in Sweden and Europe", says Anders Magnusson. "The obvious purpose is to raise the level of safety on this side of the Atlantic". Nettan and Suzzi's trip has been supported by contributions from several race teams as well as from Mantorp Park. "As soon as I heard about this journey I started a collection", says Top Methanol Funny Car racer Leif Andréasson. "It is an act of appreciation from the racing teams for the officials' work at the race tracks." "Nettan and Suzzi have been working with drag racing at Mantorp Park for fifteen years", says Mantorp Park's Track Manager Fredrik Ström. "They will get support from us, no question about it." ©Eurodragster.com Contributions have come from Leif Andréasson, Ulf Leanders, Martin Lundqvist, Kjell Sjöblom, Leif Helander, Niklas Andersson, Mikael Sjökvist, Michael Malmgren, Jan Murén, Magnus Hansson, Jimmy Ålund, Charley Karling, Tommy Möller, Mikael Kågered, Jöran Persåker, Fredde Fagerström, Roger Johansson, Michael Gullquist, Patrik Wikström, Håkan Fällström, Håkan Nilsson, Mats Eriksson, Andy Robinson, Gordon Appleton, Arvid Grødem, Urs Erbacher, Dan Larsen, Dave Wilson, Peter Schöfer, Lex Joon, Susanne Callin, Jonas Staflund, Torbjörn Svensson, Anna-Lena Asplund, Krister Johansson, Anders Larsson, Michael Nord, Jörgen Johnsson, Greger Johansson and Mantorp Park. Nettan and Suzzi's Las Vegas diary will be posted on the SHRA Stockholm web site at www.shra-stockholm.se and you can find out more on the Andréasson Motorsports web site at www.andreassonmotorsports.com. Seven up for PMR. 10th October: With seven drivers entered at the UK National Finals, the super crew of Paul Marston Racing certainly had their work cut out, but the additional workload was barely felt says Paul Marston: This was in no small part due to the Paul Marston Racing pit crew who organized themselves and delegated duties so as every crew member knew who they were looking after and what they were doing. It was a simple system but was outstandingly effective, this left more time for the usual horsing about and mischief-making, but enough of that, let's get on to the drivers. Heading the charge was John Everitt in the awesome Alien altered, joint number three in the National Super Pro ET points chase, having already gained the Ultimate Power title. John ran just one qualifier on Saturday, come Sunday he was loaded for bear! In a calm and businesslike fashion John and the Alien were good when they needed to be and lucky when they needed to be, travelling all the way to the final to face John's old ride, the Sanity Assassin now driven by Vince Gibbs. John put up a great fight but the Assassin ran right on its dial-in and took the win, warmest congratulations to Vince Gibbs and Ray Eldred. John we believe has cemented third position in the UK National Championship standings. A richly-deserved placing for a very popular and tough driver, congratulations from everyone at Paul Marston Racing. Grumpy's Dodge was shoed at this event by Tethys in Pro ET and Michael Howling in Super Street. Tethys kept the flag flying, considering the quality of opposition, going an astonishing four rounds and all the way to the semi finals, well done! Having now settled into driving Grumpy, comfortable, relaxed, remaining focused, with a well-prepared and maintained competitive race car, Tethys showed us all what he was capable of, taking out some tough veteran racers in the process. We are all excited to see what this new prospect can achieve next season. Michael Howling was just great, a real personality who comes and races with us for all the right reasons, he just loves the sport. Always the first up in the morning, boundless energy, enjoys every moment and is always there to the very end, if not racing helping out the drivers who are. It really has been a pleasure having Michael and his family competing with Paul Marston Racing this season. In the first round Mike made a fair fight of it and gained a huge amount of experience in the process, Mike is well overdue a round win, so roll on 2006. Mike will be there waiting for it! The WhoopAss Monza, driven by Gary Springford in Pro ET and Dave Catton in Super Street, is back in business after its sabbatical, now resplendent in the brightest orange you could imagine, also weighing in a little lighter. Gary, Head Honcho at Drag Race Engineering (0208 597 9484) was a welcome sight in the Paul Marston Racing pits, with newly-built Super Gasser just awaiting the return of the body from the paintshop for final fit. Paul and Gary have already driven the un-bodied race car, and everyone at Paul Marston Racing is looking forward to some late season testing prior to its début early next season. Gary bowed out early, but was not the only one! It's a disturbing trend but every time either Gary or Paul go out the other follows! A big thank you must go to Gary Springford, Mark, Peter, Andy and Dean from Drag Race Engineering for all their hard work. Every single one of the Paul Marston Racing race cars performed faultlessly over the whole weekend, a credit to all the Paul Marston Racing crew and the preparation work at Drag Race Engineering workshops, once again guys thanks. Dave Catton was the WhoopAss entry for Super Street and more than anyone on the team is due to go some rounds. Making no mistakes all weekend, Dave drove superbly and was as usual simply great company. Dave went red on every pass of the weekend, that's a new record! Bad for Super Street but boding very well for Super Gas which is where we will most probably find David next year. As the saying goes if you don't go red sometimes you are not trying hard enough (Hear, hear – another PMR graduate); if that's the case Dave is the hardest-working driver out there. Once again yet another driver for whom the 2006 season simply cannot come round fast enough. The Insanity Chevy Vega was out again fresh from its #1 qualifier at the European Finals, with Steve Bolton in Pro ET and myself in Super Street. Steve Bolton returned to PMR to compete in Pro ET for a one-off appearance, having imported his own race car from the States earlier this year. Steve soon accustomed himself to the Chevy Vega, this time enjoying Big Block power. Steve was probably the closest of all the Super Street racers to winning a round but took too much stripe and broke out. Still it was good to see Steve back and we will be looking forward to seeing Steve compete in Pro ET for the full 2006 season. That leaves myself in Super Street. Firstly I would like to thank all the hard-working crew at Paul Marston Racing. Despite fielding seven drivers, I can honestly say it was one of the most enjoyable, smoothest running, easy weekends I have ever had at a drag strip. That is wholly down to our great crew which includes the drivers, we have no prima donnas here, if it needs doing it gets done. No-one has ever run seven drivers out of one team before, it is a real credit to all the people at PMR who made so much work look so simple. I didn't qualify too badly but as I said to fellow competitors Brian and Lee Huxley (congratulations Lee) in the staging lanes after I lost the first round - I suck! I made a mistake, missed a shift point and threw the race away with a 10.82, argh! At the time I was disappointed with myself, I had allowed myself to become distracted and lost focus, but you have to take it on the chin, learn from it and move on. I could not stay that way for long anyway as I was so proud of the team, everyone tried so hard and did their very best. 2005 has been a simply fantastic year for us all at Paul Marston Racing, we are all looking forward to what 2006 brings. