2004 FIA Main Event
Professional Test, Saturday 22nd May
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22:20
We've now posted today's pictures; you can access them via the Event Index page.
Tune back in the morning and we'll bring you all the news from the Run What You Brung.
18:55
We had a slightly anti-climactic end to the day as Jon Webster was shut off for an oil leak from a valve cover after returning from the burnout in the Canto Recruitment Top Fuel Dragster.
So that's all the on-track action for today; what we are going to do is to drive back to base and then post our pictures in a couple of hours' time - we will post an update on this page as soon as they are ready.
18:15
Jöran Persåker has made his first-ever Top Fuel pass and we're sure he'll be pleased. A great burnout followed by a launch, 0.876 to sixty feet and idling through to 9.343/100.67.
We are now awaiting a run from Jon Webster in the Canto Recruitment Top Fueller, stay tuned.
17:45
Micke Kågered as made his first run in the new Bahco Tools Top Fueller and it was a very short-lived pass as it appears that the throttle cable broke at the hit, Micke idled through to 16.385/78.12. Jöran Persåker is waiting for the fuel pump coupling off Micke's car so that he can put in his launch. Jöran told us that he is both excited and nervous about his first Top Fuel pass.
Patrick Wikström ran all the way down the left-hand side of the right lane to record 6.523/213.26, so much for half-passes if everything felt OK! Roger Johansson followed not long after and clocked 6.509/217.24, 1.080 to sixty feet and also down the left side of the right lane. Håkan Nilsson was on the throttle to half-track and then put the chutes out, 1.058 to sixty feet and 7.551/113.34 at the stripe.
Magnus Hansson looked to be on a six-second pass in his Pro Stock until he got off the throttle at three-quarter track, 7.235/164.10.
Dave Holland clocked 7.833/164.74 on the latest pass on his Funny Bike, off the throttle early but Ken Cooper looked happy enough with the run. Mark Ramplee clocked 9.240/149.47 in his SC/SG Sierra whilst Chris Isaacs put in another consistent pass with a 9.793/137.67.
Jöran Persåker is expected soon, we'll be back as soon as he has run.
16:35
Roger Johansson has taken Low ET/Top Speed with his latest pass, 6.516/218.30 and that was by no means straight so there is much more left in there. Henri Joosten followed Roger up with a 7.234/143.91 which was shut off at or about 1000 feet.
Steve Nash is getting closer and closer to a seven with an 8.159/173.60 on his latest pass, this still with the tyres chattering all the way down the track!
Mark Ramplee makes a welcome return, now carrying Super Comp and Super Gas numbers. Mark was on the throttle for a couple of hundred feet and clocked 14.668/88.06 in the Electromec-sponsored Sierra. Mike Lacey is running nice and consistently now with passes of 10.992/125.68, 10.962/124.68 and 11.088/123.69whilst Chris Isaacs went into the nines again at 9.799/137.24.
Paul Knight got very close to the money with an 8.906/145.50 whilst Nicky Frost continues to improve from what was a good start anyway at 10.849/128.24.
Stay tuned!
16:05
Another tremendous pass from Magnus Hansson in his Pro Stock, 7.061/196.66, staying on the throttle altough the car went out of shape a number of times and the tyres appeared to be chattering all the way down the track. Nice one Magnus! Robert Koper clocked 10.972/88.23 in his Pro Mod after pedalling briefly off the start line and then getting off the throttle at 200 feet.
Micke Gullquist's first run of the day was an 11.497/67.38, Micke was off the throttle at the top of second gear.
Steve Nash is running quite consistently, his latest pass an 8.340/172.22 again preceded by a huge burnout. Rick Denny clocked 13.320/99.99 in his Sportsman ET Firebird whilst Chris Isaacs recorded 9.836/136.81. Mike Lacey ran alongside Chris and pulled a 0.036 reaction time and 10.966/124.67.
Paul Knight got oh so close on his latest pass, clocking 8.897/157.43 in his Super Comp Firebird.
