Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson suffered tyre shake in second gear in the first session and ran a 6.84. He improved to 6.49 in the second session although there was still shake at the top of first gear. Son and crewman Luke Robinson said "We think the gear ratio is not aggressive enough and the car needs more tyre speed on launch."

Pro Mod racer Mats Eriksson has been busy marketing SSAB Docol tubing which has now been ratified by the SFI as being allowed for doorslammer cars. He said "After Tierp I went to Indianapolis to market it at the US Nationals. I will also attend the PRI show which is combining with the IMSI (International Motorsport Industries) Show and moving to Indianapolis in November. I am working with the SFI committees for ratification of the product for Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars soon." A 6.24 in the first qualifying session with the car getting loose at the top end was followed by an up in smoke effort off the start line. Mats said "We need to reduce wheel speed at the start. We are having to change engines as there has not been enough time to strip it down to change rods, that's a winter job now."

Pro Mod racer Bruno Bader ran his best time at SPR, a 6.07. He said "There is more to come as I had wheelspin in third gear and we are working with shocks and springs at the rear as well as weight and putting more wing in." Bruno hopes to attend the National Finals and run the whole MSA season next year. "My points position was hurt by missing the first round and the rain-out at the Summernationals."

Pro Mod racer Rick Garrett ran a new best for a UK nitrous Pro Mod in the second session, a 6.55/211. He said "We had new tyres and suffered spin on the first pass and then had to pedal after shake to a 6.95. The engine is happy and we are running good 60ft times of 0.98. The nitrous setup is actually conservative so we will tune it up for a 6.4 and think regular 6.3s and 6.4s are possible." Rick is leading the MSA championship however his car builder Andy Robinson is gaining. Rick sends greetings to his Significant Other Amy who can't be at the race and to Georgia for looking after the farm while the team are here.

Pro Mod racer David Vegter, pictured right with crew Martijn and Egbert, ran a 6.18 to go third. He said "We want to step up and improve, we are chasing the tuning as we lost data due to broken engine parts. We replaced the main bearings and other bottom end things and now have better data and will tune up as we expect the track to improve tomorrow, as long as the temperature is higher and there is no more rain."

Pro Mod racer Marc Meihuizen ran the class's only five to put him at the top of the standings. He said "We put the settings in and it went straight, smooth and not wild. There was some wheelspin at the top end and we are happy to do that time off the trailer. The second run was a bit too much but the car is fine."

Pro Mod racer Roger Moore is missing crewman Northern Chris to an emergency knee operation and engine man Gary, so he is working on the engine himself. He said "We are doing the best we can without our guys. The first run was a 6.8 which was as planned however there was too much tyre skhake on the second pass. The track seems to respond better to aggressive settings. With new slicks and soft settings I don't feel shake until it gets quite a long way out of the groove and I was getting a close look at the wall on the first run."

Top Fuel Bike racer Rene van den Berg suffered a broken pulley in the second session. He said "It's repairable. Many thanks to Martin Newbury of Psycleworkz for making a new cylinder block for me after Hockenheim which has enabled us to compete here.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Thomas Nataas is champion after completing his first qualifying pass. Team owners Carsten and Per Andersen said "Once we have done the first qualifying pass we will go into testing mode. In the second session Thomas ran 4.01/298 in improved air.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Chris 'Kalanc' Polidano took a decision two months ago that he would like to try to race a car with more power than his A/Fuel dragster. So fellow Maltese racer Duncan Micallef made an introduction to Rune Fjeld. Cross licensing passes were completed last Sunday and Wednesday and then Chris went no.1 in the first session with a 4.19. He said "I did not expect that. It is great to drive the car, it launches harder off the start line and I am glad to have my crew from the A/Fuel car back again."

Top Fuel Dragster racer Stig Neergaard went up in smoke in the first session and suffered tyre shake in the second session as he sought to tune the car to varying track conditions. He said "We started making too much power for the track and I think that the best a car will run this event is 4.0."

Top Fuel Dragster racer Patrick Pers' team is facing a complete engine rebuild after the crankshaft broke. Crew member Mark 'Aninal' Bodimeade said "The damage was also to pistons, rods, camshaft and front cover. We will miss the second session and aim to be back out tomorrow morning. We don't know what caused the crank to break, there must have been an undetectable crack in it." The damaged engine is the same one that ran 4.06/298 at Tierp a fortnight ago.

