The 2008 Main Event from Santa Pod Raceway, 23rd to 26th May 2008

The 2008 Main Event meeting from Santa Pod Raceway, 23rd - 26th May 2008

Saturday (Bumper) Gallery Sunday (wet activities) Gallery Monday (interrupted) Gallery

SATURDAY 24^th May 2008

I had been looking forward to the Main Event at Santa Pod for ages and as the excitement began to build for the event, thoughts as always, switch to the small matter of the weather. In view of the recent snowiness at the Easter Thunderball meeting and, indeed, the washed out Main event meeting of 2007, it felt that the time was right that the weather should look down on us with favorable thoughts. Sometimes being a born optimist can, of course, lead to disappointment.

I was unable to make it to the Friday sportsman day at the weekend and instead, I left my home town of Derby on Saturday morning at the ‘crack of sparrows’ as I had to pick up a friend & colleague in the West Midlands on the way to Santa Pod. Barely had we got signed in and prepared our camera gear, that action was already underway. I was very keen to get up into the pits, not only to catch a breath of nitro (as always!) but to see Gary Page and the superb new paint design on his Kenneth Lorentzon-owned funny car. I had assisted in bringing the design into fruition and – my goodness me – I was deeply impressed when I saw it in the flesh.

Before catching up with the racing, I shuffled along the Top Fuel pits and enjoyed several smelly warm-up’s, courtesy of Stig Neergard, Torstein Risdal, Jari Halinen & Micke Kågered. I wanted to stay for more but I needed to get to the start line.

Early on in the day, the light was not perfect by any matter of means. The pictures resulting from such light then always need an amount of processing to make them look appealing. Brighter lighting conditions generally mean I don’t have to touch the pictures!

The first professional session got underway with Pro Stock bike and Martin Bishop completely took me by surprise with a bizarre qualifying run. He seemed to about to launch – then went silent and then re-launched a few seconds later. I nearly committed the imprisonable sin of lowering my camera to find out what was happening…. but I only just managed to refrain!

In UEM Super twin, both Ian ‘Turbo’ Turburville and Tommy Möller had to be shut down – at great disappointment to them both. The usual suspects excelled in the rest of the class. In Top Fuel bike, Eric Teboul yet again dipped into the 6.2 second range, which is simply unbelievable. A great effort from Eric. Rickard Gustafsson made his usual wheel-up pass to some great numbers. It’s a personal thing, but I’m always puzzled to see Funny Bikes, Competition bikes and ex-Pro Stock bikes run in Top Fuel bike. The category’s description of “Top Fuel” always leads me to expect the bikes to use this product to go racing and I can’t get my head round why a lot of them do not. But hey ho, such matters are not for me to question or get puzzled about!

In Pro-stock there was excellent action, but… there did seem to be a preponderance of weird paint jobs! Jonas Dantanus seemed to have moved away from former owner Michael Malmgrem’s old paint scheme (thank God) and has now adopted a sort of Lilac version of it. It grew on me, eventually! Micke Callin with his new GTO had got a dodgy dark blue and black scheme going, whilst Magnus Hansson’s car looked absolutely and utterly disgusting!! It seemed there was a one-time neat airbrush job on the hood, but when the guys came to do each side of the car, I think they got bored and dipped some yard brushes in bitumen and smeared them down the sides! Uggh!! It was a pleasure to see Jimmy Ålund carry the front wheels of his pristine paint-jobbed Pro Stock past the tree on the very next run – which helped clear the assault on the visual senses of Magnus’ previous run. We shall gloss over the fact that Magnus ran a superb 6.81 second pass which, perhaps goes some way to redeem some lost opinion!

The first Top Fuel session didn’t pull up many tree stumps. Most people seemed to be struggling. Stig Neergaard got down to 5.11 seconds and Jari Halinen was right on his tail with 5.12 seconds. Torstein Risdal was in the middle of the pack with 5.69 and Lex Joon, Micke Kågered and Urs Erbacher were all struggling with shake. The available grip would be much better, later. Andy Carter ended up on top of the list with a much faster 4.89 at just a handful of mph short of 300.

Urs Erbacher has, since the European Finals last September, been racing at a number of NHRA races – as, no doubt, you may be already familiar. Glen Mikres tuned Urs for the past two years – with great success – but when Urs traveled to the USA, it meant that he could no longer offer his assistance because it clashed with his day-job with Kalitta Racing as Crew Chief for Scott Kalitta on the DHL Funny Car. Glen introduced Urs to Wayne Dupuy, a man whom I have met several times in the US over the years and who has my every respect. Wayne has taken up the mantle of tuning Urs and in this European Tour, he’s having to get used to lots of different things – like Asphalt tracks – like leaving the USA for the first time and bunches of other stuff. It seems to me that Wayne is a perfect fit in this team and I wish him great success.

