Thursday

Eurodragster.com sponsor VP Racing Fuels is a regular attendee at Autosport and their stand was as ever being run by Steve Wood and Sue Whyte of Motorshack. Steve told us that VP Racing Fuels have two new fuels of interest to drag racers. "Q16 is an improvement on C16, and VP113 is an oxygenated C12", said Steve. "Motorshack are able to supply both of course. We will again be sponsoring a lane at Shakespeare County Raceway this season as well as contingency awards, and we are also getting involved in the new Jap series which will be contested by Keith Cowie and Steve Gurie. And of course we are still working with Paul Knight."

Steve showed us a new absorbent powder named Isol8 which is based on coconut fibre and which will be of particular interest to tracks in Scandinavia which have more stringent environmental requirements. "Isol8 is one hundred per cent natural", said Steve. "It's a coconut-based absorbent which can take up oil, fuel, diesel, paint, even blood - or so the manufacturers say! It comes in bags or small boxes. Because it is a natural material it can be disposed of in general waste". Steve demonstrated with some oil on a tray and to our eyes it worked just as advertised - when he removed the powder there was no sign that the oil had been there.

In the Engineering part of the Show we met up with Fuel FC racer John Spuffard and team member Paul. Spuff told us that the Showtime team is expecting a new arrival. "We have another Mustang body coming from John Force Racing", said Spuff. "It's one of Robert Hight's Triple A Mustangs, still the previous style of Mustang body. We're the only team in Europe allowed to run these bodies". The team have some changes to make to the FC after rule changes in the USA. "We have some chassis mods to make, but nothing too bad", said Spuff. "Bob Jarrett has been in close contact with Bernie Fedderly and John Medlen about the modifications. The car will be going in to Webster Race Engineering at the end of the month. Then we have quite a lot of work to do with some major changes in engine components. We are changing the clutch - it's a whole new ball game because the car can take everything we can give it. We are already lined up to run at Easter, the FIA Main Event, and the FIA European Finals and some more dates are being talked about."

We were surprised but of course delighted to find Sweden's Anders Karling on the Uddeholm High Performance Steels stand with his new Supertwin which your reporter thinks is the best-looking drag bike in the history of the sport. Anders made one outing with the new bike last year, at the FIA European Finals, but a broken crank in the pits put paid to any development passes. We asked Anders to talk us round his new ride.

"The chassis is Docol 800 tubing from SS AB", said Charley. "This tubing is stronger than chromoly and and this is the first time that it has been used for drag racing. The drive systems, shafts and barrels are all Uddeholm material. We have used all grades of steel from low carbon for the clutch plates to the hardest steel on the pushrod ends. The aluminium is also from Uddeholm and is as strong as steel.

"This bike is pretty much a Fuel car on two wheels. It has a clutch cannon, electronic timers for fuel and clutch managed by one controller, and a Racepak - we have had a lot of support from Racepak."

We asked Charley if it would be easier to tell us which parts of the bike he had not designed and manufactured himself. "I bought the wheels, brakes, ignition and fuel components and the supercharger housing", he said. "The crank case is from McClure but the rest is my own.

"Right now we are working to take weight off the bike, and we have made a minor redesign to make it easier to service. We have been working on the wiring and we have to make more spares. We have a bunch of pistons to finish, work on the cylinders, and two new cranks. The new crank wasn't ready for Santa Pod so we used an older American crank and it went bang. We have a better design for the front pulley/crank connection."

"We are almost ready to test and I would like to do so as soon as possible. As soon as the weather in Sweden is good we will test there and we will also attend the test weekend before the Main Event."

Eurodragster.com News sponsor Nimbus Motorsport had two stands, one in Autosport Engineering where I met proprietor Steve Clark and Super Modified racer Nigel Payne. We started by talking to Nigel Payne about the latest developments in the Sticky Situation pit.