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 10th October: The new issue of Germany's Dragracer magazine is now available to order at www.dragracer.de. Dennis Kieselhorst tells us that the sixty eight-page Issue 19 includes the twentieth Nitrolympx, the Veidec Festival, Drachten Finals, Rotenburg Race Days, Bitburg Summer Battle, DAS Drag Day and much more. An addition to the CBD stable. 9th October: Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster team owner Knut Söderquist tells us that he has ordered a new Top Fuel chassis from Sweden's Mats Eriksson. Mats built the Bahco Express Top Fueller raced by Micke Kågered this year as well as his own Green Goblin Pro Mod and a number of other race cars. "I was looking to buy a used car from the USA but they all have the same problem - they have made 150 hard runs", Knut told Eurodragster.com. "Chromoly is very hard and cracks easily. Schumacher for example makes a hundred runs on a chassis then gets a new one. I decided last year that from now on I will only run new cars and Mats was the obvious choice. Anyone who has seen Micke's car knows that Mats' work is second to none." The new dragster will be based on the current Hadman design, with one major difference. "This will be a one-piece chassis, and not two-piece as they run in the USA", said Knut. "Other than that it's the same design as Schumacher uses. The car will have a one-piece Carbon By Design carbon fibre body which is the latest big hit in the States - I'm telling you that in two years everyone will run one." As things stand the driver of the new car has not been decided but Knut promised "Some big surprises" soon. ©Eurodragster.com Knut said that 2005 was a nightmare for the CBD team. "We got a new batch of clutch discs which screwed up the whole season and we only found out in Norway", he said. "I felt sorry for Alan Jackson and Bill Schultz trying to cope with something which didn't work. I tried to get some new discs in time for the European Finals but there wasn't enough time. Alan and Bill worked around it and I was very pleased with the European Finals where we qualified well." The next dates for the CBD team this year are Chris Andrews' appearance in the Top Fuel match race at the Flame and Thunder Show at Santa Pod, followed by the Drag Racing Festival in Bahrain where Susanne Callin will be representing European Top Fuel alongside Norway's Thomas Nataas. "I think that including Bahrain is the greatest thing which could happen for the sport in Europe", said Knut. "I am looking forward to it. If people want to stay at home and miss it then it's more business for me!". Knut was also impressed with what he saw at the recent Tuning Show in Athens where he took one of the CBD Top Fuellers to do fire-ups. "Animal did the business, driving all the way down there although he almost missed the ferry to Athens because of a wine festival in Germany!", said Knut. "The Athens Tuning Show was the best-organised show I've ever seen. There were seventy or eighty thousand people there and they loved the fire-ups. If everyone could work together then they have a perfect track and a huge crowd and drag racing could be just fantastic there." Champions decided at York. 9th October: York Raceway PR Howard Holmes tells us that a great season was concluded in fine style at the UK Northern Finals on 25th September. "Once again the weather was very kind to us", says Howard. "It was a busy day with much going down the track with maximum efficiency, no interruptions and a lot of fun and very close racing. When the day's racing concluded, the season's Champions were revealed to be: Sportsman ET: Lee Chiles Pro ET: Russ Pursley Hot Rod: Nigel Parkin Super Hot Rod: Bob Molden 10.50 Bike: Alan Perkins Air Cooled Eliminators: Glynn Morgan American Super Stock: George Chiles ©Eurodragster.com "Well done to the winners (Seconded - Ed) and a great big thanks for all the hard work and commitment to Pennine Drag Racing Club, the marshals, startline crew, Race Director Andy Watson, and Promoter and Bog Cleaner Steve Murty. Well done guys!" Swift snippets. 9th October: A big Congratulations to ex-pat Swedes Lennart and Birgita Bergqvist of Orlando-based Autoshop Racing Engines for taking the win in the 2005 Jeg's Engine Masters Challenge dyno contest. Consider it fair return for last year's shenanigans when an engine belonging to the UK's Paul Harvey was disqualified in dubious circumstances (i.e. not being an American entry - Ed). ©Eurodragster.com Continuing this year's European theme, the IHRA World Finals at Rockingham, at which Sweden's Lindahl Brothers were due to contest Pro Mod, has been postponed to the last weekend of this month after The Rock was hit by a tropical storm. We would like to say a big Happy Birthday for yesterday (Saturday) to Alison Hackney, marshal at Santa Pod Raceway and wife of 9.50 Bike racer John. Happy Birthday also for Friday to fellow SPR marshal Steve Warner, a belated Happy Birthday to Martin Wallis for last weekend, and congratulations to another SPRC marshal, Carl, and his wife on the arrival of their son last week. OK so we didn't get 200, but... 9th October: UK Super Pro ET racer Derek Flynn says that his new Gold RV Racing blown-alcohol dragster has been "Just awesome" in 2005. "At the majority of events we have had the highest speed and the low ET in our class, and in one case the event as a whole", says Derek. "Alas this counts for nothing in our Championship, and we have struggled to be consistent. Still, as we said at the beginning of the year, we knew that we had another steep learning curve and pushing this hard all year was bound to induce some breakages, along with the odd mistake or two by yours truly and the team. However running in the sixes was just incredible