Lantto's wild one. 31st July: If you were tuned in to our Event Coverage from Mantorp Park you will have read that Finnish Pro Mod racer Marko Lantto took a wild ride during Saturday's qualifying as his 'Vette spun out in the shutdown area. From our seat in Race Control it wasn't clear what had happened as the car disappeared spinning into a cloud of smoke and then dust, although we quickly got word that Marko was quite OK. Marko's Crew Chief Janne Storrank got in touch to let us know how it was from Marko's point of view, and that the team are hoping to return for the Nitrolympx. As you know, it was our last chance to qualify so there was no question about a part-throttle pass. The car started moving around after shifting to second gear, Marko tried to keep his foot floored but somewhere near 370 metres he ended up in Terje Håkonsen's lane. Luckily Terje was ahead. Marko saw Terje's chutes come out right in front of him, and having no time to get his own chutes out he stepped on the brake pedal to slow down. ©Eurodragster.com As a result both of the front brake calipers broke loose from the front struts, cutting the brake lines and jamming the left side front wheel (the only brake left at this point). Has anybody heard of this happening before? The car stopped pretty well in the gravel. Marko was uninjured and there was no mechanical damage to the engine and driveline thanks to a relatively "smooth" landing. We wish to thank the safety crew at Mantorp Park for their quick response. We are currently repairing the car for Hockenheim and we are hoping to get the car fixed in time. Swift snippets. 31st July: Many thanks to Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe for forwarding us the official Timing Data from Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway and the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park. You can check out the timing data by clicking here or by clicking on the Timing Data link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Andy has also sent us an updated set of European Bests including Mats Eriksson's Pro Mod speed record and the updated Pro Mod bump spot record, which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. The official entry list for the NitrolympX, which takes place at Hockenheim on 15th-17th August, was released whilst we we were in Sweden and can be found at www.nitrolympics.de. A big Well Done to UK former Junior Dragster racer Collin Morrice who took a turn in the family's Super Comp/Super Gas Camaro at the weekend and betted very creditable bests of 9.12/147. Collin tells us that he was carrying a blood glucose monitor to see if driving a race car had any effect, and that he will let us know the findings. ©Eurodragster.com After a very positive response to their appearance last year, the UK's Team Fang Supertwin team have been asked by the Honda Owners' Club to attend Mega Event 08 to fire up both bikes. "Whether you have a Honda or not come along", says Carl Wadkin Snaith. "Bring your bike gear and licence too for test rides on all the latest Honda road bikes. The event is at the excellent Motor Heritage Museum, Gaydon, Warwickshire on Sunday 24th August, and you can find more details at www.hoc.org.uk". The team's web site at www.thefang.co.uk has been updated with news of a dyno visit to Tim Blakemore and a link to a video of the dyno test. Congratulations to Danny Bates of Adrenaline Race and Performance, his partner Kelly and first son Taylan who welcomed their second son and brother Ellison late on Monday night at Kettering General Hospital. "After a fairly fraught nine months Ellison arrived safely weighing in at 5 lbs 14 oz and firing on all cylinders!", says Graham Rice. "Another Ford fan joins the ranks!". Congratulations, too, to Jo Harris of Santa Pod Raceway and her husband on the birth of their son Reuben who arrived early on Sunday morning weighing in at 9 lbs 1 oz. Jo and Reuben went home on Tuesday. What's on this weekend. 31st July: The UK's Andy Frost is taking on the finest street-legal racers from Canada, the USA and Australia in the Lucas Oil-sponsored World Street Race II at the CFSC Extreme Drag Racing Shootout at Miramichi Dragway Park at New Brunswick in Canada, which starts tomorrow. Andy got in touch by text yesterday to let us know that he had arrived and had been personally greeted by track owner Terry McGraw; his seven-second Vauxhall Victor was already waiting for him. We hope to receive updates from Andy as the weekend goes on. Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen's Sunoco Drag Challenge takes place at Gardermoen Raceway, Norway from tomorrow until Sunday. The event is a round of the FIM/UEM European Drag Bike Championship and there are full fields of Top Fuel Bike, Supertwin and Pro Stock Bike contesting the event. Nitro action includes Siw Nystad in Urs Erbacher's Top Fuel Dragster, Torstein Risdal and Linda Thun Tønseth and Fuel Funny Car action from Gary Page, Patrik Pers, Thomas Nataas, Gordon Smith and Håkan Fällström. In TSDS Top Doorslammer, 2007 Champion Benny Strand will have tough competition from Pro Mod teams including Micke Nord, Roger Johansson, Freddy Fagerström, Niclas Andersson and New Generation Johan Lindberg. Ten Pro Stock racers are taking part in a non-points shootout and there are rounds of the Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series and the Norwegian Championships. Our colleagues at EurodragsterNorth.com will be reporting live from this event. ©Eurodragster.com The North of the UK's biggest drag racing event of the year, the UK Northern Nationals, takes place at York Raceway on Saturday and Sunday and Steve Murty tells us that things are hotting up: the Supercharged Outlaws have confirmed a seven and possibly eight car field. whilst Air Cooled Eliminator, York's class for Beetles, is set to be a thirty-car field. American Super Stock, the UK's largest all-American racing class, is set to have its biggest ever turnout of more than thirty five cars, and John Sleath is to return to take back the title of the Street Racer Champion which has been Nigel Parkin's for too long. If you have never been to York, or haven't been in a long time, this is really the meeting to come to, with the track conditions better than ever and officially the best laid-back atmosphere. If the sun is out then as well as being at a competitive race meeting, which it most certainly will be, it will feel like being on holiday! At Santa Pod Raceway Marangoni Ultimate Street Car, which also takes place from tomorrow until Sunday, is the the largest Modified car festival of the year featuring RWYB track action, drifting demos, car clubs and displays, trade village, music, top babes, Show'n'Shine and lots more. Weekend tickets are £55 on the gate or £20 on each of Saturday and Sunday. Gates open at 9:00 am tomorrow and 8:00 am on Saturday and Sunday. You can make three runs down the track in your car for £15 each day - don't forget your driving licence and, if your car does 110 mph or more or is open-topped, a crash helmet. In Germany the Rotenberg Racedays are being held at Rotenberg Airfield which is 50 km from Bremen and 80 km from Hamburg. Classes include Junior Dragster, Pro ET and All Harley Drags. Tickets are €8 for Friday and €12 for each of Saturday and Sunday. Children under 12 get in free. Outlaws hit York. 31st July: This weekend's UK Northern Nationals at York Raceway is the third round in the 2008 Supercharged Outlaws series, and Dave McKenzie says that if the first two rounds are anything to go by this one should be a cracker: With the Northern hospitality and a field of a least seven cars the Outlaws aim to put on a really good show for the Northern fans. The race for the number one plate is now hotting up with Roy Wilding in joint first place with Richard Davies, both are on 61 points and there are 35 points at stake for whoever finishes in top spot at York. Roy must be feeling confident because Richard has had to miss this round due to holidays. Roy will not have it all his own way because there is some tough competition up in the North this weekend. In third spot after his recent win at Santa Pod is Steve Goode with the Wobble altered. Steve is currently on 53 points. In fourth spot we have last years series winner Lee Gallimore, Lee is now getting to grips with a new rear axle combination and he proved his mettle with a string of PBs at Santa Pod. Fifth placed Alec Coe with the Shy Talker slingshot is making the long trip from Kent and is looking to add to his points, Alec has not quite found the tune up he wants from the potentially seven-second slingshot but he is working hard with Kev (Closet) Mortimer to get the car to run the numbers he wants. Yes Kev, I have the parts you want ready for York. Tom Coe, the second driver of the team, is going to put on a magic show in the pits on Saturday night for some entertainment. ©Eurodragster.com Also making a very long trip, from the Isle of Wight, is Paul Watts with his Chevy pick-up. Paul has had a lot of bad luck this year but I feel it will come together at York. The sole Northern representative this year will be Tony Smith with the Faster Pussycat altered. Tony has also been down on luck this year but with the car sorted and Tony raring to go he will be out to keep the flag flying for us Northerners - my car is still broken from last year and will not be out until 2009. Last but not least Ian Hanson's beautiful Corvette will be making its second appearance at York. Last year Ian did some head damage on the first pass so he hope to make amends and put on a good show, Ian's car can run in the low seven second bracket at close to 200 mph. Last year we were joined by Mark Flavell's rear engined dragster. I know that Mark has entered but he has not confirmed that he is to participate with the Outlaws, if he does with his new Funny Car he could again put Des Taylor in the hot seat but we will have to wait and see on this one. This round is kindly sponsored by Roy Wilding Race Cars so Roy will be out to win this one! See you all at York this weekend. Web site updates. 31st July: Veidec Festival Top Fuel Dragster winner Andy Carter's web site at www.andycarter.net has been updated with pictures from the Lucas Oil / Andersen Racing team's weekend at Mantorp Park. Eurodragster.com Reserve Photographer Peter Donaldson has updated his Fotopic gallery with shots from Saturday's action at the Mopar EuroNats at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Peter's pictures at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net. It's Hobbit week on The Acceleration Archive, says our good friend Alan Currans. "John Hobbs' first appearance after the recent engine rebuild was at the 1000 Bike Festival held at Mallory Park", says Alan. "Archive contributor Kelvin Fagan was there to record the action and Page 6 of his collection contains twenty pictures taken at this event. July was a busy month for John because his next outing was the ClassicFest sprint held at North Weald last Sunday. This time it was my turn to wave the camera about and you can see fifty three images taken at this meeting. You can access these two new pages from the What's New link on the Site Map at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk." ©Eurodragster.com Simon Hodder has updated his photographic web site with some excellent shots from the weekend's Mopar EuroNats at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Simon's pictures at www.simaxphotography.co.uk. Julian Hunt has updated his web site with pictures from the Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway. "I have an equal amount of VW and V8 pictures on the update", says Julian of his pictures which can be found at www.julianhunt.net. Editor's note: We still have a backlog of news items with which we will catch up on tomorrow's update. Tune back then to read about the ultimate Wedding Anniversary present, the quickest Mopar at the Mopar Euronats, what the Bankrobber guys got up to at Mantorp Park, the latest news from the UK's Junior Drag Bikes and more, and please keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com. European Championship points. 30th July: Many thanks to FIA and FIM/UEM Championship Co-ordinators Kjell Pettersson and Lars Andersson for forwarding us the post-Veidec Festival points standings in the FIA European Drag Racing Championships and FIM/UEM European Drag Bike Championships. ©Eurodragster.com You can find the latest European Championship standings on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Editor's note: We are still worn out from the weekend so we're going to take one more day off. The next full news update will be tomorrow (Thursday); please keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com. Veidec Festival results. 28th July: Congratulations to the winners at this weekend's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park: Top Fuel Dragster: Andy Carter 4.2739/411.45 def. Urs Erbacher 7.0487/163.10 Top Methanol Dragster: Rob Turner 5.6089/400.11 def. Peter Schöfer 6.0893/315.87 Top Methanol FC: Ulf Leanders 5.8769/395.84 def. Arvid Grødem 6.1938/328.06 Pro Modified: Robert Joosten 6.4163/357.84 def. Marc Meihuizen 7.7589/184.76 Pro Stock: Richard Sundblom 7.2491/296.44 def. Michael Malmgren 20.0960/60.30 Top Fuel Bike: Peter Svensson 4.1409/292.33 def. Rickard Gustafsson 4.3550/265.35 Supertwin: Svein Olav Rolfstad 4.4212/269.07 bye, Per Bengtsson no show Pro Stock Bike: Fredrik Fredlund 7.4659/289.58 def. Stavros Svrachnos 7.5878/281.82 Comp Eliminator: Petri Nagy (9.82) 9.2020/208.20 def. Lars Åke Karlsson (7.82) 7.4039/no speed Super Comp: Christer Haglund 8.8560/237.35 def. Pertti Soronen 8.9622/247.26 Super Gas: Christer Uhlin 10.0391/195.01 def. Antti Kivinummi 10.0891/223.67 Super Street: Gideon Liljegren 10.8721/194.65 def. Tony Åberg 10.7572/200.06 Stock/Superstock: P-A Lindström (10.55) 16.7739/110.93 def. Björn Bondesson (10.64) 10.7123/194.15 red Junior Dragster: Rasmus Möller (8.70) 8.7319/102.43 def. Ida Zetterström (7.93) 7.9842/133.11 Super Comp Bike: Dag Wagenius 8.9422/223.32 def. Jonas Sundström 9.0550/257.53 Super Gas Bike: Christer Holmberg 9.6850/227.80 def. Timo Savolainen 10.2191/232.84 ©Eurodragster.com Congratulations also to the following on setting new records: European records Pro Modified speed: 382.97 kmh (237.97 mph), Mats Eriksson Top Fuel Bike eighth mile ET: 4.063 seconds, Peter Svensson Top Fuel Bike eighth mile speed: 303.10 kmh (188.34 mph), Peter Svensson Track records Top Fuel Dragster 1000 feet: 4.049/473.33 (294.11 mph), Andy Carter Top Methanol Dragster: 423.51 kmh (263.16 mph), Dave Wilson Pro Stock: 326.29 kmh (202.75 mph), Richard Sundblom Pro Modified: 6.121/382.97 (237.97 mph), Mats Eriksson Top Fuel Bike: 4.063/306.81 (190.64 mph), Peter Svensson Junior Dragster racer Pontus Dantanus took the Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award with a reaction time of 0.0000 in qualifying, and Super Gas racer Johan Rehnström took the Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award with a 9.9002 in qualifying. You can check out our American Car Imports-sponsored reports, pit notes and photographs by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. More power to the Turners. 28th July: Veidec Festival Top Methanol Dragster winners Turner Motorsport have announced a new sponsorship deal with XTC Energy Drinks and Skip Body Supplement. These products, already available in Sweden and Finland, will be introduced to the UK shortly. Distributor Harri Kokkonen said "The connection of XTC Energy Drinks and Skip Body Supplement to drag racing is that both are designed to produce a lot of power in a very short time. The human body is like a motor and both these products are high quality fuel for it. "Skip Body Supplement is branded as "Top Fuel" and is a low fat and nutritional supplement made in Sweden. Different types are available for food replacement, weight loss, increase in oxygen and adrenaline booster. More details can be found at www.skip.se or www.skip.fi. XTC is a booster drink with caffeine and is available in five types: Cactus, Gurana (both herbal mixes), Light (sugar-free) and Classic. The product is made in Austria and will help you when energy levels are down and concentration becomes lacking. Drinking XTC will increase energy and concentration levels and enable you to give you their best. It's like a power adder." "We met Harri at Alastaro and found he was interested in motorsport and was himself a body builder and drives a Chevrolet", said driver Rob Turner. "The Finnish people are very competitive and drag racing is a great addition to XTC Energy Drink and Skip Body Supplement sponsors who include power lifters, athletes, Super Moto and rallycross-style events." BDRHoF decals available. 25th July: The British Drag Racing Hall of Fame in association with US Automotive have by popular demand produced a British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Supporter decal. These high-quality decals have been produced by Darren West of Power Race Graphics and will be the thing to have on your race or street vehicle, with the added assurance that you will be contributing to honouring some of our most deserving people who have enabled us all to enjoy our chosen sport. ©Eurodragster.com The decals will be available from US Automotive at their warehouse at St Martins Way, Bedford and also from US Automotive's sales promotion marquee at this weekend's NSRA Supernats at Old Warden this coming weekend. The decal can also be purchased from Shakespeare County Raceway and Carter Motorsport, or send a cheque for £1.34 (which includes postage) made payable to the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame direct to the BDRHOF office at Adelaide Cottage, 39 Hatton Park Road, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire NN8 5AT. All proceeds from the sale of decals will go towards the running costs of the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame. FBs' transplant success. 25th July: Against most expectations (including their own) the UK's FB Racing B&H Automotive Street Eliminator team made it to the Bug Jam in the FB coach just a month after melting a piston in the coach's previous engine. "Without doubt, taking out two coach engines - our own and the one from the donor - and fitting the replacement was the most challenging task FB Racing have ever undertaken" says Ian Hook. "As well as the engine swap, all three quarters of a ton of it, we also had to change the transmission and fit a new radiator. All this was done with no pit or coach lift and most of it, it seemed, in the rain! As usual, I am indebted to a lot of people who helped and am grateful to Eurodragster.com for allowing me to thank them in public. ©Eurodragster.com "Firstly Lee Sharples for coming to our rescue late at night and arranging a tow home for us when we first broke down. Thanks to Brain, Spud and Wires from the FB crew and to Darren Herbert-White from the Obsession team for their help in installing the replacement, and to all my crew who dipped their hands into their own pockets to help with the costs incurred. To my eldest son Shaun and to Matt Wright for assisting in the removal of the donor engine (from Matt's burnt-out coach), and to Pete Dowdswell for the loan of a recovery truck to drag the engine and trans out and bring it home. Thanks again to Matt Wright for selling the engine and box at a very reasonable price. My appreciation also goes out to Eurodragster.com for publicising our appeal and to their readers for the responses we received. But the final and biggest thanks must go to Brief (aka Paul Bettany) who has worked his socks off over the last few weeks to get us back on the road including one twenty-hour day when we pulled the replacement engine and box. Not only that but he displayed awesome driving skills when we were recovered behind a tractor with a very short length of chain! "All of these people have helped ensure our continuous support of Street Eliminator - we haven't missed a meeting since taking time off to bring home the first King of Europe trophy back in 2005. Cheers everyone and we'll see you at the track." Open Sport National trophies. 25th July: Jerry Cookson has again been in touch from Shakespeare County Raceway to let us know that the trophy sponsorship scheme for August's Open Sport Nationals is now fully-subscribed. Trophies have been sponsored by the following: Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association: Power Race Graphics Super Modified: Wacky Racers Super Pro ET: Eurodragster.com Super Comp: Curbishley Automotive Super Gas: Curbishley Automotive Super Street: Wacky Racers Pro ET: Power Race Graphics Sportsman ET: AW Upholstery Ltd Outlaw Anglia: Time Travel DVD Outlaw Flat Four: Cotsweld Race Cars Wild Bunch: Time Travel DVD Street Eliminator: AW Upholstery Ltd VW Sportsman: Apsley Transmissions VW Pro: Apsley Transmissions VW Alternate: TSR Engine Conversions Junior Dragster: Peter Walters Race Design Top Fuel Bike: Psycle Workz Funny Bike: Pro Joint Custom Fabrications Pro Stock Bike: Psycle Workz Competition Bike: Copyprint Depot Super Street Bike: Eurodragster.com 9.50 Bike: Furlong Tyres Junior Drag Bike: King Racing Supertwin Fuel: Turboville.com Supertwin Gas: timtime.co.uk Supertwin ET: Moto-vation ©Eurodragster.com "We had a tremendous response", says Jerry. "Thanks for all the E-Mails. Commiserations to those who didn't make quite make it on to the list, but you should not despair as we have other ideas for further sponsorship opportunities for those companies and individuals who still want to get involved. These will be announced on Eurodragster.com later next week." Swift snippets. 24th July: Tog would like to say a big Thank You to Swedish Top Fuel Dragster racer Micke Kågered who took him for a passenger ride in the Peugeot Two Seat Dragster yesterday. Micke offered Tog the chance to ride along on a checkout pass and drove him (and his stomach) to a 9.27 shutting off at three quarter track. It was a great start to the race weekend and thanks very much to Micke and his crew. ©Eurodragster.com Swedish Pro Mod Pro Mod racer Micke Lindahl made his intentions quite clear for this weekend with a 6.78-second pass, shut off on the eighth mile, at yesterday's Press Call for the Veidec Festival. Micke's eighth-mile was a 4.11 and he told Eurodragster.com that the incrementals equated to a 6.3-second pass. A couple of our good friends have birthdays today. A big Happy Birthday firstly to Grace Roaf who is tuned in from the UK, you have a great day Grace. Happy Birthday also to Lotta Andersson who will be with us at Mantorp Park today. Have a lovely day Lotta. Web site updates. 24th July: The official web site of Sweden's Lindberg Brothers Top Doorslammer/Pro Mod team has been updated with another of their excellent documentary videos. Check it out at www.lindbergbros.com. ©Eurodragster.com Touring Europe with one trailer... 23rd July: FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion and Eurodragster.com News sponsor Urs Erbacher found some problems with his dragster after the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. Team member Andrea Wucher tells us that Urs is waiting on some new parts which they hope will arrive in time for this weekend's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park: After returning from Finland the crew started overhauling the car. Everything was taken apart, and it was worth it. We found some minor mistakes which slowed us down at the Alastaro race, mainly ignition problems like weak spark plug cables, bad battery connectors etc. Urs went shopping in the meantime and has bought three used eight-stand clutches and two newer sets of Alan Johnson Heads. There was a fuel pump from Rage on sale so he got that one as well. We will see if delivery is on time for Mantorp, but for sure the new goodies will arrive for Hockenheim. When buying new parts the rule is the same as for women buying new clothes and shoes. For every new thing something old must go out. We don't want to drive a second trailer through Europe just with parts and stock for Urs. So at the moment there is quite a long For Sale list at the Erbacher pit. Stop by and have a look. Nine-stand clutches, floaters, disks, heads, Waterman fuel pump etc. And before I forget, if somebody wants to have the dragster race ready with that including a 4.5 second setup and the latest FIA and NHRA specs, it is for sale too. Urs is looking for a new dragster, his shopping list will never end. ©Eurodragster.com In Mantorp we have to put up a good showing in the race. Alastaro didn't quite go as planned. To go out in the second round is not an option if you wand to defend a title. So there is just one goal: win the races ahead. We are struggling with consistency at the moment. We have the speed and the power, no question, but we need to run constant numbers to be part of the show as we did at the end of last year. But I am sure that we will find our way. The team is highly motivated and doing their best to get back into the winners' circle. Lorenz Stäuble will be back on top on his Supertwin at Mantorp. Power and speed are not a problem here either. The bike has to run straight and the performance has to be consistent. But Lo can do it, he has proven that before. The best part of the season starts now. Two to three races in a row in just a few weeks is always the highlight of the year. Racing becomes your every day duty and things run easy and smoothly in the pits. In Gardermoen Siw Nystad will run in Urs' dragster. It was never easier to find additional crew for a race weekend, Urs was a little bit jealous. We are all wondering how it will be for Urs to see his dragster running and not sitting in it. Can he handle it? We will see, and we will do everything to give Siw a great racing weekend in front of her fans. A GTO goes to war. 23rd July: Mantorp Park is just a forty two minute ride from the Norrköping base camp of FIA European Pro Stock Champion, Sweden's Jimmy Ålund. Team member Lars Rodeblad says that the team are really looking forward to the race at a track they think they know pretty well, huge crowds and a lot of friends and sponsors visiting. "Team activities will start Wednesday, Press Day, with press and media", says Lars. "Prior this the team have been preparing the Klintberg & Way GTO for war. The competition is going to be tougher than ever! We want to keep the momentum from our last win in Finland, so we are trying to find ways to get the car faster down the track by working on the suspension set-up, gearing, engine data etc We need to tweak every single horsepower from that motor! ©Eurodragster.com "The Klintberg & Way Pro Stocker will be cheered and backed trackside by hundreds of fans working with our main sponsor, US car parts specialist Klintberg & Way. We also want to take this opportunity to thank the following co-sponsors, who together made our racing possible: Fragus Warranty Group; Nordea Finans; Exclusive Cars; Cooper Tires; Infra Nordic Shipping; Åby Fasad; Bra Ljud i Bil; Byggmaskiner; Jerry Haas Race Cars; Harley Davidson Norrköping; CFM Carburettors; MECA; Norrköpings Tryckeri; Nitro Consult; Palace Hotel; Svensk Fettåtervinning; and Vadstena Klosterhotell. "It's going to be a wild weekend, so we'd better be ready! See you all at the track." Malmgren: not to be written off. 23rd July: Fellow Swedish Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren is hoping to repeat last year's feats at Mantorp Park when the Lahega-sponsored car was fastest in every session and also set a new track record. This would help to make up for Michael's 2008 season which hasn't got off to the best of starts. "The rainout at Santa Pod didn't help anyone, but Alastaro was very bad for us as we had a bad clutch that took us the wrong way on tuning untill we found out", says Michael. "Finally in the last qualifying session we seemed to have the set up right and picked up five hundredths on the sixty foot time. With that said our first qualifying run was 6.91 with a 1.07 sixty foot time, compare that to Jimmy Ålund who is always fast and who had a 1.00 sixty foot time and ran 6.81. It's all in the sixty foot for us in Pro Stock, if you don't do it to sixty feet you're going nowhere. ©Eurodragster.com "In the first round of eliminations we had Eero Knihtilä and had him at the Tree by 0.015 so it looked like a safe win, but the second I dumped the clutch we went to hard tyre shake and had to lift due to a lot of clutch dust from Top Fuel which ran just before us. This turned out to be a a very bad call by the race officials, nobody went safe in the first round and several cars in Pro Stock almost crashed including Eero who skated around to a 7.6 as he couldn't see that I had already lifted. Also the low qualifier Nixxon faced same problem and had to lift. Racing should be safe and tough, not a guessing game due to a very slippery track. After that that they changed the order so that Pro Stock didn't run after Top Fuel - the ETs picked up right away and no cars had problems. "We really hope that the Veidec will be as good as last year and then we have to see how far that will take us. We are only three hours' drive from Mantorp Park so we may go to Meca Raceway tonight and leave for Mantorp early tomorrow morning. We know that we have the power from Bob Ingles to run at the top, we have a very fast and good car in our Jerry Bickel-built GTO. My crew with Crew Chief Anders Wall , crew Jimmy Malm, Mike Carlsson, Emil Lundquist and Tommy Hansen have worked very hard this spring and we have for sure not given up yet. We are still in it for the title, even if the odds are not on our side. Jimmy is still the man to beat, but to be honest you also have to look out for all the others because almost anybody still has a shot at the title. There are still a lot of points to race for, and we will do our very best to improve upon our #3 position in 2007. We have this obligation to our faithful sponsors Lahega Kemi AB, Oakley Racing Div, Myresjöhus and all of our US performance product sponsors." The big noise in Supertwin. 