SPRC Perpetual Awards week 6. 31st December: Once again Santa Pod Racers Club and Eurodragster.com are teaming up to give Eurodragster.com readers the chance of input to the SPRC Perpetual Awards, which will be presented at the joint APIRA/SPRC Dinner Dance and Trophy presentation on Saturday 3rd February 2007. For each of the 2006 season awards, the SPRC Committee has decided upon a shortlist for which votes can be submitted by E-Mail. There are eight awards in all: this week's category, the final, is the Paul Giddings Memorial Trophy and voting will continue until 23:59 UK next Sunday, 7th January. Voting for the Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy and the new Sportsman of the Year Trophy, in memory of Terry Gibbs, (see below) will also be open until next Sunday evening. The votes of Eurodragster.com readers will be taken into consideration when the SPRC Committee decides upon the winners. Voting is per Award, so if you voted for Most Promising Newcomer last week then you may of course vote for the Paul Giddings Memorial Trophy this week. Votes can be submitted by all readers of Eurodragster.com, not just those in the UK. Please note that blatant attempts at organising mass votes - for example asking workmates or forum members to vote en masse - are easily identified and all such votes will be disallowed as they have been in previous years. The Paul Giddings Memorial Trophy is a bike fraternity-only award is named for late racer Paul Giddings, and is presented for overcoming adversity. Nominees have typically had to endure personal problems, severe or prolonged mechanical trouble, an accident or other such woes, but have faced those problems head-on and come out on top. The SPRC Committee's shortlist, in alphabetical order, is as follows: Steve French, Funny Bike Go to vote Fred Furlong, 9.50 Bike Go to vote Pat Ginn Go to vote Mark Watkins, Super Street Bike Go to vote To place your vote, go to the official SPRC Perpetual Awards page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the SPRC Perpetual Awards vote link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. ©Eurodragster.com The Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy, for which votes are also now being taken, was first awarded to Santa Pod Raceway's late Chief Marshal, Alex Brachtvogel, in 2001 to mark his outstanding contribution to Santa Pod Raceway and the sport as a whole. After Alex's death the trophy was named in his memory and continues to be awarded for contribution to drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Alex Brachtvogel award. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers, race officials, track and safety crews, club officials, media, or anyone else who has contributed to the sport. Last year the trophy was awarded to photo-journalist and now Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger Gorringe. Again see the official web page for more details or E-Mail your nomination to sprc.awards.2006@btinternet.com specifying SPRC Alex Brachtvogel Trophy as the subject and your nomination in the body of the mail. The Sportsman of the Year Trophy, for which votes are also now being taken, has been posted by Obsession Motorsports in memory of the late Terry Gibbs, a fervent supporter of Sportsman racing who himself raced before becoming a race and show promoter. The trophy will be awarded to the UK National Championship racer who best typifies the spirit of Sportsman drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Sportsman of the Year trophy. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers in UK National Championship classes: Super Modified, Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Sportsman ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Junior Dragster and 9.50 Bike. Again see the official web page for details or E-Mail your nomination to sprc.awards.2006@btinternet.com specifying Sportsman of the Year Trophy as the subject and in the body of the mail give your nomination and a few words about why you think they should receive the trophy. MRE join DBR contingency scheme. 31st December: Further to Friday's news item, Dave Beck Racing have announced that MRE are joining their contingency programme in support of UK racers. A unique, multi-level contingency programme has been devised which will reward racers in all classes based on their accumulated spending across the entire racing season. Dave Beck says that the programme offers three levels of reward based on total spending across the year-long period: £12 ($25) for combined spending over £500 £25 ($50) for combined spending over £1000 £55 ($100) for combined spending over £2500 The programme start date of 1st October 2006 is tied directly to the UK racing season, meaning purchases made at Dave Beck Racing all the way back to 1st October already count toward this coming season's tally. The end date for 2007 purchases will be 30th September. The reward is for all ACU rounds and is per class, per race, with no bike minimums per class as imposed in other programmes. All winnings will be calculated on the final spending level at the close of the season 30th September 2007. Vouchers will be announced and distributed promptly at the conclusion of the season. For example: Johnny Winalot has spent £550 by 20th September 2007, and has won all five ACU races. He will get £12 per race win, therefore, a total of £60 contingency vouchers. Rufus P has spent £1090 across the season. He then qualifies for £25 per race win, therefore a total of £125 contingency vouchers. Neil M spends £2620 across the season. He will get £55 per race win, producing a total of £275 contingency vouchers. Programme guidelines are very simple and are as follows: Both MRE and DBR stickers must be in plain view on both sides of the bike for the entire duration of the claimed event. Winnings will be in the form of MRE or DBR vouchers. SPR track equipment escapes. 31st December: Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster team member Rob Inglis got in touch to let us know about an unusual sighting in Scotland a couple of days ago. "I'm back home with my parents near John O'Groats and was driving my sister to Inverness to catch her flight back to Luton", says Rob. "On the road south near a place called Helmsdale I saw one of Santa Pod's track dryers seemingly being used by a road maintenance company. It's a stretch where vehicles were slipping on the surface even in the dry in summer, but the Highland Council will not replace the surface as the road is due to be bypassed by an entirely new road in 2007. I guess they're using the drier to try and burn off whatever has become ingrained in the surface and is causing the accidents. ©Eurodragster.com "The trucks were from a firm called Delmar. I did see a truck from a drag racing team parked at the snow gates, but I was past before I could make out which team. A really bizarre thing to see this far north and especially at this time of year!" Swift snippets. 31st December: A very Happy Birthday to race fan Sean Bowe who is sixteen years old today. Hope you have a great day, Sean. ©Eurodragster.com Beck expands contingency scheme. 29th December: Dave Beck Racing have announced that they are to repeat their contingency sponsorship of the UK National Championships in 2007. After the success of the Racepak programme over the past few seasons, Dave says that he is pleased to welcome MSD and MTC next year. "The winners of ACU events in 9.50 Bike, Super Street Bike, Pro Stock Bike (apart from myself), Comp Bike, Funny Bike and Top Fuel Bike will receive £40 for Racepak (UEM races also), £25 for MSD ignition, £20 for MTC pistons, £20 for MTC lock-up clutches (9.50 and Super Street only), and £50 for Velocity Turbo Kit (Super Street only)", says Dave. "For example: Super Street racer Johnny Winalot has a Racepak, MSD ignition, MTC pistons, and lock-up clutch. He wins the event and takes home £105! As with all contingency, the rules are very simple: Products must be purchased through Dave Beck Racing Stickers must be visible on both sides of the vehicle In the rare instance that there are only a few bikes in each class, the win money will be cut accordingly (just the same as it works with your prize money) "We are currently working with other manufacturers and will be adding to the programme as the deals are confirmed. "PS Neil Midgley, please don't win too much next year. We're fed up with paying you." ©Eurodragster.com Cheerful's Calibra goes to PMR. 29th December: Paul Marston Racing are the new owners of 'Cheerful' Mick Cheley's former Pro Mod and Super Pro ET Vauxhall Calibra. The car arrived at the Drag Race Engineering workshops last weekend and although Paul Marston has not finalised his plans for the Calibra, a toe into the waters of Super Modified - a class in which Paul has long been interested - is a possibility. "Mick has owned the Calibra virtually from new and wanted to see it go to a good home", says Paul Marston. "I believe that Mick was pleased to see that it will still be seen at the race track and not sit for years in a lock-up somewhere. A race car of this quality does not come up often in England, so when it does I believe you have to seize the opportunity. We have another Hauser-built chromoly 25.1 race car which is legal to compete in any Sportsman class. It could be the basis of a competitive race car in Super Modified, which would be Paul Marston Racing's first venture into a heads-up Championship class. ©Eurodragster.com "We have looked at the rules and feel that the Calibra fits the class exceptionally well with the combination we think would have the best potential. Naturally it would take a while to become competitive because there are some exceptionally good teams currently competing in Super Modified. We have the utmost respect for them and to become as good as they are would take time. But having the right tools for the job from the outset plays a big part, and that is what PMR now have with this Vauxhall Calibra. It has run sevens, handles exceptionally well, would be right on the money weightwise, and was exceptionally well looked-after by its owner and crew. "If you would like to share in this exciting new venture, or if you would be interested in driving this fantastic race car in Super Pro ET, Super Comp or Super Gas, then please contact Paul Marston Racing on 0208 597 4575, mobile 07831 650230, or E-Mail office@pmracing.fsnet.co.uk. "I would like to extend my thanks to Gary Springford for taking the time off work to accompany me up to Birmingham to collect the Calibra, and Mick Cheley for his hospitality and honesty in describing his beautiful race car." Swift snippets. 29th December: Many thanks to Dave Watling of the Chelmsford Drag'n'Street Rod Club for letting us know that the Reality TV series Driving Force, featuring the Force family, is to be shown on satellite and cable in the UK next month. The series commences on The Biography Channel at 10:30 pm on Monday 29th January. Colin Stevens of C & P Nitro T-Shirts has added to the hugely-popular Mister Six and Summer of '73 with shirts featuring four US legends: Raymond Beadle (right), Don Garlits, Roland Leong and TV Tommy Ivo. The T-Shirts are £17 plus £2.50 p+p and can be ordered from Colin at colinhotrodts@btinternet.com or call 07704 801858. ©Eurodragster.com Eurodragster.com has yet again been privileged to be shortlisted as Best Drag Racing News Site on the annual Dotcom Ballot on the US Competition Plus web site. If you would like to vote for us then you can find the Awards page at www.competitionplus.com. Swift snippets. 28th December: Dutch Top Fuel Bike racer Roel Koedam's last hurrah on his Top Fuel Bike took place at Western Sydney International Dragway these last couple of days. In his last shot at a five-second pass Roel clocked ETs in the 6.2s and 6.3s before hitting a blower problem yesterday (Wednesday). Roel's next ride will be on Ton Pels' Supertwin back here in Europe in 2007 whilst the Top Fuel Bike stays in Australia with its new owner Leonard Azzopardi. Ex-pat Brit Steve Read qualified sixth in Top Fuel at WSID, going out to Scott Kalitta in round one of eliminations. More information at www.wsid.com.au. ©Eurodragster.com Pat Ginn has been in touch to tell us that she has had her ups and downs again and been in and out of hospital but that she is, in her own words, still here and enjoying every minute. "My sister organised a charity football match which bike Phil Pratt and David Warren played, and the guys from the Wild Bunch came along to give their support", says Pat. "It was a great day thank you. This year was my best Christmas ever. There were twenty one for dinner at my mum's. My sister hired a snow machine and we had our own snowball fights etc". If you want to contribute to the Pat Ginn Appeal then the bank is Barclays, the account name is The Pat Ginn Appeal, the sort code is 20-20-37 and the account number is 23409724, or check out the Potty Pat web site at www.pottypat.me.uk. If you've got any money left after Christmas then you could do a lot worse than to get hold of one of Ian Turburville's new Mister Spokehead T-Shirts. "The 100% cotton, Fruit of the Loom shirts are printed front back (and on the sleeves on sweats) using the latest Litho technology which produces vivid, full colour, photo quality images and bonds the ink to the shirt thermally", says Turbo. "The T shirts are available in black, ash grey or white, in a limited number. There are also a limited number of flame collar polo shirts with the Spokehead logo on the left chest. All proceeds go to the 2007 nitro fund and will help keep us on the track whilst making you look doubly cool! Join our team here and support the biggest, baddest Nitro-Twin in the UK". Turbo kindly sent us a sample and it looks just great. More details at www.turboville.com/turbo-7/pro-drag.htm. Web site updates. 28th December: "OK drag fans, you have eaten too much and it is a fair bet that many of you are suffering from severe alcoholic remorse (hangovers)", says our good friend Alan Currans of The Acceleration Archive. "On top of that the days are short and the new season seems a lifetime away. Never fear, to sustain you through these dark days I have just published my year-end round-up consisting of five pages and 116 of my best snaps. You can access the pages by selecting Recent Pictures and 2006 in the Alan Currans Collection at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. I hope you enjoy them." ©Eurodragster.com SPRC Perpetual Awards week 5. 24th December: Once again Santa Pod Racers Club and Eurodragster.com are teaming up to give Eurodragster.com readers the chance of input to the SPRC Perpetual Awards, which will be presented at the joint APIRA/SPRC Dinner Dance and Trophy presentation on Saturday 3rd February 2007. For each of the 2006 season awards, the SPRC Committee has decided upon a shortlist for which votes can be submitted by E-Mail. There are eight awards in all: this week's category is Most Promising Newcomer and voting will continue over the coming weeks as each category is announced. Voting for the Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy and the new Sportsman of the Year Trophy, in memory of Terry Gibbs, will also be open for the whole of this period (see below). The votes of Eurodragster.com readers will be taken into consideration when the SPRC Committee decides upon the winners. Voting is per Award, so if you voted for the James Edgar Memorial Trophy last week then you may of course vote for Most Promising Newcomer this week. Votes can be submitted by all readers of Eurodragster.com, not just those in the UK. Please note that blatant attempts at organising mass votes - for example asking workmates or forum members to vote en masse - are easily identified and all such votes will be disallowed as they have been in previous years. Nominees for Most Promising Newcomer have contested their first full season or made their on-track début in 2006. The list includes a UK National Champion, event winners, and racers who have impressed for other achievements within their classes. The SPRC Committee's shortlist, in alphabetical order, is as follows: Geoff Cowley, Sportsman ET Go to vote Rebecca Evans, Junior Dragster Go to vote Jim Usher, Fuel Altered Go to vote John Walden, Real Steel Street Eliminator Go to vote Mark White, Super Gas Go to vote To place your vote, go to the official SPRC Perpetual Awards page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the SPRC Perpetual Awards vote link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. ©Eurodragster.com The Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy, for which votes are also now being taken, was first awarded to Santa Pod Raceway's late Chief Marshal, Alex Brachtvogel, in 2001 to mark his outstanding contribution to Santa Pod Raceway and the sport as a whole. After Alex's death the trophy was named in his memory and continues to be awarded for contribution to drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Alex Brachtvogel award. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers, race officials, track and safety crews, club officials, media, or anyone else who has contributed to the sport. Last year the trophy was awarded to photo-journalist and now Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger Gorringe. Again see the official web page for more details or E-Mail your nomination to sprc.awards.2006@btinternet.com specifying SPRC Alex Brachtvogel Trophy as the subject and your nomination in the body of the mail. The Sportsman of the Year Trophy, for which votes are also now being taken, has been posted by Obsession Motorsports in memory of the late Terry Gibbs, a fervent supporter of Sportsman racing who himself raced before becoming a race and show promoter. The trophy will be awarded to the UK National Championship racer who best typifies the spirit of Sportsman drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Sportsman of the Year trophy. