FIA Main Event
Sunday (qualifying)

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20:30

Today's pictures are now available from the raceday update index.

So that's all for today folks, we hope you've enjoyed our attempts to keep you diverted during the downtime. Tune back tomorrow - or better still why not come along. One way or another, see you in the morning!

20:00

The decision has now been made about tomorrow's qualifying. The following classes will be run starting at 9:00 tomorrow morning: 10.90 Bike, 9.90 Bike, Super Street Bike, Custom Car Street Eliminator, Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Super Comp, FIM Competition Bike, and Top Fuel Dragster. A riders' and drivers' meeting has been called for 20:20 this evening, should be an interesting half-hour.

Top Methanol Funny Car qualifying has been altered after a ruling on Ulf Leanders' collision yesterday with the timing reflectors at the top end. Ulf has been re-instated so TMFC qualifying is now as follows. 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. Ulf Leanders 6.447/184.27, 6. Lex Joon 7.256/152.63. The qualifying list also has Steph Milam in at number 7 with her 9.705/134.55 but we don't know where we stand on her licence, we will try to find out and let you know.

We are just about to upload today's pictures - stay tuned.

19:25

We had a very long and interesting chat with Top Fuel pilot Anita Makela during this morning's rain delay. She is very glad to be back although she did wonder when she got here on Friday. "It was wet and cold, we were in the trailer with no electricity, and I asked Tommy why did we come back? But I haven't got the children here, it's like a summer holiday only without the weather!". Anita was happy with her half-pass yesterday. "The pass went well, we're still using the old clutch and fuel system set-up - we have a new set-up which we have bought from Peter Lantz, but we didn't have time to put it in place. But with the old set-up I don't have to worry about what's going on behind me, and because it's almost two years since I raced I didn't care about the speed and time, I just wanted to get back into driving. My crew said that Tommy was more nervous than me. I got in the car and I was comfortable, it's where I'm meant to be, as if I'm sitting in my armchair watching Emmerdale".

Anita wasn't just trying to impress us with a cultural reference - it turns out that she harbours a secret love of the UK soap opera, which is aired on Finnish TV every evening at 5:00. "The kids could kill each other, the phone could ring and I won't answer it. But even Tommy watches it!". Anita said that she was pleased to come over to the UK at this precise moment in time because they are some episodes behind us and she was dying to find out what happened to Butch, which was a bit ironic (I hear, anyway, since I would rather stick needles in my eyes than watch that particular programme). Now she's going to blow the secret when she gets home.

Anita was excited about this weekend's race. "Al Jackson has a new car, Peter Beck is rookie of the year already, and I'm back. And Barry is an old fox". I must have looked confused since Anita quickly explained that 'an old fox' is a Finnish saying and she meant that Barry was one to watch!

We remarked upon how much Tommy must love Anita to let her drive. "He would like to drive, but only one person can drive the car - that's a sign of true love!", said Anita. But he's enjoying himself as Crew Chief, I don't think I'd make a good Crew Chief! The car hasn't been running that well, but he wants to make it go well. He has time to sit down and go through everything".

Finally, Anita told us that she was likely to run the FIA Tour this season. She had thought to run the Swedish Top Fuel Tour, but she said that she would have to commit to the entire series and that it would not be fair either to the TFT or her family if something happened, for example one of the children being ill, which meant she could not make the date. "With the FIA Tour I don't have to turn up if I can't", she said.

So there you have it, everything you could want to know about Anita's return to Top Fuel. You will be pleased to hear that Anita willingly agreed to run a Eurodragster sticker, accepting a nominal sponsorship fee of one 5p piece, which she said would become a good luck charm. So look out for a headline soon about the UK's quickest-accelerating piece of currency.

It would not be unfair to say that the weather here is now downright appalling. Qualifying has not yet been called, though, so stay tuned and we'll let you know what's occurring as soon as we know...

...and how's that for psychic, Race Director Darren Prentice has just called a halt to today's proceedings. A decision is expected shortly about tomorrow's schedule. And there are of course today's pictures to be posted.Watch this space.

18:00

Hey well guess what, we have a rain delay, but not before we got some more classes through.

