"Directly after the crash at Hockenheim the team asked me if he I want to drive again and I said yes! My father and Crew Chief Pelle immediately called our good friend Lasse Britsmar who now owns the Pontiac GTO that I drove between 2016-19, asked him if we can use his car and he said yes!
"So we will have the same team as usual, Pelle Norén, Micke Forssell, Bosse Jonsson, Mathias Holmberg and Ove Scott. We will transplant our KB/Titan Racing Engine from the GXP to the GTO, also our Liberty gearbox and 3rd member.
"On the GXP the chassis is damaged as well as body panels. However, we checked the engine directly after the crash and it's looking okay. We will check more this weekend.
"Thanks to all of our sponsors that making this possible:
Skandinaviska Teknik & Smörjsystem
DXT Entreprenad
Munthers specialtransporter
Kjelland Transport
Benets Kran & Transport
Hansen Racing
Norrlås AB
Joms Entreprenad
Teknikservice
Kabeldraget
Strandbergs Svets & Maskinservice
A big well done to Robin on going the extra mile to race at the Euro Finals where he will be in a tight race to the 2023 Pro Stock title with points leader Stefan Ernryd and second placed Michael Malmgren.
VW Action preview. 31st August:VW Action will be taking place again at Santa Pod Raceway from Friday 1st - Sunday 3rd September 2023. Full details are at vwaction.co.uk.
The Show and Shine is a big part of VW Action and you can enter by simply turning up. There will be separate 'top twenty' (ten stock, ten modified) prizewinners for Air Cooled and Water Cooled cars. Ask the marshals for the Show & Shine area when you arrive and they will site you. Judging will start at 12.00noon (each day) and there will be 31 winners, each of whom will receive an Autoglym detailing bag of car product.
There will be an autojumble and plots can still be booked at santapodtickets.com at a price of £50.
Saturday and Sunday has a VAG-only RWYB (plus invited ‘Pro’ cars). There is a £45 ‘signing-on’ fee (per day) - paid to the SPRC in advance at santapodtickets.com. Sub-13 second VAG cars and Sub-15 second VAG buses/vans will be eligible for Saturday’s Night Racing session. There will be a prize fund of £2000 sponsored by A-Plan Insurance split amongst the quickest 5 aircooled VW cars, quickest 5 watercooled VW cars, quickest 5 VW buses and quickest 5 A/E VWs for the Night Racing session which starts at 17:00.
All spectator ticket options are at santapodtickets.com. There are a huge number of off-track entertainments which you can see at vwaction.co.uk.
The racing will include VWDRC regulars with some overseas visitors and invited classes. Thorsten Middendorf and his Adt Adrenalin Tuning Golf Mk1 will be attending and running in the VAG-only RWYB, this FWD car runs down in the low eights with a PB of 8.254/173.05.
A selection of Supercharged Outlaws will be racing, including Keith Freeman, Paul Dale, Simon Boot, Aaron Windridge, first pass of Allan Schofield in his new blown alky altered, and special guest Carlo Heym from Germany racing a blown seven second Dart. Gasser Circus will have a round of their championship during the weekend. Outlaw Street has round 6 of its champsionhip with 20 cars attending. Tim Garlick will be testing the Apache Nostalgia Funny car, and Andy Raw making runs in the Nitro Bug VW Beetle Nostalgia Funny car.
Eurodragster.com will be represented by the hardworking Julian who will be attending all three days and Kieran who will be attending Friday and Saturday.
SPRC points update. 31st August:
Many thanks to SPRC National and Club Drag Racing Championships co-ordinator Yvonne Tramm and SPRC webmaster Pete Walters for updating the championship points after the STP Greenlight Nationals.
You can see the latest championship points by going to this link on santapodracersclub.com or via our Points Standings page which you can reach from our main menu if you click on News.
Swift snippets. 31st August:
Happy Birthday for today to Pro ET racer Dave Rudd and Comp Bike racer John McLean Snr, we hope you both have a great day.
Thanks to Magnus Cato for a couple of snippets about racers competing this weekend. In the US Funny Car Chaos series, the Swedish Raw Valley funny car team will return to Mo-kan Drag-way this weekend. Driver Joachim Ljungberg is looking to add another win following up their success at March Meet earlier this year. Info can be found at the Mo-kan Drag-way website.
Meanwhile German racer and Super Comp winner Gerd Habermann (sorry Leah - Ed) will participate with his Dragon Hunter jet funny car at Mosten Race Days, which takes place from today until Sunday (racing starts on Friday). Info can be found at the Mosten Race Days website.
We have updated our list of NitrOlympX media in yesterday's update for the video of Rene (RMA's Amateur Footage) and a photo album from Rose Hughes.
Alan Morrison Jnr's best experience to date. 30th August:
Super Street Bike racer Alan Morrison Jnr took home the winner's trophy at the NitrOlympX at Hockenheim last weekend and has posted his thoughts on his successful season as he heads to the Euro Finals with the championship in his sights:
Tierp in Sweden, Santa Pod in the UK and Hockenheim in Germany have been the home for our race team for the last three weeks. With breakdowns on our travels, stress with working everything out, and some small issues with our set up, we have come out the end of the three weeks on a massive high! Coming away with gold from the NitrOlympX has got to be one of my best experiences to date.
Well done to Dániel Lencsés and Team Brothers Racing for getting Daniel’s bike turned around in such a short period of time such an incredible effort by them!
A few thank yous to a special few, as the last three weeks could not have been possible without the help of the support within the team so a massive thanks to Shannon Morrison, Ross Morrison, Stuart Hines, Jonathan Hines and Alan Morrison for all you do. Each member is key to everything that’s achieved.
Also a massive shout and a special Thankyou to the Best Crew Chief and in my opinion the Top Tuner in Europe, Rick Stubbins. Take a bow Rick, your experience and knowledge is key! Absolutely pumped to get a new PB of 6.71 in the final at Hockenheim.
Just over 7 days to the Euro Finals and I can’t wait! Cheers to everyone else in the drag racing community who have made the last three weeks so enjoyable. You're all awesome.
FIM-E points updated, bike PBs galore. 30th August:
Thanks to Huw Button for supplying the latest FIM-E championship points after the weekend's NitrOlympx, which you can see via our points standings page at this link or by clicking on the link under News in the main menu.
With one more round to go, FIM-E championship leaders are Rikard Gustafsson (Top Fuel Bike), Marcus Christiansen (Super Twin Bike), Bertrand Maurice (Pro Stock Bike), Alan Morrison Jnr (Super Street Bike) and Richard Willcox (Junior Drag Bike Cup).
We also congratulate the FIM-E bike riders who improved their Personal Best times or speeds at the NitrOlympX and thanks to the excellent European Drag Racing Database for collating the information:
Rene van den Berg (Top Fuel Bike): ET 6.054
Juha Hintukainen (Super Twin Bike): ET 6.966, speed 289.25kph (179.73mph)
Jörg Lymant (Pro Stock Bike): ET 7.283, speed 292.25kph (181.59mph)
Pavlos Sidiropoulos (Pro Stock Bike): ET 7.373, speed 283.22kph (175.98mph)
Alan Morrison Jnr (Super Street Bike): ET 6.711, speed 351.95kph (218.69mph)
Jake Mechaell (Super Street Bike): ET 6.770, speed 350.42kph (217.74mph)
Margot Schmidt (Super Street Bike): ET 7.058, speed 326.46kph (202.85mph)
Peter Östlund (Super Street Bike): ET 7.129, speed 313.46kph (194.77mph)
Angelos Semertzidis (Super Street Bike): ET 7.203, speed 328.53kph (204.13mph)
Ricardo Grauer (Super Street Bike): ET 7.686, speed 297.74kph (185.00mph)
NitrOlympX media. 30th August:
Thanks to photojournalist Remco Scheelings for sending a link to his article for Dutch website autosport.nl on the NitrOlympX. You can see Remco's article describing the race for FIA and FIM-E classes by clicking here.
German website Dragmag.de has uploaded to Youtube videos of two of the impressively quick sportsman machines from the NitrolympX. You can see a video of Michael Winter's The Red Beast Competition Eliminator '38 Chevrolet at this link and an interview with Markus Welte of the amazing TTK Turbotechnik Konne AWD Golf Mk2 which with its R30 engine ran a 7.501/186mph pass in Super Pro ET at this link. You can also see two Facebook albums of photos by Roland Schenker at this link.
Photojournalists Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes have written a report on the NitrOlympX FIM-E bike classes for US website dragbike.com which you can see by clicking here. You can also see a Facebook album of a selection of Rose's photos by clicking here.
For those who missed the well-produced stream of the NitrOlympX which is sadly unavailable for replay, videographer Rene of RMA's Amateur Footage has posted a playlist of well-edited and captioned Youtube videos taken from the grandstands on Youtube at this link, a tradition that extends back to the mid nineties.
Swift snippets. 30th August:
Announcer and crew member Barry Bohannon asked us to wish a a belated happy birthday for Monday 28th for Bob Morgan, the driver of the B Sting wild bunch Topolino altered. Barry adds "The car is still in pieces awaiting upgrades in preparation for our silver jubilee season next year." We hope you had a great day Bob and see you at the track next year.
Happy Birthday for today to Top Methanol Funny Car racer Linn Fløysvik, A/Fuel legend Krister Johansson, Stamford Speed Shop proprietor and former nitro slingshot racer John Hall and drag racing artist Paul Whitehouse and Swedish Pro Stock racer Christian Sagelv. We hope you all have a fantastic day.
Photojournalist David Beitler has written a report on the Summit Racing Equipment Internationals At Tierp Arena for US-based website and magazine Drag Illustrated.com which you can read by clicking here. David's article includes an event overview and several photos.
Well done to Funny Bike racer Dale Leeks who attended the eighth-mile XDA Fueltech Bike Bash at Virginia Motorsports Park, qualifying second of five in Pro Xtreme with a 4.068/180.00 and then defeating John Collins in the first round with a 4.059/181.18 before being defeated by Tommy Saxon in round 2 3.975/185.89 to Dale's 4.043/183.77. Dale said "I was hanging out the side to keep her straight and had to manhandle it, but I wasn’t letting off that throttle. I stayed out there far too long and overcorrected it, but I was loving it." Now third in the points, Dale's final race of the series is the DME Fall Nationals on 29th September-1st October.
European Top Fuel seizes merchandising opportunity. 29th August:
The NitrOlympX is the European sport's biggest merchandising opportunity with 40,000 fans packing the grandstands for the Night Show and the FIA Top Fuel teams made the most of it with expansive displays of merchandise and branding along with VIP packages.
Points leader Ida Zetterström, her team sponsored by Edelbrock, KW Parts Europe, Dodge and others, displayed some brand new merchandise for their launch this weekend and also the Dodge Last Call models on display with Dodge & RAM European KWA.
Meanwhile Monster Energy-sponsored Jndia Erbacher's legendary father Urs has established a Porsche custom business advertised in their pit area. Well known for building up a custom bike business Fat Attack AG, making a name for himself in the biker scene, Urs conversions are mainly based on the best air-cooled 911 produced by Porsche. Engines are completely disassembled and mechanically cleaned, finely balanced and overhauled. For more detail go to www.erbacherporsche.com.
Susanne Callin was flying the flag for Slick Tricks Racing, which brand of clothing was being worn and can be purchased at the Santa Pod Raceway shop.
On the track, Ida Zetterström defeated Jndia Erbacher with a 3.925/433.39 (269.29mph) to Jndia's 3.936/502.91 (312.49mph) and a margin of victory of 0.0613. Ida was away first 0.107 to 0.157, then incrementals to 60ft 0.855 to 0.862 for Jndia and 3.105/449.53 to 3.169/442.57 for Jndia.
Ida said "This has been our busiest weekend of the season. Day one was a hectic one, we got two passes in but got loose down track on the first one and dropped a cylinder on the second one. On day 2 I qualified in #2 amd made a pass at the Night Show in the dark, two 11,000hp Top Fuel dragsters racing in the dark is a thrill for sure!"
"We won the semi finals against Susanne with a 3.96 and got it done against Jndia in the final to go to the new Winners Circle. It was a super tight final agains Jndia - we got the lead from the start and kept in front to take the win with a 3.92 agains their 3.93. I love my team Kim Hilander, Jon Grannon, Harry Gibson, Luke Shakeshaft, Lindsey Moles and Rune Fjeld Motosport."
Jndia said "Words can‘t describe how thankful I am to have a team like this working on our car. I usually don‘t get very emotional when racing but losing this final made the tears show!
"We faced situations we never had before and the team mastered them as if there wasn‘t any difference. They worked their ass off, kept me calm in moments when everything went crazy. They gave me a consistent and perfectly running car. Knowing them for ages I can trust them completely that the car is safe. Seeing this family working together as one and doing everything to win races and giving the best for the spectators and fans.
"I‘m blessed to have those people with me and couldn‘t wish for a better racing family. It wouldn‘t be possible without them but together we can master everything!
"One more thing: Thank you to everyone who made Hockenheim so special! The team, the organisers, the fans and all the other race teams! Hockenheim 2023 got that very special spot in my heart!"
You can see the current FIA Top Fuel points standings at this link; Ida needs a qualifying round at Santa Pod at the Euro Finals to secure the title.
FIA points updated. 29th August:
Thanks to Huw Button for supplying the latest FIA and FIM-E championship points after the weekend's NitrOlympX from Hockenheim, which you can see via our points standings page at this link or by clicking on the link under News in the main menu.
With one more round to go, FIA championship leaders are Ida Zetterström (Top Fuel Dragster), Linn Fløysvik (Top Methanol), Jan Ericsson (Pro Modified) and Stefan Ernryd (Pro Stock).
FIM-E championship points will be updated shortly, stay tuned.
Swift snippets. 29th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Funny Bike crew member Dave Moore, Gasser Circus racer Ray Irish and Swedish drag n'drive Volvo racer Mikael Borggren. We hope you all have a great day.
Due to being stranded at Frankfurt Airport as a result of UK Air Traffic Control having fallen over yesterday, Eurodragster.com updates may be briefer than usual. Normal service will be resumed in a couple of days' time but come back in the meantime for racer comments from the NitrOlympX and a VW Action preview.
You can see the official elimination ladders at this link.
In a dramatic Pro Stock final, Robin Norén hit oil dropped in a previous run after 330ft, sideswiped the left wall, crossed the centre line and made light contact with the right wall. Robin was able to get out of the car before the rescue team arrived, was fit to attend the prize ceremony to receive his runner up cup, and we are hearing he still plans to be at the Euro Finals.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored NitrOlympx
reports, results and galleries (including galleries for the award ceremony and Night Show) by clicking
here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link at the top of any Eurodragster.com page.
Please join Simon in thanking Julian for his hard work over the race weekend.
We look forward to publishing racer comments on the event tomorrow, racers can send comments to news@eurodragster.com.
The Silverstone Festival was an absolute blast. I’m so proud of what we all achieved over the event, every team that represented the world of Drag Racing did an amazing job. Kai & Jake Cooper represented junior dragster brilliantly, it’s a long event for them but there were there each day ready to show people their cars and set a great example for any budding youngsters.
Rob Brown and Pete Brown along with Natalie Long and Hayley Fyfe's enthusiasm was infectious, watching them promote and being so eager throughout the whole event was a joy to see. Just so well presented and brilliantly received by everyone there. Thanks for being a huge part of the successful show, I know you all enjoyed it and I’m sure you’ll do it again.
Their next door neighbours for the Festival were the Banshee team. Mick Taylor, Frankie Taylor, Rob Chilton, Joe Taylor were there with Mick’s Outlaw Anglia Fordson van and Frankie’s beautiful altered. So pleased to have them all there and the positive comments I heard about both race cars were so great to hear. Both cars sounded great and that little nitrous purge on the last fire-up wanted me have you roll into stage and launch it!
One of the circuit racers brought his salt lake racer over and Derek Drinkwaters racer was a welcome surprise addition to our display and what a character he was. Cheers Derek, must do it again sometime.
