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20:15

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

We'll be back in the morning with all the results from the first day of qualifying. Action starts at 9:30 - see you then!

19:00

A large contingent of Sportsman racers put in passes this afternoon, including a number still doing great service for the sport giving passenger rides.

Let's take you through the Sportsman runs. Sandie Gibb 12.118/110.67 and 12.258/108.85; Keith Crampton 13.614/94.95 and 13.385/95.31; Ian Tubb 7.631/173.78; Andy Williams 8.719/157.92 and 9.042/156.81; Martin Curbishley 9.437/152.64 and 9.140/153.03; Steve Johnson 7.416/175.68; Carla Pittau 10.333/127.54; Darren Hulkes 11.704/114.24; Rick Denny 13.483/98.26; Holly Mitchell 10.258/65.68 (0.005 reaction); Shaun Spiers 11.312/127.08, 10.278/no speed, 10.853/128.83, 11.511/125.38 and 10.989/127.05 ; Chris Reed 13.442/109.97 and 11.546/125.36 (running in a new engine finished last night); Dave Bailey 10.308/133.78, 9.109/163.05 and 9.144/163.66; Spencer Tramm 10.031/115.31.

One of the more notable passengers this afternoon was FIA Championship Promoter and Santa Pod Chief Executive Keith Bartlett taking a a ride with Susanne Callin, 7.690/174.99 in the two-seater dragster.

We are now working on today's pictures, stay tuned and we'll bring those to you very shortly.

18:40

We've had a very busy afternoon here at Santa Pod. It turned into a bit of a free-for-all with a lot of racers arriving at the track to find the strip open and so coming down to put in passes. I've got several pages of notebook full of times and speeds so let's take you through this afternoon's runs.

Tommy Möller was scheduled to make two passes but in the end made just the one. A short burnout and then 0.860 to sixty feet, at about 100 feet Tommy hit shake and pedalled, when he got back on the throttle the tyres started to haze so he got off it again and rolled through, 7.199/110.28.

Ulf Leanders had two shots at a run this afternoon. After a great burnout on his first attempt, he blipped the throttle three times just before going into stage and on the third blip the blower belt broke. The VP Group team pushed the blue FC back to the front of the barn and put in a new blower belt, no problems on the second attempt with a storming 5.869/240.61 for Ulf. Towards the end of the afternoon Martin Lundqvist appeared again with the green FC and laid down a 6.153/225.10 which all of us thought looked quicker.

Freddy Fagerström started the afternoon's Pro Mod activity with a 6.651/204.50. The team were not happy and were even less so when Freddy's next run was a 6.768/205.46 which sprayed fuel around the start line. The team then found that an ignition lead was broken, fixed that and Freddy closed the day with a 6.403/218.32 with a 1.049 sixty foot.

Roger Johansson has been fighting hard against shake this afternoon - the consensus of opinion was that Roger and the MSS team were trying different set-ups to see what worked. Roger's first pass this afternoon was an 11.100, no speed recorded, with a 1.032 sixty foot time. Shake almost off the line on the next run, 13.676/57.99 but then it seemed to come together on Roger's last run of the afternoon with a 1.045 sixty foot time, off the throttle at 1000 feet, 'chutes out before the finish, 6.662/176.56. There was some smoke from the car in the shutdown area but nothing untoward was found on the track.

Gordon Appleton had a wild ride on his first pass this afternoon, 1.060 to sixty feet then shake from 100 to 250 feet which Gordon tried to drive through and then the Camaro suddenly turned hard right and went up on three wheels so Gordon got off the throttle and cruised to a 9.503/89.64. "We got too greedy" said Crew Chief Adrian afterwards. No such problems on Gordon's second pass this afternoon, not straight but not uncontrollable, 6.437/219.43.

Patrick Wikström put in a couple of consistent passes, 6.420/217.51 and a 6.649/215.62 with a 1.044 sixty foot time. Mats Eriksson popped up to see us with a big grin on his face, the shake which has plagued him this season has been traced to a bent drive shaft and indeed on Mats' earlier run today there was no more than the 'acceptable' level of shake. Mats was going great guns on his pass this afternoon when the blower belt broke right on half track and he slowed to a 7.544/136.40.

Ian Bishop made his first appearance since arriving here for Saturday's Peak Performance Day, only to have a big nitrous burp off the line. Jan Arve Nygard made one pass this afternoon, a 6.825/203.83 which looked quicker, wheels up to about a hundred feet.

Onto two wheels and Ronny Aasen also made one of those runs which looked a lot quicker than the time which came up, a very straight and clean-looking 7.056/194.05.

Chris Hope kicked off the afternoon's Pro Stock Bike activity with a 7.561/171.69 followed by a 7.574/172.57. Anders Larsson clocked 7.615, no speed recorded, with some spin all the way down the track and then a 7.576/171.03. Martin Bishop and Richard Gipp ran right towards the end of the afternoon, Martin shutting off early to an 8.121/127.89 and Richard also off it slightly early at 7.981/165.52. Roger Pettersson had two attempts at a run, the engine cutting out off the line both times, on the second occasion it sounded as if metal was tinkling too, hopefully no damage.

Stay tuned as we are now decoding all of this afternoon's Sportsman passes from the notebook.

14:25

As is the way with Press Days we've had a mixture of demonstration runs with passenger rides so we've had our hands a bit full keeping track. But let's take you through what's happened up to 13:30.

