Speedfreaks Ball
Saturday

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19:15

Martin Hill rounded the day off with a great 6.003/256.49 in the Fireforce 2 Jet FC. The Fireforce team had to have the engine apart to wash the compressor this week and all of the hard work appears to have paid off.

The Wildside Inc Top Fueller didn't appear. Darryl Bradford came to race control and told us that "We have an hour's work to do and half an hour left to do it", so the team are taking their time and will run tomorrow.

So we're all done for today, enjoy the pictures and we'll be back tomorrow.

18:30

Sammy Miller has made his second pass of the day and as I type the Vanishing Point Rocket FC has just been towed out of the field on the right hand side of the shutdown area. Sammy started to drift towards the centreline, steered right and pulled the chute, but never really got straight and went into the field. The car spun round but didn't roll and came to a halt in the grass. Sammy is perfectly OK and the car is fine. His times on that run were:

60 foot: 0.885
330 foot: 2.275
Eighth: 3.325/230.98
1000 foot: not recorded
ET: 5.429
Terminal Speed: 193.01

Tony Baker put in a pass of 7.173/228.50 in the Fireforce 1 Jet FC, your reporter taking the chance to run the Tree and having a lot of fun doing it. Thanks, start line crew!

The second round of Top Fuel and Supertwin Top Fuel Bike qualifying went as follows:

Steve Woollatt 12.31/87.36 (spun off line), Joey Bon 8.07/170.68, Roel Koedam 7.25/197.41, Ton Pels broke off line, Ian King broke in burnout.

Steve Woollatt spun the wheel all the way to the eighth, but it was controlled and almost as if he was doing it deliberately...surely not.

Al Cook and Ian Burns' latest passes on their Pro Stock Bikes were 7.95/169.48 and 8.47/149.96 respectively. Stu Chamberlain has put in a quickest of 8.08/174.90 on his Funny Bike whilst Neil Midgley got his Funny Bike to hook up and recorded 7.87/160.41 on his last pass.

In Super Street Bike, the top four have not changed, Karl Larcombe still leads but has gone quicker at 8.60/161.69 and Mark Fisher is running very consistently, adding an 8.74 to his earlier 8.73. Graham Dance is back into the eights at 8.95/159.83.

Thanks to a tip from our buddy Roger Gorringe we discovered Top Methanol Dragster pilot Doug Bond strapped in son Joe's Junior Dragster. Doug recorded 9.29/58.27 in the Junior Modified machine.

We have a number of NAST Supertwin racers here to test, including Barrie Gregory, Ric Naylor and Nick Daniels. Barrie Gregory has run a best of 11.40, whilst Nick Daniels hit problems on his last pass and clocked a time in the 13s.

We have about half an hour left today and it doesn't look as if we will be seeing Darryl Bradford in the Wildside Inc Top Fueller. Stay tuned and we will let you know yea or nay as soon as we know.

Today's pictures are now available, you can get to them from the event update index.

15:15

Sammy Miller has put in his first pass of the day and didn't disappoint. Long and careful safety checks (including the removal of all trackside photographers) were followed by the customary throttle slams. Then the crowd count from five to one and Sammy was gone in a cloud of stinging steam. His times were as follow:

60 foot: 0.778
330 foot: 1.975
Eighth: 2.967/226.13
1000 foot: 3.999
ET: 5.105
Terminal Speed: 197.34

Top Fuel and Supertwin Top Fuel qualifying went as follows:

Joey Bon 10.17/118.60 (spun off line), Roel Koedam 13.78/69.69 (spun off line), Steve Woollatt 7.27/201.91, Ian King 20.81/31.28 (threw blower belt at 100 feet), Ton Pels 7.65/199.74.

Al Cook made what we believe is his first seven-second pass on his Pro Stock Bike, clocking 7.96/165.92. In the other lane, Neil Midgley ran 8.85/106.62 on his Funny Bike. In the same session Sarah Jane Head clocked 8.60/157.50 on her Comp Bike.

Karl Larcombe still leads Super Street Bike qualifying at 8.62/166.87 after the second qualifying session. Mark Fisher has taken #2 spot at 8.73/165.66, Dave Bailey #3 at 8.88/153.41 and Dave Smith #4 at 8.89/164.46.

13:30

Hello and welcome from a sunny and warm Santa Pod Raceway on the first day of the Speedfreaks Ball. We're here in association with American Car Imports to bring you the highlights. We are taking it nice and easy this weekend so the plan is for occasional reports to sum up what has been happening, with photographs to be posted at the end of the day.

The Super Street Bike racers have had the first round of qualifying and the quickest was Karl Larcombe at 8.62/166.87. This is only Karl's second time out on the bike, he told us this morning that the Springnationals last weekend was the first time he had sat on the bike. Also straight into the eights is Dave Smith who clocked 8.91/163.37 on his street-legal Hayabusa.

Junior Dragster qualifying is led by Stuart Morrice at 0.604, with Holley Glassup putting in the quickest and fastest pass so far of 8.90/72.40.

Ken Cooper and Helen Curran have had the first of their 'grudge races', Helen on a 125 cc bike and Ken on a scooter. Helen took the win with a 16-second pass and Ken is still running...

Sammy Miller has just been interviewed on the PA and he said that he fully intends to put in a 300 mph pass in the Vanishing Point Rocket FC today. Slammin' Sammy has two runs scheduled today, the plan is a (relative) squirt on the first pass to check out the new engine, tyres, wheels and chutes, with more power later on today and a full-on pass tomorrow. Sammy said that the car will then be parked and maybe put in a museum, with a new car appearing in 2003.

Darryl Bradford has been allocated two slots today to test out the Wildside Inc Top Fueller, although he said that he is likely to make only one pass today and maybe two tomorrow, to get up to the half-pass.

Qualifying in the first round of the Top Fuel v Supertwin Top Fuel Bike shootout is due within the next half-hour or so, with Sammy Miller to follow. Stay tuned and we will let you know how how things go.