As a tribute to racers Scot Durrant and Dave Warne both of whom departed from us recently, a minute's silence was held at at both Santa Pod Raceway and Shakespeare County Raceway at 9:30am. They will both be sadly missed.

Competition Eliminator racer René Ehrismann from Switzerland ran a troubled 8.37/160 in the first session against a 7.86 dial-in. The '55 Chevy Bel Air has a 615cu in nitrous-assisted BBC by Brodix with TS clutch and Powerglide grearbox. The car was originally raced by Tim Cook in the early 90s.

Eurodragster.com sponsor Jon Webster's slingshot ran in Comp Eliminator in preparation for Dragstalgia's Slingshot Showdown. He ran a 7.88/172.

Nostalgia Super Stock racer Craig Elliott has an immaculate period-correct 1964 Plymouth Savoy, with a 426cu in engine. His time was 11.59/114.64 on an 11.50 dial. Class organiser Pete Walton told us the field for Dragstalgia is up to 41 cars.

Nostalgia Super Stock racer Guy King runs a Chevelle SS with 572cu in engine which went 10.47/136 on a 9.70 dial-in. Class rules mandate US V8 powered pre-'81 cars with carburettors, dial-ins between 9.00 and 14.99, no power adders and stock rear suspension setup. For more details see the class's Facebook page.

Super Street Bike racer Rudolfo Maduro from the Netherlands is at his second meeting at SPR. 'We came to the National Finals last year', he said, 'And ran a PB of 7.53. I have owned the Suzuki GSXR 1000 bike since 2005 and it produces 500hp with a home-made turbo quickest, Gen2 clutch, and Vipec ECU. I have lowered the front over the winter'. His first run was 7.70/186 to go sixth out of twelve qualifiers.

ET Bracket/NAST racer Craig Boulton races a Nourish Weslake engined and Magnacharger supercharged bike built by Tim Clark in the early 1980s. He said 'We ran a new PB of 9.34 in eliminations at Springspeed but unfortunately broke out. We are hoping for an eight without hurting it. We had the wrong type of oil and had to rebuild the engine after some seals disintegrated.'. The engine had some new rods over the winter and Craig said that spares for the venerable and rare engine still exist from successor company Nourish Engineering.

ET Bracket/NAST racer Chris Mott has bought a new slicks and wheelie bar machine from the US. 'It has a Hayabusa stock engine, lock-up clutch and on-board, which should help make it reliable, consistent and easy to run'. The bike was built by Marion Ford of Ford Bros Racing and the frame takes a 7" slick; predicted times are in the low nines or high eights when sorted.

Supertwin Top Gas racer Markus Mueller from Germany is racing his own bike for the first time, although he has been crewing for ten years with regular visitor Thomas Joswig, who can't be here this weekend due to illness. 'I bought the bike in October 2015 from Bob Spinner, a former Top Fuel Bike racer from Germany and rebuilt it over winter. It is all new apart from the frame and wheels. The engine is a S&S Superstock Sportser of 2400cc, naturally aspirated with a five speed air shifted gearbox. We are still working on clutch adjustments and will be happy with a high nine second pass.'

Funny Bike racer Shaun Branch is at his first championship race in nine years. He said 'I debuted the new bike last year at rwyb events and have done twenty passes on it with a best of 7.45. The new frame was necessary to have all the new parts fit tidily.' The frame is new, built by Shaun's dad Dave (one of the most innovative bike racers from the 1970s) and the body is by Shaun. The engine is the same supercharged< 1425cc Suzuki engine of Shaun's old bike and the gearbox is a Robinson three speed.

Funny Bike racer Filippos Papafilippou is playing catch up after one decent pass at the Main Event. 'I had a failure of a clutch basket gear which caused the engine case to crack, so I then had to switch to my smaller engine, ran a poor start but a 205mph speed to qualify fifth. In eliminations there was a two step problem on the launch against Rene.' Fil's objective today is to run two good passes, but the first was an 8.3/134, way off the bike's best but improved to 6.716/200 in the second session. Word on Fil's domestic racing scene is that a permanent facility is close to being created near Athens.

