European Drag Racing News

Roland Leong.
30th December: We were very sorry to hear of the passing yesterday at the age of 79 of drag racing legend Roland Leong after a long illness.

Roland learned his trade as a chassis builder and nitro Hemi engine tuner working alongside people like Dragmaster Chassis co-owner Jim Nelson and Keith Black in the early 1960s. His ‘Hawaiian’ Top Fuel dragsters achieved fame in the mid-1960s with two legendary drivers, Don Prudhomme and Mike Snively.

Roland switched to the Funny Car class in 1969 – still naming his car ‘Hawaiian’, and during the 1970s and early 1980s he campaigned a variety of different body shapes with Ron Colson as driver in 1980 and then Mike Dunn in 1983. In 1991 his Hawaiian Punch Funny Car became the first to top 290 mph.

At the end of that year he decided to retire as Team Owner and became a Crew Chief. By 1998 he was tuning Don Prudhomme’s Skoal Bandit Funny car driven by Ron Capps – a car that won more NHRA National Events than any other in that class that year. More recently his interest was in ‘nostalgia’ Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars in the NHRA Heritage Series.

Roland's connection to British drag racing came late in life. He attended the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Gala in November 2017, thanks to Geoff Stilwell's invitation, and we were privileged to accompany Roland and others on sight seeing trips to London. In 2019, Roland came to the UK again, accompanied by daughter Rolanda Leong Mori, following an invitation by Geoff to tune Tony Betts' Venom Nostalgia Funny Car. Roland immediately connected with anyone in the UK drag racing scene that he met, and made an enormous number of friends with those who had for decades admired him as a hero in the sport. He was immensely knowledgeable but at the same time genuinely interested in everyone he spoke to. Once again your editor was his driver and tour guide, and it was a treasurable experience.

Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with Roland's family, friends and racing colleagues.

2023 SPRC Perpetual Awards vote 4.
30th December: Santa Pod Racers Club and Eurodragster.com are again teaming up to give Eurodragster.com readers the chance of input to the 2023 SPRC Perpetual Awards, which will be presented at the SPRC Dinner Dance and Trophy Presentation on 3rd February 2024.

For several of the 2023 season awards, a shortlist has been decided upon for which votes can be submitted by E-Mail. Nominations are now also being accepted for the Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy. The votes of Eurodragster.com readers will be taken into consideration when the SPRC Committee decides upon their winners.

Today's category is Most Professional-Appearing Team. The Most Professional-Appearing Team trophy recognises not just the presentation of a race vehicle but the team's overall approach to racing. As well as a well-turned-out car or bike, the Committee have considered such aspects as the appearance and attitude of team personnel, the organisation and appearance of their pit area and support equipment, and their readiness when their class is called.

The SPRC Committee's shortlist, in alphabetical order, is as follows:

The Dubois Family , Super Pro
Vote for The Dubois Family

Stevie Gates, Modurstang Pro ET
Vote for Stevie Gates

Simon Innes , Modurstang Pro ET
Vote for Simon Innes

Lorraine Large, VW Sportsman
Vote for Lorraine Large

Gary Malone, JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike
Vote for Gary Malone

Collin Milar , Outlaw Anglia
Vote for Colin Millar

Dave Smith, Motorsport UK Pro Modified
Vote for Dave Smith

To place your vote, either use the links above or go to the official Perpetual Awards voting page which you can view by clicking here. If your device doesn't automatically generate an E-Mail then please E-Mail your choice to 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.com.

The Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy, for which nominations are also now being taken, was first awarded to Santa Pod Racers Club's late Chief Marshal, Alex Brachtvogel, in 2001 to mark his outstanding contribution to Santa Pod Raceway and the sport as a whole. After Alex's death the trophy was named in his memory and continues to be awarded for contribution to drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Alex Brachtvogel award. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers, race officials, track and safety crews, club officials, media, or anyone else who has contributed to the sport. Last year the trophy was awarded to Paul Marshall for pairing lanes marshalling. Again see the official page for more details or E-Mail your nomination to 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.comspecifying SPRC Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy nomination as the subject and your nomination in the body of the E-Mail.

For each of the Awards, one vote per E-Mail address per nominee will be accepted: multiple votes for the same nominee from the same E-Mail address will all be disqualified. Please note that blatant attempts at organising mass votes - for example asking workmates, forum members or Facebook friends to vote en masse - are easily identified and all such votes will be disallowed as they have been in previous years. If in any doubt about what constitutes canvassing then please drop us a line at 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.com. Voting for the Awards closes on 21st January 2024.

Additionally, if anyone should have issues with the content of any of the shortlists then please contact SPRC direct rather than E-Mailing Eurodragster.com or commenting on social media.

The next, and final, voting category will be the James Edgar Memorial Trophy awarded for outstanding performance by a Crew Chief, tuner, racer/tuner, or crew member.

Swift snippets.
30th December: Happy Birthday for today to Super Pro ET and Super Comp crew chief and dad Pete Kellett, Supercharged Outlaws racer Paul Dale, FWD racer Andy Nicholls and former Comp Altered racer John Tebbutt. We hope you all have a wonderful day.

2024 Riders' and Drivers' meeting.
29th December: Thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for letting us know the date of the annual UK Riders' and Drivers' meeting.

The 2024 Riders' and Drivers' meeting will take place on the 14th January 2024 at the Hilton Hotel Northampton. This can be found on the east bound side of the A45 from Junction 15 of the M1. The meeting will commence at 13.30 in the Spencer Suite.

Any member having items to add to the agenda, could you please sent them to ir.marshall@btconnect.com by 5th January 2024 to have them included in the meeting. As ever, it is requested that any person requesting agenda items must attend the meeting in order to discuss the proposal or question fully. The SPRC AGM will follow the Riders' and Drivers' meeting as usual.

Perpetual trophies.
29th December: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall has requested that all winners of 2022 Perpetual trophies should make sure they are returned to the SPRC office by 14th January.

Ian adds "Should you wish to bring them with you to the Riders' and Drivers' meeting, please note that this is the very last opportunity to get them to us so don't forget please."

The postal address is:-

2 Carmichael Close
Rushden
Northants
NN10 0ZB

Straightliners' turbocharged transformation for 2024.
29th December: Straightliners have announced their calendar of dates for 2024 with a rebranded offering which founder and CEO Trevor Duckworth has hailed as signalling "a new era of excitement and innovation."

Trevor said "For decades, Straightliners has held the torch in pioneering accessible speed sports, welcoming riders and drivers alike to the adrenaline-fueled world of drag racing. With a commitment to participant safety at its core, the organization has garnered a reputation for its inclusive approach to focus on the essential requirements ensuring a secure and thrilling experience for all."

You can see the rebranded Straightliners website at straightliners.events, which now has links to results and points as well as dates, entry forms and rules. For media inquiries, please contact Straightliners at trevor@straightliners.co.uk.

The dates of the 2024 Straightliners car and bike drag racing and speed series:

24th-25th February	Straightliners Elvington Open Day Weekend
16th March	Dakota Raceway, Smeatharpe 1
25th March	Top Speed Monday, Elvington
7th April	Santa Pod Raceway Season Opener (Straightliners round 1)
13th-14th April	Melbourne Raceway (Straightliners round 2)
15th April	Top Speed Monday Elvington
20th April	Dakota Raceway, Smeatharpe 2
11th-12th May	Melbourne Raceway, (Straightliners round 3)
20th-26th May	UK & ITA Speed Week, Elvington
3rd & 6th June	TT Ramsey Sprint
15th-16th June	Melbourne Raceway (Straightliners round 4)
17th June	Top Speed Monday Elvington
22nd-23rd June	Campbeltown, Scotland (Top Speed event)
6th July	Dakota Raceway, Smeatharpe 3
13th-14th July	Melbourne Raceway (Straightliners round 5)
15th July	Top Speed Monday Elvington
20th-21st July	Llanbedr, Wales (Top Speed event)
27th-28th July	Ten Of The Best
3rd-4th August	Melbourne Raceway (Straightliners round 6)
5th August	Top Speed Monday Elvington
10th August	Dakota Raceway, Smeatharpe 4
31st August-1st September	Melbourne Raceway (Straightliners round 7)
7th-8th September	Campbeltown, Scotland (Top Speed event)
21st-22nd September	Elvington ACU /UKITA Records
28th September	Dakota Raceway, Smeatharpe 5
5th-6th October	Melbourne Raceway (Straightliners round 8)
7th October	Top Speed Monday Elvington
13th October	Santa Pod Raceway (Straightliners final round 9)

Racers are advised to check with the Straightliners website at www.straightliners.events before an event to make sure there aren’t any changes. You can phone or message Helen Greathead on 07921 712266 or email at helen@straightliners.co.uk. Events can be entered online or ring Helen 01724 347801. Entries will be dearer from 2 weeks before the event. 8 rounds from 9 will count for the Straightliners Championship Events are pre-enter only for Championships, RWYB and spectator entrance is available on the day at most events.

Trakbytes site updated.
29th December: Thanks to Trakbytes webmaster Chris Dossett for letting us know that his excellent Trakbytes website has just been updated. Chris says:

"This update features around thirty additions and new entries spanning the years from 1971 to 2003. Amongst the new material is a new UK Top Fuel record for Dennis Priddle, the Top Fuel debuts of Roz Prior and Houndog 8, the UK racers trip to Sweden in 1974 and the return of the Page Team just eight weeks after writing off their Topolino Altered.

"There are new Landmark entries for the first UK built Funny Car to run into the sevens, and the first UK nine second run from a Pro Stock car. There’s details of an attempt in 1974 to amalgamate the top two street classes into one handicapped eliminator, which didn’t quite go according to plan, and a Pro Stock Bike final where both riders disqualified themselves. There’s also some new programme covers from York that were sent to me quite some time ago and have recently been rediscovered.

"The next volume of the Retford Scrapbooks has also been uploaded. This is actually Volume Four in the series which got overlooked previously. Some of the cuttings in this book cover race reports from mid-1974, a selection of John Dickson’s columns from Fast Car magazine, an article on John Hobbs and his new Olympus machine, two new Drag Bikes that were tipped to give Hobbs a run for his money, and profiles on the Stones Team and Dennis Priddle’s Mr Revell fueler.

"There are new entries in the Competitor Index, a list of the 2500+ racers mentioned in the archive and updated Hall Of Fame files for Allan Herridge, The Page and Stones Team, Clive Skilton, Sammy Miller and Dennis Priddle. May I finally take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"

You can see the updated Trakbytes site by clicking here.

Swift snippets.
30th December: We send our love and best wishes to Fuel Altered legend and British Drag Racing Hall of Fame supporter Ron Hope who is ill with cancer and receiving palliative care.

Drag racing historian Nick Pettitt has added two more galleries of Antony Billinton's photos to his British Drag Racing & Hot Rodding Archive website which you can reach by clicking here. One features The Commuter and Gloworm 1970 - 1971 including a record run at Elvington and the second takes a look at Firefly from its debut at Crystal Palace in 1971 up to 1974. Scroll down to the pic of The Commuter for Antony's photos.

