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18:00

Paul Watson, Team Manager for Ray White's Lethal Zephyr Pro Mod talked of the frustrations the team experienced in not being able to select reverse gear. "We changed the first gear ratio and it turned out the input shaft wasn't the right length with the new gear to enable it to go into reverse. We machined it but it didn't work out and no-one else here has a spare. So the plan is to do a short burnout and a half pass with our old first gear so that we can at least get some data. On the second run yesterdat the starter motor fell apart, so it hasn't been our weekend.

Robert Joosten had to repair the hood when the blower belt broke on Saturday and left a metre long hole. "The guys did a great job of patching it up", Robert said. We changed the setup to chase a better time and ran a 6.46 which is good, but we do want to back up the earlier run for the record."

Clayton Round's earlier engine smoke was only an inlet gasket and as we write he has just run his first six at 6.946/190.

Dave Beck (Pro Stock Bike) said "The whole of the ignition system, carburretors and clutch are new. It's probably too much to change at once but I'm pleased we got a good baseline with a 7.31. On the last run the bike spun the tyre and it slowed to 6.41. I hope to run again later today as I was not able to be here on Friday. Our objective is to run a '20 this weekend." Dave's racing plan is to run the whole ACU Championship and do some ProStar events with the MRE Pro Mod Bike team. This weekend, Dave is helped by Steven Moon who runs an Outlaw Bike and Ric Naylor who is currently building a Yamaha RD400 for NAST competition.

Derek Flynn who put out an appeal for a Lenco reverse gear, is planning to be pushed back to the start line after a short burnout to get his final licensing pass in.

Luke Bennett (NFAA) said "The snout on the blower shaft sheared. It was a weak link in the refurbished blower setup. The crew is driving to Martin Hannis's workshop to fit it. We're pleased though as the car ran its best ever speed at 192mph on a 7.12. It was a good race with Clayton too. Our new pistons are sorted. I will be working on my new Bantam altered for next year and are building up the parts over time.

Bob Glassup said "There were two problems yesterday that were causing the transmission to fully engage on launch. The shake was unbelievable. We fitted a new ctorque converter and are pleased and can leave our woes behind". Watch out for an announcement from this team in the near future.

Doug Bond said of son Joe's NFAA entry, "In the off season we put some new wheels on from the Showtime car. We also have a full floating rear axle and three speed Lenco with new tyres. Our first run was a 8.70 half pass, followed by a 7.49 PB and then a 7.70 with a driving job. We are looking to get 0.4s off our times. The only damage we've had is to an inlet valve and the car is in good shape."

Jim USher of The Mob Fuel Altered is delighted with PBs on every run in the last couple of days. "We had to take a piston and liner out after our 6.78/206 and will miss the next session to be ready for tomorrow. We have learned a lot from Dave Benjamin. One of the things we are looking at is not burning out but doing chirps to the line only to heat the tyres. The theory is that the motor is being damaged when it is on the throttle stop during the burnout. A big Thank You to Lawrie and our sponsors. I've had a couple of interesting rides and on the last one the oil got on my visor and I couldn't see where I was going. I had to do the chute and turn off the fuel practically blind."

Nick Good is qualified in the top five in his first meeting in Super Pro, a year after he qualified no. 1 in Pro ET at his first competitive meeting. He said "The only change I've made is to bolt on a Ron's Injection setup that runs on methanol. I have the same heads, block and ignition as last year. It's given the car a whole new lease of life and has run a best of 8.55 with a 1.16 60ft time." Sponsor support for Nick comes from BeovaxComputer.co.uk in Newmarket and FocalPointDigital.co.uk in Norwich. In spite of the improvement the car is for sale. Nick said "I've got Gary Malin's Serious Playtime chassis and Derek Flynn's blown methanol motor from last year. But I will be sorry to see this car go."

Carla Pittau of Heaven & Hell Racing explained to us that following a damaged valve on their new motor she and driver Rick McGann had to change back to the 'Old Reliable' 383ci. "It was worth running the new motor to pull those wheelies", she said. "We love to do launches like the Super Stock cars in the States." The team have a fearsome reputation in Pro ET having been in the top three in the championship for each of the last six years. "It's really hard work sometimes", she admitted.

