Dutch Spirit almost prevails.
31st July: The Sko Uno Festival was a very eventful one for the Lex Joon Racing team, who finished up as runner up in Top Methanol Funny Car after a weekend which featured great runs, broken engines and even a protest to the race officials. Here's how the team saw the weekend.

"Our race at Mantorp was very exciting" says Gerda Dijkstra. "After qualifying we ended in 4th place. We hoped to be higher because the track and weather conditions for our last pass were better, but the right lane had a big bump around 60ft which unsettled the car and resulted in a lot of tire shake so we missed the chance to step up.

In eliminations we had Micke Kagered in the first round. We already beaten him during qualifying with a hole shot so Micke had been warned! In eliminations Lex and Micke had almost identical reaction times but Lex ran the better ET despite having to peddle the car during the run.

In the second round we faced off with the next Swedish competitor, Leif Helander. Lex and the team had some engine damage to repair after the first run and after a big thrash in the pits we just made it into the pairing lanes. We didn't even have the time to warm up the engine at all. When we fired up the engine at the start line everything seemed to be ok but after the burnout the engine was only running on seven cylinders. Lex thought this was caused by one of the lifters, which had been the cause of the problem in the first round. Because that first round run had resulted in a 5.88 run despite being done on 7 cylinders Lex decided to go for it.

Leif knew he had to do something to beat Lex. He gambled at the start line and lost out with a red light. In the mean time Lex left the start line and found himself in a rather tricky situation. Before the car had moved 10 feet he was facing the guard rail! He saved the car from going into the guard rail and got it safely stopped without crossing the centre line. He didn't realise Leif had redlit until I got to the car and told him. The first thing he did was send one of the crew members back to the trailer to start working on the spare engine.

Whilst we were working hard to get the car ready for the final we heard on the radio, which was tuned on the event broadcast, that there was some discussion over who had won the race between Lex and Leif. Lex asked me to go to race control to see what was going on and why there was a discussion about who had won. The initial decision was that Leif Helander had won the round and would advance to the final, but after studying the FIA rules we felt that this was wrong as Lex had taken the green light and had not crossed either boundary line, and although he had not crossed the finish line it does not state in the rules you have to do this if your opponent redlights. We felt we had no option but to protest the decision, which we did, and our protest was upheld, putting us into the final, if we could rebuild the car in time!

After working very hard we got the car together we fired it up everything seemed to be ok so we went quickly into the pairing lanes. Urs Erbacher was surprised to see us there instead of Leif Helander. After the burnouts the cars pulled into stage and Lex had an almost perfect light (0.403) which gave him a great advantage, but at half track the ignition system failed so the car slowed down which gave Urs a deserved win.

Our crew is currently traveling to the Netherlands and back to collect enough spare parts for the race at Gardermoen where we hope to go one better than at Mantorp!" Gerda closes by saying "I want to thank our crew for the great job they did to help Lex into the finals and for all they are doing to get things ready for Norway. The team also want to thank the race rescue team for the great job they did after the big oil down!" ©Eurodragster.com

More Mantorp.
31st July: Two other teams suffering engine problems at Mantorp Park were Patrick Wikstrom's Outlaw Racing Pro Mod team and the AC Delco Racing Pro Stock team of Michael Malmgren.

"We dropped a valve in the quarter final but didnt hurt the engine to bad" reports Krister from Outlaw Racing. "We're gonna have it ready to go in time for Gardemoen. We are sorry that we couldn't run at the numbers we are used to, but the track was hard to get a grip on. If Gardemoen is as good as it was last time we raced there we think the OFAB-Camaro will go very fast."

Meanwhile in the AC Delco racing camp, the story was similar, but with a happier ending, heres how team member Magnus Cato saw things. "We won the Mantorp race after a terrible day! It started immediately on the morning warmup when a lifter broke in our number 1 engine. We managed to swap engines just in time for the first round, so Michael was very relieved with a first round win. Then we had a malfunction in the timing system during the semi final with Magnus Hansson which led to a re-run. It's not a "nice" way to win, but the judges are the bosses. The win in the finals was just fantastic, and with Jacob Ferrer out in the first round we are now back in championship lead. This was our race! We are now working around the clock in order to get our good engine back on track, it'll take some time, but it's looking good for the Gardermoen round." ©Eurodragster.com

Search for a Drag Star.
31st July: Halfords has teamed up with Santa Pod to launch the search for Britain's next drag racing champion. The competition, called "Search for a Drag Star" will take place at the Halfords store, White Lion Retail Park, Dunstable from 10am-4pm on Wednesday 7th August.

Youngsters aged 8-14 years will have the chance to prove their skill in free to enter competitions, with the most promising getting to test drive a Junior Dragster. Drag racing experts will then pick Britain's first ever "Drag Star", who will compete in Europe's biggest drag racing event, The European Finals, at Santa Pod on 6-8 September. Full details of the competition are available from www.santapod.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Fat Boys on the road back.
31st July: Head honcho of the popular FB Racing Custom Car Street eliminator team, Ian Hook, has been in touch with some details of how the rebuild of the '34 Ford is going. "For the first time we've got her outside and have mocked up most of the panels. You'll see what I mean about having corrected the ride height! We are really pleased with the look and I'm very keen to get the rest of the panels painted." says Ian.

Ian went on to reveal some of the work that had gone into the rebuild:
  • New chassis (old one was bent) Thanks to Dale at West Coast Racing for providing the welding expertise.
  • New front suspension
  • New wings on all four corners - made by yours truly.
  • "Good" engine rebuilt.
  • TRANS LINES NOW AEROQUIP!!!!
  • Engine moved back
  • Seats moved back (sizeable weight shift!)
  • Lower (by about 4")
  • New wing supports & wing moved back.
The team are doing their best to have the car painted and assembled and on display at the Mid West AAC show at Cheltenham Racecourse on Sunday 18th August and the team say that "Those of you who are local would be more than welcome in the FB tent." If you can't make it to Cheltenham then make sure to check out the website which features more pictures of the rebuild, all the latest news on the team and also the latest rumours and gossip from within the Custom Car Street Eliminator series. ©Eurodragster.com

Busy Weekend at the Pod.
31st July: Its a busy weekend for Santa Pod Raceway this weekend with the Scooter Hijack on Saturday 3rd and a RWYB on Sunday 4th. The Scooter Hijack is a special event to track down the fastest drag racing Scooter in the UK. Full details can be found on the Santa Pod website.

The RWYB will again have the very successful Cars for Sale area situated in the same place as usual and we understand that two or three sportsman racers may also be in attendance getting in some test runs.

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

Web site updates.
31st July: Following on from the Sko Uno festival at Mantorp Park in Sweden, Ian Kings website has been updated with the latest FIM/UEM Championship points. We understand the weekend also saw a new speed record set for the Nitro burning Supertwins with Ton Pels running 336kph (208.78mph) and backing up with a 335kph run (208.15mph). Congratulations to Ton and the team.

Front running UK Pro ET team Toyko Toy have been in touch to let us know that the team have their own area on team member Steve Dunn's employers website at www.ggg.co.uk. Steve also confirmed the team would be running at York Dragway over the weekend 10th-11th August.

Markus from the www.mek.nu website is the latest webmaster to update his site with pictures from Mantorp Park last weekend. Markus has over 300 pictures from the event and in an effort to attract more visitors from outside of Sweden has made an English language version of the site available in addition to the original Swedish version. ©Eurodragster.com

Sko Uno Drag Festival results.
30th July: Tommy Möller (Top Fuel Dragster), Dave Wilson (Top Methanol Dragster), Urs Erbacher (Top Methanol FC), Michael Malmgren (Pro Stock), Jon Leret (Competition Bike), Anders Karling (Supertwin Top Fuel Bike) and Roger Pettersson (Pro Stock Bike) were the Pro-class winners at the weekend's Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park. Lars Olsson won the official Swedish Pro Modified Championship with victory over a sixteen-car field on Sunday. The FIA and UEM Championships are almost all wide open after the weekend's events which bodes well going into this weekend's round at Gardermoen in Norway.

Our good friends at Svensk Dragracing worked very hard indeed to post live updates from the track over the weekend and have now posted a review and full results on their web site at www.dragracing.se.

We're now back from Sweden (although our luggage isn't, thank you very much Ryanair - Ed) where we were made to feel very welcome indeed and thoroughly enjoyed our weekend at Mantorp Park. Sharkman and Tog are very grateful indeed to Erik Zettervall of Svensk Dragracing and his partner Lotta Andersson for accommodation and chauffeuring; to Christer Abrahamson, Christina Lidström, Bjorn Sundquist, Tomas Pettersson, Kjell Pettersson, the committee and staff of Svensk Dragracing, and the track and safety crews for all of their help and hospitality. We would also like to thank all of the racers who plied us with food and drink and invited us into their VIP areas! ©Eurodragster.com

Emil takes it all.
30th July: Swedish Junior Dragster racer Emil Leijer took the Eurodragster.com Perfect Light Award with a 0.000 (that's how a perfect RT is described in Sweden - Ed) in qualifying at Mantorp Park at the weekend. Emil is 1500 Skr better off as a result of his feat, which was the first in a full house at the weekend as he qualified #1 in the class and also took the win on Sunday. Congratulations to Emil and his family.

The Perfect Light fund has been reset to £50 and will next be up for grabs at the Super Series Fallnationals at Shakespeare County Raceway in late August. ©Eurodragster.com

Andréasson's race against time.
30th July: FIA European Top Methanol Funny Car Champion Leif Andréasson had a frightening run of bad luck at Mantorp Park at the weekend. After damaging an engine on his first qualifying pass, Leif and the team worked very hard indeed to put everything back together and take #1 qualifying spot with a track record performance on Saturday evening, only to damage the engine again and miss eliminations. The team now face a race against time to put everything right.

"We had bearing damage after the first run", said Leif's wife Åsa. "The crank was also hurt, the guys fixed it and changed the bearings and started it up but it still wasn't right. Finally it looked good on Saturday afternoon and so we went for it. We got the number one spot but damaged the block and a head. We've got a week to get more parts in time for the next race at Gardermoen, but one of our sponsors told us just to buy a new engine!"

"Brad Anderson had some of our parts for repair", added team member Anders Magnusson. "We have the heads back but we need a short block."

It wasn't all bad news for the team as Åsa's sixteen-year-old niece Lotta Bergström (right) received a standing ovation from the huge crowd after singing the Swedish National Anthem in Sunday's opening ceremony. "I was very nervous!", said Lotta. "I don't know if I would do it again but I have got another year before I have to say yes!". "One member of the family won on the track!", joked Åsa.

Racers: Don't hesitate to send your Mantorp Park reviews or Gardermoen previews to news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them here. ©Eurodragster.com

2003 Super Mod weight breaks.
30th July: After much speculation and anticipation, the proposed 2003 weight breaks have been announced for the UK's Super Modified class. They are as follow:

Minimum Weight
Big Block 2,300lbs (50lb reduction)
Small Block (wedge Head), 2,250lbs (unchanged)
Rover Wildcat Heads, 2,150lbs (unchanged)
Rover Standard Heads, 1,850lbs (unchanged)

Big Block Engines - Raised Port/Hemi Heads - 4.85lb per cu.in. (0.35lb/c.i. increase)
Big Block Engines - Production Heads - 4.15lb per cu.in. (0.15lb/c.i. increase)
Small Block Engines - Wedge Head - 5.0lb per cu.in. (unchanged)
All Rover Heads - 5.0lb per cu. in. (unchanged)
Engines using Nitrous Oxide - add 1.35lbs per cu.in. (0.6lb/c.i. increase)
Cars using Clutch - add 100lbs (unchanged)

It is proposed to hold the weight breaks in the Supplementary Regulations to the MSA White Book so that the capability is retained to make suitable adjustments in less than eighteen months should any new combination prove unexpectedly advantageous. It is extremely unlikely that any weight break revisions will ever be made other than between seasons.

"The revisions reflect the differential performance experienced by the various categories during the current season and attempt to redress the balance", says Nick Davies who with Rob Loaring formulated the Super Modified class in consultation with racers and the relevant authorities. "Super Modified has exceeded expectations during its inaugural series with tremendous support from spectators, promoters, sponsors and other racers alike. With new cars due out by the end of the season and others in chassis shops being prepared for the 2003 kick-off, the popularity continues to grow.

"One of the aims of the class from the very outset was to establish an ultra-competitive class and the weight revisions should enable up to sixteen cars to qualify within two to three tenths of each other at the start of the new season. Everyone was aware that until the 'bedding-in' period was completed, it was pure speculation what each of these combinations could run, now, though things may not be perfect, at least there is some firm data upon which to base the handicapping system.

"This having been said, with two rounds remaining there is little more than a round's racing separating the top two drivers in the 2002 Championship, with Danny Cockerill with his nose just in front of that of Rob Smallworth - no mean feat if you know these two characters.

"The racers would like to thank sponsors Gleeson Wright Security, Corporate Signs and Scorpion Racing for their continued support and look forward to another competitive season in 2003." ©Eurodragster.com

Ellis set to quit.
30th July: UK Super Modified racer Graham Ellis has put his seven-second Oldsmobile Cutlass up for sale and looks set to quit racing. "The new rules will render my car/engine combination illegal", he says. "The car would have to weigh 2842 pounds which means six hundred pounds of ballast - but the GSRs permit an absolute maximum of five hundred pounds. I won't be out again this season and in fact I won't be drag racing again."

Graham's car and engine are now up for sale either together or separately. If you fancy taking the wheel of a seven-second doorslammer then check out the Cars For Sale section of our Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored Swap Meet which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Swap Meet link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster page. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
30th July: The official web site of the Malta Drag Racing Association has been updated with news, video clips, photographs and other features. Check it out at www.maltadragracing.com. Anthony Borda of MDRA tells us that preparations are well underway for the next race, the Night Event at Hal Far Raceway on 8th-10th August.

The Swedish Pro Street News Magazine at www.spn-photo.com has been updated with a large number of photographs from the Sko Uno Drag Festival.

Swedish Pro Mod racer Freddy Fagerström's web site has been updated with an account of his weekend at Mantorp Park, where he was #1 qualifier at 6.57 but where he also put a rod out of the engine in eliminations. Freddy would like to thank everyone who donated money to get him back on track. Check out his web site at come.to/fast-freddy. ©Eurodragster.com

Wikström: we're the baddest.
24th July: Swedish Pro Modified racer Patrick Wikström is looking to impress his main sponsor at Mantorp Park this weekend. "With eighteen Pro Mods at Mantorp, it looks like we're going to have a nice little battle", says Krister Peterson of Outlaw Racing. "Bertil Karlsson, owner of our main sponsor OFAB, is with us this weekend and it will be his first time he will see drag racing live!

"It seems that other teams are trying hard to win this race, but we are ready to show the crowd that Outlaw Racing is the baddest Pro Mod in Europe!" ©Eurodragster.com

Six or better for Selkämaa.
24th July: Finnish Supertwin Top Fuel Bike racer Kai Selkämaa thinks that running over the eighth-mile may work to his advantage at Mantorp Park this weekend, says Kaija Kohtala of DB Team Selkämaa.

"After our relatively satisfying performance at Alastaro we are going into Mantorp very confident", says Kaija. "In spite of the fact that this is our first season in Supertwin, we really aim to be placed at least sixth in the FIM/UEM European Championship.

"In the first place our main goal is to gain experience of the nitro bike in general, but were already taking the whole series very seriously in order to get as good position as possible in every event. Kai tested and qualified very well at Alastaro. We believe that there is a lot of potential in our bike even though our best time there was as quick as 7.71. The data showed afterwards that the throttle wasn't opened more than seventy per cent during the run. Unfortunately the rain spoilt Sunday's elimination and we actually made very few runs there.

"We believe that well do well at Mantorp, especially because we know that Kai records very good reaction times, and therefore he is quite eager to try the eighth-mile. Besides that, we also can pay full attention to adjusting the clutch, with other things we haven't had much time to do that yet. As usual, its been busy!

"We also hope to have better luck this year. Last year we competed at Mantorp on our Super Street Bike Suzuki, and we had to run almost the whole event with three cylinders due to a broken carburettor. Despite that we got into the final.

"We haven't changed the Supertwin bike since Alastaro, but we are now better provided with parts than earlier on in the season. Thanks to our new sponsor ST-Koneistus from Yljrvi, Finland, who are supplying us with a lot of new spare parts." ©Eurodragster.com

Nilsson back in Top Fuel.
24th July: Gordon Callin, father of rookie Swedish Top Fuel Dragster racer Susanne Callin, has been in touch with more news about one of Susanne's new sponsors, and it's a name which will be familiar to a lot of European fans.

"We have done a sponsorship deal with Johnny Nilsson at Autoart", says Gordon. "Johnny himself is an ex-racer and we are very happy that he chose to help Susanne and the rest of the TF393 Top Fuel team. Johnny has been involved in the Fuel business before and knows how much effort and money it takes to run a Top Fuel car. Johnny will be at Mantorp Park this weekend so that we can have the chance to get to know each other."

You can find more news about all of Susanne's sponsors on her official web site at www.callinracing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

VW Championship latest.
24th July: Paul Bate (VW Pro), Stuart Hinds (VW Sportsman), and Ian Sewell (VW Alt/Eng) were the victors in the latest round of the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club Championships at last weekend's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway, writes Spencer Tramm. You can find post-Bug Jam Championship standings by clicking here, or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Long time RWYB racer Jason Reynolds, who was venturing into VW Pro for the first time in his Wolfsburg Performance Services L'il Jay Beetle, rolled the car after completing a new Personal Best 11.51/114 qualifier. "Jason was OK after the spill and all the racers of the VWDRC wish him a speedy return to the track", says Spencer.

