2005 FIA European Finals
Saturday (qualifying/Sportsman eliminations)
|
The latest updates are at the top of the page. Click on your Browser's Refresh key to be sure of seeing the latest news. Click here to go back to the event index 21:20 Today's pictures have now been posted and you can view those via the Event Index page. Tune back in the morning and we'll bring you all the news from eliminations - the weather station is looking very optimistic about tomorrow so here's hoping it is right! See you tomorrow. 18:15 Now that qualifying has been called, final qualifying in Pro classes stands as follows: FIA Top Fuel Dragster final qualifying:
Tomorrow's first round is Micke v Kåered v Jöran Persåker, Andy Carter v Tommy Möller, Susanne Callin v Jon Webster, and Lex Joon v Gary Page. FIA Top Methanol Dragster final qualifying: The qualifying standings after this session are as follow:
Tomorrow's first round is Dave Wilson v John Parkinson, Krister Johansson v Timo Habermann, and Rob Turner v Peter Schöfer. FIA Top Methanol Funny Car final qualifying:
Tomorrow's first round is Urs Erbacher v Ulf Leanders, Dan Larsen v Kjell Sjöblom, Leif Andréasson v Arvid Grødem, and Niclas Andersson v Martin Lundqvist. FIA Pro Stock final qualifying:
Tomorrow's first round is Jimmy A˚lund v Rickard Sundblom, Michael Malmgren v Ulf Jonsson, and Jan Murén v Magnus Hansson. FIM/UEM Top Fuel Bike final qualifying:
Tomorrow's first round is Roel Koedam v Jamie Sneddon, Ian King v Gary Jones, Steve Woollatt v Steve Carey, and Neil Midgley v Tim Blakemore. FIM/UEM Supertwin final qualifying:
Tomorrow's first round is Sven Olav Rolfstad v Hans Christian Nilsen, Ton Pels v Hans Olav Olstad, Lorenz Staüble v Svein Gottenberg and Ronny Aasen v Joachim Riemer. FIM/UEM Pro Stock Bike final qualifying:
Tomorrow's first round is: Anders Abrahamsson v Len Paget, Roger Pettersson v Ray Debben, Anders Larsson v Martin Bishop, and Chris Hope v Richard Gipp. NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified final qualifying:
Tomorrow's first round is Andy Robinson v Rolf Amman, Patrick Wikström v Bruno Bader, Freddy Fagerström v Norbert Kuno, Gordon Appleton v Lars Olsson, Håkan Nilsson v Danny Cockerill, Roger Johansson v Urban Johansson, Micke Gullquist v Marc Meihuizen, and Kent Trenneman v Håkan Fallström. The termination of qualifying has, subject to official ratification, decided two of our European Champions for 2005. Congratulations to:
The situation in the other European classes is as follows: FIA Top Fuel Dragster: Lex Joon has a 38-point lead over Andy Carter, 39 points over Tommy Möller, and 67 points over Micke Kågered with a maximum of 85 points available tomorrow. Thomas Nataas is not qualified and so is now out of the running. FIA Top Methanol FC: Urs Erbacher has a 38-point lead over Dan Larsen with a maximum of 85 points available tomorrow. FIA Pro Stock: Jimmy Ålund has a 72-point lead over the absent Jackie Hansen, and an 81-point lead over Michael Malmgren, with a maximum of 85 points available tomorrow. FIM/UEM Supertwin: Ronny Aasen has a 16-point lead over Ton Pels, and a 30-point lead over Joachim Riemer, with a maximum of 40 points available tomorrow. FIM/UEM Pro Stock Bike: Roger Pettersson has a 24-point lead over Anders Abrahamsson, and a 31-point lead over Martin Bishop, with a maximum of 40 points available tomorrow. NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified: Thanks to our good buddy Erik Zettervall for letting us know that Patrick Wikström has a 27-point lead over Roger Johansson, with we think a maximum of 100 points available tomorrow. Sharkman is working on today's pictures, stay tuned. 17:30 Racing has been called off for today, which also means that all Pro qualifying is done. This means that we have a couple of European Champions, stay tuned. 17:25 Now we have got a problem. The heavens have opened and a downpour of biblical proportions is underway. Stay tuned, but in the meantime Simon has just uploaded another set of pit notes so be sure to take a look at those. 17:00 Race Director Darren Prentice has given us an updated plan. When we get going, we will complete this cycle of Pro qualifying and we will then go into Sportsman eliminations - today's second Pro qualifying session will not take place. Stay tuned. 14:15 The cloud base is lifting and the track crew are working very hard to dry the surface. In the meantime, Comp Eliminator, Super Comp and Super Street have had their remaining qualifying sessions cancelled so here are the final top fives: Comp Eliminator final qualifying:
