Pro Mod racer Mats Eriksson had a mighty task to drive home to Borlange to remove rear suspension components from his old Green Goblin chassis and return to the track in time for the start of ELiminations, Pro Mod being the first class to run. "We arrived here at 3:15am and we finished fitting the parts at 6:30am. I then slept for an hour. The rear end housing was not as strong as the newer one but the car worked fine in the first and second rounds (the second was 6.150/379.40 to back up a new class speed record of 237mph). We then identified the parts had cracked and so I did a short burnout for the semi and soft launch and hoped Marc (Meihuizen) would red light, but in the end he made a good pass. Thanks to all my team and my family for their help and support. This has been a very special weekend for us."

The shock non-qualifier of the event was Fast Freddie Fagerströstrom. He said "We have a Racepak on order as we suffered by not being able to analyze our data. We will go to Gardermoen to test before running the Top Doorslammer event." Above the top of Freddie's windscreen is the inscription "The Old Generation", place in response to the Lindberg Brothers "The New Generation".

Pro Mod racer Niclas Andersson in the Old '51 Chevy said "We've been pleased with our performance and the team have given me a bracket car to race (6.25 and 6.26 in rounds one and two). But I had bad tyre shake against Robert Joosten in the semis." Team member Magnus Petterson is now the owner of the car as Kent Trenneman has emigrated to the US to source classic cars for Swedish customers.

The rear of Marc Meihuizen's Pro Mod shows the slats under the rear to allow air to escape. The event ran on time almost to the minute which gave the team concern over running with the engine oil too hot, which may have contributed to his final round loss against Robert Joosten.

Eurodragster.com sponsor Ulf Leanders was delighted with the win which gives him a good lead in the TMFC championship. He said "It was once again a bumpy ride but we kept the same setup as before and tried to go as quick as possible against Leif. It was great to run a 5.80 first thing and then we were pleased to be able to run 5.88 and 5.87 in the heat of the day. Our tune-up was a bit too agressive in qualifying after we ran quick in Alastaro but we did exactly what we wanted to do today and our Leanders Brothers clutch gave us the consistency."

Rob Turner was delighted with a win and a new PB ET in the event. "This moves us up to 2nd in the Championship. We now look forward to going to Hockenheim to race against Peter Schofer and Timo Habermann on their home ground."

Super Twin racer Svein Olav Rolfstad said "The track was a little slippery and I have been fighting the bike during the weekend as it has been wiggling. But we will not change the set-up as we are so close to one that's really working well with the weather conditions. Today is the first day of the meeting that we have been sliding but all six runs so far have been within seven hundredths of one another."

It has been a troublesome season for the new bike of Anders 'Charley' Karling. He said "We have been working on the mechanical side by checking whether the components were strong enough, whether the head was attached with too low torque or narrow seals. I am happy that these issues are fixed and nothing has been damaged, but we still have the problems of engine explosions. So my attention has been drawn to electrical issues such as cylinder heads grounding. Our problem is the lack of data. We have only made one run of 300ft that the bike worked well but on the other runs the heads were torched. We want to solve the problems before we race again and so we have had to cancel Norway and will test before the Finals.

Top Fuel winner Peter Svensson said "Every run we made this weekend was quicker than when we ran last year and we set the record. Nothing broke and we only changed two blower belts all weekend. Before the race we made some changes to the chassis which worked as the bike ran much straighter. We will race in Norway and England for the rest of the season and plan a limited schedule for next year. We are investing in points for the championship by getting the records here."

Top Fuel Bike runner-up Richard Gustavsson said before the final "The bike has been working well. On my PB run at Santa Pod my eighth mile time was 4.22 and here my best time was a 4.23. For the final I can't put more power down as it would cause tyre spin so I have to get a good light." Sponsorship comes from Gryriks, Dalhem and USA Bil.

Super Twin Bike rider Job Heezen riding for Ton Pels' Zodiac team said "This is my tenth run on this bike and I was pleased with being no.3 qualifier. We ran almost my quickest time and are the quickest 'rookie', although I have been racing in the Euro Top Gas series for sixteen years. You need a lot of experience to ride a Super Twin bike. This season there have not been a lot of runs possible with the snow and rain at the UK events and this is the first race we have made several runs. We will be at Gardemoen, Hockenheim and the Finals and you may see Roel Koedam's new Zodiac bike at the Finals."

Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop went out in the semi final. "We suffered a bent rocker and broke two valves. We left the line ahead of Fredrik (Fredlund) but the carburettor came off because of some grease on the inlet rubber. We have not lost ground in the points and are looking forward to Gardermoen which is good for bikes. We are making lots of power and here we have had massive tyre shake and overpowered the track in first and second gear." Pro Mod racer Ray White is standing in as crew chief for Martin this weekend.

Pro Stock winner Richard Sundblom said "We were close to not qualifying as we were on the bump spot after session no.3. I was pleased to beat Jimmy (Ålund) in the semi-final. In Finland we were out in the first round but winning today puts us in the fight for the championship. The car runs a good 60ft but spins the tyres in 4th and 5th gear, but at this stage we can't do much about it. We probably have the most engine power and Santa Pod is the best track for us. But I am pleased we have done well here because last year at this event we did not qualify and crashed."

Pro Stock runner-up Michael Malmgren said "We have struggled but are happy to be in the final. We have a cracked radiator so we are having to make repairs quickly before the final round."

Joran Persåker's tuning adviser Jim Brisette said "In the next round we have Andy Carter who probably has the best car out there. But you have to try to get down the track, not worry too much about the other person and hope that he beats himself."

Lucas Oil team driver Andy Carter said "We are pleased so far and hope to keep going. The first round is only a small piece in the jigsaw. We are looking to the championship - Lex going out early helped and Urs could be upset as Jari has Eddie (Corr) tuning for him." Andy now holds both the quarter mile and 1000ft records at Mantorp Park and has qualified no.1 at each of the last five FIA races. Andy came out the victor in the match with Joran.

Leif Andreasson (pictured with wife Åsa) said "The track is bumpy so I had to do a bit of driving even though we took clutch out of it and almost drove through the clutch. As we went 5.82 and Ulf 5.80 we will both be stepping up and you should see two runs in the 5.7s."

Eurodragster.com sponsor and Dansk Auto Hi-Fi proprietor Dan Larsen was trying to cool his head after his 'chute shook out at 1200ft and he slowed, recorded an ET of only one hundredth slower than winner Arvid Grødem. "The bumps on the track helped shake the chute out and I thought the engine was nosing over. It's a shame for the championship but we look forward to having fun at Hockenheim."

Arvid Grødem paid tribute to his team's efforts leading up to the first round of TMFC. "If the team had not worked as hard as they did this morning we would not be here. We had a problem with the clutch and took the gearbox out twice between 9am and 10am, dismantled them and put them together again. The car was slipping and sliding and I had to drive it through that, but I'm used to it and we've had worse. The burst panel went bang at the end of the run when clutch slippage caused the engine to zing, but no damage has been found so far." Arvid was visited by sponsor Sunoco's Norwegian Manager Lars Ruud (right), Sunoco also sponsoring the Gardermoen Drag Challenge. Arvid ran a 6.00 in the semi final to defeat Jörgen Nagel.

Robert Joosten was confident after recording the lowest ET in round one of Pro Mod. He said "We also recorded the low ET of round one in Finland. We have a tough race in the next round against Andy (Robinson) and we will both be trying for 6.1s" The picture shows Robert's cockpit view. Robert came out the victor in a close race with Andy.

The team match-up of Roger Johansson and Micke Nord ended in a win for Roger, 6.51 to 6.61. Micke said "We have been having ignition problems and lost time on this run. We are planning to have a private test at Gardermoen on Thursday and run in Top Doorslammer at the Drag Challenge." Roger said "We will step up against Mats and look forward to a great race with him". Roger ran a 6.25 in the next round, one of the quickest nitrous passes in Europe, but came up short against Mats' outstanding 6.15.

Timo Habermann's reaction time against Paul Ingar Udtian was a 0.0199 to a 0.0488, some of the quickest reaction times in this class. Team Principal Werner Habermann said "We will need a quick reaction in the all-German match against Peter Schofer in the semi final as both cars have been running 5.5s. We have reduced the power output and adjusted the clutch for the conditions." Timo and Peter's race ended in the burnout with a burst plate explosion for Timo.