"The car got well out of shape and then turned over onto its roof", says Thomas Fawdry who wrote on Jason's behalf to thank everyone who helped. "All of the Super Modified guys came over to commiserate and they made donations to Li'l Jay - what can you say to that, unbelievable generosity. The guys really can't thank you enough." ©Eurodragster.com

Team TIL count down to Frenzy.
24th July: The UK's Team Titanium International Limited Funny Bike team are counting down to 17th-18th August when Santa Pod Raceway hosts the Suzuki Frenzy, a high octane weekend of drag racing, Run What You Brung, and demonstration runs from several drag race teams, writes sponsor Nigel Hoskison.

The Team Titanium International Pro Modified Suzuki will be attending the event on Sunday and will be running a full day's demo and test runs. The teams attendance at this event and the remainder of the ACU UK Championship was in serious doubt after the Summernationals, when they suffered catastrophic engine damage. Tony Jakeman of Suzuki GB stepped in to save the day with a very generous offer of a brand new set of Suzuki GSX crankcases which were shipped from Japan at top speed.

"The Suzuki Frenzy will be an ideal opportunity for trade and public to come and experience the thrills of drag racing without the pressures of competition, and a warm welcome awaits all at our stand in the Suzuki village", says Nigel. "Once again a huge Thank You to Tony Jakeman and Roger Simmons at Suzuki GB for making it possible."

You can find full details about the Suzuki Frenzy at www.suzuki-gb.co.uk and on Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
24th July: Whilst we're talking about Santa Pod Raceway, Chris Ware of Trakbak Racing tells us that he has updated the Santa Pod web site with news of this weekend's Mopar Nationals and the Scooter Hijack which takes place at the track on Saturday 4th August. Check it out at www.santapod.com. Chris has also asked us to remind racers that the deadline for discounted hospitality at the FIA European Finals is this Friday, 26th July.

We just mentioned this weekend's Mopar Nationals at Santa Pod, and Gary Cottingham tells us that he will be posting end-day reports and pictures from the event this Saturday and Sunday on the Dragsterworld web site at www.dragsterworld.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Kågered plans big weekend.
23rd July: Swedish Top Fuel Dragster and Top Methanol FC racer Micke Kågered is all set to make it a big weekend for himself, his sponsors and guests at Mantorp Park to erase the memory of last year's race. The Quaker State and Bahco Tools-sponsored team will again be running both cars at the Sko Uno Drag Festival.

"In 2001, as we have this year, Team Kågered entered the FIA race at Mantorp Park in two categories, Top Methanol FC and Top Fuel Dragster", says team manager Åsa Kinnemar. "It was the second event we had entered with two cars, and we had not worked out all of our routines that at that time. In Top Fuel, everything started great. We qualified number one with a 5.11, which was also low ET in Top Fuel for the whole event. We did OK until the final against Kim Reymond when the blower belt came off Micke's car half track and he lost the race.

"With the Methanol Funny Car we experienced one of the worst events ever. We struggled through all the event. At first we had severe ignition problems which made the engine lose cylinders on every run, and then the onboard computer completely broke down. Without the computer readings we pretty much had to guess the clutch/fuel setup which would work best - and we failed. Micke lost in the semi-finals against Leif Andréasson, who also won the event.

"We are pretty certain that our overall performance at Mantorp Park this year will improve compared to 2001. Many teams, including our own, have already proven this season that they can run quick no matter which track they are on. The quickest ET in Top Fuel at Mantorp last year was 5.11, but we would not be surprised if someone recorded a four-second run this weekend! In Methanol funny car last year's low ET at Mantorp was 5.92, and our guess is that we will probably see plenty of cars in the 5.80s.

"Our major sponsors Bahco Tools and Quaker State have invited a lot of guests to the track, and we will provide hospitality for more than six hundred guests during the weekend - we are really looking forward to it!"

You can stay in touch with the latest news from Kågered Racing on their official web site at www.kagered-racing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Pettersson's new ride fully ready.
23rd July: FIM/UEM European Pro Stock Bike Champion Roger Pettersson and the Veidec Racing PSB team are ready for this weekend's Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park having finished work on their new chassis. The new bike had its first outing at the Nitro Nationals at Alastaro and impressed even on early-shut-off passes.

"We started 2002 with the same bike as last year because the new R1000-02 Trac Dynamic was not ready", says Crew Chief Roger Lyrén. "We got the frame on 19th June, and had to do a lot of work on the chassis so we didn't have the chance to test before Alastaro. We worked day and night to get it ready, and on Saturday's first qualifier we made a half pass just to see how bike handled. It was very stable, except for the brakes - they felt soft, so we decided not to make any full passes until it was perfect. On the second pass we ran 7.50, which was very good, and on the third pass a 7.49 - this still on full throttle for 350 metres! Now we knew that we could go fast with this chassis, we didn't even adjust anything, we just went on the base set-up we started with. Sadly the rain stopped the race for us on Sunday, but this is summer in Scandinavia - sometimes there is rain.

"We are very excited about Mantorp because the Pro Stock Bike class has really stepped up this year, I think because we have supported many other racers and because of Motospeed's (Roger's performance product company - Ed) good relations with Byron and Matt Hines at Vance and Hines Racing who helped us to get good engine parts and go fast. There are racers who have stepped up this year such Oivind von Essen who ran 7.35 with a Motospeed engine, Anders Larsson running 7.35 with Kenneth Stromberg's 2001 Motospeed engine, Chris Tombleson, and other racers too.

"We will run the same engine as we used in Finland, but for Norway we hope to get the new engine ready. It will have a Vance and Hines six-speed gearbox so hopefully we can break last year's record. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw runs in the high 7.2s from some riders before the end of the season.

"I am very excited about the Mantorp and Gardermoen races and I can't wait to go racing there!" ©Eurodragster.com

Fuel by Leif.
23rd July: Anders Magnusson of Andréasson Motorsports writes that racers needing methanol in Sweden or Norway can purchase 160 Kg barrels from the Championship-holding TMFC team. The barrels come in at 1000 SKr, €100, or £70.

For more details, or to order barrels, call Leif on +46 70 555 9166, Frank on +46 70 550 2769, or Anders on +46 70 631 2859. ©Eurodragster.com

Join the party at York!
23rd July: Pro ET and a huge bracket shootout lead the headliners at the Northern Drag Racing Nationals at the UK's York Dragway on 10th-11th August. Reigning UK National Pro ET Champions and 2002 front-runners Team Tokyo Toy and Team Heaven and Hell ("We need the practice!", says Carla Pitau) have signed up together with Bob and Tracey Doyle and the Perfect Light Award-winning Z Case Datsun and many others.

Classes to be run at the Northern Drag Racing Nationals are Street ET (14.00 and slower); Pro ET (13.99 and faster); American Super Stock (12.50 cut-off, heads up, mostly Mopars); Hot Rod Challenge (open to all street-legal cars); and the Big Bracket (£5 entry, dial your own, winner and runner-up split pot).

"Anyone fancy coming to the party?", says Carla. Entry is £65 for driver and one crew ticket or £75 for driver and three crew tickets. You can find out more from Cath Napier at cathtig@aol.com or on 01325 350268. York Dragway's web site can be found at yorkdragway.intrica.co.uk ©Eurodragster.com

Going Bananas at Hockenheim.
23rd July: The UK's Top Banana Super Street/Pro ET team are going mob-handed to next month's Nitrolympics at Hockenheim, where they will run in Super Street. "The full team of Huxleys - driver Lee, Brian, Darren and Marc - are going", says Brian Huxley. "Between us we have about thirty six years of racing experience, we hope that it will pay off in Germany. We have a handle on the roadster after our win at the Super Series Mid-Summer Nationals in June. We're all looking forward to some good racing!"

You can find the official Hockenheim Nitrolympics web site at www.nitrolympics.de. ©Eurodragster.com

Comp index change.
23rd July: Our good buddies at Svensk Dragracing have updated their web site at www.dragracing.se with the latest changes to the Comp Eliminator index. The Svensk site has also been updated with the latest NDRS points standings. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
23rd July: The Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc has as promised been updated with Word versions of the entry forms, supplementary regulations and other documentation for the FIA European Finals. ©Eurodragster.com

Larsson looks to pay back sponsors.
22nd July: After a weekend's water-skiing and fishing, Swedish Pro Stock Bike racer Anders Larsson and his team are back to business and almost ready for this weekend's Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park.

Team Larsson Racing recently attended a Test and Tune with the Enström and Partner Suzuki at a local track in Stockholm. "Everything went according to plan, and for the first time this season we feel confident with the bike and the baseline we have developed", says Anders. "But as we all know this can change in a second."

The team have also made changes to the VR power plant. "We are almost ready with the newly-added features, but right now we don't know if we can get it ready for this weekends event", says Anders. "We are really trying. If we don't get it ready in time, we will use the set-up which proved quite fast at Alastaro."

Anders and his team are facing a hectic weekend at Mantorp Park: Saturday sees their annual Sponsor Day which always takes a little extra time and planning. "We want to put on a good show for our sponsor and the spectators",says Anders. "We have about thirty invited guests and three sponsors. This is absolutely the best part, being able to give something back to the sponsors who have invested in our team. We have a good package worked out with Motorevents, so I feel very confident about the event."

You can stay in touch with the inside story from Anders Larsson Racing on the team's official web site at www.alracing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Määttä misses Drag Festival.
22nd July: Finnish racer Asko Määttä has announced that he will not be racing what he refers to as his "old/new Funny Bike" at the Sko Uno Drag Festival. "I'll be testing the bike in Finland", says Asko, " because I don't believe in testing at real races."

Asko has an action plan for this season, and for next. "Practicing on a faster bike is my main goal for this season", he says. "Next year I can race seriously for the UEM Championship. In the longer term I would like to beat the 6.3 I ran in a Top Methanol FC, of course on a different - nitro - bike."

Asko explained the 'old/new' tag he applies to his Funny Bike. "The bike is a former Finnish Championship winner and record holder, and also a Drag Festival winner at Mantorp Park in the 1980s. I have updated the engine and chassis and it now has the best turbo available!" ©Eurodragster.com

1500 SKr for Perfect Light.
22nd July: The next race in the Eurodragster.com Perfect Light Award scheme is this weekend's Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park, where 1500 Swedish Kronor (the very notes, right) is up for grabs by the first racer to record a perfect Reaction Time. The Perfect Light scheme is in operation at any Championship race attended by Eurodragster, and as Sharkman and Tog will be at Mantorp Park this weekend the Drag Festival is an eligible event!

The Perfect Light Award starts at £50 and £25 is added after each event at which is not claimed. It has not been won at the last couple of UK Championship events and so the prize fund now stands at £100. With the exchange rate already above 14 SKr and rising daily we have decided to round it up to 1500 SKr, to make it a nice round number (and to prevent us having to do long division in our heads - Ed).

The Perfect Light money is available in qualifying or eliminations, and is open to all classes, but it will only be awarded to the first racer at the event to pull a perfect RT, 0.400 or 0.500 as appropriate.

We have just received a new batch of Eurodragster stickers, which we will have with us at Mantorp Park. If you would like stickers for your race vehicle then please don't hesitate to approach us. We are easily identified: Sharkman is tall and hairy and will be wearing his Shark hat, and Tog is short and hairy and appears to be pregnant. We will both, of course, be wearing Eurodragster T-shirts.

We are very grateful to Graham Dance of G Sign for helping us with the stickers; if you need stickers or graphics then you can talk to Graham on 01603 783575.

Sharkman and Tog would like to wish all racers good luck in taking our money! ©Eurodragster.com

Weekend race results.
22nd July: Our good buddies at Svensk Dragracing have updated their web site with results from all three of the weekend's Nordic Drag Race Series events, at Vandel, Kalajoki and Skellefteå. You can find the results at www.dragracing.se.

The Finnish Hot Rod Association web site at www.fhra.fi has also been updated with a full report and results of the FHRA Summer Nats at Kalajoki Airport, whilst the European Drag Racing Database at www.eurodrag.com has full qualifying and elimination details from the Danish Nationals at Vandel. ©Eurodragster.com

Airport video sought.
22nd July: If you were tuned in over the winter, you will remember that the NHRA's Danny Gracia unfortunately suffered a heart attack upon arriving in the UK for the SFI Day. A TV crew happened to be on hand and filmed Danny's plight for the BBC documentary series Airport.

UK Tech Inspector Geoff Martin has been in touch to tell us that Danny's episode featured on Friday's (19th July) broadcast of Airport on BBC1, and asks if anyone video-taped the show as he would like to send it to Danny in the USA. If you happened to record Airport on Friday then you can contact Geoff by E-Mail at Geoffrey.Martin4@btopenworld.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
22nd July: Our good buddy Hasse is running a vote on his Swedish Pro Street News Magazine web site at www.spn-photo.com. The question being voted upon is Who will win Pro Modified at the Sko Uno Drag Festival?, and the vote can be found near the bottom of the Home Page. The vote closes at 23:59 on Wednesday. ©Eurodragster.com

Callin: five sponsors, one car.
21st July: Swedish Top Fuel Dragster racer Susanne Callin has signed up a number of sponsors in time for the second competitive Top Fuel race of her career, next weekend's Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park.

"We are very happy to announce sponsorship deals with Teng Tools, Autoart, Würth, Hydroscand and Totalmek", says Susanne's father Gordon. "A big Thank You to every one of our sponsors, who are making it possible for us to race". You can read more about Susanne's new sponsors on the Callin Racing web site at www.callinracing.com.

Meanwhile it has also been announced that Susanne is to step out of the cockpit of the two-seater dragster for next weekend's event to allow her to concentrate on driving the Top Fueller. "Rickard Zetterström will take the steering wheel next weekend", says Gordon. ©Eurodragster.com

Booze Moose meets ET.
21st July: If you were tuned in yesterday you will remember that FIA European Top Methanol FC Champion Leif Andréasson has signed a sponsorship deal with Ray-Ban, which will round off the all-in-black team's cool-dude image. Crew member Anders Magnusson has been in touch with a sequel to yesterday's news, which in itself involves a sequel.

"Ray-Ban are marketing their sunglases in the movie Men in Black 2, we are dressed in black team wear. Coincidence!" says Anders. "Film company Columbia Tristar, who are promoting the movie, thought it was very cool and will sponsor us for the Sko Uno Drag Festival which is just before first screening in Sweden on 31st July. There will be decals on the car, promotion in the pits and some extra surprises. We don't belive that Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones will make it there, but maybe some aliens..."

You can stay in touch with the latest developments on the Andréasson Motorsports web site at www.andreassonmotorsports.com. What the Booze Moose will make of extraterrestrials we can only imagine... ©Eurodragster.com

Carter confirms Nitrolympics.
21st July: FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Andy Carter has confirmed that he is to compete at the Nitrolympics at Hockenheim on 16th-18th August.

"We've missed our European trips this year, so this is a date which we are very much looking forward to", said Andy. "We shall be as hungry as ever for the win, and keen to remind the competition why the number one is on our wing!"

Andy's PR Dan Welberry promises a full race preview in a few weeks' time on the Carter Motorsports web site at www.andycarter.net. "The web site has also seen a few changes over recent weeks with most sections being refreshed", says Dan. "The Gallery contains a number of new pictures including various shots from the Main Event, and a brand new Meet The Crew section is due to be launched next week."

You can read more about the Nitrolympics at www.nitrolympics.de. ©Eurodragster.com

Sheavills checks out Bristol.
21st July: First-to-300 Top Fuel Dragster racer Barry Sheavills will be putting in a personal appearance at the Motaman car parts and accessories store at Downend, Bristol (UK) on Saturday 10th August. During his visit to Bristol he will be accompanied by the Carlube special-edition TVR Tuscan, which is powered by a straight six four litre engine, specially built for Tetrosyl. During the day, anyone buying a five-litre can of Triple R from the Motaman store at £14.99 will be given a free Wonder Wheel alloy wheel cleaner worth £6.99. Barry will be on hand throughout the day to meet and talk about Carlube Motor Oil, TVR and his racing exploits.

You can read more on the Press Release page of Barry's web site at www.topfuel.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com

Three race updates.
21st July: Our good friends at Svensk Dragracing are knocking themselves out this weekend posting news from two of the three NDRS events currently underway - the Danish Nats at Vandel and the Goldtown Summer Drag Race. Check it out at www.dragracing.se.

Results from the FHRA Summer Nats at Kalajoki are available on the FHRA web site at www.fhra.fi. ©Eurodragster.com

New chat site launches.
21st July: Lincoln Eriksson of the Feringe safety crew has written with news of a new chat site for European racers and fans. The site has two chat rooms, called Dragracing Online and Svensk Dragracing (not to be confused with the Association of the same name - Ed), the first of which is English-language only and the second of which is Swedish-only. Both are intended for the discussion of the sport in general.

