 |
||
With the 2010 season over we are, for the twelfth year in succession, pleased to bring you the finest comments from the year's event coverage on Eurodragster.com - and other quotes we didn't publish at the time. We open with the Quotes of the Year of the 2010 Eurodragster.com coverage team: Tog's Quote of the Year"Do you want one bed or two?"-- The receptionist's question as Christer and Tog check into the Scandic Sundsvall City hotel Simon's Quote of the Year"Oh, I let Tog think he's in charge. But you know the truth"-- Kirstie lets slip Roger's Quote of the Year"Just got up?"-- Top Alcohol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Mike Manners encounters fellow sponsor and racer Derek Flynn in his trademark colourful, loose trousers Kirstie's Quote of the Year"F***"-- What Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis said when he climbed out of his Superbird after almost putting it into Mantorp Park's sand trap Ed's Quote of the Year"Oh, that can't be good for you"-- Top Fuel Dragster tuning consultant Jim Brisette watching fans running towards yellow clouds of nitro warm-up fumes Christer's Quote of the Year"We've got a driver that we don't understand, so it's just a normal team!"-- Gary Page works with a Finnish Top Fuel Dragster racer And the rest of the 2010 Drag Racing Unplugged collection in chronological order..."It's not the dream alternative fuel that many expect"-- Jim Kelly of Eurodragster.com sponsor VP Racing Fuels is not so sure about Ethanol "With every order you get a free metallurgist!" -- All part of the service for Nigel Hoskison of Eurodragster.com sponsor Allegheny Technologies... "When customers come to the track and see John launch they find it awesome" -- ...and the Showtime Fuel Funny Car team "The last two years were a real thrash and almost became a full time job so it's time to take a year out" -- Why we didn't see much of Nigel Payne in Super Modified this season "Andy is the best of the best. He is good to work with, very professional, and his relationship with America is very strong" -- Les Downey explains why Lucas Oil Products sponsor Andy Carter "There is lots of machinery in the Shop and we were tripping over one another" -- Plenty on at the workshops of Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson "BMX racing starts with lights so hopefully Brad will have good reaction times from the start!" -- Wayne Jackson anticipates son Brad will do well in Junior Dragster "That's a great run for Nataas, that should please his fans. He is from Norway, how many of you people in the stands are from Norway...I thought so" -- NHRA Track Announcer Bob Frye cements international relations "I don't want to be standing on the line wearing a team shirt if this thing blows up" -- Why tuning consultant Jim Brisette won't wear an Andersen Racing shirt on the Pomona start line... "I can wear that shirt now" -- ...but then Thomas Nataas clocks 3.88 "It's weird racing four wide. There are a lot more lights and distractions, so it's difficult to concentrate, and running in the middle two lanes you have a car either side of you which is strange" -- Visiting NHRA Top Fuel Dragster racer Doug Herbert describes racing at ZMax "Lily Allen?" -- Roger misreads the name as Billy Everitt's Li'l Alien Junior Dragster speeds past "That's why they call them bracket cars, you have to make so many brackets up" -- Tim Stanbury does all the little jobs to get his Camaro ready for Pro ET "We built a new workshop to house the car which has meant we can work on it easily at home, but it has cost us our annual trip to the US" -- Dedication from Pro ET racers Liz and Iain Malcolm "The car is a pussycat on the street" -- We bet Andy Hadfield his wild roadster that Freddy Fagerström would say the same about his pick-up "We've bought the tickets, so it's too late to pull out now" -- Looks like Ray White is off around Europe to race Pro Mod then "There are sixty twelve-volt batteries pushing out 380 volts and 2000 amps DC" -- Don't put your tongue across the terminals in Sam Young's electrically-powered Beetle "My business of motorcycle sales is slow and the spring is slow to arrive in Finland" -- Bring on the nice weather, Esko Raisvuo has a Top Methanol Dragster to run "That was down to both the Crew Chief who gave me a soft tune-up that we needed and me driving it down the track" -- Gordon Smith explains a storming pass in the Shockwave Fuel Funny Car "We will go back home near Stansted Airport to get replacement parts and then have a head rebuild overnight. Team Gridlock is living up to its motto 'Go Hard or Go Home' already" -- Adz Price and the guys have a bit of work to do "It was cheaper than a replacement engine" -- Why Paul Coombs bought a new 9.50 Bike "I have built a new engine to go quicker and not smoke" -- Ivan Birch's environmentally-friendly Comp Bike "The track is freezing and we can't take fuel clutch or mag out of it like the modern cars can - that's why we call them