Supertwin rider SVein Olaf Rolstad's no.1 qualifying position was enough to confirm him as champion and he went on to record a 6.96 in the first round bye. Svein's new website is www.rolfstad.com.

Lorenz Stauble said "Our performance this year was not up to our expectations. We tried some different setups but they didn't work as well as we hoped and we didn't have enough runs to test them. So we will have a revised setup for this meeting next year which hopefully will work." It worked well and Lo's first round was a 6.85/206 defeat of Job Heezen.

Dennis Haberman was running in TMD and improved on his previous best by nine tenths. The first round race was a defeat to Krister Johansson. Brother Timo discovered a broken big end bearing on the crankshaft which could not be repaired in time for the call for eliminations. He said "The team is happy with the new car and second place in the championship and congratulations to Peter Schofer for winning the crown."

Ian King's last major event with his current bike has proved to be a revelation in performance, running a 6.28 and then a 6.20 at a low speed. He said "After Rickard's DNQ I am more confident for the championship. The bike is running great but I have to sell it to invest in the Puma Engineering business but I hope to build another Top Fuel bike in the future."

Pro Stock racer Phillipe Runget from France came up against Richard Gipp in round one. He said "We have raced each other once and the score is one-all. My best is 7.62 and we are evenly matched." In the race Philippe came out on top this time. Thanks go to Sandra Chaplain for interpretation during the interview.

The 2008 Pro Stock Bike champion is Fredrik Fredlund who has come to prominence this year. "I qualified no.3 and ran a clutch setup that would get us into the top half of the field which was important for the championship." This proved to be wise as an effort to step up in round one left the bike stalled off the line.

Micke Kågered said "We haven't refined the setup from Hockenheim and it's proving to be difficult." The result was tyre shake in the qualifier and first round and smoke in the second round losing effort to Lex Joon.

Andy Carter was upbeat after his first round win against Risto Poutiainen. The team's tuning consultant Jim Brissette said "I'm pleased to be come to the UK for the first time. The weather has been good for the last three and a half days and now we have to go racing. I'm just riding the crest of the wave with this team which are very professional. My role has just been to give a few bits of information that might help in the future and I'm just enjoying the 15 minutes of fame."

Tommi Haapanen's crew member Jukka Johansson is showing a sense of humour in what was a tense day for the championship contenders ended by the rain coming down before the final. He said "We want to run quick today but we're not in the championship so are testing and will be totally ready for next year.

When we visited Thomas Nataas the team were in the middle of a mighty thrash to get the engine ready for the first round of Fuel Funny car eliminations. "I'm happy with the car as it's more fun to drive than a Top Fuel Dragster and I have the same team as with the fueler. We are looking to run at the UK National Finals as we need much more track time next year. The car shook the tyres on the qualifier and I pedaled it."

Peter Schofer secured the Top Methanol Dragster championship by winning the first round of eliminations. Team member Gittli Koller said "I'm probably the happiest person on earth now, but I would have been pleased for Timo to be champion as the Habermanns are a great team. Our last championship was in 2002 so we are pleased we can put 2008 Champion on our trailer."

Peter would have raced Krister Johansson in the semi final which was rained off. Team member Tim Read said "We need to run a 5.50 or less against Peter who runs very consistent times. It's good that other teams are running injected nitro and the knowledge on the setups can be exchanged."

Pro Stock driver Magnus Hansson said "We are pleased with our performance" after running 6.94/200 in qualifying. It is difficult to know the best settings and we would have to make big adjustments to go quicker but we don't dare do these.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Danny Bellio (pictured with wife Micha) had a good day qualifying no.2 and getting to the final with a defeat of repeat champion Ulf Leanders in the first round and running a new PB of 5.85/245 in the semi. He said "We have waited for a long time and it feels good to run in the middle of the field now." Danny thanks Erwin Raetz for his help and team member Jaap Selles says hi to daughters Lisa and Jaska who are tuned into our coverage."

Jarmo Kuutniemi defeated Arvid Grødem in an exciting race in round one of Top Methanol Funny Car. Arvid said "We didn't step up as much as we should have and it bit us." Jarmo said "We are having fuel pressure problems with a damaged valve and are having to machine it." Unfortunately

Leif Andréasson had problems as well and had to change a gearbox before the semi final but pulled out a strong 5.7940/248.01 in a defeat of Dan Larsen.

Eurodragster.com home and news sponsor Dan Larsen had to change an ignition box before the race against Leif Andréasson.

Derek Flynn realised a dream when he defeated Dave Wilson in round one. He said "We were a little disappointed in the ET and want to run another 5.4. It was one of our goals to run against Dave but he wasn't at all Grumpy at the top end of the track."

The only race in the three days of rain-off was this pushing competition between the slingshots of Sarah Howells (Ram Raider) and Mark 'Lighter than the usual driver' Coulsell in Pete Yates' Chemical Reaction. Both drivers suited up for the contest with each crew pushing for bragging rights. The outcome was a two for two win for Sarah.

Andy Carter ran a 4.90 to qualify no.1 in Top Fuel and gain low ET of the event so far. "I now lead the points. If eliminations can't be run I will be champion but otherwise I will need Lex, Urs or Micke to go out before me, so it's not over. It was a tense situation. I was nervous and my heartbeat was above what I wanted it to be but I managed to control it through relaxation techniques so that it was fine when I came round. The car shook for the whole run and I pedaled it two or three times. I could hear Lex's car all the time, he is a great driver. I am more comfortable with the championship lead now."

