European Drag Racing News (2024)

"The six-second pass was the result of three years of planning and effort by a lot of people",says Stephen. "We have a lot of people to thank - sorry if this is a long list but we think thatEurodragster is the best medium to thank everyone who has helped us.

"Firstly, thanks to Geof and Ray at Hauser Race Cars and Jon Webster at Webster Race Engineering for giving us a lovely chassis to work with. Thanks also to Rob Loaring and Nick Davies at ICE Automotive for the engine build, tuning advice and patience - they have given us a great Nitrous set-up which hasn't hurt any motor parts all season! - and to Al O�Connor for looking after our transmission.

"Finally, as all racers know, we can�t race the car without our Super Crew. Thanks to Robin, Lisa, Crunch, Jason, Mike, Peter and all the rest who have helped us this season.

"Congratulations to George Chiarella on his Super Pro ET win at the weekend, and we hope that Mark Flavell and Wayne Nicholson are well on the way to recovery and will soon be back racing (Hear, hear - Ed). OK, so this sounded like an Oscars speech - but we'll see you all next season!"

Andy will be updating his web site at www.redvictor1racing.co.ukover the off-season, and promises fans more of the same next year. "Watch in 2004 as we continue to set new PB ETs and speeds in the World's fastest street-legal Vauxhall Victor FD", he says.

"US racing commitments resulted in Dave being able to contest only four of the six rounds in the UK", says Stephen Moon. "Despite this, the team secured wins at all four meetings, built on a foundation of four number one qualifier spots. This dominant performance was enough to secure a sixth title, against competition with a two round advantage.

"In addition to winning four rounds, Dave set new ET and speed benchmarks for the class earlier in the year, turning in the first sub-7.3 run outside of the US, with a new European ET record of 7.29. A new terminal speed record of 183.07 mph was also set.

"In the ProStar rounds in the US, Dave has also continued to make progress, posting qualifying times in the 6.8-second bracket at Indianapolis. With two Championship rounds still to run in 2003, in Alabama and Gainesville, Dave has high hopes of improving on this mark and making a strong impact on the eliminations.

"Plans for 2004 are already well underway, with a new Roger Upperton motor making its debut last weekend. Discussions with potential sponsors are also well advanced. The ACU Championship will be defended and the US campaign will also continue. In addition Dave is considering, subject to sponsorship discussions, contesting at least one European Championship round with his record-breaking Pro Stocker."

Martin Curbishley will again be eschewing his Roadster for Will Furniss' Toyota Supra at the Big Shootout, after a successful weekendat the Doorslammer Internationals. Will Furniss is still out of service due to family commitments, and Martin has damaged the transmissionof his Roadster, so Martin will again be teaming up with Nev Mottershead and Andy Williamson.

For more information about the Big Shootout including entry fees, check out last Friday's news item.

Spuff came up to visit us in Race Control at the weekend and was laughing and joking and enjoying the racing. He is very optimistic abouta complete recovery. "The repairs are already underway and the outcome looks very good", he says. Spuff also took a turn around the pits and he tells us that the reaction of fellow racers, officials and fans was just overwhelming. "Everyone has shown so much concern, I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am", he says.

Spuff asked us to say a very special thanks to Turner Racing team member Ricky Gowen. "It was Ricky who rushed me to hospital",he said. "Without his help things could have been a lot worse. I would also like to say again how grateful I am to my partnerJo who has had to drive me everywhere and put up with me generally!"

Spuff promised to keep up up-to-date with news of the repair of the Mustang, and hopefully we will be able to persuade theself-effacing FC star to keep us informed about his own recovery.

The weekend's timing data is also available on the European Drag Racing Database atwww.eurodrag.com.

Spuff spent five days in Stoke Mandeville Hospital after his accident. "I can't say enough for theHospital", he says. "They did a superb job. I would like to thank everyone on Ward 21, thesurgeon, the registrar, the doctors and the nurses. They've all been blinding, as has my partner Jo."

Spuff asked us to thank everyone who has written and called. "I am very grateful indeed for all ofyour support, it is much appreciated", he says. "I'll be glad to shake your hands just as soon as I can."

"We have a thirteen car field which is oneof our best this late on in the season, the Championship looks set to bebetween Russ Fellows who drives his eleven-second turbo Bug from Chester andPaul Woodhead who is still in his first full season of racing.

"Joining these two is a returning Nigel Green who despite a slow start at BugJam is one of the club's most experienced Pro racers and will be back to hislow eleven second best here. The Aldred brothers will be looking tocontinue the round wins after Justin's runner-up finish at Bug Jam andalthough Jason broke his gearbox (and subsequently nearly broke his CreditCard!) he will be looking to even the score as Justin took him out in roundone last meeting.

"Paul Bate is hot off another Bug Jam win, his second in a row, and Paul alsohas one of the Cal Look Forum top twenty fastest cal-look street cars andthe only one outside of North America. Ian Dale is making steady progressdeeper into the twelve second bracket with the Stripburner car and Ian hasone of the most consistent cars in VW Pro. After his early season spin at aRWYB just before Easter, Brett Lincoln and team owner Duane Brown finallymanaged their season long task, take the car home in one peice! After takinga couple of race to acclimatise in the car Brett was pulling excellentreaction times and made the semi finals of a twenty three-car field at Bug Jam.

Class sponsor Jon Rathbone will be looking to get more seat time while hewaits for his new Mendeola gearbox to arrive in readiness for 2004. Jon isbusy in his workshop readying some new Pro cars for next season. Last butby no means last the Fiat's of Cogbox's Pete Englezos (Fiat 600) and TaylorMachine Services's Martin Taylor (Fiat 500) add to an interesting mix ofbody styles."

You can find out more about the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club on their official web site atwww.vwdrc.com.

Joining the festivities will be Darryl Bradford in John and Lesley Wright's Wildside Inc Top Fuel Dragster, Roger Goring'sFirestorm Jet Funny Car, and a large field of Supercharged Outlaws about which more details soon.

For Big Shootout participants, all classes will run heads-up on a Pro tree. The classes and prize structure for the Shootout are as follow:

Top Eliminator for cars running quicker than 7.25 seconds

Entry fee: �150
Eight-car field winner/runner up: �2000/�1000
Sixteen-car field winner/runner-up: �3000/�1500

Super Eliminator for cars running 7.26-8.50

Entry fee: �125
Eight-car field winner/runner up: �1250/�750
Sixteen-car field winner/runner-up: �1500/�1000
Thirty two-car field winner/runner-up: �2500/�1500

Top Gasser for cars running 8.51-9.75

Entry fee: �100
Sixteen-car field winner/runner-up: �1200/�600
Thirty two-car field winner/runner-up: �2000/�1000

Super Sportsman for cars running 9.76-11.25

Sportsman for cars running 11.26-13.99

Entry fee: �55
Sixteen-car field winner/runner-up: �500/�300
Thirty two-car field winner/runner-up: �700/�500
Sixty four-car field winner/runner-up: �1000/�750

Open practice will be run in between sessions of the Shootout.

Entry to the track will be �15 each on Saturday and Sunday. Weekend tickets (which include camping) are available for �26 on the gate or �20 in advance.

For more details, or to order advance tickets, contact LA Performance Services on 01803 554308.

"I still don't have a definitive answer to our problem with the body letting gobut there are various possibilities", says Martin. "The run itself was normal, as was the chute deployment, but shortly after the canopy opened daylight appeared between the chassis and the body - this happened two years ago also. It had bellowed out again and lifted from themountings, having broken its back. This in turn let all the air pressure outand the body sat back down, but then the body flexed the other way, unlatched itself, acted like a sail and just peeled off. I watched the body disappear over my head through theroll cage. It was a strange feeling going from being a totally enclosed Funny Car to adragster in a second or two. Then I focussed forwards again and the frontwheels must have been at least a couple of feet of the floor, luckily thecar just planted itself back down again as there was no lift with the body off.The car was always in a straight line throughout the ride, and was broughtto halt at the end of the strip as normal much to the relief of the firecrews.

"The car now has its spare body painted and fitted and is loaded in the trailer readyfor our trip to Greece. We will be fulfillingall our commitments with both cars till the end of the year and thenre-assess the situation.

"I must thank all involved for their help over the last couple of weeks, notat least Steve from Roadcoal who talked me in to having the spare body doneearly this year; Trev, Steve and John and all those at B and H Autokraft who haveput up with me; Roger at Unity Painters for turning the body round; Paul thefibreglass man for sticking the right bits on and the body itself; Horracefor being Horrace; the rest of the team and the support from the track crewand all the public who contributed to the collection."

You can find the Fireforce web site at www.fireforce.co.uk.

"The Happening was put up for sale recently, so that prospective buyers would have the opportunity to look at the car in action at the Hot Rod Drags and the Big Shootout", saysJohnny. "We fully expected to see out the season before selling, but we shot ourselves in the foot as a fan of the car phoned up as soon as he saw the ad in Custom Car magazine. Peter Van Goethem, who owns and runs the Americana shop said that he couldn't make the Hot Rod Drags because his company had a trade stand at the FIA European Finals at the Pod, but that he would come and view the car later that week .

"Well, we are glad that he didn't come to Shakey that weekend as he may have had a heart attack watching the antics of our wild wheelying slingshot. Our first run was an arrow-straight 8.78 beating a quicker 8.77 from Lee Johnstone in his silver Topolino, but later that day the car narrowly missed the Tree for a sqiggly9.7 against Frank Griffin. On Sunday we were joined by our buddy Bill Felstead who is just coming back on the scene after a layoff of over ten years. We were again paired against Lee and this time he had to shut off with problems to our winning arrow-straight 8.7/150.

"Later in the afternoon we sat in the pairing lanes waiting to race and my Crew Chief Mark Windridge leaned over and told me that he lowered the tyre pressures to 5 psi because we were having traction problems all weekend, and as a result of that he had to raise the wheelie bars because they would be too low in the shutdown area and would unsettle the car when I came off the tyres at the top end. Well, those of you who have seen the startline antics of the Happening are now informed that it is always this way when we lower the pressures. All I can say is thank God for what happened next.

"Since then, lots has happened. Peter has put a deposit on the car and will be coming back over in October to pick it up after Bill Felstead and myself put a new lower roll cage on it and take it to Martin Curbishley's paint shop for a new '60s paint job. It will be on display at the shop in Belgium as well as coming out to play at various Rod Runs and Shows and hopefully some Supercharged Outlaw meets in the UK and maybe abroad.

"As for Windridge Hall McKenzie, we are building a 225" AA/Fuel slingshot, and in fact have already got a rolling chassis finished, also on the chassis table in our Northern branch a blown alteredis starting to take shape. So plenty is "Happening" in our camp. Whatever happens elsewhere on the Nostalgia scene in this country, we will be there to meet the challenge, and the message is 'We don't need no stinking Hemis'.Yes, we are laying down the Gauntlet."

You can see pictures of the ex-Wheeldon Plan X car taking shape at Johnny's workshop on the Windridge Hall McKenzie web site at www.alkyoneus.co.uk.

"We have found ourselves flat out with the Drag Race Driving School and Passenger Ride Experiences",says Paul. "We have taken advantage of every single opportunity to get on the track at Santa Pod, andI simply cannot thank Santa Pod staff, Paul Marston Racing and all our sponsors enough for their co-operation. For without their forward thinking and belief in the programme we simply could not achieve what we have.

"Just prior to the European Finals at Santa Pod earlier this month, we managed within three days to run twenty seven passes in Grumpy's Dodge alone, without counting the runs in the Insanity Vega. Eurodragster's very own Tog held the record for the fastest pass by a pupil at 10.669/126.06, everyone at PMR thought that would stand for the rest of the season as it was quite an outstanding effort on his behalf. But at the last Webster Race Engineering Test Day, whilst teaching two more pupils this was surpassed and a 10.64/128 is now the new mark. Not that the teaching is about speed, it is about driving skills and learning them, but it does demonstrate the human competitive streak we all have in us(I'll be back - Ed).

"We must also congratulate Dave Gibbons for his stellar efforts in the Alien altered at Shakespeare County Raceway in August, to smash a personal best held for nearly twenty years was a joy to see and a 7.87/163 is no mean feat. The Alien was scheduled to make an appearance at Santa Pod this weekend but that plan has been changed, more on that further down.