Participation in the chat rooms requires the installation of a small program but Lincoln assures us that it is very easily done. You can find more details and get chatting at www.feringe.com/resque/dragracing. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
21st July: The Swedish Pro Street News Magazine at www.spn-photo.com has been updated with photographs from the Midnight Sun Internationals at Pite Dragway, together with the latest gossip from the Scandinavian scene. ©Eurodragster.com

FIA Commission meets in Stockholm.
20th July: We understand that not only does Sweden play host to the next round of the FIA Championships next weekend at Mantorp Park, but it also plays host to the yearly meeting of the FIA Drag Racing commission as well. The commission will meet in Stockholm from the 25th to the 26th July to discuss the FIA Drag racing rules. "It is the first time the commission has held its meeting here in Sweden" says Lars Pettersson from the Swedish Federation and also a member of the commission. "It is a great honour for us in the Swedish Automobile Sport Federation and the Swedish Sport Confederation to have the FIA meeting in Sweden and that it is before the third round in the FIA European Drag Racing Championship at Mantorp Park." It is anticipated that some of the members of the commission will also travel to Mantorp Park to watch the race. ©Eurodragster.com

Mantorp countdown.
20th July: With the days counting down to the start of the Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park next Thursday, several teams have been in touch to give us a brief overview of their plans

With 18 Pro Modified cars entered the big guns are taking the meeting very seriously. "At the Mantorp event we have the Swedish Championship in Pro Modified. Last years champ was Michael Gullquist and runner up was Patrick Wikstrm. This years field in Pro Modified is the biggest we have had in Sweden so far in the class. The class is very professional and they are really quick cars" says Lars Pettersson Chairman of the Drag Racing Committee in Sweden.

Patrick Wikstrom and the team have been overhauling their engine in preparation for the event. "We're just checking everything to be sure there will be no problems" says Patrick.

Meanwhile over in the Hakan Nilsson camp the team are confident going into the meeting. "We have had a great season so far. Its been a bit rainy so far this season but since we are points leader after the half season, we can't complain. We have run a personal best twice so far this season and the car has been real easy to handle." says Hakan. "We feel, however, that we are a bit short of horsepower to keep us ahead of the competition. So with the help of our great sponsor VEIDEC we have got a new nitrous motor on its way over the ocean. This piece has run as quick as 6.25 over there and it should help us to claim our fourth champion title. If the track wizard Kjell Pettersson can get the track as good as it was last year you should not be surprised if you see some records fall! We will run it hard and give our fans a great show!" For all the latest info on the Pro Modifieds make sure you check out www.promod.nu

Meanwhile Anders Magnusson from Andreasson Motorsport revealed that the Top Methanol Funny Car team are expecting a busy weekend both on and off the track, with a hospitality marquee being employed to cater for the guests the team have with them. A tie in with their sponsors Malte Mnsson's and Amato/yaccobian will see a demo of the Bilstein Engine Flush System take place on site as well. Anders also tells us that thanks to a new sponsorship deal with Ray Ban that we have to "Watch out for the team in black wearing new sponsor provided Ray Ban shades on their mission to win... They don't fight evil aliens like Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, but their mission might be just as tough!"

Also looking forward to Mantorp is UK Pro Stock rider Chris Tombleson. "The bike is still out in Sweden after the rainout in Finland." reveals Chris. "However, after a quick service she should be ready for the next pass. I ran another personal best in Finland of 7.62 @ 178.6mph and we had a 7.54 dialled in for the first round, but of course it didn't quite happen due to the weather. I must, of course, say a big thank you to Straightline racing for this opportunity." ©Eurodragster.com

Kason's history lesson.
20th July: Mike Kason has been in touch with an interesting story for all current racers:

"In the mid/late '70's, while running the Kerbdozer series of race cars, a small young scrawny boy used to hang around us asking many questions and we encouraged him and let him help out. He was also a member of one of the street clubs we were associated with. While driving up the M1 this morning I passed this person towing his superb Tri Chevy, presumably up to the Pod (He is taking part in the Super Mod Eliminator at this weekends Bug Jam - Ed), with a huge smile on his face. Rob Smallworth has done a superb job in the preparation and running of his most beautiful car and it is a lesson to all current racers, the young "enthusiastic" person asking sometimes annoying questions all the time, is the future of Drag racing...Be nice to them and encourage them, don't cold-shoulder them. Many congratulations Rob on your success. ©Eurodragster.com

Forward Thinking sponsors.
20th July: Many thanks to Gerry from the High Risk team for updating us on the progress with the "Forward Thinking" Topolino Altered. The team expect to be in action at the Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway in September with no less than 10 sponsors on the car. "All of these people are from companies outside of the car world and are mainly from the Health and Safety industry. Two of the sponsors are magazines with UK and world distribution. Its almost certain that they will cover the car. I think this is a great move as attracting non car and accessory companies to our sport can only be good for us all." says Gerry. He goes on to tell us how the car has been attracting these sponsors;

"A few weeks back the Health and Safety Expo exhibition was held at the NEC. With around 400 stands and over 12000 visitors it is not a small event. Thanks to my relationship with the organisers (they are a sponsor) a stand was made available for the Topolino, complete with the logos of all the sponsors and a massive head board reading. CMP support team safety with High Risk Racing.

The car generated a lot of interest, as well as me standing around in my race suit!! you feel like a dork for the first 5 minutes and then its great fun, to answer questions, some on safety (come on think about it... drag race car and Health and Safety in the same breath) some on the state of my brain to get in the thing.

As we know Drag Racing is the safest motor sport in the world, and there were a few raised eyebrows when I told them this. The many driver safety features and the excellent work of the FAST team was also promoted to the visitors.

The car was such a good attraction that the organiser are planning to have me do live demo runs outside at next years event. Of course my sponsors (and fellow exhibitors) love this as it gives them a opportunity to show their wares, especially ear protection.

I am looking for another car to join me that will do very smoky burnouts (if you want to do this it would have to be for free I'm afraid). The best news is that CMP are going to get the TV there to film the cars. By the way CMP International are one of, if not the biggest exhibition organisers around so they do have some pull. Lets hope its a sunny day and there is enough time for a few runs."

If you are interested in joining Gerry and the High Risk team at the event you can contact him via email at gerry.hi@ukonline.co.uk ©Eurodragster.com

MSA Magazine.
20th July: Thanks to Perry Antoniou for the heads up on a 6 page feature on our favourite sport in the the latest copy of the MSA magazine. "Normally it goes straight into the bin without even a glance, but I noticed a couple of Holley Dominators below a couple of shiny chrome velocity stacks on the front cover, and thought, hey...... that can only be something to do with Drag Racing. On rummaging through the pages, I saw a picture of Keith Bartlett and low and behold a full 6 pages, yes 6 pages, all about our beloved common interest......and normally I only ever read race car technical manuals or racing parts installation manuals and Eurodragster news on the Web, but this time, I sat and read the full six pages about us in the normally uninteresting magazine!" is what Perry had to say on the matter! ©Eurodragster.com

Joon Mantorp bound.
19th July: As you may have seen in the web site updates news item from 17th July, and from the news page on his web site, it has been a very busy time for Lex Joon and his Dutch Spirit Top Methanol Funny car team. There is no end in sight just yet either with the team heading to Mantorp Park and then on to Gardemoen for the back to back FIA races.

"For the last two weeks the crew have worked really hard on the race car. Not to get the car ready for Drachten but for Scandinavia as well." reveals team member Gerda Dijkstra. "Drachten was a great opportunity for us to test some things. These turned out well so we are looking forward to the next race.

>From now on we will be racing all the FIA races and the car is getting better and better. At the Main Event we ran quicker than we did at last years European Finals, hopefully we can continue this trend at Mantorp and Gardemoen, going quicker each time. Who knows maybe we will get into the 5.7's by the end of the year! It would be really cool if we can because I know how hard the crew and Lex are working to achieve this. Lex is looking forward to compete in a big field (11 cars) in Mantorp. Let's see where we can finish this time." ©Eurodragster.com

Woollatt's RWYB
19th July: Last Sundays RWYB at Santa Pod saw Steve Woollatt and the Dealer team take the opportunity to get some testing in. The sight and sound of the nitro burning bike certainly turned heads at the event and the numbers on the scoreboards had even the Max Power fans clapping and cheering. Here's Chris from the Dealer team's take on the day;

"With the help of Phil Baimbridge, Steve and I have been working on solidly on the bike to try and iron out a few gremlins we have had in the past with the fuel and clutch systems. With the run up to Sunday we were able to test each of our modifications with a degree of satisfaction and we now hopefully have something new to work with in the future.

The first run out of the trailer produced a 6.65 @ 203mph with no wheelspin or smoking of the line as in the last FIM round!! We carried on testing the new manifold modification Phil Baimbridge had designed and put in one half pass and two more full passes a 6.72 and a 6.80, bringing up the terminal speeds on both.

We would like to pass on our gratitude's to Ian Marshall and the rest of the crew for fitting us in at such short notice. We had a great day and certainly put the wind up a few of the usual RWYB crowd! Our next outing has now been confirmed and we will be at the Bulldog Bash for the Friday and Saturday putting in two pass on both days. Lets just hope the weather stays with us." ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
19th July: In what is turning out to be a very busy week for our friends over at Svensk drag racing they have updated the site again, this time with entry lists for all three of this weekends races. If three races in one weekend was not enough for them to cope with then the following weekend is of course the Sko Uno Drag festival at Mantorp where, as well as everything else, they will have to put up with Tog and Sharkman being there!

The Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc has been updated with the final set entry forms for the FIA European finals, those for Sportsman Bike racers. The files are Adobe Acrobat files at present, MS Word versions will be added shortly. ©Eurodragster.com

Goodwood from the inside.
18th July: After a busy couple of weeks which saw the team compete in the Nitro Nationals and then manage to make the trip from Finland to England to appear at the Goodwood Festival of Speed the following weekend, the AC Delco racing team have finally got time to catch their breath. So was it worth the amount of time and effort to get to Goodwood?

"Absolutely" says team member Magnus Cato. "It was a real experience being there. The whole drag racing contingent at the festival really amazed the audience at Saturday under the blue skies. All cars did great burnouts which got the spectators on their feet. The first time round we managed to make a good burnout on the startline, and a little one in front of the grandstands. The second session saw Michael and the AC Delco Camaro cover the grandstand with smoke! This caught the attention from the F1 drivers, who tried to do burnouts on Sunday. The crowd loved it, and when the drag racing cars came along everybody knew what to expect. No drag racing contender let the crowd down, so at the end of the day, I must say the winners were Drag racing."

The teams good weekend did not stop at filling the grandstands with burnout smoke however. At the trophy presentation on Sunday they were presented with the "Goodwood Choice Award" , the team being the first recipients of the award.

Magnus went on to say "Michael and I want to say a big thank you to all our English drag racing friends in the pits for their help, Eurodragster for covering this fantastic event and of course John Price who explained our beloved sport so well to the new audience. I'll bet some of them will show up at Santa Pod." ©Eurodragster.com

Gothem City for Bader.
18th July: Fans of Swiss Racer Bruno Bader will be pleased to hear that the Golden Vette team are back in action following the top end crash at Santa Pod's European Finals meeting last year which destroyed the original car. After looking around the team decided to buy their new car from the USA in the shape of a Pro Modified '63 Corvette. Once the car was in the teams hands they then went through the car to bring it up to their requirements and get it ready to run in Competition Eliminator, using the small block Chevy from the original Vette as the powerplant. After many hours in the garage the team have finished the car and are now getting ready to go on tour. The team will still be know as the Golden Vette Drag Race team, but have decided to give the new car a new name, the '63 Vette now going under the name of "Gothem City".

"We start in Denmark next weekend, then onto the Sko Uno Festival at Mantorp, then Hockenheim and we hope to make it to Santa Pod at the end of season." says Fränzi Bader. " The crash with the old Golden Vette was not easy - we are a private racing team and we only have a little sponsorship, many thanks at Friesch Sanitär! We hope that now we have got Gotham City ready to race we will have as much fun and as many great races as we did before."

The teams website is now available in English as well as Germany and contains lots of information on the team, photo galleries and even some video clips as well as details on the new car and a report on the teams first test session with it. ©Eurodragster.com

Successful start to Adam's tour.
18th July: Reigning UK National Super Gas and Super Comp Champion Tim Adam had a successful start to his European Tour, winning the latest round of the Dutch Open Super Gas Championship at Drachten at the weekend. "It was a good meeting", says Tim. "Everyone was really friendly."

It didn't start well, however. "Saturday wasn't so good", says Tim. "I was getting out of shape off the start line so I wasn't using the throttle stop. But it all came together on Sunday, I knew roughly where I was with the air, I put in the throttle stop and started running the times."

This was Tim's first visit to Drachten. "I got there and looked around and there were no guardrails, it was like a time warp", he says. "But the track was very good indeed, very sticky". Tim was also very impressed with the hospitality he and fellow UK racer Luke Ramage received in Holland. "The Dutch guys loved having us there", says Tim. "They thought of everything - after I won the race they had the trophy presentation straight away so that I could start for home!"

Tim is very grateful to everyone in Holland for the good time he had, and in particular to fellow Super Gas racer and Championship organiser Robert Joosten. "Robert Joosten is a real gentleman", says Tim "he was so supportive to Luke and I. He really cares about Super Gas - he wants to get a European Super Gas Championship going."

Tim is now headed for Mantorp Park where he takes on Scandinavia's finest in a 24-car field at the Sko Uno Drag Festival. He then goes on to to Gardermoen, Hockenheim and Drachten again before bringing his roadster home to the UK in time for the late season, where he should be joined by some of his Dutch friends. "Six of the Super Gas guys want to come to the European Finals at Santa Pod", he says. "If they can get a ferry deal, they will be there."

Racers: Don't hesitate to send your Sko Uno Drag Festival previews to us at news@eurodragster.com and we will publish them here. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
18th July: The Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc has been updated with invitations, entry forms and supplementary regulations for Sportsman racers and Junior Dragsters for the FIA European Finals in September. There are also Hospitality forms and an application form for post-race Banquet tickets. The files are Adobe Acrobat files at present, MS Word versions will be added shortly.

Our good friends over at Svensk drag racing have been very busy recently with another update to the site. The points standings have now been updated to take into account the Midnight Sun Internationals and the entry forms page has also been updated with the Sportsman and Junior Dragster entry forms for the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod ©Eurodragster.com

Vacancy at HRC.
17th July: UK constructor Hauser Race Cars are urgently seeking a new welder/fabricator at their Higham Ferrers workshop.

"We have a full order book", says Geof Hauser of HRC. "We have tons on, and tons more coming in. We are also currently involved in the build and repair of ASCAR chassis. So we are looking for someone capable of working quickly but carefully and of thinking on their feet. We need a specialist in Tig welding for both steel and aluminium, who is used to fine-tolerance sheet-metal work, and who is familiar with tube-bending. It would also be an advantage, although not essential, to be familiar with race car construction and suspension.

"We work a forty-hour week on average, but it is important that jobs get out on time so you should be prepared to put in extra hours every so often, especially around races. It would probably help to be a motorsport enthusiast!"

If you are interested in the job then you can contact Hauser Race Cars by phone on 01933 312735 (ask for Jon Webster or Geof Hauser), or by E-Mail at mail@hauserracing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Track Record at Mini showdown.
17th July: Shakespeare County Raceway's Press Officer Jerry Cookson has been in touch with news of a new track record for the venue, set at the Mini Showdown last weekend.

"In front of an appreciative and vocal Mini audience at Shakespeare County Raceway last weekend for the 9th annual British Mini Showdown, UK Jet Funny Car pilot Martin Hill blasted down the quarter mile strip in the Chevy Lumina bodied Fireforce 2 car to reset his own track et record to 6.064.

Martin Hill and the Fireforce team's next outing at Shakespeare County Raceway is in four weeks time at the 16th annual Bulldog Bash." ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
17th July: Many thanks to Gerda Dijkstra from Lex Joon Racing for letting us know that Lex's web site has been updated with an account of how the teams weekend went at the Dragten Internationals in Holland. As well as running the car the team were also involved in organising the event and hosted their first fan club day as well!

UK Top Methanol racer Lindsay Deuchar has updated his web site with a report on the teams latest test session, at the Mini event at Shakespeare County Raceway last weekend. All did not quite go according to plan for the team so for an entertaining read and some video footage head to the news page of www.laracing.co.uk.

Alan Currans has just updated The Acceleration Archive at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk with more historic Top Fuel pictures from the 1970s and 1980s.

Editor's note: Apologies to Dorset Horn co-owner Bunt Wilcox for the missed name-check in our Goodwood Festival of Speed report on Friday. ©Eurodragster.com

Dutch Super Gas update.
16th July: This weekend just gone saw the 2nd Dragten Internationals at Hollands Dratchen venue. One of the features of the event was the 3rd round of the Dutch Suger Gas championship. The regular runners were joined by a couple of names familiar to English race fans with Tim Adam and Luke Ramage making the trip to compete. "It was awesome to that Tim and Luke travelled all this way to race" said Robert Joosten, one of the organisers of the series.

Robert goes on to tell us that "With good weather and a sticky track the racing was tight with Floris Hilgevoord running a 9.900 and myself a 9.901, it was always going to be a battle going on in eliminations."

In the first semi Floris Hilgevoord put out Robert Joosten while in the other semi an all British affair saw Tim Adam take out Luke Ramage. Tim went on to take the event win Floris Hilgevoord. Jan Scheppers won best appearing race team. For all the latest news and info check out www.supergas.nl. ©Eurodragster.com

Malin back in the saddle.
16th July: Last Sunday's RWYB at Santa Pod Raceway saw Gary Malin and his team return to action on the track for the first time since he had a horrendous looking top end crash in his Ford Pop at the Test and Tune at Shakespeare County Raceway back in April. The accident saw the car pretty much destroyed although the safety equipment did its job and Gary was able to walk away. The team then took stock of things before setting out to find a new race car.