Pro Modified driver and Eurodragster.com news sponsor Marco Maurischat said "This is our second event although we were testing at Hockenheim. We ran twice with soft settings there to get the car down the track. After the race we changed the clutch pedal and throttle and the clutch setup and put in a new four-link. Our goal is to run a six this weekend, which should be no problem with our chassis. We want to get from A to B with the given conditions as we are new to the class." Marco will run the championship next year and promises an announcement soon on the Exhaust-Coating.de Pro Mod Shootout. He ran a 8.2 which was no.16 until Micke Lindahl bumped him on a last-ditch qualifying pass.

Pro Mod driver Johan Lindberg with The New Generation Chevy Nova said "We will be happy if we can just get one run to test. This is our last track appearance of the year, but we will be doing some burnout demos in the off-season. Next year we plan to step up to run the championship series. The initial pass was a 6.88/210, good for no.9 place.

Kev Slyfield has a temporary hood from Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars. But after the season is over the car will go to Andy's shop for the chassis to be lengthened from 109in to the class maximum of 115in to hopefully resolve the handling difficulties that have plagued the Willys Sedan. Kev had to shut off on his one-shot qualifying run.

Bert Englefield is joined by Darren Meyer of DMPE blower manufacturers from the US. Bert said "Darren came over in 2005 and has designed our new fuel system and ran it on a flow bench for us. We send him our Racepak data and he helps us in the tuneup from his US base."

Norbert Kuno said "We were pleased with no.1 at the NitrolympX and we had a decent setup for a tricky track there. We will run the same setup here as the track is cold and may be slippy. It will be hard to get qualified and we have taken power out to do a safe run. Our target is to finish the year in the top ten in the points." A 6.74/212 was good for no.7 qualifier in the one-shot session.

Bruno Bader has had a frustrating year, qualifying for each event but advancing past the first round only at Alastaro and running a 6.33 best. He said "Our objective here is to run a 6.2". In qualifying he ran a 6.76/157 for no.8.

Urban Johansson said "We have been battling gremlins for much of the season but found the problem at Hockenheim. We have a lot of broken parts and lost a couple of engines but hope for improved performance next season. Urban qualified no.2 with a 6.35/227 which may help him move up from no.6 in the championship.

Robert Joosten said "The only thing we need to beat today is the track and we will take it one run at a time. The team have been fantastic, they have worked until midnight every night. My year has been one of highs and lows. After hurting the engine at the Main Event we did well in Finland and the win in Mantorp is something I will always remember. But then at Hockenheim it was like double Friday 13th and little mistakes came together to hit us in the face. We had not been down the track in two years and had tyre shake on two of the runs, a mistake on the other and suddenly we were not qualified and lost the points lead. We tore the car down and hope for better here." A 6.38/228mph meant he qualified 4th.

Supertwin racer Job Heezen said "We have achieved all the goals set in our first year in the UEM/FIM series. Our best was a 6.70 and we are no.5 in points. The Zodiac team have been great in teaching me the technical aspects and maintenance." Job now owns the bike and is responsible for the tuning calls. He is qualified no.2.

Top Fuel Bike racer Peter Svensson is running a short season but is still doing nicely in the points, running third coming into this event but with a chance of improvement after Rickard Gustavsson failed to qualify. "We started with a test in Norway in May and had problems every run, then Mantorp was great and everything worked; our slowest run was quicker than everyone else's quickest. In Gardermoen we had two qualifying runs and hurt a piston and the event was rained off. It's hard to travel such a long way and I hope we can get at least one run in and it is 12 years since we last ran here. Next year we will have the same sort of schedule because I have a tyre distribution company that takes a lot of time. Peter qualified no.2

No.1 in Top Fuel Bike is Sverre Dahl with a storming 6.19/231. "We have a new Anders Karling clutch on the bike and are dialling it in. Our objective was to run a 6.2 and on a good surface we could run a 6.0 and beat our personal best of 6.17."

Our news updates carried the story of how Top Fuel Bike rider Kai Selkämaa has recovered from a high fever to attend the race. Kai, about whom more detail can be seen at his web site, runs a nitro bike with a Puma Yamaha engine of 1377cc with Mallory ignition producing 1200hp. The supercharger is an Opcon Autorotor and drive is through a 8" ART titanium clutch and Bentec two speed gearbox. Principal sponsors are Fastems Oy.

This Funny Bike ridden by Christian Jager from Germany uses a frame once owned by the late Chris Hampson. It runs on pump gas and on the bike's first time out at Hockenheim he recorded a best of 7.28. At Drachten last weekend over an eighth he ran a 3.04/188 for a new Funny Bike track record. Christian said "I bought the rolling chassis three years ago. The engine is a turocharged 1327cc Suzuki GS with intercooler and KMS electroniooc fuel system. This puts out 600hp and makes it the quickest pump gas Funny Bike." Support is from the Gremium Motorcycle Club.

Yvon and Otto Knebl are probably winners of the unofficial long distance award after attending the whole Top Fuel Bike championship from their base in the Czech Republic. The Bike is a KDF ZX12R NX built by Otto and his run this morning was 0.02s off his personal best of 8.25 but placed him 12th and not qualified for eliminations. Otto said that the sport is growing in the Czech Republic and he won the championship there.