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers in UK National Championship classes: Super Modified, Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Sportsman ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Junior Dragster and 9.50 Bike. Again see the official web page for details or E-Mail your nomination to sprc.awards.2006@btinternet.com specifying Sportsman of the Year Trophy as the subject and in the body of the mail give your nomination and a few words about why you think they should receive the trophy. Next week's category will be the Paul Giddings Memorial Trophy. Voting for the SPRC Perpetual Awards will continue for one week after the shortlist is published for the Paul Giddings Memorial Trophy, and will then close on Sunday 7th January. Eurodragster.com goes North. 24th December: We are very pleased to announce EurodragsterNorth.com, a new division of Eurodragster.com which will be bringing you live Event Coverage from events in the north of Europe starting in 2007. EurodragsterNorth.com is the brainchild of our good friend Theresé Hällsten (aka Tezzii) who had her first experience of posting live Event Coverage in 2006 and thoroughly enjoyed herself. Tezzii and the EurodragsterNorth.com team - already consisting of eager and expectant members Carro, Benny, David and Tony - are planning to post updates from as many NDRS, Scandinavian Dragracing Championship, Toyo Tyres Series and other Northern European events as possible and to help the continued development and promotion of the sport in Europe. EurodragsterNorth.com will also be hooking up with our good friends at the Finnish Hot Rod Association to cover events in Finland, and at selected events the Eurodragster.com and EurodragsterNorth.com teams will be working together. ©Eurodragster.com "I would like to thank the team who are willing to listen to my crazy ideas, and of course Eurodragster.com for giving me the opportunity", says Tezzii. "Thank you also to my partner, my family, the racers and the Clubs who have been most supportive, giving advice and more ideas. I'm hope I won't let you down (Don't worry, you won't - Ed) and I hope to see you all during the summer of 2007." More details will be announced as the season approaches, but for a brief introduction check out www.eurodragsternorth.com and bookmark the site for the latest developments, and also keep an eye on the Event Coverage page here on Eurodragster.com for the 2007 coverage schedule for both sites. Tezzii has already been in touch with many tracks, clubs and promoters and signed up sponsors, but if you would like to offer services, facilities or sponsorship to EurodragsterNorth.com then you can contact Tezzii at tezzii@eurodragsternorth.com. Media update. 24th December: In addition to the free givaway 2007 calendar, the latest issue of Classic American magazine has a great four page feature about the Hemi Under Glass nostalgic '66 Barracuda wheelstander, writes Jerry Cookson. Owner Bob Riggle, star driver at the 2003 Goodwood Festival of Speed when he set the straw bales alight, carries on the tradition of delighting his many fans up and down the country with his driver Bill Sefton it's a great read archiving some of the history and magic this particular Mopar has produced over the years. Other features include Steve Prime's '71 Dodge Charger Six Pack, a fifties Coronet Hearse, a '64 Thunderbird and a round up from American Super Stock Series finals at York Raceway. Priced at £3.80 Classic American is available at all leading news stands. ©Eurodragster.com New Year viewing publicity for French owned Motors TV is advertising forthcoming programmes for the European Drag Racing Championships and the IHBA Drag Boat series to be aired in January. More about these when schedules are released. The latest issue of Hot Rod Gazette is now available with all the usual grass roots features from the hot rodding world. This issue features reports from the NSRA's Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County, the Hot Rod Hayride and a report from Round 7 of the NSCC at York Raceway. Other features include Chris Eames' '32 Roadster, Editor Shaun Wilson's Project Thames and the art of pinstriping by Kris Johnson. To get hold of the latest issue or even a subscription, head for the magazine's web site at www.hotrodgazette.com. Web site updates. 24th December: Sharkman has updated his personal web site Top End Tales with a 2006 season screensaver and the 2006 School of Excellence. "The screensaver features images from the 2006 season and is a 23 Megabyte file so broadband is going to be needed to download", says Sharkman. "It has some 220 images and takes about fifteen minutes to get through one complete cycle. That of course is just an appetiser before the main course, which is of course the School of Excellence. It's been a bumper year for the School. The Principal is in superb form with possibly a record number of images and no less than five graduates: some new, others returning after sharpening their skills". Check it out at www.topendtales.com. ©Eurodragster.com Drag Racing Unplugged VIII. 24th December: As has become traditional on our last pre-Christmas update, we have posted a page of the best quotes from this season's Eurodragster.com Event Coverage including Roger, Simon and Tog's personal Quotes of the Year, tgether with other one-liners we didn't publish at the time. We are pleased to present Drag Racing Unplugged VIII, the 2006 collection. ©Eurodragster.com Click here to view Drag Racing Unplugged VIII, or click on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. Enjoy! 2006 UK Champions' Champions. 24th December: Simon has been hard at work looking through eight years' worth of UK National, MSA British and and ACU UK Drag Bike Championship points and has produced his 2006 UK Champions' Champions table. Simon has posted rankings by Championship and Event wins and Top Ten points scorers based on total points won between 1999 and 2006. This year for the first time, Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association and Real Steel Street Eliminator are included. Rules are straightforward. An event must be completed for a win to be registered; wins are ranked by those scored by a particular driver or rider, whereas points are scored and ranked on a team basis. Once again Rob Turner leads the way in MSA Top Methanol with six Championships, twelve wins and heading the points tally over second-placed Dave Wilson (note that over his entire career, Rob has won the Championship an incredible nine times). The Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association's two Championship years have been good to the Rebel 'T' team with driver Clayton Round who has won the Championship back-to-back and amassed a 500-point lead over second-placed Extreme Racing with driver Bob Glassup. Ellis Racing leads the points in Super Modified and joins Danny Cockerill for Championships won with a total of two each. Danny still leads the wins with a total of seven to date and Graham Ellis needs two more to catch him. Tim Adam has a substantial lead in Super Comp points and event wins, but Chris Johnson's second Championship this year now ties him with Tim. Tim Adam leads the number of Championships in Super Gas with four, against Frank Mason's two, while Frank is still well ahead in event wins and points in that class. In Super Street, Mike Bentley and Team Rat Rage are joined by John Grant with two Championships each, whereas Leigh Morris is ahead on number of wins and just ahead of Bob Lees in the points tally. In Super Pro ET, 2006 Champion Martyn Jones joins Steve Green and Ian Tubb with two Championships each. Barry Giles with nine wins in total has now overtaken Steve Green, and Martyn Jones remains at the head of the aggregate points. Pro ET is still headed by Heaven and Hell Racing for Championships shared with Team Top Banana with two Championships each. Heaven & Hell Racing lead in the points, with Bob Doyle now joined by Team Top Banana driver Lee Huxley with six wins apiece. In Sportsman ET, there is no change from 2005 with Al and Linda Platt's Team Rainy City Lightning being dominant in 2003-5 and ahead in the points and Championships, with Rick Denny leading the number of wins. This year's Champion Geoff Cowley, who is a rookie as well, lies in thirty third place in overall points scored. ©Eurodragster.com Junior Dragster again sees no-one scoring more than one Championship in the class' history. Nick Mugridge leads the points tally and still shares a seven win total with Jonathan Bond. Real Steel Street Eliminator is included for the first time and over the period Steve Pateman has been dominant with four Championships, fourteen event wins and a points total that is 34% higher than second placed Ian Hook (points for Street Eliminator are scored since 2000). In ACU Top Fuel Bike, Steve Woollatt has six Championships since 1999 and seventeen wins to his name and leads the points tally by a significant margin. In his career, Steve has won an incredible ten Championships. Neil Midgley retains his lead in all categories for ACU Funny Bike as does Dave Beck in ACU Pro Stock Bike. In ACU Competition Bike, there are now no less than eight different riders with a single Championship win each in the period under review and Phil Leamon remains ahead in wins and points. Graham Dance remains well ahead in ACU Super Street Bike in all categories. 9.50 Bike still sees Fred Furlong being the only rider scoring more than one Championship in the class over the last seven years. The points leader has changed with Geoff Connor now leading Fred Furlong and last year's points leader Jamie Sneddon. Jamie still retains the record for number of wins. You can check out this year's Champions' Champions tables by clicking here or by clicking on the Champions' Champions link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Eurodragster.com's Christmas break. 24th December: We will now be taking our Christmas break, and will be back on Thursday (28th December). Keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com and we will post them on Thursday. In the meantime we have compiled our very reasonable requests to Father Christmas and our New Year resolutions: ©Eurodragster.com Top of Roger's Christmas list: Every race vehicle in the US, and especially in England and the rest of Europe to have visible race numbers identifying themselves which can be seen from back, front and sides. It would help every race journalist. Top of Simon's Christmas list: Somewhere comfortable to sleep at the track (all offers considered). Top of Tog's Christmas list: Another race car drive (yes, I'm getting addicted). Roger's New Year resolution: To get my Nikon D2X camera to focus correctly all the time. Simon's New Year resolution: To give up the day job and do Eurodragster.com for a living. Tog's New Year resolution: To get it through to people that this is not all a huge competition; the sport is big, but not big enough for that. Roger, Simon and Tog would like to wish all Eurodragster.com readers and their families the very Happiest of Christmases, and to thank everyone who has sent us personal Christmas wishes and cards as well as those on our on-line Christmas Card. See you on Thursday - have a good one, everyone! Silliness in the sub-zero workshop. 22nd December: Come December and the ensuing cold weather months which make up the British winter and spring, Paul Marston of Paul Marston Racing and Drag Race Engineering Proprietor Gary Springford traditionally settle in for long days and nights trading insults, telling bad jokes, playing lots of loud music and acting their shoe sizes, whilst getting all the serious stuff done on the PMR racing stable and Gary's Hulk Shogun. Paul Marston explains: Due to the size of the Drag Race Engineering workshop heating it is out of the question. So Gary's philosophy is "As long as I am not cold nor should you be", so expect to see the usual Eskimo workforce hard at it! Currently in for her annual major service at DRE is Grumpy's Dodge. With no major breakages this season and a National Event win under her belt, Grumpy is scheduled for a full engine rebuild after six years of good service and fantastic reliability. The 454ci Big Block Chevy will receive another couple of compression points. There are varying reports on just how much difference the extra squish-bang should make, and this is an ideal opportunity to find out in real race conditions. Grumpy will also receive its meticulous cleaning and polishing, all the important systems will be checked and checked again, and finally any areas that the Paul Marston Racing crew noticed over the course of the season regarding performance, consistency, user friendliness and reliability will be explored. Gary's Hulk Shogun has gone through a bit of an Incredible Hulk transformation itself. Gone is the 455 Pontiac, to be replaced by what has to be the most outrageous and wild-looking Crower Injected Big Block Chevy to be seen in a long while. The transformation is stunning and gives Hulk Shogun balance from any angle. The motor is an extremely serious piece, probably the most powerful factory-based big block to come out of the Drag Race Engineering clean room. Gary's Big Block is built the same as all the Paul Marston Racing motors, based on the very best factory parts money can buy where practical. Built to last, to be durable, consistent and make surprisingly good power considering it's only a 468 ci in this case. We have always found a well-matched parts package works best, Gary's motor just has that little bit extra in some areas. I had been saving this particular parts combination for something special, like Gary's own race car. Combined with the beautiful injection Gary had his heart set on using, this should be one bad hombré! Delivered to the powder coaters this week was the chassis for the latest addition to the Paul Marston Racing Drag Race School fleet. This should be back just before Christmas, all wrapped up in shiny Christmas paper, ready for Paul and Gary to unwrap. Assembly starts in the week running up to New Year. Its been on the Christmas list for some time now and we have learned to share. Paul chose the paint scheme, Gary chose the chassis colour, we play very nicely together and need very little adult supervision. This obviously is not the case at the race track where there is a need for more firmer control. This latest addition will in all probability be ground-breaking and will in its own small way change the face of UK Sportsman Drag Racing for good. According to the current build schedule the race car should be finished by mid January and should be out testing, weather permitting, early in 2007. It will make its début at the Easter Thunderball, these are again truly exciting times at Paul Marston Racing. Anyone at a loose end during the Christmas to New Year week is of course very welcome to stop by the Drag Race Engineering workshops in Chadwell Heath. Gary Springford will as usual insult everyone equally if they complain of being cold! But the coffee and tea are always piping hot and free. The Paul Marston Racing website, home of Europe's only Drag Race Driving School, has recently received an update and now has an easier-to-use feel with a few additions which are well worth checking out including downloadable booking forms for Drag Race Driving School courses and Passenger Ride Experience so don't worry, there is still time for those extra-special Christmas presents. You can find all this and more at www.paulmarstonracing.com. From everyone at Paul Marston Racing, a very Merry Christmas. ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 22nd December: We are indebted to Gilbert Rozet for sending us a presentation of the winners in the 2006 DCR Engineering French Trophy. You can check out this year's winners in France by clicking here. ©Eurodragster.com Christmas in Carolina. 22nd December: The guys at American car specialists Carolina Classics were gutted to read on Eurodragster.com that Malcolm Francis and Father Christmas were in Andover toting presents and omitted to pay them a visit: We could have strapped our proprietor and Father Christmas lookalike Cliff Hepton in the car and sent him off through Andover High Street. Fair play to the Air Sea Logistics team for their remarkable visit to Balksbury School, the kids must have loved it. Carolina Classics workshops and sales had a mad year, flat out with plenty of jobs to keep us on our feet. We are still offering twenty per cent discount on all service items to eurodragster readers, and a new service which is now available to Eurodragster readers: selling cars and parts via our web site at www.carolinaclassics.co.uk which is now being picked up all across the world with car sales in to Spain, Jersey, Ireland, Germany and America. The web site's selling potential is excellent. We can accept five hundred words and eight pictures for a £12 a month or £20 for two months. Interested readers please contact Nigel Taylor on 01264 321170. ©Eurodragster.com Staff member Barry Goddard is getting himself prepared for a 2007 drag racing season with a difference. When he's not here busy working, he's at his workshop installing the 450 bhp Chevy motor with twin tunnel rammed inlet into his home built Prefect. Barry hopes to be able to test and tune the car in the early part of the season and carry out any major or minor faults by mid-season, then hopefully run in competition by the start of the following year when he's got the hang of the car. The little Ford Prefect will be kept street-legal and used as much as possible to iron out any gremlins, but as Barry is a newcomer to competition we won't see him entering the seven-second Street Eliminator bunch just yet. Carolina Classics and Grumpy's Paint and Custom Shop would like to wish all Eurodragster readers a good Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we hope to see you at the track soon. Web site updates. 22nd December: Ex-pat UK racers Chris and Jeff Bennett have updated their web site with the latest news from the Cheeky Monkey Racing Fuel and Alcohol Altered and Funny Car team. Check it out at www.b2motorsports.com. ©Eurodragster.com The Drag, Rod and Classic Review team have unearthed a selection of transparencies from drag and rodding events in the 1970s which were tucked away in the loft. "We've now started the lengthy process of scanning these in for you to see", says Editor Andrew Kirk. The first results can be viewed in Blast from the Past, a retrospective look at British drag racing in the 1970s, which you'll find in Top Stories at www.drcreview.com. Partying for Charity. 