nostalgia!" -- John Wright on the joys of tuning the Chaos Fuel Altered "It rained as I burnt out and I actually skidded to a halt" -- Showtime Fuel Funny Car driver John Spuffard adds ammunition to the theory that firing up a Fuel motor makes it rain "The bike is modelled on a Top Fuel Bike and has had to be stretched this year as Brett is a tall fourteen year old" -- Sounds like Phil Cordelle needs to feed Junior Drag Bike racer son Brett less fruit and more pizza "We will be going for a big burnout" -- Cath Napier surprises none of husband Tig's Pro ET competitors, nor indeed anyone else "It was absolute hell, but I found the way to run my team" -- Stranded in the Dominican Republic, Dexter Price still steps up to the plate "We hope we will be able to blow them all away and stand at least a chance against the Juniors!" -- Super Pro ET racer Ashley Bell resets his sights after a far from ideal start at the Easter Thunderball "Bought from Noah who had used it to power the Ark" -- Where Super Pro ET team S&K Racing got their crank "We are running for the Championship and the Fat Boys are ahead by 400 points but we have been in a worse position before and won" -- Steve Pateman going for the Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator title "It's the most scary thing I've ever done" -- Falklands, Kosovo and Gulf War veteran Richard Popple after "We are suspicious of the vacuum pump now" -- It stands accused of passing trace data to Tim Stanbury's Pro ET competitors "We won't necessarily be number one but we want to make some noise and have some fun without spending too much of my money" -- Neil Townson races his blown-alcohol altered within his means "I have gone for a seventy five inch outlaw swing arm which I actually made in my shed as well as welding my header pipes and exhaust" -- Classic homebuilt technology by 8.50 Bike racer Andy Fawcett "I have another bike at home with exactly the same spec but in red with a slightly different spec turbo" -- I've got a pair of socks exactly like Mick Winyard's 8.50 Bikes "This is a lot straighter and does not go towards the Armco like the old one did" -- Steve French likes his new Funny Bike "My crew worked all night Sunday and when we tried firing it up this morning it wouldn't" -- Not the best of evenings for Super Street Bike racer Dave Holland "I'm not using my nitrous system as last year it seemed to slow the bike rather than making it quicker" -- Maybe the weight of the bottle? Supertwin ET racer Mike Nelthorpe will get it sorted "After fifteen passes without any nitrous problems, this was out of the blue" -- Mystified Super Modified racer Rob Smallworth "What started as sending a blower over developed into sending the car over and now with me to drive it" -- From small acorns doth Pro Mod racer Melanie Troxel grow "The part is inexpensive itself but caused a lot of other damage" -- Isn't that always the way for Super Gas racer Stu Doignie and everyone else "I love traditional hot rods and we are not running an electronic throttle stop" -- Super Gas racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Super Gas racer Paul Foote uses the foot and head method "I'm proud of the engine but equally proud of the new graphics" -- But which propelled Pro ET racer Deborah Laugher to a new Personal Best? "I had my old tyres on so I thought I would go for it" -- Pro ET racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Mike Lacey pops a slick pulling burnouts at the Rushden Powerfest "The nectar of the gods" -- Ed's description of Tesco's own-brand Key Lime drink "Are you sure you want to do this? We haven't spent any money yet" -- Tuner and Eurodragster.com Blogger Will Hanna straps Fred Hanssen into his Top Methanol Dragster for his first pass of the year "These Europeans don't mess about" -- One of the R2B2 Pro Mod team overheard "I'm really pleased although it has been a time coming" -- Garry Bowe leads Super Street Bike qualifying "With the weather here, we may end up qualifying at night and here you can see down track when the engine is running but after the shut-off at the finish line it is totally dark" -- Per Bengtsson looks forward to Supertwin qualifying at Santa Pod Raceway "I prefer to make parts rather than import them" -- Super Street Bike racer and another back-shed engineer Dave Smith "The car is from racer Tom Hammonds and he is forty seven centimetres taller than me, so we had to adjust a few things" -- All the best things come in small packages including Pro Stock racer Richard Sundblom "I am fine although I was worried about my eyebrows and moustache" -- Dan Larsen suffers a fire in his Top Methanol Funny Car "We had bolted on a three stage nitrous system which we had to use out of the trailer as there was so little time and the rush meant we had no option but to go all out to qualify" -- Pro Mod tuner Dave Moore stuck between a rock and a hard place "We've had a great time but it's been a bit frustrating to come all this way for three