For round 4 of this year’s Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator championship the class returned to Santa Pod and the Summer Nationals, a two day event held on the 19^th and 20^th June.

A healthy field of 10 cars was made all the better with the debut of two new racers. Alan Williamson has long been a fan of the class and his heavyweight Pro-Charged BBC-powered truck makes a superb addition to the ranks. The already varied roster of SE cars received a boost with the first all-Japanese car to compete in the class, Stuart William’s back-halved Toyota Supra. This is William’s first year in competition but he already has two excellent results under his belt with a runner-up in the HKS Factory Modified class and a victory in the second round of the Pro Street drag series at Shakespeare County.

Despite it being mid-June the weather was cold and the skies grey (although it remained dry) and this probably accounted for a track that was difficult to master. Inconsistency was the order of the day during qualifying but after the three Saturday sessions it was Steve Pateman who once again topped the table with an 8.14. Behind him was Brian Pateman (8.30) whose sleek Mustang is already showing great promise in this, the car’s (and Brian’s) debut season. Championship leader, Ian Hook, could only manage third place in the FB Racing ’34 Ford. Congratulations go to Ron Haslett who joined the SE 8-second club with a superb 8.90 NPB in his BBF-motivated Cortina Estate

There were a couple of surprise exits in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. Firstly Pateman (who had seriously narrowed the points gap between himself and Hook virtue of his qualifying bonus) was stopped from running due to an oil leak from the 706-powered Calibra, then Richard Billings was pushed back after a fire underneath the twin-turbo Vette (both driver & car OK). This gave Williams and Paul Houston byes into round 2, the latter with a NPB 8.66! Haslett improved again to an 8.88 over the 9.28 for the Mustang of Alex MacIntosh but the ET was wasted as he left a cherry on the tree – and worst was to come as a subsequent teardown revealed damaged pistons, cylinder heads and bores due to a blockage in the nitrous fuel system. He hopes to be back out this year but will almost certainly miss the next round (Bug Jam). Hook progressed after victory over Dave Murdoch (’33 Wllys).

Round 2 was a lot less eventful with victories for Hook over Houston, Payne over McIntosh and a bye for rookie Williams. And it was Payne’s turn for a bye in the semi-finals courtesy of his number 2 qualifying position and he used the opportunity to try some more power – the result was a tyre frying 9.43 to progress. Hook meanwhile lined his traditional hot rod with V8 combo up against the back-halved twin-turbo “ricer” of Williams and then treated the newcomer to a rear view of the old Ford with a big holeshot and an 8.69 to 10.29 victory.

And there was another stark contrast for the final with the Ford badge and the colour black being the only real similarities between the sleek, twin-turbo small-block Mustang of Payne and Hook’s big-block powered ’34 sporting all the aerodynamic subtleties of a wardrobe. Big burnouts preceded the slow creep into stage and, at the green, it was Hook out first with his fourth zero light of the afternoon. The Mustang struggled for traction from the start whilst the championship leader pedalled for all he was worth in an attempt to keep the ‘34 planted and it was working as he stretched the lead to half a second by the 1/8 mile mark. A voltage issue caused the hot rod’s nitrous system to shut down (but left in the retards!) and Payne started to close the gap – but the damage had been done in the first half and Hook took the win 8.72 to 9.01.

That gives Hook 3 wins in 4 meetings, and all against the odds as his highest qualifying position has been 3^rd. But Steve Pateman has been chasing him all the way and the five time SE champion ain’t going to go away! Battle will be re-joined at the Bug Jam for round 5 on July 23^rd-25^th.

Click here for the points after Round 4