The RWYB saw the team debut the new car, a dragster that was previously owned by Steven Davies from Germany and ran mainly in the Super Comp class. The plan for the RWYB was to get Gary comfortable in the car and if all went well to get the necessary license upgrades completed. Gary takes up the story from here; "The first run was to be a half track pass and I clicked it off around about the eighth and came home with a 10.58 from my first run in the car! The second run was to be a full pass but a slight problem staging the car meant I got no time or speed but at least I drove the car all the way to the finish line for the first time. By now the team and I were really pleased with the car and the way it was performing. The dragster is a completely different ball game to the old Pop, but one which I really enjoy.

We came out for our last and final run of the day and with our first full timed pass bashed out a 9.3 at 142 mph. That is very encouraging for us given the way I had set the car up for that particular day. Hopefully as we step things up we can run the car down into the low eights. I didn't want to run those sort of times on my maiden voyage in the car though!

After the unfortunate crash at Shakespeare County Raceway I was determined to get the dragster on the track and get back in the saddle as soon as possible, and what a ride it was.... Having successfully completed the necessary runs and having had my license signed off I can't wait to get back to Shakespeare County Raceway for the Fall Nationals and hopefully get the car down into the 8's!

Finally I would like to take the opportunity to thank my good crew Lin and Ant for their fine deeds and of course Ian Marshall and his startline crew at Santa Pod for helping make the day safe and sound for me (Sorry about the gloves Ian!!)." ©Eurodragster.com

46 second Challenger at Thorny.
16th July: Following on from our news item on the 8th July inviting racers to attend the Victory Wheelers South Coast Internationals event, Rob Faulkner has been in touch again to let us know how things went.

"What a blinding weekend, the Victory Wheelers put on a fine show at Thorny Island, with a very active Drag strip in action. Jack Brewster took the first prize for quickest time of the weekend, he ran 11.23, which is not not bad on a track which has had no prep at all! Malcom Motler with his Morris Minor pick up was close behind, he managed a very respectable 11.63.

The startline was a bit loose, but after a while the rubber being laid down began to give a little traction. The crowd loved the race cars and the loads of street cars which were also running. Maybe next year we can get one or two of the Custom Car Street Eliminator cars along to show them what a street car can really do! There were also plenty of bikes taking to the track with times down into the low 10's, a Supacross bike which recorded a 104mph speed, a motorbike and sidecar and even a trike. Most unusual vehicle to take to the strip though had to be a Challenger 2 tank (The event takes place on an active army base - ED), it ran a 46 sec quarter mile!

The sun shone all weekend, the atmosphere was fantastic, the party in the evening was brilliant and the Army couldn't have been more helpful. The only small down side were a few hot rodders who wouldn't abide by the speed limits and were speeding around the site, but other than that the weekend was a great success and we look forward to seeing more racers next year. The Army have also said that there could even be the chance of a couple of small RWYB's during the year, so I would like to offer my thanks to all the members of the Victory Wheelers for once again putting on a perfect show,THANKS GUYS AND GIRLS" ©Eurodragster.com

Last Chance for advance Bug Jam tickets.
16th July: Chris Ware of Trakbak has been in touch to let us know that the advance ticket hotline for this weekends Bug Jam closes at 3pm today. For full details on the event and tickets head on over to www.bugjam.co.uk ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
16th July: Feel-the-noise.com have updated their web site with the first batch of digital photos from last weekend's British Mini Showdown at Shakespeare County Raceway. Anni's photos will be available after next weekend's Bug Jam. Also included in this update is a complete update and expansion of the Jets section and a few snaps from the Goodwood Festival of Speed in preparation for Anni's photos expected shortly.

Our friends at Svensk Drag Racing have updated their site with another gallery of action shots from last weekends Midnight Sun Internationals and also a look forward to this weekend when there are no less than 3 race meetings taking place. The Svensk website can be found at www.dragracing.se.

Webmaster Hasse tells us that the SPN Photo site has been updated with pictures from the South Cup race held in Sweden recently. ©Eurodragster.com

TFT eliminations report.
15th July: We are again indebted to Pelle Lindelöw for taking time out to send us a report on yesterday's eliminations in the first round of the Swedish Top Fuel Tour, at Pite Dragway over the weekend.

Monica berg and team had really tried hard to find a bellhousing, but had to give up when they realised that the crank was also damaged hurt after the explosion yesterday. Consequently Peter Lantz had a bye. The aim was of course to continue the fine tuning, now that the car is starting to act as it should and run full passes. But after half track the blower belt gave up and that was it, a 0.91-seconds sixty-foot time was in line with the run yesterday but of course a disappointment for the team.

The second pair saw number one qualifier Micke Kgered against Tommy Mller. A strange kind of burnout for Tommy, the throttle cable wasn't hooked on so there was no contact between the pedal and the engine. The team discovered the problem and cured it, but no burnout was made. Both cars staged and Tommy's car left like a rocket leaving Micke behind with totally lost traction, even though Micke tried his best to pedal, he never caught up. Tommy ran 5.10/460 kmh and Micke crossed the finish line with a 6.01.

The final was set between Peter Lantz and Tommy Mller, both cars had run 5.10 seconds so it was going to be a very interesting final between the two. Tommy had lane choice and chose the left lane. Both cars left hard, but after 330 feet Tommy lost traction and the race was over. Peter had a perfect run and recorded another two records, the quickest run which the car has made in Europe and another personal speed record, 5.08/468 kmh against Tommy's 9.58/136.

"We are all very happy at the moment", said Pelle. "We have sorted out the problems which have plagued the car for about a year and it works perfectly at the moment. Now we are looking forward to meeting the other guys at the Sko Uno Drag Festival. We have had real fun in Pite, but now it's time start to prepare for the next challenge."

Micke Kgered had a solo in his run for third place. Without doubt heading for a repeat of the 4.93 second run yesterday, Micke lost traction at half-track and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The standings after this round of the 2002 Top Fuel Tour are as follows:

1. Peter Lantz
2. Tommy Mller
3. Micke Kgered
4. Monica berg

You can find full results from the Midnight Sun Internationals on the SHRA Luleå web site at www.shra-lulea.bd.se, there are some brief comments and pictures of the weekend's action on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se, and you can read Micke Kågered and team's take on the weekend at www.kagered-racing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Danish Nationals entry list.
15th July: Thanks to Tommy Nilsson of the National Dragracing Club Denmark and the European Drag Racing Database for letting us know that the official entry list for this weekend's Danish Nationals is now available at www.eurodrag.com/danishentry.asp.

Tommy tells us that entries will be accepted right up to Friday night at Vandel Raceway, and the classes whose prize money has doubled are Competition, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street and Junior Dragster.

You can find more information about the Danish Nationals at www.ndcd.dk. ©Eurodragster.com

OA63 pictures sought again.
15th July: If you were one of the several readers who kindly responded to Outlaw Anglia racer Martin Davidson's plea of 8th July for pictures of his race car, he has another favour to ask. "I have been unable to download anything I was sent", says Martin. "Could you please re-send it to janice@dare1.plus.com." ©Eurodragster.com

TFT Day One report.
14th July: We are indebted to Pelle Lindelöw for taking time out from a very busy weekend at Pite Dragway to send us a report on day one of the Swedish Top Fuel Tour.

First qualifying session: First to the start line was Peter Lantz in his debut in Pelle Lindelw's Top Fueller. Peter shut off early after smoking the tyres for fifty metres. "The car left well but I had to lift off as I lost traction immediately. We also did some arms in the clutch so there is some work in the pits prior to the next round". Second out was Monica berg, a nice clean run with an early shut off 5.24/414 kmh. "We are satisfied with that, nothing was hurt, and we will just do a normal between the rounds maintenance", said Crew Chief Dan Sderberg. Tommy Mller versus Micke Kgered was the really nice one. Tommy ran 5.41/322 kmh and Micke 4.93/491 kmh! The first four-second run in Sweden, and the fastest speed in Europe. "We had a damaged seal between the bellhouse and transmission", said Tommy. "I thought I lost traction but the bellhouse was full of oil so no wonder". Micke was all smiles after the record setting run - 4.93 and 305 miles per hour, and what can you say. "We knew that we could run really fast and it's a wonderful feeling when everything works the way it did", said Micke. "The only thing we had to do to the car was to change one top ring on one of the pistons. Otherwise it was just clean the stuff up and put it back into the car again."

Second qualifying session: first pair was Micke Kgered and Peter Lantz. Peter went up in smoke off the startline and shut off at once. "We will take some power out of the car and go out again for the evening run", said Peter. "I'm getting more and more comfortable with the car, so we are really looking forward to going out there and making a full pass". Micke wasn't able to back up the performance from the first run, recording 5.22/410 kmh with an early shut off. "We lost two cylinders from start, and I felt the car wasn't performing, so I aborted the run after three hundred metres", said Micke. Tommy Mller didn't have the car ready in time, so he was still in the pits when Monica soloed for a second run, and what a dramatic run it was. At first Monica had problems to getting out of reverse after the burnout; it was fixed but the car didn't leave as it should. At half track the clutch exploded in a ball of fire. The explosion was massive and everybody at the startline could see everything disappear in sparks and flames. Both sides of the track caught fire from the parts from Monica's car. When everything cleared up and the fire was put out by the safety crew, Monica was pulled back to the pits and we could see the result of the explosion. The bellhousing had split in two, probably caused by one of the clutch discs giving up. Half of the bellhousing had melted away, and the reason for the sparks we saw from the startline was obvious to anyone. Luckily the chassis withstood the disaster, and the motor didn't show any signs of being hurt, but the race is definitely over for Dan and Monica this weekend. A bellhousing is tailor made for every individual car and in fact isn't anything you could borrow from your neighbor, even if his name is Knut Sderqvist.

Third qualifying session: The first pair was Peter Lantz and Tommy Mller. Peter had finally found the right set up ,and the car left the startline with the front wheels 10" in the air. Nice flames from both sides of the racecar and at last, after years of trouble shooting and smoky runs, the car went the full distance under full power. 5.10/466 kmh, and two different records: the quickest ET for the car and Peter's fastest speed. Tommy Mller lost the blower belt just after the start and cruised gently over the finish line without improving his previous set time. Micke Kgered should have backed up his record-setting 4.93 but failed just with a few thousands of a second when he ran 4.99/469 kmh. Still a very good time, but of course not enough for the record. Tomorrow is another day and two more chances to make it for the history books.

Final qualifying order:

1. Micke Kgered, 4.93
2. Peter Lantz, 5.10
3. Monica berg, 5.24
4. Tommy Mller, 5.41

Today Micke Kgered will meet Tommy Mller, and Peter Lantz will have a bye as Monica berg threw in the towel.

You can stay in touch with the news from Pite Dragway with live updates on the SHRA Luleå web site at www.shra-lulea.bd.se, there are some pictures of yesterday's action (including a frightening picture of Monica's clutch explosion) on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se, and for the latest word from Kågered Racing at Piteå check out www.kagered-racing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Married to the Max.
14th July: It was a joyous day in Kettering yesterday as Antony Billinton of G Max Racing Fuels and Lisa Smart of Santa Pod's timing crew were married (picture courtesy of Andy Marrs). The ceremony took place on a beautiful summer's day and the ensuing celebrations were a blast with everyone keeping a wary eye on best man Sammy Miller for practical jokes, a seventies disco led by erstwhile SPR track announcer Paul Venners, and some quite unprincipled theft of strawberries.

We are sure that everyone will want to join Tog and Sharkman in wishing Antony and Lisa all the very best for the future. ©Eurodragster.com

Danish Nationals: be there!
14th July: Per Mikkelsen of the National Dragracing Club Denmark writes with news of next weekend's Danish Nationals at Vandel Raceway.

"After the rain-out in 2001, this year we have a hot line to the man upstairs, and he has promised us perfect weather for the race! This year we have doubled the prize money and there are a lot of awards from sponsors. The entry fee is still only 800 dk.kr. even after the closing date. The track and all of the officials are 100% ready for the weekend, so get your teams down to Vandel on 20th-21st July.

"You can find more info at www.ndcd.dk. See you at the track." ©Eurodragster.com

Growler's back!
14th July: UK Wild Bunch racer Mark Turton has returned to the track in record time after rolling out his Growler Topolino at the Super Series Springnationals.

"Growler - once bitten still smitten - returned as promised at the Nostalgia Nationals", says Mark. "If only to do a eighth-mile as we suffered severe wheel wobble. And as we did not finish putting her together until Saturday afternoon the one run was enough! It took four weekends in total, a hectic thirteen-hour round trip to Anglesey to get the body, x amount of finances, endless arguments with Philippa about the time spent out the house, seventy two beef burgers, and untold amounts of tea and coffee.

"I have now updated my web site at www.growlerracing.co.uk with the first new pics, and the rebuild info will follow shortly. I would however like to say thankyou to the people who helped: Scott "Mansize" Durrant, Paul Stubbings, Wendy Baker (who makes a lovely cup of tea and burgers!), "Crazy" Chris Hartnell, John Parkinson, Nick Connor, Geoff Turton, Karen Talbot, Zak "Charlie" Durrant, Philippa, and the Halifax Bank.

"We are now trying to iron out the problems and should be back for the Super Series Fallnationals, so see you soon." ©Eurodragster.com

SCR on tour again.
14th July: Following Shakespeare County Raceway's early season show appearances at Brentwood, Stafford and Himley, and their continuing bid to increase public awareness of drag racing together with the forthcoming Super Series Fallnationals, SCR has secured display space at Rockingham Motor Speedway and the Mid-West American weekend at the Cheltenham Racecourse, both next month.

Although the Rockingham display has now been finalised with exhibitors and coincides with the August 4th rounds of the Mintex ASCAR Championship for V8 American Stock Cars, Legends and Pick-Up trucks racing on the oval and road courses, SCR are currently looking for a number of drag machines to take a weekend out to Cheltenham's Racecourse to come and support us in promoting the Super Series Fallnationals over the weekend of 17th-18th August.

If you live in a thirty mile radius of Cheltenham and would like to be considered for the SCR Tour, E-Mail SCR Press Officer Jeremy Cookson at quartermilenewsmakers@yahoo.co.uk as soon as possible. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
14th July: The official web site of the UK's American Car Imports Racing Top Methanol Dragster tema has been updated with a report of their weekend at the Ford Nitro Nationals at Alastaro, where in the space of one day's qualifying Dave Wilson and the team managed to set and back up a new European speed record of 253.81 mph. Crew Chief Andy Bissett's report is as usual very detailed and highly entertaining - as with Ulf Stadig's account the other day, if you've ever wondered what teams get up to when it rains incessantly then check it out at www.americancarimportsracing.com.

Dutch Supertwin Top Fuel racer Ton Pels' Zodiac Racing web site has moved addresses. You now have the choice of visiting Ton at www.zodiacracing.com, www.zodiacracing.nl, or www.harleyracing.nl.

Ton's sponsor, performance parts manufacturer Zodiac, have completely revamped their web site at www.zodiac.nl. ©Eurodragster.com

Kågered runs 4.93/305 at Piteå.
13th July: Just as we went to post this news update, we had an E-Mail from Åsa Kinnemar, Team Manager of Kågered Racing to tell us that Micke Kågered has run the first four-second, 300 mph pass at Pite Dragway with a 4.93/305 in Bahco Tools/Quaker State Top Fueller in the first qualifying session of the Swedish Top Fuel Tour. "We are all very happy at the moment!", says Åsa.

You can stay in touch with the news from Pite Dragway with live updates on the SHRA Luleå web site at www.shra-lulea.bd.se, and for the latest word from Kågered Racing at Piteå check out www.kagered-racing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Gus happy with new ride.
13th July: UK Pro Mod racer Andy 'Gus' Robinson is very pleased with his new '53 Studebaker Pro Mod. "To run as quickly as 6.64 at the second race with the car, is quite something", said Andy when we caught up with him at the Festival of Speed yesterday. "The terminal speeds are down at the moment because we haven't got the clutch to lock up fully yet."

Andy's next race date is the Nitrolympics at Hockenheim in August. There was talk of his competing at Mantorp Park and Gardermoen but Andy said that it just wasn't possible. "It's partly funding", he said, "but we are also very busy indeed. We have a lot of work on, including getting Peter Wacker's car finished."

Andy is keeping his feet on the ground with regards to progress on the new car, but he has a secret weapon - secret until now. "We're not going to beat Håkan Nilsson and Patrick Wikström yet, but we're not the slowest out there either", he said. "But I've just bought Al Cook's spread-bore engine - I don't mind that being public knowledge now!" ©Eurodragster.com

Greek God prompts Dart memories.
13th July: Yesterday's news item about the return of Chris Orthodoxou prompted a reply from UK Super Modified racer Graham Ellis, who once owned Chris' Dart.

"Chris' '67 Dodge was the first car I ever put down the strip", said Graham. "I owned it then, it had a 383 and ran thirteens. We later added a 440 and built most of the cage which is still in it - not that I am taking any credit for what the car is now. I had some good and wild times in that car: Chelsea Cruise etc, I even used it as my wedding car. Ever since then I've always had a soft spot for Mopars, and the '67 Dart is my favorite (affordable) Mopar. I can't wait to see it back out there." ©Eurodragster.com

At last the Festival of Speed report.
13th July: We have now posted our report and pictures from day one of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. A mere twelve hours late, but UK fans will understand when we say "M25". It was a great day at Goodwood, from Michael Malmgren in his amazing aquaplaning Pro Stock to Steve Neimantas breaking a 400-year-old record.