Dave Wilson said after going up in smoke against Peter Schofer. "The car was set up too aggressively and we sat in stage for twelve seconds which may have tightened up the clutch further. Yesterday we fixed the car's performance in mid-track and today we tried to apply more power at the start line. If we could have got through the first 60ft we would have got down the track. Running nitro is an interesting challenge. We have now debugged it and got the computer to work with it but so far we have only had two full runs worth of data."

Peter Schofer's injector on his PSI blower towers above the engine. Team member Gittli Koller said "Peter is comfortable in the car and we have a handle on the track conditions. Whilst we ran 5.50 here and we have the track record at Hockenheim of 5.57 we have to focus on this race. Hockenheim is a different track, smooth all the way down and totally flat."

2000 Top Fuel Champion Anita Mäkelä is attending the event at which husband Tommi Haapanen is no. 3 qualifier with a 4.14. On the final run on Saturday the engine went through the clutch which resulted in damaged heads, block (repairable) and pistons. Anita said "It's good to be here and our daughter Hanna is with us. I went to Alastaro as well."

Top Fuel driver Risto Poutiainen (nickname Paha Paavali or 'Evil Paul') is driving a Rune Fjeld car this weekend and is back after a gap of 14 years, having driven with Rune in 1994 and competed in the old European Top Fuel Challenge. The crew is from Eagle Racing and Ben Allum crew chief. He said "We are second alternate and ran ok but with small problems like a clutch spring that slowed the car from what it could have run." Risto will run at the Finals and then have a think about 2009. The team is sponsored by the search engine company Risto is CEO of, the Finnish subsidiary of NetBooster.

The Leanders Brothers team, sponsors of Eurodragster.com are supporting Barncancer Fonden, a children's cancer charity. Jörgen Leanders said on Saturday evening "The team is hosting 19 guests from the charity including cancer patients. We were statisfied with our last run, a 6.00 but we are searching for the limit from hte wild side. The problem for us was the transition from the sandblasted part at 200ft to the original surface and the car was getting very loose. You can't adjust the clutch like on a fuel car and if you take too much out you cannot get off the line. The top half of the ladder was our goal though and we will try to repeat." Eurodragster.com is very grateful to the team who kindly cooked pizza for us in their huge on-site pizza oven.

2007 Top Fuel champion Urs Erbacher said on Saturday evening "The track is really tough and the car is too quick for the surface. We cannot compare much from last year because we back-halved the car to make it legal for NHRA and we aren't able to detune it enough either - we have taken out power, clutch, blower, fuel and ignition. We had no damage and on the last pass it was safe settings so that we are in the show. Tomorrow we will go back to a setup that will run 4.0s"

Pro Mod racer Mats Eriksson had an up and down day on Saturday. His first run was a tremendous 6.12 that put him a tenth ahead of the field but on the second, Mats suffered a broken tie-rod which (in the middle of the photo) and a broken four link unit which pitched the car into the left lane and bent the wheelie bar. Crewman John Thide said "Mats has to make a seven hour round trip to Borlange to pick up spare parts from his workshop and fit them on Sunday morning." This was completed at 8:30am and Mats went on to win the first round of Pro Mod, an incredible effort.

Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson had run 6.23 and 6.21 with new magnetos on the engine on Saturday. Wife Kate said "Things are looking good for tomorrow morning. On Friday the fuel shut off on the first run and on the second a shifter line came off and the Lenco wouldn't shift into third."

Junior Dragster racer Ludwig Peres, son of Mats Eriksson made it successfully through the first two rounds of eliminations on Saturday. Ludwig won the Swedish Championship in 2007 and is currently leading the NDRS championship.

Jari Halinen won his race against Tommi Haapanen on the start line with a reaction of 0.15 against Tommi's 0.30. Crew chief Simo Patoharju said "Jari really did his thing by reacting so well on the line, he is the best. The car is fine and there are only a few minor issues with pistons." Jari (pictured) said "I saw the green and the car reacts well. I will try to get a good light against Urs."