"Last weekend Paul Marston Racing returned to Shakespeare County Raceway for the Doorslammer Internationals. A welcome return of our first pupil to enter competition, Michael Pusey driving Grumpy's Dodge for a second time, the first being at the Main Event at Santa Pod earlier this season. With plenty of track time available Mick had the added bonus of plenty of practice before eliminations commenced (see Tuesday'snews item Doorslammer PB Fest for more - Ed).

"Everyone at Paul Marston Racing was very happy and proud of Michael, our first graduate of the Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School. Sometimes you have to wait a very long time for the first win; to win a round at the second event in which you compete is no mean achievement. With the added bonus of being able to run some more passes in the RWYB, Michael went on to run a flat out pass of 10.33/130, a new mark for Grumpy's Dodge in its current set-up. I also took to the wheel again and ran a couple of passes, taking two attempts to better Michael's time with an eventual 10.27/129.

"We will also be seeing the return of some familiar faces at Santa Pod this weekend. Logistics Manager Dave Kalisz has been absent for most of the season due to work commitments and general laziness...only joking Dave, major business commitments have kept Dave away, not much else would! We also see the welcome return of Anthony Middleton from ChryslerCard who will be spending some time with us as our guest and will as usual be roped into crewing at the same time.

"With so many plans for the future still in the pipeline, but some close enough to be able to tell you, we can confirm that the Drag Race Driving School and the Passenger Ride Experience Programmes will both run next year. Paul Marston Racing will be fielding the PT Bruiser next year, competing at all major events, most probably double classing Super Comp and either Super Pro ET or Super Gas as the other.A major new sponsor will be announced over the off-season which will be backing the PT Bruiser campaign in 2004.

"We must thank our tireless heroes, the crew at Paul Marston Racing; ChryslerCard; ATI Performance Transmissions;Disco Equipment Hire; especially London Road Tyres who repaired a puncture in the rear slick on Grumpys Dodge while we waited after the WRE Test Day; MAC Tools; Jeep Club; and Black Box London Ltd.

"Finally, the Brighton Speed Trials were run last week and we were amused to hear that no-one ran a faster time than ours of last year, and in fact the competitor who finished second to us last year won the event this year.

"Just a small reminder regarding the Paul Marston Racing Drag Race Driving School and the Passenger Ride Experience. We are at present inviting enquiries for the 2004 season, particularly for the Driving School as the spaces are more limited and we already have firm bookings, so if you were considering it now is the time to be talking to us. The office number is 0208 597 4575, visit our web site atwebsite www.paulmarstonracing.com, or E-Mail [emailprotected].

A very Happy Birthday to Santa Pod Raceway's Chief Starter and occasional Super Modified racer Ian Marshall. "Ian is not quite over the hill yet - that's next year!", says Ian's wife, SPRC Club Secretary Paula Marshall. Ian's brother Paul celebrates his birthday tomorrow;Paula tells us that Paul is the younger brother but that looks can be deceptive.

Sharkman, Tog and we are sure all of our readers would like to send their very best wishes toNick, Jo and Callum, and to wish Ian a very Happy Birthday and the same to Paul for tomorrow.

"I would like to thank FAST for their devotion and duty to the sport", said Anthony.

Next week's Big Shootout at Shakespeare County Raceway will go on as planned, since arrangements have been made for safety cover at the event and for the remainder of the season at SCR.

"On the Monday after the European Finals I went to Liverpool and bought two new double-deck trailers",says Knut. "It is mainly so that we don't have to transport all of our cars in one trailer - it was areal nightmare this year."

Knut is also attending to the comfort of his large team. "After much pushing from my crew, I have decidedto build bunk beds in each trailer", he says. "After they saw Micke Kågered's trailer theydecided that they are sick and tired of deluxe hotel rooms and first-class gourmet restaurants."

Knut says that he was very pleased by the performance of the whole Top Fuel field this year. "But I ampersonally very disappointed that we only managed a the Main Event winner and runner-up, the Alastaro winner and runner-up, the winner at Piteå, the winner in Norway, and the winner and runner-up at theEuropean Finals", he says. "I would say to Alan Jackson (Crew Chief - Ed) please keep up the bad work!"

Knut says that 2003 FIA European Champion Smax Smith did a good year's work. "He worked hard and didwhat he was told", says Knut. "Now comes the real trick - to do it again next year. And Smax shouldn'tthink that I'll forget how to scream at him!"

"It was the best race ever!", says Elias. "New tarmac gave the racers the chance torun faster on almost every pass! We had new Hellenic records in the following classes:

Auto - Open: 9.6 Mr Nefraim and then 9.3 Mr Androulakis
Moto - Open: 8.4 Mr Svrahnos
Auto - T3: 10.27 Mr Dimitriadis
Auto - T2: 10.9 Mr Tzampazoglou
Auto - T1: 11.96 Mr Zafeiris
Auto - A3: 11.47 Mr Hatzimoisiadis and then 11.21 Mr Papadopoylos
Auto - A2: 12.08 Mr Loukos
Auto - A1: 14.16 Mr Daravigas

You can find 342 photos of the race at www.dragster.gr/images/Shows_Races/030907Serres/index.htm.

Pro Modified: Congratulations to UK Champion Gordon Appleton ('67 Camaro), who beat other UK regular John Ellis (Vauxhall Calibra). NDRS champion Roger Johansson ends in third despiteonly attending two out of four events. Team Steelcraft are Champions in Super Modified, Danny co*ckerill (Rover 220 Coupe) having won three of six events so far; congratulations to Danny. Graham Ellis (Olds Cutlass) is second, having won two events, but is only fifty points ahead of third-placed Andy 'Fred' Hone (Gleeson Wright Ford Granada), so expect a war between these two!

Super Comp: With three wins in seven events so far, Tim Adam (Brogie Roadster) is over four rounds ahead of Malcolm Francis (69 Camaro Z28, with two wins) and Tim would have to falter badly for Malcolm to win the Championship. After another superb performance at the Doorslammer Nationals, Brian Pateman ('67 Firebird) could take second from Malcolm if he goes a couple of rounds further, but 2002 champion Martin Curbishley (Brogie Roadster, crewed by Spencer Tramm) is only a round further back. Tim Adamis also looking very good in Super Gas with three event wins and could pull off the 'double' for the second time since 2001. 790 points back, Martin Curbishley is only just over two rounds ahead of Conrad Stanley (Chevy Vega). In Super Street, Mike Bentley (Ford Sierra) has three event wins and a runner-up to be a consistent scorer in this category. Conrad Stanley has two event wins but is less than one round of racing ahead of Bob Lees ('71 Ford Mustang).

Ian Bishop (Dodge Avenger) has won one event in Super Pro ET but attended more events than most to build up a Championship-winning lead of 860 points - congratulations to Ian. Second and third places are very close between Al Golding (Grounds for Divorce Vauxhall Firenza) with one event win and Mark Flavell but unfortunately Mark is out for the rest of the season. Fourth-placed Barry Giles (Giles and Hartley dragster) needs to qualify a couple of places better than Al and win two more rounds to snatch secondplace in the Championship. Pro ET: Congratulations to Champions the Huxleys (Team Top Banana '32 Ford Roadster) with three event wins, a superb achievement in such a competitive class. Malcolm Motler (Morris Minor Pickup) is only one qualifying position ahead of Steve Wells who is only three qualifying positions ahead of Team Heaven and Hell (Camaro). Malcolm and Steve have each won an event. Kevin Slyfield (Plymouth Belvedere) has emerged as a real force in Sportsman ET with two event wins and two runner-up places. Mark Anderson (C.R.A.P. Conversions Capri, 590 points further back) has also won two events but is only threequalifying places ahead of Team Rainy City Lightning (2001-2 champion Al Platt and his wife Linda, Chevy Camaro) who will also obtain 100 bonus points from attending all eight rounds. Nick Gay, Nick South and Rick Denny are close behind too, and second place could be any of these five racers.

Fred Furlong (Suzuki GSXR 1000), with one 9.90 Bike win and one runner up is 150 points (less than two rounds) ahead of Steve Coombs (Suzuki GSXR 1200), who has two event wins. Steve needs to qualify more than six places ahead of Fred and go one round further (or qualify less than five places behind and go two rounds further) to take the Championship. Two more riders could grab second place if Steve has a bad weekend: Geoff Connor or Martin Walker. 10.90 Bike is the closest title race this year, as David Warren (Suzuki GSXR 750), is only 50 points ahead of Phil Pratt (Suzuki RF900). Phil could get the Championship by qualifying at least five places ahead of David and going at least as far in the event.

The post-European Finals National points are just undergoing final ratification and will be posted hereon Eurodragster very soon.

The European Pro Mod Association will be holding their annual meetingin Stockholm, Sweden, also on Saturday 25th October. You can find more details on the EPMA web site atwww.promod.nu.

UK Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Andy Frostwas "Chuffed to pieces" with a new Personal Best of 8.77 which he ran at the Doorslammer Internationalsat the weekend. "We were especially chuffed as it got us in front of Fatty (Ian Hook - Ed) in our private battle", says Andy. "A big thanx to my hard-working crew this weekend, and a big mention to Deb who finally found out what it's like to ride in a CCSE car on the Cruise. She was smiling on the return to the pits that's for sure...&quot. You can find a race report on Andy's web site atwww.redvictor1racing.co.uk.

Neil Tanser is looking for news of the whereabouts of the Malibu Express rear-engined dragsterwhich ran in the UK in the 1970s-80s. Neil would appreciate photographs as well as information aboutthe car's current location, state, name etc. If you have any news then please drop Neil an E-Mailat [emailprotected].

Sweden's 'Big Stan' Mellström has updated his personal web site with a large gallery of excellent JuniorDragster pictures. You can find Stanley's web site at www.bigstan.se.

For more details about this weekend's event, including ticket prices, check out Santa Pod Raceway'sweb site at www.santapod.com.

1. Dave Wilson 334
2. Steph Milam324
3. Rob Turner 288
4. Doug Ripley 227
5. Doug Bond 195

Steph Milam will be looking to repeat her performance at the last round of the MSA Championship, where she secured her first ever National event win in Top Methanol. The She Devil Racing team are determined to make their mark, and are just as keen on taking the Championship honours back to Sussex as Dave Wilson is to see them head for Farnborough.

"We've got some parts left" says Dave Wilson, "let's see what we can do with them!" and the opposition are equally confident. Crew Chief Dave Milam says "We'll give it our very best shot. This is a great opportunity to show potential sponsors what we can do.".

You can stay in touch with all matters Top Methanol on the ETMRA web site at www.etmra.com.

Stay tuned to Eurodragster this week for more Championship scenarios.

Racers: It's not too late to send us your UK National Finals previews. Drop an E-Mail to[emailprotected]and we'll publish your news here.

"I would like to say to Urs that any tattoo is out of question", say Ulf and brother and Crew ChiefJörgen. "It will get too expensive to get new tattoos all the time as we plan to stop a lot of people from winning and break a lot of records in the future. I also think that it was for the best that we didn't back the up the 5.666.We now have the time to make a specially-designed, laser-cut, razor-sharp K�serhobel for the tattoo on your arm.We are all nice people here so a good tool will ease the suffering for both you and us!

"We also want to thank the other racers in the class for good competition under the season. We can only congratulate Dan Larsen to the win at Santa Pod and second place in the Championship; a drag race is not over until one car passes the finish line so he deserved the win. Dan also showed that he can run the numbers earlier in the season. Leif Andréasson is always there, Niclas Andersson is running better and better, and big congratulations to our Fast Freddy for his 5.8-second runs and a great-looking spark plug tool. Martin Lundqvist has won the positive thinking race and will be very hard to stop next year, he will for sure be running well in his Moon car when they get some more runs under their belts.

"As for us, when we started this season we knew it would be a tough year. After the tyre explosion at the 2002 European Finals destroyed most of the chassis and a quarter of the body we had many new things to sort out.The body was fixed by the plastic surgeon Hans Kadi from Forsa, and he would later join us for the whole year as a mechanic and also brought his and son Robin's Junior Dragster along to the races around Europe, resulting in two finals and one win.

"The new chassis was a brand new Plueger chassis sitting at the John Force shop in Yorba Linda, California. The chassis was all bare except A-arms, spindles, steering and a brake handle. This gave our sheet metal guru Stefan Lundaahl something to do, he made a seat which fits me perfectly with a lower back support, all the chassis panels, fuel and oil tanks, all the tin work inside the body and a lot of welding and other work.During this build-up we also had great help from Lars G�llas who lives closest to us. In this project we also got a lot of help from Mats Eriksson at ME Racing Service in Borl�nge, he provided us with wheelie bars, brackets, fasteners, extra chromoly tubes and a lot of good advice. G�ran Pers�ker at Pers�kers Speed Shop also helped a lot again as he has done for many years.