You can view our Goodwood Festival of Speed coverage by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. ©Eurodragster.com

The Hairy Greek God is back.
12th July: The UK's Chris Orthodoxou and his 1967 Pro-street Dodge Dart will be racing again for 2003. After a three-year layoff from the strip, due to business commitments, the need-for-speed has again got the better of Chris, and the Reservoir Dodge will be unleashed for some serious track action. A fresh engine is imminent and it is hoped that testing will begin at the Mopar Nationals at the end of July. Planned to nudge the eights and run in Super Comp, the heavyweight hitting car will have a 556 inch Mopar B1 with a two-speed 'Glide.

Chris, an oil rig designer, hails from the exclusive area of Hindhead in Surrey. He's known as 'Slash' in the pits owing to his somewhat overly long hair, good looks, rock-star lifestyle and fondness for beautiful women. Renowned for 'blowing his own trumpet', Chris informs us that running normally aspirated, on seven cylinders, and with the handbrake on, the car should see off any contenders. We can't wait! ©Eurodragster.com

Get shafted by Smax.
12th July: UK Fuel FC racer Smax Smith has been in touch to let his fellow racers know that he is now able to supply billet transmission shafts "At northern prices". Smax had three transmission shops during his time in Canada and so has long experience in the subject including the construction of manual and automatic gearboxes.

"If you need a hot THM 350 or 400 Powerglide, C4, C6 or any manual boxes then give me a call on 01772 617506", says Smax. Smax adds that he is after used fifteen-inch slicks for burnouts. "They must be cheap or free, and I can collect", he says.

Smax's next appearance in the Mainline Menace Fuel FC will be at the Bulldog Bash at Shakespeare County Raceway in August. ©Eurodragster.com

Mini Showdown beckons.
12th July: On the subject of Shakespeare County Raceway, Press Officer Jerry Cookson writes with news of the 9th annual Mini Showdown which takes place at the Warwickshire track this weekend.

"The idea of the British Mini Showdown is to get your Mini up to the best spec you can, get its weight right down, enter a class, pass scrutineering and spend part of Saturday doing practice runs up the quarter mile. Do your final tweaks midday and then go for timed runs Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday. During the weekend, every timed run is automatically recorded and entered for the class. Fastest three in each class get trophies. It's that simple!

"Established as the only annual Mini weekend where you and a mate can go head-to-head, flat out, up the big black track, the British Mini Showdown is the ultimate 'Show and Go' event for all Mini owners from around the country. Last year, staff from the British Mini Club registered 198 Minis for Sunday alone, making it the most competitive Showdowns ever. What will this year bring?

"Last year the men to beat included Steve Aston. His unlimited CC A-series turbocharged steel bodied Mini covered the quarter mile in 13.72 seconds, but the quickest overall was a mid-engined Chevy V8 Mini Pick-up racer of Nick Whitehouse. Specially prepared for Grass Track Racing Whitehouse ran a very creditable 11.99s at 101 miles per hour."

The Supercharged Outlaws, the Wild Bunch, and Martin Hill and Tony Baker in the Fireforce Jet FCs will be adding to the on-track action. There will be evening entertainment in the Raceway Clubhouse and marquee, whilst out on the field everything Mini will be available including a Mini Trade and Auto Jumble arena, club displays and more. Tickets are £10 on Saturday and Sunday; £18 for the weekend; £9 for 12-16 year olds and free for under 12s. An additional £10 is payable for the Run What You Brung. The track is open from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on Saturday, and from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm on Sunday. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
12th July: The official web site of NDRS/Bilsport Pro Mod Series leaders Nilsson Motorsports has been updated with a report from the Nitro Nationals. Crew member Ulf Stadig describes how Håkan Nilsson got within hundredths of his predicted off-the-trailer time in qualifying, and tells us what a crew get up to when the rain just won't stop. Check it out at www.nilssonmotorsports.com.

Feel-the-noise.com have now completed the uploading of Anni Valder's photos from the recent Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. Over one hundred new photographs have been added in four sections, and can be found under Special Interest Meetings. ©Eurodragster.com

Teams ready for Top Fuel Tour.
11th July: The 2002 Swedish Top Fuel Tour kicks off at this weekend's Midnight Sun Internationals at Pite Dragway. The Tour has two rounds this season and is to be contested by four racers.

"After unsuccessfully trying to expand the series to more events, we had to face the fact that instead the number of races increased", says Pelle Lindelöw. "The German experiment didn't work out, and the other alternatives which we've discussed during the spring haven't worked out either for different reasons, so we were forced to cut back to two races, Piteå on 13th-14th July and Tullinge on 10th-11th August."

For three of the four participants, this will be their first race of the season. Pelle Lindelow spoke to the teams and very kindly passed on the word from each camp. The Möller and Lorentzon team didn't have a particularly successful a season last year, suffering new-car woes at a lot of races. The team have discovered in the off-season that the problems stem mainly from the clutch. "This should be the answer to all the wheelies and tyre shake we had, and the team is very confident that fixing the problem should give us the performance everybody knows the car is capable of", says Tommy Möller. "We have also invested in a new SSI blower, and updated a lot of our stuff, so the car will definitely be competitive this year. We have also a new black paint scheme so the car looks new again! Piteå is one of our favorite tracks so we are really looking forward to meeting the people there and seeing the track again."

Monica Öberg's Crew Chief Dan Söderberg said that after last year's engine explosion in Pite the car was far too rich, but they never figured out the reason. "We actually ran quicker on the second half of the track than on the 5.05 run in 2000" said Dan, "but it left like a stone so we could never produce any representative numbers. Now we have discovered that the clutch was the cause and we have fixed that. Apart from that problem, everything in the motor is as-new so there was nothing we needed to do for this season. The winter activity this year has been to build a new sauna and a pool outside my house, and to wash parts (not in the pool, one assumes - Ed). Everything is loaded in the trailer and ready to go to Piteå after a Grand Opening of the sauna with 'Hot Dog', one of Pelle's mechanics."

Micke Kågered is on his way to pick up the Bahco Tools/Quaker State Top Fueller from Eskilstuna. "Everything was OK with the car after the Main Event, and we have also discovered the cause of the problems we faced at that race", said Micke. "There was a problem in the fuel system and we are going to run the car as it was set up last year. We know exactly what the car is capable of, so we went home very disappointed after the Main Event. Our racing schedule this year is kind of tight so the races at Piteå and Tullinge, when we only are racing one car, feels good. We will take the opportunity to concentrate only on one car only, and we will have the time to sort the car out to its previous condition. We were never close to potential, so we have great expectations of the race at Piteå."

"Could Peter Lantz be the Rookie of the Year?", asks Pelle Lindelöw. "Hardly, but it's going to be very exciting to see what comes from the latest adjustments. Everything started when I called Peter to discuss the possibility of having Peter and Morgan Svensson as crew chief/adviser in our team this summer. Before the call was over we discussed a driver/crew chief role for Peter and Morgan."

"The car has been sitting in Pelle's and Gunnars shop over the winter so we really started from nothing", said Peter Lantz. "Now the car has been updated to the latest safety standards, and we have done some work on the chassis to meet the new requirements. Other than that, there is nothing new on the combination as Pelle and Gunnar have more or less a copy of the set-up we had in our car and which Tommy is running. The novelty for me is that we are not only there with the Top Fueller, but this will also be my son Robin's first race in Junior Dragster. There is a whole bunch of people in the team now so it will work out fine - we will find someone to take care of the Fueller when I'm assisting Robin on the start line."

You can find more details on the 2002 Top Fuel Tour on the official web site at www.topfueltour.com, and more details about the Midnight Sun Internationals, which is also an NDRS and NDC round, on the SHRA Luleå web site at www.shra-lulea.bd.se. ©Eurodragster.com

More to come from Larsson.
11th July: Swedish Pro Stock Bike racer Anders Larsson went into the 7.3s in qualifying at Alastaro last weekend on the Enström and Partner Suzuki, but feels that the team are only just scratching the surface.

"We entered the event with our confidence high since we had a good test session the week before", says Anders. "We had a good baseline to work from, and the knowledge gained from Västerås turned out to be very valuable. The weather was the big obstacle last weekend, with a lot of rain showers. On Saturday, though, the weather was great and we were scheduled for three qualifying passes.

"On our first pass the track was a little slippery, so we only had a 1.24 60 foot. The speed at the eighth was up to 147 mph, but the ET was only 7.60. We were a little disappointed at first, but it turned out to be the #1 spot. The traction was a lot better in the second qualifier. We left the line hard, with a lot of tyre shake in first gear. The 60 foot was down to 1.135, but this time the bike pulled really hard, I almost missed the shift points in the first three gears. I had quite long wait in the shutdown area until I received the news from Roger, a new Personal Best with a 7.41. The big issue in the shutdown area was the stunning 7.35 pass from Oivind von Essen.

"On the third run the traction was even better. I left hard once again but without tyre shake. The 60 foot was down to 1.130, but I ran right into the bumpy part of the right lane at about 300-metre mark, and we lost a bit of ground there. Still bike pulled out a 7.39, another PB. Actually we were two thousandths of second off a new European record since von Essen failed to back up his 7.35.

"The bike can go faster, we have not reached the top performance by a long way. On every run we make, we gain more valuable data of the new two-valve motor, which by the way is called Velocity Raptor. If we can find the time, we will attend another test and tune session before round three of the FIM/UEM European Championship."

You can find Anders' new web site at www.alracing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Final call for Drag Festival.
11th July: Racers wishing to compete at the Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park on 25th-28th July are reminded that entries now are already being formally regarded as late entries, and that next Friday, 19th July, is the very last day on which entries will be considered.

You can find entry forms at www.dragracing.se/nerladdning.html and at www.mantorppark.com/evenemang/team_SkoUno.htm. In case of problems you can contact Mantorp Park direct at:

Sko Uno Drag Festival 2002
Mantorp Park
590 17 Mantorp
Sweden

Tel: +46 (0)142 298850
Fax: +46 (0)142 298869
E-mail: info@mantorppark.com ©Eurodragster.com

Llewellyn's 20-year wait over.
11th July: UK Super Comp racer Zane Llewellyn has announced that the Bootsoop International Drag Racing Team have signed up their first sponsor in nearly twenty years of racing.

"With immediate effect, the yellow and black BootSoop two-piece dragster will be wearing the colours of Spanish property developer Alpina", says Zane (see right). "If you are interested in a custom home in the sun, you can contact Alpina at coast@seric.es."

Zane is just about to depart on what is becoming an annual summer tour, taking in Mantorp Park, Gardermoen, Vandel, Hockenheim, Shakespeare County Raceway, Drachten, and Santa Pod Raceway in a mammoth seven-consecutive-race schedule. "We would like to take this opportunity to thank Chris Juan of ALPINA for his confidence in our ability to give him the best and widest exposure possible.", says Zane.

You can find the Bootsoop web site at www.bootsoop.freeserve.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com

Surprises at Joon Fan Club Day.
11th July: Dutch Top Methanol Funny Car racer Lex Joon is holding a Fan Club day at the Dragten Internationals at Drachten this weekend. Club members get a front-row seat in the start line grandstand, which will allow them a clear view of Lex's attempt to beat his own track record of 4.2 seconds for the eighth-mile, together with a birthday party for one of the crew and a special, unspecified surprise. You can read more on the News page of the LJR web site at www.lexjoonracing.nl.

You can read more about the Dragten Internationals on the Explosion Drag Racing Club web site at www.explosion.nl. ©Eurodragster.com

Wildside Inc, TV stars.
11th July: The UK's Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster team are featured in a TV programme currently showing on a local station. Viewers in the Northants TV region can see a half hour long programme, called Take a ride on the Wildside, which was filmed at the Summernationals at Santa Pod a couple of weeks ago. The TV station has been available on cable since 1997 and has recently gone terrestrial, available to Northampton town residents since last weekend. The programme is being shown as part of a frequent motorsport slot.

"We're pleased with the programme" said Lesley Wright. "The day went like a dream for us, it was good practice for the crew, and the station put the footage together really well. Although they had never been to Santa Pod before they got the atmosphere of the sport across in a lively and informative way."

Last Saturday the car was on show at Central Milton Keynes shopping centre, along with Ian and Paula Marshall's Highlander Camaro, Jon and Jeanette Webster's Mustang, and Ricky Emms' Junior Dragster. The show was presented by Debenhams, who raised a large amount of money for a local charity by selling races on a Carrera track which duplicated Silverstone. Lesley adds that there was a Jaguar Cosworth F1 car on display as well.

This weekend the team are on show at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. "This is a very prestigious event", says John Wright. "We were thrilled to be invited, and we'll get that all-important exposure to potential sponsors. It's a pity we can't fire the car up but, hey, this car looks fast even when it's standing still!" ©Eurodragster.com

See PMR for Goodwood cream teas.
11th July: Also wowing the visitors to Goodwood this weekend will be both cars in the Paul Marston Racing pit, the PT Bruiser Super Comp and the Grumpy's Dodge Super Gasser.

"After our very successful outing with Grumpy's Dodge at North Weald on Sunday, it has been full steam ahead to put the Bruiser back together in readiness for Goodwood.", says Paul Marston. "Once again thanks go out to the two Daves in the Paul Marston Racing crew, Dave Kalisz (Logistics Manager) and Dave Gibbons (Engine Development) for all their hard work in getting both cars ready for the weekend. A team is only as good as its members, and ours are great! Another thank you also to Gary Springford at Jeep Club for the loan of their transporter to get Grumpy to Goodwood.

"The two race cars represent two stages in the development of drag racing in this country. Grumpy's Dodge nowadays is a traditional Super Gas doorslammer, built as the class was intended: minimum electronics, maximum impact, close racing within a budget and great spectacle. It has evolved, as have so many street cars in the past, to full-blown race car from humble beginnings. The PT Bruiser represents the cutting edge of drag racing: professionally built in the UK to do just what is says on the packet - to be the world's fastest, which it currently. Corporate sponsorship backing professional race teams with a race car based on a road-going car which anyone can buy - the public can identify with that. It is great to see UK drag racing under the spotlight; it is such an honour for us all involved. It is the biggest motorsport event of its kind in the world, you get to see everything you can imagine and a lot you can't! This kind of exposure is yet more confirmation that drag racing in the UK really is in charge of its own destiny.

Once again we owe a massive debt of gratitude to Kev Elliott and Custom Car magazine for all their hard work and support over the years. Reporting on drag racing staunchly throughout the years and currently running not one but two drag racing Championships in Custom Car Street Eliminator and Flathead Meltdown."

Paul tells us that he and the crew will be with both race cars all weekend to meet and greet fans, answering any questions they may have, and also representing main sponsors for 2002 ChryslerCard and 76 Racing Fuels and Oils. "All in an atmosphere a lot more relaxed than during qualifying at the strip - cream tea anyone?" he says.

If you can't make it to Goodwood, then don't forget that we will be posting a report and pictures tomorrow (Friday) in association with our friends at American Car Imports. We will post a link when the report has been published. ©Eurodragster.com

Thumbing a lift to Mantorp.
11th July: UK race fan Rob Cook has been in touch to ask if any of our readers can help him with a trip to the Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park.

"Rather than remortgage my house in order to rent a car to drive from Skavsta airport to the track, park for four days, and drive back, I was hoping that a team or fellow spectator might pick my friend and I up at the airport and take us to the track in return for some beer/petrol money.", says Rob. "We arrive at Skavsta at 5:25 pm on Wednesday 24th July, and the return flight is at 5:50 pm on Tuesday 30th July. After the race is over we would need a lift back but I am not bothered if that is on the Sunday night or Monday. If anyone could help us out either getting to the track from the airport, or with getting from the airport to the track, then I would be eternally grateful."

If anyone is able to help then please E-Mail Rob direct at rp.cook@csl.gov.uk. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
11th July: German Top Methanol Dragster racer Peter Schöfer qualified #1 at the Nitro Nationals at Alastaro with a new personal best of 5.58, continuing his form at the FIA Main Event. team member Gitlli Koller has posted a brief report on the News page of the team's official web site at www.p-s-r.com.

The Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se has been updated with pictures the Nitro Nationals. The pictures are a mixture of the work of Stan of Svensk Dragracing and renowned Swedish photographer Stefan Boman, and are well worth a look.

Finnish Funny Bike and Supertwin Top Gas Bike racer Asko Määttä has also posted some photographs from the Nitro Nationals, including sneak shots of Jaska Salakari's new four-valve DOHC TF Harley heads. You can find Asko's pictures at briefcase.yahoo.com/asko_maatta.

Swiss Top Methanol FC racer Dezsoe Krivan's web site has been updated with photographs from the FIA Main Event. Check it out at www.dragracing.ch. ©Eurodragster.com

AC Delco hot-foot to Goodwood.
10th July: Having qualified #1 in Pro Stock at the Nitro Nationals at Alastaro, Sweden's Michael Malmgren and the AC Delco Racing team are now hot-footing it to the UK for this weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed, where the Camaro is expected to take part in the live action display.

"We managed to lay down an jaw-dropping 6.94/198 in our first run at Alastaro", says team member Magnus Cato. "After that we tried to improve, but went back to safe ground. I personally was looking forward to eliminations but hey, it rained. Now we are concentrating on Goodwood which promises to be spectacular. Firstly we have kindly been invited to the press ceremony on Friday. There will be six cars including ours and the Le Mans winner. We will start up along the other cars. What a thrill! Secondly, we have been invited to a ball on Saturday and there is a dress code - so I have to buy me some clothes!"

The official AC Delco Racing web site can be found at www.acdracing.net.

If you can't make it to Goodwood this weekend then stay tuned to Eurodragster as, in association with American Car Imports, we will be posting a report and pictures from the Festival of Speed on Friday. ©Eurodragster.com

Eric's secret blown today.
10th July: Paul Vrind and all of the competitors in the Dutch Open Super Gas Championship have written to wish fellow competitor Eric Pellegrom a very Happy 40th Birthday.

