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FIM Super Street Bike racer Ida Zetterstrom is racing in the FIM championship for the first time, and is at Santa Pod Raceway for the first time in her racing career. Ida is from Åland and ran a new PB of 7.28/194 with her new bike called 'Lucky' which makes her the quickest and fastest lady in Europe. Her team includes her father, mother, boyfriend and tuner Artto from Finland. Her new 68 inch bike has run a best of 6.87 in the US when it was configured at 72 inches wheelbase. The team have upgraded the engine and electronics, and plan to race the remaining rounds of the FIM-E series as well as the EDRS Pro series. Thanks go to sponsors mstrand.ax, Cinderella and Tial and all others involved. Pit note © Mike Kraaij for Eurodragster.com	FIM Super Street Bike racer Mathias Bohlin performed great on the test day running a new PB of 6.98 which was his first six second pass. His runs in qualifying yesterday were 7.08/204, 7.06/206 which placed him fourth after three sessions. Mathias uses unleaded fuel which will be mandatory in this class next year. New parts on the bike include lighter headers, a DME swing arm, an intercooler, a triple tree for the fork, and a self-designed sump. He thanks his crew chief Ronny and Ingvar Bergström who helps with importing US parts. His season will include EDRS Pro rounds and the remaining FIM-E rounds. Pit note © Mike Kraaij for Eurodragster.com
FIM Super Street Bike racer Rudi Zorzi from Italy had a PB on his first qualifying pass, a 7.07/209, which was an improvement from the 7.12 PB he ran at Kunmadaras in the first race of the 2019 championship. The team found more horsepower during the winter with a turbo setup from Williford Racing in the US, and changed the chassis, injectors, and replaced the body with carbon fibre to lose weight. Rudi also went on a training programme to lose weight himself. In the second qualifying session, there was a leak from the charge cooler which spun the tyre. Rudi thanks Andrea, Christian, Dennis and and all other team members, and a big thanks to Simon Giordmaina, who helped to tune the bike and dyno the setup. Pit note © Mike Kraaij for Eurodragster.com	FIM Super Twin racer Samu Kemppainen is back in the FIM-E series after a year spent in the EDRS Pro series in Scandinavia. In the first session he ran a great 6.55/214 to go number one. In the second round the launch was good but he damaged the engine during the run and his time was bettered by Marcus Christiansen who went 6.38. Samu said 'We have a new clutch setup which needs fine tuning - we made many parts for the new setup ourselves'. He uses the B&J two speed gearbox which sits below the 196ci 60 degree Nitro V60 engine from Ron Houniet of Fast Lane Racing. As well as the FIM-E series, Samu plans to race at Tierp in June and will attend the Intercontinentale Pushrod Championship in Canada in July. Samu thanks his family, team and sponsors, especially Ron Houniet and Nate Gagnon. Pit note © Mike Kraaij for Eurodragster.com
Pro Mod racer Dmitry Samorukov is the first racer from Russia to run the whole FIA series. He started racing in 2014 in the Russian Drag Racing Championship. He drives a '68 Camaro with Adam Flamholc as crew chief, which he tested to 5.994/373kph at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida. His best with his previous car, a Dodge Viper, is 6.305/366kph and he will drive that in the RDRC in 2019 as well as competing in the FIA Championship.	Fuel Funny Car racer Jason Phelps sufferred two broken blower belts in two consecutive runs on Saturday, leaving him not qualified by the end of the day. Car owner Mark Hawkins said 'We can't find what's wrong with the car causing the issue and are chipping away at the setup. Jason did a mid track wheelie at the last race so there's plenty of power down the track, and we changed the tuneup without touching the launch. Despite that, it blew the tyres away at the hit. We've been through the systems and will persevere'. Mark also said that Albert Carter, son of four time FIA Top Fuel Champion, will join the team permanently.
Fuel Funny Car racer Kevin Kent suffered a rear axle shaft failure which caused chassis damage that couldn't be repaired at the track. 'We were faced with not being able to compete until Keith Bartlett said 'I have a sparecar, could you use any parts from that?' I replied 'Yes, the whole car!' So from 10:15pm to 5:00am the team collected the spare car and fitted to it every mechanical piece from my West Ten car. A massive thanks to Keith Bartlett for lending me the car, and to my team and John 'Bodie' Smith for all their work on it.	Fuel Funny Car racer Kevin Kent borrowed the SPR display car, previously campaigned by Leif Helander and Patrik Pers, and now painted in bright SPR signeage.
