Thursday at the 2007 European Finals

The 2007 FIA European Finals meeting from Santa Pod, UK, 6th-9th September 2007

I didn’t get to the track as early as I’d liked so I started shooting the action at just around 1pm. Thursday sportsman day is always eagerly anticipated as there are no Professional racers to interrupt the proceedings and, if no-one has any track incidents or oil downs, the possibility exists for as many rounds of qualifying as time permits. It is traditionally an “early bath day”, as racing is supposed to finish at 5pm if not before.

Things got underway well and it was great to see all the usual suspects bolstered with some fresh(er) faces and foreign visitors. I hadn’t seen the Austrian Plymouth Barracuda entered by Werner Zudrell before. He kept us most amused with his grunty 525ci Mopar motor effortlessly hiking the wheels away from the line. Another face that I’m unfamiliar with was Kim Bishop in his wonderful 1940’s Willys Coupe. He was leaping away from the line with both wheels off the floor and a heavy hint of right hand launch twist. I couldn’t help being reminded of one of my very favourite cars of my youth: A similar vintage Willys Coupe painted in Titanium white and sponsored by Pioneer. “Slick Willy” as it was called, owned by Bob West but hiding a blown KB Hemi under the hood. I used to love that car – huge, twisted wheelies away from the line and it went everywhere except where Bob wanted it to go and the crowd loved it. I digress! Kim Bishop certainly kept us amused with his Willys anyway.

Andy Frost was flying down the track in his Red Victor 2 with a string of 7 second runs ending up with a 7.72 at over 185mph. Awesome!

I’ve seen Frank Mason racing his ‘53(ish) Corvette on many occasions and I was surprised to see him really pull those front wheels right up in the air. I tracked him down later and discovered that a new motor with a load more Gee-Gee’s is the reason for the air under the front wheels. Go for it, Frank!

There were no track incidents or oil downs and in the end, the Sportsman racers managed to get in an unprecedented five rounds of qualifying and everyone was still done by 5pm! Well done, all round.

Before heading back to Derby, I had a photoshoot to do for Rune Fjeld Motorsport and Thomas Nataas. Santa Pod were kind enough to give us the run of the track and this allowed us to position the new Dodge Nitro crew car (kindly supplied by Marshall of Cambridge) and Thomas’s Top Fuel dragster and get some useful publicity shots for the sponsors and media.

Just as I was heading back to Derby, I was called by esteemed photographer colleague Patrik Jacobsson (from Sweden) who had decided at the last minute to attend the European Finals meeting. Patrik is a good chum of mine and he was eager to try and see if English beer tasted any better than at the Main Event. I said that we would have to wait for that experience until the next night, but I figured the wait would be worth while!

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