and definitely made up for any disappointments we may have had. "We were a little disappointed not to get 200 mph, 196 was the best we managed. We were all set to do it at the UK National Finals last week but in our first run I think I must have knocked the fuel shut-off valve to the halfway position whilst selecting reverse, or it moved during the run when we hit a bit of shake - either way this caused the engine to run very lean at the top end and although I reacted to the car nosing over it was too late and we damaged a few valves and both head gaskets. A great effort from the Go Gold Crew got me out again the next day but we had no idea what the car would run as we were very much nursing a sick engine (hence the short burnout), not that I am taking anything away from Nick Spence who beat us fair and square by 0.1, well done mate. But I hated having to put a seven on the car instead of a six! "I think we should still finish a respectable seventh in all the Championships, and we were in with an outside chance of winning the Ultimate Power Championship until the halfshaft broke. We also won our second runner-up trophy, so all in all not a bad year for the team. "We have decided to stick with what we have for next year, and now that we have ironed out some of the bugs with our car and have our between-round maintenance sorted we are looking forward to the new season. Hopefully we can add consistency to our performance, and who knows maybe even win an event. "Sorry to bore everyone with a load of thanks (Common courtesy is never boring - Ed) but it's the end of the year and I feel it needs to be said: "Thanks to all our fellow competitors in Super Pro ET, the majority of who have helped us out with parts, advice and all-round camaraderie. Special thanks to all the Turner Motorsport team who have also helped us out for most of the season, congratulations to them on winning the MSA British Drag Racing Championship for an incredible eighth time. Thanks to Andy and Kate Robinson for all their assistance, to Jeff Bull, a huge thanks to all the track crews, officials and backroom staff who help to make this most excellent sport happen, and thanks to Club Secretaries Paula and Wendy for all the help and assistance they have given us. "Thanks also to our sponsors Gold RV and Buff without whom we could not go racing. A huge Thank You must go to the Go Gold Crew including honorary crew members Lee and Richard of J&W Automotive all of whom have worked tirelessly all year trying to keep us in the races. "Finally thank you to track commentators John Price and Graham Beckwith, as well as Tog, Sharkman and Simon of Eurodragster. Without all you guys neither our sponsors nor our sport would get as much professional coverage as it does (Thanks - Ed)." Racers: Send your 2005 season reviews to us at news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them here. Web site updates. 9th October: The official web site of the UK's Street Eliminator class at www.streeteliminatoruk.com has been updated with a report on the final round at last week's UK National Finals. You can find the report on the Latest News page. ©Eurodragster.com The official web site of the UK's All Folked Up 9.50 Bike team has moved to its own URL. You can now stay in touch with Steve Gwatkins' progress at www.allfolkedup.co.uk. Carey and the wall of death. 7th October: 2005 Santa Pod Racers Club Top Fuel Bike Champion Steve Carey says that riding the Purple Princess 2 up the left-hand guardrail at Santa Pod last weekend was another part of the learning process. "The bike didn't launch properly", says Steve. "When I shifted to high gear it went for a close look at the wall. I then found myself doing a touch of wall of death riding along the wall, thinking "It is unlikely I will get to the end of the track like this", so I had to come down to Earth. Luckily I wasn't hurt and there was only minor damage to the bike. So it's time now to take it apart and make a few changes for next year. "I would like to say a big Thank You to the track and safety crew for putting my bike back up the right way. I'd also like to say a big thanks to Paul and Ken for all their hard work this season, thanks Guys. I also want to say sorry to Roel Koedam for taking the attention away from his great run. ©Eurodragster.com "We have ended the year retaining the #2 ACU plate and have won the Santa Pod Racers Championship for the second year running, so a big thanks must also go to all the other racers who have given help and advice over the year, along with support from Perry Reeves at Rossetts Commercials, Charley Whyte at Phoenix Motorcycles in Bexhill, Ray Nicholson of NGK Spark Plugs, Liam and Adam of Earls Performance, Steve Bennett and Steve Hewgil of Weruwise Bexhill, and Steve Conway of Bikes of Brighton. Thanks also to Annette for putting up with my stressed looks when things are not going right!" Test, Tunes and Grudges at SCR. 7th October: Lee Child of LA Performance Services has been in touch to remind readers that Shakespeare County Raceway is hosting a Test and Tune next weekend, 15th-16th October. "The track will be prepped to event standard by Darren Prentice and Jon Cross", says Lee. "All cars and bikes are welcome. Gate prices are £10 Saturday, £12 Sunday, or £20 for the weekend. Sign-on for Test and Tune is £15 per day or £25 for the weekend, both for unlimited runs." ©Eurodragster.com Lee adds that the Halloween Showdown, which takes place at Shakespeare County Raceway on 29th-20th October, will include sessions specifically set aside for grudge matches. "If you have some unfinished business with a fellow racer, you have a chance for bragging rights though the off season with our grudge match sessions", says Lee. "These will take place on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. To book your grudge match please E-Mail me at lee@laracingparts.com before 23rd October." You can find the Shakespeare County Raceway web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. Ups and downs in Super Mod. 7th October: It's been a mixed year for the UK's Super Modified racers, says Lee Kirk. "Easter was full of promise, but no-one could have forseen the damage which took place over those three days", says Lee. "Reduced to just three entries at times this year, at least the UK National Finals proved exactly what the class is capable of, and with a number of new cars and returnees for next season it can only get better. ©Eurodragster.com "A huge Thank You to Obsession Motorsports and Andy Robinson Race Cars for their belief in and support of the class. Thanks also to the fans, the support shown for teams and drivers never goes unappreciated. Thanks to Rob and Nick at ICE Automotive for supplying the necessary inspection tooling, and to all of the track crews, officials and commentators at both facilities. Finally, on behalf of all the teams, a massive Thank You to Mark Norton and the rest of the Tech Crew. Come rain or shine they were always on hand be it for tecching, weighing or just some good old-fashioned enthusiasm! We can't do it without any of you guys!" The Super Modified web site www.supermodified.co.uk has been updated with a report from last weekend's UK National Finals and Lee tells us that photographs will be added shortly. Swift snippets. 