Frank Hawley is visiting the NitrOlympX with Roger Burgess, Melanie Troxel and Tommy Johnson Jr. Frank said "I raced at Santa Pod in the early eighties and have made a few trips to France and Germany in the late nineties. I held a seminar in Berlin for European racers. Hockenheim is part of automotive history and I like all forms of motorsport so just being here gives me a thrill; the facilities are fantastic. I work for Roger Burgess as well as running my Drag Racing school. Roger's companies are involved in sponsoring the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge and as well as that he races Pro Mod cars and manages teams so he has a strong interest in Pro Mod. We are here to see how the class is doing in Europe and plan also to visit the Middle East and Australia."

Frank continued "We didn't want to prejudge the sport in Europe but are impressed. The car count and quality is much higher than ten years ago.In Pro Stock at least we couldn't discern any difference in the quality of racing here and in America; the racing is very much the same. This is the 24th year of the Drag Racing School. We have had racers from the UK, Europe, Australia, Central and South America and the Middle East train at the school. We travel in the US to Ohio, Colorado and have made four trips to Las Vegas and Texas. We are adding Pro Modified as a class to the school in the US. The next logical step is to open an offshoot outside the US.

Frank continued "I welcomed the opportunity to work with Roger Burgess. He is a vionary and has had great success in other fields and is an intuitive character. He has great ideas to help build the sport and capabilities and inspirational qualities. He raced when he was young and after a 20 year military career he has had a successful business in pharmacy benefits which he built with his wife Barbara. He came back into racing by visiting a race and enrolling into the Driving School. Melanie traxel now drives in Pro Modified and we have had a great trip to Europe including golf in Ireland and a week in Florence."

Pro Stock Bike racer Stavros Svrachnos is pleased with third placing in qualifying. "I ran a 7.75 in the first run and then adjusted the clutch but the times did not improve. Our performance over the first sixty feet is not as good as it could be. We have the same parts as we have had over the years with a 1500cc motor. Stavros, right is pictured with crew chief Haralambos Telioridis. The next event for the team is Hungary, followed by Greece and the Euro Finals. Next year Stavros hopes to contest the whole UEM Pro Stock Bike championship.

Team mates of Stavros include this pretty Suzuki of Nikolaos Tzanidakis who has broken this weekend, the nitrous bike of Savvas Tilsisoglou and Pro Stock bikes of Haralambos Bousinis and Dimitrios Petridis.

Pro Stock Bike racer Len Paget is qualified no.1 with a 7.54. "This weekend is going really well and we want to be just quick enough to win as we don't want to break parts before Hungary next weekend. So we won't lean on it and I will shift at 12,500 or 13,000 rpm rather than 14,000. The bike still leaves very well and our 60ft of 1.10 compares well with Pro Stock cars. We have some new parts and have tightened up the clutch to a planned 7.42 next run. I have never won here in many years of trying so we will see."

Super Twin Top Gas racer Chris van Nimmen rides a V-Rod Destroyer in this class as the V-Rod Destrooyer Championship has now ceased. He said "I am qualified as it is a 16 bike ladder but a 9.705 is not that competitive. I have had the bike for the last three years.

Super Twin Top Gas racer Marc van den Boer is qualified ninth and was pleased with a 8.73/240kph PB run. "This is my second year of racing this bike and it is really starting to pay off", he said. This is the fifth of six rounds of the championship and Marc will next attend Drachten for the final round. More details of Marc's bike are on www.dragracetheroute.be.

Competition Eliminator racer Markus Linde is out after damage to the pistons on his single turbo '53 Corvette. "This is only our second weekend with a brand new car", he said. "The car is self-built with a turbo 468cu in on methanol. We ran a 1.0 sixty foot, 2.9 to 330foot and 4.6 eighth. A full pass would have been a great time but the fuel pressure leaned out causing burnt pistons." Markus, who has raced a turbo Beetle over 15 years in the sport, is from Berlin and his home track is Luckau. The index for his class, A/TA is 7.8. The turbocharger is a Turbonetics T-106.

Super Street Bike racer Thomas Granica said "We are struggling in the first sixty feet and have recorded 7.87 and 7.84. There is a small clutch problem but we have not fixed because we don't want to lose our setup. Thomas is pictured with daughter Fabienne.

Super Street Bike racer Martin Klug bought Sean Mills' old Big CC bike three months ago and has done well with a 7.816 win in round one. Martin who is from Augsburg has raced for 20 years and more details are at www.klug-motorraeder.de

Commiserations to Pete Bellenie who failed to start in his first round matchup. Earlier he said "I ran an 8.1, two 8.0s and a 7.9 all of which are better than my previous runs here."

