Super Pro ET racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Peter Walters has teamed up with Weston-Super-Mare based vehicle wrap specialists Supawraps to provide great designs and superb quality of application. On track, Peter ran his first seven for some time yesterday and is qualified eighth with 8.048/163.

Super Comp racer Paul Brown is qualified second in the shorty dragster. Paul's parent's four door model A is on display in the NSRA tent having been driven by them around the US over 30,000 miles in the period 2007-14.

9.50 Bike racer Rick Sawatzki won the 2015 and started 2016 by qualifying no.1 with a 9.517.

Funny Bike racer Eric Richard from France ran a 7.54/171 on his turbo and nitrous assisted Hayabusa-engined machine. He said 'We have made a new body for this season and we are hoping to run quicker than our best of 7.30'. Thanks to crew member Frank Weisenbacher for translation.

8.50 Bike racer Yannick Richard runs a turbo assisted Suzuki Bandit and qualified fourth with 9.169 in the four bike field.

ET Bike racer Ian Chrichlow is in the Fossil Fuelers team and qualified no.1 with 8.709 on 8.70 dial-in. He said 'I bought the bike from Robert Field two seasons ago after he had competed with it in 8.50 Bike. The bike has new bodywork. The engine is similar in spec to Super Street bike but less horsepower, around 500hp whereas SSB are putting out 700-800hp.' ET Bike is designed to attract racers who want to put their bike into a close competition without spending too much money. Ian's bike is the quickest you will see, as the class has a 8.70 cut-off but no upper limit for ETs.

8.50 racer Jay Roe is another member of Fossil Fuelers (the third member Jonathan Kasziba is not at this event). He explained the team was born out of circuit racers who came to SPR and loved the friendly atmosphere. Jay said 'We have a new engine which uses less nitrous than the old one and should be more reliable. The nitrous comes in one shot when I am more than 80% throttle on a run. It is good for another 40-50hp which should give 240hp at the wheel. I built the engine and bike myself using a swing arm from Jemma Venables' old bike.

Super Street Bike racer Sandro Haldemann from Switzerland is planning to race at the Main Event, NitrOlympX, Finals and either Hungary or the Hockenheim public race (which uniquely this year fall on the same weekend). He said 'We struggled last year with the bike pulling left and found there was play in the bearings on the front so we changed them. The bike is a turbo 'Busa with slider clutch. We are testing here so we quite pleased to run an 8.3 and go straight'.

Funny Bike racer Filippos Papafilippou has Maltese racer Glenn Borg (pictured left) testing his new turbo machine while Fil runs his nitrous bike in SPR rounds of the ACU championship. Fil said 'On the first run the bike broke the experimental aluminium sprocket and on the second run there was a starter problem'. Glenn, who has raced in SSB in Malta and ran a 6.8 on Fil's turbo bike last year. He said 'We have some new parts on the turbo bike, however it dropped a valve in a warm up resulting in head damage. We hope to have it ready to run in TFB at the Main Event'.

Competition Bike racer Phil Leamon, pictured with crew member Dennis Bulman, had battery and ignition problems that prevented him going quicker than 9.30 yesterday. He said 'The bike has a semi-automatic transmission with lock-up clutch and is consistent off the start line'. The engine is a GSX1100 with carburettor and a 90hp nitrous shot. Phil remarked that Comp Bike has recently had a maximum ten inch tyre limit which has meant some of the racers with slicks and wheelie bars have moved up to Funny Bike and also some Super Street Bikes have decided to run in Comp bike.

8.50 Bike racer and 2015 champion Jake Mechaell is qualified no.1. He said 'We rebuilt the spare engine and tried it on E85 race fuel to see how it would compare to C16 and the results were positive. We had to change the injectors and the fuel system. We came into this meeting not knowing how the bike would run with the extra torque, gearing and launch settings changing and boost settings. The first run had some wheelspin between first and second and the second was a 8.51 against Jay Roe's 8.52, side by side all the way up the track and one of the best races I've had.

