Super Street Bike racer Steve Venables was qualified no.1 with a 7.49. He said "We ran great to the eighth, a 4.8, but the wind is hurting the second half of the run. I made a soft launch when most of the class were spinning the tyre off the line. On the second run it carried the wheel and headed towards the wall so I shut it off to a 7.52." Steve is supported by Eurodragster.com sponsor LA Racing Parts.

Super Street Bike racer Mark Watkins pulled a huge wheelstands and on coming down, parts dropped off the bike. The parts turned out to be a concrete filled headlamp, fairing and mudguard which was shattered by the landing. The team are installing new parts for tomorrow but Mark has plans to bring out a new self-built bike to test before the trip to Hockenheim.

Super Street Bike racer Luca Carbonera has made the thousand mile trip from near Venice after buying a brand new bike from Paul Watson's Dyno Speed Developments and testing at Easter, where he had problems. Translator Luca Gasparini said "The bike has got good parts like BTC electronics and MTC clutch. Previously Luca has raced a nitrous bike which ran eights. He wants to run a seven this season." Pictured are, from left to right, Luca Gasparini, Paul Watson, Luca Carbonera and Denis de Candido.

Super Street Bike racer Steve Bellenie ran a PB with his current self-built bike of 8.06. He said "The wind is driving me towards the wall - I'd love to get a seven before we go to Hockenheim in August." Steve is helped by crewman Joe Lann, back after crewing for Ian Turburville.

Super Street Bike racer Dave Holland had an expensive run in the second session when a rod exited the crankcase. He said "It happened so quickly. It felt like a bomb going off under me and I'm sorry it cost a lot of time. I didn't see the fire so missed the show." The errant rod was in three pieces. "Luckily Ken Cooper had built a spare engine so we will be back out tomorrow."

Funny Bike racer Gary Jones and team mate Dave Friend have invested in some billet crank cases from the US and are pleased at the results. "We did 7.6/190 on our checkout pass but are struggling with the wind and not launching properly. We are running more fuel with the new parts and on my last pass I ran my fastest eighth at 158 mph. The pass was 7.4/160 so it shows I much I had to lift off."

Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson said after a 6.06/227 first qualifying pass, "We backed the car down to not do any more damage after the Main Event and were really pleased with the time. On the second pass we made two minor changes but it shook like crazy." The repair bill after the Main Event was heavy with the block damaged and the crank and a pair of heads having to be fixed in the US. But Andy was pleased with the Main Event as "getting runner up points and qualifying well will help in the FIA Championship. The crew did a fantastic job." Next weekend is the start of the long trip to Finland where the car will race and then stay at Micke Gullqvist's in Sweden.

Pro Modified racer Graham Ellis was suffering traction problems earlier after running a 6.0 at the Main Event. He said "In theory you should be able to put the same s**t in the car and run the same times, but that doesn't work. When we went out this morning we had a big tuneup in the car but it smoked and shook so we had to back it down. We ran a six but it wasn't pretty. In the back of the trailer we have a new billet blower in case we need one."

Pro Modified racer Kev Slyfield said "After we ran a 6.5/212 at the National Finals last year, Easter was not so good and we suffered at the Main Event. So running 6.5s this weekend means we know we can repeat that performance.

NFAA racer Adam Gleadow has changed from a B&J trans to Lenco which he says is bulletproof. The rear end ratio is shorter as the car drove through the clutch last time. But the main objective is to get testing done here. The Rodeck engine with Batman heads has been owned by Juha Leppanen and Lee Darby and has run as quick as 6.4. The car displays Gleadow and Galloway, with crew chief Darren Galloway being co-owner.

Super Pro ET racer Peter Walters ran a new PB of 7.91 in the first session. He said "We don't know what we have done to achieve that as the car is set up the same as the Main Event. But we ran a 8.01 backing off so we knew it had a seven in it. The air's good and the track's good today which also helped.

Super Pro ET racer Simon Rowland is in the driving seat of Nick Good's Beovax dragster for the first time since this race last year. "I crew all year with Nick and it's great to have a drive. We did two test runs and were struggling for traction at half track and I had to lift. It was the same story this morning in spite of altering tyre pressures and going in the other lane. So we sent crewman Pete home on a three hour round trip to get some new Goodyears which we will try later in the day."

Super Pro ET racer John Bradshaw suffered a flash fire on the burnout. "We spent tens of hours with the engine on the dyno but that can't simulate the extra vibration in race conditions. We found one of the injector seals broke and the leaking fuel caught fire. The startline crew were fantastic putting the fire out. There was no damage at all but we will look at the brackets before next time to get some that are more vibration resistant with the huge fuel pressure we are getting." John has a large crew today, supported by Performance Motor Sports from the US who tuned the Z car's sister to a 6.6 in NHRA competition.