Pro Stock bike race Elvira Karlsson ran a 7.029 in the first session, only two thousandths off her PB and backed it up with a 7.03 for a track record. She said "We have been changing things on the bike like leaving at lower revs. There was some spin in third gear so I am sure a six here is possible. Expectations are high". The team were able to reveal that Elvira's sister Elsa will be making her debut in the class next year running a bike that Elvira ran a couple of years ago and was bought back by the team.

Super Pro ET racer Steve Saunders sustained gearbox damage at Shakey and thanks Paul Grainger of Lagonga Garage in Steve's home town of Billingham for his help with the rebuild last Sunday without which the team would not have made the event. The crew are wife Babs, Pete Nee and Tom 'Marzi' Marsden. The dial in work after the team's weather station gave up at Easter paid off with Steve qualifying third. He said "It's a tough class, everybody is as good as everybody else and you really need to be on your game to keep up - it's great the class has grown."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Steph Milam ran two low sevens as changes to the car were tuned. Husband and crew chief Dave said "We first used methanol Fatheads in May and didn't know what they required. We had damage to pistons, rods and heads and spent the summer repairing them and the body. We now understand what the engine needs and the 60ft times have improved a lot, so much that the car was picking up the front wheels. We then put lead on the front but it struck the tyres on the start line on the second run as the setup was too aggressive. It's a good start and we're happy to run 60ft times below 1s."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Rob Turner, pictured right with crew chief and brother Steve, ran a best in a Funny Car of 5.801. Rob said "We think we have cured a problem with blackening the rear main bearing; we have a new crank which is properly balanced and new block and the engine is a lot smoother. The run is a baseline and there is more in it." The team's dragster, recently featured in a Cillit Bang advert, is for sale, obviously a very clean car...

Super Pro ET's sponsorship scheme has been a success with over 20 sponsors. The cash prizes for no.1 qualifier (�150) and achievement award (�350) are accompanied by a plaque for no.1 and trophy for achievement. This event's achievement drawn at random on Wednesday evening is average positive reaction time in qualifying over three attempts. Details of the class are on its Facebook page. As 50 cars have qualified, it is likely there will be a 64 car ladder with six rounds of racing.

Super Street Bike racer Steve Mead has an all-new bike with McIntosh chassis and engine setup advice from ECS Performance, run by Walter Sprout. Steve said I ran it at a test day before Hockenheim but suffered big breakage when the boost got so high it blew the plenum off and bent the wastegate which destroyed the engine. Without a spare engine we cancelled Hockenheim and rebuilt. I brought the bike to the Wednesday test session but had electrical gremlins." Steve is sponsored by Lucas Oil.

Super Street Bike racer Richard Hann has a new bike after his spill 15 months ago. The self-modified Hayabusa frame has a NLR side-mounted turbo, Motec ECU and Gen2 clutch all of which is tuned by Brad O'Connor. Richard said "There is a new AMS 2000 boost controller which we believe is the first outside the US. On Wednesday we tested to 7.9 with a 1.3 60ft time and aim to tighten it further and get quicker. Thanks to everyone for their support in getting me back to racing."

Super Street Bike racer Erich Gruber from Austria has raced all rounds of the UEM Super Street Bike Cup this year and ran his first seven second pass at Kumandaras three weeks ago. He said "I was very happy to do my quickest pass after my 61st birthday." The bike is Kawasaki engined with turbo and Erich's brother Robert acts as crew.

Super Street Bike racer Steve Venables came totest on Wednesday and ran personal best times of 7.180/203.3. He said "We started from a baseline and tried things like increasing the boost, it was fine tuning what we already have rather than experimenting with a different combination." Steve's team mate Graham Balchin also ran a PB of 7.200 on his bike.

Super Twin racer Martijn de Haas is keen to step up having proven his new parts at Hockeheim. He said "We were pleased the bike was strong and there was no damage. We lost in the first round to Vesa with the same ET but slower reaction. But here, we want to run quicker and run our first six so we have put in more horsepower."

