Absent Beck will be back.
31st May: One notable and much-missed absentee from this weekend's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway will be Switzerland's Peter Beck. Peter had a long and illustrious career in Top Methanol before driving one of Rico Anthes' Top Fuel Dragsters into the low fives. However, the hugely-popular Peter is now without a ride but plans a return. In the meantime we may see some of the Top Fuel Team Switzerland personnel at Santa Pod this weekend.

"It's raining outside and we are sitting here at home in cosy Switzerland. There is something wrong!", writes Andrea of Top Fuel Team Switzerland. "We should have been at the Test and Tune weekend at Santa Pod to celebrate with you the start of a new drag racing season with all the worries, hopes, glories and disappointments. But we are not.

"What happened? As you probably know our Old Lady Top Fuel Dragster is back with Rico. I hope she appreciated her stay during the Winter in warm and sunny Brazil. So at the moment we have nothing to race with. Let's say nothing as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster! We are checking different opportunities and possibilities to get a dragster for the rest of the season, but at the moment nothing is fixed. So that's the reason why we are sitting here in the land where cheese melts and cows dance.

"But don't worry, you will see some of our crew members at the Main Event anyway. A Top Fuel Mechanic is always a welcome additional team member for the other Swiss teams as they are used to working late and having no time or being too tired to eat or party. Therefore we hope that our guys will be in the pits enjoying a great race weekend at Santa Pod.

"We would like to say hello to everybody, enjoy your time at Santa Pod, and we are doing everything possible to be back on the track as soon as possible. And we will be back, ladies and gentlemen..."

You can stay in touch with the news from Peter and the team at www.topfuel.ch.

Team TIL ready for Europe.
31st May: Dave Holland the Team Titanium International Limited Funny Bike team are all set to take on Europe's finest in FIM/UEM Comp Bike at this weekend's Main Event. Dave's attendance is the result of a lot of hard work, as Nigel Hoskinson of Titanium International writes.

"It is hard to distinguish where the aftermath of the Springnationals ended and the preparations for the Main Event began. We have kept various transport companies busy collecting and delivering parts as they were stripped or repaired. Crank back and forth to Woody at the Speed Shop, new parts from Jay at MRE, head and pistons to Roger Upperton for machining, to name a few.

"It all culminated in an engine building party in Dave's workshop last Sunday after I collected the head on Saturday and delivered it to Martin Peck on Sunday morning to re-assemble the engine. The spare motor was also almost completed in the same session.

"The bike was now ready, the last piece in the jigsaw was the rider! When Dave had the medical for his UEM licence, his GP requested an ECG. The local hospital couldn't do the test until yesterday with the results to follow some time later - too late for the Main Event! Duncan McCulloch of sponsors Turbo Service International came to the rescue and fixed a quicker appointment at another hospital.

"Simon Zuanic of Turbo's sister company, Colt Cranes has also done some machining work for us, as well as joining the team's sponsors for the remainder of the season. Check out their web sites if you need a marine turbine repairing or a two-ton hydraulic crane, or see us in the pits for more details. Unfortunately, Duncan and Simon will not be at the Main Event due to previous committments, so all the team would like to thank them for their help and continuing support. We would also like to thank Ian King for helping with all the bureaucracy involved in getting the UEM licence.

"We have also signed up another sponsor since the last meeting, BSP Landscapes, who specialise in sports turf groundworks and landscaping.

"Finally there is an outside chance that the team will race at the UEM round in Alastaro in July. Finnish sponsor Tylite Racing Components are trying to put a package together to get us over there, as they are close to finalising the manufacture of the titanium rods which we will be using in the near future. If any of the car racers are interested I will have with me at the weekend an example of the titanium rods which Tylite produce for V8. You are welcome to inspect it - come and visit our pit."

Lonely heart in SSB.
31st May: "Single white female seeks male for weekends away. Interests must include fast bikes, getting dirty, hard work and partying. Applicants should be aware that this lady's aim in life is to get from start to finish in under nine seconds!"

If this sounds like you and you fancy crewing for a Super Street Bike, then either visit Rachel Pattison in the 9.90 Bike pits at the Main Event, or call her on 01793 705905 days.

Eurodragster interview SPR's timing crew.
31st May: The latest in Eurodragster's occasional series of interviews is with Steve Horn and Andy Marrs of Santa Pod Raceway's timing crew. With the FIA Main Event imminent, we asked them about their work before, during and after a race event and, in the light of the Easter Thunderball's events, about spare Christmas Trees.

Click here to read the interview, or click on the Interviews link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster page.

FIA Main Event coverage.
31st May: We are now on our way to Santa Pod Raceway to get set up for Eurodragster's American Car Imports-sponsored coverage of this weekend's FIA Main Event. Our coverage will begin with pit notes tomorrow morning (Saturday) and then frequent updates during each day with the results of all FIA, FIM/UEM and Pro Mod qualifying and elimination sessions posted as soon as possible after they have taken place, together with Sportsman class highlights. We will also post photographs at the end of each day.

With such a huge entry we can't expect to know everyone at the track, so all racers should please feel free to waylay Tog and Sharkman either around the pits or by the track so that we can bring your fans the latest news.

We will of course post a link to our coverage from our Home Page as soon as we start to report, but it will be available at www.eurodragster.com/santapod/live/2002fiamainevent or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Our good buddy Gareth Evans is planning to post end-day summaries on his web site www.uk1320.com, whilst the guys at Dragsterworld will be posting end-day reports and pictures at www.dragsterworld.com. Finally, Super Comp racer Zane Llewellyn is planning on-track updates from the Bristol Doorslammers team on the Bootsoop web site at www.bootsoop.freeserve.co.uk.

White set for Lethal return.
31st May: The UK's Ray White is set for a return to the track in 2003 with an updated Lethal Zephyr. Ray has been tuning for John Ellis and crewing with Doug Ripley but the pull of the asphalt is too much.

"I've had a great time crewing in Pro Mod and Funny Car, spending other people's money which both Doug and John say I'm really good at", says Ray. "But I need to get back behind the wheel of my own car. The new car has been thought out long and hard, original plans were for a big nitrous motor as that had been where John and myself seemed to be going until along came Doug Ripley. I was at a bit of a loose end as we had damaged the motor in the Calibra so I asked Doug if he needed any crew and that's where my love for blower motors began.

"Winging its way from the States is a brand new 572 ci blown alky BBC. It's backed by a three-speed air-shifted Lenco, sheet metal axle case connected via a Pro Mod-style swinging arm all from RRC, also with one of RRC's amazing in-board shock set ups with anti-roll bar.

"As you read this, Andy is designing my chassis which I will build myself. The front of the body has been lengthened six inches and the whole car has been lowered. My only criteria at the moment are eighth-mile burnouts and three-foot wheelstands!

"I keep being asked when the Zephyr will be out again, the answer is sometime next year - watch this space."

APIRA Test and Tune update.
31st May: Further to Monday's news item about this weekend's APIRA Test and Tune and Peugeot GTI day at Shakespeare County Raceway, APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson has been in touch with an addition to the line-up.

"This weekend will be the first ever UK meeting for owners of 1984/85 Kawasaki 750 Turbo motorcycles, the fastest and best factory turbo bike", says Jerry. "Usual Test and Tune fees apply: £10 each day or £15 for the weekend. 750turbo.com webmaster Lorcan Purnell, will be at Shakespeare County from midday Sunday to meet all owners. Just look for the 750turbo.com banner!

"Anyone wanting to run their machine on the quarter-mile strip should bring full leathers, boots, gloves, a decent helmet and their driving licence. For further information go to www.750turbo.com."

Carter seeks joint team owners.
31st May: With the 2002 FIA European Championship about to get underway, 2001 FIA European Top Fuel Champions Carter Motorsport are already looking ahead to 2003.

"For various reasons, 2002 will be a quiet year for the team in terms of track action but in all other ways, nothing could be further from the truth!", says Carter Motorsports PR Dan Welberry. "We shall be using the time to try and put together the ultimate Top Fuel package for 2003. The quest to find major backing will be relentless as we look for corporate sponsors and complete product cover from plugs to slicks! We believe that we have the perfect team, Andy is without doubt one of the most dedicated and professional drivers on the circuit. In Eddie Corr, we have a wealth of tuning knowledge which we believe is second to none!

"The crew proved in 2001 that they, guided by Eddie, have what it takes to be Championship winners. with the added 100% backing of 3t Creative Ltd (marketing and design) and Juice Creative Media Ltd (web and new media) we believe Carter Motorsport to be the complete Top Fuel package. We have even just acquired our own workshop big enough to store and maintain two Top Fuel cars!

"We are keen to talk to any individuals who share our vision and believe that they have something to bring to the team. It could be that you have some spare time to make a few calls or have potential sponsorship contacts? It may be that you even think 'Yes, I fancy coming on board as a joint team owner'! At this stage, all options are being considered.

"If you would like to talk further with us to find out more, please visit the Carter Motorsport pit at the weekend and ask to speak tome, Dan Welberry."

Eurodragster/Scorpion Racing awards.
30th May: If you were tuned in yesterday then you will remember that we promised news of another prize to be put up at the FIA Main Event in addition to our Perfect Light Award. Today we are very pleased to announce that in a tie-up with UK performance parts supplier Scorpion Racing, Eurodragster will be awarding an TRS five- or six-point harness and sixteen litres of Rock Oil to two Sportsman-class winners at the Main Event.

"It's an expensive sport", said Colin Aldred of Scorpion Racing, who is a racer himself with the Classy Chassis slingshot. "We want to encourage Sportsman racers and give them a helping hand. We are very happy to be doing so with Eurodragster; they have brought a new dimension to drag racing whether you are a racer or a fan."

On our part we are very proud to be associated with Scorpion Racing, who are well-known as sponsors having put up awards at many events for various classes, lately becoming involved in Super Modified. We are very grateful indeed to Colin Aldred for his kind offer.

The two classes, one car and one bike, will be will be drawn from a hat on the start line at Santa Pod during Monday morning's presentation. The TRS harness will then be awarded to that day's winner of the car class drawn and the Rock Oil to the winner of the bike class drawn.

You can discuss your performance requirements with Scorpion Racing on 0207 485 5581.

FIA Main Event running orders.
30th May: We are very grateful to Santa Pod Raceway's International Race Director Darren Prentice for sending us provisional running orders for the Saturday and Sunday of this weekend's FIA Main Event. You can view the running orders on our FIA Main Event coverage index, which you can reach by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Please note that these running orders are for guidance only, are subject to weather and track conditions, and may be changed at any time by the Race Director.

Main Event snippets.
30th May: UK Top Methanol Dragster racer Lyndsay Deuchar has not had the best of luck so far this year but will definitely be at this weekend's race thanks to the loan of a spare wing from FIA Champions Turner Racing. You can read more on the LA Racer web site at www.laracing.co.uk.

Finnish Supertwin Top Fuel Bike racer and reigning NPSC Super Pro Street Bike Chapion Kai Selkämaa is all set for the Main Event after testing his new ride at last weekend's FHRA Spring Nationals at Finland's Motopark. Kai and the team mainly concentrated on starts, the sixty-foot times were very positive with a best of 1.13.

Andy Frost's new Vauxhall Victor is ready for action in Custom Car Street Eliminator. "I just have to change the inlet manifold", he says. You can find more details and pictures on Andy's web site at www.redvictor1racing.co.uk.

UK 9.90 Bike racer Dave Stanley returns to the track this weekend. "After much hard work and many late nights the Fast Harry Racing/Wordweaver Bandit is now ready to come out to play", says Dave. "I would like to say a big Thank You to Fast Harry for his dedication and commitment to the team, and a big thanks to Paul (Grumpy) Watson for all his help and advice. As Grumpy himself has said, without good crew we would all struggle, and our crew are the best. Obviously our first couple of runs will be bit gentle to settle everything in but once I get the all clear from Harry to 'give it some' we hope to be pretty close to the index, so let the fun begin..."

Santa Pod Raceway are running a Photo Contest at this weekend's race. Two pairs of tickets for the FIA European Finals are up for grabs for the best on-track and off-track photographs taken at the Main Event. Photos must be taken from public areas and the contest is not open to signed-on press (D'oh - Ed). You can find full details in this weekend's race programme which will be available as usual in the Pod Shop and at the trailer by the start line. We've had a sneak preview of the programme and editor Roger Gorringe has done a fantastic job. Santa Pod also tell us that, if you are that way inclined, TVs will be showing Sunday's England v Sweden World Cup match in the bar and in the Pod Shop.

NDRS Pro Mod kicks off.
30th May: The Pro Mod racers have their first outing in the Nordic Drag Racing Series at Gardermoen in Norway this weekend. There has been much activity going on during the off-season and we will see new teams, cars, engines and paint schemes for many of the teams. "I'm sure that we will see world-class performance from some of the cars at some events, when the conditions are good", says Michael Gullquist of the European Pro Modified Association. "Our teams are improving all the time so it's safe to say that this will be the best season ever. Not only because everybody will go faster, but because we also have more teams than ever before and I know we will have full sixteen car fields at some events."

2001 Cup Champion Patrick Wikström has made improvements to his car to make it lighter and more aerodynamic. Michael Gullquist, runner up in points and 2001 Swedish Champion, will not be able to attend the first events as his new car and engine are not ready. "The boys had better be ready when we get the '57 Chevy out of the cave, because our intention is to hit them hard", says Michael. Håkan Nilsson, who crashed his Corvette last season, will be back for the race at Gardermoen. "We are ready to go now and we are eager to try out our new '68 Camaro. It feels really good to go racing again after a long winter with hard work in the shop", says Håkan. Roger Johansson, another racer who showed some good performance late last year, has improved his combination over the winter, including a lengthened wheelbase of his '98 Mustang. "I think that we will do pretty well this year with our new stuff", says Roger.

Other racers who will compete in the Cup later in the season are UK racer Andy Robinson along with Swiss, Dutch, German, Finnish and Norwegian racers. "We will probably go to the events at Mantorp and Gardermoen, as well as the races at Hockenheim and Santa Pod of course", says Andy Robinson.

There will be live coverage of this weekend's events at Gardermoen on the EPMA web site at www.promod.nu.

Speedfreaks Ball results.
30th May: Martin Hill has been in touch with the class results of the recent Speedfreaks Ball at Santa Pod Raceway. "If anyone disputes the class winners then please either E-Mail me at martin@fireforceracing.freeserve.co.uk, or call Paul Bailey on 07810 020890", says Martin. 

CLASS A
A1   ET    19.496
A1   T/S    62.53

CLASS B
B11  E/T   11.892
B11  T/S   120.46

CLASS C
C3   E/T   10.682
C3   T/S   132.45

CLASS D
D12  E/T   10.734
D12  T/S   131.56

CLASS E
E43  E/T    9.672
E49  T/S   149.82

CLASS F
F3   E/T   10.687
EF1  T/S   135.31

CLASS G
G4   E/T    9.608
G4   T/S   157.95

CLASS H
H1   E/T   13.246
H62  T/S   124.50

CLASS I
I1   E/T   12.656
I1   T/S   101.81
"Trophies and money will be sent out in the next week if there are no queries", says Martin.

King Racing's new clothes!
30th May: European and British Top Fuel Bike Champions King Racing are pleased to announce the addition of House of Kolor (UK) and Wackyshack Paint Shop as partners in their race effort. House of Kolor are the leading supplier of custom paint finishes, and Wackyshack are fast developing as one of the UK's leading custom paint shops for many automotive applications.

King Racing team principal Ian King said "We are extremely honoured to have these prestigious companies join our race effort. House Of Kolor are unsurpassed in their products, whilst the quality and skills of the Wackyshack artists complement the essence of what our team is all about. The fact that Wackyshack use and recommend House Of Kolor finishes is the icing on the cake. We look forward to a mutually enjoyable and beneficial relationship in the future."

You can contact House Of Kolor (UK) Ltd at +44 (0)1223 837196, and Wackyshack Paint Shop at +44 (0)1302 710350.

King Racing are also proud to be supported by associate sponsors Goodridge (UK) Ltd, Vanson Leathers, Murdoch Racing Enterprises, North Herts Engineering and Royston Signs and Graphics.

Gary collects prize.
30th May: Gary Cottingham, winner of Eurodragster's recent Larsson Racing contest, was presented with his prize by Anders Larsson at yesterday's FIA Main Event Press Day. The prize was Anders' 2001-season crash helmet which is painted in the same distinctive design as his mid-seven second bike and thus a collector's item.

'Tack sa mycket' to Anders for the helmet, and congratulations to Gary on winning the contest.

Press Day pictures.
30th May: Due to the wonders of digital imaging, a number of web sites have already posted photographs from yesterday's FIA Main Event Press Day at Santa Pod.

First up is Bill Sly, who has posted two pages of photographs on his Bad Boys Imagin' web site at www.badboysimagin.com.

Eurodragster staffer Sharkman has posted on his personal web site an in-car video from his ride-along with Steve Wells in his wild wheelstanding Ford Pop pick-up. If you always wanted to know what those sky-high wheelies are like from the inside then check out the Videos page of Sharkman's site at www.topendtales.com.

Fellow Eurodragster staffer Tog has updated his personal web site with twenty eight pictures from the Press Day. Check them out at www.togsdragracing.com/2002fiamaineventpressday.

Web site updates.
30th May: The FB Racing web site at www.fbracing.co.uk has been updated with the latest points standings in the Custom Car Street Eliminator Championship, together with an exclusive picture of one of this year's new entries.

Dave Stanley has written to apologise to readers checking out his Wordweaver site and finding it out of service. "This was caused by our internet server going bust leaving us no access to the site (cheers guys). We are working hard to be back online very shortly but it's proving to be a bigger more involved job than we thought but we will get there. Thanks to everyone who supported us and look out for the new site shortly."

Tom Barns writes with news of a site offering Nitrous parts and services including refills, which you can find at www.nitrous-power.co.uk.

Main Event Press Day coverage.
29th May: A number of racers took the chance to test at today's FIA Main Event Press Day, whilst others participated in the traditional practice of terrifying journalists. We also got a look at the latest entry in Custom Car Street Eliminator. Click here to see our American Car Imports-sponsored Press Day coverage, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

The guys at Dragsterworld.com have also posted a report and photographs from the Press Day, with sponsorship from Midland Automatic Transmissions and 1st Cameras.

Perfect Light Award.
29th May: £50 is up for grabs at this weekend's FIA Main Event in the latest round of Eurodragster's Perfect Light Award. The money will go to the first racer this weekend to record a perfect Reaction Time, 0.400 or 0.500 as appropriate, in either qualifying or eliminations. The scheme is open to any racer in any class; it has so far been won in Super Street, Pro ET, Super Comp and Super Pro ET, the last being Mick Cheley at the Super Series Springnationals at the start of May.

If the £50 goes unclaimed at the Main Event then the fund will be increased to £75 at the Super Series Midsummernationals in mid-June; if it is won this weekend then the fund will be reset to £50 for the Super Series event.

Stay tuned as we will have an announcement tomorrow about another great prize to be won by a racer at the Main Event.

FHRA invitation typo amended.
29th May: Finnish Hot Rod Association President Tapio Väljä has been in touch to alert us to a typo in the FHRA's invitation to the second round of the FIA European Championships at Alastaro. "The typo said 'TMFC, TMD and Pro Stock elimination fields are limited to six cars each', but it should say that TMFC, TMD and Pro Stock elimination fields are limited to eight cars each", says Tapio.

The invitation has been amended on the FHRA web site, and can be found at www.fhra.fi, Drag Racing, Invitations.

End-June return for Growler.
29th May: UK Wild Bunch racer Mark Turton is looking at an end-June return to the track after his Growler Topolino altered crashed at the Super Series Springnationals at Shakespeare County Raceway.

"Growler (once bitten - still smitten) will hopefully, all things going to plan and with the finances, appearing on the strip at the Nostalgia Nationals (at SCR on 29th-30th June - Ed)", says Mark. "This is thanks to a lot of people. The chassis and engine specs will be announced as soon as everything has been finalised, however the new Topolino body is being specifically made to my requirements by Paul Bland (avondalecomposites@btopenworld.com) at a very reasonable price. Paul also makes 27T Altered bodies at reasonable prices.

"If all goes according to plan, Scottie's BBC-powered In the Dog House Again Topolino altered will also be débuting at the Nostalgia Nationals to join Nick's Barking Mad altered and young Zak's Zak Attak to make up a three and a half car field from the Dog Squad Drag Racing Team."

You can find out more information on the Dog Squad on their official web site at www.growlerracing.co.uk.

Main Event Super Comp preview.
29th May: UK Super Comp racer Paul Marston kindly sent us a preview of this weekend's action in Super Comp, which is to be contested by eleven competitors.

"Champion Tim Adam is the original veteran of the Super classes, with a positive win/loss ratio most drivers will never get near. Tim has been stacking up the points very quickly this season. A mark of the team's professionalism was that they were again testing last weekend. This is at present the current state of the art Super Class team: doubling up, running both Super Comp and Super Gas. All that extra track time allows them the option to run extra laps in one particular set-up, be it Comp or Gas if they so wish, a valuable advantage. It would take a brave man to bet against Tim making an appearance in either the Super Comp or Super Gas final.

"Easter Thunderball winner Brian Pateman returns with his all-conquering Pontiac Firebird, with the irrepressible Lenny as Crew Chief. This will be Tim's most serious threat. After the round one result at Easter, Brian is a hot favourite to take round three. Another very experienced and deadly consistent team is headed by Zane Llewellyn in his dragster. Zane has raced a lot in Europe over recent years but generally makes the major English events. Looking for Zane to go a couple of rounds is a fairly safe bet.

