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17:30

This afternoon's notes are from the bike pits.

Pro Stock rider Martin Bishop is using his spare 1640cc motor today but swapping it for his higher-spec 'killer bullet', rebuilt since the Alastaro meeting, for tomorrow. Dean Todd said "We built both motors and will have an easy pass in the morning and put a race setup in it for the afternoon. The team are planning web updates later in the weekend.

Paul Watson of Eurodragster home and news sponsors Dyno Speed Developments said "It is my first time at Mantorp Park and messed the launch up, spun the tyre and headed right. On the second run we ran a 7.742, which is an adequate base. We had a good meeting at the SPRC Summer Nationals running 7.5s and 7.6s, but find here we have too low gearing and are barely getting into fifth gear and not using sixth at all and too much tyre spin on the launch. We have put new tyres on the bike and changed the clutch. After today's base level run we will aim to improve on the first run tomorrow. Our motor is making lots of power and it is the same type as Anders Jakobsson, a Vance & Hines from Craig Treble.

Örjan Gustavsson said he has been battling electrical problems all season, "but I think we have sound the cause of the motor sounding bad. on my first run I couldn't get second gear easily but still ran a baseline of 7.985. My PB is 7.58 this year and 7.62 last year, we have had a new Vance & Hines motor from Roger Pettersson". Örjan will be acquiring Roger Pettersson's frame after the Nitrolympx and will debut the bike at the pre-European Finals Press Day and run the bike at the Finals. Örjan's thanks go to crew chief Jonas Agerup and sponsors Team MotoSpeed and Kurt Görans Electriska. We understand Örjan's current frame is still for sale.

Petri Kalkonnen (Super Twin Fuel) has a Prowork W-Rod motor built by Team Salakari. This is based on a KTM motor and has taken the bike to best times of 6.984/293kph. The motor has an Autorotor 3150 blower running at 28-34 psi boost. Other major parts are Fuel Express frame and Bentec 2 speed gearbox. Today the bike found it hard to keep the motor lit and ran 13.603 on its only pass, with suspected damage.

Per Bengtsson ran a 6.99 on his first pass, but on the second, he lost rpm on the burnout and after putting more power on the burst panel on the blower popped and that was the end of his second qualifier. "This is the first race for me this year and the 6.99 run was only on half throttle. The chassis of the bike dates back to 1999 and the motor back to 1992. The running gear is self-constructed and Bentec supplies transmissions to a lot of the Supertwin teams around the world. I am starting to look at the Australian and New Zealand market as the bikes there have stepped up a lot in recent years". Per, who was 1999 Super Twin Champion, is also trying a dual Mallory magneto system similar to Top Fuel cars. "I am pleased that the new setup has helped to overcome piston damage that we were experiencing and if the setup works, we will probably run the Euro Finals, as we have not raced at Santa Pod since 2003". Per thanks sponsor Valvoline and crew members Set Pettersson, Jua Lindström and Carl Pettersson.

Top Fuel Bike racer Jaska Salakari of Team Salakazi is one of the bike riders who has built virtually all his own equipment with his Prowork company building the frame, body, trans and KTM-based motor. The bike is new this year and Jaska is confident that it will run low sixes very soon. Jaska's personal best is 6.84 which dates back to 1998. The trans is jackshaft which is basically direct drive without a primary chain and with a slider clutch. Plans for the remainder of the seaon include Hockenheim, the Euro Finals at Santa Pod and possibly a US meeting.

Anders 'Charley' Karling said after an off-form 7.571 'The bike left lazily and didn't feel comfortable. We are tuning for track conditions after experiencing handling problems in Finland. We are trying different tyres and mounting procedures, have checked the running gear and changed the clutch. The motor is fine, but the clutch and tyre combination with the track conditions means that the bike is getting loose".

The new Super Twin bike of Ulf Nylen called Yellow Rose of Texas has had admiring notices. Ulf's involvement in Super Twin bikes dates back to 1988 and he was a pioneer of the class in Sweden around that time, running a Panhead on nitrous in 1991. At Hockenheim in 1995 Ulf ran a 7.65 with a 1950s Harley motor on nitro and has owned several other Super Twin bikes. The new bike has taken Ulf three years to build and has all the 'right' parts - Weekend frame, PRP motor, Bentec trans. This being Ulf's very first meeting with the new bike, teething problems happened with an up-in-smoke first run and not being in the field at the end of Friday. However there is tremendous potential. UK Top Fuel Bike rider Ian Turburville is helping Ulf this weekend along with regular crew member Joakim Ny. Turbo (who is running his Mr Spokehead at the Bulldog Bash this year) described Ulf's bike as " a jewel". Ulf's plans are to run Yellow Rose of Texas at Gardermoen and at the Mosten meeting in Denmark. Thanks go to sponsors Dyk & Sjötjänst and Pivabii.

