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After the success of the inaugural ‘Doorslammers’ event in 2018, the 2019 running of the meeting was always going to be a bigger and better affair.The total prize money had been upped to a whopping £80,000, making it the largest prize money ever paid out for this type of event in the UK.
The Doorslammers has six heads-up classes along with one huge Bracket class. Total entries across all the classes topped 200 this year.
Because of the amount of entries, Fridays usual ‘test’ day’ was changed to an open qualifying session. This allowed many racers to get a time down and start to dial in their cars for the meeting
Adding extra spice to the quickest class that was sponsored by VP Racing Fuels were 9 fantastic Top Doorslammers cars from Europe. Having never travelled to Sweden despite my long-time desire to do so I was over the moon to see these cars at the Pod. Nobody who attended the 2018 running of the event will forget Mattias Wulcan in the mean Blackbird entry and those crazy quick time. In Sweden, the class is part of the European Drag Race Series and is run at 6 events throughout the year but only run on the 1/8th mile. To make the very long trip worthwhile they were invited by Santa Pod to run a class exhibition race at the FIA Main Event the following weekend.
Mattias Wulcan had some very fast classmates with him this time way but still came out 2019 VP Racing Fuels Pro Doorslammer champion
Caroline Strand and team worked so hard all weekend but were unable to repair before her round two matchup with Freddy Fagerström
Saturday morning the weather forecasters predicted that because of the lack of wind if you have rain in your area you will have it all day. Sadly, this was the case and a cloud of rain just annoyingly sat over us and never moved away from the venue most of the day. The track crew never gave up though and with a herculean effort and finally, a break in the weather the track was finally was open at 18.30 pm. The very patient and loyal British Drag Racing fans showed their aprication with a huge cheer when the first cars came out to race, albeit the less powerful classes. Qualifying went on until we hit the curfew at 9 pm.
Sunday the weather again tried it’s hardest to spoil the event but Santa Pod CEO Keith Bartlett announced in the morning that he would keep the track open again until 9pm again on Sunday night to try and get the meeting completed, and that’s exactly what happened.
Chris Todd was up up and away.
Kev Jenkins pretty MK1 took the Webster Race Engineering sponsored 4 Cylinder class with an 8.766/150.67 mph
Richie Webb providing some flashes to go with teh bangs.
Swedens Michael Nord made it all the way to the finals in his Ford Mustang
Because of the time lost on Saturday, Santa Pod announced the 45 car strong OCS ‘Big Bracket’ class wouldn’t run that day but would race on Sunday for double the prize money.
Class sponsor Nic Williams who pocketed no less than £10,000 for his win in the Williams Brothers Chevelle.
Swedens Andreas Sjödin “Way Fast Chevy” 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle was a popular entry
Jurgen Vallons Lamborghini Huracan ran in True Street
The Eibach Front Wheel Drive class had the biggest number of entries at a massive 60. In the second round of eliminations Wendall Brand in his Green Honda Civic ran the quickest FWD pass in Europe
It was Nicolas Hackiere in his 1600cc powered Citroen AX that took the honours and the money.
The quickest race class, Pro Doorslammer, was a hard fought affair with some of the best pro mods in Europe taking part. The final was between the Swedish Top doorslammers cars from Sweden of Mattias Wulcan and Michael Nord. Wulcan, who was the cream of the crop all weekend running as quick as 5.6 seconds in his 69 Chevrolet Camaro took the win and the £10,000.
Caroline Strand and team had all sorts of problems at the event so they sacrificed all sightseeing trips in the UK the following week to run at the Main Event. This paid off with a win in the invitational Top Doorslammer class.
I don’t think that many people didn’t love Charlie Ostedt Volvo Amazon “Amazing Delivery” wagon
Santa Pod are busy collecting cars for the new museum
Gary Gooding took the 6 Cylinder class title in the team extreme Toyota Supra
Andy Bond won Turbo Technics Pro Street
The Doorslammers is a great meeting and having that different format plus the huge prize money gives it a special feel compared to other meetings.
A special mention must be given to the SPRC track crews, race officials and marshals who never gave despite the weather, on-track incidents and other obstacles that they accounted and managed to overcome all weekend.
Full Results
VP Racing Fuels Pro Doorslammer: Mattias Wulcan 7.0446/116.43 bye, Michael Nord shut off
Turbo Technics Pro Street: Andy Bond 7.6622/202.57 def. Joe Stevens 8.0472/175.75
True Street: Mark Biggers 9.0994/157.97 def. Mark Carr 10.4938/146.17
OCS Group Big Bracket: Nic Williams (9.77) 9.7876/133.22 def. Lee Huxley (9.63) 9.6609/132.93
6 Cylinder: Gary Gooding 7.8962/169.81 bye, Mark Moseley shut off
Webster Race Engineering 4 Cylinder: Kev Jenkins 8.7667/150.67 def. Darren Scannell 11.5501/102.89
Eibach Front Wheel Drive: Nicolas Hackiere 10.3620/139.82 def. Calvin Skerritt 10.3422/136.52
Gallery Extra