Micke Kågered has warmed up the Bahco Tools Top Fueller and has been down to the start line to put us on notice that the car is coming, stay tuned.
14:55
Håkan Nilsson's first run of the day was an 8.158/97.62. He had a small amount of shake, and the car turned hard right at about 200 feet. Håkan put the chutes out at half track. As I type this, Robert Koper is in the collection area waiting for the track to be given the once-over.
Steve Pateman clocked 8.777/168.57 on his latest pass, that included a pedal as the car got out of shape. Paul Knight squeaked under the Super Comp index again with an 8.864/158.88 whilst Mike Lacey clocked 11.225/120.64 in his Camaro, it sounded as if he was having trouble getting the last gear to engage.
Nicky Frost at 11.609/124.72 and Gino Bernadine at 14.177/68.06 rounded off the last bunch of racers.
Stay tuned.
14:25
Patrick Wikstöm has put in his first pass of the day, running at the bleach box for his burnout and then wheels-up at launch, on the throttle to about half track and then the chutes were out, 7.250/122.00. Roger Johansson hit shake off the line again, but pedalled and then got back on it and stayed with the throttle all the way down, 7.225/213.26.
Henri Joosten's first run of the day was a very out-of-shape 10.976/57.32, Henri went to the top of second gear and then got off it.
Dave Holland lost a moment or two to wheelspin off the start line on his Funny Bike, but still recorded 7.541/181.53, the crew very happy with that one.
Paul Knight put up another good Super Comp time with an 8.934/158.44 whilst Chris Isaacs released some more of the ponies in his new race car, a fine 9.711/137.68 and it looked like there was more available yet. Mike Lacey delighted Carla and Rick with a 10.941/125.29 in his Camaro.
Steve Nash pulled another huge burnout and another big wheelie and clocked 8.294/173.61 in his CCSE Cougar.
Håkan Nilsson is in the collection area, stay tuned and we'll let you know how he fares on his first pass of the day.
13:00
Magnus Hansson has just taken Low ET and Top Speed of the day so far with a superb 7.012/197.59 in his Pro Stock. The car shot off the line, 1.03 to sixty feet, the run was far from straight and the tyres were chattering to about 200 feet so there is far more in that Firebird yet.
Steve Pateman put in a normally-aspirated pass of 9.2272/149.99 followed by an 8.679/167.25. Fellow CCSE racer Steve Nash put in another Freddish burnout then pulled a huge wheelie off the line to clock 8.267/172.38.
Chris Isaacs improved still further to a 10.659/133.48 in his Vanguard, whilst fellow Pro ET racer Gino Bernadine clocked 13.068/96.69 on an early shut-off pass. Pro ET rookie Nicky Frost clocked 13.196/103.71.
Paul Knight probably put a touch too much throttle stop back in on his Super Comp Firebird, recording 9.518/155.60 on his latest pass.
We're now on a lunch break, stay tuned and we'll be back not long after 1:30 with the next batch of runs.
12:15
The first racer to put in a pass today was Super Comp racer Paul Knight. Paul's first pass was an 8.956/159.01 followed by an 8.840/157.88.
Next up was Funny Bike racer Dave Holland, the only bike racer we have seen thus far either in the pits or on track, the rear tyre was chattering and Dave backed out of it at half track but he still recorded 8.387/106.37.
Roger Johansson hit appalling shake not far off the line in his Pro Mod but still clocked a sixty foot time in the 1.0s. He'll be reaching for the aspirin when he gets back to the pits, I think.
Chris Isaacs is making his first outing with his immaculate Pro ET Standard Vanguard, a very nice piece of work it is too and a great advertisement for Chris' race car building business. Chris idled down the track on his first pass and then stepped it up some to clock 11.141/115.93 on his second checkout. Another new Pro ET car is the Camaro of Mike Lacey, who crews for Carla Pittau and Rick McCann. Mike is licencing and is making a great job of it so far.