"The only things which were OK after the tyre explosion were the engine and transmission. We still decided to buy a PSI blower with 92% pulley and a new fuel system, so that we would have all the best parts in the car from the beginning. At a show race at our club SHRA Avesta after the Main Event, an intake valve broke and theheads were a total mess. We sold the heads as they were and our brilliant engine man Tomas Nygren finally got some new parts to work with. Behind the engine we have our clutch and transmission wizard B�rje Mattsson who makes sure that the drive train and clutch are in perfect trim at every round. Anders Nord�n also deserves big thanks for all his help and service during this season and for many years.

"Bosse and Curta from SHRA Avesta are also there andwant to help all the time, and I really have to say that we couldn�t wish for a better club to drive for! We mustn't forget all the help from Nisse at Avesta Bildemontering who stepped in big time when our old truck started to break down after Norway, thanks to him we are now driving around in a white 400 hp Scania R143 and actually enjoying the travel between the races, and to Benny Edvardsson who takes care of our website and is helpful in many ways during off season.Also thanks to all our friends that have helped out in any kind of way under the years.

"IronCAD and all of our other sponsors also deserve a big thanks, and everybody knows that we would not be able to do this without you.

"It feels great to have a race-ready car after the last European race, and as there won't be any major changes we know that we will be competitive right from the first race next year. This makes us sure that we can give Urs and the others a good fight for the Championship in 2004!"

You can find the very nice Leanders Brothers Racing web site at www.leandersbros.com.

Ex-pat Swedish Fuel racer Viveca Averstedt and her husband and Crew Chief Håkan enjoyed their weekendspectating at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod. "We really enjoyed being back and meeting everybody, and to be there 'live' when Kim run 4.64, wow!", says Viveca. "We were very impressed with all the cars and bikes, lots of professional teams, great performances and a part of that is of course all the people from Santa Pod Raceway and Santa Pod Racers Club, who did an awesome job to prepare the track. Good job, guys! It was great to see the improvements around the track too. Drag racing is growing in Europe, that's for sure! We are certainly going to try to be part of the European Championship next year. We also would like to take the opportunity to thank John and Alison Hackney from Santa Pod Racers Club for their hospitality."

Custom Car Street Eliminator Ian Hook was one of the many in CCSEto run new bests, breaking his SCR eight-second duck in some style with an 8.79. "I'm absolutely over the moon", says Ian. "To break the Shakey duck with a respectable 8.79 was icing on the cake. Although I obviously wasn't there at the time I have heard the start line reaction whenthe ET came up (via our 'launch' video) and can only say thanks for the support.

"We weren't the only ones garnering good numbers. As well as Steve Pateman's awesomerecord-setting 8.22 many other Street Eliminator racers (running anythingfrom twelves to eights) set new personal bests. An excellent reflection of the super stateof the track and the hard work and enthusiasm of all the CCSE racersand their crews. We're really looking forward to the coming weekend's UK National Finals where we'll bethrowing the 'kitchen sink' tune at the '34. Andy Frost, who's now gonetwo hundredths quicker than us, is threatening the same approach so it should beentertaining". Ian's event report is available on his web site at www.fbracing.co.uk.

The UK's Never Again Racing team didn't think things could get any better after Dave Evans ran a personal best of 9.64 in the Coco ConnectionCamaro at the Hot Rod Drags at Shakespeare County Raceway, but that was just a dress rehearsal, writes team member Andy.

"Sunday mornings pairings elimination's saw Coco paired with Mick Cheley, a formidable match-up with the eight-second black and red Calibra", says Andy. "Dave was eliminated by a 9.107 but pushed Coco to a fantastic new personal best of 9.470/141.96. This ET represent the fastest Coco Connection has ever run in this country, irrespective of owner, in the last thirteen years. As far as we are know the car's best ET Stateside, a 9.6, was beaten.

"The recent success with the Camaro has followed many upsets this year with balancer problems, head gasket problems etc, and this fillip was a long time coming. The better ET comes from our playing with the stock front suspension set-up, Dave managing to get some use out of the transbrake (even though it's only working at fifty percent capacity), and Jeff Bull's magic dust which he sprinkles on the motor (but that's our secret)."

Michael Pusey did a deal one week prior to the Doorslammer Internationals to drive Paul Marston Racing'sGrumpy's Dodge for the first time since the FIA Main Event. "Saturday started with glorious weather and a 10.75 straight off the trailer", says Michael. "This was against the 10.50 cut-off for the highly-subscribed Sportsman class. All our other runs on Saturday were in the 10.40s so the 10.75 ended up being our qualifier. Such was the level of competition that I have no idea where that put us but it certainly couldn�t have been near the top! A surprise added bonus was that we had qualified for the Quick 32, 32nd! This meant that we drew John Ellis in the Pro Mod Lethal Calibra. I tried too hard on the start line and pulled a red light and then John shot out of the hole and I watched him disappear into the distance with a 7.77, just slightly quicker than my 11.3!

"Sunday morning brought more of the fantastic weather and we found that our first round was against Cliff Puddle who usually races in 10.90 Super Street. We knew Cliff was running the numbers and would be hard to beat. So when I was coming back down the return road to see the crew all leaping about and waving I had a good idea that we had had a result. Cliff ran an oh-so-close 10.501 but as I managed to get out of the hole first my 10.54 got us the win. This was my first ever win in competition. I�m still sporting the huge grin!Second round we drew birthday girl Carla Pittau. My instructions were to just keep the nose in front and not break out. Due to no other reason than my lack of experience I lost because I backed off earlier than I should have done and Carla went blasting past to take the win.

"So that was the end of that but we (Paul) decided that we should take advantage of the test and tune time available. I went out and ran my new personal best of 10.33 which was awesome! Then we did a swap; Paul took on his more usual role of driver and I resumed my more usual role as crew. The result, 10.34 (ha!). All of the runs so far had been off the footbrake so Paul went round and did a transbrake wheels up banzai and netted a 10.27, the quickest Grumpy has gone with the current set-up.

"All in all a great weekend to round off a superb year for me. I would like to say a huge Thank Youto Paul, Sam and Max of Paul Marston Racing for putting up with me and allowing me the chance to get behind the wheel. You ain�t seen the last of me! If you�re thinking about doing the same then don�t think, just do it!"

Finally, UK Pro ET racer Malcolm Motler asked us to say a big Congratulations to Steve Saunders for running an8.93 at the weekend. "Nice one mate!", says Malcolm.

We hope that all involved have or had a very Happy Birthday!

"Unfortunately it will be a while before I am back to normal, but can get about on crutches now",says Wayne. "Thank you so much to everyone at Santa Pod, Shakespeare County and everyone elsewho has been in touch, sent cards, offers of help, and notes of best wishes.

"Big thanks go to Dave Billadeau for being so cool at the accident and taking care of my youngest son Joe,we are all so lucky that we can actually talk about it! Once again thanks to everyone and hope to see you all very soon."

"This is the opportunity for SMRA members to air their views on the class, where it is going and improvements required to move forward. It has been a challenging year for the class in a number of respects and not least bedding in the MSA updated rules drawn together to keep racing tight. Those racers who have supported the class throughout the season have put on a fantastic show and have been great ambassadors. We cannot however allow the class to stagnate and the SMRA fully recognises that we must do more to promote and protect what we as a class have built up within relatively short timescales, gain stability and encourage more racers to join the ranks of Super Mod.

• White Book class 2003
• First National Super Mod Championship
• Formation of the SMRA
• Super Mod voice on Tech Committee
• Two new teams on board � Paul Brooks and Andy Kirk
• Sponsorship from Andy Robinson Race Cars
• Sponsorship from Power Race Graphics in the form of SMRA logo design and identity

"The SMRA AGM will also be your opportunity to vote in your Secretary and Chair for 2004. Nominations for both offices should be received by the Chair prior to the meeting.

"I take this opportunity to advise members that I will not be standing for the position of Secretary for 2004 for personal reasons and hope that nominations are received from individuals willing and able to put a strong voice and influence behind the Association for the coming year and to encourage all SMRA members to fully support that individual throughout the year.

"Jon and I look forward to coming back out with the Vette for a full season�s action next year and I�m sure that all Super Mod racers and fans alike await the swift return of Rob Smallworth and his superb '55 Chevy, Andy Kirk and his 68 Camaro and will no doubt enjoy the debut of Obsession Racing's '69 Camaro very, very soon.

"Best regards to all involved with Super Mod - Great Class, Great Show."

"The changes made to the fuel system since Hockenheim seemed to have done the trick after we returned to mid six second performance in our first qualifying pass, leaving us comfortably in second position. However, after observing some worrying swings in fuel pressure on the data downloaded from the onboard computer after the run we conducted a leakdown test and discovered significant loss through the exhaust ports, necessitating removal of the cylinder head. New team member (and ex-500cc GP mechanic to riders such as Barry Sheene) Martin Brookman undertook the laborious task of cleaning up the head and replacing valves damaged by the exit of the tips of the spark plugs. After some long discussions with Marius van der Zijden and Rob van Geffen, I decided to modify the fuel pickup in the fuel tank again.

"After recommendation from Frank Brachtvogel, Armour Fabrications of Irchester were called and the owner, John Shakeshaft, kindly made his way to the track to discuss the modifications. Unbelievably, John returned a few hours later with the resculptured tank - a work of art!"

The speed of the repairs enabled the team to make the third qualifying session whereupon they again ran a mid six second pass - without burnt head or valves. The modifications seemed to have improved matters somewhat. The team sat out the final session, with the rigours of the modifications taking their toll, but still ended in the final ladder in fourth place despite a huge entry of 20 riders.

Saturday evening was spent enjoying a party (organised by the girls from the King Racing team) to celebrate fellow rider Roel Koedam�s birthday, along with other luminaries from the world of Top Fuel car and bike racing (Stefan Reisten, Anita Mäkelä, Kim Reymond and Ton Pels to name but a few).

The first round of eliminations saw King pitted against rapid Norwegian rider Jon Leret, whose reputation for lightning reactions and low six second passes meant this was the British riders toughest race of the year. The race was a classic, with both riders side by side until the finish line. Unbelievably, both recorded the same elapsed time to a thousandth of a second - 6.617 seconds! However, it was King who took the win light after proving to be more than a match for Leret on the lights.

The semi final loomed, and King was facing the onerous task of taking on Koedam, whose 6.04 second pass earlier that weekend had firmly established him as the second fastest rider in the world. King knew it would need something special to overcome the Dutch rider, but it was not to be as King left before the green, handing Koedam an easy win. To add insult to injury, his opponent grenaded his engine after a con rod let go, and ambled across the line whereas King ran another six second pass. King takes up the story:

"I knew that if Roel was in his usual form, and knowing our potential in the current state of tune, I�d have to produce a perfect reaction time to overcome him. I gambled on the lights and lost, it�s as simple as that, although we would probably have made the final if I had not used that strategy, and had a great chance of winning the event after Sverre Dahl (event winner) also suffered problems in the final. However, we came here to race, I owe it to my team, supporters, the companies who support me, those who contributed to my 'back to the track' campaign, and the surgeon and nurses who continue to provide care to my leg injuries, whilst knowing that I would be back out racing again and putting all their hard work in jeopardy. This has been a great season for European Top Fuel Bike. The riders provided a thrilling spectacle whilst racing in the most competitive Top Fuel Bike competition in the world. But none of this could have happened without the organising company - Power Racing Promotions, the track crews, organising clubs, and respective promoters across Europe who provided great venues and world-class track preparation - I�d like to send a huge vote of thanks to all of them.

"I hope that we will be able to raise the necessary finance to compete in the Championship next year, it�s going to be even better than this one!"

The finale for King Racing�s season will be demonstration passes at the Extreme Madness show in Athens, Greece in October.

Any companies or individuals who wish to be involved in the King Racing 2004 race effort can contact Ian at [emailprotected], by telephone on 07785 341099 or by fax on 01763 852707. Visit King Racing at www.kingracing.com.

King Racing were proud to be supported in their 2003 campaign by:

Obsession Motorsports, Straightline Racing, New Engineering Ltd, Performance Machine, Wackyshack Paintshop, Turboville.com, RSG Customize, House of Kolor UK, Murdoch Racing Enterprises, Goodridge UK, Vanson Leathers, White Line Cycles (Athens), Cometic Gaskets UK, G Max Race Fuels, Aerotek Fasteners and Job Link.