runs" -- Melanie Troxel says goodbye to Santa Pod "At this stage we are taking it step by step and learning routines" -- The Veidec Pro Stock Bike Team is coming together for manager Roger Lyrén "I guess I've never had to go for the quick lights in the ACU series and here the competition is much closer" -- Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com Blogger Dave Beck comes up against it "Sean has designed our new fuel system; it was looking a bit like a snake's nest under the hood" -- Now there's a bit more order under the bonnet of Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis' Pro Mod courtesy of consultant Sean Brown "I race Melanie Troxel in the first round - if you want to win you have to beat them all" -- Pro Mod racer Adam Flamholc fears no-one "The tyre shake was so bad it damaged the crank but we only discovered this when we changed the oil and there was a burning smell from a burnt bearing" -- Then it was another thrash for Pro Mod racer Norbert Kuno and his team "It starts, it stops and everything fits" -- Gary Page tries out the new Mongoose Performance Exhausts Fuel Funny Car "The racing scene over here is great and I'm impressed" -- US Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Jeff Carroll likes what he sees at Santa Pod Raceway "It felt like a bomb going off under me and I'm sorry it cost a lot of time. I didn't see the fire so missed the show" -- A rod exits the block of Super Street Bike racer Dave Holland's motor "In theory you should be able to put the same shit in the car and run the same times, but that doesn't work" -- Theory and practice are two different things for Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis "We don't know what we have done to achieve that as the car is set up the same as the Main Event" -- Mystified Super Pro ET racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Pete Walters runs a Personal Best "We spent tens of hours with the engine on the dyno but that can't simulate the extra vibration in race conditions" -- That extra vibration culminated in HKS Pro and Super Pro ET racer John Bradshaw having to hit the fire bottles "It keeps me from going to B&Q" -- Why Sportsman ET racer Steve Moisey goes racing "So much is different to the old engine. It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get it in. But the result this morning has been worth it" -- It took all of three runs for Rick McCann's new motor to propel him to third place in Pro ET qualifying "The throttle stuck on the next run as a result which broke the MSD unit and I almost went off the end of the track and the front tyres went flat from the braking effort I had to put in" -- The field at the end of the track would no longer have been the exclusive preserve of Pro racers had Pro ET racer Mark Bailey not got it stopped "We moved weight around to the side of the bike hoping to get it to go straighter and this has taken us from the nines to the sevens" -- Kev Charman starts to lay down the rails on which Davide Ricci's Funny Bike should run "It was a ridiculous burnout, far too much speed and aggression" -- OK so Wayne Nicholson crossed lanes during a burnout but this is Pro Mod we're talking about "I was too focused on keeping it straight and had to find out from the top end crew what happened" -- Everyone except blown-alcohol altered racer Joe Bond knew that he had hit the guardrail "Tracey is calling the shots on the dial-in perfectly" -- Super Pro ET racer Bob Doyle gives due credit to the missus... "I was worried that it would be lonely in the pits yesterday evening, and so took it to the Pro ET bands' gig" -- ...and we would have agreed that Tracey is a genius had we not known that she is talking here about a blue plastic shopping basket "The first time you run the bike it shocks you! The other times it just terrifies you" -- Timo Savolainen moves to Pro Stock Bike "My wife Mona had to work this weekend, so we had to make another call to old friend Yum-Yum to be the chef" -- Paul Ingar Udtian calls upon a Gilbert and Sullivan character to cater for the Islanders Top Methanol Dragster team "We managed to keep a distance of a few yards between each other until his chute came out a fraction of a second before mine and it came out right onto my car and into my face" -- Risto Poutiainen crosses lanes just behind Stig Neergaard as he does the same thing during Top Fuel Dragster qualifying "I have a piece of Risto's car embedded in the front wing of my car" -- It still gives us the chills when we stop and think realise how bad this could have been but both Stig and Risto walked away "Travelling at 328 kmh you do go a long way in a short time" -- Hans Olav Olstad goes into the sandtrap during Supertwin qualifying "We have tried almost everything, but it seems like the engine doesn't want to rev at more than 5598 revs!" -- Svein Olaf Rolfstad misses that same round of Supertwin qualifying "When the head problem is out of the way there will hopefully just be tuning