2003 Speedfreaks Ball
Sunday

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19:00

Today's pictures are now posted, you can view them via the Event Index page.

That's the end of our coverage of the 2003 Speedfreaks Ball, thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoyed our coverage. Many thanks for their help this weekend to event organisers Martin Hill and Paul Bailey; Martin Wallis and Steve Horn of SPR's timing crew; Ian Marshall, Nigel Anniwell and the start line crew; Bob Day, Trevor Barker and the safety crew; Robin Shone; John Hackney; Kjell Pettersson; track announcers Martin Bennett and Mike Kason; and Ivan Sansom.

Eurodragster's next Event Coverage will be from next weekend's pre-FIA Main Event Test Day here at Santa Pod Raceway which will be the first chapter in our FIA Main Event build-up. See you then!

This weekend's Event Coverage was brought to you in association with American Car Imports.

17:45

We're all done for the day here at Santa Pod Raceway, it's been another great day with no rain, no incidents (when you see our picture "crew barbecue" don't worry, it's just the angle of the shot), just lots of great action. Let's take you through the results in association with American Car Imports.

Top Fuel/Supertwin Shootout

Roel Koedam 6.43/222.05 def. Ton Pels broke off line

With two weeks to the first round of the FIM/UEM Championships Roel fired a warning shot to his competitors with a storming pass in the final. Ton went about a foot off the line and the engine cut out. Earlier on today Roel ran an early shut-off 7.191/142.58 and Ton a 7.33/195.57.

Third/fourth place run-off: Ian King 7.61/180.80 def. Jamie Millership 9.12/124.70

After yesterday's frustrations Ian got in a couple of passes today, they weren't pretty as there were cylinderd out but Ian will be happy for getting the length of the track. Jamie feathered the throttle a couple of times on this pass. Earlier on, Ian clocked 7.48/188.85 and Jamie 7.98/153.28.

Super Street Bike Shootout

Round 1:

Matt Nixon 8.76/157.99 def. Rachel Pattison 9.16/147.31
Graham Dance 8.57/168.76 def. Jamie Sneddon 9.12/134.90
Karl "Hollywood" Larcombe 8.50/166.67 def. Dave Smith 8.87/147.01
Steve Venables 8.88/164.55 def. Chris Reed 10.23/122.16

Semi-finals:

Graham Dance 8.51/168.36 def. Karl "Hollywood" Larcombe 8.58/164.31
Matt Nixon 8.52/163.66 def. Steve Venables 9.44/141.31

Final:

Graham Dance 8.48/169.17 def. Matt Nixon 8.84/162.22

SSB racer Rachel Pattison recorded her first-ever eight with an 8.93 during one of this afternoon's Run What You Brung sessions. If you were tuned into Eurodragster News a couple of days ago you will recall that we were having a relative chill-out weekend, this went to the max last night with a Super Street Bike v Eurodragster shootout on the dodgems. We think that Eurodragster won. Next time you're passing the Krazy Kat pit, though, ask Karl "Hollywood" Larcombe what happened to Tog's Bacardi Breezer. Many thanks to the guys and girls of SSB for all the fun.

Demonstration Bike shootout

Lewis Honey (10.20) 10.33/122.83 def. Phil Pratt (10.97) 11.03/123.98

Seventeen bikes took part in a dial-your-own bracket this afternoon, for almost all of the competitors it was the first time they had taken part in a dial-your-own with the accompanying handicap starts. Well done to everyone who took part and a pat on the back to organiser John Hackney.

Other highlights

Funny Bike racer Neil Midgley got back to his end-2002 form with an excellent 7.06/184.42 this morning. A 7.0 with wheelspin off the line bodes well for the Main Event where he could perpetrate an upset or two. Dave Bailey obviously got used to the ex-Ken Cooper Pro Mod Bike very quickly as he put in a storming run of 7.40/170.37 during a RWYB session this afternoon. Sarah-Jane Head put up a good advertisement for her Comp Bike with an 8.88/144.66, whilst Stu Chamberlain returned having fixed the spat spark plug and clocked 7.81/155.61. Stu asked us to say a big Thank You to Ton Pels for the loan of a Helicoil kit. Nick Daniels and Barrie Gregory had a number of match races but Shaggy had a frustrating day as he suffered breakages in the bleach box and then off the start line, whilst Barrie clocked a number of times in the elevens.

Ricky Emms was again a model of consistency in the Cool Green Junior Dragster with runs of 8.18/74.21, 8.17/73.93 and 8.14/75.08.

A new world record was set for a bear riding a bike with another bear in a sidecar, 24.31/49.68, see today's Photo Gallery for more details. We also had a hysterical monkey bike match race between supertwin racers Les Harris and Dave Bartz on their pit bikes, the clocks timed out before either bike got to the finish line (and they time out at 32 seconds).

Exhibition

Eric Teboul's pass on his rocket bike today was a 6.123/190.83, 3.941/205.67 at half-track. There was a stiffer headwind today and the bike was visibly slowing as soon as the fuel exhausted. Eric was very happy with the outcome of his weekend and is looking forward to returning - his next date is back in Top Fuel Bike at the Main Event.

Jet FC match races

Martin Hill 6.34/260.20 def. Tony Baker 7.09/228.03
Martin Hill 6.73/252.29 def. Tony Baker 13.25/143.14

Martin Hill made it three out of three this weekend with some very solid passes and huge top end speeds. We noticed yesterday that the afterburner on Fireforce 2 was even more fierce, if such a thing were possible, Martin told us that the team had changed engines after suffering damage at the Doncaster Show. It's a long story but the engine now in the car was damaged at Doncaster last year and has since been repaired, and the damaged engine is currently being attended to and will be back in the car in time for the Main Event.

Jerry Lackey out in passes of 10.14/142.32 and 8.45/124.27 in the Patriot Jet Dragster. Jerry's first run was a full pass without afterburner and the second was a half-pass with afterburner.

We are now working on today's pictures, stay tuned.