Martin Lundqvist and Ulf Leanders are planning one run each in their Top Methanol FCs, as there are only enough crew members to run one car at once. Martin has run so far, I think the hardest pass I have seen him make but he pedalled for about half a second just past half track which hurt the ET, 6.206/225.18.

Roger Johansson, Gordon Appleton, Jan Arvy Nygård, Patrick Wikström and Mats Eriksson have all made demo passes, Roger was first up with a strong launch, then shake at seventy feet and off the throttle to clock 10.192/80.76. His next run was a lot better, no sign of shake and off the throttle at 1000 feet and the chutes out before the strip, 6.905/145.15.

Gordon Appleton has made one pass so far, a very strong 6.463/216.22 although Crew Chief Adrian Spencer didn't look too satisfied with the run and got on the radio to Gordon to ask if he had lost the blower belt. Jan Arvy Nygård opened his account with an 8.327/95.95 half-pass, the car sounded quite lazy. Just as we went to post this update Jan Arve made another pass, blackstriping most of the way before shutting off at about 1000 feet and putting the 'chutes out early, 6.982/162.99. Jan Arve was then stuck on the shutdown area for a long time, no word on what the problem was.

Patrick Wikström announced his arrival with a one hundred foot burnout and clocked a very nice looking 6.441/217.22, again his crew didn't look 100% satisfied but he has a baseline for the weekend. Mats Eriksson put in a nice burnout to sixty feet and then a nice straight pass, some blackstriping, 6.630/217.24.

Ronny Aasen's tyre started to haze between about 100 feet and 150 feet on his first pass and he got off the throttle at about 1000 feet, 7.815/154.51 for the Supertwin.

Roger Pettersson, Chris Hope and Anders Larsson have put in passes on their Pro Stick Bikes. Roger Pettersson kicked off with a 7.442/175.05 and then a 7.493/178.56. Chris Hope's only run so far was a 7.732/170.38 whilst Anders Larsson clocked 7.576/170.53 on his first run of the day.

Martin Hill gave the assembled media a great introduction to the joys of Jet Funny Cars with lots of throttle slams and then a 6.083/259.97. Our good friend Jo Holland of Motorsport News, who is paying her first visit to the track, stood on the start line with your reporter and we are pleased to say that she stood her ground like a good'un.

On the Sportsman front, the racers have been more or less hot-lapping so let's take you through today's runs so far:

Malcolm Francis 8.344/124.70 (shut off at 1000 feet) then a very squirrelly 9.318/85.22 and we suspect there was a problem with the rear axle on that pass; Mike Lacey 10.361/130.02; Jack Brewster 9.536/144.17; Pete Creswell 9.063/150.00; Andy Williams 9.259/158.35; Spencer Tramm 10.372/99.14 (shut off at 1000 feet) and 9.778/137.59; Phil Bennett 8.869/146.49 and 8.942/146.07; Jim Smith 10.744/122.94 and 10.792/123.29; Ian Tubb 7.664/173.93, 7.651/173.08 and 7.715/171.86; Martin Curbishley 8.612/153.01 and 8.548/155.30; Carla Pittau 10.247/120.65; Phil Pratt 9.889/135.63, 9.690/136.72 and 9.765/134.61; Dave Warren (on the family's 9.50 Bike) 10.548/130.02; Steve Wareham - Paul Spiers' brother-in-law in Paul's car - 11.158/117.71; Holly Mitchell 10.621/50.06 and 10.649/48.96; Keith Crampton 13.868/93.21; Paul Marston (in the Insanity Vega) 10.795/123.98; Andrew Gibb 12.416/108.97 - Sandie drove the car on an earlier pass but apologies to her for missing the ET and speed; Steve Johnson 7.463/176.40.

On the passenger ride front, Darren Hulkes, Paul Spiers, Jack Brewster, Mike Lacey, Rick Denny, Pete Creswell, Nev Mottershead, Nick Griffin, Spencer Tramm; Carla Pittau, Mark Pointer and Susanne Callin have all been taking unsuspecting journalists for ride-alongs. Nev Mottershead's first passenger ride of the day, a check-out as he has never taken passengers before, was with his wife Libby who thoroughly enjoyed her first trip in a race car at 10.092/136.69. Outlaw Anglia racer Mark Pointer very kindly took Eurodragster.com Photo Editor Sharkman for a passenger ride, a 100-foot burnout followed by what Shark described as "One of those runs when you see the centreline and the guardrail, 8.572/154.76. Susanne Callin's first passenger ride of the day was for the newly-crowned Miss England who was treated to a 7.835/171.03 in the two-seater dragster, the quickest run I have seen by the dragster.

Stay tuned and we will bring you all the news from the afternoon session.

9:30

Good morning and welcome from Santa Pod Raceway, which today is hosting the Press Day to promote this weekend's FIA European Finals. We're here to bring you all the action in association with American Car Imports.

The Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam is on-line and is broadcasting a picture every two minutes.

Trackside conditions right now are 18.8 C, 73% humidity, and 29.53 inches of air.

The plan for today is to bring you news of the demonstration sessions which are scheduled for 10:30, 14:00 and 16:00; this afternoon's two runs by Top Fuel Dragster racer Tommy Möller, which are scheduled for 15:00 and 17:00; and the demonstration run by Martin Hill in the Fireforce 2 Jet Funny Car, which is scheduled for 13:00. There have been stirrings about your race reporter taking the wheel of another race car today, which might interrupt the coverage a little, but we will let you know in good time if that is going to happen.

Stay tuned and we will bring you all the news from the first demonstration session as soon as it happens.