Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop ran a best of 7.49 at the event, but spent a lot of effort getting to the race in the first place. He said "The bus's clutch broke and had no gears eventually. We had to have a new clutch brought over from the UK as there was not one available on the continent anywhere near. Thanks to Cliff Gould for repairing it." After a 7.64 in Q1, the 7.49 came in Q2 (neither on full power) and this morning Martin went across lanes after spinning the tyre. "I leant over so much it destroyed the gearbox. I went over in front of Kenneth Holmberg so slowed down so he did not lose his time. You have to adjust for the camber even though the track is good." Martin went 7.32 in Q4 to go seventh.

Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com blogger Kalle Lyrén ran consistent times of 7.15, 7.17 and 7.15. He said "On the last run we had a problem with the clutch cable and the run could have been quicker. We have a good setup and are close to running at the bike's potential. There are no problems with the track even at the transition at 1000ft."

Pro Stock Bike racer Ulf Ögge ran 7.14 and 7.18 which was slower than expected. Crew Chief Ola Pettersson said "The problem has been the first 200m and getting off the line. At Alastaro with the same setup we had a 1.08 60ft time but here it was 1.14. We also broke the gearbox in the Q1 burnout."

Pro Stock Bike racer Elvira Karlsson said "This season has been easier as we have a better tune-up. I have had a new PB ET or speed at each race and feel more comfortable on the bike." Elivira ran a PB of 7.06 to qualify no.2 six thousandths behind. Crewman Tomas Eriksson (holding umbrella) said "It's very competitive in the class with the top six separated by a tenth." Elvira is also joined by Robert Karlsson (pictured right) and Tony Sundström (pictured left).

Supertwin racer Vesa Lipponen qualified fifth with a 7.22. Crewman Jarkko 'Jaakoppi' Laukkanen (pictured left) said "The bike was slow off the start then Vesa pedalled it as it went out of the groove and then a cylinder went out. So although we had problems, all is ok. Thanks to former Pro Mod driver Seppo Saapola for sponsoring our ferry tickets. The problems we are having are from Supertwins being shorter and lighter than Top Fuel bikes and the stroke of the engine is heavier force. If we can solve the issues we will be close to running a six.

Supertwin racer Martijn de Haas said "We had to miss the Main Event, Tierp and Finland to invest in new parts for the engine and fired it up for the first time last Friday. It sounded excellent and now we are playing with the setup. It is very strong and we are having to think about setup of all the bike including wheelie bars and clutch. It feels lilke a new bike." Martijn's best of 7.119 in the last session qualified him fourth.

Top Fuel Bike racer Otto Knebl is riding the Puma engined machine in his second year and starting to get the numbers, running a 7.40 with a soft setup on the throttle all the way down. "We are taking it step by step and a lot of the learning has been about leaning over to control the direction of the bike. After Tierp we found a piston had been burned so we missed Finland to get spares installed and now it is running really well." Thanks to Romana Vodolanova (pictured left) for help with interpretation.

Top Fuel Bike and Funny Bike racer Filippos Papafilippou (aka Fil) has owned a lot of drag racing vehicles but this is the quickest bike he has owned and has run a best of 7.07 this weekend with clutch issues slowing the launch. The bike was imported from the US where it ran in ADRL Pro Xtreme Bike.

Top Fuel dragster racer Stig Neergaard (pictured left) ran a 4.14/474kph to go third after three sessions. He said "I am happy , we have a good safe car that doesn't use parts too much. I am also looking forward to driving the Tre Kronor funny car in the night show, it's my first time racing it although we did a couple of test passes at Malmö two weeks ago. Jonny Nilsson wants to sell it and it's good advertising to run it." Pictured right is US racer and tuning advisor to the team John 'Bodie' Smith, who has also been in the seat of a nostalgia Funny Car at Maple Grove, winning the event.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Danny Bellio's engine has been sounding off-colour in all three runs so far. He said "We have a fuel system problem although we did put it on a flow bench over the winter. We were busy to late last night, working on the engine and firing it up. It didn't improve this morning and is running like a tractor. If we can't get it down the track we don't know how we can compete in the remaining rounds as time is too short to put it right. We really need to test."

Top Methanol Funny Car racers Johan and Jonnie Lindberg have had a mixed weekend. Johan (pictured left) found the rear end of his car broke with a crack in the gear. He said "As we were fixing it we couldn't make the second session. The team worked hard last night and all was in good shape this morning. But I want to qualify higher than no.4 as otherwise I will meet Jonnie early in eliminations. We want to meet in the final."

