NitrOlympX
Hockenheim, 8th-10th August 2014

Saturday


Click on a picture for a large size image. 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


Latest update 19:30


Super Street Bike racer Leif Larsson, pictured left with builder and crew member Lennart Karlsson, is qualified 9th with 7.849. Leif said 'The left lane is the better of the two and even so I have had to lift the throttle to take power out of the engine, even in sixth gear. We have also taken boost out of the engine by adjusting the boost controller. We could have changed the clutch for one that is more suitable for here but if we change it too much it won't work. The settings for our home track at Tierp are not being used here'. Leif, who will be attending the Euro Finals, is pitted alongside fellow Swedes Emil Östlund (who is a rookie rider on a new bike) and Roberth Häggblom.


Super Street Bike racer Graham Dance, pictured with wife Vic, said his turbo nitrous machine has been reliable and consistent although he is using all the available power to get down the track. He said 'It's been a bad year weather-wise with not much track time for us. But here we and other British SSB racers have used our experience to make decent runs, two years ago I couldn't get down the track'. Graham is qualified fourth with a best of 7.605.


Super Street Bike racer Jemma Venables had a problematic first run with a lot of tyre spin. She said 'It spun everywhere and on the second run it ran an 8.0, however the last run was smooth and I am pleased to be qualified'. Steve Venables added 'We had a problem with a misfire and the engine was on the rev limiter in session one trying to clear it. We checked the injector and coil, rewired the coil, changed the engine and the problem still occured so we think it may be the butterfly in the carb'. Jemma is qualified 15th in the sixteen bike field.


Super Street Bike racer Brad O'Connor makes a living as BTC Motronic tuning bikes. He was offered the ride of Frank Field's SSB this weekend as well as giving tuning advice on four other bikes. He said 'To run a 7.51 first time on this bike is great and very close to my PB time of 7.47. The kph of 320.6 is my best. The bike has a new NLR sidemount turbo, it wasn't running properly at first and we have changed the mag but it hasn't respond that well to tuneup. Overall however it has been a fantastic weekend'. Brad is pictured centre with Carl Field left and Frank Field right. Brad is qualified third.


Super Street Bike racer Garry Bowe is qualified sixth with 7.696. He said 'The bike seems ok mechanically however it is not working well down the track and and have only done one complete pass which was mediocre'.


Super Street Bike racer Thomas Granica is qualified seventh with 7.713. He said 'It is marginal. We started very soft and ran an 8.0. We then turned it up but an injector was blocked and had only three cylinders. In the third session the bike was fine off the line but then spun and finally hooked. In the fourth session we thought the track had come round but there was instant spin.


Super Street Bike racer Steve Venables said 'The conditions are changing between the start line and down the track and are too inconsistent to tune. I had wheelspin in the left hand lane after a 1.28 60ft time and running in the right lane there was spin at the hit. So if it stays the same for me, it could be a one lane race track'.


Super Pro ET racer Billy Gane, who is racing with Bob Molden on his crew this weekend, had a torrid journey with a broken throttle on his minibus tow vehicle just as they reached Dover. The AA towed it back to Billy's base in Essex where they borrowed Paul Watson's van for which the team are extremely grateful. One night with team members sleeping in the trailer at Dover was followed by missing their ferry and another similar night when they arrived at Hockenheim to find the gates shut. Billy said 'Once we started running here we did well and are in fourth position in qualifying. It's the first time at the NitrOlympX for all the team and we are having a great time. I'm sure we and others will come again'. Billy also won his first round against Alain Duerr.


Super Pro ET racer Simon Gough was 22nd in qualifying with a 8.729 on an 8.58 dial in. He said 'In the first session it was a bad run and the engine blew two spark plugs out. In the second I dialled in 8.52 and ran 8.68. In the third I thought the track had improved however we ran slower but closer to the dial in. It has been a great experience being here though'. Simon defeated Maurin Gilles' dragster in round one.


Super Gas racer Jon Giles who is being assisted by the Morrice brothers, is in fourth place with a 9.945. Stuart Morrice said Jon will race German racer Mike Poser in round one.


Super Pro ET racer Eric Angeloni from France has been racing since 1991 and at the NitrOlympX since 1996. He has had this dragster for four years. The BBC engine is from Steve Schmidt and is paired with a Transmission Specialties Powerglide.


Pro ET racer Stephane Caruso from France drives this Ford Pinto and qualified 24th.


Super Pro ET racer Colin Millar was pleased to run near to his dial in in the Flyin Fyfer Outlaw Anglia. He said 'A car like mine is usually inconsistent but after blowing the tyres off it yesterday I did better this morning and ran a 7.982 on a 7.90 dial in'. Colin also got through round one of Super Pro ET and faces Barry Giles in round two.


Super Pro ET racer Pel Norman was warming his engine before round one of eliminations which he came out victor against Christian Mazure's Buick. Pel, now running a supercharger qualified 28th with a 8.974 on 8.72 dial-in.


Pro Modified racer Mats Eriksson was delighted to get no.1 qualifier on the difficult track surface. He said after a 6.326/389.42 kph run, 'We took so much power and clutch out of the car it was incredible we could go so fast. But it will go down the track like that although it was on the limit. It felt a clean run and was smooth after the launch'.