20th December: The UK's Tiki Munky Wild Bunch team held their Christmas party at The Bull pub in Theale on Sunday, and Scottie Durrant says that as well as having a lot of fun they managed to raise money for charity. "Many friends, fellow drag racers and hot rodders attended", says Scottie. "With live hot rockin' rockabilly sounds from Trashcanz and Rockin' DJ Klunky now known as 'Fat boy Fat', everybody had a great evening and we raised £191 for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. ©Eurodragster.com "We would like to thank the following people who donated something for our raffle: Nealie - Retrophoto; Colin C and P Hot Rod Tsl Jimmy Hibberd - Valley Gas; Smax Smith; Shaun Wilson - Hot Rod Gazette; Santa Pod Raceway; Shakespeare County Raceway; Sportfish, Theale; The Bull Public House, Theale; Fox and Hounds Public House, Theale; Andy and Kate - Robinson Race Cars; Leigh Turland;  Gordon Appleton - Wheelgame Racing; Sharkman; MC Building Services; Andy Keep Electrical; Jill Lisle - Comet Clothing; Wraith MC; Klunky - Tat2U; Richard And Katie - What Katie Did; The Crown Public House, Theale. "Maybe we'll have a Hot Rod show in the summer." RoC Jets identified. 20th December: Luke Hulatt, Tim Fountain and Joe Bond have all been in touch to identify the Jet Dragster and Jet Funny Car which put on a show at the Race of Champions in Paris and about which we asked yesterday. The cars were displayed by France's Bob Feeler and Vincent Perrot. "I can remember that Bob Feeler had the jet cars on display at a race at Dieppe Airfield", says Joe Bond. "Robin Read organised a large field of British cars to go over there and race in 1994. These included my father when we had the silver ex-Readspeed car, Kenny 'Big Mac' McCormack driving the Corvette Funny Car, Alan Jackson in his Beretta Funny Car, Andy Hill, Robin Read and Frank Bennett. Bob Feeler ran his TAD also over the eighth mile track. It was brilliant watching side by side Top Alcohol cars (as they were known then) having no traction the entire distance and doing full-track smoking runs." ©Eurodragster.com "With the Race of Champions' move to Wembley next year it would seem like a good time for Martin Hill to be approaching the organisers", adds Tim Fountain. "Some nitro burnouts would be pretty good too." Swift snippets. 20th December: Apologies for the sudden disappearance of yesterday's news update early yesterday evening. Your News Editor had a personal visit from the Shag-Up Fairy (right) and through force of habit uploaded the news file instead of the latest Christmas Card. Unfortunately the latest news update on Tog's laptop was Monday's; yesterday's update was on Tog's PC at his day job and so Security could not escort the Fairy from the building until this morning. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 20th December: In the final 2006 entry in his exclusive Racer Blog, Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon looks back over his eventful season. You can read Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blog link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com Dutch Supertwin racer Stefan Ivanowitch has launched a very tidy web site at www.siracing.nl. The site features team run-down, Tech Talk about the bike, gallery and more...and don't miss what the site does to your mouse pointer. Also on two wheels, Belgium's The Route European Top Gas team have a very nice web site at www.routedragrace.be. The site includes a historical gallery, calendar, information about the bike, media, links and more besides. Reindeer replaced by lots of horses. 19th December: Father Christmas hitched a very special lift to deliver presents to the pupils of Balksbury Infant School in Andover last Friday. UK Super Comp/Super Gas racer Malcolm Francis of Eurodragster.com Sponsor Air Sea Logistics was very pleased to give Santa and the kids an experience they will never forget. Click on any link for a picture. ©Eurodragster.com "My nephew Sam attends the school", says Malcolm. "Every year the Head Teacher arranges for Santa to arrive in an unusual vehicle. In previous years he has arrived in a helicopter, a tank, a truck and reindeer and sleigh. This year my sister Julie Newcombe asked if they would like Santa to arrive in my race car. They said they would. "So last Friday morning I drove the truck and trailer down to Andover and parked up close to the school where we could unload the race car and meet up with Father Christmas as arranged. Santa isn't as agile as he used to be and getting in and out of a race car after eating as many mince pies and cookies as he does proved a bit of a challenge, but it all went well and the looks on the kids' faces - and the teachers with their fingers in their ears! - when I pulled in to the school gates was well worth it." On the Rampage to Super Pro ET. 19th December: UK Pro ET racer Dave Ward and the Rampage team will be moving up a class in 2007. The Monza Funny Car will now be contesting Super Pro ET after eight years in Pro ET. "We acquired the ex-Fay Fischer Altered from Derek Annabel in 1997" says Crew Chief Ian Gibbs. "We changed the Altered to the Funny Car after the 2002 season. During 2006 we contested the Santa Pod Racers Club Championship. It was a disappointing start, with steering failure at the first meeting and two first-round exits. By the Summernationals our form had returned, we had progressed to the quarter finals when the clutch gave up. European Finals qualifying was difficult but we again progressed to the quarter finals. The UK National Finals was down to one qualifying run due to the weather. ©Eurodragster.com "We have enjoyed Pro ET immensely with many memorable highs and lows over the years, but now is the time to move on up. To make the transition to Super Pro we have had installed a 450 HP nitrous system to run in the eights, and we have had the rear axle checked and freshened up for next season. Dave and the team are looking forward to the new challenge in 2007. "Finally, all the Rampage team would like to wish a Merry Christmas to all our fans, fellow racers and of course all at Eurodragster." A cosmetic nose job. 19th December: UK VW Pro racer Paul Jackson's Proteus dragster has had a nose job courtesy of his sponsor Autopaint International (click on picture for large shot from another angle). "We recently took the car to Autopaint International for an open day", says Paul. "Whilst there one of the employees, Steve, said that he would like to have a go at airbrushing a design on the front. Seeing as Steve has only attempted airbrushing a couple of times I was a bit cautious, but I gave him a free rein. Needless to say I was chuffed with the results! ©Eurodragster.com "Autopaint International are in Birmingham and supply standard and specialist paints for example candies, chromes and pearls to the public and trade. Speak to Ray on 0121 327 3713 or visit www.autopaintinternational.com. The car is still for sale on Eurodragster's Swap Meet." Swift snippets. 19th December: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has been in touch to let us know that booking is now closed for the 2007 joint APIRA/SPRC Dinner Dance which takes place in Northampton on Saturday 3rd February. "We have over five hundred attending!", says Paula. Ian Turburville tells us that a full-colour 20th Bulldog Bash calendar is now available. "It was a fantastic four days of drag racing and fun, as anyone who went will tell you", says Turbo. "Who knows, you might be on the calendar and if you are, you are eligible for a free gift! The calendar is a collectors' edition and is available on E-Bay or by visiting www.bulldogbash.com or or www.hellsangelsforever.co.uk." ©Eurodragster.com If anyone saw the TV coverage of the Race of Champions from the Stade de France on Saturday they would have seen, as well as cars going round in circles, a spectacular Jet Dragster and Funny Car display in front of the 50,000 strong crowd. The question on our lips, which the TV commentators were naturally unable to answer, was who? Answers on an E-Mail to eurodragster.com@btinternet.com. We would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to our good buddy Elias Vathias of the Greek Dragster web site. "Elias is a very dedicated guy, he puts his life into greekdragster.com and dedicates lots of time on his beloved sport of drag racing", says Holger Camilleri. "Happy birthday my friend, may all your wishes come true". Well said Holger, have a great birthday Elias. UK Super Comp/Super Gas racer Pete Creswell has asked us to repeat his recent call for help. "I need to track down a guy whom I know only as Al", says Pete. "He bought an F100 from me in February and then I bought it back in May/June. I need some answers to some tech questions. I have only ever meet him at the track in February, at the Main Event and at the European Finals". If that's you, Al, then drop us a line at eurodragster.com@btinternet.com and we'll put you in touch. Magazine update. 19th December: The January 2007 issue of Custom Car magazine has gone on sale and continues the expanded drag racing coverage from last month's issue. ©Eurodragster.com The four-page feature story is on Belinda Bull's Super Comp Chevy S10 pick-up. Then there is a report from the National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway by Mark Gredzinski, some stunning shots from the California Hot Rod Reunion by Andy Wilsheer, and more nostalgia-style drag racing machinery shot by Kev Elliott. Also included is a photo of the resplendent Team Flavell following winning the Best Appearing Crew award at the Open Sports Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway back in August and of Rebecca Evans' Junior Dragster which won Best Appearing Car at the same meeting. Custom Car is available from major newsagents at £3.30. Web site updates. 19th December: The official web site of the McDonald racing Top Fuel Dragster team has been updated with an interview with team owners Stuart and Richard McDonald which gives an interesting insight into the brothers' operation. You can reach the interview from the About us page at www.mcdonaldracing.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com Our good friend Peter Donaldson has updated his web site with a number of excellent shots taken at Santa Pod Raceway in the 1980s. Check it out at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net. SPRC Perpetual Awards week 4. 18th December: Once again Santa Pod Racers Club and Eurodragster.com are teaming up to give Eurodragster.com readers the chance of input to the SPRC Perpetual Awards, which will be presented at the joint APIRA/SPRC Dinner Dance and Trophy presentation on Saturday 3rd February 2007. For each of the 2006 season awards, the SPRC Committee has decided upon a shortlist for which votes can be submitted by E-Mail. There are eight awards in all: this week's category is the James Edgar Memorial Trophy and voting will continue over the coming weeks as each category is announced. Voting for the Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy and the new Sportsman of the Year Trophy, in memory of Terry Gibbs, will also be open for the whole of this period (see below). The votes of Eurodragster.com readers will be taken into consideration when the SPRC Committee decides upon the winners. Voting is per Award, so if you voted for Most Professional-Appearing Team last week then you may of course vote for the James Edgar Memorial Trophy this week. Votes can be submitted by all readers of Eurodragster.com, not just those in the UK. Please note that blatant attempts at organising mass votes - for example asking workmates or forum members to vote en masse - are easily identified and all such votes will be disallowed as they have been in previous years. The James Edgar Memorial Trophy is awarded for outstanding performance by a Crew Chief or tuner. The SPRC Committee's shortlist, in alphabetical order, is as follows: Wendy Clutterbuck, for herself (Supertwin Fuel) and Tim Blakemore (Funny Bike) Go to vote Barry Grimes, for Rob Smallworth (Super Modified) Go to vote Gary Jenkins, for Derek Flynn (Super Pro ET) Go to vote Paul Watson, for himself (Pro Stock Bike) and various Bike racers Go to vote To place your vote, go to the official SPRC Perpetual Awards page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the SPRC Perpetual Awards vote link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. ©Eurodragster.com The Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy, for which votes are also now being taken, was first awarded to Santa Pod Raceway's late Chief Marshal, Alex Brachtvogel, in 2001 to mark his outstanding contribution to Santa Pod Raceway and the sport as a whole. After Alex's death the trophy was named in his memory and continues to be awarded for contribution to drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Alex Brachtvogel award. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers, race officials, track and safety crews, club officials, media, or anyone else who has contributed to the sport. Last year the trophy was awarded to photo-journalist and now Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger Gorringe. Again see the official web page for more details or E-Mail your nomination to sprc.awards.2006@btinternet.com specifying SPRC Alex Brachtvogel Trophy as the subject and your nomination in the body of the mail. The Sportsman of the Year Trophy, for which votes are also now being taken, has been posted by Obsession Motorsports in memory of the late Terry Gibbs, a fervent supporter of Sportsman racing who himself raced before becoming a race and show promoter. The trophy will be awarded to the UK National Championship racer who best typifies the spirit of Sportsman drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Sportsman of the Year trophy. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers in UK National Championship classes: Super Modified, Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Sportsman ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Junior Dragster and 9.50 Bike. Again see the official web page for details or E-Mail your nomination to sprc.awards.2006@btinternet.com specifying Sportsman of the Year Trophy as the subject and in the body of the mail give your nomination and a few words about why you think they should receive the trophy. Next week's category will be Most Promising Newcomer and will be posted on Sunday (24th, Christmas Eve) and not Monday. Swift snippets. 18th December: It's all congratulations in Swift Snippets today. First up, congratulations to Jon Talbot and his partner Kayleigh whose baby son arrived last week. "All good wishes from Stephen, Pat and the crew at Talbot Racing", say Stephen and Pat Talbot. "Jon and Kayleigh have done a great job helping us by crewing on the car for the last two years and they are both are over the moon at the new arrival. I know a lot of our Super Pro friends have been asking about them so I hope you can print this photo so they can all see the happy family". Our pleasure guys. Next up is a very Happy 25th Wedding Anniversary to Roel and Monique Koedam. "We know that Roel and Monique are in Australia now, but we hope that they can see on Eurodragster that we haven't forgotten", say Lex and Gerda Joon. "We wish them good luck with the bike next week, and we know that Roel will still try to run his first five-second pass". Have a great day Roel and Monique. ©Eurodragster.com Congratulations are also due to Tony Smith who has qualified as an MSA Car Scrutineer. "I did not think it would be that hard", says Tony. "Having to learn the Blue and Red MSA books was the hardest but I have enjoyed doing it. I would like to thank Glen Stockton and Keith Morgan (who helped with the rally, circuit and truck racing side) for all their help over this year, also everyone else who has given advice." Good wishes also to UK Super Pro ET racer Martin Curbishley whose birthday it is today. "Please wish Martin a Happy Birthday with all my love", says Ruth Curbishley. No sooner said than done Ruth, have a good day Martin. Media update. 18th December: Our good friend Brian Taylor has been in touch to let us know how he is getting on with his book Crazy Horses, which will chart the history and culture of UK drag racing. "I interviewed Gerry Belton for the book the other day", says Brian. "As well as Secretary of the BDRA, Gerry was the General Manager of the 1964 and 1965 Drag Festivals and the main commentator. He was full time PR and Advertising Manager for Allards at the time. He was also co-owner of Dos Palmos when it was purchased from Bob Keith at the back end of 1964 (someone else who would like to know where it is now). He went on to form the ISO with Len Cole. Gerry has been really helpful with the book but has not visited Santa Pod since the late 1960s. He promises to come up next year. Now that would make an interesting interview for John Price." ©Eurodragster.com Brian has also given us the answer to a question which he is frequently asked, to whit the name of the music used on the PA when Sammy Miller crept the Vanishing Point Rocket FC to the line in 1979. "Researching the book reminded me to accurately identify it", says Brian. "The track is Madrigal Meridian taken from the Tangerine Dream album Cyclone which was released in 1978. We first started to use Tangerine Dream as background music for the November Fireworks meeting in 1974. The album then was Phaedra, the following year we used Rubycon. But I guess it's that Sammy Miller music that most people remember." Your Tangerine Dream-loving News Editor - courtesy of its use for Sammy Miller as Brian mentions - can narrow this down still further to the first 3' 05" of Madrigal Meridian. It's not too late to put Cyclone on your Christmas list. Onto the latest magazine update, and it's a drag racer's delight in the January issue of American Car World magazine, writes Jerry Cookson: The feature car is Chris Orthodoxou's awesome Super Pro ET Dodge Viper. Want to know what motivates this ultimate of all Dodge racers to its stunning high sevens? Well now you can. Event reports review the NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway, Santa Pod's FIA European Finals, Real Steel Street Eliminator, and the NASC's 32nd Street Rod Nationals. There's a useful tech feature comparing MT's ET Street radial tyre against the Hoosier Quick Times tyre, Angie Brinley's '69 Dodge Dart, plus a host of other good features. The January issue of ACW is now available in all good newsagents priced £3.60 ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 17th December: Jon Best's acknowledgement of Brendan Murry in Thursday's news prompted Roger to send this picture of Brendan in action at the recent Fuel and Gas Finals at Bakersfield (right, click on picture for large version). "The machine ran a below par 6.034/210 qualifier and stayed in competition until round two, going out with a weaving 7.222/128 to eventual runner-up Sean Bellemeur", says Roger. "Brendan Murry's car is probably the best looking Nostalgia Top Fuel car I saw this year and would be in contention for all time best!" ©Eurodragster.com Our good friend PiPPi tells us that if you have the 2006 European Championships reviews DVDs then you should check out the interview with Supertwin Champion Ronny Aasen at 45:15 on the FIM/UEM disk. "Note Ronny's tool chest sticker just to the right of Michelle", says PiPPi. We'll let our readers discover that one for themselves. A very Happy Birthday to another good friend, Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall. Hope that you are taking at least one day off, Paula, and that you have a great day. Web site updates. 