"Martin Curbishley and his new all-conquering Brogie Roadster has really hit form early on this year. The early testing has immediately made him a contender for the National Championship. All eyes will be on his team to see if they can repeat earlier successes. Mark Fairhurst returns with his Small Block-powered dragster, this kind of set-up is considered by many to be the combination in Super Comp for fast leaving and consistent times. Will the dragsters have it all their own way?

"Team Double Trouble - Sarah Day sharing the driving of their beautiful '34 Ford roadster with husband Dave - are always a welcome sigh on the track. With the added advantage of running in two classes, Super Gas with Dave driving and Sarah in Super Comp, I doubt it will take this team long to have their combination dialled in with the advantage of so much track time. Could this be their weekend? Sean Lathan makes a welcome return too, with his Super Comp Vauxhall Calibra doorslammer, running an alcohol-ingesting Big Block Chevy, Sean has made steady progress over last season with some good results. The Calibra is on the numbers; it is only a matter of time before Sean becomes one of the front runners in Super Comp.

"Paul Knight with his potent late-model Mopar-powered Pontiac Firebird, made good progress at Super Series 1 and is looking to build on that at the Main Event, Paul moved up the points table nicely which buoyed the teams confidence they will be happy to maintain that momentum. Mark Flavell is a seasoned veteran and his team's potent dragster can never be ruled out of ending up in a good points-scoring position at the Main Event. Running with a Big Block between the frame rails, this hard-leaving dragster will be looking towards spoiling the party and leaving the other teams in its wake.

"Colin Aldred and the Scorpion Racing team have been putting a lot of hard work into developing this combination, and despite some early-season setbacks are testing hard in an attempt to become serious contenders for the National Championship. If points were awarded for sheer hard work, these people would score well at every event. Paul Marston and Chryslercard PT Bruiser team have been very busy over the month of May, running at North Weald's RWYB and at the Super Series Springnationals and Classic American Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, running a different race car at each event. The ChryslerCard-backed PT Bruiser has by far the fastest terminal speed in the class, which is always perceived as an advantage, once they are in the zone and consistently running 8.90 they will be a threat to the top teams."

Adds Paul "The FIA Main Event is a great event with all the Pro Teams in attendance, the atmosphere is lively and very cosmopolitan, with so many entries from the European mainland. Personally I really enjoy watching the Pro Stocks; it will be the first time I have seen Jari Konola and his team since Texas last October. In Super Comp we could sure do with someone stopping those roadsters - Tim Adam and Martin Curbishley - in the early rounds, with Phil Bennett and his team's dragster unfortunately being unable to make it due to engine damage earlier this month at Shakespeare County. We cannot let them get too far ahead in the National Championship by the half way mark. Taking care of Brian Pateman would not go amiss either; anyone got a magic lamp? Or steal his axe so he cant chop that Tree down like he usually does!"

Web site updates.
29th May: German Top Methanol Dragster racer Peter Schöfer is now on his way to Santa Pod for the Main Event, but his official web site has been updated with news in both German and English. Check it out at www.p-s-r.com.

The official web site of the Avon Park International Racers Association at www.eurodragster.com/apira has been updated with track records set at the Super Series Springnationals and the Classic American Nationals.

Fredrik Karlsson writes: Nu har jag uppdaterat bde www.dteracing.com & www.sbmracing.com med bilder frn tvlingarna i Nykping. Besk siterna!

The Swedish Pro Street News Magazine at www.spn-photo.com has been updated with photographs from Avesta, and news from the Swedish scene.

Eurodragster staffer Tog has updated his personal web site Tog's Drag Racing Page with photographs from last Saturday's Pre-FIA Main Event Private Test at Santa Pod Raceway. Check it out at www.togsdragracing.com.

Gardermoen hotel deal.
28th May: Racers and fans attending this year's Norwegian round of the FIA and FIM/UEM European Championships at Gardermoen on 2nd-4th August can take advantage of a special hotel rate negotiated by the promoter, says Øyvor Jacobsen of Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen.

Rooms can be booked at the Norlandia Oslo Airport Hotel for 595 NOK per night for a single room with breakfast, and 679 NOK per night for a double room with breakfast. When booking mention Norlandia Drag Challenge. You can contact the hotel by phone at +47 6394 9500, by Fax at +47 6394 9501, or by E-Mail at service@osloairport.norlandia.no.

"By using this hotel you will also reduce the promoter's expenses for accomodation for our officials", says Øyvor.

Meet the Drivers.
28th May: Thanks to British Nitro Funny Car Championship Co-ordinator Jim Broome for passing on the news that the Fuel Funny Car drivers are to hold an autograph and question-and-answer session at this weekend's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway, which sees the second round of this year's Championship.

The session is to be held between 10:00 and 11:00 on Sunday morning in the North Herts Engineering pit. "This will give the drivers time to get back to their pits to enable them to warm their engines prior to the first qualifying session on the Sunday", says Jim. "It should also enable those people who want to watch the football at 10.30 to attend prior to kick-off. As all of the drivers are 'hands-on', I cannot guarantee that they will all be there if problems have arisen following the qualifying session on the Saturday."

Jim also tells us that last year's winner and runner-up trophies should be on show, and as revealed on Eurodragster last week Gary Page and the North Herts team will have hero cards available for signing. "I also understand that at least one other team will have pictures available", says Jim.

"Having not tried this before, I have no idea how the fans will react or how it will work", he adds. "I therefore ask for leniency if all hell breaks loose. If it is a success then it may be repeated at other rounds of the Nitro Funny Car Championship."

Carter signs more sponsors.
28th May: FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Andy Carter has signed more sponsorship deals in the run-up to this weekend's FIA Main Event.

"As well as our on-going support from I.P.A. Print Associates Limited and Hypa Colour, we are proud to announce that the car will carry the Easilease branding, which is a new industrial property lease scheme owned and managed by Slough Estates plc, one of Europe's largest industrial property developers", says Dan Welberry, who handles PR for Carter Motorsport. "We are looking forward to playing host to various guests from the company on Monday as the company uses the association to launch this new initiative. The compnay's web site can be found at www.sloughestateseasilease.co.uk.

"We would also like to welcome Haynes Publishing as a sponsor. The deal is very much in its early stages as both parties look to further develop the relationship. When most people think of Haynes, they immediately think of the manuals. This is, in fact only a small part of their business as they also publish a huge range of motorsport and leisure titles. There are even five Drag Racing titles! We would like to encourage all race fans to visit their web site at www.haynes.co.uk. There you will find an on-line search facility and ordering service. If the Drag Racing titles take your fancy, then why not part with a few quid? Even if you are unable to do this, why not E-Mail the company thanking them for their involvement in European Drag Racing. We're not ashamed to admit we need your help here guys! A number of their new catalogues will be available in the pits.

"In addition to these new sponsors, we would also like to thank discountmitsubishi.co.uk for their provision of a new support vehicle for the Main Event. The company, based in High Wycombe, Bucks, can be contacted via the web site or by phone on 01494 464700. The stunning 4x4 will be proudly displaying the company branding.

"If all goes to plan, we hope to announce one more sponsor in time for the event. Don't forget the fantastic full-colour A2 poster featuring one of Andy's launches at last years European Finals. The poster is available at just £3 and judging by the way they went at the Thunderball, you'd better get in quick! We will also have a number of other goodies available."

You can find the official Carter Motorsports web site at www.andycarter.net.

Hunting historic dragsters.
28th May: We've had an E-Mail from Roger Matthews who is seeking some historic vehicles. "Does anyone know of Jason or Roy Webb in Norwich?", asks Roger. "They did have Sneaky Gloworm plus others. Also Panic is supposed to be in the local area, together with Johnny Whitmore's Drag'n'fly."

If you know the locations of the Webbs or the cars then you can contact Roger by phone at 07789 205945 or by E-Mail at rcm@ormesby3.fsnet.co.uk.

Grumpy will be back!
28th May: If you were tuned in on 17th May you will recall that Dave Gibbons was to take the wheel of Paul Marston Racing's Grumpy's Dodge hire-a-ride at the Classic American Nationals. Things didn't go quite to plan, as Paul Marston explains.

"It was a weekend of mixed fortunes for Paul Marston Racing and Super Gasser Grumpy's Dodge. With the new ATI MRT Treemaster 8 torque converter fitted to Grumpy we were itching to see what improvement it could give us. On the first run, I was at the wheel for a checkout pass prior to handing over the reins to new driver Dave Gibbons. The launch was huge, it cleared at least a foot of air under the front wheels, pulling a .46 light, then headed towards the centre line. I managed to pull her back, hit the shift point and kept my foot in, recording a 9.94. That was all straight off of the trailer. I think it is safe to say the new ATI-supplied torque converter is working fine. I must thank all the guys at ATI Transmissions for a great job. The converter is great, just as they said it would be. Having a converter built to match the exact specifications of your racecar is the way to go. I spent three seasons with Grumpy using second-hand converters, but the lesson is now learnt - Grumpy lopped off nearly four tenths just by changing the converter - wow!

"That unfortunately was the highlight of the weekend, as Grumpy lost oil pressure in the shutdown area so I shut off the motor. A subsequent bottom-end teardown in the pits on the Sunday revealed a little but not much. A full autopsy will be performed at the PMR workshops next week."

PMR's Logistics Co-ordinator Dave Kalisz said "We would have loved to pulled the motor immediately upon its return to the PMR workshops and performed the teardown there and then to establish exactly what the problem was. But with the FIA Main Event coming up, the ChryslerCard PT Bruiser is scheduled for preparation so Grumpy will have to wait her turn. Its a shame, but thats how it is. Although no-one likes this kind of problem at any time, this happening now is okay really as we will have a fresh bullet for the rest of the season and with Grumpy's season starting late this year it is not a big problem. We will pull the motor next week and have it ready for re-assembly for the following week, then we'll be back out for the rescheduled completion of Dave Gibbons' observed runs."

Adds Paul "I can only apologise to Dave Gibbons for the disappointment of not getting him licensed. But we still had a great time, both Dave and I were observed under Grumpy for most of Sunday morning removing the crank, main bearings etc for closer inspection. No one could say we weren't enjoying ourselves, even though we should have been racing. Dave is such a great guy to work with, Im real sorry he didn't get to run but Dave knows the deal with Drag Racing, the quicker you can get it fixed the quicker you can get back out there. There will be other days to do the observed runs, the season's only just got started.

"We must thank all the fans who stopped by to say hello and to welcome Grumpy back. We actually have some more tricks up our sleeve where Grumpy is concerned, so stay tuned. Thanks also to the Jeep Club on 0208 501 4471 for the use of their transporter, to the crew of PMR who attended this first Classic American Nationals, everyone at Shakespeare County, and especially to Dave and Ali Gibbons for their understanding. We will be right back!"

Web site updates.
28th May: The King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com has been updated with the latest standings in the 2002 ACU UK Drag Bike Championships. You can find the points on the ACU UK championship page.

Ulf Stadig of Nilsson Motorsports tells us that he has posted some more pictures of Håkan Nilsson's new Camaro Pro Mod on the team's web site at www.nilssonmotorsports.com. "I don't think we will be able to post any more pictures of the Veidec Racing Camaro before we hit the road to Gardemoen on Thursday afternoon", says Ulf, "so the next pics of the car will be from the race track early next week. If we have time between rounds we will try to post some on-line reports, but because the car is completly new we will be satisfied if we can post some info when the gunsmoke has cleared from the track during the evening."

Mikko Niemi has posted on his personal web site a set of photographs from the weekend's Defa Spring Nationals NDRS round at Finland's Motopark. You can find the index of Mikko's great pictures at koti.mbnet.fi/triniemi/kuvat/defa. Mikko tells us that he is happy for his pictures to be copied (but please give him a credit if you use them - Ed).

Weather hits Pre-Main Event testing.
27th May: The weekend's pre-Main Event testing was badly affected by the weather, with three long rain holds at Saturday's private test and not a wheel turning yesterday as the track was repeatedly soaked.

On Saturday Denmark's Kim Reymond took low ET and high speed with an early shut off, early chutes out 5.13/253.18 in the USA Autodele Top Fuel Dragster whilst Henri Joosten took the Dutch record and reset his own personal best with a 7.01/196.03 in his Pro Mod. Tim Adam took the record for the most passes, hot-lapping his roadster testing in Super Comp trim. We also saw some new paintwork on Urs Erbacher's TMFC and Luke Ramage's Super Gasser.

You can see reports and pictures from the weekend on our American Car Imports-sponsored Event Coverage, which you can view by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Watch out 9.90!
27th May: UK National 9.90 Bike Champion Paul 'Grumpy' Watson will be back in 9.90 Bike at this weekend's Main Event after running in Super Street Bike so far this season. With the FIM/UEM classes in town, ACU classes will not be running at the weekend so Paul is going back to his roots with his Bandit.

"At last I can use my SB1", says Paul. "I had one aspirated run at the Speedfreaks Ball and ran 9.894 - not bad, so I'll be trying hard to show I've not lost my touch. Over the weekend I was lending a hand to Fast Harry from Wordweaver Racing who was testing at Sunday's RWYB but rain stopped play. With a new combination they should be more competitive in 9.90 this season, I'm only helping them to stop Harry sneaking into my pits all the time, constantly being my shadow and making notes...only joking Harry."

"I am also making plans to step the bike up in power later in the season but for the moment I'm still getting used to riding it in the eights. I would like to say a big Thank You to Andy, Darren, Big Steve and Gooky for their help, but most of all to my crew Kim who works so hard on and off the track. Anyone in the bike pits will tell you that Kim gives 110% all the time, never lets me down and is a big part of the secret of my success. Where would we all be without the people behind us?"

Whilst we're on two wheels, we heard from Julan Borg of Malta's Borg Brothers Top Methanol Dragster team, who tells us that the entire team will be at Santa Pod Raceway this weekend to support their tuner Bernie Hepworth, who is making his first outing in Supertwin Top Fuel Bike.

French Power Test Affair.
27th May: This weekend also sees the Bank Holiday Street Legal Drags and Test and Tune at Shakespeare County Raceway. Sunday is combined with a special event for Peugeot drivers. APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson takes up the story.

"Known as the 'French Car Show' the Peugeot National Day confirmed for Sunday 2nd June, will be attended by over one thousand examples of Europe's finest French metal ranging from Peugeot, Citroen and of course Renault. Owners will also have the chance to compete for a number of prestigious show awards headlined by performance, modified and, of course, standard classes.

"On the show field, visitors can experience a full-length rally stage with professional rally rides and team displays together with a trade and marquee village, and FREE prize draws. The event is being covered by the national media including Fast Car, Redline, EVO, Revs, Car & Car Conversions, Max Power and a television crew from Granada Men and Motors!

"Although the Peugeot National Day is a one day event Shakespeare County Raceway's usual Test and Tune facilities will be operating on both Sunday and Sunday/Monday allowing the specialist quarter mile drag experts, Wild Bunch nostalgia racers and Supercharged Outlaws to test and tune their machines for the next major race later in the month.

"Admission to the Raceway is £10.00 with additional Test'n'Tune fee for as many runs as you can make in a single day". You can find more information including a map at www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk, and more information on the Peugeot event at www.peugeot-gti.co.uk.

Web site updates.
27th May: Our good buddies at Svensk Dragracing have updated their web site with news from the weekend's two Nordic Drag Racing Series events at Frøya and Finland's Motopark. Check it out at www.dragracing.se.

The official web site of the UK's Showtime Fuel FC team has been updated with photographs and a video from the first round of the British Nitro Funny Car Championships at Shakespeare County Raceway, together with news of a Father's Day Competition on sponsor Snap On's web site. You can find the Showtime web site at www.showtimeracing.co.uk.

Smax and crew burn midnight oil.
25th May: The heat is on for UK Fuel Funny Car racer Smax Smith and his crew after snapping a crank at the first round of the British Nitro Funny Car Championship at Shakespeare County Raceway. With a week to round two at the Main Event, there is still plenty to do.

"The pressure is on to get everything repaired in time for the FIA Main Event", says Smax. "Money is always an issue, so we had to talk to some people and friends Peter Astell-Burt (who owns the old Helzapoppin' altered), Paul Townsend of RPC Loss Adjusters, and American car importer Derek de Monye all put in some money for parts to help us get back on track. Meanwhile Aaron from Temper is waiting for the body back to finish all the artwork, after the body suffered shrapnel damage as the top pulley shattered and shredded the blower belt."

Smax's Stage 10 KB was scheduled to be line bored yesterday (Friday). Rods, pistons, rings, valves and a crank are to be obtained and another set of headers is being fabricated and fit to the body after the originals were damaged at SCR.

"When I got off the flopper at the top end, the compressed nitro in the motor exploded and blew apart my injector", says Smax. "It was sent to Carbon By Design, but was too badly damaged so Knut Söderquist has flown one of his injectors back from the States and put it on my slate!"

Smax's best mate Odgie has salvaged his bottom pulley and idler bracket. The idler is being repaired along with the oil pan at Hyperweld, who repaired the block. "Davey from Hyperweld is on our team and will be bringing his kit to the track, so if anyone is looking to have stuff welded then see Dave, he can do ally, titanium etc" says Smax.

Ritchie from Fuel Records is bringing back Smax's new mags and JLS hoses with him when he returns from the States. Since Smax's tie-up with the Andrews' Just Another Toy team the Funny Car has a TFX block and Johnson heads awaiting pistons to make up a spare. "That is providing that BSS can repair the heads and Hyperweld can alter the oil pan!", says Smax.

Smax's business Fastco is keeping him busy, but he says that he will make the Main Event next week. "I'm sure of it, so I'll see you at the drags!", he says.

You can stay in touch with the Ant Hill Mob on Smax's official web site at www.smax.co.uk.

Sponsor turns racer.
25th May: Sponsor Malcolm Francis turned racer with the first passes in his Super Gas '69 Z28 Camaro at last weekend's Classic American Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. Malcolm, who is a marketing partner of the American Car Imports Racing Top Methanol Dragster team through his company Air Sea Logistics, recorded bests of 9.252/144.69 on his first outing.

Malcolm gave us the lowdown on his new ride, which is the ex-Gordon Appleton Main Ingredient Camaro. "The car now has a 468ci Jeff Bull-built alcohol motor. All of the chassis work, re-wiring and plumbing were done by Andy Robinson. The trans is a Deadenbear two-speed which is air-shifted. The car's got a throttle stop on it, as the intention is to run it in Super Gas, but after Sunday's 9.25 blast I don't know if I want to slow it down!"

The car's new paint has already been turning heads. "Neil Milliard of Pro Sign came up with the design, from ideas I gave him of how I wanted the car to look", says Malcolm. "Fulford Motorsport in Colchester then did all the body prep work and applied the paint. Neil then worked his magic again and did all the detail work like pinstriping and airbrushing to give it its final look."

Malcolm's first outing with the car had its moments. "I made a half pass on Saturday afternoon just to get acquainted", he says. "I went out on Sunday morning to make a full pass, but the car got loose at half-track and moved towards the wall so I lifted. I went round again a little later and on my first full pass I recorded 9.252/144.69."

Malcolm is now heading for today's private test session at Santa Pod Raceway to get in more test and licencing passes, but in the meantime he has some Thank Yous. "I'd like to say a big Thanks to Andy Robinson for his advice and for building such a great car, to Jeff Bull for his help and for building a superb motor, and to Dave Wilson for all of his help and advice."

Motospeed on tour.
25th May: Sweden's Motospeed performance parts supplier will be on the road with Pro Stock Bike racer Roger Pettersson this season, and will be able to provide parts and services at the track.

"We will carry lots of parts with us at all FIM/UEM rounds", says Roger Lyrén of Motospeed, who is also Roger Pettersson's Crew Chief. "For example JE Pistons, Vance and Hines DYNATEK, datalogs and ignition systems. We will also have all types of engine parts, gaskets, valve springs, gearbox parts, clutch fibres, some Mickey Thompson tyes, and a lot more. We can also do crank work on GS 1100/1150 engines - lots of Pro Stock Bike racers use our cranks.

"We can get most parts you need if we know a few days before the race. Just E-Mail me at roger@motospeed.se and maybe I can help you. At the track you can find me at the Veidec Pro Stock Bike pit."

Web site updates.
25th May: Alan Currans is updating his web site The Acceleration Archive every ten days or so with new pages of historical pictures from the UK scene. The latest updates include more pictures of old Top Fuellers, Funny Cars, Altereds and Pro Comps. Check it out at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk.

North Herts ready to rock'n'roll!
24th May: The North Herts Engineering Fuel Funny Car is "Back together and ready to rock and roll", says driver Gary Page. The car's engine suffered damage to the number four main bearing at the Super Series Springnationals, but the damage has been put right in time for the second round of the 2002 British Nitro Funny Car Championship at next week's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway.

Gary recorded the car's best-ever pass with an early-shut-off 6.037/229.59 in qualifying at the Springnationals, but even so feels that he is not completely settled into it yet. "Every car has its quirks", says Gary. "They all react differently, the clutch on this one feels totally different. But it's a real nice car, it goes OK, and Mark (Hawkins, car owner - Ed) is very happy. We're having fun!"

