Santa Pod Raceway’s 60th anniversary season got properly under way with The Main Event over the bank holiday weekend, featuring the first round of the FIA/FIM European Drag Racing Championships. For Pro Modified competitors, it was two races in one, the FIA opener combined with round two of the Motorsport UK British Drag Racing Championship.
However, heatwave conditions, with density altitude registering almost 2600 feet, took the edge off the performance figures: 5.818s was the event’s low elapsed time (Marck Harteveld, Netherlands) and 249.59mph the top speed (Jere Rantaniemi, Finland), when 5.70s and over 250mph might have been expected in such company.