Super Gas racer Jörg Dieckmann is racing a '70 Chevy Nova with a 468cu in big block engine. Jorg is part of multi car team Hearbeat Racing . Headed up by Tom Winter this team have been racing for over ten years.

Super Comp racer Sascha Winter races this Trabant altered for Heartbest Racing. Sascha has raced in Junior Dragster and obtained his Super Comp license for the 2009 season at the age of 16. The 'Trabbi' has a 302cu in small block engine. .

Tom Winter's own car is this '37 Chevy Coupe which runs in Competition Eliminator and has gone a best of 7.07 with a 1600hp blown and injected methanol big block Chevy engine. The frame is Chris Alston race races and body by Superior Glass Works.

Tom's wife Jutta races this '34 Ford altered in Competition Eliminator. This has a self-made body and Herb Andrews-built chassis and blown big block on methanol. The best times are 7.81/284kph.

Pro Modified racer Graham Ellis said "The weekend has been tricky not so much the track as the changes we made. On the second pass we were close to making a good lap but the wheelie bars steered us over to the other lane. That was a shame as our graph showed it was going to be a mid-6.1. We are getting closer with the clutch: the 60ft times are consistent at 1.02 and 1.03 but further down the track we need enough clutch to handle lots of power in a straight line. To be no.16 is frankly embarrasing." Graham's pit bike was built by Jonny Nilsson and can be yours for £30,000.

Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson is qualified no.2 with a 6.17. said "The track is getting hot; it was 119 degrees in the second session. But some are handling it right - Mats made a nice pass. We suffered tyre shake which slowed us to a 6.24. For the next session we will try to repeat our first run and have new tyres and have serviced clutch. The championship will be going to the wire with myself, Mats, Micke Gullqvist, Urban Johansson and Bruno Bader all having a possibility of taking the title.

Pro Mod racer Henri Joosten suffered damage to three crankshaft bearings. Crewman Eugene Konst said "This is not very good as we have a 738 Fulton engine which is not common in this class and no spares." Henri is qualified 16th with a 7.01 but the team want the car to go 6.5 which it is capable of.

Pro Mod racer Jonny Sand Jorgensen runs a 732cu in nitrous engine with Sonny's semi-hemi heads in his '69 Camaro.

Top Fuel Bike racer Kai Selkämaa runs a bike previously campaigned by Germany's Norbert Kozers to a best of 6.37/355kph. Norbert now lives in the US and Kai is in his second year with the Puma Yamaha engined machine after moving up from Super Street Bike. Kai's best is 6.97/331 and is aiming for a six today. "We changes the tyre and cylinder head; the weather is too hot and the engine is running too rich. The bike has a Bentec two speed trans and Opcon Autorotor blower, 8" ART clutch and Mallory ignition.

Super Twin racer Ismo Mäenpää who is in the Nitro Bike Thunder class had big clutch and ignition problems in his two runs yesterday. The team finished work on changes but the bike was unable to fire up. Ismo, pictured with girlfriend Tuija Kuhilas, said "The Dynatek ignition produces a spark but the engine won't fire. We need a day to fix it." Next stop for the Finnish bike teams after this race is the UEM round at Kumandaras, Hungary .

Pro Stock racer Magnus Hansson said "This track is really good and we underestimated it in the first round. We put more clutch in it for the next pass and came up with a 6.90 which was good. The track is smooth with no bumps and we are aiming to run mid 6.8s depending on the weather." Championship-wise, Magnus is aiming to narrow the gap to Jimmy Ålund but second place is the realistic target.

Pro Stock racer Kenneth Söderström said "We are lacking in power. The car is launching ok and the lack of power happens in 4th and 5th gears. We changed the camshaft after Mantorp to one with a different profile but now we will put the old one back in. Our aim is to run a 6.9 and depending on how the rest of this meeting goes we hope to be at the Euro Finals.".

Mercedes Pro Stock racer Harald Sturhan's crew chief Michael Lindemann said "Our problem is we cannot test enough because of the small number of tracks in Germany. We have gone 7.1 but of course want to go quicker. This may be possible here as we have discovered some problems with the combination which we are working on as the car is so new, but overall the car is too heavy. The crowd reaction to the Mercedes is great and we are pleased we have been able to run other FIA events. However the car needs to get mainstream publicity to get more sponsorship. More details on Harald's car are at www.pro-stock.de.

Pro Stock racer Richard 'Nixxon' Sundblom said "We are very happy to be within 0.02 of Jimmy. The track is smooth and we can see the effect from our Racepak graphs. We want to step up today and the only thing that may be a problem is the heat. We have had no tyre shake." Team member and constructor Tami Brander is racing a Pro Mod at the Euro Finals before a full FIA campaign in 2010. He will still be on the team though. "He will tell us when we need to mend things", said Richard.

