Super Series Fallnationals
Sunday (qualifying)

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20:30

Today's pictures are now available, you can get to them from the event update index. That's all for today, tune in tomorrow and we will bring you the news from eliminations. We understand that it is a 10:00 start again tomorrow so we'll be back right about then.

18:55

Here are the top qualifiers in each class:

Fuel Funny Car: 1. John Spuffard 6.020/188.28, 2. Gordon Smith 8.372/104.17, 3. Gary Page 11.922/67.77

MSA Top Methanol: 1. Rob Turner 5.614/247.25, 2. Dave Wilson 5.723/251.20, 3. Lindsay Deuchar 6.289/209.30, 4. Steph Milam 6.881/207.37, 5. Dennis Wratten 7.318/185.19, 6. Doug Ripley 7.673/137.61, 7. Doug Bond 9.107/90.73

Super Modified: 1. Danny Cockerill 7.689/176.47, 2. Rob Smallworth 7.837/171.76
Super Pro ET (own dial-in): 1. Mick Cheley +0.007 (8.607/159.57), 2. Martyn Jones +0.011 (7.631/174.42)
Pro ET (own dial-in): 1. Brian Huxley +0.000 (10.900/124.65), 2. John Everitt +0.000 (9.800/136.78)
Sportsman ET (own dial-in): 1. Steve Richards +0.007 (12.307/108.70), 2. Darren Hulkes +0.008 (14.808/88.24)
Super Comp (8.90): 1. Martin Curbishley 8.941/148.03, 2. Zane Llewellyn 8.951/152.03
Super Gas (9.90): 1. Tim Adam 9.907/147.06, 2. Rich Gilbertson 9.913/125.70
Super Street (10.90): 1. Dave Cherrett 10.903/101.81, 2. Lee Huxley 10.911/123.63
Junior Dragster (reaction time): 1. Charlotte Watts 0.520, 2. Ronan Headley-Smith 0.525
Custom Car Street Eliminator (subject to Cruise): 1. Steve Pateman 8.557/170.45, 2. John Sleath 8.735/166.05
Outlaw Anglia: 1. Paul Hensher 8.781/155.71, 2. Jeff Meads 9.396/147.06
Wild Bunch (own dial-in): 1. Sarah Howells +0.040 (13.340/96.77), 2. Andy Murphy +0.044 (12.544/102.27)

Top Fuel Bike: 1. Steve Woollatt 6.622/208.33, 2. Ian King 10.852/82.87
Funny Bike: 1. Tim Blakemore 7.167/166.67, 2. Ken Cooper 7.229/187.50
Pro Stock Bike: 1. Nick Pepper 7.568/175.10, 2. Chris Hope 7.600/170.45
Comp Bike: 1. Klaus Brinkmann 8.070/159.01, 2. Jerry Collier 8.235/160.71
Super Street Bike: 1. Tony Clark 8.379/174.42, 2. Graham Dance 8.458/166.05
9.90 Bike: 1. Paul Morris 9.933/130.06, 2. Mike Swankie 9.943/138.89
10.90 Bike: 1. Lee Baxter 10.968/121.62, 2. Fred Furlong 10.979/126.76
Supertwin Gas: 1. Ric Davies 9.798/128.57, 2. Sefton Whitlock 9.915/127.12
Supertwin Modified: 1. Dave Bartz 10.321/135.14, 2. TJ O'Brien 10.411/130.81
Supertwin Street: 1. Les Harris 10.652/128.94, 2. Mark Earrey 10.765/131.20

Stay tuned as we're still working on today's pictures.

17:15

Fuel Funny Car qualifying round three

John Spuffard 6.318/236.84, Gary Page 12.110/64.56

Spuff shook off the line and weaved all over his lane, pedalling it to try to get the car to behave. Gary Page pulled a huge wheelie, coming past your reporter at eighty feet with the front end a yard in the air. It just wasn't coming down so Gary got off the throttle.

No sign of Smax which means that Spuff gets a bye tomorrow and Gordon Smith and Gary Page face off.

Top Methanol qualifying session three

Dave Wilson 6.024/182.93, Steph Milam 6.881/207.37, Rob Turner 6.539/141.96

Dave Wilson pulled a wheelstand off the line and then hit tyre shake which he drove through. The car was going great guns until it threw a belt at half-track. Steph in the other lane put in a nice straight pass after a burnout in which one side of the car dug in. Rob Turner also threw a belt at half track, the belt performed the neat trick of wrapping itself around a rear wing support.

Top Fuel Bike qualifying session four

Steve Woollatt 6.622/208.33, Ian King 20.624/32.73

Steve put in another fine, straight run, he makes it look so easy! Ian lost a drive belt not far off the line and cruised down the track.