Happy Birthday for today to UK Nostalgia Superstocka and Pro ET racer Gary Carr, Freddie's Revenge crew chief Terry Carter, Wild Bunch racer Elliott Jones Swedish Pro Mod racer Micke Johansson. We hope you all have a great day. Belated Birthday wishes for yesterday to Pro ET racer Laura Baynton, Supercharged Outlaws racer Mike Couch and German super crew member Kirsten Krause.

2023 SPRC Perpetual Awards vote 3.
23rd December: Santa Pod Racers Club and Eurodragster.com are again teaming up to give Eurodragster.com readers the chance of input to the 2023 SPRC Perpetual Awards, which will be presented at the SPRC Dinner Dance and Trophy Presentation on 3rd February 2024 .

For several of the 2023 season awards, a shortlist has been decided upon for which votes can be submitted by E-Mail. Nominations are now also being accepted for the Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy. The votes of Eurodragster.com readers will be taken into consideration when the SPRC Committee decides upon their winners.

Today's category is Best Appearing Bike. The SPRC Committee's shortlist, in alphabetical order, is as follows. Click on a picture to see a large version.

The SPRC Committee's shortlist, in alphabetical order, is as follows. Click on a picture to see a large version.

Gary Hester
Blood Cancer UK ET Bike

Vote for Gary Hester

Jonny Hines
JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike

Vote for Jonny Hines

Casey Holgate
Blood Cancer UK ET Bike

Vote for Casey Holgate

Blade King
Blood Cancer UK ET Bike

Vote for Blade King

Gary Malone
JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike

Vote for Gary Malone

Bill Marsh
Blood Cancer UK ET Bike

Vote for Bill Marsh

John McLean Jnr
Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike

Vote for John McLean Jnr

Jay Roe
JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike

Vote for Jay Roe

Chris Venn
Blood Cancer UK ET Bike

Vote for Chris Venn

To place your vote, either use the links above or go to the official Perpetual Awards voting page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the SPRC Perpetual Awards vote link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. If your device doesn't automatically generate an E-Mail then please E-Mail your choice to 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.com.

The Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy, for which nominations are also now being taken, was first awarded to Santa Pod Racers Club's late Chief Marshal, Alex Brachtvogel, in 2001 to mark his outstanding contribution to Santa Pod Raceway and the sport as a whole. After Alex's death the trophy was named in his memory and continues to be awarded for contribution to drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Alex Brachtvogel award. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers, race officials, track and safety crews, club officials, media, or anyone else who has contributed to the sport. Last year the trophy was awarded to Paul Marshall for pairing lanes marshalling. Again see the official page for more details or E-Mail your nomination to 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.comspecifying SPRC Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy nomination as the subject and your nomination in the body of the E-Mail.

For each of the Awards, one vote per E-Mail address per nominee will be accepted: multiple votes for the same nominee from the same E-Mail address will all be disqualified. Please note that blatant attempts at organising mass votes - for example asking workmates, forum members or Facebook friends to vote en masse - are easily identified and all such votes will be disallowed as they have been in previous years. If in any doubt about what constitutes canvassing then please drop us a line at 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.com. Voting for the Awards closes on 21st January 2024.

Additionally, if anyone should have issues with the content of any of the shortlists then please contact SPRC direct rather than E-Mailing Eurodragster.com or commenting on social media.

The next voting category will be Most Professional-Appearing Team.

Thanks to Graham Watkinson for his help in coding this article.

Swift snippets.
23rd December: We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to UK drag racing historian Jerry Cookson for today and Nitro FM presenter and occasional Contributing Photographer Nikki Marshall for tomorrow (Christmas Eve). We hope you are having special days.

2023 Champions' Champions.
23rd December: The Champions' Champions tables prepared by honorary Eurodragster.com staff member Andy Marrs and your editor show the all-time highest points earners since the FIA and FIM European Championships began in 1996 and 1992 respectively, and since the UK National Championships began in 1999.

Andy Marrs writes that:

Linn Floysvik is the 50th FIA champion (Ida Zetterstrom was 49th);
Jimmy Alund got his 50th #1 qualifier in Pro Stock at the Tierp Internationals in June, appeared in his 50th Pro Stock final at the Tierp Internationals in June, and got his 50th low ET in FIA combined at the Tierp Summit Internationals in August;
Mats Eriksson is up from 11 to 10 in overall points and from 10th to 8th in overall round wins;
In Top Fuel, Duncan Micallef passed 1500 points and is up from 11 to 10;
In Top Methanol (combined), Sandro Bellio passed 1500 points, Silvio Strauch is up from 10 to 6, Johnny Oksa is up from 11 to 7 and Tony Brytesson up from 13 to 10;
In Pro Modified, Mats Eriksson passed 4000 points and is up from 3rd to 2nd in rounds won, Bruno Bader passed 4000 points, David Vegter passed 3000 points, Jan Ericsson passed 2000 points and is up from 12th to 8th in points; in round wins, Bruno Bader is up from 11th to 10th;
In Pro Stock, Michael Malmgren passed 8000 points, Stefan Ernryd passed 1500 points and is up from 14th to 10th ;
In FIM-E Championships, Rikard Gustafsson is up from 2nd to 1st in overall points, had the biggest-ever championship win margin in Top Fuel Bike, and passed 2500 points;
In Super Twin Top Fuel, Marcus Christiansen had the biggest championship win margin and is up from 14th to 10th in class points totals; Marcus and Roman Sixta both passed 1000 points;
Martin Bishop up from 6th to 5th in overall FIM-E points and up from 3rd to 2nd in Pro Stock Bike points;
Per Bengtsson is up from 7th to 6th in overall FIM-E points and passes 2500 points;
Mogens Lund is up from 11th to 8th in overall FIM-E points and up from 2nd to 1st in class points total; and
Sverre Dahl is up from 7th to 6th in overall Top Fuel Bike points;
Martin Newbury is up from 10th to 9th in overall Pro Stock Bike points; and
Daniel Donat Lencses is up from 6th to 3rd in overall Super Street Bike points.

A couple of housekeeping points. Firstly there is my usual caveat that there are some small gaps in my historical data, particularly the early FIM data. Also Top Methanol includes all TM data, both from when TMD and TMFC ran as single classes, and when they ran as a combined class. Hopefully that’s clear enough in the spreadsheets.

Readers can feel free to publish and\or quote this information anywhere, but a credit to Andy Marrs as the source is politely requested. Please remember, you and everyone else who may see this are my proof readers. Beyond help from some Excel tools this is very much a manual process, much as I try to avoid it, mistakes do happen. If anyone spots any please let Marrs know at andy.marrs@outlook.com.

Scoring for the UK National Championships Champions' Champions is based on an event having to be completed for a win to be registered. Race wins are ranked by number based on the driver or rider. Points however are scored and ranked on a team basis, as are numbers of Championships. For teams with multiple cars or drivers changing teams during or between seasons, the compiler's decision is final.

In 2023 the National SPRC Championship again had six events held under Motorsport UK or ACU permit. Due to a herculean effort of the Santa Pod Racers Club track crew all events were able to be completed (subject to three rounds carried forward to the National Finals). We can only hope the weather will be equally accommodating in 2024.

We had first time champions in seven classes, compared with nine last year and a record eleven in 2015. Discounting 2020, the number of back to back champions in 2023 was four, compared with six in 2022 and a record nine in 2017.

The first time Motorsport UK Pro Modified champion was Bobby Wallace winning his first championship and well done to Bobby who had the right mix of performance and consistency. Bobby won three events, with Swedish visitor and retiree Jan Ericsson, Dutch visitor David Vegter and French visitor Jean Dulamon winning one event each. Sponsor Andy Robinson leads the number of championships won (8), event wins (21) and points total scored since 1999, ahead of Kev Slyfield, who is second in points and joint second with Nick Davies in event wins over the period since 1999.

The Funny Car Cup was a clean sweep for Kevin Kent who won the title despite the need to deploy a backup car at the FIA/FIM-E Euro Finals. Kevin leads the number of championships jointly with Gordon Smith and John Spuffard with three titles. He also is in a tie with John Spuffard with event wins (10) in the period under review, however Spuff won several events in the years prior to 1999.

In Competition Eliminator, Williams Bros Racing were again dominant with champion Nic Williams taking three wins to Spencer Tramm's two and Dan Williams' one in his new 1970 Camaro. Andy Hone has the most championships over the period under review (three), Kev Perkins has the largest number of race wins (seven) and Robin Orthodoxou continues to lead the aggregate points.

In Super Pro ET, Alan Didwell was the champion winning two events, the same as fourth placed Joe Kellett. In the points Tom Atkinson (Time is Money) won one ace to become runner up, and Collin Morrice won the re-run Euro Finals final round. Over the years, Scott Hauser has won three championships in the class, whilst six drivers or teams have two each. Barry Giles has won 15 races and leads the points aggregate in the still-show-quality Giles & Hartley dragster.

Leigh Morris took the Pro ET championship for the first time; he already has six championships in now-defunct Super Street. Leigh had a strong lead from the start of the season with back to back wins. The remaining rounds were won by Kirstie Tramm, Simon Rickwood, newcomer to the class Jess Bishop, and Simon Innes. Seven championships have been won by the Team Dark Horse (previously known as Top Banana) of which Lee Huxley has had 14 class wins over the last 25 years. The Huxleys continue to lead the points tally ahead of Team Heaven & Hell.

In Sportsman ET Gary Lake repeated his title from 2022 with two event wins at the start of the season. Craig Wright, Geoff Cowley and Team Rainy City Lightning (Al and Linda Platt) each have three Sportsman ET championships. Craig, with ten wins during his time in the class, leads Geoff Cowley and Rick Denny who both have seven wins. Felicity Gibbs with 10 years in the class has moved into the lead of points aggregate ahead of Team Rainy City Lightning.

In Super Comp, Leah Kellett won her fourth championship with three wins to Stu Doignie's two and Richard Tunstall's one. Leah now has as many championships as Stu. Brian has most wins with thirteen over Leah's eleven, and the most points over Pete Creswell.

In Super Gas, the Morrice Boys (Stuart driving in the class this year) took their first championship with three wins to Pete Creswell's two and Mark White's one. Stuart Doignie, the late Jon Morton and Tim Adam have four championships apiece, with Stuart's four coming in consecutive years 2015-18. Jon Morton had more race wins in the period than anyone else at 13, whereas Frank Mason continues to lead points scored over the Morrice Boys who rise to second place.

In Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator, congratulations to Andy Bond who won his third title in a row and fourth overall, with four event wins, the most in any car class, to Al McSweeney's two; Steve Pateman leads the overall listings with five Championships, seventeen wins to Andy's 16, and leads the aggregate points over Ian Hook.

In Lucas Oils Junior Dragster, congratulations to Liam McDonald who has competed in championships across the continent this year and won the UK SPRC Championship with a single win, the class having no repeat event winners. Joe Kellett has the most championships with three, Nick Mugridge continues to have the most wins with nine and Joe Kellett continues to lead aggregate points over Thomas Cook-Abbott.

Dan De'ath repeated his 8.50 Bike title with a three wins to runner up Brad Head's two. Jay Roe, Jake Mechaell and Mick Winyard have each won three championships. Jay has 14 wins to Jake's 13, and Jay lead the aggregate points over Jake.

