2008 FHRA Nitro Nationals
Friday (qualifying) report by Christer Abrahamson
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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. All results are now on the FHRA pages at www.fhra.fi and Dragrace.fi. 20:30 It has been a very hot day both the actual weather and the racing. We have seen a lot of PBs and more track records than I can count! We are close to having the quickest Pro Stock bump ever. It is today, after the first day of qualifying for the FIA and UEM classes, 6,965. And the quickest so far is 6.944 at the Main Event this year. After walking the pits I can confirm that most team underestimated the track for the first run today. Weather forecast for tomorrow seems to be a little bit cooler but no fluffy things in the sky! Three rounds are scheduled for Saturday. I will now go to bed early and practice my typing so I some day can be as quick as Master Tog! 16:40 Top Fuel, second run of qualifying Tommi Haapanen had problems with reverse this time too. It sounded like the idle was very high and it sounded very strange in all so crew shut him down after coming back to starting area. Torstein Risdal lost traction at halftrack rather violently, backpedaled and made 5.60 322 Jöran Persåker had very high revs in burnout. He backed up but one of the track guys spotted a leak in the front of the engine and Jöran was shut off. Urs Erbacher 4.91 479 (number 2 now) Mikael Kågered lifted very early. It seemed that he lost a lot of power at halftrack, but no sign of oil or other obvious problems. 6.00 251 now 7th. Janne Ahonen had no reverse so he idled his way up to the first exit to give room for Stig. Stig Nergaard lost traction early. Small pieces that appeared to be metal flew around the car and he shut off. 6.08 249. Lex Joon lost his blower belt at halftrack. 7.46 Håkan Fällström lost traction right on the line. 15.155 Andy Carter did a 0,861 60 foot but ran into tyre shake and lifted. 10.24 128 Jari Halinen was also off early 5.39 315 16:10 Top Fuel bike 2 round of qualifying continued Rickard Gustavsson 6,98 313 Otto Knebl 8.51 254 Pro Modified qualifying round 2 The track officials spotted a leak from Tomi Pöntinen, so he was sent back to pit. Marc Meihuizen does his first run for the weekend. 6.33 361 is impressive! He was drifting from left side to right side but still managed to keep his foot down! Timo Aikka 9.41 154 Andy Robinson does a long hard straight burnout. Left hard and started to wiggle a little bit. 6.22 348 takes him to #1 position Micke Gullquist 6.32 362 Robert Joosten 6.40 359 Markku Lantto 8,71 171 early off Seppo Sapola 6,49 355 Bruno Bader 6.37 351 Fredde Fagerström. 6.27 354 Freddy does his trademark, a long long burnout No sign of Urban Johansson Pro Stock second round of qualifying Tommy Leindahl 6.93 320. Nice looking run! Jonas Dantanus 6.96 318 Eero Knitilä 6.93 324 Micke Malmgren 6.95 322 Very close to outside wall Magnus Hansson 6.86 321 Rickard Sundblom 9.87 147 Top Methanol Funny Car round 2 of qualifying Ulf Leanders 5.73 388 Now low qualifier Arvid Grødem No show Leif Andreasson 5.79 400 Top Methanol Dragster round 2 of qualifying Arto Höyla 6.38 339 Krister Johansson sounded so much better this time. 6.15 382 Krister and team are heading in the right direction now Peter Schöfer 5.58 412 low qualifier Paul Ingar Udtian sent out the shutes early. 5.97 293 14:35 Pro Stock Bike round 2 of qualifying Ulf Ögge jumped off the line but managed to do a 8.16 289. It seems that the Pro Stock riders are surprised how good the track is already on Friday! Chris Hope 9,14 Fredrik Fredlund from Åland 7,48 286 Martin Bishop 7,60 278 Super Twin round 2 of qualifying Charley Karling jumped from startline and then lost all power. Idling through to finishline. 31.55 Jukka Kuuru left line good, but dropped cylinder at 200 meter. 10,95 Tommy Möller went 7,50 272 Günter Sohn drifted towards the centreline and decided it was time to shut off. 9,41 147 Per Bengtsson 6.79 314. He lost his belt at 300 meters and still managed to run that time! Svein Olaf Rolfstad over-revved engine last run and did not show. Will be back tomorrow according to rumours. Lorentz Stäuble had a bit of wobble from the line, kept on going and rode through it! 6,98 301 Olstad straight and without any surprises, 7.02 328 Top Fuel Bike round 2 of qualifying Miko Rajaniemi. 7,59 286 Peter Andersson Ström 7.34 290. First run for the season for Peter Track crew checking track on Peter's side. Oil is found and we are on hold for approximately 30 minutes. 