23rd July: Swedish Supertwin racer Per Bengtsson and his very noisy drag bike The Beast are currently number four in the FIM/UEM points standings and the best-placed Swede heading in to the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park. "Since the Veidec Festival is the only Swedish race in the Championship it is of course very important for us", says Per. "The race in Finland gave us a lot of datalogging on the bike which is very useful going in to the third round in the Championship. We know that we are definitely competitive and can run the numbers to qualify well. "As I look at it you have to take out at least three very fast bikes in eliminations to be able to make it to the finals. But with an entry list including sixteen bikes and just eight spots in the ladder it's going to be a tough battle out there! I'm also glad that our extended team now really works well together and everything has into place. "The Bentec Dragbike Team would also like to thank our sponsors Swedcut, Flexoart, Quaker State, Atoexperten i Växjö, Gates/Lönne, Fanhultstvätten Älmhult, Ulvsgården AB and Bentec Engineering." Picture courtesy and ©Stefan Boman Selkämaa rushing for the ferry. 23rd July: Finnish Top Fuel Bike racer Kai Selkämaa's motor damage at the FHRA Nitro Nationals turned out to be very severe, and the team has been working day and night on the bike in order to get it in top shape for the Veidec Festival. The team had to renew or repair nearly everything except for crankshaft on the motor but Kaija Kohtala says that despite all the problems it looks as if the team will manage to get the bike ready before leaving for Mantorp Park this afternoon. "The time schedule is very tight and there is a risk that we cannot run the bike until this morning, and this evening the team should be in Helsinki onboard a Silja Line ferry to Stockholm", says Kaija. "If everything goes as planned we'll be arriving in our motor home at Mantorp tomorrow afternoon. "The most important goal at Mantorp is to get several runs and to keep the bike running perfectly and undamaged because four days after Mantorp the team is going to attend the next FIM/UEM race at Gardermoen in Norway. This is the first year for our team in Top Fuel Bike and the main purpose is to gain experience. In addition, we'll be fighting seriously for every UEM-point. "The eighth mile we run at Mantorp suits us very well. It's easier for the bike than a full run and we'll be able to gain further experience and gather important data from the bike. In addition, we know that Kai has very quick reaction times and we've got 1.06s at sixty foot so we'll have a great chance to surprise at Mantorp. "Once again special thanks go to Toni Haapakoski from Eastlands Engineering. Without Toni we could hardly get the bike ready for Mantorp. Thanks also to our sponsors Fastems Oy, ST-Koneistus Oy, Bahco, Vuorenmaa Yhtiöt Oy, Tallink, Bike Doctor, Eastlands Engineering and PME Oy." PBs, broken heads, starters, asterisks. 23rd July: Norwegian Top Methanol Funny Car racer Arvid Grødem comes to Mantorp Park on the back of a new Personal Best at the FHRA Nitro Nationals, although the Westside Racing team have had some work to do since the new best came at the price of engine damage and problems getting the rig home to Norway. Arvid got in touch to tell us the story of his season so far: The team entered the FIA Main Event with the goal set high, but with a completely new fuel system from Ken Lowe we had some adjustments to make before we could go on track. We sat out the first qualifying round as we were not ready to run, but had to be out for the second one as the weather forecast was not too good for the rest of the weekend. We planned and made a half track checkout pass and we were very happy with that, and I guess that is about all to say from that weekend. The weather then became as predicted and the event was finally cancelled. The second round of the Championship became a roller coaster of highs and lows. We got to Alastaro on Thursday evening and it seemed like we were the last to arrive as there was no space left for us. Some places did definitely not fit a seventeen metre truck and trailer, some almost did, but after close to an hour search we finally ended up in the Pro Stock camp (Pro Stock wannabees...not). We were of course eager to get the Sunoco Express Mustang onto to the track and I ran a Personal Best in the first qualifying with a 5.88/395 kmh on a far from optimal run. Just over the finish line I heard an all too familiar noise as the burst panels blew and I could not fully enjoy it when Tapio told me the ET. Back in the pits we discovered only minor damage to a piston and a valve but we changed all pistons just to be on the safe side. We had to sit out the second qualifying run, but were ready for the third. The Sunoco Express Mustang was then all over the track and again the engine let go. Back in the pits we realised that the cylinder head gasket was blown out and had torched the block and the cylinder head. The block was easy repairable but the cylinder head had to be welded and, as we did not have any spare heads, that put an end to the weekend's racing for us. As Dan Larsen got some body damage to his car when he went off the track the team stepped in and helped him out - a flashback from the 2003 season when the Westside Racing team wrenched for Dan. For us it was just left to do whatever could be done to prepare for Mantorp and then to watch racing from the sidelines. Congratulations to the Leanders Brothers as the winner of the event and to Jarmo as runner up! ©Eurodragster.com On the way to the ferry we stopped by a gas station and when we were about to leave the truck's starter motor decided to let us down. We tried all the tricks in the book but to no avail. Luckily the Leanders Brothers came by and managed to tow start us. Thank you guys! We reached the ferry, but when we disembarked the same thing happened again. What we did not know was that we were blocking the ramp for the deck above us. My apologies to Ian King for keeping him waiting upstairs. To cut a long story short we managed to get both the truck and trailer off the ferry and then we carried on without stopping the truck's engine until parked at a workshop in Oslo. As if that was not enough some ****** reversed into to the trailer when the start motor had been changed and the truck and trailer were about to be parked outside our workshop. One incident seldom comes alone. Back home I hung on the phone to Gary Burgin and get new supply of pistons etc. The cylinder head was delivered to the Lindahl twins in Finland and will be repaired in time for Mantorp. When checking with Gary for the delivery time of a set of new Veney heads we were pleasantly surprised as they had some on order which they probably could turn around and give us in time for Mantorp. They have been shipped from Veney's and are on the way to Norway. If FedEx do their job they will show up in time for Mantorp. When it comes to the Championship I think everyone in the class has stepped up a level, but Ulf Leanders has stepped up two and will be hard to beat if he continues running low seventies or high sixties. We will of course give him and everyone else in the class fight to the end, and if we can sort out the gremlins in the engine experienced so far this season we shall not be far off. The whole Westside Racing Team is looking forward to the Veidec Festival. We will carry on the good experience gained in Finland and forget about the bad. The weather forecast looks just unbelievably good and I'm sure we will see some great racing. We need a new door, hang it. 23rd July: Finnish Pro Mod racer Kristian Nyström and the Alho & Lähdemaa team feel like the FHRA Nitro Nationals was only last week, which gave them even less time to repair body damage sustained at that race. "At Alastaro we struggled with lot of problems: tyre shake, ignition problems, and as a grande finale the driver's door flew off at 200 mph at the finish line against Marc Meihuizen in round one of eliminations", says Kristian. "But we managed to get new PB on that run, 6.42. "On the Monday after Alastaro weekend we started to search for a new door. First we tried to get a new door from Hairy Glass in Florida, but the delivery time was four weeks plus shipping and the Veidec festival was three weeks away. We had to continue the search and with the help of a true drag racing colleague, Mike Canter of GA, USA we found a spare door on Joe and Bill Culver's Pro Mod team where Mike Canter works as a Crew Chief. After some arrangements with UPS the door was shipped. The help we got from Mike Canter and the Culver brothers was something I will never forget. Drag racing is a worldwide sport and you get help worldwide. One big family! "The door will not fit in our car just like that: our doors and the Culver brothers' doors are made by Hairy Glass but ours are modified at Tim McAmis so we need to fix it. The schedule for the door to arrive in Finland is very tight. It looks like we have to run with the damaged door that we fixed, it's not nice but we have a door. "Our crew member Tapio Haaksi checked the engine after Alastaro and everything looked OK. This is our team's second year in Pro Mod with a blower and methanol, none of us in the team had any experience with blower cars before. Without the effort that Tapio Haaksi puts on our car we couldn't even dream about going racing. He is the man to have in your team. He will not give up and will always find a way to get things fixed. Kiitos Tapsa! ©Eurodragster.com "The Pro Mod field this year is huge with lots of cars running 6.20s. We still have three races to go and as it now stands anybody can win the Championship. The crew Tapsa, Arska, Ville, Hannu, Kari, Erno and Pinne started their trip to Mantorp Park last night. First a half-hour drive to Naantali harbour then by ship to Kapellsk&aouml;r Sweden, and they will be at Mantorp this afternoon. Pasi and I travel tonight and we will be at Mantorp Park tomorrow afternoon. See you there! "We would like to thank our sponsors: Well Nutrition, Airiston Putkityö Oy, Air-Way Oy, Axton Oy, Hangon Pelti Ja Teräs Oy, Kulj.Liike Road Rider Oy, Metallivälitys Lähdemaa & Aarnio, Parax Kiinteistöhuolto,  Sipoon At-Tuote Oy, Uudenmaan Erikoispuhdistus Oy, Airduo Oy, Airon Oy, Carrier Oy, Kaarinan Suodatintekniikka Oy, KVL-Rent Oy, Oy Lind-Tec Hydro AB, Rengas-Salo Oy, SL-Boats Oy, and Wallius Hitsauskoneet Oy." Three times the effort. 23rd July: Swedish Pro Mod racer and race car builder Mats Eriksson had a good weekend at the FHRA Nitro Nationals and is looking forward to a hard fight at Mantorp Park this weekend. "We ran our personal best of 6.23 at Alastaro, with tyre shake, and we got down the track three times and that feels good", says Mats. "Then I messed up in first round but I was not alone. A big hightlight for ME Racing Service was that we delivered Tommi Happanen's new Top Fuel dragster and it worked fine. ©Eurodragster.com "Pro Mod is three times harder to win than the other classes and the other teams are going faster all the time, so it is very important that we make good progress at Mantorp. Ludvig is racing with the Junior Dragster so we are going to the track on Wednesday. "I want to thank my fantastic crew: my son Lars-Göran Eriksson who is our clutch man and who built Tommi Happanen's new Top Fuel chassis; John Thide who is like a rock, he works mostly with the engine and transmssion; Mats "Masse"Johansson who works on ME Racing Service building Top Fuel Dragsters and much more. He is new this year and fits in the team like a glove; Lena Perés my wife who stands for all thise madness; and Ludvig Perés who helps to wrench when he's not racing. Thanks to our sponsors Migatronic Welding Machines, Valvoline Oil, Bridgstone Tyres and Dalecarlia Chokolates." Swift snippets. 23rd July: Europe's first 1000 foot (more properly 990 foot) finish line/speed trap has been put in place for Top Fuel competition at this weekend's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park. To help Top Fuel racers spot the new finish the guardrail has also been painted alongside the speed trap. FIA European Top Methanol Funny Car Champions and Eurodragster.com News sponsors Ulf and Jörgen Leanders go into the Veidec Festival leading this year's Championship and intend to leave Mantorp Park in the same position. "Our new home produced clutch has proven to work better then we could hoped for", says Ulf Leanders. "First we had the performance with our car and then we saw Fast Freddy's and Mats Eriksson's cars qualify with great numbers with our Pro Mod clutch". For more information check out Leanders Brothers Performance Products at www.leandersbros.se/mainpages/products.htm or click on the logo at left. Andy Marrs of TSI Timers Europe has forwarded us new European Bests tables updated for the FHRA Nitro Nationals featuring Richard Sundblom's new Pro Stock speed record, chronological Pro Stock records, and the new quickest Pro Stock bump spot. You can check out the new European bests by clicking here or by clicking on the European Bests link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com Our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson is again running his popular Pro Mod Bump Spot Contest for this weekend's Veidec Festival with a T-Shirt up for grabs. To enter, E-Mail your guess at the #16 qualifying ET to three decimal places, together with your name, address and T-Shirt size to webmaster@promod.nu. All entries must be received by 11:00 pm UK tonight (Wednesday). Last year's Pro Mod bump spot at the Veidec Festival was 6.671 seconds, the quickest ever in in Europe...or at least until this weekend. Further to yesterday's news item, Jerry Cookson has been back in touch from Shakespeare County Raceway to let us know that Wacky Racers (Super Modified and Super Street) and AW Upholstery Ltd (Sportsman ET and Street Eliminator) have signed up for the Open Sport Nationals Trophy Sponsorship scheme. There are still some classes left with trophies available for sponsorship; if you are interested then call Jerry at the track on 01789 720180 or E-Mail enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. Tog would like to wish his sister Kirsten Rogers a very Happy Birthday. Have a big hug and a great day Kirsty and we'll see you soon. Veidec Festival Perfect Awards. 23rd July: A grand total of 1400 SEK is up for grabs from Eurodragster.com, Speedflow and Gold RV at the Veidec Festival, the latest event in the Eurodragster.com Perfect Awards scheme. This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been increased to 840 SEK after it went unclaimed at Bug Jam. The money will be presented to the first racer next weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available to all racers in all classes during qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first perfect light of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £100 for the Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway; if it is won then it will be reset to the equivalent of £50 for the Open Sport Nationals. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with performance hose and fitting manufacturer Speedflow, whose web site you can find at www.speedflow.co.uk. As Mantorp Park's timing system works to four decimal places we must clarify that although the Perfect Light Award goes to three places, we will not pay out for red lights with zeroes in the first three decimals since a foul is a foul however far in the first non-zero digit may be. So 0.0001 will win you the money (if you're first to do it), but -0.0001 will not. Decals are not formally required for the Perfect Light Award but of course we appreciate it if racers carry Eurodragster.com decals: you can get Eurodragster.com decals at the track from any Eurodragster.com staff member. ©Eurodragster.com This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award has been reset to 560 SEK after it was won by Sportsman ET racer John Parker at Bug Jam. The money will be presented to the first racer next weekend to run to the thousandth on their dial-in or index. The Perfect ET Award is available this weekend in Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Stock/Superstock (eliminations only), Junior Dragster (eliminations only), Super Comp Bike and Super Gas Bike during qualifying and eliminations but will only be awarded for the first perfect run of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to £75 for the Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway; if it is won then it will be reset to £50 for the Open Sport Nationals. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with RV sales and service specialists Gold RV, whose web site you can find at www.goldrv.co.uk. To be eligible to collect the Perfect ET Award, racers will be required to carry decals, one on each side of the vehicle whether car or bike. The decals are available at signing-on but please note that, as is usual with contingency schemes, racers are responsible for requesting or picking up decals when signing on. A list of required decals per class is always on display in signing-on. Tuning Top Fuel for 1000 feet. 22nd July: Top Fuel Dragster tuner Eddie Corr, who will again be working with Finland's Jari Halinen at this weekend's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park, has been in touch with an insight to what this weekend's 1000-foot race distance in Top Fuel means for tuners: For a start I completely agree with everything the NHRA says on this matter. 1000 feet is a measure that is necessary right now to allow some breathing space, some margin, while they look into other ways of making the sport safer. I have no issues with it. But what does it mean for times? Well, in the NHRA for instance, a 4.48 run at almost 330 mph would have recorded a low 3.80 at over 310 mph at 1000 feet! A European car that was set to run about 4.90 at the quarter would get to the 1000 foot mark in about 4.18 seconds at approximately 285 mph. So the good news is that all the cars will run fours! Even funnier, some of Europe's big hitters may run a three! And yes, on a run like that exceeding 300 mph is very possible. The thing about reducing the racing distance for the Top Fuel cars makes sense in that it certainly increases the safety margin, but its also up to the teams to brief their drivers to ensure that they know their part of the deal. It's no good allowing people to shut off 320 feet earlier if they still don't use the correct shutdown procedure. Did you know that on a full pass of 330 mph at the 1320 mark, almost twenty per cent of the total shutdown area is used up every second the car is on full throttle? And that's on a track with a decent shut down area! So on a track with marginal shutdown area, even half a second too long on the throttle could use ten per cent of your available braking distance! Clearly, initiating the shutdown procedure at exactly the right time is necessary. Furthermore the drivers need to know how hard to brake as the rear brakes, although secondary to the parachutes, are still important and need considerable pressure to do their job properly. Having studied data and video from many cars and drivers in Europe and the NHRA to identify the best and quickest method to get stopped, I have a briefing prepared for my driver regarding all of the above: basically when, how hard and how fast to shut the car down. ©Eurodragster.com As far as tuning goes, running the car to 1000 rather than 1320 make no difference. With only a little ignition and fuel tuning possible after the eighth mile, the cars are largely on a fixed curve after the clutch locks up anyway. If the racing was only to the eighth then there would actually be different considerations regarding tuning. But to 1000 feet? No difference over a tune-up for 1320 feet. After the eighth Top Fuel cars continue to accelerate until they run out of track, but the battle between tractive effort and aero load is a losing one. Making the race 1000 feet instead of 1320 feet just brings this battle to a head earlier. As a tuner when you stand on the startline watching your car run, when it makes it past the eighth you tend to relax a little, because most of the tuning is in the area of 0 to 660 feet, and the chance of losing traction and going up in smoke is lessened after 600 feet. So although the effect of tuning from 660 feet onwards is less than it is for 0 to 660, one thing that is very much still happening from 660 to 1320 is the production of heat. The engine is developing more and more power, and therefore more heat, and so things are quite finely balanced in those last few hundred feet. Therefore one benefit of 1000 feet racing is that it may actually reduce engine explosions as these can happen right at the top end of the track. So, 1000 feet? I'm all for it! There are still numbers and targets to aim for there. 300 mph is still possible - that's 483 kmh in Swedish! - and a three-second run is even possible. One European racer has already clocked a three at 1000 feet more than once. Editor's note: See Swift snippets below for some more about 1000 feet. Svenssons join Team Kendall. 22nd July: Peter and Sören Svensson's Top Fuel Bike operation has been renamed from Billet Racing to Team Kendall Racing reflecting a new sponsorship deal. "One of the main issues for the team has been to get a Main Sponsor in order to be able to run at least the three remaining UEM Races at Mantorp Park, Gardemoen and Santa Pod", they say. "We are happy to announce that Kendall Motor Oil Sweden have stepped up after many years as a sub-sponsor to be our main sponsor for 2008. As Team Kendall Racing we will join the same team as the Lindahl Brothers' Pro Mod Camaro, which we really are looking forward to. We are also happy to announce that we have been able to sign sub sponsor contracts with the following companies for 2008: ©Eurodragster.com Samek Tool AB (who make some of the best moulding tools in the automotive industry in Sweden) HRM/Ritline AB (Technical Consultant company within the automotive industry in Sweden) CemeCon A/S (one of the best coating companies in Europe ) During the winter and spring the bike has had some major changes in the fuel system, but apart from that we have mainly been focusing on updating a newly-bought trailer which can take care of our transportation between this Summer's races in a good manner. Picture courtesy and ©Patrik Jacobsson Feeding the eight hundred... 22nd July: Swedish Top Fuel Dragster racer Micke Kågered moved his operation to Mantorp Park yesterday ready for this weekend's Veidec Festival. Team Co-ordinator Åsa Kinnemar says that although the race is some days away, being on home turf a mere forty five minutes from Mantorp Park brings obligations to family, friends, fans, and not least the team's sponsors: Eight hundred people accepted the invitation to visit Team Kågered's private VIP area and the limit was reached some time ago.Team Kågered are fully booked for the weekend, to say the least, and we are looking forward to some hectic days at Mantorp Park. Micke Kågered Racing and sponsors like SNA Europe/Bahco, Amalie Motor Oil, TT-line, Mitutoyo, System Edström Bilinredningar and newest sponsor Peugeot have invited clients and staff to visit what we can tell will be a stunning battle at Mantorp Park. Invited visitors will get a unique chance to follow Team Kågered's action very closely, as the VIP-area is situated in connection with the Top Fuel Dragster pit space. For this weekend Micke is also bringing the Peugeot Two Seat Dragster to Mantorp Park for some scheduled runs with invited passengers on Friday to Sunday. As Micke will have a hectic time managing the Top Fuel Dragster over the weekend, he has asked colleague and long time friend Leif Helander to pilot the Two Seat Dragster for him. Leif, who has many years experience in methanol and nitro Funny Cars, welcomed the opportunity to help Micke out this weekend and did not hesitate to accept the request. "I wanted to ask someone I would trust to go with myself as a passenger", says Micke. "Leif is definately that person - a safe and experienced driver as well as a great mechanic which is a bonus". Leif will be on-site at Mantorp on Wednesday to get acquainted with the procedures around the Two Seater and to make test runs in the car. Together with son and mechanic Johnny, Leif will be in charge of the Peugeot dragster at this event and wil be part of the massive Team Kågered operation of thirty five people to care for guests and cars. While I have worked together with sponsors and suppliers to prepare the hospitality part of this event, Micke and part of the Swedish mechanical crew have spent the weeks after the Finland race trying hard to get back to the point they were before more or less wrecking two engines at Alastaro. "It has been real hard to get new parts from the US", says Micke. "Many suppliers have a long delivery time; it seems they can't keep production up to the needs of the market right now. At the moment we are one engine short, but we hope to have the last parts on Thursday for it. We want to have three more or less complete engines prepared. After qualifying on Friday I will want to change the engine currently in the car to have a fresh one in for Saturday. At least that is the plan at this moment and besides that, as always with a Top Fuel Dragster, you need to have a lot of fresh spare parts such as heads and pistons. So we have stocked up on sundry parts and expect to be fully race ready on Thursday when we have the full mechanical crew on site. ©Eurodragster.com "There are fourteen Top Fuel Dragsters entered for this race. As Sunday's eliminations only allow for eight places, this means that six Top Fuel Dragsters will be parked in the pits, not qualified, for all of Sunday. It can be anyone who ends up outside the ladder, including myself. I do not take it for granted that I will qualify at any event. There are simply too many cars and they pretty much have the same potential. Anyone has the power to beat anyone else and there are so many factors that need to be right at all times to gain success. In Finland we were not qualified when the last session started, struggling with snapping pistons that ruined two engines for us. Howeveron that occasion it all came together at the right time and we ended runner-up in a close final with Lex Joon. "My main focus for this week is to see that my car is among the eight quickest during Friday's and Saturday's qualifying. That is my goal up to Saturday evening. After that I can hopefully set a new goal for Sunday." As Eurodragster.com are reporting live from the Veidec Festival, Team Kågered encourage you to follow the action via their service (if not there in person!). Team Kågered staff will focus on caring for all invited guests on site and to do what we can to provide a good show for the spectators. A summary report with Team Kågered's comments will be posted at www.kagered-racing.com after the weekend. Curmi's second world best. 22nd July: Gary Curmi of Malta's Mibrum Racing Team has posted another world record with his Toyota Supra 7MGTE-powered dragster. The new best for any car powered by such an engine was set during the Malta Drag Racing Association's first night event of the year at Hal-Far Raceway on 4th-5th July. ©Eurodragster.com "Gary first made a name for himself as a world record holder for 7M engines clocking 7.44/174 last year", says Holger Camilleri. "After some tune-ups and a more powerful engine management set-up by mechanic Joseph 'Sieheb' Tabone and tuner Mike Charalambous of JMC PowerAutomotive, Cyprus, Curmi broke his Personal Best and set another record with a spectacular 7.3/185 run. "A big Thank You goes to all of our sponsors and those who support our team, but the biggest thanks of all go to our dedicated crew for all the work before, during and after the race. Thanks guys, our dreams are coming true!" Borlänge Street Open update. 