NitrOlympX
Hockenheim, 8th-10th August 2014

Sunday


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 17:20


Top Fuel Dragster racer Urs Erbacher was philosophical about his team cars racing each other in round one and his protogé Noah Stutz winning the race. 'It has made sure that one of the team goes through to the semi final. I had the better reaction time but my chassis is stiffer so I lost traction and went up in smoke. A win for Noah in the next round against Thomas would help my points prospects as Stig and Anita are already out. Noah won't be racing in the last two events of the season and the points would be almost even'. In the semi final Noah was able to defeat Thomas Nataas who suffered a broken throttle cable bracket. Urs's new major sponsor is Victory Motorcycles for which Urs is the Swiss distributor.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Micke Kågered was pleased to be going rounds after booking a place in the finals. Crewman Rob Inglis said 'It's a problem for everyone, but when we're so far down on clutch weight it is hard to stage the car as there is no 'give' when you take the brake off. We set the car up pretty much as for the night show when left nicely and went well until Micke shut off at half track as planned. It was luck for us when Anita was not able to stage in time and we have a good chance as long as we don't spin the tyres'. Micke went on to win the event against Noah Stutz in the final.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Duncan Micallef ran a winning 4.516/405.26 when he pedaled against Stig Neergaard in round one. He said 'We are on the same setup as before and are confident the car can run well. It was the best time of the session and close to the best run this weekend by Thomas. Lane choice is mine and I will go for the right lane. I am excited to be doing well.' Duncan went out to Micke in the semi final when he went up in smoke.


Top Methanol Dragster racer Timo Habermann had a damaged PSI blower and no spare yesterday. Timo and his crew are very grateful to Peter Schöfer for lending them his spare PSI. In round one Timo defeated Jonny Lagg with a 5.54 and in the semi ran a 5.92 to be defeated by a resurgent Peter Schöfer.


Top Methanol Dragster racer Chris Polidano is joined by US A/Fuel legend Jerry Darien. Jerry said 'We started Friday behind the eight ball and Saturday we were behind the nine ball. I have taken more power out of this engine than I have done in my life and the cylinders stayed lit down the track. The performance figures suck with a 1.06 60ft time but at least we are getting down the track'. Jerry's tee-shirt reads 'We did not come here to lose.' The car reached the final with Chris beating Dennis Habermann on a hole shot in the semi.


Super Street Bike racer Shaun Buttigieg is joined by US Pro Street bike racer Walter Sprout. Shaun said 'We have broken the German record for Super Street Bikes and have had to tune virtually everything differently from usual to do so'. A 7.26 in round two was followed by Shaun's bike losing traction and being defeated by Mogens Lund.


Pro Stock Bike racer Karl-Heinz Weikum was pleased to run 7.44 and defeat Kenneth Holmberg in round one. He said 'I am using a different engine and it is not as good as the one we were running at Santa Pod'. Careful adjusting of the clutch proved fruitful when Karl-Heinz improved to a 7.34 in the semi final.


Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop was happy with his performance in round one, a 7.49 defeating Charalambos Bousinis' 7.53. However he came up against Fredrik Fredlund in the semi finals and his consistent 7.46 came up short against a 7.17 for Fredrik.


Pro Stock Bike racer Fredrik Fredlund was pleased to get into the seven-teens in the conditions. 'We were really testing in qualifying, starting using some old settings but mixing in some new ones. We have worked hard to make the bike launch ok but the short times are not good. However consistency will win in the end and we will not be attempting to break any records'.


Super Twin racer Christian Jäger was a surprising defeat to Roman Sixta in round one, Christian's bike suffering a mystery transmission failure. 'We don't know what happened, the bike lost drive and he drove past, that's racing. I hope we can save the championship in the final race at Santa Pod.'


Super Twin racer Roman Sixta suffered a drive chain failure in round one and Christian Jäger lent him his chain in a nice sporting gesture. Roman had a bye run in the semi final and ran another mid seven second pass to get into the final against Samu Kemppainen, however he had suffered engine damage and could not make the call against Samu.


Pro Stock Bike racer Remy Morel is at his first FIM meeting following racing in the class in the French Championship in 2013. He runs an ex-Cope Racing bike built in 1999 and wants to do the FIM tour in 2015.


Sarah Howells had a number of firsts this weekend. 'First time in Hockenheim, first drive of Bob's old car, first run at nightime and first flame burnout. The shifter and footbrake are completely different from my car but the engine is still in the right place'.


Top Methanol Funny Car racer Johan Lindberg won the event after figuring out the track conditions, running 6.17, 5.86 and 6.56 in a pedal-fest final against Leif Andréasson.


Super Comp racer Sarah Romahn has been racing in the class since 2007. She qualified no. 1 in the class with an 8.938.


Super Comp racer Erich Mathis from Switzerland runs this '57 Chevy Bel Air.


Super Comp racer René Kloss said 'We had to change engines over the weekend and it's been a problem to slow it down to the index. We will be selling the car after running it at Santa Pod at the Finals and plan to have a door car next year'.


Pro Mod racer Robert Joosten who defeated Roland Bolleter said 'In qualifying we managed to get down the track but we were lucky to have won after losing traction. We have to try to get down the track but this is not a surface I want to race on in FIA competition'.


