FIA European Finals
Run What You Brung, Sunday 9th September

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17:00

A premature end to the day here at Santa Pod Raceway as Susanne Callin had a bad top end crash in the first pass in her Super Comp dragster. The car got out of shape just as Susanne crossed the finish line after an 8.92/163.54 run then turned hard left. After that Susanne was just a passenger as the car rolled over, went vertical and hit the guardrail. The dragster came to rest upside down in the middle of what very quickly became a large fire. Susanne was out of the car and away as soon as it stopped and long before the fire flared up, she is completely uninjured and was last seen walking the shutdown area with her mobile phone.

A big shout to Santa Pod's safety crew who were on the spot very quickly indeed, good work guys.

Susanne's crash rather took the shine off her previous pass, on which she took your reporter Tog for an 8.129/165.31 pass in the two-seater dragster. An incredible experience for which I am very grateful to Susanne and Gordon Callin and car owner Johan Hassler.

Anita Makela's second pass of the day was another squirt to about sixty feet after she again hit tyre shake, the ET in the high tens.

Today's pictures are now posted, you can get to them from the race update index.

So there we have it, an unfortunate end to the last RWYB before the European Finals but all that matters is that Susanne Callin is quite OK.

Thanks for their help today to Race Director Darren Prentice, Chief Starter Ian Marshall, Kjell Pettersson, Steve Horn, Bob Day and the safety crew, Nigel Cole, Caroline Day, Kelly Ingall and David Lloyd-Jones.

We'll be back here at Santa Pod Raceway on Wednesday, continuing our build-up to the FIA European Finals with the Press Day at which Barry Sheavills, Brian Johnson, Tim Adam, Team Rat Rage, and Martin Bishop will be putting in demonstration runs.

Tune in then!

15:30

Nigel from AC Delco was jubilant after his passenger ride in the two-seater dragster. "Excellent - but not quick enough!", he laughed. "I'd do it again now! You just want to go again as soon as you get back. I'm off to play golf now!".

Anita Makela warmed up the engine of her Top Fueller about half an hour ago. It sounded very good indeed. "This car is very thirsty!", she said as she topped up the fuel tank. Again the plan seems to be for Anita to stay on the throttle for as long as it feels OK.

Steve French was very happy with his seven-second pass and credits a computer program written by friend and fellow Funny Bike racer Chris Hall for getting the bike set up. "The program is called Strip Tune", he said. "It's a set-up similator. You give it throttle timers, delay and so on and it gives you the set-up. And then you set the bike up that way and it duplicates it exactly."

Barry Eastman got quicker yet on his funny bike, putting in a pass of 8.04/163.47. Andrew McKenzie in the ex-Banzai Super Gasser has had his hands full, the car not wanting to go in a straight line. He has been running high tens.

Stay tuned and we'll be back with more news from the track.

Come back soon and we'll bring you the latest news.

14:45

Susanne Callin took one of her sponsors for a ride on her last pass, 8.19/162.67 for Nigel from AC Delco. Very consistent passes from the two-seater.

Barry Eastman and Steve French put in passes of 8.70/155.30 and 7.74/154.69 respectively, Steve's crew very happy indeed with the pass which was straight as you like.

Supertwin Gas racers Nick Daniels and Mick Bubb paired up with passes of 11.85/90.16 and 10.75/125.31 respectively. Nick was off the throttle towards the top end.

14:15

When we left you before the lunch break, Martin Hill was about to put in a pass with the Fireforce 2 Jet FC. Martin was pushed back, a broken starter motor was the problem. Martin and his crew are currently under the car taking the starter motor apart to see if it can be fixed. "If we can fix it, we'll run later on this afternoon", said Martin. "We're not under any pressure so if we can't fix it then we'll just go home."

Anita Makela confirmed that she got off the throttle because of tyre shake. "We had a very nice sixty foot time", she said. "We're adding a little bit more power. It was worth coming here to test because that would have happened on Friday and we would have wasted a qualifying session". Anita is impressed with the track: "It's always very good here", she said. Anita is expecting to put in another pass later on.

Having gained his licence, Robin Shone drove the Sanity Assassin Toyota to its best-ever performance of 9.97/136.94, driving through a huge wheelie off the start line. The entire Talbot Racing team jumped feet in the air when the time and speed came up on the finish line display.

Steve French is pleased with his no-gas nine-second pass earlier, which tested his new clutch. "Nothing's broken!", he said. He plans to put in another pass with Nitrous.

