Super Street Bike racer Steve Wood didn't make eliminations at this event running a best of 9.114 in qualifying to go 12th of twelve runners. He said 'We will still run in the rwyb section as I am dialling in a new turbo'. Steve reached the semi finals at the Festival of Power.

Super Street Bike racer Daniel Donat Lencses qualified fourth with a 7.497/191. He said 'We are testing for the FIM round next weekend. At the last round at Kunmadaras I reached the semi final however the cam chain broke with engine damage'. Daniel and his brother built the new engine for the bike over the winter and are looking to do more of their own work on the bike.

Super Street Bike racer Graham Dance qualified on bump spot with 7.953/188. He said 'We have had a problem with the bike for the last 18 months with an electrical misfire at high boost levels. We finally cured it by machining a new ignition pickup before this event but didn't enter the Main Event so will have to dial the bike in properly at the Summer Nationals and then head to Hockenheim'. Having cured the misfire, Graham has now found there is too much power and the bike is going through the clutch in top gear.

Super Street Bike racer Dave Smith has rebuilt his bike and is running it in rwyb for the first time since he had a crash at the 2014 Alternative Fuels event. He said 'The bike has a new body kit - thanks to Daniel Donat Lencses for doing it in three days - new front and rear subframes and new turbo header. It all cost over �10,000 to repair but the engine was ok. I wanted to test in the class here but it was tight on time and the bike hasn't even been on the dyno'.

Comp Bike racer Eddy Smiley won the 2016 title and is leading the 2017 championship. But his machine can be legal for Super Street Bike and he is entered for the FIM round at the Main Event. 'I have a bigger GT35 turbo and my dad Tony Smiley of sp-dragracing.co.uk has remapped it. The bike also has a Hays clutch and AMS1000 boost controller. I did a big wheelie in testing at Easter and the front of the subframe snapped off which in turn caused a wiring issue. After I welded the subframe the headers were loose on the turbo at the SCR race and we had to put on a new type of washer to secure them.'

Super Street Bike racer Steve Mead ran a best of 8.608/167 to qualify eleventh. He said 'It's disappointing as this is my first time out since the Euro Finals last year. My next event will be the Summer Nationals and then Hockenheim. As I work on the railways a lot of the projects I do happen at weekends and bank holidays. The bike is fine but the shift from first to second is too violent and we have to change the settings to smooth it out.'

9.50 Bike racer Mark Dainty from Gloucester is new to the class this year. The nitrous Hayabusa was designed and painted by Mark and John Tooze. Mark qualified seventh with a 9.959/135 and went well in eliminations.

We had a quartet of Swedish visitors who will be staying for the Main Event to compete in Super Street Bike. They are (left to right) Robert Nilsson, Mathias Bohlin, Anders Gerdtsson and Bianca Nilsson. Robert said 'This is my third time at Santa Pod, I first raced in 8.50 Bike at the 2013 Summer Nationals and at the 2016 Extreme Bike Weekend set four personal bests to a 7.264/200.65. Mathias, whose web site is mattebusa.se does most of the machining for the team and Robert then assembles the parts.

Comp Bike racer Scott Collier's weekend started with much promise as the team found the problem that had been bugging them at Shakey (a wire controlling the nitrous had broken). The first pass blew the tyre away but on the second, Scott set a new PB of 7.771/161.92. Mum Sharron said 'Even on that run the bike jumped out of gear in top'. That proved to be indicative of another problem as in the first round of eliminations, the bike's gearbox broke on launching. Sharron said 'Thanks to all the Comp Bike racers for being so friendly to us and to Steve French for all his work on the bike'.

Comp Bike racer Bobby Frazier went for a licensing launch on Tonnie van den Berg's bike, which he will be riding at the Main Event in Pro Stock Bike. Clutch drag pulled the bike through stage however Bobby controlled the bike well when she dropped the clutch. Tonnie said 'I have a new bike being built by Eurodragster.com sponsors Psycle Workz which will be ready very soon for the Summernationals.

Funny Bike racer Phil Crossley has been suffering directional problems with his bike since running bests of 7.13 at the National Finals and 7.19 at the Festival of Power. 'The front end feels as if it going to tuck under when the bike comes off the wheelie bars. It hasn't been straight for ten runs and we have tried fitting new tyres and adjusting the wheelie bars but it does not respond. So we have turned it right down for our bye run in the first round'.

