UEM Funny Bike racer Bob Brooks suffered from clutch issues on the launch. On the second session the clutch blew and on the third it caused significant damage, as pictured. Bob said "We don't know why this happened, we will just get replacements and hope they will hold."

UEM Funny Bike racer Steve French said after a 7.62 "We're not happy and think we may have lost a gearbox which means we will have to take the engine out and turn the bike upside down." Earlier runs of 7.4 and 7.2 had been promising. He said "The bike became hesitant at the gear shifts and we don't know what is causing this issue."

Supertwin racer Trond Høiberget's team manager Tor-Eric said Trond is happy with a 6.9 qualifying pass and testing on Wednesday set the bike up well with a similar time. He said "The bike's peformance is becoming more consistent and we have only a little work to do. fourth placed Trond is up against no. 5 qualifier Samu Kemppainen. Tor-Eric remarked "It should be a good race and an even match as we both are running similar times."

Supertwin racer Jan Sturla Hegre said "We had a lifter problem yesterday. A pin broke on the rear cylinder exhaust side which shut the engine and caused it to break the pushrod. It has happened four times in a row and we don't know why, and we had to miss the last session. On the positive side we ran out best 60ft time and the bike will run 6.8 with a launch like that." Team mate Svein Olav Rolfstad is no.2 alternate and he may be racing depending on how the story with Lorenz St�uble's broken crank plays out (see tomorrow for full details), Roel Koedam reportedly being unable to run and to be replaced by first alternate Martijn de Haas.

Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt said "We have had a few silly faults. The drive causee the mag to shut down and now there is an electrical fault on the control box and that has caused the timer trigger for the clutch to not function. There has been no real breakage, it's just things not working as they should."

UEM Funny Bike racer Rickard Gustavsson said after runs of 7.66, 6.75 and 6.57, "We are starting to find the right settings for the track. We ran a best of 4.17 on the eighth compared with a PB of 4.15 at Mosten last weekend. Although a 6.46 is my best time the bike went close to the wall on the 6.57 and turbo pressure was down, hence the low speed, 194 rather than 210. The points don't matter to me as my main objective is to have the quickest Funny Bike in the world and I am close because my 6.46 compares with the US record of 6.43."

Will Hanna, US crew chief for Top Methanol Dragster racer Fred Hanssen said after yesterday's burst panel-blowing 5.62/207 "We had a problem with the cable for the weather station yesterday and it told us the air was worse than it was so it went lean. We hope and plan to run a 5.4 today." Sure enough a 5.412/264 came up on the boards.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Krister Johansson is suffering from a rear end ratio that is too short. "We run a 3.20 gear and I would like a 2.90 which is what all A/Fuel cars run in the US. However to use that on this car would involve changing the centre section to a 10.5" type as a 2.90 is no longer available for this type which would cost me $9000. New carbon fibre brakes costing $4000 may also be required by the rules next year so we will have to see how the budget works out." On his last run a 0.96 to 60ft corresponded to a 5.3 run by 330ft at which point I lost a cylinder."

Top Methanol Dragster racer Paul Ingar Udtian is running a Leanders clutch in his car and was very pleased with the result, a 5.55/251. "The launch was great with a best ever 0.91 60ft time and the engine was fine after the run. We will try to run a 5.4 today." A repeat 5.56 in the first session underlined the clutch's consistency.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Dave Wilson said yesterday's was an "A to B run" of 5.97. "My 60ft time was rubbish and we hope we have tuned it ok as we are struggling. The headwind will help our performance but he only nice thing so far is the breakfast ham courtesy of Andy Carter." Dave improved to a 5.48 to go third.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Dannis Habermann said "Yesterday I lost a cylinder after 100m due to a spark plug failure and hope we will go better today. Work on the car was routine but I want to qualify in front of Fred Hanssen for the points. We will give it all we have got." A 5.52 kept him behind Fred's 5.41. Dennis was joined by Stephan Kraft, formerly of Hockenheimring and now Werner Habermann Racing's web master. Brother Timo is suffering a cylinder head leak which resulted in a burst panel blowing yesterday and smoke and leaked fluid today.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Peter Scöfer ran consistent 5.53 and 5.47 in the first two sessions. Team member Kirsten Krause said "We are looking to get quicker but it is good to be consistent too particularly in eliminations. We want the event to be completed which is so much better fun."

