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Ellis' new ride.
31st July: Regular readers will recall that UK Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis put his
Superbird up for sale a short while ago. Graham has not yet sold the 'Bird but he has acquired another rolling
chassis from the USA, a Cuda built for Dave Woods and formerly driven by Troy Critchley.
"The main reason for this move is that car had the best brains in the business working on it at the time and they are still a front running team in ADRL", says Graham. "It was a money no object build as Dave Woods, who owns AMS Staff Leasing, was the NHRA title sponsor same as Roger Burgess is now. Howard Moon was the Crew Chief. They tested this thing endlessly and kept sending it back to the builders Jeffers Pro Cars for improvements to make it work better. Then after Troy's incident it never turned a wheel. "We couldn't get the information needed for our chassis in ten years over here as we never test on a prepped track. This car ran 5.92 and 245 mph four years ago with less horsepowe than we have now, and we get all the benefit of their testing. With the Burgess car in the mix stern measures are needed if we are to be in the running." Graham hopes to run the car in its existing colours at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway in September and then plans to refurbish it over the winter. Allman goes Mental. 31st July: One of the highlights of the weekend's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway was the on-track début of Wayne Allman's wild blown-alcohol Split Window VW pick-up, Mental Breakdown, which made the date after a couple of weeks of hard slog: On Saturday morning I checked the lash, got scrutineered and fired up the engine properly for the first time. I had previously only fired it on a small amount of petrol and methanol squirted into the injector in my workshop. It fired into life instantly and ran straight away, mainly because I sent all of my injection system to be flowed by Spud Miller at Fuel Injection Enterprises in the USA. I set the barrel valve to 80% leakdown as instructed by Spud and it worked straight away. Fantastic service and worth every penny! 
On Sunday we warmed the motor, ran through the gears and then the clutch pedal snapped off at the base - an aluminium item which I bought and which will be replaced
very soon! A quick trip to Jason Phelps' workshop and the pedal was welded back together and reinforced, thanks Jason! Another warm-up, topped up the fuel and we
were off to the fire up road for the first time. My all star crew fired up the bus and I was finally moving in it for the first time ever.
A quick checkover and I was doing my first rolling burnout - ace fun! Backed up and into stage, the lights went down and I gave the throttle a press. From the slow motion video by Blackett Photography I used half throttle for about forty feet and recorded a 1.2-second sixty foot time, I'm over the moon with that! And that was my very first driving experience in the Mental Breakdown Split pick-up. Many thanks go to my All Star Crew (in no particular order) Karl Harrison, Andy Frost, Wayne Nicholson, Lee Darby, Andy Raw, Jeni Long, Marcus Bennett and Rob Campbell. Thanks also to Ian Marshall and everyone at Santa Pod, Steve at Motorshack.com, Jason Phelps for the cheeky bit of welding, the VWDRC, all the people who have given moral support as I built the bus, and anyone whom I may have forgotten in all the excitement. It's been emotional! You can watch our video of the weekend at www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCHnr_26QL4. White's thanks. 
31st July: Another undoubted highlight of Bug Jam was UK Pro Modified racer Ray White's first six-second pass
in his blown-alcohol Zephyr. Ray asked us to say thank you to his crew for one of the hardest but most rewarding weekends they
have had:
First off, my Crew Chief Adrian Spencer who always said the car was capable, and did he prove it with that 6.78/208 with hardly any data from our almost useless Tracecraft computer. He tuned the car just from his experience with other Pro Mod cars. I have always said that Adrian is one of the most talented, if not the most talented tuner we have in the UK or even Europe and I'm sure that Gordon Appleton and Craig Gibbs will agree with me. I also have the pleasure of calling him a great friend. Danny Cockerill, one of Europe's best Pro Mod drivers, told me what the car would do at certain times along the track and he was right, and he helped and did the fab work and repairs to the car over the weekend, even with a broken hand. We also have become great friends over the last few years - I can't understand why they call us The Unapproachables. Danny 'Klunk' D'eath the clutch man who under Adrian's guidance has become an absolute asset to the team. We all know the clutch is the crappiest job on the car but he just gets on with it. Big Steve Dowler who has been with me since the beginning, always willing to help, and also Steve "The Escort" Mac who does the oil changes, fuelling and cleaning up, and last but not least Big Chris Manning who couldn't be with us at Bug Jam. I'd also like to thank all the people who came and congratulated us, and to all those who sent phone calls and texts - it has been overwhelming. Thanks to the Pod crew for retrieving and eventually sweeping up my doors over the weekend and for a great track on both weekends. I'll see everyone at the Finals. Speedgroup shares available. 31st July: Although Thursday was rained out at the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park, Åsa Kinnemar writes that it was a day to remember for Speedgroup: An extraordinary shareholders' meeting was held on site at which the shareholders present agreed to the board's suggestion to issue new shares to enrol further shareholders and to make it possible for more teams, drivers and riders to be part of the rapidly growing operation. There are many prominent drivers and riders among the current shareholders and with this initiative we will have space for more. Shares cost €600 with a maximum of one share per new owner. Current shareholders can buy one additional share at a discount. Riders, drivers and crew members active in FIA and UEM Championship classes who are interested in buying a share in Speedgroup are welcome to contact me at asa.kinnemar@speedgroup.eu or to visit us at Mantorp Park, where Speedgroup have a base in the information centre behind the right hand lane grandstand. Stay tuned for what we hope will the interesting and prosperous continuing story of Speedgroup. Leanders clutch scores NHRA win. 30th July: The Pro Stock clutch developed by Eurodragster.com sponsors the Leanders Brothers scored its first victory in NHRA Pro Stock at the weekend as Allen Johnson took the win in Denver. Former FIA and NHRA Pro Stock Crew Chief and clutch expert Markus Svensson, who is racing in Stock Eliminator at the Veidec Festival, told Eurodragster.com about the development of the clutch. "Ulf Leanders lives forty minutes' drive away from me and we started a working relationship", said Markus. "The Leanders brothers made the clutch and I have the equipment to carry out the surface grinding. I knew a triple disc Pro Stock clutch would take hold and the Leanders have sold them to five European teams: Micke Callin, Jonas Dantanus, Tommy Leindahl and Jan Palmqvist. Christer Ardin also uses one in his blue turbo Volvo S70. I helped the teams develop them last year. "We then took the clutch to the PRI Show last November. The clutch has been twelve years in development and is a big improvement on the other clutches in Pro Stock. There are fewer parts and it is much more sturdy. The unit is also a lot more user-friendly. The other clutches take an hour and a half to take apart and put together, but you can do it to a Leanders clutch in four minutes. "I could see that the clutch was able launch at higher revs than other clutches. Current Pro Stock engines run between 8500 to 10000 rpm and shifts are at almost 11000 rpm. The old clutches will usually only stand a launch at 6800 rpm or at best 7300-7400 rpm. I wanted a clutch which could launch at 8500 rpm. "We tested the clutch on the dyno to check it was producing enough pressure at the higher rpm and I knew then that it would perform better than the others. When we took it to PRI, a hundred teams looked at it of which we had contact with eighty. Almost all were positive in their comments. It was Mark Ingersoll, Allen Johnson's Crew Chief, who came back and asked if we could test it at the track. So in December Allen took the car to West Palm Beach. We started with the old clutch to get a baseline and that was 6.64/208.5 mph. We then put the Leanders clutch in the car and the first run was 6.65/208.5. After some adjustments we got it down to 6.58 at 210 and change. We took it to Bradenton and ran a 0.960 sixty foot time leaving at 7800 rpm. "With a new product we wanted a low profile to begin with. Allen has been using it and has qualified in the top few at several events and has been in the final and been the quicker car. The clutch is also being used by Vin de Sigli who has qualified as high as second. "Jimmy Ålund says that the clutch is so light that it feels like the clutch in a Japanese compact - there is little resistance and it can be pushed in with one finger. So any racers bitching about Reaction Times should talk to me! "I have been talking to seventy five per cent of the top teams after our success. After Indy we are aiming to have the clutch on several of the cars which will not have made the Countdown to One and will therefore be in testing mode. Time is the main factor in getting a number of cars using it. "I am confident that European parts can become standard parts in US drag racing - after all this has happened with the Verde Pump in NASCAR and chassis in Indy Car." Mantorp welcomes Chinese visitors. 
30th July: Over the last couple of days Mantorp Park paid host to a delegation from the
Federation of Automobile Sports of The People's Republic of China, led by Deputy Secretary General Xian Tongchun. The Chinese delegation
was introduced to drag racing European style at Wednesday's Back to Basics and Veidec Festival Press Day by FIA
Drag Racing Committee member Lars Pettersson.
Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Xian told Eurodragster.com that there are already many types of motorsport in China including Formula 1, rallying, Touring Cars and Karting. Drag racing already takes place at a local level but the Federation plan a National Championship in the near future. "We have seven circuits in China including the track in Shanghai which includes a drag strip", said Mr Xian. "At the moment just ordinary street cars race but that includes all types of car from Chinese to Japanese and European." The delegation were shown around a Pro Stock by FIA European Champion Jimmy Ålund and around a Pro Stock Bike by Karl Lyrén whose demo pass they watched at Wednesday's Press Day. They delegation were also interested to see that children race in Junior Dragsters. We asked Mr Xian whether China has a problem with street racing. "We have a problem in some provinces", he said. "At Touring Car and drift events we encourage people to race on the track instead of on the road. When we go back to China we will tell the government to hold drag races!" The delegation expressed their gratitude to Lars for showing them around. "Lars has given us a lot of valuable information", said Mr Xian. "He has helped us a lot and is a good friend. Lars and everyone else is very welcome to come to China!". Swift snippets. 
30th July: Eurodragster.com sponsor Bill McDermid had a great weekend at Santa Pod in
his Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator Camaro. "After a long struggle with our combination we achieved a new PB of 9.1/154 giving our
worn out street treads a nervous breakdown!", says Bill. "We went out in the first round to eventual winner and top bloke Ian Hook.
Check out the excellent slow motion video of the tyres courtesy of Blackett Photography
which you can see at www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ2Z7jzOZKs. We're
really looking forward to the Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, see you all there."
Thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us the official Bug Jam timing data. You can check out the timing data by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Speaking Confidentially... 30th July: Drag Racing Confidential, an on-line magazine dedicated to drag racing written by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, is now on-line. Simon Hodder and Nigel Holland write: Why is it called Drag Racing Confidential? Well, you've probably heard of Dr Who Confidential, which is a television programme featuring behind the scenes information about the making of the series. Well, Drag Racing Confidential is all about what makes the sport of drag racing tick, so it's aptly named. The magazine will primarily concern itself with the activities of Sportsman racers, looking in depth at their vehicles, their motivations, successes and failures. The stories behind drag racers themselves, whether they are running a Top Fuel Dragster or a Sportsman ET car, are truly fascinating and will be presented in true glossy photo-rich magazine style. This is a groundbreaking venture, because as far as we can see there's nothing quite like it in the world today. It is presented in the style of a traditional magazine, not a web site, and comes complete with page turning effects and even authentic page turning sounds. Each issue comes complete with a full built in search facility, so you don't even have to read it all to see if your name crops up! There's also the facility to download the whole magazine in PDF format if you'd prefer to read it off line or print it out. Despite containing hundreds of high quality photos, the entire magazine can be quickly downloaded, even with relatively slow internet connections. It's also very user friendly. Drag Racing Confidential will be published every four to six weeks, and it's completely free. There is a simple to use form on the magazine's web site which will enable you to subscribe to receive E-Mail alerts to all updates and new issues, so you never need to miss one! Previous issues will remain available on the web site, so even if you don't want to take advantage of the free subscription offer, you won't miss out. To read the first issue, all you have to do is visit www.drceurope.co.uk. Racers invited to Trax Show. 30th July: Becky Wood tells us that drag racers are again welcome to the Trax Show at Silverstone on Sunday 5th September. "An area at TRAX will be dedicated to Thunder Alley, an area where drag racing enthusiasts can make plenty of noise, compare each others' pride and joy, and meet other like-minded enthusiasts", says Becky. "We want this year's Thunder Alley to be bigger, better and louder than the last. The Auto events team at TRAX are therefore inviting race car owners or drivers to take part and experience first hand the awesome Thunder Alley. All you need is a race car of which you are proud and a willingness to accept the praise you deserve for all your hard work and efforts. "Send some pictures of your beast, or beauty, along with contact details to stephanie.pinder@futurenet.com so that we can send you your complimentary tickets, information and passes for the show. You will not only gain free entry to Trax but free 0-60 demos, the chance to make petrol head history, and the chance to be part of the biggest Thunder Alley yet!" For more information about the Trax Show check out www.traxshows.co.uk. Shootout in the sun (mainly). 
30th July: A good turnout of 9.50 Bike racers contested a special shootout at Shakespeare County
Raceway last weekend, writes Debbie Sawatzki:
We had glorious weather to start with on Saturday. The field included 8.50 Bike racers Mark Slade and Andy Haley and Dave Smart from the Supertwins. Three qualifiers were held on the Saturday until rain stopped play. Dave Dave Smart was number one qualifier with Martin Walker second and Pete Austin third. When the rain dried the barbecues were set up then everyone eventually retired to the bar including Boisy from Super Street Bike who was Martin's crew for the weekend and who ended up helping the entertainment with a few new street dance moves - nobody could call him shy and retiring! The sun shone on Sunday morning and a final qualifier was held, but the top three remained the same. The winners of the first round were Martin Walker, Dave Smart, Peter Austin and Richard Sawatzki. In the final round it was Dave and Richard, with Dave breaking out so Richard took the win. Jemma Vennables had a busy weekend entering two shootouts, the other being the Ladies that Launch. Congratulations to Ed Smiley and Dave Smart who both achieved new Personal Bests. Thank you to Jon Webster, who kindly donated the trophies for winner and runner up, and to all who supported the event. Outlaw record falls. 30th July: Roy Wilding writes that the UK's Supercharged Outlaw speed record was smashed at the Warwick Car Show at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend: Sam Freeman, driving Vic Hammond's Speed Demon slingshot, recorded 194.07 mph on a 7.867 ET and backed it up in the third round with a speed 191.45 mph with a 7.917 ET. The performance of the car was outstanding all weekend. Sam also took best reaction of the meeting, taking a prize fund of $100/£60 sponsored by Good Vibrations speed shop in California. The result of the meeting was: 1. Richard Davies, 2. Sam Freeman/Vic Hammond, 3. Lee Gallimore. Richard Davies was running so consistently on all of his runs, on one run running just 0.003 off his recorded dial-in. Sam was also running close; it was nip and tuck all the way between Richard and Sam, followed by Lee in a respectable third place running in the mid sevens and the high 170s, also recording 179.18 mph. There were also strong performances over the weekend from Ian Hanson in the Corvette, Brian Gandy, Dave McKenzie and Paul Watts. Steve Goode was testing the Ghost Train Funny Car after problems at the last meeting, that car has great potential. Clive Bush was in attendance setting up his new altered, but unfortunately didn't make it on to the track. The next round of the Supercharged Outlaws will be at VW Action at Santa Pod Raceway on 4th-5th September. Nilsson's return to Mantorp. 29th July: Sweden's Håkan Nilsson and the Nilsson Motorsports Pro Mod team are applying the finishing touches to their blown '57 Chevy before their reunion with the big hitters in the FIA European Pro Mod Championship, writes Ulf Stadig: The last time we were at Mantorp Park was in 2006 in a Top Fueller with Andersen Racing . That year was also our last season on the big stage but resulted in our becoming the first Swedish FIA Top Fuel Dragster Champion. Last summer a new chapter started in the Nilssonmotorsports team as a blown '57 Chevy was acquired from the USA and shipped back home to Sweden. It was and is a whole new deal for the team to work with and tune a blown alcohol engine, but with help from different teams and guys it has been going pretty good for us. The team has only been running at our local track, Veidec Raceway down in Malmö, and we ran a couple of 4.08s over the eighth mile before the 2009 season was over. During this spring and summer we have been talking about going to the FIA Pro Mod round at Mantorp Park, and since then there has been a lot of work and testing to get the car ready for its new adventure. So far this season we haven't had any big success so we are looking forward to changing that on the big stage this weekend. Right now the team are making the final adjustments to the car such as a new four link, and adding a spacer on the blower so that we can hopefully get a smoother power level on the Brad 6 engine. Our team has got a new member for the weekend, Andrew Maye from USA. Andrew is the cousin of Kelly Martin who drove our car in the States. Andrew is a good friend of ours and he has been working on race cars for many years even if he's only 27. We have also added Ola Mårtensson who is a good friend and who will give a helping hand where it needs. Regular team member Lars-Benny Pettersson will take care of the engine between rounds with help from the other guys. This will give Håkan and I the time we need to tune the car and hopefully get it to run the numbers we need to qualify in the sixteen-car field on Sunday. Our goals for the weekend are to try to get the car qualified and to run well over the quarter mile. If we manage that we will regroup and come back with a new goal for Sunday's eliminations. All in all it will be nice to get back to Mantorp Park and to see our old Pro Mod friends with whom we were racing between 1997 and 2005. The Stude's return, part II. 29th July: Bob Roberts of Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars says that the chassis of Andy Robinson's Pro Mod, which was badly affected by a fire at Alastaro, is back from media blasting and already has a number of parts fitted: 
The bodywork is well underway as you can see, with Rob detailing the front end ready for paint. The axle case still shows some oil and smoke residue in spite of cleaning. We've had great support from suppliers such as Titan, who have supplied a new rack, and Aurora Bearings who have supplied a full set of rod ends in double quick time. Swift snippets. 29th July: Further to yesterday's news item about Tony Merry's funeral, Anna Merry has been in touch on behalf of herself, Chris, Rob and Vicki to let us know that every entry on Tony's tribute page has been read and appreciated. Anna adds that Tony's wake will be held at La Cascada, Fox Street, Ardleigh, Colchester CO7 7PP and that as with the funeral everybody is welcome. Anybody wishing to make a donation in Tony's memory is invited to send it to St Helenas Hospice, Myland Hall, Barncroft Close, Colchester, CO4 9JU. If you require any further details please E-Mail Anna at annamerry03@aol.com. UK Super Street Bike racer Paul Watson tells us that he has been persuaded to join the VEIDEC Racing Pro Stock team at Mantorp Park this weekend and so is on his way hotfoot from his Essex base. "It's going to be a tough one, seventeen bikes for an eight bike field, wow!", says Grumpy. Thanks from the Geckos... 
29th July: UK Sportsman ET racers Sara and Steve Unsworth of the Drag Race Team have asked us to thank
their felow Sportsman ET Racers, Outlaw Anglia racers and crew, and Street Eliminator and Super Modified racers and crew for
their help when their Mustang's gearbox broke at Bug Jam:
Thanks to Mike Lacey for oiling up his jeans, pouring gearbox oil on me and just generally assisting with the repair at the Bug Jam over the weekend, I thought my weekend was over before it had started. We were amazed by the help, advice and general support we received, and thanks to the loan of tools, jacks and general assistance from a fab bunch of racers and crew we ended up back on the track with fifteen minutes to spare before our qualifying session started. This is what racing is all about, and it's amazing the help you get. Unfortunately we were knocked out in the first round of eliminations, but we were happy actually to have got that far. Thank you all! ...and from Sweeney. 29th July: Also in grateful mood is UK Wild Bunch racer Phil Sweeney who has asked us to say a big Thank You to Dean Smythe of Team Twisted for basically being a top bloke and helping him out this season: My better half Abby is expecting our first child and was unable to crew for me this year. Dean stepped up and offered to help out, not only crewing but also helping with bits of machining and swapping a gearbox on my Transit, so it goes without saying that without his help I couldn't have raced this year. So cheers mate, I owe you one! As the nipper is due in September, I've decided to move Bone Idle on and take a break from racing. The engine and gearbox are provisionally sold to another altered racer, and the car is now on the Swap Meet and on E-Bay as a roller. We've had a great time with the car, running into the eights and achieving everything we set out to do with it. Lastly thanks to all the Wild Bunch for being such a great people to race with, we'll hopefully be back in a couple of years with something a little bit different and a new pint size crew member. Tony Merry's funeral. 28th July: Many thanks to Derek Andrews for sending details of Tony Merry's funeral, which will take place at 12:30 pm on Friday 6th August at Weeley Crematorium whose full address is: Weeley Crematorium Colchester Road Weeley Essex CO16 9JP The family have asked for donations to charity rather than flowers other than from close family members. Derek tells us that full details including maps will be posted at www.enginepartsuk.net in the next day or so. Back to Basics/Press Day coverage. 28th July: Eurodragster.com will be attending today's Back to Basics nostalgia event and Veidec Festival Press Day at Mantorp Park. In association with American Car Imports we will be posting an end-day photo gallery which you will be able to view by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Our colleagues at TimeTree spent yesterday (Tuesday) setting up timing system and webcam; however at time of writing late on Tuesday (Very late - Ed) we do not know whether the live webcam will be running for Back to Basics but if so then you will be able to access it via our own Event Index page by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. In the meantime the Webster Race Engineering/Nimbus Motorsport webcam will be showing a view of the start line from Race Control - in effect you will see what Tog sees from his desk. The picture will update every sixty seconds. You can access our webcam by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. We will be back to you soon with final details of this weekend's event coverage. Interview: Rosie Millberg. 
28th July: Early in 2010 Sweden's first female drag racer, Rosie Millberg (left, with daughter Sabine), announced
that she was planning a comeback. Having previously raced an eight-second gas dragster Rosie aimed straight for the pinnacle on her
return, licencing in one of Rune Fjeld's Top Fuel Dragsters.