In 9.50 Bike, Carl Thomas won his first championship, congratulations to him with two wins against class great Rick Sawatzki with two, with Dion Hartley and Dave Hall each scoring one. Carl broke Rick's run of seven championships in a row, not counting the Covid Cup year, Rick having ten National championships in all. Rick's 32 wins heads Fred Furlong's eleven, Richard continuing with an big overall points lead over Fred.

In ET Bike, former Junior Drag Bike double champion Blade King the championship with three event wins to former JDB racer Liam Holgate's two; Phil Pratt has a run of five championships, excluding the Covid Cup year, and also heads Gary Hester in events won with 15 compared to Gary's four, and leads Gary also in aggregate points.

In ACU Top Fuel, Bike Neil Midgley repeated his championship in what for him was otherwise a wretched year, Neil previously winning five titles in Funny Bike. Neil won two races to Steve Woollatt's one but took no part in the final round which fell short of the expected three bike quota. Steve leads the way in championships won with 15 in the period under review (19 in total) and unprecedented wins total of 35 and the aggregate points lead.

In ACU Funny Bike, Dave Peters won the title with four wins to Roger Moore's two. Neil Midgley continues to lead all three scores with five championships over Chris Hall's three, seventeen event wins to Dave's twelve and the points lead over second placed Tim Blakemore.

The ACU Comp Bike championship was won by Mark Dainty in a year when the class welcomed in a several former Super Street Bike racers of which Mark was one. In a highly competitive championship Mark's sole win was at the UK National Finals to decide the title, the other five races being won by five different riders. Phil Leamon has four titles to Ivan Birch's three, eleven wins to Ivan's ten, Phil also leads the points over Paul Hambidge.

In ACU Super Street Bike congratulations to Alan Morrison Jnr, who also won the FIM-E SSB Championship, on his first title. In the ACU championship, Alan won two races. Steve Venables continues to lead the number of titles with 12 in ACU Competition and has 36 wins leading the points total over Graham Dance who lies second in championships with four, and in wins with nineteen.

It was a good year for the Morrison family as Alan Jr's daughter Leah Morrison won her first ACU Junior Drag Bike title, with wins at the first two races of the year. The winning trends were unusual with Richard Willcox going on to win two events in early Summer, whilst Grace Pollen won the last two ACU races of the season. Liam Holgate and Scott Collier share the lead of titles won with four apiece, and wins with ten each. Scott leads the points tally.

You can check out the UK Champions' Champions by clicking here or by clicking on News, then Champions' Champions in the main menu of any Eurodragster.com page.

Drag Racing Unplugged XXV.
23rd December: As has become traditional on our last pre-Christmas update, we have posted Drag Racing Unplugged, our selection of top stories of the year from our news pages, including Simon's, Diana's, Kirstie's, Julian's, and Tog's Stories of the Year..

We are pleased to present Drag Racing Unplugged XXV, the 2023 collection, which you can check out by clicking here, or by clicking on the John Woolfe Racing Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page.

Eurodragster.com Christmas lists.
23rd December: We will now be taking our Christmas break until 29th December. News updates and postings to our Jeff Bull Race Engines Swap Meet will resume on that date as well. Keep those news items coming to us at news@eurodragster.com and we will post them after our break.

In the meantime our core team have compiled our usual requests to Father Christmas, together with our New Year resolutions:

Top of Diana's Christmas list: A newer caravan as Dolly (my caravan) is getting tired bless her, but I'm not sure I've been good enough to get one...

Top of Kirstie's Christmas list: A pair of trail running shoes and a Garmin watch.

Top of Simon's Christmas list: A reduction in stress levels.

Top of Julian's Christmas list: A safe fast season with lots of good photograph opportunities.

Top of Kieran's Christmas list: Many Many YouTube Subscribers!

Top of Tog's Christmas list: A pension offer which agrees with my own calculations.

Diana's New Year resolution: Get somebody to sort my garden out, I'm way too lazy.. after a busy year at the track it's looking neglected...

Kirstie's New Year resolution: Run a mile every day in the hopes that it’ll help me run a sub 30 minute 5k again since before covid.

Simon's New Year resolution: Get more help to reduce aforementioned stress levels.

Julian's New Year resolution: To find some exciting new photography angles.

Kieran's New Year resolution: To visit at least two more tracks in Europe!

Tog's New Year resolution: People who even now are stupid enough to try to involve me in their latest snits with other members of the racing community will no longer be treated politely.

Kirstie, Diana, Simon, Julian, Kieran and Tog would like to wish all Eurodragster.com readers and their families the very Happiest of Christmases, and to thank everyone who has sent us personal Christmas wishes and cards. Have a great time.

Paula Murphy.
22nd December: We were sorry to hear of the passing of Funny Car and Land Speed legend Paula Murphy yesterday at the age of 95. Paula's granddaughter Christi, who accompanied her to the 2016 British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Gala and Bench Racing, wrote:

"Today, we say goodbye to an extraordinary woman, my grandmother, Paula Murphy, also fondly known as 'Miss STP.' Her departure has left a void in my heart that can never be filled.

"Until 1975, she was the only woman to have been allowed to drive an Indy car at speed on the track. She was also the first woman to drive a jet-engined car on the Salt Flats, the first woman licensed to drive a nitromethane-fueled car, and the first woman to have a fuel funny car license from the National Hot Rod Association.

"In the 1960s and 1970s, she set numerous speed records, including a Mexico to Canada route, a New York to Los Angeles route, the women's land speed record, and the NASCAR women's speed record. She also became part of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2017, which I was incredibly fortunate to attend and be a part of.

"She was funny, witty, smart, and stubborn as a mule, but she was also very kind, generous, and loving. She lived her life well, and most importantly, she lived her life HER WAY. "No" was not in her vocabulary unless it was her saying no to you.

"My beautiful, strong, incredible grandmother is gone; I am devastated beyond measure. I am grateful that I had as much time with her on this earth as I did and that I got to see her one last time this week before she passed.

"You are my hero. Rest easy. I love you so much, and I will miss you forever."

To British drag racing fans, Paula was one of a pair of Funny Car racers along with Don Schumacher (see yesterday's update to wow crowds at Santa Pod Raceway and HMS Daedalus Airfield, Lee-on-Solent in Gosport, Hampshire in July 1973 at the Petersen Publishing International series. You can read the story of these historic races at this link on Eurodragster.com. Paula's many accomplishments were chronicled in the documentary Undaunted, prepared for a tribute to Paula at the Petersen Automotive Museum in May 2023, which you can see by clicking here.

We send our deepest condolences to Paula's family, friends and colleagues.

Photo courtesy Tog at the 2016 British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Bench Racing.

The Flyin Fyfer's Winter of Discontent.
22nd December: Many thanks to Outlaw Anglia racer and class admin Colin Millar for a Wee Christmas Blog:

It’s the opportunity to do all those upgrades you identified throughout this year's race season, it's also the most boring time from the perspective view of a drag racer. The season came to a close after our last event which was the fabulous Hot Rod Drags where we ended the season on a total high with a new PB for speed and ET. (6.9068 at 199.00mph - Ed).

A very last minute decision to come to Flame and Thunder albeit without the car was still great fun. Even if the weather had a different idea we still managed to kick the backside out of it. It’s too long to wait until next year’s race season so our 14th year of heading out to Malta which is now the last weekend of November and proving this year that it was a difficult time, fighting cold and rain especially on the Saturday.

Sunday was by far a better day and it’s getting to be like a day at the Pod with all those well Kent faces (look it up, reader - Ed) kicking about on the stands, I could probably name them all but it would take too long lol. We did manage however to have a lovely meal out with Robin Read and Ella the chute fairy, and an afternoon scooting about the island with Bradley Head and Jake Mechaell who had to sit in the front as he became very grey and sick looking sitting in the back of our wee car lol.

The heater's been on down the garage and this year we are only doing what we need to, as last year's alterations were just off the wall, not to mention the big dent in our pockets, so keeping it simple just a new set of 2 3/8” stainless headers, a new 3” anti-roll bar and new weight bars for the front of the car as, with all the weight saving from last year, the car is now a tad light in the front; they are bad enough to drive when they are sorted, far less when they are not where they should be.

I have to tell you that this year I have been racing at the pod 39 years and it’s the first time my race car has went through a full season without breaking anything, what a lucky boy I have been especially as it’s the most pressure I have ever applied to the car to try and get those special numbers. The spare engine has been refreshed and went on the dyno a few days back with great results, so we can just keep that clean and dry with a bit of WD40, fingers crossed though that we don’t need it.

We're not far away from breaking off for Christmas and yet again we are Ooooooot and Abooooot chasing volcanoes in Sunny Iceland, can’t wait (look out for the lava - Ed).

Next year, it looks like 7 events for Outlaw Anglia, and I’m looking very closely at getting my act together and heading out to Sweden, always wanted to do it but for some reason I haven’t, so making me even more determined to get it done and fingers crossed we can maybe run in the 7.60 class with some help and advise from the clever people. We've started to look at other events and tracks - and I've already ran out of holidays lol.

Anyway, take care everybody and all The Flyin Fyfers wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, fast and safe and see you at the track real soon. xxx

Photo courtesy Jon Spoard.

Swift snippets.
22nd December: Happy Birthday for today to Competition Eliminator racer Elaine Hancock, ET Bike racer Scott Collier, Super Pro ET team member and dad Chris Swinchatt, Wild Bunch racer James Auld, VW Sportsman racer Jason Anslow and Nostalgia Superstock racer Gary Cork. We hope you all have a wonderful day.

Eurodragster.com's Christmas update will be posted tomorrow, 23rd December following which we will be taking our annual break until 29th December. If you have a news story or review of your year for us to publish, the deadline is midnight tonight.

Don Schumacher.
21st December:

We are sad to report the passing of drag racing legend Don Schumacher at the age of 79. Don was an NHRA team owner and Funny Car pioneer who had a massive influence on British Drag racing fifty years ago and returned to be honoured at the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Gala in 2016.

Back in 1973 Don, who had raced since 1966, was booked by Santa Pod Raceway owner Roy Phelps to appear with his Stardust Barracuda Funny Car at the first round of the Petersen Publishing series which included two races at Santa Pod and a 1000ft race at HMS Daedalus Airfield, Lee-on-Solent in Gosport, Hampshire. Don raced at the first event, but the car remained in the UK, having been bought by SPR.

The races' influence can't be overstated. It was the first time on British soil for two of the latest Funny Cars, driven by Don and Paula Murphy. Don's showmanship was fantastic, despite the engine losing a couple of blowers in initial runs and having to borrow a unit from SPR's Firefly dragster. On Sunday of the first event, Don and Paul executed a side by side burnout burnout that had not just the strip, but also the grandstands disappearing from view, as reported in Autosport. Don then elected to do a fire burnout.

"After suitable precautions had been taken, some petrol was put behind him. As he reversed into it, up it went. The car came out of this, flames and smoke again billowing out from behind. When everyone thought he would shut down he turned the car round like it was a rally Escort and stabbed the throttle to send it leaping back to the start, the incredible torque tossing the car around like a toy. He then did another burnout, turned round, stabbed it again and finally shut off. If ever a man became a hero overnight, it was Don Schumacher."