Top Methanol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Derek Flynn, pictured with his team including crew chief Gary Jenkins, said "We are just trying not to blow the tyres off; the adjustments we made are a little bit of everything, power, clutch, fuel and timing. We had a good baseline from our 5.52 run yesterday. In today's first session Derek improved to a 5.50, good for fourth.

Top Fuel racer Stig Neergaard broke a lifter on his 6.55 pass yesterday. He said "There was no other damage, we took the motor out and cleaned it up and put it together again." Stig improved to a tyre-disintegrating 4.85 in the second session. Team-mate Joran Persåker had a more torrid time when the engine leaned on the burnout in the first session which ended up in a fireball down track. In today's first session a blower lifted on the run leaving Joran in eighth and the team with a major rebuild before the next session.

Top Fuel racer Janne Ahonen's crew chief Tony Pearson reported that Janne was pleased with his 4.94 time. "The 60ft time was bad and the top end performance was bad but the mid-track performance was perfect. We have changed the clutch for better top end speed and 'preloaded'the chassis (flexed it) to arch more on the launch and go up on the tyres earlier." Janne's car is rumoured to be making one more appearance this year at the National Finals.

Top Fuel racer Micke Kagered pictured with Maria, said "All I want is to get to the finish line under power and not have damage." Team member Rob Inglis said "We sent the ignition units to the US and they found a problem with one magneto and serviced them. We were the first to have the car back together last night and the only damage was a broken belt. Performance-wise we are not up there with the Danes but will hopefully get down the track." Unfortunately for Micke he had to get off the throttle early in both passes after tyre shake set in.

Top Fuel racer Andy Carter has a new SPR track record and quickest ET recorded in Europe and is on the first half of a new FIA European record (all of which Andy already holds) with his 4.6139 run yesterday. He said "It wasn't a picture perfect run I had shake and vibration that by 600ft I lost vision and everything went grey. By 1000ft I saw again and the car had gone out of the groove but then the motor went flat. I stayed in it as long as I dared and was off it by 1200ft. We worked out the run could have been a 4.55. Carsten Andersen said "We have changed it for today because the air is different. A cylinder was out and the car was on one magneto from 3.8s so it was a great performance and we aim to repeat that. The track guys have done a fantastic job." Andy said "Thanks to Lucas Oil USA and Europe, all my associate sponsors and all the team. We will run our own race here and see what happens."

Andy's primary sponsor and Eurodragster.com news sponsor Lucas Oils is well represented by UK head Les Downey and Tom Fredrickson from the US. Tom said "We are really pleased with the marketing boost that drag racing gives us. Many of our customers like grassroots racing and are gerarheads. They understand our products and how good they are are the range which includes additives, road and racing oils and oil for trucks. We have two factories in California and Indiana and distributors in the UK, Europe, Canada and Mexico. We are expanding into the Pacific Rim with Indonesia, Korea and China. We have had double digit growth for the last ten years." More details are at www.lucasoil.co.uk.

Pro Stock racer Jimmy Ålund ran his no.2 engine yesterday to a 6.72 for top qualifier, and then changed to his no.1 Bob Ingles motor. In the first session today he suffered a broken valve and suspected piston damage on a 6.86. So it was out with the no.1 engine and back to no.2 for the third session. In this session he ran a 6.73. All of which means that there was fierce competition between Jimmy and Michael Malmgren in their two qualifying matchups today, with a staging burndown on each run.