FIM Super Twin Bike racer Neil Midgley ran passes of 6.607/194 and 6.717/190 yesterday. He said 'We're a couple of tenths off our PB of 6.439 at the Festival of Power, but we are rethinking the tuneup from a different angle to go down the second half of the track. At Easter, we had too much boost from the supercharger, around 50psi at the eighth, which would become 60psi at the quarter. The engine wouldn't live with that, so we reduced the power to the eighth but it looks like it dropped too much. We change the blower drive ratio to control the boost'. Neil and team plan to race at Hockenheim, but they are unable to attend the Sweden and Finland rounds due to time and planning constraints.	FIM Top Fuel Bike racer Rene van den Berg ran a 6.287/195, but the engine lost a cylinder at 330ft which Rene didn't realise until he shut the bike off. 'The bike was running smoothly, the oil pressure remained up and I was on the throttle for five seconds. However a rod had broken and bits of it damaged the crank case. It's not repairable, but we have a spare so will be able to repair for Hockenheim. I was pleased with the tuneup of the engine and clutch. On the first run it went to the left as there was too much power, but the second run was straight'.
FIM Top Fuel Bike racer Dale Leeks has changed his bike setup from nitrous petrol to turbo methanol over the winter. He said 'We decided to make the change in January with Stuart Crane, but it was a bit of a mad thrash and we only finished this week. I then tested on Thursday and the crank snapped. So we regrouped and looked through our parts and put together another engine. We are working with Dan Wagner from DTM in the US on the setup and we went to the eighth on a test pass. Well, the session one time was 7.2 on an earlt shut off so I got the nod to ride it out of the back door in Q2. However the engine blew up and torched a head. The bike is making great power and still ran 7.11 in session two, so we are looking for a baseline in the high sixes. The engine is high compression which limits the boost we can use so is in the 20psi range. We have a Max ECU made in Sweden and supported by Steve Nichols in the US. So Steve and Dan are the main brains behind the new setup, but the engine and chassis are the same. The clutch is a MTC slider'. Dale is joined by Tony Clark and Dad Andy Leeks.	FIM Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt ran a great 6.19 in session one but shut off at 1000ft. He said 'The bike was running a bit rich but not pulling right. With the weather conditions the set-up needs to change so we adjusted it for Q2. The weather and other delays meant we were shut down twice on the line. Being shut down once is not too bad, but twice means there is more nitro in the fuel system, and we have to do maintenance, reset the clutch, change the oil and plugs and purge the nitro. We want to run later today to improve'.
FIM Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Venables said after a first round 7.077/189, 'The bike wouldn't shift gear into fifth which is top gear, and on the run I had to shut the throttle'. On the second pass his ET was a first half of a European ET record of 6.8766, which was his best of the event, a test run on Thursday having resulted in a snapped chain.	FIM Super Street Bike racer Mark Hope said 'We have a new Max ECU this year and are getting support from Steve Nichols. I expect more riders to change to the Max ECU as it is affordable, but we are finding our feet with it. We attended Hungary but I didn't qualify for eliminations but did get to do a couple of test runs and improved by a couple of tenths. I am 14th with a 7.57, on Thursday I suffered clutch slip, but the chassis tuning we have been doing in-house has helped. We are learning and making changes with the laptop, and the changes are now improving the performance.
FIM Super Street Bike racer Alex Hope, who remains using the Motec M1 ECU from BTC Moto (Brad O'Connor). He was winner of round one of the FIM Super Street Bike championship held in Hungary at Kunmadaras. He said 'It's a nice track but we struggled with the weather. Race day was a Wednesday, and the track was marginal which probably helped as Steve Venables spun the tyre and I was able to ride by him'. Alex ran a new PB of 7.221 to go eighth in qualifying yesterday. 'There's plenty left in the bike and we are not pushing it hard on boost and producing 28psi'. The team's plans are to run remaining FIM Super Street Bike rounds in Finland, Germany and back at Santa Pod in September.	FIM Super Street Bike racer Mogens Lund has made only small changes in the winter, moving weight around and losing around 6-7lbs. There were no mechanical changes and Mogens decided not to test. Nevertheless, his times in the two sessions yesterday were 6.97 and 6.96, both PBs. He said 'Although the bike is the same as last year I feel have a better handle on it. I am lining up straighter on track and have found a useful point of reference'. Mogens is supported by Mosten Race Weekend, which he has attended for many years and is the premier event for the Danish Dragracing Club, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
Competition Eliminator racer Andy Hone had spent a lot of last week rebuilding his engine, and his 7.725/169 was followed by a 7.547/162 which put him in second place in qualifying, against the 7.99 Super Mod index. Sadly we have lost two competitors in the class to mechanical damage that can't be repaired here - Chris Orthodoxou, whose 6.309 was a whopping -0.85 on his AA/PM class index, and Robin Orthodoxou who suffered breakage on the test day.	Super Pro ET racer Scott Crookston had a great time in qualifying with 7.587 in session one, 7.601 in session three against a 7.60 dial, 7.592 in session five to go number one after six sessions. Sadly team mate Colin Millar suffered a broken camshaft which prevented him taking further part.
