What a beautiful start to SS2, the weather was perfect, the track was exceptional, reaching temperatures of 130 on Sunday and the racing was truly spectacular.  With the turn out for this event being just over 200 entries from the UK alone and a few of our European visitors, Super Series 2 turned into the best event this year to date.  A lot of the credit for the track has got to go to Bruno who worked hard as ever ensuring the track was at its optimum, and the rest has got to go to the Sun.

What can we say but every time there is a Super Series track records get broken, its as if by publishing the records and keeping a note of them the racers are aiming to break them.  If they want a mention that badly then come and see me, in total we had 12 new track records proving just how good the racing was.

As we had no new classes (PDFC) to watch out for, the FAST team decided to try out and debut their new vehicle, the FAST quad.  Well with Jim and Bruno aboard the little quad struggled to wheelie off the line, though not for lack of trying, but did manage to finish the ¼ eventually.  Can't wait to see it in the traditional red paint and FAST logos!

With Super Series 2 came a new driver into the Super Pro ET class, Talbot racing allowed Jon Webster to drive their dragster to a very respectable personal best ET and Speed of 7.55 @ 173mph with a number one qualifier spot at Super Series 2.

Jon had volunteered (I'm sure it didn't take much arm-twisting!) and got his license upgrade at Brian Burrow's GTi festival a couple of weekends ago. Talbot Racing UK would like to thank Brian and Ian Marshall for letting them do the runs at such short notice and are excited and very happy to welcome Jon onto the team, knowing he is the right man for the job.

So what's happened to Pat you may ask, well Pat had to go into Hospital for an operation, and the medical staff have advised that Pat is not to race the car for the rest of the season after the surgery, and that's where Jon steps in.  We are glad to report that all went well for Pat and she is recovering at home, and thankful of all the cards and get well messages she received whilst in hospital from fellow racers and fans.

Also at Super Series 2 Ray Eldred racing the team Talbot Pro ET Celica ran so close to a 10 second run that he achieved a personal best and a car personal best of 11.01.  On a lighter note I have been misguided by Sharkman, and confirmed by Stephen Talbot, but Talbot racing have the best pit parties and that's a fact!

Pete Moore In The Crap again! ... (sorry Pete)

As you may remember in the previous issue of Quick Times we asked Pete Moore '' can the car handle the power?'  Well Pete wrote back to me answering my original question, the little green Fordson Van after a full workout on Kenny Coleman's dyno produces around 821hp and for a 509ci engine that's serious power.  All the engine bits were brought over from the States and built back at home in Wiltshire, Pete reckons that the car can handle the power just fine but the driver just needs to get a grip on the car.

Well Super Series 2 comes around and the little green Fordson Van bimbles sweetly up to the bleach boxes, does a superb burnout, stages, launches and just keeps on running.  Pete must have thought that due to the cars awesome power he needed a full ½ mile to get up to racing speed, and it was at this point he promptly ran out of track.  Technically Pete's brakes failed and thankfully at the end of the track there is a very large pile of dung.  Well I don't need to describe what happened next, only to let you imagine how the FAST crew arrived at the scene, flashing lights, screeching tyres and several Marshall's running towards the little green van.

Lets just say Pete's van wasn't the only thing in need of a good clean! afterwards.

Well as you are aware the dulcet tones of John Price were not forthcoming over the PA at Super Series 2, unfortunately John was at home recovering from an illness after a recent operation.  Jerry's other commentator Steve Young who is an ex-racer and commentator at Santa Pod Raceway was also ill at the same time.  Well with very little notice Simon from the Tech crew jumped in and helped Jerry out over the weekend, and didn't Simon do well – clearly at ease commentating and talking drag racing.

Anyone who was at the raceway on Saturday should also have noticed that the commentary dried up a bit and then burst into life with the soft Irish tones of me. The reason behind this being a problem with the scoreboards that Wayne and Simon had to go and fix, leaving Jerry all on his own.  The way that Jerry does these things you cant really say no, a bit like Quick Times really, (only joking Jerry!) but as I stood there watching Chris Hannan burnout Jerry made the comment that I could speak if I wanted to.  In Jerry language this meant pick up the mike and give me a bit of a breather, so I thought about it grabbed my notes and had a go.  Well to be honest it was good fun and something totally different, my only concern was what would I talk about.  Well it was easier than I thought as the bikes were in the fire up lane and Funny Bikes were on the start line.  So having previously spoke to Chris Hannan and some of the other bike guys I was semi prepared, but we just waffled and talked about anything that came into our heads as long as it was light hearted and not too boring.  My only draw back was that Jerry is able to add history to the racers due to his long-standing involvement in the sport, something that will take me another few years I imagine.  I would just like to say thank you for Jerry for giving me the opportunity and thanks to the racers for putting up with me, who knows Jerry might ask me back!