The North Herts team wanted to build a complete spare engine in time for the Main Event, but market forces in the US meant that it couldn't be done. "There is a six-week wait for a new block", says Gary. "We wanted one for this race. The US teams are ordering blocks fifteen at a time which leaves us at the back of the queue. But apart from the block and crank, we have all the other spare parts."

The lack of a complete spare doesn't mean that the North Herts team will be taking it easy. "We've found the problem with the bearings, so there's going to be no holding back!", says Gary.

If you are going to the Main Event then be sure to stop by the North Herts Engineering pit since Gary tells us that the North Herts Engineering team will have a hero card available at next weekend's race.

Oldies sought for Goodwood.
24th May: Drag Racing is to put on a major showing at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed on 12th-14th July. A static display themed on the History of British Drag Racing is to feature some fifteen to twenty historic and current cars, whilst out on the track the sport is further represented by a state-of-the art Pro Mod, Custom Car Street Eliminator cars, and possibly a Pro Stock and Super Mod.

Custom Car magazine's Kev Elliott, who is organising the Drag Racing display for Goodwood, tells us that he is still looking for some more cars to complete the list. "I would like to have a current Fuel Funny Car, and an historic Funny Car", he says. "I would also like to include an historic doorslammer, as long as it still looks like it used to and is in good, showable condition. If anyone has a particularly historic drag car of any type I would also be interested to hear from them, as long as it is in its original colours and is presentable. Time is of the essence, so please get in touch as soon as possible."

The cars already booked for static display include the restored Commuter, the Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster, Paul Marston's Chryslercard PT Bruiser, Steve Neimantas' CCSE Aston Martin, Jimmy Hibberd's '33 Willys Super Gasser, Paranoia which is still seeing action in the Wild Bunch with Martin Holgate, Russ Carpenter's Daimler hemi rail, Mickey Moore's The Mob Fuel Altered, Dick Sharp's Dorset Horn, Chris Hartnell's Backdraft, Simon Emery's Beetle, the original Allard dragster from Beaulieu's collection, Alan Smith's Allard dragster which is also still seeing action in the Wild Bunch, and Steve Green's Super Pro ET Cortina. A pair of Junior Dragsters will also be on display.

"We will be putting old and new cars together", says Kev, "for example Commuter and the Wildside Top Fueller, to illustrate how the sport has progressed over the intervening years."

In action on the famous Goodwood hill will be Andy Robinson's new '53 Studebaker Pro Mod, Ian and Sue Jackson's CCSE 'Vette, Colin Lazenby's CCSE Chevy, and Brian Waskett's CCSE Camaro. In addition, it is hoped that the AC Delco/Malmgren Racing Pro Stock will be in attendance although this is subject to scheduling as the Goodwood event falls in the middle of the Scandinavian section of the FIA European Tour. It is also hoped that a Super Mod will be there.

There will also be at least three Drag Bikes on display in a separate show organised by Goodwood themselves.

If anyone is able to help Kev Elliott with a current or historic FC, a historic doorslammer, or any other historic car then please drop us a line at webmaster@eurodragster.com and we'll put you in touch.

You can find more details about the Festival of Speed including ticket prices on Goodwood's web site at www.goodwood.co.uk.

Beneke bags prestige ride.
24th May: Ex-pat UK Supertwin Fuel rider Ben Beneke has been invited to ride a Fuel Harley at the biggest race of the Australian season, the Castrol Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway on 7th-9th June.

"I received an E-Mail from Joe Edmunds of JE Racing asking if I would like to ride his 2600cc Overkill-engined Weekend-frame Fuel Harley at the Winternationals, as he cannot due to work commitments", says Ben. "Silly question really!"

Ben will be testing on the weekend of 1st-2nd June and has to put in two observed runs. "ANDRA, the local race sanction, has been most helpful with licencing", he says. "A three-month Group 1 licence is free to International visitors. I am really looking forward to this and am obviously hoping to do well for JE Racing."

We will bring you more news as we receive it.

RWYB last chance to test.
24th May: This Sunday's (26th May) Run What You Brung at Santa Pod Raceway is the last chance for racers to test before next weekend's FIA Main Event. We expect some of the racers who test at tomorrow's Private Test to put in passes at the RWYB, as has become traditional. What we do know for sure is that Sweden's Susanne Callin will be back in the seat of the two-seater dragster giving ride-alongs to contest winners and other VIPs.

Santa Pod Raceway's Track Manager Kjell Pettersson tells us that the track will be prepped on Sunday.

Sunday's RWYB is of course open to the public. For £9 entry and a further £13 and the production of a valid DVLC licence to sign on, you could find yourself sharing the pairing lanes with Pro and Sportsman racers and getting in as many runs down the track as you can fit in. Racers please note that competition licences are not valid for RWYBs, however all safety rules appropriate to the class of vehicle should of course be followed. Gates open at 8:00 am, and the strip will be open from about 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. For more details including additional safety rules (for example when crash helmets are mandatory in cars) check out the Run What Ya Brung page of Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com.

Web site updates.
24th May: The official web site of Holland's Lex Joon Racing Top Methanol FC team has been updated with a preview of the FIA Main Event. UK fans should note Gerda's request about flags in the grandstand! Check it out at www.lexjoonracing.nl.

The Feel The Noise web site at www.feel-the-noise.com has been updated with Anni Valder's pictures from the Speedfreaks Ball. Webmaster Bob Valder tells us that the site is also now showing the first batch of digital photos from last weekend's Classic American Nationals, with the remaining photos to be posted next week.

Also posting pictures from the Speedfreaks Ball is Eurodragster staffer Tog, who has updated his personal web site Tog's Drag Racing Page with nearly one hundred pictures from the event. This includes twenty five pictures of Sammy Miller in action and a sequence of pictures taken from between the two Fireforce Jet FCs during their pre-race flame and thunder show. Check it out at www.togsdragracing.com/2002speedfreaksball.

Andréasson ready for hard charge.
23rd May: FIA European Top Methanol Funny Car Champion Leif Andréasson plans a hard charge to retain his Championship in 2002. After running in the USA, the team are looking forward to the trip to Santa Pod Raceway next week.

"Our cars been to the USA this spring", says team member Anders Magnusson. "It's got a new 521 cu engine from Brad Anderson. Block, heads and fuel system are new, it's got new ignition parts from MSD and a new PSI blower also. This engine combination is similar to the one used by Jay Payne and Frank Manzo. We had positive results during the two races we ran in Las Vegas and Houston, it was primarily meant to be a test and tune opportunity to make all the new parts work together.

"The team is the same as last year, everyone went on the USA tour and will go to all the FIA races this summer. We know that Santa Pod Raceway with good preparation are maintaining high standards, well up to par with many tracks on the NHRA circuit. We expect it to be even better than Vegas and Houston where the weather was very hot, both traction and air suffered from that. We and no one else will be to blame if we can't run as fast at Santa Pod as we did in Houston. Credit to Kjell and his crew for the job they do.

"The FIA rules are basically the same as NHRA rules with some exceptions on recertification of parts and, most important, supercharger speeds. We are allowed to run our PSI blower at 125% overdrive in Europe and 92% in the NHRA. It means a theoretical loss of about 200 - 300 horsepower. We ran 92% in the USA and will keep that combination to start with, since we haven't been taking the car to it's power and performance limit yet - we need some more time to get that sorted out."

You can find the Andréasson Motorsports web site at www.andreassonmotorsports.com.

Main Event snippets.
23rd May: UK Pro Stock Bike racer Chris Tombleson tells us that he is "Nowhere near ready" for the Main Event. However, he says that he expects it all to come together in the next week. "My bike is basically the same as last year", says Chris, "but the motor has been totally revamped. Bigger cc, now up to 1570, more compression, new cams and more. We dyno'd the motor and we picked up 32 bhp on last year. I have lost nearly a stone - I know it doesnt show, but at least I should make my weight break. There is a good field, fourteen bikes at the moment, but we should qualify number one! I have also have a new Crew Chief, Richard Green, who works for me as a mechanic. A very nice chap, too!"

UK Pro ET racer Steve Wells is looking to improve on the Personal Best which he recently set in his fan-favourite wheelstanding Ford Pop pickup. "We have done some work on the clutch which gives us a bit more adjustment", says Steve, "so that we can make the car launch a bit less violently (oh dear - Ed), and hopefully improve on the 10.14 best which we achieved at the Springnationals. We have also landed a new sponsor, Connorson Construction Ltd, who can be reached on 0800 919818."

Malmgren signs new deal.
23rd May: Sweden's AC Delco Racing Pro Stock team have announced a new sponsorship deal in the run-up to next week's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway.

"Our new deal is with Sparco, a familar name in a wide range of motorsports with their fine products", says team member Magnus Cato."Sparco manufacture racing apparel, clothing, shoes, drivers' and mechanics' suits, steering wheels etc. in an exclusive style. Sparco has seen increasing interest in drag racing over the last couple of years, and they will launch a range of drag racing clothes in the future. We are very proud to be associated with their products, and to be their choice to promote their products in drag racing."

Michael Malmgren and the team will be taking part in next week's Press Day at Santa Pod where they intend to scare journalists with ride-alongs and also take the chance to put in some test runs. The team have appeared at every Press Day at Santa Pod since the first FIA-sanctioned event. "We are very anxious to show what we learned during our American tour", says Magnus, "even though we expected a better outcome."

You can find the team's official web site at www.acdracing.net.

Pettersson chases seventh #1.
23rd May: Having tested successfully at Gardermoen last week (see news item of 15th May), Roger Pettersson and the Veidec Pro Stock Bike team of Roger Lyrén, Lars Eriksson, Henrik Carlsson, Karl Lyrén and Lucas Pettersson are all set to chase their seventh FIM/UEM Championship.

"Team Veidec will start with the same bike as in 2001, but hopefully the new R1000-02 Trac Dynamic bike will be ready mid-season", says Crew Chief and Team Manager Roger Lyrén. With the support of engines from MotoSpeed in Sweden we hope to clinch our seventh Championship. The competition will be very hard this year, with lots of good riders and bikes. This is something we have been working on, to get more bikes into the class.

"With the really good support we get from Veidec Racing we will do our best to go fast and get good results. I really want to thank Pickard Palsson at Veidec for very good support, we are looking forward to racing this year. We also have some new sponsors: Valvoline who are supporting us with good oil, Beta with great tools, and Spidi with good leathers."

Records fall at Tripoli.
23rd May: We are very grateful to Panagiotis Zarifopoulos for again sending us news of the latest action in Greece. "National records were established in many classes last weekend in Tripoli airport, once again, as the weather was perfect and the racers seem to have taken control of the conditions and the high elevation. Filippos Papafilippou pulled two extraordinary nine-second runs in his gasoline-fueled Lotus Esprit, and pleased the numerous and patient spectators. Once again the faster gas bikes were fighting the bumpy surface during mid eight-second, 150+ mph runs. The next race will take place deep in the summer heat, let's hope it is not as hot as last years 40+ degrees C days."

Greek fans can find more information on two Greek-language sites at www.dragster.gr and www.greekracer.net.

East and West for NDRS.
23rd May: The Nordic Drag Racing Series has two events this weekend, the Islanders Speed Weekend on the island of Frøya, and the Defa Springnats at Finland's Motopark. These are the first full-blown NDRS rounds of 2002 as the previous event was for Junior Dragsters only.

Our good buddy Christer Abrahamson has updated the Svensk Dragracing web site with a preview of this weekend's events including links to the official entry lists. Check it out at www.dragracing.se.

Ellis' oil strike.
23rd May: If you were tuned in on Tuesday you will have read in the Super Mod review that Graham Ellis had a miserable time of it with his low eight-second Oldsmobile. Graham has been in touch with the story of his frustrating weekend.

"We arrived late Friday night and set up camp, then awoke to a misrable wet-looking Saturday", he says. "We went through our usual pre-startup routine feeling confident as we had fitted brand-new push rods and rocker arm bearings to eliminate the possibility of the failures we had been experiencing latley. We warmed up the engine, then checked the valve spring pressures only to find that they had dropped below the minimum we required. This negated any possibility of running the car on Saturday, however we were confident that with the arrival of a new set of valve springs on Sunday morning we would take our place in eliminations.

"We had a real hard thrash to get this done in time as the TV crew were putting pressure on for the cars to run on time. The rest of the Super Mod guys were really good and held on as long as they could. We had no time to warm and check the engine, we just assembled it and fired it. There were no apparent problems, and I drove down to the staging lanes to get some warmth in the engine. Suddenly the oil pressure started to drop off in a way it had never done before, we were hoping it was purely not enough oil in the sump, unfortunately it was not that simple.

"We had to sit out the eliminations and watch every team in attendance upping their personal bests by significant amounts. As we had also hoped for an improvement this was very frustrating: it was obvious that the track was in good shape and I just had to sit and watch.

"We went back to the pits, stripped the sump off the engine, checked the bottom end bearings and found nothing wrong. We cleaned and checked the sump and checked the oil lines, replaced the filter and the oil, and stripped and checked the oil pump only to find,nothing at all, which is really frustrating. No-one has so far been able to put their finger on the problem, as it only occurs at higher RPM. I am fairly certain that the problem lies with the oil pump cavitating for a reason yet to be found. The crew and I went home feeling seriously p'd off, and at the time of writing we still have the oil pressure problem to sort out. Who said drag racing was fun?

"So the long and the short of it was that all weekend we never made one single pass, and had to watch everyone - but significantly Danny Cockerill and Rob Smallworth - up the ante with Danny's 179 mph blast really showing the potential of a well-tuned nitrous car. I know full well that I can't match that with Danny's and Rob's cars making over one hundred horsepower more than my own, so don't be surprised to see the Oldsmobile wearing a fogger system in the near future."

Kågered faces busy year.
22nd May: Swedish Top Fuel Dragster and Top Methanol Funny Car racer Micke Kågered looks set for a busy season in 2002. He plans to drive the Bahco Tools Top Fueller on both the FIA European Championship and Swedish Top Fuel Tours, and the Quaker State Top Methanol FC on the FIA Tour and at the Nitrolympics at Hockenheim. At least, that is the initial plan, as Åsa Kinnemar of Kågered Racing explains.

"Not much has changed for us from last year to this", says Åsa. "We have two new crew members, Peter Gultheimer and Mika Laksela both mechanics who will mostly work on the Funny Car. We are very pleased with their performence so far and think that they will prove to be good assets to the team.

"We are still renting the Top Fueller from Knut Söderquist, however we have had it in our possession all winter and have been able to do maintenance work in a different way to last season. The chassis is almost completely new. Chassis builder Mats Eriksson has replaced all tubes which were damaged in the incident at Santa Pod last September, and everything has been gone through very carefully. More than that, we have been completing more spare engines, to save time if needed. You could say that it is pretty much a new car overall.

"The Funny Car is up to date, with no major changes made, mostly maintenance. We hope that it is in the same shape as it was when we finished last season. With competition tougher than ever, I think that everyone needs to run real quick even to qualify! We hope to keep our ETs consistently in the low 5.80s this season, at least on a track like Santa Pod!

"We have attended a lot of exhibitions this winter, both inside and outside Sweden. At the moment, Bahco Tools are using Micke and the Bahco Dragster in a major marketing campaign in several European countries. For this purpose Bahco have used more than 13000 authentic replicas of Mickes car as well as full-figure Micke Kgered dolls. A limited number of replicas will also be for sale at the races which team Kågered attend this season.

Bahco Tools is still our main sponsor on the Bahco Express Top Fueller and Quaker State remain with us this season as main sponsor on the Quaker State Express Funny Car.

"Our initial plan is to run the FIA Championship with both cars for all events, but we may change our point of view after the Main Event at Santa Pod, depending on the outcome. We will keep open minds and see what happens. Besides the FIA Championship we plan to attend the Nitro Olympics in Hockenheim with the Funny Car, as usual, and there will also be two extra events with the Fueller at Piteå and Tullinge for the Top Fuel Tour."

You can find the team's official web site at www.kagered-racing.com.

Woollatt's quickest back half.
22nd May: UK Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt is looking for even quicker times after running a spectacular 6.64 at the recent Speedfreaks Ball.

"That pass was one of the fastest speeds we have run, and the fastest second half, accelerating from the eighth-mile to the finish line in around 2.34 seconds", says Crew Chief Chris Powell. "We have a lot more up our sleeves for the next few meetings if the timing and engineering works allow, so just watch this space. Hopefully we will be down in the 6.4-6.3 bracket very soon."

Furlong thirteen inches short.
22nd May: UK 10.90 Bike racer Fred Furlong lost his quarter-final race at the Super Series Springnationals by the closest of margins, he says.

"Qualifying runs were dogged by some inconsistent gear changes, which I put down to a nervous twitch in my left foot", says Fred. "But after two double shifts and a missed gear I decided to readjust my ezeshift system before Monday's eliminations. However I did qualify sixth and sent Championship leader Glen Randles home early when he bogged down on the start line in the first round. In the quarter-final I met Darren Winnard, and we had a really close race. Leading for most of the track I was aware of Darren gaining on me, and we went over the line together with neither knowing who had won.

"The timing ticket showed that my speed was 123.63mph and that I had lost by .006 sec. My maths is not very good but I made it to be - unlucky for some - thirteen inches (I wouldn't call thirteen inches unlucky, I'd call it downright unfair - Ed). Well done Darren, who went on to win the final.

"I would like to thank Dunlop for supplying my tyres this season, and look forward to seeing everyone at the Main Event."

Bellinie swaps places.
22nd May: UK Super Street Bike racer Pete Bellinie is swapping riding for crewing at next weekend's Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. Pete has been making big progress with his new Hayabusa SSB, but as Super Street Bike will not be run at the Main Event, Pete found himself with time on his hands. "I shall be going to the Main Event as a crew member for Paul Holloway in 9.90 Bike", says Pete. "This will only be Paul's second race, so we shall be looking for those elusive 9.90 passes."

Cannon hauls the mail.
22nd May: UK Comp Bike racer Chris 'Cannon' Hannam has clocked some astounding speeds on his new Hayabusa at Woodbridge Airfield near Ipswich. Cannon took the bike, which he ran in Comp Bike at the recent Super Series Springnationals, to record some flying quarter mile times.

"I ran 208mph, with a 200mph flying quarter-mile average speed", says Cannon. "Unfortunately the head gasket blew at a thousand feet after running too much boost at Shakespeare County Raceway, although I am confident that we could have topped 220mph as we were on the rev limiter in top gear so we could have geared up. But as the wind was too strong on both days I didn't see the need to strip and rebuild the motor at the track, maybe next time eh?"

You can read more details of Cannon's exploits on the Pit Lane Gossip page of the King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com.

Web site updates.
22nd May: Norwegian Supertwin Top Fuel racer Svein Gottenberg has upped sticks and moved his Fastcat Racing web site to www.tfharley.com. The web site features news, race calendar, pictures, bike details, sponsor page, results and more.

FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Andy Carter's official web site has been updated with Crew Chief Eddie Corr's preview of next week's FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. Is 300 mph possible? Eddie believes so, check out his thoughts at www.andycarter.net.

Super Mods turn on the style...
21st May: The track record fell twice in consecutive passes and personal bests were blasted out of sight at the Super Modified racers descended upon Shakespeare County Raceway's Classic American Nationals at the weekend.

Event winner Rob Smallworth brought the house down with a 7.888/174.42 in his shoebox Chevy, setting a new track record, only for Danny Cockerill to take it out of his hands with a stunning 7.793/179.28 in his Rover. Also blasting their personal bests were Jon Hogarth at 8.09/171, Andy Hone at 8.28/166 and Ian Marshall at 8.381/161.29.

"Although there was talk of running the class on an 'Outlaw' basis in the weeks running up to the event, it was the decision of the racers themselves that the track time would be better spent tuning and testing differing combinations that fell well within the Super Mod rules", says Championship co-ordinator Sharon Hogarth. "They took the opportunity to concentrate on aspects of racing which in competition there often isn't the time to perfect! Although the event was self-policed as far as the rules were concerned, and all racers professed to being Super Mod-legal, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, and as things started hotting, up the teams were certainly keeping a keen eye each other!

"The track was specially prepped for the Super Mods on each occasion under the close eye of Bruno and his team, and although our guys were only scheduled to run two passes on each day they couldn't wait to get out again and again.

"Graham Ellis suffered real problems with his motor from the word go and it was a tough and extremely frustrating weekend for the whole team who really worked tirelessly to get the Oldsmobile ready for track action, unfortunately, even though the crew gave it everything they had and eventually got the Car out into the fire up lane, lack of oil pressure saw heads in their hands, not just those of the Ellis team but all of the Super Modders who understood the time and effort that had gone into getting that far. Fair play to the Crew as they immediately set out to find the root of the problem, however at the end of the meeting heads were still shaking as to what was the cause. I think that I can talk for all Super Modders in wishing Graham well in establishing and eliminating the fault in plenty of time for the Super Series Summer Nationals.

"As for the rest of the pack, ETs continued to tumble as each and every Super Mod racer in attendance achieved new personal bests as they fought through round after round of nail biting action forming part of an 'informal challenge' designed to create healthy competition between the drivers and spicing up events for the spectators and film crews alike.

"Rob Smallworth took the final in a side-by-side seven-second match-up against Danny Cockerill, which had fans in the stands on their feet, bringing a close to the weekend's events in true Super Mod style."

The increasing popularity of Super Mod has not gone unnoticed by sponsors. Gleeson Wright Security have now been joined by Corporate Signs and Displays and Colin Aldred at Scorpion Racing, with more expected to come in soon.