"Eric's age has always been a hot item within his team, because on his entry form it always says that his age is 25 and that he is a handsome single guy", said Paul. "In fact he has a wife and son and so is not single, and he certainly is not 25!"

Paul added that any Eurodragster reader who would like to send Eric a congratulatory E-Mail can write him at mrbelair@wanadoo.nl.

We are sure that everyone will join Tog and Sharkman in wishing Eric a very Happy Birthday indeed, and in advising race secretaries across Europe to check those entry forms from now on. ©Eurodragster.com

Drag Festival entry list.
10th July: We are indebted to Kjell Pettersson for giving us a sneak preview of the entry list for the Sko Uno Drag Festival, which takes place at Sweden's Mantorp Park in a couple of weeks' time. The Drag Festival, the next round of the FIA and FIM/UEM European Championships, is one of Europe's biggest drag races and has gone even bigger this season with an extra day's qualifying added on.

You can view the current state of the entry list by clicking here. The very latest updates as the race comes closer will be available on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se and Mantorp Park's web site at www.mantorppark.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Alison masters Grumpy.
10th July: Single-seater racer Alison Gibbons took the wheel of Paul Marston Racing's rent-a-ride Grumpy's Dodge at North Weald last Sunday, and Paul tells us that she impressed on her first outing in any sort of drag racer.

"Sunday was what we would call a driver installation day", says Paul "The goal was to have the driver familiar and comfortable in the race car, and being able to perform the tasks asked. His/her abilities and past experience will dictate how much progress can be made, that goes without saying, but the goal is to perform a full pass. With Alison's past circuit experience, the formalities and basics were unnecessary. We had already performed a seat fitting so all we were here to do was get as much seat time as possible."

Under instructions from Paul, four runs were netted over the day starting with a burnout, launch and first gear change pass which netted a fourteen-second ET. The second pass was a little more confident 12.52/120. On the third pass Alison was given more tasks to perform as she was getting a feel for the Dodge. Alison was starting to get a feel for Grumpys Dodge now and was on the third run given some more tasks to perform whilst on the pass, and netted an 11.23/129 smoking the huge Goodyear slicks off the line and gently wrestling Grumpy into shape as the Dodge went into a massive power slide.

"The public usually does not realise that the burnout procedure in a racecar is probably the most complicated part to learn", says Paul. "It is a precise procedure which has to be repeatable. Alison stuck with it as we had shown her and on her fourth pass it all came together: a 10.26/134.95 mph, which is faster than Grumpy's Dodge has ever run at North Weald. That's quite an achievement for someone who up to Sunday had never driven on a drag strip before, let alone a Super Gas-spec race car."

Paul tells us that Alison's pass was probably the second fastest run of the day, beaten only by Super Gas driver Ritchie Smith driving his latest acquisition, the ex-Kurt Hinchcliffe Northern Hustler Super Gas Vauxhall Victor which ran a 10.1.

"Sunday made all the hard work worthwhile", says Paul. "Dave Gibbons and I assembled the motor last Thursday, fitted it back between Grumpy's framerails and fired it up on Friday. I finished the job off and loaded Grumpy up on Saturday and we ran successfully on Sunday, life is good! Alisons progress has been up to her usual high standards. She is a fast learner, nothing phases her, she is fearless. Sunday's target was achieved comprehensively, and was Alison's first step to her own personal goal of recording Fastest Time of Day at the 2002 Frost's Brighton Speed Trial.

"But is also is a success for our newly-formed in-house race motor building department. If Grumpy is that fast at North Weald, I just cant wait to see how the motor performs at Santa Pod. We would like to thank Tony Huck and everyone at North Weald, Londons Drag Strip, for all their help, understanding and co-operation on Sunday. Also everyone at Black Box London who gave us the time to get the job done. Special thanks to Dave Gibbons for expertise and the use of his shop facilities, to Gary at Jeep Club for the loan of the transporter, and all the usual suspects for your help. Lastly thanks to Alison for the gutsy performance, you made Grumpys Dodge look real good!"

Paul is now accepting bookings for the 2003 season; if you are interested in taking the wheel of Grumpy's Dodge then E-Mail him at office@pmracing.fsnet.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com

Points updates.
10th July: The latest standings in the FIM/UEM European and the ACU UK Drag Bike Championships are now available on the King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com.

The FB Racing web site at www.fbracing.co.uk has been updated with the provisional post-SPRC Summernationals standings in the Custom Car Street Eliminator Championship. The Word On The Street section also features the first look at Richard Homewood's new Willys CCSE entry. ©Eurodragster.com

Sell your car at RWYB.
10th July: Santa Pod Raceway's latest Run What You Brung of the season takes place this Sunday, 14th July. Chris Ware of Trakback Racing tells us that as well as the usual facilities, the Cars For Sale area will again be available at the track.

Entry to the RWYB is £9; a further £13 and the production of a valid DVLC licence buys you as many runs down the track as you can fit in. Gates open at 8:00 am, and the strip will be open from about 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. For more details including additional safety rules (for example when crash helmets are mandatory in cars) check out the Run What Ya Brung page of Santa Pod Raceway's web site at www.santapod.com.

Santa Pod's web site has been updated with the latest news about next week's Bug Jam. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
10th July: Eurodragster staffer Sharkman has updated his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with a detailed report and huge tranche of pictures from the SPRC Summernationals. There is also another helping of Windows wallpaper files. Check it out at www.topendtales.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Page's two-race one-off.
9th July: UK Fuel Funny Car racer Gary Page is to step back into a Top Fuel Dragster at the next two FIA European Championship rounds in Sweden and Norway. He will be driving Rune Fjeld's #2 Top Fueller which Andy Carter drove to last year's FIA Championship and most recently to runner-up spot at the Main Event. Gary last drove the dragster competitvely in 1997, recording times in the 5.0s, although he made a pass in the car at last year's Flame and Thunder Show at Santa Pod.

"I will be driving the dragster at Mantorp Park and Gardermoen", said Gary. "Rune wanted to run both cars. We talked it over and we did a deal. Rune wants me to drive the car, and they want more cars in the Championship, so it suits everyone."

Gary almost put in an appearance in the dragster at Alastaro. "Rune just ran out of time to get the dragster fixed", he said. "There was considerable damage after the last race. The block has been machined and some work had to be done on the chassis". Gary was at Alastaro anyway, crewing with Top Fuel Dragster racer Barry Sheavills. "Barry shut off early on his first qualifying pass, and both Barry and Kim Reymond smoked the tyres on their second pass", he said. "But the car is fine and we were happy enough."

Gary was quick to confirm that he will still be driving Mark and Jackie Hawkins' North Herts Engineering Fuel FC in the British Nitro FC Championship. "It doesn't affect the FC", he said, "this is a one-off for two races! Mark is busy buying lots of new parts for the Funny Car." ©Eurodragster.com

Määttä's one-race double-entry.
9th July: Finnish bike racer Asko Määttä is planning to double-enter the next Finnish Championship race on his Supertwin Top Gas Bike and a turbo-equipped Funny Bike which is nearing completion. Asko, who qualified sixth in FIM/UEM Comp Bike at Alastaro, was formerly a Top Methanol FC racer, recording a 6.37 best, and is still on Japa Kuutniemis' TMFC crew. Right now, though, Asko is finishing his Funny Bike.

"I was only missing the turbo to have the bike ready for the Nitro Nationals", says Asko. "In two weeks I'll be racing at the Finnish Championship race at Kalajoki with both my Super Twin Top Gas 1510cc Harley and the 1327 turbo Suzuki Funny Bike. If the Suzuki works out the way I want it to, I'll race with it at Mantorp Park and after that make my mind up about going to Gardermoen. I can't afford a Fuel Funny Car so I'm going to race my bikes...until I beat my TMFC time!"

Asko tells us that he wouldn't be where he is today without Mika, his son and Crew Chief of twelve years. "Mika (now 22 years old) drove Junior Dragster back in the 1980s. I couldn't have been raced either the TMFC or the bike without him. He was the first Junior Dragster pilot in the Western world; he was already driving one in 1988". Asko also tells us that he had a hand in the popularity of Junior Dragster. "I'm the one who sold the idea of Junior cars to the USA with, for example, with a full page story in National Dragster in 1989. I must admit though that I borrowed the idea from New Zealand in 1987. Those were the days - almost as fun as being a real hippie in the late 1960s!" ©Eurodragster.com

MDRA launch web site.
9th July: The Malta Drag Racing Association have launched the full version of their web site at www.maltadragracing.com. The very professionally-presented site is packed with news, results, photographs, team biographies, MDRA history, classified ads, rules and everything else you could possibly want to know about the sport on the Mediterranean island. We can highly recommend a visit! MDRA President Anthony Borda tells us that the MDRA would be very pleased to hear from anyone with comments or suggestions about the site. ©Eurodragster.com

Nitro Nationals pictures.
9th July: Mikko Niemi has been in touch to let us know that he has already posted two sets of Nitro Nationals pictures on his web site. "As always, the pictures are free to anyone who wants to borrow them", says Mikko (but be sure to credit Mikko as the source - Ed). You can find Mikko's pictures at koti.mbnet.fi/triniemi/kuvat/nitro and koti.mbnet.fi/triniemi/kuvat/nitro/lauantai. ©Eurodragster.com

Two-seater rides for sale.
8th July: The ultimate one-off will be taking place at Pite Dragway this weekend when rides will be for sale in the two-seater dragster, driven by newly-qualified Top Fuel Dragster pilot Susanne Callin.

"Susanne and I will be at Piteå with Knut Söderquist", says Susanne's father Gordon. "We won't be running the Top Fueller on the Top Fuel Tour so we will instead load up the two-seater dragster in Stockholm and take it to Piteå. So for the only time this year, we will sell rides in the world's fastest and Europe's only two-seater dragster, driven by the world's youngest Top Fuel pilot, to anyone who wants to put up the money."

For more details contact Gordon by E-Mail at info@callinracing.com or phone him on +46 (0)70 585 3517.

After the two-seater outing at Pite Dragway, Susanne will be concentrating on running the Carbon By Design/Nitro Fish Top Fueller at the Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park on 25th-28th July. Susanne and Gordon are also looking forward to their visit to the UK's Shakespeare County Raceway in August to race against FIA European Champion Andy Carter at the Fall Nationals. "It's a done deal with Andy and Knut", says Gordon. "Susanne needs all the practice she can get, and as we can't run on the Top Fuel Tour or at Hockenheim, and we don't have the money to run all the FIA events, we are very happy with this deal. After that race we are set for the European Finals - we don't have the all the money for that yet, but we will get there."

You can stay in touch with the latest from the Callin Racing pit at www.callinracing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Fall Nationals TF invitation open.
8th July: On the subject of the Fall Nationals, organisers Obsession Motorsports would still be pleased to hear from any Top Fuel Dragster teams who would be interested in running at the event on 24th-26th August. Any interested parties are asked to E-Mail superseries@eurodragster.com or phone 01483 236262 (+44 1483 236262 from outside the UK). ©Eurodragster.com

Racers invited to Thorney Island.
8th July: This weekend's 24th South Coast Internationals, organised by the Victory Wheelers, includes an eighth-mile drag strip in addition to all the usual features, and all are invited writes UK Super Comp racer and club member Rob Faulkner.

"The event takes place this weekend (12th-14th July - Ed) at Thorney Island in Hampshire", says Rob. "It's a very good show. We will be having an eighth-mile drag strip with timing lights and tickets printed out too; the show is £25 for the whole weekend. Anyone can come, if you want to bring your race car then please ring me on 01730 895531."

Rob tells us that there is also a burnout contest as well as "all the usual custom car show games and thrills". For more information contact club Chairman Mick Mears on 02380 906461 or check out the Victory Wheelers web site at www.victorywheelers.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com

OA63 pictures/video sought.
8th July: Thanks to APIRA Press Officer Jerry Cookson for passing on a message from rookie Outlaw Anglia racer Martin Davidson, who would like to hear from anyone who took photographs or video of his blown Pop at last weekend's NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. Jerry tells us that Martin very much enjoyed his début last weekend in his 355 Chevy-engined Pop, which is blue with Viper stripes. If anyone has any pictures or video then they can contact Martin by E-Mail at janice@dare1.plus.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
8th July: The guys at Dragsterworld have updated their web site with a report of last weekend's SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway. You can find the report at www.dragsterworld.com.

Eurodragster staffer Tog has updated his personal web site Tog's Drag Racing Page with just over one hundred pictures from last weekend's SPRC Summernationals. Not quite the usual number of pictures but Tog pleads Eurodragster live updates in mitigation. Check it out at www.togsdragracing.com/2002summernationals. ©Eurodragster.com

Nitro Nationals rained out.
7th July: Today's eliminations at the Ford Nitro Nationals at Alastaro have been rained out. Valiant efforts were made to dry the track after rain this morning but the wet stuff returned at 4:00 pm and the organisers called the race.

A dry day yesterday allowed qualifying to take place. The FIA, FIM/UEM and Pro Mod class top qualifiers were Kim Reymond (Top Fuel Dragster) 5.048, Peter Schöfer (Top Methanol Dragster) 5.583, Ulf Leanders (Top Methanol FC) 5.888, Michael Malmgren (Pro Stock) 6.949, Sverre Dahl (Comp Bike) 6.420, Anders Karling (Supertwin Top Fuel) 6.483, Oivind van Essen (Pro Stock Bike) 7.356, and Patrik Wikstrom (Pro Mod) 6.415.

Weekend reports are available on the Finnish Hot Rod Association web site at www.fhra.fi, Svensk Dragracing at www.dragracing.se, King Racing at www.kingracing.com, Kågered Racing at www.kagered-racing.com, and the EPMA web site at www.promod.nu.

Kaija Kohtala of DB Team Selkämaa very kindly sent us some qualifying notes from FIM/UEM Supertwin Top Fuel. "On Saturday the sun was shining again and we were at last able to start qualifying. During his first pass Kai had some trouble with the gearbox and the bike almost stayed on the start line. No wonder our time was quite bad, 12.64, but our speed of 239 km/h was however very positive. Per Bengtsson in the other lane also had technical problems, time 15.39. Charley Karling got a beautiful start, 6.48 despite the slightly slippery track. Ton Pels did well, the bike ran perfectly straight and he too got a six second time 6.95/330. In the second session, Kai got his first good start and the bike ran perfectly straight, 8.22. Per Bengtsson had a great start on his parallel twin and ran a personal best of 6.59 at an excellent 342 kmh. Karling had a good start but the belt broke and his result was only 7.86. Pels had technical problems on the start line. In the third qualifying session Kai made a great run in his second race with the bike, 7.70, and qualified fifth. He is now beginning to cope with the bike. Pels also got a great start and ran 6.79. Unfortunately Wahlberg didn't get a qualifying time at all due to technical problems."

Thanks also to Asko Määttä for additional reporting - Ed. ©Eurodragster.com

Dutch SG series progress.
7th July: Robert Joosten very kindly took some time out from becoming a father to send us some notes on the progress of the Dutch Open Super Gas Championship.

"The series is running very well", says Robert. "All of the teams are performing very well. Looking at last race, at Drachten on 21st-23rd June, the #1 qualifier was 9.910, #2 9.912, #3 9.914, #4 9.916, and so on. As you can imagine there was one heavy battle going on!"

Robert won that race with his Bad Nova, which has recently had a beautiful new paintjob applied (right), from David Vegter. Harry Sturhan won Best Appearing Team.

The next race is again at Drachten, next weekend (13th-14th July). "This will be a big one", says Robert. "There will be at least twenty Super Gas racers from the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK". You can stay in touch with the Dutch Championship on the official web site at www.supergas.tiscaliweb.nl. ©Eurodragster.com

Topo attracts admirers.
7th July: Gerry Rogers of the UK's Forward Thinking Wild Bunch team tells us that his High Risk Topolino altered has been attracting admirers.

"The NSRA Nostalgia Drags last weekend was yet another test and tune for the team, but things get better every event", says Gerry. "It was also rewarding as we had several people say how good the car looked, and how well it stands. The paint, graphics and general art work coupled to the '70s looks seem to have struck a chord with a lot of people. Just what we were aiming at! Now it's a case of continued work on the car to get the 'Go' as good as the 'Wow'."

So there you go race fans, if you like the look of a race car then be sure to take the effort to tell the teams since it means a lot to them and is obviously much appreciated. ©Eurodragster.com

Going to the USA?
7th July: Dave Grabham of the UK's Freddy's Revenge blown altered team wrote to ask of any Eurodragster readers are headed to the USA later this year. "Hils and I intend to head to California for the NHRA Finals on 7th-10th November and the Goodguys Fuel and Gas Finals on 1st-3rd November", says Dave. "We may even go to Vegas the week before. We were wondering if anyone else was planning a trip around these meetings? If so then please contact us by E-Mail at davegrabham@freddysrevenge.freeserve.co.uk." ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
7th July: The Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc has been updated with invitations, entry forms and supplementary regulations for FIA, FIM/UEM, Pro Mod and Fuel Funny Car for the FIA European Finals in September. There are also Hospitality forms and an application form for post-race Banquet tickets.

The UK1320 web site at www.uk1320.com has been updated with photographs from the Super Series Mid-Summer Nationals and the SPRC Summernationals, and a report of the SPRC Summernationals. ©Eurodragster.com

Trakbyte's moves home.
6th July: One of the most popular drag racing web sites in the UK, Trakbyte's UK Drag Racing History, has moved URLs to www.trakbytes.com. Webmaster Chris Dossett, who is also a member of the Showtime Fuel FC crew, fell foul of the dreaded unspecified ISP problem and so procured his own URL with plenty of web space.

