2010 FIA Main Event
Monday


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Latest update: 20:00

Funny Bike racer Christian Jager won his third event in a row following the ACU competition at Easter and UEM in Hungary and this event. He said "We beat the quickest guy and had no major problems. We are making the power; we are working on getting more to the track." Christian's next race is the Gardermoen UEM round. The Black Seven team is sponsored by De Walt tools.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel won the event in a bizarre set of circumstances where he didn't have to make one competitive run. In round one, Danny Bellio was a no show after engine damage in qualifying, in round two, Arvid Grødem was shut off with a leak and in the final Dan Larsen was a no-show after a blower pop. Jürgen said "We have a new engine setup from Miner Brothers Engineering which has the potential to go 5.6-5.7 but we need more track time. So we are going to Finland, Mantorp, Hockenheim and maybe the Finals. Jürgen is sponsored by Fastco.de and Mabanol Premium Performance lubricants. The team includes Dieter Plehn, Crew Chief. Frank Schlemmer (electrics - was on Peter Kruse team). Thomas Wittmann, Wolfgang Schlemmer (team manager).

Pro Stock racer Richard Sundblom took delivery of his Jerry Bickel-built Chevrolet Cobalt a week before the meeting. "The car is from racer Tom Hammonds and he is 47cm taller than me," said Richard, "So we had to adjust a few things." The engine is from Jenkins Competition, however it was Richard that was grumpy following problems with the carburetors.

Pro Stock Bike racer Ulf Ögge won the event with a 7.16 low ET of the meeting. His team pictured are (from left to right): Ulf, Polac, Tom, Ola and Bulgaria. More information on the 2009 champion can be found at www.harleyracing.se.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Dan Larsen suffered a fire in his first round race against Rob Turner. He said "I am fine although I was worried about my eyebrows and moustache. The fire was down the track but got put out quickly by the on-board system and the fire crew. The problem is a burnt head and a slight burn on the block. We have fixed the block and put our spare head in and think we can get ready in time." Dan did make the call and on the bye run, the blower relief panel was launched airborne on the launch.

Top Fuel racer Anita Mäkelä suffered a fire in round one and we wondered if repairs could be effected in time. Husband Tommi Haapanen told us that the damage was limited to burnt wiring, hoses and a broken fuel pump. The team made the call for the semi-final round but was shut off for a fluid leak.

Top Fuel racer Janne Ahonen suffered a hydraulic'd engine on the fire-up in the first qualifying session, an almighty ban. Crewman Tony Pearson was standing nearby and when he lost his balance shortly afterwards and was checked out at the medical centre he discovered the explosion perforated his eardrums. It was good to see him back this morning, his balance recovered and on his way to recovery. He said "It shows the dangers of working with nitro and although one guy had a shrapnel cut, I am thankful that no-one was seriously hurt."

Pro Stock racer Jonas Dantanus said "We qualified well with a 6.87 and 6.95, but the ET could have been better because the car was spinning the tyre. In eliminations the traction trouble stayed and we suffered an oil leak and engine problems." A broken rod was suspected but the car was being packed up as we passed. Team members Pontus Dantanus (Junior Dragster no.1 qualifier) and Jennifer Gustavsson (Super Street no.1 qualifier) were still in play late in the afternoon.

Pro Stock racer Tommy Leindahl ran the Nitro Fish car in 2009 but has had a species change in 2010 with his new Chevrolet Cobalt, Nitro Cat. The result in qualifying was 7.04/194 and in round one an improvement to 6.98/200, but a red light against Micke Callin put the leopardskin coloured machine out of play.

Pro Mod racer Andy Robinson said "What we want is to be going rounds to build the points. We fixed the problem from yesterday, backed the engine down for round one and then will pick the pace up later on." Times of 6.35 and 6.12 in qualifying and 6.11, 6.12 and 6.11 so far in eliminations showed mechanical consistency and a holeshot over Jan Gunnarson's 6.04 in round one showed Andy's reactions are as finely honed as ever.

Pro Mod racer Roger Moore suffered a frustrating event, missing out on qualifying by one place. Brother and crew chief Dave said "We had bolted on a three stage nitrous system which we had to use out of the trailer as there was so little time and the rush meant we had no option but to go all out to qualify. The engine melted no.7 piston and valve and the bore was damaged. The crank is ok though. We needed the runs on Saturday. We want to fix the problems here and now and try to run the Summernationals." Roger said "The pass we made was good bearing in mind it was on six cylinders for half the track, and the 60ft was good.

