The Easter Thunderball
Monday (race day)

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21:00

Well ain't that just typical. At 8:45, with just a few finals left to run, it rained, and with a 9:00 curfew there was no was no way to finish the race so the event was called.

Congratulations to Super Street Bike racer Tony Clark on setting a new European speed record of 172.81 mph. Dave Beck ran a new European best of 7.46 earlier but was not able to back it up. We think he may however have shaded the UK speed record from Paul Willis, we will get confirmation of that later.

Here are the winners in all classes. Some of these are repetition of the below, but we figured you would want to see all the winners in one place rather than scroll through this page.

Pro Fuel Shootout: John Spuffard 8.34/100.70 was unopposed (Peter Beck broke)
Pro Mod: Nick Davies 6.77/205.96 def. Henri Joosten 7.33/184.73
Top Methanol: Rob Turner staged for the win (Lindsay Deuchar broke)
Super Pro ET: Pat Talbot v Steve Green did not take place
Super Comp: Alex Nicol v Jon Webster did not take place
Super Gas: Brian Pateman 9.89/135.08 def. Pete Creswell 9.88/138.33
Super Street: Bob Lees v Chris Isaacs did not take place
Pro ET: Simon Farmer broke off line def. Dave Potter 12.42 (red light)
Sportsman ET: Paul Hudson v Ian Turnbull did not take place
Custom Car Street: John Sleath v Brian Waskett did not take place
VW Sportsman: Catherine Bishop 19.315/57.46 def. Neil Davies 20.44/63.22
VW Pro: Jim Smith 11.32/112.57 def. Russ Fellows 12.85/103.07
Junior Dragster: Paul Lindley-Allen 11.80/49.74 def. Jamie Willis 14.153/42.64 broke
Top Fuel Bike: Steve Woollatt 6.69/203.03 def. Ian King 20.14/35.53
Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck 7.56/177.40 def. Chris Hope 20.673/23.15
Funny Bike: Chris Hall 7.62/173.77 def. Dave Knight 8.63/147.24
Super Street Bike: Mark Watkins 8.56/165.38 def. Tony Clark 9.307/134.55
9.90 Bike: Paul Stewart 10.19/118.82 def. Bob Wood 10.54/130.36
10.90 Bike: Steve Fyldes 10.963/118.34 def. Paul Watson 10.893/114.94

And there you have it, that's the end of the Easter Thunderball, sometimes we wondered if it would start and then when it started we wondered if it could finish in time.

We have posted pictures of today's action, you can get to these from the raceday update index.

Thanks are due to Race Director Darren Prentice; Andy Marrs, Steve Horn, Lisa Smart and Martin Wallis of TSI Timers, Chief Starter Ian Marshall and track announcers Graham Beckwith and Paul Venners for putting up with us and helping us throughout the weekend; to all the racers who gave us quotes and action to report upon; to Sue Morris and Natalie in SPR's media centre; to Roger Gorringe for sharing news; to Dave Bryant and Regula Stucki for the t-shirts; and to all of you for tuning in and staying with us through this very long and difficult weekend.

Your reporters were Tog and Sharkman of Eurodragster.com, all pictures were by Sharkman. This weekend's coverage has been brought to you in association with e-manumit.com and High Performance Heaven, to whom many thanks for their support.

Eurodragster's next raceday update will be from Super Series 1 at Shakespeare County Raceway next weekend; our next raceday update from Santa Pod Raceway will be the FIA Main Event over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend. See you then.

19:30

Top Fuel Bike final: Steve Woollatt 6.69/203.03 def. Ian King 20.14/35.53 (Ian King up in smoke)

On the subject of Top Fuel Bike, we spoke to Brian Johnson a little earlier. He told us that he got off the throttle of his TFB after five and a half seconds on his 6.37 run yesterday, and estimated that he was going at 210-220 mph when he backed off. "After you've spent the off-season riding a push bike and stroking the cats it's a bit unreal getting back on these things", he said.

Nick Davies and Henri Joosten came out for a match race in their Pro Mods, Nick taking the win at 6.80/205.25 to Henri's out of shape 12.51/70.62.

Pro Stock Bike semi-final: Dave Beck 7.46/178.13 unopposed (Paul Willis broke)
Chris Hope 7.67/171.66 bye

Funny Bike semi-final: Chris Hall 7.35/176.62 def. Neil Midgley 7.80/172.70
Dave Knight 9.19/126.06 bye

Junior Dragster semi-final: Jamie Willis 14.26/39.75 def. Johnny Walker 15.58/35.91
Paul Lindley-Allen broke off the line (bye)

Super Pro ET semi-final: Pat Talbot 7.97 def. Steve Johnson 7.52 (break-out)
Steve Green broke off line (bye)

Super Gas semi-final: Brian Pateman 9.91/131.05 def. Dave Gadney 9.85/143.36 (break-out)
Pete Creswell 9.92/140.30 def. Jon Webster 9.89/143.62 (break-out)

Pro ET semi-final: Simon Farmer 10.34 def. Mark Ramplee 11.60 (break-out)
Dave Potter 10.20 bye

Stay tuned!