Don's Cuda became an icon of the sport in the UK when it was driven subsequently by the fearless Allan Herridge and Dave Stone (with a Chevy engine). Back in the states, Don continued as a driver until the end of 1974 and then he took a break from participating in the sport whilst growing the family business, Schumacher Electric into a global corporation.

In 1998 Don returned to participation in the sport by establishing, Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) which grew to become the winningest organization in NHRA Drag Racing history, and further cemented its position as one of motorsports’ elite teams when it surpassed 350 wins during the 2020 season. DSR owns 19 world championships in three different NHRA categories, and including Don's five NHRA Funny Car triumphs from the 1970s, DSR has been successful in capturing 367 national event victories overall.

Don has been inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. In the UK he received a Special Thank You award from Santa Pod Raceway in 2016.

We send our deepest condolences to Don's family, friends and colleagues.

Photo by Mark Rebilas. Read more about the 1973 Petersen Publishing Series at this link on Eurodragster.com.

Swift snippets.
21st December: Happy Birthday for today to Maltese Super Street Bike racer Simon Giordmaina and Peggy Beck, wife of announcer Bob Beck. We hope that you both have a wonderful day.

Best wishes to Nitro Revival founder and NHRA legend Steve Gibbs who is recovering in Hawaii following a fall while on vacation. Steve remarked "I was lucky that nothing was broke. I spent the night in the hospital as a precaution and we continued to have an enjoyable second week with Bob and Sharon Muravez." Thanks to Geoff Stilwell for forwarding Steve's news to us.

Jöran Persåker.
20th December: We were greatly saddened to learn of the death of speed shop owner and Top Fuel/Pro Modified racer Jöran Persåker.

Spending 45+ years in the sport, Jöran started his racing, as many in his native Sweden, by cruising and street racing near Stockholm. He opened his Persåker's Speed Shop in 1983 in Hammarby Harbour, Stockholm, and grew it to one of the largest in the country, retailing parts of all descriptions online, moving the shop and warehouse to the village of Åkers Styckebruk, about an hour's drive west of Stockholm.

A varied racing career started with doorslammers in Competition Eliminator in the 1990s, moving to Pro Modified and three years in FIA Pro Stock from 2003-5 with a Dodge Avenger. In 2004 he started racing in Top Fuel, and it was a measure of his appetite for hard work and his popularity that he could sustain a racing operation in two of the top classes over several years.

He was one of the first in Pro Modified or Top Doorslammer to adopt turbos, in a Gen 3 Camaro which he brought to Santa Pod on a few occasions. His final race was in 2018 at the Tierp Internationals, in Top Fuel with Monica Öberg's dragster.

As an individual, few were as affable or enthusiastic as Jöran, always welcoming into his pit area and cheerful regardless of the mechanical issues that beset him and his team. He had a variety of pit vehicles which he would drive around, dispensing Persåker's Speed Shop catalogues to fellow racers.

In 2016 he emigrated to Port Charlotte in Florida where he enjoyed the climate, despite the occasional hurricane, the local car shows and meeting up with fellow expat Swedes.

We send our deepest condolences to Jöran's mother Kerstin, his family and friends.

Photo courtesy Tog: Jöran's first Top Fuel timing ticket in 2004. Read a detailed tribute to Jöran at this link on Bilsport.se (in Swedish).

Bill Marsh.
20th December: We were shocked and saddened to hear of the death of ET Bike racer and team member Bill Marsh. Bill had been involved in the sport for many years, helping Blade King in his racing since 2010, but his competitive years came quite late, joining the ET Bike class in 2021. Ollie King writes:

"With a heavy heart, a true gent of this world has left us, a pure genuine legend who would give you the clothes off his back to help you out. Bill Marsh, you were loved by many, more than you would ever realise, and the world is a poorer place without you. You've been a huge part of our family for a long while watching all the kids growing up racing, helping them working on there bikes with them dropping everything whenever I've needed you.

"I've loved watching you race and bringing your bikes up, and to be there when sh*t didn't work to push you even harder even when you fell ill, you still made sure even though you weren't racing to come and see the kids racing.

"But my friend there's no suffering now so go lay down some rubber in the sky and I'll see you in Valhalla one day and we will continue to raise hell. Love and respect my brother, ride free."

Our deepest condolences to Bill's two children Kye and Ella and to his family and friends.

Swift snippets.
20th December: Happy Birthday for today to Pro ET racer Warren Watts, Supercharged Outlaws racer Luke Watts, Top Doorslammer crew member Pelle Eriksson, retired Pro Stock Bike racer Ulf Ögge and longtime Eurodragster.com supporter Ivar Kolberg. A belated Happy Birthday for yesterday to VW Pro racer Polly Judge. We hope you are all having, or had, a great day.

Spy picture II.
19th December: Well done to Anais Shepherd for correctly identifying our spy picture from Sunday which was of Lee Huxley's Dark Horse Super Pro ET Mustang. Lee says "Dark Horse is having a new coat and Lee Irish and his team at PPW are doing amazing work with a 2 week turnaround. Many thanks to Lee and his team."

Today we received another spy picture with the caption "Something is happening in the workshop!"

If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at editor@eurodragster.com.

Ida's next challenge.
19th December: Sweden's largest daily tabloid newspaper Afton Bladets recently published an article by Anna Anderson on Ida Zetterström's entry into the NHRA. Here is our English translation:

"The Swede is ready for the championship. Ida Zetterström: "it is a huge opportunity!"

"She is the European drag racing champion, record holder and reaches a speed of 516 km/h(320mph). Now Ida Zetterström is charging for the next challenge. Top Fuel in American NHRA. The long-term goal is to participate and fight for the WC title, she says.

"The 29-year-old Swede has her home on Åland, but after the turn of the year she will move to Indianapolis, the hometown of American motorsports. Host of the classic Indy 500 oval race, base for several of the teams in IndyCar and also home to several of the teams in the American drag racing championship NHRA. Starting in 2024, she will compete for JCM Racing in the NHRA, in the largest class, Top Fuel. She becomes a colleague of one of the sport's great legends, Tony Schumacher, who won eight championships. It's absolutely fantastic to even be offered a place in that team, it's a huge opportunity, says Ida Zetterström who stopped over in Sweden on her way home to Åland.

"She has been in the USA to prepare for the upcoming season, which involves between five and ten races and a completely new car. Ida said, 'The plan is for us to drive parts of the 2024 season, but above all to build the car and get the work right and then join in and fight for victories and the championship title, that championship title can be compared to a World Cup title.' "

Also thanks to sponsor and longtime supporter Bob Roberts for sending a link to a video about Ida on the Motorsport UK Youtube channel, it can found by clicking here.

Photo courtesy Marc Wheelhouse.

More Malta Media.
19th December: More videos have been uploaded from the Malta Drag Racing Association's 2023 Finals at Hal Far Raceway in Birzebbuga, Malta. Many competitors competed to overcome challenging conditions with weather, track surfaces and cars as the season came to close in November, with just one RWYB taking place in December.

Playlists of videos by MDRA Secretary Konrad D'Anastasi from the Finals and all season can found by clicking here.

Videos by Kieran of the MDRA Finals, including three full videos of the finals and individual videos of the two amazing Fords can be found by clicking here. The individual cars videoed by Kieran are:

The The Joker Mk1 Escort driven by Mathias Caruana to a 9.18/147 can be seen byclicking here.
The 13B Rotary Mk1 Escort driven by Justin Muscat can be seen byclicking here.

Videos by Simon Letkey can be seen on his VeeDubRacing Youtube channel by clicking here. The most recent posts of cars Simon videoed at Hal Far are found below:

Escort Mk1 The Town driven by Dylan Metcalf: click here - Youtube video.
Volkswagen Beetle Flatbed driven by Cristian Frasson: click here - Youtube video.
Yellow Volkswagen Golf driven by Marcus Welte: click here - Youtube video.
Volkswagen Polo Diesel Record Holder from Jose Realista click here - Youtube video.

Next season's date for the Hal far Raceway can be found by clicking here.

Thanks to Graham Watkinson for help in compiling today's news.

Spy picture.
17th December: The offices of Eurodragster.com received this spy picture devoid of comment.

If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at editor@eurodragster.com.

Swift snippets.
17th December: Happy Birthday for today to Nitro FM presenter Pete Franklin, Outlaw Flat Four racer Paul Bate, Santa Pod Raceway operations manager Neale Saunders, and from Malta HexaTech Mk1 Escort racer John Martin and 2JZ dragster racer Alan Zammit. We hope you all have a fantastic day.

2023 SPRC Perpetual Awards vote 2.
16th December: Santa Pod Racers Club and Eurodragster.com are again teaming up to give Eurodragster.com readers the chance of input to the 2023 SPRC Perpetual Awards, which will be presented at the SPRC Dinner Dance and Trophy Presentation on 3rd February 2024.

For several of the 2023 season awards, a shortlist has been decided upon for which votes can be submitted by E-Mail. Nominations are now also being accepted for the Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy. The votes of Eurodragster.com readers will be taken into consideration when the SPRC Committee decides upon their winners.

Today's category is Best Appearing Car. The SPRC Committee's shortlist, in alphabetical order, is as follows. Click on a picture to see a large version.

John Bean
Modurstang Pro ET

Vote for John Bean

Mark Coulsell
Peter Nee Super Pro ET/Springbridge Direct Wild Bunch

Vote for Mark Coulsell

Harley Jay Darby
Modurstang Pro ET

Vote for Harley Jay Darby

Matthew Dowdy
Hutchison & Dibley Sportsman ET/VP Racing Lubricants Nostalgia Super Stock

Vote for Matthew Dowdy

Steve Field
Fast R Super Comp/Springbridge Direct Wild Bunch

Vote for Steve Field

Chris Goodale
VP Racing Lubricants UK Nostalgia Super Stock

Vote for Chris Goodale

Colin Millar
Outlaw Anglia

Vote for Colin Millar

Phil Norman
Track Worx Competition Eliminator

Vote for Phil Norman

Jason Pickett
Modurstang Pro ET

Vote for Jason Pickett

Victoria Smith
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator

Vote for Victoria Smith

Dan Williams
Track Worx Competition Eliminator

Vote for Dan Williams

To place your vote, either use the links above or go to the official Perpetual Awards voting page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the SPRC Perpetual Awards vote link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. If your device doesn't automatically generate an E-Mail then please E-Mail your choice to 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.com.

The Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy, for which nominations are also now being taken, was first awarded to Santa Pod Racers Club's late Chief Marshal, Alex Brachtvogel, in 2001 to mark his outstanding contribution to Santa Pod Raceway and the sport as a whole. After Alex's death the trophy was named in his memory and continues to be awarded for contribution to drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Alex Brachtvogel award. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers, race officials, track and safety crews, club officials, media, or anyone else who has contributed to the sport. Last year the trophy was awarded to Paul Marshall for pairing lanes marshalling. Again, see the official page for more details or E-Mail your nomination to 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.com specifying SPRC Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy nomination as the subject and your nomination in the body of the E-Mail.

