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16:00

Sverre Dahl was unable to qualify his Top Fuel Bike in the top eight, with a best of 8.51. He said "On the first run, we set the bike up for a low six but smoked the tyre. On reflection, we were out quite early in the session. On the last run, we lost the compressed air for the airshifter, and the bike wouldn't shift into second gear. We have a new Bentec gearbox that we are testing. Everything looked ok after the first run but unfortunately, with the waiting in line with the weather, we ran out of time to make adjustments. The bike is making huge power." The motor is a self-made block and heads with a Puma crank and Autorotor blower, the clutch being self-made. The frame is by Stefan Reisten, a former Top Fuel Bike rider from the 1980s and 1990s, who helps the team at several races. Thanks go to sponsors Pennzoil, Webcam Racing Camshafts and Stefan Reisten.

Cliff Gould (crew member for Joran Persåker) said the crew was quite happy with the 5.93/161 in view of the problems experienced earlier in the season. "Joran went up in smoke and pedalled the car, and there was no damage. It kept killing the motor, but we were finished by 8pm last night, with only rouutine servicing needed. We changed the combination and internal components in the motor, taking power out with ignition settings. On our first run we were shut off for a tiny oil leak which went on the blower belt causing it to lose grip."

Ian King was very pleased at being unofficially confirmed as UEM Top Fuel Champion. He said "We are running as we expected to - although we could go faster, we knew what to do to win and still leave something in reserve. I really would like to seriously defend the title in 2006, depending on funding. When we won the Championship in 2001 we perhaps took it too easy in the following year and it didn't feel right." Ian continues to work on the UEM side and is excited about the developments of new tracks in Italy and at Paul Ricard in France. Time permitting, he may attend the UK Finals to test a new cylinder head.

T.J. O'Brien (Top Fuel Bike) said "After running mid-sevens at the Allstar Nationals, our performance here has been disappointing. "If I could go straight and change gear, then it we would go really well," joked T.J. "The bike tends to go to the right and it stuck in gear. We had to strip the gearbox, but are just waiting to run again to see whether we can qualify." T.J. said his plans for next could either involve continuing with the present comp bike (with which he won the UK Championship in 2004) or an eventual move up to Funny Bike by working with Neil Midgley and building a new bike for himself.

Gary Jones and Dave Friend are pleased to have run their comp bike as quick as ever and qualifying for Top Fuel Bike with a 7.555. "It's been a great year for us, after taking a year out in 2004 with my back problems," said Gary. "We qualified and went to the semi-finals at the Main Event, and have won the Ultimate Power Championship and hope to be confirmed as ACU Champions in Comp Bike." 2004 was a development year and the bike now sports electronic fuel injection on the turbo methanol engine. "The EFI has advantages of being easier to tune, as we work on it directly on the laptop." The team's next plan is for a new chassis. "We are spinning the tyre all the way down and are running much smaller boost than we could as a result of not being able to handle the power. We are building our own chassis over the winter break with a 3-piece body, to use all of our other components from the existing bike." Thanks go to sponsors Extreme Electrical Ltd, Universal Turbos, Mistral Engineering, Worldwide Bearings USA, Ian Carver and Bek Wholesale.

Kent Trenneman ran a 6.57 to qualify in Pro Mod in his 1951 Chevy, but said the car has gone faster. "We can run 6.4s on a good track like this - we ran a string of 6.4s at Sunsvall including our best of 6.46. We just need more opportunity to run better. "This is my second time driving at Santa Pod - the first was runner up in Top Modified at the 1979 Finals, in the Red 1941 Willys Onkel Willy (which ran a 305 cu in motor with carbs and a Muncie gearbox). I also worked as clutch man with Peter Lantz in the 1990s, after he took the team over from Conny Andersson.

