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Super Street Bike racer Vesa Ruhanen has been racing since 2005, starting in Super Gas Bike and then running Pro Street Bike. He has been in SSB for seven years. He said 'I'm pleased to run a new PB of 7.12 on my Kawasaki ZX14 which I believe is the only one in the class'. The bike has a Vipec ECU, Garrett turbo and Hays clutch. Vesa does his own tuning and plans to run the EDRS Pro series and NitrOlympX this year.	Super Street Bike racer Anders Blanck ran his best time in the last session, a 7.306/317 to go fourth. He said 'The bike has been getting better and better, I have struggled with the mapping. I have been getting help remotely from Justin Doucet in the US'. The bike has a Garrett turbo, Magneti Marelli ECU and MTC Gen 2 clutch. Anders got thrown a curved ball when his Michelin tyre lost pressure and he had to change to a Shinko, which other riders use but Anders had set his tuning for the Michelin and may need to alter it.
Super Street Bike racer Mathias Bohlin has a new self-built bike which he ran to third qualifier with a 7.172/326 run. He said 'The bike has a sidemount Garrett 35-84 turbo with a Rick Stubbins-built intercooler and Motec ECU with AMS2000 boost control. I did my own carbon fibre bodywork, and will run the bike in EDRS Pro this year'. Mathias thanks Ronny Nugen for his help with tuning.	Top Fuel Bike racer Rikard Gustafsson ran an awesome series of times, 5.845, 5.816 and 5.940 in sessions 2, 3 and 5. This moved him up on the list of all time quickest riders in the class to no.6. He said 'Of course I'm pleased with the performance, but I'm more concerned with the clutch cannon which hasn't been working as it should. We struggled with it at the Main Event, have changed parts to try to solve it and just want it to work as it should do. But the bike is beautiful and is going really well'. Rikard is pictured with crew member Urs Eriksson who goes by the name 'The Major'.
Top Fuel Bike racer Jan Sturla Hegre was in third place with a great run of 6.154, close to his PB of 6.140. His team said the half track figures on his run today of 3.946/304kph were a personal best to that distance. Jan Sturla had to miss yesterday's sessions due to late arrival of parts and the team worked until 1am to install them.	Top Fuel Bike racer Sverre Dahl ran a 5.989/367.35 in the final qualifying session to remain second, his earlier 5.926/337.29 being his best time so far.
Super Twin Bike racer Marcus Christiansen regained the 6.3s form he had shown at the Main Event with a 6.393/354.33. He is pictured with Claus (Speedy) Christiansen. The bike continues to be reliable and perform well.	Super Twin Bike racer Trond Høigerbet is using a bike borrowed from his crew chief Juha (Jussi) Hintukainen. Trond said 'I am rebuilding my own bike for the Gardermoen Drag Challenge and we are using this one which was built for the US with a 186cu in engine, which means we have had to disconnect the supercharger as the capacity with it is too high for Europe'. The bike ran a best of 6.21 in the US and arrived in Stockholm last Saturday since when the team have been working nights to prepare it for the race. Trond ran a new PB 6.744/329.87 to qualify seventh.
Super Twin Bike racer Samu Kemppainen qualified sixth with a 6.639 which shows how quick the bikes in the class are running. He said 'I've had no technical problems apart from tuning the new clutch plates which work differently to my old ones. What settings I used to have just spins the tyre now. So it leaves more lazily than before and I have tried to use that as a new baseline. The last run was good to the eighth but a cylinder dropped at 5.8s. We will need to get back into the 6.4s for eliminations'. Samu uses the V60 engine from Canadian racer Ron Houniet, with advice from him and former FIM champion Nate Gagnon.	Pro Modified racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Marco Maurischat ran with shake yesterday but had a great day today, with runs of 6.131, 6.190 and 6.035 to go tenth in the quickest ever FIA Pro Mod field. He said 'The third member broke yesterday but I borrowed a replacement from Michael Malmgren. I then changed the tune-up and it worked three times today which is sweet, and the car went straight on the final run too'.
Top Methanol Dragster racer Dennis Habermann (pictured) suffered a valve seating issue with his new head on the burnout in the second session which caused him to sideline the car. Earlier, brother Timo's car had gone up in smoke and he had rolled off the throttle. But by the end of Friday, each car had run a low 5.3s pass. Team principal Werner Habermann said 'The valve seating issue which was on our new head was easily repairable and we reground the valve last night'. In session three today, Timo ran a 5.35/427 and Dennis a 5.41/428, and in the fourth session only Dennis ran and suffered traction issues. Nevertheless, the brothers are no.1 and 2.	Top Methanol Funny Car racer Johnny Oksa from Finland went off the end of the track when his chutes failed to deploy. He was extricated under medical supervision and transported to the local hospital for a precautionary check. On his first pass he said 'We changed the electrics as the car was not running well, and I first wanted to go to half track then took it all the way and ran a 5.87/406'. The gremlins returned in the second session, but overnight they were expunged and he ran a chute-out 6.15/234 and then his best of the event of 5.692/413.