Phill Cook put in a great run in his new Junior Dragster, one of the quickest runs in Europe at 8.66, although obviously he'll have to slow it down to at the most 8.90 for tomorrow's eliminations. So after three sessions, Junior Dragster - which is reckoned on Reaction Times - stands as follows: 1. Johnny Walker 0.573, 2. Jamie Willis 0.618, 3. Tom Watts 0.621, 4. Joe Bond 0.641, 5. Paul Lindley-Allen 0.643, 6. Phill Cook 0.672, 7. Adam Gleadow 1.076

In Pro Mod Henri Joosten, Peter Wacker and John Ellis came out to play. Henri Joosten left before the Tree ran which is a real pity since he was on one, as straight as I think I've ever seen him run and accelerating hard towards the top end. Peter Wacker held on in the other lane and clocked 8.529/161.01. John Ellis pulled a huge burnout, the crowd applauding wildly, but then shut off on the line. So it's as-you-were in Pro Mod standings, namely 1. Nick Davies 6.830/203.43, 2. Henri Joosten 7.324/186.00, 3. Peter Wacker 8.529/161.01, 4. John Ellis 10.113/134.55

FIM Competition Bike was curtailed by the rain, the runs we had before racing stopped were: Steve Woollatt 6.806/198.14, Brian Johnson 6.704/182.26, Ken Cooper 8.984/124.90. The terminal speeds indicate the shift in wind direction from side-on to head-on. Both Steve Woolatt and BJ's runs were good and straight, Ken Cooper heading for the centre line but holding onto it.

We also managed to get through a complete round of Super class qualifying, the top two in each class after this session are:

Super Comp (8.90): 1. Tim Adam 8.902/148.17, 2. Phil Bennett 8.920/134.22
Super Gas (9.90): 1. Andy Kirk 9.911/136.21, 2. Brendan Clancy 9.916/133.66
Super Street (10.90): 1. Anne Peck 10.906/112.42, 2. Neil Grant 10.961/120.26

Stay tuned and we'll be back when there's anything to report, or there is of course the threatened Top Fuel pilot/Emmerdale story to type up.

16:10

On our travels this morning we also spoke to Doug Bond and Martyn Hannis of Shell Racing. Doug recorded a new PB yesterday, 6.11, and that was an early shut-off. Things got a bit hairy for Doug when the parachutes didn't open. "I thought I'd lose it", said Doug, "I was struggling to keep it out of the field on the right hand side of the track". Luckily Doug was off the throttle early. "I got off it because I'd been in third gear for so long", he said. Crew Chief Martyn Hannis has had a busy week, stripping the engine down and rebuilding it, but to good effect. "That was the smoothest that the motor has gone", said Doug. The next plan is to put the car on a diet. "It's two hundred pounds overweight", said Doug, "so we've got to find ways to make it lighter."

John Ellul had us all worried yesterday when his car went through the traps smoking and then dumped fluid all the way down the shutdown area. Luckily it looked worse than it was. "Tyre shake made one of the fuel lines come out", said John. "We were happy, it was our first five". Referring to yesterday's match-up with Manty Bugeja, one of the crew said "We're looking for 5.83, and we want to beat everybody, not just Maltese guys!".

Top Fuel Bike racer Brian Johnson hasn't yet put in a qualifying pass, and like everyone else was hoping that the weather wouldn't scupper his chances of qualifying. But he spoke for us all when he said "You just know that you're going to get out of bed on Tuesday and it's going to be dazzling" (luckily at time of writing, 16:00, the sun is out and the track is drying rapidly). BJ said that the air is very good today. "Everyone's going to make twenty per cent more horsepower", he said.

9.90 Bike racer Steve Ashby pulled a spectacular wheelie yesterday - although your scribe missed it, squinting through a camera viewfinder at something else (D'oh!). "The nitrous was on in first rather than second gear", he said, "it got to sixty feet and up it went". "We just did it to please the crowd" added one of his crew.

Next up is our interview with an Emmerdale-loving Top Fuel pilot. Who? Ah, you'll have to come back to find out.