7th October: Shakespeare County Raceway Press Officer Jerry Cookson tells us that the November issues of 'Back Street Heroes and Streetfighters magazines carry extensive photo coverage and reports from August's Bulldog Bash. "The coverage features photos of well known and not so well known racers entertaining the many Friday bikers plus various shots of babes in various states of undress", says Jerry. Streetfighters also carries a report from the SPRC Summernationals photographed by regular trackside lensman Steve Moxley. Both magazines are now available at a cover price of £3.60 from all good newsagents." Sweden's Lindahl Brothers Pro Mod team will be contesting this weekend's IHRA World Finals in Rockingham. You will be able to keep up with Micke Lindahl's progress live on the Drag Race Central web site at www.dragracecentral.com. ©Eurodragster.com Nik, ex of the Fireforce Jet FC team, says that he has set up Chromapart, a new company based at Brands Hatch which offers chrome coating of plastic, metal , alloy, and rubber as well as custom paints from heat changing to crystal effects and airbrushing. "Doug Ripley's CC Racing Funny Car was one of ours", says Nik. For more information check out Chromaparts' web site at www.chromapart.co.uk. Stan Weiss writes from the USA to let us know that he has released a new version of his popular Carfor prediction and analysis software. "The major new function in this update is the nitrous jetting calculator", says Stan. "There are four options, which will adjust the calculations for different systems. It will calculate fuel jet sizes for Gas, Methanol and Ethanol, and it works with any fuel pressure. It also recommends timing retard and spark plug heat range changes". For more information check out Stan's web site at users.erols.com/srweiss/index.html. Web site updates. 7th October: John Seymour has updated his picture site at www.reach.me.uk with a number of excellent pictures from last weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. John tells us that this was his first time trackside although from the photographs he has posted you might find that hard to believe. ©Eurodragster.com The Stockholm branch of the Swedish Hot Rod Association has moved URLs to www.shra-stockholm.se. Snell helmet standard reminder. 6th October: UK Tech Inspector Geoff Martin has been in touch with important news regarding crash helmet standards. "The Snell SA95 helmet standard has now expired, and will not be accepted by the MSA next year", says Geoff. "A new Snell SA 2005 Standard is now activated, and I would advise that when purchasing a new helmet you ensure it is to this standard. ©Eurodragster.com "The Snell SA2000 Standard is still active, but has only a five year life left to run. So get value for your money and buy SA 2005." If you have any queries then you can contact Geoff by E-Mail at chassis1@onetel.com. Racers sought for F&T demos. 6th October: Rick Cuthbert of Trakbak Racing has been in touch to confirm that there will be no all-in brackets at this year's Flame and Thunder Show at Santa Pod Raceway. Instead, Santa Pod are asking racers to express an interest in running in demonstration on the Saturday. "Any race teams wanting to get involved should drop David Lloyd Jones an E-Mail at david@santapod.com, stating clearly in which class they normally compete", says Rick. "David is looking for as much variety as possible in the line-up, so all cars and bikes are welcome to apply, but please be aware that spaces are limited by the amount of track time available at this event." ©Eurodragster.com For more details about the Flame and Thunder Show, including ticket prices, check out Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com, and stay tuned to Eurodragster.com for our annual Flame and Thunder Show Contest which again has a great prize on offer. 2005 SPRC Champions. 6th October: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for forwarding us the final 2005 standings in the 2005 SPRC Championships, which come courtesy of Co-ordinator Yvonne Tramm. Congratulations to the 2005 SPRC Champions: Pro Modified: Danny Cockerill Super Modified: Ellis Racing Super Pro ET: Steve Johnson Pro ET: John Atkinson Sportsman ET: Rick Denny Super Comp: Brian Pateman Super Gas: Spencer Tramm Super Street: John Grant Junior Dragster: Nick Mugridge ©Eurodragster.com Top Fuel Bike: Steve Carey Funny Bike: Neil Midgley Pro Stock Bike: Richard Gipp Comp Bike: Gary Jones Super Street Bike: Steve Venables 9.50 Bike: Fred Furlong You can see the full SPRC Championship standings by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Swift snippets. 6th October: Dutch Pro Mod racer Henri Joosten has been in touch with words of appreciation for Santa Pod's safety crews after his boomer at the FIA European Finals. "These guys give you a safe feeling when you go racing at the Pod", says Henri. "In the picture you can see the big boom, and the reaction time from the guy in the pick-up, he was already getting into the car to drive. At the end of the track they were waiting for me with a fire bottle in case of fire. Thanks guys. The problem was that the oil pressure went down to zero at 350 metres and we broke four pistons". That's Henri's hood scoop arrowed in the second picture. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 6th October: The official web site of Eurodragster.com Home/News sponsor Power Race Graphics has been updated with more examples of work for customers including new T-shirt designs and logos as well as more of PRG's own illustrations. Check it out at www.p-rg.co.uk. Danny White and Andy Barrack have got together, with the pictographic help of Alan Currans, to produce a new page in Danny's '70s Funny Cars series, this time exclusively devoted to the history of Funny Car racing in Scandinavia. A lot of time, effort and research have gone into this page and if you liek your Funny Cars or your Nostalgia then don't miss '70s Funny Cars at www.draglist.com/artman/publish/daily_stories/article_001349.shtml. ©Eurodragster.com Our good buddy Gareth Evans has updated his UK1320 web site with a number of photographs from the Allstar Nationals, FIA European Finals, and the UK National Finals. You can get directly to Gareth's photo update at www.uk1320.com/photos05.shtml. Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Sharkman has updated his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with a large number of photographs from the weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Sharkman's pictures at www.topendtales.com. Er, didn't you just leave? 5th October: UK National Finals Super Pro ET winner Vince Gibbs has been in touch to explain why he and car owner Ray Eldred were spotted re-entering Santa Pod Raceway on Sunday night shortly after they had left with the eight-second Sanity Assassin Toyota Celica in tow. "We packed up the tools and equipment, loaded the race car onto the trailer, hitched up then made our way to the start line to collect the winner's trophy", says Vince. "After the presentation we climbed into the tow car and began the journey home, reviewing the weekend, discussing 2006 plans and generally taking time to reflect on the weekend's work. ©Eurodragster.com "After travelling about three miles, Ray turned to me and said "Do you know what we've forgotten? My car!". It was at this point that we remembered that we had arrived in separate cars on Sunday morning. "So to all the racers who saw us heading back into Santa Pod and may have been a bit confused, we can only comment that winning seriously affects your ability to process any other information for about three hours. Sorry Ray, I know you told me not to publish this, but it is too good not to share." Enthusiastic about safety. 5th October: Glenn Ramsden of UK Event Safety writes that the fire and rescue team of Shakespeare County Raceway enthusiastically braved the cold and dark to undergo their latest training session in the very capable hands of PB Fire's Paul Bell and team last weekend. "The crew spent most of Saturday afternoon and early evening brushing up on rescue techniques", says Glenn. "This included working with spine boards, helmet removal, the importance of wearing the correct protective clothing and then into the heavy stuff when they tore a car apart (right). Rumour has it that by the end the remaining parts could be slotted through a letter box! ©Eurodragster.com "On a serious note, it is pleasing to see the guys taking the information on board so enthusiastically. There is so much to learn and I understand that Paul has put together a structured training programme for the team which will give them that solid base of knowledge needed when it comes to doing it for real." Swift snippets. 5th October: Sweden's Lindahl Brothers made their first competitive Pro Mod outing in the USA at the eighth-mile Carolina Raceway at the weekend, preparatory to contesting the IHRA World Finals at Rockingham this weekend. Micke Lindahl clocked a best of 4.100/174.80, and you can find pictures from the weekend on Drag Racing Online and Competition Plus. UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Smax Smith will be featuring on internet radio station yoursportradio.com at 21:35 next Monday, 10th October. "Drag racing fans will not want to miss this, as everyone knows I have a lot to say about the sport and I've never been a man to mince my words!", says Smax. The show will also be going out on Sky Digital Channel 907 (Globecast) and will be available as a Podcast on iTunes. You can find the station on the web at www.yoursportradio.com. UK Top Methanol Funny Car racer Trev Capewell and wife Esta have written on behalf of the Southern Rebel Racing Team to congratulate the Turner Motorsport team on their MSA British Drag Racing Championship win. "We would also like to say a big thank you to the Turners for all of their help at the track throughout the year, and to all the staff of Santa Pod for their hard work throughout the year", say Trev and Esta. They add that they will publish their own 2006 plans in the near future. ©Eurodragster.com UK Junior Dragster racer Joe Kellett has written to congratulate Jayne Kay and Holley Mitchell on the first all-girl Junior Dragster final at the weekend's UK National Finals. "Congratulations to Jayne on her win, also a big well done to Jay Hauser on winning the Championship and a special mention to Zak Johnson on the best 0.009 Reaction Time and number one qualifier", says Joe. "It's a great achievment from a Junior Stock, keeping up with the Modifieds. I look forward to seeing all my friends at the Flame and Thunder Show." Paul Bryan sent us this picture of the aftermath of Svein Gottenberg's FIA European Finals engine explosion (right) which was taken and then processed by his son John Bryan. "John pressed the button at just the right time", says Paul. "He spent time with Photoshop to leave bike and rider in colour with background in black and white and reframed the shot. Not bad for a fiteen-year-old with a new camera!". Jerry Cookson has been doing more research into six-second slingshots in the UK. Jerry writes that Mickey Naylor clocked 6.55/222 in the Medicine Man (ex Mr Revell) Pro Fueller at the 1978 BDR&HRA Supernationals and 6.56/194 at the 1978 September Internationals before the car was wrecked in a back-over wheelie at that September race. Koedam Racing UK National Finals review. 5th October: We are indebted to Marius Van Der Zijden, Crew Chief for Dutch Top Fuel Bike racer Roel Koedam, for sending us his usual post-event review, in this case of last weekend's UK National Finals at which Roel again ran into the 6.0s, over 230 mph, and set a new ACU UK speed record: As written in our previous report we had chosen to travel to Santa Pod Raceway one more time this year, providing that the weather outlook for that weekend was (at least dry). We had everything packed and ready to go, so we could decide at the very last moment whether we would go or not. The weather plays a crucial rule for any drag racing event and for this year in particular it proved to be true more then ever. This is why we always reserve some space to discuss the weather in our reports. During the week ahead we kept a close eye on the weather maps for that weekend and it looked to be a good for racing. The predictions were very little chance of rain and even some sunshine, so we went down the road and on the boat. We were surprised by the large number of participants in general. In Top Fuel Bike the number of entries was limited to three. Regular contender and already British Champion Steve Woollatt had not entered the event in order to concentrate on the 2006 season. 