The Wild Bunch

I have to give it to these guys they always put on a good show and are a good bunch to have a laugh with.  I was talking to Roy on the Friday night in the pits and he thanked me for the article on his Hemi Hunter dragster.  Roy is one of these people who is so dedicated to this sport, he lives it, eats it and breathes it, and nothing seems to be too much trouble for him.  Briefly talking to Roy and I think this is typical of several people, he was telling me that he has so many projects on the go he finds it hard to get more hours in to the day.  I can sympathise with Roy as presently I've got 3 bikes and an engine in my garage and none of them finished yet.  Also thanks must go to Tony Smith for supplying Jerry with his racer and car information in Welsh - atleast Tony had the decency to provide a Welsh to English dictionary!  Speaking of Tony, with the body off  'The Cunning Plan' he ran his first 11 second pass, now I was well informed but this normally doesn't happen as he always runs slower with the body off.

With Super Series 2 the Wild Bunch fielded a total of 9 cars with most cars getting 2 qualifying runs and 1 practice run on the Saturday.  Notably it was Tony Smith who ran his best time ever with the Mini body on and then followed with his best time with the body removed.  Tony was also the top qualifier with a 12.306 on a 12.300 dial in.  It was also good to see Chevonne back in the 'Rainbow Chaser' (this car is now up for sale, for some lucky person), Angi and Roy had some misfiring problems that were later diagnosed as 'running out of revs' due to having no third gear.  Steve Goode had more teething problems with the nitrous and the set up on 'Wobble', plus a puncture to contend with.  Both Dogs Bollocks drivers broke out and red lit in succeeding round's , in sympathy with each other in qualifying (hoping to be together in the final at one of these events, we think!).

The race day was a lot hotter and saw Tony Smith with a bye in the first round and some very close racing, including Angi Wilding beating Sarah Howells.  Sarah ran her best ET in 'Nutcracker' of 13.760 by virtue of her reaction time, so both ladies good at leaving!

The quarter finals saw Tony Smith narrowly losing to Chris Hartnell's best ET of the weekend 9.439 with a small breakout by Tony.  Ray Ford had a bye and Angi defeated the 'B-Sting' which broke a rear axle pinion bearing.  Angi had the best reaction time of the weekend a .442 that no one else had got close to.

The semi-finals saw Chris with a bye running a slower time after getting the wheels up!  Angi beat Ray Ford who had the smallest breakout of the weekend - just 8 thousandths!

The final saw Angi against Chris, word has it that the pair were seen half an hour before this, mellowing out under Roy's shady awning, 'Bench Racing'.  Chris was also pouring bottles of water down his race suit to keep cool, both Angi and Chris were pretty cool characters prior to racing. Chris changed his dial in from 9.40 to 9.50 for the first time this weekend and ran a 9.596 to angi's 11.992 to take the win.

Chris would like to thank all of his 'crew of thousands' at the weekend, which funnily enough included the whole Dogs Bollocks team, towing and one run Pete Watkins in his orange hot rod also Steve Goode and Lee Hartnell for all his hard work.

Q Position	WB no.	Driver	Car	Times
1	WB 96	Tony Smith	Y Cynllun Cyfrwys	12.194 (body on) 11.933 (body off)
2	WB 46	Colin Aldred	Classy Chaser
3	WB 109	Paul Croston	B-Sting	12.732
4	WB 6	Chris Hartnell	Backdraft
5	WB 100	Angi Wilding	Chariot of Fire
6	WB 56	Ray Ford	Ram Raider
7	WB 15	Chevonne Charman-Osbourne	Rainbow Chaser
8	WB102	Steve Goode	Wobble
9	WB 119	Sarah Howells	Nutcracker	13.760

1st place Chris Hartnell 'Backdraft' 2nd place Angi Wilding 'Chariot of Fire' Semi finalist Ray Ford 'Ram Raider' Semi Finalist Paul Croston 'B-Sting'

No. 1 Qualifier  Tony Smith WB 96 Y Cynllun Cyfrwys    .006 off Best Reaction  Angi Wilding WB 100 Chariot of Fire     .442 Fastest mph  Chris Hartnell WB 6 Backdraft     134.33mph Closest to dial in Tony Smith WB 96 Y Cynllun Cyfrwys    .006 off Best Turned Out Team WB109  B-Sting

Super Series 2 Bike Report by Sharkman/Eurodragster.com

Well there's not much point in me  writing a race report on the bike classes when Sharkman has done such a sterling job.  For someone who doesn't normally report on all of the bike classes, Sharkman has put together an excellent and      informative report.

Anyway, back to Funny bike. A lot of the fun and games here actually went on in qualifying with Chris Hall laying down a 7.37 for the top spot and Chris Hannan looking like he is very close to going very quick on the newly imported from the states GSX. Then there were the Gremlins. First to fall prey to them was Stephen French who's clutch decided it had had enough and wasn't going to play any more when he let it out on his first qualifier. With 3 qualifiers scheduled for Saturday, Stephen elected to sit out the second session to replace the knackered clutch, only to find the final session got cancelled (due to lack of time after earlier downtime) and he was left as did not qualify. Seems a bit weird to me when you have got all run fields and get points just for scrutineering that you can actually DNQ, but then what do I know? Also suffering  mechanical woes were Ken Cooper (engine damage) and Andy Newcombe on the Riceburner bike who produced one of the most spectacular engine blow ups I have seen on a bike. Something obviously gave out just off the startline as an oil slick to about 330 feet proved, but Andy carried on down the track with the momentum of the launch and the engine still running. Just as he got to the start of the finish line speed trap a huge cloud of white smoke emerged from the right hand side of the bike and from 300 feet away I could see several lumps of aluminium the size of golf balls make bids for freedom in various directions, including straight upwards!

