2005 FIA Main Event
Monday (eliminations)
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15:30
Lex Joon (Top Fuel Finalist) said "The motor is ok with no major damage but we are still only running on 6 cylinders. We hope we can work it out and run a record. Jon deserves to win because he helped us repair the front end. He's a great guy and it will be good to race him in the final."
Jon Webster said "We have needed only routine maintenance - there were some flames when the headers came off and they burnt through some webbing - but it is all repairable. We want to have a good race and to run faster to match Lex."
Ian King (Top Fuel Bike finalist) said "Our previous best was 6.42 and we have beat that 3 times so far this weekend. We are making more power and have much better control of the clutch. We believe the motor is undamaged and we have not had to take the cylinder head off once which is some sort of record, as it is a standard Yamaha part. We are awaiting a new billet head for Alastaro, and are using the same tuneup that we intend to use with the new head. Thanks go to sponsors Micket Thompson tyres, Goodridge, Gates, Pro Ally, Vanson Leathers, Wackyshack Paint Shop. My team are great, thanks to Michael Beaumont, Chris Powell, Mark Brookman, Nick Pepper and Mark Fossey."
Steve Woollatt (Top Fuel Bike finalist) said "We have a new clutch management system and are using two stages this weekend (previously only one stage was used). Our datalogger showed we need more clutch and tried this yesterday but it resulted in bad tyre shake. The motor is reliable - we are checking just the usual bits."
Urs Erbacher (TMFC) said "We are confident - we broke the trans on the last pass and have just replaced it. The out-of-shape pass was caused by wheelspin as we are going for the record."
Dan Larsen said "We will try to beat Urs - we have a brand new combination and are getting closer and closer. We have not really damaged anything but have a lot of tyre shake. We hope to get Urs on the lights.
Jimmy Alund (Pro Stock) said "We have a good chance against Jackie, but we have had problems with the clutch all weekend and have not made a single perfect ru, not even the 6.91. The last run we put in too much clutch and had tyre shake.
12:30
After round one of Top Fuel, Lex Joon was confident that he can beat Tommy. "We are the only car to run two 4s this weekend. The flame you saw was the burst panel going after too much pressure in the blower", said Lex
Tommy Moller said of his next round race with Lex, "We have raced before but this year both our equipment is entirely different. We are happy with the run yesterday so have not stepped the car up." Tommy also had the bonus of not needing to make a hard pass and risking damage in the first round .
Alan Jackson said of Micke Kagered's car, "We had more problems with the ignition. We thought we had the system fixed, but it dropped a few cylinders on the run (a 5.8). There is no damage however. This was the first run of the weekend with the mags working properly. His comment on the next race with Jon Webster was "That's my tune-up in his car!"
Jon Webster said "The car felt good but it still isn't perfect at the top end - it's a clutch related problem which is pulling down the motor as it comes in . Our thanks go to Peter Knight, my crew chief, and the whole team has been brilliant."
In the Pro Mod pits, Andy Robinson admitted that he left in 2nd gear against Jorgen Karlsson, who was slow in staging. "He didn't bother us at all. The car is more difficult to launch now - previously using the nitrous setup you floored the throttle in stage before launching whereas with the blown engine you feather the throttle and need to get the right combination of revs and clutch on the launch. I thank Dave Wilson for all the motor advice he has given us. I am also grateful to our sponsors Torco Oil, Superchargers UK, Norfolk Line, Hydlomar and a special thanks to Paul of RMRS."
Danny Cockerill said "We are consistent - but too slow. We are not making enough power, but don't want to step up at this meeting. We will need to take the motor apart and work on it with some new pieces. Our time is limited though as we have to pack to take the car to Finland on 7 June.
Ian Bishop (who is being crewed by Al Golding) said of his wild run in the first round of Pro Mod, "We need to soften the clutch for the next round. A big thankyou for Ton Pels who kindly supplied a relacement pushrod - yes, we're running a Harley pushrod in our Chrysler B-1 Motor!"
Mats Eriksson and Patrick Wikstrom are in a race to be the first European Pro Mod racer in the 6.2s. Mats said after his 6.34 "Our new tactic is not to burn out as we are finding there is too much traction on the start line for us. We had lots of problems getting the car down the track yesterday but we have made some small adjustments and they have obviously worked. On our run the car had tyre shake mid-track, so we know we can go quicker."
Patrick Wikstrom said after running 6.301, "We are so close to a 6.2s and so want to be the first, and I think it is achievable at this meeting. We short-shifted on the run as we had tyre-shake. My next round competitor Andy Robinson is very quick on the tree and has stepped up. We are impressed with the amount of investment several of the British Pro Mod teams have made in stepping up to blown power."
10:30
Michael Malmgren (Pro Stock) said, "Things are going better, but we think there is still more improvement that we can make. One issue has been the smaller diameter tyres that we are running - the car is not getting up on the tyres as much as it needs to and the 60' times are suffering as a result. We are running our slightly less powerful back-up motor as we found some little problems on our main one. However we think that we are on the way to improved times with the tuning of the car and are confident we can beat Jackie."
