Top Fuel Bike racer and event winner Ian King had suffered handling problems and only had one decent run before the final. Engineering manager for the team Marius van der Zijden said "We were a bit too greedy with the power in Q1 and Q4. There was a problem with crossing the lane in Q2, however other teams did it as well and the camber may have been a factor. In Q3 however the bike ran a decent 6.17 which we think is what the track could have taken and Ian was off the throttle before the finish. In E1 Ian feathered the throttle and so Otto has lane choice. The bike has been fine mechanically, it has just been just the usual small things." Ian's 6.42 in the final was too much for Rickard Gustavsson's 6.918.

Johan van de Sande of Hoogeloon, The Netherlands won our Nitrographer for a Day competition and is spending the whole of Sunday taking trackside shots, with his wife and family looking on. He said "It's great to have a chance to get close to the action but can get a bit scary with some classes!" Johan has promised us some examples of his work which we look forward to showing other readers.

Pro Modified racer Mattias Wulcan ran a best of 6.105 in qualifying to finish third and had a first round match-up against Mats Eriksson in which he improved to 6.06, and in the second round a 6.47 against a red-lighting David Vegter. Crew chief Pelle Eriksson said "The car is going better and better each round and we have found good settings. We found a crack in the rear end which we fixed last night after Q4." Mattias won the event with a 6.08 hole-shot win over Michael Gullqvist.

Fuel Funny Car racer Gordon Smith has been fighting mechanical woes. In the night show (which was the third qualifier) there was a battery failure which stopped the timers from working and the best of three runs is 7.605. Gordon was against Kevin Kent in the semi-final round of eliminations and defeated him with his best time of the weekend, 6.335.

Pro Stock racers Thomas Lindström and Christian Sagelv were in the pairing lanes before the second round of eliminations. Thomas qualified second with 6.691 and defeated Micke Callin in round one and Michael Malmgren in round two of eliminations with 6.71 and 6.72 respectively. Thomas was eventually runner up to Jimmy Ålund in the final. Christian ran his first 6.8 in qualifying but went out in round one against Magnus Pettersson.

Fuel Funny Car racer Kevin Kent has Nick Hales (pictured left) as his crew chief and Tony Pearson as tuning consultant. Nick said "We are going down the track and are picking up tuneup tweaks as we go. In the night show Kevin got severe tyre shake and the car made a move towards the centre line blocks so he had to lift. But all is good mechanically. Rune Fjeld has been giving us tuning advice on every run which has been very helpful." Kevin's directional problems continued in the semi final round where he had to shut off before half track.

Fuel Funny Car racer Jason Phelps' team had a late night when a spun main bearing on the crank meant a complete engine teardown. The crew got to bed at 4am and then were back at the track at 8:30am. "The problem happened at 200-300ft out and the motor nosed over and Jason was off the throttle," said a crew member. In round one of eliminations the blower banged at half track against Leif Helander.

Top Fuel Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher said "Our problems have resulted from parts coming in late for both cars. So we were not ready when we left our workshop in Switzerland. We had no time to test the new parts and I had to miss Q1 and Q2. In Q3 I had shake was and in Q4 drove through tyre smoke. But we had figured out the right direction to go by the night show. There were lots of problems and the team worked to 3am fixing them." Urs had an engine fire in a losing semi final effort against Micke Kågered and says whilst he has sponsorship from Midland Oil to go to Tierp, he is still searcing for support for the team's attendance at the Euro Finals.

Supertwin racer and event winner Job Heezen said "We have struggled to find our way in qualifying and ran a best of only 8.13. Our 7.44 run in the first round of eliminations was pretty good and it looks like we have a baseline. We have all had handling problems and the track looks as though it is easier for cars than bikes. However we are happy with the bike mechanically." A 7.39 got past a tyre-smoking Christian Jäger to get Job into the final where a a 7.23 got past an off-the-throttle Ronny Aasen.

Supertwin racer Ronny Aasen riding Ton and Vincent Pels' bike has been in the lead for performance, qualifying no.1 with 6.59 and running 6.76 and 6.88 in eliminations, the only sixes of eliminations. He said "The bike is working better and better. We made some major changes after Finland and it was positive, we are moving in the right direction and in harmony. Ton and Vincent know the bike so well, having built it but I have mechanical input on the clutch, bearings and crank and supply information from the runs. So with three brains we are improving performance". Vincent added "We are also looking good for the points since Samu red-lit against Job."

Pro Stock Bike racer Karl-Heinz Weikum is in the 7.1s and is also pleased with top speeds of 306kph. He said "We are struggling with the clutch for the first 60ft but are positive about being potential winners." Karl-Heinz was up against Fredrick Fredlund in the semi final and pushed the tree too hard with a red light against Fredrick's 7.13.

Top Fuel Dragster racer Thomas Nataas's team had been fighting ignition problems with only one magneto working. Team co-owner Per Andersen said "The first run with both magnetos was the first round of eliminations. We now have to calm it down and hopefully get down the track." Thomas said "Without a second magneto the car feels really slow down the track. Anita has lane choice but the lanes are equal, at least it's a decision we don't have to worry about." Thomas's 4.42 was enough to stay ahead of a tyre smoking Anita Mäkelä and put him in the final against Micke Kågered which he later won with an emphatic 4.11 after Micke shut off after the burnout.

Super Pro ET racer Tom Winter has bought Steve Hall's ex-Pro Mod Vette and is running it on a 7.90 dial-in. An eight seconds flat run gave him 24th place.

These two early Corvettes are pitted together and belong to Nicole Rechsteiner who runs it in Pro ET and Beat Rechsteiner who is in Super Pro ET. Beat qualified 2nd with 8.501 on 8.50 dial and Nicole qualified 23rd with 9.352 on a 9.20 dial.