Pro Mod racer Mats Eriksson said "We had a problem getting down the track and concluded that there was too much traction, so we made clutch adjustments to compensate. We compensated more for the second round but Johan Lindberg is very good and we will have to see." A 6.21 qualifier picked up to a 6.03/240 in round two but in the semi-final Mats red-lit against Johan and then shake hit anyway.

Pro Mod racer Melanie Troxel was signing autographs for fans and racers (and journalists!) when she wasn't talking to the media or driving. "We've had a great time but it's been a bit frustrating to come all this way for three runs. I've really enjoyed meeting the people, the facilities here. We have never made it completely down the track so we want to do another run. The welcome we received was great and I'm looking forward to the World Pro Mod Association and the next stage is getting the organisation to get the teams from each country to the different series." Melanie signed off with a storming 5.9370/242.42.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Timo Habermann ran a 5.32 and 5.33 to get to the final where he faces brother Dennis. Crew member Shaun Ward said "We were particularly pleased because we thought the left lane had less traction and we ran in it on both runs." Gerd Habermann said "Timo and Dennis have not raced each other at an FIA final and I couldn't be happier that both cars will be there."

Top Methanol Dragster racer Dennis Habermann is seen warming up the car before the semi final. The team are benefiting from shared data from similar setups and great driving ability with a 0.0001 reaction time for Dennis against Derek Flynn in the semi. There have been no mechanical issues.

Top Fuel racer Stig Neergaard's team relax after Stig suffered tyre shake and pedalled it three times. "The car worked well enough in qualifying and in our last five runs we have only changed one piston. But I was getting high revs every time I floored the throttle so it was not my day." Stig not only has a second car, to be driven by Joran Persåker for the remainder of the season but also a third car with McKinney chassis which is available for any Top Fuel driver with sufficient funds.

Pro Stock Bike racers Team Veidec Suzuki comprise, from left to right Kalle Lyren, Kenneth Vik, Anders Abrahamsson, Stavros Svrachnos and team manager Roger Lyren. Eurodragster.com blogger Kalle said "I'm very satisfied with the weekend running a 7.7 in testing and a personal best of 7.48 in the first qualifying session." Roger said "Kalle and Stavros are running 1500cc motors and Anders and Kenneth a 1655cc one. The 1500cc engines can do more runs than the 1655cc without problems as they are more robust and have thicker cylinder walls. At this stage we are taking it step by step and learning routines. I am really pleased all the bikes are in the top half of the ladder, with Kenneth running a 7.25 PB and Stavros a 7.45 PB and Anders a 7.19 close to his PB." The team have a number of promotional events for Veidec who continue to hold title rights to the Swedish FIA/UEM event, the next being at Sundsvall Raceway.

Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Carey was back in the sixes today after a qualifying day when all the Top Fuel bikes struggled for grip. Following changes made in the 2008-9 season to handlebars, steering fork and rear wheel, Steve turned his attention to the engine and installed a HPS supercharger (a modified version of the type that is used in production Mercedes cars).

Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt has also improved performance and found the mid-six second zone today although the early shutoff in the first round due to the motor running rich left the terminal speed down below 200.

Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com blogger Dave Beck was disappointed with a red light start on a 7.18 run against Jesper Thiel's 7.21. "We tested at the private test and this is only the eighth run on the bike. I guess I've never had to go for the quick lights in the ACU series and here the competition is much closer. The quality and quantity of bikes is great at this event." Dave's next meetings are the SPR Summernationals, Mantorp Park and Gardermoen.

Super Twin racer Ian Turburville has reached a milestone, his last meeting in the Super Twin class. He said "The bike is up for sale and I want to change to a class where I can run more events and at SCR and SPR. I am building a Super Pro ET slingshot with an injected big block Chevy engine to run at the same events as Laura's rear engined Pro ET dragster. Ian can be contacted via his web site Turboville.com

Top Methanol Dragster racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Derek Flynn ran bests of 5.35/271 but the dreaded cylinder head problem returned in round 1 of eliminations where he also suffered an absence of chutes and an excursion into the field. He said "Many thanks to Dave Wilson for lending me a spare head and to the Go Gold crew for cleaning up the car and all their work."