In the latest in our occasional series of Features presented in association with Lucas Oil Products and Carter Motorsport Eurodragster.com spoke to Rosie on the eve of her first licencing passes which are scheduled for today's Back to Basics/Veidec Festival Press Day at Mantorp Park. Click here to read our interview with Rosie Millberg, or click on the Features, Interviews, Tributes link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Seeking inspiration from the past. 28th July: Reigning FIA Top Fuel Champion Andy Carter and the Carter Motorsport team took a journey back in time this week with a visit to the Beaulieu Motor Museum, England. Carter Motorsport Hospitality Manager Phil Cottingham picks up the story: We met Beaulieu Motor Museum Manager and Chief Engineer Doug Hill at the FIA Main Event this year. Doug was astounded by the awesome performance and incredible engineering behind the Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster. After spending the day in the Lucas Oil Pits Doug kindly offered the team a chance to visit the Beaulieu Motor Museum. This was an offer the team could not refuse and so spent a fascinating day looking behind the scenes at Beaulieu. "Doug has an amazing depth of knowledge about the vehicles in his collection" said Carter Motorsport's Gary Cottingham. "We would like to thank Doug for giving us such and enjoyable day out and a brilliant insight into the innovations that took place during the early years of motoring and motorsport". The day culminated in a very special treat for the team, a ride through the New Forest in a supercharged 1930 Bentley 4.5. This coming weekend Andy Carter and the Lucas Oil / Carter Motorsport / Andersen Racing team travel to Sweden for FIA Round 3 at Mantorp Park and, much like during their trip to Beaulieu, the team are looking back to their past for inspiration. "As always the Lucas Oil team set very high goals at the start of the this season, another Championship is the aim, and nothing else will do" said Andy Carter. "The first two events of this season have been difficult for the team and haven't lived up to expectations but, looking back at our past gives us great confidence as we head to Mantorp, it is always one of our favourite stops on the tour and where we scored our first win as the Carter Motorsport / Andersen Racing team in 2008, in 2009 we were in the final before rain came to end the event. Now it's time for Mantorp 2010 and we are looking for three final rounds in row...don't write us off yet!" Andy Carter and the team will be keeping fans up to date with all of the news from Mantorp Park though their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CarterMotorsport and their official web site at www.andycarter.net. Beaulieu is situated in the south of England, in the New Forest between Bournemouth and Southampton, with easy access from London and the Home Counties. Open daily, the museum houses over 250 vehicles from every motoring era from some of the earliest examples of motoring to legendary World Land Speed Record Breakers including Bluebird, ‘TV Star' cars such as Del Boy's Reliant Regal and rare oddities like a giant orange on wheels. You can also become part of the world's biggest car show with Beaulieu's newest attraction, World of Top Gear. For more information visit www.beaulieu.co.uk. Habermann v Habermann again? 28th July: Alastaro in Finland, the second race of the 2010 FIA season, and the question was "Was it pure luck to have both Werner Habermann Racing Top Methanol Dragsters in the final at the previous race?". Could we as a team keep up the good performance and could drivers and brothers Timo and Dennis Habermann keep up the incredible reaction times? The answer was yes they could, writes Frans Steilberg: After the first qualifying run Timo was top qualifier with a 5.385 and Dennis was in fifth place with a 5.688. With Timo in that position he skipped Q2 so we could concentrate on trying to get Dennis' car to go a bit faster. We knew we could get more out of his car,we just had to get our heads around it. With Dennis running a 5.571 in Q2 he still ended up in seventh place as the field was very competitive. In Q3 on Saturday Dave Wilson was able to squeeze into #1 spot with a 5.378 going 0.007 quicker than Timo, that's what you call competitive racing. Dennis was able to run a 5.562 but still ended up in the #8 position. On Sunday Dennis had to face Dave in the first round and was able to pull a holeshot on him with a 0.065 to Dave's 0.203, which put Dennis into round two. Timo was up against Krister Johansson who qualified in seventh position with a 5.528 and Timo was able to win that round with a stunning 5.378 to Krister's 5.590. So both of the Habermann Brothers made it into second round where Dennis had to face Derek Flynn (shut down after burnout) and Timo was up against Peter Schöfer. With Dennis already in the final could we repeat the final from the FIA Main Event? Yes we could, and how dramatic it was. Peter and Timo had pretty much the same reaction times and very close sixty foot times. Peter than lost his blower belt at about 300 feet and aborted the run, Timo lost a side panel of the car and blew the burst panels after pedalling but won that round and was up against Dennis in the final. Again a Habermann Brothers final but would both of them make the call as Timo's car had damaged bodywork and the engine needed to be looked at as well. The crew got busy and we made the call no problem. After winning the final at the Main Event, Dennis pushed his luck a bit too far on the Tree this time, -0.066 seconds too far and he picked a cherry. Timo made another steady run with a 5.534 to take the event win. So the 2010 FIA score between Europe's fastest brothers is 1:1, let's see how it continues. The Werner Habermann team is all set for the Veidec Festival in Sweden and with the help of our sponsors UNI-Fit Katalysatoren, Böhm Solartechnik, Exide Batteries and my-shirt-shop.com we will try to extend our lead in positions one and two in the FIA Top Methanol Dragster Championship. Swift snippets. 28th July: The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com (below left) described what is obviously a Twin as "A Super Street Harley" which will be making its début at the Bulldog Bash at Shakespeare County Raceway in August. If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at eurodragster.com@btinternet.com. 
Above right is Paul Wilkinson's BBC powered altered, a long-term project which had its first test outing at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend. "This would not have been possible without a number of people who I would like to thank", says Paul. "Roy Wilding for building the chassis, axle and endless fabrication and machining work. Ian Hanson for help building the engine and numerous other tasks including getting the car to the track. Also help from Brian Gandy and Rich Davis and last but not least Colin Hanson for the loan of a van and trailer. All the crew at the track made me feel at ease as although I have spectated for over twenty five years I had never been down the track. I can highly recommend it." We have a birthday on the Eurodragster.com staff today. Please join Kirstie, Tog, Roger and Ed in wishing a very Happy Birthday to Pit Reporter and Blog Editor Simon. Simon will be hooking up with us at Mantorp Park later on today. Have a safe trip, buddy, and a great day. Now that the Veidec Festival is underway, our event coverage will take up almost all of our waking time so please bear in mind that the daily news updates may have to take a back seat until the event finishes on Sunday. We will do the best we can so please keep the news coming to news@eurodragster.com and do let us know if the piece must run on a particular day, but please don't worry or repeatedly send the same news item if it does not appear as soon as you have submitted it. We will acknowledge receipt of news items on request. R2B2 confirm NitrOlympX date. 28th July: American drag racing superstar Melanie Troxel will travel to Europe for the second time this season to race in the FIA NitrOlympX, which takes place on 13th-15th August at Germany's famous Hockenheimring. Troxel will be piloting the same '67 Camaro she drove to the quickest and fastest run on European soil when she zoomed down the quarter-mile in 5.937 seconds at 242.42 mph (390.13 kmh) on 30th May at Santa Pod Raceway in England. The Roger Burgess-owned race car has since improved those marks to 5.911 seconds at 245.78 mph (395.52 kmh) with Sweden's Micke Gullqvist behind the wheel when he drove it to the title of the FHRA Nitro Nationals earlier this month at the Alastaro Circuit in Finland. "It's really exciting to be racing FIA again, even more so knowing we've got the best car on the European circuit at the moment", Troxel said. "We had just gotten the car dialled in at the end of the race in England, but our best run came on an exhibition pass. We certainly feel like we have some unfinished business to take care of over there." This season has been a busy one for the world's quickest female as she's pulled double-duty on the NHRA tour, racing both the In-N-Out Burger Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car and the In-N-Out Burger Chevrolet Camaro Pro Mod car. The only female in the sixty-year history of NHRA competition with wins in both Top Fuel and Funny Car - a feat accomplished by just fourteen racers - Troxel was named 2006 Sportswoman of the Year by the Billie Jean King Foundation. That same season she was nominated for two ESPY awards (Best Driver and Best Female Athlete), named winner of the prestigious Driver of the Year first quarter award, led the Full Throttle Series point standings for the first twelve races of the season, set the Top Fuel record for most consecutive final round appearances to open a season (five), and became the eighth female in NHRA history to earn a number one qualifying position. "It would be really special to add an FIA trophy to our collection here at R2B2 Racing" said Troxel, who will banner the WorldWide Pro Mod Association in Germany. "Michael came over here this spring and won the Atlanta race so maybe we can return the favour in Germany. "We actually attended this event as spectators last year and we were all very impressed with the Hockenheim facility and the huge crown that turned out for the event. Drag racing fans are passionate about the sport no matter where they're from and I'm looking forward to meeting everyone when we get over there." Burgess and his staff at R2B2 Racing have been assisting Gullqvist this year. The first European racer to win a national event on the NHRA tour, Gullqvist will race as a team-mate to Troxel at the NitrOlympX. After two events, Gullqvist is second in the FIA Championship points. Troxel, who did not race in Finland, is fifteenth overall out of twenty nine drivers. Veidec Festival Perfect Awards. 28th July: This weekend's Veidec festival at Mantorp Park is the the latest event in the 2010 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards scheme. 2200 SEK is on offer for perfect performance. 
The Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been rolled over to 1100 SEK after it was unclaimed
at Bug Jam. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light
Award is available to all racers in all classes during qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first
perfect light of the event.
If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £125 for the Open Sport Nationals; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for the
Open Sport Nationals. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with performance hose and fitting manufacturer Speedflow
whose web site you can find at www.speedflow.co.uk.
Although the Perfect Light Award goes to three places, we will not pay out for red lights with zeroes in the first three decimals since a foul is a foul however far in the first non-zero digit may be. So a reaction time of 0.0001 will win you the money (if you're first to do it), but a reaction time of -0.0001 will not. Decals are not formally required for the Perfect Light Award but of course we appreciate it: you can get Eurodragster.com decals at the track from any Eurodragster.com staff member. ©Eurodragster.com 
The Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award has been rolled over to 1100 SEK after it was unclaimed
at Bug Jam. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to run to the thousandth on their dial-in or index. The Perfect
ET Award is available this weekend during qualifying and eliminations in Super Gas, Super Comp, Super Street, Stock/Super Stock (eliminationa
only), Junior Dragster (eliminations only), Super Comp Bike and Super Gas Bike, but will only be awarded for
the first perfect run of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £125 for the Open Sport Nationals; if it is won then it
will be reset to £50 for the Open Sport Nationals. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with RV sales and service
specialists Gold RV whose web site you can find at www.goldrv.co.uk.
Due to crass incompetence on your News Editor's part resulting in the decals sitting in a bedroom about 900 miles from Mantorp Park, and with apologies to sponsor Derek Flynn, we have had to waive the decal requirement for the Perfect ET Award for this event only. You can however get Eurodragster.com decals at the track from any Eurodragster.com staff member. PMR propose UK Top Sportsman. 28th July: Eurodragster.com sponsors Paul Marston Racing and Eurodragster sponsor Jeff Bull Racing Engines are seeking pledges of support from doorslammer teams for a Top Sportsman event to be held next year, currently proposed for the 2011 UK Truck Show. Paul Marston writes: Having already spoken to many teams the interest has been fantastic, with around twenty pledging support and interest in the class. The event will be open to anyone with a fast car. Although there will be an entry fee there will be a very nice prize fund, trophies and the kudos of participating in this exciting new class. We are currently inviting offers for event and class sponsors. So what is Top Sportsman, I hear you ask? Well, it's currently the fastest-growing and most exciting doorslammer only class in the NHRA. You run what you brung and hope you brung enough! In our version, instead of just taking the class rules that are made to suit the American racers and tracks, after careful consideration and consultation we have made changes purely to suit UK Drag Racing. The format is simply this. On the first day it's a sixteen-car qualified field, heads-up eliminator, with alternates for no-shows. One shot qualifier then straight into eliminations, .400 Pro tree. For any cars not qualified we are looking into the possibility of match or grudge racing. On the second day it's an all run bracket race. You may only dial up or down 0.1 seconds from your qualified time from day one or a representative time, no sandbagging! There would again be one practice run then straight into eliminations. There would be a first round buy back available. Pairings are random, .500 Sportsman tree. It's open to anyone, but the turn around time between rounds would be the same as usual sportsman class eliminations. So to recap you have two races in two days, first day a heads-up eliminator, a little like an Orlando Speedworld's Fastest Street Car event, second day a bracket race, so there is something for everyone and your entry covers both days. Having already had preliminary discussions with Santa Pod Raceway, the event will happen providing that we can get enough solid interest. It's up to you guys to step up and be counted. This is your opportunity, make it count. To be part of the first of hopefully many, or to get further details, ask any questions, or to pledge your support please contact either myself at pmracing@fsmail.net or contact Jeff Bull through his link on Eurodragster.com's Swap Meet. If any dragster teams would be interested in setting up a Top Dragster version of the same format, please contact me on the address above. What's on this weekend. 28th July: As well as the headlining Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park, there are a number of other events going on in Europe this weekend. On Friday the Dutch Hot Rod Association will be running a street-legal RWYB evening at Drachten Raceway. This race will be for street legal vehicles only; competitors will need a driver's license and registration and insurance on the vehicle. Entry will be €10 euro and track fee another €10. Providing weather holds this should give competitors eight to ten runs, although there can be no guarantees. Gates are open at 13:00 and track action starts at 15:00 till 22:00. Me(n)tal Enterprizes will be there as usual with the webcams, live runtime data and SMS service at www.doyousee.me/DHRA. On Saturday and Sunday at Aérodrome de Mende (48 - Lozère), France, the Top of the Hill Race will be taking place, organised by ATD. Full details for racers and specators are at www.francedrag.com and rules are at www.trophee-dragster.fr. There are three races in Central Europe this weekend, details of which have been kindly supplied by our good friends at CeDrag.com. On Saturday and Sunday the Big Dogs tour moves to Cepin, Oisjek, Croatia, also featuring night racing under the lights on Saturday night. The event is organised by Auto Klub Slavonija of Croatia in association with bigdogs-racing.com. Round 3 (Finals) of the Central European Drag Championship takes place at Airport Trencín, Slovakia on Saturday together with Round 2 of the Bobcat Power Fest. This Slovak Drag Racing event and official International Mustang and US Car meeting is organised by www.zrychlenie.sk. Neunkirchen in Austria will be hosting drag racing on the B17 county road on Saturday and Sunday, presented by the Men of Humpbacked World. The organisers' web site is www.msc-mohw.at. Entry is €9 for adults, €6 for 16-18 year olds and free for kids under 16; admission after 15:00 is free. Some action from last year is on Youtube. Mopars in the Summertime. 
28th July: 70s chart toppers Mungo Jerry will be heading up a high-octane weekend of Stateside-inspired antics at the Mopar
Nationals at Santa Pod Raceway this Friday to Sunday (30th July-1st August).
The band, well known and loved for their global smash In the Summertime which is celebrating its fortieth anniversary, will be the icing on the cake of a weekend which promises so much to car enthusiasts and party people everywhere. The event is known to be one of the largest and most impressive gathering of American muscle cars in the UK, and with a packed race programme filling the air with the sonorous sound of big-block V8 engines, there should be as much music off stage as on it! As well as non-stop quarter mile action, expect to see these metal leviathans burning rubber both in the drift arena and also in the Burnout Competition, where horsepower is king and a brand new set of tyres has been known to last a couple of minutes! With camping all weekend, a fully licensed bar and disco, plus an impressive line up of flawless show cars to drool over, there really is something for everything, and with Mungo Jerry hopefully serving up some 'Summertime' weather it's definitely one not to miss! For more details please visit www.santapod.com or call the team on 01234 782828. Web site updates. 28th July: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent A Car, Pro Stock Bike racer Karl Lyrén looks forward to the VEIDEC PSB team's forthcoming weekend at their sponsor's event at Mantorp Park. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Ålund's home. 27th July: FIA European Pro Stock Chamion Jimmy Ålund unexpectedly showed up at Alastaro for the second round of the FIA European Championships. The J&J Performance Team joined forces with Futura Racing to try to score their first points of the year having spent the beginning of the racing in the NHRA Pro Stock Series in the USA, writes Pär Willén: This was the first race with this combination of car, engine and driveline. With that in mind, the first round of qualifying turned out very satisfying. Jimmy ran an ET of 6.93 which put the team in the number three qualifying spot and ahead of some of the strongest Pro Stock teams in Europe. The second qualifying run netted another 6.9 second ET, but when the team returned to the pits they discovered a broken connecting rod that had let go right at the finish line. Unfortunately, that meant the end of the weekend for J&J Performance. "We tried hard", says Jimmy, "but the performance level of these Pro Stock motors is astounding and sooner or later things break. The runs we got in were really promising but unfortunately it was all over after that second qualifying run. At least we picked up points and are now part of this years European Championship". Jimmy sends thanks to his sponsors and of course also to Stefan Eriksson and Mats Olsson of Futura Racing who made the Alastaro race possible. Jimmy's next race is this week's Veidec Festival at his home track, Mantorp Park. Jimmy's own car arrived back home from the US tour just over a week ago and is being looked over as we speak. "We hope to do better than at Alastaro", says Jimmy with a smile. On a question about the possibility of winning the 2010 Championship he says "No, no, that's not realistic, the other teams are too strong and too far ahead but we really want to get out there and race the car as hard as possible. But you can be sure we'll do our best. The other teams have been racing in Europe and we don't really know where we stand compared to them." Jimmy brings the full team of Petter Greborn, Kalle Hrupa, and Mats Appelgren to the race, with the addition of Christer Bergström who is also in place for this weekend. A Classic event. 
27th July: Further to yesterday's piece from Bob Roberts, Jemma Harrison writes that a 165-yard drag strip
was set up at the Silverstone Classic to give visitors an idea about drag racing:
Mark Ashman of UK Street Machines took a group of thirty five hot rodders to Silverstone as well as John Atkinson's Super Pro ET Cortina, Ian Turburville's Supertwin and his daughter Laura's Junior Dragster. There were two sixteen-car shootouts along with demo runs. John managed a four-second pass at 106 mph and managed to stop before the kitty litter! We had a great weekend and really showed those Classic guys how us drag racers do it. Thanks to Steve Horn of TSI Timers for setting up the timing system, to David Lloyd-Jones of Santa Pod Raceway for the Funny Car display and hospitality suite, and to everyone who raced or helped out. In and out with the Bad Luck Boys. 27th July: Ulf 'Totte' Lindqvist tells us that the Bad Luck Boys are back from their test event at Säve Airport and are making a quick pit stop at home to replenish food and fuel and to tune the altered for success before departing again for tomorrow's Back To Basics event at Mantorp Park: You will be able to check out a live stream webcam from the Bad Luck Boys pit area at www.smokingtire.se. You will be able to get a clue of the mood in the Nostalgia pit where the Bad Luck Boys and Girls will be hanging out. On Thursday evening there might also be a movie night outside the Bad Luck pit with film projected onto the side of the bus - that is one reason for paiting the bus white insstead of black. There will be some classic road movies (Vanishing Point? - Ed) with no subtitles as you'd expect. Bring the popcorn and some drinks and let's have some fun! Swift snippets. 27th July: As you read this Eurodragster.com's advance guard of News Editor and Race Reporter Tog and Honorary Staff Member Christer Abrahamson are on the road to Mantorp Park. One of our first tasks when we arrive will be to to finalise plans for this weekend's event coverage with our colleagues at TimeTree who will be running the timing this weekend. So stay tuned and we will bring you this weekend's coverage plan on tomorrow's Eurodragster.com News update. Racers at Mantorp Park this weekend who require fire systems or components from Eurodragster.com sponsor DJ Safety can visit the Turner Racing Top Methanol Funny Car pit where they will find a comprehensive inventory for sale. "DJ Safety fire suppression systems are used by worldwide by top race teams and provide probably some of the best safety kits available" says Martin Hill. The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com (below left) came with no words at all. If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at eurodragster.com@btinternet.com. 
Congratulations to UK Comp Bike racer Sandra Chaplain (above right) on gaining her Master of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, which she collected last weekend. Husband Roland tells us that Sandra is continuing at Cambridge to complete her Doctorate in Developmental Psycholinguistics. Many thanks to reader Tim Lockyer who has alerted us to the latest Tesco Clubcard promotion offering tickets to the Saturday or Sunday of September's FIA European Finals. You can find out more on Tesco's web site at www.tesco.com. Editor's note: As mentioned above we are on the road to Mantorp Park. We have a backlog of news which we will clear on tomorrow's update, and please keep the news coming to news@eurodragster.com. Bug Jam results. 26th July: Many thanks to David Anniwell for sending us qualifying times and final results for this weekend's Bug Jam held at Santa Pod Raceway. As well as VWDRC action, the race is a UK championship round for Outlaw Flat Four, Super Modified, Street Eliminator, Outlaw Anglia and Sportsman ET. Highlights include a historic first win in a UK Championship class by an electric powered non-combustion engine vehicle when Sam Young produced a 11.27 on 11.24 dial-in to win VW Pro. Pro Mod racer Ray White ran his first six, a 6.78/208, and prompted comment from Michael Caine when both doors blew off in the lights. In Super Modified, an ultra close qualifying battle ended with Andy Hone only one ten thousandth of a second in front of Belinda Bull, Andy going on to win the event after Belinda was a no-show in the first round. In Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator, the quickest cars in the class turned up the wick with Steve Pateman running his first seven this year at 7.942/179.82 and personal bests coming for Brian Payne at 8.1023, Richard Billings at 8.1653 and Ian Hook at 8.2432. In eliminations, Steve Pateman suffered a blue line violation in round one. Richard Billings had his second incident of the season after a wheelie resulted in a loss of control on landing, the Corvette spinning and hitting the pitside barrier; Richard was unhurt. Ian Hook went on to win the event and consolidate his championship lead. Wayne Allman came out in his wild split screen Split Screen blown methanol dragster Mental Breakdown and performed a storming burnout and launch on the car's initial pass. Wayne was supported by a team of Karl Harrison, Andy Frost and Wayne Nicholson who had the engine running sweetly. Wayne was quoted as being "really happy and pleased" after his showing. The traffic flow at the exit of SPR had to be restricted following a missing child incident. It ended happily, with the lost person found asleep in a trailer, but not before a police helicopter had needed to be called to the scene. In association with American Car Imports we have posted a gallery of Roger's and Kirstie's pictures from the weekend which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Final qualifying: Outlaw Flat Four
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bug Jam 2010 Santa Pod Raceway. England.
TSI RACENET SYSTEM
QUALIFYING BY: ET Pro Ladder QUALIFYING LIST
25/07/2010 17:30:59 2 OUTLAW FLAT FOUR
Place CarNum Driver R.T. E.T. O/U INDEX MPH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 739 JIM SMITH + 0.6690 9.8172 9.8172 00.00 129.13
2 460 RUDY OLIVENCA + 0.8111 10.0174 10.0174 00.00 143.06
3 622 BERNARD NEWBURY + 0.2422 10.0290 10.0290 00.00 131.79
4 100 JAMES WOOTON + 0.3485 10.0826 10.0826 00.00 139.93
5 23 MATT KEENE + 0.3903 10.3191 10.3191 00.00 129.55
6 600 PETER ENGLEZOS + 1.3145 10.7511 10.7511 00.00 123.10
7 558 PHIL WEST + 0.2677 11.2428 11.2428 00.00 117.03
8 56 JASON REW + 0.1172 11.6546 11.6546 00.00 111.15
9 850 JOE GALLAGHER + 0.4783 11.7270 11.7270 00.00 113.76
10 259 MICHAEL GERAGHTY + 0.2516 12.1286 12.1286 00.00 111.24
11 64 WAYNE HOWE + 0.3531 12.1355 12.1355 00.00 108.72
12 88 GLENN COLLINS + 0.5034 12.6739 12.6739 00.00 102.20
13 360 ANTON MURRELLS + 0.1854 12.8323 12.8323 00.00 104.24
* = Disqualified
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Super Modified
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bug Jam 2010. Santa Pod Raceway. England.
TSI RACENET SYSTEM
QUALIFYING BY: ET Pro Ladder QUALIFYING LIST
25/07/2010 17:32:24 4 SUPER MODIFIED
Place CarNum Driver R.T. E.T. O/U INDEX MPH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 203 ANDY HONE - 0.0214 7.4886 7.4886 00.00 179.90
2 95 BELINDA BULL + 0.0107 7.4887 7.4887 00.00 175.75
3 1968 PETER THOMPSON + 0.5972 8.4846 8.4846 00.00 157.45
* = Disqualified
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sportsman ET
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bug Jam 2010. Santa Pod Raceway. England.