19:05

John Spuffard won the Pro Fuel Shootout, running unopposed after Peter Beck broke and couldn't make the call. It was a far from uneventful final, though, Spuff going for it in a big way. The entire bank of headers on the right side of the FC went out at half track and then the clutch let go in a cloud of flame and sparks. Spuff was quite OK. His winning time was 8.34/100.70. Congratulations to the Showtime team on victory in the first ever Pro Fuel Shootout - another birthday present Nancy!

Nick Davies beat Henri Joosten in the Pro Mod final, 6.77/205.96 to 7.33/184.73. We're steadily making our way through the other classes but are a long way from finishing.

In Top Methanol, Rob Turner successfully appealed the result of his race against John Ellul, since there was a problem with the timing equipment. A rematch was decided upon, but John Ellul had broken and so Rob staged to formally take the re-run win, and then reversed and re-staged to take his semi-final bye at 8.64/89.44.

In the other semi-final there was drama as terrible tyre shake broke the steering linkage of Dave Wilson's TMD, he pulled the chute to keep the car straight and brought the car to a stop after running through the half-track timing reflectors. Meanwhile in the other lane Lindsay Deuchar blasted his personal best ET out of sight with a splendid 5.99/221.44. Congratulations Lindsay! The final between Lindsay and Rob Turner should be a close-fought race, with two five-second runners.

In Super Street Bike, best riding job of the meeting was by Guy March, who got on the most amazing tankslapper just past half track, but stayed on the bike and straightened it up. Great job, Guy. Also on two wheels, Dave Beck has been a standout in Pro Stock Bike, running 7.55 in round one.

Round two of Junior Dragster was as follows:

Paul Lindley-Allen 9.60/66.52 def. Jack Hewitt 8.96/71.02
Jamie Willis 14.34/42.09 def. Joe Bond 16.85/36.23
Johnny Walker 15.73/35.39 bye

Smax Smith's latest observed run went very well, at 6.53/147.35, backing out just after half track. Just before the run he told us that he planned to run to 1000 feet but would get off it if it didn't feel right. Fuel tuner John Wright, who is working with Smax this weekend, said this morning that Smax already had a good sense of when to back out of the car if it didn't feel right. Respect to you, Smax.

We've also had another run from Martin Hill in Fireforce 2. Your reporter was in the tower for this one and almost broke his hand holding a window in. That afterburner is savage! The engine appeared to be flaming out on the way down the track, Martin was later interviewed on the PA and said that the crew knew what had caused the problem.

Racing is still going on, we'll be back with all the winners later.

16:00

It rained, then it dried off, then it rained, etc. But we have now had the first rounds in Top Methanol and Top Fuel Bike, an additional round of qualifying in Pro Mod, and the third round of the Pro Fuel Shootout.

In the Pro Fuel Shootout, Peter Beck suffered his first engine damage in Top Fuel when the blower let go at half track - he was going great guns, too. What appeared to be the pulley and burst plate came off the car and across the track. Peter ran 7.26/110.97. Meanwhile in the other lane, Gordon Smith disappeared in a huge cloud of smoke and trail of oil at the top end, running 6.12 at a huge 225.7.

The second pairing was Barry Sheavills v John Spuffard. Barry pulled a great burnout and then as he pulled to the line the engine started making banging noises not unlike the afterburner of Fireforce 2, and so Rune shut him off. Spuff was therefore unopposed and ran 5.58/212.03, a clean-looking run although he shut off at about 1000 feet. We think that the final will be Spuffard v Beck but we will confirm this later.

Some weird goings-on in Top Methanol. In the left-hand lane, both the pre-stage and stage lights appeared to be coming on at once. Rob Turner's race with John Ellul was particularly bizarre as Rob Turner appeared to go straight into stage but the lights ran before he got the revs up. We don't know if any racer has appealed, but these results are subject to the outcome of any appeals lodged. But at present the first round results are as follow:

Dave Wilson 5.98/219.30 def. Lex Joon 6.95/108.51
Lindsay Deuchar 6.48/215.87 def. Doug Bond 7.13/137.38
John Ellul 6.03/230.70 def. Rob Turner 5.98/207.38

Steph Milam put in another observed run, which was planned to be a 1000-foot pass but Steph was on and off the throttle all the way down the track.

