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Fuel Altered Randy Bradford from the US ran a 6.918/268.82 in his exhibition race against Ron Hope. The visitors were impressed with the Hockenheim facility. |
Super Pro ET racer Bernard Saz made a big leap forward in performance to record a 7.151/306.47 on 7.14 dial against J�rgen Schubert. |
Top Methanol Dragster racer Rod Harrison suffered a torque convertor failure at half track on his run which caused a cloud of smoke. He said 'The weld along the join in the casing came apart and we will send it back for inspection. We hope we can get a replacement before the Euro Finals'. |
Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita Mäkelä ran Hockenheim's first three second 1000ft pass, a 3.962 in her defeat of Urs Erbacher. She was delighted, and went on to an even quicker 3.939/486.91 defeat of Stig Neergaard in the semi final. This puts Anita in the championship lead after this event, with two more races to come. |
Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel won with a 6.00 after Danny Bellio's clutch pulled him through stage. Crew chief Frank Schlemmer said 'Our engine revved to 10000rpm in first gear and checked but there is no damage. We are looking forward to racing Ari in the next round and will give him our best, a round win is great to have'. |
Top Methanol Funny Car racer Johnny Oksa ran a new PB of 5.603/412.33 in his defeat of Leif Andr�asson in round one. 'What's more, I've got a bye run into the final which is great for my championship chances'. His bye run improved further to a 5.576/414.22. |
Top Methanol Funny Car racer Ari Pietil� had a no.1 qualifier bye in round one but the engine rpm soared as the rear end lifted after the launch. The team were checking the valve train as we passed. His 5.63 defeat of Jürgen Nagel made it an all Finnish TMFC final. |
Pro Modified racer Bruno Bader ran 6.019 in round one and 6.014 in his round two defeat of David Vegter. He said that the car was running well but this simple statement masks a lot of work the teams all have to do. Bruno went as far as the semi final where Johan Lindberg ran a 6.00 to defeat him. |
Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Marco Maurischat was pleased to run a 6.435/364kph. He said 'We bought a new engine from the Lindbergs and tested it over two weekends at Malmö. It's the best engine I've ever had but had problems with the brakes during staging on Friday. We fixed it but there is probably a little too much power and we need more practice of taking power out and changing settings.' |
Pro Mod racer Mats Eriksson suffered an engine failure when two rods broke. Crew chief Lars Göran Eriksson said 'We're not sure why they broke but they made a hole in the oil pan and the side of the block. We changed engines on Friday and so we will have to go home and see how many parts we have to rebuild it'. |
Pro Stock racer Magnus Petersson qualified sixth and went out to Jimmy Ålund in round one. He said 'I had problems in both qualifying sessions, in the first one there was an ignition timing breakage and in the second the gearbox broke. A 6.72 would have been third best in qualifying but against Jimmy it was not enough. I want to go for second in the championship but it is really Jimmy against Bengt and it now depends partly on who Michael can take out. |
Pro Stock racer Bengt Ljungdhal ran a new track record of 6.52 in round one after Stefan Ernryd was bulbed. He said 'It's a great car and Marcus and I keep in touch with Shane Gray's team about our progress'. Bengt is in the hunt for the championship but needs to meet and beat Jimmy Ålund. 'One of my goals is to beat the best'. Bengt's crew chief is Marcus Svensson, who has been crewing in the class for many years. |
Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Martin Newbury ran a 7.358/299.75 against a Dimitrios Petridis whose motor cut out at the hit. He said 'Qualifying went well on Friday, the track was good but the air was awful, today is much better. I'm happy, which is a rarity.' |
Pro Stock Bike racer Len Paget ran a 7.413/283.33 to defeat Martin Bishop who was an alternate for Alex Hope who couldn't start. He said 'My speed was very close to my best and the bike is running well with our new Motec data logger.' |
Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop has a new engine for this event. Team member Daniel Marshall said 'The new engine has got bigger valves and Martin ran it in on the first pass to 8.3, then we got tuning and ran a 7.65. Our losing pass was a 7.49 and we're sure we can go quicker in the Euro Finals'. Martin said 'I hadn't been in as an alternate before and it was strange to me because if you're not expecting it, which we weren't you go into panic mode if you are called. Many thanks to Len for waiting for me.' |
Supercharged Outlaw racer Tony Betts ran in the night show but had to idle down the track because his windscreen and visor both misted up in the humid conditions. 'We're an exhibition class so it's not clear whether we can run today', he said. Tony plans to attend the California Hot Rod Reunion to crew with Baz Young whom he has invited to the UK in 2017. |
Funny Bike racer Markus Laur's Turbo Suzuki GSX built in 2006 is immaculate. He qualified no.3 with a 7.900 and went a round in eliminations before being defeated by Eric Richard. |
Super Comp racer Kay Erbs won a bizarre race when his chute came out against Andre Mueller who had a huge reaction time advantage, didn't see Kay's predicament - and broke out with an 8.827. |
Pro Stock racer Simon Gustavsson tried everything in his first round matchup against Michael Malmgren with a 0.018 light and 6.975 ET. But Michael Malmgren's superior horsepower enabled him to overcome the challenge. |
Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren wants to improve on the no.3 on his car and a round win here helped. In the semi final though he has to face Bengt Ljungdahl who is on track record-breaking form. |
Pro Stock racer Bengt Ljungdahl has a great car from Shane Gray and has been making the most of its performance. He qualified no.2 with 6.64/334kph on only his second pass down the Hockenheim quarter mile, and uncorked a superb 6.527 in round one against a non-starting Stefan Ernryd to set a new track record. |
Pro Modified racer Micke Gullqvist was again in winning form, qualifying no.1 with 6.011 at a slowish speed of 349.4kph. He then went 6.17/359 in round one to defeat Norbert Kuno's red-lighting 6.355. Piston damage on that run led to a thrash between rounds and a bye in round two must have taken the pressure off a little. |
Pro Modified racer Mats Eriksson came into the event only 29 points adrift of leader Micke Gullqvist, qualified no.4 with a 6.12/374 and scored low ET of round one with a 6.017 against Jean Dulamon. However things went wrong for him in round two when the engine expired against Marck Hartefeld. He had earlier joked about the back to back FIA rounds that 'If we have work to do, we can do it at Borlange on Wednesday on our way to Tierp'. It could be a busy day for him. |
Pro Modified racer David Vegter travelled to Russia for round three of their championship, which has enjoyed excellent media coverage and stars of racing such as David and Adam Flamholc making demo runs. Here, David qualified third with 6.124/376 and beat Hussain al Shammari in round one with a 6.683/336. |
Thanks to Swiss photographer Roland Schenker of Dragmag.de for allowing us to use his on-track photos. In this shot taken on Friday Top Methanol Dragster racer Jonny Lagg suffered tyre shake in his first qualifying run but still went 5.56. |
Super Pro ET racer Scott Crookston was urged on by car owner Colin Millar and his team on Saturday's final qualifying session. Scott also ran well in the night show in very difficult conditions, the car going arrow-straight to a 8.4. Scott also came up a winner in round one of eliminations. |
Jet racers Martin Hill and Julian Webb pitted alongside each other in the Hockenheim garage area. Julian ran near the beginning of the night show and the car threw a lot of spray in the shutdown area, but Julian got it to a halt without drama. Martin closed the night show with a tremendous flame and thunder display alongside Gerd Habermann's Dragon Hunter II. |
Junior Dragster racer Morgan Wilson got a pep talk from her crew before round one of eliminations. She went on to defeat top qualifier Linnea Thulin from Sweden, setting up a fraternal match-up with Caitlin in round two. Caitlin defeated Manuel Cassinelli from Italy in round one and was the winner in the round two sisterly shootout. |