17th December: If you like burnouts then our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson recommends that you check out the Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen web site which has been updated with a burnout gallery. You can find the gallery under Nyheter at www.ndrg.no. ©Eurodragster.com Luke Bennett tells us that the Bennett Racing team are currently showing on sponsor K & N Filters' web site at www.knfilters.com/news/news.aspx?ID=471. Swift snippets. 16th December: Collin Morrice and his mum and dad have been in touch to ask us to wish a very Happy Birthday to Super Gas racer Stuart Morrice. No sooner said than done, have a great day Stuart. ©Eurodragster.com Timo and Dennis Habermann and all of the Werner Habermann Racing team have also written to say a big Happy Birthday to Team Owner and Crew Chief Werner Habermann. "We will have a little party this evening and wish our Best Daddy in the World Happy Birthday!", say Timo and Dennis. Have a great day too Werner. Motorshack's capital visit. 15th December: With over 8,400 visitors the first London Motorsport Show, held at the Excel Centre last weekend, was an unqualified success for both Shakespeare County Raceway and lane sponsors and partners Motorshack, writes SCR's Marketing Manager Jerry Cookson. "The Motorshack/SCR stand was packed with interesting features which proved very popular with visitors of all ages", says proprietor Steve Wood. "The main feature was the appearance of twice APIRA Ultimate Power Super Comp Champion Paul Knight along with his VP Racing Fuels Mopar-powered Pontiac Trans Am doorslammer, fully endorsing VP Racing's extensive product range. "Another feature was the use of Shakespeare County's famous practice tree and reaction timer used for inter-active competitions throughout the show". So popular was this element to the stand that even former ITV F1 pundit Tony Jardine stopped by the stand (right, picture courtesy and ©Trackside images) and challenged Champion Paul to a duel along with the equally famous seven time short circuit World Hot Rod Champion Barry Lee. The British Superkart Association also featured Ricky Skeeles' Championship-winning 250 cc Superkart on the stand. The cars and the karts were not the only things appealing to visitors; in true motorsport fashion, glamorous promotional girls draped themselves across bonnets and chassis, while on Saturday visitors were even more surprised when hours before clinching the IDF Intercontinental Light-Welterweight title, boxer Amir Khan took a walk through the show to sample some of the delights motorsport had to offer. The London Motorsport Show is owned by Starting Grid Ltd, whose director Philip Bunn said "The show and the new venue had a great response from visitors and exhibitors alike, much better than we anticipated. Exhibitors reported excellent trading, with many pledging their support for 2007. This feedback has given us a great foundation for developing the show for 2007." Click here for more about Motorshack and Shakespeare County Raceway's involvement at the London Motorsport Show. ©Eurodragster.com Danmarks hotteste bilshow. 15th December: Så kan alle drenge, tøser og bilfreaks godt fjerne de gamle bilblade, vinterdæk og havemøbler fra garagen, for vintermånederne skal bruges på tuning og styling af bilen, inden den skal udstilles på Fast & Furious Car Show i weekenden 27.- 28. og 29. april 2007. Fast & Furious Car Show er Danmarks første, største og eneste bil show/udstilling, der mixer alle topgejlede firehjulede under et og samme tag. I Dronning Margrethe Hallerne kan du på 28.000 kvadratmeter udstillingsareal se Danmarks mest ombyggede gadebiler, amerikanerbiler og hot rods fra tiderne før den første oliekrise. Der vil være lynhurtige DTC-biler, dragsters og dragracingbiler, ja kort sagt alt det, der er spændende at se på på 4 hjul, og som kan få både velvoksne drengerøve og fædre fra forstædernes sovekvarterer til at slå øjnene op, og glemme alt om terminer, ubetalte regninger og andre af hverdagens ærgrelser. Den 27. - 28. og 29. april lukker Fast & Furious Car Show porten op til drømmeland, og det bedste af det hele er, at du selv er med til at bestemme, hvor fedt det skal være. For det er din bil, der skal vises frem. Har du den mest ekstreme hjemmebyggede bil, så tilmeld den. Er din bil simpelthen bare det fedeste stykke lakarbejde nord for Alperne, så vis den frem. Har du i lang tid gået rundt med en drøm om at vise Jan Magnussen eller Alonso, hvordan man laver en rigtig koger i burnout konkurrencen, så kom med røgen. Tilmeld dig NU, det er gratis. Du kan med andre ord nu sikre dig en stand på Fast & Furious Car Show ved at tilmelde din bil på www.streetfire.nu vedhæft fire billeder af din bil - både ude- og indefra. Der er masser af fede præmier til den stand, der sammen med bilen præsenterer sig flottest. Men der sker masser af andet på Fast & Furious Car Show. Det er her du finder alt det nyeste, hotteste og mest ekstreme udstyr til din elskede firehjuler - hvad enten det er en ombygget Ford Capri fra 1978, eller en spritny Golf i din egen version. Og ja, du har selvfølgelig musik i bilen, men hvem har Danmarks fedeste og højestspillende anlæg, det afgøres også denne weekend, når Fast & Furious mesterskabet i kategorien afgøres på udstillingen. Hvis du tror det bare er udstilling, ja så tager du fejl, for der er masser af action, der også involverer dig. Hvad siger du til at deltage i drifting-konkurrence på køreteknisk anlæg ved siden af hallerne? Eller få testet din bil på rullefelt, så du har papir på, at du har 375 heste under hjelmen? Der er masser af konkurrencer hele weekenden med et væld af fede præmier i form af udstyr til dit kæreste eje: dæk, fælge, lysshow til øsen, tv, o.s.v. Det hele krydres med underholdning på scenen i løbet af weekenden, bl.a. Top Fuel Dragster Show, Miss Fast & Furious, og meget, meget mere. Som toppen af kransekagen, kan du med udstillingens flotteste bil, vinde en rejse for to personer incl. transport af din bil til verdens største bilshow SEMA-show i Las Vegas, hvor du udstiller din bil blandt USA`s hotteste ombyggede biler. Tilmeld derfor din bil allerede i dag og deltag i konkurrence om den fedeste tur til Las Vegas. Surf, drift, cruise, eller race ind på www.streetfire.nu, her finder du meget mere om den hotteste biludstilling i Danmark i 2007. ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 15th December: The Eurodragster.com staff will be taking three days' break over Christmas. The last pre-Christmas news update - featuring week 5 of the SPRC Perptual Awards vote, the traditional Champions' Champions update, Drag Racing Unplugged VIII and the Eurodragster.com staff's Christmas lists - will be on Christmas Eve. The deadline for news items for the last update and messages for our on-line Christmas card is 22:00 UK (23:00 European) next Saturday, 23rd December. We will then be back during the day on Thursday 28th. ©Eurodragster.com The Best digger. 14th December: Jon Best tells us that his Nostalgia Top Fuel slingshot is coming along well at the Crow Lane Skunk Works of Eurodragster.com News sponsor B+J Race Cars (right, click on picture for another view). "The fundamentals are already sorted", says Jon. "The plan is to début the car for pre-season testing in 2007, then race with the Supercharged Outlaws along with a couple of Run What You Brungs when funds allow. The car is a 125 inch wheelbase CDS slingshot chassis constructed by Bill Felstead, with a 427ci Big Block Chevy, 8/71 blower and all the usual Enderle toys, on eighty per cent nitromethane, through a glide clutch and direct drive. ©Eurodragster.com "I'd like to thank my partner Jen for putting up with 300-mile round trips to the workshop, and my spending money at Christmas on pressies from Dart Engineering and Enderle; Bill Felstead for putting together a top notch chassis and explaining how drag racing was back in 1903; Johnny Hall for his support, advice and help back at the start of the project; Nick and Rob at ICE Automotive for everything they've sourced and assisted with; Brendan Murry for teaching me on how to produce sufficient go go with a Chevy lump; Nick and Sue for the loan of their front wheels for mocking up the car; Dave 'Fuzzie' Mckenzie for working so hard to put together a Championship for all the slingshot pilots; Tog, Simon, the Shark and Roger for everything they've done in recent years to raise the profile of the sport along with all the other photographers, journalists and PR folks. "I shall see you all in 2007 on a cold, windy day, awning flying around, testing the new toy. Have a great Christmas and New Year." Swift snippets. 14th December: UK NFAA racer Dave Grabham has asked us to say a big Get Well Soon to team member Steph Carter who suffered a heart attack yesterday (Wednesday). "Anyone who has visited Freddy Camp will know Steph as our unsung hero, who can usually be found with the a piece of blue rag, the squeezy bottle and the kettle although hopefully not at the same time! Get well soon Steph, Easter's looming fast!". We're sure that everyone will join Dave in wishing Steph a very rapid and full recovery. ©Eurodragster.com Sponsor renews with Bennetts. 14th December: The UK's Bennett Racing NFAA team have announced the renewal of sponsorship from Konica Minolta for 2007. "Konica Minolta were very happy with this season and were very enthusiastic about the Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association and its progress", says Luke Bennett. "We are delighted to have Konica Minolta as one of our many sponsors." ©Eurodragster.com Konica Minolta's business is Imaging, from Input To Output focusing on core technologies optical, nanotechnology, imaging and materials, and they provide a variety of products and services that make a new world of imaging possible in a broad range of fields from general consumer to office, medical, printing, business and the office. For more details visit www.konicaminolta.co.uk or click on the logo at right. Magazine update. 14th December: The January issue of Japanese Performance features a two-page report from the Jap Racer Day series finals held in October at Shakespeare County Raceway, writes Jerry Cookson: All the key players are mentioned including Ross Juniper's track-busting escapades with the Dragon Performance Mazda, the fastest H-pattern gearbox RX-7 in the world at 9.1 seconds! The new style mag also features an exclusive eight-page in-depth look at the quickest four wheel drive Skyline in Europe, Tim Webster's eight second Team GTC Duke Racing GT-R R33 fresh from its recent winning ways at Santa Pod. There's also a look at some Time Attack cars, a supercharged Honda and a Celica GT-Four. The January issue is out now priced at £3.90. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 14th December: Sharkman has updated his web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with a very special Guest Gallery of pictures by his and our good friend Stephen Talbot of the UK's Talbot Racing Super Pro ET team. "From the first time I saw Stephen's work I thought it deserved a much wider audience than just he and I bouncing photos back and forth by E-Mail", says Sharkman. "That feeling was reinforced lately when I saw the results of his getting to grips with Photoshop. To that end I offered to host a small gallery of Stephen's work on topendtales.com and I am delighted to say that not only has Stephen has agreed to it, but he has obviously spent a lot of effort spent in putting together the images for the gallery which I am very proud to host at www.topendtales.com." ©Eurodragster.com 2006 Christmas Card opened. 13th December: As promised we have now opened our 2006 Christmas Card, a page which gives you the chance to send seasonal greetings to your fellow racers, fans, officials and Eurodragster.com readers. You can check out the Christmas card by clicking here or by clicking on the 2006 Christmas Card link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com If you would like to send a Christmas greeting then drop us an E-Mail at eurodragster.xmas@btinternet.com and we will post it on the page. Ultimate Power DVD review. 13th December: The latest video from Power Point Communications shows the Ultimate Power Championship from Shakespeare County Raceway. This DVD has a wide variety of UK Sportsman drag racing classes and illustrates this track Championship at its very best. Highlights from all three meetings, Power Nationals, Shakespeare Nationals and Open Sports Nationals are shown, with an emphasis on the completed Shakespeare Nationals. This year the action is all packed into one DVD of 105 minutes' duration and it really is a quick-fire production, representing excellent value. The Outlaw Anglias start the action with Paul 'Guv' Wright admitting after a particularly squirrelly run he had made "A chassis adjustment too far", but the car superbly controlled as ever. The Moving Parts Burnout Bonanza competition is mentioned, with Justin Krekelaar a worthy contender. The sensitivity of these cars to suspension changes is further emphasised by Paul Hensher, who ran straight without gas and every which way but straight with. Ian Norman's big transmission explosion is shown - let's hope Ian returns soon. In Top Fuel Bike, Steve Woollatt started his season in fine 6.6-second style but fell by the wayside to cylinder head woes. He and Steve Carey explain a lot about these bikes and how tricky they are to ride. Later in the season, Ian Turburville's beautiful Mr Spokehead was running PBs every run and will clearly be a contender in 2007, whether or not he does the European tour. Super Pro ET action includes Matt Wright's flying hood in qualifying at the Power Nationals. But this class was competitive as well as spectacular, and Derek Flynn explains why he enjoys it so much, particularly chasing others down. Super Mod and Street Eliminator are shown in summary to avoid duplication with the Super Mod Wars and Hardcore Street DVDs, a sensible move particularly with the single DVD format. Interviews with Lee Kirk and Kev Perkins give additional depth to Super Mod. In-car shots with Ian Hook and Colin Lazenby show what it was like in their tremendous race at the Shakespeare Nationals. Super Comp racing is particularly close, with Paul Knight rounding out a successful season in the VP Racing Fuels-sponsored Camaro. In Super Gas, Brendan Clancy explains that there is "No quarter given and no quarter taken" and the use of the throttle stop with the data recorders is a highly-guarded speed secret in the Super classes. Super Street Car the race between brothers Neil and John Grant is the highlight of eliminations. Funny Bike includes some tremendous runs from Chris Hall who ran his first six at the Power Nationals, and from Stu Chamberlain carrying his front wheel for the whole quarter. Tim Blakemore explains the power he has obtained from his Kawazaki ZX12-R based engine despite of using many standard parts, running a historic first 200 mph Funny Bike run in the UK. By the end of the season, Neil Midgley's consistent six second form proved Championship material once again. Super Street Bike is one of the most spectacular bike classes with races very close and riders sometimes struggling to keep the front wheel on the deck with the absence of wheelie bars. Jamie Sneddon proved the class of the field in 2006 running a string of seven second runs. Fiona Moor explains the class, how she has moved up through the ranks and the potential of her bike, which has yet to have its first whiff of nitrous. Pro ET is shown at the Shakespeare Nationals with Gary Springford the victor at the Shakespeare Nationals over Lee Huxley. Outlaw Flat Four is a brand new organisation running heads up VW-based cars. These cars are spectacular and superbly turned out, with some surprisingly high budgets involved. Dave Dinning explains how he spun out at the top end with damage only to the exhaust system. Of course, the VWDRC maintains the Sportsman VW racing tradition with handicap starts and the opportunity to go racing on a shoestring. Accordingly Mark Malone races his daily driver VW Camper (with the addition of some nitrous), which he also sleeps in at meetings, something you would not even attempt in almost all other classes. ©Eurodragster.com In the Sportsman ET segment Tanya Partridge talked about the sponsorship she has needed to gain for her Top Fuel licensing runs in Piteå. Having done her launch, she said she hopes to complete her licensing in 2007. In racing, Geoff Cowley was victor. Wild Bunch was well attended at Shakey and the final was an all-female altered match with Helen Smythe (not forgetting newly-married mascots Pooky and Penny - yes, I've seen the wedding album) coming out the victor. 