22nd July: Super Pro Street racer Johan Johansson took the 500 SEK Best Burnout award posted by Eurodragster.com at the weekend's Borlänge Street Open at Dala Airfield. With a large number of candidates for Best Burnout the decision was very difficult but, just as in the racing proper, Johan's consistency won the day and his wild Volvo PV certainly had the crowd going. ©Eurodragster.com You can check out the results of the Börlange Street Open on the excellent Nitroz web site at www.nitroz.se. In association with American Car Imports we have now posted our own photo gallery from the Borlänge Street Open which you can check out by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Tog and Kirstie would like to thank Christer Gustavsson, Lena Perés, everyone at the Borlänge Drag Racing Club, and the Timetree Tech Crew for their warm welcome, hospitality and help at the weekend, plus of course a big Thank You to our good buddy Christer Abrahamson who is our host here in Sweden. Swift snippets. 22nd July: Eurodragster.com News sponsor Simpson will be on site with their trackside trailer service throughout the Veidec Festival. "Business hours will be Wednesday afternoon to Sunday evening", says Jan Phersson. "The trailer will be parked in the Sportsman pits." Anyone interested in the MSD and Racepak seminar at Mantorp Park this Thursday (24th) is asked to register their interest as soon as possible. One hundred racers and crew have already signed up for the seminar which will be held in the VIP tent and which will be presented by Joe Pando of MSD and Tim Anderson of Racepak. If you are interested in attending then for more details check out our news item of 9th July. ©Eurodragster.com UK Outlaw Anglia racer Dave Sidaway would like to warmly thank Crew Chief Gary Bird for his help in getting the Outlaw Anglia Fordson into the nines for the first time at Bug Jam. "It's a massive achievement, especially as with the problems we've encountered this year, but we learnt a lot, stuck at it and now have got paid out!", says Dave. "Thanks also go to Penny, Shane, Aaron and Sean who couldn't be there to witness the nine first hand, so we'll have to go and do it all again at the Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway in August. More thanks go to all the folks who have helped us along the way this and previous years, and to the wife Ellie, who puts up and enjoys it all! It was a fantastic weekend, as all Outlaw Anglia weekends are. Roll on the next one." We are sorry to announce that Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Roger will be unable to attend this week's Veidec Festival (We haven't fallen out, so put down those forum logins - Ed). Markus Ek, whose site at www.mek.nu is no stranger to regular readers of Web site updates, has kindly agreed to supply the pictures for our Veidec Festival Event Coverage. A big Thank You to Markus for stepping in at short notice, and our best wishes to Roger - look forward to seeing you again soon buddy. Our coverage of the Veidec Festival commences with tomorrow's Back to Basics Nostalgia race which incorporates the Press Call. Something about which the Eurodragster.com staff have been banging on for ages, one for trivia buffs, and a handy factoid for shutting up armchair know-alls: what is referred to as 1000 feet on a drag strip is actually 990 feet. The reason for calling 990 feet "1000 feet" is that everyone prefers a nice round number, but if the timing beam was actually that extra ten feet further down the track then it would add about 0.02 seconds to the ET at 300 mph. A big Happy Birthday for yesterday (Monday) to our good friend Nev Nottershead. Hope you had a great day Nev and wish you were here. Open Sport Nationals trophy update. 22nd July: Further to his news item of 18th July, Jerry Cookson has been in touch from Shakespeare County Raceway to let us know that he had an immediate response to the Trophy Sponsorship Scheme for the Open Sport Nationals, which takes place at SCR on 23rd to 25th August. The following trophies have already been sponsored: Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association: Power Race Graphics Super Pro ET: Eurodragster.com Super Comp: Curbishley Automotive Super Gas: Curbishley Automotive Pro ET: Power Race Graphics Outlaw Anglia: Time Travel DVDs The Wild Bunch: Time Travel DVD Top Fuel Bike: Psycle Workz Funny Bike: Pro Joint Custom Fabrications Pro Stock Bike: Psycle Workz Competition Bike: Copyprint Depot Super Street Bike: Eurodragster.com 9.50 Bike: Furlong Tyres Junior Drag Bike: King Racing Supertwin Fuel: Turboville.com Supertwin Gas: timtime.co.uk ©Eurodragster.com This leaves the following trophies up for grabs: Super Modified Super Street Sportsman ET Outlaw Flat Four Street Eliminator VW Sportsman VW Pro VW Alternate Engine Junior Dragster Supertwin ET For £30 you can have two class trophies for the classes of your choice with winners and runner-up plaques engraved with your company name, together with three days' worth of PA coverage throughout the weekend when your chosen class is on track and a spot in the event programme. All are welcome to participate, whether companies or individuals. Banner placement can also be considered. To register your company's involvement with the Open Sport Nationals, call Jerry at the track on 01789 720180 or E-Mail enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. Fangs for everything. 22nd July: Tony Betts of UK Fuel Altered team Venom Racing has been in touch to say a big Thank You to Garry Hall and all at the Damn Yankees for a great day at their event at North Weald on Sunday. "It was an ideal venue for us to get any teething problems out of Venom 2 prior to its first meeting", says Tony. "There were two other cars there, Frank Bennet with his awesome alky altered and Nobby Hills with his Houndog Funny Car. We were also pleased to hear Mr Drag Racing himself, John Price, doing the commentary. ©Eurodragster.com "We fired the car up a few times with no problems whatsoever. The new RPM computer did exactly as it was supposed to so no more excuses, it will all be in the data. Dave Settles supplied us with the new 30 USA gpm pump so lack of fuel will not be an issue this year. The team also have another addition to the team in the form of a new toolbox courtesy of Teng Tools, so now each crew member has all their own tools. The team have worked so hard to correct a few things we were not happy with on the car and a big thanks goes out to them. Another company that came through for us was Brise Fabrication in Kent who made a new fuel tank for us in three days so a big thanks goes out to Tim and the lads. Finally if anyone out there would like to get involved as a partner with one of the most professional-looking teams over here then see our web site at www.venomracing.co.uk." Web site updates. 22nd July: Swedish Top Methanol Funny Car racer Micke Larsson has updated his web site at www.mlarssonracing.com with pictures of the FC's new paintwork and news on licencing and other events. Our good friend Gwynn Clark has posted Bug Jam pictures on his web site at www.pbase.com/slimboyfat/bug_jam_22. "The gallery mostly features Flat Four and a smattering of V8", says Gwynn. "Our man Russ Fellows ran an outstanding 9.515 in his 'Driven to the Track' floorpan Bug, and Martin Taylor was in Street Eliminator with his Bug, first time out with the new engine and straight into the tens after a few half passes while he takes it easy getting used to it all." ©Eurodragster.com Paul Lister has posted more FIA Main Event pictures on his Drag Car Anon web site at www.dragcaranon.co.uk. Kirstie has added some more shots to the Eurodragster.com Facebook gallery documenting our travels in Sweden. The latest update includes the Säter Friday evening Cruise, some more shots of the Borlänge Street Open, and a dinner cruise on Lake Mällaren. The Facebook gallery is visible to all, member or non-member, at www.facebook.com/pages/Eurodragstercom/8220299411. Editor's note: We are of course able to receive E-Mails in Sweden so please keep them coming, but don't fret if you don't get a reply too quickly since (a) we are out on the road a lot and (b) we can only use webmail rather than Outlook to send E-Mails. But please be assured that all E-Mails are being read and that your news items will be posted. Carter to Excel at British Motorshow. 21st July: Carter Motorport are delighted to announce that the Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster will be on display at the British Motorshow at the Excel exhibition and conference centre in London Docklands from 23rd July to 3rd August. This is a major motoring event and will feature over 600 cars from the biggest names in motoring and motorsport. The show will include over 20 global premiers from the likes of Nissan, Ford and Bentley as well as features to include the Heritage Enclosure, Motorshow Music Festival and Disney/Pixar World of CARS to name but a few! The dragster will form part of the Santa Pod display and will be inside the hall. 'As part of our commitment to our main sponsor Lucas Oil, we are constantly looking for new platforms on which we can raise brand awareness for their quality range of products. This is a massive event and we're delighted and proud to once again, be representing the sport of Drag Racing. We would like to thank Santa Pod Raceway for inviting us to be a part of this show and look forward to welcoming our fans and new guests onto the stand. We'll be giving out the team hero card/Lucas Oil literature and also promoting the forthcoming book Andy Carter, King of Europe.' said Andy Carter. It will be a very busy period for the team as Andy will be contesting the Swedish round of the FIA European Championship tour during the show. Following a disappointing outcome in Finland, the team will be looking to go rounds and pick up maximum points as we draw closer to the business end of the season. 'I was delighted to set a new track record and qualify number one for the forth FIA event in a row in Finland. However, this means very little if you don't go on to win rounds and the event. In Sweden we'll be doing all we can to put this right as we press on for my third title. I'm delighted to hold track records now at 4 major tracks including Santa Pod, but for me, the record I really want is 3 FIA European Top Fuel titles. With the car, crew and major sponsorship we have, it's really there for us to grab with both hands. The competition is going to be tough with so many great competitors now in European Top Fuel but I didn't get to be the highest FIA Top Fuel points earner and set all those records by chance, we're ready for strong finish to this year's championship.' Andy continued. Olstad prepared for Mantorp. 21st July: Supertwin racer Hans Olav Olstad has had to make repairs to his bike for Mantorp and fit a new dataloger: The last run in Alastaro damaged the main crank bearing again, and force us to go back the old bearing set up. My girlfriend sponsed a new dataloggger from Racepack, so we hope it will arrive, and mounted before Mantorp. So big thanks go to Anne Marit. We have a nice setup for the bike and ran new personal best 1.08 on the 60' at Alastaro. This is very good for a high gear bike. We also set a new personal best on 1/8 mile, 4.41, so hopefully we can go that quick at Mantorp. The competition in Super Twin is totally open, absolutly everything can happend, but I gone have a extra eye on Lorenz. I am very happy about the 2 place in Alastaro, and also hope to perform a good weekend in Sweden. I have to say the track at Mantorp is the worst track in the whole series. The right lane is dangerous, and the incidents that occured last year shows what can happen. I almost hit the rail, Ulf Nylen hit the rail badly, twice. Peter Ström crashed. So a lot of the bikes have big problems in the the right lane and I really hope something has been done since last year. I do not want to take chances at all on this track so yes, 1/8 mile is enough here." For more information see Hans Olav's web page at Olstad Racing. Islanders' new axle. 21st July: Konrad Ree of Islanders Drag Racing Team says that the team had a large problem to solve after driver Paul Ingar Udtian ran a PB at Alastaro: The first thing we did on our trip to Finland was to visit our Main Sponsor Q8 Oils In Stockholm were we got more of our special made oil Islanders Drag racing oil, and we also got a guided tour of the Q8 facility and blending plant. It was really interesting to see how they do the testing and blending. A big thanks to all involved from Q8 Oils and Petrolia, which is the name of the factory. The Islanders were on a mission at Nitro Nats at Alastaro, qualifying # 3 with a new PB at 5.59 on the last qualifying run. The early exit from the event in the first round of eliminations against Dave Wilson was not good for our Championship points. Heavy tireshake broke the rear axle and the game was over for this weekend. With limited time to repair and get the car ready for Veidec, the Team started to search for parts before the engine was cooled down. When the Team arrived back on The Island Frøya at Tuesday the week after Alastaro there also was a Strange 10.5" top loader rear axle heading for the Island. A big thank to Stig Neergård for a quick sale of this ex Top fuel top loader axle, and Rune Fjeld who supplied us with some plates to fit the rear end to the chassis. We hope this rear axle will take all the punishment we can give it. The Islanders Dragster is planned to be loaded into our coach during this last weekend after gearbox and rear axle rebuild, then the team is ready to hit the 1,000 km trip to Mantorp Park for the Veidec Festival. We have to thank all our sponsors who are making this possible, Q8 Oils who also will be visiting us at the Veidec festival, Eidsvaag, Lerøy Midnor, Teng Tools, Sande Gård and our god friend Fred Hanssen. This event will be a thriller for the FIA points; there is a tight race in the top three places for all classes. The Islanders are currently no.4 in the FIA Top Methanol Championship and the Team is not planning to remain behind the top three. We are ready. UK Supertwins at Drachten. 21st July: Steve Partridge. National Association of Supertwins sent us a report of his weekend at the Drachten Internationals joined by Simon Clamp and Neil Stedman representing the NAST. We arrived at Dunkerque on Thursday a.m. The land and sea just merged into one continuous wall of grey, perfect drag racing weather. We got to Drachten Airstrip mid-afternoon and were made very welcome by all the Explosion lads and lasses who miraculously created a full blown professional dragstrip out of a bare airfield. They worked their butts off all weekend, managing to give everyone multiple runs each day and provide a super sticky track, despite torrential rain Friday night, followed by passing showers and cloudbursts throughout the rest of the meeting. Simon Clamp (Honda VTR) got moved up to Super Street Twin as there no others competing in the Street class and took third place, a cash prize and a lovely bunch of flowers (don‘t you just hate people like that). I managed a PB on the final run on Friday on my Buell 1430, but gearshift and aerial displays put paid to advancing any further in the racing. Neil Stedman fared no better in Top Gas than I did in Super Street, with launching problems on the RD400 and a busted steering damper, but what a weekend. My thanks to the support crew, Big Dave, Chris, Emma and Ruth who unselfishly partied late into the nights and generally lowered the whole tone of the weekend. Unfortunately the rain eventually won and drowned out the finals, as officials had to adhere to a 6.00 p.m. Sunday cut off, leaving Herman Jolink (Ducati 1214cc) and Ronald van de Werken (S&S 2600cc) sharing the points in Top Gas Twins, as did Lando Beugelsdijk (XL pro stock 2062cc) and Jack Janssen (S&S 2000cc) in Super street Twins. Cash and flowers were duly handed out in the marquee and we headed off back into the grey. Web site updates. 21st July: In the latest update in his exclusive Racer Blog, Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon describes the preparations he has made for this coming weekend's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park and his views on the new 1000ft race distance for Top Fuel at this event. You can check out Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Martin passes out. 20th July: Thanks to Geoff Martin of the UK Tech Crew for passing on the good news that his grandson Adam Martin (pictured right) is, as of yesterday, an Army Gunner. Geoff said "Adam enlisted in April, passed out of Pirbright and goes for further training at Larkhill and Lympstone for 29 Commando Royal Artillery. Adam remains a member of Tech crew, will attend Finals in September." Bug Jam coverage. 20th July: Many thanks to David Anniwell of Santa Pod's timing crew for sending us the final round results and top qualifying positions on Sunday from Bug Jam: Final round results: VW Pro: James Hodson (10.95) 11.1499/111.76 def. Phil Norman (12.74) 12.6983/102.12 VW Sportsman: Stuart Hinds (14.50) 14.4552/86.13 def. Richard Merriman (19.50) 19.4508/67.66 VW Alt. Engine: Scott Evison (11.80) 13.6710/112.30 def. Matt Attwood (12.88) 15.6183/104.95 Super Modified: Andy Hone 7.5807/178.38 def. Tim Mugridge 9.0072/110.12 Street Eliminator: Steve Pateman 8.0836/178.39 def. Steve Nash (broke) Sportsman ET: Brian Huxley (15.59) 15.6101/85.31 def. Ian Jackson ((13.97) 13.8261/100.15 Junior Dragster: Joe Kellett (8.90) 8.9082/72.10 def. Zak Johnson (9.05) 9.0060/72.42 Outlaw Anglia: Paul Wright 9.1775/133.65 def. Richard Colby 9.7119/138.93 Qualifying results: VW Pro Russ Fellows +0.0151 9.5151/141.14 Steve Parfitt +0.0412 11.5912/108.05 James Hodson +0.0474 10.9474/128.58 Phil Norman +0.0770 12.9270/100.15 Donald Harvey +0.1459 12.1459/107.20 VW Sportsman Spencer Tramm +0.0045 16.1545/82.91 Adrian Wigley +0.0136 16.3136/87.06 Dan Smith +0.0234 16.5234/76.97 Helen Smith +0.0238 17.9138/70.74 Russell Weir +0.0281 18.7781/69.43 VW Alternate Engine Matt Attwood +0.0034 12.8834/104.28 Scott Evison +0.0468 11.7968/111.98 Andy Raw +0.0468 9.3749/139.70 Mark Skeen +0.1453 13.7853/96.22 Paul Braithwaite +0.1912 12.6912/105.77 Super Modified Andy Hone 7.5699/177.78 Tim Mugridge 7.6573/179.22 Nigel Payne 7.7156/177.08 Craig Gibbs 7.9676/170.08 Street Eliminator Steve Pateman 8.1245/176.25 Jeff Meads 8.5055/166.56 Steve Nash 8.5901/176.31 Jon Webster 9.1595/161.92 Ron Haslett 9.4268/176.21 Sportsman ET John Parker +0.0005 13.4305/103.35 (Perfect ET) Graeme Sanne +0.0042 13.9842/96.86 Brian Huxley +0.0158 16.6958/86.83 Martin Lewis +0.0270 14.8770/88.15 David Rowe +0.0339 12.0339/92.90 Junior Dragster Shootout Non-points scoring Harry Elliot +0.0044 Zak Johnson +0.0112 Rebecca Evans +0.0264 Joe Kellett +0.0402 Josh Saunders +0.0428 Outlaw Anglia Paul Wright 7.7705/179.10 Richard Colby 8.5881/157.38 Rob Stone 9.6158/135.58 Dave Sidaway 9.9004/133.63 Mark Bracking 10.4574/133.18 In Jet Funny Car action, Martin Hill ended our qualifying session today with a 6.0755/260.36 then later ran a best of 6.0612/259.03 and Roger Goring 6.2006/253.22. Yesterday, Roger Goring put in two passes in the Firestorm Jet Funny Car running a best of 6.2047/251.97 and Martin Hill ran a 6.1604/260.53 in Fireforce 3. Photo galleries of what went on at the event are up on the Bug Jam web site at www.bugjam.co.uk. Pro Dutch hit the teens. 20th July: Pro Modified racer Robert Joosten made it to the semi finals of the FHRA Nitro Nationals and claimed a massive scalp in the first round, defending champion Micke Gullqvist, running a best ever 6.174/229.84. He said "This year started at a very low from the beginning, with problems before some before the Main Event, discovering a cracked axle at the last moment and getting stuck in the ferry strikes, and a disaster at the race, not being able to qualify after damaging the engine. This sort of thing gets you thinking , do we really want to do this? "We trucked up to Finland with Mark Meihuizen (K&H Racing) and that was very good, making me realise that it can be really fun to do this. And we found out that dragracing is extreme when the car gave us a 6.17 in eliminations. We had a really good weekend in Finland, and it is really good to see how the Pro Mod guys hang together and have some fun. It is also a much nicer drive back home. "In preparation for the Veidec Festival, we have checked the car, and made some changes to the setup of the car and clutch. I found out some things in Finland that I want to try in Sweden. Also, we have checked the engine, to see how it did running the 6.17. Well, I can say without any worry the engine looks fine. "The championship this year is special I think, because so many can still win; you have several cars that can run really quick but you see there are some very consistent cars in that mix also. It can go both ways. The only thing I see right now is that Patrick Wikstrom is points leader and we need to take that from him. I guess this battle will last till the Finals. as it should. "To get to Mantorp Park we will leave together with Mark on Wednesday morning, and will truck up together to cross the border into Sweden, and from there it will take about four hours on Thursday for us to get to Mantorp." On the length of the track Robert's view is "I think it is good at Mantorp those classes will run 1000ft and 1/8. It is that or waiting for something bad to happen and we do not want that. Drag racing needs to be seen in a good light, as it is already so hard to promote, there is no need for really bad things, which could hurt our sport big time. So, good luck to everybody in Sweden." Dalton Brothers ride high in PSB. 20th July: Our good friend PiPPi of www.harleydrags.com, aka Pär Willén, writes that the Fredde Fredlund Pro Stock Bike Racing Team is very confident going into the Veidec Festival: "At Mantorp Park next weekend we will hit the halfway mark in our second full UEM-season and feel pretty good about the situation. We're currently number one in points and have all intentions to be in that position after the smoke clears at The Finals. Fredde Fredlund is the best rider a crewchief can have for tuning these bikes; he cuts the tree down at will and rides very consistently over all incrementals. Before Pro Stock Bike, he excelled in the Swedish Pro Street Bike class, (8.40-50s, street tyre, no bars) and could go through a whole weekend with just a few hundredths difference between the slowest and quickest round. "At Alastaro, we had our first showing in a UEM final round, and Fredde won that one on his riding skills. I was up in the tower behind the mike and knew we had won the event even before Fredde passed the 60-foot marker and he went on to cross the finish line first on a huge holeshot. Winning is good and winning in that fashion is very inspiring. "The next race is at Mantorp Park which is home track for half of Freddes crew, Fredde hisself hails from the baltic island of åland and this is the second closest track for him. Adding it up, this is definitely the shortest drive of the season for the team as a whole. "We will make no major changes to the bike before Mantorp. The clutch setup for the first round of qualifying will be loosened up just tad from Alastaro, that track was astounding and we were not alone in having the surface jump up to bite our asses in Q1. The motor runs better than ever after some changes during the winter and we feel very confident about the current tuning-window. We've already run many new personal bests this season, both for ET and speed, and with Freddes consistent riding we can change chassies and engine tuning and get back what we expected in the data logs which is a very good position for the crewchief to be in. Yes, sure, looking at the current entry lists for Sweden and Norway, the one G2 Motorsports Buell still in contention for the UEM title (Team Bikeline - Ulf ögge) easily outpowers our Suzuki and we want to gain some 5-6 hundredths at Mantorp and bring that with us to the Sunoco Drag Challenge at Gardermoen and The Finals at Santa Pod, but we feel strongly that the rider and the kind of work we do as a team will land us the 2008 UEM Pro Stock Bike Championship. "The Pro Stock Bikes race over the full 1/4-mile at Mantorp Park but the other UEM-classes run 1/8-mile plus FIA Top Fuel go 1000' as per the current NHRA nitro-car setup. Speaking for myself only, I think it's both a gutsy and excellent decision by the track management. As things were, running the 1/4-mile with any nitro-powered vehicle made for a very short braking distance and I know both UEM and FIA racers who had that on their minds already when rolling in to stage which obviously is not conducive to 100% flat-out-balls-to-the-walls drag racing. Very good news on sponsorships for Fredde Fredlund Pro Stock Bike Racing Team is the debut at Mantorp of a new major sponsor for the team: PAF, the åland-based gaming company. Founded back in 1966, PAF provides gaming on land, ferries and now on the Internet and we are obviously very happy about their involvement in our sport. For more about PAF, please visit PAF.com. And the origin of the name 'Dalton Brothers?' The relative heights of members of the crew and Fredde inspired the name, after the U2 alter-agos who in turn were based on the infamous outlaws Dalton Gang and thus the full name of the team is "The Fredde Fredlund Dalton Brothers Pro Stock Bike Racing Team". PiPPi put together a picture of the team and their bus on the way to Mantorp Park with apologies to Goscinny and his Lucky Luke series of cartoons (the beer can in the lower right is an internal joke regarding the favorite team brew). No half measures for Stauble. 20th July: Supertwin defending Champion Lorenz Stauble has qualified no.1 in both races so far this year but went out to eventual race winner Svein Olaf Rolstad in the semis, in side-by-side 6.7s thriller. He says "my basic setup works pretty good. Unfortunately losing in the semi-final in Finland has costed me valuable points in the Championship. I ran a 6.548 in Alastaro, wich was a big surprise. This is very close to my personal best (6.544), and I didn't think this would be possible at that track.The atmospheric conditions and the track were way better on Sunday morning during the first elimination round, which helped make this ET possible. The championship is still open, everyone is a main contender. My chances are still good, even if I'm at third place now." "Our truck is leaving Switzerland next Monday. We have to take a lot of stuff with us, because we will go to Gardermoen directly from Mantorp. I don't like to run the eighth mile. For me, the 1000 foot distance is a good compromise for bikes and cars, since for some classes the track is really too short. But I don't understand why the bikes are racing the eighth mile while the cars race the 1000 feet. Running the eighth mile makes the bike classes far less attractive for the fans, and look like pussy racing. "I would like to thank my sponsors Rick's Motorcycles, SCS IT, Techno AG and Ralph Marti Mechanische Werkstätte for their support, as well as my excellent team, which makes my bike running so quick every time. Have you seen...? 20th July: Brian Taylor, author of the History of British Drag Racing, Crazy Horses is trying to locate the photographer who took this shot. Brian said "It's one that has come my way without a credit and it looks like it's a scan of a print." If you are the photographer, contact Brian here. Web site updates. 