Pro Mod racer Tomi Pöntinen said "We are delighted with a new PB of 6.419/364.04. We can improve the setup as the 60ft times are a bit soft. We have now tightened the clutch up and hope to go 6.3 later and be consistent." A later half pass black striped the track. Tomi is planning on competing at all FIA rounds next year.

Pro Mod racer Mats Eriksson, pictured with partner Lena Peres holds the no.1 qualifying position with a 6.13. He said "We are pleased that we were able to run that well on the first day. The car handles very well at this track but the performance on the startline could be better as both Andy and I are getting too much wheelspin. We will try to be consistent rather than go for records. At Mantorp we ran three 6.12s and that sort of performance would be good although everyone wants to have a record."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel said "We overpowered the track yesterday so we have taken some power off and softened the clutch and ignition settings. After the Main Event we made a lot of changes to the fuel system and ran a 6.13 so running a five would be nice. However our budget is not too big and we do not want to hurt parts." The car runs a Chevy and Whipplecharger combination and hopes to compete in several rounds next year although the team are part time and have day jobs to juggle. Jürgen, whose day job is repairing and servicing US cars, is pictured right with crew chief Frank Schlemmer.

Pro Mod racer Urban Johansson is satisfied with a 6.185 for third place in qualifying. "We are running a Leanders clutch for the first time here and even after one and a half passes we can say it works well and the graphs look very good; it gives the drive train more stability and allows us to do what we want to do with the tuneup." Also new on the car is a reworked Kobelco M5 blower which the team have rebuilt themselves at their base in Gottland. "We have moved the internal parts a little to make more consistent compression." Next year the class is likely to adopt billet blowers for the

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Per Håkan Frøa is out of the race after the crank damaged the end of the block. "We tried to repair overnight but at 6am decided it was too difficult to achieve here", said an exhausted team member.

Fellow Islanders team racer Fred Hanssen said "I am very pleased with the repairs. We flew Brad Hadman in to carry out the repairs and he was very fast. He renewed the front end of the chassis from the wheels to the roll cage and installed a new rear wing and repaired the header pipes. The back half of the car was ok on he chassis jig. The result is the car goes straighter than it did before. On my second run yesterday the throttle linkage to the air intake came off at the third shift which slowed us to a 5.73, not bad on two gears. We want to go quicker today." The result was a 5.509. Fred (right) is pictured with US tuner Will Hanna.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Esko Raisvuo said "We changed so much on the tune-up during the night and the engine sounds better. The tuneup for our qiuckest run at Mantorp didn't work as well as we wanted here although the corrected altitude is no different. So we changed the fuel system and ignition. The Racepak does not let us model the effects of these changes but if we can reduce the 60ft time by 0.2s then that will translate to 0.6 sec for the ET. Remember we are only practising this year; next year will be the works."

Eurodragster.com sponsor and Top Methanol Dragster racer Derek Flynn (pitured with crew chief Gary Jenkins said "We shook on the second run and then dropped a cylinder at the end of the track which burnt a valve seat. We will do the next qualifier and were worried about running out of parts although we have now fixed the heads and have two spares. We want to step up to 5.4s."

Our thanks to Top Methanol Dragster racer Peter Schöfer's team for providing hospitality yesterday and tonight. Team member Gittli Koller said "We were really pleased with a 5.44 run yesterday to go second." Tyre shake issues prevented an improvement this morning and the track heat is expected to play a part later in limiting improvements.

Top Fuel racer Stig Neergaard has two cars here today and the spare car will be used in the night show with a special high volume fuel system for extra high flames. "We are happy to race over the quarter mile and have good speed. But we smoked the tyres at 60ft on our first run with a clutch malfunction. Then on the second run we burnt the clutch pack and needed new discs and the engine threw a blower belt. We want to get our second place back in the championship and Risto is only a few points ahead of us.

Top Fuel racer Risto Poutianen's crew Tony Pearson said "Risto's car is fine and we are experimenting with different clutch plates which proved to be too soft causing the car to smoke the tyres." The team are reverting to harder discs for the next run as well as a 'baseline' tuneup which dates back a few years and is good for consistent performance.

Top Fuel racer Anita Mäkelä said "We exploded an engine on the first run with no warning from cylinders out. We just missed the call for the second session; so the third session will be a half pass and th last a full one." Husband Tommi Haapanen will be driving the car in the night show demo.

the incident earlier involving Pro Mod racer Jonny Jorgensen's Camaro reversing into Micke Lindahl's Camaro was caused by a broken brake pipe resulting from shake on the burnout. In turn the Lindahl car was pushed into Marc Meihuizen's Camaro.

The Lindahl brothers suffered a bent steering tie rod. They managed to effect repairs very quickly and came back out to run a 6.41.