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Santa Pod Raceway has a new concrete racing surface after its biggest construction project in its history. For some of the statistics on the project, see their Facebook post here. Track prep this weekend is being aided by use of a 'counter rotator' sledder tractor built by Andy Robinson Race Cars.	Fuel Funny Car racer Kevin Chapman has his car lettered with Thermoreg, his wife Abbie's company which designs and manufactures high-quality thermostatic valves for marine and industrial applications. For this meeting, Kevin has hired the services of John 'Bodie' Smith to advise on tuning. Kevin said 'As I have a Top Fuel licence, I expect to have to run a single pass to cross licence into Fuel Funny Car. We have got lots of good stuff on the car to make it run well'.
Perry Watkins' Oklahoma Willy is immaculate down to the interior - and the detail on the Rolls-Royce Viper 535 jet engine which came out of a BAC 167 Strikemaster jet. Perry is quite an engineer for someone who has worked as a shoe repairer and, as well as redesigning the jet's afterburner to be computer controlled, built the ‘Flatmobile’ the world’s lowest street legal car. The chassis for Oklahoma Willy was built by Eurodragster.com sponsors Hauser Racing. Many of the parts came from VW Heritage and you can follow the progress of the car at Oklahomawilly.co.uk.	Roger Goring is back at SPR with Firestorm jet funny car after a complete rebuild was necessary following a Easter 2010 brush with the wall. "We finished the rebuild late in 2016 and tested during 2017 and, after sorting problems with the battery pack and starter, went to Hockenheim which was good. We checked the car over winter and tested at SPR last weekend, but only got one run in".
Roger's web site includes a detailed account of the rebuild and although the car will run singles at first, Roger concluded "I'm a racer, and look forward to running alongside another jet".	Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson's team have made many changes to the Camaro over the winter in what amounted to a complete rebuild. "We had new NRE cylinder heads last year and changed the camshaft, pistons and rods over the winter. Then we felt the downforce was too high so looked at lowering it by 2" which we did by changing the chassis at the rear, raising the wheel hubs and lowering the ride height". The plan is to run all UK rounds and Hockenheim. On the new track Andy admitted "It's a different ball game now. SPR wanted a counter-rotator machine which is our own design, based on what's out there - I looked at photos and video of them in action. An important part is that it comes apart relatively easily to change the tyres".
Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Jon Webster tested at the start of November, and was happy with two 300ft passes with spool-up to get fuel calibration data. The best 60ft on a moderate tune-up was 1.06 and best 330ft was 2.89. "We then went through the car over the winter and changed a few things, mainly the electronic calibration. We will be back doing short runs, with no full passes planned until we get more information and can get some heat build-up, and then we will attempt a full pass with moderate settings. Jon thanks Topspeed Automotive, Dave Rowe of EPS Motorsport and Alex McIntosh of ABM Hydraulics for their help at the track. At non-PM meetings, Jon is planning to work with some Street Eliminator racers to tune their turbo setups.	Pro Mod racer Jean Dulamon has had new Reher Morrison heads fitted over the weekend. And during the winter, Post & Dros MSD expert Dick Koster visited the team's Tarnos (near Biarritz) base to install new sensors and upgrade Jean's Racepak system to the latest version. "The system can now measure the air-fuel ratio from the exhaust and we have sensors to measure tyre temperatures too".
Pro Mod racer Michel Tooren and his long established team spent the winter rebuilding the suspension system, sending shocks to the US for refurbishment, and carrying out dyno testing. "We learned much about the effect of different ignition settings so that we can avoid engine damage through tuning decisions. We also installed new heads, and the cars weight is down from 2,690lbs to 2,660lbs, 10lbs above the class minimum. Finally we made changes to the rear axle".	Super Pro ET racer Paul Pryzbyl is sharing his drive with brother John this season. John said "I will be racing at the Main Event and Euro Finals and Paul will be doing the Festival of Power, Summer Nationals and National Finals". John has been the sole driver for the last two years and Paul was the sole driver in 2014 and 2015 as commitments dictated. The car has been treated to a new paint job by team business Pryzm Paintworks. Mechanically, the engine has been refreshed and rebuilt by Kenny Coleman with new rings, lifters, and rebuilt rockers. The Hughes Powerglide transmission has been left unchanged after a reliable 2017.
Super Pro ET racer and 2017 champion Scott Hauser said the car was last run at the National Finals, and the engine received attention over the winter. "We stripped it down and changed pistons. We have started to use Line2Line powder coating on the pistons to increase their size in the bore, as we found the previous pistons were rocking around in the bore, causing wear and tear on the rings. With the Line2Line treatment, there should be better sealing on the rings and the engine should run more efficiently and breathe oil less. The short block was disassembled and sent to the States for refreshing, and the transmission stripped. We had run six years on the same clutch pack in the Hughes Powerglide and the work done should make it more tight and the car launch quicker". Eurodragster.com sponsor Hauser Racing is staffed by three people and current work has included some rear axle replacement for circuit racing cars, two new builds and the potential of two further new builds.	Junior dragster racers Lara and Jacqueline Callin Bartlett, aged 13 and 11 respectively, are making their competition debut at this event. The daughters of SPR owner Keith Bartlett and his wife and former Top Fuel Dragster racer Susanne Callin licensed at Dragstalgia last year and are looking forward to racing side by side at some events this year. (Picture taken with Susanne's permission)
Lara and Jacqueline Callin Bartlett's cars are the hire cars for Santa Pod Raceway and their web page gives full details of available dates, prices and conditions of hire, with feedback from previous customers.	Super Pro ET racer and 2017 Junior Dragster champion Billy Everitt is in the Alien altered which now runs a single carburettor setup from Hauser Racecars atop a rebuilt engine. Billy licensed and tested in October 2016 to a best of 8.15/158.
The Junior Drag Bike Club has a marquee that will be seen around Europe over the season. Class co-ordinator Ollie Dummer said 'We will be running in two championships this year, as the ACU JDB Championship has been added to by the FIM Europe Junior Drag Bike Cup, which will be run at the two SPR FIM events, Kumandaras and Hockenheim'. There will be five or six bikes competing in the class.	2017 Junior Drag Bike Champion Blade Dummer has a new bike with a chassis built by Simon Holgate and 125cc KTM engine. The paint job by Craig Rukus of Rukus Customs is a process called hydro dipping and produces a wonderfully detailed effect. Blade tested the bike at Western Zoyland running a 8.75 with no shift light, since installed.
Blade Dummer's previous bike is for sale. The engine is a 125cc two stroke freshened at the end of 2016, with a hydraulically operated lock-up clutch and air shifter included in the package. As well as winning all three UK championships in 2017, it ran successfully in Drachten in 2015 and has PBs of 8.75 and 74mph. Prospective purchasers should see Ollie Dummer for enquiries.	Liam Holgate's bike features a 400cc engine and was built by Dad Simon, who assists in the running of the Junior Drag Bike Racing club.