20th July: UK Top Methanol Dragster racer Derek Flynn of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Gold RV spent last weekend at the Drachten International supporting Dutch Junnior Dragster racer Lisa Selles and chatting to the UK teams that had made the trip across the Channel. You can read more on Derek's exclusive Racer Blog which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Persåker looking for 1000ft. 19th July: Top Fuel racer Joran Persåker says there are benefits of Top Fuel racing to 1000ft at next weekend's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park, other than the safety aspects with the short shut-down area. Joran said "1000ft is good for the wallet - Top Fuel engines used to have a hard time at around 1250ft. There will also be new records and new ETs to learn." Joran's season has been abbreviated because of his flourishing Persåker's Speed Shop but managed to get to Alastaro where he qualified on the bubble with a 5.520/186mph pass and went out in round no.1 to Andy Carter with an improved 5.201/233mph to Andy's 4.798/289mph. "Alastaro was really like a test and while we didn't run a personal best, it has prepared us for Mantorp." Joran has kept the Top Fuel Dragster to the same specification that gained his best ever time and first four at last year's FIA Euro Finals, a 4.9641/281.43; he says "We will only try to do everything better." Looking at championship prospects Joran is quite coy about this year, but looks forward to his chances in 2009. "For this year Who will win? Andy, Lex, Urs...?" There are two factors in Joran's favour at the Veidec Festival. First is the relatively short distance to the track from his home town of åkers Styckebruk. "It's two hours' drive. We are there Thursday, but I want to be there Wednesday (for the press day - stand-in Ed), but need to work first." The other factor is the crew for the Persakers Top Fuel Team now includes tuning supervisor Jim Brissette, a long time associate of Doug Herbert who has a reputation of making huge horsepower. Joran thanks his sponsors ARP, Autometer, Comp Cams, Hedman Headers and Persakers Speed Shop. Persaker's speed shop can be reached on www.persaker.se or by phone on + 46 159 13370 or e-mail on persaker@nitroz.se. Kuutniemi hoping to go one better. 19th July: Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jarmo Kuutniemi had a great race at Alastaro in his Camaro, coming runner up to Ulf Leanders after running a new personal best in qualifying, says tuner and co-crewchief Harry Räikkönen of Jarmo's OK Racing Team. "We got our new personal best ET of 5.885sec at Alastaro by solving our tyreshake problem and from then the car really started to show its potential," said Harry. "Our only preparation for car for Mantorp is to fix the cylinder heads, which got a little damaged against Dan Larsen in the semi-final at Alastaro. Actually, we would like to thank Dan Larsen for lending us his cylinderheads for final against Ulf Leanders. "Our season started with tyre shake; but after fixing that the car started to perform very well. It was Jarmo's first ever FIA race final." Asked about his 2008 Championship chances, Harry said "We think we can be in top three by the end of season if we perform like did at Alastaro. Everybody is now running in the five second bracket so it is hard to say who will be top." It's almost a full day's travel for Jarmo's team from their base in Masku, Finland. "We will leave for Mantorp on Wednesday morning from Finland and will be Mantorp late Wednesday and will be back home Tuesday morning." "We like to thank all our sponsors to make this possible. OK Repair, K1 Katsastajat, Tomi-Steel, JPS Motors, Raision Pesuhuolto, TJ-Teipit, Kendall, Accesscaff International and SKS Group." Teboul engineering for success. 19th July: As well as being a rider of some of the world's quickest and fastest bikes with his Top Fuel Bike and the rocket machine, Eric Teboul makes and installs many of his own parts. He said "For Mantorp, I will be on my Top Fuel Bike after my best ETs to date at Santa Pod at the 2007 Euro Finals and 2008 Main Event (6.2089/229.64 and 6.2930/211.9 respectively - stand-in Ed). I have installed a big bearing on the crank to save the shield bearing. The PM rear wheel is ready to go on the bike next week and with this, we have won a lot of weight reduction on the important parts for the weight distribution." "I have been working on completing a second engine and this will maybe be finished for Mantorp, or in Mantorp, because all I need to finish is some work on the cylinder head clearence. This second engine is designed to make a very low 6 second or a 5 second run for the future and I will probably use it as my main engine at the Euro Finals at Santa Pod. "My best time is 6.20 at the moment, but I'm sure the bike can go lot quicker, because the cluch and the fuel system are not quite optimised right now. Eric has strong views in favour of the short racing distance. "In my opinion for Top Fuel Dragsters, I think the first priority is safety and when you imagine life without a father or husband because the sport takes place at an unsafe length of track, yes, you need a reduction to 1000ft or making the track longer for the future. "For the bike, it's the same and with an 1/8 mile track I think it's a good decision before a fatal accident. Quite a few bikes go off the end of the track because the brakes are too warm and the brake fluid can't cope with the additional braking effort. I think it's good at this momment to race over 1/8 mile but for the future, I hope that Mantorp Park make a modification to allow the return of a 1/4 mile race. "My chance of the championship took a hit by us not being able to attend Alastaro. I really don't like a championship when the winner is only there because he can afford to pay the travel to the race in Finland and has an easy time. With no real competitition, it's an easy race and when you take points in this race, it's not possible to change the situation at later races because you lose more than 50 points by not going and with three more races it's a big thing to turn around. "I think for the future, the UEM need more races like Hockenheim and a race in Hungary and then teams attending all races could be given the chance to take their worst result out of their points. With this I'm sure the championship will be more close. It is now cheaper to fly the bike to the US from where I live than put it on ferries to Scandinavia." Frost heads for Canada. 19th July: Andy Frost has had a torrid time getting the Red Victor 2 Vauxhall VX4/90 ready for his long haul trip to the 2008 World Street Race, for which we wish him the best of luck as the sole UK entrant defending the title won by Steve Pateman three years ago. "We managed to finally get the car sorted, packed and off to be shipped today. After perhaps the most frought five weeks I've ever had, we can say that we're going to represent the UK and Europe at the Extreme Drag race Shootout at Miramichi Raceway Park, New Brunswick,Canada. I didn't think we'd ever be saying that." The car is pictured at the docks (picture courtesy Paul Kennedy). Of course, without the help of a lot of people, we wouldn't even be contemplating this trip. People like Nigel at www.altiss.com, Pete and Tim at Knight Racing Services , Rob Inglis at Kustom Konsulting ltd,Chris and Trish Biro and Ray Knight from RPM Mag, Rich Nicholls from American Car world magazine, Brendan Clancy from Nova engineering, Aviad oil pumps, VP race fuels, Steve Clark from Nimbus Motorsport, Roddy Simpson from Need for Speed, James Forrester at Futurenet publishing, Santa Pod, Paul Marston racing, Eurodragster.com, Steve Wilson and all the individuals who contributed in any way. Lastly my family who have seen me for the first time today in five weeks. We are still not out of the woods finacially yet and are still looking for last minute sponsors to help the situation.For a great package for the rest of this season and next send me a mail on redvictor1@hotmail.com. I know of four people who are coming to watch the race and maybe there are more. If you're not going then the race is going to broadcast live on the net via Your Way Network. If anyone does go of course come and say hello. I'll be flying out Thursday to meet the truck and car. Andy has promised he'll try to get some pics to us during the lead up to the race courtesy of one of the hosts of the event. Art Department (part 2). 19th July: Congratulations to Lee Tear who was the first to spot that new painting is of Don Schumacher's Wonder Wagon Vega Funny Car from 1973. Mark said "I'm doing the whole car in oils which is progressing well. However, this shows off the Jim Moser lettering and note how even the painted on coloured circles were pinstriped, which is very classy." Don debuted the original Wonder Wagon, with the colourful balloons and yellow paint scheme of Wonder Bread, at the 1973 U.S. Nationals as part of a three-car team and was considered the most aerodynamic car of its time. Swift snippets. 19th July: Jason Yates has asked us to wish a happy 40th birthday to UK Outlaw Anglia racer Simon Barlow. Jason says, "Have a great day from all the Orange Pop team and family, have a great party and good luck to the Outlaw Anglias at Bug Jam this weekend." Dave Beck has sent a belated congratulations to Ivan Birch on his Comp Bike win at the SPRC Summernationals and being the first to claim the MTC contingency money though Dave Beck Racing Ltd. Web site updates. 19th July: If you do Facebook then Kirstie is updating a gallery of pictures from the Eurodragster.com advance guard's trip to Sweden. You can find out what Kirstie, Christer and Tog are getting up to at the Eurodragster.com Facebook page. A number of Videos of the Cacklefest at the Goodwood Festival of Speed have been posted on Youtube. Photographer Markus Ek has posted 350 pictures from the Midnight Sun Internationals in Piteå on 11-13 July. Also on Youtube is a notable slow-motion video of Top Fuel action from Alastaro by Hans Lehtinen; thanks to Jerry Cookson for sending us this link. Motor racing artist Andy Kitson has drawn our attention to a Dragsters & Drag Racing thread including historic photos from Santa Pod on the Autosport/Atlas Bulletin Board. If you're in London... 18th July: Gary Hall says that if you are in the London area on Sunday one of the largest American Hot Rod and Custom Car events in the region is taking place, with two nitro cars on display as a special feature. Sunday 20th July is the Damn Yankees Summer Slam at North Weald airfield Essex. Up to 1000 American cars, Rods and Custom cars usually attend and everybody is welcome. Definitely booked is Nobby Hills Houndog Camaro Fuel Funny car which will be fired up in the arena. We are also expecting Tony Betts with his new Fuel Altered and John Price will be conducting the arena events. North Weald is on the A414 just off junction 7 of the M11. Live band "Reflections" will also be playing in the beer tent. Call Gary Hall 07740 827288 for details. ...or North of the Border... 18th July: Crail Airfield Promotions have announced that this Sunday, it's the quest for the best on track at Crail Raceway to be on the Fast Car stand at Crail on the 31st August when the Ultimate Scottish Fast Car 2008 competition will be run. New classes this year are a diesel class, fastest babe class, as well as front, four, and rear wheel drive. Racers will compete for the USFC trophy for the quickest car and quickest bike in Scotland . There will also be a drifting trophy of who wins the eyes of the Fast Car guys on the drift track too. So if you want prime zone placing on the Fast Car, stand be here Sunday to be there for USFC 2008.If you cant do this Sunday you can still Qualify on the day for the shoot outs in the morning up to 3PM on the 31st August. Its not about being static and looking good, get on the track and show what it can do. Crail Airfield is on Balcomie Road, Crail in Scotland. Gates are open at 9.30am, and the track opens at 10.00. Entry is £10.00 per adult. OSN trophy sponsorship scheme. 18th July: Shakespeare County Raceway is once again offering its popular trophy sponsorship incentive for their forthcoming Open Sport Nationals; stop number five for the UK National Championship series, writes SCR Promotions Manager Jerry Cookson. All 24 competing classes from NFAA, National, ACU and domestic bike series are involved in the scheme. "So far we have received support from Martin & Cindy Newbury of Psycle Workz and Darren West of Power Race Graphics fame. If anyone would like to get involved by gaining a little extra publicity in a cost effect manor then please get in touch with us," says Jerry. For a modest fee of £30 you can have two class trophies for the classes of you choice with winners and runner-up plaques engraved with your company name together with three days worth of PA coverage throughout the weekend when your chosen class is on track and a spot in the event programme. Everyone from corporate companies, race shops, magazines and web sites are welcome to participate. Banner placement can also be considered. To register your company's involvement with the Open Sport Nationals, call Jerry at the track on 01789 720180 or e-mail enquiries@shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. Jerry also wishes to remind racers that on-line pdf Entry Forms for the event are still available to download from the Shakespeare County Raceway web site at www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk. Art department. 18th July: Our good friend photojournalist and artist Mark Gredzinski has sent us a 'build-up' sequence of abstract/closeup a 16x12 acrylic on canvas painting which was done as an experiment and the finished product 'highlights the quality of the finish, typical of that era.' We will be publishing one shot a day over the next few days and will announce the name of the first person to correctly identify the vehicle. Swift snippets. 18th July: Ian Hook has been in touch to say the Fat Boys' coach is running again. "We still have some work to do which should be completed tomorrow - soon enough for us to get to the Bug Jam. But even if we don't make it tomorrow I'm confident that we'll be there on Friday. The past two weeks have been just about the toughest I've ever done in terms of the hard work needed but it will be all worthwhile if we manage to attend this meeting." At 4pm on Thursday, the coach was reported to be off the stands and moving under its own power ready for the trip to the Pod. Northern Sportsman Nationals report. 18th July: Richard Smith says that York Raceway's Northern Sportsman Nationals on 13th July was well attended and highly competitive. The race had rounds in all of the PDRC Northern Drag Racing Championship classes. American Super Stock numbers were expected to be down slightly due to the Mopar Nationals being only two weeks away but a healthy field of 18 cars still put on a great show in the 5th Round of the year. It was Dave Rushforth who led the way in qualifying in his Mustang II, running 14.81 on a 14.80 dial-in. Current points leader Dave Billadeau was back with a fresh trans and made his way to the semi finals, where he faced 4th Round winner Dan Houlston. Dave chased the Camaro down but broke out which set up the final of Dan versus Lee Chiles for the second meet running. The feeling of déjà vu was complete when Lee red lit once again, throwing a second victory into the arms of Dan Houlston! Dave's points lead is now seriously under threat by Dan's Camaro and with three rounds to go its going to be a great battle if their form continues! The 3rd Rounds of the PDRC Championships saw the regular competitors get a bit of a shock in Sportsman ET where first time rookie, John Cowling, guided his Cobra to the finals against Air Cooled racer Craig Perry. John went all the way defeating Craig with a 13.54 on a 13.49 dial-in to a 14.21 on a 13.70 dial-in. Craig probably didn't mind though as he also made the final over in Air Cooled Eliminator against points leader Nigel Hull, who was going for 3 out of 3. However, Nigel's potential hat trick went out the window when he left a little too soon, handing the immediate win to Craig Perry. With Andy Bales' Anglia missing this meeting, it was down to Colin Brick's Capri and Charlie Stirling's Classic Capri in the heads up Hot Rod Challenge final, where Colin's 11.96/113mph beat Charlie's 12.70/105mph. The next meeting on 2-3 August is York Raceway's biggest of the year, with full details found at theYork Raceway site. Richard's photos of the Northern Sportsman Nationals can be found at Richard's Fotopic gallery. Web site updates. 18th July: Eurodragster.com Reserve Photographer Peter Donaldson has updated his Fotopic gallery with shots from last weekend's Test & Tune event at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can check out Peter's pictures at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net. Christophe Lange from Hanau Auto Racing Association says that Andrea Kloss has been hard at work updating the club's web site which now includes galleries from MSTO Test & Tune (at MZA Luckau 26.April08 ), Drachten I (at Drachten on 20th June), and galleries from the MSTO 20th Grand Nationals (at MZA Luckau on 5th July) from Christophe and from Andrea. The Drachten I pictures include some of Leigh Morris having a close encounter with Freek van Groningen's wayward Mustang (left). Stand-in Editor's note: It's not too late to send your Veidec Festival previews to us. We will be running a series of previews from tomorrow onwards, so make sure yours gets included by sending it to news@eurodragster.com. This weekend. 17th July: This weekend is one of the busiest in the calendar with no less than three Nordic Drag Racing Series events and races in UK and Germany. The Dakota Drag Strip located between Taunton and Honiton, Devon hosts its latest rwyb event with Saturday Street Nights on 19th & Grudge Race Special on Sunday 20th July. Gates open on Saturday at 12 noon and on Sunday at 9.00am. The track opens on Saturday at 2.00pm and Sunday 11.00am. Entrance fees are £5 per person per day and Under 10s get in for £2.50 per day. Driver fees are £20.00 per driver or rider one day and £35 two days for unlimited runs on the 1/8 mile. Smeatharpe Airfield can be found and further details on the event are on the web site www.streetnights.com. Please note no camping is allowed. Santa Pod hosts one of its largest lifestyle events, the Bug Jam from Friday 18th to Sunday 20th. As well as large fields of VW Drag Racing Club other race classes include Super Modified, B&H Automotive Street Eliminator, Outlaw Anglia Sportsman ET and Junior Dragster. Both Fireforce 3 and Firestorm will be making demo runs with Blue Max Jet Beetle. The event is a music and comedy festival as well, with four music arenas on Friday and Saturday and comedy Tickets on the gate for the weekend are £40 per person (£55 in a non-VW vehicle), and £15 on Sunday. Track Sign on fee on Friday is £15 for unlimited runs, and Saturday is £20 for unlimited runs. Kids under 13 are free and gates open at 9am on Friday and 8am at the weekend. Information for racers can be found in yesterday's update and there will be a photo gallery and news updates. On Saturday and Sunday, in Borlänge, Sweden the Borlänge Street Open organised by the Borlänge Drag Racing Club is a round of the NDRS for Junior Dragsters, Super Street and Super Gas Bike. Further details from the NDRS web site. As announced on 11 July, Eurodragster.com will again be offering 500 Swedish Kroner for Best Burnout at the event. Tog and Kirstie will be attending with Honorary Staff Member Christer Abrahamson and we will post a photo gallery from the event on Monday. At Skellefteå, Sweden the Gold town Nats organised by SHRA Skellefteå is a round of the NDRS, TSDS North championships. Sportsman classes are included as well as Junior Dragsters,Super Street,Super Gas, Super Comp, Stock/Super Stock, Super Comp Bike in the NDRS championship. More details and results can be found at the SHRA Skellefteå web site. Qualifying on Friday is from 3pm to 7pm and Saturday is from 10am to 5pm. On Sunday, a minute's silence will be held in remembrance of Peter Frost at 10:30am local time before the commencement of eliminations. Live coverage including web cam will be available on our sister site Eurodragsternorth. Kalajoki in Finland hosts the FHRA Summer Nats organised by FHRA. NDRS classes represented are Super Gas,Super Comp, Stock/Super Stock, Competition, Super Gas Bike and ,Street Bike. Further details and results can be seen at the FHRA website. In Bitburg, Germanythere is a run what ya brung at the airfield based at Bitburg Flugplatz (airfield). Cars and bikes will be welcome and more details can be found here. The events in Turtmann, Switzerland and Regniowez, France planned for this weekend have been cancelled. Swift snippets. 17th July: Eurodragster.com sponsor Ulf Leanders says that it will be possible to buy methanol at Mantorp Park from Swedehandling in cooperation with Leanders Bros Dragracing. Ulf says "Methanol will be available during Thursday but please inform us that you will need fuel on either of the following e-mail addresses, so there are enough barrels available: rickard.andersson@swedhandling.com or ulf@leandersbros.se. Swedehandling also have other products for racers like a great degreaser." Thanks to Anders Magnusson of Andreasson Motorsport for confirming that the MSD Ignition and Data Acquisition Seminar with Joe Pando and Tim Anderson will take place on Thursday afternoon at the VIP tent of Mantorp Park starting at 16.00. Anders said "There has been a great interest in this seminar and that's the reason why the large VIP area will be used. There's still time to announce your presence. Call or e-mail Leif at leif@andreassonmotorsports.com or +46 70 555 9166." MSD and Racepak will have factory technicians on hand at the race. To get your questions ready, check out www.msdignition.com or www.racepak.com. Drachten thanks. 17th July: Christoph Lange, press officer of Hanau Auto Racing Association reports that German racers had a good time in Drachten and the all new track seems to be ‘as good as the old one used to be years ago'. Top Methanol Funny Car Racer Danny Bellio did a 4.2 in the first demo run on the first eighth mile of a very new track in June. Christophe says "All of us are very thankful that Theo Willemse and his team did a great job to bring drag racing back to Drachten, and Dave Catton and Steve Bolton pleased the crowds with their wheelstands"(pictured). Christoph has posted more pics in the German drag racing portal and is looking forward to being back in Drachten for more Racing on 29/30/31st August. Charity Hot Rodders Bash Report. 17th July: Wild Bunch member Scottie Durrant has sent us a report about the Charity Hot Rodders Bash at Theale near Reading, on Saturday 5th July. "When we woke up at 5am and it was hammering with rain, let's just say, we swore very loudly. But by 9am the sky was blue, the sun was shining through and luckily it stayed like that all day. The cars started turning up just after 12, and by 2.30 we had to shut the car park off and ask the last few remaining show cars to park on the road outside (oops, we didn't predict that many cars would up). We had about 35 hot rods and classics, including the dragsters, showing off their full sparkly glory in the blazing sun, and awarding prizes was pretty difficult. Participants' Choice was awarded to Paul Dorkins from Portsmouth with the F100 Panel Van, Landlord and Landlady's choice went to the pink and blue GMC Pick up truck, and the Best of Show was awarded, very deservingly, to John Smith's very rare Pro Street Henry J. Dragsters on display included the Tiki Munki Nostalgic Ruby Altered, Backdraft with C & C Racing team, Ratcatcher Resurrection, Destiny's Angel, Simon William's new slingshot and Thatadoo racing team with their Pro ET yellow Camaro. All the dragsters fired up twice for a cackle fest display, which certainly entertained the locals! Both bands, Jake Allen and the Trashcanz, and The Unknown's, went down a storm in the beer garden during the day, and the BBQ proved extremely popular. The Trashville Slammers in the evening were fantastic as always. Two raffles and all the fundraising from the day and the weeks leading up to it, raised over £700 for The Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance, so we were all extremely over the moon and proud of everyone. A fantastic day had by all, and Scottie, Gina and the Lamb Public House, would like to express our thanks to everyone who contributed, however small, to the day: Shakespeare County Raceway, Santa Pod Raceway, NSRA, Post Haste, What Katie Did, Comet Clothing, Bernie Dexter, Andy Robinson Race Cars, Duksville Hot Rod Shop, Hot Rod Gazette, Custom Car Magazine, Victory Wheelers, R&R Imports, Retro Photos, NC Engineering, Tiki Munki, MC Building Services, A.Keep Electrical, Thatadoo Racing Team, King Cats Rock and Roll Band, A4 Metal Recycling, DS Racewear, C&P T-shirts, Wraith MC Club, Green's Butchers, Kaven Beauty Shop, Jeff's Ice Creams, Ian T (with his black Pop), Lamb Hotel, friends and family and locals of the Lamb Public House. Web site updates. 17th July: UK photographer Richard Stirling has completed a double update at www.topnitro.co.uk. "Richard has posted a report and large picture gallery from the Summer Nationals meeting at Santa Pod and also a large picture gallery from the recent NSRA Nostalgia meeting at Shakespeare County Raceway. German Photographer Mathias Wienand is moving his two photo projects the racing related www.competitionpix.de and and hot-rod related www.sideview-inn.de together under one roof on www.sideview-inn.de. To keep everything up to date Mathias also started to run a flickr site that you can find here. Mathias says "you have to be a flickr member to view and comment on the photos there, membership is free and a lot of racing related sites have been placed on flickr." Mathias wants to use his flickr page to upload unedited pictures directly from the event, starting with daily picture galleries with descriptions from the Nitrolympics in Hockenheim. Finished and edited galleries will appear after a while on both www.sideview-inn.de and the flickr page. Bug Jam racer update. 16th July: Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall has been in touch with the latest information for racers attending this weekend's Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway: Santa Pod Raceway's gates are open between 10:00 am and 9:00 pm tomorrow, Thursday, and will then reopen at 9:00 am on Friday for the duration of the event. Racers wishing to run in the Run What You Brung sessions must bring their DVLC licences as well as their Competition licences, or they will not be able to participate in RWYB. The provisional running orders for Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's qualifying and eliminations can be viewed by clicking here or by clicking on the Event Coverage link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page and selecting the Bug Jam. Please note that as ever these running orders are provisional and are subject to alteration due to track or weather conditions or for any other reason deemed necessary by race officials. This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Speedflow Perfect Light Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by Dave Day in Super Gas at the SPRC Summernationals. The money will be presented to the first racer next weekend to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available to all racers in all classes during qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first perfect light of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to the Swedish Kroner equivalent of £75 for the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park; if it is won then it will be reset to the equivalent of £50 for the Veidec Festival. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association with performance hose and fitting manufacturer Speedflow, whose web site you can find at www.speedflow.co.uk. As Santa Pod's timing system works to four decimal places we must clarify that although the Perfect Light Award goes to three places, we will not pay out for red lights with zeroes in the first three decimals since a foul is a foul however far in the first non-zero digit may be. So 0.0001 will win you the money (if you're first to do it), but -0.0001 will not. Decals are not formally required for the Perfect Light Award but of course we appreciate it if racers carry Eurodragster.com decals: you can get Eurodragster.com decals at the track from any Eurodragster.com staff member. ©Eurodragster.com This weekend's Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award has been reset to £50 after it was won by VW Sportsman racer Shane Rae at the SPRC Summernationals. The money will be presented to the first racer next weekend to run to the thousandth on their dial-in or index. The Perfect ET Award is available this weekend in Sportsman ET, Junior Dragster, VW Pro, VW Sportsman and VW Alternate Engine during qualifying and eliminations (eliminations only for Junior Dragster) but will only be awarded for the first perfect run of the event. If not won this weekend then the Award will be increased to the SwedishKroner equivalent of £75 for the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park; if it is won then it will be reset to the equivalent of £50 for the Veidec Festival. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with RV sales and service specialists Gold RV, whose web site you can find at www.goldrv.co.uk. To be eligible to collect the Perfect ET Award, racers will be required to carry decals, one on each side of the vehicle whether car or bike. The decals are available at signing-on but please note that, as is usual with contingency schemes, racers are responsible for requesting or picking up decals when signing on. A list of required decals per class is always on display in signing-on. Important note about Perfect Award payouts: As Eurodragster.com is not covering the Bug Jam live (because some of us will already be in Sweden - Ed), the official timing data will be checked for Perfect Lights and Perfect ETs as soon as it is available, and cheques will be mailed to winners on our return to the UK. As mentioned above, we will not be able to post live event coverage from Bug Jam. Courtesy of David Anniwell of Santa Pod Raceway's timing crew we will be posting qualifying top fives and final results here on Eurodragster.com News, and Roger will produce a post-event Photo Gallery in association with American Car Imports. Keeping the tune-up. 16th July: Danish Top Fuel Dragster tuner Per Andersen says that the change to 1000 foot racing at next week's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park will not make any difference to the set-up of the Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster. "I really don't think we will make any changes", Per told Eurodragster.com. "At Mantorp Park you are on the edge of what the track can hold, and we know that our car is pretty fast all the way up the track." ©Eurodragster.com Andy Carter set a new track record of 4.76 in qualifying at the FHRA Nitro Nationals, but even so there was more in there trying too hard to get out. "The car is running real strong, and the tyres were spinning towards the end", said Per. "On the 4.7 it hit the rev limiter in the MSD which took out fifty degrees. "Everyone is in high spirits in the team. There are no issues with the car, and Karsten and I are really happy with the way the team works. Everyone does their job which gives Karsten and I more time to think about the tune-up rather than worrying. It is all about trust: we have a great team which we know we can trust and Andy trusts us." The Lucas Oil team have recently been the subject of a feature on MSN Cars, which you can read by clicking here. Gipp leaves on Sleepy. 16th July: UK Pro Stock Bike racer Richard Gipp says that he was disappointed not to progress further in eliminations at the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. Richard qualified fourth before making a first round exit against fellow UK racer Martin Bishop. ©Eurodragster.com "The footpeg broke off on our quickest qualifier, and I made a major faux pas so we had to change motors for eliminations", says Richard. "The clutch just wasn't good enough for the run, even after nailing Bishop on the Tree...take a pillow next time Sleepy. We hope to make eliminations in Sweden even though the track causes us problems in the shutdown area. "Thanks to Straightline Racing, Psycleworkz, Allens Garage, The Two Wheel Centre, Mr Signs, Roger Upperton and Nigel, and special thanks to Vessa and Ari our Finnish Tech Support" US Top Fueller for Indy hire. 16th July: Dave Bryant of Shockwave Racing UK, in association with Terry Haddock Racing USA, is pleased to offer current and prospective European drivers the opportunity to lease a complete competitive Top Fuel Dragster operation. ©Eurodragster.com "This would be to run at the Indianapolis USA Nationals, the biggest national event of the NHRA calendar, plus other possible race dates for realistic prices" says Dave. "The operation consists of a 2006 Brad Hadman Top Fuel car with all 2008 updates carried out by Ty Baumgartner racing in Missouri. All the latest Top Fuel pieces will be included along with a competitive tune up. We are also in negotiations for Paul Smith to oversee the complete package which will make the car even more competitive." If you are interested then please contact Dave on 07785 220865 (outside the UK +44 7785 220865) or Terry on +1 84 741 78066. No let-up at York. 16th July: The 31st Annual Street Racer Championship takes place at York Raceway on Saturday 2nd August. Steve Murty tells us that this Championship is the hardest for street-legal race cars, with previous winners including Andy Carter, Bill Sherratt, John Sleath and Nigel Parkin. "Not only are the racers' wits up against it, but so are car designs and set-ups", says Steve. "The Street Racer Championship has one hard round of qualifying and the only rest these cars are going to have is whilst the ladder is set and pairing up takes place. Once everything is ready the cars race heads-up. ©Eurodragster.com "As soon as a car wins, it is straight around and into the fire up lane ready to go up immediately against the next car in the next race. No cool down time, and the engines don't even get turned off. This continues until there is only one car left, and the driver is crowned the winner. This is pushing the cars to the limit with the drivers having to use their best drag racing brains to ensure that their car reaches the final without cooking, overheating or breaking, which regularly happens". You can find out more at www.york-raceway.co.uk. Swift snippets. 16th July: Midnight Sun Internationals Fuel FC winner Gary Page asked us to say a big Thank You to car owner Kenneth Lorentzon, Sue Collins of sponsor Mongoose Exhausts, his crew, and everyone at Pite Dragway for their support at the weekend. "We were very pleased to take the win and there is more in the car yet", Gary told Eurodragster.com. "We are now working to get the car ready for our next date at Gardermoen". Toyo Tyres are holding a Dealer Open Day in Stowmarket, Suffolk, on Saturday 2nd August and are looking for a volunteer to display their race car. Caroline Day of Santa Pod Raceway tells us that expenses and a modest appearance fee will be offered. "It would preferable if the car was able to fire up occasionally throughout the day", adds Caroline. If you can would like to offer your race car then please contact Caroline on 01234 782828 or E-Mail caroline@santapod.com. Racers are reminded that MSD and Racepak are holding a seminar at Mantorp Park on the first day of the Veidec Festival, next Thursday, 24th July. The seminar will be held by Joe Pando of MSD and Tim Anderson of Racepak. If you are interested in attending then for more details check out our news item of 9th July. ©Eurodragster.com Dave Keane tells us that he would like to borrow a Holley 850/950 to go on his Cobra. Dave is based in Poole in Dorset and says that he would be willing to pay for its loan. If you can help then please call Dave on 07717 201018. We would like to wish a very Happy Wedding Anniversary to our good friends Nev and Libby Mottershead. Have a great day, guys. Web site updates. 16th July: Sue Whyte of drag racing sponsor Motorshack has updated her Fotopic gallery with shots from the Goodwood Festival of Speed. You can check out Sue's shots at suewhyte.fotopic.net. ©Eurodragster.com Paul Castle's Freewebs gallery has been updated with pictures from the weekend's Drachten Internationals, which you can find at www.freewebs.com/grandpastoyracing. Two welcome returns. 15th July: The UK's Wendy Baker and Paul Stubbings will be making a very welcome return to the track with a Nostalgia Funny Car due to make its début at the NSRA Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway in mid-September. Also making a very welcome to the track is the car's chassis, a Buttera original built for Chadderton and Okazaki but best-known as the legendary Gladiator driven by British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member 0001 Allan Herridge. ©Eurodragster.com Wendy told Eurodragster.com that the Vega body is no more so the chassis will be cloaked in a Mustang II which was made originally for Pat Foster's Chicago Patrol in 1974 and raced by a string of drivers in the US. It was imported into the UK in 1979 and raced by Peter Goddard in the 1980s as the Liquidator Econo Funny Car, by Mike Burt as War Horse and Iron Horse with a blown methanol hemi, and the Gleadow Brothers as Time Machine in the early 1990s. It was bought by Wendy and Paul and run as the Police Car in the late 1990s. Subsequent to its incarnation as Gladiator the chassis was raced by Peter Crane as the Hustler, by Bill Sherratt and Chris Filsell as Rain City Warrior, and by Geoff Bosworth as Mad Max in 1985. "We have bought a TFX block from Andy Carter and plan to use 75-80% nitro", added Wendy. "We would like to thank JW Automotive of Bridgwater and Bob Glassup for the paint job. As ever, we are sponsored by overdraft." Pro ET for Drachten? 15th July: UK Super Comp racer Dave Catton has been in touch on behalf of Paul Marston Racing "School truants" Steve Bolton, Gary Springford and himself to congratulate The Netherlands' eXplosion Dragracing Club on their running of the weekend's Drachten Internationals. Dave also says that Pro ET could be run at Drachten next year if enough racers enter. "The event was run in difficult weather conditions with limited resources", says Dave. "The combination of regular clear pit announcments in English as well as Dutch meant that we always knew when our classes were running. Following Friday night's downpour the revised procedure for getting the cars to the start line was also understood. ©Eurodragster.com "Steve's wheelstanding Plymouth was certainly a crowd- and start line crew-pleaser on Friday's smooth and grippy track, but Saturday's more difficult conditions gave Steve a seriously zig-zagging thrill ride and then the car launched backwards with me aboard when it lost first gear at the hit on a Super Gas qualifier. "Whilst that was game over for us, we enjoyed this event so much that we will be bringing two cars next year. eXplosion president Theo Willemse said that if we can get a total of eight or more Pro ET teams to enter the July 2009 race then Pro ET could be adopted as a class in Holland, in the same way that English racers achived with Super Pro, so come and do your bit for European drag racing and have fun at the same time! "If you would like more information about racing at Drachten, then see Steve, Gary or I at the track." Swift snippets. 15th July: The Netherlands' Ton Pels tells us that his new Supertwin will not be ready in time for next week's Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park, but is now expected to make its on-track début at the Goodridge Dutch Finals at Drachten in August with a competitive outing at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. "Roel Koedam and I will have a bike in the trailer at Mantorp, but it will have a licence plate!", says Ton. "We will be cruising a little in Sweden while the ladies are shopping in Stockholm." Also on the Supertwin theme, Ian Turburville says that Fastlane Racing are now supplying their new Nitro V60 engine, which comes in at 196 ci at a sixty degree angle with five-inch bores. For more information contact Ron Houniet at ronfastlane@hotmail.com. Dave Penfold would be pleased to hear from anyone with a Weslake V-Twin 1000 engine, or the parts to build one. If you can help Dave to maintain his racing career then please contact him on 07957 881481 or E-Mail dw.penfold@tiscali.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com Our very best wishes to former Motorsport News journalist Jo Holland and fiancé Neil Burgess who are due to be married on the Isle of Man today (Tuesday). Jo made herself a lot of friends within drag racing during her time covering the sport for MN and we are sure that everyone will join us in wishing Jo and Neil a long and happy life together. Our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson is again running his popular Pro Mod Bump Spot Contest for next week's Veidec Festival with a T-Shirt up for grabs. To enter, E-Mail your guess at next week's #16 qualifying ET to three decimal places, together with your name, address and T-Shirt size to webmaster@promod.nu. All entries must be received by 11:00 pm UK next Wednesday, 23rd July. Last year's bump spot at the Veidec Festival was 6.671 seconds, the quickest ever in in Europe. All invited to Festival. 15th July: Ray Eldred of Eurodragster.com Site Search Sponsor Hauser Race Cars tells us that he is involved in organising a Motor Festival and Fun Day this Sunday (20th July) and that race cars and bikes, hot rods, customs and other vehicles are welcome to attend. "The Earl's Barton Motor Festival and Fun Day takes place at The Grange, Earls Barton from 10:30 am onwards", says Ray. "It is a local car show for all types of cars and bikes and there is a children's fair, bouncy castle, activities and games, food and beer etc. The venue is approximately fifteen minutes from Santa Pod (map). Entry is free and the event is in aid of the Northampton Air Ambulance - last year was the first year but we still managed to raise over £700 and this year we are hoping to do even better so your support would be welcome. ©Eurodragster.com "If anyone out there has a dragster, doorslammer, Hot Rod, custom, American, Pro Street, modified or even classic car or bike then please come along for a few hours and show off it off. We are taking the Super Pro ET Pontiac Firebird along which should wake up the locals! And if you don't have a car, then come anyway!" If you have any queries about the Earl's Barton Motor Festival and Fun Day then please contact Jon on 07791 667459. Web site updates. 15th July: Our good friend Alan Currans attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Friday and was there to witness the first cacklefest by the eleven Top Fuel Dragsters present, all but one of which had been shipped over from the USA especially for the event. "The camera was working overtime and I have compiled forty one of the best images to show you these fantastic cars and how they evolved over the years", says Alan. "I am afraid you will have to imagine for yourselves the sounds and smells as ten of them fired up simultaneously. You can access this new page from the What's New link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com Drifting into the fives. 14th July: After a successful test at the SPRC Summernationals at Santa Pod Raceway, which resulted in a tyre-smoking and shaking 6.01 pass, FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Champion Dave Wilson and the SIlverline Tools-backed team decided to take their newly-converted A-Fuel car to Finland for the next round of the FIA Championship instead of reverting to the blown-alcohol set-up. "Although we knew we still had a long way to go to get the set-up right, having made only one test pass before, the first three runs at Alastaro really shocked us", says Grumpy. "It seemed that no matter what we did, we smoked the tyres at the hit of the throttle. In fact so much so that after the third run, with a number of stabs at the throttle to get it hooked up to no avail, I was accused of abandoning drag racing in favour of drifting! But that run showed we were going in the right direction and the next run confirmed it recording a 5.86 full throttle to the finish line. ©Eurodragster.com "In the first round of eliminations, after further adjustments, we stepped up again to a 5.56 but unfortunately the small amount of damage we sustained prevented us from making the call to the semi-final by five minutes, so our day stopped there. "We are very encouraged and cannot wait for Mantorp where with the help and support of our great sponsors Silverline Tools, PlayStation, BMRS, Torco Oil, Crane Cams and IronCad we hope to step up our performance again." We also understand that Grumpy is putting together an entry for the Silverline Tools-backed Power Tool Drag Race at the Haynes Museum on 10th August; either that or the several chainsaws he is awaiting are to form a unique method of disposing of competitors in future. You can find out more about Grumpy and the team's weekends at Santa Pod Raceway and Alastaro on their official web site at www.silverlinedragracing.com. Picture ©Ivan Sansom. Swift snippets. 14th July: Norway's Siw Nystad will be making test passes in FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion Urs Erbacher's car at the Sunoco Drag Challenge at Gardermoen on 1st-3rd August. "Big big thanks to Rune Fjeld who got me started in Top Fuel, I would not be here without him" says Siw, who has just returned from a seat fitting in Urs' car. "And big thanks to Urs for letting me make test runs in his dragster!". Stay tuned for more details. UK Supertwin racer Ian Turburville has sent us a picture of a new aerodynamic measure on Mr Spokehead: canards at the rear of the bike. "After talking with Dave 'Nasty' Benjamin, Bob Jarrett, and the people at the Texas wind tunnel facility we all decided that we did not need a wing nor an airfoil as most people think", says Turbo. "Our bikes are mobile in the vertical plane: we do wheelies, which alter the angle of any wing as we go up the track. With nitro what you need is drag, not so much downforce. Nitro needs load to burn, and if you can't load it in the second half then you have to lean it out or it goes fat and falls on its face. If you can create a bit of counter-aerodynamics and stick two wings out in the clean air then you can load it a bit more and keep the fuel in so go faster." ©Eurodragster.com UK Junior Dragster racers Andrew and Michael Herron will be returning to competition at the Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway in late August. The brothers, whose dad Andy sponsors Eurodragster.com news via door furniture supplier Adoorablehandles.com, both have new rides: Andrew will be driving Charlotte Watts' previous dragster kindly lent by the Watts family whilst Michael will be driving Andrew's old car. "I drove Charlotte's car at Santa Pod about eighteen months ago and ran a 10.90", says Andrew. "This time I will hopefully do the same or better." UK Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association racers Tony Betts and Frank Bennett will be attending next weekend's Damn Yankees event at North Weald Airfield with their new and refettled cars respectively. "We will both have new combinations so we will be running the cars up to check for gremlins", Tony told Eurodragster.com. Web site updates. 14th July: The official web site of Finland's Alho & Lähdemaa Pro Modified team has been updated with pictures and video of the team's outing at the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. You can find the pictures and video at promod.galleria.fi/kuvat. ©Eurodragster.com Webmaster Bob Roberts has updated the web site of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars with pictures from the weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed, which you can check out at www.robinson-race-cars.co.uk/indexcackle.htm. As if that wasn't enough Bob has also posted a couple of Goodwood Cacklefest video clips on YouTube which you can view at www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7CZqAonWgc and www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDDZPBgPww8. Feature: Goodwood Festival of Speed. 13th July: For the latest in our occasional series of Features in association with John Woolfe Racing Simon attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed at which a replica drag strip had been set up on the cricket green and populated with some of the sport's most historic dragsters from the USA. As if the very presence of these cars wasn't enough, a couple of cacklefests took place each day. ©Eurodragster.com As well as giving each car the once-over Simon spoke to the owners, racers and other legends present on the drag racing display and you can check out his report and pictures by clicking here or by clicking on the Features, Interviews, Tributes link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Web site updates. 13th July: The legendary Midnight Sun Internationals is taking place at Pite Dragway this weekend. The SHRA Luleå web site at www.shralulea.se is being updated with brief reports and full results in all NDRS and TSDS classes plus the Top Fuel and Fuel FC exhibitions. Gary Page got in touch from Piteå to let us know that his best so far this weekend in Kenneth Lorentzon's Fuel FC is a 5.43. ©Eurodragster.com In the latest update in his exclusive Racer Blog, Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon describes the MPM Oil Top Fuel Team's victorious weekend at the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. You can check out Lex's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. GSK Motorsport's Super Pro win. 12th July: Germany's GSK-Motorsport-Team were pleased to win their first race in Super Pro ET at the 20th MSTO AvD Grand Nationals which took place at Jerry Lackey Raceway in Luckau, Germany, last weekend. The team managed to get their Porsche 924, which they last ran five years ago, ready in six months. The car uses a 355 ci Small Block Chevy built by German engine builder Engelage Bros and running on Ethanol E85, using Toyo DRR1 drag slicks. The Porsche was able to convince the team with its very consistent times and best run of 9.22 seconds at 235 kmh. In seven runs driver Bert Gorselitz managed to run the quarter mile within six hundredths of a second. The team's next event will be the NitrOlympX at Hockenheim, where they will run in Super Gas, and they will then continue to run in the German Super Pro ET Challenge. ©Eurodragster.com The GSK-Motorsport-Team would like to thank their sponsors Fuchs Europa Schmierstoffe GmbH, Funkbikes-Handel and the DMV - Deutschen Motorsport Verband (German Motorsport Association) for their support. You can find out more about the team on their web site at gsk-motorsport.de. A brace of Mustangs at 50. 12th July: UK National Super Street Champion Bob Lees celebrated his fiftieth birthday in some style last weekend, says Wendy Llewellyn. Festivities started with a very wet Time Trials bike race at a local venue in a wood on the outskirts of South Bristol followed by a party-in-a-field nicknamed "Bobstock" complete with rain and mud which was such a success that it may be repeated next year. Wendy tells us that she also arranged a very special photoshoot at Filton Airfield on Tuesday: ©Eurodragster.com At Filton they store a P51 Mustang which escorted B17 bombers to Berlin and Cologne in World War 2 and which was part of the highly-successful "Blue Nosed Squadron". We spent a good two hours there, our cameras clicking nineteen to the dozen and Bob was then treated to a sit in the cockpit followed by a brief history lesson about the pilot who flew it on its successful missions. The chief engineer, John Hart, who very kindly showed us around could have spent all night talking about it such was his passion. And, likewise, Bob could have stayed all night listening to him! Thanks to Crazy Chris Hartnell for the contact number. Pictures courtesy and ©Chevy Llewellyn Heading for the Ambulance... 12th July: A number of the UK's bike racers are are proposing a bit of late season fun to support a very good cause, writes Stephen Moon: A series of grudge races is being set up, to be contested on Saturday 13th September after official qualifying at the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend at Santa Pod Raceway, with all proceeds to go to the Air Ambulance, the modest and unheralded team who ensure the highest standard of care for all racers. The loser of each race donates the bet stake to this charitable cause. Side bets are already taking place and the winner of the bet donates his or her ill-gotten gains to the pot, while retaining bragging rights for the long, dark winter nights. Some interesting grudge races have already been booked with Richard Gipp's Pro Stock Bike taking on Rick Stubbins' Super Street Bike, Brad O'Connor on his Busa SSB facing off against Len Paget's Pro Stocker and Kev Charman lining up his Funny Bike against Dave Smith's 7.4 second SSB Busa. Each one of these races will see at least £100 donated to the Air Ambulance. ©Eurodragster.com Some other interesting races are in the making, with Steve Venables calling out Chris 'Cannon' Hannam's V-twin and Sean Mills trying to tempt Funny Bike champion Neil Midgley into a large-purse showdown. The trackside bookie is already filling his book with wagers from people such as Lorcan Parnell and a guy claiming to be the News Editor of Eurodragster.com. If anyone wants to throw down the gauntlet to another rider - preferably in another class - then come on down: it's all in a very, very good cause. Get involved by E-Mailing Stephen Moon. Swift snippets. 12th July: UK Supertwin racer Ian Turburville's bike Mr Spokehead is on display this weekend at the Americana, Europe's biggest USA lifestyle event, at the Newark Showground, Nottingham. "There is lots to see and do there", says Turbo. "Dozens of top quality bands, trade stalls, muscle cars, hot rods, Harleys, dragsters, military vehicles...you name it, if it's made in the USA, it's there! Lots of fun for all the family! Check out www.americana-international.co.uk. The Turboville.com race bike is in the main hall with the custom bikes and is sporting a new look with aerodynamic measures on the rear fender!" ©Eurodragster.com Leanders at their best. 12th July: Last weekend Eurodragster.com News sponsors the Leanders Bros showed that they're going to be a hard competitor to beat in this year's FIA European Drag Racing Championship. At the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro the Leanders Bros were top qualifier, won the race, and ran exactly the same time in the finals as the European Top Methanol FC record, 5.694 seconds. "We are very satisfied with the way the car performed", says driver Ulf Leanders. In qualifying the team had a hint that the car was perfectly set up, taking the first qualifying spot with a 5.73 and running consistently. This was shown by the fact that they didn't run just one 5.73 in qualifying, but two. The closest competitor was Leif Andréasson, who with his 5.78 was qualified number two. The Leanders Bros car continued to run consistently in eliminations, and Ulf Leanders had no problems making it to the final. His opponent was Finnish driver Jarmo Kuutniemi. Kuutniemi got tire shake almost immediately, but Ulf burst down the lane and passed the finish line in 5.694 seconds, a new track record and the quickest time in Scandinavia. With this ET Ulf also equalled the European record in the class which was run by Swiss driver Urs Erbacher at Santa Pod in 2003. ©Eurodragster.com One part of the fast ET is the new clutch, which the Leanders brothers produced themselves and which they say worked better than they dared expect. The next round in the European Championship is held at Mantorp Park in Sweden. "Last year at Mantorp, we ran a 5.711 and set a new track record", says Ulf Leanders. "5.711 was at that time the quickest ET in Scandinavia. Of course we hope to set a new track record, and a new European best at Mantorp Park on 24th-27th of July." Pictures courtesy and ©Stefan Boman Nitro Nationals FIM/UEM review. 