Dave Fulton came along with that cracking Chevy Nova that I always like seeing, not only did we have the Nova but also his recently aquired Pokies ‘34 Ford which is just stunning. Thanks for trusting us with them both as work commitments meant he couldn’t be with us all the way through the event but the cars were just spot on.
Bryan Whitfield & Ian Tubb’s High Spirits outstanding High Spirts altered looked absolutely gorgeous on display, what a car, what a build and if I ever shift from collecting diecasts to race cars this would be top of my list of wants!
What a series of fire-ups we had from Simon Barlow and ’The Beast’. I don’t know who was more fired up than Simon and crew chief Cristiann Carlo. I think many a spectator were blown away with what you did this weekend, I certainly think you caught many people out with the sheer volume of those fire-ups, that was awesome.
Tony Betts, John Wright, Lesley Wright and the Venom team bought the supercharged ‘34 to the show. I love that car and it’s so good to see it again. Tony concentrates his efforts on the Venom Nostalgia funny car these days but to chill out with the 34 this weekend was a welcome change. Fair to say that John wasn’t afraid to give that motor some serious throttle whacks much to the liking of everyone there.
We had a couple of cars that couldn’t fire up but we needed them there to show a diversity of Drag Racing machinery. Aaron Fensome’s Super Pro dragster was most people’s conception of what a dragster looks like and gave me a great showpiece to talk about our amazing sport using the car to explain to everyone there about what these cars do. Andy Fadster and Purdie Hadfield came with Twister, lack of correct pushrods meant that Twister couldn’t play but many a jaw dropped when they couldn’t get their heads around what this car could do!
Talking of outrageous, Helen & Wayne Allman with Mental Breakdown just made everyone go ‘what on earth is that!’ They were even more clueless when the engine was started and fair to say Wayne wasn’t shy in showing everyone there what MB was all about. Brilliant fire-ups every time, many a head was scratched thinking what have I just seen.
Mark Sheridan, among with Brian H Palmer and Diana Macrae made sure everyone could see one of the most phenomenal Street eliminator cars ever. Marks fire-ups were cool, but when he bought the boost up you could hear everyone gasp, especially the wooooosh when the turbos were playing with the air that they sucked in….just amazing.
Finally, Kevin Slyfield, James Woody Woodsford and the rest of the Blown Bird Pro Mod team with that awesome Thunderbird completed an amazing line-up. Their fire-ups were heard everywhere and had people from many parts of the Silverstone circuit running over to see what the hell it was. The car sounded badass, it looked awesome and there certainly wasn’t anything else there that couldn’t have left ears ringing afterwards more than that. I didn’t take many pictures myself but I know social media will be full of images of our display. I did a sneaky video of Kev’s last fire-up, basically this sums it all up, just epic in every way.
What a brilliant advert for Drag racing, thanks to everyone that stopped by, huge thanks to the teams that supported it but my biggest thanks go to Tim Hinchcliffe. What an amazing tireless amount of work Tim put into this event. None of this would have happened without Tim’s input, the racing community along with the hot rodding family owe you one mate. Thank you for asking me to get involved, I absolutely loved it and was very proud to be able to call the show.
Swift snippets. 28th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Pro ET racer Jess Bishop, Williams Bros Racing crew member Lorne Denny, Nostalgia Superstock racer Pete Christmas, and rotary racer James Willday. We hope you all have a great day.
This year Chris has run two events each with his slingshot dragster “Backdraft” and his nostalgia dragbike “Backdraft Two” and he’s been thoroughly enjoying both!
We hope you have a great day Chris, and see you at the track soon from all of us at Eurodragster.com.
Swift snippets. 25th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Monique Koedam, wife of former Top Fuel Bike racer Roel, also to Willys Wars racer Mick Payne. We hope you have a great day.
Good luck and stay safe to Dan Williams who is in the US with Williams Bros Racing team members Nic Williams, Lorne Denny and Spencer Tramm to compete in Stock Eliminator at the Division 3 event from Beech Bend Raceway Park, Bowling Green, Kentucky this weekend and then the NHRA U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park next week.
Stig announces retirement. 24th August:
We were sad to see that Top Fuel racer Stig Neergaard has announced his immediate retirement from FIA competition:
"I once thought that the day had at least 30 hours, today I have to realize that it doesn't, the baptismal certificate reveals me now, I don't have the opportunity to do what I'm passionate about. I must cancel my participation at Hockenheim and at the Finals at Santa Pod.
"If all goes well, we will run one or two races in 2024, but the EU series is forever over for me.
Thanks to a fantastic crew, Gitte Damgaard Neergaard, Kenni Neergaard, Lars Falther, Carsten Knivford, Mikkel Aakjær Haufe, Jesper Klausen, Steen Tyrrestrup Graversen, Lars Andersson and Mike Jørgensen
"Thanks to the organizers, and not least thanks to all the fans. I have three race-ready cars and want to sell one to someone who wants to continue my line, it can be at a very good price."
Thanks Stig for the 20+ years you have been involved with Top Fuel, all the thrills, superb performances and entertainment along the way. Health comes first and good luck and best wishes on your retirement. We're sure more teams will fill the gap in 2024 but for those still racing, stay strong.
Euro Finals entry expanding. 24th August:
We hear that the Euro Finals entry list is still increasing. 24 Pro Mods are now attending the race and will provide an amazing show. In the sportsman classes, Super Pro ET is up to 32 entries, Pro ET up to 50 and Junior Dragster will have a bump spot for the first time in UK racing history with a 34 strong entry. See the picture entry list at this link and look out for more updates next week.
NitrOlympX coverage. 23rd August:
We will shortly be travelling to Hockenheimring to cover the NitrOlympX, the next round of the 2023 FIA/FIM-E European Drag Racing Championship taking place from 25th-27th August. Coverage sponsored by John Woolfe Racing will consist of a live report linked to official qualifying lists and elimination ladders, and galleries from Julian. For the latest news go to our event coverage page where you can also find a printable entry list and running orders.
For those wishing to attend as spectators, many ticket options (including VIP and Hot Seats) are available at this link.
Free streaming video is available on Saturday and Sunday at this link You can see a preview at this link.
ACU Points updated. 23rd August:
ACU UK Championship co-ordinator Ian King has posted the latest points tables online at this link.
Ian thanks Eurodragster.com editor Simon Groves for his assistance in compiling the tables.
9.50 Bike at Greenlights. 23rd August:
Many thanks to Deborah Sawatzki for sending a report on Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike at last weekend's STP Greenlight Nationals:
Another amazing weekend's racing at Santa Pod at the Greenlight Nationals, some excellent races, very difficult to call now where anyone could qualify and who could win, as all 9.50 racers can run the numbers!
Carl Thomas took no 1 spot with a 9.501 in the first qualifier and kept the his position into eliminations, however unfortunately he was beaten in the first round by the eventual winner Dave Hall.
Our new addition to 9.50 Bike, Josh McLean, who achieved so much in one weekend as it was his first time; in testing and qualifying, he passed his observed runs and had an amazingly close race with Richard Sawatzki who took the win, but I’m sure he will be taking the wins soon. Richard broke out in the second round and the win was taken by Zoe Hallett
Well done to you all Dave Hall Zoe Hallett, Josh McLean, Rob Stanley, Carl Thomas and Richard Sawatzki - truly all excellent and fabulous racers. The National Finals will be very exciting!
NitrOlympX bike preview. 23rd August:
Thanks again to Remco Scheelings for sending a link to the bike preview for NitrOlympX, written by Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes.
In Top Fuel Bike, Rikard Gustafsson has taken over the lead from Neil Midgley who will not be competing for the remainder of the season, however a field of eight bikes will ensure good racing at Hockenheim. A field of 10 Super Twin Bikes will have Marcus Christiansen seek to tie up his fourth title in a row. Super Street Bike is looking closer now with Alan Morrison Jnr one round of racing ahead of 2022 champion Dániel Donát Lencsés, and the Pro Stock bike points are led by Bertrand Maurice with eight other bikes seeking to take the event win. No less than seven British riders will be in Junior Drag Bike where Richard Willcox leads the points.
You can read Ivan and Rose's preview on at this link.
Swift snippets. 23rd August:
Happy Birthday for today to former Top Fuel Bike racer Stephen Carey, VW Pro racer Carl Goldsmith, Gasser Circus racer Jason Hollamby, former Pro Stock Bike racer Elvira Karlsson, former Junior Drag Bike racer and champion Meg Talbot, and drag bike engine guru Roger Upperton. We wish you all a wonderful day.
The NSRA Supernationals held on the verdant 875-acre site of the renowned Shuttleworth Collection – a working aeronautical and automotive assemblage in Old Warden, Beds. -- again attracted a very respectable turnout of club members and their rides to the annual gathering that billed itself on the cover of the event programme as Europe’s Premiere (sic) Hot Rod and Custom Event. The 3-day affair went off rather well, with the two prime days being at the weekend where the Saturday cruise was the cynosure, followed by the public day on the Sabbath. It would be fair to say that Sunday’s attendance numbers were rather pleasing and it was lucky that the pluvial factor brought only an extremely light sprinkling on the first day of the weekend.
With that said, a welcome attraction for straight-line racing fans on hand had to be the recently debuted AA/Fuel Altered of Whitfield & Tubb. Harking back to the glory days of the short wheelbase, high engine placement of the exciting breed that were an integral part of America’s blown-nitro scene in the Sixties, the aptly named High Spirits is the first example of the genre to really impress aficionados of the sport. Speaking with Bryan Whitfield and partner Diane, he said there are four further Altereds currently being built with big-block Chevy motivation and each having between them a selection of spares that’ll hopefully fulfil a plan to provide class participants with the ability to rebuild any ailing powerplants at the track should a need arise.
Dragstalgia attendees will have seen High Spirits in static mode parked in the pits, from where the car returned to home base at Roberts Motor Bodies in Sheffield, the well-established business from which Bryan recently retired before transferring daily duties to daughter Gemma. Incidentally, the outstanding Altered garnered the prestigious Best Appearing Vehicle trophy, a well-deserved accolade from the Pod’s bods, making this the third award of note to date. There are, er, high hopes that this welcome addition to Santa Pod’s ranks will make it along for some testing later this season, so fingers crossed that a few more OSCARS (Old School Classic Altered Racers) will add a dose of nitro nirvana to the new Fuel category in 2024.
A further nod to drag racing was a shock presentation to John Price, for many years the voice of Santa Pod, and it made his weekend. Harking back to last year’s NSRA Supernationals, one of the items John auctioned was a reproduction of a sign advertising the sport’s first proper facility that, incidentally, opened its doors in 1966. He said at the time how neat it would be to have procured the item for his man cave, but alas ’twas not to be. So, it would be fair to say when out of the blue he was handed a foamboard facsimile example of the iconic sign by NSRA member Chris Hay it really was a most welcome gift. Although quite how the original sign came to be purloined from the Pod way back when is none too clear – or at least no one is owning up to nicking it -- what is certain is that there’s now a mere handful of lucky fans whom have the pleasure of having the next best thing as a neat souvenir of the venue’s early days.
Finally, a mention also for Matt Stanley, a Top 10 award winner with his small-block Chevy powered Ford 100e, dubbed FireCracker, that competes in the Pod’s Modified 100e Challenge series.
In summation, even though the NSRA show invariably attracts a bumper participation for the event, it’s odds on there’ll be something of particular interest for drag racing devotees…
Ålund: "When it rains, it pours". 22nd August:
Thanks to Pär 'PiPPi' Willén for sending a report on Pro Stock and Pro Modified racer Jimmy Ålund and the Summit Racing Camaro, races #2 at Gardermoen Raceway and Tierp Arena, his second event of the year at both tracks.
To sum up these two weekends: There were "inclement weather conditions" throughout both events. Translated to racers speak, "[censored]".
Drag Challenge at Gardermoen Raceway, Norway.
The rains at Drag Challenge at Gardermoen Raceway led to only two rounds of qualifying. The rain and cold made for a less than ideal track conditions when it was time to race.
Pro Stock: Ålunds and his crew made the best of the situation and went into eliminations as the #1 qualifier.
In eliminations, Ålund went through the quarter and semifinals in a solid fashion but lost out to long time Pro Stock veteran Michael Malmgren in the final pair.
One of the few rays of sunshine here was that the loss in the final round did not remove the Ålund Racing Team from the lead in the EDRS Nordic Pro Stock Series.
Pro Mod: Lots of new-season-gremlins. The weather made for only two qualifying rounds where Ålund ended up in 7th and last place. To add insult to injury, Ålund was eliminated in the first elimination round on Sunday.
Ålund, "well, it was one of those weekends you want to put out of your mind. The weather is hard to beat, we did not get to where we wanted in neither the Summit Racing Camaro nor in the Summmit Racing Pro Mod car".
The Summit Racing Equipment Internationals at Tierp Arena, Sweden.
The weather forecasts were grim and unfortunately correct, rains marred this event as well. A repeat from Gardermoen, the rain and cold made it a very tricky track to handle.
The plan was for five qualifying rounds but the weather cut that down to three.
Pro Stock: The crew read the tough track correctly and set up the car to match. The Summit Racing Camaro was the quickest and fastest in each round and took the #1 qualifying spot with a best ET of 6.5939 and a best speed of 342.64 km/h (212.91 mph).
Eliminations got cut short as well. No finals but Ålund took the wins in both the quarter and semifinals. He cleared the table here as well, running best ETs and speeds in both sessions. This meant that the team took the top honor in the EDRS Nordic Pro Stock Series.
Pro Mod: The aforementioned gremlins kept hanging around. As always is the case, Tierp fielded a very tough crew with 22 of the best Pro Mods in Europe in place. It showed. After Q3, Ålund was not in the ladder for racing in Sunday's elimination. Things looked up in the fourth qualifying round, the Summit Racing Pro Mod car mustered a 6.35 and was in the 15th spot and thus in the ladder. Unfortunately, that last qualifying round was cut short by rain. Since not all cars made it down the track in that round, it was thrown out and Ålund was back in a dismal 18th place, outside of the ladder.
However, the rain clouds carried a silver lining. Ålund's #18 qualifying position made him the second alternate and with two cars dropping out meant that Ålund made the field on Sunday. The gremlins were gone, Ålund won the eight-final with the third best ET and speed of the round.
The newfound performance stayed on with a win in the quarterfinals but the weather beat all and the entire event was called with no classes getting through the finals.
"Another very tough weather weekend here at Tierp" says Ålund, "but way better for us than at Gardermoen". Ålund continues, "The Old ´51 Pro Mod car caused us some headaches all the way through qualifying but that got cured when we snuck into the eliminations as second alternate".
"In Pro Stock, the crew got as good a performance out of the Summit Racing Camaro as was possible, all the ETs were good and consistent as were the speeds. We accomplished what we wanted, winning the 2023 EDRS Nordic Pro Stock series."
Summit Racing Equipment is sponsoring Ålund Pro Stock Camaro this year as well. This is in addition to Tunghantering, Viking Industrimålning, KB Titan Racing, Camaroskroten, and Stigs Axle and Parts. Jimmy Ålund Racing is very grateful for the continuing support from such great companies.
Brendan 7.60 Heads Up Champion. 22nd August:
Following three great rounds of 7.60 Heads-Up, congratulations go to Brendan Clancy who has become 2023 Champion, writes class organiser Jeff Bull:
"Our 2023 7.60 Class Champion is Brendan Clancy and the Dublin Up team with their beautifully turned out '58 Corvette. Congratulations Brendan and team!
"2023 7.60 Runner Up is Mark Turner and the M&M team with their very nice blown Toyota Supra. Congratulations Mark Michelle, Dave and all the team!
"Well done to all the racers and teams who came and raced in 7.60 this year, thanks for your support."
"Thanks to Spencer Tramm for forwarding the final points standings. You can see the final points in 7.60 Heads-Up by clicking here.
