Top Methanol Funny Car racer Leif Andréasson had problems getting the power to the track in both of today's qualifying sessions and was no.4 by the end of the day. After the first session he said "On that run the car had too much clutch so we have softened it up. I believe the track can hold a 5.5s pass but we haven't been down it at full power yet." Leif last ran at Santa Pod in 2009.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Rob Turner's brother crew chief (pictured right, with 'car chief' Ricky Gowen) said the car got unsettled in the first run. "It was ok to just before half track then, just as Rob shifted, the car bounced. At the Main Event it was enough to get the car across the centre line and into the other lane so Rob played it safe. We have softened the clutch for the next pass." Steve said the team were unable to make the Hockenheim and Tierp races due to work commitments and a lack of relief trucks. "It's a shame we have only been able to do two events but hope to do more next year," he said.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Danny Bellio was working hard to get the car back together after a broken transmission in the first session. He said "We are ready for the next session and the rest of the car is fine." He ran a 5.98 in the second session to go no.2.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Jari Halinen said "The weather this weekend is a miracle!" On the first pass the car shook the tyres hard but up to then left as well as it did in Tierp. Team member Gary Page said "We have changed a few things. It wasn't worth pedalling to improve the time on the first run." On the second pass Jari ran a 4.22 to go 5th.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Antti Horto ran the quickest time in the first session, a 4.08/298. He said "I am happy to be no.1 and delighted to run a personal best time and speed, but we will miss the second session to save parts. The left lane I ran in was smooth and it is great to race here."

Top Fuel Dragster team owners Karsten and Per Andersen are running their only race of the year this weekend. Karsten said "The last time we ran was at Pomona at the Finals last October with Thomas driving. We are sort of happy although the car overpowered the track and the driveshaft speed was way too high. The car is loaded, we have softened everything and hopefully the track will be better next session and will take what we give it." Karsten said he is working on a programme for next year, definitely in Europe rather than the US. "There are so many sidelined US Top Fuel racers, companies will sponsor them rather than European teams."

Top Fuel Dragster racer Thomas Nataas was delighted to be racing here again after his last outing, which was in a Fuel Funny Car in 2008. He said "It is like coming home again to race here and the car feels great off the line. We are here to run quick and we have no championship points to worry about, just to go quick."

Top Fuel Dragster racer Stig Neergaard produced two early shut-off runs in the mid fours with engine smoke. "We broke a blower belt on the first pass", he said "and we will soften the clutch for the second pass." Stig ended the day in sixth place with 4.37. The team are missing regular tuning adviser John Smith, who is at Indy following a rain-out last weekend.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita Mäkelä is joined by US tuner Donnie Bender for this race. He said "I am here on a on-off basis to advise the team and look at the operation. The team is well set up and the car runs settings close to what I have been using in Janne Ahonen's car this year. I hope to continue to be at the races in Europe next year." Anita said "I was pleased with running a 4.18 in the first session but prefer not to predict what we will run this year." Anita let her driving do the talking by going 4.02/287 in the second session.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Chris Andrews was pleased with 4.12/280 to go fourth. He said "The test sessions we ran earlier in the season have helped us to improve our performance, particularly with several sessions lost at the FIA race meetings. The track is great and the weather is helping too. We will just see what it will take. We had problems at Tierp when a supercharger failed and we couldn't get a replacement. But we have proved what we set out to do as a test year and are working towards being championship contenders next year. We are open to running at another event and will be making appearances at various events.

Pro Stock Bike team owner Roger Lyren said "During the semi final at Tierp our crank went. which was a shame because we had taken him on the tree but lost power going into sixth gear. So our number one engine was no good and we tested on Wednesday with our no.2 engine. We ran two passes, 7.25 and 7.20 but on the third run the cam chain went, which broke the engine. We took all our spare parts and put them on a table and were able to select what we could and built a new engine from scratch. We finished at 9:30pm. Kalle has a cold and fever and has to rest. Elivira has been struggling with electronics which led to the engine cutting out at 8000rpm. We changed the ignition and hope it works. The Championship door is still open and we won't give up, we know we are on the podium but not which colour the medal will be." Eurodragster.com blogger Kalle end the day fourth with 7.31 and Elvira fifth with 7.43.

