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16:00

Rob Turner (TMD) said after his 5.69 first run "We dropped an exhaust valve on the run and have had to change a piston and a head. We had quite a bit of shake and blistered a slick too." Rob is delighted that TMD will continue in the FIA championship and intends to run the full series next year.

Krister Johansson (TMD - injected nitro) said after his 5.49 pass said, "I think it will go quicker still. It was not quite right leaving the start line, but it went like a rocket in the second half of the track. Our 60ft time was 0.98 on this run and 0.94 on the 5.53 run at the Main Event. There is just routine maintenance on the motor and we will next be running tomorrow. We want to improve further into the 5.4s."

Timo Habermann (TMD) said of his NPB 6.137/228, "It was a good first run for us and was a full pass. We now want to put more power into the motor which was running too cold and too rich. We lifted the front wheels on the launch and I think our 1.02 60 ft may have been tripped by the rear wheels. Our objective for this weekend is to run a five." The car runs direct drive.

Dave WIlson (TMD) said, "We were disappointed with our 5.59/246. We need to sort out our tune and get a grip of the track. It shook hard on the launch. We will make a few changes, regroup and then try to get a new baseline."

Gordon Smith was understandably regretful about Shockwave oiling the track. "The car blew an oil line off, but there is no damage. The car launched fine but the oil line came off early into the run and I was concentrating on getting the car back on four wheels and straight. I hope we can come out again today, if they let us!"

John Spuffard hit the left wall with Showtime's headers, but he is fine. He said, "The car launched ok and then rattled and I couldn't see the wall. The headers are only slightly scuffed. The data is good and we just need a little more power to overcome the rattle. We are running 2005 NHRA-spec parts and have a good handle on the clutch, and we are just chasing the combination now.

Showtime crew chief Bob Jarrett was upbeat. "The big thing for us is that we have got uninterrupted computer data, as we lose 80% of its usefulness if it is not complete. The car pulled to the left due to a chassis imbalance which we will realign the front end to cure. We are interested solely in going as quick as possible, and have 100% faith in the equipment."

Martin Lindqvist (TMFC) was delighted with a personal best of 5.958/235. "The run felt really good. We are running a looser clutch than (team mate) Ulf Leanders and it worked for us as we had no shake and ran our first five. We will look to repeat next time with the same setup."

Dan Larsen (TMFC) said of his 5.82/247 "We are a bit disappointed with the launch. The car pulled a wheelie in 1st and 2nd gears. We'll change the weight on the front and put more rear wing in".

Steph Milam's husband and crew chief Dave (TMFC) said of her 6.82/226, "We want the launch to be more aggressive. We had a problem at the start when we went straight into full stage and our opponent red lit. The car ran 187mph at the eighth and cars that do 190mph are running 5.9 or 6.0, which is what we will need to do if we want to qualify. The 60ft is our problem as we are still catching up with the clutch settings." The car is running a dry sump system for the first time this weekend.

Trevor Capewell (TMFC), who is accompanied at this event by wife Esta and newborn daughter Anastasia, said "Our run was poor. I lit the tyres up on the start line, tried pedalling, saw the shift light, punched second and then it shook badly so I lifted."

Kjell Sjoblom said "It's our first time at Santa Pod and it's a nice facility. We shook on the last run (a 6.438/219) and will take some clutch weight out for our next run. The car also moved around quite a bit." Kjell's home track is Sunvall and the team is aided by Leif Helander with family members Johnny and Michael Helander, who live nearby; the team also includes Lars Linquist. Kjell is aiming to run a 5.9 or 5.8 here. "We bought the car from Canadian IHRA racers Roger Bateman and Bob Reynolds. We have a new Chevy Monte Carlo body for our chassis for 2006, when we intend to run the whole European Championship. This is a learning year and we have run the car 20 times. Thanks to our sponsors Pritona, who make laser cutting machinery for stainless stell plates used in the paper industry"

Arvid Grodem was delighted with a personal best speed of 242mph in the first session. "We think we can still improve further. We had tyre shake and a poor 60 ft time. Hopefully we can step up next time to a 5.9."

In the Pro Mod pits, Hakan Nilsson said "There are a lot of quick cars here this weekend. Normally I would be pleased with our 6.469, but there are several cars that can potentially run 6.3s. The track is really good and I think we underestimated it. On our run we drove through the clutch quite a bit and need to be more aggresive with it next time."

Roger Johansson said that Jorgen Karlsson is tuned in at his hospital in Sweden and Roger is speaking to him on the phone every couple of hours. He said "Jorgen had a successful skin graft to his feet yesterday and in two weeks will have another. He is keeping his spirits up well." We at Eurodragster are sure that all our readers would want to join us in wishing Jorgen a speedy recovery.

Roger said that following tyre shake he has reverted the car to the settings that it previously had at Mantorp, which has involved changing the four-link settings, the weight distribution and the tyres.

Freddie Fagerstrom said "We're really happy with our performance, but on the last run we lost a traction rod in second gear and went sideways and spun the wheels. Nothing else was broken."

Luke Robinson said after the No.1 qualifier of dad Andy, "There are no problems with the car. There is potential for stepping up, but we won't make any big changes and try to repeat. We haven't changed the tune-up from Mantorp Park which is looser than Santa Pod, but we've had no problems at the start."

13:00

Thomas Nataas didn't make the first session of Top Fuel as the car was not 100% ready, but will definitely be in the second session.

Whilst Andy Carter's throttle stop didn't allow the car to break the tyres in the burnout, the launnch was strong, 0.88 to 60ft and then Andy shut off at half track on a planned half pass.

Susanne Callin was interviewed for Sky News at the press day and the resulting piece was broadcast on Thursday morning. On the first qualifier, the car shut off with a suspected ignition malfunction on the starting line. Susanne was confident the problem would be solved before the second session at 2:30pm.

