UK National Finals
Sunday (eliminations)

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15:45

Today's photographs have now been posted. You can get to them from the race update index. If the pictures do not appear then click on your Browser's refresh key.

So that's the end of our coverage of the UK National Finals, and the last Eurodragster live update of the season. Thanks to you all for joining us this weekend and indeed all season.

Your reporters this weekend have been Tog and Sharkman of Eurodragster.com, all photographs this weekend by Sharkman. Thanks for their help this weekend to Race Director Darren Prentice; Chief Marshal Steve Horn; Lisa Smart and Martin Wallis of Santa Pod's timing crew; chief starter Ian Marshall and his crew; Chief Fire Marshal Bob Day and his crew; track announcer Graham Beckwith; SPR track manager Kjell Petterson; Kathy Taylor; Sue Morris in the Media Centre; Spencer Tramm; Martyn Jones; and of course to all of the racers for giving us quotes and action to write about and photograph.

All being equal we'll be back in Race Control next season, hope to see you then!

15:40

The rain isn't going away so Race Director Darren Prentice had no option but to call the race. So that ends the UK National Finals and the 2001 UK National Drag Racing Championships.

With no event winners to list, we will instead list the provisional 2001 UK National Drag Racing Championship winners. Provisional congratulations to:

Super Comp: Tim Adam
Super Gas: Tim Adam
Super Street: Team Rat Rage (Stuart and Anne Peck)
Super Pro ET: Steve Green
Pro ET: Team Tokyo Toy (Steve Dunn and Jon Evans)
Sportsman ET: Al Platt
Junior Dragster: Phill Cook
9.90 Bike: Paul Watson
10.90 Bike: Steve Templeman

Congratulations also to the 2001 ACU UK Drag Bike Champions:

Top Fuel Bike: Ian King
Pro Stock Bike: Dave Beck
Funny Bike: Tim Blakemore
Competition Bike: Helen Curran
Super Street Bike (provisional): Tony Clark

We are currently processing today's pictures, stay tuned.

14:00

Super Pro ET semi-final winners: Chris Bradley, Steve Green

It's been threatening all day and now it's happened - we're stopped for rain. Stay tuned and we'll let you know what happens.

13:55

The races are coming thick and fast now!

Pro ET round three winners: Dave Potter, Colin Aldred, Al Didwell

Super Comp semi-final winners: Brian Pateman, Mark Flavell

Super Street semi-final winners: Stuart Peck, Stuart Doignie

13:45 - second round winners

Congratulations to Tim Adam who has provisionally won the UK National Super Comp Championship with his second round victory, and to Team Tokyo Toy who have provisionally won the Pro ET Championship as Rick McCann went out in round two.

Paul Watson incredibly turned out for his second-round race against Jamie Sneddon. Although Paul lost, he is provisionally National Champion since there are not enough rounds left for Jamie to make up the shortfall. "Thanks to everyone in the pits who helped to get my bike back together", said Paul.

Scotty Evison ran a bye in the re-run of the first round VW Pro race, so he went through to round two.

Pro ET second round winners: Robin Shone, Dave Potter, Colin Aldred, Rick McCann, Al Didwell

Super Comp: Brian Pateman, Tim Adam, Mark Flavell

Junior Dragster: Jay Hauser, Adam Gleadow, Phill Cook

Sportsman ET: Al Platt, Simon Chalkly, Derek Annable

10.90 Bike: Lewis Honey, Phil Pratt, Sandra Chaplain

9.90 Bike: Pete Cameron, Andy Stephens, Jamie Sneddon, Paul Newman

Super Gas: Frank Mason, Martin Curbishley, Ritchi Smith

Stay tuned.

13:15 - remaining first round winners

Tony Clark is provisionally ACU Super Street Bike Champion after Graham Dance did not show due to breakage. Congratulations Tony!

Super Street Bike first round winners: Tony Clark, Mark Fisher, Geoff Connor, Steve Venables

Funny Bike: Ken Cooper, Barry Eastman, Tim Blakemore, Shaun Branch

Pro Stock Bike: Ray Debben, Chris Hope, Richard Gipp

Super Street: Stuart Peck, Stuart Doignie, Leigh Morris

Competition Bike, with four entries, will be run later - stay tuned for news of that class.

12:45 - first round winners

9.90 Bike racer Paul Watson is A-OK after a top end spill in the first round of eliminations. Paul's brakes appeared to lock up and the bike slid from under him. Paul did exactly the right thing, not trying to move or to get up until he had stopped sliding, by which time the safety crews were on the spot. Paul was straight on his feet after he stopped sliding and was quickly pronounced fine.

The Pro ET heads-up race between Rob Faulkner and Jim Draper was won by Rob, 9.32 to 9.57, on dial-ins of 9.28. There was however a lot of smoke from Rob's Camaro at the top end.

The VW Pro race between Scotty Evison and Keith Gaddene may have to be re-run as something triggered the finish line beams in Scotty's lane long before he got to the finish, the system indicated a huge breakout for Scotty and a win for Keith but this is of course not what happened. Stay tuned for news.