Top Fuel racer Urs Erbacher, who qualified no.1 with a 4.75/319 said "The meeting is going according to plan. This is my updated old car which I won the Championship with. My crew are doing a great job with Robin Grice as crew chief and I know my racing experience in the US will give us an advantage as we return to the European championship series in 2010."

Top Fuel racer Andy Carter said before the first round "We suffered bad tyre shake on the first qualifying pass and on the second my clutch linkage broke leaving it fully engaged. I managed to get the car into forward gear and we got some data from the eighth second pass." To guage the traction conditions, the team have invested in two pieces of equipment, a big shark and baby shark. Andy said "The big one does the whole track outside racing hours and the baby one can measure the traction in the burnout tracks between rounds."

Top Methanol Dragster racer Fred Hanssen (pictured right with crew chief Will Hanna) suffered a dropped exhaust valve on his second run of 5.39 which Will said would have resulted in a 5.33 if the meachanical failure had not taken place. He said "We did not need to change the motor, just swap the heads and pistons. The air is good for low 30s and I expect the A/Fuel cars to step up. We want to be consistent."

Top Fuel racer Risto Poutiainen is racing a spare car originally built for Brandon Bernstein by Murf McKinney. The car has performed superbly running a 4.801 in qualifying and 4.8891/319.25 in a first round defeat of Andy Carter. Risto's crew are Steffen Korsmo (bottom end), Hannu Penttinen (clutch), Dan Wright (cyl head), and Leon Bienek (clutch); the car owner is Rune Fjeld. In the semi final Risto is racing Anita Mäkelä who will have a lot of engine work to do after her fire in round one.

Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren is showing renewed confidence this event after a lot of work on setting the car up. The result was a 6.77 no.1 qualifier. He said "We have got a good handle on the car and I know there is more in it."

Pro Mod racer Johan Lindberg's crew chief Jonnie Lindberg is sporting a T shirt that we can only guess the translation of as "No. 1 qualifier with a new car". The Vanishing Point-built '68 Camaro has run superbly with a 6.01 qualifier and 6.04 in the first round of competition. The youthful team is sponsored by Rockstar Energy Drink; other team members are Rickard Asp, Peter Str�m, Tina C�rebo, Patrik Larsson.

The clutch built by Eurodragster.com sponsor Ulf Leanders and brother Jö:rgen is widely thought to be the best in the business. The brothers are here overseeing the teams using it here including Johan Lindberg, Graham Ellis, Freddie Fagerstrom, Mats Eriksson, Urban Johansson and Dan Larsen, all star performers. Ulf said "We will be back racing in Europe in 2011 but our plans for this year are to market the clutch and keep our car in the US. We plan to race at Indy, Las Vegas and Pomona."

Pro Mod racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Graham Ellis after a 6.09 qualifier said "We now know we can run with the top people in the class. We have learned a lot this year and the three plate Leanders clutch is fantastic. Sean Brown of Acceleration Enterprises is helping us this meeting, he loves it and he has been around for a long time. Sean has designed our new fuel system; it was looking a bit like a snake's nest under the hood. It's nice to have experts around." No doubt to his chagrin, Graham red-lit away a 6.58 against Marko Lantto in round one.

Pro Mod racer Adam Flamholc said before the first round "We haven't found the sweet spot with the car yet. On the first run the car was moving around in the second eighth and on the second it shook the tyres badly. We haven't made a good run and this is my first time here with this new car. I race Melanie Troxel in the first round - if you want to win you have to beat them all."

Eurodragster.com sponsor and Pro Mod racer Marco Maurischat said he was pleased to run a 6.4 in qualifying. "We had an oil pressure problem though. We have checked everything but it is still too low so we will go to the start line and see how it goes. It was good to qualify 11th in this tough field."

Colin Lazenby is running in Super Pro ET at this event in the Chevy 210 and told us he will be running a limited schedule this year. "We are really just testing. Our 8.34 yesterday was out best after a challenging Friday when we had a fault on the NOS progressive controller which resulted in it all coming in off the line. When we finally got it working the run was slower than usual because we had backed the timing off earlier."