Thanks to APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson for additional reporting - Ed

...but Sid almost missed it.
21st May: We also heard from Sharon that her and husband Jon 'Sid' Hogarth's Corvette almost didn't make it to Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend.

"When we were on the way to Shakespeare County Raceway on Friday, the engine in our Motorhome let go", says Sharon. "The thought of the AA having a heart attack at the very mention of 44-foot of American Motorhome, Trailer and Race Car to recover, get off the side of the Dual Carriageway and back to safety became something of a drama!

"However we made a quick phone call to Graham Dance, who was himself busy preparing himself for a Track Day. Nothing was too much trouble and Graham was on his way to take care of ensuring that the trailer and race car got off the hard shoulder and back to Great Yarmouth safe and sound, whilst we made separate arrangements for the Motorhome.

"During the recovery process Graham, as usual, took every opportunity to remind us that his Super Street Bike could kick the ass off our Super Mod Vette any day of the week, having run a personal best of 8.13 against the Vette's 8.24. Graham may just be eating those words today as Eurodragster has broken the news that his fellow East Coast racer laid down a blinding 8.09/171 when we eventually made it to the track almost twenty four hours later.

"So it's thanks to Graham Dance for his sterling efforts on Friday night, and for taking the opportunity to remind us that we needed to up the ante and prove that four wheels are better than two! At the same time we would not want to miss the chance to give our personal thanks to Jeff Bull, our Crew Chief and engine builder, for his time and commitment to establishing the Vette as the fastest automatic in Super Mod!"

Coco calls Houston.
21st May: Another racer running personal bests at the Classic American Nationals was Dave Evans, who recorded 9.808/139.32 in the Coco Connection Camaro.

"The weekend was not without its problems", says Andy B of the Never Again Drag Racing Team. "The all-new Jeff Bull-built alky 489cu motor was put through its paces, giving respectable nines all weekend, but our crank evacuation system hooked up to the rocker covers was not performing very well. The resulting outcome was the cover breathers blowing off at mid-track. By the end of the weekend this was minimised due to the large amount of pitside work we put in to try and fix the problem between runs. Nonetheless, 'Houston we have a problem', and this will be put to bed before the next outing with new parts from Jeff Bull's camp. Apologies to the FAST team who were getting twitchy. We are running the numbers, but learning the hard way. It's under control."

Shaggyshack mini-bike stolen.
21st May: UK Supertwin Gas racer Nick 'Shaggy' Daniels has put out a plea to riders and drivers in the Rushden/Santa Pod area to keep an eye out for a stolen Italjet 50cc mini-motorbike, as seen recently at the Speedfreaks Ball.

The one-off customised kiddie's bike was stolen from girlfriend Nikki's house sometime during the day yesterday, Monday 20th May. "Last week someone tried to break into my car and steal it, but didn't manage to", says Nikki. "They obviously decided to finish the job. They broke into the house through the patio doors, went straight for the bike, taking nothing else and causing no damage."

The bike is chromed and polished and finished in a very distinctive purple check - it also has orange side panels and stickers promoting 'The Shaggyshack'.

"The bike was a Christmas present for my daughter, and is priceless", adds Nikki. "Shaggy and I spent a great deal of money, and many hours of time, to make the bike the best it could be, and we'd like it back!"

There will be a reward for the bike's return. Anyone with information should call Nikki on 07733 007641.

FIA 2001 Review now shipping.
21st May: Chris Ware of Trakbak Racing has been in touch to let us know that the 2001 FIA Season Review video is now shipping from Santa Pod's offices. The video comes in at three hours and features action in Top Fuel, Top Methanol Dragster, Top Methanol Funny Car and Pro Stock from Santa Pod, Alastaro, Mantorp Park and Gardermoen.

The video is priced at £16.99 plus £2 postage and packing. Call the order hotline at 08700 782828 or for more details visit Santa Pod's web site at www.santapod.com.

Web site updates.
21st May: Eurodragster staffer Sharkman has updated his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with photographs from the weekend's Classic American Nationals, together with some new Windows wallpaper. Check it out at www.topendtales.com.

LJR in Drachten tie-in.
20th May: Dutch Top Methanol FC racer Lex Joon has stepped in to help with the organisation of three races at Drachten this year. Races at Drachten have in the past been jointly run by the Exposion Club and the Dutch Hot Rod Association, but the DHRA are not involved this season and the organisation which was helping to promote the events pulled out at the end of April.

"The Explosion Club will be organising all racing matters, and we will be looking after everything else such as promotion and logistics", says Gerda Dijkstra of Lex Joon Racing. "When the organisation which was dealing with the races pulled out, it left Explosion with a big problem. We have had experience of organising events at Drachten in the past, so we have got involved. We think we can help with getting more publicity, for example. We're not in it to get rich, we are in it to help the sport - Holland is ready for drag racing!"

Explosion's events at Drachten this year will feature Lex putting in demo passes in his TMFC, the European Top Gas Series and the Dutch Open Super Gas Championship. The first event is 8th-9th June, the second on 13th-14th July and the last on 31st August-1st September. "We want the racers to know that everything will be the same as it always was. If they want to come to Drachten to race they will be very welcome", says Gerda. "We will be trying to turn the events into big family occasions, not just for dads who want to see fast bikes! In the USA, drag racing is a big pyramid with the street classes forming the foundation, that is what we want to achieve here."

You can find more information and entry forms for the Explosion events at Drachten on their official web site at www.explosion.nl. Gerda tells us that a web site for their Real Race Event Foundation, under which name they will be promoting the events, will be launched soon. In the meantime you can talk to Gerda at 075-6123164 (international code for Holland is 31).

Bradford impresses.
20th May: The UK's Darryl Bradford started his Top Fuel Dragster career at Santa Pod Raceway yesterday with his first two licencing passes. SPR's Race Director Darren Prentice tells us that the car, tuned by co-owner John Wright, sounded very strong and launched hard on both passes, and that Darryl impressed enough to be able to enter the FIA Main Event in a couple of weeks' time.

The first pass, burnout and launch, saw Darryl clock a 0.980 sixty-foot time. The second pass netted a sixty-foot of 0.963 and a 330-foot of 2.832 before problems with the diff caused Darryl to get off the throttle. There was no damage to the engine.

"Darryl drove the car safely and with bucketloads of confidence", said Darren. We understand that the Wilside Inc team's next appearance is to be at the FIA Main Event Press Day at Santa Pod Raceway.

Web site updates.
20th May: The UK's Team Cool Runnings has launched a web site at www.teamcool.co.uk. The site covers Laurie Craig's career from his beginnings in VW through his well-turned-out injected-alcohol altered, together with a calendar, car details, links and more. "Laurie is champing at the bit to try out the new race equipment", says a team member. "We are working alongside CC Racing and Doug Ripley so you know what to expect. Main Event here we come!"

Betts' fingers crossed.
19th May: UK Fuel Funny Car racer Tony Betts has entered the FIA Main Event to contest the second round of the British Nitro Funny Car Championship, but he tells us that his attendance is not yet definite.

"I am desperately trying to get a couple of sponsors on board to enable me to run at the Main Event", says Tony. "The Funny Car is almost there, I just have to get truck and trailer pass the MOT on Thursday."

If Tony does make the gig then we will see the return of some familiar faces to Santa Pod. "If I do secure a sponsor I will have Norm Wilding and Steve Hodkinson coming over to crew on the car", says Tony, "as well as some of the team from before including Kursal, Steve Walker and his son Nicky."

Tony outlined the deal which is available to any potential sponsor. "I am after about £5000", he says. "For this the sponsor or sponsors would get the majority of the space on the car as I have a few suppliers who have agreed to stay with us."

If you would be interested in sponsoring Tony then drop us a line at webmaster@eurodragster.com and we'll put you in touch.

Faulkner needs help.
19th May: Another racer with his fingers crossed hoping that Eurodragster readers can help is UK Pro ET racer Rob Faulkner, who suffered engine damage in his Crossfire Camaro at the Classic American Nationals yesterday.

"Andy and I set the car up then got to work on the barrel valve", says Rob. "We don't have a leak down tester, so we blow down the in line while blocking the return line to find where the valve is open and shut. We put in a 90 pill, bearing in mind that for two years I have used a 55 pill.

"It stall-tested well, so we waited for the rain to stop then after the track dried and a bit of glue had been put down, we went down. The burnout was long, rolling and smokin! On came the lights and the front came up and the car pulled like a train. I went through the top end at 149 mph, 9.13 seconds.

"On my return to the pits I said to Andy that the motor didn't sound right. On inspection I had trashed a roller lifter, which in turn trashed the cam and oil pump. I was peed-off about the oil pump; I had a problem with the old oil pump so I changed over to last year's pump, which has a stock type pick up which allows debris through."

If Rob is to make the Main Event then he urgently needs replacement parts. "I am looking for some little-used parts to replace the damaged cam and lifters", he says. "If you can offer me these - and of course I know things cost money - then please E-Mail me at crossfireracing@aol.com."

Almost ready to Rampage.
19th May: Better news from another UK Pro ET team, as the Rampage team are very close to a return to the track with their re-bodied car. Regular readers will remember that back in January the team announced that they were to replace the altered's body with a Monza FC body. The team's Ian Gibbs brought us up to speed.

"Hopes of an early appearance at the start of the season were, to say the least, ambitious", says Ian. "The modifications to the chassis are complete, the Monza body is fitted, and the preparation work is well under way. As of Monday of last week the paintwork is complete, the front brakes and the methanol fuel system are installed. Thanks to Fay Fischer of Speedflow for her efforts to supply a pipe kit with a twelve-hour turn-round.

"Final tune-up and finishing touches should be carried out in the next week, then a test session is planned prior to the first event in June. Dave Ward (driver - Ed) and team have been working tirelessly to ensure that the car's debut will be up to standard."

What we want to know is whether the team still be wearing those blue and white wigs...

Own a Top Fuel Harley.
19th May: Racer, photographer, journalist and designer (it's getting so it would be quicker to tell you what talents this guy doesn't have - Ed) Ian Turburville has four Top Fuel Harleys for sale. But don't worry, it doesn't mean that Turbo is retiring from racing.

"Remember the awesome, limited-edition, die-cast replica of Doug Vancil's Vance and Hines Top Fuel Harley? Well, I have just sourced the last four in Europe", says Turbo. "There will be no more available after this, and I will have them with me at the Main Event at Santa Pod. June. You had better move fast if you want one (and if you have seen one in the flesh you WILL want one) so contact me through my web site at www.turboville.com.

"I will also have my sample collection for anyone wanting team uniforms, seems I am also kitting out the press with shirts these days! The two Top Fuel Harley videos from Duke (as featured on my site) will also be available at the weekend, and amongst other things I have just become the UK dealer for SURE-SHOT re-fillable spray cans.

"Sure-Shot are the American-made originals as used by all the Top Fuel teams to start their cars and bikes. They can be used to spray almost anything, you fill them yourself then charge them with compressed air so they are environmentally friendly!"

You will find Turbo, in his own words, "Skulking around the Top Fuel Bikes, in Barry Sheavills' pit or in the media centre. I'm the one in the very loud orange and black Harley racing shirt."

Web site updates.
19th May: The DragsterWorld site at www.dragsterworld.com has announced a sponsorship deal with Newcastle-based 1st Cameras. "1st Cameras stock a huge range of Fujifilm digital cameras as well as digital cameras by other manufactures, camcorders and 35mm cameras", says webmaster Gary Cottingham. "As a result of the deal, DragsterWorld are now the proud owners of a Fuji FP 6900 Digital Camera, which will be used to take all of the pictures for our event reports. 1st Cameras can be visited on-line at www.1stcameras.com or at their store in Newcastle. You can also call their freephone helpline on 0800 542 6700 for product advice and the latest prices."

Super Mods to blast Nationals.
18th May: Amongst the headliners at this weekend's Classic American Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway are the Super Modified racers whose huge burnouts and wheels-up launches are quickly endearing them to the fans. Super Modified Championship Co-ordinator Sharon Hogarth brought us right up-to-date with a preview of this weekend's action.

There will be six Super Mods putting the power to the track: Danny Cockerill, Graham Ellis, Andy Hone, Jon Hogarth, Ian Marshall and Rob Smallworth.

At the Super Series Springnationals Danny Cockerill, who was leading the field broke (cracked crankshaft) and Graham Ellis, hungry for a chance to gain points took his first win and also ran his fastest time and mph to date. On Thursday afternoon Graham was sitting at the Channel Tunnel with a load on the back of his 40ft trailer to deliver into Europe, and has everything crossed that the trip will bring him back in good time for loading up and hauling upto Shakepeare County Raceway.

Danny Cockerill has been working hard and pulling out all stops to get the Rover ready for action. The engine has been into ICE where Rob Loaring has done the business in time for Danny to get back to the track to restamp his authority. With both Rob and Graham now able to run identical ET's and MPH Danny will no doubt be anxious to up the ante!

Andy Hone took Runner Up at the Springnationals, managing to weave his way through the competition and working his way to the final, running his personal best and taking his first Super Mod trophy. Since the last meeting, Andy's sponsors Gleeson and Wright have committed £500 contingency sponsor money to the Class for the Championship, so it's hats off to Andy and the team.

Rob Smallworth tackled problems with his clutch for the majority of Springnationals weekend but still finished strongly. Rob has a good feeling about the weekend ahead, and hopes to be running the '55 Shoebox down into the 7.80s!

Steve Rawlings suffered problems with his drivetrain and with a mystery lack of power at around the 80 foot mark. Steve and his crew man worked like Trojans all weekend to get the car back into its performance mode and to continue their testing.

Jon Hogarth was unfortunately disqualified at the Springnationals and although he was able to run the car and put on a show for the race fans, his times were not countered and his Personal Best, again run that very weekend, was not recorded formally. Jon's heads had come up twenty-five thou too tall and therefore had not met Super Mod rules, leaving him unable to compete. Jon has been working hard though since the last meeting and has invested in a new custom-built Neal Chance Pro Mod torque converter with a view to picking up momentum and closing the gap on the front runners.

Ian Marshall has thrown down the gauntlet and will be joining the Super Mods this weekend after all, having been working on the Highlander Camaro since the Springnationals to resolve the trans and drivetrain problems uncovered as the new and additional power delivered by the freshly rebuilt and increased spec motor quickly highlighted the weakest link!

Daisybeck TV will be joining Super Modified with a film crew of thirteen on Sunday to focus on racers and shoot action for a sixteen-part series on Granada Men and Motors called Extreme Machines. The series which looks at drivers and their rides involved in extreme motorsports all over the world, has to date never witnessed Drag Racing nor visited a Drag Strip, so the Super Modders will be working hard to ensure that they never want to stay away in future!

Fireforce to blast Crail.
18th May: Also headlining this weekend is Martin Hill and the Fireforce Jet FC team, who have headed north to Crail Raceway in Scotland to scorch the track at this weekend's Max Power Cruise and Thrash.

"It's a huge event", says Martin. "They are expecting up to ten thousand to attend. We will be performing flame and vapour shows on both days with a short blast down the track on Sunday."

You can find more details about the Crail event at their official web site at www.crailthrash.co.uk.

Meanwhile the Fireforce team have introduced their new T-shirts, the back of which you can see on the right. "There will be another design ready for the Main Event, together with other goodies", says Martin.

FIA Main Event entry list.
18th May: Mention of the FIA Main Event, to be held at Santa Pod Raceway on 1st-3rd June, leads very neatly into the release of the event's official entry list courtesy of Santa Pod Racers Club.

The entry shows healthy entries in most classes. Six Top Fuel Dragsters, five Top Methanol Dragsters, nine Top Methanol FCs and seven Pro Stocks currently make up the FIA class entry whilst on two wheels seventeen Comp Bikes, six Supertwin Top Fuel Bikes and fourteen Pro Stock Bikes fill the FIM/UEM frame. Five Fuel Funny Car entries are currently listed to contend the second round of the British Nitro Funny Car Championship although Championship Co-ordinator Jim Broome has been in touch to tell us that this may drop to four. We will bring you more news on that as we receive it. Pro Mod makes a welcome return with three of the wild doorslammers.

All of the UK National Championship classes are very well-subscribed with the Pro ET pits set to be thronging with twenty two entries, and 9.90 Bike currently the biggest class of the event at twenty three. Custom Car Street Eliminator sees some new names amongst the seventeen entered.

Click here to see the FIA Main Event entry list.

Chris Ware of Trakbak Racing tells us that a new toilet block is now in place at Santa Pod Raceway, near the catering area. If you are so inclined you can inspect pictures of the new toilets on Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com.

Shockwave lives!
18th May: If you were tuned in to our coverage of the Super Series Springnationals then you will recall that it was a weekend of attrition for the Fuel Funny Car racers, with only one of the four FCs making the final round due to engine damage. Gordon Smith of the Shockwave Fuel Funny Car team has been in touch with the very good news that he, Dave Bryant and the team will be at the FIA Main Event to contest the second round of the British Nitro Funny Car Championship.

"At the Springnationals we damaged one cylinder head beyond repair, this was all caused by a rod bolt failure", says Gordon. "However we are very lucky to have a brand new block already in the trailer, and we are well on our way to putting the car back together again. One good thing to come out of the engine explosion at Shakespeare County Raceway was that we have a special undertray on the car to help stop oil getting on the track. This worked perfectly, with no oil on the track at all this meant that downtime for cleanup was kept to a minimum.

"We are very disappointed with our season so far, and we will be looking to put things right at the Main Event. As most fans will know we didn't have the best of starts to 2002 with the fuel tank explosion at the Pod in April, and this has put a tremendous strain on the team's finances. If there are any true race fans out there who want to see the Funny Cars continuing (i.e. Shockwave) and who have spare funds which they would like to invest, then give us a call or come and see us at Main Event.

"We look forward to seeing you all at the Pod!"

You can find the official Shockwave web site at www.funnycar.uk.com. If you are interested in sponsoring the Shockwave team then you will also be able to find contact details on the web site.

Classic American Nationals.
17th May: This weekend sees the Classic American weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway. Track press officer Jeremey Cookson has sent us the following press release revealing what racers and fans can expect from this popular weekend:

That's right! It's the biggest new event for American cars, trucks and bikes to happen for years, and everyone's welcome! The Classic American Nationals are comin' to town. The town in question is Stratford-Upon-Avon, made famous by William Shakespeare, and now famous for the Shakespeare County Raceway, where you'll find us over the weekend of May 17th/19th. Naturally, we'll have the quarter mile open for anyone who'd like to have a go at racing their car for 1320 feet at a time - just bring your driving licence and a crash helmet, and you can have as many goes as we can squeeze in. If you don't fancy racing, there'll be plenty to watch from the sidelines. The new Super Modified doorslammers will be out to prove that real race cars have doors! For earth-shattering spectacle, you can't beat the Firestorm Jet Funny Car, but how about Ronnie Picardo's Jet powered GMC Truck Roaring Thunder? Both will be there, so you decide. And a wheelstanding Corvette? You have to see it to believe it.

Unfortunately, due to heavy breakage at the Spring Nationals the American Car Imports Top Methanol Dragster team have been forced to cancel there promised demo laps but Dave Wilson and crew will have Europe's quickest Methanol Dragster on display, plus ACI crew might even rebuild an engine on site (see below for more details on ACI racings plans for the weekend - Ed). In addition, the National Street Car Challenge together with the Wild Bunch/Supercharged Outlaws will be laying down some molten rubber; head-to-head and side-by-side.

Away from the track we'll have a show 'n' shine field where all American vehicles and clubs are welcome to show what they're made of....literally. Cars are for driving, right? Well prove it, on the Saturday evening Horsepower Cruise, as we all take to the streets to show the locals that the Yanks are overpowered, overweight and definitely over here. Back at the track, live music comes from country rockers Medicine Hat. There'll be a DJ in the clubhouse both nights.

Entry to Shakespeare County Raceway costs 10 per person per day, or 18 for the weekend. If you'd like to race your car, bring your driving licence, a crash helmet, and 10 per day or just 15 for a whole weekend's racing! Any car that wishes to take to the strip must undergo rudimentary scrutineering. Located 6 miles south of Stratford-Upon-Avon on the B4632, Shakespeare County Raceway is easily accessible from junction 15 of the M40 A46, a primary north-south route through the county of Warwickshire. For further information log on to www.classic-american.com.

Classic American rebuild for ACI.
17th May: After heavily damaging both their number one and spare motors at the Spring Nationals, the team at American Car Imports Racing are busy preparing for the start of their European championship campaign at the FIA Main Event in June. Race fans will get the opportunity to see these preparations up close for themselves this weekend when the team will be in action at their sponsors race; the Classic American Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway.

"We'll arrive at the track with nothing between the frame rails, then put the entire spare motor and drive train back together 'live' before firing the car up on Sunday" explained Crew Chief Andy Bissett. "This should give the fans a rare insight into what Top Methanol teams get up to back in their workshops. We also have a new number one motor on order from the USA which will be put into service at the Main Event, whilst another spare engine will be complete in time for our tour of Scandinavia in July and August."

The team are featured in tomorrow's edition of the NHRA's house paper; National Dragster in an article about their record setting runs at the UK season opening Easter Thunderball. The news item will keep American fans up to date with the British team they had the opportunity to see racing at the NHRA Winternationals back in February.