In the additional round of Pro Mod qualifying, Nick Davies recorded 6.78/205.5 against Henri Joosten's 7.42/187.12. John Ellis pulled another trademark huge burnout, but got way out of shape and was found to be leaking oil. So his race weekend is definitely over.

Round one of Top Fuel Bike went as follows:

Ian King 6.77/197.8 def. Brian Johnson 7.43/133.16 (BJ got very close to the guardrail and backed out)
Steve Woollatt 6.76/201.6 def. Chris Hampson 7.08/196.58

We'll be back later with more news from SPR.

11:45

Would anyone be surprised if we told you that it's been raining again this morning? All further qualifying has been cancelled so the standings are as we published them earlier. The track crew are making strenuous efforts to dry the track so that racing can commence, but as I type the rain has come back.

In the meantime, we have now been for what should have been last night's pit walk and found quite a few people to talk to.

Firstly, we happen to know that Nancy Jarrett, wife of Showtime Fuel FC Crew Chief Bob, has a birthday today. We know you're tuned in Nancy, click here to see your other birthday present. John, Paul, Lee and all the crew send their best wishes, and we at Eurodragster also wish you a very happy birthday. Oh, and Bob says "Send more money".

Super Pro ET racer Martyn Jones had a problematic run yesterday and stopped on the shutdown area, and then things went downhill when his tow truck sprung a puncture in the return road. Martyn is looking to run at Drachten in Holland later this season.

Fellow Super Pro ET racer Pat Talbot was in the other lane when Roger Moore stood his Herald up on its rear bumper yesterday, and although Pat's car leaves the line like a rocket, she still saw what was happening. "I saw Roger up in the air out of the corner of my eye, and I just hesitated on the throttle for a moment", she said. "It's amazing how your brain works in situations like that. But he was at such an angle, and it looks even worse when you're only sitting three inches from track level".

Talbot Racing's new rail has attrached many favourable comments from fans and fellow racers. "That's down to Geof Hauser", said Crew Chief Stephen Talbot, "he's worked hard putting the package together. And Bob Doyle did a great job on the paint - he did our Toyota as well".

Dave Milam said that he was cock-a-hoop with the way Steph's observed runs were going in the "She Devil" TMFC. "Everyone has bent over backwards to help us, it's just great". The crew are checking the bearings this morning since they found metal in the oil when they drained the engine last night.

Lindsay Deuchar is thanking his lucky stars after a couple of problems which could have wrecked his weekend or even his Top Methanol Dragster. "We found some dodgy valve seats, so the engine could have let go", he said, "and an oil line broke. It could have oiled the slicks. So I was lucky on two counts."

Malta's John Ellul made his qualifying pass on seven cylinders yesterday, then the crew stripped and rebuilt the engine. "We don't know if it will run or not, but it's fixed" he said. "If the weather is OK then we will be going for our new personal best time and speed. We want to run in the fives."

We asked Nemesis TMD driver Dave Wilson for a few words. He considered for a moment and then replied "I'm not a morning person".

Last night, Showtime Fuel FC Crew Chief Bob Jarrett showed us two sets of clutch plates from Showtime's two passes yesterday. One set was smooth, and the other had the coating ripped up. "The car's thrown us two curves on two runs", he said. This morning, Bob had grounds for optimism. "If we can get the thing to hook up, we'll go all the way" he said.

Next door, Shockwave Fuel FC Crew Chief Dave Bryant had had a lot of work to do. "We bust a load of stuff yesterday", he said. "We had trouble with the transmission, and we dropped a valve during a warm-up and did a head. We brokre more stuff in one day than in half a season! But today will be a different story - we've made some radical changes to try to beat the tyre shake. It'll either fly or blow up!". Geof Hauser came in for more thanks from the Shockwave team. "We were in and out of his workshop like lunatics last night", said Dave. The Shockwave team have some VIPs with them today, from their sponsors ABAC Compressors.

Horst Pauli of Peter Beck's Top Fuel Dragster crew is very happy with the way things are going. "It was another test run yesterday", he said. "Today we think we'll make either a one thousand foot or full pass - it depends on what Peter thinks about what is going on behind him!". I remarked that the car has stuck to the track on every pass so far, when the clutch is meant to be the most difficult part to learn on a Fuel car. "All through the winter we have had our noses in books and magazines", said Horst. "Even if it's only a sentence in National Dragster, if we see the words Fuel dragster clutch we have read it". Horst added that Rune Fjeld had given them a baseline setting.

"The second run yesterday was the first time it felt different to a Top Methanol Dragster", said Peter Beck. "It felt much faster. I'm having fun!". The Beck team love racing at Santa Pod. "The fans are brilliant", said Regula. "They really know about drag racing and they make you feel welcome".