TSI RACENET SYSTEM
QUALIFYING BY: ET QUALIFYING LIST
25/07/2010 17:32:59 10 SPORTSMAN ET
Place CarNum Driver R.T. E.T. O/U INDEX MPH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 495 GEOFF COWLEY - 0.0504 14.9360 0.0060 14.93 91.21
2 764 IAN JACKSON + 0.2328 18.8527 0.0127 18.84 71.23
3 162 JOHN GRANT + 0.1151 12.5306 0.0306 12.50 106.41
4 597 KEVIN LONG. - 0.0420 155351 0.0351 15.50 90.31
5 342 NIGEL HOLLAND + 0.0485 14.2981 0.0581 14.24 97.33
6 763 JAKE HANDY + 0.0501 13.8175 0.0675 13.75 95.89
7 559 LYNDA STANLEY + 0.2310 12.2705 0.0705 12.20 75.02
8 507 IAN PETRIE + 0.0081 14.0926 0.0826 14.01 92.55
9 711 JOE RICHARDS + 0.2517 17.1881 0.0881 17.10 78.69
10 738 ANDREW GOULDING + 0.1318 19.0110 0.1110 18.90 70.35
11 252 SARA UNSWORTH + 0.1630 13.3547 0.1347 13.22 100.37
12 4 SPENCER TRAMM - 0.0253 16.0885 0.1585 15.93 83.79
13 97 ABI TETHER + 0.0416 16.1614 0.1714 15.99 84.87
14 1994 MATTHEW SEAMARKS + 0.1167 17.6757 0.1757 17.50 74.40
15 163 RUSS WEIR + 0.0142 17.3886 0.2086 17.18 76.68
16 3 NICK GAY + 0.2928 13.8897 0.3397 13.55 98.73
* = Disqualified
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bug Jam 2010. Santa Pod Raceway. England.
TSI RACENET SYSTEM
QUALIFYING BY: ET Pro Ladder QUALIFYING LIST
25/07/2010 17:33:29 11 STREET ELIMINATOR
Place CarNum Driver R.T. E.T. O/U INDEX MPH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 69 STEVE PATEMAN + 0.1455 7.9423 7.9423 00.00 179.92
2 574 BRIAN PAYNE + 0.0221 8.1023 8.1023 00.00 175.72
3 1000 RICHARD BILLINGS + 0.0440 8.1653 8.1653 00.00 182.80
4 34 IAN HOOK + 0.0722 8.2432 8.2432 00.00 166.04
5 507 JON WEBSTER + 0.2279 8.8128 8.8128 00.00 163.68
6 33 DAVID MURDOCH + 0.0754 9.1258 9.1258 00.00 148.09
7 1969 BILL MACDERMID + 0.1443 9.1444 9.1444 00.00 153.76
8 22 ALEX MCINTOSH + 0.3231 9.3852 9.3852 00.00 145.69
9 472 MATS ANDERSSON + 0.4155 10.0949 10.0949 00.00 129.04
10 333 ALAN WILLIAMSON + 0.3782 10.7513 107513 00.00 129.55
* = Disqualified
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Outlaw Anglia
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bug Jam 2010. Santa Pod Raceway. England.
TSI RACENET SYSTEM
QUALIFYING BY: ET Pro Ladder QUALIFYING LIST
25/07/2010 17:34:02 20 OUTLAW ANGLIA
Place CarNum Driver R.T. E.T. O/U INDEX MPH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 CLIFF GRIFFIN + 0.4908 8.4104 8.4104 00.00 154.67
2 81 SIMON BARLOW + 0.2895 8.9663 8.9663 00.00 151.17
3 8 ROB STONE + 0.2607 9.3280 9.3280 00.00 141.72
4 70 MARK BRACKING + 0.2994 10.5177 10.5177 00.00 131.68
* = Disqualified
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
VW Pro
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bug Jam 2010. Santa Pod Raceway. England.
TSI RACENET SYSTEM
QUALIFYING BY: ET QUALIFYING LIST
25/07/2010 17:34:42 23 VW PRO
Place CarNum Driver R.T. E.T. O/U INDEX MPH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 98 IAN HUGGAN + 0.2075 11.9089 0.0189 11.89 114.61
2 714 DANNY WHARTON + 0.2272 12.7274 0.0274 12.70 101.84
3 64 PAUL HERBERT - 0.0978 130213 0.0313 12.99 100.26
4 30 STEVE PARFITT + 0.0088 11.0368 0.0368 11.00 122.41
5 32 PHIL NORMAN + 0.2994 12.5367 0.0467 12.49 105.01
6 86 MATT ATTWOOD - 0.0045 11.8840 0.0540 11.83 114.47
7 112 JACOB BAILEY + 0.1265 12.2768 0.0568 12.22 112.20
8 78 DAVE BRIDGE + 0.1983 12.5944 0.0944 12.50 102.57
9 1 JAMES HODSON + 0.1251 10.9817 0.1317 10.85 127.97
10 321 RICHARD MERRIMAN + 0.1052 12.5556 01556 12.40 107.43
11 104 SAM YOUNG + 0.0837 11.4308 0.1908 11.24 114.06
12 259 MICHAEL GERAGHTY + 0.0495 13.2323 0.2423 12.99 102.88
13 81 ANDY RAW - 0.2283 8.9247 0.3247 08.60 149.08
14 10 RUSS FELLOWS + 0.7966 9.4754 0.4854 08.99 14574
* = Disqualified
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
VW Sportsman
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bug Jam 2010. Santa Pod Raceway. England.
TSI RACENET SYSTEM
QUALIFYING BY: ET QUALIFYING LIST
25/07/2010 17:35:04 24 VW SPORTSMAN
Place CarNum Driver R.T. E.T. O/U INDEX MPH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 240 MATT BENNETT-SIME + 0.1728 18.1020 0.0020 18.10 71.83
2 771 RHONDA CALLAWAY + 0.3553 16.4129 0.0129 16.40 83.63
3 163 RUSS WIER - 0.0629 17.3757 00157 17.36 76.96
4 97 ABI TETHER + 0.0267 16.2226 0.0226 16.20 83.19
5 75 JAMES CLARK + 0.1024 15.4341 0.0441 15.39 90.11
6 333 POLLY NAYLOR + 0.2212 17.0824 0.0824 17.00 79.24
7 117 PAUL DAY + 0.2687 17.6425 0.0925 17.55 71.56
8 1 LUCY MATTHEWS + 0.2437 24.2486 0.0986 24.15 52.51
9 77 MARTIN AYTON + 0.0457 14.7360 0.1060 14.63 92.13
10 17 ANDY AGROMENT + 0.7796 18.1176 0.1176 18.00 73.91
11 102 BRUCE COLLINS + 0.4434 13.3400 0.1400 13.20 108.69
12 36 LUKE STEVENSON + 0.0608 17.3535 0.1535 17.20 81.67
13 92 LYNN COX - 0.2444 20.7862 0.1862 20.60 63.13
14 90 DENNIS COX - 0.0585 15.7119 0.2119 15.50 84.41
15 176 PAUL PHELPSTEAD + 0.1762 16.7413 0.2413 16.50 84.09
16 127 RICHARD JONES + 0.3308 15.7592 0.7592 15.00 86.49
* = Disqualified
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congratulations to the winners of Bug Jam 2010: Outlaw Flat Four: Rudy Olivenca 9.6060/143.04 def. Michael Geraghty 12.3314/110.45 Super Modified: Andy Hone 7.4597/182.84 def. Peter Thompson 8.5007/157.93 Sportsman ET: Nick Gay (13.85) 13.4704/98.18 def. John Grant, no show Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator: Ian Hook 8.2745/167.32 def. Brian Payne 8.5330/173.72 Outlaw Anglia: Cliff Griffin 8.3014/160.78 def. Rob Stone 9.2407/139.83 VW Pro: Sam Young (11.24) 11.2783/115.05 def. Matt Attwood (11.83) 12.5858/112.61 VW Sportsman: Russ Weir (17.59) 17.5432/75.55 def. Rhonda Callaway (16.40) 16.2699/84.42 Swift snippets. 
26th July:
Congratulations to Torbjörn Israelsson who won 600 Swedish Kroner from Eurodragster.com for Best Burnout at the weekend's Borlänge Street Open. During qualifying Torbjörn had the crowd clapping and cheering as he pulled long burnouts every time with his turbocharged Gatbil C Volvo. Yesterday's eliminations were all but rained out with less than half an hour's racing possible. In association with American Car Imports we have posted 120 pictures from Saturday's qualifying which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Tog would like to say a big Thank You to the Borlänge Drag Racing Klubb, especially Lena Perés and Christer Gustavsson, and to all of the racers for their welcome and hospitality.
Those of you seeing yesterday's spy picture of a new doorslammer will be intrigued to know more. Thanks to Andy Benn of Never Again Racing for supplying a link to this Youtube video of the car, a '68 Impala, hot off the press. Andy says "It was first time out of the shop today - first time in and out of the trailer - first time anywhere in three and a half years of building." Drachten hosts DHRA RWYB. 26th July: Maikel Gloudemans says that the next couple of weeks for the Dutch Hot Rod Association will be the busiest in the year: Next Friday, July 30th , DHRA will be running a street legal rwyb evening at Drachten Raceway. This race will be for street legal vehicles only; competitors will need a driver's license and registration and insurance on the vehicle. Entry will be €10 euro and track fee another €10. Providing weather holds this should give competitors eight to ten runs, although there can be no guarantees. Gates are open at 13:00 and track action starts at 15:00 till 22:00. Me(n)tal Enterprizes will be there as usual with the webcams, the live runtime data and SMS service at www.doyousee.me/DHRA. The DHRA crew will then work like crazy to get packed and drive to Brustem Airbase in st. Truiden, Belgium , where they will provide the timing for an ABC events track weekend (31st July to 1st August). We, the video team, will not be there, because we don't have an affordable internet connection there. On Saturday August 7th and Sun August 8th, Xplosion helped by DHRA will have a large static display at the Rizla Racing Days at the TT circuit in Assen. This free event will bring approximately 70,000 visitors in 2 days, giving us a pretty nice opportunity to show what drag racing is to a large audience. On the track will be all kinds of car and bike classes (going around corners, eek), making it one of the few events besides drag racing that has bikes and cars on the same day. We will show some of our vehicles, and have a set of race seats with a tree on which visitors can try their luck putting reaction times on the clocks. This is the first time this set will see the light of day in years, so we hope for a lot of enthusiasm of the general public. ARRC at Silverstone Classic. 26th July: Bob Roberts, web master and PR for Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson has cannily sent in photos of some of the drag racing attendees at this weekend's Silverstone Classic circuit race before Eurodragster.com News Editor Tog reassumes his normal role: 
Silverstone Classic has become one of the biggest events in the historic racing calendar. Whilst circuit racing is the main emphasis there has been some exposure for drag racing with NAST and the Allard Chrysler last year and a Hot Rod shootout this year. Friday was a display only day for the Hot Rods with a 32 car elimination scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. A wide selection of street rods and muscle cars was on display along with regular class racers such as Roy Walker and John Atkinson. Santa Pod's retro style promotional caravan provided visitors with information about the sport and showed videos of typical track action. The ARRC team was there primarily to visit the many customer who race in Historics of one sort or another and particularly in the Big Engine Touring Cars class. Many of the Falcons, Mustangs and Galaxies had ARRC roll cages and/or suspension components and it's always interesting to see finished cars which leave the workshop only part assembled. So we pretended this visit was really business but who can resist the noise of 30+ V8s bellowing round a circuit at full chat? Bug Jam audiocast. 25th July: Track commentary and Nitro FM broadcasts from this weekend's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway are available as an audio stream. You can tune in to hear the latest from Santa Pod by clicking here or by visiting www.audiorealm.com and searching for Nitro. Simpson seminar at Mantorp Park. 
25th July:
FIA/UEM Championship administrator Speedgroup and event organizer Mantorp Park
have announced that manufacturers of restraints, helmets and parachutes and Eurodragster.com sponsor Simpson will be holding a one hour seminar about Personal Safety in Drag Racing at Mantorp Park on Friday 30th July 30th at 19.00 (the provsional location is the Posten VIP marquee).
Speedgroup co-ordinator Åsa Kinnemar said "Our sport is growing and the cars are faster than ever before. The need for effectively working personal safety equipment is more critical than ever. During the seminar we will take a closer look at different equipment and systems that can enhance the personal safety for the driver.
We will also take a look at new products that have been developed to minimize neck injuries in a crash and during rescue work. The seminar will be held by:
Rickard Johansson, Rescue and Diver. Jan Phersson, Simpson Race Products Sweden. Patrick Lynch, Motorsport Director Shock Doctor, Inc. For further information please check with the Simpson staff at the Simpson Track Side Service trailer situated close to the pro and sportsman pits." Jan "JP" Phersson and spouse Annelie who operate the Simpson Track Side service at Mantorp are pictured. You can read a full article about it in the Speedgroup Club Europe newsletter no.5 at www.club.speedgroup.eu, (including a class by class preview for the Veidec Festival). Walmracing to double up. 25th July: Swedish Nostalgia team Walmracing headed up by are going to Mantorp Park next week to be a part of Back to Basic on wednesday and run demonstration passes during the Veidec Festival, writes driver Marcus Wålm: For the rest of the weekend we will do show runs together with SVDA (Swedish Vintage Dragrace Assocation). You can see more information about SVDA at www.svda.se. We will be bringing both cars this year, the Lay´s Funny Car and the brand new AA/Altered. I am going to drive both cars, so the driver and the team will have their hands full. Also we have our big sponsor Lay´s with us, so visit us in the pit and taste their world famous snacks! The whole team are looking forward to this event and together with our sponsors Lay´s, Cramo, Järfälla Släpvagnservice ,Hasses skylt & Text, Vårgårda Screen, Ltf Biltillbehör, Br.Samuelssons Åkeri, Ronnestam.com, Ring Tjänst Vårgårda, Colorama i Hjo, Tida Bilrecond i Tidaholm. We look forward to meeting our fans and friends in the pit and on the track. You can see us on Facebook and on Twitter as well as our web site www.walmracing.se. Swift snippet. 
25th July:
The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com (above right)
had the message "Ready for Mopar Nationals - well almost!" which tells us the event to look out for this new doorslammer. If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture,
then drop us a line at
eurodragster.com@btinternet.com.
Mantorp Park prepares. 24th July: Many thanks to Kjell Pettersson for sending some preparation work pictures from Mantorp Park in advance of next weekend's 2010 Veidec Festival. Kjell says "The first picture shows the new scoreboards being installed. Then Kalle Brinell and Holger Dueholm are doing the hours in the tractors on the actual race line. The third picture is of Holger measuring the traction with SHARK that we have borrowed from Finnish Hot Rod Association. Then Motor Club 5100 is working hard to install the new Time-Tree timing system. Finally, the Mantorp Park crew is working hard under the supervision of Roger Johansson to get the all other areas ready for the events that start Wednesday with Back to Basic nostalgia day and goes into the Veidec Festival from Thursday." 
Veidec Festival previews. 24th July: Many thanks to racers who have kindly supplied details of their preparations for next weekend's Veidec Festival: Pro Stock points leader Michael Malmgren says Malmgren Racing is aiming high coming to Mantorp. "The new Lahega Pro stock racing team put together just prior to the Main Event has done even better than expected. New team members Tim Andersen, Jesper Åkessopn and Jerry Hagman together with long time serving Mike Öhman and Tomas Jonsson have done a killer job and are working very well together . This has given a new boost to Lahega racing and we have really got the speed up on the Jerry Bickel built GTO, with new fresh power from Bob Ingles. Pro stock this year is tougher then ever with many teams running very good, so we are expecting a fight to the bitter end. But for now things are looking good." Top Methanol Racer Danny Bellio, who had significant mechanical damage earlier in the year, reports "We feel like our season is not started yet with the engine problems at the Main Event and not being able to go to Finland but we have high hopes we will make it to Mantorp. We are still waiting on parts coming in from the US this week and then we can start to get the car ready. Our truck also needs repairs because it broke down on our way to Drachten in the Netherlands. There is still lots of work to do but as long as the parts come in on time we will fix it." Pro Stock racer Richard "Nixxon" Sundblom of Cobalt Motorsport says after a second incident at Alastaro in two years, "We are now repairing the car - as you might have heard we had a small accident at Alastaro Circuit in Finland about three weeks ago. The throttle got stuck and the chutes didn`t open in time. The car ended up in the sand after the finish line and the whole car was covered with sand but luckily it stayed upright all the way. With a lot of help and spare parts from other competitors we managed to continue racing and finally ended up third in the competition. We are really looking forward for the Veidec Festival and have high expectations for our new engine." Richard is currently at third place in the FIA European Drag Racing Championship point standings. Racers: It's not too late to send us your Veidec Festival previews. Drop an E-Mail to eurodragster.com@btinternet.com and we'll publish your news here. Predators and MSTO at Bechyne. 24th July: The Czech Open Drag Race took place over the quarter mile at Bechyne, Czech Republic on 17th-18th July, writes Herman Jolink: Bechyne is a military airfield 100 km south of Prague and the track is surfaced with slightly coarse concrete. The Predators Motor Cycle Club were working this year for the first time together with the the German MSTO Drag Race organisation, and there were 118 competitors in the Car and Bike Classes, plus, on Friday and saturday evening, a great rock show on stage. It was very hot on Friday, more than 35 degrees but luckily with a little wind. On Saturday there were a few clouds and sunshine but still 25 degrees, and on Saturday night a lot of rain and a strong wind. Friday it whas possible to do some test runs, so allot riders going on the track to find the right set up. On Saturday there were three qualifying sessions. Competition Dragbike Qualifying:
On Sunday morning some rain came, but by 13.00 it stopped. Jerry Lackey from the MSTO said the fast Cars were unable to run in the conditions, and the eliminations were cancelled for these classes. For the bike classes, the Czech race director found the track okay to use, so the riders for the Czech Open Championship were planned to have eliminations, but the timing equipment from the MSTO was not functioning after the rain anyway, so it was over. After the cancellation, the riders qualified 1st, 2nd and 3rd got a trophy at the prizegiving. Swift snippets. 
24th July: Pro ET racer Carl Burton of English
Rose Racing has been in touch with a plea for used fuel cans. He says "As you may or may not know, I have been turning VP and Sunoco fuel cans
into pit bins for various teams but am now finding it harder to keep up with demand and have run out of cans a few times. So if racers have been discarding cans and see me around the pits at the Euro or National Finals and would like to see them recycled please give me a shout. If anyone wants to order one, I do them in team colours with the team's names etc for around the £40 mark."
We have no less than three birthdays today. First up is a very Happy 15th Birthday to Honorary Eurodragster.com Staff Member Grace Roaf. Have a lovely day Grace. By one of those nice coincidences which you get all too seldom it is also the birthday of Grace's mum Mary Roaf. Happy Birthday and hope you have a lovely day too Mary. Finally another big Happy Birthday to our good friend Lotta Andersson. Have a lovely day Lotta. Web site updates. 24th July: As promised on yesterday's news update, Eurodragster.com News Editor Tog has updated his web site with pictures from yesterday evening's (Friday's) Cruise in Säter, Sweden, which he attended with Honorary Staff Member Christer Abrahamson en route to this weekend's Borlänge Street Open. There are more than two hundred pictures of some very desirable and rare machinery, identifying some of which will likely tax all but the most expert of American car fans. You can check out Tog's shots from Säter at eurodragster.fotopic.net or at www.togsdragracing.com. Keith Lee has updated his Author's Blog on the Acceleration Archive for his upcoming book 'Drag Bike Racing in Britain From the mid 60s to the mid 80s'. Keith says "Publication date is getting closer, with the manuscript now in the page layout stage at the publishers, Veloce." You can check out Keith's blog via the What's New link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. Tony Merry. 23rd July: We were sorry to hear from Paul Marston of the death of Tony Merry, one of PM''s associate sponsors through the ACL bearings side of their company Engine Parts: It is with a very heavy heart that I must report the loss of a very dear friend, not just to us but to all of drag racing here in England and around the world, Tony Merry, who lost his battle with cancer last night. I have already received calls from America, Europe and England. I want everyone to know we lost one of our own yesterday and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this difficult time, but Tony is now at peace. There will be a further announcement once the funeral arrangements have been made. We have set up a tribute page for Tony which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Features, Interviews, Tributes link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. If you would like to send a tribute to Tony then please send an E-Mail to tributes@eurodragster.com. Alamo meets Carter's hire expectations. 23rd July: Carter Motorsport are delighted to announce a new marketing partnership with global car hire giants and Eurodragster.com sponsors Alamo Rent A Car. Four time and reigning FIA European Top Fuel Champion Andy Carter welcomes Alamo on board, as suppliers of the team's needs for hire cars across Europe this season. "I'm absolutely delighted to have Alamo Rent A Car on board. The logistics of every race across Europe can become very complicated so it's a huge plus to have all our hire car requirements taken care of. We hope this is the start of a long partnership between the two parties and as ever, we'll be doing our best to promote Alamo at every opportunity," commented Andy. Andy Wheeler, Alamo International business services director added “It is an honour and pleasure to help Carter Motorsport with its car rental needs during the FIA rounds in the UK, Germany, Sweden and Finland. Our partnership with them further strengthens Alamo's commitment to the drag racing community. We are proud to have the Alamo brand displayed on the Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster and are behind Carter Motorsport all the way. We wish Andy and the team the best of luck in the FIA rounds.” Don't forget that Alamo is offering a 10% discount on online rentals for all drag racing fans this year, helping even more people to experience the thrill and exhilaration of drag racing. With a global network providing access to over 8,800 rental locations in 90 countries worldwide, including at every major airport, Alamo offers a wide range of vehicles and optional extras for leisure travellers, making it the ideal partner for drag racing fans. Why not book now and get up to 10% off by going to www.alamo.co.uk/dragster. Mr Spokehead at Silverstone Classic. 23rd July: Super Twin racer Ian Turburville says the Silverstone Classic looks like it will be a tremendous event this weekend with something for everyone: It will also be the very last blast for me on Mr. Spokhead as we 'smoke the Wellington Straight', one of the original venues for drag racing in the UK. The bike will then be re-freshed and not run again until a buyer is found. The bike, along with a trailer and all spares, will be available at a knock-down price immediately following this weekend. I can then concentrate on finishing Laura's Pro-ET dragster aptly named 'Overkill' as that is what it is powered by. The next project has started already and is a nostalgia slingshot called 'Red-FED' for myself so by the end of next year we should have a two car team and Laura's Help For Heroes Junior dragster will be for sale. See you all at Silverstone. Details of Mr Spokehead and other items for sale are at www.turboville.co.uk. Slick request for Belgian race. 23rd July: Eurodrag.com webmaster Erwin Raets says help is needed for a race he is planning in Belgium for the end of September: I am planning the first major dragrace in Belgium and although we are still working on the administrative side of things, it is looking good. But for now I have one major problem trackwise: tyres. The track has never been prepared so we will have to make a major effort to get it right, and to do so I need lots of used dragslicks. So this is a call to all racers who would like to support a new drag racing location with future potential in Belgium! Please contact me at erwin@eurodrag.com if you have used drag slicks lying around. What's more, you will get free event tickets for free tyres! We can take tyres back to Belgium when we come over for the European Finals at Santa Pod, or we could collect them at Hockemheim in August. The event in Belgium is planned for 25th and 26th of September and more info will follow soon. Swift Snippets. 23rd July: 12:40 Many thanks to Emelie Carlswärd of Mantorp Park for forwarding us the latest version of the official entry list for next week's Veidec Festival. You can check out the Veidec Festival entry list (PDF format) by clicking here. Could Bruce Collins, VW Sportsman 102, please contact Sportsman ET racer Matthew Seamarks at gingermanracing@hotmail.co.uk as Matthew has a pulley he believes is his. Matthew says "He might need it for the weekend at Bug Jam. It is lucky we have it as Dad was following him and it fell off outside local chip shop last night but as Dad stopped to pick it up he had already disappeared and we haven't been able to see him since!" 
