FIA / FIM European Championship Finals
Santa Pod Raceway, 4th-7th September 2014

Friday


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Latest update 17:50


Junior Dragster racer Harley Coulsell is no.1 after six seconds of qualifying. He said 'I started racing in October 2013 just after my eighth birthday and this is my first full season. I practice reaction times in the car with Mum and Dad and use a Jeg's practice tree on the iPad.' Harley's parents Mark and Lynne Coulsell run the BallBreaker Wild Bunch car and Mark also crews for Barry Giles. Thanks go to sponsor Matt's Groundworks, based in Tamworth.


Super Street Bike racer Dennis Junge, pictured with crewman Mark has owned his bike for twelve years and rebuilt it for racing in 2011. The engine is GS and have a Garrett GTX 30/71 turbo. The best time is 9.0 and hope to run an eight. This is our third race at SPR and we hope to get more runs in this event'.


Super Street Bike racer Garry Bowe was no.1 at the end of the first session with a 7.28/198. He said 'We tested on Wednesday and Brad O'Connor took all our data away and worked out a tuneup with input of Seb from NLR in the US, which worked great. I think the grip is catching some bikes out in the mid section, but it suits us. The 60ft time is 0.05 away from our best and 330ft a tenth off, so an improvement is possible'.


Super Street Bike racer Richard Hann was pleased to run a 7.57 to go seventh. He said 'We are shooting for a PB. Pictured with Richard are wife Lesley and crewman Mark.


Top Fuel Bike racer Otto Knebl suffered two broken valves. He said 'If this had happened at home in the Czech Republic it would have been easy to fix but not so here, and there is also some damage to the top of the engine block'.


Top Fuel Bike racer Filippos Papafilippou said 'The engine died on the two step up on the revs so we think it is too rich. We are using the setup we had at Hockenheim. We have two bikes, ran the other one at Tierp but we can run this one better than its best of 6.7 here. We plan to run a similar schedule in 2015 and hope the FIM Championship will have more rounds'.


Pro Stock Bike racer Kenneth Holmberg ran two personal bests in today's sessions, a 7.40 being followed by a 7.30 this afternoon. He said after the first session, 'We can do a lot to go quicker with fuel and clutch settings and want to do a 7.2s run'. Kenneth is also planning to run the FIM Championship next year.


Karl-Heinz Weikum had suffered two blown engines in the early part of the season. He assembled parts from both engines and this has proved a good combination running a new PB of 7.14 in session one. He said 'The bike was run on the same settings as Hockenheim, the ET was great but I think I may have gone straight from fourth to sixth gear. Unfortunately the data logger isn't working'.


Top Fuel racer Duncan Micallef was no.1 qualifier after the first session with a 4.06/306 pass. He said 'I pedaled twice on the run. It started shaking and I tried to stay on it but the shake continued and after I got back on it there was more shake at the top end. The car also got close to the guardrail and for sure it would have been quicker. This evening the track may be colder so we are not sure we can improve. The car has been running quicker every event and many thanks to Joe of Telephone Box who helped me start my racing career'.


Top Fuel racer Gabby MacDonald had an offer to race when Anita Mäkelä withdrew. She said 'Rune Fjeld had a car available so I agreed. I did my initial licensing passes in May and need just to complete which I will do this evening. I am really excited but a little nervous, but if you can drive, you can drive. My best so far is 4.49. Today I will remailiarise myself and then focus on the pass to license'.


Pro Stock racer Magnus Peterson was pleased to run 6.68 and 6.62 to go no.2 after two sessions. He said 'It's hard to take in how much we have improved this year and a great start to the event for us. The track can take what we give to it and will tune the clutch to get better times later'.


Pro Mod racer David Vegter ran a 6.16 in the first session but had problems in the second. Crew chief Dick Koster said 'It was a good start, we changed gear ratios before to help reduce tyre shake and then changed the four link for the second session'. Dick is pictured left with Egbert Post with whom he works as a European distributor and advisor for MSD and Racepak. Dick said 'It is taking up more of my time so I will be leaving the team at the end of the season and will be at the track advising customers next year'.


Pro Mod racer Chris Isaacs ran a 6.59/216 in testing but this slowed to a 6.90 in the first session. He said 'There was not enough startline boost but there was better mph on it. As a result we had to change bearings in the engine - thanks to Norbert Kuno for his spare bearings. The track is good so we will need full boost and see how much we can improve'.


Pro Mod racer Rick Garrett ran a 6.45/213 in session one. He said 'Testing on Wednesday was worthwhile and we have now sorted the third stage of nitrous which we are feeding in and creeping up on it. We ran a 6.40 in testing and the 6.45 had a pedal so we hope that we can run a 6.3 later'.


