TOP FUEL TOUR ROUND 2, TULLINGE RACEWAY, SWEDEN
By guest reporter Ivan Sansom


SATURDAY

Back to Tullinge Raceway, just south east of Stockholm, for the second round of the Swedish Top Fuel Tour 2000 and the accompanying Nordic Pro Street Cup meeting. This will probably be the decisive meeting of the Top Fuel Tour, as, unlike Pitea, the weather is excellent, and the 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th place runoffs from the rained off Midnight Sun Nationals have taken place this afternoon.

The Tullinge track doesn't appear to be in quite the same shape as last year, where the startline was excellent and the top end a bit hit and miss; this year the top end is reportedly excellent and the first half not so good. Track preparation hasn't been helped by the amount of rain that has fallen in Sweden over the past couple of weeks.

Yesterday Alan Jackson put in a 60 foot (0.93) to familarise the CBD team with the track. The first round of qualifying today was doubly important as not only did it count to towards the eliminations ladder, but it also saw the teams trying to establish a base line for the final runoffs from the aforementioned Pitea round.

Needless to say, Peter Lantz and the Optima backed team carried on where he left off at Tullinge last year with a 5.195 450km/h despite a clutch cannon malfunction. Jackson's pass was the subject of a little head scratching, a 5.854 at 348 km/h seemed a result of a timing glitch caused by reflection from the CBD rail's highly polished front wheels, tripping the beams and apparently adding .5 to the ET (it didn't look like a 5.8 from my vantage point) and giving Alan a red light. The driver, crewchief Bill Schultz and the timing crew seemed as puzzled as anyone. Monica Oberg and Pelle Lindelow both lost traction by the 60 foot clocks.

Between rounds AJ spent a lot of care plying copious amounts of shoe whitener on the front wheels and Peter and Morgan Svensson were putting more into the clutch. Dan Soderberg was backing a little out of everything from Monica's ride and Pelle's mount was carrying a little less in the clutch.

The Fuelers were brought to the startline in front of a massive ground for the second qualifying round and the Pitea runoffs. First up it was Pelle vs Monica for 3rd and 4th, the clutch adjustments doing Pelle little favours as a tractionless 13.65 was no where near matching Monica's 5.65 at 339. This wasn't quite as smooth as it first seemed as Monica complained of terrible tire shake which forced her off the loud pedal, and then she blew the slicks off at the top end getting back into it just in case Pelle was still chasing.

Jackson vs Lantz was a different case, with Lantz recording a consistent 5.22 at 438 to remain undefeated in over a year of Top Fuel Tour action. The high drama was in the other lane as the CBD dragster gave the Tullinge ground their first view of a fueler chucking its blower, the big bang and flames coming just at the time when Alan was neck and neck with Lantz; a 7.05 at 186 spoling what would have been a classic match-up.

Todays highlights in the other classes included Fast Freddie's consistent 6.6's and half track burnouts (the guy IS a star if you hadn't already noticed); Kai Selk�maa's Super Pro Street Bike running a 8.19; and a certain spectacular wheelie resulting from a careless driver forgetting his wheelie bars at home - I won't mention any names to save the team embarrisement, but I suspect that the Wunder Baum altered might be reunited with an important piece of equipment come eliminations tomorrow..."


SUNDAY

After a really enjoyable night watching the Wheels Nationals Cruise through the centre of Stockholm, it was back to the track for eliminations. On arrival I caught up with the news that Patrik Wikstr�m had lost a headstud down into the motor in his 6.44 second Super Pro Modified on his final pass yesterday, and then had the rear end of his Lamborghini Diablo trashed on the cruise - not a cheap day!

The first race of Top Fuel saw Monica �berg facing up to Alan Jackson, and Monica was really up for it - no wonder when you consider this is her last season and as things currently stand this will be her last day racing over a full quarter mile. The CBD team spent the previous evening replacing a lot of parts after yesterday's blower explosion which was caused by the camshaft drive shearing a "Big problem" to quote Alan.