Super Pro ET racer Brendan Clancy (pictured right, with crewman Paul Chandler) has also had traction issues but was pleased with a 1.0 60ft time, his best ever. He said "We have adjusted the four link to try to hook up better and discovered the car likes loads of power. We are definitely on track for big improvements and will then turn on the dry nitrous." The car is one of the highest tech around with electronic injection and electronically adjusted shocks as well."

VW Pro racer Sam Young runs this revolutionary electric Beetle that has run as low as 11.24 to be the quickest battery powered car in Europe. This meeting there have been problems. "The throttle pedal has been on and off; it is a fly by wire potentiometer." Quite a lot of work has been done since the Main Event. "We rewired it - there is a lot of electrical interference - and the signal wires are up on the roof and the main cable along the bottom of the car. The car was getting very hot so we also installed a radiator system." The car pulls strongly in the first half reaching 95mph by half track and 112 by the quarter and the team have installed a higher rear end ratio to get better speed up at the top end.

Sportsman ET racer Steve Moisey is new to the class having started racing in rwyb three years ago. "I did the Ultimate Street Challenge and am doing Outlaw Street this year. I have got my sights on doing the Brighton Speed Trials this year so managed to get a late entry to get my licence here." Steve's car is a beautiful 2005 4.6litre Shleby Mustang with a Whipple Blower at 10psi and intercooler which puts out 586hp. The wheels have been spaced by 5cm. Steve is a member of the Mustang owners' club which undertakes road trips to France with about 24 cars involved and has raised �30,750 for charity at an event supported by ASDA. Steve's justification for all this activity: "It keeps me from going to B&Q."

Pro ET racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Mike Lacey said "We are changing the springs to go for ones with softer settings. I share data with Mark Todd and others with the same chassis as me and we are going from 300 rated to 250 rated which wil hopefully get the wheels up and a straighter launch. Mike's web site is at ModUrStang.

Pro ET racer Rick McCann is running the Super Stock engine that will be going with the car and Heaven & Hell team to the Veidec Festival at the end of July. Rick said "So much is different to the old engine it tool a lot of blood sweat and tears to get it in. But the result this morning has been worth it." Rick went no.2 qualifier on only the third pass with the engine. "We now hold the UK GT/CA record!" he joked. The engine is special because of strict Stock/Super Stock rules which mandate stock or near-stock components such as the Rochester carb with quarter jets, iron heads without porting and valves (cam, springs and lifters are free). "It has run as good as the other engine out of the box."

Pro ET racer Carla Pittau suffered trans slippage resulting in the engine revving to 8000rpm (being investigated here by team members and Eurodragster.com honorary staff members Colin and Grace Roaf), compounded by a punctured slick along the return road. She said "The burnout was fine but the trans slipped on the launch. We have a spare but no spare slick so we will have to repair that."

Pro ET racer Mark Bailey suffered a mishap at the Main Event but has come back strongly this meeting. "The carb cap was left loose on top of the carb rather than being removed. The throttle stuck on the next run as a result which broke the MSD unit and I almost went off the end of the track and the front tyres went flat from the braking effort I had to put in." After fitting a new MSD unit, two new front tyres and removing the carb cap, Mark went no.1 in the first qualifying session.

Super Mod racer Peter Thompson is licensing here this weekend. His Chevelle has David James's chassis and body, Andy Kirk's Super Mod engine (509cu in BBC with nitrous) and an ex-Fred Hone 'Glide. Peter said "With the class racing at the Truck show next weekend I want to license here. I used to run Super Street in 2003-5 and then took a year out which turned out to be five years. I wanted to reach Super Mod eventually and now I have made the jump in one hit. The engine has run 7.6, the box 7.5 and the chassis 8.0 - we just need a quick driver now." Peter is helped by Steve Rawlings, Mick Slocombe and David James.

Topspeed Street Eliminator racer Stuart Williams is racing a stock block three litre Toyota engine in his Supra. "I ran an 11.2 at a rwyb in 2008 and then spent 18 months building the car with a rolling chassis from Hauser. I ran a 9.89 on my fourth pass at the King of Street earlier in the year." The engine has a T74 Precision turbo, Aeromotive fuel system, Solaris S6 ECU and data logger and Billet Pro controller. Behind the engine the drivetrain is more traditional: two speed Andy Frost Powerglide and 9" Ford rear end. Plans are for a nitrous system to get the times below the 9.5s now achieved on road tyres. Stuart will be in the HKS series race in two weeks' time and thanks go to 2bartuning.com for help with the engine setup.