12:30 Top Fuel Janne Ahonen 5,31 371 Janne slightly moved out of the groove, but it was absolutely a decent start for Janne's season! Tommi Haapanen did his burnout in the completely new Mats Eriksson car, but was out there for a long while trying to get into reverse. He finally managed but the team told him to shut off. Håkan Fällström spun tires right off line and shut off. 19.18 83 Lex Joon put in a good straight run, 4.94 463 Torstein Risdahl was on a good run when he lost traction halfway. 5,83 267. (might have been Torsteins first full pass?) Jari Halinen 5,18 425. Nice run. Micke Kågered did his burnout but something when wrong while backing up. Gary Page was trying hard to fix the problem, but they decided to shut off. Urs Erbacher left good, lost traction halfway and managed to continue. 5,34 419 Stig Nergaard suffered from almost the same situation as Micke just one pair earlier. Andy Carter just stormed the track. 4,76 497. Black tire marks all the way to the finish line! (New Track record ET) Timo Lehtimäki going for a TF licence pass. If you remember a little dragster in Comp Eliminator that run a four cylinder engine with a huge turbo. That was Timo. It was Timos first full run and an impressive 5,13 392 with a little bit early shut off spread smiles on the crew. 12:00 Welcome to Alastaro "kind-of-live-reporting". We will try to make 3 or 4 updates during Friday and Saturday and more frequent during elimination Sunday. The focus will be on the FIA and FIM classes, simply because I am not able to keep up the typing for the great racing in the Sportsman classes (it's been a couple of years since I did this!). Weather here is sunny, 27 degrees and just a few of those fluffy things in the sky. We had a very short shower yesterday but we where up and running again after just 15 minutes delay in total. Hanski will post official results for all classes on the FHRA webpages when the day is over. The first round of FIA & FIM qualifying is scheduled for 12, starting with the bikes. Another round is scheduled for 16. We just got the result from the golf tournament yesterday:
Congratulations Virta! Pro Stock Bike Chris Hope 8,45/248 Richard Gipp 7,65 Fredlund 7,71 Supertwin Jukka Kuuru Lost belt after just 5 meters Charley Karling sounded really strong out from the line but a strange sound made him shut off after just a couple of tenth and engine continue idling. Stopped at midtrack. Per Bengtsson did a run that looked to be without surprises, 6,93 316. Olstad and Rolfstad left together and where side by side until mid track when Rolfstad just lost power. Olstad 6,88 331, Rolfstad 8,16 189 Günter Sohn and Lorentz Stauble left hard but both drivers shut off early at about three quarter track. Sohn 7.10 256, Stauble 7,24 237 Top Fuel Bike Askoo Mättää 10,0 223. Ian King 6,82 314 (Didn't run completely clean at the end) Kai Selkemaa went up in smoke straight from the start, went off throttle and had another try. 8.25 Rickard Gustavsson 9,02 207. Didn't sound like Rickard at all, and it actually looked like he was only on the throttle halfway all through the run. Miko Rajanniemi 7,63 289 Pro Modified Timo Aikaa 9.41 147 Black Impala 61 Seppo Saapola drifted to centreline, lifted throttle 8,01 193 Micke Nord 6,40 349 Patrik Wikström 7,04 345 Kristian Nyström and Bruno Bader. Both cars spun tires from line and then went into tireshake. Kristian lifted early and rolled to finishline. Bader 6.42 349. Nyström 23,17 Mats Eriksson's car looked like it just jumped off the line and he never got traction back 12,98 129 Markko Lantto 6,51 352 Micke Lindahl and Freddy side by side in straight good looking runs. Fredde Fagerström 6,25 367. Lindahl 6,40 349 So Fredde is now #1 Urban Johansson 6,24 367 with a huge cloude of smoke from car after the finnish line. He is now top. We are on hold for checking Urbans lane. And running again after 4 minutes. Pro Stock Tommy Leindahl's new car looks just great with the Nitro Fish sponsorship. Tommy drifted to the right immediately after starting line and rolled up. 14,10 101 Kenneth Söderström 10,06 145 Janne Palmqvist 6,94 319 Micke Callin 7,24 305 Magnus Hansson 6,88 323 (new track record ET!) Jimmy Ålund 6,82 325 Top Methanol Funny car Arvid Grødem was very close to centreline but slowly worked his way into the grooves again. 5,80 395 (New PB!) Ulf Leanders was all over track, lost blowerbelt at three quarter track 6,42 259 Dan Larsson 5,88 400 Top Methanol Dragster Dennis Haberman 6,61 343 (might have been a new PB looking at his crew's reaction!) Krister Johansson and Dave Wilson. Two injected nitro cars sounds just fantastic! Dave spun tyres immidiately and was on the throttle for quite a while before lifting and try to backpedal. Dave 9,79 221. Christer didn't run clean at all. 9.74 147 Rob Turner 6,11 349. Sounded and looked good. Was a bit surprised when I saw the ET. Timo Haberman 5,651 403 Reports and pictures ©Eurodragster.com |