Pro Stock Bike rider Richard Gipp said "The motor was damaged on the first pass and it looks like a valve train problem. We put in a spare motor - I have three 1640cc Suzuki engines in all." Richard, who builds his own engines, is running the entire UEM series for the first time in three years with crew member Nigel Sadler and alongside fellow racer Chris Hope. The bike has a Trak 2 chassis from the US. Support is from Psycleworks and Straightline Racing.

Top Fuel driver Andy Carter (pictured with wife Sarah) said after consecutive 4.8s passes "I'm happy with today's performance - on the first run I came off the throttle two tenths before the end of the pass. I had tyre shake to the finish line." The second run was a particularly impressive driving job to bring the car back into the groove in spite of tyre shake. "We are running the same combination and have the same team as last year, which is so important." Andy has 52 guests in the corporate hospitality section of his pit on Sunday and Monday, with associate sponsors.

Super Twin racer Hans Olav Olstad had fuel problems. He said "We had a new fuel pump and had to get the plates in it ground locally during the week to get improved spacing. We wanted more fuel pressure but it hasn't worked so we may put the old pump in to increase it. The runs were 7.003 and 7.001 but the engine stopped at 1000ft." The bike has got a new exhaust system and Bentec lockup clutch over the winter break.

Super Twin racer Anders 'Charley' Karling said "We were only able to do the burnout before we were shut off for a fuel leak but it was my first time on the bike and were able to see that the clutch works. The bike blew the front head off and I had to redesign the connection between the valve pulley and the crank." The photo shows the innovative burst panel on the inlet manifold and, to the left, the 'spare' spark plugs in their housing from use of a 44 amp MSD ignition system (I understand several Super Twin racers use this arrangement). Anders is joined this weekend by Jarmo Pulkkiinen of Jarmo's Custom Autos based in Orange County, California, who supplies parts for several European teams.

Pro Stock rider Ray Debben's bike broke a gearbox selector on the first run and in the second round the rag was left off the carburettor. "We have a different camshaft on the inlet side with a better power band." Ray's firm specialises in Kawasakis and customers include classic road racing and privateer British Superbikes. In the drag racing community, Steve Venables is a valued customer. The business imports American Performance Engineering products for Kawasakis.

Super Twin racer Svein Olav Rolfstad (above, centre) is back after a year out racing in the AHDRA in the US. "We raced in Pomona, Las Vegas, Bristol (which I loved), Rockingham and an eighth mile track in Sturgis. A friend and sponsor in Florida, Alan Smith, drove the team and I around. We learned a lot but had an ignition problem all season which was masked by a new blower. I now have a new MSD ignition and the rpm is up again. We only ran a 7.00 in the US but have equalled that here this weekend and only tyre shake prevented us from running a six. With our two litre engine we are limited to 90% nitro so we can use this or change the gearing to improve the power. We can also increase the blower pressure from 35 psi to 46 which we used in the US." Also pictured are Frode Larsen (left) who runs the excellent www.super-twin.com web site and team member Henning Pedersen (right)

Hall of Fame member Ton Pels, owner of the Zodiac bike ridden by Job Heezen said "the bike is performing well but the traction was not good for us and it spun the tyres." Ton and his team are building a new blown bike for Roel Koedam which should debut at Mantorp. "We have completed the drivetrain and will finish the chassis in the next three weeks, following which we will do the bodywork". The new bike will be 1680cc and run 100% nitro.

Top Fuel Bike rider Ivan Birch came down on Thursday with his Pro Mod-style machine and ran a best of 7.70 with a 1.2 sixty foot time. Today's runs were a 7.64 and 7.51/181 for both ends of his PB. Ivan has been racing since 1985 starting with a sportsman altered and a dragster before changing to bikes in 2000. "The change from Super Street bikes has been a big one as I now have to learn to ride with slicks, wheelie bars and a lock-up clutch. Slicks are a bit counter-intuitive as they go where they want to and you have to do the opposite of what you think you should do to correct. I bought the chassis from John Bresinzki in the US and fitted my Suziki 1570cc engine and five speed trans from the Super Street bike." Ivan is helped by Richard Cawthorn, son Joe Birch and Maria Young. He says Hello to other son Sam who is at home revising for exams.

