30th NitrOlympX
Hockenheimring, 7th-9th August 2015

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 19:20


Funny Bike racer Eric Richard has been racing in the UK ACU series and here the bike took the no.1 position from Bob Brooks in the third session, running a 7.425/297kph.


Funny Bike racer Bob Brooks had run a 7.438/291kph in the first session to take the early lead until Eric Richard stepped up. Bob's superbly engineered bike attracted a lot of admiration from the fans.


Funny Bike racer Andre Bartak from Czech Republic ran 8.687/221 to go 12th for an eight bike field.


Funny Bike racer Glenn Borg from Malta on the General Lee bike ran 8.564/212 to go 11th and so won't be racing tomorrow.


Junior Dragster racer Thalilah Gibb and mum and crewchief Sandy thank the Wilson family for the loan of their spare engine.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita Mäkelä said 'We had some small problems on both our first two runs so neither went through the finish line at full throttle. I am confident that the belts will hold and we will go full speed. They should hold if the car goes straight but if the tyres slip and the car goes sideways they can break. We will be against Urs or Jndia in the night show and will run about 8:45pm.


Pro Modified racer Bruno Bader said 'We have been taking power out on every run. We had a problem with the shifter in Finland as well which cost me the final, but didn't know what had caused the problem. We replaced the parts and hopefully it will work with the lower power. The temperatures are very difficult and raise the tuning bar to a new level for all of us'.


Pro Modified racer Thomas Stiefel, pictured with wife Brigitte, ran his first pass in the class in qualifying. He said 'It was a test run this morning and I was nervous. I took it through first gear and second. There is a new fuel system on the car and new Brad Anderson engine and it was my first pass with it. I will try to run the car for the whole of the next season.


Pro Modified racer Tero Laukkanen drew applause for his long burnouts. He said 'I had new tyres on and needed a long burnout to bed them in but it was great for the fans. We only need to change the fuel setup a little bit to compe with the high temperatures. We are putting more fuel into the engine. The track is good and can take the power.


Pro Modified racer Håkan Persson said 'This is my first time racing outside Scandinavia. I had trouble in session one when the throttle line to the bug catcher came loose. The engine was on idle, so I just did a short burnout. I hope we have the right settings, we have only made small changes from the last event and hope to go a bit quicker. We plan to do the whole tour next year and are looking for new sponsors. Our web site is www.topmod.se.


Pro Modified racer Roland Bolleter last ran in Tierp in 2014 and was critical of the organisation of pairing lanes. 'In the first session I was changed lanes four times when we got into the pre-startline area, then we were held back with our engine running while the car in front made his pass and got too hot so I switched off. In this morning's session I didn't realise we only had seven seconds to stage before we were bulbed and got red for an aborted run. So we will try again in the final session.' Roland, who runs the same combination as Roger Johnasson, plans to attend the Euro Finals at SPR including the test session on Wednesday.


Pro Modified racer David Vegter is joined by crew member Martin Jensen and the car is also crewed by Arjan Jensen and Gys (also known as G-Ice). He said 'In Q1 there was a problem with the transbrake switch amd in Q3 spark plug problems meant two cylinders were missing. We want to qualify well with a 6.1/6.2'.


Supercharged Outlaws racer Rolf Ammann said 'We had no engine problems. The car has a new clutch, a three plate unit which means the car runs a lot smoother and less prone to getting loose. I will have to put a radio in the car to give me something to do. We would like to run Supercharged Outlaws in England. The class is less expensive than Pro Mod where you need to run 6.0s to be competitive.'


Supercharged Outlaws racer Tony Betts was pleased to run his first seven in his '34 Ford Coupe. He said 'It's a show and go machine. The top of the chassis is tube but the lower part is box'. Tony is driving Richard Hartman's Nostalgia Funny Car at the California Hot Rod Reunion where a lot of Brits will be heading in October. 'All my team will be there, Mickey Moore, crew chief Kevin, Ian and Jimmy Betts'.


Supercharged Outlaws racer Urs Embacher is returning after a long gap. He said 'We are pleased to run 6.52 and haven't changed anything on the car from when we ran it in FIA. There was a problem with the Lenco and once repaired we want to go faster and aim to do a 6.3. Supercharged Outlaws suits us and other teams that don't have the funding to do FIA'.


