Pro Mod racer Martin Lundkvist qualified no.8 with a 6.18/387kph in his turbocharged '68 Camaro and went one round in eliminations defeating Marc Meihuizen with a holeshot 6.34. He said "I'm glad I got down the track in the second session with the bad weather. So far the season has been tough, we are trying to get to run fast and made a lot of changes, now we are back to the settings for our 6.08/250mph run earlier in the year. We are trying to only make small steps since we started in 2011." Martin said the team built the car and relies on its own expertise to tune it, although they get clutch advice from the US. There is a special technique to launch the car because you have to get the boost at the right level at the hit." The turbo Pro Mods have a three step control, one for pre-stage and one for stage. "We are keeping it straight and are working on going more quickly to the 330' by adjusting the clutch."
Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop was delighted with a PB 7.28 in qualifying and 7.30 bye round one against a no-show Kenneth Vik. He said "There is more to come, on the 7.28 the 60ft could have been better and the bike went from fourth straight into sixth gear. We did a lot of work over winter and were just settling it in at the Main Event. We knew we had power and were confident to run big numbers but we didn't think it would happen that quickly."
Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com blogger Kalle Lyrén had a problem with the bike refusing to shift into sixth gear. He said "We changed engine and gearbox from our backup to our no.1 engine which we have not run on the track yet. I am looking forward to racing my team-mate Elvira Karlsson in round one, she now has a new 1755cc engine and we will need to go for the finish line."
Pro Stock Bike racer Fredrik Fredlund was joined by Karen and Gary Stoffer. Karen, a regular on the NHRA circuit, said "This is my first time to Europe and everyone is very nice. The level of passion in the sport is the same but there is more of a party atmosphere and the activities are unrestricted. We went to Motospeed when we arrived and have been here since." Fredrik said "We can't count on an easy win against Timo Savolainen and have been struggling with getting information on our Race Pak; we only got one run's worth of data. I trust in my hard working team and are proud to have them on board." The gremlins bit in round one as Fredrik's bike cut out on the launch.
Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel (pictured right) and crew chief Frank Schwimmer are at their first race this year. Jürgen said before round one "We made two checkout passes to test our new carbon fibre brakes and new ignition system so didn't get a representative time. I am against Ulf Leanders but will try our best. We are ready and the car is ready to go down the track. Our racing schdule depends on how we do at Hockenheim as there is a small gap before the August Tierp event." Jürgen was gifted the win when Ulf couldn't find reverse.
Top Fuel Bike racer Lars Lagerhof was also on a bye run into round two when Peter Andersson-Ström withdrew. He said "We are pleased to have qualified third ahead of Rickard. We will meet Peter Svensson in the semi final. We don't know how the track is and if it is too cold it could be to our advantage. We will aim to run a 6.5 and will see how we do."
Super Twin racer Christian Jäger was quietly confident ahead of a first round match with Job Heezen. He said "We have only had small problems, normal race problems. Everything is working very well and I hope to do better this race."
Super Twin racer Job Heezen was also confident in the Netherlands v Germany match-up reflecting the Euro 2012 competition. Vincent Pels said "We have had problems with rod bearings we have tried to overcome. We have gone back to the settings for last year at Hockenheim and the Finals where we were flowing less fuel through the engine. We were worried about the amount of fuel going through our new engine and have gone back to what we know. On our first qualifying pass we had soft settings and checked the rod bearings were ok, the second pass would have been a 6.7 or 6.8 but Job saw the low oil pressure light and shut off."
Super Twin racer Per Bengtsson was delighted to qualify no.1 with a 6.48. He said "I think we found a good combination in running three weeks ago with more power. It seems to like us producing a lot of power and also using a lot of clutch. This track will be good for drag racing in Scandinavia and we can see the effect on the quantity and quality of entrants." Per said he will only run events at Tierp to improve in consistent conditions.
Super Twin racer Matti Vähäsaari had fuel issues with most fuel going to the back cylinder resulting in the front cylinder leaning out and causing damage to the piston and head. His best ET was 7.87 for eleventh.
Super Twin racer Joachim 'Acka' Riemer also had problems and finished in ninth qualifying place. He said "We had a broken crankshaft and Dyna ignition box which caused other problems. On the second qualifier the bike looked good but sounded bad so shut it off early which was wise because I would have damaged it. We changed the systems and found that worked and the bike was doing what it should have done. It is difficult for everyone not havin enough practice runs but we are working for ourselves and just want to concentrate on having a good time and going well."