Pro Stock racer Sampsa Palos is making his debut at Santa Pod racing a car owned by Mikko Österberg. "I used to run a Cobalt in the Outlaw series which has a 7.5 index and got tired of breaking out. So I raced the Pro Stock car at Alastaro at the Finals where I got licensed and am delighted to have run as quick as 6.83 at my first FIA event. The licensing went well with a best of 6.78 and thanks to Nikko's team for their help. I plan to run the FIA series next year." The car was built by Rick Jones. Thanks to Sampsa's wife Eva Ingman for help in interpretation.

Junior Dragster racer Marcus Andersson, supported by dad Bjorn have travelled with Jan Palmqvist's Snoball team of which Bjorn is a crew member. Bjorn said "We raced at Tullinge which is no longer available and we are looking forward to racing at Tierp in 2011."

Al Billes is Crew Chief for US Pro Mod racer Melanie Troxel. Al said following yesterday's pop on startup, caused by an electrical component failure that "If it wasn't exciting, we wouldn't be doing it. On the first run the car rattled the tyres and ran a 6.3 after Melanie pedalled it. We are making changes according to what we saw on the track - if we get down the track we can start predicting what we can do, all I ask is the car to go down the track." In the second session Melanie ran a 6.02/241 in the R2B2 Camaro to become top qualifier.

Pro Mod racer Mats Eriksson had more than his share of tyre shake. "We need to get the wheel speed up after the launch but we have struggled on the start line. On the first run I red lit in spite of seeing the yellows, moved forward and immediately hit shake. After two runs like that we will change the ratios in the gearbox and adjust the starting line setup. Last year's setup that ran fives is not working here." The changes proved a great move as Mats ended qualifying in third place with a 6.05.

Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson had suffered lean out problems yesterday and in today's first session, which were traced to a fuel plumbing problem. Andy said "We haven't gone down the track yet so we don't know if it will shake the tyres; if it does we have a major problem." Andy ran 6.26 with shake but is in the field at no.8 with a first round match against Urban Johansson in prospect.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Dezsoe Krivan ran a great 6.16 on his first run at SPR since 2003 but had to lift twice. "I had tyre shake and lifted quickly We don't have a data system and are tuning it by flipping a coin, but nothing has been damaged. We can disturb other racers in the championship and will do as well as we can to win."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel had the chutes come out in yesterday's qualifier but still recorded 6.47. "The car may have hit a bump in the left lane and we may have made a mistake in packing the 'chutes. We will try everything we can to win the championship; maybe we will get the points but it will be hard - we will be happy to just go home in one piece. There were problems with the ignition and the engine wouldn't fire up. The problem was the crank trigger broke, so we switched over to using the distributor to start. It was hectic so we were glad for the delay. We will fix the crank trigger for tomorrow and check the clutch. I am pleased with our performance improvement, everything has come together this season.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Danny Bellio said "The season was too short with the rain-outs. We had a great 0.95 60ft time on Wednesday although I ran exactly the same setup and the air temperature was the same. Today I drifted towards the yellow line and lifted as I was heading towards Arvid's lane." Danny, with Eurodrag.com webmaster Erwin Waets is organising Belgium's first ever drag racing event on 25-26 September at Brustem Airbase (details at Eurodrag.com). Danny said "It has been a massive effort to get the permissions necessary and I hope it will be an annual event if it is well supported."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Dan Larsen said "The track is much better than I expected and the car broke the wheelie bars on the launch but it didn't hurt the time much as I clocked a 5.96. It shook a little; we now have good data to work on although I lifted at 500ft. We will run the car to win and if we win, we win but I want to run quick as well. We tested but I didn't learn a lot.

Junior Dragster racer Paige Wheeler and Pro Mod racer Melanie Troxel are pictured just prior to a BBC Look East live broadcast from the track. MSA Pro Modified co-ordinator Robin Jackson who lives close to the Wheeler family who are based in Wellingbrough, arranged the interview spot as well as coverage in local papers Evening Telegraph, Northampton Chronicle and the Echo.