For each of the Awards, one vote per E-Mail address per nominee will be accepted: multiple votes for the same nominee from the same E-Mail address will all be disqualified. Please note that blatant attempts at organising mass votes - for example asking workmates, forum members or Facebook friends to vote en masse - are easily identified and all such votes will be disallowed as they have been in previous years. If in any doubt about what constitutes canvassing then please drop us a line at 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.com. Voting for the Awards closes on 21st January 2024.

Additionally, if anyone should have issues with the content of any of the shortlists then please contact SPRC direct rather than E-Mailing Eurodragster.com or commenting on social media.

The next voting category will be Best Appearing Bike.

Thanks to Graham Watkinson for his help in coding this article.

Swift snippets.
16th December: Happy Birthday for today to VW Sportsman racer Andy Bambrick and Sweidish Funny Bike racer Peter Andersson. We hope you both have a great day.

A belated birthday for yesterday to FIA Technical Consultant Frans Steilberg, Nostalgia Super Stock racer Dave Simcock and Straightliners NI director Ben Lawrence. We hope you all had a wonderful day.

Malta Drag Racing Association have released their 2024 calendar which you can see by clicking here. MDRA secretary Konrad D'Anastasi says "Whilst all the events have been listed, the club will update you during the year with regard to any changes due to the upgrades we are going to do to the track."

Swift snippets.
14th December: Thanks to Geoff Stilwell for letting us know it is the birthday today of Mooneyes joint boss Chico Kodama, who graced us with his presence at the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame gala last month with business partner Shige Suganuma. Have a great day Chico!

Happy Birthday for today to 5 second Super Pro ET racer and Top Fuel crew member Harry Gibson, Old School Stocker racer Mark 'Nipper' Stevens, former Outlaw Anglia racer Cliff Griffin and Shadowfax builder/racer from 1971 Colin Weber. We hope you all have had a great day.

Jan Palmqvist.
13th December: We were shocked and saddened to learn of the death yesterday of Swedish Pro Stock racer Jan Palmqvist.

Known by his nickname Snowball, Jan was as passionate about Pro Stock as anyone. He started racing in 1978 in street classes and got involved in building customer cars. Following a long break to bring up a family, he got back into driving in 2001 in Super Gas. Moving up through Competition Eliminator and Top Doorslammer, he started competing in Pro Stock in 2006, racing mainly in Scandinavia but venturing to Santa Pod Raceway in 2007-2011 and 2014, his final year of driving in the class. He would remain at the track helping others in subsequent years. His best championship position was runner up in 2010.

His shop known as Snowball Racing Production, built many drag racing cars for competition in Sweden and further afield. Notable among them are a '66 Chevelle for Andreas Sjödin's ÅBM Racing team back in 2008, and his own Volvo C70 which he claimed as the world's first non-American Pro Stock car, using a Big Block Chevy engine which had previously been available in a Volvo boat.

Jan produced publicity to promote Pro Stock as a class leading to other racers joining the class. With an eye to the future, he imported in 2019 a US fuel injected Pro Stock Camaro, however he sadly was unable to bring it out into competition.

We send our deepest condolences to Jan's family, friends and racing colleagues.

FIA regulations comment.
13th December: Thanks to Michael Gullqvist of Drag Racing Europe for sending in his comments on the background to changes in FIA European Drag Racing Championship regulations published in our Monday update:

"The FIA rule book is for World Wide rules for international championship racing. Suggestions for rule changes come from any country involved in the sport. That will include suggestions from the USA, Sweden, England or any other country involved. The suggestions are then looked at by the FIA Technical Work Group (TWG). This group includes members from the US (NHRA + SFI), Australia (ANDRA) and different tech people throughout Europe. As the FIA European Drag Racing Championship is the only official international Drag Racing Championship in the world, we are the only ones using the rule book.

"Hence, the rules are adapted to what is considered best for the FIA European Drag Racing Championship, rather than for who is sponsoring NHRA and so on.

"After discussions and voting in the TWG, a recommendation for next years rules updates is then handed to the FIA Drag Racing Commission. To my knowledge, the FIA DRC has never changed anything suggested by the FIA TWG.

"Also, in 2017, the previous major change for FIA Pro Mod rules was done by changing Turbo boost limits and blower overdrive. Looking at the NHRA, they have made about 50 rules changes or so since then and there were never any changes in Europe during that period. The NHRA has been very unsuccessful with their constant rules changes and adding of several new combinations. The result has been that they went from +30 car fields (limited to 30) to having 11 car fields at several events.

"It is also true for all the other classes in the FIA rule book, that the rules do not follow the American club NHRA's rules. The TWG is always looking at any potential improvements, including those of the NHRA, but will never make any changes if there is not any benefit seen for international racing."

Introducing Raptor Outlaw Fuel Altered.
13th December:

Funny Car and Fuel Altered racer Allan Bates, with son former Australian Supercharged Outlaws racer Lee Bates, have together created a new 125" wheelbase Fuel Altered which will debut in 2024 at nostalgia events. The car, with its body style modelled on the legendary Houndog Demag altered which ran in the early 1980s, will be named Raptor Outlaw Fuel Altered.

Lee said "We purchased a funny car chassis from Tony Betts in August 2022 and have been working on the car ever since. It has just got back from the sign writers and we will be doing a reveal of it soon. We have done all the work between us. We stripped the rolling chassis, made the fibreglass body, creating the moulds from photos of the Demag car. We had a lot of help from Mark Hawkins of the Hawk Racing Fuel FC team who helped us source many parts for it.

"The sign writing was done by Perry signs based in Hertford, and the paintwork was done by Kevin "Custom" Perry at Extreme Customs, Caerphilly, Wales.

"The car will have a 500ci Brad Anderson block with a single mag and a big 14/71 blower and 65 gallons per minute fuel pump, and direct drive with a centrifugal clutch. We want to put on a real show with big burnouts and dry hops. Dad will be testing it, hopefully in March, and I will have a go depending on whether I can get him out of the seat!"

Lee drove a front engined dragster in the Australian Supercharged Outlaws, a series similar to the British one, with a broad range of cars, many of which ran in the six second zone. Allan and Lee's intention is to race with the UK Supercharged Outlaws at meetings including the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals, NSRA Hot Rod Drags and, of course, Dragstalgia, where the opportunity to race in the Dragstalgia Cannonball may well present itself. "A lot of cars will be coming to Dragstalgia and we would love to be in the mix", Lee said.

You can follow Raptor Outlaw Fuel Altered at their new Facebook page, don't forget to "like" it.

Allan and Lee thank their sponsors Meraki Renovations, South Central Fire Ltd, Extreme Customs, accident repair centre, Fosters, Perry Signs, Jordan Wilson Plastering, Dave Howells and HJ Art.

Swift snippets.
13th December: Happy Birthday for today to Super Pro ET and Wild Bunch racer Callum Swinchatt and to VW Sportsman racer Holly Sanders. We hope you both have a great day.

FIA announces 2024 regulations.
11th December: Thanks to FIA Technical Consultant Frans Steilberg for announcing that the 2024 Technical and Sporting Regulations as well as the 2024 Race Procedures for FIA Drag Racing have been published. You can read the new regulations at this link.

Racers are advised to read the full regulations, however a review revealed that the regulations reflect the revised SFI Specification list which we reported on 29th November.

In the sporting regulations, the handicap start for Top Methanol Funny Cars remains at 0.22s. Also, during qualifying, in the event that a competitor aborts their run due to any reasons caused by the other paired competitor, thus completing no valid time (e.g. crossing lanes), the competitor will be allowed to rerun. Contact by a parachute with a timing reflector, guardrail or barrier will explicitly not be grounds for disqualifying a run.

More controversially, the rules for Pro Modified power adders have remained as before, which has negated the usual practice of following the NHRA rulebook one year in arrears. In other words, use of centrifugal or screw superchargers will not be permitted in FIA competition in 2024.

FIA gala glitters.
11th December: Thanks to Lars Petterson for revealing that the FIA European Drag Racing Champion attending the FIA Gala last Friday was Top Methanol champion Linn Fløysvik, pictured with Lars at the prizegiving ceremony.

All the FIA champions for the 2023 season were honoured during the glittering ceremony held in the stunning Baku Convention Center, with the event concluding the week of FIA General Assemblies taking place in the capital city of Azerbaijan.

The other champions of the 2023 FIA European Drag Racing Championship are:

Pro Modified Jan Ericsson (SWE)
Pro Stock Michael Malmgren (SWE)
Top Fuel Ida Zetterström (SWE)

Unusual Cars Sales expanding to new outlets.
11th December:

The Facebook group Unusual Car Sales UK, moderated by the ever-energetic Nigel Taylor, has featured in the media recently.

Nigel was interviewed by Classic Line Insurance and in the interview mentions that after starting up and managing Carolina Classics, selling 500 American cars and classics in five years, he then moved on-line starting Unusual car sales UK in August of 2019. With 36,000 members, Unusual Cars Sales is supported by Hayling Garage, Williams Bros. Racing, GC Car Recoveries and Transport, Zero Three Classic & Custom Ltd, ClassicLine Insurance, “Hooligan” Outlaw Anglia Drag Racing Team, and Eurodragster.com.

We at Eurodragster.com have had a special page in the Jeff Bull Performance Engines-backed Swap Meet (click on the image) which lists the drag cars for sale in Unusual Car Sales UK at this link. In the six months since we started the page, out that of 89 cars advertised to date on the page, 43 have sold. You can see on the page there are championship, record-setting and best appearing cars included.

Nigel says "As well as teaming up with with Eurodragster.com for drag cars, we are also teaming up with Neil Castle's new website Custom and Classic Show which goes live on Friday 15th December.

"Custom and Classic Show will be free to sell hot rods, customs, yanks, drag cars etc just like our site, but this is also connected to a new tv series coming next year so looks a great site for all players to get involved."

Malta Finals results.
11th December: Congratulations to the official winners of the final round of the 2023 Enemed Malta National Drag Racing Championship, which was organized at the Hal Far track by the Malta Drag Racing Association over the last weekend of 23rd-36th November 2023.