SCR Official Beth Satchell has given us more details of Shakepeare County Raceway's maiden meeting of "for Ladies that Launch" this weekend. "We have a ladies shootout on Sunday for cars and bikes with trophies up for grabs. There is a photoshoot at the top end of the raceway on Saturday evening for all the girls and, where appropriate, their vehicles. We have a great girl band The Almaboobies playing live in the club house on Saturday evening with Wendy's disco ready to rock the night away. Girls, this one is for you so I hope to see you all there ready to party and have fun."
Webmaster of CeDrag.com Paul Fischer tells us the King of Europe Race planned for this weekend at Bucharest airport in Romania has had to be postponed. Web site updates. 23rd July: Tim Blakemore says he has updated his web site news page at www.timblakemoreracing.co.uk with details of his new ZZR1400 funny bike. Eurodragster.com's advance guard is already in Sweden ahead of next week's Veidec Festival and in the first event in a packed itinerary News Editor Tog and Honorary Staff Member Christer Abrahamson visited Thursday evening's American car run in Stäket. You can check out Tog's pictures from the American car run at eurodragster.fotopic.net or www.togsdragracing.com. Next up are pictures from Friday's Säter Cruise. NSRA celebrate 20th. 23rd July: John Price reports that this weekend marks the 20th Anniversary of the NSRA SuperNationals at Old Warden Park, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire which is taking place at the same time as the 2010 Hot Rod Euro Nationals: It promises to be a great weekend with the usual high quality and quantity of Hot Rods, Customs & Classics which will be supplemented by the attendance of not only Pete Chapouris from So-Cal Speed Shop (previously of Pete & Jakes fame and builder of the original California Kid) but also the friend Pete is bringing with him – Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. Billy, besides being a bearded guitar player in one of the most instantly recognizable rock bands in the world, is a great collector and instigator of some famous rods, customs (Cadzzilla) & custom bikes (Hogzzillas). Both guys will be there to join in the fun and hopefully go through some question and answer sessions with me on Saturday (Pete) and Sunday (Billy). Old Warden Park is just off of the A1 – follow the signs for The Shuttleworth Collection and then onto the showground. Entry Price for the complete weekend ie from 9am Friday 23rd July is £45 per person (£40 for NSRA members) and for Sunday only its £8 per adult and £4 per child between the ages of 5 and 16 years. (There is no single day entrance on Saturday). Svenssons aim for new records. 
22nd July: Sören Svensson says that Sweden's record-holding five-second Team Kendall Top Fuel
Bike team are looking forward to put on a good show in front of the huge crowd and all their fans at our home track of Mantorp Park. This is
the team's first competitive outing this season.
"As some of you might know, we have been updating our chassis during the off season and we went to Veidec Raceway in Malmö in May", says Sören. "Peter ran a 4.07 second eighth-mile and we also set a new track speed record of 307 km/h, clicking the throttle off early on both runs. "Next Wednesday we will load the bike and all our equipment and on Thursday morning the team will start the three hour drive to the track and prepare the bike for the race. Our families and friends will meet up at the track on Friday and we are really looking forward to the race where we will try to improve both of our European records from last year. "The race last year didn't go as smoothly as we were hoping after we lost the power supply to the battery at about 100 metres in the semi finals. We were unfortunately beaten by our good friend Rikard Gustavsson on his record-setting Funny Bike. "At the race this year we will be testing a new set-up and if everything goes our way we will hopefully run a bit faster than last year. In our opinion the track conditions this year will be even better than last year, with a new layer of asphalt the first 150 metres and hopefully good weather conditions as always at Mantorp, so we must say that it is really looking promising. This year at the track we will be selling our new T-Shirt and we also have a new hero card (designed by Stefan Boman) which we will give out for free to all our fans as long as they last. "A big thank you to everyone who makes this possible: Kendall Motor Oil Sweden, supplied by Sollebrunns Oljeservice Samek Tool AB, who make some of the best moulding tools in the automotive industry in Sweden CemeCon A/S, one of the best coating companies in Europe when it comes to camshaft coating etc Real Form, product development within mechanical design Romnet, consultants with computer network favours All our families and friends For more information about our previous achievements and updates during the off season please visit our web site at www.billetracing.se. Hanssen hopes to bounce back. 22nd July: Fred Hanssen of the Islanders Racing Black and White Top Methanol Dragster team will be looking to bounce back at next weekend's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park. A continual problem with the tachometer and shift light slowed the team in Finland, but a first round red light ultimately ended their weekend prematurely. Team Crew Chief and Eurodragster.com Blogger Will Hanna says that the team finally found the culprit of their electrical problems after their first round loss. "I wish we would have checked where we found the problem sooner, but hindsight is always 20/20", said Will. "Nonetheless, we sent every component in the tach circuit back for testing and we are going to hook it up a bit differently for the next race. I will also have a backup shift light on a completely different circuit if the tach does fail again. "It was just one of those weekends. She was trying to run some good numbers every time, but the shift light was coming on and off as it pleased, so the shifts were well below the targets. We still have a hot rod, so I'm looking forward to the rest of the year." After crashing the car in the first qualifying session last year at Mantorp, the team has some unfinished business they want to settle this year. "I wasn't with the team at Mantorp last year, but after running off the end of the track and crashing in the first session, needless to say that was the low spot of the season", said Will. "We would like to put that behind us with a solid outing this year. Not to mention we need one to keep up in the top of the points." Swift snippets. 22nd July: This weekend's Silverstone Classic at the famous circuit will include hot rod and street car drag racing on the Wellington Street featuring members of UK Street Machines, Outlaw Street and Taz Racing. More information at www.silverstoneclassic.com/hot-rods. 
21st July: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for sending details of the arrangements for this weekend's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway. Santa Pod Raceway's gates are open between 10:00 am and 9:00 pm tomorrow (Thursday) and then reopen for the weekend at 9:00 am Friday. Signing On and Scrutineering will both be open from 8:30 am on Saturday. Run What You Brung takes place between 11:00 am and 8:00 pm on Friday, and then until 2:30 pm on Saturday. After 2:30 pm on Saturday the track is only open for competition and there will be no further RWYB on either Saturday or Sunday. Racers are reminded that if they wish to take part in the RWYB sessions then they must bring their DVLC licence as well as their competition licence (competition licences are not valid for RWYB). The provisional running orders for Saturday afternoon and Sunday are now available: Saturday running order Sunday running order As ever the running orders are subject to change due to weather or track conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by race officials. You can check out the official Bug Jam entry list by clicking here. Anita's own Western Swing. 21st July: Finnish Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita Mäkelä says that everything is ready for a long trip away from home as her rig, about to leave for Mantorp Park for next week's Veidec Festival, is not going to return home until the middle of September. "First of all, I want to welcome Rosie Millberg back to the Nitro World", says Anita. "It's good to see that she is in cabeable hands of Rune Fjeld, Kent Persson and Linda Thun Tønseth, and I know she'll have one of the best rides in Europe. And at the same time I'm wondering where Monica Öberg is, because I have seen her brand new red driving suit on facebook (Monica is now on next week's entry list now - Ed). "Our own Western Swing is about to start. Our trailers are loaded for the rest of the season's races at Mantorp Park, Hockenheim and Santa Pod. Maybe our Western Swing takes longer than NHRA's, but it will be as just as tough to sweep. It takes quite a lot of thinking to have all the parts you need with you as the trailers won't return home before the European Finals and the end of the season. "Our performance hasn't been at the top level yet, and it always takes a while to get a good, solid base line for new tune-ups and set-ups. However, I'm looking forward to fast rides and nice numbers on the scoreboard. So we are all ready for Mantorp!" Rodman running it in. 
21st July: Nick Saunders has been in touch to bring us up to date with the
latest from the AFB Drag Racing pit of UK Supertwin Fuel racer Shaun 'Shaumus' Rodman:
The bike was imported from Norway late last year and rebuilt over the winter. Running in the Fuel class of the National Association of Super Twins Championship, we have begun the year with a relatively soft set-up to allow both bike and rider to become accustomed to each other. Thus far we have achieved a steady 8.53/160 which was shut off just after half track. The bike has a best ET under previous ownership of 7.22, so obviously the first goal in our sights will be to beat that. In order to achieve this, we are working hard to fine tune the bike and we anticipate some good numbers towards the back end of the racing calendar. 
Shamus and the rest of the crew would like to thank everybody who has assisted during the year so far. Performances are improving and
confidence is high. A special thank you goes to Andy from AFB Motorcycles
for his continued support and sponsorship. AFB Motorcycles are the leading custom bike specialists in the south west of England, as well as
distributors for Zodiac performance parts for Harley Davidson, and Spectro Oils both of which have been crucial to our progress so far this season.
The team's next outing will be the Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway at the end of August. In the meantime, please take a look at our web site at www.afbdragracing.co.uk where you will find photographs, videos and race reports. If you would like to become associated with AFB Drag Racing, please feel free to fill in the contact form on our web site or E-Mail njsaunders@live.co.uk. Swift snippets. 
21st July: UK Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor
Bill McDermid says that his 1969 Camaro is back together and was successfully tested at
his local raceway ( akathe A3 to London, obviously keeping strictly to the 70 mph limit) at
the weekend. "All went well and we are looking forward to Bug Jam", says Bill.
"We still have our Valvoline 20/50 VR1 Racing oil offer open to all racers and will be
bringing some to the track". For more details about
Topspeed Automotive's
Valvoline Oil offer check out the Eurodragster.com News update of
19th October 2009.
Also on the subject of racer deals, Carlos Perez has taken over the excellent work done by Allsports to offer cheap ferry deals to racers. "I am very cheap for all ferries for motorsport to and from Ireland, Holland and France and I was wondering if I could help drag racers", he says. If you woul dlike to talk ferry trips then give Carlos a call on 07980 919081. Andy Bennett writes that the Doomsday 1968 Impala, which is now a bit too good-looking to continue to be called Frankimpala, will be making its on-track début at the Mopar EuroNats at Santa Pod Raceway on 30th July-1st August. "The car is SFI 25.2 tagged to 6.0, all being well" says Andy. You can check out YouTube videos of the car at www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4dlTT4B_D0 and www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpqM1sMsJ2k. We would like to wish our good buddy and UK Super Gas racer The Very Reverend Sir Neville Mottershead ODE a very Happy Birthday. Bless you Father, have a great day. Phil Steele writes that reigning ACU Sprint Champion Alan Tinnion dominated the third round of the NSA Twins Cup at Weston Zoyland with a maximum score of 23 points. Also notable at the event, though, was Phil himself scoring the classic Rouge et Noir drag bike's first Championship points since 1977. Well done both. The next NSA Twins Cup round is the Henry Body Sixty Years In Motorcycle Racing event back at Weston Zoyland on 14th-15th August. Kissing Snow White awake. 
21st July: UK Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer Ron Haslett now has another car to look after. As part of a deal with
his new sponsors Graham and Max Powell of Southern Tyre and Battery Service Ron is helping to put a car back on the road.
Not just any car this, but the Snow White '57 Chevy Bel Air which was formerly raced in Super Gas by Roger
Butterworth.
"I got the car just over two weeks ago and all the associated bits over the next couple of days", says Ron. "My brief is to put the car back together and get it through an MoT, and to make it a low ten- or high nine-second street car. "The work to turn a race car back to a street car isn't as easy as some may think. No hand brake, no wipers, no lights, no indicators, no exhaust, no washers, no horn. Also the car has been taken apart by its previous owners over the last couple of years. "The goal is to get it running and drivable by mid-August. "Not bad" I hear you all shout. But we also have the rebuild of my race car's engine to be completed ready for the Open Sport Nationals. The heads are welded are now with Andy at ADS Precision to be skimmed. The valve seats are being recut, the crank came out untouched and the pistons will be here next week. All being well the old bus should be back out in a couple of weeks and trying for those eights again." FHRA Nitro Nationals UEM review. 21st July: Many thanks to UEM European Drag Bike Championship Co-ordinator Palle Lind for forwarding us his report of the drag bike action at the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro: Some real nice weather started on Thursday, and it stayed until Monday when I left the track. Qualifying went well with Salakari as number one in Top Fuel Bike, Olstad in Supertwin and Vik in Pro Stick Bike. There was hard competition in PSB, from number one qualifier to number eight theer was only 0.189 seconds. In Top Fuel Bike two Finnish riders Salakari and Selkamaa met in the first round. It was Salakari who was the fastest. Van Den Berg and Paljakka meet each other, but Van Den Berg broke after the start line, then it was easy for Paljakka to win and get into the final. Two Finnish riders were then in the final. Salakari had fuel leak on the startg line and was shut off Paljakka did his fastest run on his new bike of 347.25 km/h in 6.668 seconds which was also Top Speed and Low ET in Top Fuel Bike. Paljakka winner and Salakari runner up. In the first round of Supertwin Olstad met Kemppainen, Olstad was fastest. Hegre had a solo run since Hoiberget broke right after the water box. Stauble lost to Maenpaa and Heezen beat Koedam by 0.108 seconds. The second round started with two Norwegian riders, Olstad won since Hegre's bike went a little to the right and he shut off early. Heezen lost this round to Maenpaa by 0.110 seconds, a close race again for Heezen. In the final it was Olstad who was the winner, with Maenpaa as runner up. Low ET and Top Speed for the weekend both went to Heezen with 6.725 seconds and 328.36 km/h. Vik meet Nikolovska in the first round of Pro Stock Bike, and Vik was the winner. Abrahamsson won against Laseur, with a new European speed record of 303.71 km/h. Piensalmi lost by 0.136 seconds to Ogge and Fredlund had a solo run since Lyrén lost fire in the water. In the second round Vik beat Abrahamsson by 0.018 seconds. Ogge had a nice solo run of 7.155 since Fredlund broke on the start line. Then we had the number one and two qualifiers in the final, Vik and Ogge, Ogge was the winner by just 0.005 seconds against Vik as runner up. Low ET and Top Speed for the weekend both went to Abrahamsson, 7.143 seconds and a new European speed record of 303.71 km/h. See you at Mantorp Park for the fourth round of the European Drag Bike Championships. You can check out the post-FHRA Nitro Nationals Championship standings on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Speedflow Points Standings link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. What's on this weekend. 21st July: The 24th running of Bug Jam, the UK's original VW drag racing event, will be taking place at Santa Pod Raceway from Friday to Sunday. As well as VW Pro and Sportsman, Outlaw Flat Four will be racing with National Championship classes Super Mod, Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator, Sportsman ET and Outlaw Anglia. With Martin Hill in Fireforce 3, Run What You Brung, an incredible range of demos on and off track and the fairground, camping, stand-up comedy and bands there will be something for everyone. Full details are at the dedicated web site www.bugjam.co.uk Eurodragster.com will be posting qualifying and elimination results here on the news page on Sunday and in association with American Car Imports be a photo gallery will also be posted on Sunday. Details of the Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award and Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award can be found in yesterday's update. On Saturday and Sunday there is a Public Track Day RWYB Weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway. Featured events include Warwickshire Motor Show (Saturday only), For Ladies That Launch! celebrating the massive number of women who play a big part in the success of professional and amateur motorsport in the UK, Pro Street Drag Series, ET Bracket Gamblers Race (Sunday only), FTO Owners National, and Peugeot 106 Owners Club Weekend. RWYB action will include Supercharged Outlaws, Pro Street, 9.50 Bike and Junior Dragster. Gates open 6.00 pm Friday, and the track opens from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm Saturday and 10.00 am until 5.00 pm Sunday. Prices are: one day £12 per person (Advance £10 Sunday only), and weekend £22 per person. RWYB Track Fee: £20 per person (unlimited runs) or £35 per person for a weekend of unlimited fun. More information at www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. On Saturday and Sunday the Borlänge Street Open takes place at Dala Airport, Sweden. Classes involved will be Junior Dragster, Super Street and Super Gas Bike for the NDRS series and also Super Comp, Super Gas Super Comp Bike and Street Bike for Swedish Dragracing League points. There will be three bracket classes in addition. Gates open on Friday 23rd at 18:00 and scrutineering takes place Friday 18:00 to 21:00 and Saturday 07:00 to 12:00. Qualifying will be 09:00 to 18:00 on Saturday and eliminations from 09:00 to 16:00 on Sunday. Eurodragster.com News Editor Tog will be in attendance taking photographs and offering 600 SEK for Best Burnout to be judged in conjunction with our good buddy and track announcer Christer Abrahamson and another good friend and occasional Eurodragster.com photographer Markus Ek. More details about the event at www.ycc.nu. The Malmö Bike Open will be taking place at Veidec Raceway, Malmö, Sweden, on Friday to Sunday. Entry is open for all classes of bike and is free for Top Fuel Bike, Super Twin Top Fuel and Pro Stock. We understand that amongst Pro teams appearing Eurodragster.com Blogger Karl Lyrén will be testing his Pro Stock Bike and Eric Frank his Supertwin. Racing will take place from 18:00 to 21:00 on Friday, 10:00 to 18:00 on Saturday and 12:00 to 16:00 on Sunday. More details are available at www.srif.se and www.malmobikeopen.se. On Saturday the collaboration of clubs around Sweden known as Strippen.Nu will be running an event at Säve, Gothenberg. This one day event includes cars and bikes and entry for spectators and car racers is SEK150 (an additional SEK for sign-on) and bike racers SEK 50 for entrance and SEK100 for sign-on. Fourteen classes means that it will be possible to be competitive no matter what vehicle you enter. Day of Thunder #2 takes place at Nyköping Motor Park, Sweden on Saturday. This show will run from 10:00 to about 16:00 and will include a static drag racing exhibition of the some of the best cars from the ongoing European FIA Championship series. The drag racing exhibition is mixed with the show cars and motorcycles. The location is Nyköping harbour and the event is organised by Nyköping Motor Park Drag Racing Club who can be contacted tim@nykopingmotorpark.se here. There are three races in Central Europe this weekend, details of which have been kindly supplied by our good friends at CeDrag.com. Best wishes for a speedy recovery go to webmaster Paul Fischer who has been poorly recently. On Saturday and Sunday at Meidl Airport, Fertoszentmiklós, Hungary there will be Big Dogs Racing and V8 Cars Cup race with Round 3 of the Meidl Drag Race Cup. This event organised by www.dragrace.atw.hu and promises an eight car field of the quickest Central European-based doorslammers, night racing until 2:00 am, hot rod show and an after hours party. On Saturday and Sunday Bucharest airport in Romania will host the King of Europe event organised by www.kingofeurope.net. Bucharest Airport is only ten minutes' drive from the city centre so there is likely to be a large amount of spectator interest. Competition will be Head to Head quarter mile for the King of Europe who will be the Winner of the SuperFinal for the Top 16 cars from the classes racing. Awards will also be available for sixteen European car fields in Street FWD car, Street RWD car, Street 4WD car, 12 Second Xar and Diesel Car. Scrutineering will be on Friday and Saturday morning, practice/qualifying on Saturday. Finals are on Saturday evening and Sunday. For the first time in the history of King of Europe, three previous KOE winners will be on the start line for the main drag racing event: Marcin Blauth's Typhoon 2007 Winner, Grzegorz Staszewski's Corvette 2008 Winner and Istvan Szentesi's Viper, the 2009 winner. On Friday at Pruszcz Gdanski Airport, Poland, the Polish National Drag Racing Championship organised by sss.org.pl will take place. Competition for the Gecko Cup will consist of sixteen classes and a prize fund of between PLN 8,000 and PLN 24,000 depending on numbers entering. Gates open at 07:00 on Friday with qualifying from 07:00 to 09:00, eliminations from 08:00 to 13:00 and finals from 13:00 to 18:00. Web site updates. 21st July: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent A Car, Luke Bennett reports upon a pleasurable day at the Damn Yankees event at North Weald and talks a little more about the team's planned move to FIA competition in 2011. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Just like Adrian said... 
20th July: UK Pro Mod racer Ray White says that his wild blown-alcohol Zephyr
car made it more or less unscathed through a huge wheelie at Santa Pod
Raceway at the weekend.
"When I built the car, I made the mid plate the lowest part which seemed to have saved it", Ray told Eurodragster.com. "We came away with bent wheelie bars which Webster Race Engineering straightened yesterday, great job guys, and a dent in the sump which Danny Cockerill also sorted today (with a broken hand too). Ray said that the wheelie didn't seem too dramatic from where he was sitting. "I was told that because it is a swing arm it will not launch that way so I should wind the wheelie bars out of the way", he said. "Wrong! I just knew it wasn't coming down. I backed off the throttle and the car still came down quite hard. When it landed the motor was still running so I checked the oil pressure which was OK, switched off the motor, the steering seemed OK with no noises coming from anywhere. "I stopped at the top end by the ambulance just in case I had jarred something - you don't feel pain with that much adrenaline pumping. The fire crew got there as I stopped, the medics checked me over and all was OK. Thanks for the quick response guys. "We towed back to the pits to check out car, all I can say is that if that car goes in a straight line and everything works as it should then, as Adrian says, she's gonna fly". Ian Blackett of Blackett Photography, who took this great picture and kindly sent it for our use, has asked us to thank everyone who has bought copies. Euro Serie Top Gas III. 20th July: The third round of this year's Euro Serie Super Twin Top Gas Championship took place over the quarter mile at Drachten, The Netherlands, on 9th-11th July, writes Herman Jolink: On Friday and Saturday we had nine qualifying runs. It was very hot, more than 35 degrees Celsius. Qualifying:
Round 1: Jolink disqualified because of too little ground clearance on the Ducati; Van den Boer 10.039 bye run, van Schie was brokenl Albers 8.579 beat Niklas 9.226 but the Niklas Team was very happy with the 9.266 after the problems in the two previous races; Geytenbeek 10.602 bye run, Heitmann did not show because he did not agree that the time from one of his qualifying runs was cancelled. Round 2: van den Boer's engine didn't start; Albers 8.437 winning over Geytenbeek. Final: Cord Albers D 8.461 beat John Geytenbeek N. Euro Serie Super Twin Top Gas Championship:
Remaining dates: 29th July-1st August: UEM and Top Gas, Mantorp Park, S 13th-15th August: NitrOlympX and Top Gas, Hockenheim, D 20th-22nd August: Euro Serie Super Twin Top Gas, Drachten, NL 2nd-5th September: Mosten Race Days and Top Gas, Mosten, DK Swift snippets. 20th July: Johnny Nilsson writes that he and his son Dennis will be fielding the Tre Kronor Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car at next week's Veidec Festival in a match race against Erik Wallinder in the Rimfrost Corvette. "Between the tubes will be the grand old man Leif Helander who tested the car at Sundsvall a month ago", says Johnny. "After the race at Mantorp Park the team and I will ship the car back to the States and race it at the Hot Rod Reunion at Bakersfield in October. Erik Wallinder will drive the car in the USA." 
The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com (above right) came with the word "Pitrat". If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at eurodragster.com@btinternet.com. Niklas Klaesson writes that VEIDEC Raceway in Malmö is hosting the Malmö Bike Open this weekend and that all bikers are welcome. The Open takes place between Friday and Sunday and you can read more at www.malmobikeopen.se. Santa Pod Raceway have a couple of places left in their Two Seat Dragster at this weekend's Bug Jam. "It's just £300 and includes your weekend pass too - great value all round", says Caroline Day. "If you've already bought your ticket to Bug Jam then we'll just upgrade for the difference in price. Bug Jam as we know is a real one-off (Bug Jam 24 is a one-off? - Ed) so why not add the icing to the cake and make it really special!". All enquiries should be made directly to the Santa Pod office on 01234 782828 or via the on-line enquiry form at www.santapod.com. As mentioned above the Retro Show took place at Santa Pod Raceway on Sunday and Rick Cuthbert says that a fantastic variety of vehicles turned up and that it was a great day out for anyone into classic and retro cars, and race fans too: Spectators were treated to the sight of a four-wheels-in-the-air launch by Ray White's Pro Mod (see above), a very controlled six-second pass by Jason Phelps in the Shockwave Fuel Funny Car, Top Fuel Bikes, and excellent heads-up racing from a sixteen-car Euro Sports Compact field, which was once again won by the flying Andy Waite in his Mk1 VW Golf. The full report, gallery and video can be found on the official web site at www.retroshow.co.uk. Bug Jam Perfect Awards. 20th July: This weekend's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway is the the latest event in the 2010 Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards scheme. £150 is on offer for perfect performance.
The Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been rolled over to £75 after it was unclaimed
at the UK Truck Show. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light
Award is available Super Modified, Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator, Sportsman ET, Outlaw Anglia,
VW Pro, VW Sportsman and Outlaw Flat Four during qualifying and eliminations (not RWYB), but will only be awarded for the first perfect light of the event.
If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £100 for the Veidec Festival; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for the
Veidec Festival. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with performance hose and fitting manufacturer Speedflow
whose web site you can find at www.speedflow.co.uk.
Although the Perfect Light Award goes to three places, we will not pay out for red lights with zeroes in the first three decimals since a foul is a foul however far in the first non-zero digit may be. So a reaction time of 0.0001 will win you the money (if you're first to do it), but a reaction time of -0.0001 will not. Decals are not formally required for the Perfect Light Award but of course we appreciate it: you can get Eurodragster.com decals at the track from any Eurodragster.com staff member. ©Eurodragster.com
The Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award has been rolled over to £75 after it was unclaimed
at the UK Truck Show. The money will be awarded to the first racer this weekend to run to the thousandth on their dial-in or index. The Perfect
ET Award is available this weekend during qualifying and eliminations in Sportsman ET, VW Pro, and VW Sportsman, but will only be awarded for
the first perfect run of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £100 for the Veidec Festival; if it is won then it
will be reset to £50 for the Veidec Festival. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with RV sales and service
specialists Gold RV whose web site you can find at www.goldrv.co.uk.
To be eligible to collect the Perfect ET Award, racers are required to carry Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET decals, one on each side of the bike. If you pull this weekend's first Perfect ET but are not carrying decals then there will be no discussion; we will not pay out and the next person to pull a Perfect ET will get the money assuming that they are carrying decals. The decals will be available from the Signing On office as soon as it opens; please note that, as is usual with contingency schemes, racers are responsible for requesting or picking up decals when signing on. A list of required decals per class is always on display in the Signing On office. Please note that because the Eurodragster.com staff member with the cashpoint card is in Sweden this weekend, winners will not be paid at the track; details will be taken and a cheque sent to the winner after the event. Editor's note: The day job is getting in the way a bit today, so we so we still have a small news backlog which we shall clear on tomorrow's update. Please keep the news coming to news@eurodragster.com. Welcome Richard Paul Russell. 
19th July: We are delighted to welcome
Richard Paul Russell Ltd, the official UK supplier of
Kestrel Pocket Weather Meters including the Kestrel 4250, as a sponsor of Eurodragster.com News.
When tweaking the fuel/air mixture minor changes in air density and air water content can have a major effect on an engine's performance. The Kestrel 4250 weather meter can monitor these conditions from the palm of your hand and assist with key tuning decisions. The Kestrel 4250 is a fully fledged high-end weather instrument. It can track wind speed, temperature, and relative humidity, along with much more, logging all data as it goes. Its data logging capabilities allow information to be stored and uploaded onto a computer at a later date, to be reviewed in detail any time. Used correctly the Kestrel 4250 can help motorsports teams reach their potential. On a hot day, at high altitude, or on a damp day, the air is less dense. A reduction in air density reduces the amount of oxygen available for combustion and therefore reduces the engine horsepower and torque. The Kestrel 4250 lets you know your conditions. It is small enough to fit into a shirt pocket and allows measurements to be taken where it matters most, at the track. All units come with a five year warranty. The Kestrel 4250 retails at £304.33 including VAT and shipping within the EU. For further information please visit www.r-p-r.co.uk or call 01590 679755. We would like to say a big Thank You to Richard Paul Russell for their support and to Sophie Moore at RPR and to existing Eurodragster.com sponsor Derek Flynn for their help. We're sure that racers looking for weather data will support those who support drag racing by considering the Kestrel 4250. VP Racing Fuels back York Raceway. 19th July: American support has returned to the UK's York Raceway as Lee Child is pleased to announce on Eurodragster.com that VP Racing Fuels are to support the Yorkshire track. 
Jim Kelly of VP Racing Fuels has been responsible for putting the VP Racing Fuels programme in front of the racing community, and with Lee's assistance on the front line in the UK this deal
will benefit drag racing big time. Lee fully understands that drag racing venues need support in any shape or form: no matter how big or small, it all helps. York Raceway are getting involved
with VP Racing Fuel products and will be using VP Lane Choice 7 traction compound at the UK Northern Nationals on 7th-8th August. In his capacity as VP's European Traction Compound Consultant
Lee will be assisting in every way to ensure a good, fast and safe track at York Raceway. Lane Choice 7 is being used globally, most recently at Thorney Island's Modified Madness event with
great results.
Lee informed Steve Murty of York Raceway of the good news via the telephone to which Steve replied "I'm blown away, that's great". VP Racing Fuels can also now be pre-ordered for any York Raceway event. For more information or to order your VP fuels contact lee@laracingparts.com. The new Fast Cat and the rookie. 19th July: The 2010 season has been quite different for Norwegian Supertwin racer Svein Olav Rolfstad. During the winter of 2009-10 he decided to take on board a rookie rider named Jan Sturla Hegre and also to include some new team members to ramp up the goals for the future. Svein Olav built himself a new bike at the start of the 2009 season, leaving behind the old fast cat and all the smooth riding he had done with that machine, and headed for that difficult trail which is tuning a nitro-burning machine to run sixes. It has proven to be a struggle. The team decided to miss the first UEM round in Hungary because of the cost involved in travelling so far, so the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod was our first UEM event of 2010. Before the event in England we participated at a local race at Gardermoen, where Jan Sturla gained his Supertwin licence and Svein Olav made some test and tune runs before start of the season. Racing at the Main Event proved to be a test in patience and hard work. The pairing lanes that weekend looked a lot more like the morning traffic on M1 into London than a race event, so we got to practice the skills of waiting, long and hard! To sum up Svein Olav's weekend at the pod there is only one phrase in my mind: hard work! He managed number eighth qualifying place, but had to carry out a complete rebuild of his engine due to an old friend, Mr Blow Up. The crew worked all night without any sleep to get the bike prepared for the first round. Sadly Svein Olav had to shut off after 200 metres, and that was it. Finishing up eighth is not what he planned to do! Jan Sturla, who was entering his first UEM event, was running great seven second passes the whole weekend, and quickly won himself a reputation as a talented young rider and was announced by the commentators to have become a man. He was fifth in qualifying but did not make the start because the bike broke on the last qualifying run. We left England with some unfinshed work, knowing that both riders and bikes had got what it takes in this crazy business. The weekend after we were back at Gardermoen for the Norwegian Championship. And of course, we did it: Svein Olav made it all the way to the top and is the 2010 Norwegian Champion. Sadly our opponent and friend Trond Høiberget, didn't make the start so we will never know how close a race it would have been, but of course we all know the result. Our rookie rider Jan Sturla managed to scare the crap out of us as his front brake handle broke at the finish line and he crashed into the safety net at the end of the strip resulting into a night in hospital and a bruised body. Jan Sturla managed to recover nicely and came back on Sunday to do some runs to shake off the fear. We are proud of this young rider's ability to stay focused and calm, and we are also impressed with how Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen runs the track safety-wise. We have now tested it so you don't have to! Svein Olav has been racing for many years and won the European Championship in 2008 but he have never won the Norwegian Championship so it is fair to say that he was very pleased with this award. After some time off in the wilds of Norway, also known as Toten, Rolfstad Pro Dragracing was ready for the third UEM round at Alastaro in Finland. As started with a long caravan ride into Sweden and a boat ride over to Finland. And what a sight it was when racer after racer pulled their buses out of the boat. They included half the population of Toten, not the town deputy of course, some Swedish cowboys, and some Dutch circus wagons led by the mayor of the town, Mr Heezen. To quote the Dutch mayor of ups and downs we also had our ups destroyed with some downs this weekend. Once again Svein Olav and crew had to work a night shift to repair a badly broken engine. At first sight I was sure that Svein Olav's weekend was over but once again the team pulled the bunny out and showed what it is all about - racing of course. I must also include a big Thank You to Charley Karling from Sweden, who helped us with welding this weekend although he was assigned to help Ulf Ögge, a Pro Stock rider from Sweden. Our bike was ready ten minutes before the last qualifier and Svein Olav had to make a good number to get into the elimination ladder, but the Finnish sun and the lack of sleep made one tiny detail a big deal and the exhaust pipe blew apart at the green light covering Svein Olav in a ball of white feathers. Believe me, a strange site at the drag strip. Once again we had to rely on the youngster and once again he delivered with two 7.01 runs for third qualifier and he ran a 6.92! Let me remnd you that this is his first UEM season ever! So he made it through the first round of eliminations and went to the start line in the semi-finals next to yet another Toten rider, Hans Olav Olstad. The green light came and Jan Sturla left like a bullet, but as he was getting too close to the wall he had to shut off and the run was over. That ended a great weekend for him with new Personal Bests for both ET and speed. Jan Sturla is currently seventh in the 2010 UEM Championship and Svein Olav is tenth. On behalf of Rolfstad Pro Dragracing I must salute our great sponsors who allow us to run: Sunoco, Meca Hadeland, Midthaug, PCI, Notaplan, Sand-Tec, ABM Reklame and GMS. Next up is Mantorp. Need I say more...we'll be back! Swift snippets. 19th July: Eurodragster.com kommer att dela ut 600 SEK till den som gör den bästa brunouten vid helgens Borlänge Street Open på Dala Airport. Vinnaren kommer att utses av speakern Christer Abrahamson tillsammans med Eurodragsters nyhetsredaktör Tog, som kommer att finnas på plats som fotograf. Vinnaren kommer att presenteras och belönas på söndag eftermiddag. De tävlande behöver inte ha Eurodragster.com-dekaler för att kunna vinna men om någon vill ha dekaler är det bara att fråga Tog på banan. Eurodragster.com will be awarding 600 Swedish Kroner for the best burnout at this weekend's Borlänge Street Open at Dala Airport. The winner will be decided by commentator Christer Abrahamson and Eurodragster.com News Editor Tog, who will be photographing at Borlange, and will be announced and awarded on Sunday afternoon. Racers do not have to carry Eurodragster.com decals to win the award, but if you would like decals then please ask Tog at the track (Thanks to Erik Zettervall for the Swedish version). 
Ulf Lindqvist has put his Topolino altered up for sale. The 125" wheelbase chassis is believed to be from a 1970s US Funny
Car original and the car comes equipped with a Big Block Chevy. You can take a look at the car on the Bad Luck Boys
web site at www.smokingtire.se and full details of what is on offer can
be found under Cars For Sale on our Jeff Bull Race Engines and Performance Parts
Swap Meet.
After celebrating a 9.03/155 pass at the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals, it's now time for UK Outlaw Anglia racer Simon Barlow to celebrate another year. The Orange Pop Racing team would like to wish Simon a very Happy Birthday; looks like party time at Bug Jam this weekend (any excuse for some beer). Have a great day Simon. Twelve Supercharged Outlaws are headed for this weekend's Warwick Motor Show at Shakespeare County Raceway, says Roy Wilding. "We are expecting the return of Steve Goode's Ghost Train Funny Car, Ian Hanson's immaculate Corvette, Brian Gandy in the KB Altered, Clive Bush in the imported IHRA Altered, a line-up of four Small Block Chevy Outlaws - Vic Hammond/Sam Freeman, Alec Coe, Dave McKenzie and Lee Gallimore - plus Paul Watts from the Isle of Wight in the No Easy Pick Up, Richard Davies with the immaculately turned out Willys, Trace Froome in his Dodge Funny Car and Matt Lee with the 392 blown Hemi slingshot", says Roy. "If the last meeting is anything to go by, this should be a good one!" Bob Shayler's family would like to say a big Thank You to everyone who attended his funeral, especially Chris Hartnell and Claire Meaddows who made a detour on the way to the Mini Weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway to fire up the Backdraft slingshot at the wake after Bob's son Paul asked John Parkinson whether a car could be brought along to give his dad a fitting send-off. John tells us that over three hundred attended Bob's funeral and that his wake attracted interest from the Abingdon Herald. "Bob had asked for ladies to wear Red shoes and stockings and suspenders at his funeral, and he would not have been disappointed", says John. "By sheer coincidence the Red Arrows were practising at an nearby airfield and could be seen in the sky as Chris and Claire fired up the car, once again a huge Thank You to them." Bennetts get Balanced. 
19th July:The UK's
Bennett Racing are pleased to welcome Optimum Balance Products to their list of sponsors.
OBP is the first sponsor to come on board since the team's announcement on 28th June that they plan to step up to FIA Top Methanol Funny Car in 2011.
Optimum Balance Products Ltd supply motorsport components to professional drivers and race teams all over the world and have a comprehensive dealer and distributor list which can be viewed on their web site at www.obp.uk.net. OBP are new to the drag racing market but feel that with all their knowledge and experience in Rally, Track, Drifting and Single Seat motorsports they will be able to offer fantastic value to the drag racers and teams. OBP offer an excellent one-off aluminium or alloy tank service, manufacturing ten one-off tanks per week. All they require is a drawing of the tank to sales@obp.uk.net and a quote will be returned. In addition if you are interested in race car geometry or in setting up a Bias Bar in a pedal box then a free report can be found on OBP's web site. OBP can also supply Race Pedal Boxes, Hydraulic Handbrakes, Alloy Fuel Swirl Pots, Alloy Oil Catch Tanks, Alloy Navigator Foot Rests, Alloy Fuel Tanks, Alloy Header Tanks, Alloy Rally Ramps, Alloy Dry Sump Tanks, Cooling Louvres, Red Top and Odyssey Battery Brackets and Race and Rally Work Sill Stands. If racers have any ideas for products which they would like OBP to manufacture then get in touch at sales@obp.uk.net as they thrive on feedback. All OBP products are manufactured in the UK, the home of motorsport, in their own factory based in Motorsport Valley near Peterborough. "As ever we are very grateful to all of our sponsors and we welcome Optimum Balance Products on board", says Luke Bennett. "If you would like your company to be associated with us please E-Mail sponsorship@bennettracing.co.uk. 120 years of mischief. 
19th July: Further to John Price's recent story, Roy Wilding tells us that he and Dave Fisher also met up with
John 'Doc' Claydon on his recent visit to the UK from Australia, adding up to 120 years of mischief:
Doc (centre) was well known in the drag racing scene for a mental Altered, and in the hot rodding world for his Willys with a blown 392 hemi. His Willys was one of the finest blown hot rods produced in England. Doc left England approximately eight years ago for a new life in Perth. He now appears to be running a sucessful business and enjoying life down under. Doc said to say hello to Charlie Draper and Bill Felstead, good mates from the past. Dave Fisher (right) has been well-known in the VW scene for the last thirty years and runs a sucessful business in Smethwick, West Midlands. Dave is also known in off road and custom scenes, prior to this he ran Mini Coopers in the street racing scene in the mid-seventies. He also has small colletion of American vehicles. Roy Wilding (left) started street racing with Mini Coopers and Ford Anglias approximately forty years ago, rolled in to the hot rodding scene in the late 1970s with Ford Pops, and then progressed into drag racing where he remains. You can imagine that we all had a trip down Memory Lane, lots of stories to tell some about people with us today and some not, and a good night was had by all. Doc will be back to Oz in the next few weeks. We wish him a safe journey, and don't leave it so long long next time. Web site updates. 
19th July: Our good friend Julian Hunt has updated his photography site with nearly five hundred pictures from
Big Bang which took place at Santa Pod Raceway in April. You can check out Julian's excellent pictures at
www.julianhunt.net.
The official web site of the UK's Nitro Junkie drag bike team has been updated with news of an addition bringing the team up to three bikes. Check it out at www.nitrous-junkie.co.uk. Photo-journalist Dick Parnham has updated his Fotopic gallery with pictures from the SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway in June. You can find Dick's pictures at dickparnham.fotopic.net. Keep 'em peeled... 17th July: Paul Marston writes on behalf of his friend John Hoffman to alert readers to the theft of John's spare Big Block Chevrolet engine which is meant to reside in his red Ford Pinto: The motor was stolen along with a kart from John's garage in Greenford last Saturday afternoon. The ex-Jerry Charles motor is unusual because its a Mark 5 Block and has Edelbrock Ally Performer RPM Heads. It is brand new and was painted GM bright orange. The Mark V blocks have a round end to the crank and a one piece seal, they also take a one piece sump gasket. Pro Street balancer, Chrome Moroso rocker covers, 454R Victor Junior intake, Holley 1050 Dominator, Blue Moroso Deep Air filter, brand new Moroso steel sump, Mallory Unilite distributor, blue plug leads and NGK spark plugs. John has all the part numbers for the internal parts. If anyone hears about, is offered, or knows the whereabouts of this motor then please get in touch. All information will be treated in the strictest confidence. Drag racing has very little of this kind of stuff, let's all do our best to keep it that way. If you have any information then please call John on 07932 067577 or E-Mail pmracing@fsmail.net. Swift snippets. 
17th July: Kjell Pettersson tells us that work has started to prepare the newly-laid surface at
Mantorp Park for the Veidec Festival on 29th July-1st August. "The picture shows Kalle Brinell taking on the task of cleaning
and washing the strip with Powersol", says Kjell.
nasbolts.co.uk is a new on-line supplier of NAS bolt and aircraft-spec fastener products focusing on all types of motorsport. NAS bolts are used throughout motorsport on both two and four wheels and offer the user a very reliable and high strength fastener solution. They are manufactured to National Aerospace Standards out of an 8740 alloy steel; the tensile strength of the bolt is 160,000 PSI in tension and 95,000 PSI in shear, making them strong and reliable. The precision bolts come in many grip lengths and diameters enabling a perfect bolt for any application. nasbolts.co.uk also stock washers and K nuts to be used with the NAS bolts. For more information visit www.nasbolts.co.uk or E-Mail info@nasbolts.co.uk. American cars, street rods, custom cars and Harleys are welcome to the Damn Yankees Show at North Weald Airfield in Essex tomorrow. "Although there is no Run What You Brung this time, drag racing fans are still well catered for", says Gary Hall. "John Price is commentating as usual. The Bennetts' blown-alcohol altered is attending, Bert Engelfield will be firing up his awesome Pro Mod and Bill Felstead will bringing along a nitro-burning slingshot dragster. Gates open at 9:00 am and the programme in the arena starts at 12.30 pm". North Weald Airfield is on the A414 between Harlow and Chipping Ongar in Essex, just off Junction 7 of the M11. click here for a map or feed CM16 6AA into your SatNav. For more information telephone 07740 827288. The National Street Rod Assocation is hosting its SuperNationals at Shuttleworth (Old Warden) next Friday, Saturday and Sunday and is open to all on Sunday. Special guests this year are Pete Chapouris of So-Cal Speedshops who will be attending the full weekend, and Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top who will be spending Sunday at the event. You can find out more at www.nsra.org.uk. DHRA RWYB webcast. 16th July: Courtesy of Maikel Gloudemans and Me(n)tal Enterprizes no-nonsense ICT an audio and video feed of this afternoon's DHRA Run What You Brung at Drachten will be available at www.doyousee.me/DHRA. "We will be broadcasting with a single camera and sound, there will be no announcer so not the audio you are used to from us", says Mikael. "We have also cracked the code of their database so we will have live timing data as well as text messages at a small cost". The webcast will run from 15:00 to 22:00 European / 14:00 to 21:00 UK. Available at your corner shop... 16th July: The FB Racing Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator '34 Ford will be on display at the Badsey, Evesham branch of Spar today (Friday) to celebrate the store's reopening after refurbishment reopening. The Badsey Spar is one of a group of convenience stores owned by George Sangha who has recently joined the FB Racing Associate Sponsor Scheme. George was introduced to the world of Street Eliminator and FB Racing in particular by Fat Boy Darren 'Squeak' Herbert-White and he was instantly taken by the performance achieved by the street-legal hot rod. "I decided to back Ian and the FB Racing team as I could see that they weren't afraid of the odds", said George. "Despite being a relatively low-buck operation they have made some remarkable achievements over the years in a car which is completely home-built. Even their superb performance this year, having won three of four events in 2010, has been against the odds as their highest qualifying position so far has been third. And many have seen the way Ian has had to fight the car down the strip at some meetings." "We are very pleased to have George on board for 2010", says driver Ian Hook. "Despite having been unable to attend a meeting George follows the racing very closely and I know the updates we produce help him feel part of the team. We'd like to say a big thank you to George and to all of the sponsors who have stuck with us in these difficult times. You make such a difference to what we can achieve - thanks!" The car will be on display between 11:00 am and 6:00 pm before being whisked back to Cheltenham where the team will continue to prep for round five of this year's Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator Championship, at next week's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway. Swift snippets. 16th July: Courtesy of Championship Co-ordinator Ian King the post-SPRC Summernationals points standings in the ACU UK Drag Bike Championships are now available on the King Racing web site at www.kingracing.com. On 12th June the Battle of Britain Reliabilty Run took place in the Kent countryside. The run was organised by the Detonators Car Club to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain and photographer Neal Reed has produced a book of pictures of the day's events. The book is priced at £25 and all profits go towards Help for Heroes. For more information or to order your copy check out www.blurb.com/books/1463272. 
Recent birthday boy David Parker asked us to say a big thank you to his wife Elaine who surprised him with this birthday cake (above right) on his fiftieth birthday. "John Force at Santa Pod? Who knows after Melanie's recent visit", says David. "I've been a drag racing fan for as long as I can remember. My first visit to Santa Pod was the 1983 World Finals and the most recent was the FIA Main Event. I love it!" The whole Werner Habermann Racing team have asked us to say a big Happy 21st Birthday to Top Methanol Dragster racer Dennis Habermann. "Dennis will really have to enjoy his day, because in two weeks he will have another big battle with me...just joking!", says Timo Habermann. "We wish Dennis all the best". Have a great day Dennis. Stardust sees daylight. 15th July: Seeing the light of day for the first time in many years at this Sunday's Retro Show at Santa Pod Raceway will the Barracuda body of one of SPR's most famous imports, Don Schumacher's Stardust Funny Car albeit in its final guise as Mike Allen's American Dream Econo Funny Car. As most fans know the legendary Cuda has languished in one of the hangars at the main entrance at Santa Pod but will be on display on Sunday together with an information card. 
Santa Pod tell us that they do not currently have any plans for the body save to put it on display but a big thumbs-up to the SPR management for allowing fans to see a piece of both US and UK drag racing history, and we all know what can grow from little acorns. Unless any of our readers know different the FC's original chassis is believed lost; in photographs from the hangar the chassis underneath the body shows significant differences to the original and is reckoned to be a later piece. You can see video of the car in action in its heyday in the film International Draggin' in Olde England which you can watch on Jon Spoard's excellent UK Drag Racing Nostalgia web site at www.ukdrn.co.uk/mc/idioe.html. The Stardust FC also features in threads on the UKDRN nostalgia discussion forum at www.ukdrn.co.uk/forum. The Retro Show itself is a great chance for owners of classic and retro cars, bikes, scooters and trucks to get out on the drag strip for some Run What You Brung and maybe have a crack at some corners (Yellow card - Ed) on the Autotest track too. All makes and models welcome, including race vehicles. For full information and ticket prices see www.retroshow.co.uk. Pictures courtesy and copyright Jim Spoard (above left) and Chris Dredge (above right) The Stude's return, part I. 15th July: Bob Roberts of Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars has been in touch to let us know that work has started on the rebuild of Andy Robinson's Studebaker Pro Mod, which was badly damaged in a fire at the FHRA Nitro Nationals. 