9.50 Bike showed eventual Champion Andy Bird defeating Fred Furlong at the Shakespeare Nationals. Other finals include Pro Stock Bike, Competition Bike, Junior Dragster, Junior Bikes and the Supertwin Gas and Street. Roger Goring then gives a superb flame and thunder display in the Firestorm Jet Funny Car. Some of the best racing from the NFAA closes the programme, with Jim Usher explaining the adrenaline rush of driving The Mob in which he carded a six in his rookie year, an incredible feat. It's fair to say that the SCR season was quite badly rain-affected, but one advantage of the DVD is that the wet bits are missed (apart from about five seconds). There is great action at the Shakespeare Nationals and in the highlights of qualifying and first round eliminations shown from the other two meetings. If you saw the coverage on Sky Sports, there is a fair amount of footage not present from those productions and thankfully a lack of advert breaks too. The DVD is very well produced with indexing for each class enabling fast navigation, and excellent camera work. Commentary is provided by Paul Venners, with John Price helping with interviews. The DVD is available from www.quartermilehigh.com for £15.95 plus £1.50 postage and packing maximum per order. Obsession's new look. 12th December: UK Super Modified racer Craig Gibbs will be driving a new-look Obsession Camaro in 2007. Craig tells us that the team wanted the new paint scheme (right, click on picture for large version from another angle) to be a tribute to the racing days of his father, the late Terry Gibbs. "We decided last year that we would probably change the paint scheme on the car over the winter, but one thing led to another and before you know it the new season is upon you", says Craig. "Then of course Dad passed away and it left us wondering whether we could even face racing again, but with the help of all of our friends we came back fighting, and believe me the car once again fought us all year with niggling problems that we just couldn't get to the bottom of. "The design on the car is by Darren West of Power Race Graphics and it looks even better in the flesh! Specialists in Design applied the House of Colour Shimerin metallic paints, and a great job they've done too - thanks guys you've done us proud! "We wanted to take the car back to the days when Dad used to run it in Super Gas in the graphite grey, but give it a modern twist. Ultimately we wanted the car to be a tribute to him, and Darren and SID came up trumps for us. ©Eurodragster.com "As far as preparing for the new season goes, the engine has already been stripped, put back together and dyno'd by our good friends at ICE Automotive, and we are just waiting for the convertor to come back from Neal Chance in the States. Andy Robinson at Robinson Race Cars has fitted new rear end gears for us, hopefully this might help to improve our trap speeds, oh and our baby is due on 19th February so I'm trying to get things sorted out around the house as well! "I would like to thank a few people for all their help. Jon and Sharon at SID for the great paint and sponsorship for 2007, Darren West, Darren and Marie, Chris and Ben Mead, Kev Moore, Jeff and Belinda Bull, Bob and Cathy Glassup, Nick and Rob at ICE, Andy and Kate Robinson, Andy Carter, Ian Marshall, Graham Dance, all of the Super Mod guys and girls, Eurodragster, Dave and Vic for advice and baby things, Yvonne Tramm, Louise for being so understanding at seven months pregnant, Louise's dad Keith for the help with the decorating, my mum Tina, and of course my Guardian Angel 'Tel'." The Bird is the word. 12th December: Finnish Pro Modified racer Kristian Nyström is moving up to the blown-alcohol configuration for 2007 with the Alho and Lähdemaa Race Team's Ford Thunderbird. "The team competed in its first year in Pro Mod in 2006 with a 632 ci Nos engine", says Kristian. "The car is a Ford Thunderbird SC built by Tim McAmis Race Cars, which we bought from Peter Grossman of Switzerland in December 2005. The previous owners of the car in the USA were Roy Wasco and Animal Jim Feurer. "We competed in four races in 2006, all in Finland, including the FIA race at Alastaro. This year we wanted to learn the car as the driver needed practice with a clutch and Lenco. Unfortunately the season started very badly for us. We attended a practice race before the season opener and on the fourth run the car rolled. A water hose broke at the top end and water leaked under the left back tyre. Luckily I wasn't hurt but the car needed some new paint, so we did not participate in the first race of the season in Finland. ©Eurodragster.com "At the other races during the summer we had our ups and downs, with nitrous problems and burning the pistons twice. But in the last race of the season at the start of September, everything started to work well. The season's best time and speed of 7.050 at 319 kmh were ok for us. We only had a small engine, 632 ci, and only one nitrous stage and the nitrous was activated manually, like the old days, using a button on the steering wheel. "For 2007, we have bought a blown alcohol engine from Saapola Motorsport, the engine which was in Sami Saapola's car. Saapola Motorsport is now working on our car, updating the chassis and installing the engine. The engine's fuel system will be updated and we will buy some timers for it. We have plans to have the car ready by the end of January when we will attend one of our sponsors' events. We plan to race at the FIA races in Finland, Sweden and Norway. The races in England are still 50/50 if we have the chance to go." More information on the Alho and Lähdemaa Ford Thunderbird can be found at www.promod.fi The text is mainly in Finnish but there are many pictures of the "Ballistic Bird" in action and a couple of videos. Grumpy steps out of the saddle. 12th December: Paul Watson of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor DynoSpeed Developments has chosen his birthday to announce his retirement from competitive Pro Stock Bike racing. "I have struggled this year, particularly with my back which resulted in my pulling out of the European Finals", says Grumpy. "I have really enjoyed 2006 doing some of the European Tour and I was made to feel very welcome. Alas we only ran a best of 7.4 but I know that the bike has the capabilities to go 7.20s. Still, winning Hockenheim was fantastic in a field of sixteen bikes, a true race. "I would just like to thank the following people, my Crew and friends who are always there to help: Kim (Pixie), Jason, Mark King, Fast Harry, Ken Cooper, Brad, and finally John Carpenter of Mistral Engineering. "2007 will see me in the Pro Mod pits with Ray White with the wild Zephyr, getting it in the sixes, and also looking after a couple of DSD bikes. So I will still be busy, I look forward to next season and hope to see you all there." We're sure that everyone will join us in wishing Paul a very Happy Birthday for today, and a long and happy "retirement". ©Eurodragster.com Another blown altered for Bennetts. 12th December: Luke Bennett has been in touch as promised with details of his new ride for 2007, this very pretty altered (right) which he is importing from the USA and which brings the tally of blown-alcohol altereds in the team to two. "The chassis is Spitzer, built to 6.00 second spec", sais Luke. "It has a fabricated full-floating rear end and a 1932 Bantam replica body. It will come with a Powerglide/transbrake/converter, but no engine. I will be building a blown Big Block Chevy for it, basically a simular set-up to our old engine with which we ran a 7.031. It has all the usual bits and pieces like chute, wheelie bars, wing etc. ©Eurodragster.com "I am arranging shipping at the moment. The car should be over here in January, and will be rebuilding it throughout 2007 and hope to make a début in 2008. "Any companies reading this, do you want to get your company name on two blown methanol-burning altereds? If so then you can contact us through our web site at www.bennettracing.co.uk. Swift snippets. 12th December: Tomorrow (Wednesday 13th) is the deadline for Christmas delivery on merchandise and other orders from Santa Pod Raceway. To tell Santa, or Santa Pod, what to bring the race fan in your life, check out the Pod Shop page at www.santapod.com. ©Eurodragster.com VP release new bike fuel. 12th December: In its never ending quest to squeeze more power from hydrocarbon molecules, Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor VP Racing Fuels has introduced MR10, its newest fuel for four-stroke road racing. "MR10 is engineered to generate the most horsepower within the parameters of AMA Pro Racing leaded fuel rules, and it really delivers", said Bruce Hendel, VP's Global Sales Manager. "In 1000 cc bikes, dyno tests have proven up to a two-horsepower increase over VP's MR9, which was previously acknowledged to make the most power of any motorcycle fuel on the market. Tests also proved a one horsepower increase for 600 cc bikes. This translates to as much as a ten per cent increase in power over pump gas." MR10 has proved out on the track as well, with several factory teams using it in their quest for titles this season. In fact, MR10 helped power Team Suzuki's Ben Spies and Mat Mladin to a 1-2 finish in AMA Superbike, while Josh Hayes used it to take the AMA Formula Extreme title. "It's not just BS when we say MR10 is laboratory tested and track proven", asserted Hendel. "Results like these confirm nothing on the market makes more power than MR10." Because its octane rating is lower than MR9's, MR10 may not be suitable for higher compression applications. For these applications, Hendel advised MR9 is still the fuel of choice, as evidenced by the AMA Superstock and Supersport titles won this season by Jamie Hacking with MR9 in his tank. VP's R&D group has been prolific over the years, developing more than sixty fuel blends for applications across all of motorsports. "MR10 is just the latest example of our commitment to stay ahead of the competition with constant innovation", Hendel concluded. Since 1975, VP Racing has fuelled Champions in virtually every racing category and class. VP's fuels have earned a reputation for superior power and consistency - as illustrated by its sweep of Championships in all Pro classes of AMA Supercross, Motocross and Superbike from 2004 through 2006. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 12th December: Peter Walters has launched a new web site to promote his business Peter Walters Race Design which is dedicated to graphic and web site design. "We not only do vehicle paint schemes, but we take care of a whole range of design, from logos through to video editing and web sites", says Peter. "We can accommodate your design needs and leave you with a very high class job at a great price. PWRD has been running since July 2006 and has already completed designs including Bob Glassup and Dave Grabham's altereds, Tim Mugridge's Super Mod, Millie Bond's Junior Dragster, and logos for dragsim.com and 1800-mods.com with a lot more to come. We can also give you a high quality web site and give you a great identity in the world of motorsport!". For more details check out Peter's web site at www.pwrd.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com SPRC Perpetual Awards week 3. 11th December: Once again Santa Pod Racers Club and Eurodragster.com are teaming up to give Eurodragster.com readers the chance of input to the SPRC Perpetual Awards, which will be presented at the joint APIRA/SPRC Dinner Dance and Trophy presentation on Saturday 3rd February 2007. For each of the 2006 season awards, the SPRC Committee has decided upon a shortlist for which votes can be submitted by E-Mail. There are eight awards in all: this week's category is Most Professional-Appearing Team and voting will continue over the coming weeks as each category is announced. Voting for the Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy and the new Sportsman of the Year Trophy, in memory of Terry Gibbs, will also be open for the whole of this period (see below). The votes of Eurodragster.com readers will be taken into consideration when the SPRC Committee decides upon the winners. Voting is per Award, so if you voted for Best-Appearing Bike last week then you may of course vote for Most Professional-Appearing team this week. Votes can be submitted by all readers of Eurodragster.com, not just those in the UK. Please note that blatant attempts at organising mass votes - for example asking workmates or forum members to vote en masse - are easily identified and all such votes will be disallowed as they have been in previous years. The Most Professional-Appearing Team trophy rewards not just the presentation of a race vehicle but the team's overall approach to racing. As well as a well-turned-out car or bike, the Committee have considered such aspects as the appearance and attitude of team personnel, the organisation and appearance of their pit area and support equipment, and their readiness when their class is called. The SPRC Committee's shortlist, in alphabetical order, is as follows: Nick Davies, Rob Loaring, Nigel King Havoc (Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association) Go to vote Andy Kirk Rat Fink (Super Modified) Go to vote Mike Lacey and Anna Metcalfe Metamorphosis (Pro ET/Sportsman ET) Go to vote Andy Robinson Pro Modified Go to vote Ian Turburville Mister Spokehead (Supertwin Fuel) Go to vote To place your vote, go to the official SPRC Perpetual Awards page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the SPRC Perpetual Awards vote link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. The Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy, for which votes are also now being taken, was first awarded to Santa Pod Raceway's late Chief Marshal, Alex Brachtvogel, in 2001 to mark his outstanding contribution to Santa Pod Raceway and the sport as a whole. After Alex's death the trophy was named in his memory and continues to be awarded for contribution to drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Alex Brachtvogel award. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers, race officials, track and safety crews, club officials, media, or anyone else who has contributed to the sport. Last year the trophy was awarded to photo-journalist and now Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger Gorringe. Again see the official web page for more details or E-Mail your nomination to sprc.awards.2006@btinternet.com specifying SPRC Alex Brachtvogel Trophy as the subject and your nomination in the body of the mail. The Sportsman of the Year Trophy, for which votes are also now being taken, has been posted by Obsession Motorsports in memory of the late Terry Gibbs, a fervent supporter of Sportsman racing who himself raced before becoming a race and show promoter. The trophy will be awarded to the UK National Championship racer who best typifies the spirit of Sportsman drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Sportsman of the Year trophy. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers in UK National Championship classes: Super Modified, Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Sportsman ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Junior Dragster and 9.50 Bike. Again see the official web page for details or E-Mail your nomination to sprc.awards.2006@btinternet.com specifying Sportsman of the Year Trophy as the subject and in the body of the mail give your nomination and a few words about why you think they should receive the trophy. Next week's category will be the James Edgar Memorial Trophy. Marston doubles up. 10th December: No, we haven't punched Paul Marston in the stomach (Couldn't reach - Ed). Paul tells us that the Paul Marston Racing operation will be expanding still further in 2007: Dave Catton, driver of the Whoopass Monza, approached me with the idea of expanding the amount of seat time that the drivers could potentially enjoy. Dave is hoping to contest Super Gas and Super Comp during the 2007 season. Tethys, who will be driving our latest addition to the line-up - details will be announced shortly - is also looking at competing in two classes after he attended Frank Hawley's Drag Race School in Gainesville, Florida earlier this year. Gary Springford, proprietor of Drag Race Engineering (0208 597 9484), is also considering running in two classes in his injected Big Block Chevy-powered Hulk Shogun during his 2007 campaign. Gary's choice is yet to be decided but the likely two classes would be Pro ET and Super Gas. ©Eurodragster.com I am also considering the two-class option but I would probably use two different race cars in two different classes; the PT Bruiser in Super Pro and a second race car most probably in Pro ET as it is without doubt one of the most exciting classes in UK Sportsman racing. Along with the new and exciting additions to the driving squad for 2007 PMR has a potential entry of up to ten. With PMR drivers now able to double-class in the same race car we hope for an improvement in round win percentages, National event wins and National Championship points. There is still some space left for anyone wishing to join our driver line-up. We are always ready to welcome new talent and to make sure that they have exactly the same opportunities as everyone else - parity is always a top priority. Paul Marston Racing can be contacted on 0208 597 4575, mobile 07831 650230, or E-Mail office@pmracing.fsnet.co.uk. Our web site at www.paulmarstonracing.com has also been updated including Christmas present ideas such as Geddex Dial-In, Wheels Up and Burnout Guard. Swift snippets. 