Super Twin racer Samu Kemppainen looked forward to a first round match-up again Jan Sturla Hegre. "We have both run the same ETs but I spun the tyre on the second session and have gone back to the old setup. It's Jan Sturla's best time with a new motor so it should be good."
Pro Mod racer Marc Meihuizen said after the holeshot defeat to Martin Lundkvist "I was surprised that the turbo car was so quick to stage. I thought he needed lots of staging time so he took me at the tree. It was my own mistake but at least the car went well."
Pro Mod racer Urban Johansson won the first two rounds but damage in the second round win against Ola Dahlblom meant that he couldn't make the call for the semi-final. He said earlier "We had too little power in and too much clutch in round one; we can do better in the first 100m of the track. Ola has done very well to run 6.07; he was on my crew and has clearly learned a lot from me!"
Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Steve Harker sold his car to Leif Andréasson. He said "It's great to be in Europe and this is a fantastic facility, this would impress any US racer." Steve was brought up in Australia and raced there in the 1980s, winning the Top Fuel Bike championship. He changed to alcohol funny cars in 1990 and started racing in the US in 1998-9, starting by doing six races a year while living in Australia. "I sold my business in 2004 and spent six years racing exclusively in the US and had a top five finish every year and was second in 2008 and 2009. In 2010 I met Leif when he was racing in the US and wanted to cut down so I decided to sell my car to him. He has really got it under his belt and his times here are close to my best of 5.52/261 although he has upgraded the engine to Stage 8 heads and 60mm cam since I ran it." Steve is joined by his wife and team member Jenelle.
Top Methanol Funny Car racer Leif Andreasson (pictured right) was having some trouble getting through to Keith Bartlett (pictured left) on the phone on a busy Sunday morning before the rains came. Leif said "I have two crews, one at Tierp Arena and the other on my car. They work so hard, it's unbelievable. I have been racing for 27 years and never understood how hard the guys work behind the scenes from the guy on the gate to the people at the top end. It's the same with the car crew, Keith (now 22) has been with me since he was 14 and Frank has worked on the team since 1996. Our plans for Tierp Arena are wide ranging with a circuit race planned for September, drifting, 4th July celebration and a huge show for farm and garden equipment. We want to put on 20 events a season and four of these will be big drag races."
Pro Mod racer Robert Joosten was qualified and has Freddie Fagerström in the first round. He said "We are still working on the car and had some problems with shake in the last qualifying pass. We have changed some things and hope we can go through. In reality we are racing ourselves and we have more knowledge about the car on each run."
Pro Mod racer Fredrik Lundh is qualified fifteenth with a personal best of 6.45 (before this event 6.57). He said "We are testing a new lean out timing device which retards the ignition in the first second of the run and it is working well. This is our first Pro Mod race - I have run Top Doorslammer but we think quarter mile racing is best for us, so we will be running Pro Mod in the EDRS and at Tierp FIA events." Thanks to crewman Daniel Larsson for interpretation.
Pro Mod racer Ola Dahlblom was also pleased to qualify and he had impressive times of 6.17 and 6.25 on Friday. He said "We have had the car for four years and this is my second year in Pro Mod. We plan to run both Pro Mod and Top Doorslammer." Ola races a '63 Corvette supplied by Tim McAmis with a 521cu in blower engine.
Pro Mod racer Anders Nilsson ran a best of 6.30 to qualify 12th. This puts him against Bruno Bader in round one. The car was previously owned by Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis. He said after a red-light in the first round "The starter wasn't quick enough! A 6.3 was a great time and our goal was to qualify so I guess it was a successful weekend but we want to try to improve." Anders will be running events at Tierp only.
Pro Mod racer Micke Johansson runs this beautiful '70 Challenger and finished 21st of 26 runners with a 6.84. The car was built by Bertans Race Cars with a carbon fibre body, a supercharged Brad Andersen series 6 engine, Crower Clutch and Lenco CS1 gearbox.
This Gulf-sponsored '32 hot rod owned by Goräran Pihl is not on the entry list, but we could not resist it. The engine is a supercharged 545cu in Ford with Powerglide transmission. The car was at Kjula last weekend which you may have seen on the live webcast.
Pro Mod racer Jari Paren from Kuusankoski in Finland failed to qualify after two attempts at burnouts. He said "The weekend didn't go well because of problems before we ran, firstly a broken throttle cable and then a leak from the water pump. We will race at Alastaro and back here in August."