12th July: FIM/UEM European Drag Bike Championship Co-ordinator Lars Andersson has been in touch with his regular post-event review, this one from last weekend's FHRA Nitro Nationals which he says is the best race he has ever attended in Finland: We arrived on Thursday to splendid weather conditions which stayed during the weekend. The track looked very good and was in a very good condition all over the weekend. A new public attendance record on Saturday for this track was also good. All the officials were working together as one unit in a very good manner. We started on Friday and the bikes did alright, and made all their qualifying rounds as scheduled. Two rounds on Friday and three on Saturday were done within the time schedule. The only problem that we had was track cleaning from one of the cars. The car was using synthetic oil and sprayed it out on the track. It is hard to see and even harder to clean up. We need to find a way to clean up that kind of oil. In Pro Stock Bike six riders were entered, one new girl riding from Finland on a Harley. After the finish of qualifying we hadUlf Ögge as number on and Fredrik Fredlund from Åland second. Since it was a ladder of six riders was it the two cylinder bike on one side of the ladder and the Suzuki on the other side. But Fredlund managed to go to the final after winning over a broken Chris Hope and beating Martin Bishop in the semi-final. Then in the final Fredlund took the start and managed to stay in front of Ögge all the way. In Supertwin Lorenz Stäuble was the number one qualifier followed by Per Bengtsson from Sweden. In the first round there were some empty spaces since the Finnish riders had some mechanical problems and Gunther Sohn also had problems. But at the end of the Sunday it was the two Norwegians Olstad and Rolfstad, both from the Hawgs MC Club in Norway, who were in the final. The winner was Svein Olav Rolfstad this time. I must also mention that now did Anders Karling managed to take his completely new bike all the way down the track and learned a lot of things. Everyone is waiting for him to make a full pass. All the new inventions and the machine work are something special. Top Fuel Bike is always something special in Finland. Not so many riders come to Finland due to the expense and that is always a problem. But we always do get some local riders like Asko Mättää who always is trying to do his very best. This time did we had seven riders entered, three Top Fuel bikes and four Funny Bikes. UEM member Ian King went all the way to the final and won against Rikard Gustavsson who is riding the fastest Funny Bike in Europe and probably one of the fastest in the world. This was the race in Finland. We're hoping to be able to come back to Finland next year for a new race. A special thanks for the house that we had. This makes everything easier at the race. I am now waiting for the race at Mantorp Park at the end of July. This is going to be a great race. This year the Supertwin and Top Fuel Bikes will again race over the eighth mile. But before this will we have the Congress in Riga where we have to solve some other problems. ©Eurodragster.com You can find the latest FIM/UEM Championship positions on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Web site updates. 12th July: Just in time to mark their next Championship round at York Raceway tomorrow (Sunday) the American Super Stock series, the UK's biggest drag racing series for American cars, is launching its own web site at www.americansuperstock.co.uk. "The site will be updated on a regular basis, so if you're an American Super Stock racer, or just like thinking about it, then you can stay in touch via the web site", says Howard Holmes. ©Eurodragster.com See Sleath to go FAST. 12th July: Fuel Air Spark Technology (FAST) has appointed John Sleath Race Cars as the UK distributor for its modular multi-port fuel injection systems. US-based FAST specialises in design and manufacture of comprehensive kit for retrofitting or upgrading fuel injection. FAST offers a truly comprehensive modular package that includes its Big Mouth Four-Barrel Throttle Bodies, Precision-Flow injectors, professional quality wiring looms with labeled connectors, ECUs, engine and transmission controllers, LCD touch screen dashboards, as well as bolt-on performance parts such as single plane manifolds and distributors for almost all US V8s and other engines. The result is a complete and matched package that gives an assurance of quality and reliability, proven with decades of experience. FAST has the components to adapt virtually any engine to state-of-the-art fuel injection. A full FAST conversion will give you all the benefits associated with fuel injection plus fully mapable ignition, dataloging and even traction control. These features are a real bonus for high performance applications such as drag racing. With the FAST system you can even run two stages of nitrous oxide and datalog everything. It's flexible too, the system can also accommodate future performance upgrades in the future, such as a more aggressive cam or even turbocharging, with boost control and anti-lag features. So, what happens when you turn the key? If this is a retrofit to a car with an American V8, previously with a carb, and you've learned the ways of dealing with the idiosyncratics such as: how many times do I pump the accelerator? Did I switch the fuel pump on? How warm is the engine, should I half open throttle when I crank? All this quirkiness is no more. Assuming everything else on the car is operating correctly, turn the key and the engine immediately starts and idles smoothly from cold, the fuel pump has started automatically, electric fans will come on automatically and the car will drive away smoothly and efficiently, with fuel economy improved by 7 to 8 mpg - if it's important. A complete installation will take a competent DIYer a weekend to complete. John Sleath 'found' FAST twelve years ago when he was trying to achieve optimum performance with carburettors for his supercharged Saab. Then John installed a FAST injection system and the results spoke for themselves and he has been installing part or complete FAST systems on many of the cars that have been to John Sleath Race Cars since. "The improvements in performance potential become massive if the motor is turbo- or supercharged, and the additional cost for taking this route isn't so great when you consider importing a blower-tuned carb from the US will be around $1,500. But with the FAST system, you get drivability and the capability to input up to four custom tunes to optimise for varying road or track conditions", adds Sleath. "The system looks good too. From the loom connections right through to the individual throttle bodies and because it is a modular system that can be individually tailored, it has the look of a factory installation under the bonnet." Whilst FAST product design doesn't compromise on performance and quality, cost-wise it is still an inexpensive package there is sufficient evolution and value engineering in the product design. The cost for a base kit for a V8 starts at around £1400 or with ECU, sensors and loom around £1700. With injectors and fuel pump, a full conversion would be around £3000. More details from John Sleath Race Cars at js@john-sleath.com, via John's web site at www.john-sleath.com, or call 07976 751742. ©Eurodragster.com Pro Mod Challenge standings. 11th July: Marco Maurischat of Eurodragster.com News sponsor Exhaust-coating.de has been in touch with the standings in the European Exhaust-coating.de Pro Mod Challenge after the FHRA Nitro Nationals: 1. Urban Johansson 350 2. Marc Meihuizen 295 3. Micke Lindahl 290 =4. Freddy Fagerström 280 =4. Roger Johansson 280 6. Mats Eriksson 255 7. Michael Gullqvist 250 8. Andy Robinson 245 9. Marko Lantto 225 10. Bruno Bader 215 11. Patrik Wikström 210 12. Kristian Nyström 200 13. Terje Håkonsen 165 14. Danny Cockerill 140 15. Robert Joosten 115 16. Michael Nord 105 17. Seppo Saapola 95 =18. Graham Ellis 85 =18. Jari Parén 85 The Challenge will be contested during qualifying at the 2008 FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway and is open to the top eight drivers, as determined by qualifying points earned by the top sixteen qualifiers at preceding 2008 FIA European Championship rounds. The winner will be awarded with €2000 and the runner-up €500. A decal on each side of the race car is all that is necessary to earn points and prize money. ©Eurodragster.com For more information about the European Exhaust-Coating.de Pro Mod Challenge, check out our news item of 14th May or E-Mail Marco Maurischat at info@pulver-nord.de. Sort-a-Tree saves the day. 11th July: On the brisk, breezy, evening of Saturday 5th July, after all the aircraft had been put to bed, the peace at Shoreham Airport, West Sussex was shattered by the scream of GM V8 engines at full chat. The Fastest Kid in the Valley 2008 shootout took place despite the lack of timing equipment. Tony Byng, long time marshal at Shakespeare County Raceway, starter at Dakota Drag Strip and veteran of the Victory Wheelers Drag strip at the Thorney Island Rod Runs, responded to a plea on a drag racing forum to assist at the meeting. A good time was had by all, and the meeting was saved. Due to uncertainty over the future of the airport management, the Classic Corvette club lost the chance of hiring their usual timing crew once they were given the OK. Tony stepped in and with a home made light system (Sort-a-Tree?) and timekeepers with stopwatches managed to allow the meeting to take place. Despite the timed runs having to include the reaction times it still provided a level playing field for those involved, and the thirty or so Classic Corvettes, dating from the 1960's right up to date, and a few invited guests - such as a matte black '55 Chevy, a couple of Pontiacs, a Ford Pop, a Porsche and a Chevy Station Wagon - had a whale of a time pounding the quarter mile strip on the tarmac runway. The title was taken this year by car race number 29, Gordon Hall in his C6Z06, with a best time of 12.63. Tony says that considering that this included the reaction time, you could knock at least a second off that. Swift snippets. 11th July: Eurodragster.com will again be offering 500 Swedish Kroner for Best Burnout at next weekend's Borlänge Street Open at Dala Airport, which some of the Eurodragster.com team will be attending. Last year's winner was Bracket racer Nils Eriksson who fogged the start line more than once with rolling burnouts in his Chevelle. Next week's Award will be judged by Kirstie, Tog and track announcer Christer Abrahamson. French Top Fuel Bike racer Eric Teboul tells us that there were two reasons for his non-appearance at Alastaro; firstly that he and his crew live a long way south on the French Riviera, and secondly that he didn't receive any notification or entry form nor did he know about the closing date until it was too late. Eric makes what we guess is a fair point that not all racers are on-line, and asks whether Clubs can mail entry forms etc to those racers who don't use computers. We'll leave that one for the Organising Clubs to mull over but we will be happy to post other racers' thoughts and Clubs' responses here. ©Eurodragster.com Johan Samuelsson has been in touch to let us know that Sweden's Lindberg Bros Top Doorslammer team will be running their Nova in Pro Modified at the Veidec Festival, which takes place at Mantorp Park on 24th-27th July. "The chassis builder Jonnie is eighteen years old and his big brother Johan drives the Nova", says Johan. "They ran a short Test and Tune at Sundsvall and then 4.20s all weekend in Västerås". The team's web site at www.lindbergbros.com is an excellent introduction; don't miss the very entertaining video documentary of the Aros Nats. Sharron Collier has been in touch to let us know that in addition to the Mini Weekend, Caterham Shootout and RWYB, this weekend's Public Test Days at Shakespeare County Raceway also include a round of the APIRA Junior Drag Bike Championship. We have a birthday on the Eurodragster.com staff today. Please join Tog, Simon and Roger in wishing a big Happy Birthday to Assistant Pit Reporter Kirstie Tramm. Kirstie is currently at Drachten on her third day job, crewing on John Everitt's Super Pro ET team. Hope you have a great day Kirstie, and a great weekend all round at Drachten, and you know the rules: if you don't bring back cake then don't come back. Flying the flag for PMR. 11th July: Paul Marston has been in touch on behalf of the whole Paul Marston Racing team to wish good luck to Dave Catton and Steve Bolton who will be sharing the driving duties of Steve's Plymouth Scamp at the Drachten Internationals, which start today (Friday): The Dynamic Duo will be competing in Super Gas and Super Street respectively. With such a long Summer break Dave and Steve decided that a trip to Drachten would be an opportunity to wave the British flag and have some fun too. To keep the wheels from falling off of their wagon, figuratively speaking of course, Gary Springford of Drag Race Engineering will accompany them. All the PMR Crew wish them success and would like to see them bring back some silverware, and we also wish good luck to all of the other UK racers who have gone to the race. ©Eurodragster.com Meanwhile, back in England, I am looking forward to some testing this coming weekend with the Whoopass Monza. We have a remap and an overhauled rear end to test, plus we have some good fresh Goodyear rubber which needs scrubbing in, otherwise I would be at Drachten myself. Web site updates. 11th July: If you are not going to Drachten this weekend then don't forget that Maikel Gloudemans of The Netherlands' eXplosion Drag Racing Club has again set up the experimental webcam at this weekend's event. Maikal says that amongst other changes there will be multiple cameras. You will be able to check out what is happening at Drachten at www.ziejeme.nu/eXplosion. To supplement his excellent photographs from the FHRA Nitro Nationals, Markus Ek has now posted an excellent report at which you can find at www.mek.nu. ©Eurodragster.com Further to John Hackney's recent report from the European Big In at Chimay, UK race official and Wild Bunch racer Tony Smith has updated his Cunning Plan web site with a report and pictures from the event. Check it out at www.cunningplan.net. Our good buddy Sharkman has updated his personal web site Sharkman's Top End Tales with pictures from the SPRC Summernationals including what we think is the best photo sequence we've yet seen of Mathijs Kraetzer's spectacular wheelie on the Saturday. You can find Sharkman's pictures at www.topendtales.com and if you wish to purchase Sharkman's pictures as well as those of other great photographers then don't forget to visit Eurodragster.com News sponsor superchargedimages.com. Editor's note: The aftermath of yesterday's network problem has left us with a small backlog of news which we will publish tomorrow (Saturday). Stay tuned for the latest from Eurodragster.com News sponsors and Top Methanol FC racers the Leanders Brothers, the GSK Motorsport team's first Super Pro ET victory in Germany, and UK National Super Street Champion Bob Lees' unique double-Mustang birthday celebration, and please keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com. Swift snippets. 10th July: Apologies for the late news update, and its brevity, today. The internet access at your News Editor's day job was out of action during his lunch break. The problem has now been solved and we will catch up with the backlog on tomorrow's update. Racers who are about to head out on extended tour to Mantorp Park and Gardermoen are reminded that the official closing date for the FIA European Finals for all classes is Friday 8th August. You can download FIA European Finals entry forms from the Santa Pod Racers Club web site at www.eurodragster.com/sprc or from the Power Racing web site at www.powerracing.eu. Due to expansion, Eurodragster.com Site Search sponsor Hauser Race Cars have a vacancy for a race car welder/fabricator. The vacancy would suit someone who is into drag racing or circuit racing and would have worked on or previously built this type of car. Ideal candidates will have good welding and fabricating skills, be able to work with a variety of materials, have a good understanding of race cars, and able to use tube bending equipment etc. Good mechanical skills in an automotive environment would be beneficial. If you think you would be suitable please contact Geof Hauser or Ray Eldred on 01933 682500 or E-Mail your CV to sales@hauserracing.com. ©Eurodragster.com Many thanks to Championship Co-ordinator Kjell Pettersson for forwarding us the post-FHRA Nitro Nationals standings in the FIA European Drag Racing Championships. You can check out the latest FIA Championship positions on our Speedflow-sponsored Points Standings page which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Points Standings link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page We would like to wish a very Happy 40th Birthday to our good buddy, track announcer, TV presenter and race car builder Paul Venners. Hope you have a great day Botch. MSD, Racepak offer Mantorp seminar. 9th July: Racers and crew members are invited to a free seminar presented by MSD Ignition and Racepak at Mantorp Park on Thursday 24th July, the first day of the Veidec Festival. Joe Pando of MSD and Tim Anderson of Racepak will explain both the technical side, and how to make best use of their equipment. This will be a golden opportunity to gain more knowledge on equipment widely used by racers of all categories, and because the presentation is free all you need to qualify to attend is an interest in learning more about ignition and data logging. ©Eurodragster.com To give the organisers some idea on the size of room and the amount of refreshments to provide, please register your intention to attend by calling Leif Andréasson on +46 70 555 9166 or E-Mail leif@andreassonmotorsports.com before 21st July. On the road in Chimay. 9th July: The team from the UK's Dakota Drag Strip were in charge of track prep and timing set-up at last weekend's European Bug In which took place in Chimay in Belgium. Team member and honorary Eurodragster.com staff member John Hackney dropped us a line to let us know how it went: We were greeted by Event Organiser Kobus and Track Manager Jean at the very well appointed Chimay visitor centre. Thursday was set up day. The track, which is usually a public road, is very narrow and each lane slopes away towards the outside edges, which makes it quite a challenge to set up the timing cells for good alignment. but eventually this was overcome and everything was in place. Then the track was swept and the first layer of LA Drag Strip glue was applied. After a couple of runs with the support vehicle everything seemed to work well, so everything was covered over and we retired to the Baton Rouge steakhouse in Chimay. Friday was a very sunny day and yet another coat of LA Drag Strip glue was applied to make for a very good racing surface. Some slight problems occurred with cell alignment occurred during the first few runs on the timing system...why does it always have to be the quarter mile cell? Luckily one of our team was stationed just past the finish line and he took over the re-alignment, after I nearly collapsed running (walking, panting, crawling) a quarter mile twice. We finally got to the bottom of the problem by gluing down the foam blocks rather than wiring them down: they were moving in the draught from the cars which were so close due to the narrow track. The cars were run in batches of about fifty, then convoyed back down the track because there was no return road. It seemed to work well, especially with Dyno Don doing the announcing by the track side. The track was open until about 8:00 pm and during that time many of the top cars ran including most of the Gasser Garage cars of Russell Ritchie, with many US legends taking the wheel of each car. ©Eurodragster.com Rain was forecast for Saturday and sadly the weather forecast was correct. It rained until about 6:00 pm, then once the rain stopped it was just a waiting game for the track to dry. It was ready to go by 8.30 and we asked how long we could run for, to which Kobus replied "Until you can't see any more!", so we were off and running and what an atmosphere! I'm sure ther Chimay beer helped the crowd a lot, but once again Dyno Don was there whipping them up into a frenzy. Words cannot describe the feeling of how good it was to be part of this. Sunday dawned a lovely sunny day, with plenty of cars lined up for the drag strip. The track was in real good shape by now, and many cars were launching quite hard including Keith Seume in the California speed shop Karman Ghia who managed to get the front wheels two feet up for at least sixty feet, then on the next pass broke the transmission! The track action finally finished around four o'clock and that was it, all over, time to pack the dragstrip into the hire van! What a superb weekend. If you read this Kobus, you rock too my friend. All of the UK Track crew would like to say thank you very much to Carol and Helen from Outlaw Flat Fours for keeping us fed and watered with cups of tea, Jugs of Pimms (after the racing may I add) and also Rob, Joe and Laurence who helped out in the staging lanes. Swift snippets. 9th July: The Motorsport Industry Association held its second successful MIA Media Day at the famous Rockingham Motor Speedway in Northamptonshire yesterday and Santa Pod Raceway was represented among many high profile mainly engineering companies exhibiting in the grandstand area. Attracting interest among many and varied static race cars outside sat both the SPR Fueller and the Funny Car, the latter now complete with new paint depicting historic air brushings of WWll bombers and air crew that operated from the then Podington airstrip. Passenger rides and drives were available around the circuit in many cars including the RML Group Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 GT, Group Lotus, Lola and Ginetta cars. ©Eurodragster.com What's on this weekend. 9th July: This weekend's Public Track Day Run What You Brung at Shakespeare County Raceway incorporating the British Mini CLub's ever-popular Mini Showdown. It's the ultimate weekend for all classic and modern Mini owners in a one-on-one head-to-head battle over the quarter mile to find the quickest and fastest ultimate Mini of the weekend! At previous events Stuart Meads has dominated the classes with his rear wheel drive nitrous injected Mini. Will there be any others out there to challenge him? There will also be the usual classic and modern Show and Shine competitions as well as an attempt in establishing a record for a mile of Minis bumper-to-bumper. Also back for the third year is the Lotus Seven Club's Fastest Caterham in the World shootout (Saturday only), born from an idea by Caterham racer David Jackson. For the past two years this diminutive little British sports racer has been pushed to what is sometimes referred to as borderline escapism in just eleven seconds or less! Last year's race was won by Mark Durrant driving an R500. Mixed in with the popular British Mini Showdown crowd, the Shootout is expected to attract a fair few contestants all vying for the coveted title of Fastest Caterham in the World. And that's not all; along with the amazing Cox GTM boys the Wild Bunch nostalgia racers will be taking to the strip for another double-header points scoring rounds for the WB series and Real Steel series. Gates open from 6.00 pm Friday evening and will remain open for the duration of the event. The track is open to all on both Saturday and Sunday. General admission to the Raceway is £12 per person Saturday, £15 per person Sunday, or £25 for a weekend pass. Children under 16 go free provided they are accompanied by an adult. A dog-friendly camping area is now available. RWYB Track fee is £20 per person for unlimited runs or £35 per person for a weekend of unlimited runs. A full DVLA licence is required. For further information please call 01789 720180 or check out www.shakespearecountyraceway.com. ©Eurodragster.com The Drachten Internationals, second and biggest round of the Dutch eXplosion Championship will be taking place at Drachten Airfield from Friday to Sunday July. The race is organised by the eXplosion Drag Racing club and there will be over two hundred racers in Sportsman classes. There is a strong British contingent crossing the Channel to contest Super Pro ET, Super Street, Super Gas and ; in the bikes Stephen Partridge and Neil Stedman will be representing the NAST. From the Pro ranks there will be demos from Danny Bellio (Top Methanol Funny Car), Marc Meihuizen and Robert Joosten (Pro Modified), and Joey Bon and Rene van den Berg (Top Fuel Bike). Gates open at 08:30 each day and racing starts at 10:00; entry is €10 on Friday and €15 on Saturday and Sunday with a reduction of €2.50 for children. Full details can be found at www.explosiondragracing.com. The Midnight Sun Internationals takes place at Pite Dragway also Friday to Sunday. The race is organised by SHRA Luleå and is a round of both the Nordic Drag Racing Series and the Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series Championships. A huge field of over 270 racers is entered with racing in Top Doorslammer, UEM Pro Stock Snowmobile and a full roster of Sportsman classes with Top Fuel Dragsters, Fuel Funny Cars and a Top Methanol Funny Car making exhibition passes. Racing is from 11:00 to 18:00 Friday, 10:00 to 21:00 on Saturday, and 09:00 to 17:00 on Sunday. Admission is 100 SEK on Friday, 200 SEK for each of Saturday and Sunday, or 300 SEK for the weekend. Under-15s go free. You can find out more at www.shralulea.se and results will also be posted on the SHRA Luleå web site. As well as rather less interesting circuit racing participants this weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed features a display of number of classic US dragsters including Tommy Ivo's Barnstormer and his four-engined dragster, Addict, the Glass Slipper, Mooneyes, Beebe & Mulligan, the Howard Cams Rattler, Chrisman #25, Chrisman Hustler 1, and the Over The Hill Gang which have been brought over from the NHRA Museum and which will be taking part in Cacklefests on a number of occasions during the weekend. Entry to the Festival of Speed is by advance ticket only; for more details check out www.goodwood.co.uk. Web site updates. 9th July: In the latest update in his exclusive Racer Blog, Swedish Pro Stock racer Adam Flamholc recounts his unsatisfying weekend at the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro. You can find out more by checking out Adam's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Jon Spoard's excellent UK Drag Racing Nostalgia web site has been updated with pictures from the recent NSRA Nostlgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can check out Jon's pictures, as well as a huge library of pictures going back to the 1960s, video clips, and a very well-managed discussion forum at www.ukdrn.co.uk. ©Eurodragster.com The official web site of the UK's Laffin-gas Rocket Dragster team has been given a facelift. The very well-designed site still features Carolynne Campbell's entertaining Blog and race reports and now additionally features a history of rocket cars, explanations of the physcis behind rocketry, and more. This can all be found at www.laffin-gas.com. Carolynne tells us that she is now in contact with Dick Keller (left), one of the names in Rocket Cars, who worked with the Blue Flame Land Speed Record-holding team and Sammy Miller amongst others. Dick will be making a visit to the UK in late July to take part in a bicycle race at the Manchester Velodrome. Tricky tuning with Bengtsson. 