Welcome to the Main Event at Santa Pod Raceway for the start of the 2008 FIA European Drag Racing Championship.

Welcome to Santa Pod Raceway, England where the Lucas Oil Top Fuel team are preparing for the 2008 FIA Main Event. The first round of the year is always one of our favourites, we love racing at Santa Pod and May is the perfect time of the year to kick off the season.

With such tough competition in the Top Fuel ranks this year every round of every race becomes crucial to the success of the season. To give us the best chance of making a flying start to the season we have kicked off our Main Event weekend early and will be running at the test session today. The plan is to make 2 passes today to get the car setup and ready for qualifying which starts on Saturday.

The dragster arrive at the track on Wednesday lunchtime and yesterday afternoon was spent preparing the pit area for the weekend.

If you are coming to the track this weekend then please do drop by the Lucas Oil pit, grab a hero card, visit our merchandise stand and say hello to the team. If you can't make it then please tune in throughout the weekend for updates direct from the Lucas Oil pit - only at www.andycarter.net.

The dragster has just been warmed up and we will be making our first pass soon. Tune back later for an update.

We made our first test pass at around 1:30pm today. It's a warm and sunny day at Santa Pod, there's a bit of broken cloud around and a bit of wind is just keeping the edge off the temperatures.

A strong burnout from Carter in the Lucas Oil dragster... the car sounded really strong, a very low rumbling.

At the hit the wheels front wheels came up but the car only moved a few inches before the tyres went up in smoke. Andy was off the throttle straight away and idled down the track. A far from ideal start but that's what testing is all about. The crew are currently servicing the car, we will be back later for another pass.

Welcome back to Santa Pod, it has been an afternoon of difficult decisions for the Lucas Oil team. There's nothing we enjoy more than running the car down the track however after watching the passes being made by other teams this afternoon and after a pass down the track with our Shark traction tester we decided not to run again today. We feel that on Saturday the track will be totally different to how it is today and so we would not gather any useful data by making another pass.

Thanks for tuning in today, if you are coming along to the track please come by and say hello. If not then be sure to tune in on Saturday for more live updates.

Welcome back to Santa Pod for the first day of qualifying. The car is all set-up and ready to rock! We are just about to tow down... tune back soon to find out ow Q1 goes.

The first session of Top Fuel qualifying kicked off at 11:40. Its quite windy here at Santa Pod, we keep getting small bursts of sunshine but there is a lot of cloud around. Andy was in the third pair, running alongside Micke Kagered. Jari Halinen ran well in the first pair – a strong launching 5.18.

Andy pulled a long burnout before coming to the line. A slightly softer launch than at Easter, 0.84 to 60ft, the car was on the very verge of shake, a great driving job from Andy – a very fast pedal and the car was off. Across the line – 4.891 seconds 292mph!

The pass couldn't be bettered – Lex, Urs and Micke all struggled so Andy Carter and the Lucas Oil team take the number one spot.

Back in the pits the team were all very pleased with the pass. Crew Chief Per Andersen complimented Andy on his driving, “Another fantastic driving job from Andy, he really had to drive on that one, great job!” - Andy said “The car was vibrating really strongly all the way down the track. I was struggling to see where I was going!”

Qualifier 2 is scheduled for around 3pm, tune back later for more news from the pits.

We have just got back to the pits after qualifying session number two. Before we ran Urs Erbacher improved to run a 4.894 and Stig Neergard ran a 4.893. With the field stepping up we knew this had to be a good one. Another hard launch from Carter, signs of shake again and the car started moving towards the wall at half track. Andy stayed with it through to the finish – 4.815 at 305mph! A great pass and it means we hang on to number one spot.

Andy said “That felt really good, I wasn't lifting this time and I drove all the way through the shake”.

The current positions after qualifying session number two are:

1. Andy Carter 4.8152
2. Stig Neergard 4.8935
3. Urs Erbacher 4.8948
4. Micke Kågered 5.0174
5. Jari Halinen 5.1292
6. Torstein Risdal 5.4911
7. Lex Joon 6.0788
8. Håkan Fällström 15.4793

A disappointing start to the day for the Lucas Oil team, after a fine and sunny evening last night we woke up to heavy rain this morning. It has eased slightly now but the rain is still falling. The forecast is for the rain to continue all day but we all have our fingers crossed that the weather men have it wrong.

This morning we have been entertaining journalists from a popular motoring website. Andy Carter gave them a tour of the cockpit of the Lucas Oil dragster and the crew talked to them about what it takes to run 300mph, 8000bhp car.

The rain is continuing to fall at Santa Pod and the racing has been called off for today. The weather forecast for tomorrow is a lot more promising and we are looking forward to starting eliminations early tomorrow.

Welcome back to Santa Pod for race day of the Main Event. Its very windy here but its not raining and although cloudy it is looking increasingly brighter. We are about to warm the car up and then will tow down for round one at about 9:15.

Apologies for the delay to this update, the weather interrupted our internet connection.

We had towed down for round one, Andy was strapped in the car in the pairing lanes and the first pair of cars were pulling into pre stage when it started to rain. Both cars were shut down and we all towed back to the pits. A couple of times the rain eased but the respite was only temporary. With the rain still falling at 14:30 race director Darren Prentice took the tough decision to cancel the meeting.

During Friday's team meeting we all agreed there was only one aim this weekend - to leave Santa Pod leading the FIA European Top Fuel Championship. Mission accomplished! Andy Carter leaves Santa Pod with the points lead in the FIA European Top Fuel Championship based on qualifying  points and extra points for low ET. Two good runs on Saturday threw the gauntlet down to the rest of the top fuel field, we are all disappointed we couldn't follow up those promising runs by going rounds, however, rest assured the Lucas Oil Team will be back and as hungry as ever for victory at round two in Finland.

Thank you for tuning in this weekend, we hope you have enjoyed the coverage. We would also like to thank our associate sponsors: Landmeco, NGK Spark Plugs, Binamic, Pioneer Print, Crane Cams, K&N Filters, Yuasa Batteries, BMRS, Sigma Signs, Rainbow Conference Sets, 3T Creative, Norfolkline Ferriers, RCS Cables, Teng Tools, CAAR, Autotel, Jerrys, USA Autodele and AACI.