Top Fuel racer Jari Halinen was delighted with his second personal best of the weekend and his first four second pass. He said "Friday was a difficult day as we had to change an engine but my guys did some good work and it resulted in a 5.0 yesterday and a 4.97 today. I hope we can build on this at Santa Pod."

Top Fuel racer Anita Mäkelä said the team had to replace an engine after the night show where husband Tommi Haapanen ran and suffered a top end kaboom. She still ran a 4.82 on a single for low time of the round. "Sami my Crew Chief Sami Lehtim�ki said "Keep going if it still feels comfortable. It's always a risk to do a full pass, but it is also a good experience as I have confidence in it and we have the data. Sami and my crew are taking care of things and doing a great job - I'm not the good one! We still have three spare engines", said Anita, whose parts store was topped up considerably after Don Prudhomme retired his team.

Top Fuel racer Andy Carter is tuned by Per Anderson with Carsten Andersen (not pictured). Advice comes from veteran US racer and tuner Jim Brissette. Per said "The blower belt came off before the finish line and we had a dropped cylinder for much of the run so a 4.89 is pretty good. We lost lane choice to Urs but we anticipate we can go quicker next time and will step up." Frustratingly, the race was called after persistent drizzle just before the semi-finals were to have been run.

Top Fuel racer Stig Neergaard, pictured with tuner John Smith, was delighted with an early shut-off 4.91 to beat 'the sky jumper' Janne Ahonen. "Apart from a usual change in bearings everything in the engine is fine. It is my best run this weekend." John Smith said "This is the most competitive European Top Fuel field I have seen. We're happy, but you're only as good as your last race, so we had better win the next round."

Top Methanol Dragster racer Dennis Habermann and team principal and father Werner were perplexed at the result of the double foul with Peter Schöfer. "The timeslip showed no times at all and we should ask for a rerun because the points matter to us." The final adjudication however resulted in Peter being adjudged the winner.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Timo Habermann suffered burst panels going in both the last qualifying session and the night show demo. He was able to run a 5.44 in defeating Paul Ingar Udtian's 5.56. "We are pleased that we got through another round and will race for the win. Last night both our burst panels blew at the same time and Dennis had a broken valve as a result."

Top Methanol Dragster racer Fred Hanssen's tuner Will Hanna was confident after the car won against Derek Flynn in round one after running 5.3s in each session apart from a 5.42 in the first. "We will take it one round at a time and the engine is looking good", he said.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Peter Scöfer came out on top of the race director's decision over the double foul against Dennis Habermann. "The lights not running was still bad for us as we didn't get the time of the pass but the computer shows we had a nice setup which will use against Timo."

Top Methanol Dragster racer Krister Johansson was pleased to have run a 5.49 to win against Dave Wilson's 5.50. "I had an 0.051 light so I never saw him. I need to run a 5.3 against Fred Hanssen in the semi. It's in the car but I just have to find it. I need a little extra." In the race, an improvement to 5.45 and a 0.044 light were not enough for Fred's 5.37 and 0.041 reaction.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Dezsoe Krivan had his first FIA round win in six years against Rob Turner. "We lost the data system on Friday so we are tuning by experience. It will be tough against Dan Larsen but I will fight as hard as I can." He hit shake leaving Dan the winner.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel said it was his team's work which led to the large performance improvements this weekend. "This event has shown we can win consistently" after defeating Danny Bellio with a 5.94. "The team have worked so hard and they have been the reason we have gone into the fives here."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Danny Bellio was disappointed not to get beyond round one but was satisfied at the improved performance to a 6.21. "I'm happy but we should have run like this on Friday," he said. "I lifted at 1000ft due to low oil pressure but know that we have solved our clutch issue which is good."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Arvid Grødem had a nightmare Saturday. "Two adjuster screws for the valve lash adjustment broke and the boost went way up which cracked the body and the window. We had to change the engine as a result. When we fired it up last night it was fine, but this morning three cylinders were out. We changed the spark plugs and wires and the same happened. It also happened on the start line but cleared for five seconds on the run. The tyres shook, I short shifted. There are a lot of issues. We are on a rollercoaster at the moment as this is our third event in three weks and with the performance I am having, I shouldn't be winning."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Dan Larsen's is the quickest car in the class with 5.8s in qualifying. In a single in the first round he spun the tyres to a 6.06. We were testing a setup which didn't work like we wanted it to. We don't care about the championship we just want to win the race. We are thinking about testing before the Euro Finals." Dan got more points towards a first championship by defeating Dez Krivan in the semi final.

