FHRA Nitro Nationals preview.
30th June: We are indebted to the Finnish Hot Rod Association's new PR Marko Yli-Pietilä for sending us a preview of this weekend's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro.

The opening race at Santa Pod was exceptionally fast, especially in the Top Fuel category, and most of the teams will take part in the Alastaro EM Nitro Nationals as well. Finns will certainly be interested in seeing their own favorite Anita Mkel racing again. Anita won the European Championship in the year 2000 and was runner-up in 2001. After a year's break she is back on strip and hungry for winning races.

All of the FIA and UEM categories look very good this year. The number of teams is high and the competition fierce. Above all, the Alastaro race will have certain Finnish-Swedish test match flavour, which will make it even more interesting for the spectators. It won't be easy for the Finns to win even if Tomi Pöntinen drove Finland's best-ever Pro Modified time in the season opener at Alastaro at the end of May. Håkan Nilsson and Roger Johansson will do their best to win the race and grab the crown of glory.

A World Champion is racing in Competition Eliminator category this year. Janne Ahonen, who is better known for his achievements in ski jumping, is driving for the Eagle Racing team this year. Janne won the season opener at Alastaro at the end of May.

Anders 'Charley' Karling opens his UEM Supertwin season at Alastaro. Because Charley will be going to the USA to participate in races there, Alastaro could be the only chance to see him racing in Europe this season. Finns Kai Selkämaa and Kari Parikka will give Charley hard competition. Competition Bike has changed its name since last year. The category is now called Top Fuel Bike and there are both nitro and turbo bikes competing in the category. The fastest racers from the Main Event in May are coming to Alastaro so competition in this category will also be fierce.

Vesa Rautio of Finland had some bad luck at Santa Pod and therefore is hungry for success in Pro Stock Bike. Vesa has what it takes to win the race so there will be a lot to see for Finns in this category as well.

You can read more about the FHRA Nitro Nationals on the club's official web site at www.fhra.fi.
©Eurodragster.com
Leanders relieved at bad luck.
30th June: Sweden's Leanders Brothers Top Methanol Funny Car team have had their share of problems in the last few weeks, says Crew Chief Jörgen Leanders. Jörgen and the team are however relieved that the latest spell of bad luck happened when it did.

"As if it wasn't enough when we went out in round one at Santa Pod, we went to Avesta to make two runs at a local race", says Jörgen. "It may sound strange but that was the best thing we could have done. On the final run, an intake valve broke and destroyed the camshaft, lifters, pushrods, pistons, and one combustion chamber. If we hadn't gone to Avesta, this would have happened in the first qualifying run at Alastaro, and that would have been a disaster.
©Eurodragster.com
"All of the parts are now on order from BAE and should be here in time for the race. I'm very confident that the car will run well at Alastaro - that track have always been good for us. It was at Alastaro that Ulf got his licence back in 1999, and the year after that we ran our first five-second run with a 5.916 and made it to the final. In 2001 we won the race and last year we were the number one qualifier with a 5.88 before the race was rained out.

"Our new Ford Mondeo Ironcad Funny Car is really starting to show some of its true potential, and with our crew - the best in the business - and Ulf behind the wheel, I'm absolutely sure that we're going to put on a great show for the fans at Alastaro."

You can find the very professional Leanders Brothers Racing web site at www.leandersbros.com.

Magnus' dream.
30th June: Reigning FIA European Pro Stock Champion Michael Malmgren and his AC Delco Racing team have a pretty clear game plan for this weekend's FIA round at Alastaro, says crew member Magnus Cato.

"Our game plan is to qualify number one with a new European record, keep the momentum through eliminations and win in big style", says Magnus. "Nothing will break, we will learn the car completely, and all the pretty Finnish girls will come to us for autographs...am I awake yet?
©Eurodragster.com
"Seriously, we are looking forward to the race, as we performed quite well at Alastaro last year, running 6.95 and 6.98. The Finnish part of the crew (Crew Chief Heikki Parviainen - Ed) has a lot of experience of that particular track, so we are confident.

"The car is fixed, and Michael has spent some time with a new practice tree which has been integrated with the clutch setup inside the car. Hopefully the weather will stay on our side, so I can bring you an inside report of our victory at the race."

Racers: It's not too late to send your FHRA Nitro Nationals previews. E-Mail us at news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish it here.

Spare seat sought.
30th June: Photographer and race fan Rob Cook is headed for Alastaro this weekend and has written to ask if anyone is passing Helsinki Airport and can offer him a lift to the track. "My plane lands at 4.30 pm this Thursday, 3rd July", says Rob. "I'd be more than happy to contribute beer or petrol money". If you can offer Rob a lift to the track then please drop him an E-Mail at rp.cook@csl.gov.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
SPRC Summernationals results.
29th June: Congratulations to the winners of the SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway:

MSA Top Methanol: Dave Wilson 5.684/248.90 def. Rob Turner 5.687/244.75
Super Modified: Danny Cockerill 7.552/184.62 def. Steve Rawlings 8.075/167.78
Super Pro ET: Mark Flavell (7.82) 7.857/173.25 def. Ian Bishop (7.95) 7.924/163.19 breakout
Pro ET: Lee Huxley (10.92) 10.916/115.62 def. Rick McCann (10.76) 10.736/130.02 lesser breakout
Sportsman ET: Kev Slyfield (12.06) 12.076/116.14 def. Nick South (14.10) 14.119/98.85
Super Comp: Malcolm Francis 8.942/148.54 def. Brian Pateman 8.998/153.52
Super Gas: Tim Adam 9.880/147.61 def. Frank Mason 9.825/141.78 lesser breakout
Super Street: Conrad Stanley 10.859/134.43 def. Dave Cherrett 10.799/101.74 lesser breakout
Junior Dragster: Tom Watts (11.00) 10.992/57.29 def. Nick Mugridge (8.90) 8.877/68.63 lesser breakout
Custom Car Street Eliminator: Steve Pateman 8.688/169.73 def. Jon Webster 8.911/168.42
VW Pro: Russ Fellows (11.50) 11.752/98.42 def. Paul Woodhead (11.19) 13.366/72.91
VW Sportsman: Rob Bowler (13.00) 12.924/90.44 def. Dan Buzzo (19.00) 18.858/69.69 lesser breakout
VW Alternate Engine: Matt Attwood (13.90) 14.219/94.52 def. Gin Marone (14.00) 14.087/95.79
©Eurodragster.com
Pro Stock Bike: Richard Gipp 7.565/174.81 def. Martin Bishop 7.746/171.76
Funny Bike: Neil Midgley 6.831/189.83 def. Mike Chislett 7.430/182.73
Comp Bike: Klaus Sarembe 8.071/162.91 def. Phil Leamon 8.359/159.21
Super Street Bike: Tony Clark 8.819/171.15 def. Steve Venables 9.844/162.94
9.90 Bike: Steve Coombs 9.915/133.81 def. Fred Furlong 9.871/133.16 breakout
10.90 Bike: Andy Burfitt 11.134/100.10 def. Richard Beck 11.144/133.02
Supertwin Fuel: Dave Witts 10.096/137.83 def. Chris Stebbings 13.660/54.33
Supertwin Gas: George Laycock 9.666/136.81 def. Andy Smith 10.362/124.16
Supertwin Modified: Simon Hodgson 9.801/144.87 def. TJ O'Brien 10.825/126.43
Supertwin Street: Mark Earrey 10.080/134.84 def. Dave Jones 13.519/60.35

Congratulations also to Pro ET racer Gino Bernadine who won Eurodragster's Perfect Light Award of £75 with a 0.500 reaction time in the first round of eliminations.

Click here to view our SPRC Summernationals coverage, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Racers: Send your SPRC Summernationals reviews to us at news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them here.

Aros Nats results.
29th June: The weather spoilt race day at this weekend's Aros Nats at Västerås in Sweden, but our buddies at Svensk Dragracing have updated their web site with full details of the action which did take place. You can find the Aros Nats results at www.dragracing.se.
©Eurodragster.com
Tribute to Rob Long.
29th June: We have received the following tribute to late Super Gas racer Rob Long from Paul Marston:

This week we have to say goodbye to a very dear friend and fellow Super Gas racer Rob Long. Rob was a great guy. He enjoyed and lived a full life, we all admired and respected his bravery, and its hard to believe that hes gone. Rob was a clever, resourceful, quick-witted man who was dearly loved by his family and friends. Having known Rob for over twenty years and with Robs cousin Steve Brennan in the PMR Crew, this is a personal loss to us all. A man who virtually single-handedly built his own Super Gas race car, you will be sorely missed by many my dear friend.

Paul Marston Racing dedicated winning the Brighton Speed Trials in 2002 to Rob Long. He was in our thoughts before and has been in our prayers ever since, taken at such a young age with so much more to do. They say that the candles that burn brightest sometimes burn shorter, Rob touched a great many of us with his kindness and friendship, those of us lucky enough to call him a friend were indeed privileged to have known such a great man. Needless to say most of PMR will be at church on Thursday to say goodbye.

PT Bruiser excluded from Brighton.
29th June: Also from Paul Marston Racing comes the shock news that the ChryslerCard PT Bruiser has been refused entry to this year's Brighton Speed Trials, an event which has long been attended and supported by PMR cars. Paul Marston takes up the story:

The PT Bruiser has not been out in National Championship competition this year. A combination of the success of the Drag Race Driving School, work commitments and our unsuccessful bid to have the ChryslerCard PT Bruiser accepted into Super Modified meant that there would only be a limited schedule this year. But one date which now, for rather sad reasons, took on more significance for PMR was the prospect of returning to the Brighton Speed Trials and defending our titles for Rob. For the record we hold the Club Trophy (FTD), the Sports Libre Class 8 Trophy and the Les Edmunds Fastest Pushrod Trophy.
©Eurodragster.com
It is therefore with great regret and sadness, especially with the news of Rob Long's passing, that I have to inform you that for reasons that still have yet to become clear the ChryslerCard PT Bruiser has been refused entry for the Frosts Brighton Speed Trials 2003. As defending event champions to say we were dumbfounded would be a pretty accurate assessment. It is unfair for Paul Marston Racing to comment until the position and reasons are clarified, but by all accounts it seems most unlikely that the decision will be overturned. For the record, there is no reason known to anyone at Paul Marston Racing, nor was there any indication at any time given by Brighton and Hove Motor Club why we would be prevented from running in 2003, neither have there been any rule changes to make the ChryslerCard PT Bruiser ineligible. So for the moment it must remain a mystery.

We can however report that our second race car Grumpy's Dodge, driven again by Alison Gibbons, has been accepted to run in the Frosts Brighton Speed Trial.

SCR Health and Safety Co-ordinator.
28th June: Glenn Ramsden of UK Event Safety has been appointed Event Health and Safety Co-ordinator for a number of events at Shakespeare County Raceway by track owner Anthony Hodges and event promoters. Glenn wrote to introduce himself and to explain his role.

"There is nothing to fear!", says Glenn. "I will be touring the venue taking note of anything which requires attention with regard to health and safety, and having a word with anyone who can help to put the problem right.

"In the worst-case scenario, I can issue an improvement notice to any offenders which is, for want of a better term, a 'yellow card'. I feel that this will never happen should everyone adopt a sensible approach.
©Eurodragster.com
"We all have a duty of care to others when at the track, and what I am trying to do is to ensure that we all uphold that.

"The management team at the venue have done a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes recently with regard to health and safety, making it one of the safest venues around. This can only be achieved if you uphold your responsibilities.

"So, nothing heavy, don't worry. We at Shakespeare County are merely trying to comply with the law. This is something that other venues may not have yet got around to doing, but nevertheless it is the law.

"Tips for racers: Fire extinguishers in a prominent place in your pit area, this is not the one that you have in your car! Barbecues not near the race vehicle, fuel or gazebo please! Race fuel stored away from everything else and not under your camper. This is the same as putting it under your bed at home. Engine tests - fire suits on, respirators in use if applicable, and the vehicle on suitable stands.

"I will be submitting a report at the end of each meeting some of which will require immediate action.

"Let's keep racing as safe as possible...but still have a good time."

Summernationals Super Mod preview.
28th June: UK Super Modified Championship Co-ordinator Sharon Hogarth kindly sent us a preview of this weekend's Super Mod action at the SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway.

Newcomer to the Super Mod ranks Paul Brooks and his hired crew worked their socks off at the team's recent debut in Super Modified with their 'Out a Time' Sierra at Shakespeare County Raceway. Paul was lucky to have the full backing of Graham Ellis, Graham's Crew Chief Rob as well as both of Graham's sons. Fellow Super Modders and fans alike took their hats off to the team for sheer effort at their first event and not least a superbly turned out race car. Paul will again be borrowing crew from Graham Ellis for the Summernationals which will without a doubt be hard going for the Ellis crew and a lot of pressure too. With observed runs now out of the way and a fully fledged Super Mod licence under his belt Paul will no doubt be keen to get in some real track time and begin to put the 500 ci big block through its paces adding the gas this time out. Watch out for the 'Out a Time' team on the start line and give them a warm welcome to the class and Santa Pod Raceway.

Danny Cockerill and the Steelcraft Racing Team are hanging on to the points lead in the 2003 National Championship despite fellow SM racers not giving the awesome 509ci NOS Rover Coupe an awful lot of wiggle room. Danny will be hungry to secure a win at the Summernationals having fallen foul of returning Super Mod racer Graham Ellis at the Power Nationals when Graham and his team took out the big hitter in the semi-finals. There will certainly be plenty of banter going on in the SM pits over the next couple of days and if these two experienced teams should draw each other in eliminations get yourselves a ringside seat cos this will be edge of ya seat match racing with a shovel load of grudge thrown in.

It's great to see Graham Ellis back in the hot seat of his Olds Cutlass and doesn't it look great too. Graham and the team have been working real hard over the off season and indeed right up to the recent Power Nationals preparing their ride for action. Work has included a change of team colours with a new pearl white paint scheme and a change from a deck to an aerofoil wing, however, the biggest change of direction for the team has been the decision to forego big cubic inches of normally aspirated power for smaller cubes and as much sniff as can be mustered from a five lb bottle. The team's all-new power plant is a 475ci Big Block Chevy which it would be fair to say has really stamped its authority hauling the Oldsmobile up the track in record time, laying down a huge 7.71/182 at its very first meeting and with the team still running it in! Graham and team will be keen to make up for lost time and to continue their winning streak.

The Gleeson Wright-backed Granada Scorpio of Andy Hone and team has got Danny Cockerill frantically watching his rear view mirror. The team have been scorching the track this season with their NOS powered 461ci BBC and are now only a few points away from the Championship leaders Steelcraft Racing despite recently kissing the guardrail at Shakespeare County Raceway. Thanks to the determination of the team and the expert assistance of Super Mod contingency sponsor Andy Robinson, 'Fred' did not miss a single meeting and the team are set to turn up the heat at the Summernationals with second place in the Championship just not cutting it for the fast and furious.

The Supra Mod of Steve Rawlings and team benefited big time from the expert assistance and support of Rob Loaring and Nick Davies at the Power Nationals and by all accounts the super crew ironed out a few technicalities with the 461ci NOS powered Toyota. Steve with a smile as wide as the track is long made it right through to the finals before a bitch of a hitch put the brakes on his finals debut. Steve is back however for more at the Summernationals and will be looking to build on his recent success as well as his ETs as he heads closer and closer to the 8.0's.
©Eurodragster.com
 Rob Long's funeral.
27th June: We are indebted to Dave Hall and Paula Marshall for sending us details of the funeral of UK Super Gas racer Rob Long, who died last week.
©Eurodragster.com
Rob's funeral, to which all are welcome, takes place next Thursday, 3rd July. A service will be held at 10:45 at All Saints Church, Castle Avenue, Highams Park, Chingford, London E4. The funeral takes place at 12:00 midday at Chingford Mount Cemetery, Chingford Mount Road, Chingford, London E4 6ST.

Flowers can be sent to Rob's home:

13 Castle Avenue
Highams Park
Chingford
London
E4 9PY

Flowers should arrive by 10:15 or can be sent on Wednesday afternoon (2nd July).

Anyone wishing to attend Rob's funeral and needing directions can call Dave Hall on 07956 961114.

Ripley biding his time.
27th June: UK Top Methanol Funny Car racer Doug Ripley will not be contesting this weekend's round of the MSA British Championship in his CC Racing FC as he is awaiting the arrival of a major new part.
©Eurodragster.com
"We are waiting for our new blower to arrive", says Crew Chief Cliff Gould. "After the Main Event, we felt that the only way that we will be able too compete in an FIA round would be to buy a Whipple. so that is what we have done."

Cliff says that the new blower is still in the USA at present but is expected to arrive at the CC Racing shop by the end of next week. Doug and the team will then make their first whipple-assisted appearance at August's Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. "CC Racing's aim has always been to give British fans a competitive British TMFC, and that's what we're hoping to do", says Cliff.

British Top Methanol preview.
27th June: Doug Ripley's news leads us very nicely into a preview of this weekend's Oil Control-sponsored Championship round, by MSA Championship Co-ordinator Dave Alexander.

After two rounds of five, the Championship points standings are as follows:

Dave Wilson216
Rob Turner171
Doug Ripley151
Steph Milam131
Doug Bond97

For the first time in a very long time, Dave Wilson leads the points in the American Car Imports dragster. Dave and the team are determined to end the six-year consecutive run of championship wins enjoyed by Rob Turner. Eurodragster news reported on 22nd June that the ACI team will be campaigning last year's car this weekend as the number one car is on the way to Alastaro.

Rob, Steve and Carmel Turner will be trying some changes to the ratios in their Lenco gearbox on the Netcall Telecom dragster. "We've never done this before" said Rob. "We have changed it so that it should accelerate off the line quicker, giving us lower sixty foot times. It all depends on the track as to how well it works".
©Eurodragster.com
Steph and Dave Milam continue their quest for low sixes this weekend in the She Devil Racing Funny Car, with consistency being their objective. "Andy Robinson is looking at the computer data for us this weekend to try to help to sort out our start line problems", said Dave. " It might go wrong or it might fly - we know we have adjustments to make and this is the time". It's also the opportunity for them to overtake Doug Ripley in the Championship.

Oil Control supplies a vast range of high quality hydraulic valves to many of the world's most famous manufacturers of heavy machinery and earth moving equipment. They can be contacted on 024 7663 5711, Fax 024 7663 5041 or via their web site at www.oilcontrol.co.uk.

Spliced Starter.
27th June: Another significant event taking place this weekend is the marriage of Avon Park International Racers Association Chief Starter Scott Talbot and his fiancée Michelle, which takes place tomorrow (we really must do event coverage from a wedding some time - Ed). Scott and Michelle plan to honeymoon in the USA - what odds would Eurodragster's readers give for that trip including the occasional piece of race action.
©Eurodragster.com
We are sure that everyone will want to join Sharkman and Tog in wishing Scott and Michelle every happiness for the future, and in congratulating Mother Of The Groom and APIRA Club and Race Secretary Wendy Talbot who is doubtless her usual unflappable self right now.

Veidec Nitro Festival entry.
27th June: Kjell Pettersson has asked us to remind racers that this Monday, 30th June, is the closing date for standard entry to the Veidec Nitro Festival, which takes place at Mantorp Park on 24th-27th July. From Tuesday onwards entry, if accepted, will be deemed late and subject to an additional fee.
©Eurodragster.com
You can find the very latest versions of all of the Veidec Nitro Festival forms, including an order form for pit electricity, hospitality packages and tickets, as well as forms for all other NDRS events on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se/nerladdning.html. Alternately you can contact Mantorp Park direct at:

2003 VEIDEC NITRO FESTIVAL
Mantorp Park
590 17 Mantorp
Sweden

Telephone: +46 (0)142 298850
Fax: +46 (0)142 298869
E-Mail: info@mantorppark.com

Teboul wows Tököl.
26th June: France's Eric Teboul set a new Hungarian record when he ran his Rocket Bike at Tököl at the weekend. Eric, who rode the bike into the fives at the Speedfreaks Ball in May, almost repeated the feat in Hungary.

"The spectators were very surprised when they saw the rocket bike", says Eric. "The quickest bike in Hungary had been 8.2 seconds, and I ran an easy 6.03/348 kmh (216 mph) with the bike under power for about 250 metres."
©Eurodragster.com
If you have been tuned in to Eurodragster's Event Coverage when Eric has been running you will recall that he sometimes has concerns about stopping the bike. This wasn't an issue at Tököl where racing takes place on an ex-military runway. "The runway is three kilomteres long and twenty metres wide", says Eric. "You don't need to brake!"

Eric was very impressed with his trip to Hungary. "It's a very nice country", he says. "The people are very kind. And Budapest is a nice city. The organisation at the track was very good, with a professional timing system with display. It is only a small club which doesn't have much money but they promise to host an international race when they can get more spectators. Hopefully the TV crew who were at the track can help with the promotion of an international race in two years."

You can find Eric's web site at www.teboulracing.com, and you can see more about drag racing in Hungary on the club's very professional web site at www.dragrace.hu.

Summernats gates, running order.
26th June: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has been in touch to let us know about access to Santa Pod tomorrow (Friday) for the SPRC Summernationals. "The track gates will open at 5:00 pm tomorrow", says Paula. "The gate to the pits will be closed promptly at midnight."
©Eurodragster.com
Santa Pod's International Race Director Darren Prentice has kindly forwarded us the provisional running order for Saturday's qualifying at Santa Pod. As ever the running order is subject to change due to weather, track conditions, or at the Race Director's discretion. Click here to view Saturday's running order; you can also access it via the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Web site updates.
26th June: The UK Pro ET web site has been updated with the latest points standings in the UK National, SPRC and Ultimate Power Championships. You can find the very tidy UK Pro ET web site at www.pro-et.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
Gareth Evans has updated his UK1320 web site with some seventy photographs from the Power Nationals. Gareth tells us that he is about to embark on a re-scan of some of his photographs from earlier this season. You can find the UK1320 web site at www.uk1320.com.

Joon's work of art.
25th June: One of two 'rookies' to move up to Fuel Funny Car from Top Methanol FC in 2003, Holland's Lex Joon, is very pleased indeed with the ex-Skuza Fuel FC which he acquired from the Showtime team. Since getting the MPM Oil-sponsored Avenger back to his workshop after the FIA Main Event, Lex and the team have found more and more to be impressed with.

"Its amazing to see how detailed this car is", says Lex. "When Dean Skuza ordered the car from Murf McKinney he knew what he wanted. There are kinds of small details in the car which make life a lot easier. For example, there are complete lines and brackets to mount the fire bottles in the back of the car, and all-steel lines to connect to the datalogger. The tinwork in the body is a work of art."

The Avenger put in an appearance at last week's Drachten Nationals, which was the first of three races this season to be promoted by Lex and Team Manager Gerda Dijkstra. The car was fired up to whet the appetites of fans who will be flocking back to the MPM Internationals on 11th-13th July to see the car run. "As it looks right now, Lex will do a couple of his famous burnouts although he would like to make an eighth-mile pass after seeing Roel Koedam take the track record at the last event", says Gerda. MPM Oil and Lex Joon Racing are putting in a lot of effort to get a guardrail at Drachten. This is one of the main safety requirements if the MPM Dodge Avenger is to run over 200 miles per hour over the eighth. John, Lee, Paul and Bill of the Showtime team will be giving a hand to our Dutch crew, so we are sure to give the public a good show!"
©Eurodragster.com
Gerda tells us that the MPM Internationals will be the biggest event ever organised at Drachten. "Yorin, one of the biggest broadcasters on TV and radio in Holland, will host the event with live music and DJs", says Gerda. "There will be a couple of grandstands with capacity for more than 4000 people. For the racers the track will be prepared with our new track dryer and spray car, and with the new timing equipment everything is in place for a great weekend for the 160 racers who are currently entered."

