FIA European Finals
Santa Pod Raceway, 5th-8th September 2013
Sunday


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Pro Stock Bike racer Fredrik Fredlund is the 2013 Champion. He said "It's been a nice year, it started quite bad but after that went in only one direction. We are working on the bike this weekend but I did a safe pass in round one to secure the championship. After that we are in 'kill' mode. We are doing work on the carbs". His 60ft time in the semi final of 1.0287 was, he told us, the quickest ever in the class.


Super Street Bike racer and FIM Champion Garry Bowe said his season has been awesome. "It was great running the full Euro Championship, we did the travelling as a family with our kids and grandchildren coming to the races and the people at the track have been fantastic. This weekend we did one good qualifying pass, the others were not so good. But with the level of competition now, we need to have the bike turned right up and on the edge of our quickest performance, a 7.34. The track has been awesome, and it has meant our chassis is working much better". Garry thanks Silkolene Oils for their sponsorship, Brad O'Connor for tuning support and son David Bowe for crewing.


Top Fuel Bike racer Rickard Gustavsson ran 6.5s in qualifying. He said "We then tried something different. My son Philip tried a different clutch setup and it produced a 1.04s 60ft time, 4.12 to the eighth and 6.36 ET. We didn't know what to expect when re ran after it had rained. We are looking forward to helping Fil complete his Funny Bike. My fuel bike is also progressing and we hope to début it next year.


Super Twin Bike racer Christian Jäger said "We have been struggling with tyre shake this season, there have been a lot of new parts to upgrade the bike and it has been hard to figure out the best combination. So while it's been a learning season it was not really bad. We hope to do some early season testing next year to solve the tyre shake rather than trying to drive through it or shifting early.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Chris Andrews (pictured right with crew chief Eddie Corr) won his first event through being consistent even when the car had problems. Eddie said "We had a seven cylinder car for most of the event but in the semis we ran on all eight for the first time and it was damage-free. So we will try for more performance in the final. Both lanes are good and we want a good race. The car is developing and we are always learning something".


Fuel Funny Car Gordon Smith had some bad breakage as this hole in the block shows. Crew chief Dave Bryant said "We've had better weekends. The car is not behaving particularly well. After the fire at the Main Event we had wiring problems, but we have solved them and have the old car back and hope to creep past Leif Helander. There have been niggling problems this weekend and running two cars as crew chief on both is tough".


Fuel Funny Car racer Jason Phelps suffered problems with tyre shake and the blower lifting. He said "On Saturday morning it lost power, went into shake for 10-20ft and then our best guess is some harmonic vibration set in. I had to go to the medical centre to get checked out yesterday and again this morning. On our elimination run the blower lifted again and I got covered in parts. To be honest, we're out of parts, it's been a long season and I'm happy it's over."


Pro Modified champion Michael Gullqvist said "We have had a great season, have been in four finals and had two wins. As well as the FIA series we won the Swedish championship. Our performance was good but the competition have been great and we have had to step up a bit and run quicker and faster. So it's been a very exciting season. I am proud to win our third championship in a row and four overall and look forward to defending it next year."


Top Fuel Bike racer Ian King was pleased to run the first five by a UK rider in the UK. A 6.03 on Friday was followed by a great 5.96/232 on Saturday. This morning his early-shut-off 6.25 defeated Rene van den Berg's PB of 6.54. Ian said last night "After Rene's engine broke a crank we lent him the parts to fix it. The Championship isn't quite decided between Rickard and me and he can do well. It's been a good season running my best times ever twice". As things stand after round one, Ian just has to take the green light to win the 2013 Championship, his sixth such title.


Comp Eliminator racer Rene Meierhofer from Switzerland is racing at SPR for the first time and the former Bruno Bader crew member has enjoyed qualifying no.1 with a -0.85 8.47 run in his 4.4 litre Chevrolet Beretta. He said "I have had the car for 10 years and bought it for Comp Eliminator. My crew chief Thomas built the engine, we have raced together for 24 years". Rene said his 8.47 is a new European record for G/Altered class.


Comp Eliminator racer Paula Atkin is assisted by Clive Bond of Ultimate Race Cars who also helps Brendan Clancy and Colin Lazenby. Clive said "We are fine tuning the car for the first 60ft and trying to get it set up to run consistently; we hope we have gone the right way as we will need to go quick to stand a chance." Paula's best ever times of 6.61 are in the context of a A/NA index of 7.16 which was lowered recently in Sweden.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Duncan Micallef defeated RF Motorsport team mate Jari Halinen in round one with a 4.31/260, but with damage. He said "With that win we want more and will hopefully get down the track. We have Chris Polidano's team helping us for the next run and they have donated their cylinder heads to us. To win the event would be wonderful." In the semi-final however, Stig Neergaard stepped up to a 4.06/291 which was too much for Duncan's slowing 4.64.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Stig Neergaard had had problems overpowering the track in Q1, shake in Q2, blower belt in Q3 and a burst plate in Q4 followed by going up in smoke in a round one single. John 'Bodie' Smith said "We have taken weight and power out but it still smoked the tyres and we were lucky because Anita had been doing well. The startline hasn't been sprayed as much and we want a tuneup to fit the race track. We have a Tierp book of data and have put it away as it doesn't work here." Stig's 4.06 showed the team have a good handle on settings for SPR.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Chris Andrews again suffered damage as the no.1 cylinder failed to light and an explosion resulted at around 800ft. The block was damaged as well but the team managed to rebuild the car and put replacement heads on in time. Following a single in the first round when Chris Polidano shut off after the burnout, the Andrews car was the recipient of a rare red light by newly-crowned champion Thomas Nataas. He ran an early shut-off 4.92 to get into the final against Stig.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Thomas Nataas suffered a fire in the first round and the team were busy replacing the engine for the second round. After the turnaround, the car ran 4.03/305 but to no avail as the red light came up in Thomas's lane.