Norbert Kuno in the Pro Mod Dodge Avenger has been trying a different setup in the fuel system for more power. The weather is too bad to get definite results today and we need more runs. We planned to run high 6.4s. If we stay with a 6.718, we are qualified 14th but would like to run the new setup again today before eliminations. We have run five events this season, only missing Alastaro which was too far for us to travel to." Norbert thanks sponsors Lucas Oil, SSI Blowers, Sachs, and Bellerstein Air Conditioning.

Marc Meihuizen (Pro Mod '37 Chevy Coupe) said "We are trying some new things out on the motor with new ignition and component parts, but we're having a struggle to run faster. We ran our first 6.4 at Mantorp and expected to run 6.3s here, but the result was 6.6. The car is handling fine, but there is not enough power. Marc, who is a finalist in the Swedish Open Championship to be run later here, wanted a special thanks to sponsors UPS. "They have helped us a great deal and have given us great service."

Richard Gipp (Pro Stock bike) said "We ran 7.7s in both qualifiers yesterday and had a lot of wheelspin on the launch, which hurt our 60 ft times. We are in the field but need another three tenths to be competitive. We have just put a refurbished motor in the bike and are running it in, only having done four passes on it so far." Thanks go to crewman Dave Varey and sponsors Duffedup.com, Cycleworkz and Straightline Racing.

Steve Moxley kindly gave us some other bike snippets, which follow. Joey Bon (Top Fuel Bike) who damaged his cylinder head on his opening 17s run and missed the second session has managed to carry out repairs, but will need a competitive run to qualify for the field, which has a bump spot currently of 7.66.

Shaun Branch (FB running in Top Fuel Bike) has had to withdraw after damaging an inlet valve and piston. Martin Bishop (Pro Stock Bike) has damaged his new 1640cc motor and has had to reinstall the previous 1570cc one. Anders Larsson (Pro Stock Bike) has broken a camshaft and is reportedly out of competition. Meanwhile Anders Larsson's pit partner Anders Abrahamson has achieved a new personal best of 7.29 with a new motor. Steve Woollatt (Top Fuel Bike) has had to make repairs on his fuel tank.

Lastly, congratulations to John Tebenham, whose 7.796/170.51 is we believe the fastest run in the world by a Ford Cosworth 2000cc motor. (Note for readers with long memories: Wayne Saunders ran faster in this car but had a different type of motor, the RS200).

12:00

In the Pro Stock pits, Jimmy Alund was pleased with his No.1 qualifying spot with a 6.95 on his first run. "We were happy with our first pass. However we were in the left lane in the second sessions and whilst we had fewer problems than some, the run was not as good as the first. The car is running fine, but we are the first car class in qualifying this morning and the track conditions will be different.

Jan Muren, who debuted his new ex-Tom Martino Grand Am, built by Rick Jones said his weekend so far has been "Disappointing. The first run at 7.01 was was ok, except it was about a tenth too slow. This is a brand new car to us, and we still haven't fully figured it out. On the second run, after the oil down we went in the left lane. The powder from clearing up the oildown had blown across and the car got loose so we clicked at 300ft. We will try some changes to the setup, but we need time. With our old car we hit the jackpot in the middle of the second year with it and once we found it we stuck to it. When we find the sweet spot with this car, it will fly."

Jon Webster (Top Fuel) said, "We were pleased with the first 5.159 run; we ran with a couple of changes to the setup we ran at the Main Event. The car was a little soft off the start line so we tightened up the clutch for the second run. It turned out the adjustment was too much so we couldn't start the car for the second pass. On the first run the car felt fine, but it wandered around a bit in the shutdown area. We found the right hand barge board had been damaged, but we don't know what caused it - it was nothing from the car."

Thomas Nataas said "We are not in a good position as we are currently not qualified. We set the car up to run a 4.7 but had severe tyre shake and lifted (to an 8.926). Today, we have set the car up safely to get down the track as we need to get qualified."

Andy Carter said after running 4.977/294, "We set the car up soft for that pass and are hoping to improve. We want to be top qualifier and in order to survive you need to run 4.8s."