Pro Modified racer Marcus Perman had an incident in the shutdown area after a 6.303/223 run. He said 'After the finish line the chutes deployed but there was a side wind which blew the chutes over so the rear of the car lifted and it crossed over into other lanes, it was difficult to handle and I got into a 90 degree spin and it hit the wall'. The front of the chassis was bent in the impact and will have to be replaced forward of the rear engine plate. Marcus was waiting for FIA officials to advise on the work needed, and he hopes to get the car repaired in time for the Tierp International in two weeks.	Pro Modified racer Jean Dulamon ran better than he has for over four years with a new EFI system and advice from French Motec engineer Pierre Antoine Rampon and chassis setup assistance from Adam Lambert. His best run was a new PB of 6.299/227 in session one, but this came with its drama as Jen had no brakes and a stuck-open throttle in the shut down area. 'I turned just in time', he said after a handbrake turn narrowly avoided a filed excursion. Jean sends his best wishes to son Davy who is ill and tuned in from home.
Competition Eliminator racer Florian Uebel suffered breakage after a new PB 7.156/172 in session six, when the blower burst plate went, and looks as if he won't be able to compete in eliminations. Congratulations on the PB which was previously 7.515.	Competition Eliminator racer Dirk Peiler ran a new PB of 7.34 in his AB/Altered Dart (previous PB was 7.813 at last year's Euro Finals) and he was delighted in the improvement. After seven sessions, he is qualified seventh. He said 'The burst panel blew at the Finals which destroyed the bonnet, windows, doors and front end. We replaced all those parts over winter and also a new engine with a dry sump, and we rebuilt our team bus, so it's been a busy winter! Both our runs were PB and we got to 296kph. We want to do 300kph, but there was an explosion on the 7.34 and we had to repair the engine which took us to 2am last night, with new pistons and rings'.
Pro Modified racer Andreas Arthursson set the FIA class ET record at 5.751 last August at Tierp and he decided to take his team on the European tour this season. He said 'The main change to the car is the new mandated boost controller which limits boost to 36psi - on the record the boost was 44psi. The result of the boost controller is we have to rethink our tuneup and on our first qualifying run there was not enough power low down. We changed the combination in our Fueltech engine management system for the second pass and it improved to a 5.897/245'. Andreas finished the day in third place, behind the two blower cars of Jimmy Ålund and Jan Ericsson.	Pro Modified racer John Tebenham needed his last 'representative run' to get licensed following earllier licensing passes at The Doorslammers. In session one, his 6.249/230 not only resulted in his PM license being signed by race officials, it placed him in no.10 in the field at the end of Saturday. He said 'For the final licensing pass the team changed first gear ratio to a much shorter one, a big step. The result was a better 60 ft time of 1.04 and 4.1s to the eighth. I'm delighted, and the L plate is gone!'
Pro Modified racer Bert Englefield suffered a similar fate to Marcus Perman in the first session following a storming 6.188/237. 'When the chutes came out the car got a bounce on and it went sideways and hit the wall. The front was damaged and we will need new chassis tubing forward from the bulkhead. We're probably out for the rest of the year as it will be a lot of time and money to put right'.	Pro Modified racer Wayne Nicholson suffered a collision with the wall on his burnout at Easter, and the team had to work hard at repairing the front end. Wife Belinda said 'We tried to make a run at Thursday's testing, but we lost gears. We looked at that and it's mechanically all good now. We have a new front end coming in six weeks' time but the repaired front, although heavy, looks fine and shows off our sponsors Lucas Oil Products'. Wayne ran a 6.668/210 which placed him in 18th in session two.
Pro Modified racer Bobby Wallace ran 6.224/219 and 6.216/216 in the sessions yesterday, and with drama in the other lane from Bert Englefield, was almost under the radar. Crew Annie Wallace said the runs were problem free. The team work hard on the car, analysing data away from the track and this has resulted in his consistent runs.	Top Doorslammer racer Mathias Wulcan ran 5.717/253, 5.667/249 and 5.647/256 in the first three qualifying sessions for the exhibition race here. He was delighted with the car's performance and the track. Remember these times are with not just PSI blower and traction control, but huge expertise in setting the car up mechanically by crew chief Pelle Eriksson and the outstanding driving skills of Mathias.
Top Fuel Bike racer Rikard Gustafsson put on one of the bravest riding performances I have seen when he ran back to back five second passes on his rebuilt nitro bike following a high speed spill at Hockenheim last year. The bike's frame was completely rebuilt but the fuel cell was quite late in arriving before testing at Malmö. Rickard thanks his team Tony, Marcus, and Morten for their help. Rickard's times were 5.915/234, and 5.942/238 with more to come, the bike fishtailing on the second pass.	Junior Drag Bike racer Blade Dummer has had more track time on his new bike and the reaction times and ETs are coming down. His qualifying times were 9.340/70 on a 9.16 dial on the 500cc machine for him to go third of four bikes entered.