Chris has put in a lot of hard work to reload his web site and has also added a lot of new information and pictures including a profile of the Gladiator Funny Car, pictures from the recent NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, and more. ©Eurodragster.com

Ripley v Gus photos sought.
6th July: One of the many highlights of last weekend's SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway was the race between Doug Ripley's blown-alcohol altered and Andy Robinson's new Studebaker Pro Mod in the first round of Super Pro ET. Doug brought the house down by winnning the match-up with a pedalled 7.52/177.45 on a 7.50 dial-in.

Doug's clutch man Cliff Gould has been in touch to ask if any Eurodragster readers have photographs of Doug's race against Gus. "I've got to get a picture of us beating a Pro Mod!", says Cliff. If you do have any pictures then you can contact Cliff by E-Mail at cliff.gould@btopenworld.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Santa Pod Jam Frenzy.
5th July: Chris Ware of Trakbak Racing has been in touch with the latest news from Santa Pod Raceway.

The Northamptonshire track has just confirmed another specialist Bike event, the Suzuki Frenzy which takes place on 17th-18th August. The event as a whole is open to all but the RWYB on the strip is open to Suzuki bikes only. the RWYBs will be run on a voucher system with one £13 voucher buying four runs. In addition there will be demonstrations by Pro Stock Bikes, Funny Bikes, Top Methanol Dragsters and the Fireforce Jet FC as well as stunt riders and other attractions. You can read more including ticket prices at www.santapod.com/suzuki_frenzy.htm.

Chris has also asked us to remind readers that advance ticket bookings for the Bug Jam close on Monday 15th July. The 16th Big Jam takes place on 19th-21st July; you can read more on the official web site at www.bugjam.co.uk or if you are already sold on the idea then you can get tickets from SPR on 08700 782828. ©Eurodragster.com

Halfords seek race cars.
5th July: Courtesy of Dave Nelson of the Drag Torque web site comes news that Halfords are seeking race cars for display at a number of their stores in August to tie in with a promotion.

Sarah Jane Mills of Halfords says: "I'm looking to pull together a competition for an 8-14 year olds to win a chance to race competitively in a Junior Dragster at the European Finals. The plan is to hold five events at stores within the Santa Pod catchment area. The five winners all get a chance to gain their competition licence and race at the Halfords track day on Sat 31 August. The winner of that event gets to race for real. The five stores are Milton Keynes, Peterborough, Luton, Northampton and Basildon. A race car has been booked for Northampton but I need to source one for each of the other stores. Dates will be mid-week in the first two weeks of August, dates to be confirmed with store managers."

Expenses will be paid plus a little more. If any racer is interested in displaying their car at one of these Halfords stores then please contact Dave Nelson by E-Mail at dave_nelson99@yahoo.com and he will put you in touch with Sarah. ©Eurodragster.com

Oil Control support Super Series.
5th July: Obsession Motorsports, organisers of the Super Series drag races at Shakespeare County Raceway, have thanked Oil Control Ltd for support for the Fallnationals in August, writes SCR Press Officer Jerry Cookson.

Oil Control's contribution, along with John Andrews of Motorgraphic (0117 946 7052) and RCS Printing (0800 132692) has helped a long way with Obsession Motorsports' advertising campaign for the Super Series Fallnationals. "Phil Evans, Oil Control's Managing Director has been a great supporter of Sportsman racers for many years and his help last year, plus his renewed support, is like a breath of fresh air" says Terry Gibbs of Obsession Motorsports. "This year we have had to stand alone, but we will get through the year. I don't know what the future holds, so the input we have received is greatly appreciated."

"This is great news for Sportsman racers" echoes Jerry Cookson. "Often overlooked (not by anyone here - Ed) Sportsman drivers and riders form the backbone of the sport here in the UK, and some have graduated up the ladder to the Professional classes. Sportsman racing offers a wide range of affordable classes and sports a varied selection of vehicles from fast street legal race cars to extremely quick dragsters and altereds, and the racing's always close. I can throughly recommend a walk to the top end of Shakespeare County or Santa Pod to see just how close some of the racing really is."

Oil Control Ltd is the UK subsidiary of the Italian Oil Control Group and is a major supplier of hydraulic valves to the mobile equipment market and the construction machinery industry. The company maintains extensive stocks of valves at its Coventry, England factory and is able to supply standard components at short notice. Additionally the company has a modern 3D CAD department and can design and manufacture custom valve assemblies for particular applications. Oil Control also manufacture compact power packs for the tail lift industry. You can contact Oil Control Ltd on 024 766 35711, or check out their web site at www.oilcontrol.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
5th July: Further to Wednesday's news item, Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Andy Frost has updated his web site with a report from the weekend's SPRC Summernationals. It wasn't just Kath Taylor who celebrated her birthday yesterday as Andy was also born on the fourth of July, a Happy Birthday for yesterday to you, Andy. Andy was also pleased to hear about Eurodragster's sponsorship of CCSE which was announced yesterday. "Good on you for getting involved in the baddest Street racing series in the UK!", he says. You can find Andy's web site at www.redvictor1racing.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com

At-home Selkämaa confident.
4th July: Supertwin Top Fuel racer Kai Selkämaa is confident going into his home race at Alastaro this weekend. "After the Main Event Santa Pod we've changed the bike a little to make it easier to ride and to run straighter", says Kaija Kohtala of DB Team Selkämaa. "We haven't touched the engine at all - there's enough power in it, which has already been confirmed by several good sixty-foot times. Our testing at Alastaro at the beginning of June was very promising despite the fact that the track was very slippery. We learned a lot about the vehicle and Kai got more experience of the bike. Unfortunately we couldn't use the timer there, but there is no doubt that he then ran faster than ever on this bike, probably high seven second time, and that's a sign that he is getting better and better along with the bike. The engine has been taken to pieces and checked thoroughly after these tests and as a whole it seems to be in excellent shape for the weekend.

"We were ready to test more at FHRA's Testing Day at Alastaro yesterday, but it was cancelled because of the track maintenance going on there. So we missed the last tests, which naturally caused us some difficulties in adjusting the bike. The track was much more slippery during our earlier tests than it will be this weekend. Despite that, we believe we'll have enough time to get the bike well-balanced during qualifying, and we aim to be placed among the top six qualifiers."

Kai and the team are very pleased that a European Championship event is being held at their home track. "It's really great to run the new bike in front of a home audience who will certainly enjoy our appearance", says Kaija. "We also know that FHRA will cope with the track despite some heavy rainfalls recently. Now we are just looking forward to beautiful weather and wish everybody an excellent race!" ©Eurodragster.com

NDRS/Bilsport Pro Mod preview.
4th July: Then next round of the Nordic Drag Racing Series/Bilsport Pro Mod Series takes place at this weekend's Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. Micke Gullquist sent us a press release on behalf of the European Pro Mod Association.

The smoke has just cleared from last weekends race, the Aros Nats at Vsters in Sweden, and the teams are already on their way to Alastaro for the seasons third event of the NDRS/Bilsport Pro Mod Series. Hkan Nilsson won the last event in his new nitrous fed '68 Camaro over Patrick Wikstrm's blown 2000 Camaro. "This weekend in Alastaro will be different", says Patrick Wikstrm with a smile. "We are ready to enter the 6.2 second zone if the track and weather permits. I'm pretty sure that we can do it this weekend, and we are also going to run over 360 kmh (223 mph) to reset both ends of the European record". There's no lack of motivation in the Wikstrm camp after the final defeat in Vsters.

Hkan Nilsson is more modest when asked about this weekend's event in Finland. "We are going to unload it and run a 6.46 in the first round of qualifying, that's our goal". says Nilsson. "We are going to Alastaro to fight for the title, and I think we have a good chance to win. Our new car is working great so far, and together with our new engine tune-up we will easily go faster than we did with the old car".

Another racer to watch is 'Fast Freddy' Fagerstrm in his blown '66 Chevy pick-up. Fagerstrm has got a new BAE 526 engine in the car this season and is capable of running very fast when he finds the right clutch set-up. Finnish racer Tami Brander is back in his nice Ford Mondeo station wagon after some problems at the first event in Norway, and together with a number of other Finnish and Swedish racers they will do whatever they can to stop Nilsson and Wikstrm.

Nilsson is the current points leader, followed by Wikstrm and Roger Johansson. This will be an exciting weekend so go to Alastaro to see it for yourself, or stay tuned to www.promod.nu for live reports. ©Eurodragster.com

Alastaro snippets.
4th July: Finland's Mad Bomber Top Methanol Dragster team will be making their first outing of 2002 at this weekend's Nitro Nationals. Owner Simo Patoharju, driver Jari Halinen and the team have spent the off-season working on both their #1 and #2 engines and installing a datalogger. The team are already at Alastaro having arrived on Tuesday, and Simo tells us that track prep was finally able to start yesterday morning after persistent rain had cleared. You can find out more details about the Mad Bomber team's plans for 2002 on their web site at www.madbomberracing.fi.

FIA European Top Methanol Funny Car Champion Leif Andréasson has announced two new sponsors. Engine service company Malte Månsson and Bilstein Engine Flush Systems have joined the Swedish team's already-impressive list of backers. Joe Amato, whose race operation in the USA is also backed by Bilstein, recently spent Mid-Summer with the Andréasson team in Sweden, but we expect that he has sobered up by now. The team have also revealed the design of their 2002 season T-shirts, which look just great. You can read more on the Andréasson Motorsports web site at www.andreassonmotorsports.com. The team plan to post reports direct from Alastaro at the weekend.

Our good friend Hannele Höydén tells us that she will be updating the FHRA web site at www.fhra.fi with live reports from Alastaro throughout the race. ©Eurodragster.com

Carter a Fall guy.
4th July: If you were tuned in a couple of weeks ago you will remember that we understood that Top Fuel Dragsters and Fuel Altereds would be joining the headliners at the Super Series Fall Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway on 24th-26th August. The first of those understandings has turned out to be true, as Carter Motorsport PR Dan Welberry confirms.

"There have been various rumours around, but the Carter Motorsport camp can now officially announce that Andy Carter will be racing at the Fall Nationals", says Dan. "The format will be a best of three Top Fuel Dragster match race against new kid on the block Susanne Callin. Susanne has had a great year so far, and we know that this will be a great race."

"It's great to be back at the Super Series, and we would like to thank Terry and Tina Gibbs of Obsession Motorsport for making it all possible", says Andy Carter, who as well as the FIA European ET record at 4.890 seconds also holds the SCR track ET record at 5.22. "It's been the season for records, let's see if we can't set some more!"

Shakespeare County Raceway Press Officer Jerry Cookson, whose press release came in at the same time as Dan Welberry's, tells us that the Top Fuel entry may yet increase since Denmark's Kim Reymond has expressed an interest in running at the Warwickshire venue. We also understand from our own sources that one other Top Fuel racer is interested. Jerry adds that our second understanding, that Fuel Altereds will feature at the Fall Nationals, is also a fact with a number of the wild and hugely-popular machines lined up to attend.

The Fall Nationals also features rounds of the British Nitro FC Championship and the MSA British Drag Racing Championship (for Top Methanol) as well as the UK National and ACU Drag Bike Championships, Custom Car Street Eliminator, Super Modified, National Association of Supertwins, Wild Bunch and Outlaw Anglia Championships. We will of course bring you more news closer to the date. You can also stay tuned to the News page of the Avon Park International Racers Association web site at www.eurodragster.com/apira for more Fall Nationals news. ©Eurodragster.com

Eurodragster sponsors CCSE.
4th July: We are very pleased to announce that Eurodragster.com has become a sponsor of the Custom Car Street Eliminator. In a deal negotiated with Championship Co-ordinator Lee Child, Eurodragster staff Tog and Sharkman will present each of the top three contestants in the 2002 CCSE Championship with a large framed photograph of their vehicles in action during the season.

"I've been turning to Custom Car for quality Drag Racing features ever since I saw Alleygator and Gladiator on the front cover of an issue of CC in late 1976", says Tog, "and Sharkman is always first in the queue for the latest issue. We are very pleased to be associated with the Custom Car Street Eliminator on behalf of the thousands of fans who rise to their feet every time the CCSE racers appear." ©Eurodragster.com

Happy Birthday Kath!
4th July: We are sure that everyone will want to join Tog and Sharkman in wishing a very Happy Birthday to Santa Pod Racers Club Event Secretary, and agreeably tactile Eurodragster fan, Kath Taylor. As the Eurodragster staff consider themselves gentlemen we will not divulge the number involved, save that it would be a fine Reaction Time for a Sportsman racer. ©Eurodragster.com

To our friends in the USA.
4th July: Tog and Sharkman would like to wish all of our readers in the United States of America (who make up 25% of our readership - Ed) a very Happy 4th July. It hasn't been an easy few months for you but we are sure that today will be a supreme celebration of everything which your country stands for. Have a nice day! ©Eurodragster.com

Finland and Goodwood for Malmgren.
3rd July: Yesterday we broke the news that unfortunately the AC Delco backed Pro Stocker of Michael Malmgren would unfortunately not be appearing at Goodwood as was originally scheduled. However last night we received an email from crew man Magnus Cato with the great news that "AC Delco Pro Stock Racing are truly proud to announce our participation at the Goodwood festival of speed."

Magnus goes on to say that the change of plan is down to a lot of hard work and planning behind the scenes. "We are very grateful to our sponsor AC Delco and the promoters at Goodwood for managing to arrange for us to come. Ever since the first time we were asked to come, we have been working hard to make it happen, trying to get time off from our daily work, sorting out travel arrangements (The weekend before Goodwood the team are racing in the second round of the FIA championship in Finland - ED), etc. The logistical part of racing takes almost as much time as the racing itself, but with the rewards like Goodwood, the Autosport show and Le Mans its worth all the extra hours. If the weather permits, Michael will also drive the car up the hill at Goodwood, with a passenger or two. If I'm lucky, I hope to get the opportunity to go along. We will fit our passenger seat just in case!

We are sorry to have announced that we couldn't come, but we are very glad to say that we will now be making the trip. " Magnus would also like to say a big thank you to his bosses at Danzas Solutions for giving him the holiday so he can take part in this adventure. ©Eurodragster.com

American Car Imports export car.
3rd July: Andy Bissett, crew chief of the American Car Imports backed Top Methanol Dragster has kindly sent us details of the teams plans for the up coming rounds of the FIA championship, Starting at Alastaro in Finland this coming weekend. "After a damage free weekend at the opening round of this year's FIA championship everyone at American Car Imports Racing has been free to concentrate on routine servicing and building up the war chest for our upcoming European tour. Over the next 6 weeks we will be competing in the next three FIA rounds in Alastaro, Finland, Mantorp Park, Sweden and Gardermoen in Norway.

At our last race we put in a checkout pass on the new spare engine, serviced it and then stored it in the trailer ready to run, complete with the spare clutch already attached. We then put in 5 runs on our new number one engine including a European best ever elapsed time of 5.565 seconds and an FIA European speed record of 252.84 mph. Back at the workshop that motor was stripped, serviced, rebuilt and found to be in excellent condition. Not one single part needed to be changed before the motor was rebuilt ready to race which is very rare indeed.

Once all of our existing equipment was all set for the trip we turned our attention to building a third motor and finding somewhere in the trailer to put it. This is the first time we have ever loaded the truck up for three races in one go and it wasn't easy cramming in all the spares, sundries and consumables after we'd loaded the beer.

Our truck is already on its way to Finland on a journey organised by our friends at Air Sea Logistics, to be followed by the rest of the crew later this week. Everyone is really looking forward to racing out there again as we have always been well received and have done well. Our goal is to win the race, simple as that!

American Car Imports Racing are also pleased to announce that we have found a new crew member in the shape of car mechanic Mike Nicholls from Hook Norton in Oxfordshire. Mike will work alongside our current bottom end man, Fred Wilbanks, for the remainder of the season before taking over the role when Fred returns to the USA at the end of the season.

Drag racing is nothing new to Mike as he has been around the sport for many years and has also campaigned his own slingshot in the UK's Wild Bunch Category. After spending a couple of weekends trying out with the team no-one was in any doubt that he was the man for the job. Good crew are like gold dust and good bottom end men are like, well, platinum dust I suppose!" ©Eurodragster.com

Larsson seeks redemption at Alastaro.
3rd July: The Larsson Racing Team with the Enstrm & Partner Suzuki head to Alastaro this weekend for the 2nd round of the FIM European Championship with a small smile on their lips after a successful test and tune last weekend.

The team was less than happy at the outcome of the Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway where they were suffering from an engine not delivering the horsepower it should have. The bike was quick up to the 1/8th mile, but after that "It was like riding into in to a wall" says Anders. "Knowing something was not quite right we took the engine apart, totally! when we were building the engine up again we found some small errors which probably were some of the things causing the lack of power over the back half. We also more or less know that we had a problem on the ignition side, so we decided to buy some new parts just to be on the safe side."

The team decided that they needed a test and tune session before the Alastaro event, to get confirmation that the changes had made some positive effects on the performance of the bike, so Larsson Racing went to Vsters in Sweden for a test and tune session at the NDRS Aros Nationals. From here Anders takes up the story "On Saturday we spent the day watching rain but on Sunday sky was blue and the sun came out. Due to the fact the track at Vsters is a short one we were only allowed to run 1/8 mile, but traction was really awesome. We made two passes and the first one was the fastest the Suzuki has ever made. It felt like a real slow one, like everything went in slow-motion (after the first gear) but when I got back to the trailer John had the typical smile on his face which indicated that it was rather fast run. We had 1.16 60 foot and at the 330 we were at 3.10 and on the 1/8 we were at 4.76 @ 239 km/h. The second pass we had 1.14 60 foot but then I made a rider error which spoiled the rest of the run. ET on the 2nd pass was 4.79.

