We head to Santa Pod, England for the FIA Main Event... the 2010 FIA European Top Fuel Championship is here! Follow all the news right below or find us on Faceboook at www.facebook.com/cartermotorsport.

Welcome to Santa Pod for the FIA Main Event. It has been a lovely day in Bedfordshire, England today. The crew have been busy servicing the Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster whilst the hospitality team prepare everything for the arrival of our guests. We will be back tomorrow with news from the first day of qualifying!

Unfortunately it has been a frustrating day for the Lucas Oil / Andersen Racing / Carter Motorsport Top Fuel team... it started raining about 9am this morning, with a break in the weather forcecast the team waited very patiently for the rain to stop. Mid-afternoon, prayers were answered and there was a break in the weather. At 4:30pm we were given a 2 hour warning, the car was warmed and our fans and guests couldn't wait to see us hit the track. But, unfortunately a heavy, but short shower hit at 6pm ending our chances for today. So, a disappointing start to the Main Event, but the good news is the weather forecast for the rest of the weekend looks fairly good. Also, the aim is to run three qualifying session tomorrow... and you can bet the Lucas Oil dragster will be set to go from the very start!

A difficult day for the Lucas Oil / Andersen Racing / Carter Motorsport team. Yesterdays rain was replaced with a strong breeze but also sunshine for most of the day. In Q1 the car launched very hard off the line... but then a pedal from Carter and into shake. The Lucas Oil dragster rolling through to an 8 second pass. The rest of the field also struggled and that 8 second pass was enough to give us number three spot. This afternoon once again through us some challenges... a very disjointed afternoon on the track, lots of stoppages for various reasons, meant we were waiting for a long time, almost 2 hours in the fire up road. So, when the time came to run we were hoping for a strong pass. But a couple of unique problems during the burnout required all of Andy's experience even to get the car to the line... another strong launch but then tire smoke and a big move towards the wall for the Lucas Oil dragster... Andy stuck with it as long as he could but was soon off the throttle slowed to an 8 second pass. It's been a long time since Andy had a ride like that. Some strong passes from Urs, Risto, Micke and Stig, including the first half of a terminal speed record from Urs saw us drop to 7th spot into qualifying ladder and hand us a first round match up against Risto Poutiainen. We have several guests with us from Lucas Oils this weekend. It is the first time to Santa Pod for Tom and Zac Bogner and the first time Les Downey has seen the Lucas Oil Top Fuel team in action. It has been a pleasure having Tom, Zac and Les with us at the track and we hope they are enjoying their top fuel experience.

We really enjoy race day mornings at Santa Pod... we arrive by 7:30am and there is calmness, a stillness about the place which only seems to happen on race day. But this morning something seemed different... the track was as calm and still as usual, everything was ready and in its place as usual but the atmosphere seemed different. Gone was the excitement and anticipation of race day... replaced with a tension that was difficult to pin down. Our two qualifying shots yesterday left us without a clean pass down the track, we were in the number 7 spot and we faced an on form Risto Poutiainen... we have been in this situation before and turned our form around on race day... but could we do it again.

We towed down around 10:30 am under cloudy skys and cool air. We were the second pair, Risto choosing his favoured right hand lane. A strong burnout from the Lucas Oil dragster and both cars quickly back to the line... this was it. Andy was away from the line first a 0.01 light to Risto's 0.08... the dragster launched strong but then started to go into shake, Andy pedalled just as Risto did the same in the other lane. Andy tried to stay with it but the car threw the blower belt leaving Risto to storm through with a fantastic 319mph pass.

Disappointment for the whole Lucas Oil, Andersen Racing, Carter Motorsport team... this wasn't how we expected our first event of 2010 to end. Once again we have experienced the highs and lows of Top Fuel racing... time to pick ourselves up, focus on the next round... and get back to doing what we do best... winning.

It has been a real pleasure having Tom Bogner, Zac Bogner and Les Downey of Lucas Oils with us all weekend. We are really sorry we didn't put on a better show for you guys but you can be confident we will be doing everything possible to rectify that situation as we travel to Finland for round 2.

(Apologies for the lack of updates this weekend, mobile phone signal seemed unusually poor and the number of guests we had kept us very busy. Hopefully you were able to follow the more frequent updates on Facebook.)

Thanks to Lucas Oil and all of our associate sponsors... Landmeco, Impact Race Products, NGK Spark Plugs, Binamic, Pioneer Print, K&N Filters, Yuasa Batteries, BMRS, Sigma Signs, Rainbow Conference Sets, 3T Creative, Norfolkline Ferriers, RCS Cables, Teng Tools, CAAR, Autotel, Jerrys, USA Autodele, AACI, Ultimate Airbrush, ZIP Karts and GPR.