At the Classic American Nationals, American Car Imports Racing will be joined by their good friend and customer George Greves in his red Ford Lightning pickup which is featured on the dragster's radical new livery. George will be attempting to improve on his excellent performances at the Spring Nationals during the weekend's RWYB whilst also trying to keep Andy out of the driver's seat after foolishly offering him a drive! (If Sharkman doesn't beat Andy to the keys - Worried Ed) To find out more about the weekend call 01379 740100 or head over to www.shakespearecountyraceway.com.

Gibbons in Paul Marston Racing pit.
17th May: The Classic American event this weekend also sees the on track debut of Paul Martson Racing's hire and race programme which was launched earlier this year. The programme offers people the opportunity to hire Paul's previous ride, Grumpy's Dodge, and go racing with the full support of the PMR Organsiation behind them.

The driver this weekend is not new to Drag Racing, being none other than Dave Gibbons. Having previously run various racecar's under the Rough Diamond Racing Team banner, culminating in an awesome Small Block Chevy powered Altered, which Paul tells us "was one of the first Drag Race cars to successfully use Nitrous Oxide". During his long and distinguished Drag Racing career David has also spent a year in the States crewing with Jim Heads Nitro Funnycar Team which David honestly describes it as the "hardest work I have ever done", as well as fitting in a stint of crewchief work with Drag Race teams in Germany, before entering into Sprinting and Hillclimbing with a well deserved degree of success and a fearsome reputation for being very quick.

Paul takes up the story: "Dave Gibbons is no stranger to Grumpys Dodge, being the hired shoe for Grumpy at Brighton Speed Trials a couple of years ago when Grumpys Dodge was first entered, the taster has whetted Dave's appetite for a return to his roots. We are thrilled and honoured to have a driver of Dave's calibre drive Grumpys Dodge once again. To be able to facilitate David's return thru the Hire and Race Programme to Drag Racing makes all the hard work put in to setting up the programme worthwhile. I must say it will be a strange feeling taking another driver to the startline in my own racecar. That said this is my third consecutive weekend at the race track, Shakespeare County Super Series 1 presented by Obsession Motorsports, North Weald Street Racer Sunday presented by Street Machine Magazine, and the Classic American Nats this one coming, three weekends and three different racecar's, two Dodges and a Ford!"

We under stand the plan is to use the two day event to get the new driver used to Grumpy and to get Dave Licensed, ready for competition later in the year. If there is more time available Dave will also have the opportunity to gain some valuable track time prior to full competition, this will also enable the team to dial in the new converter. Dave himself had this to say " I would like to thank all the people at Paul Marston Racing for this opportunity, without this programme I would not be able to do this. I do not want to buy another Drag Race car at the moment, so the programme fits my needs perfectly. In sprinting and other forms of motorsport it is more common but in Drag Racing rare."

"Track conditions should be good as the surface will see some heavy duty action with the Super Modified travelling circus among those taking to the strip. The object of this weekend for us is to get the driver licensed for National Event competition, which will be later on this year. We must thank Wendy Talbot at the APIRA and the staff at Shakespeare County for their co-operation this weekend in allowing us to perform licensing runs. I must also thank Dave for pitching in last Tuesday at very short notice in helping to get Grumpys Dodge prepared for the weekend. When myself and Crewman Steve Brennan were over in Orlando last year I had ATI Transmissions build a 8" converter specially for Grumpy which I wanted fitted prior to the Classic American Nats and along with a couple of other small modifications, servicing and maintenance preparation work. Having Dave at the workshop was a pleasure; he has a great sense of humour and knows his way around a racecar with his eyes shut. We are all really looking forward to the weekend.

Special thanks also go out to Gary at 5 Oakes Carriages (020) 8501 4471 for the donation of a transporter to deliver Grumpys Dodge to the track. If anyone else is interested in details of the Hire and Race Programme please come and see us in the pits this or any other weekend of e-mail us at office@pmracing.fsnet.co.uk

Speedfreaks Ball - Thanks and plans.
17th May: Fans that attended last weekends Speedfreaks Ball at Santa Pod will be delighted to hear that the next event is already being planed for May 2003. Organiser Martin Hill says that "The first Speedfreaks Ball saw some excellent performances from a wide range of vehicles and some personal best's. We have already booked the dates for the next Speedfreaks Ball and they are the 9th, 10th & 11th May 2003 at Santa Pod Raceway. We will use the same format as this year and introduce some more exhibition vehicles, and hopefully Sammy Miller will be back with the new Vanishing Point rocket funny car."

Martin goes on to say that "I would just like to say a personal thank you to everyone involved in the speedfreaks ball event last weekend. Without this help the event could not have been success."

We understand that all the results from the RWYB on Sunday will be posted in the next week and all trophies and prize money will be sent out accordingly.

Scare a Journalist day.
17th May: Caroline Day has been in touch with an appeal to all teams, riders and drivers for help in the build up to the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod. Here's what Caroline is looking for: " We're on the look out for some fun, gripping and outrageous facts about your drag racing activities. No, not about late-night paddock antics - more about how you've turned your car into a mobile Union Jack (thanks Mr Bradford), how you're racing to raise money for charity, you're going to debut a brand new bike or car, you're breaking a record or how you improve your reactions by playing on PS2.

What's it all for? We are sending stories to the national newspapers, local TV and papers to secure coverage for the Main Event and for drag racing.

And the media loves stories about mad men and mad women and their racing machines. If we can put your story in print it could be good for your sponsors and for a laugh and we can let more people know that they should come to Santa Pod to watch drag racing!

What do we need? If you think you've got a story that could appear in the Sun to your local newspaper let us know the following:
  • Your name and team
  • Your car/bike and class
  • Your phone number and where you live
  • What your story is - 5-10 lines to give us a feel if we can place your story.
This could be your ticket for 15 minutes of fame so get your thinking caps on and send your juicy stuff to info@santapod.fsnet.co.uk.

Also, don't forget that a press/media day is planned for Wednesday May 29th and will concentrate on pre-event publicity with invitations to National, Regional and Local TV and Press. We are looking for cars and drivers to perform demos for a few hours (great testing opportunity!) and especially those who can take a journalist/passenger down the strip to scare them witless! A contribution towards expenses and some FREE tickets will be considered to those who can make it and your race vehicle may be left at Santa Pod until the weekend if this helps!

Contact me (Caroline Day) directly on (08700) 782828 or via info@santapod.fsnet.co.uk if you are interested in being involved with the Press Day."

Super Comp: the story so far.
16th May: After two rounds of the UK National Championships, Super Comp is led by the roadsters of Tim Adam and Martin Curbishley. ChryslerCard PT Bruiser driver Paul Marston takes us through the story of the Springnationals and looks forward to the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway on 1st-3rd June.

"Phil Bennett, last year's National Championship runner-up, had a very bad hair day and trashed his motor in qualifying. The motor in his very nicely turned out dragster kicked a rod out in the lights. Luckily Phil managed to bring it to a halt with no further damage. This left Phil and the team wondering what was the cause, having been super consistent last season this is a real blow to his Championship aspirations. Phil promises to be back real soon and will hopefully only miss the next event and be back for the Super Series Midsummernationals.

"It's good to see Dave and Sarah Day back with their Beautiful Double Trouble Ford Roadster, having regrouped after last year they show all the signs of becoming really competitive this year. A recent trip to Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School has done their driving skills no harm and with a new Jeff Bull alcohol-ingesting big block Chevy installed, power is not an issue. Out first round but good potential.

"Our reigning National Super Comp Champion Tim Adam is still the class of the field, hitting the ground running in both Super Comp and Super Gas in his famous Brogie Roadster. Having switched to an iron block and opting for a new throttlestop system, Tim is constantly raising the standards. Expect an aggressive defence of his title in the 2002 season. Once again in the final but lost to Martin Curbishley.

"New boy Martin Curbishley is currently making his presence felt with a smash-mouth style which has seen him flatten all in his path, in Super Comp and Super Gas. Using the ex-Jon Webster Brogie fitted with yet another of those formidable Jeff Bull alcohol-ingesting big block Chevys and a beautiful paint scheme by Mark Gredzinski. Martin's instant competitiveness is a credit to the team and Martin's driving. The packages he was putting together with such a new racecar were incredible. Defeated Tim Adam in the final, a well deserved win.

"Paul Knight debuted his self-built Chrysler motored Pontiac Firebird at the end of last season and is making good progress, enjoying his racing. Drawing on a vast wealth of knowledge and experience from various other motorsports Paul should make steady progress towards becoming top competition as the season continues. Paul went one round on a bye due to Phil Bennett's no-show.

"Mark Flavell, a veteran competitor in many classes has decided to run his dragster in Super Comp this season. Tough competition at the best of times, Mark is a force to be reckoned with and respected.

"Paul Marston and the PT Bruiser, still in development but with awesome potential. A cautious start after the disappointment at Santa Pod's Easter Thunderball. The team were very happy with the progress made at the Springnationals. Work still needed with the throttlestop though, ran a backed-off 8.50/147 in the first round breaking out big time against Tim Adam but leaving with him out of the gate. When asked about the current points situation, Paul said "We need to build on our current points position, but the whole crew are working real hard, we are just not good enough yet. We must congratulate Martin Curbishley and his team for doing a fantastic job this weekend. They had a great race car and are focused, but they are beatable."

"Tim and Martin look set to make this a two horse race with an early points advantage, the Main Event at Santa Pod 1-3rd June looks set to be interesting as all the other teams will be looking to put a Brogie Roadster notch on their pistol belt."

Racers: Don't hesitate to send your FIA Main Event previews to news@eurodragster.com.

Pettersson can't wait.
15th May: Six-time FIM European Pro Stock Bike Champion Roger Pettersson was satisfied with the weekend's work at the NDRG Test and Tune at Gardermoen. The Veidec-sponsored racer ran a best of 7.54/179 on a track record of 7.488 which he holds.

"We made four passes at Gardermoen", says Crew Chief Roger Lyrén. "The traction was very good. We set the bike up for normal traction, but the first thing we did was to burn a clutch. Then we started to get the clutch working, we still had bad sixty-foot times but a very good back half, quicker than our record-setting runs in Finland last year."

Successful testing means that Roger and the team are now all set for the Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway in a couple of weeks' time. "I really want to thank the people at Gardermoen for the excellent job they did on the track", he says. "We can't wait for the first round at Santa Pod!"

Frost intent on Main Event.
15th May: Custom Car Street Eliminator and prospective Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Frost has been so busy on his new race car that he hasn't had time to update his web site, he says. But he kindly filled us in on the very latest news on Red Victor 2.

"I now have the car back from RRC with new gears, exhausts and a suspension baseline", says Andy. "Thanks to the boys at RRC for getting the work done so quickly. On the engine side I now have all the pieces to build the engine and I've already trial-fitted the crank, rods etc, and done all the measuring of clearances. As soon as it's balanced (Friday) I will be on it till it's finished. To help me out, two of my crew, Tony Grayston and Bradley Cooper, are staying the weekend to try to get most of the car finished whilst I build the motor. I am now definitely going to make the Main Event, as there isn't anything to stop me...should I have said that?

"Special thanks to Marty Chance of Neal Chance Racing Converters who got my converter to my house within a week of ordering it. What a star!"

You can find Andy's web site at www.redvictor1racing.co.uk; although he hasn't had time to update it you can still find pictures of the car as it was recently together with a lot of interesting information.

Stable Bruiser surprises Marston.
15th May: UK Super Comp racer Paul Marston has come on a long way in the year since spinning the ChrylserCard PT Bruiser at Shakespeare County Raceway, he says.

"After the disappointment we had at the Easter Thunderball, to bounce back like this was great", says Paul. "We are now once again ahead on our development programme. At Santa Pod the PT Bruiser was noticeably more stable at high speed. We were not expecting such progress so early on with our Aero programme. Simply, we werent buying it. We initially thought that the qualifiers at Santa Pod were just unusually stable, thinking consistency would not be possible. Well, the Chryslercard PT Bruiser sure surprised us at Shakespeare County last weekend. We have improved high-speed stability 100%, especially in the shutdown area which was of particular concern to the driver! All of our runs went without a hitch, in fact I could not wait to get back in!"

The team made major improvements to the chassis set-up to improve Reaction Times. "By the European Finals, the best the PT Bruiser could pull was a .480", says Paul. "We were still going rounds, but we could clearly see the beginnings of a problem which needed addressing quickly. Through a lot of hard work, closer examination of last year's data, new tyres and fine tuning the chassis set-up, we seem to have made excellent progress on the way the PT Bruiser hooks out of the gate."

The Paul Marston Racing crew beg to differ, putting this year's quicker RTs down to Paul's off-season diet which saw him lose thirty five pounds. "With lights in qualifying no slower than .430 I dont care what it is, as long as it carries on. It works for me!" says Paul. "Currently we need all the help we can get, or those roadsters are going to run away with the Championship before it gets started. All that Jari Konola Pro Stock Power won't count for squat if we can't get out of the gate, as we know with their weight advantage they can. That's without mentioning the dragsters which usually have us all covered."

Paul tells us that the PMR team were most impressed with the consistency of the Racing 76 fuel, and the 76 Racing Oils. He also has some thanks. "I would like to thank all the fans who came to see us in the pits", he says. "You will see a lot more of us at Shakespeare County Raceway this year, please come again. Special thanks goes to my good friend Dave Potter who hit the armco in his Pro ET Chevelle. It takes a big man to still be there on Monday talking to fans with a smile, and an even bigger one to lend us his wheelie bar wheels after we destroyed ours. Once again, thanks Dave.

"I personally did not see Terry Gibbs, the main man behind Obsession Motorsports, over the weekend but we at Paul Marston Racing would like to take this opportunity to thank Terry, Tina and all the good people involved at Obsession and Shakespeare County Raceway on behalf of everyone in Super Comp for putting on such a great event. Godspeed, get well soon Terry, you are missed by everyone."

Web site updates.
15th May: Dutch Top Methanol FC racer Lex Joon's web site has been updated with a report from the Super Series Springnationals. You can find it on the News page at www.lexjoonracing.nl.

The Nilsson Motorsports web site has been updated with the latest pictures of the construction of Swedish Pro Mod racer Håkan Nilsson's new Camaro ride. Check it out at www.nilssonmotorsports.com.

The official web sites of Swedish doorslammer teams DTE Racing and SBM Racing have been updated with photographs of the cars ten days before racing starts. You can find them at www.dteracing.com and www.sbmracing.com respectively.

If you fancy popping along to Santa Pod Raceway on Saturday to see Darryl Bradford licencing in the Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster, then Santa Pod's web site now has a page for that day's Redline Rumble event including ticket prices. You can find the Redline Rumble page at www.santapod.com/redline_rumble.htm.

The UK1320 web site at www.uk1320.com has been updated with a report and photographs from the Super Series Springnationals, and a report from the Speedfreaks Ball. Don't miss the excellent launch shot of Lex Joon at the Springnationals.

Eurodragster staffer Sharkman has updated his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with photographs, video clips and Windows wallpaper from the weekend's Speedfreaks Ball at Santa Pod Raceway. The video clips feature Sammy Miller in action and the Fireforce 1 v Fireforce 2 Jet FC race. Check it out at www.topendtales.com.

Only a week behind his colleague, fellow Eurodragster staffer Tog has posted just under two hundred photographs from the Super Series Springnationals on his personal web site Tog's Drag Racing Page. Tog's Speedfreaks Ball pictures will be posted within the next few days and if you are a fan of Sammy Miller then you may find it worth the wait! In the meantime check out Tog's Springnationals pictures at www.togsdragracing.com/2002superseriesspringnationals.

The Swedish Pro Stret News Magazine is back online at www.spn-photo.com. Webmaster Hasse tells us that there was a temporary problem at his ISP. In addition, the swedishprostreetnews.com address has now been closed down.

Not, strictly, a web site update but APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson has asked us to inform everyone that his E-Mail address has changed to quartermilenewsmakers@yahoo.co.uk with immediate effect.

Ellis on top of it all.
14th May: UK Super Modified racer Graham Ellis had his first taste of victory at last week's Super Series Springnationals, taking the class win and making his first seven-second passes. But it wasn't an easy weekend, as Graham had to contend with a number of problems before getting to the stripe first in the final.

"When we arrived at the meeting we were fairly sure that everything was in good shape", says Graham. "Following the usual pre start-up routine everything seemed fine, we went down to do our first run of the weekend on Saturday and lined up against Ian Marshall. As it turned out Ian had a problem with his transbrake, and as soon as he put the car on the limiter he was away. I saw him go and went with him, neither of us received times or speeds. Everything seemed fine with the engine and we went around for our second run of the day, again lining up against Ian Marshall. This time we made no mistakes and ran a 8.01/171 which was our best speed to date. We were very happy and confident that sevens were very near.

"On returning to the pits we realised that we had badly damaged a push rod. Fortunately for us, Rob Loaring had one with him which was somewhere near the length we needed. Clive Bond was returning home that night and offered to shorten the push rod, which he did and returned it to us in the morning. Thanks Clive!

We rushed to get the engine reassembled for our first run on Sunday, it was a very near thing - when we were given the five-minute call the engine was still in pieces, the pair in front of me had completed their burnouts and I was not even strapped in the car. By the time I was ready to run my head was somewhere else completely, I just bumped it into stage and left forgetting such things as the light sequence and left early again, no time, no speed.

"Later in the day we went around for our second shot and ended up with a rev limit problem which held us back to an 8.3, so nothing was learned on Sunday. We broke a rocker shaft, but luckily for us Paul Marston came to our rescue as he had the spares we required and gave them freely, thanks Paul.

"Monday morning saw eliminations and my first round opponent was Ian Marshall. I know Ian is very good on the lights, and having had two red lights I was pretty nervous, but fortunately for me the car ran well. The misfire problem had been solved and we ran 7.99/172.4, again an improvement in the speed. Checks on the engine revealed another broken rocker shaft, another quick trip to Paul Marston Racing and again he helped us out.

"We managed to get the car together for the second round where I would be running against Rob Smallworth. As Rob had run 7.97 in qualifying, and has beaten me twice previously in eliminations, we were expecting a very hard race. This time it went my way, even though the track was very loose and I was drifting I had no idea that Rob had problems, so I could not afford to lift. So I was very surprised when my Crew Chief told me the time and speed were 7.97/172.41. A quick inspection revealed no obvious damage. We didn't even have time to jack the car up; we packed the parachute, fuelled it, checked the water, and went straight back out to face Andy Hone in the final.

"I had originally planned to run in the left-hand lane but after the oil down and Pete Creswell's incident I put Andy in the left lane and tried my luck in the right. I personally felt the right lane was pretty bad also, and again drifted badly, but luckily I had Andy easily covered and ran another 7.99, this time at 173.08 mph.

"The weekend was a tough one for us, and we were all knackered when we got home, but winning made it worth it. I just wished that Danny Cockerill had been in competition as win or lose that would have been a really good race. Next time Danny! Anyway it was a great weekend for us and for Super Modified.

"We have done some work on the clutch for this weekend's event, the American Car Nationals, we may have a little more left but I have been told that some of the teams may not be running Super Modified-legal. If this is so then I have almost four hundred pounds of lead to remove which I am sure we'll make the Cutlass the car to beat.

Shaggy loses two teeth.
14th May: UK Supertwin Top Gas rider Nick 'Shaggy' Daniels is celebrating and commiserating after a great time at the Speedfreaks Ball this weekend. Says Shaggy "With the bike being new, and only getting a couple of runs in last week at the Springnationals, I wasn't sure how things would go this weekend. So you can imagine how happy I was when I ran a Personal Best of 10.68 on the Staurday, followed by another best of 10.5 on Sunday".

Unfortunately when Shaggy went back down to the start line to see if things could get even better, he discovered that the gearbox had been damaged during the previous run, with two teeth from first gear rattling around in the bottom of the gearbox. Not to be disheartened, he completed the demo runs on the 'backup' bike - a 50cc Italjet which had been sprayed and refinished to advertise the ShaggyShack. The pass was so slow that the timing system gave up on him (reports that his girlfriend Nikki was tempted to give up on him too are as yet unverified), although it provided amusement to spectators and fellow racers alike.

Plans for the foreseeable? Nick tells us he'll be fixing the gearbox and then stripping the entire engine in preperation for the Summer Nationals, as well as respraying the bodykit of fellow STG rider Dave 'Fluffy' Hirst - another ShaggyShack paintjob to watch out for!

Juniors' enjoyable weekend.
14th May: The Junior Dragster racers had an enjoyable weekend at the Speedfreaks Ball, running heads-up for fun. The JD shootout was won by Adam Gleadow, whose crew chief Martin Gleadow takes up the story:

"With a relaxed weekend ahead, we decided between us that we should run the event in a similar style to the Cannonball. For each run the teams presented a dial-in and raced heads up. There were no penalties for red lighting or breaking out: we simply calculated how close to their dial-in each driver was on each run, and at the end of the competition added all of these times up and divided them by the amount of runs they had made. As the final run on the Sunday was unexpected, this was left out of the competition.

"The results were as follow:

1. Adam Gleadow, 0.06 seconds off dial-in
2. Joe and Doug Bond, 0.12
3. Stuart Morrice, 0.14
4. Tom Watts, 0.15
5. Holley Glassup, 0.56
6. Ricky Emms, 1.65

"As you can see the racing was very close, with the lead changing hands many times over the course of the weekend. Adam managed to gain a significant advantage when he ran a 9.397 on a 9.40 dial in (remember, breakouts didn't count!). Unfortunately both Rick and Holley were having problems over the weekend, but hopefully these will be sorted in time for the next meeting. The Speedfreaks Ball also saw Tom Watts move up into Junior Modified, just getting to grips with the car. He managed to get down into the eleven-second range, but as the clutch drive belt is narrower than the clutch (which was only discovered on Saturday morning) the car was not launching hard and hopefully these times will improve at the Main Event. The weekend also saw some excellent reaction times, and a brilliant barbecue on Saturday night, followed by much fun on the dodgems.