Brendan said "To everyone in 7.60 it was a pleasure to have raced and meet you guys this year, thank you for all you help and roll on next year. And may I say a special thank you to Jeff and Belinda for pushing the class forward."
The winner at the STP Greenlight Nationals was Jeff's wife Belinda. Jeff wrote:
"What a great 2023 7.60 HU final round at the Greenlight Nationals. New PBs and breakouts and fantastic side by side racing for everyone to watch at Santa Pod Raceway. Well done to all the 7.60 HU teams for your support this year. And to top it all, Belinda did a great driving job to take the win in the finals against Mark Turner in his blown Supra with a win margin of 0.0031 seconds.
She's definitely still got what it takes, well done Darling on your win."
Also of note is the improved performance of Jack Williams, whose supercharged Nova went into the sevens. Jack wrote "7.74 @ 177mph
Thankyou to everyone who helped and thanks to Jeff and Belinda for putting such a good event on, roll on 2024."
Jeff and Belinda added "Massive thanks to our 2023 7.60 Heads Up Sponsors. We are very grateful for their ongoing support. They all share our passion for drag racing and their generous sponsorship has helped provide prize money for each of our events in 2023."
Jeff Bull Race Engines
Neil & Debbie at West Country Fencing Supplies
Joe Hilerio at BLP Racing Products
Doug Herbert at Doug Herbert Performance
Ken at Transmission Specialties
Ricky at MRB Surfacing
"Thankyou from all the 7.60 racers and teams."
NitrOlympX previews. 22nd August:
Thanks to photojournalist Remco Scheelings for sending in a preview of the NitrOlympX to be held on 25th-27th August at the Hockenheimring, Germany. You can read Remco's preview at this link on the www.dragracingeurope.eu website.
Remco has interviewed Dutch Pro Modified racer David Vegter and you can see the interview at this link on www.dragracingeurope.eu.
Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes have also supplied an article on the www.dragracingeurope.eu website which focuses on Martijn de Haas's Super Twin Bike 2023 campaign which you can see at this link.
Also previewing the NitrOlympX is Mike Kraaij who has sent in a pdf file previewing the bike classes, full of background information, which you can access by clicking here.
Drag Race Union 2023 Challenges mid-term report. 22nd August:
Thanks to Markus Münch for a mid-term report on the Drag Race Union 2023 Challenges (English version below):
Die Europäische Dragster Saison ist auf ihrem (zeitlichen) Höhepunkt. Mitte August, kurz vor dem großen Rennen in Hockenheim, den Nitrolympx. Die drei Rennen in Frankreich / Clastres sind durch, es stehen dann im September noch in Santapod die Euro Finals und die National Finals an, ebenso das „Big Go“ in Italien, das Hillsrace in Rivanazzano, sowie evtl. eine Clubsportveranstaltung in Zerbst Anfang Oktober. Am 21.10.2023 ist schon die Meisterfeier der DRU, diesmal vom Knightriders MC in Bad Kissingen ausgerichtet.
Wie lief es bisher? Supro ET Challenge: Angel Romero und sein Centauros Team haben sich satt an die Spitze gesetzt. Das Spanische Team ist sehr reisefreudig und entdeckungslustig. Neben den Rennen in Clastres und Rivanazzano fuhren sie auch hoch in den Norden (Gardemoen/Norwegen, Tierp/Schweden) um Punkte zu sammeln. In Gardemoen gewannen sie die Klasse. Das bringt ihnen aktuell ein sattes Polster von 85 Punkten auf den Baseler Alain Dürr im Alfa ein. Dahinter liegt bereits mit über 100 Punkten Rückstand Christian Schneebeli in seinem Betsy Blue getauften Bel Air. Schneebeli konnte das zweite Rennen in Clastres gewinnen. Dahinter sind Franz Aschenbrenner und Robert Gassener, der in Clastres im Finale gegen Schneebeli stand.
Reisefreudig sind einige Teams, Team Aschenbrenner war auch auf einer Skandinavien Tour, ebenso Team Gane. Die splitten Ihre Anstrengungen dieses Jahr auf zwei Klassen. Zum einen Supro ET (sie sind amtierender englischer Meister, DRU Runner up…) und sie wollen auf zu anderen Ufern. Da kommt ihnen die Klasse Pro Street (Skandinavien und nun auch England) sehr entgegen, in der es einen 7.60 Sekunden Klassenindex gibt und Heads up gestartet wird. Da läuft es auch gut für Team Gane, die gesteckten Ziele wurden bisher erreicht. Leider musste Stefan Eisenhauer nach einem Crash in Clastres die Saison (evtl. für lange) beenden. Der Camaro ist doch recht verformt.
Die Pro ET Challenge ist eine enge Kiste. Youngster Magnus Sommer, Sohn von Dirk Sommer, fährt dieses Jahr den Familien „Laturna Motors“ Mopar. Er führt mit 39 Punkten (knapp 2 Rennrunden) vor Janine Petzold vom Team Schumann Motorsport. Magnus gewann eines der Rennen in Clastres, beim nächsten war er in DNQ, nicht einmal im Feld. Da gab es „all sorts of Problems“, die nun vor den NOX behoben sind. Team Schumann Motorsport feiert dieses Jahr 15 Jähriges Jubiläum, auf weitere erfolgreiche 15 Jahre sag ich da mal. Den dritten Platz teilen sich Lauren Levi und Martin Weikum. Levi konnte sich in seinem nostalgischen Gasser auch eines der Rennen in Clastres sichern. Weikum im goldenen Camaro wird sich so kampflos nicht geschlagen geben. Das wird nicht nur in Hockenheim noch spannend. Bring on Hockenheim. Allen Englischen Teams sei eine stressfreie Überfahrt nach Deutschland gewünscht. Team Clark hatte nach einer Odyssee an der Französischen Grenze die Nase voll und brachte ihren Renner nach Hause, um als Zuschauer die Zeit bei den NOX zu verbringen. Sehr schade das.
Extreme Outlaw (XO) werden dieses Jahr das erste mal bei den NOX an den Start gehen. Die Klasse ist aufgeladenen Dragstern vorbehalten, die im Cannonball Format den Sieger ausfahren.
So, wird alles noch sehr spannend.
Markus und die DRU.
English version
The European dragster season is at its (temporal) peak. In mid-August, shortly before the big race in Hockenheim, the Nitrolympx. The three races in France / Clastres are done, the Euro Finals and the National Finals are still to come in Santapod in September, as well as the "Big Go" in Italy, the Hillsrace in Rivanazzano, and possibly a club sport event in Zerbst at the beginning of October . On October 21, 2023, the DRU championship celebration is on, this time organized by the Knightriders MC in Bad Kissingen.
How has it been so far? Supro ET Challenge: Angel Romero and his Centauros team have taken the lead. The Spanish team loves to travel and explore. In addition to the races in Clastres and Rivanazzano, they also drove up north (Gardemoen/Norway, Tierp/Sweden) to collect points. In Gardemoen they won the class. This currently brings them a whopping cushion of 85 points to Basel's Alain Dürr in the Alfa. Christian Schneebeli in his Bel Air, named Betsy Blue, is already more than 100 points behind. Schneebeli was able to win the second race in Clastres. Behind them are Franz Aschenbrenner and Robert Gassener, who was in the final against Schneebeli in Clastres.
Some teams are happy to travel, Team Aschenbrenner was also on a Scandinavian tour, as was Team Gane. They're splitting their efforts into two classes this year. On the one hand Supro ET (they are reigning English champions, DRU runner up...) and they want to go to other shores. The Pro Street class (Scandinavia and now also England) suits them very well, in which there is a 7.60 second class index and starts heads up. Things are also going well for Team Gane, the goals they have set themselves have been achieved so far. Unfortunately, Stefan Eisenhauer had to end the season (possibly for a long time) after a crash in Clastres. The Camaro is quite deformed.
The Pro ET Challenge is a tight box. The youngster Magnus Sommer, son of Dirk Sommer, is driving the “Laturna Motors” Mopar family this year. He leads with 39 points (almost 2 race laps) in front of Janine Petzold from Team Schumann Motorsport. Magnus won one of the races at Clastres, the next he was in DNQ, not even in the field. There were "all sorts of problems" that have now been fixed before the NOX. Team Schumann Motorsport is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, and I look forward to another 15 successful years. Lauren Levi and Martin Weikum shared third place. Levi was also able to secure one of the races in Clastres in his nostalgic Gasser. Weikum in the golden Camaro will not give up without a fight. That will not only be exciting in Hockenheim. Bring on Hockenheim. All English teams wished for a stress-free crossing to Germany. After an odyssey on the French border, Team Clark was fed up and brought their racer home to spend the time as spectators at the NOX. That's a pity.
Extreme Outlaw (XO) will start at the NOX for the first time this year. The class is reserved for supercharged, procharged, turbocharged dragsters who choose the winner in cannonball format.
So, everything is going to be very exciting.
Markus and the DRU.
Sportsman ET report from Clare Lake. 22nd August:
Thanks to Clare Lake for sending a write up of Sportsman ET at the STP Greenlight Nationals last weekend.
The Greenlight Nationals proved to be another challenging round this season for Sportsman ET. The weather was once again unpredictable, with more than its fair share of wind during qualifying!
James Grew (SPET244, Chevrolet El Camino) had a mechanical issue during qualifying round 1 when debuting his El Camino, having previously raced his daily driver. Luckily it was an easy fix and he could continue the event. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an easy fix for Ashley Symonds (SPET48, Nissan Skyline R34). Having secured the number 1 qualifying position from Kirstie Tramm (SPET5, Chevrolet Camaro) who had run back to back 12.10, on 12.10 dial ins, it was on the final qualifying run on Sunday morning that his drive shaft broke and once again his event was cut short as it was at the Summer Nationals.
We went into eliminations with Brian Huxley (SPET25, Ford Focus) as number 1 qualifier having hit his time perfectly, so he had a bye run straight into round 2. There had been quite a delay waiting in the sun in the pairing lanes before we raced with some literally sleeping at the wheel, which could account for some of the reaction times! Jane McCready (SPET4189, MK4 Escort Van) was unfortunately slow off the lights and broke out. Although they were delighted to have a 14 second run, the win went to Chris Winn (SPET780, Alfa Romeo Mito Veloce Turbo).
Steven Giles (SPET603, Subaru Forester) had performed well all through qualifying but red lit giving the win to Gary Lake (SPET167, Pontiac Trans Am). Kirstie Tramm also red lit, giving the Bounty prize for eliminating the previous event winner and the place in the second round to Rob Creswell (SPET14, Ford Fiesta ST). This was Rob’s first round of competition this season but he also won the Eurodragster/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award. He apparently hasn’t lost his touch, having been a previous VW Sportsman championship winner and Sportsman ET runner up.
Because Ashley Symonds had previously had to retire from racing, it gave Jago Stokes (SPET636, Nissan Skyline) a bye run – straight into another bye run in round 2. Jago was already in the quarter finals! Georgina Smith (SPET387, Toyota Supra) had an excellent reaction, and moved through to the next round having broken out by less than Chris Creswell (SPET33, Ford Fiesta ST). As was Troy Attree (SPET 107, Chevrolet Camaro Z28) having broken out by less than Steven Mellors (SPET19, Mazda MX5). A great result for Troy who had a consistently running car after a year of issues.
It was a close race between Simon Swarbrick (SPET82, Ford Pop 103) and Bill Wilson (SPET851, Ford F100) who are pretty evenly matched. Simon broke out and the win went to Bill. Another run that was decided by the breakout was between Felicity Gibbs (SPET816, Ford Mustang) and Shane Sturman SPET309, Jaguar XK8). Both racers breaking out, but Felicity by the least progressed.
Richard Palmer (SPET109 , Jaguar XKR) went through to round 2 with a great light helping him beat James Grew.
Pete Walters’ (SPET881, Mercedes SLK) experience showed as he took the win in his mum’s car, against Matt Halsall (SPET964, Ford Escort MK2). More racers in different cars could be found in the battle between Pro ET regulars Susie McClure (SPET752), Dodge Ram 1500) and Dave Cherrett (SPET79, Vauxhall Astra), resulting in Dave’s reaction time giving him the advantage and the win. Holley Walters’ (SPET4, Ford Mustang) excellent reaction time and precise dial enabled her to join her brother and move through to round 2 over Stef Pateman (SPET68 BMW 435i), where she would meet Dave Cherrett.
Round 2 seemed to be decided by red lights and breakouts. Both Rob Creswell and Bill Wilson red lit which enabled Richard Palmer and Georgina Smith to advance with Jago Stokes in the Quarter Finals. Three races were decided by breakouts. Pete Walters, Dave Cherrett and Gary Lake all crossing the finish line first but the wins being taken by their opposition, Felicity Gibbs, Holley Walters, and Brian Huxley, as they all broke out, by fractions in some cases. This result could have implications with all three being in the hunt for the championship chasing down Gary Lake. In the remaining quarter final race Chris Winn’s excellent reaction time wasn’t enough to give him the win, which Troy took only being 0.02 from his predicted time.
During Quarter Finals Georgina Smith had a bye into the Semi Finals where she met Brian Huxley. He took the win from Holley although she crossed the line first, she broke out by more than Brian. On the other side of the table Richard Palmer red lit sending Felicity through to the Semi Finals to face Jago Stokes who had a better reaction time to Troy Attree and took the last spot.
The Semi Finals were very closely fought. Jago Stokes, who had an exceptional reaction and perfect elapsed time, was to become the first finalist. He would be facing Georgina Smith who had the closest of races with Brian Huxley. Brian crossed the line first but had broken out by 0.481. Georgina had also broken out but by 0.480 so she was through to the final by the absolute narrowest of margins.
It was the first final for both racers and both were keen to win. Georgina set off to a great start with a 0.0325 light. In the end both were close to their times but Jago red lit making Georgina the Sportsman ET winner of the Greenlight Nationals. Congratulations to both finalists.
It was an exciting round of racing showing that our class is truly competitive and anyone can win- no matter what you drive or your experience. It’s also a resounding success for Dial in Day 2023 graduates with Jago being the second to take to the podium this year.
As always my closing thanks to all the racers and crew/support for the challenge and comradery (Jane the cake was delicious!); our sponsors, Hutchinson &Dibley, and the staff and crew at Santa Pod for making it possible; Colin for his commentary and of course Simon Groves at Eurodragster for their coverage and support (you're welcome - Ed) and for Julian Hunt and Diana Macrae for providing the pictures in general and those in this report in particular.
Swift snippets. 22nd August:
Happy Birthday for today to Top Fuel racer Stig Neergaard, Willys Wars organiser and racer Pike Murray, 8.50 Bike racer Dan De'ath and former Pro Stock Bike racer Ray Debben, we hope you all have a great day.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored STP Greenlight Nationals
reports, results and galleries by clicking
here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link at the top of any Eurodragster.com page.
Please join Simon in thanking Julian and Diana for their hard work over the test session and race weekend.
We look forward to publishing racer comments from social media on the event tomorrow, racers can also send comments to news@eurodragster.com.
Shelley resumes TF. 21st August:
Top Fuel Dragster racer Shelley Pearson resumed her career at the NDRG Drag Challenge at Gardermoen Raceway recently in the Nitro Vikings car owned by Konrad Ree and Odd Rune Olsen, and run by a crew including members of the former Islanders team. She writes:
"What a great weekend we had at Gardermoen Raceway. Despite the weather being totally against us and the track being extremely tricking and not being there for us the Nitro Vikings managed to make three runs with progress being made on each pass and the 60ft times improving.
"The team worked tirelessly at short notice to get the car event ready. The car had been stored away for 5 years so it was some time since the wheels turned on the track.
"The team have been family friends with Shelley for many years and last year discussions were had about maybe bringing the car out with her behind the wheel. The event at Gardermoen seemed a fitting event for the team and Shelley to work together for the first time both parties are very happy with how it all turned out.