All this carnage left only three bikes ready to do battle come race day and all three on byes in round 1. Chris Hall chose to just stage the bike whilst Chris Hannan (7.48) and Paul Knapp (7.63) put in full passes. The semi's saw Hannan on another bye, this time a 7.60 while Hall and Knapp faced off for the other spot in the final. Paul ran another 7.60, this time a .62  which ordinarily I don't think would have been enough but Chris ran a strangely off the pace 7.86 at only 158mph so Paul  took the win and advanced to meet the big man in the final. This time it was Paul's turn to slow to a 7.80 (7.84) whilst in the other lane Chris Hannan took his first win on the new bike with a 7.57

Naturally there is only one way to round off the report, Super Street Bike. Why do I like it so much? Well its good old fashioned racing. Its heads up, there are few restrictions on what you can do to the bike and because there's no poncing about with slicks and wheelie bars the bikes are at best a handful and at worst evil. Wheelies? par for the course. Timing gear? Yep that gets run over once in a while. Performance? how does 170mph+ in 8.5 seconds on a treaded tyre with no wheelie bars grab you? When Super Street Bike comes to the line you just never know what you are going to see next, it might be a storming run, it might be a monster wheelie, it might be   someone exercising dynamic lane choice, you just don't know. Its kind of like what I imagine watching the old fuel altereds used to be like! The fun started early when in the first qualifying session first Dave Bailey and then Karl Larcombe made serious attempts on the half track timing gear, both times the timing crew breathing a big sigh of relief as the gear survived. Then later in the session the performance hits started coming as the three top men (currently) came out to play, Mark Watkins with an 8.60, then Graham Dance with an 8.47 @ 172mph and finally Tony Clark with an 8.57. The second session saw them at it again, Dance staying top with an 8.35 @ only 159mph, Clark stepping up to 8.45 @ 172.41mph and Watkins still in third spot with an 8.56 @ 166mph. With 18 bikes entered I'm going to skip straight to R2, but special mention must go to Matt Nixon in round 1 when he did what was previously thought to be impossible and got wheel spin from one of the new Mickey Thompson tyres. From talking to Matt before hand I know he was running the tyre at higher pressure than everybody else so I guess that's what did it. On then to R2. Not necessarily in the order they went down the track, but it went something like this. Dave Bailey, who had dipped into the 8.70's in open  practice the day before used a 9.04 to put Klaus Brinkmann's 9.25 back on the trailer and set up a round three match up with Graham Dance with the winner getting a bye in the semi's. Dance got there via a bye in round 2 when Pete Bellenie failed to show (Pete had been suffering from vicious  wheelspin all weekend long but on the last pass I saw it sounded like the motor was revving but the tyre wasn't spinning, hopefully that's not clutch trouble). Anyway on the bye Graham fired a shot to wake up the rest of the class with an 8.20 @ 173mph. Its true you know, he rides as fast as he talks!

On the other side of the ladder Tony Clark had a scheduled bye, Brad O'Conner used an 8.83 to shutdown Guy March and Mark Watkins powered to an 8.57 while in the other lane Karl Larcombe saw how quick Mark was going and decided that Marks lane must be better and exercised dynamic lane choice (Crossed the centreline) to try it. That put Mark Watkins on a R3 bye which he used to card a strong 8.45 while Tony Clark faced off with Brad O'Conner and in a move that hurt him in both in the points  standings and the unofficial "Who's the Daddy?"  standings Tony pulled a red light to send Brad into a      semi final against Mark. In the immortal words of Homer J Simpson, DOH! Despite another 8, this time an 8.93 Brad could only watch Mark ride away from him to an 8.60 victory. To find out who he would meet in the final lets jump back to the other side of the ladder where Dave  Bailey had the unenviable task of trying to stop Graham Dance. As it turned out Dave hit problems and slowed to a 9.81 while in the other lane I'm sure I heard a faint cry of "Who's the Daddy now?" as Dance powered past me at the top end to an 8.32 and a semi final bye.  Unfortunately for Graham the semi final bye is where the problems set in as despite running 8.47, the mph was down to 160mph and the bike sounded rather ill as it came past me at the top end. Sure enough that run resulted in some engine damage which saw Graham forced to sit and watch as Mark soloed to the win with an 8.53 @ 168mph. So what about the unofficial "Who's the Daddy?" standings? Well Mark is obviously going well and would be top if it wasn't for the 8.20 173mph pass from Graham, as it is I've got those two level with Tony dropping back slightly after the round 3 red light. Still there's a long way to go yet. Ride them like you Stole them Boys.