Lex's 5.7-second Camaro Top Methanol Funny Car is still for sale. "We are prepared to make a good deal to a potential buyer", says Lex. "We would also be interested in trading-in for another race car or an American truck". The TMFC comes ready to race with various engine combinations and everything is specced for 2003. For more details check out the advertisement in the Cars For Sale section of Eurodragster's Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored Swap Meet, E-Mail Lex Joon Racing at info@lexjoonracing.nl, or check out Lex's web site at www.lexjoonracing.nl.

Junerud #1 on return.
25th June: Swedish Supertwin Bike racer Stefan Junerud started his 2003 season well with a number one qualifying spot at the Bike Weekend at Västerås.

"As you may remember, not much happened to us last year", says Stefan. "With a major redesign to the transmission and drivetrain, and with a clutch cannon, lock-up and high gear we thought it should be possible to make some passes to figure out how to set the clutch. The outcome was nothing except the engine explosions which took us out of competition at Mantorp Park and Gardermoen.
©Eurodragster.com
"This season we didnt know what to do, but we decided to give it one more chance. We made five passes at Västerås which proved to us that it is well worth a try. The track wasn't perfect, but it wasn't bad either. We were a bit rusty but we got the number one spot at 4.702, which we were really happy with. In Sunday's elimination we lost to Anders Karling in the final, where we both went up in smoke.

"So we're going to give it another chance. First we are going to the Göteborg Motor Festival this weekend, and then if it is still OK we will try Alastaro."

Nitro Nationals entry list.
25th June: Our good friends at the Finnish Hot Rod Association have published the official entry list for next week's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro, the next round of the FIA and FIM/UEM European Championships and the Nordic Drag Racing Series including NDRS Bilsport Pro Mod.
©Eurodragster.com
Click here to view the Nitro Nationals entry list.

Perfect Light fund increases.
11th June: This weekend's SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway is the next qualifying event for the Eurodragster Perfect Light Award. No-one recorded a perfect Reaction Time at the Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, so the Perfect Light prize fund has been increased to £75.

All racers in all classes are eligible for the Perfect Light Award: it will be awarded to the first racer at this weekend's event to record a perfect Reaction Time, 0.400 or 0.500 as appropriate. The money can be won in either qualifying or eliminations, but not open practice.
©Eurodragster.com
If no-one records a perfect RT this weekend then the prize fund will be increased to £100 (about SEK 1260) for the Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park. If the money is won then the prize fund will be recharged to £50 (about SEK 630) for the Veidec Drag Festival.

Good luck everyone!

FIA European Finals entry forms.
25th June: FIA Championship Co-ordinator Kjell Pettersson has forwarded us the official invitation and entry forms for the FIA European Finals, which take place at Santa Pod Raceway on 5th-7th September. The forms are in Adobe Acrobat format and also include an application for tickets for the post-race Banquet.

Click here for the FIA entry form
Click here for the FIM/UEM entry form
Click here for the Fuel FC and NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified entry form
©Eurodragster.com
You can find the very latest versions of all of the FIA, UEM and NDRS entry forms on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se/nerladdning.html.

Ultimate Power points updated.
25th June: We are indebted to APIRA's Points Co-ordinator Simon Groves for forwarding us the post-Power Nationals standings in the Ultimate Power Drag Racing Championships. All car classes, 9.90 Bike and 10.90 Bike are now available; ACU bike classes are to follow shortly as they are still being ratified.
©Eurodragster.com
Click here to view the Ultimate Power points, or click on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

European Bests updated.
25th June: We are also indebted to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us a new version of his European Bests factsheet, updated to take account of the records set at the FIA Main Event.
©Eurodragster.com
Click here to view the European Bests, or click on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Rocket Ronnie footage sought.
25th June: We've had a call for help from Jo Sargeant, who is a researcher on the TV series Scrapheap Challenge which is no stranger to racers and fans (and Sharkman will certainly never forget it - Ed).
©Eurodragster.com
"Ronnie Picardo featured on one of our shows this series, and I am trying to find some video footage of his wheelie car", says Jo. "Ronnie doesn't have any footage himself and I have asked around but found nothing. If anyone can help it would be much appreciated. I will need it on either DV or Beta tape as the quality of VHS is too poor to broadcast."

If you can help with footage of the Stingray on its tail then please contact Jo either by E-Mail at Jo.Sargeant@RDFMedia.com, or phone 0207 013 4378.

Web site updates.
25th June: The UK's Spellbound Pro ET team recently launched a web site and have now acquired their own URL at www.spellbounddragraceteam.co.uk. The site tells you everything you cold want to know about Santa Pod Racers Club's 2002 Most Professional Appearing Team and their very rapid Morris Minor.
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Freddy's annual drama.
24th June: Sweden's Pro Mod and Top Methanol FC racer Fast Freddy Fagerström has had his annual Pro Mod wild ride very early this season, says Björn Anderberg. Regular readers will remember that Freddy's wild pick-up had a brief discussion with the guardrail on the finish line at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod last season but almost literally bounced back to take the event win. Freddy has started 2003 in a similar manner, writes Björn.
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"Freddy was racing at Avesta last week", says Björn. "He had some problems after the finish line and slid off the track. He damaged the new front and the headers, and also dropped the door. We hope that we wil have the car fixed to fight at the Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park, where we will be running with both the Pro Mod and the TMFC. It's better to have two cars, if you break one then you can drive the other..."

Björn tells us that Freddy will be driving the TMFC at the FHRA Nitro Nationals in Finland next week, although the team are waiting on engine parts from the USA after suffering damage at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod. "We will also be changing the TMFC's blower to a Whipple", he says. "If everything goes well at Mantorp Park and Freddy has the money, he's going to bring the pick-up to the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod in September."

Fire extinguishers in Finland.
24th June: Mention of next week's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro leads us very neatly into the following notice from FHRA sent to us by Kjell Pettersson:

The Finnish authorities are demanding that every team must have a six-kilogramme fire extinguisher in their pit, so the FHRA has included this in the rules too. Every team must have at least one six kg fire extinguisher in their pit with easy access, and they must also have also a fire blanket with easy access.

FHRA has found out while using several extinguishers that the Softex 6E water extinguisher is very good in the racing environment. It will put out the fire very effectively and allows the engine can be started immediately after the use of extinguisher, with no extra cleaning needed. FHRA has negotiated a good deal for the racers with the manufacturer for the sale of these extinguishers:

Softex 6E extinguisher 50
Softex 6E service 20
Annual inspection 5

The above prices are without tax: a local tax of 22% will be added.

You can order the extinguisher directly from the manufacturer, Softonex Oy. Their contact is Jari Nykänen, telephone +358 50 370 4314 or E-Mail jari.nykanen@softonex.fi. Please remember to mention that you are referring to the FHRA deal. Softonex can deliver the extinguishers to Alastaro Circuit when FHRA has an event there.
©Eurodragster.com
VWDRC Summernationals preview.
24th June: This weekend's SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway includes the latest rounds of the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Championships. Championship Co-ordinator Spencer Tramm previews this weekend's action.

In Jon Rathbone Race Cars Pro VW there is a nine car field entered for this weekend. Russ Fellows leads the way in the points with 1100, Russ is trying to add Pro to his championship wins in Street and Super Street VW. Sheffields Paul Woodhead is second on 990 points, Paul is only in his second year of competition and won his first meeting ever at the Big Bang event at the beginning of May. Third is perennial heavy hitter Scott Evison in the Slush Puppie car on 690 points. Scott has had a poor start to the year by his standards and will hope to grab his first win of the year here. Next is Neil Davies in Headstraight, Neil has moved up from Sportsman to Pro this year and is still ironing out the bugs with the new race motor but still holds down fouth with 530 points.
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Beetlemania Sportsman VW sees twenty two cars ready to do battle. Stuart Hinds is leading the championship with 1740 points after winning the first two meetings, combine this with wins at Bug Jam and the National Finals last year, Stuart is now unbeaten in almost a year, his last loss coming in round one at the 2002 Summer Nationals to Cath Bishop. Graham Fairhead is in second spot with 1160 points in his rookie year, Graham may be a rookie to driving but has crewed for some of the VWDRCs foremost drivers including most lately for Steven Lee. Brian Burrows is in third on 970 points and will be having a relatively easy weekend after last week promoting the VW Action Summer Beach Party at the Herts Showground and looking after thousands of VW enthusiasts. In fourth is Sarah Rollin on 850 points, the former Miss Bug Jam runner-up is proving more than a match for her counterparts in her rookie year thanks to the guidance of former Pro VW champion Scott Evison.

This is also the second round for the AMR Motors Alternate Engine VW class and there are four cars due. The Subarus of Andy Raw, Gin Marrone and Ian Sewell will take on the Rover V8 powered Fastback of Matt Attwood in round two of their championship.

You can stay in touch with all the news and views on Volkswagen drag racing on the VWDRC's web site at www.vwdrc.com.

UK National, SPRC points updated.
24th June: We are indebted to UK National points co-ordinators Yvonne Tramm (SPRC) and Simon Groves (APIRA) for passing on the post-Power Nationals points standings in the UK National Championships. We are additionally indebted to Yvonne Tramm for sending us the latest standings in the Santa Pod Racers Club Championships.
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Click here to view the latest points standings, or click on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Wild Bunch Power Nationals report.
24th June: Last weekend's Power Nationals was round five of the Wild Bunch's Real Steel Series, and was attended by a field of fourteen, writes Championship co-ordinator Claire Meaddows.

Tony Smith unveiled a brand new paint job and smart new graphics on the Cunning Plan Minivan altered. He took #1 qualifier with a 12.002 on an 11.95 dial-in. In the quarter-finals, Tony put in a new Personal Best ET of 11.982 on his 11.95, which he lowered yet again when facing Chris Hartnell in the Semi-Finals. Tony ended up fourth for the event and the Cunning Plan team took the Best Appearing Team spot prize for their smart new pink and green crew uniforms and the brand new paint job on the altered, as well as its strong performance.

Chris Hartnell had a very lucky weekend, after only qualifying tenth on the Saturday with two off-paced ten-second passes in the Backdraft slingshot. Chris hoped to diagnose the fault for Sundays eliminations and overnight crewman Lee made some changes to the wiring in the car. Chris advanced to the final, which should have been against Ray Ford in the Ram Raider, but as Backdraft had not run well in the semi-final, and as Chris had noticed a slight drop in oil pressure, he decided to park the car rather than risk any damage.

Mark Coulsell qualified second, and went out in the first round against Nick Connor but took Closest Runner-up award, just .094 behind Nick. Tom Coe was running-in his Psycho slingshot, hoping to break into the tens for the first time. He posted a 10.99 dial-in for the first round of qualifying, but unfortunately broke his half-shaft on the burnout. Tom raced round the pits to find someone to grind and weld his half-shaft. The Fireforce 2 team helped him out with a temporary fix, and he cajoled the slingshot down the track gently, posting a 36.557 time and qualifying for Sunday! He later took the shaft to Roy Wildings workshop, and Roy kindly re-welded it on Saturday night. Tom later discovered a crack in the other half-shaft on Sunday morning but went back to the Fireforce 2 team for some emergency repair work, and made the first round. Tom took Closest Breakout in the quarter finals, only .017 under his dial-in. He also won the Best Slingshot Spot Prize for the teams hard work to qualify the car and race in eliminations, and the strong performance after the breakages.
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Tom's dad Alec Coe went to the pairing lanes with the Shy Torque slingshot for his first qualifying pass and dialled a 10.45, but the car suffered a cracked starter motor casing and couldn't make a pass. Alec and Crew Chief Kev ran around trying to find another starter, eventually bought a new one from promoter Lee Child, and then frantically tried to get it mounted in time for the second qualifier. They succeeded in fixing the car, and Alec ran a 10.349 Personal Best ET. He took third place the tot-back system, by virtue of being closest to dial-in (without breaking out) of the semi-final runners-up. He also took the Wildest Ride trophy for a good driving job after running close to the guardrail in the semis!

Ray Ford ran a solid 10.369 on a 10.20 dial-in to qualify in fifth spot, and made it to the final round. The final was an unusual race which should have seen Ray taking on Chris Hartnell for a classic Chevy-powered slingshot matchup, but Chris had sidelined Backdraft suspecting a problem. The Ram Raiders engine was still too hot to make a full pass, so the crew pushed her round to the other side of the bleach box, and Ray fired up and staged to take the win light, not wanting to risk any damage to their car either. Many congratulations to Ray!

Dick Sharp was back again in the Dorset Horn, after the team suffered crank damage at the Excitement Nationals. He dialled-in at 9.65 and ran a 9.792 to , qualify fourth - not bad for starters! Dick was again on good form in the first round of eliminations, when he broke out with a strong 9.575/140.62 mph (top speed of the weekend) whilst paired against Tony Wynne-Jones. Dick took the win in that first round matchup with the lesser breakout, and advanced to the Quarter-finals, where he faced Alec Coe. Dick handed the win to Alec when he broke out with a Personal Best ET of 9.549 on a 9.60 Dial, so he was very pleased with that run! Dick and Bunt and the team took Best Altered Spot Prize, as well as Best Engineered for their well-turned out car and its good performance throughout the weekend. Tony Wynne-Jones posted a massive Personal Best ET of 12.097 on his 12.20 dial-in, at his best ever speed of 115.09 mph. Tony won Best Dragster/Radical for all his efforts and his lovely looking car.

Again some close and exciting racing once more, as we have come to expect at these MSA events, and no less than five drivers ran personal bests during the weekend. The track crew and marshals worked really hard again to get the track in a running condition and keep the event flowing - many thanks to them for all their hard work and for maintaining a good safe track! Thanks also to APIRA, track owner Anthony Hodges and promoter LA Performance Services for making the event possible in the first place. And of course thanks as always to our major contingency sponsor Real Steel for their continued support.

Paranoia comes back for an eight.
24th June: Also on the subject of the Wild Bunch, Martin Holgate tells us that this weekend's NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway will see the return of the historic Paranoia altered to the track. Martin and the team will be resuming their quest for an eight-second pass.
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"We are all looking forward to the action this weekend", says Martin. "We have not raced since last September when our eight-second assault was curtailed by a sick fuel pump. We have new parts on the car having just holidayed in Florida, and although we are still awaiting a new flowbench-developed head and injection system, we will be giving it our all."

Safely Mental.
23rd June: This weekend's NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway is the third round of the 2003 Supercharged Outlaws Championship, and slingshot racer Johnny 'Mental' Hall says that the event is the March Meet of UK drag racing.

"This race is a real sight to behold if you enjoy vintage racing", says Johnny. "As in the States, Nostalgia is steadily gaining ground, and within that spectrum the Supercharged Outlaws see themselves as the Head Honchos on the track. OK, we are not running five-second slingshot fuelers, but a few of the guys are striving in that direction.
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"Heading the pack at the moment is Roy 'Little Daddy' Wilding, or should that be Money Bags, after spending money to ensure that he doesn't go home with bruises on his butt from getting it kicked into the bleachers (Do we surmise a rivalry here? - Ed). Mark Purslow will be bringing his gorgeous Donovan-engined chromoly digger, and I for one will look forward to his running the numbers this weekend, and hopefully he will have a decent pair of boots on so that he can kick ass too.

"The blown Altereds of Pete and Fay Radcliffe and Neil Townsend are looking to attend, along with many others. Pete and Fay's Burning Desire sounded incredibly strong when last out and has lots of potential. Our wild, wheelying Windridge Hell McKenzie Happening slingshot is going to be playing it safe with a mild tune-up. As we have said before, we don't expect to set the world on fire, after having lots of problems this season. We will still try to put on a show, though...watch this space."

Oil Control backing TM round.
23rd June: The weekend's MSA British Drag Racing Championship round for Top Methanol, which takes place at the SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway, is to be sponsored by longtime drag racing backer Oil Control, writes SPRC Press Officer John Crawford.
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Phil Evans of Oil Control Limited was pleased to confirm the company's continued support of the sport and the Club. "Oil Control Ltd, as long time sponsors of drag racing, are delighted to be able to support the Top Methanol racers at the Summer Nationals", said Phil. Santa Pod Racers Club are of course very appreciative of the extra support from Oil Control Ltd for this event, which has enabled the club to host the latest round of this prestigious Championship. "We are immensely grateful to Oil Control Limited for their support", says Jon Crawford. "Oil Control have been sponsors of the sport and the Club for many seasons now, and we hope to continue a long and successful association."

Oil Control supplies a vast range of high quality hydraulic valves to many of the world's most famous manufacturers of heavy machinery and earth moving equipment. They can be contacted on 024 7663 5711, Fax 024 7663 5041 or via their web site at www.oilcontrol.co.uk.

"We would also like to thank all of our other sponsors for 2003", says Jon. "They are Andy Robinson Race Cars, Dave Eady American Parts Centre, Engine Data Analysis, Hauser Race Cars, Knight Racing Services, Webster Race Engineering and Eurodragster.com."

SPRC Newsletter published.
23rd June: Jon Crawford also tells us that the all-new Santa Pod Racers Club newsletter should be dropping through members mailboxes any day now. The all-new publication features club news, reports and news from the track, as well as photographs and race reports on all the Sportsman and Pro rounds. Future plans include a Sales and Wants section for members as well as more features and interviews, including a very big name in the sport who has just agreed to write exclusively for the Club.
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Jon, who edits the newsletter, tells us that all contributions are welcome. As readers will see, there are already some big names in UK Drag Racing who have agreed to contribute. If anyone has any contributions to make, or wishes to ensure that their class gets the exposure they deserve, then get in touch with Jon at sprcpress@eurodragster.com, or via the Club at PO Box 12, Rushden, Northamptonshire NN10 0ZU.

Limited numbers of the newsletter will be available to non-members at the SPRC shop at this weekend's Summernationals, but the best way to make sure of a copy is to join the Santa Pod Racers Club. Membership details are available either at the address above, at the track, or via the Club's web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. The SPRC shop will also be open this weekend selling the full range of SPRC merchandise including many items at bargain prices in order to clear space for the new range which is coming soon.

NAST points updated.
23rd June: We are indebted to National Association of Supertwins Championship Co-ordinator Sue Beneke for sending us the points standings in the NAST Championships after last weekend's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway.
©Eurodragster.com
Click here to view the NAST points, or click on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Nitrolympics entry.
22nd June: Rico Anthes, promoter of the Nitrolympics which take place at Hockenheim on 22nd-24th August, has written to advise racers about entry to the event.

"Entry information for drivers and riders who want to participate at the 18th annual Nitrolympics is now available on Drivers Info at www.nitrolympics.de", says Rico. "Teams who were not on our mailing list for entry documents last year need to contact us by E-Mail via the Drivers Info page and leave their full postal address. Entry can only be made on an original entry form, which will be mailed to participants."
©Eurodragster.com
Comp Eliminator Explosion.
22th June: Holland's Explosion drag racing club are to introduce Competition Eliminator at the MPM Drachten Internationals which take place at Drachten on 12th-13th July.

"We will be running the class with the international indexes published by Svensk Dragracing, which they have permitted us to use", says Explosion board member Theo Willemse. "However the indexes will not be changed after events at Drachten.

"I am very happy to introduce this class in Holland. I saw the class in Scandinavia and I thought what is this class? After the first time I had to find out about it, and when I knew what was happening, I was crazy about it. The technical performance and the idea of indexes without Bracket rules is strong and professional.
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"Now it is going to happen in Holland. We have had a lot of interest from racers in Germany and Switzerland to take part in this event. Pro Mod has its own competition in Holland with Henri Joosten and Robert Koper, and drivers from Germany will be competing in the class.

"We had out first meeting at Drachten on 14th-15th June. The performance of Roel Koedam on his Top Fuel Bike showed what a good track it was, many competitors ran their personal bests."

Racers interested in competing at the MPM Drachten Internationals can find an international entry form on the Explosion web site www.explosion.nl.

Two-car ACI Racing.
22nd June: What do you do if your rig is leaving the UK for Finland on the Friday, but you have a crucial British Championship round on the Saturday? FIA Top Methanol Dragster Championship leaders American Car Imports Racing have the answer: use last year's chassis for the UK round. Whilst the team's 5.4-second European record-holding dragster heads for Alastaro for the FIA round on 4th-6th July, Dave Wilson and the team will be racing at next weekend's SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway with the car which last year ran into the 5.5s and recorded the highest-ever TMD terminal speed outside the USA.

"We were going to do both events all along", says Team Owner Tony Cohen, who sponsors Eurodragster's Home and News pages and Event Coverage through his company American Car Imports. "There just was not enough time to do the trip with our number one car. At least now you'll believe we got a new car this year and didn't just change the body panel to show a Dodge Ram!"

"I'm not sure that we've worked out how we're going to do this, but we're going to do it!", says Dave Wilson. "It's the way it has to be, though. The way the points are structured, if you want any chance at all of the British Championship then you must attend the round at Santa Pod next week."

Dave says that several options were considered before settling on the two-car approach. "We considered using the new car and rig and then driving across Europe", he says. "But it's a new rig and a bit of an unknown quantity. We asked ourselves 'Do we want to risk doing this at next to no notice?'. If we'd had to do it, then we would have done, but there was another solution. It's a bit over the top really but you have to do what you can with what you have got."

Last year's ACI dragster is to be fitted with the team's number three engine, but parts from the new car will also be used which will then have to be transported to Alastaro. "It'll be good to see how last year's car does with this year's set-up!", says Dave. "We'll have no computer on the car, so we will just be doing plug-and-bearing tuning like we did all those years ago. Who needs telemetry!"
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The ACI dragster will be taken back to the team's Farnborough base next Sunday evening and torn down to collect the parts needed in Finland. Crew Chief Andy Bissett will then drive "Hell for leather" to Newcastle, where he will pick up the ferry to Sweden before driving on to Alastaro. "I'll meet Andy at the track on the Wednesday - that's the plan, anyway!", says Dave.

The #1 car and new rig spent last weekend at the American Auto Club event at Billing where it proved a strong draw for those attending. "The show was fantastic", says Tony Cohen. "The place was full to bursting - seven and a half thousand US vehicles and thirty thousand visitors. Our display was on a concrete podium so you could see it from hundreds of yards away. There was a lot of interest, we sat visitors in the car and handed out thousands of hero cards and leaflets for the tracks. We are keen to promote the link between drag racing and American cars and I think we did just that with the petrol heads. I think that we have persuaded a lot of them to come to the races."

Yet another first for the ACI Racing team is their own sports psychologist in the person of Tony's wife Rhonda, who has just embarked on a five-year PhD project on the Psychology of Drag Racing. "No-one has done this before", says Tony. "Rhonda will be researching the drivers, the competition, and the whole sub-culture of drag racing. She will be accompanying us to every event this year". Tony tells us that Rhonda may want to interview the Eurodragster staff as part of her studies, although we and doubtless our readers could tell her without an interview what she is likely to conclude.