Sven Gottenberg explained that his 7.648 best time was achieved with problems but only minor ones. "On our first run, the fuel pump got loose and came out of its clamp. On the second run we had too much clutch and spun the tyre. This is the third year we have run the bike and we are trying a new clutch this year that we are still adjusting to find the optimal setting. The track is better than we were expecting. Sven plans to attend the Nitrolympx and Euro Finals.

Sverre Dahl's 6.898 in the second session was achieved with some damage. He said "We are testing a gearbox and were taking it easy with a soft launch. However we have broken some rods in the motor. We have some spare rods and pistons but no crank or crankcase and don't know how much damage there is. We hope that we will be ready to run in Norway."

Peter Ström from nearby Norrkoping ran a 6.921 in Top Fuel bike qualifying but had a problem. "The 'spider' inside the blower broke and we had to change the part, so we missed the second session as it took too long to repair. We can improve on our time and my personal best is 6.47 at 346kph". Peter's bike is all self-built apart from the blower and gearbox, and all engine parts including cylinder head and case are fabricated by him.

Michal Ponca's Top Fuel Bike was seen with a large hole in its crankcase and is out for the rest of the weekend. A plea for new sponsors was also present - Michal's web site is www.ponca.cz.

Other visitors with long distance awards are the pair of racers from Italy. Luigi Chinarello is currently no. 9 in Pro Stock Bike with an 8.001 having run a PB of 7.79 at Alastaro which would be good enough for him to make the field at the end of Friday's qualifying here. "We will be setting our clutch to run quicker tomorrow as the traction here at Mantorp is better than that at Alastaro," said Luigi. Luigi's bike is a 1400cc Hyabusa with injection and a Track Dynamics frame and he will be competing in the remainder of the UEM series.

Under the same canopy is Luigi Ferretti, who is qualified no.4 in Top Fuel Bike with a 7.08. He said "Our weekend has become difficult as we have broken a valve and damaged the head and now only have three and a half cylinders! This is our first race at Mantorp Park and it's a nice track. My brother Antonio raced this bike last year and now he is working on getting a new bike." Luigi says he doesn't run regularly in his home country because the tracks used are really only suitable for fast street bikes.

13:30

After the first round of pro qualifying we spoke to some of the Top Fuel and Pro Stock teams.

Stig Neergard who is returning after a gap of seven years is planning to run some mid-five passes on his return to the class. He said "We made our license renewal passes four weeks ago with a 60ft and half pass. We have changed a great deal on the car except the chassis, which we have upgraded to the current spec. My friend Donnie Holbrook from the US is helping us to run the car. Unfortunately after the burnout the revs were too high and we discovered that the throttle linkage on the injector hat had got stuck. We had to drive down the track and so our first run down the track will hopefully be this afternoon.

René Hersland of the Autobremsen team did not appear for the first session and will be making a run this afternoon. He said "We have bought a new clutch and discs; however the input shaft that came with it was a different dimension to the ones we have used in the past and have had to make changes to get ready to run."

Håkan Nilsson said his 5.66 was the result of a planned run to get to the other end of the track and put down a time. He said "The car felt stable until the eighth mile when we lost some cylinders. I needed some practice at handling the car in the short shut-down area and got the chute out at the right time and didn't need to use the brake to stop - that gave me more confidence for when we run faster terminals later.

Thomas Nataas did not run in the first session due to a small problem found on the warm-up. "We have solved it now and the car is good to run later", said Thomas. "I hope the track is not too hot for us to make a good run", he added. Thomas who is currently second in the FIA Championship said "The championship is very close at the moment".

Monica Öberg said that this is her second meeting of 2006. "At Piteå we smoked the tyres heavily on all four rounds even after taking 2000hp out of the motor. We ran a more conventional combination this morning and I was surprised the car didn't hook up. We have bought a new billet block from Brad Anderson and new crank and the motor runs very well - strong and stable. We have had some great help from Kenneth Lorentzon as we had no data computer and have now bought one and are measuring our fuel pressure as well. Our fuel pumps are two to three years old and smaller than some runners, with a capacity of about 78 gallons per minute whereas other teams are using 82 gallons/minute at least."

Tommy Möller said of his 5.000 fastest time of the first session, "I took my foot off the pedal 20m before the end of the track as the braking space is shorter here. The run was according to plan and we didn't have damage." Tommy has been riding probably the ultimate pit bike, a custom built Harley Chopper built by his firm www.custombykent.se.

Team mate Håkan Fallstrom said he had a lot of practice pedalling the car in Alastaro and this helped when he smoked the tyres and got back on the throttle to record a 5.32 on his first pass.

Tommy Haapanen said the dragster went up in smoke after 500 feet but no damage occurred. "We will calm the car down for the next run and take some clutch out. My love and best wishes go to Anita and the rest of the family back in Vilpalla".

