Top Methanol dragster racer Rob Turner was delighted with a 5.4590/414.11kph which is a new personal best and, Rob believes a new best for a Bob Meyer chassis. Rob's message to Bob is "Hi, Uncle Bob - and thanks." He said there was little shake off the line and while the car was slightly loose, it powered through for excellent numbers. Rob said "The car is fine mechanically. Paul Ingar's incident spoiled it for us but we are delighted he is fine."

Islanders Racing chief Paul Ingar Udtian suffered a parachute failure which resulted in him flying through the gravel trap, rolling twice and ending upside down in the grass, thankfully unhurt. "I realised the chutes had failed when I crossed the finish line and as hard as I stepped on the brakes, they weren't enough. We think the car is repairable if we can find a new wing for it." We hear that Dave Wilson has given Paul Ingar his rear struts to weld to the frame to help them get out of their problems.

The setback blower of Top Fuel Dragster of Timo Lehtimäki shattered on his qualifying run. Ulf Hultholm, crew member, said "It was a good run until 330ft and then the engine went down as a valve spring floated from previous high revs causing an intake valve to hang open and then an explosion as the fire got into the blower at 500-600ft. The fire went out by itself. We are rebuilding the engine and will have to miss the second session as all the wiring and pneumatics behind the engine melted."

"Timo bought the car from Tommy Möller. He actually owns three Top Fuel Dragsters and we are looking at a multiple car team for the future. Timo's business builds turbos and special parts for four cylinder engines. He had a Toyota engined dragster which put out 1200hp and ran 6.73. This year we are testing but plan to run the series next year."

Eddie Corr, crew chief for Jari Halinen said the team are having a measured approach with their Fueler. "Performance wise we were not planning to run quickest but a 4.5169/411.36 was slower than we had planned, but correct strategically. We have some issues with engine durability so I don't want to push it too hard. Unless the track changes drastically we won't see any notable times or speeds this weekend, it's just too hot and while there is a sweet spot with the tuning, it just gets narrower."

In Pro Mod, Micke Lindahl ran a 6.2670/365.85, good for first place in the initial session and he dropped to third after a 6.49 after tyre shake. Beforehand Micke and crew chief Magnus Lindahl said "It's good to get no.1 and we can now try some changes. We want to change the clutch setting as in 3rd gear it was too hard on the driveshaft and the computer trace is looking too bumpy. The start was good though (1.041 to 60ft)." Magnus said the car is now legal for IHRA which means no two-step and a 4.30 rear axle ratio (NHRA cars can run the two step and a 4.56 ratio).

Fellow Pro Mod racer Robert Joosten missed the first qualifying session after experiencing rear axle problems. He said "We hope we have solved them and go for a run in the next session. In this heat anyone that can run consistent low 6.2s will be the man to beat. Our team needs a little luck to help us." A 6.3258/360.28 was good for sixth place at the end of today.

2006 Pro Mod champion Urban Johansson said "We want to take it easy at the start as we went too lean in Finland and hurt the engine. So we will be starting with new fuel system settings and will feed in more power. In Finland we qualified no.1 but went out in the first round with too much power and clutch. The championship is going to be very tight this year and this weekend could be crucial. It may be that the car that wins is not the quickest."

Super Twin racer Per Bengtsson ran a 4.52 and 4.58 which left him no.3 at the end of Friday. He said "The bike is too lazy away from the startline and we had the same problem in Finland. However with racing over the eighth mile this becomes a larger disadvantage so we are trying to find some tricks to get it quicker over the first 50m. We want to go for the Championship and this is a really important race. I displayed the bike at a huge trade show for the printing industry in Dusseldorf earlier this year attended by 600,000 visitors. I arranged to have photos for promotional purposes taken of everyone who sat on the bike including 350 customers and lots of others. I attended with my sponsor Swedcut who we make printing equipment for."

Super Twin racer Anders Karling has had to make an emergency trip home to Tälby, a 2 1/2 hour drive, with his engine to make repairs to the cylinder head following an explosion in the first session. Team member Greg Johansson said "The spark came out of the cylinder head after the pressure in the cylinder had been too high and this caused the damage. Anders can prepare a spare head but has to make sure it fits the block perfectly. He hopes to run tomorrow morning. The problems we have had stem from the cylinder head area with us using the MSD 44amp magneto which no-one has used in Supertwin before. It has been hard to figure out what amount of fuel to use. We have needed to test a lot and look at the data." The bike will be seen at Gardermoen and Santa Pod.

Greg has a Supertwin bike which he ran in 2007 to 10th place in the championship and will bring back next year.

Pictured with Harri Piensalmi (left) is Paul 'Tami' Brander, who we usually link with doorslammer fabrication but is now turning his hand to Harri's Super Twin operation. Harri said "It's my first year here. I used to drive cars in Competition Eliminator but built my bike with help from Paul. The engine is Michael Romine with injection running on 87% nitro. The unusual feature is that the transmission is direct drive with a centrifugal clutch for which I use a Bentec plate and have fabricated the other parts and the bell housing." The other unique feature which you can see at the bottom of the picture is that the chain actually goes through the wide frame rail. Support for the team comes from SKF, AT, Panasonic Tools, ETRA and Viaber.