Jackie Hawkins is enjoying her first experience in running a top fuel car after many years of involvement with Fuel Funny Cars. "I first came to Santa Pod 30 years ago and Mark and I have been working on cars with Mark for 22 years. We crewed on the Tony Boden Hitman car in the mid-80s, and then with Frank and John Chadik. We set up our own team and bought the North Herts Engineering car that we ran with Gary (Page) driving. We're hiring the Top Fuel car from Knut Soderquist to see if we like it, and its great as we are running with the same crew as with the Funny Car. Our thanks go to all the crew, Gary and Knut." Gary ran a great 5.058 in the second session.

Mark "Animal" Bodimeade, crew chief for Susanne Callin said "On our first run we burnt out and staged. When I went to switch the data recorder on, I accidentally hit the switch to kill the magnetos - my name was mud with the crew! When we went out again, the car ran clean and straighr to a new personal best of 4.980/300.10. The cylinders were undamaged but it spun a main bearing so we were working until 1am putting in a new motor. We'll be running in today's second session.

Mats Eriksson (Pro Mod) said after a 6.796 that his tyre shake problems have returned. "We ran a 6.63 on the Press Day without any vibration. We discovered a problem with the gearbox and replaced the half shafts after Mantorp. We are running good top speeds but the problem is tyre shake in first gear. We have adjusted the 4-link and changed the gearing, but we are still exploring the range of adjustments with the 4-link."

10:00

Good Morning and welcome to Saturday's Pit Notes. It rained overnight but track drying operations began before 7:30am and most of the standing water has been removed. However, whilst the rain has stopped it is quite misty and the humidity level is 98%. We'll still be providing pit notes whatever the weather does.

Yesterday evening, we had the opportunity to speak with Darren Mayer, who is crew chief for Troy Critchley, a racer in the NHRA AMS Pro Mod series who . Darren was in the country and the opportunity arose to spend a couple of days with Bert Englefield's team before returning to the US. It's Darren's first visit to Santa Pod and his impressions of Pro Mod racing over in Europe are highly favourable. "I've been looking at many of the cars and it's interesting to see which North American racers is influencing the various teams. The best cars in Europe could qualify for an NHRA AMS Pro Mod field."

The rules have now diverged between the two main sanctioning bodies, with the NHRA AMS Series now running 29% blower boost, with 100lbs lighter weight, compared with IHRA which has kept to the 20% blower overdrive level that has been set following a number of reductions in an attempt to maintain parity with the nitrous runners. Darren is firmly in the blower camp, as he designed the Kobelco "Superman" blower, a development of the high-helix design that is now run by many of the blown Pro Mod teams. "The first to run the Superman design was Johnny Rocca who ran a 6.22 with it back in 1999, an outstanding time in those days. As well as Pro Mod racers, Top Fuel runners are starting to show interest in the Kobelco Superman blower as the design is approved by the NHRA. This approval is vital for component suppliers, as so much of Top Fuel technology is now built to approved spec designs. However, Top Alcohol Dragsters and Funny Cars mostly use screw blowers, so they tend not to be major part of the customer base for the Superman product."

Darren said that the NHRA AMS Pro Mod Series has gone from stength to strength since it was introduced as a demonstration class a few years ago. "AMS have increased their financial input and the class now runs 16 car fields at more events. The class is growing exponentially across the sport with more teams deciding to specialise in a single sanctioning organisation's series, particularly with the differences in rules. There is a lot of corporate involvement, and our team has been sponsored by a large corporation, Hernandez, and that has enabled us to step up with equipment that can run 6.10s"

In Darren's view the European Pro Mod scene has developed in a similar way to that in Australia, initially being nitrous, and then the majority of teams changing to blown methanol. "It can be more expensive to run nitrous in the end and so many US teams have gone the blower route there are fewer teams in the US to give help to European nitrous racers. The turning point for US blower runners was billet heads being allowed, which encouraged engine manufacturers such as Alan Johnson and Brad Anderson Engineering to develop and supply those parts in quantity." For those wanting to know more, Darren's web site is www.dmpeinc.com.