The 2003 FIM/UEM European Championship ended at Santa Pod with a personal best of 6.68 seconds for Rob Van Geffen's home-built Supertwin Bike. "We hope to improve the performance of the bike in the future", saysSteven Van Loven. "The bike displays a powerful combination witch has yet to reach its full potential.The team like to thank sponsors het Motorparadijs HD-service, Zodiac, Tsubaki chains , Flexion aandrijftechniek, SMC Pneumatics, Supertrapp Exhaust Systems, and of course all their friends and fans."

"It was a hard fight for points, ETs, speeds, records and points leads", says Gittli. "But it wasalways just on the track. The competition was always very fair: we would like to thank Turner Racing andthe American Car Imports Racing team for offering us parts and their help immediately after our crash at Santa Pod last week.

"I also think that it is very impressive how teams from different classes worked together this year.I think drag racing has taken a big step in the right direction.

"We would like to thank the organisers of the events, Power Racing Promotions, the track crews, timing crews, safety crews, and everyone else who worked all weekend for the teams and the sport. Also of course, Tog and Sharkman and all the other journalists (Remco, Andy, Ivan, Martin and everyone else) who produced reports and pictures.

Peter and the team are this weekend appearing at the Nitro Days event at Modena in Italy, and Gittli alsotells us that they are to be the subject of an eight-minute feature on Germany's RTL2 channel at 23:55 this Tuesday (16th). You can find a report from the FIA European Finals on the team's official web site atwww.p-s-r.com.

The first sponsor is Nitrous Solutions who as well as sponsoringthe 'slammers will be selling their range of Nitrous Oxide, turbo and other performance equipment at theWarwickshire venue. Custom Car Street Eliminator Jeff Meads is one of the company's noted customers andthey are also an associate sponsor of CCSE team FB Racing. Nitrous Solutions will also be entering thefray soon with their own ex-Neil Taylor Ford Probe. "I am very pleased indeed to welcome NitrousSolutions back for a second year", says Lee Child, who sponsors Eurodragster's Links pages throughhis company LA Racing Parts. "We are very grateful indeedfor their continued backing of Europe's premier doorslammer event."

Lee Child has also confirmed that Ronnie Picardo will be appearing in his High Risk Corvette Wheelie car at the Doorslammer Internationals next weekend. "Ronnie has helped out tremendously in thefirst year of the Ultimate Power Championship", says Lee, "so next weekend we're going to letcome out and play!". Ronnie joins Roger Goring's Firestorm Jet FC in providing theexhibition action.

For more information about next weekend's Doorslammer Internationals, the turn-up-and-compete event exclusivelyfor cars with doors, check out the Eurodragster News item of 29th August, or call LA Performance Services on 01803 554308 or APIRA Club and Race Secretary Wendy Talbot on 01379 740100.

"Dave and Shelly will be continuing their love of drag racing on the other side of the world just as soon as they take receipt of their Pro Stock-style S10 pick-up truck currently under construction at our workshops",says Sharon. "SID goes international! Shelly Higgins, who is destined to drive the all new 7.50 truck, has pointed out that the SID build contract clearly states they can expect trackside advice, assistance and set-up when the truck hits the race track for the first time, and has reminded Jon on a number of occasions that we didn't specify at which track!

We are sure that everyone will join Sharkman and Tog adding their best wishes for the future to Davidand Shelly.

UK Pro Stock Bike racer Dave Beck is planning to make a point at the UK National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway in a couple of weeks' time. Dave, who has notparticipated in FIM/UEM Championship events due to fixture clashes with the AMA/Prostar in the USA,has relegated his record-holding 7.2-second engine to a spare. Engine builder Roger Upperton has built a new motor which, given the conditions, Dave feels is capable of "at least" 7.1 seconds.

Fellow UK Pro Stock Bike racer Paul Watson writes with an appreciation of the work of the Santa Pod Raceway staff at last weekend's FIA European Finals. "What a fantastic weekend",says Paul. "Pro Mod was awesome, Top Fuel was great - well done to Kim Reymond and his team - Top Fuel Bike as well, but none of this would have been possible without the fantastic work from Kjell Petterson and his team, Darren Prentice and all the marshals who do a great job there, so to everyone involved with running Santa Pod we the racers salute you, well done."

Fay and Paul Fischer of Speedflow have been in touch fromtheir holiday in Russia where drag racing has taken hold. "On TV tonight we saw a report about organised drag racing in downtown Moscow", they say. "Ladas and Volgas with tons of Nitrous! The starting lights were the very latest design - an over-dressed Russian with huge flags - just like California 1955. The finish line comprised of two burning oil drums...Santa Pod eat your heart out."

Tomorrow's (Sunday's) edition of Scrapheap Challenge on UK network TV station Channel 4 features two teams building wheelie vehicles from the usual pile of parts, writes John Hutchinson.The programme is scheduled to broadcast at 5:35 pm.

Gareth Evans has updated his UK1320 web site with some great photographsfrom the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. You can check out Gareth's pictures atwww.uk1320.com.

Anni and Bob Valder's Feel The Noise web site at www.feel-the-noise.comhas been updated with photographs from both the FIA European Finals and the NSRA Hot Rod Drags.

"First of all I am sorry for theslow run in the final, but there is a reason behind it." says Sverre. "When we started the bike everything seemed to be ok, but then the oil pressure started to go down, and it gotlower and lower. I had the choice between shutting off, just try a launchor try a full pass and maybe throw a rod out, so I just made a launch withmy eyes on the pressure gauge.

"First round we used the same clutch set up but adjusted the timer to startlater and we also had more power because we found a small error. Thelaunch was ok but it started smoke the tire after 0,85 sec, so I had tofeather the throttle a lot to get it to grip again, Nils Ole also had tractions problemso I went through to the next round. Before the next round we soften the clutch,but we decided to keep the power because it was quite close to notsmoking the tire and we were trying to go faster. In the semis we werewaiting quite a long time after a track clean up and when I hit thethrottle the bike started spinning right from the start line, it had to besome dirt from the cleanup in the left lane because it was very slippery.

"Before the finals we were taking power out off the bike and we also put theclutch back to the Mantorp set up. The goal in the finals was to try toback the speed record, but then the oil pressure was gone. The problems forus are that we need more track time to find the clutch set up, but we arequite close to running big numbers. See you all next year!"

"We came in to this last event with some confidence from our last competition success at Gardermoen, Norway. We also added to the team for the European Finals with the addition of long time friend and US tuner Britt Micetich from Iowa.

"When the qualifying started Friday noon we had made some changes to try to put our Veidec Rocket consistently in to the 6.30 zone, and that greediness may have been the price of the Championship title. Looking at the outcome for next seasons competition, with a lot of cars running good this year, we are now feeling that it might not be all that bad as we learned a lot this weekend with the help from Britt.

"The 1st qualifier ended up really good with a strong and solid 6.418 / 220, that run took us to the second spot. For the next round we were the fastest of the session, but it didn't help us much as we were off our previous pace with 0.009 seconds, but the other teams didn't step up either. The Saturday morning run (3rd qualifier) gave us some confidence with new personal best 60 and 330 foot times, but that wouldn't stay long as the evening and last qualifying pass started out with what would be a familiar story for the rest of the weekend with bad tyre shake setting in, Hakan had to lift to save the car.

With the need to go 1 round more then Roger to secure the 5th Pro Mod title it all came to an abrupt ending for us as we couldn't get rid of our tyre shake against Fast Freddy. Hakan really tried to drive through the shake in a really wild ride but it was no use as Freddy got there first. That made Roger the Champion for the first time and we have to congratulate him for his effort during the season. We are not happy to end up on second spot and are already planning for the revenge in the next season.

It have been a hard season with a lot of ups and downs for the Nilssonmotorsports team, but as it feels right now, we are going to put in more effort next year to the bring back the title back to were it belongs. It was really fantastic to have Britt Micetich to spend the weekend with us, we have been learning a lot that we are going to try out in the future.We have to give a big thanks to every one beyond the Veidec Racing Pro Mod team, Rickard P�lsson at Veidec for the long and truly support of our team, and to the rest of our sponsors collected on our "sponsors" site, you are all the best and we are not a complete team with out you all!! Stay tuned for a complete season wrap up later on this fall"

"As Team Principal of American Car Imports Racing I want to pay a huge tribute to Dave, Andy, David, Linda and every member of the team for our victory in the FIA Top Methanol Championship. The commitment and enthusiasm of everyone involved to make this OUR year, starting with the Autosport Show, building the new trailer, setting up the new Hadman car, and then winning the European Championship has been amazing.

I know that I am not alone in getting immense pleasure from seeing Dave Wilson as European Champion - I cannot imagine any sportsman deserving such a result more than him.

I also want to say a huge thanks to all of our great marketing partners who have supported us at every step;

• Sony Playstation
• Footman James
• Total Design
• Air Sea Logistics
• American Appliance Centre
• Alternative Automotive Fuel Conversions Ltd
• Custom Graphics
• Silverline Tools
• Euro American Car Services
• HGC Scaffolding
• ExpertIT
• Portman Business Consultancy
• North Hants Tyres
• US Automotive
• Old Car World
• 76 Racing Fuels and Lubricants
• 1st Line Motorcycles
• Classic American Magazine

Finally I want to thank all of those people who have been sending us their best wishes."

"What a fabulous weekend the Finals were, in between watching the racing we raced our old banger, the Crossfire Camaro in the brilliant class of Super Comp. We as a team are quite happy with the way the car is behaving ,and the way it has stayed in one bit this year, but if it doesn't put an 8 up on the board soon, we will have no choice other than to give the car a smacked bottom! We ran a string of 9.1's all weekend, which is fine if you are in a bracket class but we are not. We are up against the likes of Zane Llewellyn, Martin Curbishley, Tim Adam and Brian Pateman and they are all on the numbers every time. We still have a little tweaking to do like taking a bit more fuel out of her and also set the 4 bar link up properly so time will tell.

"After that run we had two more which went ok and we ran a best of 9.13. On the Saturday we all got up early because we didn't know what time we were going to be called. The day before we were on the track at 9 o'clock in the morning, so we waited until we finally went down at 4.30 pm. I was lucky enough to get Brian Pateman. I told him he had better have a good light because that's all I'd got on my side seeing as I couldn't run the numbers. I came round and had a good strong long burnout then went into stage, the lights came on and I was gone like a rat up a drain pipe! I was well out in front of him (he will tell you that he gave me a head start) when that dastardly Brian hit his gas and drove right past me, then had the cheek to slow down! (wish I could do that!)

"I enjoyed the race big time, its always a pleasure running with the lads in Super Comp. Brian went on to win the race meet, we were chuffed to see a full bodied car beating those pesky roadsters and dragsters!

"Before I slither off back into the hole from whence I came (Robs own words! - Stand in Ed) I would just like to thank Simon Farmer and his crew for helping me change the inlet manifold gaskets on my car, he was a shinning light at the meet because we only found out about 8 o'clock that the inlet gasket had leaked after the racing. We did ask someone if we could buy a set of inlet gaskets but were told that the person hadn't had his dinner yet and we would have to wait until the morning, which was leaving it a bit late to say the least. Anyway Simon came up trumps with a pair he had in his van, what a player he is. The poor guys own car had a bit of a Nos melt down the day before, good luck with the rebuild Simon. I also had help from two lads Mack and Banzai who are building their own car. Thanks men I owe you one. Come to think of it I don't owe you one, you drank us out of tea and coffee and ate most of my sandwiches! (only kidding) Thanks to everyone who helped me at weekend including, when he was awake, my main crew man Andy and a big thanks to you at Eurodragster for doing a stirling job its always good to come home and read all about it!."

"We went to the AllStar Nationals purely to officiate Jerry�s 9.18 and 9.22 second passes he did on the RD at the Bulldog. With the Bulldog not being a sanctioned event runs made there cannot count as official records. We had already decided to park the H2 for the season due to moving house and not being able to give it the time it needs. We first put the nitrous on the RD for a bit of fun, to see what would happen! We didn�t expect it to take to it like it has, this bike is tuned specifically to be normally aspirated, a nitrous tune would be wildly different. It is the nitrous kit off the H2 using tiny jets (26/24) and so to run an 8 is amazing. On both the 8 second passes Jerry went through the speed traps with the clutch in, as he felt the motor pulling and tried to minimalise damage (learnt from the H2!).