Top Fuel Bike racer Eric Teboul had a lucky escape when his Top Fuel Bike scraped the wall on his first run. "Everyone here knows the right lane is difficult for nitro bikes", he said. "You can aim to adjust the attitude of the bike on the line but if you leave it too late you will head for the wall and then you have two options. I chose the option of staying on the bike which turned out to be the best one. There was a little bodywork scrape and the right foot peg was broken which I repaired. My shoes were destroyed but at least my feet are ok." On his second run Eric said "The clutch dragged before I applied throttle and the 60ft time was poor. If this hadn't happened the run would have been a 4.0."

Top Fuel crew chief Sami Lehtimäki who is with Tommi Haapanen, said "We will try to repeat the 4.1429/458.44 run in the other lane to get data for that lane. The car was constructed by Mats Eriksson and is really good. We had no breakage. Tommi said "This is only the third run on the car for us and it is much smoother than the old car." The second run was 4.3221/425.95 and Tommi ends the day as no.1 qualifier.

Top Fuel Bike racer Peter Andersson-Ström's bike is looking fine once more after his accident here last year. "We had to replace the blower and injection which were damaged and the engine then backfired and broke the crankshaft, which were some of the causes of the crash. The parts are home-built as usual. I tried a dry sump crankcase last year and had no time to find out how it worked; it turned out the oil was not being pumped back to the tank so I built a buffer plate. Our best time in Finland was a 7.25, but I was using only partial throttle during the weekend. The bike went to the left hand side of the left lane but there was little risk of hitting the barrier as the track level increases close to the barrier."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jonas Staflund has returned with new internal parts for the Keith Black engine and new team members. Jonas tested at Piteå and in spite of a slowish 60ft time of 1.10, ran a decent 6.1 ET. The crew includes long-time Anders Ingelsson and new members Martin Linqvist and Joachim Backmann as well as "others on stand-by". Jonas's main sponsor Brokk demolition equipment are joined by Mobil and Tudor Batteries.

Sunoco are big supporters of Arvid Grødem who has set his pit up to their best advantage, being able to be seen from the nearby motorway as well as the track. At Alastaro Arvid ran a new PB of 5.80 but suffered a damaged cylinder head and slight damage to the block. "Thanks to the Lindahl brothers for repairing the cylinder head and to my team for rebuilding the engine, they are the best. After this race we will be running the car at the Sunoco Drag Challenge at Gardermoen, Norway's biggest meeting." Following Arvid's transportation of the large chainsaw depicted in the Main Event Friday pit notes, new owner Roy Johansen of Ronny Aasen's team is delighted with the addition to his collection.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jögen Nagel has had to make a 780km trip from Hamburg including two ferry trips. "The last time we made a pass was in May and our objective here is to run our first five. It depends on the track conditions. Jögen (pictured with son Patrick Nagel) is sponsored by Fastgo.de which provides engine parts and shop tools through a web shop.

Making his first appearance at the Veidec Festival is Peter Rischer in his Pro Mod Dodge Avenger. Peter is from Germany and bought his Dodge Avenger from Vanishing Point Race Cars where it was the 'shop car' three years ago. Peter first tried it at Atco Raceway in New Jersey and raced at Hockenheim in 2007 where he was runner up and also ran at Drachten earlier this year. He said "This is my first full season. My best is 6.60/340kph which may well not be enough to qualify. My target for this weekend is a 6.4, but first we need to figure out the fuel system and the clutch for these conditions."

At Alastaro, Marc Meihuizen showed that he can run with the best of the Pro Mod racers by recording an outstanding 6.17. He said "The car did well there and my biggest wish is to get all the power to the track here as well. There is so much power we went up in smoke on the Sunday morning, so we will be looking to calm it down for these hot conditions.".

Pro Mod racer Micke Nord of Roger Johansson's two car team said that he was a victim of tyre shake in Finland and lost in the second round after qualifying no.12 with a 6.4. "The car has a 6.2 in it but it may not perform in these conditions. But it is the same for everyone."

After the predictions of traction problems in Pro Mod, Mats Eriksson said that lane choice in the first round of qualifying is out of the hands of the racers. "The pairings in qualifying are based on championship positions and we are given the lane to run in first. We are in the middle of the session and will run in the other lane, whichever that is in the second session. The car has a lot of horsepower and my new PB in Finland of 6.23 was with a little tyre shake and a problem with the spark plugs cracking causing the engine to lose cylinders. We changed the wiring which should solve the problem."

The UK's sole Pro Mod representative Andy Robinson said that the no.1 qualifying position in Finland after the first day was good but the meeting ended in problems. "The car became lane sensitive and a bearing was damaged in the engine, so we changed engines and missed the final session", said Jerry Clayton. "We then had a red light in round one against Marko Lantto which was very surprising as the car didn't move. So we are here without a spare engine so we will need to be careful." The Robinson team estimate their travel costs for the championship this year to be in the region of �5,000 to �7,000.

Pro Stock racer Tommy Leindahl has bought Kenny Koretsky's 2007 Chevy Cobalt which was built by Rick Jones. "We were pleased with a 6.93 in qualifying at Finland and will work to get it quicker. A mid-6.8 is our target here. This car cannot be compared with my old one which was built in 2000 and was not designed for the larger rear tyre we now use. The rear frame on the old car was weak and was rebuilt, but the new car can take a lot more power, clutch and will have less tyre shake." Tommy continues to work with the Reher-Morrison organisation to develop his engine, which runs on unleaded fuel. The new car retains the Nitro Fish livery from Kenny Koretsky.