Fuel Altered match race round two

Jim Seward 7.223/175.10 def. Wendy Baker 8.217/185.95

Jim Seward was on a mission in this race. Both cars dry hopped aggressively to the line and then on the green Jim hooked up and flew down the track, a very straight pass for a Fuel Altered! The Mob again didn't seem to have much off the start line but it was a good straight pass, 1-1.

Ken Cooper put in another 7.2-second pass on his Funny Bike, and Susanne Callin rounded off the day with a launch, recording 0.915 to sixty feet and getting off it just before the tyres went up in smoke.

Stay tuned as we are now going to start work on qualifying and today's pictures.

15:55

Top Fuel Dragster match race round one

Andy Carter 5.191/288.46 def. Susanne Callin 13.338/57.57

Andy smashed both ends of the track record with an excellent full pass, he hooked up and was gone. There are two black tracks between 1000 feet and the finish line although there was no sign of haze from Andy's tyres. Susanne's car was very lazy in the burnout then the rear tyres went up in smoke not far off the start line. 1-0 to Andy!

14:10

Fuel Funny Car qualifying session two

Gordon Smith 6.588/176.47, Gary Page 11.922/67.77

Gordon shot off the line but by sixty feet the car was drifting. From the actions of the car you could see that Gordon was trying to get it back, but he got off the throttle as the car tagged the left guardrail, wrenched it away and then got back on it to the finish line. We understand that there is only minor cosmetic damage to the body and that the headers escaped damage.

Gary in the other lane was under power for about 200 feet, the car was heading right but Gary got off the pedal and cruised through. These were the only two cars to appear for this session, John Spuffard said that the Showtime FC will be out again for the end-day session and Championship co-ordinator Jim Broome tells us that Smax will also appear.

14:00

Top Fuel Bike qualifying session three

Steve Woollatt 6.658/202.70

We watched this run from race control and it was as straight as you like, the second half looked particularly strong.

Top Methanol qualifying session two

Dennis Wratten 7.318/185.19, Doug Ripley 7.673/137.61, Lindsay Deuchar 6.289/209.30, Doug Bond 9.107/90.73, Dave Wilson 5.723/251.40, Steph Milam 7.840/167.91

Doug Ripley slipped through stage and Dennis Wratten waited for him to come back. A great side-by-side run between the two FCs until Doug's pressure relief panel flew through the air just after half-track, word from Sharkman at the top end is that the blower popped, the blower belt and pieces of metal also on the track. Dennis stepped up still further and is looking very confident indeed in the FC.

Lindsay Deuchar had a cylinder out all the way down and the left tyre especially was shaking until past the concrete/asphalt transition. Doug Bond was on a planned short pass, he recorded a 0.95 sixty-foot time but the track crew were picking inch-square pieces of metal up off the lane after the run. Crew Chief Martyn Hannis popped into race control to tell us that two rods have come out of the engine.

Dave Wilson burnt out past the concrete/asphalt transition, and then drove through tyre shake like it wasn't happening, at one point he was drifting towards the guardrail. Steph pedalled towards the top end, also getting close to the rail.

13:00

Ian Marshall stepped up in Super Modified with an 8.366/161.87, and Graham Ellis got back into the sevens with a 7.941/171.09 which relatively left Rob Smallworth standing with an 8.077/159.58. Andy Hone at 7.929/169.81 and Danny Cockerill at 7.763 also got into the sevens.

Custom Car Street Eliminator saw Andy Frost improve his personal best with a fine 9.388/152.54, the nitrous system obviously sorted out. Also beating his personal best was Steve Neimantas with an 8.750/159.57. Steve Pateman has now done the first half of a CCSE ET record with an 8.557/170.45, we're currently checking whether that is backed up by yesterday's pass, whilst Alan Curtis got back into the nines with a 9.903/139.32 and Jeff Meads got very close to the eights with a 9.035/151.01.

Stay tuned for the upcoming Top Fuel Bike, Top Methanol and Fuel FC sessions.

12:30

In Pro Stock Bike, Chris Hope turned the wick up a little with a 7.600/170.45, Martin Bishop had his chain break off the line. Dave Beck repaired yesterday's damage and clocked 7.744/157.34 but Nick Pepper surprisingly slowed to a 7.993/169.80 although he maintains his qualifying lead.

Tim Blakemore has consolidated his Funny Bike lead with a fantastic 7.167/166.67, just short of his personal best wiping out the track record. Neil Midgley improved to a 7.407/172.41 and Shaun Branch is getting back to form with a 7.699/164.23. Then up stepped Ken Cooper who put in a stunning 7.229/187.50 to take the track speed record, nice work Ken!

