The Easter Thunderball
Saturday (qualifying)

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20:50

The shutdown area never did dry properly so all further qualifying was cancelled and we had some observed runs from our (relative) newbies in Top Methanol and Top Fuel, and a couple of the Pro Mod guys put in squirts.

The star of the show by a country mile was Peter Beck in his first Top Fuel pass. A long, long burnout (past the Tree) was followed by a stupendous, awesome launch. The car hooked up and shot down the track, a 60-foot time just over 0.9 seconds. The crew were jubilant and the crowd went wild. Peter looked like he'd been doing this all his life, a shot which will be heard all around European Top Fuel.

Malta's John Ellul made one of those Barry Sheavills 60-foot passes where you stay on it forever. John was on it to half-track where something let go, initially we thought just the clutch but a trail of oil down the right hand lane told a different story. The car got out of shape at the Top End but John held onto it and got it stopped safely. A blown-at-half track 6.57 after a 1.00 sixty-foot time - what would that have been on a full pass?

Steph Milam took a very gentle pass in the new "She Devil" TMFC, the car not lighting the tyres in the burnout. It was plain that she was taking things very carefully, which would no doubt have impressed watching race director Darren Prentice.

Nick Davies put in a short squirt in his Pro Mod, after a rolling burnout - in the presence of Crew Chief Rob Loaring who doesn't usually allow that sort of thing! - which ended with an evil twitch. The car launched well and Nick went through a couple of gears. Henri Joosten similarly put in a burnout and a squirt, checking out on the chassis modifications.

Race director Darren Prentice has a real job on his hands sorting out a running order for tomorrow, since we lost all but one round of today's qualifying. Check back in the morning and we'll let you know how the day will be shaping up. The weather forecast looks a lot better for tomorrow so hopefully we will have plenty to tell you about. See you in the morning!

18:30

The good news is that the sun is out, nary a cloud in the sky, and the track crew is drying the surface ready for the re-commencement of qualifying. So stay tuned!

Meanwhile, we have now posted a batch of pictures of today's action. Check out the picture of Richard Gipp and Dave Beck sharing a lane! You can get to the pictures from the raceday update index page.

We'll be back later on with the rest of today's action.

16:00

Well, it was good while it lasted. We had the first qualifying rounds in most classes but now it is throwing it down. The track is saturated.

One "moment" this afternoon when Richard Gipp changed lanes during Pro Stock Bike qualifying, and stayed on it ahead of a probably-shocked Dave Beck who had got off the throttle anyway. Both riders were quite OK.

Here are the top two qualifiers in each class so far:

Super Gas (9.90): 1. Martin Curbishley 9.930/134.12, 2. Brendan Clancy 10.086/130.82
Super Street (10.90): 1. Stuart Peck 10.914/110.16, 2. Bob Lees 10.949/118.31
Super Pro ET (own dial-in): 1. Mick Kemp +0.129 (8.419/155.23), 2. Pat Talbot +0.209 (8.209/141.04)
Pro ET (own dial-in): 1. Laurence Bamford +0.095 (10.595/123.97), 2. Ray Perkins +0.105 (12.005/111.37)
Sportsman ET (own dial-in): 1. Alan Platt +0.000 (14.500/86.03), 2. Ian Turnbull +0.087 (12.287/109.81)
Custom Car Street: 1. Steve Nash 11.373/118.28, 2. John Sleath 11.605/130.36
VW Pro: 1. Russell Fellows 13.057/105.03, 2. Michael Lewendon 16.022/72.75
VW Sportsman (own dial-in): 1. Kevin Metcalfe +0.160 (13.660/95.95), 2. Stephen Lee +0.279 (17.279/74.67)
Junior Dragster (reaction time): 1. Adam Gleadow 0.582, 2. Holley Glassup 0.615
Super Street Bike: 1. Mark Watkins 8.653/165.67, 2. Graham Dance 9.041/159.36
9.90 Bike: 1. Geoff Connor 10.066/139.70, 2. Grant Perrin 10.068/142.73
10.90 Bike: 1. Sandra Chaplain 10.945/123.21, 2. Darren Winnard 10.955/129.56
Funny Bike: 1. Ken Cooper 7.762/162.79, 2. Neil Midgley 8.096/157.18
Pro Stock Bike: 1. Len Paget 8.009/167.79, 2. Herman van Driel 8.175/162.83

We're just working on today's pictures (actually, let's be optimistic and say "so far"), these will be available from the race update index shortly - watch this space for details.

14:00

We're in business! As I type the Junior Dragsters are ready to go and Sportsman ET are ready behind them. The pits are now a hive of activity.

The good news is that Smax Smith has not failed tech. He tells us that a small dent in his chassis caused the tech guys some concern, but chassis ace Geof Hauser was called in and confirmed that the car was good to go. So we should be seeing Smax out for his observed run later on.

