2003 FIA Main Event
Test Day, Saturday 17th May

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18:10

Today's pictures are now posted, you can view them via the Event Index page.

We'll be back in the morning with news from tomorrow's Run What You Brung here at Santa Pod. See you then!

17:45

Well, that's all for today folks, we keep having light showers and the track is never going to be right so we're done for now, and we'll all come back tomorrow.

We are now working on today's pictures, they should be posted within a very short time as they were more or less ready to go anyway. Stay tuned.

17:30

We're back in action here at Santa Pod Raceway, Jimmy Ålund is just lining up for a burnout in his Pro Stock...and a very competent burnout too! Superb! Then a 0.494 reaction, 1.141 to sixty feet, the car starting to get a little out of shape, 5.014/128.73 at half-track, the car starting to sway left and right and then makes a move to the left guardrail so Jimmy gets off it. 8.675/118.46

Cannon is next up on the Top Fuel Bike, another good burnout. Then a solid launch, 1.2 again at sixty feet, off the throttle for a moment at half track and then on it again, 8.03/157.22. Nice one Cannon!

Stay tuned and we'll bring you more news soon...and just as I was typing that it started to rain again.

15:15

When we left you, Ian Marshall, Urs Erbacher and Niclas Andersson were ready to go as soon as the rain stopped. Ian Marshall ran a 9.59/134.07 but then the car disappeared in a cloud of smoke at the finish line, when the smoke cleared there was a trail of what turned out to be trans fluid the length of the shutdown area. After a very quick clean-up we were back on-line and Urs Erbacher and Niclas Andersson made their passes.

Urs pulled a nice long burnout and then ran a 7.52/103.34 half pass, 1.01 to sixty feet, 4.09/153.83 at the eighth, and his crew looked very happy with that. Niclas pulled a very gentle burnout, the tyres hardly lighting, then went to sixty feet, 1.022 to that point with the car drifting right, getting very close to the guardrail after Niclas got off the throttle.

Just as Niclas passed through the top end, it started to rain, and hard, and so we are now on hold again. Stay tuned and we'll let you know what happens next.

14:15

We're now underway here at Santa Pod and the first few racers have put in their first runs of the day.

First up was Cannon on his first pass with his and Jon Morton's Top Fuel Bike. Cannon looked at home on the bike from the start, a very good burnout followed by a solid launch, 1.256 to sixty feet then off the throttle.

Al Golding was the next racer out on track, with a 9.24/145.96 in his Super Pro Firenza, the pass looked quicker than that so maybe Al was off the throttle before the finish.

Henri Joosten followed up with a 7.915/117.52 half-pass in his Pro Mod, 4.544/152.69 at the eighth and a lot of smoke at the finish line, hopefully nothing serious. Gordon Appleton was the next Pro Mod racer out on track, 6.83/203.55 with a 1.034 sixty-foot time. Gordon had a lot of shake from about sixty feet but just drove through it and stayed on the gas. Gordon too had some smoke at the finish line. Andy Robinson was immediately behind Gordon, his first pass of the season not getting a time as the car left before the lights ran. It's Pro Mod Top End Smoke Day today as Andy too had smoke at the finish line.

Malcolm Francis ran his Camaro in Super Comp trim, 9.047/145.64 and I would love to know what the poor guy in the Porsche in the other lane thought as Malcolm was more or less turning off the track before the Porsche got to the finish line.

Ian Marshall was pulling forward into stage in the Highlander Super Mod when it started to rain again so we are currently on hold.

When we were out in the pits we had a word with Cannon and Mort. Cannon said that "Only a 6.9 will do!". Mort told us that the engine has been completely rebuilt over the winter. "It just needed valves and a few other things, nothing serious", he said.

The Leanders Brothers Top Methanol FC looks astounding - you would not know that a tyre explosion took out the entire back left quarter of the car last year. "Hans Kadi did the repair", said driver Ulf Leanders. "He has worked on FC bodies in the USA and has done a lot of work in Sweden". Conspicuous by its absence on the Leanders FC is any wing or spill plate on the back of the car, not even the fin which it was sporting last time out. "We don't think we need it", said Ulf. "A lot of racers in the USA don't use them now". He added that just about everything was new for 2003. "We have a new Plueger chassis, a new blower, a new Carbon By Design injector", he said. "Of course because it is all new that means that we don't know anything!". We suspect a small amount of modesty there.

Gordon Appleton told us that he has not changed much on the Pro Mod since its six-second debut at the Excitement Nationals a couple of weeks back. "We will be happy if we can do the same here as we did there", he said. "At the moment we are using a lot of fuel and very little gas". The main change since the race at Shakespeare County Raceway is a lessening in the amount of wing, since the rear end squatted at speed at that race and ultimately the left rear slick rubbed on the inside of the body and made a hole. The body is still in raw carbon, but Gordon said that ace designer Darren West is putting together some designs for his consideration after the Main Event. We asked Gordon about his parachutes which were the subject of some discussion at the Excitement Nationals. "They are gas-fired", he said. "If you watch Adrian arm the nitrous on the start line, you will see the parachute packs fill out. They are a joy to use and easy to pack. The one handle now releases both chutes and when they come out the rush is almost as good as the pass". Having watched Gordon's first pass today we can confirm that the packs do indeed balloon out.

Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Sue Jackson's 'Vette is back together after her guardrail excursion at the Excitement Nationals. "It was in Robinson Race Cars on Sunday and I went and picked it up last night", said Sue. The car has a new radiator on the front, new chassiswork in the same area, and the nose has either been replaced or repaired and is currently plain black.

We have some special guests here today in the shape of a small group from Cyprus who are building a track on the island, and who have come here today to check out the facilities and to see how a race track is run. They have been very impressed with what they have seen so far. We look forward to reporting from Cyprus and if there are any racers out there who would like to drop us a line then we would be pleased to hear from you.

We now have Urs Erbacher and Niclas Andersson lined up behind race control so stay tuned and once we start running again we'll bring you all the news. The Webster Race Engineering/Dragrace Drachten webcam is of course up and running and updating every two minutes.

11:15

Good morning and welcome from Santa Pod Raceway for the beginning of the FIA Main Event festivities. We're all set up in race control and ready to bring you the action in association with American Car Imports.

Right now the on-track action consists of the strip dryer, tractor and brushes. Unfortunately it has rained heavily several times in the last few hours, but there is a stiff breeze which is helping to take the water off the top.

The Webster Race Engineering/Dragrace Drachten webcam is currently stopped although you may find the picture amusing...the first seven or eight times, anyway.

From our vantage point here in Race Control we can see Jon Morton and Chris Hannam's Top Fuel Bike, the Leanders Brothers and Urs Erbacher's TMFCs, Micke Kagered's pit which has both the Top Fueller and the TMFC is residence although it is only planned to run the TMFC today, Jimmy Ålund's Pro Stock, Kim Reymond's Top Fueller, Malcolm Francis' Super Comp/Gas Camaro, Andy Robinson and Gordon Appleton's Pro Mods, Ronny Aasen's Supertwin, and Sue Jackson and Mick Rogers' Custom Car Street Eliminator cars. And that's just what we can see from here.

We are going for a stroll around the pits to have a few words with racers, tune back soon and we'll let you know what we have found out.