"I am sure I speak for all the teams when I say what an excellent weekend we had, and would like to thank Martin Hill and all involved for putting on a brilliant weekend (hear, hear - Ed)."

Photo Contest closing.
14th May: Feringe Raceway's rescue team have been running a Photo Contest on their web site for the last few months, and if you want to enter or vote then time is running out.

"The response has been much more than we first expected, and all of that response has been of the positive kind!", says webmaster Lincoln Eriksson. "The competition will definitely be back next year, in a slightly different form."

The winner of the Best Drag Racing Photo of 2001, as well as the outcome of the web site vote, will be announced at the Bilsport South Nats at Feringe Airfield, and on the FHRA Resque web site, on 9th June. If you want to submit photographs or vote for the best picture then check out the FHRA Resque web site at www.feringe.com/resque before 31st May.

How to pay for your t-shirt.
14th May: We've had a great response to our Eurodragster t-shirts, available at www.sheshirts.com/eurodragster. However Nikki Pilkington of Sheshirts tells us that some customers have expressed reservations about paying online.

"Paypal is a very popular form of online payment", says Nikki. "Payment is taken over a secure server, and your credit card details are perfectly safe, but for those of you who really don't want to take the plunge, we do have other ways of paying:

1. By cash or cheque at the track: E-Mail me at lemonkitten@ntlworld.com and order your shirt. I will bring it along to the next race meeting. You can pay by cash or cheque. Please allow two weeks for delivery.

2. By cheque in the post: Again, E-Mail me at lemonkitten@ntlworld.com and I will give you the address and details to send the cheque. Once received, your shirt will be winging its way to you in no time.

"I can be found in the Supertwin Gas pits at most meetings - feel free to chat to me if you have any queries!"

Schöfer looking good.
13th May: German Top Methanol Dragster racer Peter Schöfer took the chance to test at MZA-Luckau last weekend and everything is looking good, says team member Gittli Koller. Peter and the team have spent a year lenghtening the dragster's chassis and building a new engine and so a lot was riding on the testing.

"To start with we had several problems with the ignition and the computer", says Gittli. "After several warmups on Saturday we made our first run on Sunday and we think that it went OK. It was a very soft run, of course, but the car went straight, the transmission shifted and everything looks good."

A video of Peter's first burnout is available on the News page of the Peter Schöfer Racing web site at www.p-s-r.com. Gittli tells us that an English-language version of the site is coming soon together with other updates including pictures of the car as it currently looks.

Wildside reschedule.
13th May: The Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster team have rescheduled their licencing and test passes for this weekend after running out of time to put in any runs at the Speedfreaks Ball.

"To say that we're all very disappointed is an understatement", says driver Darryl Bradford. "We arrived on Friday and put the car together on Friday and Saturday. We were nearly finished on Saturday, did a photo session yesterday morning, and then put the finishing touches to it. In the morning we had a problem with the ignition, but we sorted it out and then in the afternoon when we went to start it the starter motor bracket ripped off. That's the second time that's happened! We spent most of yesterday afternoon trying to get it fixed and warmed the car up late in the day, but by then the track was cold and so we decided to give it a miss. We had eight people working their butts off all weekend, and so many people hung around waiting to see us run. You don't realise how demoralising it is but you can't keep a good team down!"

The Wildside Inc team are now attending this Saturday's (18th May) Redline Rumble at Santa Pod Raceway. "The car is ready to go", says Darryl. "We just have to put fuel and oil into it."

Speedfreaks Ball.
13th May: The winners in the Speedfreaks Ball shootouts at the weekend were Ton Pels (Top Fuel Bike v Supertwin Top Fuel Bike), Mark Fisher (Super Street Bike) and Adam Gleadow (Junior Dragster). It was a very enjoyable and well-run weekend with side-by-side Jet FCs, Sammy Miller indulging in arable drag racing, and racers indulging in the drag bike equivalent of wife-swapping amongst the many highlights.

You can view our illustrated event coverage by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Santa Pod Raceway's web site has been updated with some video clips of the weekend's action. The clips feature Ton Pels, the Fireforce Jet FCs, and Sammy Miller, and can be found at the bottom of the Home Page at www.santapod.com.

NDRG Test and Tune success.
13th May: Norsk Drag Racing Gardermoen's Test and Tune at the weekend was a success despite being rained-out yesterday afternoon, says our good buddy Christer Abrahamson of Svensk Dragracing. "Most racers were very pleased with the fact that they were been able to make almost so many test and qualifying runs as they wanted to. Thomas Nats set a new personal record of 6.69 in his Batmobile Pro Mod, and Roger Pettersson ran a best of 7.54 on his Pro Stock Bike and had nothing but good words for the track and organisation."

You can find some pictures taken by Christer on the NDRG web site at www.norskdragracing.com, results are to be added later this week. Click on Bilder to see the pictures.

Fredric Carlsson has also updated his personal web site with pictures from Gardermoen. You can find Fredric's web site at w1.526.telia.com/~u52605373.

Miller OK after field trip.
12th May: US Rocket FC pilot Slammin' Sammy Miller escaped unhurt from a trip into the field at the side of Santa Pod Raceway's shutdown area yesterday. The Vanishing Point FC went into the field and did a 180-degree spin after a 5.42/193.01 pass. When we spoke to Sammy last night, he told us that the field trip was a deliberate act on his part to prevent a far nastier accident.

"When the car comes off thrust it is shaking very badly", said Sammy. "The inside steamed up, I had one chute out, it was shaking and I couldn't see where I was going. I had one hand on the brake and the other on the steering so I couldn't pull the second chute. The hand on the steering was in the wrong place to be heading in the right direction so I spun the car out backwards because a backwards crash is better than a head-on. Whenever I have a problem I'll take the option of a safety crash! I dealt with the situation and made it work."

At time of writing the FC was back at base for repairs to the front axle and body, and Sammy fully intends to run today. If you can't make it along to Santa Pod to see for yourself then stay tuned to our live coverage from the track (see above).

 Speedfreaks shootouts.
11th May: FIM/UEM European Competition Bike and ACU UK Top Fuel Bike Champion Ian King is looking forward to the Top Fuel v Supertwin Top Fuel shoot-out at this weekend's Speedfreaks Ball. Ian and the team didn't get out onto the track at last weekend's Springnationals and can't wait to make up for it.

"After the work we did at the Springnationals with the new fuel system, we're looking forward to putting in some good passes at the Speedfreaks Ball", says Ian. "With the chance to race against our great Dutch friends and competitors, we're looking forward to what should be a great weekend. It's probably too early for us with all our changes to predict success and Steve Woollatt is the favourite to take the four-cylinder side of the competition with one race already under his belt. However, after Roel Koedam's great end-of-season performances last year, who knows?

"On the V-Twin side, Rob van Geffen has got the blower, but Ton Pels has the experience. Whatever the outcome, we're hoping for a huge success for the Speedfreaks Ball organisers, and the first of many more to come."

Further along the pits, we understand that a Speedfreaks Ball grudge race is brewing within Team Cooperized whose Ken Cooper and Springnationals Pro Stock Bike winner Helen Curran are to take it to the track. More news on the team's web site at www.cooperizedracing.com.

Explosive Test and Tune.
11th May: Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen hold a Test and Tune this weekend, but without prompt action it might have taken place in a large hole.

"Fourteen days ago, during some construction work at Gardermoen Raceway, we discovered several hundred kilos of Second World War explosives", says Ove Rnning. "The Raceway is in fact an old airfield built during the war. The explosives were discovered underneath the left lane, but after the experts looked at the explosives and dealt with them we are ready for racing this weekend. We have more than ninety competitors, which is the most ever."

You can find more details on the Norsk Drag Racing Gardermoen web site at www.norskdragracing.com, and our good friend Christer Abrahamson of Svensk Dragracing plans to post a report on Sunday evening.

A tale of three engines.
11th May: The UK's American Car Imports Racing Top Methanol Dragster team have not had the best of luck this season. Dave Wilson blasted the European ET record at Santa Pod's Easter Thunderball only to have a throttle cable snap in eliminations, and similar luck befell the team last weekend when a large hole was blown in the motor at the end of a pass which gained them #1 qualifying spot. After trips to Farnborough and Reading to pick up parts and a spare engine, the team faced a thrash but made it into the second round of eliminations where disaster struck again in the form of a broken wrist pin.

You can get the full inside story of a frantic weekend from Crew Chief Andy Bissett on the official ACI Racing web site at www.americancarimportsracing.com.

Shakey on tour again.
11th May: Shakespeare County Raceway's intrepid duo of Jerry Cookson and Ozzy Ewing are on tour promoting drag racing again this Sunday for the British Mini Club's British Mini Day at Himley Hall, near Dudley in the West Midlands.

"It's all thanks to show organiser Dave Hollis", says Jerry. "Dave wanted some dragsters to promote SCR and the club's forthcoming British Mini Showdown. So we were happy to oblige. With a bigger show field than normal we've managed to secure two Supercharged Outlaw teams: Roy Wilding's awesome Hemi Hunter slingshot dragster and Ian Hanson's big, bad blown Model T altered.

"Also joining the line up will be Sportsman ET racers Richard Davies and Matthew Clark, both following the American dream in the form of a full house 1934 Willys Coupe and a very streetable Chevy Camaro. On the two wheel front, and a self confessed Mini fan, we have Ric Davis' nine-second Jade Racing RD 400 Top Gas machine fresh from his impressive win at last weekend's Springnationals. The good thing about the show being outdoors means that we have been given permission to start them to give the Mini fans a taster of whats to come in mid-July for the Showdown."

The show opens from at 10.00 am. Himley Hall is situated just off the A449 Wolverhampton to Kidderminster road. For further information check out www.britishminiclub.co.uk.

Web site updates.
11th May: UK Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Allen Curtis has updated his No Manners Racing web site with a report from last weekend's Springnationals, and pictures from pre-season dyno testing. Allen also asked us to encourage visitors to sign his guestbook. Check it out at www.nomannersracing.co.uk.

Seen it, read it, now...
10th May: We are very pleased to announce that Eurodragster t-shirts are now available in a tie-in with T-shirt designer Sheshirts.com. "Sheshirts.com was looking for ways to expand", says founder Nikki Pilkington. "Being a keen drag racing fan it seemed natural to approach Europe's premier drag racing web site about a partnership arrangement."

The Fruit Of The Loom t-shirts for men or women, or womens' skinny-fit shirts, are of simple design with Eurodragster.com and one of four slogans printed in red on the front. Shirts come in all sizes and are priced at £14 including postage and packing. Every so often we receive kind offers of financial support from racers and fans; they will be pleased to hear that in our deal with Sheshirts, half of the profits from sales will go to Eurodragster to help with our running costs.

You can find the four t-shirt designs and order a shirt at www.sheshirts.com/eurodragster. On-line ordering is available throughout Europe with secure payment handled by Paypal.com (which is why payment amounts are displayed in US dollars - Ed). When your order is received, Sheshirts will contact you to confirm sizes etc.

SheShirts.com was set up at the end of 2001 to design and sell the t-Shirts which Nikki had always had in her head, but never seen around to buy. "I wanted to wear t-shirts that you wouldn't find everyone else wearing, and I had lots of slogans in my head, but nowhere seemed to make one-off t-shirts". With this in mind Nikki set up SheShirts.com, a site to sell womens' skinny-fit t-shirts with a wide range of slogans, ranging from one word mottos such as Vixen and Sexy, to slogans far too rude to print on a family-oriented web site!

Carrying on the family way.
10th May: Sweden's Axeldal family are carrying right on where they left off with their new Junior Dragster. Eldest daughter Linda recorded the first ten-second Junior Dragster pass in Sweden and then moved to Super Gas, Super Comp and Comp Eliminator, middle son Conny drove the Junior Dragster, and now youngest son Glenn has continued the family's successes with a final-round appearance in his first-ever JD appearance at the NDRS Junior Jamboree at Västerås.

"As usual in racing, there was frantic work to get the car (right, click on picture to view larger version) ready for it's first race", says Peter Axeldal. "All the last-minute surprises almost kept us off the track. But we are petty cocky about Glenn reaching the final in his first race! Glenn had a lot of luck, but if you don't have luck then you don't win any races. He was first over the finish line by one thousandth of a second at 15.005, but the dial-in was set at 15.15. If we had gone with the first idea of setting the dial-in to 15.00 then...

"But we are happy and so is Glenn. So we'll see how it goes at the next planned event at Sundsvall."

Wildside confirm Speedfreaks date.
10th May: Driver Darryl Bradford has confirmed that the Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster team will be attending this weekend's Speedfreaks Ball at Santa Pod Raceway. "We'll be making test runs this weekend, and if everything goes according to plan we'll be running at the Main Event", says Darryl.

The Wildside Inc team have just returned from Bexhill where they brought the house down firing up the Top Fueller. "It went like magic", said Darryl. "We scared the OAPs and made children cry! When you're closely involved you tend to forget how awesome these cars can be. We made the local papers and TV. The weekend was a fantastic success, everyone was impressed including our sponsors who are all coming to the Main Event so we can scare them there!"

Darryl and the team are very grateful to everyone who helped them to put on the show last weekend. "A huge thanks to Jason, Nicky, Simon, Lucy and the Megabowl crew; Darren from MT Drains; and Neil from Wilson's restaurant"; says Darryl. "Lesley, John and I would like to thank the hard-working crew who did their jobs whilst speaking to the public, and last but not least we'd like to thank Bob and Martin Gleadow for making the car look as stunning as it does."

The Wildside Inc team with their Union Jack-themed dragster have particular reason to look forward to the Main Event, as England play Sweden in the World Cup over the race weekend. "With three UK racers and three Swedish racers in Top Fuel, you'll see more of England v Sweden at Santa Pod than you will in the football", says Darryl, "it's the return of the Bulldogs against the Vikings! It's Jubilee weekend so we're going to do it for England."

Hard work for Shell Racing.
10th May: The Shell Racing Top Methanol Dragster didn't have too good a time of it at last weekend's Springnationals, wrecking their newly Whipple-equipped engine in qualifying and displaying some real dedication to make eliminations. Crew Chief Martin Hannis gave us the inside line.

"Since spinning the main bearings at Santa Pod at Easter, the motor was repaired in time for us to run it up at the Test and Tune weekend", says Martin, "after which the Whipple bearings were replaced and the fuel pump was reflowed ready for the Springnationals.

Last weekend after the motor sounded so good in the warm up, it appeared to drop two exhaust valves almost off the start line, spraying piston shrapnel all the way up the track and dropping two rods out the side of the block before reaching the finish line. We had qualified but we weren't expecting to blow the motor in the process.

"Back at home was our spare motor, which has run 6.1s, in disassembled form. We took the broken motor out of the car complete and as I was going home for the spare took it with me so we didn't have to look at it all weekend. The crew worked really hard all day Sunday reassembling the motor, heads, fuel system and drive parts before firing it up prior to curfew time. The old Arias with the Hi-Helix still sounded good!

"Rob Turner first round and on a cold damp morning, and even though we most probably had the best set up for the conditions, Rob was two car lengths ahead by half track and Doug wasn't catching him, so he got off the power as it wasnt worth risking the full pass and another motor explosion.

"After working fuel systems around the Roots style blowers for many years, running the Whipple is a great learning curve to say the least. It hasn't been just a case of bolting it on to go faster. The problems we are experiencing seem to be in the valve train area. The titanium valves are hammering valve seats from the increase in valve spring pressure, and it appears that we are going to have to up the pressure even more to get the valves to close faster from the increased boost pressure of the Whipple.

"The exploded motor has been stripped down ready for welding, and some parts are to be sourced ASAP in preparation for the Main Event."

Grateful Hudson's success.
10th May: UK Super Gas racer Paul Hudson is in grateful mood after a successful weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway. "After beating Martin Curbishley in the first round and having such a close lose-out to Frank Mason in the semi-finals, you could have knocked me over with a feather!", says Paul. "However I came down with a bump watching Pete Cresswell hit the guardrail in the final but he did a great job pulling the chute and stopping straight. I hope he gets the car sorted for the next meeting but thankfully at least he's OK.

"I'd like to thank all my fellow racers and friends who made the weekend such a success for me. In particular a big Thanks goes to my crew Julie and Maz for their hard work. What with cleaning the car between runs, fuelling up, and feeding all of us, all I had to do was drive the car! Thanks also to all of the Super Gas racers for welcoming me into the class but especially to Martin and Ruth Curbuishly for all their help in getting this very 'rookie' team into some kind of order (with some help from Spencer Tramm).

"I hope to do as well at Santa Pod in a few weeks, now that I'm settled in to the car, but I feel a lot happier now that I've pulled a 0.4 reaction and know that it can be done - even by me. Now I've said that it will all go pear shaped!

Springnationals snippets.
10th May: We've also had a couple of Springnationals snippets. 10.90 Bike racer Sandra Chaplain had a disappointing weekend. "Having qualified #1 on Sunday we awoke on Monday morning, ready for some racing, to find that our normally ultra-reliable bike would not run properly", says husband and Crew Chief Roland. "Sam had returned to the pits following her excellent qualifying run with the bike sounding as sweet as always however, overnight the engine gremlins must have visited. We have not pulled the motor down yet but it seems the cam chain tensioner has broken - yuk!". Providing light relief for the Think Pink team is a five-page feature on Sandra and the bike in this month's edition of Streetfighters magazine.

Super Street Bike racer Dave Smith had a good weekend with his street-legal Hayabusa and is knocking on the door of the eights. "We have more power now that the clutch has been dialed-in", says Dave. "Hopefully my Hayabusa will be in the eights after a string of 9.0s. Thanks to Brad at Dynospeed Developments for your help and expertise, sir. Speedfreaks here we come!"

Domains for sale.
10th May: FIM/UEM Competition Bike and UK Top Fuel Bike Champion Ian King has a number of drag racing and bike-related domain names for sale. www.topfuel.tf, www.nitro.tf and www.harleydavidson.tf are amongst the names up for grabs. You can find more details on the Pit Lane Gossip page of the King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com.

European Bests updated.
10th May: Andy Marrs of TSI Timers has updated his list of European bests to include Dave Wilson's 5.591-second pass at the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. Andy's list is compiled from authoritative sources and covers both official and, where quicker or faster, unofficial European records.

Click here to see Andy's list, or click on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Roy Farmer.
9th May: From APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson comes the sad news of the death on Sunday of former UK Modified racer Roy Farmer.

"Although Roy's days as a competitor at Long Marston/Avon Park Raceway in the mid eighties came long after his association with the Midlands hot rodding scene, his enthusiasm for drag racing led him to making a stand in the UK NDRC Modified championships with the ex-Clifton Brothers 'Hot Tomato' Rover V8 powered C-Cab hot rod", says Jerry. "Based near Cannock, Staffs, Roy and his son Paul were always part of the social pit life at the Midlands venue as well as several on-tour events at Blackbushe as he made progress with the blown V8 C-Cab that later in his life led to several notable success on the NDRC tour circuit. Sadly the C-Cab was later sold on to the Talbot family with Roy returning back to his hot rodding roots. Roy is survived by his wife Mary and their two children."

We would like to express our deepest sympathies to Mary, Roy's children, and all of his family and friends.

Callin goes TF at Main Event.
9th May: Sweden's Susanne Callin is to make her first competitive outing in Top Fuel Dragster at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway on 1st-3rd June. Regular Eurodragster readers will have followed Susanne's licencing process in one of Knut Söderquist's Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragsters.

"We have sent the entry form and paid the entry fee", says Susanne's father Gordon. "We will be st Santa Pod Raceway on 25th May (private test - Ed), and we will be running the two-seater dragster at at the Run What You Brung/Halfords day on 26th May and we're due at the Press Day on 29th May. Then we race in Top Fuel for the first time at the Main Event, hopefully with a new sponsor."

Susanne joins a Main Event Top Fuel field expected to include FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Andy Carter, Kim Reymond, Micke Kågered, Barry Sheavills, Darryl Bradford and Tommy Möler.

You can find Susanne's web site at www.sc1165.com.

Joon's great weekend.
9th May: Dutch Top Methanol FC racer Lex Joon and his team had a great weekend at the Springnationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, says Gerda Dijkstra of Lex Joon Racing.

"We had a great weekend. Why? Because the season has started again!", says Gerda. "We went to SCR with the intention to have a test weekend and see how it goes. To end up runner-up and to set two new track records (ET and speed) is enough for us. Because of the track conditions we were not aible to get any more out of the car, but it gave us a lot of information before we go to the Main Event. And, we still believe that it is possible to go for the 5.7 run - the car can do it.

"Lex Joon Racing want to thank everybody who worked so hard this weekend, including the track crew who tried to make the track as good as possible. With all the oil downs they had a hard job.

"I personally want to thank our crew who made it possible for Lex to go to SCR. Because it was a last-minute thing we know that we asked almost the impossible of them. Without our crew we would not have raced this weekend, thank you Max, Bas and Emile!"

You can stay in touch with all the latest from the LJR pit on their official web site at www.lexjoonracing.nl.

