Rick Stubbins (Super Street Bike) ran a 7.70 on his turbo Suzuki Hayabusa. "That compares to my PB of 7.63 from last year. Rick built his bike himself as Protek Racing. He pits with fellow Super Street bike racers Gary Bowe and Scott Baldwin who owns the truck promoting 200mph Ultimate Hypersports Bike Club and SPR.

Fellow Super Street Bike racers Graham Balchin (left) and Steve Vanables (right) had mixed weekends, Graham running 7.6s and reaching the final and Ven having traction trouble and going out early. Graham said "The bike is consistent because I didn't change anything over the winter since running three 7.5s at the end of last season." Steve said "I was racing in Valdosta, Georgia with Velocity Racing last weekend on my new bike. I will keep last year's bike and try a few things in testing."

Nigel Payne is delighted to have won Super Mod. He said "The rule changes have helped a lot. Previously our best was 7.88/173 and this weekend we ran 7.73/177. The rule changes allow us to run siamese ports in the cylinder heads but carry more weight per cubic inch. The cylinder head change forced us into getting a new engine which is 537cu in as opposed to 555 cu in last year, but this one breathes better with higher compression. In comparison with the Lenco cars, we're still not quicker but the playing field is more even. If we had a Lenco, we would need to add 250lbs weight."

Steve Woollatt is also a winner at this event with a new personal best speed of 222mph on his second pass. "Over the winter we fitted a much stronger rear hub and freshened up the motor but made no other changes." The result of this consistent approach was a 6.39 out of the box, shut off two tenths before the finish line. Steve's 2008 plans are to run the ACU championship and the UK UEM rounds.

Matt Wright of Eurodragster.com home and news page sponsors CCTV Enforcement has one more licensing pass to do in the Who Dares Wins Fuel Altered. The car which runs 80% nitro will be eventually changing clothes to become a VRA-legal Nostalgia Funny Car. Matt and Crew Chief Bill Felstead are looking to source a '70 Cuda body after Bill saw a reproduction version of Don Schumacher's legendary 'Stardust' at the recent 50th Anniversary March Meet at Bakersfield. Matt said "I would like to put our own livery with detailing on it and our aim is to run 6.2s on 80% nitro."

Tommy Agius is here with his incredible truck from Malta which went 10.64/133 this morning. He said "It's our best run ever and we think a new world record. Our previous best was 10.795/127.8. I have driven trucks for ten years and developed the 12 litre twin turbo diesel engine and transmission and built the Volvo F-12 bodywork from our own moulds which goes on a largely original frame." More details can be found on the Maksar website.

After the first session of the Pro Fuel Shootout, Per Andersen of Andy Carter's Lucas Oil team said "Taking conditions into consideration our performance was very good. It was our first time on a track that cold and we didn't smoke the tyres, and got a baseline. It is a much softer setup than we usually have and we are here to win."

Lex Joon (pictured with wife Gerda) said "With temperatures like these, I didn't know what would happen when I hit the throttle. We couldn't take any more power out than we already did without putting other things out of balance. We lost traction at a certain point after tyre shake and whilst our sixty foot was slower than Andy's the outcome was almost identical. We can improve on our performance and now we have the data to run in the snow."

Jari Halinen (Top Fuel) said "It's my second season in Top Fuel and I lcensed with Rune Fjeld last year. Driving the car feels fine after the winter break. I will be running the FIA Championship and Hockenheim. Jari who is based in Finland has Simo Patoharju as his crew chief and the pair worked together in Mad Bomber Racing running dragsters in Comp Eliminator and a Top Methanol Funny Car and TMD at Alastaro and in Sweden.

Andy Robinson's team warming up the engine on the Pro Mod '53 Studebaker. Team member Jerry Clayton said "We have a lighter carbon fibre body, stage 6 BAE heads and a setback blower with a new injector hat. You can't learn a huge amount from the conditions except that in the two runs so far, our sixty foot was too aggresive."

The Donovan engine of Chaos is a work of art. The blower restraint is in team colours and fuel lines have been specially silver braided. The engine has got a new fuel pump, barrel valve and there is new gearing in the Lenco trans. Lawrie Gatehouse said "All the teams of the NFAA have put in a tremendous effort and I can only hope the weather at the Springspeed Festival will enable us to run to our potential. We've got where we are by co-operation between teams and thanks also to Dave Benjamin as our tuning adviser. The Swedish team of Bjorn Martensson are here to license and will store the car and run it only in the UK. They are appreciative of our support and ehthusiastic. Our best wishes go to Luke Bennett for a speedy recovery."