Keith Herbert who is no.1 in Pro ET qualifying is one of those grass roots racers who are the backbone of the sport and earn success the hard way. "I've been in competition for the last five years", he said. "I used to only do two or three meetings a year as that was all I could afford. Now I race at all the SPR events. I've had the car since 1997. It was brought over from Wisconsin where it had been raced in Super Gas and I bought it as a rolling shell and put an engine and gearbox in it out of a Dodge Coronet. I've developed it myself since then and have kept the original paintwork, although I would like to repaint it to publicise my company Hillingdon Speed and Spares. Winning No.1 in Pro ET qualifying really makes a difference, thanks to the sponsorship package. My best ET is 11.25 and I've got a new box and stall converter but don't want to touch it this race as we are very consistent but not as quick as we could be." On Saturday, Keith ran 11.30, 11.31 and 11.32.

Ian Jackson said "I was out of competition for almost two seasons with Matthew, our new child and finishing the turbo conversion. It wasn't quite complete at Xtreme wheels last year and when we tested it we had a minor disaster with the ECU, which resulted in the engine needing a refresh. We then had to start mapping the ECU again. Jon Webster was a great help to us in this mapping process as he knows all about turbochargers. We have only mapped ours to 12lb/in (the maximum is 30lb/in) but you need to map it at each pressure level. This is good for 8.80s, which we are pleased with. It's nice to go away from the race with the car in one piece. Unfortunately the car had an electrical failure on the cruise so won't be able to compete tomorrow. We've got a lot of data from this meeting to work with and will need to do quite a lot of work on the car still so we might not be able to make all rounds. The electrics are seven years old and need refreshing and even the block is the same 427ci one from before."

15:00

Andy Kirk said "The new season has come round faster than we thought. We have made some changes to the cylinder head and need to work getting off the line with the clutch setup. We're second quickest with a 7.67. Our crew chief Lee flew beack from Bahrain on Wednesday and Danny Cockerill is helping us out before he returns in his Pro Mod towards the end of the year."

Spencer Tramm is pleased with a pair of 8.64s which have helped him to be near the top of the Super Pro standings. He said "My thanks go to Jeff Bull who supplied my new engine. I'm just pleased to show that you can do well in Super Pro with a door car."

In this morning's qualifier, Steph Milam's She Devil suffered a top end explosion at the end of a 6.123/235 new PB run. Word from Color Commentator Dave Alexander is that the car dropped no. 7 and 8 cylinders and pushed the bulkhead back, in the process, singeing Steph's leg. So the team is out for the rest of this meeting.

John Everitt is pleased with the Alien altered that he races in Super Pro ET and runs mid-sevens with often spectacular driving jobs. "The car's been good", he said. "It won the 2005 Ultimate Power Championship which is quite a feat against the dragsters. We've had a few troubles this weekend, such as a blown head gasket and new battery, but that's racing." The big block Chevy motor has Enderle injection, a Powerglide 2-speed and Strange rear end. John's new project is a revival of the altered he ran several years ago called Hang 'Em High, which will include the original body, modified suitably and a brand new chassis that is currently on the jig at I.C.E. Automotive. The engine will be a blown and injected big block on methanol. "The intention is to run side-by-side match races against the Havoc altered, and we will be going for the six second zone and guardrail to guardrail action."

Jonas Dantanus from Sweden has successfully licensed in his new Pontiac Grand Am, formerly owned by Michael Malmgren. He said "It is a big step up from Super Street to Pro Stock. The launch is so brutal and there is so much power and adrenaline, it ought to be a human right for everyone to have one of these. My aim is to become a couple with the car and get completely used to driving it. Then we will install a stronger engine. But so far, so good - it's a real thrill." Jonas's team includes Christopher Gustavsson, Roger "Kocken" Larsson (chef), Micke Borjesson (clutch for this weekend), Simon Gustafsson and Johan Skogland. The main clutch man Matte Zärleby is not able to attend this weekend. Jonas added "My thanks to Michael Malmgren for all his help with us in setting up the car."

12:00

Welcome to Easter Sunday's pit notes. The weather continues to smile on us and the qualifying continues with eliminations starting this afternoon.

We first spoke to Nigel Holland, who has been at trackside as a photographer for the Northampton Evening Telegraph for the last two years and whose debut race meeting this is. Nigel who works as a web developer in his day job, has been disabled from a young age, and is racing a '96 Ford Mustang in Sportsman ET. "At the test and tune the car which is a race car but road legal, was running consistent low 15s, but a small oil leak started towards the end. I took it to Complete Autos in Finedone and Roy Walker, who is a diamond, took time out to fix it. However it started leaking on Friday and lots of people have helped me try to get it completely fixed with silicon but it has got worse and so I'm out for the weekend. A bug thank you to Vic Amato, his crew Dave, Mike Lacey, the Gingerbread team for your help and especially to Graham Dale without whom I wouldn't be racing. Up to that point I qualified second so I'm pretty gutted." Nigel will be running the SPRC championship rounds this year as funds allow.