Why Growler crashed...
9th May: UK Wild Bunch racer Mark Turton tells us that he and his team have traced the cause of his top end crash at Shakespeare County Raceway last Saturday.

"The car seems to be reparable", says Mark. "However other parts are not, such as the body (see your Classifieds). The cause of the accident was that the bottom end bearings seized, which in turn locked the rear wheels throwing the car sideways to barrel-roll to a stop (it wasn't the Eurodragster stickers then - relieved Ed). When the car flipped, I thought 'here we go' and in what seemed like a split second I saw the parachute and thought 'What is that doing in here, that should be behind me'.

"As I rolled out of the car the FAST crew were there. Now with only a bruised leg and battered pride I would like to say thank you again to FAST, the scrutineers as they check the cars to make sure that they are safe, all the APIRA race and track officials, the Wild Bunch for their kind words and support, and everyone else involved. I would also like also to say a big Thank You to my fiancée Philippa, my brother Geoff (brother), Scott, Karen and young Zak - I'm sure it scared the crap out of them and they were there straight after the accident.

"On a final note a donation pot was left out all weekend, which collected £225.97 of which £130 came from the Wild Bunch alone - thanks again guys and gals."

Mark tells us that ideas are coming together and that depending upon finance and availability of parts the Growler team are hoping to re-appear later this year. In the meantime you can stay in touch with Mark and the team on the Growler web site at www.growlerracing.co.uk.

...and how Johnny Mental didn't.
9th May: Also on the subject of the Wild Bunch, slingshot racer 'Johnny Mental' Hall has been in touch to give us an amazing inside view on his two wild rides at the Springnationals, in which he had close encounters with the guardrail and the Christmas Tree on consecutive passes.

"I can remember watching the late great Allan Herridge and the legendary Al O'Connor, and their philosophy of keeping your boot in, and I knew that when I did eventually race a car I too would adopt that style of racing", says Johnny. "I had been working continuously seven days a week since I got back from the March Meet at Bakersfield, having decided to build new Top Fuel slingshot-style bodywork. I got the car assembled but not plumbed and wired, and when I got to the track everyone knew that I was dog tired and my crew of Mark and Dave from Team Thing, Kev 'Closet' Mortimer, and Matt the Giant basically took over and told me to chill out. Thanks guys. All day Saturday they prepared the car and we got the sucker fired up by late afternoon, too late for qualifying but this is where the interesting bit starts.

"Over the winter I asked Paul Stubbings, the original builder of the car, how to get the car to go faster and he told me the tuneup settings. I told Paul that I would be taking the thirty five pounds of lead out of the nose cone, and he basically said 'Be it on your own head'.

"On Sunday morning I got suited up went to the staging lanes. At this stage I am always very nervous and I don't mind admitting that to anyone, but once the engine is fired up and I am turning round to the start line I am in seventh heaven - maybe other racers will understand this. We fired her up and boy were those pipes barking! I did my burnout, backed up and went into stage - this is where I travel back in time, and I am now staging the car at Lions.

"The lights came down and I launched at 4000 rpm , and boy did it hook up. It veered left but I kept my foot in and steered gentle right, big mistake because the wheels where at least a couple of feet off the ground. When they reached terra firma I veered hard right because I was adopting my Allan Herridge philosophy and thought that I could drive through it with my foot hard on the go pedal. I really did think that at that stage I could make it. I was making fast gentle adjustments to the steering, and the armco was getting closer and closer...and that was it, I had to lift and at the same time one last flick of the steering wheel to bring the back round to try and save my front A-arms. I then just idled up the strip to the top end and Crazy Chris Hartnell had to help me out of the car cos I was pumped full of adrenalin. "When my crew got to the top end I apologised for not doing a full pass, as I felt I owed them an eight-second run for all the effort they put in to get the car in a go condition. On the run the back wheels broke the sixty-foot clocks at 1.27 and I don't think I was on it for very long, until I see some videos (anyone?).

"Later that day more of the same, but this time launched off idle and it went hard left. I remembered a conversation with Lee Hartnell from the night before when he told me that they didnt have a spare Christmas Tree. I had no intention of becoming Mr Popular and I just came off it, no big deal.

"Looking back I have to say that I really enjoyed making those passes and I learned a lot of valuable lessons. I would like to take this oppertunity to say a few Thank Yous, first to the FAST crew as I understand that they had already decided I was an armco victim and they were on their way. You guys give me the confidence to make those passes, as I know you are the best in the business. Next thanks to Mark, Dave and the rest of Team Thing, Tom and Alec Coe, Kev 'CLOSET' Mortimer, Matt the Giant, and John at Crow Lane for his help and support. And lastly thanks to my wife Joan and children Gemma, Katrina and Jacques for putting up with my hobby."

Panic Mechanics airs tonight.
9th May: Tonight UK fans finally get the chance to see the edition of the Panic Mechanics TV programme featuring Fuel Funny Car racer Smax Smith. A variation on the Scrapheap Challenge theme, Panic Mechanics features two teams being given an assignment to turn junk into a workable proposition, in this case turning a Reliant Rialto into a dragster.

Smax and his Mainline Menace Fuel FC feature in the programme which is to be broadcast at 8:00 pm this evening (Thursday) on BBC2.

Meanwhile Smax tells us that his absence from the third/fourth place run-off at the Springnationals on Monday was down to "Component failure as a result of the crank breaking. The tune-up was right on!".

Points updates.
9th May: More Championship points have come in as the dust settles and the Co-ordinators get the chance to draw breath after their efforts over the weekend.

First up are the post-Springnationals points standings in the MSA Nitro Funny Car Championship, courtesy of co-ordinator Jim Broome:
  1. John Spuffard, Showtime, 118
  2. Gary Page, North Herts Engineering, 97
  3. Gordon Smith, Shockwave, 76
  4. Smax Smith, Mainline Menace, 75
Courtesy of Sue Beneke we now have the post-Springnationals points standings in the National Association of Supertwins Championships. These are available by clicking here, or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Standings in the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Championships after the weekend's Big Bang are also now available on our Points Standings page courtesy of VWDRC and Spencer Tramm.

Speedfreaks Ball.
9th May: This weekend sees the Speedfreaks Ball at Santa Pod Raceway. The Bike-oriented event also sees the long-awaited return of the legendary Slammin' Sammy Miller in his Vanishing Point Rocket FC, together with the Fireforce Jet FC team, and a number of other thrust-powered vehicles.

In the racing department there is a Top Fuel Bike v Supertwin Top Fuel Bike shootout, a Super Street Bike shootout, and a Junior Dragster exhibition. We also understand that Darryl Bradford may be putting in licencing passes in the Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster.

A bike-only Run What You Brung takes place on both Saturday and Sunday with cash prizes posted on Sunday. There is also a Custom Bike Show, trade stands, live bands and other entertainment.

Gates open tomorrow (Friday) and the strip is open on Saturday and Sunday. For more details including ticket prices check out the official Speedfreaks Ball web site at www.speedfreaksball.co.uk.

Eurodragster will be reporting from the Speedfreaks Ball at the weekend; our coverage will take the form of reports on the shootouts plus of course Sammy Miller and the Jet FCs, together with pictures at the end of each day.

Web site updates.
9th May: Eurodragster staffer Sharkman has updated his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with a report and photographs from the Springnationals, together with some new Windows wallpaper. Check it out at www.eurodragster.com/sharkman.

Grumpy getting there.
8th May: UK National 9.90 Bike Champion and now Super Street Bike racer Paul 'Grumpy' Watson's weekend at the Springnationals had its frustrating moments, but he also got a lot out of it.

"After a bad start to the weekend we are finally getting there", says Paul. "We finished the new paint at 2:00 on Saturday morning, and also borrowed another progressive as mine had not returned from being repaired, not the start I had hoped for. We had found that after running the 8.87 at Easter my progressive went faulty and I had creeping fuel pressure, so we changed a few things and I now am having problems with inaccurate fuel pressure gauges.

"A big Thank You to my mentor Ken Cooper who helped me once again in my hour of need. We came out with base settings and ran 9.1s all weekend, losing to Tony Clark who ran 8.4, well done mate.

"We are confident that we will be in the eights again soon, but this is a learning year for me and I have already surpassed what I thought my bike could do so everything else will be a bonus.

"A big thank you to Martin for the late nights finishing the paint, as always to my crew Kim for all her hard work on and off the track, and to Andy for his entertainment value."

Racers: Don't hesitate to send your Springnationals reviews to news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them here.

Wildside Fueller unveiled.
8th May: The UK's Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster team unveiled their car at the Bexhill Centenary of Motoring festival at the weekend, supported by Megabowl. "The festival saw a turnout of 100,000 people over two days", says Simon Abel.

Simon very kindly sent photographs of the car in its new colours at Bexhill, together with driver Darryl Bradford and the team. You can see the pictures by clicking here, or by clicking on the photograph on the right.

Big Bang pictures.
8th May: Thanks to Nigel Anniwell and Darren Prentice for sending us a number of photographs from the Big Bang VW event at Santa Pod Raceway at the weekend. As well as the pictures of the VW contingent, there are also shots of Susanne Callin's Top Fuel Dragster licence passes, Andy Robinson's shakedown passes in his new Pro Mod, and a novel shot of the Fireforce Jet FC team.

Click here to see the Big Bang photographs.

Web site updates.
8th May: The web page of the British Nitro Funny Car Championship has been updated with qualifying and elimination details and a report from the first round at the weekend's Springnationals. The Championship page resides on the official web site of the Showtime Fuel Funny Car team, which has also been updated with a new Photo Gallery. You can find the Championship page at www.showtimeracing.co.uk/championship.html, and the Showtime web site itself at www.showtimeracing.co.uk.

UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Barry Sheavills' web site has been updated with a preview of the 2002 FIA European Championships which kick off at the Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway in a few weeks' time. You can find it on the Press Release page at www.topfuel.co.uk.

Following on from yesterday's update, our friends at Svensk Dragracing have now updated their site with Nordic Drag Racing Series points standings after the weekend's Junior Jamboree. You can find the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se.

Brian Fawcus has added the first batch of Springnationals video clips to his personal web site. Featured in this first update are clips of the Top Methanol and Super Pro ET finals together with Steve Woollatt's last Top Fuel Bike shakedown pass. You can find Brian's video clips at drag.fawcus.com/movies2002.

New Deals for Woollatt.
 7th May: UK Top Fuel Bike Steve Woollatt's reworked machine (right, click on picture for large version) turned a lot of heads at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend. Steve's Crew Chief Chris Powell gave us the lowdown on all the changes.

"Under the design and close scrutiny of Phil Baimbridge we have fitted an Opcon Blower and manifold", said Chris. "The engine has had a major rework with a new Puma bottom end, cylinder head modifications, new exhaust system, and new fuel system, and completely new bodywork with new paint work has been fitted."

The Dealer team have also announced new sponsors for 2002, with support coming from Bikes of Brighton, Born to be Wild Paintwork, Fibreglass Solutions, P.E.S.T. Motorcycle Fabrications and Engineering, Kendall Oils and G Max Fuels.

Speaking on Sunday night, Chris told us that Steve and the team were very pleased with the bike's performance "We are gradually tuning the bike to suit all the new parts", said Chris. "Today's last pass was a 6.97 and the computer showed that the rear wheel was spinning across the finish line! It seems we now have bags more power on tap and we are having to tune the clutch system to suit."

The team were joined on Sunday by Steve and Tom from Bikes of Brighton. "These guys have supplied Steve's clothing and helmet for this year. We hope that they had a great day crewing with us", said Chris. The paint crew from Born to be Wild and P.E.S.T. Motorcycle joined the team yesterday and saw Steve put in a pass in the 6.7s.

"We would like to thank Phil Baimbridge for spending the whole weekend with us and helping us with the new tune-up", added Chris.

A look at Gus' new ride.
7th May: Thanks to Darren Prentice and Nigel Anniwell for sending this picture (right, click on picture for large version) of Andy 'Gus' Robinson's new '53 Studebaker Pro Mod, which had its first outing on the track at the Big Bang VW event at Santa Pod Raceway this weekend.

As we reported yesterday, Andy put in a best of 8.33/133.10 on Sunday and he improved this yesterday to a best of 7.660/198.85 with tyre shake.

Nigel mailed us a number of pictures from the Big Bang which we will process and include in tomorrow's news update.

Dutch Open Streetcar Challenge.
7th May: Don Leemker has been in touch with news of Holland's largest ever Street car race at Drachten in June, organised by OSL and the Dutch Hot Rod Association. "On 21st-23rd June there will be grudge racing in OSL - a kind of RWYB - Super Street, Super Gas, Super Comp, Comp, and Pro Modified", says Don. "The event includes night racing until midnight."

For more details, or to register, visit the Dutch Hot Rod Association web site at www.dhra.nl.

Springnationals results.
7th May: It was a very busy weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway, where the Super Series Springnationals took place. The event saw the first round of the British Nitro Funny Car Championship, together with the second round of the MSA British Drag Racing Championship, the UK National and ACU Drag Bike Championships, Super Modified, Custom Car Street Eliminator, Wild Bunch Outlaw Anglia and the NAST Championships for Supertwin Bike classes.

Saturday saw several dramas with Mark Turton (Wild Bunch) and Dave Potter (Pro ET) both suffering crashes, thankfully without injury to either driver. No less than six racers suffered the exit of rods from their blocks with the ensuing disruption but a titanic effort by the track crew, race officials and racers saw that day's qualifying completed.

John Spuffard won the first round of the Nitro FC Championship after the North Herts Engineering FC broke and Gary Page couldn't make the call, and the third/fourth place run-off didn't take place as both Gordon Smith and Smax Smith had broken. Top Methanol was equally dramatic, with Rob Turner taking the win from Lex Joon, consolidating his lead in the MSA British Drag Racing Championship.

Top Fuel Bike saw the début of Steve Woollatt's reworked bike, featuring new paint, new parts and new sponsors (about all of which more later - Ed). Steve put in a number of shakedown passes over the weekend culminating in a 6.7 in his last pass yesterday.

Amongst the several other highlights were perfect runs in the finals of both Super Comp and Super Street, Steph Milam blasting into the sixes in her TMFC, Graham Ellis joining the seven-second club in Super Modified as well as taking the win, Helen Curran becoming the first woman in Europe to win a Pro Stock Bike elimination, and Wild Bunch racer Johnny Hall putting in great driving jobs to avoid the guardrail and Tree on two consecutive runs.

The winners and runners-up were as follow:

Fuel Funny Car: John Spuffard 11.353/75.13 was unopposed
Top Methanol: Rob Turner 5.813/239.36 def. Lex Joon 8.049/113.64 DQ
Super Pro ET: Barry Giles 7.852/165.44 (7.80) def. Martyn Jones 7.600/157.89 (7.58) red light
Pro ET: Bob Doyle 11.488/95.74 (10.90) def. Carla Pitau 10.771/129.31 red light
Sportsman ET: Al Platt 13.657/103.93 (13.50) def. Chris Newsam broke
Super Comp (8.90): Martin Curbishley 8.900/146.58 def. Tim Adam 8.955/148.03
Super Gas (9.90): Pete Creswell 10.142/124.65 def. Frank Mason 9.891/137.20
Super Street (10.90): Dave Cherrett 10.900/110.29 def. Leigh Morris 10.991/124.31 red light
Junior Dragster: Holley Glassup 8.854/70.75 (8.60) def. Ronan Heatley-Smith 14.505/42.29 (14.50)
Super Modified: Graham Ellis 7.995/173.08 def. Andy Hone 8.421/155.71
Custom Car Street Eliminator: Steve Neimantas 8.921/156.25 def. Steve Pateman 9.047/163.64
Outlaw Anglia: Rob Stone staged for win, was unopposed
Wild Bunch: Ed Yates 10.197/126.40 (10.14) def. Mark Coulsell broke

Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woollatt 6.795/201.79, was unopposed
Pro Stock Bike: Helen Curran 8.206/148.03 def. Martin Bishop broke
Funny Bike: Neil Midgley 19.029/29.88 def. Tim Blakemore broke
Comp Bike: Phil Leamon 8.917/152.03 def. Chris Hannam 10.173/138.89
Super Street Bike: Tony Clark 8.656/166.05 def. Karl Larcombe 8.788/157.89
9.90 Bike: Jamie Sneddon 9.971/130.43 def. Ian Warren 10.194/138.46
10.90 Bike: Darren Winnard 10.873/128.94 def. David Warren broke
Supertwin Gas: Ric Davies 9.837/128.21 def. Sefton Whitlock 9.990/122.62
Supertwin Modified: Nigel Mason 10.761/130.06 def. Dave Bartz 22.009/30.47
Supertwin Street: Les Harris 11.416/123.97 def. John O'Sullivan 12.369/104.17

For more of the weekend's highlights check out our Springnationals reports and pictures which you can see by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Points standings in the MSA British Drag Racing Chamionship (Top Methanol) are already available on the European Top Methanol Racers Association web site at www.etmra.com together with timing data from the weekend.

Terry's thanks.
7th May: One of the most welcome visitors to Shakespeare County Raceway over the weekend was Super Series organiser Terry Gibbs. Terry is still recovering from surgery and a lengthy hospital stay but made the trip to Warwickshire which he doubtless found therapeutic. Terry asked us to pass on his thanks to everyone.

"Tina, my family and I would like to express our thanks to everyone for their cards, phone calls and messages of support and concern", said Terry. "We would also like to thank the FAST crew, APIRA, the racers, and everyone else who made it possible to run the Springnationals without me!"

We are sure that everyone will join us in wishing Terry a rapid recovery.

Web site updates.
7th May: Our good buddies at Svensk Dragracing have updated their web site with a report, results and pictures from the Junior Jamboree at Västerås. Check it out at www.dragracing.se.

Over three hundred pictures from last week's race at Tripoli in Greece have now been posted on the dragster.gr web site. "Don't try to read the text, it will give you a bad headache", says Panagiotis Zarifopoulos. You can find the pictures at www.dragster.gr/events/events020428_TripoliDragster.htm.

Fredric Carlsson has updated his personal web site with more pictures from the Scandinavian drag racing scene. Fredric's site features a large number of photographs going back ten years and is well worth a look in. Check it out at w1.526.telia.com/~u52605373.

Thanks to Adam Gleadow for letting us know that the Sim Drag Racing web site has been updated with NHRA 2 sims of Barry Sheavills' Triple R and Knut Soderquist's Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragsters. You can find the sims at www.simdragracing.com/railr/pg05.html.

Big Bang winners and more.
6th May: Courtesy of Race Director Darren Prentice comes news that Natasha Garcia (VW Sportsman), Jon Rathbone (VW Pro) and Matt Attwood (VW Alt Engine) were the winners in yesterday's Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Championship round at the Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway.

Rookie Natasha's 19.531/67.40 saw off Neil Robinson's 15.291/86.38, whilst Jon Rathbone took out Paul Jackson with an 11.808/126.01 to Paul's 12.533/109.68. Matt Atwood took the win with a 15.198/73.18 to Dave Ninian's 13.529/105.78.

Sweden's Susanne Callin was also present at the Big Bang, putting in another set of passes towards her Top Fuel Dragster licence. Race Director Kjell Petterson said that he was happy with Susanne's performance over the weekend and added that she was gaining in confidence with every run.

Andy Robinson is at the Big Bang putting in shakedown passes in his new Studebaker Pro Mod. Andy has put in a couple of strong burnouts, a launch and a half-pass, the half-pass an 8.33/133.10 with a half-track speed of 134.93.

Cheley wins Perfect Light.
6th May: Super Pro ET racer Mick Cheley was the latest to win Eurodragster's Perfect Light Award with a 0.500 in the first round of today's eliminations. Mick is the first Super Pro racer to take our money, congratulations to him.

The Eurodragster Perfect Light fund has now been reset to £50 for the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway at the start of June.

 Super Mods ready to rumble!
3rd May: The wild Super Modified doorslammers return to the track at this weekend's Springnationals at Shakespeare County Raceway for the second round of their 2002 Championship. The high-seven and low eight-second doorslammers are quickly becoming a fan favourite with their long burnouts and wheels-up launches. Championship co-ordinator Sharon Hogarth kindly sent us the latest on all of the protagonists.

Round one winner Danny Cockerill made no changes to his Rover 220 over the off-season, and took up where he left off winnign the Easter Thunderball. He has won every round of Super Modified since it started, and holds the class ET and speed records.

Rob Smallworth is "Champing at the bit" at every race, having been runner-up at Super Series 5 in 2001 and at this year's Easter Thunderball. Rob, too, made no changes to the '55 Bel Air in the off-season. "At the end of last season we unloaded it and put a tarpaulin over it, and at the start of 2002 we removed the tarpaulin, loaded it up and kicked ass!", he says.

Graham Ellis is reaping the benefit of secret head work on his Olds Cutlass. "We also raised the compression, modified the intake, lowered the first gear, and made a number of other mods to keep 'em guessing. Look out Danny Cockerill!", he says.

A Neal Chance nine-inch Nitrous Convertor, Pro Shot Fogger and secret gear change formed the basis of Andy Hone's off-season changes. The Gleeson and Wright Security-sponsored Granada Scorpio is, Andy says, Mystic Meg's pick for 2002 Champion.

Nigel Payne's Sticky Situation '62 Vette has been fitted with a new 555ci engine with carbs running on C12, new cylinder heads and induction - and new bigger pants. Duplex CSA and Mega Power back Nigel who says he feels lucky this season.

