After a long winter break the Lucas Oil dragster of Andy Carter is ready to do battle! Join us in the pits at the Peak Performance / Main Event test weekend for all the latest from the Carter Motorsport / Andersen Racing team.

Welcome the first ever live update for AndyCarter.net. You join us in the pits at Santa Pod Raceway, England for the Peak Performance Test Day. It’s a blustery day at the track, there is strong head wind but the sun is out and it is slowly warming up.

The crew and dragster arrived at the track on Thursday to prepare the car and pit area. It’s not easy preparing a Top Fuel pit for a race meeting - there’s the awning to erect, flooring to lay, all of the work benches need to be prepared and air, oil and power lines need to be connected. Once all that is out of the way the dragster can be unloaded and prepared for its first run.

Back to today and the dragster has just been warmed up in the pits and sounds ferocious after its winter rest. Tune in later to hear how the first run of the 2007 season goes.

The first pass of the day and a nice smoky burnout from Andy. The car launched really hard and the wheels came up, the tires unloaded around 60ft and Andy was very quickly off the throttle. The car ran a 0.83 second 60 foot time and then coasted to the finish line. Andy said “The car felt really comfortable, I’m pleased with the way it drove.”

The crew are currently servicing the car ready for its second pass of the day.

We were one of the last teams to run before the 5:30pm curfew. The car sounded strong again on the line and the front wheels lifted at the hit of the throttle but before the rear wheels had completed a full revolution the tires grew, narrowed and went up in smoke, Andy was quickly off the throttle and the car bounced slightly off the ground. The revs went relatively high when the tires went up in smoke so the crew are currently servicing the engine and checking for any damage. The plan is to make another two passes tomorrow. Despite the runs today not being quite what we were hoping for spirits in the pit are high – this is what test weekends are all about!

Welcome to Santa Pod for the second day of our Pre Main Event test weekend. It’s a warm and sunny day and the strong breeze has dropped since yesterday. The crew serviced the car last night and no damage was found from yesterday’s pass.

Andy pulled a long smoky burnout and then came to the line – wheels up again and another 0.83 second 60ft time. The car went into tire shake and Andy was off the throttle early.

Phil Cottingham works for Carter Motorsport / Andersen Racing Hospitality Team, he gave us his thoughts on the weekend so far, “Going into this weekend everyone was a little apprehensive, what with a new car and team members from four countries: England, Holland, Sweden and Denmark. But I’m very pleased to say everything is working well and the team has gelled together remarkably quickly – everyone has high hopes of doing well next weekend and the rest of the season”.

Andy Carter has just come back in to get changed and I’ve managed to pin him down for a quick chat. Andy said “For the first time in 2 years I’m enjoying being at the track again, it’s almost a fresh start, new primary sponsor, new car, new team, new truck and trailer, even a new golf kart! It’s very early days but the atmosphere in the camp is fantastic, everyone is working together really well and everyone is hungry for the Championship. I would like to say thanks all those that are tuning in to our ‘live updates’ - look forward to seeing you at the Main Event. Thanks also to my wife Sarah, Forrest Lucas and Les Downey of Lucas Oil, all our associate sponsors, most who have supported me through thick and thin, and the team around me who make me look good, it really is appreciated, bring on next weekend!”

The temperature has risen rapidly during the day – its turning into quiet a warm afternoon. Andy was first to pull round following the sledding and gluing of the track. Another good burnout but again problems away from the line… the tires lit almost as soon as they turned. Back to the drawing board… we are planning on making one more run today.

Our fifth and final pass of what has been a somewhat difficult test weekend. A good launch with a slower but still respectable 60ft time of 0.8459 seconds, the car hit shake again, Andy stayed with it for a while and then was off the throttle. No smoke from the tires this time and everyone was pretty pleased with the pass.

After the run we spoke to co-crew chief Karsten Andersen, “What can I say; we are very glad we came testing! We have been fighting clutch problems all weekend and we are also using a new type of tyre, however we now know what we need to do and are very confident for next weekend. Andy has been much better than I expected – his burnouts, backing up and reaction times have been great and he is really, really fast off the throttle if something is going wrong. The guys are all working well together and with a few more clutch adjustments we will be there.”

Thanks for tuning into the updates this weekend and thanks to Lucas Oils and all of our associate sponsors for making them possible. Thanks to the Santa Pod crew for all of their hard work and extra effort to help us fit in as many runs as possible. Tune back on Saturday for more updates from the Carter Motorpsort / Andersen Racing pit at the FIA Main Event.