10th December: National Dragster Senior Photographer Richard Brady kindly sent us this picture of some of the Trip to America participants in the Winners' Circle at Pomona sporting their very snazzy custom shirts (click on picture for large version). Organiser Robin Jackson of Eurodragster.com sponsor Blueprints for Travel tells us that he is working on a 2007 trip and that some of this year's travellers have already vowed to return. Stay tuned and as soon as Robin is ready to launch you'll hear it here first. ©Eurodragster.com UK Pro ET Sponsorship Co-ordinator Carl Burton has asked us to remind Pro ET racers and sponsors that their renewals are due for 2007 as he needs to prepare press releases. For more information check out the Pro ET web site which has had a facelift (Looks just great - Ed) and now features an excellent promotional video. Let's talk red lights. 9th December: If you were tuned in to Eurodragster.com News on Thursday you will have read that Chris Orthodoxou asked if anyone knew the location of a Red Light Trophy which he constructed. Yet again our readers have come up trumps as the Trophy was located by the end of the day in possession of a UK Super Gas team. "The trophy is currently on prominent display in Jon Evans' living room", says Steve Dunn. "We were presented with it at the Super Series Dinner Dance in 2002 when we won both the 2001 National Championship and Super Series Championship despite an embarrassing number of red lights." ©Eurodragster.com "Good work all you sleuths out there in drag race land", says Chrissy O. "Cracker, Taggart, Columbo, Miss Marple, Shoestring, Rockford, McCloud, Clouseau, Inspector Lindley, Bergerac, Dalziel and Pascoe, Cagney and Lacey, Starsky and Hutch, Rebus, Dirty Harry, Kojak, Regan and Carter, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Morse and Jack Frost...you're all sh*te! To solve any mystery, just E-Mail Eurodragster! Bloody simple." Talk of the Red Light Trophy reminded Brian Taylor of its predecessor which was awarded in the mid to late 1970s. "This piece of engineering excellence was built and designed by non other than Kevin Pilling", says Brian. "If I remember correctly it was based on an open-faced silver crash helmet, on top of which was mounted a silver torch with a red conical lens that flashed when the torch was switched on. The open-faced crash hat was important because often the final glory was a custard pie in the face. We did things in style in those days. Probably in bad taste and very politically incorrect – but it seemed like a good idea at the time. We had no idea what to do if we had a lady winner. Probably given her the award to take away I suppose." Swift snippets. 9th December: We have another call for help today, from UK Super Comp/Super Gas racer Pete Creswell. "I need to track down a guy whom I know only as Al", says Pete. "He bought an F100 from me in February and then I bought it back in May/June. I need some answers to some tech questions. I have only ever meet him at the track in February, at the Main Event and at the European Finals". If that's you, Al, then drop us a line at eurodragster.com@btinternet.com and we'll put you in touch. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 9th December: The official web site of UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter has been updated with a monthly report by team member Steve Porter. Check it out at www.andycarter.net. ©Eurodragster.com Sharks set to Attack. 8th December: Frans Souverein, crew chief for Netherlands-based Team Shark Attack says that up to eight vehicles will be on display and making demonstration burnouts on the evening of Saturday 16th December at the Speed & Gein event. "Silverstone is the name of an indoor kart centre in our hometown of Zwanenburg, near Amsterdam", says Frans. "They are a sponsor of our team, but in the winter we help them to get more people in and for us it is good promotion for the sport. We do burnouts and a bit of a show on the kart track with the machines from our team. We like it, and the public loves it. "For this year's event on the 16th, we will run Rene van den Berg's Top Fuel Bike, Jörgen Waalewijn's supercharged alky Funny Bike, Ivana van den Berg's Junior Dragster, Casper Wildeboer's Street Bike and one other street bike, Martin Hermus' Super Pro ET altered, Henry Joosten's Pro Mod, and the Transanimal Trans Am of Hans van der Spek. ©Eurodragster.com "Entrance is free and normally there are around 500 visitors. For us it is a very nice way to raise money for the next season. The people really go out of their minds seeing the burnouts and it sounds incredible indoors. "In 2007 we will campaign the European and UK Championships with Rene van den Berg in Top Fuel Bike, Jörgen Waalewijn in Funny Bike (or UEM Top Fuel Bike), Martin Hermus in his Super Pro ET altered, Casper Wildeboer on a Street Bike and, when school permits, Ivana van den Berg in Junior Dragster." For those of you in the Zwanenburg area, the Speed & Gein event starts at 7:00 pm Central European Time. For full details of all activities and a video clip of last year's event, check out www.silverstone.nl. SCR on Show this weekend. 8th December: Representing drag racing at this weekend's Excel London Motorsport Show will be Shakespeare County Raceway in association with lane sponsor Motorshack, writes SCR's Marketing Manager Jerry Cookson: Headlining the display will be Paul Knight's VP Racing Fuels Ultimate Power Championship-winning Super Comp Trans Am. In addition, to make the stand more interactive with the show's varied public attendance, Shakespeare County will be setting up their portable reaction timer and Christmas Tree. The most trigger-happy person each day will win raceday tickets for the National Bank Holiday drag race weekends in May and August. 2007 Shakespeare County Raceway Event cards and information will be available along with season review DVDs and other top drag racing titles courtesy of Power Point Communications. The stand will also feature Ricky Skeel's 250cc Championship winning National Superkart from the British Superkart Association. Motorshack will also have available some new product lines from Lucas Oils as well as all the usual VP Racing Fuels, Klotz and NOS associated products. Incorporating the London Kart Show, the London Motorsport Show features an amazing array of vehicles including the latest karts, Circuit, Rally and Racing Saloons, together with product launches and announcements of new racing opportunities and scholarships for the 2007 season. It's on this weekend, 9th-10th, at the Excel Centre which you can reach by using the Docklands Light railway. For exhibitor, travel and parking information check out the Show's official web site at www.londonmotorsportshow.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 8th December: Our good buddy Magnus Cato has been in touch from Sweden to ask us to wish Christer Gustafsson a very Happy 50th Birthday for today. "Christer and I have known each other since the early 1990s and I want to wish him and his new team all the luck in the future", says Magnus. And so say all of us, have a great day Christer. ©Eurodragster.com Magnus Cato himself tells us that he has left the Malmgren Racing Pro Stock team after sixteen years. "We've had our fair share of ups and downs but the memories are mainly focused on the good stuff", says Magnus. "What I'll miss most of all is all the nice people I've met during these years, and of course the racing itself. What the future will bring I don't yet know yet, but for sure I'll watch drag racing as often as I can. All the best to Michael." Magazine update. 8th December: The January issue of Retro Ford magazine carries a five page colour photo report from round five of the Old Skool Ford Drag Challenge held at Shakespeare County Raceway in September, writes Jerry Cookson: Judging by the amount of personal bests acknowledged in the report, plans are now well under way for the Skool's return in 2007. Also featured is a perfect custom Prefect with added Pinto power together with all the other cool stuff that makes Retro Ford worth reading. Also with a January cover date is the ultimate custom bike mag Streetfighters with all the latest from the Straightliner Finals at Elvington plus round 6 of the ACU Championship held at Santa Pod's Ultimate Performance Bike Weekend. There's also photo coverage from the Dutch Streetfighter Show and the Super Street Bike Night held at the Pomona Fairplex in California. Not normally one to be associated with drag racing is Practical Performance Car which has a two-page photo report from York Dragway's UK National Finals in the December issue. The mag also features a circuit track test of the historic Dodge winged warrior, the Daytona. All three titles are priced around the £3.90 mark and are available now from all leading newsagents. ©Eurodragster.com Time for a new Show. 7th December: Sharp-eyed readers will have seen the Showtime Fuel Funny Car for sale on our Jeff Bull Race Engines and Performance Products-sponsored Swap Meet. We had a word with Crew Chief Bob Jarrett to find out what this implied. "I will give you more details about the car's replacement next week", says Bob. "What I can tell you now is what with the revived interest in Funny Car and more than likely a Championship, it was time to get serious again. Another Mustang Funny Car will be arriving in February - no prizes for guessing where from. The FC has new technology so that we can continue to develop from where we left off in September. ©Eurodragster.com "We will also be announcing some new sponsors at Autosport International at the NEC where the old Mustang will make its final appearance as Showtime." If you are interested in acquiring the Showtime Fuel FC then you can find details on the Cars For Sale section of the Swap Meet. Off the oval and on the straight. 7th December: Ex-oval racer Tony Deluca tells us that will be hitting the track in 2007 with a new 440 ci Topolino altered. Tony was inspired to take to the wheel after crewing on the Alien Super Pro ET altered for John Everitt, whom he has known for several years. "After thirty years I met up with John again when I bumped into him at the FIA Main Event at Santa Pod two years ago", says Tony. "One thing led to another and I ended up crewing and then being persuaded to build a car. The Topolino is being built by Bill Felstead of B + J Nostalgia Race Cars. The engine is a 440 ci Mopar which John kindly offered to me. I originally wanted to resurrect the Hang 'Em High name but that's changing as John has decided to bring back the name on his own car." ©Eurodragster.com Tony, who describes the prospect of drag racing after oval racing as "interesting", will be crewing with John in 2007. The new altered will be taken to Tony's home in Wales for finishing off and he hopes to make his début some time next season. In the meantime he has some Thank Yous. "Thanks to John 'Leadfoot' Everitt for the advice and for the motor/box, wheels and tyres at affordable prices which has been the deciding factor for having a go - and for being a great mate", says Tony. "Tony and Chris the other two crew members have taken me under their wing and taught me the ins and outs of crewing, thanks for putting up with me even though I was too keen sometimes - cheers guys. Thanks to Rick Cooke's team for being unfortunate to have been pitted next to us as I tend to talk a lot, and to Sam Freeman and team for pitting with us and Lyndsey for all the teas. Last but no means least thanks to Bill Felstead for building a wicked car. Thanks to anyone else I might have left out, and see you all soon." Swift snippets. 7th December: UK Super Pro ET racer Chris Orthodoxou has been in touch to ask if any Eurodragster.com reader knows the whereabouts of the Red Light Trophy which used to be presented annually at the SPRC Dinner Dance. "I made this handsome trophy", says Chris. "It's about four feet high and had fully working stage lights and red light. With help from SPRC, I nominated the "unworthy" and highly-embarrassed winner - the last I can remember was Richard Kinsey in 1997 or 1998". If you can help then please drop us a line at eurodragster.com@btinternet.com. ©Eurodragster.com Thanks to the occasional vagaries of our mail server, Lizz McCarthy's request for us to wish a Happy Birthday to Paul Marston Racing team-mate Sefton Whitlock arrived too late for yesterday's news. So from all of your PMR team-mates, a Happy Birthday for yesterday Sefton and we hope you had a good day. SPR keep Autosport date. 7th December: Caroline Day of Santa Pod Raceway has kindly been in touch with the latest news of the track's display at Autosport International which takes place at the NEC in Birmingham on 13th-14th January 2007. Caroline tells us that Santa Pod Raceway will be on stand 11216 on the public days of the show, Saturday and Sunday. The display will feature Martin Hill's 5.7-second Fireforce 3 Jet Funny Car, the Showtime Fuel Funny Car as mentioned above, and Santa Pod's Supertwin Fuel Bike. One of the undoubted headliners is the unveiling at midday on the Saturday of Andy Carter's 2007 Top Fuel Dragster in its new colours, and the announcement of Andy's new main sponsor. We understand that John Price will be the Master of Ceremonies for the unveiling, and Andy will be of course be on hand to talk to fans and to sign autographs. ©Eurodragster.com Santa Pod Raceway's Junior Dragster will be on show and SPR's mascot Nitro the Dragon will meet and greet younger visitors. SPR will also be celebrating their fast-growing involvement in the Modified scene with their new high-spec Drift car. 2007 Santa Pod guides, wallcharts and calendars will be available and the 2006 European Championships DVD review will be on sale together with other Santa Pod Raceway merchandise. Stay tuned and we will bring you more news about drag racing at Autosport International as we receive it. Swift Snippets. 6th December: Happy Birthday to engine builder, performance parts supplier, racecar owner and Eurodragster Swap Meet sponsor Jeff Bull whose big day it is today. Jeff's wife Belinda asked us to send her love and best wishes. Have a great day, Jeff. Web Site Updates. 6th December: The McDonald Racing Top Fuel team have a new web site at www.mcdonaldracing.co.uk. Double-click on any link for team photos, including several of driver Smax Smith, sponsorship information, merchandise, detailed shots of the Top Fuel dragster and contact information. A Bug in orange. 5th December: This very nice-looking VW Beetle belongs to UK Sportsman ET racer Richard Merriman who on returning from the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club AGM got in touch to tell us what a fantastic year he has had. "First of all I would like to say a big thank you to my fellow VWDRC racers for coming out and being competitive, pulling together and really making the atmosphere round the pits and on the track an enjoyable one", says Richard. "It's an honour to have you as racers and more hopefully friends. ©Eurodragster.com "This year I have managed to achieve a few goals that I had set at the start of the season as well as a few that I hadn't! With the Beetle still not finished and various problems plaguing the build I decided to carry on racing the Mk2 Golf GTI. The aim was to run a full season and try to be as competitive as I could aiming to finish in the top five. The result was more than I could have imagined for, starting off the beginning of the season with a perfect 0.000 reaction at Big Bang, coming runner up at the Summernationals and finally qualifying first at the National Finals. With some tough competition it came down to the last race to try and get second position in the Championship only to be beaten by rain and Graham Fairhead, and end up in third place in VW Sportsman. It's a shame that the rain ended the fun but I guess that's the way it goes. "Next year I am looking to finally bringing back the turbocharged Beetle albeit in a much more presentable state than it was last time! This picture was taken after picking it up from painting. I can't wait until Easter, see you there!" Swift snippets. 5th December: A very Happy Birthday to UK Tech Inspector Graham Motler. Graham's brother and Pro ET racer Malcolm has asked us to send Graham best wishes from himself, Marcie, Callum and the Spellbound motley crew. No sooner said that done, have a great day Graham. ©Eurodragster.com Our good friend John Hackney has been in touch to let us know that a colleague can offer canvas prints from pictures, artwork or digital prints. The prints come stretched on a hand-made wooden frame. For more information E-Mail John at johnhackney1965@tiscali.co.uk. Jerry Cookson tells us of a new TV series named Massive Speed, srating tonight (Tuesday) which will be of interest to race fans. "Red Dwarf star Chris Barrie turns his attention to machines designed for speed by taking a trip to California for a close up look at the history of the hot rod and today's modern-day dragsters", says Jerry. Massive Speed can be seen at 8.30 pm on Tuesdays on the Discovery Channel (Sky 520, NTL/TeleWest 212 and Top Up TV 27) with repeat showings an hour later on Discovery+1. Web site updates. 5th December: Our good buddy Alan Currans has added a nineteenth Readers' Gallery to his excellent Acceleration Archive at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. "This update consists of a unique collection of twenty photographs autographed by many of the racers from the late 1970s on the occasion of Syd McDonald's retirement as Santa Pod's Race Director in 1977", says Alan. "There are messages from Dennis Priddle, Ron Picardo, Roz Prior, and many more. Several of the pictures are reproduced by kind permission of Roger Gorringe." ©Eurodragster.com SPRC Perpetual Awards week 2. 