Drag Racing Unplugged XIII

With the 2011 season over we are, for the thirteenth year in succession, pleased to bring you the finest comments from the year's event coverage on Eurodragster.com - and other quotes we didn't publish at the time.

We open with the Quotes of the Year of the 2011 Eurodragster.com coverage team:


Tog's Quote of the Year

"Route 66 Raceway built by IKEA"
-- Spencer Tramm takes his first look at Tierp Arena

Simon's Quote of the Year

"You will need to surgically remove this smile"
-- Graham Dance runs successive Personal Bests on his Super Street Bike

Kirstie's Quote of the Year

"I think I will have to fire the whole crew tonight to solve the situation"
-- Thomas Lindström, currently a DNQ in Pro Stock

Roger's Quote of the Year

"Don't tell the driver"
-- The-ever entertaining guys of the S&K Racing Super Pro ET team

Ed's Quote of the Year

"I would like to marry your car"
-- Tog's reaction upon seeing Per Svedberg's beautiful Dodge Demon Pro Mod

Christer's Quote of the Year

"I was about to relax from driving and start swearing, when the power came back and the car started to accelerate again"
-- An odd Pro Mod qualifier for Urban Johansson


And the rest of the 2011 Drag Racing Unplugged collection in chronological order...

"This is the only car in the world that is both street legal and legal for NHRA Pro Mod"
-- Andy Frost brings his Red Victor 3 Pro Mod to Autosport International

"It is alive and growing and there is more diversity in car types than in the US"
-- Lucas Oil Worldwide Motorsports Manager Tom Bogner likes European drag racing

"It was unveiled to the press on Thursday and some visitors have said it was the only car they wanted to see"
-- JDS Pro and Super Pro ET racer John Bradshaw unveils Project Zed at Autosport International

"This is quite new for us - we could tell you a lot about stair lifts!"
-- Nigel Walker of Mini Gears sponsors Dave Ward's Super Pro ET dragster

"The day before Carmel called, we had been discussing how to get more involved in the UK and Europe!"
-- Top Methanol Dragster team Turner Motorsport display impeccable timing contacting James Wills of new sponsor Goodridge

"The end users here in the UK and Europe are much more educated and we enjoy working with them"
-- Interesting implication in the compliment paid by Tom Keating of Dart Machinery...

"We find that the Small Block Chevy is very dear to UK racers and that a very big block means 496 cubes!"
-- ...but he does find classic English understatement amusing

"The rest of the market is volatile, there's always a Spring of the Week!"
-- John Verburg of Ferrea Racing Components understands trends

"How many bolts would I have to buy to secure a discount?"
"Half a million"
-- Hard bargaining by Chris Brown of Automotive Racing Products

"We've got room for some more nitrous but that's all - I can't make the car any bigger!"
-- Steve Green plans a move to Super Modified with his wild Cortina

"Yes you can, if you take me to Hawaii on the Monday!"
-- Wild Bunch racer Adz Price asks if he can marry Lorraine on Saturday and race on Sunday

"We thought that now that we can come back, why shouldn't we"
-- Chris Andrews plans a return to Top Fuel Dragster

"It's like Whicker's World with you: where the **** is Tog this week?"
-- Tog's buddy Malcolm tries to keep track

"One of my crew announced he was on a diet and I had to make it into a competition"
-- Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson loses thirty three pounds

"After the first pass of the year I feel five years younger"
-- Roger Moore finds the fountain of youth in his Pro Mod

"We caught the disease and will run in Super Pro"
-- Rainier van Scheldt gives up circuit racing

"Six months is a long time to leave it alone"
-- Phil Crossley can't resist fiddling with his Comp Bike

"I don't do pressure and just want to take it home in one piece"
-- Easier said than done, John Hunt is talking about nitro in his Supertwin

"I am looking for the Championship this year and want to run a lot more than seven passes on the car"
-- Risto Poutiainen aims to forget the nightmare of 2010

"Being quick depends on the skills of the crew rather than the amount of parts we have"
-- Anita Mäkelä knows than money isn't everything in Top Fuel Dragster

"I had to go home to get some old spare rings that did fit and ended up knocking on the son of my hairdesser's door at 8 pm to get the last one which we had given to him as a souvenir!"
-- Top Methanol Funny Car racer Steph Milam goes above and beyond

"We got confused with three Daves on the start line but ended up having time to sit and wait"
-- Slight start-up timing issue between Dave Wilson's Top Methanol Dragster and Steph Milam's Crew Chief and husband Dave

"The track was more grippy than we thought but we just about had the biggest cheer of the day"
-- A Nitrous burp blows two carbs off Phil Leamon's Comp Bike

"The biggest difference from a Funny Bike is the extra weight - it's a big lump to run"
-- Kev Charman takes the seat of Rene van den Berg's Top Fuel Bike

