Talking with the Organizers
Trakbak
Racing operate Santa Pod Raceway, the permanent drag strip, which
during many years have constituted the heart of European Drag Racing.
For 2012 like "usual" Santa Pod host two European Championship events
for the FIA Car and UEM Bike classes, the season opening Main Event
June 1-4th and later the European Finals September 6-8th. We
asked Caroline Day, marketing manager at Santa Pod Raceway to bring us an
update of what has beengoing on during the pre-championship season and looking ahead towards
Main Event!
- It might be approaching June but the journey towards Summer has seemed more like a journey towards Autumn!
After a positive start at Santa Pod’s season opener “The Fast Show” we were all hopeful of a warm and sunny Spring but the weather played its usual games and has since produced one of the wettest Aprils on record! It may have dampened the ground and caused chaos with Santa Pod’s early calendar but it hasn’t dampened our spirits in the run up to the first round of the FIA/UEM European Drag Racing Championships. The traditional Spring Bank Holiday is later this year to accommodate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and with it an extra days holiday for the UK workforce. Perhaps this will be welcomed if it brings a change in the difficult conditions that Santa Pod has had to endure over the last 6 weeks. The normal intensification of site works has been somewhat thwarted by the sheer amount of rain we’ve experienced but it has eased in recent days and we are full steam ahead to make the normal preparations for such a large and important event. Santa Pod was proud to unveil its new “Garage” aftermarket shop in the main race paddock earlier in the season – a long overdue addition the services offered to Santa Pod visitors and race teams. We’ll be stocking a wide range of products from well-known sponsors and partners of the raceway such as Draper Tools, Lucas Oil, Nimbus Motorsport and Karcher. Be sure to check it out over the weekend. A new toilet block behind scrutineering had also been added to the venue to provide greater “convenience!” to those near the far end of the race paddock and family camping. We also hope to have completed the new safety “catch fencing” between the race track and the race paddock. |
Caroline (left) with collegues Kelly and Darren Back in the office, we launched our new streamlined E-ticketing website over the winter period offering “Print at Home” tickets and a great new interactive Grandstand booking facility. Modernising our systems with such new technology is not without its problems particularly in such a rural location but our goals are to improve every stage of any visit to Santa Pod – if only we could control the weather too! Looking forward to the FIA event, it is hoped that we can mark the 2012 Jubilee occasion with something as spectacular as that of 10 years ago – to the day! Many will remember the epic moment in 2002 (Queen’s Golden Jubilee) when Barry Sheavills and Andy Carter made history with Europe’s first side by side 4 seconds runs both at over 300mph. Since Andy Carter has now retired from the sport we look forward to seeing Barry Sheavills over the weekend signing autographs to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this significant achievement. Whilst we can never guarantee setting new records, we would hope that with 9 Top Fuel Dragsters and 4 Fuel Funny Cars currently entered, we certainly stand a chance of witnessing more fine moments at this level. A welcome addition to the “Main Event” race timetable is the newly scheduled Pro Test session for all pro classes on Friday evening. All pro classes are welcome and this should make for an interesting feature of the first days’ action. Finally, a quick reminder to all racers to order their VP racing fuel for delivery directly to their pit area for the event. Racers can buy right up to the event either online via the Santa Pod shop www.santapodshop.com or by phone +44 (0)1234 782828. The updated entry list for Main Event is provided by Santa Pod Racers Club and via Eurodragster.com - check it out under a separate headline in this newsletter! |
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Text: Caroline Day Photos: Julian Hunt, Åsa Kinnemar and Stefan Boman This article is part of the Speedgroup Club Europe Newsletter #4/2012 www.speedgroup.eu Published by Speedgroup www.speedgroup.eu All material, text, images and logtypes are the property of Speedgroup AB. Used by permission © Speedgroup 2012 |