Pro Mod racer Jean Dulamon ran a 6.779/328 to qualify 11th and improved to a 6.600/343 in round one but that was no match for Mats Eriksson. He said 'We have new rods, crank and pistons and I just used a single stage of nitrous to run 6.6s and hope for 6.5s at the Euro Finals and MSA Finals. My crew are formidable there are only three of them and I thank my crew chief Thierry Benoit especially. |
Junior Dragster racer Billy Everitt qualified sixth with a RT of 0.086. He is being crewed by Brad Head and Pete Kellett this weekend. Billy defeated Cheyenne Visser in round one, so there were three Brits through to the quarter finals, but only Caitlin Wilson went through to the semis. |
Pro ET racer Glenn Pallant qualified no.1 after yesterday's session and went on to defeat B�ranger Pudil's Camaro in round one, running +0.003 on his dial in. In round two he was eliminated by Laurant Levi in the Comet. |
Pro ET racer Bob Molden was pleased to have qualified, running a +0.007 to go fourth in the order. However he was defeated by Guerrino Gabucci in the Fiat Uno turbo in round one. |
Pro ET racer Ian Brown qualified 27th with a +0.120 10.900 and he was defeated by Fabien Dubois in round one. So it was only Glenn Pallant carrying the flag in round two. |
Top Methanol Dragster racer Jndia Erbacher's car had problems and she only managed to put in one qualifying pass. After discussions with officials over a possible blue line violation resulting from the car being touched by a crew member, she was reinstated and she managed a clean pass today in the car, which has run 5.2s in the US with other drivers, against a red-lighting Jonny Lagg. A 5.875/417kph pass resulted in wild celebrations from her team. |
Pro Modified racer Thomas Stiefel was confident before round one, saying the car was running well and the track was great. He ran a new PB of 6.086/378kph to defeat Eurodragster.com sponsor Marco Maurischat. We will be seeing Marco at the Euro Finals. |
Pro Modified racer Bruno Bader was again consistent and quick with a 6.019 train-lengthing win over Marcus Hilt. He will be up against David Vegter in round two who shook the tyres in the first round. |
Top Fuel Dragster racer Stig Neergaard has a performance advantage so far. It may be that we see a three second pass today, and round one is the most likely. Stig has a bye run but may run hard for lane choice. |
Pro Modified racer Marcus Hilt, pictured with wife Brigitte Hilt-Suter was relaxed after a good qualifying performance of 6.438/253. But the performance went away against the other '63 Vette in the field |
Pro Modified racer Michel Tooren suffered a leak after what sounded like an overevving engine in the burnout, giving an easy win to fellow Dutchman Marck Harteveld - who shook the tyres on his solo pass. |
Pro Modified racer Marck Harteveld qualified 10th with a 6.599 and went through to a matchup with Mats Eriksson in round two, which he won after Mats had engine problems on the run. In the semi final Marck won against defending champion Micke Gullqvist's 6.00 with a massive holeshot 6.150/372.32, a new PB for Marck. |
Pro Modified racer Johan Lindberg also had an easy pass when first round competitor Roland Bolletter (helped this weekend by Roger Johansson) left way too early. Johan opted to idle down the track. In round two he produced a 5.99/377kph to defeat Thomas Stiefel's PB 6.099/376.86 and in the semi final he defeated Bruno Bader. |
Top Fuel Dragster racer Micke Kågered suffered problems in both of his qualifying passes but he was hopeful to regain form in eliminations. A 4.156/361.01 defeated Liam Jones in round one and he idled through in the semi final. |
Top Methanol dragster racer Jonny Lagg is in a narrow tuning window and hoped to run 5.4 at this event. We will be seeing more TMDs at the Euro Finals |
Top Fuel Dragster racer Liam Jones is qualified fourth with a 4.062/432 and is against Micke Kågered in round one. The other round one matchup is Eurodragster.com sponsor Urs Erbacher against Anita Mäkelä. |
Super Pro ET racer Jens Könnecke has moved up from Pro ET, qualified 21st with 8.29 on an 8.21 dial but was defeated by Franz Aschenbrenner in round one. |
Super Street Bike racer Shawn Buttigieg was leading the FIM SSB points coming into this event and qualified no.1 with a great 7.148/333. But he suffered one of the biggest upsets when he had problems and was beaten by Allan Quist Jensen running only his sixth pass on Garry Bowe's 2015 bike. Allan's 8.05 was a new PB for him and he will be looking for a seven against Steve Mead in round two. |