The match up delivered Tullinge's first side by side five second race with Monica victorious with 5.33@350Km/h besting Jackson's 5.43@369, the later suffering from severe tire shake at 100 feet which led to the fuel levers closing and the car nosing over. Monica's pass wasn't trouble free either as Dan S�derberg showed me the remains of the front end casing of the Littlefield blower which split about 75 metres from the finish.

On the other side of the ladder, No 1 Qualifier Peter Lantz and the Optima backed car was to face Pelle Lindelow and the Red Line Oils car. Peter ran a bracket like 5.20@436Km/h which bested a 5.48@352 for Lindelow, who finally suceeded in getting down the Tullinge track with a very fat motor.

In other eliminations my heart sank as the fire crew and ambulance was dispatched to the top end after Fast Freddie had put in a below par 7 second pass. Most importantly Freddie was A-okay, but what of the pick-up, would he be at Santa Pod in September???

Pelle against Jackson for 3rd and 4th places saw Bill Schultz adopting Plan D for the latter's fourth run at Tullinge, basically adding some to the clutch to try and get the slicks to turn on the sticky track and overcome the tire shake that has plagued the CBD team throughout their Swedish tour. Plan D worked as Alan squeezed a tight one in the lights with a 5.35@458km/h (top speed of the meet) to Pelle's 5.42@374.

Peter and Morgan Svensson decided to leave the car pretty much as it was for the final against Monica, leaving the opposition to try and catch up. Dan S�derberg was quite optimistic about Monica's chances in the race as the incrementals from the previous round placed the two cars pretty much even at 60 feet and �berg some 10 mph faster at half track before the enforced shutoff spoilt what would have been a 5.2 or better. And boy what a final it was. Morgan and the crew had a heart stopping few moments when the car refused to fire first time; Monica patiently waited with her motor running for what seemed like an age. Stupendous burnouts were then followed by a brief burndown, and then Monica welded Peter on the tree before shutting off slightly early to a 5.42 which Peter passed in the final few yards with a Low ET 5.18@451km/h.

Monica said that it was the first time in ages that she had sworn when she saw Lantz fly past; Peter was glad to be quitting as he didn't enjoy seeing another car way out ahead! When asked about the problems firing up Peter responded "I think my crew were trying to screw me up" with a big smile on his face. So the "Retired Racing" Top Fuel final was a classic and brought to a close another stupendous meeting at Tullinge. The Top Fuel Tour moves on to Landskrona in three weeks time, if you can be there!

I must apologize for not covering the other classes here in any depth, but kudos to the winners in overcoming some very tough fields. In no particular order they were: Per-Anders Norrbom (Real Street); Leif Ivarsson (Street); Uno Nilsson (Pro Street); Jimmy �lund (Super Pro Street); Lars-�ke Karlsson (Super Modified); Kent Trenneman (Super Pro Modified and a record 6.80 for a Glide equipped doorslammer in Europe) Niclas Svensson (Super Small Block); H�kan Lundgren (Pro Tech); P�r Eriksson (Super High Tech); Peter Johnsson (Street Bike); Thomas H�llberg (Super Pro Street Bike); Per Larsson (Harley Drag); Rickard S�rman (Harley Drag Breakout); Mikael Nordstr�m (Snowmobile) and Jan Gustavsson (Super Twin Top Gas).

Thanks also to all the racers, officials and photogs who made me so welcome and helped out with translations, time sheets, and lifts to and from the track.

But what of Fast Freddie? Well, straight from the man himself, he will be at the Pod in September and looking to perform 6.4's (and beyond?) so all his British fans out there can sleep save in the knowledge that the pickup will be back!

Further reading

Top Fuel Tour 2000 web site
Peter Lantz's web site
Monica Öberg's web site
Pelle Lindelöw's web site
SHRA Stockholm web site
Photographs from Top Fuel Tour round 1 at Piteå

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