Just after the lunch break, Steve Hall put in an 8.77/167.43 in his Mustang, and Ian Marshall a 9.21/145.27 in the Highlander.

We'll be back later on with more news from Santa Pod.

12:05

Anita Makela has just put in her first pass of the day. A slightly out-of-shape burnout followed by a thumping launch, wheels up with nitro flames, Anita was off the throttle at the Tree and still ran a 0.901 sixty-foot time and 10.94/40.71. Her tyre marks show very slight shake, Anita said that she would stay on it as long as it felt good so I would imagine that she felt the shake kick in and decided to get off it.

Steve Hall has made his first pass of the day, a 9.35/152.12 in the Super Pro Mustang. Not by any means a straight pass but Steve had it covered.

Robin Shone has put in his latest licencing pass in the Toyota, 10.01/136 which is the quickest that the car has ever gone here at Santa Pod. "That's what you get when you take a person out of it!" said Crew Chief and previous driver Stephen Talbot, adding "hopefully we'll have to get a parachute for it after the next run!".

Paul Watson is getting in some valuable practice on his 9.90 Bike, having run 9.87 and then 9.90...just as I finished this paragraph he is at the start line again...9.99/134.02 and a 0.50 reaction.

Susanne Callin tells us that the track feels very good in the two-seater dragster. Her dad Gordon says that the 8.14/164 was the quickest and fastest passenger ride which Susanne has made with the car anywhere so he is well pleased; it is obvious that there is more to come from the car as well. On her second pass she recorded 8.17/153.29.

Funny Bike racer Barry Eastman clocked an easy 8.88 on his first pass of the day.

The Fireforce 2 Jet FC is now lining up underneath race control, stay tuned and on our next update we'll let you know how Martin Hill gets on.r

11:15

Santa Pod's Chief Starter Ian Marshall has taken a turn behind the wheel of the Highlander Camaro which he drive in Super Modified at Super Series 4. A 0.45 reaction time and a good time of 9.201/143.26.

Susanne Callin has made her first passenger ride of the day in the two-seater dragster, Max Power contest winner Matthew Halls was in the car for an 8.14/164.09 ride of his life. Nigel Cole from AC Delco, who organised the two-seater dragster's trip here to Santa Pod, tells us that Vic Fancy is today's other AC Delco passenger, having won a contest in Auto Trade magazine. Runner-up prizes of free entry to today's RWYB were also given out to ten Max Power and ten Auto Trade readers, with the quickest two going head-to-head today to win a VIP package to the European Finals. Halfords also have two seats booked in the two-seater car today, a contest winner and a journalist from Maxim magazine.

Robin Shone put in his next observed run, a very nice 10.92 half-pass. Ian Marshall, who was observing the pass, looked impressed and gave a thumbs up.

Also here with us today are Funny Bike racer Steve French, who is testing a new slider clutch, and Super Street Bike racer Steve Venables who has put his race gearbox back on the bike after running at Super Series 4 with a street gearbox.

The SPRC rental Junior Stock Dragster is in the hands of Lewis Townsend today, his quickest pass so far a 15.99/37.92.

No sign of a warm-up from Anita Makela yet so we're at least an hour off seeing her put in a pass. Stay tuned and we'll be back with more of today's action.

10:30

Good morning and welcome from Santa Pod Raceway on a beautiful summer's day. The weather is perfect, the track looks to be in excellent condition and we're all set for some serious pre-Finals testing.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita Makela has already fitted the new three-element rear wing to her car. She tells us that she is planning two or even three passes today, and that the first pass will be to 1000 feet. Anita's trailer is at the 1000 foot mark and Anita says that the trailer has been deliberately placed at that point as a marker. At this moment she is about ready to warm up the Top Fueller's engine and then we should see her out on track within an hour.

Also in the pits are Pat and Stephen Talbot with the Sanity Assassin Pro ET Toyota. Stephen has been driving this car up to now, but crew member Robin Shone is putting in observed runs with a view to driving the car at next week's race. Robin has put in one run so far, to sixty feet and then pushed back. A 0.86 reaction on his first ever pass in a car with a transbrake is very creditable.

The other racers we have here so far are Steve Hall with his ex-Pollen Mustang, Martin Hill and Tony Baker with Fireforce 1 and 2, Paul Watson on his 9.90 Bike, 'Shaggy' Daniels with his Supertwin Gas bike, and of course Susanne Callin with the two-seater dragster.

Stay tuned and we'll be back later with news from the track.