"The dismantling is pretty well done so there are lots of damaged bits to be seen", Bob told Eurodragster.com. "The rebuild has started with Wayne, Andy and Mike sealing the vacuum bag on a new bonnet - a new fibreglass panel is put in the bag and vacuumed during the curing process to ensure penetration of the resin and removal of surplus. 
"Andy is keen to go for Hockenheim but that's a lot of work in a short time. The chassis goes off for media blasting next week and its return is obviously on the critical path along with a lot of stuff which has to be rebuilt in the US such as the mag." Swift snippets. 
15th July: The latest spy picture to arrive at the offices of Eurodragster.com
came with the words "A local twitcher spotted this well known bird of a bike in a Wiltshire garage, soon to be turned into a 9.50 Bike for a young
female rider apparently". If you know more, or if you would like to send your own spy picture, then drop us a line at
eurodragster.com@btinternet.com.Time out for Best. 15th July: UK Fuel Altered pilot Jon Best says that he is going to spend some time out after a couple of seriously expensive breakages: Following a bit of a turbulent season, which was quite disjointed due to masses of engine damage at the Easter Thunderball and again at the Summer Nationals, I decided - and truthfully had little choice - to put a stop to all the silliness and have a break. I'd like to say that it was a tough decision, but frankly I knew instantly that it was time to quit for a bit. Whether it's fair to say or not, I felt embarrassed and humiliated to be leaving another event with an engine seemingly only fit for purpose as scrap metal. Whilst running any Fuel car isn't the easiest task in the world, it's not impossible and we should be making three or four laps per weekend, not just one. I'm sorry to the Santa Pod crew who've had to clean up the mess left on more than one occasion, and a big thank you for putting out the three or four fires (I think it's three anyway, seems to be all the time though). Having looked several times at the video footage recorded at the Summernationals, it's still not 100% clear as to what happened, apart from my getting a faceful of oil and shrapnel. At this moment in time it doesn't really matter, it just shouldn't have happened in the first place. Admittedly, it happens to most at some point, but to have two motors let go in the space of two months has wiped me out financially. I wasn't at all elated about a new PB with a 6.693 timing ticket (at a slowing 173 mph having carded 183 mph at the eighth). I should have been overjoyed, but I just didn't feel anything once I'd seen a huge window each side of the block. There's been the odd suggestion that "You should race in a lower class, or run methanol, or pump gas instead". Personally I thought we did OK given the budget of a fiver and some pork scratchings, and I like nitro racing, and I'll carry on working as hard as I can, and put up with the things I have to neglect in order to carry on doing this nitro thing for the rest of my life. My crew have been superb throughout, and I can't thank them enough. There was a loose plan to convert the altered into a Nostalgia Funny Car, but having been left with two heaps of melted, broken rubbish on the floor of the trailer enough is enough, and carrying on only serves to make me look incompetent. I'll be selling all my remaining parts such as engine, trans, clutch and associated bits to erase some of my loans and let me progress to the next stage. I guess this is what you'd call a sabbatical though I'll still be around the track, with some work at Nitro FM, along with crewing for the Gleadow & Galloway NFAA altered, and the Shockwave Nitro FC. At present the plan is to campaign a Nitro Funny Car in 2012. Licencing will happen as soon as I've saved up the funds to do so, either at the end of this year or some point during 2011. A thank you must go to Dave Bryant, Gordon Smith and Flip Flop Phelps for taking me on board recently, thanks guys. Lastly a thank you to everyone who's been supportive the last few weeks, as I've been quite a miserable sod and you'd think the apocalypse was imminent - the day the Pod Shop runs out of Jaffa Cakes, it most certainly will be. See you all at the track! What's on this weekend. 15th July: Mikael Gloudemans tells us that the Dutch Hot Rod Association are holding a street-legal Run What You Brung at Drachten tomorrow (Friday). The track will be open between 15:00 and 22:00. Entry is €10 and the track fee is another €10. Licence, registration and insurance are mandatory. As one would expect from an event with which Mikael is involved a live webcast will be available at www.doyousee.me/DHRA. "We will be broadcasting with a single camera and sound, there will be no announcer so not the audio you are used to from us", says Mikael. "We have also cracked the code of their database so we will have live timing data as well as text messages at a small cost". More information about the RWYB at www.dhra.nl. The Gold Town Summer Nats is being held at Fällfors Raceway, Skellefteå from Friday to Sunday. This is a round of the NDRS and Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series High Five points Championships with classes including Comp Eliminator, Stock/Super Stock and other Super classes and Junior Dragsters. Racing will take place from 14:00 to 19:00 on Friday, 09:30 to 17:00 on Saturday and 09:30 to 16:00 on Sunday. Entrance is SEK 50 on Friday, SEK150 on Saturday and SEK120 on Sunday with a weekend ticket for SEK200. Children under 16 years old get in for half price if accompanied by an adult and entry is free for under-12s. For camping information see www.drivecenter.nu. Full details of the Gold Town Summer Nats can be found at www.shraskelleftea.se. On each of the three days of the Gold Town Summer Nats there will also be a chance to see pre-1949 vehicles in action where the race includes a round of the Sweden Hot Rod Drags, about which you can read more at www.hotroddrags.se. The Agroma Nationals takes place at Veidec Raceway, Malmö, Sweden on Friay to Sunday. The race will be for the TSDS High Five Points Championship and is organised by SRIF. Qualifying will be from 18:00 to 21:00 on Friday and 10:00 to 17:00 on Saturday with eliminations from 18:00 to late on Saturday and 10:00 onwards on Sunday. A Test & Tune will be taking place on Sunday at Helsinge Raceway in Sweden. Entry is SEK20 and SEK200 for racers. For details see www.smksoderhamn.com. Video footage of 2010 events at Helsinge, Söderhamn Summer Nats, Orsa and Hall & Kapell Nationals at Sundsvall has been posted at www.youtube.com/user/Zawiqqo. On Saturday and Sunday the Leather Heaven Nats will be taking place at Kalajoki in Finland. The race will be for the Finnish Cup in all sportsman classes and Street Cup; Super Pro ET and Comp will be running over the eighth. There will be discounted entrance for FHRA members, of €10 for the weekend (you must show your membership card at the gate). Weekend entrance is €20, entry on Saturday is €15 and on Sunday €15. Children under 12 years old free of charge with parents. Racing will be from 10:00 to 18:00 on Saturday and 11:00 to 17:00 on Sunday. More details at www.fhra.fi. The 4th Championship Drag Race 2010 takes place at Tympaki in Greece on Saturday and Sunday. For more details see www.greekdragster.com. Thanks to our friends at Cedrag.com for information about of the following events in Central Europe this weekend. Particularly significant is the German Motor Sport Timing Organisation and Czech Championship staging their first joint international meeting in the Czech Republic with a larger field of Czech and German drag racers expected to turn out. This will be on Saturday and Sunday at Bechyne in the Czech Republic where Round 4 of the Czech National Championship, organised by www.dragster.cz, and the Pažout Motomejdan show will include the Dragster Eurogames featuring German racers of MSTO and Predators Motorclub. The MSTO will be running Junior Dragster, Pro ET, Super Pro ET, Super Gas, Competition Eliminator, Super Street Bike and Super Twin Top Gas for points in their respective 2010 German Championships. The Autoclub-CR, the Czech governing body, has extended the track licence for the airfield to include cars as well as bikes. More information can be found at www.dragrace.cz. On Saturday there will be a Hungarian Drag Racing event organised by www.dragracing.hu at Kiskunlacháza, Hungary. At Banja Luka, Belgrade, Serbia, Round 2 of the DragMasters-Adria Street Race Series takes place on Saturday and Sunday. This will be organised by the Serbian Drag Racing Club. Anita: Just blame me. 
14th July: Finnish Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita
Mäkelä made an unusual ignominious exit from the FHRA Nitro Nationals, leaving when opponent Urs Erbacher moved into stage
in round one of eliminations. In one of the more courageous news items we have received recently, Anita has tried to explain what
happened:
Our home race is always very hectic. There is so much more than just the racing itself. And the home race makes our team the biggest with our parents, sisters and brothers with their families, neighbours, friends... In two weeks it is Micke Kågered's turn to have all this fun! My red light wasn't due to the amount of people I had there. There is no-one to blame except me. I just wasn't careful enough. Of course I realised immediately what I had done. And I can tell you that that is the moment when you really wish you could have a rewind button in your life. But there isn't, and the moment is gone. When I was rolling towards the finish line, I was planning on keeping on rolling and never turning back. There was so much fuel everywhere that I could hardly stop the motor. Thanks to my new dual Lamb brakes I was able to hold it still until the engine stopped. It was a horrible feeling after the red light. All the work my crew had done was in vain. Kevin travelled hours to get to Finland from Indianapolis, and I pulled a red light. Luckily for me my darling Tommi came to take me back to the pits with Janne and Jari. Thanks to my supportive crew I got over it, but it took a while. This is racing and I made a mistake. But by punishing myself hard I feel I can grow and be a better driver. This all makes me even more hungry and determined to run fast. I learned a lesson and it won't happen again. Just to eliminate the slightest possibility that the red light was due to good-looking drivers and crew (like Urs), I might wear extra opaque sunglasses. If I wander around the pits like a blind person then please return me to TF5's truck and trailer. Mantorp Park prepares. 14th July: Speedgroup co-ordinator Åsa Kinnemar writes that yesterday she visited Sweden's Mantorp Park, where the next FIA/UEM Championship round will be held on 29th July-1st August. As administrator of the Championships Speedgroup works closely with organisers in all kinds of areas, and Åsa says that preparations for the Veidec Festival are going according to plan: Yesterday a planned resurface of the first 150 metres of the track was finished. It has been ground and laid with new asphalt according to the advice of experts from Skanska. 
Lelle Olsson from TimeTree also arrived on site yesterday with the scoreboards for the new timing system. Amongst other things the new set-up will provide a live webcast, but we will have more information about this as we get closer to the event. And don't worry, Eurodragster.com will be reporting from Mantorp Park as normal (I think I was the only one worrying - Ed). There are currently 345 teams entered for the Veidec Festival including thirty five Pro Mods, eleven Top Fuellers, a huge Supertwin field and more. For further news about the event stay tuned to www.mantorppark.com, www.speedgroup.eu and of course Eurodragster.com. Our latest débutante. 
14th July: Gary Kay writes with news of the début of his daughter Jayne's Pink Lady blown-alcohol Funny Car at the
weekend's Mini Showdown at Shakespeare County Raceway:
We had the car ready to run, and everything was good to go. On Saturday we checked the valve lash and did a warm-up and found two small oil leaks. No problem, we repaired them and ran the car through the gears, now a bigger oil leak. We repaired that, ran the car through the gears and had no oil leaks, but no gears either. The oil leak was at the front of the engine. We removed the gearbox, stripped and checked it and found all OK so we stripped and checked the reverser and found that the two Torrington bearings had broken up and collapsed. With the help of Steve of Motorshack, who arranged for Wayne the master fabricator to make two spacers, we rebuilt the reverser. A botch or modification? We refitted the transmission, it still had some play but was worth a try. On Sunday Jayne got suited and booted for another warm-up. The engine sounded awesome, then for the gears: first OK, second OK, reverse OK. We tried several times and all seemed fine. Got scrutineered and with the help of the Wicked Lady crew we backed up to the wall. Now was the time to put all the talk, time and money to the test. Jayne went into concentration mode, we were given the signal to fire, a quick final check with Jayne and lower the body. Jayne moved the car into position for her burnout and hit the throttle only a little, which was enough to light up the tyres and then slow further down the track. Into reverse, perfect, reversing back to the start line as good as any Funny Car racer. Chute flags out, cleared the cylinders (sounded great) and I gave the signal to move forward. No movement. I thought that Jayne may not have seen me but no, she had seen me, however there was no forward gear. The box is now in bits, same problem as the first time, the circlip had come off due to play at the forward gear. But I was over the moon as Jayne controlled the car like a true professional. It was worth the effort. Thanks to new team members Peter and Sooty, the Wicked lady crew, the Destiny's Angel crew, Steve Wood, Wayne, Sue Whyte and all the the Shakey track crew and marshals in making this début possible. What a great weekend. There are plenty of pictures at www.eclipsephotos.co.uk and at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net. Jayne is updating the team's web site at www.pinkladyracing.moonfruit.com. If anyone has video or pictures then please send them to gjkf1@aol.com. We will see you all soon. Swift snippets. 14th July: Santa Pod Raceway are seeking classic and retro race cars to make demonstration runs at the Retro Show this Sunday, 18th July. If you would be interested in appearing at the Retro Show then please contact Chris Dredge at chris@santapod.com or call him on 01234 782828. Web site updates. 14th July: Our good buddy Remco Scheelings has posted a report and pictures of the weekend's Drachten Internationals on The Netherlands' Autosport web site at www.autosport.nl. As with Remco's last report from Drachten we've taken a look and the pictures are superb, and doubtless the report is of equal quality. NitrOlympX deadlines nearing. 13th July: Jerry Lackey has been in touch to remind racers that if they wish to take part in the 25th Anniversary NitrOlympX at Hockenheim on 13th-15th August then they must download the entry form from the Driver Information section of the NitrOlympX web site at www.nitrolympx.com rather than expect them to be mailed. "The deadline for the normal entry fee is this Friday, 16th July, and final entry date is Thursday 29th July", says Jerry. "Top Fuel Bike, Supertwin, Pro Stock Bike and Funny Bike are by invitation only and those invitations have been sent out. "An extra note of interest for our Pro Mod fans is that Melanie Troxel will be returning to Europe for the 25th Anniversary event driving the same Pro Mod which she drove at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod (Now will people stop contradicting me - Ed). The world-famous NitrOlympX Night Show will be loaded with more action than ever before and will be worth the trip." Heezen: Too helpful? 13th July: If Dutch Supertwin racer Job Heezen wasn't such a nice guy, we would have suspected that he would be regretting helping a fellow racer at the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. But it is because Job is a nice guy that he was happy to help, even if it did rebound on him in eliminations: The Main Event was a good race for us with a solid runner-up place. Qualifying went smoothly without too many surprises, just the usual bugs. In general I have to admit that we did one thing wrong: all week-end long we under-estimated the track for some reason, probably the weather. The track crew did a better job than we thought, so apologies to the guys, it will not happen again. Lorenz Stäuble was faster all weekend and took a well-deserved win at the Pod. The next race was far away in Finland. For us it's a two and a half day road trip crossing Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Botnic Sea and Finland. The 600 kilometres from the south of Sweden to Stockholm is the longest part but not at all unpleasant. Living in a country with speed bumps every quarter mile and traffic lights every mile makes you appreciate even more the long straights in Sweden. These long straights together with hot rods, Bel Airs or Caddys here and there makes you feel like you are riding somewhere in the Mid West. Fuel stations with Wheels magazine and Classic Bilsport tops it off. This way you don't need the ten hour flight to the US... On the ferry to Turku we got pretty scared. Half of the population of Toten in Norway were on the same vessel. We found this out just after the ferry left the harbour so there was no chance to go home. I talked to the Chief of Police in Toten the other day and he said that he was very happy with UEM races. Every time these guys like Ottje, Liberace, Svein-Olaf or Jan-Sturla leave town for a race he can send his officers home for a vacation. One deputy to switch the lights on and off will do for those days. Qualifying at Alastaro was a story of ups and downs for us. We started with a soft set-up and ran a solid 6.976 first and a 6.853 in the second qualifier. We thought we should step up a little and give it some more throttle but that didn't work, I had wheelspin off the line and headed for the centre line with huge tyre shake. Allthough the data didn't show anything to worry about we found out in Q4 that the sprag had suffered from the tyre-shake: at 2.2 seconds into the run the sprag broke in pieces, so that was it for the moment. We ended up in third place which matched us to sixth in the field, Roel Koedam. Again the old against the new Zodiac machine, blown against normally aspirated, it is starting to be a classic. Last years elimination at the European Finals was one of the best races we had together, and believe me this really means something as both Roel and I, old farts that we are, have quite some runs under our belts. Last year's run was decided by a difference of only 0.0942, in this race the margin was even less, 0.0597. Roel had a better reaction and a slightly better sixty foot time but he lost some speed at the top end which gave me the chance to catch him just before the stripe. It was a tremendous drag race and in the meantime we ran a strong 6.725 quartermile, I believe the quickest run of the week end in Supertwin. Next round: Ismo Mäenpää (Mom & Dad) and here is little behind-the-scenes story. In qualifying Ismo had a hard time to make decent runs, his bike died more or less after leaving the start line. They qualified seventh but he was not a happy camper and they found themselves in a dead-end street. On Saturday evening they asked me to see if I could be any help with the set-up. This is easier said than done as digging into someone else's set-up is not that easy. This time however, the problem was clear: they had changed too many things in one go, making them lose track completely. So my advice was "Go back to the set-up of your best last run when everything was bright and shiny and start all over again from there". So they did that and it paid off well. Their first victim was Lo in the first round of eliminations. Than it was my turn in the semi's. I had a nice sixty foot and a pretty sharp 330 foot time but the bike was making big side steps. Nothing special and usually the fishtailing gets better after the 330-foot mark but not this time. At half track the bike was ready to throw me off so I decided to close the throttle but it was too late. It started to drop a cylinder and crossed the line in a disappointing 7.107. In the meantime Ismo was on a mission and ran his first ever six, a 6.997. There you go - I have seen this before, you help people and than they beat you. It was a good day for a lot of Finns on their home track anyway. In the final Hans-Olav didn't make any mistake and took the win in the same way he ran all week-end, strong and solid. Three races in UEM Supertwin so far with three different winners. Hmm, it's getting interesting! I would like to send special thanks to my crew and to my sponsors Zodiac International, Spectro Oils, National Cycle and Supertrapp Exhaust. Also special thanks to the FHRA track crew and the people at Speedgroup, things are getting better every time. Next stop: Mantorp. Flying two flags at once. 
13th July: Norm Wheeldon tells us that he and Herb Andrews have been invited to display the
Two Much twin-engined nostalgia slingshot at this weekend's Cholmondeley Pageant of Power at Cholmondeley Castle in
north Shropshire.
"Now in its third year, the Pageant has grown to be the North West's answer to the Goodwood Festival of Speed", says Norm. "As some of you know it is not easy to get an invite to this sort of event with a dragster, so I sent the organisers a linkn to the YouTube video of the burnout we have done. They came back to us straght away: "We would definitely like your dragster at CPOP". "There is something for everybody this weekend from historic grand prix cars, Audi Le Mans winning sports cars, historic motor bikes, rally cars, speedboats on the lake, Classic Car Club displays etc. Check the web site at www.cpop.co.uk. "We are looking forward to seeing how our dragster is received at this type of event!" Swift snippets. 13th July: 16:20 Many thanks to Emelie Carlswärd of Mantorp Park for sending us the latest version of the official entry list for the Veidec Festival which takes place at Mantorp on 29th July-1st August. You can check out the updated entry list (PDF format) by clicking here or you can see it in situ at www.motorevents.com. FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Andy Carter is keeping himself busy between races. He is currently on Anglesey for the opening of the new headquarters of Lucas Oil UK and Europe. Andy and other Lucas Oil drivers are on hand to chat to guests and Andy is very much looking forward to the opening. You can see pictures of Andy's and our sponsor's new facility at www.lucasoil.co.uk/photo_gallery.php. The guys at Rally Action have done another great job of the TV coverage of last week's FHRA Nitro Nationals. You can check out the first of two instalments on-line via the News page of Speedgroup's web site at www.speedgroup.eu. As Executive Producer of these broadcasts, Championship Promoter Keith Bartlett should also be credited for the improvement in this year's coverage, so that credit is duly given. We were shocked to hear of the death of US Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mark Niver in a crash in Seattle on Sunday. We know that Mark had many friends amongst the European Top Methanol racers some of whom have been in touch to say what a friendly and helpful guy he was, and how good a racer. Our deepest sympathies to those racers who have lost their friend and of course to all of Mark's family and friends. Web site updates. 
13th July: Richard Smith has updated his Fotopic gallery with shots from the
last event at York Raceway which included the 33rd Annual Street Racer Championship. You can check out
Richard's excellent pictures at
richardsmith.fotopic.net.Olstad's late bath. 
12th July: Norwegian Supertwin racer and FHRA Nitro Nationals winner Hans Olav Olstad and his team
arrived in Finland in the most beautiful weather imaginable, sporting a new crank and ignition parts as well as an
empty wallet:
After all the struggles we were very exited about Lightning's performance in the first qualifying run. Lightning hooked up nicely and left the first 200 metres behind in 4.42 seconds, and now the engine ran the whole length of the track. Oh yeah! I was so happy that the engine finally ran that well that I started to brake a little late. Result, I ended up in the sand trap. The rescue people rushed in immediately and asked me how I was, but my only question was "What was my time?". 6.74 seconds and top qualifier, I was so happy that I totally forgot that Lightning was covered by sand inside and out. The engine had to be taken apart and cleaned properly so we missed the second run for the day. After four qualifying runs, we were still number one qualifier. In the first elimination run, Finland's Ismo Mäenpää's 7.19 took out Lorenz Stäuble's 7.65, Job Heezen's 6.72 took out Roel Koedam's 6.83 in a thriller of a race (More about that tomorrow - Ed), Jan Sturla Hegre's 7.06 took out Høiberget who pulled the shut-off in the burn out, and we took out Samu Kemppainen 6.74 to 7.58. In the semi-final Ismo did a strong 6.99, his first six-second run, and took out Heezen 7.10. We did a 6.97 and took out Hegre 9.03. In the final we ran a nice 6.83 and took out Ismo's 7.06. This was our first victory since Santa Pod in 2005 and gave us second place in UEM standings. The prize ceremony at Alastaro is something special, and you have to win to deserve the extra bath you got there. There are so many feelings and thoughts after a weekend like this. All this great people we meet and challenge. Is it worth all the work day and night, all the money we spend and all traveling away from home for a six-second run? Yes! We also like to welcome our new sponsors Øveraasen and Automester. Our next race is at Mantorp Park on 30th July-1st August. See you there. Stäuble feels the heat. 12th July: Swiss Supertwin racer and FIA Main Event winner Lorenz Stäuble and the Erbacher team went to Alastaro with high expectations after the double at Santa Pod, says team member Horst Pauli: After Mantorp last year we changed the set-up quite a bit, so we had no exact data for Alastaro this year. In the first qualifier Lo didn't get a good grip on the throttle so he couldn't stay on it all the way down. In the next run he lost traction. In the third session it finally went OK and he ran 6.78/336 kmh. We couldn't improve on that time because in the last qualifier we had a dropped cylinder after about 4.5 seconds. The track was real hot all weekend, quite difficult to read and handle. So on Sunday we went back to our good qualifying set-up, but it didn't go as we planned. We lost with a tyre-spinning run and the usual dropped cylinder afterwards. Ismo Mäenpää in the other lane made a nice run and ran stronger with each pass. Congratulations also to Hans Olav Olstad who had not won a race in five years, so he told us. He deserved that win! So looking back to the weekend we had perfect weather, a hot track, new experiences, and a very good time with fellow racers from all over Europe. We hope we can do better at Mantorp, even though we are not that strong over the eighth mile. But you can be sure that we are working on that." White breaks a wing. 