Pro Mod racer Graham Ellis was pleased with a smooth maiden outing of 6.83 in the Superbird. "The reason it looked so smooth was that I left in top gear", admitted Graham. "I don't know what it will be like when I leave in first." The answer was an improvement to 6.71 which is currently the bump spot for the class.

Unblown nitro 'rookie' Dave Wilson arrived at 9:30am today after a thrash. "I guess if you want to make this sort of change to the combination, you shouldn't leave it to three weeks before the event", joked Dave. "We have had no sleep since Thursday. The combination is based on US racer Bill Reichart who I have known for years, and includes Hogan inlet manifold, Giradot injectors and a Dave Settles Nuclear fuel pump. The engine has Brad Stage 5 heads and a repaired block from 2007. The compression ratio is now considerable and probably variable."

Top Methanol FC driver Leif Andreasson said "We found the right lane bumpy and the car was soft at the start and picked up speed in the second half of the track. on the next run I want to be at 200mph by half track which will help the ET." Leif has got Joe Pando of MSD and Tim Anderson of Racepak over and they are going around the pits helping racers solve their problems.

TMFC racer and Eurodragster.com home and news sponsor Dan Larsen said "We were at the test session but still have a lot of work to do. We had some tyre shake and ran a 5.999."

TMFC racer Ulf Leanders suffered the crankshaft breaking into four pieces which led to extensive engine damage. "We have another block and crank and will try to rebuild it for tomorrow." Leanders Bros Performance Products are Eurodragster.com sponsors and a number of other racers are using the 11 inch clutch. "Fredrik Fagerstrom has used it for six runs and is pleased with it and Mats Eriksson and Micke Gullquist want to try it. Hans Knuters is also down to use it but his blower broke badly in testing in Norway and had to cancel. The new clutch has things that are better than existing Pro Mod or Top Methanol clutches and should work better than existing units when it is set up properly."

TMFC racer Jarmo Kuutniemi (above, left) said "I lifted when I heard the bang from Ulf's engine. We want to run a 5.9 or 5.8 this weekend and have a new Brad Anderson stage 6 engine and Whipple blower. Jarmo's team are crew chief Harry Raikkonen (above, right), Johnny Okse, Jari Soini, Paul Siren and Akke Fagerstrom. Sponsors are OK-Repair, JPS Motors, Tomi Steel, K1, Accesscaff International and Kendall.

TMFC racer Jurgen Nagel said "We need to get the power to the ground better. We had too much tyrespin off the start line and my visor fogged up which is why I steered to the left side of my lane. We want to run a five this weekend. The car is basically the same as when we ran it two years ago with some changes to the clutch and fuel system only." The sponsors are US Speed, Fastco Tools, Norfolk Line, Mickey Thompsona and Telcom.

Top Fuel driver Micke Kagered said after his first pass "Something went wrong with my concentration. We tested three times last Sunday so this is not my first time in the car this year. Lance Larsen is here from the US - he is helping by telephoning his contacts for advice but the tuners are G�ran"Emil" Edman and Alan Jackson." Lance has worked with IHRA multi-time champion Clay Millican.

2007 Top Fuel Champion Urs Erbacher said "The track needs more heat for us to run quicker times. We have had to detune the car considerably from when we ran it in NHRA meetings for instance we only have 50% of the clutch weight that we had in the US." Urs is joined this weekend by Wayne Dupuy who has been crew chief on the cars of Joe Amato and Doug Herbert.

Pro Mod racer Urban Johansson said "We have a new Brad Anderson Stage 6 engine with Kobelco M5 blower and want to start gently and creep up on it. There was only a little tyre shake on the first run which was the result of detuning the car, so we will step up and try to run a 6.2 on the second session." Which was exactly what happened, a 6.22 coming up on the boards.

2007 Pro Mod champion Michael Gullkvist said after his first run "The tyres spun off the line and we want to run the same way we ran last year. So we will keep last year's combination and run a good pass before I try the new clutch and new engine parts I have stored in my trailer." Sponsors continue to be Nordic LAN and Lucas Oil and the team present here include Sam, Jan, Tim and Fred.

