Pre-FIA Main Event Private Test
Santa Pod Raceway, 25th May 2002

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22:00

Today's pictures have now been posted, you can get to them from the raceday update index.

We'll be back in the morning with coverage of the Run What You Brung, at which we are expecting to see some of today's participants testing again. See you then!

17:00

We're on another stop for rain but we've had a good session with some excellent runs.

Headlining was Kim Reymond in his Top Fuel Dragster, a good burnout and then a stupendous pass, 5.15/253.18. Kim was off the throttle at about 1100 feet and the chutes were open in the traps which means that there is a lot more to come from the USA Autodele dragster.

Another highlight was Henri Joosten getting oh so close to the sixes with a 7.01/196.03 in his Pro Mod, some tyre shake so again there is more to come there. Andy Robinson followed up with a 7.93/196.03 in his new Pro Mod with some bad shake off the line, Andy shifting early to get out of the shake. Marcus Hilt ran a 12.15/65.72 in his blown-alcohol Pro Mod, with shake and off the throttle very early.

Urs Erbacher has made one pass in his TMFC, a gentle burnout followed by a .54 reaction, Urs got off the throttle at the top of second gear and recorded 8.79/64.05. The safety crew followed Urs down the shutdown area and were with him for quite a while, hopefully nothigng wrong.

Also going to the stop of second gear was Jari Konola, a 0.48 reaction and a pass of 10.41/76.29, I don't know if it was a planned two-gear run but the crew didn't look concerned.

Anders Larsson's first run on his Pro Stock Bike was intriguing, no burnout and a gentle 11.34/137.20. Anders then came out and ran 8.09/165.30 with the revs going sky high at the start of the run. Also on two wheels, Anders Karling clocked a 13.76/53.33 on his Supertwin Top Fuel Bike, the bike banged up on the wheelie bars and back down again, twice, then Anders got off the throttle.

Malcolm Francis gained his licence with a 9.93/133.82 in his Super Gas Camaro. Bernie Hepworth's first pass on his Supertwin Top Fuel Bike was a 12.08/105.74 with a 0.56 RT, Bernie was on and off the throttle learning the bike.

Also of note today has been Tim Adam whose reaction times have all been in the 0.4s.

The other passes we had in this afternoon's session were as follows:

Keith Ridley 0.71 RT, 16.41/84.33
Luke Ramage 10.00/139.97
Tim Adam 0.44 RT, 9.06/146.06
Colin Aldred 10.80/129.34
Keith Ridley 1.00 RT, 16.88/84.64
Rob Long 10.17/135.58
Luke Ramage 0.44 RT, 9.59/141.33

We are now done for the day on the track, although the off-track action is not finished as there is now to be a major incident exercise. We will post today's pictures when we get home so tune back in a few hours for those.

14:30

We had a nice dry track for about an hour and a half but just as Kim Reymond was all set to go, another downpour hit us. Right now you can't see the shutdown area from race control, that's how bad the rain is!

The runs we have had so far are as follow.

Jari Konola 0.50 RT, 11.07/66.99. Jari launched hard but got out of shape at about 300 feet and got off the throttle.

Tim Adam 0.41 RT, 9.07/145.28
Keith Ridley 1.30 RT, 16.23/84.82
Colin Aldred 0.74 RT, 11.00/127.32

John Tebenham 2.40 RT, 8.54/154.73. John had the chute out before the finish line.

Keith Ridley 1.18 RT, 16.54/82.52
Rob Long 0.44 RT, 10.10/135.55
Tim Adam 0.49 RT, 9.01/145.65

Henri Joosten 0.61 RT, 12.20/53.05. Henri hit tyre shake off the line.

Malcolm Francis 0.61 RT, 10.96/84.11. This was a half pass for licencing.

Tim Adam 0.43 RT, 9.40/141.39

Luke Ramage 0.47 RT, 10.02/121.04. It sounded as if the car didn't change gear.

Ian Tubb 9.29/123.34. The car left a trail of fluid down the shutdown area although it quickly evaporated and so was probably only water.

The rain has now stopped and the guys are out drying again. Stay tuned.

12:40

Hello and welcome from Santa Pod for our coverage of the the Pre-Main Event private test, brought to you in association with American Car Imports.

We have a large number of racers in the pits, but the bad news is that right now the track is underwater having just been hit with a massive downpour. We sat and watched it coming for half an hour and the heavens opened just as Tim Adam and Jari Konola were pulling forward into the bleach box.

All is not lost because there is a huge patch of clear blue sky behind the storm so hopefully we've had our bad luck for today. The tractor is out sweeping water from the track and the jet drier is on its way.

Let's give you a run-down of who is here today.

Swedish Pro Stock racer Jari Konola has a new clutch and some fine-tuning to test. Crew Chief Sussie Bjorkman also tells us that Jari may be testing a new rear end ratio tomorrow depending upon how today's testing goes.

Swedish Supertwin Top Fuel Bike racer Anders Karling has a lot of changes to test. "We have new stuff on the fuel system, a new gearbox from Bentec, and new gear ratios", said Anders. "We also have a new Mickey Thomson tyre on the back". Anders is planning a short pass to check everything out, then he and Crew Chief Kristian will check the computer and decide upon another pass.

Bernie Hepworth is working on procedures and launching with his ex-Willem Been Supertwin Top Fuel Bike. Willem is here this weekend to help out.

Dutch Pro Mod racer Henri Joosten has an ex-Gullquist 706 ci engine in his car. Micke is also here today to oversee. "We have changed the clutch and made a lot of updates", said Henri. "We have had a small problem with the timing but we hope to run our first six. We also have a second stage of nitrous for the first time. We will run a half-pass and then see how it goes."

Andy Robinson is here with his '53 Studebaker Pro Mod. Andy and his team were very busy so we didn't disturb them. The car is even better in the flesh than it is in photographs. The car is also very low to the ground, we would estimate that the roofline is not much over four feet from the ground.

Super Pro ET racer John Tebenham is here to get into the sevens with his turbo Cosworth-powered Probe. The engine now has more boost and John has promised us the return of the wheels-up launches which we have been missing recently.

Danish Top Fuel Dragster racer Kim Reymond has already run the engine once, the timing wasn't quite right as the flames coming out of the headers were all wrong. Some adjustments were made which sorted it out. "We have a lot of new things on the car", said Kim. He added that he would stay on the throttle as long as things felt good.

Tim Adam is concentrating on the Super Comp set-up in his roadster. The engine has been running too rich so the team are working on jet sizes.

Sweden's Anders Larsson plans two or three sixty-foot passes then full passes on his Pro Stock Bike.

Also with us but not yet interviewed are Keith Ridley (Sportsman ET), Colin Aldred (Super Comp), Ian Tubb (Super Comp), Malcolm Francis (Super Gas), Rob Long (Super Gas), Luke Ramage (Super Gas), Marcus Hilt (Pro Mod), and Urs Erbacher (Top Methanol FC). Urs Erbacher and Luke Ramage have great new paintjobs on their cars, we will be sure to get pictures.

The good news is that everyone is happy for us to publish their times and speeds today. Before the rain came, Tim Adam had put in passes of 9.09/145, 9.00/143.82 and 9.02/146.14; Rob long a pass of 10.21/135.21; and Keith Ridley passes of 16.65/85.26 and 16.09/63.32.

The track is now drying so stay tuned and we'll be back with the action as soon as it restarts.