Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita Mäkelä qualified second in session one with a 4.246/227, lifting early after a dropped cylinder. She said 'After Tierp we had a team meeting about coming to Santa Pod as we had lost both parts and points and couldn't win the championship. But if you want to race you have to go to Santa Pod Raceway. It's such a special place, and so many of the faces are familiar, they are our soulmates and part of the sport. Our plans for next year are not clear yet, and we want to finish the season and then plan. We still want to make the car go faster, and many thanks to the Lagana Brothers for their advice this year and we're pleased the had so much success at Indy'.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Micke Kågered was sixth after the fist session with a 5.281/177. He said 'We had trouble with a lack of boost from the blower and are checking it to see what the problem is'. Micke was checking the casing with a torque wrench when we arrived. Micke's plans for 2018 are still subject to discussion post the event.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Jndia Erbacher has enjoyed her time in the class since licensing at the Summernationals. 'Hockenheim was awesome', she said. Things went much better than I expected getting to the final and then missing out by only 0.007s from Duncan. The 4.056 in the final was on a new engine which we put in between Q1 and Q4. This morning the engine broke, there was too much oil pressure and it went to the oil pan. So we put the spare engine in later and hope for more time. Yesterday all the class got ready then the temperature dropped and we came to a decision together that the conditions weren't safe enough for us to run in'. The team's plans, subject to sponsorship deals, are to run two cars for both UK rounds and Hockenheim, and for Jndia to run the whole championship.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Duncan Micallef needs to have a round win to secure the championship against second placed Antti Horto. On his qualifying pass of 4.52/180 to go fifth, the belt broke. He said 'We looked at it and there was a problem with the pulley spacer. The car was as quick as Antti until 550ft'. For 2018, Duncan is sure he is going to race but plans are subject to discussion with car owner RFM.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Liam Jones had a problem with his electromotive safety unit which shut the engine off and deployed the parachute after 60ft. He said 'It's the same problem that we had at Tierp, we have got to rewire the unit. But I am happy with our performance generally and want to get third in the championship as Stig is only two points ahead of us'.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Stig Neergaard has probably the most spare parts of any team with eight engines, and only one of these was slightly damaged this season. He said after a 6.19/127 'I had big tyre shake after one second and pedaled, I wouldn't have if we had run yesterday, but there was no damage. We have changed the clutch to avoid more tyre shake'. Stig, defending third place from Liam Jones could in theory move to second place but it would involve a lot of lucky breaks.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Antti Horto has had great performance in the same car that Andy Carter drove to the 2004 Championship. He said 'We are here to get the championship and need to gain 51 points on Duncan. If just the same situation occurs here that happened at Tierp in August we would be on even points. After Tierp my confidence is on a high and my team are fantastic. It's slao great just to come back to England, where we ran such good numbers. Also we have decided to do the full season next year and have done deals for that with our sponsors'.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Stefan Gunnarson suffered tyre shake but a PB 6-ft time of 0.842. He is crewed by Peter Lantz as crew chief and Mike Domagala of PRP. Mike said 'We had changed the primary clutch arms at Tierp but switched back for this event after suffering vibration, to those we used to run 3.900 at the Scandinavian Internationals in 2016'. Stefan added 'We had too much clutch and it locked up solid so we went back to the old parts'. The problem this time was terrible shake, after which he shut off to eighth position, on the bump.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Maja Udtian, a second generation racer and daughter of former Top Methanol Dragster racer Paul Ingar Udtian, started her drag racing career in Junior Dragster and came to SPR 2008-10. She progressed to Super Comp in 2014 and in 2016 won the EDRS Championship, racing all the time without a throttle stop. She said 'I first wanted to get into Top Fuel when we came to Tierp last year. My Mum and Dad (Mona and Paul) said if I won the Super Comp championship I would go into Top Fuel. So we looked at the car which my Dad licensed in at SPR in 2012 and was now owned by team members Konrad Ree and Odd Rune Olsen. We had a lot of upgrades to do and changed the pedal positions and the seat to fit me'.

