FIA/FIM Main Event
FIA European Drag Racing Championships Inc FIM Europe Drag Bikes
Fri 26th to Mon 29th May 2023
The Santa Pod Main Event 2023 didn’t just produce the best post-covid drag race events seen in Europe. In performance terms, it also produced one of the quickest and fastest races seen in Europe to-date. The SPRC track crew worked their magic, as always, and provided an extremely quick and safe racing surface, which most of the classes took advantage of.
Top Fuel Dragster had 6 entries, which given the current climate regarding parts and costs etc,was an amazing achievement.
After some great qualifying sessions, the 3 drivers that were on top were Sussane Callin, Jndia Erbacher and Ida Zetterstrom.
By the end of the meeting, it was Ida who took top honours, resetting both ends of the FIA top fuel record in the semi final against Jndia
Sussane Callin was looking like a good bet, after the car showed huge potential in the lead up to the event.
Sussane ran a new European top speed record of 320mph during the meeting and made it to the final, where unfortunately problems for the Slick Tricks racing team denied us of a potentially classic TF race against overall winner Ida Zetterstrom.
Team Urbacher made a very welcome return to the FIA circuit and hit the ground running.
Tuned by Aaron Brooks and Tony Shortall from the USA, Jndia Urbacher ran a wild and very entertaining 3.92@ 286.86mph in qualifying, but was DQ after taking out the 1000ft blocks. It later emerged that during her last run in qualification on Sunday, she fractured a lower vertebra but still competed on race day
Out of the four cars entered in Nitro funny car, it was Kevin Kent who was in a class of his own all weeekend, running in the low 4.20s & 280Mph and taking the event quite comfortably.
Defending champion Steve Ashdown was back with a stunning new design on a rebuilt car, but despite working their butts off all weekend, couldn’t get rid of the new car blues. Chippy Chapman came back from his incident last year and looked very good on his test passes. Team Hawkins with the Gladiator had some very promising test runs in the lead-up to the event, but was off the pace that weekend
The Pro Mod racing was nothing short of amazing, with nine of the 18 cars entered, all in the 5.8 second zone
Despite some stunning performaces from many of the teams, it was yet again Jan Ericsson who came out on top of the pile. Running a string of 5.7s throughout the competition and ending up with an awesome 5.743 at 250.61 mph, to lift the trophy yet again.
Fan favourite Fast Freddy was back and put on a great show for the crowd all weekend.
Nostalgia funny car had 4 entries, but only 3 of them made it out on track. The Time Warp team worked really hard, but couldn’t solve their problems, so it was left to the other 3 teams to battle for the win. Paul Harris ran a stunning 6.4 in qualifying, but had to shut off early when raw fuel took out his vision and his screen. Rob Elsom came to the rescue with a screen, and with some patching up was able to make the show the next day. Again it was the Tim Garlick and Tony Betts show, but the final was much closer than ever before, and this time Tim took it on a holeshot, running a 6.11/228.18mph to Tony’s quicker 6.085/229mph.
The lovely Evela M Romanowska was on back-up duties for Paul.
Top Fuel Bike was simply mind blowing. Both Neil Midgley and Rikard Gustafsson were on top form all weekend and produced some of the quickest and fastest runs ever seen. Rickard ran a new FIM-E Top Fuel Bike Speed at 260.65 mph, on his way to the final against Neil Midgley, who had run as quick as 5.70 seconds during the event. Both guys tried too hard and both overpowered the track in the final, but it was Neil who got to the stripe first and took the win.
FIA Top Methanol was won by Linn Fløysvik
Sportsman and other images
Smax Smith told Darryl Bradford that he hopes to run a TF car in Europe again one day to the delight of the crowd.
Full Results
FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Ida Zetterström
FIA Top Methanol: Linn Fløysvik
Nitro Funny Car Cup: Kevin Kent
FIA/Motorsport UK Pro Modified: Jan Ericsson
Nostalgia Funny Car: Tim Garlick
Track Worx Comp Eliminator: Nic Williams
FastR Super Comp: Stuart Doignie
Tony Morris Carburetors Super Gas: Pete Creswell
Peter Nee Super Pro ET: Joe Kellett
Modurstang Pro ET: Kirstie Tramm
Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator:Al McSweeney
Lucas Oil Junior Dragster:Luke Mugridge
FIM-E Banks Night Club Top Fuel Bike: Neil Midgley
FIM-E Super Twin Bike: Marcus Christiansen
FIM-E Pro Stock Bike: Bertrand Maurice
FIM-E Taylors Trophy Super Street Bike: Alan Morrison Jnr
FIM-E Eurodragster.com Junior Drag Bike Cup: Richard Willcox