"The Team had around 50 VIP guests at the event, they spent time with the guys looking at the mechanical side of Top Fuel car and were all intrigued and blown away by how these machines work.
"Many thanks to the team Anders Lomeland, Martin Hatlestad, Sivert Hatlestad, Steffen Korsmo, Alitzja Thorkildsen, Thor G Larsen, VIP Øyvor Jacobsen, Beata Wojtalik, Kevin Kent and owners Konrad Ree and Odd Rune Olsen.
"The plans for the Nitro Vikings aren’t clear at the moment, we are working extremely hard to secure sponsorship to bring the car out. If we have any updates we shall be sure the let our fans know."
Dragmag.de Tierp galleries and report. 21st August:
Many thanks to Markus Münch who has sent in links of coverage of the Summit Racing Internationals from Tierp Arena from 10th-13th August.
You can see a gallery of photos by Henrik Vormdohre at this link. A separate gallery by Karl Linß, mainly photos of Top Fuel and the pairing lanes, is at this link.
Markus's report with pictures can be seen at this link.
Also posting media from the Summit Racing Internationals is Top Fuel racer Ida Zetterström whose vlog can be seen on Youtube at this link.
Swift snippets. 21st August:
Happy Birthday for today to 9.50 Bike legend Rick Sawatzki, former Pro Stock Bike racer Fredrik Fredlund, and VW Beetle racer Becki Turnock, we hope you all have a great day.
Jedborn Motorsport, the team of FIA Top Methanol racer Tina Høst Nedregård, have announced that they have bought the full Top Fuel operation from their good friends and TF legend Monica Öberg and Dan Söderberg. The plan is to reconfigure the Top Fuel into a A/Fuel car and sell one of their cars. Potential buyers queue here...
The quickest class is Green Light Pro where Simon Barlow (Fordson) will be competing with Harry Gibson (Another Small Fortune dragster) for the trophy. Jeff Bull Racing Engines 7.60 Heads Up has an eight car field with Elaine Hancock's Crazy Lady Ford Zephyr joining the class for the first time and the others contesting the championship trophy with Brendan Clancy in the lead.
Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET (led in the points by Gary Lake with Kirstie Tramm in second) has a bumper 26 car field, VW Sportsan 21 competitors (Jerry Sadler leading a very tight title race), VW Pro 13 (Graham Fairhead the current leader), Big Bracket (Super Pro and Pro ET) 14 cars, Nostalgia Super Stock 13 (Spencer Tramm the points leader), Outlaw Anglia 6 (Rob Stone leading), and Wild Bunch and Outlaw Flat 4 both with five, led in points by Phil James and James Wotton respectively.
In the bike classes, the ACU Championship has six in Taylor's Trophy Super Street Bike, four in Leeks Landscapes Funny Bike, 16 in Suzukiperformancespares.co.uk Comp Bike, and 11 in Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike (see yesterday's update for ACU points leaders). There are 16 in JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike (points leader Brad Head), 6 in Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike (Richard Sawatzki the points leader), 28 in Blood Cancer UK ET Bike (points leader Blade King) fighting for the SPRC National Championship.
Spectators can buy tickets to this feast of drag racing competition by visiting santapodtickets.com.
Bonneville report. 18th August:
Nitro Revival sponsor Geoff Stilwell is now back in the UK after a frustrating Bonneville Speed Week. The start of racing was delayed by four days of the course drying out. Geoff reported:
"SCTA club President Bill Lattin has worked so hard this past week to make speedweek happen along with all the officials and volunteers as well. We ended up 3rd fastest at Speedweek which is an amazing achievement. Had I kept my foot in it we would have been 2nd as I was doing 235 when I hit the chutes early. We will be back.
"After this great first pass we discovered the fuel tank had split. Not something we could fix out on the salt so we had to pack up and we start the long trip back to Los Angeles.
"Huge thanks go out to an amazing crew, Nick Davies, Rob Loaring, Scott Barnes, Scott Campbell, Cory Silk, Mick Jenkins, Tony Thacker, Nestor Cabero, Marc Greenall and the one and only Bob Muravez.
"Thanks especially to Mick Jenkins of Mick's Paint for building me my incredible hot rod. Also the SCTA for getting this event underway despite Mother Nature doing her best again. Thanks to VP Racing for all their help and providing top class products. Couldn’t do it without you."
For a report on Speedweek written by Nestor Cabrera and Tony Thacker including many photos and video go to Torq Talk website.
Swift snippets. 18th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Pro Modified Badillac racer Jan Gunnarson, have a great day Jan and we hope to see you back at the track next year!
Kieran has posted a number of Youtube videos of action from last weekend's Summit Racing Equipment Internationals at Tierp Arena. You can see Kieran's videos including separate videos for Top Fuel Dragster, Top Methanol, Pro Modified, Top Doorslammer and Comp Eliminator at this link.
Black Dragon Motorcycles’ Pete Ford (pictured right) topped the time sheets; from the six passes made, Pete - as he always does - tuned the blown 750cc Suzuki to cope with the changeable conditions from an easy 9.759s to wound up with a 9.159s for FTD and the 750cc Racing class points that went with it. Pete, who also does a bit of Hillclimbing with another rapid Suzuki now and then, also achieved the quickest 60ft time of 1.473s. Not bad for an OAP!
Chasing him hard and fair, but in a different class was ET Bike racer, and first timer to the raceway Pete Wise (pictured left) who, without the ET bracket numbers attached, turned all the stops off his Suzuki Hayabusa to start the day with a 9.994/150.52 mph. Eventually after six passes it didn’t take him long to head the Unlimited class time sheets to finish second quickest with a rapid 9.260/155.67 mph. Nearest in class was Simon Havercroft’s 999cc NOS Suzuki Blackjack GSXR who kept pushing his JHS Racing prepared motor to the limit by finishing the day with a 9.239s and Andy Boswell’s R&D Racing 1200cc Harley Sportster drag bike at 9.526s.
Wild Bunch racer Chris Hartnell was back for his second outing with the ex-Tony Pettitt Clift Honda drag bike Backdraft Two (pictured below right). Although suffering a little with de-misting issues early morning, due in part to the intermittent rain showers, Chris achieved what he set out to do and that was to run quicker than April’s previous best by turning a 16.1 into a 14.193/98.02 mph from the CBR400RR.
The Kawasaki Triples twins Pete McGuiness and Kerry Philips were knocking each other about as they traded places in the two horse 500cc Racing Class. In the end it was nostalgia Pro Stock racer Pete who came out on top with a 11.362s to Kerry’s 11.526s. It was also a special day for Kerry as he had with him his two lads Arron, riding a Yamaha R1, and younger brother Jake on a GSXR 750 Barry Sheene replica. Even though Jake had been racing before at Shakespeare County in 2017, it was Arron who wound up the quickest in the low elevens.
In the Vintage and Classic classes Doug Kenyon Vellocette Mac picked up the 350cc win, John Young sprinted to the Unlimited win while Jason Winterson picked up the Classic Jap win on his XS 707 Yamaha, while top ‘scooterist’ was Green Light Scooters head of speed - Adie Horrocks who pushed his 149 Vespa into the 12s, not one but twice to end the day on a 12.892s high.
Quickest Road Bike was multi class champion Steve Everett, as he took his stock engined Hayabusa to a 9.752s for the Over 1000cc win while Neil Jenkinson, complete with new clutch on his 750cc Street Triple Triumph ran consistent elevens to wind up the day with an 11.268s at 118 mph.
Nice to see a few more Junior’s entering the classes with cousin’s Leo and Sebastian Wareham taking class honours respectively and Ruby Sanchez (daughter of Tony) making good with her former Stacey Reed 125 LC Yamaha RD Junior Drag Bike to close the day with a 16.637s.
The next and final NSA ‘Drag & Drift’ meet of the year at Dakota Raceway is set for Saturday September 30th.
You can see Carol's gallery of photos via our event coverage page sponsored by John Woolfe Racing or direct from this link.
ACU points posted. 17th August:ACU UK Championship co-ordinator Ian King has posted the latest points tables online at this link.
Ian has noted that following Neil Midgley’s accident at Tierp that he is unlikely to defend his Championship lead in TFB so all to play for at the concluding round at the National Finals in Santa Pod.
And with two more rounds for the other classes yet to run it is far from clear who will take the respective class Championships despite a healthy lead for Dave Peters in Funnybike and Leah Morrison in JDB.
Competition Bike has proved to be the class of the Championship this year with a number of riders all with a good chance of taking the 2023 title.
Ian also thanks Simon Groves for his help in producing the updated points table.
Drag racing showcased at Silverstone Festival. 17th August:
Fans will be able to catch some awesome displays and specatular demos by dragsters, drifters and hot rods at the Silverstone Festival on 25-27 August.
Silverstone have announced that displays will be taking place in the Yokohama Shift & Drift Zone, located on a former section of Silverstone’s Grand Prix circuit close to the event’s main entrance.
The Festival’s special celebrations mark the 75 years of epic motorsport history at Silverstone. Drag racing is very much part of that heritage as it was exactly 50 years ago in 1973 that the National Drag Racing Championship (NDRC) held its first international drag race at the Northamptonshire circuit on the then newly resurfaced Club Straight. Marking that milestone a dozen dramatic dragsters will be firing up and performing twice daily burn-outs in the Yokohama Shift & Drift Zone.
Santa Pod Raceway announcer Colin Theobald said "Behind the scenes Tim Hinchcliffe has been working tirelessly on gathering a great bunch of cars to represent the world of Drag Racing here in the U.K. and create an incredible display at next weekend’s Silverstone Festival.
"Tim got in touch with me to help, and we are very proud to announce that we have 16 cracking cars lined up for a brilliant display with 2 fire-up sessions each day, full PA system for commentary and announcements and so much more we cannot tell you about just yet...
"How about this for a line up:
Kevin Slyfield and the Blown Bird Pro Mod Thunderbird
Wayne Allman and the incredible Mental Breakdown VW
Tony Betts with the gorgeous ‘34
Mark Sheridan’s awesome Street Eliminator twin-turbo Hemi Cuda
Kai Cooper and Jake Cooper’s Junior Dragsters
Aaron Fensome and his Blown Super Pro Dragster
Simon Barlow and the Beast supercharged Outlaw Anglia
Dave Fulton and his beautiful Chevy Nova
Mick Taylor’s 7 second Banshee Outlaw Anglia Fordson
Rob Brown and Peter Brown with Rebel & Wrathchild, the retro slingshots
Bryan Whitfield with the Whitfield & Tubb High Spirits Altered
Frankie Taylor with her new Banshee Altered making its first public outing
Dave Fulton’s recently aquired stunning Pokies ’34 Coupe
Santa Pod Raceways Top Fuel display Bike
Colin Theobald's Bruce the Camaro
"We cannot wait to let our circuit friends leave our display with their ears ringing as we let them know what real horsepower looks and sounds like. We are located within the Yokohama Adrenaline Zone on the right as you come through the main gates and we are also joined with a fantastic display of American Hot Rods, Terry Grant display and more. Look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.
"Massive thanks to Santa Pod Raceway for their help and support, we will do you and the world of Drag Racing proud."
Commentary will come from Colin to add further to the high octane atmosphere.
A line-up of 12 super-cool retro-styled Hot Rods is equally evocative. Most are powered by small block Chevy V8s and they will be ready to rumble for twice daily ‘cruises’.
“We’ve really upped the ante with some exciting new content in the Yokohama Shift & Drift Zone – it is without doubt the biggest and best extreme machine show we’ve ever put on at the Festival,” enthused Nick Wigley, Event Director. “The introduction of both dragsters and hot rods will add to the Americana at the Festival, which also features on-track NASCAR displays to mark the ‘Days of Thunder’ series’ 75th birthday.”
Peter Fairlie, CEO of Yokohama UK added “The Yokohama Shift & Drift Zone promises to be packed with lots of thrilling action across the weekend. We’re sure it will be a great addition to this year’s Festival and we are proud to be supporting this initiative as part of our biggest investment to date in the event, which just continues to get better every year.”
The drag racing display will be alongside record-breaking stunt driver, Terry Grant, and the Slowly Sideways rally car demos which nod to Silverstone’s history of hosting World championship Rally GB stages back in the late eighties.
Entrance to the Yokohama Shift & Drift Zone is one of the many outstanding attractions included in the price of admission to the Festival. Tickets also offer access to Silverstone Museum, live music from chart-topping bands on all three evenings, a Fan Zone dedicated to an incredible display of current Formula 1 cars, funfair rides, a Foodie Fest with celebrity chefs, both race paddocks and the grandstands.
A wide-range of tickets for the Festival are available, including camping and VIP hospitality options. Full details can be found here.
Photo credit: Callum Pudge.
Swift snippets. 17th August:
Happy Birthday for today to former Top Methanol Funny Car racer Arvid Grødem, Anglia 105e racer Bill Murfin and Van With No Name crew member Joe Williams. We hope you all have a great day.
Racers for the NitrOlympX at Hockenheim on 25th-27th August can see an overall running order by clicking here; this and our printable entry list can be downloaded via our event index page.
This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Bad Habit Racing Perfect Light Award has been increased to £100 after it went unclaimed at the Mopar Euro Nationals. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds.
The Perfect Light Award is available in all classes during both qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the event.
The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with Cath and Tig Napier of Modurstang Pro ET team Bad Habit Racing.
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect Light Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available
in Signing On or from Eurodragster.com staff.
The Eurodragster.com Perfect ET Award supported by Andy Hadfield and the Twister Race Team has been increased to £75 after it also went unclaimed at the Mopar Euro Nationals. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to run +0.000 on index or dial-in. The Perfect
ET Award is available in 7.60 Heads Up, the Big Bracket, Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, VW Pro, VW Sportsman, Wild Bunch, NEM Plant Nostalgia Superstock, JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike, Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike, Blood Cancer UK ET Bike and Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike.
but will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield of the Twister Race Team.
Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect ET Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are
available in Signing On or from Eurodragster.com staff.
Bob's Photo Finish Award, which is presented in association with Eurodragster.com sponsor Bob Roberts, will award
£50 each to the racers involved in the closest race of eliminations at this weekend's event. At the STP Summer Nationals the Award was won by Comp Eliminator racers Dan and Nic Williams.
The closest race will be decided upon distance rather than time since, for example, 0.001 seconds at 230 mph is further than 0.002
seconds at 110 mph. For this reason the official timing data will need to be consulted so the winners will be announced here on Eurodragster.com
as soon as possible after the event and the winners will then be contacted for their preferred method of payment. The award will be paid on green light drag races only, and not on bracket races where there is a breakout.
Bob's Photo Finish Award is open to all classes during eliminations only and although Eurodragster.com decals are not mandatory we would
appreciate if it they are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available in Signing On.
More Summit Racing Equipment Internationals media. 16th August:
Thanks to photojournalist Remco Scheelings for letting us know that his reports on the Summit Racing Equipment Internationals at Tierp Arena last weekend have been published on the Dutch language website autosport.nl. You can read Remco's event report at this link and also a behind-the-scenes article, including people photos and news snippets, at this link.
There have been a couple of additional Facebook albums posted which we list below:
There are newspaper and magazine articles too, but sadly they are behind paywalls which can only be accessed by paying a subscription.
Monday drag club returning. 16th August:
Scott Lewry, organiser of previous successful private test days, has announced a further event on Monday 25th September:
"We need to start getting the bookings in as we are now 6 weeksaway from the event. As usual we need 60 to make the day happen.
"Race Entry is £100 Driver/Rider and 4 crew, Camping £10pp, with spectators/extra crew £10pp. Payment should be made as a gift via paypal to sixpotnova@hotmail.co.uk. If you have any questions please contact me at the Yam Yam Racing Drag Club Facebook Group."
Swift snippets. 16th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Super Street Bike racer Margot Schmidt, who we will next see in competition at Hockenheim in a 15 bike field.
A large Facebook album of photos from the recent NDRG Drag Challenge at Gardermoen Raceway, Norway by Karl Linß has been posted at
this link.