Top Methanol Funny Car racer Rob Turner ran a winning 6.26/223 to defeat a tyre shaking Johan Lindberg in round one. The team were delighted, Carmel Turner saying "It's great to win for England. The car was lazy all the way down so we will tighten the settings for Jonnie Lindberg in the semis." A much improved 5.80 in the semi was defeated by Jonnie's outstanding 5.46.


Top Methanol Funny Car racer Steph Milam ran a 6.25 single in round one when Danny Bellio was a no-show with a bent crank. Smoke from the engine indicated damage and Steph confirmed it by saying oil was in the diaper and it was not repairable. She said "We are well pleased with the new combination and plan to be back in 2014."


Pro Mod racer Wayne Nicholson had a frustrating weekend trying to resolve a "running issue". He said "We are trying to get to the bottom of it and were only able to do one decent run on each of Friday and Saturday. On Saturday the blower belt going on the launch damaged the bodywork and today the engine stubled after the burnout and were not able to retstart it. We are looking to sort the problem out today before the next race."


Top Methanol Funny Car 2013 Champion Jonnie Lindberg celebrated with fellow Stockholm resident Fredrik 'Turbo' Westerlind. He said "The championship is great and we will celebrate by going for a 5.4 in the next round." His 5.46 made good on that promise. Father and team principal Per-Erik Lindberg said "Running two funny cars for the first time has been a bit of a struggle to get both running well but we expect it will be easier next season." Johan's car had a brake master cylinder failure yesterday leaving the car with no brakes from a 240+ speed.


Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com blogger Kalle Lyren's performance improved to a 7.14 in a single in round one of eliminations. Team principal Roger Lyrén said "You can't give up. I woke at five and thought the way we repaired heads by moving material around about 20 years ago. Then I got to work on a head for Kalle's bike for an hour and it made the best run of the weekend. Now we will tune it." We thank the team for their kind gift of a Veidec fleece.


Comp Eliminator racer Rob Smallworth qualified sixth and went through to the second round when Robin Sattler failed to start. He said "We have been struggling with our 60ft times but the car has been ok from that point onwards. We are pleased to run three tenths under our 8.00 index although others are capable of going further under their index. If we go close to 7.50 we will get a chrome moly chassis which will be lighter still, but in the meantime we are running the car as we did in Super Modified. There is a new front end and I am running without a hood scoop while I check that the nitrous is working fine.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Anita Mäkelä was pleased to run a 4.04 and qualify second. She said "It's been busy this event because there is a Discovery Channel film crew with us. We have changed the engine to have a fresh one for eliminations. We are happy with runner-up in the championship and are looking forward to next year." Top of Anita's US shopping list is a larger capacity fuel pump.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Duncan Micallef had a holed block after a 4.42 final session pass. He said "There is too much damage occuring and we are running out of parts. In Sweden the fuel pump didn't work correctly and caused damage and this looks like a similar problem today. We are also getting cylinder head damage. Mike Damagala has been a big help getting my Maltese crew to run the car and I thank the crew. With all the damage it hasn't been that good a year, although it is the first time we have run three events in Top Fuel. We want to do a full season next yeat but will need sponsors."


Top Fuel Dragster racer Chris Andrews said "Friday was a great start with a 4.29. But on the second pass we lost the blower belt. We have been having trouble keeping cylinder no.1 lit all weekend and that is leading to the blower belt failures. In Q3 the tyres went up in smoke after 30ft and in Q3 the car lost another blower belt. I am against Chris Polidano in round one and he seems to have the upper hand so I want to get a good start." Chris and the team are working on a setup that will enable the car to run 4.0s without damage and get Chris his elusive first round win.


Super Twin racer Vesa Lipponen was quite happy running consistent 7.2 and 7.3 times and qualifying fourth. He said "The bike is running quite well, we are making small steps and trying not to break anything. We are going for better eighth mile times and speeds. I had to lift a little on the first run and on the second run the engine stopped after 5.8s and rolled through the lights. We are stripping the engine for normal service every pass and looking at the lifters and bearings daily." Crewman Jarkko "Jaakoppi" Laukkanen pointed out that any one of five could theoretically win the championship.


Super Twin racer Ronny Aasen, pictured with Zodiac Racing owners Ton and Vincent Pels, said "We have run reasonably and were pleased with a 6.59 although it could have been better. We have tried to improve the combination and in Q3 we were caught by surprise with a great launch so it was a shame the primary belt broke. The bike revved to 8200 but the rev limiter shut the engine off like it was designed to, otherwise it would have kicked the rods out. We will put two new valves and replace the cylinder barrels for eliminations".



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