Friday at The FIA European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway

The European Finals - Professional Qualifying Day One

Friday 8th September 2006

I was in a hurry from the start. I grabbed my bags and scuttled to the car. With just about everything loaded, I returned to grab the last few bits and bobs and there, sat in the middle of the kitchen floor was Sammy – our feline visitor who moved in a couple of years ago. She had sneaked back in whilst I had been loading up and she looked at me with that "I've never been fed in my life" look and let out a pathetic 'meow'. She then gave my legs a quick polish and I've found that the speediest way to resolve this instant attention was to grab the yellow box - cat biscuits. I sprinkled a few on a plate outside and Sammy was soon triumphantly crunching on them and I snuck away to the car and got going.

Later at Santa Pod, I checked in to the Media Centre and it was great to catch up with some of the other photographers: Andy Willsheer and Roger Gorringe; Roger has the most impressive list of impersonations including some that make us guffaw, unstoppably. Dr. Ivan Sansom and partner Rose Hughes were also there, as was Dick Parnham and Nick Holland. The legendary Sharkman also briefly put in appearance, too. Sweden’s Stefan Bowman was there with his extensive menagerie of Nikon equipment. Germany’s contingent representing dragracer magazine amongst other publications were there, led by the inimitable Martin Grosse-Geldermann, Mathias Wienand and Markus Münch. Interestingly, Markus is also singer and guitar player for a drag racing-themed band called The lonesome Dragstrippers. That has to be a first! Check out their downloadable tracks including 'pro-modified', just here.

To business and out of Fridays two professional qualifying sessions has to stand out one result above all else. Smax Smith, driving for McDonald Racing brothers Stuart and Richard, took their family dragster straight off the trailer to a 4.97 second pass at 296 mph. Absolutely unbelievable that everything should come together so well for the team whilst having real budget issues. Let us hope their efforts to procure significant funding for next season comes to fruition. In fact Smax remained atop the ladder right through the second professional qualifying session until Urs Erbacher ran 4.96 at 288mph. Tommy Möller ended up third with a 5.08 and in fairness, none of the other Top Fuelers managed any sort of 'full pull' down the track, leaving Håkan Nilsson on the bubble with a 9.92. In Top Methanol Funny Car, Leif Andréasson was on top of the pile with a super-solid 5.72 (that was over a tenth on the rest of the field) and in Top Methanol Dragster, Dave Wilson didn't surprise anybody by being at the top of the list with a 5.453 at 252.88. Peter Schöfer was creeping up on Dave with a 5.491 at over 260mph. In Pro-Modified, Urban Johansson was on top of the pile with an impressive 6.226 at over 226mph and snapping at his ankles was Mats Eriksson with a 6.248 at 227mph. Britain's Andy Robinson and Danny Cockerill vied for the next two positions with 6.25 and 6.38 respectively and the Top 5 was rounded out with Bruno Bader and his 6.45 second run. Surprisingly, out of the show (top 16) at this point were Micke Gulliquist and twice champion Roger Johansson.

Of note in the Sportsman categories, in Super Pro-ET, Pat Talbot ran in the six second zone again and was lying in second place behind Derek Flynn - well done Pat and the team! In Super Comp, Jon Morton was looking dangerous with his beautifully painted Camaro and was nestling in second place with an identical ET to no.1 qualifier Pete Cresswell and only differing in the speed department by 0.25mph! In Comp Eliminator, Andy Frost (normally seen racing in Street Eliminator) was at last having some good progress with Red Victor 2 and effortlessly dropped into the 7 second zone with a 7.947 at 181.33 mph. I bet the other Street Eliminator racers will now be quaking in their boots! Over in Junior dragster at the top of the heap was Jayne Kay, with Peter Walters back in the top 5 at the end of the last session.

I was stopping locally to the track Friday and Saturday and was looking forward to getting something to eat, get the batteries on charge, unload the pictures to my trusty laptop and perhaps sample a beverage with my chum Guy who was also up for the weekend. Unfortunately, Guy had screwed up his arrangements (D'Oh!) and had booked Saturday and Sunday, instead of Friday and Saturday - so I was disappointed when he went off to the sister hotel in downtown Northampton. Needless to say, MacDonalds was the order of the day and when more chums arrived to dine a little later, they were shocked to see I was enjoying a salad - not a menu choice for which I am well known! Ahem! (It was delicious)

So the end of the first day of professional qualifying and it has simply been superb; great weather; great racing and everybody chomping at the bit for day 2!

Thanks for taking the time to visit www.topnitro.co.uk

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