"The Skyline is not for sale - I am too emotionally attached to it having developed it over so many years"
-- Presumably John Bradshaw has a big workshop

"Steve, Mal and the lads have done it all before and my only problem was shutting off at the gantry rather than the finish line"
-- We think that Craig Owen can be forgiven for clicking it off all of 0.088 seconds early in Mark Flavell's Super Pro ET Funny Car

"The new equipment is nice to have if there is a problem"
-- Steph Milam is the first to try the burst plate-triggered auto shut-off

"Ollie Burn asked me would I like to drive it at Shakespeare County Raceway as a birthday present and that became my first licence pass"
-- Eight candles for Terri-Anne White in The Mob Fuel Altered

"As soon as I knew we were above the height the wheelie bars were set I lifted immediately"
-- Fellow Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association racer Dave Grabham sees blue sky and birdies...

"On the next pass we did a monster wheelstand and we had to take bits of track out of the front suspension"
-- ...followed by Dave Evans in his Super Pro ET Impala...

"I have started to shift during the wheelie which helps carry the wheels for longer"
-- ...followed by Pro ET racer Carla Pittau

"You can either get off the throttle or lean over"
-- Dave Smith explains how to control a wayward Super Street Bike

"It is a bit scary having the big cars come from behind"
-- A first Super Pro ET outing for Dave Raper, used to heads-up starts in the Super classes

"It needed to fail before we found the cause"
-- Gary Jones and Dave Friend diagnose a problem with their Comp Bike

"Like an Easter Bunny it keeps grabbing"
-- A rough ride for Funny Bike racer Steve French

"I actually had to swallow quite hard"
-- Track owner and long time drag racer Leif Andréasson watches two Junior Dragsters make the first ever runs at Tierp Arena

"It's like a cockroach - it could probably survive a nuclear holocaust"
-- Gary Page rides out a scary crash and flip in the Chaos Fuel Altered only to find the body pretty much intact

"You need to give new parts time to make friends or they will come back to haunt you"
-- Doug Bond counsels son and blown-alcohol altered racer Joe Bond on running in

"The chassis is currently tagged to 8.50 but I will need it upgraded to 7.50 as the car will run quicker when it is sorted"
-- Super Pro ET racer Ron Bartlett gets a new motor

"I thought it was the bike but Bois ran an 8.6 at a Run What You Brung and I thought there's only one excuse"
-- Disarming honesty from 8.50 Bike racer Martin Walker

"Len Paget and I are lining each other up - at least he is quicker than me at this event"
-- Graham Dance gets the Super Street Bike v Pro Stock Bike rivalry going

"I would like to run 7.2s at the Main Event but the competition are throwing a lot of money and parts at it"
-- Len Paget has other fish to fry in Pro Stock Bike

"The only change we made is the grommet that takes the fuel line through the bulkhead"
-- Outlaw Anglia racer Paul Wright returns after three years' hard graft in the workshop

"Her foot had been slipping off the throttle causing the nitrous to switch off"
-- Ed reports what had been stopping Paula Atkin from getting her Super Pro ET Mustang into the sixes

"The cost of replacing the two blown out front tyres forced me to buy a new car"
-- Pro ET racer Simon Gough was last seen locking up the brakes of his previous car two weeks earlier

"We would call this January and wait for summer to race"
-- US Pro Stock Bike tuner George Bryce doesn't appreciate a chilly FIA Main Event

"The vibration is also more intense but he finds it enjoyable"
-- Christian Jäger gets on a Supertwin

"Leaning outside the windscreen at 1000 feet the headwind turned his helmet on his head. On the plus side he said the wind made correcting the bike easier"
-- The ups and downs of Supertwin in one run for Jan Sturla Hegre

"When dialogue in Danish produces a laugh, he assumes they are speaking about him"
-- Tommy Johnson Jr quickly fell in with the Andersen Racing Top Fuel Dragster team

"It's hard sometimes"
-- Pro Modified racer Micke Gullquist explaining to a foreigner that his nickname Gullan is a very common Swedish name - for a 92-year-old woman

"It would be interesting to see what this team can achieve if the driver does something right during the run"
-- Marcus Svensson analyses Pro Stock racer Thomas Lindström's first career low qualifier of 6.735

"You look winded"
-- Carl Olson encounters Race Reporter Tog after three days of real-time updates at the Sweden Internationals

"If one more person asks me what I think of this place I'm going to shrug and say "Oh, it's OK I guess" just to see the look on their face"
-- The locals were justifiably proud of Tierp Arena

"Papa!"
-- Tog to Per Svedberg

"Not 'pedestrian' now"
-- Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jonas Staflund proves that he reads our Event Coverage