"I sold the engine to Paul Marston and I am putting together a new engine, we are just waiting for some parts", said Nigel. "We aim to test at one or two Run What You Brungs before Easter, and in fact we are intending to run as much as we can this year including test days and events such as the UK Truck Show. Steve has increased his backing which will enable us to do all this testing, and we need to do it to catch those pesky Nitrous cars! The rule changes have given us the chance to catch up. It's going to be be a good year in Super Modified - there are three or four new cars coming along."

"Nimbus Motorsport had their best ever year last year and this year has started very well", said Steve Clark. "We have had Mark Hope working with us on his year in industry. On the track we are continuing with everyone we have backed. We sponsor twelve teams and individuals and it is not easy to find the time to get round and see them all. We have stepped up with Nigel this year. If we can translate the looks and reliability to results then we will have a successful year. The tweak in the Super Mod rules will prove it one way or another."

We then stepped over to the Live Action Arena to watch the drag racing live show which kicked off with Junior Dragster displays from Matthew Seamarks and Joe Kellett which involved staying on the throttle for as long as they dared and then taking the rest of the oval to parade in front of the crowd, and then burnouts by Street Eliminator racer Andy Frost, Super Gas racer Conrad Stanley, and Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Andy Robinson. After three quarters of an hour of varied in appearance but ultimately repetitive circuit displays the crowd reacted very enthusiastically to the noise and smoke. It was a real test of bravery for all of the racers as the Arena surface was very slick with even the Junior Dragsters overpowering and getting out of shape.

"It went very sideways!", said Matthew Seamarks. "There it quite a bit of room on the track but not a lot of traction. The slicks were blackstriping all the way down. It's been good so far and I am enjoying it very much. The only problem is that the stock cars are dropping oil everywhere."

Joe Kellett said that he almost ran into the wall at the end of the Arena on his first run in front of the crowd. "I had to hit the brakes hard", he said. "Juniors are not so good at turning! The lights go on and off all over the place, it goes light and then dark. The track doesn't seem narrow, though. I got a lot of smiles from the crowd as I waved to them."

Andy Frost said that he thought that drag racing would come well out of the show. "I am really glad to be one of the ambassadors to put he sport in a good light", he said. "I wanted the crowd to go "Wow! I want to see that!". The live show is a good package and it's a great idea getting us here. It was a bit squirrelly out there, the conditions were really slippery and I had to drive to what I could feel under my foot. I must say thanks to Tom Barnes and Luke Robinson for crewing for me so far."

"I got a bit wobbly in the rehearsal but this one was a lot more controlled", said Conrad Stanley. "I think I overcooked it a bit in practice. The crowd enjoyed it and I think it has opened their eyes to drag racing."

"It's not difficult, the burnout is no different to those you do at the track, but you have to be aware of the concrete wall at the end, and you have to realise that the surface is very loose", said Andy Robinson. "We are a little concerned about the engine, saving it for the show and not damaging it before the season. But it's a lot of fun and it was good to be invited to do it. I hope that it will be a positive thing for drag racing, it will certainly help to raise the awareness."

We asked Andy if he was at all worried about being scheduled to make five burnouts on both Saturday and Sunday. "On a normal race day you could do four runs with effectively an hour's break between them", he said. "We are running it very rich, which causes methanol to get into the oil, so we'll probably have to change it during one day which means we will have to get our fingers out."

Back in the Show proper we encountered multiple FIA European Top Methanol Dragster Champion Dave Wilson who has obviously had some spare time on his hands this off-season. "I did some working out", said Grumpy. "In twenty eight years of racing I've had a total of eight crew. Two of those have gone to the USA, two remain, and the other four haven't survived the twenty eight years but they're still talking to us! That's what we talk about over the winter!"

Friday

MSD Ignition and Racepak were sharing a stand and we took the chance to speak to representatives of each company about their plans for Europe. We firstly spoke to Tim Anderson of Racepak.