Lex Joon lost a blower belt on his first qualifier. He said later that the extra power had caused the breakage and would look to take a little power out to calm the car down, the next run being in the left lane.

Kenneth Lorentzen said that Tommy Moller was slowed by a leaking manifold that caused blower pressure to drop, with the end result that three cylinders went out. "There was no damage though and tyre shake was not a problem."

Micke Kagered was pleased with his 5.08, No.1 qualifier after the first session but said there is much more to come. "The car lifted the front wheels and I had to lift off the throttle. I also shut off a little early as the car pulled less towards the end of the track. The track's got enough grip and I'd like to run a 4.8 next time out."

Smax Smith said of his 6.964 qualifier, "It was a half pass and the car went through the clutch a little when the timer didn't trigger. The driver's lead foot bent the throttle pedal and it damaged the clutch timer switch. The clutch was slightly blackened but we can polish that out. We are really grateful to First Stop Bodyshop, who stepped in as a sponsor at the last minute and enabled us to bring more parts - we were only going to have two clutch packs for the whole meeting which would have meant one-shot qualifying." The McDonalds team will be stepping up their PR and sponsorship effort for 2006 to enable Smax to run more races.

Svein Olaf Rolstad is No.1 qualifier in Super Twin. He said "We knew there was lots of power in the bike and are very satisfied with the 6.712. We had one of our best 60 foot times of 1.11 and spun the tyre a little after that then it hooked up and was very strong. After we have fine tuned the clutch settings, we hope to run a 6.5. Our thanks go to sponsors Red Line Oil".

Joachim Riemer (Super Twin) said that he was pleased with the 7.12/198 run. "It's a good baseline, but I am feeling under the weather with a bit of a fever."

Chris Hope ran 7.5s at the test session and said "This is a great starting point, particularly as there was such a strong headwind. We won't be here on Saturday as we will be at a family wedding, so we are looking to qualify strongly today." Sadly, this will be Chris's last meeting for some time as the bike is up for sale due to financial commitments.

Roger Petterson's crew said "On the press day we spun the tyre on the start line and then after taking power out, the bike stopped on the line. We've got a handle on it now." The resultant run was a 7.507, putting Roger in at No.2 behind Anders Larsson.

Steve Woollatt (Top Fuel Bike) overpowered the track on his first run and was looking into the cause when we passed by.

Ton Pels (Super Twin) also smoked the tyre. Crew chief Vincent said "We ran the same setup as Hockenheim, as Santa Pod can usually handle this. We will adjust the first and second stage of the clutch and leave the power as it is."

Niclas Andersson (TMFC) said "We suffered tyre shake on our 5.906/235. We also did something to the motor, and the team are just looking to see what is the problem."

John Parkinson (TMD) said "We plan to run a half pass to qualify and will then look at the clutch which we discovered was damaged on the licensing run last weekend. We also damaged the camshaft and have replaced it with one with more lift." The car is a big block Chevy with 8-71 blower and Enderle injection and 3-speed B&J transmission. The chassis is ex-Norm Wheeldon and has been rebuilt by John and Paul Stubbins (crew chief on the Timewarp car). "My thanks go to crew Bob Shayler, Paul Shayler, Kim North and my son Christopher."

10:00

Good Morning and welcome to Friday's pit notes. The mist and fog we had earlier was burnt off by 9am in time for a prompt start to Sportsman qualifying, session 6.

There was a fair degree of mechanical carnage following yesterday's five sessions and, as is often the case, this has been prevalent in the quicker runners.

In Super Pro, the Giles & Hartley dragster suffered a broken trans that resulted in aluminium shards on the track. We understand they have taken a trip back to Southampton to effect repairs.

Pat and Stephen Talbot have also had their share of transmission gremlins, but stayed at the track to rebuild, and are hoping to make the 2 o'clock session after working on it until 2am. Pat said, "We're very grateful for the help of transmission specialist Kev Cerasale who helped us with the rebuild and to Steve Johnson who supplied the parts. Also to Martyn Jones's team who are pitted alongside us and gave valuable support."

Mark Pointer (Super Pro Fordson van) had suffered major damage to the bottom end of his motor after the oil pump came off into the sump during the run, breaking his crank and putting him out for the rest of the meeting.

In Super Gas, Stuart Peck suffered terminal damage and Spencer Tramm has also withdrawn. Tim Adam broke a roller follower in the valve train and decided to call it a day. "If we were in the Championship race, we would have stripped the motor, but instead we will watch."

In 9.50 bike, some of the Super Street runners have had damage or problems. Dave Smith has a torched cylinder head and Brad O'Connor electrical gremlins.

Rachel Pattison suffered electrical problems when the Schnitz electronic box went bang and took out some pickups. "I would like to thank Chris Reed for the loan of a Schnitz box and pickups - we will repair at the track but but won't run for the remainder of the weekend as we are in testing mode. Thanks also to my crew Kurt and Liz." Rachel plans to run the National Championship in 2006.

Also in 9.50 bike, championship leader Fred Furlong has had an elctrical gremlin when the Power Commander automated shift system started giving problems. "We will be shifting without an electronic aid", he said. "There is less headwind today so we should run quicker."

In Super Gas, Graham Allen has run as fast as 9.40 and is trying to calm the car down somewhat. Graham said "We are still launching with the front wheels up in the air. We're trying to keep them on the track as much as possible whilst launching hard and we've tried many settings of our four link to try to get there. Also we've reduced the launch rpm on the transbrake to 3000."

We'll be back later with comments after the first pro session, which will be starting with the Pro Stock Bike, Supertwin and Top Fuel Bike. Stay tuned.