Super Pro ET racer Mark Flavell was class winner after overcoming earlier problems. Crew chief Craig Owen said "We ran the same index through but might change it for the final as the air may be better. The car has worked well and Mark's reaction times were good which kept us in the game. We are just doing our own race and not wondering what the other guys can do. We have plenty of data so are quite confident although the tyres are a little unpredictable in spinning." Mark added "It's our third foreign trip racing and our third final so it is great we are going home with the honours.

Super Pro ET racer Wouter van Leersam was Mark Flavell's final round opponent, having qualified 16th with 7.47 on 7.44 dial in. He suffered engine problems in the semi final run after a consistent string of 7.4s.

Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt made a demo pass at the night show with a planned shut-off at 900ft but at the shut-off the crankshaft snapped. Crewman Phil said "It's one of those things, we are out of competition but will do our best to be repaired ready for the Euro Finals."

Funny Bike racer Stefan Hagenstein from Stahnsdorf runs a Hayabusa with multi-stage nitrous and slider clutch. His PB is 8.4 but had problems here and could only manage a 10.49 which made him second alternate.

Funny Bike racer Eric Richard won his first round race with a 7.509 over Stefan Hagenstein as a result of Maarten Zijlstra having broken. Eric ran a 7.48 to qualify third. He was Super Street Bike runner up in France in three years and Competition Bike Champion 2009 and 2010. The bike was a 1300 GSXR with Garrett GT40 turbo, nitrous and Motec M400 engine management producing 600ps.

Pro Stock Bike racer Kenneth Holmberg is in his first season on the UEM series and crewman Erik Larsson (pictured left) said "We are struggling but making small steps to go quicker at each event. Yesterday's 7.72 was an improvement and a new best." Kenneth said "This was only my twentieth pass on the bike". The bike has a Pro Service engine built by Erik who has the equipment to make the parts necessary. The team are taking one race at a time and want to run at the Euro Finals.

Pro Stock Bike racer and event winner Fredrick Fredlund has run several 7.0s at recent events but the first six is proving elusive. He said "The engine has run a 6.82 in the US and we are wondering why it doesn't go quicker than 7.0s in Europe. We had clutch problems at Tierp and ignition issues at Alastaro. He said "With the new track we can only use a small amount of our previous data. The problem is getting off the start line. We changed the tyre for the last qualifier which helped and want to step up today. It is so competitive for racers and teams and this puts pressure on us to perform better." After this event Fredrick will run at Mosten to prepare for the Euro Finals and then look at options for the winter.

Pro Stock racer Christian Sagelv recorded a much improved best of 6.83/325kph to qualify fifth. His father Rolf said "We have Magnus Petersson in the first round and it will be a drivers race. The car is good mechanically and now we can set the clutch up for a 6.7s run." Christian's car was dragged through stage as he went up on the revs so his first round win is still awaited.

Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren was a winner in round one against Jan Palmqvist with a 6.72 over Jan's 6.84. He said "We are making consistent runs which is what matters, but we would like a high 6.6s run. The track is good, better when it is cool but no big deal."

Pro Stock racer Micke Callin was disappointed at the performance and qualified 7th with a 6.88 and went out in round one with tyre shake against Thomas Lindström. He said "We will have to step up as we are against Thomas Lindström in the first round. We got down the track in Tierp, Finland and Santa Pod but not here and we are changing the setup all the time to get a good one for Hockenheim." Micke is aiming for third in the championship but aware that Michael Malmgren is doing well. The car, all parts and pieces and team resource are all up for sale as this will be Micke's last season as a team owner. He reminded us his is the third quickest PS in Europe with a best of 6.65.

Pro Stock racer Magnus Pettersson had a broken engine after Q3 and had to make a change before session four. He said "We hadn't run the engine before and were pleased to go 6.79 on its first run when the air was not as good." The performance improved further to 6.75 in round one of eliminations.

Pro Modified racer Mats Eriksson said "We ran a good 6.20 at first but had problems getting the car off the starting line in later runs as there was too much clutch and it was getting loose in second gear. Yesterday the tyre shake was so bad it broke a ring in the brake system and I had to swerve the car to stop it before the end of the track. The clutch is softer for today so we can launch." Mats improved to 6.18 but, in a close race, came up short against Mattias Wulcan in round one running a 6.06.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Adam Flamholc said "The ladder is very tight with five cars between 5.62 and 5.67. We tried for a 5.5 on the last run but there was too much shake. We are very happy with the new track surface." Adam pointed out the first three cars in the championship are on the same side of the ladder and Adam's defeat of Leif Andréasson in round one could be important for his plans. "The same week as the Euro Finals on the Thursday and Friday there is an ADRL Battle of the Belts race at Rockingham where the top eight in the championship race for a purse of $550,000. I am thinking of racing in that and then flying to the UK late Friday to qualify on Saturday, but it depends how Tierp goes as I am now close to the lead in both FIA and ADRL." His runner up finish in the event (to Johan Lindberg) consolidated his championship position. Adam also mentioned the funny car will be for sale after the end of the season as he is planning to race Pro Mod on both sides of the Pond in 2014 with a new car in the US.

Top Fuel Bike and Funny Bike racer Filippos Papafilippou is running the bike for the first time on a prepared surface. He said "We went 7.25 in Crete for a new Greek national record. We have tried to increase the power here but are not seeing the improvement that we were expecting and need to change the clutch combination to find the best setup." The bike is ex ADRL and has a Vance & Hines engine which is being tuned with the advice of Rick Ward of Vortex Engineering." Fil ran a 7.01 bye in round one of Funny Bike, his best run of the weekend. He is also building another Funny Bike.