2004 Veidec Nitro Festival Fredag / Friday

Whilst Sharkman and Christer were working on the photographs yesterday evening, Tog chilled out from his day's reporting and briefly visited a few of the Pro teams who were setting up ready for today's qualifying.

Monica Öberg's Crew Chief Dan Söderberg explained that he and Monica had brought their Top Fuel Dragster back to Mantorp Park to win. "We were last here in 1998 and we won", he said. "We have been very lucky here and when we rolled in with the trailer it felt very good to be back". The car has been updated every year and Dan said that this year's update was in the blower department. "We did one run with the new blower at Piteå and lifted it, so we put on a rebuilt SSI. We ran to two hundred metres and recorded better incrementals than on our best pass of 5.05 and that was without any other changes, so it was a very slow set-up. Now we have the power we thought we'd better come back to Mantorp!". Dan said that if everything works out then Monica may compete at Gardermoen next weekend and maybe even at the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod. "We want to race but the budget is so small", he said. "We have everything we need but not the budget to race".

Top Fuel Dragster racer Lex Joon said that he and car owner Knut Söderquist had decided that the time had come to be more aggressive with the tune-up of the MPM Oil-sponsored car. "Depending on the track we'll give it more", he said. "I want to do both of the qualifying sessions and see where we are then. My crew have been working very hard today, and we are all in good spirits". Lex admitted to a little nervousness about the shutdown area here, the end of which comes up very quickly. "If you make a four-second run that's good", he said, "but you want to get stopped. This sounds silly but 300 mph is very fast and you cover a lot of ground - when you pull the chutes you think you'll never make it". The aim for the MPM Oil team both here and at Gardermoen next weekend is to get into the points chase. "I think we can get up there", said Lex. "We are not necessarily going to get into the number one spot but I will be happy to be in the top three and we need to make life hard for Andy Carter and those at the top."

Eddie Corr said that there were two issues in tuning the GoTalk Top Fuel Dragster for Mantorp Park. "There's the air quality and the track is uphill", he said. "Eddie makes me pull the choke out off the line"!, said driver Andy Carter. "The way we handle it is to treat it as a tricky track, or to set it up in attack mode anyway", added Eddie. "This car runs well at Santa Pod and at Alastaro and this track is in between the two. The smart option is to try to put in a good run straight off to save the car, but it's risky. What is ideal is to get to at least three hundred feet on the first run, or preferably six hundred feet, and as long as we get that far then we will be able to work out a strategy."

Christer Gustavsson said that Michael Malmgren and the AC Delco Pro Stock team are learning as they go with their new Pontiac Grand Am race car. "We have been a bit worried about our terminal speeds but we think we've got it worked out and we'll get the speed record back from Jimmy Ålund", he said.

Pro Mod racer Christer Jacobs and his crew were settling down to an evening's work on the clutch. "We need to change the clutch to get down the track", he said. "Håkan has ground a flywheel and disks, and we have a new five-speed transmission so that'll be interesting". Christer recently competed at the new eighth-mile track in Malmö but said that it had not been particularly useful as a learning exercise.

Fellow Pro Mod racer Gordon Appleton said that he had no intention of coming to Sweden to test his new 722 ci motor, so he tested at the Bug Jam at Santa Pod last week. "We spent a couple of days finding the gremlins", he said. "They weren't bigger-engine gremlins but the sort of things which arrive between putting the car in the trailer after one event and getting it out at the next one". I asked Gordon what the basic difference was in having a new engine. "The car goes straight up on the tyres, the torque is so different. I can't wait to get a full pass in anger". Gordon added that when he realised how big the Pro Mod field was going to be at this event, he had to come. "I'd feel left out if I wasn't here now", he said.

Roger Johansson went halfway towards setting a new Pro Mod speed record at Alastaro before the rain intervened. "I also ran my best-ever half-track speed of 284", he said. The team came here a day early to service the engine. "We live a long way apart so it made sense to come here early", said Roger. "We've put new rings on three pistons and we are fitting a new diaper made of carbon fibre. The fabric diapers wear out and then oil can get through. This one's lighter too!".

We understand that Pro Mod racer Micke Gullquist has US Pro Mod racer Kirk Kuhns with him this weekend.

The Leanders Brothers Top Methanol FC team had what appeared to be a pizza oven delivered to their pit last night. We will be investigating this report later on and will be taking our knives and forks.

Super Street Janne Carlsson, who unfortunately crashed his Nova yesterday, probably didn't gain much consolation from a new record to add to his NDRS Championship. "He was probably the first man in Swedish drag racing history to run over his own crank", starter Ian Marshall told us this morning. "There are some big dents in the track where parts came out the bottom of the engine and impacted."

Our good buddy Patrik Jacobsson has kindly brought us some notes from the Pro Mod pits. First up is Ulf Rapp who has new electronics in his car. Last night he had not even started the car. His goal is just to qualify.

Håkan Fallström said that the car was new for the Main Event but that the team had ignition problems in Finland. He has atended a test and tune and his goal is also to qualify and to set new personal bests even if it is just sixty feet. The car is a former small-block car but during the winter the team turned it into a legal Pro Mod.

Freddy Fagerström says that he is very hopeful for this weekend. He has a "better-juiced" engine this weekend but has no spare engine. The team are trying to find the right clutch combination and they now have an on-board computer. He thinks that a 6.8 will get you into the field this weekend.

Micke Lindahl has a brand new motor in his blown-alcohol Chevy. It was fired up for the first time on Tuesday. The car has new paint on the back. The team plan to take it easy in the first round as they don't know about the track conditions, and are planning to change the gear ratio. Micke also thinks that you will need a 6.8 to qualify.