Jonnie Lindberg said "We planned a 5.5 run yesterday but the car shook hard in low gear. The track will eventually take a 5.5s pass and we will work for one. We ran a 5.49 in Finland and ran two 5.5s in eliminations and won the event too so it is deinitely achievable. We are also looking to the points as we are only 15 points behind Leif."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel was being interviewed by German TV as we arrived. He said "We are running in the 5.9s like a bracket car. We figured out at the start what the track could run and it is perfect, the preparation is great." Jürgen is considering the Euro Finals however this may be a last minute decision.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Ulf Leanders was happy to run 5.62 to qualify second. Crew chief and brother Jörgen said "We ran our PB of 5.55 in bad air at Tierp a couple of weeks ago. The problem we are having here is the sun heating up the track later in the day, but evreryone has to deal with that. The team, particularly Ian Marshall and Dave Warren have done a fantastic job on track prep and we have a good car which is happy with what the team do to it. We made big setup changes for this year and started off all over again but the car responded."

Pro Modified racer Micke Gullqvist ran a 5.97/391.6kph to consolidate his no.1 postion. He said "We made a good run in the first session but in the second had a problem with the fuel system and didn't get down the track. We repaired it and increased the power level in certain parts of the run for the third session. We have had to start with a clean sheet for data as the track is green. We ran well when the temperature is lower in the morning but the final qualifying session is going to be tough."

Pro Modified racer Marc Meihuizen said "We overpowered the track twice yesterday and in the second session only two cars made it properly down the track. We were more cautious this morning and ran a 6.05 driving through tyre shake. At Finland, the more we took out of it, the faster it would go."

Pro Modified racer David Vegter is pictured right, with Crew Chief Dick Koster. Dick said "We have had some gremlins in the ignition system and have been making way too much power. We will fire it up and hope it works. It is not good for our championship position and we need to get higher up the ladder."

Pro Modified racer Robert Joosten is third with a 6.11. He said "We have 50-60 visitors from our sponsors today and the car is running how it did when we were testing in the US which has given us more confidence. We were happy at Alastaro and started to recover from the problems we found at Tierp and were correcting the shift points."

Pro Modified racer Jean Dulamon has enlisted the help of Henri Joosten's crew chief Eric van Beelen (pictured right. He said "We are trying to stop the nitrous burps and are making changes as we want Jean to succeeed." The next pass was an improved 7.33 - without a nitrous problem.

Jet Dragster racer Bob Perrot is displaying with a 'For Sale' notice on the ex-Sammy Miller jet dragster that ran in the early 90s.

Supertwin racer Martijn de Haas had a problematic day on Friday, shutting off after his burnout in session one and losing drive after a strong launch in session two.

Supertwin racer Ronnie Aasen riding Ton and Vincent Pels' Godfather VII made a great launch in session two and came off the throttle to record a 7.29/259.41 for third place at the end of the first day.

Pro Stock bike racer Fredrick Fredlund recorded a 7.07 and 7.06 in the two qualifying sessions on Friday to send a message that the new track is in great shape and he will be difficult to beat performance-wise.

Super Street Bike racer Thomas Granica was in fourth place out of seventeen with a 7.69. He said "I had a 1.4 60ft and know we can do better than that. The data log looks good, there are no peaks from the wheel spinning. I am very happy with the track but the bike needs more power so we have loaded it up to run a 7.4. It would be great to run a new PB in front of the crowd here."

Super Street Bike racer Dave Holland said before his second qualifying pass "We are taking a cautious approach as we do not want to overpower the track. We are hoping to improve but it is too early to say what the track will take. It is difficult running at a different track and we are finding our feet here and on a bit of a learning curve, just doing the best we can." His words were proved to be an understatement when he ran 7.301/328.23 to consolidate his no.1 position and run the first 200mph Super Street Bike speed at Hockenheim.

Super Street Bike racer Garry Bowe is qualified second with a 7.449/306.30. He said "We took a cautious approach on a brand new track and were pleased to go second with a 7.56. For the second session we have turned it up. After this race we are going to Hungary for the first time and will be the only UK Super Street Bike there."