"We're a twenty five year old company", said Tim. "We were the originators of datalogging in drag racing. Our first systems were in nitro racing and then we expanded into Sportsman racing with a variety of loggers. Now our systems are found on virtually everything. Our products are heavily used in Europe and the development path was much the same, starting in the Pro classes and then spreading. Leif Andréasson runs one of our systems and he came to California to be trained in supporting our systems. We are looking at on-track support here in Europe because we think that if racers see that the support is readily available then it will increase sales. It's a question of whether we send someone over, or whether we train European people. Either way, there is someone out there for this job. In the US we work out of the MSD trailer. If anyone needs help then they come to the trailer and leave their names and then I get on my pit bike and go see them. We have also introduced a Tech Support forum on our web site which European racers have found very useful because of the time difference. We schedule seminars at race events and maybe we can do one of those in Europe too."

Todd Ryden of MSD said that the company is widening its range to take in all types of performance electronics. "One big development is getting into fuel injection", he said. "NHRA have made it legal this year. We are now also working with Superchips and Edge on reeprogramming of late-model street cars. If it's electronic and it's a performance car then we want to be in on it."

Nigel Hoskinson said that the motorsport business of Eurodragster.com Home and News sponsor Allegheny Technologies Ltd is growing and growing. "Our new products have been successful, particularly our nickel sheet for exhaust systems and seamless tube for brake and fuel lines", said Nigel. "The NHRA have done us a great favour mandating titanium for the cockpit shields and even produced a specification. We've had a couple of phone calls from racers about that today. Our Managing Director was here yesterday and she thinks that John Spuffard, the Showtime team and the car are marvellous ambassadors for the sport. We will be continuing to support the Showtime team in 2008."

Ferrea Racing Components have a very large share of the market for valves and valvetrain components. "We have been doing this for forty years, based in Fort Lauderdale in Florida", said Vice President Oscar Romano. "We sell to drag racing, NASCAR, Formula One, circle track, automotive, marine and motorcycles. One of our areas is support, for example of the Showtime team, and we will be continuing to support them with valvetrain components, technical advice and the exchange of information. We can make a contribution. We are very happy with the Showtime team and they do a great job."

"We supply Kalitta, Prudhomme, and a bunch of smaller teams", said National Accounts Manager John Verburg. Alan Johnson and John Force are testing our parts. We also work with Pro Mod teams, for example Reher Morrison's nitrous development work. We have also done a lot of development of our own on such things as exhaust valves and they're ready to go on the market as soon as the need is there."

A company new to the top echelons of drag racing is Arrow Precision, whose Managing Director Ian Arnold gave us some background. "The business was started by my father in 1974. We started as a sub-contract engineering company. We produce con rods and now crankshafts since we took over DKE Crankshafts. We also produce flywheels, valve guides, lifters and cam followers. We produce rods for Sportsman drag racing and we will be providing the Showtime team with crankshafts and crank grinding. This is our first involvement with Fuel racing although we have been involved elsewhere. I haven't been drag racing myself yet, but I will be going very soon."

œrlikon Balzers, who produce high-performance coatings for alloys, have increased their business worldwide in the last year. "We were at the PRI Show before Christmas and we fielded a lot of enquiries from racers wanting to make crownwheels, pinions and valves last longer and work better", said Andy Bloyce. "All the racers in the USA use titanium valves so coating is necessary. Our latest product TiPlus Balitherm is particularly good on valve spring retainers as it increases surface hardness and reduces friction. We will be supporting the Showtime team again this year and we will have someone at every race which the team attends."

Les Downey of Eurodragster.com News sponsor Lucas Oil Products said that the company will again be sponsoring UK Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter this season. "We have a lot planned for 2008", said Les. "There is a lot more we can do, and Andy is determined that he is going to get the title this year". We will have more from Les and Andy on tomorrow's report.

On the Anglo American Oil Company stand we met Anders Hildebrand who sponsors Eurodragster.com's Homes and News pages through Sunoco Race Fuels. "We don't have any new products as such to talk about", said Anders, "but we are reaping the benefits of being able to keep our product prices under control when our competitors have to raise prices. Sunoco control every step from the crude oil to the finished product so we are not affected so much as other companies who have to buy in. We find we are selling more and more to Jap racers. For example Andy Barnes tried a lot of fuels and he settled on Sunoco Max Nos.