You can stay in touch with all the latest from the American Car Imports Racing team on their official web site at www.americancarimportsracing.com.

Racers: Send your SPRC Summernationals previews to us at news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them right here.

SPRC Summernationals entry list.
22nd June: We are as ever indebted to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for forwarding us the official entry list for next weekend's SPRC Summernationals. "Numbers are good - over two hundred and forty!", says Paula.

Click here to view the SPRC Summernationals entry list.
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Next weekend's SPRC Summernationals is a round of the MSA British Drag Racing Championship (for Top Methanol), UK National and ACU UK Drag Bike Championships, Volkswagen Drag Racing Association Championships, Custom Car Street Eliminator Championships, and National Association of Supertwins Championships. As part of this year's trial, the SPRC Summernationals is also a round of the Nordic Drag Racing Series. Tony Baker in the Fireforce 1 Jet FC and Chris Hannam on his and Jon Morton's Top Fuel Bike will be providing the exhibition action. Advance tickets are £10 Saturday, £10 Sunday and £16 for the weekend if booked by this Tuesday, 24th June. Gate prices are £14 Saturday, £14 Sunday and £22 for the weekend. Under-16s go free.

To book tickets call Santa Pod Raceway on 01234 782828, and for more details check out Santa Pod's web site at www.santapod.com.

NDRG Drag Challenge entry forms.
22nd June: FIA Championship Co-ordinator Kjell Pettersson has forwarded us the official FIA and FIM/UEM entry forms for Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen's Drag Challenge which takes place at Gardermoen Raceway on 1st-3rd August. The forms are in Adobe Acrobat format.

Click here for the FIA entry form
Click here for the FIM/UEM entry form
©Eurodragster.com
You can find the very latest versions of all of the FIA, UEM and NDRS entry forms on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se/nerladdning.html.

On the subject of FIA and FIM/UEM, Santa Pod Raceway's PR Caroline Day has sent us a promotional brochure with details of this year's TV broadcasts. You can view the brocuhure by clicking here (Adode Acrobat format).

Power Nationals Pro ET report.
22nd June: We are indebted to UK Pro ET racer Carla Pittau for sending us a report of last weekend's Pro ET action at the Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway.

The end of the first qualifying session saw Bob Doyle taking the number one spot, which was then nicked by Kev Taylor at the end of session two with four thousandths off his dial-in. Tokyo Toy, Steve Dunn at the wheel, took number two honours, only to redlight once again in the first round and confirming their strong claim to the Cherry Trophy Award at season's end. Worse than redlighting in the first round is, of course, not even getting there, which is the fate that befell Jerry Charles who decided to up the nitrous in his 502 motivated street Capri and go for a nine-second run in the second session. The torque generated by a more generous whiff than usual broke his UJ and pushed his propshaft up to hit the ali tunnel first and the prop loop second. Fortunately no other damage was done, Jerry has already arranged for repairs and will hopefully be back racing at the next meeting at the Pod.

Next to that misfortune we had a first round breakage, which was Andy Chilton's fate. Unfortunately we have no information on the extent or the nature of the damage. I realise that I failed to mention another first round breakage at the Main Event, Jack Brewster's - and as he was racing his Just Mustard Camaro against us I can only put it down to major brain fade on my part. Apologies to Jack who experienced a head gasket failure and we look forward to seeing him at the Pod for the Summer Nationals.

Other notable red lights in the first round were pulled by Steve Wells in the orange Pop pick up, who didn't realise he'd redlit until he overtook Carla Pittau who was racing with transmission number one after discarding transmission number four in the pits and missing the second qualifying session in the process (don't ask). He was deliberating where to brake when he noticed the win light in the other lane. He decided to keep pressing the loud pedal ending up with a tenth of a second break out; Ron Bartlett, who fought a valiant battle with Aiden Kenny, both racers oh sooo close to their dial-ins, respectively six thousandths and four thousandths; Bob Doyle, whose Zed is now reacting too quickly to foot pressure on the loud pedal; and Steve Good who is also trying to compete with Bob Doyle and Tokyo Toy for the red light award.

After the first round, not having a single evil bone in his body, Rick McCann was only trying to be kind by offering Bob Doyle a bowl of fruit. The reaction from Bob and Tracy Doyle was not pretty, although it took Rick a while to realise that a bowl of cherries might not be just the right offering at the time. However Bob had no problems in dangling a cherry in Carla's face after the second round, when she pulled her very own for brain fade reasons. Carla's opponent Lee Huxley at the wheel of the Top Banana '32 also redlit, but second as well as not as badly. Malcolm Motler met his demise in another very close race with mate Kev Taylor, there was only fifteen thousandths difference on the tree (a 0.563 to a 0.548) but it was enough to push Malk to a breakout of 0.028. In the meantime, Ian Brown was busy putting Tig Napier out of action with nine thousandths off his dial-in and one tenth on the tree, rendering Tig's excellent five thousandths off no use at all.

Aiden Kenny kept the pressure on in the third round, putting Kev Taylor on the trailer with a nine thousandths off run and earning a bye run into the final in the process, while Ian Brown disposed of Dave Baldwin who broke out by 0.104 and Lee Huxley cruised to a 11.025 in his bye into the semis. The fourth round saw Ian Brown and Lee Huxley meet in one of two elimination runs in two different classes, and they obviously took turns to win and lose: in this instance Lee redlit by such a small margin, pulling a painful 0.499 that awarded victory to Ian, who then lost to Lee in the final of Super Street, our hats off to both racers.

We can only imagine the top end battle between Aiden Kenny and Ian Brown in the fifth and final round, they pulled 0.571 and 0.520 lights respectively and must have been seriously pedalling and surely fender to fender at the finish line, as they both slowed down from their ETs and the resulting win margin was of only eight thousandths. Once again Pro ET provided close racing and excitement. Our congratulations to Aiden (who was also racing in Outlaw Anglia) for his achievements and to Ian for his well deserved win (and his runner up place in Super Street!).

You can find the UK Pro ET web site at www.pro-et.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
Nuptials, now and future.
22nd June: We would like to congratulate UK Super Comp and Super Gas racer Malcolm Francis and his wife Emily on their marriage which took place yesterday (Saturday). Malcolm started the celebrations early with a win in Super Comp at Shakespeare County Raceway last weekend.
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Congratulations also to American Car Imports Racing Crew Chief Andy Bissett and his fiancée Jennifer who formalised their engagement with a party, also yesterday.

Sharkman and Tog would like to wish Malcolm and Emily and Andy and Jennifer the very best for the future.

Web site updates.
22nd June: The official web site of Finland's Mad Bomber Racing Top Methanol Dragster team has been updated with the latest news as Team Owner Simo Patoharju, driver Jari Halinen and the guys prepare for their first race of the year at their home track of Alastaro. The very professional-looking site is presented in both Finnish and English. Check it out at www.madbomberracing.fi.
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UK Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Andy Frost has updated his Red Victor web site with an entertaining race report from last week's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can find it on the Race Reports link at www.redvictor1racing.co.uk.

Rob Long.
20th June: We are very sorry indeed to have to report that UK Super Gas racer Rob Long has died after a long illness which he bore with extraordinary fortitude.

Rob's racing career, in a self-built Camaro, got off to a great start when he ran a perfect 9.900 on his fourth-ever pass. Rob's illness arose as he started to race but he fought against it to appear on the track, and he was always a force to be reckoned with when he was on the strip.

"Rob was a very friendly and pleasant chap, who was the kingpin of the Saturday morning Café Racers", says Paul Fischer. "We are going to miss him very badly."

To Rob's wife Mags, and to his family and friends, we offer our deepest sympathy.

Erbacher retires block.
20th June: After taking runner-up spot in the 2002 FIA European Top Methanol Funny Car Championship, Switzerland's Urs Erbacher has started the season as he means to go on with a new European ET record of 5.694 and the event win at the FIA Main Event. The team are going to do everything possible to win the 2003 Championship and that includes a major hit to Urs' wallet, says team member Lorenzo Tschumi.
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"After an amazing Main Event, we have retired our Keith Black engine", says Lorenzo. "After all, the block was built in 1993 and Keith is now out of business. We now have a new 511 ci Brad Anderson engine and we will try to set the car to run a bit harder at Alastaro. We think that we have the best possible equipment in the car for some great drag racing this season and, who knows, maybe go even quicker!"

The Fat Attack web site at www.fatattack.ch has been updated with a report and pictures from the FIA Main Event, and will be updated after each event this season.

Luoma to race TMD.
20th June: Also from the Top Methanol pit comes news of a new contender in Top Methanol Dragster. If you were tuned in on 1st June you will remember that Finland's Lassi Luoma was urgently seeking a TMFC after an unfortunate guardrail/car interaction at Alastaro. Esko Raisvuo tells us that Lassi and his team had a change of heart, and that he was at least partly responsible.
©Eurodragster.com
"I consulted with Lassi and the guys about the rules and they found that TMFC was too expensive a choice right now", says Esko. "And it wasn't possible to run a Comp FC in BAFC, AA/A or AB/A. So I told the guys that a dragster with a 526 and hi-helix would be more than OK to race. They thought about it overnight, and we knew where there was stuff for sale (ex-Kari Eskelinen dragster - Ed), so their co-crew chief Arto Hyl dug deep into his pockets to buy the car.

"If everything goes right then Lassi will be in Alastaro at the start of July. If not then later, but he will be racing this summer."

Aasen into the sixes.
20th June: Many thanks to Ian Turburville for passing on news from Norwegian Supertwin racer Ronny Aasen of the first six-second pass by a Supertwin in Norway. Ronny ran the six on his beautiful new bike and it was a PB as well as a Norwegian first.

"We have been racing in Norway for two weeks now", Ronny told Turbo. "In the first round of the Norwegian Supertwin Series we were number one qualifier with 4.69 eighth-mile and the only team ready for the finals - three others had broken engines!

"In the second race of the series we had a lot of small problems, but we fixed them and ran 7.17 in the semi-final. I was up against Svein Gottenberg in the final, he ran 7.28 in his semi. The commentator said it was the rookie against the veteran, but the rookie was the quickest. I beat Gotten with a 6.94!"
©Eurodragster.com
Ellis all smiles.
20th June: UK Super Modified racer Graham Ellis' first outing of the season couldn't have turned out any better. He ran the quickest Super Mod ET under this year's rule changes, the fastest SM speed under either the old or new set of rules, he was the first persaon to drive around Super Mod Champion and longtime rival Danny Cockerill, and he won the event. A very happy Graham gave us the low-down on his weekend.

"Firstly I have a lot of Thank Yous", says Graham. "Phill, for the free paint and tyres, Rob Smallworth for the loan of some parts, Jon and John at Webster Race Engineering, Rob and Nick at ICE Automotive, Jeff Bull, Andy Robinson...the list goes on. Then of course thanks to my crew: Crew Chief Rob Millward, Gareth, Anthony, Graeme, and Paul Brooks for the help on Saturday (get your bloody car out).

"The weekend started with problems, as usual. Without being long-winded these involved the carbs and intake, as we had to start the weekend with these items off the engine for tech purposes, and it caused us to miss the first qualifier. As usual my guys came through for me and eventuly we got there. We ran a normaly aspirated 9.6 and planned to step up in the practise session, this turned into a nightmare as the car shook violently and sent me into the other lane.

"So we went into race day with no set-up at all. I had decieded that the extra weight of the engine was the most likely cause of the car being upset, so we started to set the whole thing up again. At this point Andy Robinson wandered over, and he left about an hour later having spent some time on his back on the matting. Thanks Andy! When he left we were more confident of the car and hopefully learnt something.

"After an unintentionally long lay-in on Sunday (my eyes didn't open till 9:00) We knew we had problems as we had drawn Andy Hone in the first round. I had previously decided that I was going home with a trophy and told everyone so, so was I about to eat my words. We we knew that if the car went down the track it would make a good lap, and it did. I got past Andy and lifted, which reset the second stage nitrous timer, so I had no no second stage but still went 7.86/175.
©Eurodragster.com
"The next round was 'The Governor'. Danny Cockerill has dominated Super Mod since its inception, but I knew that he had been chasing problems of late, and when you are dealing with problems you can't concentrate on going fast. Danny got a slight holeshot but we somehow drove round him, something which has never been done before. We went 7.71/182 which is not only the quickest Super Mod pass under the new rules, but the fastest speed ever recorded by a legal Super Mod - this takes in the bigger engines, less weight and unlimited camshafts of the previous rules (we now have a .600 lift limit).

"We went on to the final round, and unfortunatelt Smiling Steve Rawlings had a silly problem and couldn't make a race of it, but a runner up position is not a bad achievement.

"We have about 1050 bhp out of our little 475 ci motor, but we were really pushing hard and it's not a tune-up I'd like to use all the time as it was marginal. I was just making a point...Seriously, we have no chance of a points place this year, that will be between Danny and Fred, and I just know that Danny will want his record back, 'Come and get it' I say. The class seems to be suffering a bit so far this year with a lack of participation, get your cars out guys.

"I have to mention Ian Marshall, who is steadfastly plugging away with his normally-aspirated combination in a sea of nitrous cars. Keep at it Ian, your power-to-weight ratio is better than I had last year, and I got into the 7.s. Normally-aspirated cars have to be just right, with no nitrous to disguise the problems. You'll get there..."

York offers free entry.
20th June: York Raceway is offering 8.99-second or quicker cars and their crews the opportunity to run for free at the Motor Mayhem event this Sunday (22nd), writes York's PR Howard Holmes. "Absolutely free - that's you, the crew, the car, the lot", says Howard. "Northern hospitality don't really come any more hospitable than that, does it?

"But you must pre-register as the number of places will be limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Typically, you can get anything up to ten runs in a day at York Raceway. Don't forget, when you are running the numbers at York, it's all TSI-timed with a printout of reaction times, 60 ft times, eighth-mile time and speed as well as quarter-mile time and speed. What happens if you lose your time slip or your bench racing fraternity does not believe you? Well, now cutting edge technology has captured all this detail and it can be accessed via York's web site at www.york-raceway.co.uk, where you can view all the details of your racing.

"The Met Office is currently forecasting a good dry day on Sunday, to the delight of York's topless burnout water babes who are present for this event."

To pre-register for free entry on Sunday, call Steve on 07977 532436.
©Eurodragster.com
More weekend ideas.
20th June: UK Super Comp racer Rob Faulkner will be taking his Crossfire Camaro to Wessex Rod and Custom Club's show at Bovington in Dorset this weekend, and he hopes that race fans will come along to say hello. "We are tinkering with the fuel set up", says Rob, "The car is near enough ready to race now , so hopefully after a test and tune we will back at the track playing in Super Comp again. The show runs over the complete weekend, so if you live down south and have a free weekend then drop in and chill out, or take a look around the fantastic Tank Museum which is all on the same site."
©Eurodragster.com
Scottie Durant writes to remind readers that his In The Dog House Again altered will be on show on Sunday at the Blue Ball Beer Festival held in Asheridge, Chesham. "We will be on display and we will be firing up!", says Scottie. For more details about the Festival, check out Monday's news item Racers needed for Beer Festival.

Coes feature in the Press.
20th June: UK Wild Bunch racers Alec and Tom Coe are featured in this week's edition of the Thanet Extra newspaper which was published in the area yesterday (Thursday). "It's a great feature, a half-page spread with a colour photograph supplied by Feel The Noise", says Tom Coe. "There is a brief description of drag racing in basic terms, and a big piece about the team from when we started up to the present day, and they are going to make it an on-going feature with the latest news".
©Eurodragster.com
Tom was kind enough to arrange a plug for Eurodragster in the article, so a big Hello to anyone who has visited Eurodragster as a result.

TJ seeks travel partner.
20th June: UK 9.90 Bike racer and Supertwin Modified record holder TJ O'Brien is planning a trip to the MPM Internationals at Holland's Drachten Airfield next month and is looking for a fellow bike racer to help to share the cost.
©Eurodragster.com
"I have booked the ferry for Wednesday 9th July, and a return on Monday 14th", says TJ. "There is space in my van for a bike if you want to race - I'm having a go - and space in my caravan for you - I'm with my Ball and Chain."

If you would like to join TJ, then call him on 0208 881 0130 days, on his mobile on 07950 337542, or E-Mail otjobrien@aol.com.

Web site updates.
20th June: Our good buddies at Svensk Dragracing have updated their web site with the latest points standings in the Nordic Drag Racing Series and the Swedish Dragracing League. You can find the NDRS points at www.dragracing.se/nscpoints.html, and the SDL points at www.dragracing.se/sdl/poang.html.

Editor's note: Whilst we're on the subject of Scandinavia, we would like to wish all of our friends a very Happy Midsummer tomorrow. You are under our express order to eat and drink far too much. And remember girls - dream about Tog or Sharkman, and we'll see you at Mantorp Park.

UK Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Ian Hook's web site has, as promised, been updated with crew member Trev's report of the Power Nationals. Check it out at www.fbracing.co.uk.

Alan Currans has updated his Acceleration Archive site with the first Readers' Gallery. "Have you ever wondered what happened to the all-conquering Brooklyn Heavy Pro Stock, or the the Volkswagen-powered motorcycle Lucifer?", writes Alan. "Who rides the fastest Buell motorcycle outside the USA? Have a look and you will find the answers to these questions, as well as several more interesting pictures into the bargain". You can find Alan's excellent site at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
Page's first Piteå trip.
19th June: UK Fuel legend Gary Page is following up his Top Fuel Dragster final round appearance at the FIA Main Event by making his first trip to Sweden's Pite Dragway and driving the car which was in the other lane at Santa Pod. Knut Söderquist's Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster team are taking the Purple Loans Top Fuel Dragster, in which Smax Smith won Top Fuel at the Main Event, and the red CBD dragster to the famous Midnight Sun Internationals at Piteå.
©Eurodragster.com
"I will be driving the Purple Loans car at Piteå, and I understand that Susanne Callin may be driving the red car", says Gary. "We will be at Alastaro the weekend before, then after Piteå we are going to Mantorp Park - I think we get one free weekend in July!".

Gary is very confident that he will do well at Piteå. "I have never been to Pite Dragway but I have heard that the track is very good", says Gary. "Everyone says that there are no bumps, that the traction is excellent, and that the shutdown area is very long! I am looking forward to racing there. We saw at the Main Event that the Purple Loans car is capable of fours and three hundred, so I'm looking forward to breaking Micke Kågered's track record (4.93/305 - Ed)."

Gary tells us that the red CBD dragster came through last weekend's Power Nationals match race more or less unscathed. If you were tuned in to Eurodragster's Event Coverage at the weekend, you will recall that there was a ball of flame from the dragster just after Susanne Callin crossed the finish line on Sunday's first run. "That was down to an exhaust valve", says Gary. "A piston was damaged and that combustion chamber was a bit beaten up, but it's nothing terminal."

Regular readers will know that Gary also drives Mark and Jackie Hawkins' Fuel Funny Car, and the good news is that the team are to start work on the FC this weekend with a view to attending the next round of the British Nitro FC Championship, the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. "The body has gone away to be fixed up and to have the paintwork done", says Gary. "Everything has been freshened up. We will be running the car exactly as it was last season, with the two-speed, but Mark has plans to upgrade substantially next year."

GTA on the Rampage.
19th June: David Ward Motorsports and the UK's Rampage Pro ET Funny Car team have proudly announced that G T Autochemilube Limited have become their main oil sponsor for the 2003 season.

"GTA supply a vast range of products from engine and gear oils to antifreeze, and as from the 1st June have been appointed as Texaco classic lubricants distributor", says Crew Chief Ian Gibbs. "On behalf of the team, David Ward would like to thank Nigel Holman and GTA for their support."
©Eurodragster.com
You can find out more about G T Autochemilube on their web site at www.gta-oil.co.uk, by E-Mail at sales@gta-oil.co.uk, by phone on 01295 712255, or by Fax on 01295 712333.

No more stage fright.
19th June: UK Supertwin Fuel racer Ian Turburville got his beautiful new S & S Sure-Shot bike down the track at the Power Nationals after breaking pistons and valve assemblies at the Speedfreaks Ball. "The bike earned the name Stage Fright!", says Ian (right, with Power Nationals STF winner Chris Stebbings). "What a début. Talk about demoralising, I nearly gave up there and then. Thanks to the encouragement and engineering skills of Ian 'Rush' Carruthers I persevered and got the bike repaired just in time for the Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway last weekend so I entered the second round of the NAST Championship.

"The weather was scorching hot all weekend and there was a massive entry, but just five bikes in Supertwin Top Fuel. I was a bag of nerves and had no crew at all so was pretty pessimistic about the whole deal but with the help of Paul Rose Racing I set up my pit, thanks Paul and Tim. On the Saturday George Chiarella lent me his brother Carlo as crew and he did a great job, which eased the pressure a lot. I had to do my observed runs and to be honest that's all we planned for all weekend, shakedowns. You have to understand the concept of this bike and not confuse it with the likes of Ton Pels and Charley Karling. The S & S Sure-Shot is a beginner's fuel bike. It has a heavy mild steel chassis with heavy front and back wheels, a ten inch slick and a cast big-twin (single-cam) motor with street heads from Custom Chrome! This set-up will never run quicker than eight seconds reliably so that is all I am aiming for. Rob van Geffen and I had some long talks about the project and we decided to work out a fuel system that would work on just sixty per cent nitro and not over-stress the S&S cast cases. I have had a lot of support for parts but cannot afford to cope with any serious breakages so have to play it safe.

"The observed runs went great and I did just as I was told. The bike stuttered a bit as I didn't give it enough throttle to open the fuel circuits but it cleaned up when I did, changed gear OK, steered nicely when I hung off it, went straight and stopped easily. That gave me great confidence: remember that the last bike I raced, four years ago, was just a gas bike on a seven inch tyre. I then got into the routine of turning it around and our pit started to come together nicely. The next run I was told to give it a bit more and it felt even better, knocking two seconds off and going dead straight. I suddenly found out that there were only two of us left for the eliminations as John Williamson and Dave Witts had broken, and Jamie Millership never showed! We were asked to do side by side bye runs in the morning and leave the final to the afternoon, we jumped at the chance. Another improvement followed on my time, speed and reaction but on checking the bike over found I had lifted the rear cylinder, horror!

"There were two hours to our final and my crew had disappeared so I spannered furiously. Suddenly Rush, Leo and Dave Witts appeared and joined in the thrash. The organisers ran all the finals bar the two Top Fuel Dragsters which were waiting patiently in the baking sun - sorry Susanne and Darryl, I owe you both. We got done just in time and I got towed to the start at an alarming speed, that was scarier that racing the bike! Chris and I lined up and staged immediately, we left together but Chris was soon ten foot in front of me as he was running 96% nitro (donated by me, d'oh!) and I could not catch him but made a personal best and pulled a great 140 top end. We finally stopped with massive grins on our faces, an overwhelming desire for a cold beer and agreed it was the most fun we had ever had. So, when people ask if it is worth spending these extrotionate amounts of time and money for thirty seconds of racing and a little plastic trophy, we just smile and say You Bet!

"Big thanks to all the people who helped me this weekend, to Lee Child of LA Racing Parts, and APIRA and FAST for a well-run event. Lots of thanks also to Rob, Ton, Al Smith, Rune, Ronny, Barry, Mike, Darryl, Mickey Moore, Jim McClure, Brian Johnson,Tony, Tog and Sharkman, the complete strangers I kept asking for lifts onto the stands and the two window cleaners who helped me load my trailer on Friday!