Knut Soderquist was pleased with Patrik Per's performance in the Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car. "He has a good feel for the car. I like running a Funny Car because they are such a challenge to set up precisely to run well. We will run the Funny Car at events that will have us. Although I have three Top Fuel dragsters, I am not really looking for drivers unless they have both brains and sponsorship. We have increasing racing interests in the Middle East at Bahrain and Dubai and will be taking it relatively easy in the European season. Micke Kågered has now bought his car out from me and will be running his own team this year."

Patrik Pers said "The car felt perfect. On the first run I had a selection problem with reverse but it was not a mechanical issue. The second run was a planned launch which went well. Today I plan to run to 1000ft to get the license finalised and then run for the Pro Fuel Shootout. I want to race the Funny Car mainly this year but may bring the Top Fuel Dragster out at Mantorp. I have sold the Pro Modified Corvette to Putte, a friend and may run this once or twice in preparation for him."

Steve Woollatt was pleased with a new PB of 6.31 on his Top Fuel bike. "During the closed season the whole engine has been reworked by Pete Davis of Puma Engineering", he said. "The top end has been freshened and work has been done on the heads. Last year I had problems with sealing the heads to the b, which resulted in dropped cylinders. We have modified the sealing system and the bike is running well. We haven't changed the fuel system or clutch for this race and put in our 'safe' setting without a lot of nitro. We will look at changing the setup for the Main Event. I know there is more to come because we had bad tyre shake in the first half of the track and according to the computer I shut off after six seconds - it's difficult to tell on the run." Steve plans to run the ACU championship and both UEM events held in the UK.

Roel Koedam has had to withdraw the Zodiac V Twin from competition and has gone home after some component breakage. Reportedly both rods broke on a checkout pass. That run was an emotional moment for the team and in particular Hall of Fame Inductee Ton Pels, who we understand will be presented with his award at the Main Event.

Steve Turner, licensing in the Turner Motorsport Top Methanol Dragster, said "We have backed the tuning of the car down a bit for this weekend and are taking it step-by-step. The organisers said they would be ok if I ran against someone but I wanted to get used to the burnout and staging ritual in the first couple of days. I'm still involved with the maintenance of the car at the track, but driving it gives me a better appreciation of what sort of animal the car is and also helps me understand Rob's feedback better. We had modified the car with a new head shield and latest spec wing stand over the winter and will have new heads and PSI blower on the car. We will be pleased if we can run a five at this event."

Fredde Fagerström said "It's been a nice transition from Pro Mod to Methanol Funny Car. I have had a lot of help from Paule, Urs Erbacher's TMFC crew chief and the rest of the team. I had a lot of vibration on the first run and got very close to the wall, and on the second pass, I hit the reflectors. The only problem on the 5.78 was that I had one front tyre taller than another which caused the car to go right and the parachute hit the wall and tore. We have changed the tyres on both the front and the back for the next run. I have kept the Pro Modified truck for the future to run in case we get sponsorship."

Steve Green in the John Woolfe Racing-sponsored Cortina is no. 1 qualifier in Super Pro but admitted this was "More luck than judgment. We have new tyres for the first time in six years and as a result we have got a bit lost with the clutch and suspension settings. The motor is the same as last year (based on a Rover) and we are running 8.6s consistently without nitrous. For the Main Event we will add nitrous and a data logger and hope to get into the sevens then."

Pat and Stephen Talbot are joined for this season by new crew member Dean of Team Twisted. Pat said "On our first run on Friday morning we used the nitrous and spun the tyres. So we took the nitrous off for the second run and then replaced it on the third run to get back into the low sevens. We had the motor freshened over the winter after breaking a rocker arm in the semi-final at the Euro Finals".

Tim Garlick is running a new engine in the Mark 3 Cortina. He said "The engine was built by I.C.E. Automotive", said Tim. "We weren't prepared to carry out further development work on the old Rover-based engine which we ended up with a methanol burning nitrous set-up. We have switched to a small block Chevy motor of 368ci which we feel is a better package. We've been able to use some of the equipment from the old engine such as the two Holleys, the oil filter and MSD ignition. However the rest is completely new, the block and the heads. I.C.E. have put the motor on their dyno and installed it into the chassis and did the necessary fabrication. We are limited to a 5lb nitrous bottle with this engine, whereas the Rover could have a 10lb bottle, but we couldn't use it all as it would result in damage. Our best so far with the new combo is a 7.82/167 which compares to my PB of 7.6. Thanks go to Rob and Nick at I.C.E., Steve Green and my team Paul Dawson, Ricky Dawsonand Sean Chittock."