FIA Main Event
Saturday (qualifying)

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Pictures available

Pictures of today's action are now available from our raceday update index page. Whilst the pictures were uploading we were diverted by a rabbit who sat in stage and then ran up the track. He is currently sitting at about 100 feet, Sharkman is of the opinion that he's waiting for Fire 3 to come and tow him off the track.

That's all for today then, thanks for tuning in, we're off for something to eat and some sleep! Join us again tomorrow morning for the latest from the pits.

Qualifying standings at Saturday's end

FIA Top Fuel Dragster: 1. Peter Beck 6.048/161.29, 2. Anita Makela 6.551/137.76, 3. Al Jackson 13.826/67.36

FIA Top Methanol Dragster: 1. Manty Bugeja 5.847/234.10, 2. Eero Kilpelainen 5.872/236.53, 3. John Ellul 5.922/226.27, 4. Lindsay Deuchar 5.940/230.66, 5. Peter Schofer 6.073/218.45, 6. Doug Bond 6.115/204.80, 7. Rob Turner 6.527/202.18, 8. Andy Frost 6.707/185.47, 9. Kim Reymond 7.566/189.35

FIA Top Methanol Dragster: 1. Leif Andreasson 5.884/242.88, 2. Micke Kagered 5.961/233.91, 3. Urs Erbacher 6.137/231.20, 4. Leif Helander 6.214/198.30, 5. Lex Joon 7.256/152.63

Pro Stock: 1. Jari Konola 7.069/194.69, 2. Niclas Andersson 7.079/193.74, 3. Jacob Ferrer 7.085/194.52, 4. Michael Malmgren 7.086/194.65, 5. Rune Berg 7.422/181.17, 6. Kjetil Hauge 7.460/184.75, 7. Christer Andersson 11.420/75.98

FIM Supertwin Top Fuel Bike: 1. Rob Van Geffen 7.278/185.09, 2. Ton Pels 7.617/184.38, 3. Willem Been 8.734/165.46, 4. Lars Wahlberg 8.948/97.67, 5. Anders Karling 10.749/94.67, 6. Svein Gottenberg 10.788/121.04, 7. Stefan Junerud 21.128/26.76, 8. Per Bengtsson 23.619/22.01

FIM Competition Bike: 1. Steve Woollatt 6.869/195.41, 2. Chris Hampson 6.937/195.43, 3. Qivind Dahl 7.022/174.89, 4. Ken Cooper 7.585/166.86, 5. Dave Abraham 8.125/134.29, 6. Dave Knight 11.217/67.50, 7. Chris Hall 13.107/52.02

FIM Pro Stock Bike: 1. Paul Willis 7.772/168.36, 2. Roger Petterson 7.818/169.71, 3. Stefan Mejerwall 7.950/163.30, 4. Len Paget 8.135/160.74, 5. Richard Gipp 8.145/153.15, 6. Antonine Coupiac 8.381/157.18, 7. Anders Larsson 8.889/124.12, 8. Kenneth Stromberg 9.488/155.06

Pro Modified: 1. Nick Davies 6.830/203.43, 2. Henri Joosten 7.324/186.00, 3. Peter Wacker 8.692/139.05, 4. John Ellis 10.113/134.55

The top two qualifiers in classes we've not covered in depth are as follows:

Super Comp (8.90): 1. Tim Adam 8.942/143.44, 2. Phil Bennett 8.949/133.16

Super Gas (9.90): 1. Brian Pateman 9.965/132.59, 2. Tim Adam 9.993/134.06

Super Street (10.90): 1. Anne Peck 10.950/111.12, 2. Neil Grant 10.988/118.11

Super Pro ET (own dial-in): 1. Roger Moore +0.002 (8.402/157.82), 2. Steve Green +0.034 (8.744/154.79)

Pro ET (own dial-in): 1. Steve Wells +0.004 (11.374/111.32), 2. Mark Ramplee +0.016 (11.686/111.83)

Sportsman ET (own dial-in): 1. Ian Turnbull +0.006 (12.206/110.86), 2. Al Platt +0.009 (14.109/99.96)

Junior Dragster (Reaction Time): 1. Jamie Willis 0.618, 2. Joe Bond 0.641

Custom Car Street Eliminator: 1. John Sleath 9.707/145.51, 2. Steve Pateman 9.829/145.22

Super Street Bike: 1. Tony Clark 8.923/167.83, 2. Mark Watkins 9.071/153.91

9.90 Bike: 1. Richard Amos 9.992/138.43, 2. John Kirby 10.052/128.45

10.90 Bike: 1. Mark Pointer 11.018/120.47, 2. Ady Reade 11.086/120.79

We're just working on today's photographs, stay tuned.