Continuing with the first pro session and Pro-Mod proved to be really exciting – especially when Micke Lindahl ran a scorcher in his Camaro and popped up the first FIA (NHRA rules) Spec Pro-mod 5 second pass with a 5.9673. However, a closer look at the run showed a 60 foot time of just 0.6611 which gave away the fact that all was not right. It seems Micke went before the lights ran and that he triggered them with his rear wheels. Nice try, Micke! Needless to say, it was thrown out. As to the other performers, everyone seemed to be getting their feet as the track continued to come around and most were looking forward to the afternoon session when things would be that bit better again.

In Top Alcohol dragster it was sad that Dave Wilson had not got his head around the newly converted A/Fueler dragster which was created by back-halfing his multi-championship winning Blown Alcohol rail. It appears to be considerably longer (is this the short cut to Top Fuel for him?) and seems to be wearing Fuel-spec high rear wing as well. They simply could not get the car prepared to run at all and therefore, sadly, took no part in the proceedings on Saturday. They will get their heads round this car and it will be a force to be reckoned with – of that, I am certain. Krister Johansson has completely re-painted his A/Fueler and I was most taken how striking – yet simple – the scheme is. I thoroughly approve. In the first session, however, the blown cars of Timo Habermann and Paul Ingar Udtian were at the head of the tree with usual suspects Rob Turner and Peter Schöfer trailing with 5.65 and 5.68 respectively.

Into the second Pro Session in Pro-Stock, the upshot was that the entire field were in the 6 second zone and, in fact, in the bump spot was Jonas Dantanus with a time of 6.94 seconds at 200.49mph. It seems incredible, but just two years ago, Jonas’ time would have beaten Magnus Hansson’s number 1 qualifying time by over 0.13 of a second! In Pro Stock that is huge. How quickly things move on in Pro Stock.

The final Top Fuel session for Saturday saw improvements all round with the top three all in the 4.8 second zone. Urs Erbacher pulled an amazing 311 mph and Andy Carter deservedly ended up as number 1 with an excellent 4.81 second pass. Stig Neergard hadn’t thrown away the bit of paper that Karsten Anderssen wrote down a tune-up for him at the Euro Finals and he ended up second fastest with a 4.893 at a smidge below 300mph.

The second round of Pro-mod again brought much improvements in some departments and surprises in others. It was no surprise to see Urban Johansson in at no. 1 with a speed of 230mph. I guess he and others were disappointed that the ET was 6.22. The run looked better than that. Terje Håkansen caught everybody with their trousers down by bagging the number two spot with a 6.252 at 225mph personal best ET and speed for him. What a nice guy too! The next night I enjoyed a beer with him, Patrik Jacobsson and a bunch of other Norwegians at the Dog & Duck in Wellingborough – but more on that later!

Andy Robinson was left squandering in the number 13 spot with a 6.59 but in the show on his first attempt at number 16 was Graham Ellis and his wonderful Plymouth ‘Superbird’ Roadrunner and what a sensational effort that was.

In Top Methanol Funny Car it was great to see Leif Andréasson in at number 1 with a super 5.48 at over 248mph. Other than Dan Larsson, most other competitors seemed to be struggling with Steph Milam anchoring the field with a miserable 8.106/97.63 run.

After the Top Methanol dragster session, where there were no great changes, the exhibition classes got underway with Nick Davies in the wonderful Havoc NFAA altered and John Spuffard and Gary Page in their gorgeous nitro funny cars. Gary got away first but dropped a cylinder which prompted some shake and rattle, so he eased off. John ran Gary down by half track and had a cylinder out all the way down which makes it all the more incredible that he stopped the timers with a 5.27 second pass at a little more than 287mph. That extra cylinder would have done wonders for both the speed and the ET.

I was completely knackered by this time and packed my stuff up to head for my digs. In fact I was that exhausted, I skipped catching up with my chums and crashed out for some well earned rest.

SUNDAY 25^th May 2008

It was with disappointment that a look out the window revealed heavy rain. Granted, it had been predicted, but ever the optimist – I just wished that they were plain wrong. I grabbed a McBacon Roll and headed into the track. After listening to Nitro FM for a while, I decided I would grab a coffee at the Media centre and see if anybody else was there. I bumped into DJ on the way there and he said that there would be fun & games in the action arena shortly. I was attracted to it out of need for sheer entertainment, but – I needed a coffee first. Just as I was leaving, recovering ex-Eurodragster photo editor Sharkman popped in to work on some of his shots from Saturday. It is good to see him slowly getting better.

I then grabbed my gear and an extra-thick coat and headed for the action arena. The heavy rain had now switched to (sounds like) “Lissing Downe” and I was getting soaked. Terry Grant was first up and he did his usual impressive show. He must have been feeling rather bored today because as Myself and DJ were shooting, Terry decided to slide really wide and hit a really deep and huge puddle – the entire contents of which were deposited on Me and DJ, which Terry found most amusing. Even though I was wearing two coats, I was soaked to the skin and I had had enough. Gary Page came to my aid with a phone call to come and assist in providing material for the Max Power magazine shoot in his pit. It was just a pity he didn’t send a car for me as I was not allowed to use my car to transport the 30kgs of equipment from the live action arena all the way round the other side right up to the top of the pits. It’s not as if there were oodles of cars around on that day. The racing, of course, was abandoned just after lunch.