15:15

As we mentioned earlier, we went for a stroll in the pits during this morning's inverse drought delay, and we found a few people to interview. We'll do them a few at a time so that you don't have to wait too long between updates.

Manty Bugeja's tuner Charley Draper told us that Joe Carabott and the team were very pleased indeed with yesterday's 5.84, which is currently good for number one in Top Methanol Dragster. "The set-up was the same as on the previous pass yesterday, but the headwind slowed it down the first time", he said. "There is more to come but we'll leave it where it is for this race, we're rooted in the 5.80s and everything's clean. The whole team is running really smoothly, we're ready for every round and we're the first down there. And Manty is a killer driver". Like the rest of us, Charley enjoyed the yesterday's all-Maltese qualifying match-up. "They ran it like a final, not a qualifying run!", he said.

We must say thanks to Joe and the team for readily agreeing to carry one of the new Eurodragster.com stickers on the dragster. No doubt they will break the current Eurodragster sticker speed record which is held by Nick Davies at 203.43 mph. In fact, just about everyone we spoke to today agreed to run our stickers, thanks very much to all of you.

When we passed by the Nemesis pit, Dave Wilson and Barry Redstone were working on one of the cylinder heads, pumping oil through it which then overflowed and dropped into a catch tray underneath. Of course in the interests of better informing our readers, your mechanically-ignorant scribe had to ask what they were doing. "We do this to oil the rods", said Barry. The oil-delivery device appeared to be a Wilson Original, Dave explaining that it was a lot easier than turning over the engine to get the oil pressure up. Sharkman took a photograph of this process, so keep an eye out when we post our pictures later on. It has to be seen to be believed!

Lindsay Deuchar was very pleased with his new PB of 5.94 yesterday, but was even more pleased with the speed of just over 230 mph. "We're going to sit out qualifying today", he said, "we want to check everything over and make sure that we are ready for tomorrow. But we know we've had no drastic problems."

OK, that's the first few, tune back soon for our conversations with Doug Bond and Martyn Hannis, John Ellul, Brian Johnson and Steve Ashby.

14:20

Oh dear - a few Super Comp qualifiers and then the rain came back. Stay tuned and we will start to type up this morning's pit interviews and/or the action as soon as it re-starts.

13:55

A special message from Anita Makela: Hello Heli!

13:30

We've had a few more of those inverse drought situations this morning but right now the sun is shining, it's warm, the track is being prepped and we're getting close to the resumption of qualifying.

On our turn around the pits we took pages and pages of notes. With your permission we'll leave that for now because it's going to take a couple of hours to type it all up, and that would mean delaying the updates once the action gets going. But we'll type them up later on, so stay tuned if you want to know which Top Fuel Dragster pilot harbours a secret passion for Emmerdale...

10:15

Well hi there and thanks for joining us at Santa Pod Raceway. It has been raining all night but it has now more or less stopped, the clouds are getting higher and it has brightened up some. From our station in the control tower we can see a steady stream of hardy spectators coming up the approach road, these are the clever ones who don't spend the night in the back of a Renault Clio.

On a similar subject, our raceday photographer Sharkman would like to send a big Thank You to Margaret and Graham of the Boaters refreshment trailer for inviting him inside the hallowed portals of Boaters to warm up after a cold night. "They saved my life", he said.

Out in the pits a lot of hatches are battened down. We have managed to snatch a few words with some racers, and once we've done this update we'll be out there again seeing who else has surfaced.

Horst Pauli of Peter Beck's crew told us that the team were very happy indeed with Peter's pass last night. "There was no damage, there was only normal work to do after the run", he said.

Nemesis TMD Crew Chief Barry Redstone told us that the non-appearance of the car yesterday was due to a problem with their new MSD magneto. "It's all OK now though", he said.

Jarmo Roivas' TMD suffered a torched block and heads on his run yesterday. You will remember that we commented on the unusual colour of the flames coming out of the engine when Jarmo ran, Barry Redstone who knows about these things explained that some of that will have been down to a head gasket failure.

OK we're going to go for a stroll in the pits now, we'll be back later with as much news as we can find. Stay tuned.