Smax Smith's Crew Chief for the weekend, Top Fuel Dragster pilot Alan Jackson, told us that Smax's second observed run yesterday was made on six cylinders. "We had to wait a very long time in the collection area, so the motor got cold", he said. "We're going to get it to run on eight cylinders today, that'll shock him!".

Barry Sheavills was pleased with yesterday's run, which was a planned half pass as we conjectured. "It did everything it should", he said, "it hooked up and went, and I shut it off before the eighth as I was told" (you feeling OK Barry? - Ed). "We didn't make the second run yesterday because we had a few problems with the clutch, but we're ready to go now. We're optimistic, we'll be making a three quarter pass this morning and then a full pass later". Barry is happy with the new five-disc clutch. "Yesterday was the first time ever that this car has been smooth", he said, "before now it's either shaken or something's gone wrong".

We asked Barry about the 0.400 second handicap, and congratulated him on waiting for the green, something about which he had clearly been very worried in the lead-up to the race. "It seemed like forever to me", he said.

TMFC racer Lex Joon is having a busy weekend, most of his usual crew are still in Holland and all of the work is being done by three people. "We're going to bed at four o'clock every morning!", he said. "The new blower is real powerful, and we have to find a combination. We'll see if we can make a decent sixty-foot pass today".

If you've not checked out yesterday's pictures, then be sure to do so as amongst other things we have photographic evidence of the world's first Hyabusa Pro Stock Bike, ridden by Len Paget.

The sky has brightened and the rain has stopped, but we are probably an hour or so from the start of racing. Tune back later and we'll keep you up to date with events here at Santa Pod Raceway.

09:00

Yesterday's pictures are now available from the raceday index page. Once again apologies for the unavoidable delay.

07:30

Apologies for the sudden cessation of service last night. The track lost almost all of its power supply and repairs could only be effected by switching off the whole lot. Although our laptops run on batteries, without lights we could not see our notes or qualifying sheets so the updates had to stop.

We're indebted to the Nemesis Top Methanol Dragster team for letting us sit in their brightly-lit trailer for an hour last night to type up the qualifying. As we mentioned last night, qualifying is to be completed today, so these are the top two in each class when we stopped running last night. These are not in any particular order, just as they come to hand.

Top Methanol: 1. Rob Turner 5.809/222.39, 2. Dave Wilson 5.942/231.57
Pro Mod: 1. Nick Davies 6.760/206.92, 2. Henri Joosten 7.713/176.20
Super Street Bike: 1. Mark Watkins 8.617/163.45, 2. Graham Dance 8.872/158.55
9.90 Bike: 1. Richard Amos 9.912/135.12, 2. Mark Nathan 9.921/131.92
10.90 Bike: 1. Ady Reade 10.927/122.28, 2. Paul Hambridge 10.935/122.85
Top Fuel Bike: 1. Brian Johnson 6.371/200.86, 2. Steve Woollatt 6.762/200.78
Funny Bike: 1. Chris Hall 7.498/175.91, 2. Ken Cooper 7.762/162.79
Pro Stock Bike: 1. Dave Beck 7.705/168.67, 2. Paul Willis 7.705/168.67
Custom Car Street: 1. John Sleath 9.904/145.86, 2. Steve Pateman 10.052/140.35
VW Sportsman (own dial-in): 1. Brian Burrows +0.070 (15.270/77.81), 2. Stephen Lee +0.112 (16.612/77.75)
VW Pro (own dial-in): 1. Russell Fellows +0.080 (12.580/104.71), 2. Jim Smith +0.080 (11.380/117.46)
Super Comp (8.90): 1. Alex Nicol 8.951/1499.22, 2. Paula Atkin 8.962/143.18
Super Gas (9.90): 1. Brendan Clancy 9.903/133.54, 2. Jon Webster 9.908/144.18
Super Street (10.90): 1. Stuart Peck 10.906/112.13, 2. Bob Lees 10.911/119.75
Sportsman ET (own dial-in): 1. Alan Platt +0.000 (14.500/86.03), 2. Ian Turnbull +0.025 (12.175/113.01)
Pro ET (own dial-in): 1. Dave Ward +0.011 (10.411/125.80), 2. Colin Aldred +0.019 (11.219/119.14)
Super Pro ET (own dial-in): 1. Pat Talbot +0.018 (8.018/157.34), 2. Steve Green +0.021 (8.821/154.66)
Junior Dragster (reaction time): 1. Johnny Walker 0.536, 2. Paul Lindley-Allen 0.541

We will shortly have yesterday's pictures posted. Stay tuned for details of this, and of the rest of today's action.