Round 1 of the 2010 Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator championship saw a superb turnout of no less than 16 entries including 3 new cars and four new drivers braving the wind, rain and bitter cold that marked this year’s Thunderball.

Due to weather and on-track incidents qualifying was limited to three sessions. Top was multi-championship winning Steve Pateman on 7.97 followed by Jeff Meads with a close to PB, 8.33. Third was 2009 champion Colin Lazenby followed by Jon “Moose” Hollingworth and Ian Hook in fifth. Hook had been plagued with handling problems, the ’34 being up on two wheels more than once (the wrong two wheels). Unfortunately rookie Kaz Aston hadn’t been able to breach the 13.50 cut-off in her turbocharged F150 whilst fellow newbie Richard Billings, campaigning the newly-acquired ex-Jackson twin-turbo Vette, had tapped the wall in the final session and was also out (although he had qualified). Kaz is using her racing exploits to raise awareness of Multiple Sclerosis – take a look at her website www.kazaston.com

The cruise saw the elimination of the third newbie, Brian Payne. Payne’s 2000 Ford Mustang is a thing of beauty. Its twin-turbo small block Ford power coupled with light weight and very slippery aerodynamics promise great things to come but the heat generated on the road test led to a vapour lock sidelining this beautiful car for this round. There were no other cruise victims so 13 cars would battle it out in eliminations.

Monday morning’s first round saw Pateman, Meads and Lazenby on byes. The hot rods of Dave Murdoch and the remaining rookie, Andy Hadfield, provided a close race, the blown SBC in Hadfields Fad T producing a 9.04 winning time. It was Cortina vs Cortina as Jon Hollingworth (9.04) took out the freshly painted Ford of Ron Haslett who ran a trans-busting 11.09. Classic Chevy vs Ford action followed as Alex McIntosh (Mustang) produced a PB 8.83 to overcome the holeshot strapped on him by Ray Comer (Camaro). The battle of the Pontiacs was won by Paul Houston putting Mark Todd back on the trailer to Manchester. The final pair was Ian Hook and title-sponsor Topspeed Automotive proprietor Bill MacDermid, Hook taking the win with a very loose 8.54.

Round two provided a couple of upsets as both number 1 and 2 qualifiers were knocked out. Meads lazy .3 light allowed McIntosh to get a holeshot of his own and win with a 9.24 over Meads’ 9.16 – a very close race. Number one qualifier Pateman suffered a nitrous “burp” off the line putting Hadfield through to the semis at his first meeting! Lazenby and Hook progressed at the cost of Houston and Hollingworth respectively.

In the semis Hook faced Hadfield and both hot rods lit up the tyres on the start, Hook winning the pedal fest to progress to the final. McIntosh, who’d won the 2009 Finals, met reigning champ Lazenby. McIntosh’s Mustang had traction issues as it gripped and spun its way down the track alternately hiking the nose then spinning the tyres. Lazenby had got out first and took the win with an 8.65 (and 176 mph!) from the big Chevy.

It was 7:30 by the time Hook and Lazenby faced off for the final. With tyres warmed and nitrous purged the black Ford and two-tone Chevy pulled into stage. Lazenby was first to move but went too soon leaving a cherry on the tree whilst Hook pulled an .03 light then ran straight and true to record an 8.26, his quickest ET of the weekend, to take the win in style.

Click here for the points after Round 1