20:30

We've now had the next rounds of Top Methanol and the first round of Top Fuel Dragster and a great sight it was in the fading light. In Top Fuel, Al Jackson did a short squirt to sixty feet or so, a little shake but sounding good for AJ's first pass in the new car, 13.82/67.36. Anita Makela was on the throttle almost to half-track, getting back into the swing of things after a year out, 6.55/137.76. Finally Peter Beck put in a 1000-foot pass, recording 6.04/161.29. So Peter Beck leads Top Fuel Dragster at the end of today's qualifying, from Anita Makela and Al Jackson.

The next round of Top Methanol FC was as follows. Urs Erbacher 6.13/231.20, Micke Kagered 5.96/233.91, Leif Andreasson 5.88/242.88, Ulf Leanders 6.44/184.27, Lex Joon 7.25/152.63, and Steph Milam put in another observed run at 10.54/146.53. Standings shortly.

In Top Methanol Dragster the lead changed hands twice in as many passes. Eero Kilpelainen put in a stormer at 5.87/236.53, which was good for number one qualifier for all of a few minutes. Manty Bugeja went next and took the lead away from Eero with a pass of 5.84/234.10, at which point we were able to pinpoint the location of every Maltese national at the track! Andy Frost looked like he was on a good'un until he got off it at half track, 7.91/106.39. Rob Turner put in his first pass of the day, trailing vapour all the way down the track to record 6.52/202.18. Lindsay Deuchar then whacked his personal best again with a run of 5.94/230.66, whilst Kim Reymond had a blower belt go in the burnout. Finally Doug Bond, as has been his wont this season, another run, another new PB - 6.11/204.80.

As I started to type up this update, the rain came back and qualifying has been called off for today. If you tune back in a little while we'll have the standings as they are at close of play today. A frustrating day today, but tomorrow's another day so if you're in the vicinty why not pop in.

Be right back...

18:10

Still going strong here at Santa Pod, the sun is hanging on too.

The second round of Pro Stock Bike qualifying went as follows. Paul Willis 7.77/168.36, Roger Petterson 7.81/169.71, Antonine Coupiac 8.46/154.59, Kenneth Stromberg 9.48/155.06, Anders Larsson 8.99/139.19, Richard Gipp 8.14/153.15, Len Paget 8.29/155.54, Stefan Meierwall broke.

The second round of Pro Stock qualifying went as follows. Niclas Andersson 15.04/52.86, Jari Konola 7.06/194.69, Christer Andersson broke, Jacob Ferrer 7.08/194.52, Kjetil Hauge 7.46/184.75, Rune Berg 7.42/181.17, Leena Nystrom broke, Michael Malmgren 7.08/194.65. Again we'll bring you the official standings at the end of today.

We've also had the first round of Pro Mod qualifying, Nick Davies' Allstar Performance-sponsored Oldsmobile not unexpectedly taking the number one place at 6.83/203.43. Henri Joosten followed him up with a 7.32/186.00, Peter Wacker 8.69/139.05 and John Ellis 10.11/134.55.

We're currently in the middle of Custom Car Street Eliminator which is led by John Sleath with a pass in the 9.7s. There's plenty more action to come, stay in touch.

17:10

Well the good news is that it's now sunny and bright, still very breezy but no downpours for a while yet.

The last few runs in Top Methanol qualifying were eventful, Kim Reymond putting in a rough-sounding 7.56/189.35. Peter Schofer followed with a stout 6.07/218.45. Eero Kilpelainen blew a burst plate at half track recording 7.24/129.57, then Jarmo Roivas suffered a small explosion of some kind on the burnout. It could have been just fuel coming out through the burst plate but the flames were white-green which would tend to indicate some sort of damage.