Custom Car Street Eliminator racer Steve 'Splinter' Nash put in a burnout worthy of Pro Mod and then had his rear tyres go up in smoke off the line, Splinter pedalled and recorded 8.764 at a huge 171.03. Fellow CCSE racer Steve Pateman is in the pairing lanes as I type.
Sportsman ET racer Rick Denny, who we imagine is running in the Street Racer Saturday class, clocked 13.381/99.80 on his first pass of the day.
Stay tuned and we'll bring you more news as it happens.
11:30
Good morning and welcome from Santa Pod Raceway on a very pleasant summer's day. It's the first day of testing for the FIA Main Event and we're here to bring you all the news in association with American Car Imports.
The Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam is on-line and broadcasting a picture every two minutes, you can reach the webcam via the Event Index.
Right now the trackside conditions are 14.0 C, 46% humidity and 30.39 inches of air pressure.
We have a fair number of racers here, a lot of very busy people in the pits but we managed to grab a word with a few of them and here's what we found out.
Swedish Pro Mod racer Håkan Nilsson is hoping to make four or even five passes today. "We will be doing launches, we want to get it into second safely", he said. Håkan said that when the car ran at the Big Bang VW event he thinks that he may have made too many passes too quickly as the oil never cooled down and he damaged bearings. "This car has the potential for 6.20s", he added.
Fellow Pro Mod racer Henri Joosten said that he and his team have had a lot of late nights recently. "I've been getting home at one in the morning and my wife has been asking me who I am!", he said. Henri is planning a couple of launches and a half-pass today. You will have seen the lengthened car in its new colours on Eurodragster News earlier this week, it looks even better in the flesh. "Will Gilleng painted it", said Crew Chief Hans Brings. "We just let him do his own thing and we are very pleased with the result!".
NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified Champion Roger Johansson was pleased with one aspect of his recent testing at Gardermoen. "The track was not as good as we are used to, but we were getting some good speeds", he said. "I recorded 343 kmh on two stages". Roger said that the target for today was four passes and that he would be concentrating on getting away from the start without shake. When you are in the pits next week then be sure to check out the bonnet of Roger's car as it has a very subtle, and very nice, mural of a herd of mustangs, and a race horse on each side of the car. ""Barkholz did the paintwork", said Roger. "We told him the colours we wanted and he designed it. The only thing we insisted on was that he took the old paint off so it's not too heavy!"
Patrik Wikström declared himself "Hungry" after sitting out 2003. The OFAB-sponsored car is now sporting a completely new engine since testing at Gardermoen a couple of weeks back. "We have a new blower design so we have to work on the fuel system", said Crew Chief Krister Petersson. "How far Patrik goes on his runs depends upon how well he gets to sixty feet, if the car holds on then we will be making half passes. It's a safe tune-up anyway."
Pro Stock racer Magnus Hansson is sporting two engines, a completely new item from the USA and Jan Murén's 2003 engine. "If things go as we think then we're going to drive hard!", said Lasse Bodén.
The Top Fuel Dragster racers were all very busy but we managed to grab a word with Peter Knight, Crew Chief of the Canto Recruitment Top Fueller which is again to be driven by Jon Webster this week. "We have a lot a lot of stuff to go on the car but it was going OK last year so why change things - it's difficult enough without making changes!", said Peter. "We haven't had the car out all winter so we thought we'd better come here this week", said Martin Canto. "We don't need to be turning up here and looking like we don't know what we're doing when we're lined up next to all the others!". Martin said that the team are running billet blocks this season, and that they have a spare block and spare heads. "We should be able to make a good show of it this year", he said. The team's trailer has had a lot of work done to it, and Martin said that it was all down to Johnny Mac of Webster Race Engineering. "He has been working his balls off", said Martin. Johnny Mac said that the plan for today was a half-pass and then put the car back in the trailer.
Jöran Persåker and Micke Kågered were busy when we passed their pits, as was Urs Erbacher's team, so we left them to it and will catch them for a word later on.
Stay tuned and we'll bring you news of the first test passes shortly.