Dragster DTA4: Antoine Schembri(1st), Roderick Fenech(2nd), Patrick Cassar(3rd)
Dragster D4: Patrick Cassar(1st), Nathan Bartolo(2nd)
Dragster D5: Clifton Abdilla(1st)
Dragster D6: Mario Borg(1st)
CA6 Class: Anthony Vella(1st), Mark Mallia(2nd), Justin Mizzi(3rd)
Open 6 Class: Alan Zammit(1st), James Aquilina(2nd), Mario Borg(3rd)
Open 5 Class: Lewis Vella(1st)
Open 1 Class: Chris Polidano(1st), John Martin(2nd), Mathias Caruana(3rd)
Front Wheel Drive Open Class: Soren Hansen(1st), Glenn Caruana(2nd), Clayton Johnson(3rd), George Cutajar(4th)
Diesel Open Class: Jose Realista(1st), Ludovic Ferte(2nd), Danial Ribeiro(3rd)
Escort Class 3: Rosello Cassar(1st), Martin Scerri(2nd), Mariano Ciantar(3rd), Frankie Ellul94th)
Escort Class 2: Paul Fenech(1st), Martin Scerri(2nd), Mariano Ciantar(3rd), Christian Pace(4th)
Index Class 1: Dylan Micallef(1st), Victor Felice(2nd), Luke Spiteri(3rd), Chris Merciera(4th), Kevin Gauci(5th)
Index Class 2: Joe Ashton(1st), Neil Caruana(2nd), Matthew Attard(3rd), Mario Scerri(4th)

Extreme 3 Class: Mark Mallia(1st)
DTA 6 Class: Matthew Carabott(1st), James Aquilina(2nd)
SM4 Class: Chris Polidano(1st), Stephen Xuereb(2nd)
SM3 Class: Paul Gatt(1st)
Nitro Class: Rosello Cassar(1st)
DTF Class: Duncan Micallef(1st)
Open 2 Class: Clint Fenech(1st)
FWD Outalw Class: Renald Farrugiia(1st)
Bracket 15.00-15.49: Matthew Attard(1st)
Bracket 12.50-12.99: Owen Cremona(1st)
Bracket 12.00-12.49: Nickovich Chircop(1st)
Bracket 11.50-11.99: Sean Cassar(1st), Mario Scerri(2nd)
Bracket 11.00-11.49: George Tickner(1st), Paul Pace(2nd), Mario Borg(3rd), Joe Ashton(4th)
Bracket 10.50-10.99: Horathius Caruana(1st), Nigel Mifsud(2nd), Jonathan Grech(3rd), Neil Vella(4th)
Bracket 10.00-10.49: Glenn Busuttil(1st), Chris James Smith(2nd), Johan Camilleri(3rd), Kevin Gauci(4th)
Bracket 9.50-9.99: Clayton Johnson(1st), Semira Galea(2nd), Christian Frasson(3rd)
Bracket 9.00-9.49: Mathais Caruana(1st), Stephen Xuereb(2nd), Glenn Cutajar(3rd), Mark Brincat(4th)
Bracket 8.50-8.99: Soren Hansen(1st)
Bracket 8.00-8.49: Dylan Micallef(1st), Paul Fenech(2nd)
Bracket 7.50-7.99: John Martin(1st)
Junior Dragster: Zeldon Fenech(1st), Luca Mangion(2nd), Trizienne Vella(3rd), Keithian Camilleri(4th), Yelsin Bonello(5th), Aiden Bianco(6th), Isaac Mula Debono(7th)

Motorcycle SS1 Class: Simon Giordimaina(1st)
Bracket M/C 7.00-7.49: Briegel Micallef(1st)
Motorcycle All Motor Extreme Class: Steve Bezzina(1st)
Motorcycle Top Fuel M/C: Shawn Buttigieg(1st)
Motorcycle Open Class: Briegel Micallef(1st), Stuart Crane(2nd), Mark Agius(3rd), Simon Giordimaina(4th)
Best Reaction Time: Simon Giordimaina(1st)

For classes were unable to be completed, trophy positions are based on the best times run in the last completed round. For links to media, go to our 3rd December update. We will report on individual racers' comments in a later update.

No Doorslamming for Sjödin Motorsport in 2024.
11th December: Top Doorslammer racer Andreas Sjödin has announced he will step aside from competing in the Top Doorslammer series in Scandinavia in 2024.

Andreas commented "If the Chevelle will leave the ÅBM shop during 2024 it will only be to visit my home track again at Vansbro / Dala Järna Raceway, if it works out for us in the team and if my motor club SHRA Vansbro – Äppelbo continues to be a part in arranging the Dala Street Open again."

Andreas won the Top Doorslammer championship in 2022, but cited reduced competitor numbers away from the principal venues of Tierp in Sweden and Kauhava in Finland as his reason for widthrawing in 2024.

No doubt we will be seeing Andreas in Pro Modified competition in 2024 with Jörgen Berg's Corvette.

Swift snippets.
11th December: Happy Birthday for today to our colleague Kieran, we hope you have a fantastic day from all the Eurodragster.com team. Also Birthday wishes to Santa Pod Raceway Events Manager James Forster, Santa Pod marshal Holly Donisthorpe, FWD racer Ahmed Jamshaid, Swedish marshal Thomas Andersson, Austrian Pro ET racer Alex Mahl, and belated wishes for yesterday to Top Fuel Racer and Malta Motorsports Association President Duncan Micallef. We hope you all have a great day.

2023 SPRC Perpetual Awards vote 1.
9th December: Santa Pod Racers Club and Eurodragster.com are again teaming up to give Eurodragster.com readers the chance of input to the SPRC Perpetual Awards, which will be presented at the SPRC Dinner Dance and Trophy Presentation on 3rd February 2024.

For several of the 2023 season awards, a shortlist has been decided upon for which votes can be submitted by E-Mail. Nominations are now also being accepted for the Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy. The votes of Eurodragster.com readers will be taken into consideration when the SPRC Committee decides upon their winners.

Today's category is Most Promising Newcomer. Nominees for SPRC Most Promising Newcomer have impressed whilst contesting their first full season in a class or making their on-track debut in 2023.

The SPRC Committee's shortlist, in alphabetical order, is as follows:

Danielle Coppin, VW Pro

Vote for Danielle Coppin

Frankie Kent, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster

Vote for Frankie Kent

Jaxon King, Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike

Vote for Jaxon King

Terry Newton, Track Worx Competition Eliminator

Vote for Terry Newton

Richard Palmer, Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET

Vote for Richard Palmer

Michael Piggott, Suzukiperformancespares.co.uk Comp Bike

Vote for Michael Piggott

Nicholas Playdon, Blood Cancer UK ET Bike

Vote for Nicholas Playdon

Victoria Smith, Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminantor

Vote for Victoria Smith

Jago Stokes, Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET

Vote for Jago Stokes

Chris Venn, Blood Cancer UK ET Bike

Vote for Chris Venn

To place your vote, either use the links above or go to the official Perpetual Awards voting page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the SPRC Perpetual Awards vote link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. If your device doesn't automatically generate an E-Mail then please E-Mail your choice to 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.com.
©Eurodragster.com
The Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy, for which nominations are also now being taken, was first awarded to Santa Pod Racers Club's late Chief Marshal, Alex Brachtvogel, in 2001 to mark his outstanding contribution to Santa Pod Raceway and the sport as a whole. After Alex's death the trophy was named in his memory and continues to be awarded for contribution to drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Alex Brachtvogel award. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers, race officials, track and safety crews, club officials, media, or anyone else who has contributed to the sport. Last year the trophy was awarded to Paul Marshall for pairing lanes marshalling. Again see the official page for more details or E-Mail your nomination to 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.com specifying SPRC Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy nomination as the subject and your nomination in the body of the E-Mail.

For each of the Awards, one vote per E-Mail address per nominee will be accepted: multiple votes for the same nominee from the same E-Mail address will all be disqualified. Please note that blatant attempts at organising mass votes - for example asking workmates, forum members or Facebook friends to vote en masse - are easily identified and all such votes will be disallowed as they have been in previous years. If in any doubt about what constitutes canvassing then please drop us a line at 2023sprcawards@eurodragster.com. Voting for the Awards closes on 21st January 2024.

Additionally, if anyone should have issues with the content of any of the shortlists then please contact SPRC direct rather than E-Mailing Eurodragster.com or commenting on social media.

The next voting category will be Best Appearing Car.

Thanks to Graham Watkinson for his help in coding this article.

Jndia in Drag Illustrated's 30 Under 30 list.
9th December: In a potential sign that another female FIA Top Fuel racer has ambitions to compete in the NHRA as well as their European home, US publication Drag Illustrated has listed Jndia Erbacher in their 30 Under 30 list.

In the interview conducted by Kayla Zabel, Jndia said that despite suffering a broken vertabra in her spine, she finished third in the points championship. Her plan for the future is to chase a championship in Europe, although this involves juggling full-time studies, a job and securing funding for her racing. The Erbacher team still has the dragster she licenced in stored with the Lagana family in the US with hopes to run a few races stateside this year as well.

You can read the full story plus see the other 29 on the list by clicking here.

Swift snippets.
9th December: Happy Birthday for today to Tierp Arena announcer and honorary Naughty Swede Christer Abrahamson, former Sportsman ET racer and photojournalist Nigel Holland, Danish Top Fuel crew member and KEG mastermind Karsten Andersen, Supercharged Outlaws racer Ian Merryweather, Outlaw Anglia racer "Anxious" Ian Tweddle and Pro ET racer John Bean. We hope you all have a great day.

Zetterström to race in NHRA.
8th December: Newly crowned FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Ida Zetterström will make her competition debut in the USA in 2024.

Ida and JCM Racing made the announcement at a press conference in Indianapolis this afternoon.

“This is a dream come true after working purposefully towards this for a number of years" says Ida from the USA. "I am very grateful to Joe Maynard and JCM-Racing for giving me this opportunity and also to other NHRA drivers who have given me tips and guidance."

The plan at the moment is to run five NHRA races during the second half of the USA season, but negotiations are underway to find marketing partners to increase the number of races, with the ultimate goal to be able to run a full season.

JCM Racing, owned by Joe Maynard, says it sees a unique opportunity to introduce a talented rising star to NHRA racing. "We are excited to have Ida make her American debut as a member of our JCM Racing organisation", says Joe. "I believe she has a bright future in the sport as she is not only a competent driver but also understands the importance of working for the benefit of one's partners."

JCM Racing has three other drivers in its organisation consisting of eight-time NHRA Champion Tony Schumacher and Justin Ashley in Top Fuel, and Tim Wilkerson in Funny Car. Now a fourth car is being completed for Ida in which the team they will start the season with testing at Florida's Gainesville in March.

Ida will settle in Brownsburg, Indiana as part of the new partnership. At home she has recently been nominated for the Bilsport Awards "Drag Racer of the Year" whose ceremony takes place at the Swedish Motor Show in Jonköping on 20th January.

Text and pictures courtesy and ©Stefan Boman for Bilsport magazine. Original Swedish article and pictures.

2024 FIA European Drag Racing championship dates.
7th December: The dates for the 2024 FIA European Drag Racing championship have been approved by the World Motor Sport Council when it convened in Baku, Azerbaijan yesterday:

24th-27th May, Santa Pod Raceway (UK)

13th-16th June, Tierp Arena (Sweden)

8th-11th August, Tierp Arena (Sweden)

23rd-25th August, HockenheimRing (Germany)

5th-8th September, Santa Pod Raceway (UK)

Rounds 1, 4 and 5 were announced subject to the formality of the renewal of the FIA track licence for each venue, which is required every three years.

Agrinio results.
7th December:

Many thanks to Nikos Diakakis of Proaction Racing for sending in qualifying results and ladders for Round 7 of the Panhellenic Drag Racing Championship for motorcycles and Drag Day for cars held last weekend at Agrinio Raceway, the final race of 2024. Congratulations to the winners (click on class names for ladders):

Cars (Drag Day sprint)

Top 5 racers:

Konstantin Dinev (Audi S2) (pictured right) 7.090/317.46
Nikolaos Afentoulidis (Mitsubishi Lancer) 7.871/285.94
Christos Dagres (Audi S3) 8.763/252.98
Konstantinos Vergis (Audi S3) 9.345/251.04
Nikolaos Glapatzis (Seat Ibiza) 11.072/176.90

A complete list of times is at this link.