Jürgen Karlsson of Roger Johansson's team told us that Micke Nord suffered a slipping clutch and Roger had the same problem in the first session, but Roger ran a decent time. The cars had previously ran in the 6.3s on the test day. Jürgen's driving career is temporarily on hold following a large expansion of his company Allsogning from 20 to 100 employees in three years. News on fellow Pro Mod racer Ulf Rapp who suffered burns in a nitrous fire in testing, is that he is recovering rapidly and hopes to be back by the Mantorp race.

Top Fuel driver Torstein Risdal sits in the Rune Fjeld Motorsports Hadman dragster. Torstein licensed last year after an eleven year absence, previously running in Comp Eliminator. "We shall make a half pass in the first session", he said. The actual run was a lift at 1000ft and a 5.11.

Meanwhile on the other side of Rune's pit, Jari Halinen is in the cockpit for the fire-up of the Batmobile car. Eddie Corr, former crew chief to is acting as crew chief and there has to be interpretation from Finnish to English of driver feedback. Eddie said "The cars have not got the latest equipment, but that can be an advantage when tuning for EUropean conditions as you know what you have to do."

The Top Methanol Dragster of Peter Schofer has been repainted and the Bavarian Thunder theme is very much to the fore. Team member Gittli Killer said "We tested in Hungary on an unprepared track and Peter's throttle control was so good he didn't spin the wheels away from the line." The car has a new injector hat and refreshed engine and gearbox.

Pro Stock racer Adam Flamholc is overall quickest European Pro Stock racer having run 6.699/205.53 in testing at Valdosta. The car was owned by US racer Justin Humphreys and has a Jerry Bickel chassis and new Steve Schmidt engine. "I enjoyed testing in the US and was well received by the teams. These days they all have huge trailers and employ 6-7 crewmen and they were impressed that we were able to run the car with such a small team and trailer." Adam is joined by film company Caravan Films (owned by Adam's cousin David Flamholc) who will be placing footage on Youtube with a view to making a documentary programme.

Also testing in the US was Richard "Nixxon" Sundblom. As well as encountering a live turtle on track, ran a 6.73. Richard's new car was owned by a US racer and with a Rick Jones chassis and Greg Stansfield engine. He said "The competition is going to be tough. I think the startline at Santa Pod is better than Valdosta." Richard's new crewchief is Heikki Parviainen.

New to Pro Mod this event is Ingo Rolla, who sells American cars for a living. His Highway Patrol car was built by Klaus Romahn in Germany utilising a Vanishing Point rear chassis and KB engine. Ingo is doing licensing after previously running in Comp ELiminator. Sponsorship is from Lucas Oil America and the team includes Sabine Rolla, Bernd Grosstück and Dirk Karpowitz.

Fellow Lucas-backed Pro Mod driver Norbert Kuno has a new blower on the car and changed fuel system with electronic leanout and suspension modifications. Norbert's wife Iris was helping countryman Ingo Rolla at the startline.

Injected Nitro TMD driver Krister Johansson has worked on his combination and found the elctrical gremlin that was keeping the car from running at its best. The crew are credited on the air intake. They are Krister's partner Lisa, Linkan (who deals with the electronics and pneumatic clutch), Matas, Tim Read (both top end and bottom end of engine), Dave (general engine), Bill (polisher) and Glen Read (sponsor). Tim and Glen were inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame earlier this year for their contribution over more than 35 years.

German racer over the last three decades is Werner Habermann, father of Timo and Dennis. He said "I ran a Top Methanol Funny Car from 1978, later switching to a rear engined blown small block dragster which he drove until 2000, when Timo took the wheel. This meeting, Dennis is in Competition Eliminator. "We decided to change classes as it is good for testing and we think we have a chance of being on the podium", Werner said. "We made sure with the scrutineers that the car is a totally legal AA/D. We will run Dennis in TMD in Finland and then change back to Comp for Mantorp." The team found it necessary to repair a rotor from the blower after Dennis's run yesterday and will fit a new blower after this meeting.

Pro Stock racer Michael Callin's car was raced by Justin Humphreys in the US in 2007 and is the sister car to Adam Flamholc's. It has a Rick Jones chassis and Steve Schmidt engine.