Let me tell you how cold it was at the Festival of Power. It was so cold that Simon almost swore.  I had it relatively easy because, although our office was unheated, I was at least out of the relentless biting wind. Kirstie and Julian, photographing at trackside, and Simon, out in the pits, really copped it. Every so often the office door would open, there would be a blast of freezing air, and in would edge a babushka doll clutching a coffee.

I eventually worked out that this was actually Kirstie in about eighteen layers of clothing. All you could see of Kirstie was a pair of eyes peering widely through a balaclava which made her look as if she was hiding in a mailbox. Julian wimped out of wearing his usual jaunty shorts but he was sporting a hat which he was wearing either to win a bet or because he had lost one. Simon had a number of layers on but his use of gloves, on one hand at least, was severely curtailed by the need to write in his notebook. Kirstie, Simon and Julian never deserted their posts and never let the conditions affect their photography and pit notes, so a big Thank You to them.

My very minor contribution to the collective bravery of the team was to spend the Saturday evening in a caravan which had no power and which had ice on the insides of the windows. My good buddy Darren Prentice of Santa Pod Raceway owns the caravan but he generously gives me its use at race events. As usual Darren had kindly ensured that the caravan was wired up at the start of the event, but by the time I got there the power had gone south. I texted one of my chums further down the pits “I have no power here” and received the reply “I have power, goodnight”. Darren’s caravan it had to be, then. With no light and no heat it was an unforgettable night spent in a sleeping bag underneath another sleeping bag with a duvet on top of that. This was, I must admit, quite snug until the sleeping bag and duvet slid off at about four in the morning. The power cable was sorted during the next day so on Sunday evening I could see what I was doing and I was nice and toasty doing it.

However bad we had it, you had to feel for the gentlemen of Duncan Micallef’s Top Fuel Dragster team who had flown in from sunny Malta. Malta Drag Racing Association Secretary Jason Camilleri, whom I finally had the pleasure of meeting at Easter after years of swapping E-Mails, told me that a lot of Duncan's guys had never seen snow in their lives and that none of them had ever been so cold.

The recent snow was still in evidence at the Festival of Power

On the other hand, for licencing Top Methanol Dragster racer Birgitte Bremnes and the rest of the Islanders team it probably felt like Spring had arrived.

Anyone could be forgiven for thinking that the conditions made for a miserable weekend but actually the mood of the Eurodragster.com team was cheerful. After a long off-season it was great to be in each other's company again and it was great to be back at the track, and judging by the feedback that pleasure shone through in our Alamo Rent-A-Car event coverage which a number of correspondents described as our best ever. Thanks to those who wrote, and thanks to everyone who tuned in… but no thanks at all to our entire readership for missing what I thought was a very clever April Fool in the race report on the Monday. It is however a comforting thought that one's words carry such authority even when one is talking crap.
At time of writing we are about to cover a long string of races live on Eurodragster.com. Our next event is Big Bang at Santa Pod Raceway, a Volkswagen event which includes rounds of the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club, UK National, Outlaw Anglia and Jap Drag Series Championships. I have said before in this Diary that for atmosphere VW events are hard to beat: it's in the Conditions of Entry that you have a good time, although at VW events it is uncomfortably obvious that Your Reporter is old enough to be the father of everyone else on site. Big Bang is followed by the Springspeed Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway, another round of the UK National Drag Racing Championships, then the pre-FIA Main Event test weekend, then the FIA Main Event, then the Sweden Internationals at Tierp Arena, then the SPRC Summernationals back at Santa Pod Raceway, then… well, you get the idea.

If you're at any of these events then please say Hello, if not then tune in to Eurodragster.com and we'll bring you all the news.