problems to get the bike run really good numbers" -- Vincent Pels and the Godfather Supertwin team riding out a long line of mechanical problems "Smashing news? You want smashing news? I'm pregnant!" -- Monique Koedam of the Godfather Supertwin team fulfils Christer's request for pit notes "I didn't want the other guys to have the advantage of two races! This is a long shot, absolutely a long shot, but it's fun!" -- Jimmy Ålund explains why he made a last-minute decision to race a borrowed Pro Stock at Alastaro "One of them was supposed to go with Kevin in his luggage, but the smell of nitro made the drug dogs at the airport go crazy, and it had to be sent by courier instead" -- One of Anita Mäkelä's American crew discovers the perils of carrying Top Fuel Dragster fuel pumps about his person... "Which might have been a very good thing since the airline lost his luggage on the last leg of his journey!" -- ...but we didn't know that Ryanair flew from the USA to Finland "We haven't done much to the car from England, besides giving it a really good polish" -- Micke Callin is relaxed about the Pro Stock Championship lead "At that point one of my crew guys told me over the radio that the car was on fire!" -- Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson did think it was a bit hot on board his Studebaker "We see the victory in England as a bonus. A fun bonus though" -- Johan Lindberg takes his first Pro Mod victory at the first attempt "You make adjustments and adjustments and nothing really happens, and then suddenly you have all the power there" -- The secret to injected-nitro Top Methanol Dragster, courtesy of Dave Wilson "I'm working drag racing every hour awake, and all my guys are thinking drag racing around the clock, and we haven't really been rewarded for that in while now, so we need to find the problem soon!" -- You know it's been a bad run in Top Fuel Dragster when even the unflappable Micke Kågered's patience starts to go "I was going for a deep stage and was concentrating on that, and when I looked up Anita left!" -- Top Fuel Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher's strategy blown by his competitor "I must admit I was a bit surprised that it was as quick as it was" -- Micke Gullqivist clocks 5.911 in the R2B2 Pro Mod "We tried to fix it but then it started to go off and on as it liked and that can really take the concentration out of the run" -- Shift light troubles on board Fred Hanssen's Top Methanol Dragster "Suddenly it was just heading for the centerline or the wall and I had to turn the steering wheel in a way I have never done before!" -- Mats Eriksson tames a wayward Pro Mod "In the first round it's Rene van den Berg, then it is Selkämaa or Salakari we have to beat to win the event!" -- Unbounded optimism from Pasi Söderlund of Petri Paljakka's Top Fuel Bike team "I know he looks gay but I bloody well don't" -- Tog's answer to the "One bed or two?" question "Because it's a big fat asshole like the character in South Park" -- Well, we did ask Jörgen Eriksson why the team's Comp Eliminator motor was named Cartman "We gave it a stab and that was how it came out" -- Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis overpowers the track "We are sorry you cannot be here, our pits are full of nice Swedish women" -- Reasonably sincere best wishes to housebound crew from Pro Mod racer Robert Joosten "Qualifying second is good for my Championship chances" -- Not as good as first, but Jürgen Nagel is happy with his placing in Top Methanol Funny Car "I am happy with the new Mustang which still drives like a Lincoln" -- The ever-smiling Arvid Grødem likes his recently-acquired Top Methanol Funny Car "I was getting scared of losing an engine so now have a spare block which we didn't have at the Main Event when we had problems" -- An expensive necessity for Dan Larsen's Top Methanol Funny Car operation "We may not get to the bottom of the barrel but we are having a damn good look!" -- More Top Methanol Dragster tuning secrets from Dave Wilson "If we had a hole out, it would have worked" -- Jim Rizzoli, tuner for Top Methanol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Derek Flynn, reflects on an overpowered track "I don't want anyone zooming in on that" -- Top Methanol Dragster tuner and Eurodragster.com Blogger Will Hanna closes the laptop before allowing Simon to take the picture "Anders Abrahamsson took revenge at Alastaro" -- Gert-Jan Laseur loses a Pro Stock Bike race "We will run at Gardermoen, Hockenheim and then back to Greece for some bouzouki dancing!" -- What we would ask Bousinis Haralamobos' Pro Stock Bike crew is "Why wait?" "I had my arm twisted and here I am" -- Paul Watson flies to Sweden to crew on Stavros Svrachnos' Pro Stock Bike "We are already on our spare engine so we hope it is nothing big" -- Worrying electrical problems for Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com Blogger Dave Beck "It is going to the left on each run; all I can