Super Comp final top five qualifiers:
Super Street final top five qualifiers:
The plan once the track is dry is to complete cycle one of Pro qualifying, go straight into cycle two of Pro qualifying, then to start round one of Sportsman eliminations. 12:00 FIM/UEM Top Fuel Bike qualifying session 3 (left lane first): Sverre Dahl 8.985/201.90 bye... Sverre's rear slick went up in smoke at 100 feet, he feathered the throttle several times and every time he got back on it the tyre went up in smoke but on the fourth attempt the rear slick hooked up. It started to spit with rain after Sverre ran and now it has just started to rain quite hard, stay tuned. The qualifying standings at the moment are as follow:
11:40 FIM/UEM Supertwin qualifying session 3 (left lane first): Job Heezen 10.266/85.74 bye, Hans Christian Nilsen 7.400/183.65, Lorenz Staüble 6.811/194.74, Joachim Riemer 6.984/202.83 bye, Hans Olav Olstad no time, Ronny Aasen 8.287/112.76, Ton Pels 6.786/202.80, Svein Olav Rolfstad shut off Job's bike sounded as it if was misfiring again and Job got off the throttle. Hans Christian took some of the bodywork off his bike just before pulling into stage, an excellent pass from Lorenz moved him up to second at that point and Hans Christian also improved but stayed in place. Joachim rode through minor fishtailing to go into the sixes and move up one place at that point. Ronny looked to be on a good pass, hard and straight, but he got off the throttle at about 400 feet and you could see the bike sit down on its front wheel. Hans Olav's rear tyre went up in smoke off the line, he got off the throttle and rolled to a halt at 1000 feet. Svein Olav had some trouble starting his bike, he got it lit eventually but was not happy and shut it off, so Ton took the bye, the bike was drifting towards the left guardrail but Ton stayed with it and moved up to second. The qualifying standings after this session are as follow:
11:20 FIM/UEM Pro Stock Bike qualifying session 3 (left lane first): Roger Pettersson 7.354/179.86 bye, Len Paget 11.486/131.93, Ray Debben 8.165/164.72, Anders Abrahamsson 7.290/180.54, Martin Bishop 7.807/169.88 A 0.056 reaction time for Roger and into number one spot at that point with a very clean and straight pass. Another 8.1 from Ray, in the other lane it sounded as if Len was having trouble shifting. Anders A took the lead back with a tremendous pass and we think a new PB, a slight improvement from Martin. The qualifying standings after this session are as follow:
11:15 NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified qualifying session 2 continued (left lane first): The first two pairings were the semis of the Swedish Open Pro Mod Championship held over from the Veidec Festival:
Håkan Nilsson 6.438/218.34 def. Micke Gullqvist 6.531/206.59 Jan Arve Nygård 10.252/76.25 bye, Ian Bishop no time bye, Roger Johansson 6.483/204.54 bye, Mats Eriksson 8.528/101.54 bye, Lars Olsson 6.717/205.62, Danny Cockerill 6.681/209.21, Bruno Bader 11.447/68.72, Rolf Ammann 7.000/212.46 Urban Johansson 7.750/141.04 bye, Norbert Kuno 6.985/209.14, Freddy Fagerström 6.464/219.70, Gordon Appleton 6.406/219.36 bye, Andy Robinson 6.337/227.19 bye Håkan N got the jump on Micke who took the long way round, improvements from both racers but both stayed in place. Marc went through to the Open Championship final after Patrick's Camaro wouldn't start, a bit improvement in ET for Marc and he moved a number of places up the standings. Bunny hops off the line again for Jan Arve and he got off the throttle at about 330 