Welcome to Santa Pod for the FIA European Finals where Andy Carter has a chance to win the 2008 championship.

Welcome to Santa Pod for the FIA European Finals. The crew and trailer arrived at the track this afternoon. We have had some pretty heavy showers here today but we managed to dodge the rain showers and our pit area is now fully set up. We have lots of guests joining us this weekend including several magazines. We also have legendary American tuner Jim Brissette with us this weekend in an advisory role. Welcome to England Jim, and to your wife Carol, we hope you enjoy the racing here! We will be back in the morning for the first round of qualifying.

Welcome back to Santa Pod. We had some more rain overnight and early this morning. The rain has eased now and we are hoping it will stop soon and the work to dry the track can start. Looking at the forecast there are some breaks in the weather forecast, hopefully they will be long enough to fit in our first qaulifying session.

We have Mike Breslin from Race Car Engineering magazine here this weekend. Mike came to his first drag race at the Main Event earlier this year and it's great to have him back.

Andy says welcome to all of our fans, friends and sponsors who are tuned into our coverage this weekend, the whole team will be giving it 100%.

We have a lot of guests coming this weekend, with people from Starbucks, Volvo, US Automotive, Pioneer Print, RCS Cables, Wavecrest, MSN Cars, Top Gear Magazine, Race Car Engineering, we hope they all have a great weekend. Our team looking after them this weekend is Phil Cottingham, Gary Cottingham, Dave Whiffin, Jan B and Stu Bradbury.

That's it for now, we are hoping to do a short question and answer with Jim Brissette some time this morning, check back a bit later.

Unfortunately the rain has not stopped here at Santa Pod and we are still patiently waiting for it to ease. The morning has been spent talking to the guest and media we have with us today. Mike Breslin from Race Car Engineering has interviewed Crew Chiefs Per and Kartsen and Andy. Look out for a feature on the team in the magazine soon.

Dan Read from BBC Top Gear magazine was treated to a gas mask and a front row seat when we warmed the engine this morning. Dan emerged from the nitro filled awning with a huge grin on his face and simply said "that was frightening!"

Sit tight and we will let you know as soon as the rain stops.

Unfortunately the rain has still not stopped and so racing has been called off for today. Looking at the forecasts a weather window is predicted tomorrow morning hopefully enough time for a qualifying pass.

Tune back in the morning for more news.

Welcome back to Santa Pod. The promised weather window is here and the track crew are busy drying the track. We expect to make our first qualifying pass shortly after 10am this morning. There is a hell of a lot riding on this pass, should we receive more rain later today or tomorrow this one pass could decide the outcome of the championship.

The car was warmed up and we were about to tow down to the startline when a heavy, but short rain shower passed overhead. The rain has now stopped and the track crew are out doing there best to get it in a go position again. Tune back later for more news.

The rain has stayed away, the track is almost dry and there is noise in the nitro pits again! We have just warmed the car and will be towing down very shortly.

We have now had about 30minutes of very light drizzle, its not enough to make the track wet but enough to stop us racing. The Santa Pod track crew are working tirelessly to get the track ready for us, and we can't thank them enough. Hopefully we will be out on the track soon.

Unfortunately just as the track was drying again a massive shower hit and washed out any hopes of getting on the track today. A drivers meeting was called for 6pm where we were told that the forecast for tomorrow is looking better and we will be given a one shot qualifier at 9:30am. See you in the morning!

Well here we are again. The weather is fine and the track is almost dry. Santa Pod suffered yet more bad luck last night when the new medical centre caught on fire. Not much of the medical centre is left but lucky all of the ambulances were saved and racing can continue today. Due to the fire the track crew were not allowed out due to safety concerns so we are a little bit behind the planned schedule. We really can't thank the track crew enough for all of their hard work.

The Lucas Oil dragster has just been warmed up on nitro and we are ready to tow down as soon as we are called.

The rain stayed away just long enough for Risto Poutiainen and Stig Neergard to put in passes, of 18 second and 14 second passes respectively. We then had a shower and the qualifying session didn't start again until 12:30.

We were paired last with Lex. All of the cars before us struggled, Micke Kagered running the best of 6.045. A strong launch from Carter but the car was shaking hard, a pedal, the car was running hard though. In the other lane Lex was running hard to the finish. Carter crossed the line and 4.908 flashed up on the score board... would it be enough? Lex crossed the line, 5.00. Carter into the number one spot!

Andy said " I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported me so far this weekend, the encouragement from everyone at the track has been fantastic. Thank you to the track crew too, you have all done an amazing job!"

That gives Andy a theoretical 1 point lead over Lex in the championship - but the day isn't over yet - anything can happen in drag racing!

Qualifying is now over, we will face Risto Poutiainen in the first round.

Final qualifying standings:

Andy Carter
Lex Joon
Micke Kågered
Tommi Haapanen
Jari Halinen
Urs Erbacher
Stig Neergaard
Risto Poutiainen

Before we ran both Micke Kagered and Lex Joon went through making this a 'must win' to keep the championship dreams alive. Andy was lined up against Risto Poutiainen. Risto got away first but the cars were together at 60ft, then Risto hit tyre shake and shut off. The Lucas Oil dragster was on a charge 4.74 at 317mph. The win for Andy and new personal best speed which will be a new record if it can be backed up.

We face Tommi Haapannen in the semi final. Mike, Lex and Andy are all still in with a chance of winning the championship.

A long wait for Andy in the car whilst the bike classes were running. Andy was up first against Tommi Haapannen. Tommi had problems in the right lane but it wasn't easy for Andy either, the chute came out at half track but Andy kept his foot in the run a 5.0. Carter into the final!

In the other pair Lex beat Micke. So its going to be Carter against Lex Joon in the final – whoever wins that race will be crowned 2008 Top Fuel champion.

It's started raining here at Santa Pod and the event has been rained off. Andy's 4.74 in round one gives us 5 extra points for low ET and the FIA European Championship for 2008. Andy Carter and the Lucas Oil team are Kings Of Europe! The partying has started and will continue long into the night. Check back on the site tomorrow for more updates.

Well what an incredible weekend that turned out to be! After sitting through 3 days of rain and thinking we wouldn’t get to turn a wheel all weekend we finally got a chance to put the game plan into action on Monday. We only managed 3 runs before the rain came down but what a great 3 runs they were… a pedalling 4.90 straight off the trailer to take number one spot, a superb 4.74 in round one to reset low ET and then a 5.0 with the chutes out in the semi final!

Before coming to the event we all knew what we need to do – qualify number one, hold on to low ET and keep going rounds until our championship rivals have all gone out. In a fantastic end to the championship we were drawn a against Lex in a winner takes all final and we were all disappointed when the rain came down to end the event before we got to run the final.

So Andy Carter is FIA European Top Fuel champion for the third time. Crew chiefs Per and Karsten Andersen chalk that up as a stunning fifth title!

Before signing off we must say a huge thank you to everyone at Santa Pod. The track crew worked tirelessly for 4 days before a wheel turned… without there determination to give us a track to race on none of this would have happened.

Your super crew were – Per, Karsten, Henrik, Jes, Markus, Martin, Peter and Richard.

Plans are already under way for the 2009 season… this is just the beginning!