European Drag Racing News (2024)

Friday 6th September in the evening Santa Pod will have the Nitro Session and a message to ALL racers and crew members that they are welcome to watch theNitroSession from the main Grandstand "free of charge"at the forthcoming FIA/FIM European Finals.

Free entry will be permitted from 5pm (Fri 6^thSept only) with access through gate numbers 111-248. A racer ticket or start-line pass will need to be shown to the grandstand stewards before entering.

N.B We also politely remind you that the Grandstand operates a strict NO SMOKING/VAPING policy.

This weekend'sBad Habit Racing Perfect Light Awardhas been reset to£100after no winners at the last couple of events. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to record a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds. The Perfect Light Award is available in all classes during both qualifying and eliminations, but will only be awarded for the first Perfect Light of the event. The Perfect Light Award is presented in association withCath and Tig Napierof Modurstang Pro ET team Bad Habit Racing.

Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect Light Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available in Signing On or from Eurodragster.com staff.

TheHayley HadfieldPerfect ET Awardsupported byAndy Hadfieldhas been reset to £50 after it was won by7.60 Heads upracerJohn Sleath at the Greenlight Nationals. The money will be paid to the first racer at the event to run +0.000 on index or dial-in. The Hayley HadfieldPerfect ET Award is available in Peter Nee Super Pro ET, Modurstang Pro ET, Hutchinson & Dibley Sportsman ET, W.A. Watts Automotive Super Comp, Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas, Pro Race Engineering VW Pro, Quantum Leap Racing VW Sportsman, Lucas Oil Junior Dragster, JKE Race Works 8.50 Bike, Atlantic Fluid Tech 9.50 Bike, Warpspeed Racing ET Bike and Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike. But will only be awarded for the first Perfect ET of the weekend. The Perfect ET Award is presented in association with Andy 'Fadster' Hadfield of theTwister RaceTeam in memory of his late wife Hayley.

Decals are not mandatory for the Perfect ET Award but we would appreciate it if Eurodragster.com decals are carried. Eurodragster.com decals are available in Signing On or from Eurodragster.com staff.

TheBob's Photo Finish Award, which is presented in association with Eurodragster.com sponsorBob Roberts, will award£50each to the racers involved in the closest finish of a green light and non-breakout race of eliminations at this weekend's event. At the Greenlight Nationals Event the Award was won byEurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike racersSophie PollenandMaggie Smallman with a finish line margin was0.0006seconds or0.74522inches.

The closest race will be decided upondistancerather than time since, for example, 0.001 seconds at 230 mph is further than 0.002 seconds at 110 mph. For this reason the official timing data will need to be consulted so the winners will be announced here on Eurodragster.com as soon as possible after the event and the winners will then be contacted for their preferred method of payment. The award will be paid on green light drag races only, and not on bracket races where there is a breakout.

In 1964 Sydney decided he wasn’t going to drive anymore handing the keys to Alan who got his first experience of driving a dragster, jumping from a rally 100 bhp Ford Anglia, to a 5.7 litre V8 supercharged machine. Alan also drove one of the new blown 1500 Ford powered Allard Dragons and was kept busy driving both dragsters at the 1964 Drag Festivals.

A second big Allard Dragster was built at the end of 1964 and Alan was once again in the driver’s seat driving in the rain at Blackbushe during the 2nd Dragfest. Then in 1966 Alan took it to Elvington for a shot at the quarter mile standing start world record.

Alan also ran the Allard Dragoon Anglia at Santa Pod in the 60s taking many Competition Altered wins. Read more by clicking here.

Thanks toRemco ScheelingsfromDrag Racing Europefor this update from Ivan Sansom & Rose Hugheson Alex Hope:

Raising an eyebrow or two on the FIM-E Euro Finals entry list is the reappearance of Alex Hope in Pro Stock Bike after a few seasons away. With father Chris overseeing the refresh of his old stocker that Alex last steered in the late 2010s, followed by a couple of years in Super Street Bike action, the V&H 2 valve Suzuki could shake things up for those in this year’s points chase.

You can read the full article by visitingthis link.

The FIA European Championship is ready for a grand finale at Santa Pod

The FIA European Drag Racing Championship reaches its climax with the European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway, the traditional grand finale of the season. In all four categories the championship is yet to be decided and especially in Pro Modified, where the top four are separated by only a few points, anything can happen and the title fight may last until the final run of the season. But also in Top Fuel Duncan Micallef can’t relax as the championship leader is closely followed by Susanne Callin and even Jndia Erbacher can’t be counted out. In Top Methanol Jonny Lagg is the clear favourite, while in Pro Stock Jimmy Ålund will try to remain undefeated while claiming his 13th European Pro Stock title.

You can read the full article by visitingthis link.

Former Eurodragster.com editorAndy (Tog) Rogersis atMelbourne Racewayfor this weekend'sStraightliners Round 7. You can see his galleries of on-track and off-track pictures from day 2 of the event, plus results by going to our event coverage page atthis linksupported byJohn Woolfe Racing.

Melbourne Saturday off- and on-track galleries and best times (courtesy Martyn Greathead) now showing onEurodragster.com.

Hockenheim weekend was fantastic, we started out the weekend with soft set up and it resulted in a solid qualifying run. We suffered a fuel problem from the previous event in Tierp, but by Saturday we solved the issue and got the bike running smooth at idle again.

On Sunday elimination round one and two we kept in on the safe side with a soft setup to get through the day without any troubles, this was to save the bike for a potential runs. We would have turned the screws, but he didn’t make it and we had to face Chris van Nimmen in final.

We would have loved to turn everything up for the final, but we soon realised we had a big leak on the rear cylinder and a valve spring had broken and we’ve bent a valve. With the issues we worked extremely hard to get everything changed including the head just in time for the final.

We ran with a minimum service and set up, but the bike did run very well, better than we expected and we won the race and the event. This kept our winning streak going since 2022.

Next round is at Santa Pod Raceway for us with the championship already secured, so if the conditions are good, we will have a go at the world record for normally aspirated bikes.

We are there to win the race and that will be our focus if the conditions are good, we will not miss the chance of a record attempt.