12th July: UK Pro Modified racer Ray White would love to say that the pictured damage to his wild Zephyr
was caused by hitting the wall after a rapid sixty foot time and a 3.9-second eighth mile, but it didn't.
"The hitch pin broke on the winch and the car fell off the trailer and hit a wall just as I had winched it on to the trailer", Ray told Eurodragster.com. "We had just finished the engine. We fired it last Saturday and all the new parts sounded great so I was loading ready for testing at the Retro Show. I am not going to let it beat me, it's already stripped and should be refitted by the middle of the week. "Everyone keeps saying it's the 666 on the side, but he does'nt know who he is dealing with. "Does he know who I am?" is my favourite saying. We will be at the Retro Show, we are staying for Bug Jam, and if we need any more testing we will stay for the Mopars." Rosie's inspirational aim. 
12th July: Further to Friday's Swift Snippet, Sabine Millberg has confirmed that Sweden's first female racer,
former Pro Comp racer Rosie Millberg, will be making her comeback in one of Rune Fjeld's Top Fuel Dragsters at Mantorp Park during
Back to Basics and the Veidec Festival Press Day on 28th July.
"It has been thirty years now since Rosie sat behind the wheel of a dragster, but when I found out a few years ago about her secret past a new dream came to life", says Sabine. "The goal of this project is to make Rosie a source of inspiration to everyone with her comeback in drag racing. The YoMamaCrew will co-operate with Linda Thun, who is to be Rosie's mentor for driving and with Rune Fjeld who owns the dragster. Rosie will also have the legendary Kent Persson by her side. Rosie needs to make three runs to get her licence and afterwards we hope to see her compete in the race. "There will be a press event covering Rosie's comeback, and notable attendees will include Gudrun Schyman and Willy Björkman. Thirty years ago, Rosie was the first woman to drive a dragster. Now at the age of 57, she is geared up to make history once again, but this time as the oldest woman to experience the full speed of the sport's toughest car - a Top Fuel Dragster." You can find out more on Rosie's web site at www.yomamacrew.se. Swift snippets. 12th July: Our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson is again running his popular Pro Mod Bump Spot Contest at the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park. All you have to do is to send your guess for the PM bump spot, to four decimal places, to Patrik at webmaster@promod.nu before 23:59 European/22:59 UK on 27th July, also including your name, postal and E-Mail addresses and T-Shirt size. If you want to know where to start, the existing European PM bump spot record of 6.4080 was set at Mantorp Park last season. Bennetts on display. 12th July: UK blown-alcohol altered team and Eurodragster.com Bloggers Bennett Racing are very happy to be attending the Damn Yankees Summer Slam show at North Weald Airfield this coming Sunday (18th), writes Luke Bennett: We will be at North Weald with the 2009 NFAA Championship-winning Relentless Fiat Topolino, so why not come and meet the team. This is a perfect chance to get close to a 2500 horsepower racecar and learn more about it - ask us any questions and we will be happy to answer! We will also be selling our popular Relentless T-Shirts, which will be available for only £12 each, or two for £20. We will have professional photos for sale too. For those of you who have not been to the Summer Slam, it's a cracking day out for the family. The show features race cars, American muscle cars, hot rods, custom cars and Harleys, children's rides, live band, trophies, arena events, auto jumble, show'n'Shine, trade stands, children's entertainer, face painting, bar, food and ice cream. What more could you want? Gates are open between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm. Yanks, Rods, Customs and Harleys £5 per adult, general public £10 per adult. Under-14s go free. North Weald Airfield is on the A414 between Harlow and Chipping Ongar in Essex, just off Junction 7 of the M11. click here for a map or feed CM16 6AA into your SatNav. Web site updates. 12th July: Swedish Pro Stock Bike racer Gabriella Nikolovska, who wiped out her Personal Best at Alastaro last weekend, has launched a web site at www.gabbiracing.com. The great-looking site includes biographies of Gabbi and the team, bike details, race calendar, multimedia, results and more. Drachten Internationals webcast. 11th July: Courtesy of Maikel Gloudemans and Me(n)tal Enterprizes no-nonsense ICT an audio and video feed of this weekend's Drachten Internationals is on-line at www.doyousee.me/explosion. The webcast includes timing data and chat window. A birthday on the staff. 11th July: We have a birthday on the Eurodragster.com staff today. Please join Tog, Simon, Roger and Ed in wishing photographer and pit reporter Kirstie Tramm a very Happy Birthday. Have a great day Kirstie. Web site updates. 11th July: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent A Car, UK Top Methanol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Derek Flynn pleads not to be shut off any more. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson has updated his Racebilder web site with pictures from the Big Buck Bracket event at Moholm Dragway in western Sweden. You can check out Patrik's pictures at www.racebilder.nu. Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger Gorringe has updated his Nitro Exposure web site with a small gallery of winners from the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. "Attending the event was a last minute decision and it proved a great meeting, a little strange not to be supplying photos to Eurodragster.com at the end of each day but Christer Abrahamson and Markus Ek did a grand job and I was able to see and chat to racers and teams that I normally do not have time to see", says Roger. You can check out Roger's Nitro Nationals shots at www.nitroexposure.co.uk and Roger also has reports showing on Drag Race Canada and Competition Plus. Also updating from the FHRA Nitro Nationals is Mika Frilander who has posted no less that 1,649 pictures starting with the event's Press Day and then every day of the race. You can find Mika's pictures at www.kuvia.1g.fi. If you were tuned in to our coverage of the FHRA Nitro Nationals then you will already have seen most of Eurodragster.com News Editor Tog's pictures from the pits on the Wednesday, but if you missed them then there is a small number of pictures from around the pits that day on Tog's gallery site at eurodragster.fotopic.net or www.togsdragracing.com. Swift snippets. 9th July: Motor Events have released the first version of the official entry list for the Veidec Festival, which takes place at Mantorp Park on 29th July-1st August. You can check out the entry list (PDF format) by clicking here. We understand that Sweden's first female drag racer, 1970s Pro Comp driver Rosie Millberg, will be making licence passes in one of Rune Fjeld's Top Fuel Dragsters ahead of the Veidec Festival later this month with Linda Thun Tønseth as mentor. Official word is expected very shortly. 
The European Pro Mod Five Second Club enrolled its second member at the FHRA Nitro Nationals, writes
Lena Perés: As Micke Gullqvist ran the quickest ever Pro Mod run in Europe with a 5.911 Mats Eriksson's crew went over to Gullan's pit and during
a small ceremony gave him the diploma which denotes membership. The idea came from Gittli Koller who came over to the Green Goblin team at the European
Finals last year with a diploma for our 5.98 run. So now there is a tradition in Pro Mod as well. Let's see who the next member is going to be. I bet the Lindberg
Brothers but you never know.
Stefani Robinson has been in touch to thank the FHRA's safety crew for getting to Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson's Pro Mod so quickly after it caught fire at Alastaro, and to the medical crew for looking after her dad and checking him over after the accident. "Thank you also to anyone who has contacted the team to see if dad is OK and to offered help to get back onto the track", says Stef. "We really appreciate everyone's continued support". You can read more on the Robinson Race Reports web site at www.robinson-race-reports.co.uk. 
Wayne Nicholson and the UK's Lucky Devil Pro Mod team are very pleased to announce a new sponsor to add to their existing supporters
Opie Oils, AllyFab and
Originals Hot Rod Supply Co (01757 618907). MCM Metals are the UK's leading supplier of aluminium custom extrusions with more than forty years'
experience in the metals market.
They supply a huge range of shapes and sizes of alloys of various grades to match almost any application. "Thanks to Phil Thomas whom you can
contact at phil@mcmmetals.com", says Wayne. "Make sure you mention us if making
an enquiry."
Thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us an updated table of European Bests now including the records set last weekend by Micke Gullqvist and Anders Abrahamsson. "One point of interest to us anoraks is that this is the first time that the Pro Mod speed record has been set at Alastaro", says Andy. You can take a look at the European Bests table by clicking here or by clicking on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. 
Convertibles, motorbikes, stretched Hummers and limos, even a fire engine...all seem a bit tame when you arrive at your school prom as a passenger in a Pro ET race car. Roy Walker
and the Complete Autocare Drag Race Team acted as chauffeur to Gemma Theobald, daughter of Santa Pod Raceway commentator Colin, at Whittlebury Hall last week. What
made the event so memorable to everyone was that the venue had given permission for the burnouts, which had photographers running from all directions to get the pictures of the best
entrance of the night. Also spotted at the same venue was Ray Comer of Street Eliminator fame who had spent two days cleaning and polishing his Ford F350 pick-up for the event.
Gemma would like to pass on a massive Thank You to Roy, Michelle and Alex for making her night so memorable.
Multiple ACU UK Top Fuel Bike Champion Steve Woollatt is the subject of a career feature in the August issue of Streetfighters magazine, which is on newsstands now. The piece was compiled by bike photo-journalist Steve Moxley, which guarantees its quality, and Steve Woollatt tells us that some of the photographs are "interesting". Wheels for Charity are holding an event in support of Help for Heroes at Skylark Showground in Manea, Cambridgeshire on 7th-8th August and race cars are invited to attend. "We recently attended the UK Truck show at Santa Pod to race funds for the Forces Children's Trust", says Rupert Gladstone. "For this next show Santa Pod are kindly sending us a Top Fuel Bike over for display. The event is free to all exhibitors, with free camping, and the Showground will be open from 12:00 noon on 6th August. We hope to make it a relaxing weekend for all". You can find out more at wheelsforcharity.blogspot.com. The organisers of Ladies That Launch, a celebration of women in motorsport at Shakespeare County Raceway on 24th-25th July, are very excited to see Jo Coddington's name on their confirmed guest list on the track's Facebook page. "For those of you who don't know Jo, she and her husband, Boyd were on the Discovery Channel in American Hot Rod between 2004 and 2007", says Beth Satchell. "Unfortunately, Boyd passed away in 2008, but the Hot Rod dream lives on in Jo. Right now Jo has a broken foot, but fingers crossed she will soon be given the all clear for a walking cast as well as the all clear to travel. We at LTL HQ and all at Shakey wish Jo a speedy recovery and I know that if she can attend then we will all certainly make her feel welcome. For the most up to date information on this story please follow our Facebook page." Minis set for Showdown. 9th July: Billed as a Mini drag fest in every sense of the word, the British Mini Club's annual foray into the world of drag racing is set for this weekend at Warwickshire's Shakespeare County Raceway as part of the venue's annual July Public Track Day weekend. Although the A-Series engine is still king, there are more and more Vauxhall V-Tec and motorcycle motor-powered Minis seen every year. The quarter mile is of course always open to every Classic Mini and new Mini owners with eleven classes to choose from. At last year's Mini Showdown Nick Rizzardini set a blistering time of 12.63 to claim the Quickest A Series Mini in the World crown, while Quickest Mini in the World went to the incredible rear motored Mini of Stuart Meades in 9.78 seconds. So who's in line for this year's titles? Believe it or not owners of classic and modern Minis take drag racing very seriously as they try for the top times against the clock in a quarter of a mile dash. The Wild Bunch nostalgia racers will be on hand to entertain the Mini fans with their own brand of drag racing taking in rounds of the Wild Bunch and Real Steel series. Racers and teams will also be hosting their own Fancy Dress Pit Party; this years theme is Medieval so there is quite a lot of freedom to choose between being a Knight or a Maiden, Robin Hood, a Merry Man, Friar Tuck, and knowing those jokers they'll come up with some great ideas too! The weekend also features the third round of the CC Medical Services Junior Drag Bike Championship with the sport's stars of the future taking to the track. And that's not all as Shakespeare County Raceway will be launching its own Junior Dragster Experience rides this weekend thanks to Darren and Alex Brett along with Ed Yates of sponsor DS Racewear. As it's a Public Track Day weekend there will be the usual Quick 32 Summer Showdown Gamblers Race as well as the Trophy Dash for bikes on Sunday. You can also come and have a go in your own road car or bike: just bring your valid DVLA licence, a crash helmet and £35 and enjoy as many runs as you can fit in over the two days! What better way to get involved in motorsport? See you stripside. School's in at PMR. 9th July: After such an excellent spell of weather, Paul Marston Racing's Drag Race Driving School has virtually caught up with its bookings. Anyone interested in being taught how to race by PMR's crack team of National Championship-winning instructors can book and get on the track within a matter of weeks, says Paul Marston: This offers prospective builders of race cars or just-completed cars the chance of progressing on that steep learning curve that much quicker. Plus with such a long summer break there is the opportunity for more established race teams to polish up on their skills and improve their competitiveness with a coaching day with Paul Marston Racing. At the moment there are plenty of days available and with all this great weather some very productive results can be had. For details of anything that you want to discuss with Paul Marston Racing, please contact us at pmracing@fsmail.net or call Paul on 07831 650230. Remember that the School has not increased its prices for over three years, so why not take advantage now. Web site updates. 9th July: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent A Car, Swedish Pro Stock Bike racer Karl Lyrén describes his weekend at the FHRA Nitro Nationals. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Editor's note: Your News Editor is still whacked from the weekend in Finland and the journey home so we still have a small news backlog which we shall clear on the next update, due tomorrow (Saturday). Tune back for FHRA Nitro Nationals reviews from Lorenz Stäuble and Hans Olav Olstad and more, and please keep the news coming to news@eurodragster.com. Erbacher's nose job. 
8th July: Swiss Top Fuel Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor
Urs Erbacher got a shock after two burnout
shows in Austria and Switzerland to make the money to go to Finland:
We checked the car and saw that my chassis had broken apart at the front where the fuel tank is mounted. So I called Mats Eriksson in Sweden and he said "No problem, we'll fix it in Finland on Thursday". His son cut my whole chassis apart in the pits and welded it all together. He worked on my chassis for about twelve hours. In Friday's first session I was a little concerned about a front end welded in the pits, so I decided just to make a checkout pass, around 200 feet. When I hit the throttle it felt so good so that I forgot all about 200 feet! I was searching for the thousand feet mark but I couldn't find it so I waited for the quarter mile cones. The car ran so straight, better than ever before. I ran 4.20 and 463 kmh and we were number one qualifier. That was our best run of the weekend but the two Finnish guys did better so we ended up third. In Saturday's last session I saw Stig and Risto appearing after they destroyed both cars in a bad top end crash. I have a lot of respect for these two guys that they could fix their cars overnight. They must both have great crews to make that happen. In the first round on Sunday we ran against Anita Mäkelä. After we started the engine I was a little shocked because the Racepak display in the car showed that one of my mangetos wasn't working. So I knew we didn't have enough power to win against Anita and I was going to try to pull a good light on the Tree and stage as deep I could. But when we both staged Anita left early. I was happy because my car was not pulling with only one magneto and we only ran 4.50, but I knew we had lost lane choice with that time. In the next round against Timo Lehtimaki he decided to run in the right lane and he ran in the 4.0s. The left line was good too but after the eighth everyone went up in smoke. We had tried to detune our car as much as we could but it wasn't enough and we smoked the tyres after 3.2 seconds and lost. We were happy because this was our second race without a US Crew Chief and Robin is doing a better job than the US Crew Chiefs did. Back in the pits we prepared the car for Mantorp Park and put in the Mantorp set-up. We finished in the evening and had the time to sit together with other teams and have our first beers of the weekend. Early in the morning we joined our Finnish neighbour Marco in the sauna in his Trailer. It was funny to see that almost all the Finnish teams have saunas in their trailers. We had three goes in ten minutes and now I know that my heart still works well even at my age. It looks like we lost our number one position in the Championship for now, but we will get back to that position at Mantorp Park. We are looking forward to Sweden and we know we will win there. Stay tuned as on the next Eurodragster.com News update we will have the FHRA Nitro Nationals review from Urs' team-mate Lorenz Stäuble. Records fall at JapShow. 8th July: The JapShow took place at Santa Pod Raceway on Sunday, and along with bright sunshine and a great atmosphere there was plenty of excellent track action, writes Rick Cuthbert: Leon Green ran 7.693/178.50, then followed it up with a 7.502/178.48 in his Toyota Supra. The 7.5 is the quickest run ever in HKS Drag Series competition, and all from just 3000 cc and six cylinders in a home-grown UK car. Congratulations to Leon. 
Hot on the heels of Guy Chamberlain, who ran the first Front Wheel Drive nine-second pass in the UK at the SPRC Summernationals, comes another fire-breathing FWD car from
Adam Buckley. Adam ran a 10.3 straight off the trailer, but then had a really wild ride when he popped a drive-shaft on the next run. Dave 'DJ' Jones caught the moment on camera
and snapped this exciting image of Adam going up on two wheels. Adam sustained some minor damage to his car after making contact with the wall, but will be back racing very shortly.
The winners and runners up from the event were: Pro Winner: Leon Green, Toyota Supra Runner Up: None FacMod Winner: Mark Moseley, Nissan Skyline R32 GTR Runner Up: Gary Gooding, Mazda RX7 Street Winner: John Stocker, Nissan 200 Runner Up: Robert Shadwell, Nissan Skyline R32 GTR FWD Winner: Chamberlain, Honda Civic Runner Up: Paul Cresswell, Honda Civic A JapShow gallery and winners' list is on-line at www.japshow.co.uk/reports.php. Swift snippets. 8th July: Swedish Pro Mod racer Adam Flamholc says that he and his team had a great weekend in Finland. "At the first event in England we had some issues with the car, so we decided to make some changes and to go testing before the race. It feels like it paid off! We qualified number four with a 6.14s, and won the first two rounds. In the semi I was up against the R2B2 Camaro once again, but this time Michael Gullqvist was the driver and not Melanie Troxel. I left the line first, but the car made a hard turn to the left. Michael passed me and won the round. He also won the final against Johan Lindberg. Congratulations to Michael and the R2B2 team! So far my team and I are really satisfied with the season. We are number three in the Championship, and it feels like we are learning and improving at every event!" 
Swedish Pro Stock Bike racer Gabriella Nikolovska and her team made a big step at Alastaro. "We started on Friday by testing a new clutch set-up", says team member
Henrik. "Gabbi did a good job but the clutch was way off so a 7.66/283 which only gave us ninth qualifying place. In the pits we discovered a bad shift fork which
cost us the second qualifier. Big thanks to Rickard Gustafsson for the help in the pits! On Saturday morning we put in our old clutch and made some adjustments with
a great result: 1.17 sixty foot, 4.74 at the eighth, and 7.39/292 at the finish! The team were happy, a new Pb and we were qualified! In Sunday's race we were paired against
number one qualifier Kenneth Vik. Gabbi reacted with a 0.08 to Kenneth's 0.055. Kenneth took the stripe with a 7.17 to Gabbi's very good 7.31 so we went out with a new PB!
Congratulations to Anders on his speed record and to Ulf Ögge on the win. We really learned a lot this weekend and now we need to improve for Mantorp."
Swedish Top Methanol FC racer Jonas Staflund thought that he would be racing at Alastaro, Mantorp Park and then Hockenheim but that time has flown by. "We are modifying the chassis
with a new roll cage and rear end, and bought a Pontiac body from the Leanders which is painted and ready to run", he says. "Also Fallfors Raceway outside Skellefteå needs planning and
work and I'm one of the crew members of that organisation. Right now we are building a new timing tower among many other things. Skelleftea Drive Center now has ten bungalows, sauna, big bathtubs
and a great restaurant. So the Funny Car will be parked thís year but my son Hampus is racing his McGee Junior Dragster around Sweden. He crashed right after the finish line at the first race this year
and we had to change some tubing but he was racing againg in O-vik two weeks later where he blew the engine! It has been welded and and a new crank is on its way. The next race is the Midnight Sun
Internationals and then the Gold Town Summer Nationals at Fallfors. After that Borlänge is tempting and then of course the Veidec Festival."
Many thanks to FIA European Drag Racing Championships Co-ordinator Kjell Pettersson for forwarding us the post-FHRA Nitro Nationals points standings in the FIA European Championships. You can check out the FIA points on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page by clicking here or by clicking on the Speedflow Points Standings link on the left hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Shakespeare County Raceway are looking for a couple of dragsters, hot rods and drag bikes to attend the annual Long Marston Village Fête from 12:00 noon this Saturday (10th). "We are looking for a few local UK National racers with street cars to come and display on the show field for an hour or two and help promote the Raceway and its events in front of the local community", says SCR's Jerry Cookson. Ideally if you're coming to the weekend's British Mini Showdown and Public Track Day and you can spare the car or bike for a few hours then please get in touch with Jerry at the Track Office on 01789 720180 or e-mail enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for forwarding us Version 5 of the official entry list for Bug Jam, the racing part of which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-25th July. You can check out the Bug Jam entry list by clicking here. Entry to Bug Jam, if accepted, is now liable to a 100% late entry penalty. You can download the official entry form from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. Thanks also to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us the official UK Truck Show timing data. You can check out the timing data by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Manic Run What You Brung fanatics and complete newbies will be able to benefit from the extra track time offered by Santa Pod Raceway's Saturday Night Special this Saturday (10th). With the track open from 9:00 am until 9:00 pm, there are twelve hours to get to grips with firing your car or motorcycle down the drag strip as quickly as possible. The black art of Run What You Brung is easy to learn, and difficult to master, and as the times drop with practice the addiction kicks in! Along with the extra time offered by Saturday Night Special events, the unique opportunity of drag racing at sunset adds atmosphere and excitement to the whole experience. There are demo sessions by the 270 mph Fireforce Jet Car, and full catering and bar facilities are on site. Gates open at 8:00 am. Signing on costs £30 per driver for unlimited runs from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, £25 per driver for unlimited runs from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, and £10 per driver for unlimited runs from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Driving licence required. Entry costs £10 for a full day ticket and £20 for a two-day ticket (£15 in advance). Free camping with two-day tickets. More information on the Saturday Night Specials and Run What You Brung in general is available at www.rwyb.com or call 01234 782828. Lee Cohen and the UK's The Devil Super Pro ET team have asked us to say a big Happy Birthday to Lee's other half Karen. No date was mentioned so we guess that the day in question was the date of arrival of the E-Mail, yesterday (Wednesday). Hope you had a great day Karen. Ken Forster has been in touch to let us know that he is offering reproductions of classic racing posters via his web site at www.reproracingposters.com. What's on this weekend. 8th July: At Pite Dragway the Midnight Sun Internationals takes place from Friday to Sunday. Classes involved include Top Fuel match racing between Monica Öberg (in her new car) and FHRA Nitro Nationals winner Timo Lehtimäki, a field of twelve Top Doorslammers, Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series Sportsman classes and bike and scooter classes. For Pite Dragway take E4 towards Piteå, the Dragway is signposted with green / yellow signs north and south of Piteå. Racing is from 11:00 to 18:00 on Friday, 10:00 to 21:00 on Saturday and 10:00 to 17:00 on Sunday. Admission is SEK100 Friday and SEK200 for both Saturday and Sunday. Children under 15 go free with an adult. More details are at www.shralulea.se. Drachten Airfield will be hosting the Drachten Internationals organised by Xplosion Dragracing. Sportsman teams will be competing for the Dutch Open Championship and the bikes of the Euro Super Twin Top Gas series will be at the event. The Top Methanol Funny Car of Danny Bellio and Pro Mods of Henri Joosten and Jean Dulamon plan to be there as well as the Top Fuel Bike of Rene van den Berg and Supertwins of Martijn de Haas and Daniel Kerkhofs. Admission is €10 on Friday and €15 on Saturday. Full details are at the Xplosion Drag Racing Club's web site at www.explosiondragracing.com. Courtesy of Maikel Gloudemans and Me(n)tal Enterprizes no-nonsense ICT an audio and video feed of this weekend's event will be available at www.doyousee.me/explosion. There is a Test'n'Tune at Skaraborgs on Saturday from 09:00 to 18:00. During this event there will be an all-run winner-takes-all bracket at the end of the day for anyone who has run during the Test'n'Tune. The buy-in will be SEK300. More details at www.402m.se. Sundsvall Raceway is hosting two events on Saturday. The Hot Rod Drags includes Rods and vintage race cars with race classes pre-'49 only. The event is sponsored by the Swedish Street Rod Association. More information is available at the Hot Rod Drags web site www.hotroddrags.se. In addition this year's third En Dag på Strippen will take place at Sundsvall on Saturday. For the first time SHRA Sundsvall have arranged the event in collaboration with Bilsport event at Sundsvall Raceway. Gates open to vehicles at 08:00 and racers must be in place before 10.30 to be guaranteed a place on the track. The Norrsvedja Street Open takes place on Saturday from 14:00 to 20:00. This event is the first in 2010 at the Färila quarter-mile strip with a car and bike exhibition included. Racers entrance is SEK300 for non-members and SEK for members of the Ljusdal Drag Racing Club. Further details at www.drcljusdal.se. On Sunday at Hultsfred Airport, Sweden, Hultsfred Motor Club is organising runs over 500m and 1000m for Swedish speed records. Records will be overseen for FIA purposes. In France the Association Trophée Dragster has its second round this weekend at Lurcy Levis circuit. The Dulamon Drag Race, sponsored by France's longest established race team, will be taking place over two days with entrance €90 for racers and €15 for team members and spectators. Full details for racers and specators are at www.francedrag.com and rules are at www.trophee-dragster.fr. In Malta the National Drag Racing Event 3 (Night Event) takes place at Hal-Far Raceway, organised by Malta Drag Racing Association.Details can be found at www.maltadragracing.com. What's Down Under, Doc? 