Pro Mod racer Micke Gullqvist said after defeating Tero Laukkanen 'It was a relief to run 6.30. We think we have figured the track out better and taken enough power away. We can't say whether the lower air temperatures this morning have helped, because we are so far down on power, an estimated 1000hp. We will analyse our data to see where we can improve'.


Pro Mod racer David Vegter managed to get down the track to a 6.914 and said 'This is not the way we want to win, we have only got down the track twice so far. Conditions are ok in the morning but will worsen as it warms up later'.


Pro Mod racer Bruno Bader was another first round winner who was unhappy. 'We had to leave the line in second gear and will have to look carefully at the data to see if we can get it down the track. Lane choice is important and the right lane seems the better one now.' In round two Bruno had the right lane but traction problems set in once again.


Pro Mod racer Roger Johansson won an exciting race against Marcus Hilt when after a poor launch, he caught up with Marcus who had a burst panel issue. 'We had a loose clutch at the beginning but were able to pass him at the top end. My guys are good and they will get the clutch working well next time. We are tuning the nitrous so it feeds in much further down the track than usual'.


Pro Mod racer Roland Bolleter from Switzerland said 'We started with this car two years ago after buying it from Roger Johansson. We ran it at Top Doorslammer meetings at Gardermoen and Malmö and have a best of 4.20 over the eighth. This is our first quarter mile race. The engine is a Pat Musi 903ci nitrous one. On the first three passes here the nitrous was turned off as there was no grip. Once we switched it on we had to pedal in round one and suffered a blow back. We are planning on running at Tierp but we see this event as a training weekend for me to get seat time'.


Pro Mod racer Mattias Wulcan was happy to keep his win streak in 2014 alive as he has won every round of racing so far. He said 'The team has come together well. We found a good setup at Alastaro, but it is different her and we have spent the whole weekend trying to find a combination. We have got good data after our runs so far and hope to beat Roger Johansson in the next round as he is no.2 in the championship'.


Mark Todd had an incident in the night show yesterday when his Street Eliminator Pontiac GTO went into the right hand wall on the burnout. He said 'The car went right suddenly and violently and hit the wall, I tried correcting it but it was too far gone. It was not a nice noise and it took a while to realise what had happened. The good news is the chassis is undamaged apart from a couple of bent brackets. The steel bumpers absorbed most of the impact. The car is also mechanically fine. We plan to repair and be back at this event next year as we had a really great time up to that point'.


Laura Turburville was warming the engine of the Bloodlines slingshot dragster earlier this morning. Laura made an 8.2s demonstration pass down the Hockenheim quarter mile against Ove Kröger's slingshot dragster.


Super Pro ET racer Barry Giles's car in the pairing lanes. Son Daniel Giles said 'After some transmission issues everything was fixed and the car has been running well. This is our first time back at the NitrOlympX in twenty years and the team attended the first event in 1986. We have now been running the car for twenty seven years'. Barry advanced through round three of eliminations with another mid seven pass.


Congratulations to Marcel van der Maarel of Mijnsheerenland, The Netherlands, who is our Nitrographer for a Day after winning our competion supported by The Hockenheimring Gmbh. Marcel has been to NHRA races at Gainesville and Somona in the US and is here for the whole event, camping with a number of friends.


Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel qualified 5th with a 7.043/371.83kph run. Crew chief Frank Schlemmer said 'Effectively it was three test runs, the first we were shut off, the second and fourth with tyre spin down the track and the third with shake. If we change too many things to detune the car we will lose the combination. We had a few drops of fuel out of the exhaust in the first session as one cylinder dropped and were shut off. We don't have the power where we need it and can improve'.


Top Methanol Dragster racer Johnny Lagg was pleased with an improvement in the last session, albeit with the car not recording a time. Team member Tim Read who is also part of the UK Drag Racing Tech team, said 'The other lane ran 5.86 and still didn't catch us so we are confident we ran better. We think we are getting a handle on it and compensating for the existing conditions rather than the traction improving. We have been adjusting the clutch, ignition and fuel system. Taking too much compression ratio out will lower the power for the whole run so we try to tune with ignition and fuel system to keep the power up at the top end. The clutch is hard with these A/Fuel cars because there is no clutch cannon with timers, and there is less adjustability. A/Fuel cars have a disadvantage on marginal tracks as they set up to leave on full throttle and we can't roll into it like blown methanol cars can'.


Top Methanol Dragster racer Timo Habermann was pleased with qualifying passes in the 5.5-5.6 range. He said 'It was a good run. The setup was the same as we ran for the 5.24 at Santa Pod so I had to feather the throttle to control the car down the track. There was a damaged spark plug and we are looking at the engine. But the conditions are unpredictable'.


Top Methanol Dragster racer Dennis Habermann, pictured with new team mechanic Denis Heinemann, said 'We are making just routine maintenance. Yesterday we had clutch problems and had an ignition cable come off which caused the supercharger belt to break. We think the track is improving and can take more and are looking forward to the race and also to the European Finals'.



Reports and pictures ©Eurodragster.com