Pro Stock Bike racer Mark Smith whose firm Draper Tools sponsors Eurodragster.com has had breakage this year suffering a destroyed four valve 1655cc engine at the Summernationals. "We now have a two valve 1755cc stroker engine and have been testing it. We want to run mid sevens, it should on paper run 7.3s but I need to get the shift points right. We have a Racepak and sensors in the exhaust for the first time which will aid tuning and a six speed Liberty gearbox. The stroker engine pulls like a freight train!"

Top Fuel Bike racer Otto Knebl pictured with wife Yvona, translator Jan and mechannic Radek Kresbich, ran a new PB of 6.85 at Hockenheim. He said "We had a clutch setup that I was very happy with and no damage on the bike. So we will keep the same setup and hope to run quicker still."

Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop ran consistent passes of 7.44, 7.40 and 7.38 in testing with a spare 1655cc four valve engine. He said "At Hockenheim the no.4 piston failed against Elvira Karlsson and we will have to repair that engine in the winter. We are aiming for 7.2s in qualifying."

Top Fuel racer Jari Halinen's team prepared the engine before the first round of qualifying. Crewman Gary Page said "At Tierp we had a disappointment in eliminations when we pressed the reset button and the safety mechanism kicked in, preventing reverse being engaged unless the engine was shut off. We'd rather lose in a race than on the startline and it was a pity because the air was 300ft below sea level which is very rare. We are looking to give the spectators a good show this weekend."

Swiss Pro ET racer Nicole Reichsteiner and husband Super Pro ET racer Beat Reichsteiner are at SPR for the first time. Beat said "I built the Pro ET car seven years ago with a steel body and 540cu in BBC engine. The Super Pro car is a rolling chassis I imported four years ago. It has been a dream of mine since I was a child to race here. It took time and a lot of work but it is a great track. There is very good organisation and friendly people and the spectators love our cars."

Super Pro ET racer Rod Harrison imported his dragster in June. Built by Mike Bos Racecars and raced in the US by Scott Moor in 2011 and early 2012, it has a lot of up to date features. Rod said "We put the engine from the funny car into the chassis with a new carbon fibre injector hat. Karl did shake-out passes at the Mini In The Park event and ran a best of 6.77. Whilst we will run Super Pro for the rest of 2013 we would like to run the UK rounds of Top Methanol next year and rely on the weight break for our roots blower." For the moment the team are working on clutch tuning and the launch procedure for the manual (B&J gearbox) car.

Super Pro ET racer Dave Ward is qualified 11th with a +0.01 8.05. He said "It is a good weekend consistent runs apart from a transbrake issue on the final pass. I am grateful to my crew Daniel and Adrian Holloway, Ian and Felicity Gibbs and new crewman Paul Saint. Happy Birthday to Felicity for tomorrow." Next year is Dave's 40th anniversary of being involved in the sport, crewing for his father who raced a Production Ford Mexico in the mid 70s before himself driving a Ferrari in the Euro Challenge followed by an ex-Fay Fischer altered, the Rampage Funny Car and the current Hauser-built dragster.

Super Pro ET Team Beovax-Lucas Oil currently have their second consecutive no.1 qualifying position with Dave Catton, one session remaining. Dave said "The fuel system is working well, is easier to run and has improved the consistency. It took a little while to find the sweet spot but the data logging has helped tune it and balance the cylinders." Team principal Nick Good said "We are no.9 running a +0.01 6.87 and are trying to run consistently in both lanes. The car is running well bearing in mind the adjusted altitude of 3000ft yesterday (1500ft today) and temperature of 93 degrees F. Nick and Dave are joined by crew Gary Malin and Susie Sue Rolland.

As a prelude to FIA Top Fuel, the nostalgia front engined slingshot of Roy Wilding was fired up next to the return road.

Comp Eliminator racer Dave James decided to build a new car rather than re-tag his Chevelle. This beautiful '55 Chevy Wagon is the result, built by Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson race cars. Dave said "It took three years and I had a lot of input to make sure it was a good fit for me and comfortable to drive. The paint is by Fulford Body and Paint and lettering by Simon Clark, both based in Cheltenham. The engine is by Steve Schmidt freshened by Jeff Bull and there is a Transmission Specialities Powerglide. It is 400lb lighter than the old car and it is well suited to Comp Eliminator where I run the A/Altered index of 7.72.