Pro Mod racer Niclas Andersson said "We shook the tyres in session one and did a safe 6.20 pass in the second session which was important with the weather getting worse. It is a fast car and capable of a 6.0 or a high 5 second pass. Our plans this year only to run a couple of Top Doorslammer meetings and to do all the EDRS and Swedish FIA rounds." Niclas is qualified eleventh and races Jan Gunnarson in round one.
Pro Mod racer Johan Samuelsson went 8.46 for no.24 position. He said "We have had some small issues with an ignition trigger problem, but think we have solved that so should be prepared for the next race. We will race Top Doorslammer and be back here in August and hope weather conditions are better. Sadly we can't do Finland as getting time off and paying for travel is difficult. We need more runs and information to tune the car; we have run a best of 6.55 but know it can go quicker. The ignition trigger is a device to avoid misfiring and damage to the engine and gearbox going down track and we have an MSD ignition and Autronic fuel system that the trigger works between."
Pro Mod racer Freddie Fagerström has modified his colour scheme with even more rust coloured areas as before. Performance-wise, he astonished with a 6.13 in session one and new PB 6.04 in session two for qualifying no.3. The new bests have already been updated in the European Drag Racing Database.
Car restorer Jan Johansson is here with two superb examples of his work from the 1970s. This Monza was built by John Butterra (his second last car before the 1978 Prudhomme Army car) and campaigned in the US by Pisano & Matsubara with Jake Johnston driving. It was imported into Sweden by Lee Anders Hasselström and campaigned as Flygvapnet with the same body and then with a Datsun body. Jan said "I have a spare Monza body which I will be restoring in Flygvapnet colours and the original Datsun body. The car can be fired up and do a burnout.
The Opel Manta funny car was originally owned by Jungle Jim Liberman and won the 1975 NHRA Summernationals as a Chevy Vega. It was then imported into Sweden by Bjorn Andersson and Tage Hammermen and campaigned in these colours in 1976-7; in 1976 had the distinction of being the first Swedish-owned Funny Car in the sixes with a 6.92 at Santa Pod driven by John Andersson. It was then sold to Tommy Svensson in 1978 being campaigned as Blue Swede on methanol and then being sold to Werner Habermann who owned it from 1979 to 2007. Jan has restored it to its 1976 colours. He also has the Vega body restored in Jungle Jim colours and, having spoken to Jungle Pam, hopes to take both cars to Bakersfield in 2013.
Fredrik Lundh's Pro Modified was in the pairing lanes on Friday. As we post this, the crew are hard at work drying the track so, with a curfew extended to 10pm, we are hopeful of some racing today.
Pro Mod racer Martin Lundkvist qualified no.8 with a 6.18/387kph in his turbocharged '68 Camaro and went one round in eliminations defeating Marc Meihuizen with a holeshot 6.34. He said "I'm glad I got down the track in the second session with the bad weather. So far the season has been tough, we are trying to get to run fast and made a lot of changes, now we are back to the settings for our 6.08/250mph run earlier in the year. We are trying to only make small steps since we started in 2011." Martin said the team built the car and relies on its own expertise to tune it, although they get clutch advice from the US. There is a special technique to launch the car because you have to get the boost at the right level at the hit." The turbo Pro Mods have a three step control, one for pre-stage and one for stage. "We are keeping it straight and are working on going more quickly to the 330' by adjusting the clutch." 
Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop was delighted with a PB 7.28 in qualifying and 7.30 bye round one against a no-show Kenneth Vik. He said "There is more to come, on the 7.28 the 60ft could have been better and the bike went from fourth straight into sixth gear. We did a lot of work over winter and were just settling it in at the Main Event. We knew we had power and were confident to run big numbers but we didn't think it would happen that quickly."
Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com blogger Kalle Lyrén had a problem with the bike refusing to shift into sixth gear. He said "We changed engine and gearbox from our backup to our no.1 engine which we have not run on the track yet. I am looking forward to racing my team-mate Elvira Karlsson in round one, she now has a new 1755cc engine and we will need to go for the finish line."
Pro Stock Bike racer Fredrik Fredlund was joined by 
Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel (pictured right) and crew chief Frank Schwimmer are at their first race this year. Jürgen said before round one "We made two checkout passes to test our new carbon fibre brakes and new ignition system so didn't get a representative time. I am against Ulf Leanders but will try our best. We are ready and the car is ready to go down the track. Our racing schdule depends on how we do at Hockenheim as there is a small gap before the August Tierp event." Jürgen was gifted the win when Ulf couldn't find reverse.