Supertwin racer Chris Hannam said "We came here to test and ran our best 60ft at 1.11 and eighth at 4.49 with an old tyre. After we changed the tyre and wheelie bar setup the bike went to the right which is what we wanted. We have completely rebuilt the engine for this year and it is proving mechanically reliable. The 4.4 is at 65% throttle and we are confident that it would be a six second pass. But the bike dropped a cylinder and we were left thinking 'what if'. We have talked about 'what if' for four years." Cannon ran a best of 7.32/166 to be sixth at the end of two sessions.

Pro Mod racer Marc Meihuizen said after the first session "We have had no mechanical problems and hope conditions will be conducive to a five second pass. We tried too hard today and had big tyre shake. We wpm't change the settings yet as we want to see how it will go down the other lane and what it will take." The second run was also full of tyre shake and Marc was 15th at the end of the day.

Pro Mod racer Micke Gullqvist also suffered problems in both lanes, but more on the launch. He said "We made a lot of changes to try to get a handle on the bumps, mainly in the weight distribution and the shock absorbers. But the car didn't get off the startline and we have not got a good baseline. We have changed other things for the second run to how we would normally run and need to get down the track with a low 6.0 as a baseline." An off-it, on-it pass was a 7.900, good only for 12th at the end of Friday.

Pro Mod racer Freddie Fagerström was hugely entertaining on his first burnout and high-speed reverse, but after a pause he had to abort the run. He said "I had an oil leak which we traced to two small screws behind the blower drive. We fixed those and are ready. We want to beat Gullqvist, but seriously, I broke the engine at Tierp and the spare we have in is not in that good a shape." Freddy was able to muster a 6.24 which put him fourth at the end of the day.

Sponsors of the Shockwave Fuel Funny Car team Marshall Amps and MPM Oil are putting on some bands on Saturday. The specially decorated speakers give a hint that there may be some sounds in the pits tomorrow.

Super Pro ET racer Marc Henney from Germany is qualified 3rd with 7.604 on a 7.60 dial-in. His Mike Bos-built car runs on Ethanol. The spread of no.1 to no.32 qualifier in Super Pro after seven sessions was only seven hundredths, with the top eight separated by less than one hundredth.

Super Pro ET racer John Atkinson (pictured with son and Eurodragster.com brother-in-law Tom) was delighted to get no.2 qualifying position with 8.913 on an 8.91 dial-in. He said "We weren't as close as we wanted yesterday so were glad to get a good run in."

Super Pro ET racer Russ Fellows has run a best of 9.08 in his stock-appearing Beetle. Crewman Paul Jackson said "We are trying everything to get into the eights and have even taken the wing mirrors and wipers off. The engine is looking good. When we run an eight we would like to dedicate it to Jim Smith's father who passed away earlier in the year as Jim has been chasing an eight too."

Super Pro ET racer and Wild Bunch co-ordinator Chris Hartnell was delighted to run a 8.767/149 to go fifth after session 7. The team are delighted with the new engine and the 40-year old car has never run better.

Super Pro ET racer Sascha Pretzsch from Switzerland usually runs in Comp Eliminator where cars run all-out against a class index. In bracket racing the emphasis is on running close to the dial-in and Sascha was 0.11 off his 7.90 dial-in which was good only for 35th. The 2003 Cavalier was built by Jerry Bickel and runs a 706cu in Dart engine with nitrous.

Super Pro ET racer Roy Walker ran a 8.858 on a 8.85 dial-in to go seventh.

Super Pro ET racer Tom van der Wijden is qualified 6th in Super Pro ET with 8.957 on an 8.95.

