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What a fantastic start to the 2011 season. April and 85 degrees and sunshine all weekend.

Eight rounds of qualifying, and first bite at the number one spot was Steve Hudson in the Intrevenous Altered, with a 9.7135 on a 9.71 dial in. He held this for a few rounds until in round 6 Mike Lacey grabbed it with a 9.5531 only to be deposed 30 seconds later by Lee Huxley in his Dark Horse Mustang with a 9.9303 on a 9.93 dial in. To top off the run Lee pulled a .002 light. Wow, what a run. Nigel green popped into second place and Paul Marston into fourth, moving the once pole man Steve into fifth.

So the No.1 trophies this year are glass tankards beautifully engraved by MissB Engraving, a cheque for £100, a fantastic Pro ET T-shirt designed by our very own Tat-Fink (a.k.a. Diamond Geezer Carl Burton) and printed by class sponsor Toxico Clothing, and two cans of Power Pour from sponsor John Webster of Webster Race Engineering.

Well done to Lee for achieving his first No. 1 qualifier.

Also this weekend a few people came out with new cars:

Nick Williams with a bright orange, 1964 Falcon which he finished painting (well almost!) in the early hours of Thursday.

Keith Herbert's 64 Fury has the same body but that was about it. New engine, trans, chassis, suspension, wheelie bars to name but a few. Both Nick and Keith spending half the weekend still putting their cars together and a mighty effort by both of them to even get there.

Deborah Laugher with a Plymouth Arrow with painted art work by Andy Stroud of Hairy Designs. (Becoming a bit of a regular in Pro ET it seems).

A new guy by the name of Simon Gough in a 55 Bel Air (The old "Money Box" some of you may remember) showed enthusiasm and a willingness to join in. Looks like another regular with us. We welcome Simon and crew.

Last but not least, two people are already trying hard for the wheelie trophy this year. First Carla Pittau with a number of huge wheelies under perfect control up to 150 foot down the track. What a wonderful sight to see. And Dan Williams, brother of Nick, tried hard to match Carla, but unfortunately went a little to far putting his Nova on the back bumper and coming down quite hard. He said, not to much damage though. Flat headers and a few bent brackets, so no problem for the Main Event.

Final round had two new showing with Bob Molden and yours truly, Mike Lacey. One of us was going to walk away with a first time win. After a string of 9.90 dial ins and 9.90 runs, Bob did the same again. A 9.90 dial in and ran a 9.90. Unfortunately on this run I was a bit better on the light with an 0.02 reaction and managed to beat Bob to the line, to take the win.

Both Bob and I said, it was the best weekend we had had in our racing lives, and we both went home extremely happy.

Thank you to our great sponsors :

Toxico, Penn Auto's, L A Racing , E.D.A. , Power Engineering , Power Pour (WRE) , Norbar , D S Racewear , Avonside Engineering., Modurstang.co.uk , Drag Race Engineering (Gary Springford) , Grand Prix Racewear (GPR) , Sick Boyz , Topspeed , LohrSpeed (Dusty Laugher) , Real Steel. , wolfysworkshop.co.uk, VP fuels.

Thanks to Mike for the report.