With two more rounds to go, FIA championship leaders are Ida Zetterström (Top Fuel Dragster), Silvio Strauch (Top Methanol), Jan Ericsson (Pro Modified) and Jimmy Ålund (Pro Stock). In FIM-E competition, championship leaders are Rikard Gustavsson (Top Fuel Bike), Marcus Christiansen (Super Twin Bike), Bertrand Maurice (Pro Stock Bike), Alan Morrison Jnr (Super Street Bike) and Richard Willcox (Junior Drag Bike).
We also had a few new FIA personal bests confirmed with the help of Robin Jackson; well done to Marck Harteveld who recorded a speed of 392.16kph (243.68 mph) in Q3 and Åke Persson equalled his speed PB with 396.48kph (246.36mph) in Q1.
Kari Rautanen (Top Fuel Bike): 6.858/338.35kph (210.24 mph)
Marko Lantto (Super Twin Bike): 6.739/337.92kph (209.97 mph)
John Rolfstad (Super Twin Bike): 7.3634/268.39kph (166.76 mph)
Theodor Vik (Pro Stock Bike): 7.736/257.27kph (159.86 mph)
Peter Östlund (Super Street Bike): 313.41kph (194.74 mph)
Margot Schmidt (Super Street Bike): 310.34kph (192.83 mph)
Wille Skinnars (Super Street Bike): 7.9083/296.22kph (184.06 mph)
Jörg Lymant (Pro Stock Bike) recorded a 7.366/290.01kph (180.20 mph) but it was voided as he changed bikes for the following sessions.
The next round of the FIA and FIM-E Championship, on 25th-27th August is the NitrOlympX at the Hockenheimring, Germany.
Summit Racing Equipment Internationals media. 15th August:
As well as our race report and galleries which you can see at this link, other web media from the Summit Racing Equipment Internationals can be seen at the following links:
Speedghost Motorsport to compete in Funny Car Cup. 15th August:
Thanks to Mark 'Animal' Bodimeade for sending in pictures and a report on progress over the weekend at Tierp Arena where driver Patrik Pers made an impressive test half pass on Saturday, and an announcement about 2024.
"Here are the first pictures of the new-to-us 2019 Dodge SRT purchased over the Winter from Don Schumacher Motorsports.
I was not with the team this weekend due to commitments but the guys were out in Sweden at Tierp trying to set up a baseline and do a few checkout passes to make sure all is OK with the new hot rod. Early indications from Patrik are that car itself is like driving a Rolls Royce in comparison to what he has driven in the past.
"The plan was to hopefully do two runs on Saturday and hopefully more Sunday (due to weather conditions on both days, Patrik's track time was limited to a single half pass, a 5.6034/131.94 with incrementals of 0.9119 and 3,9204/235,91 to the eighth, the car sounding crisp and looking clean - Ed).
"After the weekend we will take an assessment of the weekend and make a decision quickly as to whether to head to England for the Euro Finals, or call it a year and be fully prepared for a full season and challenge for the Funny Car Cup next year.
"As you can see from looking at the car there is a massive opportunity to promote your brand on this car. If you would like to be involved in the fastest Motorsport in the World, why not give either Patrik or myself a call to discuss your requirements on +44 7909 528355 (Mark) or +46 7069 61385 (Patrik). Stay tuned for further updates.
Bloodlines' slight return. 15th August:
Many thanks to Bloodlines Racing head Ian Turburville for sending in a write up about their Bad Blood 2.0 Gasser Circus Barracuda which made its debut at the Mopar Euro Nationals in July:
As you may have read on Eurodragster in Febuary this year, Laura announced her retirement from championship drag racing. So was this the end of Bloodlines Racing and the Turbovilles?
Well, no, as explained previously, life, money and Laura's work (not to mention my health problem) all conspired to make it impossible to carry on in the National Super Pro Championship. It had been a lot of fun and Laura had been at it for fourteen years non stop. However, we didn’t want her to lose her passion for the sport and wanted Chris to get a drive, something I had always promised him. Her fantastic dragster 'Bad Blood' was sold to Ellie Brown who leaves junior dragster this year, pretty sure she will have a blast with it.
As seems to happen all the time, karma stepped in and out of the blue a car appeared on facebook for sale that was not only in team colours already but would solve all our problems! We had thought of racing Nostalgia Super Stock like our buddy Ian King but that brilliant class is getting ever more expensive with a lot of serious cars. We wanted something a bit more 'laid back' but cool, less expensive fun so I told Bloodlines.
It was a 1964 Plymouth Barracuda gasser and was on the forecourt of Hayling Island Garage so I hooked up with Mike at the Main Event on behalf of Bloodlines. It fits right in with the Mopars and our love of classic muscle. It turns out it had been imported by James Griffen and was a proper old American built gasser from back in the day. James filled me in all the details and so they bought it, sight unseen, from Mike. The car got delivered from the far end of the country by my buddy Tim Moore and it was exactly as advertised. We were very happy with it and more importantly, so were the kids.
It is a solid car, no rust, has a blown 440ci big block on a 727 trans with an 8 3/4 locked rear end. Nicely done straight front axle conversion, disc brakes, headers, cage, chassis connectors, beautiful interior and all the right, period parts. It has a V5 and is registered for the road. Unfortunately, try as we may, we couldn’t find any history on the car in Ohio as it had been passed around dealerships as a showpiece after it finished racing. James and Mike did some fettling to it and I have done lots of little things so it was time to try it out at the Mopar Nats. at Santa Pod raceway in July.
We joined the Gasser Circus and met a great bunch of people, all dedicated to keeping the old Gassers alive and in the sprit of the 1960's. The car looked great on the flatbed trailer behind the 1975 Dodge pick up, could have been at Lions drag strip back in the day! All three of us are going to drive the car but I drew the short straw for its maiden runs so this old man got to play again!
The car started stright up and sounded mean as hell with that big ol' blower whining away out of the hood. The burn out went fine, remember this was a totally untested car with no history on the motor, and a bemused Ian Marshall activated the tree. It took off kind of soft, but I didn't know what to expect anyway, then at half track it seemed to splutter and die! Yikes, what was going on, we started diagnosing and wrenching. Lots of fellow racers came with suggestions but nothing seemed to work and we didn't make the 13 second cut off for qualifying.
We then noticed that the original Chrysler electronic ignition box was mounted on the firewall right next to the fenderwell headers and the resin was melting out of the back of it! It had failed and taken the coil out with it, which explained everything. A quick jog across the pits netted a MSD ign. box and blaster coil from Watts Racing. I guess it will be on to the next problem now, new car blues.
Laura is limited with time off work as is Chris, who also plays ice hockey for the Nottingham Mavericks, so next outing will be the Hot Rod Drags and Chris will be driving this time.
Every car in the Gasser Circus has to have a name so we decided to keep the legacy alive and that it would be called 'Bad Blood 2.0' which will be hand sign written in the exact style of our lost brother Simon 'Nefarious' Pollock by Laura's boss Neil Smith.
Big thanks to Bloodlines for letting us carry on. To be continued....
Swift snippets. 15th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Annie Lee ace proof reader and carer to author Keith Lee, Santa Pod employee Donna Finnegan and Bill Mears crew member for nitro Daimler racer Robin Read. We hope you are all having a fantastic day.
No new records were set to our knowledge, although a number of personal bests were ran which we will summarise in our post-event report tomorrow.
We commiserate with those who suffered incidents and were unable to continue as a result, in particular FIM-E Top Fuel Bike racer and points leader coming into this race Neil Midgley came off his bike in the shutdown area and slid along the surface whilst the bike went under its own momentum into the gravel trap and was severely damaged. Neil was transported to hospital for an MRI scan and released the following day with some broken ribs. We wish Neil a speedy recovery as the team regroup for 2024.
We also send best wishes to FIA Top Methanol racer Johnny Oksa who withdrew after sideswiping the wall on his sole run in qualifying and Pro Street racer Mikael Modin who suffered a spin into the wall as the result of fluids from his engine. In all these incidents, safety and medical crews performed in an exemplary manner to assist racers and recover their damaged vehicles.
We thank the staff at Tierp Arena for providing facilities, particularly event director Kjell Pettersson, assistant race director Tomas Pettersson, race official Marie Selander and timekeeper Björn Sjöberg for a link to the timing system.
You can read Remco Scheeling's event reports and FIM-E motorcycle reports from Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes at the www.dragracingeurope.eu website, and Patrik Jacobsson has posted 334 photos in a Facebook album at this link.
Swift snippets. 14th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Top Fuel racer Dennis Nilsson, Nostalgia Superstock racer Jim Chandler, VW Pro racer Jacob Bailey and 8.50 Bike racer Keith Wright. We hope you all have a great day.
We will post accumulated news items, including Geoff Stilwell's Bonneville Speedweek feature, when we return to base tomorrow.
A live stream of the action will be available on Saturday and Sunday for a modest subscription of €10, which is cancellable after a month, at this link.
Andreas Sjödin's disappointing Gardermoen. 10th August:
Many thanks to Pro Modified racer Andreas Sjödin for sending in a report on his race at Gardermoen which proved frustrating for him in several ways (Andreas's personal views - Ed):
The Drag Challenge 2023 at Gardermoen Raceway in Norway was added to our calendar, due to the problem we got at our planned test weekend at Tierp Arena in June when the camshaft broke and we did not get enough rounds in Jörgen's (owner Jörgen Berg - Ed) Corvette 79 to be prepared for the Tierp race in August.
After Tierp in June, Jörgen took the motor apart and cleaned out all the debris from the broken camshaft gear and we put in a new camshaft from a different manufacturer; we also took some time to check the real compression in the motor, from what it was when I was involved in the tuning when putting it together, and did some other updates on the Corvette to make it work better!
Gardermoen was the first race weekend of three in a row for us and Sofi made an awesome job with Max of obtaining provisions so we in Sjödin Motorsport / ÅBM Racing will survive the coming weekends we got in front of us! Thanks ot them, Kaare and ICA Gärdet for believing in me and for supporting my racing circus and our future madness!
Following our arrival in Ludvika on Tuesday evening, me, Sofi, Jörgen, Katrin, Ludde and Bänkt loaded up all the stuff and the car in the trailer! After cleaning up following rain, we were ready to hit the road on Wednesday morning for Gardermoen Raceway in Norway! After a rainy 7 hour trip me, Sofi and Bänkt arrived at Gardermoen Raceway on Wednesday evening, built our pit camp and unloaded everything. We did not have any racing on Thursday so we prepared for Friday and relaxed!
On Friday we warmed up the motor, all was great and we were ready for qualification round 1 for the weekend at Gardermoen Raceway. Our planned schedule was 12:00, 14:30 and 17:00, but then some rain before Q1, the temperature dropped down a bit at the same time - and then it started to rain way more!
We finally got our first round at 16:30 after the rain delay subsequent miscommunication from the track crew. And due to driver errors there was absolutely nothing good at all about qualification round 1! Except that the track was way better than what I expected so the car kind of died on the starting line. We got one more round (Q2) on Friday at 19:00; that one went better when I added some power to the car after checking out the track in Q1
After that we did service the Vette and made it ready for Saturday's qualifying. However Saturday at Gardermoen Raceway was a boring day, we woke up around 5 this morning to heavy rain on the trailer roof. Around 9-10 the weather started to clear up and the crew was working on the track and the pit area started to get dry spots. But it was still cloudy and cold and we could feel the rain hanging above us. Then around 11 it started to rain lightly and went over to heavy rain again to make sure that everything got really wet! And this was exactly what the weather forecast said earlier during the week!
During the boring hours I decided to do some changes to the fuel system to add some power and also even up the cylinder fuel distribution to make the motor happier! I was hoping that we would be able to test it before the day was over, even so I could not see it happening, and I also assumed that if we get a chance I’m pretty sure that the track will be too cold to do what I want anyway!… But the Vette was ready to warm up and make a pass, if we got a chance!
Then suddenly it did clear up, the track was dry and we were called out at 4 today to make a round at 5. We warmed up the motor, I was in my driving suit and ready to roll down and it started to rain again so they called the qualifying for the day when that happened! The track crew had done an awesome job all day trying to make a track for us, they had really done all they could all day! Thanks for that to the crew at Gardermoen!
After a boring day Max felt it was a good thing to have some Lenco school with Jörgen and Benkt in the dark because the electricity went away for a couple of hours! Thanks to team Perman for letting us use our noisy generator to make dinner on Saturday when they were out fishing!
All we could do was waiting for Sunday and race day, was going to be exciting to see how it will turn out! Only Jan Ericsson had made a decent pass so far!
Then it was Sunday, it was cold, track was tricky and uneven when checking it with the trackmeter…. This would be a hard one to solve, I did my thing with the tune and I was pretty sure it would go down the track but might be a bit loose further out! But then some problems in the staging process messed it all up.
It turned out to be a totally wasted run. In my view, Autostart is sometimes the right thing to use rather than a starter. Terje took a really good time to back up the car, then it took forever for him to get into pre stage and stage (and he did apologize for that when we got out of the cars after the round). The thing is that I was on 2-step for such a long time that I felt something must be wrong so I started to let of the throttle and when I did the starter let us go.
In a video after the round I could see that Terje went into stage and then bumped out and in again! And, the car won’t work as planned if you are on 2-step go off the throttle due to the car in the other lane bumping out from stage, and the starter waiting for him, then you get back on the throttle when you can see the tree run! (I saw on the boost curve and lean out system that I was not on full throttle when I released the trans brake button).
So, it was time to pack up and leave Gardermoen Raceway! Move on and forget a bad and rainy racing weekend, but not everything was bad! We did solve some issues on the car that makes us more prepared for the next race, the camshaft gear did survive so I got even more proof now against the manufacturer that I bought 3 cams from that broke, because just by change manufacturer the problem stopped! Isn’t that kind of strange when the one with the bad camshafts tells me that we are the ones that does something wrong installing it and not him making it? We did install the Bullet camshaft in the same way as we did with the earlier one and now it works! I’m going to make the next race also and then I will start to question the manufacturer when I have more time!
Then we also found out that the blower and fuel system set up that Jörgen bought now works just like I should after we found and fixed all the issues with it and there was a lot to fix and adjust!... That’s really bad when you buy a “complete and turn key set up ready to make a pass” and have to spend tons of time getting it to work... So I got some data during the weekend to start calibrate my fuel program!
So, the next race is at Tierp Arena this coming weekend for some more Pro Modified Racing with Jörgen Berg's Chevrolet Corvette 79! Hold your thumbs for some great racing weather!
Before the Gardermoen race I finally got our new shirt design! Sjödin Motorsport / ÅBM Racing, 2022 Top Doorslammer Champion supporter shirt! Do you want to help and support Sjödin Motorsport / ÅBM Racing with our future madness on the race tracks!? Please purchase a shirt from us! They are available as T-shirt in kids to 3XL, Zip hoodies small to 3XL, tank top in small to 2XL.
You can buy them at the track or at our shop and I will ship to the ones that prefer that way. Prices are T-shirt 250 SEK, Tank top 250 SEK, Hoodie 550 SEK, or hoodie + T-shirt or tank top + free key band for 750 SEK, plus shipping cost if you want it that way. We will bring them to Tierp Arena this weekend and to Dala-Järna next weekend, so make sure to get your own shirt and thanks for your support!
Swift snippets. 10th August:
Happy Birthday to Pro Modified racer Bobby Wallace who reaches 30 today, also a belated Happy Birthday to Nitro Legend and British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Gary Page, Pro ET racer Lee Huxley and jet/rocket racer David Pertué. We hope you all have had, or are having, a great day!
Markus kindly sent in a gallery of photos from the event which you can see by clicking here or going via our Event Coverage page.
An additional gallery from the event posted on dragmag.net by Henrik Vormdohres is at this link.