Funny Bike racer Allan Davies ran a 7.19 at the Festival of Power and qualified no.1 here with a 7.280/177. 'The bike is very consistent and I'm sure we can go quicker still. There are not many problems and we are running it using safe settings. However we will have to push much harder at the Main Event. The cut-off for Funny Bikes in Top Fuel qualifying is 6.99 and so we have to run a six. We will do what we can and then have to the Summer Nationals to fix the damage!' Allan is also busy with a nitro twin project, a machine originally built for Adam Hewitt by Frank Brachtvogel. 'We tested last weekend at SPR but there is machining needed which will be done by my dad Pete Davies, who did the engineering for it. We will continue testing it at rwybs'.

Funny Bike racer Pete le Gros suffered a problem with the fuel line system on his nitro powered twin and is out of competition. He said 'The system failed and instead of following the fuel curve we wanted, it flooded the cylinders, which killed the start and also caused it to drop a cylinder at 1000ft. It did pull better in between though so that is something that we may adjust our fuel curve for'. The system will have to be sent back to the US for supplier Dave Leahy of Electromotion. Pete thanks Dave Wilson who has a similar fuel system on his A/Fuel dragster, and Allan Davies who helped supply Pete with crew for the event. Our thanks to Steve Moxley for providing this and other information for these pit notes.

Funny Bike racer Lorcan Parnell, who was warming The Storm's engine when we passed, had an oil leak on his first pass which turned out to be a bolt missing from the gearbox. On the second pass he shut off after 300ft. Then this morning he went 7.003/177 on a test pass, not having qualified for eliminations.

Pro Stock Bike racer Alex Hope had triumped at the recent FIM Super Street Bike race, winning the event against Peter Granica in the final, pitting alongside Rick Stubbins. But at this event, a planned test session for the Main Event FIM Pro Stock class, Alex suffered directional problems with the ex-Dave Beck bike. He said 'It keeps trying to tuck the front end under and washes out when it comes down from the wheelie bars at around 330ft. It is impossible to get it to run straight after 330ft'. With Ian Burns' problems yesterday meaning he is not qualified, however there will be ACU Pro Stock Bike points as three bikes were entered.

Nitro dragster racer Robin Read is running new rear wheels and tyres in testing at this event. 'They are wider and we have upgraded our half shafts and spools to cope. We decided we have gone as far as we can with the old rubber and with all the power that it is making we need to get it to the track. We tried to adjust the clutch to take the power but the engine was destroying them. The other change is a MSD 44 ProMag ignition. 'It is good for nitro engines as you can figure a spark in at a predetermined point and it will do that for up to 20 degrees of duration. This is more reliable as it avoids the engine dropping cylinders with the risk of a cylinder hydraulicing. The engine puts out 1500hp and we are looking for the first British engined 200mph pass with this chassis.'

Super Twin racer and former ACU Funny Bike champion Neil Midgley is testing this weekend, pending issuance of an International license. 'The bike is running well to the eighth but then drops a cylinder. On our pass yesterday it broke both the cam belt and the drive belt at 400ft and we haven't had the chance to analyse the sequence or the cause from our data. I am now launching with full throttle and it is running straight. Our best 60ft is 1.07 which is up with the best so we are getting ready now'.

Funny Bike racer Shaun Branch is testing here in advance of running in class at the Summernationals and possibly doing a trip to Tierp later in the season. 'We last tested three weeks ago and ran a half pass which showed promise. I want to do two full passes here. We have made fuel system improvements and now want to improve the way it launches. It is difficult to co-ordinate the electronic systems and make horsepower down the track'. His 7.709/168 pass today showed that the changes are starting to work.

Pro Stock Bike racer Ian Burns, in his first season back after a break of over 15 years, suffered cylinder head gasket problems at Shakespeare County at the start of May and yesterday had electrical issues after installing a new switch on his two step launch controller. When he went off the line, the power webt and the bike locked up in gear.

Funny Bike racer Blade Dummer has a stunning wrap from www.rukuscustoms.co.uk. Blade qualified second and went into the final against Liam Holgate.

Funny Car licensee Steve Ashdown said 'The driving of a Funny Car is completely different to a Top Fuel dragster, much more steering input and the controls are in completely different places. It shook quite a lot and it threw a rod out on the run so we won't be out again. We have two engines so I want to see what the damage is before assessing the timing of repairs. So we will finish the licensing runs next week'.

8.50 Bike racer Ian Chrichlow was no.1 qualifier with a 8.539/159 and went through the first round of eliminations against Wedish visitor Bianca Nilsson who broke out. Ian races alongside Jay Roe and Jonathan Kasziba as Fossil Fuelers.