Eurodragster.com sponsor Alamo Rent-a car JD team were excited by the prospect of being on live TV. Pictured from left to right are Paige, Dion, Andy and Belle Wheeler.

Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop ran a 7.61 to be no.8 after the first session. "We are on our fourth engine this year", said crewman Baz. "We ran a shakedown pass and it spun the wheel down the track so we will take power out to go quicker. The potential to go quick is there, but we have to find it. The clutch is out of our old engine and fitting it to the new one produced the same 60ft time of 1.16. Pictured (left to right) are Martin, John Carrell, 'Sir' Baz Rathbone, Keith Agombar and Timon Marshall.

Pro Stock Bike team principal Roger Lyréen faced a struggle to get to the track when the team bus finally cried enough after a testing session at Veidec Raceway, Malmö. "We had to transport three bikes and all the equipment. We had tremendous help from a local car and truck dealer from which we borrowed a van and motor home with trailer. We had only from Thursday to Monday to get ready and leave for the test day on Monday night. We had to fix Kalle's gearbox and Martin Bishop's and Stavros's engines and work at Motospeed on Monday too!" Kalle qualified fourth in the first session, while Stavros left early for no time and Kenneth Vik suffered a broken crank on his sole engine and is out. Read Kalle's blog for details of his off-season activities which will include spending the Finals with the Vance & Hines team in Pomona.

Top Fuel Bike racer Peter Svensson of Team Kendall Racing suffered tyre shake on a 6.36. "I pedalled at 60ft and was off the throttle after 5.3 seconds as it didn't feel quite right. We found nothing wrong after the pass though. We are testing new carbon fibre drive belt as the old rubber ones snapped too easily. I'm not sure you will see fives here as the air is not quite as good as last year and the bike didn't launch as well, you have to get it up on the tyre early on.

Supertwin racer Job Heezen suffered scuffed pistons on a run that saw him only qualify 9th in the first session with a nine. "There was not enough oil because it was being washed away by the fuel. We have spare parts and need to have a qualifying session tomorrow" said Job, who is second in a tight points battle.

Supertwin team owners Ton and Vincent Pels of Zodiac Racing had problems with the fuel system on Roel Koedam's ride. Ton said "We had a problem with the injector and are worried about fuel pressure. The data logger is telling us what is happening and we are running it fat and short shifting to avoid melting parts. We have special new heads this year and the aluminium we work with is soft. The supercharged bike runs hotter than normally aspirated engines and we don't want to make replacement parts just to melt them again." Next year we are planning a new re-engineered engine from scratch and the 6.5 we ran at Easter showed we are already on the right track."

Supertwin racer Svein Olaf Rolfstad suffered a broken rocker arm which was found as he was going into the burnout, resulting in a bent pushrod. "The engine had sounded fine so hopefully there's not too much damage", he said. The team was quite relaxed about working on the bike until late. Also suffering rocker arm damage was team mate Jan Sturla Hegre in the old but identical looking bike. "That sounded good too until the rocker arm broke and the pushrod ended up on the track in stage. Better that it happened to Jan Sturla then rather than going down the track."

Top Fuel Bike racer Rene van den Berg had a broken sprag in the gearbox and Rene, after a call to UK Top Fuel Bike owner Dave Newbury made a trip to Southampton to pick up a spare. The team said the engine was ok and the clutch fine, however Rene needs another qualifying run to keep his championship chances alive against points leader Kai Selkamäa, as he is qualified ninth currently.

Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com blogger Dave Beck was slightly disappointed with a 7.38 that qualified him third. "We ended up at Shakespeare County with a 7.26 and 7.23 and I will apply more clutch for the next pass as the track is very good. The setup of the bike is working well but we need more laps to get the tuning done. The first run gave us perfect data to do that with."