Maja Udtian continued 'I started licensing at Gardermoen and finished with two full passes at Tierp in August, which she did on Saturday and Sunday of that meeting'. How does a Top Fuel dragster performance compare to Super Comp? 'It's indescribable, I can't explain it', she commented. 'The starting, burnout and staging process was quite easy to learn as it's similar to a Junior Dragster except I have to release the clutch in the Top Fuel car. I am pleased the car is running straight and had no damage on my 4.33 qualifying pass today. And in the race, I will race my own race and not notice who is in the other lane'. The crew is the same team that ran the Methanol car, plus some new younger members. Meanwhile Maja's sister Mari licensed for Super Comp in May, another family member with the racing gene.

Top Fuel Dragster crew chief Peter Lantz was visited by former crew chief and now Olympic sports coach Ben Allum, who was crew chief for Andy Carter a decade ago. Ben said 'It's great to come back to Santa Pod and see the old faces again. And if it rains, there is more time for chatting!'

Top Methanol Dragster racer Jonny Lagg ran a couple of solid passes with a 5.48/259 yesterday evening and 5.46/253 this morning. He said 'I lifted off early, we are sneaking up on it and trying not to make any major changes. We had planned for no more sessions, so are prepared for eliminations'.

Pro Mod racer Bobby Wallace, focusing on the MSA Championship, is qualified 11th with a 6.286/220. Weather precluded a third and final session.

Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson ran a 6.078/236 in session one and a consistent 6.076/236 in session two, but at the expense of a damaged cam. Team member Luke Robinson went back to the team's base in Hampshire to get a spare, while the team had the task of removing the engine in order to gain access. Andy had a good outing at Hockenheim, qualifying seventh and running a best of 6.09 in a losing effort in round two.

Pro Mod racer Michel Tooren has had a difficult season, missing Alastaro after an engine failure at Tierp in June. He came back at the Mopar Euronationals and although he ran 6.2s in qualifying, had a succession of first round defeats. A 6.21 qualifying time puts him at tenth position, and up against 2017 champion Micke Gullqvist in round one.

Pro Mod racer Roger Johansson ran his new car, debuted in June at Tierp, to low six second times at the Dico Scandinavian Internationals but here at his first race at SPR since his 2016 crash, suffered handling problems and could only run a best of 7.39/144, placing him seventeenth but with the withdrawal of Jon Webster as first alternate we may be seeing him in eliminations tomorrow.

Pro Stock Bike racer Robert Karlsson ran a 7.32/177 to go fourth. In points terms he is not in contention as this is his first FIM meeting of the year, having raced twice at Tierp in the EDRS Pro series.

Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Martin Newbury qualified sixth with a 7.49/164. He didn't race at the NitrOlympX and this is his second event of the year. With one qualification session he is up against Charly Abraham in round one.

Pro Stock Bike racer Mark Smith's wife Kerry and team mate Mark Green looked after Mark's bike in the pairing lanes. Mark ran a 7.88 on his 1655cc Suzuki TL1000R to go tenth and second alternate.

Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop's crew Timon Marshall are relaxed. Martin ran three test passes on Wednesday with 7.47, 7.44 and 7.43 the outcome. Today he ran a 7.41 to go fifth and a first round meeting with Robert Karlsson.

Super Pro ET racer Ian Brown is delighted to have run down into the 8.0s and hope to run their first seven at this event. Crew chief Harrison said 'We haven't had many problems with the car, although gearbox breakage was an issue and we have resolved that with a new gearbox oil pump and oil temperature gauge plus a radio for improved communication before and after the run.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Maja Udtian is making her SPR debut after a successful licensing session at Tierp where she ran a best of 4.11/276.85. Sadly the conditions weren't favourable with the temperature at that stage of 14 degrees and humidity of 85% meaning the dewpoint was very close, so the class elected to pass up on the session, as did Pro Stock. However the Pro Mods had earlier put in some good times which was a testament to the herculean efforts of the track crew who got the surface to a very high standard before the temperature fell.