"We want to run a 6.0 or 5.9 and what has bitten us today is trying different equipment"
-- Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis has an embarrassment of choice

"I passed my driving test on Wednesday and got my race licence at the Webster Race Engineering test day two days later"
-- No hanging about for Super Street new boy Chris Perkins

"Steve, Neil and I like doing mountain biking for relaxation and I stepped off big time going down a hill"
-- And yet Super Street Bike racer Graham Balchin was wearing a T-Shirt which read Rider

"The chassis by Chris Isaacs held up, and Chris there's more work coming for you"
-- Pete Thompson books his guardrail-modified Super Mod in for treatment

"The timing crew gave me a gold star on the ticket, which is better than the silver star we got in qualifying"
-- Andy Hone takes the Super Mod event title at the SPRC Summernationals

"I have a diesel Mondeo and diesel van so when I took the petrol can for refilling I naturally put diesel in it - and then into the Camaro"
-- Sportsman ET rookie Craig Wright in illegal additive shock

"The Toyota Soarer has not been at all consistent so I have had to rely on muck and brinksmanship rather than running the numbers for the win"
-- Fellow Sportsman ET racer Kev Long reveals his own tactics

"This satnav's a ****!"
"I didn't notice what make it was"
-- Tog and Pit Reporter Simon diagnose a wrong way incident

"At the second NDRS event I was leading the Swedish Championship going into the race and in the second round the tube with the gear button cracked in the burnout and I redlit again"
-- Mats Eriksson misses out on a Pro Modified title

"I was surprised it was not in a museum"
-- Konrad Bayer discovers that his Super Comp pick-up was the first car built by Tim McAmis

"We have realised that we wanted to run as amateurs and the class as a whole has stepped up and is much more professional now"
-- Rolf Amman explains his retirement from Pro Mod

"We thought we had cured it, applied more power and it went slower"
-- Rick Stubbins' Super Street Bike misbehaves

"I came back because drag racing is the greatest motorsport and I missed it"
-- Roger Vögeli quits quitting and returns to Pro ET

"The first thing I knew was when I had a text from Karsten last Saturday which said Houston, we have a problem!"
-- Thomas Nataas takes over the seat of the Andersen Racing Top Fuel Dragster

"There is more of a grass roots feel to the sport, less pressure to perform and more fun"
-- Despite the circumstances of his suspension Tommy Johnson Jr enjoys racing in Europe

"My dream this weekend would be to be up against Kenni in the final and I would not give him any favours!"
-- Neergaard and Son Top Fuel Dragster Racing

"It helps to have three blocks"
-- Paul Ingar Udtian lines up the spare parts for the Islanders Top Methanol Dragster

"We really need to use dice to decide the correct set-up"
-- Top Methanol Dragster team Peter Schöfer Racing attempt to avoid Snake Eyes

"It is not fun and we will have to get replacements from the US"
-- Krister Johansson breaks his motor during Top Methanol Dragster qualifying

"It looks as if a rogue part may have cost us the Championship"
-- 2011 FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Champion Fred Hanssen spoke too soon after jumping the start at the penultimate event

"Surviving and the excellent meals!"
-- Roel Koedam's best memory of twenty five years of drag bike racing

"I have been racing since the wheels on Pro Stock Bikes were made of wood"
-- George Byrce has been around a while

"I have put a lot of money in the bike but it is now catching the Buell boys"
-- On the Pro Stock Bike hunt with Fredrik Fredlund

"It was not the right direction for our performance"
-- Jürgen Nagel sums up off-season work on his Top Methanol Funny Car

"Other countries are available"
-- Lena Perés of Speedgroup overhears UK racers arranging to sit together at the NitrOlympX post-race party

"How's your health at the moment?"
"Not brilliant"
"Stop eating pies you ****!"
-- Lifestyle advice for Tog from a Eurodragster.com sponsor who had better remain anonymous

"It has thrown our tuning out of the window because we were tuning our Big Block Chevy on a faulty fuel pump"
-- Super Pro ET racer Matt Glassup has to start again

"It would be nice to get past the finish line"
-- New car blues for Martyn Jones' Super Pro ET dragster

"Roger said it if happened next time he would make me paint the wall"
-- Super Pro ET racer Roy Wilding is motivated to avoid another fag paper job with the guardrail

"As the car launched I pulled the steering wheel back and the steering column came off"
-- Dave Evans and a genuine "Came off in my hand"

"I have spectated but work has a habit of getting in the way of running the car"
-- Phil Bennett returns to Super Comp

"The wheelie bar is a disaster prevention device rather than a tuning device"
-- Carla Pittau explains why hell has frozen over

"If he catches us we will still feed them"
-- Ian Hook outlines the agreement with fellow Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer Alex McIntosh