2005 European Champion Ian King had just installed his all new billet cylinder head and hoped to be able to do some testing. Our goal was not to interfere intentionally in the National Championship points race but to run the best we could and possibly improve our previous best ET of 6.04 seconds. Saturday had scheduled three qualifying rounds. Though the temperature was very low (just above 10ºC) it looked to stay dry and the sun was even shining. We already knew that this track still retains perfect traction even in low temperatures, so we didn't worry too much about that. The only thing we didn't like was a rather strong cross wind in the run-off area. For our first attempt we had the bike set up for a low six second pass, just to find out the real condition of the track. However as soon as the bike came under power on the green it started misfiring. It started running a little better after a while but it was already too late. A good result was not in the box any more so Roel clicked it off and coasted across the finish line. When we checked everything out back in the pits, it revealed that we hadn't adapted the bike enough to the cold conditions. There was simply not enough heat in the engine to burn the nitro. Therefore we made adjustments to the fuel system and decided to warm up the engine longer on methanol before switching on nitro at the next run. The result was a lot better as it left the line with a sixty foot time of 1.08. Because of the cool temperatures the air was really good and the engine was making good horsepower. However as soon as the clutch timer was released, it spun the tire badly. Either the stages of the clutch came in too hard, or the track was not as good as we hoped. It revved high, upsetting the fuel system. Roel made an early shift and it sort of picked up. For the remainder of the run both the fuel system and the traction were not optimal. Still it produced a solid 6.33/212. Qualifying on Saturday came to a halt a few times because of some light and short drizzle. Therefore the scheduled third qualifying round for that day was postponed to Sunday morning. Sunday was an even nicer day. The sun was out in real force, the wind had died down a bit and the outside temperatures were a little higher (though not too much). A real Indian Summer day as they say, in fact ideal race conditions. We had waited for this all year long! When it left the line it misfired a few times (again not enough heat) before it picked up nicely. The ET slowed down a bit to a 6.35/217. As Ian King still found some minor problems with his new billet cylinder head he wasn't able to make qualifying. This left only two competitors and therefore just one elimination round (which would at the same time be a final round) which was scheduled for 13.00. We made only a very, very small change to the clutch setting and decided to warm up the engine even longer before rolling into the water box. The effect of this was great as we pulled a 6.072/225 out of the hat. The eighth mile marker was cleared in 3.9/192 and the bike was accidentally clicked off at 5.85 seconds, thus giving away a little there too. Together with our 6.04 at the 2003 European Finals we now own the first and the second quickest passes in Europe outside the USA. I think there's no need to describe the happy faces after the technical problems at the start of the 2005 season, and all the rain we had. This is what we had hoped to be able to do during this weekend. Attention was drawn away from our run because our competitor Steve Carey had a low speed encounter with the concrete retaining wall. Luckily he was unhurt and his bike suffered only minimal damage. Nevertheless we had set the record straight and in the process we also reset the UK National speed record. We were allowed to make one extra run at 15.00 that afternoon. Being again so close to a sub six second pass, we had to make difficult decisions on what settings to change and what to leave. Carefully studying the data it was our conclusion that the bike was running just on the edge of what the track could take at that time. Therefore we left the clutch as it was and gave it just one more per centage of nitro, knowing that this would already be a major influence. For a moment we thought of giving it an extra two per cent nitro, but decided not to do that as we were almost sure that the immense power increase would blow the tyre away instantly. Never before we had ran this nitro percentage with this cylinder head and oh boy, what a huge difference! It sounded like never before. We still get a big smile when we think back to this “beautiful noise”. Normally when we roll on to the waterbox we just have to pull the slack out of the throttle cables to raise the engine rpm a little to start the bike moving. The same procedure this time resulted in a spontaneous big rpm jump! What a difference, if you could only see our faces! Our hopes were high. When Roel left the line the engine misfired one or two times. The above-mentioned unexpected rpm jump had caused a porcelain from one of the spark plugs to crack, this happens sometimes due to thermo shock on a relatively cold engine. Despite this our sixty foot time of 1.046 was a new personal best. It was a little loose all the way, which caused a slower ET of 6.13/231. Obviously too much power for the conditions but nevertheless it was a stunning run to watch. We were extremely happy about our results of this weekend and think it was a good decision to go over to England one more time. After all the engine problems we faced at the start of this season it is remarkable what good condition the engine is now. There are no more races left for us this year, soon we will start to disassemble the complete bike during the winter shutdown in order to prepare for next year. ©Eurodragster.com UK National Finals timing, anoraks. 5th October: Our good friend Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe has kindly forwarded the timing data from the weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. As ever the timing data comes in Excel spreadsheet format and now includes an indication of the closest race in each class. You can view the UK National Finals timing data by clicking here, or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Andy has also provided the regular Anorak Stats for the weekend's event: Blue lights (Track clear/Tower ready): 519 Pairs: 435 Single runs: 59 Byes: 25 Total vehicles entered in computer: 954 Made it to the finish line: 909 including 79 Junior Dragsters Made it to the quarter mile: 830 Average ET (not including JDs): 10.776 Average Terminal Speed (not including JDs): 127.90 Low ET: 5.450, Dave Wilson High Speed: 276.52, Martin Hill Closest Race (Eliminations): Sportsman ET Round 2, Dan Page v Dave Nelson (winner), 0.000978 seconds, approximately 0.127 feet or 1.529 inches ©Eurodragster.com Closest to dial-in: Antony Wilkins (Pro ET), spot on, 11.400 Best Reaction Time: Steve Johnson (Super Pro ET) 0.000, 18:46 Saturday Pete Creswell (Super Gas), 0.000, 19:21 Saturday Track open: 11 hours 44 minutes Total run time (all cars to reach finish line): 2 hours 43 minutes 33.942 seconds Runs under 6.00 seconds: 9 Runs over 200 mph: 21 Web site updates. 