Bike classes.

Super Street: Yannis Lambropoulos (Suzuki GSXR 1000 turbo) 6.977/337.39 def. Stamatis Mavromatis (Suzuki Hayabusa 1300) 7.506/324.03. Qualifying: click here.
Pro Street 2: Theodoros Kapsimalis (GSXR 1100) 7.619/291.97, bye. Qualifying: click here.
Pro Street 1: Konstantinos Kourtelis (KTM Super Duke 990) 8.690/244.39 def. 1398, Nikos Stamatakos 9.141/227.12 red. Qualifying: click here.
Street 2: Alexandros Soultoukis (Hayabusa) 8.546/263.92 def. Nikolaos Aktipis (Suzuki 1340) 8.700/260.68. Qualifying: click here.
Pro Z: Constantinos Dedeoglou (Crypton X) 13510.811/182.46 def. Dimitris Vailakis (C50 NTR DQ red). Qualifying: click here.
True Street 9.0: Ioannis Tzimas (Kawasaki ZX-12R 9.310/244.56 def. Anastasios Tsoutzidis (Suzuki Gsxr 1000) 9.370/247.59. Qualifying: click here.
Real Street: Yiannis Paschalis (Hayabusa) 7.867/293.87 def. Bouliopoulos Evangelos (Hayabusa) 7.968/267.26. Qualifying: click here.

Organisers reported lots of 6s and 7s despite the humidity and relatively low temperatures. Stamatis Mavromatis (pictured above) ran the quickest quarter mile time seen in Greece on his Super Street Bike, 6.807/340.90, making him fifth quickest in Europe.

Yannis Lambropoulos in Super Street Bike ran his first six with a best of 6.933, and PBs were also run by AWD Audi racer Konstantin Dinev (7.09), Super Street Bike racer Christos Agapidis (7.008), FWD racer Christos Dagres (8.763), and AWD racer Nikolaos Afentoulidis (7.871, claimed as a new World Record for a Mitsubishi Lancer).

Racers congratulated organisers on the track and event organisation. Sam Mavrommatis wrote: "We should congratulate you for all the work and progress you have made on the track. We now have a track in our country where we can utilize our setups. May the new year continue like this and we will be here to support you and raise the bar even higher."

Swift snippets.
7th December: Happy Birthday for today to Carolyne Beckwith, wife of announcer Graham, and to Nostalgia Super Stock racer Jake Cawthorne, have a great day both!

Belated Happy Birthdays for yesterday to Swap Meet sponsor Jeff Bull and Super Pro ET racer and constructor Scott Hauser, we hope you guys had a fantastic day.

Hal Far redevelopment update.
5th December: The Malta Motorsport Federation (MMF) this morning published an update on the redevelopment of the Hal Far track:

"Following the MMF AGM held recently, in which we updated our members on the Hal Far project, we believe that we can now give an update to the public. The project, the Hal Far Motorsport Park, is being divided into 3 main milestones, phase 1 - the rebuilding and upgrade of the dragstrip, phase 2 - the upgrading of the karting facility and phase 3 - the construction of the race circuit. We needed to come up with this sequence since the dragracing and karting facilities already exist.

"Furthermore, the paddocks of both will be shifted to then enable us to start circuit construction. In this way we will have two International Motorsport venues ready, and we are reducing the disruption to these two venues to a minimal.

"Let’s start with phase 1 – rebuilding and upgrade of the dragstrip facility. Safety is our primary concern, safety for the drivers, officials and spectators must come first.

"During initial inspection by international bodies, it was discovered that the dragstrip is shy of the required breaking area distance, so the first decision taken was that the start line had to move backwards to achieve the required lengths. Consequently, the tower and all other facilities will need to be demolished and rebuilt further back.

"This of course means that we will need more area behind the tower for the strip to function properly. With the tower, which will now be built to international standards, we will also build garages for storage of equipment, a reception area to welcome participants, bar facilities and proper stands with sanitary facilities. All this has already been approved by all the parties involved, presented to the authorities and with the intention of starting works by early Q2 2024.

"Of course, the track itself is our main priority simple because that is where the racing happens. In the coming weeks, surveys will be conducted to determine the state its state and if need be, resurface the whole quarter mile with fresh concrete. We are doing our best to have the best track in Europe."

Smit takes Osprey BMW to Malta.
5th December: Chris Smit of Osprey Performance, based in Colchester, Essex has come into the drag scene in the last few years, competing at Doorslammers in the 6 cylinder class in his 2017 BMW M140i. The car has run a 9.9314/139.55 at Santa Pod and he decided to take the car, named JLO, to Malta to compete in the recent Hal Far MDRA Finals.

He said "We recently took JLO on the ultimate stress test, if you didn't know by now, JLO is our OP700 2017 M140i that we use to test and manufacture Osprey parts on, this car makes anywhere from 377hp to 734hp depending on which map we are on. "We drove JLO from Colchester to Malta, then raced for our final event of the year and drove back. We left on Monday morning (20th November) and got there Tuesday night, we tried racing at the track but weather prevented that and then we left on Monday morning again and made it home Tuesday afternoon (28th November). The 1 series absolutely demolished the mileage reliably and quickly.

"Here are some crazy numbers we recorded on this road trip.

Total mileage : 3622 miles (5929 km)
Top speed : 174 mph (280km/h)
Best consumption over 10 hours : 37 mpg
Fastest average speed over 10 hours : 91.5 mph
Fastest 1/4 in Malta : 10.4 @ 138 mph

This trip was more about enjoying the incredible B58 engine than actually testing anything, the car didn't consume a single drop of oil, we actually broke the charge cooler core somewhere near the bottom of Italy due to the hard thuds the car endured at high speed due to the poorly graded expansion points between the bridges and roads (this was the day we done 1000mls in 13 hours).

"For most of our racing we weren't anywhere near full power as intake air temperature were sometimes in 60C-80C range, the only other casualty was the rear oxygen sensor which we suspect was already tripping before left, and of course we were still nursing the PDS gearbox which would not work properly in Auto but works 100% fine in Manual.

"That being said, I think we might consider an Osprey Rally to Malta next year for the B58 group in the UK. The island is a fun place, the people are generous and helpful beyond measure, the racing is hard but very rewarding and driving through Italy and Switzerland is something every gear head should do at least once."

BMW specialist Chris moved to the UK in December 2020 from his native South Africa, where he had built and raced cars for a decade. At the start of 2021 he moved to premises in Colchester from which he imports, manufactures and sells vehicle performance parts for mainly BMW engines, particularly the highly-regarded B58. A qualified mechanic, he has extensive engine building and tuning experience. Osprey Performance has been named the official distributor for US turbo manufacturer Dynamic Autowerx in the UK. As well as running JLO, he has supported fellow BMW racer Harvey Bhogal who has run as quick as 9.7 at over 140mph.

Rainy City Camaro for sale.
5th December:

Former Sportsman ET Champion Al Platt has announced his double championship winning Chevrolet Camaro is up for sale: "Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control the car is up for sale, looking for a good home for this multi championship/event winning car.

"I've had the car from new in 99 and its always been very consistent (pity the driver isn't anymore!!) Could even be put back to stock if you wanted to, all original parts available, ideal opportunity for someone to get into this wonderful sport with a low effort car. Specs etc in cars for sale section.

"It's ideal for a newcomer, younger driver who is looking for a low maintenance consistent car. There has been no expense spared converting the 1999 Z28 Camaro (bought new, UK spec car) to a race car.

"It is as new with 14000 gentle kilometres (8700 miles), no rust, spotless underneath, couple of minor body marks. I refuse to add up how much has gone into the car but its way more than the £24k new price in 99 and I have a massive paperwork file to prove it.

"It runs mid 11's n/a, 10.6s on 100hp nitrous shot so you can either run in Pro ET or slow it down for Sportsman ET. A Brian James four wheel trailer is also available."

If you're interested, email Al at this address or Whatsapp for pics and any questions, or better still be old school and ring me for a chat 07948376819, Al says ignore his tears!

Price-wise, Al is looking for offers in region of what he paid for the stock car, no p/ex's. You can see full details on the Rainy City Camaro in our Jeff Bull Performance Engines-sponsored Swap Meet at this link.

Swift snippets.
5th December: Happy Birthday for today to Norwegian Super Comp racer Mari Udtian, former Top Methanol Dragster racer Tony Dönges and VW Pro racer Andy Voce. We hope you are all having a great day.

A belated Happy Birthday for yesterday to Funny Car crew chief Mark "Animal" Bodimeade, Funny Car crew member Malc Short, Sportsman ET racer Holley Walters and Junior Dragster dad Steven Taylor, we hope you all had a great day!

FIA European Drag Racing officials are in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the FIA Annual General Assembly and the WMSC meeting and the FIA Prize Gala for 2023 which takes place on 8th December. We look forward to seeing photos of the star studded Gala. But who will be representing the sport as Champion with TF winner Ida Zetterström at PRI in Indianapolis?

Expat Swede, now based in the US, Jonnie Lindberg has been named crew chief for the NHRA Paul Lee Funny Car team for the 2024 season with John Medlen as his mentor. You can read the story on nhra.com at this link.

FIA Drag Racing Scrutineers Training.
3rd December: The FIA and the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) recently hosted the second edition of the FIA Drag Racing Scrutineers Training at Dirab Park, Riyadh, from 8-9 November, reports FIA Technical Consultant Frans Steilberg.

The event brought together 33 scrutineers from the host Club and representatives from various FIA Member Clubs, including the Oman Automobile Association (OAA), the Kuwait International Automobile Club (KIAC), and the Bahrain’s Motor Federation (BMF).

“Given the nature of Drag Racing, scrutineers face a very complex challenge, as they have to accommodate with cars that are technically very different in terms of performance and safety,” said Lars Pettersson, FIA Drag Racing Commission President.

“It is therefore important that they follow the same protocols and use the same technical language regardless of the country. The training allowed us to go through all the procedures and exchange best practices,” he continued.

“In such Region where the discipline is developing very fast, having the opportunity to share knowledge and expertise is very important for us to support the safe evolution of the sport”, He concluded.

FIA’s Technical Delegate for FIA EDRC, Frans Steilberg, and Junior Safety Engineer, Luis Gois, were among the speakers, while all the participants also received a lecture from the SFI Foundation’s Technical Director, Mike Hurst.

“For us in Saudi, it is with pride that we could host the FIA Drag Racing Scrutineers Program. Thanks to the high-end quality of the training, the knowledge and expertise of the technicians working within our region has increased and we will be starting next season with an improved approach.” Said Elie Semaan, SAMF’s Head of Technical Department.

With the training taking place at the same time as the National championship finale, the trainees had the opportunity to put the information they had received into perspective in real-life scenarios.

“An initiative such as this safety training is a great way to exchange best practices and ensure everyone has the same knowledge of the safety regulations,” said Xavier Mestelan Pinon, FIA Chief Technical and Safety Officer.