"If we spent more time on it, it could go quicker, - we have only ever done 8 passes on the RD using the gas � but we don't want to go down that road in England. The RD is now resting on it's laurels in our dining room (next to a grumpy looking H2!) It has done everything we have asked of it and ridden it's heart out and we love and respect it for that.

We couldn't have set this record without some wicked people, you've heard all the names before but these people are our hero�s. First of all huge thanks to Chris Hall for not only lending us his camper, but driving it to the track for us. Next is our God, Steve French, for constant advice and help. Our crew, Scott Collier, Sean McDade and Nicola Lane, Thanks also to Alice French, Bartzy, Baz, Seff and Lizz Tracy and Ian., all the people who lent us things and Bob Brooks for Saturdays evening meal - awesome.

A special mention for our wonderful sponsors, Gavin at RedLine Oil, Tom at Activ8 Friction Reducer, and Anthony at Shakespeare County Raceway, not to mention Wizzard Technical Designs for our brand new website (on which there is a more in-depth report if anyone wants to know more). Thanks also to Wendy and APIRA, Bruno and FAST and Lee Child for promotion - well done Lee, it was great.

We had a fantastic weekend, top people, top track, top atmosphere, and the WORLDS QUICKEST RD - We couldn't be happier, our Christmas party is going to be a blinder!"

Sharron also asked us to let you know that Jade Racing's trailer is for sale. Its 16' long 10' high with living accommodation, double bed and bunk bed, shower cubicle, hot and cold running water, cooker, fridge, sink, aluminium chequer-plate workshop with workbenches, power points, 12/24v. If you are interested email [emailprotected] or call 07930 902137 for more info.

"The support of the fans has been great and we arrived at Santa Pod for theEuropean Finals leading the Championship, but with any one of four teams able to winthe title", says Smax. "The weekend started OK with a tidy 5.3-second run, but at the expense of engine and 'chute fire damage. We went out with a soft qualifying tune-up in thefirst session on Saturday and ran a tidy 5.04 at 291 mph. We decided tosave the motor as we were confident of being in the top of the qualifyingtree and sat out the second session on Saturday which resulted in ourdropping to fourth qualifier behind Kim Reymonds phenomenal 4.6/317. Truly awesome show...well done guys, but you didn't 'smack' me!

"The weather was supposed to break on Sunday. We started in the quarterfinals with a lucky win over our team mate Susanne Callin who broke a bloweron the start line. We had lost the throttle stop, so I hadn't had the chanceto warm the tyres properly for fear of spinning a bearing and damaging themotor in the burn out. On the hit we lit the tires which I caughtimmediately, and with Susanne's breakage I was able to take the win with a gentlenine second squirt.

"We had Micke Kågered, another team member, in the final and I was not goingto give an inch! This was drag racing at its finest - down to the wire between numbersone and two in the points. The car was sounding so strong and I just flew from the light,winning with a 5.05/292 to Micke's 5.6 with another damaged motor. A trulygreat race and the roar from the crowd was louder than the motor!

"Then the party started. The UK fans are amazing in every sense and Ifloated down the return road on a crowd of happiness. The reception in thepits was awesome and I signed as many parts, photos, t-shirts and bodybits as I could!

"Now the work starts again to get ready with all the back room work. I mustpass my thanks to King Knut and Debbie, Alan Jackson for his support andtune-ups, the mechanical team of Spiky Sparky and Uncle Dave onclutch, Animal, Gary Page and Terry on motor, along with Carlo, Scotch Rob and all-rounders the BelfastBruvvers Ray and Brian, Mack, Kev, Gordon Callin, even Team Manager Paul pitchedin, together with the back room staff who get me sorted and at thetrack. This was one team effort - sorry if I missed anyone, I'm buzzin'!

"My sponsors have been great and thanks also to my family for supporting me andallowing me to meet my dream. I'm just like all the Eurodragstrer readers -a guy in the street who shops at Tesco (and now may be opening acouple!)and has a love of racing. I've done it and so can any of thosewho want to live the dream. It is possible, it just has taken a thirty-yearapprenticeship and the help of a lot of friends! See you at the Fireworks meet for a Best of the Brits match race against Barry Sheavills.

Racers: Send your FIA European Finals reviews to us at[emailprotected] and we will publish them here.

"First of all I want to thank Keith Bartlett and the entire crew at Santa Pod Raceway for a very well-organised event, where everything worked how it is supposed to at an FIA event", saysPer. "I was really pleased to see the improvements made, from the new asphalt to toilets in the pits.I know these things cost money, and it�s hard work to put a race like this together, so it�s only fairthat the people behind it get the appreciation they deserve. I want to thank Kjell Pettersson and his crew for preparing a perfect and safe track for us. It�s the only way we can make those good record-breaking performances which everybody wants to see. It was comforting to see how thoroughly the track was checked and prepared after each run. So thanks to everybody out there, you did a very fine job. Keep up the good work.

"After accepting that we didn�t win the Championship, congratulations to Smax and his team.But I looked back on this season and you know what, it doesn�t look so bad at all. At the first event at Santa Pod first event we ran a personal best of 4.93, and that was with a whole new setup: new injector, new blower, new heads, new cam, new cannon (hydraulic, instead of air), new fuel pumps, new fuel system, six shooter and lastly a datalogger. The datalogger sure is a nice thing to have, I can�t believe what we have been doing without one all these years.

"Achieving all that in one season, with thirty runs, without throwing a rod, blackening a crank, hurting a block or blowing a gasket - yes it's true! I think that says a lot about the driver and the crew behind it all.

"The only thing I regret is that I didn�t get the whole team on stage when I received the Crew Chief of the year award at the Finals Banquet, especially my longtime friend and technical wizard Karsten Andersen,because without him nothing of this would have been possible. That will never happen again, I promise you,the whole team deserve all the credit they get. I hope to be back next year to improve upon and back up those records."

You can find the team's official web site at www.usa-autodele.dk.

Jon exited Top Fuel eliminations in round one when he was shut off for a fluid leak. "It didn'tleak on the warm-up did it, no, it did it on the track!", says Martin. "It's a real pity thatwe couldn't run against Tommy Möller because he had the misfortune to break a blower belt andwe would have had him. It was a strange experience for me, standing there without empty pockets -I had a tenner in there at one point! But running a Top Fuel car is really where you want to be."

"I love to see teams being appreciated for what they are, part of the most spectacular sport on the planet. What a weekend! Thanks everybody, and in the words of Vinnie Jones, "It's been emotional"."

"Because we had already taken home the Championship title at the previous event, we went to Santa Pod without any stress at all, that is if our team suffer stress at all. The final targets which we had set for this meeting were no less than:

• Score another #1 qualifier (to make it a 100% record)
• Win the event
• Reset the European ET and speed records
• Try to get as close as possible to that magical five-second barrier

"The entry list for our Top Fuel Bike class was another record with a total of twenty bikes, of which no less than twelve were Top Fuellers! We made our first qualifying pass on Friday. We expected to see a real good number,something like a low 6.2 or a high 6.1, on the score board, but couldn�t believe our eyes when it displayed the time.An absolutely stunning 6.046 sec @ 235.79mph (379 kmh)! Wow! Unbelievable! The eighth-mile numbers for this run were impressive as well: 3.963/191 (307.4). The crowd went crazy, as we did. Everyone at the start line was jumping,Roel�s wife Monique even hurt her ankle while she jumped for joy. What a record time, set in the opening stage and so close to that five second barrier.

"Going into this event we hoped that we could work to a high 6.0 run towards the end of the meeting, but wenever dreamed of opening with a 6.04 right off the trailer. I guess no one was prepared for this scenario, it was only four weeks ago when we entered the 'teens' for the first time with a 6.18 in Norway and now we entered the six zero zone. One of the best things we learned from being this close to the five second barrier is that it happened on a European track, which we thought wouldn�t be possible. It all seemed to go so very easy and we weren�t even pushing the engine. This brings us a big step closer towards a five in the future.

"Looking at the data from this run we decided that we would take a little clutch out because the bike was a little loose at the start line. We left the rest of the tune-up as it was. Saturday was Roel�s birthday and 'Happy Birthday' sounded over the PA system early in the morning. In our second qualifying attempt we followed up the record 6.04 run with only a 6.118/229.99mph (which reset the European records - Ed).It's strange how easily one gets used to running a six zero-something as we were happy, but not really excited,about this run. We learned that the track had improved and that we could have stepped up the clutch a little bit instead of taking it down. So that�s the next thing that we did. By the time we were scheduled for our second qualifying attempt, a very gusty wind appeared all of a sudden and blew right across the track. This created an unsafe situation, especially in the run-off area of the track where the natural banking stops and the wind hada free road. Bike qualifying came to halt for over an hour. Another serious delay was caused by a Pro Mod car whichcrashed at the top end (nothing to do with the crosswind).

"By the time we were called again, we decided that in our opinion there was still too much sidewind and that the track would be too cold. We made the decision ourselves and called it a day. At the end of qualifying we remained in the #1 spot (this season we have a 100% record of #1 qualifying positions), followed by Norwegian Sverre Dahl with an impressive 6.14/236mph run! The bump spot stopped at a record) 6.84 seconds. For Roel�s birthday a celebration party was organised on Saturday night by a couple of fellow riders. A special thanks go out to Debbie King, Theresa Beaumont and Sandra Pepper for preparing the delicious food and also to Jan Hon�e for the fireworks display. Many racers from both bike and car classespaid us a visit. It was an excellent party with maybe a little too much alcohol here and there!

"Although slowing down to a (still impressive) 6.20/221 we won the first round of eliminations,and we were still we were only fooling around with the clutch system. In the semi finals we met Ian King, who seems to be back on track again after so many problems this year. Ian gambled on a holeshot and tried to catch us on the lights. But in a flash of light he reacted to Roel�s staging lamp instead of the green light from the Christmas Tree, pulling a red light and eliminating himself. This gave us a free ride to the finals. Mind you, we�re still talking drag racing here and things can change in a split second. Some two hundred feetinto our semi final a con rod left the building and worked its way out in a ball of flames. Because of a good reaction from our rider, he came to a safe stop. We're real sorry to the Santa Pod crew for messing up your superb track. The damage to the engine was beyond repair. A real big window in the cases, a destroyed crank and lots more. At this moment we haven't opened the remains of the engine yet to see the real damage, but we certainly will have to review our initial plans for this year�s winter break. Carefully going through the data of that run, at this moment it looks like it was a con rod fatigue related problem, because (strange as it may sound) we were still not pushing the engine by any means. So one could say that we ended the season with a bang!

"Despite Ian�s red light, it was our blow up which caused a no-show for us in the final round, handing victory to Sverre Dahl. We became the event runner up. Apart from the last run we can look back at an exceptionally good season. Oh boy what a season it was! Allow us to give you just a short summary:

• We entered a record number of nine events.
• We were number one qualifier at all of these events.
• We won six events.
• Were runner up twice.
• One final round was undecided because of rain.
• We were the quickest top fuel bike at each event.
• We reset every track record.
• We reset the European record.
• We became the second-quickest Top Fuel Bike presently running in the world.
• We became the third-fastest Top Fuel Bike presently running in the world.
• We won the FIM/UEM European Top Fuel Bike Championship title.

"To finish off this report we would like to say a well-meant and a real big Thenk You to all ofour supporting companies, for making this an absolutely super season:

• Torco International Corp. (USA); for providing your superior racing oils and maintenance products.
• Nimbus Motorsports (GB); for taking care of our oil distribution all over Europe.
• Dakota-Industry (Germany); for making us look good in our team wear.
• Flexion b.v. (Holland); for supplying the Gates drive belts.
• Goodridge Benelux BV (Holland); for those safe fuel/brake/oil lines and fittings.
• Goedhals Machinefabriek (Holland); for supplying the transmission (and various other parts).
• Jan Smit�s Power Parts (Holland); for the Dynatek datalogger.
• Jan Roelofs Race Service (Holland); for your cylinder head advices and preparations.
• Motorparadijs (Holland); for offering your workshop facilities and being a parts supplier.
• Arai Helmet (Europe) BV (Holland); for giving us the safest helmet there is.
• Zodiac International (Holland); for taking care of all those last minute part orders.