feet. Ian Bishop had a nitrous burp off the line. A much improved run for Roger moved him right up the standings, small spits of flame from the exhausts at each gear change then on the finish line. Some consternation around the ear of Mats' car before his run but he got the OK to go into stage, on the green the Goblin hit shake from about twenty feet and Mats got off the throttle at about 200 feet. Great side-by-side action from Lars and Danny, both improving and moving up the standings. Bruno hit shake and got off the throttle almost immediately, Rolf again went all over his lane but stayed with it all the way. At this point the rain came in and the session was put on hold to this morning. Urban put in a short but very out of shape burnout, the car turning hard left right by the Tree. On the green Urban got to just about the same place and hit shake although he still recorded a 1.052 sixty foot time, he got off the pedal for about a second and then got back on it. Freddy pulled a 300-foot burnout before his match-up with Norbert. Norbert hit shake and pedalled a couple of times, the car moved all over the lane but he hung on in there, Freddy as ever drove through shake and stayed on it as the car moved left and right. Andy was shut off after returning from his burnout, Gordon took the bye and moved up a place with his best pass this weekend, a hard straight pass. Andy was then allowed to run after Supertwin, a tremendous straight pass and a new speed record if he can back it up, well done Andy! The qualifying standings at the moment are as follow:
9:30 We've just received official word of the plan for this morning. Qualifying will commence at about 10:30 with the first of today's two Pro sessions: FIM/UEM bikes and FIA classes and then session three of NDRS Bilsport Pro Modified. Those Pro Mod racers who were lined up in the pairing lanes last night will be given the option to complete session two this morning, but the word from the Race Director is that session two will count even if they choose not to run first thing, so that is good news. Trackside conditions right now are 17.9 C, 98% humidity, and 29.53 inches of air. Stay tuned and we'll be back as soon as qualifying starts. 8:30 Good morning and welcome from Santa Pod Raceway for day three of the FIA European Finals. Today we are qualifyign and also kicking off Sportsman eliminations and we're here to bring you all the news in association with American Car Imports. The Webster Race Engineering/MPM Oil webcam is on-line and is broadcasting a picture every two minutes. You can view the webcam via the Event Index page. Right now the track is damp since we had heavy rain early this morning. The track crew are already working very hard to dry the surface so we can get going. The plan is to finish last night's Pro Mod session and then go into Sportsman eliminations in most classes and to continue Pro qualifying. Simon is on his way to the pits so stay tuned to the pit notes page to see what he finds out. If you have looked at the event index page this morning you will have noticed an additional dedication to Oliver Everitt to join that to Dennis Stone. We were shocked to hear that Super Pro ET racer John Everitt lost his sixteen-year-old son Oliver yesterday; we spoke to John this morning and he said that he has come back to the track to win the event for Oliver, whom he called Best Mate, as he knew that it was what he would have wanted. We're sure that everyone will join Tog and Sharkman in sending their deepest sympathy to John and Lyn and to all of Oliver's family and friends. A couple of Hellos this morning; a big Hej to our buddies Magnus Cato and Stanley Mellström who are tuned in from Sweden, sorry you can't be here. Hi also to Nikki Pilkington; to answer your E-Mail of yesterday no-one else has commented which tends not to point the finger at us (grin). Back to Sweden and Hej again and Get Well Soon to our good buddy Erik Zettervall. Stay tuned and as soon as the racing starts we'll be right here with all the news. Reports and pictures ©Eurodragster.com |