Top Methanol Funny Car racer Sandro Bellio suffered clutch problems both at the Main Event and here. He said 'We tried so many things but they didn't work so we put our old clutch back in. The window of tuning with the new clutch is even smaller than before. I suffered shake in both runs then we banged the blower in the second session. We don't have a spare blower so had to repair it'. In session three the car had no shake, but ran slower than his 6.05 in session one.	Top Methanol Funny Car racer Linn Engan Karlsen had her best run from yesterday (5.81/399) DQ'd for the car being too light, and ran a consistent 5.82 and 5.89 in the first two sessions today. She said 'We tested at Gardermoen but on our first run there was a fuel leak that went over the car's windshield so I shut it off. After the second run we changed the crankshaft last night and my team worked late'. She is currently in no.6 place.
Top Methanol Dragster racer Jonny Lagg improved an ran a new PB of 5.351/428 in session three. He said 'I'm finally in the 30s. We've been trying new things and after running Top Fuel Dragster tyres yesterday are switching back to A/Fuel tyres today. I was on a good run in session two but lost a cylinder after four seconds which reduced the speed by 20kph. Jonny's best is six thousandth quicker than previous owner, now crew chief (and BDRHoF member) Krister Johansson.	Top Fuel Dragster racer Dennis Nilsson had a race against time to have a revised cage with the requisite clearance fitted to the car and recertified. L-G Eriksson of ME Racing Service did the work and the result was on track this morning for a checkout pass. So with ten TF cars now on site there will be a bump spot
The 50th anniversary of Swedish Drag Racing was celebrated in style, with a marquee containing two Funny Cars of Janne Johansen, the ex-Lee Anders Hasselstrom Datsun ZX and ex-Bjorn Andersson Opel Manta. These cars will be on display at Dragstalgia with the ex-Gordie Bonin Bubble Up '77 Trans Am and a couple of others (see news 14th March). The group photo shows all the legends present - how many do you recognise?	International and British Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Dennis Priddle was regaling the Swedish drag racing legends with stories of his twenty year racing career, which included many visits to overseas locations including Anderstorp in 1968, Mantorp Park in the 1970s and 1980s and other exhibitions at Zandvoort and Le Mans.
Organiser of the 50th Anniversary Legends meeting Pelle Lindelow chatted to Åke Ryman, who raced the Canon Toyota Funny car to a 7.5s run in 1974. Much memorabilia was shown which helped the nostalgic atmosphere.	Top Fuel Dragster racer Liam Jones suffered tyre smoke in sessions one and three and a broken blower belt in session two. He said 'The track temperature was up to 115 degrees fahrenheit in the daytime then went as low as 90 degrees in the evening session. Rune is looking at making changes to the clutch setup to accommodate the change in temperature. But when you strike the tyres at the start there is no point in getting back on it in qualifying as the momentum will have been lost'.
Top Fuel Dragster racer Duncan Micallef said 'It's hotter here than England, and not only does the weather change make a difference, the cars are different to last year and the tune-ups have to change from year to year to accommodate that. Our car is in theory quicker than last year but the setup does have to change, we just hope we can make a good run on Sunday. I was on a good pass in session two yesterday but then the throttle cable broke when I was going fast, it was instant nose-over. Today I was off the throttle before 60ft'.	Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita Målkelå's team negotiated the changes in conditions expertly to go 3.90 in session one and 3.93 in session three. She said 'I have to thank my crew chief Sami Lehtimäki who knows about different conditions, and he is consulting remotely with the Lagana brothers who are racing in the US this weekend.
Top Methanol Funny Car racer Micke Larsson is running the whole FIA series this year. He said 'It was fantastic to go to Santa Pod, but I got the last parts for my all-new engine the day before so it was really no more than testing for us. We had problems but at least got into eliminations, where I had a pedalfest against Timo and was ahead at 1000ft but I had to lift and he got to the finish line first. I've got my old engine as a spare'. He had a burst panel go on the supercharger on his second and third attempts and his best ET was 7.071 making him eighth of eight qualifiers. Our best wishes to TMD racer Petteri Liimatainen who has had to withdraw following a road traffic accident.	Super Twin Bike racer Teemu Kettula suffered tyre smoke and directional problems in his two passes in sessions two and three. He is in 12th position and will need to improve to better than 7.545 to be in eliminations. He said 'I am new to the bike, and have only done two runs before. We are working on the clutch setup'.
Super Street Bike racer Mark Hope is riding his usual bike and is in eighth place with a 7.632/304. He said 'There were some rider errors and we are also working on the boost setup. It's all about setting the bike up for the front eighth of the track. There's not much difference between Santa Pod and here, except you don't get walls at Santa Pod and you don't get wind turbines here'.	Super Street Bike racer Alex Hope ran a 7.536 yesterday to go seventh. He said 'I have a Motec ECU and Brad O'Connor is helping me remotely by looking at the data, has helped cure a fault and given tuning tips. He knows this bike well and worked on it when its previous owner Wayne Saunders was racing it'.
