Auto Trader Easter Thunderball, Santa Pod Raceway, England

Words and pictures Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes
Thanks to TSI Timers (Europe) for access to the timing data

The Easter weekend represents the opening race of the UK National Championships, with an invitation Pro Fuel Shootout and the MSA Pro Modified series pitched at bringing the paying punters in through the gates. This year, like far too many recently, the event was heavily impacted by the weather conditions, although mercifully not the complete washout predicted by the meterological bureaus the week before. It never really got close to being warm and with little heat in the track the standout performances suggested that another barrier busting season lies in the months ahead.

The weekend also saw the presence of outright speed royalty on site, as the current and previous Land Speed Record holders Wing Commander Andy Green and Sir Richard Noble dropped by to help promote their new 1,000 mph Bloodhound SSC project. Green was particularly taken with Eric Teboul’s rocket bike on his first visit to Santa Pod, although the rocket catalyst on Bloodhound will be considerably larger, and Noble’s “bloody impressive” comment pretty much sums up the experience of standing on the startline whilst two fuel cars launch.

Pro Fuel Shootout

It wasn’t a weekend to try and get a fuel car to stick to the track, but Tony Pearson managed to tune Janne Ahonen into the final round of the Fuel Dragster v Nitro Funny Car accumulator after four qualifying rounds. A best of 5.271/218.14 was pretty stout given the conditions and Ahonen and final round opponent Gordon Smith were neck and neck before Smith’s ride swapped lanes and took out the finish line timing blocks at the top end of the track. Some consolation then for Janne whose return from retirement to championship level ski jumping over the winter saw him just miss out on the Olympic medal that would have completed his trophy collection.