2006 Easter Thunderball

The 2006 Easter Thunderball Meeting

from Santa Pod Raceway

Saturday Gallery Sunday Gallery Monday Gallery

The air of anticipation and expectation about The Easter Thunderball meeting this year, has almost been overpowering and by the time the Easter weekend arrived, my excitement glands were at bursting point! Work kept me away from the track on Friday, but on Saturday, I arrived early to pick up on the plentiful action that was going on. It was just a bit of a pity that the sun didn't come out a little more on Saturday, as it meant that the resulting pictures I took have a darker sheen to them, than I'd normally like.

This weekend also marked Santa Pod's 40th anniversary and many of the dignitaries and racers of yester-year were invited to enjoy the day's racing back at Santa Pod. The visiting guests included many of my childhood heroes, some of whom were to be inducted into the newly created Hall of Fame. These included Dennis Priddle, The late Dennis Stone (award accepted by son Dave), Clive Skilton (award accepted by Dave Riswick of John Woolfe Racing), Roz Prior and the first inductee, The late Bootsie Herridge. I was excited to have the opportunity to get close to and meet many of those heroes. Also present on Saturday was Pete Crane who, thirty years ago this weekend, made the first five second pass in Top Fuel outside the United States, a record for which surely he is destined to join the existing Hall of Famers in the future.

Over the weekend some really exciting action took place. Possibly the most significant highlight came from the Sportsman category, in the form of John Sleath's incredible 7.98 second pass, breaking into new territory for the Street Eliminator category. One of my personal highlights was witnessing Top Fuel coming man, Håkan Fällström on what was supposed to be a licensing half-pass. He must have thought the pass was worth sticking with, because he didn't lift until way past 1000 feet and ran 5.08 seconds - the quickest ET of the weekend! He will be well worth watching during the season, driving the second Lorentzon & Möller dragster. On the other hand, team owner and driving partner this weekend, Tommy Möller, never managed a pass at all - and that was not from a lack of trying, either. Better these problems are ironed out now, than at the Main Event, round 1 of the FIA Series. I was also delighted to see the debut of multi-time Top Methanol Funny Car racer Urs Erbacher in his gorgeous-looking Top Fuel dragster which he recently purchased from Doug Herbert in the USA. He will definitely be a force to be reckoned with in his rookie year in Top Fuel racing.

Elsewhere amongst the Pro Fuel competitors, new combinations were causing all sorts of problems. Tyre Shake seemed to have returned again to Gordon Smith and the Shockwave team, but it was not unexpected as they have a completely new cannon setup and thus no data as to which way to go. John Spuffard managed to get to a near "full-pull" over the weekend but at the considerable cost of a 'lunched' motor which, even with the most optimistic engineering outlook, is now simply a junkyard door-stop. John returned with a spare bullet and made it to the meeting final against Micke Kågared, only to be frustrated by an expiring clutch, which went off like a boiler explosion in a fireworks factory, handing the win to Micke. Reigning Top Fuel champion Lex Joon had a perplexing weekend with thrown blower belts and assorted tyre shake. He bowed out to Swedish funny car competitor Leif Helander in the 3rd/4th place Pro Fuel run-off with more tyre shake. Leif ran really well to around 1100 feet, but then the motor decided to show its entrails to the Aluminium Gods and exploded like an atom bomb. The ejected fuel/oil mix immediately ignited and Leif had a 'roarer' on his hands. Though he was protected by his safety equipment and clean piped air supply, he simply couldn't see where he was going and could not avoid striking the wall past the exit gate at the bottom of the run-off area. The fire crews were already on him before he stopped and they soon had the situation under control. Leif was perfectly okay (even letting out a 'Sh*t!' in an on-air interview with John Price), which is more than can be said for the car. As always, it's nothing that time, extreme effort and a heavyweight cash investment won't resolve.

The weather featured pretty strongly over the weekend, with poor light & threatening conditions on Saturday and the odd reasonable heavy shower on Sunday. I was planning some down-track shots on Sunday afternoon and got caught out, needing to look for cover - quick! Thanks to friends Jim & Jane for letting me confiscate Isabelle's raincoat to protect my non-waterproof camera equipment! So much for the down-track shots! Monday was again a day of frustration with the weather. Any moisture at all and racing cannot proceed, but the repeated sessions of light sprinklings were worse than a single good shower. At the last count, the track crew (bless 'em) had dried the track about five times before the last of the racing got going. I was feeling weary and rubber-stained by then and took my leave after the Pro Fuel 3rd/4th place run off and, as I noted when I logged onto eurodragster when I got home, it wasn't long before heavy showers moved in to ruin the remainder of the eliminations.

All in all, a great weekend that could have benefited with a little more kindness from the weather, but nevertheless, a well organised and exciting weekend of drag racing with something for everyone.

Thanks to Santa Pod Raceway for all their courtesies and for organising a superb event and especially to the tireless efforts of the track crew. Thanks also to the wonderful guys at eurodragster.com; and thanks again to Nitro FM for keeping us entertained and finally, to you for visiting this site today. I hope you have enjoyed the report and picture galleries and I hope you visit again soon!

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