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Bank Holiday Monday at The Easter Thunderball

After two days of continuous snow and wind whistling all around Santa Pod, with building snowmen being about the only sensible activity, it was good that the weather gods shone on Easter Monday and, with the valiant efforts by the Santa Pod track crew, it was a full measure of racing that went on until - seemingly late evening and it is a testament to the efforts of Santa Pod and all those working in the organisation, that the meeting was able to run to a conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed the abbreviated weekend and look forward to a warmer Main Event and the start of the 2008 FIA series. I have put together an extensive picture gallery of more than 500 pictures, but no report this time. You can enjoy at look at the gallery by clicking either on the title header or just here.

Good Friday from the Easter Thunderball

On a day predicted by many to tackling with snow drifts, the Easter Thunderball from Santa Pod Raceway got off to a surprisingly good start on Good Friday 22nd March 2008. The sun broke through and sparkled impressively for a period of the day, despite the temperatures being perishingly cold. I had never tried shooting pictures with gloves on, but in fear of frostbite chewing my fingers off, I purchased a suitable pair of gloves from a local stand in the "manufacturers midway" as they say in the USA. The lighting conditions (but for much later) proved to be excellent for picture shooting and despite me losing my cap in the whistling wind which went on the track (Ian Marshall was kind enough only to give me a 'reasonably stern' look!) I ended up having a good day. It was terrific to see a brief emergence of former Eurodragster leading photographer, Sharkman, who was looking much better, but still has some way to go before being 100% fit. Roger Gorringe, fresh from another six week trip to "The Colonies" for the start of the NHRA season was struggling a it with Jet Lag, but that didn't seem to impair his excellent humour and picture taking abilities including, to my amusement, translating track temperatures to race control by Semaphore! The very strong winds meant that we did not see any of the Nitro runners nor did we see any of the bikes. However, I have managed to process the pictures I took and have boiled them down to some 266 pictures from Friday. A report and further galleries will be published later, but in the meantime enjoy the Good Friday gallery!

The Flame and Thunder Show

The last major event for 2007 - The Flame and Thunder Show at Santa Pod took place under warm and dry skies on November 3rd. It marked the overdue return to the Top Fuel cockpit of '98 FIA Top Fuel Champion Barry Sheavills who was driving the Fueler used in 2007 by Finnish Ski Champion Janne Ahonen. Also appearing was Torstein Risdal, who was driving the car recently vacated by Siw Nystad. John Spuffard and his team were also in attendance with the fabulous Showtime Fuel Coupe who, along with the Top Fuel racers treated us to a much-needed dose of Nitromethane. Steve Murty was in attendance with his incredible wheelying and spectacular Fire truch as well as both regular jet cars which were boistered by a lunatic from Holland call Michel Koolj on his jet powered quad bike! Matt Wright was having another licensing go in his Fuel Altered and Street Eliminator racer Colin Lazenby came all the way from Stirling to hike his front wheels off the floor to show us how clean his dry sump was! All in all, it was a great day and was all capped off with a superb firework display. Santa Pod Raceway deserves full credit for organising such a professional event blended seamlessly as a perfect family day out. No detailed report this time, but for a gallery bursting with pictures, click here

National Finals Gallery

Another ** at last ** - this time in the form of the National Finals meeting at the end of September. It was a thoroughly enjoyable Autmunal day and the weather held very nicely. In fact, I wasn't able to get to the track on Saturday and I understand the weather was awful. Even so, we had a great time and witnessed Tig Napier's beautiful purple Dodge Challenger hiking it's front wheels and, not to be out done in the wheelstand department, Carla and Rick did some of the most incredible wheelies I've ever seen without suspension parts liberally spread all over the track! The finals were all set and in the end we all had a smashing day. No report this time, just a big picture gallery. You can take a look by clicking here.

European Finals Bumper Blogs & Galleries

 At last! My scribbles and galleries are now completed from the mammoth picture-fest at the European Finals meeting back in September. As many of you know already, I have been seriously hampered by a gammy eye - but the good news is that I have now had the  operation and things are slowly beginning to improve with my vision. Anyway, this well overdue feature contains an anecdotal report for each of the days and a huge gallery for each day as well. I hope you enjoy the reports and galleries. Click here.