4th December: Once again Santa Pod Racers Club and Eurodragster.com are teaming up to give Eurodragster.com readers the chance of input to the SPRC Perpetual Awards, which will be presented at the joint APIRA/SPRC Dinner Dance and Trophy presentation on Saturday 3rd February 2007. For each of the 2006 season awards, the SPRC Committee has decided upon a shortlist for which votes can be submitted by E-Mail. There are eight awards in all: this week's category, the second, is Best-Appearing Bike and voting will continue over the next five weeks as each category is announced. Voting for the Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy and the new Sportsman of the Year Trophy, in memory of Terry Gibbs, will also be open for the whole of this period (see below). The votes of Eurodragster.com readers will be taken into consideration when the SPRC Committee decides upon the winners. Voting is per Award, so if you voted for Best-Appearing Car last week then you may of course vote for Best-Appearing Bike this week. Votes can be submitted by all readers of Eurodragster.com, not just those in the UK. Please note that blatant attempts at organising mass votes - for example asking workmates or forum members to vote en masse - are easily identified and all such votes will be disallowed as they have been in previous years. The SPRC Committee's shortlist for Best-Appearing Bike is as follows, in alphabetical order: ©Eurodragster.com Jamie Sneddon Super Street Bike Go to vote Ian Turburville Mister Spokehead Supertwin Fuel Go to vote Steve Venables Ven Racing Super Street Bike Go to vote Mark Watkins Terminator Super Street Bike Go to vote Steve Wood Street Lightning 9.50 Bike Go to vote For a look at larger pictures, and to place your vote, go to the official SPRC Perpetual Awards page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the SPRC Perpetual Awards vote link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page. The Alex Brachtvogel Memorial Trophy, for which votes are also now being taken, was first awarded to Santa Pod Raceway's late Chief Marshal, Alex Brachtvogel, in 2001 to mark his outstanding contribution to Santa Pod Raceway and the sport as a whole. After Alex's death the trophy was named in his memory and continues to be awarded for contribution to drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Alex Brachtvogel award. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers, race officials, track and safety crews, club officials, media, or anyone else who has contributed to the sport. Last year the trophy was awarded to photo-journalist and now Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger Gorringe. Again see the official web page for more details or E-Mail your nomination to sprc.awards.2006@btinternet.com specifying SPRC Alex Brachtvogel Trophy as the subject and your nomination in the body of the mail. The Sportsman of the Year Trophy, for which votes are also now being taken, has been posted by Obsession Motorsports in memory of the late Terry Gibbs, a fervent supporter of Sportsman racing who himself raced before becoming a race and show promoter. The trophy will be awarded to the UK National Championship racer who best typifies the spirit of Sportsman drag racing. There is no shortlist for the Sportsman of the Year trophy. Nominations are invited from Eurodragster.com readers for racers in UK National Championship classes: Super Modified, Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Sportsman ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Junior Dragster and 9.50 Bike. Again see the official web page for details or E-Mail your nomination to sprc.awards.2006@btinternet.com specifying Sportsman of the Year Trophy as the subject and in the body of the mail give your nomination and a few words about why you think they should receive the trophy. Next week's category will be Most Professional-Appearing Team. ATD look to 2007. 4th December: Gilbert Rozet says that it is three years since the Franch Championship commenced with five races a year and that plans are already being made for 2007. "We have been running six classes and we will replace Comp Eliminator with Super Comp ET in 2007", says Gilbert. "Because Comp eliminator is too difficult for us to manage, we have decided to create a new category for racers who can go quicker than 8.90 with a 7.50 limit. Our six classes are now: Street Run A (14.00) Street Run B (13.00) Street Run C (12.00) Super Street (10.90) Super Gas (9.90) Super Comp ET (7.50-8.90) "The people who organize the French Dragster Trophy are racers: Eric Angeloni, Patrick Dubois, Christophe Dubois Gilbert Rozet, and Jean Dulamon. We were bored of bad racing management, waiting in the staging lanes and only three runs a weekend. In 2006, more than three hundred different racers from France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy have enjoyed racing in France. We have run an average of ten qualifying sessions for each race. Of course they are not mandatory if your engine can't handle so much activity or if you prefer to keep your fuel for the race! "Entrance fees are used to pay prize money and these are guaranteed by the ATD so there are no bad surprises: ©Eurodragster.com Super Comp ET: €750 winner, €350 runner-up, €250 3rd/4th Super Gas: €600 winner, €300 runner-up, €150 3rd/4th Super Street: €450 winner, €250 runner-up, €100 3rd/4th Street Run A: €200 winner, €100 runner-up, €50 3rd/4th Street Run B: €160 winner, €80 runner-up, €40 3rd/4th Street Run C: €120 winner, €60 runner-up, €30 3rd/4th "I will post the 2007 race calendar as soon as the dates are finalised. We will organize a private training session at Lurcy Levis in March: you can find the map at www.circuit-lurcy-levis.com/index_uk.htm. "For more information, visit www.francedrag.com. You can get an English translation by clicking on the American flag." Swift snippets. 4th December: British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Clive Skilton (on the left in picture) was recently presented with his Hall of Fame trophy by Dave Riswick of joint Eurodragster.com Links sponsor Ampar. Dave met up with the legendary UK racer in Las Vegas where both were attending the SEMA Show. Stay tuned for news of the next group of inductees to the British Hall of Fame. ©Eurodragster.com Thanks to our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson for letting us know that the new issue of Sweden's Street and Strip magazine includes a feature on the recent Top Fuel Exhibition in Bahrain. We must warn readers however of the unjustifiable (on aesthetic grounds to begin with) inclusion of a picture of your News Editor. European Championships DVD review. 4th December: Released in time to make your local race fan's Christmas, the 2006 FIA and FIM/UEM European Championships Season Review has this year been packaged as a reasonably-priced two-DVD set which was the second good call with this year's coverage. The first good call was made at the start of the year when a new company, Germany's Plazamedia, was engaged to produce the coverage. Santa Pod Raceway kindly sent us a set to review. The FIA disk covers Top Fuel Dragster, Top Methanol Dragster, Top Methanol Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Modified at four of this year's five rounds: the season opener and finale at Santa Pod and the events at Alastaro and Mantorp Park. The addition of Pro Mod to the FIA Championships this year has helped to extend the FIA disk to no less than two hundred minutes but there isn't one race fan out there who can't get too much Pro Mod - a class made for TV coverage if ever there was one. The FIM/UEM disk lasts for ninety minutes and features Top Fuel Bike, Supertwin and Pro Stock Bike, and again is one shy of the full Tour covering both events at Santa Pod plus the rounds at Alastaro and Mantorp Park. The camera work and editing are very good throughout both DVDs. All of the usual trackside camera angles are in use - these are dictated by the position of the permanent towers at the tracks - plus some new locations such as a camera on the right hand side of the shutdown area at Santa Pod. The start line camerawork is excellent; we noticed to our amusement at races this year that the start line TV crew were wearing masks or balaclavas but when you see just how close-in the start line footage is you can understand why. There is also a little on-board footage. Your reviewer is famously picky enough to time TV coverage of races with a stopwatch to check on the editing, a habit which started after watching two Pro Stocks run four-second passes some years back, and all races checked passed the stopwatch test which proves that the editors were paying attention. Picture quality is excellent throughout and someone has been listening to fans' comments as the cars and bikes have been turned up in the sound mix. Also stated time and again in past years and now heard is our plea for the inclusion of qualifying footage. There are some good touches of human interest throughout. For example at the start of TMFC at Alastaro a number of drivers give greetings in their own languages, and elsewhere in the coverage Lex and Gerda Joon are interviewed about their then-recent marriage. Team members get a look in as well with crew being interviewed on the start line after races and footage of start line celebrations. In the presence of powerful cars and bikes doing amazing things it is very easy to forget that human beings sit in and on them and work hard to make them do those amazing things and it is good to see that acknowledged. It is worth mentioning that the controversy over Top Fuel rear wings at Alastaro is not dodged: Lex Joon and Kenneth Lorentzon give their opinions in a restrained manner and the coverage continues. At the time the incident happened your reviewer was told by more than one party that dirty linen should not be washed in public and in fact Eurodragster.com itself is well-known for generally taking that approach, but there are some things which just cannot be avoided: explaining away Håkan Fällström's disqualification in Finland would have been very difficult without telling the truth and the production team got this one right. The coverage is presented to camera by Darryl Bradford and Michelle Orpe, with race commentary by John Price and Darryl. It never ceases to amaze me how Pricey manages to inject the same enthusiasm into a race commentary when closeted in a small dark studio some weeks after the event as he does at the track. His voice-overs are as ever excited and authoritative: it is one of Pricey's unarguable skills that he could tell you that black is white and you would believe him. Darryl works very well both alongside Pricey as colour commentator and alongside Michelle as presenter. Michelle still has an unfortunate habit of slipping into a CBBC style of presentation but she has noticeably improved this season; she now comes across as if she actually knows about drag racing and her interviews with drivers consist of more imaginative questions than a constant "How is this run going to go?" or "How did that run go?". Darryl also presents brief pieces to camera about various aspects of the sport - for example Top Fuel drivetrains, how Pro Mods are driven one-handed, and how a Supertwin engine started life as a V8 in a TMFC - an idea which your reviewer has been pushing for some years and it's nice that someone finally listened. These short pieces add to the interest and will answer a lot of questions asked by viewers unfamiliar with the sport. ©Eurodragster.com Mistakes are very few and far between. Your reviewer has in the past been criticised by TV production companies for having the temerity to point out shocking errors such as spelling Peter Schöfer's name in four different ways in one programme - "It will only be him who notices", I was told to my disgust - but if a potential sponsor or fan's first contact with drag racing is via the TV coverage then the onus is on the production company to present it in a professional manner. Across both DVDs I didn't even need the fingers of one hand to count spelling mistakes in captions and factual errors by the presenters are all but non-existent. An addition for 2006 is Outtakes sections on both the FIA and FIM/UEM disks. Including something like this must always be a bit of a dilemma for producers since they want to present the image of a professional sport whilst proving that it is possible to loosen up and have some fun. The Outtakes on both disks are mainly made up of the presenters and occasionally racers fluffing lines or tripping over their words and although funny they eventually become a bit samey. However on the FIA disk there is one outtake which itself is worth the price of the entire DVD set. After the race between Ulf Leanders and Leif Andréasson which decides the Top Methanol FC Championship the TV crew go to interview Ulf; Leif comes into shot, picks Ulf up, and drops him in the field alongside the return road. Ulf looks at the retreating Leif with a...let's say "unappreciative" expression which made your reviewer laugh out loud. Criticisms are few and not major. If there is one thing which needs to be sorted out in the 2007 coverage then it is captions of ETs and speeds which are lacking. The scoreboards are shown at most races but not always, and the commentary team do not always give us the times and speeds. There is a trend throughout both DVDs to omit some first-round races, whether for timing or to aid the flow of the programme is not easy to work out. Completely beyond the control of the production team is the lack of coverage of the FIA round at Gardermoen and the FIM/UEM round at Hockenheim: we all know why this is and hopefully those involved will settle their differences and help to make next year's coverage even better. Wolfgang and the guys at Plazamedia are to be congratulated on their work in 2006. This is Plazamedia's first year of covering any drag racing, let alone taking on the pretty hefty responsibility of presenting the European Championships, and the result is far better than their predecessors managed with several years' experience. Although your reviewer did not manage to catch every episode as it was broadcast through the year, comments from racers and fans alike were very positive and your reviewer was not disappointed when he finally got to watch the DVDs. This set will definitely make a great Christmas present for a race fan and would stand up very well as an introduction to drag racing for someone who has never been. The European Championships review DVD set is available from Santa Pod Raceway and this year from various vendors in Finland and Sweden - yet another good call. You can find a list of companies selling the DVD set in our news item Championship DVDs on the spread of 28th November. PMR's best year yet. 4th December: Paul Marston says that 2006 was the best year yet for his race team and that he is eagerly looking forward to 2007: The Drag Race Driving School really had a fantastic season. Paul Marston Racing has evolved into the single biggest team in UK Sportsman drag racing. The management, drivers, technicians and pit crew have all worked very hard to achieve this and are justifiably proud. This is exactly what the Drag Race School was set up to do: to encourage more and more people to become actively involved in competing at National Event level here in the UK. By effectively increasing our entries nearly 100% over 2005, this has been by far our single biggest achievement. The team now regularly fields around six drivers, most importantly this is manageable, the drivers are competitive and its loads of fun. We have a really great team spirit and crew which is essentially the backbone of the whole team. The individuals who made up the 2006 team have really jelled together. Not only do the Paul Marston Racing Team race together, unlike some teams we eat together and socialise together. The 2007 Paul Marston Racing team will remain the same so we are looking forward to capitalising on that consistency of personnel to make us even more competitive during 2007. During 2006 Paul Marston Racing won National events, were #1 qualifiers, had drivers finish in the top ten of their classes, and nearly won a track Championship. It was a good season, a solid foundation to build on for 2007. In 2006 we introduced two new race cars and returned the infamous PT Bruiser to active competition. Added to this was more driver courses and passenger rides completed during 2006, it really was an outstanding year. If you would like to join our team and possibly enjoy some success of your own, we do at this time have one or possibly two spare seats available in the PMR Race Car Rental at National Events programme, one of which is the all-conquering National Event-winning Grumpy's Dodge, available for Super Street or Super Gas for the 2007 season. The packages are very attractive practically and financially. You can choose single event, track Championship or full season, priority would be given to a driver with a track or National Championship proposal but we have never turned anyone away and never will do, we are here to make the deal work for you. If you are considering becoming a competitor in 2007 and need some tuition then give us a call. Or if you are at a loose end for a Christmas present with bite, there are PMR's infamous Passenger Rides and Drag Race Driving School courses available. They make the perfect Christmas present. For more details and information please contact us on 07831 650230 or E-Mail office@pmracing.fsnet.co.uk. Lastly everyone here at Paul Marston Racing would like to personally thank and show our appreciation for all the hard work carried out by the track crew and management at both Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceways, and wish them a Merry Christmas Not forgetting all our sponsors and friends old and new: Drag Race Engineering (0208 597 9484), Black Box London (0208 597 4575), JW Transmissions, BLP - Bo Laws Products Inc, Mac Tools, Snap-On Tools, 76 Fuels and Lubricants, London Road Tyres (01708 735355), UK Cruisers, Chrysler UK, ChryslerCard, Custom Car, American Car World, all our American racer friends in Division 2 and all the rest. Not forgetting all the guys at Euro Dragster, you are such an essential part of the European Drag Racing scene, we would be lost without you (Oh I say, thanks - Ed). ©Eurodragster.com 2007 SCR calendar. 