"The S & S Sure-Shot is sponsored (thank god) by S & S, Red Line Oil, Rivera/Primo, Custom Chrome Europe, Zodiac, JIMS, OffMyHead.com, Sure-Shot sprayers, King Racing and Sprint Dampers. Thanks also to my fellow paparrazzi for the great pix and a special thought to Anni Vader from the Feel The Noise web site who couldn't attend, get well soon Anni!"
©Eurodragster.com
Blazing PBs.
19th June: If you were tuned in last Thursday you will recall that it was going to be a close thing for the UK's Czechmate Sportsman ET team to get the Skoda's gearbox back together in time for the Power Nationals. It turned out to be too close a thing, but it was still a successful weekend for the Czechmate and the Nova Blaze team, as Jeff Rainbird writes.

"The Skoda did not get to the track as the box has no neutral", says Jeff. "Throwing tools and foul language at it on Friday still didn't cure the problem. Steve Partis' Sierra, my old road car, was again nominated to stand in for the Skoda. Steve took up the challenge of getting the Sierra to cut the magic 0.5 reaction which he did very quickly - Martin and Razor would not try it when they were behind the wheel - and the rest of the weekend is history for Axeman but it was valuable practice and trackcraft in his back pocket.
©Eurodragster.com
"Martin Lewis' face after the first qualifying run was well down, to go with the ET. After the shattered piston at the Excitement Nationals the Nova's engine was cut back by a thousand RPM which showed that the motor was making power at high RPM only. Some changes were made which did not yield the desired result as the next qualifier 0.3 slower. With qualifying finished we were ready to go back to the original setting and to hell with the RPM limit.

"Then open practice was announced, so another combination was tried for this run. We ran 15.6 which put big grins on everyone's faces. Eliminations went well with a personal best time (15.56) and speed. The Nova has got going with a thousand to play with to get that fourteen when the last meeting of the year is run. Martin is sitting very handy in the Ultimate Power Championship at the moment with only one meeting really in the Nova, but a fourteen is the aim, or John Price gets it! We're not saying what he gets, but we need everybody willing the Nova into the fourteens because no-one wants to see JP get it."

TV series seeks teams.
19th June: The producers of the Discovery Channel's Thunder Races programme are looking for teams to compete in the next series, which is about to start filming, and Andy Clarke of Leopard Films would be very pleased to hear from racers who would be interested in taking part.

"Do you have what it takes to transform a twenty five year old banger into an awesome twenty five foot long stretched car and then race it round a five mile track?", says Andy. "If the answer is yes then we need you! Thunder Races is a high-adrenaline engineering challenge television series for Discovery and Channel 4 and we are looking for teams of three to apply now.

"Series one was shown on Discovery last year and was a storming success worldwide. We are about to start filming series two, so if you want to apply then please do so immediately. Please send head and shoulders shots as well as a short VHS of you and your team to:
©Eurodragster.com
Thunder Races
Leopard Films
Suite 70
3rd Floor
London House
271-273 King Street
London
W6 9LZ

"You can visit our website at www.thunderraces.co.uk. If you have any queries then don't hesitate to contact me by phone on 020 8233 2924, or by E-Mail at andyclarke@leopardfilms.com.

Child delighted with weekend.
18th June: Power Nationals promoter Lee Child of LA Performance Services is very happy indeed after the highly-successful event at Shakespeare County Raceway.

"It was a fantastic weekend", says Lee, who sponsors Eurodragster's Links pages through his company LA Racing Parts. "I've had a huge number of appreciative E-Mails and phone calls from racers (as have we - Ed). And I was delighted to see so many fans at the track - we had even more spectators at this race than we had at the Excitement Nationals in May!"
©Eurodragster.com
Lee says that the success of the Power Nationals was due to a huge team effort. "I want to thank everyone for their hard work", he says. "The APIRA marshals, the FAST team, Bruno Sanderson-Brown, Darren Prentice and Sharkman on track prep, you all did a fantastic job. I would also like to thank all of the racers for their support, Gleeson Wright Security Services for the bang-up job on security all weekend, Keith Bartlett, David Lloyd-Jones and Kjell Pettersson of Santa Pod for the use of their equipment and their support, Ronnie Picardo for last-minute logistics, and everyone at LA Performance Services - Emma, Chris and Lawson. And thanks to Eurodragster for the great coverage (thank you for inviting us - Ed). Teamwork was the key to the weekend and I had the best team anyone could ask for."

LA Performance Services' next event at Shakespeare County Raceway is the Allstar Nationals on 23rd-25th August which features the third round of the British Nitro FC Championship, the fourth round of the MSA British Drag Racing Championship (Top Methanol), the return of the Fuel Altereds, and Roger Goring in the Firestorm Jet FC as well as all of the UK National and ACU UK Championship classes, Custom Car Street Eliminator, NAST Championship, Wild Bunch, Outlaw Anglias and more. "Every race gives us ideas for improvements, and we're already working hard on that race", says Lee.

Super Professional ET.
18th June: Power Nationals Super Pro ET winner Mark Flavell is quick to credit his team for his victory on Sunday.

"For Super Pro, read Super Professionals", says Mark. "A tremendous win at the Power Nationals was just reward for the hard work and dedication of the entire team. Crew chief Craig Owen called the shots dead right at the weekend with a practically non-existent database, as we were dialling in a stepped-up combination. We discussed the car's potential on every pass, keeping an eye on the barometer etc. and it has to be said that Craig was nearer the mark than I was.

"A few dramas like a failed starter motor and a pulled head stud spiced up the pit action, so Saturday night saw us all in bed early knackered. All except our official Senior Corporate Entertainments Officer Des Taylor who had to be out offering beverages and fine food to potential excecutives.
©Eurodragster.com
"Sunday, what can I say? Everything worked like clockwork. Craig, Des and Steve kept the Performance Unlimited dragster in peak condition checking and re-checking everything. The track was at its best and the APIRA crew ran a slick meeting.

"So a special thanks to Performance Unlimited for the motive power and drive line components, EDA for their advice and input getting it together on the dyno, and of course to our contingency sponsors ARRCs, all of which we use to get us there in the first place. By the way, did anybody else notice Brian Huxley's trousers?"

Nervous Hook pleased.
18th June: Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Ian Hook was very pleased with the performance of his '34 Ford's 'bitza' engine at the Power Nationals.

"As a lot of people were aware, both myself and the crew were very nervous about the result of feeding more gas to the motor", says Ian. "However, it seemed to respond very well. A 9.002 on Sunday made the '34 the second quickest car on the day and I drove it into my garage that evening with not a trace of oil smoke and very good oil pressure. On the flip side we were unfortunately on the wrong side of the ladder to make much progress but reaching the second round has improved our provisional championship position to fifth.

"We have now got two weeks to try hatch a plan to get us back into the eights. I'm sure it will involve copious amounts of nitrous!"

The FB Racing web site at www.fbracing.co.uk has been updated with the latest provisional points standings in CCSE, and Ian promises his own race report very soon.
©Eurodragster.com
Racers invited to pre-Finals Test.
18th June: Santa Pod Raceway have announced that they will again be holding a Test Day prior to the FIA European Finals. The Test Day takes place on Saturday 30th August, and the track will be open between 10:00 and 17:00. Racers in the following classes are invited:
  • FIA Top Fuel Dragster
  • FIA Top Methanol Dragster
  • FIA Top Methanol Funny Car
  • FIA Pro Stock
  • Fuel Funny Car
  • Pro Modified
  • Comp Eliminator
  • Super Modified
  • Super Pro ET
  • Pro ET
  • Sportsman ET
  • Super Comp
  • Super Gas
  • Super Street
  • Custom Car Street Eliminator
  • UEM Top Fuel Bike (aka Comp Bike)
  • UEM Super Twin Bike
  • UEM Pro Stock Bike
This day will also be a Street Machine Street Racer Saturday Special. Only racers in the above classes who have pre-booked, and Street Machine Saturday Special drivers who have pre-registered, will be allowed to sign on and use the track. More details on the Street Machine part of the event are available from the magazine.

Entry for the Test Day will be £117.50 per vehicle including VAT. This includes six admission tickets. Extra admission tickets can be ordered on the booking form at £10 per person.

Racers must show signing-on personnel a valid national driver's licence and a valid competition licence showing the grading for the type of vehicle they will be testing. It is the responsibility of the racer to ensure that their vehicle meets the safety regulations for their competition class. In addition, there will be no permit from the MSA, FIA, ACU or FIM so it is the responsibility of the racer to provide their own insurance. Santa Pod Raceway will provide third party insurance.

Bookings should be made by 16th August, after which entry will be accepted at Santa Pod's discretion.

Full details, conditions, and an entry form can be found by clicking here (PDF file for Acrobat Reader). If you have any enquiries then call Santa Pod Raceway on 01234 782828 (outside the UK +44 1234 782828) or E-Mail test@santapod.fsnet.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
Racers invited to Drachten.
18th June: Also inviting racers to an event are Holland's Explosion Drag Racing Club who are accepting entries for the MPM Internationals at Drachten on 12th-13th July.
©Eurodragster.com
"Entry is open to foreign racers until one week before the race", says Jaap Selles of Explosion. "The gates will open at 10:00 am on Friday 11th when tech inspection takes place. The Competition Cars class has been changed to Competition Eliminator."

You can find the official entry form on the Explosion web site at www.explosion.nl, and spectator tickets are on sale on the Lex Joon Racing web site at www.lexjoonracing.nl.

TV agreement reached.
18th June: Caroline Day of Santa Pod Raceway tells us that agreement has now been reached with a large number of TV channels to broadcast this year's FIA, FIM/UEM, and NDRS Bilsport Pro Mod Championships.

The following TV channels have agreed to broadcast the whole Championship: Channel 5 - UK (Terrestrial); Viasat - Sweden/Norway/Finland/Denmark (Satellite); AB Motors - France (Satellite); Sky Sports - UK/Europe (Satellite); Dubai Sports Channel - Middle East (Satellite); Motors TV - France (Satellite); Granada Men & Motors - UK/Europe (Satellite); TV4 - Sweden (Terrestrial)

Worldwide satellite broadcaster Extreme Channel have agreed to broadcast selected shows from the whole Championship schedule.

The following have agreed to broadcast a highlights package within their Motorsport Magazine shows: Fastrax - globally-syndicated; Gillette Sports Special - globally-syndicated to over two hundred channels; Sports Unlimited - globally-syndicated
©Eurodragster.com
Post-Event news packages will be taken by RTL Sports News - Germany (Terrestrial); RTL - Germany (Terrestrial); TV1 - Sweden (Terrestrial); MTV3 - Finland (Terrestrial)

Post-event news packages will be issued via Reuters and EBU - two of the world's largest news agencies.

"We are now awaiting actual broadcast schedules from these broadcasters, and they will be announced as soon as we receive them", says Caroline. You can find more information about TV coverage on Santa Pod's web site at www.santapod.com.

Weekend of Mayhem.
18th June: The UK's York Raceway hosts the Motor Mayhem this Sunday (22nd June), writes PR Howard Holmes. "Billed as the 'over-the-top' event, it includes the excellent track time which you get at York, as well as that Northern hospitality, demonstrated by the ever-popular topless 'burn-out' water babes (not for those of a politically-sensitive disposition)", says Howard.

"More importantly, George Childs will be defending his current number one position in his 528 ci Roadrunner in the second round of the American Superstock Series. This factory and modified muscle car series is starting to show a little bit of Mopar supremacy with Steve Dixon's '69 Coronet snapping at George's heals. So c'mon you Ford and GM guys, let's see what you've got.

"Meanwhile in the Pro ET bracket, Clayton Round's beautiful Buick-powered nostalgia dragster currently rules after round two, if Peter Snowball's Blackout Escort doesn't leave the blower belt on the line this time things might be different. With mild to wild entries, the Sportsman ET bracket has Adam Cuthbert's Jago Jeep (yup, and it burns and runs like an altered!) holding off Stephen Gilmore's rapid 100E.

"In the Hot Rod Challenge series Russ Pursley's power-to-weight missile (nitrous Chevy in diminutive Dutton roadster) will be looking to close in on the lead of Des Taylor in his crowd-pleasing traditional '34 hot rod. There are also open RWYB sessions which attract everything from methanol rails to eleven-second Golfs, plus exhibition vehicle displays. Camping is available from 6:00 pm Saturday.

"The last event at York averaged a remarkable seventy six runs per hour, so if you are tempted to get involved with a bit of participation, there's no better time or place than York Raceway this Sunday!"

For more details either call Steve on 01422 843651 or E-Mail Howard at howardholmes@btinternet.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
18th June: David Wepinksi has launched a German-language Junior Dragster fan page at www.junior-dragster.de. The very nice-looking site features news, reports, Photo Gallery and much more. David tells us that he is working on an English-language version (on the subject of Junior Dragster, congratulations to Glenn Axeldal of our good friends Little Big Racing on his victory at Sundsvall at the weekend - Ed).

UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter's web site has been updated as promised with a 2003 Photo Gallery. Check it out at www.andycarter.net.

Also posting pictures is Eurodragster staffer Tog, who has updated his personal web site Tog's Drag Racing Page with proofs of his Power Nationals shots. If you want to know what Tog was getting up to behind the Jet FCs at the weekend then check out his pictures at www.togsdragracing.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Koedam blasts Dutch record.
17th June: Dutch Top Fuel Bike racer and FIM/UEM Championship leader Roel Koedam attended the Drachten Nationals at the weekend to make some demonstration passes over the eighth mile for his home town fans. The demonstrations turned out better than Roel and the team could possibly have wanted, writes Crew Chief Mariius van der Zijden.

"The weather was absolutely excellent all weekend, with temperatures ranging around 27 degrees C and not a cloud in the sky", says Marius. "It seemed that a lot people noticed this too and the spectator turn-out was very good both on Saturday and on Sunday.

"We had planned only to make two runs on Sunday, but we made one on Saturday afternoon and another three on Sunday. We didn't expect really good traction so we fitted our spare tyre and a spare set of clutch plates. We played it safe with the nitro percentage on Saturday for the same reason. How wrong could we be, we were simply too cautious! The engine ran too rich, started misfiring and then snapped a primary drive belt about a hundred metres into the run.
©Eurodragster.com
"On Sunday we went back to a more familiar nitro percentage and she sounded real happy again. The opener of that day was a decent 4.42/269 kmh. However, the clutch release bearing still didnt work a hundred per cent during the run. It looked like a malfunction of the clutch solenoid, which is not easily accessible on our bike. As we had plenty of time before the second round we were able to dig in deeper and could try something out for the next run. We made a modification to this solenoid valve and on the next run the clutch management system worked just like the old days. The resulting 4.25/284 broke the national and track record which we held anyway. We also learned that the traction was surprisingly good and the clutch seemed to react exactly to the changes that we made.

"It was therefore time to step the clutch up a but and to attack our new track record on our last run. We were scheduled to perform the very last run of the weekend to close the event. Free of any mental pressure at all we were ready to render the new track record short-lived. Oh boy, what a run it was! The scoreboard stopped at an amazing 4.18/295 kmh (183 mph). The crowd went crazy, and so did we. Who would ever think this could be possible at Drachten? Except for the legendary late Sammy Miller in his rocket car, no one - car or bike - has ever been quicker or faster in Holland!

"Well-oiled organisation, perfect track preparation and good weather conditions which made this all possible. With just some demo passes in mind originally, the overall outcome turned out to be a little different. In the end both our team and the spectators got a lot more than we expected. The event itself ran well, as did the organisation's brand-new timing system.

"It looks like the track is capable of running a big event like an eighth-mile FIM/UEM Championship round again."

Mantorp electricity, hospitality.
17th June: Mantorp Park have released the application form for pit electricity, hospitality packages and tickets for the Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park on 24th-27th July. The form is in PDF format and can be downloaded by clicking here.

You can find the very latest versions of all of the Veidec Nitro Festival forms as well as all other NDRS events on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se/nerladdning.html.
©Eurodragster.com
Rawlings has more to smile about.
17th June: UK Super Modified racer Steve Rawlings ran personal bests and made it into the final round of the Power Nationals before a simple problem put him out of contention against Graham Ellis. Steve, who famously saw the funny side of blowing an engine to bits last season, naturally came out smiling.

"I had a slightly later than planned start to the season, due to a family bearevement just prior to Easter and a few problems at the Excitement Nationals", says Steve. "We needed to try to get on the pace as soon as we could, so we came up with a plan of attack: Supercrew! Rob Loaring and Nick Davies (of our sponsors ICE Automotive - Ed), who built the engine, came along to help Mick and myself to establish a routine and get the car set up properly.

"Saturday was mostly spent chasing down a problem on the nitrous system, which proved to be a combination of low battery voltage and chattering relays affecting the nitrous solinoids. This was for the most part dealt with by the first round on Sunday resulting in a new personal best of 8.241/165.44, and a second round of 8.255/164.84.
©Eurodragster.com
"And so to the final. Disaster! With my confidence growing I went for a strong rolling burnout. To my horror as I went to engage reverse the shifter cable mounting tab came loose. I had no gears and I couldn't quite reach the damn thing, and unfortunately I was out of reach of any instant assistance. This left Blakey (Graham Ellis - Ed) to make a blisteringly quick pass, and for once the old boy had a bigger smile on his face than me!

"So well done Graham, Rob and the lads, also well done to Fred, Mick and the gang on the massive effort to get the Gleeson Wright car back out after the mishap at the last meeting - like the shark! Finally a big Thank You to Rob and Nick for all the help and advice over the weekend, and to Mick for his regular support each meeting. See you all at the Summernationals."

Wildside Inc's achievement.
17th June: Lesley Wright, owner of the Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster team, who won the Top Fuel match race at the weekend's Power Nationals, tells us that she and John Wright feel that they achieved something at Shakespeare County Raceway. "We enjoyed our drag racing!", she says.

"Thanks so much to all our crew for helping us make our first win: Sean Milsom, Pit Team Leader; Ian Stephenson, Engine Team Leader; Simon Prest, Clutch 'tinkerer' and Rear End Team Leader; Lee Giles; Ricky Gowan (borrowed from Turner Racing for the weekend!); Tom Digby; and Kat. Still not beaten off the line, Darryl Bradford: you really came up with the goods in the final with your .501 light - it was brilliant!
©Eurodragster.com
"We also had a very special extra crew man this weekend, Jack Sheer (aged 4) without whose valuable assistance it would not have been possible. Cheers Josh and Amanda, thanks for your support! The sale of the Racing Champions models went well, we didn't hurt a thing in the engine thanks to Royal Purple oil; Sara Cridland and Derek Todd and families from Thinktank - thanks for your support; special thanks to John Price and Flint Insurance for all that you do. Thanks to Webb Hire for supplying the power to keep us cool, and to Datron Technology who with their 2-D system demonstrated the fascinating facts of every heartbeat of the engine, not only to John but to the spectators during the warm up in the pits. It's a brilliant system guys, look forward to capturing more data soon. Big thanks to Newport Imports (01634 267676) for allowing us to showcase a 2003 Chevrolet Silverado SS - superb tow vehicle!

"Also big thanks to everyone from the APIRA crew - working out there in those temperatures, we don't know how you do it! Lee Child, Bruno and Darren - you're a great team!

"It was pretty special this weekend for John as his old buddy Baz Young came over from Australia and together with Mickey Moore and Ollie Burns and all the people from the 'not quite yet over the hill mob' being around it was a bit of an MDRA reunion. The last time that Mickey and John both had a race car in the pits at the same race was so long ago neither of them could remember the year! Guess we'll always remember this race!"

A Coe never gives up.
17th June: UK Wild Bunch racers Tom and Alec Coe didn't have the easiest of weekends in their slingshots at the Power Nationals, but a never-give-up attitude paid off, says Tom.

"The first round of qualifying didn't quite go to plan. We fitted a new shifter as planned and I was geared up to run a ten. I started the burnout and bang. It turned out that I had snapped a halfshaft. My dad Alec Coe was next to run but couldn't start the car, the brand new mini starter motor had cracked in half.

"Back in the pits, Alec and crew chief Kevin were running around trying to find another starter motor. We had a few offers but none would fit - thanks to everyone, you know who you are. We then heard that Lee Child of LA Racing Parts might have a starter motor. We found him and he sold us one so thanks very much to Lee. In the meantime, I was trying to fix the halfshaft and after a lot of running around, Martin Hill of the Fireforce Jet Funny Car team offered to weld it temporarily so that I could qualify.

"I managed to put a pass in of a 36.55 at 24 mph so that no pressure was put on the halfshaft. Alec qualified but broke out with a PB of 10.34. After Saturday's racing, I went back with Roy Wilding to his workshop where he made me a new halfshaft and we made it back to the track at 11:00 pm for some dinner.
©Eurodragster.com
"The new halfshaft was fitted on Sunday morning and the other one taken out and checked. We found a hairline fracture two thirds of the way round, so it was back to the Fireforce pits where Martin again ground down and welded the other halfshaft so that I could make it through the weekend. It held up well but I didn't want to go for the ten so I took it easy and went two rounds before I broke out. The Wild Bunch Closest Breakout and Best Slingshot trophies were consolation prizes.

"Alec on the other hand went three rounds on Sunday, running another PB of 10.29 but on his last race went every which way but straight and came within a few inches of the barrier. He achieved third place, closest to dial-in and got a special award for Wildest Ride.

"I would like to thank Martin Hill, Paul and Tony of the Fireforce team for everything they did, I wouldn't have raced without your help; Matt Lee for all his help; and last but not least Dave McKenzie, for helping and crewing for me all weekend. We'll be back at the Nostalgia Nationals and this time I will go for a ten. There's one in the car somewhere."

Krivan welcomes crew.
17th June: Swiss Top Methanol Funny Car racer Dezsoe Krivan has welcomed two new team members as he prepares for the trip to Alastaro for the next round of the FIA European Championship.
©Eurodragster.com
"We have welcomed Robin Grice, who has been around the drag racing scene a long time, and Monika Irsigler ex of Peter Beck's team", says team member Steve Wilson "As well as new team members we also have some new support vehicles: a new truck - a MAN supplied by Felix Transport of Basel - and a new crew truck, a Ford F150 Super Cab 5.4 lt. Which is mine!"

Dezsoe's web site at www.dragracing.ch has been updated with a report of the FIA Main Event where a broken pulley (right) put paid to the team's weekend, an updated Photo Gallery, an appeal for more crew, and an updated team page.

Fang need fuel.
17th June: The UK's The Fang Supertwin Modified team are testing their bike soon and Carl Wadkin-Snaith has been in touch asking for Eurodragster readers' help.

"I need a couple of gallons of avgas or C16", he says. "Can anyone suggest where I can get hold of some in the Bristol-Swindon area?"
©Eurodragster.com
If you can help then please drop Carl a line at carl@turnertech.evesham.net.

Power Nationals timing data.
17th June: We are indebted to Ozzy Ewing of Shakespeare County Raceway's tech crew for passing on the timing data from the weekend's Power Nationals.

Click here to view the timing data, or click on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. The file is in Excel format.
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
17th June: UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter's official web site at www.andycarter.net has been updated with a review of his season so far, and Carter Motorsports PR Dan Welberry tells us that a 2003 Photo Gallery is imminent.