So the two Maltese boys lead the way after the first round of TMD qualifying. We'll bring you the current standings in each class at the end of today.

Tommy Moller followed the TMD session with a licencing pass in the Carbon By Design Top Fuel Dragster, a good burnout followed by an up-in-smoke launch.

A bit of an odd situation with the bikes. On almost every paired run, one has broken and stalled in the shutdown area, yet singles go fine. With the exception of Eric Teboul, that is, who unfortunately just blew a hole in the engine of his Top Fuel Bike. A cleanup is now underway.

After the first round of FIM Supertwin Top Fuel Bike, the standings are as follow. Rob Van Geffen 7.278/185.09, Ton Pels 7.617/184.38, Willem Been 8.734/165.46, Lars Wahlberg 8.948/97.67, Anders Karling 10.749/94.67, Svein Gottenberg 10.788/121.04, Stefan Junerud 21.128/26.76, Per Bengtsson 23.619/22.01.

After the first round of FIM Competition Bike, the standings are as follow. Steve Woollatt 6.869/195.41, Chris Hampson 6.937/195.43, Qivind Dahl 7.022/174.89, Ken Cooper 7.585/166.86, Dave Abraham 8.125/134.29, Dave Knight 11.217/67.50, Chris Hall 13.107/52.02.

Pro Stock Bike and Pro Stock Car are next up, watch this space.

15:40

We're really struggling against the elements here. We've had TMFC and half of TMD and the rain has come back. Before TMFC qualifying commenced, Steph Milam put in another licencing pass, on and off to a 9.70.

The first round of TMFC qualifying went as follows. Urs Erbacher 8.30/110.81, Leif Helander 6.21/198.30, Leif Andreasson 5.95/244.29, Micke Kagered 6.05/230.71.

Next up was TMD and as luck would have it, the first qualifying match-up was between John Ellul and Manty Bugeja. Manty pulled a sizeable holeshot on John, with national pride at stake neither of them was going to get off the throttle. Manty got there first on his holeshot, 5.99/235.22 to John's 5.92/226.27, the death smoke at the top end from John's car and a long oil delay as he oiled the shutdown area. But we now have two Maltese racers in the fives and everyone looked very happy about that.

Lindsay Deuchar appeared to have a supercharger problem, pulling over to the side of the track whilst Andy Frost recorded 6.70/185.47 and a new personal best. Kim Reymond was shut off for rain after his burnout so he is sitting in front of the barn waiting to have another shot. From here I can see Peter Schofer, Eero Kilpelainen and Jarmo Roivas in the collection area, and the one minute call has just gone out over the radio.

After TMD we have Pro Stock and the FIM classes so watch this space and we'll be back when we can. As we said earlier, it's one of those days weatherwise but tomorrow and Monday are looking far more hopeful, that is last time I looked. We've certainly earned it.

13:45

Here we go again with the rain, but we got the first round of Pro Stock Bike finished before the rain came. We understand that both these results and those of Pro Stock car may be altered since there have been some weight violations. Roger Petterson had his pass disqualified after he took out both eighth-mile reflectors. But here are the standings after this round of qualifying:

Stefan Mejerwall 7.950/163.30, Len Paget 8.135/160.74, Antoine Coupiac 8.381/157.18, Anders Larsson 8.889/124.12, Richard Gipp 9.187/140.68.

We've had a couple of spectacular nitrous burps during sportsman qualifying. The front of Tim Garlick's Pro ET Cortina disappeared in a huge but thankfully short-lived ball of flame, then Roger Moore did exactly the same in his Super Pro ET Herald.

When the track dries we're execting to see both Top Methanol and the rest of the FIM classes. Stay tuned.

13:00

It's definitely going to be one of those days weatherwise but we've had the first round of qualifying in Pro Stock, which went as follows:

Christer Andersson 11.420/75.98 (shake then backed off at half track), Jari Konola 7.170/193.33, Michael Malmgren 7.108/193.79, Jacob Ferrer 18.119/43.05 (bad shake), Niclas Andersson 7.079/193.74

So Niclas Andersson straight back to his accustomed position at the top of the ladder. These runs were into a very stiff headwind so must be good for a few thousandths once the weather calms down.