3rd December: We are indebted to Jerry Cookson for forwarding us the initial calendar of events at Shakespeare County Raceway in 2007. UK National and APIRA Championship events are in red: 31st March: Spring Season Opener Test and Tune 1st April: Public Track Day RWYB 21st-22nd April: Public Track Day/Test and Tune (NSCC points series) 5th-7th May: Spring Speed Festival 19th-20th May: Super Street Car Shootout (NSCC points series) 2nd-3rd June: Yanks American Weekend (NSCC points series) 16th-17th June: Shakespeed '07 incorporating Jay's Cruise 30th June-1st July: NSRA Nostalgia Nationals (Pre-'73 RWYB unless radical) 14th-15th July: BMC British Mini Showdown featuring the Fastest Caterham In The World (Sat only) 10th-12th August: Bulldog Bash 25th-27th August: 2nd annual Open Sports Nationals 15th-16th September: NSRA Original Hot Rod Drags (pre-'73 RWYB unless radical) 29th-30th September: Public Track Day/Modified Mania Weekend 13th-14th October: Straightliners End of Season Bash/Public Track Day RWYB (NSCC points series) 27th-28th October: Halloween Bonfire Burn-Up Public Track Day "Further events including the Raceway series of Shakespeare County Street Car/Bike Challenges and Jap Racer Days will be announced in the New Year", says Jerry. "All car and motorcycle clubs are welcome to attend any Public Track Day/Test and Tune events at Shakespeare County Raceway. For further information call 01789 720180 or E-Mail enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com Martin on FIA rule changes. 3rd December: As promised in Friday's news item about the 2007 FIA rules we asked Geoff Martin, who heads up the UK's Tech Inspection team, for his comments on the rule changes. "I cannot suggest too strongly that all Pro-class racers urgently look at the 2007 FIA regulations", said Geoff. "There are revisions for all classes, some more than others. Also look at the revisions in General Regulations. What is most interesting is that a HANS device will be mandatory in the Pro classes in 2008. ©Eurodragster.com "If any Sportsman racers plan to go to European events next year, it would benefit them to take a look at the Sportsman regulations. "All revisions are in red ink so you don't miss them. If you have any queries I will attempt to clarify them, but as I am not a member of the FIA Commission I am unable to listen to voices of dissent. In the meantime, could I wish all of the racers in Eurodragster land an early Happy and Peaceful Christmas and a fast and safe 2007 season." Swift snippets. 3rd December: Andrew Hadfield has been in touch from Stockport to let us know that he is the new owner of the ex-John Whitmore B/Dragster which was recently put up for sale on E-Bay. "The car is virtually identical to when it held the Class B record at Santa Pod from 1981 to 1985, 7.8/173.6", says Andrew. "I'm not sure what the future holds for this car but I am looking to do some RWYBs next season, and maybe to build a new tagged chassis and compete properly." ©Eurodragster.com Dave McKenzie tells us that next year's Supercharged Outlaws calendar and rules have now been agreed and that he would be pleased to hear from racers who would like to take part in the series. "Unfortunately I lost all of my contacts from my Address Book so please get in touch if you are interested in running with the Outlaws", says Fuzzie. You can check out the rules and Calendar at www.outlawsuk.bravehost.com. UK Junior Dragster racer Nick Mugridge says that his Rolling Thunder Junior Modified Advanced Dragster is for sale and can be found on the Cars For Sale section of our Jeff Bull Race Engines and Peformance Products-sponsored Swap Meet. Santa coming from SoCal. 3rd December: Jill Lisle of Comet Clothing has been in touch with a note to the winners of the Comet Clothing Street Eliminator UK Most Improved award, and for anyone else looking for that Christmas present more exciting than a pair of slippers, that Santa will be making his last delivery of So-Cal Speed Shop goodies to the UK this Tuesday, 5th December. ©Eurodragster.com "A lot of items are in stock and available for immediate despatch but if you want to make certain of getting hold of that special present in time for Christmas then pop along to the Comet Clothing web site at www.cometclothing.co.uk", says Jill. "Even if you're not looking for a pressie the site is well worth a visit with a wide range of interesting hot rodding-related goodies from decals to posters and bombers to bibs...yes, bibs with a hot rod theme - there's nothing like starting 'em young!" Web site updates. 3rd December: In the latest entry in his exclusive Racer Blog, Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon tells of his visit to the Baca Family Racing team, from whom he bought his current ride, at the NHRA Finals at Pomona. You can read Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blog link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Hill: OK, it's mine. 2nd December: If you were tuned in last week you will recall that we had been sent a spy picture of a spectacular Jet Bike with very few details save that the bike was on its way out of the country that very day. The Jet Bike turned up at Germany's Essen Motor Show this week (right) and we managed to track down the owner, who turns out to be UK Jet Funny Car pilot Martin Hill - who started drag racing on bikes. Click on either picture for larger shots. "I had the idea for a Jet Bike about eighteen months ago", Martin told Eurodragster.com. I bought the engine and then it was a case of finding the time to put it together. I kept quiet about it all that time in case it didn't happen." The as yet-unnamed bike - a contest is planned in the New Year to come up with a name - is powered by a Rolls Royce Gnome with afterburner built in-house by Martin. "The engine came off a Wessex helicopter", said Martin. "It's the same engine as Michel Kooy uses on his Jet Quad. With the afterburner it makes twelve hundred pounds of thrust, or nearly two and a half thousand horsepower. That compares to five thousand pounds on Fireforce 3 but the bike is a lot lighter. We'll put on a good show on the start line and we'll be disappointed if it doesn't run in the sixes at over two hundred miles per hour. The world record for a Jet Bike is 190 mph by Tim Arfons, so we want to beat that." ©Eurodragster.com The bike has been built in-house by Martin and team. "Unique is what it is!", he said. "I designed the bike and built the chassis and fuel tanks. The chassis is chromoly with lots of one-off ideas. The front wheel is from a Honda Fireblade and the rear wheel is deliberately small to keep the jet pipe as low as possible (right). Paul Bailey, aka Horace, did the bodywork from scratch. It's all one-off from the body to the fairing and belly pan. The body pivots from the back like a Funny Car so that we can get at everything and also show off how clean everything is unedrneath. The paint was done by Martin at Wackyshack." Tha Jet Bike is currently in Essen and then moves on to Stuttgart to join Bob Glassup's Xtreme altered at a Motoring and Leisure Show. Martin will receive the bike back at the end of January and will then add some finishing touches before starting test runs. "I have to finish the fuel tank and the paint has to be finished", he said. "It will probably be March before we are ready to run. I don't know how I view the prospect of riding the bike, but it set off as an idea and I've pursued it this far. I'll be riding it for the testing and then we'll see what happens after that." Second picture and last week's spy shot courtesy and ©Dave Jones Swift snippets. 2nd December: Eurodragster.com News sponsor Adoorablehandles.com have posted the entry form for next year's Adoorablehandles.com Junior Dragster Championship on their web site at www.adoorablehandles.com. Click on the link on the Home Page, which will also take you to details of the Design a Decal contest. ©Eurodragster.com Luke Bennett tells us that he is able to print banners and posters up to 1200 mm x 297 mm. "The pictures look excellent and are printed onto 160 gsm high gloss paper", says Luke. "They are £5 each and are sent in strong cardboard poster tunes to keep them safe. I have already had a lot of people take me up on this. I will of course only print your own pictures, or pictures by other photographers if you have their full permission". For examples check out Luke's web site at www.bennettdesign.info. Web site updates. 2nd December: UK Supertwin Gas and Junior Drag Bike team Jade Racing are launching their new web site at their annual party at 21:00 tonight (Saturday). "The new web site has been design and built by Ozzy Ewing at Wizzard Technical Designs and is the best drag racing web site I personally have ever seen", says Sharron Collier. "Ozzy has certainly surpassed himself this time". You will be able to see yourself from this evening at www.jaderacing.com. ©Eurodragster.com 2007 FIA rules published. 1st December: Many thanks to our good friend Gittli Koller for letting us know that the 2007 FIA rules have now been published and can be found at www.fia.com/sport/Regulations/dragregs.html. There is a lot of red ink in this year's rules, red ink indicating a rule change. Obviously we recommend that all racers check out the rules themselves but a few things which jumped out at us were the approval of electronic fuel timers in Top Fuel Dragster and Fuel Funny Car, the retention of the 90% maximum for nitromethane in these classes, a list of approved engine blocks for Fuel classes, the reduction of nitro percentage to 97% for injected-nitro Top Methanol Dragsters, and mandatory roll cage shields in TMD (although these have already been present on cars in 2006 - Ed). ©Eurodragster.com The Sportsman rules have also had their fair share of changes, but rather than risk misinterpreting we will have a word with our friends on the UK Tech Crew for a summary of the crucial points. 2006 Christmas Gift Mart. 1st December: If you are looking for Christmas gifts for the racer or race fan in your life then we are pleased to bring you some ideas submitted by Eurodragster.com sponsors, contributors and readers: Power Point Communications offer a huge range of excellent UK drag racing DVDs to suit every taste, including season reviews of the Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association, Street Eliminator and Super Modified, this year's Ultimate Power Championship, the Mopar Euronats and more. Prices and details can be found at www.quartermilehigh.com. You can find reviews of this year's Power Point DVDs scattered liberally through November's news page. Nick Pettit offers Nostalgia fans no less than fifty British Drag Racing and Hot Rodding DVDs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s compiled from cine film, slides and video footage taken by fans and racers with narration by Nick. The DVDs are priced at £10 apiece which includes postage and packing in the UK. For more details check out the Time Travel DVDs web site at www.timetraveldvds.co.uk. "The elves and reindeer are working overtime gearing up for a long nights work on the 25th December and the shopping days are counting down but you still need to get the drag racing fan in your life those extra gifts?", says Jo Harris of Santa Pod Raceway. "Santa Pod can help you, why not purchase next season's tickets in time for Christmas to give that special someone something to look forward to in the New Year. Tickets for all 2007 events are available and can be with you in time for Christmas as long as they are ordered by 13th December to guarantee delivery. Why not also visit the Pod Shop online at www.santapod.com or call 01234 782828 to ensure your drag racing fan has the very latest Santa Pod merchandise to accompany their tickets. Again all orders are required by 13th December for a guaranteed delivery before Christmas." Shakespeare County Raceway's clothing supplier Creative Stitches Creative Stitches can now accept mail orders for Shakespeare County Raceway flying jackets with full stitch work on the back and front if required. The jackets are available in five sizes: small (37" chest), medium (41" chest), large (44" chest), XL (48" chest) and XXL (52" chest). Jackets are available in black or navy Oxford nylon with an orange satin Oxford nylon lining, heavy duty brass front zip fastening, heavy duty knitted rib collar, cuffs and waistband, stud fastening front and inside pockets and zipped sleeve pocket. Jackets are £60 plus £6.60 post and packing. To place an order call Claire on 01934 518663 or E-Mail creative-stitches@hotmail.com. Mopar fans will love DMB Photographic's 2007 Mopar Muscle Calendar. The calendar comes in full colour on high-quality glossy paper, covering thirteen months at a huge 320mm x 340mm. Cars featured in Dave McBride's excellent photography include '65 Satellite, '72 'Cuda, '70 Challenger R/T, '65 Coronet, '68 Barracuda, '68 Charger R/T, '69 Valiant, '68 GTX, '69 Daytona, '70 GTX, '68 Roadrunner, and '98 Viper GTS. The calendar costs £5.99 post-free within the UK and £7.50 including airmail outside the UK. For more information or to order your copy visit www.moparuk.co.uk/dmb_photographic/calendars/calendars.html. Street Eliminator UK are pleased to announce availability of the 2007 Street Eliminator calendar. The calendar is A4 with half of each page given over to the dates and half to full colour photos of every vehicle which competed in 2006 pictured on the street, the strip or in the pits. "The decision to produce this calendar was taken quite late in the day so we can promise that they will genuinely be a limited edition as just a single run will be processed!", says 2006 Champion Ian Hook. "However, we can still guarantee delivery before Christmas but orders must be placed before midnight today (1st December). The calendars are £10 each. Delivery is £1 for a single copy but free on orders of two or more. Please drop an E-Mail to Marie Herbert-White at marie@herbert-white.fsnet.co.uk and she will contact you over the weekend to arrange payment, delivery, etc." Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars is offering Ringers Gloves and a newly-introduced range of ARRC gift vouchers. "Ringers Gloves are ideal stocking fillers and we're already seeing quite a number of orders for the festive season", says Bob Roberts. "I wish I could offer them in a red-and-white Santa version but they are still basic black in sizes from M to XXL and available at the bargain price of £12.95 plus P&P through our E-Bay shop at stores.ebay.co.uk/Andy-Robinson-Race-Cars or through our web site at www.robinson-race-cars.co.uk. ARRC vouchers are designed for those who find it difficult to know what to buy for a hardcore race fan. The voucher will enable the recipient to buy the necessary hardware from us. Available right away, just E-Mail or phone - our contact details are on the web site." Ian Turburville tells us that he has a great range of goodies for the drag-nut in your life. "The all new Mr. Spokehead 100% cotton T shirts, printed in full colour back and front, are in production now and will be available mid December along with the limited edition decal sheets", says Turbo. "These will supplement the great Pro-Drag range of T shirts and decals we already supply from the USA and add to the full Simpson range we sell, including the new 2007 range of shirts, helmets (lots on special offer), pit shoes, driving shoes, sweats, bags, jackets, gloves etc. We are doing a special Christmas offer on the Simpson Speedway RX helmets (Snell 2005 Nomex) in assorted colours for just £390 instead of £464 and I will thow in a free tinted visor worth £70 at that! We also have Kågered Racing mechanics gloves, Red Line race oil, ACF 50 anti corrosion spray (to keep you chassis from going rusty this winter), Wynns Supercharge, lots of die cast drag models including a fabulous Doug Vancil bike. Also due here mid December is the new DVD version of the best drag video ever made, the ADBA World Championships, featuring extra footage of Jim McClure, Bill Furr, Ton Pels, Charlie Karling, Brett Stevens and the cream of nitro Harley racers from every country! We also sell road legal Craft carbon fibre helmets from Germany, Sure Shot sprayers, Nitro Trauma Pads, and even full size Nitro-Harleys! We take Paypal for any goods which you can order from our web site at www.turboville.com." Sweden's own Simpson shop is offering three excellent Christmas gifts: Simpson Beanie for cold weather head protection at 220 SEK (€25 ) Simpson Pro Wrenchers Glove, which Jan Phersson tells us is one of the best mechanics' gloves on the market at 245 SEK (€27 ) Simpson Track Pack, a backpack small enough to fit under airline seats yet still big enough for daily needs at 450 SEK (€49 ) Prices do not include postage and packing from Sweden. For more details or to order check out the Simpson shop at www.simpsonshop.se. Michael Fordham's Blazing Wheels web site at www.blazingwheels.co.uk is offering prints of the action at the 2006 UK National Finals and Flame and Thunder Show. All images can be framed and mounted. Swift snippets. 1st December: Jeanette and Jon Webster have been in touch to ask us to wish their daughter Shelby Webster a very Happy 18th Birthday. "Happy Birthday and we hope that you enjoy your Rock'n'Roll party this evening", say Jeanette and Jon. "We are all dressing up ready to bop the night away!". A nicer young lady you could not hope to meet, have a very Happy Birthday Shelby. ©Eurodragster.com Fay Fischer, Managing Director of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Speedflow, has been in touch to thank everyone who took part in the hose and fitting supplier's on-line survey. The winner of the £50 prize draw which went with the survey has been announced on the Home Page of the Speedflow web site at www.speedflow.co.uk. Whilst compiling this month's access statistics, which you can find on the About Eurodragster.com page, we did a quick calculation and discovered that we surpassed last year's totals for visits, page views and hits in September of this year. With one month still left to go, we have clocked up 2.1 million visitors, 7.0 million page views and 47.1 million hits in 2006, which makes it our biggest year yet by quite some margin. Many thanks to the racers, tracks, Clubs and promoters for giving us something to write about, to our readers for coming back in such numbers, and to our sponsors for giving us the means to do this. Earlier news