2002 FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Champion Peter Schöfer's web site has been updated with photographs and video from the FIA Main Event. Check it out at www.p-s-r.com.

Michael Buhagiar has updated his Maltese Drag Racing web site with photographs from last week's Night Event at Hal Far Raceway. You can find Michael's pictures at www.dragraceway.cjb.net.

The racebuilder.nu web site at www.racebilder.nu has been updated with pictures from the recent Swedish Westcoast ET Race at Vårgårda Airfield.

Patrick Kuyper has updated his Imaginary web sites with pictures from the weekend's Drachten Nationals in Holland. You can find the pictures in the Event section at www.imaginary.nl.
©Eurodragster.com
Highpower Nitrous Systems have moved their web site to its own URL at www.noswizard.com. The well-designed and informative 'Wizard of Nos' (ouch - Ed) site tells you everything you need to know about Nitrous from choosing a system to fitting, and can also sell you the parts.

Anni Valder of the feel-the-noise.com web site would like to say a very big Thank You for all the get well messages which were passed on to Bob Valder this weekend, and especially for the mention on Eurodragster's Event Coverage page. Whilst she is hoping to get back trackside shortly, this season's coverage may be a bit lighter than usual. In the meantime, Bob has swapped the camcorder for a point-and-shoot stills camera and moved down to the armco to provide backup coverage. Bob's first efforts with his new camera can now be found in the 'Latest work in progress' section under Photo Albums. Meanwhile, most of Anni's Speedfreaks Ball pictures have been posted and she is working on her Main Event shots.

The Dragsterworld web site at www.dragsterworld.com has been updated with a number of photographs from the American Auto Club Show at Billing. The site has also been updated with an in-depth look at running a Top Fuel Dragster team courtesy of the guys' recent weekend with the Carter Motorsports Top Fuel team.

NDs free to a good home.
17th June: Rob Cook has been in touch to offer Eurodragster readers a large number of copies of National Dragster, free to a good home. "I've somehow managed to amass two big collections of at different ends of the country", he says. "In York I've got a load from 1989-1993 and 1997-1999, pretty much complete between these dates, and in South London I've got another load from 1992-1998, again almost complete. With two lofts full I am going to have to chuck them out, but I'd rather let someone have them for nothing. If anyone is interested then please drop me a line at PicturesbyRob@hotmail.com so that we can arrange for their collection. I don't care what you do with them, read the, sell them, or burn them, just get them out of my sight!"
©Eurodragster.com
Hills two months off?
16th June: UK Fuel legend Nobby Hills could be a couple of months from a return to the track with the latest Houndog Fuel Funny Car. As we revealed here on Eurodragster back in November 2001 Nobby, who ran a string of cars of that name from the 1960s to the 1980s, will be teaming up again with equally legendary FC shoe Owen Hayward.
©Eurodragster.com
"I'm working very hard at it", says Nobby. "I'm trying to be ready in two months. The chassis is complete, the body has been painted, the engine just needs heads and the clutch is in place."

Nobby says that although he is aiming to have evetrything ready in two months, he will not be rushing the job. "I want to do it properly, and if it takes time then it takes time", he says.

NDRS reports.
16th June: Our good buddies at Svensk Dragracing have updated their web site with reports and results from the Deep Forest Nationals at Sundsvall and the Bike Weekend at Västerås, and pictures from the Deep Forst Nationals. You can the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se.
©Eurodragster.com
Power Nationals ladders.
16th June: We are indebted to Wayne Schreier of Shakespeare County Raceway's tech crew for passing on the ladders of today's eliminations at the Power Nationals.

Click here to view the ladders, or click on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.
©Eurodragster.com
Racers needed for Beer Festival.
16th June: UK Wild Bunch racer Mark Turton has been in touch with an urgent call for racers to bring their cars or bikes along to a display this weekend.

"Over the last few years we have had the pleasure of putting our cars on show at the Blue Ball Beer Festival held in Asheridge, Chesham", says Mark. "This year, however, my own car is in a hundred bits, Nick Conner with his Barking Mad altered has other commitments for the weekend, John Parkinson's car is still being put back together, which only leaves Scott Durrant with his new altered In The Dog House Again. This year also gives my partner Philippa and I the chance to run the three-day Festival, however the weekend has coincided with a lot of parties or other commitments and we have been struggling to find race cars or bikes to put on show. We were wondering if any Eurodragster readers would like to offer their cars for a static show either the for the whole weekend or at least Sunday.

The Beer Festival starts this Friday, 20th June, at 12:00 and continues through to 6:00 pm on Sunday. The bar hours are midday-midnight. Friday night there is a live jazz band, Saturday night there is a live rockabilly band, and Sunday is a fun day. We also have the War of the Roses re-enactment group all weekend, and plenty of other things to do including the tasting of twenty five real ales along with normal lagers etc.
©Eurodragster.com
If anyone would like to join us, we are looking for between two and eight cars, dragsters or bikes to join Scott in giving people an insight of the sport and what goes on behind the scenes, and at certain times on Saturday and Sunday we are able to make some noise!"

If you are interested then you can contact Mark by E-Mail at tmarkiet@aol.com, or call Pete at the the Blue Ball on 01494 758263.

Power Nationals results.
15th June: Congratulations to the winners of the Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway:

Super Modified: Graham Ellis 7.744/181.45 def. Steve Rawlings broke
Super Pro ET: Mark Flavell (7.84) 7.825/173.75 def. Ian Bishop (7.96) 12.084/79.51
Pro ET: Ian Brown (10.86) 11.007/116.28 def. Aidan Kenny (11.60) 11.704/114.80
Sportsman ET: Mark Anderson (13.48) 13.811/99.34 def. Kev Slyfield (12.08) 14.169/65.22 red light
Super Comp: Malcolm Francis 8.953/150.00 def. Martin Curbishley 8.966/150.50
Super Gas: Tim Adam 9.945/146.58 def. Martin Curbishley 9.884/138.04
Super Street: Lee Huxley 11.014/119.36 def. Ian Brown 10.988/120.00
Junior Dragster: Colin Morrice (9.00) 9.160/69.44 def. Johnny Walker (14.93) 15.118/40.87
Custom Car Street Eliminator: Steve Pateman 9.741/145.16 def. John Hales 9.575/166.67
Wild Bunch: Ray Ford staged, Chris Hartnell did not show
Outlaw Anglia: Pete Ashworth 9.827/138.46 def. Gary McCormack 9.901/136.36
©Eurodragster.com
Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck 7.641/171.10 def. Chris Hope 8.543/167.29
Funny Bike: Neil Midgley 7.058/189.08 def. Dave Holand 7.273/178.57
Super Street Bike: Karl Larcombe 8.268/173.08 def. Steve Venables 8.487/170.45
Comp Bike: Klaus Sarembe 8.337/158.45 def. Phil Leamon 8.508/157.89
9.90 Bike: Fred Furlong 10.555/98.68 def. Wayne Hobbs 14.657/74.38
10.90 Bike: Iain Jack 11.479/91.65 def. Paul Coombs 13.417/65.60
Supertwin Fuel: Chris Stebbings 9.698/123.97 def. Ian Turburville 10.096/140.62
Supertwin Gas: George Laycock 9.690/133.53 def. Andy Smith 10.597/120.97
Supertwin Modified: TJ O'Brien 10.581/125.70 def. Dave Bartz 20.532/33.03
Supertwin Street: Mark Earrey 10.448/133.53 def. Chris Mott 11.076/120.64
Junior Drag Bike: Andy Irvine (12.00) 12.772/50.90 def. Jake Carruthers (13.00) 13.616/48.18

Darryl Bradford won the Top Fuel Dragster match race again Susanne Callin 2-1. Jim Seward took the Fuel Altered match race against Mickey Moore by the same score and returned to the sixes as an added bonus. Gordon Appleton won the Pro Mod match race against John Ellis 3-0, setting a new track speed record in the process and coming very close to the ET record. Martin Hill wiped out his own Jet FC track record with a pass of 5.885/272.73 whilst Roger Goring continues his improvement in the Firestorm Jet FC with bests of 6.664/240.64.

Click here to view our Power Nationals reports and pictures, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Racers: Send your Power Nationals reviews to us at news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them right here.

Krazy seven?
13th June: Crew member Bert of the UK's Krazy Kat Super Street Bike team thinks that this weekend's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway could see the first seven-second pass by an SSB, and naturally he thinks that rider Karl Larcombe will be the one. The low eight-second Krazy Kat bike now features Nitrous assistance and has already recorded low eights even without the gas.
©Eurodragster.com
"We are ready to play this weekend, and hopefully will be getting some low eights into play", says Bert. "Roger is happy with the bike, and has got some useful info from the dyno testing he has done which will give us a good database for that elusive seven. If it's going to happen, my own opinion is in qualifying, as this is where with a good track and a cool (temperature) motor set-up, we can make the necessary gee-gees."

Lorentzon fixing meltdowns.
13th June: Sweden's Lorentzon and Möller Top Fuel Dragster team are working hard to repair engine damage suffered at the FIA Main Event as they face two races in two weekends at the start of July. Tommy Möller went through the top end in a fireball in qualifying at the Main Event and then the Pennzoil-backed rail disappeared in a cloud of smoke in round one of eliminations.

"Right now I'm working to put our two nuclear bullets - named Harrisburg and Chernobyl - back together after the big meltdown at the Pod", says Crew Chief and co-owner Kenneth Lorentzon. "It is easier to weld up the block and heads than it is to fix the hole in the wallet. The main reason for the disaster was a malfunction in slide movment combined with way, way to much boost. I mean an oil pan is supposed to be square not round, correct me if I'm wrong! These suckers where eating themselves up before the eighth-mile and still manged to run a high 3.2, but down twelve miles per hour compared to what we had been running before. It took a 2.5 mm chunk of disc wear, and I was no softie on the clutch, so it was producing some good power. But once again it's supposed to be a quarter of a mile.

"We will fix it and go to Alastaro in Finland, and then on the weekend after that to the Midnight Sun Internationals at Piteå in Sweden. At Alastaro will I go a little bit easier on the tune-up and not try to knock the scoreboards down.

"The big problem has been getting new crankshafts. All the crank companies have two to six week back orders. But once again Gary at Gary Burgin Enterprises fixed it. He's a multi-contact person and the day he quits and stops serving racers over here we will be in deep crap."

You can find the Lorentzon and Möller web site at www.tf25.com.

Borg shock...
13th June: If you were tuned in earlier this week you will have read about the 5.811-second pass run by Mario Borg in the Borg Brothers Top Methanol Dragster at Hal Far Raceway last weekend. The status of Mario's run has become the subject of some discussion, and we were shocked to receive the following short release from team principals Victor and Paul Borg via their tuning consultant Bernie Hepworth:

"Despite running the quickest elapsed times run during racing in Malta by a Maltese driver, to the dismay of the team the run of 5.811 seconds with a small block-engined Dragster is not to be accepted as a National record. This was confirmed during a two-hour meeting with the President of the Malta Drag Racing Association on the Monday after the race. The team consider this to be unacceptable and have withdrawn from participation in events organised by the MDRA for the forseeable future."
©Eurodragster.com
We asked MDRA President Anthony Borda for his comments. "I know that the Borg Brothers ran a great time for a small block Methanol Dragster, and it's the fastest small block in Europe for sure, but the 5.811 wasn't backed up by one per cent. It's a shame because it's a fantastic achievement. We had a discussion with the team after I tried to explain to them that things have changed. We formerly calculated the final run only as the record. The team said that they didn't know about this, and thought that that was still the way to achieve the National record, but it was changed to the one per cent back up almost two years ago."

..and a word about the paint.
13th June: On a happier note, we heard from our good friend Paul Galea who was responsible for the beautiful paint job on the Borg Brothers' dragster (right).

"If anyone in the UK or Europe is interested in making his car turn heads, then please E-Mail me at pgsigns@onvol.net", says Paul.
©Eurodragster.com
Bernie Hepworth tells us that the gorgeous paintjob will need some touching up after the final-round pass on Sunday. "It would have been a 5.76 at 235ish if it had not caught fire and burnt off the Lenco air feed pipe", he says. "I have a Racepak recorder on the car and it went into second gear way before the end. Fortunately Mario Borg is OK. He needs a new fire suit, helmet, neck collar and seat belts, the body paint to the front of the screen and the screen itself are gone, but the motor and drive train are OK."

Day for Night.
13th June: Courtesy of our buddy Christer Abrahamson of Svensk Dragracing comes the news that this year's FHRA Night Race, which is traditionally held at Alastaro in August, is to be run during the daytime this year. The race has been renamed the August Nationals and takes place on 16th-17th August. You can find more details on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se together with a preview of the two-race weekend in Sweden which sees the Deep Forest Nationals at Sundsvall and the Bike Weekend at Västerås.
©Eurodragster.com
Smax seeks videos, converter.
13th June: FIA Main Event Top Fuel Dragster winner Smax Smith has been in touch to ask if any Eurodragster readers have video of his fireball at the finish line in the Main Event Top Fuel final, and also of his 4.89/303 pass in the first round of eliminations.
©Eurodragster.com
Smax is also urgently looking for a Powerglide high-stall torque converter. If you can help either with the video or with the converter then please drop him a line at smax@smax.co.uk.

AA/FAs as tranquillisers.
12th June: Fuel Altered racer Jim Seward is looking forward to firing up the engine of his Harry The Spider altered at this weekend's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, where he will be taking part in a best-of-three match race against fellow AA/FA racer Mickey Moore in The Mob.

Jim's last competitive outing in the six-second altered was at Shakespeare County Raceway last August where Wendy Baker took the match race series in Mickey's car. A subsequent chance for revenge, at the Flame and Thunder Show at Santa Pod in November, was thwarted by rain.

"It's been a hard off-season", says Jim. "My business commitments haven't left us a lot of time. But we've been through the car and it all looks OK. It's now back in one piece, and we're ready to go at the weekend."
©Eurodragster.com
Jim says that as soon as the starter motor turns on Saturday the off-season will be forgotten. "It's always nerve-wracking, but once that engine fires then the nerves just go", he says. "I'm not going to make any predictions - I know what we'd like to do! - but we're quietly confident and I can promise you we'll be putting on a great show! I'm very much looking forward to matching up against Mickey again."

Jim tells us that Mickey and the Mob team have fitted new parts to their altered and have been ready to go "for about six weeks".

Jim has been joined by new crew members Danny and Reg and sponsors Somerton Motor Company and D and TJ Beal Haulage contractors have remained on board for 2003. "They've always been very good to us", he says. "I would like to say a special thanks my team, and I would like to say good luck to Lee Child (promoter - Ed)."

The Champion's new clothes.
12th June: The UK's Championship-holding Showtime Racing Fuel Funny Car team have announced the acquisition of a body from John Force Racing in the USA. The 2002 Mustang body comes from Tony Pedregon's 2002 race car and, like the Jim Dunn Firebird body acquired by the Shockwave team this year, is the state of the art.

"It really was a fast decision, but thinking about it now it was a natural progression for us to move up to a new body, especially after the Main Event", says Crew Chief and owner Bob Jarrett. "I often read on Eurodragster of other racers' experiences, of how their cars reacted differently when they tried a change in the tune-up: sometimes it worked, but most of the time it didn't, and that's the part you don't often get to hear about. I will not deny the fact that we have stagnated over the last couple of years and yes we have made a few mistakes along the way. The Thunderball was a prime example and I probably still owe Bill Sherratt big time for what he went through. There are not many people who could get back in a Fuel FC and still hit the throttle wide open, after what happened on his first run."

The Showtime team's rebound from the Easter Thunderball experience commenced at the Excitement Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, which John Spuffard won, and continued at the FIA Main Event where Spuff again won the event, ran the quickest-ever Fuel FC outside the USA at 5.288, and also set a new speed record of 266.57 mph. However Bob and the team still found room for improvement. "Without going into too much detail, I can tell you that for most of the final the car was only on seven cylinders", says Bob. "On the last two runs the clutch was locked up and the motor was at 8100 rpm across the finish line. That is well over 300 mph wheel speed, but we only recorded 265. Hello John Force Ford Mustang body! With one of the best aero and downforce packages in NHRA racing today, this is our new direction and we are looking to improve on our 5.28."
©Eurodragster.com
Bob says that although the mechanical side of the car has been sorted out, the team feel that they are a long way from their true potential. "You often hear all those figures for best sixty-foot or fantastic 330-foot times, but the bottom line is that the race track is a quarter of a mile in length", he says. "And that's where you win or lose - right at that finish line. The track at Santa Pod right now is the best it has ever been, but if you are not in the centre of the groove when the clutch locks up you are in trouble. Those long cars can get away with it, sometimes, but you sure as hell can't in a Funny Car."

The new body is planned to début at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway in September, or maybe at August's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway if the team are ready. "One thing's for sure", says Bob. "It may take a little while, but both John and I are totally committed and we will never even think of retiring until we have run a Four at three hundred miles per hour in a Funny Car!"

You can find the Showtime web site at www.showtimeracing.co.uk.

CBD busy - except Smax.
12th June: Although the Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster team have a match race date at Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend, team owner Knut Söderquist tells us that they are also gearing up for the next round of the FIA European Championships which takes place at Alastaro in Finland in July. The CBD team will be taking at least two Top Fuellers - driven by Smax Smith and Micke Kågered - on the long trip to the FHRA Nitro Nationals.

"Finland is going to be an awesome race", says Knut. "It's a four-car field which I think is a terrible pity, I wish it could be an eight-car field. But it does mean that no-one is guaranteed to to get in - it could be the toughest Top Fuel qualifying ever seen in Europe! Right now we are planning to run two cars, but wait for more news..."
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Knut says that he is very pleased to see Top Fuellers starting to run regular 4.8s in Europe, but that there is a down side. "It costs serious money to run 4.8s regularly", he says. "It costs you in crankshafts, rods and blowers. When you start to run 4.8s, cranks last six runs instead of fifteen - it's an arm and a leg. We didn't break anything at the Main Event, but it could easily be us next time."

Susanne Callin will be driving the CBD Top Fueller at Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend, in a match race against Darryl Bradford in the Wildside Inc car. Knut tells us that he has given FIA Championship leader Smax Smith, still undefeated in 2003, "A rest to polish his trophies!"

Stand by with that tow car.
12th June: The UK's Nova Blaze Sportsman ET team will arrive at Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend with their race car in pieces, writes Jeff Rainbird. Plan B, the use of a tow car which was pressed into service at the Excitement Nationals, is in place. "Steve Parttis will tow the Nova to the track as the Cavalier has failed its MOT, nothing to do with me!", says Jeff. "The Sierra will be on standby again if required!"

Meanwhile Jeff's Team Czechmate Skoda is in the recovery room. "The gearbox was just worn out when I stripped it after the Excitement Nationals" says Jeff. "It has no gears at the moment which is really no different to what was happening on every run over the last season! VW UK were really helpful as they went and pulled the plug on the dealer who had put the parts on back order, just as they were due to arrive after a two-week wait. That's what I call customer relations...just spiteful.

"Some quick phone calls got the parts back on track, but it got close to me being very spiteful back - for those who do know, it would have been very spiteful! The box will be in with mods to the bushings inside and new synchros and dog rings. The head was due to be finished by the welding shop on Tuesday, hopefully they will cure the porous exhaust ports so it'll need a quick flash round to put the ports back into shape and bolt it on by midnight. As you can see, I am looking forward to relaxing this weekend!"

No reservations about WRE Test.
12th June: Jon Webster has announced that pre-booking will not be necessary for next Wednesday's (18th June) Webster Race Engineering Test Day at Santa Pod Raceway. The WRE Test Days are open to both car and bike racers and provide the opportunity to test in race conditions from and the track time to experiment with set-ups. The track, which will be open from 10:00 - 17:00 (with a break for lunch), will be fully-prepped and full marshal and paramedic cover will be in place. Catering is also on-site. A trackside assistance service will also be available, offering expert set-up advice specifically tailored to individual race vehicles.
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Entry to each track day is 120 per driver or rider. In the event of a rain off, 75% of the entry fee can be carried forward to another Test Day. A full DVLA driving licence must be produced to sign on, with the obvious exception of Junior Dragsters.

If you are interested in attending then you can either speak to Webster Race Engineering on 01933 315236, or catch Jon in the pits at this weekend's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway where he will be crewing with John Hales and the CCSE Chevy.

Web site updates.
12th June: Eurodragster staffer Sharkman has updated his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with a large number of photographs from the FIA Main Event, several new Windows wallpaper files including pictures from the pre-Main Event test and Press days, and four video clips including some extreme naughtiness in 9.90 Bike. You can check out Sharkman's pictures at www.topendtales.com

Editor's note: Apologies to Roy Wilding and especially to his sponsor Lugg Tools for their omission in the list of Roy's sponsors in yesterday's news item. The omission was ours - Ed.
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Appleton guns for SCR record.
11th June: As we were putting together today's news, Lee Child of LA Performance Services got in touch to let us know that Gordon Appleton has entered his new Wheelgame Racing Pro Mod Camaro at this weekend's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. Lee tells us that Gordon, who recently set a new PB of 6.580 at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod, is after Shakespeare County's Pro Mod track record of 6.657 which Andy Robinson set in 1999.
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Lee tells us that Gordon and fellow PM racer John Ellis are scheduled to have a best-of-three match race on Sunday.

Reasons to be cheerful.
11th June: UK Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Ian Hook and his FB Racing team haven't had a good year so far, says Ian.

"Two destroyed engines, four rebuilds, damaged panel work, a burglary at my home on the one weekend I managed to get away with the family and, to cap it all, the venerable Carlton tow-car is now throwing frequent electronic wobblies", says Fatty. "However I have been overwhelmed with the help and support I have received from racers, crew and sponsors. Honestly, in what other motor sport would you get racers supporting rivals and even offering financial aid (that's a big duck egg - Ed). Whilst it's easy to moan about the things that aren't right, we ought to take time out occasionally to remember just how damned good most of it is and what a great bunch of people this sport attracts.
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"A big thanks to all of you (you know who you are), I hope that one day I can repay some of the kindness shown by you. The engine is being bolted back together right now with our last usable spares. It's a bit of stop-gap motor, with some quite large leakdowns, but it didn't smoke and the plugs came out dry. We'll have to tone the gas down a bit but we'll be back out and fighting - albeit with one hand tied behind our back! - this weekend at the Power Nationals and round three of the Custom Car/Brantwood Breakers Street Eliminator series."

The FB Racing web site at www.fbracing.co.uk has been updated with team member Trev's report of the team's recent outing at the UK Modified Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway.

Perfect Light fund recharged.
11th June: This weekend's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway is the next qualifying event for the Eurodragster Perfect Light Award. Super Pro ET racer Al Golding took the Perfect Light Award at the FIA Main Event with a 0.500 in qualifying, so the Perfect Light prize fund has been recharged and again stands at £50.

All racers in all classes are eligible for the Perfect Light Award: it will be awarded to the first racer at this weekend's event to record a perfect Reaction Time, 0.400 or 0.500 as appropriate. The money can be won in either qualifying or eliminations, but not open practice.
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If no-one records a perfect RT this weekend then the prize fund will be increased to £75 for the SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway. If the money is won then the prize fund will again be recharged to £50 for the Summernationals.

Good luck everyone!