Top Methanol Funny Car racer Leif Andréasson qualified second with 5.959/396.17kph. He said 'We took everything out for that run and hope we can go down the track quicker tomorrow'.


Super Street Bike racer Danny Cockerill suffered engine damage on his first run yesterday and put in his spare in time for the second. His time improved to 8.028 which gave him 8th place. He remarked 'I did have a spare engine, I don't now'.


Comp Eliminator racer Ingo Eckert running a Pro Mod spec '70 Challenger struggled with traction scoring only a 10.279 on his index of 7.16 making him tenth for an eight car field with possibly only one run today.


Comp Eliminator racer Sascha Wohlfahrt has a '69 Mercedes Coupe with a Chevy twin turbo setup under the hood. He ran 8.290 on a 7.08 A/TA index. Sascha, who was crew chief for Ove Kröger, built the chassis and body and Björn Lähndorf created the engine. The team took the car to Bechyne for testing earlier in the year.


Super Pro ET racer André Muller (pictured at rear of car) drives a '91 Olds Cutlass with Chevy engine. Crew member Kathrin Duscha is in the driver's seat in preparation for the run. André was qualified 35th with an 8.573 on 8.60 dial in. The field will be 32 cars (39 qualified as at the end of Friday).


Comp Eliminator racer Guido Uhlir is qualified seventh with a 8.875 on a 8.16 BB/A index. The car runs a small block Lamude Racing engine with Procharger F-2.


Super Pro ET racer Karl-Heinz Kleider runs an '88 Ford Thunderbird Funny Car. The car is sponsored by Knight Riders Motorcycle Club and he is qualified 30th with 7.906 on a 6.90 dial in.


Pro Stock Bike racer Alex Hope was suffering power delivery problems. Bike owner Chris Hope said 'The more load we put on it the less it wants to go'. Not helping the situation is a non-functioning Racepak data logger. 'We chased fuel issues and thought we had solved the problem but it is still there'. An improvement this morning to 7.799/276.73 placed Alex in seventh of nine runners.


Top Fuel Bike racer Otto Knebl, pictured with crewman Radek Krevbich, was unhappy with the bike sliding around the track to go 7.19 this morning. He said 'We got a good setup for Alastaro but that setup doesn't work here'.


Super Pro ET racer Tom van der Wijden has found a good setup for his '96 Dodge Avenger funny car. He ran a 6.38 on a 6.10 dial in to go 17th, almost the same times that TMFCs were producing.


Super Pro ET racer Vince Rosiello hired a bagpiper to entertain spectators around his pit area. However as the piper only speaks French he was not available for interview (or for recruitment by the Flyin' Fyfers).


Super Pro ET racer Alain Duerr from Switzerland has run the '84 Alfa GTV for several years but for this year has added a Dyer Blower. He said 'I previously raced normally aspirated and made the manifold for the blower myself out of billet aluminium with a CNC cutting machine. We are trying for an eight second pass and my ETs have reduced by 0.6s already'.


Super Pro ET racer Paul Przybyl had problems on the track, spinning tyres off the line on his first pass and on the second, without transbrake, going into tyre shake and tyre spin, lifting off at the eighth. The team pictured are John Przybyl, Callum Swinchatt, Andy Przybyl, Paul Przybyl, Cheryl Przybyl and Chris Swinchatt.


Super Pro ET racer Bob Hawkins is qualified twelfth with a 7.711 on a 7.52 dial in. He said 'We have elected not to do the first session today as we don't want to do any engine damage and to run both cars in the night show'. The plan for the night show is to have both Time Traveller cars do side-by-side flame burnouts with Sarah Howells in Time Traveller I and for Bob to do a full pass following the flame burnout.


Super Pro ET racer Ove Kröger bought his slingshot dragster turn-key with Reher Morrison engine from a racer in Finland. He said 'It's great fun, we have raced in Malmö and at Dragstalgia and appeared at the Jade Show. It's old school racing and you can feel the torque of the engine'. The car broke out in qualifying running 8.147 on 8.5 dial in to go 37th after three sessions.


Pro Stock racers earlier this morning were in good mood as they posed for our photo. However their subsequent discussions about costly engine damage being caused by tyre spin on the track led to a collective decision not to run in the third qualifying session, following a similar decision yesterday in the second session.


Fuel Funny Car racer Gordon Smith was warming the engine in the pit lane. He was up in smoke on the hit on both yesterday and today's passes.


Fuel Funny Car racer Kevin Kent shut off after his burnout yesterday. Crew chief Nick Hales said 'Not enough fuel had got through to lubricate the supercharger. We found it out on warming it up in the pits and thought we had resolved it, however the issue returned after the burnout and we had shut off'. Kevin did not start in the second session either.


Super Pro ET racer Tereza Kucerikova is no.1 qualifier in the class and drives as part of Gerd Habermann's team. Her dragster, named 'Bambi' is a Spitzer with 434ci small block Chevy and Powerglide trans. The dragster ran an 8.731 on an 8.68 dial in.



Reports and pictures ©Eurodragster.com