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17:00

John Atkinson (Mk 1 Cortina Estate Pro ET) said of his season, "We had a lot of luck at the start of the year and built up a lead of over 1000 points which has been whittled away a bit. But we've had no problems, touch wood. We had the car going well at the end of last season and it's been a great year so far. There is a really good crowd of racers in Pro ET, but we don't know yet what our plans are for next year. One of our targets is to run an eight before the end of 2005."

Bob Molden (Peugeot 205 Pro ET) was delighted to have run his first nine at the Allstar Nationals, where he also won Pro ET. He last ran at SPR at Easter, but missed the first round of the SCR championship after having to do some tubing work on the car. "We've had a great year and the car has gone from strength to strength. It's also been our daughter Vicky's first year in junior dragster which she has always wanted to do."

Shaun Lathan's car (Calibra Super Comp) was the recipient of a new Jeff Bull motor on Tuesday. "We dropped a lifter at the Allstar Nationals which damaged our motor and Jeff kindly stepped in," said Shaun. The new motor is a 498 cu in BBC with Merlin heads and a single carb (the old one was 461 cu in). "We're just dialling it in, but the fuel side needs aome attention; it seems to need fattening." The car which was built by Shaun with help from Al Smith's (former fuel altered pilot) brother. The transmission is a Transmission Specialities Powerglide.

Jon Morton (Super Comp/Gas Camaro) also has had a new Jeff Bull motor, which he dialled in at the Allstars. "Slowing it down is the problem", said Jon.

There have been 33 9.50 bikes running so far, but they have mostly been well behaved in relation to the index, the fastest to session number 5 being Steve Venables with a 7.841. However Graham Dance, who ran his first seven at the Allstars, said he had changed engines for this meeting and he was still dialling the replacement one in. Richard Hann said "The track is very good, but the headwind is slowing us by about 5mph."

Andy Frost (Super Pro Vauxhall Victor FE ) is here on the back of a new personal best 8.2 in Street Eliminator at the Allstars. "The weekend hasn't gone too badly so far although we do need more power to compensate for the treaded tyres - they cost about half a second ET." The motor which Andy built, is a 600 cu in BBC with two stage nitrous and Dart Pro heads. Andy also prepared the gearbox, this being his speciality. "My thanks go to Peter Knight and Jon Webster for their help in preparing the car for this race. A special thanks to Altiss Engineering, my major sponsor." Andy's plans for 2006 mainly involve the UK Street Eliminator championship, where around ten new cars are planned to appear, and the King of Europe, providing it doesn't clash with a UK Street Eliminator round. "We want to run 8.2s consistently next year, but I'm looking at twin turbos for 2007..."

Congratulations to John Tebenham (Super Pro/Comp Eliminator Ford Probe ) who has run his personal best time of 7.94 and speed of 168mph. "We want to run 7.6s, which the car's previous owner, Wayne Saunders, ran, but want to creep up on it." The car puts out 890 bhp without nitrous from a 2 litre Cosworth motor. "We are trying an anti-lag system that gives us 60lbs extra boost on the start line, rather than the existing launch control system and this has worked well for us this weekend." The car was built by Geoff Hauser and Jon Webster.

Ashley Bell (Super Pro AC Cobra) is running close to his 8.41 personal best achieved at SCR. "We ran an 8.48 today but the car is starting to want to go skywards", said Ashley.

Derek Flynn (Super Pro ET dragster) said that he has replaced both half-shafts with "straight ones - my thanks to Andy Robinson Race Cars". A minor glitch occurred when the data recorder failed to switch on, but Derek is pleased with a 7.1 so far. "The car is down on launch rpm, but we'll go for a six tomorrow morning, you never know, one comes along when you are least expecting it."