Nigel Turner made it to the race after a last minute emergency visit to Sweden to pick up a new block. "The old block failed on firing up the engine and I had to do a round trip on road from Calais to Kristenstad in 24 hours last Saturday. We brought back a new small block Chevy and stripped it down on Monday and got it running again by Tuesday afternoon." The resulting ET was a pleasing 8.55/152. Nigel said "The whole car is up for sale as I have bought Derek Flynn's six second Super Pro dragster."

Over the winter, Danny Cockerill invested in a new trailer and a new race engine in order to compete in the full FIA championship. However this has once again been put in some doubt after sustaining motor damage in Pro Mod qualifying. He said "We have damaged the lifters and the camshaft and have yet to see the full extent of the damage. We'll need to survey what repairs are needed."

Gordon Smith was pleased with a smoke-free pass. "The tune-up did what was expected of it with very soft settings. The run was straightforward and the track is actually pretty good considering it is so cool. I will be running at the Main Event and the Euro Finals and we are still working on other deals." Gordon's new livery (above) harks back to a comic-strip hero.

Bob Glassup has returned after having a ball with the Xtreme Racing Nostalgia Altered at Bakersfield last October. "Our dream came true and we had a lot of goodwill at the event. We now want to go quicker so I will be putting a 526cu in Brad Anderson Hemi with Bruno Lenco in the car." The combination will be out of Derek Flynn's 2007 Methanol Dragster, which Bob has bought complete. "We will also be putting the blown Chevy from the altered into the dragster and running it in Super Pro at the Main Event and bring the altered out later in the season." The increase in horsepower for the altered from 1,500 to 3,000 should give Messrs Round, Wratten, Bennett and Davies a challenge in the ET stakes.

Torstein Risdal is coming to Top Fuel after a fourteen year racing career mainly in Competition ELiminator. "I ran a Funny Car in Comp for three years and then an A/Dragster. I set a European A/D record of 6.83/200 mph in 1992 which still stands. After winning Hockenheim in 1997 I took some time out which ended up being longer than expected." Torstein's new drive is the one year old Hadman Top Fuel Dragster driven by Thomas Nataas in 2007 and owned by Rune Fjeld. "I licensed in Gardermoen with Rune two years ago and this season I will be racing in all rounds of the FIA Championship."

Andy Kirk, whose truck (above) shows the team were UK National Champions in 2007, was delighted with a 7.64 on Friday in the Super Mod '67 Camaro. "I was just pleased to get from one end to the other. We freshened the engine, tweaked the chassis and did work on the wheelie bars. The nitrous cars have lost the fuel bleed off this year so we will have to find the power from elsewhere", said Andy. Crew chief and son Lee is resident in the UK again after a spell in Bahrain and claims "I am happy to be back - I missed the weather."

Timo Habermann (pictured left with brother Dennis, right) is driving an ex-Duane Shields TMD which is among the quickest blown TMDs in the world having run a 5.27 in the U.S. Timo said "We have put a blown 464 cu in Fontana engine and a nearly identical combination between the two cars. The new car is aroung 50 lbs lighter with magnesium body panels and carbon fibre cockpit."

And talking of the engine combination in Werner Habermann Racing, here is a shot of it. Dennis said "The engine is a 433 cu in Fontana engine with a 14-71 high helix roots blower and a custom built fuel system. Dennis, launching with a clutch for the first time, ran a confident licensing pass on Friday and a personal best 6.92 today, with more to come.

Job Heezen is racing under the Zodiac banner for the first time. He said "After running in Super Twin Top Gas for many years, I sold my bike a year ago and planned to retire from the sport. I then met Ton Pels at a motorcycle show. He talked about the new bike he is building for Roel Koedam and said he was looking for someone to ride his old bike, so here I am." Job plans to run the UEM/FIM Super Twin championship and meetings at Drachten. Job thanks the Zodiac team and wife Winnie, daughter Eveline and Bart Salentijn. Job's initial pass was a straight-as-a-dye 7.28.

Dave Newbury (left, pictured with rider Ian 'Rush' Carruthers) is here with his beautiful Top Fuel Bike. "I took three years to build it", said Dave. "The bike has a Sam Wills chassis and I bought it complete from the U.S. where it had been built, but never run. I then stripped it down and fitted a new Opcon Autorotor blower overdriven by 45%, new magneto, head and rear wheel. The engine is a Puma with a Yamaha XS1100 head, the strongest cast head which I have ported. We will be running 80% nitro this weekend and will increase this to 93-94% over time." In case of problems (burnt heads are notorious with fuel bikes), Dave has five spares and a block of billet aluminium ready for machining. Dave said "This is a five second bike and my thanks go to crew member Darren Gorey, my girlfriend Marie Nurse and my Mum and Dad."

Kev Slyfield (Pro Mod) said "The track is not there for the pro classes because it's too cold. We needed track time to test our new high compression combination with fresh heads and blower. At the moment the car is sideways all the time, even in the burnout and we need to adjust the chassis to go straight."