USC Sports Compact Shootout and Drag Karts. 8th August:
Visitors to Ultimate Street Car at Santa Pod last weekend saw two drag racing competitions, the Sports Compact Shootout and a special elimination for Drag Karts.
Congratulations to Luke White for winning the Sports Compact Shootout. Luke, driving a Honda K20 powered Civic EG, qualifed sixth with a 10.2875/138.17 after three rounds of qualifying, two sessions having been cancelled due to rain. There were 20 cars putting in qualifying runs for a 16 car field.
Several new PBs were run. Matt 'Mr Boost' Davison in his D16 4th gen Civic, qualified #1 with a new PB of 9.3427/156.28. Matt was looking good for the win, running a fantastic 9.197/159.03 against a red-lighting Lee Openshaw in round one and 9.335/153.65 to defeat Darren Dewhurst in round two. However he was unable to make the call in the semi final against Ian Pepper.
Luke defeated Scott Linacre in round 1 and Dannie Highman in round 2. Dannie in his Dubshack Racing 4WD Golf ran his first nine, 9.9329 /150.12, in qualifying and backed it up in round 1. In the semi final, Luke was the beneficiary of Ryan French (earlier running a 9.8 at the wheel of Brad Morgan's EFI Parts/Serck Motorsport Renault 5) not able to start with a broken fuse.
The final was also decided by breakage when Ian Pepper (Vauxhall Nova 2000cc) who had run a PB of 9.8935/147.25 in round 1 broke on the line against Luke who achieved his win with a 10.4126/138.16 through consistency and reliability.
The Renegade Racing Fuels Drag Kart Series has run kart races at Santa Pod for some years and they were given their own elimination at USC as the Ultimate UK Drag Kart Shootout. The six karts qualified on a dial-in basis, with George Maclean (whose kart has a Honda CBR 600cc engine on nitrous) qualifying #1 with 11.1811/122.38, weather conditions preventing more than one session.
In eliminations George reached the final after a holeshot win over Don Bagnall's 9.840/131.78 on a 9.70 dial (low Kart ET of the meet). Facing George was Dan Goodwin, who has raced a jet powered kart and jet-propelled Mini at Santa Pod in the past. George pulled a red light giving Dan the win in 10.6334/124.15. Well done to Dan.
Also of note in USC run what ya brung action, Ahmed Jamshaid made some runs with his Honda Civic recording a fantastic new PB of 8.2975/178.53, and Dave Henderson ran a new PB with his Audi RS3 saloon of 8.7776/160.17.
You can see 243 photos from USC on a Facebook album from Santa Pod Raceway, as well as the stream of Friday and Sunday on Santa Pod's Youtube channel.
Swift snippets. 8th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Sportsman ET racer Jane McCready, Top Fuel racer Aidan Heatley-Smith, photographer Ashley Booth-Dale Nostalgia Superstock racer Karl Kenyon and Pro Modified crew and legend Camp Stanley. We hope you all have a great day.
No news update tomorrow as we will be travelling to Tierp Arena, but keep an eye on our coverage, sponsored by John Woolfe Racing, of the Scandinavian Internationals starting on Thursday.
Many thanks to Tog for covering the event providing photo galleries and best times of the day. You can see our coverage of the event sponsored by John Woolfe Racing by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu above.
The next race at Melbourne will take place on 16th-17th September. You can enter the race or get tickets at this link.
Pro Modified: Jan Ericsson (Chevy Camaro) 5.988/387.7 (bye) Pro Stock Car: Michael Malmgren (Pontiac Firebird) 9.019/213.3 def. Jimmy Ålund (Chevy Camaro) 24.615/50.3 Competition Eliminator: Jens Zimmerman (Chevy Camaro '69) 7.229/311.7 def. Stefan Winter (Mercedes SL) 7.915/277.8 Super Comp: Mats Arntzen Wanvik (Suncoast Dragster) 9.013/217.7 def. Elin Aarvik (Victory Dragster) 9.032/212.1 Super Gas: Christer Uhlin (Ford Fairlane 500) 9.937/209.2 def. Annica Larsson (Ford Falcon Sprint) 9.869/222.7 break-out Super Pro ET: Angel Romero 7.895/283.5 def. Tindra Christensen (M&M Dragster) 8.319/254.2 Pro ET: John Thidé (Ford Mustang '95) 10.960/183.2 def. Svein Bye (Dodge Dart '69) 12.016/178.0 Pro Street: Angelica Larsson (Chevy Camaro) 7.633/277.8 def. Joakim Andersson (Chevy Camaro) 7.667/279.7 Street: Magnus Johansson (Pontiac GTO) 8.725/213.6 def. Eskil Granslåen Rolstad (Chevy C10 pickup) 8.532/249.7 break-out Small Tire Stock Suspension: Andreas Ruud ('79 Chevrolet Malibu) 8.791/252.0 def. Raymond Skaar (Volvo 244) 8.951/256.1 Junior Dragster: Liam MacDonald 8.346/ def. Adrian Bårdevik 8.151/127.6
Top Fuel Bike: Mikko Rajaniemi (Sirpa) (pictured) def. Jan Sturla Hegre (Puma Kawasaki) no-show (Match race) Super Twin Top Fuel Bike: Samu Kemppainen (Nitro V60) 6.710/335.4 def. Frank Aaslund 8.354/266.2 Pro Stock Bike: Kalle Lyrén (Suzuki) 7.259/284.7 def. Frederik Kirkhoff Schack (Buell) broke on track Super Street Bike: Peter Östlund (Suzuki Hayabusa) def. Dag Wagenius (Suzuki Hayabusa) best two of three match race Pro Comp Bike: Peter Rundström (Honda GreenBird) 7.655/259.9 def. Robert Nygrean (Suzuki GSXR1000 K3) 9.079/225.0 Super Comp Bike: Samuel Rundström (Honda Fireblade) 8.528/244.3 def. Michael Jensen (Kawasaki ZX12 turbo) 8.776/265.8 Super Gas Bike: Teodor Norling (Suzuki GSXR) 9.626/233.6 def. To, Rune Solberg (Suzuki GSXR 1000) 9.553/227.9 Classic Dragbike: Fredrik Solheim (Harley Sportster) 10.175/202.9 def. Arnt Langkaas (Suzuki GS1000) 10.236/204.6 ET Street Bike: Kristian Grimnes (Triumph Sprint ST 1050 Daytona) 11.127/197.2 def. Oliver Amundsen (Suzuki GSX 1100 EF) 10.085/214.8 Junior Drag Bike (JBA): Ole Kristoffer Steen Aas (Suzuki Hayabusa Pro Stock) vs. Emma Sophie Brattland (Kayo) (Match race)
The event was affected by rain on Friday and Saturday which abbreviated qualifying. A few nitro vehicles made exhibition burnouts and launches, notably two Top Fuel Dragsters of Ida Zetterström and Shelley Pearson (pictured above) and the new Nitro Outlaw Pontiac Firebird Nostalgia Funny Car (pictured left), owned and piloted by Jamie Willis who made his first licensing pass (Facebook video by Polly of NDRG). There was a full pass from the A/Fuel TMD of Tina Høst Nedregård, congratulations to Tina on obtaining her license for FIA competition.
In Pro Modified of seven cars qualifying only Jan Ericsson ran a representative time, 6.007/387.7, followed by Stian Rusånes, Pete Kunc, Terje Håkonsen, Andreas Sjödin, Marcus Perman and Jimmy Ålund. The loss of traction continued into round 1 with Jan Ericsson running three singles, 6.780/306.3, 5.946/389.8 and 5.988/387.7 for the trophy.
Pro Stock was similar, with Jimmy Ålund, qualifying #1 6.670/335.8, followed by early lifting passes from Lasse Britsmar, Robin Norén, Simon Ekengren, and Michael Malmgren as the teams had a lack of track time with the rain. The final saw Michael cross the finish line ahead of Jimmy, although the times indicated more traction issues.
In the bike ranks, Top Fuel Bike had Jan Sturla Hegre running 6.49/343.4 and Mikko Rajaniemi 6.53/311.3 on Friday but Saturday was a washout and only Mikko made it to the line on Sunday for a half pass.
Super Twin Top Fuel had an eight bike field and Samu Kemppainen was the class of the field running a 6.778/298.8 to qualify #1. He was followed by Cato Oddmund Waale riding the ex Gerd Jan Laseur bike, running a 7.919/305.1. In eliminations, Samu defeated Julia Wagner who ran 7.831/215.8 to Samu's 6.835/327.9, then Samu had a 6.682/337.9 single when Ismo Mäenpää was a no-show in the semi, followed by another six for Samu to defeat Frank Aaslund.
In the sportsman ranks Angel Romero from Spain who had run at Tierp last August brought his Camaro to Gardermoen and was victorious over a field of 24 cars. Special congratulations to Liam MacDonald from Ireland (pictured) who triumphed in Junior Dragster over a field of 16 cars.
You can see full results from the event at dragracing.eu (search Drag Challenge 2023). Photos of all the winners and a summary by Remco Scheelings are at this link on www.dragracingeurope.eu. The EDRS points have been updated and you can see the current standings at this link on www.dragracingeurope.eu.
You can see Facebook photo albums of the 25th Drag Challenge by Cenneth Schiller at his Facebook page and a Facebook album from Patrik Jacobsson. Also check out the FB site of Norsk Motorsport Supporter Team. We were sad that the promised streaming video of the event didn't transpire. Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen stated "As organizers, we have nothing to do with this. It is the Norwegian Motorsport Association that engaged Amedia to do the streaming." Better luck next year guys.
On a happier note best wishes for a long and happy retirement to Tore Ravneberg, Press Manager for Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen. You can read an interview with Tore at this link on the NDRG website.
Swift snippets. 7th August:
Happy Birthday for today to VWDRC racer Emma Sadler, Super Street Bike racer Garry Bowe, Outlaw Anglia racer Ben Kennedy and Junior Dragster mum also Sportsman ET wife Tracy Redshaw. We hope you all have a fantastic day.
Melbourne Saturday gallery and best times. 6th August:
Former Editor Tog is in place at Melbourne Raceway and has posted galleries and best times from Saturday's abbreviated action. Despite wet conditions, the track workers managed to get the surface dry to allow two and a half hours of running.
Of note was Sara Unsworth taking time out from racing her usual Vortex supercharged Mustang to drive John Markou's rapid Golf R Mark 8 which has run a best of 10.784/125.61 on the quarter. Sara ran a best of 7.42/99 on the unprepped eighth which converts to a mid eleven in the quarter, a great showing.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Melbourne Raceway results and gallery by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu above.
Gasser Circus at the Mopars. 6th August:
Many thanks to Nick Brooke Langham for his report on Gasser Circus at the Mopar Euro Nationals.
As the calendar nears the end of July, that can mean only one thing, its Mopars time. Friday at the Pod was bathed in sunshine, a fairly rare commodity of late. The early attendees made liberal us of the opportunity this presented and the strip was busy all day.
In the Gasser Circus pit 19 Gassers assembled, it was good to see Tony Pearson bring back his Guzzler 56 Chevy, especially as it had a new Big Block Chevy and new TH400 transmission in place. Tony had been kept busy at the previous rounds working on Chris Layram’s Pop ‘Outa Gas’ which had taken the win at the previous event Dragstalgia. Late afternoon Tony was ready to give his new combo a test run, regrettably he did not make it out of the pits, as issues with the transmission signalled a late night thrash, which would ultimately not cure the issues.
The remaining 18 Gassers on Saturday morning looked like dropping to 17, as Ray Irish the current Gasser Circus Champion had dropped a valve in his blown motor at Dragstalgia, but had in the intervening weeks slipped his old 383 unblown Chevy up front whilst he waited on parts. The car on warm up appeared to have a problem as it quickly got hot, so Ray sat out Round 1 of qualifying as he worked through the issue.
16 Gassers was an impressive sight at the end of the 5 fire up lanes, amongst them was debutant at least with the Circus Ian Turburville and his crew Laura and Chris in the recently acquired Barracuda. I could not think of a more appropriate event to debut the Mopar!
At 10.45 the action got underway and as each pairing went down the track the number 1 qualifier position swapped hands on several occasions just as it had at Dragstalgia. It was the usual suspects with Ray Turner Green Onions, Steve Mathews ‘Honky Tonkin’, Simon Prest ‘The Rocket’, Billy Jones ‘Grumpy Grizz’ and finally settling with Jason Pickett in ‘Cherry Bomb’ with an 11.04 on a 11.00 dial in.
15 Gassers had run the qualifying time, but Ian Turburville who was getting to grips with the Barracuda missed the cut off. But 2 more opportunities lay ahead, as long as the threatened rain did not kybosh them.
Round 2 at 14:55 and 17 Gassers were ready to qualify with Ray sussing out his heating problems, he was good to go. As it turned out to good to go as he broke out with an 11.00 on a 11.10 dial in. Sean Milsom in his ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ Morris joined Ray as he broke out for the second time running a 10.29 on a 10.33. The rest of the Gassers were the right side of their dial ins and the top 5 qualifiers were No 1 Jason Pickett, No 2 John Gibson who had jumped up from number 12, No 3 Simon Prest, No 4 Chris Layram and No 5 Billy Jones.
Round 3 was the final chance to improve positions for 16 Gassers and for number 1 qualifier Jason Pickett the chance to hang on to the top spot.
There was some frantic racing and when the dust had settled there had been a few changes to the top qualifiers Jason Pickett had run a superb 11.003 on and 11.00 dial, but he had slipped to number 2 with Chris Layram replacing him at number 1 with a 10.302 on a 10.30 dial in. Billy Jones was up to number 3, John Gibson ‘High Roller’ had dropped to number 4 and Nervous Nick ‘The Traitor’ had jumped into number 5 with an 11.69 on an 11.65.
All was not well with some of the Gassers, with Brian Gibson backing away after his burnout as the temperature raised rapidly. This leading to a water rebuild well into the night. Nick Hewison discovered a puncture in a rear slick, which again led to a late night of fitting new slicks.
Around 5am the sound of rain on the caravan roof was most unwelcome, but the sound of Ian Marshall dragging the track a few hours later brought new optimism. This was further enhanced as the Gassers entered the fire up road shortly after 10.30.
Round 1 of Eliminations had some double pairings lining up against each other with 2 Nicks, Hewison and Nervous, 2 Jason’s Hollamby and Pickett and 2 ex Dale Snoke built cars with Simon Prest and Brian Gibson.
First up were the Jason’s with ‘Jumpin Jalapeno’ dialling 10.75 and ‘Cherry Bomb’ second in the points on an 11.00. ‘Cherry Bomb’ left fractionally ahead and at the finish line stopped the clocks the wrong side of 11 with a 10.99. ‘Jumpin Jalapeno’ moved onto the quarterfinal. Next up was Steve Mathews in ‘Honky Tonkin’ taking on Simon Glenn in his blown Austin pickup ‘Straight Shooter’, dialling 9.79 and 11.11 respectively. Simon kept the nose of the Austin down, something he was not doing with huge wheelies on Saturday. Steve is not adverse to the odd wheelie but he did not pull one as he set off after Simon, the side by side race ended with Steve winning as Simon broke out running a 10.74.
The Dale Snoke cars were up next with the Mercury of Simon Prest in the left lane, Brian in the right now hopefully with his water pump issue resolved. It wasn’t and Simon took the win with an 11.21 on a 11.07, Brian slowing to a 13.01 on an 11.57.
Brian’s brother John in ‘High Roller’ was taking on Adam Kruczynski in ‘Not So Mellow Yellow’ 55 Chevy. Adam dialling 11.49 and John on a 10.99. Adam cut a 0.17 light and John was enticed to join him leaving a cherry on the tree with an oh so close -0.0002 foul.
Points leader Chris Layram in his ‘Outa Gas’ Pop took the left lane against Ray Irish in his ‘Gas Junkie’ Willys pickup. Strong burnouts from both with Ray on a 10.98 and Chris on a 10.30, with the tree activated Ray left on a 0.12 reaction with Chris posting a -0.13 red. Ray moving on and the current points leader not advancing.
