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22:45

We made a quick visit to the Top Fuel pits after session one. Everyone was very busy working on the cars but we managed a quick word with just about everyone.

Tuner Alan Jackson is particularly impressed with the new CBD dragster which is being driven here by Harlan Thompson. It turns out that Harlan didn't shut off early, but had no choice in the matter. "The cannon fell off, the clutch all came in in one go and the tyres smoked!", said AJ. "The car was running really nicely. This one has now got a working computer but because the car is so different it is not a lot of use with the other four cars. We didn't hurt anything on any of our cars, so now we just have to do it all again!".

Harlan Thompson confirmed that he wanted to go further under power. "I didn't shut off, it shut me off!", he said. "We've found the problem. It's strange though, on last night's run everything went perfectly and this time I couldn't get reverse and then I couldn't get forward. But the track is fine, I had no problem seeing where I was going or anything."

Tuner Kenneth Lorentzon said that the engine is just fine on Ali Aryan's car which it turns out was driven by Gary Page in this session. "It's all good but at the moment we have no tools!", he said. "The run didn't look too bad, Gary went into tyre shake and got off it."

Patrik Pers was very pleased with his run. "It went real good", he said. "This run was to 200 metres but I want to do a full pass on the next run - I need to do a full pass to get my licence."

Micke Kågered hit tyre shake at 250 feet. "Everything is OK, we didn't break anything", he said. "We'll give it more clutch and more power next time. It's not easy to run here. It is very hot and my visor misted up."

Thomas Nataas, who ran alongside Micke, said that everything was just fine on his run until he hit shake. "The plan was to go to half track on this run", he said. "We can tune more into it on the next run, I think. It was difficult to see where I was going because the windscreen had fuel all over it, but I knew where I was. The trick is to look up at the lights."

Gary Page found himself driving two cars last round after Ali Aryan never materialised in his pit after running a 6.65 in his Pro Mod. "I got back to the pits in my car and when I jumped out Kenneth said to me "You're driving again, get your gear back on"!", said Gary. "Everything went OK except that Ali's car shook because the set-up was very soft for him - my car was fine and I planned to shut it off early. We'll put in more power next time and we will go further. The track is fine."

Your reporter put his tongue in his cheek and asked Barry Sheavills whether he got a timing slip or a calendar after Gary Page gated him at the Tree. "There is a reason for that", said Barry. "All the way down to the start line I was on a bye! I burned out first and went a long way for the fans. Gary did a short burnout and got back before me. I was pulling forward and I saw the lights go on in the other lane, I put my lights on and Gary left. I never even knew he was there all that time. I thought a bye would be perfect, I could take my time and do things at my own pace, for example I had trouble getting reverse and I didn't panic, I just took my time. I am very pleased with the run and like I said it was just like getting back on a bike. The only problem I had, and I would never have thought this possible, was that my visor steamed up! That happens at the Pod in November, not here! I felt no emotion other than "Go for it", and we are the quickest so far."

16:30

Today's first set of pit notes will be posted after the first session of Top Fuel. In the meantime we have posted a set of pitside shots so that you can see what has been going on so far today. The pitside pictures are available from the Event Index page: if you don't see the additional link on the index page then click on your Browser's Refresh button.