Little Daddy kicks butt back.
11th June: UK Supercharged Outlaw racer Roy Wilding, lately dubbed 'Little Daddy', is celebrating new bests of 8.409 and 172.49 in his historic Hemi Hunter slingshot at the UK Modified Nationals, but the chance to gain revenge on friendly rival Johnny 'Mental' Hall in his The Happening slingshot also counted for a lot.

"I like racing Johnny as much as Johnny likes racing me!", says Roy. "We did the butt-kicking this time and I've got a feel for it now!"

Roy says that the 8.4 was very easy. "We weren't pushing it really, we weren't going full chat. We're looking to repeat the feat at the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals (at Shakespeare County Raceway at the end of June - Ed). The motor is OK, and we're all go. Johnny is a great racer, he gets off the line very quickly, but he should keep an ear out for the 'locomotive' coming past him again at half-track...well, Johnny called it a locomotive but I like to call it a freight train! The time was great, the speed is coming on, and there's more in there. Johnny's going to have to play catch-up. In any case, it's my turn - he did it to me last year!"
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Mention of freight trains leads us very nicely into a couple of nostalgia slingshots which Roy told us to expect to see some time soon. "Mark Purslow will be bringing out a top-spec Donovan-powered rail, and Norm Wheeldon is building a twin-engined slingshot. And you know Norm, that will be something special!"

Roy is very grateful to the sponsors who helped to sole his butt-kicking shoes: Global Lubricants, F R Bastable Components, Colin E Smith Gearboxes, Custom Chrome of Nuneaton, W R Advertising, Lugg Tools and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars.

Hal Far Night Event results.
11th June: Last weekend's race at Hal Far Raceway on Malta was the best ever night event, writes Malta Drag Racing Assocation President Anthony Borda.

"There were around 125 competitors at this event. Night events bring lots of spectators to the track and everyone certainly got their money's worth. We had a Big Screen TV installed again for the benefit of the spectators. Its nice to see the top end from the start line! The weather stayed great during the three day event, but the humidity was a bit high and the performance wasnt to the limit, but still there were National Records broken.

"You could say that the Top Methanol class was the highlight of the event. This time we saw John Ellul of Elbros Racing Team competing against Mario Borg of Borg Bros Racing Team. Both had their dragsters on the limit but Mario was a bit quicker in qualifying with a 5.935 run and John was a fraction behind with a 5.985. When the final took place we the spectators were on their feet cheering both racers. The noise was tremendous hearing the Dragsters burn out and launch. It was a great race from these two courageous drivers. In the final run we saw Mario rocketing off the start line and passed the finish line first with a 5.811. The Borg Brothers and all the Maltese people should be proud of what Mario achieved during this run. Both drivers got a great cheer from the crowd because thiswas a fantastic race and we saw lots of happy faces all night.
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"Apart from these two drivers, there were lots of others who did a great job too. A new competitor, Chris Polidano, got his Escort Cosworth Altered Car to the limit too by clocking an 8.5 without using Nitrous Oxide. By the next event hell have his Nitrous hooked up and go faster than ever before. Emanuel Mangion had his Cosworth Escort running 8.4s in various classes and ended up in the finals in four different classes. Jesmond Mallia in his Super Street 2.2 litre with nitrous broke the class record with a 9.988. For a street car with a four cylinder Pinto Engine, this car is very fast and reliable and it's nice to see a street car picking up the front around three feet in the air! There were lots of other cars which ran personal bests.

"Tommy Agius driving his Volvo 12-litre diesel-powered truck hadd a great run of 11.5 seconds. Tommy was the fastest truck driver again although he had some problems with the engine. In the Motorcycle section we had Chris Vella, driving a Kawasaki 900cc with Nitrous, clocking an impressive 9.4 run. This is a great elapsed time for a small cc bike.

"There is lots more to mention but I cant keep on going. I want to say thanks to all the competitors and tell them that they should hold their heads high for achieving great times during this quarter mile event. Thanks also to all of the spectators which flocked Hal-Far Raceway to watch the best motor sport on earth."

Class winners:

SM 1 ClassGodwin CarabottEscort 1800cc12.388 sec
SS 1 ClassRoger CarabottEscort 1800cc12.440 sec
SM 2 ClassMario MalliaEscort 2100cc12.000 sec
SS 2 ClassMark FarrugiaEscort 2100cc12.099 sec
SS 4 ClassJesmond MalliaEsc 2260cc+nos9.988 sec
PS 2 ClassGodwin CarabottEscort 2100cc11.349 sec
PS 3 ClassGary CurmiEscort BDA 2100cc11.079 sec
CA2 ClassGodwin CarabottEscort 2100cc11.333 sec
Open 1 ClassMassimo BarbaraEscort Cosworth9.524 sec
Open 4 ClassEmanuel MangionEscort Cosworth8.427 sec
Open 5 ClassAlan CamilleriSierra V88.700 sec
Open 6 ClassCharles AbelaDragster Cosworth7.999 sec
D 6 ClassAlan CamilleriSierra V87.918 sec
DTA ClassMario BorgTMD5.811 sec
Mini ClassRoberto GauciMini 1300cc13.671 sec
Open trucksTommy AgiusVolvo11.370 sec
MotorcyclesChris VellaKawasaki 900cc9.456 sec

You can read more on the Malta Drag Racing Association web site at www.maltadragracing.com.

Callin happy with sixth.
10th June: Swedish Top Fuel Dragster racer Susanne Callin has been nominated one of the most sexy women in Sweden. In a hugely-popular and eagerly-awaited annual feature, Sweden's Café magazine published their 2003 list of the sixty nine sexiest women in the country, and Susanne came sixth. "The list includes actresses, musicians, models, and now drag racing drivers!", says Susanne.
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The news comes just in time for Susanne's first race of the season, in which she will be driving one of Knut Söderquist's Carbon By Design Top Fuellers in a match race against Darryl Bradford in the Wildside Inc Fueller at this weekend's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. "It's great to get back in the seat of a Top Fueller again", says Susanne. "I am looking forward to it very much!"

Knut Söderquist tells us that after speaking to Susanne's primary sponsor there is a chance that we will see Susanne in the seat of a CBD Top Fuel Dragster at the Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park, at the Nitrolympics at Hockkenheim, and at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. Stay tuned for more news about that.

Bradford's 'no gentleman' order.
10th June: Meanwhile Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster driver Darryl Bradford is under some pretty strict orders from car owners John and Lesley Wright at this weekend's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway.

"OK so were racing a blonde and a lady, but as we all know blonde lady drivers are not to be messed with!", says Lesley Wright. "So dont expect Darryl to be a gentleman this weekend. Team orders are 'Keep your mind on the driving and your hands on the wheel, and keep your snooping eyes on the road ahead'. And if anyone out there cant remember the tune - ask your Dad! There will be no pussy-footing around this weekend. Everybody knows that given the opportunity, no-one beats Darryl off the line.

"Our gratitude goes out again to our crew for all their hard work and to the people who help us to be out there: White Contract Services( Josh, Amanda and Jack), Thinktank (Derek and Family and Sara), Royal Purple ( Geoff and Bob), Racing Champions, Cambridge Motorsport and Flint Insurance. And finally we must also say a special thanks to Al Jackson for resurrecting our blower for us.
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"Datron Technology are also literally on board this weekend using the Wildside car for research to develop a data logging system specifically for drag racing. The company are already heavily involved with Super Bike and the DTM series and produce a super lightweight system through their parent company 2D. See www.datrontechnology.co.uk for more information."

You can find the Wildside Inc team's official web site at www.wildsideinc.co.uk.

Cunning Plan for the body.
10th June: UK Wild Bunch racer Tony Smith will be unveiling a new paintjob on his Cunning Plan minvan at this weekend's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway.

"With the time we had to prepare the body and spray it - four Sundays and a Saturday afternoon - and where we had to spray it - outside dodging the rain and the wind - I think it's looking good", says Tony. "All that's left is to put the writing on the sides and refit the body to the chassis.

"I would like to thank Dave for all the hard work (including the spraying) which he put into it. Thanks also to Eddie Yates for making the masking and all the signage: without the masking it would have taken us hours to put on the design, not the hour it did take.
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"I would like also to thank my new sponsor, Les Allen, of Tonypandy Motor Company. He is the new owner of the garage that I work, and has just given me two new front tyres and will be helping out when and where he can in the future. Thanks also to Alan from Newgate (Newark) Limited for his continued support, and for paying for all the paint and engine parts used to rebuild the car."

Tony tells us that there are a few other new changes to the car and team for next weekend, but that we will have to wait for the Power Nationals to find those out. You can find the official Cunning Plan web site at www.cunningplan.btinternet.co.uk.

Powerfest launches in Hungary.
10th June: The European Hot Rod Association (EHRA), in cooperation with the Motor Sport Timing and Organisation (MSTO), announced yesterday that its Championship Drag Racing Series will début in Budapest, Hungary at the Tokoli Airfield from 1st-3rd August, as part of a weekend-long festival called Powerfest. The announcement was made by EHRA co-Founders Roy A. Sciacca and Aric Gastwirth.

The EHRA Championship Drag Racing Series will thrill audiences with three days of nitro-burning entertainment at Powerfest, a weekend-long celebration of speed and sound which will incorporate daytime drag racing, nighttime concerts, and after hours dance parties.

The racing competition will feature at least seven classes of racing including Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Top Gas Harley, Super Street Bike, Modified Harleys, and Pro Modified cars and trucks. Gates open at 9:00 am; test runs begin at 10:00 am. Eliminations commence at noon and last until 5:00 pm.

You can find out all about Powerfest on the event's official web site at www.powerfest.com.
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Pictures from Hal Far.
10th June: We are very grateful to our friend Michael Buhagiar for sending us a number of pictures from the weekend's event at Malta's Hal Far Raceway. We have set up a gallery with the best shots which you can view by clicking here.

"The event was as usual a good show organised by Malta Drag Racing Association", says Michael. "We saw a large number of cars participating in every class. The most spectacular runs where from the Top Methanol Dragsters. The two cars clocked 5.9-second qualifying runs with John Ellul unfortunately having tyre shake on his first run. In the final we saw a new paint job on Borg Brothers dragster. Mario won with a 5.8-second run. All was well with Mario Borg although we saw some fire from the engine during the run.
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"The CA class got everyone's attention with Emanuel Mangion's Escort, Alan Camilleri's Sierra, Chris Polidano with his modified Escort clocking 8.6, and Emmanuel Muscat's Cortina Cosworth. The two dragsters of Charles Abela and Alan Desira had two races, Charles won both times as Alan unfortunately got red lights. The Truck class was dominated by Tommy Agius, who won the Open 1 and the Handicap class.

"Thanks go to the MDRA committee who organised the event so well, and to all the racers after all, without them nothing can happen."

You can find Michael's excellent Maltese Drag Racing web site at www.geocities.com/dragraceway.

Turner team grows.
10th June: 2002 MSA British Drag Racing Champions, the Turner Racing Top Methanol Dragster team, have welcomed some new team members. "John Foster (Clutch and Gearbox), Pat McPartland (Upper engine) and Sarah Foster (PR) joined the team at Easter", says Sarah Foster. You can read more on the updated Turner Racing web site at www.turnerracing.co.uk.
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Diggens' new ride shaping up.
10th June: UK Funny Bike racer Neil Diggens dropped us a line to tell us that the build of his new Funny Bike is coming along very well.
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"This is why you I've not been about much this season", says Neil. "I took this picture at Dave Branch's workshop when I went along to see how things are getting on. The set-up of the bike will be somewhere between Tim Blakemore's and Neil Midgley's bikes."

Web site updates.
10th June: The Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc has been updated with entry forms for the SPRC Summernationals and the Bug Jam. SPRC Club Secretary Paula Marshall tells us that entry for the Summernationals closes on Wednesday 18th June, and reminds us that as well as showcasing the VW Drag Racing Club's three classes, the Bug Jam is also a round of the UK Super Modified Championship.

French Rocket Bike and Top Fuel Bike racer Eric Teboul has launched a web site at www.teboulracing.com. Eric's French-language site is very colourful and contains everything you could want to know about both his Fuel and five-second Rocket mounts, featuring news, photo galleries, several great videos, forum, links and much more.
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Power Nationals entry list.
9th June: We are indebted to APIRA Club and Race Secretary Wendy Talbot for sending us the official entry list for this weekend's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. There is a very healthy entry is almost every class, with Pro ET continuing its record as the largest four-wheeled class although Sportsman ET, Super Street, Custom Car Street Eliminator and the Wild Bunch are as usual not far behind. On two wheels, Super Street Bike shades the largest entry from Supertwin Street, 9.90 Bike and Comp Bike.
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Returning names we spotted in a glance at this weekend's list are 2002 UK National Super Gas Champion Frank Mason, in a 'Vette rather than his familiar Monza; Graham Ellis in Super Modified; Sandra Chaplain now on a Comp Bike, and Mike Chislett in Funny Bike.

There are also, of course, two each of Top Fuel Dragster (Susanne Calin and Darryl Bradford), Fuel Altered (Mickey Moore and Jim Seward), and Jet FC (Roger Goring and Martin Hill).

You can view the official Power Nationals entry list by clicking here.

Tomorrow (Tuesday 10th) is the deadline for advance weekend tickets, which are available for £30 from LA Performance Services on 01803 554308. Gate prices are Saturday £18, Sunday £20, and Saturday and Sunday £34.

Borg smashes Malta record.
9th June: Malta's Borg Brothers Top Methanol Dragster team made a very successful return to the track at Hal Far Raceway this weekend with a new National Record on their first outing for about a year in the small block-powered rail.

"We managed to get the number one qualifier with a personal best of 5.931", says Julian Borg. "In the final against John Ellul of Elbros Racing, Mario shot off like a missile running 5.811 which is a National Record. It was a spectacular run by Mario with a good reaction time of 0.7 and a superb sixty-foot time of 0.891. Once again our driver Mario Borg has proved to be the best driver in Malta and one of the best in Europe. Thanks to all the crew, especially Bernie Hepworth."
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"The Borg Brothers Racing Team did everything professionally as always", says Anthony Borda, President of the Malta Drag Racing Association. "They showed everyone that their TMD is one of the fastest small block Dragsters in Europe and perhaps the world. They really should be proud of themselves. The Dragster itself looks neat with a few modifications like a new magnesium body and an impeccable new paintjob. I have to say that if the Dragster hadn't had a engine problem in the final run, I think that it would easily have run in the 5.7s. Better luck for next time guys."

"Drag racing in Malta is getting to be a hell of a show lately", adds Anthony. "Every competitor is getting to be more professionally involved in the sport. Over the past three days there were lots of great races, which kept the enormous crowd at Hal-Far Raceway on their feet. I would personally like to congratulate all the competitors who took part in this event."

Results will be posted shortly on the Malta Drag Racing Association web site at www.maltadragracing.com, and we have received some photographs from Michael Buhagiar which we shall be posting soon.

Leanders Brothers are Iron men.
9th June: Swedish Top Methanol Funny Car team Leanders Brothers Racing have proudly announced IronCAD as their main sponsor for the 2003 season.

IronCAD LLC are based in Atlanta, USA, and produce three-dimensional computer-aided design software for the mechanical engineering industry. "Whilst we were building the new Funny Car, we used the IronCAD program to design many new components for the car", say Jörgen and Ulf Leanders. "It proved to be really easy to use and a complete system as promised."

The deal was done through Sweden's Solidmakarna AB, which is the local resellers for IronCAD. "We are really happy for the partnership with IronCAD and we are sure that we all will benefit from this", say Jörgen and Ulf. "IronCAD and Solidmakarna will benefit from the marketing value on our car at FIA European Championship races and other things we are planning to do, and we will benefit from the great opportunities of 3D CAD as we continue to develop our car."
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"We believe strongly in this team", comments Robert Andersson at Solidmakarna. "IronCAD will be used more and more in the car's design process, and this will put the team at an advantage. Drag racing is a growing sport, with good coverage in Europe and the rest of the world, and this gives IronCAD good exposure on TV and so on."

You can find the Leanders Brothers Racing web site at www.leandersbros.com.

A break from Top Fuel.
9th June: What does an FIA Top Fuel Championship-holding Crew Chief do for relaxation? Martin Boye tells us that he gets in his street-legal car and races.
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"Kim Reymond's Crew Chief Per Andersen is a busy man", says Martin. "Last weekend, he raced in the Danish Street Race Cup at the Danish Nationals in his daily-driver 1964 Buick Skylark, which has a 455 and blower. Per's best ET was 7.39/157 kmh on the eighth mile."

Martin tells us that of forty eight Danish entries at last weeks Nationals, forty two were contesting the Street Race Cup. You can read more about the Cup atwww.streetlegal.dk.

PMR graduate #1 impresses.
9th June: Paul Marston Racing will shortly be closing their 2003 diary, writes Paul Marston. "The Driving School and the Passenger Ride Experiences have been a great success for us", he says. "Enquiries are coming in and although this year is nearly full we are already taking firm bookings for 2004.

"It was quite a surprise to us initially that we received so many enquiries regarding the Driving School, this part is great news for the sport of drag racing as it means we will over a period of time have more and more competitors. In our effort to improve, learn and understand the needs of our pupils, the courses currently being offered for the Driving School have been revised. Full details of the improvements will appear on the Paul Marston Racing web site at www.paulmarstonracing.com in the very near future, but in essence we have identified a need for the driving course to be split into two non-consecutive days. Pupils will, depending upon previous experience, need to attend both days or just the one. There is one heck of a lot to learn and the aim of this course is to learn, it is not a thrill ride; what is taught is valuable and should be remembered."

The first School graduate to enter competition was Michael Pusey, who contested Super Street in Grumpy's Dodge at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway. "Michael excelled himself and had a really great time", says Paul. "He did everything right and gained priceless experience in the heat of qualifying. With such a steep learning curve Michael absorbed the pressure and handled it all; the other Super Street competitors know that they can use that to their advantage. But they were all gentlemen and women and treated Michael as an equal. Qualifying eleventh, Michael raced seasoned veteran Ian Brown in the first round. Super Street was the very first class down the track come eliminations day and although Michael lost to Ian Brown it was the closest race in the elimination, a 10.91 from Michael lost to an 11.01 from Ian, on a 10.90 index thats pretty impressive, with both race craft and tactics coming into play. There was just half a car length in it at the stripe, so close that Ian was left speechless when he asked Michael how long he had been racing, only to be told that the very first time Michael had driven a race car was just three weeks previously.
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"Michael and Ian enjoyed the race very much, congratulations go to Ian Brown as he went on to be runner-up in Super Street, so we lost to a very good racer indeed. Our sincerest thanks go to all the other Super Street competitors, who are a great bunch of very hard and competitive racers on the track and the most friendly you could wish to meet in the pits. We would also like to thank Santa Pod for featuring Michael in the official programme and lastly all the fans who visited us in the pits with messages of good luck for Michael and to check on his progress. Michael was in fact kept busy nearly all weekend chatting to fans and friends, soaking it all in and revelling in the moment. Everyone at Paul Marston Racing wishes Michael well we will be looking out for his race car which should debut next season.

"Lastly we must especially thank our main sponsor for the event, Disco Equipment Hire (0208 597 4575), for providing our transportation for the FIA Main Event. Thanks go to all the guys: Gary at Jeep Club (0208 501 4471) for race car preparation, MAC Tools, Chrysler UK, ChryslerCard, 76 Racing Fuels and Oils, ATI Transmissions, Black Box Sound and Light London, Gary at London Road Tyres Romford, and last but not least everyone at Paul Marston Racing. We can never say enough about their tireless efforts."

Web site updates.
9th June: The official web site of the European Super Gas Championship has been updated with the points standings after the FIA Main Event. "Tim Adam is leading the pack at the moment. The next race is at Drachten next weekend", says Robert Joosten. You can find the Championship web site at www.supergas.nl.

Robert Joosten has also updated the Home Page for his Bad Nova Super Gasser. You can view the Bad Nova page by visiting www.doorslammers.nl and clicking on Bad Nova.

2002 SPRC Most Professional Appearing Team, UK's Spellbound Drag Race Team, have launched an official web site featuring Malcolm Motler's ten-second Morris Minor pick-up. The site is in its early stages but already contains news, pictures, and team and tech information. You can find the Spellbound web site at hometown.aol.co.uk/teamspellbound/teamspellbound.html.

UK Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Andy Frost has moved his web site's discussion forum to a new location and supplier. You can reach Andy's forum via his web site at www.redvictor1racing.co.uk.
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Bradford Street Freaks sought.
9th June: Gavin Moore (aka Barnsley Bob) has been in touch seeking former members of Bradford's Street Freaks cruise, custom and drag racing club which was founded by the late Dave Grady. Ian is looking to organise a reunion, so if you are an ex-member or if you know any then call him on 01226 242751.
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Crete hosts first race.
7th June: The island of Crete held its first-ever drag race last Sunday (1st June), writes Elias Vathias of the Dragster Greece web site.

"A lot of spectators came to see the best Greek racers", says Elias. "The race counted towards the Race Pro Trophy, but not towards the Hellenic Championship.

"Nikos Loukos broke his own Pan-Hellenic Record in the A2 category (normally-aspirated cars up to 1600 cc), running 12.377/178 kmh. Makis Nefraim of the Axion Design Team had the fastest time of the race. His Ford Sierra V8 (Open category) recorded 10.4 seconds. Dimitris Androulakis of Tsakanikas Performance Team, in his second race with the BMW Funny car (Open category), ran 10.7. Yannis Sahanas of the Axion Design Team also ran 10.7 with his Ford Sierra Cosworth turbo nitrous car (Open category). The third best time was run by Michalis Antoniou also of the Axion Design Team with a Ford MK2. Michalis ran a 10,9 which is a very good performance for the T3 category, 2000+cc with turbo."
©Eurodragster.com
You can view 153 photographs of the Crete race on the Dragster Greece web site at www.dragster.gr/images/Shows_Races/030601Crete/index.htm.

The next race will take place in the centre of Athens, at the old Hellenicon airport.

Karling into the 50s.
7th June: This may seem like an odd headline when Sweden's 2002 FIM/UEM European Supertwin Top Fuel Bike Champion Anders 'Charley' Karling has already run into the 6.3s on his beautiful Uddeholm-sponsored Harley which he is currently preparing to run on the AHDRA and NHRA Exhibition Tours in the USA.

However photo-journalist Stefan Boman has very kindly written to tell us that today (Saturday) is Charley's fiftieth birthday, and has sent this photograph of Anders getting in some early burnout practice on his street Harley in 1974.
©Eurodragster.com
We are sure that everyone will join Sharkman and Tog in wishing Charley the very Happiest of Birthdays, and the very best of luck on his forthcoming US tour.

ACI Racing pace the field.
7th June: The new 2003 Dodge Ram 5.7 Hemi Pickup used by the victorious and record setting American Car Import Racing Top Methanol Dragster team at the FIA Main Event makes its début as the official Pace Car for this weekend's second round race of the ASCAR stock car championship at Rockingham.
©Eurodragster.com
Thanks to one of ACI Racing's sponsors, US Automotive, the superb-looking pickup from American Car Imports will gain even more exposure in the front of the crowds at Rockingham this weekened. Bedford-based US Automotive are also well-known as a leading supplier of American vehicle parts in the UK and are heavily involved in ASCAR as the main parts supplier for the series, as well as running the Goodguyz ASCAR team.