"We haven't actually heard of exploding catch tanks before, but our American friends in the pit say that it happens now and then when a spark from somewhere ignites nitro fumes in the tank"
-- Another first for Micke Kågered during Top Fuel Dragster qualifying

"We talk together about the tuning decisions and everyone gets to say what they think"
-- The TIL Racing Top Fuel Dragster team tune by committee

"It started with a £20 bet on whether Nick could get his Audi into the thirteens and ended up spending many thousands of pounds later"
-- How Nick George got into Super Pro ET

"It doesn't help going early in the session but someone has to"
-- Andy Robinson finds himself at the front of the queue for Pro Modified qualifying

"I pulled the fire extinguisher control but it didn't work"
-- A baptism of... well, fire for Linda Thun Tønseth in blown-alcohol Pro Mod

"It's my first time in Europe and I have had a great time, enjoyed the hospitality and had fun"
-- Mark Ashelford doesn't regret the long haul from Australia to contest UEM Supertwin

"If we meet I will still go full throttle - drag racing is not about political games"
-- Job Heezen considers the possibility of meeting team-mate Roel Koedam in Supertwin eliminations

"We will sell the bike after this event and have more holiday next year"
-- Lorenz Stäuble retires from Supertwin

"I thought we had no spare camshaft, but an extensive search in the trailer came up with one that I forgot about!"
-- Arvid Grødem's Top Methanol Funny Car will go to the ball

"The racing in Europe is at a high level and I am always following Fredrik on Eurodragster.com"
-- US Pro Stock Bike tuner Gary Stoffer guarantees his inclusion in Simon's pit notes

"We touched the wheelie bars and the team made a good call. I shall sleep well tonight"
-- Thomas Lindström qualifies

"It was like it came to a sudden stop"
-- Jonas Dantanus' Pro Stock hesitates in first gear

"Of course, the bike hadn't gone past the finish line!"
-- Did Roel Koedam stay on the throttle when his visor came off in Supertwin qualifying?

"It is a matter of technique and how you move around with the bike rather than strength"
-- Ian King describes Top Fuel Bike control

"The riders are great, the work is more relaxed than Pro Mod and there is less pressure"
-- Danny Cockerill is enjoying the switch to Super Street Bike

"We have run the quickest Fastcat engine on the planet but now it is RIP"
-- Engine damage for Jan Sturla Hegre's Supertwin

It is an awesome feeling. We have been number two too many times prior to this"
-- Micke Gullqvist wins the 2011 FIA European Pro Modified Championship

"The impact was a lot less than I expected and looking back now it wasnt a problem!"
-- Peter Svensson shrugs off a tag of the guardrail during Top Fuel Bike qualifying

"The crew did their job and we will buy the driver a practice tree for Christmas!"
-- Crew Chief Frank Schlemmer has already been shopping for Jürgen Nagel

"It was the first time this had happened to me and it was a strange feeling. I thought something was wrong with the transmission and shifted to second"
-- Danny Bellio's Top Methanol Funny Car drops a chute under full power

"It is very bad when you, as a driver, can see the start line!"
-- Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Marco Maurischat's 'Vette takes a hard right turn

"When I am in the car I forget whatever else is going on and just run my own race"
-- The key to John Atkinson's UK National Super Pro ET Championship

"It has been promising this and I am thrilled for Graham that we have got here"
-- Nick Davies of engine builder ICE Automotive clocks 239 mph in Graham Ellis' twin-turbo Pro Mod

"Even with a stock engine I am needing to short shift and sit up to avoid breaking out"
-- ...and that's why Jake Mechaell is moving from 9.50 Bike to 8.50 Bike next season

"As the rider I am just chilling out and the guys are chasing the problem"
-- Graham Dance has one of those weekends when you hit trouble on every run

"It seemed good to come here, have some fun, and race the boys. I wasn't thinking about the record"
-- Kev Charman races Rene van den Berg's Top Fuel Bike in Comp Bike

"One difficulty in competing in Top Alcohol Dragster was that as all the competitors were such good people, he was always competing against friends"
-- NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Mike Manners tells Ed about a welcome drawback

"Mike said he would still like to do some racing in Europe if he could arrange a ride"
-- Give that man Dave Wilson's phone number

"The other commentator sounded upbeat and excited and got the crowd going. You... well, your commentary was different to his"
-- Mrs Tog discusses the relative merits of Paul Venners and Tog as track announcers

"I suddenly remembered my daughter Courtney was testing in the Funny Car and as it was now dark I realised I'd not told her about running in these conditions. "You'll see flames, big flames, they're the header flames, just drive through it"..."
"But what if she is on fire?"
-- Mrs John Force asks an apposite question

"I do remember telling you about the Quote of the Year but it is totally gone!"
-- Christer Abrahamson, you're fired


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