‘Green Onions’ 55 Chevy with Ray Turner at the wheel, came to the line against Graham Barton in his ‘High Anxiety’ Austin Devon, Ray cut a good 0.06 light with Graham off slightly with a 0.22 light Ray taking the win at the lights.
The battle of the Nicks was next up Nervous Nick in his ‘The Traitor’ Anglia, and Nick Hewison in his recently sign written ‘Short Fuse’ Fordson, As they both came to the line, the sun was shining but in the distance rain clouds were massing. As the tree dropped, both Gassers left ‘Short Fuse’ with a slight stumble and it was this that made the difference at the top end with Nervous Nick taking a rare win moving him into the quarterfinals.
The final pairing brought together Billy Jones Willys Coupe and Sean Chili Milsom’s Morris van, Sean dialling 10.25 and Billy 10.76. Both drivers had been in contention for last year’s championship and are always on their game, this would be a close race. Sean left with his customary wheelie and the cars ran side by side down the strip with the gantry looming up, eyes turned to the lane lights, the bulbs glowing in Billy’s lane as Sean had broken out with a 10.19 at 121mph.
Drivers through to the quarterfinals prepared their Gassers and just before 2, were called into the lanes.
The battle of the Tri Chevy’s saw Steve Matthews in his 57 taking on Adam Kruczynski in his 55. They guided their Chevy’s to the line and we not only had a wheels up launch in each lane but a green light race, with Steve heading towards the wall before he collected up the car with the drivers staying side by side as they covered the quartermile. As they dipped under the gantry Steve had the win light running a 9.93 on a 9.76 to Adams losing 11.55 on an 11.48.
Brown and green were next up with the brown Willys pickup of Ray Irish ‘Gas Junkie’, ready to take on the green Anglia ‘The Traitor’ of Nervous Nick. With the top bulbs lit the cars edged into full stage, the tree activated and Nick was off rapidly followed by Ray, by ¾ track Ray was ahead and stayed there until the end taking the win with an 11.02 on his 10.94 dial Nick on a losing 11.82 on an 11.75.
Green featured again with Ray Turner in ‘Green Onions’ 55 readying to race Billy Jones ‘Grumpy Grizz’ Willys. Ray has been at this for decades and is a difficult racer to beat. Billy being so aware of this knew he had to be quick on the tree, and within milliseconds of the start we knew it was too quick as Billy left a cherry on it with a -0.019, Ray progressing and Billy still posting won a 10.75 on a 10.76.
Simon Prest lost to Jason Hollamby as he dialled 10.75 and ran 10.77 to Simons 10.99 dial and running an 11.12 Jason with a 0.013 reaction time.
15 minutes after returning to the pits the rain returned as well. With the satellite imagery showing it was unlikely to relent the Pod reluctantly called an end to the event with a rain off.
With the next round unable to take place the rules need close scrutiny, and this would eventually confirm that importance of qualifying well with Ray Turner taking in his Green Onions 55 Chevy taking the win. Congratulations to him as the win has made the top of the standings in the points very tight.
It’s all to race for at Round 5 at the VW Action weekend.
The Gasser Circus wish to thank their sponsors, Neil Melliard’s Modern Lettering, Rocket Racing Team, the NSRA, Serck Services, Tom Margesson, Renegade Fuels, VP Oils and Williams Brothers Racing.
Tierp Internationals preview. 5th August:
The third round of the FIA/FIM-E European Drag Racing Championship takes place from next Thursday 10th - Sunday 13th August at Tierp Arena with the Summit Racing Scandinavian Internationals.
Thanks to Remco Scheelings for sending a link to his event preview on the Dragracing Europe website which you can see at this link. Ida Zetterström (Top Fuel), Linn Fløysvik (Top Methanol), Jan Ericsson (Pro Modified) and Jimmy Ålund (Pro Stock) are the leaders in their respective categories. With two more rounds following the Scandinavian Internationals, everything is still to fight for.
Some of the biggest news affecting the participation in the car categories is in Top Methanol, where the event will see the championship debut of Tina Høst Nedregård in the Förch A-Fuel Dragster (pictured left), formerly driven but now tuned by Daniel Jedborn. Tina obtained her licence on Friday at Gardermoen Raceway in her native Norway. Sadly Jonny Lagg will no longer be racing at the event, or for the remainder of the year whilst his team regroups from a pit explosion suffered at Mantorp Park last weekend.
In FIM-E Dragbike championship, Neil Midgley (Top Fuel Motorcycle), Marcus Christiansen (Super Twin Motorcycle), Bertrand Maurice (Pro Stock Motorcycle) and Alan Morrison Jnr. (Super Street Bike) were the winners at Santa Pod and are still leading the championship in their respective categories. Junior Drag Bike will not be racing for FIM-E points at this event and their next round is the NitrOlympx at Hockenheim on 25th-27th August.
British participation is limited in bikes to Neil in TFB and Alan Jnr in SSB, with Ross Morrison also in SSB. We also welcome back Martin Newbury (pictured right) to Pro Stock Bike with new parts on his 7.1s-capable Psycle Workz.
As well as the FIA and FIM-E classes, there is also a strong field of sportsman entries, including Billy Gane in Pro Street (see yesterday's update). Eurodragster.com will be at the event with Editor Simon writing a live race report and Kieran taking pictures and video. Thanks to officials at Tierp Arena for providing facilities. For all the news, see our event index page at at this link. We have not yet been able to source a link to streaming video, but will let readers know when matters become clearer.
Swift snippets. 6th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Santa Pod Raceway pairing lanes marshal Caroline 'Oscar' Boncey, Nostalgia Superstock racers Paul Dodd and Bob Main, Comp Eliminator racer Alex Leiserach, Belgian Outlaw Flat Four racer Vito Versluys and German photographer Pat Weidman. We hope you all have a wonderful day.
Nitro Revival sponsor Geoff Stilwell has told us that at Bonneville Speedway whilst there has been some evaporation of the water that fell last Tuesday, the abbreviated Speedweek is now planned to start tomorrow (Monday).
Billy's busy summer. 5th August:
2022 Super Pro ET champion and 7.60 Heads Up racer Billy Gane had ideas about a European tour in 2023; the trip started in mid July with Bug Jam, then to Mantorp at the end of July and continues during August with Tierp and Hockenheim. Thanks to Billy for sending in his thoughts on the tour so far:
A couple of years ago talks began amongst the team about organising a trip over to Scandinavia to race in the Pro Street 7.60 class, for us last year was all about Super Pro ET and we had a fantastic season in a great class, This year however we finally got the chance to realise the plans and get the show on the road.
Our trip started with racing in the Jeff Bull race engines 7.60 Heads Up class at Bug Jam, the weather wasn’t playing ball which limited everyone to getting only 1 qualifying run before first round of eliminations, we qualified with a 7.77 @ 170mph but went out in the first round with a red light against Jack Williams in the lovely Chevy Nova, Well done Jack and team on a great debut with the car!
Next was time to get everything packed away in the bus and crew van and make our way to the next stop, Mantorp drag festival at Mantorp Park, Sweden, we headed for Harwich to board the overnight ferry to Hook of Holland, arriving in Holland at 7am Monday morning. We travelled around 380 miles to end up near Hamburg for our first overnight stop, a last minute hotel booking was made and we all managed to get a good nights sleep and have a few beers before the next days travelling.
In the morning we set off for the next ferry from Germany into Denmark, we used the ferry from Puttgarden - Rodby and can’t fault the service, arrived at perfect time and within 15 minutes of arriving at the docks we was on the ferry and on our way. We then drove through Denmark and took the Öresund bridge into Malmö in the south of Sweden, driving over the bridge was a great experience, certainly makes the QE2 bridge look tiny!
Last year at Hockenheim, we had a few hours to kill in the tech inspection line up and got talking to a lovely team TC drag racing. We mentioned that we was planning to come over to Sweden to race in 2023 and without any hesitation Kennet Christensen immediately offered for us to make a stop over at their place on route and to have dinner with the team, so that’s exactly what we did. It was great to catch up with like minded people and they made us feel so welcome.
In the morning we set off for the track, around 250 miles later we made it to Mantorp and started setting up. As soon as we arrived we could tell how helpful and accommodating the track staff and other teams were, again the weather wasn’t on our side to start with but it wasn’t going to spoil the weekend. The first day was a rain out but we took the opportunity to get to know a lot of the pro street teams, and what a great bunch they are.
We got racing on the Saturday morning and on the first pass we overpowered the launch and had to come out of it before the 60ft. As soon as we got back to the pits and started to make some adjustments they guys who tune the car for Svend Holst came over and gave us some pointers and really went out of their way to help get our issue sorted, so a big thanks to Arndt, Thomas and all the Blue Sluff 6766 team for the priceless help and support.
The first round came and we was up against the number 1 qualifier Peter Almqvist in his Chevelle, we ran 7.65 @174mph but he took the win on a holeshot with a 7.66@170mph, Well done Peter and team.
The event finished and with our next event being the Tierp internationals on the 10-13 August we needed to work out what to do, this is where the drag racing family comes into its own. Fellow racers and great friends Carla and Rick from Heaven and Hell racing offered that we could leave the coach and the van at their place and fly back home until we return again for the following weekend.
We arrived at theirs on Monday late afternoon and the hospitality they gave us was just fantastic, not only making us all dinner and breakfast but also giving us all a lift to the airport the following day. We really appreciate what you did for us, truly going above and beyond.
So that’s all for now, we will race in Pro Street again at Tierp, 26 entries trying to qualify for a 16 car field, we best get our act together!
The Early Years - Part 2. 5th August:
Today we publish part 2 of The Early Years, marking the 60th anniversary of the historic Church Lawford Sprint Meeting, one of several events at which pioneering British drag racers ran their machines prior to the first visit of US drag racers at Silverstone on 10th September 1963. Nick Pettitt writes:
1962 began with a meeting of the BHRA and the NSA to discuss RAC sanctioning for the Drags. Brian Witty and Allan Herridge both built dragsters in ‘62 but, unlike Allard's, they were built on a shoestring, the beg borrow and steal method, taking their dreams from the pages of Hot Rod Magazine. More rods and customs were being built around the UK and in 1963 the BHRA held their first Rod & Custom Show.
Tony Densham and Harry Worrell came up with the idea of building a small engined lightweight dragster using a blown 1500cc motor and August 4th 1963 saw a Car Sprint Meeting at Church Lawford co-promoted by the NSA, the Allard Owners Club, and the Herts County Automobile and Aero Club. Many BHRA members entered their cars including Clive Lingard in his channelled Model Y Ford Hot Rod blasting to 20 second ETs...
You can read the story of The Early Years of British drag racing, written by Nick, a member of British Drag Racing Historians, at this link or by clicking on the above image of the Allard Chrysler dragster taken by Bernard Gudge at the Goodwood Festival of Motoring in 1962.
British Drag Racing Historians is open to anyone who writes about the history of British Drag Racing and has been published through the internet or print media. John Hunt founded the group by contacting those in the group and others in early 2020 asking if it was a good idea to operate under one banner as a group of like minded individuals who are dedicated to the History of British Drag Racing. The Group aims to promote the history of our sport through websites, Facebook, books and magazines. The group operates as an association and is not formally registered as an organisation.
Super Pro ET sponsored by Dulamon Racing: Amandine Arnaud (Moparnault Racing Team Chevy Corvette) Pro ET sponsored by Kame Motorsports: Peter Soursas (Plymouth Cuda) Street Run sponsored by Nitro Magazine: Nicolas Chevassus (Pontiac Firebird) Junior Dragster sponsored by Saveurs et Poêlons: Cheyenne Visser (Cheyenne Dragster) Super Comp: Gerd Habermann (Partyschnaps.com dragster) Super Gas: Stephan Blauwitz (VW Golf 2 VR6 Turbo)
The final points tables are available on the ATD website at this link.
You can see the results of the 22nd European Dragster race, held on 29th-30th July at Clastres, by clicking here. Congatulations to the event winners:
Super Pro ET sponsored by Dulamon Racing: Arnold Hol (Plymouth Roadrunner) Pro ET sponsored by Kame Motorsports: Christian Schneebeli (Chevy Bel Air '57) Street Run sponsored by Nitro Magazine: Samantha Fermond (Buick GSX 455) Junior Dragster sponsored by Saveurs et Poêlons: Cheyenne Visser (Cheyenne Dragster) Super Comp: Gerd Habermann (Partyschnaps.com dragster) Super Gas: Stephan Blauwitz (VW Golf 2 VR6 Turbo)
Photos of the winners taken by Harald Czekalla are on Facebook at this link.
Photo of Amandine Arnaud from 21st European Dragster by Markus Münch.
Bonneville Speed Week delayed - by a day. 5th August:
Nitro Revival sponsor Geoff Stilwell is at Bonneville for his attempt to reach 300mph on the salt in his 7707 blown fuel rear-engined modified roadster. He told us the event has been delayed by at least a day due to heavy rain which fell on the salt last Tuesday night. Geoff reported:
"We flew out to Pomona on Tuesday and towed to Wendover on Thursday. Wednesday was a stressful day trying to deal with the 98F heat, so we left loading the car to Thursday morning. We got away around 6am, heading to Las Vegas, and then cutting across county through the Humboldt National Park towards Wendover. It’s an 800 mile drive and we arrived in Wendover late afternoon.
"The water had started to recede and the forecast is good now with temps in the 30’s. The salt is drying nicely and we hope to be out on the salt Sunday. We spent Friday going through the race car at our hotel in Wendover ready for tech inspection later in the day at Wendover airport."
Shortly before flying to the States, Geoff appeared in the Talking About Cars Podcast hosted by Randy Kerdoon and "Hot Rod" Bob Beck which you can see on the POWERtube TV Youtube channel at this link.
We wish Geoff best of luck and stay safe on his 300mph mission. You can see streaming from Bonneville Salt Flats at the Facebook page of Gearhead Hobbies at this link which has a walk through the tech inspection and video of the car show at the Wendover Nugget Hotel.
Swift snippets. 5th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Wild Bunch racer Philippa Turton, Top Fuel Bike owner and engineer Phil Baimbridge, Fiesta Mk1 racer and tuner Chris Todd and Finnish Pro Modified racer Jere Rantaniemi. We hope you all have a great day.
You can see the current entry list for the FIA/FIM-E European Finals at this link on the Santa Pod Racers Club website.
Racer information for STP Greenlight Nationals. 4th August:
Many thanks to to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Ian Marshall for
sending us details of track opening and signing on at the STP Greenlight Nationals being held on 19th-20th August, including scrutineering times.
The main gates to the track will open at 08.00 on Friday, 18th August (unless booked in for the Test Day being held on that day).
Friday, 18th August:
10.00-18.00 Signing on office opens
10.00-17.00 Scrutineering for bikes at the Scrutineering building
14.30-19.00 Scrutineering open for cars at the Scrutineering building (for vehicles attending their first SPRC event, or following major changes requiring re-scrutineering)
Saturday, 19th August:
07.00-19:00 Signing on office open
08.00-19:00 Scrutineering for cars and bikes
09.30 Track open for qualifying
Sunday, 20th August:
08.00 Signing on office opens
08.00 Scrutineering open for cars
08.30 Scrutineering open for bikes
09:30 Track open for qualifying/eliminations
The detailed running orders and entry list can be seen in our event coverage page.
The Early Years - Part 1. 4th August:
Today is the 60th Anniversary of the historic Church Lawford Sprint Meeting, one of several events at which pioneering British drag racers ran their machines prior to the first visit of US drag racers at Silverstone on 10th September 1963. Nick Pettitt writes:
60 years ago, we saw the start of the American Invasion but the Drag Racing & Hot Rodding scene in Britain had been steadily growing since the 1950s. Tony Williams built a Mercury powered ‘32 Hi-Boy in Peckham in 1958 while Ken Cooper was cruising Birmingham in his Mercury powered ‘37 Coupe with a California rake. The British Hot Rod Association was formed in 1960 and in 1961 Sydney Allard, with his chief designer /and development engineer, nailed together a blown 354 Chrysler powered dragster, getting it into the tens by the end of the year.