Pro ET first round winners: Robin Shone, Rob Faulkner, Aidan Kenny, Dave Potter, Steve Wells, Colin Aldred, Rick McCann, Rich Gilbertson, Bob Doyle, Al Didwell

Super Comp: Brian Pateman, Dave Day, Tim Adam, Mark Flavell, Phil Bennett

Junior Dragster: Jay Hauser, Colin Morrice, Adam Gleadow, Scott Hauser, Phill Cook, Tom Watts

Sportsman ET: Al Platt, Simon Chalkly, Lance Richards, Chevy Llewellyn, Derek Annable

10.90 Bike: Fred Furlong, Lewis Honey, Phil Pratt, Glenn Randles, Sandra Chaplain

9.90 Bike: Pete Cameron, Andy Stephens, Rachel Pattison, Jamie Sneddon, Paul Newman, Paul Watson

VW Pro: Jon Rathbone, Scotty Evison v Keith Gaddene TBC, Russ Fellows, Lee Darby

VW Sportsman: Cath Bishop, Stephen Lee, Neil Robinson

Super Gas: Frank Mason, Dave Townsend, Martin Curbishley, Peter Lane

Super Pro ET: Chris Bradley, Martyn Jones, Steve Green

We're now on a brief break before the rest of the first rounds, stay tuned

11:05

The track has dried and we're off and running! Stay tuned for news from eliminations.

10:30

Good morning and welcome back to Santa Pod on the final day of the 2001 UK National Championship. We were all set, with Pro ET in the pairing lanes, when a short but heavy shower wet the track. The sun is now out and the breeze is helping to dry the track as the track crew do their usual excellent job with the sweeper and jet drier.

As usual we have some raceday good mornings, firstly to Ed O'Connell and Kathy Hileman in the USA; to Steve and Jacky Young; and to Christer Abrahamson who tells us that he is jealous of our having a race in the autumn!

A very happy first wedding anniversary to Andy Marrs of Santa Pod's timing crew and his wife Deborah. Hope you're having a good day, guys.

Thanks to those who asked after your reporter after I said that I was under the weather yesterday. You'll be pleased to hear that I am A-OK this morning. Sharkman and I have taken a turn around the pits and here is what we found out.

Super Street Bike racer Graham Dance pushed back after the burnout in the last qualifying session yesterday. "I pushed back because I thought I had an oil leak and I didn't want to put oil on the track", he said. "We stripped the engine and there was no oil leak! We think it was just oil on the exhaust from the head gasket failure earlier on. The engine is dying - you should see the inside of the head! Len Paget (engine builder - Ed) says I'll be lucky to get four or five more runs out of it!"

Fellow SSB racer Mark Pointer is out of competition. What looked from race control to be the bike grounding at the top end was actually bits of engine coming out.

Super Comp racer Mark Flavell asked us to thank Frank Mason for his work on the engine of the Flavell and Taylor dragster. "Frank built the 427 in very short order after our other engine broke", said Mark. "I'm eternally grateful to him, he is a brilliant mate. And I have to thank Des because he's put up with a lot of insults this season!". Des told us the secret to getting the car to run 8.9s. "First time out it ran 9.9", he said. "We made every tweak we could think of, and then we took off the rear wing and it ran 8.93!", he said. Mark and Des are thinking of putting a blower on the car. "We've been racing for 23 years, we want to do something different", said Mark.

Paul Marston is running the Grumpy's Dodge in Super Gas this weekend rather than his usual Super Comp PT Bruiser. "We had a problem with fuel starvation in the carb", he said, "but we found that problem and cured it. On the third run it lifted the front and decided that it liked the wall! But that's what Super Gas is all about!". Paul told us that running 9.9s is a lot different to running 8.9s. "You're running on accelerated senses. For example, if the car goes out of shape you react very quickly but you have more time to straighten it out, and it's a lot easier to hold the revs steady on the burnout."

Fellow Super Gas racer Peter Lane had a thrash last night after breaking a rocker. "It wasn't a late night", he said, "we finished at about half past nine". Peter is now waiting to see if Simon Farmer, his first round opponent, has also fixed damage sustained yesterday - we understand that he has not.

Number one qualifier in Pro ET, Robin Shone, is having a lot of fun in the Sanity Assassin Toyota, not least on his final qualifying pass yesterday when he pulled a huge and not particularly straight wheelie. "I definitely saw people running!" he said. There is now debate about whether to put wheelie bars on the car. "They've got to be at Triumph Herald or Al Golding level or they're not going on it!" said previous driver Stephen Talbot.

Nigel King, who owns the Pro ET altered driven by Jim Draper, tells us that the plan is to sort out the injection on the car before adding a blower. Jim faces Rob Faulkner in the first round of eliminations and they have agreed to set the same dial-in and race heads-up.

Rob Faulkner told us that he has a problem with the Crossfire Camaro. "The engine keeps going up to eight grand", he said. "I took the gearbox out and sent it away to be checked, it was OK. I've had the torque converter checked and it is OK, but something is slipping. The maths say that I should be crossing the line at seven and a half. It's frustrating because I know that it can run an eight. Mind you, I thought that yesterday's first run was crummy and it turned out to be a 9.3!"

VW Pro racer Keith Gadenne is mystified by the performance of his Beetle. "The car is backing off at mid-track and I don't know why", he said. "It runs 1.5 seconds at sixty feet, pulling very strong. I haven't had enough runs really". Keith has Scotty Evison in the first round. "Scotty's a shrewd bloke, I'll have to get him to redlight or something!" he said.

VW Sportsman racer Cath Bishop qualified number one, 0.001 over her dial-in. "I was quite pleased with that!", she said. "It's about time we got the thing running right!".

VW Sportsman racer Neil Davies is another racer facing a mystery. "I changed to slicks, put in a close-ratio gearbox, a bigger clutch, and it runs a second and a half slower - very strange!", he said. "I've run in the sixteens and this weekend I can't get out of the eighteens. I just need a big motor. It's got a 1600 in it and it's not man enough."

Jet FC pilot Martin Hill has cracked the tailpipe of the Fireforce 2 Jet FC. Martin didn't put on the usul flame show last night and this was why. We understand that he may have it welded today, if not then Fireforce 1 will be running.

The tarck is almost ready to go now, stay tuned and we'll let you know when we get going.