8th July: The second round of the FIM/UEM Drag Racing Championship series turned out to be a tricky one when it came to read the track at the Alastaro Racing Circuit. Friday's and Saturday's qualifying were run in hot and sunny weather and the quickest run for Swedish Supertwin racer Per Bengtsson was a 6.778, which was enough for the number two spot. "This is the first time this season we have run the full length of the quarter mile because of bad weather and the lack of test sessions", says Per. "And with that in mind 6.77 seconds isn't too bad to start with. We have a lot of power in this new combination but we are still not satisfied with the way The Beast leaves the start line. The bike runs extremely well after 150 metres up to the finish line, and we recorded a new personal best of 279 kmh at the eighth." ©Eurodragster.com "Between Saturday and Sunday the weather changed dramatically and the temperature went down to around 14-15 degrees which made the track really hard to read. In the first round we had a bye but unfortunately the camshaft-belt broke after 300 metres and badly damaged the cylinder head badly. We changed to another head and just to be safe we also put in new rods and pistons before the semi-final against Hans Olav Olstad. As it was we ran out of time before the semi-final which led to an incorrectly timed ignition. When we ran against Olstad we had too low ignition and that cost us the race. "In all we had a good weekend in Finland and we managed to confirm a lot of data on the bike which will be very useful going in to the third round of the Championship at Mantorp Park, a race we really looking forward to. "A big Thank You to our sponsors Swedcut, Flexoart, Ulvsgården AB, Quaker State, Autoexperten i Växjö AB, Gates/Lönne, Fanhultstvätten Älmhult and Bentec Engineering who are supporting us in the Championship this year." Picture couresy and ©Stefan Boman PB wipeout. 8th July: The Pro Mods certainly found the track to their liking at Alastaro, since MSA British Drag Racing Championship Co-ordinator Robin Jackson tells us that by his reckoning at least six Pro Mod racers set new Personal Bests at the FHRA Nitro Nationals. Congratulations to: ©Eurodragster.com Urban Johansson: 230.52 mph Marc Meihuizen: 6.194 seconds and 225.67 mph Mats Eriksson: 6.236 seconds Freddy Fagerström: 6.253 seconds and 228.30 mph Bruno Bader: 6.306 seconds and 219.39 mph Robert Joosten: 6.174 seconds With three FIA European Championship rounds left for Pro Mod and everyone stepping up at every race, you've got to bet on the quickest sixteen-car Bump Spot of 6.671 seconds, set at Mantorp Park last July, being similarly wiped out very soon. Backed up by Bambi... 8th July: UK Supercharged Outlaw racer had a successful weekend at the UK Truck Show, the class' first competitive outing at Santa Pod Raceway, setting new Personal Bests and also winning the worryingly posthumous-sounding Tog Trophy (I'm not dead...I think I'll go for a walk - Ed). Lee tells us that the weekend didn't start quite so well for the LA Commercials-sponsored Red Mist team: Halfway down the M6 I started to get my first bad tyre shake of the weekend. I thought "Hang on a minute, I'm in a Iveco, it can't be tyre shake yet. I pulled over and found my offside front tyre had broken its side wall and was about to blow out. I managed to change the tyre over and got on my way. Thankfully the rest of the weekend went fantastically well. On Saturday's first we we got out with a Pro ET altered. I did a nice burnout, got the car back and ready, hit the throttle to the metal and the car hooked hard for the guardrail like a Fuel Altered should. I pedalled and hit hard again, hit second gear then started to get my second bad tyre shake of the weekend so I got off the gas to an 8.9/101. The second run was a bye. This time I off line to compensate for the left hook the car made on first pass. Hit the throttle hard, first gear and the car went dead straight so I steered off the wall, hit second and off Red Mist went, on one and pulling hard all the way down. A PB of 7.502/168, time to try out new chutes, out they came and the car came back to Earth nicely. Drove down to the end return road for a good shout and a jump around then towed back to pits. The third run was against Steve Good who ran really well with a strong 8.7, this time we ran another PB of 7.406/178.36 again car the stopped well and there was even more jumping around and shouting when the crew gave me the numbers. As you do! ©Eurodragster.com An awesome cacklefest on Saturday evening was ended by Jon Best and Bill Felstead firing up the big nasty nitro monster, wicked, 95% can't beat it. Well done lads for getting to the track just for a fire up. After the burnout on Sunday's first run I went for reverse and found the steel mounting tubes for the gear shifter had snapped and the shifter was lying on my knee...not good. We repaired it back in the pits. The last run was against Ian Hanson in the Vette. Ian got out on me at the lights, my foot was to the boards, this time we had a bit of a side-to-side run and I think I used up all of my lane. 7.489/176, this time car got on its tippy toes at the top end, left side tyres then right side tyres then chutes out and the car came back down to Earth. Fuel Altereds, made to keep you awake, just when you think it's being well behaved it will bite you in the ass. Fuel Altereds forever! What a weekend! I would like to thank all my crew, Dave (Fuzzie), Eddy chute master, my brother Andrew and my son Daniel all did a great job. Also big thanks to all of the Supercharged Outlaw teams for the best weekend yet, putting on a fantastic show for my company as sponsors. Well done lads. Thanks to the Pod, all the crew and safety teams. Well done to our kid for having a go on my turbo bike and having a go out in front of the car, Bambi on ice trying to keep his shoes on the glue. Bring it on for York and eighth mile burnouts. I hope you've got some spare tarmac Steve because we're going to rip it up! Swift snippets. 8th July: Pixie of Paul Watson's Dynospeed Developments 8.50 Bike team has asked us to say a big Thank You to Santa Pod Raceway and Santa Pod Racers Club for their support when her son James had a day in a Junior Dragster for his tenth birthday. "Thanks especially to Ian Marshall, Bob, Darren, Nicky, Angie, Marcus, Dan and Paula for all their help and support", says Pixie. "From start to finish it was very professional well executed day aided by Grumpy, I have to say even though I have been racing for some years it's all so different when its your own son. James had a fantastic day and couldn't believe it as it was kept secret right to the last minute. Even Amy his thirteen year old sister enjoyed the day. We would highly recommend a Junior Dragster drive to anyone wishing to give their child a truly wonderful day." ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 8th July: The official entry list for the Veidec Festival, which takes place at Mantorp Park on 24th-27th July, has been updated and the latest version can be found at www.veidecfestival.com. The event now features the largest ever Top Fuel Dragster entry in Europe, the addition of Monica Öberg bringing the field up to fourteen. Markus Ek has posted a large number of FHRA Nitro Nationals pictures on his web site at www.mek.nu. ©Eurodragster.com Maikel Gloudemans of The Netherlands' eXplosion Drag Racing Club has been in touch to let us know that the experimental webcam will again be in operation Drachten this weekend. Maikal says that amongst other changes there will be multiple cameras. You will be able to check out what is happening at Drachten from Friday to Sunday at www.ziejeme.nu/eXplosion. FHRA Nitro Nationals results. 7th July: Congratulations to the FIA and FIM/UEM European Championship winners at the weekend's FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro, which has already been described as one of the best races ever to take place in Finland: Top Fuel Dragster: Lex Joon Top Methanol Dragster: Peter Schöfer Top Methanol FC: Ulf Leanders Pro Modified: Patrick Wikström Pro Stock: Jimmy Ålund Top Fuel Bike: Ian King Supertwin: Svein Olav Rolfstad Pro Stock Bike: Fredrik Fredlund You can find the full official results, including NDRS and Finnish Championship class winners, at www.fhra.fi (cars) and www.dragrace.fi (bikes). A big well done to our friends Hanski and Jouni who did a great job on the results. Our good buddy Christer Abrahamson kindly offered to send us live reports from Alastaro which you can read as follows: Friday: Click here Saturday: Click here Sunday: Click here Thursday pictures: Click here Huge thanks to Christer who for your and our benefit dropped himself in at the deep end, not having done live coverage for a couple of years. Hopefully Christer realises the precedent he has now set for himself! ©Eurodragster.com Congratulations to Finland's Richard Sundblom on a new FIA European Pro Stock speed record of 329.93 kmh / 205.01 mph set and backed up during qualifying on Saturday. Also notable in Pro Stock was the quickest-ever bump spot of 6.930 seconds, previously 6.944 seconds at this year's FIA Main Event despite the conditions. For other weekend updates, FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion and Eurodragster.com News sponsor Urs Erbacher's web site was updated live from Alastaro at www.erbacher.biz/Racing-Diary.217.0.html?&L=1. Dutch Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon sent Blog updates from the track which you can read by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter posted very brief updates at www.andycarter.net, whilst the story of Danish Top Methanol FC racer and Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Dan Larsen's eventful weekend can be found at www.funnycar.dk. Kaija Kohtala told us that Finnish Top Fuel Bike racer Kai Selkämaa didn't appear in yesterday's eliminations because of engine problems. "The first run on Saturday resulted in considerable motor damage", said Kaija. "For example the block and pistons were damaged. Unfortunately not all the parts needed for the repair are and the team isn't able to run any elimination rounds on Sunday. However they are trying to get the motor in shape for the next FIM/UEM round at Mantorp in Sweden." Swift snippets. 7th July: This very nice-looking piece of kit is Swedish Fuel FC racer Patrik Pers' ex-John Force Racing 2004 Mustang. The car totes a Pleuger chassis and Team Speedghost member Dennis Glanby tells us that the team are working hard to make the car ready for the Sunoco Drag Challenge at Gardermoen on 1st-3rd August. Dennis adds that the team's official web site is being reworked and will be fully available during this week. Stay tuned for news about that. ©Eurodragster.com Web site updates. 7th July: Eurodragster.com Reserve Photographer Peter Donaldson has updated his Fotopic gallery with shots from the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. You can check out Peter's pictures at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net. ©Eurodragster.com Swift snippets. 5th July: Kaija Kohtala told us that Finnish Top Fuel Bike racer Kai Selkämaa's first qualifying session at the FHRA Nitro Nationals at Alastaro was cut short by slight motor damage caused by traction problems. "On his first run the tyre went up in smoke straight from the start and the rear wheel smoked for the first eighth mile", says Kaija. "This led to that cylinder head bolts breaking, and that's why the team decided to not run the second qualifying round, so that they could check the motor very carefully. No other damage could be found so Kai and the bike are ready to continue the race on Saturday." Excited by the appearance of three Impala SS on track at next weekend's Midnight Sun Internationals at Pite Dragway, Pepe Pitko of Finland's Wheelie Wagon Racing has decided to use his 1996 Impala SS to tow his van to Piteå. Pepe tells us that he will also be running in Pro ET. ©Eurodragster.com We are indebted to Santa Pod Racers Club Secretary Paula Marshall for forwarding us the final version of the official entry list for Bug Jam, which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 18th-20th July. Bug Jam entry is now perforce closed. You can check out the official Bug Jam entry list by clicking here. If you have any queries about Bug Jam entry then please contact Paula on 01933 313625 (outside the UK +44 1933 313625) or by E-Mail at paula.marshall@btconnect.com. UK Supercharged Outlaw racer Alec Coe recently attended the Hot Rod Meet at Faming World in Faversham where he shared a field with Mick Payne's ex-Appleton Pro Mod, the former Tarmac Teaser, and Simon Mitchell's Bone Shaker. Elsewhere in the paddock was son Tom's Pop. "It was a fantastic weekend", says Alec. "Thanks to Jeff and Simon at Mitchville and to Bev and all from Invicta Roadsters." Carolina Classics parts, service and repair centre have moved to a new location at Laverstoke, Whitchurch, Hampshire and can be contacted on 01256 896216 or MoT centre 01264 352651. "Due to the econimic climate, Carolina Classics have moved away from paint spraying and car sales and are now able to deal better with our busy parts line and work schedules", says Nigel Taylor. "Eurodragster.com readers get 20% discount on all stocked items which include a massive stock on suspension, steering, filters, service parts, brakes, etc. If you are looking for a decent classic we have a partner company which only deal with quality cars! We can examine and show you round any of the vehicles in question so if you are after a '67 Mustang, '67 or '68 Camaro, '57 Chevy Wagon, Buick Riviera, Ford Thunderbird, SS Chevelle and many more then call me on the number above." Web site updates. 5th July: In the latest update in his exclusive Racer Blog, Swedish Pro Stock racer Adam Flamholc reveals that both of his race cars are up for sale. You can find out why by checking out Adam's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. ©Eurodragster.com 1000-foot Top Fuel at Mantorp. 4th July: Mantorp Park's Event Director Fredrik Ström has announced that Top Fuel Dragster is to be contested over 1000 feet at the Veidec Festival which takes place on 24th-27th July. This is as a result of extensive consultation between the Top Fuel teams, and then between representatives of Top Fuel and Mantorp Park management, based on concerns about the length of Mantorp Park's shutdown area. A press release from Mantorp Park reads: Due to the tragic accident in the USA when Scott Kalitta recently lost his life, new safety discussions have occurred and are the top priority for everybody involved in drag racing at this moment. We, the crew at Mantorp Park and organiser of Veidec Festival, have had numerous discussions with representatives from the affected teams, our safety crew, the FIA and Svenska Bilsportförbundet (SBF) regarding possible solutions on how to further improve safety at Mantorp Park when arranging the third round of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship. As it turns out, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) in the USA has come up with a feasible solution that would partly and temporarily improve the safety at our track as they have decided to shorten the race distance for Top Fuel from the traditional 1320 feet (quarter mile), to 1000 feet, effective immediately. This is being done as an interim safety measure until safety issues has been discussed further and other solutions or options have been presented. In Europe we have been following and applying drag racing rules from NHRA for several decades. We have therefore applied to the FIA to shorten the race distance for the class Top Fuel at Veidec Festival 2008, so that we can run an FIA European Drag Racing Championship round at Mantorp Park over the race distance 1000 feet (approximately 305 meters) for Top Fuel. As for the NHRA, this is an interim step that is being taken while we, the track, the organisers, SBF and FIA continues to analyse and determine whether changes should be made to build upon the sport's long standing safety record, given the inherent risks and ever-present dangers associated with the sport. It is however our objective and ambition to further improve safety and/or find other solutions to be able to run races over the traditional distance of a quarter mile (402 meters) for Top Fuel in the future, and the work with this has already begun. This does not affect the race distance for any other car class running at the 2008 Veidec Festival. Editor's note: Top Fuel Bike and Supertwin were already running over the eighth mile at the Veidec Festival and will continue to do so. Swift snippets. 4th July: We would like to wish all of our readers in the USA a very Happy 4th July. Have a great day guys. ©Eurodragster.com Best wishes too to our good friend and SPRC Race Official Kathy Taylor whose birthday it is today. Big hugs Kathy and we hope that you are having a lovely day. Time to meet the public I. 3rd July: US bracket racer Karl Ellwein's Impala SS has arrived in good time for his Swedish tour, which starts at Pite Dragway next week, but Anders Envall tells us that some strings had to be pulled to get the car onto Swedish soil. "We had problems getting the car in because Karl is still in the USA", says Bostic. "But Sören Fjellstedt is not called 'Fixarn' or 'The Fixer' by accident. The Fixer fixed it so that I could drive the Impala into Sweden from Gothenburg Dock to The Best Damn Garage In Town. "We had to charge the battery. But it's really a lovely SS, feeling tight and ready to race and it has a lot of the bracket racer feel about it. ©Eurodragster.com "On Monday a truck will take Karl's and my SS to Umeå, the largest town of in the north of Sweden, where we'll have our base for racing at the very welcoming tracks of Piteå and Skellefteå. Umeå is where Kent Edin lives, and where he has been building an SS with an Ellwein Engines blown 383 which they say will be quicker than my 396. I'm from Umeå, so was the late 'Bagarn' Bergqvist and so is his wife Birgitta. It's a very special place. We think that Karl will love it there, and that he will love all of northern Sweden." You can find out more, and see more pictures, on the News page at www.blackout.nu. Time to meet the public II. 3rd July: Malta's Apap Bros Racing have announced that after six months of hard work their dragster is nearly ready for its first test passes at Hal Far Raceway. "It was extremely hard work and took a lot of thought to do the best job we could", Frankie Apap told Eurodragster.com. "We didn't have the help or input of any other chassis builder so we are very proud that we built the car all by ourselves in our own workshop. Another important thing was that it has all the SFI specifications. ©Eurodragster.com "At the moment we are making the final preparations on the chassis to check if everuthing fits, and our tuner DJ will fit the electronic systems, and all the pipe fittings and accesories. We are thinking that in mid August will be able to start the car for the first time and then we will go for some test passes. Everything is new, especially the tune-up because we have never even touched a turbo engine or a programmable ECU. "Special thanks go to our tuner Mario Aquilina (DJ), N Curmi - chassis welder, Maurizio Fenech - metal, Joe Scicluna - sheet metal, Frankie Catania, Twanny 'l-fenka', Kenneth James, Manuel Galea, all our customers at Metal Care, our fiancées and families and everyone who gave us a help hand with this State Of The Art 2008 project, and finally the MDRA who are doing a great job at Hal Far Raceway." Spreading the word! 3rd July: UK Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Carey flew the flag for drag racing last week when he gave a talk about the sport to the Institute of the Motor Industry, with a little help from the Jones and Friend Funny Bike team, The She Devil Racing Top Methanol FC team, his crew Bob, Ken and Annette, and Darren Prentice of Santa Pod Raceway. "Earlier in the year I was asked to do a talk on drag racing for the local branch of the Institute of the Motor Industry at Northbrook College on Shoreham Airport", says Steve. "Rather than just myself and the Purple Princess 2, I thought it would make a much better evening if I could expand it out a bit, so I asked Darren, Steph Milam and Gary Jones if they would be willing to help me out. At the Main Event Dave Milam suggested bringing their car along, and asked about firing it up on the evening as well. After a few phone calls, the airport authorities said no problem, providing it was after 20:30. So plans were set afoot and Gary and I made sure that our machines were also in a go condition for the evening. "So Thursday 26th came around. When we arrived Steph and Dave and their crew were already setting up. We set our bike up in the college workshops, Gary and Dave arrived and set up, but no Darren yet! The Institute provided meals for us in the airport resturant. The talk was due to start at 20:00 and that time was rapidly approaching, I had a call from Darren to say that it had taken over five hours to get from Northampton to Brighton, but he was close even though the Tom Tom had sent him into Brighton. A little bit of guidance and he arrived just in time. ©Eurodragster.com "Mike Reed from the IMI had told me the that lecture had been oversubscribed, and on the evening 101 people had registered for the lecture. Mike was very pleased as this was the biggest audience they have had for a very long time for their lectures. The audience included students from Northbrook College, which alonside the general automotive courses, is also running a motorsport course, so the evening was very much appreciated by them. "The audience was divided into four groups, and each group then rotated around Darren doing a talk about Santa Pod, track prep, the job of a Race Director and a short promo DVD for Santa Pod; Steph, Dave and the She Devil Top Methanol Funny Car; Gary and Dave with the Jones and Friend Funny Bike, and ourselves with the Purple Princess 2 Top Fuel Bike. Details of the race vehicles were explained to each group in turn, together with collections of parts etc. After each group had been around each of us, there was a draw for prizes donated by Santa Pod, and donations were collected for the BEN Charity. This raised £300. "Whilst the draw was taking place, we prepared our vehicles to start up. First to go was Steph with the She Devil, and yes, it did make people jump! Gary was next, then ourselves, finishing off the evening with sound and smell of a Nitro motor. "The evening gave many people who had possibly never seen anything to do with drag racing an insight into our world, and there was resounding round of applause given to us all at the end of the evening. So a big word of thanks to Darren, Steph and Dave and their crew, Gary and Dave, and Bob, Ken and Annette. Thanks also to Mike Reed and Perry Reeves from the IMI for inviting us and for their hospitality, and also to Adrian Slaughter from Northbrook College for making us welcome at the college facilities." A great weekend I. 3rd July: UK Outlaw Anglia and Super Pro ET racer Lee Cohen said that he had a great weekend at the SPRC Summernationals with PBs and kind weather: Our first run on the Saturday morning was another PB of 9.1/159. So far we have had PBs in both ET and speed at every event this year and I'm starting to have more confidence in the Pop now. On the second run of the day I had to shut down because of a oil pressure issue, so that was that for the day. We took the car back to the pits to sort out the oil problem, nothing major thank god but if you heard a big bang on Saturday early evening that was us - I blew the bug catcher staight of the top of the blower with a backfire. Hands up, it was my fault, I put the mag back in 180 degrees out.So we got that sorted and all was good, oil pressure was back and it fired up OK, I was back smiling again so that was that for day. ©Eurodragster.com On Sunday I was up against Richard Colby so I knew I had to do something because Richard runs eights. I did a good burnout, staged, the tree lit up and bang with the pedal - a bit more than normal, but still not even half throttle off the line yet, at about half track I whacked my foot to the floor. We had another PB this time on everything - 8.6, 160 mph, and a 1.27 sixty foot. That's leaving the line at idle, I still haven't used the transbrake yet. What's it going to be like all guns blazing...more spare pants I think? I would like to thank my sponsor Prolong for their support, Kenny Coleman for all his help, Mark Flavell for the spare blower gaskets, Chris Isaacs for the magic of his hands, and my crew Nick, Stuart, Martin and Mark. A great weekend II. 3rd July: Also having a great weekend were the UK Supercharged Outlaws who made their competitive début at the UK Truck Show at Santa Pod Raceway sponsored by LA Commercials of Kidderminster. Dave McKenzie says that with ten cars through the gates and co-operative weather the scene was set for two days of awesome side-by-side supercharged action: The first session was on Saturday morning. This was to be a test session and four cars were in the pairing lanes to check out the track. Roy Wilding paired up against Alec Coe, both slingshots looking great on the start line. Side by side all the way to the finish line Next pair round was Lee Gallimore, along side Lee was a Pro ET altered. Lee stormed down the track on an eight-second pass. Last pair in this session matched Steve Goode in the Wobble altered against Richard Davis in the '41 Willys. Richard was as usual on the money with a low ten while Steve was off the throttle at half track to record an eight. Jon Best and Bill Felstead arrived at around dinner time with Jon's brand new nitro slingshot. The car was not quite ready for track action but Jon and Bill wanted to check out the engine and you cannot fire one of these beasts up in Romford, so it was a tow up to Santa Pod and with a check over of the settings Bill fired up on petrol to warm the engine. Once the engine had been warmed and all the settings checked Bill put in a bit more ignition (ready for nitro) and the engine was sprung into life on petrol after a few seconds Bill reached down and turned on the nitro and the cackle of a nitro engine filled the pits. The crowd soon built up and after a couple of minutes Bill shut the car down and there was a big round of applause. An interested onlooker was Andy Carter and I think he was suitably impressed. Then it was back to the track action for Round 1 of the meeting. Richard Davis took a bye run with 10.28/131.29. Next pair round was Steve Goode up against the Old Git, Alec Coe, both cars sounding really strong and Alec took the win with a 8.29/164 to an early shut of for Steve 9.29/105. Next pair put Brian Gandy against the old stager Roy Wilding, these two cars looking superb in the sunshine, and Roy took the stripe first with 8.32/165.36 Brian ran 9.336 putting a rod out of the side of the block The last car to run was last year's series winner Lee Gallimore. Lee did his trademark storming burnout and then ran a stout 7.502/168.54, a new PB. The third round was run at four o'clock with six cars coming round with. Alec Coe an 8.1/161 whilst Lee ran another PB at 7.406/178.36. Steve Goode took the Wobble car into the eights with a 8.76/123, again Steve was of the throttle before the end. Richard Davis ran 10.23/131, then Ian Hanson in his splendid Corvette ran an off the trailer 8.21/169.76. Finally Roy Wilding ran 8.6/155. This was turning into an excellent show by the Supercharged Outlaws. As we all settled down for a quiet evening Bill announced that the nitro car was to be fired up at eight o'clock as it was ready to check out the direct drive and clutch and also to bark the engine a couple of times. This then gave some of the Outlaws an idea of a mini cackle fest so just before eight o'clock five blown cars were fired up one after the other ending with the nitro car. Bill barked the motor a couple of times and the crowd including a lot of the truckers really seemed to enjoy it, a lot of truck horns were sounded in appreciation! Sunday dawned another sunny day and we were out at ten o'clock. Some teams had a bit of a rush to make the staging lanes, but seven cars made it and it was looking good. First pair down the track was the two pump gas cars of Richard Davis and Paul Watts in his No Easy Pick Up, this was Paul's first outing down the track this weekend. Side by side Richard ran 10.20 to Paul's 10.86. Lee Gallimore did his usual eighth mile burnout and as he reversed up the gearshift lever broke so Lee had to shut down. Ian Hanson pulled a red light and no time was recorded. Roy ran a 8.4/160.72 Whilst in the Shy Talker slingshot we