15:00

Sam Freeman (Super Pro ET Altered) has been a little unlucky as he first dialled in 8.5 and ran an 8.65, then dialled an 8.62 and ran an 8.59. "This is our team's first time in competition at Santa Pod. We bought the car from a racer in the US. I've been in racing since much longer ago though, as I was crew chief for Trevor Young in the 1970s - we ran Sweden's first ever six second pass with Clive Skilton's Revolution III and also ran it at many airfields around the UK. This is my first visit to SPR since 1984 and I bought the car even before seeing the track again. The sport has grown, there are a lot more cars and good equipment, with better facilities." The altered runs a 511 big block Chevy with a single carb and no nitrous. "We want to have fun with a reliable setup", said Sam.

Tim Adam is qualified at No. 1 in Super Gas with the Brogie Roadster. He said jokingly, "Matt Gatland who crewed with us for years, had no. 1 and I took it off him!" Tim said he would like to enter both the roadster and his Ford Falcon last seen in competition at last year's finals into different classes at the same meeting. "We're waiting for parts from the US, but hope to run both cars later this year", said Tim.

Chris Johnson is pleased with the performance of the X-Power MG ZS in Super Comp, but is quite relaxed about the championship, being only a small margin behind leader Paul Knight. "The car is working well", Chris said, "but running it in Super Comp is quite different from Pro ET and we are looking to spend some money over the winter to get it to go as we want it. We changed to Super Comp as we want to race in Europe but after Rover went bust, we didn't have sufficient funds. Nevertheless, we plan to get a new trailer and run the Mantorp and Gardermoen races next year. Anders Envall has been supportive to us in this."

Chris Newsam (Pro ET Hillman Avenger) said "I've had the car since I was 17 and had it rebuilt as a race car by Jeff Owen 11 years ago. We put a Rover V8 motor into it and ran 13s. Last year we ran Sportman ET then in 2005 we've bolted a nitrous system on and ran 11.2 at York and then ran 10.6 at the Allstar Nationals at the end of August. It broke two head gaskets then and also went through two this morning, but we're pleased as otherwise it is very reliable - I picked the wheels up fo rthe first time earlier too. We hope to run all Championship meetings next year."

Paul Baynton (Pro ET Ford Capri Mk1) said "We had a few problems in the burnout area, hopping through it, with flamebacks through the carb. Normally we run 11.1s but we are back to 11.4s today. I bought the car 5 years ago and have been racing it for the last two years - it used to be in Super Gas with a Chrysler 440cu in motor, I'm running a 327 cu in Chevy."

Darren Hulkes (Pro ET Camaro) is delighted with his No. 1 spot in the huge Pro ET field. "After running the car for 4-5 years in Sportsman ET I spent a year and a half not being able to go fast enough to make Pro ET", he said, "and eventually when I could, I reached the final here last year only to red-light. Thanks to my crew Colin, Dale, Kim, Ian, Nathan and Carl "Niff" Jakes.

Mick and Phil Hartley (Giles & Hartley Super Pro ET Dragster) said, "We are close to our dial-in although the headwind slowed us slightly. The track is excellent, but will improve further still after the big cars go down it. We've had the car since 1987 and have run it with small block engines (which we broke two of) and big block (which we have gone through one of). Our latest motor is a big block Chevy on methanol. We built the motor ourselves with parts from Shahrioff, Reher-Morrison heads and Kinsler injection."

Super Pro racing is both fast and competitive with many cars running quicker and a 31 car field. Two long-time runners are enjoying themselves, Martyn Jones and Steve Johnson both running close to their mid-7 indices with routine maintenance. However, Pat Talbot ran into some drivetrain problems. She said "The car shook very hard off the line then there was a bang and I sidelined it. The Chrysler motor's fine but the Chevy drivetrain has not held up so well. We're just seeing what the exact problem is but it's unlikely we'll be out again today."

Chris Reed, normally in Super Street bike found to somewhat to his embarrasment that he was No. 1 qualifier in 9.50 bike. He said "We have just rebuilt the motor and it was our first run on nitrous, just a small quantity. The bike also had some trouble off the line and then we saw 9.51 on the clocks. You can't sell a No. 1 qualifying spot, but if you could, we'd have ours on Ebay! Next time we will use more nitrous and run a better (for Super Street) time."

11:30

Good Morning and welcome to Thursday's pit notes from the European Finals. The skies have cleared and four sessions of sportsman qualifying beckon.

