Pro Stock Bike racer Fredrik Fredlund was happy to get to the second round after a gust of wind caused him to have to lean over to control the bike and record only a 7.56. "The 60ft time was the best this event; I have struggled leaving the line but I am now in the boxing ring and will step up to a 7.3 step by step." In the semi-final, his 7.43 was defeated by Kenneth Wik's 7.41.

Pro Stock Bike racer Miia-Maria Vepsäläinen is new to the class this year after running Super Twin Top Gas at Hockenheim in 2008. "I bought this bike from Craig Blau in the US and now want to race at as many events as possible. Miia-Maria sells bikes and parts when she is not at the track.

Pro Stock Bike racer Gabiella Nikolovska said "We have the cheapest engine and bike but are happy to be racing the big guys with more money than us. My mechanics are learning fast and not having to ask the other teams. I am also not afraid of the bike any more." Gabby was Swedish Pro Street Bike champion in 2006. "I got tired of small bikes and we decided to do the most with the least at Alastaro (where I was third) and here. Gabby is supported by local cable manufacturer Nexans.

Super Twin racer Hans Olav Olstad said "Yesterday I couldn't get a full throttle and we found the shaft leading to the air intake had not been greased. We sorted that out and got the metering valve to open and got 20psi, then in the first round the engine was flooded with fuel.

Super Twin racer Per Bengtsson said "My quickest run so far this weekend was on press day. We haven't identified what is slowing the bike up and will try to prepare for the Final against Lorenz who is tough."

Top Fuel Bike racer Ian King was more confident than yesterday. "The bike has stopped dropping a cylinder at the start and the problem is now just occuring down the track. But we can't take Sverre Dahl for granted. Reaction time is crucial." King Racing travel to Gardermoen, Hockenheim, Hungary and Mosten, Denmark in the next few weeks.

Top Fuel Bike racer Peter Svensson was in the semi final and was pleased with new European ET record for the eighth. Brother and crew chief Sören said "We have had no problems at all and will just add more clutch although we don't know if the track will take more power. Rikard has good reaction times but Peter had an 0.013 in the Finals last year."

Top Fuel Bike racer Rikard Gustavsson is confident that the Funny Bike's nimbleness and his reaction times can overcome the power of Peter Svensson's nitro bike. "I am happy because we are consistently quick. It is definitely more even between Funny Bikes and nitro bikes on the eighth. Rikard defeated Peter after a drive belt broke.

Top Fuel Bike racer Otto Knebl, pictured with wife Yvona and crew member Pavel Snitily, ran a new PB of 8.052. "We are looking for a 7.999", he admitted, "and we will have a new bike next year to help achieve that." Otto and Yvona are pleased with the sport's growth in Central Europe and are in touch with Paul Fischer who runs the www.cedrag.com web site.

Top Fuel racer Risto Poutiainen faces Andy Carter in the final round and the team had some work on to tear down and rebuild the engine after hazing the tyres in the semi to defeat Urs Erbacher.

Top Fuel racer Andy Carter, pictured with wife Sarah, said "This is five finals in a row for us. It's getting hotter out there and it could be anyone's race. If you compare the incrementals between Risto's semi final run and mine, I would have won, but you have to do it on the track. The Luca Oil team are working like clockwork and whatever happens I will be leading the championship going into the next race."

Pro Stock racer Magnus Hansson was against Richard Sundblom in the semi-final. "We have to run better than the quarter final. This is the first time we have not been against Jimmy in the semis. We have to try to take him at the lights, but anything can happen. It's difficult to run consistently here." This proved an accurate prediction as he had the quicker light and Richard got into trouble and had to lift.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Timo Habermann's team is reasonably confident for the final in spite of a performance disadvantage. Werner Habermann said "We have run 5.35 but in reality Dave Wilson has a tenth on us and we are restricted on the overdrive we can run on our Whipplecharger. We will try our best and hope to be conistent."

Top Methanol Dragster racer Dave Wilson ran a the first half new European Speed record at 277.70mph. "We are having a good day since the first round which was a bit of a three-ring circus", he said. "The system got out of sync and our time suffered. In the second round we came good though, just a two ringed circus."

Before the start of eliminations, announcer Bjorn Sundqvist carried out the traditional interviews of the no.1 qualifiers. Here he talks to Richard Sundblom while Dave Wilson, Risto Poutiainen, Ulf Leanders, Hans Olav Olstad and Peter Svensson look on.

