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As has become usual at Autosport International, Santa Pod Raceway had a significant presence on the two public days and in 2008 this was doubled.In the main show SPR had their new two-storey VIP suite and the Showtime Fuel FC, Andy Carter's Lucas Oil-backed Top Fuel show car, the Fireforce 3 Jet FC, Martin Hill's yet-to-be-run Jet Bike, one of SPR's Junior Dragsters, and SPR's Drift car. SPR's dodgems had also been brought in as well as the Podzilla monster truck.

In the Pistonheads Show SPR had a separate display promoting their involvement in the Import scene and this featured some of the finest examples of the culture including Dan Turbo Nutta's Beetle, Scott Whitelaw's Honda Civic Type R, Johnny McKeon's Nissan Skyline, SVA Imports' Drift Championship car, and Redline magazine's Toyota Yaris project car.

Drag racing was also in display in the Live Action Arena with Joe Kellett, Matthew Seamarks, Andy Frost, Conrad Stanley and Andy Robinson scheduled to make no less than five appearances. Therein lies a tale for Andy Robinson, about which more below.

We perceived the Show as a whole to be less well-attended than on Saturday in previous years although Santa Pod's display, whilst not ideally situated (which was not SPR's fault), was never less than busy and SPR's display in the Pistonheads area proved so popular that it was cleaned out of flyers and the supply had to be replenished. Certainly the SPR staff on both stands never stopped working and must have been exhausted at the end of the day.

We spoke to Santa Pod Raceway General Manager David Lloyd-Jones how things are going at the facility including the area of the Barn. "As you know the Barn had to go because the local authorities told us that we could no longer allow spectators to stand behind the start line", said David. "We offered to put in a bulletproof screen, but they said that even then we would have to have insurance. What was the Barn has now been turned into a garage for the emergency and track vehicles. Jamie Sneddon of JBS has done an excellent job on the structural work and cladding.

"Elsewhere our own Live Arena has been extended and resurfaced reader for this year's Stunt Night. We are putting in a new workshop by the main gate. Over next winter we will be building a replacement bar and covered area for shelter from the sun. And rain!"

David said that one of Santa Pod's most popular events is to be reformatted in 2008. "We are discontinuing the afternoon ticket for the Flame and Thunder Show", he said. "The Flame and Thunder Show will continue of course, but we are now putting in an event for the local population on Bonfire Night with bonfire, fireworks, Action Arena and funfair. We can't cope with the numbers at the Flame and Thunder Show any more and this should spread the load. We also have a new event, the Monster Truck Nationals, in May which will also include tractor pulling."

I put it to David that the heaving crowds at events this year must indicate that someone at Santa Pod is doing something very right on the promotional front. Although grateful for the compliment David said that the results come from a lot of hard work. "We attend seventy shows a year to promote Santa Pod", he said. "I must thank Sue Morris for her help and enthusiasm for these promotional events."

Barry Sheavills told us that as things stand he does not have a ride for 2008. If you have read previous interviews with Barry then you will remember that he said that if we was to return he would do so with a properly-funded state-of-the-art Top Fuel operation. "I am never going to do it on my own money again", said Barry. "But even looking for sponsorship can be very expensive. It's not just a case of taking a potential sponsor to the track to watch the racing - you have to feed them, and you have to get them hotel rooms and so on. It can very easily cost you several thousand pounds to land a sponsor."

Top Fuel Dragster racer Andy Carter and members of the Lucas Oil team worked very hard all day explaining Top Fuel to visitors but we managed to take him aside for a couple of moments for a chat about his plans this season. "Karsten and Per have got new blocks, new cranks, the lot - all new stuff", said Andy. "We had a good car last year but we were hit by stupid things such as blower belts and burst plates. We have made some set-up changes which should sort that. We plan to take up where we left off, and if we can keep the car going down the track we will be hard to beat.

"We are entered for the Pro Fuel Shootout, and I don't care what anyone else's intentions are but we are going there to win - we will not be treating it as a test session. We will also test on the weekend before the Main Event and then we are going after the Championship. We will be doing Easter, the FIA Championship and a race in Denmark, and we have ten promotional appearances this year. Seven of those are at Santa Pod. We have been working very closely with David Lloyd-Jones and Caroline Day - the relationship has really grown.

"I would like to say thank you to everyone at Lucas Oil in America, Les Downey of Lucas Oil UK, and all of our associate sponsors. And a big thank you to Karsten and Per and my team."

Over in the Live Action Arena Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson and his team had a thrash after the 11:30 show. Your coverage team attended this show and something was obviously not right as the Stude would not go into reverse to roll back into the water. Andy hit the throttle and did a 'dry' burnout on what was in any case a very slick surface.

We went back for the 3:30 show and team member Bob Roberts showed us the culprit, a damaged clutch finger which you can see on today's gallery. "We had the gearbox and clutch out, taken the clutch apart, put in new fingers and put it back together, and made the next show at 2:00", said Andy. "It was a very close thing though, we were still tightening everything up when we pushed down to run!"

We managed to catch a couple of phone-camera videos of burnouts by Andy Frost and Andy Robinson, which you can view via the Event Index.