“Everyone in the room shared the same passion for motor sport, and thanks to seminars such as this one we can also be sure that scrutineers have the same understanding of safety regulations and how to interpret them.”

Mestelan Pinon also praised the initiative and recognised its importance. “As the governing body of world motor sport our role is also to ensure that that our knowledge and expertise are shared and available to our member clubs, so that the same procedures and practices that are in place in top-level championships are available for national and regional competitions,” he explained.

Inquiries regarding Drag Racing Scrutineers training can be addressed to Luca Midali, Sporting & Commission Coordinator, by e-mail at this link.

Malta media.
3rd December: Thanks to Kieran and Diana for contributing galleries from the the MDRA Enemed Finals at Hal Far Raceway last weekend. You can see Kieran and Diana's photos, supported by John Woolfe Racing, via our event coverage pa or Events from the main menu. We also link to Kieran's superb video of Escort Mk1 action.

Whilst we await the official results and championship outcomes from MDRA, we can report a number of highlights to a meeting that was severely affected by rain and high winds on its first three days but fortunately had a sunny day during which as many eliminations as possible were run.

Well done to those overcoming the challenging conditions to record quick times. With a large number of Front Wheel Drive and Diesel cars entered it was clear that new PBs would be run, and thanks to European FWD and racers for reporting these:

Søren Hansen (FWD Toyota Starlet 2JZ) 9.12/169.21 mph
José Zezé Realista (FWD Diesel AM Motorsport VW Polo) 9.28/149
Glen Caruana (FWD Toyota Starlet 4E-FTE) 9.494/151.04
Clayton Johnson (FWD Toyota Starlet) 9.66/149
Miguel Martins (Portugal - Citroen Saxo) 9.715 @143.70
Glenn Cutajar (FWD VW Golf) 10.10/152
Luke Spiteri (FWD Toyota Starlet) 10.11/140
Neil Vella (Opel Corsa Boost Brothers) 10.4/132
Horatius Caruana (FWD Toyota Paseo coupe) 10.43/139
Ruth Muscat Galea (FWD Toyota Celica Ta'Netta Racing) 10.61/131
Matthew Grech (FWD Ford Fiesta) 10.92/131
Guilherme Nunes (Seat Ibiza 1.8t) 11.1/138
Neill Caruana (Bracket Honda Civic) 11.475/120

Also scoring new PBs were John Martin in a checkout pass in his Cosworth powered Mk1 Escort (7.74/180mph). A new PB speed was run by the TTK Performance Mk2 VW Golf driven by Marcus Welte at 188.66, although the 7.527 pass was DQ'd for touching the centre line. Sadly the UK's Terry Newton (FWD Escort van) suffered serious engine damage, but he commented that on two runs he ran PBs to the 8th mile and said "I still loved it all and have now bit the bullet and ordered a full billet block."

In motorcycle action, Stuart Crane of Warpspeed Racing ran Joe Briffa's Krojs Funny Bike to its new best of 6.839/192.51.

More media can be seen at the following links:

Konrad D'Anastasi - Youtube videos.
Alex Buttigieg - Facebook album.
Samuels's Photography - Facebook post by Samuel Mifsud.
DLP automotive - Facebook post by Dylan Darmanin.
Pudgey's Pictures - Facebook post by Callum Pudge.

Following this weekend's FWD Street Legal Challenge race at Hal Far, the final date for 2023, a RWYB day, has been confirmed for 13th December.

Rider and crew required for PBR Rocket.
3rd December: Owner and engineer of the PBR Rocket three cylinder Top Fuel Bike Phil Baimbridge, has announced that he is looking for new team members including a rider, following Al Smith's decision to take a year off and Al's wife Joo and Andy Kirk also departing the team.

"If we are going to campaign the Rocket during the 2024 season a new pilot and one or two team members/crew will be required. For the pilot role anybody who isn’t in a position to obtain an international licence is unlikely to be considered. The pilot would also be expected to contribute 50% of the running costs.

"This is an opportunity to be involved with a unique and competitive top fuel bike at relatively low cost, without the expense of ownership and the “pain” (maintenance). Note that I will only reply to interested parties whom I consider suitable.

"The crew positions are voluntary and open to anybody who is interested. To a great extent you can be as involved as you want to be, but must be prepared to commit to the six race meetings in the UK (all at Santa Pod), possibly a couple of RWYBs and the occasional trip to PBR HQ (North Herefordshire – Birmingham and Cheltenham both a little over an hour away). Obviously, an element of practical aptitude would be a benefit. It can be hard work and a bit of an emotional roller coaster – so a good sense of humour and limitless patience would be helpful.

"If you are interested in the pilot or crew positions message us via Facebook or e-mail and further details will be provided".

Swift snippets.
3rd December: Happy Birthday for today to Pro Modified racer Paula Atkin, expat Norwegian Top Alcohol Dragster racer Julie Nataas, Super Pro ET racer Steve Saunders, and Outlaw Anglia racer Brian Nixon, we hope you all have a fantastic day.

SPRC Dinner and Trophy Night accommodation.
1st December: Yvonne Tramm of Santa Pod Racers Club has been in touch to say that the annual Dinner and Trophy Night being held at Stadium MK, Milton Keynes on Saturday 3rd February 2024 still has tickets available, however the on-site DoubleTree hotel rooms have now sold out.

Yvonne has been given the following hotels as overspill accommodation for attendees to stay in. When booking, please mention that you are attending the Dinner at the DoubleTree at Stadium MK:

Mercure Hotel, Milton Keynes - 01908 561666 (5 miles away from Stadium MK)
Premier Inn Xscape Hotel, Milton Keynes - 01908 760433 (3 miles away from Stadium MK)
Holiday Inn, Milton Keynes Central - 0808 164 9526 (3 miles away from Stadium MK)

If there are any problems or queries, please let Yvonne know via e-mail.

VWDRC Awards Evening.
1st December: The annual VWDRC Awards Evening took place on Saturday 11th Novermber at Warbler on the Wharf, Milton Keynes. Trophies were awarded and over £6000 in prize money given away. VWDRC administrator Abi Tether said "Well done to all who took home a trophy and for those who didn’t, hopefully 2024 is your year." The trophies presented by VWDRC Chair Luke Stevenson, with congratulations to all racers, crew and others involved in the club for another successful year, were:

VW Pro Championship winner: Ed Keech
VW Pro Championship runner-up: Graham Fairhead
VW Heads Up Championship winner: Dave Henderson
VW Sportsman Championship winner: Paul Robinson
VW Sportsman Championship runner-up: Andrew Bambrick
Dennis Cox Shield (most consistent qualifier): Jerry Sadler
Brian Burrows Rookie of the Year trophy: Caitlin Wilson
Mechanical Sympathy Award: Jake Fronda
The Roxanne Red Light award for most red lights in eliminations: Jordan Clark
Jolly Sailor Team Award: The Carters (Rob and Hazel Carter, John and Claire Morris)
LuPRO ET Award: Rhys Finney
Best Appearing: Lorraine Large
Most Improved: Ben Mace
Perfect Reaction: James Hodson
Perfect ET and quickest: Sam Young
Slow and Steady (Consistent Slowest ET): Tom Circuit
Becky Sutton Memorial trophy for services to the club: Laurence Clark
RNJ Motorsport – Car of the year: James Gould
Howard Dalton memorial - Driver of the Year: Ed Keech

Special Recognition went to Ian Dale for 25 years of consecutive racing in the club. Laurence Clark's Becky Sutton Memorial Trophy was awarded posthumously, Laurence's funeral being held yesterday.

Pictures from the Awards Evening can be seen on Facebook at this link.

The 37th VW Pro and VW Sportsman championships will take place in 2024 at UK Motorsport governed events as follows:

27th-28th April: Springspeed Nationals
8th-9th June: Sportsman Nationals
29th-30th June: Summer Nationals
26th-28th July: Bug Jam 37
17th-18th August: Greenlight Nationals
20th-22nd September: National Finals

The VW Heads Up championship will take place at the following lifestyle events:

21st April: GTI Spring Festival
29th September: Das GTI Show

Prize monies for 2024 events will be announced in due course.

Those wishing to join the VWDRC or renew their membership (which can be combined with Santa Pod Racers Club membership) can do so by going to vwdrc.square.site.

Thanks go to club sponsors Darkside Developments, WRP Paint and Restoration, BJ Bates Electrical, GP Turbos, Pro Race Engineering, European Front Wheel Drive, 32 Speed Shop, CG Motorsport Clutch Specialists, R-Tech Performance, White Label Consulting & Managed Services, HPD, Hangar 30, Renegade Fuel, BJ's Speedshop, EST Performance, Track Ready, and The Car Kitchen.

Thanks to Abi Tether for providing information and photos.

Wheeldon projects for sale.
1st December: Blown-methanol legend Norm Wheeldon, who is still racing and building cars after over 40 years in the sport, has kindly let us know of an opportunity for budding racers:

"Due to unforeseen circumstances, I have to put two long-term projects up for sale. I am looking for a team or individuals to take the projects forward to completion as I had hoped to do." "Project 1 is a Nostalgia Funny Car, as pictured. It has a Victory Race Cars rolling chassis, 125/123-inch wheelbase. The rear axle is Victory fabricated with Mark Williams floater hubs, fitted with M/W 9.5 third member with new gears and 40 spline spool.

"It has a chrome moly motorplate and at the front, a pair of the most highly polished CentreLine spindle mounts you will ever see which are even polished on the inside and fitted with new M/T front runners. There are a pair of McKinney Race Cars fuel and oil tanks - a work of art and almost new.

"The body is a 71 Mustang body with a McKinney adjustable body mount kit. The aluminium work is still to be done but I have the escape hatch and front body latch kits from S&W.

"This is the same body as the Stone, Woods & Cook car from Elapsed Times magazine 2013 and Dennis Taylor's "Evil, Wicked, Mean and Nasty car and the Kazanjian, Lemon and Konno car amongst others seen at Bakersfield.

"Looking at the reaction to photos of the Time & Motion car on the internet, I see this being an instant crowd favourite. If you want to be a player at the top end of European Nostalgia Funny Car then this is where you need to start.

"Project 2 is a 125-inch wheelbase altered based on an S&W Race Cars TMFC blueprint. The front end has been changed for a Mark Williams FC torsion bar with a 5-inch drop front axle out in front.

"Chrome moly chassis from an S&W tubing kit with all the best new parts from S&W, M/W, Strange Engineering etc. I am still working on this car at present and about to fit the roll cage. This would be a great time to fit this to suit the new driver who could then have all the levers, pedals, steering column, etc made to suit exactly.

I have most parts here to finish this car including a "T" body and an Indycar rear wing from my TAD back in the day.. just drop in your blown Chevy!

For more information phone Norm Wheeldon or Nigel Charman on 07901 580879, or e-mail Norm at this link. Norm stresses that these ads will have no impact on the Wheeldon & Charman team which fully expect to have the Twin and the Gotavit cars at the Nostalgia Nationals in early May 2024.

Swift snippets.
1st December: Happy Birthday for today to Supercharged Outlaws owner and occasional driver Duncan Beard, FWD racer Calvin Skerritt and 8.50 Bike racer Steve Howe. We hope you all have a great day.