Lars Ruud distributes Sunoco fuels in Norway and sponsors Norsk Dragracing Gardermoen and Arvid Grødem, Siw Nystad and Thomas Nataas on four wheels, and Svein Olav Rolfstad's Supertwin. "I give it away!", said Lars. "I am working hard on selling nitro in Sweden and maybe Finland. We have had a lot of success with promotion in Norway; last year for the first time we ran commercials for Gardermoen on local TV and radio and it worked, it got a lot of people out of their homes."

Interview with Keith Bartlett

As has become traditional at Autosport International, we managed to grab a few minutes with FIA and FIM/UEM Championship Promoter and Santa Pod Raceway CEO Keith Bartlett, and here is what he had to say:

Eurodragster.com: How was 2007 for Santa Pod Raceway?

Keith Bartlett: 2007 was a difficult year. The first half of the year was rained out, we had fifteen events which were affected by rain. It was the worst year for this since 1998. That said, the gate attendances were still very good. Then from August we had huge success, we more than once had to close the gates. We did very well, especially knowing that other motorsport venues lost money. I should say a big personal Thank You to all the staff, Santa Pod Racers Club, and Trakbak Racing for making this year's events successful under what were sometimes extremely difficult conditions.

Eurodragster.com: How about the European Championships?

Keith Bartlett: Mantorp and Alastaro improved, we ran our best-organised event at Mantorp and we had record gates. In terms of organisation, performance, and attendance it was our best year. I was very pleased with the Pro classes. They all stepped up, the entries have increased, and their appearance has improved. But in terms of the number of rounds it was a disastrous year. The Championship is unsustainable with only four rounds.

Eurodragster.com: But there are four rounds again in 2008...

Keith Bartlett: At the moment there are four rounds in 2008. We are working harder than people give us credit for to add rounds. But you can't just open a drag strip. The environmental climate is very difficult. Governments and local authorities perceive all motorsports as unfriendly, uneconomical and just not green. Applying to build a circuit is harder than it used to be. And you can't just go to an old airfield, put up some string to hold back the crowds and hold an FIA Championship event there. Every round must go to a proper track. It is the main tracks which are the benchmark, not the secondary tracks. Kjell and I are working to find new rounds which means new tracks, or existing facilities which can be upgraded to FIA standards. We are currently looking at three or four countries to take new rounds, where opportunities either do or may exist. But it takes time.

Eurodragster.com: From where we sit, we have seen Hockenheim and Gardermoen lost to the European Championships in recent years and we wonder if it would not be easier and speedier to being them back into the fold? That would add two rounds at a stroke and answer some racers' concerns.

Keith Bartlett: Hockenheim have chosen not to run European Championship rounds, but we would not rule out a return. We would like to see Gardermoen regroup and to be in a position to hold a round of the FIA Championship.

Eurodragster.com: Another subject about which we are asked is Fuel Funny Car. What exactly is happening this year?

Keith Bartlett: We will be running Fuel Funny Car at Santa Pod at Easter, at the FIA Main Event, and at the FIA European Finals. Everyone is invited although if you want to run at Easter then you should speak to Kjell. I am hopeful that we can develop a proper Funny Car series in the future.

Eurodragster.com: What developments are lined up for Santa Pod this year?

Keith Bartlett: We have had to curtail expansion because 2007 was bad. But the Barn is now a storage area and studio for Nitro FM. We will be putting in new storage areas at the main gate, getting new plant equipment, putting in a new scrutineering bay, and doing some more work in the pits.

Eurodragster.com: Finally, you must be pleased with the drag racing involvement in the Live Action Arena here at Autosport International.

Keith Bartlett: Santa Pod Raceway continues to build its brand and profile. This includes various shows such as Autosport and here we have negotiated the appearance in the Live Action Arena. The results speak for themselves. It was also pleasing for me to see Santa Pod Raceway's vehicles hanging from the ceiling giving a huge brand appearance. May 2008 continue in this vein.

Eurodragster.com: Indeed. Thank you very much for your time Keith.