Super Pro ET racer John Gerritsen has a new engine and it is his first year with a supercharger. John's times have improved to the 7.39 in the stock looking car but the closest to his dial-in was a 7.68 on a 7.50 and he is 38th.

Super Pro ET racer Steve Saunders is qualified 9th with a 8.62 on 8.61 dial.

Super Pro ET racer Chris Orthodoxou ran a best of 7.86 on a 7.81 dial-in to go 30th in the field.

Super Pro ET racer Mike Bruckmueller ran a 8.40/151 on a 8.36 dial to go 24th. His team said "We have competed in Germany, Czech Republic and Holland and we want to go quick here too. The car has an Alston chassis, BBC with Dart heads and a Callies Powerglide trans.

Super Pro ET racer Nick Good ran some 6.9s on the wrong side of his dial yesterday but also ran a 7.033 on a 7.02 to go 13th.

Super Pro ET racer Dave Catton is now running regular seven second passes in his four link dragster and a 7.833 on a 7.82 dial made him 14th.

Super Pro ET racer Ian Turburville improved to run 8.4s yesterday, breaking out in doing so but a 8.74 on 8.7 has made him no.28 qualifier.

Super Pro ET racer and Pro ET racer Paul Marston said "I ran ten out of twelve possible runs yesterday, we just missed a couple in order to have some lunch. We have brought the Monza again after the Bruiser broke and it reacts well to the changes we make." He is 10th in Super Pro and 5th in Pro ET.

Super Comp and Super Gas racer Pete Creswell is 5th in Super Comp and 6th in Super Gas after seven sessions.

Super Comp racer Paul Vrind from the Netherlands has a panoply of race event stickers as he has entered the cars in many races over the last decade. He is 13th in qualifying with a 8.95 after seven sessions. The small car runs a big engine, 620cu in

Super Comp racer Eric Roerade from the Netherlands improved from 13th to 6th in this morning's session with a 8.91 in his Chevy Nova.

Super Comp and Super Gas racer Martin Curbishley is 10th in Super Comp and 9th in Super Gas.

Super Comp racer Noah Stutz missed some runs yesterday with a rear axle bearing problem. Team member Patrick Tschanz said "Geof Hauser gave us helped and replaced them on both sides. We are looking forward to having Urs Erbacher with us for the weekend." The team plan to add nitrous and go into Super Pro ET next year

Super Street racer Dave Cherrett suffered a broken front kingpin on the launch yesterday. He said "We had the same problem five years ago and the weld appeared to have broken when the car came down from its launch. He said "Thanks to John a.k.a Shakey for his help in welding it back and to Bob and Stuart Doignie for the contact and loan of front runners which should help get us through the weekend. Perhaps I will have to set it up not to wheelie in the future."

UEM Super Street Bike Cup racer Thomas Granica said "We had a new engine in Hungary which is working very well. On Wednesday I tested with a best of 7.6/192 and good RT of 0.07 so we are in good shape. We are 6th in the UEM championship and would like to remain there but it will be hard work. I will have to qualify in the top ten and go rounds."

UEM Super Street Bike Cup racer Erich Gruber is returning after his first visit to SPR at the Main Event. He said "I qualified 8th in Hungary and won the Hungarian Super Street Bike Championship. My best is 8.12 and I want to run a 8.0 or 7.9 which I expect I will need to qualify." Erich (just celebrated his 60th birthday) has a Kawasaki ZX12 with a GT30 turbo, MTC slider clutch and Michelin tyre. Thanks to Woppi for interpretation.

UEM Super Street Bike Cup racer Mark Wells is chasing a lower ET. His Suzuki has run a best of 7.68. He said "I have run the ACU rounds and Straightliners as well. My bike has a GT40 turbo and MTC full slider clutch which means the engine is struggling to 'wake up' on the start line. I will change the clutch for next year." The bike has Guinness stickers all over it which Mark informs us is from a love of the product rather than sponsorship.