Top Fuel Bike racer Lars Lagerhof was also on a bye run into round two when Peter Andersson-Ström withdrew. He said "We are pleased to have qualified third ahead of Rickard. We will meet Peter Svensson in the semi final. We don't know how the track is and if it is too cold it could be to our advantage. We will aim to run a 6.5 and will see how we do."
Super Twin racer Christian Jäger was quietly confident ahead of a first round match with Job Heezen. He said "We have only had small problems, normal race problems. Everything is working very well and I hope to do better this race."
Super Twin racer Job Heezen was also confident in the Netherlands v Germany match-up reflecting the Euro 2012 competition. Vincent Pels said "We have had problems with rod bearings we have tried to overcome. We have gone back to the settings for last year at Hockenheim and the Finals where we were flowing less fuel through the engine. We were worried about the amount of fuel going through our new engine and have gone back to what we know. On our first qualifying pass we had soft settings and checked the rod bearings were ok, the second pass would have been a 6.7 or 6.8 but Job saw the low oil pressure light and shut off."
Super Twin racer Per Bengtsson was delighted to qualify no.1 with a 6.48. He said "I think we found a good combination in running three weeks ago with more power. It seems to like us producing a lot of power and also using a lot of clutch. This track will be good for drag racing in Scandinavia and we can see the effect on the quantity and quality of entrants." Per said he will only run events at Tierp to improve in consistent conditions.
Super Twin racer Matti Vähäsaari had fuel issues with most fuel going to the back cylinder resulting in the front cylinder leaning out and causing damage to the piston and head. His best ET was 7.87 for eleventh. 
Super Twin racer Joachim 'Acka' Riemer also had problems and finished in ninth qualifying place. He said "We had a broken crankshaft and Dyna ignition box which caused other problems. On the second qualifier the bike looked good but sounded bad so shut it off early which was wise because I would have damaged it. We changed the systems and found that worked and the bike was doing what it should have done. It is difficult for everyone not havin enough practice runs but we are working for ourselves and just want to concentrate on having a good time and going well."
Super Twin racer Samu Kemppainen looked forward to a first round match-up again Jan Sturla Hegre. "We have both run the same ETs but I spun the tyre on the second session and have gone back to the old setup. It's Jan Sturla's best time with a new motor so it should be good."
Pro Mod racer Marc Meihuizen said after the holeshot defeat to Martin Lundkvist "I was surprised that the turbo car was so quick to stage. I thought he needed lots of staging time so he took me at the tree. It was my own mistake but at least the car went well."
Pro Mod racer Urban Johansson won the first two rounds but damage in the second round win against Ola Dahlblom meant that he couldn't make the call for the semi-final. He said earlier "We had too little power in and too much clutch in round one; we can do better in the first 100m of the track. Ola has done very well to run 6.07; he was on my crew and has clearly learned a lot from me!" 
Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Steve Harker sold his car to Leif Andréasson. He said "It's great to be in Europe and this is a fantastic facility, this would impress any US racer." Steve was brought up in Australia and raced there in the 1980s, winning the Top Fuel Bike championship. He changed to alcohol funny cars in 1990 and started racing in the US in 1998-9, starting by doing six races a year while living in Australia. "I sold my business in 2004 and spent six years racing exclusively in the US and had a top five finish every year and was second in 2008 and 2009. In 2010 I met Leif when he was racing in the US and wanted to cut down so I decided to sell my car to him. He has really got it under his belt and his times here are close to my best of 5.52/261 although he has upgraded the engine to Stage 8 heads and 60mm cam since I ran it." Steve is joined by his wife and team member Jenelle. 
Top Methanol Funny Car racer Leif Andreasson (pictured right) was having some trouble getting through to Keith Bartlett (pictured left) on the phone on a busy Sunday morning before the rains came. Leif said "I have two crews, one at Tierp Arena and the other on my car. They work so hard, it's unbelievable. I have been racing for 27 years and never understood how hard the guys work behind the scenes from the guy on the gate to the people at the top end. It's the same with the car crew, Keith (now 22) has been with me since he was 14 and Frank has worked on the team since 1996. Our plans for Tierp Arena are wide ranging with a circuit race planned for September, drifting, 4th July celebration and a huge show for farm and garden equipment. We want to put on 20 events a season and four of these will be big drag races."
Pro Mod racer Robert Joosten was qualified and has Freddie Fagerström in the first round. He said "We are still working on the car and had some problems with shake in the last qualifying pass. We have changed some things and hope we can go through. In reality we are racing ourselves and we have more knowledge about the car on each run."