In Pro Stock, Michael Malmgren was quite pleased with a 7.04 but said the car overpowered the track. "The clutch was aggressive and we spun the tyres off the start line which resulted in a 0.05s slower 60' time than the other lane. However, we made the time upby the end of the track. I am pleased with the rebuild of the car as it still runs nice and straight event when we have too much power".

Jimmy Ålund said of his 7.03 fastest time of the first session, "It was not a bad run considering we were guessing at the track conditions and the air not being so good (altitude being over 2000ft). We think the cars will go faster in the second session". Following yesterday's pit note that Jimmy has sold his rolling chassis to new Pro Stock racer Adam Flamholc, Jimmy confirmed he is looking for a Pontiac GTO that has a good track record.

Tommy Leindahl was pleased with his 7.06. He said "We started this meeting with a completely setup. We made two extra test runs in Finland, which is a track we are new to. We have changed gear sets and chassis setup three times and this fourth combination with our new motor seems to be on the right path. We are still working with Reher-Morrison on engine development and our motor will go back to their shop at the end of the season for some detailed tests. We conducted a leakdown test after Finland and found no problems at all which is very encouraging. The motor makes a lot of torque and we are fine tuning it now. The design of the engine, built especially with lead-free fuel in mind, is completely different to others which are built to run on C-25 high octane gas. The motor is built using different materials too.

Magnus Hansson said "That was a standard run with no problems until the end when we only had one carburettor working, which accounted for our poor speed. We expect to run quicker next time."

09:30

Good Morning and welcome to the second day of pit notes from the 2006 Veidec Nitro Festival. The weather is warm, but less so than yesterday with a high cloud level. Altogether more comfortable. Qualifying has proceeded quickly and we are about 35min ahead of schedule, with the Pro classes scheduled to run at 10am and 3pm. It's your pit reporter's 50th birthday today and it will be business as usual today but possibly a little bit slower tomorrow?

Patrik Jacobsson of the European Pro Modified Association has had some pit notes for us and we saw a few teams in the pits last night so we've something to say already.

Jorgen Karlsson went testing on Wednesday at Meca Raceway's eighth mile facility. He managed to get five runs in a space of under two hours and hopes he has enough data on car settings to solve the tyre shake problems experienced recently. The shake was so bad at Alastaro that the wiring on the car broke some of the wiring. Jorgen said that if the problem can be solved they will run fast.

You will have seen from the press day photo gallery that Mats Eriksson ran a 6.6 early shut-off demo pass. Routine inspection of the drivetrain following that run revealed that some teeth had snapped off the pinion gear which necessitated a new third member being installed on Thursday. The car was sat in the pits minus its body panels for the day and the pit fan turned up - the Green Goblin keeping cool in the intense heat.

Micke Lindahl is back with a fully repaired and repainted front end following his accident a few weeks ago. The hood has been rebuilt with thicker plastic which has added 30 kilos to the car's weight. Micke has also installed a new blower and hopes to run well if track conditions allow. Micke runs an engine building and servicing company that works for a great many pro racers.

Fredde Fagerstrom did some demo burnouts at a horse racing track last weekend and suffered motor damage, with a number of pistons and rods requiring replacement. A lot of extra work ensued in the following days and Fredde was present as usual at the start of the Festival with the lights and music around his pit at night-time adding to the atmosphere in the Pro Mod area. Fredde also has a really cool Harley Chopper for a pit bike.

The event programme has no less than three picks for the winner of Pro Modified - championship leader Urban Johansson (who won the first two rounds), Michael Gullqvist, with his King Kong motor as one to keep our eyes on and Jan Arve Nygård as a wild card (having run a 6.43 at Alastaro and starting to look strong and consistent. An talking of form there has been a lot of discussion as to the bump spot in Pro Modified. The general consensus is that it will at least be in the 6.6s.

Patrik also reports that the Saapola team have their entire operation for sale after the European Finals, including both Pro Mods, Super Comp Dragster, the rig and the bus. Is a move to the top class on the cards? (For the answer, see Saturday's pit notes!)

Urs Erbacher is helped in the pits this weekend by US Fuel expert and former Fuel pilot Glenn Mikres, who has worked across most of the planet on the sport's premier class. We hope to talk to him later today. Urs is growing in confidence with the fuel set-up and said Glenn is being a great help in the team's tuning strategy. "We have changed the fuel pumps for this round to a 100 gallon/minute rating and have reduced the flow to 96 or 98 gallons. We have freshened all our parts from Alastaro and suffered no major damage except for one crankshaft. We have got three short blocks, two bare blocks and five sets of heads. Along with all the tyres, other equipment and Lo's Super Twin bike, our trailer was completely full. We will take everything back to Switzerland. It took over 50 hours to travel here from Switzerland, leaving on Tuesday and arriving on Thursday.