5th October: Newly-launched Speed Brygade is a digital magazine in PDF format featuring selected photographs by German photographer Dirk Behlau at European extreme motorsport events in 2005 but focusing on drag racing. "The magazine features dragsters, Mopars, babes, hot rods, VW Bugs, and drag bikes", says Dirk. You can down load Dirk's excellent magazine for free at www.speedbrygade.com. Our good buddy Alan Currans has added a ninth page of motorcycle pictures to his own collection on the excellent Acceleration Archive web site. "The new page contains forty six pictures of some of the really great names in UK Fuel Bike racing: John Hobbs, Derek Chinn and Ian Messenger, Mick Butler, Keith Parnell, John Clift and Brian Chapman", says Alan. "This page now brings the total number of pictures on the site to over three thousand". Check it out at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com Another good buddy, Gareth Evans, has updated his UK1320 web site with photographs from the weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. You can find Gareth's excellent pictures at www.uk1320.com. Also updating from the UK National Finals is Pete Roberts whose fascinating web site has been updated with a new panorama, half-track shots and other goodies from the UK National Finals. If you've not visited Pete's site then the panoramas alone make it well worth a look in, but there is plenty more to see too. Check it out at myweb.tiscali.co.uk/lithopa/SPpanos.html. Finally, Andrew Bamford has posted some great spectator-side shots of Sunday's UK National Finals action on his Racing Green web site at www.racing-green.co.uk. A year to remember. 4th October: 2005 UK National and back-to-back Santa Pod Racers Club Sportsman ET Champion Rick Denny has had a year to remember with three wins in four events, runner up in the other, and his first ever twelve-second pass. We were however sorry to hear from Rick that he will be retiring from racing and will be crewing from 2006 on. "I'd like to thank Al and Linda Platt, Maz, Neil, Darren and Nathan for their help this year", says Rick. "Thanks also to Chris and James at WASP (01945 588091) for their sponsorship. "Congratulations to Ian Petrie for winning the Ultimate Power Championship and to Tanya Partridge for a good season in her first full year racing. Well done to all the racers in Sportsman ET this year." ©Eurodragster.com Our loss is Neil Lalouette's gain as Rick will be crewing for him on his return in Pro ET next season. "We would like to send our congratulations to Rick on winning the National and Santa Pod Championships", says Neil. "He has worked long and hard to get these Championships and fully deserves them. I can't hope for a better Crew Chief in Pro ET next year. Well done matey!" Racers: Don't hesitate to send your 2005 season reviews to us at news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them here. NFAA UK National Finals review. 4th October: The final event of the inaugural Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association series was held at Santa Pod as part of the UK National Finals but did not exactly go as planned, says series organiser Lawrie Gatehouse: Unfortunately we had a reduced field as the Bennett Racing Topolino was found to have a valve seat problem during last minute checks, as did The Mob on building their new billet block Rodeck, again in the inlet valve seat area. Both of these instances were discovered within a few days of the start of the meeting, leaving insufficient time to get them repaired. Both teams are bitterly disappointed and send their apologies to the fans, but hope that all will agree that it was the right call to make, rather that risk substantial damage. That left us with Wendy Baker in Time Warp, points leader Clayton Round in Rebel 'T' and Xtreme Racing, shoed by Bob Glassup, to put on a show. Saturday, dodging the light showers, saw all three teams put in exploratory passes, Wendy Baker putting in her first full power pass using a modified fuel system and high gear only. At the eighth-mile mark the time was in the four-second zone, giving a predicted high six run for the full quarter, but a valve head decided to part company with its stem, taking out the number five piston, curtailing the pass, but showing real potential for 2006. Rebel 'T' and Extreme had great side-by-side fun and the day ended with one win apiece, with Bob Glassup recording a personal best of 7.68/176.6. Sunday dawned dry and a little warmer, but Time Warp was out due to the previous damage. The Xtreme Racing team had changed bearings overnight as all of the shells showed some damage on their PB run. They fired up to warm the engine and it suddenly stopped, heralding a possible crank problem, leaving them sidelined. So we were down to the consistent Clayton Round to be the sole surviving representative for the class. He put in a couple of eighth-mile burnouts and ended on a high with his best ever pass, a 7.17/188.9. The Series points totals are: Winner: Clayton Round, Rebel 'T', 990 Runner-up: Bob Glassup, Xtreme Racing, 650 Third place: Ollie Burn and crew, The Mob, 570 ©Eurodragster.com The presentation of trophies and monies will take place at the Wild Bunch 10th Anniversary bash at Drayton Manor Park on 26th November. Thanks to Chris Hartnell and Claire Meaddows. From just an idea a year ago, the inaugural season has had its ups and downs, but all NFAA members have enjoyed the events and had fun. Equally importantly, there have been no safety-related issues and whilst some teams stretched their budgets all made it happen. A big Thank You to all who supported us and for the encouragement and enthusiasm shown, by clubs, racers, fans, track owners, press and MSA Tech Committee members. Looking ahead, 2006 is going to be some season, with a predicted ten or twelve teams pounding the asphalt. Fuel Altereds Forever! Cuthbert on the Jap scene. 