Top Fuel Bike racer Nick Milburn had an unfortunate tumble when a gust of wind unseated him after a great 6.84 pass. He was perfectly ok after the tumble. Earlier he had said that yesterday a blower belt broke on the first burnout and on the second pass the bike stripped a sprocket and another blower belt snapped. The run was a 7.1 which was in the right direction. He said 'We won the National Finals and didn't strip the bike down over winter'.

Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt was pleased with the bike's performance with a 6.51 off-the-throttle. He said 'We just made a few changes to fuel distribution over the winter. The bike went well at the end of last year and the team want to put more nitro in it'.

Top Fuel Bike racer Rene van den Berg has raced his newest bike for the last three years and has run a PB of 6.51 at this meeting. During that time, several important developments have been made. 'Puma Engineering made a stronger crank and a clutch adaptor. We also have made a lot of changes to the wiring which was interfering with the data logger. The bike has been wiggling a bit on the runs but I was focused more on keeping it straight rather than keeping the throttle open down the track. Many thanks to Eurol and NGK Spark Plugs UK for their support'.

Pro Mod racer Marck Harteveld had to upgrade his Superbird to join the class. He said 'We had to get a Brad Andersen Stage Five engine which we bought from the Pro Dutch team and a blower. Unfortunately the blower snout axle broke which has never happened before. We will be able to repair it at home but not here and we asked everybody but no-one has a spare'. Marck will be competing at the larger MSA rounds and NitrOlympX.

Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson had an unexpected leanout and explosion in his pass yesterday. He said 'The heads and block were damaged and we had to weld the block overnight and put our spare heads on. There was a fuel supply issue from our new fuel tank. The car had left the line nicely but the automatic shut off resulted in us stopping short of the finish line'. This afternoon's 6.37/225 pass means Andy is qualified, after a lot of overnight work.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Rod Harrison had his FIA license signed off after a 6.23/215 pass following yesterday's 5.96/236. 'Our first pass was a half pass after which we checked the engine bearings. We then had to do two full passes to complete licensing at 6.4 or less at over 200mph. I had never taken a pro light before this event so I am practising for that. We are running the car soft with the rev limiter set low and the mixture rich. It is tunable to where we want to go but we want to be in the hunt rather than running so that we have to replace a lot of parts each run. The car is 119lbs over weight and are looking at that as well.'

Super Pro racer Tom van der Wijden of Meth-Ness Racing sold his Methanol Funny car when a sponsor became ill, and bought this turbo Chevy S10 that had previously been raced by Martin Lundkvist and Gustav Andersson. The key feature is that the turbos are mounted in the back and boost goes in a pipe that runs through the drivers compartment. Tom said 'It is different to drive as it has four shocks and a four link suspension. Once the boost comes in it moved around the track. Also I need to get used to the startline procedure, so there is a learning curve for driving it. But there is less maintenace that the funny car - and I'm still running on methanol!'

Top Fuel racer Liam Jones ran a 4.86 half pass yesterday in his new ride for this year, an ex-Don Schumacher Racing car which Jari Halinen ran to victory at last year's Euro Finals. Liam said 'It was really flying and the first impressions are that it's a really good car, smooth and comfortable'. Conditions are quite unfavourable to Fuelers that are running 70-weight oil which is too thick to get good oil pressure and no-one has 60-weight. The team were having to put heaters under the car to warm the oil and even then firing the engine was difficult. The team are getting new cylinder heads for the FIA season which will bring the car up to current NHRA spec.

Santa Pod Raceway's two seater dragster has had a new Andy Przybyl paintjob for the fiftieth anniversary of the track. Steve Warner ran back to back perfect lights in his two runs today, a feat we believe is unequalled in the sport.

The NSRA had a superb display of street rods including this Willys imported from the US recently by Andy Crockett and on display for the first time in the UK. You will be able to see the car at the Willys Wars at Dragstalgia and other NSRA events around the country.

Ed Robert's '37 Ford was previously owned by Andy Crockett and like all the NSRA exhibits was a prize winner at an NSRA event.