Super Street Bike racer Mogens Lund ran a new PB and his first six, a 6.9854 yesterday evening. He said 'It was a great run but I was faster on the final pass at SPR and there was a cross wind yesterday which may have caused the speed to drop to 336.87 (the SPR speed in the final was 340kph/210mph). I will try to back up and get it to 100%.	Super Twin Bike racer Lasse Leponiemi was pleased to run a PB of 6.662/307. He said 'It's my second full season, I will be running all rounds this year and hope we can get the bike quicker and faster'. The bike has an Overkill engine of 160ci and direct drive.
Super Twin Bike racer Greger Johansson, who has raced in the class for 20 years, has a blown twin with Venolia pistons, Karling crank, Waterman pump, and Bentec transmission. He was unable to make it on track yesterday and shut off in this morning's session.	Super Twin Bike racer Vesa Lipponen is on the bike on which owner Jaska Salakari ran a fantastic series of times in Alastaro last autumn of 6.24, 6.01 and 6.27. Jaska aims to get the KTM engined bike into the fives. Jaska said 'The bike is supercharged using a HPS2.1 and has direct drive and a centrifugal clutch that comes in as engine power increases, that's my own design. I am helped by Heikki Salminen who has a great computer modelling program similar to those used by F1 teams and has designed my fuel system'. After shutting off in session one, missing session two and struggling down the track in session three, he finally ran a representative time in session four of 6.315/317 to go straight to the no.1 spot.
Pro Mod racer Michael Joneskog, who ran a new PB of 5.987/391.30 yesterday, licensed here last year and then ran a race at Gardermoen and Tierp in August. 'We missed Alastaro as the engine dropped a valve and the turbos needed to be sent back to the US and recertified. In Norway we were the only car to go from A to B, but we struggled with a broken lifter at the August Tierp race. Now we have new lifters, stands and rockers and have changed the compression ratio. I don't know what's best, the improved reliability or running in the fives, but know that we are the first Swedish turbo Pro Mod to run a five'. This morning he sideswiped the left wall but damage did not look serious.	Pro Mod racer Lars Järpler is racing the 1970 Camaro previously owned by the late Robert Joosten. He said 'I bought the car at the start of 2015 and changed it to a nitrous setup. This is my first race meeting, I licensed in 2016, then went to Gardermoen for three test hits and tried at Gardermoen again two weeks ago but the track was not prepped. So I was pleased to run a 6.23 here, it was undramatic and there were no issues. I made a couple of changes to the front and rear suspension as the car used to fishtail a bit. The only problem has been not seeing the tree with the large scoop, so we worked on it until 2:30am and thanks to the Tierp crew for allowing us on the track to check'.
Pro Mod racer Håkan Persson ran a 6.136/387 to go no.11 but the crew discovered a cracked block and his continued participation in the event has become doubtful.	Pro Mod racer Andreas Arthursson ran a great 5.866 yesterday to go no.1 until he was displaced by Jimmy Ålund this morning. He said 'We changed almost everything on the car, engine, gearbox, convertor, wheelbase and shocks - we now have air assisted shocks. It is still a bit lazy down low so we are putting more power into it. We only had to change a valve spring and have stepped it up so it should do a 5.83. The 5.86 was not eligible for a record as we forgot to have the fuel test, we were celebrating so much'. He lifted on this morning's run after getting very close to the centre line.
Top Fuel Dragster racer Micke Kågered had a difficult Main Event, starting with ignition issues, then a fuel line coming off under the pump leading to a fireball on his run, and then a broken rear end on his final effort. He said 'Today is a new day, we had a decent start but then hurt a piston and torched a head a few seconds into the run and had too much wheel speed in the second session'. Nevertheless Micke was third at the end of Friday.	Pro Mod racer Jan Ericsson ran a great 5.936 in session one, his first five, then after missing session two, came out this morning and went 5.990/387 to go fourth after three sessions.
Pro Mod racer Åke Persson is being given tuning advice remotely by Jonnie Lindberg, who has a race in the US this weekend. After a out of the groove effort in session one, he ran a 6.01/387 to go seventh in the standings after three sessions, and also went 6.12 in a losing pass to Jan Ericsson in the Swedish Pro Mod Championship 'race within a race'.	Top Fuel Dragster racer Stefan Gunnarsson ran a 4.596 in session one. Crew chief Peter Lantz said 'The engine dropped a hole on the hit and then a burst panel went, on the second pass the no.2 cylinder dropped at the hit causing tyre shake. We also discovered a crack in the clutch pressure plate so have had another installed'. It seemed that the rapidly dropping temperatures resulted in setups that were not right for the actual conditions leading to a number of aborted runs in the second session.
Top Fuel Dragster racer Timo Lehtimäki ran a new PB of 4.13/466 in session two. Crew chief Ulf Hultholm said 'The car ran well, there were no real issues and everything was as it should have been. We will try to be quicker today and see what happens. We will make only minor changes as we think we have a good baseline. Will the track take it or not? In 3-4 hours, we'll know'. Timo is pictured doing some machining work in the trailer.	Pro Mod racer Olof Andersson is new to the class and runs a ex-Håkan Nilsson Chevy '57 with a blown alky BAE 526ci engine and Lenco gearbox. After rolling out of stage in session one and having gear selection issues in session two to go, he suffered shake and ran a near identical 9.121/163 in the third session.