The best part of going to Santa Pod is the drag racing. The worst part of going to Santa Pod is if its raining as there is no drag racing. Guess what? It rained at Japshow Finale 2018.

When I say it rained it was getting close to a biblical event. At one point I was looking for pallets to make an ark and sail way somewhere warmer.

Fortunately there were loads of boats on show on the GTR Owners Club stand so if it got too bad I had an avenue of escape.

For those stranded further away Liners had been strategically placed all around the venue in case a large evacuation was needed. 

I might be exaggerating a little but it didn’t look good when we first arrived. Most of the hardened JDM crowd were sitting inside their cars for a good few hours first thing in the morning. 

However, with rumbling tummies we ventured out to the café as there wasn’t much else to do. It always amazes me that people will pay £5 for a burger from a van when for £6 you can sit down with a full English and nice cup of tea.

By mid morning the rain had started to ease off and the stunt shows started, with the excellent Lee Bowers Motorcycle Stunt Show.

I take my hat off to Mr Bowers. Come rain or shine he always delivers a great show and keeps the crowds entertained.

The weather was still miserable but that didn’t put Lee off one bit. You can tell he enjoys his job, sporting a massive smile on his face all the way through his show in what can only be described as a challenging conditions.

Team Maximum Lock form Malta were next up, drifting four cars round the small waterlogged arena.

The standing water was now quite deep making driving lowered Nissan 350Z and Skylines difficult. 

The splitters on the cars took a bit of a beating with one being ripped off after a rapid entry into one of the larger puddles - great stuff!

As the weather broke we had a walk round the show area. I've been to a few Japshow Finales over the years and it looked to me that the weather had put a few people off. 

This was a shame as this is usually a well supported show. However, every cloud has a silver lining and it meant I could get shots of the cars without people walking into the picture.

The show and shine had a few nice cars. Peter Linnetts (who is probably older than my dad and I ain't

Tucked away in the corner there were drift rides available for you, once you had exchanged some of your hard earned coin. 

It was tricky to get a decent shot of these guys as they had thick fencing up. Even using a wide aperture and getting close to the fence I was still getting a slight grey look to the pictures. A bit of post production in Affinity Photo got rid of most of it.   

As the weather cleared, the Santa Pod staff worked their magic and managed to clear the track, enabling racing to start mid afternoon. 

As soon as the track opened the ever popular Run What Ya Brung started with the inevitable queues.

Everyone likes to have bragging rights over their mates on who has the fastest car and Santa Pod is the perfect place to do it.

Rabnawaz Khanin his R35 winning the Class A, 11.1952 @ 122.09. Present your driving licence and £20 at the track signing on office and you will get 4 timed runs, and if you have the fastest car in class, a trophy.  

Besides the Run What Ya Brung there was some proper Drag Racing. 2018 Championship winner Phil Reeves.

I wasn’t just cars. Chris Neary on his Suzuki Hayabusa  8.3464 seconds for the 1/4 mile @ 165.45.

Front wheel drive Drag Series Round 5 winner Allan Duthie

Jap Drag Series 2018 winner Jeff Ludgate in the impressively fast flying banana R33 GTR.

The highlight of the show for me was FireForce, the resident jet car. This thing is mental, the sound is something to behold and an assault on the senses. 

My top tip of the day, if you are going to photograph this beast put some earplugs in.

So that was Japshow Finale 2018. It looked like it was going to be a bust but it turned out nice, just like the weather.

I hope you have enjoyed this write up and photographs of JapShow Finale from Santa Pod 2018. As always I don’t claim to be an expert on this subject, it's just my twisted observations of a day out with a lot of friends on this occasion carrying a camera.