"Bring on the competition!" says Jon Hogarth. Jon's self-built '63 split-window 'Vette is toting a new Pro Shot fogger, huge jets "and loadsa nitrous" running on C16 and alcohol, a rear-end gear change and more.

Tim Garlick has had an eventful career in his Mk III Cortina, having tagged the guardrail on a couple of occasions including at the Easter Thunderball, but he is "hungry for it". Off-season work included the repair of a damaged gearbox, work on clutch settings, secret set-ups and tuning the nitrous. Thompsons Tipper Bodies and the Prince of Wales public house, Hadham provide sponsorship.

Ever-smiling Steve Rawlings got his licencing out of the way last year and is now ready to put the pedal to the metal in his Toyota Supra. "I'm up for the challenge!", he says. Steve has invested in a new Neal Chance converter, nitrous fogger system, has overhauled the gearbox, had the chassis updated by Hauser Race Cars, and added a new bonnet scoop for more air. Sponsorship comes from JW Automotive of Bridgewater Somerset who did body prep and paint.

Santa Pod Raceway's Chief Starter Ian Marshall and his wife, SPRC Club Secretary Paula, return in the Highlander Camaro, which previously saw duty in Super Gas and Super Comp. The G Max Racing Fuels, Dave Eady American Parts Centre and DHL-sponsored race car has new rods, pistons, roller cam, valve springs, secret cylinder head and manifold work, transmission changes and a new set of slicks, "just a bit bigger this time!"

Eye 2 Eye Television will be filming the Super Mods at Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend for inclusion in the Dream Machines programme which is to be screened on Channel 5 in early Autumn. "Sam Green of Eye 2 Eye will be at the track on Sunday to introduce herself and meet the racers in readiness for the filming of the eliminations on Bank Holiday Monday as well as carrying out interviews with racers and their crews", says Sharon. "All good stuff, and good news for the class, drivers, track and drag racing as a whole!"

Deuchar misses the cut.
3rd May: UK Top Methanol Dragster racer Lyndsay Deuchar has had to withdraw from this weekend's second round of the MSA British Drag Racing Championship at the Springnationals. "Unfortunately things have not turned out as we hoped, and the rear wing will not be race ready for this weekend's race", says Lyndsay. "Once again we have been beaten before getting to the track. To say the least we are very disappointed. Although I haven't quite given up yet, things are starting to wear a bit thin. When we have everything bolted onto the car and I can physically see we are race ready, I'll post the next news bulletin."

ACI Racing go like Lightning.
3rd May: American Car Imports Racing are very proud to give the race fans at Eurodragster the first chance to see the new appearance of their new Top Methanol dragster (right, click on picture to see bigger version). Anthony Cohen, Director of American Car Imports said "With a new 2002 Ford Lightning pickup emerging out of the side of the Dragster, American Car Imports is showing American car owners and race fans that ACI is determined to promote the strong link that exists between American vehicles and drag racing. The Ford Lightning is virtually a factory made dragster. It develops 380 BHP and gets to 60mph in just 5.8 seconds. One of ACI's customers has now run the quarter mile in 13 seconds!". You can contact American Car Imports on 0208 889 4545 or visit their web site at www.americancarimports.com where you can see a huge range of American vehicles in stock in the UK.

The new look was developed by three of American Car Import Racing's marketing partners. The Design itself was the brainchild of Bob Klevenhagen at Total Design. Total Design is a multi disciplinary design consultancy with a clear understanding of marketing and commercial reality. Their speciality, refined by 25 years of experience, is to produce solutions that work for you. Total Design provide consultancy services on all aspects of communication, corporate and brand marketing strategy and are also specialists in all aspects of electronic and printed advertising media. Their expertise is used by clients nationally and worldwide. They can be contacted on 020 8444 7144 or by E-Mail at design@totaldesign.co.uk.

The paint work for the new livery was applied as a result of a lot of hard work by all the staff at Master Repairs and Servicing. They are a specialist paint, body and service facility for all makes and models of vehicles who offer good values to retail and trade customers and operates in a friendly and professional way. Master Repairs works very closely with American Car Imports and is proud to be a product sponsor with the ACI Racing team in 2002. Contact Gigi on 020 7281 8018.

The graphics on the new car were printed and applied by Custom Graphics who are specialists in graphics and exhibition displays. They are also supplying all of the team's signs and banners in 2002. Custom Graphics can design and supply vinyl graphics for vehicles of any size as well as CNC cut 3D logos, portable display units and purpose built stands for all forms of exhibitions. Call them on 01923 776490 or send an E-Mail to imaging@customgraphics.co.uk.

Race fans will be able to see the new dragster in all its glory at the Springnationals at Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend.

Springnationals coverage.
3rd May: Eurodragster will be reporting live from this weekend's Springnationals. Our American Car Imports-sponsored coverage commences on Saturday morning with all the latest from the pits, with regular updates of the on-track action during qualifying and eliminations each day, and photo galleries posted at the end of each day.

You will be able to view our coverage by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

We do like to be Wildside...
3rd May: This weekend's Bexhill Centenary Weekend centenary weekend sees the début of the new Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster (right, click on picture to see bigger version). The car is to be fired up to "frighten the locals" in the seaside town, in the words of driver Darryl Bradford.

"We finished all the fiddly bits last weekend and got it running, so it definitely works", says Darryl. "The looks on everyone's faces after spending eight months in the making was worth all the work! A big Thanks has to go to John, Lesley, Darren, newlywed Marcus, Tom, Simon and new recruit Steve for all the effort - and it's only just begun."

This weekend's events are the latest step in the fulfilment of Darryl's dream. "When I was young and just a kid on the spectator bank, I always wanted to bring my Top Fuel Dragster to my hometown and frighten the locals with it. Well, this weekend the people listed below are making another one of our dreams come true:

"Our major sponsor for the weekend is Megabowl, to whom we are very grateful for providing us with the bulk of the funding. This is hopefully the start of a great working relationship and we look forward to showing them what we can do over the course of the weekend. Other much-appreciated financial assistance comes from MT Drains, Wilsons Restaurant and White Contract Services. Product assistance will be from Wilmoths Citroen who will be providing the support vehicle for the weekend, R and B printers who are doing the handouts, Cyclops signs who provide all our graphics, Bexhill Photographic who are taking and processing all the PR shots, and Sussex Bed Centre who provided furniture for the trailer.

"Last but definitely not least, we are proud to announce our first season sponsor Toxico clothing. They have provided us with all the Union Jack crew uniforms, and will handle the team merchandising for the season. A huge personal thank you also goes to Gez, principal of Toxico, who made the drawing of our patriotic Fueller come to life and did a fantastic job of it!"

Stay tuned to Eurodragster for the first photos of the Top Fueller over the weekend. "We look forward to running the car very soon", says Darryl.

Springnationals arrangements.
2nd May: Tina Gibbs of Super Series organisers Obsession Motorsports has been in touch with some final information regarding this weekend's Springnationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. Terry Gibbs is still recovering from surgery and so is unlikely to be at the venue, and so Tina is asking for racers' extra help in ensuring that the event goes smoothly.

Pit layouts are available at the gate. "With an entry of 240, pit space is going to be very tight, even though we will be using the overflow pits", says Tina. "Please adhere strictly to your pit space allocation and don't take up space you don't need. Anyone not observing this will be asked to move."

Tina also tells us that extra lighting has been placed in the pits, over and above the usual strip of lights down the middle of the area. Scrutineering starts at 4:00 pm tomorrow (Friday).

Monday's minute's silence for the late Paul Willis has been rearranged. Originally scheduled for 10:45 on Monday morning, it will now take place immediately before the first round of Pro Stock Bike on Monday.

Finally, a TV crew will be in attendance on Monday, and racers are asked that their vehicles and crew are presentable at the start line.

Start your engines...
2nd May: The UK's Shockwave Fuel Funny Car team are raring to go after repairing damage suffered at the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. This weekend's Springnationals sees the first round of the 2002 British Nitro Funny Car Championship and driver Gordon Smith is straining at the leash.

"The whole Shockwave team has worked its socks off to get the car ready for this very important event, and the last few pieces of work will be completed tomorrow", says Gordon. "The car will sport a new paintjob after the problems we had at the Easter meet when the fuel tank exploded causing a fair bit of damage to the body. This is all repaired now and the new paintjob will make it easier to repair in future if needed.

"The whole team is looking forward to the challenges of the new season. It looks as if all of the FCs will be very hard to beat this year. We are not the only team to make changes this year so I think that this year will be much more competitive. I would like to wish all the teams involved the best of luck but watch out for Shockwave! Start your engines boys...

"We are looking forward to seing all the fans, so make the effort to get to Shakespeare County Raceway and pay us a visit in the pits - we are always happy to talk to the fans."

You can find the official Shockwave web site at www.funnycar.uk.com.

Got C12?
2nd May: Thanks to Ozzy Ewing for passing on the news that Pro ET racer Rob Elsom is urgently seeking about five gallons of C12 fuel for use at Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend. If anyone is able to help Rob out then please contact him by phone on 07890 995014.

Team TIL fixed and all set.
2nd May: Dave Holland and the Team Titanium International Limited Funny Bike team are looking forward to the Springnationals after setting new personal bests at the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod Raceway. However, a lot of work has had to be done since Easter.

"The runs which Dave put together at the Thunderball used settings suggested by Jay Regan which we had not tried before, but the new personal best of 7.22 showed we are going in the right direction", says Nigel Hoskison of Titanium International. "Unfortunately there was some damage to the motor which Martin Peck discovered when he stripped it two weeks ago. What should have been a routine strip, check and rebuild to allow him then to concentrate on building the spare motor turned into major repairs and part replacement. Fortunately, Jay Regan has been able to supply the necessary spares in several UPS shipments both to repair one motor and to provide the parts to build the other - Regan's Rescue Service again! So barring any last minute hiccups we are all set for the weekend.

"The team will have support this weekend from Titanium International Limited boss Tony Lawrence with his family, and Duncan McCulloch of sponsor Turbo Service International with his guests. Both Tony and Duncan are recent converts to the drag racing experience. The team will also be joined by a prospective sponsor paying his first visit to a drag racing. As well as the sponsors, new crew members Neil and Stuart together with Sarah,Sam and Joe will be there once again supporting Dave and Brian.

"Unfortunately I will be away on a business trip, thus missing my first race since becoming involved with Dave and drag racing. Until this week it looked as though my daughter Claire (or junior crew, as Dave refers to her) would miss out as well, but Chris Dossett from the Showtime Fuel Funny Car team, who lives close to us, has offered to take Claire back and forth to the meeting with him. Thanks Chris!

"Finally, all the team would like to say a special thank you to Martin Peck for all the help and support he has given Dave over the years. Martin will be emigrating to New Zealand in July and we wish him well for the future. If anyone would like to apply for this upcoming vacancy please contact Dave: usual pay and conditions - none!"

Well 'ard Winnard.
2nd May: UK 10.90 Bike racer Darren Winnard is in confident mood going into the Springnationals. Team Breakout, of whom Darren is a member, will be represented by four 10.90 Bikes and one 9.90 Bike this weekend.

"I haven't done anything to my bike", says Darren "It's still the smallest capacity bike in the group, but I expect to kick everyone's butt in 10.90. That sounds a bit arrogant, but you have to be confident. I'll throw the gauntlet down to anyone...and stay up later, party harder and drink more beer than anyone too."

Grateful Gregory counting down.
2nd May: Barrie Gregory of new Supertwin Top Gas team Serpent Racing starts the countdown to the weekend with a good luck message to his fellow racers, and a thank you to one in particular.

"Over the years racing I've met a lot of good friends, and many great racers, and I'd like to wish everyone luck as the new season starts", says Barrie. "In particular I would like to say thank you to my new sponsor, The ShaggyShack, for the work done on the new look bodykit and wheels. All Shaggy had to work on was the name of the bike 'Purple Haze' and the remit - Do as you will. He's certainly done the business, and it's great to be finally getting out on the track with a bike to be proud of."

Serpent Racing will be launching a new web site at the Springnationals. Webmaster Nikki tells us that the address will be announced over the PA system at Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend. Anyone wishing to receive E-Mail notification of the URL when it officially launches can contact Nikki by E-Mail at lemonkiten@ntlworld.com to be added to the mailing list.

Successful weekend in Greece.
2nd May: We are very grateful to Panagiotis Zarifopoulos for sending us news of the weekend's action in Greece. "The weekend in Tripoli Military Airfield once again had a big turnout of more than 150 racers and 12000 spectators and produced a great show", says Panagiotis, "even if the 700-metre altitude and strong crosswinds did not allow for good times. The crosswinds caused at least a couple of cone-hitting incidents by the Funny Bikes, one of them knocking the eighth-mile light and almost sending it flying to the crowd. Nevertheless,the organisers put on a nice tight schedule, despite the technical difficulties encountered with the brand new Portatree setup, and at the end of the weekend everybody had a smile on their faces. The race had coverage from both a local and a national TV channel which helped to draw more attention to the fast-growing sport. There are rumours of a permanent drag strip by 2003 being discussed by officials and sponsors.

"The next race is on 18th May, again at Tripoli. Maybe the faster cars have got the tune up corrected for the altitude by then?"

Greek fans can find all the information they need about drag racing on two Greek-language sites at www.dragster.gr and www.greekracer.net.

Partnership by Air and Sea.
2nd May: Air Sea Logistics Ltd are pleased to announce their continued marketing partnership with the Nemesis Top Methanol Team which has this year joined forces with American Car Imports Racing for a full on assault on the British and FIA European Drag Racing Top Methanol Dragster Championships. Malcolm Francis, Managing Director of Air Sea Logistics Ltd said "We are delighted to announce our continued support for the new team and wish them every success for this year's Championship quests. The team are extremely hard working and dedicated in their desire to compete and succeed at the very top of their sport. In past seasons, relatively small minor things have kept the team from the winners circle on more than one occasion and perhaps major Championships but they have never let it get them down or at least never showed it anyway. It is that never-give-up attitude which we admire and associate ourselves with."

Air Sea Logistics Ltd, based at London Heathrow Airport, offer import and export services by air, ocean, road and express courier on a global basis. Their client base is spread across the spectrum of modern day industry covering fashion, hi-tech, television/film and media to building contractors, manufacturing and aerospace industries. It should also be mentioned the company handles large project shipments such as moving 50 tons of camera, cables and support equipment to major outside sports events such as the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, World Athletics and World Cup. In addition to handling the shipping requirements of many leading drag race teams and other motor sport teams in the UK they also specialise in time sensitive shipments for many airlines throughout Europe who rely on Air Sea Logistics to transport urgent aircraft spares around Europe to aircraft that are grounded either due to technical problems or for routine maintenance. As part of this they offer a 24 hour 7 day a week service to service these clients requirements. "No client is too small whether they import or export once a year or several times a week we give them all the same high level of professionalism and service" said Malcolm Francis. "We always give our clients 110% to try and ensure each shipment goes smoothly. Many of our manufacturing and airline clients see us as an integral part of their business and demand very high levels of service and we deliver it. We work very closely with each client to build a close working business partnership and develop logistical shipping solutions suited to their business requirements". Air Sea Logistics Ltd can be contacted by phone on 01753 687411, by fax on 01753 687422, by E-Mail at sales@airsealogistics.com, or on the Web at www.airsealogistics.com.

Big Bang weekend.
2nd May: If Volkswagens are your bag then this weekend's Big Bang VW event at Santa Pod Raceway will cater to your every need. "Expect three days of air-Cooled madness, with free RWYB on Saturday and Monday, and VW Drag Racing Club action on Sunday", says Chris Ware of Trakbak Racing. "Off track there will be tons of VW traders selling everything from car parts to clothing, and everything in-between. Night-time entertainment comes from Big Boys Noize and a host of live bands on Saturday night, and The Carwash and even more great live bands on Sunday night. So, pack your flares and afro into your V-dub, and set a course for Santa Pod!"

You can find more details about the Big Bang at www.bugjam.co.uk/bigbang2002.htm.

Joon plans Fuel FC move.
1st May: Dutch Top Methanol FC racer Lex Joon has revealed plans to step up to Fuel Funny Car in 2003. Lex, who put in a last-minute entry to this weekend's Super Series Springnationals at Shakespeare County Raceway in his Splitfire-sponsored TMFC, has put his Top Methanol operation up for sale.

"The car is available for sale at the end of this season, or sooner depending upon the deal we can make", says Lex. Lex has already visited with Fuel FC teams in the UK to see what is involved, and enquiries have been made of Bob Jarrett and the Showtime team about their spare FC.

Lex's last-minute appearance in the second round of the MSA British Drag Racing Championship this weekend was assured with a lot of hard work by his crew. "We were talking about going to Shakespeare County Raceway to go over some details with Bob Jarrett when I told the guys that we could take our car as well and see if we could help Steph Milam out in her quest against the long cars", said Lex. "The crew looked at me and knew that we had a lot of work to finish in a real short time."

"The nine months of winter is too long for us", added Gerda Dijkstra of Lex Joon Racing. "We need to race! We miss it too much! The car wasn't ready, but the great spirit in the team made us work hard and finish it."

"It's always great to go to Shakespeare County Raceway, it's the most friendly racetrack in the world!", said Lex. "We are really looking forward to making the show and to meeting all you wonderful people. I promise that I will give you some nice smoky burnouts to photograph."

If you are interested in buying Lex's 5.8-second TMFC then you can find details on our Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored Swap Meet.

The Lex Joon Racing web site has been given a facelift, and we think it looks just great. The site features news, team and car details, photo gallery, merchandise and a lot more. Check it out at www.lexjoonracing.nl.

Plastic surgery for Leanders.
1st May: Swedish Top Methanol FC team Leanders Brothers Dragracing have performed a little surgery on their FC in the form of an ex-John Force Mustang body. "The body is one which John Force Racing designed and used in 1999 and half of the 2000 season", says Benny of Leanders Brothers Dragracing. "We will paint it black like last season. The design of the new Ford body will improve downforce with less drag. The rear spoiler will be replaced with a smaller item to suit the TMFC class."

Benny adds that the body was shipped with help from Nordtrafik, whose web site you can find at www.nordtrafik.se.

You can view a number of pictures of the Mustang body at the Leanders Brothers workshop on the team's official web site at www.leandersbros.com.

Dahlbloms go Comp.
1st May: Another Swedish family team, Dahlblom Brothers Dragracing, have announced that they are to run in Competition Eliminator this season.

Thomas Dahlblom tells us that the repainted, radical-scooped altered (right) is to run in C/A giving it an index of 8.45 over the quarter mile. The car is to be equipped with a 333ci Chevrolet small block and an A1 Proflite transmission. Stay tuned for news of the altered's progress.

Private test goes ahead.
1st May: The private test at Santa Pod Raceway on the Saturday before the FIA Main Event (25th May) is definitely going ahead, says track manager Kjell Petterson. The test day was contingent upon a certain number of entries being received, and this number of entries is now expected.

Top Fuel Dragster, Pro Mod, Supertwin Top Fuel, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Bike, Top Methanol Funny Car, Super Comp, and Super Gas are all represented on 25th May. The test is closed to the public but Kjell Petterson has, as usual, very kindly invited Eurodragster along to report upon the day's events.

Swiss Pro Mod racer Marcus Hilt (right, picture by Remco Scheelings) is set to run at the test. "Our main focus for the test weekend is to improve our sixty-foot times, get ahead of our two-disc clutch setup, and sort out some bugs in the new chassis/shock configuration at the rear", says Marcus. "Also we will test the new Hoosier tyres at the back. We know we have the power to dip into the six-second zone with our reliable blown 526 KB Hemi!"

Super Comp, Pro ET and Wild Bunch racer Colin Aldred will be attending the test day with his new Classy Chassis slingshot. "We think that it is a great opportunity to get some quality track time", says Colin. "With our new setup we need to acquire as much data for our weather station as possible, and to lean on the engine to run 8.90."

Danish Top Fuel Dragster racer Kim Reymond is also amongst those signed up for the test day, together with Swedish Pro Stock racer Jari Konola, Dutch Pro Mod racer Henri Joosten, UK Supertwin Top Fuel racer Bernie Hepworth, and UK rookie Super Gas racer Malcolm Francis who through his company Air Sea Logistics is a sponsor of the American Car Imports Top Methanol Dragster team but obviously couldn't just watch any more!

Bookings are still being taken for the private test. For full details (including important points about licencing and insurance) and an entry form, both in PDF format, click here. If you have any queries then please contact Santa Pod Raceway by phone on 08700 782828 (+44 1234 782828 from outside the UK) during business hours, or E-Mail test@santapod.fsnet.co.uk.

Help Top Fuel Bike.
1st May: FIM/UEM European Competition Bike Champion Ian King has written to ask Eurodragster readers for their help.

"The NHRA are evaluating the interest in the current exhibition classes (which includes Top Fuel Bike) with a view to expanding the class OR deleting it. With this in mind they are conducting a poll in which people can vote for their favourite classes by ranking them in preference from 1 to 14. They are really interested in how the TF Bikes and Pro Mods stack up against their traditional classes, so if these classes are to have a larger future in the NHRA, then please click on the link below and at least vote our class near the top of preference (1 or close!). An expanded class will mean that the Europeans will have more chance of being invited or able to enter a class in which they have a good chance of winning, one of the few opportunities for the Europeans to show their world class abilities. Thanks for voting!"

You can find the NHRA vote at www.nhra.com/2002/polls/favclass/pollform.asp.


Earlier news


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