Mick Cheley is still holding onto his #1 spot in Super Pro ET, qualifying there should secure him the Super Series Championship. He has been dialling in 8.60 and has run two 8.60s and an 8.62. Martyn Jones had a good go at unseating Mick, though, clocking 7.634/176.08 on a 7.60 dial-in. Pat Talbot's checkout in the E-Manumit.com dragster turned into a full pass, 7.906/172.41 and a very happy crew. French racer Pierre Pouyfourcat has now run three consecutive 8.7s although dialling-in with an 8.50 each time. Nick Stephenson recovered from mis-directed plug leads yesterday to break out with an 8.14/169 on an 8.25 dial-in although crew chief Vince looked very happy with that. Another racer running very consistently is Ian Tubb in Kenny Coleman's dragster, Ian has been dialling in 8.50 and keeps on running in the 8.5s.

11:45

Our parting shot to Super Gas racer Dave Townsend this morning was "You'll come out this morning and take number one spot". Dave didn't quite do it but a 9.91 shows that there is no residual damage from yesterday's fire.

In Super Street Bike the lead remains with Tony Clark from yesterday's pass although a huge wheelie robbed him of the chance to improve upon it today. Second place swapped hands as Karl Larcombe ran 8.492 and then Graham Dance clocked 8.458. Pete Bellenie improved to an 8.801 whilst Mark Fisher also stepped up to an 8.77. Matt Nixon also had a huge wheelie off the line and doubtless now sounds as if he has been on helium.

Comp Bike unfortunately saw Jerry Collier rod the Kawasaki H2 in the burnout. Chris Hannam improved to an 8.918/158 on his Busa, as far as we can ascertain this was the only improvement in CB today.

Pro Stock Bike racer Al Cook is frantically trying to install his spare engine after junking his primary piece in qualifying yesterday. Engine supremo Roger Upperton is in the Cook pit helping out.

11:15

Filipp, our visitor from Greece, has just put in his first pass clocking 12.872/105.88 in Pro ET on an 11.50 dial-in. Zane Llewellyn has now run three 8.9s in Super Comp, another 8.95 in this session, whilst Sarah Day took a bit of a wild ride in the Double Trouble roadster, a good driving job kept it in her lane. Shaun Lathan dropped several pieces of his Super Comp Calibra's rear end on the start line, an unfortunate start to the day for him.

Congratulations to Pro ET racer Rob Elsom who has just taken the Eurodragster.com Perfect Light Award with a 0.500 in qualifying. Rob gets £50, and the fund will be reset to £50 for the European Finals.

Stay tuned and we'll bring you more news very soon.

10:30

Good morning and welcome from Shakespeare County Raceway for day two of qualifying for the Super Series Fallnationals, we're here to bring you the news in association with American Car Imports. It's very different to yesterday, overcast and cool, which will throw a curveball to the racers as they set up.

A good morning to Bob Meyer whom we know is tuned in from the USA, hope your weekend is going well Bob.

Thanks to our friends at Talbot Racing for hospitality last night and breakfast this morning, much appreciated! Also thanks to Knut Soderquist for the offer of coffee and Swedish bread this morning, next time.

This morning we spoke to Super Gas racer Dave Townsend about yesterday's fire. As we thought, Dave had a fuel fire. "It was either a fuel line or a fuel regulator, I don't know which went first", he said. "I didn't realise how bad it was until I got out the car, I heard a pop in the burnout and so I shut it off. When I saw the start line crew come running with the fire extinguishers I hit the on-board and then got out". Dave is very grateful indeed to all of his fellow Super Gas racers who came to his aid as soon as he got back to the pits. "There were that many helping that I couldn't get near the car!", he said.

By all accounts we're very lucky to have Susanne Callin's tuner Alan Jackson with us this morning, after he got a shock from a 44 amp mag on the Top Fueller yesterday. "I was strobing it and then suddenly got a huge belt", said AJ. "I've got a huge bruise on my chest". It could have been a lot worse and we're all very glad that it wasn't.

Fuel Funny car racer Smax Smith didn't make yesterday's first Fuel FC qualifier. "I could have been there at four o'clock but I didn't want to rush it", he said. "I damaged the rear main at the Bulldog Bash and so I have put a new crank in. Everything takes forever with these cars!". Smax has a half pass planned for today's first qualifying session and then a full pass in the second.

Top Fuel Bike racer Ian King tells us that it wasn't him who shut off his TFB after the burnout in yesterday's second qualifying session. "On the first pass it launched fine, but then I hit tyre shake so I rolled off the throttle", he said. "On the second run I braked too hard after the burnout, I think the fuel surged and the engine got a big gulp of air".

If you were tuned in yesterday you will remember that Steph Milam's TMFC sounded a little laboured off the start line. It turns out that the throttle stop was still on the car. "It's the long lay-off since the last race!", said Steph. "But we are pleased with what the car did with the stop on!".

Super Gas racer Malcolm Francis is enjoying his rookie year. "It's going alright", he said. "I had too much throttle stop on the first run yesterday, and on the second run a wire came off the transbrake - you probably noticed that I launched a bit quickly!"

Qualifying is now underway, stay tuned for the news.