Top Fuel racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher had a frustrating day as they tried to get recently-licensed Noah Stutz's car qualified. Crew chief Robin Grice said "In the first session the car smoked the tyres and in the second he was shut off for a fuel leak. When we started the engine to warm up it was running too rich and we are trying to find the cause. We are also trying to sort out problems on Urs's car." The supercharger drive is being scrutinised closely here.

The slingshot dragsters of Ian and Laura Turburville will be match racing at the night show tonight (Saturday). Here they are pitted at the far end of the pit lane.

Pro Mod racer Marcus Hilt improved his personal best by three tenths to 6.37 yesterday and was delighted. Pictured with tuning consultant Camp Stanley he said "It was a nice run, it actually felt slow and was so smooth I could have driven it with one hand. I have switched to a smaller 15 inch tyre with the same height. I thought it might not have been wide enough but I have to thank Mickey Thompson Tyres for an excellent product." The run came at the cost of a blower belt which came off 4.4s into the run and three nipped pistons, meaning he was absent from the second session and we understand he has now withdrawn.

Top Fuel racer Anita Mäkelä suffered the sad loss of crewman and back-up person Jari Väinölä after Finland and our condolences go to his family and the team. Anita's daughter Hanna has stepped in as back-up person and carried the job out effectively. Anita said "Hanna is calm and knows what to do."

Anita Mäkelä's Crew Chief Sami Lehtimaki said "The first pass was fine and Anita lifted after 2.5s as planned. The second was slower than expected and may have gone through the clutch - we need to take heat out of the clutch. Tomorrow we have three runs including the night show." Tuning consultant Donnie Bender will not be able to be with the team at the remaining races as he is working with NHRA racer Steve Torrence. The car improved to 4.33 to go fifth on Saturday morning.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Jari Halinen, qualified third with 4.27, said "Today was a good day, we made two good passes. The car left quick and in the second session I just had to lift when the tyres spun at the end and the car moved around a little. But it was very good for the first day of the event and we had no breakage. The team did some great work and the track will get better and better." Jari's team is joined by renowned US tuner Jimmy Walsh again.

Top Fuel racer Antti Horto is qualified sixth with 4.36/441kph from the second session. He said "We brought the car all the way from Finland and all has been routine. On the first run the start was good and the car spun the wheels after two seconds. We are using the same relatively soft setup as for Alastaro. On the second run the car ran bettwe but lost two cylinders after half track hence a low speed. We were on the throttle with six cylinders to the end though."

Top Fuel racer Chris Andrews ran a great 4.27/412kph on his initial pass. He is now in the ex-Don Schumacher Racing car with Fune Fjeld Motorsport. He said "It's been a good day. We just had an issue in the second pass with dropping cylinders which caused the blower belt to break. The car launches strong and on the first run it went right through on all eight. On the second it was too rich." On his third run this morning, Chris took no.1 position with 4.07/482kph, the speed equivalent to more than 300mph at 1000ft.

Top Fuel racer Duncan Micallef is at his first 2013 FIA event and running for the first time in the car that won the championship last year. He said "The atmosphere at Hockenheim is great - we are doing the Finals as well with our Maltese crew and want to do the full championship next year if we can get sponsorship. Both runs were planned half passes. The car has all the latest features and feels great to drive." Duncan's team is aided by US tuner Mike Damagala. Along with Jari, Antti and Chris, Duncan's car is owned by Rune Fjeld Motorsports.

Top Fuel racer Thomas Nataas with car owners Per and Carsten Andersen (pictured) ran a great 4.07 in the first session and slowed to a 4.21 in the second. They said "The engine lost a magneto on the burnout for the second pass but still went down the track. The first pass was too lean but the car is working really well. We think the track will improve but we are interested more in points than records. We are currently leading after session two, but Antti and Anita are close behind."

Top Fuel Dragster racer Stig Neergaard ran a 4.18 in the second session to go second. Stig will also be driving the Tre Kronor nostalgia funny car in the night show and is pictured warming the engine on Friday evening. The team are assisted by US racer John 'Bodie' Smith who himself was a nostalgia FC winner at Maple Grove last weekend in a Jungle Jim replica car.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Leif Andréasson ran 5.65/405kph to go top in the first session and then smoked the tyres to drop two places. He said "The track is good but can't yet hold the power to run 5.5s. Tomorrow morning should be better, the surface is unbelievably good compared with last year and the car is running fine."