"The Press Day is very good for testing, and for meeting all the Press in a more relaxed way", saysRoger. "The Veidec team had three runs for Helen Curran and two for Roger Pettersson, and we learned a lot for Helen with her personal best, 7.570 and a 7.320 for Roger (which is lower than the record!). The conditions were very good, no head or side wind as there normally is at Santa Pod. All of this was very promising for the European Finals starting on Friday, could we go to the 7.2 zone?

"Qualifying started OK for Roger, 7.395 which gave us the number one spot. Helen had bad luck, she ran a 7.90 and that was on only four gears rolling through line. An electrical problem just cut the ignition just when Helenput in the fifth gear and on these two-valve engines the valves on intake are very close to the piston so it just hit and also broke the cam chain, four valves and tappets. Since this is Roger's spare engine we had to repair it at the track. We don't usually do work like this at the track, we just change engine, but now we didn't have any choice.As usual Roger from MotoSpeed had lots of spares and we found some blank valves, retainers and tappets, so we could repair it. The whole team started to work on the engine and it was ready at three o'clock on Saturday morning.

Sunday's race gave us lots of good tight racing. Roger went through the first round against Martin Bishop andthe semi again Anders Larsson, Roger running 7.35 which was low ET and a track record. Roger beat Vesa Rautio in the final. Helen faced Chris Hope in the first round, she was out first but Chris made his best run of the weekend at 7.49, beating Helen.

"A very big thanks to all the staff at Santa Pod: Kjell, Ian, Keith, Darren, and all the other folks; also thanks to Eurodragster: Tog, Sharkman, and Christer Abrahamson for very good coverage of the race and fast info all time (Thank you! - Ed). Big thanks also to all of the team: Roger, Helen, Henke, Lasse, Atle, Pal, Stefan and Dick for making this weekend possible, of course thanks also to all the families who took care of everything at home when we were away.

"Thanks also to all of our sponsors: Veidec, Suzuki, Motospeed, Vance and Hines Motorsport, Shoei, Arlen Ness,NGK, RK Chains, Beta Tools, Valvoline, Papyrus, GE Capital, Standox, Supertwin and Wiklunds Akeri."

Top Fuel Bike qualifying was absolutely fantastic. 6.04 and 235 mph from Roel Koedam is something special. First was it quiet for some seconds and we all screamed. 6.04 on a track in Europe. Close to a five and probably only Larry McBride has ever run faster in the world. Roel didn't back the time up but instead ran a 6.118 pass which is the new record. Then did Sverre Dahl ran a 6.14 and a of 236 mph, equal to 380 kmh. Sverre had some small problems after this run like broken camshafts, but managed to get the bike ready for elimination. The number eight qualifier was 6.84, this must have been one of the fastest-ever ladders in the world. Eliminations were exciting but no more new records. In the semi between Ian King and Roel, Ian started little to early and Roels bike caught fire and we had to clean the track. Sverre was against Joey Bon in the other semi and later Sverre had a solo run in the final.

There were also good times in Pro Stock Bike. We had a bump spot of 7.71. The fastest in qualifyingwas Roger Pettersson who was already Champion for this year. Roger made it to the final and beat Vesa Rautio who had beaten Chris Hope in the semi, and that run also decides who was number two and number three in the Championship. Chris had last year's engine in the bike and made some very good times this weekend. If he had made those times earlier this year could a lot of things have been different? Next year will be very exciting.

SuperTwin turned out to be a thriller. Ton Pels was leading the Championship by two points over Per Bengtsson before this race so it would be up to the very last run. Ronny Aasen was also very close and could win. With ninebikes entered it looked exciting but Trond Alm's bike refused to start and Erik Nielsen broke the gearbox so there were only seven left. Ton Pels had a strong qualifier and took first place which gave him a solo run in the first round of eliminations. In the next pair it was Ronny Aasen against Stefan Juneryd. Stefan beat Ronny and now Ronny was number three in the Championship. Rob van Geffen was number two and met Willem Been in the first round. Rob's bike stopped and Willem was the winner. Per Bengtsson had problems with traction but had a solo because Svein Gottenberg had problem. So in the semi was it Stefan against Ton in the first pair, Stefen beat Ton and now was it up to Per to beat Willem to be the Champion this year. After some problems with the handling of the bike Per took the win and the Championship. In the final Stefan beat Per, so Stefan won the event and did take out numbers three, two and onein the proper order.

And that was the 2003 Championship finished.

You can find the official final standings in all three FIM/UEM Championships on our good friend IanKing's web site at www.kingracing.com.

"The Press Day was a fantastic experience", says Marcie. "We really enjoyed the friendly atmosphere and being able to run the car as many times as we wanted. The extra bonus was that the car was running extremely consistently which made it even more fun. Then to go on and be number one qualifier and to win overall - wow,words cannot explain our joy! This is the first event we have ever won, and to win the European Finals is something we have only ever dreamt about. To say that Malk is pleased about this is an understatement, I am hoping that a shuttle will be launched in the near future to bring him back down to Earth.

"I'm off to wave goodnight to Malk though the telescope!"

Wow! What a tough field in Pro ET at the European Finals! Just think of the times run by the top 7 qualifiers.Top qualifier Malcolm Motler (who also won the meeting - well done Malc) ran within three thousandths of his dial-in, then we had Tokyo Toy (Steve Dunn at the wheel) at number two with +.004, Heaven and Hell at number threewith +.005, Dave Ward number four with +.006, Carl Burton number five with +.007, Top Banana number six with +.008, and Steve Wells number sevein with +.009! If this doesn't seem to mean a lot, just imagine it as a Super Gas field with the top seven qualifiers running nine nine zero and - listen to this - number eightrunning 9.91 and a 9.95 only good enough for number seventeen. Get it? Pro ET is just getting scary.The class is so competitive it makes you proud to be part of it - and it attracts an increasing number of competitors - twenty eight car field today, hopefully thirty two next year!

It was great to see two competitors from Scandinavia: Martin Boye from Denmark and Anders Envall from Sweden, both racers running Impalas, a lovely '67 (I think) and a '96 respectively. A leaking fuel pump gave Martin a few problems, then the headache increased when they were shut down with an oil leak which they couldn't fix in time for the first round, when Aiden Kenny went through by default. What a shame, I love to see a BIG car run nines, Martin ran 9.98 and 9.87 but obviously expected a lot more as he was dialling-in 9.60.The other Impala did not fare any better. Despite putting on a good show at the test day, Anders found that after throwing the charger belt and collecting other problems on earlier qualifiers the transmission slipped badly in the third qualifier, forcing him to be a spectator for the rest of the weekend and then wait to be picked up by the RAC to go home - yup, this ain't no trailer queen. Anders' car is quite special - it weighs a massive 4200 lbs. and not only it is his normal daily driver, he also drove it all the way from home in Sweden (OK, he used a ferry across the water). Engine is a supercharged 396ci and it propels the decidedly full-ssized car to 10.80s. Not bad for a four door car on street tyres! We hope Anders will be back racing in Britain next year. Check out his very enjoyable website at www.blackout.nu.

The first round of eliminations saw a high number of red lights in the dimming evening light on Saturday with victims mainly in the left lane: Chris Johnson, Lee Huxley (who lucked out as Stephen Richards broke), John Everitt in the excellent ride built by Ray Eldred (the Heaven and Hell team salivate when they see the small block powered Celica launch with lots of air under the front wheels), Jerry Charles in the "Scandalous" street racer Capri (who was happy to have run his personal best of 9.91 in qualifying), Kev Taylor in the "CRAP Conversions" Capri, Wayne Hisco*ck in the big orange Chevelle, Bob Doyle in the Z Case Datsun, and finally Gino Bernadine in the seriously quick 1800cc Escort (who had to be different and redlit in the right lane). Gino had to overcome a nitrous explosion in the pits when his manifold was blown open by the misbehaving laughing gas. The team didn't give up, and hard work and welding services on Saturday at least allowed him to race.

The Heaven and Hell versus Z Case battle was sad, both teams wishing to only ever meet in the final and only taking comfort from the fact that at least one team would go through, but both disappointed that the race was not decided at the top end. Marius Blackburn in the "Escape from Reality" Altered reversed the trend of red lights by pulling a .505 which forced Richard Webb in the Beetle to a breakout. Jack "Just Mustard" Brewster found that his own .509 light was not good enough as he slowed down and missed his dial-in by 9 hundredths - allowing Steve "Tokyo Toy" Dunn to go through with a good light and a close dial-in on the brakes. Malcolm Motler put Steve Large's beautifully presented Zodiac on the trailer by taking 2 tenths advantage on the tree and forcing Steve to breakout. The Zodiac shows much attention to detail with beautiful chrome trim all round and only the tell-tale Dzus fasteners revealing the fibreglass reality of the ride. The panels are straight and well painted and it's nice to have another very pretty car running in the class.

The following day saw Alan Didwell in top form pulling a .501 against Lee Huxley who despite his very respectable .558 was forced to breakout to a 10.883 on a 10.90, while Alan sailed on to a 10.444 win on a 10.41 dial-in. Terry Wareham's holeshot put an end to Steve Wells's valiant efforts when his unusually slow light spoilt his good run of 10.027 on a 10.00 dial-in. A holeshot of .559 against .601 also saved the day for Rick McCann in a close race, when the dial-in of 10.39 proved a tad too hopeful (Mike's fault) in a 10.425 run against a closer 10.891 on a 10.88 dial-in by Ian Brown. Ian had a few problems that weekend and was happy to finally run as close as he normally does. Aiden Kenny and Carl Burton in the "English Rose" Sierra had a good close race too, Aiden taking a .02 advantage on the tree and Carl breaking out by 2 thousandths. Steve Dunn unfortunately collected another chance for his red light award - whilst Marius Blackburn sailed to the next round.

Malcolm Motler collected his well earned bye in the third round and ran within 3 hundredths of his dial-in, while Alan Didwell beat Rick McCann fair and square with a quicker light and a bang-on run with a zero. Rick would only have needed to pull one of his mid .5s light to win, but the Heaven and Hell team had to take their hats off to such a close shaving of Alan's dial-in instead. Same fate befell Terry Wareham when Dave Ward went past him with a quicker light and a closer dial-in, and same again for Aiden Kenny losing to Marius Blackburn with both racers snoozing on the lights but Marius waking up a bit earlier.

The semifinals saw Malcolm advance by default when Alan Didwell broke (no details unfortunately - I did say that he was too good to beat and that we should have shot him, I hope nobody took me seriously) while Marius and Dave had a nap on the start line and Dave found that his lead foot would not let him lift and broke out by seventeen thousandths, losing the race despite a quicker light.

And then came the finals and it was nice to see Malcolm march to his first win of the season. Although he had a sleepy start of the race by snoozing to a .818 light (you can borrow my alarm clock, Malc, I'll bring two to the Doorslammers as I will need one myself) but then rescued his credibility big time by running seven thousandths away from his dial-in in the final, against a very unlucky and equally deserving Marius Blackburn who redlit by less than a hair with a .499. The Spellbound team had a great time by taking the whole week off and starting their fun on the Press Day - who needs Ibiza, says Marcia!

The atmosphere was electric, the crowds fantastic and the improvements on the track very encouraging (who knows, maybe we'll have tarmac for Pro ET next year - wishful thinking) and the Heaven and Hell team were delighted by the lack of any problems with the transmission, but also to run their very best time (10.407) in weather that should only have been good enough for a 10.60 (even the torque converter is finally behaving itself) and Carla and Mike were happy about having arguments on how much to dial UNDER what the weather station was telling them! Thanks Mike, for your help and dedication.See you all at the next one!

You can find out everything you could possibly want to know about UK Pro ET on the class' official website at www.pro-et.co.uk.

1. John Spuffard 472
2. Gordon Smith 387
3. Lex Joon 93
4. Gary Page 75
5. Leif Helander 31

You can find the Championship's official web site at www.showtimeracing.co.uk/championship.html

Meanwhile we understand that LA Performance Services are to extend their calendar of events atShakespeare County Raceway next season; stay tuned for more news about that.

"If you are running something fast and would like to put in an'appearance' and shakedown, please call me on 01422 844010 or07814 821415, so that we can make some arrangements for you."

Camping opens at 6:00 pm on Saturday night. Saturday also sees the Leeds Cruise, sothose travelling some way in a street car can attend the Cruise and then follow on to thestrip.

You can find more details about York Dragway on the track's official web site atyorkdragway.intrica.co.uk.

We are sure that everyone will want to join Sharkman and Tog in wishing Juhathe very Happiest of Birthdays.