Pro Mod racers Adam Flamholc (near lane) and Urban Johansson (far lane) face off in the first pairing of the day. Urban came out on top with a 6.18 after Adam rattled the tyres. He said "We want to go quicker gradually and I think the lanes are pretty equal today."

Eurodragster.com sponsor Andy Robinson was then up against Norbert Kuno. After shake and smoke, Andy said "Don't call me Grumpy, just Slightly Miffed. Losing makes you feel bad and it's not just the headache after shake. On the positive side there was no damage and the motor is great; we are just servicing it before Hockenheim and a big Thank You to my crew. On the points front our main competition (Bruno Bader) is out so let's hope we do not lose ground."

Pro Mod racer Graham Ellis raced Freddy Fagerström in the first round. The team came to the line all wearing "Fast Freddy" t-shirts that they had signed by Freddy yesterday evening. The ploy didn't pay off though as Freddy, with new parts following ice-racing exploits earlier in the year, ran a storming 6.16.

In Top Fuel Eliminator it was a battle of the US crew chiefs as Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher (tuned by Wayne Dupuy) defeated Stig Neergaard (tuned by John Smith). Wayne said "That's five great passes in a row; we a trying to be as consistent as possible. We will step up a little against Risto in the next round but will attempt a high 4.0 rather than go too aggressive. It will be a drivers' race and reaction time will be crucial, but we have to get down the track as well."

Top Fuel racer and Eurodragster blogger Lex Joon waits patiently on the line while Linda Thun Tonset's crew try without joy to get her car into forward gear. Lex has been updating his blog with us daily at Mantorp and you can read it by clicking here.

UK racer Shelley Pearson has been in the drivers' seat of the Eagle 2 Seat Dragster at Alastaro and Mantorp. During both events she will have been down the track, recording 8.2s, over forty times.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Per H�kon Tr�a is being pushed back after being shut off for a fluid leak. Ulf Leanders was the beneficiary and he will have a bye-run into the final if he stages in the semi.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Leif Andreasson did not make the first round race after engine problems. "The rear main bearing got hurt again which damaged the bearing cap and block. It's the same as we had in Alastaro and my other motor is not repaired yet. We have to find out the cause. I'm a fighter but have to admit I was angry about it."

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Dan Larsen has been running consistent 6.0s in his new Dodge Stratus - not what he wanted. So, like many bracket racers, he put the 'index' on the car and promptly 'broke out' to his delight with a 5.89. "We made so many changes", he said. "It shook down the track, but I don't care this time."

Pro Modified racer Mats Eriksson ran the quickest ET of Round One, a 6.12. "It felt good, there was no shake, and I did not have my heart in my mouth like last year", he said. The car is launching really hard with the wheels up."

Pro Modified racer Micke Lindahl defeated Bruno Bader who was at no.2 in the points coming into this event. Crew chief Magnus Lindahl said "It is so close between having a good run and spinning the tyres. No one would have thought that Andy would go out so early. In the next round we have Patrik (Wikström) so we will have to step up. Our best times are in the right lane which is more bumpy so we won't be too upset if he puts us there.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Krister Johansson said on Saturday evening "I was pleased with the first run today, a 5.605. However there is a problem with the fuel nozzle and there is a spring in the heads that is getting stuck. It's affected two of my qualifying passes, never had it before and it's too much of a co-incidence that it happened twice. We will try to modify the parts before eliminations." In the first round Krister ran a 5.43 so it looks as if the problem was solved. Krister welcomed new team members this year Anders and Torbjorn.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Timo Habermann said "My first round today (Saturday) was looking like a low 5.4 and then the engine holed a piston, which destroyed a rod and did some damage to the cylinder wall. We are having to rebuild the engine which is why we missed the second session today. I am against Dennis in round one and despite my points lead we will definitely be racing."

Top Methanol Dragster racer Dennis Habermann said "Yesterday (Friday) I was in second place with a 5.46. Today we went on new tyres and I had massive tyre shake and went near the wall so I lifted. For eliminations we will change the tyres back to the old ones. We are still trying to find the ideal setup as the car is so new to us and we want to make sure we can run consistent 5.4s."

Super Twin racer Ronny Aasen said "It's three years since we last were here. We have been testing in Norway and Denmark. I have the same frame but have a new fairing and have also adopted a high gear only setup. We have a Zodiac 8" slider clutch. The engine now has a slider valve with MSD ignition; we have moved to a more up to date spec. The problem is that we have been breaking drive belts. We have tried belts used for blowers but they are for continuous running and not suited to being used in the transmission when they have a lot of strain at the start. We will make changes and test in Gardermoen next weekend."