Super Pro ET racer Steve Saunders, pictured with wife Babs suffered transmission problems which put him out of competition. "Thanks to Jack Brewster for lending us a JW Powerglide ad Tom for his help in installing it. We started at 1pm and finished at 9pm. After we fitted it we ran a PB of 8.6 but on the next run lost the converter, so we are done for the weekend."

Pro Mod racer Terje Håkonsen qualified on the bump spot with a 6.88/199. The car is largely unchanged from last year but the team did take it testing on the first weekend in May at Geiteryggen airport in Skien. The crew includes Crew Chief Ingar Gvesrud, Hans Erik Myhra, Hans K�re Fossland, Frode Juul, Svein Arne L�nnestad, and Stig Arne Andreassen.

Pro Mod racer Norbert Kuno was disappointed not to have qualified. "We suffered tyre shake on the test day. Our new Boss blower from Patrik Wikström, who has been helping us set it up this weekend, is making great power but on all six runs we had shake and we confirmed it was a bad pair of tyres. The tyre shake was so bad it damaged the crank but only discovered this when we changed the oil and there was a burning smell from a burnt bearing." The Boss blower which uses billet parts based on a Kobelco, has a special injector hat on top which Norbert persuaded John Force Racing to sell him from Robert Hight's car.

Top Methanol Dragster racer Dave Wilson was not grumpy, as there had been no big problems so far. "Our oil pressure was only 30lb whereas we expect 150lbs, but there was no damage at all on the run. The Red Line oil we are putting in is great - it comes out like water but it didn't hurt a thing. We do want to step up but we have had a lack of track time, missing Easter and Saturday being rained off. We've only done two runs this season." Dave's 5.56/263 was not enough for Timo Habermann's 5.32/256 with a holeshot.

Fuel Funny Car racer Gordon Smith (left, with Gary Page and crew chief Dave Bryant) said "On our first run it lifted the blower but we still went 5.76 on a half pass. On the second the crank trigger went down and the car wouldn't launch. We are looking for the track temperature to warm up to run a good pass today."

Fuel Funny Car racer Gary Page is driving the Mongoose car this event. He said "The car is new so it has been a busy weekend. After some engine issues yesterday we got the car down the track; it starts, it stops and everything fits. But it's not worth hurting it by attempting to step up so we will take it easy. Our next outing will probably be Hockenheim."

Super Pro ET racer Martyn Jones is well on the way to a return following his accident at this meeting last year. "We have got the car together but unfortunately the constructor Kev Cerasale is poorly in hospital with a blocked artery. Depending on Kev's recovery, we are looking at a September return." We are sure all our readers will join us in wishing Kev a speedy recovery.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Arvind Grødem bought his new 2007/08 ProStart Ford Mustang from US racer Jeff Burnett of Composite Specialties (pictured right). Composite Specialties made various parts on the car including the injector hat and panels. Arvind commented that the car "Drives like a Caddilac". The team changed the heads after the warm-up this morning after a problem had been discovered. This proved to be a good decision as a 6.33/190 was needed to defeat Steph Milam's fast closoing 6.59/213 in the first round.

Top Methanol Funny Car racer Rob Turner is also with a new car as the former multiple TMD champion bought this Chevrolet Monte Carlo from Californian racer Jeff Carroll (pictured left). Jeff said "The racing scene over here is great and I'm impressed. It's a nice facility. I've been racing since I was 16 including at Bonneville where I ran 297mph with a stock bodied Firebird. I had the funny car for four years and I got introduced to Rob through Bob Jarrett who is based near me. The car has run a 5.63 and holds the Fontana track record." Rob is enjoying getting used to his new ride but admitted more track time would be good.

Top Fuel racer Jari Halinen ran early shutoffs 5.20 and 5.09 on Sunday but tyre shake struck in the first round and he lifted at half track against Micke K˚gered. Jari's crew is Crew Laurie Bamford (CC/Heads), Odd Rune Olsen (Cyl head), Paul Spaxman (clutch) and Jamie Willis (clutch).

Top Fuel racer Micke Kågered was the winner against Jari in spite of the engine throwing a blower belt at half track. Micke was up against Urs Erbacher in the semi final and took the loss to another four second pass from the Swiss racer.



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