Everywhere you looked, reproduced look-a-likes,restored originals and fascinating new cars were allmixed and matched to recreate drag racing as it was indays gone by. Entrants were not there for the intensecompetition. Rather, it was a rare opportunity towatch living automotive history at speed, and at homeon a drag strip.

>From the many passes made on the Warwickshire quartermile quickest of the weekend was the Wirrel's PeteRadcliffe and his Burning Desire Model T altereddragster. Powered by a monsterous 7 litre superchargedV8 Pete, along with his eighteen year old daughterFaye who maintains the engine, pounded the quartermile in 8.284 seconds.Quickest Gasser was Jimmy Hibberd's 1933 Willys Coupecalled the 'Boston Brawler'. Running in a group knownas the 'Gasser Circus' for high-ridin' Americanlook-a-likes of the sixties, Hibberd posted aweekend's best of 9.975s at 132 mph. A nine second carresulting in a nine second marriage for crew chiefDave Cox who had to propose marriage to his girlfriendif Jimmy ran a nine second time later that day!

Pete Ashworth was also overjoyed with the weekend whenhe pushed his 7 litre Chevy V8 engined 1948 FordPopular through its paces with an awarding 8.91 secondelapsed time at 149 mph. Rob Stone, defending OutlawAnglia champion also ran new personal best numberswith his 'Born to Run' Mopar powered Ford.Jim Turnbull's 1932 blown Roadster was judged as thequickest Flathead entrant. Known as 'King Jim',Turnbull's maroon coloured hot rod ran a best of 13.54at 100 mph. Not bad for an antique in-line V8 engine!

Even the kids are allowed to get involved withminiature versions of classic hot rods. Powered bytiny Honda bike engines, Ryan Stacey and his veryphotogenic orange 'Pro Mod' roadster ran quarter miletime of 26 seconds at 50 mph. On the back of hisperformance, Ryan's car was featured on the kids 'BluePeter' programme the following day.The two doorslammer's of Jerry Stevens and Mark Lamudefaced each other to decide just who was the event'squickest. Earlier Stevens' 498ci Plymouth Belevadere,a recent import and a regular up at York Dragway'sAmerican Superstock Challenge, rans its first ninesecond lap; 9.913/135.36 mph. But as the menacingblack Plymouth side-stepped its way off the startline,Lamude's mega cubed Merlin engined '55 Chevy ran itsbest ever numbers of 9.923/134.77 to Jerry's10.200/133.14.

Unluckiest driver of the event was Rob Nugent who hadthe misfortune of having his engine's core plug blowout on his 1968 Chevy Camaro midway down the trackresulting in oil and water dousing the tyres, andsending the car into the armco. The track's emergencyservices were on the scene in seconds as the SurreyMuscle Car Club member exited from his battered carunharmed. Crowd favourite though wasn't a piston powered machinebut a jet powered Funny Car. Team 'Firestorm' led bypilot Roger Goring ran his best numbers at the Racewayso far - 6.350 seconds at 250 mph.

Holland's Patrick Kuyper has updated his personal web site with photographs from the FIA European Finals. You can find Patrick's pictures at www.imaginary.nl,click on Events, Racing, and Santa Pod Finals 2003.

UK Wild Bunch racer Tony Smith has uppped sticks and moved URLs towww.cunningplan.net. The web site features Tony's popularMinivan altered with news, pictures, facts and figures and more and has also been updated witha video clip by Bob Valder of Feel The Noise.

Christoph Lange has updated the Hanau Auto Racing Association web site with some three hundred and sixty photographs fromthe recent Nitrolympx at Hockenheim. You can find the HARA web site at www.haradragracing.de then Multimedia, Fotos 2003 andHockenheim.

Editor's note: Apologies for the lack of a news update yesterday. Your News Editor is currently unwell but will undoubtedly recover very soon.

Click here to read our interview with Monique, Marianne and Jet,or click on the Interviews link on the left-hand side of any Eurodragster page.

Stone Cold, the engine which Michael purchased from Jim Yates as cover when O'bej was damaged, is now for sale."If anyone is interested in buying some serious horsepower, talk to Michael at the Finals", saysMagnus. For slightly less money, the AC Delco team will also have a limited edition T-shirt availableat Santa Pod this weekend. "Come to the bus ane we'll be more than happy to show you", saysMagnus.

With the Championship in the bag, Magnus tells us that the game plan for the Finals is to tryto set a new record, and to "Relax and have a good time if circ*mstances allow".

"Sharkman and I were talking to Gordon and his team in the pits yesterday morning when heasked me about my Super Gas drive a couple of weeks back", says Tog. "Before I realisedit, Gordon was talking about taking me for a ride-along - I think the reasoning was 'So youthink a ten feels fast do you?'!". Gordon took celebrity Jodie Marsh for a 6.8-second ride and then it was Tog's turn. "I didn't have any safety equipment with me so I had to bega firesuit and crash helmet from Paul Marston and a neck brace from Will Furniss - it wasa particularly generous gesture on Will's part as he was about to make a run himself."

Firmly strapped into the car, Tog was taken on the ride of his life. "The burnout wasa lot smoother than I was expecting until Gordon got off the throttle", he says. "Thenthe car lurched a little and Gordon stood on the brakes. I got my first shock of the run whenGordon put the car in reverse and backed up, I was actually thrown forward - he was not hangingaround! It was very interesting watching the interaction between Gordon and his team as we got back to the start line prepared to stage, it's the sort of thing you don't give much thought to as a spectator.

"Gordon had a lot to do before we staged, I have been talked through the Pro Mod routinebefore by Nick Davies and I don't know how these guys remember it all. >From where I was seatedI saw the pre-stage light go on, but I couldn't see the stage light without craning my neck andthat wouldn't have been a good idea! We went up on the revs and then suddenly someone picked meup and threw me down the track. I found when I drove Paul Marston's Super Gasser that when you leave the line at full throttle you go into sensory overload with the noise and the acceleration, or at least you do as a rookie, so I am not sure that I can do a very good job of describing the sensation, but I'll try...

"When Gordon got off the throttle at the finish line, there was a very brief smooth moment of freewheelingand then the chutes hit. You get thrown forward without ceremony, and boy does the speed come off - thatpopular factoid about the chutes taking a hundred miles per hour off at the hit isn't a lie. Add together the sensations of hitting and going through a brick wall, combined with standing very hard on the brakes, then that would just about describe it.

"When we turned off the track, Gordon asked me what I thought, and I gave him the same answer I gavePaul Marston about my 10.669 drive in his car: 'I would like to do that every half hour for the rest of my life'. Gordon thought that we had got into the sixes and when his crew turned up to collect usand the timing ticket was handed through the window, there it was: 6.903/201.65. That'sjust about every dream come true in a couple of weeks: drive a race car, run a six, go twohundred, and ride out a 'chute deployment!"

Gordon asked us to apologise to his daughter Sabra for breaking her ride-along record of 7.001, althoughone suspects that she may make another attempt on it in 2004! Tog would also like to apologise to ourgood buddy Erik Zettervall of Svensk Dragracing for taking away his 'Quickest Web Reporter in Europe' title, although Erik was behind the wheel for his seven-second pass so that's still a record.

Tog would like to thank Gordon Appleton and his team for the ride-along, Paul Marston and Will Furniss forthe loan of safety equipment, and Paul Marston's wife Sam for exposing herself to ribaldry whilst helping with a broken zip. Thanks also to Gary Page who came up to Gordon's pit after the pass and was as pleased for Tog as if he had been on the ride-along himself, and thanks to everyone who has already written with congratulations.

Presented by one of the oldest UK established clubs,the National Street Rod Association, the Hot Rod Dragsrecreates those halcyon days of fifties and sixtiesmiddle order America when street rodding and racingcame out of a long period of bad publicity asorganised drag racing became an easy solution. Carclubs with a clear view of the future began stagingdrag races on property borrowed or rented for theoccasional race.

This weekend's Hot Rod Drags attracts over 200 qualityhot rods to the track as a participant in the NSRA'scontinued programme of 'havin fun as usual', and manyof which take part in the weekend's test'n'tune/streetlegal drags. Descending on Shakespeare County is a group ofrenegade racers known as the Gasser Circus and a groupof non conforming racers and there sixties inspiredChrysler, Ford and Chevrolet high riding Americanstock cars. As you might expect the circus also hasits own resident clown called 'Honk' to stage the carsup on the startline.

The event also has its old favourites like the tyresmokin' Fuel Altereds; Supercharged Outlaws, WildBunch, Outlaw Anglias. There's also the FlatheadMeltdown for sidevalve V8 rods and lakesters whilebringing the event up-to-date will be Roger Goring'sJet powered Funny Car 'Firestorm'.

Today's Hot Rod Drags pushed the envelope ofprofessionalism and showmanship. The cars are neater,faster and the subject of many 'Custom Car' and'Street Machine' magazine articles. You've probablyread about them...now see them in their rip roaringpower snorting glory this weekend at the Hot RodDrags. For more information call 01379 740100 or logon to www.nsra.org.uk.

Jerry will be posting live event coverage of the Hot Rod Drags over the weekend on the News page of the APIRA website at www.apira.org.uk.

We were also interested to hear that this weekend is the thirtieth anniversary of Jerry Cookson's involvement with drag racing, which started as an enthusiast at age thirteen and has since included years of service to his beloved sport as a journalist, Press Officer, and track announceramongst other things. Jerry has written a very interesting celebration of those thirty years which isnow showing on the APIRA web site's News page. Congratulations, Jerry, and here's to thenext thirty!

Gareth Evans' UK1320 web site at www.uk1320.com has been updated witha number of superb photographs from the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. Gareth also tellsus that he plans to post end-day reports and a few phototgraphs from each day of this weekend's FIA EuropeanFinals.

"We are going to the final with high expectations", says Håkan Nilsson. "We are fairly pleased with our season so far but would like to get it straight in England. We have been suffering a littlefrom my red light at the Main Event in May, and we have not been in the points lead once this year. We won at Alastaro, but then had another disaster at Mantorp Park where Roger Johansson took us out on a holeshot. It took some time to overcome that. In Norway it went our way again: we had a good consultant in the person offormer Pro Stock giant Jari Konola who helped us with some invaluable advice and made some adjustments to our car which made a big difference on the reaction times. The power was there and that was what it took to take the win.

"To strengthen our team and make the most of it, our long-time expert consultant, Pro Mod wizard Britt Micetich of Iowa, will come to support us. Britt was last here in 1997 and got us on a good line for professional racing, and we now feel that it is time to bring him over again to sort out a few things. I am sure that Britt's expertise will give us at least another five hundredths. This would beat the record which Patrick Wikström currently holds, and just might take us into the 6.2 zone."

"Right now Freddy is on his way to Trollh�ttan with his bus and the Funny Car", says team member Björn Anderberg. "He will meet up with Stefan Petterson who is helping us by taking the pick-up toEngland in his bus."

Freddy had some problems with the TMFC after the Nitrolympics as a bearing spun and damaged the block andcrank. "The vibration also caused trouble with the Lenco so we have had some long nights in the workshop,but the race car is ready and on its way", says Björn. "We have run 5.98 and 392 kmhso far, and we hope that we will go quicker and faster at Santa Pod. Over the winter we thought that racingthe Funny Car would be easy, but we learnt otherwise. Now we have a computer in the car so that we cansee what we have been doing wrong."

"It's the last race of the year and we are not coming to England to go slowly. Both cars areset on kill..."

Björn tells us that a new Fast Freddy web site is coming together at www.fastfreddy.nu.

"It has been a great season with exciting racing throughout Europe", says Fränzi."We went to Alastaro, Piteå and Skellefteå for the first time and each trackhas its own nice character. We raced against the best Comp and Junior Dragster racers in Europe,we met the very friendly Scandinavian people, and we ran a European record at Alastaro. We alsocame close to winning at Hockenheim.

"For Yvonne, who is Switzerland's only Junior Dragster driver, the NDRS season is over. Herefforts were unsuccessful but she didn't lose heart and she learnt a lot. More importantly shehad a lot of practice during the season.

"We now have the pleasure of ending our season at the European Finals at Santa Pod, and thenwe will attend some exhibitions in Switzerland. And let's not forget the other excellent Swiss racers, Urs Erbacher and the two Peters Beck and Wacker.

"We will decide our 2004 plans at the end of the year."