Malcolm Francis in the Air Sea Logistics Pontiac Grand Am ran a 7.75 at 173mph on his first Super Comp qualifier. "That was to see what it would do without the thorttle stop", said Malcolm. "We intend to do a similar run in Super Gas before switching the throttle stop back on. We ran at the Press Day but broke a track locator on the rear axle on our second pass. A special thankyou goes to Andy Robinson who dropped his other work to get us back running. And thanks also to Jeff Bull for giving us the power for that run."

Zane Llewellyn, said of his 8.95 Super Comp run, number one after the first session, "There is a headwind in the right hand lane and that slowed us a little. We've had too many rainouts on the continent this year and I hope I haven't brought the wet weather with me this weekend. We had a great time in Drachten and lost by 32 thousandths after breaking out by only one thousandth. It was a little difficult to judge the finish line as it was marked by cones!"

Chris Isaacs is running Super Comp for the second time, having been in Pro ET and Super Gas previously. He said, "We ran Super Comp at the Summernationals using nitrous for the first time, and conditions were so good, we had trouble in keeping above the index. The trans started slipping which helped us at the time but we have had that repaired now and look to run on the index this weekend, with conditions not quite as good. We always planned to run the car in Super Comp, and it feels good."

Malcolm Motler came to a halt off the start line in the Pro ET Morris Minor Pickup. "I went to hit the throttle and the car stalled, then when we managed to get started again, I aborted the run. We haven't been out since June, when we set a PB of 10.13, so we need to get more runs in."

Lee Darby is in his first race in his beautiful 1950s Chevy Stepside truck that he acquired earlier in the year. "We tested at the Mopar Nationals. I bought the car from the family of a Floridian race called Milton Gray who raced it in the 3500lb class at last October's World Street Nationals at Orlando, but who sadly passed since then. The car has a 585cu in Steve Schmidt motor with Twin Holleys and nitrous. We're running it without nitrous in Pro ET. The motor has been dynoed at 1203bhp without the gas, but the car is heavy. We plan to run it as a race car initially, but may try Street Eliminator later. I would like to thank Jeff Bull for mending a broken valve spring at short notice." Lee is carrying the signage of DKM Construction, his company.

Mark Pointer said that it is his last weekend with his current motor, before installing a new latest-spec Dart blown engine. "It's being built by Trevor from B&H Autoparts in Doncaster, who used to run the old Police Pro Mod car. The new motor is steel, because it works better with our car, and will have a Procharger blower." Mark who usually runs in Outlaw Anglia is in Super Pro ET this weekend. "I don't like the Sportsman tree," he admitted.

Paula Atkin is back with the Ford Popular 100E after a three year layoff. She said, "I felt a bit nervous about driving the car at our first test run, then last weekend, we attend the Peak Performance day anad felt the adrenalin rush after leaving the line and I am now so glad we've returned. We've done a fair amount on the car. We had an aerodynamicist from the Motor Industry Research Association look at the car and from his suggestions we extended the rear deck and put more weight at the rear end and also added a front splitter. The car feels more stable to drive now. We've also freshened the 500 cu in Ford Hemi motor with new pistons and rods and rebuilt the 2-speed Powerglide gearbox. My thanks go not only to my husband Stan but also to Clive Bond at Ultimate Racecars, who has done the motor work. Also to Mark Gredzinski who designed the new paint scheme and Martin Curbishley who applied it." Paula said she plans to attend more meetings in 2006.

Martin Curbishley has moved up to where he wants to be, Super Pro. The car is a dragster originally built in Florida but bought in 2005 from a Norwegian racer. This is a learning year with the car. "We first ran the car at the Main Event but had some technical problems with the engine. After solving that, we discovered late in the day that the gearbox needed rebuilding. I would like to say a big thanks to Andy Frost for refreshing the gearbox with a 24 hour turnaround." The motor is a 468 cu in Big Block running on methanol with a single carburettor. Martin's plans are to step up over winter and run sevens in Super Pro next year.

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