Pro Mod racer Fredrik Lundh is qualified fifteenth with a personal best of 6.45 (before this event 6.57). He said "We are testing a new lean out timing device which retards the ignition in the first second of the run and it is working well. This is our first Pro Mod race - I have run Top Doorslammer but we think quarter mile racing is best for us, so we will be running Pro Mod in the EDRS and at Tierp FIA events." Thanks to crewman Daniel Larsson for interpretation.
Pro Mod racer Ola Dahlblom was also pleased to qualify and he had impressive times of 6.17 and 6.25 on Friday. He said "We have had the car for four years and this is my second year in Pro Mod. We plan to run both Pro Mod and Top Doorslammer." Ola races a '63 Corvette supplied by Tim McAmis with a 521cu in blower engine.
Pro Mod racer Anders Nilsson ran a best of 6.30 to qualify 12th. This puts him against Bruno Bader in round one. The car was previously owned by Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis. He said after a red-light in the first round "The starter wasn't quick enough! A 6.3 was a great time and our goal was to qualify so I guess it was a successful weekend but we want to try to improve." Anders will be running events at Tierp only.
Pro Mod racer Micke Johansson runs this beautiful '70 Challenger and finished 21st of 26 runners with a 6.84. The car was built by Bertans Race Cars with a carbon fibre body, a supercharged Brad Andersen series 6 engine, Crower Clutch and Lenco CS1 gearbox.
This Gulf-sponsored '32 hot rod owned by Goräran Pihl is not on the entry list, but we could not resist it. The engine is a supercharged 545cu in Ford with Powerglide transmission. The car was at Kjula last weekend which you may have seen on the live webcast.
Pro Mod racer Jari Paren from Kuusankoski in Finland failed to qualify after two attempts at burnouts. He said "The weekend didn't go well because of problems before we ran, firstly a broken throttle cable and then a leak from the water pump. We will race at Alastaro and back here in August."
Pro Mod racer Niclas Andersson said "We shook the tyres in session one and did a safe 6.20 pass in the second session which was important with the weather getting worse. It is a fast car and capable of a 6.0 or a high 5 second pass. Our plans this year only to run a couple of Top Doorslammer meetings and to do all the EDRS and Swedish FIA rounds." Niclas is qualified eleventh and races Jan Gunnarson in round one.
Pro Mod racer Johan Samuelsson went 8.46 for no.24 position. He said "We have had some small issues with an ignition trigger problem, but think we have solved that so should be prepared for the next race. We will race Top Doorslammer and be back here in August and hope weather conditions are better. Sadly we can't do Finland as getting time off and paying for travel is difficult. We need more runs and information to tune the car; we have run a best of 6.55 but know it can go quicker. The ignition trigger is a device to avoid misfiring and damage to the engine and gearbox going down track and we have an MSD ignition and Autronic fuel system that the trigger works between."
Pro Mod racer Freddie Fagerström has modified his colour scheme with even more rust coloured areas as before. Performance-wise, he astonished with a 6.13 in session one and new PB 6.04 in session two for qualifying no.3. The new bests have already been updated in the 
Car restorer Jan Johansson is here with two superb examples of his work from the 1970s. This Monza was built by John Butterra (his second last car before the 1978 Prudhomme Army car) and campaigned in the US by Pisano & Matsubara with Jake Johnston driving. It was imported into Sweden by Lee Anders Hasselström and campaigned as Flygvapnet with the same body and then with a Datsun body. Jan said "I have a spare Monza body which I will be restoring in Flygvapnet colours and the original Datsun body. The car can be fired up and do a burnout.
The two restored funny cars of Jan Johansson are displayed together with a stall selling the latest history book oon Swedish drag racing, Legend and History. On the web, more about the history of the sport in Sweden is 
The Opel Manta funny car was originally owned by Jungle Jim Liberman and won the 1975 NHRA Summernationals as a Chevy Vega. It was then imported into Sweden by Bjorn Andersson and Tage Hammermen and campaigned in these colours in 1976-7; in 1976 had the distinction of being the first Swedish-owned Funny Car in the sixes with a 6.92 at Santa Pod driven by John Andersson. It was then sold to Tommy Svensson in 1978 being campaigned as Blue Swede on methanol and then being sold to Werner Habermann who owned it from 1979 to 2007. Jan has restored it to its 1976 colours. He also has the Vega body restored in Jungle Jim colours and, having spoken to Jungle Pam, hopes to take both cars to Bakersfield in 2013.
Fredrik Lundh's Pro Modified was in the pairing lanes on Friday. As we post this, the crew are hard at work drying the track so, with a curfew extended to 10pm, we are hopeful of some racing today.