At the same time Ken Cooper started to build his first flathead powered dragster inspired by those he’d seen in Hot Rod Magazine but the strict RAC regulations at the time meant fitting an engine cover and front brakes. Ken wasn’t going to compromise so put the dragster on the back burner for a while and built another Hot Rod...
You can read the story of The Early Years of British drag racing, written by Nick, a member of British Drag Racing Historians, at this link or by clicking on the above image of the Allard Chrysler dragster taken by J Digby at the Brighton Speed Trials in 1961.
British Drag Racing Historians is open to anyone who writes about the history of British Drag Racing and has been published through the internet or print media. John Hunt founded the group by contacting those in the group and others in early 2020 asking if it was a good idea to operate under one banner as a group of like minded individuals who are dedicated to the History of British Drag Racing. The Group aims to promote the history of our sport through websites, Facebook, books and magazines. The group operates as an association and is not formally registered as an organisation.
Gardermoen Drag Challenge this weekend. 4th August:
This weekend from Thursday to Sunday, Norsk Drag Racing Gardermoen are putting on their annual Drag Challenge, traditionally the largest Norwegian drag racing event, and a round of the Summit Racing EDRS Series.
Results can be seen at dragracing.eu thanks to TimeTree. A strong entry of 191 competitors includes five in Pro Stock, seven in Pro Modified, two Top Fuel Bikes, ten Super Twin Bikes, two Pro Stock Bikes and three Super Street Bikes, virtually all of whom will also be competing at the Scandinavian Internationals at Tierp Arena the following weekend. The Top Methanol Funny Car of Linn Engan Fløysvik will be making demo passes.
Top Fuel will be represented by Ida Zetterström racing her Edelbrock RFM car and Shelley Pearson in the Nitro Vikings dragster (formerly the Islanders TF car) on Saturday and Sunday.
There will also be some exhibition vehicles, two that came to our attention are the Two Cousins Electric Drag Racing team of Hans-Henrik Thomsen (Silver Lightning bike) and Glenn E. Nielsen (TC-X). Also on show is a car famous in Norway, the Il Tempo Gigante, which was originally depicted in the Norwegian stop motion movie Flåklypa Gran Prix made in 1975 that is still shown on Norwegian television on December 25th every single year (above photo by Erik Mohn).
Norwegian photographers have been posting shots from the first day of the event and you can see posts at Facebook pages of Norsk Motorsport Supporter Team and
Dragbike Norge(Facebook post of photos by Sten Are Lindseth Os).
Melbourne Raceway's Yorkshire Summer Shootout. 4th August:
This weekend, Melbourne Raceway hosts its Yorkshire Summer Shootout, the fifth round of its season which is the sixth event in the Straightliners Championship. Racing takes place tomorrow and Sunday, 5th-6th August with entry to teams open from this afternoon. Run What Ya Brung is available on both days for which you can pay on the gate an all-in charge of £50 per day.
The usual car bracket classes are taking part, Pro Comp Heads Up (5.89 or quicker in the eighth), Pro Extreme ET (5.90-6.89 on a sportsman tree), Pro ET (6.90-7.89), Sportsman (7.90 or slower), NSCC, Junior Dragster and Karts. For Bikes, there are No Mercy Shootouts for Bikes, Scooters and Juniors, and heads-up classes for 6.00 index, Race Legends (over 70 years of age), Nostalgia Pro Stock, Old School USB, Stock and Two Stroke, and NSA championship classes.
Class entry fees can be seen at this link at which you can enter for racing, and spectator entry which is only £15 per day or £30 for the weekend including camping. There will be a bar and live band on Saturday night.
Andy Flavell tells us that thanks to Alan Perkins, more of the pit area has been concreted and, following sweeping, the surface in the pits is much improved. For new racers, there is a useful Facebook post on tips to follow at the track at this link.
Former Eurodragster.com editor Tog will be at the track posting on-track and off-track galleries and results. You will be able to see Tog's coverage by clicking on this link.
The postcode for Melbourne Raceway is YO42 4SS, For anyone traveling to Melbourne from the A19 from Selby, the bridge at Bubwith is closed for repairs. From the M1,M18,M62, exit at Howden, take the left lane and then join the B1228 from Howden.
Swift snippets. 4th August:
Happy Birthday for today to Super Comp and Super Gas racer (and four times champion in both) Stuart Doignie and Top Fuel Bike racer Jan Sturla Hegre, we hope you both have great days.
Meguiar's Drag Festival gallery and media. 2nd August:
Many thanks to Drag Race Union club secretary and photographer Markus Münch for supplying a gallery of photos from the Meguiar's Drag Festival held at Mantorp Park from 27th-30th July.
You can check out Markus's photos at our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Mantorp Park gallery by
clicking here
or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu.
Commiserations to Lars-Gunnar Kjeserud (Fiat Topolino racing in Vintage Outlaw) who had an on-track incident with the car rolling following a wild burnout (see this link for a photo sequence by Karl Linß). Lars-Gunnar is reported to be unhurt. Tommy Leindahl (Chevy Cobalt, racing in 440 Outlaw) had a great save and the car is unharmed.
We also send commiserations to Jonny Lagg and his team for a pit engine explosion which resulted in some team members needing to go to hospital for stitches, and the engine and chassis being severely damaged. You can read an article on the Bryntesson Motorsport website at this link. Kristopher Elmer reported on the incident at this link.
You can see other media from Mantorp Park at the following links:
Swift snippets. 2nd August:
Happy Birthday for today to Mustang racer Sara Unsworth, Willys Wars racer Loz Moules, Swiss Comp Eliminator racer René Meierhofer, and FHRA timekeeper Petteri Haapaniemi. We hope you all have a great day.
Unusual Car Sales UK birthday. 2nd August:
Administrator Nigel Taylor and all of us at Eurodragster.com, wish popular Facebook site Unusual Car Sales UK a very Happy Birthday:
"Happy fourth birthday to unusual car sales uk, we would like to thank every single person who has got involved with this site, it’s you like minded folk that have made this site what it is today. We would like to make a special thanks to our top supporter Mike Gates and all the crew at Hayling Garage who have supported the site from day 1, and have seen an excellent variety of cars being purchased and sold by the team, as well as getting involved with British drag racing themselves.
"Special mentions also go out to Nic Williams and Dan Williams of Williams Bros. Racing, who are always in touch with new ideas and future plans. The excellent Gary Case of GC Car Recoveries and Transport has helped out so many, especially in the Kent area.
"Thankyou to Sean Doyle and the team at Zero Three Classic & Custom shop in Horsham, check these folks out , there work is superb and it is a pleasure to have them on board.
"Special thanks also to Simon Groves of the excellent Eurodragster.com for getting involved and helping set up a unusual car sales U.K. link in the Jeff Bull Race Engines-sponsored swap meet section (you're welcome - Ed).
"Thanks also to Mark Scarlett and the Hooligan outlaw Anglia team for all your help, ideas and getting involved.
"Please mention unusual car sales U.K. when using any of these companies above and we would also like to welcome the following companies for getting involved with us over the next year, so dont forget folks, if you use any of these companies , please make sure you tell them that you heard about their services from our site, thankyou."
Roadhog Recovery Sussex/Surrey based delivering across the UK - 3.2t payload specialists in American and Classic cars. Phone: 07881525790. Facebook: click here.
Hit Hard Customs Specialising in custom sheet metal fabrication/coach building, based in Andover. Phone: 07821656770. E-mail: Hithardcustoms@outlook.com. Web: hithardcustoms.com. Also see Instagram, Facebook showing examples of their work.
Tim Moore Vehicle Transport Based in Basingstoke and covering the UK. Specialising in American Vehicles Hot Rods etc. See Tim's Facebook page.
Rays classics , California, USA California Collector Car Export Sales and Services. Original survivors, one owner, restored, stalled projects, minimal to no rust. Package Pricing from point of sale to final destination. Phone: +1 650 361 8083 or +1 415 517 5754 (PST 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Monday - Friday). Web: raysclassics.com. Email raysclassics@earthlink.net
Walter Mendanha Fast Piston Garage and Transport Services. Based in Swindon. Phone: 07818168840 / 07923217800
Neil Bannister Industry & Supply. We produce our own original automotive artwork which is available as a range of merchandise this is shipped all over the World. We also have a cool automotive coffee shop The Coffee Depot - based in a historic building in Weedon, serving home made food as well as proper coffee. We have lots of classic cars / hot rods / motorcycles visit too.
Clubs / groups are welcome to use our venue as a meet site, loads of parking - all free. Web: industryandsupply.com.
Old Bones Fabrications -Steve Jones
The Fairground , weyhill , Andover, Hampshire Phone: 01264 772310. Web: oldbonesfabrications.co.uk, Facebook: click here.
Swift snippets. 2nd August:
Happy Birthday to Maggis Margrethe Nilsen Olstad aka Mrs Hans Olav Olstad, VWDRC racer Daniel Boucher and Street Eliminator crew chief Dave Day, we hope you are all having a great day.
Arthur Bonner. 1st August:
We are very sorry to report the passing of drag racer and hot rodder Arthur Bonner who passed away in a hospice last night. Nigel Taylor writes:
"A true drag racing legend, Arthur will be sadly missed by all friends and family but will be up there in heaven, teaching them to weld and all about drag racing.
"Purchased for £20 in 1974, Arthur Bonner had a crazy idea of putting a Hemi in a Ford Prefect! A trip to West Drayton Salvage saw him coming away with a 400ci Pontiac engine as there were no Hemis available. At the age of 33, Arthur boxed the original chassis, installed the Pontiac engine, backed up by a Jag gearbox and Jag axle, and at the age of 35 (in 1976) was out competing and trying the combo in the Prefect. He raced at Blackbushe, Santa Pod and Long Marston.
"The Detroit Spinner and Arthur Bonner became a regular appearing car and racer, well known back in the day. Arthur upgraded the gearbox to a Fairbanks and the rear axle to a ford 9" but the car took a turn for the worse, ending up on its roof at Avon Park. The car was then treated to a new chassis, the cylinder heads were changed for aluminium, lots more mods, and back it came again.
"After 20 years sat up, we dragged it out of Arthur's garage, gave it a once over, replacing the bits we needed to, and out it came again at the Shakespeare County Raceway's Nostalgia Nationals in 2014, winning a NSRA trophy, with Arthur Bonner back behind the wheel again! On we went to the amazing Dragstalgia at Santa Pod Raceway and then the Hot Rod Drags at SCR. What an excellent year 2014 was for us, meeting new friends and racers along the way, winning the trophy, getting into the magazines,and a 73 year old Arthur Bonner strapped back in his home built race car running quicker than all the other volunteer drivers!
"Detroit Spinner Racing would like to thank all our sponsors, friends, followers, supporters, racers, family etc that made us all welcome! Arthur, thank you for all the laughter, fun and racing! You will be missed by so many."
We send our deepest condolences to Arthur's friends and family.
Mick Patey. 1st August:
We were very sorry to hear of the passing of hot rodder and racer Mick Patey who died on 30th July. Nigel Taylor writes:
"Mick was well known round the car show circuit and often found at Shakespeare County Raceway or Santa Pod in his 7.6 litre Mk2 Cortina which he owned since 1997. Mick was one of them hot rodding good guys that always made time to chat to everyone and always wanted to know more about everyone’s car or dragster.
"Mick was a long time member of the Bumpkin County Cruisers and the Detroit Spinner Drag Racing Team. He would always be the last man standing (or laying) in the bar, he would always be up for a laugh and a joke and just loved chasing motorbikes in his 550 bhp Cortina.
"Mick was only given four months to live, three years ago, after four brain tumours - so he fought to the end; he will be sadly missed by all the hot rodding / drag racing world, a well loved figure!
"Condolences to all Mick's friends and family. The gates of heaven will be absolutely gleaming once Mick has got his Autosol on them! RIP top man."
We at Eurodragster.com send our deepest condolences to all Mick's friends and family.
Mopar Euro Nationals rained out. 1st August:
Sunday's eliminations at the 29th Mopar Euro Nationals were ultimately rained out. Whilst track officials made huge efforts to keep the track in race-ready condition, a prolonged bout of rain on Sunday afternoon put paid to later rounds of eliminations.
One result from the event was the Lite Steer Nostalgia Superstock lifestyle championship being decided with Dan Williams the winner and Ash Rawson and Lee Chiles joint runners up (neither had raced head to head, both had seven round wins and one event win). Congratulations to Dan on the championship and well done to the UK Nostalgia Superstock committee for successfully promoting the biggest class in European drag racing. You can see the final points at this link or via our points page by clicking here.
Both the Perfect Light Award, sponsored by Cath and Tig Napier of Bad Habit Racing, and the Perfect ET Award sponsored by Andy Hadfield of Twister Racing, went unclaimed. The Perfect Light Award now increases to £100 and so the Perfect ET award increases to £75 at the Greenlight Nationals to be held on 19th-20th August.
Despite the early finish to the race it was a busy event with a full Show & Shine paddock, almost 1000 runs made in the run what ya brung, and large fields in many of the racing classes. The introduction of Street Eliminator Tryouts and Nostalgia Eliminator drew a number of racers that would usually run in RWYB to race against established class competitors, which is good for the future of sportsman racing.
Thanks to David Anniwell of the Santa Pod Timing Crew for sending us detailed timing data, including test day results, which we have posted to our timing data area which you can see by clicking on Data, then Timing Data at the top of any Eurodragster.com page. Official results can be seen at Santa Pod's Official Results Site. You can also see a Facebook album of the event on Santa Pod Raceway's page by going to this link.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored reports and pictures of the 29th Mopar Euro Nationals by
clicking here
or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu. Thanks to Julian and Diana for their hard work in taking photos.
Limited Funz Racing going to Hockers! 1st August:
Thanks to Lynne Coulsell wife and team mum to Limited Funz racing, Super Comp slingshot racer Mark Coulsell and Junior Dragster racers Harley Coulsell and Ada Cassisi for telling us about how a Limited Funz Racing team trip to the NitrOlympx, taking place at Hockenheim on 25th-27th August, came to be decided:
"Earlier this year Harley said that he’d really love to race his Junior, Bandit 1, at Hockenheim again with it being his last year in Junior Dragster. The last time we went was 2015 when it hit 42 degrees there so Mom wasn’t so keen! However, as she’s a pushover it was discussed and we decided, you only live once, let’s do it!
"So, obviously, if the trailer is going, then it would make sense for Ada to race too as Cherry Bomb would already be in there.
"That’s when Senior Mark Coulsell started sulking and said well if the kids are going...
So we had a team discussion with Steve and Anna (Cassisi - Ed) and said what the hell, let’s take BallBreaker as well! We must be mad!
Bring it on!
Llanbedr gallery. 1st August:
Thanks to Carol Jenkinson who has kindly sent in a gallery of photos from the National Sprint Association meeting at Llanbedr Airfield on 22nd-23rd July.
You can check out our John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Llanbedr gallery by
clicking here
or by clicking on the Event Coverage link in the main menu.
Results from the bike-only event are available on the NSA website.
Swift snippets. 1st August:
Happy Birthday for today to Street Eliminator racer Andy Bond, Pro ET racer Paul Jackson and Maltese Escort Mk1 racer Mark 'Gladiator' Farrugia, we hope you are all having a great day!
British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Steve Read has announced his return to Top Fuel racing in Australia. Running as RPM Top Fuel Racing with Fuel Funny Car driver Tim McCarthy and long-time friend, Nick Packer. Testing begins later this month and Steve will be running in the Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship, with the first event on 21st-22nd October at the new Dragway at Tailem Bend, South Australia. You can read more about Steve's history and quotes from him at the BDRHoF website at this link, thanks to Jerry Cookson for the information.