Jet Funny Car pilot Bob Feeler has this two seater which gave a lucky passenger the ride of his life alongside the J-85 engine.

Pro Modified team R2B2 suffered a canopy departing company from its frame when a gust of wind blew shortly before the weather deteriorated. The team were able to remount the awning in a few minutes to provide protection when the rain arrived.

Pro Modified racer Michael Gullqvist had a great raceday, reaching a final against Melanie Troxel which the weather sadly prevented. After a 6.11 defeat of Norbert Kuno, in round two he ran a 6.12 to beat a tyre-shaking Johan Lindberg. He said "We will need more power against Mats. The track can handle it and we need to win, we can't be cautious." Micke produced his best of 6.04 to defeat Mats Eriksson's 6.08. "To meet Melanie in the final would be a dream for me."

Pro Modified racer Melanie Troxel was delighted with the performance of the R2B2 Camaro. "It's a shame about the weather but I am very happy with the way the car has gone down the track. The only thing that bothered me was a small bump in second gear which unsettled the engine a little but it was not enough to make the car move around too much. I would be thrilled to be in the final round against Micke which would be a great scenario." .

Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson went out of eliminations when he suffered shake in the left lane against Mats Eriksson. After running high 6.1s and 6.2s during the weekend, he joked "We brought a knife to a gun-fight and we left our shotgun at home. But we turned what was a smoking wreck six weeks ago into a competitive racecar again and it was only a shortage of power that prevented us being a contender. We wanted to run fast and straight and we are happy with a 6.16."

Pro Modified racer Mats Eriksson is pictured trying to sign Johan Lindberg's crew shirt after a session of signing tyre carcasses as souvenirs. "Johan has our old spare engine but we have kept the five second one for ourselves. I had a good race against Andy with a 0.03 light against his 0.01 and running a 6.09 which is what we ran last year. I have lane choice against Micke Gullqvist - he's a friend but on the track, I don't care."

Pro Mod racer Mark Meihuizen is pictured warming the engine before his first round match-up against Mats Eriksson. "We have had to start over, we had so many problems at here last year and at the Main Event. We have had a new engine and are having five attempts to get down the track and regain our confidence. My guys have worked really hard and I know we can be awesomely fast but the track is not what we expected and we underestimated it on our second run. Then after the oildown the car got very loose. So while we struggled, we know the car handles well and we will work on tuning the power and on shift points."

Pro Stock racer Micke Callin has qualified third with a 6.89 but was still not satisfied. "I wasn't pleased at our 60ft time and terminal speed and the car has not really got hold of the track. The track is there and it is our problem to solve. We have definitely moved forward this season. The win at the Main Event has been the highlight so far but at Finland my reactions were too good." Micke has a single in the first run after Richard Sundblom lost an engine with a dropped valve. "We will try out another carb, something I wouldn't have done if there was a competitor in the other lane."

Pro Stock racer Jan Palmqvist said "I don't know what we can do. We tried everything possible to get down the track better. In the third session we left with only 2000rpm at the start and had to abort - I had a discussion with Jerry about that. In the end changing the rear end was the best thing we did and we ran a 6.92 in the last session, but it wasn't ideal. So we are doing better."

Pro Stock racer Tommy Leindhal is Jan's first round opponent. "We are running close to the rest of the guys apart from Jimmy who is out front by almost a tenth. It has been hard to read the track, the second run on Friday was good but on the next one we had shake. I backed off the settings and ran a 6.92 in the last session but we want to run 6.8 and the car has the Bob Ingles motor to do it, a former spare engine of Jimmy. We have lane choice and will be a bit more aggressive."

Pro Stock racer Jimmy Ålund is no.1 qualifier but some engine issues arose in the fourth session. "We had to weld the pushrods in the engine, just a minor problem which we resolved to keep it happy. We haven't stressed the car too much, we are just trying to race the racetrack and find what it can handle rather than setting the world on fire. It is fun to be back racing in Europe; I have no plans to race in the US right now although I would like to try at some stage in the future if the right deal came along and we had the right equipment to run with the boys."