In the evening I met up with old muckers Chris & Becky Parker, Guy Waltham and my buddy from Sweden, Patrik Jacobsson. I had urged caution on the drinking extravagancies (legendary in the recent past) and they all – including Patrik – solemnly nodded in agreement that a clear head and a sharp mind was required for the ‘morrow. Yeah, right. That little motto lasted one drink and then I knew the rest of the evening would be regretted…

MONDAY 26^th May 2008

As it turned out, I was so knackered I bailed out at a sensible time and hit my digs for what in the end was a most uncomfortable night. Comfort is not necessarily a pre-requisite of getting rest – it’s nice when you do get both!

I got to the track very early and spotted the usual early risers Andy Carter and Tog at The Coffee Man and I had a wonder around. It was good to see Urs Erbacher’s Crew Chief Wayne Dupuy taking a good look at the track whilst riding a pushbike down the old fire-up road. In the USA, before each round of eliminations, the Crew Chiefs all get a chance to take a good look at and to walk the entire length of the track to gauge their tune-ups to what the track will take. That procedure is not in place in Europe and Wayne was just getting that close quartered information.

On my way back to get a coffee myself, I happened upon Eurodragster supremo Andy Rogers (aka Tog) who seemed to be struggling with a sore back on his way up to the Tower; evidently a pulled muscle was the cause. It’s not often enough that we get a chance to have a chat as he is in the Tower from dawn till dusk and I’m trackside from just after dawn till just before dusk. We nattered for a moment and I thought I could come out with some witticisms on occasion, but Tog leaves me for dead and in hysterics, as usual. On another matter, I know exactly how much effort it takes to maintain my own humble site and I have no idea how he manages to do what he does with eurodragster and also to maintain a senior job at The Treasury and a wife and home as well. ‘Impossible’ springs to mind, for around 99.99% of the rest of us.

The day was looking fairly dismal and the light was poor for picture taking. However, conditions were dry and preparations were abound to get ready for the first round of eliminations. I zipped up into the pits to catch some nitro warm-ups and Jari Halinen, Håkan Fällström, Torstein Risdal, Stig Neergard and Urs Erbacher all obliged – thank you very much!

It was time to get track-side and I hurried down with a quick diversion to say Hi to Sue Morris in the Media centre and to pick up the other camera as well.

The last runners in Pro-ET and Mild-I-mean-Wild Bunch were just running with some VW refugees just before the first round of Pro-Mod was to be run. The staging lanes were bursting with professional runner eager to make hay under threatening skies. We didn’t get off to a particularly good start as the run between Micke Gulliquist and Marko Lantto didn’t go well. Micke was all over the place and took out the reflectors which caused a little delay. Up next were Mats Eriksson and Marc Meihuizen who were shut off after their burnout because of the dreaded sprinkles. Micke Lindahl was next against Kristian Nyström and Micke pedaled a couple of times to end up with a below-par 6.8 second – but winning – pass. Bruno Bader got away reasonably well in the next pairing with Danny Cockerill and Bruno won the pairing with a 6.5 second timing slip. Danny was all over the place and was lucky to keep his car out of the wall. Andy Robinson then beat Fast Freddie Fagerström in an entertaining pair. Roger Johansson was up next with his 830 inch Mustang and ran an excellent 6.28 against Bert Englefield’s shaking and rattling 7.99. After Patrik Wikström picked up a freebie with Terje Håkonsen, a cooled-down Marc Meihuizen won over a red-lighting Mats Eriksson. Urban Johansson pulled a super run out of the hat to run 6.23 at an incredible 230mph to best Pro Mod Rookie Graham Elliss. After Micke Gulliquist made his run with Marko Lantto, the track crew fixed the timers and then pronounced themselves unhappy with the condition of the track. They then undertook more track preparation and in the interest of fairness, announced that the run between Micke and Marko would be re-run.

Under ever-angry skies, the first round of Top Fuel commenced with Micke Kågered against Jari Halinen. We got as far as having two good burnouts before the wet stuff unloaded and they were shut off, to the great disappointment of one and all.

A restart in racing was predicted around 1pm with the re-run of the Micke Gulliquist/Marko Lantto run but just as the track prep was completed it all came down again with a whistling gale to boot.

The race was called at around half past two and as the re-run did not happen, it means that its only qualifying and first round loser points for everyone.

Whilst I was disappointed that another day’s racing had been curtailed by rain, the prospect of returning home many hours earlier than expected was pleasing as, but for the very pleasant evening with Patrik and chums the night before, it had been a really tough weekend. It will be good to look forward to a major race at Santa Pod without fear of reaching for the pack-a-mac. The forthcoming Summernational meeting will be the first test of that wish.

Many thanks for visiting www.topnitro.co.uk

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