Nostalgia Funny Car racer Bob Glassup was sadly shut down after a storming burnout. He said 'We are getting up to speed slowly, learning the car through testing it. We are keeping safe as it is new territory. The car complies with US Nostalgia FC rules, with a 6/71 blower, single magneto and 20 gallon per minute fuel pump. We run 85% nitro. The science is in the tuneup as the three disc Crower clutch and three speed Lenco mean an 'on or off' transmission. There is also no fuel metering, return or leanout system. So I can't pedal it like an altered, and have to keep my foot down.'

Super Pro ET racer Karlheinz Kleider from Germany is now racing Dan Larsen's old Dodge Avenger funny car. He was shut down after the burnout on the first run. 'The collar of the distributor had a crack and oil came out of a gasket seal. We have a new engine and gearbox. The engine is 632cu in with 14/71 blower overdriven by 48% and B&J three speed with convertor. We ran the new car at Becheyne two weeks ago but hurt the rod bearings so changed engines. We will be at Dragstalgia, Drachten, NitrOlympX and will attend a Rock Festival where we plan to do fire burnouts'. Karlheinz's next run was an excellent, but breakout, 6.438.

Super Pro ET racer Martyn Jones suffered traction woes in his first run with wheelspin on the launch. On his second run he ran a much improved 5.983/194. He said 'Yesterday we attempted a full pass at over 200mph and found no brakes or chute which was interesting. We went a car length and a half into the grass. It hasn't been much of a season, as at Easter we achieved two burnouts and two broken reversers, and we missed the Main Event as our truck broke down'.

Super Pro ET racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Peter Walters had to take the supercharger off and refit a loose bolt on the intake manifold. Peter said 'At the top end oil sprayed everywhere but the time was good, 8.37/160 on 8.25 dial. We also have a Powerglide to replace our previous TH400 gearbox after a problem at the Main Event. We are now operating with 5000rpm stall speed.'

VW Pro racer Sam Chisholm Brown is in his second season of racing after buying his Golf Mk3 with a 24 valve V6 engine from a VR6 Mark 4. He said 'The engine produces 243hp and we have a 75hp shot of nitrous. The gearbox is a V5, there is a Wavedrive Limited slip differental which helps keep tyre spin even, and M&H drag slicks. My best ET is 12.4/111 with nitrous in session one'.

Super Pro ET racer Laura Turburville had a wild ride in session one when after her best 60ft time ever a loose wire to the shifter caused the gearbox not to shift where it should. The engine hit the rev limiter which stopped the engine and then it restarted causing a big wobble and 'A burnout at 1000ft' according to dad and car owner Ian Turburville. An 8.47 on 8.15 placed her thirteenth. Ian says that he and Laura will be running two slingshots at Dragstalgia - the new Beach Bomb car which is for sale, and the True Blood which Laura raced before, with a Donovan engine which has a storied history in British Drag Racing.

VW Pro racer Stuart Hodgson bought his Strip Poker VW Beetle as a rolling chassis seven years ago. He said 'We run at York and I now have a 2387cc with a Turbonetics A64 turbo with a draw through induction setup and a 75hp nitrous shot. Stuart is crewed by engine builder Danny Wharton of Reichspeed Aircooled engine services. The car's best is 10.5/132 and he is qualified 12th.

VW Sportsman racer Jon Crawford has partnered with Engine Carbon Clean for a marketing and sponsorship deal which has drawn the company into the drag racing scene with a highly professional presentation. 'Rather than sending sponsorship proposals to many companies I identified a new product area suitable for drag racers. Engine Carbon Clean also have a programme with BMW in circuit racing. Their boss, Danys Karmel, has a regular stand behind the spectator grandstand. My Golf VR6 has a 24 valve engine and we are looking to step up to VW Pro with a roll cage and engine modifications'.

Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer Nigel Hales has a Procharger setup on his Chevrolet C30 pickup truck. He had problems at the Main Event with a damaged camshaft but after help from ICE Automotive he is back on track with a 11.16/128 to go sixth in the 'postcode on wheels' as described by announcer Darryl Bradford.