4th October: Santa Pod Raceway's Jap Show Finale, which takes place this Sunday (9th October) started out as the Japanese Performance Show back in October 2003 as a Run What You Brung event, but was such a massive success in its inaugural year that Santa Pod now hosts the event in two parts, one in June and the other in October. From the very first running of the event it was clear that there the Jap scene featured some serious race cars, and competition between the top runners was so fierce that it was clear an outlet needed to be provided for the Jap racers whose street cars were dipping into the tens. ©Eurodragster.com Two years later, and those same top runners are now running low nines at nearly 160 mph in the showcase Pro Shootout, but mainstream drag racing fans have yet to see the cars in action unless they have made it along to one of the enthusiast events. There remain many widely-held misconceptions about the cars and the scene in general. Eurodragster.com spoke to Rick Cuthbert of Santa Pod Raceway about the Jap scene as a whole, about how mainstream drag racers view the Import scene and vice versa, and about the forthcoming Jap Show Finale. Click here to read our interview with Rick Cuthbert, or click on the Interviews link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Swift snippets. 4th October: Jan Phersson tells us that the World's first Super Stock Viper (right) is on its way to Sweden. "The engine is still under development and will be dyno'd at Ed Pink in November", says Jan. "When the chassis arrives there are just a few things to do before it is race ready such as fuel system, EM system, electrical system, engine, transmission, paint, interior, windows etc." ©Eurodragster.com Many thanks to National Association of Supertwins Co-ordinator Lorraine Laycock for forwarding us the final points standings in the 2005 NAST Championships. You can view the 2005 NAST points by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Shakespeare County Raceway Press Officer Jerry Cookson suspects, as we do, that Johnny Hall's 6.924 at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags was one of, if not the, quickest Fuel slingshot pass in Europe since the days of Dennis Priddle's Mr Revell. "Johnny's pass places the B+J Nostalgia team at #101 in the All-Time Quickest listing compiled by Bill Pratt's Draglist.com", says Jerry. The B+J Nostalgia web site at www.bjnostalgia.com has been updated with Johnny and Bill Felstead's take on the six-second pass. Web site updates. 4th October: Our good buddy Gwynn has updated his Slimboyfat web site with a large number of pictures from the weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. Gwynn's photography is superb and if you've not paid his web site a visit then we recommend you brew yourself a large coffee and spend some time looking around the numerous galleries. You can check out Gwynn's UK National Finals and other pictures at www.pbase.com/slimboyfat/national_finals_05. ©Eurodragster.com 2005 UK Champions. 2nd October: Congratulations to the UK's 2005 Champions, the last of which were decided at this weekend's UK National Finals (subject to official ratification): MSA British Top Methanol: Rob Turner Pro Modified: Danny Cockerill Super Modified: Ellis Racing Super Pro ET: Ian Tubb Pro ET: John Atkinson Sportsman ET: Rick Denny Super Comp: Chris Johnson Super Gas: Frank Mason Super Street: John Grant Street Eliminator: Colin Lazenby Junior Dragster: Jay Hauser ACU Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woollatt ACU Funny Bike: Chris Hall ACU Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck ACU Comp Bike: Gary Jones ACU Super Street Bike: Steve Venables 9.50 Bike: Fred Furlong ©Eurodragster.com NAST Supertwin Fuel: Chris Stebbings NAST Supertwin Gas: John Floyd NAST Supertwin Modified: Tony Legg NAST Supertwin Street: Dave Jones Wild Bunch Series: Mike Creswell Outlaw Anglia: Paul Wright VWDRC VW Pro: Glynn Morgan VWDRC VW Sportsman: Paul Herbert VWDRC VW Alternate Engine: Spencer Tramm We are sure that everyone will join us in thanking Yvonne Tramm and Simon Groves (UK National, SPRC and APIRA), Dave Alexander (MSA British), Ian King (ACU UK Drag Bike), Lorraine Laycock (National Association of Supertwins), Claire Meaddows (Wild Bunch), Spencer Tramm (Volkswagen Drag Racing Club) and Dale Reardon (Street Eliminator) for their work in co-ordinating this year's Championships. UK National Finals results. 2nd October: Congratulations to the winners of this weekend's UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway: MSA Top Methanol: Rob Turner 5.575/248.85 def. John Parkinson 10.236/81.20 Super Modified: Graham Ellis 7.634/179.27 def. Tim Garlick 7.856/149.93 Super Pro ET: Vince Gibbs (8.83) 8.837/149.05 def. John Everitt (7.95) 7.943/166.02 b/o Pro ET: Lee Huxley (10.54) 10.474 def. Malcolm Motler (10.10) 10.221/131.21 red Sportsman ET: Rick Denny (13.08) 13.027/101.52 lesser b/o def. Nick Gay (14.70) 14.604/78.10 b/o Super Comp: Jon Morton 9.046/133.17 def. Chris Isaacs 9.426/146.11 Super Gas: Brendan Clancy 9.924/108.70 def. Spencer Tramm 9.952/112.13 Super Street: John Grant 11.052/119.40 def. Paul Spiers 11.047/110.21 Junior Dragster: Jayne Kay (12.35) 12.555/50.27 def. Holly Mitchell (10.20) 10.010/67.64 red Street Eliminator: Steve Nash 8.317/175.69 def. Andy Frost shut off Wild Bunch: Phil Sweeney (13.40) 13.474/86.04 def. Tony Wynne Jones (10.90) 11.052/120.31 VW Pro: Glynn Morgan (11.55) 11.707/111.37 def. Simon Longman (12.80) 17.094/65.98 red VW Sportsman: Paul Herbert (14.80) 15.037/69.53 def. Aby Tether (21.50) 22.145/50.96 VW Alternate Engine: Spencer Tramm (9.75) 9.930/109.94 def. Simon Williams (15.29) 15.953/78.80 Top Fuel Bike: Roel Koedam 6.072/225.08 def. Steve Carey no time Funny Bike: Shaun Branch 7.643/159.17 def. Tim Blakemore 8.546/115.17 Pro Stock Bike: Richard Gipp 7.688/169.20 def. Philippe Runget 8.061/159.48 Super Street Bike: Steve Venables 7.925/190.66 def. Mark Fisher 8.085/177.13 Comp Bike: Gary Jones 7.746/170.51 def. Phil Leamon 8.487/151.48 9.50 Bike: Richard Hann 9.556/143.75 def. Fred Furlong 9.573/144.67 Supertwin Gas: John Floyd 9.303/139.22 def. George Laycock 9.996/129.36 red Supertwin Modified: Chris Mott 9.978/137.20 def. John Hackney 10.019/138.43 Supertwin Street: Dave Jones 10.239/128.56 def. Rachael Prevett 10.775/126.70 Two new National records were set this weekend: ACU Top Fuel Bike speed: 217.50 mph, Roel Koedam NAST Supertwin Gas ET: 9.049 seconds, John Floyd Another notable was the final of Junior Dragster which was the first all-girl Junior final in the UK. Congratulations to Steve Johnson (Super Pro ET) and Anthony Wilkins (Pro ET) who took the Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award and the Eurodragster.com/LA Racing Parts Perfect ET Award respectively. ©Eurodragster.com Click here to view our American Car Imports-sponsored UK National Finals coverage, click on the laptop logo at left, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and select the UK National Finals. Earlier news

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