Pro Stock racer Harald Sturhan's crew chief Michael Lindeman(pictured) said "We had a problem with the cylinder head and want to fix this so that we can run tomorrow. We are still developing the car and when we ran a 7.1, the engine had only seven cylinders on the whole run so we are confident of running a six. We hope we can race at Santa Pod if we have no other problems."

Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren is pleased with the car's performance and with the year as a whole. "We got down the track in all the last three sessions, running 6.83, 6.84 and 6.85. We are not trying to set the world on fire and are concentrating on getting points for the championship. So we are taking this race round by round and are happy with the track."

Pro Mod racer Freddy Fagerström said "We are trying to step the car up. In the last session we could not light the tyres and shook so we have changed the suspension, tuning, startline rpm and reaction point in the clutch. This is our last chance to take Urban out!" Unfortunately for the team and their many fans, Freddy suffered a blower explosion resulting in a methanol fire which you can see in our gallery. Freddy is ok, but the car will need a lot of work to get it ready for the Euro Finals. The team pictured left to right are Freddy, Stefan Peterson, Arne Lindqvist and Per Hallberg.

Pro Stock racer Micke Lindahl's crew chief and brother Magnus said "We think we have solved the problem we have had all year, which is the chassis reacting off the startline causing a bounce which unloads it. It is now launching flatter so now we can start tuning. A 6.18 was great in session three but we lost traction in the final run." In round one of eliminations, a further improvement to a 6.13 defeated Bruno Bader's close 6.19. Pictured in the foreground is a superbly-detailed slot car racing version of the Kendall-sponsored car, made by Alexander Koch.

The rocket car "Hydrogen" piloted by David Pertué is the second funny car formerly owned by the legendary Sammy Miller. Powered by the same type of hydrogen peroxide engine that powered the Apollo lunar module which produces 30000 hp, the car produced an awesome but untimed pass in the night show.

Top Fuel Bike racer Petri Paljakka is racing the bike formerly owned by Ian King and is 4th in the NitroBike Thunder Cannonball standings with a 6.979 after one run.

Super Twin racer Hans Olav Olstad is third in the NitroBike Thunder standings with a 6.849 on his qualifying pass.

Top Fuel Bike racer Ian King ran a 6.861/326.26 in the practice session on the old Imperial Wizard, built by Brian Johnson (who ran a best of 6.11 with it) and then owned by US racer James Brantley and Eric Muccignato of France with whom Ian has made an agreement to run the bike and sell it for Eric. Eric bought the bike in 2005 and Puma Engineering have refreshed the engine recently. For full details of Ian's racing plans and his sponsors see our news item of 12th August or check out www.kingracing.com

Puma Engineering co-owner Gerard Willemse said "We are grateful to Eric for letting us race the bike here, as building our new bike is taking longer than expected with the business going so well. The bike is capable of a very low six - the secret is to get a good speed by the eighth to run the second half in two seconds or less. We are delighted with Puma Engineering's trading after we bought the company from Pete Davies. As well as Top Fuel engines our new development is crankcases for Funny Bikes and Pro Mod Bikes and we bought Canadian company Pro1 and all its product patents in March. Bike racers around the world were begging us to bring out this type of product re-engineered with our high standards. We have asked our customers what they want and we have made a good product even better.

Super Street racer Bob Lees (pictured with Wendy Llewellyn )is racing in Pro ET and having to wait for the sportsman tree, but this has not proved a barrier as he won his first round of racing with a 10.111 on a 10.10 dial-in.

Fuel Funny Car racer Gordon Smith in Shockwave was delighted with a 5.273/406.47 in his first match race against John Spuffard. Team member Jason Phelps said "We wanted to run before the pro session but ended up running after it and the track was really good. There were no problems on the pass even though Gordon drove it right to the finish line. We are hoping for two passes tomorrow." .

Fuel Funny Car racer John Spuffard was looking forward to the evening show after a winning 5.194/445.57 against Gordon Smith earlier. "We will be running early in the show and want to put on a good performance for the crowds." The result was a great 5.127/473.02 with some fire under the car at the end.

Pro Mod racer Adam Flamholc qualified 10th with a 6.30 but seemed to be fighting the track when he crossed the centre line against Johan Lindberg in the first round of eliminations. Friday's passes were tyre-shake filled, the first not helped by the tyres failing to strike in the burnout.