National Finals 2008 - Santa Pod Raceway

After the terrible weather drag racing in the UK has endured this year it was wonderful to see the sun shining down on Santa Pod and the fans turning out in their thousands for the National Finals. it was even better to see so many Barry Sheavills T-shirts in the crowd, we don't think we've seen so many in a long time, so to all of you and everyone who came to say hello over the weekend we say a huge thank-you for your support.

Barry discussed strategy for the weekend with crew-chief Eddie Corr early on Saturday morning. The first run was going to be a "familiarisation pass" at the request of the race director so would be a solo run and would be clicked off at the 1/8th mile mark. This fitted nicely with Barry and Eddie's plan to gradually build up on the tune-up over the weekend rather than "hit it with a big stick". As it turned out Barry's half pass in the first round still placed him number 3 at that point.

The crew readied the car for the second round and as darkness fell on Santa Pod we were paired against Gary Page in the Mongoose Performance Exhausts/Pennzoil Funny Car. Gary would get a 0.4 head start on the tree so Barry would be chasing him down. Barry left the line hard, with the quickest 60ft of his career, overhauled the Funny Car and was on a strong pass until the blower belt came off just before half track. Coasting through at the finish with a 5.897, still enough to move Barry up to second place in the shootout, only 0.2 seconds behind Risto Poutiainen, leaving us in a great position for sunday.

The first session on sunday was to be the decider as to who would run for the Final and the 3rd/4th and 5th/6th place run-off at the end of the day. We were paired with current leader Risto and we knew this had the makings of a great race. Risto was quick on the tree, but Barry was right behind him, driving through a little bit of tyreshake at 200ft. Both drivers were off the pedal slightly early as both motors dropped cylinders and began to move around in the latter half of the track. Risto took the stripe with a 5.036 to barry's 5.118. An awesome race and enough to put both Risto and Barry in the final later in the day.

On returning to the pit, everything was going to plan for a routine service until the bottom end was closely inspected. The motor had spun a main bearing, blackening the crank and also damaging the engine block. We discussed options and spares with Eddie Corr and car owner Rune Fjeld, but in all honesty there weren't any options. We had made the final but sadly we were out due to a mechanical failure! At the time it was a huge disappointment but now we can take a step back and look at the positives. Barry's return to competetive Top Fuel action had resulted in bringing home some silverware for runner-up, something we had hoped for but never expected before the weekend began.

Barry would like to extend his gratitude to Eddie Corr and his crew who did a fantastic job and were truly professional all weekend, and to Rune Fjeld and Santa Pod Raceway for the invitation to take part in the Nitro Shootout.