"With nine cars ready for battle and eight spots open, it's going to be just that - a battle!",says Darryl. "After a summer of match racing and promoting drag racing to thousands we are ready to get back to the serious business of FIA professional drag racing! The Championship has been so close in Top Fuel all season, and if there is a chance we can help our good buddy Smax over the final hump to victory then we�ll be there.

"Last but by no means least, thanks to all the guys and girls on the crew who have worked tirelessly all summer on the show circuit. We wish everyone a successful and safe weekend, and come back soon Barry and Andy!"

UK Pro Modified racer Gordon Appleton will be giving UK fans theirfirst look at the stunning new paintjob on his Wheelgame Racing Camaro this weekend (right, click on picture to view larger version). The Darren West-designed paintjob made its début at the Nitrolympicsat Hockenheim a couple of weeks back.

UK Super Gas racer Peter Lane tells us that he has left hisEarsplittenloudenboomer Camaro on the trailer since the Allstar Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. "We don't fix what ain't broke!", says Peter. "Besides, the silly oldgit who drives it (his words - Ed) needs all the rest he can get."

UK Super Pro ET racer Mark Flavell will be tuned into Eurodragster's Event Coverage from his hospitalbed. If you were tuned in to Eurodragster News in August you will recall that Mark needs a back operation."I'll be banging away at the refresh key on my laptop for the latest updates as soon as they're posted", says Mark. "The entry is spectacular and I'm sure that the qualifiying and racing will be likewise. Good luck to all the Super Pro teams out there, I'll be cheering you on! Have fun, and safe racing."

"We're very pleased with the way things are going", says Roger, who clocked a best of 6.445 atthe Allstar Nationals. "We're enjoying ourselves - we always do at Shakespeare - and we're getting down the track.The sixty foot and eighth-mile times are very respectable, so we are working on the burner pressure in the second halfof the track. The 6.4 was close to our best ET, we just have to find some top end now."

Roger and his team of Ian Blaylock and Helen Rusling will be continuing the gradual tweaking at theNSRA event this weekend, with a view to beating Firestorm's best figures of 6.417/250.00."We're very much looking forward to it, and my previous warnings to everyone in Race Controlstill stand!", he says.

The Firestorm web site at www.firestorm-jfc.co.uk hasbeen updated with the latest news from the team as well as photographs from recent appearances.

We know for a fact that a number of E-Mails sent to Eurodragster's News address between Thursday and yesterdayhave been lost, so if you have sent a news item or other E-Mail to News, Links, Webmaster, Tog, Sharkman or anyany Eurodragster address and it has either not been published or acknowledged then please re-send it to [emailprotected] and we will be straight back to you.

Should you receive an infected E-Mail with any Eurodragster address as the sender name then please be assured thatit has not come from us, as all Eurodragster computers are virus-protected. Sobig, like most of the latest viruses, is clever enough to appear to come from someone other than the sender. The basic groundrule, as always, is to bewary of E-Mails from people whom you do not know, or which appear to come from someone whom you know but which have attachments with extensions such as .exe, .pif or .scr.

"There is nothing I can say which would explain it to you", Jon told Eurodragster yesterday evening."The car just kept going and going, the pull was constant and got more as I went further". "Jon described it alright when he got out of the car - it was the first recorded instance of his swearing!", joked Jon's wife Jeanette. "One of the words was 'awesome' but I won't say what the other one was!"

"You can't hear the engine that much, which surprised me", added Jon, who sponsors Eurodragster'swebcam through his company Webster Race Engineering. "The burnout was a bit harsh though! And the speed comes off so quickly as soon as you lift, the deceleration is phenomenal".Despite onlybeing on the throttle for a couple of seconds, Jon took four tenths of a second off his personal best which wasrecorded in Pat and Stephen Talbot's Super Pro ET dragster.

Yesterday's pass was the culmination of a lot of hard work for Jon, Crew Chief Peter Knight and the team, whowere up into the small hours every night last week and finally got the dragster ready to take to Santa Pod at 2:30yesterday morning. Tuning advice was on this occasion provided by Alan Jackson, although it was a one-off as hewill already be calling the shots on three Top Fuellers at next weekend's European Finals. Crew Chief PeterKnight will be in charge of the dragster which will be carrying the Canto Racing name at Santa Pod.

"Alan Jackson's expertise is second to none", said Jon. "There was no computer, it's a new chassis to him,it's a different combination. His knowledge and expertise put you at ease and give you confidence. Alan said that we wouldn't learn anything from a sixty foot pass, so I should just stay on it as longas I felt comfortable. I could have stayed on it a lot further becauseit felt so good, but I am licencing and of course I have to do everything properly. It was perfect, though, andwhen we got back to the pits the engine was fine, the clutch was OK, no problems at all. And KnutSöderquist was waiting there to tell me that it was a very good FIA licencing run and you know howhard he is to please!"

Working with Martin Canto on Martin's Top Methanol Dragster gave Peter the bug. "I built theengine for the methanol car, and that dragster showed me what I wanted to do", he said. "I raced withMartin, and now he's racing with me! Martin has been an endless source of support and I am very grateful to him."

"All of the fuel people have been friendly, accommodating and helpful", said Martin Canto. "Whata great bunch of people."

Peter said that the big difference between the methanol and Fuel engines is that he has had to learn to delegate jobs. "You can't do everything yourself so you have to give particular jobs to peopleand trust them to do them and then come back to you. But I know that I can trust everyone on this crewso it's not been a problem!". Peter added that there were enough spares for two or maybe threemotors.

Jon will be making his next licencing passes at Wednesday's Press Day at Santa Pod. There will be a skeleton crewso the team turned the car round last night, but depending upon the outcome of the firstpass on Wednesday there may be a second run. "Everybody just needs time to get the idea", said Jon."Before we got here today none of us realised how much work it is. But everyone has been verypositive and encouraging."

Peter said that the Canto Racing team have everything to gain and nothing to lose at the FIA European Finals. "I've - tentatively - no regrets", he said. "I have taken a lot of notes today, now I just have to go home and gather my thoughts and see if I have any more questions forAlan because we're on our own next weekend! We will have a full-strength crew including three of Lindsay Deuchar's team so we should be OK."

Jon and Peter asked us to thank Alan Jackson, Knut Söderquist, Laurie Bamford, Lindsay Deuchar,John McIntyre, Graham Rice, Martin Canto, and Jon and Graham's wives for their endless help and support.

"I have only been back in the States for five days, which left only three days to gather the partsI need", said Bob last night. "With the biggest drag race on the planet, the US Nationals at Indy, going on this weekend most of the parts suppliers were stretched to the limit. I would like to thank Ken Black (KBRE), Joe Squires (Bryant Crankshafts), Jerry Sweeny (Brooks Rods), Steve at AFT, Gary Burgin and many others who have given me the same priority as they have to the top US teams."

The team's official web site at www.showtimeracing.co.uk hasbeen updated with team member Chris Dossett's inside report on their weekend. As ever Chris' report isessential reading, giving a great insight into the hard work involved in running a Fuel FC.

"I now have a real appreciation of our European counterparts and the cross-border camaraderieamongst the fans", says Smax. "As you know this has been my first season on the FIA Europeantour, and to be leading the Championship into the final round is a dream come true forus. I've really enjoyed travelling around Europe and meeting all the fans. The atmosphere andreception have been great, but there is nothing like the homeadvantage of a UK track for the deciding leg of the Championship.

"Knut, Al Jackson and all of my great team have been working their butts off. My team managerPaul Townsend and my family have been great in support of my dream, asit is very time-consuming attending all the meetings. I really do feel that thefans have lifted me up and thrown me down the track at every event, and forthat I am most appreciative. I just hope that I make all the fans happy at the Finals - whatever theresult on the track. We will be competing next year and intend to maintainour winning relationship with car owner King Knut."

The BA Racing team are working hard to finish the '38 Ford Coupe. "We are currently fabricating the fuel and oil tanks", says Bert. "We still have plumbing and wiring to do, and we are also awaiting some parts which Bob Jarrett is bringing on Wednesday."

Since we last spoke to Bert he has been in touch with Tom Anderson in the USA.Tom drove a Fuel Funny Car in the 1970s and has been Crew Chief for Don Prudhomme,Connie Kalitta and Al Hofmann. In the last few years Tom has been involved in Pro Mod, seeing Jim Oddy and Mike Janis to IHRA Championships in 2000 and 2001.

Bert says that he is very grateful to Bob Jarrett, John Spuffard, Dave Wilson, Dave Milam and Andy Robinson for their help and advice.

"We know that we have a tough challenge this weekend, but if everything comes together then we could be the joker in the pack", says Bert.

"It has been a very exciting season", says Joan Larsen. "We have all worked together fantastically and had good results in this tough class, like 5.78 seconds, 401 kmh, runner-up in Norway, and in the top half of the eliminations all season.

"No doubt that the class will be even tougher in 2004, when Arvid is expected back in the class. We wish the Norwegian team good luck, and look forward to racing with them. I would like to thank the Norwegian team members for a great season.

"The European Finals will be very exciting. Urs Erbacher, who has completely dominated the season, is already the European Champion. So the fight will be for second, third and fourth place. Leif Andréasson has the second place at the moment and will be very hard to touch. The real fight will be between Ulf Leanders, Dan Larsen and Niclas Andersson, but we also need to keep an eye out forFredde fa*gerström as he could join the group."

Joan will be updating Dan's web site at www.funnycar.dk from SantaPod throughout this weekend, not just with news of Top Methanol Funny Car but also of Top FuelDragster, in which Denmark's Kim Reymond has a chance of the FIA European Championship.

"With their new ZX12-powered machine about to start construction in Jon Webster's race shop the team have decided to sell Europe's quickest Kawasaki Funnybike so that all resources and efforts can be concentrated on the new machine. This leaves Tim with just the European finals and National Finals to run the sub-seven pass. The team are open to expressions of interest in their current machine."

If you fancy buying one of Europe's quickest Funny Bikes, you can talk to Tim Blakemore on 0117 904 2216.

Martin also tells us that he plans to run at the Press Day on Wednesday, stay tuned to Eurodragster fornews of his progress.

UK Pro ET racer Malcolm Motler has had a hard slog to prepare his popular Morris Minor pick-up for this weekend's race, saysMarcie Motler. "We opened up the garage door, walked around the car and kicked each tyre, and everythingwas fine", says Marcie. The Spellbound team are attending Wednesday's Press Day, their first, andwill then stay at Santa Pod until the end of the race. "A week at Santa Pod - who needs Spain?",says Marcie. "We are hoping to get through a few more rounds this weekend and to move ourselves up the National Championship, to finish the same as last year (fifth) or better."

Congratulations to:

Comp Eliminator: Bruno Bader
Stock/Superstock: Jarmo Markkanen
Super Comp: Paul Ingar Udtian
Super Gas: PO "�lands-Pelle" Eriksson
Super Street: Janne Carlsson
Junior Dragster: Erik Johansson
Funny Bike: Svein Arne Skjerv�
Super Gas Bike: Michael Ivarsson
Street Bike: Mattias Carlsson

Congratulations also to Christer Abrahamson of Svensk Dragracing who did an outstanding job of covering the NDRS Finals online overthe weekend. You can read the reports and results from Alastaro, and read more about the NDRS outcomes, on the Svensk Dragracingweb site at www.dragracing.se.

"On Saturday we had three qualifying sessions, and we finished the day at 20:30. If it had not rained on Saturday I think we could have had five or more sessions. Yesterday morning was really bad. We dried the track at about 08:00, and when the track was dry it started to rain again. We sat that out and started to dry the track again. At about 10:30 Lex held thedrivers' meeting and during that meeting it started to rain again. So we hadto dry the track again! But no problem, Explosion have a nice track dryer andit has been used several times. After that shower we ran for some time and it started to rain again, then at 16:30 it started to rain again, then dried the track again within an hour.

"The biggest disappointment of this race is that the Dutch Champions did not becomeChampions on the track, only in SM ET which was decided in the quarter finals.

Despite the rain, we can look back at a great drag race season in theNetherlands. The last event especially was an example of the potential which Dutch dragracing has displayed this year. The track crew worked their butts off, the timing system worked like a Swisswatch, the track was the best you can get, and the 190 competitors from as far afield as Italy andSweden made it a weekend to remember, despite the rain."

The Explosion Club's web site at www.explosion.nl has been updatedwith a number of pictures from the weekend, as has Patrick Kuyper's web site atwww.imaginary.nl click on Events then Racing.