We've also got a great story for you from Peter Beck's pit, we just wanted to make sure that we weren't going to get Peter in trouble if we posted this one. As mentioned earlier, Peter has had his Top Fuel Dragster fired up a few times. The bit we didn't tell you earlier is that Peter did this in his home village in Switzerland. Peter lives in a tiny village and the Fueller is kept in his garage, where it only just fits. Crew member Horst Pauli tells us that they fired the engine up on Nitro on a Sunday morning, but they did it on a rainy day when no-one was out in their gardens, the idea being that they couldn't complain about the noise.

Ian King passed on a great story from the bike pits. Chris Hannan has purchased the MRE Funny Bike from Jay Regan, this bike is the quickest Suzuki FB on the planet and is capable of 6.7s. Chris has bet the Crew Chief of Dave Beck's Pro Stock Bike that he will run a faster ET than Dave Beck this weekend. A stake of twenty pounds at odds of 20-1 are allegedly involved (we said allegedly, folks).

For his own part, Ian King has added a thrid plate to the clutch on his Top Fuel Bike. "It should give us more control over the clutch", he said. "We want to set it up initially to spin the tyre off the line, because then we can back it down. With the old clutch we couldn't get it to light up at all whatever we did". In the next pit, the Baimbridge Racing Top Fuel Bike, which is ridden by Chris Hampson, has had a new paintjob which looks great.

Just as I was typing the above paragraph, one of the Volskwagen Sportsman racers has blown his engine to bits on the start line. When the car was pushed back there was a heap of shattered metal on the track. Not the best way to start the season.

Another racer in the wars is our good buddy Spencer Tramm, who spent all of yesterday installing his rebuilt engine into the "Quantum Leap" Sierra, which is running in Super Street this season with Chris Isaacs at the wheel. The engine died during a warm-up and would not turn over, and the cause was found to be a snapped cam - which ends your race weekend real quick.

Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Jeff Meads has a new front end on his nine-second street-legal Pop. "I can just take the bonnet off now to get at the engine, rather than take the whole front off", he said. Other mods are designed to help the car run cooler, since Jeff had problems with the car overheating last season.

Back on two wheels, Bob Wood has stepped back down to 9.90 Bike from Super Street Bike. "I would have to spend a lot more to be competitive", he said. "The bike has more potential, I'm not running a lot of gas at present".

We've just got the qualifying in Junior Dragster, which goes on Reaction Time. The standings after round one of qualifying are:

1. Adam Gleadow 0.582
2. Holley Glassup 0.615
3. Joe Bond 0.774
4. Paul Lindley-Allen 0.779
5. Jamie Willis 0.815
6. Phill Cook 0.818
7. Johnny Walker 1.399
8. Katie Gibbs 0.408 (red light)

Qualifying is now well underway, we'll be back later on with the on-track action.

11:00

Good morning and welcome to a very, very wet Santa Pod Raceway. The bad weather announced itself with a huge clap of thunder at 6:00 this morning, and then the deluge came. It rained more or less soldily from then until 10:15. The (relatively) good news is that the rain has now stopped, but it's going to be several hours before we get going, assuming it doesn't rain again. The collection area is under a foot of water. But are we downhearted?

Anyway, people are beginning to stick their heads out from their trailers now so hopefully we will be able to go and talk to some of the racers and bring you the latest from the pits.

Last night we had an interesting chat with our good friends, Super Pro ET racers Pat and Stephen Talbot. They are racing their new dragster this season, but until Tuesday morning it was unclear which power plant would be in the car since their new Koffel engine had not turned up. Luckily the 600...sorry, 599.8 cubic inch engine ("I'm not going to call it six hundred inches because it isn't", said Stephen) arrived on Tuesday and is now in the rail, which looks great in its new yellow and blue colours and carrying the logo of our live update sponsors e-manumit.com. Stephen could not contain his excitement with the new engine and just had to fire it up for our entertainment. Very nice it sounded too.

Just across the way, Smax Smith told us that he had been asked to turn down his trademark sound system last evening. We understand that Smax's Fuel FC has failed tech, we are chasing up this story and will let you know as soon as we get the full story.

Regula on Peter Beck's team is very excited about the move to Top Fuel. "The guys have been reading everything they can find, and have been talking to Nitro racers, they have not stopped trying to find out about it", she said. The car still belongs to Rico Anthes, Peter is hiring it. The car is carrying sponsorship from Hockenheim, and Quaker State are helping out with oil and some very smart pit uniforms. I asked crew member Horst Pauli what would happen if Peter came to race Rico at Hockenheim, since Horst described Rico as the Team Owner. "Rico likes to win by racing", said Horst.

Horst said that they have had the engine fired up three times, twice on methanol and once on Nitro. That's about as far as they are able to take it without coming to the track. The plan for today is for Peter to put in two of his mandatory licence upgrade runs, the sixty- and three hundred and thirty-foot passes.

As I type this, the timing crew are setting up the Christmas Tree and the sky is a little brighter. Racing is still a very long way off but at least it's looking more optimistic. We're off round the pits to get some more news for you, stay tuned.