Pro Mod racer Freddy Fagerström has made a welcome return to Santa Pod after a break of a few years. He started well with a 1000ft burnout and ran a 6.30/219, good for tenth. He said after his second run 'We have had ignition problems which we are trying to cure'.


Top Methanol Funny Car racer Leif Andréasson ran a 5.63 in session one and improved to a 5.60 on the second run. He said 'We started conservative and then will tune up to hopefully go 5.5s. Leif is pictured with Ramona who is a manager at Tierp Arena and also races a Mosler GT car which Leif owns alongside his funny car operation.


Pro Mod racer Michael Gullqvist ran a new track record of 5.893 in session one and backed it up with a 5.899 in the second session. Crew chief Stefan Petterson, pictured, said 'It's nice to get a good baseline for the rest of the event and we have a good setup'.


Top Fuel racer Tethys had to have an engine change after damage on the burnout. He said 'The throttle stop came off during the burnout and the engine over-revved. There was internal damage, but we don't have any more spares so I will have to look after it. On the run the 60ft was good but not spectacular, but just before half track both burst panels on the blower went bang and I lost the blower belt. We will see how things go and then assess what we can do next year'.


Top Fuel racer Chris Andrews was pleased with his performance at Tierp, running a 4.09 with a pedal. 'But in the first round of eliminations the rear axle shaft was damaged on the run, causing the engine to over-rev which snapped the blower belt. This morning tyre shake caused the chutes to deploy - I think we underestimated the track'.


Super Gas racer Stuart Doignie suffered severe engine damage in session six. Tim Lane (pictured right) said 'It went bang at half track and fluid came out of the engine. Fortunately it didn't lock up. We won't know for sure what can be saved until we strip it down, but it may force our decision to get a larger engine and we may not be able to run the National Finals'.


Pro ET racer Ethan Lisle's team worked all night to get the spare transmission and oil pump installed after car owner Paul Lisle had travelled all the way to Newcastle to collect it. Ethan's 10.87 on an 11.50 dial in placed him 27th in the order.


Pro ET racer Glenn Pallant's crew are looking smart in their team shirts. Glenn is seventh with a 9.857 on a 9.85 dial in after six sessions.


Pro ET / Super Street racer Dave Cherrett, pictured with crewman Stephen changed the Dark Revenger's slicks for a new pair and that single change solved the car's handling difficulties. Dave made eight of the ten possible runs yesterday and is placed 25th in Pro ET and fifth in Super Street.


Pro ET racer Mark Bailey ran his first eight and PB of 8.8933 in yesterday's fourth session. He said 'I'm over the moon about that - I will have to short shift later to make sure I run within the nine second cut-off point'. Dave has installed a Starter Saver on his MSD ignition system to automatically retard the timing to ease pressure on the starter and flywheel during cranking, and extra trans fluid which he credits for the performance improvement.


Junior Dragster racer Ruaridh Hart ran five PBs in a row yesterday but at the end of the fifth run a cam follower broke. This necessitated an engine teardown to remove metal particles. Car owner Ian Hart thanks Bruce Kopasz (who incidentally works for the AA) for supply of a replacement cam follower.


Super Pro ET racer Paul Marston had planned to drive his Monza however the car, with Martin Curbishley driving, had a strange incident on the launch at VW Action when the casing of the third member disintegrated on launch. Paul said 'Shrapnel came through the floor but fortunately Martin was unhurt. As well as blowing the floor open, the rear shocks became banana shaped'. Fortunately Paul had planned to test on Wednesday with his P/T Bruiser which was then brought into play for the event. 'It now has an all aluminium Donovan engine and ran three 8.29s in the left lane and two 8.3s in the right lane'. Paul mentioned that the dragster acquired from Rene Kloss is planned to be for hire in 2015 by Junior Dragster racers wanting to upgrade.


Super Pro ET racer Frank Eijskoot from the Netherlands (pictured right, with crew members Gerrit, Irene and Gwen, built his Fierce Fiero from scratch. He said 'The body came from Irene's car which had been damaged so I said 'Can I use it to build a drag racing car?' I took two years to build the frame and installed a 427ci SBC with nitrous and twin 750cfm Quick Fuel Carbs with a TH400 trans. I ran Super Gas in 2010, moved up to Super Comp in 2012 and Super Pro ET in 2014. My best so far is 8.304s in the second round yesterday with a 300hp nitrous shot. We had a problem losing nitrous pressure in the run this morning which slowed us to a 9.2'.


Super Pro ET racer Scott Hauser has a sample chassis for his four link dragster package on display from Eurodragster.com sponsor ;Hauser Racing. Geof Hauser said 'There is a lot of interest from around the UK and Europe in the package which we can deliver in various stages of completion.'



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