do is aim for the right of the lane" -- Directional stability concerns for Top Fuel Bike racer Peter Andersson Ström "We are in the field, have time and are comfortable" -- A confident Vincent Pels despite having to change the motor on the Godfather Supertwin "Yesterday the handlebar broke off at 100 metres and I had to shut off" -- We're guessing that the throttle of Ismo Mäenpää's Supertwin pretty much made that decision itself "What I want to prove is it doesn't matter how many cylinders you have in Top Fuel Bike" -- Logic would dictate that two cylinders give Jaska Salakari half the trouble "That is a deal I do not want" -- Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis suffers his second successive DNQ "It was a crazy driving job that got me through - I got so close to the wall" -- Mats Eriksson gets into the Pro Mod ladder on a last-ditch attempt "We put so many changes in, we nearly turned the car upside down" -- Crew member Stefan Pedersen prepared Freddy Fagerström's Pro Mod pick-up for a spectacular pass "See how agile I am" -- Anita Mäkelä sees one of Kirstie's pictures of her jumping out of her Top Fuel Dragster at Mantorp Park "There is only a small window of correct settings" -- Micke Lindahl on Pro Mod tuning problems "My friend Monique Koedam texted me to say "Don't touch anything on the car" but you have to try something new" -- Sound advice to Top Fuel Dragster #1 qualifier Anita Mäkelä "Yesterday I was only on the throttle for a few seconds and I have never been so happy with an eight second pass" -- Danny Bellio went through hell just to be able to make a Top Methanol Funny Car qualifying pass "The problem with racing is having to get all the small parts working together at the same time" -- Jan Gunnarsson agrees with Micke Lindahl on the vagaries of Pro Mod tuning "It is a struggle, the car has the best equipment available and is difficult to back down" -- Andy Carter and the Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster team try to stop the tyres smoking "Smax doesn't change but he now has three young boys that are little Smaxes" -- Canadian Top Fuel Dragster tuner Barry Paton has known Smax Smith for thirty five years "I have nitro in my blood and I can't stay away from here" -- Anita Mäkelä loves her Top Fuel Dragster racing "The engine is looking like it hasn't been run; that's part of the battle, you can then concentrate on tuning" -- Tuner Steve Turner is getting a handle on the new Turner Motorsport Top Methanol Funny Car "We went to the USA to learn something. One thing we learnt was that there is a long distance to travel between tracks!" -- The fruits of Jimmy Ålund's efforts to race Pro Stock in the USA "F*** off Tog, just f*** off. Go on, f*** off" -- Just so you know it's not one long holiday working on Eurodragster.com "I could see what was happening to the other cars but at that stage in the lanes we couldn't adjust the car and had to adjust the driver instead" -- Risto Poutiainen after feathering the throttle on a Top Fuel Dragster qualifying pass "We broke two engines at the Main Event trying to run that quick" -- Success in Super Street Bike qualifying for Thomas Granica "Engine work is tough as the billet parts are so much heavier now" -- Tony Pearson has been working on Top Fuel Dragsters for some time now "We changed every nut and bolt and resolved some issues we had before and it now handles like a new car" -- The hours of thrashing to put Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson's Pro Mod back together are worth it for Luke Robinson "We live for racing and if my crew wasn't as great as they are I would have quit" -- We would guess that Pro Mod racer Rolf Ammann is talking for all racers "We ran on the good side of the track but you learn never to take favours for granted" -- Anita Mäkelä qualifies #1 in Top Fuel Dragster again "We are now just trying to run good at the track but stuff has been biting back" -- Top Methanol tuner and Eurodragster.com Blogger Will Hanna encounters a revolution "We can go to the top of the qualifying lists later" -- Johan Lindberg misses out on the second Pro Mod qualifying session "I am unlearning all the driving instincts I built up in those years of Top Methanol Dragster racing" -- Rob Turner is also getting a handle on the new Turner Motorsport Top Methanol Funny Car "I just took a European pill" -- How Melanie Troxel's Pro Mod tuner Al Billes got a handle on our tracks so effectively "Sami and my crew are taking care of things and doing a great job - I'm not the good one!" -- Yet another Low ET for Anita Mäkelä during Top Fuel Dragster qualifying "We're happy, but you're only as good as your last race, so we had better win the next round" -- Top Fuel Dragster tuner John Smith delivers his brief to driver Stig Neergaard "It's in the car but I just have to find it" -- Krister Johansson needs a 5.3 in the next round of Top Methanol Dragster eliminations "We are on a rollercoaster at the moment as this