"As Truck Of The Year 2003, Dodge re-writes the rule books again with the Hemi Ram", says American Car Imports' Joint MD Anthony Cohen who sponsors Eurodragster's Home and News pages as well as our Event Coverage. "Sporting a 345 hp V8, this is a four-wheel drive go-anywhere six-seater vehicle with attitude and comes fully loaded with every creature comfort. Equipped with twenty-inch sport wheels and that huge body-coloured front grill reminiscent of an American Land Train, you're going to get noticed. The good news doesn't stop there: ACI can supply this vehicle with an uprated payload of just over one thousand kilogrammes so that it is not only VAT reclaimable, but qualifying Company Car users can save thousands of pounds in Income Tax driving a 'Goods Vehicle' rather than a car". For more information on the Dodge Ram check out the American Car Imports web site at www.americancarimports.com/Stock_Files/stockdetail.asp?id=110.

Web site updates.
7th June: Swiss Comp Eliminator racer Bruno Bader has had a great start to his season, winning two races of two contested, whilst daughter Yvonne made the semi-final and first round of her two events this year. You can read all about it on the Golden Vette web site at www.goldenvette.ch. The news is currently German-language only; Bruno and the team would be pleased to hear from anyone who could help with English translation.
©Eurodragster.com
Mystery blonde revealed.
6th June: Sweden's Susanne Callin will be driving Knut Söderquist's 'red' Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster in the match race against Darryl Bradford in the Wildside Inc Top Fueller at next weekend's (14th-15th June) Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. We understand that Susanne, who last drove at the 2002 FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway where she set PBs and was runner-up, has found a sponsor to back her in the best-of-three series at the Warwickshire track.

Smax Smith took the Top Fuel match race at the Excitement Nationals at the start of May in the red dragster, which is renowned for running like a bracket car, and Susanne herself drove the same car in last season's black guise at Shakespeare County Raceway last August as well as on the 2002 FIA Tour.
©Eurodragster.com
"It's great that Susanne will be making her first appearance of 2003 at Shakespeare County Raceway", says Lee Child of LA Performance Services, whose birthday it is today (Happy Birthday, Lee! - Ed). "Darryl lost out to a blonde at the Excitement Nationals - can he get his own back? There's only one way to find out - that's to be there!"

Stay tuned for more news, and don't forget that advance weekend tickets priced at £30 are available until next Tuesday, 10th June, from LA Performance Services' Credit Card Hotline on 01803 554308.

Coes aim for double success.
6th June: UK Wild Bunch racer Tom Coe is hoping that parts arrive in time to help propel his Psycho slingshot into the tens at next week's Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway.

"My best time so far is 11.155/119.36", says Tom. "I've now bought a B and M ratchet shifter and should be fitting it this weekend, so I should be able to shift at higher revs keeping the car on cam. Running a ten would be a massive achievement for the team, and reaching 120 mph is another goal this year.

"I've been told unofficially that the European record for a normally-aspirated Rover 3.5 is a 10.89, so we're aiming to beat that. If we can get into the 10s and over 120 mph a blower will be fitted over the winter: a GMC 3-71 which is currently being built by the Windridge Hall McKenzie team, thanks guys!

"Also attending the Power Nationals will be my dad Alec Coe who will be running the Shy Torque slingshot which he co-owns with our crew chief, Kev Mortimer. Alec is looking for a repeat performance of the Excitement Nationals where won the final. If Mark Coulsell is reading, the gauntlet has been thrown down, see you there! Alec is also aiming to beat his personal best which stands at 10.47/115. A few changes have been made to the car so we'll see how it goes.

"I would like to thank Kev Mortimer especially for all of his ongoing help and support, my dad Alec for getting me into the sport when I was a kid, and Jenny Archer, my partner and startline crew: thanks love, I couldn't do it without you. And last but not least, Jan Mortimer and my mum Rita."

NDRS points updated.
6th June: Our good buddies at Svensk Dragracing have updated their web site with the standings in the Nordic Drag Racing Series after the weekend's Danish Nationals at Vandel. You can find the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se.
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
6th June: Finnish Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita Mäkelä's web site has been updated with a number of photographs from the FIA Main Event. You can check them out on the Photos page at www.anitamakela.com.
©Eurodragster.com
E-Mail upgrade.
6th June: Our ISP Selfnet have performed a major upgrade to our mail server, including new anti-spam software. We are not convinced that the spam filtering is not also dumping bona fide E-Mail to Eurodragster addresses, so if you have submitted a news item in the last few days and it has not appeared, or if you have submitted a link which has not been posted, or if you have written to our Tog, Sharkman or Webmaster addresses and have not had a reply, then please re-send your E-Mail to eurodragster@btopenworld.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Hill aims to Force record...
5th June: If you were tuned in yesterday then you will have seen the addendum to the news item about the Power Nationals, in which we revealed that Martin Hill and the Fireforce 2 Jet Funny Car would be appearing at the event at Shakespeare County Raceway on 14th-15th June, giving Jet fans a double treat as Roger Goring's Firestorm Jet FC was already lined up to appear.

Martin holds the Shakespeare County Raceway track record of 6.064/261.63, and with Fireforce 2 on the same set-up which recorded 5.816/275.21 - the fastest-ever speed by a Jet FC in Europe - at the FIA Main Event there is every chance that the record will fall. "Every time we have wanted to go quicker at Shakespeare County Raceway, something has conspired against us - the weather or whatever", said Martin. The car seems to have found its second wind, and we have left the Pod settings in it, so hopefully we will run a 5.9 without any hassle. Anything else will be a bonus!"
©Eurodragster.com
The invitation from promoter Lee Child to appear at next week's Power Nationals happened to coincide with the Fireforce team's only free weekend until September. "A lot of events at Shakespeare County Raceway clash with our other dates", said Martin. "I am grateful to Lee for the invitation and we are really looking forward to running". Martin tells us that Fireforce 2 will be putting in one pass on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Amongst the Fireforce team's many bookings this year is a festival of power at Athens in Greece. "It's on the old Athens airfield", said Martin. "It's nice to go different places and hopefully that will be another track record!". Another TV appearance is also on the cards after a popular feature on the BBC's motoring magazine Top Gear. "There might be a day in the studio, or we have planted the seeds for a run against one of their supercars at the airfield which they use", said Martin. "We'd maybe give their Porsche a six-second head start and then overtake it. The production team like the idea!"

Martin asked us to apologise to his fans for the lack of updates to the official Fireforce web site recently. "We were let down by a company who were meant to carry out a complete overhaul of the site", he said. "We are now finding a replacement and we hope to have some news on that soon."

...and Goring welcomes company.
5th June: Meanwhile fellow Jet FC pilot Roger Goring has welcomed Martin Hill's appearance at the Power Nationals. "I was very pleased to hear that Martin will be there", said Roger. "This will be the first time that two British Jet teams have been invited to the same event for many, many years. It's a very good thing for the sport, it bodes well for the future, and I congratulate Lee Child for arranging it. Hopefully we will be able to do the same at Santa Pod some time soon."
©Eurodragster.com
Firestorm has so far run bests of 6.4 seconds and 250 mph, but if you were tuned in on Tuesday you will have read that Roger and his team of Ian Blaylock and Helen Rusling have started to turn things around after suffering more than their fair share of problems. "Martin holds the European ET and speed records, and the track records at Shakespeare County Raceway", he said. "That kind of record speaks for itself. We're not at the same level yet but we are steadily working towards it and you're gonna know when we get there!"

Match Race Madness.
5th June: The Hour of Power sessions at the weekend's UK Modified Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway included match racing from the Supercharged Outlaws including Johnny Hall with Windridge Hall McKenzie Racing's wild, wheelstanding slingshot The Happening. Johnny dropped us a line with a report on his weekend, during which he did his best to wind up fellow slingshot racer Roy Wilding who was driving the historic Hemi Hunter dragster.

"We both needed to put a tune-up in our cars, so I made a solo checkout pass and Roy paired up with Frank Griffin", says Johnny Mental. "After a frantic session in the pits we were both up for it. We got suited up, strapped in, and waited in the fire-up road. As you know the temperature was scorching on Saturday afternoon! The track was oiled so we both got out of our cars, after the track was re-prepped we got back in and waited for the fire-up signal.

"We let the motors warm up for a while and then moved into the bleachbox. At the signal from my Crew Chief Dave McKenzie I stood on the throttle and started boiling the hides. Normally I get off the throttle between the start line and the Tree, and did exactly that this time, only I had a jammed cable mount. Wot?! By the time I realised what was happening and pulled my foot back and released it, I was nearly at the eighth. When I met my backup man he was well out of breath! At this point I thought I just had a snag in the cable, so I went forward into stage, applied the transbrake, stood on the throttle and...nothing. The lights came down and I idled to a 34.67/27.49 to Roy's 9.29/158.45. We were gutted because we like to give Roy a hard time .
©Eurodragster.com
"On Sunday we felt we were in with a shot, because Roy and ourselves were both off the pace, and we are still nibbling away at trying to get back to last year's performances. We shook hands, got ready and fired up the motors, did our burnouts and went into stage. At the green I cut a .409 light and felt that the car was running much better, but Roy came past me like a locomotive at half-track to record 8.45/172.41 to my 9.14/145.63.

"Back to the pits, another tuneup, and then back into the pairing lanes. Roy was as high as a kite, and to be honest we were really pleased for him, as reaching goals is what this is all about. We both left together at the green, and again Roy came charging past for more of the same. Boy , I hate losing, even if it is only match racing. It looks like Roy's got a good combination, and to be truthful we don't hold out much hope for the next Supercharged Outlaw race at the Nostalgia Nationals.

"Sometimes match racing can make you real mad!"

Comp index change.
5th June: Many thanks to our good buddy Christer Abrahamson of Svensk Dragracing for letting us know that the Comp Eliminator index for G/Altered has been amended. You can find the new index on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se.
©Eurodragster.com
The Svensk Dragracing web site has also been updated with an excellent set of photographs from the weekend's Danish Nationals at Vandel.

From the Jones and Friend workshop.
5th June: Our good buddy Ian Turburville has been in touch with a workshop report from UK Funny Bike team Jones and Friend Racing, whose new bike (right) is taking shape.

"The bike is a Turbo/Alky/EFI Funny Bike and it's looking good!", says Turbo. "Hopefully it will hit the track later in the season. Well done lads,looks like a winner! Here are a few specs on the bike:

"Engine 1428cc EFE; Internals - usual suspects; Head - Jones and Friend; Trans - Orient Express three-speed auto; Clutch - MTC slider; Turbo - Turbonetics Garrett GT; Wastegate - Turbonetics Delta; Echaust - Friend and Jones; Fuel Rails - Hi-Flo Stainless by F & J; Inlet Manifold - F & J; Fuel Pump- Hilborn; Fuel Regulator - Eastman/Hand; Full Engine Management System; looking for some Pro 1 billet cases for future development!"

Meanwhile Turbo tells us that the production run of the Vance and Hines V-Rod drag bike replicas has come to an end, so there will be no more. The only remaining UK stocks of this much sought-after model are on sale by Turbo and at Santa Pod Raceway. "The replicas are currently increasing in value on the various internet colllectors sites including E-Bay", says Turbo. "The price is now £49.99 per model and it is first come first served". For more details check out Turbo's web site at www.turboville.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
5th June: We haven't seen Dave Potter and his Split Personality Pro ET Chevelle since an unfortunate T-bone incident with the guardrail at Shakespeare County Raceway last year. As you may have read here on Eurodragster in March, the good news is that Dave is working hard on a return and team member Julie tells us that he is looking to test later on this year. In the meantime the official Split Personality web site has been relaunched at www.splitp.net. The new web site contains news, photographs and more and is well worth a look.
©Eurodragster.com
Godfather father.
4th June: Congratulations to Zodiac Racing Crew Chief Vincent Pels and his wife Annemieke whose son Jaimey was born last night. Jaimey arrived at 21:25, is 49 centimetres long and weighed in 3025 grammes.

Monique Pels, who had a visit from Vincent at two o'clock this morning to tell her about her nephew's arrival, tells us that Annemieke, Jaimey and Vincent are all doing fine.

We are sure that everyone will join Sharkman and Tog in sending their congratulations to Vincent, Annemieke, grandparents Ton (the Godfather) and Marianne, and Aunty Monique.
©Eurodragster.com
Blonde or blonde?
4th June: Entry is now officially closed for LA Performance Services' Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway and promoter Lee Child, who sponsors Eurodragster's Links pages through his company LA Racing Parts, is promising something for everyone at the Warwickshire track next week, 14th-15th June.

As previously revealed here on Eurodragster, one of the headliners at the Power Nationals is to be a second Top Fuel Dragster match race, again between Darryl Bradford in the Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster and one of Knut Söderquist's Carbon By Design Top Fuellers. The identity of the driver of Knut's car, and indeed that of the car, has yet to be confirmed although an insider tells us that "It could be an attractive blonde, or it could be a blonde". Stay tuned and as soon as we know, you'll know.
©Eurodragster.com
Fans who witnessed the antics of the tyre-smoking, dry-hopping, wobbly Fuel Altereds at Shakespeare County Raceway last season will be pleased to hear that Micky Moore and Jim Seward will be again match-racing in their Mob and Harry The Spider AA/FAs at Shakespeare County Raceway next week. The last match race was won by the Mob in the hands of Wendy Baker but owner Mickey Moore is back in the hot seat in 2003.

The Power Nationals is the second round of the 2003 Ultimate Power Drag Racing Championship as well as latest round of the various National and Club Championships. On the UK National Championship front Pro Modified, Super Modified, all of the ET and Super classes, 9.90 Bike and 10.90 Bike, and Junior Dragster are contested, and the ACU Championship round takes in Pro Stock Bike, Funny Bike, Super Street Bike and Comp Bike. The Power Nationals also hosts rounds of the Custom Car Street Eliminator Championship, the Wild Bunch's Real Steel Series, the National Association of Supertwins Championship, the Outlaw Anglia Championship and the Junior Drag Bikes.
©Eurodragster.com
Advance tickets are available for the full weekend only, priced at £30. They can be booked on LA Performance Services' Credit Card Hotline on 01803 554308 until next Tuesday, 10th June.

Gate prices are as follows:
©Eurodragster.com Don't be falsifying these because we know that trick
Saturday: £18
Sunday: £20
Saturday and Sunday: £34
©Eurodragster.com
We hope to be able to bring you the official entry list shortly.

STOP PRESS: Just as we went to post this update, Lee Child revealed that there are to be two Jet Funny Cars at the Power Nationals. If you were tuned in yesterday you will have read about Roger Goring's appearance in the Firestorm Jet FC; Lee has now confirmed that Martin Hill will also be bringing his five-second Fireforce 2 Jet FC to Shakespeare County Raceway next week. The two jets will not, of course, be racing because of MSA rules, but Jet fans are in for double the fun. Stay tuned for more news on that.

Racers: Send your Power Nationals prevews to news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them here.

Veidec PSB team content.
4th June: The Veidec Racing Pro Stock Bike team continued where they left off in 2002 at the FIA Main Event with Sweden's Roger Pettersson and Norway's FIM/UEM European Pro Stock Bike Champion Øivind von Essen taking number one and two qualifying spots, and Roger setting a new European ET record. It didn't go quite so well in eliminations as Roger was disqualified for a rule infringement and Øivind redlit in the final round, which was won by Chris Hope. Crew Chief Roger Lyrén tells us that the team are happy enough, though.

"We missed all the testing before the Main Event, so we were happy to get three runs on Press Day", says Roger. "We were also very happy to be able to test together with Kim Reymond, on the Friday. We had three runs on that day as well, thanks to Kim for allowing us to run.
©Eurodragster.com
"Our bikes are working very well. Given the conditions at Santa Pod, a very strong head and side wind, we posted some good sixty foot (1.11) and 330 foot (3.02) times. On the 7.396 record run we posted 1.13/3.06 so we know that we can go a lot faster with Roger's Bike. Øivind did not attend the Press Day or Friday's test, so he needs more track time, but his bike has big potential.

"The Main Event started well for us. After qualifying numbers one and two we were in a very strong position for good results, Roger also set a new European Record. Both bikes got through the first round, so both of the Veidec bikes were in the semi-finals! Unfortunately Roger had some problems, so he had to restart the engine twice and that is not legal, so the win went to Chris Hope. These things happen, and we have rules, so Chris of course took the win.

"Øivind went through to the final, but got too excited so he redlit. Congratulations to Chris Hope for racing in good spirit. He always wants to win on the track, not in any other way.

"Of course it's difficult to be disqualified but we left Santa Pod with a lot of good experience, the bikes are strong, and Roger and Øivind will be even more hungry at the next round at Alastaro in Finland.

"Thanks also to Kjell, Ian and all of the other staff at Santa Pod for a very well-run race."

Malmgren welcomes sponsors.
4th June: Magnus Cato of FIA European Pro Stock Champions AC Delco/Malmgren Racing writes with news of the team's sponsors for the 2003 season. "It is a pleasure to welcome these well-known brands to the fascinating world of European Pro Stock Racing", says Magnus.

"Associate sponsor for 2003 is Nordea Bank, the largest bank in the Nordic countries. Our official clothing partner for 2003 is the famous Sparco. Sparco sees great potential in European drag racing; it is a well-known brand in other FIA racing categories. Cool racing needs cool accessories, and there is none more cool then Oakley Sunglasses. Aeroquip hoses and fittings are the only brand to withstand the demands we make of our equipment.

"The following parts sponsors contribute in a big way to help us keep the momentum:
©Eurodragster.com
Goodyear Tyres, MSD Ignition, Hays Clutches, MGP Rods, Wiseco Pistons, SpeedPro rRings, Federal Mogul Bearings, FelPro Gaskets, Barry Grant Fuel Pumps, CV Products, Strange Engineering, Royal Purple Oil, and AutoVerdi Oil Pumps.

"Also an associate sponsor for the third year is Myresjhus, the leading brand of prefabricated houses in Sweden."

You can find the AC Delco Racing web site at www.acdracing.net.

More FIA Main Event statistics.
4th June: Just when you thought you had heard every last statistic about last week's FIA Main Event, Santa Pod Raceway's International Race Director Darren Prentice writes with another amazing set of numbers.
©Eurodragster.com
"On Press Day, Friday's private test, and over the race weekend we used:
  • 45 bags of oildry, which is about 900 kilogrammes' worth;
  • 10 drums of VHT, which adds up to 450 gallons; and
  • 10 drums of track activator, again 450 gallons
"That adds up to nine hundred gallons of pre-mix track glue which went onto the track over those five days."

Racers' Thorney welcome.
4th June: UK Super Comp racer Rob Faulkner writes to invite racers to the Victory Wheelers Show at Hampshire's Thorney Island on 11th-14th July.
©Eurodragster.com
"The show is held on a working Army base", says Rob, "and the Army also run a show very close by but far enough away so as not to tread on each others' feet. There is an area set aside specifically for drag racing! That's right, a drag strip will be operating with lights etc. for cars and bikes. If you can make it come on down to the sunny South. You will need to pre enter but it is a measly £12 to get in for three days. Last year there must have been a thousand cars there including racers."

For more information check out the Victory Wheelers web site at www.victorywheelers.co.uk, or call Rob Faulkner on 01730 895531. Or, if you already know that you want to take part, the pre-entry phone number is 01489 603779.

Blakemore spreads the word.
4th June: Thanks to Augy Harrison for letting us know that UK Funny Bike racer Tim Blakemore's runner-up performance at the Main Event is the subject of news feature on the Kawasaki UK web site. "Interest such as this from Kawasaki can only help to raise the profile of our sport and bring it to a wider audience", says Augy. "The feature is accompanied by an excellent picture by Ian Turburville, and you can find it at www.kawasaki.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
Bracking's best Pop.
4th June: Congratulations to UK Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Mark Bracking who won the Best Pop award at the NSRA Billing Fun Run at the weekend. "It's good to see that other people like my Pop, other than myself", says Mark. "I would like to thank all of those who made it a brilliant weekend."
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
4th June: Alan Currans had a brief rest from the frequent updates to his excellent Acceleration Archive web site and has now returned refreshed with another set of Timo Aartomaa's pictures. "There are some excellent shots of Krister Johansson's rear-engined Pro Comp dragster, Monica Öberg's Top Fuel Dragster, and Martin Hopp's Corvette Pro Comp FC", says Alan. "From England we have a great set of pictures of Bill Sherratt driving the Cannonball FC (and managing not to blow anything off it), Chris Filsell in the Rain City Warrior and, last but not least, Dennis Priddle in his Mr Five rear-engined Fueller. Check it out at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk.
©Eurodragster.com
Goring's value-added valve.
3rd June: UK Jet Funny Car pilot Roger Goring and the Firestorm team's development continued at the weekend's UK Modified Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway with a set of runs which could have qualified Roger as a Super Pro ET racer.

"We ran a whole bunch of 6.6-second runs one after the other", Roger told Eurodragster last night. "The speed on the first was 215 mph because I shut off very early, but the others were all in the 230s. I've got a bracket Jet!"

Regular readers will know that Roger and the team had to start almost from scratch with the set-up of Firestorm's J85 engine after suffering turbine damage at Shakespeare County Raceway some time back. The resulting rebuild and other changes necessitated a new tune-up. "Jet cars are the same as other race cars in some respects", said Roger. "If you change one variable then it can affect a lot of other things down the line."
©Eurodragster.com
Roger and the team installed replacement afterburner and flame show valves before last weekend's event and the work paid off with a flame show which Roger described as "Wicked" followed by hard launches and smooth rides. "It's weird, these replacement valves are the same spec and flow as those I was using, but these ones work!", said Roger.

The acquisition of replacements was not straightforward, though. "We had an old valve with which the afterburner, but not the flame show, worked perfectly", said Roger. "So we decided to get another of the old model so that the burner and flame show had the same equipment, because we knew it would work. The valves I needed are made by a US company, I found a distributor over here but they told me that they would not be able to deliver for three weeks. So I took a long shot and called a US distributor who said 'No problem, we have it in stock, we will get that to you now'. Not only did they get it to me quickly but even with some additional spares, carriage and duties and so on it was still cheaper than I would have got it here!"

The valves bedded-in, Roger and his team of Ian Blaylock and Helen Rusling are looking forward to being amongst the headliners at the Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway on 14th-15th June, and starting to turn the wick up. "We had a lot of fun at the UK Modified event", said Roger, "and now we are looking forward to having a lot of fun at the Power Nationals!"

You can find the official web site of the Firestorm Jet FC team at www.firestorm-jfc.co.uk.

Drachten Nationals entry list.
3rd June: We are indebted to Gerda Dijkstra of Lex Joon Racing for passing us the official entry list for the Drachten Nationals, which takes place at the Dutch airstrip on 14th-15th June.
©Eurodragster.com
"Entry is now closed for the Drachten Nationals", says Gerda. "Entry for the MPM Internationals (11th-13th July) closes on 15th June. You can find entry forms for the MPM Internationals and the Dutch Finals on the Explosion web site at www.explosion.nl."

Click here to view the Drachten Nationals entry list.

To buy tickets for any of the races at Drachten visit the Lex Joon Racing web site at www.lexjoonracing.nl.