Supercharged Outlaws racer Frank Richter runs an original steel 1954 Borgward Isabella (even the doors are original). He said 'We bought it from B&J transmission company owners in Denver. They had built it to run in Pro Modified and then decided to go the Alcohol Funny Car route. We found it on Racing Junk and after getting an initial response to our email two months later, decided after a further six months of email and photo traffic to buy it as a roller in 2009. It was in storage for the next three years while I was running the Plum Crazy Blown Duster. We put a Stage V KB engine in it with fuel heads and three bolt rocker stands and it runs good. Most of the additional parts were made by myself. The Lenco clutch transmission was a problem on the last run as it overheated in stage and cooked the clutch so we will let it cool down and put some more clutch discs in for tomorrow'.


Supercharged Outlaws racer Lee Gallimore ran 7.59 in the first session and then 7.61 on a 7.72 dial. This evening he will be racing the Nostalgia FC Wildr' at Heart, and fellow SCO racer Andy Hadfield's Fadster will race Colin Millar (the latter headed towards California with his car in October). Lee said 'The front of the body body was causing the prestage and stage lights to come on, but the track officials were kind enough to reset them and put me into stage on the front wheels. We had a great time at the Geiselwind Motorcycle Show run by Knight Riders MC club and thanks to Rosti, Jurgen, Heikio, Karl-Heinz and Johan Ooman for inviting and helping us.


Pro Modified racer Marcus Hilt's engine was badly damaged after a rod broke, not the birthday present that US legend and team consultant Camp Stanley would have wanted.


Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Marco Maurischat said 'We made a base pass this morning and were surprise when it came up as 6.5 as I thought it was quicker. It put us in no.5 which will put us against no.12 which is not bad. There is no damage and no problems, we seem to have figured out the issues that caused us problems a few years ago. We will just service it. Our next race is Tierp as I can't attend SPR because of a crew wedding but we hope to run the MSA Championship next year.


Filippos Papafilioppou has his new bike on display in the pits.


Supercharged Outlaws racer Ingo Eckert's engine broke a rod on his second run and guest crew member Kristen Kirsten Krause said 'It went through the engine badly damaged the oil pan, cracked the block in two places and broke the crank. A friend had a spare engine and it was a long night, we worked until 5:30 and then missed some tools we needed and went to bed until 8am then worked again. We hope to run again in the last session today'. Ingo said 'The broken engine would have been worth it if we had run a six'.


Top Methanol Funny Car racer Jürgen Nagel, pictured with son Patrik said 'We may run more than once tomorrow however with two cars in the field we are only obliged to do one run. We have learned a lot about running the PSI in hot conditions this weekend and look forward to cooler conditions at SPR'.


Top Fuel Bike racer Filippos Papafilioppou went second with a 6.797/321, a great run for a FB.


Top Fuel Bike racer Antoine Coupiac's second pass was a straight 8.401/242. Antoine's bike was formerly owned by Joey Bon, with upgrades by Puma Engineering and Ian King.


Pro ET racer Jens Könnecke has changed his later Oldsmobile for this colourful '55 version with his interpretation of the classic toothed grille. With a 620cu in engine, he has run 9.127 on 9.10 to go tenth after three sessions.


Pro ET racer Robert Rauch from Austria has a '67 Mercury Cougar with a 505cu in engine and is sixteenth with 9.787 on a 9.74 dial in.


Pro ET racer Guerrino Gabucci has a front wheel drive '89 Fiat Uno Turbo and went too quick with a best of 9.163 on a 9.18 dial. That puts him no. 50 out of 52 with the top 32 qualified cars running their first round later today.


Pro ET racer Anton Schneider is racing father and Pro Mod racer Norbert's Toyota Supra He is qualified second with 9.502 on a 9.50 dial. Norbert said 'I hope to get back to more Pro Mod racing in 2016 with Norbert Kuno's second car'.


Super Pro ET racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Nic Williams were in the pit lane early after an epic return trip. Simon escorted wife Sharron home with a throat infection and asked Nic for his help getting him down the track. They took a 10pm ferry yesterday and got back to the track at 6:10 this morning. Simon said 'It's a little hard to smile now but good we're still here'. After getting to the no.31 position early in the third session, Simon was bumped and will be a spectator for the remainder of the event.


Super Pro ET racer Roy Walker ran a perfect 8.820 on an 8.82 dial-in to go no.1 and will be hoping to go rounds in eliminations tomorrow.


Above the pit boxes is a small display of historic vehicles and models. This is Maffia Mouse, which is owned by Willi Hestermann who ran it from 1968, the car having been built in Sweden. It has an all steel body and was restored to race condition in the 2000s.