is our third event in three weeks, and with the performance I am having I shouldn't be winning" -- Arvid Grødem deals with problem after problem in his Top Methanol Funny Car "We don't care about the Championship, we just want to win the race" -- Hands up anyone who believes that Dan Larsen really means that about the Top Methanol Funny Car title "We brought a knife to a gunfight and we left our shotgun at home" -- Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson makes a first round exit "I have lane choice against Micke Gullqvist - he's a friend, but on the track I don't care" -- A previously-undiscovered mean streak in Pro Mod racer Mats Eriksson "It is hard to find an electrical fault but I can now be confident that when I release the clutch it will not stall" -- Fredrik Fredlund cures the two-step on his Pro Stock Bike "I am much happier than I was at this time last year" -- Despite the rollercoaster that is a new Top Methanol Funny Car, Arvid Grødem keeps on smiling "We don't want to change something when it works" -- A successful season for Werner Habermann's brace of Top Methanol Dragsters "You're fired" -- Tog on various occasions "OK you're un-fired" -- Tog on various occasions "The next thing I knew he had me by the helmet and I was out of the car" -- Super Pro ET racer Brendan Clancy is tugged out of his burning race car by Richard Bell of Santa Pod Raceway's start line crew who later explained that he actually pulled on Brendan's HANS device "We think we may have lost a gearbox which means we will have to take the engine out and turn the bike upside down" -- That is not a figure of speech, that is exactly what Steve French will have to do to service his Funny Bike "There has been no real breakage, it's just things not working as they should" -- Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt and team are snagging "The only nice thing so far is the breakfast ham courtesy of Andy Carter" -- A positive aspect for Dave Wilson amongst troublesome Top Methanol Dragster qualifying "All I want is to get to the finish line under power and not have damage" -- Micke Kågered still slightly frustrated with Top Fuel Dragster "I honestly don't know how he can drink this" -- Linda of The Coffee Man prepares a Tog Special (cream with a dash of coffee) "We are really pleased with the marketing boost that drag racing gives us" -- Les Downey of Eurodragster.com sponsor Lucas Oil Products gets his money's worth "If it wasn't exciting, we wouldn't be doing it" -- A bang on starting up Melanie Troxel's Pro Mod was surely exciting enough for tuner Al Billes "We don't have a data system and are tuning it by flipping a coin" -- ...and Top Methanol Funny Car racer Dezsoe Krivan still did a lot better than most of us would have done with a datalogger "The supercharged bike runs hotter than normally aspirated engines and we don't want to make replacement parts just to melt them again" -- Looks like Duralumin next year for Ton and Vincent Pels and the Godfather Supertwin "The engine had sounded fine so hopefully there's not too much damage" -- The experienced ear of Supertwin racer Svein Olaf Rolfstad "One good thing is it's not so windy so it's easier packing the chutes" -- Roger Johansson comes up with one of those Pro Mod issues we never considered "You want to go quick but I lost my head and didn't pedal after it started moving to the left" -- Andy Carter punts the timing reflectors in Top Fuel Dragster eliminations "I have only had one bad light this year and it has to come now" -- Micke Callin loses runner-up spot in the Pro Stock Championship "We got round the problem by burning out in fourth and raising the rev limiter so that we didn't need to use fifth" -- Steve French loses fifth gear but his Funny Bike still makes the call "I burnt my leg in the burnout which distracted me and then hit the rev limiter big-time" -- An understandable lapse for Gert-Jan Laseur in Pro Stock Bike qualifying "We now just want the Championship, we have given up running fast" -- We didn't think we saw many hands go up when we asked the question about Dan Larsen and that Top Methanol Funny Car Championship "Quite cool. No - brilliant" -- Junior Dragster racer Paige Wheeler, asked what it was like to be the VIP guest of Melanie Troxel in Las Vegas "This is no prop. This shit really works" -- John Force carrying on a can of Full Throttle energy drink to accept his NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car Championship "I'm forty again - I'm still ugly but forty again" -- John Force after winning his fifteenth NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car Championship "I can't believe I'm the NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock Motorcycle Champion - I should be working at McDonalds" -- Acceptance speech by a young LE Tonglet "I'll never give up" -- John Force "Looks like Kathy has some shovelling to do this morning" -- The snow arrives at Ed's home in New Hampshire Back to News page |