ACI at AAC.
3rd June: UK Top Methanol Dragster team American Car Imports Racing will be attending the American Auto Club Summernationals at Billing Aquadrome on the 14th-15th June. The team will feature in a prominent display of the new ACI Racing TMD and trailer (a work of art in itself - Ed). Driver Dave 'Grumpy' Wilson will be in attendance to meet his many supporters within the American car scene, and he will be joined by Anthony Cohen, Director of American Car Imports with the team's new 5.7 Hemi Dodge Ram tow vehicle, and George Greves with his ACI Racing Ford Lightning.

"With several of the ACI Racing team's sponsors, such as US Automotive and North Hants Tyres, already having stands at this show this will be an excellent event to promote the strong link between drag racing and the American car scene", says Anthony Cohen. "The AACUK Summernationals is the largest American Car show in the UK and is likely to attract over five thousand American vehicles and twenty thousand visitors per day."
©Eurodragster.com
The facilities at Billing Aquadrome will include a Fun Fair, Bars, Restaurants, Boating, Jet-Ski Hire, Americana and Auto Related Trade Stands. There will be an arena commentary and displays of USA vehicles or every type - cars, vans, pick-ups, RVs and Harleys with concours awards in many categories. Evening events will be held in a large floored marquee with sound stage and fully licensed bar.

Another very special guest appearance at the show will be made by Al 'The Lawman' Eckstrand whom many will remember as one of the early drag racers who helped to make the sport so famous. The Lawman was introduced into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2000 as a result of his racing career.

Harry Tune, CEO of the American Auto Club UK, is looking forward to seeing drag racing fans at the Summernationals. "The roots of the AAC are in drag racing and we will do our utmost to provide an atmosphere at the show that is kindred to both the drag racing fraternity and the American vehicle enthusiast", says Harry. For more information about the show contact Harry Tune by E-Mail at ceoaacuk@aol.com, or call 01948 830754 or 07813 101849.

Ford v Chevy honours even.
3rd June: The great Custom Car Street Eliminator Ford v Chevy match remains tied after Ian 'Fatty' Hook and Andy Frost met at the weekend's UK Modified Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, writes Ian Hook.

Going into the planned four match-race series, the scores were tied at one apiece for the two home-built eight-second street cars. The first race was a battle of the pedals, Fatty coming out on top 9.3 to 9.5. But a failed fuel line had blocked jets in the '34 Ford's nitrous system leading to three melted pistons and an engine full of molten aluminium.

The Fat Boys worked hard through Saturday night and had an engine back together by midday Sunday - albeit with a 'wounded paw'. With the Fat Boys needing a pass to check it over Frosty sportingly declared the third race a non-competitive run. With everything looking OK (or as good as could be expected) Fatty went into the final round with a small shot 'on the button'. A 9.5 wasn't enough to prevent a Chevy win as Frosty went 9.1, but the FBs were quite happy with the Ford's numbers considering the state of the motor on Saturday.

The score is now two-all, but it's only a couple of weeks to the next round of the CCSE Championship, the Power Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway on 14th-15th June.
©Eurodragster.com
Web site updates.
3rd June: The Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se has been updated with full qualifying and elimination results from the weekend's Danish Nationals. The site has also been updated with the latest versions of the invitations, entry forms and supplementary regulations for July's Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park as well as other NDRS events; you can get directly to the forms at www.dragracing.se/nerladdning.html.

The official web site of the European Top Methanol Racers Association has been updated with timing data from the FIA Main Event, together with amended personal bests and team information sheets and the latest FIA Championship points standings. The ETMRA web site can be found at www.etmra.com.
©Eurodragster.com
Mäkelä on trail of mystery.
2nd June: Finnish Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita Mäkelä is confident of solving the problems which she suffered at the FIA Main Event in time for the next round of the FIA European Championship at her home track of Alastaro. The 2000 FIA European Champion showed promise with her quickest-ever sixty foot time on the Friday afternoon's private test, and a 4.892 in qualifying, but it didn't all go that well. Anita tells us that the problems started at Alastaro a few weeks ago.
©Eurodragster.com
"Our test at Alastaro was a disaster!", says Anita. "We couldn't launch or run. The oil pump and the reverser broke, and the clutch didn't work. But one of the good things about testing early is that it gave us time to find the problems and fix them in time for the Main Event."

Anita's first shot at a full pass didn't work out when the clutch wasn't armed on the start line, but on Sunday things started to come together with the 4.8-second pass which Anita says could have been quicker. "The engine started to hurt between fifty and thirty metres from the finish line so the terminal speed was only 261 miles per hour", she says. "At that point we thought that the engine was too lean."

Anita's qualifying placing placed her against Gary Page in the first round of eliminations, and it seems that the car was trying to tell the team something before the race. "During the warm-up Tommi (Haapanen, Anita's husband - Ed) noticed that the ignition was wandering. Then about one hundred metres into the race against Gary, the ignition started to go later and later, then the cylinders filled with nitro and it suddenly exploded everywhere."

Back in the pits, Tommi and the crew realised that the ignition problem could also have been the root of the trouble when the engine went away in qualifying. "It was obviously the same problem we had in our last race in 2001 when we raced Andy Carter for the Championship", says Anita.

The car is now back at Tommi and Anita's workshop in Vilppula. "We are now carrying out an inventory of parts to see what we have got and what we need to get", says Anita. "The real problem is that all the delicate things such as computer wires and leads have all been burnt away, and the parachute packs have been burnt too. But I am pleased to say that it is not as bad as it looked. The block and heads are damaged but a lot of other parts such as the blower are OK."

The team are confident of getting everything back together in time for the FHRA Nitro Nationals despite the mystery with the ignition. "There is plenty of time and to be honest if the race was next week we would be there!", says Anita. "We know that there is a lot of potential in the car, and we are very confident that we will find the ignition problem and run even quicker at our home track!"

You can read more on Anita's web site at www.anitamakela.com.

Wistful Smax on Fuel FCs.
2nd June: Although FIA Main Event Top Fuel Dragster winner Smax Smith had the weekend of his life at Santa Pod, he still retains fond memories of his time in Fuel Funny Car and wrote to congratulate the Main Event Fuel FC field on their performances.
©Eurodragster.com
"Leif Helander made a lovely job of my ex-stealth machine and had the throttlestop not fallen off on the burnout we may have seen some stunning runs from the Starkotter team", said Smax. "Lex Joon's machine looks awesome and he slotted into the class perfectly. Spuff was magic - a 5.28 was mindblowing, shame they were robbed of a back-up by a broken blower belt. Shockwave was massively entertaining, and don't forget the quickest side-by-side run with Showtime, awesome! Gordy Smith had his hands full all weekend. Hats off to all you guys - you were awesome. Wait until Mark and Jackie Hawkins are back!"

Junior trio.
2nd June: Last weekend's FHRA Springnats at Alastaro saw no less than three different types of Junior race vehicles, writes Asko Määtä.
©Eurodragster.com
"I built two Junior Dragsters fifteen years ago, before they were seen in Europe or the US", says Asko. "I had a warm feeling in my heart seeing the first Finnish Junior Drag Bike alongside the Junior Dragster and Junior Funny Car. The brave young rider of the bike is Tony Falk, he rode low fifteens over the eighth-mile."

You can find race results and reports on the Finnish Hot Rod Association web site at www.fhra.fi.

Wild Bunch hit York.
2nd June: Tom Coe, Alex Coe, Ron Roper and Chris Hartnell took the first four places at the Wild Bunch's Spring Shootout at York Dragway last weekend. Sixteen cars made the trip to York and Championship co-ordinator Claire Meaddows tells us that a great time was had by all in the third round of the Wild Bunch Series, fourth round of the Real Steel Seriesm and second round of the Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series.

"We were able to run four rounds of qualifying on Sunday and four rounds of Wild Bunch format on Monday, with six racers running their Personal Best ETs, and six achieving their Personal Best speed", says Claire.

"Tony Smith travelled from Wales with the Cunning Plan altered, leaving the Minivan body at home for a re-spray. On Sunday he ran ever improving runs including his Personal Best without the body off, 11.527. He ran his second-fastest speed and his best eighth-mile time and speed on Monday. Crazy Chris Hartnell made his third trip to York Dragway with the Backdraft slingshot. Hed been having problems starting recently, and put this down to ignition or timing. Once started, he ran well, running his fastest ever speed at York. On Monday the starter completely packed up trying to fire up in the pits, but luckily Tony Smith came along and performed a temporary fix on it with WD40 and Chris was able to make the first round with time to spare. Chris would like to thank Tony Smith very much for all his assistance! Chris ran Quickest Time and Fastest Speed of the day on Monday. He was also chuffed to be awarded the Best Slingshot spot prize by Steve Murty and the tower team and thrilled to win Best Appearing Team.
©Eurodragster.com
"On Gareth Kents first trip to York with the Hot Dog altered, he ran his best ever terminal speed of 107.57 mph. He followed this with a great reaction of .529 (on a .500 tree) and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend! Gareth would also like to proudly announce that he is going to be a Dad this December, so congratulations to him and Lou! Tom Coe had brought his Psycho slingshot for its second trip to York, and hed travelled some 312 miles. He showed some very good consistency and won the event! This reflected the fact that he was the most consistent driver of the weekend, with all eight runs being nearly within a tenth of a second! It was Dad Alec Coes first time at York with the Shy Torque slingshot and he was hoping for some more good performance out of the car, after his recent win at the Excitement Nationals. He earned himself Closest to Dial-in, just nine thousandths off, finishing in second place overall. This made it a Coe family 1-2 and they earned enough prize money (including Real Steel contingency money) for both their race entries and some petrol, so they were both very happy with that!

Chris Round was back in the hotseat of the Rebellious dragster and was looking to beat brother Claytons previous best ET of 8.82. He did say that he would be happy with an 8.6, but imagine his excitement when he posted a fantastic 8.511/160.25 mph on his first run off the trailer! On the second run, he unfortunately broke the bottom pulley, and the car was sidelined for the rest of the event, but the team were still happy with their success, and it was the quickest car at the track that weekend. Darryl Howells was having his first turn in the Ram Raider slingshot, with Sarah as crew. He put in a checkout passes of thirteen seconds and quickly got a handle on the car and the track. Unfortunately in the first round, a transmission pipe blew off after the burnout, depositing a lot of trans fluid on the start line and sidelining the car for that round. The track crew worked hard to clear it up, and kept Wild Bunch running in the other lane, so fair play to them. Darryl soon fixed the problem, ran his first-ever ten-second pass in any car, so he was thrilled with that.

It was Ron Ropers first Wild Bunch to York with his altered High Fever sporting the old steel Topo body. He put in his first ever eleven-second pass on Monday, and ran another Personal Best ET and Speed of 11.394/111.60 mph. He was thrilled to finish third overall, and was heard to comment that the race track that weekend reminded him of the good old days of drag racing in the 60s. That must be good! We welcomed back Dave Sag Southworth in only his second appearance for a few years in the Daddy Cool dragster, after his one run with us at York last August where his engine suffered severe cracks in the block. He managed one tuning run in the RWYB session before rounds started, as he hadnt arrived til late Sunday. He was well and truly back by Monday, picking up four points this event, and had fun. Welcome back Daddy Cool! Gary Kay had brought his Dream Machine dragster to York for the first time with Wild Bunch. He had fuel pump problems on Sunday but managed to sort them out, posting a Personal Best ET of 11.903. Congratulations on that one Gary! He posted the Best Reaction of .526, finished fifth overall and made a good showing in his first full event in Wild Bunch format. Gary would also like to say a big thanks to Matt Lee of the Worth the Wait slingshot for all his help at the recent Excitement Nationals.

Another really great weekend of racing, and the Wild Bunch were welcomed with some good old Northern hospitality at York. Everyone enjoyed the event, and wed all like to give a big thanks to PDRC, Steve Murty, Cath Napier, the starter and all the marshals and officials who worked so hard to keep the event running smoothly. Also thanks to Roy Wilding, Rebel Racing and the PDRC again, for putting up prize money for the event! And thanks as ever to our main contingency sponsor Real Steel. We had a great time and really look forward to going up North again in August! Thanks a bunch to everyone at York Dragway!

Web site updates.
2nd June: 2002 FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Champion Peter Schöfer's web site at www.p-s-r.com has been updated with a report from the FIA Main Event, where Peter was involved in Europe's first side-by-side 5.4-second run with event winner Dave Wilson. "I think this was an amazing weekend for most of the teams at the track", says our good friend team member Gittli Koller. "It's unbelievable how many records were set in several classes, how well prepared the cars and bikes were. The track was excellent and the crew and organisation did a perfect job. And Tog and Sharkman, of course, too (We said Gittli was our good friend - Ed). A big thank you to everybody. We were very happy to run in the 5.4s and we were very impressed how closely the cars ran, just hundredths took the decision in every pass."
©Eurodragster.com
Markus Ek has updated his personal web site with no less than 263 pictures from the weekend's Scandinavian Dragracing Championship round at Nyköping. Check them out at www.mek.nu.

Luoma urgently seeks TMFC.
1st June: Mad Bomber Racing team owner and crew chief Simo Patoharju has been in touch with an urgent call on behalf of fellow Finnish racer Lassi Luoma.
©Eurodragster.com
"Lassi had an unfortunate meeting with the guardrail at Alastaro today", says Simo. "Since the team would like to continue racing this season they came up with the idea of buying or leasing a TMFC roller into which they can put their engine/drivetrain combination. The TMFC should be legal under FIA rules, or reasonably easily updateable."

If you can help then please contact Janne Storrank by phone on +35 850 374 8227 as soon as you can.

ACI knew it would happen.
1st June: The American Car Imports Racing Top Methanol Dragster team are ecstatic about their winning form last weekend, says team owner Anthony Cohen who also sponsors Eurodragster's Home and News pages and Event Coverage.

"To win the meeting was one thing, but to knock eight hundredths of a second off the official European ET record was just incredibly satisfying" says Anthony. "We knew that it could happen at any time, as we have a very experienced crew with Dave Wilson driving so well and with Andy Bissett and David Wilson and the rest of the team working so well together.
©Eurodragster.com
"In total we had over two hundred and twenty guests in our pits during the weekend and a great time was had by all. I want to say a special thanks to Keith, Kjell, Darren and Ian for putting on such a great event. I also want to thank Peter Schöfer and Turner Racing for such an excellent weekend's racing. We can't wait to see them in Finland.

"We are now looking forward to going faster still. We have our eye on the 30s - they are only six hundredths away!"

The American Car Imports Racing web site at www.americancarimportsracing.com has been updated with Crew Chief Andy Bissett's account of the team's very successful weekend. Every time we think that Andy has outdone himself and every time he comes back with an even better report. Don't miss it.

Diary of a prizewinner.
1st June: Regular readers will remember that one of the prizes in Eurodragster's Fifth Birthday Give-Away was the chance to spend a day crewing with UK Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt. The much sought-after prize was won by Andrew McKenzie, aka Mack, who duly spent his day with the Dealer TFB team on the Sunday of last weekend's FIA Main Event. Mack happened to be in harness on the day upon which Steve Woollatt ran his personal bests, which added even more to his day. Mack sent us the following report about his day with the ACU Championship-holding team.

"After meeting up with Crew Chief Chris Powell in the pits, we were introduced to all the team. I was extremely nervous as Chris had asked me to bring my crash helmet with me. I was thinking that there's no way that it would pass scrutineering, and more to the point I wouldn't even sit on it the bike if it was running! The bike was ready to go shortly after our arrival and I was led round to the signing-on office where I picked up my start line pass. It was in the collection area where began to feel the tension as the riders and crews awaited their turns to run. I was led to the start line by Jackie who was going to show me how to line Steve up back in to his burnout tyre mark. Steve proceeded with his trade mark burnout, rolled through the bleach box with one blat of the throttle, quickly forward then burnout across the line. Chris pushed the bike back to the startline,at this point the bike quite rightly drew attention from the start line officials, a small oil leak had been spotted and the bike was switched off.

"Dejection set in and faces momentarily dropped. It was straight back to the pits where the problem was quickly diagnosed as a broken oil hose from the engine to the oil pressure gauge on the bars. It was here that the friendly rivalry became obvious as it was simply a matter of asking the person next door if they had any spare hose. This happened to be Eric Teboul who had a spares department the size of small speed shop, and he gladly obliged with the required parts (thanks Eric). After feeling that my presence had had somehow given the team bad luck, I was soon to be proved wrong as something special was about to happen, not only for me but the team as a whole. Before I knew it , it was time for me to back the bike up which I managed to do perfectly (thanks to Jackie and Chris), I got it him smack over the mark he had left. I have always enjoyed Top Fuel Bike but standing so close to the bike on the start line, with things right in your face, brought home the seriousness of what these men do. My adrenaline rose steadily and I could feel myself begin to shake. Steve pulled forward, pre stage, stage then quick as a flash he was away, hooking up hard and straight, I glanced back to the Tree as I had the horrible feeling that he had redlit but no, it was green. When I looked back to the track Steve was long gone and charging hard on a real screamer, he tripped the lights at 6.516/211.25, now I wasn't aware that this just happened to be Steve and the team's best ever ET and mph, but could sense that something special had happened by the way that the crew was managing to jump six feet in the air!
©Eurodragster.com
"Talk about right place at the right time or what, I jumped on to the back of the tow bike (hence taking my crash helmet!) and found myself waving to the applauding crowd, and why not, I made a terrific job of seeing Steve back! We arrived at the far end where Steve was jumping up and down, not quite as high as the others as his new leathers aren't quite fully broken in. Chris told Steve the times and he was elated. We picked up the timing ticket, and went straight back to the pits. There was a steady stream of people congratulating the team on their achievement, even as this was going on they still managed to keep us in their thoughts as the catering department (Jackie and Michelle) arrived and we were all fed and watered.

"I was sitting there chatting when Chris appeared with a excellent signed photo print of Steve burning out, he had written along the top "To Mack, 6.515 @ 211.25, thanks for your guidance" (I didn't get it at first !). It has already been framed and resides in my dining room.

"Come Monday, well I won't dwell on it other than to say that Chris's face said it all as the bike expired during the burnout. That sums up the highs and lows of racing, I could feel a lump and my throat and it was a real shame. We all had a great time it was interesting and informative. Thanks to Steve, Chris, Jackie, Pete, Phil and Phil. I have spoken to Chris and he has explained the engine is already completely stripped and all the necessary parts and machining are organised and so they will be at the next race.

"I would like to express my sincere thanks to Tog and Sharkman (You're welcome - Ed) and to all the members of The Dealer Top Fuel Bike team."

We would also like to express our gratitude to Steve, Chris and the team for giving Mack such an unforgettable day.

FIA Main Event anorak stuff.
1st June: We are indebted to our good friend Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for sending us his usual statistical breakdown for the FIA Main Event:

Track clear and tower ready: 1414
Pairs: 1294
Singles: 108
Byes: 12
Total vehicles entered into timing system: 2696
Made it to the finish line: 1218 (including 87 Junior Dragsters)
Made it to the quarter mile: 1131

Average ET (not including JDs): 9.740
Average Terminal Speed (not including JDs): 141.63
Lowest ET: 4.884, Andy Carter
Highest Terminal Speed: 303.14, Smax Smith

Closest Race (Eliminations): Super Gas, Harald Sturham v Will Furniss (win), .002 Seconds, 4.8 inches
©Eurodragster.com
Closest to dial in: Nick South (Sportsman ET) spot on, 13.95. Also Marius Blackburn spot on, 9.6. Marius spoilt his by red-lighting by 0.001!

Best Reaction Time: Al Golding (Super Pro ET) 0.500; Martin Curbishley (Super Gas) 0.400. Al Golding did it first by just under 4 hours

Total run time (all cars that reached finish line including JDs): 3 hours 20 minutes 59.952 seconds

Runs under 5.0 seconds: 5
Runs under 5.5 seconds: 22
Runs Under 6.0 seconds: 52

Runs Over 300 mph: 1
Runs Over 250 mph: 16
Runs over 200 mph: 96

Notes:
  • Most ever runs under 5.5 seconds
  • Quickest and fastest ever FIA Main Event: 9.740/141.63
  • Second-quickest average ET for FIA event at Santa Pod (current quickest is 2002 FIA European Finals, 9.643)
  • Third-fastest average terminal speed for FIA event at Santa Pod (current fastest is 2000 FIA European Finals, 143.97)
  • Highest ever total vehicles entered in timing system (previous high was 2002 FIA Main Event, 1559)
Andy has also updated his FIA and FIM/UEM Bump Spot analyses.

Click here to view the FIA Bump Spot analyses
Click here to view the FIM/UEM Bump Spot analyses

Borg Brothers preparing.
1st June: Bernie Hepworth writes that he is off to Malta this week to help to prepare the Borg Brothers' Top Methanol Dragster for next weekend's night event at Hal Far Raceway. Bernie provides tuning advice to Malta's first five-second TMD team as well as running his own Supertwin Bike.
©Eurodragster.com
"We haven't run at all since last year due to both mine and the Borg Brothers' business commitments", says Bernie. "We have made changes to the car so I don't expect to run too good as we don't have time to test and have a lot to do in a short time. Of the competition the Elbros team have bought a lot of new stuff like a PSI blower, new fuel system and some of Fontana's latest over the winter, and have run the the earlier races, so are in with a slim chance of the win."

Bernie tells us that an extensive revamp of his Supertwin is well advanced, and that it is now back from Geof Hauser and requiring only a few vital engine parts.

You can find out more about next weekend's night event at Hal Far and everything else to do with Maltese drag racing on the very professional Malta Drag Racing Association web site at www.maltadragracing.com.

Veidec Nitro Festival entry.
1st June: The official closing date for entries to this year's Veidec Nitro Festival, which is to be held at Sweden's Mantorp Park on 24th-27th July, is 30th June. Late entries, if accepted, will only be taken up to 18th July. Svensk Dragracing Chairman Kjell Pettersson has forwarded us the official entry forms for the event (Adobe Acrobat format):

Click here for the FIA entry form
Click here for the FIM/UEM entry form
Click here for the NDRS entry form

The supplementary regulations for the Veidec Nitro Festival are available on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se/nerladdning.html.

To order electricity to your pit bay, or to order VIP or Sponsor tickets, please contact Mantorp Park direct at:

Veidec Nitro Festival 2003 Mantorp Park 590 17 Mantorp Sweden

Telephone: +46 (0)142 298850
Fax: +46 (0)142 298869
E-Mail: info@mantorppark.com
©Eurodragster.com
Drag racing magazines.
1st June: Thanks to UK Pro ET racer Steve Wells for alerting us to an article about drag racing in the current issue of Ingear magazine. "The magazine has a report on Sportsman racing at the Easter Thunderball", says Steve. "If everyone goes and buys it, and writes or E-Mails the magazine with encouragement, it can only do us Sportsman racers good". You know what to do, folks.
©Eurodragster.com
Dennis Kieselhorst has been in touch to let us know that he has published the fifth issue of the excellent Dragracer.de on-line magazine. The professional-appearing German-language magazine concentrates on the German scene but also includes features on cars and events around Europe and the world. Check it out at www.dragracer.de.

Web site updates.
1st June: Eurodragster staffer Tog has updated his personal web site Tog's Drag Racing Page with a small number of pictures from both the Speedfreaks Ball and the FIA Main Event. "I spent the Main Event fighting recalcitrant laptops and getting the results on-line post-haste so I never really got into photographic mode, hence the small number of pictures", says Tog. Nevertheless you can check out Tog's pictures at www.togsdragracing.com.
©Eurodragster.com

Earlier news


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