Our next update will be after the Methanol and FIM classes. Watch this space.

11:20

Well, it was bound to happen. Only a few classes into this morning's qualifying, the sky has opened and the track is soaked. You can't help but feel it's going to be one of those days.

Stay tuned and we'll be back as soon as there is anything to report.

10:30

Well, good morning from a bright, dry but extremely windy Santa Pod. After hammering down all day yesterday and almost all of the night, the rain stopped and went on its way at about six o'clock this morning. The facility is not unaffected by this weather, parts of the pits and the camping and car parking fields are under water, but it's looking good for some race action today although there is much concern over the wind which is very stiff indeed and could pose a threat at the top end.

Last night we spent a very pleasant few hours in the pit areas of LA Racing and Nemesis Racing, where we were fed and watered and sheltered from the incessant rain. Thanks very much to Lindsay Deuchar and Barry Redstone for keeping us alive.

When we took our turn around the pits this morning many of the trailers were still zipped up against the elements, but we found a few hardy souls to grill.

Super Street Bike racer Graham Dance has managed to get hold of a couple of the very latest Mickey Thompson SSB tyres, upon which US racer Brock Davidson got into the sevens last weekend. "He beat me to it!" said Graham. There are only two of these tyres in the country and Graham has them both. "They're pricey but you can't spend thousands of pounds on a bike and then put a cheap tyre on it", he said.

We caught up with Pro ET racer Steve Wells in the queue for scrutineering. Steve has had to fix his gearbox after problems at Super Series 1. Fourth gear wouldn't engage, then third, and so on - it turned out to be part of the shifting mechanism had broken and then twisted out of shape. In the queue behind him were Dave and Sarah Day with their Super Gas/Super Comp roadster. Dave told us that they had made some changes to the suspension after looking at video coverage of recent races which showed the rear tyres spinning up to four times on launch.

UK Pro Mod Champion Nick Davies is carrying sponsorship from Allstar Performance, a performance parts company. "Depending upon how how I perform, the deal may carry on through the season", said Nick. There are five Pro Mods here this weekend. "It's nice to have some competition" said Nick, who was the only entrant in Pro Mod at Super Series 1.

TMFC racer Lex Joon has replaced an entire set of pistons, rods and and gear set. Unfortunately no-one has turned up with the rear wheel and tyre which disappeared from his trailer after the Thunderball - we were all hoping that someone had picked it up by accident and would return it at this race. "It's very sad", said Lex, "this was always a very friendly track and now this happens".

Tony Betts' Fuel FC is now carrying sponsorship from Jungle.com, and has a great new paintjob. If you remember KC Spurlock's purple-based paint scheme from a few years back, this is very similar and suits the car very well indeed.

We have a number of visitors from the USA this weekend. Chassis builder Bob Meyer is here with the Turners, Norm Drazy has been spotted in Peter Schofer's pit, and Rick Paradis from Fontana is providing tuning assistance to John Ellul's team. "I'm just helping", Rick told us. "They've already got a good handle on it, I'm just making it safer. The air's really good". Rick has been to Santa Pod a couple of times, "It's a nice facility", he said, "the only thing it needs is a bit more pavement in the pits".

Manty Bugeja told us that his team have cured the tyre shake which was so much in evidence in his 5.93 pass at Press Day on Wednesday. "We will go faster now", he said.

Nearby in the TMD pits, the Nemesis team spent last night changing engines. The spare which saw them to victory at Super Series 1 was unhooked and the number one engine put back in place.

We're pretty close to starting now, the Junior Dragsters are lined up in the collection area. The schedule has already slipped of course but the track crew have done a great job to get the surface dried and prepped after the lashing it has taken from the weather these last couple of days.

The first FIA (Pro Stock) and FIM runs are due at 11:10, race director Darren Prentice tells me that the plan is to stick as closely as possible to the scheduled times for the FIA and FIM classes even if we have slipped on the schedule as a whole. We'll be back later with news from those first qualifying sessions.

09:15

Apologies for the non-appearance of last night's report. We were unable to get access to our usual phone line. Last night's report is now in place. Tune back to this page shortly for this morning's notes.