8th July: John Claydon, of Wicked Will fame paid a visit to the UK over the last few days from his home in Australia, writes John Price:
I have known John for such a long time as he, as a young guy, used to frequent the local pubs where I worked in the 1970s as a DJ. Then, when I moved into hot rodding, there was John building cars and then of course he seemed to follow me into drag racing. A crowd of Kent racers, all of whom I have known for thirty years plus, met up with John in a local hostelry to hear stories of John's new lifestyle in Oz, plus of course his hot rod club and the fact that he is now, once again, building and helping to build hot rods and customs of all shapes and sizes. His club have been filmed carrying out such jobs as "Build a hot rod in a weekend" and "Refurbish a Tri-Chevy" in the same time scale. These films are, I believe, on general release. The lifestyle out there really seems to agree with John and in the eight years he has been there he hasn't aged at all...you can just hate some people can't you! Even the good ol' Willys sees a bit of track action from time to time. Web site updates. 8th July: In the latest instalment in his exclusive Racer Blog presented in association with Alamo Rent A Car, UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter brings us right up to date on his season so far. As ever you can stay in touch with the latest Blog updates by clicking here or by clicking on the Alamo Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page Photographer Markus Ek, who worked with Eurodragster.com at the FHRA Nitro Nationals, has now posted his complete set of shots from the weekend on his web site at www.mek.nu. "I want to thank Tog for not firing me from the job more than once, Rickard Johansson for making the trip possible, Jouko Sjöstedt and Björn Eskelund for their company and finally Perka for letting me sleep in his trailer...yeah, and Christer for the beer!", says Markus. Thanks again to Markus for his work at the weekend. Editor's note: Due to being tired and shagged out after a long weekend and a long trip we still have a backlog of news. Tune back to the next update for FHRA Nitro Nationals reviews from Lorenz Stäuble and Hans Olav Olstad, Ladies Launching, and an invitation to assist Help for Heroes. Please keep the news coming to news@eurodragster.com. FHRA Nitro Nationals results. 5th July: Congratulations to the winners of the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro: FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Timo Lehtimaki 4.151/449.53 def. Risto Poutiainen 4.156/450.51 FIA Top Methanol Dragster: Timo Habermann 5.534/409.38 def. Dennis Habermann 5.577/407.42 DQ FIA Top Methanol Funny Car: Arvid Grødem 5.936/344.37 def. Jarmo Kuutniemi 6.015/384.60 FIA Pro Modified: Micke Gullqvist 6.030/390.72 def. Johan Lindberg 6.114/374.55 FIA Pro Stock: Michael Malmgren 6.865/313.44 def. Jan Palmqvist 6.959/316.38 UEM Top Fuel Bike: Petri Paljakka 6.668/347.25 bye, Jaska Salakari shut off UEM Supertwin: Hans Olav Olstad 6.833/321.94 def. Ismo Mäenpää 7.064/325.63 UEM Pro Stock Bike: Ulf Ögge 7.200/298.21 def. Kenneth Vik 7.205/300.43 Comp Eliminator: Martin Lundkvist (8.10) 8.393/150.29 bye, Jani Lindvall broke Outlaw: Hannu Kalliomaki 7.622/272.66 def. Sampsa Palos 7.590/243.38 Super Comp: Joonas Pesonen 8.953/248.14 def. Meri-Tuuli Sassi 8.893/265.56 breakout Super Pro ET: Hannu Tekoniemi (9.28) 9.290/224.14 def. Juha Raikkonen (8.65) 8.690/250.54 Stock/Super Stock: Hannu Palasmaa (11.25) 10.622/198.11 def. Jarmo Markkanen (11.25) 10.908/193.37 Junior Dragster: Jenna Kakkonen (13.90) 13.922/72.85 def. Turo Vitie (8.02) 8.070/130.69 red light Funny Bike: Pasi Alakkunas 8.256/191.53 bye, Riku Silver no show Outlaw Bike: Juha Ollikainen 8.030/297.59 def. Sami Kallio 8.788/293.79 Pro Street Bike: Vesa Ruhanen 8.225/280.26 def. Ville Salonen 8.465/275.67 Pro Harley Drags: Timo Makkinen 9.313/229.76 def. Torsti Kettula 9.889/228.78 Super Gas Bike: Kristo Korpela 9.578/210.80 def. Manu Alarto 9.617/228.81 Junior Drag Bike: Minttu Gratschew (14.20) 14.425/72.35 def. Otto Paaso (12.30) 12.570/86.99 Subject to ratification the following records were set: Pro Modified speed: 395.52 kmh / 245.76 mph, Micke Gullqvist Pro Stock Bike speed: 303.71 kmh / 188.72 mph, Anders Abrahamsson Congratulations also to Micke Gullqvist on clocking 5.911 seconds in the R2B2 Camaro in the first round of Pro Modified eliminations, although ultimately unable to back it up for a record, to Risto Poutiainen and the Rune Fjeld Motorsport team for making the final round of Top Fuel Dragster having built up Risto's previous chassis after a horrifying two-car crash with Stig Neergaard destroyed Risto's new car, and to Stig Neergaard and his team for rebuilding his car and making the next round of qualifying after the crash. You can check out our American Car Imports-sponsored FHRA Nitro Nationals coverage by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Tog would like to say a big Thank You to Christer Abrahamson and Markus Ek for their endless hard work on pit notes and photographs, to FHRA President Tapio Väljä and Petteri Haapaniemi for practical help at Alastaro, and to Speedgroup especially Åsa Kinnemar for making it possible for Eurodragster.com to attend the race. Swift snippets. 5th July: We would like to say a big Happy Birthday for today (Monday) to our good buddy Andy Williamson of the UK's Stockport Doorslammer Super Street team. Have a great day Andy. Editor's note: As we are on our way back from Finland the next news update will be on Thursday. Keep those FHRA Nitro Nationals reviews and other news coming to news@eurodragster.com and we'll publish them then. Swift snippets. 4th July: We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to Santa Pod Racers Club official Kathy Taylor. Have a lovely day Kathy and thanks for the barbecue invite. We would also like to wish all of our readers in the USA a very Happy 4th July. Swift snippets. 3rd July: Our buddies at der-beschleuniger.de will be reporting live from this weekend's event at Bitburg in Germany which includes rounds of Street Eliminator and Pro ET. 
Thanks to Tony Byng for sending us this picture of Andy Robinson's (not the Pro Mod racer) Big Red'n'Loud Super Stock Dodge Coronet at Goodwood
Festival of Speed, where it featured in the Cars, Stars and Guitars feature alongside Billy Gibbon's Cadzilla and many others.
Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for forwarding us Version 3 of the official entry list for Bug Jam, the racing part of which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-25th July. You can check out the Bug Jam entry list by clicking here. Entry to Bug Jam, if accepted, is now liable to a 100% late entry penalty. You can download the official entry form from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. As of 1st July, Eurodragster.com sponsor SuperPower Unlimited has struck up a business relationship with one of the most respected names in drag racing, Bill Miller Engineering. Kenny Gomez and Bill Miller are delighted to be able to offer a full sales and service package from their range of superchargers, rods, pistons and pins for racers in the UK and Europe who want to invest in the best products to help them win. Kenny says "What really impressed me is the attention to detail and state of the art technology that Bill has put into his products. Who else has a blower dyno that can handle 6500ft/lbs? Check out bmeltd.com/supercharger/index.htm. BME has been around the winners' circle for many years in Top Fuel and Funny Car and has built up a well earned reputation for providing quality products at an affordable price". To discuss any of the BME products give Kenny a call on 07967 728175 or drop an E-Mail to SuperPowerUnltd@aol.com. Outlaws at the Truck Show. 3rd July: A good time was had by the seven Supercharged Outlaws teams which contested the UK Truck Show, writes Roy Wilding: All three rounds were run, Personal Best times were set and there were big speed improvements. The winner of the meeting was Sam Freeman in Vic Hammond's car. He was as consistent as ever, running in the high end of the sevsns, with good strong burnouts and outstanding performance to match. In second place was Paul Watts from the Isle of Wight in the pick-up, again consistent running by Paul all weekend. Big surprise in third place was Brian Gandy in the Skullduggery altered, not having a lot of seat time in the car, on his sixth run he even ran a Personal Best of 8.382 with big speed of 177.83, which woke him up a bit! Well done Brian. In fourth place was Lee Gallimore, as always big strong smoky burnouts and consistent running in the mid sevens and a big speed of 182.14, close to the class record. In fifth place was Dave McKenzie, who had a slightly mixed weekend. He was sharing the drive with Mark Windridge; Dave pulled a Personal Best of 8.523/151.57 but Mark had a scary moment in the shutdown area on his own run. In sixth place was Ian Hanson, again good strong smoky burnouts, times in the mid sevens and speed in the 173s. In final place was Alac Coe, sharing the drive with Tom. Ever the flat out racer, he achieved regular speeds of 174 mph in the sevens. Congratulations again to Dave McKenzie and Brian Gandy on their PBs. The next meeting for the Supercharged Outlaws is at Shakespeare County Raceway on 24th-25th July, with eleven teams provisionally scheduled to turn up. Ålund's early return. 2nd July: The team had barely shaken off the jetlag from The 2010 Klintberg & Way U.S. Tour when six time FIA Pro Stock Champion Jimmy Ålund turned up on the entrylist for the second round of the FIA European Pro Stock Championship at Alastaro this weekend. A bit earlier than planned, Jimmy's J&J Performance Team has joined forces with Futura Racing to try score their first points in the 2010 European Championship. The owners of the car, a 2005 Pontiac Grand Am, are Stefan Eriksson and Mats Olsson who previously raced in Competition with their mighty blue '65 Ford Falcon. The new Pontiac Grand Am was purchased from Janne 'Snowball' Palmkvist in 2008 and was completed with a drivetrain from Jimmy in 2009. There will be a solid team in place at Alastaro. In addition to Stefan and Mats from Futura Racing and Jimmy Ålund as the driver, J&J Performance Racing Crew Chief Peter Greborn is along as well as Markus Svensson from Clutch Service who will keep a sharp eye on the tuning of the clutch which was supplied by the company. The engine was started for the first time at the beginning of June and the race at Alastaro is the first time that the car is running this combination. The deal for Jimmy is to try to pick up as many points as possible during the weekend. The goal? "To win, as always", says Jimmy. "We feel it's possible to qualify and hopefully score some points during eliminations". Jimmy smiles "We can't give away more than a one race advantage this season" continuing "Seriously, we race to have fun and we've been looking forward to competing back here in Europe after this year's US Tour". Jimmy ends with a big Thank You to all of his sponsors about whom you can find out more at www.jimmyalund.com. The Futura Racing Pontiac is also entered for the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park where Jimmy will be racing his own car. Thanks to PiPPi for help with this news item - Ed Alamo JD Challenge standings. 2nd July: Thanks to Andy Wheeler for passing us the post-SPRC Summernationals standings in the 2010 Alamo Rent a Car Junior Dragster Challenge, which will award the best combined RT/against-index packages at the end of the season: 
For more information about the 2010 Alamo Rent a Car Junior Dragster Challenge, check out our news item Alamo backs Junior Dragster Challenge of 1st April. ©Eurodragster.com Don't forget that Alamo Rent A Car are offering 10% off car hire plus an additional 5% discount on pre-pay. By using a special web link, cars can be hired at a preferential rate from any one of 8,800 worldwide locations. So whether you are a racer needing a hire car for the FIA Main Event, an official headed for Mantorp Park, or a fan going racing in the USA then this deal is for you. As if that wasn't enough Alamo Gold, available on all rentals in the USA and Canada, includes everything you need for a stress-free rental and only costs from £30 per week on top of the fully inclusive rates. Alamo Gold includes unlimited mileage, Collision Damage Waiver, Liability Protection ($1 million liability coverage), airport fees, state/local taxes and surcharges, a tank of fuel, and additional drivers. For more details, check out the Eurodragster.com News update of Monday 22nd February, or to book your discounted hire car check out www.alamo.co.uk/dragster. Beware the marshal crusher. 2nd July: UK Supercharged Outlaw racer Alec Coe had a good weekend at the UK Truck Show at Santa Pod in blazing sunshine and sweating buckets...or rather perspiring, as gentlemen do, in the cockpit of his Shy Talker slingshot: On the first run on Saturday I tried jumping the lights and messed the run up. On the second run the timing slipped and I poodled up the track - yes, a poodle could have gone quicker. On the first run on Sunday I did a burnout then ran out of fuel, then I was pushed back by a marshal who got stuck to the oh-so-sticky track and then fell under the wheel. The ambulance picked Ben up and looked after him, then I ended up running a 7.9. I thought I'd better retire then so I let Tom have the last run, but the air was so hot that the car was starved of oxygen and ran an eight. Oh well, suntan, mates and booze - what more could a man want. If you happen to be around Faversham Farming World this Sunday then pop in and have some fun. You can find out the latest on our web site www.madrsdragracing.co.uk. Another Edge over circuit racers. 
2nd July: The UK's Team Edge Pro ET team are experiencing a very busy first season, not only on the strip but at other
venues too:
The team have just returned from Brands Hatch as guests of the Time Attack series where, during an exhibition lap, Gordon Northway proved that a race car can negotiate Druids hairpin sideways! The weather and track were hot and sticky, so a full-on smoking burnout was not a total success, but the crowd were suitably entertained. They were probably more amused by team member Martin, in his little Renault Clio "support vehicle", trying desperately trying to keep up. Mel, one of our crew members, was invited to do a commentary and explain to the thousands of spectators about Multiple Sclerosis and our support of the MS Trust. The day must have been a success as the team have been invited to the next round at Cadwell Park on 1st August. Earlier in June we were guests at the Performance Vauxhall Show at Santa Pod, where we made a number of full-speed exhibition runs. Again, the weekend must have gone well as we have been invited to Total Vauxhall Live at Castle Combe Circuit on 7th June. At every event this year, including at Santa Pod, we have raised significant funds for the MS Trust. Thank you to everyone who has given to this very worthwhile charity. Thanks must also go to Colin Theobald who is losing weight for the FIA European Finals for the MS Trust (Maybe not just him - Ed), and team member Mel who completed an indoor sky-dive at Airkix Manchester with MS activist Debbie Purdy, raising over £1,500. Thanks, as always, go to everyone at Santa Pod and at Eurodragster.com for supporting Team Edge this season (You're welcome - Ed). Swift snippets. 2nd July: Many thanks to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for forwarding us Version 2 of the official entry list for Bug Jam, the racing part of which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 24th-25th July. You can check out the Bug Jam entry list by clicking here. Entry to Bug Jam closes today, after which late entry if accepted is liable to a 100% late entry penalty. You can download the official entry form from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc. 
UK Super Pro ET racer Simon Cooper tells us that his blown Nova has, thankfully, not vanished permanently.
"The car is currently without a gearbox having done damage at Shakespeare County", he says. "The plan is to get the box toughened up
and stock up on bits and bobs then have some fun next year. The car attended our local village fete together with a mate's 'ongoing'
Chevy pick-up. The cars and a collection of drag racing pictures and information drew a fair bit of attention, and we handed out a
number of Santa Pod flyers etc. Thanks as always to everyone at Eurodragster.com for all the latest news and gossip, hope you have
room for a bit more (Thanks, always - Ed)!"
Chris, Sue and Summer asked us to say a big Happy 21st Birthday for yesterday (Thursday) to Ricky Emms. "Ricky has recently been in hospital and due to his illness is unable to drink", they say. "We would just like to say how proud we are of him and hope that he had a really good day. Dad promises we will go out on one hell of a bender when you are better. All the best, and remember to get fit for your new ride coming soon!". Hope you had a good day Ricky and Get Well Soon. 
Santa Pod snippets.2nd July: Santa Pod Raceway are seeking classic and retro race cars to make demonstration runs at the Retro Show at Santa Pod on Sunday 18th July. If you would be interested in appearing at the Retro Show then please contact Chris Dredge at chris@santapod.com or call him on 01234 782828. Calling all Super Modified, Outlaw Anglia, Street Eliminator, Sportsman ET, Junior Dragster, VW Pro, Sportsman, and Outlaw Flat Four drivers: if you want to get yourself on the entry list for Bug Jam, SPR suggest that you contact Paula Marshall at Santa Pod Racers Club immediately if you want to avoid late entry fees (see above). Bug Jam is always a well-attended event and a great opportunity to run in front of big crowds and impress sponsors. Anyone suffering from drag racing withdrawal symptoms this weekend will be pleased to hear that there is some serious racing happening at Santa Pod on Sunday. The four classes of the HKS Drag Series are running at the JapShow, and a day ticket costs just £15 (or £20 if you arrive in a non-Japanese vehicle). Despite a lack of V8 rumble, these monster-power drag cars can dive well into the sevens and there is always close heads-up racing in the Street and Front Wheel Drive classes. More info at www.japshow.com. If you are attending this weekend's Jap Show then there are two seats available available in Santa Pod's Two Seat Dragster at £300 per ride for the thrill of a lifetime. If you are interested then please contact Darren Prentice at darren@santapod.com or ask driver Steve Warner on the day. These two available seats are of course on different runs, not the same run. Run What You Brungers and racers after some high-octane juice are reminded that the Pod Shop is now supplying VP Racing Fuels. Click here for a full list of products and call Santa Pod Raceway on 01234 782828, or for further details visit www.santapod.com. Facebook addicts can be the first to check out the Santa Pod Run What You Brung computer game which has been produced to promote Ultimate Street Car, which takes place at Santa Pod on 6th-8th August. Pick which modified car you want to race and then test your reactions to the lights and each gear-change! It's wonderfully slick and addictive, and you can have a play at apps.facebook.com/ultimate_street_car. People not using Facebook need not worry - it will also be available on the USC web site in the next couple of days. Web site updates. 2nd July: Our good buddy Alan Currans has updated his Acceleration Archive web site with nearly a hundred pictures from last weekend's NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can check out Alan's pictures via the What's New link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. Alan has also found time to update the official web site of the Allard Chrysler Action Group with the latest details about the restoration project including progress with the engine at Booth Arons. "We have tried to combine the key aspects of the project in one new section called Project Update", says ACAG Chair Brian Taylor. This can easily be updated with the latest developments as they happen and is a useful stand-alone piece for journalists, sponsors et al. It's a bit of a catch-all approach. Once the engine is back in the UK we may break out the Project Update with sub-sections relevant to engine, chassis, trailer, etc. We have also updated the Roll of Honour section with thanks to Clayton Round for his purchase of the Commuter painting". You can find out more at www.allardchrysler.org. What's on this weekend. 1st July: Our friends at der-beschleuniger.de will be bringing you all the news from this weekend's event at Bitburg in Germany which includes rounds of Street Eliminator and Pro ET. At York Raceway there is Ultimate Road Car Challenge on Saturday and the Northern Sportsman Nats on Sunday. Saturday includes Modders/Tuners Shootout Round 4, 0-60 Championship Round 2, American Power Tour, Northern Drag Racing Championship Round 3 Qualifying, HR Challenge Round 3 Qualifying, Air-Cooled Eliminators Qualifying, R.W.Y.B., 2nd Annual Ladies Race, 32 Annual Street Racer Championship on Saturday evening. On Sunday there will be American Super Stock Round 4, Northern Drag Racing Championship Round 3, HR Challenge Round 3, Air-Cooled Eliminators Round 4, RWYB, Drag Bike Reunion and Sunday Street Wars. Admission is £10 for adults, £5 for teens (13 to 16) and free for under twelves for one day and £15/£7.50/free for both days. A family ticket is for two adult admissions allowing two teenagers to get in free. RWYB fees are £30 per day (2-day events are £50) and race fees £40 per day (2-day events are £60). More details are at www.yorkraceway.org.uk/ The 18th running of the Aros Nats will take place at Västerås on Saturday and Sunday. This is a round of the Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series High Five Points championship and will be contested by around 240 competitors in all sportsman classes. The NDRS Super Twin Top Gas Championship will also be contested at this event. Scrutineering takes place from 18:00 to 22:00 on Friday 2nd and 07:00 to 12:00 on Saturday 3rd and racing is from 09:00 to 17:00 on both days. Entry for one day is SEK150 and SEK 200 for both days. For more details see www.aros-nats.se. The Söderhamn Summer Nats also takes place on Saturday and Sunday. This is the first of two races in the summer organised by SMK Söderhamn. Registration and scrutineering take place from 16:00 to 21:00 tomorrow, on Saturday registration and scrutineering again take place and qualifying is from 07:00 to 19:00, and eliminations take place from 09:00 to 18:00 on Sunday. More information at www.smksoderhamn.com. On Saturday Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina hosts round 1 of the DragMasters-Adria Street Race Series organised by dragma.org On Saturday in Satu Mare, northwest Romania, Round 2 of the Central European Championship will be taking place as long as National racing. On Saturday Ulez military airport near Lublin, Poland, hosts the East European Street Legal Challange and Warsaw Speed Team, the third round of the Polish Open Cup. This runs over the quarter mile and is organised by www.wst.org.pl. Participants include racers from Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland, among them the team of VTG, which already has broken the record twice at the Polish quarter mile and exported from Germany the title of King of Germany. Tickets are 20 PLN with children up to twelve free. Racing will be from 09:00 to 19:00. Earlier news |
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