The other Hestermann Racing car is this altered which was campaigned by Michael Malmgren in the late 1980s, holding the A/A record of 7.09 from 1990 to 1994. The chassis was made by Victory Race Cars and engine is a DRCE with B&J five speed gearbox - a classic Pro Stock drivetrain of that period.


This slingshot has the inscription Muggabätscher on the cowl. Can any reader help identify it?


Super Twin racer Bruno Salesse from France has this Overkill engined bike made in 2011. He was fourth after session with a gentle pass.


Top Fuel Bike racer Frédeacute;ric Lepine is here for the first time in twenty years. He said 'I first raced here in 1987 and my bike has Suzuki GSX engine. My four brothers and I raced for many years in France and my best ET is 7.9'. Now Freacute;deacute;ric's daughter Julie is joining him in the sport.


Super Street Bike racer Leif Larsson has run a best of 7.438/318kph but could only manage a 8.64 in the hot conditions. He has been running in SSB for four years and is aiming to get a low seven.


Pro Stock bike racer Robert Karlsson is racing daughter Elvira's bike this weekend and went 7.256/293kph to go no.2 in the sixteen bike field.


Pro Stock bike racer Petridis Demetrios from Greece has been racing for 14 years and stepped up to PSB in 2009, winning the Greek championship in 2011 and 2012. His best ET is 7.3 recorded in 2010. The engine was built by Greek firm Go Gabriel. Thanks to team member Alex for interpretation.


Pro Stock Bike racer Charalambos Bousinis has a new bike with a higher compression engine by Greek firm Moto Harris, that broke at the start yesterday. He said 'My old engine is now in the bike'.


Pro Stock Bike racer Paul Sidiropoulos is at the NitrOlympX for the first time, and he has been racing in the class for three years at the two tracks Greece has. He said 'The bike was built in 2007, my Dad, Harris, is an engineer and runs Moto Harris. The engine is 80% made in Greece. My best time is 7.76 and want to improve here'. He went 8.132/210 to go twelfth but we expect a sixteen bike ladder to be run as there are 15 qualifiers.


Pro Stock Bike racer Len Paget is trying a new engine which he built from Star Racing components. 'The new engine is four valve 1640cc, but I have a spare two valve engine. I can test here without interruption, but in the heat the fuel settings become critical and I prefer running richer. I want to get in the top ten as there is bonus money for those places'. Len and we send best wishes to fellow PSB racer Mark Smith who is recovering after a knee operation.


Pro Stock Bike racer Martin Bishop and team member Tim Marshall said 'The bike got a little loose and there is a new back tyre which is still coming in. We sorted the electrical problems and changed pickups and the wiring loom'.


Pro Stock Bike racer Alex Hope went 7.449/296kph this afternoon to go sixth. He said 'We have some new clutch parts we are trying out. We freshened the spare engine after the Main Event and also mended the main one that broke at the Main Event, which is sitting in the van for the Euro Finals'.


Super Pro ET racer Michael Maderer is getting help from Michael Malmgren at this event. The Pro Stock racer said 'Michael bought an old Bob Ingles engine from me and asked me down to help him, so here I am. His best ET before this race was 9.5 and on his third pass here, he ran an 8.3, lifting early. The settings are very conservative'. The car is the former Kath Bros Pro Mod with the 'Vette body replaced by a BMW 850cu in, all the body and interior being made by Michael Maderer.


Super Pro ET racer Martin Schlegel has owned his 'Old Smuggler' '37 Chevy Business Coupe for four years. He said 'The car was built in the US and has a normally aspirated 635cu in Chevy running on E85. Its best time so far is 8.2'.


Pro ET racer Glenn Pallant and fiancee Lisa Bridge are having a memorable NitrOlympX. Glenn proposed to Lisa where they were camping in the Mosel valley and kept it a secret. At the race Glenn is in 14th place after the third and final qualifying session. Round one of eliminations are due at around 1725 CET.


Pro ET racer Jürgen Frank has a very tidy '81 Camaro. The Procharged SBC of 400cu in puts out about 850hp. Best time recorded yesterday is 9.8126 which placed him seventh.


Pro ET racer Pierre Wolf has a VW Mark 1 with a Mazda 13B rotary engine. With a turbo, the output is 800hp which goes through a Powerglide and Ford 9" rear. Pierre, who usually races at Bremen and Drachten, will be appearing at VW Action at SPR 21-23 August.



Reports and pictures ©Eurodragster.com