We have made a new clutch set up which took me by surprise, big time, but it looks quite good though so we have a good base line to work from. With the outcome from Vsters I'm a bit happier than after the meeting at the Pod. Larsson racing with the Enstrm & Partner Suzuki will leave on Thursday to head to Finland and the team are really looking forward to racing at the Alastaro event."

For all the latest new on Larsson Racing take a look at their new look website at www.alracing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Pro Mod Final from both lanes.
3rd July: Both competitors that made it to the final of the NDRS Bilsport Pro Mod series event at the Aros Nationals in Vasteras last weekend have given us their side of how things went in that final.

"We took our first victory for this season." says Ulf Stadig from Hakan Hilsson's crew. "We are so happy that we ended up with a victory with only two outings in our new Veidec Racing PM Camaro. And the best thing of all is that we are currently the number one in the point standings in NDRS Bilsport Pro Mod series and hopefully we will stay there all season long!" The team have also updated their website with a report and pictures from the weekend, you can find the website at www.nilssonmotorsports.com/.

Virtually the next email we received was from Krister Peterson of Patrick Wikstrom's Outlaw racing team. Krister had this to say: "Hakan's team did a great job to get the power down in this tricky airfield and it worked. We lost traction from the startline and then it was over. We are looking forward to next weekend at Alastaro and if the track is good we are ready to work hard there to run really fast." You can stay in touch with Outlaw racing at www.outlawrace.com/. ©Eurodragster.com

No Fairies for Frost....
3rd July: Custom Car Street Eliminator driver Andy Frost has been in touch to share the highs and lows of the Summer Nationals with us. Over to you Andy.

"Saturday was gremlin day yet again with a continuation of the Mid-Summer Nationals NOS problems. Eventually we turned the gas off and finished up running a best ever 9.90 @ 140mph. I think we must have spent the whole of Saturday trying to solve the problem without success, even the cream of NOS tuners were baffled! Anyway the cruise came and went without any dramas so when we got back we started to strip parts off the NOS system to try to get to the bottom of the problem. Four hours later with the car looking like it was a stolen recovered wreck we gave up, hoping that overnight the fairies would pay us a visit and fix it for us!! We woke up Sunday morning to find the fairies had missed us out and the problem was still there to be fixed.

We had an hour and a half before the first round when over walks Ragin' Ray White and decides between him and my crewchief Tony to rewire the NOS system completely as a last attempt to get it working before it got thrown in the bin! Did it work? Not half. We really didn't believe it would work and stood there stunned when we saw the time on the timing boards, 9.67 @ 147mph!

So the quickest ever run for us with no NOS, we made the cruise, made and got past the first round and set a new PB as well, and with so much left in the car as well! Makes you feel all warm inside doesn't it?

One sore note from the weekend was my crewchief Tony Grayston's tool box was picked up by persons unknown.It was a grey plastic box with a red handle packed with most of his hand tools.He really needs it back hence I'm offering 25 for it's safe return with no questions asked. E-mail me (redvictor1@hotmail.com) or ring me on 01902 344004 day time."©Eurodragster.com

....but have they visited Ripley?
3rd July: The fairies may have over looked Andy Frost over the weekend, but it appears that they may have visited Doug Ripley instead. Team member (and Custom Car racer) Andy Oliver was the first to make the discovery: "I went into the workshop this morning and low and behold a certain blown alky altered has turned back into a funny car!!"

It turns out it wasn't fairies, but a change of plan for the team. Andy goes on to say "seriously though I spoke to Doug this morning and it was decided that the altered was far to difficult to turn around in the time between rounds in Super Pro Et, so we are going to make the move back into Top Methanol Funny Car. I will be taking the funny car to the drag racing display at Goodwood in a couple of weeks time. The plan is to do what we can for the rest of this year, and have a go at all rounds next year." ©Eurodragster.com

Points and Timing Data.
3rd July: Following on from the weekends Summer Nationals at Santa Pod Raceway we are able to bring you, thanks to the hard work of the points co-ordinators, the latest points standings for the Volkswagon Drag Racing Club and the National Association of Supertwins championships. The updated standings are available by clicking here, or from the points standings link in the menu to the left. Thanks to Spencer Tramm (VW) and Sue Beneke (Supertwins) for the updated points.

Its not just points from the weekend either, although Andy Marrs is away, Steve Horn of TSI Timers has stepped up to the plate and provided us with the timing data from the Summer Nationals. You can view it by clicking here, or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster page. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
3rd July: Custom Car competitor Allen Curtis had a great weekend at the Summer Nationals as he took his 300E panel van into the 9's. Allen has now updated his website with a report on the action, you can find it at www.nomannersracing.co.uk/ ©Eurodragster.com

Kågered ready for battle.
2nd July: Swedish Top Fuel Dragster and Top Methanol FC racer Micke Kågered is ready for the upcoming battle at this weekend's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro in Finland, which is the next round of the FIA and FIM/UEM European Championships. Micke is running the Quaker State-sponsored TMFC this weekend.

"In 2001 we qualified third with a 6.02", says Team Manager Åsa Kinnemar. "In eliminations, Micke beat Leif Helander in the quarter-finals, Leif Andréasson in the semi-final, and lost to Ulf Leanders in the finals where he ran 5.99 to Ulf's 5.97. That was also our quickest time that event. Overall not so bad, but the general problem which most teams had there was to manage the somewhat slippery track. Few of us lived up to our normal standards.

"In 2000 we qualified number one at 5.89, closely followed by Andréasson and Leanders, who both ran 5.91. At that time the Dodge was all new for us and it was only our second race with it in Europe, so we were very pleased to start with. In the semi-final Micke lost to Ulf Leanders on the start line, having timing problems with the new car. At the finish line Micke was six thousands of a second behind Leanders, who took his first ever win over Micke. Leanders red-lit in the final and the win went to Andréasson.

"For the coming event at Alastaro, we hope to prove that we can make the car run as consistently as at the Main Event and the 2001 European Finals 2001. If we can get the car performing the way we want to at Alastaro, then we hope to be real hard to beat! The traction has not been the best at Alastaro before, but it is the same for everyone so that does not bother us. However, it is crucial to find the right clutch/fuel combination early during qualifying to have something to work with for a few runs before eliminations. The team who manage that best have a good chance to come out as the winners!

"Micke has a small lead in the FIA Championship after one event, but that means nothing at all this early in the season, with five more FIA events still to come."

You can stay in touch with the news from the Kågered Racing pit on the team's official web site at www.kagered-racing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Rojola races his first born.
2nd July: Finnish Super Gas racer Tero Rojola will be racing at Alastaro this weekend with one ear out for his mobile phone. Tero is due to become a father very soon, but he also has some unfinished business at Alastaro after a bad weekend at this race last season.

"First of all, us Finnish racers would like to wish all the foreign competitors a very warm welcome to our season's main event at Alastaro", says Tero. "The awesome track quarantees that we'll see plenty of tight racing, and it's definitely a delight to see so many top class European teams heading to Finland. There are so many participants in Pro Mod, Pro Stock, TMFC etc. that I don't know how I'm going to be able to keep my mind focused on driving, one just can't miss these classes.

"Everything looks just fine in our own racing program too. I moved up to Super Gas this year and the season opener showed that Barracuda has enough potential, actually plenty, to manage well. So it's up to me. Since I have won this event twice in Super Street, it would be more than nice to do it in Super Gas as well. It's never easy, and since we have also the top Nordic Series racers there, you also have to have a bit of luck in your back pocket.

"Last year this event was a personal catastrophe for me. The only thing left unbroken was our trailer, and I truly don't want to see that happen ever again. I came close to quitting, but we are back stronger than ever. There isn't a single racer in the class who can't take the number one spot, so it'll be tight and extremely exciting!

"Thanks go once again to my sponsors Xerox, Proact Datasystems and Way and Way Transportation - I wouldn't be at the track without them; thanks also to my mechanic Mika Myllykangas who is always there when needed, and of course my fiancée Johanna who unfortunately has to stay home, but for a very good reason - it's about the time that our first born is due. That is the true Main Event for our family this summer!"

You can find Tero Rojola's web site at www.paalupaikka.com/racevaliant. ©Eurodragster.com

Malmgren Finland-bound, not Goodwood.
2nd July: Swedish Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren and the AC Delco Racing team have announced that they will not be appearing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed next week. "It's unfortunate, we were looking forward to being there", says team member Magnus Cato. The team are however all set for this weekend's race at Alastaro.

"We are looking for revenge as we lost early in the first event at Santa Pod", says Magnus. "AC Delco Racing are the defending champions at Alastaro, and we want to come out on top of the ladder from this race. The car has had a lot of attention back at the shop, so we think we can win here. The AC Delco Camaro will have some old combinations in its rear end as we stumbled a bit in England. We know that the Alastaro track is pretty good, and our Finnish crew chief Heikki Parviainen has a lot of knowledge from racing there in the past.

"Last year, we were the first Pro Stock team to make a six second run here, and we won the event in great style. We know that FHRA will prepare the track very well, we will do our part with the car, and then we will be flying!"

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

Alastaro snippets.
2nd July: Danish Top Fuel Dragster racer and current FIA Championship leader Kim Reymond tells us that everything is OK in Denmark leading up to this weekend's race. "We're still happy abaut the win and the 4.99 at Santa Pod Raceway", says Kim. "I think that Andy Carter and I had a good final! It makes it easier to work on the car until late every night. We are looking forward to Alastaro; we plan to contest all the FIA races if possible."

The official entry list for this weekend's race at Alastaro can be found on the Finnish Hot Rod Association web site at www.fhra.fi/fin/index.php?cmd=51,xxxx&id=18&view=osallistuja.

Editor's note: We are very grateful to Hannele Höydén of FHRA with whom we have been working over the last few days swapping news stories about this weekend's race. Stay tuned for more! ©Eurodragster.com

NDRG Drag Challenge entry.
2nd July: The organisers of the Drag Challenge at Gardermoen Raceway on 2nd-4th August are now accepting entries for the race, which is the fourth round of this year's FIA and FIM/UEM European Championships. Entry forms, FIA registration forms and all other official documentation is available both at Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen's web site at www.norskdragracing.com or on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se/nerladdning.html. You can also contact Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen direct at:

Gardermoen Raceway
PoBox 118
N-2051 Jessheim
Norway

Telephone: +47 95 05 79 00
Fax: +47 63 87 87 63
E-mail: erijacob@online.no
Web site: www.norskdragracing.com

The organisers have also forwarded an application form for special services such as electricity in the pits, VIP/hospitality tickets, or extra crew tickets, which you can view by clicking here (PDF format).

You can stay in touch with the latest news about the Drag Challenge at www.norskdragracing.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Cookson rides a Junior.
2nd July: Shakespeare County Raceway Press Officer Jeremy Cookson was given the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a Junior Dragster at the NSRA's Nostalgia Nationals on Sunday.

""After several invitations to drive a Junior Dragster this season from Matrix Racing owner Dick Talbot, regular driver Holly Mitchell allowed me the opportunity to drive her Matrix Junior Stocker on Sunday", says Jerry. "Driving one of these little 5 hp 'pocket rockets' is quite deceptive. They may look slow on the outside but when you plant your right foot on the throttle pedal it's very quick. I was quite surprised how fast they pick up speed in such a short distance.

"Although a little apprehensive at first - especially as most of the FAST crew decided it was time to work the startline before my run, I still managed to run a 16.138 pass at 37.82 mph despite deep staging the dragster - a contributing factor to my disappointing 1.093 reaction time. That starter's too darn quick on the old button for us rookie racers!"

Jerry would like to take this opportunity to thank Dick and Holly for the use of the dragster. In fact Jeremy's got so hooked on Junior Drag Racing that we've heard that a return race might be on the cards later this month at the British Mini Showdown. ©Eurodragster.com

Web site updates.
2nd July: And if you can't believe what you have just read, then check out the Bad Boys Imagin' web site at www.badboysimagin.com where Bill Sly has posted pictures of Jerry's JS ride in the Fun and Anything Goes section. Bill tells us that the rest of his NSRA Nostalgia Nationals pictures will be posted later this week.

The official web site of the 2002 Drag Power Show, which takes place on consecutive weekends in August in Barcelona (3rd-4th) and Estoril (10th-11th), has been updated with the latest news about the exhibition. Check it out at www.dragportugal2002.fr.st.

The Swedish Pro Street News Magazine at www.spn-photo.com has been updated with a large number of pictures from the SDC race at Orsa and the NDRS race at Västerås.

Also showing pictures from the SDC round in Orsa is Patrik Jacobsson's SMK Trollhättan web site. Check it out at www.smktrollhattan.com/dragrace/racepics.htm. ©Eurodragster.com

SPRC Summernationals results.
1st July: The Sportsman racers had another excellent weekend at the SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway, with personal bests falling in just about every round of qualifying and competition, and the usual mixture of shocks and thrills. Congratulations to our winners:

Super Modified: Danny Cockerill 7.761/176.04 def. Jon Hogarth 8.125/162.76
Super Pro ET: Steve Johnson (7.65) 7.786/154.90 def. Barry Giles (7.80) 7.954/161.28
Pro ET: Steve Dunn (10.20) 10.216/129.27 def. Keith Herbert (11.80) 11.774/112.36 red light
Sportsman ET: George Greves (13.40) 13.547/99.90 def. Mark Anderson (13.75) 13.686/98.48 breakout
Super Comp: Martin Curbishley 9.013/143.28 def. Brian Pateman 9.032/141.21
Super Gas: Dave Day 9.908/135.39 def. Dave Townsend 9.995/138.73
Super Street: Conrad Stanley 11.129/101.43 def. Dave Cherrett 11.303/111.12
Junior Dragster: Joe Bond (9.75) 9.718/65.66 def. Ricky Emms (8.90) 9.207/67.83 red light
Custom Car Street Eliminator: Steve Pateman 8.736/166.92 def. Steve Neimantas 8.943/157.01
VW Pro: Russ Fellows (11.80) 11.792/114.58 def. Scotty Evison (12.59) red light, broke
VW Sportsman: Neil Davies (17.00) 17.009/72.69 def. Cath Bishop (16.55) 16.743/73.47

Funny Bike: Mike Chislett 7.577/167.01 def. Paul Knapp 7.510/171.37
Pro Stock Bike: Nick Pepper 7.693/169.92 def. Chris Hope broke
Comp Bike: Klaus Brinkmann 8.087/157.07 was unopposed (Jerry Collier broke)
Super Street Bike: Mark Fisher 8.794/158.11 def. Graham Dance 11.573/70.97
9.90 Bike: Steve Ingham 10.061/130.70 def. Paul Morris 10.077/131.41
10.90 Bike: Lewis Honey 10.951/113.85 def. Sandra Chaplain 10.686/124.75 breakout
Supertwin Modified: Dave Bartz 10.260/132.81 def. TJ O'Brien 10.931/126.06
Supertwin Street: Mark Earrey 11.027/127.41 def. Les Harris 11.121/122.42
Supertwin Gas: Ric Davies 9.941/125.81 def. Sefton Whitlock 10.184/121.38

Although there were not enough entries to run a formal Supertwin Fuel elimination, Jamie Millership blasted a warning to his fellow STF racers with a 7.855/166.68 on his final pass yesterday.

The Eurodragster.com Perfect Light Award went unclaimed at the weekend, so the prize fund has increased to £100 which will be up for grabs at the Sko Uno Drag Festival at Mantorp Park in a few weeks' time. That's about 1345 SEK at today's exchange rate. We also concluded another sponsorship deal over the weekend; we will bring you more news of that later this week.

You can view our American Car Imports-sponsored coverage of the SPRC Summernationals by clicking here, or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

The guys at Dragsterworld have included a free extra in their weekend's end-day coverage with a photo report from Saturday night's Custom Car Street Eliminator cruise. You can also find end-day reports and results on the UK1320 web site at www.uk1320.com. ©Eurodragster.com

Aros Nats results.
1st July: Our good friends at Svensk Dragracing have updated their web site with a report from the weekend's Aros Nats at Västerås. After the rain attempted to ruin things on Saturday, Sunday dawned sunny and warm and the racers more than made up for previous day's loss.

You can find the Aros Nats coverage on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se. ©Eurodragster.com


Earlier news©Eurodragster.com


All news, photographic and other material submitted to Eurodragster.com is accepted and published in good faith. Although we make every effort to ascertain the accuracy of published material, Eurodragster.com and its staff are not responsible for any errors in submitted news and photographs. Inaccuracies or other issues in published news items or photographs should be taken up with the named contributors, or with the Eurodragster.com staff only if the item is not credited to any individual. This page ©Eurodragster.com. News articles may not be copied or published elsewhere without the written permission of Eurodragster.com.

Eurodragster.com aims to bring you links to all the best European Drag Racing web sites. To add your site to Eurodragster's listings, simply email links@eurodragster.com with your URL and a little information about your site and we'll do the rest. When you update your site, drop us a line at news@eurodragster.com and we'll feature your site in our "What's New" section.

Eurodragster.com is a non-profit-making organisation run by a small group of Drag Racing enthusiasts for the sole purpose of promoting European Drag Racing. If you can help us to meet the modest cost of hosting this web site by advertising here, please email webmaster@eurodragster.com. We're sure you'll find our rates extremely competitive.