had a change of driver with young Tommy (Gun) Coe in the hot seat. Tom ran 8.73/157. Steve Goode is making progress with the Wobble carding another eight at 8.9/117 . Six cars came round for the second run of the day. First pair was Tommy Gun Coe and he was up against Richard Davis Tom led all the way down recording 8.89 to Richard's 10.50. The next pair had Roy Wilding against Steve Goode, Roy took the win 8.6/155 to Steves 8.9/122. Lee, still smarting from having to shut down in the last round, stormed down the track on a massive burnout while in the other lane Ian Hanson was also laying down a big smoky burnout which must have looked good from the grandstand. On the green Lee was away to another PB at 7.4 seconds. Winner of the event, by 0.009 of a second, was Steve Goode He took the winner's trophy and a cheque for £100 from LA Commercials. In second place was Roy Wilding with a trophy and £50. Best ET went to Lee Gallimore with a trophy and £25. Finally the Tog Trophy for Team of the Weekend, which went to Lee Gallimore for running a string of PB's over the two days. That rounded off an excellent weekend of track action from the Supercharged Outlaws. We could not have asked for anything better. A really big thank you to Santa Pod and to Darren Prentice for inviting us along. Also a big thank you to all the track crew and marshals, and finally a massive thank you to Tog for presenting the Outlaws' trophies (It was a privilege, thanks for asking me - Ed). We hope to be back at Santa Pod in the future. Turbo's birthday bash. 3rd July: The UK Truck Show fell on the 56th birthday weekend of UK Supertwin racer Ian Turburville and there was only one thing Turbo wanted to do on his birthday and that was go racing: The promoter of the show was eager to have us there after the show we put on for the truckers last year so I grabbed my daughter Laura Grace, my bike Mr Spokehead, two drums of nitro, a bottle of Jack Daniels and headed south! On arrival the sun was shining and the custom painted trucks were filling the pits, it was looking good! The sun shone all weekend and the track prep was just top notch, remember this was a show not a race weekend! By Saturday morning the place was packed and the atmosphere was great, real friendly and family oriented. It was real nice to get visits from so many of the people who remembered us from last year and it seems we made a lot of converts to the sport of drag racing. There was so much to see and do you could have spent all week there. Lots of great trade stands, monster trucks putting on shows every few hours, a fantastic Monster Energy Drink bike stunt team from California, Titan the unbelievable seven-foot robot stalking the pits and wowing the crowd, race trucks blasting the quarter in ten seconds, a funfair, rock bands, great food, free camping, Supercharged Outlaw dragsters, just too much and really cheap entry! We were scheduled for three runs a day so had a busy time of it all weekend. The new fuel system and timed clutch were all fitted and this was the perfect chance to dial it all in. The first couple of runs were good for getting some data to use and we did half passes as the bike veered off line again due to the front wheel being on the ground. The third run was a big improvement and we blasted out a 175mph pass even though I had to feather the throttle when it got close to the timing gear. We spent Saturday evening relaxing, having a birthday dinner in the famous Pit Stop Café, socialising and setting the bike up for the Sunday show. Sunday morning dawned bright and clear and I was like a kid at Christmas, at 10.00 am I was on the line ready. The bike was sounding good and when I flipped the fuel onto the high side at the stage line it sounded mean! On the green I snapped the throttle as hard as I could and the bike jumped away nice and straight with the front wheel in the air. It accelerated hard then at half track the clutch locked in and span the back tire at 155mph so I quickly f eathered the throttle. This worked and the tire immediately hooked up again and lifted the front end even higher in the air. The whole scene started to get a little blurry then as it tried to pull my arms out of their sockets. The finish line flashed by and the bike was still accelerating with the front end hanging in mid air, time to slow this baby down! It just felt so good to have that performance back again and it was a 187 mph terminal but with only a 7.5 ET due to my feathering at mid track. I could feel there was a really good run to be had next so we hurriedly turned the bike around for the lunch time show. There was a big crowd in the sun-soaked bleachers and I did a nice smoky burnout for them. I got into pre-stage, flipped my visor down, hit the fuel timer switch, and...got the signal to switch it off! I was so disappointed but it turned out to be a good call on behalf of the start line marshal which averted certain disaster, that's why I love this track! It turns out that the fuel metering valve had vibrated loose from the injector body putting far too much nitro into the motor which could have gone bang! The broken parts could not be fixed at the track so that was the end to our display for the weekend but I think we gave the crowd a good show and got more runs in than we did at the Thunderball and Main Event combined! We came away very happy, a year older, a bit wiser and tanned! Book the end of June next year in your diaries for this fun family event, it's definitely better than any theme park and no queues! Our next appearance will be at the world's best biker party, the world-famous Bulldog Bash, at Shakespeare County Raceway on 7th-10th August. Mr Spokehead appeared courtesy of Custom Chrome Europe, Red Line Oil, Gates Belts, Arias Pistons, Curbishley Automotive, Rush Racing, Sprint Dampers, RST Wheels, Fast Lane Racing, King Racing, Innovate Dataloggers, Bentec Transmissions, Exhaust Gas Technologies, timtime.co.uk, I&S Logistics, Deeside Automated Controls, and now Cycle Dynamix. ©Eurodragster.com NSRA Nostalgia Nationals winners. 3rd July: Congratulations to the following who were awarded trophies as the Quick Six Show and Go at the weekend's Nostalgia Nationals, presented by the NSRA at Shakespeare County Raceway: Quickest Tot Rod: Team Orange Pop, 14.790 Quickest Wild Bunch: Crazy Chris Hartnell, 9.065 Quickest Outlaw Anglia: Paul Wright, 7.477 Quickest Flathead/Four Pot Flathead: Clark Devey, 15.762 Quickest Gasser: Ken Brookes, 10.504 Quickest Altered: Neil Townsend, 8.659 Congratulations also to the UK's Tiki Munki Wild Bunch team who got their altered down to a 13.9 on Saturday. "On the last run, hearing a noise we lifted the engine out thinking it was the gearbox, and sent crew member Mark back home to Reading to fetch another one", says Scottie Durrant. "Then we discovered it was the flywheel! All back in and beer in hand by 9.30, ready for Sunday. "We ran a string of consistent wheel standing low fourteens all day Sunday, with no more problems resulting in a top four postion, quickest Reaction Time at 0.043, and Most Improved ET. We would like to thank Mark Rumble, Mark Hartnell, Joey, Dave Rowlands, and Team Dog's B******s for their help. "This Saturday, 5th July, we are having a Charity Hot Rodders' Bash at The Lamb Public House in Theale, near Reading. The Wild Bunch will be on display, including Backdraft, Ratcatcher Ressurection, Tiki Munki, Destiny's Angel, and the Thatadoo Racing team will be joining us with their Camaro. There will a BBQ and bar all day 'til late, three rockabilly bands, trade stands, Custom Car/Hot Rod show with prizegiving, and a huge raffle. Fundraising from the day is in aid of Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance." King Racing press release. 3rd July: After the rain-curtailed European Championship opener the Portable Shade Top Fuel Bike team elected to run the UK Summernationals to test their new components prior to the Nordic tour. With the Nitro Nationals in Finland fast approaching they needed valuable track time and immediately showed that the close season preparations and key component changes had moved them up a notch in their quest for a fourth European Championship crown. An off the trailer first run of the season resulted in personal bests in both elapsed time and speed, with a 6.317 second 221.06 mph run despite dropping a cylinder at three quarter track. As the final loomed without spare clutch parts the team decided to open up the clutch bleeds in an attempt to alleviate the clutch slip problems for the final, but this action proved a step too far and the primary belt broke after the engine pulled down at gear change and could only watch as their sizeable advantage at half track was surpassed by the Nitro Harley of Ian Turburville. However, with two new personal bests and a new UK record in the bag things look good for the Portable Shade Top Fuel Bike team heading into the second round of the European Championship. The team rely on only the best parts and services from leading companies in their chosen markets Portable Shade The world's premier awning and modular exhibition product company JE Pistons The world's premier manufacturer of high performance forged pistons Kibblewhite Precision Machining, Inc The highest quality valves and components for motorsport Swecomposite The leading supplier of carbon fibre parts to the racing, performance and custom markets Craft Safety Helmets The ultimate in safety and unique in design Del West Engineering, Inc Pioneers in valve train design Torco Oils The only oil recommended by engine manufacturers Puma Engineering. Goedhals Precision specialist gear cutting and engineering. Mickey Thompson Tyres The best drag race tyres in the world bar none. Goodridge UK The original and the best in fluid transfer systems. Gates The world's most trusted name in drive belts, hoses and hydraulics. Vanson Leathers Thirty years producing the best quality track-tested motorcycle apparel. Performance Machine The leader in aftermarket custom wheels, brakes and components. Kent Cams Specialists in motorsport camshaft manufacture, short runs and one-offs. Pro Alloy The UK's leader in fabrication of alloy racing tanks, intercoolers and radiators. PsycleWorkz The UK's best custom and race fabricators and innovators. House of Kolor Manufacturers of the world's most stunning specialist paints. Cannon Engineering Gear cutting and precision engineering services. Zodiac Europe's largest supplier of performance and aftermarket HD parts. Pixeleye Innovative graphic and website design. MRE Leaders in trackside support for drag race components and air shifting systems. Customize Premier sign makers and vinyl sign and design services. Turboville Your one stop drag racing resource. NitroShutter, The combined efforts of ace photojournalists Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes Wackyshack, Creators of stunning paintwork and murals. The Portable Shade Top Fuel Bike will to compete at the following events in 2008: 3rd–6th July: Alastaro, Finland 24th–27th July: Mantorp Park, Sweden 1st–3rd August: Gardermoen, Norway 14th–17th August: Hockenheim, Germany 4th–7th September: Santa Pod, England Follow the team's progress on Eurodragster.com's live event coverage at www.eurodragster.com. ©Eurodragster.com Signing a new sponsor. 3rd July: The UK's Chaos Fuel Altered team are pleased to announce a new associate sponsor, Signs Express (Northampton), who have recently produced and fitted the large and complicated vinyl graphics to the team trailer. The basic design and origination was supplied by Darren West of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Power Race Graphics to match and enhance the paintwork on the quickest Donovan-powered Nostalgia Fuel Altered drag racer of all time. Signs Express (Northampton) provide a comprehensive design, manufacture and fitting service for vehicle graphics. Centre owner Tony Petford explains: "When Lawrie Gatehouse gave us the opportunity to get involved as the graphics sponsor for such a fantastically powerful race car, the beast in me just couldn't resist. There was just no saying no to the chance to show off our large format vehicle graphic skills on the Chaos team vehicles." ©Eurodragster.com Located near the centre of Northampton, Signs Express specialize in vehicle graphics and have at their disposal in-house, wide format print, cut and lamination systems, design studio, production and showroom facilities alongside a purpose built vehicle graphics application bay. Beyond vehicle graphics, the Signs Express team has the skills and abilities to support its clients in all aspects of interior and exterior signage, exhibition and display graphics, labels and stickers, wide format digital printing and health and safety signage. Signs Express centre owner Tony Petford says "We are delighted to be involved with the Chaos team, the Chaos race car is a just a fantastic spectacle that has fans all around the world and as such represents a great branding opportunity for us." Signs Express Ltd is a leading provider of signs and graphics with over eight centres across the UK and Ireland and is a member of the British Sign and Graphics Association and the International Sign Association. You can contact Tony Petford at: Signs Express (Northampton) Unit 1, Collingwood Business Centre Lower Harding Street Northampton Northamptonshire Tel: 01604 472972 Fax: 01604 472373 Web: www.signsexpress.co.uk/northampton E-Mail: northampton@signsexpress.co.uk What's on this weekend. 3rd July: In addition to the FHRA Nitro Nationals, a separate round of the NDRS series is being held on Saturday and Sunday at Stjørdal in Norway. The Hell Race, organised by the Hell Cruisers, features Junior Dragsters, Super Street, Super Gas, Super Comp, Street Bike, Super Gas Bike, and Super Comp Bike. Details and results will be posted on the Svensk Dragracing web site at www.dragracing.se. ©Eurodragster.com Meca Raceway in Malmö, Sweden is hosting a round of the Southern Division of the Toyo Scandinavian Dragracing Series on Friday to Sunday. The Agroma Nationals will include TSDS Sportsman classes and information can be found on Meca's web site at www.srif.se. Malta's Hal Far Raceway hosts National Drag Racing Event 3 (Night Event) on Friday and Saturday. The event, organised by the Malta Drag Racing Association, includes all the MDRA Championship classes and information, results, pictures and video can be seen at www.maltadragracing.com. If you want to see Kings of Nitro... 2nd July: Nina Carbone of The Gamma Project, who have produced the Reality TV Series Kings of Nitro which features FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Champion and Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher, has asked for the help of German fans to get the series screened in their country and also Urs' home country of Switzerland. "DMax in Germany are actually a separate company from Discovery and, essentially, do their own thing", says Nina. "So they are not automatically showing Kings of Nitro. I have hired a company, Granada International, who are getting the show out around the world to non-Discovery channels. They have, for example, just confirmed it will be shown on a non-Discovery channel in Australia and New Zealand. ©Eurodragster.com "Granada are trying to get the show on TV in Germany and out to the German fans. But unbelievably, they've been told by German TV channels, including DMax, that channel execs are unsure there's a drag racing audience in Germany. Absurd I say, judging from Urs' huge German fan base and the great reception he received at the Nitrolympx while we where filming! And we've got Marcus Walz, German Custom Bike supremo, going head-to-head with Urs in two episodes. "Granada are saying to me that if enough German drag racing fans email us via the Kings of Nitro web site saying that they want to see this show and asking when will it be on in Germany etc, then they can show these E-Mails to the German execs and close the deal, securing a broadcast channel for Germany. "My main concern is for Urs and the guys. The German TV channels fall under one broadcast area including Switzerland and Austria as well as Germany. I really feel that the guys from the Erbacher team should have the experience of seeing the show on the TV sitting with their families and friends as it goes out live - they're such a great group of people who deserve all the success they've striven for. Also, these countries are Urs' main source of racing sponsorship and Custom Bike customers. So it is important to Urs' businesses too. "If German fans can E-Mail us at info@kingsofnitro.com then we can get the execs to see sense and roll out this series in Germany very soon." Anticipating queries from UK viewers we asked Nina about UK broadcast dates for Kings of Nitro; as things stand no date has yet been set but Nina is chasing and has promised an update as soon as there is any news. Web site updates. 2nd July: In the latest update in his exclusive Racer Blog, Swedish Pro Stock racer Adam Flamholc explains how the local council are making things difficult for him and relates a frustrating outing in his other race car. You can read Adam's Blog by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. Eurodragster.com Reserve Photographer Peter Donaldson has updated his Fotopic gallery with pictures from the weekend's UK Truck Show at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Peter's shots at peterdonaldson5305.fotopic.net (picture courtesy London Weather Centre). ©Eurodragster.com The official entry list for the Veidec Festival, which takes place at Mantorp Park on 24th-27th July, has been updated and the latest version can be found at www.veidecfestival.com. UK Top Methanol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Derek Flynn has updated the Gold RV Racing web site with the latest news from the team as well as pictures of his A/Fuel Dragster which is currently on the way from the USA. Check it out at www.goldrvracing.co.uk. "I would like to wish Tog all the best as I understand he has been a bit under the weather lately and trust he will soon be back on form!", adds Derek. Well, the secret's out now but thanks very much to Derek and to everyone who has sent good wishes. Markus Ek has updated his photo site with pictures from Meca Raceway, Sundsvall Raceway and Västerås. You can find Markus' pictures at www.mek.nu. Up on two wheels. 1st July: With the first UEM European Championship race turning out to be a rain-out, most racers are eagerly looking forward to the second round of the Championship coming up this weekend at Finland's Alastaro circuit. And although the new supercharged bike of The Netherlands' Zodiac Racing team has been on its wheels for the first time, they will have to follow the race from Ton Pels' workshop, as they continue to get the Godfather VII ready. The last three weeks have been taken up shaping over one hundred feet of chromoly tubing into the chassis of the new supercharged and nitro-fed V-Twin. Burning the midnight oil during weekdays, and working both days of weekends, the frame progressed quickly and was put on its wheels for the first time yesterday morning. Right now the last engine plates have already been programmed in the CNC milling machine and will be machined as soon as the raw material comes in, and work on the fuel and oil tank has started. Ton and Vincent have most of the machining and fabrication work out of their way now and found out that, in spite of what many say, Roel Koedam is still the best handyman to have around! Now they can start working on the tanks, plumbing, electronics and bodywork. The fuel tank is going to be up front with the oil tank just behind it. Although their goal is still the Mantorp race at the end of July, the team are aware that they time is getting very short. But with ferry and plane tickets already booked, the team have decided to come to the Mantorp and Gardermoen races to continue to help and support Job Heezen, who is running the Zodiac Godfather VI injected-nitro Harley which he bought from the Zodiac Racing team. Job made some very impressive passes on the new surface of the Drachten drag strip, which included a couple of 4.4 second eighth-mile passes. As well as their products Zodiac Racing can supply racers with brands such as G2 (exclusive distributor for Europe), S&S Race Products (exclusive distributor for Europe), McClure's Master Performance Racing, ARP, JE, Racepak, Kinsler, Gates, PM and much much more. Check out our race catalogue at www.zodiac.nl/en/catalog/zodiacracing_shop.html For any racing needs, please contact us at zodiacracing@zodiac.nl. ©Eurodragster.com The Zodiac SuperTwin Top Fuel drag racing team is proudly sponsored by Zodiac International BV, Supertrapp Exhaust Systems, ACCEL Motorcycle Products and Spectro Oils of America. The Zodiac SuperTwin Top Fuel drag racing team is proud to use products from Zodiac International BV, Supertrapp Exhaust Systems, ACCEL Motorcycle Products, Spectro Oils of America, Performance Machine Disk Brakes and Wheels, Kibblewhite Precision Machining, Midwest Acorn Nut Company, Goodridge Fluid Transfer Systems and Gates Belt Drive Systems. Don't tell the wife... 1st July: UK Pro Stock Bike racer Richard Gipp, currently on the road to Alastaro with fellow PSB racer Chris Hope, has been in touch to bring us up to date on his season: Our win at the Easter Thunderball was fifty-fifty luck and bloody-mindedness. We both damaged gearboxes due to wheelspin but I held onto the throttle a little longer than Dave Beck. The Springspeed Festival was disappointing as we were plagued with fuelling and electrical gremlins along with a gearbox problem from the Thunderball which we hadn't found. The Main Event was full of hope but the weather took care of that, and we at last seemed to be moving forward at the Summernationals but with a small ladder due to Ray Debben's withdrawal we got the short end of the stick in the first round, but we did give Dave Beck a run for his money. I started for Finland on Monday, firstly teaming up with Chris Hope for our return to the full European tour. Hopefully we should start to be more competitive and maybe we'll upset the form book, but with Chris as stablemate with his Vance and Hines motor I will probably be racing for top Brit with Chris and Martin Bishop for most of the European leg. The UK Championship is probably beyond our reach now but we hope to make Dave and Len earn it. ©Eurodragster.com As for next year, well I'm trying to get a Pro Mod bike - something more suitable for my size - but actually getting one and hiding it from the missus is another thing. As usual I have to thank Straightline Racing, Psycleworkz, Design Weld, Allens Garage, Mick's Motorcycle training, Mr Signs, The Two Wheel Centre and Roger Upperton for their support, and crewman Nigel for taking the abuse and changing all those engines. Betts unveils Venom 2. 1st July: UK Fuel Altered racer Tony Betts unveiled his new Fuel Altered Venom 2 on Santa Pod Raceway's display at Brands Hatch at the weekend. Tony says that the offer to attend the show was well-timed and that the setting was perfect. "We had a call from Kelly at Santa Pod a few weeks ago asking if it was possible for us to do the show, and we jumped at the chance", says Tony. "The race to make sure the car was ready was hectic to say the least. There will be a full story on our web site soon, with all the do's and don'ts of buying a new car. ©Eurodragster.com "We were met by Scooby and Phil who had set up the Santa Pod stand and were already handing out flyers when we arrived. Saturday was a bit quiet but Sunday made up for it with thousands of people coming through the gates. I must say our stand was the busiest and most talked-about throughout the weekend. We met people who used to work at the Pod as well as families who went in the 1980s and hopefully will now come back. "I would like to thank Phil and Scooby for a great weekend, and I hope they enjoyed Fawlty Towers but that's another story." Swift snippets. 1st July: UK Top Methanol Dragster racer Derek Flynn of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Gold RV has revealed the design of his injected-nitro dragster which is on its way to the UK from the USA. Derek's brief to designer and Eurodragster.com News sponsor Peter Walters was to leave some of the carbon fibre visible and to bring back the flames. You can read more on Derek's exclusive Racer Blog which you can view by clicking here or by clicking on the Racer Blogs link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster.com page. On a not-unrelated subject we would like to wish a big Happy Birthday to UK Super Pro ET racer and Eurodragster.com News sponsor Peter Walters. Have a great day Peter. ©Eurodragster.com Summer Drag Wars, a car-only RWYB which was due to take place at RAF Portreath at the end of July, has had to be postponed to September due to promoter Lee Child's increasing workload. The new Portreath date will be posted here as soon as it is confirmed by the RAF. The events at Dakota Drag Strip on 19th-20th July and 16th-17th August will still take place and will benefit from new scoreboards and new track prep equipment. Eurodragster.com News sponsor Tireshake.com have produced a special edition T-Shirt in memory of late US Fuel FC racer Scott Kalitta. You can order your shirt at www.tireshake.com or by clicking on the logo at left. Tireshake.com will also be in attendance at the Veidec Festival at Mantorp Park and the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway where you will be able to find them in the Leanders Brothers' Top Methanol FC pit. Sarah Payne writes on behalf of the UK's Sticky Situation Super Modified team to thank everyone at Santa Pod Raceway and especially Ian Marshall for the way they ran the weekend's drag racing demonstrations at the UK Truck Show. "Ian's understanding of the racers' needs was second to none and all of the Super Modified racers had a very enjoyable weekend", says Sarah. "We are now all looking forward to the Bug Jam after gaining much more data about our cars, thanks to the six runs that we all had." UK racers and RWYBers despairing at the prospect of an entire month with no track time should check out the Street Nationals which takes place at Santa Pod Raceway on 12th-13th July. All cars are welcome from Mustangs to Micras; an advance ticket costs no more than the usual RWYB entry fee and a weekend ticket is even cheaper. Track fees also are the same. There are RWYB classes with cash prizes for all vehicles including V8s and non-road-legal, and the event also features European Drift Championship action. So it's a RWYB with bonus bits. Full details can be found on the event's official web site at www.streetnationals.co.uk. Web site updates. 1st July: Our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson has updated the Racebilder site with pictures from the weekend's Aros Nats at Västerås. You can check out Patrik's excellent shots at www.racebilder.nu. UK Pro Modified racer Wayne Nicholson has launched a web site at www.luckydevil777dragracing.com. Apart from revealing on the home page that Satan may actually be Wayne - the resemblance is a bit scary - the well-designed site features news, car spec, team run-down, history, gallery, sponsor page and more. "We will be updating the page quite often with new pictures and hopefully some video footage", says Wayne. "We would also like to thank our sponsors Quarry Motors BMW Specialists and Originals Hot Rod Supply Co. A big thanks to Richard Smith for building the web site; he has done a wonderful job, and I am sure he could do the same again." ©Eurodragster.com The weekend's NSRA Nostalgia Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway at the weekend featured an eclectic mix of cars ranging from street rods right up to Neil Townson's methanol-burning altered. Our good friend Alan Currans was at SCR on Saturday to record the action and you can check out his pictures via the What's New link at www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. Apologies to those readers who tried to view our UK Truck Show pictures using Firefox but were presented with blank photo pages yesterday. The problem has now been solved; thanks to Tethys and to Stephen Talbot for their ready assistance. Editor's note: We have a small backlog of news which we will post tomorrow, and please keep those news items coming to news@eurodragster.com. Earlier news