Pro Stock racer Stefan Ernryd is in second place in the championship, 36 points behind Bengt Ljungdahl with 20 points for a round win as well as qualifying points. His single win came at Hockenheim and he has run a PB ET of 6.587 at this year's Dico Scandinavian Internationals - a race sponsored by his main sponsor.

Pro Stock racer Bengt Ljungdahl is the championship leader and won two events, the Sweden Nationals and Alastaro Nitro Nationals. He was runner up in 2016 and has led from the start this year and been no.1 qualifier on three occasions.

Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren is in third place in the championship, ahead of Jimmy &Aing;lund who is not competing in this category at this event. The only person who can theoretically catch him is Thomas Lindström who is 63 points behind, a big margin. In his long career, Michael won the championship in 2002, 2003 and 2010 and has amassed five runner up positions.

Pro Stock racer Magnus Petersson is sixth year of competition, joining the series in 2013. His best finish was second in 2014, in the same Pontiac GTO he is running this weekend. He has suffered engine problems after his main engine broke at Tierp in June.

Pro Mod racer Micke Gullqvist was confirmed as 2017 Champion after one qualifying session. Since Pro Modified was included in the FIA championships in 2006, he has won six championships and holds the European record at 5.833/251.15. His is the only supercharged Pro Mod in Europe to top 250mph.

Pro Stock racer Robin Norén joined the series this year and has run a best time of 6.75 at Hockenheim and hopes to run quicker still here. His car is a Pontiac GTO.

Pro Mod racer Jimmy Ålund is in second place in the championship but could in theory be caught by David Vegter who is 58 points behind, but it's a long shot. Jimmy has taken very well to the different more muscular type of driving needed in a Pro Mod and benefits also from a consistent combination developed over many years with other drivers.

Pro Mod racer David Vegter has had to replace his engine following breakage at Tierp and the team had a busy time leading up to this race. In session one he ran a solid 6.258 to go sixth in tricky conditions. His PB is 5.955/242.

Pro Mod racer Håkan Persson's car was built by Mats Eriksson and he has run a best of 6.005/239. He is sixth in the Championship this year, his best position to date, and becoming a regular visitor to SPR.

Pro Mod racer Bruno Bader has had two runner up championship positions in 2011 and 2012 and lies in fifth. He could well move up to fourth place as Åke Persson is not attending and he is 50 points ahead of Bruno. In testing on Wednesday Bruno suffered tyre spin at around 60ft on each of his three attempts. However adjustments since then worked and he ran a 6.09/229 to go second after the first qualifying session.

Pro Mod racer Freddie Fagerström, a crowd favourite had his work cut out to have an engine rebuilt after Tierp in August where he reached the semi final. 'We had the spare parts to rebuild it and it's great to be back', he said. Unusually Freddie was his own clutch guy and the settings worked well to a 6.49/167 in the first session last night.

Pro Mod racer Jan Ericsson, who has raced before at SPR in Pro Stock, is making his PM debut here in his first year in the category. In Tierp in June he ran a 6.078 in round one of eliminations and has a good setup. His first run was 6.49/222.

Pro Mod racer Kim Kristiansen from Denmark in the ex-Marc Meihuizen Firebird ran 6.0s at Tierp in June and competed in Hockenheim and Tierp in August. Having raced in Top Doorslammer previously, he knows how to handle this type of car and ran a solid 6.222/235 in session one to go fifth.

Pro Mod racer Marck Harteveld, a regular in the MSA Championship, went 6.10/236 in session one, a very straight pass. His car is ex-Pete Farber from the US, much lighter than last year and as well as MSA rounds, ran at Hockenheim in August when he qualified with a 6.14 and got through to round two.

Pro Mod racer Kev Slyfield was testing a new lean-out valve which is timed to come on during the run. He had a transbrake issue in session one, not being able to hold the car on the startline and is on fifteenth position, hoping for a return to the 6.111 performance from earlier in the year.

Pro Mod racer Wayne Nicholson ran an impressive 6.49/216 test pass at the Mopar Euronationals, but the 'Lucky Devil' has not been living up to its name here with not being able to get into reverse after the burnout in the first session and having to shut off in the second session.