Krister Johansson (TMD - nitro) is unfortunately out after damage sustained on his 5.53/244 run yesterday. "We damaged the rear axle hubs but also discovered that a cylinder head had become burned, after two cylinders dropped 3.5s into the run. We have calculated the time would have been a mid-5.4s if all the cylinders had kept lit. I think my sponsors Quaker State, and we would welcome other sponsors too."
Krister's crew chief Tim Read (who also is an SFI tech inspector with Mark Norton and Geoff Martin) said, "We're really pleased with the performance improvement which has been helped by the datalogger. However there are not many tracks that have the grip of SPR and we need good traction in the mid-section as well as at the start." Tim also explained the difference in the clutch between a Top Fuel car and Nitro TMD car - both are direct drive, but no clutch cannon is permitted on the Nitro TMD cars. This means the clutch cannot be timed to come in at timed stages as it is with the TF cars, reducing expense, but making it more likely that the car will over power the track.
10:00
Our first pit walk of the day was to the Top Fuel area, where final preparations were being made and several cars were warming their motors. Smax Smith said "Tommy's only run 308. We're in our favourite position - being underdog. But I've been champion before. We came out to run a 4 yesterday and only the clutch malfunction in the extended wait in stage hurt us. There was no motor damage but replacing the clutch has been an all-nighter.
Micke Kagered said of his first round pairing with Thomas Nataas, "I'm just grateful to be in the field. Everything is now fine. We found the cause of our problems, a faulty timer box in the ignition system. It should be a good race against Thomas. He beat us at the Euro Finals last year but I feel confident."
In the CBD camp, Gary Page has unfortunately had to withdraw. He said, "We found more damage and there was not enough time to repair it, so we have been concentrating on preparing Chris's car and also Joran's if something happens to any of the others."
08:00
Good Morning and welcome to the final day of Pit Updates. Today will be final eliminations and we will be concentrating on the Pro classes.
A very special hello to my wife Ros, whose birthday it is today.
Yesterday evening, we spoke to Svein Gottenberg who was pleased with his 7.19 qualifying pass on his Supertwin bike. "Everything is working well but we need more time", said Svein. "The track is so good we need to put more fuel into the motor. We have a new fuel system based on a Top Fuel Car and with some parts from Zodiac. We are grateful for Zodiac's sponsorship and in particular the advice from Ton Pels. My team have done a wonderful job."
Arvid Grodem (TMFC) said of his last run on Sunday, "The windscreen was sprayed with oil at full throttle just before the finnish line. One of the nozzles in the fuel system had become clogged with the result that there is a hole in one piston. The cylinder pressure went with the result a blown gasket and the oil-down. We will have to replace a cylinder sleeve, the piston and some rods - we have all the parts. We had high hopes for the weekend with our new PSI blower but will need to work harder than we thought to get the results we want. I thank my sponsors Quaker State and Fjordline and also thanks go to the whole team - they are the best."
Lex Joon (Top Fuel) said he was not entirely pleased with his first 4, as one cylinder was out from the start line. "We also had to pedal the car when it got very close to the centre line. Then at the top end a cylinder head gasket came out leaving us with 6 cylinders. There is a lot more in the car and we want to go 300mph next. We are happy to qualify where we are and look forward to racing Gary in the first round. There was some very slight damage and we will replace the complete motor with our spare."
Ben Allum (Crew Chief - Andy Carter) said the B&Q team was pleased with the performance which they are progressing each run. "We are tuning it to creep up on the field without overpowering the track. Rune is making the tuning calls and as we have no data logger, he is using information from Thomas to help our setup.
Kenneth Lorentzen (Crew Chief - Tommy Moller) said after the 4.91/308mph run, "We blackened the crank on the pass. The block and pistons are ok though. The car was relatively slow off the start line and we also pedalled but it really picks up in the second half. We're hoping for a high 4.7 if all goes well."
Gary Page (Top Fuel) said "Oil came out of the valve cover breathers which cane loose. The oil and smoke looked worse than it actually looked. However we also damaged an inlet rocker arm which broke and backfired through the blower, and we had a clutch problem which means we will have to change it. We are looking to repair and run, but we will need to find out the exact extent of the damage."
Mark "Animal" Bodimeade said after Chris Andrews' non-qualifying pass "We were just happy to get the car down the track but we lost our lower belt at 600'. It hasn't been the weekend we were hoping for. The CBD cars are all rebuilding for the Finnish FIA Round and we will be ready if needed (as first alternate). There was no damage except the belt cracked the injector which will be repaired at CBD's headquarters." Animal has worked on many fuel cars for over 20 years including Tony Boden, Nobby Hills, Jim Whelan, Rune Fjeld (his funny car and the championship-winning dragster driven by Barry Sheavills), Smax Smith in his championship year and Lex Joon. After a period out when business commitments intervened, Knut offered Mark the position on Chris's car.
We also spoke to Bill Schultz who is Crew Chief on Joran Persaker's car. I asked him for his views on how European Drag Racing has changed since he last worked here in 2001. He said "The sport has really improved with a lot more professionalism evident. The sport in Europe is going through growth in the same way it did in the US with a more professional attitude by both drivers and crew. The extent of future growth is all about obtaining corporate money for sponsorship which becomes more and more difficult for independent racers. However with the quality of competition, there is certainly no lack of ambition."
Pit notes will be posted here